[Paul, Nathan] It's a pet conspiracy.

[x-vega.livejournal.com]

Set last Friday, Paul and Nathan meet at the pool and the critters manage to get Nate to smile. Also, incriminating evidence of Nathan's marshmellowness is caught on digital camera.


"You're getting better at that," Nathan said quietly, smiling very slightly as Bella pulled herself back up onto the pool ladder, chirping at him.

"Nate! Swim!"

"Can't," he said, raising his wrapped wrist. He still had bandages on the cuts from the feral's claws, too, none of which he could get wet unless he wanted Moira to throttle him. "I'll just have to watch you."

"I'll make you a deal, Bella." Paul tossed his towel and bag onto the chaise next to Nathan's. "I'll swim with you while Delphine makes sure Nathan here stays out of trouble."

Delphine trotted up to Nathan and mewed authoritatively at him, sniffing at his bandages as if checking to ensure that each was intact. Paul took off his watch and tucked it into his bag before pulling out a little bowl, which he then filled with spring water from his own bottle and tucked under the chaise for Delphine in case she got thirsty.

"She drinks the pool water," he explained to Nathan. "I know it's probably harmless but it's the principle of the thing."

"Gatto! Gatto!" Bella squealed happily, then toppled over backwards into the water. Nathan couldn't help a snort at her.

"Still trying to drown herself, I swear," he murmured, and watched Paul join Bella in the pool. "She actually swims fairly well," he admitted. "I'm less worried than I was. And she certainly seems to like the pool." He reached out a hand to Delphine, who ducked her head against it.

Paul laughed at Bella and held out his arm for her to cling to. She climbed up to his shoulder, using beak and claw but leaving no mark, and shook vigorously. "Who's a pretty girl?" he asked her.

"Bella!" she replied, pleased with herself. "Bella swim!" She launched herself from his shoulder into the water with a flurry of feathers and droplets that fanned out to spatter Delphine. The cat sneezed and hid behind Nathan, peeking out with an offended sniffle.

"She'll be fine," Paul said, tucking one foot under a rung of the ladder to anchor himself whiile he floated in the pool, hands tucked behind his head.

"Yeah, I know," Nathan said, watching her swim over to the side of the pool and grasp the edge with her claws, cackling as she shook her wings. "Wishing I could join her, actually. It's pretty warm out here today."

"The perils of the business. All kinds of inconveniences," Paul said mildly. The sun glinted off of his sunglasses and the waterdroplets on his skin. "How's the healing?" It seemed a little disinterested, he didn't look over at Nathan as he spoke, watching Bella instead.

"Coming along," Nathan said a bit dimly, his eyes still on the bird. "I need to do something for Miles," he said after a moment. "Bella was very happy with him this weekend, I gather. The two of them get along very well."

"Delphine likes Miles," Paul noted, letting Bella cling to his fingers while she splashed water over him. "He's remarkably un-sticky for a boy his age. I agree with her. As short people go, he's quite tolerable."

Nathan almost smiled, before he caught himself. Delphine jumped up onto the end of the lounge chair and settled herself beside his feet, watching the goings-on in the pool alertly. "I heard Clarice mention you'd taken her fabric-shopping," he said, casting around for some simple topic of conversation.

"Oh, yes, we went to Manhattan. It was a nice distraction. She's an amusing child."

Bella climbed up the ladder and then hopped onto Paul's leg, chortling quietly to herself. She sidled up his leg and sat herself on his belly, spreading her wings in the sun. "Pretty, pretty," she crooned.

"I never thought I'd have a parrot-shaped tanline," Paul said dryly. "Though I suppose she can't make things worse than they already are." He tugged at the leg of his swimtrunks to reveal a barely perceptible variation between the skin beneath and the skin exposed. "See? Disaster." His tone was rather mocking, though there might have been a little seriousness to it.

"Bella, Paul is not a perch," Nathan said patiently. She chirped something obscene at him in Italian, and he sighed. "I'd say something about fowl mouths, but puns are generally evil."

Paul laughed and shook his head. "They didn't tell me you'd been shot in the funny-bone, Nathan. That's the only excuse for that pun." Bella caught a glimpse of herself in his sunglasses and trotted further up to look at herself in this little mirrors. Delphine, meanwhile, had ventured back into the sun now that the splashing had diminished and was lying belly up at Nathan's feet. The sun glittered off of her new gold pendant nestled in her fur.

