What Happens In the Forest, Stays In the Forest. (Unless you're like Nate and decide to break your leg.)

Nate groaned quietly as he sat up, having had to change his clothes to what the other nurses deemed "suitable". They made him put on a hospital gown, though to him, all it really was was a giant-apron-dress-thing. He wasn't particularly fond of it, to say the least. There was a weird cast on his leg that was hard for him to move. He was hungry. They had hooked him up to a rather simplistic IV to help his blood loss. Apparently, he couldn't really do much for the next week or two. "Wonderful." Nathan smiled to himself sarcastically.

He folded his arms gently in his lap and glanced around the room, wondering where Melody had gone. He hadn't known before, but apparently she was one of the nurses that worked at the school. He wasn't sure what to do, and couldn't very well go up and look for her, so instead he sat there and recited the story in his head... Of how there was a kitten and a bear -- and something along those lines. cx

"Hey Nate. Looking sexy as always, I see." a girl's voice called as Mel walked in, food tray in hand. She shut the door behind her with her hip, and strolled up to Nathaniel.
Man, was he in bad condition through her eyes. She couldn't help but think that this was all her fault. "How are you feeling?" She asked with a rueful smile as she set the tray down beside him; on it was soup and a side of Jello. She sat down on the end of his bed and looked up at him.
Her hair was again pulled back, and held away from her face with bobby pens. She had plain white clothing for her uniform, a skirt that may have been a little short and a shirt that most nurses were clad in. Instead of those ugly nurse's shoes she despised so much, she had matching white Vans instead.
"I figured you were hungry, but the said only soft foods for now." She explained as she gestured towards the tray.

Nathan had been in some strange part of the middle of his story when Melody had walked in; he hadn't even really noticed her until she had started to speak up, to which he couldn't help but let out a small smirk, figuring that she was just messing with him. "Did you expect anything less?" He asked in a playfully, narcissistic tone.

He hadn't actually done anything more than glance at her when she walked in, but caught sight of the food tray and was happy for that. Nate used his arms to scoot himself over slightly, in case she wanted to sit down.

It was right about that moment that he actually noticed her, an unusual blush came to his face and he quietly took the tray, setting it down next to a table in his easy reach. "Thank you." Nathan smiled and covered his mouth his hand, trying to make it seem like a casual gesture.

'Okay, did she doing this on purpose? ;_;'
Come on. D; Really awesome girl in a cute outfit. Right at his bedside. The two of them... all alone. And he has the power to manipulate her to do anything he wants.. come on. XD

Why yes, she did do this on purpose. :D *shot*

Melody laughed at him, shaking her head. "I think it's just the gown- it's not everyday you get to see Nathaniel Wright in a dress." She bit back in a playful tone of her own.
Mel looked around at the plain room. Hospitals and clinics alike were so boring. Nothing but white walls and possibly a painting to distract patients from their pain.
"You're welcome." She replied calmly, looking back at him to notice... was he blushing? Another thing you don't see often from Nate. He covered his face with his hand casually, and Melody decided to ignore it and not say anything. But she couldn't help wonder...

Honestly, Nathaniel didn't care what the room looked like as long as he was healed and out of there asap. Though, he had to admit it was kinda dull at times with nothing to do and no one to keep him company.. As his gold gaze flickered around the room, he shrugged off her snarky little comment. The young man didn't throw some sharp some back and didn't reply too loud under his breathe. Instead, he laughed lightly, like it was a joke. "Haven't exactly seen you in something like this before, either." Still, his face was brushed with red. Don't look at her in the eyes. ;_; Or at her legs. Or - You know what? Just eat the soup, yeah. The soup. He picked up the small bowl for a few moments, taking slow sips as an excuse to not converse with her too much, just to give him a bit of time to breathe. He began to regain himself a bit.
Nathan was about to speak again, but paused for a moment longer, realizing that he hadn't answered her earlier question. "I'm sorry." he told her quietly. He gave her a small, reassuring smile. "I'm fine, you know."

Now it was her turn to blush. Color rushed to her cheeks, and she turned away. "Oh, this little get up? Yeah, well I couldn't find anything white for the uniform, and..." She mumbled, before trailing off all together.
Actually, she wasn't exactly sure if they needed uniforms... But whenever she helped out as a nurse, she usually wore something along these lines. ^^
"That's good." She replied at last, looking at her hands and kicking her feet back and forth like a child. She had to stop herself from saying, I told you so, since it probably wouldn't help matters. So she awkwardly looked around and at Nate, hoping he'd break the silence.

