Wait, What? I Was Faking! (Nik)

[Samuel Rixon]

((Backdated to the last day of classes before Summer break))

No one who knew Sam Rixon could honestly say he was a stellar student. He was disruptive, he thought it was cute to give heinously wrong answers, and he tended to skip more than his fair share of classes. When skipping got boring, or too frequent, he employed other methods to fuel his freedom.

And really, who went to the last day of classes anyway?

Still, he was attempting to show that he wasn’t just skipping. As such, he was merrily marching his way down to the infirmary. He’d spent the first waking hours of the morning practicing what he considered to be a pretty accurate hacking cough. He’d even managed to cough up some delightfully colored slimy stuff, to his great delight.

It was on.

As he made his approach he seamlessly moved into a more shuffling gait, rather than his merry bouncing down the hallway. He’d done this time and time again, and it never got old. Sure, the staff were probably tired of seeing him, and his fever excuse was getting weak unless he was lucky enough to get some new staff member. He’d woken up feeling particularly warm today, though, which he figured would just aid in his story. He’d just intentionally not use up any of his flame reserves and retain the heat.

Well, it made sense to him.

He slunk into the office and put on his best ‘I’m dying’ face, going so far as to lean across the desk and looked sad. Hopefully it was just one of the nurse lackeys in today, and not Dr. Nik. Her and her magic meta voo doo powers that always saw through his fakery.

The nineteen year old stayed flopped, trying to make sure his expression stayed pathetic. Surely someone would come around and have pity on him. If he was lucky, he’d get to nap in the infirmary, or back in his room. He seriously felt the need for one.

As he heard footsteps, he closed his eyes and mentally prayed to himself. ’Please not Dr. Nik, please not Dr. Nik, pleeeease not Dr. Nik.’

When he opened his eyes, he didn’t need to look hard to know that his prayers had gone unanswered. Well, maybe he could still fake her out. He’d try, anyway. “Hey,” he greeted in what he thought was a marvelous sick voice. “I’m really dying this time.”

Just like every other time this semester.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Nakia was very familiar with the antics of one Samuel Rixon. As a matter of fact, she saw him a least once a week for anything from the West Nile virus to the common cold. The boy was a good actor (if one liked stage performances), but he was never sick. As a matter of fact, the young man was always in perfect health, even though his temperature ran hot (which was normal for a pyrokinetic). Thus, whenever he'd come in, she tended to give him a dirty look, skip straight to cold hands on the neck, and tell him that he was fine and to go back to class.

Today was only a slight exception, considering that she'd just used her powers on another student and had needed a quick energy boost, grabbing hot coffee from the staff lounge and meandering her way back quickly. Seeing Sam lying on one of the beds, the albino woman rolled her eyes and walked past, setting her coffee down on the desk for a moment. "I'm sure you are, Sam," she answered, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "Just like you were dying from the superflu last weekend."

Taking a sip from the warm beverage to settle herself, the albino woman decided to humor the boy for once. Taking her stethescope from the table along with a flashlight and tongue depressor, she moved to the bed and sat down. "All right, just this once,"she stated, adding warningly, "but if you're not sick, you get to help me out in the infirmary all break. Now open up."

Not giving him a chance to argue, the doctor pressed the wooden stick down on the young man's tongue when he opened his mouth, flicking on the flashlight with ease. Huh, well that was interesting - his throat looked irritated. Normally, Sam's symptoms were completely falsified. Taking the stick out with a frown and throwing it away, she put the buds of the stethoscope into her ears.

"Lift up your shirt so I can hear your heartbeat."

[Samuel Rixon]

During his student career at Hammel, Sam had made his mark with multiple things. One was simply being a terrible student, both in academics and training. Of course, his current trainer had his attention now, but he also fed him, didn’t yell at him, and gave him fireworks to play with. Who wouldn’t behave himself for that kind of treatment? He had also become the boy who cried wolf when it came to illness and injury. Hell, the last time he’d actually hurt himself in gym, no one had believed him until his ankle had swollen up from a sprain. ... Okay, so he’d been trying to fake it until he’d gotten knocked around by another student and had fallen not quite as planned but that didn’t matter.

