Kyle and Jan, Saturday mid-day

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Kyle has retreated to his tree to get away from everything that is making him cranky. Jan goes out to find him to apologize for electrocuting him. And as always, Jan proclaims Kyle's feet as cute. You'd think he'd learn that she just won't let him get away with being down on his mutation.




Kyle was tired of check-ups, tired of the stitches in his arms, tired of Drs Grey and Voght having him check in to make sure he was eating and drinking, and just tired. Of course, not having slept was probably largely responsible for that, but he was also very tired of being tired. And every little thing in his shared room with Julio was getting on his nerves. Julio's laundry monsters, both Clean and Dirty, the acrid scent of Shamu's litter box, Marius's empty hair gel bottle in the trash can, even stupid things that had no right to get his ire up were making him angry.

It was after he'd kicked the trashcan across the suite that he realized that maybe he needed to not be around his room for a while. So, with laptop and a bookbag of books and the some of the snacks Angel had left for him, and the pig pillow, he made his way outside, onto the grounds and up his tree. Making sure to leave a text message and a written note as to where he was. No need to get anyone freaking out that he hadn't checked in. And then he turned his phone to silent. It wasn't like he'd be hard to find.

"Kyle. Hey," said tiny Jan as she hovered nearby. "I thought I'd find you here. I mean, sure, the note helped, but I kind of figured this is where you'd be now anyway."

As usual, Kyle caught Jan's voice before he figured out where she was. His eyesight was better then most people's but his hearing was better then his vision. "The note wasn't a 'come and find me' note. It was a 'so no one freaks out note.' he explained, even before figuring out where she was. He wanted to be angry about being bothered, but it was Jan, and he didn't want her to think he was angry about the being electrocuted, and so Kyle did his best to keep the growl out of his voice.

"It wasn't? I figured you wouldn't tell people where you were if you didn't want anyone to find you," Jan said, shrugging lightly. "Not that I needed the note, like I said." Jan moved in front of Kyle's face, not too close, but directly in his line of sight. "I didn't want to hurt you, you know. Just, you said to, and I figured one big zap from me was a ton better than having that maniac keep hurting you. She wanted to hurt you. I didn't."

"I didn't want anyone freaking out when I was gone." Kyle said. "So, a note. When a guy's on kidnapping number eight, you know, people get a little twitchy when he doesn't answer his phone." In hindsight, a note that said more then "In Tree. Back Later." would've probably been useful. "I know. It's cool. Of all the crap I could be mad about, that's not even on the list." Even the voice in his head, which he'd just have to deal with later. That had showed up long before Jan had zapped him. "She wanted to break my neck. I'm pretty sure I can't fix that. I'm not sure Logan could've fixed that." Not the he was going to write Logan an email and ask. Maybe Garrison would know though.

"Yeah, a snapped neck sounded pretty final to me," Jan said, wings buzzing. "Better not to chance that, yeah?"

"I like my neck in one piece." Kyle agreed. "Or.. uh, a couple of connected pieces. Do neck bones count as one piece?" For a moment, the jokes were easy, and then he remembered that it was his neck that would've been in pieces. "You know, so better restarting my heart than like, paralyzed or something."

Jan nodded. "Yeah. You're Kyle. You have cute toes, and they shouldn't be paralyzed."

Kyle fell back onto the branch he was lying on, and covered his face with his arm. "You're never gonna drop that, are you?" He asked. "Six foot five, can chew through bone, eight time kidnapping -champion-, grew back not just my toes, but fingers and an ear, and you fixate on my toes being -cute-."

"Well, your ears are cute, too," Jan told Kyle. "Glad you grew it back. The ugly guy was all 'You tell me what I want to know or I'm going to cut off someone's ear' and, don't take this the wrong way, ok? If he was really going to do that, I hoped it was yours because, you know, you'd already had an ear missing and grew it back and I figured it wouldn't be so bad for you, not like it would be for Terry or Forge."

He hadn't quite expected -that-. But this was Jan, and she had actually shot the hostage. "Yeah, a week of extra strength Tylonel and a hat is better then a life of looking like Mick Foley." He paused, realized that it was likely that he was the only one in this conversation who had any idea who Mick Foley was and held up a finger. "Wrestler. Missing an ear." He explained. "Nah, it's cool. That's kind of what I do, grow stuff back, suck it up and eat a broken jaw to deal with Toad, that kind of thing."

Jan gave a small shrug. "Doesn't mean you like it or it should happen. I had bug spray sent my way, and I'm sure Mr. Creepy would have loved to tear my wings off. I'm not really an insect."

Kyle barked an almost angry sounding laugh. "Yeah, so not into pain. Unlike whatshisface, with the whips. Who's a total freak, and thought everyone else was too." He grunted, and sat up, straddling his branch, to have his hands free. "Assclown really thought I'd kill him. Like I was going to actually listen to all that stuff about being an animal and buy into it. Idiot."

Jan shook her head and landed on a branch near Kyle. "You're no more an animal than I am. And you have cute toes," she added as an afterthought, mainly just to see if she could embarrass him again.

"Yeah, but you don't have to explain to every third mall guard that shoes are just not gonna happen and they can farking -deal-." Kyle said, grumpily. "And get dog jokes from people who should damn well -get- it." He hadn't expected himself to still be angry about that, but it came out like water from a faucet.

"Well, people are dumb," Jan said, then paused for a moment. She always tried to be cheery and avoid talking about things that bothered her, but she figured she could make an exception here. "I always hide my wings when I'm not here at the school, you know. Don't have much of a family, but those few I have? they don't have a clue. Only people here know, plus my dad."

"Sometimes I wish I could hide it." Kyle admitted, voice almost cracking. "I can't, and it bugs me. I mean, I'm supposed to be okay with it, because I can't change it, and even if I could, it'd probably just grow -back-. Sometimes I'm really tired of being stared at." And yet, so far, he'd dated the guy with the wings, and the purple girl. It wasn't like he was making an effort to be unobtrusive. "It's either be out and be loud about it, or stay on the grounds all the time, and that sucks the big one."

"Yeah, well, you shouldn't have to hide." And neither should she, she knew. "Besides, really; your toes and ears are very, very cute."