om_main | Bigby and Noriko

Noriko goes to check in on Bigby, and they end up chatting for a while - about Callisto, life and love. Only in their own way.

It had been a little while since Noriko had checked in with Bigby - a few days after the Callisto debacle - and she figured she was overdue for another visit. She liked him. So she walked up to his dorm room and knocked, the clear sound of metal over wood leaving little doubt as to who she was, even if he didn't have enhanced senses anyway.

Bigby pushed his headphones off his ears, leaving them to dangle around his neck. “Hey, Noriko,” he called out. He’d smelled her coming. “Door’s open.” Turning off his music, he lowered his feet off the bed and turned his computer chair to face the door.

"Hey," Noriko greeted him as she walked in. "I thought I'd check in, it's been a while since we hung out. This a good time?" She remained by the open door, her hand on the knob, just in case it wasn't.

“Yeah, come on in,” Bigby replied with a nod. He took off his headphones, putting them and his Discman aside on the computer desk. Standing, he gestured for her to help herself to his chair and moved to sit on the edge of his bed instead. “How have you been?”

"Good," Noriko answered, taking a seat facing him. And, since it was Bigby, she actually gave him more of the truth. "Better. You?"

The corners of Bigby’s mouth turned up in a small smile. “I’m good,” he replied. “Can’t complain. How’s Phil? Are you two...” he trailed off, “good?”

"As good as we get," Noriko confirmed evenly. Which was great, if you asked her. "Did you guys talk again, since?"

“We haven’t. I’ve seen him in the halls though.” Bigby was surprised actually. He’d expected Philip to stop by to stress keeping his mutation a secret.

"Yeah," Noriko stated, frowning a little before she let it go. "He isn't big on sharing. Anything." Least of all stuff like that.

Chuckling a little, Bigby nodded. “Yeah, I got that impression.” There was a dry kind of humor in his voice as he said it. “We’ve all got something.”

Bigby sat forward, forearm rested on his knees. “So, has it been quiet? Any sign of Callisto?”

Noriko shook her head. "The squat's been cleaned out, and nobody's heard about her." Or nobody was talking to her, but she didn't expect all of the kids she'd talked to to be very good liars, or care about Calli or Surge enough to bother lying. That led her to fear the worst, really - "I think they might have taken her."

Bigby grimaced. He’d be the first to admit he could be brutal, but he wouldn’t wish what those people would do to Callisto on anyone. “I hope not,” he said. Callisto had information on them and the school; information that would be dangerous in the wrong hands. “Did Philip find any police reports?”

"Nothing," Noriko answered, looking about as gloomy as she felt. "I hope she's gone to ground, but it feels like I'm just clinging to the least likely possibility."

“The least likely possibility is still a possibility,” Bigby replied. “She’s smart, and tough. I wouldn’t write her off as gone until there’s proof.”

"Like I said," Noriko replied with a shrug. "I'm hoping." But enough doom and gloom. Worrying about it wasn't going to help anything. "Anyway - how're you and John?"

Bigby smiled at the mention of John, “We’re good.” He hadn’t realized Noriko knew he and John were dating. “Our adventure in the city scared him. I’m not used to people worrying about me.” He said it to Noriko only because it was from one street kid to another, because he knew she’d understand.

"...yeah," Noriko agreed after taking that into account for a second. She hadn't even really registered whether Philip had been worried about her; what with him freaking dying, it hadn't even seemed like a possibility. Now that she thought about it, she imagined that he might, if he knew that something was going down, but she still couldn't quite picture it. She didn't know how much of that was because of who each of them were, and how much was because, like Bigby, she wasn't used to people worrying about her anymore. "Yeah, seriously," she added. "How much did you tell him?"

She wasn't asking whether he'd told John about Philip's mutation; she assumed he hadn't, which said a lot about how much she trusted Bigby, for no real reason other than she did. No, she was asking how much he'd told John about his own brush with death.

“How I was hurt, and with what.” Bigby folded his arms across his chest. “I texted him when we got to Stark’s so he wouldn’t wonder where I was. Made the mistake of making a joke about how well my healing factor works. When I got back, he was waiting outside my room. I hadn’t realized he’d worry so much.” A small shrug. “So we talked.”

Bigby shrugged again, glancing away this time as he added, “I try to be honest with him. I’m not great at talking, but I try.”

Yeah, at least she and Philip were equally reluctant to talk about some stuff, which... probably wasn't a great thing, all things considered, but they'd made it work so far. "My father used to say trying didn't matter, only success did." Like a slightly taller Japanese Yoda. "He's full of shit, though."

Bigby huffed a humorless laugh, “I’d be screwed in a lot of ways if there were any truth in that saying.”

"You and me both," Noriko wryly confirmed.

Bigby chuckled. “John doesn’t seem to mind,” he said. “So there’s that.”

"I'd be worried about you if he did," Noriko confirmed. She hadn't spent much time around the kid at all, but now that Bigby was actually talking about him (this definitely constituted talking about him, by Noriko's standards), she felt like maybe she ought to. There was clearly something there she hadn't seen. "How long's it been, anyway?"

“Since the masquerade. I met him a few months after I got to the school. We hit it off.” Bigby opened a computer drawer and took out two cherry chocolate protein bars, offering one to Noriko. “I’ve never told him, but I thought about him a lot after we met. There was something about him.”

"Thanks," Noriko said as she accepted the bar - she never turned down food, pretty much. "From the start, huh?" She had no idea what that was like, she had to admit.

Bigby tore open the wrapper. “Not necessarily liked like that,” though how hot John was hadn’t gone unnoticed, “but, yeah, from the start. It was weird.” He took a bite of the bar.

"Weird how?" she asked curiously. She was in the habit of asking what she wanted to know, when she didn't know whether people would mind talking about it; if people did, they just had to say so.

“I don’t usually like people that quickly,” Bigby answered. He didn’t trust easily, or readily. Never had really, but even more so after he’d run away from home. John had somehow gotten under his skin. People didn’t get under his skin.

"Ah, yeah," Noriko acknowledged, because neither did she. Well, she could like them on the surface; it didn't mean that she trusted them. People did get under her skin, but it usually took a little while - or some extraordinary circumstances. "At least your instincts were right with him?" Presumably, since they were now together.

“Yeah,” Bigby replied with a small, unreadable smile. “I’m not complaining. It was weird, still is sometimes, but I wouldn’t change it.” The list of people he considered himself lucky to know was short, and John was at the top of it.

“Have you met him?”

"Yeah," Noriko confirmed. "He wanted us to - put on a show. Fire and lightning." She'd been mildly interested - stage tech and all - until he'd mentioned her being center stage. Thanks but no thanks.

With a quiet chuckle, Bigby nodded, “That’s him alright. He loves playing with his powers.” He was good at it too. It was a good thing to be around; it reminded him to find enjoyment in his mutation.

"Yeah," Noriko acknowledged. Not the way she saw it; nearly or maybe actually killing people when they were out of control gave her a pretty different perspective on the whole thing. "I'm not much of a showgirl, though, shockingly."

“It’s not for everyone,” Bigby agreed. “Wouldn’t exactly call myself a showman either.”

"No shit," Noriko confirmed with a hint of a smirk. Bigby and she were alike in a lot of ways, that had been obvious from the start.

Bigby chuckled with wry amusement, “That obvious, huh?”

"Takes one to know one?" Noriko offered, lips twisted in a wry smirk.

The corners of Bigby’s mouth tugged up in amusement, “That too.”