John & JPB | Friday Night (backdated)

[x-quebecois.livejournal.com]

John and Jean-Paul run into one another and do some catching up.


Jean-Paul had flown into the city after spending most of the day in the air because it was easier to breathe when he was hundreds and hundreds of feet about the ground than when his feet were firmly planted - and he needed to be at the X-Factor offices in the morning, anyway. Still, speedsters with ridiculous metabolisms had to eat, so he'd landed in District X and then walked for a bit until he found a bar that served real food. After glancing at the menu, he placed his order and checked the clock to make sure ordering a beer wouldn't seem odd.

His pint arrived and he found himself thinking. The Quebecois liked not thinking better than the constant run-around of questions in his head. Work was work and that was all well and good, but there were only so many cases he could throw himself into.

Done with his conference call at the Elpis office, John decided to head out for a drink. Since it was only half past eight in the evening, he had plenty of time to head back to the office to get his report done. He wasn't worried. Walking at a leisurely pace, John walked into the familiar bar, shrugged his coat off and hung it on the rack. He had been about to take a seat at his usual table when he spotted Jean-Paul sitting at the counter.

Now this was a face he hadn't seen in a long while.

"Hey, stranger." John smirked as he approached the older man. "Fancy meeting you here."

Half-turning in his seat, Jean-Paul's eyebrows rose a bit and he returned the smirk with a part-smile when he recognized John. "Fancy, oui - that is not what I would call this place." He gestured toward the seat beside him. "Sit, stay for the food - I have only just ordered." He caught the bartender's attention and got a pint for the younger man.

"I was just going to get a drink actually but food sounds good." John took a seat next to Jean-Paul and he placed his lighter and his pack of cigarettes on the table. "So do you live around here now?"

"Closer to the offices, but oui, in District X now." Jean-Paul leaned back and took a sip from his beer, eyes catching on the lighter for a moment. "You have been having nightmares recently? Or was your journal only meant to make others think of burning?"

"Guess it's just the pyromaniac in me. All I can think about is wanting to burn things. So maybe it was my brain's way of telling me to chill out." That whole water dream wasn't at all appreciated though. He drank his beer and checked out the menu.

"What have you been up to these days? Did you finally join the leather geeks?"

Jean-Paul wrinkled his nose at that. "Mon Dieu. Non. I joined them once and it did not go so well. I do not want a repeat experience, merci." Then he took another sip of beer and shrugged. "I work for X-Factor Investigations, here in District X. There are no uniforms. I work surveillance, for the most part. It is something I do well. What of you? Have you been on many more trips to the far reaches of the world to do good for others?"

"So you're a spy. Interesting." He liked X-Factor as much as he liked the X-Force and the X-Men. "... I just got back from Manila recently. The travel's been interesting," John said, and was quick to order his food before deciding to turn the conversation back to Jean-Paul.

"Are you teaching again? Or did you give that up completely?"

"Non, I am not teaching." Jean-Paul's memories were still too unreliable for him to feel comfortable being around children long enough to teach them. "What were you doing in Manila?" The Quebecois was just as good at turning the conversation around.

Points for that. But John was better. "It wasn't a holiday. The details would bore you. Have you been anywhere interesting lately? Or is it a, if you tell me, you'd have to kill me kind of thing with the X-Factor? What with the lot of you being the cream of the bad ass crop."

"Recently? Non, I have not been anywhere interesting. I had a flying dinosaur-man attempt to steal my life force, though." Jean-Paul sat his beer down when the bartender brought him his food and ate a fry.

John snickered. "A flying dinosaur-man... That's funny. You all right though?" John stole a piece of fry and added some ketchup to Jean-Paul's plate just so he could dip his fry with it.

"Oui, I am fine," Jean-Paul said. "I slept a great deal and drank more Gatorade than anyone should have to." He nudged his plate closer to John and picked up the container of mustard to put some of that next to the ketchup. "Did you do nothing fun in Manila? There is so much history there - you stayed in your hotel room the whole time?"

"I was stuck in meetings mostly, but I did manage to visit the Catholic church." Surprise, surprise. "Some of the locals were telling me that the Black Nazarene cleanses all of your sins when you place your hand on the statue. It was... sort of interesting to see the amount of people lining up to do so." John however didn't go anywhere near it. He didn't believe in that sort of thing. "Other than that... no. There wasn't a whole lot of fun involved." He thanked the cook when his plate of food was delivered but continued to steal fries off of Jean-Paul's plate.

"Still seeing Kevin?"

Jean-Paul ate another fry as he considered that question - his answer... could lead in a myriad of different directions. "Things with Kevin, they are... complicated," he said finally. "But... not in the usual sense, I think." Not exclusively, anyway. What did that mean when it came to things like this? He finally picked up his burger and took a bite. "Pourquoi?"

He was just making conversation. Or he was just curious. Both. What did it matter anyhow? John simply shrugged. "This has got to be the greasiest piece of fry I've ever eaten." And for lack of anything else to say, he drank his beer and lit a cigarette, offering one to the French-Canadian.

"Liar," Jean-Paul said, smiling despite himself. "You must have eaten greasier things than that." He took another bite of his burger. "Also, I still do not smoke." He indicated the cigarette. Reaching for his beer, he cast a sideways glance at John, then asked, "And you? Are you still interested in uncomplicated things?"

With regards to the greasy stuff, probably. After all, John was a fan of Epic Meal Time on YouTube. He ate another piece of fry, ignoring his sandwich. "I like my life the way it is. I've seen how complicated things can get when you let someone into your life. They take hold of your heart and then one fine day, when you least expect it, excuse me--" He took hold of Jean-Paul's fork and he stabbed it into the man's burger. Nice and clean. "Honestly? I don't like it."

Jean-Paul looked at his burger with the fork sticking out of it, tipped his head to the side, and nodded. Then he pulled the fork out and bit that part of the burger off so he could eat it. Interesting. John didn't like being vulnerable and viewed 'complications' as things that led only toward pain. "Kevin and I, we are not... exclusive, as you say. This is why things are complicated." He shrugged himself, then reached over and stole a piece of tomato off of John's as yet untouched burger.

"Not exclusive... And it's complicated because one of you likes it that way and the other one doesn't?" John smirked and grabbed at his lighter. "How exactly does that work?"

"Non, it is complicated because there are no... rules, as such. The thought of him being with someone else, it does not bother me." The Quebecois shrugged again. "He is not jealous. We are still friends. This is what is complicated - explaining it." Jean-Paul chuckled. It did make sense to him, just apparently not to anyone else.

"In that case, it doesn't sound too complicated. It seems like the whole friends with benefits thing is working out for you two." John took hold of his sandwich and dropped the rest of the tomatoes and the greens onto his plate. He hated vegetables with a vengeance and made a mental note to order one without the disgusting greens next time. "But are you ever going to settle down? You might be a good looking fella but you're not getting any younger."

Jean-Paul reached over and took the vegetables John didn't want so he could put them on the remains of his burger. "I am not looking to settle down, as you say. Not right now."

"Well, I'm sure X-Factor's keeping you busy." John stole more fries from Jean-Paul's plate and slipped them into his sandwich before he lit his cigarette and picked up his beer again. "To bachelorhood."

"Oui," Jean-Paul said, clinking his glass with John's. "Or something very like it." Reaching over, he carefully took the cigarette from the younger man's fingers and stubbed the burning end out in the ash tray before saying, "Eat, mon ami. The night is young."