Welcome to Gaia! ::

Grayson had fallen asleep twice in class.

It was only the first day.

By the time he trudged his way to work, his legs were frozen from the thighs down to the top of his socks, and he made a mental note to change before leaving the school from then on. Who had designed the Meadowview uniforms anyway, he wondered, expression a bit petulant as he tugged at the hem of his shorts for the ten thousandth time that day. He was probably not going to get over the uniform until he graduated, which would not happen soon enough, by the way.

He was also not impressed by the homework he'd been assigned. His parents were very serious about him graduating, and he supposed he ought to be serious about it as well, which meant he had to actually do his homework once in a while. Lame.

He had to do it after he got home from work. Double lame.

Leaning on the door to get through, he adjusted his backpack, nodding absently to the coworker manning the counter until the replacements arrived. A quick duck into the bathroom saw him shimmying out of his godforsaken uniform and into one that didn't seem nearly as horrific in comparison anymore, the shorts and tiny shirt stuffed into his backpack for safe keeping. He fixed his hair in the mirror, made a couple of faces at himself to get rid of the residual annoyance with the shorts, and trooped back out.

He felt much more human in pants. In fact, he didn't even mind the traffic advisory orange shirt anymore. If he could go to school in his Larry's Pizza uniform, he'd actually be pretty pleased.

But he couldn't, so as Jude was going to say, he would have to man up.

Manning up seemed like a lot more trouble than it was worth most of the time.

Dropping his backpack behind the counter, he draped himself over it, expression as close to desolate as it ever got in the view of others. He was already ready for another nap, but he figured he ought to at least wait until Barnaby arrived to go pass out in the back.

It was only polite, after all.

Head popping up from its rest against the counter, Grayson blinked at Barnaby, unable to frown when faced with a good mood. He might have had some terrible misgivings about his shorts and the state of the world in general, but often times it took the smallest things to lift him up out of a minor sulk. So, despite the fact that he had a backpack full of homework - ugh - and he would be walking home from work again - UGH - Grayson shifted to prop his elbows up on the counter and smiled.

"Hi, Barnaby." What was the use in dwelling on bad things when you could make an attempt to have a good time? Okay, so it might have just been the avoider in him, but did that really matter?

No, not really. "No one's been keeping me up lately," he replied, unaware until after he'd said it that it sounded faintly, er, suggestive. No one had certainly been keeping him away in that manner for quite a long time, but Barnaby didn't need to know that. Unlike Jude, Grayson liked to keep his personal life fairly private, which meant that even though he had recently been invited to be by a drunk teenager, he wouldn't be mentioning it.

The memory did make his expression undergo a quick, awkward shift, however. Really, Ignacio was not allowed to drink if he was going to come back to Grayson's place from now on.

He swiped his hand along the counter, dismissing the thought, and looked to Barnaby once more. "How have you been?"

Grayson leaned back against the counter, cradling his cheek against his arm, and sighed. It wasn't the most elegant pose, but who did he have to impress? They didn't have any customers just then, and besides, he was wearing his Larry's Pizza uniform. No one was going to be impressed, even if it was better than his Meadowview getup.

He peeked up at Barnaby, made a thoughtful face at the mention of Jude. He hadn't seen him around, but then, that was nothing unusual; more often than not, he saw Jude at work, period. He was all right with that, considering every time they ended up alone together something incredibly awkward happened. Still, he hadn't heard that Jude was going anywhere, so it was enough to make him straighten, scratch his cheek.

"I don't know? Jude and I don't really talk much." He shrugged, turning to rest his backside against the counter. After a moment, he tugged his lower lip into his mouth, chewed thoughtfully, and sighed. "If he's not here by now, I suppose he won't show up."

What had Jude gotten himself into now?

Jude had a cat?

... Jude had left, and he'd asked Barnaby to take care of his cat?

A little unsure why he was almost offended, Grayson crossed his arms over his chest, musing on this new bit of information. He liked cats. Not that he expected Jude to come running over whenever he needed something (hah) but they had a semi-decent working relationship when they both, well, worked at it. He'd thought he'd done rather well on their walk when they'd discussed the problems between Capricorn and Aries, though Grayson had known next to nothing about them. Still, they'd walked away from that encounter without either one of them being frustrated, right?

But Jude didn't even tell him he was leaving. Why did that matter? They weren't even friends.

Maybe it mattered because he was apparently friends with Barnaby, and Grayson couldn't remember Barnaby ever coming up before he'd started working at Larry's Pizza. Maybe he was a little jealous, he realized with something like horror, of Barnaby.

Not because he had designs on Jude, but because he'd tried so hard to be his fellow Zodiac's friend and had always fallen short. Would, apparently, always fall short.

Well, wasn't that just the cat's pajamas.

