(no subject)

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

Date: June 8th, morning
Location: Forest
Status: Public
Summary. Duncan goes for a morning run


Feeling a need for fresh air, Duncan decided to go for a run before his morning exercise.

He left the premises at a brisk trot, headed for the forest.

Comments

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

It was a beautiful day and Jan was getting awfully bored holed up in the hotel all the time. Nobody had ever attacked or bothered him in all the time he'd gone out to practice shooting and Benjamin had assured him that he was perfectly safe. Most likely nobody would ever know, if he took a very early, very short walk.

But what was that? Another immortal approaching from behind? Was it Benjamin that wanted to join him, or ...

Jan whirled around and saw the very person he was most scared of running after him! His hand shot into his pocket for his gun, but then he noticed that McLeod wasn't holding his sword and he hesitated to pull it out. Instead he just stopped with his hand on the gun waiting for his attacker to catch up and hoping that Dawson wasn't hiding behind a tree nearby.

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

Duncan felt the Buzz as he jogged down the trail. Moments later, the twitchy immortal who had taken his and Methos' practice bout so very seriously came in sight.

"Hey!" Duncan called and waved as the other man stopped and waited for him. "Nice mornng, isn't it?"

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"Good morning," Jan returned stiffly. Nice morning? Well, it had been until a moment ago. "You're out early." He made it sound like a statement rather than a question.

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

Duncan jogged up to the other immortal and slowed to a halt.

"I tend to," he said. "It's nice an' quiet in the early morn' and nothin' wakes a guy up quite as well as a good run in fresh air. Early bird yerself?"

Dressed in a tight-fitting t-shirt and running pants, Duncan wasn't quite sure why the other immortal still seemed to apprehensive. One, they were still on holy ground. Two, he couldn't have hidden a sword anywhere if he'd wanted to in his current state of dress.

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes," Jan said vaguely. He didn't want to tell Mcleod about his shooting practise, though he assumed he must have heard the shots sometimes, if he took morning runs like this often.

"Do you always go out unarmed like this?" He didn't for a moment believe that McLeod didn't have some weapon hidden somewhere on his person ... unless Dawson really was hidden somewhere nearby, probably carrying a gun and a sword ...

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

"On holy ground?" Duncan said. "Sure. It's not like I've got much use for a sword here, except to play with Methos. Benjamin. Adam. Whatever. Besides, it gets in the way with running."

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

Jan gave McLeod a sharp look at 'Whatever.', but didn't comment.

"Isn't that a little risky?" he asked instead. "I never go anywhere without my gun."

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

"I don't use guns very often," Duncan said. "They're better against mortals than against our kind, and I have no use for killing mortals. No use for killing immortals either, but some of them want to kill me, and I very much prefer myself alive. No one would be stupid enough to try anything on Holy Ground, though. We don't need another Pompeij."

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"It works long enough to turn around and run if I don't have a sword with me," Jan pointed out. "And it's easier to carry."

He certainly wouldn't tell McLeod of all people that he could no longer use a sword.

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

"Sounds smart enough," Duncan said. "I've shot others before to get away if a duel was a bad option. I don't usually carry a gun in Europe, though. They don't much like that here, not from random strangers."

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"That's why I use an antique gun," Jan explained. "it's perfectly legal here."

[mcleod1592.livejournal.com]

"Ah," Duncan said. "I usta deal in antiques. Not just weaponry, anything. Will do again, when I feel like taking up a job again, I bet. Ye might say I've got an unfair advantage, o' course. After all, I've been there when much o' the stuff I'm selling was actually new."

He looked Jan over.

"I'd love ta see it, y'know."

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

What? Was this immortal completely insane?

"Sorry," Jan said, making an effort to stay polite. "I never hand my only weapon over to another immortal."

"Sounds like a good cover," he added after a moment. "For running around carrying a sword as well as buying legal guns."

[jan_skovasja]

Maybe it was a nice holiday, if you weren't crippled and couldn't just leave whenever you liked, Jan thought. But he couldn't tell McLeod so.

"Oh, I've had enough of them approach me pretending to want to be friends. They all turned out to be after my head in the end, though. I much prefer the friendship of normal humans, thank you. At least they hardly ever try to kill me."

[mcleod1592]

McLeod chuckled. "Come to think about it, I've had more mortals try that one on me than immortals."

He held out his hand. "Look," he said. "I promise I'll not try to kill you... here or elsewhere. And I hereby offer to teach you, properly, if that is what you wish."

[jan_skovasja]

Jan shook his head.

"I promise to give you the benefit of the doubt - because you appear to be Benjamin's friend and because you haven't killed me yet, not because of merely the things you say - but I cannot trust you that far. I won't try to kill you unless you try to kill me."

McLeod didn't have to know that Jan very much doubted that he could kill him anyway.

[mcleod1592]

McLeod laughed. "Agreed," he said. "To that I agree gladly. We'll be eternally safe from each other then. Or well, that is unless you start to randomly slaughter mortals. In that case, I would feel compelled to stop you."

He held out his hand, palm open and up, waiting for Jan to take it.

[jan_skovasja]

Jan hesitated, but then hesitantly let go of the gun he'd been clutching in his pocket and took McLeod's offered hand.

Was it a wise move though? McLeod probably couldn't miss the missing thumb - or the fact that Jan's hand was shaking.

[mcleod1592]

McLeod smiled at the other immortal.

"Most of us aren't that bad," he said. "Methos, for example... You guys know each other, I gather?"

[jan_skovasja]

"You mean Benjamin? I knew him a long time ago. Before ..."

[mcleod1592]

"Before me?" Duncan suggested. "That's likely. We only met maybe 15 years ago. In any case, what I mean is, he's spent hundreds of years hiding himself in plain sight without ever coming within reach of a swordfight."

[jan_skovasja]

"Before ... my ... death, I meant," Jan said. "But yes, that was a lot more than fifteen years ago. I haven't seen him since then, though, so you probably know him better than I do anyway."

He shrugged trying to pretend that it didn't really matter.

[mcleod1592]

"Ah, he met you as a fledgling. You didn't die while he was around, right? If you did, I would have to give that man a very severe talking-to for not taking you on as his apprentice."

Some of them did that, leaving young ones to fend for themselves. They were the kind of immortals that he didn't mind beheading as much.

[jan_skovasja]

"Oh no, nothing of the sort, that happened a year or two after we parted, though I do wish he had warned me. I had no idea what had happened to me at first."

He did not want to get Benjamin in trouble with his friend no matter how uneasy he still was around the man.

[mcleod1592]

"It can be hard to warn someone," Duncan pointed out. "Unless they witness you revive, they're note likely to believe you. Methos hasn't been big on risking being recognised for what he is for as long as I've known him... I'd be surprised if he was any different back then."