When I was still a fragile bookworm (Josef)

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac, feeling oh so unproductive lying on his bed all day, aimlessly tinkering with his phone, decided that it’s about time he pay the library a visit. He was a usual face in the library before, spending almost every afternoon cooped up in the big room. It was his own way of coping up with homesickness and loneliness, the huge stack of books and seemingly endless space reminding him of home. As time passed by, finding new friends he could hang out with, his time in the library slowly disintegrated. What was once an everyday thing became an every other day visit, then a thrice a week visit, then became twice a month then it soon degraded to an occasional thing. And now that he’s a senior, he’s become busier than ever. Moments like these, of random days with nothing else to do but stare in your blank wall all day, are but perfect to relive the good old days.

As Zac opened the door, he could somehow feel memories slowly coming back to him. From the time he first set foot into Hammel to the time a shelf almost fell on top of him. He gave Eli a quick “hi” and went to his favorite/usual spot, a lovely corner between the science fiction and mystery novels. Sure, it was a bit too far from the animal taxonomy books he usually read, but the lighting, cozy chairs and simple decors give the corner a cozy, homey feel. He took a moment to sit down and take everything in before standing up once more and taking a few books from the animal biology section. He’s currently at the library, reliving every moment that has passed, why not take the chance to read up and hopefully find new ways to get on with his ability?

It took a while but finally Zac got settled in with a few thick books on the table. As he went on to read about mammalian abilities, he could slowly feel his eyes closing at him, urging him to sleep. Zac tried to fight it, but he couldn’t. Maybe it was because he stayed up late trying to think of a way to avoid his weird roommates or just his lack of practice with reading thick books, but nonetheless, in a few moments, Zac was down, mouth open and his left arm dangling from the desk.

A few moments later, his phone, which he so conveniently placed beside his hand near the edge of the table, vibrated. Apparently, he had a new text message. It was on silent mode, seeing he was in the library (thank God he remembered that), which meant no sound was made to alert Zac and, hopefully, wake him from his slumber. The phone just went on vibrating as hard as it could, slowly moving towards the edge until with a plop!, it fell down, splitting into pieces.

“Huh, what happened?” Zac asked, wiping the drool formed at the side of his mouth, awaken by the sound of his phone falling. He tried to look around for a bit, searching for the source of the weirdly familiar ‘plop!’ he heard a while back. Unconsciously he moved his foot, stepping on the screen of his phone. Crack! went the phone. “Oh crap,” he said, kneeling and holding the phone fragments on his hand, “Just my luck.”

[Josef Paerson]

Josef was in the library to do some studying, as he often was. The library was a good place for him to be, its very nature discouraged rowdiness and meant he could mostly relax without the worry of unpredictable things happening all around him. He knew it well, too, and it made it easier for him to tell when apparently improbable things actually were improbable, and thus caused by his powers, rather than just being something he wasn't expecting.

His powers were going a little haywire now, not unmanagably, but he'd given himself a papercut and broken a shelf (which he'd also, improbably, been able to fix, so that was something at least), and he'd just been walking past Zac to find a safe corner to calm them down when it happened.
Now it was a perfectly normal series of events, but that didn't mean Josef felt immediately at fault when the phone vibrated at just the right time and in just the right way to send it off the edge, where Zac's foot would just so happen to move and crush it.

"Bugger." He said out loud, privately adding a second curse to himself for saying anything, he could have just kept walking and let Zac deal with it, thinking it was an accident, but that would be sort of rude...

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac tried to put his phone back together again but his efforts are all but futile. It wasn’t smashed into itsy-bitsy pieces but it was crashed enough for it to be declared dead-on-arrival, so to speak. The back case was halved and his screen was cracked. If you’d want to see how a phone circuit looks, now’s the time to indulge in that secret fantasy and see for yourself.

“Good thing the battery didn’t leak else it would be a bigger problem,” he mumbled, trying to console himself for breaking his phone. He wasn't really concerned about finding a new phone (his dad could easily buy him another one) but how the hell did he manage to destroy his phone in one stomp. He's stepped on his phone a few times before and it left nothing, not even a scratch. Did he unconsciously tap into an elephant and gained an increase in density?

He was about to return to his seat when he heard another voice. He turned and saw a vaguely familiar face, looking so mysteriously at him. Normally, he would’ve shrugged the boy away, dismissing him as another one of his admirers. But his tone was something different, something weird, as if he knew something about Zac that he himself has no idea about.

He tried to remember the boy’s name as he went on to approach him. He was sure he hadn’t talked to the other boy before, but he knew he’d seen and heard about him before. Jerry? Joel? Jeff? His eyebrows met as he struggled to remember the boy’s name.

