xp_logs | [Paul, Nathan] Look what the cat brought in... (backdated to Monday, July 12) (Reply)

Nathan follows Delphine back to Paul's room and decides to say hello to the owner as well as the cat. He discovers a potential partner in crime for his rock-climbing plans.

Heading back to his and Moira's rooms after his rather perplexing session with Angelo - and to think, he had another tomorrow tonight - Nathan was rather bemused to see a Siamese cat sitting at the top of the stairs to the third floor.

"Hello there," he said, pausing on the stairs to admire her. She stared at him for a moment and then turned away, heading down the hall. Curious, he followed her, until she slipped in through the partly-open door of one suite. He stopped, then knocked rather tentatively. "Hello?"

Delphine hopped up onto the kitchen counter and put her head into the cuisinart bowl where the ingredients of her dinner were waiting to be blended. "Delphine!" Paul was about to start scolding when there was a knock on the door and a greeting from out in the hallway. "Come in," he called. He picked Delphine up and put her down on her chair at the table, where she sat with her chin on her placemat, looking forlornly at the silent cuisinart.

Nathan opened the door, still a bit hesitant. "Hi," he said, and then smiled as he spotted the cat. Entirely too cute. "I hope I'm not intruding?"

"Just a moment." Paul gestured for Nathan to come in further and then sealed and ran the cuisinart. It roared briefly and Delphine put her paws on the table and mewed happily. Paul scooped some of the contents into a small dish and put it on the table so that Delphine could hop up and eat. He wiped his hands on a dishtowel and came over to greet Nathan. "Hi there."

Nathan grinned and offered his hand. "Nathan," he said. "You must be Paul? And your friend is lovely. She greeted me at the top of the stairs."

Paul shook Nathan's hand firmly, nodding. "Nice to meet you, Nathan. Dayspring, right?" He cast an affectionate look over at Delphine. "Her name is Delphine. I'm afraid she's a little spoiled, but it gives me something to do."

Nathan nodded, then smiled again at Delphine. "Great profusion of pets this weekend," he said. "Does she have any problems with birds?"

"Problems?" Paul frowned a little at that, leaning against the back of an armchair and crossing his arms over his chest. "They certainly interest her, but she seems to have figured out that eating them is a bad idea. They make her quite ill, most meat does."

"Oh, I didn't think she'd be trying to eat the bird I'm referring to," Nathan assured him immediately. "Bella's a hyacinth macaw, about three feet long... she's quite friendly. Her former owners had cats as well, so she's accustomed to having feline friends."

Paul quirked one eyebrow curiously. "That's quite the bird. She's never seen one that big, but I'm sure she'll be fine. She's fairly certain that most of us were put here for her entertainment, other animals included."

"Then she and Bella should get along just fine," Nathan said with a chuckle. "There's also a new puppy in the house - Oscar. I haven't met him yet myself, but he's a boxer, so I'm assuming he's probably pretty rambunctious."

"Someone said this place was a zoo, but I didn't take them literally," Paul said dryly. Delphine jumped down from the table and Paul went to take away her empty dish. "Dayspring... You're one of the teaching staff, right? Any advice for the new teacher?" He took an open bottle of red wine from the back of the counter where it had been left to breathe a while and poured a glass for himself. "Wine?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Nathan said with a smile. "As for advice... I'm fairly new at this myself. I'm doing a couple of language courses this summer - I'll probably add a couple more in the fall."

Paul poured a glass for Nathan as well and brought it over. "Have a seat if you like. You'll forgive me if I don't settle down, I have my own little routine for new places and I hate not getting unpacked as soon as reasonably possible. You wouldn't feel like teaching French as well, would you?" He gave Nathan a hopeful, boyish smile.

Nathan chuckled and sat down, rubbing briefly at his leg. "Arabic and Mandarin are taking up most of my time at the moment. Though hopefully I should be able to kick them into small-group work by September. I'll have to figure out what I can add then. I've got an international relations course in development that a lot of the senior students are interested in..." He paused, shrugging lightly. "You'd think I was trying to keep myself busy. How about you? What sort of teaching plans have you got?"

"French, Mutant Acceptance in Society, Post-Colonial Literature, and Human Sexuality," Paul rattled off, opening a box and stacking the books inside on the shelf in front of him in the order that they came out of the box without looking at the spines.

Nathan blinked, especially at the last. "Well, that should keep you busy. Particularly Human Sexuality." He managed a wry smile. "It's like Days of our Mutant Lives around here most of the time."

"All the more reason for it," Paul said mildly, shrugging. He moved on to another box, pulling out framed photos cushioned in bubblewrap. "Dramatics seem to come along with the hormones."

"Point," Nathan said. "Though I'm still very glad that I've only got to deal with them puzzling out choice profanities to call each other."

"It's the first time I've taught it in a situation where I'll be around the students all the time," Paul said. "I'll be interested to see what comes of it."

"They are good kids," Nathan said, a fond smile flickering across his face almost involuntarily. "Pretty troubled, some of them... but trying really hard."

