Players:
Summary: A walk in the park intended to clear one's head does not go as planned despite the music.
Date: May 12, 2009
Log Title: Emotion in the Park
Rating: PG-13
NYC - Union Square
Always bustling with life is Union Square, with its large statue of George Washington standing in the center. Live music, dancers, artists, activists, vendors, and more can all be seen here on a daily basis. There are even some tables set up for chess games. The Green Market can be found here, selling fresh fruit, breads, vegetables and other farm products. Union Square has more of a younger feel as most the kids who hang out here have that artistic, indie look to them, making Union Square one of the more open minded parks in the city.
He was worried about Max, yes, but Eddie needed to get out of the mansion for awhile just to clear his head and stop listening to that annoying little neurotic voice in his head. So once Danger Room sessions and dinner were done, he headed out to Union Square park. Of course, stopping to listen to a small music group got him recognized by a friend. And he got roped into a song. So, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt bearing the X-logo, he's singing for the people. "C'mon! Let me talk to you! I've got a feelin' in my head! C'mon! Let me walk with you! I've got a feelin' in my head!" he sings. "Yeeeeeaaaah! I can't express this emotion, oh yeeeeaaaahhh!"
Jared is worried about poor little Max too, but unfortunetly there is nothing he could do to be of any help at the moment. So, like Eddie he has gone out to clear his head, which may have been a mistake because what he found instead is one of those moments that makes the jaw drop and the brain freeze. .oO(Is that Eddie…singing a Beck song?) Having been drawn into the crowd watching his older brother sing Fifty Cent Wisdom Jared just stands ther eand stares for the moment not sure how to react.
Hilary has come to the park to smoke a cigarette, and not to listen to teenaged music, so that has him frowning a bit as he walks in the direction of the singing. He exhales a trail of smoke into the air as a slight squint allows him to identify Eddie. Which is more interesting. He smiles and stalks over toward the few people who have stopped to listen.
"Is there anyway or any how? I there anywhere that John says? Is there anyway or any how? I there anywhere that John says?" Eddie sings as the song goes on, embarassed but at least his head is getting cleared. "Yeaaaaaaah! I can't express this emotion!" he opens his eyes, turning bright red when he sees Jared in the crowd. "I want to tell you! I want the world to know! But the words escape me! The feeling's hard to show! What can I do to share this feeling inside me?!" oh he's embarassed now.
Jared can honestly say he has never thought of his brother as being the type to sing a Beck song. The theme to Spectacular Spiderman maybe, but not a beck song. As Eddie spots him and goes red then Jared thinks he should have hidden behind someone at least till the song was over. Not knowing HIlary, or anythign about any possible history he might have with Eddie he only gets a small look from Jared who keeps watching, adn slowly reaches into a pocket to see what money he has on hand to toss in what ever hat/instrament case that Eddie's friend has left for tips.
Hilary smiles broadly at the spectacle. And the wonderful embarrassment that's coming off of Eddie at the moment. He pulls a cellular phone from his pocket and opens it up, levelling it with the apparent intent of taking a picture or video of young Eddie. "Smile!" he requests cheerfully.
Eddie's already smiling despite the embarassment, pretty mortified by the sight of a camera. He's had practice keeping up a fake expression. Eddie's friend, the guitarist flashes a smile Jared's way when he sees the mutant going for money. Eventually the song ends and Eddie gets his hair ruffled from the two guys he was singing for. Once he got free, embarassed and declining the encore. He starts to head for Jared only to finally notice Hilary. The teen frowns and slows, wondering what he's around for.
Jared's little brother senses are thingling. The sudden frozen smile on Eddie's face and the slightly cute old guy with the cameraq phone tells Jared jsut enough of a story to act. Sure he has only technically been Eddie's younger brother for a short time, but if anyone is gonna emberass him it will be Jared not some strange old man. Acting as nonchalantly as possible Jared moves so that his head passes right in front of that camera as he tosses money to Eddie's friends. Being tall has some advantages, other than sititng in front of short people at a movie theater, and one is that it makes it easy to block photos and pretend it was on accident. "Woops, sorry sir!" is his only response to Hilery as he tosses a glance at Eddie wondering if he actually managed to block the shot in time or not.
The world may never know. At least there was no shutter sound, so perhaps he didn't take the picture after all. "No worries," the Englishman tells Jared cheerfully enough, closing the phone and pocketing it. He looks very pleased indeed.
Eddie quickly moves to hug Jared, still embarassed. "That guy is Dai's creepy boss. I still think there's something really wrong about him," he whispers to his younger but bigger brother.
Jared hugs back his little older brother and whispers a responce, "I think I blocked his taking a pic." Of course as he pulls back he speaks louder. "You were great there bro. You need to sing for people more often." Hilary does get another glance since he is Dai's boss, old and creepy sure but he can't be too bad if he employs Jared's boyfriend.
