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Jebediah's cuts are healing rather nicely and the burn over his eye has lessened significantly. He almost looks completely presentable again and there's even a bit of pep in his step once more. He had been walking around the bar like a kicked puppy for a while, licking his wounds as one does when they've had their ass handed to him. Now, though, he seems to be nearly fully restored to complete Jebediah happy puppy-ness. In fact, as soon as Doug comes downstairs, he's likely to talk his ear off, like he used to before the fight, before Doug had been disappointed him. The wound from that too has worn off.
He sets up the stage, early, with vigor and excitement, clearing off all of his artwork, because yes. He's still taking over Doug's stage to art until he needs to start setting up.
The club is closed for the day, because somebody started a fight and broke a bunch of tables and they need to be replaced. Doug has come downstairs with a broom and a garbage bag, "WHO BROUGHT PEANUTS IN HERE. There's a sign outside that says 'No outside food or drink' for a reason." Then he pauses, and his expression softens. "Hey, bean. You're in a good mood. Glad to see it."
Then he starts sweeping, whistling to himself. …Little brown jug?
"Don't yell, you gonna damage your voice, Dougie and then you won't be able to sing about your ding a ling." Jeb teases with a big smile. "Do you want me to do that? The sweepin'. Ah can do it." He isn't just in a good mood, he has been fully restored to his helpful ferretness entirely. "You shouldn't have to do the dirty work. You're the bossman."
"Well… I do pay you to do it." Doug says, before he swings the broom over to Jeb, and he steps aside. As Jeb sweeps, Doug watches him, stroking his chin. It's easy to not see it, but Doug is literally reading all of Jeb's body language and sub-vocal behavior right now, because something's put some pep in the boy's step, and Doug cannot help but be curious. "Jay told you about that huh."
Jeb takes the broom from Doug and begins sweeping with renewed vigor. He seems to be happy about the work. Happy about sweeping. He wiggles a little while he sweeps all the peanuts up into a pile. "Mhm. He did." Is it possible to read a 'just got banged' aura off of someone else? If it is, it comes off of Jebediah in waves. He's riding that high hard. "You're hilarious, Doug. Ah wish Ah had been here to see it."
"It's a great song. Really gets people laughing, disarms them." Doug taps his chin and considers whether or not to say something. Jeb can be so sensitive. He turns it over and over, and then decides… to say nothing. If Jeb wants to speak up, he will… but that's for him and him alone. So Doug walks behind the bar, and starts polishing glasses.
"You wanted him to meet someone, right? That's why you gave him a moment with you on stage. No one threw anything at you, right?" Jeb teases, setting the broom against the bar and going to get the dust pan. He takes a deep breath. "If Ah tell ya somethin', will you promise you ain't gonna tell Jay or Sam about it?"
Doug inhales, slowly. And thinks about how if he says 'yes' and Jeb tells him and Sam finds out Doug will wind up beaten half to death in a trash can. They already had this argument about nobody telling Sam anything. He puts his chin in his hand.
"Of course, unless you killed somebody or you're in trouble."
"Why you takin' a big breath like you think Ah'm gonna tell you Ah stole the declaration of Independence? Ah wasn't gonna tell you nothin' bad. Just my big brothers get worried about me about everythin'. You saw Jay when he saw how badly hurt Ah was." He says with a frown at Doug. "Ah ain't kill no one. Ah also ain't get in a fight either. Ah kept my promise to you, Doug."
Doug raises his eyebrows, and decides, simply, to tell the truth, "Because your older brother's feelings are hurt because nobody tells him anything, Jeb…" He quirks the corner of his mouth up. "We'll work on that one later. Go ahead, I won't tell Sam or Jay. I swear, if I tell, may I never have another bite of your mother's casserole so long as I live."
"Which one? Sam? or Jay? Jay ain't ever come visit me for me to tell him stuff. If it's Sam, Ah didn't know he felt that way." Jeb admits, frowning a the idea that either of his brothers were hurting. He smiles widely at Doug's promise. "Mama makes a good casserole. That would be a curse. Alright, well, usin' my brother's tips.. Ah may have picked someone up."
