xp_logs | Jay | John - Monday on to Tuesday

'Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he's carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he's carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you're drunk.' -Jack Handy-

They would have been freezing if John hadn't built them a fire to keep warm. It was late in the evening and they were up on the rooftop, enjoying the cold fresh air with steaming cups of hot chocolate in hand.

"Thanks for helping me out with the packing last weekend." His breath came out in clouds of smoke in the winter air. "I appreciate it."

"Yeah Ah bet ya do. You n' Ang got more junk than Ah do. But don't worry. Ah'm gonna repay that by recruitin' you to do the same fer me one day," he said, curling his fingers around the hot chocolate. The cold didn't bother him but he liked John's fire, always fascinated that he could separate his concentration like that.

"One day, huh?" John raised his eyebrows and smirked. "Don't know if I'd be up for that."

"Oh why not? Got some double standards that you gotta live up to?" Jay asked and nudged John in his ribcage.

John chuckled. "Just keeping it real." He hoisted himself up on the ledge, stood up and faced the view of the lake. He didn't seem to care that the surface of the ledge was slippery with rain and that a drop from this height could very well mean the death of him. John had always been a bit of a daredevil. He'd once been afraid of heights but he'd conquered that fear somewhat.

"Man, I love it up here."

"Ah ain't gettin' up there with you to play Titanic - sit down you idiot."

John let out a snort. Instead of sitting down, he chose to remain standing, putting one hand in his pocket to retrieve his lighter. He threw Jay a smirk as he lit his cigarette. John was never one to follow orders and advice usually went down the drain with him. His ego was far too large to accommodate such a courtesy.

"You working tonight?'

"Nah, Ah'm off," Jay said and there was a touch of relief to be off. He was tired, worn out. In between working and school, he barely had time to do much of anything else, except Red X training. Even his dangerroom training was slowly slipping onto the back burner. Not good. He let the silence fill in between them and looked up at John, the moon silouetting him.

John had his eyes closed and was enjoying the last drags of his cigarette. So he'd made it last year's resolution to quit smoking; to rid himself of the filthy habit but obviously that hadn't worked.

"We should get wasted."

He dropped the cigarette to the ground and hopped off the ledge.

"Really hard to get wasted with this healing factor, but if yer willin' to spend the money--" he shrugged and swung his legs around to the other side. "-- Ah'll be yer bartender."

"Well, I'd like a taste of every drink you can pour and any cocktail you can make." He turned around, walking backwards toward the stairwell as he spoke. "And we'll see just how skilled you are."

Jay grinned as he pushed off the edge and began to follow John, pace for pace. "All right Sweetheart. Let's see if you can handle it."

A good two hours later:

"You got mah healin' factor workin' overtime here," Jay said as the room made a vain attempt to catch up with his vision as he began mixing another drink. Not quite fuly drunk, oh no, his healing factor was making work of that, Jay was drinking them through house and home. "Good thing yer loaded," he joked and slid the drink to his right where John was sitting.

John chuckled or maybe he'd giggled. He certainly thought that just about everything seemed funny right now. He hadn't stopped drinking since they got here and boy, had he been drinking all kinds of stuff. John was officially drunk and his words were coming out in a slur. "What's this?" He lifted the drink and took a casual sip.

"That.." Jay pointed and then leaned over into John, taking a closer inspection of the drink. "That... I dunno what that is." He shrugged and smirked, resuming his position and moved the bottles around, looking for the right one. "Just drink it. You're not gonna care anyways."

"I'm not gonna care," he repeated with a slight shake of his head and he clutched one end of the bar counter to stop the room from spinning. It didn't work. "--could really use a healing power because this..." He flipped his lighter open and pressed his thumb against the wheel, sparking a large flame from the device. "Useless." The fire died in an instant.

"What're you on about?" Jay asked, watching the flame about. "If you're talkin' 'bout a remedy, then Ah reckon its better to do that when yer ready to go to bed. You ain't callin' quits on me yet are ya?" Not that the idea of going to bed didn't appeal to Jay.

"You... talk too much."

Jay laughed, somewhere between a hiss and a chuckle and poured another drink. "Yer gonna throw up too."

"Mm. I'll be sure to aim that--" And he jabbed his finger in the air at Jay. "So--" He raised his eyebrows slightly. "Where's Warden? Does the birdie not know how to party?"

Jay caught his finger and lowered it down, mid dodge of getting his eye poked. "Warren--" he corrected. "-- is probably sleepin' and he's a light weight, so Ah'd be pickin' both of you off the floor n' puttin' ya to bed. No fun for me."

