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The apartment door opens and closes, followed by Jay's voice, calling. "Kale? Kaleb?" A pause. "Vic? Uh, Kell?"
Kaleb looked up and a stool might have been knocked over… corrected… there we go. Kaleb looked minimally put together which was still overdressed to most people, and a bit overtired to match. He blinked, "Jay?" He blinked again trying to process if he was awake or asleep or completely zoned out doing calculus. Two rushed steps carried him into the room but he abruptly halted. He had a million questions. Nope. Going to keep it casual. It was a comfortable place to start. "I was about to make coffee. Want some?" (Jay, you're here to make tehe coffee do, thank goodness.)
Jay walks through the relatively new apartment at an accelerated clip in his normally relaxed stride, calling for his three roommates to see who is home. He seems well, all things considered, though he is wearing different clothes than those he was seen wandering around the house in the last time Kaleb saw him. They seem to have an oddly fantastic or maybe medieval lean to them, but there is nothing rustic or unfinished about any of it. Still in earthy browns and deep greens to offset his natural bright coloring, Jay's wrapped in soft looking brown cloth pants with leather reinforced knees and a green doublet-vest looking bit with brown, copper and blue trim in an angular pattern across his chest that does, honestly, great things for his physique that tee shirts and sweaters never did. The back altered in a deliberate way for his wings with a fitted mechanic, almost like wherever he was, they're used to making allowances for wings. A stuffed bag on his shoulder dangles from Jay's hand, quickly dropped by the foot of the couch while he heads straight for Kaleb's room, almost coliding with the sonic.
Relief is the first expression hitting Jay's face when he sees Kaleb, rushing forward as well, "Kale, hey." Until he sees the other man hesitate. Jay halts uncertainly, wings fwipping around on his back, searching Kaleb up and down with a faint twitch of his brows together. Casual? The eagerness in his posture cools and Jay straightens up, shoulders back. "Oh. Um. You were?" YOU were going to make coffee? "Y-yes?"
Kaleb, to the untrained eye, was as aloof as ever. Jay, being able to speak sonic, could see aleb had absolutely zero idea what to do with himself and was playing to what he knew until he could figure out the rest. If Kaleb could handle knowing what to do with more than 'a' feeling at a time it could be considered a banner day. Does he walk over the extra foot, does he hug? This is one of those times where other people do that right? Was he going to be it? (that was at the forefront of concern surely). And Jay called him on the thing. Shit. shitshitshit. Well… fine. Coffee it was. He didn't move though and just squint his eyes shut. Finally he offered quietly, "Man I looked all over for you. No one in Harlem knew where you were." Harlem!?
Jay gives Kaleb a moment to breathe while he tries to cram down his own automatic, arguably more human reactions, but for all his attempt at poise, his wings seem to vibrate with minute tremors of motion. Breathing in deeply, Jay's chest expands against the more snug-fitting vest, willing his emotions to calm while he waits for Kaleb to catch up. "Harlem? Why were you in Harlem lookin' for me?" He hovers in place, shifting his weight from one foot to another slowly, arms loose at his sides.
Kaleb was still distressed but it was, like all of his emotions, pretty buried and subtle. It wasn't that they weren't there, he was shit at expressing them though. He did, however, stop moving, amrs dangling to his side looking at his roommate that looked assaulted by a ren faire. "I called your mom," DANGER! Danger, Will Robinson! "And she said what I needed to find was Jesus. So I assumed she pulled a you and so I looked all over Harlem, found three men named Jesus, and none of them knew you. One of them almost punched me."
Eyebrows pop upward swiftly. "You /called mah mom?/" Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no. Jay's face pales even moreso than his already fair complexion. Taking another breath, his eyes show panic, flickering up and down Kaleb's person while he thinks about his next three moves to smooth this one over with his mother. At least he doesn't yell. That's good. Though, he misses some part of what Kaleb said and comes back half way through. "Oh. No. No, she just meant that—" Jay struggles for a moment to try to find a way to translate what his momma meant, his mouth opening and closing a couple of times before he finds words. "You know, it doesn't matter what she meant. She didn't mean it literally. An' if ya wanna find a guy named 'Jesus', try Spanish Harlem. They pronounce it 'Hey-Soos'." Jay scrubs his fingers through his bright hair and shakes his head, planting his other hand on his hip.
