Kyle and JPC - fashion advice

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Backdated to October. Kyle comes looking for Laurie to help him tie a necktie, and winds up getting a wardrobe consultation instead.


The door was already open, so Kyle just came straight into Laurie and Jean-Philippe's suite without knocking, in button down and pressed slacks with an untied tie around his neck, and in a pair of dress shoes that looked a lot like he'd tied them first and then put them on. They were a little mashed looking in places. "Laurie! Help! I have a tie emergen, oh hey Sparky. Laurie around?"

Jean-Phillipe looked up briefly from the couch. "Bonjour, Kyle. Non, Laurie is not in. I believe she is studying on campus at the library." The rest of Kyle's words caught up to him, and he looked back at Kyle again. "Tie emergency?" he asked curiously. At Kyle's abortive hand motion, Jean-Phillipe stood up and walked over. "Give it here," he instructed.

When Kyle gave him the tie, the Frenchman put it around his own neck and with a few quick motions had it tied. He loosened it enough to get it back over his head without untying it, and gave it to Kyle. He looked assessingly at the feral's plain white shirt and black tie. "Dieu, do you own any shirts and ties that do not make you look like a Mormon?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Kyle said, straightening his tie. "I've got a .. thing, like a job interview only not really." He looked down at his pants and shirt. "For my student teaching. And this is the only white shirt I've got and all the rest of my ties are like, I dunno, colors." He examined the tie.

"Very well. Let us go look at your closet. Because under no circumstances are you going out wearing -that-." Jean-Phillipe reached out and pulled at the knot of the tie before Kyle could stop him, untying the work he had just done and holding on to the tie. "Allons-y! Vite, vite!" he instructed, shooing the feral out the door.

"Wait, what?" Kyle got to the hallway before he was too confused to continue. "Dude, seriously, are you that offended?" He followed Jean-Phillipe down the hallway more out of open curiosity than any sort of compliance with the man's sudden decision to play paper doll with Kyle. "It's not like this interview is going anywhere. I just wanted to not look like a dude who wears jeans and sandals six days out of seven."

"It is terribly bland, and even if you do not think the interview is going anywhere, you should dress as if it will go somewhere." Jean-Phillipe was not exactly the stereotypical fashion-obsessed gay man, but he still had some strongly held opinions, and the only person he thought could reasonably wear a white shirt and black tie was Pete Wisdom.

"Dude, mouth full of fangs and claws. I'm okay with being bland." Kyle protested, weakly. "I mean I'm already going in there all "Yeah, I'm your diversity candidate, I know you're not actually gonna hire me, I'm just here because I gotta talk to more than one school." He shrugged as he unlocked the door to his suite. "I mean not saying that to them, but man, I know where I'm gonna end up, my classmates know where I'm gonna end up and I just wanna get the useless parts over with."

"That does not mean you should not dress like you actually respect yourself and them." The pair arrived at Kyle's suite and Jean-Phillipe crossed directly to Kyle's closet. He made a noise of distaste and turned around. "We are going shopping," he declared.

"What, now? Dude, interview in like two hours and I gotta drive into the city. In like an actual car. Can we go -after-?" Kyle asked.

==

Jean-Phillipe had given in, somewhat reluctantly, and so much later that afternoon Kyle found himself being half-dragged into a store that was little else but shirts, ties and men's suits. "Dude, what is this place?" And okay, he was so incredibly lame for even knowing that musical but it was just that dammit, Jan -and- Terry -and- Angel -and- Dori had mp3s of the songs. He couldn't get away from it.

Jean-Phillipe refused to quote the response, despite the fact that he'd been just as exposed to the musical as Kyle. He objected to that whole 'gay or European' song. He settled for a withering glare sent in Kyle's direction. He also directed the glare at a salesman headed their direction, who quickly found something more important to be doing. "This is where we are going to get you a better wardrobe," he told Kyle. "And show you what sort of combinations work and which ones do not, and how to get your money's worth."

"Good because you know what I don't love? Killing my savings account." Kyle said. "Also you make me try on more than three pairs of anything and I'm making you buy me a burger for everything I have to put on after that." This was already horrible. "And okay, you were right about the tie thing, because the dude like, totally hinted that he thought I was LDS."

