RP log - Kevin, Dan

[livingheatbomb.livejournal.com]

Date: The day after this entry.
Rating: Around PG or PG-13 for bad memories.
Summary: Kevin fulfills his promise and visits Dan.



Dan had settled himself in the somewhat dubious kitchen of the Brotherhood Mansion, snacking on some potato chips he'd found there while he waited for the mutant he'd seen yesterday, Kevin, to show up. He'd said he and Dan could do something today, and Dan was really excited - he loved hanging out with Akutsu-san, but he'd been told he needed to make other friends as well. And Kevin seemed nice. He didn't seem to mind, either, if his powers didn't work around Dan. Dan crunched another chip and paged through one of the books he'd found - it was big and had lots of maps. He liked maps. They were fascinating. Presently, he heard noise out in the hall and looked up, wondering if it was Kevin - Akutsu-san, for all that he was big and scary, could move very quietly when he wanted to.

Great, just great. The doc had told Kevin that he wanted to talk a bit to him, but that bit derivated into quite the lecture that went for almost 15 minutes straight. Kevin was borderline dizzy when the old man finally shut up and told him that Dan was most likely waiting for him, so as soon as he regained control (noticeable for how the heat in the room dropped) he made a dash for it.

As he went searching for the kid, Kevin mentally hoped that he had been quicker than Blackguard, or better said, King Asshole. He *did* see those posts where the boy had tried to establish contact with him, and judging by what happened to Ohtori (what, did they think that he'd forget that melodrama?!), letting the guy get a hold of Dan would equal to More Than Trouble. He wasn't happy to not have his powers when Dan was in his vincinity, but if it served to help keep the kid safe...

Kevin finally reached for the kitchen, and before trying to open the door, he attempted to use his introductory trademark: a small warm breeze. Nada. Zilch. Zero. This could only mean that Dan was there, so he opened the door trying to hide his discomfort at not having his flames.

"Dan? You there?"

Dan looked up as a blonde boy entered - he grinned widely and waved. "Hi! I'm Dan, desu - you must be Kevin-san! It's nice to meet you!" He closed his book and stood up, giving the other a small bow - you were supposed to bow when you met people, right? He hadn't met very many people, but that seemed to be the thing to do. They'd never done it in the lab, but then, things were much different there.

"Thank you for coming to see me!" he added quickly - he was always glad to have someone new to talk to. There weren't many people here. "Do you want some chips?" He offered the bag over, in case Kevin was hungry.

Green skin, iris-less eyes, short. Dan, in Kevin's not so humble opinion, stronmgly reminded him of the stereotypical martians shown in media, but he refrained from saying so just as he was opening his mouth, reminded that possibly Dan would find his blond hair and blue eyes just as weird.

"That I am, and you're welcome," he told the other, getting closer to the table and taking the chip bag from him. He was uncomfortable still upon the loss of his powers, though, and had to remind self several times that this was just temporary, that he'd be fine as soon as he was back to Nakamura, and that he shouldn't let the kiddo know of this...

Dan held the bag so Kevin-san could grab more if he wanted, hoping he wasn't staring too much. He'd never seen anyone with blonde hair before! It was really pretty - or, well, maybe not pretty, since Kevin was a boy. But it was very different-looking from anything Dan had ever seen.

"So! Ummmm.... what do you want to do?" he asked, pushing the book to the side a little. "There's a TV, or we could, um, go play tag or something! Or..." He flushed a little. "I don't really know what you're supposed to do with friends," he admitted. "Usually Akutsu-san just kind of sits there and grumbles, heh." He didn't mind, though - he liked spending time with Akutsu-san, even if they didn't ever do much.

He couldn't see the other guy's irises pupils, but following his expression as a whole, Kevin could clearly see that Dan was sort-of starstruck, kinda like a little child looking at a candy store. He blushed intensely at that, so unused he had become at something once so usual (oh yes, he used to be in his way to stardom, he had never forgotten it...) like being the center of someone else's praise and admiration.

After munching at some of the chips he got out of the bag, Kevin blinked at his sort-of newfound friend. "Huh? Ah, what to do... Man, you're new here, aren't you? We could check on the surroudings together, since I remember some secret passages and places and knowing them well might be more than useful to you."

