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What is better late night after getting off shift at the Eight Ball than finding some delicious diner food and listen to whatever songs they can find on the little juke boxes that are situated at each table? There's probably something, but tonight that is what Daire is craving, and so when he got off shift, he dragged Jay along with him to the Empire Diner for whatever they decided to get and coffee.
It's simple, and quite honestly, Jay's needs are very simple. He delights over the little outing, accepting easily—not that it's ever difficult for Daire to convince Jay to go anywhere with him. Happy for any excuse to spend time with his favorite fellow, Jay strolls beside Daire, wings out and slightly slicked to his back while they travel, but still visible, occasionally brushing his shoulder to Daire's while they walk. Approaching the diner, there's a sense of bemusement, charmed by the asthetic of the little place. "How did you find this place?" Whispering a chuckle, Jay opens the door up to show Daire in and get their booth. He immeidately zones in on the little juke box on the table top, but holds off politely to ask for a water and an iced tea from the waitress before shoving aaaaaall the way down the end of the booth, against the wall, to peer at the songlist.
Daire wears that cap that he's come to wear over his horns. Jay's wings may be a source of fascination, but the horns usually turn people off. The eyes, not usually as much. He grins a little as he slides into the booth and scoots over so that he can look over the songlist. "I've been making it a point to get out more the past couple of months. Started just kind of dropping in any place that looked interesting. I like this little place. I get some looks, sometimes some comments, but most folk just kind of leave you alone, especially this late at night." He orders himself a cup of coffee and an orange juice.
"Late night's got its own little bit of magic around here, Ah've noticed," Jay smiles mildly over to Daire as they peer at the songlist from across the table. "New Yorkers are usually pretty okay with ignorin' things that don't scream out at them right away—they're all so busy, but late at night's got its own kind of spell that it weaves." The young man waves his fingers mildly, as if to cast some kind of magic that undoubtedly would make anyone with actual magic roll their eyes. "It's like people are all on their own planes of existance when they walk past ya; like layers of tissue paper one on top of the next on top of the next so you can still see 'em, but they're separate." Jay hums pleasantly with a slightly distracted air while his mind wanders, reading off the song titles. "What're you in the mood fer?"
Daire rests his elbow on the surface of the table and his chin in his hand, looking out the window and watching the slow roll of headlights and tail lights as infrequent vehicles pass by outside. It's quiet inside, save for the little bit of music one can hear from this jukebox or that. There are some kids enjoying late night breakfast further to the other side of the diner, and a couple engaged in a hushed conversation punctuated by occasional laughter, and an old man with his newspaper and naught but a cup of coffee and some dry toast.
Daire gets lost for a little while, just listening to Jay's interpretation of the city at night, though he glances up and over at the question. Grinning a little bit, he says "Surprise me." Then after that he says, "So, I was thinking.. we should maybe start practicing at the community center. Know anyone else that might want to try getting this band thing together? Or do you want to just do it Simon and Garfunkle style?"
Jay flashes a smile to Daire, stares at him for a long, reading moment, searching the other man's bright eyes, then turns back to the small juke box. "Ah'd always leap at the chance to play Simon to yer Garfunkle, Daire." Jay cannot stop the serene smile which holds on to his mouth. Wincing a touch, he wiggles his head from side to side slightly while looking at the selection, mentioning as an aside, "They don't have much new sound, mmmnn…Oh, here's one." Pressing the button combination with a couple hard clicks he finds a Dusty Springfield song. Sitting back in the corner of the booth and wall, his wings prop out to either side a bit as they always do when he sits on them. "Ah know someone who plays keyboard—oh, you met 'er." Jay snaps his fingers as he remembers. "Soph. From the Eight Ball. But Ah don't really know anyone who drums. Ah ain't opposed to startin' up at the community center." Jay's brows arch some and glances off to the side a little bit with a tilt of his head to that side.
