xp_logs | Kevin & Nico | Monday Afternoon

Kevin finds Nico practicing her magic and proposes a first date with his Waffle House Girlfriend. Crying girls, admiration and freakish crushes are discussed.

It was all habit and routine for Kevin most days. He really wondered if his brain wasn't pre-maturely aged. Every now and then he felt a lot more like a sixty year old than a twenty year old with all his routines. Today had been cockeyed from the start, though, because he'd woken up and gone straight down to the metal shop to finish up something he had to work on for a class. He was well ahead of schedule on it, but Kevin had a problem leaving things unfinished when he knew they had deadlines. Even if said deadline was weeks away. His teacher had stared at his sculpture slack-jawed when she'd seen how much progress Kevin had made on it in a week. Some people were just easily impressed, he guessed.

Once he was back at the mansion Kevin decided to scrap his usual routine because he was hungry and waffles sounded like an awesome idea. Actually, waffles were pretty much always and awesome idea. He could have just made waffles, but he wasn't in the mood for clean up. It was for this reason he went through the mansion looking for the Japanese girl he'd recently appropriated as his new Waffle House companion. Of course, he had never actually spoken to Nico before other than through the journals, but he was fairly confident he'd recognize her from the icons on the journals.

At the door to the gym Kevin paused. Tiny, goth, Japanese. Those all seemed to check with what he was looking for. "Hey Nico?" Kevin was soft spoken at the best of times, volume quiet and his vowels all soft around the edges from his Georgia accent. He realized that he may not have been heard so he raised his voice and repeated himself.

"Sisenikelet."

Nico was sitting on the floor, back towards Kevin, hands over something that looked like a weight disk. A small one, indeed. Her voice had had enough volume to be heard by Kevin, and when he called her Nico made a sudden hand movement, the little disk shooting out as if someone had thrown it; it wasn't terribly fast, but still, the thing didn't usually get that much speed. It flew across the room and hit the wall in front of the girl.

"Ah?" Turning to see the boy; Nico's eyes went from almost all black to just normal black, with whites and everything. "Waffle boyfriend? You surprised me!" She turned to see the wall, and made a face when she saw the weight firmly placed inside of it; it then felt off with a thud. "Gotta work on that," Nico muttered as she stood up, and gave Kevin a bright smile. The guy couldn't touch people, so a smile was almost all she could think of doing.

Kevin blinked at the weight that was temporarily embedded into the wall. That wasn't something the weights did when he used them. He also wasn't using them for magical purposes, though. "Oh, hey, sorry. Ah didn't mean to scare you or anything. Ah was just thinkin'....waffles?" He looked back at the dent in the wall. "You're not crazy, right? 'Cause the last cute Japanese girl Ah hung out with was actually kinda crazy sometimes. But she had a thing for KFC not waffles. Ah tried tellin' her Ah could make her better chicken than KFC but she had a thing." He was rambling a bit. Mostly because the tiny girl had just implanted a weight in a wall. By accident.

"Of course I am not crazy, Kevin." She looked back once more at the wall, and shrugged. "Maybe a bit anxious at times, but that's nothing unheard of, right?" The other Japanese person he was talking about was someone she knew nothing about, so Nico decided not to press on the subject, fearing she might remind him of stuff related to that crazy person. "Waffles, just what I needed; doing this kind of stuff wears me down pretty fast." Nico went over the wall and lifted the weight from the ground, wondering if she could put more control into it next time. Maybe, she thought as she placed the weight on it's rightful place.

"So, tell me about the Waffle House."

"Waffle House," Kevin said with a touch of fond nostalgia in his voice. "The Waffle House is about a thirty minute drive from here. Very greasy diner feel. Surly waitresses sometimes." He frowned, remembering the one who stared at Yvette and seemed to not want to go near their table as a result. The guy who took over when Kevin had pointedly asked for a new server had been really nice, though. "Really good waffles. Ah mean, if you wanted to deal with the clean up you could maybe almost make waffles as good at home, but not really there, y'know? Really good hash browns, too. Fresh squeezed orange juice. Fifties music playing. It's like heaven. With grease."

