Clint and Noriko

[om_surge]

Noriko wants to sound Clint out on the matter of the junior team. There is a lot of laughter on his part.


Noriko had very little idea what to expect from Clint. They hadn't really talked since he had joined the school. All that she knew was that Scott considered him a maybe, and Philip thought that he had potential. It wouldn't hurt to talk to him, but she had no idea what she would think of him. When she caught sight of him in the hallways, she figured that it was as good an opportunity as any, and hurried up to catch up with him.

"Hey, Clint, right?" she asked him as she fell in stride with him, not exactly expecting him to remember her name, no matter how easy to identify she was, between the hair and the gauntlets. "I'm Noriko. You got a minute?"

Clint didn't remember her name, but he definitely remembered the face. She was cute, gauntlets, hair, and all. She was a strong chick and it showed. Fortunately for him, he liked strong chicks. Reshuffling his bag under one arm, he gave her a grin. "Depends on what this minute is for."

"Get-to-know-you, and maybe more," Noriko replied evenly. Another tone and that 'maybe more' might have been misconstrued, but she didn't as a rule sound as if that kind of 'maybe more' could be on the table. Not unfriendly at all, just... not that friendly, either. "So, probably more than a minute," she allowed.

Okay, cool hard chick. He knew the type. But, as he took in the look in her eyes and flipped through the meanings that could be there, he gave a slow, agreeable shrug of his shoulders and backed off on the flirt. Maybe later. "Okay. Where to?"

"Were you headed some place in particular?" Noriko asked. She didn't mind talking as they walked, if he was.

"Where I'm always headed," he told her, keeping stride. "Well, when I'm not goin' to the gym or t'classes, or my room, or the tv room."

He rubbed the back of his neck at the thought, then abruptly changed direction toward the common room. "But we aren't gonna get much talkin' done out there. You shoot any pool?"

"Not really," Noriko replied with a purse of her lips, but she followed his change of direction. She'd never had the chance to learn before coming here, and she just hadn't taken the time since. "But I could stand to learn. Where are you always headed?"

"The archery range," Clint answered fondly, then waved a hand gallantly for her to proceed ahead of him into the room. "I'm a bit of an arrow junkie."

He sounded like it, but Noriko was too busy not enjoying being invited to walk first into a room. It had nothing to do with gallantry and everything to do with survival instincts, really. But it was stupid in here, so she just walked in without comment. "Philip mentioned that," she confirmed.

"Then why'd you have to ask?" he reproached, smirking at her back.

"He left out the 'junkie' part," Noriko wryly replied, which was her own form of humor. She headed for the pool table after checking who was watching the TV. "Just mentioned your skills."

"Yeah? What else did good ole' Phil have to say about me?" Clint asked, slinging his bag down next to the wall as he moved to grab all the stray balls, stacking them up and juggling them a little as he did so.

"Well, he told me to stay away from you and the pool," Noriko had to point out, amused, as she went to get a cue. Philip also wasn't sure whether Clint would be interested by Noriko's offer, but he hadn't discouraged her from sounding him out. Not that she was going to tell him this just yet; she wanted to get a feel for him first.

"Hey, to be fair, I was just making sure he had himself a good time. He wasn't havin' any fun at all, marching around that party like a chaperone," Clint pointed out, switching balls in and out of the rack.

"As opposed to after you pulled him in," Noriko pointed out. But hey, Philip's fault for giving him the opportunity, and he had been taking the chaperone job way too seriously. Until they'd managed to get away for a little while. Nice break. "So, one stripe one solid one stripe one solid?" What he was doing looked like it, so far.

"Except the 8 ball in the center," Clint showed her, "And the two guys on either side of the bottom of the rack - they gotta be one stripe, one solid. Phil's a good guy. A little stiff-" And a little tight, if his drunk brain was remembering that right. "-but a good guy. He showed me around when I got here, when this place turned me around more than it does now."

"Most of us need a guide at first," Noriko stated, although she'd gone for exploring on her own and mapping the place out in her mind, more than relying on anybody to help her out. That, too, had become instinct. She couldn't feel right living some place without knowing its layout. "What about you? Are you a good guy?" It was an easy question to ask, given what he'd just said about Philip, and she was curious what he might answer.

The easy smile on his lips lessened a bit, and Clint took his sweet time answering as he got the balls all nice and tight together, carefully lifting the rack away. He turned away to get a cue and set the rack aside and finally said, "Probably not the greatest, but I'm here, aren't I? A couple of people've stuck their necks out for me, and I don't feel like I can let 'em down."

