Shibrogane
Nick got back from the grocery store and made sure the freezer items got put in, you know, the freezer, and then he went upstairs to see if anyone else was around. The third floor was empty (unfortunate) with dust on the handle to Kaatje’s apartment (even more unfortunate) but he found Finn’s door was unlocked, and Finn himself was sitting on the couch under a blanket. A wolf pelt was tossed over a nearby chair.
“We’re back,” he said, as if that wasn’t immediately obvious by the fact that a) he was in Finn’s doorway, and b) not in New Hampshire. He’d lost his last-summer’s tan, acquired new calluses on his fingers, and a stronger understanding of complex repeated laproscopic procedures. So all in all, a good trip. Nick was sorry to have to leave. For one thing, he and Tallulah had come back in the middle of a heat wave. That sucked. “The fellowship ran a bit long. Arkady said something about you being in the hospital. Are you alright?”
He was willing to bet Finn was at least a little annoyed about it. Arkady was only ever home for less than a month at a time. He’d be annoyed as hell if he’d been ill during the few short weeks he was allowed to see his wife. “I noticed someone is moving into the apartment across the hall. Anyone I know?”
“We’re back,” he said, as if that wasn’t immediately obvious by the fact that a) he was in Finn’s doorway, and b) not in New Hampshire. He’d lost his last-summer’s tan, acquired new calluses on his fingers, and a stronger understanding of complex repeated laproscopic procedures. So all in all, a good trip. Nick was sorry to have to leave. For one thing, he and Tallulah had come back in the middle of a heat wave. That sucked. “The fellowship ran a bit long. Arkady said something about you being in the hospital. Are you alright?”
He was willing to bet Finn was at least a little annoyed about it. Arkady was only ever home for less than a month at a time. He’d be annoyed as hell if he’d been ill during the few short weeks he was allowed to see his wife. “I noticed someone is moving into the apartment across the hall. Anyone I know?”
“Oh, hey,” said Finn, offering Nick a grin. “Good to see you, man.” He’d received that text, of course - it had just so happened to come in the middle of Arkady insisting that there were certain things he was still perfectly capable of doing, even in his injured state. The entire situation was just a little bit too embarrassing to explain to Nick, especially now that he’d already repeated the story so many times.
“I’ll be fine in another few days,” he sighed. “Training accident. Pulled something. It sucked, they gave me the good drugs, please don’t make me go into it.”
Not that he expected that to get the topic dropped but whatever, it was worth a try.
“As for the apartment across the hall,” he said, “That’s a Saturn Knight. Camlann. Not sure you’ve met him? He’d been crashing in someone’s spare room, but they needed their office back, so I said there’s always space at the inn. I mean, it’s what Kaatje bought the building for.”
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Nick took the request to drop the topic with good grace, and held up his hands in an as you wish sort of gesture. “I guess there is always space at the inn.” He smiled at Finn. “Let me know if I can help him out in any way--wait, is this the one that needed the, er…” Camlann wasn’t a name that rang a bell, in fact, beyond the awkward hormone question. He grimaced at the bell thought, because--god damn, could he ever escape the puns? Even in Dartmouth there had seemed to be an endless amount of bell jokes directed at him. “How’s Arkady?”
Part of him did want to press Finn for details. He was, basically speaking, Finn’s GP--if there were drugs he or the other residents needed, wasn’t it Nick who wrote the scrip? Which, by the way, put his license to practice on the line--and if it had required surgery, he did need to know. That discussion could happen later, though. Much later. “I imagine Tallulah is going to want you to update her on the whole situation with the city, but we can just… leave it. Unless there’s news about new purifications?” He felt kind of… fatherly? towards other purified senshi, at least. Knights as well, to a certain extent. He wanted to help them and keep them safe. It was hard to do that if he didn’t know who to direct invitations to.
“Kaatje is signing to extend her contract, by the way,” he said. “She’s getting moved to a new type of plane. She’s very excited, but it does leave the pair of us up a creek.”
Part of him did want to press Finn for details. He was, basically speaking, Finn’s GP--if there were drugs he or the other residents needed, wasn’t it Nick who wrote the scrip? Which, by the way, put his license to practice on the line--and if it had required surgery, he did need to know. That discussion could happen later, though. Much later. “I imagine Tallulah is going to want you to update her on the whole situation with the city, but we can just… leave it. Unless there’s news about new purifications?” He felt kind of… fatherly? towards other purified senshi, at least. Knights as well, to a certain extent. He wanted to help them and keep them safe. It was hard to do that if he didn’t know who to direct invitations to.
“Kaatje is signing to extend her contract, by the way,” he said. “She’s getting moved to a new type of plane. She’s very excited, but it does leave the pair of us up a creek.”
“Yes,” said Finn, completing the thought. He had, in fact, mentioned Camlann to Nick before, although he only remembered it now that Nick asked. “He’s the one who needed the stuff.” This, he followed with a significant look, just to be sure that they were on the same page, and that was all he really feld comfortable saying on the matter. Aleksy’s private medical needs were none of his business - if not for Finn being a go-between for him and Nick, he doubt he would have known about the matter at all.
Arkady, on the other hand, he was perfectly qualified to talk about. “She’s good. We’re good,” he said, pointing to the wolf pelt. “Would you believe that she made that for me?” He was going to leave out the part where they were now magic-married, because he thought Nick would either disapprove or at least be hurt that he hadn’t been invited, and then Finn would have to explain that there hadn’t even been a ceremony.