"Really?" Dan had been exploring the mansion a bit, but he never seemed to get very far - he'd always get distracted (by the library, the lawn, Akutsu-san, or even more tests) and he didn't know nearly as much about this place as he'd like. Especially if he was going to be living here. "Yeah! That'd be fun." Kevin-san didn't seem to mind showing him around, either, so he hoped it was all right. "I've only looked around a little on my own, but it seems really cool here." Well, except for the parts that needed cleaning. Because those parts were common.

"Did you used to live here, then? I think I heard that a lot of people used to live here but most of them don't anymore," Dan said, closing up the bag of chips and pulling a chair over to the counter so he could put it away in the cabinet where it'd come from. He then pushed the chair back under the table and stacked his books on top of it - he'd come back for them later, and no one would mind them here, he thought.

"Uh huh, I did," the blond replied, nodding. "Until some time ago, this was the home of everyone in the group. We've gone our sort-of separate ways recently and now only you, the doc and some other people are left in the manor."

A little mental check reminded Kevin of what was one of his favorite places in the mansion. There was a sort-of attic in the wing where people like him, Ohtori and Oshitari lived, which he casually found by checking on some more or less-hidden doors that he initially mistook for closets; maybe the kiddo would like that little corner since it was quiet and had a great view of the surrundings.

Kevin jumped from his seat and looked at his companion. "I'm showing you a sort-of favorite place of mine. Don't leave your books here, kiddo; you may like the room enough to want to keep them there."

Dan blinked - a favorite place of Kevin's? That must be really special! He broke into a grin and nodded, picking his books up and cradling them to his chest. "Okay! That would be really really cool, thanks, Kevin-san!" He didn't know where they were going, but he was excited nonetheless. "If you're sure it'd be okay to leave my books - um, but I guess if there's not too many people here, they might not mind, right? Heh." Dan stood by the door, waiting for the other to lead away, since Kevin knew where they were going and Dan didn't.

"Come on, kiddo. Don't lag behind."

And don't let King Asshole find you; that's another reason to have you tagging along, the blond mentally added. Reaching the place would take longer than usual ly,since Kevin couldn't fly, but a promise was a promise, and somehow Dan had a sort-of calming effecty on him that few others possessed.

And so, few minutes after meeting properly, two youngsters were reaching one of the farthest wings of the manor, which was darker and more mysterious than Kevin could remember. So much for the whole ambientation... whatever. Hope the kiddo doesn't chicken out.

"We're almost here," and he pushed a small door open...

"I'm coming!" Dan hurried after the blonde, blinking widely as he followed - he'd never been in this part of the mansion before, and it looked mostly deserted, though it wasn't in any better or worse repair than the rest of what he'd seen, for the most part. It was darker here, a little scarier - but Dan wasn't much afraid of the dark, he'd found - in fact, he kind of liked it, a bit, after the near-constant light of a lab for two years. It had never been dark in his room, there. But at home, he remembered, his mother had always had the blinds closed. Somehow he was comfortable with the dark.

He blinked again as they slowed, peeking out from behind Kevin and watching him push open a door, still clutching the books to his chest. It had been a bit of a trek from the kitchen, and Dan was glad to hear they were almost there. "D-does anyone still live up here?" He hoped they weren't disturbing anyone.

"I used to kinda live here, yet I'm not anymore. Looks like everyone else is gone, too. Ah, well; come here..."

The door led them to small, narrow stairs going up. "Watch your step, Dan," Kevin warned as they went their way up, steps careful and slow to not trip over a broken rug or something.

"Okay." It was good to know they weren't likely intruding on anyone, then. Dan kept his eyes trained on the stairs a moment, watching to make sure he didn't trip on anything. The staircase was dim, and the stairs worn, but that just made him more excited - he wondered what kind of room could be at the top of a staircase like this! He kept his books cradled against his chest, going slowly without the use of his arms - he didn't want to do something stupid and end up falling backwards, that would be so embarrassing!

"This is kind of cool..." He swiveled his gaze from the stairs to Kevin's back and down again, not wanting to run into the other boy if he stopped suddenly. "I t-think I'm going to like this place..."

