Animal, open; 5-9-12

Jeff didn't know when the door had opened. He'd waited to see if anyone came in, to see if they'd comment on the bloody letters on the wall (he thought everything had been in his head but sometimes it wasn't, and he wasn't sure if it had been him or Lex that quoted Star Wars this time, but did it really matter? It was on the wall and brown instead of red by now). But no one appeared or said anything, so after a while (minutes and seconds didn't make as much of a difference anymore, and that should have scared him more than it did) he stood up.

Standing hurt, but not much more than sitting or anything else did. He had to put a hand against the wall as he moved towards the doorway (how long ago had he danced in this room?) to support himself, but after the first few steps it was easier. There were still guards in the hallway, but they didn't say anything and he walked out of the cell. The jail was a little like a maze, in its unfamiliarity, and Jeff had always been good at mazes. He didn't say anything to the guards, but the animosity was almost a tangible thing, and he still didn't get why they felt the need to hate so strongly. It wasn't helping anyone, couldn't they see that?

They also didn't understand that he'd been broken when they got him. He was only a little more broken now, and not enough. They'd have to do a lot worse for it to be enough, but he kept his mouth shut for now. He didn't know what - or who - he was looking for, or what he'd do if he saw a familiar face. He wanted to reach out to all the ones he passed that he didn't know, and slowly a hesitant smile crept over his face when he looked at the other kids/inmates. Never for the guards. Just the ones who needed it more.

Kevin needed a smile. Or wanted one. Really wanted one. He couldn't remember when the nice women with the smile had left, couldn't remember when the mean guards had tossed him in here like he was brand new, could only remember when the pain went from sorta okay to he'd rather die and get it over with. But now the pain was just everyday, made worse by the fact that not only were they not giving him any more pain meds, but none of his regular medication either, and everything was just this nice blend of sorta fuzzy faces and pain.

It wasn't a good combination.

It took a second after Kevin caught sight of the other boy to recognize him; his hair was gone. Kevin had liked it, so pretty and blonde. Redheads were cool.

"Jefffff~" The name sounded weird, the syllables a little off since Kevin hadn't spoken in English in....lots of days. Lots of days, yes. Why was he trying to talk to Jeff then?

Oh Kevin shouldn't have moved that much. He pressed his lips together, leaning forward again.

Jeff stopped when he heard his name, surprised to hear it at all because it had been so many days since someone had remembered he was a person, fuck them very much, and oh, it was one of the baby Warblers. Kevin, the smallest of the baby Warblers, and that didn't make Jeff's heart ache any less. Kevin, who'd been hyper and liked climbing trees and was always with his roommate, but Jeff didn't see Kyle here now. Kevin looked worse than Jeff felt. What was wrong with these people?

"Shh," he responded, already leaving the hallway to go to the other boy. "Don't talk," he whispered, kneeling next to Kevin. It was as much to protect Kevin as it was because Kevin just didn't look like he should be talking. It was strange, how having someone else around was bringing Jeff back to himself a little, and not strange at all because wasn't that sort of what had happened before?

He didn't really know what to do once he was down with Kevin; they didn't know each other well enough to communicate as well without words as he could with some other people (a handful of people, really, but Kevin wasn't one of them and that was the point). So he just sat there and looked over the younger boy, taking note of all the injuries and the hazy look in Kevin's eyes.

Kevin couldn't help but grin up at Jeff. Was it weird to be happy here? Yes. No. Kevin wasn't happy. A little loopy. Not happy. He wasn't happy to see Jeff here, no no no because Kevin liked Jeff and this place wasn't nice no no no. No happy things in here.

His grin faltered for a second at the no talking bit, but yes yes. Kevin knew that. No talking or touching or....anything. Just sitting. Kevin liked to sit. Not really. Sitting didn't hurt but he didn't want to sit but everything hurt and Kevin's attention snapped back to Jeff suddenly. He smiled again.

"Tuve un sueño sobre los peces," he whispered randomly. His lips pushed out, cheeks hallowing as he made fish lips. He liked fish. Fishes. Fishy-fish-fish-fish. His fish were probably dead. That was....so sad. He wanted his pretty little red fish. Mary, Abby, Clover, Troy, Paris, Sheldon, and Justin. Yesyes, his little school. School of fish, dead and gone now, just like...

Kevin was blinking then, fingers on his left hand reaching out suddenly yet slowly to brush over Jeff's face. Left hand was okay, yesyes.

The way Kevin was looking at him hurt almost as much as everything else, because Jeff wanted to be able to save kids like Kevin and the others here. He wanted it so damn much but he couldn't think of a way to do it; even with his power he could only go against other mutants. That was an unnerving thought he didn't need to repeat.