"That's my understanding." Paul sorted the unwrapped photographs onto the shelves. It was evident that the unpacking process was something with which he was familiar. He didn't seem to have a lot of belongings but the ones he had were almost all unpacked and made the otherwise generic suite look like someone's home. "Charles certainly did try and sell that point." He frowned a little. "My decision would have come more promptly if I'd known how close the school was to the better areas of the city. I'm shallow that way." He laughed and tossed his hair out of his eyes, giving Nathan an utterly unapologetic grin.

Nathan gave him his best innocent look. "What, you're actually planning to go out and have a life outside these walls? My God, what a concept... " He dropped the act, grinning a little sheepish. "I've not been very good about doing that myself. When I first showed up here back in the winter I was a patient, so I wasn't wandering very far... suppose I don't have that excuse anymore, though."

"I'd better get to have a life outside these walls," Paul said dryly. "Otherwise, I packed half my wardrobe for nothing. Besides, Delphine and Vega both demand to go out at least once a week."

"Vega?" Nathan asked curiously, looking around instinctively, wondering if there was another cat.

"My car," Paul said blithely. "She's down in the garage. Cream Mercedes convertible with red interior, you can't miss her."

"Ahh," Nathan said, unable to help another smile. There was something very pleasant about Paul on the telepathic level, and not just because his mind seemed particularly disciplined. Nathan sipped at the wine, a bit startled by how relaxed he felt.

"I have three women in my life," Paul explained. "Delphine, Vega, and my sister. That's more than enough for me. One of them can't talk and the other two manage to have cross-species disagreements on who should get to sit at the dinner table." On cue, Delphine came traipsing out of the bedroom and gave Paul a curious stare and a small 'mrrt' comment before turning her attention to Nathan. She came over to Nathan, walking as though her paws were too good for the carpet under them, and made a question mark with her tail before sniffing his pant-cuff once, then twice. Then she rubbed her cheek against his calf with an approving squeak.

Nathan smiled again. "I pass, do I?" he asked the cat, reaching down a hand and offering her another sniff. When she seemed just as contented by whatever it was she was smelling, he scratched her gently behind the ears. "You know you're beautiful, don't you?" he teased lightly.

"I have no idea where she gets that idea from," Paul said guilelessly, adjusting one of what looked to be a dozen photographs of Delphine around the room. Delphine purred and arched under Nathan's hand, accepting the attention graciously.

"You would have done very well in ancient Egypt, I suspect," Nathan told Delphine gravely. She let him pet her for a few moments longer and then trotted back off, and he straightened, still smiling. "Have you met many of the other staff yet?"

"Not many, no." Paul stacked the last empty box in the pile near the door and sprawled gracefully on the love-seat opposite Nathan, wine in hand. "Pete did show me about earlier, so I won't get lost, but it'll take me a couple days to get around to knowing people. I did get a rundown on people's profiles from Charles in a packet of information he sent me about the school."

"Easiest way to meet the medical trio is just to stop by the labs at some point," Nathan suggested helpfully. "Doctors MacTaggart, McCoy, and Bartlet, I mean. Very little gets them out of the lab."

Paul made a face and sipped at his wine. "No offense to the medical staff -- who have excellent credentials, mind you -- but I prefer to avoid hospital areas. Charles said something about a journalling project that I should explore but I confess that I haven't taken the time to look at it yet."

"It's an interesting system," Nathan said. "I'm sure they'll set you up with an account soon... I had mine before I'd been in the house twenty-four hours." He shrugged. "It's most valuable for sending announcements to students, that sort of thing, but the personal journals can be interesting as well. Though they've facilitated the occasional brouhaha."

Paul nodded. "I'll have to take a look, then. We had something like that for project coordination but we didn't use it for personal journalling. I'll see if I can't make use of it for courses and I'll pretend I have no voyeuristic interest in reading other people's lives."

"There's a staff journal as well... properly secured, of course." Nathan chuckled, taking a sip of his wine. "Speaking of which... I don't suppose you're interested in rock-climbing? I'm trying to get a series of field trips together."

"Interested is a good word for it," Paul said with a small smile. "My present obsession is geocaching but that's only because it's hiking and cycling and rock-climbing and such together with expensive shiny toys that go ping."

Nathan perked up immediately. "I've heard of it - never tried it myself. But it would be great to have a second experienced climber, if you're inclined. It's been a while since I did much actual rock climbing... I've been going the alpine route, the last few years."

"Well, if my schedule allows it, I don't see why I couldn't go along." Delphine came skittering around the coffee table for no apparent reason and pounced vigorously on a stray sunbeam that had been minding its own business and creeping across the carpet as the sun set.

Nathan grinned at her. "Definitely have to introduce you to Bella," he said, sipping at the last of his wine and glancing at his watch. "It's been good to meet you, Paul, but I should probably go and let you finished getting settled. Have half a quiz still needing writing myself."

"Of course." Paul stood and took Nathan's now-empty wineglass, holding it with his own in one hand. "It was good to meet you too, Nathan." When Nathan stood, Paul offered a parting handshake.

Nathan shook his hand firmly, then smiled at Delphine. "Nice to meet you too, Delphine," he said. She didn't look up from chasing the sunbeam.

"She's charmed, honestly," Paul assured Nathan, walking him to the door. "I can tell because you're not bleeding."