Log [Alison, Haroun] Sharing the good news...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Sunday afternoon, after the talk with Scott. In which Alison does not quite pounce Haroun, but still shares the good news. This, of course, requires celebration of some sort, and plans are made and put into action.



The box was firmly tucked in her hand and she was walking steadily towards the gym - this was the hour where Haroun usually worked out, anyway, on Sundays. It felt good to be walking - a simple act so many took for granted, the realization only more pertinent considering who she was going to see. It was easy to forget, sometimes. Too easy, and it was with a small frown that Alison rested a hand on the door to the gym. A lot of things were easy to forget, she realized.

Shaking her head sharply she set that aside for now, firmly determined to look at that more closely later. For now, it was time to pounce. Smiling a bit, she snuck a last look at the box in her hand and opened the door, peeking inside to see if she could spot Haroun. There was absolutely nothing wrong with ogling your boyfriend when he worked out, after all.

And today was a good day for the ogling. Haroun was working some sort of a staff weapons form, taking it nice and slow but stepping through the moves with a good bit of speed and power to his movements. He was so focused on his movements and the strikes and blocks that he completely failed to register Alison's presence at first. He got maybe halfway through the kata before stopping, leaning on the staff for support and massaging at his lower back.

The weapon form had been very nice to look at, Haroun clad only in gi pants more than enough to keep Alison watching, really. The pause to lean on the staff was hard to miss, though Alison took advantage of that to step fully inside the room, making her way towards him with her head slightly tilted to the side as she watched what he was doing. "That looked nice," she said lowly, pitching her voice just enough to cross the distance, the box in her hand weighing barely a thing and yet still so very much there.

Haroun straightened up, wincing at the effort, then turned around to face Alison - but not before schooling his expression. "Hey." he said with a grin. "It's a good form, really. Usually I do better at it - I'm mostly using it to stretch and shake some of the rust off." he grinned. "So what's on your mind - do you need me for something?"

She grinned slowly, delight at her news finally taking over temporarily any of the doubts or misgivings she had, at any given time. "You could say that," she drawled, taking the last few steps in almost a skip like motion, before coming to a halt about a foot away from him, bouncing on the tip of her toes. "Want to try and guess?"

Haroun stopped to study her, not missing the small box in her hand. "You finally found a blast-proof, tamper-proof, and very, very private bomb shelter for us to spend a little alone time in?" he said with a grin that mostly managed to miss being bitter. "The key is in the box, right?"

"Mmm. Still working on that one. I'm trying to find a big enough supply of titanium..." she offered, with a slightly self-deprecating smile. She wasn't still entirely unconvinced that if they went for a bomb shelter, they wouldn't end up being nuked. Somehow. "Not exactly. But it is metallic..." She sidled a bit closer, eyes still dancing with a glow that said 'you will like this'.

Haroun blinked. "Either you're a lot kinkier than I get you credit - or blame! - for being, or I'm completely off-base here. What, did you get Steve Vai's guitar pick off eBay or something?" he asked with a grin. "No, wait. New guitar strings so you can play something decently heavy!"

Laughter greeted that, Alison shaking her head at him in admonishment. "I want one of Steve Vai's guitar picks, all I need to do is make a few phone calls." Well, maybe more than a few, but it was still doable. "And I don't need new guitar strings to do that, mister. Nooo." She pondered letting him guess again, if only to see what he might come up with, then finally lifted up the box, letting it rest on her open palm so he could open it himself.

"Hey, the guy's a wuss, but Passion and Warfare was a brilliant album." he said with a grin. "OK, guess I'll open it up for myself." And then he opened up the box, saw the command-level tabs, and then looked up at Alison. "You got your tabs back! Congratulations!" he said, then moved forward to kiss her. Hard. Just a short one - a promise of things to come. "Guess you'll want your team back then, hrm?" he asked her with a quirked eyebrow.

"Mff." Was the answer as he kissed her, which had actually been an attempt at both agreement and  a thank you. There wasn't much that was compared to the regular team tabs - one had to know to look for. She grinned at him at the question though, knowing he'd like her answer. "We're on active status for the next week, as of tomorrow." Even if they were both in training - that hardly paused, after all, considering all the work they had ahead of them. For anyone.

"Well, then, as acting CO of X-Men Black I hereby relinquish command back to you. The team is yours, Commander." he said, straightening (with only a little bit of a wince!) and saluting her smartly. "Now then, I think that an event of this magnitude deserves a party. And I know we just had one yesterday, but this one's a little more personal. Whaddya say?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow and a grin.

Taking a deep breath, Alison nodded slowly at the offer. She was still smiling, even as she put her arms around his neck, closing the distance entire to lean her cheek against his. "Worked for this so hard since I got better I almost forgot what was at the end of all this," she murmured, taking in a slow inhalation of air. She waited a bit before pulling back, careful not to lean too much though, the winces noted and taking into account.

Haroun grinned as he got a double armful of Alison for his troubles. "So, commander, where would you like to go to celebrate? Should we make it a private thing, dinner in, maybe a little private time? Or do you want to go out, maybe get some Moroccan food at our place?" He kissed her nose then, playfully.

She wrinkled her nose at him, clearly having liked that. "Our place!" The urge to protest that she wasn't a 'commander' faded entirely at the suggestion, delight taking the place of anything else easily considering the good mood they were both in. Alison very much wanted to sustain that good mood, as long as possible. "I'd love to go back there. Only the once wasn't enough. We should go more often, too." Going out more often at all would be brilliant, she decided.

Haroun nodded. "I need to get cleaned up - I stink." he said with a wrinkle of his own nose. "Tell you what. Let me rack this staff and then we'll go back up to my room. Call the restaurant, see if we can get reservations. Then I'll take a shower, you can go get changed if you want, and we'll head out. Sound like a plan?" he asked her, kissing her nose again because it amused him when she wrinkled her nose at him.