If he stopped faking, then maybe he’d actually be credible in his claims. Funny, that.

Dr. Nik was given his most pitiful expression to hide his displeasure. Of course it was her and her magic meta hands. At least the nurses he had a chance against. This was going to last ten seconds, tops. Well, he was going to make the most of his ten seconds, then. If nothing else, he’d be disruptive, and his detour would have gotten him out of about ten minutes of math class. It was... a sort of victory. “Hey,” he protested in his most pathetic voice, usually reserved for his mother when he had tried to fake her out before Hammel. “The superflu is a real thing. And this is different.” Just how different? Well, he was happy to tell her.

He perked ever so slightly when he saw her bring some things over. No magic hands today? She actually had to validate him the hard way? Score one for the pyro. He was fairly certain he could use the extra heat he’d been feeling since the morning to fake a fever, at the very least. He wasn’t all that worried about it. It was the same kind of heat surge he felt in his hands when he was training (or setting recreational fires...). He hadn’t actually set any recently, so maybe that was the problem. Oh well. It would serve a purpose now. “I am this time, I swear. I was coughing when I woke up.” On purpose. “And there was this awesome slimy stuff that came up.” Only Sam would be proud of that kind of thing. As for helping all break, well... he was going to rely on his best fakery to avoid the hell out of that.

He cooperated for the throat check, even managing not to make annoying noises as she did. The frown as she finished gave him hope. Had he made his throat red from making himself cough like he was dying all morning? He had to try that more often if that was the case. The second instruction made him pause slightly as he eyed the thing. “Y’ gonna warm it up, right?” Extra heat aside, he didn’t like cold things to start with. Still, he simply stripped off his t-shirt and tossed it beside him. If he’d been feeling more spunky and was trying not to act his way out of helping in the office all freaking break, he might have said something obnoxious. Instead, he just sat quietly. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that a quiet Sammy was an abnormal Sammy, and he was going to use everything he had to keep Dr. Nik from making good on her threat.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Shaking her head with a heavy sigh, Nik replied, "The superflu is not s real thing - it was the media getting out of control yet again because, like every year, the flu adapts to infect more people. Really. Superflu." If someone had the flu, that was one thing - but who heard of a student getting the flu in the middle of summer, especially when they were a pyrokinetic? Normal body temperatures of people like Sam killed viruses before they could gain a foothold over the immune system.

Seeing Sam's face light up a little made the doctor purse her lips in amusement. Of course he'd be happy to see her validate his claims - he wanted to cut class and she was at least giving him the chance. But her reasoning was sound; despite the fact that Sam had mostly quit abusing various substances, he was probably going to cut class whether she let him stay or sent him back. This way, she could at least keep an eye on him and make sure he stayed out of trouble.

Still, even if he'd been coughing on purpose, his throat shouldn't have been that red. And mucus didn't come up with a cough unless sinuses were draining or there was fluid in the lungs. As far as shew knew, pyrokinetics could still get sick if there was reason enough for them to.

Rolling her eyes at the request, Nik took Sam's hand for a moment and placed the stethoscope against it to warm it before placing it against his chest. Her hand remained on his, though, and her frown deepened a bit. His temperature was much too high, even with his normal elevation. That, and his heart was beating too quickly for someone who had undoubtedly walked here as slowly as Sam would have. Mentally, the albino woman ticked off the symptoms she noticed.

Elevated body temperature, higher than normal even for a fire manipulator. Irregular and elevated heart-rate, despite being at rest. Persistent cough, with colored mucus expelled and a reddening of throat. Slightly thick vocalization - more mucus?

"All right, let's listen to your lungs a bit," she stated, pulling the metal away from the boy's skin and motioning for him to turn around with her other hand. "Just breathe in and out slowly, holding your breath for a few seconds, all right?"

As Sam complied, she returned the metal to his skin and listened carefully as he breathed. Definitely a blockage - I can hear a strain in his breathing patterns. "Does it hurt to breathe at all, Sam?" she asked, placing the metal in another area. "Any tightness in your chest, or feeling lightheaded?" Yes, with Rixon in particular, those may have been leading questions. But she still had to know. If he was lying at all, she'd know anyway in a few minutes, but it was a chance for him to be honest.

