(no subject)

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

In which Alison comes across Haroun and the Black Bird, in the midst of a very touching scene...

Part 1 ~ The Jet Whisperer

The run with Paige had done some good, or so Alison kept telling herself. Just like the other runs she'd taken in the afternoon. And the shower she'd just stepped out of and the clean clothing she now wore, the jeans soft against her skin, the overlarge shirt drooping off her shoulder slightly. And socks. Her running shoes she held in her hands, perfectly content to just wander about the empty hallways with only her thick socks on. Comfort clothing. That was the ticket. Going above levels didn't appeal to her just then though, since that's where everyone else was. Except her roomie who was out on a date, which took away one reason to venture upwards – so for now, the team facilities would do. Very nicely so.

After pondering for a moment, she walked quietly down the hallway, ducking into the Hangar Bay for cover after hearing a faint noise around the corner. Right now alone held much appeal. She didn't really feel like talking, not one bit.

Haroun was waist-deep inside the Blackbird, and by the sounds of it he was _talking_ to the plane. "That's a good fuel intake valve, yes you are. All nice and new, bringing in the fuel for you to burn. You're a good plane, even when Nathan picks you up and shakes you at a full burn. And you, Mr Electronics, you are a marvel! Yes you are! All that nasty radiation and not one sign of IC burnout!"

Pausing in mid-step and forgetting everything about finding a nice haven where she could be alone, Alison stared. And blinked. And tilted her head, staring a bit more before a smile started to tug at her lips. After a moment longer of just listening to Haroun baby talk the Black Bird, her shoulders started to shake and she raised a hand, pressing it to her mouth, trying to stifle the laughter.

Haroun was Not Paying Attention to anything other than his beloved plane. "Oh, boo, hiss!" he said, still not thinking anyone else was around to hear. "Carbon scoring! Not good! Need a rag..." he said, then ducked his head out of the access panel to reach for his toolkit - which, annoying, was just out of reach.

That was just Too Good To Pass Up, wanting to be alone or not. Which Alison wasn't sure was entirely the case anymore anyway. Watching Haroun fussing over the jet was far too interesting. Tiptoeing closer, Alison carefully lifted the toolkit, placing it just within reach as the question hand moved from one spot to the other.

Haroun blinked as questing fingers encountered a toolkit where there wasn't a toolkit fifteen seconds ago. Shrugging, he picked out a rag and returned to his previous spot, where he proceeded to vigorously scrub at the jet's insides. "You'd think nobody had even given you a bath!" he told the newly-installed engine as he cleaned it. "Bath, bath, bath." he babbled as he cleaned.

Oh. My. God. This time, it was too much and Alison leaned forward, one hand still over her mouth while the other pressed against her stomach, laughter far less muffled this time. She tried to speak, but ended up just laughing harder, while hoping he wouldn't start at the sound and fall out or hit his head on whatever he was fondling inside the jet.

Haroun heard that, and all the baby-talk, in addition to the cleaning sounds, stopped dead. He withdrew himself from the 'Bird's innards to look around. Seeing Alison, he swallowed heavily. "And just how long have you been standing there listening?" he asked her calmly, putting the now-filthy rag down.

More laughter greeted him, Alison utterly unable to regain her composure and giving up entirely on standing as she plopped down to sit on the floor. "You..." she tried to speak, then gave up, shaking her head and leaning over, the giggling fit just not letting go, partly from the needed release from the pent up emotions and stress, partly because this was Haroun baby talking the jet!

Haroun quirked his eyebrows, and let Alison have her giggle fit. He even cracked a grin. "I suppose that sounded fairly absurd. It's a bad habit I got into when I was in school. Learned to appreciate a good plane from Darrell. A regular brainiac, him. Real good with machines, and he taught me most everything I know. We made a lot of Orion Slave Girl jokes at him - he had green skin - but he took it well. By when I left, he'd developed a wicked hula skill."

Finally managing to stop to only just the occasional giggling, Alison carefully curled a bit of sleeve in her hand and wiped at her eyes slowly. "Mmm." Another small giggle, overbright eyes peering at him over the cloth of the old shirt. "If nothing else the Bird's a good plane, I guess. I don't know much of anything 'bout those..." She sniffed once, firmly ignoring the fact that her eyes were still watering. Laughing like that had been very very good.

