The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows [closed]

He wasn't entirely sure if he'd ever been in a more awkward situation in his life; trying to stay friendly, like what just happened didn't just happen, but even with all the doubts and uncertainty he knew it was the right thing to do to try and keep her company. Put the harsh situation a little more at least. To try and see things on the positive side, the halls were mostly empty then, students retreating to their dorms, hiding in classrooms for lunch, or playing games in the lounge and library. It made their soaked tread to the entrance a little more bearable.

The offices were close on the way. He'd at least stopped to get himself a fresh jacket. There'd been another he saw that he could offer to the girl beside him, an old thing he hadn't worn much since he was a student himself, stuck hanging around for quote a while. "Here," he said, handing it down to her. "Don't want you turning into a popsicle on the way, do we?"

She was entirely sure this was the most awkward moment in her life. Evelyn had a way of continually one-upping herself, day by day. At least she was good at something; getting in messes like this. If she had Jace's quick thinking, his confidence, maybe his looks, then maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it'd all be mundane, an average December day. Maybe it was all just static in his head right now, and he was just thinking about what he was going to eat tonight, or something equally tedious. Saved a girl from falling off a rooftop, no biggie.

They winded through the cavernous halls, and even though she knew every turn and pathway better than the back of her hand, she'd never felt so lost and out of place. She kept at Jace's heels, like a lost puppy, blinking mindlessly at him as he passed one of his old jackets to her. "Oh... O-Oh, th-thank you..."

Yeah. Wouldn't want that. She clumsily pulled it over her shoulders, trying to resist acknowledging that it smelled like him—... Shit. Evelyn pulled at her pendant, not looking up to glance at his face.

He smiled back softly. "Yeah, no problem." It didn't make their backsides any drier, but at least it would help to drive the cold away until they reached the cafe; not too long of a walk away, thankfully. Jason had taken a step for the doorway before he'd paused, finding himself lingering, his warm eyes fixated on her. There wasn't any point in being dishonest with himself. She was cold and tired and her hair was a bit of a mess, but wrapped up loosely in his old jacket and fiddling with her necklace; she did seem pretty cute then. And while he did have no problem admitting that to himself, guilt still tore away at him for the thought, for more reasons than one. Considering the situation, it should have been the last thing running through his mind.

He held his breath, shaking the thought away for good and taking care to grab an old bottle of aspirin from the drawer before they left. Not a few steps into the entrance courtyard, with the snow falling again before them and the rooftop hauntingly out of the corner of their eyes, did a few stale questions come rushing back.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, keeping his gaze forward and trying to come up with the right words to say without sounding insane. "This is random but," He paused, a slight frown coming on. "Have you ever been to Nepal?"

She probably hadn't. Imagining things in his adrenaline rush. It had happened so long ago, and he'd only mostly remembered the cherry on the top, some old scar on his stomach that refused to fade away. It wasn't as if the countries some sort of vacation getaway.

She permitted her eyes to wander as her brain shifted into autopilot, mindlessly tracking the falling snow, light glimpses sweeping up the form and figure of Jace's back. He could've been leading her through a volcanic landscape, for all she noticed. Evelyn had pulled herself up inside her own head, shelling up, blocking out the world around her. It was hard enough trying to keep things straight with this hurricane of sharp feeling bouncing around in her skull. The courtyard around her was a whole other spectrum of responsibility she couldn't afford to invest herself in at the moment.

Evelyn pulled the jacket tighter around her neck with a low murmur, fighting off the breath of cold that slipped straight through her few layers. She'd barely been paying attention to Jace when he asked the most innocent of questions, so innocuous, too specific to be coincidence or false conflation.

The slightest glimpse of their secret history together. The start of something. A ledge to toe onto. It was like getting popped in the face, as hard and blunt as a vodka rush. Did she even want this?—...

