Chapter Text
Peter sighs, Tim was prattling about how good the last few days had been with Sasha and his brother while they kept kayaking around the lake. He really would love for him to go, but the man seemed to latch onto him and find glee in making his life insufferable.
He will not admit that sometimes he would remind him of Elias monologuing while Peter nodded along, that was a little too close to a feeling talk and he it wont do.
Plus, the comment would not be found as amusing as he thinks it is.
So he lets it rest.
Waking up after being killed by the archivist was a surprise.
Waking up in a bed in an apartment that he has never seen before is another.
Looking around and finding clothes that fit him, along with decorations and more, all suited to his liking was by far the weirdest.
At least until he went outside and almost collided with Gertrude Robinson.
That freaked him out the worst.
As it stands, the little dead community that lived here consisted, to his knowledge, of people who were avatars or entity touched, in most cases at least.
Agnes Montague was eating ice cream with a very nervous looking man who kept looking at their joined hands in wonder.
It was a quiet and relatively calm place. So it wasn't all bad on his book, exceptions regarding some of the people there were a given. If he never had to talk with Gertrude ever again it would be perfect.
Tim was… insistent, and Peter could no longer just disappear to escape a conversation, so with resignation he remained. He could see Sasha and Danny give him amused looks whenever the other man dragged him to his kayaking trips.
After all he was the only other person who liked them, he would love to be going alone in the Tundra 2, but Tim would never let him be.
The happy ice cream shop had the tastes of whatever made you happier. A simple scoop of multicolored monstrosity and you got whatever brought you joy.
Peter's usual flavour was apple cake and chocolate chips. He loved going there on whatever passed for sundays, since really, time did not have any meaning and in fact passed along weirdly, sometimes it was tuesday and friday at the same time. Logic did not apply and no one seemed to bat an eye at it, so neither would he.
Sometimes he would walk during the “night” watching the lights of the buildings around and he would try and pull for the feeling of forsaken, but receive no answer.
The crushing loneliness he felt at its loss would have made his patron happy of that he is sure of.
Navigating what it meant to be without it was harsh, part of his ability to feel had been… dampened down significantly, so now he was really experiencing things for real and it was too much.
Some he could understand, others he did not have any idea how to respond or do about it, leaving him paralized and panicked.
Elias would have tried to pry him open asking questions until he told him, and would put into words whatever is bothering him in a condescending way. Peter feels… something at that, something somewhat sad? But he is not here, and if his plan worked, he won't be for a long time, so he has to figure it out on his own.
If he does then he would have less to mock him with when he finally arrives.
Still it does leave him sometimes in little fits, usually he stays alone in his new apartment just sulking and wishing it away. But sometimes he gets them out of nowhere when Tim talks about something, causing him to retreat into himself or be snappy.
The man with his own temper snaps back and it ends with both of them rowing in silence.
It passes of course, Tim apologizes the next time they meet and Peter sighs and does the same. Neither will go deeper into what the problem is, both dealing with their own stuff.
There is a beach, crossing the hills and walking for a while.
He asks the younger man if he ever went there and he nods.
“I woke up there, it took me a few… days? But eventually i was able to come into town” He has a wistful look that makes him question him.
“I couldnt leave on my own for those days, i asked Danny but he appeared in town, Sasha spoke with Gerty, said that she woke up on the beach and had to stay there until she finally was able to move in, but that it took a lot of time, much more longer than me at least”
“Huh”
“So you can go now?”
“Yes, I just… don't feel like it very often, it makes me sort of... “ His face gets a faraway look that Peter decides to shake off by asking if he was going to get something for Sasha. That unsticks him and he talks again.
Sometimes, just sometimes he can be kind.
Time passes.
His apartment is big, far too much for just him. His closet has far more space than he could ever need and he can already picture suits upon suits hanging there.
Truth is he is mad at Elias.
It still turns around his mind how he tricked him, the divorces, the marriages. By all means, he should lock him out and force him to sleep outside, hell even a punch would be nice.
But as it is, Peter is not really the type to maintain anger, so the more time it passes, the more it simmers down. Only then he starts to think about how he can tease him when he arrives.