Haroun grinned at Alison. "Think you can wait ten minutes for me to get cleaned up? You have the look of a woman in desperate need of a run out to Harry's." he asked her. "I mean, the plane is a jealous mistress, but I think she won't mind if I slip out for a few hours. Especially since you look like you could use it."

"Oh god yes!" she replied fervently, the smile slipping for a moment as her eyes still watered. Both hands were holding fabric sleeves this time as she covered her eyes. "Gah. Just being out of here and not wanting to slink around corners and I so need to talk to Scott because he'll just go all overcompensating on everyone again but it needed to be said and gah. Out. Good. Thank you. Please?" She hugged herself, forcing a smile to her lips, which wavered but held true as she turned to eye the jet. "Promise I'll bring him back to all safe and sound, you nice wonderful sharing pretty," she purred.

Haroun sighed. "I am never going to live this down, am I?" he said as he wiped his hands on his shirt. "Let me go get cleaned up - I brought a change of clothes down. Ten minutes, tops." he said, before trotting over to a duffel bag against one wall. Grabbing it, he headed for the Danger Room so that he can go change.

End part one.

~*~

A talk at Harry's...

Haroun slid into his usual booth at Harry's, after graciously allowing Alison her pick of which side of the booth to take. "I'm not joking!" he said with a laugh. "Brainiac actually would sit there and babble _in binary_ to his computer! Of course, he'd modded it so much that I wouldn't be surprised if it accepted that and talked back to him in the same way. I should talk to Doug, he'd probably find it a giggle."

"He probably would at that," Alison grinned, resisting the urge to curl up on her side of the booth for something like two seconds in all. She leaned on the table, shaking her head a bit. "He'd been really quiet lately too. Methinks a giggle or two wouldn't do him any harm – he worries something fierce," she nodded wisely, still smiling although a bit more serious now. There had been much giggling on the way to Harry's as well, and she now felt simply drained, although not in the worst of ways. Just tired, but coasting along nicely.

"I got that impression." he said, and then flagged a passing waiter. "I'll have a beer, and get the lady whatever she wants. Allah will have to forgive me."

Alison grinned at the waiter, returning the welcoming smile of recognition with an utter lack of self-consciousness in regards to how she was dressed. Even jeans and a ratty shirt, she knew, she could pull off without trouble at all. "Got any Perrier for me?" she waited for the eye-roll and wrinkled her nose as the man nodded and went off to take more orders, whistling cheerfully to himself, the sound soon lost in the conversations flowing around them.

"Oh, sure. Leave me to wallow in my sin alone while you sip your Perrier." he said, mock-disgust in his voice. "Thanks ever so much. If you don't mind me saying so, you look a little tightly-wound. Feel like talking about it? As a friend, if not a team-mate?"

A brief pause and Alison nodded, shoulders hunching up a bit as the tension level went up, before she forced herself to bring them down. Curling up more wasn't an option right now. "I guess in short... I just hate feeling like I'm under siege in my only safe place. Which is unfair because it's not everyone, but sometimes," she sighed, shoulders slumping fully this time, "I wonder if I just shouldn't shut up and keep to the silly blonde bimbo act. It was simpler when I did that. And I hated it then." She paused. "I'm rambling already. That's so not good."

Haroun waved off that objection. "Nathan and I have a rule for when we come here. We don't bullshit each other about the important stuff. And we don't angst." he said. "And you've got a point. Tension levels have been sky-high lately. I spend a lot of time working on the Jet as a way to keep busy. That and training - while keeping an eye out for silly-string." he added with a smile. "Thing is, kids will be kids. And we really don't need to be encouraging them - although God knows we really do need something fun that we can do independent of the kids and our responsibilities as teachers."

