xp_logs | Nathan and Rahne: On late-night victuals, venison, vitamin C, and new arrivals.

Set tonight. Rahne is restless and on her way outside when she encounters Nathan, insomniac and on his way to get something to eat, and decides to go with him instead. They discuss the new arrivals rescued from Mistra (Kyle, naturally, in a bit more detail) and plan deer-hunting for next weekend, barring unscheduled catastrophes.

Three nights after a full moon, and Rahne was feeling bizarrely energized even if astronomy didn't have a single thing to do with her powers. Energized and restless in a variety of ways: she'd been biting down frustration with... certain people for what seemed like the past week; Doug had almost got himself killed on her behalf, leaving her torn between gratitude for the concern and wanting to shake him for not saying anything; the new lad in medlab or rather just out of it seemed nice and she wondered whether he might want to have a try at the deer too; she knew several important things seemed to have been going on with the teams, but not quite what or whether to worry, and that one of them was now in a room in the medlab she'd been ordered to avoid; and she had been investigating the deer and could probably take one tonight...but perhaps she'd just get a bit more information tonight and wait until she could ask Nathan if he'd be up for helping fit it for non-lupine human consumption....

Even with that caveat, she shifted partway to wolf form in eagerness. It had grown much easier to stop partway--

--And with the changed senses that came along with the transformation, she realized Nathan was just around the corner.

Nathan paused, then walked around the corner and smiled a bit wearily at the half-shifted Rahne. "You," he said, his voice low and gently amused, "are actually projecting. That's got to be a first. Still craving that deer?"

She blushed, although it was a bit obscured by reddish fur. "Aye, sorry, but I was thinking I'd wait a bit longer. Or did ye get that part?" She took a good look at him and inhaled thoughtfully. "...Want some warm milk? Or something?"

"I was on my way to the kitchen, actually," Nathan confessed with a sigh. "Can't sleep, and it struck me that part of the problem is probably that I haven't eaten since..." He paused, blinking. "Crap. Too long. Probably Thursday... I was supposed to stop doing that, wasn't I?"

"...Tha' might be a good idea. Something a wee bit more substantial than the milk, then. I'll come fix it, if ye doona mind?" Rahne finished a little hesitantly, not sure if he wanted company.

"I wouldn't mind the company one way or the other," Nathan said with another faint smile, heading towards the kitchen. "But you don't need to feel obligated to feed me, really..."

"I like to, remember?" And it wasn't that he came across as out of it enough to injure himself with kitchen implements absent-mindedly, but he didn't look like he had a great deal of spare energy either, and it would be more relaxing if -- if she paid some attention to trying to get her thoughts in order (she hadn't realized they were going visiting) and then fed him. Right. "Anyhow, I'm out of people to look after, besides the cooking," she added lightly after a moment. "The wee ones are sleeping, and the medlab --" Probably wasn't the best subject at the moment, since Nathan had brought the person in? Rahne sighed; she had to gear down. "--Er, is cleared for once except for the mystery patient," she finished in a somewhat subdued tone.

Nathan paused for a moment, stiffening, but then followed her to the kitchen. "You trust me that if there was something you needed to know right now, I'd tell you, right?" he asked, almost inaudibly.

She might not have heard if she'd got around to unshifting. As it was, she looked back quickly over her shoulder and missed the doorjamb by a bit less than intended. "Aye," she said carefully. "I doona have anything else to call him, is all." Or most, but the fidgetiness had a number of sources, and cluelessness wasn't ranked that high. "The medlab helpers did get the lecture on confidentiality, ye ken." She shifted back almost all the way, uneasy enough with what scent and altered vision were telling her about Nathan to want to get away from it, too uneasy to do so entirely, but definitely aware that Lorna did not appreciate fur in the kitchen.

"I know," Nathan said quietly. "But it's... it's really important that he get... time. Space. I know you and Amanda can be trusted no matter what, but..." He stopped, shaking his head as he thought of Mick, begging him to kill him. "In a couple of days, maybe," he said, not really sure what he meant, or whether he was talking to Rahne or himself.

Rahne went for the refrigerator. "I meant I understood there're things I canna be told, sometimes," she said. Milk, saucepan.... "Ye want oatmeal, toast, an orange, one of Lorna's concoctions, or something else?"

"Fruit would be good, I suppose." Nathan smiled wearily as he leaned on the counter. "I should be getting extra vitamin C. Didn't precisely get over my flu before I went running off for a week..."

