Log [Alison, Haroun] Let's Talk, take two!

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

In which it is obvious that Talks are better done when not concussed or on pain medication. Reasonable (well, if you discount Issues still holding firm sway) and Calm are very much featured, along with the Naming Of The Teddy Bear.



She hadn't bothered rehearsing anything to say or discuss, really. Or rather, she had stopped after the third attempt. For now, the decision to drop by and see Haroun at that precise moment more impulse than anything else. Besides - she knew well enough to know that about half a dozen people had already decided to talk to Haroun. At this point, one more would probably only be setting him up to be mulish about things, instead of listening. She wasn't sure he would have anyway, for that matter, though it didn't mean she wouldn't try if he seemed amenable. Mostly though, she simply had one thing she wanted to make sure of, before letting the matter rest. For now.

Haroun was sitting up in bed, wearing not much of anything, with his laptop in his lap. By the tapping sounds from the laptop's keyboards, he was hard at work on some sort of document. His door was closed but not locked - and he didn't even hear anyone approach his door.

Turning her back to the door Alison leaned on it, knuckles rapping out a rhythm Haroun knew well. Taking a deep breath she rolled one shoulder absently, then the other - her training was going smoothly and the combined exploits of Haroun and Nathan during the week had done a great deal towards keeping her from pushing things too far without realizing it. It was hard to be stern at someone if you were liable to be called on it for pulling the same stunt.

"Come in!" Haroun's voice called from inside the room. As Alison walked in he was pulling on a pair of old sweats, using his sheet to protect what little modesty he still possessed. "Oh, hey." he said, sounding more cheerful than he had in the last few days. "What's on your mind?"

Cheerful was good. Alison rather wanted to keep him that way. She liked it when he smiled. "You." The door closed behind her softly and she wandered over, giving him time to finish pulling on the sweats before plopping down on a chair near the bed. "How're you feeling?"

"Much better now." he said quite truthfully. "Headache is nearly gone. Hey, look, I know I'm not the easiest guy to get along with when I've got a bug up my ass about something. So I'm sorry for snapping out at you and knocking myself silly. It was dumb."

"Bit more than a bug up your ass, maybe?" She smiled just a bit at the colorful expression though, even as she nodded. She didn't think it was settled quite yet, but she certainly wasn't going to pick a fight. Stretching out her legs, she placed thick-sock clad feet on the edge of the bed and sighed a little, settling in the chair - she was getting used to the less than comfortable chairs in his room. "Trying to talk to you about it right afterwards wasn't one of my more inspired ideas."

Haroun shrugged. "An entire hive of bugs up my ass, then?" he suggested. "And yeah, it probably wasn't." Her stocking'ed feet were just sitting there, and he was biting back hard on an urge to play with them. Besides, she had cute toes. "And furthermore, I bought you a present." he said, reaching under his bed and pulling out a bag before passing it to her. "Because I can be a real hardass sometimes, and I'm sorry." he said sincerely.

She took the package and settled it on her lap, gazing at him contemplatively. "The flowers were beautiful," she told him gravely, noting that whatever he had got her was oddly... squishable. This was puzzling. She wriggled her toes unconsciously, still looking at him the same way. It was one of the things about him that made her feel safe - even if he was temperamental about  some things, and Alison wasn't one to point fingers there, he always calmed down quickly and genuinely wanted to sort things out. "You don't have to buy me stuff, you know that..." Well, she hoped he did. Better to ask and make sure, though.

"I know. But it was made very clear to me that some sort of gesture was required." he said with a playful smile. His will broke, and he ran a fingertip across the top of her right sock, from ankle to the base of her toes. "And while it's not my thing, I've had it explained to me that it is your thing. So there you go."

Far from ticklish, Alison grinned at the touch and looked down at the bag. "Mmm. Talking is good." It was very good even. So was the being calm and the smiling like that was just cheating but she could deal with that kind of cheating. Prying the top of the bag open she peeked inside, frowning a bit, not quite able to make out what was inside just yet. After a moment she blinked, staring at what he'd gotten her. "You..." Pulling it out slowly, the bag falling to the floor forgotten, Alison set the teddy bear in her lap. "You got me a teddy bear."

