xp_logs | Nathan and Doug, Monday early afternoon

Doug stops by to get his present. He and Nathan discuss the new decor in Moira's living room and shopping in Greece. Nathan gives him his rather unusual gift (Nate doesn't believe in the 'My teacher went to Santorini and all I got was this lousy t-shirt' type of gift) and asks Doug if he'd be interested in helping out with the language courses.

Doug bounced down the hallway. Nathan and Doctor Mactaggart were back, and Nathan had better have brought presents if he knew what was good for him. After all, if friends were going to go to all these fabulous locales, what good were they if they didn't bring presents back? Arriving at the door to Nathan's room, Doug schooled his features and attempted to look nonchalant as he tapped at the door.

Looking up from where he was sitting on the couch, sorting through the various purchases he and Moira had made over the course of vacation, Nathan looked up, chuckling at the feel of the presence outside the door. "Come in, Douglas," he called, smiling at how cheerful the kid looked as he came bouncing through the door. "You look like you've caught up on all your sleep. No more cicadas?"

Doug shrugged. "The cicadas are still out there, but between the fact that they seem to be tapering off, as well as the white noise generators that Doc McCoy helped put together," he indicated the hearing-aid-looking devices on his ears, "I've managed to drown them out, effectively. And getting caught up on sleep was a very very good thing. Means I haven't been cranky at anybody lately."

"Always a plus," Nathan said, gesturing for Doug to sit down. "Like the new furniture?" he inquired. Moira had opted for mission-style everything, which went very well with the dark green and cream of the wallpaper.

Doug cocked his head as he looked around the room. "It's all right, I guess. But out West everyone seems to jump on the mission-style bandwagon." He shrugged. "It looks nice, but I've seen some spectacularly _bad_ mission-style furniture."

"I think Moira figured it looked sturdy." Nathan gave Doug his best innocent look. "Why she would think she needs sturdy furniture, I don't know."

Doug blinked, as a few hints suddenly fell together in his mind. "You trashed the room when Skippy came after you, didn't you?" he asked. Deep down, he was still extremely relieved that Nathan and Alison were still alive. From the things that Skippy had said when he and Angie had gone down to get the Professor out of The Box...he shook his head. He didn't need to dwell on that.

Nathan nodded, picking up the toy trireme he'd gotten Miles and examining it for a moment to make sure it had survived the trip back all right before setting it aside. "Cain wrote off the room as a total loss, so that's why the complete redecoration. Had to strip it down to the floorboards. There were a lot of dupes."

Doug nodded. "But the important thing is that everyone came out of it alive. Except Skippy, anyway." He paused to try and show some respect for the dead, and regret for the things that made him the way he was. "And hey, Doc Mactaggart got a shopping trip out of it! So everyone wins!" If the brightness of Doug's tone was just a touch forced, he hoped Nathan wouldn't say anything about it.

"Not just Moira," Nathan said with a chuckle, his hand drifting over the box where the icon he'd bought was safely wrapped. He might be ambivalent about religion, but that didn't mean he didn't admire religious art. It was just a reproduction of a Byzantine icon, but it had caught his eye in that little shop and he hadn't been able to help himself. "I spent a fair chunk of change myself."

Doug grinned. "That's right! Prezzies!" He barely managed to restrain himself from bouncing up and down like a five-year-old hopped up on sugar. "Did you get me anything?" he asked, still feigning nonchalance.

Nathan gave Doug a dry look, inwardly quite tickled by his enthusiasm. "What, you think I'd remember to send you a postcard and forget to get you a gift?" he asked, and came across the gift for Angie. "Want to see what I got for your lady love?" he teased a little, extending the tarot set in its carved wood box.

Doug took the box and opened it. He whistled at the old look of the tarot cards within. And, appropriately enough, the High Priestess resided at the top of the stack. He grinned as he put the lid back on the box. "She'll love them," he said.

Nathan took the box back, setting it down gently. "I have to confess I have a love for antiques, so I bought a number of them," he said, reaching for the thin, rectangular leather case and handing it to Doug. "Hence, some of the gifts are a little weird."

Doug opened the case gingerly and drew out its contents. He grinned widely as he read the Latin on a map of Greece. He looked up at Nathan. "How old is it?" he asked.

"1638," Nathan said. "I actually found it in the same shop I found Angie's tarot cards." He shrugged, smiling a little. "I suppose I was thinking of my Askani map in the back of my head, when I was wondering what to get you. But I thought this one was interesting. For the mid-17th century academic Latin, as well as for its value as a historical document."

Doug nodded, engrossed in the map. "I'll have to find some way to frame it nicely and keep it preserved. This is too cool not to put up on the wall, though." He placed the map back in the case, stashed it under one arm, and offered a hand to Nathan. "Thanks. And it's good to have you back."

"Good to be back," Nathan said, shaking Doug's hand. He couldn't help a grin. "While you're here..." he said leadingly.

Doug grinned teasingly. "More presents?" he asked jokingly.

"No," Nathan said. "Job offer, actually."

Doug raised his eyebrow. "Job offer? What, helping you with your language classes?" he asked, dropping easily into Askani for the fun of it.

"Yes, that's precisely what I had in mind," Nathan said in Arabic, and then switched mischievously to Kazakh. "You're the best choice imaginable, obviously. Although it didn't occur to me until Angie suggested it, which was foolish." He shifted back to English. "It would be something to put on a resume. Your mutant ability speaks for itself, obviously, but additional concrete experience can't hurt."

Doug nodded. "Makes sense," he responded. "Besides which, I imagine that you've learned idiom and slang and the like, as well as accents. While my power gives me the understanding, I sound obviously book-taught unless I've dealt with someone who speaks the language natively. So I can speak Castillian Spanish like Manuel, French like Angie, and Russian like Piotr and Illyana, but when it comes to languages I don't have direct experience with, a native speaker would pick me out in a heartbeat."

Nathan blinked, intrigued. "You and I should definitely spend some conversational time above and beyond the classes, then," he said. "I learned languages for the specific purpose of being able to blend in as a native speaker, so we paid particular attention to idiom and slang." He grinned. "I can mimick accents from just about every part of Russia."

Doug grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me." He indicated the map case under his arm. "But for the time being, I'm going to go see about how to get this thing framed. Drop me an email or something about scheduling for your classes?" he asked.

"Will do," Nathan said cheerfully. "Tell Angie I've got something for her, too?"

Doug grinned. "Absolutely. She's going to love it."