xp_logs | Kevin & Jan | Saturday afternoon

During a break from the construction on the boathouse Jan joins Kevin and the ensuing innuendo thoroughly distracts him.

"So how are your lungs holding up?" Jan asked Kevin, sitting next to him during a break from the oh-so-fun task of converting the boathouse into an art studio. "They totally coated with mortar yet, or you need another day or so for that?" Things were going along nicely from what Jan could tell. She didn't have any sort of personal use for the boathouse either as what it had been or what it was about to become, but she knew the change mattered to a bunch of people, and that was what important to her. Jan wasn't an architect and she didn't see construction in her future, but here and now, to help out people who happened to include Kevin, was the reason she was out here right now.

"Ah'm pretty sure they're mostly functional?" Kevin brushed mortar dust off his arm in his attempt to get it to stop following him around and kept a careful eye on where Jan was in relation to him and how much distance was between them. He had stripped down to just a ribbed tank and one glove from the waist up despite the lack of hood. Mortar and brick were both essentially Kevin-proofed by nature of being minerals so he only really needed the one glove for the plastic handle of the tool to spread the mortar with. "It's possible Ah'm gonna get enough build up to be coughing mortar dust after next weekend, though."

"Well, mostly functional's a lot better than not functional, right?" It was too bad that Kevin couldn't wear a mask to keep from breathing in all of the junk in the air around the construction site. With all of the bricklaying and other stuff going on, it was amazing there was actually any air left in the, well, air. Being able to have a barrier between your nose and mouth and all of the dust produced by the work really helped. "So next weekend's the last weekend? And then you guys will move in all of your stuff and set up shop?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Next weekend should be the end of it. Ah'll probably be in here during the week to make sure this is far enough along that it'll get done by Sunday still." Kevin nodded at the room they were facing. The walls had all been lined with bricks as had most of the floor. He needed to make a fire pit still but that would be less monotonous than walls and floor so it would probably go faster. At least he hoped so. "Then Ah can actually, y'know, get back to actual art and not just construction. Construction's good though. Ah sorta like it."

"Construction's just another kind of art, I think," Jan commented. "I mean, you have to follow plans so things don't collapse or not work, so it's not like the art you do, but you're still making something, still putting a part of yourself into it. And this is something a lot of people will be able to use, and the people who use the place and built it can look around and say 'Hey, I helped with this! I made this place exist!' That's a lot better than just hiring some random person to do the work for you. It's more yours in that way, isn't it?"

Her perspective made Kevin smile. "Yeah, it's more ours that way. But for the record, a lot of art involves plans to draft first. You sketch out paintings with the basic idea and shapes, you sketch out sculptures for reference. Ah've done stuff with and without plans, but like half the stuff without a plan sorta falls over and crashes and dies a horrible, loud, Shakespearean death." He shrugged a little. "Sometimes the plan's just in my head, and it changes as Ah go, but there's definitely a plan."

"So basically you're saying you draw things you're going to draw? And sculpt?" The idea amused Jan. "I guess it's a good idea to know what you're planning on doing, I guess I just figured it sort of just happened, that you had an idea in mind and it just came to life. I suppose things can change, though, even when you've got that plan?" She supposed it was better to plan than make mistakes, but at the same time she'd had an image in her mind of Kevin just making art, the ideas coming to him on the spur of the moment, perhaps having a basic idea of the way he wanted to go but not knowing what the end result would be until it was done.

"Nah, Ah draw things Ah'm gonna paint and sculpt. But it's like really spare sketches, y'know? They aren't detailed at all. Sorta like..." How did he describe it? "When you move into a new room. You sketch out where the furniture will go before you move your stuff in, but once you've got your stuff in the room you might paint the walls, pick a color scheme, put up pictures and art and posters, decorate it. All that, that doesn't get planned as much. Like Ah might sketch out a sculpture with the basic shape but then when Ah'm makin' it maybe Ah decide a different piece of metal works better, or something with a curve where Ah'd wanted something jagged. Stuff like that. Knowing you're makin' a pyramid doesn't mean you make the same kind of pyramid you started off with, y'know?" He probably wasn't making any kind of sense here. Words, they were not Kevin's strong suit.

