Climb Every (Food) Mountain (Matt)

[Matt Davis]

Matt shrugged some. He figured wy that was the case… Matt could assume that Nao here was doing really well in school. Asians were always really smart. He looked up to the boy across from him and pondered the prospect of some tutoring, or maybe at least the two working on homework together. He could get behind having another smart guy on his friends list.

“I don’t know really. I’m in some of the… Well, I aint in the best a’ classes. S’you might not see me that often.” He said with a little shrug. Matt was never in advanced classes, and in fact was hardly passing with a C average before he came to Hammel. It’d be holding up about the same.

“I’m locked up in the co-ed dorms.” He smiled some to the boy. “It’s kind of...awesome, y’know? Pretty excited… even got a cute girl on my floor, but she’s like a sister. What’re the guys dorms like? Been meanin’ t’slip over there, but don’ know too many guys.” He looked back to his food and shoved a hunk of Pompate into his mouth. He chewed slowly and savoured the flavour. He wanted to speak, but manners dictated that he clear his mouth first. “Yeah, this place is pretty big compared t’my old school too… We had a couple’a schools roun’ us though, so…. if y’added them all up, might be the same size.”

“Oh, yeah...I’m from North Carolina. An’ I know whatchya thinkin’.” He smirked up to the boy and shook his head. “I aint sure if we can be friends if you’re a Duke fan… Hard t’look past. Tarheels, Baby.” He laughed a little to himself and looked back to Nao… Who was giving him a strange look.

Matt looked over Nao’s face and his brows knit. He tried to follow his eyes down to his lips, and then it all made sense. He reached up and wiped at his chin and lips. “Did I get it? Issue with eatin’ gragma soaked stuff… Can get it everywhere. How’sabout you, Now? Where you from?”

[Deleted]

There were a few subjects that Nao didn’t do quite as well in. He wasn’t very good in much anything creative, so music and art were out. Chemistry…he had little interest in, though he still managed to keep his grades up on that, though only in the B range. History was probably his least favorite, though again, he still managed to stay a B student in that area. It wasn’t because he was smart. He would never be so arrogant. But he would say that he worked hard. Maybe it was his Japanese roots talking, but he believed that if you worked hard, one could achieve anything.

Nao was pretty optimistic in his thinking sometimes.

Naozumi nodded. He felt that saying anything further on the subject of classes might seem rude, or like he was bragging to the other boy. “You’re in the co-ed dorms?” Naozumi smiled. “I have another friend who lives in the co-ed dorms. You two are a lot braver than I am.” He snickered and blushed slightly. “It easier being roomed with boys.” He didn’t have to worry about misunderstandings when they walked around half naked, or worry about things getting awkward when a girl tried to ask him out. That had happened at his last school, and Nao had to turn her down and tell her the truth because of it. He really regretted hurting her feeling, especially since they couldn’t really talk as friends after that.

“I thought that too. That Hammel is probably about the size of my neighborhood at home. Maybe even bigger.” It was hard to tell though. Everything where he lived was incredibly condensed, it tended to mess with spacial recognition and comparisons.

Nao blinked at Matt. He didn’t understand. Duke fan?

He didn’t realize he’d been staring, though, so when Matt said something about the “gragma soaked stuff”…it took a moment for Nao to realize what Matt was talking about and why he said it. Nao blushed again, but continued with the conversation. “I’m from California. From San Jose. Though I was born in Japan. In Okinawa.”

[Matt Davis]

Matt continued to happily eat while listening to Nao speak. The boy was finding his voice, though he still seemed pretty meek the whole time still. When Nao started asking about the dorm situation he shrugged.

“I don’t know if brave is right… I mainly jus’ wanted t’be able t’bring anyone back t’my room. Y’know?” He smirked some before shaking his head slowly. “...I don’t mean, like… I’m constantly bringin’ girls up or nothin’. Just… Well, I dunno. I’ve ‘friended more girls than I have guys. Only really know Marcus an’... Well, you so far. S’glad I can invite Cam or Anthy up there.”

