Nick and Jay

[x-wolfcub.livejournal.com]

After an awkward first meeting, Jay tries to convince Nick to join him for festivities outside of the mansion.



Jay ducked out of the kitchen, juggling a pop, steak on a fork, popcorn, chocolate bar and rounded the corner without even thinking about his speed. He wanted to catch the last bit of 'so you think you can dance' but set off during the commercials to find something to snack on. It had taken a bit longer and he was sure the show was nearing the ending but he was dying to eat. Mid bite of the steak, he collided with another body and the bite of the fork drove right into his cheek.

Everything dropped to the floor as Jay stumbled back, hunched over and grabbed his cheek. "Ah! Shit--" a hand covered his mouth and he lifted his yellow eyes to who he ran into.

One of the mansion's newest students, Nicholas Gleason's Easy Mac had spread all over the floor as well, but he was more concerned with the injury he had caused. "I'm so sorry." He quickly fell down to his knees and began mopping up the mess with a napkin that was way too small for the job while reaching forward with the other towards Jay, not sure how he could help. His eyes suddenly caught to color of the man he ran into, and his mind quickly fell back to the conversation he had with Dani a few days earlier. "Wait, are you Jay?"

They weren't kidding when they said the smaller injuries hurt more compared to the bigger ones. His wings fanned out behind him, posed more in surprise than attack and he drew his hand away, revealing a nasty scrap by the fork. "Christ!" he shook his hand, a delayed response from the throb in his cheek and he sighed at the mess, at the saturated jeans from the pop and basically all the popcorn everywhere. So much for seeing the ending of the show.

"Yeah, who are you?" Jay asked irritably as he disappeared into the kitchen to fetch some paper towels. Godamnit, why didn't they have satellite?

"Nicholas Gleason" the boy got out with a coy smile as he followed Jay into the kitchen. "I'm so sorry about the whole fork thing." He tried to begin collecting towels around the kitchen, but the boy was obviously fidgety, feeling horrible about the whole situation as he began digging his hands through his hair. "Can I go get a first aid kit. I think I know enough that i can at least stop the bleeding for ya."

"Nah, forget it," Jay waved off behind him, balling up a bunch of paper towels and turning abruptly only to run into Nick again. His eyes flickered with annoyance until he tried to go around Nick when Nick did the same. Then he tried the other way and they both stopped. That was when he smiled, the irritation gone and he put his hands on Nick's shoulder, moving him. "S'cuse."

Nick let himself smile as well. "Sorry about that." He collected the rest of the towels he could get his hands on before he followed Jay. "I'm sorry about this whole thing. I've kind of become the human klutz machine around here with the whole getting lost every day and running bumping into everything that sticks out an extra inch." He quickly found a place to begin mopping. "You live with Dani, right?"

"Yeah, we roomies together. You new or somethin'?" Jay asked, stretching his wings out so he could crouch down and start scoping up the shit in a garbage bag. It was a very gross assortment of food when he thought about it, making a face as he dropped it into the bag. "Ah think I can pass down the honorary metal of Klutz to you then, huh? Ah ain't as bad as Ah was, but Ah'm still bad." Juggling pop, popcorn and steak? No, he wasn't good at all.

A snort escaped Nick's mouth as he continued to struggle with getting all of the soda mopped up off of the floor. "The whole new guy thing shows off that much huh?" As he kept trying to soak up all of the stray liquid on the ground, Nick couldn'’t help but take several quick glances up at Jay's wings. He still wasn't completely used to having other mutants around him. As he continued to work, he decided it was time to at least venture a small question. "How old were you when they first developed?" Nick wasn't positive it wasn't an insensitive question, but he hoped he hadn’t offended Jay any more than he already had.

Jay was well aware of what Nick was looking at and though he wanted to keep his eyes trained downwards, a part of him was forced to tear his attention in two, down on the heaping mess and up at the boy above him. He was quiet for a moment, lifting the last of the mess into the bag and leaned down, cleaning up the remainder so Nick could mope. There was a lot he didn't want to say or even have any of it come up, but he leaned back on his feet, resting his hands on his knees before he pushed himself up to stand.

"About your age," he said and left Nick to clean up the rest. Was there any point in talking about the way he was?

