Prayer of the Refugee

Sort… yeah, next one'll be cooler.

Chapter o11

Hell, if she'd known friendly competition and challenge was all it took to get him to do something other than sit around and scowl she'd have challenged him to thumb wrestling ages ago. And if she'd known she could get two weeks of TecH's work out of the way in two hours, she'd have taken him here first.

TecH was almost crying, "He's a god, Natalya, you've brought me a technological god."

She wasn't sure if he was joking of if he was really that in awe of Toad. "It is not such a bog deal, TecH, but if he joins us, you do realize that you will be out of a job."

"You mean he's not already a member?"

"Well, no, not exactly."

"Blasphemy! He's gotta join, Natty!"

How she hated nicknames… and teenagers. The only bigger thorn in her side was Loki, but luckily she wasn't prowling around.

TecH's pointless-and loud-exclamation was enough to make Toad remove his head from the jet's engine to see what they were doing. "Well that is up to him, but I will do what I can to convince him if you will. I have a feeling he will want to come by and visit. Keep some spare projects for him around or something," she told him, growing slightly irritated. She'd never like kids.

"You really think he'll come down here? No one comes down here! That'd be… that'd be… SO COOL! Do you think he'd teach me."

"I am sure that I do not know, ask him yourself," she snapped.

Toad grabbed a rag and wiped some of the grease off his hands, staring at them and looking quite unhappy. "Ya know, it's pretty rude to talk about a bloke like he ain't around when 'e's in earshot."

TecH blushed a bit in embarrassment, but Natalya simply smiled that charming, rehearsed smile of hers. "It is actually nearly lights out, You do not have to follow curfew, but I would prefer it if the two of you were to follow the rules. I will not chastise you however if you chose to stay up and spend time with our guest, TecH."

They certainly had a lot of rules here. A curfew, really?

"And feel free to roam where you will, Toad, I am not about to attempt to cage you," Natalya told him, "and should you need me, you know which room is mine. Breakfast is at eight, I hope to see you then."

Toad was surprised she left him after expressing such an interest in wanting to be the one to draw him in. Maybe something about this was just the way she was.

"I'll finish up on the jet tomorrow, kid, go to bed."

TecH nodded and moved a few boxes out of the way to get to his cot. Damn obedient little buggar.

Natalya and Michael apparently tried very hard to keep everything as fair as possible, which made his sleeping arrangements seem odd. Then again, from what he knew of the kid so far, he probably asked to sleep down here.

"Goodnight… uh… Toad."

He knew he should have bid the kid the same, but those words, just hearing them sounding so sincere was almost scary. And to say them? Pfft… So he pretended he hadn't heard them.

This place was strange.

He wandered for a while, lights out was quite liberally lights out here. The only place with any lights still on was the arcade, and the only people in there was two teens who took one look at him and bolted. Ah normalcy.

All the games were free and he played Mortal Kombat for the next three hours, falling into the mindless, digital violence. He put his initials into the high score list for about the twentieth time before heading up to bed.

Natalya apparently didn't trust him to show up to breakfast, and appeared to collect him at seven thirty the next morning, this time in a midriff top and shorts. She was bolder than the day before and didn't start her wake-up call at a whisper.

He politely told her to piss off and leave him the fuck alone, but she only smile and sat down on the edge of his bed. What was wrong with these people?

Her long, black hair fell over one eye attractively when she leaned forward to look at him. Then again, he had not yet been able to find one physically unattractive thing about her. "Not a morning person?"

"Jist go away, damn commie," he snapped.

She found it genuinely hilarious when he called her that. "Okay, I will come check on you again at nine if your not up."

"Okay?"

"Yes, I will not force you to do anything you do not want to, it merely occurred to me that you did not have an alarm clock and I did not want you to sleep through breakfast of you wanted it."

"Oh," he didn't know what else to say.

Xx-Please Review,-xX