LOG: Haroun and Alison - Touching Base

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Haroun comes to talk to Alison about the Askani. The conversation meanders from there, touching upon music, Mistra, the X-Men, training, MacInnis, and the joys of being attracted to one another.



Haroun knocked lightly on the door to Alison's suite. He bore a plate covered in various breads and cheeses, and nibbled from it absently as he waited for her to answer the door. He looked troubled, pensive, despite the smile on his face.

There was an oddly long pause, before the door finally opened a crack, Alison peering out. "Oh." It would be, she knew, painfully obvious that the suite was minus one green-haired roommate, she knew. Ah well. Rumor mill had likely made sure he'd heard about it by now. "Hi… Come on in." She smiled, opening the door widely for him, revealing a somewhat chaotic mess of papers spread about the suite's common room and two of the guitars usually stashed in her room now propped on stands in a corner.

Haroun grinned when he saw the guitars. Electrics, even. "I come bearing cheese." he said, brandishing the tray like an experienced waiter. "Might you share it with me? I understand you've had one bitch of a day."

The note she'd left him after not finding him earlier hadn't really been that specific - the rumor mill had most certainly been at work. "Yesterday was that. Considering I probably just about drowned you crying like that on you…" Alison shrugged a bit, although the smile didn't fade. Now was good, in fact. She nudged the door closed with her foot in a clear 'you're not leaving now, nope' way and peeked at the tray curiously. "Not sure I'm hungry right now. Maybe?"

"That's why I picked something that will keep." he said with a smile, putting the tray down someplace convenient. "Wasn't sure if you'd eaten or not. I'm yours for the rest of the day, if you'd like for me to stay. Might be a good idea, as there's something I'd like to ask you about." He looked vaguely nervous.

Stay the day, tag along to his room later on. That sounded like a plan to her, even if he was only finding out about the second part later on. "Make yourself at ho- right." She eyed the couch critically and then started to remove music sheets in careful order, stacking them neatly on the corner table. Which made that pile of paper the only thing resembling order in the entire room. "There. Have a seat. What did you want to ask me about?"

Haroun took the indicated seat, and took his time getting comfortable before he looked up at her. "The Askani." he said finally. "I met Mother Askani earlier today. Nathan tells me that she's touched your mind, given you their language and culture?"

"Mmm." She nodded in assent while a few more sheets were neatly stacked, the couch being steadily cleared up so she could have a place of her own as well. "A while ago. Got an overload from it too, ended up talking and thinking in Askani for twenty-four hours or so." She grinned in amusement at the memory. "Nathan got a laugh out of it, the rat. Teased me about it the entire time."

Haroun looked concerned. "I'm just worried about them. I am not entirely sure their motives are pure. I don't know what to think, really." he said, for once at a loss for words. "She tried to tell me that the world had forgotten God in her Age!"

"Not forgotten." The reply was automatic, Alison shifting weight to balance on one leg, lifting up the other to use her thigh as a surface to gently shuffle the sheaf of papers she had into a neater pile. "I think you could call it more of a withdrawal? I mean, to have the concept 'what is, is' as the very core of your faith pretty much means you believe in something."

Haroun nodded. "That's what threw me so badly - it sounds like the Askani are themselves a new faith, but a faith in Man - or Woman, in this case, instead of God. Supposedly, there was a lot of that going on. Worshipping false idols and all that."

She laid the sheets down on top of the others, and flopped down on the couch, resting her head on his thigh while stretching out her legs. "Not... quite. It's Altheyr'na." She blinked, eyes glazing over a moment. "Damn. No equivalent. Something like-" she paused, obviously searching for the right words, "like 'faith in something more'. Which really still doesn't make sense, gah. Andrai would have my head on a pike for fumbling after words like this." She took a deep breath, looking at the ceiling.

"It's faith in your Clan and faith in your Clansib and Faith," the capital was evident, this time, "in that there is something out there greater than everything else and that it right and good. Even if everything around you isn't and you can't find you way in the dark."

Haroun hrmmed as he thought that through. "That's not too different from the way we are now." he mused. "They have forgotten the words, and they do not remember the Names of God, but they still believe - in their own way." he said with the beginnings of an honest smile. "That makes things much easier to swallow."

Looking up at him, Alison tilted her head to the side a bit. "I'm curious. Why did you come to ask me this?" She was sorting through what Askani had given her concepts and knowledge flickering to life steadily as she actually paid attention to certain things for the first time. The Askani didn't have a God, didn't worship a single entity, no. But there was a faith in something; Alison just couldn't narrow it down to something specific enough to put into words -not anymore than she'd already done, anyway.

