Nicholas and Johnny (backted to June 17th)

[x-ricochet.livejournal.com]

The two new roommates have an interesting first encounter.



Another day, another afternoon split between reading lazily in one of the trees that dotted the mansion's grounds and playing Street Fighter IV with his suitemate. And, to top it all off, an evening spent out to dinner with Jean-Paul and Lil. God, Johnny loved summer. But now it was night and he was ready to head back to his room for a while, maybe check his email or shoot an instant message to Eddie back in the Bronx. He still had pictures to show his friend and stories to tell and French swears to share with him. He grinned to himself as he opened the door to their suite and headed for his own room with a bounce in his step, unaware of the fact that an unexpected roommate had already settled in during his absence.

Nicholas Gleason had already finished unpacking long ago. After all, the entire contents of his small backpack only included the three extra outfits and basic toiletries that Dr. Essex had been kind enough to buy him, along with a small Ziploc bag of the only remains he was able to pull out of his ruined former home. He had spent the rest of the evening curled up on his bed reading from "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" which he was able to borrow quietly from the library earlier. But the slow evening suddenly changed as he heard a noise in the suite next to his room. Unconsciously Nick's body went rigid at the noise which perked up his ears. Without another thought Nick quickly stood up next to his bed, throwing his back against the wall and letting out a low growl through his clenched teeth.

The feeling of the growl struck Johnny before he heard the sound or the door he had pushed carelessly in opened wide enough to show his new roommate pressed close to the wall behind him and hunched in a defensive posture. His sixth sense shot a tingling up his spine that left his heart fast and his muscles ready to act and almost made him drop the book that had been his traveling companion since early that afternoon. He took a step back almost immediately, slim hands shooting up and his features contorting at the start of unexpected and apparently unfriendly company. "Whoa, calm down..."

Upon seeing the boy in front of him, Nick immediately recognized the features of his new roommate as he was described to him by Marie during his tour earlier. It took him a while to push away from the wall and begin letting his guard down. Nick was still breathing heavily as he crossed the room, trying to regain his full composure. "Sorry about that, I'm a bit jumpy these days." Still not sure how to approach the situation, the new student stopped in the middle of the room. "I'm Nick Gleason." He shrugged his shoulders as a characteristic smile grew on his face. "I guess I'm your new roommate."

The pulsing at the base of his skull slowed and Johnny followed suit, relaxing as the older boy coaxed himself away from the wall. He dropped his hands and smiled slowly back, still somewhat startled, but attempting to let the matter go as quickly as possible. He could understand jumpy. "Don't worry about it." The shorter teen took a few steps beyond the doorway and offered his free hand, "Guess so. I'm Johnny Gallo. And sorry for the shock. The roommate thing is news to me, so I didn't expect anybody."

Nick tried to force a smile of his own as he reached forward and quickly shook the hand of his new roommate. "Yeah, it's a bit foreign to me too." After letting go of Johnny's hand, Nick rolled back onto his heels and ran one hand through his hair while thrusting the other into his pocket, not doing a good job of hiding his nervousness. When the silence became almost too awkward to bare, Gleason let himself fall back onto his bed, trying to keep his eyes on Johnny. "So why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself? I don't want us to almost jump each other every time the other walks into the room."

"I don't mind or anything," Johnny was quick to clarify, a sort of sheepish energy coming to his expression. He had been feeling like the odd man out having the room to himself when Fred and Julian shared the one on the opposite side of the living room and he had never had occasion to share a room at home, being an only child. A roommate had seemed like a fun possibility. And still did, though a heads up would've been nice. "Just unexpected, you know?"

He moved the short distance to his own bed, flopping down on it and tossing his book haphazardly to the nightstand, where it skidded almost off the edge. He grinned at Nick's suggestion, bobbing his head and seeming to relax more completely now, "Probably for the best." He considered the task, admitting after a short time, "Not much to say, really. I've been here about three months, originally from New York City. Powers make me a natural acrobat, so I've been practicing with Mr. Sefton; don't know if you've met him yet."

