Log [Alison, Haroun] It comes down to the heart...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Issues unspoken finally see the light, and a few important things are said as well. Featuring a flight out into town and a lack of explosions or mountains falling on anyone's head. Fate must have been on a coffee break.

Haroun was sitting out in the back yard, under the gazebo. Not even the half-remembered "The Dread Gazebo!" jokes from his time spend in Snow Valley could shake him from his dark grey funk. The Anniversary wasn't that far away, and Alison - Alison had been doing her hopefully inadvertent level best to drive him insane. This time of the year always was a difficult time.

He took a deep breath, and looked around. Everything he saw was in the bloom of life - ice-blue sky, a riot of color from the flower Ororo had brought down from the attic to set outside, that were so lovingly tended to. If he listened carefully, he could the shrieks of children playing merrily, running around and learning the little life lessons that would serve them well in years to come.

The Quest to Find Haroun had been going on for a bit, Alison wandering from place to place in and out of the mansion - his usual haunts all proving to be with a noticeable lack of Haroun to be found there. Finally, she resorted to the back porch if only for (another) breath of fresh air for herself, the clement weather outside more than easy to succumb to.

"There you are," she commented, spotting him after a few seconds and making her way towards him with a small smile. "I was looking for-" she paused, blinking. While she hated to call it Doom and Gloom, there really wasn't any other way to describe the dark cloud hovering around him, really. "Haroun?"

Haroun turned around to look at Alison. She was not making this easy on him - loose scoop-necked blousey-type shirt, shorts, bare feet - enough to drive a man mad. "Hey." he said as cheerfully as he could muster. "Trying for a change of view." he said, motioning with an arm to the rather magnificent vista that was the Back Yard. "You need me for something?" he asked, careful to keep the deeper layers of his question hidden.

Besides, one never knew. She just might. He really didn't think it was too likely, but a man could hope.

She grabbed a patio chair on her way to join him, the Quest finally complete and victory at hand. Lips quirking though she didn't dismiss the look he'd previously been wearing out of hand, Alison decided that Miles was rubbing off on her, though the questing thing was still very amusing to her. "Well, see, there's this lovely day outside which just has to be enjoyed..." She placed the chair just right, sliding down onto it with a sigh of contentment, stretching out her legs to rest them on his without a second thought other than spending a relaxing afternoon with her boyfriend, while enjoying an unseasonably warm day. "So I thought I'd find you and drag you outside, but you're here already."

Gah. The legs! The legs! Smooth expanses of only slightly-scarred female perfection, heading north into ... Haroun wrenched his mind off of that particular avenue. "And so here I am." he said with as much of a grin as he could muster. "Went for a flight earlier. It's beautiful up there." he said. What he didn't tell her is that he went up there to clear his head, and had to make a quick pit stop back in his room to clean up birdshit off his shoulder. It seemed to fit the way his day - his week - his month was going.

"I would have thought you'd be out there running around with Miles and his friends." he offered as a suggestion. "Boy's been a handful lately."

The good mood and the weather to be appreciated weren't exactly spoiled with that single comment - it was partly the fact that she just didn't like hearing it said and partly the fact that, simply put, she couldn't contest it. It was small things really, nothing big. But compared to Miles' previous behavior, it seemed glaringly obvious to her and she wondered how many others had noticed now. "He's playing with the other kids," was the calm answer. He'd run out with Artie and some of the others a while ago in fact, and though she'd checked from the window, adult presence had hardly seemed necessary. "Is everything okay?"

"Me? I'm fine." he said in a transparent display that, really, All Was Not Well. "Gorgeous day, crystal blue skies - it's all good." he said. No, really, it wasn't, but he was in a perverse mood and he wanted to make her dig for it. Take some goddamned initiative for once. "So what do you have going on for today, other than Moor-seeking and kid-wrangling?" he asked pleasantly.

The signals being sent out were confusing. Ask but don't ask. All's good but it's not. Alison shifted a bit uneasily in the chair, though her legs stayed right where they were for now because she wanted them there and nowhere else. She hated it when she had to guess, in situations like these. "I thought I'd let the Moor-seeking keep me busy a fair bit of the day." She flexed one foot absently, working the muscles in her leg. To dig or not to dig. Either he wanted her to or he didn't and she had a feeling she'd be sunk either way. "You don't... look like everything's fine?" she hazarded, not quite holding her breath.

