Scrub-a-dub-dub Three people cleaning a bathroom.

[Anonymous]

The noise was loud. As the weeks went by, Vaughan was getting better at making the only sound he could make an appropriately loud one. Clean the bathrooms. He didn’t even do anything and now he had to help clean the bathrooms. Not just ONE bathroom, but a whole wing on the gracie floor. That was... A lot of toilets.

Too many toilets.

Vaughan wrinkled his nose and frowned at the scrub-brush and gloves.

This sucked.

At least they didn’t have to clean the floors.

Just everything else.

Vaughan put down the bucket of cleaning supplies and grumbled before looking for somewhere to fill the stupid bucket up with stupid water. And stared at the sink. Had to be kidding. He couldn’t use that to fill up a bucket! He leaned against the wall and sighed oh well, he’d just pour the chemicals right on. If someone complained about some burn or another it wouldn’t be his fault. It’d be the person who made him take a bucket.

Or. Maybe the bucket was just to carry the cleaning supplies.

It made sense.

It’d be like cleaning duty when he was at home. Only with two other people. One of which he was sure was going to try and weasel out, she seemed a bit like a diva. Vaughan sighed and sat back against the wall he’d gone and picked up the supplies a little early and had wanted to get a head start, but now that he was here that was a big flat load of bull because he didn’t really feel all that keen for it anymore.

Nika and Rachel should be here soon.

Vaughan would just sit until his ass went numb or got too cold from being pressed onto the hard floor.

[Anonymous]

Ever sense the candidate bash, Nika had been spending a lot of his time with Rachel. She seemed to understand his problem and had been helping him deal with people. At least a little. He was able to have conversations with her at least.

And sex. A lot of sex. She never seemed to get enough of it. Nika found it a little odd, but she let him play with her blood, which got him excited, so he didn't really mind it that much.

He was carrying both of their buckets filled with cleaning supplies, trailing after the blond. They had gotten stuck with cleaning duty with another candidate and were supposed to join them in the bathroom.

Heading into the bathroom, Nika froze in the door way, his one eye on Vaughan. He stared at the other candidate, not really sure how to respond to this situation.

After a moment, Nika finally gave Vaughan his picture perfect smile, "Hi. You got stick cleaning the bathrooms too?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

Siiigh. Bathroom duty. How thrilling!

Inside, Rachel's mind was recoiling at the thought of scrubbing toilets and stalls--did they see how gross the girls' bathrooms sometimes got?!--but on the outside, she kept her demeanor light and chipper. Whatever! Knights had to start out as squires shoveling horse shit before they could don the armor and get on the horse, so it only stood to reason, she supposed, that she'd have to start out as a candidate mopping floors before she could hop on a dragon and fight insurgents.

That line of reasoning made her feel better, at any rate.

She breezed into the bathroom, then turned to wave Nika inside--and saw that Nika had frozen in the doorway.

Right before he went into that mode she had come to recognize.

Blinking, Rachel looked between he and the other candidate--Vaughan, wasn't it? Her brother's ex-candidate--and felt there was something between them, some hidden, tense undercurrent, that she wasn't privy to. Awkward...and definitely not the time to ask about it. Not with Nika putting on the mask and Vaughan looking less than pleased.

Okay! Diversion time!

"Aw, guys, it's not that bad," she said, even though it was pretty bad. Pretty disgusting. It stank in here. "Just think, you have a pretty girl with you, and she's even willing to work topless. To boost morale." She gave them both a wink and a grin.

[Anonymous]

Knowing wasn’t quiet as strange as seeing. Vaughan swallowed and ducked his head down after seeing Nikas strategic perfect face, they hadn’t spoken in a while and he simply attempted to smile before turning his head away. “Yeah. My partner got me into trouble, he’s cleaning the bathrooms in a few days” There was something familiar about the girl but Vaughan couldn’t quiet place it, so he just stood up, patted his back down and stretched.

Amber eyes turned to Rachel and he just stared at her before he rose an eyebrow and tried not to give a breathless laugh. “But it’s cold in here! Your tits would fall off.” He smiled politely at her, not really sure how to ask her nicely to not wave around her boobies as nice as they might be. Vaughan didn’t look at Nika, he wanted to. He’d been pretty lonely, apparently being horrible at making friends when he wasn’t chipper and happy.

Vaughan was learning new things about himself that he found rather depressing to learn. Taking a deep breath he rolled up his sleeves and frowned at the stuff. Did he start? Would they slack off? He cast them a glance and bit his lip. Yeah, probably. Rachel looked a bit like a girly-girl, oh well, it would be faster with three working but he wouldn’t complain if she wasn’t into cleaning toilets.

