Well, That Was Refreshing

That shit wasn’t kismet. Hell it was just a make believe world created in the magic buzzing of the town. Probably to play a joke on all of us.

“Honestly that’s cool that you find her in every dream and get married. I think I have been in prison in a dream which honestly checks out.” Banzai shook his head and smiled before taking another drink. “Or just been a toxic piece of shit which also checks out.” Damn.

“Think I only had one good dream where I was actually living the life.”

"Yeah, guess it is." John said as he took stock of his bottles once again, keeping himself busy.

John gave a snort, "The dreams are kind of fucked sometimes. One of my mates got squashed by a boulder. Had his mind fucked up for a while and it wasn't a great memory." But all dream memories tended to fade once you tossed them aside.

"Oh yeah? What's living the life for you?"

"Oh, yes. We have." The blonde said as he reorganized the bottles in front of himself, "I've altered my course and gone for law. As much as I love history, I don't think I could find myself in academia for the rest of my life." He owed academia and the horrible TA office he'd been thrust into for his relationship, but beyond that, he couldn't find himself wanting to teach children, of any age, history for the rest of his life.

"Suppose I don't have a clear view or direction on that either. Corporate, criminal or civil could all be some sort of avenue."

Law was always one of those career paths that Ting-Ting had esoterically thought about but then immediately decided against. She’d be good at some of it, she knew. The research and the planning. But if she had to actually make an argument in person — nothing about that seemed appealing. 

It took a certain type of person. Tanya would’ve probably been a very good lawyer if her heart was not in investigative journalism. Mei, too, if she’d been more studios. Belle, of course. 

And John seemed perfect. He was organized, sharp, and a stickler for the rules. 

“I guess it’s one of those things where you just have to — excuse me for being cheesy — follow your heart. All of them could be rewarding. And demanding in their own way.” She shrugged. “But nothing you couldn’t handle.” 

"You know, Ting, you've always been exceedingly wise." John said with a slight smile, "No wonder you're such a wonderful mother."

He said it as if it were fact. There was no wiggle room in his opinion. No question or doubt. Ting was a mother John would have been proud to have. Unlike his own which had up and gone into hiding. Though it was an odd thing to think, it was true. She'd done so much by herself, and he'd watched Tom essentially be a single father for most of Levi's life and thereby they'd all been single fathers along with him. It took a certain sort of person, a person John wasn't entirely sure he could become, but that was something to think on another time.

That was something he always had done. You know in the past.

Girls were an accessory on his terms. The problem was he had that dream where he saved her. Then they were like magnets. Some force pulling them together that felt like it was beyond his control. All while his worldview was the literal pits of hell.

It always felt like he was alone though. That his life was never conducive to a “normal” relationship but hearing John speak about his - they weren’t perfect either. So maybe he was fine. This was fine.

“I bet you’ve got good duckin’ game then.” His eyebrows shot up and down as he looked to John. “Don’t see any book damage from here man.” Stella had never thrown a book at him…but time will tell.

Banzai did pick up on the yet though. The edge of his right brow lifted up. “Oh so you’ve thought about it then. I mean that’s the next step isn’t it.” Banzais fast melted into mental gymnastics as he thought about t relationship timeline. “I think back in the day it was against some unwritten law to move in before engagement or some shit.”

John Smith had not a sliver of game. Not one iota. Not a single modicum of roguish charm like Phillip or puppy dog sincerity like Thomas. Growing up, he was infamously quite terrible with women, no one was more surprised than him that Jane stuck around as she had.

If there was a charming moment, it was soon followed by John thoroughly placing his shoed foot in his mouth.

"Well, she wasn't trying to injure me. If she was, I'd be much worse for wear." That was an absolute fact.

John's jaw set slightly, annoyed at his own slip up and even more so that Banzai had picked up on it. He sighed out through his nose. "Yes, back then it was, I'm sure. Moving in just seemed the most logical and practical option." And not that he enjoyed his quiet mornings reading across the table from Jane, or any other mundane tasks he found himself completing with her. "In any case, yes, I've thought about it in the broader picture of life. Theoretically." But, and he would not admit this to anyone, it was oddly more enticing to call Jane his wife rather than girlfriend. "We did get married in a town dream a few times." Pirates, Regency, various other situations.

