[FIN] What's Behind That Mask

[Akira Midoriyama]

Ever since he had first met him at the hot springs, Akira had become quite curious about the individual known as Nate. Not only was it fascinating how both Dove and Sera seemed drawn to him, but more intriguing still was the idea that he wasn't just the shallow ladies' man he seemed to be. Nate's reply to Akira about not finding others' problems serious...that had been unexpected indeed.

Though he had seen him again at Sera's party, that hadn't been the time to ask about such things. The white-haired boy's party mode had been at its highest notch, it seemed, and besides, that had been for Seraphine. He hadn't wanted to detract attention from her any more than anyone else, especially not for more serious topics.

But he had to know more. Just how much were these commoners like the people Akira knew back home? Seraphine didn't seem to be a commoner, but she was more in-tune with the regular customs and culture of common folk, just like Dove and most nouveau riche families. And yet...both she and other 'commoner' friends of hers didn't seem that different in some aspects from the wealthy people he had known growing up.

For one thing, it didn't seem to matter what class of wealth you were - aside from rare people like Seraphine, Akira noticed that everyone seemed to be hiding some aspect of themselves. Some seemed to hide more than others.

He had examined the possibility that he had looked too much into things and that maybe it was just because he didn't know these people that well that they didn't seem so natural all the time. But compared to some of the more confident individuals, like Ray, Yuri, and Sera, others just seemed...fake. Too outgoing, too shy, too nice to be the way they were in public 24/7. There had to be more to them, and Akira wanted to learn.

Nate seemed as good a place as any to start. He had confronted Akira's question head-on and not seemed to have taken any offense to the stranger's wrongly-proposed assumptions. He seemed like an average guy all around - witty, amicable enough, flirtatious with ladies. Maybe a bit of a jerk, but wasn't that all part of the average guy? If Akira confronted him once more about certain behaviors, he doubted the younger man would shy away from his questions about commoners, odd as they might have seemed. The trick was getting a hold of the guy. He wasn't in Camphoreon's phone book.

"He can't really commute from Ambergris whenever he comes by, can he...?" the brunet asked aloud, putting down the thick tome of yellow pages in his hands. He doubted the guy drove yet, but really with him, who knew?  

[Suudonym]

Akira would be approached from somewhere near his blind spot, an elbow falling on his shoulder, "Hey, you'd be surprised what humans are capable of." Nate generally didn't make a habit of randomly intruding on people he barely knew, but this guy was something of a curiosity, from what he knew of him - and besides, he was talking business that Nate knew too well. He had no evidence whether or not Akira's voiced wonder was in regard to him or not, but he knew damn well that a guy could commute from Ambergris to Camphoreon on a nearly daily basis so long as he was willing to hate his life.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Jerking with a start, the older male turned his head to see the owner of the elbow that had draped itself across his shoulder. Wha?! How the - ? He gave Nate a crooked smirk. "You say that like you're not human. So I guess you can just think of the devil and he'll show up, is that right?"

Aside from shifting his weight a little, Akira did nothing to remove the white-haired young man's limb from his person. "Don't tell me you walk all that way on foot. It's not creepy enough you just show up from out of nowhere."  

[Suudonym]

Nate grinned with impish insincerity, "Aww, you were thinking about me? Ain't you a regular sweetheart." Since the physical proximity received no response, he made no efforts to reposition himself. The suggestion that he walked from Ambergris, however, was met with an expression of incredulity, "Oh hell naw, even humans have basic physical limitations." He gestured nonchalantly with his hand. "Cars, man. Still a long way but it's sure as s**t better than walking."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Shaking his head, Akira fought the impulse to laugh. "Don't you start. I'm not one of those girls who'll fall at your feet at a pet name." His brows shot up in mild surprise. "So you...own a car? And drive it?" He tilted his head doubtfully. "What are you, 16? That has to be illegal."  

[Suudonym]

"Well damn," he replied, deadpan. "I was hoping to accumulate enough swooning groupies that I could build some kind of living bridge to the next region over and charge a tax for crossing. People are buoyant, right? Guess it doesn't matter, though; you've already shot that ambition down." He abandoned the subject with a wistful sigh, addressing Akira's doubt with a raised eyebrow, "I dunno where you're from, but 16-year-olds can drive, so…"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Well, that response hadn't been expected at all. Where did he get this stuff from? Before he could stop himself, he swatted at Nate's arm, flustered, looking away as his face turned red. This guy sure did have a lot of nerve.

On top of his bewilderment at what to say in response to the bridge comment, the mention of a driving age threw him off. He blinked blankly, feeling a fool. "O-oh. Really?" Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure what the driving age was where he was from. "...So, just how old are you anyway? If you don't mind me asking."  

[Suudonym]

Nate removed his elbow, raising his hands defensively, though the smirk failed to leave his face. He couldn't help commenting on the color in his company's features, though, "Aha, see, now that you know I'm a man of ambition, you're falling for me. Tragically, I regret to inform you that you don't have quite enough boob going on for my tastes. Try not to cry yourself to sleep."

He pocketed his hands, nodding emphatically, "Come on man, that's like the whole point of the Sweet 16 business. Driving as a gateway to independence or something." A shrug, though his expression grew sly at the question to follow, and he raised and wagged a finger smartly. "Old enough to drive, that's for sure."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Shut up!" the brunet cried, grinning involuntarily at the ground as he ducked his head while his complexion turned beet red and he gave the taller young man a flustered shove. "You're despicable. I refuse to believe even you would be attracted to someone merely for physical reasons."