[Samuel Rixon]

Superflu was so a real thing. Sam's mother had even called to warn him about it, and had made him promise to look out for his brother. As usual, he'd ignored her, but she still had validated the whole Superflu thing. Therefore, it was real. "Nuh uh. My Mom said it was real!" Of course, she'd also said the Tooth Fairy and Santa were real. Sam didn't know the logistics of flu, but it had sounded like a good thing to die of at the time. If he wasn't so dim, one might have pegged him as a hypochondriac.

For someone that avoided cold like the plague, it was definitely more difficult for Sm to pick up bugs in the traditional way. However, the past weekend had not gone as planned. First had been the gaming marathon at his best friend's apartment. Not only had they ended up wrestling in the middle of a rainstorm outside the building, which had been bad enough, but Vincent had found it hilarious to flush the toilet while Sam had taken a shower, effectively freezing him. They'd just wrestled some more until they more or less passed out, and Sam had put it behind him. He'd also managed to fall in the pool, which had been even less fun. Stupid decks and their rules about running.

He flinched a little at the cool metal against his hand, fighting the urge to shudder util it warmed. Her hand on his did not go unnoticed, though. He grinned at Dr. Nik. "Ooh, we're holding hands now? Bonus." Of course, it didn't last long, and at her next direction he did as he was told, turning his back to her. Focusing on his breathing, something felt off, but he couldn't identify it. Not until the questions started to flow.

It was tempting to bite at them, but he had to be careful. He'd gotten this far, and he somehow had her attention. He could't screw this up now. "Uhhh...." Well, his chest had been on fire in gym that morning. (Figuratively, not literally.) He had been hoping for something easy and fun, like Dodgeball. Not laps and track and field stuff. Feeling like that wasn't exactly new to him. He might have looked fit, but that was by the grace of metabolism. He was lazy, thrived on junk food, and was gloriously unfit as a result. Still, it had been worse today. "It kinda felt like it was gonna explode in gym today after laps," he began, looking innocent. "And it look a long time to breathe normal again." Funny, he hadn't thought much of it, not even of possible lung damage from smoking weed for so long.

Trying hard not to look smug and proud, he studied Dr. Nik. "Was I right? I'm really dying?" At least dying enough to miss the last classes of the semester? Hey, he could hope.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Nakia gave the boy an unamused look, as if to say Do you believe everything your mother tells you? before continuing her work. She tried very diligently not to put foolish notions into her daughter's heads, mostly for this exact reason. Telling their children about things that may or may not exist and giving them flights of fancy was certainly more in their father's job description.

Chuckling a little at Sam's forwardness and flirtatious nature (something that, had it been directed at all at her husband, would have likely flown over the poor man's head), the doctor shook her head. "Oh yes, and next you'll be so shy as I demand that you take your clothes off," she crooned in response, adding just enough humor to her tone to brook no misunderstanding. Knowing Sam, of course, he'd just act ridiculous anyway and keep on flirting, but she supposed there was no harm in letting the boy have a crush. He knew she was married.

Listening to the young man's undoubtedly exaggerated recollections, Nik pulled the stethoscope from his warm back and set the whole thing around her neck again. From the sound of things, Sam really was sick. However, there was only one sure-fire way to find out. "All right, Sam, put your shirt back on. It's time for your least favorite part of the checkup."

Saying that was a bit like saying that a vegetarian's least favorite part of a meal was the twelve ounce steak and country fried pork chops. But still, it was an apt point; Sam always seemed very disgruntled about her "magic voodoo hands" and the fact that she could see right though his charms and fakery. However, it was for his benefit that she subjected him to it, and school was important, no matter how many classes he tried to skip. No sickness, no injury, no note - back to class.

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam believed 95% of what his mother told him, still. Usually because she called him for all kinds of reasons, and most of them were usually true. As such, he’d had the additional back up of the news going all Superflu crazy. He’d had absolutely no reason to doubt her. The look he got from Dr. Nik was simply returned by a sweet smile.

