ax_main | Nott, Piotr and Nora

Nott and Nora persuade Piotr to hire the school's greatest detectives.

"Anyway, I've checked every inch of the woods and still haven't found any sign of a bear," Nora said. She and Piotr had found a table at the far end of the cafeteria and were methodically working their way through lunch while Nora rambled on. Piotr appeared to have been patiently listening for a long while. "But then! I realized what I should have been doing the whole time. Bait!" She punctuated each sentence with grand gestures and dramatic poses. "So here's my plan. I'll sneak a few carrots from the kitchen, tie a really long string around them. The bear sees it. He takes the carrots and carries them back home. Then I follow the string back to his den, and just like that! Bear cuddles!"

"Nora?"

"Yes, Piotr?"

"I do not think bears eat many carrots."

Nora was silent for a moment as she worked that new piece of information out in her head. Her smile slowly returned. "That's why it's perfect!" she said. "He'll never suspect it's meant for him and will want to save it for later instead of eating it right away!" She let out a giggle, looking very pleased with herself.

Nott was curious about the new kids, but definitely not the walk-up-and-shake-their-hand kind. (She didn't usually shake anybody's hand unless she was going for their watch or something in a pocket.) She was more the skulk-around-and-observe-at-a-distance kind. And from a skulking distance, what she overheard from the Nora girl was...uh. 'Different'. It was like someone had taken all of Jester's enthusiasm but cut her common sense, like, in half. Which was really saying something.

But if that was the new girl Nora, then the new boy who stoically let her bounce all around him was...had to be Peter...what else was it? Pe-YACHT-err? The Russian artist guy who was gonna show Jester his etchings, that one! And she owed it to Jessie to snoop and report back.

So Nott grabbed a tray in the lunch line and took a bunch of servings of stuff she wasn't even looking at really before making her way to an empty table catty-corner to the newbies. She tried not to look at them even, not at first, making herself busy shoveling - oh, that was stewed vegetables. Blegh. ...Her mouth twisted, but she resolutely crammed another forkful into her mouth and chewed, focused on dropping some eaves.

Piotr swallowed a bite of his sandwich and regarded Nora as she slipped back into the chair next to him. "Probably Vex would not appreciate someone using bait to hunt her bear," he said. "Even if it is only to make friends. It would be better, I think, just to ask her to introduce you."

Nora shrugged. "I would, but I haven't seen her yet, either."

"I thought her room was next door to yours."

"It is, and her roommate just happens to be you-know-who." She gave him a pointed look and jabbed a finger in his direction. "Which means you need to be the first one to knock on that door."

Maybe Nott could've taken a minute to pick lunch stuff she actually wanted to eat, but that was no reason to punish herself now, she decided. She finished her bite of squishy veg and moved onto the jell... Really? Green jello with little marshmallows in it, in this day and age? Who was it for? Did a student request that?

She dug her spoon in and put her attention back where it was supposed to be, mulling their conversation over. Wait, Petey had to talk to a girl? A girl who was Vex's roommate. Who was Vex's roommate? Nott glanced over at the pair as discretely as possible, not actually moving her head so much as her big yellow eyes.

Piotr lowered his head and took another bite of his sandwich. He threaded his fingers together before him and looked down at his hands, chewing slowly.

Nora watched him with growing concern. "Piotr, please. It's been days." She reached up to squeeze his shoulder. It took a bit of effort given their height difference, but she managed well enough. "You're not having second thoughts because of what your parents said, are you? That wasn't your fault. You know that, right?"

He nodded, but there was a new tension radiating from the way he moved. "It is not that. I do not know what to say and I worry what she will think. I wish I knew more about her. It would make it easier, I think."

Nora considered that, expression growing shrewd. A second later her face lit up with excitement. "Ooh! I know! When I see Jester today I'll ask if we can hire her and Nott!" Her booted feet kicked back and forth as they dangled just above the floor beneath her chair. "Betcha the school's greatest detectives could find out all sorts of stuff about her!"

"Nora!" Piotr said, looking scandalized. "We will not do that. She is a classmate and we live under the same roof with her. I am sure she would be very upset if someone invaded her privacy."

