Log: Jay and Sam

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

Jay forces Sam out where they manage to argue less than usual.

"Knock knock," Jay said, opening the door to Sam's room without an invitation. Being Guthrie bred, it wrote off certain rules and regulations other families had and inviting himself in was one of those things. Jay walked in like it was his own room and dropped himself down on the couch, stretching out and picking up a random men's health magazine. "Ah didn't know you read," he said perplexed with a confused tone.

"I don't. That's why it's a magazine." Sam joked right back with a smile. He didn't seem to mind the invasion as he turned from the research spread out across his desk to face his brother.
"What?" Jay said, kicking off his shoes and pushing his feet into his brother's thigh to make room on the couch. "Do Ah got somethin' on mah face?"

Sam shook his head. "Facing the person I'm talking to is all. It's not every day you drop in. Are we about to talk about something special?"
"No. Yes." Jay paused, unsure of himself. "You need to get out more."

"What brought this up?" Sam knew had had been reclusive lately, and he still hadn't went out to get a clean hair cut, but he hadn't felt as bad as he did months ago.

"Ah dunno," Jay said somewhat evasively. "You havn't really been out," echoing Sam's thoughts. "And Ah reckon we ain't really, yanno, spent time since Ah've been back, except with that whole... uh... thing, yanno, that thing?" God he wasn't good at this. Not with Sam. With Paige, it came so easily but with Sam, it was like trying to pull teeth to put effort. He almost asked Sam if he wanted to go camping but crushed that idea since it was a bad idea and thought of something easier, something smaller. "Wanna go out and get a coffee?"

"Oh, so you just want to go out and do something with me. Let me get my jacket." Sam smiled and stood, moving to the hook on his wall that his jacket hung from. "You don't need any excuses to get me to go out with you, Jay. I'm always more than happy to." Instead of moving toward the door, Sam propped the window open.

Jay got up and instead, he closed the window. "No, Ah mean like normal people do. Like gettin' in a truck and drivin'," he said. Although being normal was not really on a scale of normalcy because of the amount of stares he got, he was still able to ignore it enough to act normal and they were, by all standards of American families, mutations aside, normal. "Or walk." Although walking was a long way and he knew his impatience would get the better of him.

"I think we ought to take the truck then." Sam moved away from the window and to the door, holding it open for his brother. He resisted the urge to talk about what it is to be normal and how they were. It wasn't a day for any sorts of lectures or debates. Jay wanted to spend some family time together and Sam was going to do his best to provide that.

He went through the door and paused, waiting for Sam to close it before they turned and walked down the hall together. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to say or what they were going to do and realized that he didn't have any idea what his brother liked to do. "What do you wanna do?" he asked. Sam was always so accommodating that he molded to other people and not the other way around.

"Decided against coffee?" Sam moved up, after shutting the door to his room, to walk alongside Jay. "I thought that was a pretty safe choice for trying to spend some time with your brother." He thought a light joke might help ease the tension.

"Ah thought you might wanna try somethin' you like fer a change instead of fallin' back on the default," he said, trying to keep it light, matching his step to Sam's. For all the differences, they had a similar stride, lazy, easy going but constant, though Sam never struck him as lazy.

"Am I bad at that?" Sam glanced over to his brother and smiled. "How about this time we go with your idea and I'll think up something to invite you to do with me shortly so that I can get out of a rut."

"Oh Ah dunno," Jay said, fishing around for the time. He grabbed Sam's wrist, turning his watch. "Well, Ah reckon we can go to what Ah want, but we're just gonna make it. Ya sure?" He didn't sound so sure himself.

"Are all the coffee places about to close or are we going somewhere else now?" Sam laughed a little and pushed the front door open, holding it for Jay and then following him out. He still felt that he had to take care of his siblings. He would probably feel that way forever and he didn't mind.

It only vaguely annoyed Jay that Sam coveted him and he decided that yes, time was good so they'd go out to where he wanted to go. Thirty minutes later had them pulling up to a pack, packed tight with vehicles. No one was in the parking lot though it was obvious that they were all inside.

