1965-01-31 - A Lesson in Cluelessness
Summary: Jeb comes to visit Kaleb and may or may not have asked him on a date that Kaleb may have agreed to not knowing Jeb's deeper meaning behind asking him.
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
jebediah kaleb 


Kaleb was in the middle of an unusual ritual. Normally one didn't get ready for the day at 6pm, and it didn't normally include Kaleb laying out a helmet and leather body armour out on his bed either. Really the flak jacket was still in the style of any one of his waistcoats, higher to teh collar, with utility tie and, oh for god's sake it had buttons on it. The radio was still a soulful jazz, piano, cello, and trumpet trio playing out on his radio as he paced around the room.


Jebediah knows the building, knows where he's going, knows that he's going to the sixth floor, knows that Kaleb can probably hear the heart beating in his chest from the bottom floor, knows his stride, knows that he's on his way up. He probably even knows the way that Jebediah opens a door. He does have a key still after all, but he doesn't live here anymore, so instead of waltzing right in the way he used to, he does something crazy and wildly uncouth for Jebediah Guthrie.

He knocks.


Kaleb was very confused apparently. The knock occurred. Generally anyone he gives a shit about has a key. THey key is there to let people do their own work. But there was a knock and there were no footsteps going to the door.

Echo growled with discontent walking over to teh front door murmuring something about being made to live like a savage. Opening the door he boggled at Jeb confused. "You have a key." It was a declaration said withteh underlying wquestion of Why are you not using your key? Instead of 'welcome!' the greeing was purely Kaleb M. Miller by way of observing, "I'm not the butler, Jeb." But he was letting him in, or at least waiting which meant get your ass inside. No one got their ears boxed though so that was…a good sign?


Jebediah looks at Kaleb confused as to why his answering of the door is so hostile. "Yeah, but Ah don't live here and Jay told me to get out for yer comfort, so Ah thought it'd be polite to not just barge in here like Ah know the place." He says pointedly with a little frown as he comes inside, not wasting another minute out here in the hallway, if Kaleb's raring for a fight with someone, they can do it inside. "What's got your britches all twisted up, Lettuce?"


Kaleb gave Jeb that look of warning and said very clearly, "MY name is Cabbage. Cabbage, Kale, Kaleb, Kay-leb, and tonight? Echo. You get one." But apparently he's letting cabbage slide? Interesting. :at teh question of what has his britches up he boggled closeing the door quietly with a shrug. "This is how I am. I don't do doors unless someone's dying. For real you havea key. It's what it' there for." He really truly did not grasp theconsession o respect there. He pointed, "Coffee's made. C'mon back. Jay's not here yet."


"Alright, Cabbage, alright." Jebediah says with his hands raised in surrender. "We've got different views of respect Ah guess. Ah just don't know the rules about when you ain't live with people anymore if yer still allowed to just come 'round whenever ya please. Ah even tried to give the key back to Jay but he wouldn't take it. Usually you give someone yer key to like, watch yer pets when yer out of town or somethin' it's not just so you can barge in whenever ya please to disrupt their life." Jeb tries to explain, their difference in views.

"Do you have a cup?" Of the coffee he means, because one should always approach a Kaleb with a coffee. "Ah actually didn't come to see Jay."


Kaleb had to concede that point and shrugged. He paused and looked into his room where there was a broken mug. It was a meg that was for certain not 'mugging' any longer or any time soon. "Noooot…really." No mug. He paused and stopped letting the sound fusion wash over them, fingers reached out like he was grabbing a large ball, pulling it in, and turning it above his head letting the sound fill the room for a moment so the trill of the basso trumpet, low, reberbed asaingt the back of arms. Sometimes this is how goosebumps are born. He coinded reverently, "I love this part. It was recorded only 18 blocks from here you know?"


Jebediah presses his lips together and gives Kaleb a stern look that he'd perfected from his time as oldest brother when Jay had left, a look that says he knows what that 'not really' means and if Kaleb had been a smaller Guthrie child, he might have earned himself a time out. Instead, he goes to prepare Kaleb a mug of coffee and brings it over to him. He watches Kaleb with awe as he fills the room with the sound of his music. Incredible, he nearly drops the mug in awe. "Ah didn't. That was amazing, Cabbage." Kaleb did say he only gets one today. "Do y'know that you and your brother are really fantastic?"


Kaleb seemed… pleased by this. Shit, he faintly smiled. He made a gesture like he was parting the Red Sea and forced the sound to split into stereo surround, not really making new sound, but letting it mimic and letting the overatures of the trumpet play to one side, adn the lower harmony of strongs fall to their left. "Yeah. Kellan's pretty spectacular. It'll be interesting to see what he decides to do with himselves." The plural was offputting to some but it was accurate.


