xp_logs | Jay & Dani

Jay proudly makes a poor dinner for Dani to compensate for the lack of romance in their lives and the pair of hermits talk about pretty much everything on their minds.

Laying flat on his stomach, his chin rested on his hand, level to the picture he held and smirked faintly, thumbing the glossy surface. Taylor Swift sang in the background, Love story set on repeat and his crossed legs bounced off the end of the bed to the beat while his lips silently followed the words. Abruptly, he slid off the bed and walking over to his dresser, he opened a drawer and set the picture down. He stared down at the picture a moment too long and shut it quickly, quietly as though he hadn't caught himself in an act of reminiscing. He needed some company and rolled through his list of friends on his cell phone that he was feeling oddly out of place and detached from and he put in a text and hit send before tossing it aside on the bed, leaving the suite.

Twenty five minutes later, Jay returned, spreading out two plates of a very bland meal of greens and a pair of overcooked steaks on the small table that sat two. He checked the time and went to the fridge, selecting some drinks for a light mix while he waited.

Coming out of her room, Dani was surprised to see dinner waiting, not that she was going to complain, "I knew you'd make me a good wife," she joked, towelling her long hair off, "Everyone said I was crazy, but I knew," she paused as if something just occurred to her, "Oh wait. I am crazy. Anyways...what can I do to help?" she asked. It looked like he had dinner under control.

"Sit n' eat," Jay replied with an easy lopsided smile and came around with the two drinks, setting them down on the table. "Don'tcha crave a little romance?" he asked, returning to the kitchette and looking for some candles. "Little B rated type movie stuff? Ah can cram Romeo and Juliet down your throat by memory, if ya want."

"You know, I'm good," Dani replied with a grin, quickly braiding her hair down her back so it would be out of the way, but didn't secure it with a rubber band or anything, "And this looks good. But you start that Romeo and Juliet, I'll be forced to show you what pain is," she punctuated her meaning with tickle hands, not with her powers. "What movie?"

Jay mocked a look at her, sticking out his tongue until he found and held up the candles triumphantly. "Oh Ah don't care. Ah'm havin' a real bad case of lonely here. Ah was in forever yesterday," he said, being a little poetic. "Today Ah'm short three fuses, gone."

"I been thinking about that," she began, because the truth be told, she was feeling similarly, "I been thinking, I might talk to Scott. See if they want another trainee. Ain't sure it's for me...but can't hurt, right?" she knew this was a potentially sensitive subject, Jay had wanted to be a trainee and it hadn't gone well for him. "Don't know if I'll do it, but got these new brainwashed abilities, might see?"

The candles were set up between their meals and Jay's gaze flickered over Dani's before he went back to his task. He wasn't sure what to say about it, but 'oh hell' came out when he couldn't get one of the candles to catch. "You reckon that's what you really wanna do?"

"Seems to be the thing to do," doubt laced her voice though, "Gimme that," she instructed, taking the lighter and trying to light the candles herself. She had to hold it there for a minute since there was wax on the wick that had to melt, "This looks pretty fancy. Did I forget your birthday? My birthday?" well, she had mostly ignored her birthday. No big deal, 22 wasn't important.

"Both birthdays," he smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. Tugging on his beaded necklace, Jay set his elbows on the table, staring down at his food. Definitely not hungry. "Ah was supposedly dead on mine and Ah reckon everyone forgot yours. So--" he shrugged, watching her light it. "Ah don't really like wearin' leather and jumpin' outta a cake didn’t seem too smart."

"Fair 'nuff," she agreed. Somehow, she hadn't been in the mood to celebrate her birthday. It was no surprise that no one else had really either, "What's it like being blue now? Makes the boys come a'runnin?" she asked, only somewhat joking. Jay didn't get out much either. At his movement to his neck, she touched the scar on her neck. Jay was one of the few people she would let see it and the girl who had always been a tomboy and loathed jewellery had acquired an array of beaded chokers to cover it.