((https://youtu.be/BgYt1YMRwjc))
Daire grins at Jay and says, "Well we can always see if Soph wants to join us, see how we all play together. I don't know anyone who plays drums either, but maybe if we start practicing at the community center, someone will come in who happens to play. Never know." That's how he ran into Jay in the first place, after all. "Or just try with the two guitars and then see what happens. But I've been thinking.. maybe I might try my hand at writing something. I've never actually wrote my own music before." He looks a little tentative about it, not entirely sure if it's a good idea or not. His eyes follow Jay's as he looks off to the side, as though to try and figure out what it is that he's looking at.
Jay doesn't seem to be looking /at/ anything in particular as much as he's not looking at Daire for a short lived second before he turns back to the man across the atble from him. The mention of luring someone from the center to play with them, oh boy does Jay remember that moment. Jay's soft smile curve a touch higher, eyes shining warmly at the recollection. "Ah'm in no hurry. Ya can't rush these things, you know. That's how you end up with the /wrong/ people in the wrong place. Ah like our chemisty." The young man makes himself comfortable, bracing one arm along the back of his booth in a casual gesture. The side of one flip-flopped foot slides along Daire's sneaker.
Mentioning he may try to write something has the pale man's face opening up with slow-arching excitement. "Really? Oh man, /Daire/." In lieu of getting louder, Jay's voice lowers in a hard whisper, supportively. "If you feel that itch, you /gotta/ scratch it, Bats. Ah'd love to play somethin' you wrote. Even if you didn't like it goin' past us, you gotta try your hand. Tryin' new stuff is what this is all about."
"Well, I didn't mean just throw out a net and bag whoever walked in the door and tie them to a drum set," Daire says with a little bit of a grin across the table at Jay. "I more meant like, you know if we just happen to find someone who is good, and they sit down to jam and it clicks, and it's like.. yeah, this is the sound that we're looking for. That sort of thing." He grins up at the waitress as their drinks arrive, including his coffee, which he doctors up with some cream but no sugar. When Jay seems enthusiastic about the idea of him playing his own music, Daire grins a little bit lopsidedly and he says, "Yeah? You think so? I've been fiddling around a little bit with a melody and I have some words but it's all an incomplete thought, just the beginning of an idea." He says, "Maybe once I get it done, then you can listen to it and tell me what you think?"
"Aw man…yer not any fun before you get yer late night coffee," Jay teases with a theatrical eye roll, blowing at a piece of hair hanging conveniently close to being in his face, making it float there a moment, then smiles broadly at Daire. Getting their drinks, he reaches over to take his iced tea with a smile to the lady who brings it 'Thank you, Miss' murmured politely as he promptly starts dumping sugar into it straight from the large container at their table. His gaze drops to Daire's coffee for a moment, taking note of the detail before watching the sugar gather on the bottom of his glass. The light 'tink-tink-tink' of his spoon stirring as he goes, Jay nods while he responds, more seriously. "Yes. One hundred percent yes, Daire." It's more than just excitement here, now with the immediate elation dimmed, he's sincere as he reaches over and punches a new set of buttons in. "Mah Daddy used to play this one…" and starts a new song up. Fixing Daire with a thoughtful look while he waits for sugar to dissolve. "That's all you need to start. If you got a song to sing, you need to sing it. Music's not meant to be all welled up inside a man like a secret. It's gotta get out there." Jay accompanies these feelings with a hard pat of his hand against the swell of his chest and a mild flick of his fingers outward.
(( https://youtu.be/7RKiTyh04Ak ))
Daire grins and shakes his head when Jay calls him no fun. "Yeah, I need at least one cup of coffee, maybe two before I start contemplating abduction." There's a little sparkle of amusement in those too-bright green eyes. He stirs the cram into the coffee idly, letting it slowly swirl in, bringing the dark liquid to something a little more pale. Then he lifts the cup and takes a swallow from it before he smiles a little bit at Jay's encouragement, nodding his head. "Yeah, I think.. I've been trying to do a little bit of fiddling around on my own. I wrote a couple a while back but usually when I play around people, I just play covers since it's easy and people know them and can sing along. But.. yeah. So I think I will." He seems to gain a little more confidence with the idea and grins. "Well I don't want to get all welled up inside. Something could back up and then explode."