"Bien, perhaps you will listen to me beforehand the next time," Jean-Phillipe told Kyle. "And I will purchase dinner for the both of us afterwards, that is fair." He shook his head. "But I may draw the line at a second hamburger. I can only purchase so much food, and I am not paying for you to take leftovers home."

"Well then you're just gonna have to like, be Fashion Man or something and figure out what doesn't make me look stupid before it costs you half a dozen bacon cheeseburgers." Kyle said, ducking the swat from the frenchman.

==

It hadn't been as bad as Kyle had feared. Pants had taken a few tries and then he'd had to explain very carefully that he'd get them tailored in District X so he could get some material to reinforce the hem in case they caught on his claws. Shirts were easy, he already knew his size, more or less and Jean-Phillipe had just held the sleeves of quite a few shirts against Kyle's face, declaring the colors "acceptable" or "no, just.. no." and then quite assertively put three ties on the pile of clothes and declared them finished. It hadn't been all that expensive - a few hundred dollars, which Kyle winced at, but he also had money for once. It was just slightly unsettling to spend that much and not have to worry about money for weeks afterward.

Since he'd been dragged to the store, he did the dragging to dinner, a little burger place just outside the District that wasn't too expensive. "Fries? No fries? Sweet potato fries?" He asked, as they waited in line.

"I do not believe I have ever had sweet potato fries," Jean-Phillipe stated, with a cocked head expression that indicated he was simultaneously curious and unsure as to his opinion on the subject. "How about we get a side of each?" he finally settled on. His metabolism might not be quite as high as Kyle's, but it could come close at times.

"Dude, how have you never had sweet potato fries? They're awesome." Kyle placed his order, and then handed Jean-Phillipe a twenty to cover the burgers and fries that weren't part of their earlier bargain. "Burgers, fries, and no one giving me the hairy eyeball for being a freaky looking mutie and trying to be all "oh, I didn't expect you to be so tall." fakey covering it up."

Jean-Phillipe grunted in agreement. "There are times when I feel dishonest, being able to pass," he admitted. "Not that I go out of my way to hide, but I know that I can be an invisible minority if I choose. Either minority." He gave a very Gallic shrug to punctuate his thoughts.

It took Kyle a little bit of time to figure out what he wanted to say that wasn't "Dude, don't be dumb." and even after they'd sat down with their food, he still opened with "Dude, don't be dumb." He picked a pair of fries, one each, off the trays and held them up, sort of as an example. "Dude, you are what you are. I think you'd be even more of a faker if you were trying to like, dye your hair or get those like, freaky implant under the skin horns or something just to get some mutie cred." Both the sweet potato fry and the regular one disappeared into Kyle's mouth. "Man, when did I get like all zen about this shit? I still remember Clarice dying me blue just cause I was being a shit about it and didn't have like, perspective."

Jean-Phillipe snorted. "Congratulations, I believe that you are growing up." He smirked at the middle finger Kyle gave him in reply. "Well, perhaps a small amount, at any rate." He sampled each of the sides of fries thoughtfully, and decided they were both quite good.

"Besides man, I don't know if anyone told you, but seriously, you're not really hiding the gay." Kyle caught a thrown piece of french fry. "Not that there's like anything wrong with the gay dude, but you're kinda out on the surface." He dipped his caught fry into some ketchup and swallowed it mostly without chewing.

"Oui, that is so," Jean-Phillipe replied around his own mouthful of fries. People often mistook his being French and fabulous for being prissy, but he had worked on the docks, and so his table manners tended toward serviceable but tended to degrade in more casual company. "But that is still somewhat invisible. I mean, if someone were to talk to me, yes, it would become obvious quickly. But simply walking down the street? I appear much like any other young fashionable man in this city."

"Unless you're walking down the street with like another young fashionable man or something." Kyle made airquotes and everything. "Which, btw, man, you are so lucky Angel's buried under finals because oooh she was mad at you." He raised both eyebrows into his hairline and grinned. "Hopping mad even, I mean she hopped up and down and everything. Almost caught herself on fire."

Jean-Phillipe shrugged. "The young man felt comfortable enough in such an accepting environment to finally come out. I suppose that it would be awkward for your date to do such a thing, but given the environment, and his finally being honest about himself, I would think that Angel would be happy for him." He managed the whole thing with a straight face, and only a few seconds later let the playful smirk that he had been holding down out. "And of course it was my duty to help him celebrate his newfound honesty."

"Dude, you are so full of it."