Inu-Yasha and Shen - Backdated
Sep. 18th, 2017 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainShen makes good on that whole trial friendship thing. It's going to be a work in progress.
The good thing was, Shen's mild hangover had faded over the course of Sunday, and by the time she woke up for classes on Monday, she was feeling as good as possible. For a Monday morning, anyway.
Still, she was glad by the time classes were done, and she dropped off her things and launched herself out of her window, wearing a tank top and a pair of leggings as she flew above the grounds.
When she spotted the shock of white hair (and white ears!) among the trees, she didn't think twice. They had shaken on it. He'd been drunk, so if he really wanted her to leave him alone, she would, but she'd try to and hold up her end of the bargain in the meantime.
She swooped in low, until she found a nice branch to land on, with rare enough foliage in the fall season to make it despite her wings. Her talon-shaped feet were perfect to crouch on big enough branches, at least. Then she hopped a couple of branches and found herself near enough to have a conversation with her trial friend for a month.
"Hey there!" She smiled at him.
Inu-yasha hadn't been expecting any visitors out here - kinda the damn point - but she hadn't started him either. It wasn't like she'd tried sneaking up on him.
It had given him time to change from relaxing on his back on a comfortable branch to crouched and glaring.
"The hell do you want?" he demanded, just a bit of doubt in his eyes. He had some really confusing memories of the bird-girl from that night he was drunk...
"Okay!" Shen stated with fake enthusiasm. "Step one of friendship - that's not how you greet your friends. Less hostility, at least." She wouldn't go so far as to expect him to be enthusiastic or happy. Not yet, anyway. Baby steps.
"I don't have friends," he growled back at her, but his cheeks were pink. Ugh, so he hadn't misremembered things.
Shen made a face. "Seriously? Because I can take off and leave you on your own, but your life has sucked hard, from what little you told me. You don't have a clue what it's like having a friend, so how about you give it a go? Make sure it's not for you before you drive everybody away?"
Kuso... Inu-yasha's blush deepened, and he looked away into the trees. "Whatever I told you, I was drunk! It wasn't true. Friends are for weaklings who can't take care of themselves on their own, an' I don't have that problem."
"That sort of argument is for idiots who're too scared to risk having friends," Shen shot back, scowling at him. "I thought you were ready to stop being a coward."
Inu-yasha's gaze snapped back to her, an angry glare despite the blush. "Eh?? Whaddaya mean, coward?!"
"I mean you're too scared of being vulnerable to give friendship a try," Shen told him, not mellowing down any.
"I'm not weak! I can take care of myself - been fighting on my own all my life, an' its kept me alive." His lip curled back in a snarl. "The hell do you know about that?"
"I know you're too scared to have a friend, apparently," Shen retorted, not backing down any. Good thing her hands were already talons, or they would likely have shifted with her anger. "Unless it's just me you don't want as a friend?"
"The hell I am! I ain't scared of anything!"
"Yeah? Then honor our deal," Shen shot back, eyebrows raised challengingly.
"Fine!" He glared at her, absolutely not backing down, and too pissed off to realize how she'd just played him.
Shen would've felt bad about Marty MacFlying him, but honestly, he deserved it. "Fine!" she replied on the same tone, glaring daggers at him. After a few breaths, she forced herself to relax a little. "So. Friends."
"Friends," Inu-yasha growled back, still glaring.
"That's when we try it with less hostility," Shen reminded him.
He watched her intently for a moment, claws sinking deep into the branch. "Look, I'm not nice, and I don't know what you're up to, tryin' to be my friend. Dunno what I said at that damn party, but..."
"You said you'd never had a friend," Shen cut in before he could work up a longer rant. "What I'm up to is making you realize what it's like to have one. Then if you don't like it, you can be alone for the rest of your life."
"Plenty of people say they're your friends when they want something from you," Inu-yasha replied, voice low, focused. He'd had 'friends' as a kid, when he couldn't make it on his own.
