Natalie's Office, The Hegemony Compound, Brazil, Sunday Afternoon

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie had portaled out to Toronto to spend a week doing orientation at the university. Dorms (ugh), professors (okay), classes (fascinating), roommate (the less said, the better, probably). The works. And now the week was over, and she was back.

Of course, she thought it had been a week. Because it had. In Toronto. Not so much over here. She had wondered about the lack of urgent emails coming in while she'd been gone, but she'd figured that had been some kind of a makeup move on Peter's part for the day he'd tried to take her work away from her. She hadn't thought about it much beyond that.

But now she was back, and she was at her desk in her office after dropping her things off at her apartment, and she was flipping through things, and ––

"Wait a minute."

It was very much starting to look like she'd only been gone for a couple of hours at most. What now, multiverse?

[ooc: NFB, but open for all the usual stuff.]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie snorted. "I really wasn't intending to push you on anyone tonight. I would get jealous."

[lockestheway]

Peter let out a snicker, though that statement pleased him privately in a way he wasn't quite sure he understood. "You better work hard to keep my attention, then," he said, "I mean, this metaphorical couple could be really interesting."

[whenshewasnice]

"Please, I'm more interesting." And her week in Toronto had perhaps made her momentarily more comfortable with that. Or at least in a more obvious way. "I know you."

[lockestheway]

"You're going to have to argue that case," Peter told her, as they stepped outside onto the street.

Followed by their bodyguards, of course.

[whenshewasnice]

That was one thing she definitely hadn't missed over the last week. Walking around sans security was pretty great.

She shrugged a shoulder. "A normal couple isn't going to hold your interest like your closest ally. I know what you're actually interested in and can steer your attention by using that to my advantage."

[lockestheway]

"That's definitely a hypothesis," Peter mused. "Tell me, what am I interested in?"

He was enjoying this, weirdly enough.

[whenshewasnice]

"Politics, obviously," Natalie replied. "Specifically, using them to bend the world to your idea of better." She ticked that one off with her fingers. "Being seen as someone worth listening to." Though he was pretty established by now, and getting older helped. "Getting the most out of the people you ally yourself with."

She had more private things too, though.

[lockestheway]

"I'm not sure whether I want to strongly agree with that last one," Peter mused, "or say it sounds like I'm sending out technicians to overclock computers."

[whenshewasnice]

"Maybe the phrasing's a little off," she replied with a vague shrug. "But I don't feel like a technician. Or a computer."

[lockestheway]

"What, you don't feel even a little bit overclocked?" Peter said. "I must not be doing my job right."

[whenshewasnice]

"Or I'm just more resilient than most," Natalie quipped. "Have you considered that?"

[lockestheway]

"Considered it, yes," Peter teased.

[whenshewasnice]

"Ha ha," Natalie replied dryly, even though one of the corners of her mouth ticked upwards. "Well, I am."

[lockestheway]

They crossed the street and took a quick turn - the restaurant really wasn't far. "So, outside of all of your clearly envious classmates," he said, "How are your classes?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Interesting," she said, glancing up and ahead. "The political sciences stuff feels a little more entry level than necessary for me personally, but I'm breezing through most of the first year classes this summer anyway. And the lit side just sounds fascinating."

[lockestheway]

"Is there anything I haven't read already?" Peter asked.

He wasn't bragging. He'd been blowing through political works and biographies while everyone else was reading Hemingway at school.

[whenshewasnice]

"This is lit as in my minor in comparative literature," Natalie corrected him in mildly amused way. "I'd say most of it is things you haven't read and never will." She paused for a beat. "But from what I remember from the poli-sci reading lists, no, not a lot you're likely to have missed."

[lockestheway]

"I'd forgotten you were even taking that," Peter said, pulling a face. One of the security guys pushed open the door to the restaurant for them, and Peter walked on in.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie rolled her eyes as she followed.

"It was supposed to be my major once, you know."

And then he'd happened.

[lockestheway]

And Peter considered himself a fantastic influence on that score, at least.

"I know," he said. "Sorry. You know I never saw the point of it, but I probably didn't need to share that."

He'd have happily shared it with anyone else, mind you.

[whenshewasnice]

"It's not like it's a surprise," Natalie replied, looking around the restaurant with mild curiosity. "The list of things you're not interested in has a bulk entry for most things I am interested in."

[lockestheway]

"I wouldn't say 'most'," Peter said. "Maybe 'some'."

It was a nice restaurant. Their presence here had attracted fancier, more expensive establishments; though this was hardly on the highest end of the scale, it was a lot nicer than what this area had seen previously.

Peter walked to a table and sat down.

[whenshewasnice]

"You're not going to pull a chair out for me?"

She was perfectly capable of pulling her own chair out. She was actually demonstrating said ability right at this moment.

"I'd still say it's more 'most' than 'some'. At least with things I care a lot about."

[lockestheway]

"Why should I pull out a chair for you when you're perfectly capable of doing it yourself?" Peter said easily. Not that he could read her narrative, but he agreed with it. "I'm not about to patronize you."

Two of the security guys sat down near them.

"As for the other thing, I didn't realize it was that bad."

[whenshewasnice]

"No one said it was bad." She was used to not sharing many of her interests with people, anyway. Not because they were uncommon – they weren't – but because let that many people get close to her in the first place. "But I don't think you've ever even heard me play a single song."