Three Scoops of Heart-Wrenching Sorrow(Ray)

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh was rather excitable, even for things that wouldn’t normally excite people. The flyer still expressed great awe at a thunderstorm or fireworks. He still whooped with joy when he caught an updraft and shot upward like a rocket. He still laughed when he fell into the pillow like thermals of summer. Maybe he was happier now than he had been before because to be honest he was always happy or excited and his ex-boyfriend… well, his ex-boyfriend was kind of a buzz kill. Ray would be excited about something and often his ex would scoff or belittle Ray. He shook his head away from thoughts of his ex. He was gone and Ray was not willing to spare another thought for him. All that relationship had been was painful, in every sense.

And really, was it so wrong to enjoy life to the fullest? Ray’s eyes widened and his smile broadened. Nao was the first person he’d met who was born outside the country, well that he knew of at least. Most of the people at Hammel were American, there were a few he knew who were born outside the country, but none of them whom he had actually spoken to. Ray nodded along committing what Nao was saying to memory. Ray shook his head then shrugged in reconsideration. “Well, I mean I’m learning French for school, but I mean we’re at like… Bonjour, je m’appelle Raylaigh. So yeah I’m about here and fluent is about here.” He labeled himself as down low and fluent classification as high up above his head. Fluency in French was a long way away for the lazy student.

Ray laughed and watched Nao dart back for napkins. One could never be too careful, especially when they had absentminded Nao and clumsy Ray in the vicinity. Ray took the offered napkins and pocketed them for the time being. Raylaigh was midway through licking his ice cream and digging out a stubborn chunk of cookie dough when Nao spoke. He was impressed by Nao’s balance of the cone, two scoops was about as much as Ray could handle, three and he would be wearing it before too long. Ray grinned a little bit of vanilla on his lips, he was such a child. “No problem, I couldn’t really leave you ice cream-less after that.” He also returned to his ice cream. He’d also gotten quite a treat out of this as well.

Nao was really adorable and Ray kept stealing glances at the smaller boy and smiling to himself. Cute and sweet, Nao was definitely someone Ray wanted to keep hanging around. Raylaigh was also the kind of person who felt the need to fill the silence and so after it had dragged on for a bit Raylaigh started talking again. He laughed at a memory that crossed his mind and went to explain. “When I was little whenever we had cookie dough ice cream we’d pick out the chunks and save them for last.” He smiled to himself, he’d been too young to understand what was really going on, really Van had been a big help to their mother during the divorce as he took care of all of them and kept them occupied when their mom wasn’t feeling too great. It had happened a lot and a lot of cookie dough ice cream had gone through the house that year.

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To be truthful, Nao liked excitable people. For one, he liked how honest they were with themselves. There was an innocence there that reminded him of his younger siblings. For two…well, it was just that they reminded him of his younger siblings. As small and short and adorable as he was, one might never guess that Naozumi was the elder brother of five other brothers and sisters. Nao was supposed to be the mature one, though when he thought about it, his younger sister, Yuri, was probably a lot smarter than Nao was and had a good head on her shoulders….as long as she kept her nose out of trouble. In any case, Nao was one well suited to be around excitable, talkative people because they didn't bother him quite as much as other people might be by them.

Nao's face was a strange mixture of falling in disappointment, because Nao had not yet started to study French, and awe in that somebody like this was learning a language that Nao didn't have in his banks. French was hard to him, which was why he'd put it off in favor of several others, most originating from Asia. Still, Nao wanted to be encouraging. "That's not bad. Languages are hard." Nao would know.

"Thanks," he said when Ray took the napkins and put them in his pocket. Now they had their own little prsonal reservoir of napkins to dip into should something disastrous happen again with their frozen snacks. "I prefer to have ice-cream rather than not have it," he said simply and seriously. His tongue dug into the cream again, making a small hole as it melted on the tip of his tongue. He would probably have to eat it faster than he was before it melted enough to topple over again. Resolved in this decision, Nao practically took a bite of the top scoop and stuffed it in his cheeks, wincing slightly as the cold became a little too cold for the inside of his mouth. The only way around that was to swallow…which of course resulted in that freezing cold going slowly all the way down, effectively giving him an ice-cream headache. "Ow…" he uttered with his eyes shut tight.

It was still delicious though. Completely worth it.

Once again, Nao was fine with his companions talking. He might say something when he felt it appropriate, but for the most part, Nao was content with listening. But…wow, Ray really did remind him of his siblings. The boy smiled, taking a break from consuming his treat(which after a few head-freezing bites was already reduced to two scoops). "My little sister does that. She likes to save the best for last, I guess." As opposed to Nao who liked to just eat it all at once and then just eat more if he wanted to "savor" the taste.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh smiled to himself as he thought back to Nao’s expression when he’d first knocked down his ice cream, he had to be certain not to repeat the process lest Nao make it again. As adorable as it was, the small Asian had just looked so sad and Ray couldn’t allow that to happen again. It was seriously the coolest thing that Nao was born in Japan, Ray would have to ask him more about that later. He would travel vicariously through Nao. Nao was younger, but he probably had more experience in the world than Raylaigh did, just by traveling. Ray was curious about a lot of things. Ray licked at his ice cream and raised a brow at Nao confused by his expression, he didn’t understand why someone would be so impressed by his ability to say ‘hi, my name is’ in another language.

“They are,” Ray agreed with a nod, “I mean it’s the biggest barrier we have in the world, I think.” French and Ray had a understanding. He could do it, if he studied hard and worked at it, but it was hard and occasionally it liked to remind Ray he didn’t know much. He was at least better at it than he was at math. Math was just running him over time and time again and he just didn’t get it. Ray shrugged to himself, no one was perfect but he felt like for the amount he was working he must just be stupid t have not gotten it yet.

