Nathan, Benjamin, and Kurt (backdated to March 31st)

[om_shatterstar]

Out to have some Easter fun, Nathan eggs Ben and does some fast talking to get out of the consequences. Kurt is not pleased.

Backdated to March 31st.


The fact that it was Easter would've escaped Benjamin's notice entirely if it hadn't been for the basket of treats left just outside the door and even after having the basics explained to him by Kurt (over a plastic egg filled with jellybeans that the two of them had split), he didn't get it. But a holiday that celebrated rebirth and renewal was, hypothetically, something he could respect and he had no problem with rabbits either, so he supposed it wasn't a bad one. Now, though, his attention was on getting to the gym and working through his unspent energy. He had his foils with him, tucked in a black case, and he walked from the dorms toward the gymnasium with purpose.

Now a sensible young man in this situation would see this boy-o with the swords - the swords, for chrissake - and hightail it out of there, find an easier mark or just leave off altogether. ...A sensible one, that is.

Nathan Young leaned over the edge of the roof above the dorms, hands full of eggs and clothes full of stains already. What was the worst that could happen? He took aim, fired the first - second - and one more, for good measure, breaking into a braying laugh for each hit. "Death from above!"

Only one egg struck Benjamin squarely where it had been intended to, splattering against the back of his head and dousing his mop of blonde hair in slimy egg innards and bits of shell. The other two were intercepted against the arm that had shot up immediately afterward in a defensive posture, shattering and sliding down along his sleeve. Then the boy's gaze jolted upward, toward the sound of Nathan's voice. It was clear what was happening, even if he didn't understand the method; he was under some sort of attack. Death from above was a difficult sentiment to misconstrue. He took off at a run without even bothering to wipe at the eggs, disappearing from Nathan's line of vision as he raced for the maintenance ladder that crawled up along the side of the building.

It was only a matter of seconds before he appeared at the edge of the roof, mismatched eyes staring at the unfamiliar boy intensely.

One minute, Nathan was beaming smugly where he watched egg-goop and shell fragments drip out of the other boy's hair. By the time he whistled merrily and turned to his stack of egg cartons to check the status of his ammunition and back up again, motion catching his eye from the other side of the roof, he wasn't alone up there any longer. ...And his company looked none too amused. "Happy Easter," greeted brightly, twitching into a broad smile. "I see the Easter Bunny has shat his blessings upon you."

Wearing nothing but a t-shirt and jeans despite the lingering chill, the defined muscles along Benjamin's arms stood out as he clenched his fists and looked at Nathan. The joke didn't have much of an impact, neither seeming to make him angry or to make him relax as he started to approach. "You attacked me," he said stiffly, "Why?"

Up close, this one looked so much more... 'Roid-ragey and psycho-killer-y than he'd done at a distance. And what the hell was even the deal with his eyes and that facial tattoo? Who would even do that over a kid's eye?!

This kid who would undoubtedly beat him to either the stairwell leading back inside or the ladder he'd come up.

The lone egg left in Nathan's hold got passed around between his long hands in what probably looked like a nonchalant manner. Which would be much better than it looking like building uneasiness. "Who said anything about an attack? That's really a very strong word for a bit of holiday fun," Nathan defended as amiably as possible. "It's just, you know... An Easter tradition, haven't you heard of it? It's Irish," he explained, almost truthfully, even. He was Irish, and he'd done similar in years before.

Benjamin stopped no more than a foot away from Nathan, confusion softening the angular lines of his stoic face as he took that in. Holiday fun. Tradition. There were some peculiar ones, he knew, and the fact that he wasn't familiar with this one didn't mean anything because he was barely familiar with any of them. "You said...'death from above'," he reminded the other boy, not looking entirely swayed. But even partially was more than the line would've gotten from anybody else.

"I admit," Nathan spoke with greater confidence as he quirked a grin, seeing his quick gob slowing his potentially murder-y new friend, "the words weren't strictly traditional. That part was pure, unadulterated goofing off," he tossed the egg lightly in the vertical space between them, catching it up in his palm again as it fell. "But that's your explanation for why the kitchens had six dozen eggs put away." It seemed more likely that they'd bought them for dyeing, but he wasn't going to tell this special that. "No hard feelings, though? All in the spirit of Easter."

