[Oh dear, alone with Nicky!]

Nicky sat at the apartment waiting for his brother and parents to get home. His parents were out spending their last few tens on alcohol. He sat in front of the TV, legs spread enjoying a rental he'd got from the redbox downtown. His pants were still on but they were just about to come off when he heard the door open. "Fuck!" He said, turning off the TV and relaxing back. "Hey... very attractive lady who must be Andy!" He stood, admiring her. "No wonder my brother gets with you, I owuld too. Mmmm you look... delicious."

**

Nathaniel ordered the pizza as he left class, walking back to the apartment, taking his time as to beat the delivery guy but not by much. He'd ordered half pepperoni, have Meat Lovers. He saw his parents car was gone but that didn't mean they were all gone. He took the pizza and paid, then slid onto the fire escape and set the pizza outside her window and climbed back down. It would be hard to explain how he came in without being seen.

He climbed back down and went into the front entrance and up to their suite. He smiled at people passing by and then opened the door.

Andy wasn't stupid, she knew what he'd been doing.

"My name is Andrea," she said shortly, stressing her full name. She wasn't about to give him permission to call her Andy. Turning, she went into her room and closed the door. She really didn't want to have anything to do with him. Just being in the same suite made her feel dirty, somehow. Going over to the window, she saw the pizza waiting there and brought it into the room. Sitting down on her bed, she took out some of her homework, and her bag of ball bearings. She felt marginally better once the ball bearings were floating around her, and she concentrated on her homework until she heard Nathaniel get back.

Nathaniel entered the room and stared at his brother and then groaned. "That's disgusting!" He said just looking at his brother who groaned. "Stop seeing my past, you big hag!" Nicky said and Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "It was technically the future when I saw it. And if you ever say anything like that to her again, I'll chop your dick off. No more nasty shit in our house or you will be sleeping in the car. Not mine, the parents." Nicky glared and Nathaniel walked to Andy's room. "Hey Andy, it's me." He said and entered slowly, shutting and locking the door behind him. "Sorry about dickwad. He's just an idiot." He said and then smiled as he saw the pizza and ball bearings. "Hard at work?" He asked and slid off his shoes by the door and then looked around. "Someone's been in here. Searching." He said and tried to make sense of the jumbled noises. "Mom. What the hell was she searching for?"

"What?" Andy asked, her temper sharpening a bit. "I locked the door, I know I did, because that's exactly what I didn't want to happen." Andy looked around her room. Nothing seemed out of place, and she'd had her wallet with her all day, so she knew none of her money was missing. "Whatever it was she was searching for, I don't think she found it, since I don't see anything missing. I don't have anything valuable here."

"No... She seemed unhappy because she didn't find anything... But she was... looking for...." He tried to recount the flash he just got. "I don't know. She came through the bathroom, I could hear the shower loudly, a door shut and it went silent. We have hairpin locks. You take a hair pin or bobby pin or whatever they're called. You straighten them out, stick it through, find the button push and the door unlocks. I have a nosy family." He muttered and then shrugged.

"What are you working on?" He asked and crawled onto the bed, moving behind her. "Don't freak out. Keep working if you want." He said and smiled. "I know a way to make this touch thing work for the two of us." He said and then grinned. "I really am sorry about my brother." He said as his fingers began to slowly move over her frame, working in circles on her shoulders and neck and his mind cleared at the same time, only thinking about how he should do this. He wanted to take small steps until she realized she liked him.

Then the dim sound of a memory in the background got him curious and he pulled at it. It came closer and he continued moving his hands. He was controlling what he heard. It was amazing. He could hear them talking.

"What do you want?"

"Something quick and easy, Nathaniel. You know I've got a class in an hour."

A laugh from himself. "I know you have class in an hour. It'll take you ten min---s to get there. Ten minutes to c--. That leaves for-- minutes for me..." A kiss was heard. "To g--..." Another. "To decide wh-- want."

"Nathaniel, st--. Don't you think you've wooed me en-- as it is?"

The sounds were blurry, changing as if this wasn't going to happen, just hearing it was changing it. He pushed it back to that dim place in his mind and frowned. He didn't want those moments to change. He bit his lip and shook his head. Was he going about this all wrong? He was being genuinely sweet to her. He was trying to be a gentleman.

Andy closed her eyes and dropped the ball bearings softly to the bed when Nathaniel started massaging her neck and shoulders. It felt wonderful.

"Mmm," she sighed. "You're really good at that." She noticed he was being quiet and opened her eyes. "You're quiet. Listening to something?"

