Phil and Noriko

[om_surge]

Phil and Noriko have it out about the whole thing. Or not, as it turns out, because they're still the best at failing at the big conversations.


Noriko wasn't sure if she had the right to be pissed about Philip hiding this new development from her, but whether or not she did, there was no lying to herself - she was pissed. She tried to go into their weekly sparring session with an open mind, but being around him just made her anger build up, and her technique more vicious than it usually was, and she gradually switched to using dirty tricks right out of Abby's book, tricks that were normally not her style, much as she'd used them in her training with her roommate.

There was no lying to herself, and there was apparently no real hiding it from him, either.

Philip was definitely not expecting how the session would go, he knew the tricks, or at least knew of most of them, enough to roll with an adapt. Noriko was obviously pissed about something, unusually for her and he let it go for a few minutes, hoping she'd work it out of her system. After one particular strike that would have left him in bad shape if it had connected, he stepped back out of the way, and held up his hands. "Wait, wait stop."

Noriko stepped back and shifted her balance, then lowered her hands, after a beat. She was breathing a little hard, and she pushed her hair out of her eyes. "You okay?" She'd been going at it pretty hard, and he'd just asked to stop. Of course she'd ask, pissed or not.

"I'm fine, this was just starting to edge out of sparring and into a fight," Philip said with a frown. "Are you okay?" Because he was concerned, of course he was, even after things had gotten pretty awkward.

"I just wanted to try out some of Abby's techniques," Noriko replied, shaking her head at herself. "Guess I shouldn't have when I'm this keyed up."

The frown deepened and Philip dropped his hands as he looked at her. "I don't think that's it... You're mad at me for something." He wasn't always the best at some people things but that? That he could figure out.

Well, yeah, hence the keyed up, Noriko thought, eyes flashing. But the normal sort of angry flash, not the sort that involved electricity. "I don't know, what could I possibly be mad at you about," she asked, flatly. This was about the first time since they'd broken up Philip was talking about anything with her that wasn't training- or team-related, and the realization didn't help dispel her anger.

"I don't know?" Philip replied. She didn't know anything about Russia, Tony was the only one with any idea and he trusted that the engineer wouldn't talk about it. "I know I haven't been around much but I've been busy?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you have," Noriko muttered angrily, and moved back to the edge of the mats to grab her bottle and have a drink.

And now Philip just looked confused. "Is this about the trip?"

Noriko finished drinking, then frowned over at him. "What trip?"

"To Russia?" Philip said. It wasn't exactly common knowledge but he couldn't think of anything else. "When we brought Natasha back with us."

"Why would I be pissed about that?" Noriko asked. She really didn't like the thought that there might be something else there for her to be mad about.

"I have no idea? It was the first thing that popped into my head," Philip said with a shrug. Mostly... because that was public and the other thing she might be mad about was definitely not.

"Really," Noriko challenged him flatly, then turned away to put her shoes back on.

"Noriko," Philip said, just as firmly. "What is going on?"

Noriko took a few seconds to calm the hell down as she put her shoes on. When she straightened up and turned back to Philip, she looked shut off more than angry. "I know about you and Clint."

Philip just... blinked at her, slightly openmouthed. "Ah... what?" he said and the words might have come out a little strangled.

"Yeah, that was my reaction, too," Noriko stated, and picked up her water again. She wasn't sure if she wanted to speed out of there or just have something to do with her hands.

"God damnit..." Philip muttered as he scrubbed a hand over his face. "It was Halloween, wasn't it? I'm sorry, Noriko, we haven't said anything to anybody. I didn't want to..."

"You didn't want to what?" she asked mercilessly, when he trailed off.

"Upset you? I wasn't trying to hide it from you. Well," he paused to correct himself. "Not hiding it maliciously. There's almost no one who knows this is a thing and they're all people that it couldn't be avoided. We were keeping it quiet for a lot of reasons," he admitted. "And it wasn't something we'd expected to happen."

"I hope that wasn't supposed to make me feel better," Noriko stated, her jaw set.

"I'm not that stupid," Philip said dryly. "Even I'm not that clueless. The only thing I can do is apologize."

"I'm so glad we talked it out." Noriko glanced away, then back at him. "If today was any hint, it's probably best we stop sparring for a while." Or forever.

"What do you want me to say? We weren't expecting it, it wasn't something we planned and I sure as hell didn't want to do this," Philip said. "And if you want to stop, I'll respect that."

"I don't expect anything from you," Noriko snapped. Not anymore. She took a breath. "But yeah. Let's put this on hold for now."

"Alright." And it sucked that he couldn't say anything more but what was there to say? It hadn't ended well and there was no way he could give up Clint.

"Alright," she echoed, and took a few steps normal speed, first. Because speeding up straight away would feel like the equivalent of slamming a door in his face, and it wasn't what she was aiming for.

Well, there wasn't much else he could say was there, without screwing it up even more. Philip just sighed as he heard her take off after the first couple steps, speeding away.