xp_logs | Julio and Noriko

x-kaminari.livejournal.com posting in

Nori meets another student and discovers that maybe she doesn't have to fight with -all- of them.

A concussion. Great.

Julio frowned as he re-adjusted the icepack above the bruise on his temple. Dr. Voght had been none too kind in applying it. And walked away muttering about the 'idiotic children.' He had to admit, this wasn't one of his smarter days, but he figured that normal humans could be urban ninjas, so why couldn't he? He shifted his weight and wiggled his toes, it was cold in the exam room. And he felt the hospital gown was highly unnecessary.

She wasn't going to the bitch-doctor, she wasn't. Dr. Voght might be more than a bit pissed off at her after last night, but her way was so much easier to deal with than Dr. Grey's. Her current set of make-work punishment done, Nori went looking for someone to report to. She thought she'd seen Dr. Voght heading towards the examining rooms. "Anou, Votto-sensei?" she said, approximating the woman's name as best she could as she opened the door. Then stopped as she realized that this was definitely not the doctor she was looking for. "Suman... Sorry."

"Nonono! Wait!" Julio held out a hand. "New girl, yes? Do me a huge favor?" He gestured to the closet behind Nori. "There, behind you? There are some more gowns in there. Can you toss me one? It is too cold." He punctuated his statement by using the hand he had gestured with to try and awkwardly hold the gown he was currently in closed. The other hand was occupied with the icepack.

Oh, gods, more accents. Why had they never told her English had so damn many accents? If she ever was allowed to go home she would find her junior high school English teacher and... well, Noriko wasn't sure what she would do, but it would not be pleasant. She caught the word 'cold', though, that was easy, and the fighting with his gown was obvious enough (and if she took the moment to admire what she could see of his physique, well, she was just puzzling out the language. Really.) Turning to peer into the closet he'd gestured at, she pulled out one of the other gowns. "Kore? Here you are," she said, thankful for the few phrases she had managed to learn in class as she held out the cloth, just far enough out of his grasp that he'd have to move to snag it.

Fantastic. Icepack or gown, he'd have to choose. He sighed and set down the icepack on the table next to him and tried to reach for the gown in the girl's hand. Unfortunately, it was still just out of hit reach. He raised an eyebrow at her and then hopped off the table, almost stumbling, and then accepted the gown. "Gracias-- Thank you," he added as he put it on like a bathrobe. "Que bueno. No me gusta-- I hate these things. And what is your name? I am sorry, I do not think I know it."

Well. Perhaps there might be some upside to this place... She smiled at him - the accent might be problematic, but at least she mostly knew the grammar he was using. Pointing at her nose she told him, "Kikuchi Noriko," then gestured at him questioningly.

"Kikuchi?" Julio said. "Mucho gusto. It is nice to meet you. I am Julio Richter." That would be another ESL student for the pile. Julio briefly wondered if Xavier was getting a discount at this rate.

"Julio-san. Yoroshiku." She actually did bow, although not very deeply. "Nande byouin ni? Ettou... Hospital... Why?" She pointed to the ice pack.

"Ah, this?" He reached behind him and placed the icepack back on his temple. "Ah, I was... ay..." How did you say to a girl you just met that you knocked yourself out while trying to scale the drainpipe outside of the building? "I was climbing and I ...fell." Oh yeah. Rico Suave he was not.

Not really something he had to worry about, considering his audiences level of comprehension. But, for once Nori was at least moderately interested in the topic. Or at least the company. "Sorry. I don-know." She shrugged. "Suppotsu?" The word kind of sounded like 'sport', an image which was intensified when Nori mimed a batter's pose in baseball.

Julio wondered if this was the universe's idea of a joke. He was trying to communicate with a girl he just met, in his boxers no less, in a language that was not his first and she only barely understood. However, he had ample experience in trying to communicate in whatever way he could, so he figured he would do his best.

"Ah, no, it was--" he mimed climbing, and then mimed losing his balance, complete with a tiny scream, then whistling and gesturing like he was falling. He finished by smacking his hands together for the landing. Then he tapped his temple, where it was starting to turn purple.

"Aaaa, wakkata," Nori said, nodding as she realized what he meant. "Ba~ka." It meant 'idiot', but she smiled, sounding almost affectionate. "Daijobu? Are you ok?" She made the 'ok' symbol with her fingers as she said it, the gesture large and overstated.

"¿Usted me está embromando, que no?" Julio said dryly. "Es bien. Lo merezco," he sighed. "I will be fine-- OK," he said, switching back to English and mimicking Nori's gesture and tone. "Nothing important was hurt. Just my head." He rapped on it and shrugged. "It is like a rock, yes? Hard."

Noriko laughed at that. "Un. Head not most important. Am glad is not most hurt."

"Now you are definitely making fun of me," Julio said, "That is not fair. Now I have to see you in an embarrassing position, to make it even," he stopped just short of saying 'in your underwear'. He wasn't sure if Nori would understand him, but it still wasn't something you said out loud to a girl. Not if you expected to keep your vital organs where they belonged. "Why are you in here?" he said, curiously.