"Marie told me a little about him earlier. Forgive me if I don't remember too many details, it was during the information overload portion of the tour." Nick pulled his legs up into his own chest, hugging them tight and putting himself into a semi-fetal position. "An acrobat huh? I don't know what would be more exciting that, or growing up in New York." A chuckle escaped the lips of the young Gleason. "I'm afraid if I don't have much in experience with either of those. Big city living and crazy flips aren't too common in the middle of Wisconsin, ya know?"

Johnny nodded, remembering that stage well enough himself and the flood of foreign details that came along with settling into this place. It was a lot to take in. This simple sympathy didn't dominate his mind long, though; the older teen seemed somewhat impressed with his life and even if he couldn't understand why, it made him simultaneously embarrassed and markedly proud. "Not a real acrobat or anything," he corrected, not seeming overly displeased in having to, "Just practicing this 'enhanced agility' thing. And New York is...just home, I guess. But it's not far if you ever want to go check it out." He added, playfully, "I'll give you the grand tour."

He curled one arm between his head and his pillow, still looking at Nick, "Wisconsin, huh?" He didn't know anything about the state, save that it was between Michigan and Minnesota. Or was it Iowa...? Indiana? It didn't matter. "I've never been out there."

"Oh there isn't much to tell." Nick quickly shifted his gaze away from Johnny and towards the sides of the room, trying desperately to find anything to talk about other than his home. He quickly nodded towards a poster for the new King of Fighters game on the wall that seemed to stick out from the other objects. At least it was something Nick could talk about. "You're a gamer huh? What's your current poison of choice?" He hoped that his roommate hadn't noticed his sudden change of topics. Gleason always knew that he wasn't the smoothest of people, but this was a pretty sudden jump, even for him.

The tactic seemed to work. Johnny's gaze followed the other teen's up to the old poster and he grinned, "Gamer and reigning champion in Street Fighter IV. That's what we've been playing the most around here recently. Plus some Wii sports and stuff." His eyes returned to Nick. If he saw any alternate motive in the change of topic, he didn't show it and even seemed quite willing to encourage it. "Do you play?"

Nick smiled, confident that he had steered the topic away from his past. "Not recently, but I used to all the time." His eyes fell to the floor as he continued. "Every since my mutation manifested, I haven't really been able to do to much of the same things though. I spend a lot of time in the woods." He drug his eyes up from the floor. "Speaking of which, I heard that the woods out back are pretty cool to explore." He was prepared to throw out anything to keep the topic as far away from himself as possible.

Even Johnny couldn't miss the fallen eyes and fallen tone in Nick's answer. His brows drew inadvertently inward and he fought not to allow his lips their desired frown, but before he could even decide whether or not to ask his roommate just what he meant, the boy was changing the subject again. Whatever he meant, he didn't want to talk about it. His energetic tone faltered briefly, "...Yeah." He pulled in a breath and continued, forcing an artificial lightness into his tone for Nick's sake, "Great for climbing trees and that kind of thing. Dori and I are out there all the time."

"I'll definitely have to come out there with you guys some time." After responding, Nick let out a long and sustained fake yawn that he truly hoped was convincing enough. "But if you don't mind, I think that I better hit the sack. It's been a long day." The boy reached into his bag and pulled out the small Ziploc of toiletries that Essex had given him. He quickly crossed to the other side of the room before turning back. "Maybe you can give me a tour of the mansion tomorrow? Show some of the secret places that Marie didn't want me to know about." He let out a quick smile. He hoped he hadn't offended Johnny, he seemed like a nice enough kid, just social interactions were not Nick's thing.

It wasn't convincing, particularly on the heels of such a peculiar conversation, but Johnny didn't call him on it, only tilting his head faintly and watching as his roommate pulled himself up again, "No problem." The young man was difficult to follow and anxious to the point that it left the white-haired mutant feeling genuinely tired. He leaned more so into his bed as Nick turned his back to him and reached for his book, expecting no more conversation for the evening.

Upon the question, he smiled over his yet unopened text, pleasantly surprised, "Sure thing."