"And if you get the inkling that I want something from you other than friendship, please, chuck me out on my ass," Shen told him, glad that he was now talking more calmly. Of course she didn't expect him to be nice, not straight away anyway. But she had high hopes she'd get him there. "I'm sorry you only had that experience."
He scowled at her, perplexed by that. It sounded... fair. Except, "I don't need your pity," he growled back, but not as aggressively as before.
"That's a shame, all the best friendships are based on pity," Shen replied dryly. Then added, "That was a joke, by the way. Look, you've been an ass to everyone since you arrived. I don't think I could feel all that much pity for you." She felt sorry for the way he had had to live, and she wanted to help him out, but she wasn't doing this out of pity. Mutants ought to stick together, that was all, and if she could make him less of an asshole, that would be a bonus.
Inu-yasha's head tipped to one side as he considered that. The bird-girl was weird, not like other people he'd talked to. She didn't waste time pretending to be nice.
And he didn't feel bad for how he'd treated anyone else here. From what he could see, it'd been a success. Almost no one was dumb enough to mess with him, and pretty much only Tommy made fun of him.
"Good," he replied, raising an eyebrow at her. He sat back on his branch, looking more relaxed, though he didn't quite hit the 'bored' look he was trying for. "Had to fight my whole life, so I don't care if all the little kids don't like me, as long as they stay outta my way."
Shen was only just beginning to realize how difficult this was going to be. She breathed in and out, forcing herself not to let him know that that was only because he was an idiot. He had a lot to unlearn, here, and that wouldn't work, no matter how satisfying it might feel, for a brief moment.
"So what's the point of fighting as hard as you do?" she asked instead, trying to come at it from a different angle. "And insulting people left and right?"
Inu-yasha blinked at her, surprised. Wasn't it obvious? "Surviving."
"So what's the point of surviving?" Shen asked, eyebrows raised.
...what, was she stupid? He blinked again, one eyebrow climbing. "Beats being dead."
"A, you can't know that, and B, that's awesome motivation," Shen remarked with a nose wrinkle. "Honestly. You fight so hard against everyone, and for like, nothing but survival? That seems like a waste of effort. There are much better fights to fight out there."
"What?" Inu-yasha looked at her, momentarily stupefied. But the more he thought about it, the less sense it made, and he found himself repeating, "...what?"
Shen frowned in confusion. "Do you mean, what other fights are there?" Because he could be what-ing a number of things she'd just said. "Well, obviously I'd start with fighting for your friends, because context. Or fighting for equality. Fighting for freedom. Or - even just fighting for survival so you can enjoy life! Surviving isn't living."
Inu-yasha was still confused. Wasn't that exactly what surviving meant?? But maybe... "What, you mean like fighting to get stronger?" That was something he understood, and there was a glint in his eyes now. "I wanna get strong enough to do whatever I want."
"Okay," Shen acknowledged after a second. "So, what do you want to do?"
He frowned at her. "I just told you - I wanna be strong enough to take whatever I want, do whatever I want."
Wow, this felt circular. "Yeah," Shen acknowledged. "So that 'whatever you want', what will it be? Once you're 'strong enough'."
"Huh?" Inu-yasha gaped at her stupidly, mouth actually hanging open a bit. ...no one had actually asked him that before, and he didn't have an answer. After a rough moment, he crossed his arms over his chest, looking away and trying to pull off aloof. "I... dunno. Whatever I want when I get there."
"You'd better get some practice thinking up things you'd want," Shen pointed out. "Just sayin'."
"...why?" he asked warily, looking back over at her.
Seriously, this was unbelievably hard. Shen took another couple of breaths before she answered, "Because you'll end up being strong enough, and then you'll look like an idiot, not having a clue what to do with that strength."
Huh. So she wasn't about to give him some kind of 'I can help you get what you want' speeches that always ended with 'for a price'.
Of course, what she'd actually said was way weirder. Weird enough to be worth mentioning. "Are you always this weird?"
