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After work, Jebediah will grab Jay by the wrist and all but demand that he come home with Jeb tonight. "We need to talk." Is leveled at his bigger brother very seriously. He needs to hear what Doug couldn't and there's been a bit left unsaid from Jay that Jebediah needs to catch up on, clarification for. Damnable mysterious bird brother with his multiple lovers. He thought Sam was the only one in the family with the multiple lover syndrome but apparently it's carried over to Jay as well. He was trying to protect Doug, trying to protect Jay, trying to protect what they had, but Jebediah needed to tell Jay what was going on and in turn, Jay better explain Jebediah a few things as well.
He'll hurry them up the stairs and into his apartment, knowing that there was someone who lived in this same building that Jay didn't want to see and it was just better to keep Jay's anxiety level down because there's no doubt in Jebediah's mind that Jay's going to shake a couple feathers loose as soon as Jebediah mentions the name…
"Elmo."
As soon as they get through the door and Jeb's got it shut behind Jay. "The guy Ah had a run in with was Elmo."
Jay was going to veer back upstairs with Doug when he was snagged. The seriousness in Jeb's tone tells him that he can seriously wait to go watch Doug read up on Russian boogie men. His brows worry together slightly and he nods, following back to Jeb's place. His eyes open, but there was a tiny smile privately to himself while they flee up the stairs and into his apartment.
"Wh-what?" Jay starts when he hears the name, surprised when he turns to face Jeb. "You what? What? That doesn't make any sense. Why would Elmo say somethin' bad about me?"
"Because Ah don't like him, because Ah goaded him and because when Ah first met him, he says he's your boyfriend but is talking with Mister Morbius about his /other/ boyfriend and that ain't sit well with me. Supposedly yer aware of his other boyfriend but according to Mr. Morbius, this Elmo character is in some kind of weird queer love ring which Ah don't know if you know of." Jeb explains, pulling on Jay's wrist to guide him to the couch and pushing him towards it to sit because Jay's going to need to sit. "So when he showed up at the club with another man, Ah said somethin' rude about whether or not this was just another one of the men he serially cheats on you with… and somethin' else.. far ruder."
So. /So/ much information. Jay is bombarded by it, holding his hands up and taking steps backwards when Elmo and Morbius and queer love rings all come up. It's for the best that Jeb is dragging him over to the couch. He drops heavily, looking startled and confused by all of the words that just happened. Brows dipping together in serious distress, Jay's wings puff up to strike a large crimson silhouette behind him, Jay shakes his head slowly, staring through Jeb. "Ah…don't even rightly know where to start with all that." Admitting hesitantly, his cheeks a healthy flush of color.
Jeb moves to the refrigerator for a moment to let Jay take all of that in and comes back with a beer he hands to Jay. "Ah have to talk slower and back pedal." He says pushing paper and other random art supplies off his coffee table so he can sit across from Jay. Skinny knees bump up against Jay's own. He takes Jay's hand and pushes the beer into it. He takes a deep breath and slowly starts giving Jay information.
"Alright, so, the night Ah met Mr. Morbius, he was talkin' with Elmo 'bout his other boyfriend. Ah ain't know the other boyfriend's name, just that he has seizures and apparently Morbius is dating that guy too. They were talkin' bout how Elmo didn't even think about how to take care of their boyfriend until now, just cares about people with his… with his dick, instead of his heart." He watches Jay for a moment, taking a pause before he continues.
"That ain't sit well with me, especially if he /is/ yer boyfriend, he's supposed to care about /you/ not just want to screw around with you. Ah want him to ask you about all the things you care about, Ah went him to get excited about your shows, Ah want him to know how you like yer coffee and yer eggs and know all yer favorite things. That's what Ah want fer you, because yer my brother and Ah care about you and Ah want what's best fer you." He explains. "So when he came to the club, with another man that Ah ain't seen him with before, because Ah ain't like him already, Ah said some nasty thing about whether or not he's learned how to care about someone with anythin' other than his dick. And his response was somethin' along the lines of 'Ah take care of yer brother real good with my dick'. And well, you know what happened after."
