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So it's been a few days and things have slowly been returning to normal in the house. So when Quinn randomly calls, Kellan tells her that sure, she should come on over and gives her the address so that she can meet him, and Vic, and whoever else might turn up which could include his brother and Jay or not depending on what they are up to. "So, I met Quinn in the Deli and we keep almost bumping into one another. Anyway, she's pretty cool. I told her she could come by and meet you and hang out." This, he says to Vic as he plops himself down the couch with a bottle of coke.
Vic's bullet wound was healed before morning, so that's all taken care of. He seems no worse for wear. There's not even a scar. He putters about the kitchen, making little triangles of sandwiches, because guests mean nibblies, right? Okay, for Vic, every occasion means nibblies. "That's cool," he says. "I like meeting people. I want to meet friends that are my friends, not old-Vic's friends, you know?" One plate of little sandwiches, deviled eggs, baklava from the restaurant, and a fruit plate. He takes out the pitcher of lemonade he's made. "Wow, I really am not straight," he mentions as he looks at what's effectively a tea party laid out.
Armed with the address it takes Quinn far longer to get there than it really should, but when she turns up it's with a quick, quiet knock at the front door.
Kellan has let Vic go about making all the nibblies on his own for the time being. He'd gone into the kitchen with the intent to help but when he seemed to be more in the way than contributing, he'd taken a bottle of coke and moves into the livingroom. He nods in understanding and says, "Well, all of us are that.. so you seem to be doing a good job thus far." At the knock to the door he gets up and heads toward it, pausing to laugh a little, and to lean over and wrap an arm around Vic's waist. "Convenient for me," he murmurs and then continues over to answer the door, opening it for Quinn. "Hey," he says with a grin, "Come on in."
Vic grins at Kellan. "The more the merrier." He sets the lemonade on the counter and he slips his arms around Kellan for a quick squeeze. "Yeah, it's pretty handy," he says wryly. He then trails after Kellan so he can wave to Quinn when the door opens. "Hey there," he says. "I'm Vic. Can I get you some lemonade?"
"Hey…I'll admit, I was half expecting you to have given me the wrong address." Quin informs Kellan as she steps through the door, pausing to look around, then she smiles at Vic, reaching out to offer him her hand, "Quinn Sato, nice to meet you, Vic. I'd love some lemonade."
"Why would I give you the wrong address?" Kellan asks Quinn when she comes inside. Once she's in, he closes the door behind her and then motions for her to head toward the livingroom. "Vic's been making snacks all afternoon in preparation. And while we could probably eat them all ourselves, it probably wouldn't be good for.. well, me, anyway." He pats his belly which has, fortunately, shown no signs of expanding despite Vic's constant cooking.
Vic shakes Quinn's hand, and that grin broadens. Pretty boy got dimples. "It's good to meet you." His handshake is warm and friendly, and his hands soft, like he doesn't do much to callous them. He steps away to go pour the lemonade, three glasses. "It's just a few snacks," he says, and he brings the plates over to the table. "I can take any leftovers to the community center."
"Oh, no reason." Quinn replies, smiling at Kellan before she heads into the living room after Vic, letting her eyes wander around once more before she moves to find herself a seat at the table since that seems to be where both snacks, and plates are. "You really didn't have to go to all this trouble, you know."
"We like having folks over, to be honest. Well, Kaleb doesn't, but we love him anyway. And th emore friends the merrier, after all," Kellan says with a little bit of a grin. He takes one of the glasses of lemonade and then he reaches for Vic, pulling him down to sit wth a grin. "You've done enough work for one day, come and sit and eat and talk."
Vic sits as he's pulled, and with a quiet laugh. He shoulderbumps Kellan affectionately. "I like food," he tells Quinn. "I'm finding myself more and more interested in making it. It's a nice hobby because you get to eat the results." He puts a few little sandwiches on his plate along with some of the baklava, a little more this and that. Little becomes a lot when it piles together. "The baklava is from the restaurant where I work. Easily the best Greek food in New York."
