xp_logs | Tuesday - Terry and Jay Mid afternoon (Reply)

Terry gives a lecture for not returning calls. Jay defends, fails and moves onto more interesting topics.

Terry heard a lot. Everything, eventually, no matter how she blocked it out with her iPod blaring at top volume. So it didn't take long at all for news of the mansion's prodigal son returning to make its way to her sensitive ears. Following tell-tale sounds of an elusive winged creature, she eventually managed to track down the very person she was looking to see at the base of the first floor steps. Letting out a shrill squeal, the smaller redhead dashed down the last few steps and flung herself at Jay. "You're here!" she exclaimed, hugging him hard, making him support most of her 125 pounds. After a moment, she jerked back and aimed a not quite entirely mock-punch at his shoulder, "You never called! Not once!"

Stress, that's what Jay blamed it on. The fall of each and every fluffy feather caused the elegant, prestige wings to take on a scruffy look, molting feathers every ten feet as he walked. What was he suppose to do? Clean them all up? A trail of evidence followed him in the hallway, down the stairs until he almost toppled with the collision of a certain redhead. "Good god almighty!" he barked, barely able to support and stumbled back, causing more feathers to fall. He hugged her back haphazardly and set Terry down before he dropped her. Running a hand through his hair, he racked through his brain why he never called her back. A few reasons came to mind, but nothing that was appropriate. "Cause uh.. ma phone hated me, just as much as ma phone bills." There. Not a lie, but bending the truth some. "I meant to send flowers," he confessed. "But, ya know, it ain't all, uh..easy... you know, when uh..." he fumbled over excuses and then came up with the best one he could think of. "- when Ah don't have yer address." Mission accomplished.

She lifted her fist again, face flushed with color. "Not even a bloody card, Jay! Sure you could have sent a card or a letter in a year!" If you didn't know Terry, you'd think she was enraged. If you did know her, you'd be certain of it, in equal parts to her delight at seeing Jay again. Her fist dropped as her blue eyes narrowed, "You look like hell."

"Thanks for the compliment," he frowned, his discomfort obvious at being noticed at all. "Ah would have sent ya a card, but," but what? The address bit failed, and it wasn't likely she was going to believe anything else. Jay recoiled inwardly at her sudden temper, and wondered how Bobby could manage her at all. Men were so much easier to deal with. "Look, Ah ain't havin' the best o' times, al'ight? It's been a rotten year. So stop givin' me grief, cause Ah don't deserve it." Well, maybe he did a little, but he wasn't going to admit that.

Terry sighed, "Of course it's been a rotten year. It's always a rotten year. But you missed my wedding. I have every right to be mad." With her lips pursed and jaw tensed, she looked 14 instead of 19, a pouting child. "What have you been doing with yourself, then? You just vanished off the map. I...I know we had our falling outs but, Mother Mary, Jay. Where have you been?"

"Ah didn't miss it on purpose. Never got tha invitation, thank you very much." His hands went to his hips for a moment, eyeing her before her pout completely disarmed him. Falling outs was an understatement, and he was gonna point it out, if not for the fact that he felt guilty for missing her wedding. "Been 'round," he said evasively, adjusting a wing that just happened to drop more feathers. "Dang it, Ah'm shedding worse then Kyle! C'mon, Ah ain't standing 'ere and reminiscing without somethin' ta eat." He started down the hallway, heading for a much deserved snack.

Terry shadowed him, looking no more pleased (or less pleased) than she had been a second ago. "And how was I to send you an invitation then? I couldn't even get you to call me back. I had nowhere to send it." In the kitchen, Terry hopped up onto a stool and grabbed an orange out of the fruit basket. Citrus sprayed out beneath her nails as she pulled the peel away. "I tried, Jay. That's more than you did."

Chewing on the inside of his lip, a recent habit picked up when he was stressed, Jay went to the freezer and plucked out a tub of ice cream He pulled out two spoons and casually reached over to take the orange from Terry's hand and replace it with the utensil. He was equally unhappy to be lectured. "Ya could've sent it ta mamma. She would'da kept it til' Ah called, or somethin'." He didn't call Terry, nor did he return anyone else's call. "An' wha happened ta emailin'. Ya coulda just sent it there. Ah'd get it." Eventually.

"So you're telling me that I just didn't try hard enough? This is my fault?" Terry wrinkled her nose at the orange stealing and subsequent ice cream offer. "I was eating that," she protested, frowning at the clearly not made by her husband, store-bought ice cream. It was enough to make her briefly homesick.

"Well, ya can eat it later, but Ah thank you need ta relax, stuff yer face so Ah' don't have ta listen to ya bitch me out. So 'ere. Eat this an' be a good merry red head." He slid the ice-cream across the counter in front of her, took up a scoop and waved it in her face. "Ya know ya wanna..." Even if Bobby didn't make it, it was still icecream. She couldn't deny the temptations, and the playful smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

She tried to hold onto the frown but cracked quickly, biting on her lips to smother the laugh. "You're a bad one, Jay Guthrie. You deserve all the lectures that I give you." But she took the spoon and licked the slowly melting ice cream off.

The smile he had been trying to hold back broke through and the bags under his eyes creased, every inch across his face making him look older then he should have. "Ya'll don't know tha half of it." He snatched her spoon from her hand and took a scoop for himself, leaning on one arm over the counter, carefully licking the ice cream. "So," he started. "Wha's he like in bed?" He just couldn't help himself here. Tired as he was, Terry was about the only thing he missed in this wretched place.