That's why in a fit he goes and gets shirts with sea puns and more hawaian shirts that Tim helps him pick just to see his reaction. Peter fills up the empty closet. Better, he will drive him up to a wall to see him with any of these.
Except for the “ I sea you later” shirt, that one would make him laugh, no doubt.
Peter goes to the beach, there is.. nothing too special about it, white sand, a lovely and calm sea, it could do with more fog he supposes, but well not everyone shares his tastes.
He ends up sitting down and watching until the sun starts to come down.
It was a lovely sunset.
He would have needed to drag Elias and probably manhandle him into sitting still to watch it, but it would have been nice.
Maybe he can convince him once he gets there, maybe he doesn't put that much of a fight.
God forbids he does something without overthinking it and remaining quiet.
More time passes, more people drop around. No one he cares about so he continues his days in relatively peace.
Until Mikaele drops and then he has an actual surprise, because, hello he did not die when he thought.
“Are you for real?!”
“What can i say i was a man on a mission and my preparations were effective”
“Until the web’s child killed you” His face turns sheepish.
“Ah, yes... but at least she was nice enough to do it before stealing the camera, I would have hated to be there” Right Elias dream.
“How was it?” His face becomes a little haunted and Peter is not sure if he is glad or not that he died when he did.
“Quite frankly? The worst thing you can picture. Albeit as an avatar you could have fun i reckon” Most likely, yes, but Peter is… content in his place now, so he shrugs.
“Probably, what happened to…” He thinks about the cat he had given him and Mikaele picks on it.
“Oh she is at the apartment safe and sound, apparently Annabelle also killed the cat, i would have hated for her to be stuck in some realm otherwise”
Peter wonders what happened to Captain, Duchess and Socks.
“Yeah…”
“Hey, they will come about at some point” He hopes so.
His ice cream tastes like the chocolate croissants from the bakery around their apartment.
Peter doesn't realize until much, much later that Jon and Martin arrived and only because it was a rather violent affair.
Tim after punching him square in the jaw and yelling at him, calms down enough to sit down and tell him.
“Oh”
“Yeah.. so evil boss then?”
“I did try to get Martin to kill Elias, not my fault he didn't want to” Tim sighs.
“But you made a bet with him-”
“Well it was a tempting one and we were divorced at the time being so-” The spluttering and subsequent barrage of questions left him reeling.
“So what does an evil bastard boss eat for breakfast, the souls of the innocents?”
“Black coffee, chocolate croissant and if not that, toasted bread with the perfect and i mean perfect amount of jam, otherwise i get a divorce”
“Jesus”
“Mmh” He nods sagely.
He did not want to see Jonathan Sims, not one bit, his one wish was to die alone and he didn't get it, maybe if he had spoken up and ruined Elias' plan he would have lived, but it's not very likely.
Way too protective of Martin, enough to bring the end of the world for him, even if it wasn't his intention. Gertrude gives Jonathan side looks, which Peter finds hilarious, if he wasn't sitting in front of him at the ice cream parlor with Martin giving him his own looks of disdain.
“If you-”
“We are all dead archivist, and no one has powers. I don't care, get out of my sight and we will be fine” Martin jumps to his defense which is disgustingly sweet.
“Dont- dont you dare talk to him like that, also i don't care how you tricked Tim, but if you do anything-” He groans in annoyance.
“Its called we like to kayak on fridays and he won't leave me be, trust me i did not ask for it. Anyways Elias must have been so happy that you two got here, relieved even” That makes the archivist look confused at him.
“I killed Elias, just a few minutes before we died”
Peter blinks and looks between the two of them.
“Excuse me?”
“He is not here?” Martin asks and he shakes his head.
“No one has seen him, he wasn't at my place-” Why did he assume the man would appear at his place?
“Your-”
“Maybe he is in whatever passes for a bad place here, he deserves it, well… so do you, and yet-”
“And yet”
Gertrude gets up and Peter can feel hostility already coming so he says his goodbyes and sees her approach the two men.
No, he doesn't want to see what that leads to.
More and more time passes and Elias does not appear.
Who does appear one morning, pawing at his face and mewling for food are their three cats.
Captain headbuts him and licks his nose, Duchess bites his sleeve and Socks jumps at his covered feets trying to catch them under the blanket.