"I'm tamping it down just for you," Shen assured him dryly.
Inu-yasha frowned, not wanting her to know that he had no idea what 'tamping' meant. It didn't leave him with much to say, though. "...so now what?"
"I think..." Shen trailed off, thinking it over. "You think about what you'd like to do when hanging out." That was a first step, right?
"Like what?" he asked, still frowning but grudgingly curious.
"I don't know. Watching TV, listening to music, playing sports..." She tried to think of something he wouldn't hate, almost added, 'painting each other's toenails', then settled instead on a non-ironic, "Booking the Danger Room for a session or two, whatever."
Unknown to him, Inu-yasha's ears pricked forward at the last suggestion. Training, that was something he'd do anyways, and he could do more difficult things with someone else along in the Danger Room. Head falling to the side as he sized her up, he asked, "You any good in there?"
"Are you?" Shen shot back, eyebrows raised. She'd certainly had more opportunities to train on the higher level programs, what with being social and all.
"Course I am!" What kind of dumb question was that? "M'probably one of the strongest mutants here." Add the speed and senses and yeah, he was good.
"Oh, I'm sure you're strong," Shen muttered. "But if that's the only quality you need in the Danger Room, you're doing it wrong."
He scowled at her. "I'm fast an' tough too," he replied petulantly. "Tommy fucking blew me up in there and it didn't leave a mark."
Shen's eyes widened at the news. "He blew you up?"
"Yeah." Why was that such a big deal? Plenty of crazy shit happened in there. "Why?"
"Did he know you'd be okay?" Shen asked, not settling down any.
"Huh? No. He was under a net and blew it up. See if I try an' help him out again." Seriously. He frowned at her, confused by her reaction. "Didn't do any real damage."
No wonder Tommy had so easily set aside the horrible crash landing incident, when she'd gone back to talk to him a few weeks back. Wow. Maybe they would all end up risking killing someone at one point or another.
Not exactly a reassuring thought.
"Good," she finally answered, with feeling.
"Keh. Takes more than that to take me out," he replied dismissively, a bit of smugness in his tone.
"At least there's no risk of me exploding you," Shen stated, then paused and rewinded the conversation a bit. "Wait. There are sims where nets are involved?" She'd never gotten to any of those.
"Yeah, I guess," Inu-yasha replied. Obviously there had to be, right? He scratched absently behind one ear. "I don't get how it works, one of the teachers was running it."
Oh. That would explain it. Shen nodded. "Yeah, I still haven't gotten that far."
"It was some kinda test," Inu-yasha replied, shrugging. "Robots and forcefields and crap like that."
"Well, I'm glad you're okay," Shen settled on. She wondered if anyone had ever told him something like that.
Inu-yasha blinked at her, not sure why it mattered to her. "Of course I'm okay," he complained arrogantly. "Been through way worse than that before."
Shen only just managed to refrain from rolling her eyes. One step at a time. "Anyway," she soldiered on. "We can do a session maybe a couple times a week? What do you think?"
Inu-yasha narrowed his eyes, considering. He really didn't want to put more into this 'friendship' thing than was absolutely necessary... but a regular training partner would give him more time in the Danger Room. That could only be good. "Yeah, fine."
"Please control your enthusiasm, all the gushing's embarrassing." Shen shifted on the branch she was crouched on. "I should take off before I get pins and needles. I'll book some sessions and let you know when they are."
Narrowing his eyes, Inu-yasha paused. She was making fun of him, and he had no idea why. Something to keep an eye on. "Fine," he repeated, not sure what else to say. Was he supposed to do something with his phone, so she could text him? Gah, he didn't know how any of this worked...
"Fine," Shen echoed, with a lot more enthusiasm, and even a smile. "I'll see you later," she added, and pushed off, leaping up in an impressive jump over the foliage before spreading her wings.
