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It was Friday night and Kaleb was no exception to being a young person heeding the call of social interaction. Did he like people? Not generally, but sometimes he just liked being around them and he didn't have his own pool table. If he was really honest, his liked being around people; these people. HIS people. He was still learning thow to identify with his own demographic and spending time with them was a great place to start… but over here where few peoplew would bother him. Totally still counts, right?
Hajime only ever comes into mutant town at night and because it was finally the weekend, his parents didn't really suspect anything when he went out. It was almost as if for just two nights a week, he was allowed to be a normal 19-year old man. He chooses to spend it in a bar where everyone's a mutant rather than elsewhere. He doesn't expect to see anyone he knows, his circle of friends so small right now as Jay, Vic, Kellan and Kaleb had just begun to drag the young man out of his shell.
When he spots Kaleb… alone.. he moves towards the other man. "Kaleb? You're alone." He observes stupidly, what a way to start a conversation. "Are you alright? Haven't seen you in awhile."
Kaleb chortled giving Hajime a faint upnod. "Heh, Yooooou'd be surprised. The consensus I think is I'm not allowed to not be okay. I think I can handle that though. Really, just some unexpected travel." He looked at the run on the table and just took his arm and started to sweep the orbs into a pile. "Snap up a cue? You still hiding from your family from within your family?" You know, where Kale spent 18 years. He got it.
Kaleb is far more observant than Hajime had any idea of. That or he and Jay talk a lot. He bites his lower lip as he moves over to the wall to select a cue while he works up an answer to that question. "You mean do I still live with them while leading a double life? I don't exactly have anywhere else to go." He says as he returns. "I don't… I'm only afraid of my father."
Kaleb racked the balls into teh triangle and had to give him that one offering, "Eh, I know how that goes. On one hand we don't don't wnat to disappoint them, but like by existing we do even thought hey don't realize it yet. On the other hand? Eh we're supposed to become them but… how knowing what we know, right?"
Hajime pulls up his sleeve on his left arm, fixing Kaleb with a look that is meant to read that this, whatever it is, is a big deal for him to be showing it to Kaleb. He reveals a rather ugly burn scar to Kaleb. "I'm /afraid/ of my father." He repeats again for Kaleb to grasp the gravity of the situation. That this is what happens when you are a mutant too loudly around his father.
Kaleb set the butt of the cue on the floor and looked to Hajime with his reliable mask of muted emotion. Not that he had a large kit of expression to begin with. His eyes drifted to teh damage for a moment and there was no compassion, or pity to be found in the sonic. He reached into his pocket and instead of offering words he extended… a card? His. Kaleb M. Miller; Capstone Intl. and it had his own number on it. "When you're ready to walk away? Call me. You will get through."
Hajime hesistantly takes the card from Kaleb, looking down at it in confusion, how does he have his own card? He thought Kaleb didn't work, just spontaneously came into money, a secondary mutation. He pockets it. "Thank you. I can't though. I'm his only son. It's my job to be the successful one. Go to school, be a doctor, make a lot of money, send it home so he can make the restaurant bigger. I only have three sisters because none of them were a boy first. I.. I have obligations. I can't leave." He sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than he's trying to convince Kaleb. He pulls his sleeve back down. He looks like he wants to say more, tell Kaleb what he really wants to do with his life. The cue in his opposite hand is rapidly acquiring ice from where he holds it.
Kaleb listened and didn't change in expression, however, he didn't interrupt Hajime and it seemed, perhaps important, to give the man a chance to speak. That was the subtlty, Hajime was afforded his uninterrupted interest while he spoke. When he was done Echo repeated, "When you are ready to walk away…call me." Apparently he was adept at seeing the excuses for what they were. "That yo would take care of your family? Hnoourable. Admirable even. That they are not taking care of you? Not alright. When you are ready to live for you or it becomes unsafe? Call the damn number. We'll find you something that will make sure you're not in a cardboard box. No one should have the power to make us live in fear." He was still working his own shit out, but there was at least money out there to allow Hajime opportunity to get on his own feet without being a dependant.
Hajime watches Kaleb for a moment, squinting his eyes a little, like he's trying to figure out just why Kaleb should care about what happens to him at all. He's still working on this friend thing, it's still new to him. Why should Kaleb care about anyone other than himself and his family? He puts the cue down, now partially frozen. His hand moves out like he means to grab Kaleb's hand, his arm, but he hesitates, he remembers the look that man had once given them when Hajime had just been holding the back of Kaleb's hand to show him how his ice worked. "I haven't had friends like you, Jay, Kellan and Vic before it's new.." He admits. "Can I hug you? Is that okay?"