You're joking. You are joking. Jeb starts explaining that first night and Jay's eyes flutter closed as he sinks forward, placing his elbows on his knees and covering his face in both hands. Bowed forward. His bright hair hanging on either side while he tries not to will himself to just stop breathing.
Which quite honestly happens anyway when Jeb finishes up the exchange he had with Elmo. Feathers fwip and shiver in aggitation, then clamp down hard to his back as the musician /groans/ loudly in agony and drops his chest to his knees. "Oh my lord. My lord. In heaven. My lord. Dear lord, mother Mary…"
Jebediah sets the beer aside and runs a hand through Jay's hair and across his shoulders in a way that's meant to be comforting. "Ah didn't tell Doug becuase it's your business and Ah don't ever know what you're doin' anymore because Ah ain't live with you, but Ah don't want to mess up the thing you got goin' with Doug. While Ah know more than you probably would like me to, it's your business and Ah'm not tellin' your business to anyone but you." He says quietly.
"Sweet baby Jesus…" Jay murmurs, completely numb-handing the beer pushed into his palm and just about dropping it before Jeb saves it from that fate. "Oh, my lanta." Whispering soft, incomprehensible things that sound like prayers down at the floor. "Ah'm gonna throw up."
"Don't do that on my carpet, Ah'll never get my deposit back, you jerk." Jeb chastises lightly, still petting Jay gently, fingers through his hair, a hand rubbing at his shoulders. "Yer alright, Jay. Yer alright, just breathe."
Jay remains staring at the inside of his eyelids, facing toward the floor, hands over his face while he waits for painful embarrassment and the feeling of violation to fade. Breathing. Breathing is important. He focuses on that and Jeb's presence while the pulse in his ears slowly starts to fade.
The musician eases himself back up into a sitting position, unable to look Jeb square in the eye, looking rather pale before he remembers to be embarrassed and blush fills his cheeks again. "Ah'm okay. Ah'm…yeah Ah'm not okay, but Ah'm okay."
"Yer a damn mess, is what you are Jay Guthrie, and that's alright. Did you happen to know that I'm yer brother and you can /actually/ talk to me about anythin' you're strugglin' with? Romance and otherwise. Mama kept havin' us little brats for that reason, so we could take care of each other." Jeb encourages while his older brother blushes so loudly from the couch that Jebediah thinks he's going to get warm too.
"Yer gonna take all the red out your wings, Jay." He says, patting his brother's knee. "That's why Ah hit him. After Ah shocked him and he just absorbed it, Ah hit him and he just went off. Ah don't think he wanted to hurt me."
"Now yer jus' usin' what Ah said earlier against me, you know that, raght?" Jay mutters, miserably, then drops his hands, rubbing down his face with a deforming drag. Then goes looking for that beer he remembers getting pushed into his palm. "Well, yeah. He's an electric mutant, Jeb. He's like a big ol' battery. He can't /make/ it like you do, but everythin' else. Gosh, you probably nearly blew a fuse on him." Jay presses a hand over his eyes again and groans, prolonged and lasting.
Jeb grabs Jay's hand and presses the beer back into it. "Ah didn't know what damn powers he had, all Ah knew was he was talkin' nasty about my brother so Ah beat him up. Ah didn't give him much, just wanted to make him feel a little /too/ toasty for a second to make him reconsider his words but he just soaked it up and Ah was already mad so Ah hit him. Then he took out all the lights so Ah covered him with my jacket. All he's got is the shiner." He assures, in case Jay was worried about the state of his boyfriend if that's what Elmo was. "Ah'm sorry."
Immediately taking a pull off that beer, Jay stops to breathe with the bottle just off his lips, then pulls on it again while he listens to Jeb explain. Hunched forward, both elbows perched on his knees, Jay rubs at his forehead with his free hand. "Raght, raght…" Miserable, there's a weary sigh. "Okay well. First of all. Not like you need to know about any of this. But Ah don't know anythin' about Elmo's d-dick." He stammers the word and mutters what sounds like another 'oh lord' while he thinks about what he's having to tell his little brother. "Ah can't believe he said that stuff to you. Damnit, Elmo."