Hilary drags on his neglected cigarette again now that he's done with that phone business. He certainly seems to be enjoying the cigarette. Or else he's just in a really good mood. He moves forward to put a dollar toward the donations.
Another song has been started up by the time Hilary donates but the two muscians smile all the same. Eddie turns red once more, another surge of embarassment from Jared's words. "I…umm…it's just Jeff is a friend and helped me when I was looking for Christmas gifts for Dai and…" he just trails off.
Jared grins and laughs a little as Eddie gets emberassed. "Well your friend Jeff is a pretty good musician, and if he was any help getting gifts for Dai then I am glad…I might have to look him up and see if he can help come next Christmas because I have no idea what I might get for him." The puff on the cigarette gets a glance from Jared, but nothing more since the are probably just close enough that Jared's healing aura might be acting on him and making the nicotine pointless.
Hilary steps back toward the brothers. If Jared's interfering with the efficacy of his cigarette, then that must not be what Hilary's enjoying so much. He approaches Eddie. "Lovely performance," he says. "Who knew you had such a beautiful singing voice?"
Eddie nods, looking towards the guitarist. "Yeah. He works in a music store…helped when I was trying to figure out music stuff to get for Dai cause he's a drummer," he explains. When Hilary comes over, Eddie edges a bit closer to Jared. "Thanks…" he trails off, a bit more embarassed.
Jared does not react to Edie suddenly moving in closer to him as Hilary gets closer to the pair. "I did, bro has a an awsome voice even if he is a bit shy about it." Jared has a slight California beach bum turn in his voice, not something he can help given he was raised in San Diego.
"/Shy/?" Hilary echoes. "I can't imagine." A smile. "Anyway, if you're looking for a gift for my young employee, may I suggest some high-end art supplies? I've gotten some good reactions when giving that sort of thing." Hilary drags again on his cigarette, then drops it and steps on it. "Some real camel's hair brushes, perhaps, or high-quality paint?"
Eddie stays close to Jared, still a bit nervous. "I know…I got him art stuff and music stuff," he says, squirming on the spot. "Those are bad for you," he says quietly, glancing at Hilary's cigarette.
Jared nods and makes mental notes, mostly to find someone to ask why camel hair makes really good paint brushes because that just sounds odd to him. "Its always a good idea to keep an eye out for gift ideas when your dating someone, especially when you suck at finding gifts the way I tend to." JAred watches his bro point out the evil of smoking before he nods, "Hes right, you would be horrafied to see what those things have done to your lungs."
Hilary smiles brightly at Eddie. "Are they?" he wonders, apparently in a much better mood than usual. "Well, I've stopped smoking it now, so that's all right, isn't it." The smile is turned to shine on Jared as well. "So you're the boyfriend?" he wonders, apparently interested by that information. "Fascinating. And don't worry, I already pay a doctor to share that pleasant information with me. My name is Hilary St. Thomas." He offers a hand.
It's a nice evenign in Union Square. Eddie's dressed in jeans and an X-logo t-shirt on the edge of a crowd listening to a pair of muscians with JAred and Hilary. Eddie seems to be sticking close to his half-brother though. He keeps quiest as the larger mutants speak, glancing around a few times as if looking for something. Yes…he's still worried about that 'dog'.
This is a bustling place and Nathan has apparently come to bustle with the best of them, the young man meandering his way through the park in oversized, strappy pants, a sleeveless band shirt, and a dog collar, chomping away at a large soft pretzel as he eyeballs a few of the nearby musicians. He turns his head after a certain point, though, cocking it and shifting his direction, ultimately coming upon the mismatched trio and offering them a fairly jaunty smile, "Hey guys."
Jared has no idea about this Dog Eddie is afraid of, so is half expecting the nervousness to be because of the old man. The old man whos hand Jared takes without heasitation in a strong hand shake that probably tingles as little as his powers react to him touching another person. "Jared Stone, and yes I am the boyfriend. Your Dai's boss right? Sorry to say he has not really said much about his work, but it is a pleasure to meet you."
"I am," Hilary says, shaking Jared's hand. "And I don't pay him to advertise, so that's all right with me." Although the dog bit would amuse him, Hilary isn't thinking about it at the moment. Instead he glances over as Nathaniel shows up. "Well, well." He notes the dog collar. "Charming." He reaches out to turn the tag so that he can see if there's a name on it. Hopefully he knows the teen, since otherwise that might be creepy. Or it might be creepy anyway.
Eddie just keeps his mouth shut, glancing at Jared's hand after he shakes Hilary's. When Nathan appears, Eddie jumps and squeaks. The scarred teen looks around a few times before offering a small smile to Nathan. "Hey, Nathan. What are y-" he pauses as Hilary starts with the creepiness, hand edging towards his pocket.
