Nico di Angelo is the (angelsbreath) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-05-08 23:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, nico di angelo, sans |
Who: Nico di Angelo and Sans with mentions of NPCroommates
When: Backdated to beginning of the school year (Don’t judge us!)
Where: Near UCI and ultimately a McDonald’s
What: The beginning of an epic friendship
Rating: Low
Status: Complete when posted
Nico knew he should be in his dorm room, sleeping but his roommate’s marathon sex session with his date was making that impossible for him. So instead - he was walking around campus, debating going to try to sack out on one of the couches in his dorm’s common room for the night. That or going to McDonald’s or someplace like that to get something to eat. He sighed as he sat down on a bench, checking his phone for what felt like the 100th time to see if he’d gotten a text that he could come back to the dorm. Not that he really thought he’d get one. This was the third night this week he’d been driven out of the dorm room because of this and he was tired of it. The semester had barely started and he was already having a problem with his roommate. “This is ridiculous!” He said outloud. Continuing on in Italian after a moment. “If I’d known it was going to be like this I’d have decided to live at home.” He was talking to himself, a habit that he couldn’t seem to shake.
***
Nico was not the only one out roaming the campus, although Sans was for a much different reason. His roommate had dropped after rooms had been assigned, and as no new ones had made an appearance so early in the year, he was on his own.
Most people would consider that a blessing, but Sans, Sans wasn’t used to it. Being alone was a weird concept to him. He couldn’t remember a time when he had been, when there hadn’t been a little brother tagging along after him, needing attention and love. Although Papyrus had grown out of the habit of crawling into bed with Sans in the middle of the night, they still slept with their doors open so they could hear each other.
It wasn’t like the campus was exactly quiet, but it wasn’t the type of noise that he was used to, and Sans had never been a particularly great sleeper to start with, at least not at night. And there weren’t any classes tomorrow, so he was golden to stay up without having to worry about falling asleep in class tomorrow. Which was why he was wandering around in the middle of the night, instead of lying in bed and doing his best to will himself to sleep. That never seemed to work for him.
What he needed was a snack, he was pretty sure. Something decently greasy and completely satisfying. Maybe that would settle him down, get him full enough to be lulled to sleep. Maybe. At least it would give him something to do. He knew there was a McDonald’s somewhere nearby, he just had to find it…
He passed by a guy, sitting on a bench and talking to himself, and had to pause. The guy was too well-dressed to be an average, run-of-the-mill crazy homeless dude, and other than the whole talking to himself thing, he seemed perfectly put together, if a little sleep deprived. Sans was pretty good at figuring people out. So he doubled back and walked up to the guy, standing in front of him and holding out a hand, the other stuck in his pocket.
“I could really go for a burg right now, you wanna come with?” he asked. He could almost hear one of his nannies crying ‘STRANGER DANGER’ at him, but he ignored it with a grin. If this guy did turn out to be a crazy dude, well, Sans was a pro at running away. It’s why he was even in California to start.
***
Nico looked up when he heard someone speaking to him, startled out of his thoughts. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out the best way to answer when his stomach growled. He didn’t normally go places with strangers but he was hungry. And if he denied it this guy would have known he was lying. He reached out for the offered hand and shook it quickly. “Only if there are fries too,” he said, standing up from the bench. “I’m Nico di Angelo.”
***
“Duh, fries. A burger without fries is a burg-error.” Sans grinned, a joke popping into his head. “Nice to meet you Nico. Hey, knock knock.”
***
Nico laughed despite himself at that bad pun, shaking his head. “Burgerror?” He asked, a small smile on his face.
He gave the other boy a cautious look as he answered him. “Who’s there?”
***
“Yeah. Burgerror. I thought that one was pretty good myself.” He was used to a lot more kicking and screaming and groaning in response to his puns, but hey, some people were a little more subdued than his brother.
Most people were more subdued than his brother, actually.
