xp_logs | Paige and Nathan, Sunday morning

Nathan goes looking for Paige to invite her to take part in one of his language courses. She rather likes the idea.

The stables, Sam had said. That was where one looked for Paige this days, apparently, and Nathan had taken it as an excuse to get some more practice at this whole moving-around-outside thing. Plus the fresh air was nice. He'd get rid of the last lingering bits of his hangover yet.

He managed to reach the stables without falling over anyplace inconvenient, and smiled a little as he spotted a blonde head in one of the stalls and heard Paige murmuring to the horse. Hobbling down to join her, he gave her his best endearing grin as she looked up at him inquisitively. "Hey," he said.

"Hello," Paige replied, rather shyly. It wasn't because she was covered in horse hair -- it was shedding season after all -- or that her hair was quite windblown and this pair of jeans had a number of stains around the hem and tears at the knee because Paige didn't really care about those sorts of things. It was more that there was a fairly unfamiliar man standing outside her stall and talking to her as if she should know what to say. "Lovely morning?"

"It really is," Nathan said, and part of him was amused to realize he meant it. His mood was considerably better today than it had been in... well, since before he'd gotten shot. He had Moira to thank for that, which was enough to tell him that he should have gone to her on Friday night, rather than going drinking with Cain. Not that he hadn't known that already, he reflected wryly. "Hope you don't mind me tracking you down. I asked your brother where I could find you and he said out here was my best bet."

Smiling, Paige nodded as she continued to brush down her animal. "That sounds about right. If I'm not in the library, which is where I'd have been if you'd only asked two days earlier, I'm out here. Or running, if you want to catch me really early." Nememis shifted in his stall, still trying to figure out who in the world was standing out there distracting his girl. He didn't smell like any of the regular people who came out here. Paige rolled her eyes at him and smacked him back into place with a playful hand. "Nem, don't be a brat. He doesn't have any sugar on him, that's Amanda. So, what can I do you for, sir?"

"I'm recruiting," Nathan said with a chuckle. "I gather you're going to be here for most of the summer, so I was wondering if you'd be interested in either of these language courses I'm going to be running. I decided on Mandarian and Arabic for the summer, just because they're the most widely useful of the ones I can teach and there seemed to be the most interest in them." He leaned on the stall door, wincing a little, but continued to smile as he went on. "I figured I'd make the structure of the courses fairly flexible, to allow for vacations and visits home and so forth."

"A course over the summer? You must be reading my mind, sir." Paige paused in her brushing to look over at him, a bright sort of smile lighting up her features. She would be going home occasionally, with and without Sam, but if he was willing to make arrangements, this sounded perfect to her. "Which one is more of a challenge?"

Nathan pondered the question. "Probably Mandarin," he said thoughtfully. "It certainly took me the longest of my twelve to learn. Arabic isn't easy either, though, don't get me wrong." He smiled at her, appreciating the enthusiasm he could sense from her. No wonder Moira had insisted he make sure he talk to her. "I can't really do much more than give you an introduction to either over the summer, but it should be a fairly solid introduction."

Nodding, Paige answered, "Well, as long as you don't mind me being one of those very irritating students who reads up on everything remotely concerning the subject and tends to be several chapters ahead, I'd be more than happy to be one of your new Mandarin students." She switched brushes, quick flicks of her wrist bringing up the hidden dirt in Nem's coat. "And an introduction is fine. I work well on introductions. Or just giving me a book and pointing me to a quiet corner."

"There's going to be a lot of conversational practice," Nathan told her. "I'm not going to try and teach any of you the way I learned--" Although there was something to be said for having been given sufficient incentive to learn quickly. "--but the aim here's to get you talking and reading as fluently as possible as fast as possible." He smiled. "You'll have to pick a buddy. As far as I know Angelo is planning to take both courses, so..."

"Oh, you're the King of Subtle, sir," Paige teased with a good nature. She just hoped Nathan wouldn't be taking sides. She hadn't had to deal with that quite yet, not from too many of the teachers anyway, and would prefer to keep it that way. "But yes, that would work out just fine. Although, he'll probably attempt to throw my books at me occasionally. Good thing I come with built in armor I say, the amount of things I get thrown at me."

"I just want to make sure everyone's got a partner they're comfortable with," Nathan said, and had to wonder, yet again, who on earth he was going to pair Monet with. "As for book-throwing... book-throwing bad. I may have to be alert for that." He grinned at the young woman. "Moira has occasionally thrown things at me. She says it's cheating when I catch them telekinetically."

Paige sighed deeply, causing her creature to shift and attempt to look at her at the sound of distress. Absently patting Nem's neck she shook her head. "I've been working on the whole TK idea, what with it being a brain mutation as opposed to a gene mutation, but for once I think I might be wrong. So I'll just have to make more skin messes I suppose."

"You've been trying to duplicate telekinesis?" Nathan asked, intrigued. "I suppose that's a possibility, isn't it, with your mutation..." He chuckled. "If you manage it, let me know. Telekinesis is notoriously difficult to handle, for such a useful mutation. Tends to respond to your emotional state just a little too often."

"Well, that's the eventual result. It's more trying to figure out where telekinesis stems from at the moment. There are quite a few theories, all of them possible and the only one I couldn't recreate would be a gene manipulation. Eventually, I mean." Paige shrugged, blushing a little under his stare and trying to not to realize that she wasn't really paying much attention to Nem at the moment. "I need things to keep me busy. Mutations interest me. But for sure, I'll let you know. Or pester you with a million questions at least."

"You should talk to Amanda about it," Nathan said thoughtfully. "She's managed to recreate telekinesis magically - she might have some suggestions for you. But my door's always open, too. Metaphorically, at least." He set his crutch carefully under his arm, smiling at her. "I should go and let you finish seeing to your friend. The start dates of the language courses should be announced where everyone can see them fairly soon. I'm just waiting on the textbooks now."

"Mm... textbooks and new people to bother. Now I'm positively giddy." Paige smoothed down Nem's saddle blanket and hoisted the saddle on, grinning. "You have a good day now, sir."

"And you have a nice ride, Paige," Nathan said, and then set about the laborious process of getting himself back to the house.