Taking a deep breath, Akira willed himself to calm down. At least until Nate's comment about independence stirred him up again. "Well maybe not everyone is priviledged with that sort of independence," he answered, indignantly, crossing his arms over his chest and standing up straight. "Fine, be a stubborn girl and omit your age. That's not the main reason I wanted to see you." Turning away from the phone booth to face Nate head-on, he tried to maintain as serious a tone and experssion as possible.

"Back at the hot springs when I talked about people being...sick," he began. "You seemed like you knew what you were talking about. That kind of knowledge can't come from anything but real experience. So...what was it that you experienced?" He raised a brow. "Or are you going to be secretive about that, too?"  

[Suudonym]

Nate laughed good-naturedly and recoiled a step from the push, shrugging, "Despicable! Ain't the first time I've heard that one. What can I say, I'm a b*****d." He placed his hands on his hips, the humor in his features smoothing over and leaving a grin that was far less effortless. "Not so much a secret," he said, placing a hand on Akira's shoulder and gesturing widely at nothing in particular, "but as you can see, we are sailing straight into the rough waters of the Great Sea of None of Your Business, and you ain't even battened the hatches."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

The nature of the new grin did not go ignored. Akira regarded him for a moment. "Hmph. It's easier to claim to be a b*****d because then it doesn't matter what bad things people say about you," he reasoned. "But fine, if that's what you want to pretend to be."

"At least it's good to know you can be honest," he answered in response to Nate's witty retort. "Even if you have a weird way of talking. And an evident fondness for touching." He glanced with a smirk (which he hoped didn't appear as uneasy as he felt) at the hand placed on his shoulder. "Being denied that, then, I have a favor to ask of you."

Getting out his wallet from a pocket, he said without looking up, "I want you to teach me how to drive. Will you do that?" He took out a couple of twenty-dollar bills. "I'll pay you, of course."  

[Suudonym]

Perceptive! Had Nate kept a supply of little gold stickers on his person, Akira might have gotten one to the forehead for that comment. But he didn't, because he didn't especially like it when people figured out his facade, and so he let the subject drop without further comment.

The observation on touching received a noncommittal shrug - he wasn't notably fond of it, nor was he particularly averse to it - but the favor that followed was received with an expression of confusion and suspicion, one eye narrowing dubiously. "You know they've got, like, actual licensed instructors for that kind of thing, right? I'd assume that normally if you wanted to pay a stranger for a service, you'd go for someone you know can do it right." And also someone who didn't only have one car in the world and would be screwed out of a way to get to work if something happened to it because he picked up a few bucks to let someone else behind the wheel.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Do they?" the brunet asked innocently. "Sorry, I don't know if you heard, but I'm just a naive newcomer who's pretty ignorant about Kodo. Driving ages, instructors...all that stuff is completely alien to me. Wasn't allowed to get a licence back home; protective parents and all."

He shrugged. "I probably couldn't tell bad driving from good driving, and you're one of the handful of people I've met in this entire region." Another smile came to his lips. "Why, are you saying you can't do it right? Or maybe it's just too much responsibility for someone like you?" He held out the bills again, pressing them against Nate's chest. "I'll be careful. Promise. And if you're a good-enough teacher, we don't have to worry about any liabilities or...accidents."  

[Suudonym]

He stretched his arms upwards and folded his hands behind his head, his smile uneven. "Shoulda grown up in Ambergris. Only way you're gonna be sheltered in a place like that is if you never leave your house from the day you're born."

He stuck his tongue out briefly, "If you think you're gonna goad me into it, it ain't happening. I do what I want yo." Not that he was outright refusing the request, but he wasn't about to be provoked into a snap decision. What he did refuse, however, was the insistent presentation of the offered bills, towards which he raised a hand in a signal to desist, "Okay there, buddy, rule number one is that you don't go flashing cash in broad daylight. There are two ways this is gonna come off to the casual observer: one is that I'm a drug dealer, the other is that I'm a prostitute, and both of those things are illegal." He ran his fingers through light hair, breathing an expulsive sigh. "Man whatever, I guess I have some time to kill." And it couldn't be too hard to find an empty parking lot or something… in the middle of the city… haha.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"...Is it rough, living there? That why you come here?" he asked, curious. "Maybe I'll come visit you. Camphoreon is the only place I've had a chance to get to know so far."

"Now I see why you get along with Miss Seraphine," Akira remarked blandly upon seeing the display of tongue. "I think I might have said it before, but I'll say it again. You're are a lot alike. I don't think I've ever had anyone stick their tongue out at me as much as you two. And then there's the matter of having to do things your way, how you want, when you want."

He glanced at his cash quizzically as it was mentioned. Then he laughed aloud. "Drug dealer? Really?" He was genuinely unsure if Nate was being serious or not. As far as he knew, he'd never seen any drug dealers around, but then again, Akira knew he tended to be pretty oblivious and self-absorbed in his own things when wandering around the city. The prostitute thing nearly made him double over with laughter. "Whaaat?"

Quickly stuffing the bills back into his wallet, he returned it to his pocket and tried to catch his breath. "You are...something else, Nate. So are you really a prostitute?" he teased. "Because I could buy us dinner and then we could go somewhere." Sheesh, what was wrong with him? He hadn't found himself talking and acting this boldly - jesting or not - since he'd met Sera.

Maybe it was something contagious about their senses of humor. So impertinent and yet...it was nice to be able to joke with someone like this without worrying that they would get offended or cause a scene or consider him to be scandalous or something.