What Fight? [Connie]

[Alexander McKenzie]

After the dance, Alex had snuck back into the apartment after walking Ann back to her dorm. He’d apologized for the whole Zac incident (regardless of the fact it was far from his fault), and when he’d left, he’d kissed the back of her gloved hand. It was a poor excuse for an end of date kiss, but it was appropriate, and it worked.

He’d only snuck in because he’d wanted to avoid Connie. Fighting with Zac had soured the mood of the evening, as had the meeting with security. He would have much preferred forgetting the incident. Forgive and forget, right? Only Zac had fought dirty, and really, he’d deserved the punishment the security office had given him.

Thankfully, Connie had left him alone, after a rushed excuse that he was tired, and they could talk tomorrow. He’d never actually thought that through until he woke up with a headache, and a sore eye. Dammit. He was never going to hear the end of this.

At least today was Saturday. No classes. Lexy glanced at the clock. 7 a.m. Screw it. He wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. He sat up and raked his fingers through his dark hair. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he might as well get up. And he couldn’t think of anything better to do than wander out in his pyjama pants and turn on the television, flicking it to Saturday morning cartoons, keeping the volume down low enough to respect his sleeping flatmate.

Hey, no one said he had to be mature this early in the morning. He was just nice about it.

He just hoped Connie could ignore the black eye.

[Conrad Manne]

Conrad had still been awake when his roommate had returned from the dance. He'd spent the night on his laptop, chatting with one of his college friends while they watched old episodes of Heroes on Netflix. She wasn't a meta, so she got a kick out of hearing his explanations of how powers really worked, and how if they'd had a meta consultant, it obviously wasn't a very good one, considering the sheer number of things they got wrong. (And they way they glamorized meta-humanism. They made it exotic; only beautiful people in that universe had powers.)

He'd been too busy laughing at something she'd said to do much more than wave Lexy off. His roommate had seemed eager to go to bed anyhow. Teasing for his date with Ann could wait until the morning.

Conrad woke Sunday morning when his alarm went off. He didn't shut it off on the weekends, since he needed it for his meds. As soon as he was up, he took the pills that were waiting for him, washing them down with the water he'd set out the night before as well. Then he hit the button, then turned over, and tried to go back to sleep, but it just wouldn't happen. Not with the faint sound of the TV from the other room, and his honest curiosity over what had happened at the dance. (Sure, high school dances sucked, now that he was out of school. But in theory, it could have been a cool night for Alex.)

Apparently not, if the nice shiner had anything to do with it. (Yes, Conrad could ignore the black eye. But he was a big brother, and that meant he wouldn't.)

"That's a nice one, Lexy. You piss Ann off? What'd you do?" He wandered into the tiny kitchen of their apartment and pulled out a box of Cocoa Krispies. Without bothering to add milk to either bowl, he poured two of them and brought them out to the couch where his flatmate was moping. "Here. Tell me what happened."

[Alexander McKenzie]

All things considering, it had been a cool night for Alex. In that he'd had a date with a (beautiful) girl, and not made a complete fool of himself in front of her. That is, until Zac had pulled him aside. He'd never known the (younger?) boy had had an interest in Ann. Had he realized, he would have dropped his casual pursuit. But it had become apparent that Ann had zero interest in the other boy. Unfortunately for Alex, it had come too late. Zac had tricked him, and then bam, he'd been punched.

And the Whole. School. Knew. Well, everyone that had been there, and anyone that paid the Rumor blog one iota of attention. He had a good reason to be sulking this early in the morning. The cartoons he'd put on were meaningless, but they provided a vague distraction. Of course, they were also fuzzy. With his glasses snapped until he went and replaced them, and lacking the energy to put in his contacts, he was sort of SOL there.

He did lift his head when Conrad appeared, only to avert his gaze at his commentary. "I didn't do anything. It wasn't Ann." If he could, he'd have left it at that. God only knew what was running through Connie's head now. Whatever it was, it was probably wrong.

And then his 'brother' returned with cereal. Sugared cereal. Alex picked at it momentarily before leaning against him. "Got punched," he muttered. "Zac LaRousse. Apparently he's jealous, or something. Didn't see it coming." If that had been the case, he would have shielded himself, and Zac would be the bruised one.

[Conrad Manne]

"You did something. ...You do know you you have a shiner, right?" He gestured towards his own eye, "It's like half the size of your face, dude. You didn't think I was going to not say something about it, did you?" He shook his head when he headed into the kitchen.

This was atypical for Alex. He was a good guy, a nice guy, and not someone to get in anyone's face. And who the hell would hit someone like that?

"Jealous of you and Ann?" He ate a handful of cereal and shook his head. "I think I know that kid. Animal adaptation or something like that? He's a bit of a jerkass." Since he became staff, he technically wasn't supposed to be talking about students. But he'd never studied Zac, and he wasn't discussing anything that had happened in the lab. Plus, Conrad did remember him from before, back when he had been at Hammel as a student himself. "Did you punch him back or go bubble boy?" He'd never been in a real fight himself, nothing other than roughhousing with friends or siblings. "So was it in front of everybody? Is that what we're gonna be hearing about all Monday?"

[Alexander McKenzie]

“Yeah, I existed. And of course I know.” Alex frowned at the description. He hadn’t looked at it since last night, when it had just been sore, and a little red. He didn’t want to look now. Especially if it was that big. “Don’t tell me that, Connie. I was hoping it was small enough to ignore.”

Yeah, apparently that was out the window.

