A Bad News Day

[ex_julianhe]

Who: Julian Keller (julianhellion ) and Kevin Ford (southernreaper )
When: Wednesday, circa 6:00pm
Where: Sector 5 - Apartments
Summary: Julian and Kevin need to have a little chat.
Warnings: There may be anger and/or angst. Actually, scrap that, there's definitely gonna be angst of some description.

Comments

[southernreaper]

It'd been a long day at work. A long day where he'd been jumping at every single damned shadow, and wondering just when the cops were gonna show up this time.

So, he'd gone shopping, then come home and hidden for the tiniest bit. He knew Julian, if he saw it, would know exactly what had happened.

Kevin had decided that the best way to put it off was to make food. Julian appreciated food and maybe, he could distract him, or something. Maybe?

Then he heard Julian behind him and his shoulders bunched and he hunched over the food he was chopping, staring at the stupid cutting board.

"I seen it."

Defensiveness. Kevin was good at it.

[ex_julianhe]

Oh, great. Fantastic. Exactly the start he'd been hoping for. Kevin being edgy and not looking at him, that was...yeah, that was definitely what he'd been aiming for. Oh God.

On his first night here, just after he'd arrived, Kevin had talked about using his power against the Darkness monsters, and his willingness to do that had worried Julian. Kevin had been defensive then too. Defensive in exactly the same way. Julian looked unhappy.

"What happened?"

[southernreaper]

Kevin went right on chopping vegetables. "Went out to get lunch. Got caught in the riot. Bu' I'm fine." He shrugged. "Why?"

He hadn't meant to hurt the guy. The guy had yanked his glove off and had grabbed him. It'd been instinct. Nothing more.

[ex_julianhe]

"Because not everyone was fine."

Julian watched him carefully, eyes on his back. God, this was dangerous territory. This was the kind of territory he'd never been very good at. He hadn't known how to react after the accident with Laurie. As it was, he'd never had to find out how he'd deal with it because Kevin had taken off. Which meant firstly that Julian wasn't entirely sure what to do for the best here, and secondly meant he was worried Kevin might bolt if he were provoked enough. Julian didn't want to do that. But he had to know what had happened, had to know for sure because it wasn't like the authorities were just gonna let it go. Good cops never did that. Neither did bad cops, actually.

"...Kevin. We can dance around it or you can just talk to me. You saw the news, what they're reporting. What happened?'

[southernreaper]

The knife fell to the counter. "Nothin'. I went out t'get some lunch, an' got caught up in the riot." He wasn't looking at Julian. Not right now. He could feel the need rising - because now it'd tasted human flesh and not just whatever the monsters were - but he didn't want to let Julian know. This was his problem.

"Nothin' happened, Julian. You allergic to mushrooms?"

[ex_julianhe]

"Stop saying nothing, damn it. That guy died and all they found was ashes, that's not nothing, Kevin."

Kevin had said he'd seen the news, so he knew the story. If, as Julian had been hoping, he'd had nothing to do with it, then wouldn't he just have talked about it? Said what he'd seen, speculated on what might have happened? He wouldn't have been like this, cagey about the subject and trying to shut down the line of inquiry. As though the questions were painful, as though he had something to hide. Julian knew Kevin. He knew how closed off Kevin got about his powers, how quick his defences rose when anyone was talking about them. For that reaction to be happening now could only mean one thing.

That Julian had been right. That those ashes and the description of the fleeing guy in the mechanic's clothes were not a coincidence. And that meant Kevin was in very serious trouble.

Again.

"Look, you keep saying we're a team. So stop trying to fly solo and talk to me."

[southernreaper]

Kevin finally turned around, a hard set to his jaw. "The news said that there was ashes on his clothin'. That his throat was missin'." Kevin knew exactly what had been said.

"So ya automatically assume I had somethin' t'do with it? Ya think I'd use my damned curse on some guy in a crowd?" Kevin was almost shouting at the end of it. "Thanks fer tha', Julian. Nice t'know how much ya trust me."

[ex_julianhe]

That was better. Julian could deal with anger far better than any other kind of emotion. It was true for himself, it was how he dealt with things. Anger was something he understood, something that was close to home. And anger meant that nothing was hidden. It was a very instant and immediate way of releasing any pent up energy that couldn't come out any other way.

You would never see Julian cry, never see him tremble in fear. Anger was his default, always. It was what he understood. When he answered he didn't shout back, though his eyes were sharp and focused on Kevin's and his arms were folded in a posture of defiance.