“What did you do to get sent here?” He eyebrows went up when he asked the question, pursing his lips while he looked through the cleaners and took a long handled brush and wandered towards a toilet. It would be just like home, only a lot of girls used it instead of a bunch of guys.  

“Could be worse, you know. We could be cleaning the boys washroom.” An obvious bad attempt at brightening the situation

[Anonymous]

Nika glanced over at Rachel's comment. Why would they care if she was topless? But this seemed to be something that was phrased as a positive thing, so Nika nodded, "Alright. That sounds good to me."

Rachel had been talking to him about social cues and he was slowly, very slowly, starting to pick up on them. It helped that it was Rachel, he was getting to know her better.

Vaughan, on the other hand, disappointed Nika. He wasn't like Nika at all, he didn't understand Nika. And he was no longer that fascinating, bright person he had been.

To Vaughan's question, Nika shrugged in response, "We were late to class."

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Naaah." Rachel prodded at her own chest. "They're stuck on there pretty good, held on by skin and fat and stuff. And yes, they're real," she added with a firm nod and a grin. Tugging a hairband off her wrist, she pulled her hair back into a high ponytail and tried not to laugh at Nika's frank agreement. Of course he wouldn't mind if she was topless; he didn't care one way or the other, poor kid.

"So we got one vote 'yes', and one vote 'it's too cold'. Stalemate. Too bad."

She let Nika explain the reason they'd wound up here...which was pretty much her fault. "I regret nothing," she said and flashed Nika a smile. "I mean, except for the whole gotta scrub toilets thing. This sorta sucks in a bad way, but hey! It's a bonding experience, right, guys? Misery loves company? One day we'll look back on this fondly!"

Rachel fished some latex gloves out of their bucket and yanked them on with a snap. "We could, like, make a game of this or something."

[Anonymous]

Vaughan stared at Rachel before looking at Nika and back again. late for class? Regret nothing? After Rachel explained how her boobs were attached to her chest Vaughan just stared at Nika and he felt a little pang in his chest. Of course he recalled fondly when Nika read the books to him but he quickly swallowed and tried to smile.

He didn't want to think of what made them late, but he felt his cheeks flush anyway. "Oh. I see." He wanted to confirm his thoughts, but he was pretty sure he knew already anyway. His head jerked up and his mouth opened and he wheezed since laughing was out of the question. "I don't think I'll think of anything fondly, no offense to you or your boobies, Rachel." He lifted a hand and smiled at her.

There were gloves? Vaughan saught out a pair for himself and snapped them on before going to hover over a toilet. Make light of the situation, a game. Vaughan stuck his tongue out at Nika before turning towards Rachel "A game, eh? Like what? I'm up for it."

[Anonymous]

Nika smiled at Rachel's comments. He liked how...friendly she was. It fascinated him, how outgoing some people could be. Vaughan had been that way too, which Nika had liked. He had liked Vaughan more than he had liked anyone. But then the singer had shown how little he had understood Nika.

He wasn't sure he could forgive him for that.

He got his own gloves, pulling them on, "Yes. What kind of game? And I can scrub the toilets if you don't want to." Didn't really bother him much. He had gloves.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Oh, don't be such a fuddy-duddy!" Rachel said, sticking out her tongue. "Sure this sucks, but hey, we met! That's not so bad. Oh yeah! I'm Rachel, by the way. Hah, guess we didn't formally meet, but I just knew about you."

Who didn't? Even if she hadn't known about her brother's candidates, who hadn't heard about him getting his throat cut by a Pilot? News spread through the ATC like gasoline and fire.

She took a mop out of the bucket and leaned against it. "Now as for games, games...hmmm. Well, how 'bout we race? Nika, it'd be awesome if you scrubbed the toilets for me! I'll mop the floors. Vaughan--that's your name, right?--you can help Nika. I'll time you guys and the last one finished gets the toilets with the floaters! Sound good? Winner gets a kiss. Or, uh, some other prize if kisses don't do it for ya, but it's gotta be something I can find around the ATC."

[Anonymous]

Fuddy-Duddy? Vaughan rose his eyebrows and smiled. That... Sounded cute coming from her. Instead of downright strange and unusual. He stared at Rachel when she mentioned that she 'knew about him.' His 'fame' died down. He wasn't 'Vaughan from IF' anymore. He wasn't anyone. He wasn't good at anything. There was no piano to play and his vocal cords getting replaced to the way they were before seemed like a small chance.

Oh well. Roll with the punches.

