Nellie couldn't sleep that night. She wanted to make sure Amy and Ian got to Paris safely, so she waited for Amy to text her the moment they landed. When she finally texted her at 12 in the afternoon she felt some sense of peace. The morning had been bumpy with a tired Fiske and Nellie preparing cereal for breakfast for a grumpy Natalie and an overly tired Dan. The Princess had grumbled the whole time about what Nellie only assumed to be how she was being treated as low class. She was really just to tired to care. Dan was barley able to put a spoon in his mouth to eat. Afterward she sent the two of them to the CCC to keep watch on the monitors on Paris just in case of any suspicious activity. She was tired and she needed to take a shower. NOW.
Natalie was really hurting. She was quite disheartened that Ian would be in Paris for Christmas. They always stuck together on the holidays, especially since their parents had left them for good. She had even had a short crying session yesterday. Until that brute Daniel had found her. He was rude and blunt in her eyes, but she knew he had a point. She figured angering the beast would only make it worse so she had just grumbled to herself at breakfast. She didn't need him to know that she was deeply bothered by this set up. She was longingly gazing at a shot of a cafe window filled with exotic pastries in the CCC. Oh how she missed her brother, not to mention beautiful French cuisine. Bottom line, she missed her brother and didn't really feel like confiding in Dan oddly enough.
Just at that moment he walked toward her, "Hey I'm super bored. You know what we should do? We should send out a fake distress message on the Cahill message bored."
How stupid could he be?, "Daniel we could freak out a lot of people and get in a lot of trouble. Why do you think this is a good idea?" She was exasperated.
"It's not like Amy and Ian are gonna need our help. I'm not even sure why they stuck us together." He said, "I would rather spend Christmas with a cockroach" Dan grumbled to himself as he sulked away.
"Maybe we could play a game." Natalie said, even to her surprise.
"Such as?" Dan asked.
"How about 'Would You Rather'?" She offered.
"Okay fine. You go first." Maybe this won't be so ba-wait. What am I saying!?
"Okay. Hmmmm..." She was thinking very vividly, "Would you rather go on a date with Madison Holt or Reagan Holt?" Natalie asked.
"Really Nat?" He asked impaitently.
"Yes, it's a real question! Is it not!?" She answered.
He rolled his eyes, "Fine. Reagan."
She cocked her head to the side, "Really? That was fast. Why?"
"Easy," he said, "she does ballet. I could have her dance for me the whole time, I wouldn't have to do a thing and she would be perfectly happy. She loves preforming."
"Well put," she said, "okay, now you ask me a question"
He stroked his chin and imaginary beard, "Well, here goes. Who would you rather date, Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac?"
Natalie had a blank look in her eyes, "Who in the world are you talking about?"
Dan's eyes widened in horror, "You don know who Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac is!?" He yelled.
"No! I only listen to attractive boy bands!" She yelled.
Dan faced palmed himself and dragged it down his face. "You have got to be kidding me." He said in a mundane voice.
"What?," she asked, "It's a reason to love them."
"But that's not a reason to love their music." He said impatiently, "Do they sound good or do they just look good?"
"Who cares what they sound like, they look beautiful to me" She said picturing the Backstreet Boys in her head with a dreamy look on her face.
"They're all made up with makeup, under the mask they look like normal people." Dan said slightly saddened by the thought that she only saw beauty under a face filled in and blotted with cosmetics. How does she see herself?, he wondered.
"Well it's not like I ever had the chance to listen at anything else." She spat at him with fire in her eyes and words, "My mother only let me listen to 'music of the tween girl types' as she called it."
"Well hey, don't get mad at me! It's not like I made you listen to that crap music just to stay within the norm." They were practically yelling at each other now.
"You're just jealous because you didn't have parents to force you to do things like the rest of us have!" She couldn't help but feel a little twinge of remorse in her stomach once the words were out of her mouth. She wondered if it showed on her face.
Dan thought he saw a splash of pain and regret in her eyes once the words were out in the air, but he was to blinded my anger and rage to really get a good look at it. "Don't you ever say those words to me again Natalie Kabra. You hear me? If you ever try to spit that stuff in my face again I will tear you apart emotionally. We both know I'm capable of doing that." He was practically right up on her face now. He could see she was sweating.
I didn't know he was capable of this kind of rage, she thought in the midst of the tornado in her mind as impressive as it is, I can't help but fell terrifyingly entranced right now.
He could feel the anger seeping out of every pore on his body. He didn't want it to go away because it fueled him to feel powerful and more superior than her, and he knew he would need that if he were to survive a week, half of witch would be alone, with this snake right in front of him now. I will stare her down like this for the rest of my life if it keeps her in line from now on.
Neither of them till this day are really quite sure how long they stood like that for. It was intense, exciting, terrifying, hopeful foreign and entrancing all at the same time. They didn't know why they were stuck like that, staring into each others eyes searching for the answers to all the questions that had bubbled up in them at the mention of both of their most tender topics, their parents.
To finally break them apart from their search it took Nellie opening the door allowing Saladin to run in and brush up against Dan's leg begging for attention.
"Lunch's ready little ones!" Nellie called on her way back down to the kitchen.
After a silent lunch of Indian biryani, Dan and Natalie walked back up to the CCC and sat there for the rest of the day fiddling with things but not really paying attention. Not even bothering to come down for dinner. They were too preoccupied by the memories, questions, problems and pain with their parents. They didn't even talk to each other. They just sat there. Once Fiske gave them the okay to go to bed and leave the center for the night, they quietly said goodnight to each other and walked off to their rooms still in a trance. Their odd parting left a slightly confused and very curious Fiske in it's wake.
After about the three-hundredth time of trying to rearrange her pillows to fall asleep, Natalie gave up and decided to ask Dan where she could get a few extra ones. It was the middle of the night so she made sure to be quiet knowing that at the slightest sound Nellie would spring into kill mode. By time she got to Dan's door, she couldn't help but feel a little awkward concidering the days events. She knocked on his door.
He got there surprisingly quickly, eyes blood shot. She was a little taken back seeing him like that but went through with asking him anyway.
"Oh no problem," he answered, "Here, just take a few from my room, I can't sleep anyway." He was a little confused at her appearance and squinted his eyes a little.
She looked down at the pillows gratefully, "Thank you Daniel." She said in a slightly drowsy voice. Just the look of the pillows made her mind want to shut down and sleep. She looked up and saw Dan squinting at her. "You alright there Daniel?" She asked, slightly annoyed.
"You look younger." He said bluntly.
She frowned. "I didn't reverse the aging process Daniel."
Then he got it. "Maybe it's just the lack of makeup." He said with the slightest smirk on his face.
She tried to shield part of her face with the pillows. "I take it off when I sleep, just like everyone else. No big deal." She said a little too quickly.
"I guess I'm just not used to seeing you look our age." He said again very bluntly. "Either that or sleep deprivation." He said that with a goofy smile on his face and in his voice.
She suddenly felt very self conscious and wanted to get the heck out of there. "Well thank you for the pillows Daniel. Goodnight." She said "And sorry about what I said today" she said right before she left.
She made it half way down the hall and he didn't say anything so she thought she got off cleanly. But that's when he said it.
"It's all good Miss. K.. Sorry 'bout getting all up in your face by the way dawg." He said with a clumsy spin and double point in her direction. He then walked back into his room.
Natalie stood there in the middle of the hallway stunned. I should really study sleep deprivation, she thought. It really does make people do crazy things.
That night they both got very little sleep. But did have interesting dreams when they did...
