Anything you can do...

[onceflewicarus]

Characters: Jay & Josh
Date & Time: October 20th, early afternoon 
Setting: Outside, a few weeks after this post
Summary: I think this is the best summary available at the moment. 
Rating: PG for now, but who the heck knows? 
Status: Open to Josh~

Comments

[elixirforlife]

Josh had managed to settle in fairly well, despite some early dust ups with a few of the others (not surprisingly, of the female variety). But once he'd learned that certain nicknames weren't appreciated, and neither were specific topics of conversation, it had been smooth sailing, more or less. He still managed to have a new book or journal to read every week thanks to Hank, but he had settled into a schedule that let him get outside. Especially now that the weather was starting to chill, evening coming earlier and earlier, he had planned to be outside as much as possible while the sun was out.

He had just stepped outside, dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, ready to go for a run when he saw Bird Girl Jay soaring through the air. Then soaring to the ground. And then apparently deciding to get as close as possible to it. He ran over to her, fast as he could, thinking of worst case scenarios - broken neck, fractured limbs... As he got closer, he realized it wasn't that bad, especially since she had her own healing ability. But still, a

[onceflewicarus]

Jay was still seated on the cold ground when the other boy came up to her, staring intently at her knee. She had no real control over her ability, no way to stop and start the process, just the knowledge that it will happen, and the patience to watch it. If people realized her lack of control, perhaps she would have been inside with Josh more often, and not outside and on the ground.

She looked up at him, a frown etched comfortably across her face. "I think I got it. Thanks."

Great, she thought. He probably saw me fall- when I fell, not if. It wasn't that she was in a foul mood mind, but who really looked forward to being called incompetent and then names? At the very least, not Jay.

[elixirforlife]

She was frowning. Oh, that was not good. Last time she'd looked like that, he'd ended up with a hairline fracture across his cheekbone, which had not been fun to try and fix. So he brought his hand up to the back of his head with a laugh he hoped didn't sound too nervous.

"Course you do," he said, nodding firmly. "I just thought you might maybe want - but you got it. Like you said."

His hands migrated to his pockets, until he realized he couldn't exactly jam them in the way he usually did on account of his sweatpants being a bit loose. So he crossed them awkwardly across his chest, trying his best to look casually comfortable, like he did this all the time, talking to girls... with wings... who were waiting to heal themselves.

Yeah. All the time.

[onceflewicarus]

Her knee finally took the initiative, and brought itself together proper, the blood drying and her skin smooth. The stockings were still a wash, but that probably wouldn't stop her from wearing them in the future. It was getting colder and every layer helped.

Once her leg was back in order, Jay stood up to face the boy proper- he might have been the same age as her, but Josh had at least a good solid inch on her- not a fact she was a fan of.

"Going out for a run?"

[elixirforlife]

Josh watched as her knee put itself back into the proper order, fascinated by the sight. He'd never actually seen how it all happened, since his hands tended to glow when he used his mutation, and everything he'd healed so far had been minor enough that it was easily obscured. The books Hank had given him hadn't really helped to paint a picture of how everything would look when it was happening, just what it was supposed to look like when it was done.

Even after she'd stood up, he was still focused on her knee. It wasn't until she spoke that he realized he was staring, and he straightened immediately, like he'd been caught looking at an entirely different part of her body. He cleared his throat, hoping that slight burn in his cheeks was just the sun and not him blushing.

"I, uh... yeah," he said. "You... wanna come along?" It only seemed like the polite thing to ask.

[onceflewicarus]

It was that other body part that Jay assumed he was taking a gander at. After all, boys tended to either look at those, or at her wings. Never the face, never the eyes, unless it was Alex apologizing or Sean just being.. well. Sean. Jay was recently of the opinion that Sean just didn't work like that... however that was. Her arms went up to cross across her chest protectively, watching Josh as she remembered how to talk to boys like this. She was good at it, once upon a time.

Do you run just to run? Or is it for training?" A very, very important question.

[elixirforlife]

"I guess it's mostly for training," he told her with a slight shrug. He hadn't exactly been an athlete when he'd been in school, but thanks to his brothers' favorite pastime of "Kick Josh's Ass" he'd still managed to become quite the runner. If it wasn't for his mutation, he probably would have tried out for the track team. But instead he was here, training to run for his life, assuming it ever came to that.

