Selfish Reasons

It was through careful observation that Havoc came to the exact wrong conclusions. He'd observed Emily Strong carefully in the days since he'd learned of her relationship with Seiken, and the more he'd seen, the less he'd understood. She was, for lack of a better word, normal. She was physically small, but otherwise she was a completely normal human girl. He didn't even see any signs of powers, although he hadn't exactly had a chance to observe her in powers classes.

Normal was bad.

Havoc was not normal, and he was well aware that Seiken wasn't either. Seiken was as much beast as he was man, and no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't find a reason that Emily--normal and average in any way--would be interested in Seiken. He supposed that Seiken could be described as attractive physically, but he was also significantly larger than average and beastial in nature.

Someone like Seiken did not fit with someone like Emily. Even Seiken's secret talk about Emily hiding herself had failed to explain the issue. Someone who had a secret geeky side did not necessarily want to cuddle up to someone like Seiken. The more he watched, the more certain Havoc became that Emily was using Seiken somehow.

The question was what to do with that info.

Havoc was not a touchy feely person. He did not feel the need to intervene in Seiken's best interests, but he did feel a small need to intrude for entirely selfish reasons. Even though he was largely incapable of empathy, he had made an oath to never leave a man behind, and had decided back when he'd first started getting along with Seiken to consider him part of his unit.

Seiken was one of the people on the island who least needed protecting physically, but he was also very ignorant in a variety of ways. Havoc wasn't all that much better--he still didn't get it a lot--but he was better at observing and had spent more time dealing with other people than the younger man.

It was for that reason that Havoc had decided to intervene, however slightly. There was absolutely nothing he could really do, but he could at least try and assess the situation a bit more clearly, and then advise Seiken as much as possible.

It was for that reason that Havoc faked it.

Havoc was not good at faking it, but he was certainly passable, and if Seiken hadn't told her about him in detail, he could likely get away with it. He wouldn't be able to hold up acting normal in the long run, but he could certainly manage a short conversation without anyone who wasn't telepathic realizing that anything was wrong with him.

He'd gone down to watch a game--pointedly not basketball--and then he'd waited for everyone else to clear out. People were already splitting off, and as the captain, Emily would be among the last to leave.

It was fake smiles all around. When Emily started to approach him, Havoc smiled in his usual way. Friendly. Open. Not terribly expressive, but not unusual either. Havoc didn't have one of those serial killer smiles. He just had a normal smile, and he could pass just fine as totally normal as a result. He wasn't lucky in that way, but instead his smile was something he'd worked on, practicing over time until he had it down pat.

In truth, his genuine smiles were few and far between, so rare they did not come naturally.

Havoc pushed himself up from the bleachers, giving her a pleasant wave.

"Emily Strong, right?" He said, making it clear he knew who she was. If he didn't care at all, he probably would have simply blurted out his question, but then if he hadn't cared he wouldn't have been smiling.

"I'm a friend of Seiken's, wanted to see what all the fuss was about."

"I felt the same way," Havoc admitted. Lying was easiest if it wasn't a lie, or at least not much of a lie. Peppering in the truth here and there helped, and Havoc tried to do so as much as possible. He didn't lie much, after all, and was far from a master at it.

"Seiken isn't exactly the kind of person to talk about friends," Havoc pointed out. "I didn't find out about you until earlier this week, even though you're obviously important to him."

True, but also flattering. People were less suspicious when they felt good about themselves, and Havoc hoped to exploit that as much as possible.

"We don't exactly have a large social circle, so I thought it was appropriate to introduce myself," he said, hopping down from the bleachers to the grass below.

She was so damn small, and he was having a hard time getting over it.

Civilian, Havoc reminded himself. She was a civilian, and a salute was not the appropriate answer. Instead he opted to approach her directly, holding out his hand for a friendly handshake. Introductions were important. First impressions were important. If she was using Seiken, then the less she knew about him, the better. If she wasn't... well, then she'd certainly understand him misleading her out of concern for Seiken's best interests.

Or at least in theory.

"James Havoc. But he calls me Havoc, as does everyone else," he said.

She was certainly to the point. Or wasn't she supposed to be presenting herself as normal? Maybe that was normal--Havoc was a very poor judge of things, and he was aware that normally Seiken would have been there to introduce them.

Ah well, he could certainly make do as necessary.

He didn't have anything he particularly needed, beyond information, which made things tricky. He had to be very delicate and deal with her question, choosing his words carefully.

"I didn't need anything in particular, know. I just know that Seiken's been busy, and wanted to meet the girl he's so smitten with."

Things would be so much easier if he could just ask 'why are you after Seiken', but the answers he'd get wouldn't be very useful.

"You're head of the cheerleaders? That's quite an achievement for someone in high school."

Perhaps he'd upset her, or perhaps he was simply looking for things he might have otherwise noticed. She seemed slightly anxious, a bit too quick to get out of the conversation. He assumed that someone meeting their boyfriends friend (because as far as Havoc knew, he was the only one) for the first time would be more keen to talk.

"A compliment," he confirmed. "Not many could do what you did at your age."

Of course, her urge to push the conversation along put him in a tricky position. He had to avoid getting pushed off, which was going to require a level of delicacy that Havoc neither possessed, nor was capable of faking.

None of the wordings he could think of helped soften the blog, so Havoc opted to simply be blunt, still wearing his unnatural smile.

"I was wondering what you saw in Seiken that made you attracted to him."

Even if Havoc had already suspected that Emily was up to no good, he still found himself slightly surprised by how aggressive she became so quickly. She went from mostly normal cheerleader to extremely nasty in record time.

So Havoc stopped presenting. He went from smiling and friendly to blank in the span of a second, every bit of emotion vanishing. They had never been there in the first place, but he'd certainly been trying to act like they were.

"I was not clear why someone who was attractive, popular, and socially outgoing would be interested in Seiken, although having seen you like this, things have become a bit more clear," he said, his voice almost completely monotone.

She had seemed arrogant, and abruptly seemed less so. She seemed slightly surprised, alarmed by his sudden change. It wasn't the intended effect, but it was a pleasant side effect just the same.

"Barring information which I have not been made aware of, I believe you are using Seiken for reasons I cannot yet determine. Likely they relate to his extreme strength and combat ability, although those exact details are lost to me."

He didn't know, but he didn't care either. The exact details didn't matter at all. Only the jist of it really did. There were plenty of reasons he'd be interested in Emily, but no reasons Emily would be interested in him. Seiken was naive in many ways, but also extremely dangerous.

The perfect person to manipulate.

Havoc was completely and utterly unphased by her comment. He didn't show any sign of being bothered, to the point where it was unclear if he'd even heard her jab.

"I have no romantic or sexual interest in Seiken," he said simply. "Are you not going to even make an attempt to defend yourself?"

Really, Havoc was having a hard time understanding what Seiken saw in her. He'd seen it before, but the more he saw of her, the less he understood.

Havoc's head tilted ever so slightly to the side as she declared that she didn't care for Seiken. How blunt. He had expected her to act as if she did, so receiving that amount of honesty had certainly saved him a large amount of work. He didn't have to try and interrogate her to get an answer - she had simply offered it to him on a gilded platter.

"No," Havoc said simply. She had already given him what he needed, and there was no need to drag the conversation out further. "You do a poor job maintaining the facade that you're a pleasant cheerleading stereotype, however."

With that one jab--which he hadn't even meant as a jab, simply an observation--Havoc turned and started back towards the school.