Ray smiled and gave a little giggle. “And that, Nao, is why we are going to be best friends.” He’d already decided, Nao really didn’t have a choice in the matter. After all, they both loved ice cream, what most was there in life?! Ray’s eyes widened as he caught Nao taking a bold bite. He shivered at the mere thought, he had sensitive teeth and an action like that would give him a very painful chill. He laughed, “Brain freeze!” Ice cream was great and it made one want to eat it as fast as possible but it was cold and punished those who did not savor it as the golden treat it was. Nao was getting too eager and the ice cream was reminding him to slow down, but it didn’t seem Nao was willing to listen to those. Ray nibbled on a bit on a chocolate chip and did his best to keep it from doing something like dripping or falling.

“Yes!” Ray said, “That’s the only way to do it!” He giggled and nodded to himself licking at his treat some more. “I have a little sister too, but she is such a pain,” he gave an exaggerated groan before shaking and giving a smile. She was a pain but he loved her. His brothers were a pain as well, but he loved them too. Well, most of the time. With Kyle it was touch and go. “Do you have any more siblings?” He asked, he really wanted to know more about Nao and he wanted to learn all that he could. He had only just barely gotten through one scoop by the time Nao was down by two, that only told Ray that he was doing too much talking and not enough eating. “How’s the bubblegum?” He asked randomly, forgetting that he was just mentally chastising himself for talking too much.

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If Ray thought that Nao had more experience in the real world, then he was in for quite the surprise. If his earlier misunderstanding had been any indication, Nao was blissfully naive and absent-minded about the going ons of the world around him. Then again, the boy had had to grow up rather fast with the influx of siblings after he'd been born, so he was good at taking care of others. He also had started his own translating business. He also knew about tax-season, economy, lay-offs, and budgeting, which was why he perpetually had no money as most of it went straight into savings. The naivety that the boy had was likely just the lack of realizing and placing his experiences as something unique and special, as he was under the impression that these were just normal things to know about.

"I like languages. I met a girl who's power was the ability to speak other languages like they were her native. I think would rather have that than the one I got." Considering his interests, Nao felt it would have fit a lot better. As it was, Naozumi couldn't think of anything useful for him to do with his power other than maybe be a delivery man, like that running post-man from the Legend of Zelda series. Running and moving quickly was fun, but his brain hardly was able to keep up. Nao preferred things that took time and logic. Like languages and mathematics. Those were easily his best subjects.

At the mention of being best friends, Nao could feel the warmth spreading up his neck and into his cheeks again, and he lowered his head slightly, trying to used the excuse of tending to his ice-cream as a way to hide himself. "Okay," he agreed, keeping his voice as neutral as possible. Was it too much of Nao to be ridiculously happy about Ray declaration? Nao couldn't remember ever having a best friend before. Close friends back in San Jose along with a person or two who followed him around(though thinking back on it now, Nao realized that they probably were friends), but never a best friend. He was definitely going to tell his sister about this.

Nao took another bite of his ice-cream, hiding a smile while Ray continued to glee over the small boy's brain-frozen plight. Nao wasn't about to be defeated by a little bit of cold.

"You two would get along," Nao mused out-loud. He nodded when Ray complained of his own sister, feeling his pain, as his own had the tendency to get quite uppity. Nao was probably the only person that Yuri listened to. He hoped she was doing well. Nao stopped when asked about the rest of his siblings. "Yes," he said simply, debating whether he should list them all off. "….Yuri is 18 months younger than me. After her is Tomoe, who just turned 9, then the twins Su and Ken at 6-years-old. Mari is the baby. She'll be turning five soon." It was a mouthful, but nowhere near as much as his friend Savvy Bishop's family.

"Mmm, it's good," he said. Bubblegum was delicious. He was definitely putting this one on his favorites list. Then he remembered with a slight snap up of his head. "Do you have any siblings other than your little sister?" he asked, curious as to how big Ray's family was or if it was just the two of them and his parents.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

The experiences Nao had were so different that Ray wanted to know more about them, it was fascinating meeting new people and learning about them. Ray’s version of a summer holiday was to go home and hand out with his siblings, play video games, watch movies, catch up with old friends. If he was lucky his father would make a guest appearance. Ray got the feeling that his father didn’t like him and Kyle very much, Van had explained it before but Raylaigh couldn’t find it in his heart to understand why his father would be upset about something that was out of their control. Van explained that his father’s anger was directed at their mother, not at them, but Ray wasn’t convinced there either. It was easy to misunderstand, but Raylaigh loved his father. He wished he saw him more, they always talked so much and had so much fun when he was around, but when he wasn’t around it was easy to blame him and imagine that his father didn’t like them. So yes, going to Japan every summer seemed a thousand times better than Raylaigh’s version of summer.

Ray laughed lightly. “We always want what we don’t have,” he chided gently, “it could be worse. You could have a super sense of smell that manifests itself as growing nostrils all over your body.” Ray giggled at the image. In the way of advantages for the future, Ray was in the same boat, he didn’t know how flight would help him in his lift, but well, he’d been gifted with these wings and he was not going to snuff them. With a shake of his head Ray jumped back to the topic at hand. “Do you know many languages? I… I don’t know how I feel about languages. I think they’re really cool and stuff, but… I don’t know I guess they’re just a lot of work.” In other words, Ray didn’t get it. His teacher had once compared a sentence to an equation and Ray had had to sigh because he didn’t get equations either. History and English and art were more up his alley. Not that he was a good artist, but he doodled enough to amuse himself.