Inu-yasha watched her go, glad to be alone again, but not as relieved as he'd like. Friends. What the hell? He was never going to another party ever again...
The good thing was, Shen's mild hangover had faded over the course of Sunday, and by the time she woke up for classes on Monday, she was feeling as good as possible. For a Monday morning, anyway.
Still, she was glad by the time classes were done, and she dropped off her things and launched herself out of her window, wearing a tank top and a pair of leggings as she flew above the grounds.
When she spotted the shock of white hair (and white ears!) among the trees, she didn't think twice. They had shaken on it. He'd been drunk, so if he really wanted her to leave him alone, she would, but she'd try to and hold up her end of the bargain in the meantime.
She swooped in low, until she found a nice branch to land on, with rare enough foliage in the fall season to make it despite her wings. Her talon-shaped feet were perfect to crouch on big enough branches, at least. Then she hopped a couple of branches and found herself near enough to have a conversation with her trial friend for a month.
"Hey there!" She smiled at him.
Inu-yasha hadn't been expecting any visitors out here - kinda the damn point - but she hadn't started him either. It wasn't like she'd tried sneaking up on him.
It had given him time to change from relaxing on his back on a comfortable branch to crouched and glaring.
"The hell do you want?" he demanded, just a bit of doubt in his eyes. He had some really confusing memories of the bird-girl from that night he was drunk...
"Okay!" Shen stated with fake enthusiasm. "Step one of friendship - that's not how you greet your friends. Less hostility, at least." She wouldn't go so far as to expect him to be enthusiastic or happy. Not yet, anyway. Baby steps.
"I don't have friends," he growled back at her, but his cheeks were pink. Ugh, so he hadn't misremembered things.
Shen made a face. "Seriously? Because I can take off and leave you on your own, but your life has sucked hard, from what little you told me. You don't have a clue what it's like having a friend, so how about you give it a go? Make sure it's not for you before you drive everybody away?"
Kuso... Inu-yasha's blush deepened, and he looked away into the trees. "Whatever I told you, I was drunk! It wasn't true. Friends are for weaklings who can't take care of themselves on their own, an' I don't have that problem."
"That sort of argument is for idiots who're too scared to risk having friends," Shen shot back, scowling at him. "I thought you were ready to stop being a coward."
Inu-yasha's gaze snapped back to her, an angry glare despite the blush. "Eh?? Whaddaya mean, coward?!"
"I mean you're too scared of being vulnerable to give friendship a try," Shen told him, not mellowing down any.
"I'm not weak! I can take care of myself - been fighting on my own all my life, an' its kept me alive." His lip curled back in a snarl. "The hell do you know about that?"
"I know you're too scared to have a friend, apparently," Shen retorted, not backing down any. Good thing her hands were already talons, or they would likely have shifted with her anger. "Unless it's just me you don't want as a friend?"
"The hell I am! I ain't scared of anything!"
"Yeah? Then honor our deal," Shen shot back, eyebrows raised challengingly.
"Fine!" He glared at her, absolutely not backing down, and too pissed off to realize how she'd just played him.
Shen would've felt bad about Marty MacFlying him, but honestly, he deserved it. "Fine!" she replied on the same tone, glaring daggers at him. After a few breaths, she forced herself to relax a little. "So. Friends."
"Friends," Inu-yasha growled back, still glaring.
"That's when we try it with less hostility," Shen reminded him.
He watched her intently for a moment, claws sinking deep into the branch. "Look, I'm not nice, and I don't know what you're up to, tryin' to be my friend. Dunno what I said at that damn party, but..."
"You said you'd never had a friend," Shen cut in before he could work up a longer rant. "What I'm up to is making you realize what it's like to have one. Then if you don't like it, you can be alone for the rest of your life."
"Plenty of people say they're your friends when they want something from you," Inu-yasha replied, voice low, focused. He'd had 'friends' as a kid, when he couldn't make it on his own.