The explanation still left Benjamin confused, but not in a way that he could articulate or even identify within his own mind. Holidays could be very strange. His eyes trained on the egg as it rose and fell and, once it was safely back in Nathan's hand instead of coming toward his face, he nodded. "No hard feelings," he agreed, pausing before he added, "Why do you throw them?"

"It's all about resurrection, revival, renewal - it's all of those 'R' words, isn't it?" Nathan cupped the egg in both hands, showing it to Benjamin in an instructional manner, as if this were Sunday school. "All of spring and new life is represented by eggs, y'see, where baby chicks hatch from. For Christians, it's also a symbol of how our saviour left his tomb empty when he came back to life after death. Pretty badass or what, eh? And then, we throw these eggs at one another...in symbolism of cracking the tomb of Christ, and wishing fertility, and life, and, y'know, gooey embryonic good cheer all over the receiver." ...Damn, he was actually rather clever at this! He could almost believe it.

Benjamin peered down at the egg, listening to Nathan's explanation and attempting to fit all of the pieces together. It made sense, in a certain way, and he would do it if that was what he was supposed to do. Though the goopy bits of egg now dripping from the back of his head down to his neck made him wonder how it had ever taken hold in the way that Alison had explained these traditions typically did. He reached for the egg. "Then, I would like to celebrate with you," he said, the intention obvious. Though it wouldn't be much of a challenge to hit the boy at this distance.

"Oh," Nathan pulled the egg away at the last moment, wagging one finger playfully. "You would, wouldn't you? Of course you would. The more the merrier. But... It's supposed to be a game, understand. There's no sport at all if you just crush one over my head right here, is there? So I tell you what, we'll celebrate from up here, together, yeah? Let's tag-team the next student who comes along, okay? Then when we pack up to leave, you let me go on ahead, I'll give you a fine rabbit-run, you take your best shot - I'm telling yeh, it'll be a real Easter treat that way," he smiled wide. ...Assuming Nathan didn't just creep right into the building and slink away where he couldn't be egged out in the open, like he full well intended to do.

A tradition and a game. This was getting complicated, but Benjamin nodded just the same. These were things that he needed to learn, even if he wasn't certain he'd ever see the sportsmanship in pelting unsuspecting classmates with eggs as soon as they left the dormitories. "All right," he agreed, stepping away from Nathan and peering over the side of the roof at the empty walkway, "Where should I aim?"

"Just aim anywhere at the-" Nathan changed his original choice of words narrowly. "At the lucky celebratory recipient. Helps to target where they're going to be when the egg gets there, mind, rather then where they're starting out when you throw the thing." It was relatively quiet between eggings, truthfully, so there wasn't any poor bastard yet come along below as Nathan mimed an exaggerated egg-throwing motion complete with sound effects.

When the same spot of walkway was still empty some moments later, Nathan turned back to have a less immediately endangered look at the other boy. "You're not exactly...from around here, are you?" Which he thought sounded miles friendlier (safer) than calling him nutter.

"I won't miss," Benjamin clarified without any audible doubt. Whether it was part of his mutation or not, he'd always had good aim. Even with that milky, partially functional eye. "You said it's a game. Does it matter where I hit?" Distracted by this line of thought and watching the walkway below them intently, the question was what finally made him look at Nathan again. He blinked once, then said, "I'm from California."

"Bonus points for head and torso, but it's all fair game in Easter egging." Nathan knew California was where all the Hollywood eccentric types were supposed to come from. He just didn't realise they were this sort of eccentric. "Is that a gang tattoo on your face then?" Maybe this one had been in prison! One of them anal sex prisons. That might explain a thing or two about his weird attitude and behaviour. And why he'd be an excellent marksman, for that matter. "From all that 'rolling with your homies'?"

"Rolling...with my...?" Benjamin stared at Nathan blankly, visibly at a loss. He'd barely understood any part of what Nathan had just said to him, save that he'd made an assumption about the tattoo and that he'd gotten it wrong. He touched the mark around his half-blind eye, tracing the shape as if he could see it on his own face, and then dropped his hand. "No. It was my brand." He seemed to have no more to say about that and turned back to the edge of the roof.

"A brand?" Nathan was just as confused by the matter-of-fact way that the other spoke of it. "Normal kids don't have cattle stamps done on their faces, you know. Not even normal cattle do."

