Obi-Wan is aging surprisingly well (obi1) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-05-22 13:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kitty pryde (shadowcat), obi-wan kenobi |
Who: Obi-Wan and Kitty
What: Getting coffee. Talking about girls. Talking about their mutual eye-patched friend.
Where: A Cafe
When: Back around Monday Afternoon
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete!
It was Monday afternoon, and this was his forth cup of coffee for the day. Yes, he was in a cafe this time around, which meant that he had paid in nickels. But Kitty had agreed to meet him here and so he did what he had to do to appear like a normal, everyday kind of parton. He waited for her patiently in the back, thinking about the interrogation he had endured and wondering what she would say when she heard this Nick Fury had hunted him down, too.
Kitty had been a bit iffy on taking him to her apartment when she had two excitable ten-year olds around. Not that she was worried. It was more for his sake and her peace of mind.
She walked into the cafe, her arm still in a cast, and her other arm still with a bandage wrapped around it. She still have some bruises and a cut on her face, but she looked to be in good spirits. She ordered a latte and then sat down across from him, "Hey."
He winced at the sight of her: the cast and the bruises. With his being mostly unscathed, it made him feel somewhat responsible, as if he’d had an unfair advantage. “You look... better,” he said. But it was really only because she wasn’t losing blood and/or full of glass.
She gave him a wry smile, "I feel better. It could have been a lot worse, so don't worry too much about it."
Like being trapped in a giant metal shell hurtling through space. She hadn't even told Xi'an or Jubilee about that one yet. Seeing how one's self probably died was a tad sobering.
"Is this just a social call? You sounded..stressed."
Obi-Wan shook his head. An awkward laugh came out with a sigh. “Yeaaaah. Stressed. Or... frustrated.” Now he was just chuckling at himself, as he raised an eyebrow.
"Girl trouble?" Kitty raised an eyebrow at him. With her track records on relationships, both real and in dreams, she wasn't sure she was the best person to talk to. But she did have a strong opinion on how things should be, anyway.
He leaned in, he even lowered his voice, as if this really was supposed to be some kind of secret. “See, I met this woman--no, I met the woman. And... it utterly sucks.”
"She's already with someone," Kitty guessed. "So you can't do anything because breaking up an existing couple is bad juju. Unless he's terrible for her than you're doing a public service. She might not think so, though."
“Yes. Well, I don’t know. I think she’s with someone, but that’s not really the problem. The problem is that I’m me and she’s the opposite of me.” He began to list things on his fingers, somewhat tongue-in-cheek. He was upset, but he certainly wasn’t falling to pieces. “One, she has a job. A real one. Two, she’s a nice person. Three, she patches people up for a living. I... well...” And he gestured towards Kitty’s cast and facial bruising.
“And,” he continued, shaking his head, sobering greatly. “I swore I’d never get involved with anyone again, after Emily. This is the first time in two years I’ve wanted to break that promise.”
"You seem to be a pretty nice person, yourself," Kitty countered. "And the only one stopping you from finding a job is yourself."
She picked up her latte and sipped from the straw for a bit, then shook her head, "Sometimes its a stupid promise to begin with. You're not really a jedi, I was just joking. Its a stupid rule to begin with. Love is awesome."
Though she was beginning to wonder now. Was that a sign of the crazy, seeing popular culture come to life all around her?
He scratched his chin stubble. After his run in with the FBI, he’d decided he was overdue for a shave. It was already starting to grow in thick.
“What you say makes sense,” he said. “But there’s still a block there, or something. I’m not good at loving people. And as far as the job goes, my licence to practice law in the US expired sometime last year. She’s a doctor. The best I can do right now is... bus boy, or barista...”
Kitty frowned. Activating the license wouldn't be too much of a problem for her once she knew where to look, but that would be stepping across the sort of lines she didn't like to cross. Especially if Fury was serious about her potentially fitting in. It actually wasn't the first time she'd been approached by a government agency, but it was the first time she found herself interested.
"What do you mean a block?" She decided to disregard the job issue as that was something that would require more thought. There were probably legal loops they could jump through, but she'd try to help.
“You know,” he said. “Like a block. Something my head just can’t get around. I really didn’t want this woman to know I felt this way, but I slipped up. It all came out and...” He was chuckling again, as he relived the moment when he’d dropped the money on the table. “I had a fantastic final line, though. I said... well, you had to be there. But it was leading man-esque.”
He sipped his coffee, shaking his head.
"That's delving into mental things," Kitty said, thoughtfully. "Too bad telepaths don't really exist, that would be handy."
Er. She sipped her drink and darted her eyes, "Did she express any interest what so ever? Not that I really recommend hanging around hoping she'd change her mind. That's just creepy, and you're better than that."
She tilted her head, "Go ahead, shoot me the line."
The shaking of his head became more emphatic. No, he had no intention of hanging around. In fact, if he had his way, Jean Grey would never have to worry about him again.
Obi-Wan grinned as he went through the moment again, his eyes looking off into the distance. Were they sparkling? Just a bit. “I said... well... she said... “ He did his best to explain Jean’s inferiority complex, without giving her name, and he repeated her last words to him, about how she was nothing special.