“Oh, OH” Sitting down the three animals jump to his lap and start to purr and roll around him, he picks up Captain and presses him against his chest, hearing him rumble in happiness. Something wet falls down to the cat and he realizes in mute surprise that he is crying, Peter doesn't remember the last time he ever did, perhaps when he was a child and still not used to the loneliness of the house, but even then his memories are blurry and he can't tell.
The feeling of relief hits him like nothing ever has before and he can't stop a sob from coming out of his mouth. Peter is not used to feeling this much, if he is like this because he got his cats back what the hell does he do when he sees Elias?
Its too much.
The animals must realize he is upset because they all start to purr even more and he chuckles between the tears.
“I love you all so much” He thinks they understand him.
Tim, despite appearances, does not play around. So he asks him bluntly one day.
“What if he never comes? I mean I would love to see him and punch him for what he did, but what if?”
“He will, its- Its Elias, he is just sulking around about losing, probably too embarrassed to show his face around. Plus there are like 10 people here that want to maul him, i would be concerned too” He gives him a somewhat disgusted, but still pitying look. He hates pity, especially directed at him.
“If you say so…”
Peter goes to the beach more often these days, likes to see the sunset. Sometimes he walks, but there is nothing really for him to see beyond the expanse of sand and water. People don't come, like Tim told him, those who had to stay here until they were able to move to the town don't wish to come back.
He thinks he would have liked to stay here, it reminded him of the lonely. Perhaps that's why instead he woke up at the town surrounded by people, a lesson for him.
At some point he finds a small beach house. It was abandoned and broken down. But it could have been at some point very cozy. He has the strange and peculiar thought that maybe he had seen it before at some point.
Bored of his routine, he decides to start fixing it up. He has time and no hurry, bringing the cats along too while he just paints, replaces the old furniture and fixes parts of the house that are broken down. He is clumsy and not that good, never really having needed to fix things before, always hiring someone and then disappearing them. Or later on asking Elias to get it solved while he was away.
In a fit of pettiness he instals tall cabinets for the kitchen. Partially to annoy his husband once he comes, partially because he… did like to pick up the wine bottles for him. He always got a small kiss for his efforts.
Its not perfect, no, but it takes somewhat better shape the more he works on it.
He finds himself staying over with the cats curling around him while he tries to sleep.
His ice cream tastes like black coffee and chocolate cake.
Elias is late.
Eventually when he is done he moves to the house on the beach.
Simon appeared at some point looking disheveled, knocking on his door at the beach house, he let him in and after talking for a while he asked him if he wanted to keep his apartment in town since he was moving out and it was on the top floor of the building. The older man cheerfully agrees, Nimbus appeared a few days later so he also delivered the cat to him, Simon seemed rather happy about that development.
So he moves in and sits in the small wooden porch staring at the water and waits.
He still kayaks with Tim, has poker nights with Simon and Mikaele that Timothy insists he wants to participate in. Sometimes he gets to annoy Martin and he is more frustrated than actually hostile so it feels like a win.
His happy ice cream tastes like his husband's favourite food.
Peter waits around the beach while the cats play around and feels rather cold.
His rings did not come with him when he died.
The necklace with all seven of them was nowhere to be found, he misses the weight on his chest and to play around with them when he is nervous, which now that he doesn't have the lonely to stop him from having anxiety its clearly a travesty.
So in the spirit of it, he gets new ones. He is sure the ring store was not there before, but now that he needed it… well, he won't complain.
He gets a pair, the.. not person that works there gives him exactly what he wants, except-
“The measurements for this one is not right-”
“It is” The smiling face and final tone make him unable to complain so he takes it.
A new necklace with two rings on it.
The closet is still too big, so he gets suits.
Again, the cashier gives them to him, but their size is slightly different to what he knows Elias wears. Before he even says a word it lets out a simple.
“The size is correct” And he shuts his mouth.
Ok, fine, if weird dead space logic decides to be like that, who is he to complain?.
So now he has clothes for Elias when he finally decides to come around.
The traitorous voice that sounds suspiciously like Tim says if-
if he comes back.
Peter sighs and waits.
He is the one who usually takes his time to come back to Elias, maybe this time it was his turn to do it.
