Nate and Kyle, Monday

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

After Monday's classes and the weekend's events, Nate goes to visit Kyle. He manages to calm him down some, and they talk. Kyle determines (and informs Nathan) that Moira is evil, but cool. Mostly because of baby sharks.



Nathan took the chance that Kyle would be back in his suite after classes - the kids didn't seem to be as out and around the mansion as usual, which was unsurprising - and headed up there. The door was wide open and Kyle was in the common area of the suite looking disgruntled. Nathan leaned against the doorframe, smiling slightly.

"Welcome to the mansion," he said wryly. "You haven't arrived until you've had the crap beaten out of you. It's a tradition."

"It's a shitty one." Kyle grunted, not looking up. "Concussions suck, bruises suck, and that guy with the tongue sucks.'' He half-twisted to look over his shoulder at Nate. "Any other traditions I should know about? Getting shot, or maybe going psycho and killing people? I -can- read, you know."

"Been reading back on the journals, have you?" Nathan came over and sat down on the couch, far enough from Kyle not to crowd him but close enough to make it clear that he wasn't going anywhere until they'd talked. He maybe should have let Ani do this, but Mick was a bit fretful today and she had been reluctant to leave him. "Although, I should point out that I was in Scotland when I got shot, so that's got nothing to do with the mansion. And Doug... well, we're getting off-track here." He regarded Kyle patiently. "I was wondering if you had a healing factor. After how quickly you were back on your feet after we got you out... but I was hoping we wouldn't have to test that for a while."

Kyle snorted loudly at the mention of Doug. He'd been told that if he needed catching up in Algebra that Doug was the go-to guy for tutoring and Kyle was just -not- willing to put up with that much nerd for a decent math grade. "You forgot about the going psycho part. I mean, I get why its not in the student handbook, but I'd have liked to know that my classmates had body counts before, oh, I dunno, telling my folks I was okay here." He shrugged. "And I dunno about the healing whatsit. Gotta go see Dr. Maddy today, probably. I had a big bruise from the tongue guy kicking me, but its mostly all yellow and green now, not black and purple like before."

"We rescued you from people who spend their lives turning mutant kids into soldiers," Nathan pointed out. "Given that, are you really that surprised that some of the kids in a school full of mutants have killed people?"

"Um." Kyle stammered. "I wasn't expecting to find out how many.." and he was still damned confused about some of it. And not about to go ask questions. Evil twins, magic field trips, ghosts from the future. It gave Kyle a -headache-. "and I wasn't expecting anyone to talk about it out in the open. I mean, I don't wanna talk about how bad tongue-guy tasted when I bit him. Why would anyone talk about killing folks?"

Okay, it would be really, really nice if people around here stopped breaking his heart. Nathan kept his expression calm, his voice absolutely steady as he went on. "It is crazy around here at times," he said, knowing that Kyle didn't want to hear platitudes. "It's been a little crazier than usual this last little while, too. I think... well, the fact that some people talk about it is their way of coming to terms with it. Like if they admit the craziness is there, it won't be so bad. That doesn't have to be the way you choose, though."

"I dunno. Talking about it is weird. Doc Samson said it might help me figure out what I'm feeling about stuff, but then, he also said that it might take a while to settle out what I feel. About anything." Kyle said. "I -bit- a guy. Okay, I bit Sam before, but I was freaking and don't remember it much. But I -bit- that guy who was helping try to take Miles and it was gross. And I knew I was gonna do it before I did."

"You were trying to help Miles," Nathan pointed out, then smiled faintly again. "You know, kiddo, anyone else who'd been through what you've been through the last few months might have turned and run once they saw trouble start. Or frozen. The fact that you sailed right in there to try and help speaks awfully well for you. I mean, I wish you hadn't wound up in the medlab, but..."

Turned tail? As -if-. "I couldn't just do nothing or leave him there. I mean, what if they wanted to use him for a weapon." Kyle gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the snarl that threatened to come out at the -idea- of Miles being used like that. "I'm fourteen and that white cell sucked hard. I dunno how much more I'd have taken that. Miles is, what, six? seven, and he's a little dude." Now the snarl -did- come out, loudly. Far more loudly than Kyle had expected.

