xp_logs | Nathan and Kitty, Monday evening

Kitty and an apparently very distracted Nathan have a random encounter in the library.

Some of the new textbooks had come in finally, and Nathan had made a detour down to the library to pick up copies for himself of each from Shan. The new term would be here before he knew it, and reading new textbooks was infinitely preferable to...

His books were on the floor. Nathan stared blankly down at them. How had he managed to drop those? Grimacing at the nagging twitch in the muscles of his arm, he knelt down to pick up the books. There had been five of them. No, six.

Kitty had looked up from her laptop at the sound of the crash, startled. Spotting one of the books had fallen under the table next to Nathan, she moved her computer and stood up, going to collect it as he looked bemusedly about. "Here," she said, holding out the book for him. "You ok? I think this is all of them. Well, at any rate, I don't see anymore."

Four, five... Where was the sixth? Nathan straightened, frowning. Not on the floor. Had he miscounted when Shan had given them to him? His head was very definitely elsewhere tonight, that was putting it mildly...

The total lack of response, combined with the fact that he was still looking around, rather threw Kitty. "Um, Nathan? Are you ok? This is your book, isn't it?" The look on his face wasn't as completely unconnected from the world as Manuel had been the other week, but it wasn't really that far off.

Buzzing in his ears, and a definite flicker of movement in his peripheral vision... Nathan turned in that direction, blinking down at Kitty. "Oh," he said, a bit bewildered. "Hi. Uhh... what?" But then he saw the 'what' she was holding out. Six! His expression brightened abruptly. "Oh, I was looking for that..."

"Hi," Kitty answered, and she was not going to laugh at him, just because he wasn't going to be giving her grades anymore. "You know, I rather thought you were. You ok? You seem a touch out of it. The whole..." her hand waved vaguely in the air around her head, "thing getting to you?"

"Thing?" It was taking more effort to focus than it should. "I don't think I... oh, wait, you mean the atmosphere in general?" Nathan shook his head, willing the cobwebs away. "That's probably it," he said, although his shields were fine. Weren't they? There was more noise than there should be, but it had been a loud weekend all around. He took the book from her, giving her a quick smile. "Slippery things," he said, adding it to the top of the pile. "I don't see why publishers can't stick to hardcover textbooks..."

Kitty grinned, as much at his comment about the textbooks as at his distractedness in general. Unlike Manuel, he didn't really seem to be suffering for the mental atmosphere, just out of it. "Yeah, see, yet another reason to stick to the sciences. Always in hardback, and always big enough to cause a concussion if you whack somebody with one."

"One of the benefits of law books, too," Nathan said with a chuckle, turning back towards the door. "Thanks for the save on the book, Kitty - I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing."

"Anytime," she said with a smile. "Catch you later."