Life continues on
It was harder for Jon to talk about than he thought it would be. Not because it was morbid and his identity felt slippery, but there wasn’t any guilt he felt like he should be feeling. Feeling guilty for not being guilty felt too much like before when he was first Becoming. Before when he was hiding his feeding habits. He was almost expecting the same treatment, like this was the final straw, and he would find himself alone in his office again. Like the last 6 months has just been a nice dream among the nightmares.
Martin was definitely taking this differently than Jon figured he would as they sat next to each other on Martin’s couch. Martin didn’t seem flustered or upset in any way, just looked at Jon calmly taking it all in.
“I’m sorry, this is a lot to drop on you out of nowhere. I just don’t want to hide anything from anyone, but how am I supposed to tell Tim about how easy it was to talk with Nikola…”
“Well. Just don’t then.” Martin looked sternly at Jon’s shocked response. “Just because you are a Being of Terrible All-Knowing doesn’t mean you can’t have secrets.”
“But last-”
“Nope. I’m not budging with this. If we can have secrets, then you can too. You’ve overshared to no end, and if you have something you don’t want to share, you can have that.”
“Even if I meant what I said to her? How it was easy to find a replacement for their ritual, about helping her locating it once ready, and potentially taking her up on her invitation to watch.” Jon looked pained saying it and Martin let out a sigh.
“Yes. Of course, you would want to watch the ritual. Your curiosity is insatiable, especially when you have access to blind spots the Eye can’t look into. No one can fault you for that. It’s such an endearing trait of yours. Besides, you mentioned helping her would decrease victims, right?”
Jon nodded. “Either through shaving off a year or two, or convincing her to hold off on preparations, like convincing her they are starting preparations too soon, there would be at least several dozens of people that wouldn’t get sk- ...get their form of invitation to join in...”
“Exactly. It’s better for you to be involved, keep it from getting out of control, or by getting it over with so it can fail and we can move on. I know you’ve been working hard at building trust, especially after the whole future thing coming to light.” Marten reached over to Jon and pulled him into a cuddle. “You’ve got to trust that you won’t be abandoned by us. It’s not like last time.”
Jon didn’t resist and snuggled into Martin. “I-I really want to trust that. I do. It’s just hard. Normally it’s not bad like this, but when talking with Nikola, it felt like, I was less me and more-”
“If you say the word, I’m telling.” Martin’s smile could be heard laced in the words.
“Oh come on. I wasn’t going to say like a monster. I mean yes, I can see how you could predict that being the next word I guess.”
“Good. Continue then.”
Jon paused. “I forgot now.”
“Shame then. Looks like you will need to stop moping.”
“I am Not moping. It's very valid concerns.”
“They are valid, but I’m telling you, it’ll be okay. Trust me when I say this. I don’t have to have been there to understand what happened.”
Jon raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I’ve got a handful of memories from when we were exploring and making friends. I know a bit about how you interact with other Avatars. Sure I’m assuming a little bit, but when you say you weren’t acting like yourself, it sounds more like you were relaxed in a different way, with a side of stranger induced paranoia.”
“Hm...that’s a sound point…”
“Indeed.”
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“That thing, where you see me. Like in a way I can’t begin to understand. And make it so simple.”
“It is simple. Least for me. And when it’s not simple, we can work it out.” Martin reassured Jon with a look that Jon recognized from all the times in the future.
“Fine. You’re right. It is fairly simple. I’m still telling everyone about Nikki tho. T-to warn them a Stranger might drop by from time to time. I remember her well enough to know human things come even less to her than me. She hasn’t been human since 1823 so hard to know how she will interpret a friendship with The Archivist.”
“Wow, she looks great for her age. Good for her. Bet dermatologists hate her.”
Some of Jon’s neck eyes opened to stare at how not funny Martin’s comment was before he started to snicker a bit.
Martin grinned wide, joining in the snickering.
“So tell Tim you made friends with a Stranger and leave it at that?”
