xp_logs | Kevin & Jono | Thursday Morning

Kevin helps Jono move his things into Paige's suite.

It had been raining throughout the week but thankfully this morning's weather though somewhat cloudy was perfect for lugging some of his belongings from the borrowed van to Paige's suite. Jono had already paid the monthly rent for his flat in Salem Center so he had a lot of time to move his things out. He slung his acoustic guitar over his shoulder and carried the amp in through the front doors of the mansion. There were a few boxes haphazardly stacked by the staircase in the main hall. Jono placed the amp down and carefully laid his guitar on the floor.

Waking early was more or less inescapable for Kevin these days. Even if he hadn't woken for work anxiety alone ate at his consciousness until he woke up, usually thanks to nightmares. If a night had gone by in the past two weeks in which he hadn't seen his father's decaying face he couldn't recall it. He'd gone out wandering to clear his mind, the cool morning air having become something of a remedy for him when he woke nearly in a panic attack. Kevin entered the mansion through the front door, intending to grab an apple before heading over to the boathouse but the stack of boxes caught his attention. Why was someone stacking boxes near the stairs? And then he got his answer. It never failed, Kevin's heart seems to split, half of it dropping into his stomach like lead and the other half jumping into his throat. Jono. The living reminder of why Kevin wasn't fit for being around people, even mutants. He just sort of stared at first. After a small internal battle he managed to find his voice. "Hey," his usual soft voice came out close to a whispered croak. "These yours?" Well, that was louder even if it wasn't up to his usual volume. If Jono heard him at all Kevin would be fairly astonished.

Jono sensed Kevin's presence even before he heard his voice. He dropped his pink stuffed horsie, James, in one of the boxes and nodded once. This was everything he'd brought with him on this trip. He was going to head back to his flat later on in the afternoon. He had a feeling it was going to rain soon and didn't want any of his things to get wet. Jono knelt on the ground and lifted one of the boxes up. Time to head upstairs. He turned and realized that Kevin was still standing there. It had been a while since they last spoke. For the most part, Jono always tried to avoid bumping into Kevin. It wasn't that he was still pissed at him for that accident that happened a while ago, he was just... somewhat wary.

"I could use a hand." Jono nodded to the the boxes. "Just don't touch me electric guitar, mate. I'd like to bring Ziggy up meself."

From Jono's reaction Kevin was pretty he actually hadn't been heard. Maybe it was better that way. Silence was odd but it wasn't quite as bad as the strained tone his voice had taken on. Then again, he reminded himself that Jono was a telepath and there wasn't really a way to hide the anxiety that came off him in waves from a telepath, even a low level one. He nodded at first, not quite trusting his voice. Despite the recent development of his powers being wiped away clean he still wore gloves and layers, a habit he thought it probably better not to break. "Yeah, sure." He managed his volume back to normal, which was still soft by normal standards but it was at least audible. Well, most people managed to hear him anyway. Kevin picked up a box and nodded for Jono to lead the way, sure to keep more than enough distance between them.

It was slightly unnerving having Kevin walk behind him. He realized that if he were to trip and fall, there was a chance they might both end up on Muir Island again. How easy that had been the last time. One accidental touch and poof, his entire body had disintegrated and he'd spent a year existing as a glowing ball of energy.

Jono made sure not to trip over his own two feet. He took the stairs one at a time and walked fairly slowly, carefully. He knew that Kevin was just as anxious as he was. This whole uncomfortable silence thing wasn't helping matters in the least.

"This way," Jono projected as he walked down the hall toward the suite.

Kevin trailed Jono by at least ten paces. He knew that an accident couldn't happen, it was impossible at the moment, but he couldn't shake the worry over it happening. Just what he needed, someone else to appear in his nightmares, remind him that he was a monster even among mutants. Sometimes he really wondered how Jay could have argued when Kevin referred to himself as a freak. Projecting, likely, he told himself, a bitterness present in his mind when he thought of his ex.

"Did you just start moving back?" Well, he had to say something, didn't he? The silence stretched out and hung over them like a thick blanket of fog, disabling them from managing anything else other than to continue to wade through it slowly. God, this day was already amazingly awkward, could it possibly get worse? He shouldn't think things like that, it was practically asking for trouble.

"Yea, bit by bit." Jono placed the box on the floor and opened the door to the suite before he took hold of the box again and headed toward one of the rooms. He was planning on turning this one into his music room. They'd already got the extra bed out a long time ago as he slept with Paige in hers and on nights when he couldn't get a handle on his powers, Jono tended to sleep on the couch. "Just leave it 'ere." He placed the box on the desk. "Ye play?" He nodded toward one of his guitars.

Great, now Ah've got two people to avoid in the mansion. Was it just him or was the size of the mansion shrinking day by day? Soon it'd be downright claustrophobic and he'd be begging to go to Muir just to have open space. Now there was a terrifying thought. Kevin was careful to avoid Jono when he placed his box down on the desk. He was always careful but where he normally simply appeared to have caution he now appeared to be handling something so delicate the wind could break it. It took him a few moment to pull himself out of his concentration of where his hands and arms and body were in relation to Jono so he could even register the question. "Huh?" His eyes moved toward the guitars and comprehension dawned. "Oh, no. Ah'm not musical at all. Can't even sing on key. More'n art kinda person, y'know?"

Jono had moved back a step and was standing in the middle of the room. His things had yet to be set up proper; it was all over the gaff. He nodded and pushed a few of the boxes off to the side to make some space. "Right. Well, if ye got any brilliant arty ideas for how I could set me room up, let me know." He stepped forward and moved past Kevin to head back downstairs.

