maskormenacelogs | DECEMBER CATCH-ALL

Entry tags:

DECEMBER CATCH-ALL

WHO: Jaime Reyes & YOU
WHERE: All over the place!
WHEN: Throughout the month!
WHAT: This will mostly be used for logging out Jaime's return back to MOM, though I'm keeping it open for other interactions throughout the month! If you'd like to thread anything at all out, just contact me, and I'd be more than happy to write a threadstarter for you. As always, I can be reached on my plurk or via PM.
WARNINGS: Discussion about dead teenagers within.

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[Jaime spends much of his first hour back in a daze. The government workers taking him from Cape Canaveral to Heropa seem to be fine with that, kindly staying quiet while he tries to come to terms with everything that's happened, with all these memories that suddenly came flooding back to him. It's hard to figure out how he feels; he has a year's worth of joy, but he also has an extra year of memories with someone who's effectively dead, an extra year of memories of the friends and bonds that Khaji had made.

Not only that, but he's realizing that Traci had warned him about practically everything that had happened. The memory of her sitting down with him, telling him about Nadia and Eddie and how he went bad aches like an old bruise. He had known, could have stopped it from happening, and then... he didn't. He remembers those days in his childhood, when he went to soccer practice and ran and ran, ignoring his body telling him not to, and came right back home and wound up running some more with Paco, tumbling over the table in his backyard until they got yelled at. He remembers how the day afterwards, he always wound up laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, unable to quite define how every inch of him managed to ache.

He feels a little like that now, but in his heart. Just a couple nights ago, he'd been giving a eulogy for Eddie, and now... this. When he gets out of the car and stares at his house, he suddenly feels too bone-tired to even risk waking up the rest of the house with his re-arrival. He needs some time to reacquaint himself with this place, get his bearings before he can even think about talking to everyone.

So instead of walking through the front door like a normal person, he scales the side of the house, shoves open his bedroom window, and climbs through.]

[After he's finished figuring out why the heck Ken's in his room, Jaime's quick to prioritize who he needs to tell of his return. There's Traci, of course - and she has to come first - but immediately after, he brings up Wally's name on his phone.

He'd better still be here too. He keeps the text clean and simple, trusting that Wally will respond even though it's too late for a sane person to be awake.]

I'm back

Can I come over?

[Jaime winds up sleeping at the Cave. There's a lot of reasons for why he does, but the real reason is that he needs a little time to sort his head out before he launches back into this place with a vengeance, and the Cave's a safe place to do it. But eventually, he needs to figure out how to get back into daily life here, so he winds up back on the couch of Heropa 015, staring down at his phone and trying to figure out who to call, how to do it, what to say.

Hi, I'm back?

He rubs at one eye, considering his options, and scarcely hears it when the front door creaks open.]

[Minato is pretty tired when he finally wanders back in from work. It's nearly dinner, sometime past 4:00, and he's just walked back from the Porter. He might have to get a different job... it's getting a little ridiculous to take the Porter to De Chima every day after school, and then come right back... Between what'd happened with Ken and Tetsuo, and wrapping up college applications, and Jaime being gone, Minato's feeling worn down. It's not something he thinks very often. He'd just slept for a few days last month, hadn't he? How is he tired again so soon?

Minato is near silent letting himself in. He opens the door to Heropa #015, closes it behind him, toes off his shoes, shrugs off his backpack. He places it in its customary spot on the dining table, where he often does his homework, and lets out a breath.

It's not until he walks around the back of the couch toward the stairs that he sees Jaime there, and stops. Stops completely, jacket half removed, hanging from one shoulder and staring blankly at Jaime. Minato's brain can't even process what he's seeing.

He came back? Like Ken... People aren't supposed to come back once he loses them. This second time is too much for him to handle.]

Jaime-kun, [he says faintly, then swallows.] Ah... I've missed you.

[It probably sounds underwhelming. Except Minato still hasn't moved, looks blank. Really, it's a strong reaction from Minato.]

[Wally slaps around for his phone when it buzzes. Pulls it off his nightstand, blearily stares at the text before turning it back off and rolling over.