Nathaniel seems unbothered by the checking, whacking at Hilary's hand lightly as he says, "Hey, what're you gonna do? Call the pound?" He looks to Eddie and smiles at him in a friendly enough way, reaching out to give his shoulder a pat, "Hey, Eddie. How you doing?" He glances to Jared, but since the other boy didn't greet him, he doesn't offer up anything either, instead tilting his chin to Eddie curiously, "What're you guys doing in the city? Shopping or just hanging out?"
Jared is buisy watching the creepy old man, he is afraid he is the reason Eddie is acting so skitish and that makes Jared…suspicious. Of course as he hears Nathaniel ask what Hilary is going to do about his dog collar he does grin and alaugh a little. "Hello Nathaniel." He is cordial enough as he takes hsi eyes off of Hilary long enought o give Eddie a little look and put a hand on his shoulder, "You ok bro?"
"No, stray mutts make the best pets," Hilary returns lightly, letting the tag drop again. "And Eddie here was just treating us to a concert, actually." Hilary smiles at Eddie. "Nathaniel missed your singing," he says. "Are you going to do it again?" He seems hopeful. Is there a note of mockery in it? Hard to say.
Eddie offers small smiles to the hand on his shoulder. "Just…out, Nate. What about you?" he asks. Jared gets a slightly nervous look, Eddie shaking his head quickly and trying to gesture towards Hilary with his eyes. He does not like the man in the least bit, not trusting him. He frowns at the pet comment, blushing as his singing comes up. "Not out here…" he mutters, slipping his hand into his pocket now.
Nathaniel makes a face at Hilary in response for that, taking a hard bite out of his pretzel only to blink at Jared; he's momentarily off balance because his mouth is chock full of bread. He works it around carefully before he manages to say, muffledly, "Hey, Jared." He focuses on Eddie when they talk about singing, of course, as well as the concern, though after a second he jerks his thumb at Hilary and informs the two, "I volunteer at the theater like Daisuke." That's what it sounds like he says, anyway. He does his best to chew up that bite of pretzel before speaking again, "Hey, I'd like to hear that, Ed… you know, whenever."
Jared nods slightly at Eddie, and leaves his hand on the other boy's shoulder to keep him reassured. "That one is tagged and bagged already, not a stray, and I happen to know a gymnast that will back me up on that assertaion." Jared gives Nathaniel a little eyebrow quirk and a small grin doing his best to be as nonchalaunt as he possible can.
Hilary shifts his feet a little, settling his weight into a more convenient position to regard Jared. The grass where his feet just were looks to be covered in a black substance, perhaps paint or oil? Hilary lifts his brows at Jared, still smiling. "What do you mean by that?" he wonders.
Eddie glances from Nathan to Jared anf then frowns at Hilary once more. "Maybe later when we get home, Nathan. I'll…sing something…" he trails off, a bit embarassed but still nervous. Looking down slowly causes Eddie's eyes to go wide. He looks quickly up to Jared. "It means Nathan has a boyfriend of his own…"
Nathaniel lifts a brow at Jared, tilting his head to the side as his gaze drifts between him and Eddie, nodding slowly after a few seconds, "Yes. Yes, I have a boyfriend and his name is Leo. I don't know why that's relevant to the current conversation, though." His tone remains largely conversational, but slightly offended, obviously not appreciating other people throwing mention of Leo at him or other people like some kind of behavioral stop sign. He glances curiously down at the black substance in the grass, then wags his pretzel at the others, "I'm gonna toss this." He heads away from them and off towards a trash can, dodging a few skateboarders in the process.
Jared shrugs at Hilary, and will let Nathaniel answer the question since it is his love life. That, or he can let Eddie answer the question for him. As Hilary shifts his feet Jared shifts slightly as well so that he is standing just a little closer to the grass covered in oily black stuff. His eyes barly fligher twords the stuff left behind as Hilary moves as he trys not to actually stare at the stuff. Jared decides to try and put some of his training to good use as he reaches out with his power to sense life and actually trys to focus not on people, but on plants to see if he can tell if the grass was actually harmed at all getting really curious about the creepy guy Daisuke works for. Jared just nods at Nathaniel, not meaning his mention of Leo to bother him, but just let the creeepy old man know that he is flirting with someone that has an SO.
Hilary opens his mouth to say something to Nathaniel, but then he runs off to throw out his pretzel, which leaves Hilary to smile at the brothers. "And how's your father, Eddie? I haven't seen him in some time." He laughs briefly. "Maybe that's not a specific enough question…"
Eddie gives Nathan a concered look, watching him go for a few moments. When Hilary speaks up, Eddie frowns again. "They're both fine and have been busy," he says, taking a deep breath and slipping his free hand into his empty pocket.