"--don't need you ever doing that. I can take care of myself." He toasted the air with an empty glass and indicated for Jay to fill it up.

"You can't take care of yerself. Look, you don't even know when to stop," Jay said as he placed his hand over the top of the cup and lowered it.

"I'll stop... when my body quits." Again, he indicated for Jay to give him a refill. "Won't be happening anytime soon." He forced out a grin. "No worries."

"Well it's yer head in the morning," Jay grinned back and he took the drink to make something else. "So, how's Ange?"

"Hm." He blew a smoke ring out of his mouth and shrugged. "He's alright. Dating his childhood sweetheart at the moment. It's all very..." He tried to think of a word to describe it. "Sweet."

He knew that tone, he'd used it before himself, but decided that wasn't a subject he wanted to breech. "Sweet," he echoed. "So what about Johnny?" He clucked and made a crude gesture.

"Funny." He grabbed at a random bottle and poured himself a shot. "I don't date."

"No? Just the solo type huh?" This brought a snicker out in Jay as he started mixing a dirty martini.

A long suffering sigh escaped from his lips. "Can we talk about something else?" He didn't quite appreciate being the subject of a conversation.

"Awww, Johnny," Jay teased and leaned over, resting his chin on John's shoulder, mocking a pout. "Little lonely?"

"No." He placed the palm of his hand on Jay's forehead and gently pushed him away. "A little annoyed." The last thing he wanted to do was to discuss the state of his non-existent love life. Besides, he liked the way things were. There were no complications and he'd grown comfortable with that.

Jay scoffed as he was pushed off. "Denial..." He said, though he didn't think he really needed to go there anymore than he already had. "It's okay John, you got me." Which wasn't much, he concede but it was there.

"Yes. I'm counting my lucky stars." He snorted and shook his head. "Think it's time for you to head back to your nest. One more drink and we'll call it a night."

"Oh no way, you ain't copping out on me now. All of a sudden you wanna call it a night cause we got on the subject of Johnny's love life?" or lack there of. "Oh c'mon," Jay whined.

"Stop calling me Johnny." He was frowning now. Or maybe it was turning into more of a pout considering he was drunk and couldn't quite cover the fact that he was feeling a bit insulted. "I'm leaving."

Jay was on his feet the second John was but he laughed and caught his wrist, pulling him up into his arms, giving him a hug. "Oh yer so grouchy when yer drunk," Jay chuckled because the hug was more around John's head and gave him a good pat on the back.

John clenched his teeth together and stiffened at the hug but he didn't immediately push away. Mainly because the room was spinning again. "Guthrie." He gripped Jay's jacket, fingers closing around the material and then stepped away with a look of warning. "I'm leaving," he repeated. "And you're driving." He handed Jay the keys to Angelo's car. Yes. Angelo's. So he'd taken the keys while the other was sleeping. Big deal. At least he was being responsible about it. John stared at the counter for a moment. The drinks. He needed to pay for it. "Tab," he said. "Put it on my tab."

Jay looked down at his hand and closed them over the keyes. He was tipsy but he wasn't drunk but he had never gotten behind the wheel in this condition, as little as it was. But he didn't let go of the keyes. "All right," he said and waved to one of the fill in bartenders for Silver and she nodded that she would clean up. "C'mon ya drunkard."

It was close to three in the morning by the time they made it back to the mansion. John stepped out of the vehicle and turned around, leaning heavily against the closed door. Angelo's car was parked in a haphazard fashion but it was clear of any damage. "And the world's worst driver award goes to..." He chuckled but didn't quite finish the sentence as he lost his grip on the car and landed in a heap on the ground.

"Oh hell," Jay grabbed the handle and got out quickly, sure to lock the door before he slammed it. Rounding the car, he stuffed the keyes into his pocket, freeing up both hands to lean down and pick John up off the floor.

"Yanno, yer worse than Warren," he said as he pulled John's wrist up over his shoulder and wedged himself under John's arm. "At least he can keep his feet."

The only reply to that was a loud grunt as he was picked up and then an audible snore.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" Jay said as he hefted John up more and made his way slowly towards the mansion. Ten minutes later, he was nudging John away at the door, trying to balance a drunk in one arm and keyes in another. It was possible he was swearing every step of the way and eventually propped John up against the wall, wedged himself against the limp body while struggling to find the right key. The third key on the chain won and Jay pushed the door (or kicked it) and pulled John inside while muttering to John. "...some sorta payment cause yer heavier than shit..."