multiversallogs | John's concern for Tommy knows NO BOUNDS.

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John's concern for Tommy knows NO BOUNDS.

Who: Kate and John
What: John uses Tommy as an excuse to talk to Kate, HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES TOMMY
Where: the library
When: during Kate's work hours (SORRY MARTEL)
Notes: takes place after Tommy's post to the network
Warnings: probably not, but the library IS a pretty racy place, what with all the books

It's late afternoon when John slips out of the Samizdat offices, figuring he's finally accrued enough intern abuse to be excused for an early absence. At this point he knows they can't fire him — he does too much, and one of the editors just had a mental breakdown. They won't appreciate this, but they can't do jack.

He's been back to the library a few times since the first time he ran into Kate, but he hadn't seen her those times because he'd been taking care to avoid her, and if he had seen her on those occasions, he would have flung away the romance novels he'd borrowed as research panickedly. So far the basic plot outline seems pretty straightforward, and if he fills in the blanks with more interesting characters, maybe someone will see fit to publish it.

There's also the matter of Tommy's monster from the black lagoon, but with teeth. If he'd wanted to ask Kate about that, though, he could have just messaged her over the CiD. But that's no way to make an impression. Not that he's trying for that. Trying is for try hards. He is instead just super casually dropping by her desk, and if he happens to be slightly better dressed today, sort of (it's the nice hoodie), so what.

He'll just open up with a totally awesome, "Hey."

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If Kate really cared about who checked out the romance novels, she could always just check the library records, but that requires an amount of give of damn that not even Kate can cough up. No, she'd rather spend her time reading all the books around her, including said trashy texts.

Hey, even Kate has her guilty pleasures.

On John's arrival, she's at the front desk and nose deep in one of those suspicious and dangerous novels with the Fabio lookalike clutching a fainting woman on the cover. Closing it with a soft thump, Kate sets it aside and leans forward on her elbows. "Oh, hey. What's up?"

Though that's occurred to John, he's 80% sure Kate wouldn't check his records, unless he pisses her off or something. In the meantime, he doesn't have the balls to be seen with a romance novel. Seeing her with one, though, actually throws him, though in a good way. Maybe he could run an idea past her. Her input would be helpful. But... no, he just can't.

"Not much with me. Probably because I stay out of the Spatters. You?"

If he ever pisses off her, there are other ways Kate can make him pay. More physical than emotionally embarrassing. May Kate never have to go that far with him.

Her eyes narrow for a quick second at that Spatters comment, wondering if that was a potshot to Billy and Tommy. But as soon as that expression appears, it vanishes, her face going back to being neutral before she answers. "Working. The usual around here, you know."

As momentary as it was, he at least manages to read that expression correctly.

"I brought that up because I wanted to ask you about Tommy. Which is not to say I don't find staying out of the Spatters a good idea, but he did show me how fast he was, so what happened is a little concerning. Why were they there, anyway?"

"Pretty crappy way to bring it up, John," Kate replies with just a slight warning tone to her words. Those two boys are not just her friends, but her family. She isn't about to sit by and let John snark on them, even if he means well, which doesn't seem to be the case here, but whatever.

"I don't know." She shrugs because honestly, Kate doesn't know. Usually Billy would be the one to tell her if they were going to do some patrolling and Tommy would be the one to get in trouble first and then tell somebody about it, but Kate can only assume something went horribly wrong along the way. "It's better if you ask him, really." Not that she would tell even if she did know. Some secrets have to be played close to her chest.

"Sorry," he says, though he sounds more puzzled than apologetic, probably because in his jerk mind, he hadn't been insulting at all. "I don't want to bother him while he's recovering or whatever. And it's not exactly my business, apart from the mutant thing. But maybe this isn't a 'mutant thing'. Maybe it's just a Tommy thing. Except he said he was with someone?"

"Did he?" Kate isn't asking to confirm, she's asking to answer a question with another question to state how obvious the answer to that is. If John wants to know anything about what went down that night, he needs to ask Tommy or Billy and not Kate. Kate is tightlipped about things because while she isn't a mutant, she has her own identity to keep under wraps and the more she lets John poke around what those two were up to, the closer he gets to knowing what she does when she clocks out of the library.

That and about how she'll be reporting this part of the conversation back to Remy.

John just looks at her for a second and then shrugs. He doesn't think there's anything more to this than he said something wrong when he brought up the Spatters, but that's a fair enough reason to not want to give him any information. After all, if Kate were a mutant, she probably would've said, and if she were and didn't say, then she has her reasons.

"Okay, I'll ask Remy. Nice talking to you." For what it's worth, there's no sarcasm in his voice. He'll try again another time.

