Fandom Into the fire (1x1 MzHyde/Gallifrog)

[_gallifrog_]

Having known Jay for a couple of years now, Elliott was pretty used to finding out that the crazy things that came out of her mouth were actually real experiences she, or somebody she knew had had. So neither the idea of intense military training or the idea of Jay, Cliff and Cal going through such training didn't surprise him. Even as a child he'd known the reputation of the Royal Guard and had heard the rumours of the severity of the training they went through. John's smirk was the broadest at Cal's whispered words. He couldn't actually hear them, but Cal had spoken in English so he was able to read her lips and was 80 percent certain she'd made a quip at how it wasn't a competition.

Even though Cal's tone was light and she was smirking ever so slightly at her own stupidity at thinking Cliff was dead, both Elliott and Cliff (the people who'd known her the longest and the best) could see and hear the genuine worry in her tone. She wasn't just scared at the time, Cal had been terrified, there was something about seeing Cliff lying there unmoving on the floor, face drawn, skin pale, that made her blood run cold. She hadn't realised it at the time, but looking back with hindsight, it seemed that that moment in uni could have been when she grasped for the first time just how important Cliff was to her and how much she didn't want to lose Cliff. Luckily for Cal, one of the other students on that floor was a medical student and explained that a day or two of rest, some fluids, and no stressing about coursework and Cliff could be right as rain again

"If that drink is what I think it is, then yes, unhealthy in about every way I can care to name." Cliff replied to Kay's words. The brand Red Bull didn't exist on Attil, but she could infer from Kay's words that she was talking about an energy drink and could make an educated statement that way. "For me it was coffee" "And still is." Cal added, to which Cliff could only nod in agreement, the doctor all too aware that she had a coffee addiction. "It's one of the tricks you learn as a medical student, ALWAYS carry a small tin of ground coffee with you at all times. It's a bloody life saver. Or tea if that's your thing."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay could easily imagine how terrified Cal was seeing Cliff in such a position and state. She was pretty damn sure that if she walked in on someone she cared about looking like that, she would have been terrified as well. It was just good in her eyes, that they could look back on it and smile. She nodded when Cliff summarised her suspicions of the energy drink, knowing she got it spot on. She didn't think they'd have it here on Attil, which was one reason she added the words 'energy drink' after the brand to make it easier for them to guess just how bad the stuff is. She smirked at the coffee remark, knowing it was slightly better than what her teenage self drank down constantly, but for her cans of sugary drinks were much easier to conceal and carry in the bag.

"oh the drink is bad. I got too addicted to drinking the stuff as a kid to get through, I ended up being banned from the stuff. I'm pretty sure it's over 70% sugar in one small can. Needless to say I turned to coffee when that ban came in" she smirked, remembering being scolded by not just Sam but her adoptive parents for relying on the crap so much just to get through school work. She was glad that Seattle is not only known for its music but also coffee, meaning it was so easy to get some anywhere you went. She was still biased on the fact that Seattle had the best coffee as well, finding that as nice as some places in London were, nothing beat Seattle. "which made it a godsend growing up in Seattle and not London. Seattle is famous for two things-- its coffee and music." she finished.

Fia smiled listening to Kay talk about her time in Seattle as she had only really heard brief stories from Sam about it. In her timeline, Kay never really spoke about her years growing up as a teenager in America. For the most part she knew it was too raw to talk about, so much was plagued with darkness but for things like this, she always wondered why her mother was just so closed off to her. So for her, it was nice to see her mother being a lot more open.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The reaction Cliff had to the phrase 'seventy percent sugar' was one that Cal knew well. It was the same reaction Cliff had when she disapproved of anything, a shake of the head, followed by Cliff pinching the bridge of her nose while letting out a well worn sigh. Cal often though that if Cliff had to wear glasses it would only enhance the disapproving nature of the gesture, there was something about somebody sighing and pushing their glasses up their nose that was a quintessentially disapproving gesture in Cal's mind. There were drinks with that kind of sugar content available on Attil (and many other planets) but Cliff refused to drink them on point of principle. She also refused to drink fizzy drinks, a quirk Rinaa had picked up (and copied) from her time spent living with Cliff and Cal.

"As much as I love London, I gotta agree that the coffee there is for the most part either shit, completely overpriced or artisan." John said the word artisan with the same amount of disdain as a normal person would use when talking about particularly foul dog shit on their shoe. Artisan food places just pissed him off, not only was it stupidly pricey, there wasn't even proper food or drink served in those places. As for shit coffee, it was a staple of stakeouts and long nights in Chas' cab crawling through the back streets of London. He'd tried all kinds of places in all areas, so John was confident he could be considered an expert of sorts on London coffee."Doesn't mean there aren't good places though." He added.

"Yeah, AJ's does a great cup, the twin's older brother knows a guy who can source some really good strong beans. The machine is totally temperamental though, I swear it's haunted or cursed or something." Elliott declared with a smirk, unaware that the coffee machine in question was still in use in Fia' and Rinaa's timelines, and still required a knack to operate on the best of days. "D'you know where has surprisingly good coffee in London?" John asked, though it was clear by his tone he was asking rhetorically. "The met police station down between the 'bank and the quay with the old smugglers tunnel. Only police station I've ever been in that does a decent coffee. All the rest have shit stuff." "It's a conspiracy, I'm telling you, they have plenty of budget to do unnecessary reports but when it come to buying coffee there's suddenly no money? I call bullshit!"

