Welcome to Gaia! ::

king of the pumpkin patch




He was using the last of his leave hours for the month, and damn it he'd use them well: by shopping for all of the cheap Halloween decorations he could get his hands on. Spamming Hanna like an eager child was a bonus.

terms (and conditions) of endearment

Invited to come over after her pre-dinner shift was done, when she opened the door she was greeted with, "Yo~ How was work today, Hanna Banana?"

He tried to keep a straight face and failed miserably, snorting and laughing at himself as he smacked the pizza box on his bed.

"Okay, yeah, that was a bad one, I'll own up to it," Jack said with a shake of his head. "It sounded a little better in my head. Let me try again."

He cleared his throat.

"How was work today...Hannipie?"

The unabashed grin he wore said he was having a little too much fun with this.

not another songfic

Though it was not typically her style, Hanna believed firmly that turnabout was fair play. Which was why, two days after Jack's serenade, the Death trainee gingerly pulled back a curtain in the infirmary as he made his round to sing her own rendition of "Come to My Window".

After one final twirl around him, she planted a kiss on his cheek, gave a wink, and then disappeared out of the nearest window, for effect.

a day among stones

Fall was coming on fast. The leaves had shed their bright green veneer and developed into hearty shades of orange and red and yellow. Hanna loved it. She broke out the scarves and sipped hot beverages on her walks to the training grounds. It was an early morning, before 10AM, but Hanna had just gotten off a particularly rough night shift and felt the need for company.



She was perched on a larger gravestone, Converses kicking against the side, one steaming cup in her hand and the other resting beside her. It was an older stone, one that wouldn't arise anger from passerby, not that there were any. Still, it was perhaps the quietest, most peaceful place on the entire island.

And it made Hanna happy.

not another songfic

Considering the patient he was dealing with was an ingrate, Hanna's interruption was a pleasant, if strange surprise. He hadn't thought she would return the favor and found himself grinning with satisfaction, nudging the injured Sun with his clipboard once she had finished and slipped away. "That's my girlfriend," Jack declared.

"I don't give a s**t."

"Someone's jealous they don't get serenaded."

He decided to see how far this could go. So two days later, following Hanna's example, he grabbed a newbie out of the infirmary and snuck up on her in the cafeteria. Said newbie, who looked mildly confused but happy to get a shorter shift (Jack had promised to take the work up since his shift was long anyway), was percussion; she kept a beat on the table as Jack strummed.

Today's course? "Afternoon Delight". He was given strange looks and absolutely didn't care, and when they finished he waved the trainee off, kissed Hanna's ear, and languidly walked away. The song would be stuck in his head for hours, but he hoped it was worth it.

a day among the stones

He was up and about and had been for almost three hours, despite not having to worry about work until later. Morning jogs were re-entering his schedule because he was starting to find he needed a little extra clarity to get through the day (too many thoughts kept distracting him at work, too many maybe I should's and maybe I shouldn't's and why am I's), and the cooler weather and appropriate foliage were appealing on top of that. He wished the island was capable of having snow without a small catastrophe being the cause of it.

Regardless of his inner turmoil, the shower helped wash some of it off. Jack took to lazing in his room, not hungry enough to leave but just hungry enough to nibble on a granola bar. He was eying his files, considering rewrites and additions, when the text came.

The photo was admired for a few moments, not because in and of itself it was unique but because he couldn't physically do the same to an idea. He smiled to himself as he replied.



Pulling on a jacket, tying his scarf, and tugging his usual beanie on, Jack left his room with a thick book of Poe under his arm and his iPod in his pocket. It would be remiss of him to leave it behind given the place he was going to.

He was easily spotted long before he arrived at the graveyard; it was hard to skulk about when he was 6'7" and especially hard when said giant was whistling merrily, like they were about to have a picnic in the fields rather than a coffee date among the dead. There was something to be said about the image of her looking at peace atop a tombstone, though, and he thought he was starting to truly grasp Hanna's version of gothic romanticism--and he hoped he would have a better idea by the end of their hang out.

"Hey," Jack greeted, glancing at the names of those allowed to be buried in passing. He didn't know why it hadn't occurred to him to visit the graveyard before. Maybe because he didn't know anyone personal there yet. Maybe because being there reminded him of how precariously close he had pushed Chel to it. Maybe because he should technically be among the dead himself. And yet he still felt strangely peaceful standing there with just his girlfriend, the breeze, and the smell of fresh coffee.

(He had to remember: She is alive. He is alive. But it always came back to, For how long?)

Leaning over, he kissed Hanna briefly, smiling, and wrapped his fingers around the free coffee cup. "Hope you don't mind the third wheel," Jack said, indicating his book. "I'd kick myself if I didn't let good ol' Poe visit the place too. So, a serious question: do we have to honor them," he made a vague gesture around them, "by pouring some for them? Because this smells too good to get wasted."