A sense of - perhaps not quite duty, but responsibility, at least - that was one of the markers of good people, the way she saw it. One of them, though - not the only one. "Hey, what about that blue thingie?" she asked, watching the tip of her cue warily. There was something going on with that, but she had no idea why she might want to rub a blue anything on it.

"Chalk," Clint grinned, and tossed her a bit of it. "You rub it on there before you shoot so the ball doesn't go sliding around where you don't want it to go."

Noriko caught the chalk when he threw it to her, something she was pretty sure she couldn't have done with the first version of the gauntlets - she was still so thankful to Tony and Kitty. "Right," she stated, and rubbed it on the tip before setting it down on the edge of the table. She assumed he was going to go first, since she didn't even really know how to shoot. She'd get back to their conversation as soon as he taught her that, so they wouldn't get interrupted quite as much.

Clint set the cue ball at the end and scratched the underside of his forearm awkwardly. "So uh, you just line it up with your cue, and use the white one to break the others apart. You wanna try and get at least one in a pocket."

Seeing her look a little unsure, he reached for her arm to show her how to line up the stick, then motioned beside her on how to shoot. "Like this. You wanna put a little power into it."

"Alright," Noriko agreed, still uncertain that she would manage to break the balls correctly. But hey, she might as well try. It was a little awkward, finding the right way to rest the cue on her gauntlet, rather than on skin, but she eventually managed, and aimed for the triangle of balls. Afraid that she would not go strong enough, she hit the cue ball too hard, and way off mark, so that it hit the side of the table before coming to nudge at the balls, much too weakly. "Well, that was awesome," she dryly stated, and straightened up.

"I guess they don't play pool much where you're from?" Clint asked with a little grin, playfully teasing as he straightened the balls and reset the cue.

"But on the other hand, they make us really stubborn," Noriko stated wryly, and tried again. This time, she was less focused on strength and more on aim, and managed alright. It was no amazing shot, but it at least landed where she wanted, and with enough force that the triangle broke, a few balls rolling off... and one of them, a solid, into a pocket.

"Must be a mutant trait then," Clint snorted and waved his chalk at the pocketed ball. "Okay, that means you're solids. You want to try to pocket all the solid colored balls then try to get the eight ball in last. You shoot until you miss gettin' a ball in the pocket, then it's my turn."

"Okay," Noriko agreed, and surveyed the table before deciding on which ball to try and pocket. It seemed like an easy enough shot, but she still managed to miss the pocket, if not by much. His turn, according to what he'd said, so she stepped back from the table. "So who do you figure have stuck their necks out for you?"

Clint didn't look over at her, but was acutely aware of her watching him as he moved around the table, chalking his cue and judging his shot. "You know Vance at all?"

Noriko frowned in surprise. "Yeah."

"He's why I'm here," Clint told her. "Xavier went to see him in juvie and found me there, finishing up my time. He also saved my butt a couple of times inside. Now I got his bed and his school and his friends. I figure I better put in some effort. Not let him down."

Noriko nodded slowly; if that was real, then there was a big chance she was going to like Clint. "Vance is a great guy. And a great guy not to wanna disappoint."

Clint didn't answer that, leaning down to judge the shot. He didn't need luck to bounce it off of the far side and knock it into the corner pocket. Course, sometimes, his luck got in the way. Today, it didn't, thunking nicely into the leather with a soft sound, and he circled the table for his next, which probably wouldn't be such a sure thing. It wasn't the worst date he'd ever been on, even if Noriko didn't know it was a date. Cool chick, and all that. But she definitely had an interest in him. That, at least, he could pick up on.

As he lined up his next attempt, he finally said, "What about you? You owe anyone anything?"

Noriko knocked the metal of her gauntlets against the wood of the table by tapping a finger on its edge. "What do you think," she wryly answered - because it was her style, and not because she resented having the tables turned on her. It made sense that he would, and she trusted that more than if he hadn't. "The headmasters and the doctor," she elaborated, offering her truth in exchange for his. "Tony and Kitty. A few others." A lot more students here, who had helped her stay off drugs, whether they knew it or not. "I was in a pretty bad place when I got here," she added, to explain the number of people she felt she owed.

The next shot flew way off course as he got distracted, completely missing the ball he'd aimed for and coming to a stop in the middle of the table. He glanced up at her, leaning on his cue.

"Seems like you made it through the bad place alright," he noted. "Cute, badass chick like yourself. Trial by fire, or something like that."

Noriko still didn't know what to make of that kind of comment, so she did as most of the time: she ignored it, to focus on what mattered. "It's kind of an ongoing process," she told him, because the minute she thought she was through was the minute she let her guard down and... well, she was an addict for life.