"Still wanna do what Ah wanna do?" he asked with a slight grin before he got out and lead them to the front doors. He hand waved to the bouncer and walked up to the gothic dressed girl behind the poorly built ticket booth, sporting a black cowboy hat that clashed against her style. She flashed her teeth, a grin of recognition as Jay made a sign for two before slapping down a ten on the worn wood, sliding it to her. The door next to her boomed muffled music but it was hard to tell just what kind of bar it was.

"No alone tonight?" she purred, passing him two tickets.

"Nah, with mah brother," he rolled his eyes and mouthed 'family thing'.

She nodded a brief 'ah' and finger waved Sam while Jay handed him his ticket.

"We're late but better than never huh?" he flashed his ticket and stuffed it in his pocket, pushing the door open. DJed dance music hit them like the wave of cowboy hats, bodies milling around, waiting for the bartenders while lower down on the dance floor, feet moved in sync to the rhythm of the music.

"If I'd have known I'd have worn my own hat and maybe some dancing boots instead of my work boots." Sam spoke loud enough to be heard over the music, noticing that (even though the theme was country) it wasn't quite the place he'd fit in. He dismissed the nervousness; this was for his brother after all. "Not that I think it'd help much."

"Hell no," was the only response from Jay, although it was more mouthed than heard as he passed a stereo. Someone calling his name drew his attention, two guys of bigger bulk waved and they got a 'just a sec' gesture from Jay, weaving through bodies as they tightened around them. A pair of arms hooked around Jay's neck, pulling him down and planted a very heavy kiss, thick on his lips. There was little he could do but wait and once she broke it (even though she was now melted into his body) he easily untangled himself from her, smacked her ass and told her he'd be back in a minute. She reluctantly let him go, only drawn away because he dodged through the crowd and broke through the other side like one would from the surface of water.

"Woo shit," he laughed, running a hand through his hair. "Didn't know she was here," he said as a cool gust of air swept up against them from the garage doors that lined the walls, two open for the smokers that needed to go outside.

"Well that was like watching a bull walk on his hind legs... except on the farm, not at the rodeo... since they do that there sometimes so it's not weird... and that was." Sam ran his fingers through his hair, the tell-tale sign of a failed joke.

Jay shrugged. "Ah gave up tryin' to tell her that Ah'm gay. She's convinced Ah'm straighter than a board and she's got her groupies thinkin' the same thing," Jay explained. "They been followin' me for like, two months now. It's gettin' kinda old but Ah dunno how to get rid of 'em."

"Seems like telling them to go away ought to work." Sam shrugged. He had never had to deal with the kind of attention that Jay garnered and definitely never persistent feminine attention. He would have as much of a problem deciding what to do as Jay was, if not more so.

"Ah tried to," he said, exasperated. "She's like, the most pushy girl Ah've met. Already got her mad at me once for blockin' her off mah cell, but she was callin' at six in the morn to say hi and tell me she's goin' to school. Tellin' her to go away is kinda rude though and she ain't really doin' anything wrong." Though he was sure that, after a second to think about it, slapping her ass to get her moving probably wasn't the smartest thing. That probably just reinforced her efforts.

Without further prompting, Sam (in a decidedly bold move) headed directly for the young lady. He was as much smiles and Southern charm as he could manage as he approached. "Hi, I'm Sam Guthrie." He extended his hand, keeping eye contact when he could get it. His smile held firm.

"Oh uh..." The girls eyes shifted uncertainly at the formality before taking his hand and giving it a shake. Hello awkward, although she recognized the name. That was when Jay stepped in front of Sam and cut his brother off, "Hey Cheryl, Sorry, ignore him. He's retarded--" Jay spun Sam around and pushed him away from the group with more force that was necessary.

"What are you doin'??" he hissed. "This ain't third grade, Ah can take care of mahself."

"I wasn't taking care of you, I was going to ask a woman that clearly both likes boys and accepts mutants to dance. Nothing wrong with that unless you like having her attention." Sam looked at his brother with a smirk. It was about as devious as the eldest Guthrie ever managed to get. "It is a dance club, after all."

The girl seemed to perk up at the fact that Jay was there, but that they seemed to be fighting over her. Jay stepped back, rolling his eyes and left. "Yer nuts. Have at 'er." Thank god, but if Sam wanted to put himself in there, he could. Jay wasn't going to bother getting involved.

