Are You Following Me? (Willow.)

[Nathan Darwin]

Adaptation really was a beauty to have. He adapted to a lot of things, his endurance seemed to spike after his power manifested and it seemed to stay at a pretty solid level as his ability became more in control. High endurance meant more workout time. More workout time meant better luck keeping up with his brother. Nick was constantly throwing him around and Nate was determined to get the older boy back one of these days. A day when Nick would be least expecting it. The very thought was what pushed Nathan through his workout sessions.

That and wanting to stay in shape of course.

The gym had become a sort of refuge for the boy and whenever he wanted away from his dorm or just needed to blow of steam, he often found himself there. Rarely did he need to come to the gym for a way to let anger out seeing as how he wasn't an angry guy. It was only stress that got to him, not that anyone saw that. He stressed over school because he wasn't nearly as smart as his brother. Things didn't come as easy to him, so he was constantly pushing himself harder than anyone realized. People just assumed he slacked off on everything because he had such a care-free attitude most of the time. Little did they know that he actually cared about a lot.

Sitting on one of the benches in the somewhat empty lifting area of the gym, he thought over everything that he needed to do better. First thing was school, getting his grades up and preparing for college. Second was his power training because he couldn't very well graduate without it being in full control. The last thing on his mind was girls, and yet they were always on his mind. He couldn't just give up his social life because he was focusing on school. Sure, that was what a lot of nerds did, but he wasn't part of that group. Honestly, he didn't know what group he necessarily fit into since he wasn't the typical jock either.

Nathan stood and headed over to the pull-up bar. He stretched his arms over his head and cracked his neck before gripping the bar and doing a set of five pull-ups. With each pull-up he breathed in and out regularly, barely breaking a sweat. Five was nothing, try five sets of five. That was his goal for today. And after, he'd run a mile and cool down. He continued getting through the pull-ups at a steady pace, his ipod headphones hanging around his neck as they played a heavy rock song.

[Willow Birdsong]

Willow tried to use the school’s gym when she thought no one else would be there. But lots of people had the same idea and it was hard to do what she had in mind when she felt so self conscious. She didn’t want to be made a spectacle of, and a little girl like her lifting weights would be like an ant carrying an entire block of cheese. But she was determined to find time, and soon.

After spending a week in her room all by herself recovering from the side effects of her powers, Willow was itching to continue testing it. Sometimes her power felt bipolar. When she was awake she remained awake for hours, using up every possible ounce of strength before passing out. But the human body, no matter how special it was, eventually gave out. There was just no way to turn her power off that she knew of, so, she had to keep feeding it like some kind of parasite.

Slipping quietly into the gym like she wasn’t meant to be in here, Willow had her hair tied up in a high ponytail, backpack over her shoulder. Her face was rather angular, but she wasn’t wearing any makeup. She wasn’t here to look pretty, she was here to train, hence the shorts and tank top. Glancing around quickly, she was relieved to see that no one was in here. She didn’t noticed the pull-up bar on the way to the weights area, too focused on what she wanted to do.

Another reason why she had to do this alone was because someone would try to stop her. They would think she was crazy, or going to get hurt. Willow slid her backpack off, attaching a mechanism she made to the barbell she was going to push above her chest. Taking a deep breath, Willow slid herself underneath, readying her hands on the bar. She knew that the more she pushed, the heavier the weight would become, thanks to the mechanism, and the counter in the middle would tell her where the weight was at so she could see exactly what her body could become used to, shield against.

Pushing slowly, Willow knew that her power had to react first, and then adapt. She couldn’t just have a tonne dropped on her and expect to survive. There had to be an element of panic. So when her arms started to struggle at the fifty pound mark, she made a struggling grunt. But if she just kept pushing... Hopefully she would get used to it.

[Nathan Darwin]

After his fifth set of pull-ups, Nate began feeling the burn and was satisfied with his arm workout. He hopped back down off the bar and stretched once more. The ache in his joints went away quickly as he adapted to it. It was funny how one moment he felt the tightening of his muscles and the strain it put on him, the next he was completely fine and felt no effects of his workout. It was like his power constantly worked and never got to him until he was trying to use it. How that worked, he’d never fully understand, but hey it benefited him.