“You know something about my broken phone?” he asked, his voice full of a cat’s curiousity.

[Josef Paerson]

When Zac noticed him and asked about the phone, Josef was suddenly left with a dilemma.
He did like to be polite, and that would involve admitting that yes, he thought he did know something about the broken phone, but that also would be telling the truth, and Josef really didn't like telling the truth.
Never mind the fact that lying could probably technically constitute bad manners anyway, he had long ago carefully decided that particular rule didn't apply to him.

"I think my powers may have had something to do with it getting broken." He finally admitted, feeling particularly uncomfortable about telling the truth. At least it wasn't the total truth, he was almost certain his powers had a hand in it, but even that small vagueness didn't make him feel any better.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac was perplexed. He told himself he asked quite a stupid question; that the typical answer would be “No” followed by a weird or maybe even offended look. But no, this guy happened to admit, albeit in a vague statement, that he had hand in his phone’s destruction. Whether it was intentional or not, he didn’t clarify, but the simple fact that he can bravely tell his involvement was enough to amuse Zac.

“Interesting,” he smiled, eyeing Josef carefully, “Your face’s familiar, which means you’re not a freshman. Which would make your confession quite a bold yet naïve thing to do. For that I applaud you.” He clapped three times before asking, “You do know who I am, right?” He chuckled, thinking what a big flop it would be if the boy in front of him answered no. But he had to know, he has to. After all, Zac is known through-out the campus, right?

“You intrigue me, you know. Not many people would admit they’ve done something somewhat wrong, especially against me. By the way, what’s your name again? I know I’ve heard it somewhere but I forgot what it is,” smiling shyly at Josef.

[Josef Paerson]

Naive? Josef stared at him, a little confused. Had he accidentally broken one of those millions of tiny little social rules that seemed to spring up around a high school?
It was just his luck (or his powers) that he seemed to do these things around just the wrong people, but he'd gotten to the point where he often didn't much care. In previous schools he'd never really been around that long to suffer any sort of repercussions, and here he faded into the background so much that it was rare for these sort of encounters to come to anything.

"It's Josef. And I haven't the faintest clue who you are." Maybe a bit extreme, but Josef needed a few more lies to make himself feel better, and that was the closest he could get. He'd seen the boy around and was pretty sure his name was Zac, so he did sort of know who he was.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Boom! With 8 simple words, Josef has managed to deal a big blow to Zac’s insanely huge ego. Like a sniper’s carefully calculated headshot, Josef’s words caught Zac so unexpectedly that he didn’t even had time to react. Josef’s words strike with such accuracy and precision that he could almost feel his self-esteem crumbling to the ground. His confidence is built on the premise that he’s a well known figure to seniors and newbies alike, and to hear such words from someone he is quite familiar with were surprising to say the least.

Jaw almost dropping to the ground in shock, Zac tried to calm himself and muttered, “Wait? Are you telling me you haven’t heard of me? Zachary LaRousse? The (crown) Prince of Hammel?” Sure his last statement was used as an insult by his loving roommate, but Josef need not to know that.

Normally, when placed in such a situation, Zac would lash out in anger and frustration. He prides himself as a top dog in the school and such events were unwanted proofs that would destroy his world. And yet, he can’t. Sure he feels wronged and insulted, but Josef told him about his ignorance in a straight-faced, unemotional, nonchalant and a-matter-of-factly way that part of him says that it isn’t Josef’s fault. Maybe it was because Josef honestly admitted his knowledge (or lack of it) that he managed to earn the animals’ (the ones ‘inside’ of Zac) trust.

‘Maybe he just needs someone to educate him,’ he thought, ‘And who better to tell about me than I?’ Finding his confidence somewhat restored, he smirked at Josef, ushering him to follow towards the table. “I’ll let you off this time,” he said, flashing his thousand-watt smile (or so he thinks) at Josef. “So, would you like me to tell you about myself?” he asked, though judging from his tone, it was more of a rhetorical question, forcing Josef to listen to his never-ending babble about himself.

[Josef Paerson]

Josef was almost entertained by Zac's reaction - he suspected the boy probably wasn't quite so well known as he claimed to be, but he was obviously quite full of himself, and arrogant people tended to be a little easier to predict, which meant Josef sort of liked them, in a strange way.

That didn't mean he wanted to sit and listen to Zac's life story, but his lies had been just a little bit too uncomfortably close to the truth so far, and unfortunately his wild imagination was apparently choosing to fail him today (he wondered if that was caused by his powers as well), meaning the only option for a lie that he really found available to him was...
"I want to know everything."

