Chapter Text
There is nothing but static and wind and falling and pain.
Martin still feels his hand gripped loosely around the knife, still smells the slightly electric smell of Jon’s hair beneath his chin. He wants to cry.
He is trying to cry.
He doesn’t get the chance.
Jon can see everything and nothing and everything and nothing and everything and NOTHING.
He can feel the cold sharp pain of the knife in his shoulder, and is surprised it doesn’t hurt more.
They can’t see anything.
He can see everything.
They hit the ground, and they are Somewhere Else.
Jon wakes up.
Jon wakes up.
Jon wakes up again and again for five years and they still can’t believe where they are. Every new morning in that big warm bed next to his big warm boyfriend, they take a few seconds to make sure that the only thing he can see is what is right in front of them, and every single time he can just see Martin’s chest moving up and down, they feel safer than ever.
“I love you.”
He whispers into the early morning, and Martin turns, and smiles, and whispers back.
“I love you too.”
Martin looks out the window as the kettle boils, and he lets himself breathe.
In, 10 seconds.
Hold, 7 seconds.
Out, 10 seconds.
Jon is out, going for a job interview at the school a few streets down. He’s alone, with a cup of tea, and a gentle rain, and even after five years in a world where he doesn’t have to look behind him and make sure he’s not leaving a trail of fog, it still doesn’t feel real.
In.
Hold.
Out.
Jon shakes the hand of the headmaster, thanking her for letting him join her school, and the spider in the corner of the room is, for once, just a spider.