"Hey, I wasn't bullying him, I was just emphasizing a point to him." The stranger put up his hands. It didn't make him look harmless at all. "It was nothing he can't take." Especially once a smirk crept across his features. "Though considering what happened today, maybe it was a bit more than he can handle."<br/><br/>Francis exhaled slowly through his nose, pointedly not looking at Rory. "Well, the truth is... I'm here because I need to talk to you, Aileen."<br/><br/>"Really, that's your openin' line?" Rory drawled, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I'm here? Because he fucked up."<br/><br/>Francis looked like he was about to say something in answer to that, but he bit his tongue, instead. That sense of his mortification wasn't going away.<br/><br/>"... Hmmph. Whatever." Rory breezed away from Francis, straight towards Aileen. "Happy Visitation." The way he said it... it reminded her of the way a nasty queen bee might wish a rival a happy birthday with the sweetest smile on her face before going back to spreading wicked rumors about the birthday girl throughout the school. It reminded her of that... except she still felt the corners of her lips tugging up into a smile, felt a thank you about to spill out unbidden. Was this how social outcasts felt when the popular kids were nice to them?<br/><br/>"Try not to make any trouble for me. Or make us look bad. Or get in my way... Little sister." And with that he breezed right past her, acting for all the world like she'd just let him walk off after a comment like that.