Log [Alison, Haroun] Movie night...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Saturday evening. In which Alison gets the news about Haroun leaving for the bright lights of Las Vegas, after which mostly cuteness/fluff ensues. Another milestone in Alison's slow process of recovery also occurs.



Haroun knocked on the door to Alison's new room with a jaunty knock. In his free hand he bore a Basket of Goodies - some DVDs, two bottles of water, and some finger-food type things that he knew she liked. She rarely complained of an evening spent watching movies and snuggling, and truth be told, they had already become the high points of his day.

The knock was recognizable, something which brought a smile to Alison's face as she headed towards the door, having gone from a slow turtle like pace to a decent 'hey, that's one fit turtle!' like speed of late. She tapped the wrist sound dampener on, and a flick of her wrist at the panel near the door turned the room's general sound baffles off entirely before she opened the door. Door knobs were still a pain, but she'd refused the offer of touchpad anyway - at least she could open doors with relative ease now instead of poking at the handle and generally being useless. "My." Taking in both Haroun's expression and the items he was bearing, Alison raised an eyebrow at him, still smiling. "Always prepared, huh?"

"Product of a misspent youth." he said with a grin. "May I come in?" he asked her formally with an inclination of his head. "I have DVDs and water and snackables. If you've got a few hours..." he said with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Of course you can come in," she let go of the door, obviously pleased to see him. Stepping back a bit she flexing her hands absently. Not being able to play the guitar was beyond getting to her, these days. Among so many other things. "Mmm. Real food. That almost tastes right!" Being allowed some solid type foods again was nice - and combined with a very slowly returning appetite...

Haroun just grinned. "Hey, at least you're off of Gerber's now." he said, closing the door behind him and then putting the basket on her table before giving her a brief and light hug. "So how has your day been?" he asked charmingly.

Hugs still hurt although nowhere near as much as they had the first week - Haroun had found the knack and timing to keep them just shy of too painful though. She made a brief face at him over the baby good comment before answering. "Long. And boring." Well, there had been a few distractions, but Haroun was here now and that certainly deserved her entire attention. She grinned a bit, remembering a poker game meant to keep her from dying of boredom. "And yours?"

"Interesting." he said, taking a seat in his usual chair. "Looks like I may have to leave town for a few weeks. Something important's come up, and Nathan and I are going along to ride herd on the kids." he said apologetically.

Alison stopped in mid-turn, the sound of the door clicking shut suddenly far louder than it had any right to be. For all the myriad questions and the hundreds of ways to express them, all that Alison managed to say was rather pathetic, in her opinion. "You... What?"

"I'm leaving. In a few days. For Vegas. With LeBeau, Nathan, and some of the kids. Stryker's files have resurfaced in the hands of some assclown who wants to sell them to the highest bidder. We need to make sure that doesn't happen. For all of our sakes, and especially for yours. Those files are Xavier's bio and Danger Room files on all the X-Men previous to his little invasion of the Mansion." he explained. "So I'm going. So is Dayspring."

Which meant her files were in there. Although woefully out of date at this point, and then some. Anyone working from that would... not really have a hard time of it at all, Alison sighed a bit, looking down at herself briefly. She opened her mouth to ask why in the world they were taking the kids there of all people, then closed it again - Charles had to okay the whole thing after all and beyond that, she really didn't want to know about the reasoning. "Oh." And now she was sounding like a forlorn three year old. "Are you going to be under a complete communication lockdown?"

"We can't use any of the X-Men who are in the files - that would be suicide and a sure tipoff. So Nathan and I are going, since we arrived later. The kids are going because, quite frankly, we need them. I don't like it either, but LeBeau swears that he has a Plan, and Pete seems to be backing him on this. And he sold it to the Professor, so it can't be complete bullshit." he groused. "And no, there's no comms lockdown that I'm aware of. I have every intention of checking in early and often. Can't leave the songbird all alone and bereft of her space heater..." he teased.