...

gets baCK THE FUCK UP- Grabs for his phone again and stares at it, then uses the light of the screen to find his sneakers and shove his feet into them. Bustles out of his room, hits the ground outside the cave and bolts. He's glad he registered at the last swear-in now because he's to the Porter in Nonah and out of the Porter in Heropa in a matter of seconds, outside Jaime's old house in a matter of a minute and change, fumbling for the key Jaime gave him and bursting inside and probably waking at least some of his housemates.

Not in the kitchen- living room-

He texted Wally, he texted him specifically so he remembers-

The second Wally finds Jaime he throws his arms around the guy and almost bowls them both over.]

I knew it! I freakin' knew it, I- the three month rule is right! Holy crap! Dude!

Holy--

[Maybe Jaime should have been expecting Wally to come over instead, but for some reason, he didn't. Even if he was, he wouldn't have expected Wally to make it over quite as fast as he did. Wally practically knocks him off his feet, and he only just manages to regain his balance through virtue of a good year's training of getting used to speedsters.]

I asked if I could come over there, you dweeb. It woulda taken me, like, ten minutes, tops.

[Maybe his words have a lack of affect to them, but his actions tell a different story. Once he's recovered, he's hugging Wally back, just as hard if not a little bit harder, grounding himself in the happy knowledge that his friend is still here and whole.

He doesn't seem keen on letting go right away either, and despite the bad news he still has left to give, he can't help but smile a little while his chin's resting a little on Wally's shoulder.

(Has he gotten taller? Jaime feels like he hadn't noticed up until now.)]

I missed you, man. Like, retroactively.

[It makes no sense, missing people when you didn't remember them. But Jaime came back, and all of a sudden, it felt like he hasn't seen any of these people for months. It's got to be one of the weirdest feelings in the world.]

[At first, he thinks it's a robber.

A robber? in an imPort house? If he were more awake the bizarreness of the fact would dawn on him, but it is, in fact, three in the morning and he's only waking up from the noise at the window. He sits up, barely visible in the darkness of the room as the glass is slid open, and he watches as the strange figure climbs through.

... A robber? From a bedroom window? It doesn't dawn on him to think it's Jaime, and the quietness with which he appears serves to not set off the alarms in his mind, too. It can't be as dangerous as Tetsuo was if they're this quiet. But still.]

... Who are you?

[Because speaking to an intruder is the correct thing to do.]

[Jaime's so consumed with figuring out who to talk to and how to talk to them that he doesn't realize that Minato's behind him until he hears his voice. He jumps up, as if standing at attention, but as he realizes that it's Minato, his shoulders go slack again.

Jaime's spent a year here already, so he doesn't look any different; time doesn't add up in that way when you're being thrown indiscriminately from time to time. No extra scars, no lines on his face; in fact, his hair's a little shorter, a little tidier than it was from a stint back home where he'd get his mother tugging at loose strands and nagging him to get it cut before it hits his shoulders.

He does look tired, though that could be because of anything. He holds up his phone in mid-air as evidence, sheepishly saying,] I was just about to text you. I... was about to text a lot of people.

[Something in the way Minato said that he's missed Jaime seems off, but he can't quite put his finger on it. It doesn't sound like something Minato would say. If he had to guess, he'd expect Minato to say welcome back, or maybe Ken will be happy to see you again. Jaime would take those statements to mean that Minato missed him too.

And then it hits him. It's straightforward, but more than that, it's a declarative I statement. When has he ever heard Minato say how he's felt without Jaime having to push and prod him into it, and even when Jaime does push him into it, all he usually gets is that Minato is feeling fine.

The couch between them suddenly seems a little too large, but instead of going around it like a normal human being, Jaime hops onto the cushions and jumps over the back of the couch. He doesn't move forward yet, but this sort of conversation isn't going to satisfy him. He's going to demand nothing less than a hug once he's through here.

For now, though, all he does is offer Minato a crooked little smile and says, completely honestly,] Is it weird to say that I missed you too when I was the one who left?

[It's true. Maybe he didn't remember everyone, but once he stumbled out of the Porter, all of those memories came back to him in a flash, and it had been months since he'd seen people he's grown accustomed to seeing every day.]

[Technically speaking, Traci's the person he misses the least. It's not because he doesn't adore her - he does - but because as far as he's concerned, she's been with him all this time. It's a strange thing to think about, knowing that he's gotten to know her better twice over, knowing that in all likelihood, Traci had had to repeat conversations with him.

