ArchivedLogs:Funny Family

Funny Family
Dramatis Personae Kai, Kris
In Absentia	2013-06-03 '
Location <XS> Back Porch
The back patio is a restful place to sit and relax, in most weather. Ample seating comes in the form of umbrella'd deck chairs and a cushioned porch swing, and the neighboring gardens attract butterflies and hummingbirds to make the viewing pleasant. The hot tub is usually open for use, though in snowy weather the transition in and out is a shivery one! Late afternoon is generally a time that students at Xavier's would be engrossed in their extracirrcular activities, and it's true today as well. But, many of the students have fallen prey to Summeritis, and as such, there is a marked laziness that works its way through the excitement of the impending break. Case in point: one young teenaged boy named Kai. His own remedial classes actually finished for the day, the Korean boy is sprawled on the swing on the back porch, seemingly oblivious to the muggy heat and the drone of cicadas in the burgeoning evening. He's certainly dressed for it, in cargo shorts that seem bell-like on his thin legs and a thin green t-shirt. He rocks gently in the swing, his head cushioned on a pillow as he stares up at the ceiling thoughtfully. On the floor nearby, a glass of lemonade sits, beads of sweat running down the side to pool at its base. Next to that, Kai's sketchpad and pencil sit, carefully out of traffic. An empty plate and crumbs on Kai's chest suggest there might have been cookies at one point. Alas, if there were, they are no more. Kris is nothing if not pushy when it comes to others peoples' personal space. Today is no exception. It is with a thump that she rolls off the roof of the porch and thumps to the ground (still on her bare feet). The way she lands suggests, though, that there's a particular sort of training that goes into not injuring oneself when doing that,"I don't see how Peter does that. It is quite a thump." She goes walking over to Kai, and immediately moves the plate aside, then flops down on the ground in a perpendicular position under the swing,"Kai. I am surprised. Usually you are in the treehouse when you are brooding." Kris' entrance is enough to bring Kai's attention to follow the girl as she rolls off the roof. His lips curl tightly at the corners at her remarks about Peter, but he remains silent as he watches her approach. Her thump is enough to deepen the arc of the swing for a moment, and the boy closes his eyes for a moment, his expression going lax in some memory. When she speaks, though, he opens his eyes again, and turns his head so that he can see her fully. "The treehouse is the last place I saw Ivan," he says, as if that's explanation enough. Then he's nodding at a point beyond the girl. "I like to come here to think, too. I enjoy the view of the gardens." Kris wrinkles her nose a little bit as she watches Kai. For Kris, and for her knowledge of Kai, his attention speaks VOLUMES. She reaches into the pocket of her denim shorts (she's also wearing a pink blouse of some sort) and pulls out a small bag of jellybeans, offering them to Kai,"Have some jellybeans. Kai... You are about as angry as I have ever seen you. Why are you so angry?" She snatches a jellybean for herself, and then asks,"Is it hurt-people time? I will take care of it for you." Kai's attention comes back to Kris when she extracts the jellybeans, and he reaches out when they're offered to pick out a few green ones carefully. He offers a chuff of laughter at Kris' assessment of his temper, and shakes his head slightly. "I am not so angry as I was," he says. "Now I am worried, more than anything. About Ivan." He smiles, and pops a jellybean into his mouth, chewing slowly as he expression fades back to neutrality. "I did my own hurting," he says, his eyes sliding sideways to gauge Kris' reaction to his confession. "At the dance. I kicked Peter." Kris looks up at Kai, then, a curious expression on her face, and pops a few licorice jellybeans in her mouth. She chews quietly before speaking. "I know you are worried. But there is nothing that can be done at this moment except for managing yourself with patience." She continues to hold up her bag of jellybeans for Kai's consumption, though,"Peter. I sort of like him. I find him very attractive. But he is extremely clueless as well. Why did you kick Peter? What did he do?" Because with Kai? She just naturally assumes Peter did something to deserve it. "I told Mister Jackson and Professor Wagner all that I could," Kai says. "Professor Wagner thought it could be very helpful, so I am hopeful that it