"Oh, man…" A soft puff of breath intertwined with a barely audible chuckle, Jay breaks the awkward stand off to amble forward that final distance to his friend, forcibly snagging Kaleb by the shoulder with a hand to try to yank him in to a hug. "Don't get punched, Kale."
Kaleb was a little jarred by the hug, but returned it. Okay he wasn't being hit and instead snugged his pal. Okay… okay they were still pretty good. "Guy, I know! That's why I went down there." It masde sense to him. You want to find a guy with a sSPanish name? Go to where teh Spanish speaking people were. He sighed andleaned into Jay. "I'm glad you're home." It was a quiet, but earnest admission. Forehead to shoulder he stood there for a long moment quiet. Relieved, and then just bust out laughing shaking his head not looking up, "I have no idea thow to use that thing." Yeah coffee wasn't happening by his hand without setitng the kitchen on fire.
Kaleb paused and squint, "Where the hell were you? Also you have mail. A lot.. of mail."
Kaleb's forehead resting on his shoulder after he gets used to the shock of, well, hug, Jay holds on patiently, squeezing his friend close. His chin rests on Kaleb's shoulder, lightly bonking their heads together. Jay doesn't have many safe spaces left in this world. The haughty sonic with the natural deficiency in moral fiber and a severe misunderstanding on basic emotional cues just so happens to be one of them. Like base for kids playing tag. "Yeah. Ah'm glad to be home. Ah'm sorry. Ah didn't have a choice."
The mention of the coffee machine makes him shake softly with almost inaudible, gentle laughter, arms squeezing around Kaleb's torso for a squeeze tighter. "Well, that one's broken, so don't feel so bad about not bein' able to make it work. Though, it's nice to hear you admit it without threatening to throw it out the window." Jay murmurs pleasantly. "It's a long story. What kind of mail? Wait…" Jay lifts his chin off Kaleb's shoulder to peer across the too-near distance at his friend. "/The/ mail? Yer letters?"
Kaleb was quiet for a moment and shrugged, "Hey, been there. The important thing is you're back, Jay. That's… that's what matters." There was a pause and he let Jay go walking over to the kitchen and leaned hips back into the councer. "Yeeeeah… there's, um, there's a few." He bit his lip and didn't speak to the multitude of tiny peace offerings as well. Finally blue eyes scaned back to Jay and asked finally, "You alright? Also… call your mother. She's a lovely woman."
Jay's eyes widen emphatically as Kaleb lets him go and he does the same, following to the kitchen. "Yeah, no kidding. Though it was more like Ah had time to say 'what?' an' poof. Gone." Walking through the space, Jay looks tired but relaxed. Decidedly relaxed. His limbs hang a little looser. His stride just a little longer. Not weary like he's been run ragged, but there's an aura of busy movement about the fair man.
To the fridge, he pulls the orange juice out and /almost/ doesn't grab a glass before remembering his manners. See? They all have little quirks. Jay is the 'drinks from the carton' culpret. Pouring a glass out, Jay looks back at Kaleb, a serene, apologetic smile appearing, carrying with it a weight of sincerity. "Ah'm okay. Just…feelin' not in control of my own life, but that's nothin' new now, is it?" A kind glimmer in his eyes, Jay takes a few steps forward, snagging the glass coffee carafe in a hand, the other reaches to touch Kaleb's shoulder. "Ah tried to make him bring me back. I'm sorry. Ah didn't want you to worry. Ah'd never buzz off like that on ya."
Kaleb pointed to himself, to Jay, then himself, back to Jay. They were so squared up on this. "You gave mea ehart attack. Next time your brother wants something remind him that we already had friends taken by strangers and expieremented on like appliances. Not alright." he shook his head and didn't want to dwell in that either. "So why does it look like you were attacked by Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? And… ya know… kinda the theme for this summer." It wasn't dismissal of being out of control, it was acknowledgement. "I am beginning to thin life isn't something we control, but like the ocean, we steer through, but the power still belongs to her." He paused and jsut stared blankly at Jay with a shrug, "I was reading Walt Whitman. That's not mine."
Jay maintains that contact until he's certain that Kaleb is okay and they are indeed square. Nodding, he tape the faucet on and fills the carafe with water and smiles serenely at Kaleb. "Ah'm glad that you told me that. Ah was going' to say that if you just made that up, Ah was going to steal it. That deserves to be in a song." Jay smiles and taps off the water, giving Kaleb a pop of his brows as he grabs his glass of juice and the water, heading back out of the kitchen with a glance for Kaleb to follow him back to his room.