"Kids' files are kept separate from the formal team files," Alison pointed out - she was out of things anyway, regardless of anything else. Idly, she pondered the notion of asking Cain to throw Remy in the lake. It would make her feel better about all of this. Oh so much better. Briefly anyway. "I'll be all alone and bereft of my favorite space heater," she pointed out, not quite pouting. "You'll be far away." There was no contesting that he was going though. Maybe she'd ask Lee to give her back that Blackberry she'd tested for security purposes a while ago.

Haroun shrugged. "I'd prefer to stay if I had the choice, but this is too important. If everything goes smoothly, I'll be gone maybe a week. Tops." he said reassuringly, then passed the basket over to her. "And you're in absolutely no shape to travel."

"Couldn't go anyway. My file's part of Stryker's data." She accepted the basket, peering down into it thoughtfully. "A week is not weeks." It was still far too long. And it was only fair to let him know he'd be missed after all. "I shall be very woeful." Alison gazed at him mournfully, just to make her point. Everything will go smoothly or I may have to find a way to drop a mountain on LeBeau's head for it." It was so nice to have someone to blame for it all, really. Reason, of course, had nothing to do with it.

"I hate it when you get woeful." he grumbled. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll bring you back something pretty from Vegas? Is there anything in particular you'd really like? I've noticed that you're not big on jewellery."

"If it has meaning, I like it just fine." She shrugged a bit, and then moved a bit closer, offering him a smile. "I'm just used to it being given to me as a bribe or a reward for following the rules. Which is maybe silly of me now, but there you go." Food basket in hand and entirely forgotten for a moment, Alison grinned at him crookedly. "Come back in one piece and it'll make me happy."

"Now that I can do, and with pride. But I am reminded - take a look at the bottom of that basket, if you'd be so kind." he asked her, having cleverly hid the little jewellery box in there on his way up to her room. "I brought you a present."

Presents were always good, and Alison wasn't about to go wander back to sitting on the bed until she'd seen it and thanked him. Of course, it was hard getting into proper thorough thankingness, but she'd managed somehow, she figured, while peeking at the bottom of the basket. The box had been protected nicely by a fold of the cloth and she retrieved it without problems, handing the basket back to Haroun with a smile. And was rather amused to realize she was holding a jewelry box after what she'd just said to him - although this would have meaning, and then some. Carefully she pried it open, the pain flaring along her skin and joints a more than familiar sensation by now.

Haroun tried very hard not to lean over and ask her what she thought of the gift - it was hers now to accept or reject as she wanted. "Not a reward for following the rules, and not a bribe. More like an apology, and a desire to get you something nice. Wanda seemed to think it would suit you, and I agreed. Wasn't even all that expensive, really." Well, by her standards anyway. His bank account was still a smoking crater. "The inscription is just your name, if you were curious." he added.

Alison raised the chain up slowly, the pendant being lifted out of the box to turn on itself a few timesIt was in gold, which was the metal she did wear the most often when she actually did bother with jewelry. And it was, in her highly biased opinion, absolutely perfect. "It's beautiful," she stated firmly, a slow smile blossoming as she let it turn a bit more, catching the light lazily. "You have to help me put it on now, you know. That's how these things are done."

"Oh, the horror." he deadpanned, then moved over behind her to fasten the gold chain around her neck. "There you go." he said, brushing a very light kiss across The Spot. "So - I trust it meets with the full Songbird seal of approval?" he grinned as he moved back to where she could see him.

She could tell exactly where the chain was, the fact that the hood of her suit was down meaning that the metal was directly on her skin. It ached, prickles or discomfort radiating outward, but she ignored it. The brief touch on the back of her neck barely had time to be felt - he was getting good at that. "It's perfect." She brushed her fingertips on the pendant before smiling at him, delighted.

Haroun grinned at Alison. "Oh good." he said with real relief. "I'm glad." He sat back down and casually streeeetched himself out, listening to his back's organic parts pop in rapid succession. "I was a little worried - you're not a big jewellery wearer, and I was not in the best headspace at the time." he said with a nervous laugh.

