3rd Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

[bookbeltof_love]

Was this her common room?

No!

It wasn't stopping her from swanning on in with her midnight blue beret perched jauntily on upon her head—the cape, though, she'd left in her room—and her tablet accompanying her.

Nor had it stopped her from ordering a positively obnoxious amount of Thai food since, like, sharing was caring after all…

Except when it came to Noct, who she'd redubbed Croissantias, the fisherman, and inbetween her Plans for class she was amusing herself by essentially writing fanfic of her own class to include Croissantias in them and sending said snippets off to Noct.

It wasn't her fault he'd teased her—she was super certain that was her brother's fault—and that his classes weren't as exciting.

Besides, it was a nice, relaxing way to spend a Friday evening. Even if, like, Foomy seemed to have abandoned her…

Well, at least her Pad Thai was a staunch ally! And delicious!

[Open CR is open, naturally! Noctis modded with permission lol.]

Comments

[bookbeltof_love]

"War Dogs," she said happily. "Like, her version of spies..................."

[howareyanow]

"They got a lot of 'em?" Wayne asked, conversationally, wondering if he should feel just a bit more concerned about a potentially complex network of Wakandan spies just a stone's throw away, but, then again, he knew he had nothing to worry about, so why would he be? "These spies?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"There's two on the island," she said helpfully, "and, like, a bunch more off of it, though Shuri didn't tell me the exact number, just that it's not always the same people, but it's always the same number................."

And Nina wasn't going to ask for more information either. She didn't want it.

She wanted the challenge of it.

[howareyanow]

"Ya don't say?" Wayne remarked mildly, thinking that it definitely did seem like the sort of thing Nina would enjoy hunting out, as well as a good thing to keep her occupied, just the sort of win-win situation that he'd come out of a mind like Shuri's....and how, if there were any Letterkenny spies, it wouldn't be nearly as much of a challenge fer Nina...unless it were Katy, he s'posed, but that wouldn't work, since Nina'd gone and met her already. "How many've you found so far?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"None yet," she said cheerfully, not bothered at all. "Like, I'm still eliminating the obvious definitely-nots from the pile before squinting at the maaaaaybes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[howareyanow]

"And is it a big pile of..." There was...a pause, almost as if in...preparation. Or perhaps...decision...

"Maybes," he said, in a distinctly Wayne way, not at all like how Nina'd just said it, because making the attempt was a decision he'd decided firmly against even attempting.

[bookbeltof_love]

But she appreciated that he'd tried, she really did!

"Oh, most definitely," she assured him. "Like, Shuri's given me a deadline months from now to have this sorted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[howareyanow]

Months.

Granted, one single project, no matter how time-consuming, was likeleh just a drop in the bucket fer someone like Nina, but anyone who could come up with something to distract Nina a bit, and for a while, no less, was alright by his book. Especially when that someone was a girl he was feeling pretty sweet on. And who he was pretty confident was maybe jus' a bit sweet on him, too.

You didn't even actually have too look too closely to see that Wayne might actually be wearing a fond little expression there that could easily be classified as...a smile.

"Well!" he barked cheerfully. "Best of luck to ya, Nina! I look forward to hearing how it goes!"

[bookbeltof_love]

He... he was smiling?!

Nina squinted at him. Suspiciously.

"Why are you, like, so happy????????????????"

[howareyanow]

Smiling was known to happen on occasion!

A faint shadow of it seemed to even stick around a little as Wayne lifted his eyebrows in response to someone actually squinting at him for a change.

"Got a reason why I shouldn't be?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"I mean, like, you're smiling because I'm busy????????????????" she complained. "That's, like, weird, Wayne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[howareyanow]

Well, Wayne wasn't smiling so much now, but that was just because that was just how his face worked, despite the return of a more familiar, argumentative tone.

"I'm smilin'," he insisted, "because it's a good idea, Nina!" And, well, because of who thought of it, and that was the crux of it, realleh, but it was impolite to just go around talking about stuff like that! "That just happens to keep ya busy! You tellin' me that you're not happy it's keep you busy, too?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Of course I'm happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina protested. "I like being busy--especially since................."

But no, Vette not being around wasn't the point here.

"But why are you happy that I'm busy?????????????????"

[howareyanow]

"You said it yerself, Nina!" Wayne argued back. "'Cause it make you happy! And when friends are happy, well, then, what kind of friend would I be if that didn't make me happy, too?

"Besides," he added, after a moment, looking a little sterner with a nod, because he was, if anything, an honest fellow, "if yer off busy doing something like that, then yer less likeleh to go off lookin' fer ways to be busy, 'specially since the kind of busy yer likeleh to find involved Trouble with a Capital T!

"And," he added, because if he was in fer a penny, he might as well be in fer a pound, and his voice seemed to get progressively quieter and more reluctant the more he went on, "mebbe because it is such a good idea, s'real good idea, and Shuri's the one who thought of it, and that's just something I appreciate about her."

And he finished with another nod, which almost managed to be perfectly stoic and serious up until just about the very end, where the expression went very minutely...soft in spots that were usually unfalteringly hard.