Suspicious Little Brothers

Who: Gray and Buttahfly
When: noonish
Where: Gray's place!

Buttahfly had decided upon waking that she should go see Gray. She wasn't sure why, it was just some woman's intuition, but Bu had always been good about listening to that. It had served her well in the past. She wasn't up early by any means, and by the time she'd put some gyros together -- since she'd been shopping recently for them and the veggies were fresh -- it was time for lunch. Which worked perfectly. Bu packed enough for a hearty lunch and told Socko where she was going. There were a few minutes of goodbye-kissing in which she considered staying home for another hour or two, but eventually she got away with much giggling and promises of 'later'. She went out the door with a bounce in her step and hopped in the car.

A short drive later, she was pulling into Gray's apartment complex. As she located a parking spot, she noted a pair of familiar legs sticking out of the front seat of a blue Ford. Huh. Bu parked closeby and got out, ambling over to peer. Yup, that was Steps, all right. "Lose a contact or somethin'?" she asked, a grin in her voice.

After last night, Gray and his higher brain functions had not been on civil terms, and hence as soon as dawn broke he began looking for something to do that involved not being inside and not thinking in full sentences. Hours of walking later and he'd realized that there was something menial and useful he could do feeling as burned out as he did - clean the disaster that was his car. It was more than slightly OCD of him but hell, he felt like it, and what was more - there was still the matter of September's bloodied dagger (which had gotten knocked under one of the seats) and several splotches of rather suspicious blood he just knew were there on the apholstery.

Serethae's appearance had not been a part of that equation, but surprisingly to Gray he was actually glad to hear her voice, even if he had to squrim upside-down from where he'd been reaching under the passenger seat trying to get the dagger to check it was her. And it was. He blinked his shadowed grey eyes and lifted one dirt-smudged hand to wave slightly. "Or something," he replied, fishing the dagger up and finally managing to put it up on the seat. "Got it," he started disentangling himself from where he'd burrowed into the car. "How are you, Serethae?"

Bu didn't even answer, hardly heard the question in fact. She was busy looking at the dagger that Gray had put on the seat. It was just ... simply a bizarre thing to see him pull out of his car. Just ... terribly strange. She arched an eyebrow at him. "Where'd that come from?" she asked, noting that yes, it had blood on it. And there was some in his car. She ignored the fact that it was likely none of her business and started to look him over for injuries. Because ... yeah, that wasn't like any sort of small pocket knife or anything.

"Hm?" Gray managed to extricate himself from the well under the seat and clambered out the car, straightening up and forgetting himself as he rubbed a knuckle against his eye with a hint of tiredness. He saw Serethae's expression and put the pieces together - perhaps unforgiveably slowly but then, he was pretty strung out - realizing how suspect and odd a piece of potentially mideval weaponry was to have in his Ford. "Oh, that. It's not mine. There was something of an incident..." he glanced back at the dagger and remembered the mess his hands had gotten into after touching what was probably still on the blade. It had cleared up after a few hours but it had still been disturbing. Gray still couldn't think what might have caused it, but it wasn't his business to find out. He looked back to Serethae's oddly mature-looking face, and the fact she was either eyeballing him for injuries or took great interest in the fashion statement being made by his t-shirt and jeans this morning. "It's alright, Serethae. I'm fine."

Her caramel-colored eyes came back up to his face and rested there. He didn't look fine. He looked pale and tired and hollow-eyed and like he hadn't been eating well -- even though he always looked that way -- and ... his lip was injured. Which either meant Gray was getting some kinky sex, or he was low on the Fine Spectrum. She gave him a look that clearly said 'please' and pursed her lips at him. Another worry started to crop up, of a more supernatural nature. He didn't look well, and he'd said 'incident'. She found herself eyeing his neck pretty closely, looking for any sign of telltale wounds. Not that that was always where leeches bit, but still. "What kinda incident?" Bu wanted to know, her tone saying she wasn't going to be rebuffed. She didn't bring his bit-looking lip to his attention just yet.

Something about the way his former student was eyeing him reminded Gray of being ten years old. Quite possibly the fact she was just that little, irksome bit taller than him now was making that fact worse. Still, she looked concerned and Gray was unused to provoking that reaction in anyone other than immediate family - which was a painful topic right now, so he was keen to move that look out her eyes and off her face. "I gave a lift to a woman who'd been injured by wild cats just outside of town. I'm not entirely sure what she was doing with that," he gestured and cast a wary glance to the very old looking blade in his vehicle. "But I didn't think it wise to let her be admitted to the hospital with it." Gray didn't mention giving medical treatment, nor - yet - that somebody had died up there. Serethae was an urban girl, she wouldn't go out into forests, right?