“How ‘bout you? Y’have many friends in there, Nao? I’ve not been over to the men’s dorms. Might hed on over sometime if you’d send out the invite. Sure ya’ll probably do a hell of a lot on Sundays an’ on Mondays and Thursday nights?” He asked with a hopeful smile while looking up to his dining mate.

[Deleted]

He supposed it was a matter of perspectives. Nao assumed that Matt’s preferences were “normal”, that is, towards women and women only. And judging from his reasons for liking the co-ed dorms, Nao decided he was right.

“I don’t think that would have been a problem either way,” he said, thinking back about instances where he’d brought Savvy back to his room. Then there was that whole spin-the-bottle party in the middle of the girls’ dorm…where he and Ray… “I think the rules about opposite genders in the single sex dorms are ignored a lot,” he offered, trying to keep down the flush that wanted to rise into his cheeks again.

“I have a few friends.” Some were closer than others. “Xun and I are really close. He and I are in the self-defense club together. And Ray…he’s my best friend. We’re both on track, but we study a lot together too.” And eat lunch, and text, and go out for ice cream and random sweets, and kiss—…anyway, they did a lot together. Nao cocked his head in confusion. “Sundays….Mondays and Thursdays?” Those seemed like odd days to be doing a “lot” on.

[Matt Davis]

Matt slid the steak around on his plate. The gravy coating underneath smearing it around the bottom. He sliced across it with the knife and diced it up into small bite sized pieces that mixed well with the rest of Pompate. He listened to Nao speak while popping the bites into his mouth, though only after raking them across the taters.

“They don’t really enforce it then, huh? That’s sort of weird...they seemed to make a pretty big deal about absolutely no girls… but I’ll keep all of that in mind, y’know. Make sure I can go inta other friends rooms, an’ such.”

Matt continued to eat while listening, though he was picturing what the different dorms would be like now and had accidentally missed some of the meat of what he said regarding his friends Xun. “Yeah, I have a Zune I'm pretty into too. Surprisingly better than most iPods I think.” He said, probably confusing the poor boy.

When he showed some confusion about the days he mentioned, Matt showed his own confusion. He didn’t know many guys who didn’t know the significance of those days.

“Football? Sunday, Monday night, and Thursday night football…? Do ya’ll not have like a big TV or somethin’ set up and watch it together over there? Don’ do nothing like that?” He asked while finishing the last of his steak.

[Deleted]

“Not really,” he confirmed. “Well…at least, I’ve never gotten in trouble for bringing my girl-friends back into my room.” For study sessions, which usually ended up as lazy youtube watching sessions.

Now that Nao thought of it, many of his friends were actually pretty bad at studying.

Nao creased the space between his eyebrows, confused at Matt’s response. Why was he talking about electronics all of a sudden? “Oh?” he said, unsure of what else to say. It didn’t occur to him that Matt had just heard him wrong.

At least the matter of the Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights was cleared up quickly. “Ohh. Those are football nights.” He shook his head. “There’s a big television in the first floor commons, but I’ve never heard of anyone regularly going down there to watch football. But, I also don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. We don’t watch much television in my dorm room.” Two of them, including himself, preferred being active and studying to recreation. And the other two…well, Nao didn’t keep tabs on them much, but he didn’t think he heard them doing that either. The one thing they all did, however, was enjoy food. Food was good.

Nao took another few bites of his meal.

[Matt Davis]

Matt couldn’t help but smirk when he said that he had brought all of his girlfriends into his room and never got in trouble. He held it in for a minute before letting out a small laugh. “Yeah? You’re just some sort of stud aren’t you, Now?” He gave the boy a pleased and playful smirk. Matt had been hoping to make a new bro since he’d arrived, and he was starting to pick up that maybe this guy might work. He was quirky, sure, but it was an alright quirky.