 

[MzHyde]

Kay made a mental note to herself that if she ever got to show John Seattle properly (and not just for breakfast) she'd take him to get proper coffee at her favourite place ever. It was one of those typical independent coffee shops that was also a book store, one she she was certain she had mentioned a couple of times before. She swore there was no coffee like it and she knew he'd appreciate their specialist book section in the back of the store as well. She nodded in agreement with what John said about the coffee in London. Sure, there were some nice places around but they were few and far between.

She waited until everyone had finished talking before tilting her head back and up at John, due to how she was leaning against him on the couch and spoke up. "remind me one day when I can drink the stuff again, to take you to one place in Seattle. Best coffee ever. Home brewed by the owners of the shop and the joint book store is amazing too. Even you'd appreciate it Chas. Best part being they sell the coffee in bags as well" she told him.

Fia knew of the coffee machine that Elliott spoke of, having tasted the coffee in question agreeing that despite being utterly temperamental, it did make a damn good cup. She also knew that trip to the coffee/book store would happen before she technically came into the world or was still technically a baby, but she was a tad jealous that she wasn't included in the offer to be taken. She just hoped one day even if it was in her timeline, she could twist Sam's arm to be taken herself.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Had Rinaa been present for this conversation about where is the best coffee shop and who makes the best coffee she would have argued (and argued passionately) that Dead Drop Coffee was the best of them all, despite the fact that the shop hadn't been set up yet at this point in time. Like Kay's favourite place, it was an independently run store. It was tucked away in one of London's side alleys and frequented mainly by students and those who considered themselves 'alternative'. Dead Drop stayed open all hours and had regular open mics nights, a table quiz every once in a while and went all out with decorations near any major holiday. It was the first place Rinaa had sang and played guitar solo in public as well as being the first place her band had a proper gig. They did an amazing hot chocolate, but it was their coffee that was truly killer. And the name was more than just a pun about how good the coffee was, the coffee shop was also used as a dead drop and message board by various vigilante, meta-human, alien and Downworlder groups.

The idea of going back to Seattle, with Kay, was quite appealing to John. He enjoyed travelling to new places and throwing himself right into the thick of being a traveller, that was part of the reason he'd lived abroad in the States for a couple of years (flicking between LA and New York mainly). The other reason was that those cities (and a few others) had a magic scene similar to that of London and he was hell bent on learning magic from the best. (The best subsequently betrayed him, but he met Zatanna at the same time, so things weren't all bad he supposed). Chas jokingly called those years John's 'apprentice years'. There was also the part of him that very much liked the idea of going anywhere with Kay, he was finding himself enjoying more and more the time they spent together, just the two of them, but he still wasn't sure why exactly that was just yet, pinning it on the fact that their lives were so crazy at the moment that it felt like the only times that weren't crazy were the ones spent with Kay as opposed to John having actual feelings. Gods forbid he do something stupid like fall in love, he'd been there before, ended in a smashed heart, the repercussions of which could still be seen and felt to this day.

"Sounds like a plan then" was all he said, as usual leaving out everything he was actually thinking. Though his tone did convey that he genuinely liked the idea. "Your right, it does sound like the kind of place I'd like, though I'm not particularly fussy or one to moan, unlike this one." He gestured a thumb at John who shrugged, but didn't deny it. "I would say I'd take ye all to Bobo's place someday as he does the best Irish coffee ever, but that would only end badly." John put particular emphasis on the word Irish, stressing that he meant coffee with added whiskey (or scotch or vodka, or whatever strong stuff was on the shelf) as opposed to the regular coffee they were all so used to drinking. "Given that he's a talking chimpanzee in a suit, who work as a private detective, with a magical sword, not an innuendo" John added, before anybody could make such a joke. Bobo was one of John's few friends, they worked together, drank together and bitched about life and the League together. They made an odd pair, nobody had expected them to get along as well as they did, but John wasn't known for doing what people expected and neither was Bobo. "he inherited it by accident, as ya do. His bar is a hangout for lowlifes from all corners of the Downworld, Darkworld and magic communities. And worse."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay smiled and nodded, she half expecting such a casual response from him about the idea but she had quickly learned to read what he meant by his tone, and his tone conveyed a lot more than his words did. She loved spending normal moments with him that weren't shrouded in the doom of things coming for Elliott or things coming for her. Even if he couldn't figure it out just yet, Kay was prepared to wait until he did figure it out, that's just who she was. She didn't want to lose what she had with him for anything, not that she would openly admit that with anyone other him in the room. As much as she was certain of her feelings for John, she wasn't going to force anything onto him, knowing she could never do such a thing. It wouldn't be right to do, and only end badly. All she did partly hope for was that he would figure it out even a little bit sooner than later. Last thing she wanted was for it to be considered too late.