But even if it doesn't feel like months since he's seen Traci, it's been months since he's seen his Traci, one that he's gone through so much more with, one that he's grown closer with. It doesn't bear thinking about any further than that, lest he get his brain in a twist, but one thing's for sure: she's the person he needs to text first.]

I'm sorry I keep leaving. But I'm back now.

[It's late; he'll leave it up to her to answer before he asks to come and see her.]

[The evening after his return, Jaime sends a text out to everyone he's close to to say that he's home, and he makes a post to the network too. Whether his roommates see him first online or in person, he spends most of his first day back at home. He didn't bother calling into work, figuring that they could consider him to be ported out for another day or so before he gets right back into the swing of things.

He seems to stay in his room a lot of the time, but he needs to come out at some point, and that's when he can be found in the kitchen, perhaps, not bothering with anything more complicated than cereal. Or perhaps you find him sitting at the table, frowning down at some of his schoolbooks, muttering about missed finals.

Either way, he'll be happy to see his roommates again. He doesn't look much different for his absence, but he does look a little tired.]

[For a moment Jaime freezes stock still, staring into the darkness of his room like a child who's been caught sneaking in the house past his curfew. For one, ridiculous moment, that's exactly what he feels like until he remembers that this is his house and his room, and that he's been living without his parents for an awfully long time now.

Old habits die hard.

Then, of course, the name that belongs to that voice comes to Jaime's mind, and deja vu hits so hard and so suddenly that he has to swallow past the sudden lump in his throat.]

...Ken? What are you doing in my -- how long was I gone for?

[There's a sharp not of... something in his voice at that question. The last time he'd walked into a younger sibling in his bed, he'd been gone for an entire year.]

[Minato blinks, startled, at Jaime hopping over the couch to land directly in front of him. He was going to say that the implied apology wasn't necessary.

Those words, I've missed you, had overtaken him without conscious thought. They'd just slipped out. Until that precise moment, Minato hadn't quite known how to put his finger on this thoughts about Jaime over the past week, but once it's aired out, it's of course. Of course he'd missed him. All of that internal strain, wondering if he'd ever see him again despite trying not to wonder-- that's missing someone.

And now he doesn't have to miss him anymore. Minato slips off his jacket the rest of the way and carelessly discards it over the back of a nearby armchair. When he turns back to Jaime, he's smiling. Fully smiling, that strain inside him taking on a different character: his heart is painfully tight in his chest.]

No. It's not weird. I'm... [Pause, as he internally checks whether this is true. But-- yeah.] I'm happy to see you.

[For everything else, for all the mess that's going on, at least Minato is smiling, an expression he makes surprisingly without hesitation or reluctance, whole-heartedly soft and fond. He has to take the good parts of his life where finds them-- has to, with a brittle, aching certainty that they won't last forever. But it makes them more poignant.]

Edited 2015-12-04 12:58 (UTC)

[Jaime doesn't get to see Minato smile very often. There's so much of him that feels strung out and exhausted right now, like he's not sure how fully he can engage with everyone around him and pretend like things are the same, but seeing Minato reminds him how silly that is. Maybe he can't handle the world at large, can't quite face going back to work and dealing with customers, but people as close to him as Minato?

All they're going to do is give him strength, even if he can't quite put what happened to him while he was away into words. And yeah, maybe part of that is just the fact that no matter what the circumstances, he's happy to see Minato happy. Not content, or amused, or even ambivalent, but happy.

It's so strange, being back home without people like Minato in his life, people who make him think in ways he's never had to before. Of course, he doesn't say any of that. Instead, he smiles back and it's only a split second before he crosses the distance, tugging Minato into a big old bear hug.]

Aw... c'mere, you.

[Nobody hugs quite like the Reyeses, and while Jaime may be shorter than Minato, he hugs with all of the vigor of someone a heck of a lot bigger than him.

It helps, perhaps, that Jaime's hugging Minato more for himself than he is for Minato, a good, solid reminder of what here still remains.]