But he wasn't going to ask. All of that... it was in the past, now. Ancient history, almost. He was still glad that John had found himself somewhere to call home in the aftermath, even if it stung a little, the idea that this place was where Florian called home now because he still wasn't welcome in his own.

"Oh, nice. I've heard good things about the university." Florian nodded. "And I suppose there's plenty of opportunities for solicitors and the like around here. Quite a few of the parents in my class work for InterPride, in the legal team. That's if you're looking to hang around, I suppose." He added with a chuckle.

He'd burned much to the ground in his decisions. His mother no longer spoke to him, his father in prison, and their estate seized. Luckily, there had been money not based in the Order and provided in trusts to his sisters. But who knew what they'd done with that. He didn't ask considering he was the reason the funds dried up.

Every few weeks he'd get some kind of peppy call from Elizabeth detailing whatever grand adventure she found herself in in the States which would undoubtedly make him incredibly uneasy. Or he'd receive a call from Georgiana which basically amounted to her making sure he was still alive and waving some sort of corporate accomplishment in his face.

"Right, yes, Interpride. I figured I couldn't go wrong schooling so close to a corporate office with job opportunities for solicitors. They usually open up internships in the summer months as well so that might be what's next." John gave a small smile, genuinely, "Yeah, I think I'll be sticking around for a while."

It wasn’t because Banzai wanted to lock Stella or anyone out but the weight of what he was hiding would really just unravel his entire world.

Something’s are unforgivable.

“I wish I had like Dr. Phil or something to come moderate this whole mess.” He laughed to himself and took another drink.

“I appreciate the advice though. I never really asked much about your girl. So that shits pretty rad that you two figured it out.” Banzai was curious of what family drama his buddy here had. Prying not was not the fucking choice. “So now you’re all good? Yall married or what?”

Your girl. Again, such a strange sort of thing to call Jane. "Well, parts are figured out, and other parts get books thrown at me so every relationship certainly isn't without its moments of friction."

If John had been drinking something in this moment, he would've surely choked. Married. "What? Noo." He let out a laugh, "We've moved in. I don't know if we can even begin to think of marriage yet."

Odd... he'd said 'yet.'

He cleared his throat as he busied himself with something behind the bar, "Jane is quite independent so I'm not sure when the appropriate time to tie yourself to someone legally forever will be for her."

Numbers came easy to Ting-Ting. They always had. Not in the lofty theoretical sense of pure mathematics — there was a beauty to that she admired, but had never been able to really wrap her head around. She liked numbers because they were consistent and they made sense. Apply them to the chaos of the world and you could find order. 

It was the sort of thing she would’ve rambled about to John — Darling, not the John in front of her. The thought made her heart squeeze a bit.

She didn’t push it away fully. Just sort of hopskipped over to another Darling. 

“Jane mentioned you both came back to finish your degrees — are you still going for history or did that change?” 

"Oh, yes. We have." The blonde said as he reorganized the bottles in front of himself, "I've altered my course and gone for law. As much as I love history, I don't think I could find myself in academia for the rest of my life." He owed academia and the horrible TA office he'd been thrust into for his relationship, but beyond that, he couldn't find himself wanting to teach children, of any age, history for the rest of his life.

"Suppose I don't have a clear view or direction on that either. Corporate, criminal or civil could all be some sort of avenue."

He had to wonder what all of them would've done, had they not been forced to march to the beat of the Order's drum. Funnily enough, he couldn't imagine his brothers doing anything else at all. They had their respective day jobs, as most did, but Florian had always been well aware that what they did to make a living was not their passion. It wasn't their calling. Their calling was going out in the high noon sun, hounds baying at their feet, torches and swords in hand.

"Is that why you've come back?" Florian asked, before he could help himself. What had John being doing whilst he had been away? Another thing to ponder. "To support Phil's dreams?" He teased lightly.

"Oh no, well, perhaps in part. Multitude of factors really. Mostly, for some strange and deeply troubling reason, I found myself missing this town." Perhaps his fancy law school had only been a reason to take a break, to come up for air before diving back into Swynlake. It seemed as though it hadn't quite fit him. Outwardly, yes, he belonged. But in being there, he felt almost as if he was carrying out the rest of his Order destiny, trying to keep some sort of life of prestige.