Haroun colored just slightly. "I did." he said, studying her reaction. Couldn't tell if she liked it or not, but she didn't seem like she hated it. So he must be doing OK here. He continued to play with her foot absently as he spoke. "Do you like it?" he asked her, trying and failing to conceal his anxiety. "I really didn't have you pegged as the stuffed-animal type."

Her foot flexed in his hand and finally, she grinned slowly at the teddy bear staring up at her woefully. "I like him." Yes, that was definitely a him, no doubt about it. The blue bandana should have been silly, but somehow the teddy bear carried off well. "I like stuffed animals," she said easily. "Miles inherited my collection though." It had been a game, at first - stuffed animals to ward off the bad dreams. It had worked better than she'd anticipated though. "And what's your name," she whispered, pressing a fingertip to the bear's nose lightly.

Haroun blinked. They had to be named? Oh, fuck. Way to go, al-Rashid! "Umm, I have no idea." he said cautiously. "Why don't you name him?"

She laughed cheerfully, leaning back in the chair. "What? You mean there wasn't one word in particular that popped into your head the first time you saw him?" The foot wriggled in his grasp once more, making no effort for freedom however.

Haroun swallowed. "There was, but I am not entirely sure it's appropriate..." he said cautiously. He was tap-dancing in a minefield, and the slightest little thing could set it all off.

He looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming train. Which meant Alison only wanted to know what that word was even more than she normally would have. "Haroun." She purred his name out slowly, with a 'you know you'll end up telling me' expression. "What was the word, please?"

Haroun swallowed again. Heavily. "Abomination." he said softly, wincing at the end of the world. Death, death and woe and explosion-time! He'd always wondered what it would be like to be lased. Now he was going to find out.

A wide-eyed look greeted that statement, before transferring itself to the plush little bear in Alison's lap, practically begging to be cuddled and for the world's woes to be made better. Slowly, she brought it up and hid her face in the cinnamon colored fur, shoulders starting to shake.

Haroun winced. Great. Now she was laughing at him. Beautiful. He made a mental note to either A) find a better gift for these sorts of moments or B) learn to lie to Alison. Somehow, he thought that neither was very likely. "I'm sorry, but it's true. I don't go in for cute, you know that!"

A muffled reply came up from the depths of the fur currently hiding Alison's face, and realizing she hadn't been heard, she finally looked up at him, eyes dancing with merriment. "It's perfect. Abomination is it. Abi for short I think." Alison gave in to the silent pleas, hugging the teddy bear while still laughing quietly. "Frank does not get to chew on him. Ever." She was tempted to ask him who had told him to get her the teddy bear, but didn't - she'd hear about it at one point or not, however it turned out to be.

Haroun blinked again. He didn't know why or how, but somehow he'd managed to make it through the minefield unscathed! Note to self: thank Allah later. "No lizard-chewings." he agreed solemnly. "Could bring about the end of the world or something."

"Casserole of Frank is what it'll bring about," Alison muttered, hanging on to Abi with a somewhat determined expression. There'd be place on the shelf near her bed for him, which should be out of Frank's reach. "And then I'd never hear the end of it from Amanda." Shifting a bit, she stretched, sliding a bit lower in the chair while adding a bit more to the legs resting on the bed.

"It's not very efficient, making casseroles with lasers. Best let me bake the lizard for you. Lizard pie, perhaps?" he said with a relieved grin. Mmm, legs. He loved her legs. Scars or no, they didn't matter. She had gorgeous legs. Perfect legs, or nearly so. Some men were ass men, others were more interested in chests. Haroun was a leg man.

A bit more wriggle, and Alison was settled in just right, despite the hard chair, chin resting between the teddy bear's ears, legs stretched out comfortably to rest on the bed next to him. "There's a thought. It can be the Plan if anything ever happens to Abi." She had to make a sign now, to hang on her door. Maybe she could get Lorna to make one out of scrap metal. Beware. Abomination guarding this room. The thought amused her immensely.

Haroun grinned. She wiggled! He loved her wiggles. He leaned backwards, crossing his arms in front of him. "Any plans for the day?" he asked idly.