Nick immediately followed behind Jay, squatting down and beginning to clean the remainder of the mess from what Jay had thrown into the bag. "My dad would have loved to talk to you. He had this whole theory about how mutants that developed with physical characteristics have such a different process than those of us who don't." Nick caught a lump quickly forming in his throat. He had been working on it, but it was still difficult to even talk about his father or any of his family in passing. "He really admired the strength of those of you who did."

He didn't know what to say to that, instead, focused on tying the bag up at the top, double knotting it so it wouldn't come undone. He tied it a third time and fourth, just for good measure and took another bag, dropping that full bag into the other empty one, tying that off too. He stared down at the knot for a moment, finger looping idly through the bag before he lifted it up and dropped it into the garbage can that was already full. Jay's bag made it so the lid wouldn't close properly but he didn't care.

He turned around and rested a hand on the counter, an easy going, lopsided smile adorning his features. "That so? Sounds like a cool guy," he said. "Why you here then? Powers problem?" Since they were out with the personal anyways.

Nick got up and quickly dumped the soaked towels into the sink, knowing that he had no chance of finding the laundry facilities. He was happy for the few moments of silence to try and collect himself. "More like a personal problem." He focused his eyes into the sink where he quickly began washing the towels by hand. "I didn't really have anywhere to go, so Dr. Essex set me up with the school." He purposely left out the situation as to why he had no place to go.

Jay was perfectly fine with not talking about himself until Dr. Essex came up and he brushed a hand at the side of his bloodied cheek, brushing away whatever was left. He reached over, taking another paper towel and cleaning off his cheek a little better. "Sounds tough," he said and his yellow eyes flickered to Nick. "They'll take care of you here though. Maybe join up Red X when you're good n' ready. Keep's you youngin’s busy."

"Yeah I've talked a little bit about the teams with Catseye. She's been helping me get acclimated to everything here." Nick had to pause to blink a few times. It was odd that a girl who had spent a big portion of her life as a cat was the one who was helping him relate to people. "But I heard you keep yourself busy even without the teams. Word around the mansion is that you and a few of the others are taking a trip tomorrow."

"Oh yeah?" There was something that flickered behind Jay's eyes and they seemed to brighten at where Nick was going with this. "You mean Gay Pride? Why? You wanna come?" he prompted.

"I wish I could." Nick quickly replied with a smile. "I used to go as a supporter all the time, but I don't know if I should." The boy stopped, scratching the back of his head with one hand, obviously showing his nerves once again. "I mean I just got settled into the mansion and everything." Really it was Nick's fear of being around others after the tragedy in Wisconsin that was holding him back from going with Jay and the others.

At first Jay thought Nick didn't want to go because he didn't want to give the impression that he was gay or even remotely interested, but then he got it why and leaned against the counter, linking his hands together. "Well, maybe you should, you know? best way to get to know us is hanging with us. Plus, nothin' like a party to forget, right?" He was generalizing here, not sure if Nick was coming out of a bad situation but then, he hadn't heard of anyone walking away from a good situation, had he?

The boy threw the washed towels over the corner of the sink for them to dry before turning around, and leaning back against the counter, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "I don't know..." He let his eyes fall down to the ground for a second before deciding it was at least safe to inquire a little more about the festival. "Who all's going?"

"Mark, but he'll already be there, helpin' out or somethin'. Jean-Philip's gonna meet us there. Shiro's comin' cause of me and Clarice - she's a purple girl and just me. Ah mean, we''ll meet some people there from Silver - it's a bar - and a lot of 'em is either pro gay or pro mut'n, so it's safe. just ignore Shiro if he's grumpy. He don't really wanna go."

Nick's eyes jump at the mentioning of Shiro's name. Although their first meeting was a bit awkward, he had been the first person to really make him feel welcome at the mansion. Nick shrugged his shoulders for a second, although he still wouldn't take his hands out of his pockets. "Are you sure you guys wouldn't mind me tagging along?"

"Ah'll send you directions on where we're goin', okay? Then you can decide if you wanna go or not. But Ah think you should. There aint' a lot of times you can have a good time n' laugh about it."

A small smile grew over Nick's face. "I suppose I do owe you for stabbing you in the face, huh?"