He was violently shaking, his blood pooling around his claws in his knuckles before spilling in thick droplets to the woodland floor. Laura found herself drifting a moment, her eyes lingering hungrily on those droplets. Blood just kind of...did something to the clawed Howlett clan. it was hard to explain really, but Laura always had to  put a lot of conscious effort into learning to ignore the scent of fresh blood. On noticing her touch, James had stumbled away from her and dilated pupils drifted after him.<br/><br/>As James with a horror-stricken look on his face brought a hand to close around a set of his own claws, Laura started forward, a hand raised as though she might be close enough to stop him.<b>"Wait! It won't...!"</b>Too late. That snapping sound was all too familiar to her. He'd snapped his claws right off. Laura watched him cast them aside and wondered idly just how powerful his healing factor was. How long would it take for them to grow back?<br/><br/>He started to ask the panicked questions of a child just coming down  from a night terror and Laura found the line of her lips thinning, a bit of frustration and intolerance tugging at her. She realized that the palm she'd extended toward him was still fully adorned with her claws and she sighed before pulling her hands back toward her sides, a grim expression on her face. This was harder than she expected it would be, seeing him so terrified. Aside from the hair and the lack of comparative muscle definition that would only come with excessive years of training and killing, James looked just like Logan. Him cowering there felt almost insulting.<i>This</i>was his legacy? She wanted to ring his neck.<br/><br/>Consciously, Laura crossed her arms over her abdomen careful to keep her claws at the undersides. She wasn't sure why she hadn't just retracted them already. Maybe she was anticipating more off the rail behavior from James. Either way she sighed again thinking it might be better to let that anxiety go. Her claws retracted quietly leaving just the smallest amount of blood to speak of behind. The knuckle wounds closed up almost immediately. She drew in a long careful breath. Was she even sure she could do this? She<i>had</i>to, just like Logan had to for her, because not having him around meant James had no one else.<br/><br/><b>"James."</b>she took a small careful step toward him.<b>"It is alright. You are safe here. No one is hurt. Can you calm down now?"</b>In her own experience, calming words never worked. She'd been programmed that way. The both of them were a different sort of animal, the instinct to kill or be killed the very apex of their existence. In Laura's case, Logan had to take her down and beat the sense into her on more than a few occasions. Most of the time she'd started it. To anyone who didn't understand the 'instinct' and what they'd been through, she was very aware of how it looked an sounded. While Laura might have shared the same blood as James, there were a lot of very important differences between them.<br/><br/>James was not a product and as long as Laura was around he never would be. He would never experience being a test subject, a brainwashed created weapon with a project number and a threat level.  He wasn't and would never be conditioned or tortured or shredded than put back together and stuffed with metal. He was a baby animal learning to walk on rickety legs and though she knew it was wrong...Laura resented him for it.<br/><br/>He had no right to cower in fear like this. No kin of Logan did. Changing her mind about the calm tone, she glared at him icily.<b>"No. I won't accept this. On your feet. Now."</b>