Jay's eyes crept up to her and the self-conscious action she was mimicking from him without seemingly thinking about it, made him smile. "More like a repellent," he snorted. "Forge's callin' me peacock now - only half as insultin' as callin' mah wings pink instead of red. Ah guess that's a perk. Tho' sellin' this to the straight boys ain't easy," he joked lamely. "What 'bout you? Ropin' em in easy?"

"Oh yeah, you see a different guy in my bed every night," she joked, "I keep 'em on a rotation, got a waiting list even," her bed was woefully empty. Which, if she wanted to be honest, was probably a good thing, overall, "Nah. You ain't much of a peacock. Don't preen enough. You're more of a....whatchamacallit?" she snapped her fingers trying to remember the bird, "Them birds of paradise. With the bright colors and long plumes."

"Macaw?" Jay supplied. "Ah think yer being generous comparin' me to one of 'em tropical birds." Even though he scolded her, there was a slight change in his demeanour. He hated being compared to a peacock because it felt like an insult, though compared to a macaw, it was a majestic comparison.

He finally pushed away his plate, admitting that for once, he wasn't hungry even though his stomach growled in protest. His arms crossed and he stared down at his food, thoughts far away from where he was. "Yanno, Ah always wanted some real nice guy, someone who understood me to sweep in n' be mah Romeo. This whole mess made sure we ain't nuttin' but more lonely than we was before." The only glaring fact was that they had each other.

Dani however, was eating steadily. She didn't remark on the food though, it wasn't great, but she didn't want to discourage Jay from cooking if he liked it, "Fair enough to want that, Juliet," Dani smirked at him, "but you forget. They die in the end, ain't how you want it to be. All those 'happily ever afters' don't tell you what 'happily ever after' was either. Nah, life ain't like some Shakespeare fairy tale." She was mixing her metaphors, but that was alright.

"Jean n' Scott look happy, yanno, married. Maybe ah just need to get out more or somethin'. Ah ain't wantin' to be happily ever after. Ah reckon Ah just wanna, yanno, belong. Like Ah can't sing no more." Jay got up from his seat, suddenly coming to a decision. He disappeared into his room and returned, placing his electric guitar and equipment on the couch nearby. "Ah reckon it's time to move on. Ah can't sing no more."

"You ain't leavin'," Dani stated in a voice that brooked no argument and got up to stop him if need be. "Just 'cause you can't sing and you ain't got a man don't mean you gotta leave here. I can't sing either, so what?" she reached up and felt the scar on her throat. Her voice was more hoarse and throaty sounding, "You need to stop judging yourself against other people. Other people ain't you."

"Ah ain't leavin', yet," Jay replied. "Ah'm just gettin' rid of this ol' junk that Ah ain't gonna use." He picked up the cord to his electrically, wrapping it up carefully. "Ah need to replace the brake pads on the truck, put on some all weather tires or somethin' an' Ah need the money. This stuff's here just useless, sitting 'round. Pawn it off, move on, yanno?"

"Fair enough," Dani understood the need to excise demons and if selling his guitar would do it then so be it, "Keep your other guitar though, the acoustic. You like music too much to get rid of it all," Jay without music was such a foreign concept. IT didn't fit.

"Yeh, mah daddy gave me it before he died. It ain't going anywhere, 'cept maybe the closet," Jay replied as he stacked his music books, one on top of the other. "So, RA huh?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder as he disappeared into his bedroom. He returned a moment later, arms' full of cords and books.

"Yeah. The doc suggested it," she had been seeing a psychologist for years now and since turning 18 she had seen a doctor in Salem Center as Samson specialized in minors so she didn't visit him. Now, she was seeing her doctor a lot. It was doing her good, she thought, though it was slow going. Even if he thought she needed to be more social and that being an RA again would be a good thing, "I don't know. Seems...seems like I might not be a good person to go to if you got a problem anymore."

"Huh..." he dropped the armful on the couch and glanced at her for a moment before turning around. Leaning down over the couch, he sorted through his music junk of cords, picks, books and spared a glance to his vintage amplifier. "Or you're the right person to go to cause you've been through it."

