John Young | The Tomorrow People (isnotyourson) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2020-03-06 19:49:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !completed gdoc, !log, jedikiah price (contradictions), ~2020 march, ~~john young (isnotyourson) |
WHO: John Young and Jedikiah Price
WHAT: Talking
WHEN: Today
WHERE: Walmart
WARNINGS: Nah
STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
John liked Madison Valley. There was a freedom in this place that he’d never known before, and he loved being able to go out and enjoy the sunshine without having to worry about Ultra agents taking him out. Or kidnapping him and bringing him back to work for them. He wasn’t sure which would actually be worse and he was glad that he didn’t have to decide that here. He also loved that he could be himself, that he could use his abilities. After all, everyone else in town did. There were even other people who could teleport. It was kind of the sort of place he’d always dreamed about.
Except, that was, for Jedikiah Price.
Sure, he hadn’t done anything threatening since he’d arrived here. But a couple of years of not killing people wasn’t enough to convince John that he’d turned a leaf. He’d known Price since he’d been a kid. He’d ‘protected’ him - manipulating him the whole time and making him into a weapon. He knew the guy could seem charming, even friendly. There might have even been a time when John had seen him as the father he’d never actually had.
Before he’d broken him, anyway.
Right now, John was at Walmart, buying some ingredients for the dinner he was going to fix Jo soon. He wasn’t expecting the breath to be knocked out of him, but that was exactly what happened when he came around the corner face to face with Jedikiah. His heartbeat surged, and it took everything he had in him not to simply teleport out of there. His flight or fight reflex was in full action, and he clenched his hands.
“Excuse me,” he said through clenched teeth.
***
Jedikiah was done hiding. He was more than happy to settle into a quiet life with his job and his girlfriend and the few friends he had, but he was done hiding. He’d just leave people alone, as the need arose.
It still felt strange sometimes, though, leading the life he did. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever planned on for himself, but then again, he’d never really thought much about what life would be for him. He’d kind of gotten stuck on a path by virtue of his intellect. Ending up teaching at Princeton by the young age he had? Had only been the start of a lot of things going… some kind of tilted. They’d tilted, and kept tilting, and nothing had really righted itself until Madison Valley. Nothing there was perfect, but it was all a damn sight better.
He didn’t have to worry about just himself at home, too; he had to worry about Karolina, which meant that he was actually a functional adult when it came to things like food in the apartment. Well, largely. He at least remembered to do it on time, which had to count for something, as far as he was concerned.
When someone spoke to him, he was paying more attention to the grocery list on his phone than who was talking -- that was how he managed to not realize exactly who it was for a second. When it finally clicked, he stilled for a second. “Sorry,” he managed, stepping aside.
***
John knew that he should just walk away, but for some reason his feet wouldn’t move. He stood there, staring at Jedikiah, half in horror, half with the intensity of someone who wasn’t going to back away this time. He didn’t want to be afraid of him anymore. He didn’t want to avoid him. He wanted...well, peace. He had mostly found peace here, except for his fear of Jedikiah, and something in that was desperate to fix that. He knew the two of them could never be friends - not after what he’d done to him - but they could at least learn to coexist and stop being a threat to each oither.
He took a deep breath. This was possibly one of the hardest things he’d done in his life.
“Jedikiah. Hi.”
***
Well, that was… unexpected, to be perfectly honest about it.
“Hello, John,” he said after a moment, not entirely sure how to react. He and John so rarely interacted anymore that he was admittedly a bit thrown. He recovered as well as he could manage, though, and besides that? He wasn’t going to back down. Wasn’t going to walk away.
Even though it was so incredibly awkward. Better awkward conversation than nothing at all.
***
“I’m...buying flour,” he said. Basically because he wasn’t sure what else to say and it was all awkward and uncomfortable and he had to say something. “I’m making supper. I can actually cook okay.”
His words were a bit defensive and more than a little awkward, but he wasn’t sure how to start a conversation with the man who’d tortured and broken him. It wasn’t something you had to do every day.
