xp_logs | Moira and Nathan, Thursday morning

Directly following this log. Moira gets some very odd images and impressions from the link when Nathan's sparring with Haroun, and comes to track him down to let him having it for scaring the crap out of her. It's a good thing for Nate that she finds him cute.

Oh, yeah. He was going to hurt in the morning. Limping down the hall, Nathan grinned a bit foolishly to himself, unable to quite shake the feeling of euphoria. But as he headed towards the elevator - he really needed a shower before class - he became aware of Moira's presence on the link, getting closer. And she was not impressed.

A landspeed record had just been broken as Moira raced through the hallways, trying to find where ever the hell Nathan had ended up at. She'd been upstairs, napping actually, when the link--there were no words to describe what happened to the link. All she knew is that Nathan et al. were about to get a very stern talking to. Rounding the corner, skidding actually, she spotted him glancing back at her. "Ye. Stay right there."

He raised a defensive hand, smiling a bit awkwardly, because his jaw was really beginning to hurt. "Not going anywhere," he protested. "What's wrong?"

"Wha's--oh, yer dead. So so verra dead." She stopped inches away from him and poked him in the chest, glaring up at him. "Ye bloody well dinnae bother ta shield th' link, ye bloody git, tha's wha's wron'! An' nay only did I get verra lovely images o' ye attemptin' ta send Haroun _back_ inta th' MedLab--yerself as well, I might add!--I 'ad God knows 'ow many Askani voices blinkin' down th' infernal link as well!"

"I--didn't?" Nathan blinked. "I guess I didn't," he said a bit lamely. "I wasn't expecting... well, that to happen."

"Wha'. Did. 'appen." The words came out growled as she clenched her teet, glaring up at him.

Oh, she was mad. "I just... got a little into it," he said helplessly, waving a hand. "Too far into it, maybe. They liked it." He really wasn't doing a good job with the coherent explanations here.

"'They'? Oh. Aye." She reared back slightly and crossed her arms across her chest. "Brin' 'er out."

"Bring--" Nathan closed his mouth abruptly, eyeing her. She had That Look. He wasn't getting around this. #Uh... Askani?#

Askani shimmered into visibility beside him, raising one delicate eyebrow at Moira. "Yes?"

Somehow, she managed to split her glare to both of them. "Wha' in th' bloody blue blazes were ye two doin' in there?" Moira snapped, gesturing with a hand. "Th' last thin' we need is yo-yo medical boy 'ere an' "I'm goin' ta catch a plane!" boy back in th' God damn medlab!"

He hadn't seen her this angry in... well, quite some time. "I wasn't trying to hurt him," he protested. "Not really... it was just particularly energetic sparring."

"Particularly energetic sparrin' my Scottish arse!" she bellowed, seething. "Th' LAST bloody thin' I--th' God damned stressed out o' our fuckin' minds MedLab team needs is two more bodies in th' MedLab!"

Nathan frowned. "Moira, if either of us had really wanted to put each other in the medlab, we could have. In a lot less time than we were fighting." He sighed, his eyes flickering sideways to Askani, who was just standing there, watching the pair of them. "I'm sorry I didn't shield the link. I really am. But Haroun and I were staying to one side of the line. We've both had enough experience to know just how close we can cut it."

"An' accidents 'appen, Nathan. I'm nay sure wha' th' 'ell was goin' on in there but all _I_ know?" Moira took a deep breath and straightened her back. "Suddenly I woke up ta 'alf a dozen images of nay 'olds barred fightin' wit' a lot o' verra 'appy voices 'bout th' entire thin'."

Nathan winced, rubbing his eyes. "Again," he said with a sigh. "I'm an idiot for not shielding the link." A thoroughly inconsiderate idiot. "I, uh, don't really know what to say about the rest, though. I was fighting like they've been teaching me, and they just got really happy about it."

"We may have gotten... what is the phrase?" Askani murmured. "Carried away?"

"Jus' a bloody wee bit," she groused, trying to settle her mood down some. Most of it was justifible pissyness with the both--all--of them but there was some fueled by whatever feelings she had gotten over the link. Not exactly a good awakening.

Askani sighed and vanished, and Nathan grimaced at the fading sparkles for a moment before he turned his attention back to Moira. "I'm an ass," he ventured, carefully crossing the distance between them. "A colossal ass. Do you want to kick me or anything? I think that would be fair..." He smiled a bit sheepishly, not reaching out to touch her just yet.

"Maybe."

She was glaring at him. He really ought to be more intimidated than he was, but she was too damned adorable when she was glaring like that. "I ought to be horsewhipped?" he offered meekly, and did reach out this time, his fingertips drifting down her jaw.

Moira's jaw tightened as she struggled to keep the glare up. "Cat o' nine tails, really," she said, half in a snarl.

"Well, I didn't know you went in for that sort of thing, but you know me," Nathan said cheerfully. "New experiences, yay..." He was reaching down the link as he spoke, soothing the turbulent thoughts he found there, making it very clear just how sorry he was and the lengths to which he was prepared to go to make it up to her.

It was rather painful keeping her shoulders that tense, she thought and finally sighed, relaxing a bit. "Scared th' life out o' me," she accused, softly.

"I know." Nathan stepped forward, carefully hugging her. "I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair. "I need a plastic bubble. Or just some common sense. I know that."

With another sigh, she snuggled into his arms. "Bot' would be verra 'andy."

"I have trouble telling them no sometimes," Nathan confessed after a moment, a bit uncertainly.

Moira leaned back enough to look at him but not enough to break contact. "Maybe tha's somethin' ye should discuss wit' them," she said, frowning. "Maybe because there are so many o' them?"

He felt the first prickles of a fear he hadn't had to endure in a while, as he thought back over the train of thought that had led him down to the gym looking for Haroun. "Yeah," he said a bit heavily, "I think it's something we need to discuss."

"An' soon might be a good thin'."

"Tonight," Nathan said with a sigh, leaning against her again for a moment. "Promise."

"Want me ta be there?"

"Please?" Nathan said with a faint smile. "You can smack me if I start sounding too much like an Askani."

"Oohhh." Moira grinned at him. She was, mostly, teasing. During the time Askani had survived in her mindscape, a certain kind of understanding, maybe even a kinship, had grown between the two women. Dead or alive, they still respected each other.

Nathan leaned in to kiss her on the forehead, hiding a wince as she slid her arms around him. "And I won't ask for any sympathy when I wake up feeling like an old man tomorrow," he promised.

"Ye _are_ an old man," she reminded him.

Nathan couldn't help a grin. "For an old man, I did pretty well in there... ow!" She had poked him in the ribs, her expression severe but her eyes dancing. "Oww," he complained, pouting at her. "That hurt. I think Mr. Watch-Me-Catch-The-Plane bruised some ribs."

"Ach, dinnae tell me Mr. "Yo-Yo Medical Man" needs ta repay another visit down there?"

"I've had worse sparring with Dom," Nathan said with another grin. "But don't tell Haroun that."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Men."

"Well, come on. I can hardly tell the poor guy that he hits like a girl, can I?"