Jane Foster (astrosearcher) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-02-20 10:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] relationship confusion, ~2017 february, ~25 points, ~~jane foster (astrosearcher), ~~ty johnson (allthingsdark) |
Who: Ty Johnson and Jane Foster
What: Waking Up Broken Up
When: Monday morning
Where: Jane’s place
Warnings: None!
Status: Closed/Complete
For the last week, Ty had been completely in love. A taste of what his life could have been like, still could be like he supposed. It wasn’t such a difficult thing; he just had to forgive Jane. To accept that what had happened had been nothing more than a mistake, that she had no intention of doing it again, that he could still trust her.
It had been a week of being a couple, almost the way she had wanted them to be, the way he’d refused out of fear. Of sleeping together and sleeping together and being happy. Honest to goodness happy in a way Ty hadn’t been but for with Dawn. He hadn’t thought he’d ever have that again. And now it was gone.
Now he was lying in bed beside her, bundled up to keep the cold of him away from her, watching Jane sleep and remembering how much her betrayal had hurt. Knowing that he ought to get up and go before she woke up but not being able to find the desire to actually do so.
***
Jane didn't want to wake up. Not even a little. She'd had a whole week of what it would be like to have someone who loved her, someone to come home to at night and wake up with in the morning. Valentine's Day had been one of the best dates she'd ever been on. Did any of it count if it was the product of some kind of screw up that happened as a result of the dome sending out some kind of interference?
He was awake though, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, so was she. Darcy would tell her not to hide away or ignore the people problem in front of her. Jane sighed heavily and opened her eyes, but she didn't move away from how she'd curled up around him.
"I don't want to wake up. Waking up means last week was some kind of fluke but it's-" Jane stopped to make sure her voice was steady. "It was the best week I've had in this place so far." Hopefully he didn't hate her for it. "I didn't cause it, by the way. I stopped trying to experiment like that after messing with everyone's powers."
***
Ty wished that he could say the same to her. It was true, of course. It was the happiest he’d been since arriving here. But it was over now. Things were back to the way they had been and the way they had been meant they were taking a break.
And everyone knew that taking a break never really meant break. It meant broken.
That was what she’d wanted. Even if he forgave her, tried to win her back, that had been her choice. So Ty echoed her sigh, shifted away to sit on the edge of the bed. “Glad to know that much at least.”
He should get out of there, go back to his flat, get away from her before he did something she’d make him regret.
***
That was the thing. Jane hadn't known that taking a break was the end of it, which was why it had hurt so much to see Ty at the speed dating thing, seemingly having a good time. She was miserable without him and convinced that she just didn't know anything about relationships clearly, so what was the point of even trying?
He sat up and that meant they weren't touching anymore. Jane slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position too, pulling her knees to her chest. Ty was going to leave soon if she didn't stop him. If she didn't say something.
"Who's Ross?" she blurted out. "Kara called me Ross when I told her we were just on a break, that we weren't broken up."
***
Ty turned a little, clearly confused. More by the fact that she thought a break meant anything else.
“You do realize that we are, right? Broken up.” Did she really not? Was there some kind of hope for them after all? If she didn't actually want for them to be over, there was a chance at least that they didn't have to be. “That's what a break means.”
For literally everyone who had ever dated. Except maybe Jane.
***
Jane let her chin rest on her knees. "I didn't know that was what it meant until Kara tried to stop me from spending time with J'onn," she replied honestly. "I just thought you didn't want anything to do with me until I set Thor straight, but then you both ended up at speed dating, so Darcy pulled me in too."
She chanced a glance at him. Had there just been some kind of miscommunication between them? "I was going to talk to you before speed dating, but I felt so bad after what I'd done to you and Thor that I didn't really think I deserved...well, all of this." And that was the truth, because why should she be happy when she'd made Thor an unwitting accomplice in her adultery?
"And then speed dating happened." And Kara had yelled at her and told her they were broken up and so she'd just hidden herself away.
***
With a deep sigh, Ty moved so that he was facing her, keeping a fair amount of distance between them, but it was clear that something had gotten jumbled the last time they’d talked. They needed to get that something cleared up and fast. Jane had been in the wrong, yes, but Ty hated to see her like that, so sad and hurting. It had felt justified at first, but now...he just wanted for her to be happy.