He was a bit surprised to hear that the boy didn’t pay much attention to football. It was odd. Sure, there were people out there who didn’t watch football and weren’t as into it, but it was kind of unusual not to have that in common.

“So, what do you like to do then? Still tryin’ t’figure this place out. Wouldn’ mind some pointers on how t’have fun, ‘r what to do.” Matt was almost done with his meat and potatoes. He only had a small glob that would make up the remains of Mt. Voltato. Surely he'd have another one relatively soon, but seeing the first one blown was a little disappointing.

[Deleted]

Nao obviously hadn’t intended on giving the impression that he was a “stud” of any sort. His girl-friends were exactly that. Girls who were friends. And given that he wasn’t interested in girls, it didn’t cross his mind that someone else might think of him as some sort of “player” because he happened to have a decent amount of female friends. Though it also didn’t occur to him that this misunderstanding was the result of him not being open to begin with with his sexuality. Nao had no intention of saying anything about it at any time. He still had this sickening feeling that people, especially people he wanted to be friends with, would reject him outright if they knew. Surely that’s what Matt would think, wouldn’t he? Then again, he still had yet to become used to the fact that Hammel seemed to be very generally accepting of people of all types, races, sexualities, etc.. There was such a diverse group here…

So, when Matt spoke up, Nao was again confused as to why he would say that. He tilted his head in some confusion. “I don’t think so, but thanks.” Nao returned the smile with one of his slight, soft ones.

What did he like to do? Nao looked to the side as he collected his thoughts, bringing another piece of meat to his lips to nibble on. “I practice Aikido, so I do that a lot in my spare time. Sometimes I go to the library and study. I work a little bit, so that takes up some of my time. Then I go to track meets when I can.” But he didn’t have much time for that, so was thinking about just dropping it altogether. The only reason he was still involved was because it was something for he and Ray to do together. “I guess…well, on weekends I go into town for ice cream with my friend Ray. Or to the asian market.” He smiled, reminiscing on some of the other “things” that he and Ray had done together for “fun”. Usually behind closed doors, when Nao was trying to teach the older boy some new French word.

Nao shrugged and sent Matt a smile that was still centered on memories. “That’s really all I have. Sorry, I’m pretty boring.”

[Matt Davis]

The guy was cute, there was no doubt about that. Sure he hadn’t seen too many asians, but he did know that some of the asians at his school had the girls going crazy. In Matt’s mind, this guy probably was a lady killer. His comment about his girlfriends only secured that more resolutely in his mind.

Matt continued to eat while the boy listed off what he did in his spare time. His brow hiked, both at the awesome bite of corn, taters, and chicken that seemed to explode in his mouth, and to the comment about Aikido. It was probably something Matt didn’t want to ask about, but heck if it didn’t peak his interest.

With the comment about being boring Matt laughed to himself. With a swallow he smiled over to the guy and shook his head. The golden locks swayed over his head until he pushed it off of his forehead and to the side. “Y’kiddin’ me? Pretty borin’...” He scoffed. “Hell y’ sound right interestin’ t’me. But what’s that Akido stuff? Some sorta martial arts thing?” It sounded kind of like Karate and Tai Kwan Do. He figured it’d probably be something similar and it was the best guess besides some sort of paper folding, but he was pretty sure that was Oragami.

“S’ya like t’study an’ ya have a job? Well whatchya do as your job? I do a bit of repair and such… An’ studyin probably means you’re prety smart. I coulda guessed that though, y’know. You seem th’smart type.” Even disregarding his ethnicity that seemed to be te case. Especially for someone who liked to study.

[Deleted]

Nao probably was a lady killer. Or…what was the term? Heartbreaker? That was probably more accurate. In that, he couldn’t necessarily return their affections. At least not in the way they wanted. Savvy had found that out first hand several months ago when she’d tried to get him to kiss her. Nothing against her, but the thought of kissing a girl, any girl, was…gross. He’d done it before and it was gross.