For the record, Kate isn't supposed to know John is a mutant himself since he actually didn't tell her. It's just her putting two and two together and coming up with something that is pretty close enough to be the truth.

"Is that all you came here for?" she ask, watching him carefully. Far be it from Kate to actually admit she likes his company when he isn't being a jerk or that she thinks he's kind of cute, but real conversation is better than reading how some woman's bosom heaves under some tall, dark stranger's hand.

It was something he figured didn't need to be said, due to her friendship with Tommy and the casual things he'd dropped in their conversations so far, something he did more for the novelty of mutantdom not mattering quite as much in Baedal. If he stopped to think about it, he might realize he was treating the issue the same way Bobby's parents had handled Bobby 'coming out' as a mutant. Which would both entertain and aggrieve him.

The question makes him smile. "Nah. I mean, I am concerned, but I could've just asked Remy over the CiD. Can I ask you a question about that?" John nods at the temporarily discarded book Kate had been reading.

Her eyes flicked in the direction of John's nod and Kate raises her eyebrows slightly before glancing back at him. "If it's about how I can read that stuff and if the guy turns out to be gay at the end, no. Otherwise, sure."

He shakes his head at that. This is a more telling question than he would like, but it's important. Also important is getting away from having to say that yes, he only came out here to talk to Kate. It's true, but it's awkward and unnecessary to talk about.

"What, if anything, would you change about these kinds of books?"

Biting her lip in consideration for a moment, Kate opens her mouth and a flood of words come out with nary a breath in between them. "Better roles for the women? Sure, not all of them are going to go out and save the world, but at least one or two of them would like to. And a lot of women aren't going to sit around waiting for some Fabio dude to come and save her from a life of whatever with a kiss. Maybe they'll meet him along the way, but they'll want to do most of the work themselves."

Even though she reads them often, Kate can't seem to connect with the roles in the novels, both romantically and socially. Waiting for her hero to come is such a foreign concept to her and something her and Eli argued over endlessly at home. She's rather have a guy on the side or even waiting for her rather than wait for him and let life pass her by.

It's more than John was expecting, but it all makes sense, and it confirms the criticism he's heard before for romance novels. In fact, he'd like to ask her more, but more than one question in this direction will kind of ruin any remaining plausible deniability, while more 'subtle' questions will probably come off really fucking weird. Not that he's good with subtlety anyway.

So he nods, trying not to look too thoughtful about it. "I don't think I'd know what to do with a woman who needed to be saved like that." In an absentminded way, he's thinking of his mom and also of Rogue, though even he would admit neither judgment is fair. "But then, I'm definitely not a romance novel hero."

"You save her." Kate states this as if it's the most obvious thing ever. "If she can't help herself, somebody has to help her. But if she can and she wants to do it on her own, all you have to do is stand back and let her do her own thing. And not make stupid commentary about it."

Sure, now she's going off into her own personal issues territory, but it all goes hand in hand with the caliber of reading material she's come across. "Anyway," she shrugs again with a smirk, "your hair's not long enough to be one." No comment on the state of his pecs or abs.

Edited 2011-12-19 07:14 (UTC)

"I wasn't talking about actual life or death situations, just romance novel plots." He says mildly. It's kind of interesting that Kate has more than that on her mind, but he doesn't jump to any conclusions — real vigilantes and superheroes are virtually unknown when and where he's from, the X-Men aside (he wouldn't call them that), and the various motivations for heroic actions have never crossed his mind in any depth. "But I'll remember that."

"It works for books too. After a while, the same old, same old gets boring to read." Everybody has their motivations for what they do, some Kate agrees with and others Kate can do nothing but side-eye at (hi, Magneto.)

But right here and now, Kate pushes the book away a little further, no longer interested in it, and goes back to leaning on the desk. "Hey, are you going to the holiday party thing at the inn?" She's never been one for big Christmas events, but a party seems relatively safe, especially when it's one for the residents and not just as a show of how much money one has.

The subject sort of perks John up a little, even though he tries not to show it. "Maybe. Are you gonna go? Because —"

Well, he can't really talk about how his boss is Jewish. "— I sure as fuck don't want to party with my editors. And actually I've never seen It's A Wonderful Life. I probably won't like it but what the hell, right?"

"Probably." She's shrugging again, but in all likelihood, Kate will be there. It's a change of pace from the daily ins and outs of work and patrol and the gang does need something to cheer them up while they heal. While Billy and Tommy heal and Kate stares at them so they're never out of her sight for a good long time, that is.

"It's a pretty good movie and there'll be food. A lot could go wrong, but why not have faith this time around?"

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John's concern for Tommy knows NO BOUNDS.

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