not_every_mage | Room 322, Tuesday Morning

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Room 322, Tuesday Morning

Anders was a man of many talents, and ranking high among them was a talent for self-pity. After the disastrous encounter with Nathan the day before, he'd gone back to his room to mope around for the rest of the day. Lachlan was better company than people, anyhow. At least when Lachlan avoided him it wasn't personal -- it was just part of being a cat.

He'd always known Nathan kept parts of himself shut away; he even understood why, or thought he did. But to be flatly told to go away after being together so long -- it hurt. It hurt deeper than Anders would have guessed it would. And he was determined not to go chasing after Nathan to give him a chance to say the same thing again, at least not yet.

Without class or work to keep him busy, Anders felt his foul mood continuing after he woke up. Determined not to let it ruin a second day, he pulled out one of the spellbooks he'd cadged from the magic shop and opened it to a chapter on the use of Entropy. If he wasn't ready to seek anyone out -- and he didn't think he was -- at least he could distract himself.

[OOC: Cracked door, open post even though he's not in the best mood.]

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His and every other seventeen year old in the building, honestly.

"Well, as a superhero I can't allow that," Kathy said, slipping off her shoes before going to sit on his bed. She let Anders grab the first cupcake before taking one for herself. "So, good company or not, it looks like I'm staying until you're less likely to hex anyone."

Yup, that's right, Anders. Now you were stuck with her.

"So I'm stuck with you?" Anders asked, though the quirk to his mouth that almost looked like a smile suggested he didn't exactly mind. He licked some cream cheese off his fingers before he spoke again. "That's a lucky break given how bad the last few weeks have been, you know. Rapunzel went home, Cassandra's vanished, Nathan doesn't want to talk to me."

"Oh, Anders, I'm sorry," Kathy said. She'd heard all of these things over the radio, but she hadn't put them all together with how they'd effect Anders. And on top of that, she'd missed his birthday--or, at least, she'd shown up after he'd left for the weekend and hadn't managed to catch up with him since.

Kathy was feeling like a horrible friend.

"Why isn't Nathan talking to you?"

"He didn't explain it," Anders shrugged, trying to sound unbothered. "I went to the preserve to find him and he was talking to himself when I got there. Shouting, really. I asked what was wrong and he told me to go away. After he said it a fourth time, I went. Last time I talked to him before that, things were fine."

Not that they'd spent a lot of time together the last few weeks, but that wasn't so terribly unusual for them.

"He wasn't very talkative in class today, either," Kathy ventured, unsure whether telling him that would hurt or help. "Seemed--angry, maybe? Polite, but clipped tones. Cold."

She leaned over to take Anders' hand if he'd let her. "It must have hurt," she said. "Being pushed away like that. When you only wanted to help the person you care for."

"You talked to him?" Anders frowned, seeming surprised by that more than by her description of Nathan's mood. "Wait, what did he say? Did you talk about me?"

She wasn't wrong about the whole thing hurting, and he gratefully gave her fingers a quick squeeze before pulling his hand back.

"We didn't get that far," Kathy admitted. "I asked if he was okay after he spun out his car. Invited him to talk. He wasn't interested and I wasn't going to push."

"Well, at least know now that you know it wasn't personal," Anders told her. "No, that sounds about right. Sadly. He wasn't hurt in the crash, was he?"

"Danger Shop," Kathy said. "Not even a crash, just a spin-out. Thorin got into worse every week last semester."

Tilting her head, she asked, "But it's personal for you, huh?"

"He cares about me," Anders said, matter-of-fact. "I thought he did, anyhow. Maybe I was wrong."

[OOC: Holy mangled syntax in that last ping. I think it was supposed to say "at least now you know that..."]

Edited 2015-07-15 01:02 (UTC)

[No worries, I got it!]

"I'm sure he does," Kathy said. "Pushing you away doesn't mean that he doesn't care about you. It just means that he's not up to sharing whatever he's going through yet." She patted his shoulder, knowing that was cold comfort. "But it sucks, I know. It hurts to be pushed away, even if he still does care about you."

Anders nodded slowly. "The worst thing is, I don't know if he'll ever be up to it," he said, thinking about how Nathan still had never said I love you. "He's not always the best with feelings."

He sighed.

"Not that I helped things by shouting at him over it."

"Shouting rarely does," Kathy said ruefully. Sorry, Anders, but it was true. "When people start shouting I just want to curl up and hide."

Unless she was being Banzai. That was different.

"Maybe it makes Nathan double-down on pushing you away? If he's not great with feelings, he might not know another way to handle it."

"Probably he doesn't," Anders said, after a thoughtful (and delicious) bite of brownie. "So what do you think I should do?"

He hoped she wouldn't tell him to apologize. He wasn't ready for that.

"Give him some time," Kathy suggested. Which probably wasn't a lot better, but at least it hurt his pride less? "Let him work through whatever he needs to so then he can come to you."

Anders nodded slowly, fighting an urge to say no, he needs me, what if it's really bad?. Nathan was a big boy, and he had his own mind; he could decide when and whether he wanted to bring Anders in. Not that rationally understanding that made it much easier.

"That'd probably be for the best," he said reluctantly. "Anyhow, if I went to find him I don't know what I'd say. I can't honestly apologize yet, and badgering him wouldn't do any good."

"So just leave him be for a little while," Kathy said. "You're still angry and he's dealing with whatever he's dealing with. Forcing anything will just make stuff work."

Though, knowing Anders, he'd just spend that time brooding and making things infinitely worse in his own brain.

"You wanna come out with me to Baltimore sometime this week?" she offered. "Get your mind off of everything and maybe hex a few people who have it coming?"

"That sounds amazing," Anders said eagerly. "Name a day and I'm there. Do I need a costume or a mask or anything?"

He'd picked up a few superhero tropes over the last year.

"Tomorrow night?" Kathy suggested. "And yes. I think you should absolutely get a costume, a mask, and a superhero name."

If for no other reason that it would be an excellent distraction!

"Tomorrow night," Anders agreed. "Hopefully by then I'll have the first idea about the costume or the name."

The mask seemed easy.

"Make sure your costume is something that's easy to move around in," Kathy said. "Nothing that's going to trip you up and slow you down. Most people would say to wear something inconspicuous, but I'm probably the last person to try to tell you that."

She wore blinding white and rainbows. Inconspicuous wasn't really her thing.

"Hmm, a cool name though. Like...Magicker? Frostbite? Tempest?"

"I like Tempest," Anders said, perking up. "It's nice and destructive. And I'll stick to something simple for the costume, I think. I can always get fancy later if we end up doing this a lot."

"See, and now I'm picturing you striding out of a dark alley with lightning wreathing your hands and that's just awesome," Kathy declared. "I'm going to have to step up my game if I want to be noticed with you around!"