It was Bu's business to pay attention to the news. Even if they were way off the ball when it came to why things happened, they were a great source of what was happening. And this cat bullshit? Was getting suspicious. She frowned a little, looking troubled. Gray had no reason to lie to her; so it hadn't been him injured. Another woman. She honestly couldn't see him playing hero or anything, but was mildly impressed that he'd had the foresight to take the dagger from her before he took her to the hospital. Not that he was stupid, but ... yeah, that was Bu's life, not his. Having to think of those things. "Okay," she said reluctantly. There was still the matter of his lip, but maybe she could discern that on her own. Belatedly, Bu raised the plastic bag she had the wrapped gyros in. "I brought you lunch," she stated.

Though he sensed her hesitation it was only because she was so very blatant about it that he noticed (this was Gray's weakness, and he knew it, being unable to tell when people were upset) and realized he must really look unwell. Gray had studiously avoided mirrors ever since waking up after that nightmarish thing; because he'd known as soon as he saw his eyes he'd see his childrens' too. He'd thought they looked so much like Claire, except for that one little thing which seemed to mean everything right now. But avoiding his reflection meant he could have sprouted a third eye and he'd have no idea, so maybe Serethae had just cause for her concern.

She also had gyros. Oooh. Gray hadn't eaten in a while, and his appetite had most surely been shot to hell with all the effort he'd been putting into not sleeping and not letting that vision get through to him. He'd failed on both counts in the end, and paid for it; maybe it was time he regrouped. Also, it was gyros. "This is getting to be a habit," he said, lifting an eyebrow as he glanced to her but unable to hide the subtle inflection in his voice that indicated it wasn't one to hurry and break.

"I got all kinds of 'em," she said back with a faint smirk. She could hear that he was slightly pleased, and that relaxed her a little bit. In her usual take-charge way, she handed the bag off to him and snaked an arm into the car. She took up the dagger by the handle and started to walk toward the building he lived in. "C'mon, you need t'eat," she said, and it wasn't a question. Oh no. Buttahfly Jones wasn't a girl who danced around people's problems. She settled in and made herself at home and fixed them tea, even if it was usually in a metaphorical sense. "Don' think CSI: Marquette's gonna be comin' t'confiscate your car, you've got time fer lunch." And lunch was gyros, which meant it needed to be eaten. Now. Because yum.

"Shame, maybe they'd clean it for me," Gray murmured, flipping the lock and closing the car door behind him and following Serethae - noting with what was not very much surprise at all how easily she handled the obselete weapon she'd just scooped out his car. Oddly it seemed to be something natural to her, though Gray wasn't sure he trusted himself to ask. Still, he didn't forget there was more than blood on it. "Be careful touching that, my hand came out in blisters dealing with its owner's wounds," he pointed out, coming up beside her and glancing down at her hand. He didn't want her getting injured - most especially after last night, he didn't want to dwell on what would go through his mind.

Bu made her way up to his door from easy memory, not feeling at all weird about hijacking her old teacher's day for lunch. "For real?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him and looking down at the nasty-looking dagger. There was blood on it, sure, but ... huh. Completely disregarding what he'd said -- and really, without thinking about it much -- she licked her thumb and ran it over the flat part of the blade. It didn't feel like anything but dried blood to her. Interesting. Buttahfly looked up at him mildly.

"And of course, you must with the touching," Gray muttered immediately, reaching out to unlock the door of his apartment, take Serethae by the hand and march her over to the kitchen sink to run water over it. He wasn't having her getting bizarre skin affliction like he'd had, absolutely not. He handed her hand, and washed thumb, back to her with a look she and her classmates had often received when they did something Gray considered incomprehensibly foolish. "There, better," he said simply - somewhat unaware of how utterly he'd just treated her like he would've his own kids.

Bu didn't seem offended in the least. She was more amused than anything as he mothered her. She made a mental note to relay the tale to her family the next time she talked to them. Blood causing skin blisters. It felt absolutely normal to her, and she examined her thumb once he released it, summarily ignoring the Look she was getting. She just made a soft "hm" sound and put the dagger in the sink. She would wash it if he wouldn't. Deciding to ask later if she could keep it, Buttah went about pulling out some plates, already familiar with his kitchen.