As he turned around he saw a figure crossing towards the benching station and it was far too slight to be any guy. His eyes traveled with the figure and he felt a sense of familiarity when he really looked at her. Something about the way she moved so determined and so unaware of anyone else, it struck a thought and he couldn’t place what it was. So instead of staring the whole time trying to figure it out, Nathan grabbed his water bottle and wife-beater from the ground beside the bar and headed over to the benches.

Once he was closer, he realized just why it was so completely familiar and he very nearly tripped over his own feet when he noticed it. Such a tiny thing like that, benching how much? He set his stuff down near hers and walked up behind where her head was and leaned against the wall, “Who knew you were so strong?” He said softly as to not startle her. “Someone as small as you should have a spotter though, just on the off chance you get stuck under it. Not that you look like you’re struggling too much.”

If she needed rescuing he’d sure as hell be ready to save her. But he was going to keep that to himself.

[Willow Birdsong]

Great, a nosy boy had caught sight of her. The next time she came in here, she was going to make damn sure there was nobody else. It might just be easier to install surveillance cameras. Willow couldn't really tell who it was, she couldn't see that far back and upside down, and she wasn't going to stop now that she'd already started - her power was ravenous.

A look of determination came over her face, the weight no longer making her elbows buckles and biceps shake. There wasn't much to her, but there was more than met the eye. Ignoring whoever was behind her, she continued to press, and the weight continued to increase. It was over a hundred pounds now, the mechanism continually resetting itself so she didn't have to stop and add more weight, it just happened automatically. One of the benefits to her power, was being extremely intelligent and remembering everything.

"This is why... I need to be... alone..." She said, her body struggling immensely, but finally getting used to the new weight. If she would've known it was Nate, she wouldn't have been so quick to dismiss him. She was going on two hundred pounds, and she certainly wasn't trying to impress him with that fact.

[Nathan Darwin]

Nathan snorted at her dismissive response and folded his arms across his chest. "Jeez and here I thought we were friends. I see you haven't put those clothes to good use yet," He said with a slight smirk. Honestly, Nate didn't know if she knew it was him or not. Maybe she really didn't like him and he was just fooling himself into thinking they had a shot. But she was probably still hung up on Lark. Who was he kidding, there wasn't a chance in hell she'd go for him.

"Damn Will," He said as he noticed the weight change. Two hundred pounds was a lot, granted he was sure he could handle it, but someone as small as her...it was starting to scare him. She was pushing through it as if it was nothing, but there had to be some form of strain. Of course it was her ability she was using, but she couldn't have super strength. That didn't fit her. Maybe it was something like his? Either way, there had to be some mental strain on her that would make this end badly.

He was going to stick around whether she liked it or not, for fear of her getting crushed due to mental exhaustion. An ability could only handle so much. He knew what it felt like to overuse and the last thing he wanted was for her to deal with that pain. Clearly he was naive as ever when it came to her.

[Willow Birdsong]

Startled by the words he spoke, Willow let the weight fall slightly, craning her neck to get a better look at the boy speaking to her. It was Nate - there was no mistaking those blue eyes. Swallowing hard, Willow could feel herself flushing as she turned back to the task at hand. Maybe she could just pretend that this wasn't a big deal. "We are friends," she said softly, "I didn't realize it was you..." Most males didn't like females who could bench press twice their own weight, though she wasn't sure why she was thinking of such a thing at the moment.

But when he spoke again, the comment made her smile. It made her feel proud, like she could do something right every once in a while. But he was also right in his thinking - the more weight was added, the more strain her mind was taking, though her body was holding up just fine.

Her arms shook again as the weight neared three hundred and fifty, and that's when she experienced spots in her vision. The barbell was quickly replaced, her arms dropping like deadweights to the side as her eyes closed. She had seen the numbers, and maybe she couldn't do it yet, but she was going to lift a lot more than that some day, her body just needed to adjust to this as being normal, easy.

