September. Well, that still fit, but Ben was drawing a blank as to the exact happenings of one month fifteen years ago. He knew that, in this general timeframe, he'd been torn between being a good kid and not trusting 'the demon' and starting to believe the things she said, but she'd still wanted him back in her life at this point. He knew that. At least, he was nearly certain of that fact.
"No." The definitive answer came along with him squaring his shoulders. "I'm not gonna let you just go off and," he leaned it a bit, sniffing briefly before scowling, "drink alone, and if that pisses you off, fine. Be pissed off at me. It's not like it's the first time and it won't be the last for either of us because that's what friends do."
He reached out again, this time only holding the edge of her shoulders lightly so he could try his best to get her to look at him, whether she did or not. "I don't want better people. I want the better demon, and that's you, even if you can't see that right now."
Goddammit. What was enough to say? What was too much? "The future... it sucks sometimes, still. It's just how living here works. But it's also awesome, and not just for me, but for you too." Okay, it wasn't awesome ALL the time for her because while the others had moved on, John had only let murderous hatred simmer to open dislike, but this was a pep talk, dammit. Creative license was allowed.
He fixed her with his most stubborn face, clearly not budging. "You can't tell me you don't want to have an awesome future. Or, well, I guess you could, but you'd be full of it. And you can't tell me that you don't care about what happens to me."