xp_logs | Jay and Forge

Monday afternoon, Jay takes some time away from the school to find quiet in a familiar burger joint. Of course, he should have expected to run into the person who originally brought him there...

In the great temptation to ignore and avoid, Jay left the mansion bright and early with the intent to fill his stomach. He thought about taking his guitar with him and practicing there, but didn't want attention to be drawn toward him. So he brought nothing. Instead, he went to the music store first, buying a cd he wouldn't normally buy of a hit he didn't really care for. But the lyrics were good, and the interest was there to see how they wrote, possibly get some inspiration of his own.

He ended up at the Burger Shack, to find that Steve, the cashier, was still there. "Hey Steve," he greeted. Four eyes blinked back surprise and the two mouths broke into a grin. "Jay!" the other beamed and if Jay wasn't so use to the guy, he would have returned with a very weak smile. Instead, he broke out into a grin, despite the inward, broke battle with himself.

"How you doing? Behaving? What can I get you?" He eyed the feathers that fell from Jay's wings when he set his hands down on the counter, and shrugged nonchalantly. "Doin' al'ight. Not too much goin' on. Just got back in town. Ya remember tha usual?" he asked.

"Sure sure, yeah," Steve punched in the request and Jay paid, waiting for his food. Another minute or two of conversation and he headed over to a discreet booth, pushing his meal aside. Suddenly, he wasn't so hungry, instead, intent on unwrapping the cd. Lyrics were pulled out immediately in front of him, set down on the table, and Jay began to mouth the words of songs he knew. His voice was faint, harmonized and relaxed as not to draw too much attention to himself.

"So there I am, one day getting the news that Marie-Ange has been shot, and this morning getting the update that she's gone dancing in New Orleans. Is it too much to ask for some consistency here?" Across the table, another tray was set down and Forge glanced over at Jay, comfortably speaking as if his friend had only been gone for a weekend instead of several months - or years as far as Forge was concerned.

He glanced over at the CD, then shook his head and took a bite of his fries, washing it down with a long drink of his soda. "And another thing, I was supposed to get a pre-release copy of your album, never mind the fact that it's probably going to be whiny 'Ah lost mah dog, mah truck, mah boyfriend' Nashville alt-country-folk-fusion whatever. I think you've been holding out on me, pal." Forge hiccupped quietly into his napkin, then smiled over at Jay. "So how've you been?"

He barely caught Forge's first words before a dumbstruck expression crossed his face, and sat up. He opened his mouth to say something, and snapped it closed as Forge did what he did best, forging on despite the loss of words. Jay regarded him with warm hazel eyes, taking in the full picture while he guzzled his drink in that sexy, disregarding manner that Jay admitted silently was what attracted him to Forge in the first place.

He collected the lyrics together and shoved them back into the cd, setting it aside, and pulling his food back in front of him. "Tha boyfriend bit works, still have tha truck though. Don't hold yer breath, cause Ah reckon it won't be comin' as soon as yer thinkin' it will." He shrugged passively. "You an' the rest o' the world - not much, just in town fer awhile." A long, painful while.

"Wha's this 'bout Marie-Ange gettin' shot?" he asked, obviously more interested in straying the subject away from him, and how he was doing.

"Oh," Forge waved a hand dismissively. "Totally random thing. I'm not sure what all happened, but Friday we get the news she's been shot. Wasn't anything targeted at the school, although you know what they say about the two kinds of paranoia - total and insufficient. Anyway, so they took her to St. Vincent's, and then something happened - that hurricane down in New Orleans? Yeah, suddenly it just vanishes and Ororo's conveniently out of the office, so I could put two and two together there. And Garrison - that's Inspector Kane of the RCMP, mind you. Canadian cop who's working with the FBI down here. Anyway, so he lets us know she's fine and Pete - you remember Pete, right? British, only owns one suit, was supposedly evil a while back but not really? Anyway, Pete told Garrison that all was well in New Orleans and Angie was down there dancing with everyone. So I'm guessing it had something to do with the kind of work they do over there at Snow Valley that doesn't go on the books, you know what I'm saying? And since she's up and about, I'm wagering Amanda pulled one of those healing things that she's not supposed to be able to do anymore, but who's keeping score these days. So yeah, that's it in a nutshell."

After the rapid-fire summary, Forge calmly took a bite of his burger and nodded to Jay. "So how long's 'a while' going to be?"

Jay munched on a fry while he listened, trying to process the names that were being thrown at him. He sucked at names and sucked even more at remembering anything, except that bit about Amanda and snow valley.

"Yeah, they're pretty tight lipped there," he agreed, and took a sip of his pop that tasted more like sugar water then Pepsi.

The heavy glass door at the front swooshed open and some odd looking mutant kids walked in, pulling Jay's attention away from Forge momentarily. "Sometime between now an' twenty-five," he answered without committing to specifics. His eyes averted back to his friend and he was relatively quiet. "Sorry, been a bit tired since Ah got back. Ah gotta talk to ol' Ro' 'bout schedules, but if she's movin' hurricanes, Ah thank Ah'll just wait a bit. Wha ya been up to?" He was impressed if that was Ororo's world, having heard some report on the disappearance of the storm. He just figured it was a natural cause because he didn't really have any clue about the sudden changes in weather. Only if it hindered driving. Jay squinted at Forge's hair, leaning over and tried to pluck one out. "Is that gray?" he asked.