"You actually make a sketch of where you're gonna put furniture in a room?" Jan stared at Kevin, wide-eyed. "Seriously? That takes real planning! I've only moved a few times, and in the mansion there's already furniture in the rooms and if I wanted to add something new I just put it where it fit and maybe moved something else, but when I got new furniture in my bedroom when I lived with my dad I just sort of put the new stuff where the old stuff had been, and if I wanted a different look we just moved stuff around. When I lived in the dorm I just sort of put stuff around randomly... wow. I'm just not organized like that, but that is so cool! So yeah, that makes total sense now with making sketches of the art."

"Well, not like an actual, physical sketch. But it's in my head. Ah can picture where stuff goes and how much space it takes up and stuff. But some people aren't real good with spacial visualization so they probably should sketch it out for real so they don't move everything 'round only to find out it doesn't fit and they gotta put it back." She had taken him way too literally, but that was probably his fault. And she got the point about sketching out art stuff so it was a success in the end and that's all that mattered anyway. "Sometimes Ah just mess 'round with pieces of metal and then figure out how to fit 'em together. Guess it depends on the day on how organized Ah feel like being."

"So are you so organized that you've already planned on lunch?" Jan asked. "Because I've got some waffles with your name on them if you want. I do a bit of planning, too, just not as complicated as you do. I figure out how to make my schedule work with classes and the team and all of the other stuff I want to do, and it all works. I'd probably have done better in school if I'd been big on planning things ahead like you are, but school's just about over anyway, and unless I totally screw up in the next couple of months, I'm passing all of my classes and graduating and getting that degree is what's important."

"Ah suck at scheduling. Time management and Ah don't get along. 'Cause Ah get distracted easily sometimes." Kevin got wrapped up in art a lot and he'd look up to suddenly find it dark out when it had just been ten in the morning, really. He also got distracted by Jean-Paul easily. Jesus, that man barely had to blink to derail Kevin's brain some times. Or pretty girls. Kevin was such a sucker for pretty girls. Case and point, he had only meant to sit down for a minute before getting back to work but then Jan had turned up and now he was still sitting on his ass talking to her. Derailed. "Wait, is my name literally on the waffles? 'Cause you'd totally win a prize for that. Dunno what prize, though."

"Just on one so no one can find them and eat them and be all 'I didn't know these belonged to someone else!'" Jan explained. Originally she'd planned on writing his name on all of them, but found that the process wasn't too much fun. No one would pay attention to a name cut with a knife, and food coloring was messy and not a very pretty, easy-to-read result. "I figure we can put your name on the rest of them with syrup if you want. That way they're totally Kevin waffles. And they're shaped liked bricks, too."

"Bricks are just rectangles," Kevin pointed out with an amused smile. He pictured Jan making normal square waffles with the for distinct quadrants and then just cutting them down the middle to make them brings. "Where's your imagination? Ah was hopin' for some dinosaurs here. Maybe a tonka truck or Mickey Mouse. Hearts and stars, maybe. Maybe some of those sugar sprinkles that are clear and sparkly since it's you." He fished his glove out of his pocket so he could put it on and be, well, at least more covered even if he wasn't entirely safe to be around for the moment.

"I say they're bricks, so they're bricks, see? That's my imagination going on right there; where's yours? I didn't think you were the dinosaur sort, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Tonka trucks and Mickey Mouse are so unoriginal." Jan grinned at him. "And I'll be sure to make some heart-shaped waffles, just for you, complete with sparkly sprinkles since it's me. Anything else you want on them? Some people like sliced fruit. What about some chocolate syrup drizzled on top, or covered with whipped cream?"

Why oh why did chocolate syrup drizzling and whipped cream give Kevin mental images that were distinctly unrelated to food? Seriously, brain? Apparently his brain wanted to distract itself from its distraction since Kevin wasn't actively bricking anything up for the time being. He cleared his throat. "Nah, Ah'm really just a melted butter and syrup kinda guy. Ah'm real simple that way." And he was real simple in how totally derailed his brain was right now, too.