"Because I know I could get the straight unvarnished deal from you?" he said with a grin. "And I'll take any excuse I can get to come up here and spend a little time with my new Fearless Leader?" he smirked. "With Nathan, the Askani live in his mind, hear with his ears, see with his eyes. With you, it's just you. Does that make sense?"

She twitched at the moniker, lifting one hand to tweak his nose lightly at that. "None of that Fearless Leader thing. That's Scott." She stretched a bit, careful not to nudge the guitar near the end of the couch with her foot. "It makes sense, I guess. I don't have the direct wired to the brain input thing, if that's what you mean." Alison paused, then looked at him searchingly. "I dream in Askani, sometimes."

Haroun winced. "And you were doing so well..." he muttered. "You dream in Askani? That can't be a good thing." he said, the concern bleeding into his voice strongly. "I know it's probably unfounded, but I worry anyway." he said, giving Alison a quick hug.

She wasn't going to argue with that, shifting her body to settle closer to him, making the hug last that much longer. "Unvarnished deal, remember?" Alison offered him a wry grin. "Look. A lot of the stuff I know about the Askani is still instinctive. A situation crops up and I get this flash of cultural equivalents from the download Askani did. Sometimes words in Askani are just better to express a concept than English is. Maybe Askani set it up as a way for me not to be overwhelmed by all the information they gave me. At least that's what I've been thinking, of late."

Haroun nodded. "Getting bent out of shape over it would do me absolutely no good whatsoever." he admitted. "I can, however, say that I don't like it and that it's going to take time to get used to, right? And Nathan mentioned something about their music? Probably all boring vocal stuff or strings and stuff."

"Course you can." Alison grinned a bit in agreement, resisting the urge to wriggle in lap further. "Depends. The welcoming the dawn one you might like. Need a heck of a chorus for it though, but it reminds me of your prayers - not quite the same, but it's close to that. Huh. I'm trying to set one of the lia'resen to guitar," she tilted her head towards the electric guitar at the end of the couch, "but I'm missing a few secondary harmonic threads for it. It's annoying. I know what it's supposed to sound like but I can't make it happen." She grumbled a bit at that, frowning.

Haroun looked at Alison like she was speaking Hebrew in a mosque. "I have no idea what any of that means, but then again when I go on about Bernoulli being a fucktard and wing surfaces, you can feel free to just smile and nod too."

"That was unbearably cute. Yes dear, Bernoulli is a fucktard," she added obediently and then grinned at him impishly, kissing the corner of his mouth before slipping from his lap to stand up. "I could try and show you if you'd like. I was leaving it alone for a while because it was driving me up the walls but now..." She was already reaching for one of the guitar, picking it up from the stand gently.

Haroun looked vaguely disquieted by the lack of an Alison in his lap, but when he saw her reach for the guitar, he couldn't help but grin. "Is the great Alison Blaire going to give me a one-woman show?" he said with a leering smile.

"Letch." She rolled her eyes at him, checking the settings on the amp before running the guitar through a quick set-up, warming herself up at the same time. "I guess it could be a bit weird if you've never heard it before?" Alison winced a bit as she considered this, although the chance to actually play this for someone was clearly making her very happy. "You game?"

"Of course I am." he said, leaning back into the sofa's cushions. "And I'm ready to hear this, too." he clarified with a waggle of his eyebrows.

She made a face at him, smiling brightly however as she paused to close the lights before going through a few quick sequences of notes in the semi-darkness of the room. It was, Alison decided, a good thing she'd had her room and the common room to the suite sound-proofed. The thought that she no longer had a roomie to bother with the noise cast a brief shadow on her features - and perhaps set the mood for the mourning song a bit too easily.

The first few notes shivered through the room lowly, long and outdrawn, a gradual scale into which something else slowly crept in, hovering at the edges while the song itself took form. The slow tempo hinted at rain and heaviness, breathing with a sadness almost too heavy to bear.

Haroun stayed silent to hear the song out in full. Once the final notes faded away, he hrmmed. "Not too bad." he said after a moment to collect his thoughts. "I think it needs fuzzed up - it's too clean for what you're trying to get across there. Of course, that's just my opinion - I like all my music ponderous if it isn't screaming."

Alison glanced up at him, holding the lowest note steady, bringing it back to life. ~That was the intro.~ She mouthed the words at him, a brief glimmer of light to ensure he saw her, before smiling softly and closing her eyes. The same sequences of notes started up again, a steady beat slowly growing in intensity - a steady coiling of strength and will, breaking through the sorrow and leaving it behind.