It's Jay's own fault, joking around about abduction and all, but it falls a little more flat this time while he looks down into his home made sweet tea, stirring it up. Smiling gently, he shakes his head. "I'll keep that in mind if Ah ever feel like getting kidnapped for a while." He considers it again with a little arch of his brows when he comes to realize that may not sound so bad.
"Yeah, folks like to hear their favorites, somethin' familiar. Ah know how that goes," Jay chortles in a whisper under his breath empathetically. His eyes shine a little bit, sliding an amused look to the man across the table from him as a soft rush of color across his cheeks. "Daire. Those words just came outta yer mouth, huh?" A crooked smile written across his pink features. Lifting his glass up to take a drink, Jay murmurs quickly just before, "Ah can relate, somehow."
Daire winces a little bit after he realizes the joke that came out of his mouth and there's a little clearing of his throat before he glances down into his coffee. It was reflexive, unintentional. And then he just looks confused, clearly not getting what he'd just said for the second time. But then the song ends on the jukebox and he reaches over to pick something, flipping through a couple of different options before he chooses one. When the waitress returns he orders himself some scrambled eggs, bacon, and white toast with butter. Then he settles back in his seat, looking out the window at the street for a few moments.
(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNNW0SPkChI ))
The clearly blank look from Daire makes Jay smile broadly and shake his head, his whole face flushes with color as he puts his drink down. "Sorry, that was a pretty bad joke," Jay has to admit and turns back to the waitress as she comes around. He orders a ham and cheese omelette with a side of hash browns, because breakfast sounds good. He gets a glass of milk to come with it when the time comes, then continues to pour a little more sugar in his tea.
The song results in a small smile of appreciation, fingers tapping on the formica table top between the two while he peers out the window as well. It's the simple pleasures. THe pleasure of enjoying someone's company and not having to fill every moment up with talk out of concern that it'll feel awkward. His foot still settled casually up against Daire's sneaker, Jay seems content for the moment.
"There's a place a couple miles down the road from the Millers' apartment, where Ah'm stayin'," Jay murmurs thoughtfully after several minutes. "Ah walk passed it when Ah can't sleep at night. They let people play original stuff there, an' covers." Jay's elbow propped up on the window ledge, watching the streetlight flash across the glass. "You should come with me some time. The music scene here is so alive." A tiny shiver of feathers as Jay murmurs those words, his mind weaving back and forth.
Daire smirks just a little bit and shakes his head at the bad joke when he finally gets it and says, "Man." Then he chuckles and gets his coffee warmed up. A little more cream is added, and he stretches out comfortably in the booth, enjoying the slow passage of time and the people coming and going. The group of kids wanders out, and the old man. The couple lingers, their conversation continuing on, perhaps continuing on into the morning at this rate. His attention, however, drifts back to Jay when he mentions a place that lets folks play covers and original music. "Yeah? We still need to hit up that jazz place, too, and take a listen there as well. There are so many places with good music all over this city. Lots of places we need to check out."
A faint flick to one side of his mouth as a really half hearted apology when Daire seems to possibly get that off color sex joke. He shrugs a shoulder mildly with a glance in the direction of his friend. Eyes flick up to Daire's hat for a moment. "Ah really do like that hat. Fits yer whole…cool and collected thing." A short compliment passed along while he ponders, nodding gently. "We do. Mabel's. Ah wonder if Isaiah's wife owns it or somethin', that's why he gave us that card." Idle meanderings, Jay's gaze drops the short distance to try to catch Daire's eyes. "So how's the weather where you are? Yer miles away." Jay teases with a half smile crooked across his lips, just a hint of concern somewhere in his tone. "You doin' all right? Lots goin' on these days."