Nico took a couple of seconds to process the whole bunch of information, and also made a quick sketch of the place in her head; it was interesting to think how a place would look and then contrast it with the real thing. "Oh Kevin, Kevin; without grease, Heaven would be some sort of cheap commercial scam. You know, like an 'all you can eat' contest with vegetables and personal trainers as judges." Lifting the backpack she had carried all the way to the gym with her - which she had somehow forgotten about entirely until that moment - the girl flashed a smile at the boy. "So, how do you propose we get there? Do you possess mad crazy driving skills, or behind the organic matter decay stunt lies a teleporter?"

"No teleporting, sadly. Ah mean, I could bribe Clarice but Ah'm not feeling up to the big blue eyes and batting eyelashes thing. The masculinity takes a hit if Ah do that, though. Ah've got a license and access to all the cars owned by the school in the garage." He almost said she could pick the car but he was a little worried she might be the kind of girl who wanted to pick car based on color so it matched her outfit. Maybe he wasn't giving her enough credit, but Kevin didn't know how much credit she deserved yet. "Have you had a near death experience? Your talk 'bout Heaven sounds dead on. Ah mean, who has all you can eat challenges with vegetables?" People in California, he answered himself mentally.

Nico gave him two thumbs up. "Cool, we get to choose the coolest car then." She didn't mention color, since everything was okay with black! And then people said it was a stupid color... The talk about masculinity made her grin a little, but she let it slip; that wasn't the biggest surprise she had gotten since the moment of her arrival. "Near Death experience? Besides the crazy magical parents, a couple, but believe me, my vision of Heaven and Hell is currently in a state of probation; I'm not supposed to express my religious views out loud." Another grin, and then Nico just exited the place, turning at Kevin's last question. Yep, she was grinning.

"People in California, of course."

"So you been to California, too. Good to see you survived it." He ushered Nico down the hallway toward the garage so they could pick the coolest car in there, whatever that might be. He wasn't sure any of the school ones classified as cool but they had working heat and some could do upwards of one hundred miles an hour so Kevin was pretty satisfied with the choices. "Wait, why aren't you allowed to express your religious views out loud? Since when?" Kevin had a strained relationship with God at best ever since he had manifested, but that was his issue alone. He didn't see why anyone else would take issue with Nico's perspective on Heaven or Hell.

"I lived in California, Kevin; like, all my life." Once they were downstairs, Nico studied the cars for a second, before deciding she knew shit about cars. "Whatever, you pick one." She shrugged at his question regarding religion. "Let's see, my parents brainwashed me to become an altar girl, when they were evil wizards, I have a surely demonic artifact bonded with my soul, and I'm a Goth; I hate to admit it, but I am; at the moment, I couldn't care less about God and all his greatness or whatever."

"What's being a goth got to do with God?" Kevin had known precisely two goth kids maximum in his entire life. One was a devout Christian. One was a devout...well something nature-related. He was pretty sure she was a Wiccan but she'd also gone on about how her religion was older than Christianity so that had to be wrong. Or maybe she was confused.

Kevin went over to sign out the black Pontiac that he always took when it was around. He took up the keys and unlocked it with the press of a button. The lights flashed and Kevin actually walked over to open Nico's door for her without a thought. "The demonic artifact sort of sucks. Um, sorry, understatement. Wonder what that would do to a person's soul." He mostly wondered that to himself, though, voice dropping to a hushed mumble as he spoke.

The question was so blunt Nico needed a second to think about it. "Well, there you go, you just pointed something I hadn't thought about before; anyway, I'm not ready to support most of the things my parents taught me all this time anytime close, religion included." Another surprise came when the boy actually went and opened the door for him; Nico didn't say it out loud, but that spoke volumes in favor of the boy. "Well, what do you think happens to a person's soul when it gets constantly torn apart by a foreign entity living inside of it? Maybe sooner or later my soul will simply break, I don't know." Not that her soul had helped her a lot actually.

Once Nico was settled in the passenger seat Kevin went around to get in on the driver's side. There was a satisfied little smile on his face when he turned the key in the ignition and the car came to life. Kevin pulled his hood up over his head before hitting the button to open the garage door and pull out. "Ah don't think a soul's that fragile. Ah mean, assuming you believe in one at all. Ah do and Ah think you can probably fix anything someone does to it. Ah'm not sure outside forces count as much as you do." He shrugged, trying not to get too into it. It wasn't a conversation he could have without bringing religion into it, which was something she clearly didn't want. Maybe she'd decide there was no higher power, and that'd mean no soul. But how could you not believe in God when you believed something demonic was tied to your soul? You couldn't acknowledge one without the other.