Thunder and lightning spiraling to life, roaring to the height of a storm that wouldn't be stopped even though all was lost. Holding the line until the very end against all the odds the cries of the fallen echoing in her mind fighting until the last breath and beyond because it was all they could do and all that they knew and Hope lived on even with their deaths.

Haroun stayed quiet this time, not giving his opinion until Alison gave him a sign that the song was done. He'd already stepped in it once, he didn't want to do it again. But he was moving his head fractionally to the beat.

She pushed it as far as she could with the guitar, the music rising in a triumphant crescendo until she nearly cut herself on one of the strings pushing for the right note - and then stopped it short, stilling the strings with both hands. The abrupt stop left her a bit breathless, as it always did when she tried to run through that piece and after a moment she looked up and shrugged a bit awkwardly. "Can't finish. The guitar's not right for it."

Haroun nodded. "It still needs grunged up. It's too neat, too clean." he said. "But I'm weird, and you know this." he added. "I'd add some distortion - make those low bass notes _punish_ the listener. If you can't feel it in your chest, it's not right."

She rested the guitar back in its stand and shut down the amp before flopping down on the couch again. "It's a one instrument piece." Sighing in frustration, Alison stretched out her arms for a moment, and then rested both hands on the back of her neck, fingers digging in to do away with the tension. "I know what it's supposed to sound like and there is a secondary thread there, but it's not bass. I tried - makes it go off where it's not supposed to each time. And I can't get to the cultural bit need to sort it out other than it's bigger than a guitar and there's something involved called ethr'aik and I don't got it." She finished the last acidly, frowning. She hated being thwarted that way.

Haroun grinned. "You sound like me when I'm working through an Aero problem." he said. "Just with more not-born-yet languages. Go do something else, let your subconscious chew on the problem. It'll come to you eventually. Or you could see if one of those Askani people can teach you how to fab the instrument you need..."

"I tried." She pouted. "Andrai snickered and asked me how the weather was these days. Gmgmrm!" Alison pushed herself up, muttering something underneath her breath. "I think I know the basics. I may pass an order for parts with Samantha soon. We'll see."

Haroun patted the couch next to him. "Poor frustrated songbird." he cooed at her. "It does seem that you got a lot of positive things from them. That's good."

She shot him a darkling look over her shoulder at the cooing, although the fact that he seemed to be accepting of what she had going with the Askani mollified her somewhat. "I like them." Alison shrugged at the candid admission, shifting on the couch to sit closer, leaning against him.

Haroun draped his arm companionably over Alison's shoulders, letting his hand dangle where it wanted to dangle. He then leaned over and nipped at her earlobe playfully. "So - has it sunk in yet? Your new position on the team?"

Gah - that did Things to her. Alison shivered a bit and nestled closer to him, the question distracting her in less pleasant ways. "Not entirely." Pete's email had helped. A bit. "It's a big change." That didn't even start to hint at how this affected her. "It'll sink in soon enough."

"I'm here to make it easier for you. I'm your Exec." he said with a grin and another attempted earlobe nibble - thwarted, as she'd moved her head and made getting access to her earlobes problematic. He had to settle for a smooch of the top of her head - a very poor substitute indeed.

Alison tended to agree with that, only the snuggling was very very nice too. "We complement well." She paused and prodded him in the ribs lightly. "As a command team, I mean. Strengths and weaknesses are pretty much balanced out all over the map." Clearly, she'd given this some thought.

Haroun's ribs were at least half artificial anyway - had to be, to make room for the thruster-pack. "The rest of the team would tend to agree with that assessment." he said. "Personally, I'd like to see us do a Danger Room run or two, see how well we mesh out in the field."

She shifted so that she could look up at him, grinning a bit and then gave up, resuming her earlier position, settling nicely in his lap. "I set that up earlier. Gradual progression type thing, variation of scenarios. Betcha Scott goes into the program and changes them on us without warning though." Alison seemed rather hopeful about that, in fact.

Haroun grinned as Alison settled into his lap. This gave him access to her ear, which he took shameless advantage of. If he could convince her to roll just a little bit more, he could reach The Spot - and then the real fun and games would begin. "Probably. I would, in his place. I'm going to check out Paige within the next few days. She's been shoved into the rotation, so I hear, with a no-solo flag. So if you think you can set your devious little mind to work, I'll put her through her paces."