Jeff was fairly certain Kevin was speaking in Spanish - that seemed like a horrible stereotypical assumption to make but the kid's last name was Garcia and it made sense okay - which Jeff didn't speak much beyond the basic hi-how-are-you-good-and-you spiel. He spoke Italian, but having the same root language only made them similar, not similar enough. He pretty much only caught the word 'fish' there, and the face Kevin was making now made that one obvious. So Jeff just smiled and nodded.

He moved a little closer to make it easier for Kevin to reach his face - Jeff totally got the touch thing right now, from his own lack of non-violent human contact - and shifted himself into a more comfortable position. He didn't even care if Kevin touched the bruises, really; he touched them enough himself. If the guards didn't want him in here, they were going to have to drag him out, at this rate. They probably would. So depressing, and so pointless on the state/military/whoever the fuck was that stupid's part.

Kevin closed his eyes, and just like that it was so much more easier to map out Jeff's features. His right arm twitched a little, causing his face to contort for a brief second; it didn't take much for him to remember not to move that one.

So he carefully mapped out Jeff's face with his left fingers, going down the left side first, across the eyebrows, around the eyes, over his lips, up the other side and then down his nose. His touches were light, careful, like he was touching one of his fishes.

Brown eyes popped open. "Mi pece." And that made no sense at all but Kevin didn't care. He fell silent after his whisper, fingers tracing over that route once more.

The younger boy bit his lip sharply (there was blood, it tasted bad, Kevin hated dead things) after he was was done, left hand back in his lap. The fingers of his right hand were now pressed hopefully lightly against Jeff's bruise. His fingers were cold, a combination of a bunch of things. Ice on bruises, right? No? Kevin couldn't remember. Oh he was being so good.

Jeff just watched Kevin and Kevin's face, maybe too fascinated with seeing someone else who wasn't a guard but they had to hold on to the little things, didn't they? He didn't make any noise as Kevin's fingers explored his face, not even flinching when the bruises were touched.

... Did Kevin just call him his fish? Okay then.

His slightly confused look turned to one of concern at the blood when Kevin bit his lip and "Hey, be careful," escaped his mouth before he could stop himself. It was one thing for Jeff to bleed; Jeff was almost always metaphorically bleeding anyway, what was a little real blood? But if he could stop it for other people, keep them in what little safety there still kind of was, then he would do that.

Kevin's right hand was cold, and that was something to worry about. Jeff reached up and took it off his face but didn't let go or push Kevin away, thinking maybe he could warm the kid's hand up. They needed a better form of communication.

Kevin's eyes crinkled up at the added pressure on his hand. His hands were mostly okay, but the weight of holding his arm up...really hurt. He couldn't lift it much higher; he'd tried it one day and it hadn't ended well.

He pushed his lips out, shaking his head. He didn't care that his hand was cold. He couldn't really feel the cold anyway, and his hands really were mostly okay. It was just when he started moving his fingers and the tendons had to move and yeah that hurt a lot. A lot a lot. It was better to just sit there.

But oh Kevin wanted to be whole again. He wanted to be able to stand and flex his fingers and touch people without being careful and he wanted to be able to jump and run and play again. All of those things he couldn't do in here so maybe it was okay for him to want Kyle and Will and his parents too. List all the things he couldn't have...

Kevin's lips quirked up, fingers fanning out beneath Jeff's.

Jeff took his hand off Kevin's so the younger boy could drop it if he wanted to. Jeff wanted to be able to tell Kevin that things would be okay, that they'd be able to get out of here just fine and go on and live their lives like normal productive citizens. Saying any of that would have been lying, and not like the lies of omission that Jeff had gotten way too used to.

Instead he settled, putting his back against the nearest wall, and started humming. Finn had sung lead on it when they did the invitational with the Skylarks, though Jeff hadn't been singing with the Warblers that day because he'd just gotten back from... he'd just gotten back. He'd known the song before anyway because he liked it, and music was the clearest thing in Jeff's head these days. He wondered if Finn was safe, or if he just hadn't seen the taller boy yet. He wanted all of the other guys, Warblers and non, to have made it to safety and not be in this place. That was already wasted, with Kevin sitting next to him.

Missing people and at the same time hoping they were far away was interesting.

Kevin dropped his hand gratefully, carefully pushing his fingers beneath his leg. That kept them kinda warm. Ish. Good enough. Didn't hurt either cause the pants were soft.

It was like wearing pajamas all the time. Interesting. His tongue swept out to lick the blood of his lip again, nose wrinkling at the taste. Nasty tasting stuff, but Kevin didn't want it on him. Or his clothes. Or anywhere.

He hated wearing pajamas. He missed his tie. Left hand went up automatically, reaching for the tie that hadn't been there in forever. How long had it been? Long enough. He missed his tie. He missed Kyle and his tie.

