Kyle & Jean-Paul, Tuesday Morning

[x-quebecois.livejournal.com]

Kyle comes by to fix Jean-Paul's windows.


Jean-Paul had been back less than three days and already things were reaching a point that he felt uncomfortable with. He wondered if that was why the nightmare the night before had been so much worse than some of the others. He'd only broken the windows out of the motel room in Boston because he'd been restrained - he thought. There was no real way for him to be sure.

Still, he'd managed to break the windows in the bedroom out the night before, only realising it once he'd woken. The chill of the January air hadn't bothered him while he'd slept at least. One small positive amongst a host of negatives. Still, he sat in the bedroom waiting for whomever was going to come fix the windows - most of the glass had fallen outside, but he'd swept up the shards on the carpet and even vacuumed the area. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he was just tired now.

It hadn't occurred to Kyle that maybe it wasn't a good idea to approach Jean-Paul's window from the upside-down hanging over the next window up position. It was just the easiest way to get at the remaining broken glass stuck in the window panes without having get the ladder out and it meant the sun wasn't in his eyes. But he did remember to stick his head in the open space that used to be a window before starting to remove the damaged wood and remaining glass. "Dude, you gonna be busting any more windows, or should I just get the shatterproof stuff like Jay's got?"

Jean-Paul started a bit, sitting up straighter. "Pardon?" He followed the surprise up with a, "Can you not use the door?"

"Dude, the window's right here and it's not like I'm gonna fall." Kyle busied himself with prying the old pane out, being careful to avoid the glass. Healing factor or not, slicing himself up was not his idea of fun. "Sides, not like Cats or Dori hasn't done this to you what, ninety hojillion times. Anyway. So, is this gonna be a recurring thing, or not, cause if I gotta get the shatterproof stuff, I gotta actually use the ladder to put the new windows in. Regular ones I can just do from inside here."

Good points, all. Catseye had come visiting, after all. And left him something dead, but the mug was actually quite nice. He'd yet to use it. Jean-Paul considered the man hanging outside his window, pulling bits of it off, and then said, "The shatter-proof, it might be a good idea." Because he wasn't going to purposefully do anything, but who knew what might happen if he had another nightmare like the one last night?

Standing up, he moved over to the window to see what the young man was doing. "I could help with the window, if it is easier?" After all, he wouldn't need a ladder.

Kyle didn't answer for a few moments, until he had the two largest pieces of glass out and into the trash bag he'd tied to his belt. "Yeah, it probably would, and it's pretty easy to get the thing in. I'm just gonna replace the whole frame. It's faster, and the shatter-proof glass is already setup in a couple of frames. You're not the first broken window this month."

That wasn't precisely comforting, but then Jean-Paul wasn't sure it was meant to be. "Can I help you with this here?" He'd never dealt with broken windows personally, so he wasn't entirely sure what he might need to do.

The answer came in the form of the canvas trash bag being handed through the open window. "Mostly I gotta get the broken glass out so it's safe for me to pull the frame. So I don't have to screw around with a lot here, but once it's out, if you can help me get the frame out, that'd be cool. It'll make this faster. Faster it's out, faster the new one's in, and the faster you're not freezing your butt off."

"I am not... freezing my butt off," Jean-Paul said, frowning as he took the bag from the younger man. It was obvious that the term wasn't necessarily one he was familiar with, though he understood it well enough. "This is not cold." He gestured to the weather outside with his free hand. It wasn't, compared to the winters in Canada. But those had never bothered him, either.

"Faster you're... uh.. letting all the hot air out? Dude, except that makes me sound like my mom or something so let's forget I said it." Kyle said, punctuated with the occasional grunt as he removed a final stubborn shard of glass. "Okay, mostly now it's just removing the old frame and putting in a new one. Which means I gotta go get the new one from the shed, but that's no big."

Jean-Paul held the bag open for the younger man to put the glass into again, then arched an eyebrow at the window frame. "How is it that the frame will be coming out?" Because Jean-Paul, at least, did not have super strength. He couldn't remember if Kyle did, but he was pretty sure he didn't. Maybe. It wasn't like many of his memories were wholly intact.

Kyle clambered in through the window and dropped the glass into the bag, and then pointed at the window frame. "Easy in, easy out." he explained. "They're one piece, and we just undo some screws and out with the old and busted, in with the new plexiglassness." He pulled a pair of screwdrivers from one of the pockets of his cargo pants. "You wanna handle the outside screws?"

"Oui," Jean-Paul said, putting the bag carefully in the rubbish bin beside the nightstand before holding his hand out for a screw driver. Once he had it in hand, he hovered for a moment, then maneuvered himself out the window so he could take care of the screws there. "The window, it will open the same, yes?" He liked having the option of getting out quickly if he needed to.

"Yep. Same exact window, just the glass is like, some kinda I dunno what stuff that the geniuses downstairs made. It's just really durable, and even if you bust it, it's got some kinda meshy stuff, so it won't go all glass everywhere." Kyle had exactly no idea how the stuff worked, what it was made of or what kind of process it took to make it. He just knew that it was clear, and didn't break easily. "Oh, and the frame's actually metal and not wood, so that's hard to break too."

Jean-Paul nodded and continued with the screws on the outside of the frame, tucking them into his pocket since he had nowhere else to put them. The frame came out as easily as Kyle had said it would and he helped to get it inside, then took the screws out of his pocket and offered them, along with the screw driver, to the younger man. "You like pizza, oui?"

"Rhetorical question, right? I mean, hi, have you met me?" The screws, screwdrivers and confusing little widget things that Kyle had forgotten the name of but held the window open when it was supposed to be open went into one of his pockets. "As long as it's not really weird pizza. People in Japan put corn on their pizza and I just gotta draw the line somewhere."

"The British put corn on their pizza," Jean-Paul said, nodding sagely. "I can help you with fetching the window, if you would like. And call before we go to get it to have pizza when we are finished installing it, oui?"

"They also eat curry that tried to melt my face." Kyle said, agreeing with what he believed was a statement that the British did bad things to food. "Help'd be good. It's gotta go in from the outside, so, it'll save us steps if you just go with me and whoosh it over. Also, I totally never say no to pizza. Well, maybe corn pizza."

Flipping his mobile open after pulling it from his pocket, Jean-Paul nodded and then pressed speed dial number four. Number one was Jeanne-Marie's mobile that he wasn't sure was still in service, number two was Chinese and number three was Indian. His priorities might, eventually, need some adjusting. The large meat-lover's pizza would be there in half an hour or less or he'd get his money back - guaranteed. "We have half an hour to get the window upstairs, at least. I will hold it in place for you."