ArchivedLogs:Keys, Marks and Handcuffs

Keys, Marks and Handcuffs
Dramatis Personae Iolaus, Shelby	2013-02-15 Shelby comes back to visit.
Location <NYC> Iolaus' Apartment - East Harlem
All week, there has been no word from Shelby. Her lack of contact has been the result of a good old-fashioned teenage silent treatment but with the weekend now upon the world, the risk arises that she would reappear. And so it is. A couple of hours after normal people would have enjoyed dinner, the girl finagles her way into the apartment building and makes her way up to Iolaus' front door. A week hasn't been enough to instil manners, which means that she does her best to imitate a machine gun when she knocks, but otherwise school seems to be treating her well--she's wearing clean clothes, her hair is brushed and fresh from washing, and there's even color in her cheeks, highlighting her mask of freckles. There is a pause before the door opens. Iolaus has a towel wrapped around his hair and a bathrobe wrapped around his body. He looks surprised, blinking. "Shelby." He takes a few steps back, ushering her inside. "Give me a second." he says, vanishing back into his bedroom and closing the door behind him. A little under a minute later, he returns, with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt on, and damp, tousled hair. "Welcome back. How was your week? I didn't hear from you, so I assumed it either had gone very well or absolutely terribly." he asks, with an eyebrow raised as he turns to go into the kitchen and put up some water. Clearly, this calls for tea. Shelby gets blinked at and she blinks in turn. Her, "What in the fuck is with gay dudes throwing themselves at me in towels?" is directed at the spot recently vacated by Iolaus. Before he returns, she adds a semi-amused, "Ya'll are fucking teases." Sometimes, she seems to have decided, it's better to deliver her brand of humor to empty rooms. In the interim between half-naked man and clothed man, she shuts the door but keeps her jacket on, hands in her pockets and weight shifting forward and back, rolling on the roles of her feet. "It's pretty much /sucked/. Everyone's in class and I'm still doing placement tests and my roommate thinks I'm trying to steal a guy from her /and/ there's a dude there who can control bugs. Fucking creepy, man, you don't even know." "Gay dud..." Iolaus shakes his head and doesn't continue that line of questioning. "The first week is always going to be rough. But the placement tests should be done soon. And, actually, I can imagine just fine. I've been working with Doctor McCoy on a few things." his eyes twinkle. "And... are you stealing a guy from your roommate?" "The fuzzy guy? He seems okay." High praise from Shelby, given her mood of late. She ambles into the kitchen and pulls her hand from its pocket, palming the door key onto the counter. She makes no big deal of it--it's just there. "Hey, Bastian asked /me/ out. But fuck that, I dunno what was going on between them before I got there. I don't do love triangles," she says with a shrug. "You been okay?" "If he asked you out, I don't think you're taking anyone away from anyone." Iolaus says, as he opens the doors to his cabinet and pulls out a container of tea and a small teapot. "Would you like some?" he asks, as he begins measuring out spoonfuls into the strainer. "I've... been busy." he says, with a wry smile. "You know. Ups and downs, all that. It's been a weird week." he looks off into the distance for a moment, then shakes his head quickly and focuses back on Shelby. "But it's not sucked enough to leave." he says, nodding once to the key. "Or did it, and you just don't want anything to do with me anymore?" he asks, a hint of a playful tone to his voice. "Tell that to someone you have to room with every day," Shelby says wryly in turn. "I think maybe she'll calm down but /damn/, girls can be bitches." This is said not without a sense of irony. She rests her shoulder up against the fridge and shakes her head at the offer of tea. "Nah, I figure I gotta give it longer than a week. You didn't ever say I could /have/ the key, so...how's it been weird? Like, 'cause I haven't been here?" Her eyebrows scootch up her forehead and though her tone is light, she's watching him pretty darn closely for the answer to this. "It's certainly been quieter." Iolaus says, teasing. "But... yes, that. And other things too." he shakes his head, glancing over at the tea kettle on the stove before turning back to her and leaning against the counter. "A weird week all around." He frowns briefly, looking down at the counter top. "But work keeps me plenty busy, so, there's still that. I'll probably be at Xavier's next week, sometime, depending on how things go with something I'm working with Doctor McCoy on. And I have some other patients I need to see, and some other doctors I need to see, on top of work." he grins and shakes his head. "Even if you were still here, Shelby, I'd probably not see you very often." Shelby pulls a face and reaches out to push the key a little closer