Chapter 3
Ivar
He tried to swallow the pain, but he couldn't help the smallest groan escape his lips- it was just too painful and too much to handle for him as he had been walking with his crutches almost all day, even though the flight had already put a strain on his fragile body.
He tried to keep his breathing shallow as well, but walking next to the guy he had just met on the hallway was a lot more exhausting than he was willing to admit- even though he could tell that the guy was already trying to be slow enough for him to keep up (he was tall and his step length was at least twice as long as Ivar's generally limited one).
Much to Ivar's delight, the pizza place was indeed not far, though.
He let out a relieved sigh when he finally saw the tables and chairs, but when his eyes fell on the long queue, his breathing stocked again- no way he could stand for another ten minutes on his own legs just to get an overpriced slice of university pizza!
He swallowed all his pride (which was everything, but easy for him) and brought up the strength to ask his new acquaintance for some help.
"I, er," he cleared his throat. "I'd like to sit down. Or else..." He gave the other man a pained smile and a shrug. "I can't stand or walk very long with these crutches, you see."
For a moment, he just tried to search any indication of anger or frustration on Loki's face, but he found neither.
Instead, the stranger gave him a rather warm smile and nodded understandingly. "Of course. Just tell me what you like and I'll order for you."
Ivar reciprocated the smile and made it thankful. "Pepperoni, please. And thank you very much. People usually don't understand."
Loki blushed slightly and his smile suddenly was more of an embarrassed one. He drove his hand through his hair like Ivar had seen him doing quite a few times already in the short time they've known each other. "Of course. Just take a seat and I'll bring it to you."
Ivar nodded quickly and turned on his heels as swiftly as he could (which wasn't very swift at all); he couldn't wait to sit down again or else the throbbing pain in his whole body would make him throw up.
He sat down just at the first table he could reach, and his attention was immediately caught by the ridiculous laughter at the table just behind him.
He rolled his eyes to himself; his day had really been stressful enough already, he didn't need anyone making fun of him now.
He tried to ignore the laughter and just focus on looking around the pizza place that he was sure he would become a frequent customer of if the food was as good as it smelled, but the ridiculous voice didn't stop laughing and it was driving him crazy.
Ivar was used to being made fun of by strangers in public- the prize of living with a physical disability- but usually he was alone or with one of his older brothers and they all were used to ignoring it.
Now, he was with Loki.
A stranger he had immediately taken a liking to, but he was sure that Loki wasn't equipped to deal with all the negative attention and jokes on their behalf (it wasn't rare that people would also attack the ones who were with Ivar after a while, and it was really the last thing Ivar wanted for Loki right now).
So, he swallowed his pride and the inner voice (that suspiciously sounded like his older brother Ubbe) that told him to just stay cool and ignore the idiot behind him, and turned around.
"Hey you, idiot," he hissed through gritted teeth before he had even turned fully around, and he immediately regretted it.
His breathing stocked as he saw that the ridiculous laughter came from a guy that wasn't even facing him.
Instead, the guy was joking around with the two other guys at the table (just that they seemed way more reserved and weren't putting on a whole show like their friend).
Ivar immediately recognised one of the guys as the lanky Brit in the too thick coat that he had met earlier at the airport.
The other guy, he had never met, but he immediately saw that he was wearing dark tinted glasses even in the inside, and with a look to the side, Ivar also saw the white cane leaning at the table.
The guy was blind.
Ivar felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him- he was quite sure that the man who was eating out with a blind guy wasn't laughing about someone who used crutches to walk.
But before Ivar could do as much as wish for the earth to open up and swallow him whole, the attention of all three of the men, but also Loki's attention and the attention of the other customers around him was on him.
The man with the ridiculous laughter had turned around to him and had stopped laughing; he was frowning at Ivar. "Sorry, what?" He asked and sounded more perplexed than actually hurt.
Ivar swallowed. He had definitely not meant to pick a fight with an innocent guy.
"I, er, I'm sorry," he stammered, but he could feel himself blush crimson red in the face. He could still feel everyone staring at him.
"Are you alright?" Loki suddenly asked as he appeared right next to Ivar, and much to Ivar's surprise he seemed genuinely concerned and not a bit angered or even confused by Ivar's temper.
