The Distortion of Normalcy[Icicle//Adelaid Belial]

[Icicle]

Niko was interested by the various groups of people who brushed into the cafe, but he tried to keep a low profile as he sipped on his, now cold, hot cocoa. The hours rolled by as he listened to other people's conversations, especially Noelle's, when she walked by. The taste of chocolate was peculiar to him, having much more spice and richness than any of the previous types he tried. He surmised that he would have to come back to the cafe to try the other delicacies at other times, but, for the time being, he steadily sipped at his food-like drink until it was gone, then consumed the condiments on the side, including the cinnemon, which he found to taste very bitter and strong, and continued blankly looking around at people.

On a few occasions, Niko found that customers were very pushy about Noelle's injuries. He frowned the first two times, but the third time it happened, once Noelle left, Niko quickly put on his headset and tapped the two idiots on the shoulder, whispering something into their ears. They sharply looked over at him after hearing what he said, looking terrified, and quickly got up and silently started to leave once Niko walked back to his seat, pulling his headset back off as he walked.

He felt bad about what he had done, but nonetheless, there was a certain satisfaction about defending his friend which he couldn't quite put to words. He stared into the bottom of his coffee cup, as if searching for the last few bits of sweetness which he had missed a good half hour ago; when he looked up, he saw Noelle walking up to him. Niko nodded excitedly as Noelle asked him about his drink, then offered her the plate with the mug on it, as he had seen other people do throughout his time in the place, then offered her some cash, about twice the price of the dring itself, and said, "I really enjoyed it!" smiling lightheartedly. Then, once she was done, he shook his head, his expression gradually becoming more serious, and he responded, "we should relax later. You deserve a break after doing all of this..."

 

[Adelaide Belial]

"Yeah, answering people's orders gets real taxing pretty darn quick." She laughed, "I guess, I can go get changed or something, be right back!" She quickly headed towards the back, where more of her coworkers were already getting ready to leave and resume their school lives. "Noelle, are you heading out early?" She nodded, "Mmhmm. Hardock says I shouldn't be staying longer today if I keep getting negative attention, due to these bandages." They nodded as she changed back into her normal clothes, "Well, still...Try and get some rest or something, or maybe some less obvious bandages?" One of the servers poked her in the ribs, causing her to laugh. Rubbing her ribs tenderly she sighed, "Yeah, you're right. I'll just go and rest with my friend." Some giggles could be heard in the back. Obviously they had all seen her talking with Niko. Everyone had jokes.

She stepped out of the changing rooms in her normal clothes, the receipt Niko handed her in hand. She quickly entered in the receipt and said good bye to those who heard her. Then running up to Niko, she smiled, "Let's get going, are we going to hang out in the Library again?" She was actually a lot less tense now that they were leaving, there were way too many people in there. She quickly pulled Niko behind her as she left to find somewhere better for them to hang out.

"Do you want to go back into town, Niko?"

 

[Icicle]

Niko quickly got up as Noelle ran towards her, but, despite initially thinking that something had gone wrong, he quickly noticed that she was smiling under her bandages, so his mood lightened. He gladly followed behind her as she started to lead him out of the shop, and, in response to her second question, he smiled shyly and, staring at the back of her head, he asked, "actually, I was hoping we could just go to one of our dorm rooms for awhile...if...you're fine with that..." he paused for a few seconds, then looked down at the ground to escape from looking directly at her, his expression somewhat embarrassed as he continued, "I...I wanted to talk a little...in private..."

 

[Adelaide Belial]

"Back to your..........room?" She asked, considering the option, "Or back to my room, maybe?" She looked at the trails ahead of them around the campus, the closest dormitory was the males, "We can head to your room I guess, if it's private and all.........." She wondered if he had noticed that "bird attack" wasn't the most possible of situations for her to earn scars like the one she had. She sighed, wondering how exactly she would hide the scars in the dorm room. She once again had her scarf around her neck and all other wintry clothes. But she couldn't possibly go into a dorm room, with great heating and try to wear all heavy clothing.....it would just be too freaking suspicious. "Let's get going then."

 

[Icicle]

Niko was about to comment that, "We could also go to your room, you know..." but felt that her preference was more important than his self-consciousness about the state of his room. "Yeah, let's go!" he commented, smiling innocently at her as he passed by her, now leading her onwards instead of having her lead him.