“And I said,” he continued, “‘None of that. You are very special. Believe me. You stand out.’ And I put down enough money to pay for her food--we were in a diner--and then I had to leave after that. Now, it’s maybe a bit corny, but in the moment, it was perfect.”
"That's am awesome exit," She assured him, her expression one of disbelief. "But..okay if she's anything at all like me..I can understand the inferiority thing. I mean I'm really smart, but I've always had issues with how I look. Like my hair is impossible. And other things that would probably embarrass you. In the scheme of things pretty small stuff but small things can make for shitty self-esteem."
"I don't know what her issues might stem from. It could be something small or big. But its really easy for amazing people to feel like their anything but. She probably is really special. The trick is making us realize that." Kitty winked at him.
She added, "Corny isn't always bad. My girl--roommate and I like to watch Bogart. You had a Bogart moment."
Obi-Wan liked that. Hmm, Bogart.
He sighed. “Yes, well, I don’t think she wants to me convince her. Like I said, I think there’s someone else in the picture.”
He lifted his coffee back to his lips. There was too much talking about him going on. “What about you? You have a boyfriend?”
"I'm sorry." She sipped at her coffee to hide the blush on her face. Of course, it figured this would come up, with what they were talking about. She tried to hedge, "Not exactly."
“Just passing the buck,” he replied.
She gave him a dirty look, "I deserve that." Putting the coffee down, she bit her lip, "Its kind of in the beginning stages of things. Thats not the not exactly part though. Replace 'boy' with 'girl' and you're closer?" Grin?
Obi-Wan did an excellent job of keeping the coffee inside his mouth. He deserved a medal. Really. “Oh...” he said. “Really? I, uh... really?”
"Yeah, really. It was a surprise to me too. Not that it should have been, but hindsight and all that." She sank down into her chair a bit, trying to hide behind her coffee.
He shrugged. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what his opinion was. He’d grown up in a world where that sort of thing wasn’t talked about. “Just didn’t expect that, from you--you don’t look like, erm, the type...?” And yes, he phrased it as a question. It was something to work his mind around. Especially since she’d come to mind once or twice, in all honestly, although mostly innocently.
"I'm not sure there's a type. There's a stereotype?" Kitty shrugged a shoulder, still hiding behind her coffee, "What's the expression? I bat for both teams."
She flushed a little more, "I'm...well....still the same. I just happen to be in ...attracted to a woman."
Obi-Wan nodded slowly. “Both teams, eh?” The way she was squirming made him wonder if this was also a recent development, or discovery, and he recalled a posting on the internet a few weeks ago when Kitty was musing about a sudden romantic development. Ah. Things were making sense, now. “So, you and your roommate, then?”
She nodded her head, face still flushed, "We actually met in a coffee shop. Turns out we both needed to save some money on rent. Things started to develop from there."
Smiling ruefully, she added, "I had to pass muster with her kid siblings, first."
“Well, that’s a good test,” he said. He was still smiling. Seeing her blush was so damn amusing. “But I can change the subject, if you like. Actually, there’s something else we need to talk about.” He lowered his voice. “I was picked up by the FBI on Saturday. And I think you might have been, too.”
Oh good, she'd avoided more Uhaul jokes! She glanced around, "I wasn't so much picked up as paid a visit. I walked out of a coffee shop and he was sitting on the hood of the truck I'd rented."
“Eye-patch?” he asked.
“Yeah. He’d have made a badassed hood ornament.”
“I’m sure,” he replied, as he rolled his eyes. “I ended up being taken in. Apparently, I have a wee bit of a record.” According to Nick Fury, Kitty hadn’t mentioned Obi’s name. He wanted to thank her for that, even if it was accidental and ultimately unhelpful.
She'd deliberately omitted any accomplices. She figured Obi had had enough problems as it was. Kitty raised an eyebrow, "A 'wee bit of a record?' They let you go though, obviously."
“Stuff homeless people get in trouble for,” he replied. “I think he just wanted to give me a scare, but all we really did was drive around for a while and he asked questions.”
"That man has the way of putting fear of god into you," Kitty growled. She respected it, and hated it. "What did he ask you about? The crates?"
“I got a bit too handsy in there,” he replied. Something he’d been accused of before, but not about guns. “I left prints all over the place. I was an eejit, really. Idiot.”
She grimaced, "I was worried about that." That might have been how they found her, she hadn't been wearing gloves either, even if she hadn't touched anywhere near as much. Great. She hoped whoever put those crates there didn't have access to fingerprint databases.
"I think we both were, but what can you expect from a couple of kids jumping across catwalks?" She winked.
“You know, I had one hell of a time trying to convince him that you and I were up to the same shenanigans. You have the advantage of youth.” He hadn’t been kidding about those new gray hairs!
"How much did you tell him about our..shenanigans?" There was an element of alarm in her voice. There were certain things that were nigh impossible to believe, and not just running through walls.
“Don’t worry,” he replied, throwing in a wink as he finished his coffee. “I left out all the good bits.”
But then he grew serious. “Wait. You did as well, right?”