Jan hadn't been entirely innocent with her comments about the toppings. OK, so she'd been pretty much not innocent with them. But Kevin didn't seem to be taking the bait. "OK, just butter and syrup it is for you. I'll keep the whipped cream for me. You have time to eat now or you're going to wait for later?"

He had to clear his throat again. Luckily for Kevin Jan didn't realize what that tended to indicate and there was no one around who did. "Yeah...you keep the whipped cream for you," he replied slowly with a distracted tone. It took several moment before he snapped back into focus enough to answer the important part of what she had said, though. "Ah mean, yeah, Ah've got time. For eating. Waffles. Eating waffles." Wow, brain derailment. Kevin was going to blame this on the fact that he was going slowly with Laura and not seeing Jean-Paul as often as usual.

"Well of course eating waffles, what else would we be talking about?" She kept a straight look on her face as she said the words, her eyes widening a bit in mock surprise as she outwardly maintained her innocence. "There are waffles just waiting for you right now, and in the future there will be even more waffles, and these future waffles will start off have nothing on them but sprinkles, and then you can add your topping of choice."

The innocent expression did nothing to compensate for the mischievousness in her voice. Maybe he was making up the mischief, but he was pretty sure he wasn't. Another clearing of his throat. Kevin stood up, dedicated to finding something to do with himself that didn't necessarily involve looking at Jan who he was picturing naked...with sprinkles...and having toppings added to her. "So where are the waffles?" He sounded a little like he was grasping for a topic change.

The guy sure was clearing his throat a lot. Must be due to all of the dust in the air... not. "They're in the mansion's kitchen," Jan said. "I figured you wouldn't want them to get all covered with dust and stuff. I think you've already got enough of that in your body at the moment and don't need even more. You want to wash up and I'll bring them to you or do you want to come with me to get them?"

Kevin looked down at himself covered in a dusting of mortar particles. Everything from his knees to his face had some level of dust going on, skin and cloth alike. "Ah feel like clean up is a good idea. Ah should probably get outta the dust for a while anyway." He nodded into the room in which he'd been working. Dust particles could be seen floating through beams of light. "So, maybe Ah can go douse myself with water and you can bring me waffles?" A shower was needed for more reasons that de-dustification, though.

"Sure thing! You go get nice and clean, and I'll deliver the waffles right to your door." Jan stood and grinned at him, a grin that carried an edge of mischief in it. "And I might just be thinking of you the whole time. Oh, and I can pick my clothes up from you if you don't mind taking them with you. If not, I'll come by and get them later." And with that, the playfully mischievous grin still on her face, Jan shrank to her one-inch size, her clothes dropping to the ground as she remained several feet above the ground. A moment later, she was entirely out of sight even to someone looking for her, flying on her way towards the mansion.

At first Kevin had been confused about the clothes comment, but then she was tiny and possibly not wearing anything at all. Eyes slightly widened and jaw dropped a bit, Kevin stared after where she'd disappeared to. How was a tiny, naked person going to bring waffles anywhere? Clearing his throat, Kevin made himself pick up her clothes and his discarded shirts so he could make his way back over to the mansion and to his suite. He wrapped her clothes up in a clean shirt so they didn't get mortar dust all over them and decided he'd leave his suite door cracked open for her. 'Cause, yeah, he needed to get clean in so many ways right now.

Pigs might not be able to fly, but waffles could. At least that's how it might have appeared to anyone who happened to be in the kitchen or look up towards the ceiling as Jan flew to Kevin's room with the waffles. She was counting on the fact that he'd brought her clothes with her, because if he hadn't she would just drop off the waffles and fly off. Playing around and flirting was one thing, but showing up in just panties and a bra and not having anything to change into? She doubted he'd actually complain, but still. When she arrived, she found that the door to his suite had been left open, which she figured was an invitation to come on in. Still, she knocked, and when there wasn't an answer she flew in and placed the waffles on the one of the counters in the small kitchen of the suite. Finding her clothes on the back of the couch, she went ahead and changed into them since Kevin was in the bathroom and couldn't see her. Not that he should complain if he saw her without a lot of clothes on. She doubted she'd have a complaint if she saw him without a lot of clothes on.

