capeandcowllogs | But now you're hard not to notice, right here in my town

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But now you're hard not to notice, right here in my town

WHO: Joey and Mary
WHERE: Mary and Kitty's Apartment
WHEN: Friday Afternoon, June 4th
WARNINGS: derp and awkwardness
SUMMARY: Joey tries to convince Mary that he's not a creepy deviant.
FORMAT: Paratastic!

Joey shifted the bundle of flowers and the envelope in his hands, still eyeing up the daffodils and hyacinth as i uncertain about them. Maybe adding the flowers was laying it on too thick? But the letter alone seemed so plain and maybe she would just ignore it by itself?

He'd been standing outside the door to Mary and Kitty's apartment for ten minutes now mulling this over, after spending an hour on the note and another hour grumbling to himself in the flower shop, all of which was nothing compared to the mortified face-down-in-pillow brooding time he'd taken to himself for most of Thursday night and all of Friday morning.

Since the 'incident' at the club on Thursday he'd been up to his neck in embarassment and awkward explainations. First to Raven, then to Donna and Kory and then oh GOD there had been Mary and their completely awkward exchange; him on stage half-covered in green paint and her rather tipsy and clearly completely gobsmacked at seeing him there.

Her confusion and instinctive distaste had been all over her face and all he could think of was that he had torn all his clothes off and dropped himself in front of this sweet and proper lady like a complete idiot. He couldn't imagine what she must think of him now, how her understanding of the job he'd taken on had probably completely recoloured her idea of him and of their time together...

Joey had NEEDED to write something to try to explain himself. Handing it to her though, that was another matter entirely. He wasn't sure he could FACE her right now without wanting to be swallowed up by the earth. Raven and Donna and Kory he had long friendships with. They had been - were - his teammates and he had a solid repoir with them. They knew him well enough to shrug off the job as just a job.

Mary was still new to him, Mary didn't know him well enough to just brush this discovery off. And his gut twisted up at the thought of their friendship slipping through his grasp over this kind of misunderstanding.

Maybe if he just...

Setting the flowers and the envelope with the letter down on the welcome mat he rang the buzzer outside the apartment, then dashed off down the hall, hiding around the corner by the bank of elevators. He wouldn't leave totally, he wanted to make sure she actually GOT the letter and not Kitty or something, but peeking around the corner was about all he could handle.

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"Later is good." The sales assistant, sensing that no sale would be made today, came back and took the puppy from them, depositing it back into the pen in the window. Mary looped her arm through Joey's without a thought. "Want to see the rest of the animals in the store?"

Although giving the dog now frolicking with it's littermates a longing look Joey popped back to his attention being in Mary when her arm looped through his. He nodded, letting her tow him deeper into the store.

At the back where the cages of small animals were kept, Joey eased to a halt, peering into the cage where a bunch of baby rats were curled up sleeping. He tugged on Mary's arm and pointed to them with a boyish smile.

Cute, very smart.

She wrinkled her nose. "If you say so. I'm... I don't like rats that much. Their tails bother me!" Still, she'd take rats over bugs any day of the week.

Pulling out his phone Joey types up a quick message to her.

I always wanted one as a kid. And a dog. And a cat. And a snake. And a hampster... etc ad nauseum.

He had moved around so often that pets were among his most coveted and least possible desires.

"Oh, you didn't have any pets as a child? I didn't really, either. Maybe that's why I like having B.F. so much now!" She leaned in at a different cage and peered at the lizards warming themselves under heat lamps. Weird... but kind of neat, really.

Joey shook his head, spelling out moved lots as he wandered along to a larger cage enclosure, open on the top with a sign inviting customers to pet and hold the animals inside.

A smile creeping across his face he reached down and scooped up a brown and white bundle of fur, then moved back over to Mary and held the bunny up to her cheek. Promptly it craned it's neck out and began trying to munch on her hair.

"Hahaha, no, Mr. Bunny, my hair is not good for eating!" Gently she picked it up to cuddle it and rub its ears. "Ooooh, so soft! Okay then, if you could have absolutely any pet in the world, what would it be?"

Joey has to sit back and think about that for a second, rubbing his chin ponderously before replying.

Dog. Parrot. Maybe both.

"A parrot? Why a parrot?" she queried, puling strands of hair away from the rabbit's mouth. Insistent little thing. Maybe it liked her shampoo?

Joey smirked.

They talk.

Oh.

"So do you," she replied. "Just not with your mouth."

And there went his heart from solid to mushy in two seconds flat.