"Oh, I do believe there is a soul, and something upstairs, and heck, a lot of things that go beyond the ordinary all around us. I'm a witch, after all; I'm just not happy with the turn of events in my life." But Kevin did have a point one more time. How could she explain to him what she felt, the way it seemed to hurt every time the staff escaped her body? What was more worrying was the fact the sensation was decreasing; becoming numb to that kind of intense feeling couldn't mean anything good.

"Let's hope you are right then, boyfriend."

Kevin shot Nico a good-natured grin. It was the sort of smile you'd associate with a 'good ole boy' even though Kevin wasn't from that part of Georgia. His dad had been, though. "Would Ah lead my girlfriend astray?" His expression moved into one of those innocent faces that screamed you can trust me. The smile didn't hurt either. "But don't worry, no one seems all that happy with the turn their life takes when they wind up here. None of us would be here otherwise, would we?" He shrugged a little. "It gets better if you let it."

Nico nodded, but she didn't smile back. "It's just that..." She stopped, trying to get the right words. "It's complicated; me, you, mutants, non-mutants, wizards, Amanda...I don't know how you manage to deal with it, and in your case, well...I can't quite put what I think in words without sounding like I'm showing pity or, whatever." Yeah, it was a big whatever. But that wasn't the reason they were in the car; she could feel terrible about everything after having some waffles; actually, that was probably impossible. And that was a good thing.

"You can use whatever words you want," he told her kindly. "Ah get everything from people not believing my mutation does what it does to being looked at like a freak to bein' looked at like Ah'm a charity case. It's not like Ah need savin', and it's not like Ah could be if someone wanted to try. Ah'm not exactly some kid in a third world country that just needs to be adopted by someone better off who can take care of me." Kevin shrugged, but it wasn't the casual gesture it had been moments before. He'd grown quite serious as he'd spoken. "Ah deal with it 'cause if Ah don't people could die. For me it's necessary Ah at least manage to deal that much." For a long time that's about as much as he could deal with it. Some days it still was.

Nico's mouth opened, and then closed; she had been about to apologize, but it didn't seem like the right thing to do. "Well. Alright. Under the risk of going all the way around of pity and end up glorifying you, I think that's quite impressive. Don't worry!" Nico turned to flash him a smile like she rarely showed. "You are not a hero or anything like that, but you have to accept that maybe someone else wouldn't have what it takes to deal with any sort of similar situation, no matter how long it lasts". Nico then moved a little on her seat, feeling like she had done exactly what she said she didn't want to.

"I just wanted you to know that."

Kevin couldn't help but smile, though it was a weaker one than the others she'd gotten from him. "Thanks." He appreciated that she didn't want it to come off as pity. Maybe she was right about the inner strength needed to deal with it and that someone else wouldn't have had it. Kevin didn't want to explain to her that he saw his mutation as a punishment from God so him dealing with it was more about dedication to serving his penance than it was about real strength. Maybe the two qualities overlapped more than he considered, but Kevin kept them separate in his mind.

Wanting the conversation's focus off of himself, Kevin asked, "You don't think it takes just as much to deal with your stuff? Evil parents grooming you for whatever and havin' somethin' bound to your soul? Most people couldn't handle that either, y'know."

Nico shrugged. "I cry now and then, and also have this tendency to fill my time with anything in order to keep the images off my mind...which results in the crying part later." Another shrug. "I like to believe it has a reason to happen, you know? Maybe I'm meant to fight my parents and see what happens; maybe it's punishment." Probably not from God, if there was such a well defined entity up there, but certainly for someone, something. "But hey, I'm pretty resilient as well, and once I get a good grip on this whole magical stuff..."

Crying girls. Kevin never had any idea what to do with crying girls. "Would waffles help the crying? For, y'know, future reference. Ah never know what to do with crying girls. Guess Ah got a usable shoulder, but Ah'd be better with getting you waffles." Because, really, other than pat said crying girl on the head what did you do with them?

