What's Wrong?

Who: Kaysen and Isaac
When: midday
Where: St. James house

Isaac had woken up in Peyton's bed with his phone ringing. It was a little disorienting. But it was Kaysen, who apparently wanted to talk to him when he got home. Which he totally didn't have to rush, but if he wanted to come home soon, he could. He'd woken up Peyton enough to say goodbye and he'd call her later, and was sure to be quiet on his way down and out of the house. Just in case Tyler was around somewhere. It was on the walk back that he sort of decided he ... didn't really feel better about anything. A little better rested, but no closer to some sort of conclusion or compromise or anything. He walked in the front door and headed up the stairs toward her room, half hoping this wasn't another kind of trainwreck. Though her door was cracked, Isaac rapped his knuckles on it softly.

Kaysen looked over from where she was curled up on her side on her bed. The lights were off, and there was a single candle lit, on her nightstand. She'd been meditating, or drawing energy, or whatever it was called. She still felt vaguely like hell. When the knock came and she propped herself up, she smiled. It was a mixture of relief and a grateful sort of tone. He hadn't made her wait, he'd come right home. "Hey." she said. "C'mon in." she added, inviting him as she curled back up again.

He pushed the door open and came in, managing a smile for her. She looked tired. He shut the door behind him, coming over to perch on the edge of the bed with her. Hell he probably still looked tired. And rumpled. "Hey," he said. "How're you feelin'?" She'd still been sleeping when he'd left Thom's house. But Chance was there, and they knew she was okay, and he really just couldn't have stayed any longer.

"Kinda like hell." Kaysen said. "You don't look any better, are you okay?" she asked, noting that he looked kinda like shit. Probably like she did. And he hadn't gone and done anything stupid like set whole sections of a street on fire. So there had to be other stuff going on with him. She had an excuse. He totally didn't.

"Fine," he lied. Which he was never good at, but she was tired and probably hurting and ... whatever else happened to fire elementals when they overdid it. "Get you anything?" he offered, reaching out to lightly stroke his knuckles down her arm for a second. He always wanted to pet her when she felt bad, it was weird.

"Liar." Kaysen accused. She frowned at him, concerned still. "No seriously...what's the matter? Are you okay? Did something happen? Are you scared of me now?" It all kind of rattled out there at once, her words tumbling over each other. She hadn't even thought about that last one, but it was there. It had been on her mind earlier, she just hadn't meant to outright ask.

That last one caught his attention the most, because ... yeah, what? He frowned at her, in a disbelieving sort of way. "No, I'm not scared of you," he said, poking her in the side a little. "Why would I be scared of you? You're all ... bony." Isaac cracked a half-smile and pinched the skin over her ribs. And deftly -- sort of -- dodged all the 'are you okay's.

She made a face at him and batted at his hands, kicking him in the back far too lightly to do anything but acknowledge the fact that she'd kicked. "Um, because of the scary? And the fire? I could have hurt you. And Thom and Chance too." she said, looking as worried as she felt, though with his reaction, she looked slightly less worried. He didn't seem scared of her right now. And he'd kind of looked like that maybe hadn't occurred to him.

"I didn't think for a second that you'd hurt us," he told her, sobering up into complete honesty. It really hadn't occurred to him at all. "I was kind of too busy worrying my ass off about you. Are you really okay? Like ... no fuses blown or anything?" He glanced her over, though she didn't look any damn different than she had when he'd left Thom's. Just in a different setting.

"Well, I could have. I didn't exactly have control. I shouldn't have been able to do that much. Guess I can now." Kaysen said, frowning. Then she thought. "i dunno. I feel really drained. Like I've felt too heavy and weak, and exhausted. I'm trying to get some energy back with the candle, but it's kinda slow going. I'm sure I'll be okay, like, I don't feel sick or anything. Just like...like my body thinks I'm ass-sick, without the other symptoms." she attempted to explain. "And that totally doesn't at all answer what's wrong with you. Why do you look like shit? What's going on?"

Isaac nodded as he listened, following along and gleaning what she meant. He was hoping she'd kind of stay on that train of thought and explain more. But then she was asking about him again. Goddammit. He looked down at his hands for a moment, picking at a bit of skin. "Just tired, that's all. Worried. About everything." He winced a little, internally. Peyton said that he should talk to both his sister and Thom, but he really had no idea where to start. "Me and Thom kinda ... had a thing," he mumbled.

Kaysen listened, then blinked. "You two?" she asked, half sitting up. "I thought--what about your girlfriend? Are you guys going to like, pretend you're straight? Because I'll still love you anyways you know! And mom and dad'll get over it!" Of course, internally she was going into total shock, but--!