"It wasn't my brother, though. Sam would've understood. He would've let me tell you, or leave a note, or call. Something. It was one of those aliens running around. Which is also why I look a little like Ah'm ready to chop down a bean stalk around here."
Kaleb chortled, "Like I'm any good with words." Why he was taking a caraffe of water to his room Kale didn't knoww, but he followed the birdman curiously. In Jay's room there was a small assortment of things on his desk the least of which were 26 letters postmarked from Tibet?! Uh huh. There was also a sew set of strings for his guitar, pick, and a new winter coat that was one of those wrappy kinds so it wouldn't bind wings. It was more of a wool poncho really. Kaleb, however, was interested in where the water was going but stopped at 'aliens' and went ashenface. "What'd they look like?"
Jay takes pause when he looks at the pile of offerings on his desk, like a tiny alter that Kaleb's been putting things at in hopes that it would somehow bring Jay back. "Oh. Wow. Um. Happy early Christmas?" He looks at Kaleb with brows arched in shock while he holds a cup of orange juice and a carafe of water in either hand. "Was this…you?" Before he gets to the point of what the aliens looked like, his brain seems to be stuck on a loop.
Kaleb stopped and blinked at Jay boggling at him. he didn't- oooooh Jay Jay Jay. Kaleb sighed and said as gently as he could (which was not at all) "Santa's not real. I thught… maybe you were mad at me. It was either that or think something bad happened to you soooo… mozel tov." There was a pause and he sighed almost entirely offhandedly, "Speaking of Christmas we have to figure out where we wanna go." Go?
The soft moment of surprise and sentiment ruined by Kaleb and his words, Jay exhales a gentle laugh and shakes his head, dispelling it. "Ah know that Santa isn't real. I'm not simple, Kaleb." Jay murmurs and sets his glass down on the desk beside the pile of offerings, then walks to the other corner of the room where, on a table, sits a second, smaller coffee machine and a mug. Jay checks the grounds and pours the water in the top of the machine, flicking it on. Secondary, secret coffee machine. He turns slowly and points at the machine. "Don't let Max touch this one, okay?"
"What do you mean where we want to go?" Jay queries softly and strolls back to the pile of letters, smiling mildly to himself as he thumbs through the few topmost on the pile. "And they looked humanish, mostly." Green eyes flick up to Kaleb. "The aliens. Ah mean…you remember my former roommate, yeah? The one who died an' got kidnapped, an' had the ugly dog when you met me? He's an alien. In fact, Ah guess it was his planet Ah was on."
Kaleb nodded once furrowing his brow, "Kevin. Ugly yippy thing. Yeah I remember." The sonic's brow furrowed. Okay that didn't sound like the Kree he was wrapped up with helping the Inhumans protect against. Still there was a groan of discontent. Then the next moment brought his eyebrow way higher than it reasonably shoudl be. "Planet? Hell I was just in friggen China and called. We are sooooo squared, Jay." He blinked a few more times and asked hesitantly, "Was it cool? Were tehy groovy with you an all? Did you bring Kevin?" Now the 100 questions before he answered finally, "Yeah man. Go. For the holliday? Big fancy dinner with folks you don't wnat to talk to and after get the present of going wherever you want in teh world, generally with not-those same people. Do you… not celebrate Christmas in Kentucky?" Kaleb was suddenly very very concerned.
Listening to Kaleb's explanation of 'Christmas' results in a confused squint from Jay. Also concerned. "We got Christmas, yeah. But…Ah don't think that's what that is, Kale." His eyes squint, confused and uncertain. Then relax again. "Ah'm telling you, Ah /tried/." Jay protests fervantly with a plea of a look back to Kaleb. "Ah told him no. Ah told him you'd be worried. Ah told him Ah had work. Ah told him Ah needed to tell someone. Ah think his exact words were," Jay adopts a sort of english accent, but the voice still sounds like his own. Which is bizarre. "'You are not important enough that anyone will /die/ with your absence. They will be fine, as are you.' Ah literally didn't get a choice." Closing his eyes for a moment of centering before he feels his voice veer into whining territory, Jay takes a breath and looks to Kaleb again. "It's not an excuse. Ah know. But yes. Planet. Not like Ah could just jump a plane back home. Believe me, Ah tried, until he pointed out there ain't no plane that travels that far."