"What gives you that opinion?" he asked her. At least she was taking the lead with something. Mexico had been a good first start, but it wasn't enough. He hated this passivity about her. Yes, she had some good reasons - most of which went to jail along with her stalker. So what was her damage, precisely? He would have thought she would be delighted by the circumstances - no risk of catching anything, no risk of reproduction, just pleasure with no real work involved, no downside. So there must be something he wasn't seeing. And he had a sinking feeling that he knew what it was, and if she was going to continue to beat her head against the wall of No Sensation, No Functionality, It All Burned Away then he was going to go scream. And then schedule some blood filterings so that he could scream some more.

The signals he was sending off made her want to seriously consider making a run for it. Now that she was looking for it, the tension in his shoulders was practically screaming out "I am not a happy duck right now" at her, never mind the way he'd asked the question back at her, instead of answering. "I..." Hesitation again. Old habits died hard and stretching out her neck to have it cut wasn't something Alison wanted to do in this particular dynamic. Ever, if she could help it. It always ended badly. She took a deep breath, keeping her body as relaxed as she could. "Small things. You looked a bit gloomy when I walked outside." Which meant he looked as though the world had ended. "Still looking a bit tense." Which also meant one could probably bounce the Blackbird off his shoulders, he was so tense. "I could be wrong?"

Haroun shrugged, causing a tendon in his shoulder to go POP audibly. "Been out here for a while." he said cheerfully with a bit of a wince. "I find that it gives me space to think." Which was a good thing and a bad thing. "Guess it just comes down to one thing in the end." He admitted. "I want to move things forward, despite fires and cops and rugrats and everything else, and you don't."

There. He'd said it. Now let come what may.

"I'm tired of living under the shadow of the 'ware." he said conversationally. "We both already know what it means, I've let you know time and time again that I don't give a shit, but apparently that doesn't mean anything." he added. "It's really a perfect situation for you, from a certain point of view. No risk, no disease, no pregnancy, but with all the mechanical stuff intact. Now, I know how you're going to bat the baby blues at me and tell me how full of Woe you are about how it's not the same for me and how you don't want it to be like that all that. You know what? I do. I do want it like that, because it can't ever not be like that. My cards are on the table, Alison, and I am all in." he said tightly.

"And another thing? You need to step the fuck up once in a while. You're always willing to let me flirt and drive and make all the moves. You'd rather just sit back and receive the adoration that is your gorgeous rock star due. And I've been trying - Allah knows I've been trying! I adore and I flirt and I play and I do my goddamned best, but that's not enough for you. So what more do you want from me?" he said, trying very hard not to just throw himself at her feet and beg for an answer.

Unfair. It was the only word Alison could think of at first as she went very still, only too aware of the feeling of his legs underneath hers, the rock star tag still ringing in her ears, the easiest thing to grasp and hold on to amidst everything else. She'd been careful since they'd first talked about this, setting her own little issues aside as best she could, berating herself for being stupid each time they cropped up again - or so she'd thought. Self-doubt took over and she reconsidered everything she thought she had been doing right, everything she hadn't even wondered about at all, even. Never mind the whole issues with the implant and how it had possibly meant she'd been doing him actual harm, more than anything else.

"That's not fair," was the first thing that she managed to say and she hated herself for it. It was always the wrong thing to say, that. Always. It meant being on the losing side of a battle that had no chance of being won. And suddenly Alison wondered if this would be like every other relationship she'd somehow messed up without ever seeing it coming. Talk - she need to talk now, say something. "I want to move things forward." Thoughts still in disarray, the ironic thought that you never did see the Inquisition coming lurking in the back of her mind, Alison struggled to get it back together enough for this, ignoring the urge to just cut and run, the physical contact they still had despite what was being said served to keep her anchored in place somehow. She hoped she was staying outwardly calm, somehow - she was trying to, clinging to her composure with everything she had.

"We've had an unbelievable stroke of bad luck and Fate generally messing with us," and mentioning the training or anything else keeping her run down or eating her time or his or the implant itself would be the worst possible thing she could say, she knew, no matter how true it was, "but I do want things to move forward." Pausing once more, Alison repressed the faintly panicky sensation welling within - it didn't help to protest about what you did, in situations like these, to point out what you had done.. It would just end up 'not being the same' or something like that. "I want to be with you."

Haroun nodded after a few moments, studying Alison's reaction closely. "Maybe it is not fair. Maybe it isn't. We made a promise, remember? No bullshit. So there it is. It may not be fair, it may not even be right, but there it is." he said.