Ivar nodded quickly and mustered the strength to give Loki at least a pained smile. "Yes, thank you. I was just... just..."
"Hey, I know you," the guy with the ridiculous laughter suddenly chimed up, but when Ivar turned his head again, he saw that the guy was facing Loki.
"You're the son of that entrepreneur, right? What was the name again? Bor... borton? Or something like that?"
"Borson," Loki brought out through gritted teeth, but Ivar could tell that this had nothing to do with him or the guy with the ridiculous laughter- it was a personal feude with his father, Ivar could see that immediately (he had enough experience with that himself, after all).
"Right," the guy with the ridiculous laughter chuckled out in amusement (and it really made no sense to Ivar why he was amused after he had just been approached rather rudely by a complete stranger, but some people were just happy in nature, it appeared).
"I was in your history class the first year in college," he proceeded then. "You were first of the class if I remember right."
Loki nodded reluctantly. "Yeah... sorry, I can't remember you." He tilted his head slightly and his gaze fell upon the blind guy. "But I think I've seen your friend before... Matt, right?"
Matt nodded quickly as he was suddenly part of the conversation and he leaned a bit forward with both his arms crossed in front of him and on the table.
"Er, yeah..." He breathed out and put the most charismatic smile Ivar had ever seen on his face. "I'm not good with faces, though, so please excuse that I can't remember you."
For a long moment, everyone was quiet, but then his friend with the ridiculous laughter huffed out yet another laugh. "Always with the blind jokes."
Ivar and Loki shared a look and joined in their laughter rather uncomfortably; only the guy in the coat kept his head ducked and didn't even crack a smile.
"I'm Foggy, by the way," the guy with the ridiculous laughter finally introduced himself and offered Loki and Ivar his hand.
"Ivar," Ivar responded and shook his hand.
"And my first name is Loki," Loki said with a lopsided grin. "I prefer to be called that instead of my family name, you know."
"Hey you..." Ivar tried then and ducked his own head to catch the coat-guy's gaze, but he had no luck. "Weren't you the one helping me with my suitcase earlier at the airport?"
Again, he got no response from the guy at all, and it made him furrow his brows in confusion.
He had already gathered that the guy was shy and maybe a bit awkward and nervous in nature, but he had still expected him to answer when he was directly asked a question (especially because the atmosphere was getting lighter with every passing second and no one was angry anymore).
Ivar turned to look at the other two guys at the table; he hoped to get any explanation from them of why their friend straight up ignored him, but they looked just as confused as himself.
"Hey, Newt," the guy with the ridiculous laughter- Foggy- said then encouragingly (and at first it looked like he wanted to nudge the lanky Brit- Newt- in the side, but he stopped the motion quickly before he could do so).
Again, Newt didn't respond at all and just kept his gaze fixed on the half-empty plate in front of him.
"Is he alright?" Loki asked and when Ivar turned to look at him, he saw that his new acquaintance looked just as confused and concerned as the rest of them.
Foggy shrugged with a worried grimace on his face. "I don't know. We literally just met him."
"Oh, you're not friends with him?" Ivar asked in surprise; he had simply assumed that a guy as shy as Newt wasn't going out to have some pizza with just anyone he didn't even know.
The other two guys shook their heads in sync.
"No, we only met him on the hallway in the university. He looked lost and so we offered to give him the grand tour on campus," Foggy explained. He turned back to Newt again and ducked his head now in order to catch the man's gaze, but he also had no luck.
"Should we just..." Loki started, but trailed off then. He drove his hand through his hair again and huffed out some air through his mouth. "What are we supposed to do? I mean we can't just leave him here... like this... can we?"
Before anyone had the chance to answer (not that they had many ideas themselves), a phone suddenly went off and it made Newt stick his hands quickly into the pockets of his coat.
He pulled out his phone (which was the source of the ringing noise) and answered the incoming call, but he didn't say anything as he hold the phone against his ear.
"Where are you, Fido?" The others heard a quiet voice speak at the other end. "You didn't call me back. Are you alright? Did you get the keys?"
They just watched Newt as suddenly a bit of colour came back into his so far very pale face.
"Ye-yes," he stammered into the phone then. "I'm at a pizza place with some students that I've met in the hallway."
