xp_logs | Sarah, Shinobi and Oscar cuddle on the couch.

Sarah confesses to Shinobi where she's been all weekend, and who she's been with. There's cuddling and talks of taking a trip to Japan. Sarah has no idea what she wants anymore.

The door to Shinobi and Sam's suite was, as promised, open, and Shinobi was very proud of himself for not doing more than just pacing while he waited for Sarah to make her way up from the basement. With her and Amanda gone, and Sam being busy, he'd been pretty much flying solo all weekend, and it had started to drive him slightly loopy. The dinosaurs had stopped being entertaining in pretty short order, and really, that was saying something.

There was a slight jingle of Oscar's collar that preceded them, with the puppy rushing in first, and Sarah following behind. She looked tired, but there are worse things than tired. "I told you I'd be fine." she smiled, murmuring the words against his neck, her arms wrapped loosely around him. "And here I am."

He relaxed visibly the instant Sarah came in, and he smiled tiredly as he looped his arms around her waist. "You pick the damnedest times to go out, that's all," Shinobi replied dryly, pillowing his face against her shoulder. "Knew you'd be alright. Do I want to ask where you were?"

"Stuff needed done." She replied idly, before her smile widened. "If it helps, I feel better now. And I was not around to antagonize anybody. The house should thank me for leaving when I did."

"Feeling better is good," Shinobi murmured thoughtfully, peeking down at Oscar before he gave Sarah a faintly amused look. "Oh, there were still the usual personality conflicts that come after demonic attacks even without you here. All you would have done is given people one more body to aim their snark at."

"I missed all sorts of fun this weekend," she mock-pouted at him, eyes widening as she stifled a giggle as Oscar licked at her toes. "I think Oscar feels he's being ignored."

"I wouldn't call it fun, but you did miss out on watching me go insane by myself in here, which I guess might be kind'a entertaining.." He grinned and let go, giving her a light nudge. "Can't have our boy feeling ignored.. couch?"

She nodded, bending down slightly to scratch Oscar's head. "You could have bonded with Oscar. He didn't like it when I left either." Flopping down onto the couch, she helped Oscar scramble up into her lap. "I could hear him growling at everything that moved while I was trying to sleep this morning."

Shinobi dropped down to sit next to them, and - well-trained dog owner that he was - promptly offered Oscar a hand to slobber and gnaw on. "He's been acting like everybody else, really. People have been either growling or hiding, pretty much."

"Huh. Every couple of months and the whole house turns into me. I think they may want to put that on the brochure. To warn people." She leaned over onto his shoulder, getting comfortable. "And here I am in a good mood...relatively at least. Go figure."

"You did say you were feeling better," he pointed out, getting dog-owner revenge on the puppy by ruffling his ears to get the slobber off of his hand. That way, he wouldn't feel bad about looping his arm around Sarah. "It's been a shite of a week. Bound to turn anybody into a somewhat less charitable version of themselves. Hell, Kitty was dropping f-bombs at people on the journals for a while."

"Kitty? Wow." She snuggled into him, fingers playing slowly across Oscar's fur. "Would it make you feel any better to know I missed you?"

"Well, knowing I'm missed does do nice things to my ego," Shinobi mused thoughtfully, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "I missed you, too. You, Amanda and Angelo all picked the same weekend to be elsewhere. I don't care how many people are here, the place felt like a damned tomb."

"'m sorry," she murmured, "I didn't mean to leave you all by yourself. I just didn't figure you'd consider my weekend one of your 'things to do before I die'."

"Depends on what your weekend involved," he chuckled, lightly prodding her in the ribs with a finger. "I do like spending time with you, you know. Especially when it doesn't necessarily involve this place as its insanity."

She squirmed against his finger, and she took a moment to consider just how he might take this. "Promise me you won't freak out on me? Please?"

"It takes a lot to make me freak out," Shinobo observed, lifting his head so he could eye Sarah curiously. "The demon didn't even do it."

"I dunno, I've noticed it's a lot easier to freak you out when I'm involved." She craned her neck to kiss his shoulder, and sighed. "I got an email from Remy on Friday night, before he broke out or whatever. We went to Arizona to take out the guy who ordered the massacre."

That was certainly one of the last things he had expected to hear - not so much the last aspect, more the Remy aspect. "Since you're feeling better, I take it he didn't try to hurt you, and it went well," he replied after a moment, blinking twice.

"No, he didn't, short of telling me he was there, and that it'd taken people to -pull- him out of those tunnels when the orders were given... but physically, no, he didn't touch me. He wouldn't anymore."

"Pull him out of the tunnels?" Shinobi echoed, his eyebrows arching. "Uh-/huh/. So how dead is he now?"

"He's not." the words were flat. "But I may reconsider my decision if I ever see him again."

He nodded slowly, frowning in thought before he leant over to kiss her on the cheek. "I'm not freaked out," he promised. "You may want to mention something to the powers that be, though.. not necessarily everything, if it's over now, but.. at least that you saw him, and that he was Arizona-bound, say?"

"Why? It's all over now." She'd have curled closer if she could, but she did pull Oscar closer, burying her nose in the fur of the back of his neck. "He's not going to hurt anybody anymore."

"He hurt people before he left," Shinobi observed quietly, reaching up to lightly stroke Sarah's hair. "Amanda and Madelyn deserve some answers, don't you think?"