Digging into the ice cream, Ray couldn’t help himself, there was a little bit of a skip in his step and he was very tempted to hover. It was often times hard for Ray to keep his feet on the ground when he was excited, which with ice cream precariously perched on a cone was probably not a good idea. Ray had to hold back the desire to hug Nao when he agreed to be best friends. Mostly because that would probably mean that Ray’s ice cream would go flying and he’d probably knock Nao’s right out of his hands, again. No, best to keep that to himself. In the flyers mirth, his eyes turned into half moons and he couldn’t keep himself from bouncing around a little bit. Really, Ray just could not sit still for five seconds, even walking he felt the need to be doing something. So he tapped his fingers against his cone and occupied himself with the frozen treat for a while.

Ray gave a little laugh and nodded, taking Nao’s word for it. Ray counted mentally, that made Nao the oldest of six? That was a lot of siblings. Ray gaped at Nao. And they shipped all six of them to Japan every summer? Hell, it was a full weeks worth of work for his brothers and sister to convince their mother to let them go to the beach or something. The good thing was that now Van had officially moved out and so he and his siblings could mooch off their oldest brother for a ride somewhere. “You have a big family,” Ray said commenting on his thoughts, “That’s cool, I bet its crazy sometimes.” He nodded, his house was crazy with four and their mother. So add two more, especially so young and Ray was sure that it would probably get crazy. He also guessed that Nao was the best big brother to all of them, kinda like Van was to him.

With a mouthful of ice cream Ray nodded first. “Yeah, there’s Van, he’s 21. And Kyle, he just graduated from Hammel last year actually. He’s a douche-nozzle. And Andrea, she’s 13 now. So not as big as yours, but I think we manage to drive my mom to insanity more often than not.” Well, they did, now he thought that they just amused her. He hadn’t yet come out to her yet, though all of his siblings knew. And that had really been Kyle’s fault. He really wanted to tell his mom, but well, Jack had always said that she would hate him for it, so he never did. Ray gave a little sigh and went back to his ice cream, he was super jealous of the relationship that those two from the party had. He still didn’t know their names but he couldn’t help but wonder if things would have been different if Jack had let them be open together instead of hiding.

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Going overseas for summer vacation probably wasn't the glorious experience that Ray was making it out to be, but Nao and his family had been doing it for so long, it was possible he just took it for granted. For one, it cost a lot of money that the family used the entire year to save up for, making simple luxuries like buying CDs and cool clothes just not possible. Nao had saved up for his own laptop and Yuri conned her way into a jewelry set. For two, when they got there it was hot. Hot hot hot. Swelteringly so. While it was nice that Okinawa was an island and there was the ocean for them to swim on, it didn't make it any less hot. To make it worse, the younger kids were the ones who got to go swim whenever they wanted. Yuri and Nao were supposed to help out with their aunt's beach restaurant the whole time, and when they weren't doing that, they were looking after the kids, including their several other baby cousins. It was just their luck that Nao and Yuri were the oldest out of all of them. There was very little time for just relaxing and fun. But…Nao wasn't too disgruntled by it, that was just the way it was.

"Mmm," he agreed with Ray. There was a lot of things that Nao wanted that other people had, but most of it had to do with food. He shot an incredulous look at Raylaigh over his next comment, however, his eyes looking positively perplexed as he imagined noses all over his body. "That…that would be horrible," he said with an amused shudder in his voice. Nao wouldn't wish such a power on anyone.

Naozumi nodded. "It's a hobby of mine," he said simply. As he said before, languages were easy. There was logic and structure to them. Patterns. Nao liked patterns. Though Ray was right that languages took some work to find and understand those patterns. He supposed not everyone could see them. Then again, Nao didn't do well in things like art and history, so even he had his weaknesses. Naozumi paused for a moment as he dared himself to ask another question. "What kind of hobbies do you have?" he asked, keeping his head down.

Ray certainly had a lot of energy, a complete difference from the boy next to him who could stay still and quiet for lengths at a time. But even though the short Japanese boy was so subdued, he would have to admit that he was feeling equally gleeful about this whole encounter. Ray was nice. He was really nice. He was friendly. It certainly helped that he was good-looking. Nao definitely wanted to continue their association with each other, even if it only amounted to friendship. Best friendship. Nao wasn't about to expect anything more, especially when he himself had his own misgivings over his orientation. It wasn't something he talked about, with anybody. And since he never talked about it, Nao wasn't even sure he knew what was what. It was just very confusing for the 15-year-old boy.

"Yeah, it's pretty big," he said, nodding shallowly. "We have to share rooms at home…" Nao trailed off, thinking he'd had this conversation somewhere before….right, with Savvy. "I guess now Yuri gets her own room now that I'm here." Which would make sense. Before, Nao had shared with Tomoe and Yuri with Mari. Now, he assumed that Tomoe and Mari were now sharing. But Ray was right, it did get pretty crazy sometimes…but that was just natural for a big family, right?