She watched him stretch with a faint smile of appreciation - and a touch of envy. Oh, was she ever going to do that when she finally could. A lot. "I plan on wearing this all the time." She waited until he was done, then carefully sat down in his lap, wincing only a bit before relaxing slowly, glancing briefly down at the pendant again, unable to keep herself from doing so. "Thank you." It was only the briefest and lightest of kisses, all she could handle really, but she was still very determined to at least do that. 

Haroun grinned as he felt the feather-light kiss. "You're welcome." he said. "I'm just glad that you liked it. I spent much of the plane flight back chewing my fingernails down to the armpit worrying." he admitted. "It looks good on you."

"It'll look even better on me when I can get out of this damn synthsilk suit," she answered feelingly, the first thought that came to mind and the possible implications thereof sinking in only afterwards. Well, it would at that, too. "It's good I'm not radiating light anymore, all the time. The gold might have softened if I still were, unless I'd taken it off."

Haroun nodded. "Hey, I'd rather you be all better rather than risk having molten gold run down your body." he said. "Besides, if anything's going to run down your body, it's going to be my tongue." he grinned.

The difference between thinking someone was flirting and knowing they meant every word (or a variation thereof) meant that you mind tended to start speculating. And then building on those speculations. "You're going to make me blush again," Alison chided him gently, fighting  a smile at the remark.

"Oh, the horror." he said with a grin. "The absolute horror. I like it when you blush. It's very cute."

"Alison Blaire does not blush. She has no shame." The stern look was ruined as she grinned sheepishly. "Most of the time anyway." She glanced at the TV, then at the DVDs he'd brought, currently resting on the table. "I don't supposed you have any more details about what's up in Vegas?" She'd been firmly planning not to ask, but damn it, it was nagging at her.

"Not yet, no." he admitted. "As soon as I know, I'll let you know. Nathan, Wanda, and I will be there as adults, as well as Remy. I get the feeling we're the hitters if things go pear-shaped."

"I will await your every communication impatiently," she said softly, eyeing the bed contemplatively. And then she kissed him again, barely any contact to it at all, capping it off with an impish grin. "And now. What DVDs did you bring with you?" Alison wasn't hungry, but curling up on the bed with him to watch a movie held much appeal.

"I brought Glory, because I like it and I thought you would as well, and Airplane! because it's funny." he said with a grin. "Choice is, as always, yours."

Alison blinked at the names, making a show of considering the options instead of blurting out the chosen title right off. A few seconds was long enough, right? "Glory sounds like a good start," she nodded slowly, grateful they'd settled on a 'always a few to pick from' rule where movie watching was concerned. Her hand moved to the pendant briefly, an unconscious gesture on her part and she got up slowly, heading towards the DVD player.

Haroun caught the gesture, and grinned at her. "Sure thing." he said, making himself as comfortable as he possibly could on her too-soft abomination of a bed. But for a few hours of snuggling he could endure it. "Next time, you get to pick the movies." he told her as she got the DVD player prepped and ready to go.

She popped the DVD delicately in the player, the controls already resting on the table next to the bed if need be. "I can do that." Alison grinned, heading back towards the bed at a leisurely pace. She was finally starting to feel tired now and then. Maybe she'd actually fall asleep on her own soon, at that. With that in mind she sat down on the bed and started the slow process of curling up against Haroun so they could watch the movie.

Haroun grinned as Alison shifted and got as comfortable as she could. "You're doing a lot better, you know." he told her with a grin. "It's noticeable. At this rate, in a month or so you should be pretty close to back to normal."

"Ten percent increments per week," she replied, though there was a smile creeping somewhere in her voice as she kept moving just at ouch, slowly adjusting to things. "The fact that I'm keeping the sound baffles in the room on all the time except when I have visit seems to be helped." She hated it with a passion, but it wasn't the iso room and she could wander about at night. That was saving her sanity and giving her the wherewithal to keep going. She sighed a bit, suddenly unmoving. "This is good."