***
“Much easier than what I’m doing right now,” Jedikiah said with a wry smile. “One of these days I’ll manage to either do my grocery shopping without a list or remember to send myself the list so I don’t have to text Karolina when I’m done to make sure I didn’t forget a quarter of what we need.”
He’d never actually done it, but he wouldn’t put it past himself. He was long on intelligence, not always on attention to those sorts of details. When you paid attention to everything in life, something inevitably got tossed out the window.
“What’re you doing for supper, anyway?” A little curiosity was okay, right? If it was about something like that?
***
“Making pasties,” he said. “We had pork last night and I”m using the leftover pork to make pasties. Then we can freeze them and take them out of the refrigerator when we need one and microwave it. Kind of like having hot pockets, but better.”
John knew that he was kind of rambling, but he was a good way past nervous. He really didn’t want to have this conversation but he also really didn’t have a choice. He had to talk to the guy, because he was trying to be polite and put the past behind them. Or, that was the plan, anyway.
***
“That is a smart idea,” Jedikiah said. “Because really, Hot Pockets will only get you so far in life. Pasties are like, next level Hot Pockets.”
Not really wrong.
“I’m not sure what I’m doing for dinner tonight. Probably gonna see if Karolina wants to have her girlfriend over first before I make any decisions. She might not even actually be home for dinner.” Maybe see if Vanya wanted to come over, if Karolina went out.
***
John was still a bit nervous about the fact that Kaolina lived with Jedikiah. He didn’t know if she was aware of what Karolina could do, but he certainly hoped not. Anyway, he wasn’t going to out her as someone like him. It might be too tempting for Jedikiah and he didn’t want him falling back into his old life.
“Yeah, they turn out pretty good. Flakier and more flavor than hot pockets.” And they tasted like real food instead of microwave garbage.
“Um. Weird to know you’re a guardian.” That was the last thing that John would have signed him up for.
***
“It’s weird to be one,” Jedikiah said honestly. “But… it works. I mean, I think it helps that Karolina’s incredibly independent and self-sufficient, but even without that… it works.”
Made him feel a little more… he didn’t know how to put it, really. At peace, he supposed. It was good to know that he could be responsible for someone.
Well, relatively speaking.
***
“Yeah, she is.” As soon as he said it, John regretted it. He shouldn’t have let Jedikiah know that he knew the girl. It might possibly put her in danger, and that was the last thing that he wanted. “I mean, she seems to be, I mean. Which is good for you, since you’re not really parent material.”
Alright, that last part slipped out without him really meaning for it to. Oops.
***
Jedikiah flinched slightly, though he did his best to hide the reaction. He did kind of deserve that, after all.
“No, I guess I’m not,” he said, glancing away for a moment. He’d gotten used to the fact that as long as he was in town, he’d never get to know his child. Had accepted it. Had mostly dealt with the pain. Or so he told himself, because John’s words made him think about that fact all over again.
He pushed it aside, though, and looked back to John.
***
“No offense.” But of course, there was offense, and the words were weak. He knew it. He didn’t like the guy. He was trying, god he was trying, but they were never going to be best friends, no matter what he did. There was too much that had happened between them for that to ever happen. At least he’d distracted a bit from Karolina. That was good, anyway.
He paused, awkwardly, unsure exactly what to say or do.
“Um. Guess I should get home...gotta get the dough in the fridge to chill and all.”
Well, that was awkward. But they’d spoken and not hurt each other. That was something, right? A start?
***
It was indeed a start, and meant more to Jedikiah than John would probably ever realize. No, he didn’t expect them to be friends. He didn’t even really expect them to consistently get along. But the ability to have an entire, albeit short, conversation? Yeah, that meant a great deal.
“Yeah, I’ll let you get going,” he said with a nod. “You have a good evening, John.”
Awkward, yes. Oddly optimistic, yes. He’d leave his realism at the door for the moment and hope it wouldn’t come back to bite him on the ass.
Because life did that.