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 Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 4:40 pm
It wasn't often that Barnaby used the car. He preferred his bike, the aptly named Scarlet Bandit, as his primary form of transportation. He even delivered pizza on it (when his boss wasn't looking) to avoid having to use the pieces of junk that Larry tried to pass off. But there were exceptions to every rule, which was why the redhead pulled into the hospital parking lot in his father's car with a pile of fur in the back seat.
Said pile of fur currently had her very large nose pressed against the window, tail thumping rhythmically on the seat behind her. Truth be told, Minnie Mouse looked more like a black bear than a dog, what with her small ears and thick legs, but Barnaby always said she had a face like an angel and a personality to match. The mailman, on the other hand, said that she looked kind of like a rampaging wolverine.
Regardless of what the nasty old mailman thought of her – Barnaby had dutifully covered her ears to prevent her from hearing such obvious slander – she had been authorized for visitations at the hospital, which was why the dynamic duo were here now. Putting the car into park, the redhead killed the engine and pocketed the keys.
"C'mon Mini Wheats, let's go."
Minnie let Barnaby take her leash and hopped out of the car the moment the door was open wide enough. She gave a characteristic shake, before trotting eagerly after her master towards the entrance to the hospital. It was standard procedure for both of them. Every weekend they'd let the front desk know they were here, receive their official "Hi I'm so and so" name tags, and be told which floors they could visit. Then they would take the stairs – Barnaby hated waiting in elevators – up to a floor of their choice and start their rounds.
Today it was floor four. Minnie's tags jangled as she sauntered after the redhead, stopping only when they came to the first room. Barnaby stuck his head in and asked, "Anybody awake in here?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:10 pm
Sue Gottschalk had the very unfortunate privilege of being on floor four. He also had the very unfortunate privilege of being in the first room. Go figure.
Sue had begun to think more and more about escape. He'd have gone out the window already, but four floors was a daunting prospect to jump from. And as for just walking out, well... he lacked clothing. Lacking clothing made it very difficult to just walk out.
So he satisfied himself by trying to stave off boredom, certain that they'd have to let him loose eventually. Sue occupied himself by reading one magazine after another, slowly accumulating a pile of impressive proportions by his bed. At this time, his reading material was Cosmo, featuring an article entitled Twelve Sexy Christmas Presents That Your Man Wants!
Needless to say, he stuffed the magazine under the covers very, very quickly upon the introduction of a stranger to his room. "Uh! Hello?" he called back uncertainly, trying to look as innocent as possible. The face wasn't familiar, but the kid looked young enough to have been at the school - someone he'd never met, maybe?
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:37 pm
Ah! Someone was awake!
With a wide grin, Barnaby made his way towards Sue's bed, his dog trailing behind him. Though he was old enough to have attended school with Sue – though if one was going to be entirely correct he was bordering on too old – he had fortunately avoided the Barren Pines fiasco by attending Meadowview High. Thus, it was not surprising that he was a stranger to Sue, even though he was wearing a name tag. It would have been of no use to the black-haired teen anyways, since after the "Hello, My Name Is ____" Barnaby had written "Batman." Clearly he fancied himself to be rather clever.
"Good morning! How are you feeling?" The redhead asked as he settled against the wall nearest Sue's bed.
Minnie sauntered up to the bed like she owned the place and rested her head on the edge, tail wagging. She reluctantly sat down when given the command, unwilling to remove her face from the edge of the bed.
"She likes you," Barnaby supplied helpfully.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:53 pm
... It's a dog? Sue thought nonchalantly.
OH ******** IT'S A DOG, something else cried out in his mind. And unwillingly, Sue found himself suddenly plastered against the headboard of his bed, covered drawn up to his neck, staring down at the creature with wild-eyed worry.
Sue had never been afraid of dogs before. He had never particularly cared about them. Apparently, the integration of Zue had changed that part of him.
"She uh. She's." BIG, howled that voice in his brain. "... verycute," Sue gritted between his teeth.
He was not a sniveling little girl. He might be a cat, but he was also a very tough, very self-assured boy that bordered on manhood. He was not afraid of dogs.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 6:12 pm
Oops. Barnaby's expression quickly turned apologetic at Sue's reaction to the dog. As fluffy and harmless as he thought she was, he often forgot that many people were terrified of big dogs. Minnie wasn't exactly doing her therapeutic duty if she was scaring teenage boys up against their headboards. He reached out and tugged insistently on her collar until the mastiff took three grudging steps backwards and sat at the redhead's feet.