Nico reached out and punched Kevin, albeit carefully, but with enough force to transmit the message. "I'm not crying right now, and I don't do it in front of people...well, once in front of Cats, but that's because she is my confidante kitty in cases of emergencies." She flashed another smile, trying hard to improve her waffle boyfriend's mood. "But, if you ever want to deal with a teary me, I guess we can arrange an emotive meeting and cry to our hearts content."

"Ah don't cry," he told her rather firmly. And he didn't. Kevin couldn't remember the last time he'd shed a tear for any reason other than accidentally whacking his thumb with a hammer. But that wasn't really crying, that was just some tearing up because it had hurt. "But, y'know, sometimes crying girls pop up and you've got to do somethin' with them and walkin' away isn't really the best answer. Figured Ah should be prepared in case you're full of tears and wantin' a trip to the Waffle House." Of course, it could have just been him and Jennie who tended to want waffles in times of emotional upheaval. After all, that's how their trips had started.

Nico gave the idea a couple of seconds. "Hey, it makes sense; I guess that's a good reason to go to Waffle House; I just considered you might not want to go there with a teary and whinny Nico." But then again, Kevin had said he didn't know how to deal with crying girls, so this was a good option. "So every time I feel like crap, Waffle House?"

"Long as you don't expect me to be amazingly insightful or sensitive...or anything other than awkward and willing to pay." It occurred to him that Kevin might need to sell a lot more sculptures to pay for their Waffle House habit. That could be interesting. He eyed Nico out of the corner of his eye. She was tiny, but that didn't mean anything. Tiny girls could sometimes pack food away in seemingly endless amounts. Especially mutant girls. Kevin was all too aware of how much Angel could eat. "Ah don't mind whiny and teary. Well, Ah don't think Ah do. Call it a big brother complex," which he was all too aware he had. Especially where Yvette was concerned.

"I'm happy with that, so worry not." She noticed Kevin eying her; after all, boys did it with almost every female. She had the idea Kevin wouldn't, but he could have his own reasons. Smirking, Nico moved in her seat, changing from her usual conservative-polite stance to something a lot less formal. "Saw something you like? I know I might look like I don't carry much on me, but believe me, black does wonders when you want to keep guys from staring at your chest." Healthy teasing didn't hurt anyone right? It was a bonding exercise after all. "At any rate, I'll try not to make teary and whinny shows for you, and actually go and eat there for the sake of enjoying the food. I can't promise anything though."

Kevin actually blushed faintly when she asked if he saw something he liked. That was very possibly because he maybe did. And then he abruptly pointed out to himself that she was underage and even though he was obviously never going to be having sex with anyone that should probably still mean something. Awkward settled in quickly for him and Kevin made a mental note to keep eyes firmly on the street ahead instead of trying to decide if she could eat like Angel. "Ah wasn't staring at your chest," he told in her an almost apologetic voice. He hadn't been, though.

Nico laughed, hard; like she hadn't in a good while. "Nah, you weren't; you just were peeking an overall image. It's okay though, totally understandable if we consider we are going to eat waffles to death; I promise to keep up the whole time." She was still quite amused at the way Kevin had reacted, but decided to refrain from making it any harder for him. She decided to change the subject.

"Are we ever going to get there?"

"Ah told you, it's a half hour from the mansion. We're," he trailed off as he stopped at a red light. "'Bout five minutes away? All good things're worth waiting for," Kevin said in his best parental voice. It was scary how well he mimicked his father's tone. He wondered if he'd practiced it by accident on Jay. Kevin was pretty sure he had lectured Jay once or twice back when they were dating.

"Yes dad", answered the goth with an eye roll. Now fully focused on the waffles, Nico was almost bouncing on his seat. "They better serve fast. Do they have an 'all you can eat' kind of thing there? I just realized I'm pretty hungry."

"There needs to be all you can eat Waffle Houses," Kevin commented with a sigh of longing. All those waffles... Fifteen minutes later they'd found their destination, parked, been seated and had ordered. It was always the waiting that killed Kevin. Waffles were only theoretical until you'd ordered. Once you'd ordered it was a waiting game. He was half convinced Nico might wither away to nothing while she waited. Kevin sipped at his coffee and wondered when he'd gotten so good at not being so horribly awkward with people he didn't know. It hadn't occurred to him until now that normally he wouldn't have managed that even half as well as he had been thus far.