"She has been, yeah." Alison had been keeping an eye on that, ever since Paige had joined the ranks as a trainee - she hated it, but knew Paige wanted it very badly. And now Haroun was doing very distracting things again, which meant she had to concentrate a fair bit to go on. "Should add her to a full group scenario once a week, if it hasn't been done already. Need to check. Now that I can do that." Gah. Very distracting. "It's really hard to think when you do that, you know?"

"That's the idea." he said, nuzzling her around so that he could apply teeth to The Spot. Just to see if it was actually possible to make her glow and/or jump completely out of her skin. "So do you know who's got the rotation? It hasn't been posted yet for everyone..." he murmured.

That earned him a reaction indeed, Alison nearly falling out of his lap entirely at the sensation. "Ah!" There was a moment where making sure she was right back where she'd been so he could do that again took very much priority over answering his question, followed by shifting just enough so he couldn't quite do that during the time it took her to speak. "Still being worked on. The rotation I mean."

Haroun got The Silly Grin on his face - the very self-satisfied Silly Grin. "Figured as much, I was just hoping for an advance peek. I want to work with everyone, actually. Some I've worked with before, some are brand-new to me. Should be fun.' he said with a very self-satisfied stretch and a fingertip wandering up the skin of her arm.

He looked revoltingly smug - but there was as much fun in letting Haroun explore as there was in torturing him, and she could always do the latter the next time. "We're probably adding some more floating sessions for everyone, just for that purpose." Alison did not move, refusing to twitch her arm away, which was fast becoming something of a Challenge. "Scott and Ororo haven't ambushed me yet. I'm expecting to be hauled off for whatever they do to new team leaders any day now."

Haroun could feel the muscles in Alison's arm twitch, and he had to admire her self-control. He kept the fingertips travelling up her arm until he got to her shoulder, at which point he took a turn torso-wards, keeping the light pressure up. "I expect that whatever they come up with should be a fairly good time." he said. "And would those floating sessions extend to after-hours, a little private scenario just - for - us?" he asked, voice rumbling just a bit.

The shiver was a dead giveaway and Alison knew it - it was really unfair of her body to rat her out like that. "Not sure it would be if they decided to knock on the door now," she pointed out, shaking her head at him. "You are a very ba-" A ping interrupted her, coming from underneath a pile of papers on the far side of the desk, and Alison's head snapped around instantly to locate the sound. "He answered!" She fairly scrambled out of Haroun's lap and towards the laptop, sweeping the papers away in a smooth gesture before prying it open.

Haroun blinked and then looked over at Alison at her laptop. "What's going on?" he asked curiously, standing up himself and wandering over to Alison's fridge. And then wandering back over to the couch and sitting down - it was still daytime and this was still Ramadan. He could survive until nightfall. It wasn't that long from now.

Alison stared at the screen for a moment, an unimpressed gleam in her eyes. "Yeah, go for the cheap threat, old man," she muttered to herself, although she didn't sound aggrieved about it as much as unmoved. She typed out a reply, the keyboard clicking at a rapid fire pace. The reply sent she looked at Haroun pensively. "Mind keeping this to yourself? Until I'm sure it'll work, anyway?"

Haroun looked vaguely insulted. "Of course." he said, all thoughts of play now forgotten. "What's up?"

"MacInnis." She gestured at the screen, the email and her reply still open for him to see if he moved to join her on the floor where she was now sitting. "Nathan is the only contact we have with him and the man has a straight line into how he thinks and every button he has. I don't like it. Not one bit. So."

"Wait. This is Mistra stuff?" Haroun asked as he quickly read the conversation. "We gonna go drop the hammer on these guys? I was thinking of using the after-op report on Belgium as a DR run later on. Could be good practice."

Tapping her fingers on the table beside the laptop and mentally urging MacInnis to answer already, Alison shook her head. "No. Talked to Pete about that earlier today. Mistra's too big for us, way too big. Too many trained agents, too many conditioning centers spread around the world we don't know about or couldn't reach in time if they sent a termination order. And they have the perfect hostages to hold against us with the kids." The memory of the dead children was bright in her mind and her face hardened at the thought.

"But he's after them. On a mission, is MacInnis." A reply popped into the inbox and she smiled thinly as she read it. "Got you. Let's go through all the posturing, then." Another reply was sent and Alison let herself fall back on the floor to stare at the ceiling while they waited once more.

"So are we coordinating with this MacInnis character, or are we going to go drop the hammer on him?" Haroun asked. "I'm a little confused at this point. You're taking great delight in messing with the guy. Do we need him or not?"

