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 Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:51 pm
If there was one thing Nathan Darrow hated it was 'bring your kid to work day'. Or rather 'drag your kid against his will so he could sit, bored, behind a desk for eight hours while you tried to teach him a lesson in responsibility that will fall on deaf ears' day. That was a long winded, but more more accurate title, as far as Nate was concerned. He grumped, arms folded over his chest, as he leaned back in the chair at Tony's desk, his feet up on the desk.
After Tony had asked him twice already to take them down.
"Nathan, seriously, get your feet down before I..."
The angry look from the teenager stopped Tony's sentence before it could get much further than that. He cleared his throat, mumbling the rest of it, which came out as 'do absolutely nothing about it'. And it was true. Tony couldn't get Nate to do anything he didn't want to, for the most part. The only reason he was at the library at all was because Tony promised to give him some money for his trouble.
Tony had been hoping Nate might pick up an interest in working there, though he hadn't the numerous other times Tony had tried this tactic. Instead, he was just playing on Tony's computer and doing everything the librarian told him not to do.
It was going to be a long day. But at least Dogby was in a good mood, sitting next to Nate and panting up at him, waiting for pets that never came. She didn't seem willing to give up on him, though, believing the pets would be coming. Tony wondered, watching her, if his own plight was all too similar.
He was no better than a puppy.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:16 pm
Lily spotted Mister Darrow and Nate at the front desk, Mister Darrow seemly and rather half heartedly scolding Nate for something. Lily rolled her eyes and headed up to the front desk with a wide grin on her face. Really the library was the last place she decided Nate to be, but it was lucky because not she could ask him if he had been practicing.
"Hi Nate," she said smiling as she reached the desk before looking to Tony and nodding at him, "Hello Mister Darrow."
Her attentions turned back to Nathan, only briefly taking note the striking the resemblance between the two, but thinking nothing of it before she started questioning him rather immediately, "Do you work here, because the library does not seem any more your type of hang out than the community center?" She of course had more questions, but she settled for the one, the most obvious and would continue from there once it was answered.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:29 pm
Tony looked at Lily as she came up to the desk in surprise. She seemed to not only know Nate, but didn't hate him. Unless she was saying hi was she geared up to punch him in the face. That was unlikely. He smiled and nodded his head.
"Hello, Lily. How is everything?" he asked genially, moving to the counter to help her.
Nate grunted from his seat at Tony's desk, putting his feet down and nearly stepping on Dogby. She got out of the way in a hurry, the little corgi quite fast despite her short legs, and she looked right back up at him from her new seat as she waited for those pets. Nate ignored her, looking at Lily and shaking his head.
"Yeah, right," he scoffed, at the same time as Tony, who replied with a much less sarcastic 'definitely not'.
Tony looked at Nate in wonder when Lily mentioned the community center. "You know him from the community center? As in, he's gone there before?" Imagine that! He might have actually listened to something Tony had told him to do.
Nate scowled at Lily like she had betrayed him.
"I'm not here because I want to be."
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:45 pm
After Nate answered her she looked back to Tony, "Everything is just fine," she lied quite easily. It was getting easier and easier to spit of that lie, but she did decided to give a few truth with it. "I got into DCU and will be starting in the spring. My parents are estactic." The last an only partial truth as her parents were less and less enthused every time they caught her sneaking out.
Tony's question and Nate's look made her think back to the night at the community center and suddenly the striking resemblance made a little more since. Lily looked at Tony critically for a second before saying, "Anthony Darrow, Tony," in a questioning voice.
She looked to Nate for confirmation not really expecting to get it, and ignored the fact that Tony probably noticed she had not answered his question. From the look Nate gave her it didn't seem he wanted her to.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:15 pm
"Oh! That's good! Congratulations on that. I'm sure you're parents are very proud. That's quite the achievement." Tony smiled, meaning it honestly. Nate, of course, took it as a dig against him, since he had not gone to college. He hadn't even finished high school, in fact, but that was exactly the point. Tony was just going to make him feel bad about it, or at least try, and Nate wasn't going to fail.
He grunted and shook his head, rolling his eyes.
Tony ignored him without a second thought, rather used to it now.
He lifted his eyebrows when she said his name, wondering what she was pondering so much. He pointed to his name tag, which said Anthony Darrow on it. "Yes, I go by Tony much more often. It's ah, easier, I think."
Nate got up from the desk, hands in his pockets.