Peter’s thoughts about the man are still rather complicated, he thinks he loves him, but the lonely did not really leave much for it while he was alive. He spent more time on his own on the Tundra than with him and their time together could be nice, but just as well it could be a nightmare.
Maybe, just maybe Peter is just… so used to Elias' presence that it became a pattern that neither of them could stop. Easier to do the same thing over and over even if the result was always the same.
Perhaps their “love” was only an excuse to find someone to help him along with his own god. Just a little game to pass the time. It's easier to be lonely if you miss someone. They were just all the other had, not wanting or being able to deal with anyone else, so they clung to each other like a vine smothering themselves to see who would die first. Elias surely doesn't care. He probably did not spare a thought for him.
Albeit it would be something he had wanted before, now he is not so sure.
Peter is not sure of a lot of things.
He likes the quiet, the house is big and there are empty bookshelves everywhere, he doesnt recall buying them, but sometimes things just… happen. Simon says it happens to him too, Mikaele as well. Stuff would just randomly appear and they just rolled with it.
It feels weird to see the space so… empty.
Elias had books practically falling off at their apartment with the amount he possed, he asked why since he could just, know them. He scoffed and scrunched up his nose in that way he found so adorable.
“I enjoy the experience, just knowing them doesnt feel as… rewarding” At Mooreland he never read, only what was necessary to pass the mandatory school work. Then of course there was the whole… seeing the letters blurry. He never commented on it to anyone, Elias was the only one who knew, because one morning Peter was struggling to read the small letters of the crossword puzzle and he used the eye to see from his perspective calling him out.
He had hated to know that, he never asked to be told. Grumpily he left, but he never got the glasses and as Peter aged his vision got worse. It's still is.
So one day he wakes up and in his bedside table there are a pair of glasses sitting there innocuous above a book.
The cover showed an old pirate ship.
Peter ignored it, but after a few days he caved and tried them on. Everything looked clear in a way that he had never seen before, the book he waited a few days to try, just getting used to the glasses. Albeit he never took them to town, only alone at home.
He… loved it, the book that is.
It was stupid and silly, but he had loved every word.
More books appeared in the bookshelves and he started to notice that some had been at Elias' place, while others were in the same vein as the one he found first.
His ice cream tastes like black coffee and orange cake.
Elias is not coming, is he?
The thought actually creeped on him after what would have been several years after the archivist and Martin appeared. His husband is not really coming, maybe they were right and there was a space, a bad one and he was there.
Maybe the reason Peter was here surrounded by people and with a house full of things that reminded him of the man was to punish him as well.
The thought deeply disturbed him.
He…
…
Peter missed Elias. He can't keep lying to himself about this, he waits for him, he gets stuff for him because he is hoping beyond hope that his little Siren would suddenly drop at his porch and enter his life like the terror that he is. Peter wanted him back, because whatever afterlife this was, isn't complete without the man that made his life so complicated yet managed to wrap himself around his heart in such an insidious way that he would not change him one bit.
And he wouldn't, just like despite their many fights Elias wouldn't change him either. He would not have married him so many times otherwise.
In bed late at night he hugs Captain who purrs and licks his neck making him chuckle.
“Do you miss him?” The cat mewls and bumps its tiny head against his chin.
Duchess and Socks roll on the side that the shorter man should occupy and let their own sad sounds.
“I miss him too”
There is a storm.
So far since he had been staying here it had never rained before, which considering the weather in London was a bit weird for his taste in this new world. The storm was awful, thunder, wind, and he could see through the windows the rather big waves in the distance. The house was safely away from the water so it wasn't really an issue, the cats however were all spooked and hid under the couch.
He wasn't able to sleep, the thunder felt too close for comfort so he stayed in the living room watching through the windows the rain fall while petting Captain who nuzzled his hand.
One of the flashes of lightning illuminated the sky for a second and he swore he saw…
Then it was dark again and he could not tell if he really did see a person sitting on the sand.
No, no, with this weather it would not make any sense, no one is that stupid to sit on the rain during a storm….
Maybe Simon but he would be at the balcony of his apartment instead.
Still he watches more carefully, but there are no more flashes and he sees no more, so he sighs and goes to make something sweet to eat.