Brilliant arty ideas? He almost wasn't sure if he should be offended by that or not. It probably wasn't intended to be offensive so he tried not to take it as such. "Not that kinda art. Sorry. More sculpture, drawing, painting. Ah'm not so much with the...decoratin'." The last word came out like he wasn't sure if it was a dirty word or not. He'd made a face to go with it which probably made it a good thing he was keeping so far behind Jono, at least the expression wouldn't be witnessed.

"What d'ye paint?" He tugged on the wrappings around his face, the psionic energy escaping out of its containment unit in the form of a bright orange light, and Jono brushed his fingers against the small cracks above his non existent mouth, right below his nose. His brows furrowed into a deep frown and he tightened the bandages before glancing over his shoulder at Kevin.

"Depends," Kevin's words paused, freezing in his throat. He could see the orange light even from where he was behind Jono. It was a bit hard to not recognize the color from their bonding time on the plane to Muir. It was burned into Kevin's brain indelibly. "Sometimes abstracts, lots of perspective stuff. Sometimes people when Ah'm bored o' the rest. Not really my preferred medium." At least it hadn't been since one of his canvasses had crumbled under his hands once, much like a sketchbook of his. Everything was so fragile when confronted with him.

While on Muir Island, Jono had done a lot of cursing and for weeks afterwards he refused to see Kevin or accept his apology even. He owed a lot to Paige for choosing to stay by his side during that painful period even though he'd mostly been bitter and depressed. Having to rebuild himself from scratch had been a difficult and torturous experience for him.

"Is that what ye plan to do for a livin' then? Paint and sculpture?" He picked his guitar up, handed the amp to Kevin and took hold of a box containing his old records, not wanting to risk anything happening to it.

"A career? No. Ah wish." Kevin was so careful when he took the amp from Jono, hands going as far from the other's as they could while getting a decent grip on it so it didn't just fall from between his hands. Since all he had was the amp he decided to lead back up the stairs, put distance between them.

"Ah sell stuff when Ah've got too much o' it. Practically live in the metal shop an' then Ah got nothin' to do with all the sculptures. S'hard, tryin' to do art as yer whole life. Nah. Ah work at Elpis full-time." He glanced down at the amp in his arms and thought about the guitars Jono had. "You ever think 'bout it? Music, Ah mean? Professional and all."

"Aside from teachin'? No." Jono had considered touring as a support guitarist once but decided he didn't want to be known as the freak on stage, and that was what the bands would have sold him as. "As far as me stage performance goes, there's 'People Covered In Fish' but we haven't done a thing in years. Not since..." ...you blew me up.

Kevin didn't ask what the not since was. In his head it was not since Jono had the unfortunate experience of accidentally colliding with Kevin while playing soccer. Maybe that was just Fred the gloom cloud speaking, but he couldn't help the thought. Out of nowhere he asked, "Did it hurt? On Muir they said it doesn't actually hurt, physically Ah mean. There's screamin' though. Wasn't sure if it was just panic or not." He didn't know why he asked or why he was bringing this up aloud but sometimes his mouth started speaking before his brain had given the okay.

That was a shocker. Jono hadn't expected that Kevin would have the nerve to bring that up. Once they'd stepped inside his room again, Jono dropped the box to the floor, forgetting for a moment that it contained some of his most precious record collections. Screaming. What a bloody joke that was. He couldn't even scream for real. At the time, he'd let his psi-voice out and had screamed in bloody agony, mostly in a dead panic because he needed to assure himself that he still existed. "No. It didn't hurt." He fixed his eyes on Kevin. "Suppose ye can rest easy now."

Kevin had gently placed the amp down in the room, somewhere that looked out of the way but easy to spot since he wasn't being directed this time around. "Yeah, funny," he mumbled to himself, though it was likely just loud enough to be heard. Rest easy? He didn't actually think that was possible for Kevin, did he? Every time he saw Jono he was forced to look into the eyes of someone who should be dead because of him. Freak coincidence had meant Jono got to live. If it was anyone else they'd be a living mummy at the very least, like a bad movie with the Rock or something.

Funny? Jono arched an eyebrow then glanced away with a shrug. "It was an accident."

The smile Kevin gave him was mirthless and sardonic. "Lots o' things in the world're accidents. Just a detail. Details don't really matter." If that exact same accident happened today Kevin would find himself locked away in a prison because of it. Because of an accident.

Jono stared at Kevin for what seemed like the longest time, and then without saying a word to him, he simply walked out of the room. He had nothing to contribute to that, nothing to say, and he was not up to talking about something he had problems dealing with. If it hadn't been for Kevin, Jono wouldn't be struggling to maintain this outward appearance of his. Still, he wasn't about to feed Kevin's guilt by going all mental on him.

"I can handle takin' the rest up meself," he said, not bothering to look back.

Kevin didn't need anyone to feed his guilt. It'd gorge itself and explode if anyone else contributed anything beyond what Kevin himself was feeding it. Jono had gone silent and that was fine with Kevin. He'd helped out of politeness but to be honest being anywhere near Jono made him a bit dizzy sort of, a domino effect of unpleasant memories. When Jono said he could take the rest up himself Kevin just nodded, despite the fact that the guy wasn't looking at him, and left. He just turned the opposite way down the hall and left without a word. There wasn't anything to say, though new avoidance routes were necessary.