This wasn't going to be fun.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac smiled as Josef followed him towards the table. ‘I like him already,’ he thought, seeing Josef as a pawn that can be manipulated with ease. After all, if he was a brat with a brain, he wouldn’t have agreed to sit down and let Zac talk about himself right? “So,” he asked, resting his chin on top of his folded arms, “What do you want to know about me?” But even before Josef could answer, he suddenly interrupted, starting his barrage of stories that glorify him and him only.

He started telling about how he came from a wealthy family. That he had a dozen cars back home, a few private jets and yachts here and there, and of course mansions scattered around the globe. He also mentioned his housing ire – his father’s refusal to build a LaRousse family home and instead sent him to a all-male dorm room – and the pain of seeing the resident pyromaniac Samuel Rixon in class at least twice a week. He grinned to himself, feeling oh so proud of himself. ‘I sure am one heck of a person,’ he smirked, ‘Josef is lucky I’m even taking my time to even talk to him.’

He then proceeded to tell about his meta-human lineage. Like how he came from a pure meta-human clan (he left the part where his mom is only half meta) and how he is supposedly the next in line to be the head of the next clan. Sure, he dwelt a bit too much about his background, but it just seems necessary. Josef seems like a blank tablet so he needs to fill it as much as possible. ‘And after this, he’ll be so intimidated by me that I’ll have him around my fingers, I just know it,’ he told himself, feeling oh-so-great for recognizing ‘potential’ in Josef.

His stories somewhat spent, he proceeded to know more about Josef. “What did you say your ability was, Josef dear?” he suddenly said, “I mean, you claimed you were the source of my phone’s destruction right? Are you telekinetic? Or maybe, oh I know, you controlled gravity! Right! Like, you accidentally increased the gravitational field so I when I stepped on my phone, I crushed it. Yey! I am so good.”

I do hope Josef survives through this ordeal.

[Josef Paerson]

It took all of Josef's strength not to let his eyes completely glaze over as he recieved Zac's entire back story, and even more of it to keep himself from yawning at any point. It wasn't polite to be disinterested when people were telling you things, even if they were giving you a novel-length commentary on themselves.

It didn't help that his attention span had never been what one would call impressive, and while he was trying to focus on remaining looking interested, he ended up in a little world of his own, as he so often did. At least once that happened he didn't have to feign the look of interest, as the things running through his head were, to Josef, incredibly interesting.

It did mean it took him a second to realise he was being spoken to, and blink himself back to reality. He hoped it wouldn't be too obvious that he wasn't listening, and just nodded sincerely.
He wasn't sure if whatever Zac had just asked him had been a request that meant Josef would have to endure more, or something that would involve some very quick thinking on his part, or if it was a question about himself that he'd just inadvertantly told the truth to, but as long as he didn't know he was doing it, he didn't really mind.
Either way, he hoped nodding was the correct response.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac was amused. Josef sat through his droning amazing autobiography without a grunt of boredom or a yawn of sleepiness (if Josef did, Zac was too amused about himself to notice). To him, Josef’s empty gaze translated into a look of absolute intent and reverence. Even Josef’s involuntary nod was interpreted as blind obedience. Zac would’ve clapped like an amused child, complete with a cheeky grin, if only it wouldn’t look weird. You have got to love self-absorbed people.

Failing to contain his excitement, Zac pinched Josef lightly on the cheek. “I like you,” he said, complete with the face one makes in front of a cute puppy. “Not in the romantic way, of course,” he laughed, immediately avoiding the awkwardness that might result from a misunderstanding. Zac is a bit attracted to guys (though he wouldn’t admit it just yet) but Josef doesn’t fit into the category. “You’re not my type,” he clarified, giving out a hearty laugh, “I mean, I like you as a person, as a friend. I think we’ll get along just fine.” By that Zac means he’ll enjoy pushing Josef around.

“So, what’s there to know about Josef?” he asked, smiling sweetly at Josef. If he would use Josef as his drone, he should at least know the basics about him to be able to use Josef to the fullest.

[Josef Paerson]

Josef almost jumped when Zac pinched him on the cheek, startled as ever by physical contact, despite knowing he should be more than used to it by now. He managed to keep control of himself though, unlike the little incident with Misato, and there were no startled looks or power fluctuations, though it took him a second or two to compose himself mentally afterwards.