The latest punch was offering kisses. His last kiss was... Vaughan stared at Nika for a moment and blinked before his cheeks flushed and he cast Rachel a look. No way they weren't... Vaughan rubbed at his head with the back of his wrist and gave a nod. "Okay. Kisses. Niiks and I'll give you a kiss if you finish mopping first." Surely Nika wouldn't mind being half of a prize. Vaughan grinned at her before turning into one of the stalls and wrinkling his nose at it. He'd just treat this like a disgusting at home. For a group of people who were so poked and prodded to be awesome they had awful bathroom skills.

Vaughan flushed the toilet with his foot before he went about scrubbing at it with a spray bottle of cleaner and the scrub. "Um. Rachel? How did you hear about me?" It wasn't a private though, Vaughan had gotten into the habit of putting his own thoughts out there for anyone to pick up.

[Anonymous]

"Can I have blood?" Nika would much rather have blood than kisses, though he didn't want to upset Rachel. He doubted it would though, she seemed to understand him pretty well. He caught Vaughan's look at him, not really understanding it.

He tilted his head, smiling at the other boy, "Would you rather have a kiss from me then?" He didn't really understand the relationship between himself and Vaughan. He didn't know what the other boy wanted or really even how to treat him anymore. It was all very complicated and he wasn't sure what to do.

Shifting, Nika gave Rachel a puzzled look, not quite sure what he should be doing, how he should be reacting. Was he doing it right? He just wanted to curl up against her pulse and listen to her blood flow. But that wasn't an option right now.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Niiice, a kiss-sandwich. Works for me!" Rachel said with a grin, flashing a thumb's up. Then she looked to Nika, catching his question, and nodded.

"Absolutely! If that's what you want instead. It's your prize, after all!" And it wasn't like she minded. At first, the whole blood thing had been...weird. Okay, it was still weird and kind of gross when he pulled it out and played with it right then and there, but it was also one of those morbid fascination deals: she couldn't look away. And it looked different when it was out and streaming around via telekinesis, not like blood but like...like ribbons or something. Kind of pretty, kind of easy to forget what it was.

Rachel caught Nika's puzzled look after he spoke to Vaughan and, oblivious to what was going on between them (were they being so awkward because Nika liked Vaughan? And Vaughan maybe like him? Was this puppy love or something?), she gave him a smile and the smallest of nods (not wanting to be too obvious that she was coaching him and thus ruin the moment).

Then Vaughan was 'talking' and she looked back to him. "Hm? Oh, you know how people talk, with the, uh, incident and all," she said, waving a hand. "But aside from that! My brother's a Pilot."

Grinning, she poked at her own cheeks. Sure, she had freckles and he didn't and her eyes were gray, but she had the same dark skin, blond hair and, according to some people, the same nose. "Guess who. I'm told we got a family resemblance."

[Anonymous]

The look on Vaughan’s face was... Interesting. It was a mix between disgust, distrust and disturbance. Blood? Was Nika a vampire or something? If he was at least there was a reason, but otherwise... Ew. He was in the stall, so he was fairly sure neither of them could see his face, but even if they could he wouldn’t have pretended to not be grossed out.  “Uh.... No. I don’t want kisses from you.”

Vaughan frowned when Rachel spoke, was that healthy? Nika would only get more weird if she kept up with that weird blood stuff. He shuddered and focussed on cleaning before he gave a nod. The incident. It was disappointing he wasn’t that ‘guy from that band’ anymore, but his fifteen minutes of fame were up. Rather, they crashed and burned and now he was a big nobody.

He leaned to look at her and he saw the resemblance. Almost instantly. So he blushed, frowned  and then went back to cleaning. Great. ‘Ah! The pilot that dumped me as their Candidate. P.Master Gabby’s sister, I assume?’ If there was ever an upside to not being able to speak loudly, or without it sounding like he was wheezing out words was that he didn’t have to be facing people to speak. His words didn’t sound muffled if his mouth was covered. As much as he lamented not having a voice, he’d miss having to actually not talk to people.

Vaughan finished cleaning the one toilet so he stepped away and stood in the bathroom lifting an eyebrow towards Rachel and Nika. He gave them a tight lipped smile before he went to clean another toilet quietly. ‘At least you’re nicer than he is.’ He frowned down and closed his eyes. Ah, back to square one. You really need to stop taking everything so personal, was all he could think before he started to clean the next slightly more disgusting toilet.

[Anonymous]

"Oh. Alright." Nika shrugged when Vaughan rejected his offer to kiss him. He had little interest in kissing anyone, but he had felt he should offer. He smiled because he should, then headed into one of the stalls, squatting down and starting to scrub.

He actually enjoyed cleaning, it was soothing and had a very clear end goal. Things were dirty, so you made them not dirty. It was simple and uncomplicated. Honestly, the idea that this was a punishment was a little strange to Nika.

