Let's Get Back To Work

[the_civilian]

Who| Tadashi and you!
What| Trying to learn not to light everything on fire
Where| Training gym
When| After diplomacy/disaster mission
Warnings/Notes| PTSD, pyrophobia, will update as necessary

You'd think a guy who was as afraid of his own powers as Tadashi clearly was wouldn't be experimenting with them outside of training. But for all that he'd spent their training sessions thus far failing to control the flames he generated, there he was, sitting cross-legged and concentrating on a target less than a foot away from him.

It did explain, however, why he was dripping wet and the target was in the middle of the pool. Legion flight rings meant never having to balance on a floatie while trying not to have flashbacks to being trapped in a burning building.

"Okay," he muttered under his breath, dialing down the juice on his power suppressor and extending his hand toward the target. "Test thirty-seven. Let's not dump ourselves in the water this time."

Comments

[whyarewehere]

Grif bent double laughing, dropping his gym bag.

"Oh my god dude you should see your face!" he managed to choke out as he caught his breath.

That could have gone very, very badly, but Grif didn't think about it. "Grif didn't think" covered a lot of situations in his life up to this point.

[the_civilian]

"I could have seriously hurt you, Grif!" Tadashi retorted, running his now-harmless hand back through his hair. Between the dampness and his lack of a hat, it stuck up like the spines of a particularly aggravated hedgehog. "Seriously, don't do that, did you see what happened to my target? I'd feel really bad if I lit you on fire, but not as bad as you'd feel!"

[whyarewehere]

Grif straightened, catching his breath but still grinning.

"It was so worth it," he insisted. "And hey, I'm fast, I'm pretty sure I would've been fine." He shrugged in a gesture that was pure humblebrag.

"How's the whole fire powers thing going? You know, without me scaring the crap out of you."

[the_civilian]

"Do you know how to run fast enough to put out a fire yet?" Tadashi huffed, but his aggravation was fading into a more low-key frustration.

"It's going, I guess. Not anywhere fast, but progress takes time and experimentation. And, unfortunately, 'fire powers' isn't something that can be helped by talking to a rubber duck."

[whyarewehere]

"If it's a speed thing, I can totally do it," Grif replied with firm confidence. In fact, he had something he'd been coming in to try out just now. He supposed it would have to wait if Tadashi was here, though.

Grif was absolutely sure he could figure out the vibrating-your-molecules-so-fast-you-can-run-through-a-wall trick.
He was also absolutely sure that, on the off chance he was wrong, he would rather die than have anyone see the attempt.

"What's got you so nervous about the fire thing, anyway?" he asked. It seemed like Tadashi was having a bit more trouble than most of the rest. Why?

[the_civilian]

Tadashi scrubbed a hand over his face, taking a moment to take a deep breath and let it out so that he could center himself for this conversation.

"Before I showed up in this universe -- literally right before, last-thing-I-remember right before -- I was inside a burning building," he explained, trying to keep his voice steady. He looked away to the side, not really wanting to see Grif's reaction. "I wasn't going to be getting out of there."

[whyarewehere]

Oh jeeze.

Grif was all for giving people shit. It was one of his more important talents. But Tadashi hadn't actually done anything to him and so far it seemed unlikely that he was going to. He also wasn't trying to be cool about this.

Somehow, Grif couldn't quite kick him while he was down.

This place and all its surprisingly decent people was really, really starting to get to him.

"That's rough, buddy," he managed.

[the_civilian]

Tadashi laughed, but his heart clearly wasn't in it.

"Yeah, it kind of is," he agreed wryly. "It was pretty stupid, too. I should have thought the whole thing through better, but..."

Well, he'd ended up trapped in a burning building. Obviously there hadn't been a lot of "thinking it through" going on.

[whyarewehere]

"Stupid seems to be par of the course for the super hero gig," Grif noted, finding a new grip on the conversation. This one was more familiar and less awkward. "Obviously you're a natural for the job. I don't know what this team would do without someone with sense like me to remind you guys about the whole staying alive part."

[the_civilian]

Tadashi laughed a little, allowing Grif to steer them away from the darker corners of this conversation. "Heart's in the right place, but the skill? Still working on that." He gestured. "Hence the unorthodox usage of the pool, because I rolled poorly on the power generator chart."

[whyarewehere]

"Could do what I do," Grif offered. "Which is nothing. It's much easier."

...Not that he was coming in here for any reason when he thought the training room was empty, no not at all.

[the_civilian]

"I don't know, I'm a pretty driven kind of guy," Tadashi said dryly. "It might be easier just keep hammering away at this. Besides, I'd hate to horn in on your schtick."