"You're right. We've had a string of unbelievably bad luck. I know this. I acknowledge it. I curse it daily. But if you'll think back, who always took the first step forward? Who was it who pushed? Me. I know that that's probably because I'm a machine and you're the one who can physically respond and all that, but dammitall, it still hurts! I put myself out there, do everything but outright tell you "Here I am! Play with me!" and you just don't get it. Maybe I fucked up - didn't say it out loud, didn't just tell you what I wanted." he said, trying very hard to keep his voice from breaking.

Inside of his head, behind his eyes, there was a Very Loud Argument going on between Haroun the American Would-Be Lover and Haroun the Berber Moor. The Lover wanted to do whatever it took. The Moor had its pride, and generations of upbringing and its notions of the relationships between men and women. Both sides were flinging poisoned words, and both sides were scoring hits.

"And yeah, I know that training's eating you alive. Recovery ate you alive. Getting HURT fucked you up but good. And I've knocked myself silly for a few days. You've got your son, I've got the 'Bird, we both teach classes. I know that. I'm not insensitive to that." he added as he thought it through verbally. "We're busy people. And I wouldn't trade our moments - the Chinese food, the ten thousandth iteration of The One, the snuggling late at night - for anything short of my legs back. And I want to believe that you feel the same way, except that your legs work fine. But I'm not a telepath, Al, and I'm not an empath. How do you think it makes me feel that I have to come crawling to you for scraps from your table? That I have to be the one who starts anything at all beyond a hug or a kiss? Dammit, woman, I may only be a half-man but I still have my pride!" he said passionately, tears trickling down both cheeks.

Haroun paused for a few moments and collected both his breath and his thoughts. "Shit." he said with disgust. "I'm just frustrated, you know? It's almost spring, you look absolutely fantastic this morning, and I shouldn't be dropping all of this crap on you. You're right, it's not fair, and I'm out of line here." he said, scrubbing at his face with the back of his hands. "Now that I've fallen on my sword, I guess I should go now."

There was an odd blend that was uniquely Haroun, composed of both pride and humility, which was laid bare for her to see just now, and it left Alison at a loss for words as she straightened up slowly, feet falling from his lap to rest on the ground. She lauded herself on her ability to read people and yet she'd missed this, and regardless of anything else which may have been going on in her life, she shouldn't have let that slip her by. In all of this it had been too easy to forget what he'd told her - how he'd never done this before.

And finally, in that moment where the silence stretched on for too long and Haroun started to get up, there was motion. "No." It was all she could say clearly, in the time it took for her to push to her feet as well, rest a hand on his arm lightly. "No, no going away." There was more to say it seemed, now that she didn't feel quite so cornered, the panic dying down - not quite gone, replaced by something else but this she would do something about. And if there was an urgency to the statement that was perhaps a bit particular, well, maybe she could be forgiven for it. "No going anywhere. Please."

"There's no going away and I'm sorry, I took for granted that there wasn't any-" editing out rush to replace with something else, "doubt that it would happen at one point or another and I just felt safe that we were okay..." And maybe settling in his lap since she'd already got him to sit back down was cheating as ways went to keep someone from making a dignified retreat, but it worked well enough in her book and she really wanted to be there anyway at that very moment. It made it easier to wipe away gently at the remains of the tears, as well. "And maybe I've been figuring some stuff out and-" she took a deep breath, that particular leap being beyond huge to downright terrifying to make. "I just haven't got around to telling you yet and it's not fair to you and I love you but I've just gotten really bad at admitting that sort to myself in a direct way or making that sort of statement and-" oh wait. She'd said it, hadn't she? But there was a natural progression in what she'd been saying to him to get her there. She hoped.

Haroun blinked as Alison pushed him back into his chair - he let it happen, there was no way she could overpower him - and then as she spoke, rationality just stopped dead in its tracks.

The entire world stopped dead in its tracks. Brownian motion failed. Photosynthesis in the blades of grass failed. Entropy halted in the wooden boards beneath his feet. The planet stopped rotating. Physics was turned on its ear, never to be the same again. The only sound that existed was her voice.

She loved him.

Reality rushed back to full functionality with a roar, but Haroun didn't care. Couldn't see anything through the tears of joy in his eyes, couldn't feel anything but for the reassuring weight of the woman in his lap, even felt as dimly as he felt such things.

She loved him.

Finally, he vaulted up the evolutionary ladder from protozoa all the way up past human to mutant. "You do?" he asked, tears continuing to roll down his face, a stupid grin pasted onto his face for the world to see. "Really?"