Once they arrived at the male dormitory, Niko heard a few people make comments about her face, but he was quick to pull her into the building and away from their sneering faces. "Is there something about injuries which people find funny?" Niko asked Noelle, releasing her wrist as he made his way over to the elevator.

After they arrived in his dorm room, Niko locked and dead-bolted the door closed, then started to clean up a bit of the mess, placing extra backpacks against the wall between his bed and his desk. "Sorry for the mess...If you see something you want, you can have it, especially food..." After a minute or so of moving things around, he pulled a laptop and a charger out of one of the backpacks and placed it on his bed. "I wanted to talk to you a little, but if we run out of things to talk about, we can watch shorter movies on my laptop." He then sat next to his laptop and watched to see where Noelle would sit.

Once she was settled, he became serious and stared at her intensely, "About my memories...I...I haven't told you the full truth...about what I can remember..." he paused, trying to remember exactly how he prepared for this moment, but blanking out. After a few moments, he decided to improvise, and, after clearing his throat, he continued, "That day...when I bumped into you....d-do you remember the pipe I was carrying?.........When I first woke up, I picked up a few random pieces of paper, then I was attacked by a guy with that pipe on the street...he ran up and hit me on the side of my head, and I blacked out........when I woke back up, there was blood all around me, especially on the pipe, but my head wasn't injured, so I don't think he hit me that hard. I had to pick the pipe up because a few other people were running towards me, so I had to start running......a-and, after that...I don't know if I was dreaming or not...my clock kept changing and going back to one specific time, and the buildings changed - whether I ran in circles or not, every time I ran around a corner, they changed. Then, when I bumped into you, it all stopped..."

Throughout telling this story, whenever he paused, he had to take a few deep breaths to maintain his calm, serious expression, trying to remember what he was saying to the best of his abilities. Once he was done, he waited a few seconds, then butted in, "I...I think you had something to do with it...so, I...I'm really grateful to you, Noelle..." He was near tears by the time he said her name, but maintained his serious expression, more or less. It was clearly difficult for him to do so, based on his expression, but he tried especially hard to hide it.

 

[Adelaide Belial]

Noelle hid her face behind Niko as much as possible when they began to laugh at her, in response to his question, she shrugged. She had absolutely no idea why someone would make fun of someone who's gone through pain. She seemed to be hiding behind him like a shadow the entire time they moved through the Dorm halls. It was only when they were inside Niko's room that she felt safe. And only when Niko had commenced cleaning his room, that she had felt comfortable enough to shed her winter coat, because he was too distracted. She kept the scarf on though.

After taking a comfortable seat on the ground. She nodded to Niko's suggestion, "Yeah, we can talk." She had calmly taken into the first few sentences of his discussion about his memories, she'd already figured that there had been some sort of altercation when the boy with the pipe had crashed into her. But it was the sheer thought of it, the story behind the pipe that truly began to eat away at Noelle. He was in some sort of amnesiac state? How did she help with that? Is that why he acted so weird sometimes, especially around new sites and people?

"I helped you? How? You said that time for you just kept repeating. Last time I checked, I was just a high school artist, I can't-....No, I couldn't have had anything to do with what happened, Niko. Are you sure that you just didn't lose you memory?" She was mentally freaking out. "Niko, why didn't you tell anyone?!" She curled up into a ball, trying to close out everything around her. An erratic response, probably, but she was truly freaking out. She hadn't expected to hear that at all today. It was bad enough that she was probably strangled in her sleep but-

"......! N-Niko, do you know how or why I got these bruises? These scratches?" Noelle looked up at her friend from the floor, to show him, she removed the scarf from around her neck. "Or why you disappeared? ....No, that's not the right question......Who are you?" She hit her hand against the ground. "How do you get stuck in time?! What is this, a sci-fi movie!?" She closed her eyes, shaking tears away.

 

[Icicle]

Niko quickly got off of the bed as he noticed Noelle's expression, trying to interrupt her to explain, but finding it more important, overall, to listen to what she was saying. He placed a hand on her shoulder after she curled up, saying, "No, you didn't cause it - you stopped it!" But his words didn't seem to make it through. He pulled his hand away from her shoulder as she looked up at him, and gulped hard after seeing her neck. "Th-that was..." he started, but was interrupted again, causing him to wince slightly. The disappearance was a painful memory, but her follow up was even more painful. He backed away from her slightly, fearing that he had made a huge mistake, and said, "I-I'm...I'm s-still..." but before he could say anything else, her voice flared up again, seemingly even more angry.