Nott's ears twitched at the sound of her name, and she hunched down into her shoulders like it had been hurled at her head. She forced down her mouthful of jello without chewing, then turned in the direction of the new kids. She didn't think they'd noticed her? But they probably would, when they got up to leave, or if she had to be the one to get up and go first. She was tiny and green, even if she was kind of hidden under her nondescript gray hoodie, and now it was becoming more ridiculous to eavesdrop than it would be to introduce herself.

Besides, these were clients.

"Uhhh, hi, hello," came a wavery warble of the girl's voice from just beside Nora and Piotr's table a moment later. "Did I quite innocently happen to overhear that you need the services of the school's greatest detectives?"

Nora vanished from her seat, appearing in a blink to Nott's left. She stood knock-kneed, one hand cupping her cheek, the other pointing. "Omigosh! You're Nott!" An invisible whoosh of motion brought her to Nott's right side. This time she stood leaning forward slightly. "Hi! I'm Nora!" She extended her hand with a friendly smile. "Jester's been telling me so much about how amazing you are! And why yes! Yes, we do need your services! Is Jester here, too?" She rose up on her tiptoes and cast her eye about the cafeteria in hopes of catching sight of her friend.

Covering his face with his palm, Piotr sighed softly.

Nott reflexively recoiled as the girl rushed her, long ears folding back, thin lips drawing away from her sharp teeth before Nott reminded herself she shouldn't. It was only then that the words Nora was saying began to sink in - about 'Jester' and 'services' and oh, okay, she was just... Really, really excitable.

"Aghhh! I mean... No?! No. I don't think so. It's just me." She forgot to shake the girl's hand. Or maybe thought better of it with her claws twitching faintly.

"Well that's good too!" Nora said, wide eyes sparkling. "I've been dying to meet you." Vanishing one final time, she appeared back in her seat, gesturing eagerly before her. "Here! Sit with us!"

Piotr lowered his hand and offered Nott a warm smile. "Hello, Nott. I am Piotr. It is a pleasure to meet you. We would be very happy if you joined us for lunch, but I am afraid we will not be hiring you today. I must apologize for the misunderstanding."

"Don't die," Nott muttered, looking from Nora up (and up, and UP) to Piotr before climbing onto a seat beside them. (Jester had wanted to know if Piotr was cute. Was he cute? He wasn't her type, Nott had decided, if she even had a type, but he was big anyway.) "That's alright, about lunch. I ate already. Are you really sure there's no job, though? There was something about wanting to know stuff on another student? That sounds EXACTLY like the sort of thing you should leave to the professionals!"

"See? I told you," Nora said, giving Piotr a smug look. "You should listen to her, she obviously knows what she's talking about." Satisfied that she'd made her point, despite how unconvinced Piotr still looked, she shoveled several forkfuls of potato salad into her mouth, seeming to swallow each bite without chewing.

"...Which is a thing that people say. About me. Often." After shouldering through her lie, Nott's attention flicked from Nora and her potato-salad-inhaling back to Piotr. "Who are you even curious about?"

Piotr frowned with indecision. He glanced down at Nora, who pointedly kept her focus on the plate she was rapidly emptying. With a helpless sigh, he looked back at Nott. "My- my sister," he said.

"You have a sister here?!" Sure, there were siblings around the school, but Nott didn't remember hearing anything like that about the Russian guy. Her small green features scrunched with concentration. "But if it's your sister, then why would you want her investigated? Are you worried she's mixed up in something bad?"

"What? No!" Piotr said, alarmed at the suggestion. He lowered his eyes. "I want to know more about her because-"

Nora, who was no longer feigning interest in her food now that Piotr had confessed, gave his arm a gentle squeeze. "It's okay," she said. "You can do this."

Piotr heaved a breath to steady himself. He looked back at Nott. "I want to know more about her because until we arrived at the school, I did not know I had a sister."

"Long story short," Nora added, "some real bad people messed with our heads for a long time and miiiiight have taken a few memories while they were at it."

"That sounds terrible," Nott admitted after an uncomfortable beat, and she meant it. Once, a long time ago, she might not have believed someone saying something like that. But there were too many kids here that had been messed up in just that kind of a way. "You should... Wait, does she know about this? Your sister?"

"That is what... worries me," Piotr said, looking away. "I do not know if she knows. It could be the first time we meet for both of us. If she does not know... if she does not believe..." His hands clenched and unclenched into tight fists as he struggled to find the words. "I do not want to make things worse," he said in a small voice.