By time Kevin emerged from the bathroom there was a fully clothed Jan in the living area. And he had forgotten to bring clean clothes with him so he was standing there in a towel with his eyes shifting between her and his room. Kevin's eyes narrowed. "You're holding the waffles hostage and you totally did this to get me naked, didn't you?" He was obviously joking, but the waffles were out of sight from where he stood. "Ah'll be back. When Ah'm wearing more'n a towel." Then he disappeared into his bedroom to find actual clothing.

Jan started to protest, but he was already gone. So not fair; she would have liked to have had a longer look at him in just a towel. Sighing sadly to herself, she started looking around for plates, knives, forks, and napkins so she could get the waffles ready for when Kevin returned, probably doing his whole covered-head-to-toe thing again. The thought was just so sad, and extra sad given the view she'd just had. Kevin's body was something she certainly wouldn't mind seeing again.

Given that it was his suite and everything in it but Jan and the walls were Kevin-proofed, he popped out of his room about a minute after he had disappeared clad in pants with a pair of gloves hanging from a pocket and two shirts hung over a shoulder. With how much clothing he always wore Kevin had grown to resent it. In his suite he was generally as unclothed as possible unless he knew people were coming by. Jan understood giving him a wide enough berth to stay safe so he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. If she knew it then she'd never get it again, if she didn't then he'd move her one notch higher on the trust chart when it came to be around him.

The shoulder mostly covered by the two draped shirts rested against the corner of the wall when Kevin popped his head around it to see Jan searching for stuff. "Oh, look, there really are waffles. Darn, and here Ah was hoping it was the clever naked ploy." He shot a grin in her direction and did nothing to help her find anything around the kitchen.

Jan turned around to face Kevin, a plate in one hand. "Yeah there are waffles, I wasn't just being a tease. I wouldn't tell a guy he was going to get waffles from me and then not deliver. I don't make promises I don't want to keep." She eyed his mostly naked torso, then looked back at his face. "I liked the other look, but this one works, too." It was much better than the way he usually dressed, even if she was well aware there was a reason he covered everything up. Such a shame to hide that body from everybody.

"Ah could drop my pants, but that'd be rude." His smile came back even brighter than before. From the easiness of his smile to the looseness of his posture, there was a marked difference in the Southerner's level of relaxation. "But Ah can try to wander 'round in a towel for you more often. Ah'll schedule it for you and everything." His eyes flicked over to the plate of waffles in her hand, looking for whether or not his name really was on them. It was all Jennie's fault, this breakfast item fixation he had. It would remain her fault as long as she wasn't around to dispute it, too.

"Dropping your pants would only be rude if you did that but didn't eat the waffles," Jan commented with a smile, handing the plate to Kevin. "That wouldn't be fair to the waffles, now would it?" Sure enough, just as she had said it would be, the top waffle bore his name on it. The writing wouldn't win any awards, but the green word was legible. "Left over from St. Patrick's day," she explained.

Kevin quirked an eyebrow as he took the plate from her, fingers careful to not touch Jan's as he did it. "My waffles've grown leprechauns?" It made him grin, even if they was green. The green dye in the waffles was sort of messy, probably partly from spreading as it was absorbed, but that was obscured a bit by the syrup anyway. Kevin headed over to the couch, plate in hand, and nodded for Jan to follow him. "Droppin' your pants is always rude if you're doin' in the company of someone other than your doctor or someone you've got, uh, intentions with." Despite his very vivid, pleasant mental images earlier Kevin had no intentions with Jan. He shut himself up by settling down on the couch and cutting into his waffles with the side of his fork.

