Log: Kevin and Jubilee
Feb. 27th, 2018 01:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsJubilee arrives back in New York after a very long series of plane trips. She finds Kevin in the office and decides to take him for a drink.
Thirteen Hours and thirty minutes of flight time on the most direct flight from Beijing to New York. Of course, that wasn’t including the over land travel or any of the quick thinking she'd needed to do to make sure nobody questioned any of it.
She was exhausted, felt like the bottom of someone’s shoe after they’d stepped in gum and she’d managed to arrive at the office at a point in time when late at night became early in the morning. Jubilee might have just turned around and called it a day. There was a light on in one of the offices though and she was almost positive that Kevin was in there. She hoped it was without the accompanying escort.
“Kevin?” Jubilee dropped her overnight bag beside her desk and slumped against it with an almost audible sigh. She hated economy flights more than anything else that she could think of right now. "You around?"
"Mmhmm?" Was the disinterested response, accompanied by the rustle of paper and the glass on wood sound of a tumbler being set back down. Kevin was a creature of habits, even if most of them were bad ones.
“What’re you up to this late/early?”
Jubilee pulled herself into a standing position with some difficulty and stumbled half-exhausted over to his door. What she really needed was to lie on a flat but comfortable surface for at least twelve hours and then she might, just might feel human enough for proper interactions.
Kevin looked up from his newspaper. His feet were up and crossed at the ankles, resting on the edge of his desk. A tumbler filled with three fingers of an amber colour liquid was at his elbow.
"It’s quiet. Sometimes it's nice to be able to work without distractions or just get some time alone. The big mansion full of expensive trappings, massive pantries and a well-stocked liquor cabinet is nice and all, but occasionally, it can be a bit much."
“I can go if you need the quiet,” Jubilee offered, propping herself up against the door as she watched him. She hadn’t seen any of her colleagues since she left, hadn’t talked to them since then either. A lot could happen in that time, but some things stayed the same. She still knew almost next to nothing about Kevin beyond what he wanted her to know. “I figured I’d get some reports done before people came in to glare at me.”
"Oh, that's right. That Sefton woman is planning to push your face through a brick wall. Funny that." He shifted the paper, tracking another article. "Something about a failed engagement?" His look was more challenging than mocking.
“Mandy, or Amanda unless you’re me and I'm sure she’d like to try.” Jubilee's shrug was expressive. Not bragging, or not entirely bragging but it had been a long time since she or Mandy would have easily gotten the one up on the other. Besides, Amanda would have to actually be in the same room with her for that to happen and Jubilee wasn't particularly in a hurry for that to happen. “And yeah, something like that. I broke up with Kurt before I left for China.”
"That's an issue. Always an issue when you start fucking the family of your co-workers. Even worse when you drop marrying them after you say yes. Any particular reason, other than the whole 'blue and weird' thing?"
“Would the answer really mean anything to you?” Jubilee eyed him curiously, wondering if he truly cared or if it was just something to talk about. She never quite knew what Kevin's angle was. “And weird and blue is less of an issue then you’d think. The man is hot, dude.”
"Depends. Is the answer for me or for you, kid?" He rolled up the paper and tossed it on to his desk. "You know the worst part about getting old? People think you've learned something, but you're pretty much the same asshole you've always been. You've just watched people fuck up in a lot more ways. I need a drink." He finished off the one on his desk. "You're going to buy it and think about this while I drink it. And then give me your answer. Sound fair?"
“I think you sound like a guy that’s learned something.” Jubilee's grin was winesome and just this side of innocent looking. It wasn't a look she much went for these days but from time to time she liked to pull it out, just for old time sake. “But sure, you ever been to a place called Finnegan’s?”
"I've been to more places called Finnegan’s than you've had hot meals, kid. It is literally the first pub name anyone comes up with." He grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. "But please, escort me to your Finnigans. Whiskey is whiskey."
“Irish places, or places that were pretending they were Irish?” Jubilee's look back over her should was curious as she led the way out the door and past her bag. It could handle being left in the office for a while and the idea of getting a drink with someone who wasn’t wanting or trying to kill her sounded like heaven. “Because now I’m picturing you with one of those ‘kiss me, I’m Irish’ shirts and that’s hilarious.”