"Hrm. That sounds good." She didn't wrinkle her nose this time, trying to resist the reflex for as long as possible - then gave up, one hand rising to rub at the tip. "Tickles," she chuckled as she admitted to that, indeed finally wrinkling her nose as well. "And I do think I will get changed while you shower, yes. We've got a few hours to just wander around town probably too, before we head for the restaurant..."

Haroun grinned. "You have no idea how cute it looks when you do that." he said with a laugh. He then disentangled himself from her so that he could go ahead and put the training staff back in the weapons cabinet. That accomplished, he extended an arm for her to take should she be so inclined to do so. "Shall we?" he asked her with a smile.

"Oh yes," she purred in reply, slipping her hand in his though instead of taking his arm, careful not to swing it too much. He wasn't wincing anymore, she noted. "I have a favor to ask of you, too. Well, more like something I think I should know and that you can show me..." she trailed off, smiling somewhat innocently up at him.

Haroun walked out of the Gym with Alison, hand-in-hand and not caring who saw. "And what might that be?" he asked her with a grin, leaning over to kiss her earlobe briefly. "Anything you want..."

She liked it when he did that. A faint sway of her hips and she brushed against his lightly, smiling at him winsomely in the process. "Show me how to pilot the 'bird?" Her thumb moved slowly, absently caressing his hand. "Other two team leaders know how. Seems only right I should as well, really."

Haroun tried very, very hard to keep a shudder off of his face. "I think I can come up with something." he said too-neutrally. "I got an email from Cyclops on that very topic today." he said. "Meeting with him tomorrow morning to discuss it further. Apparently I'm going to be teaching all the rookies and people who don't already know how to fly the 'Bird. You're #1 on the class roster list, as of right now." he added pleasantly. After a minute or two of walking alone in silence, he sighed. "I am so fucked."

It wasn't just about sharing the Blackbird, clearly. "Why?" She asked the question, even though she had a fair suspicion as to what the answer would be, pausing as they walked to look at him. She took a step back, still holding his hand, and leaned on the wall, apparently in no hurry to go until he expanded on that statement.

Haroun stopped as well, to avoid dragging her along and to avoid putting any additional stress on his lower back, which was deciding that it really, really hated him right now. "Think about it. I get to take a handful of well-meaning rookies, none of whom have any sort of scientific or engineering background, and teach them how to fly. From scratch. It's a huge investment of time, and since Scott doesn't want to do it anymore this means that I get to."

"A flight simulator might help lighten the load, right?" Alison knew, without a doubt suddenly, where Scott had been headed with that one. And she also knew Haroun very likely wouldn't go there unless someone pointed out the solution to him. Gah. "You know. You can get assistance there." She paused, letting that sink in. "Though I reserve the right to ask that you be the one to show me how, mmm?"

"We have a flight sim - Scott's going to give me access. But there's a whole lot of learning that needs to go on before you ever set foot in the sim, let alone the Real Thing." he said with a sigh. "Yeah, I could get help from one of the other experienced pilots - and I will, when I get everybody to the point where that sort of thing will be useful."

"So an additional theory class then," she nodded, making a mental note to adjust her schedule accordingly. Which would involve sitting down and making sure it all fit, too, once the flight class got started. "Who else will be in the class?" She knew Paige was from what she and Scott had worked out - another way to slow her down, at least on the physical side of her training. It only benefited her overall, though.

"As far as I know, you and the trainees. I'll probably get more details on it tomorrow when I meet with Scott." he said. "Now, I think I hear a hot shower and Moroccan food and a night out calling me..." he said with a hopeful grin.

Alison grinned, moving forward to kiss his nose lightly for a change. "And I hear a change of clothes which bemoans the fact that it's so cold outside and can't be quite as daring as it could be." She grinned, only half teasing.

Haroun blinked, and then grinned. "Can't you use your little optics trick to keep yourself warm without lighting up like a glowstick?" he said. "I like it when you get daring." How much he liked it she'd hopefully find out later, if they could find a way to be alone together without Armageddon happening. The nose-kiss felt decidedly odd, and he wrinkled his nose at the sensation. "Gah, that's weird." he said.

"Yes, it is! I still like it when you do that though," she snickered. "Even if it tickles and makes me wrinkle my nose." She pushed away from the wall and they headed towards the stairs at a lazy pace. "I could. Do it often enough in the winter - even if I only figure out how to stay warm without glowing too much just this year. But." She grinned, wickedly. "There's something to be said about letting you guess what I might be wearing under the winter coat."

Haroun grinned. "And that sounds just about perfect to me. You know, you look a little ragged. A nice hot shower just might perk you right up. And, wouldn't you know, I could really use one as well. Why not save a little water, shower together?" he suggested with a very evil glint in his eye. "So what will you be wearing under that heavy winter coat?" he asked her theatrically.

"I took a shower a few hours ago, thank you very much," she thwapped his shoulder firmly, though she was grinning at the offer. "And it'll take me time to achieve daring - probably the time you take a shower, I'll have you know. Which means I may be wearing that winter coat when I meet you downstairs, just so the surprise can wait 'till the restaurant, I think." It meant, of course, that it would be entirely worth it.

Haroun shrugged. "Can't blame a guy for trying!" he said with a laugh. "Anyway, let's head on up anyway. I'll take my shower - all by myself, like a good boy - and you can go find something quick and fun to change into. We meet back up in my room then head out?" he asked her as he led her upstairs.

She didn't blame him - or mind the trying at that - in the least. "Sounds like a date to me." And there would indeed be sneaking downstairs to get her coat first, so he'd only get a look at however daring she managed to be once they reached the restaurant, at that.