Myles was doing his usual inspection for Kian. Every so often Mr.Travers would like to know just how the rest of the staff were getting on and it was Myles' duty to go out and make small rounds on others. He had finished with the majority of the usual staff and was now searching his list for any people he may have missed. He had noticed thatNando had not been checked. Myles pursed his lips and glanced around, trying to think of where he could be. He scratched his head through his snowy white hair and adjusted his white military jacket over his white mesh shirt and started off in the hunt for the other Stargate member.
It had taken him a while but not too long into his search, while peering into rooms from the hallway, Myles finally spotted him. He backtracked a moment before walking up to the doorway of the room, leaned against it before reaching in to knock on the wall, lettingNando know that Myles was there. "Hello."
Taking a chance, Nando had set up a puzzle in the rec room on the coffee table. It wasn't a puzzle that he was particularly fond of, but he wanted to get it done all the same. If someone wanted to put their feet on the table,Nando would just collect the puzzle and go back to his room. He had thought about inviting Cree, but the puzzle wasn't all that interesting andNando liked having Cree one on one. It was selfish, but it was all in his mind. They hadn't hung out in a while as it was.
Looking up Nando offered a hesitant smile. "Hi Myles," he said, looking back at the puzzle and fitting a couple pieces together. Kian didn't care about Nando. Nando made himself available for when people needed to be interrogated or some other lie needed to be exposed, but that was all Kian had use of for the truth-finder. Or, at least, the detector of lies. Nando was dressed in a pair of loose jeans and a long-sleeved green shirt. The weath was still too chilly for his liking. No shoes, though. Just socks. "How're you?" He asked, turning his eyes up to the other.
Myles crossed the room over to Nando and sat down in one of the chairs before dropping his clipboard on the floor in front of him with a sigh. "Tired. Bored." Myles hated doing work that was away from Kian, or had no personal involvement with another person. Myles was a people person...even if he was usually the bad guy in the situation. He was always the bossy snobby one, but sometimes he just had to stop and relax. This looked like one of those times.
"Just needed to make sure you were alive." Myles leaned forward in his chair, rubbing his fingers against his forehead, closing his eyes and taking a breath. He peeked through his fingers with one eye atNando. "How are you, Nan?"
"Please, call me Nando." Even though it wasn't his real name, Nando didn't like sounding like someone's 80-year-old grandmother. It was a simple request, and Nando knew either Myles would or wouldn't do as he asked. Nando was a blip on the radar. He wasn't a telekinetic like Cain or an adult like Finn. He couldn't levitate and make Kian talk like Winnie. Nando sort of liked being vapor. He was off the radar and did what he needed to do.
"I'm fine," Nando said, offering Myles a smile, taking a moment away from his puzzle to look at him. He had the slight tinge of someone telling a lie, but there might have been a half-truth in Myles's words. "Just wishing it was warmer. But that'll come soon enough, I guess. I just wish it would get here faster." Nando reached down to the floor and plucked up his water bottle, unscrewing the top, he took a sip. His mouth always got dry around authority-types.
Myles disregarded that. He probably would call Nando whatever he felt like calling him, but for the sake of it, he would just go with Nando, but on the inside the snowy haired young man rolled his eyes. He rubbed his forehead again before slouching back in his chair and tugging at his jacket sleeves to loosen them a bit.
He glanced down at the puzzle then at Nando himself. "Yeah its still cold....are you doing a puzzle?" He arched a platinum eyebrow. "Why?" Myles had always figured puzzles were complicated and a waist of time
There were rules set up, Nando knew them. He had paid for his anonymity, even though the money wouldn't be his until later in life. This was considered a safe haven for him from the people that had killed his parents. Once he got his revenge? He didn't care who knew who he was. But until then, he wanted to keep up the rouse.Nando watched Myles, saw him adjust the coat. He seemed a little overdressed.