And Nico was bouncing now, clearly going up and down on her seat as she looked at her soda; she wasn't much of a coffee drinker anyway. She was about to stand and demand for a faster service when the waitress came back with their orders; Nico had decided to play safe and order the simplest waffles of the menu, but they looked like round pieces of Heaven anyway. Why was she so hungry? Maybe it was related with her magic casting, and she hadn't noticed until now. "Well, brace yourself, and stop me when you have considered there has been enough damage to your wallet."

"Ah'm not sure you can actually fit enough waffles in you to do that much damage." Kevin was busy practically smothering his waffles in syrup and butter. Of course, one day it was entirely possible the damage would be to his arteries, but he was twenty so who wanted to worry now? "Ah'd probably have to carry you out 'cause you couldn't actually move if you tried." That would be interesting. He'd end up carrying her into the mansion and trying to explain she was in an advanced stage of food coma to everyone who gave him funny looks. And then he'd need to track down Yvette or someone so he could figure out which suite to leave her in since she'd be too incoherent with digestion to do it herself.

Nico tried to answer, but the sheer amount of waffle goodness in her mouth made it impossible; she then simply nodded and swallowed, her attention going quickly to the next set of victims...waffles. "That would be an awesome story to tell the...anyone: Remember that time when Nico almost killed herself with waffles? She didn't eat the whole week." She was so getting her share, and then more though; the idea of getting carried by do-not-touch-me Kevin was both intriguing and appealing. "So, dear boyfriend, can I ask you the kind of question one doesn't ask about while eating?"

An eyebrow raised, fork halting on its way to Kevin's mouth. The kind of question that you don't ask when eating? "Does it have to do with bodily functions?" He'd really rather not talk about vomit or something while eating. He could probably handle most other things. Well, he was pretty sure he could. Kevin actually stared at his piece of waffle on his fork and considered if he should risk eating it before he knew what she was going to ask. Then he bit it off the fork anyway.

Nico mimicked the eyebrow arch. "What? No. No!" She got rid of the waffle hanging on her fork and then looked back at Kevin. "I'm talking about...err, liking someone. I have been torturing myself with something, or someone, for some weeks now, and I kind of need to speak my mind." She kept on eating, eying his reaction carefully. "And I don't know who else I can talk to."

"Oh." Nico was having boy issues. Or maybe it was girl problems. "That's, um, well..." He looked a bit sheepish. "That's how the Waffle House trips started, actually. My friend was having guy issues sorta. And then Ah was having issues with my ex. And then we just kept coming when we weren't having romantic criseses. Crises? What's the plural of crisis?" Kevin shrugged and took another bite of waffle. "But, yeah, go for it. Ah don't mind." Ah, to be the neutered male friend. It was such a familiar role. One day, though, one day Kevin was sure he might snap from said role.

It shouldn't surprise her; the idea of eating waffles non-stop was almost therapeutic and pretty much allowed to discuss most kinds of themes, and love issues was certainly one of those. She was surprised none the less. "This Jennie girl, right? Well, not girl...I think our birthdays are the same, go figure." But! She was starting to diverge from the topic she wanted to talk about, so Nico actually forced herself to drop the fork and knife and get more or less serious.

She then placed her hands on her head and in a slow, comical way banged her head against the table. She stayed like that. "Julian Keller", muttered with enough strength to be heard by Kevin only. "I don't know what is going on with me, really."

"Yeah, Jennie." Kevin missed her snarky teasing, actually. Jennie was a good friend, though, so he just sort of missed her in general. Nico was nice, but the Waffle House definitely wasn't the same without Jennie.

He almost choked on the coffee he was attempting to drink when Nico banged her head against the table. "Don't worry, Ah've got no clue what's going on with you either," he told her lightly and playfully. A gloved finger tapped the back of her head and he gave the faceplanted girl a small quirk of a smile. "Every girl who was in high school had a thing for Julian when he first showed up. Except Nori, actually, I think. She had a boyfriend, though. Anyway, Ah think it's got something to do with the tan. Or, y'know, being the only male student in the entire mansion at the time. Julian's an alright guy. Well, Ah've got limited experience." That's what happened when you were recluse guy, you had limited experience with people. Kevin wondered if Julian had gotten any better at playing basketball out in the New York cold in the past year.

