I'm way too young to lie here forever⭐️

[nifties]

John is doing that creepy thing again where he wakes up long before Zari (if he ever slept) and watches her sleep later into the morning. One slightly rough hand smooths its way up and down her arm as he waits patiently for her to come to, leaning up against the headboard and trying to calculate how much time they have before someone crashes in here to get them to breakfast and then to some broken part of history. Since coming back from their vacation, they haven't spent much quality time one-on-one between the team and each of their day jobs. Not to mention him getting Astra settled and everything that's going on there. It only makes the time they do have more precious, though, and moments like this seem all the more surreal.

"Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?" he murmurs in his gravely tone that comes from too many years of cigarettes and booze. "Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and Summer's lease hath all too short a date." He's realizing as he recites the poem how long it's actually been in real-world time since the Romeo and Juliet debut. That kiss... The back of his hand travels over her cheek gently, thinking it unfair that as a timetraveler he can't make this moment last forever.

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[nifties]

The question takes him off-kilter, not because he thinks it's cruel but because it doesn't matter to him the same way it does her. He gets consent, if only because of her that it's more than a passing thought, but if he hadn't killed Gary it would have been an innocent. That he would have been forced to do too to keep Armageddon at bay.

"Thankfully, he saw it my way eventually." Meaning he did take the time to convince Gaz of his cause once the other man cottoned onto his intentions. He supposes in retrospect, he didn't have to afford him that luxury. "He said it was his way to repent... for what we did to Astra."

John looks down, then gets up himself before she can decide to, retreating back to the counter as he takes another steadying sip of his tea. He thinks about reaching behind him for the scotch, but that would make him no different from the late Gary in the end, wouldn't it? He waits silently for her reply, the house ceasing all activity as if the molecules of everything are merely standing around them, waiting for someone to breathe again.

[influenceher]

To Zari it is the difference between the hard call and outright cruelty. There are always choices. The world in any era has no short supply of evil people that deserved that fate. Zari wouldn't lose a wink of sleep if one of the Encores they faced back at house met that end for example. She lets out a disbelieving scoff at the rest of his reply. Tunnel vision is pretty classic for addicts, picking out one bad day of behavior, and obsessing over it while not recognizing the rest. It still gets to Zari all the same.

"Astra... not the people who died horrifically while he waffled on whether or not he wanted to finish what he started. Just her." She has to shake her head in disbelief. What a piece of work. Zari rubs her temples as she tries to figure out where that leaves them. She already knows they're not over. Gary made a choice to repent for what he did with the time John allotted him by accepting that awful death. Did he deserve it? The families of the ones who died would say he did probably. He withheld information that could have gotten John to stop it sooner and attacked an innocent woman to escape responsibility. Zari knows they still kill people for these kind of crimes in this era. Granted no court would ever believe it happened. The principle remains he unleashed something that killed a lot of people and attacked a woman when it came time to answer for what he did.

She blows out a sigh through her nose and finally addresses the situation properly. "It was his choice, John. You had a part in it. You should feel guilty since we both know getting eaten alive is a terrible way to die, but people died that way because of him too." Her eyes meet his. That's the part that honestly pisses her off. Are they just going to skate past the fact he did that to innocent people with his carelessness? "One way or another your friend was going to have to answer for that. At least he died trying to make it right for someone." Not the people he truly wronged, but whatever. Zari has to let that one go.

[nifties]

John nods first without knowing what he's agreeing to, but as she goes on he realizes why she's upset. It was the same reason he had been, at the time. Of course, there still remains the thought that if Gaz had never met him he would never have dabbled in magic, maybe he wouldn't even have become an addict. He definitely would still be alive. He sets his tea aside and wraps his arms around his middle, glancing over to see the fire blown out from neglect.

"Zed was livid, at the time. She said I tricked him, that he was my friend..."

And it would've been easier, to bind the spirit to anyone else. Someone he didn't know. But it wouldn't have been right.

Tears fill his eyes but he brings a hand up to scrub over his face before even one can fall. Still, his voice is wobbly as a result. "I know we don't talk about religion really." A conscious choice on John's part, but here goes nothing considering he's in confession mode. "But I know I was put down here on this earth to help set things right. To do things no man with a clean soul could ever do."