“Yeah. Something like that. I didn’t even know he liked her.” He picked through his cereal before actually eating some. “I noticed. I think he used his power, because no way can a normal person hit like that.” No, he wasn’t just saying that because he couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag. He took another bite, but coughed in surprise at Conrad’s question. “Of course I didn’t punch him back! ... Not that I didn’t want to.” He just wasn’t violent. Ann, on the other hand... “I didn’t see it coming, so I didn’t have a chance to go bubble boy. I guess Ann took offense, though. She got him good.” He was the only one out of the three of them that hadn’t been punished. “It wasn’t in front of everyone. But... one of the technopaths must have pulled something, because everyone heard. And I think the rumor blog posted something too.” Not that he read it or anything. Vaguely, he turned his attention back to the fuzzy cartoons. “I can’t wait until I graduate. Please tell me college is better.”

[Conrad Manne]

"You look like something out of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and not in Christmastown, either." What else was he going to say? He was always honest with his best friend. "Someone really punched you just for existing?" Fucking hell. Hammel hadn't been like that two years ago. Now it almost sounded like something from a crappy teen drama on television.

(Conrad had never liked those. His life had enough drama in it already without adding any more intentionally. That's why he and Alex had sprung for the cheapest cable package that still included Nickelodeon (for Alex) and Discovery Channel (for Conrad.))

"Want me to kidnap him and do invasive and embarrassing experiments on him?" Of course, the researcher was kidding, but the kid really did sound like an ass. If Alex didn't know they liked the same girl, and they weren't friends, then where did Zac get off telling him he couldn't date Ann? That was just bullshit. "Ann hit him back though? Good for her. He didn't know she had that in her, not when she'd always come across as a little meek and quiet. "Seriously, ignore that blog. People are going to forget about it as soon as it isn't a novelty anymore, and no one is going to remember anything about this except that Zac is an asshole."

With a gentle nudge to his friend's shoulder, Conrad offered a grin. It really wasn't that bad. "Trust me, college is better. You get to be with people because you pick them, not because you're forced to be there."

[Alexander McKenzie]

Alex grimaced, knowing Connie didn’t lie. Not about stuff like that. He gently elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up. It can’t be that bad.” He still hadn’t looked in the mirror, and by Conrad’s description, as well as the ache he could feel, he really didn’t want to. “Yeah, sort of.” Though he knew a little of Zac’s motivations, well... it really did feel like he’d be hit for existing. It wasn’t his fault they liked the same person.

Yes, Hammel really was turning into a teenage drama. Especially after the dance, and what the technopaths had pulled. It made him want to curl up in a ball and not go to class on Monday.

Even though he knew the offer was a joke, Alex still cracked a grin. “Yeah. Sounds perfect for him. Make sure you take pictures.” He leaned against his best friend, content with that idea for a few moments. At least until Conrad mentioned Ann again. “... Yeah. I know, it sounds pathetic. I didn’t hit him back, so Ann did.” He knew she was meek, but he also knew she had her strong side. “I can’t help it. Everyone’s talking about it right now.” And he was sure Rumor would not put a good spin on things.

“I hope so. I can’t handle high school again.” He picked up the remote and offered it to Conrad. “Here. I can’t see the cartoons anyway.” He rubbed at his eyes. “Need to go get new glasses. LaRousse broke them.” And he wasn’t thrilled about that.

[Conrad Manne]

Sometimes it really was appealing to imagine torturing the more obnoxious of the students. But it was never a consideration, and he was a scientist. Well, he was trying to become a scientist. He was a researcher, at least, and Dmitri seemed to like his work so far. He didn't have enough data on anything to craw conclusions yet, but he was getting there. Maybe in another two years he could present something formal.

"Well, that's good, then, right?" Conrad smiled and nudged his friend with his elbow. Yeah, it sucked, but there were some good points from last night too; there had to be. "If Ann was mad enough to hit him, it means she likes you too!"

"He's a jackass. And an asshole. A jackasshole. But he's rich. Get him to pay for new glasses." Conrad got up again and put his bowl of dry cereal down on the endtable they had scavenged from the sidewalk on trash day. (They had furnished the apartment mostly on their own, with second-hand furniture from wherever they could get it.) Somewhere, in the back of their freezer, they had one of those chemical ice packs. It took him a bit of rummaging, but he managed to locate it and pull it out. Then he wrapped it in a dishtowel and brought it back out. "Here, hold this to it. Did you ice it last night?"

(Conrad's guess was a resounding "no.")

[Alexander McKenzie]

It was a good thing Conrad had self control when it came to ideas like that. Granted, so did Alex. It was still fun to imagine working in the research department, with bratty students at your disposal, though. If anyone deserved experiments, it was Zac.

He hadn’t actually thought about it like that. Turning to give Connie his best ‘deer in the headlights’ expression, he cocked his head to the side. “You think so? I think Ann hated him before he hit me...” Yes, he was going to try and find a way to argue around it, because there was no way that it really mean that she liked him as much as he liked her.

... Right?

“... Bro, you kiss your mom with that mouth?” Alex grinned and elbowed his best friend gently. Connie had cheered him up quite a bit. “I doubt he would. It’s fine. I have money saved up.” Granted, it was money he’d been putting towards his phoenix tattoo, but this was more important. He could always ask Kali for more hours, if he could work them around his classes. He twisted on the couch to watch Conrad retreat back to the kitchen, and when he came back, he had to smile. Connie was the big brother his parents had never given him. “Nope. I came home and crashed. I didn’t think it would get this bad. But thank you.” He took the ice pack and pressed it to his eye, wincing. Zac really did hit hard.