Daire tips his head down when Jay points out his hat and he chuckles, "Yeah, it's actually kind of growing on me. I may start just wearing it around for giggles. Or maybe I will get one with holes in it that the horns can stick out of." He folds his arms in front of him and leans on them against the table. "Maybe," Daire says, remebering that Isaiah had mentioned his wife at the bar. "Maybe she sings. That'd be cool." Then he blinks a little bit at the question and says, "Oh.. just thinking.. sorry." There's a look of apology and then he says, "Yeah, I mean.. things are quiet with me. I've been working at Eight Ball and the Community Center. Lots of folks to help after that whole block was near destroyed because of that crazy wolf thing that was going around." There's a slight furrow of his brow and a frown. Then he says, "Trying to help out Josh around there where I can. Between the job and the volunteering, I've been keeping busy."
The thought of altering his hat to allow those horns of his some breathing room has a slow-growing smile spreading over Jay's face. "That would be somethin' else. Real slick. You'd turn a lotta heads that way." The idea seems novel to him—the guy who cuts holes in all his clothes anyway out of necessity.
Over the apology, the ginger man shakes his head, flicking a hand up to gently forgive without a second thought. "Ah saw the effects of the fire after Ah heard about it. Werewolves, raght? Man, this place gets crazier all the time. Though, fer all it's worth, Kale seemed to think that the whole crazy ball of wax was done with." Kaleb. A tiny pang of concern draws Jay's brows together eyes turning out the window once again. Out there, somewhere. Sitting on his hands while someone he cares about is in trouble doesn't sit well with him, but there's a point where one needs to accept they can't control everything on their own. His wings are harder to convince however, as they try to move and shift pinned to the back of the booth. Watching the ghostly reflection of Daire in the window, Jay returns to his company and nods a couple of light times. "Good. Ah'm glad yer stayin' safe. Stayin' busy. An', hey, Ah appreciate you comin' out with me like this. Clears my head, even if we do end up just makin' a bunch more plans most of the time. Ah'd feel bad about monopolizin' yer time, but Ah just can't seem to find it in me."
"I just figure, for wearing around Mutant Town, so it's not like I'm covering them up there, but I can still wear it because I like it," Daire grins. Then he nods a bit about the fire, and about the werewolves. "That's what I've heard, anyway. I didn't see any of it, myself, just some of the aftermath." The mention of Kaleb and then the look from Jay has Daire saying, "You'll find your friend. He's going to be alright." It's a quiet kind of optimism and support. "You still need to eat and rest, too, so that you're ready to go when it's time to go find him.. or he comes waltzing back home like nothing's wrong." Though he doesn't seem quite so idealistic to think that's necessarily going to happen, it's a nice picture. "I like coming out with you like this. And I should be thanking you. You're the one who indulged my midnight diner cravings." He grins a little bit sidelong and then laughs, "Well yeah, seems every time we go out we come up with two or three more things to do. Nothing wrong with that, though. I like having lots of stuff planned out to do. Always something to look forward to."
Uncertain when Daire tries to reassure him, Jay puts on a brave face anyway and smiles across the table, not quite letting the expression reach his eyes. A spark of an actual smile soaking through when Daire indulges some deep fantasy of Kaleb just walking through the door some day and making up some lame excuse that sounds entirely bizarre and exactly like the group of young men he has accidently fallen into. 'Oh, yeah, that was all an elaborate surprise to take Lorna to Greece' or something ridiculous.
A guy can hope.
That smile remains strong while Daire mentions his midnight cravings, actually pulling a slight chuckle from the center of his chest. Jay looks down, brushing his palm over the formica table top in a moment of tactile indulgence. "Are you kiddin'? And miss out on a place like this, eatin' omelettes while the sun's comin' up? Ah haven't had breakfast out this late in a long time," Jay jokes part way, turning a little more genuine after the fact. "The apartment's too quiet at night anyway. Except fer when it's not too quiet an' Ah wish it were. Yer kind of saving my sanity with these late night trips." Turning his attention out toward the window again, he taps his lower lip with a habitual lick. "You know…early morning isn't a bad time to take a flight. If yer feelin' up to it."