"Wrong approach to the question. It's the other way around - he needs us." Well, he wanted Nathan specifically. At this point though, if he wanted Nathan she was inclined to make him work for it. "Nathan isn't going to be able to let Mistra go." She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, then shrugged. "I can't either. But we can't leave everything else to hang while focusing on Mistra, which is what would be needed if we did commit to this entirely. So." Alison waved vaguely at the portable. "He wants Nathan. Nathan is one of us. So... maybe he gets us." There was the whole clearing that bit with Ororo and Scott to do, still. "But not on his terms."

Haroun nodded slowly. "You want to bring all of us in on this?" he asked slowly, thinking it through. "But we pick the targets, the time, and the place? Not let this clown jerk Nathan or anyone else around? Could work, but it's risky and dangerous."

"I need to proof it through Scott and Ororo." Another ping had at the keyboard and reading the email, silence reigning for a moment. "I'm not really going for that one," she muttered. "There. Chew on that and let's see what you have to say." Alison leaned back, frowning at the laptop but not really concentrating on it. "No more being manipulated or Nathan getting messed with. MacInnis gives us intel. We handle what we're suited for, pass along the rest through Pete's contacts if we can. Volunteers only for the missions we decide to take. And if they're making me a team leader, well… I want those missions."

Haroun nodded. "Makes sense. I'm in." he said, coming to a decision just like that. "This needs doing, and we're the ones to do it. Anything we can't handle, well, then we pass it to Wisdom and it is open season on the market. Put some pressure on from as many different angles as we can. I like it. When we're done with them, these rats won't want to stick their noses out of their holes for months."

The replies were coming much faster now, Alison noticed, as another response from MacInnis appeared. And he'd given her such a nice opening. Already knowing what she wanted to say, the response took barely a moment before being sent. "It won't be that simple, Haroun. If we're not careful, they can always just close shop and start up again later, or elsewhere. What happens if they do that?" She knew better than to think Mistra valued the children as anything other than tools - to be discarded is too much trouble, should they push too hard. "MacInnis knows them. He's on a crusade against them, has been for years." And he was using Nathan now to push his goals further. That was stopping.

"There's a balance. We have to be careful." She was drumming her fingers absently on the table as she spoken. "I'll bet you anything Mistra's already taken a good look at the school and decided not to attack only because the potential profit in terms of kids they could get and intel was too low compared to the damage and losses they faced in return. What we have to do is make sure we stay right under that profit line while doing what we can to set them up for a fall. We let MacInnis do his thing, help him even - but without becoming his tools in all of this either."

"It's a little more passive then I like being, but I understand the logic behind it. My first impulse is to blow them wide-open, get the word out to the mutant teams worldwide. Start a global manhunt for these killers of children. Yes, the kids would be sacrificed, but in the long-term that might be a sacrifice worth making. They would be martyrs to the cause, and we could put these butchers away. But your way, I think, is probably safer. Longer and less sure, but safer."

"No martyrs," she replied softly, after a long silence. "Even just losing one of them is unacceptable." And they were down far too many to start with. Well, there was one set of checks and balances showing up in their team dynamics, it seemed. "Besides - I couldn't live with myself doing that." Anything else she might have said was lost in the warning bell of an incoming email from her portable and the slow widening of her eyes as she stared at the words on the screen.

"That's a nice sentiment, but I'm not sure it's practical. We take too long on this, and they will go on turning kids into killing machines." Haroun said softly. "Strike now. Get the word out, go global, tell Wisdom's little friends. Find their holes, find the dark places where they hide, and burn them out. That's my advice. But I still want in, even if we do it your way. These people need to pay for what they have done. If you think the best way to do it is through this MacInnis, then that's how we play it."

The list of arguments against his tactics was a mile long, but she didn't go into it - there was no need and she felt nauseous at the thought of sacrificing the children in a situation which held no guarantees of working either. And Nathan would have a fit if Haroun ever told him that, in a tap-dancing on his head sort of way. "We're here to help children, Haroun. Not sacrifice them. We go with MacInnis. Besides. He just gave me a really, really big stick to whap him upside the head with. I need more information. And I need to talk to Nathan now. Gah." She sighed and closed her computer screen after sending MacInnis a polite good night email.

"I'd love to help the children in any way that I can!" he protested, and then leaned back on the couch and sighed. "Yeah, we're gonna be a fun command team. I can tell." he said with a faint smile. "We can play it your way. It's my job as Exec to point out other alternatives, even if they're unpleasant." he pointed out.

