Work Text:
"My dad says you're nice." Her face was scrunched up. Her glare was slight, and her tone even, but it was noticeable enough. She looked him up and down with a scrutiny that's bold for somebody so young and small. "But I heard you hazed my boyfriend so it's hard to say."
"Ah."
Well that explained it.
"Did not know the little guy had a girlfriend!" Adam exclaimed, rubbing his palms together. "But that whole hazing situation? It's a thing of the past. I'm sorry it had to happen."
"It was his first day here," The little girl pointed out, her voice flat. "And it was only a few days ago, don’t play dumb!"
"Look,” Adam licked his lips, broaching the topic with care. “The rest of the Junior Agents and I were just upholding Psychonauts tradition. You'll get it when you become an intern. We all got hazed on our first day. It's an initiation ritual, and now he's one of us! Might I add, we are totally on good terms now."
"I went through the internship program already, and I've been here for almost as long as I've lived. I know about every one of our dumb traditions." Her voice had a strained patience to it. "The thing is, that doesn't make me want to firestart you any less.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold on now!” Adam held up his hands in defense, his innocent smile never leaving his face. “Let's discuss this civilly, yeah? Start with the basics and all that. I know that you're Grand Head Zanotto’s kid, but I’m not familiar with your name just yet. Started with an L, I think. Truman likes talkin' about you.”
The kid narrowed her eyes at him, suspicion and annoyance making her pause before answering. “Lili.”
Adam waited for any kind of elaboration, but none came. “Alright, nice, nice, now I remember. Well, I’m Adam Joseph Gette, nice to meet you!”
“Wish I could say the same.” Lili rolled her eyes, voice dripping with sarcasm. “My dad has also talked about you before. I probably would have forgotten, except I also heard some bad things about you interns.”
“Not from him, I hope?” Adam joked. He wanted to keep it light and get the girl to relax some more. “And we’re Junior Agents, for the record. You were there when we graduated, remember?”
“My dad just says you're ‘polite’ and ‘talented’ and stuff like that.” Lili rolled her eyes again. Clearly she did that a lot. Or maybe she was just really annoyed with him.
“And I don’t care if you're an intern or a Junior Agent or whatever. You’re all just a bunch of new kids who chose to pick on a newer kid to me.”
“New kids?” Adam spluttered. “Hold on now, we’ve been here for quite a while!”
“Hm.” Lili raised an eyebrow. “Well, I’ve never seen you around until recently. You must have come in sometime during the summer. I'd call that new.”
Adam smirked. The kid really was bold. He could admire that, although he wished her hostility was directed elsewhere. “Let me guess, you were off at Whispering Rock during the summer. I remember that place! Not great, to be honest, but not too shabby."
"Yeah, I guess," Lili replied. One foot tapped on the floor impatiently. She wasn't here for conversation, evidently, small fists still clenching and unclenching by her side.
"Is that where you met the little guy?"
"Uh, yeah.” Something in her seemed to soften. “A few days ago he sort of just showed up and wormed his way up the ranks. Not that I'm complaining, since he's done so much to make my life more interesting."
It was then that she seemed to realize she'd gotten off track, and resumed her accusatory glare with more fervor. "Which is why it matters to me, that apparently my boyfriend was crawling through vents while his clothing was in the trash."
"Ooh," Adam winced. "I'll admit, that sounds bad. Never paid much attention to the rumors myself, but I guess he had to escape somehow! Although ah- just to be clear, I wasn’t the one who trashed his clothes. Must have been Norma. Maybe Lizzie, but probably Norma."
"Escape what?" Lili growled, her eyes narrowing further.
"Oh, you didn't know?" He rubbed a hand behind his neck. "After we took his clothes, we may have locked him in the storage closet."
"You what?" She looked infuriated.
"All part of the process." Adam elaborated. "But it's done now. I'm makin’ sure he's never messed with again. He's a good little dude and totally saved us on more than one occasion."
"That's Raz for ya." There was some pride in her voice, but it quickly switched to serious again, her face turning dark. “This Norma… that’s the narc, right?”
Adam cringed slightly, a smile still plastered on his face. “Norma. Good ol’ Norma. Yes, our girl has the habit of bein’ a snitch sometimes.”
“Considering she was being a snitch the first time I met her, I’m guessing it’s more than ‘sometimes,’” Lili huffed back, skeptically crossing her arms and giving the wall next to her a particularly nasty look.
Adam rocked on his heels, his smile faltering more. “That’s ah… That’s true. It’s one of her weak points. She’s really investigative. I’ve gleaned that she likes the feelin’ of catching onto somethin’ suspicious, and solvin’ it as it were. Personally, I think her sense of justice is a bit warped, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
Lili grumbled something under her breath, an aura of irritation emanating from her. Adam could even feel the air heating up around him ever so slightly- a sign of her potent pyrokinesis. If a powerful psychic such as himself could feel the heat without a single spark being fired off, then it truly meant her powers were nothing to sneeze at. Impressive, given her age.
She released the energy by summoning a small flame at her fingertips and letting it dance across her fingers before fizzling it out. Lili was showing off, though it came across as more brutish than elegant. “I might be tempted to start a pyro war with this Norma.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You do NOT want to start a pyro war with Norma! That is her specialty. Nobody would dare to challenge her on that- not even most adults!” Adam held his arms up placatingly, his eyes wide. “You’re gonna hav’ta trust me on this one. She’s really good.”
“Good.” The girl was completely unphased, her eyes only narrowing ever so slightly. “Maybe I can have a bit of a challenge before it’s all over.”