"Yeah, that's not something I'd do. One, I'm not Irish. Two, if I need a t-shirt to land a kiss, I'd rather pay for it." Kevin hit the ground floor button and the elevator rumbled to life. "I supposed you could wear one ironically or something."
“Only if you were trying to be a hipster, and you ain’t got the beard for it, dude,” Jubilee watched the numbers move on the indicator for the elevator, thinking about the question he’d asked before. “I’m not normally an asshole, you know?”
When she looked back at him, Kevin sported a long black beard, with an immaculately curled mustache over his lip. "Don't I? And I am normally an asshole. It's a nice way of creating distance with the world when you can't handle things."
It took her a few moments to react but the sound of her laughter was sudden and she almost sagged with relief as she stepped into the elevator as the doors opened. It felt like she hadn't laughed in a million years and she couldn't figure out why she'd allowed herself to get to the point where she'd stopped being able to laugh.
“Dude…That’s awesome. Not the asshole thing, the beard and you as a hipster thing.”
"I'm a shapeshifter. There are advantages." He said, waving her through the lobby and into a waiting cab. Her instructions were typically vague but they ended up being dropped off in front of a pub.
“So, I know you used to have a wife but got a divorce,” Jubilee led the way into the pub, looking around for a place to sit before heading for the bar. “Why’d you never try again? Or are there a number of Ex Mrs Kevin’s out there?”
"It was a different time. Work was important and kids weren't a possibility. I wasn't planning on a political career and it wasn't hard to get laid. So why bother?" He took a seat in a corner table. It was... underwhelming but at least had a brush of authenticity to it. More importantly, the shelves behind the bar looked optimistically free of locally brewed alcohol. "Why? How many ex-Lee's are there?"
“Never really thought about it till now. I honestly don’t know if I’m the marrying type.” Jubilee looked at the options listed over the bar, trying to decide what particular type of alcohol she wanted right now. “You just after whiskey?”
"Just? Never refer to it as 'just'." Kevin caught the eye of the bartender and called out with a dead perfect North London accent. "Pint of the black stuff, landlord."
“Dude, I only drink that stuff when it’s to pull off a successful con, my preference is screamingly pink with umbrellas,” She raised her eyes at his use of the accent, surprised that he'd bother considering they were in New York. “Why English? You could be anyone right now.”
"I can be anyone anytime. But if you order a pint in a faux British pub in a proper accent, they take extra time to do it right."
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jubilee folded herself into a chair across from the older spy, eyeing him as she did so. He was good at giving a lot of information without really giving any information at all, at least nothing beyond the superciliously personal. She’d known a few people like that in her life, both spies and others who just hated letting anyone close. “Getting laid isn’t bad, it’s certainly like enjoyable. But you’ve never loved anyone enough to want more?”
"It all depends how you define what the 'more' is that you want. I mean, are you saving for a house in the suburbs and a commuting job into the city that you share with a safe partner? Or retiring to some little resort in the tropics where you can get vigorously fucked by a local teenager in-between mixed cocktails as your relationship?" Kevin spread his hands in a questioning gesture. "What is the more you think you want with someone, because it seems to me you've automatically created a picture of what that is for others which oddly doesn't apply to you."
“I always figured love meant you cared about someone so much that their happiness meant more to you than whatever it was you happened to be doing at the time.” Jubilee waved down one of the wait-staff and asked for a menu as she studied the man in front of her. “Place and time doesn’t really matter, like, that stuff is just that, stuff. I don’t know if I’m capable of it, dude. I keep trying but it just never seems to last.”
"It's possible. After all, emotionally well-rounded people rarely end up in this line of work. Hard to come home to the family when you just finished getting three people quietly executed is a side effect of gaining some intel. Or-" Kevin accepted his pint and took a sip. The look on his face suggested that his ploy had worked. "Ah. It's been awhile since I've had one of those. Anyway, or-... or... this is an attempt to try and get help without actually having to ask for help. Which you're terrible at doing, because you think it makes you look weak."
“I just spent like, a whole lot of months around people who made the word paranoid look like a low-key party.” Jubilee opened the menu that had been dropped off, rubbing her hand against the back of her neck as she thought. “I don’t know dude. What kind of help would I even get? I like my job. I like doing this stuff. It’s not like we don’t have a staff psychologist to talk to, I even go regularly. Maybe I’m just tired of people wanting more from me then I can give them, or maybe I’m tired of wanting more from myself.”