Niko was silent for a few seconds, then he puled his knees into his chest, forgetting about the scars along his legs in the heat of the moment, and rested his head against the front of his knees, as if to hide from her. After a few seconds of deep breathing and a steadily growing pain in his chest, he murmured, "I...I-I c-c-can't answer a-any of that, N-...N-N-N-Noelle!" He was only barely able to say her name beneath his tears, but he continued on, "N-No...I-if I d-d-do,...i-it'll hurt you...y-you don't want t-t-to know...e-even I-I don't w-want to know..." His throat locked up after saying this and he hugged his legs tighter, hoping it would hide him more as he started to tremble. "No...I'm wrong...sh-she's not angry....s-she's just....curious...th-that's all..."

 

[Adelaide Belial]

Noelle looked up back down at her legs, tears welling in the corners of her eyes, blurring her vision. "Niko....I'm sorry......You don't have to say anything....I just....I felt like I was being choked, hard-pressed for answers, and I still am sometimes." She lifted a shaky hand to her band-aids, pulling one off with a hiss. "I look terrible, with all these scratches on my face. No animal could have done it....." She looked over to Niko, "I just wanted someone to blame.....I can't see how I could have helped you....I couldn't help you afterwards when you disappeared. Or help you with the pain and scars you're hiding from me. I'm no better, I'm hiding mine too."

She reached out and grabbed Niko's hand, "I'm sorry. You can get angry with me if you want.....I've been deplorable. You're a good friend Niko, and you get in so much trouble, never want anyone to help you.......I was angry that you could think it was okay to tell me that now." She squeezed his hand in further apology. Eyes halfway closed, never really looking up from her own collar. "You won't tell me? Fine, but next time I ask, I demand an answer." She wasn't angry, but her face seemed set to bore the fact into Niko that next time, she would not be persuaded from the answers. She was in no way acting strong, she was still scared beyond recognition. Apparently, Niko now knew things that were practically dangerous and taboo to both of them. She wanted to curl back up into a ball and cry, but Niko was crying. And they couldn't both be crying.

Noelle patted Niko's hand calmly, muttering "sorry, sorry" over and over again. She didn't want her friends to be said, but when they were both so confused like this, they would be caught in such a turbulent storm that brewed so fast ahead of them.

 

[Icicle]

Niko continued to shed tears and hide as his friend started to talk. He gradually calmed down as he felt one of her hands reach over and grab one of his own, but only slightly. At first, he resisted her, but softened up quickly as she continued to apologize, relaxing slightly as she squeezed his hand. At her ultimatum, he finally mustered the strength to look up and over to her; after seeing her determination, he quickly hid his head once again. For the next minute or so, he calmed down. He sat with his legs crossed and held Noelle's hand as he started to regain his composure, the horror on his face forced into a courteous smile as he looked over at Noelle.

"I'm glad that you're here, Noelle...umm...d-do you want to talk about a-anything?...or...s-should we watch a video on my laptop?..." Along with his forced smile, he was a bit uneasy as he spoke, and was still shaking a little. He looked around at each pause; once he finished speaking, he let go of her hand and started to walk over to one of his backpacks. "I have a few snacks..." he said, unzipping the backpack and pulling out a few bags of chips, beef jerky strips and other assorted junk foods.

 

[Adelaide Belial]

She couldn't help but laugh. "I'm glad you're here too!" Snacks, after all of this...just snacks? "That would be....perfect, thank you Niko." She politely took a few jerky strips and pulled herself onto the bed a bit more comfortable. She surveyed the atmosphere for a bit, "Movies then." considering what had just transpired maybe talking would be a bad idea."So what movies are you going to make me watch? I want to let you know now that I do not do slasher or scary films. Everything else is pretty fair game." She bit into the jerky, leaning onto her arm for a bit of support as she stared at the small screen. "I know a few sites where you can watch movies for free!" She smiled, holding up a small "V" for victory sign with her fingers. Even if she had picked the site for the movies, the pickings for the movies were vast, so all of five minutes was spent in scrolling the pages in awkward silence. "OH~!" She pointed out one movie in particular, jumping up like she was on fire. "I love this movie! The title says it all, "The Girl who Leapt Through Time" Let's watch this one, please?!"

