Forget About It (Kane/Jory)

[Jory Addison]

Jory couldn't say he hadn't expected a message from Kane requesting a visit. That didn't mean he wanted to go and talk to the man about Lyric. He should just put Lyric behind him and forget the guy like he was trying to forget Emilian. But there he was, reluctantly knocking on the door, his eyes still a little red from what tears had come hidden away in his common room.

[Kane Garrett]

Kane welcomed Jory in with a sympathetic smile. "I just wanted to check up on you," he said. He gestured for Jory to make himself comfortable and waited before seating himself. "It's been a hard year for you, hasn't it?"

[Jory Addison]

A dry laugh broke from Jory at the non-question. He sat down and curled up, bringing his knees to his chest. "To say the least," he said. "Did you read the Cauldron?" He figured that was as good a place as any to start out at. At least it would be one less thing to explain.

[Kane Garrett]

"I haven't," Kane said, "but I get the impression I should be." He tried to keep up to date on whatever was popular with the students and he'd heard of the magazine, but he had yet to actually get hold of one. "Tell me about it."

[Jory Addison]

Jory sighed. "Well this month's cover story thing is about Lyric, like his history. But there's an article about Emilian, too. It pretty much says what Lyric did to him without saying his name," he said. "I'd say Emilian deserved it all."

[Kane Garrett]

"Why don't you start at the beginning," Kane suggested. "I'd much rather hear your story than rely on the Daily Prophet, or Cauldron."

[Jory Addison]

Jory sighed heavily again. "November before last I ended up going to Emilian's," he started, and from there relayed the whole story from the beginning to Emilian kicking him out. "And I haven't seen the jerk since." Thanks to Lyric.

[Kane Garrett]

"So what happened today?" Kane asked.

[Jory Addison]

"I went to talk to Lyric because I knew the tall boy in the Cauldron article was him. I wanted to say thank you, I hadn't know what he'd done exactly, you know. Talking to him was okay until...I don't know, I said something and he got all pissy at me," Jory said. "I don't even know why he got pissy."

[Kane Garrett]

"Can you tell me more about the conversation?" Kane asked. "Do you remember what you were talking about at the time?"

[Jory Addison]

Jory shrugged and focused his gaze at his knees. "I asked him how he'd been, how the shop was going, if he was seeing anyone. He said he wasn't but that he wasn't alone, I guess that's Professor Evans. I told him I hadn't seen anyone. That kind of surprised him, I guess and he was all really? and so I told him I wasn't really feeling dating and thinking about sex just made me think about Emilian, then he flipped, started talking about how he was a project and how I treated him like crap and how I was crap."

[Kane Garrett]

"Has he had difficulty talking about sex in the past?" Kane asked, though he knew the answer.

[Jory Addison]

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think just saying the word once would be enough to set him off. But everything he said after that came back to it, and he was talking about having sex so..." It didn't make sense for just saying it to have caused such a reaction. It felt like there was something else, some other reason other than just the mentioning of sex.

[Kane Garrett]

"So it sounds like he has mixed feelings about you. He may be protective, or even possessive, I can't be sure, but it seems to fit with the conflict he had with Emilian. I doubt that it was one word that set him off, or even that it was your conversation alone."

[Jory Addison]

"Well, I'm not going to go talk to him again. I mean, I might have, but once he's shoved me up against a wall that kind of ends it." And it was a big might have, anyway. It had been extremely unlikely that Jory would ever talk to Lyric again willingly, even apart from their confrontation in the school.