Sans grinned at Nico. “Sans,” he said, and then after the other guy’s ‘Sans who’, he responded. “I’m Sans.” After a beat he added. “Sorry, that’s a bad joke, but I thought I’d fry it on ya anyway. Come on, I’m hungry.”
***
Nico groaned at that pun following Sans joke to introduce himself. “There is no excuse for a joke that bad,” he said, grinning at his new friend. Or potential new friend.
“There’s a McDonald’s about 10 minutes from here. Five if we drive and my car is that way.”
***
“Get used to it, pal,” Sans said, grin growing. “There are plenty more where that came from, I’m full of ‘em. And I’d like to be full of food too. Lead the way.”
He followed after Nico, hands shoved in the pockets of his hoodie. “So what has you out so late? Can’t sleep?”
***
Nico pulled his car keys out as he led his way to the parking lot, using the key fob to unlock it once they were close. He waited until they were moving to answer Sans’ question. “I wish I could sleep. My roommate and his date are going for the record on how long they can screw in one night. I didn’t feel like sticking around for that.”
***
Sans climbed in once the door was open, buckling in and looking over to check that Pap was as well before remembering. He wasn’t at home. Right.
“That’s pretty screwed up, man. I wouldn’t wanna sit through that either.” He sat back, crossing his arms. “I just can’t sleep. This is gonna sound weird but it’s too quiet here. My roommate dropped so I’m bunking on my own, and I’m not used to that at all. Slightly better arrangement than yours, gotta say.”
***
Nico laughed at that joke, shaking his head. “Slightly better than the first one.” He said, using his turn signal to turn into the parking lot. He got to have his car on campus on the condition that he didn’t get any tickets. That was the deal he’d made with his mom and he was going to stick to it. “It doesn’t sound weird. I’m used to my sisters and my dog and all the noises of the house. When I do get to be in my dorm - it sounds wrong.” He found a parking spot and pulled in, noticing that they had some kind of animal toys for the Happy Meals as they walked up to the door.
“You’re lucky. I wish I’d let my parents get a single. Or an apartment.”
***
“All of my jokes are hilarious,” Sans said with a grin. “Your sense of humor must be off, or else you’re pun-king me.” He winked at the other boy. “I’m used to my brother, and my parents keep weird hours sometimes if they’ve got experiments they’re dealing with or classes they’re running, so they’re always making noise. Plus the street noise, and the neighbors. You get fucked outta your own room a lot, then?”
Sans followed Nico out as well, eyes darting over to the poster. They’d changed them out recently, huh. He’d pick one of those up for Pap, along with all the other souveniers he’d collected so far. “Eh, I’m sure they’ll put someone else in eventually and I’ll have to clean all my mess up. If you need a place to stay for the night you’re welcome to the extra bed. After food, though.”
The lady behind the counter sighed when she saw him approaching, and started piling ketchup packets into a bag, which she thrust at him before he could even order. Sans smiled at her. He thought he was generally a pretty friendly guy, and he liked to have places that he was familiar with, and that were familiar with him. He had to say this was the fastest he’d ever gotten someone used to his habits though. “Nice to see you, Lucy, you’ve really had time to ketchup with how I like things. Number two with fries, and could I get one of the stuffies for my brother? Don’t toy with my emotions, here.”
***
“Third night this week. At least he seems to have settled onto one girl? When we first moved into the dorm it was a different girl every night. I almost miss that. Some of them were considerate and tried to keep the fake moans down,” Nico said, a small smile on his face as he looked at the other boy. “I really don’t get how he doesn’t realize she’s faking it when she starts her porn star moans,” he said, ignoring the dirty look from the girl behind the counter. It wasn’t like he’d demonstrated.
“I might take you up on that offer. After food. I wonder if they have the eggnog milkshake yet,” he wondered out loud, turning his attention to the menu. He gave Sans a curious look when he saw the lady filling a bag with ketchup packets as they approached the counter. “I’m sensing a story there,” he said, waiting until Sans had ordered and paid to place his own order. “Six piece happy meal, extra fries and hot mustard. With a soda.”