"Mmhmm..." He muttered and then worked one hand down her spine, the other at the base of her neck. He grinned and moved to put his forehead on her shoulder. "I'm changing the future. I don't know how or why or if it affects Riley and Annabelle and..." He stopped and then licked his lips. "I want some parts of my future to stay how I've seen them Some I wouldn't mind losing. But I never know what I do to make those happen." He bit his lip and knew he couldn't lie to her any longer, even if it was by omission.

"Listen... Uhmmm.." He scratched his neck and frowned. "You're... We're..." He took a deep breath moved away from her, not having foreseen a slap but wary that it may come anyway. "We get married June 16th, 2015. We live in New York with three children and our daughter and son are both rebellious. The youngest however is the spitting character of you. She even came out smiling."

"You get your dream job, I don't get mine. But I settle for a private detective with a minor in sketch artistry for the police department. Your car will die, and you cry over it, more than you do at the wedding. I buy you a new car, I won't tell you what kind in case it comes true. Our daughter speaks at my funeral right after her graduation day from Harvard. I die at age 67." He bit his lip and lowered his head.

"I want the future to be random for me, I don't want to know all of this. and most of this information is fairly new to me except for Riley. I've known about Riley since I was.... five?" He licked his lips and turned to look at her. "It's your choice, you can change the future, or we can work on it together. We can bend it to the way we like but of course bad things will always come along with the good. We can't avoid the speeding tickets and car wrecks, and might I add, one of your speeding tickets is pretty hilarious. You wear an offwhite dress at the wedding." He muttered and ran a hand through his hair.

Andy raised an eyebrow as she listened. That was... detailed.

"You're assuming a lot," she said. "You realize that according to those dates, we're married right out of college, practically, right? And even that's assuming we actually get together."

"It's all assumptions, or sounds anyway. It's been said in the future, and so I hear it. But they keep changing on me. Originally, we never got together, and Riley was someone else's kid. Then you came in and the mother switched to you and Riley got older. The future is always changing, and yes, I know it means right out of college, that's why I told you. If you don't want that future, don't strive for it." He said and then sighed. "I know it's... a lot, but that's what I hear everyday. EVery minute. Peoples life stories except theirs don't change. I tell you about mine, and they change. but I feel like I'm lying to you if I don't tell you about your own future. Keeping secrets about you. I haven't ever heard our wedding. I've just heard others talk about it. Some of the people around school in the future talk about it. So if we change our future, we change theirs. I deal with this everyday Andy. It's time I stop letting it just go as it will and ask you what you want in your future."

"I'm guessing you're not big on 'que sera sera', then, hm?" Andy teased. Then she got serious again. "I want a steady job so that I can have a family that I can take care of. I don't want to be one of those women who has to depend on their partner for everything. I can't ask for anything else."

"In my future... you get that." He said and moved towards her on the bed. "You get to work a five day week, Come home at 4... Make dinner, I make dessert. We're a team with three amazing kids." He said and then bit his lip and then sighed. "THAT'S what she was looking for. Any trace that we were sleeping together! It makes sense now." He muttered and then groaned. "Another problem with our powers is we hear things about peoples sex lives we don't want to hear... Don't think too hard on that though." He said and then leaned forwards and kissed her temple. "I just didn't want to lie. And what is que sera sera? That will be? With me there is no 'that will be' it continues to 'be' something different. I believe we make what we want. And when unsuccessful, you change what you want to fit your needs."

"'Que sera sera' means 'what will be, will be,'" Andy replied as he moved closer to her. "I doubt you have to worry about knowing my sex life; I don't have one. I told you I haven't been with any guys for almost seven years, and before that, I was still a kid, practically."

Nathaniel sighed and shook his head. "I'm not talking about hearing your past. I'm talking about future. Alright, this is getting slightly uncomfortable for me. Pick a movie from netflix and let's just eat pizza and avoid the world." He muttered, wishing he never would have said anything in the first place. She didn't understand. This was his way of asking whether he should even listen to the future. Was it worth it? Probably not. Not now, anyways.

"I wasn't just talking about the past," Andy murmured as she scanned through the listings. After a few moments of looking, she finally settled on Letters to Juliet again. It was always a good movie.

Nathaniel took it that it meant he had no chance. There was no point in listening to the future, because it was all going to change. He took a piece of pizza, slid it into his mouth and chewed while waiting for the movie to load. He kissed his ideas of his three children away, of sleeping with his beautiful wife, of doing all the exciting things his memories of the future held. He watched the screen, totally okay with chick flicks, and then continued eating silently. He wasn't sure how it worked, but knowing how he felt towards the woman in the future, made him feel it now. There was no need for progression in him, he already loved her because he loved her in the future. Or what WAS their future. He bit his lip and closed his eyes as the movie finally turned on. Nathaniel clicked it to full screen and sat back to watch.