A part of him wanted to make a sarcastic comment, but it didn't matter because Myles had some sort of power, being under Kian and all. "Yep, I like puzzles. This one isn't too difficult or interesting, so I wouldn't feel bad if someone wanted to come in and use the table. But it's better than watching television or reading the journals."Nando fit two chunks of the puzzle together, then looked up at the other. "You're welcome to join me, if you want?"
Myles was always over dressed, or rather dressed somewhat oddly. Just a pair of black pants and a military jacket over a white fishnet shirt which matched his snowy hair. He just shrugged a little.
Myles looked at the puzzle for a moment before shrugging and tugging off his jacket and sliding to the edge of the chair he sat on and looked down at the pieces. "Yeah, alright."
Nando wondered why the jacket was taken off. They weren't digging a ditch or building a sand castle. But whatever made him more comfortable. "I'm pretty far along. I have the outside kind of done and working off those parts to get the other parts and then piecing them together. Did you ever get to see Finn's big puzzle? It was great. He asked if I wanted to do it but I didn't know where I'd put it out like that. His room's bigger than mine."
Another section was fit together. The picture was boring. It was a sunset. Who hadn't done a sunset before? Boring.
"No, I never saw it." Myles answered shortly. He shrugged a little, picking up a couple pieces and looking over them carefully. He put one down, then scanned the unfinished puzzle looking for a place the bit could fit.
He glanced at Nando. "Um..." he looked down at the puzzle again, trying to think up conversation. "Um...I think this bit might go down on your side. There's more purple there."
"It was nice. I took pictures because it was so big. He let me stand on his bed so I could. And his cat is a huge ball of fur. I could show you sometime, if you wanted."Nando smiled at the memory of it. He had liked that time with Finn. Finn was safe, like Jacob. He just wished he knew how to hang out with him more often.
"It's okay," he said, leaning back against the couch so Myles could put the piece there. "You get to put it there, since you found it. That's the fun of a puzzle, building it together because you know it fits."
Myles glanced at Nando it sounded a bit like Nando was a child now. Myles raised an eyebrow and ran his hand up through his hair, a common thing he did as he reached over to put the piece down. He looked at Nando again. "Um sure...anytime."
He glanced at puzzle again then looked back at him.
Maybe Nando was a kid. His childhood wasn't like anyone else's he knew how. Sometimes he just liked to get back to the basics. He wasn't an adult yet, not yet 18. Sometimes he'd trade all the wealth he had waiting for him for something normal. Maybe then, his parents would still be alive.
"Sometimes, the best things are the smallest thing. I put puzzles together, or read books, just because it's something I didn't get to do a lot of as a child. I was homeschooled, and puzzles weren't part of the practicum." And he'd gotten to know Cree over puzzles. Even with Ethan there all the time, Nando still was glad he knew Cree. He didn't have many friends at Stargate, as much his fault as anyone's, but sometimes a person just got lonely.
Myles knew about lonely. He has a lonely childhood and a lonely life until he joined Stargate and grew an unhealthy attachment to Kian. Myles just nodded with lost expression on his face. He then snapped back into the right mindset and glanced over at Nando, putting another piece down.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
It seemed like a lot of people were lonely - even the loud ones. Stargate made soldiers, not families. That was why it was hard for Nando to get a feel for the people. They were all there for a reason, and the reason was Stargate, when you got down to it. Puzzles allowed him to think he was somewhere else. Not with the pedophiliac priest or in a people-killing organization. Just at a coffeetable with a puzzle.
"Was there something you needed? Besides checking on me being alive?"
Myles continued to just work on the puzzle, lost in thought as he turned another piece over in his fingers. He certainly was lonely, mostly since Kian didn't give him the attention that he truly desired. He glanced at Nando again.
"Hmm? Oh....um no, nothing from you. You're fine." He sighed a little, still looking for a place for his piece to go.
"What's wrong?" Nando asked suddenly, rather surprised at his bravado. The other seemed agitated, but Nando didn't know why. Glancing at the piece Myles had, Nando pointed to a spot that needed half colors. "Maybe that goes here?" He was busy fitting together the other two sides to the rest, having a frame for the puzzle finally. A gentle, relieved smile came to his face.