Nathan's small smile grew a little bigger after he saw her blush and turn her head away. He had seen a good variety of emotions from Mel over their little run-ins with eachother; a few prominent ones being when she was pissed, embarrassed, and happy; This was a new one to him though. Honestly, to feel and see her this way, Nate was a little surprised. With a few thoughts crossing his mind now, his eyes began to gleam in mischievous curiosity. One of them, (without being emphathetic.) Could he make her feel like that again? "Well, it's fine." He said, tilting his head to the side slightly, "You look real cute in it." Nate smiled sweetly and waited for any reaction. Hey, he wasn't lying.

As quietly as he could, Nathan lifted his good leg up and used it as a rest and he sat up closer to her. "And I'm glad you think so. You seemed a little guilty when you first walked in, just wanted you to be sure that my... failure, it wasn't your fault." He stayed quiet a few moments after that, not sure if he could convince her, and not wanting to push it if it were bugging her that badly. It also made him feel a little odd, also. It wasn't really at the fore-front when they were on the way back through the forest, but he wasn't really used to someone being, well "motherly" tword him. Being raised by his dad and step-mom, who didn't regard Nate too much, and his brother that usually wanted nothing to do with him.

Pushing those thoughts away, he took another minute for himself omnom. jell-o. and decided he didn't really want to focus on himself, but on Melody instead. "Do you sing a lot?" he asked quietly, knowing of her sweet voice and her expo marker.

Melody's eyes widened as she was caught in surprise. Then, a mixture of emotions followed; embarrassment, joy, confusion, more joy, ect. It kind of sucked that Nathaniel had the power to read emotions- no way to act cool then. "Thanks. I, um.." She decided it was better not to continue at all.

She didn't talk a little after that, not replying partly because she had drawn back into her hole, partly because she didn't believe him. She still thought it was her fault because she didn't stop Nate, but Melody didn't want an argument.

Nathaniel seemed to be full of surprises today- maybe it was the blood loss. She gave him a weird look, but nodded slowly. "Any chance I get, yes. It was easier at home, though. I rarely had to worry about knocking anyone out- here, it's different... as you can imagine." She joked, with a smile.

ooc;; asdf D: he broke hurr? *grabs the duct tape* bic;;

Nathaniel let out a satisfied look on his face, trying not to smile too hard, but it was obvious that he was pleased with her response. He took in the mixed emotions nicely, bringing up his own mood a little bit, and took the bit of silence to finish off his meal. "Well, yeah. I bet." He finally spoke quietly as she went on. He recalled her singing that first time and knocking out the entire courtyard, though he wasn't about to bring it up now. "The gift must run real strong in the family then, huh?" Nate glanced down at her wrists, seeing the intricate music note tattoos. The empathetic boy kinda just figured it was some traditional thing. He wondered, could someone else with the power resist the whole Jigglypuff-esque gift?

Melody smiled softly, following his gaze to the tattoo located on her wrist. She rubbed at the eighth note absentmindedly as she spoke, almost forgetting about the markings till now.

"You could say that..." She began, focusing in on a watercolor painting of some old timer town on the bedside table. "My grandmother's mother had the ability, as did my grandmother. My mom didn't have it, so I guess it skipped a generation. She still sang, though. She was in choir and did it professional later on.
Whenever my mom found out that I had it, she was pretty bummed, even if she tried to hide it. My dad, who wasn't even aware that there was so much magic in this world, was hysterical- it was pretty funny." Melody said plainly. "My grandmother taught me a lot about the family, and she gave me these," She continued, pausing to gesture towards each tattoo. Her grandmother had told her they had some magic in them to help control and harness her powers, or something crazy like that. She just thought they looked cool.
"So yeah, to summarize it; there's a lot of people with this power in the family." She told him, feeling like she spoke to much. Her voice was even and monotone, giving nothing away. Inside, she was mostly numb whenever she thought back, but there was at least a little sadness and betrayal.