She then tilted her head back to a normal position when Chas replied with what he did with a smile and another nod before smirking at him gesturing at John, as she truly did think Chas would love it in that particular shop and the surroundings ones. When John mentioned about knowing a talking chimpanzee that wore a suit, she just gave that smile that said 'of course you know a talking chimp' without actually saying a single word. She listened to how this Bobo got ahold of a bar, whilst Fia was refraining from making any kind of joke she could possibly think of and just listened with her mouth firmly shut. She also thought she knew of the place he was talking baout, despite not being anywhere of the sort but she couldn't say for certain.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John and Chas both smirked at the mention of Bobo, they'd both met him and been to the bar in question. Chas had met him because he had ended up more than once being the unofficial driver for some off the books activity John, Bobo, occasionally Kurt and, on one memorable occasion swamp thing, wanted to do without the knowledge of the Justice League or the Justice League Dark. Chas' role had been to stay looking forward, talk as little as possible and keep his cap down over his face as he drove them to wherever he needed to be (a role which suited him perfectly). He'd also ended up playing pool or darts in the bar a few times when he suspected john was going to get into a fight and need back up. Elliott had met Bobo because as a pub owner, the chimp was privy to all kinds of dirt and gossip about what was going on in the magical community. It had been John who introduced the two, knowing that if Elliott was to have any chance at being a successful mage on Earth, he'd need contacts. They nodded in agreement with John's descriptions.

Cal, Cliff and jay were less surprised by the idea of a talking chimpanzee, having seen all kinds of alien races. "I'll hazard a guess and say talking monkeys and apes aren't normal on earth?" Cliff asked, with a raised eyebrow. "And you'd be right." John told her. "More precisely it's that they talk in some shape or form, but all but a tiny humans have no fucking clue what they're saying, and most of 'em don't care what they're saying either." Cliff nodded in understanding, no animals talked on Attil, but on other planets they did, which was a very disconcerting thing to experience, especially to hear animals gossiping about other animals. "I don't suppose any of ye have been to any of the monkey run systems? For those who don't know what they are, think of Planet of The Apes and you've pretty much got it."

 

[MzHyde]

Seeing how Elliott reacted to the bobo information, Fia just knew that he had met this chimpanzee which made her wonder why she was never introduced to him, or if her dad ever had thoughts of introducing her to other contacts as she was mage too, and if she said so herself a damn good one for her age. She wasn't surprised that Chas would have met this Bobo, figuring that Chas would have met most of the people John knew due to being the one that drives John everywhere. She nodded when Cliff guessed that coherent talking animals was not a normal thing on Earth, letting John reply properly though.

Both her and Kay then looked at Jay when she spoke up, both shaking their heads at her question even though it was rather known to everyone that neither had been further than two places on Earth. Hearing that the places she was on about was like Planet of the Apes, they both found that's what went through their minds even before Jay mentioned it. "interesting" Kay simply replied, shuffling her legs ever so slightly to get comfortable again and to make sure that she didn't get a dead leg in the process, whilst giving her ankles a little bit of movement by making circular motions with each foot, one at a time. Doing so, also meant she could get super comfortable against John. She didn't want to move too much even though there was a little niggling ache forming in the middle of her back.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The reason future John hadn't introduced Fia to Bobo and some of the more tame regulars at the bar was deceptively simple. It wasn't that he didn't think Fia was qualified or competent enough as a mage or a fighter (he was all too aware of how terrifyingly capable she was). He knew she could handle herself if things got rough, and with Bobo's crowd it often did, there were some particularly nasty types who entered the bar. It was the matter of her age, she wasn't legally able to drink and this bar specialised in all the hard spirits. You didn't go there if you weren't going to drink something alcoholic. Fia didn't look her age, more often than not she looked younger than she actually was, an unfortunate side effect of having skin that was so free of spots and pimples was that it made her look younger. Bobo turned a blind eye to some things in his bar, but underaged drinking wasn't one of them. John respected the chimp enough to obey that rule. With Elliott it had been different, he'd always been tall for his age, but as a teenager he'd been a particularly early bloomer and with a few days stubble, could easily pass as nineteen. Future John had considered introducing Fia to others in the mage community, but decided that it was best to wait until she was a legal adult, that way she couldn't be dismissed as some stray kid he'd picked up. An adult garnered more respect than a teenager in the world of magic, it was that simple. Teenagers were either cocky shits (like John) or way over their head and terrified, there was no inbetween.

