by Newbiel
Nathaniel did not stay alone long before two men stopped in front of him and started looking at him. Where the look that the senator gave him was really stern, it was the men beside him that attracted the interest of Nathaniel. He gave a leveled, professional stare at Nathaniel, looking not at his face but his body, focusing on Nathaniel's weak points like knees, groin and trachea. It was not something that ordinary people were looking at as it was something taught by the military. Even if the man's stare was tamer, it was definitely deadlier.
"Is this where I'm supposed to start fidgeting to hide my discomfort for being stared at?" Nathaniel asked with mirth.
"Maybe." The senator said, while he kept looking at Nathaniel.
"I'm still not feeling it, weird right? Who are you gentlemen by the way? Guests?"
"No, I'm John Livingston and this is my brother, Marcus Livingston. This is my home, young man, you should show some respect to your elders."
"Respect is not due, it is earned. Well, it was fun with the staring and all that guys but a cute brown haired girl is calling me, I should get moving. I guess we'll see each other at dinner. Later John, later Mark." Nathaniel said with a handwave before leaving.
Looking at Nathaniel leaving and going in the direction of Madison, the two men were flabbergasted.
"That was not how I pictured this conversation to go down." John said bitterly.
"That kid is too calm, it is not natural." Markus answered with a thoughtful expression on his face, his eyes not leaving Nathaniel back.
"He called you Mark." John remembered, smiling for the first time.
"Yes, he knew who we were. I'm guessing that since we were trying to mess with him, he thought he could mess with us too."
"He was wrong. This is my home here, he doesn't have the luxury to offend me." John said sternly.
Chapter 99: :
"Are you okay Nath?" Madison asked concern.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" Nathaniel laughed.
"I saw that my father and uncle were talking to you and were trying to intimidate you. They are incorrigible!"
"They are just trying to keep you safe, you should not resent them. Moreover, I'm not intimidated that easily. I kind of said that your father was a 'guest' here and I called your uncle 'Mark.'"
"Why would you do something like that? They will hold a grudge." Madison shakes her head.
"Because they were messing with me so I messed with them instead. Runabout is fair play and it was fun to do."
"Nath, this is a serious matter! Stop joking around, I want my family to like you. Do not antagonize them, please." Madison implored.
"Madie, your father and uncle were expecting an insecure kid that they could bully easily. I needed to show a strong hand. Moreover, I think they are the kind of people who respect boldness and character and I just showed them exactly that. They could very well end up not liking me at the end of the night but they will at least respect me." Nathaniel explained.
"Are you sure about this?" She asked doubtfully.
"Let me remind you that you were also doubtful about the thing that I said I could do with two of my fingers and you ended up very satisfied." Nathaniel said, making Madison cheeks turn pink.
"This is not the same thing! Enough sex talk now or I'm going on strike!" She threatened.
"Yes ma'am." Nathaniel answered seriously, making her laugh.
"Kids, dinner is going to start soon, let me show you to your sitting place." Victoria said, coming near them.
Following Victoria obediently again, Nathaniel and Madison found their seat not far from the head of the table. At the head, Madison's father was going to sit there, his wife on his right and Jason on the left. After that it was Madison and then Nathaniel. On the other side in order it was Victoria, followed by Elisabeth and her boyfriend and then Marcus who curiously was in front of Nathaniel. Beside him the old man that he had seen before was sitting there, nodding to him.
When everyone was sitting around the table, John got to his feet and did a little speech in his son's honor, flaunting his merit and congratulating him for his birthday. After that maid appeared and put some delicious dishes in front of everyone. It was a little opulent in Nathaniel taste but the food was very good and he could talk freely with Madison and surprisingly his table neighbor was very interesting. He was seventy six years old and was the brother of John's father. That man had led such an interesting life that Nathaniel could not help but connect on a different level with him.
Everything was going well until John decided to remind Nathaniel that he was there and stopped every conversation on the table.
"Nathaniel, are you a Republican or Democrat?"
"Dad!" Madison shouted.
"Dear, no political talk when we are eating please." Victoria said.
"Oh come on, I just want to learn a little more about Madison's new boyfriend. You have no problem answering a few questions right?" He said, smiling at him.
"Of course not. If I were to answer, I would say neither of those."
"So, independant?"
"Not that either. I think each side has good and bad points but I'm not considering myself as part of one. I don't really like politics to be honest. You are a Republican senator right?" Nathaniel asked.
"Indeed. What do you dislike in politics?"
"If I were to resume in a single sentence, I would say 'Too much talk, not enough deed." He said, feeling the hand of Madison under the table squeezing his leg. Looking to the side, he could see her giving him a warning look, he chose to smile reassuringly at her.
"Typical of the younger generation, thinking they can do better than their elders." Madison's father said cynically.
"The truth is we don't have the choice, we need to do better to repair everything. The first question that you asked is plenty of evidence of that. In the past, we were all Americans and that was enough. Now, we are defined by our political choice. We need to fix that mentality or sooner than later, someone will emerge from one of the two parties with overwhelming evidence of misconduct and people will still vote for him because he represents a party. Once upon a time, we elected people based on their merit and worth, now however, it is only because that person has a 'R' or a 'D' beside his name when he does an interview."