Fisting a hand against his cheek, he said slowly, "No, I suppose we aren't. I wouldn't mind being friends, but Jude..."

And he lifted his shoulder, looking for all the world like it didn't bother him. Right. "Sometimes you just don't get along with someone, and you aren't quite sure why. I think that's the case with me and Jude."

The situation was truly dire when Barnaby -- nothing against Barnaby, really -- was giving him advice on Jude. He'd known Jude for a great deal more time than Barnaby had, he was pretty sure, and yet.. here he was, being offered advice by his coworker on someone he would probably never learn how to be close to. It was disheartening, and since Jude wasn't around, he didn't try too hard to hide it.

He was sure that Jude would give Barnaby a less than stellar impression of his manliness, anyway, so he might as well just be himself and not worry about it. They did seem to be pretty close, after all.

"We're both Colts fans," Grayson said at length, though from the tone of his voice, one could safely assume this to be a much more tragic thing than it was. "I think it's me."

Vague? Yes. But to Grayson's mind, it made perfect sense. If a couple of men could be completely, utterly devoted to the same football team and still not be close, chances were there was no saving them. True, in times of great need (14-1) they could go to one another, but aside from that, they had no real connection.

Zodiacs, sure. But they barely ever worked together, and Jude typically stayed as far away from their senshi group as he possible could.

No, it seemed fairly well hopeless. Still, he offered Barnaby a smile. "Thank you, though. I do try to be a decent person. Jude's a good man, too." He sighed again. "Like I said, there's probably nothing, really. We just aren't meant to be close."

Way to sound like a complete girl, Grayson.

Because Grayson was mostly easy, it actually did help. He still didn't think he was any closer to being tremendous friends with Jude, nor did he harbor even a slight hope of getting there, but he was comforted by Barnaby's attempt. If anything, it showed to him that he was a good guy, and was probably deserving of Jude's friendship.

And the dubious honor of watching over his cat.

When had he gotten a cat? Where was it sleeping? How was he buying it food?

More concerned than he wanted to be, he tapped his fingertips against his cheek, zoning back in for the latter half of Barnaby's remark. He didn't catch much of it, but what he did he doubted. Still, he found himself nodding, thinking it was better to just let it go by smoothly without starting an argument.

Grayson avoided conflict if it was at all possible. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

A silence descended, and Grayson realized they had done nothing but talk about Jude since their shift started. Well, that was... awkward. Why did Jude make everything awkward?

"So, Barnaby." He pursed his lips, then smiled again. "What do you like to do when you aren't stuck at work?"

Aside from dance, which was a topic Grayson didn't really bring up unless asked about, there was just about nothing else he would get more honestly excited over than football. The sport in general he loved, the Indianapolis Colts in particular. It brought a light to his face, had him rising to his full height with enthusiasm as he lifted his hands, gesturing widely.

"I love football. It's the only thing Jude and I can agree on," he added cheerfully, digging in his pack pocket for his cell phone. It was a newer one, having just arrived the day before, but already he had the familiar and much-loved horseshoe as his wallpaper. He offered it to Barnaby, looking a bit like a man showing off a picture of his phone. "Indianapolis, through and through."

Football was more than a sport to Grayson, as it was to any true fan. At the risk of sounding like an incredibly creepy fanboy, he refrained from expressing how much he actually really loved to Colts, not limited to, but definitely including, their quarterback. The first thing he'd purchased when his parents had taken him shopping for more clothes had been a Colts tee, and he lived in the thing. Absolutely lived in it.

Deciding that Barnaby had been given sufficient time to bask in his team's logo, he slipped his phone back into his pocket. "I don't really follow baseball, though."

The loss wasn't the best topic, no, because it still offended and hurt him at the basest level that a man could be hurt. Even though he'd argued to Jude that the Colts had never promised a perfect season, he'd still believed and hoped for one. He could understand their reasoning now, considering they were keeping their starters fresh for the playoffs, but it was still really, really disappointing. When you took key starters out, the Colts lost.

He wasn't the kind of man to say that one person made a team (as he hotly argued with Tristan about in the case of Randy Moss and Tom Brady, though given their current roster, it could almost be just about true) but the starters were starters for a reason. It broke his heart a little each time he watched the Colts play and lose (okay, a lot) but he had to remain optimistic.

Superbowl, baby. The Colts were going to take it.

"Oh, they'll pull through. Once we stop pulling our starters, we'll go back to wiping the field with them. Tire them out," Grayson explained, beginning to really get into it. "We let the team run around and exhaust themselves in the first half, then take control in the second and just sail home."

He paused. "Usually." Damn them, pulling the starters.

At the question on teams, he was thoroughly and suddenly thrown. He blinked at Barnaby, then answered honestly, "No, no teams. I'm too lazy. I'll play a little football in the back yard, but no teams for me."