Haroun nodded, noticing that she was putting more weight against him than she normally did. "You are getting better." he said with a grin. "Just you wait until everything's a hundred percent." he said with a leer as the movie started.

Alison chuckled softly, glancing up at him in amusement. "Madelyn had a theory that when I'm all better, I'll then keel right over and catch up on all the natural sleep I missed. Probably be out for another month." Clearly, the waffles Miles had brought down to her that day had been just a touch too drowned in chocolate sauce. "I think she was on a sugar high when she suggested that."

"I can wait. I can be patient." he said virtuously. "Because once you're all caught up on sleep and your nervous system stops hating you, you and I are going to have some very interesting times, I think." he said with a grin. "I think paybacks for all my teasing is going to be a very pleasant bitch."

She pondered whapping him for the turn of phrase, but she was finally comfortable (even if it ached still) and not moving was nice. Very nice even. "Silly. I'm not telling you a thing. You can wait and wonder." Payback of a sorts was most certainly due, however. And then some. She closed her eyes for a moment, and sighed softly, the sound of the movie playing in the background not at all as comforting as that of Haroun's voice when he spoke.

"Ooh, going to keep me in the dark are you?" he said with a low chuckle. "See, I think you're just planning all the things you'd like to do to me - and the things you want me to do to you." he said softly, pitching his voice right for her gonads via the low rumble that he knew she loved. "So if you come up with anything truly spectacular, you be sure to let me know."

She was leaning against him, ear pressed to his chest and the low rumble raced through her of all things, drawing a faint shiver from her, warmth underscoring the usual everyday pain. "Mmmm." Distracted. That's what she was. Very much so, even if not as much as she'd like to be. "I like it when you do that. Even if I can't appreciate it properly right now. And I can't always leave you in the dark. .M'the glowbug. When I want to be." Smugness abounded at that, even though she hadn't tested her power yet.

"What, when I think of things I'd like to do, or when I rumble like that?" he asked her with a grin. "And you are a glowbug! I'm the Space Heater, you're the Glowbug. Seems perfectly fair to me. And speaking of space heaters..." he said as he brought up some of the heat to the surface of his skin, the side that she was resting against. Sweat popped out on his scalp, but a little sweat was a nothing price to pay.

The effect was instant, more than he'd anticipated perhaps - heat sinking in to the very bones, Alison going almost limp at the sensation. The pain wasn't as strong as the previous week and it was things like that which broke through now and then, giving her cherished moments of respite. "Mmmm." She'd meant to say something else, but it was lost entirely and she slipped into a light doze between one breath and the next.

Haroun smiled as her breathing grew slow and regular. "Finally." He said softly, and returned his attentions to the movie, giving her time to crash out as much as she could. Finally, the movie ended and Nature was Calling in a somewhat substantive way. He looked at the woman curled up against him, and then gently ran a fingertip down her jaw from ear to mouth. "Alison?" he said very softly.

She was used to accidentally triggering the pain response in her sleep by now, and it was the sound of his voice that woke her up more than the touch itself, light flaring ever so slightly in response as she came back to awareness. "Mmm." Alison smiled up at him a bit fuzzily. This was as nice and comfortable as she'd been in a while, relatively speaking, and it took a few moments for the realization that she'd actually slept on her own to sink in. Her eyes widened and she stared at him in almost comical surprise. "I slept. On my own."

"You did." he said with a grin. "And I'd love to let you sleep on your own more, but nature is calling, and you have my arm." he said with a grin and a wiggle of the aforementioned trapped arm.

"It's a nice arm," she replied contemplatively, and then grinned a bit - it hurt when he moved like that, but it also served as proof of the niceness of said arm, yes. "I suppose I can let you have it back. For a while." Feeling a little bit giddy - she'd slept! - Alison started to slowly unwind herself, one step at a time.

