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Frankly, Nadia was pretty sure that she didn't need continuous updates on the status of the Chef's "punts". But the Freeed Reece-a looked good, and cookies were Cuukeees were Cuukeees, even if they DID have Furtoone-as in them, so she grabbed some food, plopped herself down by the windows, pulled out her copy of The Alchemist and started reading.

Victor congratulated the Chef on his new pants, then grabbed the usual and looked around the cafeteria for where to sit.

And then he saw Nadia.

They were cool now, right? He could just walk over, sit down, start chatting, and everything would be fine...right? He sighed, and was about to go sit elsewhere when he remembered what he and Walter had talked about the night before. Lately, Victor had let people get to him more than he used to, and had gotten stressed out over virtually nothing. Victor didn't want that. He'd survived his town, he'd survived his school...heck, he'd survived a massive wave that left less than 200 mutants left on Earth! He was a former leader of the Alpha Squadron, and a (hopefully) future X-Man. If anyone could get through something as stupid as high-school squabbles, it was him.

So, he set his jaw and walked to Nadia's table, determined to not let and possible backlash affect him. When he was about a meter away from her, he smiled and said, "Hey. Mind if I sit here?"

Nadia glanced up from her book with a quick smile. "Not at all." Her good mood from yesterday had yet to diminish, and she was reading a seriously good book, thus feeling she could handle anything, including Victor possibly "flipping up" on her again.

She made note of her page number and closed her book. "How are you?"

"Better, actually." Good, she hadn't flipped out on him. "I've been having a really bad week, but after talking with Walter about it last night, I think I figured out what's been wrong with me."

"Oh?" Nadia smiled slightly. "He is being trained by Alfred, so he might be right,"

Victor smiled too, but maybe for another reason. he was remembering the previous night with fondness and love, ebcause he felt really lucky to be with someone as amazing as Walter. "Yeah, he's somthing all right. Talking with him helped me realize that I've become too soft. But, not in the angsty, macho way, but...I have no idea exactly what you've been through, Nadia, but I've been through a lot, too. And while the way that worked for you was to run, the way that I was taught at Xavier's was to stand my ground, to be strong even if things are crumbling around me." Then, he looked a little sad for a moment. "I'm not trying to say that your way is wrong at all, so please don't be mad at me, if you are. It's just that...in my world, you never know when someone is going to attack your home or your family or your friends or make a virus just to kill your race off or you wake up one day and your mutant gene, the thing that made you so special, is suddenly gone. Around here, I don't ahve to worry about that kind of stuff, and I let my guard down. But I'm stronger than I've been. I shouldn't let stupid shit get to me anymore."

he looked back up and gave a small smile again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to babble."

Nadia blinked. And again, that was not even a little what she was expecting to hear from Victor. "I . . . guess I'm glad you got that figured out," she said, trying to process everything Victor had just told her.

She did come to one conclusion, though. She'd bought him the wrong book. "Do you read Spanish," she blurted.

It wasn't a nonsequitor, really. Well, not for her.

"Sorry, I don't. I barely know even a little Spanish, and even some of that is just cussing. I'm okay at French, though; I used to like my French class back at Xavier's." ~~score one for canon!~~

Nadia shrugged. "Then I guess I can lend you this one, then," she tapped her book, "but you should see about getting an English copy. It's very good, and I think it has some ideas you would like. In English it's called 'the Alchemist'."

"Really? Al has his own book?" He looked at the cover with a quizzical eyebrow raise.

Nadia laughed. "I don't know, the Alchemist hasn't been named. Maybe Al knows a young Spanish shepherd named Santiago?"

"I don't know, we'll have to ask him," he said, laughing back a little. He took a bite of igg rull, then asked, "So what was going on with the Chef's pants yesterday? I was over at Cafe Fina for lunch."

Nadia shrugged. "I thought it would be best to not ask him. I don't really want to know about his pants."

[ooc: sorry, work went nuts]

Victor shrugged and drank some of his tada! *poof!* iced tea. "I guess even Chefs like pants." ~~because they're black and emo!~~

He tried to think of another topic, but nothing really came to him. Well, except..."So, uh, did the crayon get you yesterday?"

[ooc: It's okay! :D]

She nodded, finishing up her reece-a as best she could. "It gave me a C+. Which is better than I got in my Chemistry class. I wonder what it was grading us on?"