***
“Your roommate sounds like an angel, pal. Must be why they paired you up.” Sans caught the register girl giving them a look and slung an arm around Nico’s shoulder. “Let’s table this conversation for now, at least until we get to one.” Despite his penchant for puns and joking in some pretty terrible situations, Sans wasn’t a complete tool. He didn’t relish in making people uncomfortable. Unless they deserved it.
“I’m sure they’ll get it into their noggins if you egg them on enough, to bring it back.” Sans just grinned at the look, reaching into the bag and pulling out a packet. “I like ketchup,” he said. “She got tired of me asking for more. Now she just gives me a whole bag.” To prove his point, he reached into the bag and pulled out a packet, tearing open a corner and emptying it into his mouth, swallowing with a smack of the lips. “Tasty.”
Orders placed, Sans pulled out his wallet and paid for them before Nico could protest - he’d just gotten paid from his latest round of tutoring, and there was no way that he was making the guy who got kicked out of his room for porn moans and awkward humping pay. Nico could just owe him the next one.
***
Nico wasn’t an affectionate person with most people so he tensed when Sans first put his arm around him that way, taking a deep breath to force himself to relax. Sans didn’t know that Nico didn’t like to be touched that way and he was right about them needing to put their conversation on pause. He didn’t want to make this woman uncomfortable, not deliberately at least. “Get one and our food,” he amended. He didn’t know if it was real or not but he always thought it was better to wait when he was getting fries or they’d get cold. Or he’d be given cold fries. He wasn’t sure which was true when he walked away. They always seemed to be hot when he waited.
“I just need to wait until after Thanksgiving. And stay away from the Holiday Pie,” he said, leaning against the wall near the counter. He made a face when Sans did that with the ketchup packet. “If they put any in my happy meal - I’ll give it to you. I can’t stand ketchup,” he admitted.
Nico grabbed the tray when their orders were ready before Sans could. “Lead the way,” he said, following him through the restaurant to a table and setting it down to go make his drink.
***
Sans felt Nico tense up and, just as casually as he’d slung an arm around his shoulders, he removed it. It was hard to remember, sometimes, that he wasn’t with Papyrus. He’d had friends at school but no one he was close to, not like he was with his brother - it was hard, when he’d graduated early and his parents wanted him to put in so much extra work. He didn’t exactly have the time for just hanging out. Papyrus was the only one that he had.
Maybe that explained why he didn’t much care to work so hard now; although some might call the time he put into the tutoring to be ‘working hard’, it was a lot lighter and easier than what he was used to, and besides, he had to do something to earn some money. As soon as he could he was getting his brother away from their parents, and he’d need money for an apartment and Pap’s school.
“Sounds good, buddy.” Sans leaned up beside him. “They’ll be here soon enough. Or too soon, depending on how concerned you are about your waistline.” He noticed the face and shook his head at the explanation. “My friend, my pal, you are missing out on so much of the world. That just leaves more for me, which I mustard say I don’t mind too much.”
Sans chose a table a decent away from the counter, tucked into a corner where they had a good view out the windows and they wouldn’t be bothered. The restaurant was fairly empty, probably due to the hour, so Sans didn’t worry about leaving the food while he followed after Nico to get a drink as well. You just couldn’t have fries without orange soda, it was a crime.
Once they returned to the table, Sans slouched into the booth and tucked in. “So,” he said between bites. “Other than being unlucky enough to get a very unsatisfying roommate, what brings you to the OC? You go to Irvine, I take it?”
***
Nico really only was affectionate with his family since he hadn’t made any close friends since moving from Italy. Unless you counted his dog but - Cesare didn’t leave people much choice about being affectionate towards him. When he wanted to be loved on - he got loved on. He gave Sans a small smile. “Sorry. I’m not used to being touched by a lot of people,” he said, his voice quiet so that only Sans would hear. He didn’t think Sans had meant to make him uncomfortable but he hadn’t been able to stop the reaction.