Edited 2015-12-05 01:14 (UTC)

[For all Jaime doesn't see Minato smile very often, Minato doesn't get hugged very often. But he's been getting better at it since looking after Ken, who he's realized needs hugs every once in a while, which he dutifully provides. It's not like it's a hardship-- it's just not instinct for him.

It takes him a second now, in fact, to respond appropriately. But belatedly, he does: his arms come up and wrap around Jaime, and he feels some of the tension of the past week drain out of him like smoke released to the sky. Normally, he doesn't get much chance to be a source of strength for Jaime. Their friendship is largely based off of Jaime patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) explaining things to Minato, guiding him through the rocky waters of being alive. Minato can tell-- can guess, even, since if he'd left and come back, time has passed at home-- that Jaime needs this hug for himself, from how tightly he holds him and how little he seems like he wants to let go.

Someone else might have questions, would want them answered. Minato does want to know, but he doesn't need any of that. He doesn't need Jaime to be the same; what he wants is to support him, a role he honestly takes a lot of satisfaction from and rarely gets to do for him. So stands silently, hugs him warmly, and lets him take all the time he needs to come back to where they are right now.

And if it helps him, too, if it reassures him that Jaime is here, he's not about to complain about that. It's not something Minato would've asked for on his own, but is happy to receive.]

[Roxas is naturally curious about what Jaime got up to while he was gone, but he's also not one to pry. Still, there's only so long he can go without asking anything, especially when they both find themselves in the kitchen. (Lucky Charms make great dinner.)]

Hey. So....does it feel weird to be back here?

[Jaime's done nothing but hug people since he's come back, but even still, it's welcome. It reminds him of how starkly impersonal he still is with most of the Titans, Eddie aside. He was able to comfortably hang off of Eddie's shoulder, fling his arm around him personably, but everyone else? They're just a little too distant. He's been with the Titans and the Titans alone for a few weeks now, taking care of business, and only now does he realize how little he touches them. Even after Eddie's death, when all they had to comfort each other was each other, contact was limited to small things, a touch to the shoulder, the brief press of hand against hand. There was Traci, of course, but she's not really a Titan -- and thank god for that.

Eventually he does wind up pulling away, but only after he feels like he's gotten what he needs; Minato's embrace may have been a slow one, but it's not one that's betrayed any particular discomfort, leaving Jaime to hang on for as long as he needed to. Once he pulls away from Minato, he scrubs at his face with the heel of his hand, though there are no tears in his eyes for now.]

I feel like I wound up getting ported out at the worst possible time. Maybe I couldn't control it, but I'm still sorry I left when I did.

[Minato had just moved in, they had just started trying to figure out Ken's deal with Hisoka, and then something bad enough happened to get Ken sleeping in his room? Yeah. He left at a bad time. This is exactly the sort of thing he wants to be around to help out with, and he can't help but feel as if he'd be a lot more helpful before he'd gone home.]

[For Jaime, it's going to be Lucky Charms for days. Get ready for the cupboards to be stocked with cereal and for Jaime's attempts at cooking big pots of food to go completely by the wayside; it no longer seems worth wasting the effort for the next couple of weeks.

Still, he offers Roxas a little smile and nods at him in greeting.]

Kinda weird, kinda not. [Roxas' life is a bit of an odd one, so even if he went back home, how much would he really be cognisant of? It's enough to spur him to explain,] When we go home, we don't remember anything, right? But when you come back here, it's like you just... remember again. So it's like I've been gone for months and like I haven't been gone at all at the same time.

[He hears his name called, and he finally remembers that he is, in fact, borrowing Jaime's room. And who would sneak into this room if it weren't for theft and would know his name? Someone who might have a reason to come in here in the dead of night because he doesn't want to disturb the others? After all, this is Jaime's room.

Ken almost falls in his attempt to untangle the blankets (he's using his own blanket, lying over Jaime's because he couldn't bring himself to take that much of his space) and get to his feet as they tangle with his legs. His feet pitter patter over the floor as he crosses over to him, and as he does he walks through the moonlight cast through the window. There are lines that light up on his face, but to the naked eye, it'll be hard to tell between bedsheet-wrinkles and actual cuts in this darkness. Anyway, Ken isn't stopping to give Jaime that good look because he's only stopping when he's close enough to touch him if he reached over.]