“You didn’t want to be broken up, then,” he supplied. One thing at a time, one step at a time. He needed to figure this all out. To help her figure it all out with him.
He wasn’t leaping back into a relationship, but he was going to be open to a conversation at least.
***
"Not even a little," Jane confirmed, sitting up a little bit straighter. Having this kind of conversation in her bed actually made her feel a lot more comfortable than telling him out in public had been those few weeks ago. It was hard to believe it really had been only a few weeks, even with the both of them thinking more than a year had passed at some point. It was bizarre, but if it meant they were clearing up whatever issues there were, Jane was all for it.
"I like having you in my life. You're amazing, Ty. You're kind and funny and you care, and you don't mind that I'm so scattered all the time. You're interested in my work and you make me feel like I'm special, and not just because of how smart I am." She loved him, she just hadn't realized that until it was too late.
***
Very few people actually acknowledged that sort of thing about Ty. And those who did invariably followed it by saying something like ‘let’s just be friends’. Dawn hadn’t, Jane didn’t. It made him want to just say yes, alright, everything could be fine. But he knew it couldn’t be that easy. Nothing in his life was ever that easy.
“What about Thor?”
Whatever they might feel for each other aside, Thor was still an issue. A big, blonde issue that Ty couldn’t really compete with. It was no contest. Jane had to choose him, and even then he’d question it if she did. Why would she want all things dark and cold when she could have thunder, lightening and strength?
***
Jane was confused. "What about Thor?" she asked back, confused as to why he'd even asked when she'd just said that she set Thor straight about the whole thing. Besides, he was mad at her anyway for not speaking up before they'd gotten as far as they had. She completely understood it, but a big part of why it happened was because she'd missed that physical side of the relationship. Thor could do the physical side of things. It was the emotional side of things that they had a bit of trouble connecting on.
"I made a mistake with Thor, but I don't- I don't want to be with him." Surely he knew that by now. They'd just had a week of what a stable relationship could be like, but he still thought she wanted to be with Thor? "Why would I want to be with Thor when I'm in love with you?"
***
Right now, yeah. Ty thought it was inevitable that she’d want Thor over him.
“You just lived what it’s like with me,” he countered. “You can’t touch me skin to skin for more than a few minutes. Sleeping in the same bed is dangerous.” He was rugged up head to toe to protect her, not because he was cold. “And sex is….”
Great. Ty had learned to work with what he could give. But Hod necessitated that it was done quantity over duration every time.
He lived in a way that tried to make up for everything, but there were still a lot of good reasons why Thor was a better choice.
***
"I liked living with you," she replied defensively. It took her a minute to remember that she didn't have to be defensive about what she liked. Jane took a deep breath and stretched her legs out so she could let her toes rest against his leg, protected by both her socks and his sleep pants. Touching helped.
"We can still touch even if it's not skin to skin, and just because it's dangerous doesn't mean it's not possible. We managed for a whole week and it had felt like longer." Like they'd been doing it for months. Jane smiled a little at the thought of sex because it had been fantastic for the past week. The truth was, she liked that it wasn't some long drawn out affair every time. She didn't point that part out though.
"Is it not normal, what we had last week?" she asked. Because that had worked perfectly as far as she was concerned but if that had been some kind of fluke, she wanted to know that, too.
***
“I don’t know.” Ty didn’t really have a lot of experience with normal. “My last relationship was a mortal,” meaning he hadn’t been able to tell her anything, had had to lie to her and make up insane reasons why things had to be a little different, “and the one time I saw a goddess she wound up being my brother’s wife.”
Celestial relationships made things incredibly complicated in god dating.
“All I know is that I’m not the only danger to you.” Bad stuff happened to mortals mixed up in gods. That much was known. “I couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt too, Jane.” He’d told her about what had happened with Dawn, why he was so hesitant to let their relationship be physical. That was a concern. He’d told her how vague everything they knew about being gods was. And that was another concern. Being with Ty was a mess of dangers, that he couldn’t help wonder if they were worth it.
He wondered if he was worth it.
***
His world was complicated and messy, but she'd made their lives that way here, too. "That's my choice. About taking the risk. I know what they are. You told me all the facts and we figured out a way to make it work for both of us." Jane understood complicated when it came to dating gods. She was just more familiar with said God disappearing for long stretches of time, and putting his duty before her.