"I didn't say I thought you used your powers," he said. "I asked you to talk to me. You were there, Kevin, and in case you're spacing the cops are looking for someone who matches your description, so you'd better believe we need to talk about it! Tell me what happened, that's what I asked you to do. Tell me what you saw, and don't lie to me."

[southernreaper]

"O' course I ran!" Kevin looked at Julian like he was an idiot. "M'power, in a crowd like that? Someone could've gotten killed!" Never mind that someone actually had. He was sticking by his story that he had nothing to do with it.

"I went out fer lunch an' got caught in the riots. I ran outta there, so that no one got hurt!" Kevin shook his head. "Ya know what me bein' in a crowd could be like. I ain't gonna take that chance. Usin' m'powers on Darkness creatures is one thing, people's completely different. An' I'm always careful."

[ex_julianhe]

"Okay. So when the police come round here asking questions, that's what you'll tell them?"

Julian's face is set. He'd lie to the police for a friend, no problem. But he'd rather know he was doing it.

[southernreaper]

"Ya tell 'em what ya want. I'm gonna tell 'em I ran 'cause I was scared." Which, to be fair, was the honest truth. "I ain't 'xactly the biggest guy an' there was a riot goin' on."

He shrugged. "Ain't like I got a ton o' hand t'hand trainin' or nothin'."

Yep, he was just an average guy. He wore gloves because he was a germaphobic weirdo. "Gloves are 'cause I hate germs and they protect me." He looked at Julian. "Ain't nothin' more'n that. 'Sides, that description could've been a lot o' people. I ain't the only brown-haired teenager that wears mechanic overalls."

[ex_julianhe]

Julian sighed. "You still stand out, Kevin. Look...if something more than this happened, you can tell me and we'll deal with it. You're part of my team, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." And he means that. Even though he's not team leader at home anymore, that's how he feels about his teammates, and it was always how he felt about the Hellions. And as far as he's concerned, he's let Kevin down once already. It's not going to happen again.

"If nothing more happened than what you're saying and you swear to me that's the case, I'll believe you. If there's more to tell, now's the time to tell it. Lie to the police, not to me."

[southernreaper]

Kevin's jaw ticked. Lying sat wrong with him. It always had. There was fibbing and then there was out right lying. Fibbing was one thing, but his honesty was one thing he'd always had.

He turned back to the food. Lying to Dr. Xavier was one thing, but Julian was someone different. It'd been Julian and the Hellions that had come after him when he'd been in FBI custody.

"It was a riot. I jus' went out fer lunch, cause I fergot mine at home." It was still in the fridge. "Didn't know there was a riot. Guy grabbed my collar, then m'arm an' managed t'get the glove off. I jus' reached up t'shove him away."

The tip of the knife buried itself in the cutting board. "I grabbed my glove an' ran afore he hit the ground." He could still see the startled look on the man's face. "Went back to the garage an' jus' went back t'work." He was silent for a moment. "God's honest truth, Julian, I didn't mean t'kill 'im."

[ex_julianhe]

Julian listened without interrupting, heart sinking while Kevin talked. Talk of death was rather more immediate for him than it used to be. It made him think of old friends, of burning rubber and the way blood started out as red but so quickly became black. In the past, it had been a distant thing that had never really touched him. He put a careful hand on Kevin's shoulder.

"I know you didn't," he said. "I'm sorry, Kevin." And he believed him, completely without question. Kevin had never meant to kill anyone. The police back home hadn't understood that, not until it went through the court system. Julian didn't have any reason to think that the cops here would be any different. So his instinct was, like it had been back home, to keep this secret. "It wasn't your fault. It was an accident, plain and simple, nothing anyone could've done. Anyone comes knocking, we're sticking to the first story."

[southernreaper]

Kevin was just silent. He didn't want to talk about the need that was clawing at the back of his mind. He didn't want to think about how good it had felt to let that man die, literally, at his hand.

"Ya don't know nothin', 'cept what I tol' ya." Kevin said softly, yanking the knife out of the cutting board. "Guys at the garage were with me, an' I know the lady at the shop'll say I was in there. Everythin' else... they're gonna have to prove."

He went back to chopping mushrooms to be sautéed. "I'm gonna talk t'that Xavier. Get an inhibitor. Somethin' small I c'n wear, in case they take me in."

That was his real fear: being locked up again. He never wanted to go through that again.

[ex_julianhe]

Something in Julian's gaze hardened.

"No. No one is taking you anywhere, Kevin. I promise. I won't let that happen."

He sighed, taking his hand off Kevin's shoulders and running both of them through his hair again. This was messed up. After a minute he looked at Kevin again.

"What are you gonna tell Xavier? You ask him for an inhibitor, he's gonna want to know why."