Despite having a girlfriend, Sam had always been a flirt. Even with Spencer in college now, he was more careful with how he flirted, and who with. He’d never cheat on her, but pretty words here and there were harmless, at least in his mind. And with teachers? They never took it seriously. As such, he just grinned at Dr. Nik. “Hey, I ain’t shy.” He really wasn’t. He and Vincent ended up in less than appropriate attire when drinking and sleepovers were involved all the time. “Y’ want me naked? I’ll do it.” He would, too, if he wasn’t so ready for a nap.

The look he gave Dr. Nik over her announcement could have likely withered the plants in the office. It was do or die time. Maybe he’d get lucky and something was out of place. He’d been hoping that she’d stick to the more traditional means of figuring out if he was ill or not. Apparently, that hope was now gone. He took his time sliding his shirt back over his head, stalling for as long as possible. At this point he was practically willing his body into illness so that he wouldn’t have to spend any time in the infirmary during the break.

After what he considered to be sufficient time, he set his hands at his sides and lifted his chin slightly in cooperation for what he knew was coming. Cold hands on neck, and he would be busted. He didn’t even say anything, mostly in anticipation for the punishment that was to come. Well, it had been nice while it had lasted.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Nakia was very much aware that Sam Rixon wasn't shy - he was, quite possibly, the least shy person she'd ever met, even counting Minamori in that list. The boy simply had a natural charisma and confidence that kept him from feeling shame (in most normal situations), but it'd been a joke regardless. Humor that wasn't dark as thunderclouds was coming to the doctor slowly, and Sam always seemed to be a safe bet with any joke. Besides, he had a wonderfully sunny disposition most of the time.

Still, what had to be done had to be done; powers time.

Placing her hands more gently around the side of the pryo's neck and jaw, Nik allowed for the normal flinch from the cold before settling in and easing her own special form of empathy out. Her previous symptoms were correct in analysis, even the fever - Sam felt even warmer, now that her hands were closer to his major arteries and torso. So, in conjunction with the cough and chest tightness, there was also a high fever and more than a trace of exhaustion. Things weren't bad now, but they would get worse over the next few days, if her estimate was correct.

"Cough for me," she ordered gently, focusing a little harder. She needed to feel exactly how much the tightness and pain in his chest went, and what better way than to stir it up a bit? She'd need to send a blood test to the hospital to be sure regardless... this would have been an amazing time to have an assistant with X-ray vision.

But what she had was what she had - the albino couldn't dream of getting the funding for getting an X-ray machine, let alone fit out a room for it just so she could be sure of a diagnosis. She'd simply have to work with the local hospitals and clinics, and use her powers as best as she could. For the most part, it got her by during clinic hours in Japan; it could get her by here. She could trust her instincts.

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam was incapable of being shy. He and Vincent had gone streaking around campus before for fun (during the summer, of course). The punishment had been worth all the looks on various student and staff’s faces. With Dr. Nik, he was worse, because she was pretty, and he could get away with it, for the most part.

His shoulders jumped up slightly as he cringed at her cold hands, trying hard not to shiver. Ugh. This was the worst part. Why were her hands extra-cold today, anyway? It was like she’d been expecting him, and had dunked her hands in ice water before going about the exam. Maybe it was a new deterrent, to keep him from pulling these kinds of stunts. Well, if so, it was potentially going to work. This was a new form of slow torture.

Made worse by her request. Sam really didn’t want to cough, because it did kind of hurt when he did, but if she wanted it, it meant she was falling for it, right? Mustering up what he was hoping was a dramatic display, he ended up coughing several times in a row. The first one might have been forced, but the follow ones were unplanned. God, what the hell? He had to stop practicing so much. That last one just about left him short of breath. Breathing a little more carefully, he eyed Dr. Nik curiously.

“’s a cute shirt,” he decided to blurt. For a change he wasn’t trying to sneak a peek down it, but rather just trying to distract her. He really didn’t want to repeat the coughing fit for her, so maybe compliments would divert her attention.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

No Sam, unfortunately for you, Nik's hands were their usual only slightly icy selves. The increased heat difference was all his fault, due to his even higher than normal body temperature. The doctor had even went to get a cup of coffee right before the pyrokinetic arrived, which meant her hands were actually a little warmer from cupping her mug in her hands.

