log: credence & nico WHO: Credence Barebone & Nico di Angelo WHEN: September (waaaay backdated) WHERE: Food court. SUMMARY: Two friends just generally catching up and talking. WARNINGS: I don't believe there are any.
Maybe it should have surprised Nico that it took Percy’s birthday party to realize he’d fallen out of touch with Credence, but honestly, that sort of interpersonal thing had never been his strong suit. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t been in the other boy’s orbit. It’s just that between graduating and portal shenanigans and everything, the hanging out during school had drifted to the network and parties. Which hadn’t seemed like much of a change until Credence showed up as the plus one to Percy’s party.
Catching up happened and an agreement to get together to really hang out when there wasn’t… well… water volleyball for one thing. The party had plenty of distractions that made talking a sporadic thing. And while Tumbleweed had plenty of coffee shops, diners, and whatever, the mall won the pick for meet up point. After all, the food court offered multiple options and even if shopping didn’t happen, the building provided a nice, air-conditioned place to walk around and chat if movement was required.
But for now, they’d grabbed a table in the food court that was just the right distance from everything that the table felt private despite being in the middle of a food court. Nico had indulged in some childish impulses, but really, how could he resist a Happy Meal when the toys were space themed Snoopy? He was sure Anakin and Tahiri would get a kick out of it (and likely come up with improvements for the ‘rocket’ toy). He took a sip of his shake before holding it out to Credence.
“Have you tried the pumpkin yet? Not bad for a seasonal shake.”
"I haven't," Credence responded as he reached for the offered shake.
Like Nico, he really had never been good at keeping up relationships. To be fair, he had never really been allowed to have many outside of his family and so it had been easy to fall into the routine of only talking with Luna and Helena and Albus and then the extended Potters and Weasleys, which also, to be fair, were enough to keep up with. And then of course, there had been Flash, and he'd been a little distracted.
He offered the shake back, knowing that they probably looked like brothers the two of them - definitely close enough in age, and looks, which was fine. In his own way Nico had been a little bit like a brother, one that albeit, understood the modern world a lot better than Credence had.
"It's good," he added, handing it back, and reaching for a french fry. "How's everything since the party?"
Nico gladly took the shake back, stirring the straw around before taking another sip. “About usual,” he replied. He puffed out a long sigh as he rolled his eyes. “Usual for here that is. Which means despite everything, we went to that Tumbleweed festival.” He snagged a fry as his head lulled to the side. “Good news: I didn’t get magicked for once.” He made a face before popping the fry into his mouth and munching it down. “Bad news: I had to take care of a pair of Jedi kittens.” He slowly waved his hand over the table and lowered his voice in his best Obi Wan impression. “‘You have not fed us and must give us treats now.’ Jiji is bad enough, I’m really glad he’s just a normal kitten without mind trick powers.”
He had another fry before he raised an eyebrow. “How about you? How’ve things been going?”
Credence's eyes widened, and then he laughed. "Jedi Kittens?" He assumed that Nico had to be referring to Anakin and his friend - the blonde whose name was… Ta… something with a T. Maybe Nico would mention it because Credence ought to remember it, but he'd not always been good with things like remembering names or making friends. "Did they actually mind trick you?"
Nico scoffed as he raised his chin slightly. “I’m far too strong-willed for that to work.” He managed to keep that cool and confident air for a few seconds before he blew out a breath and shrugged. “Not that Anakin would need to. He’s got plenty of looks more powerful than any mind trick.”
He smirked as he pulled his phone out and opened it to one of the more clumsy exploits of the kittens. “Plus the blackmail material was too perfect.”
Credence grinned, a quick thing, but definitely still there. He didn't know if he'd be that strong minded. He rather suspected that he wouldn't be, although he didn't know a lot about how Jedi things would. He nodded though, because Anakin was really cute. Not that he had anything on Flash, but cute enough, and he could see the appeal.
"I'd say you should share this with everyone, but then it wouldn't be blackmail material," Credence watched. "How long were they kittens?"
Nico shook his head. “Oh, it’d be a good laugh, I’m sure, although I’m not sure anything I could film would work as blackmail against Tahiri.” He frowned. “And I can’t remember if Anakin got any video of me as a horse, so… there’s a chance of that surfacing if I post it…” Putting his phone down on the table, he ran a hand through his hair. “A day or so? It wasn’t very long. Long enough for Jibacca to get annoyed but not long enough for her to get over the fact that there were more cats in the house.”
He rested his elbows on the table and tilted his head curiously. “So, how about you? Any weird things going on?”
"Animals don't always like other animals encroaching on their space do they?" Credence shook his head with a bit of a smile. "I'm glad it wasn't too long and stressful for Jibacca, or you know, any of them."
He considered the question. Had there been anything weird happening? Outside of the normal weird things, nothing really had been happening to him - which, was kind of nice. He shook his head slowly. "I think the normal weird things, which, Tumbleweed, but beyond that… no. I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt the University next year, or something. I've learned magic, but I don't really know what I should be doing with it… you know?"
“Or people depending,” Nico added with a snort of amusement. The fact that Jiji actually liked him was still a miracle in his books considering how most animals just did not like him. But maybe his bad luck back home was just not trying a black cat out.