"Yeah, yeah. He's a Darrow, I'm a Darrow. You must be a detective." He said to Lily, looking frustrated. Tony caught on that this was about them being related. He had to admit, he tried not to be too specific about his son, if he could avoid it or wasn't ranting. It seemed Nathan, too, didn't like to talk about him that much.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:41 pm
"Thank you, very much," she said but said nothing more on it as she did not want to really talk about her life for fear that eventually the truth would come spilling out and she would find herself in a world of trouble.
Lily nodded and quirked an eyebrow, while the pair looked a lot a like, they did not act even a little bit a like and it was odd to think of them as father and son. She eyed Nate at his comment and frowned, "no need to get snippy, it just clicked when I thought on our last conversation."
She looked to Tony with a smile, "You must be proud of him," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "he has a great ear for music. I bet he could be amazing, assuming he has been practicing."
She turned to Nate again, trying to looking imposing, threatening and probably failing horribly. "You have been practicing haven't you or at least playing every now and then, right?. You never did call to meet up and play again," she said thinking it might not be wise to say she was giving him lessons.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:03 pm
Tony, not noticing her hesitance to talk about it, just smiled and let the subject drop because it seemed to be over. He was usually good enough about reading people to see when something was up, but he imagined Lily was a good girl and going to college was as good as it sounded, and there was nothing more to that story. He wouldn't pry, anyway, if she didn't want to talk about it.
He smiled.
He did arch an eyebrow when she said he must be proud of Nate. Tony knew the boy had some talent with music, but Nate never really let him hear it whenever he was playing and he certainly didn't 'practice' when Tony was around from work.
"Uh," was all Tony could say on that.
"I haven't been practicing," Nate said stubbornly, though he looked amused. He didn't look at Tony, not wanting to know what the man felt about things. He could keep his thoughts to himself, as far as Nate was concerned. He knew Tony was wondering about all this talk of community centers and practicing.
It sounded like Nate was actually applying himself to something, which was the opposite of what Nate wanted.
"Yeah, well, maybe I thought I was just so good I didn't need to be tutored anymore." He gave her a cocky grin.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:27 pm
Lily arched an eyebrow at the uh, but decided not to question it, no instead she turned her attention to Nate.
"You know you shouldn't be so cocky. And I bet you just got bored with the Christmas song we played last time," she said, "and I would hardly call those two chance sessions tutoring, more like helping."
She gave a sly grin at Nate, which probably looked out of place of her face. Lily was an expressive girl, one could usually tell what she was thinking. "If your so good that you do not need to be tutored, than you should give me a concert. Tony too."
Lily was just teasing, she really did not mean it, but Nate deserved it, he was being a p***k.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:37 pm
Nate shrugged his shoulders. He actually considered Lily his friend at this point, whether he said it or not, so he didn't want to piss her off too much by undermining her teaching abilities. Just a little.
Anyway, he was just embarrassed that Tony was there, watching and listening. Thinking he was learning more about his son. The very idea made Nate roll his eyes.
As if.
"I would like to hear you play, Nathan," Tony said with a smirk, catching Lily's teasing and running with it. Nate looked huffy, folding his arms over his chest and shaking his head.
"Fat ******** chance!"
"Nathan, your language."
"Is excellent. Anyway, I'm not playing for either of you, or anyone else. I'm not your pet monkey, I don't just get trained and then exploited. You want to see me play? Then I'll let you buy tickets." He grinned at Lily, mostly ignoring Tony. The librarian shook his head, thinking his son a lost cause. And also knowing that Nate wasn't joking. At least not as far as he was concerned.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:04 pm
Lily blinked a bit taken aback by the small outburst, but nearly started laughing at Tony's easy scolding. Quick and not so efficient.
Lily pouted a Nathan, making an adorable frownie face, "aw, that so not fair. When I become a famous singer i was going to send you free tickets and all. Now you'll have to pay."
Lily turned to Tony and gave a small smile feeling light for the moment. This was nice, she missed this sort of thing. Since she quit the Basterds, she'd essential lost most of her friends, so moment like these were few and far between as of late.
"And if that is how you want to play it, then I will take two tickets, but I want a refund if it isn't the best concert I have ever heard. Not that I have ever been to one, outside of the school ones." She laughed lightly, still kidding, but enjoying herself very much so.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 6:26 pm
Tony wasn't the best at scolding, mostly because Nathan was seventeen and not really interested in listening to his dad after going so long without having one. At this point, he was well passed the age when a parent yelling at him actually bore weight or the threat of consequence.
