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Last Thursday before the kerfluffle between Lorna and Alex, Shiro goes to get a snack from the kitchen and bumps into Doug. There's some friendly chatting about little sisters and dorkiness, and Shiro even manages to make a few jokes that send Doug into a fit of giggles.

For the ten-thousandth time since waking up, Shiro cursed himself for doing the Ultimate Dumb Thing. The worst part (aside from not having any damn powers) was that expending all that energy left him constantly famished. He had been fed plenty of healthy stuff to help him "regain his strength," but all he wanted was sugar, and lots of it. So a trip to the kitchen was in order.

Doug was puttering around in the kitchen tossing through various cabinets trying to decide on a snack when Shiro entered. It took Doug a moment to recognize him with the pitch black skin, but he was careful not to react abnormally to the young Japanese mutant's appearance. Looking assessingly at Shiro, Doug made a quick decision and fished through his secret stash. "Pocky?" he asked, holding up a box.

"Thank you," said Shiro softly, slowly approaching Doug to accept the snack. If he noticed any reaction from Doug, he ignored it. After pouring himself a glass of milk, he went to the island and sat down on a stool, quietly munching on the Pocky.

Doug fished out a second box and poured himself a glass of milk as well, sitting down on a stool opposite Shiro, giving him space to relax in companionable silence.

Although he didn't show it, Shiro appreciated the gesture more than he could describe. He didn't want any of that 'If you want to talk about it, come and find me' bullshit his peers were usually so fond of. "I don't suppose Marie-Ange has any make-up that could cover the black," he said, trying to make some sort of conversation because it gave him at least some sense of normalcy.

Doug chuckled dryly. "You might be better going to Clarice. She's the one that goes in for weird over-the-top colors. Angie's collection of makeup tends towards the understated."

"Maybe I could end up purple. Joy." Shiro couldn't hide the bitterness in his voice, and winced a bit after he spoke.

Doug carefully noted the bitterness and kept his tone light. "Oh, I dunno. You could collect the whole set, start some kind of weird fashion statement. We've got purple, green, blue..." He framed Shiro with his hands. "I think you'd look very fetching painted a bright shade of orange..." He grinned.

Shiro rolled his eyes but let himself grin. "'Fetching'? Well, if you think I would look that good, I might have to look into it. Maybe I will change colors every so often, so I don't get too bored."

Doug nodded. "Might be more cost-effective to ask Doc McCoy if you can borrow an image inducer, though. That way you don't have to worry about spending all that money on the random colors you would be turning."

"It would also prevent an unfortunate side effects," Shiro added, munching on a stick of Pocky. "Getting skin cancer by the time I am twenty is not in my plan." This wasn't either . . . Shiro angrily shut up that mental voice.

Doug winced internally at the bitterness in Shiro's voice. He was trying to keep the conversation light to distract him...maybe a change of subject. He fished around for a moment before grinning wickedly. "So, how long has Leyu-chan had a crush on Alex?" he asked casually.

The change of topic was unexpected, but it brought a chuckle from Shiro. "Since the moment she laid eyes on him. And even though he told her about Ms. Da . . . er, Lorna, I think she still holds out hope."

Doug grinned at the chuckle. "Girls of that age usually do. I remember my sisters at that age. They both had a raging crush on the babysitter, and they used to fight over him and make voodoo dolls of whatever girl he was dating at the time. Be glad you've only got the one sister, trust me."

"Oh, I believe you. Leyu-chan is enough for me, thank you. How many sisters do you have?"

"Just the two," Doug replied. "Both younger, and both the banes of my existence. I think they still don't believe that their dorky older brother managed to find a girlfriend."

"Mutants?" Shiro asked out of curiosity. "Leyu-chan didn't believe me at first when I told her that I actually do have friends. I still don't know if she believes that Alex isn't someone I just bribed to go to Tokyo with me."

Doug shook his head. "They both tested negative for the X-factor. And little sisters are crazy like that. They find it inconceivable that someone would actually freely associate with their dorky big brother."

"I'm not dorky," Shiro protested. "Leyu-chan is a bigger dork than I am." If Shiro was the kind of person who pouted, he would have.

Doug grinned even wider and carefully did not draw attention to the way Shiro's lower lip jutted out slightly. "It's all about perspective," he replied. "You think she's a dork, she thinks you're a dork...the world is full of dorkiness," he stated philosophically.

"How Zen of you," Shiro joked as he finished the last of the packet of Pocky. "Will you be TA'ing Dorkiness 101 this coming term?"

Doug paused, attempting to choke down the mouthful of milk he had, rather than spewing it all over Shiro. Someone stop the presses, Yoshida Shiro had just made an honest-to-god joke. And a pretty good one at that. Coughing and wheezing, Doug shook his head. "Can't be taught. You've either got it or you don't."

Shiro patted Doug on the back to help him get the milk down. "Calm yourself. It wouldn't do me any good to have you choke and die just because I have a sense of humor."

Doug wheezed a bit more at the pat on the back. "You're...not...helping..." he gasped through a fit of the giggles.

"Just be lucky I don't moo at you when you drink your milk," Shiro said wryly, grinning.

Doug doubled up again, waving his hand in submission, as the only sounds managing to escape his mouth were a series of giggles. Finally, he managed to settle down enough to catch his breath, panting as though he'd just run several miles.

Shiro rolled his eyes as he got to his feet so he could clean up. As he walked over to the sink to rinse out his glass, he turned back to Doug, looked at him intently, and said: "Moo."

This, of course, set Doug off into another fit of the giggles, and he clutched the tile counter of the kitchen island suddenly to avoid falling off of his stool.

Shiro made a noise of mock irritation and shook his head. "Are you three years old?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Doug nodded solemnly. "Am this many," he replied, holding up three fingers in the manner of three-year-olds (and seventeen-year-olds with the occasional maturity level of three-year-olds) worldwide.

Shiro clapped his hands. "You can count! I'm so proud, Dougie-chan." While Shiro isn't the kind of person to stick his tongue out, either, but if he was, he'd have done it.

Doug, on the other hand, was firmly in three-year-old land, so he had no such compunctions about sticking his tongue out at Shiro and making a long, drawn-out "nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" noise.

"Lorna was complaining about being a cradle-robber since she is older than Alex," Shiro contemplated, "I wonder how Marie-Ange will react when she discovers she's involved with an infant."

Doug grinned as he stood to wash out his own glass and place it carefully in the dishwasher. "Haven't heard any complaints yet," he replied with a mischievous grin.

"I think we have crossed into Too Much Information Land," Shiro said with a shudder, heading for the door. "Thank you for the Pocky, Doug." He paused, and then grinned. "Ee-chan," he added.

A balled-up napkin hit the door frame as Shiro disappeared down the hallway, and Doug shook his head and chuckled wryly.