He was surprised that Matt expressed interest in Aikido. Most people just wrote it off as some kind of karate and didn’t bother asking. Or….well, maybe Matt’s response was similar to this. They wanted to know everything about it, as if it was the newest and most fascinating thing to hear of yet. Naozumi nodded. “Yes. It’s a martial art from Japan. I’ve been practicing since I was eight.” Which gave him a good seven years under his belt.

Nao thought he was pretty boring. Even if Nao thought that what he did was interesting, he never expected anyone else to share that opinion. “I’m a translator,” he provided. “I have an interest in languages, so I use that to translate books, videos, and other forms of media.” He’d mostly been doing manga lately, though. Comic books from Japan. Though there were a couple of other projects he was working on that weren’t as time imperative as those, so he could take his time and sent in what he could when he could. He got paid by the page from that particular employer.

[Matt Davis]

“That’s pretty cool.” Matt said while finishing the last of his food. It was a hearty portion and he had eaten a good chunk of it before he had his guest. He slid the plate to the side but decided to hang out for a while to spend time with this new guy he had met. “So is it like… mainly legs, or mainly fists? More karate, more kung fu, what’s it like?”

“A translator? Wow… Y’must be pretty smart then. T’know a buncha languages, or d’ya just mean like… Y’know japanese and english? Or d’ya know more? D’ya think in Japanese or English?” Matt seldom socialized with people who could speak more than one language. Sure he was around a bunch, but they usually didn’t speak english any good and sounded like Speedy Gonzales. He didn’t have much to say to them either way.

Matt listened to Nao for a while before reaching into his pocket and fetching out his smartphone. It was black, beaten, and battered as always. He opened up his contacts and created a new one before sliding it towards Nao. “Mind giving me y’number, Now?” Matt normally liked to offer the phone for the number to be put in. Whenever someone else would pull out their device there was a chance it could’ve been busted or falling apart. If that was the case he might snatch it up and go all mutant on it, so he thought it best to avoid that situation.

[Deleted]

How to explain Aikido to someone who’d never known it before. It was honestly a lot easier to show than it was to explain. There were a lot of abstract concepts involved. There weren’t necessarily strikes that one did which could sum up the whole practice. So, Nao was silent for a noticeable second, nibbling on the remainder of his food, as he thought of an answer. “It’s…more like redirection. Using an opponent’s strength and momentum against them.” Which made it so that a boy as thin and as small as Nao used to be could take down a man several times his size and emerge unharmed.

The questions Matt shot out at him came one after another, barely giving Nao a chance to think about them. His eyes went wide, slightly overwhelmed from the barrage. “Um…my first language is Japanese, but I learned English after my family moved to California. I started learning Spanish in elementary school, and then Chinese I just started learning on my own when I was….about 12?” And right now he was working on French and Russian, taking classes for the former, and doing self-study for the latter. He hoped he’d answered the questions well enough. As for the last one… “I…never thought about it before,” he admitted. “I think it depends. Like when I am home with my family, it’s usually Japanese, but here at school, it’s English.” Though sometimes he’d find himself thinking in Japanese when he was alone.

Nao wasn’t expecting to get Matt’s phone number from this little interaction. It was…amazing. Nao smiled again, his cheeks changing to pink again. “Okay,” he said softly. He reached over and took the phone that Matt slid towards him. He punched in his name, N-a-o-z-u-m-i, and then put in his cell phone number. “Call me,” he said, feeling a bit giddy at having said those words. “I’ll save your number too.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, prepared to punch in Matt’s information.

[Matt Davis]

More of redirection. Well that sounded pretty cool. Very much a Mr. Miagi thing, really. Use the power of someone against himself and such. He looked over Nao and pictured him doing some awesome martial arts things like Jason Stathom. Flipping over tables and throwing people around with slick moves. “That’s really cool, Nao! Let me know how it goes, hmm? Or maybe show me sometime?”