He looked at her, momentarily totally lost. "Wha-- no! No! What the fuck, Kaysen?" he said, incredulous. Any other day, he might've laughed, but ... "No, I mean like a fight. An argument. Sort of, not like ... no, not that. God, does everybody in the goddamn world think we just might want to do each other? Christ!"

Kaysen was left blinking. Really, it seemed more likely to her that they were making out now than that they'd had a fight. It was just kind of weird to think about. "You said a thing!" she said in return. "What was I supposed to think? If you had a fight you say you had a fight, not a thing! Things are--things! Like making out and like...other stuff I'm really not going to think about right now okay? Jesus, take a pill or whatever--what did you fight about?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, holy balls, 'thing' can mean like ... anything!" he protested. "I didn't say fight, because like ... we didn't throw down, nobody yelled it was just ... God ..." And now? He really didn't want to tell her. Because 'he's keeping things from me'? Sounded like a fucking couple's argument. Put into that light, it really did. Which completely made him not want to say it, lest there be any more circumstantial evidence pointing toward him wanting Thom's dick. Jesus. "Nothing, it was just stupid ... nevermind."

"Oh, whatever, Isaac, I'm sorry I thought you were gay. It was just the way you put it. Things...like. That's having a thing for someone. But whatever, you didn't like, beat each other up or anything but you argued. About what? Don't 'nevermind' me." she said firmly, giving him a Look for it. That 'I'm far more stubborn than you' look. She shifted, to half prop herself up on the pillows and her headboard some, but it was an effort that only partially worked. She was still feeling like she had no energy.

Yeah, because the phrasing of one word could totally blow away a lifetime of her seeing him be heterosexual in one fell swoop, that was consoling ... But entirely not the point. He let it go, just giving her another Look before he looked at her dresser and tried to figure out a way to answer. Explaining it was hard. He didn't think Peyton had really understood. He didn't think anybody would. "It's like ... like I'm this outsider now. He doesn't tell me shit. Specific things that I think I should know. And so today I'm like 'what the hell, man?' and he sort of ... made me out to be the asshole for it. Like I'm overreacting or even seeing shit that's not happening, and it's just kind of ... " like I'm losing my best friend in the universe, that's all. No big. Isaac made a vague gesture. " ... fucked up."

Kaysen listened, and frowned. "What's he not telling you?" Kaysen asked. She didn't talk to Thom that much. He was a presence in her life, and recently, a larger presence even, but she still wouldn't say that she talked to him. Not like she had always assumed Isaac and he did. "And why would he give you shit for being pissed if he's being a dick and not saying shit?" she continued, frowning further.

He shrugged an uncomfortable shoulder, still looking at the furniture. "Stuff about Chance. Stuff about you. Hell, stuff about himself. And the whole spell thing that you guys cooked up so you could roast some vamps? Yeah, nobody asked me. Like ... at all." He glanced over at her, but quickly. Because he'd known she wanted to help, but ... as Big Brother, he would've liked a consultation, honestly. "I didn't even know about his girlfriend until like a couple of days later. It's like ... I dunno, things have changed somewhere, and I don't ... I dunno." He ran a hand through his hair and looked genuinely miserable.

Kaysen looked at him the whole time, letting it all sink in as she contemplated. He wasn't looking at her, and she didn't like that, but she didn't try to make him either. Not right yet. Maybe like, later. Obviously, this was really hard on him. She played with the ends of her hair for a minute, and thought on what to say. When she started talking, it was a lot more natural than if she'd tried to figure it out word for word, she just started and words came out. "What stuff about Chance and me? And with the spell thing...I wanted to help. That's my fault, I'm really sorry. I thought you would try to stop me, or not understand, and I don't know. I didn't even know if we were gonna be able to do it til later, since apparently Thom can't do like, ninety percent of the spells in his stupid books. Next time I'll tell you first, or talk to you about it, kay? I'm sorry. I didn't...I didn't want you to stop me. And sometimes I think you kinda forget that I'm not like...twelve anymore. And that's not really a bad thing, you're my big brother and I know you're just like, looking out for me and stuff, but it makes it hard to kinda make huge decisions without thinking 'hey, I bet if I told Isaac, he would freak the fuck out and lock me in a room in the basement' or something." She paused and tried to think when she found out about Thom's girlfriend. "I dunno when I found out about Thom's chick. It was when Thom texted me to ask if I was okay n shit, and I don't remember when it was. Maybe he was too fucked up over it to say anything for a few days. I dunno how guys do the break up thing, so I dunno if it involves like...sobbing on someone's shoulder and lots of ice cream or whatever. Somehow I doubt it. But...seriously what's he not told you about me n Chance? Do I know about it?"

