xp_logs | Nathan and Haroun, Friday morning

Haroun was quite serious about helping with Nathan's physical therapy...

Maybe he could just slip under the waters of the hot tub and drown. That sounded like a plan. Nathan kept his eyes closed, resolutely ignoring the person across from him.

Haroun, enjoying his own soak, looked ready to drag Nathan out of the hot tub by his hair if he even thought about drowning. "Good workout today. Bet you hurt like nothing else." he commented.

"That... would be putting it mildly," Nathan said grudgingly, after a moment. Haroun had just been doing what he was supposed to do, helping him with the physical therapy, he told himself. Something Haroun was uniquely suited to doing, having had lots of personal experience. And it took some of the work away from Moira, which was good.

Really. And the efforts to egg him on certainly weren't personal.

Haroun looked entirely too satisfied with himself. "Don't get too comfortable. You've got a checkup in roughly an hour or so." he warned. "Blood chemistry, a tox screen, muscle regrowth, all the fun stuff."

More poking and prodding. Of the physical sort, at least... although that really wasn't all that much better. Twitching irritably, Nathan slid a little farther into the water. "Wouldn't want to mess with the schedule," he muttered.

"Nope." Haroun agreed cheerfully. "And I've got you again on Thursday. We'll add another few laps to the routine, and if you're a really good boy, maybe we'll go for a nice forward roll to stretch out all those poor abused tendons." he said cheerfully, ignoring the look of bloody murder Nathan just gave him.

"You're enjoying this way too much," Nathan grumbled fitfully. He was not enjoying it at all. As a matter of fact, he was hating it. Like poison. And after the damned checkup, he was going to nap, and to hell with anyone who needed him to do anything else. If the Apocalypse came to visit, it could fuck right off.

Haroun shook his head. "Hey, the water feels good, but contrary to your current belief I don't actually like torturing you. But it's for your own good - you do _not_ fuck around with back injuries. Look closely when you watch me warm up some time, and you'll see me do a lot of the same basic back stretches that you're doing now."

Nathan opened his eyes, gazing across at Haroun for a moment. "I know," he said, the edge gone from his voice. "It's just wearing me down." He mustered a faint smile. "I know you don't actually like torturing me. You're just good at it."

Haroun grinned. "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well." he said modestly. "And when it's all said and done, you'll thank me."

"I know." Nathan pushed himself up a little, wincing. Hurt. He really did hurt. "And I know this is going well, I just hate..." Well, a lot of things, but he picked up. "... how it wipes me out afterwards. I'm sleeping almost as much as I was in the medlab." Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.

Haroun nodded. "Good sign, though. Means you're rebuilding inside, and your body doesn't have the energy to keep you going and to rebuild. So you sleep."

"Hadn't thought of it that way." Nathan gave the claw-marks on his arm a thoughtful look. The stitches had come out the other day, and the lacerations were definitely healing faster. "Amanda didn't touch these," he said. "Although Jean didn't really believe that... I don't think she's processed how fast I do heal even without magical help."

Haroun nodded. "Not an excuse to slack off, though. I'm still gonna work you until you scream, then work you a little harder."

Nathan gave him a tolerant look. "I know. Although if you manage to drown me in the pool, you and Moira are probably going to have words."

Haroun grinned. "I drown you in the pool, I may as well just take a nice deep dive and open up the scoops again. Because there's just no way Moira would let me live through that."

"I bet she gave you the third degree before she let you do this, too," Nathan said, managing a chuckle. "I can almost hear her now..."

"I think she invented a fourth degree, just so she could give it to me." he said ruefully. "Did you know that your fiancee gets really ugly when she's angry?"

"Bite your tongue," Nathan said, giving him a mock-threatening look. "She's beautiful when she's angry. Of course, she's always beautiful." He offered Haroun a sappy smile.

Haroun snorted. "This from the world's most impartial judge." he said with a grin. "Besides, the role of Most Beautiful Woman in the Mansion is already quite taken, thank you. And not by Moira."

"I beg to differ." Oh-ho, a debate. "Alison's pretty enough, I suppose, if you like blondes..." he trailed off teasingly.

"Gentlemen prefer blondes." he said with a smug air. "Everyone knows this!"

"Ah, but redheads have a mystique that's all their own." Nathan paused thoughtfully. "Except we have a ridiculous number of them around here. Why do you suppose that is? Red hair's not supposed to be that common a trait, and all our redheads are natural..."

"You have empirical proof of this?" he asked with a grin. "Because if you don't, that's a task I'll quite happily throw myself on. For the good of the Mansion, of course."