"I like Gabriel. He was nice to me." Nika had only met him the once, but he had been the first person in the program that actually had listened to Nika. Maybe that was why he was so found of Rachel, because she reminded him of Gabriel.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"...P. Master Gabby?" Rachel blinked several times, then burst out laughing. "Is that what he made you call him? Jeez, yeah, that's him all right. Still a dweeb..."

She rolled her eyes and started to mop the floor, listening as Nika and Vaughan spoke and feeling a thread of amusement. Vaughan found him mean, Nika found him nice. Once again, sounded about right. She shook her head. "Yeah, he's kinda an asshole, but he has his moments. Why'd he dump you, Vaughan? I mean, you want I can go yell at him for you."

[Anonymous]

“Made me” Vaughan leaned out so he could look at her before he blushed and looked away, “Actually I made it myself first time we met when I was a little more... Out going and less... ‘that guy who got cut.’” He shrugged and went back to scrubbing, feeling a little silly. He tensed though, when Rachel asked her next question.

“I don’t know. It was after that girl died, his other candidate. So I got moved, I guess, and now he has other candidates, but maybe I was more trouble than I was worth.” Vaughan shrugged even though he was sure no one could see him. Another toilet done. How many toilets were in this damn washroom. “We should talk about other things!” Vaughan nodded before he went to another stall and started to clean that. “I have no suggestions though. Um. Red isn’t my natural hair colour?” Which was more than obvious by the black roots that were obvious now that his hair had grown out.

[Anonymous]

Nika took much longer per stall than Vaughan did, carefully cleaning everything. He didn't feel any need to rush and it was soothing. He was only on his second toilet while Vaughan powered through them. The talk about Vaughan calling Gabe that name irritated him, his hand clenching around the brush.

He didn't really understand why, but he didn't like it. He didn't like Vaughan calling him Niiks anymore, he shouldn't be allowed to anymore. Vaughan hadn't wanted to listen to him, hadn't been who he had thought he was. But it didn't matter as Vaughan had nicknames for everyone.

His hadn't been special.

"Maybe it's because you complain a lot?" Nika's voice was the same almost monotone it always was, not inflection as he spoke, stating simple fact, "You whine a lot and it is rather irritating. And your hair is obviously not naturally red. You have black roots. My hair is naturally black. Rachel is a natural blond."

He paused, realizing he had exhausted that avenue of conversation. More small talk, alright, "Did you go to the bash? I was a vampire."

[Rhi-Rhi]

Oh...that's right, the candidate that had been killed by Gospels. Rachel gave a little shudder. She didn't know anything else about that situation but that; her brother wasn't talking about it.

Well, shoot. Here she was trying to make the best of this whole situation, and now it was just devolving into awkward and depressing. That and there seemed to be something going on between Vaughan and Nika that she wasn't privy to. The way they acted around each other, Vaughan seeming uncomfortable and Nika seeming--well, okay, maybe it was just Vaughan. Nika was always blunt and open, but maybe he did seem just a little bit edgy.

Something was going on there; she just wasn't sure what.

But it was starting to bother her.

"Is there something going on between you two?" she asked abruptly, pausing in her mopping.

[Anonymous]

((Sorry for skipping you Draco, but I /really/ wanted Nika to get to answer that one in his own blunt little manner >__>))

Rachel's question surprised Nika slightly. He hadn't even realized it was obvious that the two of them were awkward around each other. He didn't even look up when he replied, scrubbing at a stain on the toilet, "I raped Vaughan."

[Anonymous]

(( It’s okay 83 ))

Vaughan was silent, he was going to pretend to ignore the question. Who asks a question like that any– He dropped the scrub brush and it landed in the toilet, making a small splashing noise. Luckily it wasn’t a big enough splash to get water onto himself. That would have sucked more. That was... A shock. He stood up and glared at Nika’s back when he stood in the doorway to the bathroom stall he was in.

“Nika!” His voice wasn’t much of a voice, it sounded like he was exhaling air. There was no umph behind it. Vaughan blushed again before he frowned “You shouldn’t just tell people that! It’ll make you look bad and people won’t want to be your friend!” He held his arms at his side, and he looked over at Rachel before doing a double take towards Nika.

That was why he was irritated? Because it made Nika look bad? He should be defending his honor or saying he didn’t like it or... Or that it gave him nightmares. But Nika didn’t give him nightmares, the idea of it gave him nightmares. Nika was still... Nika. Who managed to be scary and naive and cute and...  Huh. Vaughan stared ahead for a moment before realizing just how confusing that was. “I don’t think Rachel wanted to know that, Niiks.” He looked over his shoulder again before he shuffled back to the toilet he was cleaning.