“She’s at her wonder a lot,” he sighed, “Because she doesn’t really have a lot going on here and she’s doing really important work there. I wish I got to see her more often, but it’s nice when she’s home. She’s out at the bookstore right now, but maybe the four of us can do dinner later?” Tallulah apparently hadn’t followed her husband up the stairs, he observed, and figured she was probably over in their apartment airing things out. Finn had done his job and checked all the taps before they got back.
Finn had also gotten that text from Kaatje, although he got the distinct impression that Nick and Tallulah had more contact with her than he did. “Why does that leave us up a creek?” he asked. “She’s still letting us live here for free, and I don’t mind running upkeep. I mean - unless - do you mean you and Tallulah? Why would that-” Oh. “Are you guys? Like, the three of you?”
Finn Derouen: too vanilla to live.
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“I would,” said Nick, and he got up to go examine the wolf pelt. The underside was buttery smooth and pale as bone. What on Earth was Finn going to do with it? It was a lovely gift, exactly the sort of thing he’d expect Arkady to give--elegant, but useless, unforgettable but unusable--but also pointless, he thought. Finn hadn’t asked his opinion, so he didn’t give it. Instead, he sat back down. “And we’d love to have dinner.” It went without saying that he and Tallulah would cook. Finn was laid up in bed and unless things had changed, Arkady thought a single pop-tart was a full meal.
He leaned forward, brushing hair out of his face. “Yes,” he said, unembarrassed. There was nothing to be embarrassed about; after all, Tallulah and Nick had had more than just Kaatje in their bed. He didn’t have to share details, though. “It’s called polyamory and it is the hot new thing this century.” Nick grinned to take the sting out of the teasing. “Don’t worry. We like you a lot, but we’re not going to try to seduce you and your girlfriend into our bed.”
Both of them were pretty sure Arkady would try to eat them whole if they so much as made a pass at Finn, so, that was also a point against that. Which reminded him--the statement of the upkeep running--that there was a bit of amends to be made. “Is there anything you need us to do? I am sorry for running off.”
He leaned forward, brushing hair out of his face. “Yes,” he said, unembarrassed. There was nothing to be embarrassed about; after all, Tallulah and Nick had had more than just Kaatje in their bed. He didn’t have to share details, though. “It’s called polyamory and it is the hot new thing this century.” Nick grinned to take the sting out of the teasing. “Don’t worry. We like you a lot, but we’re not going to try to seduce you and your girlfriend into our bed.”
Both of them were pretty sure Arkady would try to eat them whole if they so much as made a pass at Finn, so, that was also a point against that. Which reminded him--the statement of the upkeep running--that there was a bit of amends to be made. “Is there anything you need us to do? I am sorry for running off.”
“Good,” said Finn, squirming a bit uncomfortably under his blanket. Yes, he thought. He was definitely too vanilla to live, since what Nick had described just didn’t appeal to him at all. But hey, other people were free to do what they wanted, and who was he to judge? It just… it wasn’t personally appealing, and he didn’t need the mental image of trying to figure out the logistics of three of his best friends doing the horizontal tango with each other.
“It’s no problem,” he said, forcing himself back to the topic at hand. Nick’s apology was sort of confusing - it wasn’t as though Finn hadn’t done the exact same thing, he’d just gotten back sooner. “You had an opportunity and you pursued it. I did the same. The world didn’t end. I figure Tallulah’s eager to get back to everything - how about you?”
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He shook his head. “I’m not back to be Oenone,” he said. “This is where Tallulah wants to be, though. And I’d like to keep an eye on Raleigh and my mother. So.” He shrugged. “That’s why I’m here.” It wasn’t like he had another option, anyway. His position at Dartmouth hadn’t been so much work-study as study your a** off. “Although I don’t expect the forces of Chaos to respect that.”
Finn forced himself to laugh, and it came out sounding a bit awkward. “Yeah, well, that’s Chaos,” he said, and shrugged. Nick could say that he wasn’t here to be Oenone all he liked - it wasn’t going to last, and they both knew it. If nothing else, his mile-long protective streak where Tallulah was concerned would kick in and he’d go out as her escort. (Finn had no idea where how her recovery was progressing, just that she’d had a kind of scary relapse last summer.)
“How is Tallulah?” he forced himself to ask. “She’s doing alright? No more weird space disease stuff?”
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“Much better,” said Nick. “Thankfully. I’m still not sure what it was, but she seems to be recovering well. And I think she liked studying at Dartmouth for a while. It was her dream school, before… this.” The upshot to having a doctor for a husband, he was sure, was the vastly reduced hospital stays. He got up and brushed imaginary dust off the front of his slacks. “If I don’t get back down there, she’s going to smother me, and not in the affectionate way.”
He smiled. “It’s good to see you, Finn.”
He smiled. “It’s good to see you, Finn.”
Finn was well versed in what that ellipses, followed by this, meant. It was how you tended to talk when you’d been a superhero for way too long and tended to be kind of jaded about things. He couldn’t help it - he’d caught himself doing the same thing, even as much as he tried to pursue his own interests and take care of himself. “Ooh, yeah, you’d better head down. And if it seems like Arkady’s kind of gotten overbearing, don’t be afraid to send her back up.”
He could only imagine what Arkady had found to talk about with Tallulah. Weddings and babies, probably.
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Nick gave a sort of casual half-salute, touching the tips of two fingers to his temple and gesturing. “I doubt she’s gotten overbearing in the ten minutes I’ve been up here, but will do. Can’t leave you up here alone, can I?” With another smile, he took his leave. Finn would be fine for the next five minutes.