“I might mention it’ll get us details on the Circus' movement, but everything else will be between you and I.”
“Sounds good then. With that settled, shall I walk you home? I don’t want to part ways yet, but you got a little critter that is probably looking for some attention.”
“She is napping, but I’m sure she would enjoy some company if you wanted to stay for a while after. Could order some dinner and watch a movie?”
“Oooh, Are you asking me on another date? I’ll have two dates to talk about tomorrow.”
“You could let me gossip about tonight's date, you can have the first. See how long it takes them to figure out there were two rather than one?”
“Oh how devious. I like it.” Martin moved to get up, while taking Jon’s hand to lead him.
--
Monday Morning, Tim and Sasha were buzzing waiting for Jon and Martin. It was 9 and neither was in yet.
“Wanna place bets they come in together?” Sasha looked up from her statement that she was making no progress on.
“Tim, you know their date was on Friday. That would mean they spent the entire weekend together?”
“They apparently spent the entire apocalypse together. Jon is clingy. It’d be weird for him to give that up. Plus Martin wouldn’t say no.”
“Hmm we’re about to find out. I hear the Marshal’s bell. I put down: they come in together, but by coincidence, while you have they spent the whole weekend together. Loser has to clean the breakroom.”
“Deal.” Tim reached over to shake on it, when the door opened to reveal both Jon and Martin, with the Mashal on Jon’s shoulder.
“Morning.” Jon scratched under the Marshal’s chin. “What are you grinning about Tim?”
“Ha! I knew you would both be coming in together. Have a good weekend Boss?”
Martin’s face gave what Tim and Sasha could both assume was an answer to that, while Jon responded. “I did in fact. Had a lovely date and meet up with an old friend. Which to point out, the old friend might be stopping by at random. I have no control over when she might, so heads up, she is an Avatar of the Stranger. Well, off to have breakfast.” Jon hurried into his office, grabbing a statement on his way in. The door was closed behind him.
Tim and Sasha couldn’t digest all that, so they narrowed onto Martin, who was getting settled in at his desk.
“Sooo Details.” Sasha had gotten up and was leaning on Martin’s desk. “How’d poetry night go?”
“Oh well, it didn’t. Turns out live shows where people could have stage fright is like a buffet for Jon.”
“Rough start.” Tim looked sympathetic.
“Oh no. I mean yeah, but I didn’t have to go up there. We went for a walk, then ended up going to a pub for trivia. We won” Sasha laughed at that with a mumbling of ‘course you did’ while Tim rolled his eyes. “I helped. We set rules that he would only answer about half the questions, so it was up to me to get some answers right. We won, so dinner was on the house. We finished up with me reciting my poem to him while walking home. It was a wonderful time.”
“That sounds lovely.” Sasha smiled brightly. “No other juicy info, like I dunno, spending the entire weekend together and coming into work together?”
“W-what Sasha! I didn’t spend the whole weekend with him. He did kiss me goodbye in my doorway afterwards which was wonderful. -Wait, were you two betting on me and Jon again?!” Sasha scurried back to her desk while Tim looked defeated.
--
Tim walked into Jon’s office later in the day to drop off some work and grinned. “Heard you had a stellar date, boss.”
“It wasn’t the most eventful date. Just a nice night with some take out. We watched some American film that Georgie suggested.”
Tim looked confused. “Wait, Martin said the date was at a Pub.”
Jon smiled. “Was that all he said?”
“Wait wait wait, so when you both came in today…” Jon nodded.
“Yes, Martin fell asleep during the movie so I let him stay over. Seemed silly not to.”
“That li-”
“It wasn’t the whole weekend. He didn’t lie. To bad you already cleaned up.” Jon looked like he was having fun watching Tim put two and two together.
“Oh my god. You are both insufferable.” Tim left the papers on Jon’s desk and hurried out. “Sasha! We’ve been played! Martin did spend the night at Jon’s. They had two dates.”
Various sounds of emotions came from Sasha in the break room while Martin laughed from his desk.