savetheearth | Mistakes come back to bite you

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Mistakes come back to bite you

Who: Anthony and Nathan
What: Confrontation regarding poor decisions made while under the influence of Peer Pressure
When: Couple days after this
Where: L's boarding academy
Warnings: Angry teenagers and Serious Talks about alcohol use.

It had been a couple days, the hangover had faded for the most part though Tony still felt slightly off. Maybe it was all the teleporting, that couldn't be good for you. He still wasn't sure what to make of what happened, Hajime and Nathan were both acting horribly out of character, but he'd not run into either of them since then.

Some kind of strange bug, maybe? Others were acting weird as well, L for one, and Tony being as protective as he is felt it was time to go check up on him. Make sure Cesar got him back safe and sound. Honestly he was a bit surprised he'd not heard from him yet. Maybe something worse was going on?

Hell if Tony could figure out what it was on his own, though.

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Nathan wasn't the type of person to go out a lot at the best of times, but now? Now he'd been spending the past few days trying to figure out how they were going to deal with what was apparently the sudden appearance of Numbered doppelgangers. Everything seemed to point to it, as impossible as it all sounded; he'd been keeping an eye on the network as best he could between everything else, even spoken to a couple of them.

He was taking a bit of a break from it all at this point, trying not to let his anxieties overwhelm him. He wasn't good at that, and not having properly heard from Lazarus hadn't helped. Things were happening that he didn't know how to deal with.

Being at the school was at least somewhat soothing; that was about the best he could do on the relaxation front. The finger habitually twisting into his hair put a bit of a lie to his placid face, though.

He looked up when Tony entered. Maybe he could offer more insight? But it would be rude to simply ask with no preamble, so: "Hi."

Color him surprised. Judging by their first meeting he'd not expected to see Nathan back there, honestly, maybe it had gone better than he'd thought? Then again he had been pretty open and social out in Neuschwanstein, which was still incredibly weird.

Tony froze in surprise, and awkwardness upon immediately remembering what had happened. Aw, damn, not a conversation he was looking forward to having.

"Hey, uh. How are you?"

Why does he look like he just walked in on someone in the bathroom?

The meeting had been rocky, but in the end not as bad as it could have been. Overall, it was simply that he felt comfortable at the school due to the connection it had to his Other's life. A safe place.

His brow furrowed at Tony's awkwardness. What was that about? Had the meeting actually been worse than he'd thought? It had seemed relatively okay to him by the end. He couldn't say any more definitively than Tony why this should be so uncomfortable for him.

"I am fine." Then, after a pause and a mild tilt of the head, "... Are you alright?"

He couldn't be blamed for that. Everyone sought a safe place, Tony knew that better than most. He'd been hunting for one for most of his life, after all.

Nathan's taking it all rather well, Tony thinks, which only makes him more uncomfortable. Does he not remember? Is he trying to pretend it didn't happen? Maybe he shouldn't say anything...

"Ah, uhm... say, look." Yes this is how you speak words Tony well done. "I uh, I think I owe you an apology. I get kinda huggy I guess I didn't mean to I know you're not really the type for hugs. And if I hit on you I don't really remember..."

Tony has two modes when he's uncomfortable: Clam up completely and typically try to run away, or obtain verbal diarrhea. Today is diarrhea day.

The brow furrowing was now abandoned in favour of blinking. A lot of blinking. What was all this? His mind immediately jumped to the thought of the doppelgangers . . . but no. So far all of those had been displaying personalities diametrically opposed to those of the true self. Tony fumbling around and apologizing for things was consistent with behaviour Nathan had previously observed.

But otherwise, this did not make sense.

"... I don't know what you're talking about." His tone was genuinely confused. He was just going to leave that whole possibly being hit on thing alone. Too strange to deal with, even after one particular network conversation with a double.

Oh no, this is definitely Tony. Incredibly awkward Tony in all his awkward glory. He's still rather intimidated by Nathan, or rather the pillar L has set him on. Genius, most important person in the world probably. So what if he was awkward in conversation he's the next Einstein, he can do what he wants.

