LOG: Haroun and Alison - Catch Me When I Fall

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Haroun and Alison fluff. Nothing serious here.



Haroun sighed as he eyed the expanse of too-soft silk that hard the gall to name itself His Bed. Well, in all honesty, it was Her Bed, but he slept there too. And did other things there, he thought with a mental grin. But they both badly needed a little bit of normalcy after Greece, so he thought that a little bit of the things they used to do together just might be the ticket.

So he set the TV and the DVD player up, got the movie all queued up to go (more Jet Li - he knew she loved his stuff, so it was hard to go wrong that way), and was just taking the popcorn out of the microwave when the Guest of Honor made her appearance.

"Hey." he said, wincing a bit as the hot bag of microwave popcorn burnt his index finger and the pad of his thumb. "I was just going to watch a movie, and I thought you might like to join me." he said, the overall effect spoiled by him sucking on his burned digits to try to relieve the pain a little.

Gingerly patting down her still wet hair, Alison smiled just a bit at the image he presented. "That sounds like just about the best idea I've heard in..." she tilted her head to the side, making a show of thinking it over. "Ages. Positively ages." Movie watching. It sounded perfectly divine. Tugging her camisole down absently she padded towards him, dropping the towel on a chair in the process.

Still with his fingers in his mouth, he got the bowl of popcorn, the butter and the salt shaker and carried all three over to the bed - all the time with his fingers in his mouth. "Ow." he said with a grimace. She looked so incredible when she was fresh out of the shower - there was just something about damp blonde hair that appealed to him on fundamental levels. It was exotic, he decided just then. That had to be it.

He put the popcorn + condiments down on the table next to the bed, and then settled in for some serious snuggling time. "I think I need to shave my head again." he said, running his non-burned hand over his scalp. "I'm starting to feel stubble. I hate stubble."

Reaching the bed meant carefully crawling on it, favoring various body parts while trying not to be obvious about it. "Mmm. I'd offer to help, but I get the feeling a close laser cut might not be the best thing when you're not immune to 'em..." The smell of freshly made butter was almost but not quite overwhelming, stirring up that craving for food which it always tended to do. Reaching out carefully over him to draw the control for the DVD player near, Alison then started the slow process of curling up next to Haroun. And somewhat on him, if carefully so.

"Mmmm. Let me know if the wet hair gets too cold?" she murmured, closing her eyes for a moment, just to savor things.

Haroun smirked. "Like I get cold?" he said, with a stationary flick of his power to demonstrate. Warmth usually relaxed her, and he subtly shifted to encourage the crawling-all-over and the draping-herself-upon aspects of watching movies together. "And you're moving like somebody worked you over with a rubber hose. You still sore from Greece, or is this all-new, all-annoying injuries?" he asked.

"Mrff..." Oh, he was doing the heating thing again, and he knew what that did to her. "Mmm." The bruises on her face had been evident and she'd not bothered to hide either since Sunday. The rest - had been easier to make light of, for the most part. Neither of them had been in any condition to do anything beyond cuddling up to sleep together anyway, since then. "Still a bit sore, mostly." She sighed, slowly slumping against him. "Should have stretched out a bit more but I slacked off. My bad."

"I got that impression. I've been good, honest!" he said with a smirk. "Elbow's mostly recovered. Twinges every now and then, but blowing the rust off in the weight room and on the mat will take care of that
little problem." he said with a grin and a stretch of the aforementioned limb. "I'm losing muscle mass." he said, poking at his bicep with his opposing finger. "Guess I'll volunteer to rehab Nate when his time comes - so that I can get the workout as well."

She'd been particularly careful of his elbow during the daily massage sessions, but the note about 'blowing off rust' was enough for her to decide to keep doing that for a while longer. Not that there's been a massage... "Hrm. When movie's done, massage for you. Back and I'll be extra careful of the arms too, mmm?" She shifted her head just enough to grin at him. Changing the subject entirely was fine with her. "Losing a bit of muscle mass is normal, now. I, of course, happen to be perfectly biased and like you just fine with more of a bit less muscle mass, you should know." A playful tap on his nose punctuated the comment.

Haroun pouted. "I liked being strong like that. As long as I can keep my flexibility up - which, let's face it, I've never really had a problem with - where's the problem?" he mock-grumbled. "But I make it a personal point of honor to never turn down Ali-backrubs." he said with a happynoise. "They feel too good." And often lead to the most interesting things, he thought, but left it unsaid. "Hey. Movie. Start. You have the remote."

"Nooo. You have no problems with flexibility." Deadpan - she'd actually said that deadpan, to boot. The pout was horribly cute. Alison batted her eyes at him, even as she reached for the remote. "But then I'd have to move and we both know how lazy I am." The remote was finally pointed in the general direction of the TV, and the movie started. The popcorn, as tempting as it was, wasn't in the list of Important Things just now. Being curled up as comfortably as possible next (or on) Haroun took over nicely instead.