"Get your own spoon!" She snatched it back, stuck her tongue out at him. "And what makes you think I'm going to tell you anything about my boring married life." At the word 'married' she about burst from glee. The same sort of thing happened whenever she called herself Mrs. Drake.

Jay snorted, and made a face before fetching himself another spoon. "Ya don't need two of em, hog." He pulled another one out, a bigger one and pulled the ice cream closer to his chest, coveting it. "C'mon, who ya tryin' ta fool? Wha' could possibly be borin' 'bout being married to a six foot block o' manly ice? Yer hidin' somethin'. So tell me, wha' is it? Size? Con...tour.." He clucked his tongued as the spoon disappeared into his mouth.

"Entirely ice, in fact. You missed that fun time. My darling husband has learned a new trick. I can't even begin to tell you how heart attack inducing it is to have a living block of ice for a mate." She dove across the counter and dug out another bite of ice cream. "It took ages for him to learn to control it."

"Cold, Ah bet." He pulled the ice cream away from her before she could get her spoon in, and aimed to hit her knuckles with his own. "Bet it's also hard to rope 'em down," he grinned, and let his hand off the top of the container so she could get some. "Lucky fer you, Ah ain't a girl. Cause ya know," I'm prettier. He raised his eyebrows, letting the unspoken words hang between them.

"You take my orange and now you won't let me have ice cream? Tis cruel, Jay. So very cruel." She took more ice cream, quicker than ever. "Sure you're still as delusional as ever too. There's no way that your ugly face could ever take my Bobby from me." She grinned wickedly, "Which means you'll never find out exactly how good he is in bed."

"Ya know ya could just indulge ma fantasies. Ah live through you, Terry. So don't disappoint, or Ah'll be heart broken. Ah'll even do ya tha honour of writtin' a song 'bout ya." He tapped the sparkling licked spoon on his chin thoughtfully. "Ah'll call it... Redin' the bed. Uh, ew, scratch that. Sounded all wrong there." Wrong and gross.

"Wow, I know country songs are sad but that's sounds more serial killer than anything." She made a face at him, mock-horrified. "For that, you have to tell me what you've been doing the last year and a half. You know, other than not returning my calls, writing me letters, and coming to my wedding."

Jay made another face and took that moment to bail from his spot, turn his back on her and fetch something else from the fridge. Maybe a yogurt. "Oh ya know, nuttin'." Again, evasive, and the somber, quiet tone of voice seemed to want more then a distraction from this topic. "Time well wasted, Ah guess." Pulling out a tupperware container, Jay shook in before opening the contents and taking a whiff. "Woo, nasty," he cringed, replacing it, before moving on to something else. "Wha' was yer weddin' like?"

"That's was a terrible dodge, Jay and don't think I'm going to let you get away with it forever." Terry claimed the rest of the ice cream for herself, sucking on the spoon. She shifted, bringing her legs up, pretzeled. "It was a nice wedding. Paige was one of Bobby's groomsmen. We put her in a tux and she looked fantastic."

"Yeah well, yer gonna let me get away with it fer now." And it would come up later, he was sure of that. It was just a question of how many times he could effectively dodge it with Terry. "Paige has 'em big shoulders fer it, so Ah don't think she'd look bad in a tux. Cute even. Ya'll take pictures?" he asked, giving up on trying to fish out something satisfying and resolved to get himself a bowl of cereal instead. "Who was Bobby's best man? And yer uh, maid of honor? Hope she didn't outshine the bride. Lord knows if Ah was there...”

"If you were there, we'd have had to put a bag over your head so that you wouldn't scare the locals. They'd think you were changed by the Fair Folk for a terrible crime. Clarice was my maid of honour. I actually got Illyana into a dress as well, if you believe that." Another large scoop of ice cream consumed later (and the subsequent ice cream headache dealt with, too bad being married to a cryokinetic didn't get you the benefit of his immunity) and Terry went on. "Angelo was Bobby's best man."

"Ya think that one up yerself?" he teased. "Ah should write that down in ma book of comebacks. An' Ah'm jealous. Ah shoulda been yer maid o' honour." He smirked about Illyana, and mimicked her, mouthing Angelo's name. "Sounds like it went real smooth, like a real fairy tale. No ogres though huh? Wouldn't be no fun without some sorta villian in it - ya know, keeps ya on yer toes." Jay decided abruptly that he didn't want the cereal, putting the bowl away and fetching himself another scoop of ice cream. "Yer gettin' old now huh? Everythin's gonna sag an' you'll be pinning it all up - downfall of being a woman Ah guess. Men don't have that prob."

"You could have been but...oh wait, you didn't come because you didn't return my phone calls." She raised her eyebrows, letting him know that she would indeed be holding this over his head for the rest of their natural lives. "It was a perfect wedding. No fuss, no fights, no villains showing up at the last minute." She didn't even dignify the 'old' accusation with a comment.

Ignoring her comment, he knew he hit a spot, and inclined his head, grinning to himself while he stabbed at the ice cream in the bucket. She just couldn't let it go, and he wouldn't let it go that she was now an old hag because she had the married woman title. He'd parade that around her head like he was parading for gay pride while eating the colourful rainbow of super kid ice cream.