xp_logs | Kitty and Nathan, lunchtime on Friday

Kitty stops by Nathan's office with a tray of food and pushes lunch on him. They chat a little, about psi-energy and cooking class and other random things.

Kitty balanced the tray carefully and headed down the corner. She'd already forced food on a couple of tired looking teachers (somebody -always- forgot to eat...), and dropped a snack off with the professor. She figured she'd check on Nate and make sure Sam had eaten then hit the medical wing and get the doctors and Storm. Probably someone had fed them all, but one never knew. Occasionally, Kitty worried that she was turning into her mother, since her first reaction to problems was always make certain people were being fed.

Nathan looked up at the knock on the door, his eyes taking a moment to focus. "Come in, Kitty," he called, trying to wipe the tiredness out of his expression before she opened the door. He hadn't slept last night. At all. And he didn't even have a particularly good excuse; Moira had come to bed at a fairly decent hour, and had been as clingy as she generally was when she was stressed. He really should have been able to rest. Kitty came in, balancing the tray carefully, and Nathan smiled faintly. "Oh. Joined the conspiracy, have you?"

Kitty snorted. "I am one of the chief conspirators, thank you very much. I take it you haven't eaten, then?"

"Uhh..." Nathan paused, thinking hard. "Breakfast? Yesterday?"

"Yeah, that'd be a no." Kitty set the tray carefully down on a clear surface and gestured to it. "Am prescribing a minimum of three sandwiches and some chips and cut veggies or fruit. We've got," she paused, taking a deep breath, "roast beef and cheddar, pastrami, turkey and swiss, turkey plain, smoked turkey and cheddar, smoked turkey plain, pb and j raspberry, pb and j grape, pb and j strawberry, pb and bananas, pb and neutella, neutella and jam - raspberry, grape and strawberry, plain chips, rigged chips, baked chips, cheesy chips, sour cream and onion chips, carrots, celery, green pepper, and apples." She breathed in again, then grinned.

Nathan's eyes had widened slightly throughout the recital. "Uhh... whoa. How about the turkey and cheddar and an apple?" He shook his head. "I'm really not that hungry," he protested. "A sandwich and an apple will do." He could choke that much down.

Kitty's eyes narrowed, but she nodded. Hadn't eaten since yesterday, but not hungry... Moira probably knew about this, but she'd be letting the good doc know, just in case. "As you will," she said, handing over the sandwich and fruit. "Lucky you, last turkey and cheddar. Apparently it's a popular choice."

Nathan caught the slight narrowing of Kitty's eyes and smiled a bit sheepish. "Thanks. And not to worry, by the way... the medstaff are all fully aware of the fact that I don't eat or sleep like a normal person." He gestured vaguely at his head. "It's the Askani. Odd physiological effects of that much psi-energy. I know how much I can mess around before I start having real problems, though."

"Ah," Kitty said, nodding. "Is there any way to, like, ground the energy out so it's not so overwhelming? Or does that lead to the brain breakage?"

"Ground the energy?" Nathan blinked. "Never thought of it that way. Huh. I don't know... I was hoping I'd get used to it and the effects would diminish, over time. They don't seem to be doing that." He shrugged, giving her a crooked grin as he unwrapped the sandwich. "It's still worth it, though."

"Heh. Grounding's how you get rid of excessive energy in my world. Although I'm not sure what the psi-analogy to 'ground' would be. Something so big that the energy can go in and just get absorbed without doing any harm. But I'm glad it's worth it."

"I don't know that anything like that would work for the Askani," Nathan said thoughtfully. "They wouldn't survive for very long outside my mind. I lost... well, a few hundred thousand of them in August."

Kitty blinked, startled. "Oh," she said quitely, trying to process that. "Um... no, that'd be not good."

Change of topics, Nathan thought dryly, continuing to unwrap the sandwich. "So I feel like I've been the worst absentee teacher lately," he said. "I was even going easy on the papers I've been marking this weekend out of pure guilt."

"Ah, but if you're going easy on them, then you're a -good- absentee teacher. If you were missing class and still marking hard, then it'd be mean." Snagging a sandwich for herself, Kitty dropped into a chair. "Please excuse me," she said. "Have been delivering food, but haven't stopped to eat yet, myself."

Nathan gave her a mock-severe look. "Well, that's poor strategy. Can't have one of the chief conspirators keeling over from lack of food herself." He took a bite of his sandwich, chewed and swallowed before he went on. "It's very funny, you know. I can make sure Moira eats, but I'm terrible about it myself. Even though I know that I need to eat even when I'm not hungry."

"Ah, but I knew I'd get to it eventually. Hell, carrying around this much food, it was inevitable." Kitty nodded. "Yeah, I understand that. Am occasionally the same way. Which is why Jamie comes by randomly to make sure I've eaten when I have a project."

"Here I was worried about gaining weight, doing the cooking class this fall," Nathan said wryly. "Given some of the things I've been having the kids make."

She laughed. "Well, it's good you won't have to worry, I'd say. And what -are- you all working on these days? Smells delish when I wander past the kitchen."

"On Wednesday it was cheese souffles. Yes, I was actually making souffles with the little kids... you'd be surprised at just how good at it they were," Nathan said with a wry little smile.

"Nah, I wouldn't. Kids can be really good at just about anything, if you give them a chance..." She grinned - it hadn't been that many years ago that Kitty had had to prove herself capable, despite being 'just' a kid.

Eating was taking an effort. Nathan frowned a little at the sandwich, then took another grudging bite. "I missed that class the most, I think."

Kitty had already polished off her own sandwich and was eyeing the tray. She really ought to get down to the medlab with those... "That's because the little bits are cute as buttons and very uncomplicated. They're easy." Sighing, she stood up. "I ought to get the rest of these down to the docs and co. If they haven't eaten yet, they should, and if they have then the veggies need to make it back into the fridge."

"Thanks for the sandwich, Kitty," Nathan said with as much sincerity as he could muster. Well, the thanks was sincere, just not the fondness for the sandwich.

She nodded. "Thank you for eating it. We worry 'bout you, ya know."

Nathan flushed a little. "I appreciate that," he said a bit hesitantly, then smiled. "Have a good afternoon. Thanks again."

Hoisting the tray back up and balancing it, Kitty grinned. "Have a good one, yourself. See you later."