With only that for a reaction, Gray opened his mouth for a lecture when suddenly he realized - ooh gyros. Hefting the bag awkwardly strung around his wrist, he looked at the contents and then set it over on the counter for Serethae to do whatever she wished. He did give her the Look again, when her back was turned, but gave it up and went to his fridge in search of whatever might live within this week. As it turned out, there was next to nothing. As in, neighbour of nothing. As in... there were two more bottles of beer which one begged off a neighbour in a time of drought. "I'm not sure what you'd like to drink. But aside from the illicit beers there's water," he called from inside the fridge. Then his cell phone - neatly tucked in his pocket suddenly began to ring and he whacked the back of his head off the freezer door as he went to answer it. "Excuse me a moment, Serethae," he mumurred, rubbing the back of his head and putting the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

There was more looking amused as Bu went to peek in the fridge after Gray had abandoned it. Beer. And a couple of condiments. Tsking to herself, she started opening cabinets. The infamous can of soup was present and accounted for, but aside from a pack of noodles that were god-knew-how-old, there wasn't much to speak of. Or anything, really. Unmindful of his being on the phone, Buttah made some disapproving noises. "I gotta take you shoppin'!" she called to him from inside one of the cabinets. "You ain't got nothin', sugar! ... not even any sugar!" Laughing some to herself, she took down some glasses for ice water. It was too early in the day for beer. Dancing a little to the music in her head, she started to dish out the gyros onto plates.

As per usual, Gray had shut his eyes when he answered the phone - making it easier to concentrate on the conversation and not drift off if any part of it became dull - and for good measure he'd retreated to lean against a far countertop as he heard his youngest brother's voice carrol in greeting. Oh yes. It was Kirayoshi's turn today (Gray's brothers did not, in fact, take turns calling him but since that seemed the logical way to reason it, it was what he assumed).

"Hi Yoshi," he said, glad to hear his brother's voice irregardless of the timing. Though there were always daily variations, their coversations never ran too-far off their beaten track and Gray liked that. It was calming and straight-forward and a combination of what he loved and what he needed which he required this far from home. Now Kirayoshi would probably start in about what was going on with their brother and parents. In the background, Serethae said about him needing to shop. So true.

There was a sound from the other end of the line like the phone had just been dropped on the ground. Some muffled cursing in english and japanese, and then his little brother's voice down the line crying out, "Jesus, Gray!"

"Where?" Gray asked, wondering where the hell his brother was. A snort of laughter greeted that remark, "No! I mean, no, I mean, jesus, Gray is that a woman with you!?"

Hn? Oh, Serethae was talking away, wasn't she? Gray cracked open an eye and checked for good measure. "Sort of," he volunteered, as Serethae chimed something about sugar at the empty cupboards.

Once again, the unmistakeable sound of the phone being dropped greeted his ears.

Living in a home as big as her's had been, Buttahfly had become very used to people being on the phone all the time. It didn't phase her. It also made her sort of oblivious to the idea that whoever was on the other end could really hear her. Seeing as how she was in a damn fine mood in the first place, and her internal soundtrack was going full-blast? Bu added singing into that rhythmic twitch of her hips. Kitchens weren't only for cooking! Not in Bu's world. They also were very good for dancing. "I'm laughin' straight to th' bank with this ... I'm laughin' straight to th' bank with this ... I got nothin' but hunnid dolla' bills in th' bank roll ... I got th' kinda money th' bank cain't hold ... " She bounced her way across the kitchen and into the living room, setting the plates down on the coffee table.

Half-watching Serethae bop around the kitchen singing, half-waiting for his brother to struggle the phone back to his ear, Gray had yet to wonder what was going through his brother's mind. Just as well, or he'd have found a way to hang up the phone. Kirayoshi's voice stopped fighting so hard over street traffic and Gray heard him again. "Gray! You still there?"

"Of course I am," Gray replied evenly, closing his eyes again. "Now, what's going on with you?" Get the conversation back on track.

As if. "Forget me!" Kirayoshi replied, and apparently ducked into a doorway or lobby with how the noise levels cut down. "I mean you--" There was a pause, again. Filled only by a certain someone's singing. "--what the hell? Gray how old is this chick you've got in your apartment?"

