xp_logs | B&H: Jared & Kevin | Sunday night (Reply)

While the Untouchables are kept overnight in the medlab for observation Jared tries to make a friend. Sort of. We think.

Kevin never spent much time in the medlab. Unlike some of the mansion's residents, he wasn't much prone to injuring himself. That probably came from having to be so careful of who and what you touched so often and the lack of contact that created between Kevin and most of the world. Now he was stuck down in the medlab, stuck because they had to observe him. He was doing his best to politely ignore the existence of his "roommate." The Unfeelable and the Untouchable, great. Kevin did his best to draw constantly so he was always occupied, just in case.

Jared was a stranger to this place as well. He didn't even remember the last time he had been in a medical facility and that was freaking him out. But contrary to Kevin, he was an attention junky.and one of his way to show it was by complaining. People usually felt sympathetic towards a sad and moody bartender. "I can't stay here... I'm supposed to be working! People need me out there..." Then he looked at Kevin. "Hey yo! What's up, man?"

Eyes sliding slowly to the side to peer at the other occupant of the room, Kevin tried very hard to resist asking if they didn't have manners where Jared was from. "Yo?" He said the question the way a confused parent oblivious to slang would. Who said yo? Did people respond to that sorta thing? "Ah think people'll manage to find someone else to pour 'em their liquor. No one'll miss you much for one night." The sentiment behind the statement was none too warm and fuzzy, but the tone it was issued with was Kevin's usual soft, polite one.

"Dude", Jared replied, "you're so out of it! A bartender is so not here to just pour drinks. I smile, I grin, I shrug, I entertain... I'm part of the experience!" Worst thing is, Jared really believed in what he was saying. As he started walking around the room, he added: "The fact that you can't touch people doesn't mean you have to stay in and miss all the fun about connecting with them!"

Great, another person who used bartending as a means for performance when they didn't have the balls to go out and perform for real. This guy was reminding Kevin a little too much of Jay and the last comment reinforced that. "Don't talk about things you got no clue about. You can't feel it when people touch you. Wow, that's a curse. Makes you a real danger to society. And it sure means you totally understand what decaying every single thing you touch is like."

Jared shrugged. He considered Kevin way too dramatic. What was even weirder was the fact that he kept talking in present tense. "Well, now that it's all gone - at least for now - shouldn't you be... you know... enjoying yourself?" His last words came with a wink, not that he tried to be somewhat friendly, just hoping to reach some man-to-man understanding.

Thank the Lord Kevin was not a violent person or he might have socked the guy for that implication. Hey, you can touch stuff right now so go get it on! He'd like to hug someone and not worry where his hood was and where faces were. He'd enjoy just being able to offer someone a hand up from the ground without half-panicking on the inside about potential holes in his gloves he hadn't noticed. Jared went straight to sex, obviously he didn't get it. "It's gone for now, they don't know why and they don't know when it will come back. No, Ah won't be 'enjoyin' myself' because it ain't worth the risk of hurtin' someone if everything comes back as suddenly as it went and disappeared in the first place."

"Oh come on!" Jared was more disappointed than surprised by Kevin's behavior. Being able to have sex but not feeling it had caused him a really hard time and need to adjust his social life, so being given a chance to get back on track, even for a moment, was a blessing. He didn't understand why Kevin would freak out to have his powers, and freak out to have his powers suspended. "If it's your only chance, don't you wanna take it?" Then Jared felt the need to be a jerk again. "Even though your dude is kinda old...ish..."

"Keep your opinions on my boyfriend to yourself," Kevin told him, quiet voice gone icily still. "Ah've had the choice before, didn't take it then. Don't expect you to understand it and, quite frankly, Ah don't much care whether or not you do. But you'll stop talkin' 'bout it 'cause it don't concern you none. My life, my choices. Ah'm the one who gets to live with the consequences if Ah make the wrong choice, not you."

"Ah... Defensive, huh?" Jared said, still willing to talk but realizing Kevin would not open up unless shaken up a bit further. "Your life, your choices, true... I ain't no shrink, but, you realize you do have daddy issues, right?"

"Excuse me?" That's all he said, but those two words were ice on his tongue. Kevin had finally gotten to a point where he could talk about his father casually the way most people could mention their parents. He didn't do it with many people and he didn't bring the man up much, but he was finally able to. Now he had a stranger somehow linking his boyfriend to his father. They really didn't have manners where Jared came from.

"I mean... This guy could easily be your dad. That says a lot. Were you dating a woman of his age, that would be fine, you know, the whole Cougar thing. But I don't think it works the other way around." Jared knew he had put his finger on something but didn't want to push it any further. He had been forthcoming enough - in his very special way - and he hoped Kevin would do the rest on his own. "Just saying..." Then, as a last tip, he added: "I never knew my real parents. Doesn't mean I try to find a substitute..."

A substitute? He seriously thought Jean-Paul was some sort of paternal substitute? Did he have any idea how entirely twisted it was to think that? Kevin was too baffled but his sheer idiocy to actually be angry. He was annoyed and he was frustrated in a way that only Jay ever made him, but he wasn't angry. Kevin had finally realized something. Jared was terminally stupid. "Ah'm Southern but Ah ain't that kinda Southern," he told him instead. "And Ah'm too gay for a Cougar." That wasn't entirely true, but he felt it made a better point than complete truth would. It was also the closest he'd ever come to saying he was gay.