The others (except from Matt, for obvious reasons) shared somewhat confused and still slightly concerned looks; they had simply no idea what was happening and it made them all very uncomfortable.
"I've had pizza," Newt answered a question the others had missed and it made them shift their attention to him again.
He nodded to himself. "Yes. Yes. Yes, Thee. I'll do that. Yes. I promise." He hung off and sighed to himself; completely unaware that eight eyes were fixed on him until he finally lifted his gaze and cringed hardly.
Everyone just stared at him for a long moment; Foggy was the first one to get his voice back.
"Who was that?" He asked nonchalantly, and it made Newt visibly relax (at least a bit).
"M-my brother," he stammered out, but averted his gaze again.
"Older?" Foggy asked and Newt nodded. "So he's worried about you?"
Again, Newt nodded.
"Oh, I know that," Ivar sighed and leaned back in his chair a bit.
"Me too," Loki muttered and finally took a seat at the table with Ivar.
"You have an older brother?" Ivar asked and immediately found Loki a tad more interesting (and he had already thought him interesting before).
Loki nodded eagerly. "And a sister. I'm the youngest. Believe me, you don't need that."
"No?" Ivar huffed out in amusement. "I'm the youngest of six. One sister and four brothers."
"Four brothers?" Foggy asked in disbelief and leaned forward to be closer to Ivar. "You have four older brothers? Are you kidding?"
"Unfortunately not," Ivar chuckled and rubbed his eye because for some reason he also felt embarrassed all of a suddden and didn't want to look at anyone for a second. "But I like most of them, so it's alright. Do you have any siblings?" Ivar asked, directing the attention away from himself.
"An older sister and a younger brother, but that's nothing compared to your family," Foggy said, still in disbelief.
Ivar chuckled and drove his hand through his hair. "Well... you're probably right..." He turned to look at Newt again who seemed to be in the same reality as them again. "What about you, Newt? Any more siblings?"
Newt shook his head shyly. "Only Theseus. I think our parents were done after me," he mumbled and it sounded somewhat bitter.
"Same," Foggy huffed in amusement. "I'm sure my brother was an accident."
The others (except from Newt) joined his laughter.
"What about you, Matt?" Ivar asked. "Any older brothers that will give you concerned calls twice a day?"
Matt put on a friendly smile, but Ivar could immediately see that he was hiding a lot of pain behind those sunglasses (the fact that Foggy suddenly shifted in his seat uncomfortably added to Ivar's feeling that he had just asked the wrong question).
"Nope, just me," Matt said, and Ivar quickly nodded in response because he didn't want to poke more into the obvious wound in front of him, but unfortunately Newt across from him seemed to -of all situations- have to come to life now and he had clearly not realised that it was an apparently sensitive topic for Matt.
"I sometimes wish I grew up as an only child as well," he mumbled to himself. "I like my brother, but I think my parents would have been easier on me if it wasn't for him. No comparing-us and such. You parents must be super nice to you."
"Well, I don't exactly have parents either," Matt said with a shrug. It was clear that it hurt him, but that it also wasn't something that had only happened recently to him; he said it with a certain lightness that Ivar was sure came from telling the same story over and over again.
"So you grew up in an orphanage?" Loki next to him suddenly asked and Ivar already wanted to be shocked at how insensitive this question was when he suddenly remembered that Loki had told him a story about himself being in an orphanage merely an hour earlier.
"I was adopted from an orphanage," Loki explained then as he also seemed to realise how insensitive the question had been. "I've never known my biological parents."
Matt gave him a compassionate smile that only two orphans could share. "My dad died when I was a child, and I've never known my mother. That means until recently... turns out she was one of the nuns caring for me in the orphanage, but she decided to not tell me that she was indeed my mother."
Ivar's eyebrows shot up. "That's fucked up, man."
"Oh, it is," Matt snorted out, and he was already way more relaxed. "We're still working on our relationship."
"Understandable," Ivar answered with his own huff of a laugh as suddenly his own phone rang- but in his case it was an alarm and not a phone call.
He rolled his eyes to himself. "I'm sorry, I have to leave. I have that thing tonight."
"Didn't you want to eat something to take your meds?" Loki asked while Ivar tried to push himself up with his crutches again.