"No," Benjamin agreed, because he knew that it wasn't normal and that it shouldn't have happened. But he couldn't have changed it at the time any more than he could now. He kept his eyes cast down toward the empty walkway, then his entire body straightened and he leaned forward as the door below them began to open. "Someone is coming," he told Nathan. The tone in his voice wasn't enthusiastic exactly, but focused and anticipatory. There was no point in participating in the 'egging' if he wasn't going to do it right.

Nathan turned from where he'd been giving his partner in nearly-crime a queer look to see which one this would be. "The furry blue sauerkraut-eating kid! He's an annoyingly chipper sort, he'll love being included and all that," he suggested, getting to the topmost of the egg cartons and opening it up for them.

He stopped just shy of offering the eggs over to the other boy for a moment, the twist of some nagging uncertainty almost changing his mind as he re-evaluated the obvious fucked-up-ery of his unwitting, possibly mentally maladjusted accomplice. ...Who clearly needed some normal, shite teenage-boy fun more than anyone.

"How about we try less for targeting from the grassy knoll, and more for some light-hearted amusement? All right?" He smiled more naturally this time, taking himself another egg and giving the rest away. "This is supposed to be fun, man. Let's try to enjoy Easter-bombing the crap out of this holiday."

Benjamin turned, about to fix Nathan when an unfriendly stare for the sin of calling his roommate and friend 'annoying', but what the boy said stopped him. He'll love being included. This thought made him relax more than the insistence that he wasn't enjoying the holiday correctly and he nodded, making a thin and fleeting attempt at a smile. Then he reached for an egg and turned back to throw it down toward his roommate.

"Still a bit off, but full marks for effort, keep at that," Nathan smiled wider. His eyes lit with glee as his fingers shifted to lift his first egg into hurling position and let fly, the other soon after it as he crowed. "Happy Fucking Easterrrrrrrrr!"

The first egg struck Kurt in the back of his head. It exploded against his skull, splattering shards of shell and goopy yolk that stuck in his hair and dripped down his neck. Immediately, he turned to face the direction it had come from and the second projectile hit its mark, cracking against the side of his face in a spray of broken egg. He looked up at the two boys on the roof in shocked hurt, the sticky mess dripping down his hair and fur.

Off like a shot, Kurt teleported. He reappeared on the roof and looked from one boy to the other, before his stern gaze finally settled on Nathan, “What are you doing?” There was no way, he knew, that Benjamin had decided to do something so cruel on his own.

"Whoa!" The blue boy's sudden arrival startled Nathan mid-laugh and staggered him back a step, but the Irish couldn't quite stop himself laughing altogether yet. "I didn't know you could do that! I thought yer mutant power was looking strange!"

Knowing his roommate's power, Benjamin had expected Kurt to join them on the roof (and perhaps even retaliate) just as soon as he got his bearings back. He greeted his friend with one those imperfect smiles, about to echo the sentiment of 'Happy Fucking Easter', when he saw the look on the boy's face. He did not look happy to be included. "We were celebrating," he said, his voice distantly uncertain now, "For Easter."

Then Nathan's insults hit his ears and he turned, tensing as lines of confused, but defensive anger cut across his face. The new angle also exposed the bits of egg still dripping down the back of his head and darkening his sleeve to Kurt.

The curly-headed boy looked between the flatmates in the tense beat that followed. Then he took a fresh carton of eggs from the stack, opened it up, and offered them to Kurt with a bit of a smile like nothing was nothing. "Egg?"

The pieces quickly fell into place and Kurt’s mood shifted from simply annoyed to outright angry. He looked at his roommate, “Did he hit you with an egg?” The question was practically rhetorical. He may not have a details of what happened, but the what he did know added up to a clear enough picture.

Kurt’s hard gaze immediately moved onto Nathan. “You egged him.” He pointed at him, anger and disbelief in his voice. “You egged him, realized the mistake you had made in the target you had chosen, and then you lied to him, took advantage of him, because you were too afraid to face the repercussions of your actions. Maybe you should have thought of that when you decided this was such a great idea, hm?” He gestured at Benjamin and at the yolk on him. “This is not funny. This is mean. This is bullying.”