John couldn't help but smirk at Jay's pop culture reference, despite being on Earth for only a few years, she seemed to have just as good a knowledge of pop culture as any of them who'd been born on the planet, Isogrii training he guessed. "Well they do say that all fiction is real somewhere. Guess that's just proof." Both Cal and Cliff shook their heads at Jay's question, they'd never been to any of the ape systems. The space quadrant they usually worked in contained no sentient ape systems, though there were a wide variety of insectoids and amphiboids. "No, there's none in the usual quadrant we work in, and I've never had one as a patient." She added, anticipating what Jay's next question could potentially be. "I take it you have then?" The assassin nodded. "Once, I was very young at the time, about eight maybe? I was blown away by the sprawling tree house city constructions they had there, but that's all I remember from the trip."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia never once thought about her age being the issue. She had mentally grown up so fast in so many manners that she sometimes forgot herself that she was still only seventeen and not actually at least two years older. If she had ever been told that to be the reason she would have accepted it, yet there were times the topics were changed to something else, or she felt herself getting frustrated over being stuck inside so much that she'd walk back into her room and just either bury herself under her covers or sneak out to vent to her dog, which now she thought on it, really didn't help her case when she tried to convince both her parents of why she should be let out a bit more.

Kay just kept listening to the conversation going on about the systems being inhabited by literal monkeys. If Jay had let on she remembered more of her visit, she would have asked about it but it didn't seem to be the case, so she didn't find any questions coming up into her mind. She was still computing the whole fact that there was even such a planet partly also, but then the other side of her brain was reminding her she wasn't on Earth anymore, she wasn't fully human herself, but one of if not the most rare mythical creature known on Earth, she was next to not only the most unconviental bloke she could have ever possibly fallen for, but also having his child whilst said child was sitting next to them having time travelled. With all that coming back to the foreground, suddenly a planet of monkeys didn't seem so farfetched anymore.

"shows you there really are all kinds of beings out there I guess" Fia spoke up casually with a shrug.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"That there are." Jay agreed in response to Fia's words. "If Earth ever does become an interplanetary species or join one of the Universal Alien Councils, well they aren't going to know WHAT hit them. It won't just be culture shock at the sight of all the races, their styles, forms, customs and technology, it'll be ego shock too. Right to the core." There was a smirk in her voice that suggested she would very much like to be there when the diplomatic parties of Earth saw the true extent of life out there in the universe for the first time. "All civilisations go through a phase of thinking that not only are they the only life out there, they are the most intelligent, most powerful, most creative, most unique..... most anything, to ever exist. Earth never seems to have got out of that phase. Attil" she gestured all around them to emphasise that she meant everybody on the planet, not just those in charge"for all it's faults knows and more importantly understands it's place in the cosmic arena."

"As does my home planet." Cliff added, unsure if Jay would know the status of her planet, knowing for certain that John, Kay, Fia and Chas wouldn't."We're all to aware that we're really just a fishing outpost with a fuelling station off planet that caters for most commercial and light to medium industrial craft, in the grand scheme of things, and we're okay with that. There's always a market for our stuff, and through proper management the stocks won't ever be overfished or over harvested." "A good diplomatic and economic policy if I ever heard one." Jay declared, leaning back in the chair, and propping her feet up against the edge of the table, at some point she'd removed her boots and only one of her socks. Like Rinaa her feet were covered in the callouses and hard skin that came from training barefoot regularly, but unlike Rinaa, the bottom of her foot was scarred, a jagged line running diagonally across the ball of her foot to the edge of the arch. At some point in her past her foot had been torn open by barbed wire.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia and Kay both listened more as Jay agreed with Fia's words before going into more depth with her opinion on how Earth would take the sudden change, one that neither of them could disagree with. Earth couldn't handle the more simple things like the paranormal without either utterly freaking out or dismissing it all as a hoax, or even just general human based things like people have different opinions to each other. So the idea of Earth trying to comprehend any other type of life that wasn't Superman being out there, only made them imagine how they'd take it as a race. Of course a lot of Fia's agreement to Jay's words were based on what she had been told about the outside world from family or when she had snuck out of the apartment, whereas Kay's was based on her history and everything she went through.

They also got that impression from the little of Attil that they had both seen, that the planet knows where they stand in comparison to other places. Both of them glanced at Cliff when she added how it was the same for her home world, nodding in understanding. It was equally shocking and impressive to them both at how other places so far from Earth could get things right in that aspect and Earth get it so terribly wrong, yet still think humans are the superior race. Neither their opinions showed on their faces but out the corner of their eyes, they noticed how Jay had propped her feet up, whilst still having one sock on and one off.

Fia seemed to remember from her timeline that Jay mentioned it was barbed wire that caused her scar on her foot, as she remembered seeing it during training one time, during an indoor training day. So due to that, she didn't think to question it, she also noted that most of the time no one really questioned scars on each other since her time being back here. Which was fine with her because seeing someone scarred wasn't anything shocking to her. She was used to it from her dad and anyone else, including herself. So she did a typical teenage thing and commented on the lack of one sock instead, "can't decide if you want your socks on or off?" she smirked.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Elliott had seen the scar on Jay's foot before. The first time had been when they were sparring and Jay decided to go barefoot. This was back at the very start of their relationship, back when they were more enemy than friend to each other. The only reason they were sparring with each other was because Jay was the only one who could beat and match his enhanced alien speed. AJ and Saoirse were good, and Scott had a supernatural edge due to being a second generation pureblood, but nobody came close to the quite frankly terrifying display of speed, agility and flying flips that was Jay. Jay hadn't held back, only accepting the offer to spar as she needed a way to work of the steam and tension that had built as a result of being cooped up in the sub-levels below AJ's restaurant for so long. She was angry and aggressive, and didn't pull her punches Elliott had the magic armour charm on (so she felt justified in going hard).