"Yeah, I'll just-"
"Here, have our leftovers," Foggy quickly offered and pushed his, Matt's and Newt's halfway eaten food towards him. "It's not much and it's cold already, but it's free and quick. And it should do it for some meds."
Ivar smiled at him thankfully and immediately picked up a piece of Foggy's pepperoni pizza. "Thanks, man."
"Where are you headed, anyway?" Loki asked from the side then.
"I, er, I have that..." Ivar mumbled between taking bites. "That thing from university. Kind of a support group for... well, students with some kind of disadvantage... my family really wanted me to at least try it out."
Ivar could practically see how Loki was suddenly pale in the face. "What time is it?" He asked tonelessly.
"5:30pm. Why?" Ivar asked and a deep confused frown appeared on his forehead.
"Because I'm supposed to host that group," Loki mumbled out, and within a split second, he stood tall again and was ready to head out. "I, er, I'm really sorry, I just... I forgot that I... I need to go..." He turned on his heels and already wanted to head off, but before he did so, he turned around one last time.
"I assume I'll see you there, Ivar?" He asked and it sounded more than just polite.
Ivar nodded eagerly; the prospect of going to that dumb meeting had just become a lot better. "See you there."
Matt
"So can everyone go?" Newt suddenly asked out of the blue as everyone was watching Loki head off.
Ivar was already standing on his feet again, but he was still quickly shoving the leftovers from his new acquaintances into his mouth before he would swallow his pills.
Matt's head whipped around to face Newt's general direction; even though he was sure that Newt had directed the question mostly at Ivar, he knew that he was just the right person to answer the question, so he did.
"It's for everyone who has some special challenges," he explained. "It's basically about getting help to seek accommodation and having other people with special challenges to talk to. It's usually for everyone who has some sort of disability. I've gotten a lot of help from them when I started here. For example, they helped with getting an electronic braille reader and all the books as braille or audio copies."
"Can they help with all kinds of accommodations?" Newt asked and just then, Ivar had finished eating and had swallowed his pills dryly.
"I think you can't just go there to ask for more time for your assignments because you're British," Ivar teased, but the joke went right over Newt's head and the Brit just furrowed his brows.
Matt didn't need sight to sense Newt's confusion, so he gave the other man a friendly smile. "You're an exchange student," he stated: "That means that you're technically at a disadvantage and you can for sure go to the meetings. There will probably be more exchange students, and it will be nice for you to get to know some of them, I guess... but the idea of the group is to help the people with disabilities. People might frown upon someone who isn't actually part of, you know, their circle."
Matt could almost feel Newt next to him bop his head to himself, even if it wasn't for Foggy.
"He nods," Foggy announced, and this time Matt could almost feel Newt blush.
"I'm so sorry," Newt mumbled shyly and again, mostly to himself.
Matt smiled at him once more. "It's alright."
"I should really get going," Ivar sighed suddenly, but he also turned to look at Matt and Foggy. "What about you guys? Do you want to come with me now? The meeting starts at six."
"I don't have any right to be there unfortunately," Foggy chuckled. "Even though I'd love to get more time for my assignments because all the support from home I get is the questions why I didn't want to be a butcher."
Ivar snorted out a laugh. "That sounds like a good story to tell over a few beers."
"Yeah, let's do that," Foggy replied almost excitedly. "You guys can all come over to Matt's and my place on the weekend. We have a third roommate, but she's lovely. You'll love her. You should really tell Loki when you see him."
Ivar gave him a lopsided grin. "Or Matt could ask when he joins me?"
"Me?" Matt asked with furrowed brows and played offence. "I can't see why I would need accommodation."
"Enough with the blind jokes," Foggy immediately groaned playfully. "Go with him already. He's not from here and you're a native New Yorker and Columbia student. Make yourself useful."
"Alright," Matt huffed out in amusement and scrambled to his feet. He patted the edge of the bord for a few seconds to find his cane before Foggy placed it dutifully into his hands.
"But you have to lead the way," Matt told Ivar with a shrug.
"I don't know where to go, but I'm sure there are signs and the rooms have numbers," Ivar replied with a nonchalant shrug that Matt didn't see for obvious reasons (but he still had the feeling that it was there).