"I would say that you're tired of trying to fit yourself into a traditional idea of what more is for you. If I was your case handler, my hook into you would be playing on your dysfunctional need for a family that you don't actually want." Kevin shrugged and took a long sip from his drink. "You ever considered that that relationship that just involves sex, human contact and a little mutual emotional comfort might be the 'more' you actually want and need right now?"
“Is this the moment where you proposition me?” Jubilee’s smile was teasing but the look in her eyes was thoughtful as she truly took in what he’d said. She put the menu down on the table and signalled that she was ready to order before turning back. “You’re not wrong though. Just never really had it put in such simple terms.”
"I've seen all kinds of ways people structure their personal lives to handle this job. Besides, you're still young. Whatever it is you need now won't necessarily be what you need down the road." he said, leaning back in his chair. "As for sex, while I'm always available as an immediate option, I'm not as a pseudo-partner. Best to consider me the much better alternative to masturbation when needed. In case of horny, break glass."
“Don’t think I won’t take you up on that, dude. I’ve been stuck with people I wouldn’t trust even if you paid me.” Jubilee ordered both food and a drink before allowing the person to depart. She sighed and sunk further down into her seat. She really was exhausted. “You’re good at advice, you know that? But you don’t let anyone close, not really. Maybe Dom, but the rest of us? Not much. I’m like, shit at most personal stuff but you know you could have friends here if you wanted, yeah?”
"Lee, while I appreciate the sentiment, you should remember this. Before I got here, I lived a life. A full life. If it had been a heart attack instead of the CIA that took me down, no one would have said I went before my time." He said quietly. "And because of how I got here, there's a lot of elements involved that aren't solved by having a heart to heart and going for brunch with my new... besties? As Dom will remind me, I'm too old to understand anything these days. So how about we settle for a drink and a bite to eat for now. Once you've had a chance to get some sleep, you can give me a call if you want your toes curled properly. Keep things easy for now."
Jubilee nodded in assent, not particularly bothered by the rebuff, she’d had much harsher ones in her life and she’d always figured that if you didn’t start somewhere, you never got anywhere.
“Sounds like a plan, old man.”
Thirteen Hours and thirty minutes of flight time on the most direct flight from Beijing to New York. Of course, that wasn’t including the over land travel or any of the quick thinking she'd needed to do to make sure nobody questioned any of it.
She was exhausted, felt like the bottom of someone’s shoe after they’d stepped in gum and she’d managed to arrive at the office at a point in time when late at night became early in the morning. Jubilee might have just turned around and called it a day. There was a light on in one of the offices though and she was almost positive that Kevin was in there. She hoped it was without the accompanying escort.
“Kevin?” Jubilee dropped her overnight bag beside her desk and slumped against it with an almost audible sigh. She hated economy flights more than anything else that she could think of right now. "You around?"
"Mmhmm?" Was the disinterested response, accompanied by the rustle of paper and the glass on wood sound of a tumbler being set back down. Kevin was a creature of habits, even if most of them were bad ones.
“What’re you up to this late/early?”
Jubilee pulled herself into a standing position with some difficulty and stumbled half-exhausted over to his door. What she really needed was to lie on a flat but comfortable surface for at least twelve hours and then she might, just might feel human enough for proper interactions.
Kevin looked up from his newspaper. His feet were up and crossed at the ankles, resting on the edge of his desk. A tumbler filled with three fingers of an amber colour liquid was at his elbow.
"It’s quiet. Sometimes it's nice to be able to work without distractions or just get some time alone. The big mansion full of expensive trappings, massive pantries and a well-stocked liquor cabinet is nice and all, but occasionally, it can be a bit much."
“I can go if you need the quiet,” Jubilee offered, propping herself up against the door as she watched him. She hadn’t seen any of her colleagues since she left, hadn’t talked to them since then either. A lot could happen in that time, but some things stayed the same. She still knew almost next to nothing about Kevin beyond what he wanted her to know. “I figured I’d get some reports done before people came in to glare at me.”
"Oh, that's right. That Sefton woman is planning to push your face through a brick wall. Funny that." He shifted the paper, tracking another article. "Something about a failed engagement?" His look was more challenging than mocking.