He was half tempted to tell her that it wasn't about her. To kind of clue her in on that, but he'd been the one to say it. And it was partly about her. He listened to everything she said, though, his expression not changing much. He'd known that he needed to let go of her in some capacity, but to hear it put like that, from her ... didn't help him feel any better. She was growing up, as immature as she could be, and he was in the way. It was probably stupid, but he felt like he was in the way of a lot, lately. Not that he was going to say so. Isaac's jaw was tightening rhythmically, though he wasn't really aware of it. "I just want to keep you safe. And y'know, like ... marauding vampires who've been killing lots of people is kinda ... one of those big things," he muttered, eyes down on the carpet, a line between his brows. Really, she'd saved her stupid-ass boyfriend's life, so that was probably good. "He just knew about what you are before I did. You didn't want to tell me, remember? And like ... after the In-Between, he cornered Chance to ask him questions about it and didn't want to bring me along." And now he was relegated to answering questions for her, instead of talking about how he felt about it. Which was probably for the best.

Kaysen sat up. She first sat up to give him a hug--which was clumsy because she still wasn't moving quite so awesomely well and had her kind of half hanging on his back, arms loosely around his shoulders. Then she stilled. "...he what?" she asked quietly. She'd been going to say a whole lot else, talk to him about them-stuff, but that last thing totally derailed her. "He--he what? Did he--does he know what's up with Chance? What he can--I don't even know that yet!"

Isaac looked over his shoulder at her, with a raised eyebrow. That was ... kind of surprising. "You don't?" he asked. He had assumed that she knew, that she knew everything. That was her boyfriend, after all. "Thom said he's ... he's a fade. I dunno what the fuck that means, but that's what he said. And part of it is that he can heal you. Or people. When you passed out, Thom sort of ... freaked a little and told him to heal you. Which was kind of how I knew to ask. ... he didn't tell you anything?" He frowned a bit, not really liking the sound of that.

"A what?" Kaysen squeaked. She had no idea what that was either but it was crazy sounding. "He can heal people?" More squeaking! Whee! "And no! Thom never said anything, and Chance, he tried to tell me before but it was like directly after we got out of the stupid horror land and I wasn't ready for it yet and so I told him not now and he was gonna tell me like after this is all over, I asked him to but no I didn't know any of that!" She sat back, looking disturbed. "Why would Thom go asking? Why didn't he take you with? I mean--dude, what the fuck?"

Oh. Well that made more sense on why Chance hadn't told her what he was. He could definitely see his sister putting that off due to trauma. He shook his head a little. "I don't know why. He wasn't really keen to talk about it. Like ... he kept brushing it off, that he didn't tell me because he didn't find out much. That kind of thing." Isaac shrugged again. "He also completely didn't answer me when I asked him why he ran straight to you when everything started going down and didn't even call me," he added. "Not that I'm like ... not glad that he went to get you, but like ... didn't even call me from the car."

"Wait, he didn't call you?" Kaysen asked. She looked truly puzzled there. Actually--she supposed she knew that, since she'd called him and everything and then they'd talked and whatever, but she hadn't thought about it in that light. "He just...randomly came after me." She blinked, and looked miserable and confused. She opened her mouth, then shut it again, still looking mystified. "That's. I. Um. Okay he's possessed. Like, exorcist shit? Or something. Because that's insane." she decided.

He shook his head, feeling tired now. Everything was just being highlighted here. He was apparently an irrationally overprotective big brother too. Which he kind of knew, but still. "Not possessed. I think he just ... I dunno. Honestly I don't, it's just coming down on me, is all, because he's fine with you," he said, glancing over at her. He was obviously even better than fine with her, and now Isaac was wondering again if that "no!" reaction of his had been a cover for something.

"Well it should come down on you! Jesus, Isaac, that's some really shitty friendmanship going on there! And I mean, like I appreciate Thom being protective and helping and all that kinda shit, but like...not in expense to you! You're his best friend, I'm just...the girl he made fun of most of his life and has like, a guilty conscience over now or whatever! Maybe he's overcompensating because he's grown a maturity level or some shit." This, coming from Kaysen. She didn't see the irony. "No this is bullshit." she said firmly, sounding pissed off for Isaac's sake. And she was. In fact, she might give Thom a piece of her mind.

