Julio and Nathan - Tuesday

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Julio brings Nathan some reading material, and Nathan notices something strange about the boy.



Julio wasn't sure what Moira meant when she asked him to fetch Nathan something to read from the boathouse. Like, would he want fiction, non-fiction, work, what? So he grabbed a little of each and tucked them under his arm as he knocked on the door to Nathan's room. When he told his father that Nathan had wound up in the hospital again, his father had cursed and declared himself out of 100 euros. Apparently, this was way more common than originally believed.

"Come in." Nathan was sitting up again when Julio entered the room, although he was looking pale and a little unfocused; Moira had been encouraging him to move around a little today, which had been more than a little painful and he was heartily glad for the nice dose of painkillers he'd gotten afterwards. "Huh," he said, staring at the young man. "You have glasses."

The boy paused and automatically pushed the black frames up the bridge of his nose. "Yes," he admitted. "I do. Don't tell Papi, I will not hear the end of it. For years."

Nathan's eyes narrowed, and despite the slightly woozy look, there was something almost calculating about his expression. "Did you tell him I got shot in the back?" he countered.

"Um," Julio coughed. "He says he's out of 100 euros, if that makes you feel any better?" he sat himself in the chair by Nathan's bedside and put down the pile of reading material on the small tray next to the bed.

"Your father's a smartass." Nathan closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep, slightly shaky breath and then letting it out again. The painkillers could finish kicking in anytime now. "Euros, huh? If he had a bet with Dom I'm going to take her over my knee."

That gave Julio a really weird mental image. He coughed again and cleared his throat. "Anyway, I have brought you books because your wife asked me to." he patted the pile. "If you wish anything else, all you have to do is ask. I like your wife and am willing to do things for her."

"I'm sure she appreciates that. Her idiot husband running off and getting himself shot in Chechnya has been very stressful for her. I think. Although she hasn't done any yelling." She'd been downright solicitous, actually, which suggested just how much he'd frightened here. Which, if anything, made him feel more guilty than yelling would have.

"Pah," Julio said. "It could have been worse. You could have been shot in Guatemala."

"Bite your tongue." Nathan reached out with the arm on the good side and lifted one of the books. "Where did these come from?"

"The book fairy brought them," Julio said solemnly. It was fun to mess with people on painkillers. His father apparently saw trails when people moved too slowly.

Nathan gave him a disgusted look. "Not what I meant. They're just... new, a couple of them." He lifted one fat paperback eyeing it. It looked interesting, but he wasn't sure just how long he'd be able to read. His eyes were playing tricks on him. "It's strange being down here not having a laptop or anything," he said absently. "Very quiet."

Julio scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Which may or may not be a good thing, if you look at it that way." Did he know about the whole Ms. Dane smacking the Japanese guy around? Which just confirmed the fact that Ms. Dane was made of awesome, he didn't care what the other students thought.

"... what?" Nathan asked, a bit confused. His shields weren't great, between the injuries and the drugs, and he was having a little trouble from time to time separating what people were thinking from what they said. "Did something happen?" That was a safe response, wasn't it?

"Ms. Dane threw Shiro against the wall and yelled at him, and then he threw a vase at her. And now people are unhappy, but I do not get why. From what I have heard, Shiro deserved it. I like the fact that my teachers are hardcore," Julio said with a nod.

... all right. So when Moira used the laptop as an incentive the next time, he was going to shock her by telling her he didn't want it. "Well," he said a bit lamely, wondering just what had happened - and wishing he didn't have a strong suspicion it had something to do with a certain blond Summers, "a lot of your teachers are hardcore. Kind of inevitable, what with our other jobs..."

"I understand this, but some of the other students do not seem to understand this. They expect our teachers to be, I do not know, prim and proper all of the time? I grew up with a crazy bastard of a father, I do not think I could respect someone who was prim and proper. I would wonder if they knew how to protect me or even knew what to do with the real world," Julio sighed and shifted in the chair. "We do not live in a world where people can be nice all of the time, que no?"