"I have some puzzles in my room that I took from here. They have all the pieces, I've made sure. If you want to borrow them."
Myles glanced at Nando again. "Huh? Oh, nothing....I'm just a little out of it, that's all." He smiled a little."Just a lot of work for Kian." And none of the work he wanted to do. He put the piece down in the spot Nando pointed to.
"Hey, heh, it fits."
"See? Thanks - getting closer to getting it done." Nando concentrated on the puzzle for a moment. He fit together a bit more. "You can tell me what's wrong. I don't have any friends here - except Cree, really. And June is nice, but I don't really hang with anyone else. So I won't tell anyone." His voice was a little soft, intimate. "Maybe you could use a vacation. Tomorrow's a holiday, so it could be a three day weekend if you wanted it to be. If he or Mister Smith would let you. But I bet you have a lot of stress."Nando didn't envy Myles's job. "But you can still borrow a couple puzzles, if you want."
Myles thought for a moment, looking over the unfinished puzzle then he looked at Nando. He supposed there was no real trouble in telling Nando his problems, although there were slightly personal and he wanted to keep them secret. "I...have a bit of stress build up, yeah." He nodded slowly. "I just....have my boss...ahem...his work....on my mind a lot."
"Ah," Nando said, nodding his head a bit in understanding. "You have a pretty important job. And I'm sure Kian appreciates it." Nando was much too innocent to take any sexual connotation with Myles's words. Obviously that would be a stressful job. Nando knew he probably do it and not screw up all the time. That would definitely be a stressful thing. Maybe even moreso than working for Mr. Smith. Nando kept a low profile. "Then puzzles may be good for you. Or crossword puzzles. Something to get your mind off of what you're stressing over and have something to show for it." Seemed simple enough to Nando.
Myles sighed a little and looked at Nando again. "That's the thing though....too much on my mind...I don't want to add more." He scratched his head, putting a piece in the pile closer to Nando because it seemed that it belonged with that group before picking up another. "Kian is a very...stressful person to work for. I love it...but...I don't know." He looked at the piece, frowned a little and tossed it into his unrecognizable pieces pile.
"He demands a lot from you," Nando said, his voice sounding almost sagelike. He wished he could offer more, but puzzles were pretty much all he concerned himself with now that he was at Stargate. "Well, if you ever wanted to just hang out with me?" The question was asked softly, Nando glancing at Myles and then back at the puzzle. "If I'm not out here, I'm usually in my room. And we could watch a movie or something." Slipping his fingers over the puzzle pieces,Nando picked out several and placed them in front of Myles. "I think these go over there." He tapped an end on the tabletop, thinking about something that wasn't the puzzle. "And if you were doing stuff badly, he'd definitely let you know, so at least you're doing a good job."
Myles nodded again. He was doing his job and not getting punished, which was the good and bad about it. Myles was a perfectionist but had a thing for getting punished. It was a bad combo. He took thepieces and attempted to sort them into the different parts of his side of the sunset. "Thank...yeah, we'll watch a movie sometime and....Idon't know, hang out." Myles needed someone to hang out with, to get his mind off of Kian so much.
"Cool. We'll have fun." Nando wasn't completely sure that would be the truth, but it would be something, and he needed more people to just hang out with. On the good side, he didn't think Myles had another person living in his head. Not that it made him any more safe, really, than Cree, butNando felt good about extending his circle of friends by one more. He couldn't always rely on his best friend for companionship. No way did he want to become some sort of leech and then not have Cree want to hang out with him again. "Oh, here are some more of the sunset," he said, stacking the pieces and pushing them gently across the table.
Myles reached for the pieces and looked at the puzzle, letting it take over most of his mind, letting Nando into his mind too, and trying to force Kian out. Thankfully no, Myles was, for the most part, normal. He did has a bizarre sense of fashion and had a thing for getting punished but he kept that secret and just acted 'normal'. "Yeah, it'll be fun." Besides,Nando was a kid at heart, and that's what Myles probably needed to help let his own out sometime.