autokinetic | i'm a goddess of vicious precision

Sue sparring with Howlett is a real education. It always looks like at least one of them will be leaving the room on a stretcher at any moment, but so far, nobody's sustained significant injury.

That is about to change.

Howlett attacks with the characteristically aggressive style of these after-hours sessions; Sue responds with equal force. They go back and forth for a while, a surprisingly even exchange considering the difference in skill level. Then Sue manages to grab Howlett's wrist, and he immediately spins, pulling the attached arm out straight and throwing his whole weight against the back of the elbow.

It makes a very nasty sound.

They don't even pause; Sue, laughing, presses the advantage, and Howlett defends, and despite his now-useless right arm he manages to hold Sue off for half a minute more.

What the -

"What the hell? Did you just break his elbow?"

Howlett snorts.

"Yep!" says Sue, proudly. His victory having now been established, he lets Howlett up; the personal combat instructor rolls his shoulder a few times, waiting out several more nasty sounds, and then flexes the afflicted elbow. Good as new.

"...Oh," says Aegis. "Roomful of mutants, huh?"

"Yup," says Howlett.

"It's the best," says Sue. "I get to hit him as hard as I want."

Howlett looks amused.

"Is it a secret? I mean, during classtime you scarcely get hit, but that's not never, if you don't need people to hold back you could tell them."

"I'm not supposed to advertise it," says Howlett.

"I only found out 'cause I broke his nose a while back," says Sue.

"Why aren't you supposed to advertise?" Aegis says. "Mine's public - I wear evidence of it around all the time - and Sue's is public 'cause it's useful."

Howlett just shakes his head.

"If it's private and you won't tell me why, you probably should've told Sue to pull his punches, or sent me away before you started," says Aegis. She doesn't mean to sound threatening, but she happens to think that this is true.

"Why's that?" asks Howlett mildly.

"Because I hate doing things when I don't know why I'm doing them," says Aegis, "and I also hate not knowing things in the first place."

"Tough," says Howlett.

Sue rolls his eyes.

Howlett relents. "Politics," he explains. "If it gets around that a mutant's teaching personal combat at Tacical, and enough people get their panties in a twist, my job's probably going to be the first thing to give."

"You on thin tether for some other reason? As far as I can tell IF policy is mutant-neutral and practice is often pro-, 'cause we're useful. Like, I'm the only person in the military who can use certain military-grade hardware." She stretches her arms above her head.

"I have," says Howlett, with a slight smile, "an insubordination problem."

Aegis giggles. She glances at Sue, and giggles some more. "Understood," she says.

Sue and Howlett exchange a grin.

The Tactical School routine is not as much fun as the playful childhood of Battle School, but it's got work enough for her once Aegis has loaded up on electives in not just personal combat but also xenobiology and engineering. She keeps busy. The months go by. She's twelve and a half and Sue's approaching fourteen. And he's been terribly moody.

"You've been a pill lately," she says, when she's between xenobio protein flashcards winking by in spaced repetition on her desk. She throws a rolled pair of socks at his back. "You okay? Has puberty eaten your personality, am I next?"

He winces at the impact, then lets the socks roll off him without returning fire.

"Yeah," he says with heavy irony, "it's all the hormones' fault."

"No, seriously," she coaxes.

Then: birdbirdbird?

Sue flops down on his bed and puts his pillow over his head.

You don't want to know, he says; the undertones are tired, sad, uncomfortable, ashamed.

The hell I don't, who do you think you're talking to?

Fine.

She's told him before that he's a multimedia presentation; what he shows her next is definitely in that vein. Sight, sound, physical sensation, emotional content - all muffled, at one extra remove, like he's shielding her from the full impact. For good reason.

It started a few weeks ago. One of the older kids, nearer graduation. They had a scuffle in the corridor, which is not all that unusual; what's unusual is that the other guy won. And he held Sue against the floor, and it felt wonderful and terrible and frightening in ways Sue didn't really understand.

Then the same boy found him again, another time. Again they fought. Again Sue lost. But this time, it did not end there.

He tried to push his suffering to make him back off, like he did with that gang back at Battle School, but this kid just mocked him for his conflicted feelings, for his shame, his fear, for the part of him that liked it.

He went to a teacher, after the second time. Not Howlett. He couldn't face Howlett with this. The teacher flatly told him it wasn't happening. Sue has never in his life been blown off with such absolute conviction. No help there.

Yesterday it happened again. He barely tried to fight back. His new best friend was very happy about that. Sue wanted to throw up, or maybe just gut himself. And, lest anybody doubt what a slut he is, he still got off on it.

When the narrative flood subsides, he's crying softly into his pillow.

The dorms are in a medium-gravity section; Aegis is at his side in a moment to wrap him in a hug. Oh Sue. Oh my bird.

Sue clings to her and sobs.

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