"I guess not." Nathan stared at the wall for a moment, his forehead creasing. "There are... lines, and all, though. You need to save the hardcore for the right moment." He refocused on Julio, smiling slightly. "Makes it more effective. Not that I have any idea what went on with Lorna and Shiro."

"I know," Julio sighed. "But I do not understand the upset. She did not hurt any of the students, so it should be something that your team deals with and not the rest of us. Should we question our teachers if they do things that we disagree with if it is outside of the school or will not cause us any harm? I know Ms. Dane. I do not believe she would go out of her way to upset us, but she is my trainer and I might be a little biased." And he might also be nursing a small crush on the older woman, but as Julio well knew, that was the path of woe and unpleasant news. No matter how much he admired her.

Nathan blinked. And blinked again. I didn't hear that. And even if I heard that, it's perfectly normal. He's a teenaged boy. "I don't know about when it is or isn't appropriate to question," he said, a little more truthfully than he might have if he hadn't been heavily medicated. "When I was your age I wasn't allowed to question things. But I'm not crazy about being questioned, either, when I'm sure about something... okay, that didn't make much sense."

"You must be on some serious drugs," Julio said amiably, completely forgetting he was in the presence of a drugged telepath. "I am a little jealous. Does my hand have trails when it moves?"

Nathan blinked at him, again. "That's a very disturbing image, your father and the naked cooking.... whose bedsheet was it?"

Julio's eyes widened. Damn drugged telepath. But if Nathan was anything like Luis, he sure as hell wouldn't remember this in the morning. "That would be his. I have no idea where he got the idea to wear it as a turban. Saaaaay, you could not, tell me anything really embarrassing about Papi, could you?"

"What thing with the donkey? Oh... that. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation for that," Nathan insisted - and explained. At length.

"Ay dios mio," Julio wheezed, holding his sides because he must have bruised a rib from laughing. "Oh man, if he ever starts in on the glasses..."

"-but it all turned out well in the end. And the food poisoning only lasted a few days." Nathan was smiling because Julio was laughing, and it was nice to see someone in a good mood. When the door opened to admit a redhead that was not his wife, who was quite visibly not in a good mood, however, the smile fell right off his face. "Uh-oh," he muttered to the boy. "Quick, under the bed."

Julio tensed, but he knew he'd been caught and hiding under the bed would just make him look bad.

Besides, there was no room UNDER the bed,

Amelia eyed both of them disapprovingly. Very, very disapprovingly. "There is a lot of noise coming from a room where a patient is supposed to be resting," she said, her extraordinarily disapproving gaze fixing on Nathan. "And you were doing so well."

"He wanted to know about his father and the donkey we had to shoot when the plane crashed. Oh, and the Argentine who tried to cheat Dom," Nathan added. "Sorry, Julio, I forgot the Argentine."

Amelia stared at him, then just Looked at Julio.

Julio tried not to squirm. "Yes, I need to hear about the Argentine?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. But she eyed them both for a moment longer. "Five more minutes," she said. "Or I'll find Moira and tell her you were disturbing her husband, Julio."

Somewhere deep inside, Julio was not ashamed to say, he cringed because that would mean the loss of a Moira backrub whenever he was sick. "I will be good," he sat up straighter in his chair and clasped his hands in his lap like he was in primary school again.

"I forgot the Argentine's name," Nathan muttered, when Amelia had gone back out again; he'd closed his eyes, while she'd been delivering her parting threats. "Your father and he were having a game of darts. Or well, knives, because we didn't have darts."

"I have no idea how many times he has used that excuse," Julio said. "Or how many walls he has ruined."

"Your father is a strange man. Very proud of you, though - you know that, right?" Nathan managed to open his eyes, although they still felt oddly heavy. "I know he's not so good about putting that into words... still, though, better than having a father who can tell you he's proud of you but make you want to shoot yourself in the head for living up to his expectations."

Julio was glad Nathan was so high he wouldn't notice his slight blush. "It is good to know that I am capable of making the crazy old bastard proud," Julio said.

"In the good way, too. Not just the flirting with Mina when you were six years old way..."