T is for Tours

[Nathan Hayden]

Her explanation would have to be enough. He literally remembered practically everything, so if she wasn’t in the archives, then either he was losing his powers, yeah right, or they had really just hadn’t had the chance to talk before. It was plausible, giving the amount of people in the school, the time Nate spends outside, the different classes, clubs and sports, varying schedules, possible routes they both took…This list of variables goes on in his troublesome mind for miles, and as the calculations went on and on, she kept guiding him to a location of her choosing.

He stopped himself as she described events that had scared most of the school. Nate knew about most of what she was narrating, though he hadn’t been there. He was protected, kept safe while others suffered. He observed and listened while she spoke, and his powerful brain recreated the scene as best it could in front of his eyes, a sight only he could see. But that didn’t mean he wanted to. –“Conflict is natural, Frank. Even more in our current situation. Just think, it could have been worse”- Nate had the uncomfortable tendency to predict how things would unravel, so he might know what he was talking about better than one would think –“Are you alright, about all of this I mean?”-

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Well, yeah, it can always get worse. Though I've heard that they're, like, throwing money at the problem or something. I dunno. My parents were all like 'that school better be safe or you're going right back to England'," Frank blew out a raspberry and rolled her eyes, "as if: I'm so sticking around till I graduate. Probly till I graduate college, though my dad's gonna be kinda sad that I can't attend his old alma mother or whatever.

"But yeah, I'm totally fine," Frank moved and threw an arm around Nate. "I just got kidnapped a little bit; it's cool. What about you," she poked his cheek, "you doing okay? You need me to nurse you back to health or something? That requires shirt removal."

Frank might have moved her hand a bit to try and see what kind of muscle tone the guy had. Just a bit. Not, like, groping or anything. Just sort of... testing. There might have been some light squeezing involved...

... it had been a really long time since Frank had a boyfriend, okay?

[Nathan Hayden]

He nodded, still looking around the courtyard, trying to stop the reenactment his stupid big brain had set up. He instead focused on Frank, in an attempt to forget about the rest. That’s probably what most parent who had enough money to make a difference did, and even the ones who couldn’t must have complained or something. The Haydens took any chance they had to come check on Nathan, who supposedly looked very much like his late grandfather, which he never met. What to do after graduating from Bellefonte also tormented Nate; was he going to stay in Kalispell for college or leave?. I mean, this a great town and all, but there are more suitable places of higher learning for this guy, and part of him wanted to see the world. The eternal showdown between logic and emotion. Spock would be so proud. And what does he do every time that decision comes up? He moves on and leaves it to future-him. Of course. He knew he couldn’t run away, but he wasn’t going to let it ruin the tour.

He chuckled a little as she offered to be a nurse –“Now that you mention it, some medical attention might fix me up”- Right about the time he was around the middle of the sentence, she began to touch his upper body. The small pause he made out of surprise was barely noticeable. Nate continued to act and walk exactly the way he had been doing before, except he now put an arm around her shoulder as well. Thank you football, thank you…he thought to himself as her hand squeezed a muscle. Was it surprising for the guy with super intelligence to be also athletic?, well, maybe to most people due to clichés and stuff. But when you think about it, it made sense. For Nate, reasons were as good as any motivator. If there were many good reasons to do something, and few bad ones, then he would do it, no doubt about that. One of those things was physical exercise, too many pros to ignore, as Nathan would say. He also had a lot of free time, which most students used memorizing stuff or studying. On top of that, he joined the football team on his second year here. It had been a plan made by some of the staff, designed to open the boy to team play and to socialize with more people, but they didn’t expect he would like it, or that he’d be very good at it. He made no movements to indicate he was uncomfortable, because he wasn’t.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Hmm, you totally got a football player's body. Or maybe rugby, though I guess they don't' have rugby here. But whichever it is," Frank nodded with all her sagacious wisdom, "I shall make sure to help fix you right up. Yep yep yep!"

Frank leaned up and gave Nate a quick peck on the cheek before giggling and skipping a few more feet forward. She landed, her heels both clicking together, and her skirt swaying slightly. Frank nodded and then extended her arms around.