Nathan exerted a little telekinesis - which wasn't giving him an instant headache, a good sign that his latest concussion was on its way to being gone - and scratched lightly behind her ears. Delphine sat up, startled by the invisible hand petting her, but Nathan persisted and she laid back down, her ears still flicking occasionally.

"Managed not to get shot at all this time," he quipped lightly. "Well, except by an electrokinetic. Still, I figure that's an improvement."

"Indeed," Paul said dryly. "I'll take a shot of lightning over a bullet any day." It was good that Nathan could make light of it, even a little bit. It meant he might be pulling out of the inevitable crush that came with that kind of assault and the consequent collateral damage. Collateral damage. Dead people. He tickled Bella's belly as she leaned in and blocked his entire view.

"Bella, dear, you're getting awfully forward." Oh, to have a camera. There were sometimes advantages to having a photographic memory, though, Nathan thought as he carefully filed the image away to share with Moira later. "She has this thing about perching on people," he said, half-apologetically. "You'd think she was a cat."

"Well, I like cats just fine." Paul shifted a little and pushed the sunglasses up, making Bella squawk in protest.

"Come back, pretty!"

"What are you talking about?" Paul teased her, tickling her until she fell backward off his chest and into the pool. "I'm right here."

Bella squealed, and swam back over to the side, pulling herself up onto the concrete and shaking herself vigorously. "Splash!" she shrieked, flapping her wings. "Splash, gatto!" Delphine gave her what seemed very much to be a dismissive look, and Nathan surprised himself with a laugh.

"Think you're out of luck," he told the very wet bird, who chortled as she made her way over to the lounge chair and climbed up, crawling up onto his lap.

"I don't know what you two see in each other," Paul said, crossing his arms on the side of the pool and resting his chin on them. Delphine hopped up onto Nathan's chaise with Bella and purred, rolling over on Nate's chest and trying to get Bella's attention, batting with one paw.

Nathan winced a little, delicately shifting Delphine downwards to his lap with his telekinesis. Bella hooted and bobbed her head up and down, then raised a claw and mimicked Delphine's batting.

"I think they're plotting to take over the world," he said, smiling a little again at the amiable standoff between cat and bird. "Delusions of grandeur. Definitely."

Paul laughed at them, settling his sunglasses on his head. "They need watching, that's for sure. I'm afraid they might be a bad influence on Miles."

"Cat, bird, and small green boy," Nathan said, rubbing Bella's head. "The new triumvirate of... um, well, whatever they want. Alarming household pranks? We are talking about one of Jamie's roommates, after all..."

"Pranks, definitely," Paul said, nodding seriously. "And cookie theft, among other things. Escape artistry. Maybe we should warn Mr. Lee." Delphine rolled so that her head hung off of Nathan's leg and all her paws were in the air. From this undignified vantage point she gave Paul a look of pure disdain.

Bella giggled, folding her wings almost primly. "Gatto! Gatto funny!"

It was a conspiracy, Nathan thought, rubbing the bird's head and telekinetically doing the same for the cat's belly. There were cute animals trying to cheer him up. Very, very sneaky.

"She's not going to fall asleep like that, is she?" he asked Paul, watching Delphine.

"Are you kidding?" Paul grinned at Nathan. "Keep rubbing her belly like that and you'll see. She'll turn into a cat-puddle and ooze right off onto the ground. She never learns. And then she'll jump up and be so offended because it must have been your fault."

"She's purring already," Nathan said quietly. "Must like the telekinesis..." Bella was trying to burrow under his other arm and he sighed, shaking his head at her. "Jealous? Of course you're jealous."

Paul pulled himself out of the pool and almost drifted over to the bag he'd brought to the pool. Grinning, he pulled out a small digital camera and aimed it at Nathan and the snuggling pets. "Too cute to miss," he explained in a very low voice.

"Now look what you've done," Nathan murmured to to the two animals. "Got me on camera and all. Not a bad shot for posterity, I suppose..." Certainly better than the ones from the weekend... Bella nibbled at his fingers, and he sighed and stroked her head. "Yes, yes. That hand is there to pet you. We're all aware of that."

Paul snapped a few quick photos, then pulled the camera away, giving Nathan a bit of a stern look. Still, he said nothing. For one thing, it wasn't his problem. For another, people got over these things when they were good and ready and not before. He looked at the camera, reviewing the photos. "Very cute," he murmured. He glanced up and caught Nathan's eye, giving him a purely flirtatious smile and wink.

Nathan blinked, then gave Paul a wry smile in return, almost before he could help himself. "I'll have to get you to email me copies," he said dryly. "Never know when pictures of me proving that I'm a big marshmallow will come in handy."