"I'm sorry, I should have warned you. I can put her outside if she fr-bothers you." He corrected himself midsentence in an effort to preserve whatever small amount of pride Sue had left.
It was a little known fact that Minnie Mouse had a secret soft spot for cats. Had Sue been Zue, he would have probably been subjected to several hours of incessant grooming. As it stood, she only looked like she would very much like to lick his face. She wagged her tail hopefully at him, leaning against the hand on her collar to get as close as she could.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 6:23 pm
The grimace on Sue's face worsened. It wasn't bad enough that he'd just been scared shitless by a wayward puppy, but now he was being patronized for it. Him! Sue! Who had escaped monsters, led a group against zombies, awakened the Zodiacs - and that wasn't even to touch the triumphs from a past life!
"No." It was as much an order as disagreement, a challenge as reassurance. Sue forced his hands down, tried to stop cringing. "I'm not afr-r-.... I'M NOT AFRAID. I'm not."
Oh god damn it this just wasn't fair.
And the cream on the cake - the Cosmo magazine dropped out from under the covers and hit the ground. Cover in plain ******** sight.
Sue was busted.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 6:50 pm
The redhead resisted the urge to tell Sue that it was alright to be afraid. It would probably only make the situation worse. He was supposed to be here to help people relax not make them more stressed by letting his large dog run loose in the hospital wing. Turning his attention to the dog in question, he said, "Alright you, lay down. Not everybody likes your big nose pressed up against their face, you know."
Minnie Mouse gave him a look that clearly said "why you no love me", but she lay down anyways. Barnaby may have been immune to her look, but perhaps if she fixed Sue with her best puppy dog eyes he might relent.
Barnaby had just turned back to Sue when a magazine hit the floor, cover side up. He couldn't have stopped himself from reading the title even if he tried. It was one of those moments where ones eyes just dart for white text on a glossy photo like they dart for the flash of panties from underneath a skirt. The funny thing was, that the situations were more similar than one would initially think. Barnaby had to try very, very hard to keep a neutral expression in the face of "Twelve Sexy Christmas Presents That Your Man Wants!"
"Nice magazine. Anything good?" He handed it back to Sue, trying to sound nonchalant. "Or is this all they're giving you?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:00 pm
Somehow, Sue felt that snatching up the magazine and glaring in disgust at the poor witness to his humiliation wouldn't help his case. Still, there was something that felt right about it, so he went ahead and did it all the same.
"It's what I'm down to, all right?" he snapped, not fooled in the least by Barnaby's attempt at appearing undisturbed. "I'm looking at it for the ******** underwear ads. Got it?" Which was totally a lie - he was reading every article on every page, just trying to eat up the time until he would finally be released - but he totally didn't need to let Batman know that.
Rolling up the magazine in his hand, Sue scowled deeply. "What're you doing here, anyway? You weren't at Barren Pines." That much, at least, he was pretty sure about - Barren Pines was for gifted kids, not kids that went around with big smelly dogs and caused trouble.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:29 pm
Barnaby held up both hands in front of him. "Got it. It's cool, man. Really." If guys wanted to read Cosmo – "just for the underwear ads" - that was fine with him. So long as they didn't expect him to do it with them. That would just be asking too much of the redhead. "I can get you some other ones if you want."
At the question he raised his eyebrows. "Barren Pines? Naw, I go to Meadowview." Sometimes anyways. When he felt like attending school. Even he had his moments. "And I usually come here to try and catch teenage boys reading dirty magazines." He flashed Sue a teasing grin, before continuing, "She's a visitation dog. We come by on weekends to see people, children usually, who are stuck here. They can pet her or play catch with her, or whatever really. It's supposed to make them feel better."
Almost as though sensing she was being talked about, the dog's tail thumped against the hospital room floor.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:19 pm
Meadowview, huh? Cramming the evidence of his indiscretions under his pillow, Sue looked at the boy with a speculative eye. That was where Sue was going to be switching to, once school started up again. So, this was the kind of student that went to that school....
Eh. Sue could have expected worse.
"Well... I'm a cat person, y'know." In more meanings than one. "But my friend Yahya, he's down the hall, he works at an animal rescue place, loves damn near anything. You really oughta go see him." Sue couldn't even imagine how much Yahya would brighten up on seeing that dog. He was just like a little kid like that - capable of sheer delight on the simplest of things.