"I don't!" he protested, knowing by now that it was probably useless to even try. "T'ai Chi was designed by sadists." he pronounced, then spoiled it with a laugh. But her stretch was doing Interesting Things to the camisole, and he was briefly tempted before he remembered her winces of pain as she moved.

Pain was not sexy.

He did, however, salt the popcorn and apply a huge gob of butter to the popcorn to melt.

Buttery fingertips were sexy.

Quiet laughter followed his pronouncement regarding Tai Chi, Alison wrinkling her nose at him. "Yes, but it's part of why I'm so flexible too, mmm?" That and the years of ballet and dancing and - well, maybe it wasn't just the Tai Chi. "You know, if you brought the popcorn just a bit closer I could - oooo." Her attention was neatly distracted by the opening credits, and Alison couldn't help a grin of almost child like glee. "You didn't."

Haroun heaved a huge sigh Heavenwards, and scooted the popcorn bowl, now with extra gooey butter, to within her reach. "I did." he said with a grin. "How could I resist? And I noticed your flexibility - hard not to, when you're so determined to show me the possibilities quite so emphatically."

"Mmm." It would be evil to lick the butter off his fingers. Oh so much. "Popcorn is good." If it was within reach and she didn't have to move to get it... and she could still lick the butter off her fingers, which made it a win/win situation. "One of my favorite movies being set up like that is good too." She was too easy when it came to movies. Then again, it was Jet Li. "And you, I should remind you, provide me with ample reasons to show you said flexibility, mmm?" She popped some popcorn in her mouth at that, smiling in amusement.

Haroun grinned and shrugged. "I live to serve." he said with a laugh. "Everybody's happy. Can't complain with that." he laughed. "A pity you're so delicate right now. I'm feeling - flexible." he grinned. "But, alas, we have Jet Li and buttered popcorn." He knew damned well how evil she could be when it came to buttered popcorn. She had very nearly caused him to scream like a little girl the first time she'd done it to him. After that, she tended to just do it to herself, which never failed to drive him absolutely berserk. Anyone who could make that much of a production out of fingertip-butter ...

"I'll behave," she murmured with clear and obvious regret. Teasing him when she was more likely to end up derailing things because of her sore ribs was just not on. "I'll just have to make up for it later." She sighed contentedly and licked her fingertips very discreetly while eyeing the TV screen, entirely intent on losing herself within the distraction the movie offered, and the general way Haroun was able to draw her minds off... things.

GAH! Finger-licking! Haroun caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and tried not to stare. The grin, however, that he was powerless against. He'd seen the movie a dozen times by now, and could probably recite it from memory verbatim. He would much rather study her. So he didn't worry too much about keeping a close eye on the movie, preferring rather to play with some of her hair and sneak in the occasional earlobe-stroking while he was at it.

The movie was indeed one of her favorites, but it didn't take long for her to slowly phase it out. The heat Haroun was still generating, the low level bone melting kind she held no defense against was doing it's work, soothing the aches and pains to a level where she barely noticed them anymore for the most part - the occasional venture of his fingers near her ears was doing the rest quite nicely so. It didn't keep her thoughts to veer into more treacherous territory though, her expression darkening a bit until she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate only on feel and not at all on thinking.

She wasn't responding like she normally did. Something was off. "Hey." he told her softly, movie now totally forgotten. "What's eating you?" he asked her, as direct as ever. "You want to talk about it?"

She couldn't. Literally could not, and that he'd asked meant her breath got caught in her lungs from the pure impulse to tell. The reminder of what she might have told him killed her appetite on the spot, and she sighed, hiding her face against him despite fact that it was a less than comfortable gesture with the bruising, and the light throbbing behind her temples that soon followed didn't help much either. "Just... wish things had gone otherwise. On Saturday." She swallowed, heavily, hating not being able to tell.

Haroun shrugged as she declined to answer his question. It rankled, but he managed to kick that part of him down back where it belonged. "Heey." he told her, not-at-all-idly entwining his hands with hers. "No hiding. You don't want to talk, that's fine, but there will be no hiding." he told her. He hated that, and wasn't inclined to let her get away with it much.

She took one slow breath, and then another - and nodded, minutely. "Sorry." And she was, oh so much. She tried to smile at him though, as she turned her head to look at him, strands of damp hair falling against her cheek. "No hiding. Not sure what to talk about, mostly. Or how." Could not, a nagging voice sang in the back of her head. There would be no comforting, for this one. Instead she tightened her hands on his, and tried to relax, to sink back against him as she'd done before. "Have I told you how glad I am you're here, today?" She was, oh so desperately so.

