milliways_bar | (no subject)

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There are a pair of legs sticking straight up from the back of the couch today, clad in a skintight pair of jeans with bows cut into the sides all the way up. Her feet are bare, each nail colored with a different rainbow shade of neon polish. Her hair echoes that, being braided into a long mohawk again with black and neon beads slid onto the ends. She's also got an incredible hickey on the curve of her shoulder with faint teeth marks--albeit more like shark teeth than anything else--covered with several clear bandages, showing past the off-shoulder collar of her shirt.

Turns out Milliways does have some influence on her fashion choices, who knew? She's listening to music with her headphones in, and working through a maze ball with a little metal bearing. Totally botherable, especially if she accidentally kicks you.

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She does not want to accidentally kick Cy, that's for sure.

But as he's sitting at a table with his tablet detached from his arm and reading, there is little likelihood she'll kick him.

Mostly, she's still absorbed in her puzzle, and still idly kicking her feet to the rhythm of her music, occasionally mouthing along to the lyrics.

Sooner or later, Cy notices Nori. And puts down his tablet.

"Hey."

"What's up?" she asks, looking up past the puzzle ball, though she can't move it without losing her place.

"Homework. Quantum physics still makes my head hurt." He sometimes wonders why he didn't just stick with engineering. "How are you?"

"Quantum physics makes everyone's head hurt," she replies. "I'm taking a day off. Just trying to decompress."

"Too much heroing?" He's been there.

"No, too much working. Things have been relatively quiet at home."

"You have a job now?" He figures that bandage had to be from a fight. Guess that was wrong.

"Oh yeah. Electrical engineer, working on green energy potentials," she says, reaching back to rub the bandage. It itches.

"I'm good at it, at least."

That gets a big grin from Cy. "You know I'm getting a BS in Engineering, right?

"Though I'm more about wanting to build cars. Not that they can't be more green." The T-Mobile? Alas, a bit of a gas guzzler.

"Congratulations," she says dryly. "You have to finish high school to do that. I didn't."

"Ever think about trying to get a GED and move up? That's what I did." Pause. "Not that you totally have to. It was just something that felt right for me."

"Oh, I have a GED, but all of the college programs I'm looking into require more money than I've got, and I've already got a job without the degree."

"OK, that's cool." He'll let the subject drop. He can only afford college because of a combination of life insurance from his mom, investments done on his behalf by someone connected with Robin, and a partial scholarship.

"How do you balance work and being a hero?"

"Things are quieting down for the moment, and I'm technically just a paid intern. I don't have to show up every day."

"Lucky you that you're paid. My professors can only find me unpaid. Gonna have to take one this summer."

"It started as unpaid, but my interview was basically 'what's your solution for the inefficiency of this system' and...I fixed it."

"Way to go." He would offer a high five, but that could hurt her.

"Yeah, sometimes it doesn't feel like that," she says.

"Honestly? I have no idea what to expect when it's time to work. I've been a hero for so long that it's to imagine doing anything else. And my last job was when I was 15."

"My first job was at a coffeeshop. The first things I got paid for were not," she says. "I'm no hero. I'm an X-Man, and there's a very notable difference. Sometimes we don't win."

He isn't sure what to make of that.

"But it's still something that keeps you busy."

"Well, yeah. It does that," she admits.

"Ever think about leaving it behind?"

"What, being an X-Man?" she asks. "Yeah, I have. And I do, often, but it's...not something I could make myself do."

"Same here, about being a Titan. I mean, even if I tried to be a part time hero, the Titans are family. If the Justice League called tomorrow, I would say no."

Fry glances at the hickey, only for a moment, then watches the maze ball.

After a moment she can feel that someone's watching her, and she looks around until she finds Fry, pulling out an earbud.

"Hey, kid. What's up?"

"Did Dr Lecter bite you?" Fry asks.

"Why would Hannibal bite me?" she asks. "He didn't, though. This is a hickey--someone I like, back in my own world, was kissing my shoulders and bit down a little hard. It's not a bad thing."

"Was it a vampire?" Fry asks.

"No, it wasn't a vampire," she says, shaking her head as one hand goes to the bandage. "It's--he's a man, that's all, but he's like me, and has sharp teeth. I can show you the bite if you want, but it's all red--but no blood, okay? You can still say no if you don't want to see it."

"No I don't want to see it, I just wanted to make sure nobody tried to eat you in your sleep." Fry says.

Noriko smiles, and laughs to herself. "Nope, no one tried to eat me. Just a hickey, no big deal."

"Mum says people can do what they like to each other as long as they agree with it." Fry says.

"Your mom's right. And several of us embrace that," she says.

"You have more than one boyfriend?"

"Me? No, not even that many. I have a lot of friends who happen to be boys, but I don't have any boyfriends, why do you ask?"

"You said several of you embrace."

"Yeah," she says. "But just because I embrace the idea doesn't mean I actively participate," she says.

"Isn't embracing kissing?"

"No, when I say I embrace an idea it means I accept it enthusiastically, and I like it," she says. "But that doesn't mean kissing."

"Oh." Fry nods.

"I don't really know much about romance yet."

"Oh, you're a little young for that, don't worry."

"Sometimes kids sing about girls and boys sitting in a tree kissing but there aren't any trees in our playground since they cut down the one with the monster's gob."

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