"Jay, Ah don't give a good goddamn if you are sleepin' with him. He doesn't have any right to say nasty things about you. Ah hope you know that Ah don't care what you do /intimately/. It's not my concern. So long as ain't no one hurtin' you or forcin' you, it's none of my business." Jebediah tells him seriously, not flushed at the idea of his brother doing anything with another man. "He said it to make me mad because Ah made him mad." He keeps a hand on Jay's knee, squeezing it lightly. "Can tell you a secret 'bout me, if it'll make you feel better that Ah know one about you."
"Yeah Ah get it, Jeb, but the guy's talkin' about stuff like that an'—Oh my god, Ah'm the woman." Jay suddenly becomes hyper aware of how all of this is making him sound. Shocked. His eyes barely blink, more of a flutter, then takes another strong pull off that beer. "Fuck, Ah need somethin' stronger than this." He sighs and shakes his head. "No. No. Ah jus'. Ah jus' need a second to wrap mah whole head around all of this craziness, Sprout. Ah'm barely datin' this guy. He ain't mah boyfriend, /because/ Ah know about all this crap he's doin' with this other guy that sounds absolutely nuttier than squirrel shit, an' now he's like…gettin' into fights with mah brother at Doug's place." Jay groans. "Cryin' out loud."
"Ah feel like sayin' it like that is probably offensive to the guy who does the takin'? Neither of you are the woman are ya? Yer both men. Ah mean, Ah have a rough idea of how all that would work but, yer still both men." Jeb says with a furrowed brow. He shouldn't be better at this queer stuff than Jay, should he?
He rises from the coffee table and pulls a plastic cup out of the cupboard and fishes a half empty bottle of whisky out of his pantry, something that he probably keeps for Sam. "Ah don't got any shot glasses, so Ah hope this works." He brings back the cup with a little more than a shot's worth in it and hands it to his brother. "Well, he told me he was yer boyfriend so you should probably have a talk with 'im about that."
"When the guy is sayin' stuff purely t' /be offensive/ Jeb, that's sorta the point, now ain't it?" Jay points out, frustration mounting in his tone and slowly bridging toward anger. Anger that he breathes through, trying to force it off like water off a duck's back. Jeb gets up and so does his elder brother, beginning to pace the small living space back and forth. Still, he accepts that cup none the less, appreciating the gesture at least and dropping it back during a pacing rotation, handing it back to jeb on his way back. "Ah /have/ had that talk to him. We had a big fight about it because the other guy he's been seein' got all upset because Ah told him that there's a big difference between jus' datin' someone and bein' their boyfriend. Ah guess he had some kind of fit about it so Elmo told some people Ah was his boyfriend, so Ah had to tell him it ain't the same thing, again, an'—" Jay sighs and shakes his head, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "We fought."
Jay's voice rises to anger and cows Jeb to quiet. He takes the cup back from Jeb and Jeb refills it so when he comes round again during another pacing rotation, it's refilled. He's quiet, letting Jay get it all out, leaning against his sink while he watches Jay work on wearing a path into his kitchen floor. "Sounds like a big mess. One Ah ain't help none by stirring shit up with him, neither." Jeb admits. "Ah'm sorry you had to go through that, the fightin' and that other dumb guy he's seein'. Honestly? That dude sounds like a complete asshole. He treats Mr. Morbius pretty poorly but Ah cain't talk Morbius into leavin' him because Ah think he's scared ain't no one else gon' never love him if he does but that guy they're both seein' sounds like a total jerk who never learned how to love nobody right."
"Wait…" Jay frowns as he takes the cup a second time, staring at Jeb. "Yer little vampire buddy is one of the like…four other boyfriends or whatever?" Jay's eyebrows twitch together, putting pieces together. Oh for crying out loud.