She had delivered a particularly vicious kick to his head, putting all the power she could into slamming her foot right into his face, causing him to fly across the training floor, stopping just shy of the wall. the position making it impossible for Elliott to miss the scar. He'd asked about it on reflex, not expecting an answer, so used to asking about how John got his scars and getting a story that was interesting, funny, bizarre (or a mix of all three). Jay had actually answered "Tore it to shreds climbing over a barbed wire fence chasing after somebody" she'd told him, her voice cold. By rights the scar should have been far worse, but Jay had used her limited healing abilities to knit the skin back together so instead of having a web of vicious scars, she only had one jagged one.

At Fia's question she made a slight 'hmm?' noise, having temporarily forgotten that she was only wearing one sock. Looking down at her feet she couldn't help but smirk, wiggling her toes, flexing the digits, thinking of Toby who had toes similar to that of a monkey that let her grip a wide range of things with her feet (a great asset in her circus days). What Toby was currently trying to do was learn to shoot a bow with her feet while standing on her hands. "Something like that. Old habit really. Just one of those quirks I guess. But if the sight of one bare foot offends your sense of order I can always take the other off?" Her last sentence was delivered completely deadpan, but there was a bright glimmer in her eyes that indicated that her words were meant in a teasing sense.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia watched Jay as she flexed her toes, wriggling each one before deciding to answer her question in a typical Jay manner, one she knew all too well as she would be on the receiving end of her deadpan teasing tone during training days so that she could rile Fia up enough to bring out her best. She smirked at the question, shaking her head at the same time. "just being that person who had to say something. Ya know.. Typical teenage smart ass thing" she replied to her with a casual 'saying it as it is' tone of voice. Jayy wouldn't know it, but she'd play that little game in her timeline during the training days, to attempt to distract her, not that it worked most of the time, but she would try anything to get that upper hand on Jay.

It was during this chatter that at some point Kay had drifted off to sleep on John. It couldn't be said exactly when it happened, one moment she was wide awake, smiling, chatting and chuckling along with everyone else and the next she was fast asleep. Her head on John's shoulder, her arm loosely draped across her whilst some of her hair had fallen in front of her face. One foot was threatening to fall off the couch edge in the process, whilst her other arm was casually draped down laying on John's lap. Fia glanced over and smiled, recognising the scene in front of her from her timeline, having come out to get a drink or snack and finding Kay had fallen asleep on John right in the middle of the movie or TV series they were watching.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Like Fia, Elliott was all too familiar with jay's deadpan sense of humour and how, with the right tone of voice she could make a hilarious statement sound so stoic, and sometimes even quite scary. Her delivery It had been hard to tell at first whether Jay was joking or telling the truth, especially when it came to death, destruction or bodily harm as the assassin's training meant she had all her ticks under control (including the colour shift of her eyes). But as she became more relaxed she let the tells show, wanting people to know she was joking and not just fucking with their heads. It said a lot about how close the group had grown since arriving on Attil that Jay felt comfortable enough to join in the teasing and the banter. Jay nodded at Fia's words. "I know what you mean, I know the type, I grew up with them and..." she let the word trail slightly before continuing "probably was one myself, but there's nobody in the room who can prove it either way." Seeing Quin again had brought all kinds of memories to the front of her mind, memories of the good days when her brother was alive, her best friend didn't hate her guts and she was happy doubling as both a military pilot and a trained assassin.

John copped on pretty quick that Kay had fallen asleep against him. They'd shared a bed (and before that his couch) enough times that he could recognise when her breathing changed to a sleeping pattern. This wasn't something unique to sleeping with Kay, he took note of the breathing patterns of anybody near hum, human or otherwise. It was a sort of self defence mechanism, if their breathing changed for any reason, then he knew something was wrong, or in the case of a hostile, they'd only been faking sleep to try and get the jump on him. The ones he knew the best were the ones of those closest to him. He knew Elliott's (from the nights after nightmares, or the times he'd just nod off tired out after a long day), his sister's (from the times they'd huddle in each other's rooms, door locked, one sleeping while the other kept an ear out for their father when he was in one of his alcohol fuelled rages), Chas' from the times the cabbie had nodded of in the taxi, Zed's, Jim's, Zatanna's and a few others. He decided not to move himself or move Kay. It would be a two person job to move her carefully (if she wasn't so pregnant, he would have been okay with carrying her on his own, like the time she'd fallen asleep on the cold balcony).

 

[MzHyde]

Fia smiled at Jay's reply to her, nodding. "to be fair I think everyone has their moments of being that kind of teenager. And well.. Growing up around you lot" she said, gesturing to everyone in the room, even Cal and Cliff, "there was quite frankly no hope for me to not gain a sarcastic smart ass character trait" she smirked, knowing none of them could possibly deny that they all had the trait, especially her parents and Elliott. She knew it was either gain that trait or be a weak girl and get offended by absolutely everything. Her recent issues with Rinaa were completely different in her eyes as she did always stand up for herself, even if Rinaa managed to have a much sharper tongue than she did, upsetting her a few times.

