193 Near Disasters

[cal_sitter]

Video/Action at Hinode Dojo[Niko begins with the rhythmic pattern that is a time-honored tradition between fist and punching bag. The muffled impact of his knuckles against leather produces a disciplined, even sound. It's the small tells one has to watch for as he methodically strikes out: the features too carefully schooled to neutrality, the

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[winewomenand]

Robin had spent the majority of the day out of the house (which is nothing unusual, given that he views 'home' as a place to sleep and entertain under most circumstances), finishing his work, finishing his dinner date, and having left that satisfied and looking for something to do that would involve more than just two people. He'd had no idea that what was going to happen would happen. He wasn't psychic. He didn't want to be psychic.

Sometimes, admittedly, it might have helped.

He bolted in the opposite direction as soon as he got the message about what was happening from Kyle, a harried look on a normally insouciant expression. He was fairly sure the 'plan' was to stop Niko from doing whatever he was doing once Robin had reached the dojo again. That was far from Robin's plan as he forced himself to slow down as he reached the picture windows, running a hand through his hair and adjusting the collar of his shirt and trying not to appear as desperate as Niko and Cal so often made him feel.

Angry people didn't want to be calmed down, after all. They wanted an accomplice. And Robin was never a particularly moralizing creature to begin with. He slid through the door and tossed his shoes in a random corner, dodging into the backmost room.

"Knock, knock."

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[cal_sitter]

Niko had turned his back on the PDA and turned the ringer off, forcing callers to deal with voicemail or messages left unanswered on the network. He was't doing any of the things Kyle had feared he would. One hole in the wall and a ruined punching bag appeared to be sufficient outlets for his frustration.

The emotion was still there, Niko's temper carefully contained by his complete stillness. He stood at the center of the room, watching nothing, his arms crossed beneath his chest.

Ambient light from the street provided the only illumination in the room. Shadows etched his features in stark contrast to his hair and helped to mask his expression.

"Kyle called you?"

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[winewomenand]

Goodfellow shrugged, kicking the door shut behind him with an already naked foot. His fingers worked deftly at his tie, removing it, and then popping the top two buttons on his shirt, and then the buttons on his cuffs. A bright copper dagger found its way out of the fabric of the arm of Robin's shirt, and he held it lightly in two fingers, away from his torso.

"He called me. He told me what happened, and I came here. He thinks I'm going to wrestle you into quiet submission and tell you to go home and sleep it off or something. I have no doubt."

The other arm crossed over Robin's chest, partially protectively and partially contemplatively. He'd just realized Caliban was gone himself, and that emotion was swimming through his chest, visible only in the almost-cranky set of his jaw.

"Do you need help?"

The point of the dagger then found its way to gesticulate at Niko's hair, Robin's eyebrows raising, neither encouraging or discouraging.

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[cal_sitter]

The younger man remained as he was. Robin was visible at the periphery of his vision, and so the was the knife. More than one offer was implicit in the wave of its tip.

Niko ignored them both. He knew what Kyle expected. He knew what Captain Harkness expected. He knew what the majority of people he had met would want him to do now, the sympathies that would be expressed, the suggestions made with the best intentions. None of it was important. Those were rational solutions, and at that moment, Niko was not a rational man. A rational man would understand that his brother's departure meant nothing in the long run.

All Niko could see was waking from his nightmares without the daily reassurance of his brother's physical presence.

"Go away, Robin," he said softly.

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[winewomenand]

The weapon found its way into the drywall of the corner of the back room, above Robin's chocolate brown tie. It wasn't the only one on his person, both would be aware, and both were too paranoid in their own ways not to have a backup. He wouldn't be needing either, though. Not if Niko was going to play this this way.

It was better not to come into the situation with expectations, as far as either Leandros brother went. Still, Robin had a gambit to test. He shifted his weight onto one hip and pointed his index finger, on the now empty hand, somewhere near the center of the taller man's chest.

"No you don't. I ran all the way here. And I wasn't even being chased by anything-- do you know how potentially embarrassing that could be tomorrow? So you're not going to send me away with a few words."

Robin's voice caught halfway through his objection, the timbre of it carrying a message that he wasn't speaking up with obviously or immediately. Cal was his friend, as well.