He was crying again though it didn't take Alison too long to realize it was the good kind of crying, what with the look on his face making it eminently clear that there was a world of happy going on, the clarity of which gave her pause for a moment, fingertips stopping in mid stroke on his cheek. "...yes." Though it took her a moment to get the word out, there was a finality to it that didn't include the slightest smidgen of doubt. She repeated the words with a small, crooked smile. "Love you."

She was going to have to deal with the edge of precipice sensation each time she said that, at one point, she reflected. She'd worry about it later though. The smile he had going was very interesting to look at. So was the look in his eyes at that. Thinking took a break at that and she held her breath for a moment.

Haroun grinned again, and then leaned forward to kiss her. Hard. In the "Mine, yes, I agree, woohoo!" sort of way. Which his poor overheated brain wouldn't let him actually say, as the whole speaking thing was just not happening right then.

He broke it off finally, and then looked into her baby blues again. "Love you too." he said, without a qualm of doubt or hesitancy. "So - you got any plans for today?" he said with a grin. "Get someone to watch Miles, if you don't. Because I think you and I are going to have a go at finding that blast-proof nuclear bunker we've been talking about." he said with a nervous grin. Sure, he could joke about it, get all bent out of shape about it, tease about it, even want it and hint about it, but when it came time to asking for it? Still gripped in icy fear every time. He had, truth be told, no idea what he was doing. And at this point he really didn't care.

There were three small words that Alison quietly tucked away, the sound and weight of them memorized to perfection in a heartbeat. And once that was done, now that she was looking for it, Alison could see the nervousness and everything else it hinted at. She dropped a light kiss at the corner of his mouth, both for reassurance and simply because she could, even as she settled against him comfortably. She wasn't quite draped on him, but she was toeing the line a fair deal, out on the gazebo for all to see be damned.

"You know, if it weren't for the fact that it would be an egregious abuse of power, I'd suggest something along the lines of taking the 'bird out for a test flight of the stealth systems," she chuckled lowly. Whatever they decided upon, there'd be no rushing into anything, she decided, if the world didn't decide to drop a mountain on their head first. Taking their time and soothing the nervousness he wasn't quite concealing now would have to be the priority. Then they'd work on the rest.

Haroun grinned at that idea. "No, it's an abuse of a trusted position. Really tempting, but an abuse nonetheless. Think we can get Madelyn to write a prescription for us, just to cover our bases?" he asked with a wink and a grin. "So, considering the 'Bird is right out, do you have any other ideas?" he asked her. May as well get a start on the other problem as well, since the first was overcome so wonderfully...

She couldn't hear anyone close by. Too much so, anyway. And what if there was someone? She shifted in his lap, making herself a bit more comfortable, quite deliberately flashing a bit more cleavage at him than he'd seen so far today while she wore that blouse. There
was a tiredness running through her, the coming down from the tenseness of before slowly seeping through, but it was being steadily wiped away by something else. Might be those three words she'd memorized so carefully. Did wonders for her energy levels, it seemed.

Oh.

"We could open up my old place. Had it closed down, when I had to go under." She blinked, stunned at having forgotten about it, then clarified at his questioning look. "I own an apartment in downtown Manhattan. Probably need a bit of airing out and a restocking of the refrigerator..."

Mmm. Cleavage. He could stare into her cleavage for hours. He had, once, while she was teaching Music. It was a delightful, delightful thing indeed. "You own an apartment in Manhattan?" he said with a blink. "And no one's there now, no one here knows it exists, and the worst we'll have to do is clean a little and restock the fridge?" he said with a wicked leer. "We could leave right now, if you wanted. Hell, I'll FLY us there if that means we'll arrive faster..." he suggested, sounding nothing more than like an eager teenager right then.

Two training sessions left for the day, both of them not involving the Danger Room. She'd reschedule them when they got back. A quick squirm, along with a wicked grin being granted at Haroun while she did so, and an SMS was sent out. "There. Babysitter acquired." Because Haroun was getting nothing less than an unqualified yes and that's all there was to it. "Hrm. Spare bed sheets in my room that should fit. Place has been kept up otherwise, cleaning service goes in every two weeks still." Or at least, it still should, even though security had been hell on the company hired for it. "We'd just need to pick up food once we get there." Planning was, after all, what she was suppose to do. A few more things were added to the list and she grinned at him, settling back into being almost but not quite indecently draped against him.

Something needed addressing now, then. The biggest leap had been done and this she could do now. Child's play maybe, even. "Just you and me. Nothing else." A smile hovered on her lips at that, both playful and yet serious at the same time. She could call in, book them as unavailable until sometime the next day, while they were shopping to restock the fridge. Though really, a stop at the nearby caterer ought to settle that quickly enough. "No pressure, no worries..."

