Shinobi and Nolan - Shaun's birthday party

[ax_herald]

The Nolobi friendship is still strong.


"... Can I finally feel something again?" Shinobi crooned into the microphone, whipping a hand back through his sweat-laden dark hair; it had been a long night, and between frolic in the pool and repeated trips to the karaoke stand, he'd exerted himself a fair amount.

"Dō shita no?" he concluded with a smirk, bowing theatrically as he returned to the general festivities. Wrapped up in a rich purple bathing robe, he zeroed in on the party's host, grinning as though he had just done something spectacularly clever.

"So, Nolan, did you enjoy my contribution? The irony wasn't entirely lost on your passion-besotted gaze, I hope?"

"Do you know, Shaun decided to take it easy on me and not serenade me tonight," Nolan remarked, soft-dry, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "I'm so glad you were here to pick up the slack."

Shinobi's choice of song had, of course, been delightfully ironic, which was precisely why Nolan had been fixing his friend a Sex on the beach (and himself a virgin one). He held the cocktail out to Shinobi now, to drive that irony home. "Here. I thought you might be thirsty after that."

"Perishing," he told Nolan with a grin, accepting the drink gratefully. "Arigatou." Shinobi studied the party for a moment as he took his first sip, dark eyes glittering at the genuine--and, in some cases--raucous merriment taking place around them.

"It was a fine gesture, I think, to host this gathering of Shaun's friends and more fabulous acquaintances," he went on. "It's not been too taxing on your nerves, has it? What I mean to say is, this sort of crowd isn't ordinarily your speed. They're a bit ... livelier than your usual associates. What will the neighbors think?"

To Nolan, that was probably part of the charm.

"You realize I bought enough property to make sure the neighbors never had to think anything of what I get up to here?" Nolan pointed out with an amused smile. "But I do hope some of them were walking by on the beach tonight. It would be a shame if the Hamptons didn't start wondering what has been going on here tonight, and why no one was invited."

The official line, of course, was that this was a party for teenagers, and Nolan intended to make anyone old enough and asking that question feel terrible for even suggesting underage parties might be their thing.

"There are moments you are so perfectly evil, I have to wonder which of us is the actual diabolical mastermind," Shinobi laughed. "Bravo, my friend. I've little doubt no small number of the locals have found reason for a beach-side stroll this evening, given the boisterousness of this evening's festivities. I do hope they linger long enough for me to enjoy the spectacle; there's nothing I enjoy so much as a socialite gnawing their own liver in impotent frustration at having been snubbed."

"That's a very vivid image, thank you," Nolan dryly told him, and took a sip from his mocktail. But his focus tonight was hardly on any of his neighbors; he would deal with that when it came up. "But what do you make of all of them?" he asked, with a nod towards the people who had been invited. Shaun's friends, really; Nolan already knew what Shinobi thought of Kitty.

"Me?" Shinobi asked rhetorically, studying the strangers amongst them with a curiosity that was, by his own standards, fairly obvious. "Sou desu ka ... How to answer? Well, I think they're delightful, in fact. They take me back to the wilder days of my youth, you might say. Just the sort of people to make even a small, intimate gathering like this one feel like a proper bacchanal. But I expect you expected that. What do you think?"

"I think I wish I could be drinking," Nolan replied dryly, but somehow lightly. He felt naturally awkward around other, more normal teenagers, and being the odd, sober one out was not helping.

"You and me both," Shinobi returned wryly. "I suppose I'll just have to find it in myself to imbibe enough for the both of us. Oh, the sacrifices I make!" He draped his free arm melodramatically across his forehead, though his insolent grin ruined the effort entirely.

"But beyond their mere party potential," Shinobi went on, gaze sharpening, "they are a unique set of talents. Given the right sort of incentive, they could achieve all sorts of useful things. For a patron with vision, I mean."

This was, of course, the side of Shinobi he let so few people see, preferring to hide under his boisterous personality. Being underestimated was a very smart choice, especially given who his father was. But Nolan never forgot the smart, calculating intellect hidden underneath the easy-going, karaoke-loving party boy.

"Do I want to know what you're thinking of patroning, exactly?" he asked, slightly dryly still.

"Probably not," the half-Japanese Shaw heir told him with a grin. "Plausible deniability, neh? The less you know, the less the burden to your conscience. But I can promise it wouldn't be anything you wouldn't do yourself, if you were just a little more cutthroat and a little less sober. Does that help?"

"Only if I ignore your words about my conscience," Nolan stated, and took a drink.