Kay's mind knew that John would recognise when she had fallen asleep. It wasn't the first time when she had fallen asleep before him or on him after all, and it was partly due to that, that she knew she could do such a thing without any fear of something happening to her. If she was in unknown territory or on her own she wouldn't have let herself fall into slumber so easily. Yet she was so relaxed with everyone in the room, she felt she could let her guard down enough to doze. Pregnancy was proving to be the deciding side of her now, and if her body needed to rest, then she wasn't going to fight it. Which proved to be the case this time round. She wasn't even aware of when she fell asleep, but as she slept she remained calm whilst Fee was awake in her mind listening to the chatter, as if eavesdropping on the group.

"when did mum fall asleep? She was wide awake I swear just a moment ago" Fia pointed out.

 

[_gallifrog_]

jay couldn't help but smirk slightly at Fia's words, the teenager had a point, sarcasm was a trait everybody in the room shared, and they all had their own way of doing it. She'd noticed, having spent more time around Cliff and her siblings that they had managed to work sarcasm into their sign languages, showing it in their facial expressions as opposed to the movement of her hands. "Side effect of hanging around with John so long, he rubs off on you." "Oh please" John smirked back, placing extra emphasis on the 'please' making it quite clear that he though Chas' statement was one of the most ridiculous things to ever have come out of anybody's mouth in the whole of his life. "You were always a smart arse, that's nothin' to do with me.... For once." He ended on a ominous yet jokey note, Elliott smiling fondly at the banter between two of the most important adults in his life.

"Sarcasm, snark and smart-arsery are just side effects of growing up with so many siblings with such large age gaps between us. When you can't beat them physically because they have age, height and muscle, it's natural to turn to words" Cliff shrugged. "For us, it was probably....." Cal paused, before directing her gaze at Elliott"because..." another pause as she considered what the best name to use was, before eventually going with"Zan could talk rings around anyone and I guess we just absorbed that rational, logical, yet slippery way of dealing with problems and talking to people." "With that edge of either extreme annoyance or that way of making the most mundane compliments into those incredibly sly underhand insults?" Elliott added, to which Cal couldn't help but chuckle, remembering how their father would always give them a look that said 'I'll explain later', and for the most part, he did.

While Cal and Elliott went down memory lane, John responded to Fia's question. "Barely a minute ago, guess all the travelling finally caught up." Had he been the soppy sort he would have said something like 'and I don't have the heart to move her', but that sentence implied all kinds of things about his heart that he didn't want anybody, not even himself to know. "No point in moving her, the sleep's still pretty light that i suspect she'd wake up if we tried." John knew enough about Kay's sleeping patterns to know that it took her on average ten minutes to get into any kind of deep sleep.

 

[MzHyde]

Before she asked about Kay and how long she had been asleep, she listened to the banter going on whilst everyone agreed that it was their sarcastic smart arse attitudes that rubbed off on her and made her who she was. She felt damn proud of herself for making this current time's versions of them all to admit they had a lot to do with the attitude she grew up obtaining. "for once I'm with him with this one, Chas you can out smartarse dad aaaaaany day" she chimed in before the travelling down memory lane occurred between Cal and Elliott, making her conversation turn to Kay and getting a response from John in the process.

She nodded, glad that she wasn't just imagining her mother being awake one second and asleep the next. She smiled at his words knowing he wasn't the type to say anything else that someone else would say. Even if she knew from her timeline, that it was down to his ego that he wouldn't admit to much else. She knew he was a lot more open in his words in her timeline, yet she still did still have to remind herself he was seventeen years older by that point and truly knew where his feelings laid with Kay. Hearing him being able to tell how deep a sleep Kay was in brought another smile to her face, "probably, has happened before in my timeline." she replied, whilst not daring to say 'you knowing how far into sleep she is says a lot ya know, not to mention the fact you don't wanna move her' even though every fibre in her being wanted to.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Fia wasn't the only one who could read between the lines of what John was saying to see what he wasn't saying and what he didn't know he was saying. Both Elliott and Chas had known John for years and knew that there was no way somebody could tell John what he was thinking, it always had the opposite effect, pushing John away from the thoughts he was supposed to be having and back into the asshole persona he wore like a second skin. Cliff, with her ability to read people knew that John was far from an open book, but in this case there were definite glimmers of something deeper, something more tangible poking through. But she chose to say nothing, even if he was now family through the complicated route of adoption, marriage and extended family, she didn't feel it her place to speak. Medical matters yes. Relationship matters? A solid no, unless of course the person specifically asked her for advice.

Elliott and Cal's trip down memory lane didn't last long. Although they had made peace with most of their past (the trip of Attil they did going back to all the places that were important had helped), both still felt awkward talking about it. There had been happy times when they were kids, many moments of normalcy and all the elements of a normal childhood. There were more good times than bad on the whole, but the bad always eclipsed the good. Talking about it was uncomfortable, laughing about it even more so, for both it felt like a betrayal of the lives they had now, the lives they loved and were happy in. But the fact they could talk about it, even for a few brief moments showed that they were getting better, something that hadn't gone unnoticed by Cliff, John Jay and Chas.

