Where Am I? (Monroe)

[Deleted]

Nao wandered the halls a bit absently, looking left and right hoping to find some indication that he was going in the right direction. He adjusted the collar to his orange-sleeveless hoodie. Underneath it was dark green long sleeved shirt. The colors kind of clashed, but it did the job it was supposed to, kept him warm. He reached into his muffler-pocket, fumbling around the knitted gloves inside and snatching the piece of paper that had the information on the self-defense class that he was supposed to be going to, run by a Mr. Meian-Shihan. But, as ever, as expected, Naozumi was hopelessly lost in the maze that was the Hammel Institute.

He stopped and stared at one of the name-plates to one of the rooms.

Nope, not the one he was looking for.

He continued to stare for another 20 seconds before he continued down the hall until he came to a T-intersection. Nao looked down one way...then another.....then back from whence he came.............which way did he come from again?

To anyone watching, they would see a tiny, confused, asian boy slowly turning in a circle as he tried to decide which hallway to go down.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Surprisingly, Monroe was actually awake this morning. Awake, but limping. He'd gotten some rest, whether he'd liked it or not because Adaryn had given him some pain meds to help with his swollen ankle and now he just looked ridiculous ambling around campus.

He did have an exam today though and so he'd made himself get up and study, even though his mind was still fuzzy. He'd just gotten out of one class and had a break before he started another and so he was hoping to go get a cup of coffee from his dorm before it started. Needless to say, he needed it.

However, he spotted a young boy standing in the middle of the hallway looking utterly lost. Many were walking right past him, not caring about anything except for their own agendas, and so he took it upon himself to walk up to the boy. "Need help finding something?"

[Deleted]

Nao spun around again, noticing that there were some students passing him by that weren't noticing him at all. Was it because he was short? Or was there some sort of hidden invisibility power behind what he already had that nobody told him about?

He opened his mouth helplessly as another person passed him by. When the fourth person passed him without so much as looking down, Nao stopped and pouted with a little frown and a silent growl. This was getting him nowhere….

Naozumi was about to give up entirely and just start wandering lost again until he found the training room for the self-defense class(and just work with being late) when he was finally approached by someone.

A tall, dark, and handsome someone.

He cranked his neck up to look at the older boy with the beautiful hair and eyes and nodded, his lower lip protruding slightly. Nao helpfully held up the paper with the information listed on it for the other boy to take.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

The boy didn't speak, but Monroe just figured he was shy and anyway, he didn't like to speak any more than he had to either, so he could relate. He took the piece of paper that the younger boy handed him and squinted at the class room number and name he was supposed to be in right now. "Self-defense, huh?" he asked. His schedule said that it was in a training room and Monroe knew exactly where they were after four years of going to them for training sessions with his many trainers. He'd have no problem showing the boy.

And just like that, he wasn't going to get a coffee between classes, but it wouldn't hurt, right? Maybe this good deed would cancel out all of his bad luck and his ankle would miraculously heal. Or maybe that was a ridiculous idea to keep in his head. Anyway, he couldn't just be another person who walked past this boy, leaving him in the dark. "Well, for starters, you're on the wrong end of the institute."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

The boy didn't speak, but Monroe just figured he was shy and anyway, he didn't like to speak any more than he had to either, so he could relate. He took the piece of paper that the younger boy handed him and squinted at the class room number and name he was supposed to be in right now. "Self-defense, huh?" he asked. His schedule said that it was in a training room and Monroe knew exactly where they were after four years of going to them for training sessions with his many trainers. He'd have no problem showing the boy.

And just like that, he wasn't going to get a coffee between classes, but it wouldn't hurt, right? Maybe this good deed would cancel out all of his bad luck and his ankle would miraculously heal. Or maybe that was a ridiculous idea to keep in his head. Anyway, he couldn't just be another person who walked past this boy, leaving him in the dark. "Well, for starters, you're on the wrong end of the institute."

[Deleted]

Naozumi nodded. Yes, self-defense. The training room. Where was it? he said with his eyes. Though it occurred to Nao that maybe he should be using his mouth to communicate instead of just staring and ogling at the those dark eyebrows, that strong chin, and those pronounced cheekbones…..

Wait, did he hear that right? On the other side of the….?

"Oh…" Nao's face dropped a bit, suddenly feeling a bit stupid for being so far off. He had hoped that it was at least nearby. Sheesh, this place was a maze. "…where is it?"