"Oh, I won't argue with that. I spend a lot of time jogging and trying to wheedle in more training time lately too but – training's not the ultimate answer. I work off tension, sure but it ends up coming back. And sometimes I want to take a few of the kids and just shake sense into them but that's not happening until they get the point on their own." She whispered the last a bit resignedly. "I feel all worn out. Had tolerance when I started out, but now each time I end up wanting to blow up faster and faster. And I admit it's not always just the kids, lately." She shrugged. "Adults too. It would happen on tour, but at least then I could just ignore them." She grinned a bit, not entirely cynical at all with the next comment. "Ok. I still do sometimes."

"It sounds to me like you need something - or someone - that's Just For You to take your mind off of things. I thought I remember one of the kids saying something about having your own record label? And, of course, there is Miles and all of his needs. But he's probably not the best place to hang your sanity and sense of self-accomplishment." He looked somewhat sheepish as he spoke. "I know I wouldn't mind spending some more time with you, to get to know you better. You got me good with the silly string."

"I'd like that," she nodded, and then grinned at the memory of the 'welcoming' prank, eyes lighting up with mischief. "That was a very entertaining prank tp pull on you," she informed him with a small chuckle, before her expression grew more serious. "Miles is very good about giving me time to figure out how to be a mother, really. Well. More like we're both learning as we go along. He doesn't remember having one. He doesn't remember much of anything at all other than the freak show, really." She sighed a bit, keeping silent while the waiter delivered their drinks to the table.

Haroun took one sip of his beer when it arrived, then set it aside and forgot about it. "And from what little I've seen you're doing a fine job. The boy's always got a smile on his face and a bounce in his step, and the way I see it you're a good part of the reason it's there. Don't sell yourself short. So besides the music what does Alison like to do for fun? I hear rumors that you and your suitemate are vicious shopoholics. Any truth to that rumor?" he said with a grin on his face.

"Ha!" She grinned, drawing her glass closer, hands loosely holding the base of it. "We're not vicious shopoholics – we're absolutely spectacular shopholics!" she retorted a touch smugly. "Takes talent to do what we do." She didn't point out that it wasn't every time that something was bought. It was the time spent together terrorizing (or not) shopkeepers and salesclerks left, right and center that was fun. "You should come with Lorna and I one day. Experience it first hand."

Haroun quirked an eyebrow, and then nodded slowly. "I'm not much of one for shopping, but sure, I'll go. I could use some more American clothes anyway," he said agreeably. "And some time spent with two beauties such as yourself and Lorna would hardly be disagreeable." he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Poor, poor Haroun. Forced to brave the wilds of the American shopping mall experience with two gorgeous talented ladies. Oh, woe is me." he said, and then cracked a grin. "It's a date."

Laughter greeted that reply, far less restrained than Alison had been so far in the evening, in fact. "I thought you might not object to braving the wilds of the American Malls in our company." Taking a sip from her drink, she leaned on the table, knowing only too well what Lorna's first thought of this would be – someone to carry the bags, joy! "We'll have to make sure it's a proper introduction, then." Her eyes flicked over him and she filed away general information as to what size he probably wore, some ideas as to which stores to visit for him in mind.

Haroun shrugged - he caught the sidelong sizing glances, but let them pass uncommented. "I find myself looking forward to it." he said modestly but with a truly devilish grin. "So what else does Alison do for fun - just for her, that a fellow such as myself could participate in?"

"Mmm. Rollerblading. Thought it's been a while, the whole Asgard thing sort of cut into that and it's just not been happening that much since..." Her gaze flickered to her hands, a barely noticeable scar still visible from a brawl in one of the many less reputable bars she'd gone through at the time. "I intend to get back to it a bit at least before the snows ruin the jogging paths outside. Although I could always practice inside in the training room, I suppose." She focused on him once more a rare look entered her eyes. "And then there's music – and composing." That wasn't work. It never would be, never that.

"Rollerblading? Interesting - I don't have to worry about bad knees or weak ankles, so in theory I should be good at it. Up for teaching me how?" he asked with a grin. "I have no musical talent whatsoever, so I'll just have to enjoy your talent secondhand. The despair of my teachers in Morocco, I assure you."