She blinked at him, mouth gaping for an answer. "Y-yes. Yeah. Yes." The words tumbled out like a waterfall. "H-Have you? I, I mean, y-yes, you have." Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. "D-do you... r-remember, we, um..." Evelyn started to reach out, as if to point where the bullet struck him, but her hand snapped back.

His mind rushed off ahead of itself as he struggled to remember. Most of the details were hazy, but he could vaguely remember with a sharp chill the climb to the top of that peak; the snowy cavern they were led into, him and Lotte and Pink Hair, Lupo too. Had she really been there too? Shit, well, of course she had. Otherwise she would have thought he was insane then. "We fought that weird Yeti thing, then the British asshole whipped out that gun and," He furrowed his brows, staring forward. "I don't remember. I was shot, and then that was it." The rest completely blanked on him. Had he blacked out?

Jason paused in his step. "But you were there?"

"Y-yeah... I d-d-didn't do m-much, b-but... yeah..." Cutting out all the boring details, that about summed it up. Kimply put an arrow right through the thing's eye, Lotte and her staff, Montare in his wolf form with a knife between his teeth. Her and her dagger. But did he remember the smalltalk on the plane ride there, and the hike up the mountain? The stupid little jokes? "You, um... h-had a p-p-pink light. On—on your... m-mic th-thing." He still called her Eve back then. She swallowed, turning her eyes to the ground, hands balled up into fists inside the jacket's long sleeves.

It did hit him, at least a little. He could remember fighting the urge to roll his eyes then and the stupid look on his face that followed, soft in the hot pink light. Someone muzzled their laughed, but he'd caught on then. God, it was so long ago, he could barely remember. "Yeah, that's just my luck," Jason cracked a small grin, rubbing his palm against his forehead and making a small grab for his hair. God damn. He was some kind of idiot, wasn't he? Ever since he'd been back to the school he'd been talking down to her... and after all that time, even with the gift and all, you'd have thought... Fuck. The blonde winced and rubbed away at his jaw.

He didn't know what he didn't know, but he did know that he had some serious treating to do. Call it making it up to her, or easing his guilt and confusion some. If he knew her then, if they might have been friends, then he had to have some sort of obligation here, right? To at least keep her company away from any rooftops?

"Did you eve or get hurt?" He wondered aloud, loosening up and waking out again. "Ever visit me, maybe - His tone managed to stay light and teasing before being cut off abruptly. They'd finally reached the entrance. Some soaked bags were left laying around, frozen panes of glass sitting among them. A fishtank?

You visited me. She almost said it out loud. Montare and Alicia, the scent of flowers, a smack against the concrete. He said it was a concussion. There was an awful racket, sounds of a struggle, muffled shouts. 'There is a fucking wolf in the hall!' It'd been all so jarring then. Now she wasn't sure if she'd even look twice. Evelyn stumbled on after him with a muffled laugh. "Yeah. A c-couple times."

The school was to their backs. Her legs felt like jelly walking out the gate. When he slowed down to gawk and wonder at the stack of abandoned boxes, she wondered if she should keep walking, pretend she hadn't noticed, and hope he'd just follow suit without asking any questions. Instead, she stopped, pressing her thumbs together as she wrung her hands.

"Ah, th-that's... mine. Heh." Her voice cracked. "B-but the fish... d-died, so, I mean..."

Maybe he hadn't thought so much on it before because of the adrenaline, his mind trying to brush past what had happened, and how it'd felt to see her up on that roof. Maybe it'd been so bold to distract him from that, throwing out old memories or reverting back to it's subtle, cheerful sense of humor, just like it had always done. She was fine. She didn't fall. He'd caught her, it was a stupid mistake, she didn't fall, it was only an accident that he could have helped her move on from. One step at a time.

He hadn't really known what he was doing, he was just trying to be a decent person, but seeing all her belongings stacked up in the frozen snow, to be abandoned and forgotten, God... Something in him shattered, made his stomach sink further than it had been when he was teetering over multi-story fence. It must have shown on his face, his smile breaking to a weak twist of his lips, as he stared the fish tank down.