Tony, well, Tony would be lucky if he didn't get scraped out of a ditch. And he he was desperate to try to make friends on L's behalf, and messing it up spectacularly. As usual, really.

"Uh..." Oh, he's forgotten? Okay, well, no that's good. Yes, he will happily leave it at that then. Don't mind Tony trying to slowly slink away as if somehow, by moving very slowly, Nathan won't notice him trying to escape. "Well in that case if you don't remember I guess it's not a problem, yeah?"

Tony you are bad at this.

No, something wasn't right here. A piece didn't fit, there was a gap in his understanding. Nathan didn't like not being able to understand something. Could this be about his own double? He'd learned that he did have one, but he had not encountered the double either on the network or in person. Perhaps Tony had?

He just kind of watched Tony dubiously as he tried to slink out the door without explaining things. "Tony. What did I supposedly forget?"

He pauses, less panicked freezing now than it had begun. If Nathan didn't remember, then it wasn't such a big deal, right? Hell, he didn't know. Tony wasn't completely sure why he was so nervous in the first place. Other than he expected Nathan to be furious over the whole thing.

Even if it had been his idea. "You don't remember Neuschwanstein at all? Really?" He sounds uncertain. Maybe it's a trap? "I ran into you up there, you wanted to hang out. Remember Hajime, the bar?"

None of it?

Nathan's memory was an impressive thing. There was very little that he honestly forgot; it was one of the biggest reasons those missing days in January had bothered him so much. He simply did not lose time or information like that. So he certainly would have remembered . . . that.

The finger in his hair stopped twisting at one very specific word. What?

"Bar?" There was a faint tone of disbelief in his voice. But the disbelief began to recede in favour of something chillier. If Tony had been expecting fury, he may well be about to get it. "So you're . . . under the impression that we went out drinking."

That was the most ridiculous, most stupid . . . How . . . He would never . . . Why would anyone think . . .

To be fair, he had been very drunk. Or rather, Nathan's doppelganger had been. Doppelganger that Tony didn't know existed as of yet. It made sense that he might have lost those few hours spent with Hajime and too many jell-o shots.

Oh, that's a tone he'd not expected. Tony straightens up, as if somehow making himself look bigger might spare him some kind of unknown lashing. "Yeah, it was your idea," Which admittedly he thought terribly out of character but still. "Couldn't leave you to it on your own." What if he got hurt?

It might have worked if this weren't a situation that hit Nathan in just the wrong way. Normally he shied away from conflict, backed off if the other person took a stronger stance. But this? No, his eyes just grew colder at the explanation. He wasn't sure if he was angry at Tony or at his double, or maybe both of them. The fact that he was angry at all was enough.

"My idea." And his voice was colder still. No louder, though; Nathan never raised his voice. He unwound the finger from his hair; his hair-twisting was a nervous habit and his nerves had been supplanted by something else entirely now. "I see that I need to explain something. There are doubles of us running loose. I have never in my life, will never in my life have such a pathetically stupid idea."

Not after growing up in that house, not after having to endure his father's temper after he'd gotten a few drinks into him. He wanted nothing to do with that disgusting habit.

Until a legitimate threat triggered his more feral instincts, so did Tony. But he'd learned to bluff, at least in instances he thought his bluff might actually win at any rate. Sometimes acting intimidating was a good way to avoid a fight, and a knife in the gut over scraps. It was hit or miss though, and while he risked it with Nathan for the simple fact of the matter he expected him to back down, Tony was quick to realize that in this instance puffing up like a cat wasn't going to do the trick.

So it was his turn instead to look smaller, ducking his head and hunching his shoulders. You don't want to shout and attack someone with a missing eye, do you? Tony didn't react well to anger, choosing flight or hiding in favor of trying to weather the tide as it were. But Nathan's anger was strange, cold and piercing. Unnerving. Tony was left uncertain if he were in danger or not and he didn't like that feeling at all.