"Maybe later, since it made you skittish." Sam shrugged, walking along under his brother's guidance. "I know it's odd changing from the relationship we grew up in to one on more equal footing." He tried to be understanding and he knew it was odd for him. It must have been for Jay too.

"The only thing that makes me skittish is when you start on like that," Jay commented, weaving through people and cutting them a path. It was clear they were in not just a country bar, but a mutant one.

"Like what?" Sam followed his brother, looking around to familiarize himself with the place a little more as they moved. He hadn't been in a place that was considered a place for mutants other than the mansion. It was a new experience for him and that always made Sam want to know more.

"Like that," Jay tossed over his shoulder, thinking this was probably one of his worse ideas. Hanging with Sam? Yeah, just no.

"I just went to ask a lady to dance at a club, Jay. A dance club. Not that big of a deal." Sam was beginning to wonder if they were headed somewhere specific or if Jay was subconsciously running from him.

"You always gotta be old school?" Jay asked. The problem here was that Sam was so accepting and Jay was always trying to change his brother. The combination probably didn't go well.

Sam could only shrug. "It's just the way I am, I figure." He never understood why people had a problem with it. He knew a lot of people were far more complex than he was but he never understood why people (Jay particularly) acted the way they did about it.

Jay stopped by a table and snatched up the pool cue. He fetched the balls, nodding to Sam to pass over the rest of the balls while he racked up. "You don't sound so sure about that. Maybe ya need more of a focus, move on, do somethin' either yerself. Somethin' that involves socializin' more." God knew Sam only socialized inside of the box. "What about Warren? Why not try hangin' with him for a change?" He couldn't believe he was suggesting his brother hang with a guy that was courting him but then, Sam didn't know that and Warren was more of Sam's age group. Plus, Warren was easy going and probably would take Sam out of his element.

"I'm not sure that hitting the town with Warren would be any different then going out with you. I'd still be the awkward, old school country boy that stood out next to someone who fit into the place... like here." Sam glanced around, feeling more like a stand out then he probably was. Even though the theme matched who he was the people didn't. It was more like people were playing on the idea, or even mocking it, than accepting it.

"Well you use to hang out with Warren, didn'cha? Or Amanda? You don't hang out with anyone anymore Sam." This was Jay's way of saying Sam was a loner, one step short of a loser and it killed him to even think it. "You gotta get out more, like talk to people, get a girlfriend if ya gotta. Date around or something. Do something cause all this mopin' about ain't doin' ya any favours. And tryin' to ask one of mah stalkers to dance don't count as gettin' out."

"Used to." Sam nodded in agreement as he racked for their game of pool. "I never figured I was moping. Just doing my work and helping my friends when I can. I've never been much for going out in the first place."
"Well maybe you should get on that then, cause Warren's courtin' me and it'd be nice to see some protective brother come out in you for a change," he joked. If anything, it'd get Sam and Warren talking again and that was basically all he wanted.

"Well maybe you should get on that then, cause Warren's courtin' me and it'd be nice to see some protective brother come out in you for a change," he joked. If anything, it'd get Sam and Warren talking again and that was basically all he wanted.

"Courting?" Sam raised his eyebrows and looked to Jay. "I thought I was supposed to be traditional. I didn't know the more modern folks went courting."

"Yeah well, it seems like that's what he's doing, but seriously, Ah don't think even Warren knows what he's doing. He's just actin' on his own and Ah bet he ain't thinking about it too hard." Because Jay was way younger than him and use to be his student. It was fine by him, but he figured this would definitly be a way to get Sam out into the woodworks. "He's kissed me too, after the winter ball." Jay grinned raising his brows.

Sam thought for just a moment. "I figure you're both the right age now." He shrugged and lifted the rack, hanging it under the table and moving to stand next to Jay so he could watch the break.

"Oh just go and visit him already, for crying outloud and stop breathin over mah shoulder. Ah'm tryin' to make a shot." Gez, he had to brow beat his brother just to get him to do anything these days.

"Making it might be a stretch." Sam said teasingly as he gave his brother room. He knew Jay probably wanted him to get upset or to run Warren off. The eldest Guthrie never really was sure exactly what his brother expected from him, though. He'd go see him but he was sure he wouldn't do quite what he was supposed to.