Noriko and Logan

[x-kaminari.livejournal.com]

True to his word to Jean, Logan heads down to the medlab to meet the new girl. To Noriko's pleasure, and Jean's displeasure if she ever finds out, Logan's care-giving methods don't really match anybody else's.



To say that Noriko was a little twitchy would be like saying the sky was a little blue. Noriko twitched. She jittered. She bounced. Most of all, though, she moved. Bed to door to bed to door. One end of the hall to the other and back. She wasn't bouncing off the walls, but not for lack of trying - she'd got caught bouncing on the bed one afternoon by the horrid, red haired doctors and she hadn't had to understand what they were saying to know she'd best not do it again. Which left her with the question of what she could do. This one hall way was getting awful boring. She felt like she'd been going back and forth for hours, although if she'd bothered to check the clock she'd have known it had only been a handful of minutes. Not that that would have helped matters.

Giving up on the hall, she opened the door to the main room of the hospital area, jerking her head back and forth to make sure the area was clear.

Unfortunately for Noriko's dreams of freedom Logan was just coming around the bend. He stopped dead when he saw her, cigar still smoldering happily from his lips. ~Good evening,~ he told her in his atrociously Okinawan Japanese. ~You look well.~. Well, at least Marie'd be happy that he was indulging in little white lies.

The shock of running into a stranger who spoke Japanese actually stopped Nori moving for almost a full second. Then she blinked, and the spell was broken. "~You're out of your mind, gaijin,~" she told him, twitching her head slightly to flip spikes of jet black hair out of her face. "~I look like shit and I know it. Not my fault that shit-stupid doctor won't give me something to calm down.~" It was more the withdrawal and the energy buildup that was making her irritable than her own inclinations, but what ever the reason, she was cranky and had no problems telling the world that. Particularly when this small piece of the world could actually understand her.

Logan couldn't help it. He grinned. Kid has spirit, and he always liked it when the kids had spirit. "You look like hell, kid." he told her in English. She _reeked_ - ozone, sweat, and a very strong chemical tang he couldn't quite place. Made his nose hurt. ~So I see.~ he added in Japanese. Taking a wild guess, he leaned against the nearby wall. ~So what are you hooked on?~ he asked her.

Nori scowled, then shrugged - what did it matter if he knew. But already she'd been still too long, and so as she spoke she began pacing about the room, peering into and at things she'd already gone over a dozen times in these ventures away from her private room. "~Anything that kills the buzz,~" she told him. "~Anything to slow all this.~" A waved hand seemed to indicate both the room and also her own frantic movements. "~Alcohol, sleeping pills. Barbituates. Qualudes and Benzoes.~" Although who knew, with his atrocious accent, if he would recognize those words. "~Downers. All of them.~" Possibly she was trying to shock him, a bit.

Logan scowled. He could follow most of what she was saying. His Japanese was rusty - the only practice he got was talking to Shiro from time to time. And he hadn't said boo to the solar-powered mutant in some time. ~So what's your deal?~ he asked casually.

Noriko's head flipped around to face him, head tilting. "~What do you mean? What's my deal? What do you want to know? Although why should I tell you? Who are you, then, hey? Why are you asking me so many questions? Why don't I get all up in your face asking you why you speak Japanese, and so badly at that? Where'd you learn that, huh?~" As the tempo of her questions picked up, the verbal barrage seeming to replace her physical twitchyness for the moment, the quality of language dropped more and more, slipping into fast, modern slang.

The more she dropped into fast, modern slang the more his comprehension dropped like a rock. ~Slow down, girl, you talk too fast. To answer your questions - I was curious, they call me Logan, and I don't know where I learned how to speak Japanese.~

That caught her attention, rather the way a flashing light or dancing mote of dust might catch a cat's. She did remember to slow down somewhat, at least to begin with. "~How can you not know where you learned to speak Japanese? That's stupid. I mean, ok, there are things I don't remember happening, but that's because I'm a fucking addict. You sound like an Okinawan hick. Not that I've ever been to Okinawa - we went to Kyoto on school trip, but I've been to Hokkaido. There's almost nothing in Hokkaido, though, except fields and cows.~" Her mind flipped from topic to topic without pause.

