Office Hours, Monday, 3/9

[tyler_gone]

It was Monday and a slightly bruised Tyler was in his office, idly mentally replaying the spars from the day before. He still couldn't believe someone actually wrestled a wolf; that was taking the whole man-vs-nature thing a little far for his tastes.

But he supposed hitting a teenage girl for fun was up there on the craziness scale, too.

The office door was open, and he was ready for any distraction.

Comments

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

A week after her vacation, and Lindsay was still trying to get back into her routine of things.

And while it wasn't routine to drop in on Tyler it had been a while. So she swung by the Perk for a couple of coffees and schlepped them up to his office along with a package she'd been meaning to give him since she got back.

She knocked on the door frame and poked her head into the office.

"You taking any civilian visitors or is this just a place for students and faculty?"

[tyler_gone]

"Fraser's never thrown a civilian out before," Tyler answered with a little bit of a smile. "C'mon in. There's coffee."

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to see him try to throw me out. Oh, hell and I brought you coffee to boot," she said placing his cup down on his desk as well as a package. "Picked you up something when I was on the cruise. It's been sitting in my room for over a week because I hate unpacking. Sorry about that."

[tyler_gone]

"I'll forgive you," Tyler said, reaching for the package and starting to unwrap it. "How was the cruise, anyhow? I feel like I had the invisible housemate since you got back."

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I don't know," she said taking seat. "Been feeling pretty quiet since I've been back."

She shrugged a little. "Guess I still have cruise-lag or something like it. You do anything fun on break?"

[tyler_gone]

"We went to Vegas and fought Nazi bees," Tyler said, and he was even telling the truth.

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

"... I'm not going to ask," She said after taking a moment. "Because-"

And another moment.

"Okay. Nazi bees. How does a bee become a Nazi? And what were you doing trying to steal Nazi honey?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler gave her an injured look. "Do I look nearly fucking dumb enough to steal Nazi honey? It was this dude made out of bees trying to rob a casino. If your boss ever makes you travel, ask for combat pay."

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

Lindsay sighed. "I'm not saying you're dumb? But what am I supposed to think when you say Nazi bees and-"

...

"Seriously. He was made out of bees?"

[tyler_gone]

"He was a skeleton covered in bees. And a cloak," Tyler said. "... and now I'm wondering how the fuck he talked."

He finally got the package open. "Aw, Boxer, it's just my color."

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

"I'm not going to lie to you. I got it from the boat gift shop right before we left the boat for Fandom," Lindsay admitted. "Because I spent a week hopping from island to island and I suck at getting gifts. So how'd you stop Nazi Bee guy? Raid?"

[tyler_gone]

"I wish we'd had Raid. Stark hot-wired the sprinklers and bam, drowning, dying bees," Tyler said. "And then this creepy eyepatch guy showed up to clean up the mess. I'm serious: Combat pay."

He shook the shirt in the light as if that would make it prettier. "How were the islands?"

[memberslonely.livejournal.com]

"Honestly? It was a little boring," she admitted. "I mean yeah they had swimming, spas and whatnot but that only interested me for about ten minutes. So I spent most of it shooting clay pigeons on deck. Got a nice tan though. You win any money or go to any shows in Vegas or was it all about the bees?"

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan looked a little worse for the wear as he swung by Tyler's office, a pair of slightly blackened eyes belying the fact that he had caught a forehead with his nose last night.

Even so, he seemed to be in a pretty decent mood.

"So. Have you seen any bees lately?"

[tyler_gone]

"Only in my nightmares," Tyler said, with an appreciative eye to the injuries. Nathan had put up a good fight. "Have you?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"Unless you count our obedient little worker bees, not a one," Nathan replied, wearing a faint smirk on his lips. "Which, I have to say, I'm not complaining about. It's only a matter of time before this island does something like stick us all in our underwear all over again, I'm sure."

He took a moment to try to wrestle that thought out of his head before speaking again.

"So, that meeting last night seemed like it was really your element." That wasn't a bad thing, really. More an observation.

[tyler_gone]

"It's always only time here," Tyler nodded, tilting his chin up to evaluate Nathan. (And taking a moment to be grateful he'd been clothed the one timme Nathan had seen him in a compromising situation.)

"Did it? I had a nice time." The tone was purposefully bland. "Looked like you got into it, with the hair-pulling."

[shiroi_tiger]

"He started it," was Nathan's almost immediate reply, though it wasn't without a sense of bemusement to it. "I have to admit I wasn't expecting to find myself paired off against a student when I walked in there."

Nathan would have agreed quite profusely that it was a very great thing that Tyler had been clothed the one time he'd seen him in a compromising situation. He'd already seen Tony in the nude. That was enough for him, really.

"I suppose I should be thankful that my chosen partner wasn't Dinah."

[tyler_gone]

"I think Ghanima has a sense of humor," came Tyler's dry comment. "Dinah was good for her age. And she at least asked if she could use telekinesis against me."

He leaned back in his chair. "She's a psychic. I don't like psychics."

[shiroi_tiger]

Well, that was something Nathan hadn't been aware of. He quirked an eyebrow faintly, but appeared more or less unaffected by this knowledge.

"After Nazi bees, I really shouldn't be surprised," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "She's a good kid, anyhow. Or, at least, a good friend to her peers. She's approached me during Gun Club meetings to ask me to keep an eye out for someone in the past."

She'd also referred to him as 'Mr. Hot Algren,' which amused him to no end.

[tyler_gone]

"Warning you about one of the other kids?" That made Tyler a little wary. "What was up?"

He scratched his jaw, realizing he should offer a brief explanation. "She called it 'touch telepathy.' I think she can only get anything if she's touching you, but I didn't ask a lot of questions."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan thought about that for a moment, and then nodded slightly. It would seem that Fandom was going to leave him wary as to whose hands he shook from here on in. Go figure.

"I'm honestly not certain how thoroughly I ought to be explaining the situation," he confessed. "She's concerned for the health and safety of another student, because of her situation at home. I've spoken to this other student, of course, but she doesn't seem to think that there's anything the matter with the situation at all."

He shifted his weight uneasily, frowning.

"I found myself explaining to a student the reasons that her classmates would like to be made aware if she were to go home and... Not come back."

There was a sort of terse note in his voice on that last part, suggesting the 'not come back' was about as final as the phrase could possibly suggest.

[tyler_gone]

"One of the soldiers?" Tyler guessed. "It's hard. Some of them are so much kids, but most of them really aren't. Our TA, Ino, she goes home for missions." He put a little bit of vitriol on the world mission. "I make her call me and tell me when she's leaving. She's been out since Friday."

[shiroi_tiger]

"I suppose 'soldier' is a good term for it, yes," Nathan agreed. "I understand that there's a good number of students here who have dangerous other lives back home. And the student in question is perfectly content with the way her life away from Fandom seems to be going. I think I'm more concerned..."

He sighed and gave his head a shake.

"She doesn't understand the concept of people feeling an emotional attachment to her. That isn't why Dinah was concerned, no, but I found it unsettling that a high school student honestly believes that she ought to be completely forgettable."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler frowned at that and started restlessly twirling a pen in his fingers. "Most people will say and do anything so they can't be invisible like that," he said. God knew he would. "Weird that she thinks it's her right."