"You better do." And Kevin extended his arm, carefully touching the door that now was in front of him. It was open, thank God for small favors, so he easily pushed it open, to be met with sunlight and dust.

"Shoot, it`s quite dirty after I left," he said, walking in and assessing the "damage". "But the sweep is next to the door and it looks like no one but us will step in, so yeah, it`s no big deal."

Kevin took the old sweep and went towards the not-too-far window, opening it to let some air enter and take a look at the (abandoned but still alive) garden. "Come here, Dan. Take a look from the window."

Dan was greeted with a small puff of dust as he and Kevin-san entered the room; he could clearly see dust clouding the air in the beams of sunlight that filtered in, but that didn't matter - as Kevin said, they could sweep it away, he didn't mind. He was busy looking at the inside of the room - it looked like maybe an... attic? Slanted walls, unfinished wood, dusty floorboards. But it really did look like the perfect place to sit and read for hours -

Dan glanced over as Kevin called him to the window, setting his books down beside the door and approaching, coming to the boy's side and looking out. His eyes widened, and he grinned as he looked out and over a large part of the grounds, including a garden that looked a little worse for the wear. But it was such a view! "Wooooow~ I can see everything!" Dan leaned out of the window a bit, craning his head this way and that. This really was perfect! He could stay up here forever!

"I used to come up here to read stuff and do my English/Japanese translations, so I suppose that you could give it a better use now that I'm out of the manor."

Kevin almost added that this was a sort-of haven for him when he wanted to be alone and block himself out of the melodrama that went off at times, or when he was in such a bad mood that he felt like exploding. But it was useless to tell that to Dan; it'd scare him off, and this was the last thing Kevin wanted. If stashing the boy meant it'd help him to get Blackguard off his case...

Ah, there was a second sweep not too far from the window. What luck, huh. "Hey, if you want the place to be better, we should start right now. Take the other sweep and help me out."

"Oooh~" Dan breathed, just nodding and finally prying himself away from the window (lest he fall out!) and turned to look at the room again - he didn't mind helping Kevin-san sweep. After all, the other had shown him this place, and was willing to let him use it. He shouldn't have to do much work at all! Dan was very good at housework - his mother had let him help her with those, at least.

"Okay! I'll do it!" The pole was kind of large for him, but that was always how it seemed to go, so Dan made due and began sweeping the thin layer of dust away from the door, trying to keep it in a pile for disposal later. "I can do most of it, don't worry," he told the blonde. "You were really nice to show me this place, and come hang out with me!"

Kevin did likewise, sweeping the floor and piling up the dust in a pile next to Dan's own one. "Heh, this was kind of my place to start, so I should've kinda taken better care of it. I want to leave it in sorta good hands."

Soon it was all taken care of, though Kevin wasn't sure if they had rags to clean up the furniture (there wasn't many - a small desk, two or three chairs, a tiny dresser and something similar to a Western futon that could be either used as couch or as bed...). He finally found two of those and handed one to Dan before he cleaned up the desk next to the window.

Dan just grinned and shrugged - he didn't mind, either way. Kevin-san hadn't been living here for a while, so it wasn't his fault that he hadn't been able to keep the place up as well as he would have liked.

After they'd finished, the blonde handed him a rag to wipe down the furniture, and Dan complied, finding that he rather liked cleaning this place, with the sun filtering in, and Kevin's comfortable silence. They worked for a while, trying to rid the furniture of as much dirt as possible. When they were done, Dan collapsed with a small laugh into the nearest chair. "Now it's better!" he exclaimed, with a satisfied sigh. "Thanks, Kevin-san!"

Kevin plopped down on the chair next to Dan, looking at the green-skinned boy. He looked a little (or better said, would look, if not for the skin and the iris-less eyes) like a girl he once met... the girl from his class whom he protected once from bullies, landing himself and her in the medbay of their school in Los Angeles.

The same medbay where he met Ryoma Echizen, who was already there for an illness.

For a second, Kevin was completely immersed in the memories he had of the first person he ever considered his friend. Sad, angry, happy memories... everything. The bubble was suddenly popped when Dan expressed his thanks... ah, this was the present. He looked at the other kid and murmured: "Ah, yeah... Welcome, kiddo."