In all honestly no one needs to eat, but he likes the taste and its something to do, after all for some reason he can't get the tv to play train documentaries no matter what, it asks for a password to unlock the channels, but he doesn't know it. Plus at this hour he doesn't feel like making another ship on a bottle.
Morning comes and light hits his face, he must have dozed on the couch at some point after the fifth chocolate muffin.
Groaning he gets up, and oh.
The sky is cloudy and it drizzles calmly. Smiling, he gets up, making Empress Socks bite his socked feet and jump to stay with her parents on their bed.
He decides to take a walk, putting on a yellow raincoat he hesitates and picks up an umbrella too. Feeling like he will need it for some reason, that and… a towel.
It puzzles him, but he takes it with a grain of salt.
Its chilly and nice and he had missed this weather, now if some fog could come out it would be almost like being back at the lonely.
Almost.
Humming a tune and feeling cheery he keeps going.
That is until about mmm maybe half an hour of it, he sees a person sitting down with his arms around his knees on the beach. They were shaking and clearly had been under the rain for a while since they were absolutely soaked. He could only see a head of curlier darker hair and white clothes clinging to their skin.
He almost turns around and goes, not wanting to deal with whoever that was, but it was someone miserable on a beach and perhaps he could not send them to a nightmare dimension of solitude anymore, but he can make their day slightly worse and that is something. Peter wasn't bitter in the slightest.
So carefully he approaches, making sure to be as quiet as possible to startle them.
When he is close enough he speaks with the cheeriest and most joyful tone possible.
“Hello there! Im Peter, now, what is it that you are doing here.. alone.. in the rain? I like it myself, but usually i have an umbrella or raincoat-”
“Peter?” The voice sounds small and confused, but does not ring any bells.
“Yes as i was saying-” His head snaps up and he sees a … stranger, but the way he looks at him seems so familiar..
“Um, have we… met before?”
“Met-Oh, right you never-” He sounds incoherent.
“Erm, i perhaps should go-”
“No! No, please! you, you are really here?” With mounting discomfort he nods. The stranger sounded so… hopeful it made him uneasy. It made something at the back of his head feel it too.
“I am very much here, albeit now i wish i wasn't, who-are-you?” That's when slowly as if he hadn't moved from the position in a while the man starts to get up. He is shorter than him, thinner than Elias had been, he could see freckles. He did not look at him in the eyes.
“Im me- im, you-” He takes a deep breath “Our first marriage certificate was made by you in a post it note, i kept it in my closet” Peter lets out a punched out breath and locks eyes with the stranger.
Grey, cold and now very alive eyes look at him back.
“Elias?”
“Jonah” Oh .
“Oh” He stares and stares and Elias seems to be drinking him just as well with the desperation of a drowning man.
He was shaking like a leaf while covering his chest and he noticed that his lips were slightly blue due to the cold. The clothes cling to him in a very uncomfortable way. Recalling the need to bring a towel he offers it to him and he wraps it around his shoulders like a cape while Peter holds the umbrella over his head numbly.
He thought about this moment, but now he blanked out and doesn't know what to do or say, so he improvises.
“Do you want to come to my place?” With clattering teeth he nods and they slowly walk to his house on the beach. Jonah doesn't seem inclined to speak and he is still reeling to make a comment.
It takes less to get there than when he left, but its all very dream logic here, so whatever. Once inside he takes out his coat and hears El- Jonah make something similar to a laugh, albeit cut off.
Right the shirt, he was wearing the “Sea you later” one. Smiling at being proven right, he shows him the bathroom and goes to pick up clothes from the wardrobe. A shirt, sweatpants, socks and underwear. Perfect. He hesitates, but ends up grabbing a hoodie that Tim convinced him to get for himself. It would be big on Jonah and warm, which matters more.
Knocking, he tells him he has clothes for him and his ex husband says to leave them at the door, so he does. Mechanically he prepares coffee and grabs the remaining muffins to put them on the living room table.
Finally Jonah comes out, looking… well tired. The hoodie did hang on him, the sleeves covered his hands, but he seemed ok otherwise.
“...Hi”
“Hello” They stare. It would have stayed like for even longer if Duchess and Socks had not runned to the man mewling like crazy.