"Your twin…" Quinn still is dubious about that, but willing to be agreeable for the moment. She smiles at Vic, and reaches over to put some of the items spread out onto a plate, although it doesn't amount to a whole lot. "I'm glad that you invited me, honestly. I don't really have that many friends here, yet."
"Well, at some point you'll meet Kaleb and Jay," Kellan says. "They live here, too." He reaches over and grabs a plate and starts piling things on it. He has a healthy pile of nibbly bits stacked up to eat along with his lemonade. Then he grins and shoulderbumps Vic in return, "Saganaki. It's amazing. Vic's boss is really cool, too. We'll take you there sometime, too if you haven't already been."
"You'll love Saganaki," Vic tells Quinn. His cooking, it turns out, isn't all that bad. Then again, it's hard to ruin sandwiches and fruit salad, and the recipe for the deviled eggs was a good one. "I was just telling Kellan," he says, "that I would love to make more friends, too. I've got a lot of contacts throughout the city but I wouldn't call them closes. Kellan, Kaleb, and Jay are my best pals."
"Saganaki?" Quinn shakes her head at that, "I'm afraid I haven't, no." She replies, lifting the baklava for a nibble as she listens, nodding just a bit before she lifts a hand, covering her mouth, "I don't even have contacts. I'm not exactly the top on anyone's social calendar."
"Well then you'll just have to hang out with us more," Kellan says to Quinn. "We will take you to some of the cool spots that we now of." He glances over at Vic as though to confirm and then he says, "And Vic's cooking is really good, too. The more he learns the better and better it gets." Which is saying something because it started out pretty good. He seems proud of Vic, grinning over at him. Then he asks Quinn, "Have you been having a hard time settling in?"
Vic nods to Kellan in agreement. "Sure, hang out with us." He ducks his head as Kellan praises his cooking. "I like to eat," he says. Which is true. He's not wasting any time putting away those little sandwiches on his plate. "Saganaki is a kind of Greek dish with fried cheese. It's so good. We'll definitely go there sometime."
"After all the wars?" Quinn shakes her head just a git, her smile slipping slightly, "Yeah, it has been a bit hard to adjust and settle in…not many people are really fond of us. But my dad was born here, this is his home…So here we are." She then smiles at Vic, "Fried cheese? Sounds delicious."
Kellan nods and says, "They light it on fire," confirming the whole fried cheese process. "It's pretty amazing and then it's all melty and good." Mmmm cheeese, his expression says. "Well, you know.. it's not like you were fighting the war. People are weird, attributing stuff to people who had nothing to do with it. Anyway, we don't care about that, so.. you're always welcome to visit."
"Food tastes better when it's been on fire," Vic says. "And when it's cheese." He waves off all the stigma with a deviled egg before popping it into his mouth. Then he says, "I don't think it was right, locking up people who didn't do anything wrong." He glances at Kellan with a tentative question in his eyes. "Besides," he says, "we're not exactly perfect model citizens either."
"My father ended up enlisting because of that." Quinn observes, shaking her head, "People always blame other people, even if they didn't do it…because it gives them a focus for the fear and anger."
Deviled eggs! Kellan dives into those with a fervor of someone who really really likes deviled eggs. He eats a couple before he notices that tentative questioning in Vic's eyes and he isn't entirely sure what the question is, and so he blinks back a little owlishly from around his egg. Then Vic can hear in his head What?. Convenient, when one needs to talk with one's mouth full. He then glances over toward Quinn and says, "Yeah, people need to stop that shit."
"I think this civil rights movement is the right idea," Vic says. Does she know we're a couple? He glances at Kellan with a small, fleeting smile. "Yes definitely eat these. They don't keep as well as the rest," he says of the deviled eggs. "Anyway," he says to Quinn, "I think you're right."