He nodded as he swirled a fry slowly through the ketchup. “I know. This world doesn’t really have the same opportunities for doing something with magic, does it?” True, there were the displaced and businesses associated with them, but it wasn’t really like having an entire world of possibilities open for you to discover. Feel out your place in it and what you wanted to do. Which seemed like a general theme going around. He was making due with his work, but it certainly wasn’t the same as what he’d be doing back home. But then back home, planning for the future was more practicing for battles and hope you made it through whatever new quest, monster, or (if Apollo fixed things) prophecy would be tossed at them. “What do you think you’d study if you went to the University?”
"I mean," Credence hesitated briefly, the obscurus did change things too - even if it wasn't in a significant way. He wasn't certain exactly how much always. "Yeah, it's not the same. It's not like there are magical jobs I can go learn, and I could help with the Bureau maybe, but I feel like being places where I can't use magic is sometimes actually worse for the Obscurus?"
He wrapped his hands around his drink and shrugged. "I don't really know. Maybe history, or philosophy or something. I don't have a super clear vision, which is part of why I haven't done it."
His brow pinched slightly in worry as Nico focused fully on Credence. Obviously things were going better with the Obscurus considering, well, it would be rather obvious if it wasn’t. Having been up close and personal when things were going south made that all too clear. But, well, he also knew far too well that even if you were in control of something dark, it didn’t always stop that anxiety of things going badly.
“It feels… more stable when there’s some sort of outlet…” he murmured before tilting his head. “How is that going? The Obscurus and all? Especially with…” He couldn’t help the upturn twitch of his lips. “... the pool party boy?”
"Yeah, that's it pretty much exactly," Credence nodded. And then his gaze snapped up, and there was a flush on his cheeks. "You mean Flash?" He looked back down, the smile on his lips giving it all away, really. "He's really good. I mean, being with him is good?" The cheeks felt very hot. "It's just good."
Even if the words were repetitive, Credence’s body language spoke volumes. Nico couldn’t help a bit of a smirk at not being the one blushing and fumbling for once. It was nice, but even nicer that, well, Credence was to this level. Yeah, the other boy was avoiding eye contact, but the slight downturn could do nothing to hide the smile that brightened up his entire expression. Something that would look so normal to an outsider and yet was leaps and bounds of improvement from the boy he’d hung out with at lunch in high school. No curling into himself. No twitchiness and looking for an exit. No skirting away from the topic. It was nice and he wondered if this is how Reyna felt whenever she’d give him that look or make comment that had her telling her to shut up.
“Good is good.” Which just added to the repetitive, but he got it. Sometimes putting words to something like that was hard. “He’s cute.” Honestly, lookwise, Flash reminded him of Jason. That whole blond Superman thing. Which, ok, not bad to look at, but not really his type. “I’m glad it’s going good. And he’s ok with everything?”
"It is good," Credence did look up then, meeting Nico's eyes for a minute and glancing back again. "But yeah, he's okay with everything. I mean, the magic, and obscurus and all of it. Like, we've both kind of got things, actually…. It's nice. Like, real nice, cause we can talk about stuff, and it's not a bother to him my Obscurus, which is good 'cause I don't think it's going away. I think he'd be cool if I went to take classes too. He's supportive, and…" he stopped trying to think of the best way to describe Flash.
Thinking of Flash always just made him feel as if he'd been wrapped in a warm blanket. And it wasn't just the warmth of emotion, but everything about Flash felt like warmth and comfort, and you know sometimes hot hot levels of warmth, but considering that the feeling was one he'd not had for most of his life, Credence was super grateful for it. "He's just the warmest person. Just really good, and he's into me." This last part was said a little wonderingly, but Credence had no doubt of it.
A small smile graced his lips as Nico listened. Small because it was genuine and, well, filled with warmth. Credence was doing a much better job that he ever felt he did of just talking about and describing that feeling. They were words that could very easily go through his head, but getting them to string together out of his mouth could still be hard. Usually it got stuck at just ‘well, it’s Anakin’, but really it had been all of that. The similarities between the Jedi and demigod life. Dealing with older siblings. With battle and death. Plus the idea of legacy. That understanding that started with friendship and grew into more. Which he was happy that Credence found, especially considering everything the other boy had been through. Especially as he understood that tone in that very last bit.
“It’s really amazing when someone goes and surprises you with the whole liking thing, isn’t it?” he said with a shake of his head. “That’s great, especially considering everything.” He rolled his eyes at himself. “Not that many of us have had a good history with this, but you know what I mean, yeah?”
"Yeah, I do," Credence looked over at Nico and smiled. "Thanks, you know, for helping me figure things out a bit. I don't think I could have done it without you."
“I’m glad that it actually helped, considering-” Nico puffed out a breath as he shook his head. “-I really had no idea what I was doing. Just… I remembered how nice it was at Mount Weather having Billy around, even if I didn’t know how to even deal with ninety percent of the stuff he talked ‘bout and… I’m glad I could just do a bit of that kind of good.” His head tilted as he thought it all over a second. The talks and hanging out and friendship. “And thanks. I think you helped me too. With just… Talking and getting more ok with…” He waved a hand. “... everything.”
He nodded his head before picking up his milkshake and raising it towards Credence. “So, to friends and guys being into us.”
Credence grinned at that and lifted his milkshake.