Opening her eyes again, Willow was glad she hadn't passed out, had merely been close to doing so. She looked at Nate quickly, before averting her eyes again. Lark had been avoiding her lately, she didn't have a reason to wear the clothes Nate had bought for her, though she did feel bad for wasting his money.

Unsure of what to talk about because there were too many subjects, Willow started to unhook her homemade counter-weight, putting the small pieces into her backpack.

[Nathan Darwin]

Seeing the weight fall he reached out to catch it, but she still had it, so he stepped back again. Her neck arched and as her eyes met his, he gave her a smile and a little wave. She turned away and he shook his head a bit. He had to stop doing that to himself. Willow was beautiful, yes, but she wasn’t into him. Why torture himself with thoughts like the ones he had? Nathan heard her speak and he listened in to hear what she was saying. “So is that how you treat most guys that talk to you? Good thing I’m not on that list,” Nathan laughed quietly and leaned against the wall.

Hey, if a girl could bench twice her weight, Nate gave her mad props. Not that he liked his women bulky, but it showed that the girl could easily take care of herself. Protecting was something he did regularly when he cared for someone, but if that someone didn’t need him, that just was an added bonus. After all, a girl beating someone up was hot. Just take Angelina Jolie in half of the movies she was in. Or Buffy the freaking Vampire Slayer. Hot.

Nate was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed her arms shaking and he pushed off the wall to spot her. Resting his hands just under the bar, light enough to have a grip but not help her, he kept it steady. “Easy, Will,” He said as she replaced it back on the rack. Once she no longer held the barbell, he stepped back and gave her some space to breathe. With a workout like that, she’d need as much oxygen as she could get.

She kept looking away from him and it was starting to worry him. Nathan knew that she hadn’t gone out with Lark. Hell, he hadn’t seen Lark in weeks. It made him sort of mad that Lark bailed on her after she went through the effort of getting something nice for him. What if she took it personally? Like there was something wrong with her? Oh boy would Nate be having a talk with Larkein if that was the case. He had no idea how irked the blue-eyed adaptor would be. “Need help?” He asked as she disassembled the weights.

[Willow Birdsong]

Willow’s eyes were not unkind as she spoke. “Guys don’t talk to me Nate.” She didn’t have a lot of friends to begin with, why would males come check her out at all? There was something inexplicably wrong with her, she knew there had to be.

Sitting up from her endeavour, Will was afraid to move from her spot at first. She put her hand to her neck self-consciously, forgetting that her hair wasn’t down and she had nothing to push back. “Thank you, for spotting me,” she said, her voice light and breathless. Just because she had meta powers, didn’t mean she didn’t break a sweat! Now she was the center of someone’s attention and her mind began thinking of a distraction. Disassembling the trick weight was the only thing that made sense.

“I um...” She was about to send her away, but glancing up at him quickly, she realized she didn’t want him to go away. “Yes.” She said, looking back at the small dial she was taking off the barbell. “You could put the weights back if you’d like.” Then the next person could make it lighter or heavier according to what they needed.

Crouching over her bag, Willow delicately set apart the levers and pulleys for when she wanted to use them again. “I don’t have super strength, if that’s what you’re thinking.” She didn’t want him walking away thinking that, for some reason. She didn’t like people who assumed things about her.

[Nathan Darwin]

Nathan arched an eyebrow and snorted, “Well then it’s true what girls say about my gender. They’re all morons.” Who wouldn’t check her out? Sure she wasn’t as out there as all the girls that he’d gone for, but wasn’t that what made her unique? He liked different. He could adapt to different, it was his ability after all. And what was so wrong with her? She didn’t like wearing the typical clothes that every other girl wore? She didn’t socialize very much? Those weren’t bad things. And even if they were, if she wanted to change, she could. Either way, Nate liked her. He liked how different she was.

Her appreciation of him spotting her was met with a shrug. It wasn’t anything big. A slight girl like her, well it was only common sense spotting her. Super strength or otherwise, even metas needed spotted.