"I wish they would." Quinn replies, her lips curling upwards a bit before she leans forward, stealing one of the deviled eggs before Kellan eats them all. "I think it is, yeah. But is it too late? I hope not…"
Kellan blushes a little bit when Vic suggests that Quinn get some deviled eggs before he inhales them all and mumbles a little bit of an apology. He then settles back and leans in against Vic's side. "Vic's my boyfriend by the way.. we're together. Folks aren't particularly cool about that either so we.. tend not to make it obvious outside private.. safe places." He glances over at Vic then and smiles. She does now.
Vic's brow knits, then he says, "Oh, sweetheart, I only meant both of you take as many as you want so I don't have to fridge them. Please, eat up." He smiles tentatively at Quinn. Yes, yes she does. "Like I said, not society's most model citizens. We're not too hung up on maintaining social norms."
Quinn's brows twitch upwards at that announcement, "Oh." She replies, looking a bit surprised, then uncertain for a second before she just smiles, "Well, okay then.." She covers up any other kind of awkward by shoving another deviled egg into her mouth.
Kellan smiles a little over at Vic and says, "No I really, should leave a few for Quinn. I was being kind of a pig." He then glances back over toward Quinn and notes her expression, but he smiles a little bit over at her and then he says to Vic. "She ah, saw my double thing.. at the deli. I had one catch a tray of drinks before it fell on her." His not so subtle way of letting Vic know that she knows there's something odd about him. "So.. there's that too."
"They're really good," Vic says, but he holds off so that there's more or less even distribution. He is putting away quite a few sandwiches, though. The boy likes his carbs. He ducks his head, uncertain in the face of Quinn's awkwardness. "I f-figure it's something you'd probably find out anyway," he says. Then, with a small smile, "Oh, yeah. I'm strong and fast, and I can move things with my mind. So we're not really normal in any sense."
Quinn finishes the egg, a hand once more raising to cover her mouth as she nods, doing a quick check to make certain she hasn't got anything on her face before she glances between the two of them, "Oh…well…" She hesitates, but since they seemed to trust her, she shrugs, "My ancestor made friends with a kami, and now we're all blessed with questionable talents. I've got no control, really, not yet…lack of proper training according to my Grandfather, but uh…I can heal reall well, and make fog…or shadows. Sort of."
Kellan wasn't quite expecting Vic to come out and just tell Quinn about himself, and so there's a little surprised blink there, but then a grin. Well, that's out. His had been kind of accidental. He glances back to Quinn to see her reaction, but then when she speaks of her own unusual abilities, he grins even more broadly, "That's awesome! That means you're like us.. well.. you've got abilities like us. That's super cool. I mean, not that it would have mattered if you didn't.. but.. it's nice to know that there are more of us out there."
"Yeah, it wouldn't matter if you didn't, but you do, and that's cool," Vic says. He munches on another piece of baklava (does he have a hollow leg?) and asks, "What's a kami? How do you get trained up with something like that?"
"Kami? Oh…Shinto spirits…a god, I suppose." Quinn replies, shaking her head a bit as she reaches for the lemonade, "Practice, and then books I suppose. We've a whole bunch of things written down, but they are all with my Grandfather. So I imagine, read and practice. I don't know of any other shortcuts, I wish I did. I feel rather useless about things."
Kellan reaches over to grab a bit of baklava and his eyes get a little wider when Quinn explains that her powers come from a god. "Whoah. That's kind of awesome. What kind of a kami was it? Are there all kinds of different kind of spirits? Do different ones teach different things? Where's your grandfather? Can you get the things mailed to you so you could study them?" And out comes the Kellan Miller flood of questions, tumbling from his lips with nary a breath in between.
"Oh wow, that's groovy," Vic says. He grins when Kellan brings forth the flood of questions, and he unthinkingly rubs the man's shoulders fondly. He's used to being in the closet outside, but not so much in here. "You shouldn't feel useless," he tells Quinn. "I mean you've got a god for a family friend."
"Susanoo-no-Mikoto." Quinn replies to the question of what god, "There are spirits for everything, some are bigger than others…and maybe..a dozen? Big ones, that is." The question about if they teach different things is nodded, "I suppose they would, yeah…but Grandfather is in Japan, he didn't want to move with us when we came back…and I doubt he'd send them over."