xp_logs | Catseye & Kevin | Monday afternoon

Catseye decides to help Kevin make a present for Angel, who he has a crush on. And who she realizes he has a crush on much to his dismay.

"-And when you see it you will want to make a sculpture out of it because it is the prettiest rock ever!" Catseye tugged on Kevin's sleeve eagerly as she picked her way carefully down into the quarry. "I saw it while I was hunting. It is so big and pretty! You can make manymanymany things with it I bet because you are the best sculpting boy ever!"

Kevin laughed and tried to keep up with the catgirl who was mostly pulling him along. Most people made Kevin a little twitchy when there was physical contact but Catseye didn't induce his twitch-factor. He was a lot better about it these days than he used to be, but it was still there. Catseye had proven herself quite attentive. She was always very careful when she crawled into bed with him as a cat to sleep at night. She was always above the covers, though on a few of the colder nights he'd invited her under the blanket as long as she stayed on top of his sheet. "Ah don't usually do sculpture with stone, you know. Ah mean, Ah could start learnin', but Ah've only done a couple small things." And that was because it was required of him in classes.

"I know you do not usually but you make pretty things prettier and this stone is pretty so you can make it prettier!" She was nearly jumping with joy as she came upon the rosy red chunk of stone that was as tall as she was. "See! See? You could make something so pretty! And it could be a present!"

At least he knew she appreciated his talent. Or was it skill? Maybe it was both. One was fairly useless without the other. Skill without imagination didn't create anything. Talent without technique only made a mess. Kevin let his eyes move over the stone. He liked that flushed color to its tint. It made him think of Yvette, but then most red or dark pink things did. "You're right, Cats, it's real pretty."

Carefully, Kevin removed a glove and laid a finger onto the stone. He didn't feel that pull down behind his navel when his mutation began to eat away at something so the artist allowed his hand to rest against the stop. Palm flat, his hand smoothed over the rough surface of the stone and he murmured quietly do it, "What do you wanna be?"

"I think it wants to be a present. I think it wants to be a present for someone who is a friend of you and of me," Catseye suggested, sharpening her claws on the side of the stone, relishing in the lovely skritchy noise it made. "I think it wants to be a present for Angel."

Kevin blinked. Angel's birthday was last month, it wasn't coming up. She'd gotten art along with a bunch of film and developing chemicals for her birthday. Kevin gave Catseye shifty eyes. If the catgirl had picked up on that crush he was so doomed. "See, Ah meant like what kinda shape it wanted to be. Why do you think it wants to be for Angel?"

"It wants to be fire and it wants to be for Angel because when I say Angel or you see Angel or you talk about Angel when you sleep you get the smell on you that smells like you want to be a couple with her," the catgirl explained.

He smelled like he... Wait. He talked about her in his sleep? Kevin didn't remember having dreams about Angel. He definitely didn't know he'd talked about her in her sleep. The Southerner blushed crimson but didn't try to hide his face. Oh, wow. He was screwed. "Ah could've been sayin' her name in my sleep 'cause she was tryin' to maim me in a dream," he tried to defend uselessly.

Sensing and scenting his embarrassment, Catseye giggled. "You could have been, but you were not. You want to be a couple with Angel!" she crowed enthusiastically.

Kevin's expression was pure scowl. "No Ah don't." Some days? Some days he really disliked the catgirl. He liked her better in TinyCat form. Even BigCat form was good. Neither of those spoke. Or pointed out things he really didn't need other people picking up on.

Catseye hugged his side and headbutted his shoulder. "It is okay if you do not want to say or if you are afraid she does not want to be a couple with you. Relationships are hard," she quoted with a knowing nod. "But you like being with her so you should be with her more and then you will know for sure that you want to be a couple with her!"

Without giving it much thought, Kevin's arm raised and draped around the catgirl. She was taller than he was so it went across her back rather than across her shoulders. "What're you, Doctor Phil?" he muttered to himself and shook his head. "Ah'm not gonna be a couple with anyone, Catseye."

"Who is Doctor Phil?" she asked, tail twitching in confusion. "Why are you not going to be a couple with anyone?"

"Just a guy on tv." He skipped the part where the guy was obnoxious. "'Cause Ah'm not safe. Ah don't wanna put people at risk or in danger. Ah don't want her gettin' hurt." That was possibly the biggest reason he hadn't and likely never would do anything about that crush of his he had, or any other crush for that matter. Kevin looked down, a small frown forming and he scuffed the toe of his shoe against the ground. "When you're a couple with someone you hang 'round them a lot. 'Cause you like bein' 'round them. But the more time someone spends 'round me the more dangerous it is."