"Oranges are always good." She fished one out and handed it to him. "And require very little preparation, so I've time to start the rest. Do ye want a knife or will ye be peeling it without?"

"I think I can manage without the knife." Nathan took the orange and then let go of it, letting it float in midair just above his hand. It unpeeled itself in a perfect spiral pattern, and he chuckled softly as it split apart into segments. "I could have a really good second career as a stage magician, you know."

Rahne grinned over at him. "Very pretty. May I have the peel?"

He floated it over to her. "There you go. A Dayspring original." He let the orange segments land gently on the counter beside him and picked one up. "Have you met Kyle yet?" he asked abruptly.

"Aye, for a bit. Read the conversation in his journal comments, too. I'll have to tell him it might be worth trying to keep his toes up."

Nathan nodded distractedly, eating his orange. "When do you want to do the thing with the deer?" he asked after a few moments. Focusing on something else would be good.

Rahne blinked, then gave the warming milk another careful stir. "I was going to ask when was a good time for you, actually, if ye'd still want to help with it...."

"Of course I do." Nathan ate another segment of orange before he went on. "I may... not be able to make definite plans for a few days, though. Maybe we should say next weekend, tentatively?" He smiled a bit bitterly. "Barring any last-minute explosions, invasions, or other catastrophes, I mean."

"Sounds good." A little longer than she'd hoped, but then things had gone a bit mad. More than usual. "I think I should be able to pick my night -- barring, as ye say, last-minute catastrophes. We seem to have very stupid deer here -- havena taken alarm from my roaming yet."

"I need to check with Cain," Nathan said after a moment. "See if he's got a suggestion as to where we could do what needs doing with whatever you kill... we don't want to do it in the woods and spook the deer. After all," he said wryly, "you might want to do this again."

"I was thinking I might," Rahne agreed. "I doona mean to overdo it, of course, but there really are quite a lot of them." She looked over at him a bit hesitantly. "Do ye think it would be all right, a bit later on, to ask Kyle if he wanted to try? If he seemed interested."

Nathan thought about it, then nodded. "Later on, though," he told her. "He's... got some adjusting to do. His mutation's pretty recent, and he may not be comfortable with the idea of trying to get in touch with his feral side to that extent just yet." He smiled at her. "You could help him with that, though, you know," he pointed out.

"I thought 'twas pretty strange at first myself. And I was going to wait. See what he said about my doing it, for one." She checked the oatmeal, then took the milk off the burner and poured it carefully into a mug. "I canna say I'd be sure how to help, but I can try."

"You could help him by just being you," Nathan said quietly. "You, comfortable in your own skin. It's going to take him a while to feel that way."

She wasn't sure it was always the case with her, but then, they did say that was part of adolescence. And sometimes the wolf form was more comfortable depending on the journals. "Well... I canna say if I'd be quite comfortable stuck in the transitional form," she admitted. "Though I suppose for me that's partly because it is transitional. Between the easier ones, I mean."

"I mean in a metaphorical sense," Nathan said with another tired chuckle, eating another piece of orange. "Oh... wait. You meant that, too. Sorry... I haven't had much sleep lately."

"I meant both, I think. Metaphorical's the more important one, I suppose, but... well, 'tis hardly going to help that part to be getting toes caught in the carpet."

Nathan felt some of the weariness fade into warmth at the calm, thoughtful, yet utterly pragmatic answer. "Rahne," he said, shaking his head. "You're absolutely sure you're not actually secretly forty years old or something? No... wait. You have more sense than most forty year-olds."

Rahne blinked at him in confusion and handed him the mug of warm milk, which had been sitting neglected for the past minute or two. "Sixteen last I checked, even counting Asgard. Er... thanks?"

"That was a compliment, yes." Nathan took the mug from her with a smile and a murmured thanks. "I think you'd be very good company for Kyle," he said more quietly.

"He seems like a nice lad. Bit rough with the language, but no more than some others here."

"No more, and considerably less than some, huh?" Nathan asked, sipping at the warm milk.

"Depends on what mood they're in and how ye weight sex, waste, and blasphemy, but aye." She blushed a little at the predictable point. "...Here, oatmeal's ready." She'd added a fair amount of fruit to it too, figuring it couldn't hurt. "Honestly," she added under her breath. "Shoes!"

Yes, Nathan thought, smiling to himself. She would probably be very good for Kyle.