fandomhigh | Library [03, 20]

"Things are in a mood today?"

And hello to you too, Henry. He sounded more curious about it than annoyed.

[OOC: I may be slooow today.]

//When aren't they?// Jono gave the bookshelf nearest him a nasty glare, as if daring the books to try that little stunt again. And then he turned his attention to Henry.

The books were already plotting their great escape.

//Almost enough to drive a bloke completely mental. But at least it keeps me busy.//

Because the alternative probably involved either being bored, or thinking about graduation, neither of which really appealed to him all that much.

"The question is," Henry said, giving a slantwise look to a stack of magazines that were moving out of date order as he watched, "if this is better or worse as a way to be busy than all the guests you had last week. Stop that."

That last was directed to the magazines, not to Jono, and was punctuated by a fist to the periodicals that seemed to temporarily frighten them into order.

Jono glanced at the magazines, raised an eyebrow at them, and briefly contemplated threatening them with a peek at what he was hiding under those wrappings of his. But then, he was never really a fan of the prospect of book-burning, and decided that just leaving the bandages where they were was probably in better taste.

He'd threaten to donate them to the clinic or something if they kept it up, though. Waiting rooms were harsh on magazines.

//I can't complain much about th'people here last week,// he decided, thoughtfully. //Th'kids that Bobby brought in were... a nice change of pace. Pleasant enough company. And I only need to put up with Lee when those weekends come around. I can tolerate her for a few days at a time.//

That last part was said somewhat fondly. He'd probably end up heading back to the Academy after graduation here. At least Jubilee and Angelo were people he could honestly say he enjoyed being around.

Edited 2011-03-20 13:18 (UTC)

"Were they related to Bobby somehow?" Henry asked. "I wasn't eavesdropping much."

Looking sheepish, he added, "Clare and I decided it was easier for me to go there sometime than for her to come here, especially since my contract's almost up." Which he was only a little regretful about. He loved Fandom, but parts of him were itching to be back in Chicago.

//They're... not blood,// Jono replied, furrowing his brow a little as he tried to find a way to explain all of that X-nonsense back home. He settled on the easiest he could manage. //But people like us often find ourselves with nowhere to go. I think Bobby had a hand in finding a place for them to belong.//

There. That touched on it all, without actually implicating Bobby as a mutant as well.

//Contract's almost up? Yer... leaving, then? End of semester?//

"What is it, six weeks?" Henry said, running a hand through his hair. "You graduate too, right? I'm trying to get everything somewhat in order for whoever gets suckered into this next."

Poor bastard, really.

"And," he added, since this had been the original topic, "good for Bobby. Kids like that ... parents shouldn't just toss them out."

//They shouldn't,// Jono agreed. //But what people don't understand, they tend to fear. And what people fear, they generally don't want to spend much time around.//

Jono spoke with the voice of experience, there.

//I'm graduating, yes. Not entirely certain where to go from here, but I have a few ideas. Most of them... involve pulling off th'band-aid quickly. I don't know what I'd do here over th'summer, anyhow.//

"And some parents have other things going on," Henry said. (His father, for example, had been conducting in-depth research to see how much alcohol the human liver could absorb before giving up entirely.) "They're still your kids."

He shook his head. "Sorry. Just ... the parent in me. Does your girlfriend know you're taking off?"

This was absolutely, positively, none of his business, but the question was out before Henry gave it too much thought.

Jono fell quiet for a moment, and then he gave his shoulders a small shrug.

//She worries,// he said, as if that explained everything. //She's got every reason to, I suppose. But we don't really talk about it. I don't know what it'll accomplish. I just don't...//

He didn't have any idea what he was going to say, and so his gaze turned toward the books again.

//I don't want her t'spend th'next few weeks waiting for it. It isn't as if knowing that something difficult is coming, even well in advance, actually makes it any easier to get through once th'time comes.//

He had experience in that, too.

Henry took a moment to process that. "I guess you're right," he decided. "It sounds like you know what you have to do. There's no reason to ... make it her burden, too. Not when there's nothing she can do."

//She'll probably spend enough time worrying, once I go back,// Jono replied. //I mean... I can write, but I can't phone. If there's any news t'give her, it'll be at th'mercy of any time I might have around whatever's going on, and then the American postal service, on top of it all.//

If there were questions of logistics about text messages and email, they didn't occur to Henry.

