xp_logs | Nathan and Wanda, Thursday morning

Nathan jumps back into Danger Room training a little too enthusiastically. Wanda takes exception. Nathan takes exception to her taking exception. There's a lot of shouting.

All right. That had maybe been... just a little bit too much. Nathan rested a hand against the wall to support himself, breathing heavily as the Danger Room closed down the program. Dark shadows were flickering across his vision, and his telepathy was fading in and out again. Really, it was a very disconcerting sensation.

Wanda had just finished suiting up and getting ready when she heard...something. Peering out into the Danger Room itself, she frowned. "Nathan, are you quite all right?" she called, heading over to him. With the program closed now, it would be safe enough for her to go to him. And even if not, she was close enough to the emergency switch off to stop anything from happening.

"Just... winded." Wanda gave him one of those 'I don't buy it for a minute, buster' looks she was so good at. "Okay... more than winded. I may have jumped back into this a little too quickly." He waved a hand around limply at the Danger Room.

Putting her hands on her hips, she stared at him. "Do I need to tell Dr. MacTaggart on you?" she warned, reaching over to help prop him up slightly. "Blindness, an attack on Muir--again if I have not gotten confused--that messed with your head. What on earth were you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," he said as evenly as he could, "that I need to get back in shape. Get back in shape, get off reserve status, do something useful..."

"I noted that driving yourself into the ground while doing so is not on your list," Wanda noted, her tone wry and just a little sharp. Did he not see what he was doing to himself? "Yes, getting into shape is good. Getting full-time active service with the X-Men is even better. Puking in the Danger Room because you are trying to prove to yourself that you're ready? Not exactly what you were aiming for."'

"Mind over matter, Wanda." He was going to straighten up now. Really. "It's a motto very dear to the psionic heart."

She was so very tempted to knock him on his butt right now. Just to show him. "Yes, but mind over matter does not help you when you're wondering why your fiancee is yelling at you for overdoing it."

He managed a smile, if a tight one. "I'm not overdoing it to any dangerous extent," he said, and did straighten this time. "I'm just not prepared to not be able to kill the next thing that looks at this place sideways."

Oh dear. The entire Muir attack had unsettled him more than even Nathan was willing to admit to. And with due cause, of course. Wanda frowned and crossed her arms, ignorning the slight creak of the leather. "I heard starting slowly is the key to most successes," she pointed out, ignoring that "kill" comment. For now.

Nathan stared down at her. "I'll take that as it was meant," he said after a moment. "Although you'll have to forgive me if I point out I've been doing this since you were what, about four? I'm a little testy this week. A few days ago I had a seventeen year old boy deciding his judgement in a combat situation was better than mine."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Then kindly do not take it out on us or yourself," she said, but there was an understanding in her voice. "You may have been doing this longer than I have, that's true. But you must also see my logic in this. The last thing I wish to see is a teammate and a friend injured."

"This is not about taking anything out on anyone." Just enough anger to lend him a little adrenalin. Very good. "Pushing myself too far is not compatible with doing what I need to do. Pushing myself right up to that limit without any room to spare is what I'm going to do, though. If it bothers you, I suggest you don't watch."

"~Stupid, stupid idiot,~" she breathed, gritting her teeth. "Then I suggest not doing it where people can _see_ and _worry_. If you wish to nearly pass out, read the Danger Room schedule and do it when no one else is going to come after you to see you trying to become one with the wall."

Nathan's temper slipped. "Do I look like I'm on the floor?" he snapped, flushing. "No! I'm on my feet, not bleeding, not blind." He pushed away from the wall, intending to head for the door. "You'd think I was an overgrown three year-old who can't be trusted to not step out in front of a bus!"

"Oh for God's sakes!" Wanda snapped, stepping in front of him as he wobbled slightly. "You are not distrusted to do things on your own! You are cared about, on a team level and as a friend! And if you do not see that for what it is, maybe you should sit down and think it through! You are a stubborn, headstrong man with tendencies to push yourself! And it worries us!" She'd pulled herself up as far as she could go, nearly at his eye level, hands on her hips.

He wasn't used to women who could look him almost in the eye. "I'm telling you," he gritted, "there is nothing to worry about. I was cleared to be in here. I am not going to jeopardize my ability to kick the ass of next week's bad guy. Give me a little credit for knowing how far I can push myself!"

"Then gives us a little credit for our concern! And you realize that you are not the only one capable of 'kicking the ass' of the next thing that comes along! That's why we're a team, Nathan!" Or will be. She was soon heading towards that direction.

"Did I say I was planning to do it alone?" What, was he talking to himself here? "I'm just done being a weak link! All right?"

Wanda pulled back a little bit and her expression softened. "There, was that so hard to just say instead of acting like you had to pull the world by yourself?" she asked. "And I doubt there is anything that I can say to you to make you disbelieve that. I'm good but not that good. But I do not think you are a weak link, Nathan."