"Mister Morbius ain't very little, but yeah, Ah guess, what Mister Morbius says at least is that the guy ain't even ask him any more if he can see another guy, he just starts datin' someone new without even mentionin' it to Mister Morbius. He used to ask him, let him have an opinion on it but now he don't even tell him at all. Just.. brings another person in and everyone better accept it or they can just go fuck themselves Ah guess." Jeb answers, kicking his foot against the floor, agitated. Angry for Jay and angry for Morbius. "Don't tell mama Ah said that, it was a rude word, but yeah, he's one of 'em. He ain't like Elmo none either."
"Ah think the cuss words are the least of momma's concerns about this conversation, Jeb," Jay murmurs softly and gets back to pacing, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Of course it's him," groaning enigmatically to himself, Jay sighs and explains. "Elmo was all distressed a bit ago, talkin' about how one of the other guys was real mean to him an' didn't think he was good enough fer this guy, so he tried t'make things hard on him. Ah guess that's yer buddy, here." Jay gestures vaguely, then looks a little guilty. "Yeah…if they're serious or whatever that don't sound right. Hell. Ah haven't really had a chance t'tell Doug that Ah'm sorta seein' ElmoAh don't even think he'd really wanna know or carean' Ah still wanna tell him about it so he knows what's goin' on. "
"When Ah met him, Mister Morbius was bein' real mean to him but it was because Elmo hadn't bothered to get any information on how to take care of the guy they're seein' until after he decided they were a thing, Ah guess. And Ah know that Mister Morbius is very unhappy in his relationship but he ain't wanna leave because well, he's a vampire. Most people probably think he's scary to look at and don't wanna kiss him but this guy apparently does. So he's scared." Jeb says with a small frown as he casts eyes to the floor. "That's why Ah wouldn't tell Doug anythin' about who he was. First of all, if y'all was datin', Ah didn't wanna get him banned. Second of all, that's a conversation that yer supposed to have with Doug when you wanna have it with him, not brought about because Ah couldn't keep my damn mouth shut. Your business is your business."
Jay listens and listens long and hard, kneading his fingers into his corneas while he walks back and forth on the cheap linoleum in his brothers' kitchen. Lifting his attention up at Jeb eventually, his arm swinging down at his side, limp. Without a word, but a click of his tongue, Jay's expression shifts into a piteous one as he walks forward and tries to forcibly palm Jeb's shoulders and pull his younger brother into his chest.
Jeb worries when Jay gets quiet as he paces his kitchen floor. When he turns to Jeb, Jeb bites his lip hard, not knowing if he's said somethin' wrong or right but then Jay is pulling him into his chest instead of hitting him and Jeb makes a small sound of confusion but wraps his arms back around his brother. "S'alright, Jay. Ah got you." He insists, comfortingly. "Ah'm sorry yer stuck in all of this and that you ain't been able to talk to me about it."
"Shut up, dummy," Jay mumbles as he pulls Jeb into himself, wrapping his arms up around his little brother's shoulders. Turning his cheek into the side of Jeb's head, inhaling a deep breath, the resulting exhale blows bits of brown hair all over the place while he hugs the guy's head, essentially. "Yer the best brother, you know that?"
"Ah am? Don't let Sam hear that, he thinks he's everyone's favorite." Jeb's arms are wrapped tightly around Jay's back, beneath his wings, one hand idly moving back and forth. "What did Ah do?" He hit Elmo? He thought that had stressed Jay out.
Jay whispers a laugh against the side of Jeb's head, smiling gently while his wings move up out of the way with a flutter. "Ya done all this an' had every single reason in the world t'give Doug Elmo's name, but even though you got every reason to make his life more difficult, you didn't. Y'didn't because ya didn't want to make mah life more difficult, an' because even though he's a jerk to ya, you didn't wanna take the club away from him. That takes a lot of /kindness/, Jebediah."
