Keye has been good lately. He keeps his grades up, he does his homework, he goes to class...
He's done for today!

Also, he's grinning madly about all of the above.
He has decided (all on his own, wouldn't Alexander be proud?) to come to the library, with the intent of perusing his rose book in greater detail.

(He is wearing, by the way, a very tight shirt with a design of bluebells on it. Sleeveless. Plus arm-warmers. They hide some of the details that he likes to keep under wraps, but not all.)

He has his nose in the book, a finger running a line, before he even sits down.

"Hi," declaims a chipper voice in his ear, and then Ant is circling the table to sit opposite him.

He could have made that a seductive hi. He didn't. He's a good boy too.

"Jesus!" he twitches violently enough to smack himself in the face with the book, which he drops on the table, clutching his nose and squinting a watery brown eye at Ant.
"Ya gotta sneak up on me like that, man?"

"Sorry. Didn't know - won't do it again."

His tone is light and quick, but he's serious. He'll add it to a little mental checklist of Things Not To Do.

He's wearing a tight green knit turtleneck, and the outline of his necklace shows through. He likes it that way.

He has a backpack and such, as he's rather behind in - well - all his classes.

"It's cool." tenderly, he picks his book up again, checking to make sure none of its pages were bent in the fall.
"So what's up?"
His expression is one of testing--how much inquiry can he get away with?
He heard Ant was going to get married, see.

"God. Jetta said yes and Enrique wants to be the best man."

It gives him a headache. It really, really does.

He rubs at his eyes.

"And I've skipped over a week of classes already."

Fucking classes. Fucking sleep. Why did he have to sleep? Ngh.

"I heard."

'I heard they were going to execute you by firing squad, want a cigarette?' says his tone.

"Too shitty to go?"

"Hell yes. And whatever the hell Bo is going through is messing with Enrique and I'm avoiding him 'cause of it and - and I just suck at actual relationships."

As opposed to one night stands or ones he lies in all the time.

Sigh.

"How're you?"

Please, can we change the subject?

"Avoiding Enrique?" Keye tilts his head. That doesn't make sense. If something is messing with your boyfriend, you spend more time with him, not less.
"Oh, Bo's boyfriend died and then came back as a ghost and then he broke up with him, and that's, well, that's my dad, and..."
Okay, confusing! Change of subject. Yes!

"I'm doing okay! I'm...I'm doing...pretty okay. I'm watching this kid this weekend, which will be...uh...interesting. And, um...um, my ivy's still doing good."

Ant has to process all this.

"You should talk to my sister. She babysits a lot."

Meaningless filler, thou art joyous.

"Kid's like fifteen, 's not quite babysitting."
It's kind of...worse.
"She got a number?"

"Yeah, one sec."

He digs through his bag, finds his phone, and calls up her number.

Then he has to rummage around for paper, which is another interesting episode - his compulsive orderliness does not, for some reason, extend to his backpack.

"You c'n just read it off to me or send it in a text, you know."
His pockets are full of little bits of paper/

"'Kay, one sec."

Texting it is.

"Her name's Sam, she's kinda weird, but she's helpful and she adores kids."

This is the entirity of his opinion of his sister, in summary.

Keye's phone makes the little beeping noise, and he grins.
"Got it. You've mentioned her before. About the doctors? I mean, not that I'd mention that, but...I know who you're talking about kinda."

"Yeah. She's... I dunno. Apparently an elf. Don't ask me."

He doesn't get this whole elves and magic and whatever thing.

"You're less... pass out on the floor-y," he comments idly.

That's nice.

"Ooh. Well...well that might help?" Blink. "The kid's...well, he's human, but he didn't use to be."

Ahem. That's just a whole other confusing subject.

"Me? Oh, uh, yeah. I was having some...some issues. My friend Violet helped me out. It's really calmed down since, my meds are working again...also, it's not passing out."

"Like Enrique was human for a while?"

Pause, as his expression goes completely blank.

That was a connection he didn't want to make. God.

Changing the subject to, "What is it, then, this not-passing-out?"

"Epilepsy."