Logan grinned. He was following most of what she was saying - badly. ~Long story. Dry out some and block out some time and I'll tell you all about it,~ he said with a small laugh. ~You're a mutant, yes? So what's your gift?~ he pressed. Mostly because the stink of ozone was really getting up his nose.

That seemed to pull her up to a full stop for a moment, the twitching stilling for a full second. Finally, though, she said, "~I zap people... And it makes me crazy. You think it's the drugs doing this,~" a hand circled up near her temple before flicking out, "~but it's not. The drugs stop the buzzing. The only other thing that stops it is the zap.~" She shuddered slightly, and that set her back into motion.

Zaps. No wonder she was smelling like Ororo in one of her choicer moods right about now. ~Lightning?~ he said after a moment spent racking his brain for the right word. ~You'll be working with Ororo, then. She controls the weather.~ He just leaned up against his wall and waited for her to ask the obvious question. He also pulled his cowboy hat lower over his eyes.

Unfortunately, for something to be obvious it required the thinker to be able to hold onto a thought for more than a few moments at a time, something Nori was in no fit state to do. "~Lightning, I guess, but I think it's more complicated than that. Maybe not so complicated as weather. How can someone control weather? I mean, someone not a god. Is she a god? Ororo, you say? That's a weird name. Foreign names are so confusing. What's yours? You never did say? It's like you speaking Okinawan accent Japanese - you must have no manners.~"

~Noriko is just as hard on their tongue as Ororo is to yours,~ he pointed out. ~She's not a god, and she can make it rain, clear away clouds, control the winds, that kind of thing,~ he explained. ~Logan. They call me Logan.~ His dog-tags had fallen out of his shirt, unbeknownst to him, giving him another name. To her manners comment, he just laughed.

"~Logan, huh? Well, yoroshiku, I guess. You treat me better than just about anyone else I've met so far. Fucking doctors.~" A stray motion set the dog-tags swaying and Nori tracked them for a few moments before something in her brain went 'click'. "~Ah-ha! That explains it. You're an army man. No wonder you have such a horrible accent. I've met far too many of your type in Roppongi, thank you very much. Loud and obnoxious. But easy marks.~"

Logan tucked his dog tags back inside his shirt. ~Once. Kind of.~ he said curtly. ~And cut the docs some slack. You show up all fucked up, need our help, then you talk back at those who provide it?~ he said archly. Something was tickling his memory, but it refused to show itself. Something about her eyes, the curve of her jaw.

"~Didn't ask for their help. Not yours, neither. I was doing just fine by myself, then the cops snagged me and sent me home. My parents didn't want to deal with me, or the shame, they ship me off here Hell, my father even sedated me to get me on the plane - how's that for family care.~"

Logan just laughed. ~Poor little Noriko,~ he said. ~Couldn't have been doing all that well if you were collared so easily,~ he pointed out. ~I'm thirsty. Want a glass of water?~ he offered.

Nori shrugged, dismissing that, then nodded. "~Yes, please. Any chance you'd some whiskey in it?~" she asked with a grin. Her attention was slipping away from him, her eyes beginning to dart around the room again and she was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Logan looked around, then grinned and pulled a flash from an inside pocket. ~Anybody asks, I never gave this to you.~ he said, filling a disposable cup with water and then cutting it with a healthy splash of whiskey. For himself, he kept his water straight-up. ~Enjoy.~

Noriko's eyes widened as the flask appeared, and a grin split her face, her attention truly focused for the first time. "~You,~" she said, taking the cup, "~are the best.~" Without another word she knocked the drink back, closing her eyes to enjoy the bite of the whiskey. It wasn't enough to really calm her nerves or get her thinking straight again, but anything that dulled the insistent buzzing would help.

~Let's just say I ain't big on keeping folks locked up, even if it's for their own good,~ he mused. At least this little girl could toss back the whiskey. Promising sign, that. He sniffed the air and then made the flask disappear. ~Jeannie's comin',~ he told the girl. ~You get cleaned up and let out, come up and find me,~ he told her, then touselled her hair before turning his back to go.

"~I will,~" Noriko said, relaxing slightly as she felt the whiskey hit her system, but still wishing she had more. "~Thank you.~" For the moment, her face was unguarded, and she looked more like the young girl she was and less like a lost, caged animal. Although it didn't last long. As he turned to go, she turned back towards her room. If one of the doctors was coming, she didn't want to be here.