Van, Kyle, Ray, then Andrea….Naozumi listed them all off in his head as Ray spoke of his siblings. He chuckled, taking in another small bite of ice cream. "You're family's older than mine." Over all. Nao was only barely 15 and the oldest while Ray's little sister, Andrea, was already 13. It wasn't a big deal, but amusing just the same. Nao took another bite of his ice cream, finally reaching the cone and taking some of that with him.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Well, as Ray had said before, people always want what they don’t have, so maybe that was a little bit of Ray doing what he had just scolded Nao for, his family didn’t save for big trips, so they were allowed other luxuries, not to mention his father was making a lot of money and he occasionally tried to buy his children’s love. ‘Financial proof that dad loves us’ Kyle would say, and would earn himself a swat from their mother. Oh well, Ray shoved the thoughts out of his mind. Nobody had a perfect life, it was better to just enjoy what you had and if you didn’t like it change. At least Raylaigh could tell himself this now, without thinking of the fact that he’d stayed in a terrible relationship for several months. Well, what was done was done and Ray was perhaps a tad hypocritical but that was life.

Ray couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on Nao’s face. “Yes, yes it would.” Ray agreed immediately. No he would hate to have noses all over himself, he was fine with just the four extra appendages. Granted it would suck to have any sort of thing all over their body, ears, eyes, it was just creepy and probably terribly uncomfortable. Ray sometimes wondered if his life would be easier if his wings were on his back, but who knew, probably were just about as bad but in different ways. Go with the enemy that’s known not with the enemy unknown. It was safer that way. Raylaigh at least knew how to walk and coordinate himself to avoid tripping over himself, well, in theory, not in practice.

“Oh really?” he asked interested, “How many can you speak?” Maybe that was Raylaigh’s problem. He had no skills in pattern recognition. Maybe it was because he could fly, he didn’t have to go about things the normal way, he didn’t have to use the door to get in and out of his room and he didn’t have to walk anywhere if he didn’t want to. It gave him options and he could make of it whatever. That only gave a theory, Ray still thought it was just because he was stupid. “Hmmm,” Ray pondered for a moment, “I like to fly.” He giggled and gave a little hop but didn’t take flight, but that one was obvious. “I’m on the dance team and I do track and that kinda thing. I used to do a lot of sports but I’m not allowed to anymore.” He gave Nao a pouting expression. He at least wasn’t allowed to do so competitively, he was required to do low impact sort of activities, which didn’t mean he stopped playing basketball.

Raylaigh’s life had gotten a whole lot better after he’d finally come out. He’d just never felt any sort of attraction to the opposite sex. It had been hard, but part of Ray’s happiness and outgoing nature came from the freedom he’d found after he’d stopped hiding. He understood too that everyone wasn’t at that point, his ex hadn’t been, but after all of the hiding and all of the pain, Raylaigh really wasn’t looking to go back into hiding. Not when he could be open and happy. Ray had honestly thought his life was over when Kyle found out, but luckily his brother didn’t hate him. If anything Kyle had become more protective. It was a good thing he’d never found out about Jack or Kyle might have seriously hurt Ray’s ex. Ray shrugged to himself, oh well, no chance of that happening again now. He was free.

Ray nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I feel ya, I shared with Kyle and Van, ‘cause my sister got her own room.” But lucky Van got his own room when Kyle and Ray got shipped off. It was really only hard when they were all home for holidays then things got tough. Ray had tried to make note of names but they were unfamiliar to his ears and he hesitated in attempting to pronounce them in case he was way off. “It’s so nice having your own room isn’t it?” He said with a grin, one of the things he loved about Hammel, they shared with three others but each got their own quarters. It was probably because in the grand scheme of things there were so few of them, if the number of meta children increased they would probably have to start doubling up.

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re the oldest right?” He asked. “It’s great, Van has his own place now and we all get to visit him.” It was also nice because he had two older brothers off of whom he could model his life and gain experience from without having to make the same mistakes. He honestly felt a little bad for Andrea being the only girl, but she had a trio of protective brothers. “I guess my parents are just older,” he shrugged. He actually didn’t know how old his parents were. His mother blatantly lied for the most part because they had just celebrated her tenth ‘39’th birthday. She just would not admit to being over forty, though Ray was pretty sure she was closer to fifty.

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Nao definitely would have rather had a different power. One that was easier to control too. Though, if he thought about it, any other power was likely to come with it's own pains and troubles in trying to learn how to use and control it, so it was possible it'd be more trouble than it was worth. Guess it was different for everybody. Nao couldn't imagine what kind of trouble Ray must have gone through with his wings being literally attached to his feet. As an outsider, all he could see was that it seemed cooler than his own, not the lack of control that Ray might have or the sensitivity to his bones or any of the other side effects. The same way, Ray probably didn't know about what Nao had to go through to cope with his own abilities, including the perpetual hunger.

"Uhm…." Nao started uncharacteristically as he started counting the number in his head. Did he want to know how many he spoke fluently, how many he'd mastered, or how many he knew anything of at all? "I grew up knowing English and Japanese. Spanish was a necessary "secondary" language for the area, so I picked that up quickly. Chinese, Mandarin, is really hard but I can at least hold a conversation and read it. And I'm working on Russian and trying to start French…" But French was just as hard as Chinese, so he hadn't made much progress. It was the vowels and pronunciations that got him the most. Since he knew spanish, it made it easier to at least piece apart Portuguese and Italian. Eventually he was going to learn German, which should also be easy enough since it was very close to English in many ways.

Ray seemed to be a lot more interested in sports than Naozumi did. The only one Nao liked was his martial arts. He didn't really understand the point of competitive sports like track, basketball, football and things like that. But dance sounded fun. "Why not?" If he liked them, why couldn't he play like he wanted?