What exactly could Tony do?
"Who said I would go see you sing, anyway? Besides, if you're going to be a famous singer, you'll want the best in your band. So I'll probably be their anyway, right?" He grinned again and Tony rolled his eyes.
"As one of those ridiculous groupies, maybe."
Nate glared at him, surprised. Tony usually didn't openly mock him. Did he do this behind his back? Not that Nate could honestly be offended, considering the things he often said about his father. Still. How rude.
"Two tickets, huh? Alright, I'll put you down for them. Of course, I reserve the right to cancel at any time, and I don't agree to the refund stipulation. Sorry, I don't do the refund thing. Buy at your own risk."
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:45 pm
Lily gave a mock frown momentarily before grinning once more, "Yeah sure, I'll have the best band, full of people who actually practice. You know its rather hard to learn the song if you don't. And beside who says I need a pianist anyway. I can play the piano myself no lessons required."
It was obvious, she was joking, if it really ever came down to that Nate would be right behind Xavier on the list of people she ask to join the band. Chances were however, it wouldn't happen anytime soon.
She placed a hand on Nate's shoulder and gave a grin at Tony, "although you dad is right. I could always use a good groupie." She could keep the giggles in at the comment. She did not know Nate extremely well, but she couldn't ever imagine him a groupie.
"As for those two tickets, no refunds, huh? Well then it better be the best concert around or else, but for now we have a deal." She was still laughing and trying to keep quiet as the words tumbled from her mouth.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:44 pm
Nate waved his hand dismissively, though she had a good point there. Got him with that one, in fact. But he tried not to show it, or give her any credit for it. He just grunted and grinned cockily, shrugging in his nonchalant way.
Tony watched, baffled.
So Lily had been helping Nate learn how to play? As far as Tony knew, Nate had always been able to play and was just doing so for his own amusement, not because he was practicing or trying to improve himself. When did Nate ever do something like that? Never, if Tony was honest. But then, clearly he was wrong.
He was glad to be appreciated for his mockery, though. He wasn't the best with jokes, all told, and usually Nate shot him down when he tried to tease.
"I wouldn't be a groupie for anyone. Unless they were known for handing out favors for the loyal." Nate grinned. Tony rolled his eyes.
"Did you need some help with anything, Miss Lily?" He asked, not wanting his Librarian duties to slip by while they were all chatting. It was his job, after all, to help.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:49 pm
Lily gave Nate a look of duh, I would totally give out free stuff, but didn't say anything else on it. This wasn't serious, she didn't even plan on having groupies when she became famous. She was about to ask Nate if he wanted to learn a new song, when Tony's question derailed her thought path.
Truthfully it derailed all her thought and she gave him a blank stare, while her brain tried to remember what she had actually come into the library for. "Ugh," she moaned the reason not coming to her. She pointed a finger at Nate and gave a pout, "You made me forget why I came in here."
She turned to Tony again and gave a weak smile, "I guess no, since I do not currently remember why I came in here. I do not think it was terribly important however."
She look to Nate and gave him a look that said you owe me for making me forget, "You are so learning a new song. You are going to come over, I can show you the music room and I can teach you this rock song my sister showed me. It sounds pretty neat even on the piano." Lily was sweet, adorable, polite and all good things, save when it came to music, then the little angel became a little devil, pushy, arrogant, rude and a bit obnoxious, but she meant well most of the time.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:37 am
Tony and Nate both laughed when she said she forgot why she came in, though the former was out of friendly understanding and amusement while the latter sounded more derisive and with a definite scoff. He also stopped laughing before his father, hearing the other and not wanting to take part in anything he was having fun with.
Spiteful teenager habit.
"That's alright, don't worry about it," Tony said, not noticing Nate. He smiled brightly, shaking his head. "A visit is always nice, as well! I'm sure you'll remember before you leave. And if not, you'll just have to brave coming back again."
Nate rolled his eyes.
"Why should I learn a new song? You're the one that forgot what you were doing, not me. You sure you'll be able to remember the music? Might be a touch of Alzheimer's coming on."
Tony watched quietly, surprised. From the way it looked to him, it seemed Nate would, in fact, give in and learn this new song. He would have to take notes on how she managed to get him to do anything.
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