"Usual training regimen I've had of late, nothing more. Pretty quiet day, really." Of course, the training took up a fair part of the day, but Haroun would know that - it was fairly varied and not yet near the levels of work she'd been doing before the accident, though. Hrm. Talk to him about it, or wait until he felt like going more into depth and simply set her Plan into action? Decision, decisions.

"If you've got some free time, I've got an urge for Chinese and a movie. Whaddya say?" he asked with a leering grin. "And you still owe me for conking out on me a while back."

"Mrf." She blushed in faint embarrassment and hid her face against Abomination. "Didn't mean to." The words were muffled, but clear enough. "Just took the shower and sat down to contemplate the beauty of ice cream and whatever happens and sorta fell asleep." She'd woken up in her room the next morning, a teasing note from Haroun waiting to greet her.

"I know. I was there. Luckily I am a patient and understanding soul." he said with a grin. She should know him well enough by now to know that he was generally neither. "So - want to make it up to me?" he asked fairly brazenly.

She was smiling when she looked up again, though there was a more serious glint in her eyes. She hated to do this now. Truly did. But stepping away from it further would be... continued cowardice. "Would you mind if we talked just a bit about why the training accident happened, first?" Her voice was steady and calm. "If you're inclined to talk about it." She didn't think he'd do a reprise of that, after all the talks he'd already had with others, but she didn't want to feel as though she had to check on him to make sure.

Haroun hissed in a breath, then released it. All rightie then. That's the way she wanted it, well, he could indulge her. "I suppose so." he said carefully. "What do you want to know?"

Her body language didn't change, even as his tensed a bit, mostly in the shoulders she noted, making a mental note to offer him a massage later on. "I reviewed the tapes and read the log." She took a slow breath, letting it out smoothly. "I guess I'm trying to understand. Explain it to me?" Properly this time, not loopy on meds and a concussion.

Haroun shook his head. "No, I don't think so. You want to know what I was thinking, how about just asking me. No games, remember?" he said somewhat acerbically. "You saw what I was trying to accomplish. I had a dismal score in the aerial attack program, and I wiped a turn on the medevac training run."

"It's more than that. That's what I was asking about." The teddy bear's synthetic fur was soft against her arms, oddly soothing. "I'm trying to see beyond that training session to get the whole picture. That's why I'm asking you to explain it to me." She paused, then corrected herself. "That's what I'm asking you to explain to me."

Haroun shrugged. "It's pretty simple. I'm pretty low on the power totem pole around here. So if I want to keep up on the front lines with the likes of Lorna or Nathan or Scott, I need to do more than just fly and not cook my own ass off." he said. "So I've been trying to come up with new and interesting things I could be doing."

It would tickle Lorna pink to know that Haroun was placing her up there, Alison thought idly. On potential alone, he was right - on experience and training though, Lorna wasn't quite yet, in Alison's opinion. Not that she was anywhere near incompetent either - Alison would take her on her team without any reservations. "That's a good idea." Alison paused, because she didn't think she needed to point out that him frying his own ass trying to come up with those good ideas was less than a good idea, however. "It's not just the scope of someone's power that matters, though." That, she knew, was the argument that wouldn't go through today.

Haroun scowled a little at that thought. "In a word with Magnetos and Sabretooths and their ilk, we need every joule of power we can lay our hands on." he said calmly. "You know this as well as I do."

"Haroun, I could have the power to blow up any city in the world, it wouldn't be worth zip again them," there was a hint of frost to her voice despite her best effort, but she continued doggedly, "unless there was a brain behind it to put it to good use. It's... you have something not everyone on this team has." She paused, then blinked, mentally reviewing the ranks. "Actually, that few people have."

Haroun quirked an eyebrow. "And who, precisely, would that be?" he asked.

"The kind of experience I'm thinking about?" Alison paused. "On team - you, Nathan. Sean..." she shook her head. "Eeehn. Not the same exactly. No. Not him. Off the team? Pete. Remy. Though again, not quite the same for either of them - and probably more Pete than Remy. Well. From what we know," she added wryly. "Kylun - I don't know yet. Maybe. Though I think it'd be more specialized than you or Nathan, not as broad or modern either."