Jeb compliments Kaleb and Kaleb faintly smiles and then shows off for him by splitting the sound, and Jeb is almost certain that Kaleb can hear his heart beating hard because it feels like it shakes Jeb's entire body with it. "And you, Kaleb, and you are spectacular." He enforces when Kaleb only agrees to Kellan being amazing. "Always trying to fix the world, always coming up with new ideas, Kaleb, if you didn't even have a mutation, you'd still be one of the most incredible people I've ever met." Jebediah says as he comes closer, taking Kaleb's hand to put the mug in it.


Kaleb boggled dismissivly sipping his coffee, "Well that's the idea." He paused and looked to Jeb, slightly concerned murmuring, "You sound like you have arythemia. Should see VItale or Josh about that. Relax…or… something." He did nod Jeb to follow him back while he was working on getting ready. Seriously, who has leather armour that looked like a business suit? Kaleb fucking Miller. "I'm just getting ready to head out in a bit. As you say, fixing things that humans fucking broke."


"Yeah, Ah'll work on that." Or Kaleb could just stop fuckin' smiling at him and being… strangely attractive in a way that Jeb hadn't noticed before, that would help. He follows Kaleb when Kaleb nods for him to. He looks at the the leather armor worriedly. "Cabbage.." He says, tone laced with concern. "You've got Vitale's number on speed dial, right? You know, you could probably wear this when you go to meet Max's family. Just in case." Despite the fact that Kaleb's giving him a heart condition, the idea of Max taking Kaleb somewhere doesn't strike any jealousy in Jebediah. This is why the feelings are confusing.


Kaleb went about looking through, dear god how many cufflinks did one man need? That top of this armoire popped up and had a tiny compartmentalized army of them. His head tilted back and forthe absently assuring, "Maximus would never let his family harm me. Besides, I helped save their home so that is veeeery unlikly." He held up two pair and asked gold and jade or silver and black?" He looked over and shrugged sighing with a furrow of his brow. "Last time I went… I had to take a man's life, Jeb. I don't take this lightly, and I'm not one to be a cowboy. I ain't your brother."


Is Kaleb really asking Jeb which /cufflinks/ he prefers? Jebediah hadn't even known what a cuff link was before he moved here, but Kaleb is asking him his /opinion/ on something. "The gold and the jade. Ah like Jade, y'know, it's said to be lucky." He says, as if Kaleb gives even half a crap about what kind of hocus pocus they say about jade. "You.. you ki-" He stops himself. Kill sounds so final and violent. The way Kaleb had said it was better. "Kaleb, come here. Stop. You had to do what you had to do to take care of yourself and the man you love and that's all that happened. Ah know you ain't take it lightly, Ah know you ain't a cowboy. Yer too pretty for all of that mess. Yer gonna be alright. Am I the only one who knows? Besides Max, Ah'm sure. Have you talked to anyone about that?"


Kaleb looked confused and flinched shaking his head. "N-no. Max doesn't know. Jay was there. We… went on a mission to stop someone… bad." He took a deep breath and hsi jaw tightened. FOr a man with few emotions this was something he had displeasure in. That one he was good at! "Wasn't sone of Max's people. We… if I told you it'd sound stupid. There was some parasite… they had me separate its molecular bonds by crushing it with sound to detonate the… the cellular structure." His brow furrowed quietly adding witha almost scientific detachment because it jsut made it easier, "And the host. It was weird. I seriously hate the shit things do to put us in that position of needing to do that. Someday that will change."


"Kaleb. Come here." Jeb urges again, trying to get the other man closer to a place he can sit down. "Ah'm not going to hug you, Ah'm not gonna touch you if that ain't what you need right now, Ah just want you to park your narrow behind on a chair and talk to me for a second. Nothin' you are ever gonna tell me is gonna sound stupid, Kaleb, Ah'm real stupid, everythin' that leaves your lips sounds like Einstien to me. Now c'mere and /sit/." And Jebediah puts heat on that word, practice from being an older sibling in charge of so many younger ones. Jeb is always careful with Kaleb, like he's walking on eggshells but now he's not, now he's firm.


Kaleb tilted his head up being, perhaps, entirely too matter-of-fact about things. His head shook. He murmured, "I'm fine." He wasn't entirely fine. "I'm annoyed" THis is true. "The world is not simple, Jeb. It's why we get concerned about shit." Entirely fair assessment. He wasn't sitting, he was slowly suiting up but his attention was there. "And I appreciate you not falling apart. I don'tneed someone falling apart. Just… one of those days you're cathin me at a weird time. Oh, listen to this part though." His hand turned letting the upswing catchs as something entirely jovial and almost sounding like an island tune picked up. "You ever been to Fiji?" As if! "I got to go once, maybe again, but this? This feels like that. Man nothing is in a hurry there."