"It is a very naive point of view, it's not that surprising considering your age but still disappointing. It even sounds like you are a liberal."
"You prove my point exactly." Nathaniel smiled wolfishly making John grimace.
"What would you do if you were to fix things?" Marcus asked. So far no one had chosen to participate in the conversation and was content to just listen.
"I'm sorry Mark, but what do you do for a living? I'm curious to know before I answer." Nathaniel asked offhandedly, surprising his interlocutor for a moment.
"I'm a consultant in a company making wood panels that are used to reinforce walls in old homes." He said in a calm voice.
Nathaniel succeeded in holding the rolling of his eyes but barely.
"In Virginia, right?"
"Indeed." Marcus responded again with his calm voice but his eyes were calculating, watching Nathaniel intently.
"To answer your previous question, I don't know. I never push that line of questioning further than that. Like I said, I don't like politics."
The senator was about to sprout a biting remark when he was kicked under the table by his wife who was giving him a stern look. Closing on him, she murmured something to his ear that made him pause enough to stop the scathing words that were on his tongue.
"Let's eat, that was enough political talk for tonight." He settled to say before giving a signal to a maid to serve the next dishes.
After that the senator chose to ignore Nathaniel completely, who was very happy to just eat and keep talking with the elder and Madison. Marcus in front of him barely ate and was not the talkative type so he just kept staring at Nathaniel, trying to find something that was eluding him so far.
After dinner
, Madison passed some time with her sister and Nathaniel was left to his own devices. Instead of staying by himself, he started walking among the family members until he found the ten year old girl that was looking really bored sitting on her chair. Walking in her direction, Nathaniel took a knee in front of the girl to be at her height.
"Hello." Nathaniel said with a little smile.
"Hi." The girl answered shyly.
"I'm Nathaniel, what is your name?"
"My name is Helea."
"This is a really beautiful name for an equally beautiful girl."
"Thank you." She said in a cute little voice, blushing.
"You do not look like you are having fun."
"No, there is no other kid to have fun with. Usually auntie Madison and auntie Elisabeth play with me but they are too busy tonight." The girl pouted cutely.
"Yes, I believe this is my fault. They are too busy gossiping about me, girls like to do that a lot."
"I'm a girl and I don't gossip!" Helea shouted.
"It's because you are a good girl and good girls don't gossip. I saw that there was a piano in the next room, do you want to go and sing with me?"
"Yes!" The girl exclaimed happily.
Chapter 100: :
However, the expression on the girl's face quickly fell.
"I can't, mommy forbade me to wander around the house." Helea said sadly.
"Don't worry about it, it's not wandering if you know where you are going. In addition you will be with me, I will take all responsibility." Nathaniel said getting to his feet.
"Promise?" The girl asked.
"Promise. Now let's go while they are busy talking." Nathaniel said crouching low and making exaggerated movements in mock sneakiness. Helea immediately laughed and started copying Nathaniel movements until they were out of the dining room.
Once they were out, Nathaniel took the hand of the little girl and started running to the room where he had seen the piano early today. It was some kind of huge library with a piano on the left side of the room.
"This is the first time I'm in this room without mommy here." The girl said.
Looking at the number of books here and their oldness, it kind of made sense. Some of these books were worth a lot of money so prohibiting Helea for messing with things here was only common sense. Taking place on the bench behind the piano, Helea sat beside him.
"So, what do you want to sing?" Nathaniel asked.
"I don't know how to sing, I just came here to have fun. I like to dance better!"
"You can dance if you prefer, I will do the singing and playing part. How do you feel about "Call Me Maybe?"
"YES! I love that song!" Helea shouted, getting to her feet and positioning herself in front of Nathaniel.
"Okay, let's go." He said, starting to play the song on the piano. Luckily for him it was not a really difficult song as he had heard it on the radio but never played it before.
"I threw a wish in the well…
...Don't ask me I'll never tell..
... I look at you as it fell…
…And now you're in my way…"
The girl just started bouncing up and down happily and sometimes joined Nathaniel in the lyrics. Even if his piano interpretation wasn't that great and he was messing a bit with the lyrics from time to time, it was still really enjoyable to do. Just seeing the girl that happy was worthwhile as he was a sucker for sad and bored kids.
"Can you do Hakuna Matata from the Lion King?" She asked once the song was over.
Nathaniel was surprised to hear that as the Lion King was quite an old movie. Seeing a ten years old girl that has seen it and wanted to sing it was not ordinary.
"Lion King? How do you know that movie?" He asked.
"Mommy made me watch all Disney movies, even the old ones. My favorites are the Lion King and Mulan."
"Why these two specifically?" Nathaniel asked curiously.
