Kyle and Nate, this afternoon.

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Nate finds Kyle outside, being all avoid-y. They talk, Nate offers to help Kyle with self-defense, and they talk about the lack of realism on television, how chairshots hurt, and how being shot hurts.



The slight amount of winter chill was starting to sink in through Kyle's long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans, but he'd be damned if he was coming inside. Too many weird looks, too many people smelling -scared- of him, and he probably did deserve it, but he didn't feel like dealing with it right now. Espically since it just made him angry all over again. Classes has been bad enough.

He balanced his notebook, and history textbook on the wide branch of "his" tree to shift his weight so he could lean against the trunk. Getting as much homework down as possible seemed like a good idea, and might prevent him getting in any more trouble this week. Maybe.

It had taken Nathan all of about two minutes to find Kyle telepathically. He headed outside, at a very deliberate pace, wanting to give Kyle lots of opportunity to both hear and smell him coming.

He'd expected that eventually, Nate would probably come and Talk At Him. His pace was distinctive - of the larger people in the mansion, Nate was the only one who didn't seem to stomp around like an elephant. Also, he didn't smell like a whole lot of metal and art supplies, or like rocks. Kyle still didn't understand why Mr. Marko smelled like rocks.

"Um. Hi?" Kyle said, looking down from his branch and grinning nervously.

"Hey, champ," Nathan said with a brief, crooked smile, looking up at him. "Miss me?"

Maybe Nate hadn't heard about the big fight, Kyle thought. Though, that was probably not really likely. He nodded.  "Um. How was, um, whereever you were?"

"Busy..." Nathan said vaguely. "Pretty, though. I should have taken a camera." His gaze roamed the grounds for a minute before settling back on Kyle. "So I hear there was some unpleasantness this week," he said calmly.

"Yeah, I, kinda, um... "  Kyle shrugged.  "With Jay, and ... um..."  He rested his head against the tree trunk and let his feet dangle of the side of the branch.  "I kinda lost it. Dunno what happened."  He barely remembered the fight, much less why it had been so important at the time to beat the heck out of Jay.

Nathan leaned back against the trunk, taking a deep breath. "It's your mutation," he said simply. "You're prone to doing that... losing your temper like that."

"That sucks." Kyle said. "I mean, really, really sucks. What the hell am I supposed to do, just bet up my roommates for no reason?"  He rubbed his shoulder absently.  "And get hit with chairs? I mean, what the heck am I supposed to do?"

"Meditation," Nathan advised. "Finding other ways to channel your aggression... hell, some extra self-defense classes probably wouldn't be such a bad idea. I can do that, if you want."

"Um. Not to, you know, argue, but I don't get how learning to fight more is gonna keep me from wanting to fight.."  Kyle asked, sounding more than a bit confused.

"Because," Nathan said very patiently, "if you have a safe, approved outlet for your temper, then you won't be quite as likely to go beat the shit out of your roommates. You can come and try to beat the shit out of me." He looked up, giving Kyle a wide, somewhat sharklike grin. "Maybe in five years or so you might actually succeed."

Kyle did not meep in an intimidated manner. Not at all, and if anyone accused him of it, he was going to hide under his bed for a week. "You're really scary, Nate. Not that I'm saying no. I'm just saying, you're really scary sometimes."

"I knew there was a reason I'm fond of you. According to half your classmates I'm just Moira's somewhat endearing, occasionally narcoleptic big grumpy teddy bear."

"Or a ninja. I think Forge still thinks so sometimes."  The idea wasn't totally unbelievable. Nate -was- scary.  "Besides, big narcowhatever teddy bears don't kick ass, and I know you kick ass. I saw it."

Nathan snorted softly. "So is that a yes?" he asked. "I mean, we don't have to do the separate classes if you don't want to do that. I could even just teach you how to use a punching bag properly..."

Kyle nodded.  "Yes. So yes. There's a right way to hit a punching bag? I thought you just punched it?"  Though, maybe that'd explain why his hands kinda hurt when he hit the bag sometimes. Sometimes not though. 

"There is a right way," Nathan confirmed with a brief smile. "There's a right way to do a lot of things." He turned around so that he could make eye contact with Kyle. "How about tomorrow after classes?"

Kyle nodded.  "Okay. Its not like I need the time for homework now. No leaving campus for a while."  Which he deserved. But it still made him all kinds of cranky.  "Is there a right way not to get hit with a chair? Because being hit with a chair hurt a ton. Way more than it looks like on TV."

Nathan told himself not to smile. It wasn't actually funny. Really, it wasn't. "Generally, you try and avoid getting hit by a chair. I can speak from personal experience that it's not something that becomes any less painful with repetition."

Kyle frowned. Damn. "I think I need to watch less TV maybe. Because you know, you see people get hit with a chair and then get back up and I don't see how that works at all."  Not being hit with a chair anymore seemed like a just fine plan to him.

"Television does give you a somewhat skewed impression of fighting," Nathan said. "I mean, look at all the heroes who get back up after a bullet to the shoulder and only have a sling on in the closing scene of the movie. Speaking as someone who's been shot in the shoulder in the last twelve months, it is a hell of a lot more messy than that."

"Um.. ew?"  Kyle made a mental note. "Do not get shot. Ever.".  It was a very high priority mental note. Probably right below "Don't get locked in a big white room again."  "Do I want to know how you got shot? Or no? Cause I'm thinking no."

"Bad people with guns," Nathan said blithely. "I tend to attract them."

"This is another thing television is wrong about. On television, the good guys only get shot once, or twice."  Kyle noted. 

Nathan raised an eyebrow, giving Kyle a thoughtful look. "Well, the last time for me, it was three times. Shoulder, leg, and head. The one I took in the leg clipped the artery, and I nearly bled to death. I would have had nerve damage in my arm if it hadn't been for Amanda's healing spells, and while the head wound wasn't as bad as it could have been it did leave me with a nasty concussion." Maybe a little dose of reality was precisely what was called for here.

"The head? You got shot in the head?" Kyle's eyes went wide and for a long time, he just stared at Nate in disbelief.  "Okay, um...  Whoa. Um." He spluttered, not sure what to say. 

"What's really going to blow your brain is that it wasn't the first time."

Kyle stared. "Nate! You were shot in the head more than once? Wha?"  Nate had to be pulling his leg. Had to be.  "You're not going to be shot in the head anymore, right? Cause, Dr. Moira would be mad, I think."

Nathan coughed, to cover a laugh. "I'm going to do my best," he said solemnly.

Kyle frowned.  "You're making fun of me." He said.  "I know you can't help if it people shoot at you. But if you try not to get shot in the head anymore...  um...  I guess me trying not to beat up Jay isn't really much of a deal." Not that he was going to beat up Jay if he could help it anyway, but he had to say something. It was less scary than continuing to sit there and stare at Nate and try not to look like he was looking for scars.

"Harder to shoot me," Nathan said with another slightly disturbing smile. "Now that I can catch bullets."

"I want a T-shirt that says 'I get taught by Superman. Ask me how.'" Kyle said.  "Or, wait. no, Superman can't catch them, they just bounce off him. Darnit."  And he was not thinking about that. Not a bit. Because Nate was scary, and yet, not scary at all at the same time, and Kyle much preferred not-scary Nate to scary not-really-a-ninja-Nate.