Dan watched Kevin-san... he seemed to be thinking about something, but shook it off after a moment. Dan smiled, hoping he wasn't interrupting the other's thoughts too much. "I really like it up here," he said softly, still feeling grateful to the other. "Maybe I'll spend lots of time up here. When I'm not outside, hehe." He liked being outside, but he also liked being up high. With the windows open, it was a little of both.

But now that they were done, Dan was much more curious about his new friend. "So... um... did you like living here? Why don't you live here anymore?" he asked.

"Well," and the blond lightly shook his head (letting some dust on it fall almost like dandruff) seconds before replying Dan's question. "Mr. Sakaki wanted some of us to live closer to humans to show them that we're not currently a threat, and others had their own stuff to take care of. I was among the first group, so I left the place; still, I need to have the doc checking on my training since my powers are highly volatile, so at times I show up here."

"Ohhhh." Dan thought about that a moment - live closer to humans? That sounded like an interesting idea. Dan wasn't sure if it was a good one or a bad one - on the one hand, people were scared of him, and they didn't like seeing him. But on the other hand, he just wanted to be treated normally, not holed up inside anywhere (be it a mansion or a lab), and it might be nice to live near more people. He sighed - it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, though. Banda-san had told him he couldn't move somewhere else because the mutants there might not like him. Sometimes it felt like he didn't fit in anywhere, no matter where he turned.

"Well, it must be nice, not having to stay for more than a few hours!" Dan said, glancing over to the other mutant. "I wish I could do whatever I wanted, all the time!"

"Pheh," and Kevin shrugged, his voice sounding rather bitter as he spoke. "The outside world? Ain't pretty, kiddo. If the Japanese look at me oddly for just being a foreigner, I don't think you'd like to know what they'd do to you, if not made already..."

Banji hadn't told Kevin anything about Dan's backstory, but he could imagine what people would do to a martian-looking kid who could nullify mutant powers. That's why he added the last bit, so he could get what went on his train of thoughts.

"Yeah..." Dan trailed off a moment, thinking. He supposed he already knew what they'd do to him, if the past two years of his life were any indication. Dan didn't want that to happen again - he never wanted to go back to anyplace lice that. "I don't want to go back to where I was." He'd been told he was safe here, and so far he had no reason to doubt that. He hoped it really was the truth, then. "I like it better here, and I can look normal if I want to. Then Akutsu-san and Shiba-san take me out places!" He couldn't get over how, when he activated the image inducer, no one stared at him or even gave him a second glance. Dan hadn't known what that felt like before recently, but he liked it. A lot.

"Where you were..." Kevin couldn't know what the kiddo meant and didn't really want to ask. He could figure out what he was done, and the unpleasant mental image was more than enough to make him shudder in rage.

"Well, you can get out now. I suppose it's good for you, huh; you look as if you had never ever gotten out for anything. If that's the case, maybe I could take you out one of these days. Who knows."

Dan nodded happily. "Yeah, I can! And I'd love it if you would come with me sometime!" He grinned to Kevin, hoping the other really wouldn't mind. "I don't know my way around really well, I'm still learning and all. Heh. I'll wear my image inducer though!" He didn't want anyone staring - that wouldn't be a very good way to pay Kevin-san back at all!

For now, he leaned back into the chair he was sitting in, closing his eyes in contentment a moment. He was happy to stay here and make this place his own, since that seemed to be all right. He'd go out later. He was slowly getting used to the idea that he could go out when he wanted (pretty much), and it was nice to be able to exercise that. His own schedule... "But for now, heh, it's nice to just sit here!"

"We'll see about that... Hope we can."

Kevin hadn't felt this... mellow for months. The ones spent under the menace of the Japanese Inquisition didn't count for he was a sort-of boiling pot who only through intense training and later blowing up guards and tin cans could channelize how pissed off he was back then. And now that his grandparents were calling him more often, who knew what they, Emily, and Aunt Shirley wanted from him.

Still, for once he left the trouble was far away from him. Maybe this is how his life would've been like (sorta) if his mother was still alive...

"Yeah, I suppose it's good to be back to this little hole," he said, leaning back on his seat and allowing himself to smile a bit, like the young boy he still was.