Chick? Oh, oh. No... "She is not a 'chick', her name's Serethae Jones and I-- wait, how do you know I'm in my apartment?"

"Where else are you, ever?" replied his brother, with a kind of factual pointedness one didn't have to guess from whom he'd acquired. "Oh my god~ I am so skipping this lunch meeting and calling Tobi! C'mon then, tell me what's up? How did you meet? How hasn't she decked you yet? Has she decked you yet? Was it fun?"

Gray was having serious trouble following where this conversation was going. This was not inside the established norm! All he could do for the moment was wonder how his little brothers had turned into gossips in the time he'd been gone - the only logical explanation was the lack of his influence, apparently. "Yoshi, I don't know what you--"

The 'chick' in question probably wasn't making anything easier as she launched into another song, this one with slightly raunchier lyrics. She was from the inner city, after all. Marquette didn't really have a choice selection of rap stations, but she'd brought a lot of her own. And if there was something Bu liked as much as hunting, it was dancing. In the most bootylicious way possible. 'Cause if one had it, why not flaunt it? Not that she thought her present company was watching her in the least. She just wasn't really thinking at all. Once the coffee table was 'set', she glanced back into the kitchen to see if he was off yet. Nope.

Oh no, Gray wasn't watching her. His eyes were still shut trying to deal with his brother's random tangents and ill-conceived notions of what it meant to be a teacher. It was a little much for somebody with a functioning emotional spectrum of one-to-five to deal with. Currently, Kirayoshi - having actually paid attention to the lyrics of Serethae's singing, which Gray had not been doing - was babbling delightedly down the other end of the phone and using the kind of colourful language their mother would give him a twisted ear for - even now.

"Kirayoshi Toshimora," Gray finally said flatly, using his full name to try and get him to shut up and pay attention (a family tactic if ever there was one). "If you'd let me actually speak--"

"Oh, but you don't need to say anything in present company~" Kirayoshi replied. "Your little brother knows these things, ne?"

"My little brother wouldn't know his elbow from his a--"

"So what does she do? How did you two meet? You're such a hermit, Gray. I mean, even when you go outside you're always reading or something and it's like you're a little hermit crab. All scuttly and hardshelled."

"What? I am not a hermit crab. I am not a little hermit crab. She's a former student from back when I taught at Roosevelt and--"

There was another gasp, and this time Gray could practically see his baby brother's smirk. "Oh man, see? I told you there'd be benefits to teaching! You so owe me one, Gray! Oh my god, how old is she?"

Gray simply could not cope any longer. Not on his own, at any rate. He paced through to the living room and had the vague thought to hope he didn't look quite as helpless as he was as he held the phone out towards Serethae. "Serethae, this is my brother, Kirayoshi. Could you please explain to him the myriad ways in which we are not sexually involved, entangled or otherwise? He seems unable to grasp the concept when it comes from me."

Buttah blinked at him. A couple of times. She'd been purposefully not listening to his side of the conversation, so it took her fairly off-guard. But then? Oh then, she laughed. Doubled-over, raucous laughter. Once she had something like her breath back, Bu took the phone and put it to her ear. "Hello?" she started with, because she really wanted to hear what Gray's brother had to say. Like, really. She didn't immediately launch into denials and the Ew Factor -- not that Gray was a bad lookin' dude, for a white guy, it was more that ... yeah that'd just be weird.

Praying that her immense bout of laughter at the mere prospect had been answer enough for Kirayoshi, Gray sighed and sat down on the carpet opposite the table and the couch where Serethae was.

Needless to say, it hadn't been enough answer. On the other end of the phone, gods-only-knew-where in New York City, Kirayoshi was also stiffling his own laughter at his brother's collossal bluntness. Badly. "S-sorry, hi," he managed to say with a straight face. "I'm Yoshi, lovely to hear you, Miss Jones," he chimed cheerfully into the phone. "Now tell me this and tell me true, how undeniably awesomely attractive is my biggest brother? And I use the term loosely, since he is infact, shorter than the rest of us."

Gray, who couldn't help hearing that, swore eloquently and in a perfectly level tone of voice at his brother in japanese.

Kirayoshi was undetterred, "He just said he thinks you're exceptionally hot, by the way."

Gray just buried his face in his hand and thanked his lucky stars there was no cutlery on the table, or he'd be lobotomising himself with it right this moment.