Haroun blinked again. If he said anything or did anything other than grin, he'd just wreck the moment. This couldn't be happening. NOBODY got this lucky, not that fast. It was almost unreal. "Yeah!" he said. "Just you and me. No fires, no baby dragons, no cops, no sprogs, nobody. Just you and me." he said, as if repeating it would make it even more real. "Want me to fly us there, or do you want to take a car like normal people?" he asked her, grinning first at her, then at her chest, then back at her again.

Right now, if she had asked, he would have flown to Hell and back for her.

He'd missed the point, and she grinned a bit at that, and the look on his face. Well, maybe just part of the point - she could drive the rest of it home between now and arriving to the apartment, if need be. The occasional glances at her front were amusing her far too much. "If we take a car, it will break down on the way over, I bet you." It was just a casual observation, yet Alison was more than willing to bet that an inspection of the cars on the next day would reveal one - the one they would have taken - would have some sort of wild mechanical problem that would discombobulate the thing around them as they drove into town.

"Key at front desk. I have papers with me for identification," she patted the slim case in the back of her short pocket. It would be much colder up in the air and in town and she was barefoot of all things, but they'd manage. She had clothing left in the apartment, as well, for the return trip. Probably something or other in the safe too. "Of course, you'll have to keep it to a certain speed." Alison figured the torture of not flying at full speed to get there might be something worth surviving considering what was coming next. "So my clothes survive the trip."

Haroun grinned and nodded. She was so smart! "Yeah, you're probably right." he said. "With our luck, we'd blow a tire, throw a rod, and then have the cops arrest me for DWB." he said with a grimace. "Hopefully, the 'ware will hold up for the flight over." he added optimistically. He ran a very quick diagnostic, just to be sure. "It checks as green." he said with a grin.

He would have stood up, but that would have meant displacing an Alison, and that he was extremely loathe to do. "So, whenever you're ready..." he said, gesturing for her to stand so that he could himself get ready to launch. He was five parts eagerness and grown-up anticipation, two parts kid in a candy store, and about a hundred parts pure nervous. Sure, he talked a good game, but when it came right down to it ... who knew?

Alison didn't move for a moment, then leaned forward just a touch and took her time kissing him - gently but thoroughly. The nervous was still there, thrumming underneath her hands where they rested against him - was that what it had been all along, she wondered. She wasn't sure, but there would be a sorting out of things fast enough, one way or another. "Mmm. Now I'm ready," she finally declared, rising to her feet and adjusting her blouse to recover some decency at least.

A hand on her back pocket confirmed the cell phone was safely tucked away, along with the slim case with her identity papers and some money. "All set."

Haroun stretched, just for fun, and then shucked his shirt to pop the jetpack out from his chest. "Hang onto this for me, and you may want to get the laser-shield thing going." he said with a knowing nod. "At least this trip will be warmer than our last one!" he said with a laugh.

~*~

The key had been retrieved without a single reaction from the manager beyond a very polite 'Welcome back, madame' as though tenants wandered back in after over a year's absence, barefoot and wearing summery clothes before Springtime along with some provisions and company every day of the week. Clearly, he'd seen far more eccentric as local behaviour went.

After a moment's pause in front of the door, Alison turned the key then nudged the door open, waiting just a bit before wandering in with a pensive expression. A thick white carpet covered the dark wood in the main hallway, but otherwise the entire place seemed to be composed of mainly dark wood floors and paneling, accented with a crisp, clear white decor with the occasional splash of color. "I was in my 'keep it simple' phase," Alison grinned just a bit, light streaming through the windows of the main living room and dining room section pleasantly. It was a nice and airy place, though not too big. "Office is that way. Bathroom there in the hallway, another in the bedroom anyway." Another direction pointed in. "Guest bedroom there, but we won't be needing that." Clearly, the cleaning service had been indeed keeping up their work. It was a relief, to say the least. They'd even aired the place out regularly.

Alison stopped and turned around at the sound of the door closing behind them and smiled faintly. "Empty out the bags? I'll just go make up the bed. Be right back to help you with that after..."

Haroun didn't take much time to admire the decor. He was running a touch warm from the flight and his excitement about What Was To Come. He also had his arms full of groceries, which made it somewhat difficult to see. He smiled in Alison's general direction, then went off in search of the kitchen.

