xp_logs | Sooraya and Nathan | Tuesday evening (Reply)

Sooraya comes down to the boathouse and finds Nathan in the middle of a very loud conversation on the phone. Once the furniture stops shaking, they talk.

Sooraya shifted the bottle of Windex into her other hand as she opened the boathouse office door, peering in with a smile on her face. Though it was already getting dark outside she knew it wasn't too late to clean... there was always someone about even in the evening. The only question was who.

"-you know," Nathan's voice came from the darkened office, sounding angry, "I'm sure your government truly and deeply appreciates your cooperation on this, but it's dishonest." He was so deeply engrossed in his telephone conversation that he didn't notice Sooraya for a moment - and hadn't noticed her approaching the boathouse at all - but even as he managed a little wave, his expression and his tone didn't change one bit. "It's dishonest, and you know it... no! I will not 'see things from your perspective', there's no excuse for this."

All of the furniture in the office was rattling gently, almost shivering. "Fine," Nathan said, and the cold viciousness in his voice was a seething, deadly thing. "You play it safe. I will go around you, and believe me, this is not going to stay 'between you and I'... yes, you stupid son of a bitch, that was a threat, and I don't make them idly! Go to hell!" He hung up, slamming the phone back into its cradle.

Sooraya blinked. She definitely didn't know all of those words, but she could understand the tone of voice perfectly well. Pausing inside the doorway, she set down the bottle and roll of paper towels, she clasped her hands in front of her and considered leaving. At least the furniture had stopped shaking. "Something is wrong?" she ventured at last, her voice small.

Don't scare Sooraya. Nathan took a deep breath, then let it out. "I'm sorry," he said after another pause, in something closer to a normal tone of voice, then switched to Dari. "~The person I was talking to is being a coward, and actively getting in the way of my attempt to gather information to help those people I told you about, in the Czech Republic.~" He summoned up a slightly wan smile. "~Sometimes, I don't control my temper very well.~"

"~Yes, I can see that... the chairs can too. Why is that man being a coward?~" Sooraya relaxed a little, the tenseness of her shoulders lessening bit by bit. "~Doesn't he understand how important it is that you help them?~"

"~He's afraid. A lot of people are afraid, in this situation, and for them the best option seems to be to...~" Nathan paused, shaking his head quizzically, and switched to English. "To stick their heads in the sand. They hide behind rules, and protocol - they use it as their excuse for not doing something." The helpless anger came flooding back, but Nathan stepped on it hard. The furniture stayed precisely where it was. "And it's not like Afghanistan, where we could just walk in and see for ourselves. I just wish it was."

"If there is a way to help, you will find it. I know this." Relieved that there weren't going to be any more tremors, or giant firebirds erupting, Sooraya picked up the Windex and tore off a paper towel, pragmatically starting on the nearest window before it got too late. "But I do not know if yelling at the phone is how."

"No," Nathan muttered, leaning back in his chair and rubbing at his jaw, "you're right. It's really not." Joel would be scolding him for losing his temper. "We just haven't found the right way yet," he said, striving for a positive tone, "but we will. You're right about that, too." He just wished he could believe, really believe that.

"The others are helping too, yes? Rahne and Angelo and Bobby?" Sooraya inquired.

Nathan made an affirmative nod. "More than just them," he said, thinking about the working group at the UN - and stopping himself, realizing that if he didn't get his mind off the situation, just for the evening, he was going to stew all night and not sleep. Which would make tomorrow so much fun.

He straightened in his chair, smiling a bit more naturally at the girl. "You're here late."

"Yes," she said with a nod, pursing her lips as she rubbed at some fingerprints on the window - about knee high, the smudges could only have come from one person. "There was dinner. I helped the cleaning after, and talked to my friends." She smiled a bit, thinking of Angel's antics at the table and the quiet, stilted conversation she had had afterwards with Yvette and Tommy.

"Your suitemates?" Nathan asked, his smile growing at the obvious pleasure in her expression as she thought of dinner.

"Yes. And Tommy." Despite the trepidation some of the other students still showed around the young man, Sooraya couldn't understand why she shouldn't call him a friend. He was quiet, true, but she liked that over the more overwhelming behavior of some of the other boys, like Kyle and Julio.

"You're getting to know Tommy?" Nathan had of course been watching the goings-on on the journals regarding Tommy's friendship with Yvette - very carefully, as a matter of fact.

With a nod, she moved on to the next window. "Yes. He is very nice. He thinks not any of the others like him, but it is not so. Yvette likes him, and I do. And the others will not care when he eats with us. It is good."

Interesting. Very interesting. Tommy coming out of his shell was probably a good thing; it had been an internal change that had been required, certainly. It made sense that he had chosen two of the softest-spoken (least threatening?) of his fellow students.

"I'm glad you and Yvette are making friends with him," he said finally, and smiled again. "People need friends. And there's a lot he can learn from both of you, I think."

"From both of us?" Sooraya asked, a bit surprised. Yes, they were at a school, but what did she have to teach the older, more worldly students? "I think it is better to learn from you, or a different teacher."

Nathan nodded. "It would do Tommy good to learn that the world is a lot more complicated than he was raised to believe it was," he said. "You and Yvette are both very good examples of that. I imagine you've heard from the other students that before Tommy found out he was a mutant he was one of the people who claimed that we were... dangerous, and unnatural," Nathan said, struggling a bit with the best way to put it to Sooraya. "You and Yvette are examples to him that 'normal' human beings can be just as bad as the very worst of mutants. And yet, you're both here, learning, getting on with your lives and making friends... you're very good examples."

Sooraya smiled shyly at this, as always glowing whenever Nathan praised her in any way. "It is your example that we follow... to be good and to do good things. Like help people we do not know," she pointed out.

Oh shit. I've turned into a role model again? Nathan couldn't help a half-mirthful, half-rueful smile. "You should be careful about following my example." He gestured at the phone. "There are things I do that I really, really shouldn't."

"~I do not think I would follow your example in all things,~" she told him in Dari then, turning to give him a slightly scolding look. "~Like yelling at someone on the phone. It would be better to wait until it was in person... you can be very frightening then.~"

Nathan gave her his very best puppy-dog eyes.

He could tell Sooraya was fighting to resist throwing the towel at him, biting her lip in amusement and shaking her head. "~Yes, try that on the man on the phone. I am sure it would work even better than yelling.~"

"~I just might,~" Nathan said airily - but winked at her as he turned his attention back to his computer screen.