Nathaniel comes back, dusting large grains of salt off of his hands by patting them against his backside, looking to have gotten over whatever it was that bugged him before, though he looks at Jared and Eddie and finally asks, "Why're you two so nervous? It's not like he's hiding a switchblade." This last is said with a nod towards Hilary, the youth stuffing his hands into his hip pockets and tossing loose bangs away from his face.
Jared gives Nathaniel an eyebrow raise as he just up and asks about the nervouseness Eddie is wearing on his sleave and Jared was hiding mostly. Jared just shrugs in response ot the question while his mind is occupied wiht the grass that at least is not dieing immediatly because of the inky liquid. He does nod at Eddie's words, "The Dads are good."
Hilary smiles at Nathaniel's question. "Hmm, something about a dog Eddie thinks I set on him, I believe," he answers frankly, good mood apparently still in place.
Eddie scowls as the dog is mentioned. "There are worse things to hide than switchblades, Nathan," he says, giving his teammate a meaningful look.
Nathaniel cants his head to the side, looking between the two boys and then Hilary before he shrugs slightly, smiling in an odd, enigmatic fashion, "Yeah, and we know most of them, right?" He nudges the smaller young man playfully, before he jerks his chin at Hilary, "I wanted to talk to you about adding something to the backdrop. You got time today?"
Jared does end up giving Hilary a long look at hte mention of Eddie thinking he set a dog on Eddie, and then one to Nathaniel at his compleatly ignoring the fact that Eddie may or may not have a good reason to be nervouse about him. Jared does not say anything out loud, but does mutter something under his breath about Grayhound busses.
Hilary nods quickly at Nathaniel's question. "Certainly," he agrees. "Now?" He smiles at the brothers. "I think Eddie still doesn't like to see me for prolonged periods so I might as well take my leave." He flashes another smile at Jared. "In case you're wondering, I haven't got a dog."
Eddie tenses. "I severely doubt Albee was actually a dog…" he says quietly, having put thought into it. He offers a slight grateful look to Nathan and Jared before scowling towards Hilary. "Yeah…see ya later…"
Nathaniel just lifts a hand and ruffles Eddie's hair in a friendly enough fashion, "Don't sweat it. Maybe it had something to do with all those weird werewolf sightings?" He nods to Jared as well, tucking his hands back into his pockets, "I'll see you guys later." It seems like a good idea to seperate this crew, and so Nathaniel nods to Hilary, moving to walk away from Eddie and his brother, off in the general direction of the theater.
Jared givs Hilary an eyebrow raised look at the mention of not owning a dog, but given that Jared knows more than a little about mutants he can think of a good dozen ways to set a dog on people without owning one. "Sure thing Nathan, see ya later." Jared nods at Nathanial and then turns to look at Eddie, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I got to meet one of the schools old teachers, Mister Logan."
Hilary quickly covers what threatens to be another smile when Eddie mentions the alleged name of the possible dog. Instead, he gives the brothers a nod and slips his hands into his pockets, walking after Nathaniel. Interestingly enough, he leaves lots of black footprints behind him.
"Nathan?" Eddie reaches out for his teammate, worried about him. Even moreso after seeing the footprints. "We really need to talk when you get home," he requests. Taking his hands out of his pockets, Eddie looks up to Jared. "Nope…Kael and July told me you met him with them. I met him once too."
Nathaniel blinks at what Eddie says, glancing from him to his brother before he takes that hand, just giving it a short squeeze, "Hey. I can take of myself, bud. Don't worry about it." He lets go and gives him a wave before he follows the black-foot-printed man, informing him, idly, "You have paint on your shoes." This makes a few people snicker - lot of artists around here - but either way, the teen wanders off with the creepy theatre director.
Hilary glances behind him, tightening the corners of his lips. "Damn," he says. "I must've stepped in something. So much for these shoes…" But it doesn't slow his progress toward the theatre.
Jared watches Hilary a moment slightly worried as he looks down at the grass again. Jared is almost distracted as he nods at Nathaniel and looks for an instant like he is gonna say something but does not say it before Nathaniel is off to talk with Hilary. "He is pretty cool, and apparently I am the dumbest person in the group that got to meet him when he showed up at the mansion for the first time in a while."
Eddie just continues to be worried about NAthaniel as well as Max now. He eventually frowns at Jared. "You're not dumb."
Hilary turns the corner with Nathaniel. At least they'll know where he went if they want to find him?
Jared shakes his head, "Nathan will be fine, as big an ass as he is no way even a creepy old guy that has poisnouse foot prints is gonna be that big a problem. And yes, I was dumb. Given the chance to do beginers self defense with Miss Monroe, or Advanced with him….I was the only one that choose Mister Logan. Of course, big plus to the whole thing is I got my ass handed to me by Wolverine."
