wintershepherd | [TUSHANSHU] IC Inbox

Oh... I didn't mean right now. He may not want company but if he does, I'll want to be able to stay.

[...oh! It just went to show how out of it she still was, that she misinterpreted. Since he had abruptly brought Tony up the way he had, she'd assumed...]

[But no, this was good. He was still thinking of others, but he very much wasn't avoiding her attention, either. Her expression softened, and to her faint surprise, she realized she had to resist the urge to kiss his cheek for being such a wonderful person as always.]

Who wouldn't want your company? You are the coolest kid on the block, you know.

And speaking of...want to head into the living room? We can sit on the couch, and you can read to me.

I'm pretty sure Tony is used to being the coolest.

[ While Jack had never gotten the same sort of connection with this Tony, some things were constants. He headed into the living room and waited, though there was still a little more distance to his posture than normal. ]

It's not written in... you know, paragraphs or anything.

[Baby steps. So long as those steps led her over to the couch, where she made herself comfortable on one side of the cushions, she could accept their unusually slow pace.]

As long as it's not written in Russian, I think I'll be fine.

[ Jack opened the large book and flipped through it, settling on a page for Kara; a mutual friend to both of them. Rather than reading it, he just moved the book so that it was sitting across both of their laps and let her peruse the page.

There were notes of her residence at FI-1B, and dates of arrival and departure... but there were also quotes, a little swatch of colours (red, yellow, blue, white). It was more like a scrapbook than a logbook, Jack's halfway decent sketch of the Super symbol she had worn. There were quotes of things she'd said to him ("You'll just have to trust me. My father was a devoted scientist. It was a miracle we ever got him away from the lab.") and things that had stuck in Jack's mind. ]

[She recognized the name the moment her eyes fell upon it, and smiled in nostalgia as she initially scanned over the page. It was all there. Her symbols. Her speech patterns. Even some of her habits.]

I never realized you two were so well acquainted. [She shifted slightly in her seat to get a better vantage point of the shared page. Along the way, her arms lightly brushed against Jack's, but with the pendant secured on her neck, she barely felt it.] If I'd've known, we could have hung out more together.

She and I used to go on girldates all the time. It was fun.

Well...

[ He hedges slightly, looking at the page. ]

We were friends, I wouldn't call us close.

I'm pretty sure you could make friends with almost anybody, Jack.

[Give or take.]

[...it was one of the reasons why all these disappearances were hitting him so hard, she figured. He had so many more faces to lose.]

Just making up for lost time, that's all.

[ He turned the page to Finnick's entry, running his hands over the sketches of the first lures they'd made together, unfolded the small certificate that showed them joint owners of the fishing shop. ]

[She fell silent at that, particular as the next page came upon a name that...well, she hadn't known Finnick. Not personally. But she knew what the guy had meant to Jack, if his continued loyalty to the fish shop were any indication.]

[For once, she had no comments to make. It wasn't her place right then. Sure, she had helped Jack out at the shop once or twice...but this memory was all his. He could choose to say something, or remain quiet until he turned to the next name.]

[ Jack flips a few more pages: Victoria's, Bryn's, Raylan's, Victor's and settles on Cassandra's. He hadn't known the quiet girl very well but the spirit had always felt that she understood some aspects of him that he hadn't expected anyone else to share. ]

I haven't decided if doing this makes sense or not.

It's important to you. That's what matters.

[Her eyes flickered over the page for a moment before recognition set in.]

...I remember her. We danced together at one of the first formal balls I went to here. She was...sweet.

[Translation: they may have play flirted a little]

Maybe. I don't know.

[ He doesn't know if it helps him at all, the weight of doing it is heavy. But now that he's started, it feels wrong to stop. ]

Yeah, she was.

You want to look through the rest of the book?

Edited 2014-03-30 04:36 (UTC)

[A similar thought was running through her mind. Zatanna tended to prefer living in the present, not the past. But what Jack was doing...taking the time to remember...she was starting to understand.]

Sure.

Only if you want to, of course, but...I kind of like this.

[ Jack passed over the book to her lap, just as a knock sounded and he stood. ]

That's the sandwiches, I'll go get them.

Alright.

[It was a good thing she had previously made the deal with the store regarding payment, because right then, she'd forgotten completely that she wanted the meal to be on her. Her eyes remained focused on the book, even as Jack got up and headed for the door. continuing to absently scroll through the pages while taking in each and every name. Some, she recognized. Some were so foreign to her she had to wonder if their paths had ever crossed.]

[By the time he returned, however, he would find her staring down at a page she had only just turned to, and a name there was no way she would be able to forget.]

[Dick Grayson]

[ In retrospect he should have realized that she was likely to come across that page, or maybe even seek it out, but then hindsight was nearly always perfect. Setting the wrapped sandwiches down on the table, Jack sat beside her and reached out to touch her arm... but stopped before making contact, instead pulling his hands back into his hoodie pocket. ]

Zatanna...

[She waited for the pain to come. The sadness.]

[It never did.]

[True, there was the slightest ping in her heart as she thought of the boy. The part where Jack briefly mentioned them being together in his writing. She missed him. Missed his face. His laugh. The way he made her feel in those (often rare) moments when they were able to just be themselves around each other. Especially after she Found Out.]

[But, to her surprise...she was okay. After a moment of scanning what Jack wrote, she even smiled. Not a fake mask put on for his sake, but a look of genuine amusement.]

I can just imagine the look on his face if he ever saw this.

[On the one hand, there were Secrets, and secrets behind the secrets. With a start, Zatanna realized that, as relatively little as Jack had written--Dick's entry was roughly the size of Kara's--there wasn't much more she would have been able to make public herself.]

[But on the other hand...]

Knowing him, he'd either just stand there, gloating, or try to find some way to hack the book so he could add his own signature touch. Which may or may not involve a few jokes and exaggerations of his accomplishments here.

[ The smile Jack had in response to that was wry, though still tinted with caution as though he wasn't yet sure her response was genuine. ]

I'd probably let him, if he asked. Then again, I don't think they make a book thick enough to contain the record of pun wars.

[One of the downsides of having so much experiencing wearing a smiling mask in the face of contrasting emotions. ...and having somebody know her well enough to know that's exactly what she would do in a situation like this.]

So we'd skip to the highlights. Or just add a footnote at the bottom that says "see: English Dictionary"

[ That pulls a soft laugh from him, because it might not be so far from the truth. ]

Footnotes, there's an idea. You can help me come up with some.

[She smiled when he laughed, relaxing a little more. With everything, it felt good to hear him laugh again. He needed just as much as she did.]

Are you sure? This is your project, Jack.

I don't mind sharing it.

[ The "with you" is implied. ]

[The implication may or may not have been received.]

[Either way, there would be no mistaking the look of pure, serene happiness as she glanced up at him. Their eyes locking for a fleeting moment before she nodded, shifting her weight a bit so that they could continue sharing the book.]

It's a good thing we ordered food, then. This might take a while.

[More than a single afternoon together, of course. If that's what he wanted.]

Just say the word, and I'll add in my two cents. Free of charge, even.

Looks like we'll make a whole evening of it.

[ He reaches for their sandwiches he'd put on the table and handed hers over. ]

Food first, but then we'll work on it.

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backwordscompatible - 2014-04-04 04:20 (UTC) - Expand