His eyes catch on that university crest and a bark of laughter bursts from his lips, watery but sure.

"I tried, after Astra. To put it all away and forget who I was. But just like Jasper, I couldn't do it." Maybe it was a bit of a bluff when he told Zari he'd give this all up for her. The truth is, he doesn't think God would allow him to, to say nothing of the other factors moving in his life. "Gaz wasn't the last time I'll have to do something like that." And it's the real reason he never lets anyone close enough to see him.

[influenceher]

She doesn't argue Zed's assessment of the situation. Zari didn't see what she saw. It's a waste of time without the woman here to explain it. Zari opts instead to continue hearing John out. They really don't talk about religion. Her faith is on full display even if her practice of it may be open to criticism. John's feelings towards it are a much harder read. As such it's almost surprising that is where he takes it if he hadn't given her so much information before. He was visited by an actual angel. Of course he's going to think his role in this is important. Is he wrong? Zari can't say so. That's between him and God. Looking at what he's done just while she was around; stopping false gods from controlling humankind is a divine mission. It isn't insane thing to think this is the burden placed on him. Far be it from her to try undercutting his faith.

Her lips quirk up wryly as she realizes he lied to her earlier. He'd never give this up. Good thing she'd never ask him to. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Zari says finally. So far the Legends have been good at finding a way out, but Zari can't pretend they won't ever find themselves in this kind of situation. She also knows there is no controlling what can happen when John is away with Gary too. All she can promise is to stick it out unless he does something truly evil. They're not there yet, are they?

[nifties]

"The point is even after everything he did, she sat by him and watched him die with me." No matter how much John had tried to protect her, she always went back out into the fray. And like Zari says, that's her choice. It's his own arrogance and ego he attaches to the choices other people make around him and for once he's finding it in himself to let it go. He breathes easier than he has in a long time, glancing around at the mess they've made but figuring it can be taken care of tomorrow. "Can we go to bed now?"

The gaze he turns on her then is red-ringed and exhausted, like telling her this wrung out the last bit of energy he had.

[influenceher]

It says more about Zed than the men in the story. Her capacity to forgive is something that Zari admires without ever knowing the other woman. She rises to her feet silently, padding over to his side. She gently takes his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together as she starts to walk ahead.

"Let's get some sleep." All of this can wait until morning. Emotionally Zari knows she is absolutely spent. She's ready to collapse into whatever bed this place sends them to. Thank God his disappearance earlier gave her time to clean up a little. She doesn't have the energy or supplies for the full routine.

[nifties]

His hand strengthens in her grip and he nods softly, allowing Zari to lead the way. Nothing strange happens this time, with her at the helm, the hallway seemingly normal as they reach the top of the stairs as it stretches out to a finite amount of rooms this time. He doesn't even notice which bedroom they end up in before breaking from her to strip off his clothes and crawl into Jasper's big four-poster bed pre-made with flannel sheets. She asked for cozy and the house provided, John thinks, turning over to envelope her into his embrace the moment she makes it under the covers.

"I love you," he murmurs, kissing her temple soundly as he already begins to drift off. Maybe she'll never see him the same after all that's been said tonight, but he has to believe her still being here at his side means something.

[influenceher]

She's never going to be able to forget how he started this conversation. Zari has seen him kill before to protect her and the team. Talking that way about a friend will forever spook her to the core. The context helps, of course. What's the saying? Forgive, but never forget? That doesn't stop Zari from leading him to a room. Certainly doesn't stop her from pulling her hair into a messy pineapple bun and crawling into bed with John.

She lets him hold her like nothing ever happened, kiss her sweetly, and drift off to bed. "I love you too." She reassures, voice uncharacteristically small even while sincere. Zari doesn't go to sleep right away. She stays up to watch him for a solid hour, reconciling all the violence and tough calls with the man who needs reassurance that he's satisfying her, that clings to her side whenever possible. There's no satisfactory answer to be found.

She falls asleep to the sound of his breathing shortly after that hour mark. Zari will stay dead asleep in blissful darkness for another ten hours. It has, after all, really been a day.