"Doubles?" Well that's a surprise, and his face says as much. "I... oh... I see." Well. Tony doesn't quite understand the ire or why Nathan's suddenly so angry at him, maybe it's just he thinks he's stupid. Not like that's never happened before.

"So, wait, how do you know about the doubles?"

And Nathan had learned that if he put up any fight whatsoever, he would just be punished even worse. Shutting up . . . shutting down and taking it was the most expedient way for a bad encounter to end, the way to come out of it with the least damage. It was how he'd survived that house.

He should feel terrible for making Tony cringe like this. Maybe he would later. But right now there's no room for that. They'd blundered onto one of his biggest issues and he's not thinking clearly as a result. He won't shout; he never does. He won't attack, not physically. He is not his goddamn father. That's the whole point.

"A few conversations over the network led me to the conclusion." Speaking with Emilia's double had sealed it; she'd spoken of another version of him who had been incredibly talkative. "Have I ever given any indication that I would do such a thing? Did you not at least consider that 'I' was acting incredibly out of character?"

Edited 2015-02-17 02:54 (UTC)

Oh it was always a weighing act. Deciding how close to starvation you were, they were, and which one of you was bigger. More often than not Tony was the one to flee, but there were times every now and then his act worked enough to get someone to back away. Astounding how feral one could become living on the street.

Tony had no idea the minefield he'd walked into. None at all.

"Well yeah, but I figured maybe something was up with you, not that you were another person entirely." Come on, doppelgangers? Even in their lives that's a bit nuts.

Whereas Nathan had lived with his aggressor, had always been the smaller, weaker one. There had been no debating. He'd had to give up every time, to the point where he'd stopped even having the impulse to fight. He couldn't fight that man, can't even now.

But he can fight becoming him.

"Apparently not wrong enough that you thought to stop it."

Not knowing about the doppelgangers could, perhaps, be forgiven. Even in the state that Nathan is in right now. But he isn't feeling very forgiving. There isn't any way Tony could have known he was walking into this minefield -- Nathan does not talk about his issues -- but he'd walked into it all the same.

Tony ran from his, choosing being homeless over anything like that. Not necessarily a better situation, just different. He's still considering running away from this, he doesn't like the look Nathan is giving him and that tone is dangerously close to just threatening enough to be terrifying.

You'd think the guy who took a bullet to the face could stand up to this better, but in a way mafia goons were easier. He didn't like them, they were only cruelty, but someone you want to trust being aggressive at you? Entirely different ballpark.

"Nn well, I... yeah... no."

Truth was he's just actually really easy to influence and doesn't want to admit to that. Is escape an option? He'd really like to use that option right now.

Running had honestly never occurred to Nathan, he'd been broken down so far. His plan had been to endure if for a while longer -- he'd already done so for years; he could keep at it -- and then leave the house a better way. And it had been on the verge of working, only to fall apart at the last minute.

He's certainly not impressed with that answer. "Wonderful. Well I hope you had fun."

Why wouldn't someone stop that? When they knew the behaviour was so egregiously wrong? Why would they go along with it? This is not computing in Nathan's brain.

He turns away, huffs an angry sigh. "You came here for something else besides speaking to me. Perhaps you should get on with that."

Nathan is hardly more eager to continue this than Tony is. It's bringing up nothing but stress and unpleasant memories.

These people had tried to break him after Tony was just old enough to be willful. That and witnessing your parents' brutal death didn't exactly create a sound mind, as such Tony proved to be more work than he was worth for most people.

At the quip, he just looks away, refusing to answer further. He's dug himself a deep enough hole here, doesn't need to go making it any worse. Because he doesn't know how to deal with peer pressure, Nathan, that's why. Not that he'll bother to speak further in his own defense, just refuse to meet Nathan's eyes and wait until he can find an out.

And as soon as one presents itself, he's gone. Not even so much as a goodbye, just the quiet click of the door closing behind him. Guess he hasn't stopped running away from his problems completely just yet.

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Mistakes come back to bite you

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