Waiting for the dismissal, he folded his arms across his chest and watched her. If she sent him away, well it was fine. They were friends, maybe not even that. Maybe it was just an acquaintance where they only exchanged words every so often? His mind was seriously getting in the way and he needed to stop thinking. God, he sounded like one of those girls that just came out of Nick’s bedroom in a button-up and didn’t know why he left without a quickie in the morning. That was the problem with living with an older brother that had one nighters a lot.

Due to his lost mind, he almost didn’t hear her when she told him what he’d be able to help with. Luckily he had. “Yeah no problem,” He said quickly as he took the weights in each hand and placed them on their designated rack. Just as he finished up, he stretched his back and rubbed the back of his neck. Well that was his contribution, what now? She spoke again, saving him another mind wandering moment. “Oh uh, I figured. It doesn’t really suit you. Not that you couldn’t be freakishly strong, I just…yeah..” He trailed off and cursed silently. What was with him? “So what is it then, if not super strength?”

[Willow Birdsong]

Willow gave Nathan a careful look. “I don’t think you’re a moron.” Not all guys were morons, but most of them wouldn’t bother to see how she was interesting. Just because she wasn’t outgoing and silly like most of the girls at Hammel, didn’t mean she didn’t have something to offer. But even that was hard for her to believe sometimes. Well, most of the time...

“I can be strong...” She said quietly, unsure of what she really meant by that. Maybe she wanted to be strong. Maybe she wanted to be confident in who she was, but she didn’t know who she was, so that was going to be a problem. And what would life be like without any problems? Was that even possible?

Zipping up her backpack, Willow raised an eyebrow at Nate. Usually he was all chatter. Was something wrong? Her eyes quickly went to the ground and she closed them briefly. Yes, there was definitely something wrong with her. In fact, he probably stayed only because he felt pity for her. Just like Lark had when he had found her after she had thrown up.

“Reactive Adaptation,” she said, opening her eyes again, hoping that she wouldn’t have to explain. Willow looked up at the ceiling then, urging her eyes to stay dry. “Sometimes, I need to test the limits.” She looked over at him again. But most of the time, she stayed hidden away. She really didn’t think someone as friendly and nice as Nate would understand.

[Nathan Darwin]

Nathan looked at her with a surprised expression, “Wow, finally someone who doesn’t think that. I typically get called a moron or idiot more times than not.” Everyone just assumed that he was stupid because he played sports and acted like a typical jock. He didn’t use the large vocabulary he had because half the guys he hung out with wouldn’t understand what he was saying, so he dumbed down his language and it made him sound intellectually challenged.

“Oh I don’t doubt it, you are pretty strong,” Granted he probably didn’t mean it in the same way she did, but how could he know that. As far as he knew she was talking about actual strength. And in that case, she was right, she could definitely be strong. Hell she just lifted twice her body weight! That was intense for even a dude.

Nate looked at her and saw the expression on her face, he tilted his head to the side, but she looked down. “What? Why’d you gimme that look?” Sure, he wasn’t all talkative at the moment, but he didn’t want to annoy her with his useless babbling. He could be quiet at times, too. Why did everyone assume something was wrong when he was thoughtful? Oh well. He thought nothing more of it.

“Oh that’s awesome! I’m just an adaptor, nothing fancy like that,” He said in response. Reactive Adaptation sounded pretty similar to his, but more than likely there were some big differences. “I get it, I mean if you don’t test the limits how will you get stronger? Isn’t that what training is for anyway? Though a lot of people take it way too easy in training,” At least in his opinion they did.

[Willow Birdsong]

“Why?” Willow asked. It was her number one question, as she had a thirst for every answer, and it wasn’t every day that she had the chance to talk to people. Other than being a sports enthusiast, Willow didn’t know much about him, and she knew there had to be more than just sports in his life. People simply weren’t two dimensional.

Smiling hesitantly, Willow folded the compliment into the back pocket of her mind. If someone else thought she was strong too... Well, wasn’t that a good case for the beginning of an argument? And her sister always thought she was strong, but in Willow’s mind sister’s were supposed to say that, so it lost it’s value.