The list of languages this guy knew at the same age as Matt was pretty intimidating. Heck, some people might even say that he hadn’t mastered english quite yet, and this guy had figured out how to speak in all of these languages. He knew that people from Japan were generally smart, but he had a feeling that there was something more to Nao besides his origin. Though, smart and into martial arts did fit the staple of a japanese kid in Matt’s head.

The thought of thinking in different languages was also pretty cool. He had thought about himself thinking in english before, and considered how a person would speak if they were never taught a language, or how deaf people thought. He was pleased with the answers for the most part. “So if you think in english and you think about something someone said in Japanese, do you think it in japanese, or like...translate it over? What kinda stuff have you translated? Like those martial arts movies?”

Matt took the phone back and turned it around, examining the name before choosing to send a message to the new contact. A few seconds later he’d recieve a text saying ‘Matt Davis’ so that he could register the number. When he looked up and got a glimpse of his phone he winced a bit. Whenever he saw new tech come out when meeting someone he got worried he’d...power pop all over the place. When he spotted the case of the phone, which looked to be in a good condition, he sighed contently.

“Yeah, I’ll call. Y’do the same, yeah? If y’ever wanna hang out or somethin’. As long as we aint gettin’ sushi or nothin’ like that.”

[Deleted]

Naozumi nodded, smiling. “Okay.” Even if it didn’t show explicitly on his face - it was just him smiling for longer than a split second - Naozumi was actually quite excited that Matt expressed an interest in seeing his martial art. Maybe if he was interested enough, he’d join? Then they could practice together! Nao was always looking for additional practice partners. “If you come to the training rooms anytime after school, I’m usually in there practicing.” Either with the club or by himself.

Nao was fluent in these languages, but he wouldn’t say that he’d mastered them. There was still a number of things that he had to look up during his translations, to ensure he was getting the correct meaning. He could hold conversations, but there would still be things he might have to ask the meaning for. Naozumi too hadn’t mastered English either. He was still finding words that he’d never heard before, though those were usually with vocabulary centered around specific fields. Jargon.

Matt’s questions were interesting though. They weren’t things he’d ever thought about before. “I would probably think it in Japanese first, then translate it over if I needed to speak it in English.” Because…he remembered all of the conversations that he had with his family in Japanese. He understood them that way. But if he had to tell someone about them, he would have to think an extra moment to translate. “Um…I do a lot of things,” he said, trying to keep up with Matt’s questions. “Comic books are a big one and are usually easy, but novels come in sometimes and those take the longest. And occasionally I get a movie, but not often.” And those were actually harder sometimes, because while he’d trained his eye to recognize the writing systems, it was hard to train the ear without a regular conversation partner. Preferably one who spoke the language natively.

It only took a moment for Nao to receive the text from Matt. He smiled as he saved the number in his phone under the name provided. It was nice having friends in his phone. “Okay,” he said with a nod. Then he tilted his head, confused. “You don’t like sushi?” Nao supposed it wasn’t for everyone, after all.

[Matt Davis]

“Yeah? Well maybe I’ll slip by sometime. Or y’can send me a text ‘r somethin’, an I’ll come t’watch y’beat on some people. Maybe y’can teach me a few moves! I mainly go...UFC style an’ boxing, but I could learn some nice flips’r somethin’.”

Matt could appreciate those answers regarding how he thought. He didn’t really have an opinion on the matter, besides that it was probably very confused and loud inside the head of someone who could think in so many languages. He nodded his head as they discussed the translation period, but the nodding stopped when he mentioned the comic books. He loved comic books! “I love comic books! What’ve you done? Any Captain America? Or anythin’ I might know?”

“Sushi? Oh nah, I like my fish to be battered up an’ fried, y’know? Maybe grilled work, but raw’s just right out… Never even touched the stuff, thankfully.” He couldn't even imagine how it'd feel. Why would you even do that? Just skin and dice up a fish on rice and that black tape-looking stuff. It just sounded awful, and smelled fishy… in all ways.