"And if you get the inkling that I want something from you other than friendship, please, chuck me out on my ass," Shen told him, glad that he was now talking more calmly. Of course she didn't expect him to be nice, not straight away anyway. But she had high hopes she'd get him there. "I'm sorry you only had that experience."
He scowled at her, perplexed by that. It sounded... fair. Except, "I don't need your pity," he growled back, but not as aggressively as before.
"That's a shame, all the best friendships are based on pity," Shen replied dryly. Then added, "That was a joke, by the way. Look, you've been an ass to everyone since you arrived. I don't think I could feel all that much pity for you." She felt sorry for the way he had had to live, and she wanted to help him out, but she wasn't doing this out of pity. Mutants ought to stick together, that was all, and if she could make him less of an asshole, that would be a bonus.
Inu-yasha's head tipped to one side as he considered that. The bird-girl was weird, not like other people he'd talked to. She didn't waste time pretending to be nice.
And he didn't feel bad for how he'd treated anyone else here. From what he could see, it'd been a success. Almost no one was dumb enough to mess with him, and pretty much only Tommy made fun of him.
"Good," he replied, raising an eyebrow at her. He sat back on his branch, looking more relaxed, though he didn't quite hit the 'bored' look he was trying for. "Had to fight my whole life, so I don't care if all the little kids don't like me, as long as they stay outta my way."
Shen was only just beginning to realize how difficult this was going to be. She breathed in and out, forcing herself not to let him know that that was only because he was an idiot. He had a lot to unlearn, here, and that wouldn't work, no matter how satisfying it might feel, for a brief moment.
"So what's the point of fighting as hard as you do?" she asked instead, trying to come at it from a different angle. "And insulting people left and right?"
Inu-yasha blinked at her, surprised. Wasn't it obvious? "Surviving."
"So what's the point of surviving?" Shen asked, eyebrows raised.
...what, was she stupid? He blinked again, one eyebrow climbing. "Beats being dead."
"A, you can't know that, and B, that's awesome motivation," Shen remarked with a nose wrinkle. "Honestly. You fight so hard against everyone, and for like, nothing but survival? That seems like a waste of effort. There are much better fights to fight out there."
"What?" Inu-yasha looked at her, momentarily stupefied. But the more he thought about it, the less sense it made, and he found himself repeating, "...what?"
Shen frowned in confusion. "Do you mean, what other fights are there?" Because he could be what-ing a number of things she'd just said. "Well, obviously I'd start with fighting for your friends, because context. Or fighting for equality. Fighting for freedom. Or - even just fighting for survival so you can enjoy life! Surviving isn't living."
Inu-yasha was still confused. Wasn't that exactly what surviving meant?? But maybe... "What, you mean like fighting to get stronger?" That was something he understood, and there was a glint in his eyes now. "I wanna get strong enough to do whatever I want."
"Okay," Shen acknowledged after a second. "So, what do you want to do?"
He frowned at her. "I just told you - I wanna be strong enough to take whatever I want, do whatever I want."
Wow, this felt circular. "Yeah," Shen acknowledged. "So that 'whatever you want', what will it be? Once you're 'strong enough'."
"Huh?" Inu-yasha gaped at her stupidly, mouth actually hanging open a bit. ...no one had actually asked him that before, and he didn't have an answer. After a rough moment, he crossed his arms over his chest, looking away and trying to pull off aloof. "I... dunno. Whatever I want when I get there."
"You'd better get some practice thinking up things you'd want," Shen pointed out. "Just sayin'."
"...why?" he asked warily, looking back over at her.
Seriously, this was unbelievably hard. Shen took another couple of breaths before she answered, "Because you'll end up being strong enough, and then you'll look like an idiot, not having a clue what to do with that strength."
Huh. So she wasn't about to give him some kind of 'I can help you get what you want' speeches that always ended with 'for a price'.
Of course, what she'd actually said was way weirder. Weird enough to be worth mentioning. "Are you always this weird?"