Waiting for the coffee to brew, Jay looks to the bundle of letters again, one hand reaching to touch the winter coat. A small smile touching his eyes more than his mouth. "Kai an' Kevin weren't there. Ah guess they were still here? But…honestly?" A shiver of suppressed excitement thrills through him, ruffling feathers like an invisible breeze. Burgeoning through to his voice, Jay's eyes flick back up to meet Kaleb's blue. "Yeah. It was really amazing. So amazin'. The /people/, an' the buildings. /Kaleb/, you would have loved some of those buildin's and bridges."
Kaleb reache out and set a hand on Jay's shoulder. It looked like the words should be 'I'm not angry'. The words that came out were, "Well he's a fukwit." There was a sage nod as if to assure he knew what he was talking about and the word may, may, in fact fall apart without Jay there as friend and moral compass. Finally he assured, "I don't hold you responsible for that. You tell me you tried, ya know, I appreciate that. I mean I know from personal experience sometimes things are just messed up. We'll, like, move forward. I'm just glad you're home and not snacked on by wolves." or Aliens. He left that part out. His interest keened immensely at the notion of buildings. "The deuce you say? You got pictures? man this is a summer for trauma and fantastic architecture I'll give it that much."
Calling his kidnapper a fuckwit makes Jay smile mildly. Or maybe it's the sentiment of reassurance. Either way, there it is. His expression remains placid for a couple moments as he holds Kaleb's gaze for several moments before letting his attention fall again to the letters again. "Ah'm glad to be home, too. Sort of." Pale fingers tap on the outside of the first envelope, tracing the letters of his own name idly. "No. Ah didn't get any pictures. But…Ah did bring you something back…" A crafty little upturn of his lips, Jay peers up at Kaleb, chin still lowered to give him a very slightly impish look. He definitely wasn't supposed to.
Kaleb tilted his head to teh side. New York was not without its challenges right now. Stepping away from one's problems was one thing, but they were still there and New York was still home. The mention of a souvinere arched Kaleb's eyebrow and the mischevousness of Jay's grin drew a wry smile from teh sonic, "You sly bird. Awwww you absolutely should have." He really really really did love stuff. It was the thought that counts! "Do I ahve to wait or do I get to ask?"
Jay's impish, slightly guilty expression, opens up into a rarely broad grin as he lifts his chin, flashing not-quite perfectly straight teeth at Kaleb and that odd single dimple he gets when he really smiles. "Yeah…Ah sort of thought that bringing you somethin' back might, um, smooth the seas?" Green eyes squint slightly and that smile dims from that rare brilliance that shines through him. "Nah, you don't have to wait. It's in m'bag." Jay nods in that direction, patting Kaleb on the shoulder as he brushes past to retrieve the bag he dropped at the foot of the couch, returning a second later, just as his room begins to fill with the scent of coffee. Oh coffee. Giver of life. "Now, it was sorta hard to get things because they didn't take th' money Ah had, so Ah had to sort of barter around a little bit an' stuff…" Jay drops his odd knapsack on his bed and starts digging through it. That's where his old clothes are wound up.
Kaleb was so torn. Coffee…things… coffee… things… Well things couldn't be reheated and he really did want to hear more about this trip. People he never much cared for, but places, and landscape and structures were his first love and Jay got to meet them. "Man, I'm actually pretty excited you got to see some place, literally, far out. The last five days being haorring as hell? Not so much, but this is cool there's a bright side to it." There was a pause as he sat on teh arm of the couch and looked at Jay's old clothes. He blinked and as an olive branch helped. "The lady's coming tomorrow for clothes. we'll get the wrinkles out." Because that's what kept jay up at night in his mind, or should.
Jay pauses in his rummaging to give Kaleb a lidded look when he mentions the laundry lady. "Ah can still do mah laundry, Kale." The look morphs smoothly into a crooked smile. "Y'just wash it and they come out." Unraveling a ball of one of his shirts, Jay smiles to himself. "It was pretty amazin'. Ah do have some wanderlust in me, so once Ah sorta got over the fact that there wasn't anythin' Ah could do until he brought me back, Ah'm only a little embarrassed to admit that it was really boss. There was this whole festival goin' on while we were there. A lot of it Ah didn't understand, but just gettin' to see it blew my mind. The room Ah had was wild. The view was amazin'. THey say that the world itslef moves so often that no map is ever the same when ya look it up. You just gotta know where everything is."