Of course, there was one caveat to worry about. "The dog, uh. Like cats, doesn't she?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:55 pm
Barnaby's look turned knowing and he nodded his head. "Gotcha. You might have better luck on Wednesday then. There's a lady that brings in this big domestic for the same reasons. He gets to sit on people's laps all day and get stroked. Relaxing and all that." What a fine job that was. If he was ever going to be reincarnated he was totally coming back as a cat.
He made note of Sue's friend's name and his love of all things furry. This Yahya fellow sounded like he would enjoy a visit from the giant furball that was Minnie Mouse. At the mention of cats, Barnaby gave a small shrug, reaching down to stroke his dog's head as he said, "She loves anything smaller than herself, as far as I know, and she's seen cats. I'd imagine she'd just want to mother them if she could get close enough." Unsurprisingly, most things ran when they saw a one hundred pound plus dog running towards them.
Relaxing a little against the wall, he added, "I'm Barnaby, by the way. This is Minnie Mouse." Another tail wag. "What's your name?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:07 pm
What, Barnaby didn't know? Wasn't it like, in a paper outside the door or something?... probably it was, and he just was trying to milk it. God-damn.
"Sue," replied the catboy, his tone just as gruff as ever. At least a guy named Barnaby might have to walk on eggshells... though even then, Barnaby was at least a boy's name. "Sue Gottschalk." Cowerer of dogs, reader of Cosmo. Sigh, maybe he should have given a fake name....
"Hey, uh. But I got a question for you. What's Meadowview like? Is it a pretty laid-back school, what sort of programs has it got... that sorta thing."
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:19 pm
…
Well. Barnaby had finally found someone who had a worse name than he did. It was one thing to have to go by your full name because the only real short form was Barney (how he hated that purple dinosaur with a passion). It was something entirely different to have a girl's first name. The redhead had a whole new kind of respect for the teen in the bed and it might have even shown up in his expression.
"Well, it's nice to meet you then, Sue."
He wrinkled his nose in thought when the other teen brought up Meadowview. "It's a good school," Barnaby said finally, "It has some interesting classes, plus the stuff you usually find at schools. Math, history, English, a couple of foreign languages, you know the drill. Mostly book stuff though. I'm not really the best person to ask, unfortunately. I don't really uh… go that often." It was stupid to be embarrassed, especially when he tried very hard to convince himself he wasn't, but if Sue was being honest with him he should return the favour.
"If you like school I think you'll enjoy it."
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:57 pm
Who said Sue liked school? He just wanted to know what he was getting into! Frankly, the fact that Barnaby mentioned he could get away with skipping class was the best thing Sue had gotten out of the conversation. There'd been a time, not long ago, that he would have wanted to work hard in school - not because he liked it, you know, but because he had ambitions. But right now... knowing what he did, having seen what he'd seen....
"I don't care too much, just. You know, was curious." Sue sounded like he meant it, too; he couldn't be made to care. His days of being "gifted" were behind him. Until he knew what threats were out there, he didn't want to be special. He only needed to get through enough to keep his mother happy. School was just something he had to do now, he felt. What his future was after this... he... didn't really know anymore. He hadn't thought about it. He didn't really want to think about it, either.
He wondered about Zue then, and Chronos. About whether he was meant to be that somehow; about how he could be that. And so many other things he couldn't talk about came to mind, and Sue couldn't think of a damned thing to say to Barnaby that wouldn't just sound wild and incomprehensible.
So he settled for a shrug. "Yeah, well. Anyway... I'm transferring there next term. Maybe I'll look for you, right?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:09 pm
"It's cool. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you more." He'd been saying the first bit a lot lately, but it hardly mattered. Barnaby just hoped that Sue hadn't faced so much rejection in his life that he didn't think the redhead was just humouring him. It really was cool with him, whatever Sue did. Well, okay, that wasn't entirely true. Everything was cool but the Cosmos magazine, which was only cool so long as Sue didn't try and make him read it. Barnaby had to draw a line somewhere.
The redhead perked up a little when the other teen mentioned that he would be joining the Meadowview student body. Maybe he'd have to stop by more often just to check up on his new bro. "Oh yeah? Nice. I'll keep an eye out for you. If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know," he said sincerely. Truthfully, he didn't think there was much he could do for a guy like so – platonic thoughts only – but he would certainly try his best.
"But, in the mean time, did you want me to grab you some new magazines? I promise I'll get ones with good underwear ads."
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