Log: Noriko and Kevin

[x-kaminari.livejournal.com]

Backdated to the 7th
Nori tracks down Kevin, hoping he can explain some things about Karolina's recent post. Then the conversation goes sideways into Nori-crazy land.



Over the summer months Kevin had gotten oddly used to not wearing his gloves. It was to the point where it was just this side of too warm to be wearing them when he was indoors. The obvious problem with that was the fact that Dr. Grey-Summers had taken him off his magic pills back in September and his powers had slowly leeched back ever since. They were probably nearly full strength again now, but he tried not to think about it too much. The transition back to being the Great Untouchable wasn't too bad, it was like going home in a way, but little things he'd picked up during his fleeting bout of normality itched at him a bit, like the way his gloves trapped the heat against his skin.

It was all that heat trapped so close to his body that drove Kevin outside so often these days. Even as the temperature dipped and raised over the days he stayed outside. Forty-four wasn't all that cold when you wore as much clothing on a daily basis as he did. He'd come to be so used to that autumn bite to the air, and that frosty wintery edge it increasingly possessed, that the air indoors smelt wrong to him somehow. Residence had been taken up under what he tended to think of as Yvette's tree. It earned the distinction thanks to the tree house and the fact he never saw anyone but his tiny, red friend in it. Few people tended to find him out there and with Yvette being the only real probability for a coincidental interaction Kevin tended to relax. Sometimes the gloves even came off because Yvette, after all, was the safest person for him to be around.

Across his lap lay a book, open and seemingly forgotten as he sketched in his own book. He was copying anatomical structure from the anatomy book, figuring out how the muscles and the bones lay and moved together so he could create more realistic motion and musculature in his own drawings. The crunching of the ground underfoot, however, drew his eyes up to see who was wandering in his direction.

Noriko had been looking for her friend for a while now. In theory it should not have surprised her that he was spending more time outside, but it had definitely not been the first place she checked. She'd been on the verge of doing a full search of the grounds but had decided to at least follow the paths first before quartering the forest. "Neh, Kevin. Hello!" she called out as she saw him look up. "Is was look for you."

Kevin's eyebrows shot upward just for a moment when he registered who it was. Of all the people to be looking for him he didn't figure on it being Noriko. Really, she saw him enough around the suite when she came to see Julio that it wasn't like she had any shortage of opportunity to corner him and demand fried chicken excursions and the like. Of course, he hadn't been expecting anyone to be looking for him in the first place. "Hey. What's up? Ah paint over something or somethin'?"

Of course, Nori'd not been around the boys' suite that often this past week, and when she was there there'd seemed to be a bit of tension between her and Julio. Now, though, she cocked her head at Kevin and said, "Nani?" before shaking her head and squatting down across from him, elbows propped on her knees, completely careless of her short skirt. "Is not matter. Nori is have question. Karo is on journal say something..." She waved a hand vaguely in the air. "Karo is want marry to girl? Is not all boys only who gay?"

Kevin was damn confused. He never read the journals at all unless he was really bored and he hadn't been paying much attention to them as of late. Big surprise, there. His utter bewilderment was apparent on his face and all Kevin managed was, "Who's Karo?" He was still rearranging Nori's words to figure out what the last question was, the problem seemingly being he didn't know who Karo was so he wasn't entirely realizing that Noriko didn't know girls could be gay, too.

Noriko pulled a face at him. "Karolina," she said, rather mangling the longer form of her roommate's name, which was why she usually shortened it. "Is Nori roommate. Is many rainbow girl."

"Oh." It wasn't a sound of understanding or revelation that it ought to have been. Kevin wasn't sure he had any idea who Karolina was, master of oblivion that he was. At least he knew Karolina was a girl and the question from before made more sense to him now that he knew Karo was a girl. "Uh, yeah, Nori, girls can be gay, too. You've never heard of a lesbian? Guys..." he blushed a little. "Well, guys tend to like them."

"Hai, hai, is know. Many ecchi." She waved this aside. "But Karo is say want marry girl, but is can not. Many people is say to her can not marry also girl."

"Well, yeah, she can't marry a girl any more than Jay could marry a guy." Kevin purposely didn't mention himself and just plowed on ahead to stop her from making any connections to him marrying a guy, or Jay for that matter. "It's illegal. Unless you live in Massachusetts. Or California." He paused. "Wait, no, California just took it back, so only if you live in Massachusetts. Or if you go to one of the other countries that made it legal. Like Canada. And Holland. And...Ah don't remember the others."

Noriko thought about this for a few moments, then nodded suddenly, as though everything was now clear. "Karo is from California. Is very upset on same day everyone very happy about Obama man. Nori is understand." She paused for a moment, then frowned and added, "Karo is not tell me is like girl."

"Did you tell her you like guys?" He would never understand her fixation on being informed someone was gay.

The expression on her face quite clearly said 'you are stupid'. "Girl to like boy is normal. Why would tell?"

Kevin sighed. "Maybe she doesn't think of it as abnormal. And maybe where she's from it's not. Ever think she just didn't tell you because she didn't realize it was something that should've been told?"

"What is abnormal?" Nori asked, head tilted slightly.

Kevin sighed. Stupid languages. "Just means not normal. Like having two heads would be abnormal. Or scales if you're human. Mutants, we're abnormal. That's what people think, anyway. Normal people."

Now she frowned again. "Was not say Karo not normal! Just... is different. And why is roommate with girl? School is not let girl and boy roommate."

"You're different, did you list off all the reasons for her why you are? Did I list off all my oddness to Julio? Or to Jay? No. It ain't about keeping it a secret, sometimes stuff just doesn't come up." To the roommate question he could only shrug. "Ah dunno, 'cause girls aren't supposed to care about whether or not their roommate likes girls? Ah'm not the one who assigns rooms, y'know."

Straightening up, Noriko took a few steps away, turning her back to Kevin. "Friends tell important thing," she said quietly. Although she and Karolina weren't really friends, or hadn't been. Nori didn't have a lot of friends...

"Unless it's you she likes, why's it important?" Maybe it was just one of those weird girl things Kevin would understand. One of these days he really needed to hang out with more guys.

Without turning around, she half shrugged. "No. Tell Nori anything is never important."

He tried really hard to not groan. Kevin failed a little bit. Be grudgingly he got up and walked over to look her in the face. "It's not like that, Nori. What you think is important to be told just ain't always what other people think is important to tell. That's all. It's not on purpose people don't tell you stuff most of the time."

Her expression was completely shuttered as she looked up. "Of course no. Usually is everyone already know, but let Nori knowing not important. Nori wa uchi dewa nai. Shitteru."

Kevin slouched as he stood there, wondering if women were always this crazy or if it was only the ones he was friends with. Why was he friends with crazy women? "Ah got nothin'. Ah've got no more ways of explaining it. Maybe when everyone else is busy being stupid and gossiping you're actually doing something and not being an air headed idiot who only has everyone else's life to talk about. Maybe that's why you never know anything that's going on, like who's gay or dating or whatever."

But back at her old school, before, she would have known. She'd have been right in the middle of things, not watching from the edges, unable to take part even if they'd wanted her. Which they didn't. "Thank you, Kevin," Nori said after a moment. "Nori is go run."

Well, that was better, right? It wasn't crazy so that had to be good as far as Kevin was concerned. "Alright." He paused and just before he stepped back and out of her way he added, "Hey, want chicken later?"

For Kevin's sake, and maybe a bit for her own, Noriko managed a little smile. "Yes, please. Will be hungry." And then she took off down the path at what had to be her top speed, or near to; she was gone from sight in seconds.