He wasn't so sure about that anymore. Less and less so the more he talked about it. "I dunno," he said for about the hundredth time. "Maybe he feels like ... now that I know about everything, I'm like ... less a part of this whole supernatural bullshit -- and his life -- than I was before. Like I'm not anything special or different or anything like that. I can't really do anything. But he can, and you can, and apparently Chance can, and ... it didn't matter when I didn't know. But now that I do ... he doesn't want to let me in on stuff. I dunno, I can't ... I can't even think about it anymore." He reached up to rub an eye with the heel of his hand. "He said he wasn't pissed at me or anything, I was just reading in, but it just doesn't feel right. None of it. Fuck, maybe I'm just exhausted. Or all of us are, I dunno." He resolutely told himself he wasn't going to get all sniffly in front of his sister.

Kaysen thought about things, but she still didn't think that it made any sense. "Isaac, just because you don't have like...magic crazy stupid powers doesn't mean that you're not special, or that you're unimportant or anything stupid like that." she said first. "And if that's how Thom feels, then he's an asshole, and he needs to have his world view readjusted, because that's total bullshit. And Thom better not think he's all hot shit supernatural guy--he can't even do most of those spells we looked at. Seriously. And anyways, you could probably learn that stuff if you wanted to. Totally go all witch-guy, if you wanted to. I'll like...hang back and light candles for your spells n shit." she said, giving him a light tentative smile on the end of that, hoping to make him feel a little better.

He smiled a little at her, and turned so that he could wrap an arm around and pull her in close. "You'd be the best witch-guy assistant ever," he said, and kissed her temple. Then sighed quietly. "Look, I just want you to be healthy and happy and keep all your limbs. I don't want to lock you in the basement. It's just like ... I dunno, like your favorite thing in the world that you don't want anybody else to really touch, because you don't trust them not to break it, y'know? I love you. And I know you're growing up and you want to do things and I should let you, but ... okay, well, I really can't keep you from anything. I can frown and worry, but you don't have to listen to me. You've already proven yourself to be a badass, so ... you probably don't need to listen to me anymore, so. Yeah. I don't think you're incapable, I just know I couldn't deal at all if something happened to you." He knew it was pretty much a subject-change, but he didn't want to talk about Thom anymore. And he wanted to address what she'd said earlier.

She smiled at him a bit and hugged him back tight. "I wanna listen. I just know sometimes you're thinking of me as little-kaysen who can't handle anything." She said. "And I know that was true for a really long time and sometimes still is and everything, but....I dunno. I want to start being able to handle things. And I can't if I don't get the chance. So maybe let's just...talk about everything and make sure that even if we don't agree on shit, we're still talking. Is that okay?" she asked hopefully.

"That's more than okay," Isaac told her, giving her a light squeeze. "That's what I want, really. For you not to keep stuff from me because you don't think I'll like ... approve or whatever. I dunno, this probably sounds stupid, but I want to keep knowing you while you're insisting on doing this whole growing up BS." He gave her a faint smile. That was really all he wanted, was not to be shut out. He knew the concept of her looking up to him was probably falling by the wayside, and that was okay. Had to happen sometime.

She grinned at him. "C'mon, you're like, the only person who's been there for me my whole life, Isaac. You're never gonna not know me." she told him. She gave him another hug. "It'll be okay with other stuff. We'll figure things out, kay? Promise." She'd figure out other things too. Like she planned to go have a little friendly chat with Thom. And by friendly chat, she meant 'go scream at him'. But she figured it'd be best.

"'Course we will," he said with more confidence than he really felt. But at least one thing was taken care of and okay. The rest of it would just have to ... work itself out somehow. Unaware that she had any plans to intervene -- after all, a couple of months ago, she probably would've died first -- he smooched her head again. "Now are you gonna rest and quit bugging me about my emotional wellbeing or do I have to like ... threaten to do something rash?"

Kaysen laughed. "I'm going to rest. I still feel kinda...drained. Remind me not to go setting like...whole streets on fire anymore. That was dumb. That was insanely dumb." she said. She flopped back down onto her back and curled up on her side. "You sure you're okay? You feeling any better?" she asked him, as one last little bug about it before she tried to sleep or something.

He reached over to pull a blanket from the bottom of her bed and drape it over her legs at least. "It was dumb, yeah, but you saved Chance's life. So ... dumb for a good reason, I guess," he couldn't resist pointing out. "I feel better, yeah. Thanks, Kay. Love you." He patted her before standing up, stretching and hearing his back pop. He kind of wanted to sleep too.

"Love you too." She said. "Get some rest yourself. We've all had stupid days lately. I think everyone's exhausted." Even their parents seemed like it. She settled in though, looking like she might drift off any second. And really, she probably would. Kaysen was tired and now that she'd talked to Isaac, she felt whole worlds better.