"So, where you wanna head next? Oh, want me to show you the super secret tunnel that some weird kids are trying to build that leads to the dorm rooms? It, like, doesn't really go anywhere yet. I think they just started or something," Frank turned and looked, tilting her head for a moment. "Orrrr I could show you the entrance we used to escape when we all tried to smuggle Solkat out and---

"Hey, I haven't seen her in a while. Weird." Frank tilted her head, tapping her lip with a finger. "Wonder what happened to her... I'm guessing ninjas..."

[Nathan Hayden]

The peck on the cheek caused his eyes to widen ever so slightly, but in the good way. He smiled as she giggled and skipped around. People didn’t understand why he was happy most of the time, with all he had gone through, and his unusual situation. But his logic mind didn’t allow him to worry about what couldn’t be changed, or cry over the past, since the past seized to exist. Unchangeable, until he invented a time-machine that is. But that was a lost cause, he hadn’t managed to find a working DeLorean anyway.

Tunnels. Something ticked in him, the possibility of things he didn’t know about, yet. He wondered why he didn’t know about neither of them, but simply continued to listen to her until she was done talking –“Yeah, ninjas are sneaky like that”- He said, trying to sound serious –“Why are they trying to build a tunnel to the dorm rooms?”- Asked Nate, curious about this turn of events. It wasn’t like was going to tell on them or anything, no, that was the last thing on his mind. He also liked to give “The Man” a middle finger once in a while, as long as it was harmless, most of the time –“ And what’s with the student-smuggling?”- The second question had a more merry tone, indicating he was joking, since he was less interested in an event that had taken place already.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"I'm not sure," admitted Frank, pausing to tilt her head as she mulled it over. "I heard that, like, there's this dirt gnome or something who's getting all antsy and stuff and the staff like, watches over her and makes sure she doesn't do anything super weird or anything and so she started digging a hole and a couple of other people were like 'that's a brilliant idea; this school totes needs more holes' and bam," Frank nodded, then realized there was another question.

Which had Frank hopping up and down and hitting Nate a few times. "Oh, oh, oh! That was fun! Well, the kidnapping part kinda sucked, but the smuggling was super awesome! That's when I got to know Trevor and he's kinda cool but a bit shady and all c'mon!" Frank grabbed Nate and practically started dragging him toward a section of the school.

"Trevor like totes bribed some people and Erika was all like making sure that people weren't looking for us and we were totally gonna get Solkat to this convention thing... man, we really should've tried to do that again," said Frank, tilting her head again. "Wonder why we didn't... I guess there's been a lot going on and all..."

[Nathan Hayden]

Dirt gnome? And so Nate’s brain took a cup of coffee, sat on the chair, stacked its files and went overdrive. Dirt gnome? He repeated, trying to see if it made more sense the next time. It did not. It could be a lie made up by some students as a hoax of some sort, or an excuse to dig a tunnel, even though it made no sense. It was the only possibility, or was it? After exhausting all possibilities on that side, he began to think as if a “Dirt Gnome” could actually exist. It took nearly nothing for him to figure out that it was probably a mutant, maybe a student, or a former one that never left. Tunnels, underground, dirt, earth, terra. That was the next step, this anomaly probably possessed the mutation known as Terrakinesis, or something similar at least. And if it was a gnome, then it was small. Thoughts swirled in his mind as he ran a search in the good ‘old “Archives”…Demi Smith! He nearly yelled out loud at the moment of his Eureka, though it was little more than an educated guess. He couldn’t do any more than that with what he had to work with.

He looked back at her when she began to bounce, speaking of the aforementioned smuggling. Nate smiled as he was pulled somewhere –“Where are we going, guide?”-

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank turned to Nathan as she moved, blinking and staring at him, her brain seeming to literally start whirling as she processed what he had to say. Where were they going? It sort of felt like it had been months since they'd started moving now, which made it kinda difficult for Frank to remember what she'd been thinking about at the time. Then again, time was kinda relative for Frank: she didn't quite operate under the same thoughts and timeline as most of the rest of the world. Normally this wasn't much of a problem, but normally she wasn't attempting to lead someone along on a "tour."