The young man stayed quiet as he listened to her story, imagining an older version of Melody on the stage singing to plenty of people, and her grandma - old and in a green sweater, inking the tattoos onto her wrists. So, it was some kind of family thing. As she went on, he didn't so much else, but he did smile a little bit at the part about her father. He had stayed silent until Melody has finished with her story.
Nathan couldn't help but find it strange how blank she looked and how blandly she talked about the whole thing. He didn't need his powers to tell that there was something wrong with this subject. "Something is bugging you." he commented quietly, "About your family." Nathan wasn't going to push the subject too badly, but he was curious. It felt to him like there were a few things she was bottling up inside.

Melody glanced at him, and sighed. Shaking her head, she tried to push away any emotions. She never really talked about this to anyone, and usually ignored the subject all together, doing her best never to think of it.
But, if she was going to tell anyone... it would be Nate.
She started to speak, but it was caught in her throat. Not knowing what to say, she shrugged. "Bad memories, I suppose?" She murmured, hinting that she didn't want to talk about it- not now, at least.

Nathan nodded slowly, noticing that she was just withdrawing deeper and deeper. "Yeah, I can understand that." He almost smiled, but he didn't. It stayed quiet for a few moments before he acted again. Maybe it really was the blood loss that was throwing himself off his usual self, but he leaned forward and lifted his arm; flinching momentarily from the small strain that this put on his leg, and gently placed his hand on her own. "I know we're not exactly the closest two -- and we haven't had the best track record." And dear lord, wasn't that the understatement of the day. Marker moustaches, nearly flipping Happy to high heaven, their constant bantering whenever they did as much as glance cross-eyed in the other's direction. The more Nate thought about it, the more surprised he was that she was still sitting here with him, and he was thankful.
This time, he did give her a real smile, hoping it would catch on and cheer her up a bit. "I'm here if you ever need someone to listen, m'kay?"
meanwhile, during this entire conversation, a small creature of pure evil was creeping around the room. D;

Melody peered down at her hand, and grinned. She shouldn't be wallowing in self pity, especially whenever she had come here to check on Nathaniel. Instead of focusing on herself, she turned her attention to him. She laughed lightly. "You mean drawing Sharpie staches is considered a bad thing?" The girl asked innocently, tilting her head in mock confusion. "I'd never have guessed..." She murmured with a disappointed shake of the head, to add on to the effect. Pausing for a moment to think, she began again."And... I've always thought we were pretty close.." Mel said quietly, raising an eyebrow.
Melody turned her gaze back to his hand. "Okay." She said simply, drawing circles on the back of his hand with her free one absentmindedly, barely noticing what she was doing.
it's the devil's spawn, I tell you. D;

In turn, Nathaniel grinned back at her, pleased to see the cheerful Melody return. "Are you kidding me?" The young man scoffed at her remark and rhetorical innocence, remembering having to stand in front of the sink for hours, simply scrubbing his face with soap and water. "You know how hard that stuff was to wash off?" Nate still couldn't help but laugh lightly, though; really, it was one thing he might never stop holding against Mel, no matter how silly and petty the whole thing was.
He wasn't expecting her next comment, "You have?" It was really all he could say; it took him a bit off guard. Really, after all the run ins they had; and after the incident with Happy, he thought she'd at least have a healthy disliking before. Obviously, this evening was proving the previous thoughts wrong, but it still sounded a little surprising.
His gaze traveled along with hers to their hands, he watched as her traced figures across his skin lightly. As she did so it left a strange trails of sparks. "You know..." He squeezed her hand gently, his golden eyes looking back up at her, then to the side. He seemed to have caught sight of something else and his body suddenly stiffened. "-- er, you... just need to stay still for a second." He pulled his hand away from her slowly and reached over to the stand by his bed, grabbing a few pieces of paper and rolling it up. He raised his arm, as if to strike this little spot on the bed behind Melody.

"Of course. I mean, we may have started off on the wrong foot and walked a little with it, I've never disliked you." She explained, assuming he'd already known this. Melody wasn't the kind of person to hate easily- her friends use to say she didn't have a truly mean bone in her body. It was all just sarcasm, and maybe a little hidden truth... but she wasn't one to judge one's past.
She waited for him to continue speaking, and whenever he did, she tilted her head in confusion. "Huh?" She questioned, and following his gaze, turned around slowly to find- she shot daggers at it for a moment, making sure it was what she thought it was. Then she froze, and a small squeak of fright escaped her throat, before she went completely chaotic.
She let out a short screech upon seeing the aracnapoid- a eight legged, many eyed monster that had to be at least an inch or two. But to Melody, it was like a hairy little trianchalla seven inches long. The kind you only saw in movies. Covering her eyes and swatting at her arms and head, Melody rolled over to avoid the creature- running into Nathaniel's arm. She didn't seem to care as she curled into a ball and buried her face in his shoulder, letting out small whimpers of fear. She shoved into his side to get away from the creature, definitively not going the opposite direction towards the spider.