"Yeah," Nao agreed with Ray on the matter of sharing rooms. He enjoyed having his own room here at Hammel. Actually, Nao had been overwhelmed with surprise at the notion that he would have his own room. He'd been overwhelmed at all the privileges he was entitled to in just coming to Hammel itself. A grade-A education, exceptional resources in the library, free meals at the lunchroom for all students, books paid for, room and board….he was saving his family a lot of money by coming to school here. One less mouth to feed, Yuri got her own room, no more dojo-tuition because he got to train on campus; it was for these reasons that Naozumi was thankful that he manifested, because it made life easier on his family. And while here, he could continue his free-lance work over the internet and put his earnings into savings. It was a very favorable arrangement.

"Uh-huh." Nao was the oldest. And therefore, he didn't know what it was like to have an older brother take care of him. He knew how to be an older brother and acted towards his younger siblings the best he could, but he would never really understand what it was like to be in the reverse position. "They might be," he surmised. Nao's own parents were young when they started having children. But they actually looked a lot older than they were, by about 10 years. Hard times had aged them poorly.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

It was a greener grass problem. There were, Ray was sure, baseline humans who also wished to have a meta power, of any kind. He knew his sister did and he didn’t know what to say when she asked if she’d get one. He didn’t know, he didn’t know why Van didn’t get one but both him and Kyle did. It was just, hard to explain. Maybe there had been some recessive meta human gene in their father and they’d just drawn lucky straws that way. Raylaigh knew very little about it all, all he knew was from his biology class, and he could only think of it in the form of the genetic trait boxes they made. Other than that he was pretty much as ignorant to the whole situation as everyone was, well at least the lay people.

Raylaigh’s jaw dropped in amazement. For him people who knew more than one language were impressive and Raylaigh counted seven, because he was ignorant enough not to realize that Mandarin was a subsector of Chinese. Which translated to Raylaigh as ‘Nao is super smart’. “Oh hey, maybe we can learn French together?” He asked, not implying but thinking, maybe you can help me with it. “I mean I’m just starting out too,” he smiled. He always worried when he studied with people that they would think him stupid because there were some things that just did not compute in his brain. Nao must have a good memory and discipline to learn all those languages, Ray thought, he was a little jealous because he could try but he never did have good discipline and more often than not once a class or assignment was over he just let himself forget everything.

He licked at the ice cream, still a slower ice cream eater than Nao, he was at least getting close to where he could start nibbling on the cone. He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Well, I mean I can, just not competitively. Those games get a little too rough and well,” Ray scratched his head sheepishly and laughed, “After the fourth break they decided keeping me in one piece was more important.” He could respect that but Raylaigh didn’t want to live his life afraid of breaking, he’d never do anything that way. He’d rather have fun and deal with the consequences. Life was not worth living if all one did was live in fear. He would rather go flying through a hurricane then spend his days afraid to leave his room. Not to mention, flying in a hurricane sounded like so much fun. Not a tornado though, that would be scary.

Having his own room was such a luxury! He’d never realized how hard it was to share until there was no one there. No one was gonna yell at him if he stayed up late reading or in actuality bullshitting on the internet. No one was gonna tell him when he had to get up. Well, classes made that a necessity but he didn’t have to get up at obnoxiously early hours because they were on different schedules, nor would he have to be sneaky when he got up for morning practice for something. Which since his whole growth spurt was absolutely impossible. He couldn’t make it from his bed to the door without dripping over something, knocking into something and dropping several somethings. Most likely onto his foot. God forbid he had to do it in the dark!

Raylaigh smiled and nodded. He was starting to get the sense that Nao wasn’t very talkative. Yes, Ray was one or those extremely slow people with a quick tongue who sometimes talked so much he didn’t realize the other person in the conversations wasn’t saying much. He finally started to nibble at the cone and he shivered a little as the ice cream touched his nose. Glad for the napkins, he withdrew one and out with it came all of its brothers and sisters and they started blowing away. “Oh no! Come back.” He said and lunged after one trying to step on it to stop it’s advance. All the while, he never did get the ice cream off of his nose. It paled in importance to keeping the napkins from littering the street.

[Deleted]

Nao too didn't know how he'd gotten stuck with the meta gene, but he also didn't know if there were any others in his family either. Definitely not any in his immediate family, or extended family, but maybe further back in the genealogy. Naozumi wondered if any of his other siblings would join him at Hammel sometime in the future…or if he'd be the only one? That made him feel a bit lonely.

If Ray just asked Nao to help him with French, then he'd be happy to do it….once he got a handle on it. Honestly, Nao didn't know more than a few phrases, no more than what Ray had demonstrated earlier, and that was because he'd been focusing on Russian recently and then teaching English to a couple of foreign transfers. But…studying together with Ray did sound like a good idea and a good excuse to start learning the language more himself. "Yeah! We can, if you want." Nao wouldn't say he was as super-smart as Raylaigh was thinking either, he just had an ear for languages and enjoyed learning them as a hobby, just like how someone might study art. He did have discipline, though in Nao's opinion, it took some amount of discipline to engage in any sort of hobby and become good at it.

Then again…as Nao listened to Ray iterate his reasons for not being able to play the sports he liked, he started to understand a bit more. It would be hard to dedicate yourself to something you enjoyed if limitations kept you from it. Had Ray been able to continue, then he might have exhibited the same discipline that he admired Nao for, just in something completely different. "That must be hard." He couldn't think of anything else to say.

That might be why Nao wasn't particularly talkative. He just couldn't think of anything more to say and he wasn't one for talking unnecessarily. Nao got to the point quickly when he spoke and tried to make sure it was understandable the first time. In face, Nao disliked repeating himself, which probably contributed to him thinking carefully about what to say and how to say it most effectively before he said it. But he did like listening. Because, he realized, people other than himself often had a lot to say. Like Ray here. And that was okay too.