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Hey, don't worry about it. This place is huge and I think we all get lost sometimes. I've been here for almost four years and I still do," Monroe offered, trying to make the boy feel better. Being new was not fun, especially in a high school that was for meta-humans. It was somehow worse than regular high school.

He was still limping and he had an hour to kill before class in which he was going to suck down some coffee, but the poor boy looked so lost and Monroe wasn't one to just ditch others. Besides, he needed to keep his mind off of Adaryn and the mess he'd made.

"Come on, I'll show you," he said, urging the young boy along. "What's your name?"

[Deleted]

Four year? Wow! He'd been here a long time. And he was so obviously older. Nao had only just arrived.... "I got here a couple days ago," he offered softly. "It's a lot bigger than my old school." And he'd already been shown around the first day but... "I get lost easy too."

Nao's eyes had averted to looking at a few more passing students that were jabbering on cheerily. He hoped to find friends enough to talk like that with sometime soon, though the reality is, Nao probably wouldn't be doing much talking. "Naozumi. People call me Nao."

Assuming the other boy returned with his own name, Nao continued with, "What happened to your leg?" He had already noticed that the tall boy was limping, but had been hesitant to ask right away.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"It always is. Hammel is huge. It's crazy how many meta-humans there are," Monroe told the young boy. He didn't want him to feel like he was the only one who had felt lost here. He was pretty sure everyone had at one point, he knew that he had for a long time. He remembered the first few days here. All he had done was sit in his dorm and drink copious amounts of coffee...although it wasn't so different now.

"I like it. Do people ever makes jokes about it though? Because your name is also a word? You know? Get over here now, Nao." He realized his attempt at playing fun was completely lame, as it usually was. "I'm Monroe," he added afterwards. "And...." Ugh, he didn't want to think about his ankle or Adaryn wrapping it up for him. "I sprained my ankle pretty bad," he said with a shrug, always acting as if nothing was a big deal to him.

[Deleted]

Naozumi just nodded. This place really was big, it was almost like a college or University. And according to his recruiter, this place was supposed to house all the untrained meta-humans for the Americas. Did that include South and Central America too? He should probably ask.

But regardless, Nao had one of the worse sense of directions of anybody he knew. Give him some time and he would get familiar with the area, generally, but throw him in a new place, or make him take a different route, and Nao was completely lost.

Nao looked up at the older boy, a slight blush reaching his cheeks hearing that he liked his name, then went on to playfully tease him about it. "Yeah. People do all the time. I just ignore them though. And…it depends on who's doing the teasing, I guess." If it was one of those 'last straw' incidents, then Nao might mercilessly fight back, but that wasn't going to happen here, right?

Naozumi smiled like a little boy at hearing the his name. "Good to meet you, Monroe." Nao looked back down to his ankle as Monroe tried to explain. "Ah. Sorry. Must hurt." Nao had sprained stuff before, so he would know.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"As you should. That's what I do when people tease me about my combat boots. Besides, they're just jealous. I have a pair of kickass boots and you have an awesome name," Monroe told him with a smile. Teenagers were cruel. That's all he knew and it wasn't any different at a meta high school than a regular one. "I promise you'll get used to this place, even if it seems like a maze right now."

The kid seemed like one of those nice guys that probably got walked on and he hoped that he wouldn't be. "Yeah, it hurts enough. It was a bad day. Not sure if that was worse than spilling hot coffee on myself."

[Deleted]

Naozumi looked down to see said combat boots and cocked his head. He didn't see why anyone would want to tease him about it. He thought they were rather charming! They gave him something of a unique character. "I like them," he commented simply. Then he looked back up at Monroe with a slight smile. "They look good on you."

He nodded, though it was going to still be a chore to memorize the layout of this place.

"I'm sorry," he said, expressing his sympathies for the ankle and the hot coffee. Though the mention of hot coffee spilling circled his thoughts to how much that might hurt, then to wasn't there a person who sued somebody for the coffee being too hot? Nao could swear he remembered that somewhere. McDonald's, was it? Mmmm....they had good fries. And shakes. And nuggets. And hotcakes....yeah, McDonald's was a good place to eat. "Do you like McDonald's?" he asked, seemingly out of nowhere and a face that seemed to be staring idly into nowhere as they walked.