"But why would you run, when you can fly?" He laughed a little at himself, continuing the trend of feeling like an idiot. Talking to girls had never really been his strength, but he never used to be this bad.

[onceflewicarus]

Jay's wings extended for a moment at their mention, before she realized they were misbehaving once again, and pinned them tightly against the wool. They were more comfortable without the added layers, but still made good on diminishing their size. Reaching down to brush off some of the scruff from her legs, Jay spoke as she straightened back out.

"Why do you bother walking when you can run?" It was a Confucius-esque answer, but to admit the truth would have been rather... well, embarrassing. After all, how was she expected to get away in public? What with her wings hidden and covered, there would be no way to escape without stopping to strip, and she couldn't afford to lose that much time.

[elixirforlife]

"Well, because -" And then he fell silent, realizing he didn't really have a good answer. "I mean, you get tired. Y'know."

Then he shook his head, one hand coming up to cover his eyes in embarrassment. Great, now she really knows you're an idiot, he told himself. What was he doing? There was no way he could hold some deep, philosophical conversation. His answer had proved that.

"Sorry, it was a stupid question," he said, waving his hand as if it could erase it from memory.

[onceflewicarus]

"So do I." Jay agreed, giving in to his overly simple answer. She really hadn't felt like the smartest person in the room, not before coming to the Mansion, and certainly not after. This.. this was a nice change of pace.

"And trust me, that isn't the dumbest question I've heard about them. You're fine." Even if he was a stupid, stupid boy.

[elixirforlife]

"Really?" It made him feel a little better to know he hadn't come across as a total jackass. "I bet people ask if they're real a lot, huh?"

That would definitely annoy the hell out of him, if he were in his shoes. He really couldn't imagine what it was like to have such an obvious trait. People staring, asking questions, wanting to touch them... But at least if he could get a couple of those questions out of her, he'd know not to ask them.

[onceflewicarus]

"Most people don't see them. I like not being in a zoo." By now the offending appendages were laying tight up against her back, hiding themselves as much as possible, as if the very word zoo was enough to draw them into hiding.

"Until I came here, I hid them almost all the time... even when I first came here I hid them, wings don't seem the norm even among freaks. She knew the "f" word was a dirty one, but that still hadn't stopped her from thinking it, and thus, using it when required.

[elixirforlife]

Josh flinched a little at her use of the "f" word, the memory of his father's last words to him springing up. He pushed the memory back down, trying his hardest to forget the look in his eyes, the hate and the fear. It still made him feel a little sick.

"You shouldn't use that word," he told her quietly, staring down at his feet, swallowing hard. When the feeling had passed, he looked back up at her. "Besides, I think your wings are pretty neat."

[onceflewicarus]

Jay had to look at Josh then, incredulous that someone like him had ever been called anything except on a Friday night. From what she knew, all he did was heal others, wasn't that a gift? She would kill to be so simple, and for him to think of himself as a freak... well that was just idiotic in Jay's world.

"You've already called me a bird, neat and avian ain't the same. It's freakish- which is true, even if it's not nice."

[elixirforlife]

"I didn't mean - I wasn't trying to be mean," he explained, feeling a little bit guilty. "It just kinda came out and... I mean, you've got wings. You can fly. If you wanted to, right now, you could just leave."

He let his head tilt back, gazing up into the sky. In his eyes, she had the kind of freedom he could only dream about, the ability to go anywhere at any time, and not be stuck in a life someone else had laid out for you. But instead, he was stuck here, beholden; after all, what kind of person would he be if he didn't use his powers to help people?

"You may think you're a freak, but you're not," he told her. "You're lucky."

[onceflewicarus]

"And go where?" Jay exploded, her wings taking their own opinion of the conversation, spreading and closing in agitation. She had heard this line before, and hell. Hadn't she tried to leave once already? He had no idea what being trapped was like, even if it was for her own protection.

"I don't think you all understand what it means to look like this. I can never leave, I can never not be in hiding, go out to a beach or clothes shopping. And it's never going to change, I'm going to be a fucking flying freak forever, not gonna die, just stuck here til there ain't nothing left."

She didn't mean to go off on him like she had, but he wasn't the first boy to think of her as some blessed thing, and it was getting to her. Once she stopped her rant though, Jay realized all that she said, how her voice had cracked into voices other than her own, and clamped a hand over her mouth, turning red from the tips of her ears to line of her neck. She didn't even know Josh, other than that he called her 'bird girl' and here she was, telling him