Logs:Be Mine, Valentine
| Be Mine, Valentine | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia | 2022-02-07 Monday, 7pm? |
| Location
<PRV> Black House - Ridgewood | |
This stately townhouse has a cheerful yellow brick exterior, its front entrance spectacularly inaccessible but affording residents a commanding view of the quiet street below. Inside it's bright and airy and almost entirely empty of furniture. It has the pristine, sterile look that comes with professional renovation, but here and there the obvious custom touches -- whether from the previous residents or at the new owner's request -- shine through. The first floor is expansive, with a longish open floor plan that's quickly falling out of fashion. One entire wall of the living room consists of tessellated geometric mirrors, reflecting the truly massive and functional fireplace and even larger mosaic stone hearth. Beyond this the dining room and kitchen are conjoined; the space left for the as yet absent dining table looks vast and strange. A small half bath is tucked at the rear of this space, beside which the back door leads down into a small backyard with a patio sheltered by a quaint little pavilion and a strip of a garden along one side. The staircase winding through the heart of the house is lit by a generous skylight, and runs parallel the main hallway of the second floor, which joins two comfortably sized bedrooms room, with an expansive and luxurious full bath in between and not one but two hallway closets. On the top floor is a massive bedroom with as much glass as wall and its own full, if smallish, bathroom. French doors one one side of this attic room lead out onto a roof deck, whose stairs lead down into the backyard far below. It's been a miserable day, cold and wet and the evening outside is still shivery through and through. In here it's nothing but cozy, a fire crackling in the fireplace and fresh cinnamon buns still hot and gooey just out of the oven. There's music coming from upstairs, after a fashion -- in fits and starts, snatches of rich vocals and intricate guitar occasionally punctuated by quiet curses; perhaps some sneak preview of an embryonic Ryan Black original. Obie is snoozing on a rug in front of the fire, the little one-eyed beagle only half looking up when Jax comes into the living room with a tray of cocoa, setting it down on the coffee table beside an assortment of clutter -- sketchbook, a nail stamping plate, a sheaf of Student Drawings of extremely variable skill, a bright red envelope sealed with a metallic pink heart sticker. Jax plucks up one of the cocoa mugs (smelling faintly of rum together with its spices), absconding with it back to couch. "M'sorry to drag you all the way out here," he's saying as he curls down into a nest of blankets he'd left there some time earlier, "I had a mind to get downtown after school but --" This just finishes in a small shrug, his midwinter pallor perhaps speaking for itself. On the other end of the couch, curled up under just a single hard-won blanket, Kitty is smiling down at the bright screen of her phone, watching a video of a particularly star-like jellyfish. Her hair is loose and only a little damp around her face, the heat from the fire drying out her curls and her soft grey sweater. She looks up, still smiling as she sets her phone aside. "You know I don't get dragged anywhere I don't want to go. My place has much less chocolate." The second mug is claimed quickly, and Kitty almost misses the envelope entirely. Almost. "Who's getting early Valentines?" Kitty raises an eyebrow, picking up the envelope and turning it over with her free hand. "Oh gosh." Jax's face has gone all over red in a heartbeat, his cocoa lowering to his knee before he even drinks any. He scrubs a hand against his cheek, nose wrinkling up at the sight of the envelope. "Oh gosh, I still ain't even answered him on -- Kitty," he's sitting up to tell her with abrupt wide-eyed solemnity, "my life is a trainwreck. Did I ever tell you 'bout my last Valentine's Day because it's an important prelude to that card." Kitty holds up the card in front of her, lowers it to peer at Jax, raises it up again. "Don't tell me your life is a mess, I was gonna vote for you!" She's teasing, but her eyebrows are raised, curious. "Uh, no, you did not. I would have remembered I was very much looking for distractions last February." She flaps the card at him once in an approximation of the 'go on' gesture. "Me, gosh. You tryna put the Professor in an