{SF} Day Laborers

[François Laffont]

Of course, Franck understood his lack of control was different than Nico’s. The boy might be able, with enough practice, not to phase through just everything while Franck could not turn his off. But he had some control on what he could control, his own emotions. Their situation was not the same but the frustration this boy might have whenever it happened, he could understand it well.

Nico might not be entirely wrong though that Franck was just trying to connect. It was more pleasant to do a boring chore when you could chat or get your mind on something else. And since he was such a people person, his mind was on Nico. He wouldn’t give up that easily to have a conversation with him, no matter how hard that seemed to be for the other boy.

He was more curious about what he meant by accident than the fact it happened in Canada. Not that he ignored that detail. He was likely to bring it up later on. “Oh,” he said, as if that was the only thing one could say when being explained what someone meant by accidentally getting a power. Made sense. It fell on him without notice as well. He raised his head at the other thing the guy said, being more important to him than the rest. “You too? My mother was... pretty shaken by this,” he replied. He could only imagine the shock his parents went through when he phased through something. Did he just walk past the door by literally walking through the door like there was none? He had to admit that he was curious what happened but he knew not everyone was all that comfortable discussing it. Considering what happened to him, he understood it very well.

He was glad they could drop the box. There were still some more to bring. He sighed of relief once that one was done and looked at Nico. “We get the other ones?” he said, nodding towards where they left the others.

[Nico Martell]

Him too? Nico nodded at that. "Parents weren't thrilled," he admitted. He didn't really add that they were at least somewhat relieved in that the whole mutant thing at least meant that he got pulled out of prison. That had gone over fairly well, especially with his mother insisting that he use his second, or more like third by this point, chance well. Nico really did try; his work here said as much. Still.

They set the box down, Nico stretching slightly. other boxes. Right. Nico turned to look, considering. There were other people around to move things, and some were already moving the very boxes that Franck had indicated. Nico looked back down at the box they'd moved, then crouched down in front of it. He reached down, tugging it, and soon found his hand sliding through the cardboard. Sighing, Nico jerked his hand back and looked at the box.

"Should see if we've got everything we need first," he said, almost wincing already. He did own a knife, but he hadn't thought to bring it with him to the fair for some reason.

[François Laffont]

“I guess it’s a shock when you didn’t even know mutants exist,” Franck added. He was aware he was sort of excusing his mother’s behaviour. He could excuse her shock. His father had been shocked too, so did he. He had been scared of this strange thing happening to him. He didn’t even want to think what it would have been like if he had grown horns or wings or started to manipulate elements. He knew that what scared him the most was to see a new side of people he knew. And the fact he could not stop it.

Franck would have talked more on the matter but everything about Nico showed that he was not really the kind to talk and doing so on his own was not exactly what Franck loved the most. He was more of a listener or at least liked to believe he was. Even if he happened to enjoy talking as much as listening, that still meant he wouldn’t be comfortable being the only one talking with Nico only sharing a word or two every now and then.

As Franck said they were supposed to get the other boxes, he noticed that others were moving them. Well, he was not entirely sure those were the same but they were about at the same place so it was a safe bet to say they were moving them. Nico talked, said they should try and see if they had every piece to make the fryer. “Sure, alright.” He then crouched too and tried to look for a way to open the boxes. Might have been a good idea to have a cutter or a knife here. “Maybe these guys have a knife, I’ll go and ask them,” he told Nico, leaving him for a moment, to talk to the others and be handed a cutter, coming back to the boy with it. He figured Nico would appreciate not having to be the one asking for it.

[Nico Martell]

Nico nodded along with Franck's explanation. There seemed to be something else there, like Franck was trying to convince someone besides Nico of the fact. Nico definitely didn't want to touch that; he remained silent on the matter, as he was fairly wont to do regardless.

Franck apparently noticed enough to volunteer to go and get the knife. Nico spent the intervening time looking at the box, wondering if he should just use his power or something. He could, technically, but without seeing the contents or knowing how things within had been organized, he could actually get cut, or possibly have something jutting in between. Best to just be patient.

Franck returned with the knife. Nico nodded, then reached for it. "Want me to do the cutting?" he asked. he'd done it before, after all. He wasn't about to fight Franck for it though. Either the Frenchman would open it up easily enough, or Nico would show that he was far too comfortable working a blade. Box would get attended to one way or the other.

[François Laffont]

Luckily for Nico, this was a subject Franck didn’t want to talk either. Had Nico wished to share some of his childhood and family, he would have happily listened while trying to deflect any question about his, or being evasive while answering. But if Nico didn’t want to talk about this, he would not pry. Not when it was a touchy subject for him too. “Anyway, you shouldn’t worry about not having good control of your power yet. That’s what we’re all here for, right, to learn how to get control of it? So you’ll get there eventually,” Franck told him, figuring it was a nice way to end a conversation that he was not even sure he could start even started.