“They are here…” He sounded awed, Jonah kneels and even if he looks and probably smells different, the cats start to rub on him and purr. That makes Peter suddenly really grasp that he is here for real.
“Took you long enough did you miss me?” That seems to be the thing that gets him, because he sees him start to cry. Peter learns then that he does not like to see him cry like this, hurt sobs that wrack his figure, it hurts somewhere he did not expect.
It makes him move and drop next to him pulling him against his chest, the cats dont let up, even Captain comes and starts to get in between them to force the man to rub his tummy.
“Sorry Peter-”
“Shhh its… it was on me, i could have not gone after Jon and-”
“About- bout everything, m’sorry” Holding him Elias cries and Peter kisses the top of his still wet head. He thinks he finds his answer with this regarding if he loved him for real or it was just all a mistake.
Lifting up his new, or well original face he kisses him, Jonah grabs his neck and kisses back just as desperately. Over and over they stay like that, pressing their lips together, the feeling is like coming back home, like a well practiced motion and he feels his chest lighter than in many, many years.
Oh-
The cloud of forsaken made this harder to feel, but now its so- so new and warm and Peter is drowning on it. He wants more of it, he wants to feel it for real and savour it. Soon he tugs him to the couch and there he makes him fall on top of him and starts to kiss his lips and face all over again, not wanting to stop.
“Peter-”
“I love you” And it rings true, for whatever its worth it, he thinks he loves this awful man with all his faults. The apartment, even the house were all made to be shared and there is no one else he would like to share it with than him and the cats.
And its frightening, and new and too much, but it feels right.
So for all that he never said it before-
“I love you, I love you-” He kisses him and tells him and Jonah chokes more tears and says it back.
“I love you too-” It's a long while of that, then they just tangle themselves and Peter kisses his forehead. His hair was auburn colored now that it was getting drier and he could see it better, it fitted him.
Peter had mostly ignored all the paintings of Jonah in the institute over the years, since he did not want to feel seen by them.
“What took you so long? I thought you were just sulking for losing”
“I… couldn't leave, still cant i think, not the beach at least. I could only stay there and wait alone. Forced to be stuck with my own thoughts and regrets” He presses himself closer.
“I found… your rings on the sand and i realized that i would stay like that alone, because i burned every last chance i had to have something more than what the eye offered me, and even then i wasn't the chosen one, was i? No, it wanted me gone too” Muffled against him Peter hums and waits before replying.
“I was mad, then i was bored, then I just… waited. Did not know what else to do without you around, and it made me think… that perhaps we just never really loved each other, and that maybe we were just so used to the other being there that it was difficult to not want you back. Sort of like an addiction”
“So you-” He lets out a puff of breath.
“I… was wrong, for what is worth? I loved you before, maybe not in any normal way, but I did. Now? Now i realize again that I still love you, it just feels… different here. No forsaken and no beholding tampering, just… us? if it makes sense”
“It… does, but, we will drive each other insane”
“...Maybe, but wouldn't it be nice?” Jonah doesn't reply for a while, but it's ok, he still shivers from time to time so he pushes him closer to him. The cats tired of not being patted jump on top of them and start to roll around them, making him laugh.
“Sneaky little bastards”
“It would” He sounds so tired and answers so lowly he almost misses it.
“Good, we have all the time in the world for it here”
“We do, don't we..?”
“Mm, yeah” Recalling something important he moves and starts to pull out the new rings from under his shirt.
“Jonah Magnus, would you marry me?” Struggling a little, he manages to unclap it and put his own ring on, while asking for a hand. Jonah offers it with drowzee and soft eyes and Peter feels his cheeks flush.
It fitted him perfectly.
“Huh, they were right..”
“I will marry you, you may now kiss the groom” Peter does, once they are done Jonah moves and pulls out his old necklace from under his clothes.
“Want it back?”
“If you don't mind” Shaking his head, he smiles at him while laying his face on his chest.
“Not really, i have a new ring after all” Peter has a last question, before taking the other to their room.
“How did I not see you before? I walked the beach almost daily and I never saw you there” Jonah closes his eyes and scrunches his nose in the same way as Elias. Cute.
