The first encounter, Angel

[Nathaniel Evans]

Another year had gone by and Nathaniel was still stuck in the 'institute'. He hadn't been home, he hadn't any contact with his parents save for a few letters and telegrams and frankly, he didn't really miss them. They'd shipped him off in the first place, he had no reason to want to be among and with them. They could rot in their little cottage, socialise with their neighbours and pretend that their 'deranged' son didn't exist; it didn't bother Nathan. He'd never been fond of his neighbours anyway, the girls were much too uptight and the boys always stared at him funnily. Not to mention, he had a feeling that the boy he'd exchanged saliva with's parents wouldn't be too pleased with him, and for all he knew, they had a warrant out for his arrest or something similar.

The only thing he missed was the outside world in a sense. Really, the rules were the same outside school, but he felt as if he had more freedom out there. Here, it was almost as if he was an adult and would be punished as such... well, everyone was punished as such. But inside the school at least there were interesting people. There were people who didn't want to conform to society and held similar views as Nat. He enjoyed the company of people who agreed with them.

And not to mention, that today, he'd been informed that he would no longer be occupying a single room as he had for the past three months. He'd changed room-mates twice, the first having left, been kicked out or... Nat didn't even know. But he'd been alone in the double room for three months, and although privacy was nice, he was a social creature and wished for another boy to help pass the time. It was also far easier to observe someone when they slept quite close to you, and you shared living quarters. When boredom struck, he would at least have someone to chat with now, someone to discuss the madness and hilarity of the school they attended. Pity he didn't know anything about his new room-mate.

He sat in the velvet-covered chair, one leg crossed over the other as he stared out the window. In one hand he held his etiquette textbook, while the other rested loosely on one of the pages. There were scribbles and scratches of ink all over the pages as he'd seen fit to edit a few of the stupider 'rules and guidelines' -- something his teacher had not been pleased with. They constantly gave him a new book; he just didn't get it. Didn't they realise he was just going to do the same to the next?

[Angel Edwards]

Angel was furious. Only moments ago, he had left the headmaster's office dramatically with much door-slamming and huffing. How dare he? What right did that idiot have to tell him that he was a disgrace to humanity simply because he didn't want to be some mindless clone? He had barely hung around long enough to be told where his room was before storming out to get away. If he could just reach his new room, perhaps he might be able to calm down. Unless, of course, his roommate was irritating, in which case he may end up even more wound up than he currently was. With a sigh, he turned yet another corner, wondering if he could possibly be near.

The main cause of this whole situation were his family. They had become fed up of his constant refusal to behave 'properly' by simply agreeing with what were considered to be normal opinions. Apparently, 'I don't want to' did not constitute a good reason for not going to school because he was being bullied. Apparently, showing fear at the idea of being kicked in the stomach yet again was a sign of weakness. Apparently, disliking something deserved a beating as punishment. And apparently, overuse of the word 'apparently' meant that he was being facetious. It was sheer luck that he had managed to keep his homosexuality a secret from everyone for so long.

Finally reaching the room that he was supposed to be sharing, Angel pushed it open and stepped inside. There was a boy sitting inside already - a cute blonde boy to be specific - so he put aside his current agitation to introduce himself. Sitting his huge bag and rucksack down on the floor next to him, he stepped forwards. He knew that the 'etiquette' rules suggested a handshake on a first meeting, but without knowing the personality of his new roommate he couldn't be sure how such a gesture would be received. "Hey... I'm Angel..." he said, smiling in the hope he would give off a friendly air.

[Nathaniel Evans]

Nathaniel had almost given up on waiting with eyes glued to the door for his new room-mate. he'd gone as far as to watch the birds outside and mindlessly turn the pages of his book, ripping a few unconsciously. Really, it was unconscious... or so he'd claim anyway later when questioned about it. Of course, that wouldn't be considered proper protocol; when bored, ripping pages of good books was hardly appropriate for someone above the age of two... and even then, as he'd been informed, two year-olds showed more self-control than Nat. Not that Nathan was overly bothered.

And then the door opened and the fifteen year-old was pulled away from his bird-watching, and he was by no means irritated about that. He could only watch the little creatures prance around tweeting for so long before he felt the need to rip out their feathers. Ahem. Not that he was really a violent person, simply a... well, a thought only. He'd never be able to catch a bird anyway. His focus shifted away from the window pane and at the door was what was shaping up to be his best-looking room-mate to date. Of course, he didn't know the personality or anything of the other boy, but Nathan had a thing for blondes, and pity for him, his past two room-mates had been brunnettes. Who wanted nothing to do with him...

Nathaniel stood, silently waiting for the outstretch of a hand he figured was to come. But when only a "Hey... I'm Angel..." arrived without the expected hand, Nat was not disappointed. In fact, he was quite pleased because, in his eyes, this meant that this Angel wasn't about to conform to all the rules. So in his own fashion, Nat raised a hand to his forehead and gave the other boy a salute with a toothy-grin on the side. "I'm Nathaniel, or Nat, or Nathan, or Nate, or... whatever. Only the nutters who run this place call me Nathaniel though," he rambled, glancing down at the bag. "So! You're my new room-mate. What do you think of the place? Isn't it just... fantastic?" he continued, rolling his eyes at the sarcasm placed on the last word.