"That's..." Jace didn't even know what to say, his voice turned forlorn. "That's a shame."

He stood there for what felt like some time, snowflakes sticking to his hair. "We should -," he tried to speak, but the words fell flat on his tongue. "Just - Come on..." The young man swept down, scooping up an old duffle bag of her clothes (he guessed) and suddenly stormed off down the snowy hills; near damn slipping a few steps in.

Oh. Oh. Before she could even begin to think up an answer, a few white lies to put his mind his ease, but then he was rushing off with a bag of her clothes. For a second, all she could do was stand there, wondering if she really had just driven him away, but suddenly stranded and alone in the cold, she was quick to follow. "W-wait!" He was, um, taking her stuff. And running. Evelyn picked up a box, not even remembering what was in it, and chased after him, almost slipping in the same exact way, breath billowing out in little white puffs with every other step.

Alright, maybe it was somewhat stupid to be running in the snow, he'd thought - after almost slipping two or three more times. Jason huffed, skidding to a halt as they steered off the main roads and made a breath through the small forest between Rosebury and the school itself. A shortcut, more for the residential guardians than the students themselves. At a few of the steeper steps, he'd paused; making sure she didn't slip down and hurt hurtself, despite his dramatic run off.

It wasn't until they'd reached the back-end of the apartments that he finally spoke up again.. "Don't worry, I'll still get your tea." He paused, frowning. "You need a place to stay for now, don't you?"

She slowed to a heavy breathing stop, almost dropping the box in her arms as they cut through the forest to the little complex that they'd set up for the stream of graduating students, would-be guardians. Even over the course of four or five short years, Rosebury had seemed to transform itself. Her... tea. Evelyn froze, stock-still, noto even sure how she was supposed to answer that.

A place to stay.

It was like he mocked her. Evelyn considered the possibility, that everything was one big joke, that everybody was in on except herself. "I-I mean, I w-w-wouldn't want t-to... um.. y-know, in-in-intru-intrude... It's o-okay..."

He smiled, an exasperated smile, like he knew the modest turn down was coming. "No, it's not." Jason paused, taking a few steps back to her and offering a hand - to try and help her with the heavy box. He itched to look away, to nod solemnly and accept her answer, but then - that was what had gotten them there in the first place. There was no way he could let her just run off again, not now. "My place has an extra bedroom and - ... Look, I can't let you sleep out in the snow." It wasn't as if Rosebury had any sort of cheesy motel to it. There was literally no where else to go.

Maybe he was being too curt, too fore with, but in his mind - it was something that had to be done.

It was only a small walk from then to the door, leaving him juggling the luggage bag and fumbling for his keys.

It was unreal. No way this was happening. But it was. And she was just along for the ride, a helpless victim to circumstance. Her ex-boyfriend was offering her a place to stay. That was enough complication without their gifts brought into it, but she'd almost grown accustomed to the strangeness that permeated every aspect of Beata. Evelyn should have protested more, found a decent excuse to dip and leave forever, never to see his face again, and it would've been so easy, but she didn't. She stood there, awkward as he fumbled with his keys.

What was she letting herself get dragged into?

Someone answered the door before Jace could get his key turned. Beautiful, tall, long legs and long blonde hair, green-blue eyes, a face built for Abercrombie ads. "Jason..." Her smile faded as she glimpsed Evelyn, just over his shoulder. "We have a guest...?"

He held back yet another heavy sigh, near one of many for the evening. While he'd already made up his mind, Jason hadn't even begun to think about how he would explain the girl's sudden appearance to his girlfriend. "Mon chérie," he answered back, all warm eyes and weak accent. Mon cherry. "One of the graduate students. I hope you don't mind."

The blonde put on his kindest smile, making room in the doorway and swiping a quick kiss against Elodie's cheek.