"I either get my arm back or I make this bed a whole lot messier." he said with an apologetic shrug. As soon as he could get his arm free, he climbed out of the Feather-Soft Bed of Torture and walked into her bathroom, only to re-emerge a minute or so later. "Much better." he said with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

She was still wrinkling her nose at his argument, having very hastily sped up the process of letting go the second he'd said that. It was hard to keep even the pretense up though - she was still far too pleased with having slept on her own. "Can I have the arm back now?" she asked, along with a still sleepy looking but very effective puppy dog eyes of doom look on her face.

Haroun flopped back in the same place that he had left, still with the gentle wave of heat radiating from one side of his body. "But of course. Let's see if we could go for two, shall we?" he grinned,
moving to the DVD player to change movies before laying back down on the Soft Bed of Back Destroying.

She waited until he'd started the movie and was there again, the heat pulling her in neatly as she re-arranged herself the way she'd been before with a soft, unintelligible sound of contentment though all the wincing. Maybe she could sleep through this movie too, if she was lucky. "It's one of those silly movies, isn't it?" The remark was rather lazy, Alison willing to put up with that level of silly if it meant 1) snuggling up and 2) heat keeping her nicely limp like that. It didn't help with the pain, but she it did actually help her relax, which was a Very Good Thing considering how tense she normally was.

"It's a little dated, but it's still hysterically funny. Or, at least I think so." he said with a smirk. "Brainy showed it to me first. His idea of a Welcome to Western Cinema class was to cram movies into my brain until I begged for mercy." he said with a laugh.

Brainy deserved something horrible happening to him. Alison glanced at the screen briefly then wrinkled her nose, wincing before stopping actually physically trying to inch away just a bit as well. It was one of those movies. Sleep. If it eluded her now, Alison was going to have words with someone over this. "Begging for mercy, huh?" But if she kept him talking there was that wonderful sound effect going on from the fact that she was curled up against him. "Brainy?" Knowing might be useful one day. Just in case she had to hunt down whoever this person was.

"Brainiac." he said quietly. "He's dead now, so you can't exactly hunt him down for his taste in movies. Unless you want to go spit on his grave or something." he noted. "On the plus side, I did get to watch a whole lot of Western movies. Got me up to speed in a semester and a half, or thereabouts."

"That'd be a little extreme," Alison pointed out softly. Sometimes his mind worked in very odd ways. But if Airplane was to be part of the regular to be seen DVDs, well, in the light of that she could hardly raise too much of a fuss. Another thing to add to the list which had 'horribly taste in pseudo music', that was all. "Maybe I can catch you up on TV series, then..." There was an odd light in her eyes as she said that.

Haroun knew when to give ground graciously. This was one of those times. "Sure." he said. "Did you have anything specific in mind?" he asked with a grin, fighting an urge to run his fingertips along her side. Touch was painful for her, al-Rashid. Don't push it.

"Mmm. So much to pick from." She grinned a bit at that, thinking of the boxes with those DVDs that were still in storage. Huh - she could actually go there now. "They're at my apartment. I'd closed it down before coming to the mansion - wasn't safe there anymore." Alison sobered up at that, staring ahead pensively.

"But it is now." he reminded her. "Once you get over the whole crippling-pain thing, you can go and get whatever you need." he said reassuringly. "So don't sweat it. Or give me the keys and a location and I'll go get it. If you want."

She pondered that for a moment, feeling a bit wistful. "I think I'd want to be there. Feels like it should be a Moment or something. First time I'll have gone back in over a year." The window had been fixed of course. She was sure of that at least. "Could be something to do once they cut me loose... Might be some stuff I could bring back, too."

"Sounds like a plan." he said agreeably. "Now lay back and go back to sleep. Don't make all this wonderfully soporific heat go to waste." He said with a grin.

"Mrf. 'kay." It was as close to an agreeable yes she could come to, closing her eyes obediently with another of those small, happy sighs. It was more than worth the continued ache of leaning against someone, all of this. And even if sleep didn't come this time, it was easy to just drift off and not think or move.