"And I'd rather have to look at them all than not," she replied, smiling a bit in return. She moved the laptop back a few inches on the table and rose to her feet, heading back towards the couch - and his lap. "If I start doing the wild scenario thing and push it too far like Scott did... stop me?"

"That's also part of the job." he said with a wide grin. "Who's Scott's exec, anyway?" he asked. "Someone's falling down on the job." He watched Alison walk over to where he sat and the naked want in his eyes was nearly blazing through.

"Sam is." She paused just out of his reach at that, resisting the urge to settle back right where she'd been before, somehow. Which was no easy task when he was looking at her that way. Staying in the suite tonight was entirely unappealing - Lorna wasn't there and the place was just wrong now and there was nothing she could do to fix that.

Haroun looked up at Alison - a pleasant angle, considering the differences in their heights. He had to remind himself that yes, Haroun, her eyes were up there. "Sam. Should have guessed." he said. "I'll talk to him - maybe he just doesn't know about that part of being an Exec."

Her lips quirked in amusement as his gaze lingered lower before he focused on her face. "Sam does a good job. Steady as a rock too. He and Scott complement each other well as a command team, in their own ways." She took a few steps back, hips swaying a bit teasingly. "I need to take a shower. Don't really want to spend the night here though. Any objections to my wandering over to your room after?" Well, she knew the answer to that but it was always fun to ask.

"Considering you had a pull off a coup to get Scott to relax and share some of the workload, the job couldn't have been that good. I'll make sure he knows about this little addition to his responsibilities the next time I talk to him." Haroun said. "And absolutely yes, feel free to stop by after your shower. Or you could, of course, save yourself a trip and just use mine." he said with a hopeful smile. Oh, the places HIS mind just went!

Haroun was stuck on the idea and not about to let go - Alison didn't press though. Sam could take care of himself and she supposed Haroun felt a need to establish himself as Exec in his own way. It wasn't up to her to interfere there.

And she hadn't returned the favor for all the torturing he'd indulged in earlier yet, had she? "Sounds good," she agreed casually. "Let me grab a couple things and we can relocate."

"Absolutely." he said with a wide grin. This could turn out to be a very, very interesting day indeed. As she collected her things, he stood up and grabbed the bread-and-cheese tray that he brought up. "Make me feel a little better - have a slice of cheese?" he pleaded with a grin.

Once she had everything she needed and firm designs in mind on one of his t-shirts for when they got back to his room, Alison wandered over to inspect the cheese platter with a serious expression. She still really wasn't that hungry. "Mmm. Maybe some bread." She selected a piece solemnly, nibbling at it a bit before wrinkling her nose while trying to hide a smile. "Besides. Cheese breath. Bleah."

Haroun shrugged. "I have been bad enough - I caught myself nibbling the cheese tray on the way up. Bad Haroun." he said, mocking himself. "I can think of much more pleasant things to nibble." he said, putting the tray down and running a fast fingertip along Alison's earlobe. "Shall we go?" he asked her.

"Bad Haroun," she repeated, grinning despite herself and not moving until he was done with the light teasing touch before picking up her portable. It wouldn't be long until sundown now. "Ready when you are." The remark was idle, Alison flashing him a grin over her shoulder as she walked to the door.

"Then let's go." he said, enjoying the multiple layers of meaning there. He followed her and her superior posterior all the way down the hall to his own suite, which he let her into graciously. "Welcome!" he said extravagantly, gesturing to his rather Spartan dwellings.

"Mmm!" The laptop was deposited on a corner of his desk and Alison grinned at him cheerfully, waggling her fingers at him in mock goodbye before disappearing in the bathroom, the door closing shut firmly behind her.

Haroun stared at that door - he didn't hear the corresponding click of the lock engaging. He stared at it for a long moment, shrugged to no-one in particular, and then knocked on it himself. "Up for some company? I could wash your back for you..." he called through the door, knowing that he could potentially be dancing on a landmine.

Laughter greeted that offer from the other side of the door, accompanied by a cheerful sounding "Bad Haroun!" The sound of the water being turned on reached his ears, followed by the shower stall door sliding open. "I won't be long, promise." Alison sounded very very amused.

Haroun left the door unopened, but he was definitely listening. Closely. "Take as much time as you need. And let me know if you need my help with anything." he said with a gigantic grin on his face. Oh, this was just so much fun! Even standing out here and teasing her (and himself!) through the door was fun.