Willow shrugged, shaking her head. “You just seem, nervous.” She said, glancing back to him. It wasn’t how he usually was around people. He was usually talkative, amiable, not that he wasn’t being so now, but usually he was more so. She looked up at him quizzically. “Are you?”

Willow’s look softened and eventually turned into a genuine smile. “I haven’t met anyone else with a power like mine,” she said quietly, trying to hide the excitement in her voice. There was no reason to be excited, well, except for the fact that she was starting to know Nate, and her mind immediately went to training together.

And then he said what she was thinking and Willow could only nod. “My trainer says I push myself too much,” she explained, “that’s why I disappear for weeks at a time. I have to stay in bed to recuperate, it’s extremely boring.” She wasn’t sure why she was sharing this, but she did feel like Nate, out of the limited people she knew, would understand the most.

[Nathan Darwin]

Nathan shrugged, “Assumptions, snap judgments. High school.” It was all anyone did, judged a book by its cover though the saying went don’t judge a book by its cover. No one really listened it seemed. It was part of the reason Nate typically tried getting to know someone before he made any judgment. First impressions were how he categorized people. Some were easier than others to categorize, like all of the girls that usually wanted into his pants. Willow was harder to place though.

Biting down on his tongue he mentally cursed. Was he nervous? He couldn’t even be sure. In a way he was because he wanted her to like him, but on the other hand he was just disappointed because he didn’t see it happening in this lifetime. “I’m just having an off day, I guess. Who knows what my problem is?” He said with a laugh and shoved his hands deeper in his pockets. Man was she observant. Only a few meetings and she already saw right through him. Then again, he was pretty much an open book when it came to his moods.

Nathan wouldn’t mind training with her, it meant more time with her and he couldn’t say no to that. “I haven’t really either, but I think yours is a bit more refined. Mine’s sorta vague,” He said with a laugh. When she admitted to pushing herself too hard, he frowned. That wasn’t a good thing, but he knew what it was like. Towards the beginning he pushed himself harder than what his body was ready for. It had not quite the same affect, mostly because he only had to sleep for a full day and he’d be fine, but it caused him to black out. “Pushing too much is dangerous, but it helps you learn your limits.”

[Willow Birdsong]

Willow nodded once in understanding. High school wasn't that bad, but then again, she wasn't socially invested in anyone, it just hurt too much to try. Lark hadn't spoken to her in so long... She looked back to Nate as she rid the thoughts from her mind. "You don't seem to really care about what others think of it." It was a positive quality, something she wished she had.

Concern passed over her face - why was he trying so hard to pretend to be okay? "Everyone has those," she asked, afraid to ask what was wrong because then maybe he would want to know more about her and when he saw the ugly person inside, he would leave. Like Lark had. She swallowed the lump in her throat. It was easy to read people if one only paid attention.

"Reactive just means my body will adapt to anything in order to protect me from harm," she offered - except for her eating disorder, her body hadn't found a way to stop her from having that. "We could train some time," she offered hypothetically. She didn't want to hurt if he said no.

"I don't have limits," Willow said, standing finally with her backpack on, "only barriers." And those were meant to be broken through. Feeling like she might black out now, she wasn't sure how to say goodbye, so she started to leave the gym.

[Nathan Darwin]

Nathan nodded slightly and said nothing. If she wanted to ask what was wrong, he'd probably brush it off as not feeling well because he couldn't bring himself to get into the messy details of his mind. All he could think about was how different she was and how he for some reason couldn't stop thinking about her. He wanted to know more, but pushing wasn't something he did when it came to personal things.

"Oh, well I mean that's sort of how mine is. I adapt to survive sort of like Darwinism or whatever it is." Nate gave a slight shrug, it was different in some ways, but more similar than not. "Definitely, I mean usually I try training on my own and I'm pretty bad at it, I always get stuck with gills or something." As a swimmer he had a slight advantage, but they had yet to kick him off the team for it. It wasn't like they were a real competitive team.

She put her bag over her shoulders and he grabbed his stuff. When she started leaving he jogged to catch up and walked beside her, "Mind if I walk back to the dorms with you?"