Haroun nodded. "You're making my case for me. I don't bring much uniqueness to the table here. Nathan would make an excellent terrorist, and Sean knows that world from the other side of the street. Sam's got my power, but his power works and he's got a blast field to go with it. So tell me again what my wonderfully unique qualities are?"

"You're my XO. Not Nathan, not Sam." She shrugged. "Sam and I wouldn't be a good command team, that's why he's matched with Scott, who has the experience Sam doesn't, regardless of the powers involved. And why you're matched with me. You have what I don't. And Nathan's power is as much a liability as not." It was a fact Nathan knew as well. "It keeps burning him out and will until he learns his limits and stops pushing. Until he does - he's standby and not team." It wasn't even about arguing a point really - just figuring out what was what. But with every exchange, Alison's Idea was becoming more rooted and solid. There would be one clear, inevitable way to show Haroun his value to the team. It would take time, though.

"I don't really like the fact that I just don't bring much to the table, offensively. I'm a terrorist. I'm more at home sniping Important People from rooftops or sending truck bombs through their front door." he said defensively.

"Okay." It was mean but sometimes agreeing was the best way to get someone off guard. "Well. You were a terrorist. Now you're an X-Man with a background in terrorism." And she said it so simply, too, a part of her mind noted. A year ago, she'd have been horrified about it.

Haroun grinned. "One of these days, you'll need to explain the differences to me. But that's neither here nor there. What's your point, Alison? I'm mostly reconciled now to being the scout, the Medevac bus driver, or the tac coordinator. I'm not gonna get much face-to-face time with the baddies, and I'm just going to have to accept that."

"You bring something to the table. It may be intangible and not what you want to bring, but it's just as important anyway." She still thought he was underestimating himself, when it came to actual field action. And he forgot that they weren’t the army. A team tended to get involved in a conflict entirely, usually, by the very nature of what they were and what they did. "And there wouldn't be much to this command team without it."

"All the stuff we're talking about - my mind, my memories, my skills - a mundane could bring the same things to the table." he pointed out. "My power's not all that great. As a matter of fact, it's more of a hazard than it is a benefit. Working on ways around that, but not having much luck."

Oh dear. Yes, that. Alison didn't think getting into the whole 'power doesn't define you' thing would win her accolades just now. Haroun had a perspective on that she found hard to argue with and well, believe. "But there isn't a mundane here right now with that. There's you." She had an accurate sense of things now. So no more attempting to convince him just yet. "So. Since we're a command team and all... want to work on those ways to get around that together?"

Haroun nodded slowly. "Sure." he said after a moment. "I'm not doing very well on my own, as evidenced by my trip down to Medical. So any help you could offer would be welcomed."

Alison smiled, and then wriggled her toes at him for the first time since they'd started on the subject. "Then we'll do that." Some of the training exercises she'd worked out for Scott could apply here, but those she was turning in soon and not talking to anyone about. The idea was for Scott to be able to unleash those without warning, after all. She had no doubt he'd modify a few to surprise her, as well. "Two heads are better than one and it's not like we've had much chance to work on our stuff, since I had to go and blow up a week after we got set up as a command team."

Haroun grinned. "Crappy timing, Al" he said with a laugh. "So, about that dinner - you up for it?" he said, taking up her one foot and starting in on a half-decent foot massage.

And he had perfect timing, she noted with a small smile, trying not to slump too much in the chair at the foot massage. "Mmm. Do we have to order just yet? Because that feels goooood..." Alison gave him a half-lidded look of pure approval, while hugging Abomination loosely to herself, looking entirely too content in general.

Haroun grinned and kept his foot massage going. "Depends. Do I have to stop at just feet?" he asked with a leering grin.

She grinned back at him, the corner of her eyes crinkling above the head of the stuffed animal in her arms. "Mmm. Do I get to return the favor?" She returned leer for leer, though there was a touch of amusement lurking in there that was hard to hide. "You look like you could use a nice back massage."

Haroun actually looked startled. "Sure." he said as soon as he recovered. "Watch me fight _that_ one." he said with a grin. "Now, about this poor leg of yours..." he said as he finished up the massage on her foot and started to work on her calf.