rockabillyboy | (no subject)

"I freaked out because I found you covered in your own blood, Poison," says Jack, his tone gently admonishing. "You can be whatever you need to around me. Always."

"What if there hadn't been blood? Just me with a smudge of dark hair, totally despondent?" Poison kind of wants to know. Because if he hadn't gotten out of bed, that's what Jack would've found.

"Then I'd have made you eat and got in there with you," he says, gently. "Whatever you needed me to do. You scared the shit of me and I had no choice but to cope for you." He shrugs.

"You've always got a choice, Jack," he says with a little sigh, though he gets what Jack means. He eases closer to cuddle against him.

"I had brown hair."

"Not when you were like that. Dee needed me too." He wraps both arms around Poison. "What shade? Lighter or darker than mine?"

"I think about the same." He reaches up to touch Jack's hair. "Maybe a little different? It's been a while since I've seen it."

Jack leans back like he's trying to picture it.

"Yeah, I can't see that," he says, smiling.

"Maybe someday, I don't know." He's sure Girl wouldn't be thrilled, and he's also not sure he can just go back to being that person. He's been Poison a long time. And maybe they overlap in a lot of ways, but yeah.

"I like the red," he says, tugging on a strand, teasing lightly. "How old was he when you moved to California?"

"Just a kid still. Ten, I guess?" Poison nods a bit, thinking that sounded right. "Mom didn't want us being that close to D.C. I guess."

"Yeah, that's young," he says. "I can still hear Jersey when you talk, though."

Poison grins a little. "Yeah?" He nudges his nose against Jack's cheek. "What would you know about Jersey, California boy?"

"Kavinsky's from New Jersey," he says. "Well. Sort of. And I had a couple of friends at school whose parents moved West." He smiles. "Never lived anywhere but San Francisco."

"Gotcha." He cuddles close and rests his head against Jack's shoulder. "Not the worst place to grow up. I saw it a couple times before traveling got harder."

"My dad was always in politics, from when I was small. Got into office when I was twelve, so that meant the big house up on the hill." He shrugs. "Mom's on a lot of boards. Charities. That sort of thing."

Poison makes a face. "That seems unfair. Like, you didn't get to be a kid, you got to be a prop." It bothers him for some reason. He didn't get to be a kid for long either, but he also grew up in a shit-show version of the world Jack knows.

"Me and Jillie did okay," he says, smiling a little at the thought of her. "We had each other, you know? You've got a brother. You know what it's like. But I guess it's more. With twins."

"Definitely more with twins. Even if me and Kid could talk to each other without talking," he says with a laugh. "It used to freak Ghoul out."

"Me and Jillie never did that secret language shit, but I always knew what she was thinking," he says, huffing a laugh. "Like I oculd hear her in my head."

He smiles. "We didn't quite have that. We just knew each other really well, y'know? And we could talk through like... expressions. Eyebrows." He laughs and shakes his head.

"It got harder when she got sick, but we still had that," he says. "They used to let me ignore visiting hours for her."

"Good, because siblings shouldn't count when it comes to visitor hours," he huffs.

"Sometimes, she couldn't sleep if I wasn't there," he says. "So they'd call and I'd come. I'd drive over, sleep in a chair. In the bed with her. Whatever she needed."

"You're a good guy, Jack," he murmurs. He strokes his cheek and gives him a kiss, light and sweet. "You really are."

"She's my sister," he says, rolling on his side a little, pulling his knees up a little, curling in to Poison's body. "She's sick. What else am i supposed to do?"