The loss of his voice was something he had lived with for so long now that it was hard to remember what it had been like to communicate verbally. 99% of the time he was comfortable with his infirmity, if he could even call it that after a lifetime of thriving despite it.

But he remembered what it had been like when he was just a child and no one knew sign and his writing was slow and halting from him only just learning to spell. He remembered crying for hours when his mother had leaned over his hosptial bed, picked him up in her lap like she hadn't done since he was three, and told him he wouldn't be able to talk or sing anymore.

He had built an elaborate fantasy then as a child around this magical idea he'd dreamed about, where he had a parrot that could read his mind and speak for him. He had named his wishful thinking parrot Charlie and gone on and on to his mother about wanting one despite knowing they would never be able to get one.

Though he'd grown out of being angry about the loss of his voice, moments like this when he remembered being a kid it still panged him. And hearing Mary say something like that... well it was refreshing in a way. A tap on the shoulder to pull him out of frustrating memories and back into the present.

It was also just really sweet, which was why he laid a hand on her shoulder gently, then leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

Edited 2010-06-02 18:44 (UTC)

Well, she knew she had said the right thing, at least. And her stomach was full of butterflies, her mouth couldn't seem to stop smiling, her cheeks were red and it dawned on her that, oh, I have a crush on Joey.

Clearly, she needed to talk to Kitty about this. And maybe Alison. And Raven, but Raven was currently swamped with the wedding things. Maybe afterward, she didn't know.

A moment of panic seeped in because, gosh, she'd never really had a crush like this before, not even with Freddy, and she honestly wasn't sure what on earth to do next after a moment like this.

So she masked her anxiety with a sunny smile (and she was good at masking these sorts of things) and put the bunny back down. "So let's go see if they have birds!"

He blinked a little at that - it had never occurred to him until then that the pet store might actually HAVE birds - but happily let her tow him even deeper into the building until they heard twittering noises and rounded a corner to a small minefield of cages.

His hand in hers again Joey squeezed Mary's fingers a little as they wandered cage to cage, finally stopping abruptly in front of one larger cage which led to Mary getting tugged to a stop by accident.

On the other side of the bars was a big, beautiful, african grey parrot, rustling it's wings and watching them with curious eyes.

Her arm suddenly jerking back wasn't exactly expected, and Mary had to take a step back to avoid stumbling. "Joey, just let me know if you want to... Oh. Oh, wow." It was pretty obvious that he was looking at the grey parrot. It kind of blew everything else out of the water, so to speak.

"What do you think?"

He hesitated, then spelled out Beautiful bookending it with the actual sign for beautiful, a sweep of the hand over the face.

Reaching out he put his hand up to the bars of the cage, smiling when the parrot clambered along his perch close enough to put it's head agianst Joey's fingers. The feathers were soft and the bird ruffled itself up happily when he scratched the top of it's head gently.

"I think he likes you," Mary said kindly. Watching Joey's face light up like that was pretty nice. It made her happy, too. And even though she hadn't asked him about his muteness (how incredibly rude and callous would that be?), she could understand the simple desire to talk without resorting to pens and paper and signs. Everyone wanted to be understood, after all.

"So, how would you train him to talk? I don't know a thing about birds or how that works."

Joey shrugged his shoulders, making the gestures for other people and help that he had taught her previously.

Then with a smile he rounded his lips and whistled lightly at the parrot, who chattered back at him a bit off pitch but following the tune.

Mary laughed. "Well, I'll help if you want me to! And at least we know he responds to sound!"

Joey nodded, smiling warmly though finding it hard to take his eyes off the bird.

I'd like that very much.

He stopped upon lifting his hands to sign though, double taking at his watch. Crap was that what time it was?!

"What? What is it?"

2 o'clock. He tilted his watch toward her, sheepish apology all over his face as he spelled out. Late for rehersal.

"Oh! Oh no!! Oh, gosh, we better go!" Mary exclaimed worriedly. She prided herself on being punctual, and though she could probably fly them there in three seconds flat, it was the principle of the thing.

"Gosh, since we're going to the same place, I could fly us there. We wouldn't be as late."

Joey held up a hand as if about to protest, but then just nodded. She was right, it WOULD be faster.

Mary grabbed his hand, dashed out of the pet shop, waving apologetically to the sales assistant and pulled them to a convenient nearby alley. Even though most of the comm knew about her identity and superpowers, she still didn't want anyone to get hit by an errant bolt of lightning. "SHAZAM!" she cried, letting the power fill her and change her body.

"Ready?"

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make-contact.livejournal.com - 2010-06-03 16:38 (UTC) - Expand

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