will be. But I am being patient," he promises, popping another jellybean into his mouth. "It is hard, but I am being patient." He's silent for a long moment, then. "I do sort of wish that people would stop disappearing. It is very unsettling." The comments and questions about Peter get a small coloring. "Peter is very handsome," he admits softly, his voice hesitant, as if he's sharing a BIG SECRET. "I was very glad when they brought him home. And I was even more glad when he said he would be taking classes over the summer." He exhales. "But when I saw him with Shane at the dance, I did not feel glad anymore." His expression darkens, even as his blush deepens. "I felt angry, and strange. Like my insides were made of hot water." He's /really/ blushing, now. "So I kicked him, because I could not think of anything else to do." Kris lets out soft 'ooooh' as she listens and eventually sits up. This is because she needs to lean up since trying to hug Kai is awkward from this angle,"Aieee, I begin to understand. Kai, you have a crush on Peter. You and he had a special friendship, and it was enough for you. But then you see him with Shane, sharing closeness that you and he do not share, and suddenly you were jealous. It feels like it is crime enough that Peter is not that close with you. But he is that close with Shane, whom you do not get along well with and whom you do not feel has done the things to deserve Peter's closeness that you have." She makes a low wailing sound, oddly hurt,"Tcha. My friend is hurting and I do not have the things necessary to help him feel better. Kai, you kicked him because you were angry that he could not see what YOU had to offer him. This is a feeling I understand... though I think women deal with it better. I am sorry you are hurting so much all at once. And with Ivan gone, it is doubly hard." Kai allows himself to be swept up in hugs, mostly because he's taken off-guard by how neatly Kris summarizes his plight. His eyes are wide as he's squeezed, and he eventually rests his head on the girl's shoulder. "It is called a crush?" He asks this in the tone of dawning recognition. "The fluttery feeling that makes you want to be more than friends?" He's been listening, see. And remembering. "Because that is what I felt when I saw Peter in the infirmary." He frowns, and struggles out of the hug to sit up and swing his legs around to dangle. "Ivan told me to talk to Peter," Kai says, when his best friend's absence is brought up again. "Before he left. But I do not know if that is a good thing to do, if Shane is a person who makes Peter happy." /He/ doesn't sound happy about it, though. "But I do not understand why someone would kiss and hold hands with a person who tried to eat them." He waves a hand at the building. "No one from the place with the bad doctors is asking to hold /my/ hand. They do not forget what I have done." Kris actually just sort of cradles the boy there,"Yes. This is a crush. When I told you about this once before, that fluttery feeling is exactly what I meant. And Ivan is right, you know. Talking about it may not win you Peter's affection from Shane and... in any case, because you care for him, that should not be why you do it..." She idly combs her fingers through her friend's hair, inspecting it for tangles. It is an unusually maternal action on Kris' part,"But talking with him about it is the only way to help you get past the knotted feeling you probably get thinking about it so you can go back to that place where things are easy between the two of you again. Ask Peter to EXPLAIN to you why." Kai's hair is coarse, but relatively free of tangles, and he actually pushes his head up against those fingers, stretching out his chin and half-closing his eyes, almost reptile-like. "It would be selfish of me to ask him to do that," he says, with surprising logic, for the situation. "I am not happy about it, but it does not mean that I can make him unhappy about it, too. That is not what a good friend does." He sighs, and wrinkles his nose. "I will ask him to explain it," he agrees. "Maybe there is a thing that I am missing." One eye cracks open, a worried sort of cast to it. "Do you think Peter will be mad that I am asking?" Kris grooms Kai in a sort of lazy, but methodical manner, going through his hair almost like the monkey Foom sees her as. "Yes. It would be selfish. But you are not a selfish person. You will speak with him, he will be surprised, but he will accept it, and I think he will simply be grateful that his friend is back. You should probably start with an apology for kicking him before anything