Naozumi was too busy devouring his own cone to notice the cream that had stained Raylaigh's nose, but the flash of the white napkins fluttering about like feathers caught the corner of his vision and he snapped his head up. "Ah!" Nao exclaimed as he too took a step forward to try and salvage a napkin or two, but the wind was quickly blowing them out of their reach. Rather than race after the whole lot, which were going going and gone, he aimed for the one that Ray was trying to retrieve, trying to stay coordinated enough to not trip over himself, to be slight enough to not get caught under the tower that was Ray, and to be quick enough to actually catch that white sheet of tissue. Nao bent down at the waist to try and snatch it.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh had a different relationship with his siblings and after all they were close enough that they texted and he could go home for holidays. They would arrive at home for Christmas or something and it would be just like they’d never left. Ray didn’t feel lonely without them being physically near because they were always there when he needed them. And he’d be there for them if they needed him too. “When did you say you got your power?” Ray asked the thought crossing his mind, he didn’t remember how long Nao had been at Hammel or if he’d even asked him how long. Ray’d been here since he was twelve, so he was well used to it, also for the first three years Kyle had been here as well.

“That’d be great!” Raylaigh said. Studying with other people was always a lot better than studying alone, mostly because it was easy to get distracted and chat. Ray was a terrible person to study with, he was very bird brained and would get distracted by just about anything to keep himself from studying. His focus was absolutely terrible. He really did try though. He wanted to pass his classes and it was so discouraging when he studied his hardest and still couldn’t get himself higher than a ‘C’ or a ‘B’ on a test. Just once he’d like to see that beautiful ‘A’ at the top of his paper. He did see those things in history and occasionally in his art class, but his art teacher was critical. She was always telling him that his work was really good, but it could always be improved. He didn’t really care all that much, after all, who could make a living off of art anyways.

Ray nodded and shrugged. “Oh well, I still play just not as much. It’s still fun.” He tried to make it out like he didn’t care, but he did. He missed the team aspect of it and the people. It was why he’d jumped into swimming and later into track. He missed the people and the encouragement that he got from them. He had just started in on the track team and he was enjoying it, but he also missed swimming. Admittedly a part of him also missed the shirtless men but that was beside the point. He had close friends on the swim team and he was starting to make friends on the track team but running without using his wings felt heavy and slow. He knew he couldn’t very well use them that would be way up there on the cheating scale.

“Do you have any other hobbies?” He asked in return, he wanted to know more about what Nao did. He was definitely someone that Ray wanted to keep hanging around and he wanted to see if they had more in common. But no sooner had he asked the question then the napkins flew away. Trying to hold onto his ice cream and chase after the napkin was a challenge in and of itself. Nao then dove in front of him and Ray’s wings flapped to stall his forward moment to keep from running into Nao and knocking his ice cream out of his hand all over again. He reached out a hand and steadied himself as he started to get off balance on Nao’s back. “Oh!” He said in apology when the wings on his front foot slapped Nao’s hand as he tried to grab that napkin at the same time Ray tried to push himself back to keep from running into Nao. Ray took a step back a flash of fear in his eyes, if he’d slapped Jack with his wing’s he’d likely get slapped back for it. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry.” He immediately fell into apologizing. He never really realized how toxic his ex had been and he didn’t even realize that now he was afraid of Nao like he had been afraid of Jack.

[Deleted]

"….November," Nao replied, his face seeming to drop along with his mood. Nao hadn't mentioned the exact date, just a general timeframe of how long he'd been at Hammel. But thinking back, it'd already been four months since he'd arrived, and already he was homesick. Not having his brothers and sisters around did, he realized, make him feel terribly lonely. It was strange how he never realized before now. Maybe it was because he'd always been able to keep himself busy with school, practice, and the few friends he'd made, there was no time to realize how much he missed his little sister's snarky remarks, or how the young ones would practically climb on top of the short boy, or how the twins would double-team him in their wrestling matches. He somehow even missed the constant teasing he got for having such a pretty face, the lesbian jokes, and even the cruel jokes on how one day Nao was going to bring home a rich husband with that face of his.

They were jokes right? Nao was positive that his family didn't know how close to the truth they were. They'd probably be shocked to find out. Disappointed? Maybe even guilty for being so insensitive? Either way, Nao wasn't ready to cross that line yet.

Naozumi was so deep in thought about this, it was a noticeable spell before he spoke again.

He smiled at Raylaigh's excitement, however, holding similar sentiments about how it was better to study in groups. In Nao's case, however, he thought it helped him focus more. They could share opinions and answers, and teach each other how to solve certain problems that they didn't know how to do. If Ray studied with Nao, he was bound to get a more focused experience than what he was used to….though not without appropriate breaks. Nao was just as interested in procrastinating as the next person….or more accurately, he wasn't going to completely squelch his study partner's attempts to procrastinate in favor of some light socializing.

"That's good," he said, relieved that Ray didn't seem as distraught as Nao thought he might be. He wasn't intuitive enough to realize or suspect that Ray's attitude might've just been a front. Though Nao knew that he himself would be terrible saddened if he found he wasn't able to practice his aikido anymore.