“Mandy, or Amanda unless you’re me and I'm sure she’d like to try.” Jubilee's shrug was expressive. Not bragging, or not entirely bragging but it had been a long time since she or Mandy would have easily gotten the one up on the other. Besides, Amanda would have to actually be in the same room with her for that to happen and Jubilee wasn't particularly in a hurry for that to happen. “And yeah, something like that. I broke up with Kurt before I left for China.”
"That's an issue. Always an issue when you start fucking the family of your co-workers. Even worse when you drop marrying them after you say yes. Any particular reason, other than the whole 'blue and weird' thing?"
“Would the answer really mean anything to you?” Jubilee eyed him curiously, wondering if he truly cared or if it was just something to talk about. She never quite knew what Kevin's angle was. “And weird and blue is less of an issue then you’d think. The man is hot, dude.”
"Depends. Is the answer for me or for you, kid?" He rolled up the paper and tossed it on to his desk. "You know the worst part about getting old? People think you've learned something, but you're pretty much the same asshole you've always been. You've just watched people fuck up in a lot more ways. I need a drink." He finished off the one on his desk. "You're going to buy it and think about this while I drink it. And then give me your answer. Sound fair?"
“I think you sound like a guy that’s learned something.” Jubilee's grin was winesome and just this side of innocent looking. It wasn't a look she much went for these days but from time to time she liked to pull it out, just for old time sake. “But sure, you ever been to a place called Finnegan’s?”
"I've been to more places called Finnegan’s than you've had hot meals, kid. It is literally the first pub name anyone comes up with." He grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. "But please, escort me to your Finnigans. Whiskey is whiskey."
“Irish places, or places that were pretending they were Irish?” Jubilee's look back over her should was curious as she led the way out the door and past her bag. It could handle being left in the office for a while and the idea of getting a drink with someone who wasn’t wanting or trying to kill her sounded like heaven. “Because now I’m picturing you with one of those ‘kiss me, I’m Irish’ shirts and that’s hilarious.”
"Yeah, that's not something I'd do. One, I'm not Irish. Two, if I need a t-shirt to land a kiss, I'd rather pay for it." Kevin hit the ground floor button and the elevator rumbled to life. "I supposed you could wear one ironically or something."
“Only if you were trying to be a hipster, and you ain’t got the beard for it, dude,” Jubilee watched the numbers move on the indicator for the elevator, thinking about the question he’d asked before. “I’m not normally an asshole, you know?”
When she looked back at him, Kevin sported a long black beard, with an immaculately curled mustache over his lip. "Don't I? And I am normally an asshole. It's a nice way of creating distance with the world when you can't handle things."
It took her a few moments to react but the sound of her laughter was sudden and she almost sagged with relief as she stepped into the elevator as the doors opened. It felt like she hadn't laughed in a million years and she couldn't figure out why she'd allowed herself to get to the point where she'd stopped being able to laugh.
“Dude…That’s awesome. Not the asshole thing, the beard and you as a hipster thing.”
"I'm a shapeshifter. There are advantages." He said, waving her through the lobby and into a waiting cab. Her instructions were typically vague but they ended up being dropped off in front of a pub.
“So, I know you used to have a wife but got a divorce,” Jubilee led the way into the pub, looking around for a place to sit before heading for the bar. “Why’d you never try again? Or are there a number of Ex Mrs Kevin’s out there?”
"It was a different time. Work was important and kids weren't a possibility. I wasn't planning on a political career and it wasn't hard to get laid. So why bother?" He took a seat in a corner table. It was... underwhelming but at least had a brush of authenticity to it. More importantly, the shelves behind the bar looked optimistically free of locally brewed alcohol. "Why? How many ex-Lee's are there?"
“Never really thought about it till now. I honestly don’t know if I’m the marrying type.” Jubilee looked at the options listed over the bar, trying to decide what particular type of alcohol she wanted right now. “You just after whiskey?”
"Just? Never refer to it as 'just'." Kevin caught the eye of the bartender and called out with a dead perfect North London accent. "Pint of the black stuff, landlord."
“Dude, I only drink that stuff when it’s to pull off a successful con, my preference is screamingly pink with umbrellas,” She raised her eyes at his use of the accent, surprised that he'd bother considering they were in New York. “Why English? You could be anyone right now.”
