Once Nico and Toby had everything sorted out with Hoody, and had made sure that he had both his gun and knowledge of the person who had been following them they left him to watch Jay and Tim. They weren't sure yet where they were going to go. Nico thought they would just go back to Clockwork and Bloody Painter's place, but Toby wanted to go to a café first. Nico didn't know where it was, so he let Toby take his hand and lead the way.
They ended up in a small café without that many people in it. As they got in, Toby shook his head like a dog to get some off the water out of his hair, splashing Nico and making him laugh. At the counter Nico ordered a latte and Toby ordered a hot chocolate. They waited at the counter for their drinks and talked. Well mostly Toby talked telling, Nico about a series of comic books called the X-Men that he liked.
Nico didn't know anything about it, but Toby's enthusiasm was cute and the stories of the characters seemed to be interesting. Nico broke in to ask questions now and then and that would set Toby off on another rant, which Nico would listen to with interest. When their drinks arrived, Toby reached for them but Nico laid his hand on Toby's arm.
"Let me, if they're hot you'll burn yourself without noticing." Nico said taking the drinks. They were indeed hot enough that Nico had to a hurry to a table and put them down so they wouldn't burn himself. He was glad he hadn't let Toby take them. Toby seemed to notice.
"If they're too hot to hold, I guess they're too hot to drink, huh?" he asked grinning crookedly sitting in a chair on the other side of the small table from Nico.
"Ya, I'm afraid so." Nico agreed.
"That's fine just let me know when it's cool enough okay? My mom sips of hot drink I got and gave it to me once it was cool enough. I think that's probably the best way to do it." Toby leaned his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands. His foot was twitching, shaking the table a little but not quite enough to spill their drinks.
"Alright." Nico said and then noticed that Toby was staring off into space again. He seemed to be listening to something and from what Nico had been told about the voices in Toby's head he probably was. "Tell me more about that character, Rogue." Nico said, quickly redirecting Toby's train of thought before it could be lead anywhere bad. "She sounds really cool." Toby started and then smiled at Nico.
"Oh she is." He said gratefully and quickly launched back into the twists and turns of Rogue's backstory. He seemed to forget about everything else until Nico decided that Toby's drink was cool enough and pushed it across the table to him.
"It should be fine now, just take small sips for a couple more minutes. It's still kind of hot." Nico said pulling his own latte towards himself and starting to drink it in small sips. He grimaced, it certainly wasn't the best latte he'd had, but it wasn't bad. He spotted a container of sugar on the table and added some to it before noticing that Toby had fallen silent. Nico looked up and saw that, Toby was looking down at the table and seemed to be blushing. "Toby is something wrong?" Nico asked softly stirring the sugar into his late with the small spoon they had given him at the counter.
"I'm sorry?" Toby said softly. Nico tilted his head to the side slightly.
"What for?" Nico asked in confusion putting his cup back down, reaching across the table to take Toby's hand. He didn't pull away at least, Nico gave Toby's hand a gentle squeeze.
"I know, I'm really weird." Toby said still not looking up.
"Toby, normal people don't want to be anywhere near me. I'm glad you're weird, it's a good thing." Nico assured him softly. He had no idea where this had come from.
"No not that." Toby said shaking his head in agitation. "It's this stupid disorder It makes me need so much looking after and worrying about. I know it's enough to drive anyone crazy." Toby played with the handle of his cup as Nico finally realized what had brought this on.
