soldtoarmenians | Room 406, Laaaaaaate... Thursday or possibly Early Friday

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Room 406, Laaaaaaate... Thursday or possibly Early Friday

It's... entirely possible that someone randomly happened to stay up late enough to listen to the live radio broadcast instead of downloading it, for a change.

It's vaguely possible that someone -- alongside the breakfast muffins for his apparently passed-out-over-her-homework roomie -- brought home extra coffee just so he'd be awake that late, but there's really no way you could ever prove that.

__
{Open for Teh Roomie whenever she awakens, if so desired.}

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Isabel is really only half asleep on her bed. Part of her wants to wake up enough to question Xander about what she and Bridge had talked about earlier. But the other part is warm and cozy and figures they can talk in the morning. Since she doing things halfway she misses the why of the arrest because she's too focused on WHO was arrested.

Holding out her hand, she used her powers to send her phone flying into her hand from where it had been in her jacket pocket. Grateful that she'd stored everyone's voicemail numbers in her phone's memory at the beginning of the semester, she called Phoebe and left a message.

She hung up the phone and turned to Xander just in time to hear the news about Angel and Anakin having a fight. "Okay, is it me or has this place finally gone nuts?"

"Finally?" Xander raised an eyebrow. "Though I'll admit the emo-quotient this week is-- whoa, waitaminute, Nadia what?"

He listened carefully for a few seconds, until Bridge hit the part about Walter, then looked up at Isabel, and her phone. "Actually, can I borrow that for a sec?"

"Sure," she said as she tossed it over. "Do you think we need to go room by room and do a spot check on everyone to make sure they're okay? Mecury must in retrograde or something for this much crap to be happening."

Xander set down his coffee, made a quick call to Nadia's voicemail, then closed the phone, looking unsettled. "If I didn't think it might freak people out, I'd be tempted to say that's not a half bad idea. WTF, Fandom? WTF? I mean granted some of these people do kinda breathe the emo every day, but this is like it's got loose in the ventilator shafts or something."

He turned his head back towards the radio just in time to hear, '...ummm... blame whoever it was that spilled coffee on the notes' and made a face.

"Guess I'll have to download that after all - I think I missed half of it."

"Exactly, it's like an epidemic of emo." Since she was fully awake now, she started gathering up the papers that were still scattered on her bed. She stopped when the phone rang with Phoebe returning her call. Two minutes later, now even more concerned she hung up the phone. But since there was nothing she could do about Bel now, she turned to Xander and tried to smile.

"Same here. But I can probably tell you what it said about me at least. I had lunch with Molly, and watched dancing bunnies with Sam. Oh and I chatted with Bridge while you were at the Perk," she finished casually.

"I managed to miss the bunny infestation so far; you'd think they might've showed up in Creature Languages, since we were already dancing, but nope." Xander flicked a glance over at her, then went back to casually studying his drink. "Bridge was all the way up here on the 4th? What, was he hiding from the bunnies or something?"

"They're quite cute. They also like to hug. And they're very, very small. So be careful when you walk around that you don't step on any."

Isabel tried not to smirk at the way Xander was studying his coffee. The potential for teasing was great. But he was her friend as well as her roommate, so she couldn't torment him. Too much at least. "Oh he just wandered by. I don't think he was looking for anyone in particular. Although he might have been looking for Anakin. I know he stopped by to talk to him the other day." Yup, it's an express bus to hell.

"Ah." What fascinating coffee.

There's a time for teasing, and then there's a time for being supportive friend and roommate. Isabel got to her feet and took the few steps over to Xander's bed. She took a seat on the edge of the bed and looked at him steadily. The smirk's gone, replaced by a small smile. "Talk to me," she said quietly. "What's going?"

"Um. Nothing?"

The question mark was practically visible hanging in the air, even to him. Xander caught her expression in response to it and shook his head with a sadness that was mostly mock.

"Yeah, okay. You know, I used to be able to lie better than that. Seriously. I'm clearly losing my touch in my old age." He took a long drink of his coffee.

"Why lie?" she asked.

Xander blinked, the straightforwardness of the question throwing him off guard. "Um." He scratched his ear.

"Force of habit?" he offered, shrugging one shoulder awkwardly.

"He's a nice guy."

"And for what it's worth," she said as she shifted her knee to nudge against Xander's leg, "He wasn't up here to see Anakin or me for that matter."

"Ah." There's that word again, and his coffee cup... well, he could probably better pull off the illusion of how mesmerizing it was, if there were any coffee left in it.

"Yeah, he really is." Eventually he looked up, if not quite directly at his roommate.

"It's just... you know." Xander made a small, vague, possibly frustrated motion with one hand. "It's not exactly the 'nice' part that makes things complicated."

Isabel reached over and plucked the coffee cup out of his hands and tossed it into the trash can with her left hand. Her right hand? Well, it was resting next to her on the bed, perfectly positioned to be held by anyone who wanted a supportive squeeze.

"I'd ask why it was complicated, but I'm pretty sure I understand." She sighed, "It's always fun when life throws you a curveball isn't it?"