He was trying very hard to keep to himself the notion that his entire extended family - grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, cousins, aunts, uncles, cousins, and him had, for a time, lived in a house that wasn't much bigger than Alison's solo apartment. But he was in America now, he firmly reminded himself. A rich land, and he himself had a rich patron. No gawking, not at a time like this!

The kitchen found, he began to put groceries away. Luckily, there was a six-pack of bottled water already in the fridge, two of which he poured down his throat to rehydrate. Never had simple clean pure water tasted so delicious before.

At one point, reaching back for one of the last items to store away from the gesture interrupted in mid-motion, the small carton pressed into his hand - Alison grinned at him, even as she reached back to pass him something else, helping him to finish loading up the fridge. It wasn't that they'd picked up a lot of things, really, or so Alison told herself. Although the signs of 'we are coming back here' were there, in a way, and though it felt odd in all sorts of ways to be here again, there was a hint of a homecoming to it, maybe. Home away from home.

The groceries now dealt with and the door closed, Alison leaned on the counter and resting her hands on it, pushed herself up lightly to sit on the edge. There had been no putting of shirts back on the Haroun in her kitchen, which suited her just fine really even if it made tugging him closer a bit more of a creative challenge, though reaching out in a 'come here' gesture would probably do the trick, she decided.

Haroun may have been inexperienced, but he wasn't dumb. And he'd seen that look in her eyes before - that Come Here, You, I Desire Worship! look - and he was all too eager to indulge it. He stepped up close to her, eyeing her insanely cute demeanor - sitting on her counter, feet bare (she'd painted her toenails again, he noticed absurdly) and that heart-breaking winsome look on her face. So he kissed her, gently at first, content to take that first step and then let her drive.

Just the very thought was almost enough to make his blood boil. After so long with making all the moves and instigating, there was something refreshingly pleasing about letting her drive, following where she led, all that jazz.

Legs wrapping loosely around his hips meant she was a bit closer to the edge of the counter, which wasn't any trouble at all really, all things considered. The kiss was slow and easy and she resisted the temptation to turn on the heat full steam ahead, keeping herself in rein, though the intensity flared up quickly and lurked just beneath the surface, barely concealed. A pause to catch her breath and she resisted the urge to look over her shoulder in case Something Bad was about to happen and crash into the middle of the living room. The refrigerator wasn't blowing up. Nothing was Happening, other than the low hum of appliances and the faint sound of fabric rustling now and then. Their combined breathing, not exactly steady anymore, not ragged quite yet.

"I have a question I'd like to ask you," she finally murmured into the silence, drawing him in for another kiss before going on, making not quite a show of having to gather her thoughts. That they actually might succeed to be uninterrupted for once was getting to be highly distracting. "And the question is," she interrupted the sentence with yet another brief kiss, a bit more intense this time, "do you have any questions?" Her hands were starting to wander despite her best efforts at good behavior and she wasn't really inclined to stop them.

"Do I have any questions?" he asked with surprise. "Not really, no. This part I'm quite good at." he said with a grin and another stolen kiss with just a hint of teasing tongue. "The real question is - what do you have in mind now?" he teased her with a grin. "Because you're in the driver's seat here. Whatever you want, whatever you need."

Opening given in a way, and Alison grinned at that, shifting just a bit, arms winding around his neck further while actually leaning on his shoulders more than anything else - a fair distribution of weight, because there was no doubt he could simply carry her like this to the bedroom really and she didn't think too much more hinting as to how said carrying could happen needed to be made clear. Even if all the romance book reading made her decide that being clear was probably a good idea.

"Well..." She chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, taking a slow breath and reminding herself that taking it slow would be the rule here, thank you very much, and then leaned forward, whispering lowly in his ear. They weren't instructions, exactly - just very very clear suggestions. And possibilities. Nibbling on the lobe of his ear now and then to entertain herself was probably unfair, but as long as he didn't blow up from what she was saying, they'd probably get a good start going, she figured.

Haroun grinned as Alison whispered into his ear. Some of it was things he'd already considered, others were new to him but he could definitely see the appeal. Time to put all that weightlifting and those legs to work - he effortlessly hefted Alison up into the air, holding her in the same position. On the slow walk back to her bedroom, he kissed her again lightly. "Has anyone told you today?" he asked her, the old familiar game given a new exciting edge by the circumstances.

Just before the doorway to her bedroom, he shifted her in his arms so that instead of her having her legs wrapped around his waist, she was laying across his arms. Carrying her across the threshold may have had overtones to them, but Haroun was oblivious to them.