Avoidance problem?
To say Jon had spent the last month moping around, wouldn’t be quite right. Because he wasn’t moping, but he also wasn’t not moping. He was definitely avoiding basically all talk of rituals and work talk never left the archives. If things came up, Jon would change topics quickly, or suddenly be scarce.
If it wasn’t obvious to their friends, Martin knew for sure without a doubt it was bugging Jon. That there was some sort of mental coping that Jon did that ranged from ‘fixate an almost unhealthy amount’ to ‘avoid so hard that it would’ve taken literal worms to make him face it down’.
This time, majority of people didn’t get to see Jon’s year and a half long relationship with denial, but Martin remembered it. And god was it stressing Martin out. Every few days he would poke at Jon with a small “we gunna talk about what's bugging you?” to get a colorful variety of reasons to not. And Martin was okay with that. Jon was stubborn and he loved him for it.
Jon was out doing something reckless with Melanie while Martin was enjoying some tea and the Marshal. He ran his hand through her fur while she purred.
“What are we going to do about him? It’s not me overthinking. I know it’s not. Jon doesn’t just suddenly let things go like this. I would like him to. So he can relax. But it’s like I know, Know, it’s not the case.”
She let out a little trill of a purr while Martin slumped to the table. “Yeah, I’m probably looking too much into it. But he is notorious for not taking care of himself emotionally. Not to mention suddenly he and Melanie being best friends...”
Marshal rolled over and started to play swat at Martin’s hand. At the same time, Martin noticed the tape recorder running on the table.
“Listening in again hmmm? I’m not jealous by the way. If that is why you are here.” He looked away then back again. “Why me? You don’t just pop up for anyone else. I’ve asked.”
It was gone a moment later, and Martin sighed. Jon with all his infinite insights never explained to him properly. The best he ever got was that tapes appeared for things that needed to be recorded. Like it was simple as that. Why when Martin was alone. Was Jon missing him? Or was it as Jon put it, ‘the Eye is fond” of him.
The Beholding interrupted to let Martin know Jon was on the block and had dinner. It also provided that Jon’s hands were full. Didn’t need to suggest Martin should get his shoes on and help, but what else was Martin to do with that information. Watch Jon struggle?
---
Jon was okay. And he was. As much as everyone worried around him, this was the first time in so many uncountable years that Jon didn’t have to do anything. Nothing world-altering at least. No need to stop the rituals, prepare for one, his friends were alive and weren’t destined to die horrible deaths at the hands of the entities. Sasha’s accident was just that. Tim wasn’t going to explode. Daisy wasn’t going to be lost to the hunt. Melanie wasn’t going to have to blind herself to quit.
Jon was good. He had a house with Martin, a wonderful cat, things to do, and people to see outside of work. Heck, the only reason he didn’t have a ring on him at all times was cause he couldn’t trust the Beholding not to blab to Martin about it.
Jon was avoiding something. He hadn’t told Elias how things went with Peter. Elias couldn’t Know either. Elias was predictable. Soon as he knew about what had happened, Jon would need to start worrying about what Elias would do again. Have to overthink all the ways Elias could hurt everyone around him. And that would ruin all the ways Jon was feeling good.
So, Jon didn’t. To say he was avoiding being alone with Elias would be an understatement. He did his best to bump into Elias while in other departments or make sure they would just miss each other. Jon had even hid out in the bathroom for a good 20 minutes. Missed a few scheduled meetings with Elias even. Simply sent an email being all “hey, sorry got caught up in things. I’ll make the next one.”
Martin caught onto what Jon was doing early on. Made him feel a little guilty, but only because Martin was worried. Elias could wait forever for all he cared. Martin would bring it up from time to time while they cuddled. Jon wasn’t sure how much Martin knew about what he was going, but just that he was doing it.
One thing about time being so hard for Jon to grasp after everything, was that a month had passed and it could keep passing like this. Jon could keep this up forever. He’d been a passable skeptic for how many years? Avoiding his boss couldn’t be that much harder.
---
Jon’s optimism died on his tongue the moment after he greeted what he thought was an empty archive. Elias was sitting in the chair across from his desk waiting. If Jon had been in any other mood he would have loved to know Elias was sitting in that uncomfortable folding chair for quite a while.
“Morning Jon. Been a while. Seems we’ve both been rather busy and kept missing each other.” That fake cheer in Elias’ voice grated at Jon.
“Seems that way. I can’t imagine you have a lot of free time to just sit and wait. Even if it’s what you are best at…” Jon took his coat off and tossed it in the corner where it normally went for Marshal to cuddle up in.
“I see you are in a mood. I’ll keep it quick. How did things go with Peter? He filled me in on a bit, but he couldn’t have told me how it actually went after all.”
“It was a waste of time.” Jon wasn’t going to lie. No real point in lying about it, avoiding it was all he could’ve done. “I- I’m-” How to even word it. “Look, you need to give up on the ritual. It can’t happen again. The door is closed and it’s staying that way.”