But it was her turn, she acknowledged, and stepped around to the easiest shot she could find... and this time, thankfully, sunk the ball she'd meant to. The next shot, however, really didn't work out the way she'd hoped, since she ended up accidentally pocketing a stripe. "Go me." She wasn't sure what the rules were surrounding that, but she was guessing it wasn't a good thing.

Clint grinned. "Well, you got it in."

Reaching over, he picked up the cue ball and tossed it in his hand. "Now I get to place this where I want it for a shot."

"Alright," Noriko waved for him to go for it. Like he needed the extra help against her.

He set up the next shot, but still found himself distracted. Mostly because he wasn't quite sure what was going on. The 'get to know you' had turned out to be a lot more serious than he was used to, and she had yet to actually smile. Even he could work out in his head that something else was happening beneath the surface of the friendly game of pool.

Instead of shooting, he finally put his cue down and leaned on it, meeting her gaze on a level a bit more serious than he usually let on. "So are you gonna tell me what this is all about or are we gonna dance around uncomfortable conversation for the rest of the game?"

Noriko watched him curiously when he failed to set up his next shot, and only after his words did she finally smile. At him for being so blunt, and at herself. "I was enjoying it, actually." Other people's uncomfortable conversation was the kind of get-to-know-you she liked? Big surprise. But it was time for full disclosure. "Scott Summers is putting together an intervention team for over-eighteens. I'm trying to figure out who would wanna train for that kind of thing now, before they turn eighteen, even if we might not go out on the field yet. Scott brought up your name as a maybe. Phil didn't think it was a terrible idea." So here she was, playing get-to-know-you in an apparently uncomfortable manner, but she didn't feel like she needed to spell it out. It was pretty obvious, and Clint wasn't stupid.

For a moment, he just stared at her. It kinda took that long to process 'intervention team', 'train', and 'Scott brought up your name'. The first because he wasn't quite sure what that was, the second because what, did they think he didn't do enough of that already? And the third because...well. Scott didn't even much like him, let alone think he was at all responsible enough to be on some kind of team. He barely trusted him enough to get him that job at the garage. Not that he wasn't grateful.

Finally, he managed, "I'm...uh. What?"

"Yeah," Noriko confirmed, with a shrug. "That's why I liked the uncomfortable conversation approach." She didn't mind giving him time to process. There was nothing pressing she had to get to, after all, or she wouldn't have come up to him to start with.

"No, really," Clint added this time, screwing up his face at her. "This is a joke, right? Summers put you up to this?"

"Not really his kind of joke," Noriko pointed out with a purse of lips. "Or mine. Why, you don't think you have what it takes?"

'Have what it takes'? What was this, some kind of Army recruitment speech? And then that image stuck in his head, of him shooting arrows on a battlefield right out of Call of Duty, and his lip started twitching. Him? With his luck, doing...intervention, whatever that was, much less on a team? The squad was bad enough.

That's when he started laughing. At first it was just a chuckle, but once he started, he couldn't stop, gripping the cue and doubling over, his imagination providing him with more than enough ammunition (ahaha, ammunition!) to keep the amusement rolling.

Noriko watched him with growing skepticism as the laughter grew, then failed to show any side of stopping. Well, clearly there was a joke she wasn't in on, and she rolled her eyes, still holding her cue loosely. "You wanna share with the class?"

It took a minute or two for the laughing to die down, especially because every time he thought he had it under control, it would keep bubbling back up, but finally Clint managed to clear his throat, wiping tears from his eyes. "Hey look, I like you. I do. And Summers really isn't all that bad, though I'm not sure I'd ever want to take orders from him in any capacity. But whatever this thing is that you're looking for soldiers for? No way. Ain't gonna happen. This is me, doing that loner thing, and telling you 'No.'"

"We're not gonna be soldiers," Noriko said evenly, but there was something sharper about it. No one was ever making her into a soldier. "But it's up to you," she added with a shrug. If he ever changed his mind about the training, he could let her know. But there was one thing she wanted to know. "I'm really curious about what was so funny, though," she stated with a bemused purse of her lips, the sort that bordered on a smile.

Clint gave her a look, quirking his lips at the sides. "It's gonna take more than a pool game to get to know me well enough to get that joke."

"Well. Here's to hoping it's a good start, anyway," Noriko stated, amused but admitting defeat, with a nod at the table inviting Clint to resume playing.

Still wiping at tears a little, Clint grinned and turned back toward the table, moving to take his next shot. In the back of his mind, though, the little hamster wheel was turning. So teams were being set up, huh? That was interesting to know. Not that it was going to stop him from doing training on his own. Training far away from other people, who could get hurt, or worse, by his 'mutant gift'.