Unwrapping his shirt carefully, Jay smiles as he pulls something small and glass-looking out of the cloth, which explains the wrapping. It's really the epitome of a silly tourist gift, but it's from another world, so that makes it better, right? Jay produces a small piece of what looks like amber-hued glass mounted on a woven vine base and hands it out to Kaleb. "Turn it around," Jay coaxes.
Inside the sphere there seems to be an etching in very tiny pinpricks of imperfections which seem entirely random when viewed from a certain angle, but as it's twisted, the imperfections and etched lines inside of it take shape into a detailed view of a stately looking building, palacial, nearly. Twisted again, it falls into chaos, only to reform a second 'building' which seems to be rooted in the base of a tree, tangled in its branches. Three different structures, total, can be seen depending on the angle viewed.
Kaleb sighed, "but you shouldn't have to." Kale's tongue ran idly over his bottom lip prepared to justify the argument but it wasn't worth it. The grin hung, mostly because of relief and the tired hit him like a wall from being on edge for so long. The world was balancing. Good world. It gets a cookie. Then there was the amber which was cool. But the image arrested in side of it that changed not like a hologram but engineering on a whole different level? It mesmerized him. He'd actually react, but the fact was his brain was busy and he was unable to remember, presently, there was an outside world and people in it? Well that was it's own different kind fo compliment. Sound bounced through the room offering a Woaaaah.
"Ah don't /have/ to," Jay remarks sensibly in return. "If ah suddenly broke mah arms and they, fer some reason, stayed broke, Ah know you wouldn't let me wallow in filth."
Handing over the amber-hued orb, Jay sits down beside his bag, twisting his discarded shirt/packing material in his hands idly while watching Kaleb's reaction. A lingering smile alighting his expression, that soft light from Jay's soft spirit makes his eyes glow with such simple pleasure while he watches Kaleb turn that orb around in his hands. The slow shift of those 'random' echings inside the smooth sphere taking form at only the perfect angle, the angel-imposter watches it from his own perspective, wings trembling with delight as Kaleb falls entirely silent. Well. Sort of. He falls silent, but the room hums. Jay's eyes squint into little crescents as he smiles. "Ah'm told that one of them's some kind of palace, the other is supposed to be some important hall, an' the other…Ah think it's a library? Or…a gateway? Ah can't remember. The lady who gave it to me told me, but there was a lot goin' on."
Kaleb slid to a sit on teh couch. There was a faint nod. Yes, Jay, he heard you. Busy being amazing at the moment. And for a moment there was no pretense and he was as amazed as he was when he was four on that first trip to the Hamptons and he jsut explored the whole house, carefully room by room. By now his brain was trying to align angle and refractions that would let it do all three images twisting it in his hand. He came up with nothing and that would keep him busy indefiniately. Part of him wanted to show it to Max, and the other part of him didn't want to risk it coming apart to find out the 'how'. Kaleb still didn't speak, but pulled a foot up under him and settled in, coffee actually forgotten about, not unwanted, but still forgotten at this time. The harder he focues the more detail there seemed to be. Quietly he said to Jay, "It's like an Acme Pocket Kingdom." Amazement melted into a grin and finally, after a time, looked back to to Jay stunned. he was still here! "Jay this is, " Words. Damn. "Thank you." There. Direct like a punch to the face. It worked.
Jay has seen Kaleb fall into focus over something before. Usually a diagram or a drawing of something new and interesting, so he stays quiet and patient, slowly sorting out what's left in his bag while sneaking pleased little looks over at his best friend. Really, it was wonderful to see. It did Jay's heart good. His stuff back in the bag and ready to be shuffled to his room properly when Kaleb looks up with a grin. The expression gathered and reflected back with a serene smile. "Ah'm glad you like it, Kale. Yer welcome, man." All the subtle nuances of language humming his own relief to be back, if not in New York, then rejoined with his sonic. Simple words with all the nuance between. "Ah'm gonna unpack and change outta this stuff before some angry dwarves come 'round. Ah'll grab that cup for ya, too, kay?" Jay murmurs evenly as he meanders back toward his room. His room. Weird.