"Pretty sure we've all fallen asleep like that at some point." Elliott remarked, everybody nodding as they thought of moments, not necessarily with their significant other, but with friends, parents, and in Jay's case, her brother. With the conversation over, Jay and Elliott turned their attention back video they'd been sent earlier, the one they had meant to watch, but never had a chance as the kettle army had been discovered. The video was slightly grainy around the edges, but Rinaa was clearly visible in the centre. She was dressed in just jeans and a t-shirt, Jack's guitar slung across her chest, one hand holding pick, the other the neck of the guitar. There was something tied around her wrist (over the spot where the bandage covering her forfeit bond was), a long strip of fabric of some sort looped around, neither Jay nor Elliott could make out exactly what it was, but they knew there was some hidden significance to it. With Rinaa, there almost always was.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia nodded at Elliott's words now that the reminiscing was over between himself and Cal. She knew she had fallen asleep on not just John plenty of times, but she had been caught sleeping in even Elliott's side, particularly so when she was younger, around ten years old. She even once fell asleep on him when getting a piggy back by him home when she was very young which she only knew about because there were photographs proving it. Despite Elliott not living with them all, she saw him enough that it felt like he still did in some ways, and she always made the most of her brother's visits. She had done it to Kay as well, but she was even younger during those times and it was before their relationship got so turbulent.

She didn't reply with much else as she saw both him and Jay watching the video that they got interrupted from doing earlier on in the night. She looked back at the rest of the group at that point, rather than the other two whilst fidgeting ever so slightly. Kay just continued to sleep, her sleep getting deeper as she did so, making even Fee resort to slumber inside her mind. As she slept, the tiniest light hum of contentment escaped Kay's lips, the foot that dangerously nesr the edge of the couch now just slipping off properly but not causing her to stir. In her sleep the arm that was on John's lap lifted to under her chin, her fingers curling to a light loose fist.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cliff was entertaining herself with watching Elliott and Jay's facial expressions as they watched the video, trying to guess from their faces what exactly it contained. It was an old habit, one developed form spending so long in hospital bored out of her mind and unable to hear. So people watching was an escape of sorts for her, allowing her to get out of her head for a while. Elliott had all kinds of interesting tics, a couple of which she recognised from Cal such as the quiet huff of laughter they both made when they found a particular quip or remark amusing (but not so amusing they felt the need to burst into full out laughter at it). Jay was harder to get a read on, her physical tells were barely there, some slight finger tapping (though that could Jay simply tapping in time to the beat of something) and some subtle, yet expressive eyebrow quirks. Whatever ever it was they were watching, it was amusing both of them, enough so that both pressed replay to listen to it again. Cal meanwhile was flicking through that day's newspaper, which Deke had kindly left for them in the flat.

John's eyes flicked towards Kay at the feeling of movement, falling off the couch would no doubt wake her up, and given the angle she was sleeping at and the positioning of the coffee table in front of her, he was ninety percent certain if she fell forwards she'd get a right wallop off the coffee table. At least there was a doctor present he couldn't help but think before reaching for his drink. With the room descending into a companionable silence Chas felt no need to break it by speaking, so he instead reached for his bag and grabbed the book he'd bought at the spaceport (a translation of a bestseller novel into English). It was supposed to be a present for Trish, but he figured she wouldn't mind if he read through it first.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia couldn't help but look toward what everyone was doing when everyone fell into silence. She could see, like off, that whatever was being watched by Jay and Elliott, it was amusing them both even if their reactions of amusement weren't great in size. She then saw Cal reach for the newspaper and begin to read it, just like Chas went into his bag and grabbed the book he bought. She heard the hum from Kay which made her glance over just like it did with John, also half expecting her mother to fall off the couch which could be highly dangerous considering her distance to the coffee table and the fact she was pregnant.

Yet Kay didn't fall off the couch, just her foot did, making it just hover less than an inch off the ground. She knew Kay was going to lose feeling in her leg if it remained there but she wasn't going to say anything. Instead she kept watch as John reached forward to grab his drink, incase she needed to pounce into action to stop Kay from falling. Luckily, Kay just moved slightly, falling more into the couch as John moved forward, rather than off the couch. Satisfied that her mother wasn't going to cause herself or Fia's unborn self any injury, Fia delved down the bag that she had from the sweet shop to pull out some of the chocolate she got. It was a dark orange chocolate that she guessed would be similar to Earth's Terry's chocolate orange, but more like malteasers in shape. She opened the packet, pulling out some of the chocolate and eating it before handing toward John, offering some.

"want some? It's dark chocolate" she said, and clear in her manner that she did this with him a lot. She would have given Kay her chilli chocolate but with her asleep, she couldn't exactly do it.