Andy noticed the change in his mood immediately. He seemed more... distant, somehow, where before he'd been very nearly trying to cling to her.

"You've gone quiet on me again," she said, ignoring the start of the movie. "Tell me what's wrong. And don't say nothing, because I know that's bullshit."

"It doesn't matter. Watch the movie." He said and handed her a piece of her side of the pizza. "Eat." He said and then poked her side gently with a smile. "Don't worry about it. Just... enjoy the time away from my parents. I know I am." He said and smiled truthfully. He may be absolutely devastated at the turn of events in the last fifteen minutes, but it beats being out there with his family.

"That's called lying through your teeth, and I can tell when you do it," Andy replied tartly. "I can guarantee you nothing has changed, at least not because of me. I haven't done anything to change the future." She figured that's why he was upset, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what he was upset about. Reaching over to the computer, she paused the movie. "Talk to me."

Nathaniel shook his head and looked at the girl. "I'm not lying. I like it in here. More than out there." He said and then rolled his eyes, reaching over her to press play. "And if you want to talk... You've said enough. I get it, the future I see clearly won't involve you, if that's what you see fit."

"Note that I never said it wouldn't involve me," Andy pointed out. "I said I don't think I'll be with anyone in the near future. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Are all guys this stubborn?" Inwardly, she sighed in frustration. He was so quick to jump to conclusions. What, was she going to have to sleep with him to prove her point?

[[Wouldn't that DISprove her point??]]

Nathaniel rolled his eyes and clicked pause again. "For one, you said it in a way that was telling me it's never going to happen. Which throws everything I know out the window. Two, I don't know what you think 'near future' is, but you have a kid before you are married in the future I've heard. And if it's 2015... That means it happens in the next 4 years. And 3, no, you just found the most stubborn guy of all." He spoke truth, not a wavering lie laced among the words. "It's not jumping to conclusions either, I know what you're thinking. I'm not jumping to any conclusions, I'm taking what you tell me and using it with the knowledge I've already heard. You say you won't have sex anytime soon, to me that means I was wrong about our child. Which means I may be wrong about our wedding, then our other children. Everything you say is changing the future I know. The future which you say you aren't changing, but you kind of are..." He then took another bite of pizza and glanced at her. "Press play."

((Not really, because he thinks she doesn't want anything to do with him anymore.))

"Well, then, forgive me for being the least bit scared, alright?" Andy finally snapped. "It's not every day someone maps out your ENTIRE LIFE for you and then gets mad at you for poking at the cracks a little. Forgive me for being scared because I've never been in an actual, meaningful relationship before. I was trying to figure things out as I go, but obviously that's not working." Stopping, she took a deep breath. "Sorry... I shouldn't have snapped at you."

Nathaniel listened patiently and smiled. "I also heard that speech already." He said and smiled dimly. "It's fine that you snapped, I understand being scared." He moved to take her hand and put it against his cheek and closed his eyes. The headache faded once more and he relaxed as the tension melted away. He opened his eyes and let go of her hand. "For a good forewarning, I suppose I don't like what I hear in the future to be poked at. I know there's cracks in the story, and some and most of it probably won't come true the way I've seen them now that I've told you about them. Please surprise me by wearing a different color dress! None of what I say has to be true, and it most likely won't be word for word correct. But it prepares us for the future. I know in 5 years you undoubtably love me and I love you. I can hear it in your voice. But now, in five years you may hate me. Nothing has to be that way." He spoke and then moved to take another piece of pizza. "And no offense, but... you should be more original, I think you stole that rant from somewhere. I've... heard it before." He teased and nudged her. "I know, Andy, that being in a relationship would be a new thing to you, and I don't really know how you feel. I constantly had a girlfriend throughout high school. They didn't last because I didn't like them... But I don't know what I'm trying to get at."

"I'm sure you have heard that speech before," Andy replied teasingly. "And I don't even like off-white. I may not have a dream wedding planned in my head, but damned if I'm not wearing a real white gown." She gave him a wry look. "And I'm pretty sure I didn't steal that from anywhere, unless you've heard me say it more than once."

"And that I have." He said about hearing her say it before. She'd said it about two days ago to him. But it was just a sound in his head. She'd never actually said it. He sighed and touched her chin gently and turned her to look him in the eyes. "Press play, Doll. I LIKE to watch my movies in one shot, I don't do the whole pause-play action thing. Especially chick flicks." He said and then moved forward and kissing her cheek. Step one down. He knew he could touch her without being killed. About another million steps to go.