 

[Icicle]

Niko blushed a little at her response, still slightly solemn, but at least attempting to smile. "My pleasure..." he responded, deciding to stick to the dried meat for the time being as his friend started to search through the laptop. He looked over at her as she spoke about "slaher or scary" films with a mix between his previous nervousness and a curious, amused emotion. Without a word, he continued to eat his food as she quickly pointed out her expertiese with movies and laptops, not that Niko hadn't already figured as much, and watched the screen as she transverses the unintelligible planes of the internet. After he swallowed his food, he calmly responded, "well...we could watch the Christmas movies again..." as he awkwardly stared at the options scrolling by, "or...uhh...we could try something new....which isn't about slashing or scaring..."

He jumped a little as the girl made an interjection, and started to clutch his mouth, having bitten his tongue rather painfully. He stared at her in shock and fear as she jumped up and down, wary that she may miss the bed and land on him instead at any moment. More to pacify her than to agree, he hastily exclaimed, "Y-yeah! sure! Let's watch it!" and shoved another piece of jerky into his mouth reflexively as he averted his eyes back to the screen. Niko adjusted from sitting upright to lying on his stomach to watch the movie, holding his head in his hand as bright, white headset hung around his neck. As the movie continued on, he almost felt as if he was back in the library, but without the hot chocolate.

He left the bed every now and then to get more snacks or sodas for them, but, by the time of the movie's end, he still felt somewhat hungry, and was munching away on yet another bag of chips. "I wish I could jump through time..." he commented, more excited than jealous, "that was awesome..."

 

[Adelaide Belial]

"But, you could punch a hole in the space-time continuum!" Noelle pretended to be shocked with her friend's comment, but a goofy smile plagued her lips as she said it. "Yeah, going through time would be cool and all, but you risk too much." She looked for another piece of jerky, calmly gathering one with as much caution as possible, in case she wasn't supposed to. With jerky in hand, she once again commandeered the laptop. "Besides, there was a limited amount of times to jump through time anyways. And the main character used most of hers to avoid the guy who liked her. Silly~....I certainly wouldn't have done that."

Jerky in mouth she returned to the search engine, fingers hovering anxiously above the keyboard. "So which Christmas movie do you want to see again? I'm impartial to the Nightmare before Christmas, but Rudolph is a family favorite...." It was almost surreal, sitting there, watching movies. Noelle propped her hand back against her face for support, having pulled up both movies on two different sites, "Since I chose last time, it's your turn this time Niko!" She smiled mischievously, turning her head to look at the boy.

 

[Icicle]

After Noelle's playful response, Niko chuckled, moderately amused and calmly remarked, "y-yeah...time travel would be much more complicated than that, wouldn't it..." He had a hint of playfulness in his otherwise serious expression as he spoke, then grinned widely as Noelle's next action reminded him of the presence of the beef jerky. Once she had claimed her own piece, he lunged for the bag and, with strained control, shoved a piece into his mouth as he watched her surf through his computer once more.

After thinking about her next comment for a moment, he frowned, but remained silent. After a few more moments, he looked down at his lap, holding another piece of beef jerky in his hand limply, fiddling with it as he fell into his thoughts once again. When Noelle began speaking once again, Niko was so entranced with his thoughts that he jumped slightly and looked over to her, having forgotten about her presence. He didn't understand what she said at first, still transitioning back to reality, but he soon remembered their goal and looked over at the lap top. "Well, uhh...I liked them all...is there another one like Rudolph? Maybe one with...more snow?"

Niko intended this to be a joke, but utterly failed at crafting his intonation, thus he sounded completely serious, if a bit unsure of himself. After replaying his words back in his head, he quickly reassured himself that everything was okay by hastily consuming another piece of beef jerky, once again staring down at his lap.

------------

As per usual, Niko displayed close to no decisiveness when choosing a movie, and ended up selecting the first movie which Noelle pulled up, something about men of snow. Niko found the entire movie somewhat comical, however he cringed quite a lot at some of the illogical actions of the characters. Once the movie was over, he commented, "I wonder....if a snowman can feel cold..." He never conclusively finished this line of thought, instead getting up from his seat to throw away the trash which they had built up, then, after getting a few sodas, returning to the bed. He looked over at Noelle for a moment, then down at his watch. 2105

"Oh! Uhh....N-Noelle, I think it's past Curfew. Do you want me to walk you back over to the girl's dorms?" Niko's face reddenned slightly as he spoke, but he maintained a serious expression as he rose from the bed and offered her his hand.