to his side of things. "Yeah, well. I figured, anyway. I stayed too long. I don't normally do that but you not being here all the time kinda made it easy, y'know? So there's your key back. I didn't make copies or anything. Honest." She sketches a cross over the approximate location of her heart, grin all sorts of cheesy--as if daring him to question the truthiness of that statement. "It's worked out, huh? You got your work, I got whatever the hell they're gonna do to me there. Win win." "Whatever you're going to do, Shelby. I doubt they'll be doing anything /to/ you. As Professor Xavier said, it's a school, not a prison." Iolaus says, softly. He picks up the key and turns it over several times, looking at it in the light. He glances down at the tea-kettle for a moment then he slides the key back over to her. "Keep it." he says, turning around to lift the tea kettle off of the stove and pour hot water into the teapot. "Unless you /did/ make copies and don't need it." he says, teasing right back. "Huh? Why?" Not that Shelby wasn't half-expecting the key to come back her way--she certainly reaches for it quickly enough. Instead of pocketing it though, she bounces it in her hand and studies the giver with some curiosity. "I thought you were like...pretty sick of me. Go to school, get a job. Stop shitting on you. That sorta thing?" On the subject of schools doing things to people, she says nothing. Iolaus shakes his head. "You don't understand, Shelby. I wanted - want - you go to to school, or get a job, for you as much for me. It is too easy to fall into needing people... or things, instead of supporting yourself. And I don't mean begging on the streets and crashing on people's couches. You are better than that." he says, setting a timer on the microwave for the tea. "You don't need to take from people when you are strong enough to support yourself." Shelby blows a puff of air through her lips. Pphbt. "I only take what people wanna give, Doc. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have my own place to crash and shit, believe me. If the Bowery show goes good, maybe I won't even need school for that. What I'm /saying/, though," and here she holds the key up again to wag at him, "is I don't wanna shit on you anymore. Like. Make you one of those giving folks. So you're not a mark, okay? You can be...I dunno, whatever. Doctor Superhero or whatever but...seriously, you can have your key back." "You can keep the key without making me as a mark." Iolaus says, softly, looking into Shelby's eyes. "In fact, I'd prefer you didn't have /any/ marks at all. That's my point, Shelby. You can do things and have /friends/ instead of marks." he emphasizes the word, sharply. "You don't need to take from people. You don't need the charity, Shelby. That's what I was trying to tell you." "/Dude/." Shelby gives the floor a half-hearted stomp from one heel. "I'll keep the fucking key but god /damn/ it, could you listen for like, /half a second/!" She doesn't exactly do sharp but she certainly can manage exasperated well. "I'm trying to say I'm fucking /sorry/. Jesus! That was like an /apology/, oh my god. It's like you turn twenty and suddenly don't speak English anymore, I swear!" Iolaus gives Shelby a bemused look. "Apology accepted. And I'll take your wildly inaccurate guess about my age as a compliment," he says, eyes twinkling. "Thanks, Shelby. I can guess that you don't give apologies all that often." he says, softly. He reaches out a hand and claps her gently on the shoulder and gives it a single squeeze. Then he turns and removes the tea leaves from the tea pot, rinsing it out and leaving it in the sink to dry. Shelby shoves the key into her pocket with ill humor. "I meant anyone turning twenty. It's like being old makes you dumb or clueless or something." Compliment /retracted/. But there's a smile tugging at her lips and she rolls with the squeeze by reaching out to scuff her foot against his in a not-quite-kick. "Just don't tell anyone, huh? I got like, an image. Or something. Anyway...I just wanted to come by and say that before I hit the clubs, y'know? It's a dry campus up there, it's crazy." Iolaus snickers, then tilts his head to one side and chuckles. "Going to go get drunk and forget... Sebastian? Or just going to go get drunk and not forget Sebastian?" he asks, reaching up into the cabinet and pulling out a mug. He pours the tea into it, then begins hunting through his cabinets for something. First the cabients, then the fridge. Then the freezer. "Hm." He rubs his nose with one knuckle. "Sebastian's cool but until I figure out what's up with Rasa, may as well see if there's anyone else who'd like a taste, y'know?" So /crude/. So joyously crude. Shelby's got her grin back, at least. "So you're a doc, you got any protection hanging around?" she asks before it occurs to her that he's hunting for something. Up go the eyebrows again. "What's up? Out of food again?" Iolaus winces. "God, Shelby, I am not even sure where to begin with what's wrong with that sentence." A pause, and another