"I'm tamping it down just for you," Shen assured him dryly.
Inu-yasha frowned, not wanting her to know that he had no idea what 'tamping' meant. It didn't leave him with much to say, though. "...so now what?"
"I think..." Shen trailed off, thinking it over. "You think about what you'd like to do when hanging out." That was a first step, right?
"Like what?" he asked, still frowning but grudgingly curious.
"I don't know. Watching TV, listening to music, playing sports..." She tried to think of something he wouldn't hate, almost added, 'painting each other's toenails', then settled instead on a non-ironic, "Booking the Danger Room for a session or two, whatever."
Unknown to him, Inu-yasha's ears pricked forward at the last suggestion. Training, that was something he'd do anyways, and he could do more difficult things with someone else along in the Danger Room. Head falling to the side as he sized her up, he asked, "You any good in there?"
"Are you?" Shen shot back, eyebrows raised. She'd certainly had more opportunities to train on the higher level programs, what with being social and all.
"Course I am!" What kind of dumb question was that? "M'probably one of the strongest mutants here." Add the speed and senses and yeah, he was good.
"Oh, I'm sure you're strong," Shen muttered. "But if that's the only quality you need in the Danger Room, you're doing it wrong."
He scowled at her. "I'm fast an' tough too," he replied petulantly. "Tommy fucking blew me up in there and it didn't leave a mark."
Shen's eyes widened at the news. "He blew you up?"
"Yeah." Why was that such a big deal? Plenty of crazy shit happened in there. "Why?"
"Did he know you'd be okay?" Shen asked, not settling down any.
"Huh? No. He was under a net and blew it up. See if I try an' help him out again." Seriously. He frowned at her, confused by her reaction. "Didn't do any real damage."
No wonder Tommy had so easily set aside the horrible crash landing incident, when she'd gone back to talk to him a few weeks back. Wow. Maybe they would all end up risking killing someone at one point or another.
Not exactly a reassuring thought.
"Good," she finally answered, with feeling.
"Keh. Takes more than that to take me out," he replied dismissively, a bit of smugness in his tone.
"At least there's no risk of me exploding you," Shen stated, then paused and rewinded the conversation a bit. "Wait. There are sims where nets are involved?" She'd never gotten to any of those.
"Yeah, I guess," Inu-yasha replied. Obviously there had to be, right? He scratched absently behind one ear. "I don't get how it works, one of the teachers was running it."
Oh. That would explain it. Shen nodded. "Yeah, I still haven't gotten that far."
"It was some kinda test," Inu-yasha replied, shrugging. "Robots and forcefields and crap like that."
"Well, I'm glad you're okay," Shen settled on. She wondered if anyone had ever told him something like that.
Inu-yasha blinked at her, not sure why it mattered to her. "Of course I'm okay," he complained arrogantly. "Been through way worse than that before."
Shen only just managed to refrain from rolling her eyes. One step at a time. "Anyway," she soldiered on. "We can do a session maybe a couple times a week? What do you think?"
Inu-yasha narrowed his eyes, considering. He really didn't want to put more into this 'friendship' thing than was absolutely necessary... but a regular training partner would give him more time in the Danger Room. That could only be good. "Yeah, fine."
"Please control your enthusiasm, all the gushing's embarrassing." Shen shifted on the branch she was crouched on. "I should take off before I get pins and needles. I'll book some sessions and let you know when they are."
Narrowing his eyes, Inu-yasha paused. She was making fun of him, and he had no idea why. Something to keep an eye on. "Fine," he repeated, not sure what else to say. Was he supposed to do something with his phone, so she could text him? Gah, he didn't know how any of this worked...
"Fine," Shen echoed, with a lot more enthusiasm, and even a smile. "I'll see you later," she added, and pushed off, leaping up in an impressive jump over the foliage before spreading her wings.
Inu-yasha watched her go, glad to be alone again, but not as relieved as he'd like. Friends. What the hell? He was never going to another party ever again...
