ArchivedLogs:Little Deaths

Little Deaths
Dramatis Personae Iolaus, Shane, Daiki
In Absentia	2014-02-28 warning, rampantly inappropriate conversationings
Location <XS> Conservatory
Tall panes of glass keep this large indoor garden warm year round. Tended to by the school's groundskeeper, the conservatory is lush with plant life, a carefully cultivated paradise within Xavier's walls. The room serves as a classroom as well; in the center of the garden a ring of seats forms a small circle, a favorite locale for some teachers to hold court. With exam period underway, there's a tone both quieter and more frenetic to the student body. Less rambunctious, more fervently cramming last-minute for one test or another. Even now on Friday afternoon when normally many people /would/ be well into slacking-off territory there are more than a few students still fretting over their last exam or comparing notes for ones coming up next week. If Shane is fretting it's hard to tell. He's sprawled out on a stone bench in the conservatory, dressed in his usual fashion -- vest, bowtie, pinstriped slacks, dress shirt, though today he is eschewing shoes and is barefoot to go with the nice clothing. There's a tophat (its band also pinstriped) resting on his chest and his eyes are mostly closed, head resting in Daiki's lap. Despite the fact that there's already a textbook there that the other boy is /probably/ attempting to study from. Sometimes, instead of studying you just have a lapshark. Daiki is not looking overly bothered by this imposition, at least, quietly leafing through a notebook that he has simply rested on top of Shane's face. There's a rather noticeable pallor to the older teen's face, lips pale and eyes shadowed. "You should at least try with English," he murmurs, as he looks through his notes, "your father would be so disappointed if you failed revolution-class." In the heart of the Xavier's campus is one of the very few times that Iolaus is not being escorted around by his guards, and it lends towards aimless wandering. Pencil and pad of paper in one hand, Iolaus is writing intensely as he wanders around the halls of the campus. Pushing open the door to the conservatory, the wash of moist heat causes him - for once - to look up from his writing. Even the wall he walked into a few minutes prior hadn't managed to do that for more than a few moments. Bright blue eyes flit from flower to flower as he makes his way towards one of his favorite spots to take his more advanced classes to lecture at - the small ring of seats towards the middle of the greenhouse. Shane and Daiki do not go unnoticed, and the doctor smiles as he sees the two teenagers. "Hello Daiki, Shane. How are you both doing? Hard at work, I see," he says, eyes twinkling. "Have you finished your exams yet, Shane?" he asks, curiously, letting the pad of paper - for the moment - sink back down to his side, chemical diagrams and scribbles all. "Do I look like I've finished my fucking exams, dude." Shane's voice is muffled from behind the notebook, head twitching to one side. "Don't think this bastard would be lecturing me if I had. -- He doesn't /get/ the concept of being a senior what the fuck's the point if you're still going to obsessively work." "Not losing my spot as valedictorian," Daiki answers quietly. "Not losing my spot at /Columbia/. Good afternoon, Doctor." Shane lifts his hand, dropping the top hat down on top of Daiki's notebook. "My pa's only on with you till four, right?" "Yes, you sort of do." Iolaus says, amusement threading through his voice. "Though, as always, you are dressed to kill." The doctor's smile only widens when he turns it onto Daiki. "Congratulations, of course, are in order, Daiki. Valedictorian is quite an accomplishment, and Columbia is a wonderful school. I know - knew - a few of the Professors at their medical school. I'm sure you will find what you are looking for from it, and I very much doubt you have any risk of losing either of those honors. I've graded your work." Iolaus steps over past the teenagers as he sits down on one of the seats in the circle, resting the pad of paper in his lap. "Yeah, he's off at four. Daniel is coming to relieve him, I think. Not sure. Jane has been switching up the schedule on me recently, so I'm never exactly sure who is coming and going when until they get here." "No congratulations, yet," Daiki says with a small curl of smile, "I still have one term to go after this. And the rest of my exams as well. There's still plenty of room to mess up." He plucks Shane's hat neatly off of his notebook, returning it to the smaller boy's chest. "I'm just glad Sebastian didn't choose to graduate this year or my competition would be harder still." "Is there a word for /last/ in your class? I'm aiming for that spot." Shane wriggles out from underneath the notebook, sliding down the bench slightly so that his head now rests against the side of Daiki's thigh rather than directly on the textbook. "Thank god because I want to get the fuck out of here. -- Do your people get bored, here? It's safe as fucking houses. I could," he offers cheerfully, "attack you. Mix things up a bit." "I admit, if Sebastian had tried to graduate this year, I suspect it would have made things a challenge. But either way, I think you both would have been admitted to the schools that you are looking to go to." Iolaus says, shrugging his shoulders. "At the end of the day, the difference between valedictorian and salutorian is a marginal one in terms of college admissions." Iolaus pauses and gives Daiki a wide smile. "Never stopped me from aiming for valedictorian, I will say, though." His eyes turn onto Shane, and he chuckles. "My people generally rely on the school's security when I'm on campus. I think Reg is fond of going down to the recreation room and playing video games until I leave. I think your father goes off and works somewhere, and I'm sure I don't want to know what Jane gets herself into." He pauses, and shakes his head at the younger man. "That'd only make your dad have to fill out a lot of paperwork and delay you leaving even /longer/." A wink. "Surprised Jane doesn't just hang around anyway and watch you like a goddamn creepy-ass hawk." Shane tucks the top hat onto his hand, spinning it idly around on one loosely-curled fist. "I could just attack you a /little/ bit. Couldn't he skip out on the paperwork if it was just a /small/ bit of biting?" "It might be a novel experience," Daiki murmurs, his quiet amusement strengthening the friendly tug of his powers. "I