[PRP] Displacement (Jack & Chel)

[chiickadee]

Chel raised an eyebrow at the door banging. She'd put it away for later.

Rather than go to the kitchen, Chel took off her shoes and headed straight for his bed, privacy be damned. She was ******** tired.  

[medigel]

He let her be, content to drink some water, set the plants in a small jar with what he didn't drink of the bottle, and chew gum until the taste of smoke was coated over with mint. It...tasted worse than he had thought it would.

Shortly after, he locked the door, set the camera down for later, and shuffled into bed with her, his mind buzzing, his body fading fast. He fell onto the sheets and barely bothered to cover up; the only thing he had fussed with was leaving his shoes at the entrance.

Both were going to be knocked out for a while. Only as he was fading into unconsciousness did it strike him that he had forgotten to get her to promise to stay until he woke up.
 

[chiickadee]

Jack would find her the next morning, staring at his bathroom window with a bloody nose.  

[medigel]

The flash of color in passing was what made him stop. There were plenty of things there to cover up. Not a fight. Concentration, he deduced, or the cold air biting at her again. But something made him doubt something so ordinary.

"What's up?" In the mirror he looked disheveled, and Jack began to try and fix it some, his glasses on for the time being.
 

[chiickadee]

Her eyes snapped over to him, the pinkish-yellow color fading from her irises to once again be her sky blue color. "S'nothin'," she told him, abruptly reaching for a piece of toilet paper to clog up her nose, as though she hadn't been aware of it until that moment.

"Nothing," she repeated. Instead she turned it on him- "You look like s**t."  

[medigel]

He doesn't bother answering with more than a furrowed brow. It was impossible to miss those eyes, and she knew it.  

[chiickadee]

"What?" she asked him, accusing look on her face; daring him fo ask about it.  

[medigel]

"Something happen with All-Seeing?" he asked patiently.
 

[chiickadee]

"No." A beat. "I don't know." Another. "Close the door."  

[medigel]

He stepped in and closed the door as bid, frown remaining. Her paranoia was going to get contagious, but Jack didn't prompt her again.  

[chiickadee]

"I was just ... talkin' to him. 'Bout all ..." She gestured to the air around her in a frustrated way. "This."  

[medigel]

"What'd he say?" He assumed nothing good given the nosebleed; the idea made him antsy.  

[chiickadee]

Chel finished wiping her nose with the toilet paper and threw the bloody wad into the trashcan. It had luckily been a relatively short one.

She moved towards Jack but kept an odd distance between them. She wanted to touch but didn't make the first move. "M'so tired of magic," she said, instead of answering his question. "I wanna go back, Jack."

Back to when the worst she had to worry about was her parents; when the fate of the world didn't hang in the blood spilling from her palm.  

[medigel]

Despite sleeping, hearing the words made him feel tired again; like it had only been a nap to break up an exhaustive and never ending day. If Chel didn't object, he took her hand and sank against the door, pulling her into his lap to hold once he hit the floor.

Jack didn't know what to say for a while. The more things changed.

"I could put some money together for a motorcycle," he eventually suggested.  

[chiickadee]

Chel stood above him for a moment, looking down unsteadily. She knew what he was asking of her (always the damn bathroom floor).

She gave up and allowed him to lead her. She was too tired to deal with the knot in her stomach and the tear in her chest; let her rest, let her be.

"That won't fix nothin'," she said with a hollow sounding tone.

medigel

gomen busy busy