Nathan tried not to grind his teeth. "I'm not going to stay one," he grated, and at this point he wasn't actually talking to Wanda so much as himself. "I am better than this. I'm finding the idea of being a weapon a lot less objectionable than I used to be. It's all about picking your targets, now."

"The last time I checked, you are not a weapon. You are a man who has been put through the wringer but is now on the edge of getting married to a beautiful--if scary--woman who is carrying your child. That does not sound like a weapon to me. You are powerful, yes, but not a weapon. Not any more."

Nathan shook his head. "You're not making any sense," he muttered, stepping around her. "But I'm done. Happy?"

"I'm making more sense than you're willing to listen to," Wanda pointed out. "I need to teach your bird to curse at you more because you obviously need it. And no, I am not happy because...oh hell, just go if you're going to go sulk because I'm trying to get through to you."

"My priorities are perfectly in order," Nathan tossed back over his shoulder almost defiantly as he headed for the door. "Get back in shape. Blow the next bad guy into pieces too small to see. I don't see a thing wrong with that."

"Living your life to it's fullest, being free from the chains of the past. And now_you are acting like a three year old."

"Maybe the reason I act so stereotypically male is that the women in my life NAG me to death!" Nathan snarled and stomped out of the Danger Room.

"Have you considered that you need_it, you ~stupid hormonal bull-headed...moron!~" Wanda shouted back, leaning out the door. "I figure ONE of us will get through that barrier you call a head!"

Nathan turned around. "I need the nagging like I need another concussion!" he shouted back at her.

"But you seem happy to cultivate them! Try cultivating a little sense now and then!" she snapped, glaring at him through a mess of curls that had escaped the pony tail holder.

"I do not CULTIVATE CONCUSSIONS!" She wanted volume? He could beat her on volume. "What next? Accusing me of spraining my brain as a spectactor sport? I don't know how I ever managed to survive as long as I did without all of you to tell me I have the common sense of a gnat!"

"Then stop CULTIVATING THIS BELIEF that you must be everywhere at ONCE!" While not his size, Wanda was built with a strong set of lungs. Incredibly strong, one might say. "Stop believing that's all you ARE, you bastard, because you aren't! Team mean family, as much as you do not wish to believe that and we will berate you until you realize that you are not liked simply because of what you can DO!"

He was not going to pull out his hair. Really. "Why are you making this so COMPLICATED?" he snarled at her. "I'm out of shape! I'm getting back into shape! You and half the other people around here, reading all these charming levels of dysfunction into everything I DO!"

"One does not attempt to drown themselves when learning or relearning to swim!" she answered, throwing up her hands. "Going into the deep end just to prove to yourself that you can do it even when you don't nearly make it out is STUPID!"

"I don't have TIME to take baby steps!" He took a step back towards her, almost involuntarily. "There is some fucking psychotic geneticist out there with a mad on for the woman carrying my child, and a bitch of a psionic vampire after my d--after Amanda, and I do NOT HAVE TIME TO CODDLE MYSELF!"

"Then TRUST the rest of us to help!" Wanda nearly bellowed, stepping up as well. "Stop trying to do this all by yourself because it certainly sounds like you are! Stop being..." Before she could continue there was a sudden popping noise as red light flash around her hands. "~Shit!~" She'd been on edge for days and this certainly hadn't helped as pieces of metal from the ceiling fell around them.

Nathan took a step back, instinctively shielding against the falling metal - and freezing, his eyes widening warily as Wanda's mind went--dead. What the-- She was conscious, eyes open, clearly there, but yet not.

"Damn damn damn!" Wanda hissed, reaching up her hands to clench at her head. Deep breathing, count of four. Go back to that quiet place in her head, the woods in Romany where she had played with her mother. Quick meditation and the glow started to fade from her hands.

Nathan stayed silent, on edge but willing to give her the space to compose herself. He'd certainly lost it with his powers often enough. "I'm sorry," he said tightly once the glow had gone from her hands.

"Not your fault," Wanda grated, eyes still tightly closed as she felt that chaotic surge in her mind slowly die. "We were both getting into the argument, more than we should have."

Nathan took a deep breath, then another. "Probably. I'm sorry for that, too." He closed his eyes for a moment, ignoring the Askani's disgruntled buzzing. "I should go. This is cutting into your session time."

"Trust me, I am down here often enough that it will not make that much of a difference," she muttered. But still, she backed up and sighed at the mess. "It looks like I have a job to do when I am done, though."

Nathan smiled humorlessly. "Speaking as someone who blows up parts of the house on a regular basis... be glad Cain's not here to carp."

"I almost wish he was here to give me grief." But there was a part that was...confused about the whole thing. Pushing that aside, Wanda glanced up at Nathan. "I will...catch you later?"

There was something odd there, but... no. Nathan nodded. "Yeah," he muttered. "Later. Have a good session."

Stepping carefully over the debris, Wanda made a note to clean it up soon. She was more worried about Haroun giving her grief than anything else. At least it was not the 'Bird that this happened to.