"It's not my fault you went and developed all those scruples when I wasn't looking." Shinobi was clearly having fun; if Nolan had been the tactile sort, he'd have slung an arm around his shoulders. As it was, he just raised his glass in an affectionate salute. "Anyway, that's enough putting the cart before the horse. I've hardly even spoken to Shaun's friends, so I suspect I'll have quite a bit of groundwork to do before you have any moral crises to worry about."

"Now I'm disappointed, I thought that's what you'd been doing all day," Nolan remarked with a hint of a smile. "When you weren't attempting to empty my pool via cannonball, anyway."

"I still think that would have been an achievable goal, if only Clarice had been willing to help me gain a little more altitude," he huffed, in obvious good humor.

"But no," Shinobi went on, eyes turning back to consider the group in question. "They're a rather close-knit bunch, I think. One does not simply interject oneself into another's family--not unless you're my father, anyway. He does little else but impose himself on others. Luckily, I have tact and discretion. It's simply a question of timing."

Nolan smiled at Shinobi's words; it was so rare for him to admit possessing such qualities as tact and discretion. Nolan, of course, knew it to be true; it was simply that his friend rarely chose to use them. But it made it all the more special, in one way or another, when he did. "So they're worth the effort."

"Of course. You know how much I hate to exert myself. It's the highest compliment of which I'm capable." With a smirk that was mostly self-mocking, he finished off his cocktail with one long, deeply-satisfied gulp.

Nolan's gaze fell on Shaun, as he talked animatedly to a couple members of Vox Machina. "Try not to land them in trouble you can't get them out of," he requested, and looked back at his friend. "They are very close-knit."

"Trouble?" Shinobi echoed, aghast. "Perish the thought! I've never put anyone in any sort of trouble in my life. They always volunteer." He rolled his now-empty glass between his hands. "However, for the sake of your peace of mind, I promise I'll always be ready to bail them out of any sort of unfortunate situations that might result from said volunteering. Assuming they are interested enough to take me up on my offer at all, of course. When the time comes."

"Bailing people out is easy," Nolan remarked, with a faint smile. "It's being acquitted that can be tricky."

"Well," he laughed, "if I should ever put them in that kind of position, I suppose jury-tampering and bribing judges would be the least I could do. Though I think they're quite skilled enough to avoid that sort of entanglement. You know, should the need ever arise."

"Where does this faith in them come from?" Nolan asked his friend, studying him curiously. In short: what do you know that I don't?

"Faith?" Shinobi echoed, sounding surprised. "People have faith in Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, or the infallibility of a just and loving supreme being. People have faith in fantasies. I prefer a much more grounded approach. I have my observations, my discreet inquiries ... what I've seen and heard of them since their arrival at the school. My own intuition. All vastly more reliable, in my opinion, than faith."

"What did your discreet inquiries yield, then?" Nolan asked, even as he gestured for Shinobi to follow him back towards the bar, since his friend's glass was empty.

"Variously checkered pasts," Shinobi acknowledged easily, falling into step behind Nolan. "And extraordinary unity. Everything one could hope for in a precision strike team. All they need is a touch more seasoning."

Checkered to say the least, but Nolan wasn't going to bring up what he'd learned about Percival de Rolo. He hadn't brought it up with Shaun, it wasn't to bring it up with Shinobi. He had no doubt that his friend already knew this, but talking about it would be taking it one step further. "Strike team?"

"Well, not strike team, exactly; I'm not any great lover of violence, you know. But 'gofer' sounds terribly unglamorous, don't you think? I just mean a group of skilled individuals willing to take on certain, delicate tasks on my behalf--or on behalf of Shaw Industries--in exchange for generous compensation. 'Strike team' has just leached into my brain, thanks to Xavier and Scott, and their delusions of para-militancy."

Nolan did not particularly feel like having a conversation about the merits of X-Force then and there, so he sidestepped the issue entirely. "Here's to hoping they're everything you expect."

Shinobi shrugged that consideration aside. "Even if they disappoint in that regard, they make excellent party guests. Just the right level of raucous to suit my tastes. I should host them at the Club some time; they might actually succeed in giving Sebastian apoplexy, and clear the way for my ascent."

"But do you really want them on the radar of every Club member?" Nolan pointed out, lightly, for all that he meant this as a very real drawback.

That earned him a reproachful look. "Must you rain on my parade by pointing out the practical and potentially very dire drawbacks in my whimsical schemes?" Shinobi sighed. "You're much less fun since you stopped drinking." He considered the teens again, enjoying his friend's ample hospitality to the fullest, and huffed another discontented breath. "Fine, no Club shenanigans. But we really should do something like this again soon. I can't remember the last time I was so entertained."