"Being close to someone is dangerous," Catseye mused, tail slashing through the air. "You sound like Jay and you sound like Mister Beaubier. Do you boys drink something in the water here that makes you all so afraid of danger and believing so strong that other people will break? And that other people are not allowed to want to break for you because they love you?"

"Ah can't ask someone to break for me," he told her quietly. Kevin's eyes hadn't raised. She had a point. In fact, she had a very good point and he'd never bothered to consider it. He'd never thought of it that way at all. Who was he to say that someone wouldn't want to break for him? But it was the breaking he didn't want. "Ah don't want anyone broken 'cause of me. Broken...it's not happy. The couple thing? It's supposed to make you happy. Like, stupid levels of giddy kinda happy."

"I know what a couple thing is supposed to make you feel," she reminded him with a smile. "When you find the person who makes your couple with you you will not have to ask them to break for you. They will want to do it. That is how you know they are your other half for your couple."

Shaking his head, Kevin repeated, "Ah don't want anyone breakin' 'cause of me." His father had died, that was more than enough breaking. It was enough of a sacrifice and punishment for loving Kevin. He didn't need anyone else following suit.

"Well when you find your other half you can fight with them about you not wanting anyone to break for you. But I will tell you now that when you find your other half it will not matter what you want if you say you want them to stay away because they will not do it if they love you."

"Ah think if you're supposed to be with them then it won't break you." But it might melt half your body down to nothing but ashes. And this was exactly why Kevin wasn't going to be a couple with anyone. He didn't want to hurt Angel and now all he could see in his mind was her turning into ashes and being scattered on the wind. He shuddered a little at the memory it hearkened back to.

"No one breaks if you're supposed to be together," Catseye agreed. "Or someone breaks but the other one helps fix them. But I do not think Angel will break. I do not think you will hurt her because you are Good and I know you are scared but being scared is important because if you were not scared of hurting Angel it would mean you are Bad."

Kevin was pretty sure he was bad, just not in the way Catseye was talking about. God didn't usually curse the good people, did He? "Angel's better off with someone who can touch her," was all he said.

"You can touch her! Not with your skin but you can touch her skin with gloves. You can touch her and as long as you wear special condoms that you do not melt with your powers you can do sex even!"

Eyebrows darting upward, Kevin's eyes went wide enough that he was pretty sure they might fall out. He'd finally looked back up at his first. "Uh, first of all, it wasn't 'bout sex. Second...those condoms don't exist." Which was why he was going to be the poster boy for virginity for the rest of his life.

"You were talking about touching so I thought that meant sex," she explained, voice taking a sheepish tone. "But I think Doctor Hank or Forge could make those condoms if someone asked them to."

He ignored the further comment about the condoms. He didn't need to think about that and it wasn't as simple as a condom. It was more like a body condom and that was just awkward. "Sex is part of touchin', but it's not the part Ah was talkin' 'bout." Kevin hadn't realized Catseye's brain lived so happily down in the gutter.

Catseye didn't debate the point with him. She had assumed touching meant sex but if he said that wasn't what he meant she wouldn't fight him on her assumption. "Well even if you have not figured out how to do touching with Angel yet that does not mean you should not be her friend and spend time with her and make her presents so she knows you like her. Then she can help you figure out the touching if she likes you too and wants to do it."

"Ah'm already her friend," he pointed out. He was just her friend and Kevin was probably going to continue being just her friend. It was his lot in life and it kept everyone he cared about a hell of a lot safer. "Could we stop talkin' 'bout the touchin' thing? It's just...a sore spot."

"I understand," the catgirl nodded. She wouldn't want to talk about touching if she couldn't do it, either. "Can we talk about what the rock wants to be instead? I think it wants to be fire. Can it be fire?"

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, it can be fire." He had a mental image of four fingers of flame reaching upward. He wasn't sure what they'd be coming up from or if they'd be moving from something else at all. Maybe he'd just make it be the flames. The shape should've been simple enough that could manage to make it, too. There'd be a lot of sanding the stone down for the shape, he was pretty sure, which was a lot easier than the chisel work would be for him. And if he messed it up, well, there was a lot of stone here. "And it'll be fire for Angel."

"How are we going to get it to the mansion?" the catgirl mused suddenly, tail lashing. "I think it is too big for me to carry even as BigCat!"

"Well Ah'm not gonna use the whole thing." The whole thing was sort of massive. That seemed like a bad plan and a waste of stone considering how much he'd be taking off. "Ah'll just come back with the right tools to take off a chunk the size Ah need. Ah can probably carry that back myself."

"Okay and when you bring it back you will tell me and I will make sure Angel is not at the mansion so she will not see you bring it okay?"

Kevin nodded and gave her a small salute. "Yes, ma'am."