else, though." She stretches out a little bit,"It will make you feel a little better to talk to him." "Yes, I will talk to him and tell him that I am sorry," Kai says, his body relaxing under the methodical grooming and allowing him to slump against the girl. "But I am already feeling better, speaking with you. I did not know why I was so angry; I was afraid it might bring Foom." He frowns, and shakes his head. "That is not correct. I wanted to be Foom, so I could be angry. It is why I went to the woods." A shrug of thin shoulders. "But he did not come. Now I am glad of it. When Foom comes, it is hard to send him away again." Suddenly, he's giving Kris a tight hug. "Thank you for speaking with me," he says warmly. "You are a very good sister." Kris squeezes Kai back tightly. Her strength isn't what it once was, perhaps, but she can still muster a pretty tight hug,"Foom is a place you can retreat. My psychiatrist, she said 'he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man'. That is why Foom was so attractive." She slicks her fingers through her own hair after a few minutes,"I am glad you think I have done well. I have been where you have been, if in different ways. It does me no good when you are in pain." Kai is content to let the hug go on as long as Kris will let it, keeping his thin arms looped around her tightly. "Foom comes most when I am scared or angry, or hurting," he confides. "Perhaps your sy...si... your friend knows a thing which we do not." He pulls back when the girl reaches up to rake through her hair, and smiles. "You are a very good sister. You and Ivan and Peter are all very important to me, in different ways. I do not want to be bad for any of you, if I can help it." He blushes, and ducks his head as if aware of the irony in that statement. "I am grateful to be important to you." Kris continues to groom her OWN hair now, as she often does when talking about more emotion-laden subjects,"You are not bad for us. Sometimes family and friends hurt each other... But never out of malice. Only heated feelings and accidents. There is always a way to make up, and though I do not think you would ever be bad for me,I would still forgive you if you were." She shrugs as if it were out of her hands,"That is the nature of family, Kai. Of good family." Kai watches Kris with a solemn sort of look. "I would never be bad for you on purpose," he says earnestly. "Because you are my sister, and I know what it is like to have a brother who is not nice." His jaw sets. "In fact, you should tell me if someone is being bad to you. It is not good to suffer things by yourself." Then he's leaning back into the girl with an encouraging smile. "We will be a very good family," he predicts. "And it will all be good for us." Ah, the optimism of youth. Kris hops up on her feet now, rocking into position upright,"I know you would not Kai. And I appreciate it. I worry sometimes that this soft life will steal my strength. Already, I notice it takes more effort to get where I used to be, when exercising." She makes a face,"I have slowed down my snack cake eating. I have begun to put weight on. I will need new clothes soon." She makes an 'ucky' face. "You will be good for me, but my appetite will not. I worry I will get fat. If I start to get fat, you will help me exercise and eat better, yes?" Kris' concerns get...a fit of giggles from Kai, the younger boy clapping a hand over his mouth. "You are very strong," he insists. "And you many things that are useful, and helpful. I do not think that you are in danger of going soft very soon." He continues to giggle, his eyes crinkling. "We are a funny family. You are afraid of getting too fat, and I am afraid I will always be skinny. Maybe I should eat your snack cakes instead." This sets off another spate of giggling, Kai's thin frame convulsing in mirth as he, too, pushes to his feet. "But I will help you exercise, too. If you would like, we can run around the gardens before the evening meal." His giggling under control, he nods in that direction. "I should go and check on Ivan's bees, and it will be good exercise." Kris blushes fitfully,"I will just give you every other snack cake. You will gain wait and I will gain not so much and that is how you will help me diet." She's still blushing, as if she were suddenly embarassed,"I never worried about these things before I got here. New lives bring new worries I suppose. Let us run around the garden then. First I will jog with you to go check on Ivan's bees. More exercise means better results." Thus begins the first of many times Kris will ask Kai 'do I look fat'.