Shiro & Haroun

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Earlier this afternoon during flight class, Shiro speaks with Haroun about joining the X-Men. It gets Shiro to start thinking about the right reasons to join the team, beyond "yay super heroes!"


Shiro landed ever so gracefully on the flyer's platform after the day's flying class. Haroun was pushing the students, but Shiro was up for it. His maneuvering was almost spotless, and he wasn't exhausting himself as quickly as he used to. Pleased, he leaned against the railing and took a drink of water from one of the bottles Haroun always provided and watched as the little winged Guthrie made a spectacularly clumsy landing. It was almost painful to watch.

Haroun did an even poorer job of controlling his expression. "Try it again, Guthrie!" he barked at the winged boy, who laboriously took off again and circled around for another go. "You'd think that he'd never tried landing before." Haroun muttered.

Shiro smirked as he replaced the cap on his bottle. "Days like this you regret your decision to teach, ne?" he asked his teacher, before his smirk faded and was replaced with his normal serious expression." Actually, sir, I have something that I would like to ask you if you can spare a moment or two."

"Considering Guthrie here is itching for yet another practical gravity demonstration, I can spare you a moment or two. What's on your mind?" he asked, sipping from his own water bottle. At least his lesson about staying hydrated seemed to have sunk in.

"Mr. Worthington can catch him if he plummets, and I hardly think that he will complain about that." Shiro paused to gather his thoughts and organize them so that he would make sense and not just ramble on. "I ask this in an unofficial capacity, just as Jetsream, not as a second-in-command. Do you think that I could make a good X-Man?"

Haroun hrmmed at that, very deliberately not turning to look at Shiro head-on. "Maybe." he said after a moment's thought. "See, the X-Men are a team. I can work solo - did it for a whole lot of years – but the X-Men don't play like that. If you wanted to get your leathers, you'd have to be willing to put your pride aside, put your ego aside, and play within the bounds given to you." he said. "And yes, sometimes it's a real bitch and it sucks. But there's far more good in the world that can be done by the X-Men working together than can be done by Shiro Yoshida alone. Or by Haroun al-Rashid alone. You catch my drift?"

Shiro nodded slowly. He'd expected as much, which is why he wanted to speak with Haroun before he approached Scott. "Teamwork and cooperation are lessons I must have skipped in school. I do not mean that I am incapable of working in sync with others and following orders even if I do not agree with them. It is just . . . not something that I am used to, ne? All of my training from before I came here was centered on me and did not take anything or anyone else into account."

"Right. And that right there is going to be your biggest hurdle to overcome." he said. "Do I think you can do it? Probably. Will you hate every second of it? Probably. Ask yourself this, Shiro-san. Ask yourself why you want to join. Look at what you'll be giving up – a chance for a family, a normal life. There's also your sister to consider - is it fair to her for you to be risking your life for complete strangers who will probably spit in your face when she needs you? Hard questions, and before you ever set foot into X-Men training you'd better have good answers."

"But think about what I would be giving my sister," Shiro countered. "If she is a mutant - which she may well be - then I will help make this backwards country better for her. And even if she is not, then her friends are and they deserve it." He grinned. "There are a myriad of reasons to join the team. If anything, maybe I can make this country more like Japan, to whom genetic status is never a factor."

"Never a factor, eh?" he said with great amusement. "We'll see about that. And have you talked to Leyu about this? There's a lot of benefits to being an X-Man - in a way, you're really striving to make the world a better place. Mostly by making sure that the fuckwits don't screw it up for everybody." he said with a grin. "But I won't shit you - there's a very real and fairly high chance that when we go out on a mission, someone may come back in a bodybag."

"No, I have not yet. There are a number of people with whom I need to speak." Maybe Scott wouldn't be the hardest person to convince, after all. "I am aware of the danger. But if the incursions by Wisdom's colleagues and those cyborgs, and battling the monster on Muir, and rescuing Alex from that witch at the Hellfire Club, and even Asgard have taught me anything, it is that I have power that must be used for others despite the danger."

Haroun nodded. "And that's a good first step." he said with a grin. "All you need to do is be able to take orders without hesitation. Even from people you consider to be a very small step up from roadkill on the evolutionary and intelligence ladders. Because it's possible they know some things you don't."

"Heaven help me if I am ever forced to work under Dayspring," Shiro bemoaned. "Have you ever encountered a field situation where you found yourself vehemently disagreeing with your orders?"

"Early, often, and repeatedly. But you know what? I obeyed anyway. Because that was my job. Now I'm an XO - I give orders. I still follow them, as well - from the team leads, from Scott, or from Charles." he said. "It's all part of the deal."

"And I suppose that they will either beat it into my head with a large blunt object, or throw me out so fast that my head will pendulate." Blink. "Or whatever the expression is. So, what should I do now? Should I approach Mr. Summers and outright ask him if I can train to be an X-Man? Should I be subtle about it? Or ought I wait for him to speak with me first?"

"Tell you what. If you're serious about it, talk to the other trainees first. See what they think, get a feel for the training from them. Then, if you still want it badly enough, talk to Alison. I'll put in a good word for you. But I have to tell you, if you're gonna fuck me on this one then you will wish you'd never even thought of becoming an X-Man. We clear?" he said with a friendly smile.

Shiro raised an eyebrow at the final comment, and then grinned. "Sir, I hope you will understand that I do not want to fuck you for any reason." He wasn't too keen about speaking with Alison, given that he felt that they had drifted apart after Muir (not that they had been best of friends or anything to begin with, anyway). But Shiro was never one to back down from a challenge.