So this great big guy was a great big marshmallow on the inside, huh? At least about this one thing.

"Why, those are good, noble motives," Nott agreed. "With motives like those, what's the worst that could even happen? We'll be VERY discreet. We can find out for you if she knows or if she doesn't, what's been going on in her life...that's at least a place to start. Later you can tell her you hired private detectives - or not! You could just be super in tune with her and you could start this whole new chapter of your lives as close as any siblings could hope to be!"

Piotr's lips thinned as he regarded Nott. "I am having many doubts about these things working that way," he said, but there was also a faint, almost desperate temptation in his eyes.

"It doesn't have to be anything private or secret," Nora assured him. "Just stuff anyone could find out if they knew the right people to ask, right Nott?"

"It doesn't have to be," Nott agreed carefully. But it dawned on her that she didn't even know who they were talking about yet, and that could make a big difference in the whole case. "Who did you say your sister was?"

"He didn't," Nora said, all perky as if that was helping.

"Her name is Illyana," Piotr said, still sounding cautious. "I have heard she was one of the first students when the school opened."

"Oh, the blonde! She does magic stuff with Caleb sometimes," was practically everything Nott knew about her. But that was why you hired detectives in the first place, to tell you stuff you didn't know yet or to prove something. And they'd only just been hired.

She leaned in closer to Piotr conspiratorily. "Don't you worry about it. We work on a very reasonable sliding scale, and I know that if Jester was here right now, she would insist that we help you reunite with your estranged sister."

Nora let out a little squeal of excitement and seized Piotr by the arm with both hands. "See? See?!" she said, and despite how much larger he was, actually managed to jostle him. "They already have an inside source! This is perfect! And she's not wrong about Jester, either. Family is super important to her, it's very true."

"Please do not make me regret this," Piotr muttered as if in prayer, eyes squeezed shut and pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. With a sigh of surrender he lowered his hand. "If she knows about me," he said, "I do not wish to pretend to be the brother she remembers. That would be a lie I could never tell. I just... do not want her to think I have forgotten her. I would like a chance to get to know my sister properly."

Nott sat there for a moment, watching him with a vaguely pained expression. He cared so much, about someone...someone he didn't even know. Someone he didn't remember at all. But he'd heard he had a sister, and for him? That was it.

Part of her thought it was really dumb.

But it was kind of nice too.

"Our job as incredibly talented detectives is to find out what you want to know. But whatever you want to do with that, that's for you to decide."

Piotr considered that, his eyes reflecting a number of warring emotions, before ultimately he nodded. "I suppose that is reasonable eno-"

"You're hired!" Nora said, springing to her feet and slapping her palms hard against the table with excitement.

"That's settled then," Nott agreed, though it sounded a long way from settled when she gave it a second thought. More like started than settled. "I'll talk to Jester about it, we'll set up surveillance and - and she'll probably want to talk to you to find out more about your history to help us figure out what you've got in common with your sister, Petey." That was good! Smooth! She was a great friend.

"O-of course," Piotr said, a mildly stunned expression on his face, as though he couldn't quite believe what had just happened. "Whatever you need."

Push Over, Nott scrawled in the mental notes she was making about the new kids under the Big Guy column. Nono, better! 'Soft Touch.' That one's ironic.

"That's what I like to hear," was what made it out loud, and Nott flashed them her tall fangs in a Halloween grin. "Now that we've finally got a real c- Another case, because we've got so many of them, it's hard to keep tr- It WOULD be hard to keep track, if we weren't so professional," Nott managed hastily, "I'd better uh, go set up your case file!" She slipped out of her seat and landed softly, already edging away. "Nice meeting you!"

"Nice meeting you, too, Nott!" Nora said, giving her a cheerful wave. She gave the other girl a knowing wink before adding, "Let's hang out together with Jester soon, okay?"

"...Uh-huh." Did Nora have something in her eye? Or was she winking at her? Was that an 'I think we're friends now' wink, or an 'I know what you're up to' wink, or maybe even an 'I'm gonna git you sucka' wink?! She just couldn't tell. So Nott settled for a twitch of a smile and a vague wave, and then scrambled for the door with something that sounded like 'goodbye' to tell Jester all of the news.