"They wouldn't believe him. Hell, I don't -want- to believe him." She looked back up at Shinobi, hand scratching gently at the top of Oscar's head. "Do you know how much easier it would be if I could just fucking kill him and get it over with?"

"About as much easier as it'd be for me if I could, I imagine," he replied with a tired smile, inclining his head slightly. "If noone else, consider telling Pete? He's a trustworthy guy when it comes to this stuff, he'd probably be willing to keep it mum if you asked him to and told him why."

"Pete who told us to stay the hell away from him because he's a vicious killer assassin? Believe that he isn't a vicious killer assassin anymore? Not likely. I imagine I'll get a lecture for going out to meet him, and then for being stupid enough to believe whatever lies he's spinning."

He grunted to acceed the point, and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Well.. hm. I'm just not too keen on the idea of letting him be vanished again, after what he did on his way out. Rather irked me and a lot of other people, you know."

"Pretty, he -slaughtered- my family. I know how irked you all are." She put a finger to his lips. "But every time I talked to him this weekend, it was like talking to Betsy. He says that he's stronger than Gambit, and I believe him."

Slowly, he nodded. "If you believe him, so do I," he replied slowly, drawing in a deep breath. "God knows you'd be his toughest critic."

"I'm still here, aren't I?" she leaned back down to nuzzle Oscar, who'd fallen asleep on her lap. "Even after Whelan offered him his job back. Stopped calling him by his number, and called him Gambit. And I'm still here."

He was quiet for a long moment before he nodded again, casting a glance towards the door. "I'll keep mum on it," he promised tiredly.

She curled a hand around his cheek, pulling him down to her. "I'm almost finished, Pretty. He gave the orders. I'm almost done."

"I still can't do it again, Sarah," Shinobi sighed, letting himself be pulled down without complaint. "I thought you were trying to move on?"

"I'm so close," came the uncharacteristic whimper, and for a moment she looked away. Finally she continued, "Something isn't right. Their stories said that the Marauders pulled out, but if the Marauder's weren't interested, then who was I fighting? I have to find out."

"That doesn't sound like you're trying to move on," he observed quietly, reaching down to gently ruffle Oscar's ears.

"I... no, I guess I'm not." there was a moment of silence, and she rested her head back against his shoulder. "I make an awful girlfriend."

"Only as often as I make an awful boyfriend," he shrugged, pillowing his head against hers and focusing on a spot on the wall. "I love you anyway."

"Always?" She hated how small her voice sounded, and winced . It's a good thing he wasn't watching her.

Shinobi nodded, turning his head enough to press a kiss to her hair. "Mmhm. You frustrate the hell out of me sometimes, but I don't think you would if I didn't love you, so it's.. sort of a good thing. Kind of."

There was a deep breath out, followed by fingers looping nonsense words on his shoulder below her head. "You don't sound too terribly sure about that."

"It's hard work, convincing myself that being frustrated is okay, that's all," Shinobi shrugged. "I'm sure about the rest, though."

"Can I make it easier?" More loops and a dotted I. Slowly, a grin spread across her face. "I've got some ideas."

"Oh, probably," he replied, chuckling as he lifted his head. "Before the fun ways, though.. I need your opinion on something."

"Oooh. Opinions. I've got plenty of those."

"You do," Shinobi agreed, grinning a bit. After a moment, though, he sobered. "I, um.. I'm thinking about going to Japan. To visit my mum, and.. possibly do some school stuff there. I'm not sure I'm as ready for the leather brigade as they thought when they handed me the invite."

She twisted her neck to face him again. "For how long?" It was only the first of a whole string of questions. Why? When? Only you?

"Don't know yet. That's part of why I'm asking for your opinion. I don't fancy being gone for very long if I'm going without you, but I know you hate planes." He shrugged helplessly.

"I'm getting better." she said thoughtfully, and then added, "Rather, I'm getting better at pretending I'm okay." What about the tunnels? What about the Morlocks?

"I'm getting worse at it, I think," Shinobi admitted, idly playing with a strand of her hair. "Or I'm just getting progressively more confused about what okay actually is.. one fo the two."

"You don't want my opinion there. My okay is not anybody else's okay." A pause for thought, accompanied by, "When?"

"Probably sooner rather than later," he replied thoughtfully. "I'm late getting out to visit as it is, I don't want to put it off for too much longer, however short or long a trip it turns out to be."

"And it's just like Boston? Except with less homicide planning?"

"Less homicide is good," Shinobi agreed, smiling a bit. "And.. probably? I'm kind of tired of hiding in this place. There's a whole bloody world out there, and dad's had me cowering in this place for eons, now. There'd at the absolute least be visits, though. Too many friends here."

"It's so far away from home," she murmured, hand unintentionally clinging to his shirt. "What do I tell them? Or the boys?"

"I don't know," Shinobi admitted, looping both arms around her shoulders, almost protectively.

"What if I don't come?" her voice lowered even more, and she sat up to look at him again. "Will you come back for me?"

"Of course I would." Shinobi couldn't help but blink down at her, surprised that she'd even have to ask. "If you don't come, I probably wouldn't be gone more than.. two weeks, maybe? Long enough to get a little time away.."

Sarah nodded, and curled back up against him again, seemingly satisfied with his answer. "I'd miss you."

"I'd miss you too," Shinobi nodded, warmly hugging her up against his side.

There were a few moments of silence before Sarah shifted, hand resting not-so-innocently on his leg. "So, about that fun..."