Doug looks entirely unsurprised by that. "Mhm." He says, still polishing glasses. It's an encouraging noise, meant to nudge Jeb into telling him more. He's listening.
Jeb nods at the bar stools and he sits down on one himself. "Do you want all the details?" He ask and there is a glimmer in his eyes. He leans forward and whispers as if there is anyone here in the bar to hear them. "It was a guy."
Doug raises his eyebrows at that, too. See, he almost, ALMOST knows what Jeb's going to say before he says it, but he plays dumb. "A guy, huh?" He says, as he shines another glass.
"Yeah. Yeah. And it's not that Ah am ashamed of it er anythin'. That's not why Ah don't want them to know. More because he was like… a lot older, and Sam and Jay will worry a lot. Sam might punch them if he knew." Jeb admits, and from what Doug can tell from body language, Jeb's telling the truth. Hell, he's even proud of himself for this accomplishment.
Now THAT is interesting. Doug's eyebrows perk up, and he says, "Well imagine that, the chicken-hawk went and got himself caught by the rooster." He pauses, and then says, "I think you guys are rubbing off on me idiomatically." Then he says, conspiratorially, "It was good?"
"It was good. He was really nice and helpful. He didn't rush me or nothin'." Jeb explains, shaking his head at Doug's phrase, smiling shyly to himself. "He taught me… about.. you know.. how it works."
Doug shines another glass, looking into it and at his own reflection looking back at him. "Two girls in the Red Light district in Amsterdam. No regrets." He puts it up. "Are you going to see him again?"
"Your first time?" Jeb asks when Doug says that about the girls in Amsterdam. "Ah don't think that he does that… sees people again. What do you call that? A one.. one night stand, right?"
Doug says, "Yeah. Do you feel bad about that? Would you like to see him again? Sometimes when it's your first time, you… feel attached, even when you know you shouldn't. Hell, I'm *still* in love with two girls I fell in love with back when I was at Xavier's, but I never had a snowball's chance in hell with either of them. One of the two of them, that's a literal statement, by the way."
Jeb shrugs. "Ah don't know. Ah mean. He was really nice to me and taught me how to do a lot of it. Ah… Ah ain't even been with a girl… so it really was the first. Ah'm not in love or anything. Ah.. Ah don't think Ah'm real attached or anythin' either. Ah'd like to.. you know.. with him again. It was.. It was really good and Ah don't know if anyone else will be as nice and patient."
"Well, if you meet him again, tell him that. It's all right to just want sex." Doug says, with a shrug of his shoulders. "The tricky part is that sex *is* intimate. You get to know someone you're sleeping with really really well, unless they're really good at putting up emotional walls. Also, you're just a kid, bean. Play the field a little bit." Then he considers Jeb, and taps his finger on the counter. "As far as girls go, New York isn't Amsterdam. If I had a teleporter handy…"
Then he pauses. "…Did he wrap it?"
"It is? Men call women bad names if they do it a lot. Ah thought that the same was said for men who do that causually." Jeb says, poor innocent lamb still learning all about this stuff. "Ah don't wanna settle down or nothin', but Ah don't think Ah can 'play the field', Ah'm not gorgeous like you and Ah'm not a panty melter like Sam and Jay. Ah got real, real, real lucky that night. Probably a fluke. He had might had little too much to drink and that's why he came home with me."
Jebediah blushes a deep crimson when Doug asks that, which means he knows that Jeb didn't have to do that himself for a very specific reason. "How did you kn-…" He blushes harder, it reaches his ears. "He did. Ah had a box because Ah live with Sam."
"Jeb." Doug says, "I'm gonna tell you a secret?" He leans in, really close. "You're adorable. You could walk out of this bar with any of the girls that come in and a few of the men, if you felt like it." He rests his forearms on the bar. "And really, it's not fair that women are raked over the coals for it when men aren't. It's nothing to be ashamed of, unless you're shameful in how you go about it. Don't lie. Don't make false promises to get people into the sack— respect a no. Also, that's good. Unless you're with someone you trust a lot, no glove means no love."
