Nick Meets Kevin

[x-wolfcub.livejournal.com]

Nick tries to avoid people, but runs into someone he has more in common with than he would have ever guessed.



In a scene that had become common place in Xavier's Institute, Nicholas Gleason was moping around. His shoulders rounded, his face locked on the floor, and his hands thrust firmly in his pockets, the emo muppet was in full force today. His head was full with thoughts about how he had screwed up his situation with Catseye, how Shiro was gone, and about how he still hadn't really found his place at the mansion. The boy had decided to take a late lunch, hoping that no one would be in the kitchen when he rounded the corner.

Unfortunately for Nick the kitchen, as usual, was occupied. It was only one person, though. Kevin was shaking flour off a piece of chicken when the guy came in and he stopped for a moment as if he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. Of course, he wasn't actually doing anything wrong, he was just surprised that there was someone wandering in who he hadn't seen yet. Or maybe he had. Sometimes the new faces kinda blurred together. "Uh, hi." He glanced down at the floured chicken and raised it up as if in offering, "Chicken?" Then he placed it in the heated shortening.

"Um... no thanks..." Nick hesitated, putting his hands into his pockets and beginning to awkwardly rock back and forth on the heels of his sneakers. "If you want some alone time to cook, I can always come back later..." Nick pointed behind himself at the door, his eyes still not able to lock onto Kevin's.

"Nah, it's fine. Ah got enough alone time goin' on. Keep it up even more and someone'll drag me out to be social or somethin'." He shuddered a little but he didn't really mean it. He grabbed another piece of chicken with tongs and dumped it into the bowl of flour. "Sorry, Ah'm bein' rude. Ah'm Kevin, what's your name?"

"Nick Gleason." The boy began to offer his hand, but remembered from several encounters in the mansion that if someone didn't offer their hand to you, you shouldn't take it. The situation would most likely end badly if you forced it. "I know what you mean about the whole 'being forced to be social thing' around here."

Kevin noted the hand and then the retraction. Smart guy. He pulled the piece of chicken out of the flour and flopped it over in it before shaking it off and adding it to the pan. "You part of the untouchable club, too?" Probably not since he looked like he was going to offer his hand. "Or you just don't get along with most folk?"

"Nope, touching is fine, although if you want to spread the rumor that it isn't, that's ok with me." Nick's eyes fell to the counter, trying to figure out the best way to form his words without seeming rude. "I just haven't had the best interactions with people in the past, so I'm not to keen on them any more, ya know?"

Another floured bit of chicken was added into the pan and Kevin nodded. "Uh, yeah, well aware. It a mutation thing or a people thing? You can tell me to shut up if you want, too. Ah mean, if you don't wanna answer and all." But Kevin thought the guy had his very own doom cloud he was toting so he figured he should ask, at least. Sometimes asking and talking helped. And sometimes you didn't care if it helped, you just still wanted everyone to go away.

Nick paused for a second before answering, weighing his options carefully. "A little bit of both, actually." He wasn't used to opening up at all about the events that lead up to his trip to the mansion, even the little piece that he had just shared. But for some reason he was able to with Kevin. Feeling like he had found a kindred spirit for some odd reason. "The mutation lead to a people thing."

Kevin nodded. "Yours ever get you taken into FBI custody and remanded to Xavier's for an indefinite period of time?" If he had then Nick would at least be able to commiserate with someone. But Kevin figured he probably hadn't so maybe Nick would see a bright side that things hadn't ended up quite so bad that the federal government had to decide he was a danger to anyone around him. And yet certain people wanted Kevin to hang around on a permanent basis again, funny that.

Nick blinked for a second. Getting a bit of an eye into Kevin's life had assured him that he had found someone that had a bit of a rough past like his. Maybe his feelings had been right for once. "My issues where never with the FBI, but with another group." Nick paused again, trying to decide on the spot if he should go any further. "Have you ever heard of the Friends of Humanity?"

"Yeah. Used to have a guy 'round here who was one of 'em until he manifested. He's an alright guy now. He went out to the West Coast Annex right after Ah came back here to watch over 'Vette." He didn't mention Tommy's name because he didn't want to color perceptions too much and he definitely wasn't going to mention the part where Jay had been brutally beaten by Tommy when he was part of the anti-mutant club because he knew Jay didn't like talking about it. "They attack you?"

"They missed." The boy let his face lock onto the cabinet just next to Kevin, hoping that his face didn't betray his true emotions. "Unfortunately my parents weren't so lucky." He let his hand drum down onto the island at the center of the room, trying to keep his composure. He hadn't talked about them in a long time.

Kevin frowned, his expression growing more serious as he tended to the chicken in the pan. "Y'know, folk 'round here have been through some seriously bad stuff. Lotta them been through all sorts of hell. But not many of them understand bein' the reason someone you loved is dead, even if only indirectly like with you instead of directly." The words like me hung out there in the air unsaid. "Ah'm sorry 'bout your parents. Kids ain't supposed to outlive their parents, y'know?"

Nick nodded, silently. It took him a moment to reflect before being able to answer. "It's been hard without them. But being here and everything changing in my life, I really haven't had time for all of it to settle in yet." He let his eyes dart back to the ground, still not sure if it ever really would.