"In the Lion King I love Nala! She is like the best! At first she is so funny and spunky but after all the bad stuff happens, she stays loyal to her friends and helps him win back his throne. In the second movie, she is wise and smart. She always supports Simba but she does not hesitate to challenge him to show him when he is wrong. For Mulan, it's entirely different. After her father is ordonned to engage in the military, Mulan chose to take his place because of his old injury that would ensure his death. Disguising as a man, she proved that women can be amazing soldiers when she turned even better than their trainer. Even after everyone refused to listen to her, she still persevered and saved the emperor and the kingdom. She showed that your gender does not define you and with enough determination, everything is possible. That's why I loved her." Helea explained.
Taken aback by this, Nathaniel blanked for a moment. He had seen these two movies but never did he put much thought into them like the girl did.
"You are a smart girl are you?" Nathaniel smiled.
"Yes! Mommy always says that. She also said that it will not be easy for me to find a boyfriend because of it when she thinks I can���t hear her." The girl pouted.
"Don't listen to her, boys are going to fight for you when they realise how smart you are." Nathaniel reassured her.
"Really?" She asked hopefully.
"Oh yes, trust me on this."
After this, Nathaniel played Hakuna Matata for the cute girl. This time it was even worse than the last one as he missed a lot more of the notes but his audience just did not care. She was just bouncing happily yelling Hakuna Matata on each verse. Nathaniel was laughing half the time when she was doing this. It was at the end of the song that people passed the door of the library. It was Victoria, Madison and a couple that Nathaniel recognized as being Heleas parents.
"Here you are! Helea we talked about this! You can't wander around the house, especially in the library!" Her mother reprimand severely.
"Don't blame her, this was my fault. Helea was bored so I brought her here to sing with me and have fun. I should have asked you before, I'm sorry." Nathaniel said to the women who seemed to calm down hearing that.
"Knowing him, I'm not that surprised." Madison said, smirking.
"Mommy! Come and sing with us, Nathaniel knows all the songs, it's so fun!" Helea said, going to her mother and taking her hand.
"It will be my pleasure to sing a little and hear the sound of piano as it is not used often enough in this house but Jason is going to open his gift. That's why we came looking for you, we need to go back to the dining room."
"Oh." Helea said disappointed.
"If Nathaniel here is willing, we may come back later." The mother of Helea said, soothing her hair.
Happy to hear that, the group went back to the dining room when Helea said something that almost made Nathaniel lose his footing.
"Mommy, can I marry Nathaniel? He is nice and he thinks I'm smart. He will be a good husband."
Hearing that, Madison, her mother and the couple exploded in laughter.
"Well, you did not lose time, I will give you that Nath." Madison said between fits of laughter.
"Sweetie, you are too young and Nathaniel is your aunt Madison's boyfriend. This is not possible."
"Oh." The girl answered sadly, looking like someone had just stolen her new favorite toy.
Chapter 101: :
Once back in the dining room, Victoria and Madison went in the direction of Jason to start giving him gifts for him to open. Some of the gifts were worth more than ten thousand dollars while others were worth almost nothing. He even received a drawing of him that looked like it came from Helea looking at her expression when he opened it. He also received a very skimpy pink dress that came from Elisabeth who almost fell over laughing when Jason saw it.
Even if he was an outsider here, the atmosphere was quite relaxed and he was having fun laughing with the other family members. Not all family members though.
"Mark, are you going to keep staying behind me all night or what?" Nathaniel said in a clear voice, not looking like he wa
s talking to someone in particular.
"So you know I am here." Marcus answered from behind him before coming beside Nathaniel.
"Of course, your Cologne is very… how do I put this delicately… powerful I would say. I could smell you from the other side of the manor." He said with a little smile, still looking at Jason opening his gifts.
"You are kind of funny for a brat. You are showing courage right now, too bad it did not hold up long when confronted to real danger. Hiding under a bed like the kid you are." Marcus mocked.
Not feeling insulted in the slightest, Nathaniel just looked at Marcus for the first time and then smiled.
"Interesting." He said, simply.
"What? No reaction? I expected better from you. I'm sure that Madison would find it interesting to learn that you were in that Hotel and hid it from her."
"You know Mark, the more we talk, the more I find you interesting and disappointing at the same time. It is quite an achievement." Nathaniel mused out loud.
"Why are you picking on me that much? The name thing, the remark on my smell and now this. I'm curious to know what I did to you considering we never met before tonight and my brother picked on you much more than I did." Marcus asked.
"You know what I see when I look at your brother? Charisma and confidence. You know what I see when I look at you? Intelligence and cunningness. Then there is the way you move and the way your eyes are constantly moving to be aware of your surroundings. There is also the fact that you are aware I was in that Hotel when the terrorists attacked. It is interesting because when I gave the name of the organisation that carried out the attack, the FBI chose to hide my name from the records to make sure I would be safe from repercussions and they ordered me to not talk about this to anyone. It is really interesting to see that you have information that is hidden from the NYPD and the FBI. Especially taking into consideration that your job is what now? Consultant in a wooden panel manufacturer company in Virginia? Can I make an assumption and guess your company that does not exist is located in a town called Langley?"