A second or two that stretched even longer at the mention of romantically - it wasn't that Josef was oblivious to the possibility of a boy having romantic intentions, in fact given how unlikely it was that Josef would ever find anyone he felt he could be intimate with, he didn't really bother limiting himself to one gender, theoretically. The problem was that Josef tended not to think that of anybody, so it was always a surprise when even the possibility was brought up.

"A friend? I love friends." Josef lied, hoping it wasn't too encouraging, he'd tried to avoid saying he'd like to be Zac's friend specifically, and maybe he could just avoid the boy until he forgot all about this meeting.

"Me? Oh I can tell you everything, what do you want to know?" A lie, of course, because while Josef could indeed tell Zac a lot of things, it was not everything, he couldn't, or wouldn't, tell the truth.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac nearly laughed out loud as he saw Josef become a bit more tensed when he pinched him on the cheek. Granted not everyone is used to being touched (especially in the face), much less by a person whom you just met a couple of minutes earlier, but Josef’s reaction was out-of-this-world. It was as if he abhorred physical contact, hated it with much passion and conviction. But to Zac, Josef’s reaction was like a blush – an outward manifestation of an emotion forcefully bottled up deep inside as the person deeps it a bit too awkward and shameful for people to know. Zac’s reasoning made simpler, Zac thinks Josef’s surprise at his sudden touch means Josef’s got a crush on Zac. Oh dear.

“Goodie. From now on, I declare us friends!” he said with a cheeky voice, grabbing Josef’s two hands and shaking them. “Oops,” he said, shyly taking his arms away. ‘Stop it Zachie,’ he thought, laughing inside, ‘You’re giving the poor boy false hope. Tsk tsk.’

He was enjoying every moment of this conversation. Not enjoying in the good, friendly sense, but enjoying in the sense that he feels very confident that he can get Josef under his clutches easily. He usually prefers flirting, ‘subtle’ seduction and (in extreme cases) torture and torment, to break his soon-to-be-pawns and convert them into mindless drones, but ‘harmless’ chatter works too. Especially since Josef seems to be giving Zac the things he can use so freely.

“Well,” Zac replied, thinking pensively for a minute, “You can start by telling me about your family. Like, what do your parents do? Have any siblings? Where did you live before you enrolled to Hammel?”

And so Zac’s battery of questions started.

[Josef Paerson]

Luckily, the grabbing of hands didn't startle him too much, he generally expected a second touch once he'd discovered he was dealing with a tactile person, and on top of that Zac's enthusiasm had him wary enough that he was almost ready for anything - or ready for as much as he could think of, which varied from the completely, insanely unlikely, but occasionally missed out one or two obvious possibilities.

He was completely oblivious to Zac's assumptions about Josef's intentions, the fact that he hadn't had a crush on, well, anyone ever, tended to mean he forgot that people might assume it of him, and since he still had trouble with the full run of human emotional responses, he never would have thought that flinching away from a touch might be a sign that you liked a person, it didn't make a lot of sense to him.

Then came the questions. Josef didn't actually mind questions, they gave a direction, a shape for his lies to take, it made them come easier.

"My parents work for the government, that's all I can tell you. I'm an only child, and before Hammel we lived in Switzerland."
The closest thing to a lick of truth in the whole speech was that being in the forces could, possibly, be construed as working for the government, but that was about it.

[Zachary LaRousse]

Zac was surprised at the lack of enthusiasm Josef showed when he ‘accidentally’ held his hands. He was expecting a blush or something to be shown, but he seemed so nonchalant about everything. Zac knew his charms spread through everyone, boy and girl alike, so he was surprised that Josef did nothing. Was his assumption incorrect? Were his charms failing him?

‘No,’ he told himself, shaking his head for a while before realizing Josef might wonder about it, ‘My appeal is infallible. I am the Zachary LaRousse, he is so not resisting me.’ He tried to think of ways to make ensure Josef’s attraction to him, but nothing would very much fit this scenario. He simply pouted, telling himself that Josef’s just too shy to admit that he like Zac that he hid it. Yup, that sounds just right.

“Woah, amazing. Are they like, secret agents or something?” Zac’s eyes widened in amusement. He wasn’t usually this interested in his soon-to-be-drone’s family, but being so vague like that made Zac very enticed indeed. “Awesome. Which government are they working for? Or is that classified too?”

“Switzerland? So wait, why didn’t you go to Hammel’s counterpart in Switzerland then?” he asked, rubbing his chin in confusion, “I haven’t been there personally, but I hear it’s quite the school too, though not as great, since I am not there.” Zac let out a laugh, emphasizing that he tried telling a joke. Though it isn’t much of a joke really, since Zac feels his mere presence makes Hammel awesome. Quite amazing, his ego really is.