“I'm not sure completely, but i do know i can't leave the beach yet, it's a… gut instinct if you wish. Maybe… maybe you couldn't see me because i didnt… i wasn't-” He struggles and he fills in the blanks.
“You were not sorry”
“... I thought I was right, I still… not about you. I know i was wrong there now”
“So i can see you now that you realized that. But can't leave yet, because you are not sorry enough”
“... Perhaps” A conundrum if Peter hadn't found and repaired a house for them to live in. A house he now realizes looks like the one he had bought for them, but that Elias never wanted to go since it was so far away from the institute and it would only end up feeding Peter by leaving him alone there, even if he had picked it back then to be perfect for both of their tastes.
Dream logic, guess they finally got what they both wanted then. The house for him and Elias got to keep him finally.
“Well, here you have all the time in the world to reflect and besides, now you got us” Empress Socks bites his foot and Peter hisses, making the shorter man chuckle.
“I do, thank you for finding me dear” Feeling way too much, he nods and changes the conversation. Grinning he starts to get up making him pout and asks if he wants to get into the bed instead.
“My, mister Lukas-” He chokes a laugh.
“Not feeling like it now, plus you look like you haven slept in anything nice in a long while”
“.... True”
So he stands and before the man gets up he lifts him up in a bridal carry and takes him himself.
“Peter!”
“What? We just got married, i get to do this” He is not mad, not at all and just because he feels like it, he kisses his neck making him squirm in his arms.
“Sstoop, your beard you heathen”
“Never”
In bed they curl up, Jonah takes off the hoodie but says he will keep it, Peter stares at his new.. old? body while Jonah looks uncomfortable. He doesn't really care what he looks like as long as he has his eyes, that's the one thing that lets him know its really him no matter what body he inhabits.
But for good measure to make him relax he rolls his eyes and tells him to come closer, before getting under the covers and holding him again while kissing his eyelids for good measure. He sneaks his hands under the shirt making him shiver.
“Peter…”
“Shush, new you, or old you? Point is let me have this” So he does, its… certainly different than what he expected.
“Did not really see it coming” Jonah stiffens, but he ignores the odd reaction, why is he being so twitchy?
“Did you really get pierced nipples?? Was that even a thing back then?” That sets him off both laughing and on a lesson about how much weird kinky shit did the people back then get up to. He feels him relax and Peter kisses and keeps exploring around while listening to him. He sighs and makes a few interesting noises, but even then he never stiffens again no matter what. Even when he touches the scars all over his chest and stomach from what he knows from Jonathan, the one time he asked how Elias died, who told him that he stabbed him to death. He doesn't comment on them, merely kisses his forehead and tip of his nose, making him close his eyes and let out a shuddered breath.
“Please don't mention anything you did with my great grandfather im begging you, i will leave if you do”
“I, haha, promise not to”
“... Do you think he is-”
“Peter if you don't shut up about it, i will leave”
“...Point taken” Thats better.
Socks climbs on the bed and stays by their feet, while the other two come and jump between them, Peter turns on the tv finally done with his exploration, there will be time later to relearn themselves, but for now he feels far more comfortable with lazing around and touching as much of the man he can.
Also why is there television on the afterlife remains a mystery.
It makes him wonder about the train documentaries.
“Do you know…?”
“Give it here” Jonah grabs the remote, pushes 5 numbers that he does not know the meaning behind and suddenly his documentaries are there.
“How? Just how??”
“Seems like you did need me after all” Why did the world decide to make a password that only Jonah knew?
Looking at the smug expression, that was exactly the same even on a different face, he figures that perhaps it was as everything here, a sign that he did need this little, crafty and scheming man. Still, on principle he groans and kisses him to shut him up from further gloating.
After half an hour he kisses his head and says:
“I like it”
“What the train?” And even if it's sappy…
“You, i like you, this you. Well you are always you no matter what, but you know what i mean” He blinks and- yes blushes before hiding his head on his shoulder.
“Thanks Peter” To tease him a little more…
“You are welcome handsome husband of mine” Jonah lets out a breath and he sees him flush harder, while seething at him. The duality makes it perfect, makes it… familiar.
Peter holds his cats and husband while watching tv feeling finally, finally at ease.
Everything is as it should be for them.