"Yea, I---" he started to answer, but didn't get the chance before the napkin fiasco began. Nao was trying to use his small size to his advantage, but apparently he was just getting in the way and making it even more difficult for the tall, clumsy boy who was stumbling around in his attempts to hot run over the small asian. Nao felt the hand on his back more than he felt the slap of Ray's wing on his wrist. He didn't even think anything of either, Nao was more concentrated on getting the napkin, which he did much to his satisfaction. Nao snatched the napkin and held it up with a smile, having completely forgotten about the rest that had fluttered away, when Ray started apologizing in a disturbingly profuse manner. Naozumi's smile faded into one of pure confusion as he didn't understand what it was that Ray was apologizing so desperately for. "For what?" he asked with genuine curiosity and concern. "What's wrong, Ray?" Nao took a uneasy step forward, closing the distance that Ray had put between them.

Though that was when he saw the ice-cream still sitting there on the older boy's nose. It shouldn't have been, but the sight of such a giant man backing away so contritely with his nose slathered in ice cream was enough to get Nao to start giggling again. At least now he knew why Ray was going for the napkins in the first place. "Heh…your nose is all white," he snickered out and took another step forward to reach up and wipe the cream away with the napkin he'd just salvaged. "There," Nao declared with a bright grin.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh cocked his head at the change in Nao’s mood. He didn’t understand why that seemed like such a bad thing to Nao. “Nao, you okay?” He asked, he didn’t know how much Nao missed his family because Ray had just been here longer and gotten used to it. Sure when he first got here he was very lonely but having Kyle really did help, even if he loved to hate his closest brother. He’d had a mother who he was very close with and siblings who he talked on the phone with all the time. Ray’s siblings were the only ones who knew in his family about his sexuality. Kyle had a tendency to use it as an insult but his older brother, though he was a little misguided, didn’t let that slide while they were home. But then again, when Kyle and Van joked around there was a clear protective tone when they talked about potential boyfriends for both Ray and Andrea, which was why Ray was glad Kyle never knew he was going out with someone.

Nao seemed distracted by whatever was going through his head and Ray watched him with interest, curious about what was going on in his head. Ray for once held his tongue, or rather occupied it with his ice cream and nibbled on the cone letting Nao had his moment. But soon enough the silence was killing Raylaigh and he elbowed Nao lightly. “You okay?” He asked again wanting to know what was distracting his new friend. Raylaigh didn’t like people to be upset and he definitely didn’t want Nao to be sad, not after he knew how sad he could get over spilled ice cream. Ray liked people being unhappy even more than he disliked being unhappy himself. He found that things were going smoothly, they might be hard but life for him was free now and life was looking up. He was optimistic and excited about the future.

Only on occasion did he get stuck thinking about the past and have a little relapse of painful memories. He nodded, so he couldn’t do sports competitively, so what. He refused to let that bother him, besides he had found a few skateboarding friends and he was so excited to jump back into the semi-dangerous activity. He’d have to be careful and he would probably find himself using his flight to keep from falling a lot, that was if he could. He really didn’t care much about getting hurt, he would much rather go out and have fun and deal with whatever came of his own stupidity. And honestly, it was much more fun to have a cast with an interesting story to go along with it. But that was beside the point, it wasn’t like Ray was going to look to break something for the sake of a story, he had broken far too many bones now for it to be anything new. Most of the people he knew were shocked when he wasn’t injured in some way.

So maybe the wounds left from his previous relationship weren’t all erased. Maybe it was because he had smacked Jack with his wings before and it hadn’t ended well. He closed his eyes and shook his head, he didn’t have to be afraid anymore. And the questioning tone in Nao’s voice only further reminded him that he was being ridiculous. “For my wing, I know that hurts, I’m sorry.” He smiled and shook his head though he tried not to flinch when Nao stepped closer. He opened his mouth to say that nothing was wrong but then Nao started to laugh and Ray’s mind went blank with confusion and he could only imagine what he looked like with the clueless expression on his face and then he remembered why he needed the napkin in the first place and blushed furiously. Well this was embarrassing. His cheeks heated and Ray would be impressed if the ice cream didn’t just evaporate off of his nose from the heat.

He wrinkled his nose and closed his eyes as the napkin approached is face and he peeked one eye open when Nao declared it all better and he was met with the dazzling grin from the shorter boy. Well this was definitely an interesting adventure. Ray laughed, “Thanks,” he was still blushing and he felt all the more ridiculous as he grinned and giggled with Nao. He wished he could just wipe away the old memories, along with the ice cream. In a spontaneous and playful moment Ray swiped his finger over his ice cream and poked Nao in the nose. “Now you do too,” he teased with a bright grin. He was flirting shamelessly and he knew it and he didn’t care. It wasn’t everyday he met someone as adorable and nice as Nao. Raylaigh really just wanted to cuddle with the little Asian like he was a teddy bear.

[Deleted]

Nao hadn't noticed that his mood had so obviously gone down…then again, he rarely paid attention to how his outward appearance reflected his moods. So there was a moment of confusion when Ray inquired about it. "Huh? Yeah, I'm okay." To which he left at that, thinking the matter settled. Yet it was those few moments later while Nao was privately ruminating over the lack of his family's presence here in this town that he heard the question again. This time with a slight elbow jab that caught him slightly off guard. Nao looked up to the tall boy beside him and finally was able to read the concern in his features. He offered Ray a sad smile. "Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking," he said, facing forward once again to take another sample of his ice-cream. "It's only been four months, and I've made great friends here," Ray included, "….but I still miss home a lot."