His head banged against the wall, causing another flash of pain. Stupid dogs, stupidstupid, stupid Kevin, always so stupid - and if on cue the noise started. He raised his head, as if hoping going back to that would stop the noise, the laughing, laugh laugh laugh, no funny though, nono. The noise continued anyway.

Kevin clenched his teeth tighter. His left hand curled up, shaking slightly as his head fell sideways, face buried in Jeff's shoulder. Just listen to Jeff, yesyes, focus on Jeff. His mom used to hum to him when he was sick, take care of him, like Kyle and Will, and he was just gonna....just gonna listen, yes.

Kevin didn't know what he was humming.

Jeff automatically put his arm half-around Kevin, his hand going behind Kevin's head so he couldn't hit it against the wall again. They were hurt enough without doing it to themselves... literally, anyway. Jeff personally had a tendency to get himself into the sort of trouble that got him hurt, but he didn't (always) do it on purpose.

He patted Kevin's head a little as the younger boy rested it against Jeff's shoulder - there were bruises there too, but there were bruises in a lot of places so it didn't matter. "And I want a moment to be real, wanna touch things I don't feel, wanna hold on, and feel I belong," he breathed, not daring to sing any louder in case he was heard. "And how can the world want me to change, they're the ones that stay the same, they don't know me 'cause I"m not here..."

Not much of a lullaby or anything, but he didn't want to have to sing Kevin to sleep more seriously because that just put horrible things in his head and the images weren't all Kevin. Jeff wanted to believe it was all in his head and they were alive. Wanted, wanted, wanted. Couldn't have, but wanted all the same.

Kevin curled tighter into Jeff. The laughter was getting louder and he knew it was all fake, knew it was all in his head because nobody else heard the laughter and it was that laughter and maybe it was okay being in here because they won't let those things in here, no no, and safe, finally.

The thoughts didn't help any. Kevin's body tensed up, legs curling up slightly, his lip started bleeding again as his teeth dug into the sensitive flesh, and he'd managed to move closer to Jeff because he was no longer resting on his shoulder but rather his face was buried in the crook of Jeff's neck.

The laughter was so much louder this time, terrified Kevin so much more because now Jeff was here and he liked Jeff and he didn't want the stupid dogs to get to Jeff but safe. Safe, right? Safe from evil things.

Jeff's voice floated in and out of his mind, entangling with the hyena's laughter in his head. So pretty and so cruel.

"Pare," he found his voice suddenly, fingers pressing into his....not good thigh, oops. "Parepareparepare," he mumbled the words into Jeff's shirt, pressing forward some more, like he was trying to completely forget himself and merge with Jeff.

Oopsoopsnogoodnogood. Somuchclosermakeitstoppare.

The word Kevin was saying - saying, crap, no they had to be quiet so no one cared what they were doing - didn't make any sense to Jeff, but that was because Jeff was thinking in Italian. What did make sense was the clinging and the freaking out, because Jeff got that.

Sleeping with a boyfriend who was terrified of the dark for a while meant Jeff really, really got that. He held Kevin close, stroking the smaller boy's hair (lucky kid still had his, even though it was shorter than Jeff's to begin with god missing his hair right now was so stupid). "Shh, you're okay," Jeff whispered. "You're okay, you're okay, just close your eyes, the sun is going down, you'll be all right, no one can hurt you now..."

He hadn't meant to start singing the other song, he really hadn't. It was just the only soothing thing that was popping into his head right now. "Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound..."

Kevin didn't believe it, his shaking head proved it. "No hay luz. No hay luz in este cuatro." It was weird because Kevin had no issues understanding the words Jeff spoke, the words that everyone else spoke, but ask him what luz meant in English and he wouldn't be able to say. It made no sense at all, but Kevin just knew, light was luz and luz was luz.

Kevin's body didn't relax, but he stopped moving, stopped biting at his lip, stopped his hands from pressing in, stopped his body from trying to melt into Jeff. He was just gonna sit, almost half on top of Jeff.

The laughter hadn't stopped, but it hadn't gotten louder. Kevin liked that. His right arm was stiff as he placed it over Jeff's chest, fingers moving carefully in a rhythm. Yesyes, slowly Kevin could think again.

Slowly Kevin closed his eyes, face pressing into Jeff's shirt.

The language barrier was going to become more of a problem eventually. Jeff could only sort of guess at what Kevin was trying to say, and he wasn't confident in his guesses at all. Was it pointless, trying to make Kevin feel even a little bit better when they both knew (Kevin was hyper but not stupid, and Jeff did stupid things but was probably too genre savvy or something) that this - where they were, what was happening - did not have a nice ending? Maybe, but Jeff was going to try anyway.

He kept singing, doing his best to keep it down though the advantage to Kevin being so close right now meant it wasn't hard to be just audible, because he couldn't think of what else to do. Kevin seemed to be calming himself a little, but Jeff was still concerned.

It was a lot easier to worry about other people than about himself.