"I like Hod, that he's a part of you. I like that I make you happy enough that you make it snow inside. I like that Hod is the god of all things cold and dark because that's my life. That's space. It's cold and it's dark and it's dangerous. But it's also beautiful and it's what makes me happy." Wasn't that enough? Couldn't that just be enough for them?
***
How was it that she always managed to say something so perfect right at the moment Ty needed it the most? That she wasn’t afraid of what he was, though she had every reason to be, that she even liked it, and he didn’t, was more than he could have ever hoped for. She was someone who knew all about the things that made him difficult to be with and wanted to be with him anyway.
And Ty wanted to be with her. He’d never not wanted to be with her. Even after she’d told him about Thor, he hadn’t been the one to say things were over. That had come from Jane. Apparently she hadn’t meant it like that, but she’d said it.
He sighed, and for a moment was quiet, mulling it over. Finally, he reached out and took her hand, his touch cool but safer than he ever thought it was. “Can we start again?” he ventured. “Set all of this behind us and give it a fresh go?”
***
It was dangerous to be so hopeful, but she couldn't help it. Jane really wanted this to work out between the two of them and she was willing to do just about anything he wanted to make that happen. She let out a breath she'd been holding when he reached for her hand and she immediately laced their fingers together.
"Yes," she replied immediately, before he'd even asked his second question. Jane would have been a fool to say anything else and she hadn't even needed a moment to think about it. Ty was who she wanted. "I'd like that a lot," she assured him, tears forming in the corners of her eyes because she was so happy that they'd finally gotten to this part.
"Where do we...go from here?"
***
“Drinks tonight?” Ty suggested, and in a change from everything he’d have done before the last week, he left his hand in hers. A few minutes wasn’t so bad, it was when it was hours that it was really a problem, and he knew that. Rational didn’t really describe him most of the time, especially not when it came to Hod.
If they were going to try this again, he really did mean starting fresh. And he meant really trying. Drinks was a good place to start. They could meet somewhere nicer, talk. They could make sure the spark between them was still there.
He didn’t think that was actually a problem. It definitely felt like it was there. But Ty didn’t want to risk that being confusion from being in her bed.
***
Jane could do drinks. She'd even make sure she showed up showered, in clean clothes, maybe even some makeup. Those were all things Ty deserved from his girlfriend and she'd do a better job of it. At least, that was her hope. She wasn't delusional enough to believe it'd last without hiccups, but she'd do her best.
"That sounds good," she replied, giving her agreement. She'd just have to remember to eat beforehand, but she could do that. Jane had figured that much out over the past week. It helped that Ty was just as interesting as her work and he always made time for her. She couldn't be the only one who asked for things out of their relationship. It had to work for both of them, and it could.
"At 7?"
***
With a small, teasing smile, Ty nodded. “Do you need a reminder?”
He’d texted her dozens of times over the last week, reminding her to do this or that, giving her warnings that he’d be there to pick her up soon. Before everything had happened, he hadn’t realized just how scatterbrained Jane could be when she got engrossed in her work, but he knew now.
It was endearing. Cute. He didn’t mind having to shake her out of it every now and then.
***
Jane grinned. "Maybe just one." But she could do this. She could make sure that she showed up for something this important. For someone this important. Once they were back to the point they'd been at this past week, maybe then she could get the multitude of reminders. Right now, Jane didn't exactly feel like she deserved it.
"I'll see you then. For now, I should probably go talk to Lindsay." Tell her about what happened, that things were going to be different. "Darcy! Oh my god, I have to check in on Darcy." She reached for her phone, pulling her hand away from his as a result. She needed to make sure Darcy was okay. Just as she was about to send a text message, she gave Ty a sheepish smile.
"Sorry."
***
“It’s okay,” Ty dismissed, shaking his head. “I should go anyway.”
He had his own place to get to, no one to explain anything to, but he figured he should at least talk to Kara, let her know everything was on the mend. That maybe it would be alright.
“I’ll see you tonight.” He was looking forward to it a lot more than he felt he ought to be. This was the woman who not so long ago had cheated on him and broken his heart, and there he was ready to give it right back to her.
He might end up regretting this.
***