You didn't make the cut

He may have been the first one to die – But I’m the one who paid for it.

                                                     I survived, but I paid for it.

[art]

It was simply nice, to see him smile. That even after all these years, after all what happened, he was capable of such. Their burdens weighed so heavily down upon them both, she had feared it had crushed him underfoot.

           “There is not much a woman like me can do in a hospital             bed.” She tapped the patch covering her missing eye with a             slim digit. Her voice was more heavy – belaying the obvious             lie. Ana Amari was many things, but an idle woman she was             not. “Infamous? Feh! The only infamy here were the reasons why you             earned my fury.”

Worried sick, most of the time. But she wouldn’t speak such a thing. It was all too well known and she hated that it was.

Her playful cadence wavered out of her voice as she eyed him softly this time. Every wrinkle and scar on his face that was visible, to the strands of grey-white that made up his hair and matched her silvery locks.

          “A little, perhaps. But every boy grows up eventually. He just needed           the time to do so, and he was never given it. Not during Overwatch’s           life, at least.”

Jack was lucky he was sitting across from her than beside, because she would’ve clipped him around the ear for such a comment – for old time’s sakes if nothing else. She curled her lip, wagging her finger at him.

Let's just take it as such. Let them be selfish and hold on to this.

    “So you didn't stay there long. Sitting still never worked out well for either of us.” He'll drop the subject, eyeing her patch with some curiosity. The story behind it he knows too well, a pang of guilt shooting through him one again. We thought you were dead. Thank God she keeps talking. Jack grins in full-- surprised at it himself-- leaning back with arms now crossed. “Come now, Ana. I always behaved myself.”

That grin of his crumbles, a scowl taking its place. “They didn't give any of us time.” For anything. They took it away from them. Jack's certainly thankful for her ability to change the topic so effortlessly, coaxing the soft smile back out, posture relaxing.

                           🎃  ~ Happy Halloween ~   🎃