He laughed at the comment about his waistline, shaking his head. “That’s not something I worry about. I don’t have much of an appetite generally. I eat a lot of mini meals,” he said. No one in his family could figure out why he didn’t have more of an appetite, neither could the doctors. He was healthy though. Just a bit on the smaller side.
Nico dumped part of his fries into the top part of his nugget box, opening up the hot mustard to dip both in. “I’m a freshman there. My parents moved here from Italy a couple years ago for work. Well my father’s work. My madre can work anywhere,” he didn’t even realize he’d used the Italian word for mother. He couldn’t seem to think of the word in English when actually talking about her.
“What about you? What brings you to the OC? Other than school.”
***
Sans just shrugged. “Some people aren't. It's cool. No hard feelings. My brother and I are pretty close, so I'm used to it, plus, uh. New York. You get used to touching.”
Sans figured - the guy was a beanpole, he either didn't eat much or he was one of those people that ate everything. “You're making my big brother instincts kick in here, dude. Got the sudden urge to feed ya. Better start eating before I get any ideas.”
Sans followed in Nico’s footsteps, emptying his fries into the tray and starting to open up his ketchup packets. “It-aly sounds like you’re still adjusting a little there, pal. What do they do? That's a pretty impressive move, I gotta say.”
He shrugged. “First place that gave me a full ride. Lucky for me their science programs are pretty good, so I didn't have to worry about that. You wanted to stay close to home I take it? You guys must be close.”
***
Nico gave him a thankful smile when Sans said there were no hard feelings. He’d had enough potential friendships wrecked over the fact that he didn’t like to be touched to appreciate the fact that Sans just accepted it so calmly. “Thanks,” he said softly.
He laughed at the comment about big brother instincts as he started to eat. He knew all about big brother instincts kicking in, his woke up whenever he was around Hazel. Or whenever anyone even reminded him of her somehow. He shook his head and took a sip of his Coke before answering him. “I’ve just never had a big appetite.”
“My father is a director. Madre is an artist,” Nico said between bites of nugget and fries. “I stayed close to home for my younger sister. And my dog but mostly my little sister Hazel. It’s been a rough couple years for her since the move.”
***
Sans waved the thanks off. “It’s cool, pal, you’re fine. Although, uh, you ever meet my brother. I’m sorry now.”
He just shook his head. “I’m not listening, dude, that is making like three alarms go off in my head. Gotta feed him. I’m gonna have to learn to make soup or some shit to feed you.”
Impressive. Sans raised his brows. “Any movies I’ve ever heard of?” He nodded at that reasoning. “Sometimes I wish I’d stayed home, I miss my brother and I know he misses me, but I’m hoping he’ll be able to come out here when he graduates.”
***
Nico gave a quiet laugh at that comment about Sans’ brother. “I’ll keep that in mind. Try to prepare myself if I ever meet him. Just give me a heads up when he’s coming to visit so that I can. Deal?”
“What are you going to do - sit on me and force the soup down my throat?” Nico asked, the question out before he could stop himself. “Sorry - sisters. Instinct took over with that response.”
“Depends on if you follow Italian cinema. He’s not really well known here. What about you? What do your parents do for a living?” he asked, hoping to change the subject from himself before anymore talk of his sisters. He missed Hazel like crazy sometimes, missed being able to talk face to face with her about what she’d done that day.
***
“I’ll do my best but he usually announces himself pretty early on. If you ever hear about the Great Papyrus, he’s on campus. He’s fun, just a little much for some people.” Sans couldn’t help but smile - an actual smile, not his usual shit-eating-but-chiller grin. Few things could manage to produce that look on his face. Papyrus was one of them.
There was a remnant of it hanging around when he burst out laughing - loud and sudden in the otherwise quiet of the restaurant, and he covered his mouth. Still laughing, but hey, he had some manners. “Well, you’ve put the idea in my head now. If it comes to that I’ll be willing to try. Thankfully Pap’s never tried that one on me, although when you eat spaghetti every day you eventually hit a point where you do kind of have to force it down.”