 

[_gallifrog_]

At the question John couldn't help but smirk. He'd known it was dark chocolate from the second she'd opened the bag. Even though he hadn't the slightest clue on where to begin when it came to reading Cliff's native language (it was... well.... completely alien to him with it's strange geometric script and unusual clustering that lead him to think it wasn't supposed to be read left to right, but instead from top to bottom), the smell had been enough. John had no enhanced senses (unless he had to boost them with magic work some reason or another, like a dark-vision spell), in that sense he was completely human. But there was something about dark chocolate that meant his grain could pick that smell out over any other. If Fia hadn't offered it, he'd have gestured for the bag claiming 'parent tax' as a reason for getting some, a smart arse remark he was completely unaware that future John used all the time.

"What kind of question even is that? The answer is always yes. Even if I'm unconscious the answer is yes." He would have added 'dead' to that list in normal circumstances, but Elliott's situation was still preying on his mind, as was Rinaa's even though the teenager wasn't there. He took a handful of the balls, noting their colour, feel and shape. They weren't easily compressed to dust like Malteasers were, leading him to believe that they were solid most, if not all of the way through. And he couldn't resist showing off a little, tossing the ball up into the air with a flick of his wrist, catching it easily in his mouth. John had spent hundred, maybe even thousands of hours trying to stave off boredom by tossing sweets (or small pebbles) into his mouth and by now he had the skill down to an art, his eyes doing all kinds of complex calculations so his mouth would be in just the right place. Those hours were one of the reasons why he had such good hand-eye coordination.

Elliott and Jay were in their own world, the assassin aware of everything around them on a subconscious level and one thing out of place would be enough for her to divert her attention back to the main group. But right now she was concentrating on trying to find the songs that Rinaa had sung, the teenager hadn't name them and none of the lyrics sounded familiar to her. It took some searching, but eventually she came up with a result, passing the phone over to Elliott "She's clearly modified the lyrics to fit her own life, but this is it."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia smirked and rolled her eyes at his answer, knowing that it would have been something along those lines as he could never say no to dark chocolate. She handed over the bag to him so he could take a handful of the chocolate, before taking the bag back. She was glad it was a relatively big bag because otherwise she would have done the usual teenage thing of complaining that he 'stole half the bag'. She watched on as he started showing off throwing them up and catching them in his mouth, as she just shook her head. "some things never change" she smirked, whilst the unspoken part was 'this is also why I hide my own dark chocolate stash in my room'.

Unlike him, she didn't show off in the slightest, just grabbed a few at a time and shoved them in her mouth. She found herself having to keep mentally telling herself to save some for later as she found they were insanely mourish. At one point she had enough in her mouth that she ended up looking like a hamster or chipmunk, as her cheeks really puffed out as she ate. Something that was a running joke in her timeline as this was a normal thing to see, not that she could remember which of her family started it but she did remember someone calling her a chipmunk at one point and pushing her cheeks inward, making her almost spit her food out of her mouth.

"sooooooo good" she commented with her mouth full. Kay, whilst completely asleep, found that her nose was twitching from the smell of the dark chocolate wafting through the air between Fia and John. It made nuzzle her head into John, something she would have tried denying ever doing so if awake, despite the fact everyone but Rinaa was in the room at the time. It would have been one thing that she would have tried to brush off but would have made her blush slightly.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John just smirked at Fia's words, secretly delighted that he never lost his taste for dark chocolate. As a kid he hadn't got a lot of money, so it was a choice of spend sparingly or steal. John being John was attracted to the danger of shoplifting, and as a teenager he was a fast, skinny bugger, his parkour skills and extensive knowledge of back streets and alleyways meant he could easily make a clean getaway. Dark chocolate was less popular than milk or white, and more often than not less expensive, making it an ideal target. Whether he'd had a liking for dark chocolate before he started stealing it, or whether his liking of the stuff was a side effect of stealing it John couldn't say. What was more important was that family, and close friends knew that if you had dark chocolate and you valued your life, then you gave John Constantine his cut. "That bloody well better not change, life'd be shit if that changed" John declared, flicking another ball into the air.

John was of the same opinion of Fia, that these dark chocolate balls things were far too more-ish for their own good. Rinaa had also bought him dark chocolate when they went shopping in the spaceport terminal, but it was in bar form as opposed to ball form. Half of them were plain and the other half had nuts mixed in. It was a small gesture, but it told him that in the future, she knew him well enough to know that after strong, plain, dark chocolate, dark chocolate with nut pieces (always pieces, never whole nuts) mixed in was his favourite type of chocolate. John did start ever so slightly, jerking his head away slightly when Kay nuzzled into him, but not for the reason people might expect. It wasn't that he was freaked out by the intimacy (and the trust) that gesture represented and his knee-jerk reaction was to move away. It was because there was an old scar right on that exact part of his neck Kay had chosen to nuzzle into. It was one of the first injuries he'd received from his father (a fragment from a glass bottle forcefully hurled at his face), and one of the first injuries he'd had to look after and treat on his own. Even all these years later he was cagey about people touching it. Usually when he slept or let anybody curl up to him, he'd made sure they were on his other side, but today was different, they'd all just plopped themselves down on the first available seat and John sure as hell wasn't going to explain why he wanted Kay to move. So he settled for scratching his neck and acting as if everything was completely normal.