And, though he wouldn't say it to her, he did feel Jane miss Swynlake as well. She'd left parts of herself in this town (in some ways quite literally), as had he (their names were Phil and Tom... and now oddly enough Maddy).

So, when the opportunity presented itself to move back in between his schooling semesters and before Phil found himself under the weight of a business. They were back.

"Other than that, I've transferred the rest of my law schooling at the university."

The boys next door had always been friendly with Ting and her sisters. And after all they’d been through, Ting was happy to see them all figuring things out. 

She wouldn’t have been surprised if Phillip stayed a chatty barista for the rest of his life, but this new path of his made sense. So much sense. An alarming amount of sense, actually. If she was a divination speciality, she might say it had been foretold.

“I think Swynlake definitely needs a pub,” she agreed. “And a good one. Phil always made sure people had fun at your parties. Even me, believe it or not.” She laughed a little. “I remember walking into that anything but clothes one that you did for Tom’s birthday… my goodness, that seems like a lifetime ago. I can’t believe I even did that. But Phil made sure I had a drink I liked and made sure I didn’t feel like too much of a dork.” She tilted her head. “I’m sure he’ll do the same for all his customers. He’ll probably need you to help run the numbers though.”

Something clicked.

“If you ever need help with that, let me know. It is my actual job. And I was helping my dad balance his books ever since I was a teenager. Which was less of a he couldn’t do it and more that he was busy thing.”

Her dad was a financial divination specialty after all. 

"He certainly could figure out a party. Our first year here, he threw one for each of us, just as strangely themed as the next." Some of them had ended well, some of them had ended in him almost blacking out and making Alana Triton's Australian guard dog wish he'd never thrown a punch at Phil. He'd learned they were married now.

Honestly, the offer made him feel a bit relieved. He grin crossing his face, "Oh? That would be brilliant, Ting, honestly. Even just for some input or a second set of eyes, it's hard being a financial team of one when I'm not even an accountant." He'd kept them all afloat once they'd been cut off from their family money, made budgets, all of that, but a business was a bigger undertaking. He wasn't ashamed to admit that even he was a bit out of his depths.

"To be honest, the theme park was the tamest one yet. Actually kind of boring by Swynlake standards." After all, he was - what? Just working at a theme park, playing at being a cowboy? It was almost pleasant, if it hadn't just been another job. Who wanted to dream about being on shift and then wake up to go to work? Johnny didn't want to go to work even when he hadn't been grafting in his sleep.

His alternate lives two years ago sort of faded and meshed together. But that was also perhaps due to the fact that he sword fought in many of them and also in his real life. The only real difference to be completely honest was that his mates were all alive and he wasn't married to Jane by a pirate captain.

"Sounds boring. What did you all do? Pick up trash and walk around in mascot outfits?" John snorted with a slight smirk, honestly glad he'd missed that one. Customer service at a theme park would probably be the bane of his existence. Without a doubt they'd make him some sort of manager in that dream and he certainly didn't need a dream to have customers complain at him that their drink doesn't have enough ice in it.

Fuck it here they were.

“I figured as much.” Banzai mumbled.

“Yeah. We are good. Our roots are good. We just have family shit that’s out of our control that has I guess thrown a wedge in shit.” Banzai shrugged trying to be nonchalant about it.

“I keep my family drama from her naturally. That shit is too much but now it’s inevitable it will cause an issue.” Banzai ruled his eyes at himself slowly. “I jut don’t know how to say shit man…it’s like consuming me.” He tapped his temples. “Up here.”

"Well, to let you know you're not special," He smirked wryly, "I also had family drama I was keeping from my girlfriend. It became too hard to hide it, she practically shoved it out of me. So I told her. And the strange thing was, was that she actually offered to help." He let out a snort, "And she had her own family drama too that I attempted to help her with but really I think I was more of a dogsitter." He and Napoleon had had some fun times while Jane and the other Darlings had been gone. He did help bury a body though so that bit of drama had been settled. It perhaps was in those moments that he realized that he loved Jane.

John did not toss words like love around lightly. Love had been mangled into disrepair by his father and mother. Shards of its old self were still intact where his sisters were concerned.

To John, the repaired version of love was loyalty, love was possession, it took into itself and morphed into whatever was necessary to survive with Jane. He would die and murder for that woman, and he was certain now that she would do the same.