She smiled reassuringly, "I left out the more fantastical elements. He didn't need to know just how far I jumped in order to have crashed through that skylight. Or the other fun bits."
He wanted to smile back, but suddenly it just wouldn’t come. He shook his head. “How was--I mean, how is any of this possible? This is really happening, isn’t it? What does it all mean?”
"I wish I knew..." Her smile faded, "My brain wants to go places and then reason steps in and shuts it down. I don't really want to think about it. I dream about walking through walls, then I do it. I dream about scaling walls and kicking people in the face and..."
Kitty exhaled slowly, "I've dreamed about breaking my roommate's heart and I don't want to do that. I've seen some terrible things in those dreams. I don't want those to be real ....I really, really don't."
Obi-Wan lowered his head. He stared into his empty coffee mug. “I’ve dreamt about those things, as well. In fact, I keep dreaming about this girl I’m supposedly in love with.” There was something in his gentle emphasis that suggested that this was somehow a different kind of love than what he felt for Jean Grey. “And at night I get to watch her die. So that’s... that’s that.”
He lifted his mug and struggled to get at the last drop.
"I think, in my dreams, I'm in a mental space where I can't accept I'm attracted to her. There's a lot of bitterness and anger that I can feel, deep down, in some of these."
Kitty chewed on her lip, "I don't know why I'm so bitter and angry, when I wake up. The reasoning disappears. "
Her expression softened, her eyes growing a little wider, "Obi I..I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." If all this was real, somehow, then...Well she didn't want to think about her father and sixteen million other people being snuffed out, let alone someone one was in love with.
There was too much pain there, "Have you thought that that might be this..block?"
By now, he felt much more comfortable thinking about Kitty’s situation than his own. Then again, it had always been unnaturally easy to suppress his own emotions, or watch them from a distance. That was the way, he believed, to stay strong.
So, maybe the that meant the answer to her question was yes. Because, suddenly, Obi-Wan couldn’t look directly at her. A damn tear had formed in his eye, and he turned away rather than let it show. He shrugged. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, I don’t even know this girl,” he finished. And girl was the right way to say it, because in his dreams, he was much younger. “At least, you’re seeing someone you know.”
Kitty gave him a sympathetic look, "Maybe you'll meet her. And maybe this time she won't die on you. I have a friend who keeps dreaming about someone she hasn't met too."
Dreaming and sucking her blood, but yeah. She felt her heart clench up and prayed that she wouldn't someday dream of Xi'an's death, or anyone else she loved, be it family and friends in the real world or people she loved in the dream world and just didn't remember yet.
"You'll know her when you see her, won't you."
Obi-Wan thought about this and nodded. “I could pick her out of a crowd. But what does that really have to do with it? It’s only a dream.” He had to say that. It was like a requirement.
He could see the changes on Kitty’s face, as her thoughts turned inward. She looked almost childlike when that happened. It was easy to forget how young she really was. When he was her age, he couldn’t say he knew the first thing about love, or even remotely caring for another person. If he’d been a hugger, he might had hugged her then.
"I don't quite believe in soul-mates, but I do think that certain people have ties that bind them, and draw them to each other." Kitty looked a little conflicted. Dreaming about Xi'an and being with her, it was easy to apply a soul-mate label, but she knew she'd been with other people.
This Pete that kept getting mentioned in the telepathic conversation, before her apparent death. But then again, she'd never actually kissed Xi'an that she could tell, in that dream place.
And from personal experience she thought that would have changed everything. It could also be the emotions and hormones talking, however.
"Maybe its just the romantic in me..." It could still be those aforementioned hormones and emotions, as well!
Obi-Wan was no romantic, which was probably why these emotions were ruling him so. There wasn’t a compartment to stuff them into. It was irritating. Irritability, he knew.
He was slightly envious of her, for being able to express herself so freely. “Yes, it seems to come easily to you.”
She blinked, brow furrowing, "What's that supposed to mean?"
“Emotions,” he replied. “Expressing them”
"Oh." That made more sense. Kitty shrugged her shoulders, "Sometimes it comes too easily. I don't always want to have my emotions on my sleeve, but there they are. It's gotten me into a lot of trouble."
Obi-Wan was tempted to ask what kind of trouble, but maybe that was a conversation for another time. Besides, he worried it might require him to be fair and share some of his more embarrassing escapades.
“I believe you,” he said with a smile.
Kitty smiled back, "You haven't really seen it, but I do have a temper. I'm from Chicago." As if that explained it.
“Well you’ll have a blunt object with you at all times for the next few weeks,” he nodded to her cast. “Might come in handy. Actually, mind if I sign it?”
Kitty grinned, “I’d love that!”
Fetching a marker from the barista counter, Obi-Wan returned and pressed the tip against the plaster. He had a name with more than it’s fair share of incongruous shapes, but he’d learned exceptional penmanship somewhere along the way. “Obi-Wan... Kenobi... There.”
Kitty stared at the signature, her mind making connections and this time not shutting them down. She swallowed, then gave him a smile, "Perfect."
She must be in the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits.
Otherwise, why would a man with a name from one of her favorite movies have just signed her cast? A cast the result of jedi-like feats?
"Just...perfect."