"Well, I'm not about to complain about having an audience," she practically purred, unable to help it. She still missed the live performances, keenly so at times. "And if you're up to try rollerblading, I'm more than willing to teach you. We can make sure to get you good blades and protective gear when we go on that mad shopping blitz with Lorna."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll make sure my will is updated." he said with a gentle smile. "And that my bank account can stand the punishment. My needs are few, so I do not ask for much financially from Xavier. Although he is generous with his salaries for teaching staff. And as for the music - admit it, you're just grubbing for an audience. You've got one, even if your stuff isn't strictly speaking my speed. Doesn't matter, though."

"You might be surprised," she reflected pensively, sorting through some of her preferred classical pieces. "I'm not up to perform some Paganini, but if you've got a favorite composer, let me know and I'll see what I can find." She wasn't about to reveal the secret to her and Lorna's shopping trips with him – they did tend to actually buy when someone was with them, after all. Well, make sure the people with them bought anyway. "Wait ...we get salaries." She blinked once, then started snickering. "Oh. That's why Ororo asked me to open an account when I first took up the music classes. Mmm. I should probably check that account, huh?"

Haroun grinned and nodded. "If you've not been drawing from it, it's probably got a tidy amount in there. Maybe you could save it, give it to Miles when he reaches his majority? Spend your remainders from your career, perhaps? And I am strictly a classical thunder sort of a fellow - I like my Tchaikovsky and his ilk. I like my music loud, intense, and thoughtful. Getting harder and harder to find it, but I treasure it when I do."

"Gotcha! I'll see what kind I can come up with," she said confidently, never doubting for a moment that she would succeed. Maybe an original piece would be the way to go, really. "And – putting it in a trust fund for Miles is a great idea. I was thinking of setting up something like that anyway," with the Professor one of the first to gain custody if anything ever happened to her, "but that's a good way to start it. I can easily live off what's left from before and my investments."

Haroun nodded. "Glad I could be of assistance." he said. "I like the sprog, what little of him I've seen. Usually he's this green blur with a cookie stuck in his mouth." he laughed. "How's your music class going?" he asked, changing the subject.

Green blur with cookie in hand. That was Miles, most of the time – he had so much to catch up on, she reflected. "Music class is going well, as are the extra-curicular activities related to it. Band's shaping up well although Jono's absence was felt in more ways than one. And Terry's tutoring is coming along." She grinned a bit at that. "And how are you settling back in, now that you're here to stay?" Not that she didn't mind talking about herself, but she was curious.

Haroun shrugged. "Not too bad. I don't have much, so the room's a little bare. I don't spend much time there anyway - usually I'm in the hangar working on the Jet..." he said with a grimace at the memory of being caught babytalking it "... or working on Arabic homework. Lately I've been training with Nathan - trying to bring him into fighting trim. Long process, but we're making some headway."

She managed not to laugh out loud at the memory herself, although it was a close call. She added room decoration shopping to the list of Things To Do on their shopping day and tilted her head to the side as she considered the notion of training. "I noticed that in the training schedule, actually. She continued, deadpan. "And on that tape where you're set on fire."

Haroun shrugged. "Minor incident. I have _got_ to move past my fear of fire if I'm going to be useful to any of you. The flame-retardent layers in my uniform stopped it before it got to my skin. No harm done. And I was out over the lake and diving for the water. Which reminds me - I need to see if my power works underwater. Up for spotting me?" he asked with a grin.

She winced a bit at the reminder of his paranoia, although he didn't seem to be irked at it having been brought up. "Mmm. What would that involve, exactly? Just want to make sure I'm suited to the task, in case something does happen," she clarified, although she was already nodding in assent.

Haroun caught the wince, and quirked his head at it. "What? It's true! If I'm going to ask you to put your lives in my hands, and if I'm going to put mine in yours, I have to be as dependable and reliable as I can be. Not freaking out whenever someone lights a match. And all you'd have to do is be there to supervise, and have a SCUBA tank on hand and a link down to Medical in case something goes wrong. I'll clean the pool afterwords, I'm guessing that the water's going to get fairly vile in the course of the test."