Still, it wasn't her intent to torture the poor boy, even if it meant keeping him from faking his way into the Infirmary all the time. As a doctor and a mother, she hated seeing children (or young adults, in Sam's case) miserable. But, the hands and the coughing were necessary, and they both told her exactly what she needed to know as her own chest blossomed with wet, burning pain. There was fluid in Sam's lungs; not a lot, but he needed rest, medication, and a blood test immediately.

"Thank you," she replied, giving him a soft smile as she pulled her hands away. "How about I bring you a cup of hot tea to help with that throat now, hmm?" Breathing in the steam wasn't a great idea, but it would temporarily soothe the pyro's throat while she drew up some paperwork and wrote a prescription to be delivered after she sent out the blood test. Which, after she got Sam comfortable, was next on the list. She had to be sure and the only way without X-rays was a blood culture. She wouldn't need much, but at least Nik had the tools here to do it rather than sending the poor boy to the hospital in an ambulance.

"Would you like a blanket to warm up a little while you wait?" she asked, standing up from the bed to take a clean mug from the cabinets by the sink. There was a hot water tap here for the express purpose of cleaning and hot water bottles, but it was hot enough to make tea as well. And it just so happened that she had some chamomile here; just the thing for relaxing sick bodies.

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam continued to shiver slightly as the contact continued, wishing that maybe he hadn’t stored up so much extra heat. While it seemed to be working in his favor, it was also making Dr. Nik’s touch downright torturous. He’d need a bucket of coffee after this.

After she let him go with a note, of course. He could wait for that.

He made a slight face at the offer of tea, shaking his head. “Y’ got coffee? Tea’s for girls.” His opinion was quite firm on that, thank you very much. Tea was stuff his mom drank and tried to force into him when he was sick, not something you drank for fun. Unless you were a girl. Coffee would work just as well, wouldn’t it? It was hot.

And now she was offering a blanket. Whatever he’d done this time around, he had to do it more often. It was working perfectly. Giving her his best puppy face, he nodded. “Yeah. I’m kinda cold now.” And he was. He hated being cold. Even in the fall or spring he tended to be bundled in ridiculous amounts of layers to ward off any cold that dared to come his way. It was weird going from burning hot to cold, but hey, he was blaming her cold hands. “So what’d the magic hands say? I’m dying this time, right?”

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

"Coffee isn't good for sick people," the doctor argued. "It's dehydrating. But if you want, I can make you some tea that's sweetened with honey. Even your trainer drinks that when he's ill." Granted, Vincent liked tea anyway, and a good amount of their pantry was full of canisters of the stuff. Personally, Nik liked the smell and properties of tea, but rarely liked the taste unless it had a good serving of honey in it.

Still, Nik grabbed the blanket first and handed it over to Sam. It wasn't very thick, but it would help until she got his comforter down from his dorm room. That would make him feel much better. "Here you go, wrap up tight, all right? You should probably lie down, too - you'll probably feel a little dizzy once your body temperature comes back up."

Moving back to the desk, the pale woman pulled up Sam's file and typed a few things in - symptoms, her initial diagnosis, the next step, current treatment, the tests to run... she'd have to call the boy's mother and get permission to run the tests she needed in a moment, but she was sure it wouldn't be an issue. The hospital down in the town could run the blood samples for her. "No, Sam, you're not dying," she promised, sending out an email to the hospital for a courier to come up as soon as possible for the samples. "You're just sick. But don't worry - you should be better soon enough."

Sending off the message, she looked back to the pyrokinetic with a soft smile. "How about I make you that tea, and you can rest and drink it while I make a quick phone call to your mother to let her know what's going on?"

Technically, Sam could make the choice for treatment on his own given his age, but he was likely still under his mother's health insurance which would decide whether or not the tests needed would be covered. Nik was also certain the woman would want to know that her son was going to be sick for a little while.

