#jonpeterweek2021

Just a little something for today; I’m going to try to do one every day this week, for my idiot boys. These will all very likely take place in my Lonely Eyes OT4 (Jon/Peter/Elias/Martin) AU.

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The letters that Jon receives from Peter bear very little resemblance to letters in the usual sense. There's no greeting, no signature – nothing to address the recipient directly in any way. They read, in fact, like pages torn directly out of a diary and stuffed in an envelope with no context or explanation. For all he knows, they might be. He never mentions them, and the baffling anonymity of them keeps Jon from asking about them either.

He knows that Elias also gets letters; he has no idea if they're the same. He hasn't asked, or tried to Know. If it were only Elias's privacy he were invading he wouldn't have hesitated, but Peter is a different matter.

Jon had ventured the suggestion, once, that Peter sends these inexplicable pages because he wants them to miss him. Elias had laughed somewhat cynically and said that the last thing Peter wanted was for anyone to think about him at all, but Jon isn't entirely convinced. Peter complains, of course, about all the attention – but he does keep coming back.

It doesn't seem right to write back, even if there were a way for letters to reach him (Jon has no doubt that the Tundra has never accepted mail once in her career), but after a couple of long conversations with Martin on the topic, Jon starts leaving things in the pockets of Peter's greatcoat. Small, innocuous things – things it would be entirely plausible for Peter to have picked up from Jon's desk or held for him and then pocketed without thinking about it.

He's careful to make sure not to leave anything personal. Stray pens, notes in his scribbly handwriting that he knows Peter can't decipher, hair ties. There's something, Martin had told him, about finding a reminder of the person you love simply existing, with no thought for you at all.

fkdsjfl i can share a small snippet of what I’m working on, a (very) rough draft that should be done in time for one of the days! it’ll be set precanon, when jon’s a researcher.

“Archivist giving you trouble?”

Elias’s fingers are at his temple, his eyes closed in what could be called contemplation but is more likely irritation. Peter’s not fond of the woman, quite the opposite, but her ability to rile the man is unparalleled. He can respect that.

“Should’ve offed her long ago, I say. Getting on in years, isn’t she?”

“And aging me right along with her,” Elias grouses, letting out a much aggrieved sigh. “It’ll be a while yet, but I do have plans for her.”

“And someone else, I see.” Peter’s eyes scan over the files on his desk- personnel files, each with an attached photo. He snatches one from the stack before Elias can protest and makes a show of squinting at the page. “Jonathan Sims. Bit young for you.”

"Are you sure they're going to be okay?" Martin asks Elias, eyeing the couch where Jon and Peter sit, perched on opposite sides. Elias raises an eyebrow, and Martin says, "I mean, they don't even like each other."

"Don't they?" Elias says mildly, in that tone that means he's not judging Martin for having failed to notice something, he's just surprised. So Martin sighs, and resigns himself to keeping an eye on them for the rest of the day, just in case.

When Martin goes to make lunch they've finally relaxed a little bit; they no longer look like they're trying to sit as far apart as possible. He tells himself that it's fine, they're all adult monsters here, and besides Jon isn't usually quiet about smiting people. By the time he comes back they're almost sitting in the middle of the couch cushions like normal people. (Well, as close as they can manage; Peter lounges wherever he is, and Jon insists on sitting in ways that make him complain about his knees later, but they both seem to have relaxed their personal space requirements a little.)

When he looks up from his book in the middle of the afternoon, Jon is...decidedly closer to the middle of the couch than the end of it. Maybe even on the other side. Martin frowns in his general direction but Jon is too engrossed in whatever he's reading to notice.

Half an hour later, when Elias pauses behind Martin's chair to make a small amused noise before fixing himself another drink, Martin looks up to find that Jon is now reading with his head propped up on Peter's thigh. Rather than objecting, or simply disappearing into the Lonely, Peter has shifted his arm to rest against Jon's back - not around him, exactly, but making room without pulling away. They both look...entirely content, actually.