"He tells me Ah'm an idiot and Ah'm annoyin' a lot and that he wishes Ah could just act normal but those are all things a lot of people say 'bout me. Ah didn't want to take nothin' from nobody who's only mean to me. Especially when Ah started it. And if he was really datin' you… Ah don't want him to miss out on hearing you play or sing. You belong on a stage and everyone who cares about you needs to see you there." Jeb admits, it's his turn to blush when Jay praises him and calls him kind, cheeks growing hot quickly.
As if he could protect Jeb from those kinds of things, Jay's arms re-wrap around his shoulders and around his head a little bit, just like when Jeb was a younger little gawky pre-teen. "You ain' an idiot, Jebediah. And you ain't half as annoyin' as people say you are—an' that's coming from someone you got every right t'be annoyin' at." Jay smiles. "Ah like yer kind of annoyin', anyway. Yer the best brother." Saying it again, Jay squeezes his brother tight and claps him on the back a little bit before letting him go. "C'mon, Jeb. We got some drinkin' to do. An' you tell me about /other/ stuff yer doin'. How's that? Unless…there's more?" He squints at Jeb, then pauses. "Wait. You were all cut up like this after shelterin' Elmo an' he jus' /left you like that/?"
Jeb smiles and laughs a little at the way Jay hugs his head like he could protect Jeb from those words ever entering his ears and messing him up inside. His arms wind themselves even tighter around his brother, clinging to him a little and laughing again when Jay says he /likes/ his annoying. He takes a long second to answer Jay when he asks if Elmo just left him cut up. "He didn't just leave me like it… he made me let him in the club so he could drink and then his friend made me pay for his drinks all night so no one would tell you. Ah just pulled the glass out my face and my arms and went back to work…"
It's hard to make Jay angry, but the thought of someone getting his brother sliced up and hurt, then going on their night like nothing just happened had him seeing red. Slowly, albeit. But the longer Jeb goes on with it, Jay slowly nods a couple of times. "You were bleedin' an' pullin' glass outa yerself, an' they jus' went on inside, then conned free drinks out of you? While you were hurt?"
Jeb swallows hard but nods, not wanting to lie to Jay. "Elmo didn't con the drinks out of me. His weird pretty friend did. Curly hair? Apparently married? Ah don't remember his name, Ah don't even know if he told me. He said he was gonna tell you what Ah did if Ah didn't give him free drinks. Elmo just told me to let him in the club and get him some ice for his eye but he didn't stick around to make sure Ah was taken care of or nothin'. Once he got in the club, he was busy, Ah guess."
Jay goes ashen over Elmo's friend's description, a bit of heartbreak visible across his face. "Was he dressed like one of those artsy beatnik folks? All black, prolly a turtleneck or a sweater or somethin'?"
"Yeah, look like he was made of money. He was like, really ungodly pretty for a guy too. He had blonde hair and like stupid blue eyes. And talked weird. Called his partner 'beloved'." Jeb describes, tryin' to remember all he could about the guy that was with Elmo. "He was the one who wanted free drinks to keep from tattlin' on me. And he just thought it was funny. Funny that Ah was tryin' to defend you and funny that Ah got hurt."
Jay closes his eyes gently, brows flexing together while he nods, that pained expression a bit more visible. A shiver runs through his wings in a whisper of sound. His voice sounds hollow. "Kai. His name's Kai. He's the artist friend of mine Ah wanted you to meet. He's an alien—an elf, actually." Scooping a hand through his hair, he can't quite decide if he's going to be angry or just really hurt by all of this. He sets the cup down and walks away from Jeb and out of the kitchen, instead he decides to pace in the living room.
Jeb feels immediately guilty for having told Jay anything at all with how hollow his voice sounds. He hesitates a second and moves to follow Jay into the living room, trying to forcibly hug his brother again. "Ah'm sorry. Ah'm sorry Ah upset you. Ah'm okay. Ah'm really okay. Ah promise. He said he knew you. That you two were close." He mentions, trying to hold Jay still with a forceful embrace. "Ah was okay, Ah just cleaned up in the bathroom. Ah was okay. There wasn't a lot of glass. The worst was my face because Ah looked up but.. it's.. Ah'm sorry, Jay."
.~{:--------------:}~.