Nori cocked her head at him, not understanding some of what he'd said, but the question at least made sense. The answer, however, was not an easy one, particularly not in what she laughingly called her English. Frowning, she considered, bouncing slightly where she stood while she thought. "Is difficult," she said after a moment. "I think not can say..."

"Try me," Julio said. He sat himself back on the exam table. His feet were getting cold on the floor. He leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees, tossing the icepack from one hand to another. "My English was not so good once, also."

Sighing, Noriko sat on the nearby stool, tucking her feet up on the low bar, the motion drawing attention to her fuzzy slippers which seemed a tad incongruous, given the black, plaid and skull motif of the rest of her clothes. "'Kaa-san no tame ni. Boku no mondai hoshikunakatta. 'Tou-san ni oshietta. Dakara koko ni." she said, then slowly, laboriously hunted down the English words she wanted. "Is for mother's. I... problem. She is no to want. Father... Mother say to father. So I here." Her voice was steady, as was her gaze - she might as well have been talking about the weather.

Julio sighed and wiggled his toes. If he was hearing Nori right, her Mother had had her packed off because she was a mutant. There were far too many kids here like that. Julio, in spite of everything, still had his family behind him. He wondered what that would feel like, to lose his family as well as his home?

"I am sorry," Julio said after a moment. "Many kids here, are the same."

Nori arched an eyebrow at that, rather doubting that things were the same for anyone here. "Onajikunai, to omou," was all she said, though, and she didn't even try to translate. Already, though, she'd been sitting still too long, and the fidgeting was coming back, her knees jiggling against the stool.

The boy pursed his lips for a moment, considering. "Para dejar el pellejo, lo mismo es hoy que mañana," he muttered to himself. "Your story, I am sorry, it cannot top mine," he said wryly.

She cocked her head at him in puzzlement, having understood almost none of what he said. Well, at least she knew the answer to 'I'm sorry'. "That's all right," she chirped, then dredged up from her first years of English the question, "Where from?"

He smiled at that. Okay, that was cute. He rand a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes and tilted his head proudly. "I am from Mejico. Guadalajara is the city I am from."

That got a blink. Then a longer blink. Noriko knew Mehiko. It was a pretty shitty chain but it was cheap so she'd eaten there a couple of times. "Are from restaurant?" she asked, looking confused.

Julio laughed out right at that. "No no no," he said in-between snorts of laugher. "Uh, si, Mexico? I pronounce it Mejico, because that is what it is. You know..." Oh God, he was not going to have to go into stereotypes here, was he? He refused to mention Speedy Gonzalez on principle.

"Meki... Mekushi... Nani?" The confused head tilt was not going anywhere.

"A la verrga," Julio rubbed his forehead and winced when he hit his bruise. Nori was cheerfully shattering the myth that Japanese kids were all smart to pieces. "Ah, this," Julio waved one hand, "is the United States. America, que no? This," he waved his other hand and placed it under the ' U.S.', "Is Mexico. United States," he waved the top hand, "Mexico," he waved the bottom.

Then: "The school," he waved the top hand again. "Julio," he waved the bottom hand.

Well, things had made sense before he went and claimed that he was from someplace underground. "Anou..." she began hesitantly. "Ima Julio wa, mochiroun, gakkou no shita. Kedo... Mehiko wa, Amerika no shita? Minami jya nai? Mehiko... America under? Not north... eh, chigau south?" She couldn't seem to pronounce 'th', either, so these came out as 'norse' and 'souse'.

This was getting them nowhere. Visual aid, he needed a visual aid... "Ah! One moment, please," he hopped off the bed and went to the basket where his clothes were being kept. He dug around ion the pocket of his jeans before producing the blackberry he had saved for and purchased a few months ago. He typed a few keys, sticking his tongue out slightly in concentration. Then he handed the phone to Nori.

On the screen was a map of North America. Julio tapped the picture and said, "America," pointing to the middle country. "Mexico," was the green country under America. He made the screen focus on Mexico entirely, and then pointed out a city to the south. "Guadalajara. That is where my father lives and I was living before I came here. I was born here, though," Julio pointed to a city labeled "El Paso," in America.

Peering at the blackberry, Noriko nodded. That was sort of what she'd thought he was saying, kind of. "Aaaa, wakatta. Nori is Tokyo," she added, pointing at her nose.

"See, I at least know where that is," Julio said, smugly.

Noriko reached up and tugged down her lower left eyelid and stuck out her tongue at Julio, going, "Nyaaa!" Smugness translated through the language barrier, clearly.

Julio laughed. "See, I only fell off a drainpipe. At least I know my way around a map," he grinned at Nori. Outside of the exam room, an irritated voice called for Julio. He looked up, clearly displeased. "They want to scan my head, to see if I haven't broken anything," he muttered. "Completely unnecessary," he added.

"Not break is good," Nori told him, going from silly to serious in zero seconds flat. "Is go!" She gestured for him to proceed her out the room, deciding to avoid a run in with the doctors.

"All right, I am going. Ay dios mio, woman," Julio said, throwing Nori a look over his shoulder, before stepping out to his fate in the rather chilly hands of the doctors