Xander watched his let's-face-it-not-really-all-that-useful prop fly away with only the most minor of blinkiness.

He nodded slightly. "Projectile-related sports and me are unmixy things, and tend to result in head trauma. This is...not really an exception."

His empty hand was, well. There. And empty, thanks to the lack of coffee cup. But not really doing much of anything besides resting on his knee, because, well. Y chromosome thing.

"Why," she asked. "I mean, I'd totally understand why if we were back in Roswell. But why can't it be an exception here? I really don't think anyone would care. Well they'd care, but probably only because they'd want to wave glittery flags with your names on them."

There might have been a leg squeeze, but only for a second. Just because she's tactile like that.

Xander... frowned, actually. "Yeah, I--" He shook his head. "I know nobody here would care? Hell, maybe that's half the problem. It's a little--"

He shook his head, not lacking for words, just for the right ones. "Fandom's kinda... not the real world, you know? And... it'd be real easy to just go with that, what happens in Fandom stays in Fandom yay -- but then where does that leave me when I leave? I'm not gonna be here all my life; I'm not even gonna be here next year."

"I think you have a chance to be happy," she said slowly. "And even if it's only for a few weeks, you should seize that chance. Because you never know what's going to happen."

And now she's the one looking for a useful prop, but there's not to hold onto so she settles for staring at Jeramiah, asleep in his tank. "Last summer, I had a chance, with Alex. But I didn't take it. I was too afraid to get close. I didn't want to be vulnerable the way Max and Michael were. I thought there would be time. Time to get answers, time to figure out if it was worth the risk. But it turns out, there really wasn't time."

She finally looked back at Xander, her expression serious. "If I could do it over again? I'd take the risk. Because a few weeks of being really happy? Would be a hell of a lot better then spending the rest of my life thinking 'if only'. Don't make the same mistake I did."

See, now? He could totally squeeze her hand; it's in the Y-chromosome code that it's ok as long as such gestures can in theory be claimed as outgoing. 'Mutual' kind of sneaks in under the radar.

"That's got kind of a familiar ring." Whether he meant the near echo of something said not so long ago in Art History, or... any one of a dozen missed opportunities he could put names and faces to in Sunnydale, he wasn't sure. Wasn't sure the right conjunction there was 'or,' either.

Xander sighed. "I'm not saying I think you're wrong. But... you're really not wrong about the nice guy thing, you know? He doesn't deserve to be just... whatever. What happens in Fandom."

"But would he be a whatever?" she asked. "This is Fandom, not Vegas, and despite the similar concept of what happens here, stays here, I don't think the happenings can be compared. And that was a ramble wasn't it? But do you get what I mean?"

Isabel studied their hands for a minute before looking up and smiling, "Besides, doesn't Bridge get a say in this? He knows you're leaving. Yet he still came looking for you."

Xander was quiet for a moment, then gave a small smile, but didn't actually answer directly. Instead, he glanced upward - to the air vent on the ceiling.

He disentangled his hand from hers, and pointed, eyes widening comically. "Zee Oh Em Gee. I was right - it's coming in through the vents! The emo!"

Isabel couldn't help laughing as she floppped backwards on Xander's bed. "Oh no! I must angst. Woe! Horror! My life, it is ruined" she cried in between giggles.

"There's only one cure, you know," Xander said solemnly, pulling the pillow out from behind his back and lifting it over his head. "It's kinda drastic..."

"Oh no, don't you dare," Isabel said as she scrambled backwards on her elbows. "I will not go quietly!"

"Oh noes, a loud pillow fight. Heaven help us, what will the radio people think we were doing?" Xander said - as he launched the pillow at her head.

Isabel dodged. Barely. And then grabbed her own pillow, spinning around and attempting to whack Xander in the side. "They'll think DIRTY!" she laughed.

"Dude, it couldn't be worse than the rumors about Callynanders," Xander responded, knocked sideways by Isabel's sally. "Which, okay, I suspect are true, so maybe bad example. Methinks Cally protests too much about the stirrups."

"Eewww! I don't need that mental image," she giggled as she moved in to attack again. "Certain things are just better off never, ever imagined." She lifted the pillow up high, aiming right for Xander's head.

He defended with a classic technique: diving sideways and scrambling for his extra pillow, since he'd kind of lost the one he threw at her. Stupid - lesson one, never let go of your weapons.

Lesson two: classic techniques only work when you're actually good at hand to hand combat. A couple of direct blows to the head later, Xander was giggling inanely and putting up both empty hands in a warding off gesture.

Breathless and giggling as well, Isabel put down the pillow and dropped down in a sprawl next to Xander on his bed. After a few elbows to the side, and some wiggles and they wound up settled side by side on the bed. A bit squished but, comfy.

"Xander?"

"Yup?"

"You know I love you right?"

He blinked for a second or two, surprised but not unpleased, then grinned. "You know back atcha, right?"

Isabel didn't say anthing, just tipped her head a bit to the side so that it rested up against Xander's shoulder.

Xander totally resisted the urge to bean her with a pillow while her guard was down, and just smiled again.

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Room 406, Laaaaaaate... Thursday or possibly Early Friday

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