Second Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

[lockestheway]

Okay, so Peter's plan to get some bodyguards had been waylaid by the enormous volume of work that had come crashing down on him the past few weeks. What little free time he'd had he hadn't exactly wanted to spend going around politicking with the student base, but now that he finally did have a day with only minimal work to do, well...

He'd gone out into town and bought two bags full of pastries from JGoB's, and brought them back up into the common room. Now there they were, spread out across the coffee table, Peter lounging ever-casually on the couch.

If that didn't bring in some potential bodyguard candidates, he didn't know what would.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[nottrivial]

"Yeah, I can see how that would come as a shock," Alec sympathized. "My adoptive brother started here before I did, so he was able to warn me. If he hadn't prepared me, even coming from a weird background, I probably wouldn't have dealt too well."

[lockestheway]

"Not much for big, jarring changes in your environment?" Peter asked. "You're lucky. My brother was here, but we've been... estranged."

[nottrivial]

"Oh." The weird thing was, no matter how much Alec heard about that kind of thing happening, first from Clint and now from Peter, it still startled him every time. It was difficult for Alec, who'd been raised to protect his siblings no matter what, to wrap his head around the idea of not being close to family. "I'm sorry."

He fidgeted a bit, just enough so that someone who was especially perceptive would notice.

[lockestheway]

Peter noticed something, but he could only guess at what was behind it.

Still, he was a decent guesser. "It's fine," he said glibly. "These things happen. He's gone now, anyway, and my time here's all the better for it."

[nottrivial]

"...I guess." He totally didn't think so. "So... where are you from?"

There, a relatively uncontroversial topic change.

[lockestheway]

"Earth, a couple hundred years into the planet's future from here," Peter said. "If you want something more specific, I'm from North Carolina."

[nottrivial]

"So, better technology but worse weather," Alec guessed. "I assume. I'm from New York. Right around now."

[lockestheway]

"Not bad," Peter said, taking another bite of his pastry before putting it down. "You could be a whole lot further from home. I feel sorry for the kids who are from different planets entirely."

[nottrivial]

"I'm not sure I've met any of those?" That he knew of, anyway. Such were the perils of aggravating space kids so much he had to flee the room. "But that would definitely be a lot more to adjust to than just... suddenly having more free time than usual and not having to worry about fighting demons in the evenings."

Cough.

"Just for example."

[lockestheway]

... Yep, a save-the-world type he was.

Peter was going to try and not exude too much smug about catching the kind of fly he'd been hoping for.

"I've met one or two," he said. "My brother was dating one. Arrogant kid, though."

[nottrivial]

"I guess that makes sense," Alec offered. "With the... sense of scale you get in space, it must be easy to just... sort of overinflate... I don't know." Look, he tried. "Sounds... annoying, anyway. I know the feeling. My brother Jace isn't exactly modest."

[lockestheway]

Peter blinked. "Wait. Natalie's Jace?"

Sure, pick now to start remembering names.

[nottrivial]

There were very few statements in the world that could've made Alec scowl more than that one comment.

"If that's how she's been describing him," Alec said, annoyed. "Yes, I guess. She knows him."

Ugh.

[lockestheway]

"Not a big fan of Natalie, huh?" Peter said. Sympathetically.

No, seriously, he was a politician. He wasn't going to straight-up lie, but he wasn't leaping down anyone's throat in Natalie's defense here.

[nottrivial]

"We're not what you'd call friends," Alec settled on. "You know her?"

[lockestheway]

"We've met," Peter said smoothly. "Anyway, she's mentioned your brother a few times."

Usually in context of being her brother, but he had a feeling mentioning that would send this conversation into a direction he didn't want it to go in.

[nottrivial]

Peter was so, so wise. Or just extremely accomplished in dealing with moody teenagers. Bit of both, maybe?

"Ah." Alec was not surprised at all by this news. "That sounds like her."

[lockestheway]

"You think she's a bad influence?" Peter asked neutrally - honestly neutrally, with no sense of judgement in his tone.

[nottrivial]

"To put it lightly." Seriously, Alec, be less of a pissy bitch. "She's short-tempered, she's violent, she's apparently being shown her way around weapons now..."

[lockestheway]

"All true," Peter said, nodding along.

Well, they were true. He just didn't necessarily see them as bad qualities... all the time.