"They most likely did," Nathan said, a little more bluntly than he should have. "But thanks to you and the others, they didn't get him." He reached out somewhat tentatively and laid a hand on Kyle's shoulder, wishing that he dared offer some sort of telepathic reassurance. But while there were no triggers in Kyle's head, his mind was still raw, and Nathan wasn't about to go blundering in there where he could do more harm than good. "Deep breath," he told Kyle softly, registering the shift in his thought patterns, not just the outward signs of another mood swing. "Think about something calm. Sitting in the tree with Ani, maybe."

Sitting in the tree with Ani wasn't exactly Kyle's idea of -calm-. A lot of other interesting things that weren't pissed off or ready to chomp someone though, so it had the intended effect. Or at least distracted him enough to fake it. "Did she tell you I managed to catch a squirrel?" He asked. "Just the one though. And I let it go."

"She told me about your squirrel-chasing, yeah," Nathan said very gravely. "You know, when she and I were both living in New Mexico, she used to go out at night and chase the various little creatures that run around in the desert. She used to be a lot more nocturnal than she is now, and that's saying a lot." He hesitated, then went on. "She wants to spend some more time with you before she goes," he said. "If you're up for that."

More time? Kyle wasn't going to complain about that one little bit, no sir. "That'd be cool. I could use the not having to think about the crazy people trying to, you know, kidnap the little green guy." He sighed. Dammit, now he was thinking about it -again-.

"Distraction is good. And if there's one thing Ani can be, it's distracting," Nathan said and managed not to give Kyle quite so much of a knowing look. He was not here to be making fun, as cute as it all was. "You should have known her when she was your age. All over the place. Literally. She couldn't sit still."

Oh yeah. Very, very distracting. Cold shower distracting. "I'm not much better, Nate." Kyle said, a touch irritably. "I think I'm probably going to drive Dr. Moira nuts in Biology. I can't help it, I ... just start pacing." He sighed. "She's bribing me with scooby snacks to sit still." Okay, it wasn't as bad as he made it out to be, and it was -funny-, but he wasn't sure how long it was going to last.

"Natural result of your mutation," Nathan pointed out. "Ani got it under control. So can you." He grinned suddenly, wearily. "Scooby snacks?"

Kyle grinned crookedly, showing off half his set of fangs. "Well, no. But she laughed when I called them that." He'd been unnaturally glad she'd been amused by it, because he'd worried she would've been upset. And so when Dr. Moira had laughed openly, Kyle had felt a flush of relief. And then had happily practically inhaled the caramels. "And she's evil, because caramel makes my teeth get stuck shut and then I had to be quiet for ten minutes."

"You should have seen some of the things she did to me to get me to hone my telekinesis when... a few years ago," Nathan amended quickly. No, he was not getting into explanations of the virus or his leaving Mistra. Not today, probably not for a long time. "Wound up chucking coins at my head."

"She's evil." Kyle said firmly. "Or a mad scientist. She wants us to cut up baby sharks in class." Okay, it was cool, and neat to do, but his old school hadn't had any cutting up of baby sharks, or frogs or anything. "But cool." He was very firm about that. Coolest teacher he'd had so far, in his opinion.

"Also very hot," Nathan said and then actually laughed aloud at the look Kyle gave him. "What? You aren't going to start with me, are you?" He reached out and ruffled Kyle's hair.

Kyle swatted at Nate's hand. "Dude. Not the hair." If he really was being honest, it was the only thing he was vain about. Kyle liked his hair, more so after his mutation. It was good hair, and once he'd gotten it trimmed, he actually was very fond of how it looked. Not that he would -ever- admit it. "And -ew-. It's bad enough that I have to know my classmates have sex all the time, I don't wanna think about you guys."

"I'll practice some discretion, then," Nathan said very soberly. "Anything you hear about Moira and I in the library, or, well, flying? Total fabrication and hearsay. Really."

Kyle's jaw dropped. Teachers were NOT supposed to have these conversations. He blushed bright red, all the way to the tips of his ears and looked at -everything- except Nate. And it didn't help that, yes, indeed, Dr. Moira was attractive, and it was definitly going to be a cold shower night. Maybe more than one.

Comments

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

Hey, I was here for almost six months before I . . . er, died. Okay, bad example. But six months!

Nathan's just biased because he's had enough crap beaten out of him to make up for everybody else, that's all. :)

[x-rahne.livejournal.com]

Rahne hasn't yet. Well, wait, how long was it until the soldiers? (She did bite one, though.)