I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might...

[stillaboyscout]

Lessons Michael Vaughn really should have learned by now:

Do not go out into the streets. Ever. Really. It's just a bad idea at this point, but dumb Boy Scouts are dumb and do not know when to say no.

Or maybe that's just Vaughn.

Because he's out, again. Without a weapon. Just tromping the streets, practically looking for trouble. The narration

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[allmydiredreams]

HERE VAUGHN, YOU GET A BABEL. A Babel who's twirling down the street, appearing to mutter delightedly at the sky. She's actually muttering at a mourning dove on the telephone wire above the street, but it's not as if she's actually looking at it, and not as if anyone watching her could tell she was talking to it anyway.

She very nearly runs smack-dab into Vaughn, turning at the last second a little bit to the right and therefore only smacking him with an arm (and possibly her messenger bag). She half-recoils, an apologetic look on her face, until she sees who it is.

Then she just bursts out laughing, raucously. She's having a good day. "Hi!" she chirps through giggles.

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn smiles broadly. It's been forever since he's seen his Babel!

"Hi!" he says back. Her mood is kind of infectious. Or maybe it's just seeing her again. "It's been a while since I've seen you!"

Really. It has. And that's probably Vaughn's fault. It always is, stupid Boy Scout.

[allmydiredreams]

Aw, Vaughn, it's not totally your fault! "I've been laying low," Babel says, "sneakysneaky like. Never know when the vigilantes will strike." Well, her version of 'laying low' means 'not being in the city nearly as much as usual and just hanging around Cicero'. So she's not really that safe, just giving herself the illusion that she is. Or giving others the illusion, anyway; she doesn't really think of the concept of self-preservation in the way most do anyway.

"Besides," she continues, dropping the mischievousness for mild annoyance, "I ran out of money at the pizza party awhile back, so it's harder to get fare into the grand ol' town proper." She gives him a hug. "How're you?"

[stillaboyscout]

He grins. "Well that's smart of you," he says. "Being sneaky. Because you shouldn't wander, with the whole... thing..."

Words, Vaughn. You know how to use them.

He hugs her back, for just a second. "I've been... fine." He tries to think about whether or not he's been nearly killed in the time between now and the last time he saw her. He doesn't think he has (it's a lie). "I've stayed out of trouble." Oh, yeah. Jackalope. "Mostly."

Well, that time wasn't his fault anyway. Mostly.

[allmydiredreams]

Babel makes a 'pff' noise at him. "They come after me, I'll run away," she says. She's not incredibly worried about it, given that she's pretty okay at making herself blend in (so she thinks) and hasn't spent a lot of time around the Conrad. Or the coffeeshop. Other coffeeshops have been fair game, as well as bus stations and sandwich places and Navy Pier.

She raises a skeptical eyebrow at him. "Fine I can see, Mr. Indestructible, but out of trouble gets a little blurry 'round the edges." She pokes him in the chest. "No terrorists to fight yet?"

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn nods. "You better run," he says. "And fast, okay? Because standing and fighting is a dumb idea."

Because Vaughn would totally take his own advice. Totally. Except for the part where, you know, he wouldn't. At all.

And then he blushes a little and looks at his feet. "No, no terrorists," he says, and it's the truth, for once. "And I have stayed out of trouble. Really."

That one's a lie.

[allmydiredreams]

"There's a time for fighting and a time for running. I can usually tell which is which," she says, looping one arm around his and falling into step with him. Well, kind of. Really, she's still hop-skipping, but it's coinciding with his footsteps (inner and outer, actually) and making a nice little syncopation. She can enjoy the rhythms on occasion.

The skeptical look doesn't disappear. "Good to know the CLF hasn't gotten to you, but I can tell when you lie." She sticks her tongue out at him, then. "And not because you're bad at it."

Take that, Vaughn.

[stillaboyscout]

"Good." Vaughn smiles. He knows she's not dumb, he just... is overprotective sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time. He can't help it.

And then he blushes a little and looks at his feet. "Well... so there might have been a small run-in with a jackalope." Which is a laughing matter, and he does chuckle a little bit, simply because it sounds so stupid. But it happened.

...His leg still hurts a little bit.

[allmydiredreams]

Babel is not going to spare your dignity, Vaughn. She is going to burst into giggles for awhile -- incredulous giggles, mind you, but giggles nonetheless. "There are jackalope here?" she squeaks, still grinning.

Once she's gotten back to more-or-less normal with the giggling, she continues on: "Was it huge or normal-sized?"

Your dignity, Vaughn. You get none of it.

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn just keeps looking at his feet, the blush spreading even farther across his face. "There apparently are," he says. "Or, at least, there's a jackalope."

And yes. Vaughn gets no dignity. "It, uh... it was huge," he says. "At least, it looked huge from where I was standing." Or rather, laying on the ground having his leg gnawed on, but that's not the point, is it? No. It most certainly isn't.

[allmydiredreams]

Babel snickers, but doesn't push it further. Well, rather, she doesn't point out that he's probably lying if he had to amend that statement. Instead, she quirks an eyebrows and says, "And I suppose you fought it off valiantly." She waves around an imaginary sword for dramatic effect and everything.

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn looks at his feet, a dopey smile on his face. "Not quite," he says. "More like ran the hell away, and when it caught me, fell flat on my face and waited for it to go away."

He's a little embarassed about that, but it ran away before he really had a chance to actually fight back. Besides, running is good when you're confronted with a jackalope.

...He's still a man. He doesn't need to fight a jackalope to assert his manhood.