Nathan glowered at him, almost cheerfully. "Some of those redheads are underage, thank you very much... and the ones that aren't... well, actually, go right ahead with them," he said innocently. "It might be interesting to watch." From a purely educational standpoint, of course. To see just how many pieces were left if Haroun tried.

Haroun grinned. "I will, naturally, accept your word as a man of impeccable trustworthiness about Moira's status. Mostly, I wouldn't mind seeing what the returned-from-the-dead Doctor Grey is packing in those scrubs of hers." he said with a grin. "I mean, it can't be anything like the perfection that is Alison, but it's still pleasing to the eye."

Nathan shook his head. "We'd be collecting what was left of you in a bucket after Scott got finished with you."

"Probably, but I could ascend to my eternal reward as a happy man. Well, only not so much because Alison would get eighteen different kinds of pissed-off, and that's no good. Dammit!" he said mockingly. "Guess the great Doctor Grey mystery will have to go unplumbed for now."

Nathan shook his head. "You're good and hooked," he said. "Face it. It's not a bad thing, either..." A slight smile tugged at his lips. "In fact, it's kind of the best thing."

Haroun grinned right back at Nathan. "If you tell her I said it I'll deny everything, but it's quite possibly the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"I had my worries, but the two of you seem to be doing pretty well lately."

Haroun grinned. "It's not all milk and honey, but when something comes up, we talk about it. It's working out wonderfully so far."

"Imagine that. Talking being the solution," Nathan said dryly, remembering some of the conversations they'd had back in the winter.

Haroun kicked Nate lightly in the shin. "Don't make me come over there and hurt you, old man."

"You can take it out on me next session," he retorted with a smirk. "That way it's all constructive."

Haroun grinned. "Done!" he said with an evil laugh. "It's not nice to mock the young and stupid."

"No, but it's the only way the old and slightly less stupid get to have any fun." He tried to straighten a little more, his jaw clenching at the pain. "Moving... is going to get easier, right?"

"Maybe. If you work hard, if the doctors are good, if the new muscle mass grows in well. I can't say it will all fade - chances are good you will be in some degree of pain for the rest of your life - but you'll get used to it in time. I did."

"I'm not exactly a stranger to constant pain," Nathan pointed out, thinking about the virus. "Although usually it's breathing that's the problem, not moving..."

"Well then, you get to explore all-new vistas of pain? You should be proud." he said with a grin. "At least Moira doesn't feel the need to play shutterbug every month or two with you. I swear, the woman feels _compelled_ to take pictures of me and then do unnatural things to them in Photoshop."

"I get the impression that Alison's fond of her camera, yeah. Although Moira has occasionally gone picture-happy with me, too... I figured she's saving up for the baby at this point, though."

Haroun shuddered. "Yeah, I imagine the kid will be flash-dazzled from birth to about five." he said with a laugh. "But hey, we need to keep you moving to keep the muscles limber and growing stronger. Back into the pool with you!"

Nathan muttered something uncomplimentary and grabbed at the edge of the hot tub, trying to pull himself up. "Ow," he muttered, bracing himself with a little TK.

"No cheating by using your brain. I don't want to have to dampen you. We're working your body, not your mind. Unless you want your body to wither away and have to haul yourself around telekinetically..." he warned.

Damn it. He hadn't thought he was being that obvious. "Isn't going to do me any good to fall, either," he muttered, but letting go of the TK and getting out using muscle power alone was much easier said that done. Ordinary walking was easier than this.

"Good!" Haroun said, watching Nathan struggle to get out of the tub. "Falling is part of PT. I won't let you hurt yourself, but I'm not going to treat you like on of those Febreeze eggs or whatever they're called."

"Faberge," Nathan muttered. "Febreeze is... a cleaner." There. Out of the hot tub. Next step was to get up, he supposed. But he'd just take a bit of a break, here...

Haroun grinned. "Yeah, that. Come on, man, get up! Keep moving!" he urged, vaulting himself out of the tub to be on-hand in case Nathan needed assistance. "Just a few more feet..."

His balance wasn't worth shit these days. But Nathan managed to get to his feet, wavering dangerously as he did, but managing - just - not to fall on his face. His jaw was clenched so hard that it was beginning to ache.

Standing up. He hated that just standing up was this much of a battle. If only he hadn't... well, there wasn't much point in going there, was there?

Haroun stepped a little closer. "Good! You're making excellent progress. Now you get to do the left-foot-right-foot thing over to the pool here. One step at a time, and visualize your move before you make it. No, wait, that's me. Never mind. Just take it slow, I'll be here to catch you if you fall."