Nina was welcome to subject Wayne to all the flinging hugs her heart desired; he was like an immoveable mountain under the assault of her energetic embrace, but he did shift his eyes to sort of look over in her general, clinging direction.

"Nina," he said, "como es-tahs eh-ora?"

Yeah, it was going to be a thing.

"Hi, Nina," Katy chimed in from the screen of Wayne's phone. "I'm good, thanks. Will you please tell my big brother he's being ridiculous?"

Or don't. Because Katy secretly kind of loved it and thought it was adorable, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to give him a hard time. It was just what little sisters did.

And Wayne, for all of his awful pronunciation, wasn't too bad with languages, either, so he followed all of it just fine. Well enough, anyway, especially given the context of the situation, so he had no problem at all knowing just what to response.

"Porque es Thanksgiving, Nina!" he said, gruff as can be, as could be expected, and, somehow, even though it all sounded like he usual spoke, the Thanksgiving seemed to come off as extra English when he said it. "Y Thanksgiving es para fam-eeel-lia. Y
no hoo-des con la tradis-see-ón!"

"He insists on spending today together because it's Canadian Thanksgiving," Katy offered helpfully. "Even though..." She made a gesture toward the phone and Ecuador, so far away, "obviously..."

"Je swee mew aveck le franz-se," muttered Wayne, which was, ironically, also so much worse.

Of course, it was probably buried underneath Katy's laugh, anyway, as she shook her head. "And run the risk of missing his date--" Here, Wayne started, snapping his head toward the phone and opening his mouth to protest, but he realized it was too late to warn Katy not to mention the D-word around Nina now, "later? Not likeleh."

Nina. Nina! Wayne's ear was right there, Nina!

To Wayne's credit, though, the most he reacted was a wince, a squint, and a low, drawn out grumble before he said anything.

"An' now just when would I have said, Nina?" he asked, and if he sounded a bit cross, well, that had been his ear, Nina! "Huh? We only just made the plans yesterday, and here we've barely even gotten through our how are ya nows. Breakfast hasn't even had a chance to get cold yet! Figgur it ouwt!"

"Mebbe that's because I've been talkin' to Katy fer more than just five hot seconds, Nina, didya think of that?" Wayne pointed out. "Only now's it not gonna matter much, is it? Mebbe I'm gonna have to cancel, on account of the fact that I'm not sure I can hear out of one ear anymore. You know any good ear doctors in Quito, Nina? Huh? How 'bout you, Katy? Got any good recommendations on an Ecuadorian otolaryngologist who takes last minute appointments?"

"We get it," Katy just rolled her eyes; it couldn't have been that loud! "Go on. What's the matter, Drama Queen? Leave your crown back in your hotel room?"

Wayne was grumbling and Wayne was squinting, but it should be noting that Wayne was doing nothing to stop this from actually happening.

"That's perfect!" Katy beamed. "Wait, no, I can't see it very well, turn your head just a little--" And Wayne did, in case anyone needed more proof that he'd do pert'near anything for his little sister, "--there it is! Hard yes. And now you're ready for your date! You're dating a princess now, right? Time to step it up in the style department, Big Brother."

If one end up looking mighty close on that picture Nina'd just taken, one could almost make a claim that it looked like Wayne could have been blushing a bit, but it could very well have been just the lighting, too.

"It looks good, Big Brother," Katy offered. "I'm sure she'll love it."

To that...to this...all of this...Wayne could only really grumble and growl and regret that there was ever such a thing as these two ever crossing paths.