Sans took a bite of his burger and shrugged. “Can’t say that I do. Wouldn’t say I’m exactly an artsy guy. Diagrams are about as artistic as I get. Mine are scientists, Mom’s a chemist and Dad’s a theoretical physicist. They were out a lot running experiments or giving lectures or whatever so it was just me and Pap most of the time. We had nannies but once I got old enough to watch him I told my parents we didn’t need them anymore and I took care of him. This is the first time we’ve been apart that I can ever remember and it sucks.”
***
“I’ll keep my ears open. And try to lay low until he gets any hugs or whatever out of his system.” Nico said with a laugh.
“Spaghetti every day? Seriously? I’m Italian and that sounds like it would be much even for me,” he said, staring at him in shock, a nugget halfway to his mouth.
“I don’t either. I’m studying interior design - personality wise I’m apparently similar to him but our interests are different. I couldn’t care less about cameras. She works from home so my sister and I never had to worry about a nanny. I don’t think we’d have liked having one.” He said with a shrug.
***
“Just throw me in front of him, I’m used to it. He does those hugs that like, pick you up and everything. I’ll sacrifice myself for you.”
Sans snorted. “It’s uh. It’s unlike any spaghetti you’ve ever tried before. But he makes it for me so that’s all I really need to eat it. I’m not exactly picky.” Either to prove the point, or just to make Nico get that look again, he tore open another ketchup packet and poured it into his mouth.
“Aerospace engineering,” Sans said with a grin, waiting for the reaction - almost everyone he’d ever mentioned his major to got the same look, wide eyes and open mouths and nervous smiles when they realized he might start talking shop at them. “Interior design sounds cool too, though. I like to think I’m nothing like my parents, but, eh. Some people probably say I’ve picked up a personality trait or two from them. Some of our nannies weren’t that bad but they worked for our parents so they had to do what my parents wanted, and we didn’t get much time to just run around and be kids. Pap especially.”
***
“Yeah - I’ll definitely let you have those. No offense to you and your brother just like I told you, I’m not a big toucher with most people.”
“I’m seeing that,” Nico said mildly, wrinkling his nose a little as Sans squirted another ketchup packet into his mouth that way.
“That sounds like a challenge,” Nico said, a little bit of curiousity obvious on his face. He wasn’t a big science person but it was interesting to him anyway. He’d ask questions if things didn’t make sense to him when people were talking to him. “My father and I have a similar sense of humor and attitude about some things. And I look like him. Bianca - takes more after our mother. At least in looks.” Not getting time to just be kids - sounded like hell and made him think of Hazel in a way. He took a sip of his drink before standing up to go get a refill.
***
Sans just shrugged with a smile. Frankly, a lot of people seemed overwhelmed by Pap unless they were of a similar personality. Sans was happy to step in where he was needed.
That just got another grin, before Sans picked up his burger and started in on it...after adding some more ketchup, of course.
“It’s not so bad, but uh, I’ve always been a science guy. It’s not everyone’s thing. My brother isn’t a huge fan of it, either.” He shrugged. “I dunno who I look more like. People say both my brother and I take after our dad but uh, I’m not sure I see it.” Maybe he just didn’t want to. He liked to think that he was nothing like his parents, and he knew that Pap definitely wasn’t.
Sans held up his drink. “Get mine too, please?” He was finally starting to droop, and standing up...nah, that was too much.
***
Nico rolled his eyes when he saw Sans add more ketchup to his burger. He was going to have to get used to that obviously. If he was going to keep hanging out with Sans and he kind of hoped they kept hanging out.
“I wish sometimes I could say I didn’t see it but,” he shrugged as he stopped talking. It was what it was.
“You had orange right?” Nico asked, taking the other boy’s cup and waiting for a response before going to make their drinks.