"Oh dear God I hope not," Forge exclaimed quickly, pulling an errant lock of hair down in front of his eyes dramatically. "Aside from the whole bit with being on Attilan when it vanished, but before that getting chomped on by dinosaurs, and in the meantime nearly getting the tar stomped out of me in a bar fight courtesy of the local Friends of Humanity? Just the usual. College, work, training."

The casual mention of FOH caught his attention, where as the dinosaurs really should have done it. But for all he knew, Forge could be puling his leg. That was, if not for the lengthy emails that detailed every little bit of action that went on in the mansion, enough to make Jay's eyes glaze over and day dream he was elsewhere. Picking up another fry, he stabbed it into the ketchup cup, avoiding eye contact. "How's ol' Tommy boy these days? Not dead Ah hope. It wasn't his ol' friends was it, that tried to beat some o' that shit they call 'common sense' into ya?"

"His old running buddy Duncan, in fact," Forge said with a wry smile. "Either Marius or Kurt managed to nail him in the melee, though. Guy was sporting the start of a pretty good shiner before they ran for the hills. Tommy's... he's Tommy, you know? Still doesn't talk to anyone, don't think he's done much of anything since you left. You know how it is."

Forge hadn't missed the fact that Jay was acting even more brooding and introverted than before. While his friend had never been gregarious by any stretch of the imagination, this was a Byronic twist even beyond Jay's usual love of melodrama. "Things haven't changed too much. Well, except me, Kyle, Jennie, and Marius all training for the team. I'm thinking we need a motto. Something like For the good of mutantkind, we risk our lives in the most incredulous ways..."

"Yeah," he snorted. "Yeah Ah know how he is." He got a good taste of it long ago and the bitterness still lingered. His burger he left untouched and continued to pick at the fries, though most of the meal was cold by now. For some reason, his thoughts of Tommy merged into thoughts of Kyle. But he broke away from it before it could sink his mood further and a smile broke through. "Maybe Ah should join tha team too huh?" he joked. "That's a pretty lame motto. Just call yerselves FOM, an' ya'll be all set to nail Duncan back."

"Friends of Humanity, Friends of Mutants, Friends of Dorothy - doesn't really have the kind of effect I'm thinking we need, you know?" Forge quipped, glad to see something making Jay smile. "Although perhaps the team could really use you. I can imagine the Brotherhood being distracted at a key moment when you and Terry start arguing about who's the prettiest."

"Yeah, Ah'd be tha most useless member of that team," he mused, pushing away his meal all together. Ok, food just wasn't on his mind anymore, as much as he wanted to eat, he didn't want to eat a burger. And besides, it was much more pleasant to watch Forge stuff himself. "Terry's delusional. Maybe Ah'll save tha day when all 'em boys realize Ah'm their one way ticket to salvation."

"And they said I had an ego..." Forge mumbled amusedly as he ate. "So what're your plans now? College? Working the music scene here?"

"You do have an ego," Jay retorted, reaching over for Forge's drink, and stole it away for his own. Other people's food always looked better, no matter what. "As far as planning goes, college an' music both. Stayin' in the mansion, got me a spanking new suite. Who ya roomin' with? A girlfriend?" He pried, thinking Forge wouldn't be alone, probably bunking up with someone by now.

"Girlfriend. Ha ha. You are a funny man, Joshua T. Guthrie," Forge replied, frowning at the theft of his soda. "No, I'm sharing a suite with Angelo. Pretty cool - he doesn't complain about the hours I keep, and I pretend not to notice when he and Amanda are having Special Freaky Time."

"Who's tryin' ta be funny?" he asked innocently. "Or have ya changed yer mind and got yerself a boyfriend?" This time, it was his turn to wink at his friend, and pluck a fry from Forge's plate. He felt a little bit better around Forge, and though he was still moody, he was settled against trying to keep his friends at bay. At least he had friends now. "Guh, too much infermation. Ya'll can keep that part to yerself. Ah bet Paige don't like that at all. Hope she don't see it either." There was a warning in his tone and he shifted uncomfortably, recalling how Paige had told him about Amanda, how they didn't get along.

That caused a smile to cross Forge's face. "I suppose it's complicated. I mean, Paige is my friend, Amanda's my friend, Paige used to date Angelo, Amanda's dating Angelo, Paige doesn't like Amanda, Amanda doesn't like Paige... you see, there's this famous mathematical conjecture, the three-body problem?" He held up two fries, moving each in circles around the other. "Take any two celestial bodies. Stars, planets, moons, whatever. Get them close enough, and they'll orbit a common center of mass. Very simple, easy enough a three-year-old with a basic knowledge of calculus can figure their path out. But..." He leaned his head down to grab a third fry with his mouth, waving it around the other two.