"Maybe?" Dani wasn't entirely convinced. She had spoken to both her doctor and Prof. Xavier about her hesitation though and had agreed to do it anyways. They were confident she could and she didn't want to let either down. She knew she had to get out of her safe comfort zone at some point; this was a way to do that. "They're good kids over all. Ain't like what we were," she picked up one of his music books and flipped through it while leaning on the back of the couch, "Photocopy music you like," she said, "So you can still play the acoustic."

Jay snatched the book from her, giving her a look that said he was done with music, though the snatching was all being playful. "Speak for yerself. Ah was an angel." Literally. He turned around, dropping the book onto the coffee table and began stacking them. "You was a holy terror on four wheels."

Wait, what? "Are you sure I'm the crazy one?" she asked him trying to snatch the book back just out of principle, "I was pregnant and as big as a house! I ain't done shit!" she protested. "You were the one rooming with Forge and Kyle! You was sleeping with Kyle if I remember!" That had weirded her out, but it didn't bother her now.

"Yeah, Ah remember." How could he forget? Kyle was not only his second boyfriend, he was also the splitting image of his first. Leaning over, he reached for the book, grabbing it only to find that she wouldn't let go. "You don't think that when you was preggo, everyone was preggo with you?"

"I'd hope not!" Dr. MacTaggert had been, but that was it. "But I was a model student! 'Cept for being married, pregnant, in high school, and barely passing my classes," otherwise though, she had been perfect. Ha!

The book was yanked from his hands and he stubbornly started to crawl over her while she extended the book away from him, reaching for it. "Oh yeah, that sounds like a model student, 'cept look what ya turned into, a thief. Gimmie that--"

Holding it easily above Jay's head, Dani shook her head amused by this game of keep-away. "You don't want it," she pointed out. She didn't either, but that had nothing to do with her enjoying teasing him, "We gotta talk about prom too."

"Prom?" Jay asked and stopped what he was doing. Pushing back up onto his legs, Jay sat down on hers and placed his hands on his thighs. "What about prom?"

"I'm an RA, so I got to go," she explained, shifting her weight to accommodate him better and then bopped him on the head with the book and gave it back. When he wasn't trying to get it back it wasn't any fun. "And you're my date."

"Huh." His curious look quirked an eyebrow and slipped into a lopsided grin. "First a roommate, then a date to the prom, what's next? Are we workin' towards a relationship here?" he joked.

"Only if you're the girl," she responded, "'Course, I'm not a boy so it don't work too well. But you're my date. And you're going to help me find something to wear," Dani hated shopping and had nothing resembling a prom dress. In previous years she had found things at the last minute. This year, even though it wasn't her prom, she wanted to look alright.

Jay snorted and got up off her. "Ah ain't no girl. Not in this relationship," he said, disappearing into his room again. "And where are we shoppin?" He wasn't keen on going to the mall, for her to try on dresses while everyone else stared at him.

Where were they shopping? Like she knew? Had he not seen her wardrobe? It was lacking that fashionable quality to it. "Piggly Wiggly?" she suggested, joking. "Like I got a clue. You're the gay one, you tell me!"

"Oh shit, like Ah know," he said from his room. "Just cause Ah'm gay don't mean Ah'm flamin' with fashion. Ya seen everythin' Ah wear? They all got holes in 'em."

"Looks alright to me..." Dani bit her lip, thinking. "Fine. I'll ask Clarice or someone. There's people here who know about fashion. Or we brave that horrible place," the mall. Dani hated the mall with a passion. Too many people.

"No no," Jay said, sauntering out of the room and dropped down next to her. "Go to Adrienne. She put up somethin' about a donation. Ah wasn't really paying a whole lotta attention when Ah saw it. Ah sorta skimmed over it but yeah, Ah reckon you should ask 'er before she runs out."

Oh! she had! Dani had forgotten," See? This is why I keep you around," she said with a smile, nudging him with her shoulder and draped her feet across his lap. "So what's on TV?"

Jay picked up his music stuff and dropped it on the coffee table. He snatched the remote and pushed her legs aside, stretching out across her lower body. His head rested on her stomach and he took a moment to brush his hair from his face before flicking it on.

Settling in, Dani smiled. This was good. They made a good team. And progress was made for both. "No sports," she instructed as he flipped the channels.