... About two weeks, [he doesn't forget to answer.] I-- I've just been staying over. For a few days.

Jaime-san... it's Jaime-san, right?

[Even though their house stayed plenty crowded during Jaime's absence, the energy lacked a certain warmth that he seemed to bring with him wherever he was home. When he finally returned, Manolo made sure to greet him with a tight hug, not even hiding the fact Jaime had been missed and that it was such a relief to have him back.

Of course, it doesn't take long for Manolo to sense something off about him. He respects a person's need for space, though, and he tries to give Jaime just that whenever he retreats into his room.

But when he sees the man with a small stack of books, muttering to himself, Manolo can't help but bring him a mug of tea a few minutes later, and he quietly sets it down on the table in case Jaime wants it.]

Hey. Do...these have to do with your certification?

[Minato's had to be very, very in control for this whole past week. Stamping down on his impulse toward anger and violence at Ken's attack, including at Tetsuo while he was in his mind in order to sincerely befriend him, and doing all this while certain the first person he'd truly let himself lean on was likely to be gone forever... Minato's reverted. He's been suppressing his own personality and his own desires fully and completely in a way he hasn't since Iwatodai.

But rather than being someone who would crack under that eventually, instead, it's something of a relief. That's what's easy and simple to Minato, letting all of his friends overtake him. He might seem a little more at ease than is plausible, actually. (Getting himself back out of this mentality will be the hard part, but he doesn't care at all. He's not thinking about that.)]

It's fine. I've been taking care of everything. [Short pause.] There's a lot to tell you, but maybe it's too soon. Do you want to take it easy for a while first?

There's nothing you need to do anything about right now... That I know of.

Edited 2015-12-05 16:15 (UTC)

And that doesn't bother you?

[He frowns slightly, more rattled by Jaime's answer than he'd expected. The question had been casual, not that serious really, but it feels that way now.]

Just losing a piece of your life, like in never happened?

[Jaime's appreciated the peace and quiet. He won't lie and say that everything went fine back home if pressed, but he needed a little time to get used to this place again, to sit quietly, and to think. The last time he was here, Khaji was his constant companion, from start to finish. Now, it seems oddly quiet, and he half expects to hear him sputter back to life here in this familiar circumstances.

Khaji doesn't, but Manolo's here with a cup of tea. Jaime accepts it gratefully, wrapping his fingers around it instead of drinking it, and smiles at him.]

Thanks, Manolo. [He nods down at the books.] I missed a few classes and one of my finals. They're letting me take it late, so... gotta study up.

[Two weeks... okay. That's good. Two weeks, he can handle. That's hardly any time at all. He can't help but feel a rush of relief knowing that he hasn't just disappeared from everyone's lives for months at a time, but that doesn't explain why Ken's in his room.]

Yeah. Yeah, it's me. I'm back now. Hold on, just let me get the light.

[He fumbles along the wall for the light switch, stubbing his toe against the desk while he's at it ("ouch"), once again unused to this room's layout. He flicks the light on, and turns around to look at Ken properly, a concerned line between his brows. He's tired and disoriented, but it hasn't escaped him that Ken staying over in his room is unusual, especially if it's for a few days at a time. What happened while he was gone...?]

...

[Ken squeezes his eyes shut as Jaime turns the light on, blinking rapidly as he starts to open them. He hasn't had the lights on in a while and the sudden brightness hurts.

But if Jaime is wondering what happened while he was gone, perhaps he'll get a bit of an answer now. The lines left on Ken's face are definitely not just wrinkles, and there's a bandaid or two plastered on his cheek. Ken himself doesn't give him any time to ask questions though, because the moment he takes a good look and realizes that this is, in fact, Jaime Reyes, he's shooting forward and throwing his arms around him. Hopefully you don't knock into anything more.]

You're here. It really is you.

Oh... [Manolo frowns. He can't say he's been in Jaime's shoes before, not about that, but...it does sound stressful. The students at work have been talking about their finals a lot lately too.] What subject?

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DECEMBER CATCH-ALL

FOR KEN

FOR WALLY (AND POSSIBLY A BONUS BART&ROBIN IF THEY SAY HI)

FOR MINATO

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FOR TRACI

HEROPA 015

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