"I will gladly become a regular party host, if it means saving them from the Club," Nolan remarked idly. He knew better than to take Shinobi's words seriously; it would serve no one's interests to draw the attention of Hellfire Club members on Vox Machina, and certainly not his friend's.

"The Club's ..." Shinobi began, quickly trailing off. After considering for a moment, he amended. "Well, okay, the Club is that bad. But it's not like I would just send them back into the world unprotected." Grinning, he examined his empty glass. "And never fear. I'm only too willing to shoulder my portion of the party-hosting burden. Can't have you soaking up all the acclaim, after all, can I?"

"By all means," Nolan assured him, "take your portion. Take my portion, if you'd like."

"As if I'd let you off the hook that easily, when you'd practically volunteered," Shinobi smirked. "Besides, the additional socialization is good for you. Tonight hasn't been all bad, has it? Or even mostly bad?"

"You know it's easier for me to fake socializing than mean it," Nolan pointed out, as he finished fixing Shinobi another drink. He pushed the cocktail towards him. "But no. It hasn't been bad, for the most part."

"That's practically a resounding approbation," Shinobi declared, accepting his drink with a small tip of his glass in salute. "And really a more rousing affirmation than I had expected. You must be having fun." One dark brow quirked. "For the most part?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Nolan dryly replied. He was the sober one at a party full of rowdy teenagers, and he would likely have felt out of place even without that. But there were Shinobi and Kitty, at least, and Shaun regularly drawing Nolan into conversations with others.

Patting his friend on the shoulder, Shinobi took a drink from his refreshed glass and said, "That is somehow both reassuring and a profound disappointment. Is it strange that I'm not remotely surprised? Never change, mon ami. You're absolutely perfect exactly the way you are."

"Profoundly disappointing you?" Nolan asked, light-dry, and did not think of his father.

"Never when it matters," he pointed out. "Never when it's important. You're the steadiest and most reliable person I know--not that it's saying a lot, I suppose. Still, I've always felt I could trust you. And I think you appreciate just how rare that is. The only time you actually disappoint is when it comes to the trivia and the fluff that I like to magnify out of all reasonable proportion to avoid talking about the important things. That's probably good for me, too."

Well, Nolan had not expected Shinobi to get quite so... real. He glanced at the cocktail he'd just given his friend, wondering how much vodka he'd put in there exactly. Nolan found himself at a loss for what to say, and reached out to put his hand on Shinobi's shoulder, press his fingers on his friend's arm in a silent acknowledgment.

Then, he fell back on his usual soft snark. "Watch out, my friend. Your inner serious is showing."

"It is a special occasion," Shinobi noted, beaming. Nolan was so rarely physically demonstrative that even little gestures like that meant a great deal more than they probably should have. But that was enough naked honesty for one evening; too much of that would probably cause him to break out in hives, or something equally unappealing. "But if anybody asks about it later, I'll probably lie. I wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea about me, after all."

"Or worse yet, the right one," Nolan remarked, lips twitching.

Shinobi offered a dramatic shudder at that prospect. "Truly, a thought much too ghastly for words."

"At the risk of being serious again for a second," Nolan warned his friend. It wasn't as if anyone was close enough to eavesdrop. (Well, Vax, maybe. Who knew where he ever was, Nolan was learning.) "Thank you for coming today."

That earned the impeccably-dressed scourge of the Hamptons a blink. "Dou itashimashite," Shinobi replied, seemingly automatically, before his usual, wry expression returned. "As if there were even a possibility I'd decline. I've never seen you host a party for people you didn't dislike before; the novelty alone was enough to assure my august presence."

"I don't dislike my employees," Nolan pointed out. He looked towards the beach, then back at Shinobi. "But speaking of people I dislike, want to take a stroll on the beach, say hi to any passers-by?"

"You know I do," he agreed with obvious enthusiasm. "Just wait here while I get my Hunter S. Thompson-esque hat and oversized sunglasses."

Nolan laughed, and rocked on the balls of his feet. "I'll be waiting."

Comments

[ax_glory]

So glad Nolan has a true friend like Shinobi. ♥ If Shinobi has an inner serious side, maybe Nolan has an inner wild side... ? >.>

[ax_herald]

Still looking for that one. >.>

[ax_charm]

Oh man, this is fabulous. Also love these boys together.

[ax_nightcrawler]

"Just the sort of people to make even a small, intimate gathering like this one feel like a proper bacchanal. "

Yuuup, that's Vox Machina lol

Cute thread!