wince. "Yes, in my bedroom. I'll get you some before you leave. And I'm trying to remember where I put the fucking agave for my tea!" he says, shutting one of the cabinet doors with a little bit more force than he needed to. He pauses, glaring at the cabinets as if they had BETRAYED him. Then he sighs. "I guess I have some sugar," he says, opening up a drawer and dumping several coffee-store packets of sugar onto the counter. "Your /bedroom/?" That was the exact wrong thing to say to a teenager. Shelby perks right up, all ears. "Reaaaaally," she singsongs. "Who've you been doing in your bedroom? I thought you said it's been all work, work, work?" She manages to get that out before the cabinet door slams. Then it's all blinking and a startle-reflex that leaves her stepping quickly, cautiously, backwards. "Whoa, Doc, calm down, huh? Is, uh...agave like...coke or something?" "No, it's like sugar." Iolaus says, tearing open the little packets and pouring several into the mug. "It has been... mostly work, work, work. And the last person in my bedroom besides me was probably you raiding it for clothes." he says, that teasing note back in his voice and smile back on his face. "Still. They're good to have around, just in case, no?" Shelby holds up her hands. "Hey, coke is like sugar. And I only took a couple of t-shirts. 'N one of those nice button ups but you got a ton of those, right?" If he's going to tease, she'll do it right back and only an inventory will prove the truth or lie in that. Some wariness lingers though in the way she sizes him up. "Seriously, dude. What's with the swearing and shit? I don't think I heard you do that more than...I dunno. At me, a couple of times. Never at sugar." "It's been a weird week," Iolaus answers. "I need to get back into some old habits again, I think, before some even older ones pop up which I don't want. Sorry. I've been a little bit... wired." he says, flashing her an apologetic look. "No big deal, though." he waves it off. "Sugar withdrawal is a bitch and all that." he says, with a wry smile and a wink. "You go get it. I'm going to fix myself this cup of tea up and nice. Drawer, next to the bed. /Top drawer/." he emphasizes. "Understand? /Top drawer/." "Okay. Sure, Doc." Shelby keeps her hands up, as if he were armed with a gun instead of a cuppa. Her smile appears, slow but gradually deepening and going crooked. "Just, uh. Don't hit that shit too hard, okay?" She scoots backwards, turns and proceeds into the bedroom. Whereupon she plunks down on the bed, yanks open the top drawer half an inch and the lower one out enough to peek into it. The inside of the top drawer has lube, a box of condoms, a bible, and a thing of mace. Not something you want to get mixed up in the throes of passion... or any other time, for that matter. The lower drawer has a rather more personal collection of a few sex toys and a pair of handcuffs. Outside of the room, Iolaus calls out to her, "Psh. Tea is nothing!" Shelby has to bite her lips to stifle a giggle. She has to bite it /hard/. That laughter might still be lurking in her voice when she calls back, "That shit fights dirty!" The lower drawer is eased back into place and the upper one widened so she can shake open the box of condoms. Four are ripped off of the roll and stuffed into her pocket, the drawer closed again and then she's ambling back into living room--far, far too casually to have actually followed his admonition. "Seriously, I dunno why you people drink that stuff. It tastes like dirty water." "You are déclassé in the extreme." Iolaus says, giving Shelby a suspicious look. "And, apparently, have no taste. Still, I at least have the knowledge that you are going to go get drunk on cheap beer to assuage me that you definitely have no taste." he says, rolling his eyes and shaking his head as he takes another sip of his tea. "Man, I got more taste than that. 'Sides, when guys buy chicks drinks, they try for the good shit. They think it's like a trade," Shelby says with the scorn due such tactics. "It's pretty stupid but at least it isn't charity, huh?" Ooh burn. She looks pleased with herself for this one. A thumb is hooked over her shoulder at the bedroom as she edges towards the front door. "Hope you don't mind if I borrowed your handcuffs too..." Iolaus gives Shelby a flat look at this entire statement. "Well, don't do anyone I wouldn't do." he says. "You /didn't/." he says, putting down his cup hurriedly on the counter. "Nuh-uh. You're not leaving here with those!" he says, a blush on his cheeks and a faint smile on his face as he starts after her. "Give them back!" If there is one true talent that Shelby possesses, it is for running. She does that now, bolting for the door. "Nuh uhhhh!" she singsongs on her way out the front. "They're miiiine now!" Alas. If she had only /really/ stolen them. Iolaus chases after her, laughing, but only to the door of his apartment. "Be safe!" he calls after her, standing in his doorway and giving her a little bit of a wave. "Well." he murmurs. "That's mortifying."