Not such a clever boy

Nero hums, follows right behind Alex as they head towards the exit, listening to him talk. He’s looking around a little curiously, seeing people, different kinds, some obviously mutants. They look nice enough, not like any one of them wants to kill Alex or his friends.

But he doubted the threats came from mutants.        “Wow. It’s really moving along fast, isn’t it.” He’s both happy or Alex and the way things are going but also scared and worried and bla bla bla, all the other emotions that came wit it. As usual. There would be no use in expressing it. But… He wasn’t just worried about the whole mutant thing. It was something else too. And hopefully he could talk to Alex about it.

When they finally get outside, Nero takes a deep breath. “It’s good. The same. Chick is still a monster, I still adore her. I called in sick to work the other day, that was nice.” Like the highlight of his week, it was pathetic. But… “Have you done..anything else but work?” He asks carefully, in what he hopes is a non-judgemental way.

“Yes, it really is.” Alex, for his part, is smiling, obviously proud that it’s coming along, but more than that happy. Happy that there is some way to help, happy that mutants have a place they can turn to.

And yes, he’s also doing it for himself, in some way. It’s the first time he can actually control what is done with his work. The first time he doesn’t develop something that is used outside of what he thought it would be - for Hydra or for SHIELD, it doesn’t matter.

“Yeah.” Josh agrees heartily. “That sounds great. Haven’t eaten italian in a while..” There’s a pause, and then he has to fill the void with something as he waits for them to leave. “So uh, how are things?”

“They are...they are going good, actually. We had a lot of donations recently, planning on expanding.” New York is a big city, after all, it would be better to have two clinics instead of one.

His lips purse softly, knows it’s a joke, but it still kind of stings.         “Great. Uhm, I was wondering if you wanted to grab lunch..”

 “I did. If…you’re not too busy.”

“I might be able to make room for you.” It’s a soft joke, but he still feels the need to clear it up. “I’m not too busy.”

            “ I’m an engineer but I work with ballistics too. ”

what nooooo nooooooo waht are you planning to do? ;_;