"Yeah well", Nico raised her head again, a small smile on her face. "I know Keller from before; we have known each other for most of our lives, but in the beginning we kind of hated each other's guts, and then we mutually ignored ourselves until he left for the mansion. We both knew Dori from back then as well..." But that wasn't the point. "What I mean is--I hated the guy, but now that we actually talk..." Maybe that was the issue? Maybe she should keep on ignoring Julian and live her life like before. It was a stupid and impossible thought, but she insisted for a little longer.

"You realize he's human and not some freakish alien?" Kevin gave her a bit of a smirk. He wasn't sure why every girl wanted to fling her panties at Julian, but he was just going to assume that he wasn't gay enough to understand. Even if he was all for the man love, Kevin's pretty sure he still wouldn't have seen the blanket draw of the guy. "But you can't help who you like, y'know. Ah mean, if you like 'im then you do. Either you do somethin' 'bout it or you go on with the torment young padawan."

Head inclined to the left, Nico stared in silence at Kevin for half a minute. "Why do you think I consider him some freakish alien? Maybe he was some sort of annoying monkey in the past, but now I'm pretty sure he qualifies as a human." She finally sighed at the later part, head resting on the table again. Kevin made it sound easy, but that was probably because he didn't like Julian. Or at least she hoped so. "What can I do then?"

"Ah was kiddin' 'bout the alien thing." Although he was pretty sure it was entirely possible the telekinetic might qualify as a freakish alien. Kevin shrugged, cutting off another piece of waffle while Nico was busy angsting. "You could just tell him. Or kiss him. Guys are pretty much in favor of girls who will make a move. And it's really not that hard to make a move as people make it out to be."

Nico's head shot up violently, face reddened as she looked at Kevin in silence. "K-kiss him? If this were someone else we are talking about, alright, but I can't even deal with the fact the same guy I wanted to see burn in a hell hole is now making me feel like a fool..." But kissing him would be nice right?--Shut up! What was she going to do with her life? but Kevin was right, if she made a move, she might get a shot...as long as Julian felt something for her, of course, and the boy didn't look much interested on her. "I need to know what he feels first; you know, being sure and all that stuff." Then she resumed her frantic waffle eating.

"And you're probably never going to know that if you don't do something first." Girls were horrible at reading guys, Kevin had found. They looked for all these signs that guys just didn't express unless they were maybe that sort of gay. They looked for all this subtext that just wasn't there. For a moment he considered just telling Julian for her, but the tiny girl with the magic might maim him for it. Bad plan there. "Look, what do you really have to lose? If he's not interested you get embarrassed for a while and then you get over it. Or you do nothing and keep yourself in this state of 'torture.'" Girls, they were so illogical.

"Aif g'sh joou..." Nico stopped, swallowed, and then resumed. "I guess you are right..." God, she hated when someone else was right! So, she needed to let Julian know, and then just let shit happen, or hit the fan...that could be messy, and totally not recommended to think about while eating. Ew. "So I just...find him, bind him to a wall, kiss him, and then confess that I'm not entirely sure why the hell I can't stop thinking about him? Can I knock him out then and escape? Please?"

"Ah'm not sure bindin' him's a good idea. And maybe skip the 'can't stop thinkin' 'bout' part. Sorta sounds," obsessed. "Scary. To most guys. Girl can be kinda intense." Intense and scary and obsessed. There was a stalker sort of quality to the way girls had crushes on guys, he'd found. Maybe that was just the girls Kevin had noticed, though. Or maybe all girls were that crazy.

If Nico actually heard Kevin, she didn't tell him. "The worst part", continued as she chewed a waffle. "Is that I'm afraid this might be some sort of stupid crush I'm having because I'm sorry for the way we treated each other, so if I go and act and he reacts in a good way...I might not like it in the end." That was confusing even to her. "I think I'm going crazy." Right, say that out loud.