"I can be anyone anytime. But if you order a pint in a faux British pub in a proper accent, they take extra time to do it right."
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jubilee folded herself into a chair across from the older spy, eyeing him as she did so. He was good at giving a lot of information without really giving any information at all, at least nothing beyond the superciliously personal. She’d known a few people like that in her life, both spies and others who just hated letting anyone close. “Getting laid isn’t bad, it’s certainly like enjoyable. But you’ve never loved anyone enough to want more?”
"It all depends how you define what the 'more' is that you want. I mean, are you saving for a house in the suburbs and a commuting job into the city that you share with a safe partner? Or retiring to some little resort in the tropics where you can get vigorously fucked by a local teenager in-between mixed cocktails as your relationship?" Kevin spread his hands in a questioning gesture. "What is the more you think you want with someone, because it seems to me you've automatically created a picture of what that is for others which oddly doesn't apply to you."
“I always figured love meant you cared about someone so much that their happiness meant more to you than whatever it was you happened to be doing at the time.” Jubilee waved down one of the wait-staff and asked for a menu as she studied the man in front of her. “Place and time doesn’t really matter, like, that stuff is just that, stuff. I don’t know if I’m capable of it, dude. I keep trying but it just never seems to last.”
"It's possible. After all, emotionally well-rounded people rarely end up in this line of work. Hard to come home to the family when you just finished getting three people quietly executed is a side effect of gaining some intel. Or-" Kevin accepted his pint and took a sip. The look on his face suggested that his ploy had worked. "Ah. It's been awhile since I've had one of those. Anyway, or-... or... this is an attempt to try and get help without actually having to ask for help. Which you're terrible at doing, because you think it makes you look weak."
“I just spent like, a whole lot of months around people who made the word paranoid look like a low-key party.” Jubilee opened the menu that had been dropped off, rubbing her hand against the back of her neck as she thought. “I don’t know dude. What kind of help would I even get? I like my job. I like doing this stuff. It’s not like we don’t have a staff psychologist to talk to, I even go regularly. Maybe I’m just tired of people wanting more from me then I can give them, or maybe I’m tired of wanting more from myself.”
"I would say that you're tired of trying to fit yourself into a traditional idea of what more is for you. If I was your case handler, my hook into you would be playing on your dysfunctional need for a family that you don't actually want." Kevin shrugged and took a long sip from his drink. "You ever considered that that relationship that just involves sex, human contact and a little mutual emotional comfort might be the 'more' you actually want and need right now?"
“Is this the moment where you proposition me?” Jubilee’s smile was teasing but the look in her eyes was thoughtful as she truly took in what he’d said. She put the menu down on the table and signalled that she was ready to order before turning back. “You’re not wrong though. Just never really had it put in such simple terms.”
"I've seen all kinds of ways people structure their personal lives to handle this job. Besides, you're still young. Whatever it is you need now won't necessarily be what you need down the road." he said, leaning back in his chair. "As for sex, while I'm always available as an immediate option, I'm not as a pseudo-partner. Best to consider me the much better alternative to masturbation when needed. In case of horny, break glass."
“Don’t think I won’t take you up on that, dude. I’ve been stuck with people I wouldn’t trust even if you paid me.” Jubilee ordered both food and a drink before allowing the person to depart. She sighed and sunk further down into her seat. She really was exhausted. “You’re good at advice, you know that? But you don’t let anyone close, not really. Maybe Dom, but the rest of us? Not much. I’m like, shit at most personal stuff but you know you could have friends here if you wanted, yeah?”
"Lee, while I appreciate the sentiment, you should remember this. Before I got here, I lived a life. A full life. If it had been a heart attack instead of the CIA that took me down, no one would have said I went before my time." He said quietly. "And because of how I got here, there's a lot of elements involved that aren't solved by having a heart to heart and going for brunch with my new... besties? As Dom will remind me, I'm too old to understand anything these days. So how about we settle for a drink and a bite to eat for now. Once you've had a chance to get some sleep, you can give me a call if you want your toes curled properly. Keep things easy for now."
Jubilee nodded in assent, not particularly bothered by the rebuff, she’d had much harsher ones in her life and she’d always figured that if you didn’t start somewhere, you never got anywhere.
“Sounds like a plan, old man.”