Their love was not soft. It was not any of that flowery rubbish about hearts melting and beating as one. It smacked you upside the head to let you know it would always be there. It shoved a plate in your hands to make sure you ate. But it was okay that it wasn't that soft version, the kind that romance novels liked to push, because it was theirs.

"Think you might just need to let her in a little more. Even if you think she won't understand it and even if you think you'll do an absolute shit job at explaining it. Just don't think. Say whatever is there. And, even if you get angry," John had a lot of experience in this department, oddly enough, he thought maybe he was actually half-way decent at this bartender advice thing, "don't take your thoughts off of what you're trying to say. Don't go for a low blow because you're uncomfortable."

Phil wasn’t quite sure what to make of that whole interaction. He glanced at John. 

Both Maddy and Jane seemed completely unphased now. He wondered if it was a Girl Thing. 

He lifted one shoulder in a sort of half shrug and mouthed Women! to John, now that both girls were no longer looking at him. 

“We should put away those plates of yours in the kitchen,” Phillip announced, mostly because he wanted to get John along to talk about all the dirty details of living with Jane. “Don’t worry. I’ll stay clear away from the appliances. You good with the books, Maddy?”

“Yup!” She stuck her hand out with a thumbs up, which was enough for Phil to swing his arm around John’s shoulders and steer him to the kitchen. 

In any case, Phillip did what he did best and completely derailed that train of thought for another.

Ah yes.

He should have known.

Phillip's main aim was to get him by himself so he could immediately pry into the details of his life with Jane that he so skillfully refused to send him by ignoring his especially probative texts.

He was steered into the kitchen, which in his opinion was still far too close to both Maddy and Jane for him to answer anything Phil was about to ask him. After all, it had been proven Jane had the hearing of some kind of rabid wolf.

John immediately went to the cabinet and sighed, stacking his plates and putting various dishes away, "Go ahead, I can feel your burning questions scorching into the side of my face." At least with his hands busy and his mind working on recalling the exact organizational agreement he and Jane came to about the cabinets he might not hate it quite as much.

Of course, Florian wasn't going to comment on the irony of it. Going into that business after all of the many, many trials that had occurred over the past few years. Not that Florian had been involved in any of that mess - maybe it was a good thing he had been driven out before the entire thing imploded around him.

"Ah, so I've heard." Florian chuckled. He had been to a few events around town and seen Knightley's name dotted around. It was funny, the different avenues they had all taken when there was no Order to tell them where they should be, or what they should be doing. "It seems he's found his passion. And you, as well. I'm glad."

"He has. I'm glad. He was a bit aimless for a while even before everything happened. Growing up had sort of spun him around in circles and he didn't seem to focus on any one thing." John said with a slightly fonder, amused tone to his voice, something that only happened when he spoke about the lads or on occasion, Jane. "But he's very focused this time and I think it's in my best interest to support that passion."

Truthfully, he would support Phillip if he wanted to become a vegan and sell t-shirts out of a van if he was passionate about it. (Thank god he didn't have to do that though).

Besides, he really had been wondering where John was. His reception by Tom and Phil (alright, not so much Phil, mostly just Tom, but still) had been rather frosty, so as to make asking about John a little bit awkward. Who knew where all the Order blokes were running off to these days. If they weren't in prison or making plea deals, that is.

Not that John's answer was particularly exciting, though it did make Johnny wonder. What, was he some kind of spy now? I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you. Was John Smith really that interesting?

"Uh-- a few, yeah." Johnny nodded. "There was a dream where we were in some kind of period drama," He counted off on his fingertips. "There was some weird rain a few years ago that turned me into a lion cub, there was a dream where we all worked at a theme park, there was a giant clown demon thing loose just last new year's...." He paused, squinting for a second. "I think that might be it."

He redirected the question about his life back towards the town events. Something a little more neutral. Though both he and Johnny had lived through the Order, they had done so in very different ways. He did not know how to relate to him in that way. So, a different somewhat shared occurrence was needed.

"A lion cub? Did you talk or were you actually a lion?" Interesting that he wasn't a full lion. Swynlake had it's mysteries but it was always rooted in something a little true at times. It was hard to say what would've become of him in that rain. He'd been married to Jane on more than one occasion, even before they entertained the idea of being anything more than acquaintances. "A theme park is a new one, certainly."