He narrows his eyes.
"Not quite like Enrique. Enrique killled him, and he came back human."

Pause.

"The hell with people coming back from the dead?"

That's the second time it's come up in this conversation.

Keye sighs heavily. Oh, how jaded and put-upon he is.
"I don't fuckin' know. I mean...I'm glad. I don't like losing people. But 's weird. Y'know?"

"Well, yeah."

But death generally means - actually losing people.

Not just temporarily.

"Guess that's what Bo meant 'bout whatshisname."

Too soon after Alexander's death makes a lot of sense, and it makes more sense if Alexander is still around to be messed with by everything.

"Yeah." Not whatshisname. "Lex. Been hard on both of 'em."

Nod.

"I could tell."

He is likely, on par, not to ramble about it, given that he's getting hints that Keye doesn't know about the thing with Enrique, and that is Bo's business.

If he went around blabbing other people's affairs, well, that would never do.

Keye knows.

"So, uh...that all turned out...okay? Don't think it was smart of Bo, but..."

"Which bit?" Asks Ant, with a faint frown.

He doesn't want to get Bo mad at him, on top of everything else.

"You and him and Enrique. He called me crying. Told him it was his business, but I did the best I could to make him feel better. We watched movies later, but he didn't talk about it."
And Keye is slightly worried.
About Ant, too.

"God. But, still, which bit? The one where he hates me for being in the way, the one where he thinks I hate him for getting in my way, or the one where he's all guilty over your dad being not-that-long-gone?"

All of which came up.

"All of the above." Sigh. "He doesn't hate you."

"Evidence to the contrary, my dear Watson. Look, I mean," sigh, "We ended not dealing with that stuff 'cause he still has all the Alexander stuff to deal with. So when he's done dealing with that, he gets to deal with us." Pause. "I wouldn't want to be in his shoes."

But he is neither Enrique nor Bo, and therefore it isn't his to dictate.

"Ignore the evidence, I know the kid, he doesn't hate you."
Sigh.
"Mm. Me neither. Hey, does it...does it, like, really bug you that he's involved?"

"Bug me? Well, it bugs me when he bugs Enrique, or when he tells me to fuck off, or when he, y'know, gets all weird, but if he'd just stop worrying I think I'd like him just fine."

He doesn't mind Bo. He doesn't, honestly, see why Enrique likes him so much, but once again - he is neither Enrique nor Bo. (Not that he's one to talk about odd romantic choices.)

"Well, that wasn't nice of him."
Keye is making a sad face. He hates it when his friends don't get along.
"I, uh..." shrug. "What's 'all weird' mean?"

"Well, he tried to poke Enrique's eyes out with his horns. Iunno, kindof... volatile? Changeable?"

Ant finds Bo having no idea what he himself is feeling disturbing.

Keye makes a noise! It's a squeaky noise, and he's got one eye squinted, his nose wrinkled, and his mouth turned down. Bewilderment!
"He's bit me before, but I've never seen anything like that."

Ant frowns, because he feels he isn't explaining properly.

"He rather reminded me of you, where one moment you were going psycho and the next you were apologizing for going psycho? He kept saying he'd leave if I wanted him to, and I kept saying I didn't mind and anyway it does make more sense for me to leave 'cause I'm the wrong species and thusly they're better suited."

Look, Keye got him to ramble.

Look at the not-earth-logic that is Ant's logic.

Marvel.

"No, no, it's not the same at all. It's an anger management thing for me. For him, it's a control thing."
People should understand these things, it's obvious.

Oh, wait. No. No, it isn't.

"Dude." He shakes his head. "I would stay the fuck away from Enrique, but neither of you seem to think the way I do, so...fuck it, man, do whatever makes you happy."

Once again failing completely to address all the points Keye brought up, Ant replied, "Well, he does. Make me happy."

He's a tad defensive about it.

Enrique wouldn't exactly be everyone else's first pick, but he suits Ant down to the ground.

"Then stick with it."

Duh.

"Bo doesn't want to be involved with someone with 'nother meaningful relationship. Dunno why, but. If he and Enrique make it official-"

Then I might be out a boyfriend.

Which'd suck.