"I wonder if Yuri is keeping herself out of trouble, I worry that she might not be taking care of the others like she's supposed to. I wonder if the twins are terrorizing mom like usual or if they've finally learned how to behave." Nao closed his eyes, imagining the scene of chaos that he'd left behind surrounding the dinner table and fighting over food like a clan of heathens. "So….I guess I'm just a little homesick." It wasn't really that big of a deal. He could probably find out all these things just by picking up a phone and calling or shooting Yuri an email(his parents were hopeless when it came to technology and besides they only had one computer), but Nao had always been terrible at keeping in contact with people long-distance. A phone conversation with him could easily end up being with him completely silent on one end while the other spoke non-stop.

He even missed his Shihan, who had taught him so many of life's lessons when his parents couldn't. That man had been there for Nao more times than he could count, through so many issues and events, Nao didn't know if there was any other way to repay him other than to just keep diligently practicing his art. When Nao finally got a chance to go home, Shihan was going to be the first person he went to visit, that was a promise the boy made to himself.

Nao was still perplexed, even after given the quick explanation by Ray, for why the older boy was so distressed. They were just wings. Nao barely felt them, though if the stopped to think back, he might have felt a light twap against his wrist when he previously reached down for the napkin, but it wasn't anything for him to be upset over. "Huh?" Nao looked at his arm where he vaguely remembered the sensation. "I guess you hit me but…it didn't really hurt that much." Either that or Nao had a rather high tolerance for pain. He did spend his days being thrown across a room for the sake of practice. The air felt somewhat heavy over Ray's reaction, though, so he was thankful for the break which had him breaking down with laughter.

It barely registered to Nao how intimate he was seeming with just simply cleaning the white cream from Raylaigh's nose, but the blush that Ray was wearing to accompany his mirth created a bubble of glee within the smaller boy. But before he knew it, that brightened smile was transformed into a wallowing expression of confusion as there was suddenly, out of nowhere, the same speckle of white deposited on Nao's nose. "Hey!" he protested with a flustered flutter in his voice. By this point, his face was probably red enough to blend in with the sunset, he didn't know how he was supposed to respond to this kind of teasing. "St-sto---" Stop that! Nao looked at the tip of his own nose, crossing his eyes a slight in an attempt to view it, though not realizing now silly it probably made him look. He…had no idea what he was supposed to do! Was he supposed to wipe it off? Leave it? Laugh? Ask Ray to remove it for him? He looked up at Ray with eyes that seemed to plead for him to be taken out of this unfamiliar situation. "R-Raay!" he urged, his face still the color of cherries.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray harrumphed, he didn’t exactly believe Nao. He looked too sad to be okay, and Raylaigh was just that person who would keep pestering him until he knew what was wrong or found some way to make it better. But then Nao started to explain and Ray nodded in understanding. He opened his mouth to say something uplifting but Nao had continued and Ray focused himself on his ice cream so he could listen. He frowned, he hated Nao being so sad, but he also could understand. Really four months wasn’t enough to make someone stop missing home, especially not when they were as young as they were. Hammel was great, but Hammel couldn’t replace the intimacy and support that a family could offer. Ray moved his ice cream to his other hand and he pulled Nao into a hug with the other. No more sadness, he wanted to say. But that, that wasn’t right. It was okay to be sad, it was okay to miss home.

“We all get homesick, I still get homesick sometimes too.” He released Nao and gave him a bright smile. “Can’t you just call? It would probably help a bit too. And you can still go home for holidays.” If Nao had said something about the trips not being affordable, Ray had forgotten and it also would make things a lot more sense. But when Nao had said he spent the holidays here he had always assumed that Nao’s family had used it as an excuse to come visit Nao instead of not at all. Ray gave an encouraging smile. Hell when he first came here he called his mom every night. It was only recently that he’d cut it down to once a week, but he’d gone through a period while he was still dating Jack where he had called maybe once a month at most until his mother called his brother and his brother told him that he was scaring their mother and Ray had started to call most often, then even more often now that his ex was well, his ex and good riddance to him too.

Ray gave a relieved sigh when Nao told him it hadn’t hurt. It was so good to hear that. He wondered now if his ex had lied when Raylaigh’s wings had swatted him. He gave a smile, “Oh good.” He scratched his head sheepishly, well this was embarrassing. He couldn’t believe he’d just had a thought like that. It wasn’t halfway fair to Nao comparing him to someone he was so vastly different from. Ray often wished he wasn’t such a weakling. If he wasn’t he would have been able to toss Jack aside. Maybe Ray could start doing some form of self-defense, maybe then he wouldn’t be so afraid of everything. He gave a nervous glance over his shoulder as though Jack might be standing right there and Ray would never have known. His attention quickly returned to Nao and he smiled broadly. Nao was so close, Ray just wanted to reach out and grab him. He resisted, after all there was no way to knowing the way Nao swung unless Ray asked, for even as adorable and sweet as Nao was, it was never right to assume.

Ray broke into laughter at the look of confusion on Nao’s face and the eventual outcry that later ensued. Now they were both the color of roses, though Nao was the one that looked more like a flower with the whiteness of nose in the center. Ray guffawed as Nao went crosseyed and he blurted out an apology that wasn’t an apology. With the hand free of ice cream Ray wrapped it around his torso in an effort to keep his cut from falling out from how hard he was laughing. Raylaigh got control over himself and his eyes shone with residual humor and he had the sudden temptation to lick the ice cream off Nao’s nose. If he could have turned any redder at the thought he probably would have. That would be far from appropriate, he reminded himself. “Okay, okay,” he giggled out relenting, even though he loved the shade that Nao’s face had taken on. He took the napkin in Nao’s hand and wiped Nao’s nose clean. He made this an excuse to bring his face closer to Nao’s and his eyes examined Nao’s nose critically for any more signs of white. Satisfied he finally backed off and declared, “Good as new.”