don't imagine Dr. Saavedro gets attacked /by/ mutants all that often." "I don't think he actually /gets/ attacked all that often." Shane tips his head back to squint at Io. "Do you? Pa says it's still only been the one /serious/ attempt. I mean I guess people throw rocks and stuff but come on they do that to fucking everyone join the club. -- But aren't they bored /anyway/ with all this lack of assassination? I bet some of them would be glad if I spiced things up." "If I stub my toe, Jane wants a threat assessment of it." Iolaus says, smile breaking into a grin. "Actually, I think she goes and spends time with Logan. Practicing kicking the shit out of each other, or exercising or something. It is frightening to watch the two of them interact for more than a few seconds. Too much macho; I have to flee." Iolaus laughs warmly at Daiki, turning the smile onto him and beaming. "No, not quite that often. Never, actually. Not really." Iolaus' smile fades slightly as he looks at Shane. "Only the one attack that your father saved me from, and something that Jane got rid of that she thought was a bomb mailed to my house. I still think it was just an Amazon package, but she was quite insistent. I don't count that one; I don't think anyone does but her." "Do you order a lot of bombs on Amazon? That could be why." Shane drops his hat down, now, onto his face. "Ohshit /never/? I could be a /first/? Pop your mutant-attack cherry. C'mon there's gotta be /some/ mutant out there that hates you right? People find all the /stupidest/ fucking reasons to be douchebags." "Like being bored?" Daiki moves a hand from his notebook, dropping it to toy absently with Shane's bowtie. "And wanting to /spice/ things up with assassination attempts?" "Only a /little/ bit of assassination," Shane protests. "I have never ordered a bomb. Not through Amazon or any other website, for that matter." Iolaus' glance looks down to the paper in his lap before he looks back up at Daiki and Shane. "How do you assassinate someone just a little bit?" The doctor muses, eyebrows furrowing together for a moment in consideration. "I think it's only assassination if you actually manage to kill someone. Otherwise it's just assault." Iolaus laces his hands together and raises his arms up over his head, stretching first one way and then the other. "I'm sure some mutant will attack me some day, Shane, for one reason or another. It seems to be the in thing to do these days," he says, dryly. "I think for now extremists on the mutant side have more pressing things to worry about." Daiki's brows furrow slightly at this. "You can keep the plain human assassins." Shane pokes a finger up beneath the brim of his hat to raise it up off his face, his grin abruptly /bright/ and toothy. "Oh, trust me, I'm pretty much an expert at giving guys just a /little/ death." "I can't say I'm overly disappointed, Daiki." Iolaus confesses, tone bright. "I think just the human assassins are quite enough of a challenge for me. After all, there are a lot more of them than there are mutant assassins." His fingers drum on his leg as he gives Shane a puzzled expression. It changes a moment later as he blushes and rolls his eyes. "Ha, ha." he drawls out. "It's an expression. Translating it literally doesn't do it justice. Or else they'd be arresting a lot more people. I don't know where they'd even put all the criminals." The doctor looks down at the pad of paper, folding one page up and looking back over his notes. "Then again, little deaths can lead to bigger ones. So, perhaps the problem would simply take care of itself." Shane's eyes open wider at this last comment, ridged brows lifting as he snorts. "Can lead to bigger -- Jesus, what kind of sex are /you/ having? Because you maybe need lessons on, uh, safety, if that's a concern. My pa can teach you, s'part of his lesson plan in there somewhere." Daiki's cheeks flush faintly pink, his hand lifting to rub at his cheek. "I don't think asking the doctor about his -- that's not an /appropriate/ question," he chides quietly. "I'm just imagining, though. Jane would blow a fucking gasket. All that work done to set her watchdogs on him all the time and then he bites it because of overdoing it in /bed/. I'd laugh, anyway." Shane glances over towards Iolaus, hastily tacking on, "-- I mean, after an appropriate length of mourning of course." Iolaus' flush is not helped by this particular line of questioning. "No, it's certainly not appropriate. And, believe me, I am quite familiar with safer sex. I am, in fact, a doctor." He shakes his head and holds up the pad of paper. "HIV is one of my research areas. I've been working on a vaccine for about... oh, since grad school. A pet project of mine that I'm trying some new things with. Still years away from anything that matters, of course." Iolaus raises an eyebrow at Shane. "Don't give her any ideas. She'll start insisting on monitoring me during sex with a defibrillator standing by or some such ridiculous nonsense. I don't want to know what she'd come up with, actually; I'm quite positive whatever it is, I wouldn't like it. And... thank you for your sympathy, I guess?" "Man see now I wasn't even thinking like /condoms/ I was thinking more like keeping trauma shears on hand for if the ropes start cutting off your circulation." Shane drops the hat back down onto his face. "Do they teach you safe /kink/ in doctor-school because people complain all the damn time about how stupid-minded doctors are when they find out you've been getting beaten on." Daiki just flushes deeper, bowing his head over his notes. "I apologize," he says lightly, "for his -- everything." Shane just continues, cheerfully talking over this apology. "-- some of your guards though would that really be a bad thing? /I'd/ be pretty fucking alright with Alec or Pa -- you know. Standing /watch/. When things are getting --" Daiki almost absently clamps a hand down over Shane's mouth. Iolaus' eyes widen as Shane continues speaking - and speaking, speaking, oh god why is he speaking? His mouth opens to say something - anything - and then closes with a clap. He coughs once, cheeks burning red, and looks down at his notes. Pages through his notes, VERYBUSILY. Silence. "Thank you, Daiki." Iolaus says, finally, looking up at the two teenagers. "You are wise beyond your years." Daiki hasn't looked up from his notes. One hand leafing through them, one hand still held over Shane's mouth. Talking privileges revoked. "Don't worry," he answers Iolaus with a small curl of smile, "it's almost four."