#youllthinktwice

"You did good" prompts “I’m right here. You found me in time, I’m right here.” For you know who from you know who

Sharp eyes quickly, desperately, scanned her, again and again, for any sign of injury, discomfort. Anything that might indicate Gillian was at less than 100%. Anything hinting at him missing something the first time he checked her over (or the second, or the third). His hands—gentle, always gentle with her—cupped her face, her shoulders, reaffirming that she was indeed here. That she was safe. That he’d found her before anything unthinkable could happen.

Overall, she looked a little shaken, but not beaten or bruised. No injuries, far as he could see. No reasons for him to go on a justifiable killing spree. (Most of the guy outside this room weren’t even dead, just lightly maimed, because he knew killing them all would probably upset her.)

Murder, he was pretty sure, she didn’t find romantic.

Marc and Steven were in his head, trying to calm him down, trying to soothe him. He shoved at them, prickly and uncomfortable with the attention. He’d been panicked, fucking terrified, when he couldn’t find her and even now, when he was finally able to pull her close and wrap his arms tightly around her, he couldn’t quite dislodge his heart from his throat.

“Don’t you ever pull that kinda shit again, y’hear me?” His voice was hoarse when he spoke, and he hated it. Hated how scared she’d made him feel, quickly covered it up with anger. Anger towards the goons scattered throughout the building, anger towards Gillian herself for going missing in the first place. Anger was familiar. Safe. And right now, Jake desperately needed to feel safe.

The moment Hikari had said her hellos at the Chosen meeting and somewhat drifted off from the others, Ken was pushing Osamu's wheelchair over to her.

"Don't touch my chair, you little brat! I told you, all little girls want to be kindergarten teachers, this isn't going to stick until-"

The chair stopped with a squeak half a meter in front of her.

The elder Ichijouji, from what they had all been able to observe of him thus far, had two settings: grouchy and stoic. He switched automatically to the latter whenever he was more than mildly irritated as a matter of course, not being particularly proud of his old habit of lashing out at people.

The younger boy smiled at her instead of acknowledging Osamu's complaints.

"Niisan might not look it, but he adores children. He plans to be a daycare teacher- he's already an assistant teacher at his age, you know! So I figured he could be helpful to you instead of hiding from everyone like a shut-in. Have fun."

"Oi, Ken! Who said you could volunteer that - come back here!"

Yui reminds Yor of a butterfly. She looks delicate, thin, and almost breakable at times, even when that's far from the truth. Her arms, while thin, are strong and give some of the best hugs. She's shorter than Yor, but the perfect height to be tucked under the raven-haired girl's chin when they both need some support.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia “i see where you’re going with that but it sounds like it could get a little messy.” (Jake from Gillian)

“When is anything in my life not messy?” he snorts. Seriously. He’s honestly asking here. Go on, tell him. He’ll wait.

Holding out a placating hand, he shakes his head. “Look, Foster.” A pause. Probably better to use her first name, here. Sound a little more reassuring and personable. ”Gillian. I get where you’re comin’ from, I do, but it’s gonna be fine. I got it handled. I’ll be in and out before anyone knows I’m there—no one’s gonna get hurt.” No one that doesn’t deserve it, at least. At the very least, no one’s gonna get killed. Probably. “I got backup plans for my backup plans. I got this.”

The Morning After i tried to keep feelings out of this. i really did. (Gillian to Jake)

Feelings. Yeah, so had he. But that didn’t stop everything around him from disappearing whenever she entered the room. It didn’t stop his lungs from constricting whenever he couldn’t get ahold of her. It didn’t stop the way his heart clenched knowing she was in danger because of him.

Gillian made him feel things, and that was a problem. A big one. Because feelings were a weakness. One Jake couldn’t afford. Not if he wanted to keep the people in his life safe. And to keep Gillian safe, it was starting to look like he was gonna have to hurt hers.

“Then I’m callin’ it quits. All of it.” Face blank, devoid of emotion, despite how much it killed him to do this. “I’ll finish this on my own, and you can go back to your life.” A life without Jake, because being a part of Jake’s life was dangerous, and that wasn’t ever going to change. Not so long as he was working with Khonshu, and probably not even after that. He’ll have made too many enemies, by that point, to have a normal, peaceful life. The kind of life Gillian should have. The life she deserved. “There’s no room in this for feelings.” Jake refused to be the reason she died early.

The Morning After is this your shirt? (Gillian to Jake)

“Well,” he gave her a languid smirk as he rolled over in the bed, propped himself up on his elbow, to watch her sort through their clothes, scattered across the floor. “Pretty sure it ain’t yours, so unless you got some other guy comin’ ‘round here that I don’t know about…” Unlikely. She was smart enough to understand the rules of a safehouse, and Jake would’ve noticed if there was another man walking around—it wasn’t exactly a big place.

Dissociation starters “Hey. Jake? Look at me.” From you know who

One slow blink. Two. It took a hell of a lot of effort to lift his chin enough to actually look at Gillian; felt like he was trying to swim through molasses. But even though he looked at her, he didn’t really see her. His gaze shifted. Staring off into the middle distance, just over her left shoulder, Jake continued on with his slow blinks. It was about all he could manage, at the moment.

Sitting there, on the couch, he wasn’t exactly present. He was there, sure, but he wasn’t there. Like he was standing on the edge of a cliff and was one wrong breath away from toppling over completely; a switch was going to happen, whether he liked it or not, and there wasn’t enough of him there to get up and go somewhere else to do it privately.

She was going to find out about them, and he couldn’t exactly bring himself to care all that much.

“Mm. Laters…gators…”

Between one blink and the next, Jake disappeared. For a beat, it was as if the body was an empty shell, breathing and blinking on autopilot—the lights were on, but no one was home. It took several long moments before someone was, as Jake would say, fully back in the driver’s seat. The slow blinks turned into a few quick ones as he looked around the room, confusion clear on his face. It wasn’t until his gaze landed back on the woman in front of him that he spoke, eyes widening.

“Oh bollocks.”