"I don't know," Victor said with a little blush. "At least you got a grade. It wrote on me 'Needs Improvement.' Boy, do I ever."

Nadia frowned. On his self-esteem, at the very least.

Then she smiled slightly. And started to softly giggle, though she tried her best to stop and remain serious. Still. . . .

"You're taking advice from a floating crayon?"

"Well, no, it was just kind of ironic, but..." He began to giggle a little, too "Yeah, it's kinda funny, isn't it? I can just hear it now: Paging Dr. Crayola. Paging Dr. Crayola."

Nadia giggled a bit more, then held up her cuukeee. "Maybe this will be smarter than the crayon?"

"Maybe." Victor wasn't ready for it, but he held up his cuukeee as well and snapped it open. After looking at his fortune for a second, he raised an eyebrow and looked at Nadia. "Okay, you first."

Nadia was looking at the little slip of paper, perplexed. "Four," she read, "eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty-three, forty . . . seven. I didn't know these came with 'lucky numbers' too. . . ." She flipped over the paper.

"If everyone is jumping out a window, there must be a reason."

[ooc: that's a real fortune, btw, my mother got it in 1985 and it lived on our phone for ten years. . . .]

Victor didn't pay attention to the numbers right away. Instead, he said, "Confucious say: Man who walks sideways in airport terminal is going to Bangcock." He raised his eyebrow again and shook his head. "I don't get it."

Nadia shrugged. "I don't either. Guess it isn't smarter than the crayon, after all."

"I guess not." He flipped it over, and read off his numbers. "3, 5, 12, 16, 28, 36. Maybe we should go play the lottery or something." ~~as the mun shrieks at the almost-Lost numbers!~~

"But I think the only lottery in Fandom is the detention lottery, and I've already won that, once." Nadia shrugged, folded up her fortune, and tucked it into her pocket.

"Yeah, probably. Maybe we could get a lottery together, though. Maybe if Fandom ever has a fair or something. Though, we'd probably have an invasion halfway through the thing and have to fight rabid carrots off with Bingo balls."

"Or rabid bingo balls off with carrots."

"Or that, but I think something like that'd happen more during a baseball game." He chewed on his lunch thoughtfully, then looked around. "Y'know, with all the people that attend this school, you'd think that there'd be more than just us here. Honestly, it's like the only time this place is probably full is when it's being used as a base or something. Maybe we should have a 'Save the Cafeteria' rally."

Nadia shrugged. "I don't mind it being quiet like this. But I bet Blair would help you."

"Probably. It was just an idea, though. So...um...what are you doing today?"

"I don't have any plans for anything. Probably read, maybe go to Caritas or something. I don't have any classes tomorrow."

"Yeah, I gotta study my Shark and do some math problems, but that's about it. Maybe I'll meet you up at Carita's tonight, if that's okay." ~~Because no one else is around right now WTF?~~

Nadia shrugged. "I might not be there until pretty late; I still don't know if I'll really go," she said ~~pointing to her mun's availability post~~. "But you should go. Caritas is fun ~~when you don't get kicked out for fighting~~."

"Yeah, it is. I still need to get Alphonse over there one of these nights. I'll have to see if he's around later."

Nadia grinned. "And ask him about his friend, the Spanish shepherd?"

"Yeah, sure," Victor grinned. "Maybe I should bring my camcorder along to record his reaction. he'll probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but, hey, neither will I, so I guess it's cool."

Nadia pointed at him. "You'll just have to read the book, so you will know."

"Maybe I'll stop by Aero...Agra...that one bookstore that Mr. Giles and Lana work at. You know the one I'm talking about, right?"

Nadia nodded. "Aeroplanacitica or whatever. I like that place."

Even if she could never remember the name, either.

"Maybe they should just rename it to "Bookstore". It'd make it a heck of a lot easier to say. But yeah, it's pretty cool. That's where I pick up my trades at."

Nadia frowned. "Trades?"

~~and vanished because, zomg, end of work day, time for rehearsal!~~

"Collections of comics. Usually five or six issues in a series." He was getting really good at this explaining stuff, what with a boyfriend from several decades ago.

~~Have fun! See you later!~~

"Oh," Nadia said, surprised. "I didn't know that store sold comics, that's great."

Quinn's about to actually go try to be social by at least hanging out in the cafeteria, if not eating the food.

And then she sees the chef in leather pants. She pauses just long enough for her brain to break, and then she turns around and flees, repressing all the while.