Philip and Abigail, 11/16

[om_brand]

Philip is distracted, Abigail is unamused, and interpersonal relationships are sort of discussed. Kind of.

Frankly, Abigail was beginning to get a little offended. It wasn't that she minded getting the best of Coulson, but dragging him down to the mat shouldn't have been so easy. She'd managed it three times already, and as they got set up again, she could already tell he still wasn't paying complete attention.

He damn well knew better than that. Which was exactly why the next time he moved, Abigail slipped right under his guard and caught him right across the side of the head, careful to keep the blow open handed, and hard enough to make his ears ring a little. "You gonna stop fucking around or what?"

"Hey!" Philip shot her a glare, though it wasn't that heated. If Abby could tag him like that, he deserved it. "I am not fucking around." So he was a little distracted thinking of other sparring sessions. He'd almost gotten it back under control. More or less.

Abigail gave him a long, dry look. "Well you're sure as hell not sparring."

Philip shot her another look in return. "If it was anyone but us, I'd be winning and you know it."

"Well then," she said, lashing out to tag him in the arm, "win."

Philip looked back sourly, hand moving to rub at his arm... and lashed out with a foot mid-gesture.

Abigail danced back out of the way and made a face at him. "Seriously. What's up with you?"

"I've been distracted, I know that," he admitted. "It's getting better."

"Uh huh," she said with heavy skepticism. "You gonna tell me what the issue is or not?"

Philip just tipped an eyebrow up, giving her the 'really?' look. "If he didn't tell you, there are going to be some words."

"What, you mean the thing with Clint?" Abigail paused and then gave an exaggerated wince. "Okay, I don't need to know."

"Sorry," Philip said though he really, really wasn't. At all. "It's taking a little getting used to."

"Why?" She asked before she could remember that this wasn't a conversation she particularly wanted to have with someone who was like a sibling. "You've dated before. I mean, allegedly."

"At the risk of too much information, it's not the same thing. He's...." Philip paused, groping for words. "Do not repeat this because it's going to freak him right out if you do but... He's it. He's what was missing."

Abigail wrinkled her nose a little. "So what, you're trying to adjust to these things humans call emotions?"

"You are such a pain in the ass," Philip said dryly. "But yeah, kinda. It's a lot more intense than I thought it'd be."

"Congratulations, you're a real boy," she snorted.

"And yet, that does not lessen you being a pain in my ass," Philip replied with a shake of his head. "I am getting over it, it's just taking longer than I thought it would. It doesn't help that I'm pretty sure Noriko wants to beat me up now."

"Uh," Abigail said on eyebrow lifting, "why?" She and her roommate were never going to be the best of friends, but Noriko had never struck her as the randomly starting fights type. Not without a reason, anyway.

"She found out before I told her," Philip said with a sigh. "Apparently we got caught by a couple people at Halloween and the word spread."

Abigail just stared. "You didn't tell her? Haven't you guys been dating for like months?"

"I split up with her months ago," Philip reminded her. "But.. we haven't told anybody what was going on."

"Okay," Abigail said slowly, "so it sucks that she had to hear about it from other people, but what's she so pissed about?"

"I don't actually know," Philip said ruefully. "She was pissed at me the last time we were training, I asked her why... conversation sort of went downhill from there." He sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "At the risk of sounding like more of an ass, I think she was more invested in it than I was."

She gave an expansive eyeroll. "You probably should have warned her that you were emotionally useless before you started."

"I did," Philip insisted. "I never made any secret of that."

"Guess you'll just have to put up with her being pissed at you, then," Abigail said with a shrug. "Join the club."

"I thought you two were getting on better? Or did I miss something?" Which was really entirely possible. Philip had been... incredibly focused for a while now.

"Sure. Probably never going to be friends, though."

"Then you're doing better than me," Philip said with a sigh.

The look Abigail gave him was deeply unimpressed as she pulled one arm in front of her to stretch her shoulder out. Apparently sparring was done. "Fix it, then."

Philip just huffed out an eyeroll at her. "How am I supposed to do that? I can't go back in time and tell her. And Clint and I are keeping it quiet for at least a couple months, at least till he's eighteen.'

"Christ. No one cares about how old he is," she said with a snort. "You just like keeping secrets."

"Age, that I'm faculty and he's not, even if I don't teach him directly, and he keeps thinking I'm going to bolt," Philip pointed out.

God, they were both headcases. It was probably better for everyone if they just inflicted it on each other. "Whatever you say," Abigail said with a shake of her head. "You gonna actually pay attention now or what?"

"Instead of discussing my love life? Definitely," Philip said as he stretched and gave a little bounce on his toes before squaring off again.

"Nobody asked you about you love live," she snorted, bouncing up and down on her toes. "You just decided to share."

"Uh huh. Keep telling yourself that, Brand," Philip said before he dove at her.