Nate and Forge's dad, in the kitchen.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Making sure his son eats, Forge's dad runs into Nathan in the kitchen.



Jean was, if it was possibly, actually slightly more sadistic than
Haroun when it came to physical therapy. Mostly because she liked to
give you that kind, encouraging smile that made you feel like a
monster if you complained about what she was asking you to do. Leaning
heavily on his cane, Nathan hobbled into the kitchen, figuring he
could make it to the table, sit down, and let the TK do the rest.
After all, using the TK to levitate himself was cheating. Food was
another matter entirely.

The person he spotted walking towards the kitchen from the other
direction was a little unexpected, although not totally; of course
Forge's father would be here, after the accident. Nathan made a mental
note to check on Forge again, now that he was out of the medlab. He'd
looked in on him, but only in the sticking his head around the door
sense of the word.

"Afternoon," he said amiably.

"Mister Dayspring," Richard turned to notive Forge's history teacher
heading for the kitchen. The cane drew a quick look, but little more.
"Good to see you up and about. I gathered from some of John Henry's
letters that you'd had a bit of an accident recently. It appears you
spring back quickly."

"We have very good medical care available," Nathan said, "for which
I'm very thankful. And accidents seem to be going around," he said
regretfully as he caught up to the other man, gesturing for him to
precede him into the kitchen. "How is Forge today? I haven't seen him
since he got out of the medlab."

"Nose-deep in myomer fiber and computer screens, last I left him."
Richard held the swinging door to the kitchen open for Nathan as both
men entered. "He's been at it for a few hours, and hasn't stopped to
eat. I figured I'd get him something a little more substantial than
his request for Red Bull and Pop-Tarts."

Walking over to the counter, Richard smiled at a neatly-covered plate
with a simple note reading "Emergency Genius Fuel". Lifting the cloth,
he grinned widely at the sight of a stacked plate of Dani's frybread
with a small bowl of honey and strips of jerky. "It looks like someone
was already thinking ahead of me. You all do seem to take care of each
other here."

"We try," Nathan said with a smile, wincing a bit as he lowered
himself into one of the chairs. "Though Danielle and Forge are a
special case, even here." Which reminded him, he really needed to
schedule some more meditation time with Dani. He hadn't been able to
do much with her on that score lately, and now that he had a little
more energy he needed to rectify that. "It's good to see the mutual
support among the students," he said, realizing that he probably
shouldn't indulge himself with wanton displays of TK in front of
Richard. Nuts.

Richard nodded, surreptitiously helping himself to a wedge of
frybread. "She's a unique case, indeed. Doctor McCoy explained that
he's adopting her child, pretty big decision. And with the likelihood
that the baby could be a mutant as well..." he left the statement
hanging as he chewed thoughtfully. "Mutual support is a good thing
here."

On the other hand, why not? This wasn't a parent paranoid about their
child's mutation, and he certainly seemed to be at ease with Hank. "I
worry sometimes that it creates an 'us-against-the-world' mentality,"
Nathan said, very delicately opening the refrigerator door from where
he sat. Juice, and a container of pre-made sandwiches... that would
do. The two containers floated over to the table, a glass joining them
from the rack, and the fridge closed itself again. "But then, the
students surprise me," he said, not looking at Richard. "Take Forge's
political group..."

"Yes..." Richard said slowly, watching the food float over to Nathan.
"He and I have had some talks about that. His mother works in
government law, and she's even more proud than I am at his exuberance
for this. I envy him, in a way. When I was his age, the civil rights
movement wasn't exactly in full swing on the reservation, and once I
got out into the 'white man's world', I never really got a chance to
throw my hat into that particular ring."

"This is a good place for him to become aware of a lot of
mutant-related issues," Nathan said, bringing the food to a precise
and soft landing on the table in front of him. "We do try and work
them into the relevant courses, where appropriate. Forge, I know,
appreciated the discussion of mutant 'values' we had in my Humanities
class earlier in the term. I'd been planning to do more, but, well...
my accident intervened," he said with a wry twist of his lips, pouring
himself a glass of juice.

"He's spoken at length about the class," Richard said with a nod,
fascinated by the telekinetic display. "He didn't mince words about
you being the most frustrating teacher he's ever had. Which tells me
he holds you in the highest respect."

Nathan blinked. "Frustrating. Huh. Well, I'm not sure where that comes
from," he said, "but Forge was certainly one of the most diligent
students I had in those courses this year." He looked up at Richard
thoughtfully. "It didn't come naturally to him," he said. "I got the
definite sense that he would have much preferred to be down in the lab
or the machine shop building something, but he persevered. I think he
got quite a bit out of it, in the end, and I admire him a great deal
for deciding that he was going to, however unaccustomed he was to that
sort of thing."

Richard nodded, picking up the plate of frybread and tucking a can of
soda into his pocket. "This place really has opened his eyes to a lot
of things, he's more open to exploring his full potential. I know he's
proud of what he can do - I'm proud of what his abilities let him do -
but he's starting to realize that he's so much more than that. There
just aren't the words."

Nathan surprised himself with a more natural smile. "Well, that's the
ultimate goal of the whole educational process isn't it? Assist them
along the way to becoming more fully rounded human beings," he said,
pulling the lid off the container of sandwiches. "I'm just happy to
see Forge so determined to put all his gifts to use. And thank you, by
the way... you just gave me an idea for the summer course I've been
planning." He chuckled, then shook his head. "In any case," he said,
sensing that Richard was wanting to get the 'fuel' down to his
hard-at-work genius, "tell him I'll stop down to see him a little
later? I won't stay if he's busy, but I did want to check on him
again."

"I'm sure he could use the visit," Richard agreed, "And knowing my
son, he'll make time. He's young, he's starting to realize he has
enough of it."