Xaviers!

Will walked to Natalie's room, and knocked on the door, a bit abashed.

Natalie opens the door and freezes when she sees who it is. "Hey, Will."

"Hey there. Can I come in?"

She seems to mull that over for a long moment, then she steps aside, "I suppose." Her desk is currently a small nest of various devices, several of which seem to be in the process of doing things and what could be reasonably guessed as her bed looks very made and not recently slept in.

Will stepped in, observing the scene around him.

"How, ah...

...How have you been doing?"

"Keeping busy. Working on projects," she says, sticking her hands in her back pockets to keep them from fidgeting, "You?"

"Keeping busy, keeping busy..." he agreed, looking around.

"...I think we need to talk, don't we?"

"Do we?" She asks with just a trace of bitterness. "I thought things were pretty clear."

"If you don't want to have this conversation, I can turn right around," Will frowned. "If you want to be left alone with your gadgets and gizmos, that's your call, but know that you're the one doing it."

Natalie looks frustrated, "You're the one who came here. I don't understand people. I don't *get* people." She gestures at the devices which haven't stopped executing whatever commands she's giving them, "Things I get. I understand my 'gadgets and gizmos'. I don't misunderstand them and they don't hurt me. I should have remembered that before I tried to step out of my comfort zone. I made a mistake."

"I don't get people, either. Most of 'em are rude an inconsiderate. But they're who I live around, so I've got to learn to deal with them.

Would this conversation be easier if I wasn't a person right now? Something you're used to grappling with?"

"I don't know," Natalie says, crossing her arms and frowning, mostly at herself. "I don't even know why we're having this conversation. I assumed, I was obviously wrong, which is pretty much standard operating procedure. I'm not sure why you'd waste your time with me." She turns around to face the wall, covering her eyes.

"Because you're my friend, and I hurt you because we didn't communicate properly. I never meant to hurt you; I just didn't...understand what you were looking for," he frowned, taking a step closer to Natalie.

"I don't think you have it in you to intentionally hurt people like that. I wouldn't think that of you. I was just stupid. That's all."

"You're not stupid. There was a miscommunication. Our wires got crossed. It happens."

She rubs under her nose and hugs herself a little. The devices on her desk have stopped doing anything at the moment. "I'm sorry... I just... I think you're pretty cool."

"Well, I think you're pretty cool, too. I don't think there's any miscommunication there," he smiled.

"At least there's that," she says, still not having turned around.

"Just...tell me about it. Tell me how you feel. I promise, it won't leave this room. My lips are sealed," Will said, growing a zipper on his lips and pulling it so it made as loud a sound as possible.

"I like you. I think you're cute..." She seems to be getting flustered, but it also seems easier for her to talk to him if she's not looking at him.

"Thank you. I try," he smiled. "You're not half-bad on the eyes yourself, you know."

She takes a deep breath, "Thank you. Like I said, I'm not good with people."

"You wanted...like, a date. Right? Like, candles and wine and dancing and all that sort of thing?"

"A date, yeah," she says, finally turning around. "It's just... not a thing I normally do, you know? I don't really know how it should work."

"Well," Will said, shifting his weight a little awkwardly. "Two things.

First of all, there's really no way it should work; you've just got to be YOU. Dates can be over pizza and video games; dates can be hiking through the wilderness, dates can be stripping and rebuilding an engine. Dates are just spending time with someone you care about in a romantic way; ideally, it'll be doing things you both like to do. The whole 'dinner and dancing' thing works for some people, but not for others.

Secondly, uh..." he said, awkwardly. "I mean, you're a nice person, and I enjoy hanging out with you, but..."

"But I'm just cool as a friend and not anything else," she says, like it's something she's heard before.

"I mean..." Will said, carefully. "You've dug around inside my mind and straightened things around. That's more than...just friends, I would say. And I'm open to you doing it again, and other things...

...But I don't...I mean, I'm not...

You're a good friend."

"No, no, I get it." She says as her eyes shut down and get that far away look. On the desk, the devices start up their frantic processing again. "Unlike the date thing, this is something I'm used to."

Will walked around, trying to put himself between Natalie and her devices. "C'mon, Nat. Talk to me. What do you want from me? If you're just looking for something cute to look at for inspiration, I can hang out a bit," he tried joking.

"What *I* want from you is irrelevant at this point in the discussion," she says, "You've already established that that road is closed. So now I'll figure out how to handle that I'll only ever be 'just a good friend', but you'll forgive me if I can't do that at my usual speed. Try as I might, I can't process emotions at computer speed." Her tone was cold and logical. She had obviously sunk deep into her devices.

"What you want is not irrelevant, Natalie. It never is," Will said, waving a hand in front of her face to try to get her to snap back to reality.

She grabs his wrist and looks at him, "Wanting the impossible is irrational and counterproductive to pursuing things that are possible. You're not interested and that's not unexpected, I should have expected it from previous interaction." She seems to realize she has a hold of him and lets go like she's been burned.

"And not telling people what is you want is a good way to ensure you don't get any of it," Will frowned. "I'll let you be for now; I'll see you around campus, Natalie," he said, headed for the door.

"You asked what I wanted, I said, you essentially said 'no', so I don't know what else you want from me," she says to his back. One of the devices on her desk winks out and she swears under her breath and, distracted, goes to look at it.

"You said you wanted a date. If all you want is dinner, I can take you to dinner," Will said, frustrated.

She starts pulling the device, which appears to be a small computer, apart, examining the parts as she does so. "What would be the point of a 'date'? You've already said it wouldn't go anywhere. If all you want to do is hang out sometime, fine, but let's not pretend it's more than it is by using bad terminology."

"I'm not...errrgh!" Will groaned. "I'm asking if you want to hang out! If you want to get uber-technical, like you're doing with your computer thing there, I'm trying to see what activities you had in mind to see which I would like to do with you and which I would not."

"And I *don't* know," she says angrily, another device shorting out. "Because I'm always the bloody 'cute one' or the 'good friend' or 'just one of the guys' or fuck, I don't bloody know, the perennially 'not good enough'."

"This isn't a matter of not being good enough, Natalie." Will frowned. "There's no algorithm or setting to tweak to start that kind of chemistry."

"Well, maybe there should be," she says, pausing her activity long enough to pound the desk once in frustration. "I do get it you know. I know you have a thing for someone else. And I'm not her. I knew that and I let myself get my hopes up and I should have known better."