"First item -" Nathan defended against Little Boy Blue Balls rather casually, lifting one finger. "This? Is classic," he flared a brief grin once more as he waved his finger at the egg dripping off of either of them. "I mean, come on! Hilarious! Item the second," he counted off on another finger.

Nathan sort of left them extended there for a second, just flopping them loosely at the end of his wrist with a line between his brows as he sorted what he wanted to say with what might be considered a very rude gesture across the pond. But then he shrugged, spreading his hand wide open. "So what if I did crack him an Easter omelet? And yes, maybe I invented a fanciful tale by which to avoid retaliation a while. But up until two seconds ago, we were rather enjoying our Easter celebration together," he made to sling an arm around the back of Benjamin's should- eww, that's right, egg mess. No, we wouldn't be doing that, and Nathan pulled back his arm to give Benjamin's shoulder a chummy clasp instead. "He's no victim, he's a good sport!"

Listening to Kurt and then to Nathan, Benjamin was silent. He didn't know how to feel about being 'bullied' and deceived by the other boy, but he did know how he felt about being used by someone to hurt his friend. He snatched the boy's slim hand from off his shoulder, twisted it to a painful angle, and held it there, stepping in close and locking his arm into the position with his other hand. It wouldn't break; he knew what that amount of pressure felt like. But it wouldn't be comfortable. "You," he said in a low voice, "Are a cruel person."

Nathan yelped sharply, dropping the carton of eggs to the rooftop, trying to escape the hold for a - OHJAYSISNO, nonono, he was just going to wait for the nice boy to give it back to him whenever he felt he was done with it. "Ow, FUCK! I'm cruel?! I'm not twisting anybody's limbs off! It was just - agh! - just a few stupid prank eggs!"

Kurt laid a hand on his roommate’s arm, “It is alright, Ben. Let him go.” He glared at Nathan. “It may be a few stupid prank eggs to you, but it is not to the people you have been hitting. Fun at the expense of others is not fun. There are students here who have been bullied, students who have been abandoned or chased from their homes. This is supposed to be a safe place for them. Do you actually think they would find this funny? You have no idea how your game,” the air-quotes practically dripped from the word, “could make them feel.”

“What is worse, you knew full well Benjamin,” Kurt glanced over at and gestured to his roommate, “did not understand. You took advantage of that and of his trust. You tricked him into being cruel to another person for a laugh. For your entertainment. You owe him an apology.” He folded his arms across his chest, clearly resolute in getting that apology.

There was no hesitation and minimal reluctance; when Kurt said to let Nathan go, Benjamin let him go. His mismatched eyes remained on the other boy for a moment, then he stepped back and listened to his roommate outline the full damage that the behavior he'd taken part in could have caused. He felt...bad and lowered his eyes, absently beginning to wipe at the mess in his hair and on his neck.

Then the word entertainment made him stop. He tensed, turned toward the edge of the roof, and said nothing, leaving this matter to the two of them.

Nathan rubbed his sore wrist carefully, tuning out most of the lecture he was getting and ready to fuck off out of there. But something about his hand hurting and demands of an apology uncomfortably prodded something in his recent memory, and he didn't care for that at all.

He gave Kurt a sour look once he realised he'd stopped talking. "Now you've gone and made him feel totally shit about it," he nodded after Benjamin. "Well I hope you got the moral superiority you wanted out of that, because you can't tell me all that was for him to feel better. Smooth your fur, get off yer high horse and stop acting like you speak for everybody here - I mean, obviously, you don't."

Nathan moved round to where Benjamin had turned away from them both, because he seemed the sort you had to be pretty direct with. "I wasn't trying to get you in trouble or whatever, okay? I'm just... I do this shit sometimes, I don't know, it's compulsive dickery! I'm like this to everyone, I'm very equal opportunity that way."

Kurt had been about to turn to his roommate when Nathan spoke. He froze for a moment, shocked, guilt worming in his stomach. Had he been acting morally superior? Like he spoke for everyone else? Had he done something wrong? He didn’t regret what he’d said to Nathan and still stood by it, egging people was not funny and lying to Ben was not okay, but he did regret that Benjamin had gotten hurt in the process. That had been the last thing he’d wanted.