"Add a fird pwanet," he mumbled through his mouthful, "an' you get chaosh." With a toss of his head, Forge swallowed the French fry and grinned. "Unpredictability and chaos, even to the smartest minds on the planet, which I happen to be one of. Of course, if the two celestial bodies happen to be really freakin' hot, well, chaos rules."

Jay's expression took on a helplessly lost I-kinda-don't-understand-but-i'll-smile-anyways look, as Forge explained his mathematical theory. Or what Jay thought was a theory. Guess he was no smarter then a three year old.

"So yer saying a threesome is bad?" Ugh, with his sister? Yes that was very bad. Gross even. "But what if..." he started, trying to take Forge's theory and put it in basic terms that he understood. "What if yer planet X being orbited by two moons? Them moon arn't gonna collide, an'.." he paused, trying to put his thoughts into words. "Ah have a point ta this, so just wait."

"So, how can it be chaos when some planets are orbited by two to five moons, and that planet X orbits the sun? Wha' then O'mighty good lord? There's still harmony, but no chaos an'... Ah ya know what, Fer get it. Ah suck at this stuff."

"I think we all do, man," Forge commiserated. "Some things you just can't figure out, but they happen anyway." He looked up and smiled randomly. "It's good to have you back."

Full up on fries and a drink that wasn't his, Jay nodded and smoothed a hand over the table, his eyes dropping down to concentrate on that little gesture. "Thanks," he said, and meant it. "Sorry Ah havn't, ya know, been in touch real well. Things just got tough."

Forge snorted dismissively. "Psh. You're here now. What else matters?" He reached out to touch Jay on the hand reassuringly. "Dude, remember who you're talking to. I had you leaving, and Catseye leaving, and then Jennie and Marius going off to Europe, and everything was changing so much at once. I was King of the Emo Dorks for too long, until I got it smacked into me that I had to look at what I've got right now, here in the moment. And right now in this moment, my friend's back. So I count that as a win, yeah?"

The touch to his hand drew his eyes away from the table and he closed it into a fist, not willing it away for even a second. The contact was brief, but it reset that ache in his chest he got the other night when he returned. His face fell as he felt it swell inside, and burn, though he didn't want Forge to see it. Instead, he just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. As pathetic as that felt, he knew Forge wouldn't allow it, would be knocking on his door until he was blue in the face. "Yeah," he looked up, smiling weakly. "But yer a lot different from me. It wouldn' make a very good song, would it?"

"Now see, if you started writing good songs, I'd have to club you over the head and see if you turned blue and scaly," Forge teased. "Come on, I think I'm out of food for you to mooch. What say we give those wings of yours a rest and take a drive? You haven't seen the new modifications I made to the RX-8, have you? I get this thing driving any faster, I'll have to apply for a pilot's license."

"Shut up," he countered, pushing himself out of the booth, and grabbing for his cd. "Yer singin' ma song," he mused, eager to see what new shiney things Forge had put into his car. "If it ain't shiney, you better take it back," he teased, grabbing the rest of their garbage, tossing it out and throwing a wave goodbye to Steve. "Ah thought ya had yer license ta fly?" If he didn't, that was a scary thought. All this time, Jay would have trusted Forge behind anything mechanical. Now he wasn't so sure. "Ya owe me a drive anyways, fer all that bullshit ya been feeding me 'bout chaos."

"Blah blah paperwork," Forge muttered as he held the door open and pointed to the black sports car in the parking lot. If the car's appearance didn't obviously scream that it was custom-modified by its owner, the fact that the gold racing stripes formed a stylized DNA helix over the hood was as distinctive as anything could be. "I'm sure I've just got to sign something. It's probably on my desk... somewhere."

Jay gawked at the piece of mechanics that sat in the Burger Shack's parking lot. Immediately, he went to the car, running a hand over the smooth hood, marveling like a little boy would to a tiger marble. "Ya know," he started. "Yer very scary when you actually come out with somethin' lookin' like this." The car looked immaculate and Jay leaned against it, drawing the palm of his hand flat and arching in front of him over the helix. Now this, this made Forge even more sexier then before. "Ah wanna see inside, dang it. Ya can't dangle meat in front o' a dog an' not expect it ta bite. Jesus.."

With a snap of his fingers, Forge unlocked the doors and slid in behind the wheel. "Buckle up," he said as he turned the key in the ignition and let the engine race, "If we take the long way back, there's a few straightaways that'll really let this baby shine."

Jay hopped into the car, adjusting his wings so he'd fit properly. Naturally, more feathers broke from his wings on the exterior but he didn't think Forge would mind. He was clean, and strapped himself in, ready to go. His hands were eating up the modifications just as much as his eyes were. "Wha' does Scott thank?"

"About the car? He's got his new one to dote over. One of the 2007 Solstices, not bad for a production car." Forge tried to keep the bored disdain out of his voice when discussing Scott's new vehicle.

"Ah meant wha's 'e thank 'bout this one now that ya fixed it up, made it better? Jealous?" Yeah, like Scott ever got jealous. Jay couldn't picture the older man like that.

"Isn't everyone?" Forge said with a smile as he slid his sunglasses on and steered out to the open road. "Now hold on, this is where it gets fun..." he said as his foot hit the gas.