early grave?" Jax settles back with his cocoa, amusement lighting his expression. "Last year come Valentine's Day I was all set to cuddle up with Obie on the couch an' watch Big Eden for the ten millionth time but then Steve Rogers accosts me after church. All dolled up with his shield done up in hearts an' stops me to ask if I'd got plans because he'd been thinkin' on askin' someone out for a while an' could I please help him out." He presses his hand to his heart briefly, lashes fluttering, before he continues on the edge of breathless laughter: "-- then goes on to ask, what do I think Ryan would think if he started dating again cuz he could use the advice an' left me there to grab the subway home." "It's you or me and I do not have time and it'll give 'Roro a heart attack." Kitty drops the card from her fingers in the middle of the tale, and it now rests on her lap. "Steven Captain America Rogers. Wanders up looking like he's gonna ask you to prom. Asks about his ex Ryan Black and leaves?" She leans back, mouth open in disbelief. "I knew he was a little awkward but I figured that was because I only ever saw him when we were watching, like, CATS." "He does exactly that! It was the worst I was dyin' like gosh for the first time in ages some guy's really askin' me -- nope, I'm just here as Ryan's second fiddle again." Admittedly, now Jax just looks delighted by this story, voice warm with laughter. "Then today -- a whole year later he stops me after church to hand me this card an' tell me he been carrying a torch for me for ages now. Jus' like that he says it! Carrying a torch! He doffed his hat an' all! I tell you, I weren't sure he was havin' me on? But the man is so sincere. I ain't even opened it yet I'm half feared it's some horrible prank again. Who says carryin' a torch?" He does, finally, take a sip of his cocoa. "I hope if you got any sort of romantical entanglements they ain't half so ridiculous." "Carrying a torch oh my god." Kitty is holding back giggles, spluttering into her cocoa when she goes to take a sip. "I knew he was old-school but doffing the hat? There's no way he's messing with you I don't think he'd know how. I can check it for you if you want, though." Her fingers brush over the edge of the envelope again, grabbing it and holding it out to Jax. "Oh, this is way more fun than my nonsense, my crush just gave me rabies." "I'm so serious. I didn't know what to say to that I felt like I should be lookin' up the right flower language to send a meaningful arrangement back to him." Jax gestures toward the envelope with a flutter of fingers. "Please. Jus' break it to me easy." His knuckles go to his lips, eye wider at Kitty's statement. "It's sayin' somethin' about our lifes that that could refer to like, several different people we know." His nose crinkles slightly. "Several different crush-worthy people we know. Oh no do I guess?" Kitty’s cheeks go just a little pink as she laughs. “Pfft. I give you three guesses and the Mormon doesn’t count.” Kitty slides a fingernail under the edge of the envelope flap, breaking the crease just enough to get her finger onto the card itself before she slides it out without breaking the rest of the envelope. The envelope is sealed with a metallic pink heart sticker. Inside, on thick, smooth cardstock is a colored ink drawing of two winged puppies -- one gray and pointy, the other odd-eyed and merled in rainbow colors -- half-sprawling and half-walking on a flotilla of heart-shaped red balloons soaring high over a cartoonishly futuristic New York. Steve's distinctively dynamic style, left-handed but nearly as fluid now as with his dominant hand, is easy to recognize even without his crabbed signature in the corner. The message beneath the fold is written in careful, elegant longhand: Dearest Jax, The world is brighter when I'm with you. Won't you be my valentine? Yours, Steve “Oh, man, Jax, this is so painfully earnest, it’s got hand drawn puppies on it.” Kitty holds it up closer to her own face. “And it’s in cursive I don’t even remember how to write cursive.” "Known some pretty alright Mormons." There's something wistful in Jax's tone, his head bowing over his cup as he sips his cocoa. "Dusk's like a free bingo space who ain't had a crush on him." His teeth drag over his lower lip for a moment before his eye widens. "You don't mean Leo? You went for the -- high quality, um. Rabies." He's scooting over after the assurance that he is not in fact the victim of some teen romcom style practical