"Well, I think we're heading toward the sorta secret tunnel thing," said Frank, turning and pointing, "though we could totally head for the semi-secret entrance thing that we totally used to sneak out all those months ago. You know," she waved her hand, almost winding the air, "when we totally got captured by the SPECTRE people and had all that craziness. It was super weird," Frank finished with a nod, quite pleased with herself, even smiling as she finished. Yeah, she'd definitely come up with a few potential destinations that were totally legit and not just made up after her brain seemingly stalled for far, far too long.

[Nathan Hayden]

-“I’ll follow you, Frank”- Said the boy, wearing a smile that showed he would trust whatever choice she made. All of those places interested him in their own way, but some of them might even awake unpleasant memories for her, and that’s the last thing he wanted. The whole SPECTRE thing didn’t affect him much, though it was just a matter of luck. If he hadn’t been in the right place, at the right time, he might have been taken like some of his fellow students. Part of him wondered if he would have been able to help, or if he would just be a burden in a situation like that. Even if the tour was for his benefit, it didn’t feel like it was his choice to make.

-“So, nurse…”- Nate’s tone didn’t wander away from its usual merriness –“..what was with the inspection earlier?”-It was as far as you can imagine from a serious question. And it didn’t emerge from his curiosity either, if anything, this was a result of Nate’s more human side. She was cute, around his age, and absolutely out of the ordinary, and while he didn’t really have a defined “type”, those traits kept appearing when he analyzed most of the girls he liked. Maybe Nathan was attempting to give flirting a try.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"You'd better, since I'm totes the guide," insisted Frank. She skipped forward a bit more, glad that they'd got that bit settled. She could totally show Nate the path that she and the others had taken when they'd sneaked out for the whole SPECTRE thing. They could retrace all the steps and Frank could totally detail the whole escapade in intricate detail.

She was nearly so distracted by her own thoughts and plans that she missed Nate's question: nearly. She spun, the motion so enthusiastic that it made her hair fling back, practically whipping her in the face and very nearly taking out a poor bystander. "Pfft, you know you're hot," she said, waving a hand and letting her lips blow out in a noise sort of like a raspberry. "With your sexy blonde hair and cocky smile and all. Total hottie. And you're, like, totally fishing for compliments, which is just kinda bad form. Totally," Frank rolled her eyes and then giggled, but turned back, giving her booty a little shake, "that's just soooooo wrong," and more giggles.

[Nathan Hayden]

She was just something else. Every single thing she did and said managed to surprise him, which wasn’t something easy to accomplish. Even if it was true that he was smiling most of the time, her personality and jokes made it impossible for Nate to get rid of the happy grin on his face, even if he wanted to. He was actually glad he had been stuck with the whole guide thing, since otherwise none of this would have happened, and the stranger treasure that was Frank Cox would have continued to elude him.

He laughed a bit as her response continued, joining her cute giggles. Admittedly, his eyes were unable to ignore the discreet movements of her backside, which only served to make his surprise more intense –“Nice moves”- He said casually after she was done, but continued to speak before she had a chance to respond -"Well, I’m sorry, but this isn’t exactly a normal occurrence for me. A hot guide who’s also a nurse? I never would have imagined”- His words were accompanied by a the usual smile and a tone that attempted to sound serious even though he was clearly joking –“And you can fish for compliments all you want, I’m sure I can come up with a couple of good ones”-

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

If there was one thing Frank loved, it was making people laugh, especially when they were laughing with her. It just made her giggle all the more. That said laughter happened to come from a guy who was pretty darn cute only made it all the better in Frank's eyes. She certainly wouldn't mind getting to know someone who laughed with her better.

"Wait, I'ma nurse now?" she asked, turning. She didn't stop walking though, simply moving backward, trusting in her intuitive knowledge of the area to walk steadily. Frank did nearly run into people, only missing them mostly because people darted out of her way instead of the other way around, but that didn't seem to bother the girl: it didn't even seem to really slow her down all that much. "Why am I a nurse now? Is that some kinda thing that I'm not getting?" she tilted her head. Then she snapped her fingers. "Is that an Animaniacs thing? Like Hellooooooo Nurse," she added a wolf whistle, grinning wide, "'cuz I totally love that show," she nodded and then shrugged her shoulders, "I'd totally have to make out with you if you were making an Animaniacs reference to flirt with me. Like, it would just so be required."