Turning, Kurt put a hand on his roommate’s shoulder. “Ben, that was not about you,” he said. “I am sorry. You are my friend and I did not want someone to hurt you, so I lost my temper. I should not have. Do not blame yourself.”

Flanked by both Nathan and by Kurt, Benjamin tensed. This was the opposite of what he'd intended, the antithesis of the space that he'd needed to clear his head, and he bristled as the Irish boy stepped too close in front of him. But the familiar hand on his shoulder stopped any immediate response. "I am not your entertainment," he said stiffly after a restraining pause, his voice low and his features dangerously stoic, as if the apology (of sorts) had never made it to his ears. Then he turned his back on him and faced his roommate.

The look on his face finished bringing Benjamin back to his senses and his features softened around the edges. He shook his head, not knowing what to say, then reached to wipe some of the egg off of Kurt's face with his hand.

"I wasn't..." Nathan frowned at them both. He supposed, if you looked at it in that light. "Ugh, you two take everything in the worst possible way, d'you know that? Way to suck all the fun out of a perfectly good egging." He shook his head at that last sorry carton, upended in a giant splatter at their feet. He squatted down on his heels, lifting the carton to see if there were any survivors - but there weren't, and he dropped it again. He'd probably end up having to clean all of this regardless. Might as well put it off as long as possible. "...I'm sorry. Satisfied?"

Nathan straightened, pushing his hands into his pockets and making for the door to the stairwell inside, muttering something about drama queens.

Kurt smiled at the way Ben gently wiped egg from his face, only glancing Nathan’s way as he apologized and left. Ach, well that could have gone better... It was in part his own fault for losing his temper. “No harm done. I am okay,” he assured his roommate and then picked an eggshell off his neck. “Are you?” He found another piece of shell stuck to his collar and pulled it off, dropping it on the ground.

Benjamin paused with his palm against Kurt's face to look at Nathan, not knowing what to make of him or his apology or his abrupt departure. He stayed like that for several seconds, then drew his hand the rest of the way down his roommate's face and wiped the sticky egg goop against his jeans as he looked back. "I am...okay," he responded, using his roommate's answer because his own was harder to articulate. But he still looked tense.

Nodding a little, Kurt wiped the egg he could see off of Benjamin’s neck, “We can talk about it if you want.” He could tell he was still upset--the tense way he was holding himself was impossible to miss--and he was worried. “If you have anything you want to say, anything you want to ask.” He rubbed his hand clean on his jeans and then reached up to pick off another eggshell.

A muted version of surprise touched Benjamin's features, but it disappeared as quickly as it had surfaced. Kurt had always been better at reading him than most and living together had only honed the skill. He blinked again, hesitated, and pursed his lips in a tight, unhappy line. "I don't like being manipulated," he said at last, "And I don't want to hurt anyone here."

Dropping another eggshell on the ground, Kurt nodded. He picked out another shell. Gott, how could something so small leave so much mess? “Not that it makes what he did right, but I do not think Nathan realized that is what he was doing,” he said and then gave him a small smile. “As for hurting anyone, you are one of the last people I would think would do that. I know you just want to keep everyone safe.”

Kurt wiped some yolk off Benjamin’s ear, “Let’s go back to our room. I can clean off the rest of the egg there and we can get your clothes in the wash so they do not get ruined.”

Benjamin wasn't certain how someone could lie to him and trick him accidentally, but between Kurt's assessment and Nathan's declaration of 'compulsive dickery', he was willing to consider the possibility. But that didn't make what his roommate said any less true; that didn't make it right. He touched his ear again, found more egg, grimaced, and nodded. "...I am sorry that I threw an egg at you," he said. Even if it hadn't been bullying, that wouldn't stop it from feeling disgusting.

“Danke,” Kurt said, smiling at his roommate. “It is alright. As I said, no harm done.” He patted his shoulder, gave it a reassuring squeeze, and then nodded in the direction of the door. “Come on. Inside. I think there is leftover Easter candy and a swashbuckler movie with our names on it.”

Following the direction of Kurt's nod and then looking back, another degree of tension drained out of Benjamin. The forgiveness of his roommate was the most important thing, but the prospect of a shower, more sweets, and a movie with the other boy made it easier to put Nathan (and what his actions had dredged up) out of his mind. "I...like that idea," he said.