joke, reaching to take the card himself. His blush deepens as he looks at it. Kitty’s cheeks get more and more red as she straightens her back, mock-offended. “Well, why shouldn’t I get the best rabies? Do I not deserve the best?” The card is handed over readily. “That whole thing was my fault anyway so like it’s never gonna happen. But!” Kitty taps the end of Steve’s note. “See, this? This could happen. This is the kind of ridiculous that actually can lead to dates! And other things!” "Not that I got a say but I'd strongly prefer you get no rabies." Jax is looking over the card several times before lowering it to his lap. "This is for real for real. I s'pose I ought to answer him -- oh gosh. Folks is gonna have a field day online if I'm caught out with Ryan's ex but -- but gosh." His fingers are tracing lightly against the edge of the card. "How is him givin' you rabies your fault? If anything, a date is a fine sorry-bout-the-rabies 'pology." His brows lift curiously. "You know if he'll be 'round next Monday?" “The online is always having a field day! You can’t think about the online, you can pull out your phone and text your one-hundred year old suitor.” Kitty scoots closer to Jax, presses her forehead into his shoulder with a sigh. “It’s my fault when I give him a panic attack that causes the rabies! And then also give all our friends rabies!“ Kitty groans, knocking her head into Jax’s shoulder. “I don’t know. Also, this assumes he would want to go on a date with me, which is bold, I think.” "Oh no a Leo panic attack sounds --" The side of Jax's head bops lightly down against Kitty's for just a moment. "Well, rabidly disastrous." He is leaning forward to grab his tablet off the coffee table. Taps the screen on with his stylus, glancing at the card as he starts a sketch of his own in rapid strokes. "One thing Steve said yesterday is that he'd been holdin' off on askin' me for ages but life is short an' sometimes it's better to go off half-cocked than never take the shot. An' your life's like to be way shorter'n his, even." There's a very rough sketch of a lop-eyed rainbow-merled pup Quite Similar to the one on Steve's card, now in a play bow with a card in its mouth. In his sharp-spiked hand he's adding lettering to the card nested into a trio of small pink hearts: Monday, 7pm? "Sometimes bold is good, I think. Sometimes bold is takin' a chance on your unreasonably attractive -- very sweet -- maybe gave you jus' a little bit of rabies but we'll overlook it cuz who ain't had some bad slip-ups durin' a panic attack here an' there -- crush." Kitty knocks her head into Jax’s shoulder again, harder this time. “Ugh, who died and made you Matt? That was terrible.” She’s smiling as she pulls away, peering over at the tablet as Jax draws. “I could live in an ice cube for a century. I’d be great at it, Steve isn’t special.” All this comes out in a joking tone as she settles back into the couch, grabbing her phone and staring at an empty message. “Don’t even know if he likes women in general,” she grumbles, tap-tap-tapping away anyway. “This goes south I am installing myself upon your couch and stealing Obie.”
"I think that would have to have been Matt, but despite his many attempts he ain't succeeded yet." Jax leans forward to rap his knuckles against the wood of the serving tray after this statement, before settling back against Kitty's side. "You know, I got no kinda vibe off him any which way 'bout that. I expect it's hard to get comfortable making any first moves, 'tween being a fugitive and the nightmare scenarios everyone's always cooking up about what he might could do." He chews his lip a moment, looking over his doodle before taking a breath and sending it to Steve. "-- I feel like worst case scenario there is you got a good friend to spend Monday with. And best --?" Tiny cartoon hearts are drifting up, now, in the air around them. "But my couch and Obie are yours for sure if I'm wrong."
Kitty stares at her phone, working on a response ("cool its a date :)" gets immediately deleted, as does a number of emojis varying from a cool detached thumbs up to an embarrassing number of hearts) for too long before sending a single smiley face and throwing her phone onto the couch. "Mm, not a bad worst-case when you put it that way. Plus, Tuesday, someone is gonna tell me all about his date with Captain America." She reaches for one of the floating hearts, brushing her fingers just over the pink surface. "What could go possibly wrong between now and then?" | |