His comment was on the mark and brought a few of her issues regarding her ability to be on the team to the fore, although she didn't linger on them for now. It wasn't the time. She idly looked around, and shook her head a bit – it was odd how Harry's was the perfect place to talk without ever being overheard, it seemed. "Link down the medical and SCUBA tank. I can do that," she nodded easily. "I should probably push my own training," she sighed a bit. She had been doing more of the close combat simulations but her motivations hadn't exactly been the right ones. "And try something else other than solid light for a while. I just keep hitting a wall and it's no help at all."

Haroun hrmmed. "Want some help? Not sure what I can do, but if I can, I will. At the very least I can be a hand-to-hand partner, or a moving target - so long as you detune that laser of yours to a flashlight."

"Hand-to-hand would be good." She bit her lip, remembering the ache in her leg too well. Distance combat only wasn't going to work, though she'd hoped it would. "And it's also just new ideas. I few of the variations I've developed on my power were really ideas suggested by other people. Fresh perspective and all, and no notion of what can or can't be done. I've found that helps a lot."

Haroun leaned back in his booth and stretched just a little. "I think I can do that." he said. "Hand-to-hand as well as ideas for power stunts. You convert sound to light, right?"

"That's right. The louder the sound, the quicker the power charge. Continuous sound just means I can bleed off light as long as I want, type of output dependant on the sound level itself." It had been a while since she'd explained the basics of how her power worked, which she'd never pushed that far anyway until she'd come to the mansion. "I can store a charge up to a certain level – if I'm not careful and get overcharged, I start to bleed light too." She paused, tilting her head to the side. "We think I bleed off excess light slowly when I near my maximum charge, actually, in one of the spectrums the human eye can't see. There's still a lot of tests to run, but since I've got control over it, it's not one of the top priorities for the lab equipment requirements."

Haroun nodded, his engineer's mind already thinking. "Can you push the lasing effect into this non-visible frequencies you mentioned?" he asked, thinking out loud as he did so. "Invisible laser, although you'd still get distortion from all the crap in the air that the beam passed through. And can you control the light as well, or is it just fire and forget?"

"I always thought it was fire and forget, but the light shield idea Scott worked me on... well, I can do that and that's not fire and forget. It's there until I let it go and follows my movements – I think of it as anchoring the light to my body, and it's a lot better than before. I used to look like a blob of light at first but now it's fairly body fitting." She leaned on the table, deep in thought. "As for invisible lasers, I don't know. But I'd like to try it out. It could be useful. Really useful, in some situations." She grinned, a bit smugly. "Had to prove my point that fast, huh?"

Haroun shrugged. "I used to have Scott's job, when I was running in Morocco. And I'm an engineer by trade." he said with a self-effacing shrug. "So if you can hold a light-shield in place, then you should be able to get nuts with the light-bending. Do any reading on optical theory?" he asked with a smirk. "Because chances are they're going to have to rewrite the books where you're concerned."

"I've read up on wave particules and light dynamics in general, but a lot of it was frustrating. Could be what was pointing me at that wall too, with some of the stuff I've been experimenting with. Rewriting them, huh?" She grinned slowly, the notion clearly appealing to her. "Got any suggestions for a few books to read? Because concentrating until my head hurts can only take me so far. I need the theory to push it further than plain lightshows and basic lasers."

"We have a librarian now. Bug her." he said with a laugh. "It's been a goodly while since I've had to even look at optics, so if you want any more specifics you'll have to let me get an idea of what's still out there to recommend stuff to you. Might want to look into the concept of the light-pipe, or fiber-optic theory. Good stuff, and it's all about how to make the humble photon sit up and do tricks."

"I've been meaning to talk to her anyway, since she and I are the only ones with children on the grounds, so to speak." She knew Lee would have taken her and the kids through the emergency measures, but still, it couldn't hurt to make sure. "Mm. I'm looking forward to this. Been a while since I've gotten anywhere in powers training, really." And training, at least, was about as safe as she could get.

Haroun nodded at Alison's words. "Sure. I'm glad to help - it's the least I can do. And you can help me work on aerial agility - since it's impossible for me to dodge a light-beam."

"That it is, and I'm a pretty good shot I'll have you know." She took another sip of her drink, the sounds of talk and laughter surrounding them a comforting hubbub of noise as they continued to chat into the night.