om_main | Simon and Doug | Backdated to 12/3/14

Simon and Doug finally talk. It goes fairly well.

It was a rare occurrence, lately - it seemed as if there was always something he either wanted or needed to be working on. Not, admittedly, that that was either unusual or unwelcome, but he'd hit a dead end on the program he'd been writing, was a few months ahead on his college language classes, and just...didn't feel like working on anything else.

He'd grabbed a bag of popcorn from the kitchen and wandered down to the rec room, hoping there'd be someone around to watch tv with - and instead ended up pulling out the XBox. If nothing else, he could at least get in some practice before anyone called another Halo championship. He hadn't done all that well at the last one.

Simon had just come in from the garage, messenger bag over one shoulder and a coffee in one hand when he caught sight of the younger teen inside the rec room. He paused in the doorway, watching Ramsey play whatever he was playing, and finally sighed inwardly, turning away from the stairs to head into the room instead.

Doug winced as the game ended, and was about to plop back against the back of the couch in disgust when he realized someone had entered the room. Looking over, he saw River's brother, who'd obviously just gotten back from somewhere. "Oh, hey," he said self-consciously. "Did you have a good vacation?"

Raising a brow, Simon took another sip of coffee before answering. "Yes. Thank you. I'm just coming in from OsCorp, though. Jean-Paul and I got back a couple of days ago."

"I know," Doug assured him, then smiled crookedly. "I just figured it was as good a way to start a conversation as any?" Because yes, he was nervous. Granted, he'd been expecting this conversation for over a month, but he still wasn't expecting it to go well.

One corner of Simon's lips hooked up. "Would you rather talk someplace you'd be more comfortable? The sun room is fairly quiet at this time of day."

"I'm okay either way." Or not okay, but he didn't suppose location really mattered all that much, barring the possibility of people randomly coming in. Actually... "Maybe the sun room," he acknowledged, getting to his feet and going to shut off the game system and put it away. "Just give me a second to clean up, alright?"

Simon took the time to steal a handful of popcorn, because he was starving, and because if Doug could put his hands on his sister, then he could share his snack.

Doug finished putting the game system away and came back to retrieve his popcorn, oblivious to the fact that the volume of the bag had decreased. "Okay, I'm ready," he said, feeling decidedly awkward.

Turning, Simon led the way down the hall, sighing a little as they entered the warm, quiet little room tucked away from the rest of the activity. It was one of his favorite places that was not the infirmary or his own room. He set his messenger bag down against one of the chairs, then slid down against the leather, sighing before taking another large swallow of coffee. He needed the fortification for this conversation, clearly.

Doug took a seat on another of the chairs, nervously rolling up the top of his popcorn bag. "So, ummm..." He took a breath and exhaled, then looked across to meet Simon's eyes. "Is this about River? Or about Jean-Paul's fanfic?"

Simon raised his brows. "Jean-Paul's fanfic?"

"The one Kitty and I are writing for him?" Doug offered, wondering if he'd just managed to stick his foot in his mouth without realizing it.

"Oh," Simon quirked a smile at that. There were far too many fanfics floating around Xavier's these days. Jean-Paul's project had nearly slipped his mind. "Right. That. No, this isn't about that. I'm sure he has it well under control."

"It's going pretty well, I think," Doug confirmed, then offered a lop-sided smile. "So, umm...River, then? She said you'd want to talk to me eventually."

"I've wanted to talk to you since day one, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to do it without giving you a paralytic and a talk about scalpels," Simon smiled, shrugging gently.

"So...does that mean that the paralytic and scalpels are off the table?" Doug asked doubtfully. "Or should I be making a run for it?"

"Look," Simon sighed. "I don't want to scare you, and I don't particularly care for the idea of a 'shovel talk', but I want to make sure you understand she and I...don't really have our parents in the picture right now. It's just us, and it's my responsibility to make sure that she's safe and happy. I understand that the second part is not entirely within my control, and that I can't put a bubble around her and protect her from every sad or upsetting thing that might happen to her. She would probably hit me if I tried."

"Probably," Doug admitted, a hint of a fond smile forming at the mental image before he clamped down on it and took a breath, then exhaled slowly. "I...can't promise everything's going to work out," he admitted, "and let's face it, you wouldn't believe me if I tried to. But I wouldn't ever intentionally do anything to hurt River or to make her unhappy." He offered a tentative smile and shrugged. "I'm not an expert; River's my first girlfriend, and I'm probably going to screw something up sooner or later. I'm sure she'll let me know when I do. But I think it's going okay so far. She seems to be having a good time worrying about whether or not my parents like her - we talked to them via Skype on Thanksgiving."

"That didn't upset her?" Simon asked curiously.

Doug shook his head. "We talked about it first, and she said she wanted to. She just wanted me to explain, first, in case it did." He shrugged and smiled. "She and my dad had a great talk about Chinese dynasties. He teaches World History and Cultures classes at Lake Forest College. I'm half surprised he didn't try to recruit her."

Simon felt himself tense up at the suggestion, then forced himself to relax. River needed to move on with her life. She should have been in college classes all this time. "I'm glad she enjoyed it, then. And I'm glad that you both got to spend some time with your family on Thanksgiving. I didn't like leaving her."

"She knew," Doug assured Simon, though he was sure he already knew that. "It was okay, though. My parents really wanted to meet her," he admitted with a crooked smile, "and I've gotta admit, I wanted her to meet them, too. But if she hadn't been okay with it, it would've waited, y'know?"

Raising an eyebrow at the fact that Doug's family wanted to meet his sister, Simon had to wonder just how serious it had gotten between them. "I'm glad you're aware that she shouldn't be pushed into certain situations," he murmured distractedly.

Doug shrugged, his smile fading simply because it didn't seem like something to really smile about. "I'm not about to push her to do anything she doesn't want to do," he pointed out. That'd be a crappy thing to do, period.

"Good," Simon asserted, then switched gears, meeting his gaze without threat but with a polite confidence. "Thank you for that, and thank you for helping to make her happy. Just...make sure you do it with your clothes on."

Doug had started to relax, then swallowed hard and nodded, his face warming as his hand drifted up to scrub at the back of his neck. "Umm, yeah. Definitely. I..." Right. Stop there. "Clothes on." Thank you, Simon - now he was going to have to try to get that mental image out of his head before he saw River again. Or not. She'd probably find it pretty amusing, overall.

Simon rose to his feet, retrieving his bag and his coffee. "I'm here to help the students, and that's what I intend on doing. I'll never hurt a student. But I hope you give me the same respect and never hurt my sister."

Doug got to his feet as well. "I won't," he replied more or less confidently, extending his hand. Offering a crooked smile, he added, "If I do, you can skip the paralytic. I freeze up just in squad training; I'm pretty sure if you were holding scalpels, I wouldn't be moving anyway."

Gripping his hand, Simon squeezed it briefly, stronger than he looked, then hitched his bag up over his shoulder and nodded, heading out the door. "Have a good day, Ramsey."

"You too," Doug said after him, rubbing at his hand as much as reaction as because it hurt, then turned to collect his popcorn. At least, he reminded himself, Simon had been pretty cool about it all. It could've gone a whole lot worse.