Haroun brushed the damp hair off of her cheek with as much tenderness as he could muster. "You're welcome. Any time." he told her, and then let the matter drop as much as he could. Instead, he just concentrated on how she felt laying half-atop him, how she looked in her camisole, and how much he was really, really regretting her injuries right now. Because she needed some serious distraction, pronto. "I've got an idea." he said as inspiration hit. "How are your arms and shoulders feeling?"

The look in her eyes, for some reason, nearly brought her to tears. "Arms and shoulders?" She blinked, thinking it over. Seriously, because it had that sort of feel to it, though she didn't move to test the limbs out - leaning against him was still Very Good in the list of things to go. The words Do That A Lot also featured in association with that activity. "Right shoulder's a bit stiff, but other than that it's not so bad." The modified gloves had kept her hands from bruising, working perfectly well. The armor had eaten any of the damage she might have received from blocking hits, too. "Why?"

Haroun grinned. "Good. We're waay too mopey today. We need to fix this. Might want to go put some warmer, more opaque clothes on. I mean, I love the way you look right now..." and oh, how he did! "... but I'm fairly sure that the inhabitants of Westchester County, New York don't need to see you like that. We are going for a flight."

A slow grin greeted that, Alison soon beaming at him in delight. It didn't make things go away - but oooh... "I like that idea." Alison herself pushed up slowly, still grinning. "Got a specific flight plan in mind?" It'd pull on her ribs but she didn't care - they were going out for a flight, and that was that. She'd wander down to the medlab later if need be.

"Well, you've got that lovely little apartment in the City, remember? I would like to think you'd remember it, considering what's gone on inside those walls." he grinned. "I was thinking that we could go there. Or anywhere else you'd like to go. How's your power doing? You up for shielding?"

She'd promised him a tour of the city once... not that it could be done in a few hours, but - there was something she could show him. Several things. "Actually... we could stop there, balcony makes it easy and I've got the card key for the patio door here somewhere..." she trailed off as she said that, finishing the upwards gesture to get up with only a small pause to kiss him briefly. Padding over to her desk, she pulled the drawer open and started hunting for the card. "Want to see the first club I ever sang in?" It was a small, unglamorous place, but she remembered it only too fondly.

Haroun shrugged. "Sounds like a plan to me." he said, slithering out from underneath of her to go get some more appropriate attire of his own - a plain black T-shirt, his favorite pair of camo pants, and his boots. Just the thing for a little late-night sightseeing. Once he threw his clothes on, he leaned back to watch her get changed. He always liked watching her get changed - it was turning into one of the highlights of his day.

Not being body shy meant that for the most part, Alison never thought twice about stripping down to nothing in front of Haroun really. It only dawned on her that he was in fact watching, as she was buttoning up her jeans, still wearing only a bra as she'd been considering which top to wear. Flashing him a grin and thankful the soreness hadn't translated into massive bruising (and again, a silent thank you to the leathers there), she went for a comfortable if snug women's shirt, bright colors splotched haphazardly on a black background. Running shoes were then slipped on, a bit carefully so. "Hrm. Turtleneck and a warm jacket ought to do it." She could switch to a lighter one once they arrived at the apartment. "She was, she discovered, looking forward to this - the media had made a fuss of her path to stardom, but she'd never had the chance to show things to someone herself.

Haroun slipped around her to wrap his arms around her waist and nuzzle her neck from behind for a second or two. "Ready to go?" he asked her, straightening up but not removing his hands. "You look nice." he told her with a grin. "Very nice. Stupid injuries." he groused. "Making me get creative and stuff."

It was so easy to lose herself into simple gestures such as this, she thought, even as she leaned back and half closed her eyes, a pleasant shiver running down her spine, even as her ribs creaked in mild warning. "Mmm. Ready. We'll just have to make up for it when I can, won't we?" She didn't think it'd take too long. Well - she didn't intend for it to take too long, more precisely. The rest of her body had better cooperate if she knew what was good for it. "We need to work out a harness of some kind for when we go out like this."

"You've always been good that way. I figure I'm just building up some tolerance for the next time I bend myself into a pretzel." he said with a small laugh. "Well, if you're ready, and I'm ready, so next stop - apartment!" he grinned, then stepped out onto the Flyer's Platform to get aloft. Once airborne, he held out his hands for her to take.

Reaching out the window, Alison stepped on the edge, steadied by Haroun. The moment of suspension, hanging in mid air without quite being help up yet was the same as always - perfect and frozen, just
for a heartbeat, in time. And then he caught her up and light shimmered around her and under the din of the jetpack, she hummed a tune to herself, a few words from a song still waiting to be born.

I know you'll be waiting to catch me if I fall...