Bu wrinkled her nose up, highly amused by this entire situation. She was fairly certain that Steps did not think she was exceptionally hot -- not that she wasn't -- and that had just been solidified by his parental concern for her thumb. She sat herself down on the couch, unable to keep from grinning as she answered. "Hrm, well ... " she started, sounding like she was going to burst back into peals of laughter at any second. She wouldn't make Gray squirm for too long, but for right now? Hilarious. "I guess I could see 'im bein' undeniably awesomely attractive to th' right kinda girl. Woman. Preferably a woman, for legality's sake."

Gray's hand-muffled mutter of "yes, because I'm a schoolteacher" fell on deaf ears so far as Kirayoshi was concerned. Ah, damn! He put on his very best pursuasive voice, adding a touch of pleading. The people keeping him company in the lobby of some 5th Avenue zone of haute coture gave him a wide berth, but a constant audience. "But am I to take it that this woman isn't you? I mean, just look at him - by merit of his brains alone he should be fending lovely ladies off with a stick, even though right now I'm certain he's started to curl up in a ball and do that thing where he rubs at the back of his neck..."

Gray had indeed begun to do just that, and immediately stopped, looking up and throwing the ceiling his best version of a look of annoyance. Throwing such a look at the phone would mean throwing it at Serethae.

She had to put a hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles. "Yeah, that's exactly what' he's doin'," she drawled to Kirayoshi. The look, however, could likely wither some flowers, so she decided to put an end to it, for Gray's sanity's sake. "I am to assure you that my relationship with Mr. Steppings is purely platonic and involves no sexual overtones at all," she said, putting on her best academic voice. "I'm quite younger than he, and a former student, so I believe the idea makes him want to stab himself -- and you -- with something rusty. ... but that doesn't mean I won't be keepin' my eyes open, sugar." She grinned brightly.

Trying not to make some muted sound of exasperation, Gray just shook his head and forced himself to stop looking daggers at the ceiling. There. Enough. No more of Kirayoshi's insane and incomprehensible rambling assumptions. Serethae even used all the right words, clear and logical... up until the last part, but it was Serethae and she was nineteen and... Serethae, so she could have that if she had to.

Kirayoshi, though, was a stubborn little bastard and chose that moment to remind him of it. "Awww, are you sure? I mean, you do know he's a doctor right?"

It couldn't be seen by either of them in Marquette, but Kirayoshi was winking at the phone. In the nudge, nudge, wink, wink sort of way. Exasperated (and this was Gray, it took quite some doing - or his little brother - to manage that) Gray held out his hand for the phone, "Yoshi, be quiet. I'm hanging up the phone now," he announced evenly, giving Serethae a look that said 'for my own sanity'. "So rude," replied Kirayoshi's voice with a spark of amusement. "I'd say he picked it up at school, Miss Jones, but he's always been this way."

Gray very nearly rolled his eyes. "Bye, Yoshi." The stabby tool was getting rustier in his mental picture by the moment.

"Bye, Gray! Oh, and make sure he eats something, Miss Jones!"

"Nice talkin' to ya, sweetheart," Bu drawled easily into the phone. "I'll make sure he don' starve t'death 'fore we can find him a suitable woman, 'kay? You take care'a my city for me." She made a smoochy noise at the phone just for good measure and handed it back to Gray. Flopping back onto the couch, she just beamed and looked terribly amused. Oh yes, it had been a good day to come over, for sure.

Resisting the urge to just groan quietly to himself, Gray took the phone back and gave Serethae a look which, on another person, would have been one half apologetic and one half I-can't-believe-you-just-did-that. From Gray it just took the form of quietly rolled eyes and a shake of his head. "You see why people don't even have to ask to know we're related," he remarked, deadpan and utterly serious. After all, none but his brother could get away with talking to Gray in such a fashion - even though Serethae seemed to have managed it right there. His attention shifted to the food on their plates and he felt his stomach give a silent growl, making him lift his eyes to her again. Time to eat?

Bu slipped from the couch to the floor and settled in, taking a sip of her water and looking at him in that highly amused fashion. Yes, it was time to eat. She commenced to do so, just leaving the entire conversation with Kirayoshi just at that: her promise to make Gray eat and try to find him a woman. Seemed easy enough tasks to her. She ignored his look -- which was getting amazingly easier and easier to do -- and started to stuff her face full of gyro.