Jeb sits up straight when Doug says he's adorable, still red in the cheeks. "You really think that? You ain't just sayin' it because you gotta? Ah don't know about walkin' outta here with anybody. Ah'm just the bus boy. Ah don't do nothin' impressive for them to come home with me. Also, Ah'm real dumb, Dougie." He admits. "How did you know?" He asks that now, because now he's curious, how Doug had pegged him.
"First of all, never say that again." He says, and then he sighs. "It's an older experienced person versus a younger, inexperienced person thing… it was just an educated guess." Doug looks faintly embarassed about that, "Which wasn't fair of me, so I'm sorry."
"Never say what again?" Jeb asks confused, not entirely sure which part Doug was referring to.
"Don't ever call yourself stupid again. You're not stupid. Just young… which is a kind of stupid, but it's not *stupid*. And I'm *twenty two*, Jeb. I'm not that much older than you. I've just gone to a couple more places." Doug rolls his eyes. "You're fine. If you walked up to somebody, smiled at them, and and were just yourself, you'd be surprised how far you get. Isn't that what you did with this guy?"
"Don't call myself stupid. You really are like a brother. Jay fusses at me too when Ah say that Ah am." He leans his cheek on his fist at the bar. "Will you not let me learn bar if Ah say Ah'm stupid?" He asks, and it isn't sass, he wants to know the consequences for something he's probably going to say again. "Sorta. Ah tried to do what Sam taught me but Ah was nervous so Ah wasn't really good at it, but Ah think he thought Ah was cute for trying."
"I won't do anything except correct you." Doug says. Then he shrugs. "It's something you'll get better at with experience. Sex is — I'm not gonna lie, Jeb. Sex is pretty great. If it wasn't, nobody would do it, and then where would we be?" Then he shrugs. "But your first time is yours. Keep it with you, and remember how it felt. You don't have to share it with anyone you don't want to, so thank you for sharing it with me."
"Ah feel stupid a lot and Ah missed a lot of school because Ah was always skippin' because people beat me up. When my mama caught me skippin', she tanned my backside so Ah just found places to hide. Ah barely passed most'a my classes in order to graduate." He explains, hanging his head, that part of his life he's ashamed of. Not the sleeping with men part, but that he didn't learn all that he could. "Yer welcome. Ah wanted to share it with you. Yer my best friend, out here."
"But you did pass." Doug says, "And that means something." He puts his hand on his chin, and says, "You know, learning doesn't end in school. You can educate yourself. Anything you wanted to learn that you missed, it's all still there. And there ARE places where you can take night classes. I can be lenient and give you the night off sometimes."
Jeb lifts his head when Doug's hand meets his chin, to bring dark eyes up to meet Doug's own. "Ah wanna go to school for the art, but Ah gotta send money to mama and Ah'm afraid that Ah'll fail the other stuff, because Ah'm sure you still gotta take English and things to get a degree. Would you let me bring my homework to the bar? Ah could work on it between cleanin'."
"We'll figure all that out, bean. As for your mother — we'll figure that out too. Don't worry." Doug offers a faint smile. "We can make this happen for you. Okay?"
"Doug. You really care about me, huh? It's not just 'cuz Jay is my brother. You want me to do things to better myself. You want me to grow." Jebediah says, as if he is just realizes this now. "Ah want to then, Ah've been working on a portfolier so that Ah can apply."
"I do, Bean. I'm not just pouring praise on you because of your brothers. You're your own person, and you matter just as much as Sam or Jay." Doug sighs, and rubs the back of his neck. "But speaking of Sam… put him in the loop a little bit more, okay? He's kind of… upset at Jay, because Jay didn't — tell him."
"Ah will. He is my biggest brother. He knows all there is to know about everything because he's the biggest. Ah reckon we lost touch a little when he left. Ah got closer to Jay." Jeb admits, a little ashamed of himself. "Ah'll try better."
