A LITTLE BIT OF ALL THAT [avery]

[AVERY JUNNOSUKE KAEL]

“Even now,” he chuckled while cringing, though in a way, Avery was quite thankful for his aunt’s presence. It reminded him that not all his relatives from his mother’s side were hell bent on forgetting him or his father. His aunt was quite possibly more of a mother to him than his biological one—but Avery had to admit he didn’t appreciate the constant guilt trips his aunt puts him through on a daily basis. He didn’t care if his mother was drinking herself to death. He didn’t care that she was selling her body to a man in exchange for nonexistent love. He didn’t care, he wanted to tell her, but even that was a lie. “What do you want me to do about that?” Avery asked, raising an eyebrow at the young Water with an amused grin. Mentally he shuffled through his wallet, wondering if he brought along enough money for dinner for two. He didn’t like carrying around large amounts of money at a time, nor did he have a credit card in fear of spending too much. Hmm. “Well,” the nurse began, his infamous flirtatious tone hanging in his voice. Kidding, of course. Sandra was like a baby sister to him. “I’d be honored to take a pretty lady out for dinner~” Of course, as long as Sandra didn’t have expensive tastes. He was pretty sure he only had about $30 in his wallet.

Avery raised an eyebrow at her, his serious demeanor threatening to disappear as the corner of his mouth twitched upwards. “Does that mean everything I know is a lie?” he asked, horrorstruck, as Sandra made him question her real identity. Damn, that’d be like a serious mind fuck to him. “What are you going to do, handcuff me to the bed?” Oh goodness, the image. He could just imagine someone barging in at the wrong time and assuming the worst. And as in worst, he meant something dirty. Avery shuddered. “Hmm, what about my amazingly good looks?” he joked, pretending to flip his hair to the side. His hair was absolutely long enough for him to do so, but that didn’t make him feel better that he could in the first place. Ah, manly problems. He was far from manly, mind you.

Okay, maybe it was a bad thing to bring up sex to an entirely innocent 18 year old—but it was just too tempting to pass up! And being Avery, he didn’t know his limits sometimes, which was obviously very horrible for the victim other party. Hopefully he didn’t have to hear about this from Matthew, if Sandra ever told him. The older brother could be quite scary when he wanted to be, especially when it dealt with his little sister. Avery patted her lightly on the back, though he recoiled when he caught sight of her glare, innocently asking, “What?” as he did so. Goodness, he just sometimes did not get the hint. “I guess,” he said slowly, slightly torn. This is why he sometimes hated being close to the students—emotions, man. “Just don’t be too trusting. And if you feel uncomfortable, tell him to stop whatever he’s doing. Or preferably kick him in the balls,” the nurse lectured sternly, though he was sure Matthew probably had already given her this talk. Nothing wrong with repeating! Matt could thank him later.

“Fine,” he shot back teasingly, pouting back at her. “Go and find another nurse that’s awesome and gives you lollipops and gives you somewhere to stay when you’re bored with class.” Goodness, he was childish. It was a wonder why so many people liked him and dealt with him. At least he didn’t get hit yet, right? Right. But anything was better than wasting sweets—like right now. He stared blankly at the spot where his ice cream had fallen, watching the freeloader pigeons surrounding the sweet treat he was enjoying until that moment. “No. It’s fine,” he finally managed to get out after the shock, though he suddenly began to laugh as the events started to replay in his head. He just knew he probably looked like a sad little child. Avery felt like one, too, but it was just too ridiculous in his mind and the fact that Sandra sounded like a mother just made his laughter worse. Yeah… totally not crazy.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra just giggled, feeling the urge to reach over and pinch his cheeks now too because the image of his aunt doing that was hilarious and adorable and Sandra just thought it was the cutest thing in the world. "That's amazing," she told him seriously, smiling earnestly. She thought it was sweet; Sandra did love her family. She didn't know about Avery's, of course. "You should make me a sandwich, obviously," she said, and she would have sounded very witty and sarcastic (or close enough to it) if it weren't for the laughter. She waved a hand in front of her as if gesturing at a kitchen countertop right there. "Right now. Or maybe some mac and cheese. That'd be good too." She grinned, however, at his next words, though the "flirting" (if it could be called that when it was Nurse Avery of all people) went completely over her head. "Awww, thanks! And I'd be honoured to have dinner with the best nurse in the world." Her grin was cheeky but she was really just being honest. She did have some money floating around in her wallet somewhere, though, she was sure -- just a little. She wasn't made of the stuff.

She gave him a serious look for about half a second before she broke facade to giggle; Sandra was really bad at holding a straight face. It was kind of terrible. "Maybe," she whispered loudly, eyes wide in wonder and suggestion, but the giggling just ruined it. She doubted he had anything to worry about in terms of his "real identity". "And no, I don't think I own handcuffs," she said, blinking, unaware of anything potentially suggestive about what he'd just said. It was sometimes good to be blissfully unaware and oblivious. "Well, you do have fabulous hair," she said, copying him and flipping her hair over her shoulder; it was much easier for her than it was him, though she was impressed at how easily he did it, too. Hey, she hadn't been kidding -- fabulous. Everything Nurse Avery did was fabulous, though.

Luckily for everyone involved, Sandra had no intentions of ever mentioning this to Matthew -- he did quite enough worrying on his own. It had been a long time, though, and Matt had since gotten used to it, which made her happy. Unfortunately, not everyone else had quite gotten there (Nurse Avery, apparently) but she believed that it would only be a matter of time, and she also believed that there would be lots of time. "Don't," she said simply, her face still red; the single word came out as an annoyed mutter. Still, she struggled between saying something or just dropping it when he spoke next, until she gave up and sighed, letting her shoulders drop a little. "Okay, Nurse Avery," she said, the tone of voice indicating that she was listening, but that she really didn't think it was a big deal. "I've known him a really long time, you know," she said finally, her voice soft, as if she were trying to convince him that there was adequate reason to trust Devin. There were many more reasons than that, but she just offered the nurse a small smile instead. "And I can take care of myself."

She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her chin out at him, acting stubborn, but she really didn't mean any of it. She could never be even a little angry at Nurse Avery, of all people -- she was rarely ever angry at anyone to begin with, and aw shucks, she just liked Avery way too much to be mad. "Maybe I will," she said first, being impudent on purpose, but then she relented, dropping her arms and adopting a whine to her voice. "That's not fair, you know none of the other nurses will do that." She liked all the nurses but she wasn't lying when she said that Avery was her favourite staff member in the medical wing. There was no competition, really. They were perhaps sometimes equally childish, and she stared, wide-eyed, at his reaction to the ice cream. Sandra would be upset as well -- then he started laughing, and her eyes widened even more. "Nurse Avery!" she said, though it was punctuated by laughter on her part too, because all of a sudden this was very funny. "There's -- there's nothing -- nothing funny about dropped ice cream," she told him, all the while unable to stop laughing. She had to put out a hand and rest it on his shoulder for support to keep from falling over laughing.