Kyle and Doug - backdated

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

Backdated to August 7th. Kyle comes by Doug's server room after getting printed for a background check, and they go out to get sushi for lunch. The topic of Dori's dad being "dick level: dickfinity" comes up, and Doug says he'll look into things.


Kyle entered Doug's server room hands raised, having opened the door
with an elbow. "Dude, save me here, I got printed and even after
washing my hands I can still feel it. It's making me crazy." His
fingers were very very slightly tinted black and he kept touching one
set of his fingertips to the other set and grimacing.

"Huh?" Doug looked up from his monitors, distracted by the fact that
nobody had rung his extension to tell him that someone was here to see
him. Not that it was a huge thing, and Kyle came to visit every so
often, but he had been elbow-deep in work, and Kyle's entrance had
startled him out of his train of thought. "Printed? What for?"

"Background check." Kyle said. "Edu major, remember. I gotta get
background checked so they know I'm not like pedo bear or something
before I can student teach, even in the DX." Endless forms, most of
which he'd done by hand because he couldn't even find a typewriter
much less figure out how to line up forms in one, and that pdf thing
on his computer crashed a lot and always wanted updates. "Help me out
here."

"I've got some rubbing alcohol wipes, should do the trick." Doug
fished them out from a drawer that held the sorts of cleaning supplies
one needed around computers, canned air and the like. He pitched the
packet underhand to Kyle. "Background check? Everything okay?" He
wouldn't exactly come right out and make the offer to do some
'background checking' of his own to make sure that Kyle didn't get
screwed by the system, but it was plain that he would if the other man
wanted.

"Nah, pretty sure I'm good. Juvenile record's sealed, I like, stuck my
head in Nate's office, brought him a bagel and asked." Kyle'd caught
the packet and was wiping off his fingers repeatedly. "Sides, if I'm
screwed, I'm screwed, you know? Kind of my own fault for being a
dumbass and even if that does happen, I'm pretty sure I can still
teach at the mansion." He shrugged. "Which is probably gonna be what
I do after I student teach anyway, since I'm pretty sure teaching in
the DX full time would put a real damper on being on the team."

"All right, just figured I'd ask." Which is what Doug said, but what
he meant was 'if you need something, let me know, doesn't matter how
questionably legal it is'. Because you didn't come right out and say
that kind of stuff, especially to a friend who tended to keep to the
'don't do questionably legal' side of things. "Food?" he asked, which
was code for 'let's change the subject so we don't have to keep
talking around all of the things we aren't actually saying'.

Kyle'd dropped into the 'guest' chair in Doug's server room but popped
back up at the mention of food. "When am I not interested in food,
huh?" He tossed the alcohol wipe into the trashbasket, and made
gestures towards the door. "Fooooood. I spent half the morning in a
police station and the other on the subway. You can't eat on either
one, and there were like, no good vendors on the way either."

The pair made their way to a sushi place that Doug knew, and were
seated at a small table. "So, is there anything you won't eat?" Doug
asked with a gesture at the menu. As was his usual tendency in most
places, he didn't order off the menu, but rather would accept whatever
the proprietor (who he always seemed to be friendly with) offered. At
places like Mama Lupe's it wasn't so much of a big deal, but he
figured he'd check with Kyle, as the 'whatever' list at a sushi place
was a bit more...esoteric.

Kyle thought about that for a little bit, going over the list of
things he had eaten at sushi places. "Wasabi?" He finally said. "I
mean, I like a little but dude, not like you or even hell, you shoulda
seen Yvette in Japan. Not so big on the fish, totally down with the
green paste of pain." He looked over the menu again, and shrugged.
"Oh, and not live tentacles, Angel did that once, and just.. fuck no."

"Fair enough, I'm a little dubious about tentacles myself. That girl
isn't entirely quite right sometimes," Doug noted, snagging Kyle's
unopened menu and handing them both to the server before engaging in
some rapid-fire Japanese.