He returned with a knife borrowed by some of the older volunteers. They probably thought they were the only ones mature enough to hold one. They allowed him to get it though, so maybe they understood the ‘kids’ were not as young as that word might imply. Nico proposed to open the box. “Sure, if you want,” Franck answered, giving him the knife. He really didn’t mind who opened that box, so long as it was open and they could resume their work. Franck might not be comfortable with blades, but it was in a fighting environment, which was not the case right now. Here, opening boxes, he was fine with holding a knife. But if Nico wanted to do it, he was ready to oblige. It should be clear by now to the Latino that Franck was ready to do pretty much whatever he wanted. With certain exceptions but he didn’t think that would get there.

[Nico Martell]

The comment about his power just had Nico letting out a grunting laugh. He'd heard that plenty of times, often from the various faculty members who insisted that training was all part of the process, that he shouldn't worry about it, that it would all come with good time. Easy for them to say.

No reason to dwell on it. Just focus on the task at hand. Franck handed over the knife. Nico flicked it with obvious practice, quickly sliding its blade across the top of the box, opening it almost too quickly. Then he pulled back the top sliding, adding another few quick cuts. Nico then flicked the cutter off and handed it back to Franck, giving him a quick look to confirm.

Then it was look inside, moving some of the stuff around. It was then that Nico realized something: "You got any idea how many pieces there are to a fryer?" he looked over at Franck and raised his brows, just now realizing that they might have a winning case of the blind leading the blind here.

[François Laffont]

The laugh did not come unnoticed nor was the cynicism in it. “I know, it’s not exactly something you like to hear but I’m afraid there isn’t any other option. You either train and hope you’ll gain better control at it or you give up and deal with it the way it is,” Franck replied, a light shrug as if apologizing for the lack of magical option here. Hey, at least he could rejoice thinking he might get control over his power at some point, unlike some.

If Nico seemed comfortable with the blade, Franck did not think much of it. It could mean all sorts of things other than the fact he enjoyed pointing knives at people. He could be fishing and knew how to gut the fish. Someone in his family could own a shop and he often helped with unpacking the goods they sold. Or he might just be receiving a lot of packages through mail. Either way, there was about a hundred reason why Nico was good with the knife and Franck was not thinking about it, more focused on watching the content of the box now that it was open.

“Not really but...” Franck said before plunging his hand in the box. The sound of the parts being pushed aside could be heard until he grabbed something. It was a bit of a struggle to pull his hand back but once he did he was holding a piece of slightly crumpled paper. “There, you can see all the pieces it needs and the directives to build it up. That will make it easier,” he answered as he showed the pages to Nico so he could see for himself.

[Nico Martell]

Yeah, train and hope for better control. Nico really hoped that was still the option left available to him. He actually didn't want to think about a future wherein his powers were always at this half controlled state, where he had to nearly always focus to make sure that he wasn't passing through solid objects. The disgruntled thought gave him perhaps a bit more raw "oomph" into his action than he would've had anyway.

Still worked. And then Franck was reaching inside the box, which Nico realized he probably should've done. he moved aside to give him room, and looked up when he held up the directions. That had Nico quirking a brow, fighting the urge to make some comment about following instructions. Instead he started reaching into the box, puling out the various baggies and wrapped together pieces.

"Seems brand new," he commented, holding up one of the pieces and holding it for Franck's inspection. Nico figured that he might as well pull stuff out, the Frenchie could mark it, then they could try and muddle through somehow getting it together.

[François Laffont]

Franck didn’t know the state of the fryer but when Nico started digging into the box and came out with bags, pointing out this all seemed rather new, a light of hope shone in his eyes. “Even better. That has to mean everything’s in the box.” It has to, right? What kind of moron shipped only half of the pieces anyway? That shall make the building of the fryer a lot easier.

He helped Nico pull out the different pieces, looking for some serial number or any other form of coding used to identify the pieces, checking on the page to make sure they had everything. “Right, all there. So...” Franck flipped the page to look at the instructions. “These two pieces go together. You want to have a look at the plan while I go looking for some tools? They must have left some for us somewhere,” Franck said, looking around at the men he borrowed the cutter from. Speaking of which, he made sure to get it back so he could return it. He then skipped off, trusting that Nico could follow the plan. Sure, he would not be able to screw everything properly, but the pieces would be together.

He returned a couple of minutes later with a belt containing a few tools hanging over his shoulder and slightly out of breath. “Sorry for the wait. I also thought about getting us water bottles,” he explained, handing one to Nico as he figured the young man would be thirsty. Franck was sweating from the heat, hence why he took his shirt off earlier and certainly why Nico did the same. It was important to remain hydrated while doing this. He took a gulp from his bottle of water before dropping the belt on the ground and getting through it to get the proper tools for them to use.

[Nico Martell]

"It should," Nico offered. He continued pulling out pieces, checking them with the listing. It didn't seem all that complicated, really. Just slide a few things in here and there, all of which had pretty clearly labeled slots. Should be easy enough, and then they could just go off and chill or something, though probably not together.

Franck asked him to look at the plans and Nico shrugged. He would've rather tried to get the tools, even if that had meant talking to people, but Franck was pretty well already taking off. So instead Nico sorted the various pieces, lining them up and figuring them out more or less. He worked at opening them, even deciding to literally phase one out of its bag. That proved more tiresome than Nico had expected, but he liked to think that the effort would still be worth it.