"Ah don't fall apart. Guthries don't fall apart even when we need to. Ah know Ah'm not your rock like Jay is or anythin' but y'know, sometimes people gotta talk about their stuff. You can't just let it eat at you forever. And if you want to do that, we can go get coffee, anywhere you like, and we can talk." Jeb listens to the music, going quiet when Kaleb requests that he hear something. "Kaleb, I've been to here and Kentucky. You know that." He responds to being asked if he's ever been to Fiji.


Kaleb didn't seem to be lisening, though by contrast heard everything. Always. His eyes closed and he bent his fingers so that one remained and he placed it over his lips. His voice spoke ambient in the room giving the audio impression of him wandingering around examining the notes. "THis is Gershwin. He's the spirit of New York to me. ANd I don't have stuff. I don't have problems, jsut things in need of solutions." Prideful and stubborn. His voice wandered through the room like he had them all surrounded, "Just… illustrating why we are heading out and why… I need your help with that other project, Jeb. we need to prevent that future fromcoming to be. I mean it's done, I killed him, but not yet."// That made little sense out of context he had to admit. He stopped and drank his coffee. "We have coffee, Jeb. Incidently, what brings you by?" Back to that.


"Can you just.. shut up. Just shut up for a second and listen to me. Ain't no one ever do that. But you should. You don't gotta sit down to put your fuckin' ears on and hear me." Jeb starts out quiet, meek, how he often is in the presence of Kaleb because Kaleb is smarter than him, Kaleb is superior in every way but Jeb can't stand this anymore. "Things in need of solutions are problems, Kaleb Marshall Miller. You can't just keep all that shit swallowed forever, it's going to /destroy/ you. Ah get it, alright, every fuckin' man Ah meet in this godforsaken city thinks that they ain't allowed to emote. Even Jay, even Sam. Ah only catch them at it when we're alone, but girls ain't the only ones allowed to be affected by the weight of the fuckin' universe, especially when you force yourself to carry it!" He keeps his voice level, measured, he doesn't bring it up an octave, doesn't increase the volume to yelling like he had with Paige, he's careful of Kaleb's mutation even when he's frustrated with him, maybe even more so then. Jebediah exhibits a level of control right now on his temper than Kaleb may not have thought he had in him. Because he /cares/ about Kaleb. "You need to talk about it. It doesn't make you any less of a man to break down sometimes, to cry, to fuckin' need someone else. It doesn't have to be /me/, Kale. Ah know you're closer to Jay and Ah know you have Max. Talk to someone."

He takes a deep breath and a step back and away from Kaleb just in case Kaleb comes in swinging. "You." He answers that question honestly. "Ah wanted to see you."


Kaleb actually didn't go in swinging. He stood impossibly still and stonefaced as if the man were half android, but he processed everything. His ability to remain analytical and detached from his own feelings was borderline pathological if not outright. Calm. There was always taht sense of resolute calm. "It'll work out when we change the way teh world things, Jeb. It'll jsut take time as to not do violently. If the need arrises I will say something. Satisfied? Now. What did you need. I'm here, you have me, what's up?"


"Ah didn't /need/ anything. Ah wanted to just… Ah dunno," Jebediah rubs the back of his head and heaves a big sigh as blush tints his cheeks. "Ah missed you, Ah guess. And Ah wanted…" Wow, this is a lot more difficult than he thought it would be. Since when does Kaleb of all damn people make Jebediah stammer. Jay would kill him if he knew what Jeb was trying to do there. "Do you like… do you wanna.. come to dinner with me sometime? Just to catch up when you're not busy saving the universe or meeting parents?" Somewhere, a bird's feathers were tingling, they had to be. Somewhere Jay was actively molting.


|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 2


Kaleb seemed to calm down entirely, or at least present as human again when he wasn't put on the spot to do something he quite literally had no programming for (error 404: emotional expresison not found). He thought about the question missing the sub-context in its entirety if there was any, "Yeah we can catch up. That could be cool." Not even a big deal in the slightest. He sighed looking at his armour and pinching the bridge of his nose, "Once this is over. Just… irraitating this shit is necessary. But yeah after Jay and I get back we can hang. That'd be groovy.


Jeb's eyes light up but he also looks incredibly perplexed, like he hadn't been expecting the answer to be yes at all. He takes the breath right out of his lungs for a second because Jebediah Isaac Guthrie has never asked anyone on a date before, certainly not a person that had a scary murder boyfriend already, but if Jay can have two boyfriends and also a boyfriend for his boyfriend, then apparently there are no rules about asking a guy out who's already going steady with someone else.

That could eat for breakfast.

In one bite.

"That's great! Okay! Ah'll find a place you'll like. Somewhere new." He says, practically bouncing on his heels.


Kaleb was very bewildered at the glee. Man moving away from home though and being a mutant in a big scary town? Sure, he can see why Jeb would want to hang out with his brother's friends. He doesn't know a lot of people. Someone should really warn Jeb about serial monogamists with homicidal signifigant others, it's true. Oh the future had painful sit com scribbled all over it. Poor, poor Jeb.


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