“I’m sure you’re extremely talented and all, but she’s still had years worth of experience that you haven’t had the chance to get at the moment. I’m only saying this, because I don’t particularly want to encourage a little kid to get hurt, understand? It’s just better that way, yeah?”
“Nope.” Lilli popped the ‘p’ with as much indifference as a fifth grader could possibly hold, her small fists still clenched at her sides. “You can say you tried, though, if it makes you feel any better. And don’t think for one second that I’m not annoyed at you either.”
“Aha, right. That’s fair I suppose. Well. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Lili turned around regardless, giving Adam one last mutinous look as she did so. Her pigtails swung with the motion, and her stomps told Adam that she’d likely be gone for good.
Yet as fate would have it, she froze as something large and orange whizzed by her.
Having flung himself across the stone steps and halfway across the room, Razputin Aquato breathed heavily, one hand adjusting a goggle strap to better sit on his cranium. He wiped his forehead of sweat with a gloved hand, hitting the ground perfectly as his lev ball deactivated.
“Hi Lili.” A simple greeting. Ever so slightly shy too, like a little boy speaking to his crush. Adam supposed given what Lili had told him, it was an accurate comparison.
“Raz-”
“Oh, Adam! You’re here too! Hi!” Raz’s breathing steadied in increments, smiling as Adam tipped his hat in reply. He turned to Lili, eyes wide and soft.
“Oh, sorry for interrupting you! Guess I was just surprised you guy’s hung out.” Raz giggled sheepishly, hand scratching the back of his neck.
Lili’s hand was planted firmly on her hip, stare fixated firmly on Adam instead. “Oh I’d hardly call this ‘hanging o-’”
“Was just meeting my mentor’s daughter proper! And apparently my fellow Junior Cadet is her boyfriend as well, huh?” Adam interrupted. He could practically feel Lili burning holes into his back. Maybe she was, just a little. This was the second time she’d been interrupted in the span of a minute.
Raz’s face immediately flushed, his posture stiffening. “Eheh. Guilty as charged.” He cleared his throat, evidently trying to cover for the higher octave his voice had reached. “I actually came to visit you, Lili. I wanted to invite you to movie night! At our dorms! Um, tomorrow.”
He turned to Adam, eyes hopeful. “She can come right?” He looked back at Lili. “If you want, of course!”
Lili made a revolted face as soon as Raz’s back was turned towards Adam, evidently hating the idea of spending time around the people she had contemplated burning.
And yet her eyes widened as something seemed to click into place. Suddenly her expression was hopeful and innocent, playing the perfect role of a girl who wanted in on movie night.
“Yeah, that sounds fun actually.You don’t mind if I join?” Her wider eyes and excited tone was a stark contrast to anything he’d seen from Lili so far.
As jarring as it was, it made Adam realize that Lili was likely more multifaceted than he was aware. It was a glimpse into a Lili that was actually pretty sweet and could get excited over simpler things.
Raz seemed used to it, exchanging a grin with her before turning back to Adam for his answer.
Even so, Adam could tell she wasn’t being genuine in this instance. Though, neither was he.
His wide smile twisted down a tad. “Well, I don’t see why not!” He gritted out, deliberately. He gave Lili a look . “So long as you don’t mind having a fun and friendly time! And I mean, who doesn’t?” He chuckled, stilted.
Let’s not cause trouble while Raz is trying to enjoy his movie night, yeah? I don’t like that look in your eye. We’re all friends here. A mental message, he made extra precautions to close off the link to Raz.
Lili didn’t answer back. Not mentally, in any case. Outloud she replied without missing a beat, “I’m sure I’ll have a fun time!”
What kind of response was that? He squinted at her suspiciously, a smile still plastered on. “Great. Good, cool.”
Raz glanced between the two, whatever slight confusion he had at their odd exchange quickly trumped by his childlike excitement. After all, he’d invited his little girlfriend to movie night with the cool, older kids who totally weren’t at risk of having a ten year old attempt murder.
“I think you’re gonna love it Lili! We vote on different movies, and we eat popcorn and stuff! We even watch PG-13 movies sometimes!”
“That’s correct! Don’t tell your parents!” Adam laughed, shooting each kid a finger gun. “Not sure if my mentor would be happy about this one!”
“Scandalous.” There was Lili’s sarcasm again.
Quite the opposite from Raz who had gasped when the Junior Agents had first let him watch something PG-13, but completely on brand for what he’d seen so far. “Ooh, she’s a toughie! I like your style, kid!”
“Yeahhh, she’s super cool..” Raz added shyly.
Lili looked flustered at that, but chose to punch Raz on the shoulder, for whatever reason. “Okay, okay. You’re cool too, goober!”
Raz made a lovestruck sound that filled Adam with both amusement and confusion. When he recovered, he turned to Adam with a friendly grin. “You’re cool too, Adam! Thanks, you’re the best!”
Something in Lili’s expression shifted. O-ho, so she wasn’t expecting Raz to be good friends with him, huh?
“Of course, little buddy!” Adam tipped his hat politely, and offered him a fist bump. Raz took it eagerly. “Well, as much as I’d like to stay and chat, I did come here for a reason. I’m off to find Grand Head Zanotto. I need my next assignment-“
“He’s in the Nerve Center.” Lili informed him, her voice level but tense.
“Great! Thanks.” Adam tried not to sound surprised by her cooperation. “I’ll see the two of you Friday, yeah?”
“Absolutely!” Raz chirped.
“Yes.” Was Lili’s flat response.
“Great, great, I’ll be moseyin’ along then!”
“Bye!” Raz called, waving enthusiastically.
Lili only smiled. Adam decided to ignore the way the tip of his fedora burned just a smidge. That’d be Movie Night’s problem…