"So most of the time, she'll be waiting," Henry said. "Are you even going to try to make a go of it, or are you going to set her free?"

he'd made a go of it with Clare. But he'd never been entirely certain they'd dome the right thing.

Set her free.

There was an interesting choice of words to hand to a boy who constantly beat himself up because he mostly wasn't there in the first place.

//I don't... want to let her go,// he said, feeling small for just a moment before furrowing his eyebrows and looking up again. //And I don't think she'd want me to, either. I've done so much bloody running, Mr. DeTamble. Just my being here is exactly that. I'm tired of it.//

Henry had a momentary stab of something wistful that Jono got the choice to run or not to run. "I'm coming at this from the wrong end," he said apologetically. "I've been disappearing on my wife practically as long as she can remember. If I had a choice, I don't know if I'd do it to her again. I don't know if she'd let me. The fates can be pretty fucking cruel. But if you think you can make being out of touch work for you, I'm not one to argue with other people's relationships."

//I don't know what I can make work,// Jono replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking at the desk all over again. //Things won't be easy. But... alumni are allowed to visit, right? And she can teleport, for that matter. It might bridge th'gap, at least a little.//

He shook his head a little.

//If anything, it isn't th'distance I'm worried about. Here is safe. Where I'm from, on the other hand, isn't. Not really. I might get swept up in it yet.//

Henry almost asked why Jono sounded so certain he wouldn't get a choice about whether he got swept up or not, but then reconsidered. There were times to give advice and times to shut up and listen, and this was feeling like a time to shut up and listen.

Even if he didn't believe there was such a thing as a safe place.

"I don't know the first thing about what you're going back to," he said apologetically. "I'm going to turn into a walking cliche and just say I wish you luck, wherever you end up."

//I'll need it.// Jono looked... perhaps a little thankful, even if the well-wishings were just words. You couldn't stop a war with 'good luck,' so far as he was aware. //Th'longer I spend here, th'more difficult it'll be, stepping back into it.//

He imagined, quite correctly, that humanity wouldn't waste any time reminding him just how different people here were from people there.

"Probably better to plunge right in, then, right?" Henry asked. "It sounds like it won't get any better if you overthink it."

Jonothon shook his head a little, agreeing.

//It won't. It won't get any better no matter what I do. I'm really not looking forward to running headlong into... that. But it's what I have t'do. It's all that's really out there for me, after here.//

It would be war. Always had been, really, only it was fought with protests and politics at first, and then things had gotten messy.

//Hopefully... you've got more to look forward to, come semester's end. I never really had much of a family, but I'll go out on a limb and guess that being so far from yers hasn't been easy.//

Henry shrugged gracefully. "It was hard to miss so much time with Alba," he said honestly. "Clare ... we're in a better place now than we were when I came here. The theory about absence making the heart grow fonder worked for us. Anyhow, they're just in Chicago. It's not like I'm trying to get back to the Balkans."

//Well, no,// Jono allowed, //but we aren't in Illinois, either.//

Distance was distance. You could be three feet away from somebody and still never get to see them. The other side of the wall, after all, probably wasn't in the Balkans either.

"We aren't in Illinois," Henry had to agree. "Hey, at least it's the right year between the two of us, most of the time."

He sighed, leaning against the counter. "I will say it's going to stink, having to go back to hiding the time travel thing. Not that I advertise it here, but at least the entire concept doesn't sound insane."

Jonothon nodded a little bit.

//Tell me about it,// he agreed, gesturing a hand vaguely at his own chest. //Even here, most people think this is... off, a bit. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I'm th'one who's gone completely mental. There's no way any of it should even be possible, right?//

And yet, there they both were, a boy on fire and a time-traveller, both subject to the whims of their genetics.

//But at least here, once people are finished staring, they don't generally try to dissect you or throw things at you or whatever it is they'd do somewhere else.//

"More things on heaven and earth," Henry said. "besides, next to you, no offense, but I am boring. Dishwater dull. Most people at home who know and aren't doctors just say it explains a lot. Then they ask me a lot of questions about lotto numbers and sports bets."

Library [03, 20]

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