Wanda and Alison

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

After her session, Wanda nearly walks into Alison. Figuring she's probably one of the best people to talk to, she mentions the spat with Nathan. Alison is unimpressed and then finds out something else about the fight.



With the fresh scent of shampoo lingering in the air, Wanda headed out of the changing rooms for the Danger Room. She'd spent quite a while in there. So much so that the sheer amount of sweat had been the deciding factor in showering downstairs instead of in her room. She frowned, still unhappy with how Nathan had been pushing himself that stupidly.

The door opening meant she almost ended up literally walking right through Alison, who took a step back at the last moment, a gym bag slung over her shoulder. "Gnarfle!" Which really meant 'ah, tall thing trying to walk on me!' but with the being busy with making sure to take big enough a step back, Alison figured the translation was in there somewhere. "You look line someone stuck crazy glue in your soap." A pause. "Erm. Hi! You okay?" That was marginally better, and Alison ventured a grin along with the question.

She jumped, a little startled. There was a second of blinking as she suddenly focused on the fact that there was an Alison not more than a few inches away from her. Sheepishly, she grinned. "I am sorry, I was a little distracted. Hello. Long session and Nathan before was being...Nathan."

A very wry look greeted that particular comment. "Wanda? Nathan being Nathan can mean anything from Nathan wandering down the hallway with a big stupid grin, muttering baby names to himself while thinking no one hears him, to Nathan wandering off with plastic explosives in hand and what he hopes is an innocent look on his face." She paused. "Reassure me now?"

"Oh. You have a point." Reaching up, she towled off a bit more of her hair, just to keep it from dripping down her t-shirt again. "None of the above. We butted heads over him being stupid and pushing himself too far in a Danger Room scenario."

Alison was remarkably unfazed at that comment. "Define too far?" she asked contemplatively, shifting to pull the strap of her gym bag a bit higher on her shoulder, balancing from one foot to the other minutely just because she felt like it. She already had more than a few training scenarios in mind for today herself.

"I figure trying to meld into the wall and looking like he was going to puke was not exactly a good sign. Especially after a recent head injury."

That was Nathan half the time, even without a head injury - Alison thought it best not to point that out, if only for what was left of Wanda's peace of mind. "Eh. He's just being a stupidhead about venting, instead of blowing up rocks like I told him to. Probably was embarrassed half to death soon as he finished too." Shaking her head, Alison rolled her eyes a bit in mild exasperation.

Wanda frowned a little bit and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "I simply did not want him pushing himself to far," she murmured. "I understand _why_ he's upset--my God, if I were in his shoes..." There was a pause as she got herself back on track. "But to...bah, he does this just to see how many gray hairs he can infect others with!"

"If he does it three days in a row, and I'll monitor the room on that score, then we yank him out and sit on him until Moira comes down to drag him off by the ear and make him behave." That was, as far as Alison was concerned, a perfectly fair game plan to adopt. She grinned, suddenly. "Bet you a bag of cookies he goes back to Moira and admits it to her himself though."

Oh, now that was funny. "Chocolate or peanut butter?" she inquired. "And I suppose I should not have argued with him on it...I think you were right, he was embarrassed by my concern. Men."

"Chocolate. And it's advanced doofusitis. Some have it more than others. All are hopeless." Alison nodded the nod of the wise and solemn at that, a sad expression on her face. "We just don't tell them it's terminal, because then they'd get all angsty about their lot in life." She'd have to take a look at his training program now. She was curious. Especially if it had been the one he'd been working on before the holidays. That was an interesting one.

Wanda snerked a little. If Alison wasn't ready to kick his butt from here to Turkey for it, then maybe it wasn't all that bad. "Chocolate it is then. Homemade, I am assuming? Some of that store bought stuff is not exactly fit for consumption." Still..."There was something you might want to know. I pushed a little and he confessed...he thinks he's a weak link."

"Homemade by Miles or Lorna. Chocolate chip cookies still defy my very poor culinary skills. I make a mean peanut butter and banana sandwich though." She paused though, the remainder of Wanda's words sinking in. "…excuse me." There was a nice wall. Smooth and flat. Perfect for beating her head on.

"I cook well, on an open fire." Right as Alison's head met the wall next to them, Wanda had placed her towel between the hard wall and the not quite as hard skull. "I will assume that was not expected." Her voice was dry and she was suddenly glad she had said something.

More grumbling answered that, along with a few hand waves that denoted much peevishness, as Alison kept her head very much resting against the towel. Finally, she took a deep breath. "explain to me how it's the former mercs on the team who are having usefulness issues? Huh? Now, the former rock star? There's grounds for that. But - gah!" Another thunk, dulled by the towel. "Strangle 'em both."

"Both? I probably shouldn't know, should I? I can help, though. Strong hands, ready to do some strangling." Wanda sighed and leaned against the wall. The coolness felt good after the sweat and hot shower. "I understand why Nathan is upset, not why he feels like he is not useful."

This was insight that maybe wasn't quite right to hand out so easily but - Wanda wouldn't exactly go advertising it around. "Because he didn't single-handedly take care of everything on the island and he's been conditioned to not stop until he has done everything single-handedly for so long that it's still with him now even if everything else isn't." Exactly. So a certain extent. "So he beats himself up as punishment for not performing to standards." Alison slid Wanda a sideways look. "This never goes further than between the two of us, please."

"I only speak secrets when necessary. This is not one of them." Wanda took a minute to digest that and sighed. "That does make a lot of sense, given what we were arguing about. He needs to realize he can be useful and not be _the_ ultimate hero. I told him he is no longer a weapon and he needs to start acting like he's not."

"Yes, but acting like he's not means feeling. And that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish, that." She reached out and prodded Wanda's arm, in a general 'hey look, a distraction' way. "He's a stupid teenager in some ways. He's having to sort out stuff some people get to sort out before they're twenty. It's probably why he goes on bouts of pure illogic, really."

She blinked down at the poke but smiled a little bit. "Very true. I wish I had not blown up at him, though, really I think that may be what he wanted. That whole feeling thing. Though there's now a mess in the hallway to the Danger Room I have to clean up. Illogical but he can feel at the same time. I can see why he does some of the things he does, now."

"He's a lot more mature on some things. Not in others. Goes with his life, really." Alison paused. "I'll take my time warming up while you clean the mess." The smile was positively angelic. And then she raised her arm and flapped her hand quite deliberately at Wanda.

It was hard to answer when she was giggling helplessly. "God damn it, woman," she choked, covering her mouth with her hand. "Ribs already hurt..." Another round of giggles made her nearly useless before she straightened. "Right...clean up and try and not look at you least you do that again."

It wasn't going to be so easy. Alison grinned evilly, even as Wanda determinedly turned around to head towards the Danger Room. "Flappity flap flap!" she called out to her retreating back, snickering a fair bit herself.

"Not liiiiiiistennnniiinnnng!"

Ah, but planning evil was fun. Making plans to teach Miles and the other kids to flap their hands whenever they saw Wanda was ample distraction as she entered the changing room to get ready for her own training session.