Never Good Enough (Part Two)

Late nights were always a bother, because I couldn't ever sleep. It was easier to deal with though, now that I had a roommate. Wolf didn't need to sleep regular hours to recharge, so long as he did every so often. That meant he was up to humor me whenever I decided to stay in my room during one of my insomnia kicks.

Mostly because humoring me meant beating the breaks off of me in video games.

"You suck, Wolf," I snapped as an insult. I wanted to get him mad so he'd screw up. Not so easy.

Wolf didn't even flinch, "Judging by the player vs. player record between the two of us, I would say otherwise," He knew that losing was worse for me than anything I could say or do to him at that moment.

"You play like a pussy," I said, trying again. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough salt in my verbiage to make him care.

"You are overaggressive in your offense," Wolf declared, caring nothing for my insults. He knew that my losing was worse to me than anything I would actually be willing to say to him, "If you pressured your opponents less, and learned how to wait for mistakes to be made, you would likely fare better in multiplayer."

"But forcing people to panic is so satisfying," I said, before I felt something click after the words I said, "Wow... I think that might be how I actually fight in real life too. Explains a lot, actually."

"And how does that work for you?" Wolf said, adding on to his own point, "Against an enemy you cannot frighten into making rash mistakes, you leave yourself too open by constantly moving forward. A savvy warrior will capitalize."

Wolf was good at analysis. Really good. In fact, I took cues from improving on the way I did things in fights from him. More than I did from teachers, really. A lot of the time they would tell me what I did wrong, but he would offer suggestions on the spot. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. But constantly trying to fix what I did wrong kept others off of my ass.

As we went through the character select screen again to prepare for our latest match-up, I felt the need to mess with him a bit more, "You know, if you didn't care, you wouldn't correct me when I screw up."

"Your continued survival is beneficial to me, Bellamy Marcher. It is only a rule of nature that I would seek to keep you well when you have shown a desire to work for my benefit," He said, trying to make things as logical as possible, "Also, I do not dislike you."

"Can you not be a douche and just admit that we're friends already?"

"No."

I flicked him on the side of my head. It hurt, but I got a decent 'tink' sound off of him, so it was worth it to me, "You see? That's why you're not a Paladin. You can't even pretend that you like me," I said, trying to be funny, "I mean, yeah, Laura doesn't like me either, but she's new. If I give her some time, maybe I can win her over. At least she has a reason. I got you out of that bunker and you don't like me. I probably just made a bad impression on her, so that's why she doesn't like me."

Speak of the devil, and she shall appear. From behind the two of us, out of nowhere, Laura spoke, "I also do not dislike you, Bellamy."

She had not been invited. She had not been present. Neither of us even knew she was there until she said something. Both of us jumped up and turned around, "Holy shit! Wolf, chill!" I said before he could extend the claws on his feet or grab his chainsaw from the open compartment on his back. He calmed down and let me focus back on Laura, "How long have you been in here? Actually, how did you get in here?"

I could have sworn I'd told her not to scare me anymore. Earlier that evening, in fact. That meant announcing your presence in some kind of way. Then again, I also said she could come to my room anytime.

Laura eyed Saberwolf warily until she realized that I had some kind of influence over him and that he wouldn't attack her. Good. I didn't need them destroying my room, "I have not been here for long. Maybe two minutes."

I noticed that she didn't answer my second question. Whatever. I would figure it out on my own later. "How did you not even know she was in the room?"

"I must actively be seeking mutants to locate them," Wolf explained, sitting down on his mechanical haunches once everything had calmed down, "It is not an ability that I use in passing. I must activate it myself."

"Oh. Neat," I said. I tossed the controller in my hand over onto my bed and walked up to Laura. I was a full foot taller than her, but I didn't feel like it. Not only had she crept up on me in my own room, without even trying, if it came to straight-up physicality, she would probably have manhandled me in a heartbeat, "So what can your oh-so-humble team leader do for you? Need a nightlight or something?" I asked, making a show to glow for a moment as I did.

Communication was not Laura's strong-suit – it was clear that she was struggling – but I had to give her efforts for trying. "You said if I wanted to talk, or if I had a question, that I could come to you," She said, "I wanted to ask, what is the composition of the Paladins?"

There was a real curiosity in the tone of her question, as though it were a subject that had been bothering her, and I had a satisfying answer. I didn't, "What are you talking about?"

Her brow furrowed, a touch of frustration seeping into her expression, "Why is our team set up in the way that it is?"

From the little that I'd picked up on Laura since meeting her, she knew her shit. I mean as far as fighting and strategy, at least the concepts. It was intimidating to think that this person was my age. She didn't leave anything for granted. If there was something she didn't know and it involved her in one way or another, she wanted to be caught up to speed.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the answers she seemed to be after, "I don't know. They just put us together. I think Ruth told Miss Pryde to add me onto the team, but other than that, we just got stuck with each other."

"Exactly," Laura replied, sounding frustrated. She had come to the same conclusion, but it didn't seem logical to her, "The team makeups do not make sense. It is difficult for me to see a tactical reasoning for how they are divided up, with the exception of one or two student pairings on every team. This one is no different. Our abilities as a unit do not mix."

"Well, yeah, that would be nice. But I don't think that's such a big deal," I could admit that she had a point. It was a pain in the butt trying to figure out how to work together with what all of us could do. But we were getting along somehow. I liked my team, "How we got together doesn't matter. All that matters is that we are now."

She stared me down before shaking her head, "That is foolish."

It was like she tried to understand my point of view, but just couldn't. That gave me a measure of hope, "Hopefully you'll understand, eventually," I was starting to feel better about finding ways to get her integrated with the team. I just had to convince her to spend more time with us. Break her of her loner streak, "Until then, since you're here, do you want to play something?"

She followed my finger as I pointed to the TV and then moved back over to my bed to grab my controller, "It is late. We have classes in the morning," She reasoned with me, "It would be a better idea to rest."

I waved her off while Saberwolf retook his position at the side of my chair. He shook himself out before sitting down, clearly ready to continue playing, "I can't sleep unless I'm hurt or I really burn myself out during the day. Part of my powers. That makes nighttime boring. But, at least it gives me a lot of time to practice on things."

"And yet, he is still subpar at many games," Wolf chimed in.

"You practice when I'm not here," I replied to the chippy A.I., before trying to hand off the controller to Laura, "Seriously though, do you want to take a crack at him? I'm tired of losing tonight," I offered, mostly to get out of taking constant beatdowns from Wolf. We only ever played what he wanted to play. If it was something I was better at, he never wanted to touch it.

She tentatively took the controller from me and sat down in the chair, "I do not know how to play."

I plopped down face-first on my bed in the direction of the TV and got myself settled in to watch, "Trust me, Wolf will be happy to whoop your ass until you figure it out. We've got all night."

I wasn't going to be able to fix much of anything in one night, but with enough time, I could try putting some dents in the formidable fortress that was Laura's personality.