 

[Adelaide Belial]

Noelle had chosen Frosty the Snowman as the movie they would watch. It wasn't one of her most favorites, but it was better than some of the other choices she could have gone with The movie was short, as it was more of a thirty-minute cartoon special, and Noelle had to blink the strain from her eyes away. Yawning she sat up a bit, When she heard what time it was from Niko, she mentally cursed at herself. "It's already that late...? Darn, I should probably be getting home, you're right." Noelle accepted Niko's hand graciously when it was placed out in front of her. She pulled herself up and looked over to the door. "If, it's not too much trouble, please walk me home Niko." She walked towards the door, collecting her stuff of course, and waited for her friend at the door.

They had begun her trek towards her own dorm. There was a slight chill still in the air, and the grounds of the school were eerily barren. Noelle felt put off by the whole situation, and tried to ease some of the tense aura "I'm sorry I let it get so late, Niko." she tilted her head towards him for a second. It was better, in her eyes, to try and strike up a conversation to at least ed the unusual silence that was threatening to overcome them. "Thanks for the snacks....and the talk, both were pretty good." She wasn't sure there was much to it after that. There wasn't really a need to say anything else, was there? She had said her fill about it. Maybe they could continue what they were talking about tomorrow. There would certainly be much more controlled emotions. They might even be able to find out some way to see what the weird connection between the two of them was. That would be good, right? Not tonight, of course, but tomorrow....

They approached the door to the girls' dorms, and Noelle turned to say goodbye. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow, right? Goodnight then, Niko! I hope I haven't kept you awake too long."

 

[Icicle]

Without pause, Niko gently pulled Noelle up and off of his bed, then hastily threw his black hoodie over his shoulders. He snuck a metal object into his pocket as Noelle packed up her things, hiding it from her view, then quickly made her way over to the door. He didn't bother immediately responding to her, but didn't show any sign of why he was being quiet. His expression was calm as he unlocked the door and exited the room, holding it open for his friend. "I hope it isn't too cold out...I wouldn't want to freeze to death or anything..." he commented with a fresh, wry smile.

By the time they were outside, Niko was solemn and quiet again, looking around while purposefully avoiding Noelle's gaze. After she spoke, he quickly retorted, "I don't mind. I just don't want us getting into trouble." He didn't agree with her next comment, but remained silent. Deep down, he knew that they didn't accomplish anything that evening. I'm just delaying the inevitable at this point...

He cleared his throat to get the cold out of his vocal chords as they approached the girls' dorms. He still had nothing to say, so he stood by the entrance, looking down at his feet. He felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek as he started to think about what was happening. He could only nod in response to her first question, his voice disabling his vocal chords. Her last comment gave him the will to force himself to chuckle. At last, he responded, "Yeah...g-goodnight, Noelle..." Then quickly turned around and walked back to the boys' dorms at a brisk pace. He didn't look back to see if she was still watching him as he went. He knew he was being watched - whether by her or someone else didn't matter.

Once he got back to the boys' dorms, he looked around cautiously and made his way upstairs. Unlike most nights, the dorm was utterly silent. There wasn't even the usual sound of snoring or rock music. The building didn't even creak. The only sound was Niko's footsteps, his breath, and his ever-increasing heart rate. I hope it's not....but I bet it's the same for her... he thought, staring intently down the hallway as he reached his floor. The hallway was just as silent as downstairs....

 

[Adelaide Belial]

Noelle walked past the main lobby of the girl's dorm. She was already rubbing her temples, trying to keep her vision straight on what lay in front of her. She almost passed out in the elevator, were it not for the probably-to-perky ring of the elevator doors opening. She hurried to her room and quickly began to get ready for bed. There was going to probably be a real hectic day tomorrow. Considering how calm today had been, retrospectively, she would no doubt have to deal with everything tomorrow. When more opportune moments presented themselves. Just before she was about to lay down, she reached for the whistle that had layer dormant against her chest, getting colder. She almost felt like removing it, then after a second's thought about the event so f today, she let it slip back to it's rightful spot, despite it being unreasonably cold.

At least, with the necklace on, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone trying to hurt her in her sleep, right? Despite the fact that she herself had mentally made the joke, it didn't make her solitary state any less cryptic. She laid down, holding a firm grip on the whistle under her shirt and drifted off to sleep. If anything happened, well....then that would be the time to see if the whistle could do what is was bought for.