That was pretty much what Jan had just said except she'd been phrasing things in terms of waffles; she hadn't meant that something wouldn't be fair to food at all. "Well, that could be a way to let someone know about the possibility of intentions. But I guess it's not something a gentleman or lady would do, huh?" Not that Jan would ever make the claim to be a lady. She'd already ditched her clothes in front of Kevin even if he hadn't actually seen her without her clothes. Jan had been naked in front of just about the entire school when she'd been a student and she hadn't cared one bit It wasn't like she had anything to hide, and despite John's obvious issues with determining size of body parts, she definitely had breasts. "Do you like the waffles?"

Kevin side stepped the lingering thread of the pantsless topic. Mostly because Jan had shrunk down to a tiny size and left her clothes behind so he was now picturing her being highly unladylike without her pants. My brain hates me, he thought as he shoved another piece of waffle into his mouth to keep him from saying anything he maybe shouldn't. After swallowing, Kevin nodded. "Yeah, thanks. The waffles are awesome." He gave Jan a playfully suspicious, squinty-eyed look. "Why did you have waffles hangin' 'round for me anyway?"

"Because you're Kevin," Jan replied simply, "and you like waffles." Was there really any better reason than that? Whatever Kevin might or might not feel for her, Jan liked the guy. As just a friend or maybe something more, whatever might happen, for now Jan was having a lot of fun flirting with him, giving him pictures and presents with the theme of male anatomy, dropping her little 'hints' (and her clothes!), and saying all of this stuff with meaning that weren't so hidden if you were looking out for them. "You've been working extra hard the past couple of weeks and I wanted to make sure you took a break, a real one."

Normally he would have given her a good natured nudge with his shoulder or slung an arm around her. but since he hadn't bothered with the idea of shirts being put on yet that was all out of the question. Instead Jan got a smile and a forkful of waffle held up in offering to her. "S'like my own waffle fairy. Is feeding you waffles like a weird sort of cannibalism? D'you feel a kindred with the waffles this is messing with?" Even as he asked this the fork sort of swayed invitingly in front of her mouth.

"Oh yeah, I totally identify with those waffles," Jan said, her voice lowering a bit as she leaned forward and looked him in the eyes. "I think I'd rather you eat the waffles, but if you want me to be the one to enjoy them and you want to watch..." That said, she turned her attention to the actual waffles on the fork.

Kevin watched as her mouth closed around the bit of waffle, lips wrapping around the fork. She had to be doing that on purpose, right? There was no way a girl took food off a fork like that unintentionally. Her lips slid off the fork and Kevin had to swallow hard. Well, his mind was right back in the gutter. As she chewed Kevin's eyes were on Jan's lips. "Artists are real fond of watchin'," he told her in a quiet, distracted voice.

"Yeah?" The tip of Jan's tongue licked her lips slowly. "I think that piece of the waffle had a bit of your name on it. So that means I sort of just..." Before she could finish the sentence, a cell phone ringtone was heard. Jan's seductive look took on a bit of annoyance at being interrupted during what she knew was a totally awesome statement. "That's my alarm," she told Kevin, leaning back a bit and checking her phone. "Oh, shit, I totally forgot about Staci! She wouldn't like to hear that, though, the girl totally has the hots for me. I was going to see about asking Kyle if he wanted us to do a threesome with her for his birthday, but now we broke up so that's out of the question." Jan stood up. "I gotta run. We have a study session in, like, an hour, and it might be a make-out session as well as I haven't totally ruled that idea out, and I need to go grab some books and clothes and stuff because this'll probably wind up being a sleepover."

Eyebrows having inched upward somewhere around the word "threesome," Kevin mostly wound up staring after Jan as she rambled and got up. Hello mental images. Again. Damn, they were frequent visitors with Jan around, weren't they? "Um...have a good, uh, study session? And thanks for the waffles again?" So distracted...

"Thanks!" Jan grinned at him. "Oh, and what I was saying was that the waffle had a letter of your name on so that was like I was putting a piece of Kevin in my mouth. Also I'm glad you think the waffles are awesome, and for the record, the waffles totally think you're awesome, too!" With that, she blew him a kiss and slipped out the door, her wings fluttering a bit as she left.