"Why are you being such a dick? I'm really trying to have a conversation here!" Sure, Jared was pissed to lose his powers so suddenly and to feel so vulnerable to the world. But that opened too many doors to look away. He didn't understand why Kevin was so stubborn, and also so reluctant to talk about his life. After all, they were in a school, it's not like people could have any secrets at all. "You don't want to do guys' stuff at the fair. You don't want to talk about your boyfriend. You certainly won't talk about you. Are we really supposed to sit here, looking away and pretend we don't see each other? Are we twelve years old?" That was it. Jared was usually a nice guy, funny and easy to talk to, at least in a college environment. He was still trying to figure out how people communicated here.

"Ah don't refer to girls as 'the hottie with claws,' binge drink or play football. Ah went to the fair to see the local artists. You're darn insulting about my boyfriend and my relationship ain't the business of someone Ah don't know in the first place. You're also darn insulting about me. Ah don't talk 'bout myself much anyway but you ain't endearing yourself to me either." He didn't get it, why was this guy pushing so much? "Ah dunno how people do it where you're from but this ain't how they do it where Ah'm from."

"Okay! Where I come from, people just say it, no big deal! And yes I like hotties, yes I drink, yes I used to play football. Doesn't mean I'm a tool." It was easier to deal with Yvette's discomfort and shyness than with Kevin's everything. "Fine, let's try again. I'm Jared, I'm from Nebraska, I bartend for a living since I dropped out of college, and what really pisses me off, is living among people too young or too old, and having the only few people my age thinking I'm stupid because I don't think art is any way interesting. How about you?"

He didn't point out that Kyle probably didn't care what a person's opinion of art was. Kevin didn't really know what his point was in all this. The only obvious point seemed to be one that the Southerner thought was sort of...was 'lame' too strong a word? "So pretty much insulting my boyfriend, insulting me and telling me Ah should get over worrying 'bout my mutation 'cause it's supposedly gone now is your way of, what? Makin' friends?" Okay, so even if it was lame that wasn't enough to stop Kevin from saying something about it. He wasn't going to be won over by Jared's piss poor attempt at a restart.

Since being nicer and genuine didn't work so well, Jared felt like being playful. "Friends, neighbors... Whatever works for you. As long as you don't try to choke me with a pillow while I'm asleep since... well, it's almost nap time!" he replied, as he removed his shirt and laid down on one of the lab's bed, his arms crossed behind his head.

Kevin shook his head. Was this guy bipolar or something? His mood changed quicker than a woman when she was PMSing, it seemed. "Ah'm not the sort to suffocate someone with a pillow." If he had been prone to that sort of violence then Jared would have found himself punched way back near the beginning of this little conversation.

Jared displayed a tiny victorious smile and flipped on the bed. "Well then, feel free to give me a back rub. I haven't felt anything in years, so I have a long list of things to re-experience as soon as possible. Including sleeping naked, playing with fire, trying pottery... and sure, getting laid!" He felt like a kid on Christmas day. So many things to do. Sad thing is, Kevin didn't seem to share the enthusiasm. "So, what are you gonna do first, if this thing lasts?"

"Test it. Paint or cook without gloves on, probably." He ignored the rest of what Jared said. Kevin wasn't touching anything on that list from the back rub to the nudity to the getting laid part. Who asked another guy for a backrub? Even joking, unless the other guy was an actual friend it was sort of gay. But then maybe Jared was kind of gay. Who was Kevin to judge?

"You're so insensitive", Jared said, faking a bad mood. Staying in the lab was boring enough by itself, no need to make it worse with bad feelings. "Any idea when we can actually leave this place? Turns out I have a social life to maintain..."

A shrug answered the question. "Depends how soon they figure out what's up with us, Ah guess. Maybe weeks." He didn't really think Doctor McCoy would keep them there for weeks, but he thought Jared deserved the comment with his reference to his social life. "And how'm Ah insensitive?"

"For ignoring my backrub request", he said with a wink. "You are being self-centered! As you said, we might stay here for a while... And I really hurt myself this morning when I rolled out of bed." He actually meant selfish, but self-centered was less offensive and Kevin was being too much of that for both of them. "Or maybe you're just too freaking closeted... just kidding..."

"You might wanna watch how loud you make that request," Kevin said with an almost casual air to his words. "People usually only proposition other people for back rubs as a gateway into other, more naked things. Someone might think you're hitting on me." Kevin had Jared pegged as straight so he didn't think the other guy was actually trying to proposition him for ulterior motives. He just didn't get why he kept bringing up back rubs.

"Fine! I'm already stripped to the waist..." Then he sat back, facing Kevin. "It's a joke, don't be so gay about it..." Jared had always lived with other guys. What Kevin would have called promiscuous, Jared would call it close, or as he often said, bro.

Kevin smirked a little and it was almost arrogant, something rarely seen on his face. He really didn't like this guy. "Stop bein' so gay and I'll get more hetero 'bout it. But even Ah'm not gay enough to keep goin' on 'bout another guy giving me a back massage. And it's sorta a chick thing to do anyway."

Living in a fraternity house had made Jared well adapted to the bromantic lifestyle, and it never was big of a deal. "Never-freaking-mind. Just stay in your closet and wake me up when Doctor Furry drops by with some results..." Jared then turned his back on Kevin, hoping to find some rest. This lack of sympathy had made his day worse than it actually started. Anyway, there was still tomorrow.