Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jack would have shrugged if she hadn't been so neatly placed. "It's fine; it wasn't me anyway. You're the one who deals with him twenty-four seven." And Merlin. And who knew however many other concerns because Chel liked shouldering too much, which in turn caused him concern.

He slid an arm around her, and she was free to take that as an invitation to lean against him or settle into her usual spot. "What else do you want to talk about?" he asked.

Hmm-ing, he slipped his hand under the lip of her sweat pants, tucking it in like the space was a pocket. "If you feel up to it," Jack replied, which was to say they really needed to. "I know it's a lot."

"Hey." He lightly scratched her thigh, squeezed his arm against her protectively, and turned to face Chel. "We established we aren't the same as them," Jack said. "I wouldn't ever be so stupid as to think something like goddamn Fate," a verbal eyeroll, "controlled everything in my life. And you aren't a concrete a*****e out for number one. We got them because we got them. You aren't destined for anything, Chel."

Jack paused and then added, "Well, except maybe to have to deal with me everywhere and when we go, I guess."

His silence said he didn't know either. The more Chel talked, the more he wanted to drag her closer (flesh to flesh, bond to bond, mine mine mine not his) and sleep it away for another time. Because the more he thought about it, the more he picked out those particular memories and relived the black crystals—

"I'm scared too," Jack admitted quietly. The knight might not have been him, but some of those otherworld memories experiences were, in a sense. One had been a harsh wake up call as to how much he invested in this relationship, whether it was seen or not, acknowledged or overlooked. It was one thing to be his own ticking time bomb with this green eye scar, but Chel's problem was a living, malicious entity. The more he thought about each problem they faced, the more they seemed to mount, and the more his jaw started to tighten.

"But we're survivors," he continued. "Battle partners. You're not facing this alone, Chel."

"Sometimes a reminder is nice." He kissed the side of her head and added a little mischievously, "Babe."

With her reminder, he reached for the water bottle at his bedside and took a few gulps before he offered it to her, trying not to think of it as a waterskin. "My name is Something Or Other Hawthorn," he said with his most serious face. "And I am the bearer of the Wings of Ares, the most unique pair in the world. They're angelic yet bloody, the perfect blend of symbology for a tortured soul such as myself."

He snorted in amusement and muttered, "We both did, didn't we." What a lazy yet meaningful significance.

Heard back against his pillows and started to smile a little as he remembered the many battles they fought. "Remember that one time we rode a shadow demon?" he asked, sounding almost like a child, if a sleepy one. "That was ******** awesome, too...Too bad we didn't summon dragons." Everything seemed easier to make larger than life like that: thinking of riding large shadow dogs as they ran for a giant world worm...if he had experienced it himself, Jack would have said it made a cool story. In a way he was happy to have been able to participate, even though his vessel was something of a p***y.

"Remember that time everyone was knocked out and I had to kill the beast by myself?" he reminisced fondly, drawing Chel to him as he lounged. "Some days I could be s**t with a bow, but s**t that was awesome. And you with your barrage attacks, damn..."

"That was a ride alright." And being the more accomplished healer among them had earned him an important place, which to Jack was a definitive success. But whether he was bandaging or battling, there had been a secret and savage pleasure in the way his blood pulsed—shadow or fellow knight.

Leaning in, he let their noses touched as he grinned. "Is that even a question? Babe, you look hot even in that hobo trash you normally wear."

He grinned even wider. "Consider it revenge for all those emoticons."