Elias’ fake pleasantries faded, replaced with something more aligned to spite. “How unlike you to give up. I’m sure there is more.”
Jon let out a heavy sigh. Martin was still 15 minutes away with Marshal. Jon regretted not waiting. “It’s pointless. I can’t be marked anymore. The previous ones are probably still even there. Just they stopped scaring me, so they stopped counting. I’m not scared of the encounters with entities anymore. Not in a way that matters for the ritual.”
“I was afraid that this would happen. First time around also. Basira played such a pivotal role in keeping you afraid back then. Once you stop being human enough to be marked.”
Jon glared but remained silent.
“Well. Bit of a setback, but now it wasn’t a waste to have a backup Archivist. Not too late to start preparing. The Web will be the hardest part, since he enjoys spiders, but I’m sure-”
Static cut Elias off. It cut off all conversations in the institute of the few people that came in before nine. Everyone could feel Jon’s rage in the air, buzzing like the air before a lightning storm, without knowing Jon as the source. Just something in the air was wrong. But for Elias, feeling it would be an understatement of what he felt.
All of Jon’s glowing eyes focused and Looked at Elias. It wasn’t just Jon looking at him. It was almost as if he was staring at the Eye that watched from the sky for so long.
“̩̦̤̮̫̉̄͛̎͘͠ͅO̗̩͓͂͑͐̆̚͜͟ṉ̛͚͖̻̹͑̍̏̕e̛̼̙̘̳̻̻̅̌͂͊ ȇ͚̙̝͉͙̗̓͐͊̃̾ͅỹ̟͉̤̙̽̄̅ȩ̝̲̭̤̈́̏͋̽͆ i͕͖̫̩̮̤͙͋͒́̊͛̚͞ŝ̡̘͓͙̔͑̿̃͢ ę̧͉̭͉͕̐̀̐̑͋͢͡͞n͖͙͍͋̑ȯ̤͖͈͉̱͆̋̏̽͢͞ụ̞̖̫̯̺̓̃̒͌̋̚g̛̪̯͇͇͖͗̍̃̑́̒͟ͅh̺̱̲͓̱̝͒̀͛̈́͌͡ t̛̰̥͂͌ͅo͚͕̥̦̪̘̱̒͛̌̊̅̔͞ w̟̘̣̉́̍̓̄͢͟a̢̨̳͇̝̥͒͋̈́͐́͞t̢̨̖̤͍̳̎̔̅͒̾̏̿ͅc̫̝̘̼̗̎͐̆̒͜͡h̢̩̉͆͐͘͜͟ w̢͕̤͔̾̍̏ĩ̱͇̫̏t̨̝͈̎̎͞h̛̬̬͖͚͑̓͞.̗̭̗͆̽”̨̧̖͈̫̇̌̅̕͠
It wasn’t Jon’s voice. It was, just not entirely just his.
Then Elias blinked. When he did two things happened. The first was Elias couldn’t see the right side of the room anymore, the Knowledge that he would never be able to see from that side again settled in his mind. There wasn’t pain in his eye. It looked the same as ever. In theory, there was a perfectly, undamaged, working eye. Elias just couldn’t see using it anymore. He almost entertained the thought of Jon using it to watch every one of Elias’ movements from here on out, but he couldn’t Know if that was true.
The second was he couldn’t remember. Elias knew what he had forgotten, but he couldn’t remember. Couldn’t Know. The fact that the ritual succeeded was there. That his plan had worked, but what were the details of the plan. Of any of the ritual plans. It was on the border of his mind, but locked. Thinking about it made it slip further away. Only the fact remained that he succeeded in whatever he had done, and he will never be able to remember how.
Neither needed to exchange any further words. Elias left silently. A point was made, and that would not be forgotten.
---
Fifteen minutes felt like hours as Martin rushed down into Jon’s office. The Beholding provided limited information of Elias was with Jon in the Archives, then a few minutes later added something along the lines of ‘Martin will be safe now’.
The rest of the time, it was silent as Martin worried about what that meant. How had Jon interacting with Elias lead to Martin being safe. How could that information be provided without including that Jon was safe?
All the various ways this result could have happened played out in Martin’s mind. Assisted with Jon’s terrible track record of self-sacrificing, and unhealthy deals, that Jon simply telling Elias something along the lines of ‘be nice to my boyfriend’ wasn’t something that would come close to crossing his mind.
No, Martin was sure Jon did something reckless and stupid and-
Martin’s internal gripping was cut off when he saw Jon at his desk. Jon looked oddly calm till his eyes met Martin’s.
Jon was almost instantly in Martin’s arms before Martin could even enter the room all the way. Jon buried his face into Martin. There wasn’t sobbing, or anything that actually indicated stress response.
“Jon, what happened. The Eye told me...”
“I was so mad. That Elias would even think to- Then I Knew how to stop him, and I let it happen. It- I did something terrible, but I- Elias won't be a problem anymore. Least not in the way he was before.”