[Samuel Rixon]

“What? Since when?” Coffee was always his go-to drink of choice. It was hot, and it delivered a kick of caffeine. What was wrong with that? Still, if he was going to continue to play this right, maybe it was best to listen. “Can you put sugar in it?” If Mr. Mee-in drank it, it couldn’t be terrible, right? Because his trainer was badass.

Gratefully, he pulled the blanket over his shoulders and snuggled into it. The warm really did feel nice. He even listened to Dr. Nik and lay down, snuggling like a caterpillar. He wasn’t so sure about the dizzy thing, being that this was apparently his best fakery ever, but it still felt good.

Of course he wasn’t dying. He knew that. But the fact he’d managed to dupe Dr Nik for this long, and this far, was a new personal best. Maybe she was trying to teach him a lesson, who knew? All he knew was that it was working, and this was potentially going to be the best break ever. He’d be out of the last day of classes, and could spent the entire break messing around with his best friend and partying like a rock star. ... Or watching stupid movies in his dorm with copious amounts of junk food. Either way, it would be awesome.

He was fully prepared to relax, but the mention of his mother made him sit up quckly. There was the dizzy feeling she’d predicted, which made him press his palm to his forehead like it would help. “Uh. You don’t gotta call my mom. Seriously.” She’d probably call him out for faking and then he’d have to be sentenced to helping in the infirmary all break. She knew how he worked. If she was insistent, though... he had to think fast. “Y’ know, I think I might be feeling TOTALLY BETTER now. So... y’know. You don’t have to call.” Ever.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

The doctor flashed him a bright white smile at the acceptance of the offer and nodded. "Of course, Sam." She took a mug and a box from the cabinet and filled the former with steaming water from the hot tap. It was one of the only ones in the school that reached almost-boiling, so of course it needed to be here where things often needed sterilization. The tea was simply because there were quite a few students here whose parents made them drink chamomile or mint tea when they were sick, so the smell and flavor simply helped them feel better, even if the tea itself was just a way to get liquids into them.

Having placed a sugar cube in the water and passing the steeping tea over to the boy (who wouldn't be bothered by the hot mug as much as some students), Nik frowned slightly. "Sam, I'm not calling her because I don't believe you, and I'm not calling her to tell on you. I'm calling her because I need permission to run a test so I can be sure of what you have." it was more of the truth than she usually told patients like the Rixon boy, but he couldn't walk out of here with his fever and (as she had predicted) the dizziness. He wouldn't make it back to his dorm before he toppled over at this point. "I just want to check with her and see if I can run the test under your medical insurance - that's all. If you don't want me to, the school could pick it up and bill your mother, but she will find out either way."

Nik needed that blood test, but if Sam didn't cooperate, there wasn't much she could do. She had the tools here to take it, but depending on the type of illness she thought he had, he could be highly contagious by tomorrow. It was better not to take the chance of the whole dorm coming down with something.

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam beamed at Nik as she agreed to his request. Maybe he could handle tea with a buttload of sugar in it. It was worth a shot. Unless it was fish, Sam was generally a human garbage disposal. As he waited, he tucked the blanket more securely around himself, truly starting to resemble a caterpillar.

He took the mug and practically purred at the heat the mug radiated. Holding it didn’t bother him in the slightest. In fact, it felt nice, and his hands wrapped all the way around it. He was so busy being happy about the new heat source that he almost missed what she was saying.

Almost.

A part of him was really starting to suspect that she didn’t believe him, and much like Walter threatening him with disgusting medicine, he wondered if this was to teach him a lesson. How much fun would it be for Nik to get his mother in on it too? “Heeey. What do you think I have?” He started to untangle himself from the blanket. “... ‘Cause it’s probably nothing, ‘kay? I was totally faking so I didn’t have to go to class. There.” He looked up at her with his best puppy face. If he looked sad, maybe he’d only have to help for half the break, not the whole thing. “I’m sorry Dr. Nik. I’ll go to class now. And come back tomorrow to help.” It was probably best at this point to just come clean. While this was going to go down in history as the best fakery ever, it wasn’t worth it if she was going to teach him a lesson about it. If he left now, he’d still make the tail end of History, and then head to math.