"Right, so you basically just said "Hey, bring the stupid tall white
kid who can't speak Japanese something ridiculous to eat." right?"
Kyle said, laughing. He fiddled with the chopsticks a few times,
holding them awkwardly, and then shrugged and put them down. "Okay, I
am not using these. I can, but it looks retarded and it's easier if I
just don't bother."

"Nah, I just told him to bring whatever the chef wants to make us."
Doug waved his hand.

Kyle would have responded, but his phone buzzed on the table, and he
glanced at the screen. Garrison's phone? What would the Canadian want
in the middle of the day? Maybe a drain was acting up. Maybe they'd
found Toad...

"Kyle, I thought we had this conversation."

"Wait, what? What conversation?"

"That it is inappropriate for an X-Man to use the mansion as a place
to pick up tail." The sound of laughter on the other end of the phone
hinted that it was most certainly on speakerphone, and Kane was not
alone.

"I fucking hate you." Kyle said, but he was laughing.

Doug only got Kyle's side of the conversation, and the laughter at the
end, so he merely raised an eyebrow in question as the server brought
the first wave of sashimi to the table.

"Gar's giving me shit about going on a couple of dates with Dori."
Kyle explained. "Whatever, I'm overdue for shit, I guess. I mean, I
avoided it dating Jay, and Clarice, and Jan, so it's probably time."
He bit into his sashimi - tuna, which was pretty normal, so they
weren't onto the weird stuff yet.

"Oh, that reminds me. I'd been meaning to ask you something," Doug
noted as he waited for Kyle to put an especially large piece of
sashimi in his mouth before continuing. "I was wondering where she's
going to store your nuts for winter."

The response was a glare, a raised middle finger, claw out, and Kyle
struggling to swallow the food in his mouth so he could actually say
"You, can go to hell and you can die.". It took a few seconds.

"Been there, done that," Doug rejoined in a faux blase way with a
smirk. "So, other than getting harassed about your lady friend, how's
things?" he asked.

"For me? You know, same old. School, team, you know, freaking out that
I'm gonna be like actually out of school in a year." Kyle eat another
piece of fish, something white he didn't entirely recognize. He'd ask
later, he figured, or look it up or something. "Trying to calm Dori
down about hertuition, cause her dad's a douche and like, trashed her
trust fund or something."

Doug's mental antennae quivered at that. "What, trashed? Like how?"
Doreen's dad being a douchecanoe was a given, from what he knew about
the man, but messing directly with her money for college was a whole
new level of dick move.

"Eh, I dunno, she just said she had one, and then it was gone, but
she's still gotta report his income so she can't get Pell Grants or
anything. The guy's just a giant choad. Hey, is this sea urchin?"
Kyle poked at the ... thing... on the little mound of rice. "How can
anything that freaky looking be that tasty?" The food disappeared into
Kyle's mouth, and he chewed and swallowed before further explaining.
"She was pretty bummed, and I think she's gonna have to take a loan
from the Prof for her first semester. It's why she hasn't said much
lately."

"Dude, Japanese food is all about freaky looking things that are super
tasty." Doug replied, snagging a piece for himself. "I...am going to
do some poking around about that," he said, making a mental note for
later. "Because if they set up a college fund for her, he shouldn't
be able to do anything like that." There were laws, and while Doug
wasn't entirely a law-abiding person himself, when the law coincided
with his personal strongly held opinions...

Kyle shrugged. "Dude, I wouldn't know. I'm still impressed by 401k
funds and having money in a savings account." He picked at his food.
"I'm just, you know, it sucks, she was all like holy crap I got in and
then didn't even know what to do about money. I mean at least I just
figured I wouldn't be able to at all." He shrugged again. "At least
I know what's the what with student loans, right?"

"Just let me see what I can find out, okay?" Doug said reassuringly.
"In the meantime, you really going to let all this food go to waste?
C'mon, dig in."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Kyle made food disappear. He was good at that.