Well, her response would have made Nathaniel very happy if he weren't occupied on killing one of the demons of the insect world~. He was about to swat it with his papers before Melody had caught sight of the small creature; after that, it all rolled chaotically downhill. As she rolled over to escape the spider, he quickly chucked the bunch of papers at the animal. Instead of running away like Nate had wished, it instead started crawling up the bed twords their heads. Nathan quickly jerked in fear and swatted several times at the arachnid, sending it flying off the bed and unto the floor. He stared it down until he saw it start shuffling to the corner of the room with an open window.

Nathaniel's eyes were wide open as he threw his head back on the pillow, god damn! He hated spiders! ;_; It took him a few moments to fully realize that Melody was in his arms, buried into his side. The young man's first instinct was to not move a single muscle, as if he would that she'd run off light a frightened creature, but he took in a quiet breathe and let it out slowly, relaxing himself.

Slowly, he wrapped his arm around her, putting his hand on her arm. "Melody? Are you alright?" He called down to the girl whimpering into his gown, clear concern on his face. He started shaking her gently, as to try and wake her up, or out of a trance.

The girl tensed in surprise as she felt his arm wrap around her and his hand touch her arm. Then she relaxed, feeling safer. "Well, I feel like a complete baby now." Then she laughed and rolled over to face him, just noticing she was right by Nathan. Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment for overreacting- and how close they were. Mel was also mad at herself- and the spider. That damned spider. D:<
"I- I'm fine, Nate." She mumbled with a sigh.

The young man glanced down at her, grinning in amusement at her comment. Nate couldn't help but laugh at the entire situation, he had to turn his head away from her and covered his mouth with the back of his free hand; simply to try and settle down a bit. "Don't. God, that was horrible." He waited until the last of his chuckles left before glancing back down at Melody. Nathaniel had to smile softly at her blushed cheeks, he was starting to think that maybe he should be thankful the little devil had come by, with how they were now. "Well, you're welcome to stay right here until we can be sure that thing's gone." Nate said lightly, as if it were a joke, but he silently hoped she'd agree.

Smiling softly, she readjusted herself into a more comfortable position. She chuckled softly, though her heart still beat from sight of the creature. Stupid, stupid spider. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to take the chance.." She joked, although somewhat meant it. It was pretty nice being in Nate's arms, feeling his warmth- oh god, now she was sounding mushy. Muuuushy. ;__;

Nathaniel smirked, "Of course not." The young man said quietly and brushed a few stray hairs out of her face, then slowly drawing his hand away, finding her own and entwining their fingers. "You know, I think I'm starting to feel better already." Nate smiled sweetly and laid his head back, closing his eyes and taking in a deep, slow breathe. Sitting here this entire time and this was about the cheeziest thing I could come up with. *shot*.

Frosty wuz here. c:

Melody chuckled, and a smile appeared on her face. "Nathaniel, if you said something any cheesier, we'd have to serve you with chips and jalapeños." She joked sweetly, but inside she happily accepted the comment. "But... I'm glad I could help." She murmured, leaning a little closer to be heard.

Ebby wuz near.

"Tell me, do you think I'd taste good? ;D *shotforeverplz*"He grinned, unable to help but laugh again, though he kept his eyes closed. Admittedly, he was tired. "Well, I'd be lying if I said otherwise." Nathaniel near sung, pulling her in closer. He slit his eyes open to look at her for a few moments, "Really, I almost feel lucky I pulled such a stupid move."

Melody laughed under her breath. "Yay for stupidity, I suppose. And not listening when I told you not to be stupid." She smiled, before noticing how tired he looked. "Nate, I think you need to rest." She told him, a little sternly, the nurse in her showing.
Honestly, she didn't want to leave, or let this peaceful moment end, but whatever was best for him, she was okay with.

Nathaniel got a distasteful look on his face, yet smiled and shook his head. "Oh, shut up." He said stubbornly. It was not to slip on the rock. She said nothing about potholes! >:C *shot* "Do I have to? I just said I was fine." He squeezed her hand a little tighter, not wanting her to go.