"Ah can imagine. Ah had lots of time for it to settle in. You might be better off with the chaos." Kevin probably would've handled it better with chaos. Dwelling, he'd found, had compounded the anguish rather than allowing him to work through it and cope. Coping, however, had felt like treason of a sort at the time. He plucked the cooked pieces of chicken out of the pan and set them on a plate that was covered with paper towels so they could drain. Then he dumped another piece of uncooked chicken into the flour.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, and feel free if you don't want to answer, I was just curious about what your powers were?" It was a bad habit Nick still hadn't kicked during his time at the mansion. He was still fascinated by every single power that he had encountered. Plus the question may get the attention off of him, at least for a bit.

Given the context of their conversation until now the question made Kevin visibly almost wince. "Ah decay and decompose things. Anything organic, specifically. Touch something long enough and there's nothing but ash left for the wind to take away." He had that memory still of the wind sweeping through his bedroom and taking bits of what remained of his father with it. Kevin no longer that the severe reaction to the memory he once had, but it caused his features to close down into grave seriousness as he floured more chicken and placed the pieces in the pan with the heated shortening.

"Wow, that's... intense..." Nick knew when someone was only giving a half story. Hell, he was the one who usually was hiding half the story. But he also knew that when someone didn't want to share something, it was much better not to push if you wanted that person to feel comfortable around you again. "At least it smells like your powers haven't infringed on your abilities to cook a good meal."

Kevin nodded, pushing the memory away. "Yeah, well, Ah used to cook a lot. My mom, she died when Ah was pretty young so it was just me and my dad for a while. So Ah learned to cook so he didn't have to worry about it. Just harder to figure out how to make stuff sometimes when Ah gotta wear gloves all the time." Meatloaf required him to wear normal food prep gloves over his own gloves because his skin would break down the prep gloves so he needed the usual gloves he wore as a barrier between him and something that could touch food.

"At least they look snazzy." He added the bad joke with a grin. He hadn't ignored the comment about his mother, but again, he didn't want to pry. If Kevin wanted to tell him, he was sure that it would come out in time. "But if you don't mind, I think I might renege on my earlier statement, and take you up on your offer for sharing the food, if it still stands."

"Yeah, course." Kevin smiled at him. "My momma'd said there wasn't many moods good chicken couldn't help. If chicken fails ya gotta go to ribs and if ribs don't do it she said it wasn't anything she could fix." He laughed. "We mighta had a kinda food-centric family." But then some of that was just because they were from the South and food was important there in a way he had found it wasn't in California or up here in the north unless you were from certain sorts of families.

"Back in the midwest it was a bit different. Mom knew about two dozen different variations of corn, but other than that, it was random meats thrown together when we got back home from school." Nick was surprised with his talking about his mother as a small smile began to grow. Maybe this actually was therapeutic. He hoped it had been having the same effect for Kevin.

"Dad and I lived on take out and sandwiches for a while. Mac and cheese in a box. That sorta thing." Kevin made a face at the mention of it. "Ah barely got any memories of her 'cause Ah was so young when she was killed. Sorta felt like mourning, though, y'know? Whenever Ah eat too much stuff like that it still does, actually. So Ah got big enough to help my grandmother cook and then Ah was making dinner most nights by time Ah was eight. By ten or eleven Ah made all the meals unless dad had the day off. He worked long hours over at the Ford plant" Kevin hadn't talked about his family this much to someone who wasn't a therapist in a very long time. Yet it unwound knots of tension the memory of his father's ashes had put into place.

"I'm happy that no one around here has to rely on me to cook. I burn Easy Mac half the time, but luckily there's enough people around here that like to cook, and enough peanut butter and jelly to feed a small army." He forced himself to look up at Kevin. "I'm sorry to hear about your family. I know how hard it can be to talk about them."

Kevin smiled at the peanut butter and jelly comment and then shrugged a little at the rest. "Used to be harder. Not so much mom, 'cause she was never my fault, but dad," he trailed off and then frowned. "Dealin' with that was harder. And it's...newer. The coping thing. People don't really ask about it, though, 'cause most folk 'round here know what happened." He turned over a few pieces of chicken while it cooked and pulled a few done pieces out. Kevin busied himself with pulling out a plate and transferring a couple pieces that had drained off most of the grease onto it for Nick.

"You can talk to me about it if you ever feel about it. I usually keep to myself around here, so I haven't heard most of the back stories. But I figured, we're kind of like kindred spirits around here. We can stick together, ya know?" He flashed a quick smile, hoping he hadn't overstepped his bounds.

The plate of chicken was handed over to Nick with a small grin. "Yeah, you and 'Vette. Guidelines for bein' kindred 'round here really suck, you know that? 'Can't touch people or they get hurt' and 'angst over parents death.'" He shook his head. "It's like gettin' the short stick." His expression turned more serious but not quite grave as he shrugged. "There's only so many ways and times you can say you got slapped with an involuntary manslaughter charge for killing your dad when you manifested, y'know? It's got 'sore spot' written all over it, y'know?" And it was, but not nearly as sore as it used to be.

Nick paused, using a cough to cover up his sudden shock at the revelation. "Well if it ever does get to that point where you're about to tip over the edge, I'll be there for ya." His mouth watering, he quickly looked down at the food, ready to rip through it.

"Appreciate it. And, y'know, same here." He gave Nick a smile and pulled more chicken out of the pan. "But y'know you're in trouble when you start naming your doom cloud. In retrospect, Ah really shouldn't've done that." Kevin grinned.

"I'll keep that one in mind." Nick quickly jumped at the chance to dig into the chicken.