xp_logs | Nathan and Sarah, Monday morning (Reply)

On his way out of the Danger Room, Nathan finds out that Sarah's a woman of her word. Of course, it doesn't go precisely as she planned, but she gets a rather surprising offer out of it.

Sarah had been threatening to do this for ages. Ever since Nathan had come to the mansion, they'd joked about Sarah taking him down in a hallway ambush one day. Today was that day.

Crouching behind the corner, she waited as she heard the door to the Danger Room open and shut, and listened as the quiet footsteps came closer. When she saw him begin to turn the corner, she leapt up from her hiding spot, with a sort of self-satisfied grin on her face and her arms outstretched to push him over.

"Hi, Sarah," Nathan said placidly, freezing her in place telekinetically before she got within range. He stopped, smiling almost benevolently at her. "Nice try."

"Damnit." She tested his hold on her curiously and tried to wiggle, but no such luck. "Um, hi. I had to try it at least once, you know."

"Oh, I know. Appreciate you waiting until I was not either injured or out of my head," Nathan said, still smiling. He waved a hand at her, floating her up into the air, only a few inches off the ground, and then resumed his course down the hall as she bobbed along behind him. "You telegraphed, though. 'This is going to be fun!' thought at the top of your mental lungs was a little hard to miss."

Floating. Oh, this was -not good-. "Yeah. I should probably work on that," she said uneasily. "It was a good distraction though. For me anyway."

Nathan sensed her uneasiness, but didn't put her down just yet. If it got any worse, he would, but his own pride demanded a little more of a response. "You'll note I didn't put you through the wall," he said dryly. "I seem to be on much less of a hair-trigger without the conditioning."

"You wouldn't be the first person to put me through a wall. At least, not the first one to attempt it." She struggled again, growling under her breath when she failed. "I got to know some of the walls in the tunnels very, very well."

"Well, I prefer not to put students through walls," Nathan said, just as wryly. "Charles keeps refusing to fire me, but I don't want to push it that far."

"I wouldn't tell," she added conspiratorially. "This place is kind of boring without Logan to beat the hell out of me every once in a while. Angelo doesn't draw nearly enough blood." She paused uncomfortably again. "I don't suppose you could put me down now? I'm not much for floating,"

There we are. Nathan set her down immediately, but didn't release her completely until there were a few steps of distance between them. "You prefer to draw blood when you're sparring?" he asked with a brief smile, stopping and turning to face her.

It took all Sarah had not to sigh in relief, feet now planted firmly on the ground again. She'd prefer to keep it that way for a while, thanks. "It's the way I learned. Everything else feels like I'm just skirting around the good stuff." She stuffed her hands in her back pockets and shrugged. "Besides, it's not like it hurts me. I won't even scar."

"Do you enjoy the pain?" Nathan asked, watching her almost gravely, no trace of a judgemental edge to the words or his gaze. Just honest assessment.

Sarah thought for a moment, considering her answer before shrugging again. "Yeah, guess so." Well, that wasn't entirely a lie, just leaving stuff out that he hadn't asked about. "The pain and blood makes it real. Makes it worth doing well, 'cause you're not just pretending."

"Huh." Nathan contemplated her answer for a moment. "I always liked the pain because it was liberating. I was feeling it, acknowledging it, so it was all me." He shrugged a little. "Hence why I was pounding on the punching bag twenty-four hours after the attack at Columbia, with a wrist that was fractured in four places. Looking for clarity."

"It was the thing I hated most about my mutation when it first started. Not that it made me ugly, or that I smelled like blood all the time, but how much it hurt. And then I learned to ignore it. And use it." She pulled a bone from her shoulder by way of example. "The bone ripping through muscle and skin didn't phase me anymore because I could use it. If I didn't think, it didn't hurt. If I stop thinking and just fight, it doesn't hurt anymore. The more it hurts, the harder I fight. It makes me kind of crazy sometimes."

"Do you fight without the bones?" Nathan asked quietly. "I mean, without using them as weapons on their own, as knives or whatever."

"Not really. I can; I know how to fight, but they're always there for me to use, and when I fight they come out more. It reacts to my mood." A trail of blood dripped down the bone to her hand. "Even if I didn't have a bone in my hand I could use the armor on my hands to claw at them. I guess it's never made any sense not to use them."

"Are you always angry when you fight?" Nathan asked, not sure why he was pressing like this. But hell, it wasn't like he'd spent a lot of time talking to her. If she didn't want to answer a question, he was sure she'd let him know.

"Most of the time, it's fun. I may be getting out my frustrations, but it's not angry fighting unless they've given me cause to be angry." Her free hand reached up to tuck her hair behind her horns. "Angry fighting was when I was down in the tunnels, taking out those fuckers one by one."

"Interesting," Nathan said, his gaze moving from her hands upwards, to meet her eyes. "If you want to spar, I'm fit for it these days."

"You mean in class, or like I used to spar with Logan? Real fighting?" Sarah hadn't expected this at all, but part of her was giddy at the idea of somebody new who would really play.

"I think you're beyond self-defense class, don't you?" Nathan asked, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards briefly. "But if you use the bones, Sarah, I use the TK."

Oh yes. Giddy was definitely the word. She grinned. "Teach me how to ambush you?"

"Well, there's an easy answer to that one," he said dryly. "Don't think about it before you do it." He turned to go, then paused for a moment. "Don't make me regret this, okay?" he said seriously. "I just... would prefer not to see you wind up in the medlab dead again. And I gather from what happened that you have more trouble when you're facing someone whose powers are energy-based, or who can strike at you from a distance." He shrugged a little, somewhat uneasy. "Getting some experience with telekinesis might be helpful."

"Regret it? What could I do to make you regret this?" Then the rest of what he said started to sink in, and she sobered just a little. "I'm not--" she started to correct, and then she sighed. "He doesn't want me to." He's a telepath, he can fill in the blanks.

'He' doesn't.... oh. Nathan regarded her for a moment, assessing. "Whatever happens," he said slowly, "whatever you decide... it wouldn't be wasted learning." He smiled very slightly. "I somehow can't see you staying out of trouble for the rest of your life, whatever you decide. I told you once that you remind me of her."

She nodded. "No, I know that. Besides, I think they'd posthumously strip me of the name 'Morlock' if I turned down a perfectly good chance to spar." She grinned slightly at the comparison. She could handle that.

"Okay. Umm...." Nathan paused to think, his eyes going distant. "The weekend sometime? Unless of course I break myself sometime between now and then. You never can tell, with me..."

"That works for me," she nodded, stuffing her free hand back into her pocket. "Considering I went out for the first time since I got brought back here just last Friday, I'd say there's a pretty good chance I'll be here. And if it helps any, I'll try to refrain from practicing my ambush tactics before then."