He'd about finished when Franck came back. He looked up, already starting to shrug when he saw the water bottle. "Gracias," Nico offered, taking the offering and taking a pull. He pointed. "Looks easy, shouldn't take us long to put everything together. "God he really hoped so.

[François Laffont]

Franck figured that after this, this Nico boy would go on his way. He might still be tempted to suggest him to tag along for a little while longer but he would not take offense if Nico decided to claim he had somewhere to be. They had not chosen to work together after all. It had been forced upon them.

He supposed he could have asked Nico if he wanted to get the tools or try to understand the plan but he chose for him instead. It might have a bit to do with the fact he was not always sure what the instructions meant. He sometimes wondered what kind of English they were using. Although he bet it would have been worse in French. He left it to Nico to find out how it all worked.

He realised Nico might have as much difficulty as he did at understanding the plan when he thanked him in Spanish. But he told him he got it and it seemed easy. “Ah, that’s good.” He handed him the tools. “You read the directives, so you’re the boss here,” he told him, ready to do as Nico pointed him out to do.

[Nico Martell]

The boss? Nico looked up at Franck for a moment, but shrugged. The reasoning made sense and he didn't see any point in kicking up a fuss about things. Instead he grabbed a part. "We're going to need to start with the base," he said, before turning. He set the instructions down at the table and then bent down to grab the largest piece: a cylinder clearly designed to be the center of the fryer. Grunting, he strained enough to get it up, turning it so that Franck could see the bottoms.

Nico tapped each in turn, indicating where they needed to put on the little legs to make the thing stand up off the ground. Probably didn't want it to melt through the floor or something along those lines. Again: this definitely wasn't Nico's area of expertise, and he had this feeling that someone was going to end up using this thing and cursing the idiots who put it together.

[François Laffont]

Franck nodded, not trying once to get over Nico’s head as he let the guy deal with how they should get this whole thing done and ready to work. He only did what he was told to do and helped holding things when they placed the different parts together, giving the tools when Nico needed it or using them when he was the one closer to the nuts and bolts. It seemed to be the best way to work and Franck didn’t think for one moment that this boy might be just as submissive as he was and preferred to be the employee rather than the boss. Franck only knew he was more the kind to help than be yelling out orders. Even if Nico was not exactly what you’d call yelling anything to him.

In fact, he preferred to point things to Franck to let him know. He placed the legs on the fryer where Nico pointed, the tools next to him so he could always have them around whenever he’d need any. Or Nico, as he didn’t mean for him to just point and let Franck do all the work. “This one’s on your side,” he said, giving the wrench, bolts and leg to Nico, switching jobs as he would be the one keeping an eye on the whole thing while he would do it. Franck couldn’t help but wish he wouldn’t have to get near this thing again once it would be done. Didn't want to witness he wasn’t so good at following instructions. He just hoped no one would get hurt should something happen.

“You want to eat something after that?” he asked as the fryer could now stand on its legs. Well, they now knew they could do this simple task, let’s hope they could do the rest. He looked at Nico and gave him a little smile. “Don’t feel forced to, just asking.”

[Nico Martell]

Nico shifted, straining to hold. He heard Franck's comment about sides, grunted, and took the offered tool. It didn't much to actually get to working it, and Nico did know enough about this sort of thing to at least not look like an idiot while he handled the tool. He even felt a little burst of satisfaction as he saw the completed fryer legs. They still had a bit to go, so he definitely wasn't going to let it get to his head.

The question caught him by surprise, though the only outward sign of that was a few blinks as he looked up at the other guy. Nico thought for a few seconds before shrugging. "Sure," he said, figuring there was no harm. "Got to finish this first," he nodded at the thing, taking a step back to admire their work. It definitely needed plugging in, he knew that much. He gestured toward the directions, turning that way himself. Might as well make sure they got this right the first time around.

[François Laffont]

Franck had a smile on his face and he knew it had more to do because he sensed pride coming from Nico than because he was proud himself of the work they accomplished. You have to understand by that not that Nico’s pride was taking over but that Franck simply liked to sense something out of the boy, something that was not repressed in any way. It did make him more human to Franck’s eyes. That little moment was short lived though as they still had much work to do.

Pride was not the only emotion Franck caused on the boy. Surprise happened too. Franck was not trying to flirt with Nico and didn’t think anything about his suggestion could imply that. Was Nico thinking he was hitting on him? He didn’t know as he just waited for an answer. He nodded, actually glad the boy agreed. He wouldn’t have minded really if Nico decided they had seen enough of each other for a day. “Right,” he agreed.

Since Nico was the one with the instructions in his hands, he waited for him to see what had to be done next. He hoped it would not blow up on their face around the end. Maybe someone more experimented should have built the rest. It had to be done right if they didn’t want to cause accidents. “No offense to our work, but I’m glad I’m not the one who’ll use this,” he said out loud. He looked at Nico and had a sheepish smile as he really didn’t mean to offend their work. “I’m sure we can do it, I just mean I wouldn’t want to spend all day next to that.”