"What about you, Newt?" Matt asked as he turned into Newt's general direction. "Wanna come with us?" He tilted his head slightly as if he was actually looking at Newt; something deep inside of him that he couldn't quite understand yet told him that Newt was supposed to come with them.
Newt hesitated for a long moment before he spoke up quietly. "Perhaps, perhaps another day... I think... I've already made all the agreements with the university about accommodations."
"They offered accommodations for exchange students?" Ivar asked in surprise. "Did I miss some kind of email or anything?"
"No," Newt mumbled and Matt was sure that he was shaking his head, but even though Matt expected him to continue, Newt just didn't.
"What accommodations then?" Foggy asked after a long break in which everyone was just trying to find any meaning in Newt's words (sometimes Matt was thankful for Foggy's remarkable ability to ask very direct questions without offending anyone).
"Yes, what kind of accommodations?" Ivar asked then as well, but his voice was more tinged with suspicion than Foggy's had been.
Matt's brows furrowed as he tried to put everything together from the very beginning he had met Newt and had immediately thought him strange until now that he was talking about accommodations that usually only people with disabilities became granted from the very beginning (sometimes; Matt had had to fight with huge amounts of printed paperwork before he even got to ask for a braille reader- wouldn't it have been for Foggy, he would have never even had the chance to get through all of the documents, but this had been six years ago; he was sure digitalisation had even reached his Alma Mater by now).
"You're on the spectrum," he breathed out as realisation fell upon him before he had even finished the thought of maybe not saying that because it was just an assumption and it would be offensive if he was wrong.
Again, Matt needed no sight to know that Newt was blushing crimson red and ducking his head as much as he could.
"What spectrum?" Foggy asked then completely confused, though. He looked from Newt to Matt and back and forth several times. "He's nodding, Matt. But why? What spectrum are you talking about?"
"Autism spectrum, you muppet," Matt groaned slightly annoyed, but mostly amused.
"Autism?" Foggy asked in disbelief as his gaze came to a halt on Newt who shrunk more and more together in himself. "But you don't look autistic."
Everyone was completely quiet for a long, uncomfortable moment. Ivar was the first one to get his voice back then. "Man, you've just said the most offensive thing possible, I think," he deadpanned.
"Did I?" Foggy asked and it was obvious that he was quiet shocked about himself. "I didn't mean to say anything offensive. But aren't autistic people usually like... not speaking?"
"No, not really," Matt muttered; he kept his attention on Newt, though. "Sorry, I didn't mean to just, you know, blurt that out like this," he said then and it was clear that he really meant it and really was sorry.
"It's alright," Newt mumbled shyly. "It's not a secret. I couldn't hide it if I wanted to."
"I would have never guessed that, though, man," Foggy (almost) chuckled and he managed to not cross the border of being offensive again, but actually stay friendly enough.
"That's not better," Matt huffed out with a somewhat exasperated laugh and clasped Foggy's shoulder. "Anyway, before you can get yourself into more trouble there, I think we should leave. Ivar? Newt?" He turned into their general directions. "Are you guys coming?"
"Yes," Ivar said with a firm nod before he also turned to Newt who sat at his table and was suddenly completely silent.
"What about you, Newt?" He asked after another moment of simply waiting then; he tilted his head and tried to muster a smile. "Despite the accommodations you've already got, maybe you can, I don't know, just meet some other people? Make some new friends?"
Newt hesitated. "I, er... I'm not very good at making friends," he then mumbled.
"What?" Foggy asked with a slightly over exaggerated shocked face. "But you've just made four new friends! How can it be you're not good at making friends?"
Matt just knew that Newt's brows furrowed and he gave everyone questioning glances because he just couldn't believe his ears- Matt himself had had made the experience that it was hard to trust new people, so he simply knew that Newt- who obviously had a hard time socialising- felt the same.
"Come on, we're with you," Matt decided to say at last and nudged his head towards the general direction of the exit of the pizza place. "We're looking out for you." He smirked to himself. "Well, Ivar does. I'm listening out for you."
"Enough now with the blind jokes," Foggy sighed, but it was clear that his sigh was just supposed to hide a laugh. "Really man, you're over-doing it today."
"Alright," Matt grinned to himself. "I'll stop. But only if Newt's coming with us."