I Think I Like You... {Kaiser}

[thejokerlaughsatu]

"Um... I dunno." Nathan shrugged and stuck his hands into his pockets. This wasn't the sort of thing he normally thought about, and he'd really never had to consider it before. Why had he wanted to go out with Kaiser? There was really no concrete reason. "I don't know. I guess I just... like you. I don't know why. It's just one of those things, I guess. Y'know?" He shrugged again, uncomfortably, and shut the door behind them. "Um... maybe the park?"

[Kaiser Joseph Kittes.]

"Yeah." Kaiser said quietly as he walked beside Nathan. "The park sounds fine." He didn't want to push Nathan away with his self conscious questions. 'Just remember that he liked you enough to ask you.' The boy told himself as he slightly nodded his head. "Sorry, I was just wondering. It's just so new." He said with a nervous chuckle. "So I don't really know that much about you Nathan...other than you can draw. Tell me some stuff about you." The boy said with a small smile.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan shrugged. He wasn't comfortable talking about himself; he never really had been, and the latest developments at the school just made him more self-conscious. "I dunno... um... I like video games. And reading. And I don't like bright lights... what about you? You tell me about you. I mean, I liked you, but I couldn't figure out why... so help me explain it." That was it, find a cover, some reason to turn the conversation away from himself. Telling anything more than superficial surface things would just scare Kaiser away.

[Kaiser Joseph Kittes.]

"About me?" Kaiser asked. "Hrmm...I like video games too...but I'm kinda bad at them." The boy said with a laugh. "I'm sure you could kick my butt easily. What else? Um...I like reading too. I love being outside, especially when the sun is shining. The sun is pretty much one of my favorite things ever. It's always there for me. Always shining it's beautiful rays down on me.'" He said with a grin. "Sorry, I'm kinda lame." He said with a giggle. "Um...I also can lift a car over my head." He said waiting to see Nathan's expression. "The reason I'm here is cause I have super strength."

[thejokerlaughsatu]

"I... kinda guessed that." After their encounter in the park, Nathan would have been shocked if Kaiser had said his power was anything but super strength. There was no way that a thin little kid like Kaiser could fight someone like Nathan so easily unless his powers were backing him up. No, Nathan wasn't huge either, but he was definitely taller than Kaiser, and they looked about equally matched in terms of muscle. Neither looked very strong from the outside, but at least Kaiser could hold his own in a fight. Nathan simply had to run the other way, or fight with words. "How did you find this place?"

[Kaiser Joseph Kittes.]

"Hrmm, well my parents basically shipped me off here because they didn't want to deal with me ever again." Kaiser said shrugging. "I was a freak in their eyes, I was a queer and had these powers. No, they wouldn't have it. Then after..." Kaiser said taking a breath. "-after my brother was killed...that was the end of it. There was no questioning it...they found this place and told me to never come home again." The boy said looking up at Nathan. "It's been kind of hard...but I'm making it." Kaiser said, with a uneasy smile. "I'll be fine one day."

[thejokerlaughsatu]

"Oh..." There was nothing to say to that. Nathan wasn't the sort to tell people "I'm sorry" when he heard that kind of story, especially not when he wasn't. It was tragic, yes, and he hated to think of Kaiser losing a family member, but he hadn't known him then. There was no way he could feel sorry for Kaiser, especially when it didn't directly concern him. Nathan was emotionally distant from almost everyone around him. "Well... you don't need them, then. You're obviously doing fine on your own here."

[Kaiser Joseph Kittes.]

"I try." Kaiser said as he tried to give Nathan a smile. "What about you, how did you end up here at Powers? Hopefully nothing as bad as mine. I hate when people have to go through that kind of stuff. Good people shouldn't have to." The boy said as he moved a little closer to Nathan. "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's all up to you Nathan." He said quickly covering himself from being so intrusive. Kaiser might be an open book, but he knew others weren't at all.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan shrugged. He really wasn't one to talk about things like this, especially not with people he'd just met... but that wasn't really his criteria. Up until that moment, he'd never spoken of his personal issues with anybody, partially out of a fear that they would use it against him, as the other children had when he was younger, and partially out of a fear that they would brush it off as nothing. Whatever had happened to him, it was something, even if it only mattered to him.

Then again... Kaiser was going out with him. Surely that meant they were supposed to share secrets... and Kaiser had already told his story. "It's fine," he said finally. "You have a right to know, if we're going out... um... well, my dad kind of has... issues. And he's been in the hospital a lot. The mental hospital. And... my mom decided she doesn't want to take care of me. So she sent me to boarding school." There. It was out.

[Kaiser Joseph Kittes.]

"Oh." Kaiser said quietly. "Well...I guess we're both here on our own then." He said with a little smile. "Glad we found each other, cause now we wont be lonely." Kaiser really wanted to reach out and hold Nathan's hand, but wasn't sure if the other was comfortable with that just yet. Some people didn't really care for public displays of affection...especially gay ones. Kaiser simply gave Nathan a sweet smile, an 'everything will be ok' sort of smile.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

"I guess not..." But Nathan couldn't shake the feeling that Kaiser hadn't been expecting that. Maybe he thought his new boyfriend should be normal, somebody that he could come to for help without having to cope with Nathan's issues at the same time. But they did need each other, or at least Nathan needed Kaiser. He couldn't stay alone any longer, not if he was going to stay out of his father's footsteps. "So... um... what do we do now?" He knew they'd already been over this, but somehow his mind kept coming back to the dilemma. "People aren't exactly... open-minded. It's why we go to Power's, isn't it? So... what are we going to do?" He wasn't sure if anyone at the school was homophobic, but he sure hoped not.

[Kaiser Joseph Kittes.]

"Hrmm..." Kaiser said as he pondered the question. "What do we do?" The boy wondered as he smiled to the people walking down the hall opposite of him. "You wouldn't want to go get some ice cream or something would you?" He asked, overjoyed he thought of that. "I mean, come on. How could you say no to ice cream?" He couldn't help having a grin plastered on his face. "A boyfriend and ice cream all in the same day? How could this get any better?" He asked with a small giggle.

[thejokerlaughsatu]

Nathan considered the offer. He had a few dollars in his pocket; he always did, just in case he needed to catch a bus or call somebody, or if he got hungry. And ice cream did sound nice, even if the weather had been cooling off lately. Maybe Kaiser was right. "OK. Ice cream sounds great. The mall?" Yeah. He could do this. It would just take a little effort, that's all, a little bit of learning. Soon he would have a real friend, not just a boyfriend, but somebody he cared about. He just needed to hold still long enough and trust Kaiser enough to let the other touch him. Somehow.

Eventually.