whenshewasnice | Room 223, Monday Afternoon

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Room 223, Monday Afternoon

Natalie had survived her first Fandom High Parents Weekend. It really wasn't much of an accomplishment when she hadn't had any guests of her own, but whatever. She gathered it was still some kind of a landmark, even if she'd spent the majority of it just reading and watching stuff on her own. She just liked it better that way.

And hey, she'd still managed to get what she supposed was a variation of the 'if you hurt him' speech from Sam's friends, so that was something.

But now it was Monday, and it was time to get back into gear. And for Natalie, this meant sitting on her bed with a cup of coffee, studying German from the book in front of her.

She led such an exciting life.

[ooc: Post open, door halfway open. And not the other way around like I typed first.]

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"Uh huh." Sam wasn't sure how much more of this circular conversation he could take. He hadn't been lying when he said he was tired even if that had been an excuse for his tension.

He stayed still for the moment though, using that as an excuse to watch her do...whatever she was doing. He was indulging himself, yes.

Natalie moved some stuff around, idly spending a moment reorganizing some of the stuff on her desk. Quietly.

And even when she turned around and slowly made her way over to him and the door, watching him, she didn't say anything. Silence didn't bother her. She stopped once she was in front of him but not exactly in his personal space, then tilted her head a little, like she was considering something.

Sam almost felt a little exposed under a look like hers. He almost wanted to look away because maybe that would hide the secrets he could swear she'd be able to pick out just by looking at him.

He didn't look away though. He blinked a few times and watched her face for some indication of what she was looking for.

She wasn't really looking for anything in particular, just... making up for something she hadn't really felt comfortable doing over the weekend.

When she slowly reached out to carefully touch her fingertips to his cheek, that was kind of the same thing too.

Her initiative there almost surprised him. He inhaled quietly, almost like he wanted to hold his breath when her fingers touched his skin. He didn't know what she'd feel, if he was hot or cold, or anything else.

He didn't know if she was looking for something or just...touching him because she wanted to. And he knew he could have asked but he didn't.

And since he didn't ask, she didn't feel the need to tell him. She just slid her fingertips along his cheek, back towards his ear. Then she flattened her palm against his cheek, gently.

Without a word.

It was the 'without a word' that was making him...it was strange. He knew she didn't talk a lot and he wasn't a chatterbox either but still. She was touching him like she was and she was utterly quiet about it.

Sam decided he'd stay quiet too for as long as he could. It wasn't like this didn't feel good to him. He liked when she touched him and he liked how her hand felt against his skin. He could stay quiet and wait.

Natalie kept her hand where it was and just... watched. In a few years, she'd be pretty much able to make people do her bidding with a single silent look, but this wasn't like that. This was a little softer than that, even if she wasn't giving much away.

She liked this too, though she was already wondering whether being silent would turn into some kind of a competition.

Sam wasn't trying the silence into a competition. He just wasn't sure where she was going with everything. He'd never been able to tell so he tended to wait and see.

He idly licked his lips but, besides blinking, he didn't move much else. His back was against her door and his eyes were on her and his feet weren't moving. So, his silence lengthened.

Natalie wasn't blinking: her gaze flicked briefly down to his lips, but that was it. Blinking meant you could miss things, and sometimes she liked to be thorough.

She ended up breking the silence, though, but still sort of quietly. "You didn't mention me to your friends."

It didn't sound like an accusation. Mostly idle curiosity, if anything.

"I didn't, no." Sam's voice was just as quiet as hers was even if it took him a second to realize she'd broken the silence and he wasn't imagining it.

"I really wasn't sure what to mention," he explained further. "And I didn't think they needed to know. I was being selfish. I didn't want to share just yet."

"Nice answer," Natalie replied, with a hint of a wry smile. "Much better than, say... 'I'm ashamed of you'."

Not something she would've expected him to say, for the record.

"No, I'm not ashamed," he said, lifting one corner of his mouth into a brief half smile. "They were gonna find out soon enough. They didn't need to know right away. They know a lot about me but they don't get to know everything. I get to keep some things for myself."

"So your friends said," she noted, putting her other hand lightly on his shoulder. "I don't mind it. My business is my business."

Not other people's.

"They know about you now," Sam pointed out, eyes glancing down quickly at her hand before coming back up to her face again. "I'm sure they'll ask after you when I talk to them next."

Of course, Sam didn't know what they'd ask but they'd ask. "They'll know what I want them to know about things. About you. They can live with that."

"I don't doubt that." She gave him another faint smile, then fell silent for a moment as she considered whether she wanted to ask about a thing or two she still had on her mind about the weekend.

But no. "So, when would you like to go out again? To give you something more to possibly refrain from telling them."

"Whenever your schedule lets you get away from your educational reading, writing and arithmetic," Sam quipped, actually managing to move his hand enough to tangle in the front of her shirt. He didn't tug or anything like that but it was an accomplishment just to move right now.

"We can go whenever," Sam repeated in simpler terms. "I've got an open schedule."

Natalie glanced down at his hand, then quirked a slightly more obvious smile at him. "I hear next week's Fall Break," she remarked. "We could save it for wherever that happens to take place."

"I don't even know what a Fall Break is," Sam admitted, shrugging a shoulder, "but yeah, sure, that's fine with me. I doubt next week will be just like this one. Little to nothing going on in terms of appointments for me."

"And this probably doesn't mean I won't see you this week," Natalie felt compelled to say, for some reason. "Also, as far as I can tell, Fall Break here means the school taking us on a week-long trip somewhere where we're probably expected to behave like reckless teenagers."

She was so going to fail at fulfilling that expectation.

Sam snickered and shook his head lightly because, yeah, he didn't see that happening especially where she was concerned.

"I think I can manage the teenager part of things but reckless seems to be eluding me lately," he mused with a brief, light smile. "But a trip sounds nice, I guess. Been awhile since I've been anywhere but here or Seattle."

Or a cage. Sigh.

"Could be good."

"Could be good," Natalie agreed. Also... "You can take your skateboard. That should help with your recklessness."

"Are you encouraging me to be reckless?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. "That could be hazardous to my health. I might end up with road rash before our date."

Natalie stroked his cheek a bit. "So?"

Was she really supposed to care about his road rash?

"So?" he repeated, raising both eyebrows. "Road rash is gross. You haven't seen me at my worst yet."

She hadn't seen his back.

"You really wanna go on a date with someone with pavement burn on his face? It's not pretty."

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