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[cal_sitter]

Niko tilted his head for a better look at the dagger embedded in the wall, and sighed. A blithe comment about needing a carpenter anyway was silenced as Robin's tone registered in Niko's mind. There was pain there, too, a pain unique to a puck who had found a friend in a life so long that goodbyes were better remembered than the people they had been said to.

I'm being selfish, Niko thought. Rather than say the words aloud, he acknowledged Robin's right to anger simply by turning to face his friend. "Tell anyone who saw you that there were quadruplets waiting in your bed."

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[winewomenand]

The acknowledgment smoothed Robin's proverbial feathers, and he settled back down on his heels, body language less aggressive-- in so far as Robin's behavior ever got non-aggressive. They were at a situational status quo. Robin was willing enough to do what he usually did, and fall back into his typically reactionary nature.

"Sometimes you say things that make me curious about what you're hiding under that straight lacing of yours."

He cleared his throat, glancing around the bare room as if to ask why they were still standing in there if nothing was getting torn to shreds.

"But we both know this isn't 'back to the starting line.' If you couldn't handle it, you wouldn't be here right now. Maybe I wouldn't even be here. But we both are."

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[cal_sitter]

"Every tableau that Cal and I have walked in on at your apartment is burned into my awareness as a precautionary reminder." Sarcasm was almost sufficient to keep the hesitation from Niko's voice as he said his brother's name. He would have liked to move on to another point, but there wasn't one, was there? Robin had come to deal with Cal's departure. Niko couldn't function without doing the same.

This time, they couldn't cope with the situation by combing an entire city for any sign of him. They couldn't sit together during the hours sane creatures devoted to sleep and plan what action to take when he broke cover. Niko couldn't escape his subconscious by refusing to rest for more than thirty minutes at a time.

"Since I know better than to recline on a couch in your presence and discuss my feelings, what do you suggest?"

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[winewomenand]

"I could suggest a lot of things."

There wasn't nearly the level of college frat house eroticism hidden in the suggestion at the moment that there usually would be, but Robin managed a drizzle of good humor anyway. It was what Niko needed; something of Cal's presence. Humor even in the face of endless misfortune. Goodfellow could be maudlin with the very best of them, but Niko didn't need sympathy or a reminder that things would get better. He needed empathy and a reminder that things were what they were.

He dropped down to his knees in the corner, picking up the thin slip of silk and then tugging the dagger out of the wall with a little effort.

"Instead I'll suggest what won't get me sprayed with a hose. I suggest, instead of doing something reasonable, we go and make total asses of ourselves. Inasmuch as you can make a proper donkey of yourself, anyway. What do you say? Disappear all night and pick on the nonhuman semi-evil even if it's a bad idea? It's easier to eat crow when it's still warm."

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[cal_sitter]

Luckily for everyone in the room, Robin went to his knees only to retrieve his belongings. Niko had been prepared for the puck to do something stupid with the intent of provoking a reaction that might relieve some of the pressure.

In recent months, Niko had begun to tell himself less often that finding satisfaction in another's pain was unhealthy.

"Put your shoes back on. I'll get my sword."

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[winewomenand]

The tie found its way around Robin's neck again, loosely tied over the unbuttoned collar. No need to leave it on very long and provide a convenient noose. He turned his head to give Niko a wag of his eyebrows, neither suggestive or guilty. Robin wasn't enabling anything-- Niko was extremely capable of saying no, and telling other people no, and Robin was fairly sure no was Niko's very first word, it it wasn't 'wheatgrass.' Niko was deciding to join Robin on his own.

Sliding out of the back room again, with a small wince of sympathy, as a business owner, at the damage to the walls, he stopped to slide the shoes back on without bothering to untie them. He watched for a moment the reflection of his own face in the plate glass, and then watched for Niko's approaching reflection.

"I hope you aren't going to feel guilty about this tomorrow morning at breakfast. I know that you pride yourself on self-control, and I know that you need your self-control. But I'm also speaking from a very long and storied history when I say that those who flee temptation tend to discover very soon that temptation has their forwarding address anyway."

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[cal_sitter]

Only if I sleep, Niko reflected as Robin went about on about guilt. The monsters and keeping Robin out until dawn, away from his customary amusements, would do more to hold off the corrosive wash of doubt than give him something new to regret.

Sword strapped at his back, and a half dozen more helpers stashed in hidden sheaths, Niko held the door for the puck and nodded him through to the night.

"You're a good man, Robin." Then, added with the beginnings of a wry smile, "At least when you come up out of the gutter for air."