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All in all, Zatanna had not had a good day.
First, there the fire alarm had gone off during her final show of the day - which had quickly turned into a real emergency when they found out someone had pulled the lever to get everyone out of the building so they could rob it.
Then she’d gotten into her weekly argument with her father about every aspect of her life that he believed she was destroying and/or throwing away, which (just like every time) ended with Zatanna storming out of the house and into the pouring rain while her father shouted for her to come back.
By the time she finally made it back to the apartment she and John shared, she was wet and cold and exhausted. Of course, it was like all her troubles lifted instantly at the mere sight of John in one of his white button down shirts and a pair of boxers, dancing around the living room to whatever god awful punk song was playing on his phone, having the time of his life while something sat ignored, forgotten, and smoking on the stove.
After rescuing what looked like it might have once been eggs and fanning the smoke out, ZAtanna moved to the living room to turn off the music and finally get John’s attention.
“Hello luv.” He grinned, an unlit cigarette hanging between his lips because her deal with him, when they’d decided to live together,m had been that he wasn’t allowed to smoke inside the apartment. When he noticed she was soaking wet and dripping onto the floor, he casually asked, “Bad day?”
“Well, I saw my dad so it definitely ended that way,” Zatanna replied as she headed for the ensuite bathroom to grab a towel, John trailing bare footed after her and hardly caring for the puddles she left behind. “You look like you’ve had a good day though.”
“Only woke up about half an hour ago, so yeah.”
Wrapping her hair up in one of those ‘towel hats’ that John thought were incredibly stupidf, Zatanna pulled her phone out of an inside pocket of her jacket and checked the time before leveling her boyfriend an unimpressed look.
“It’s eight o’clock at night, John.”
“Yup.”
“You woke up at seven-thirty PM.”
He just beamed. “Is that a problem?”
“Yeah, we really need to get your depression in check if you’re sleeping over twelve hours a day. When did you go to bed last night, one?”
John just pouted, though predictably perked up when Zatanna shucked off her jacket and shirt before moving to turn the shower on.
“By the way,” she began casually. “Your eggs were burning when I got in.”
“Oh yeah,” John murmured, glancing towards the door. “I forgot I was making eggs.”
Zatanna just rolled her eyes at the expected response as she began undressing, once she’d ensured the ashower water was warm enough.
“What’s gotten you in such a good mood today, anyway?”
“Slept well, most of the night,” John replied, leaning against the sink vanity and turning his eyes away to give Zatanna privacy, even though they’d seen each other naked and showered together more than several times by now. “I say well …”
“No nightmares.”
“Some,” John replied. “But not to the level they usually are. None…none that had me screaming awake, anyway.”
“Good.” Zatanna unfurled her towel hat before stepping into the warm spray of the water and sighing. After giving herself a handful of seconds to soak in the heat, she added, “That’s good.”
“I’m gonna grab you some clothes,” John told her, after a few moments of silence. “Anything in particular?”
“No,” she replied. “Thank you, John.”
“No problem, luv.”
Alone in the bathroom, Zatanna closed her eyes and let the water flow down her shoulders, washing away the stress of the day.
While John’s method of destressing was to drink himself into unconsciousness and refuse to think about his problems, Zatanna preferred to systematically think about everything that had upset her and try to figure out either why it had upset her, or figure out how it could have been worse .
It wasn’t so much the fire alarm going off that had upset her, but rather the fact that someone had been in the building long enough to set it off without her even knowing. She uses a lot of magic during her show, yet, but she prides herself on being able to sense things outside of her performances.
She makes a mental note to increase security, maybe find a way to lock off fire alarms except for in the areas where they’re most needed. Or maybe she could include magic fire alarms. A kind that registers flame and smoke on their own, rather than requiring a person to pull them.
Hm…that could work.
She leans her head back and begins soaking her hair in the water, closing her eyes and enjoying the sounds, only distantly registering John coming back in the bathroom with her clothes before he slips out to give her space.
She loves him, she’s pretty sure. And he loves her, that much she knows. They haven’t said it to each other, of course. Mainly because the last person to confess love to either of them had been Nick and, well…
We all know how that went.
Shaking herself out of that spiral of thought, Zatanna focuses back on the argument with her father. She knows why that one upset her. It upset her because it’s every week . Every single week, he feels the need to remind her that he hates John, hates her friends, hates how she uses her magic.
He hates that she’s not little anymore, hates that she can make her own choices and even more, hates the fact that he can’t control her. She’s an adult, has been for awhile, but something about the choices she makes just irritate him.
She thinks it’s a control thing. It’s almost definitely a control thing.
So maybe…maybe she needs a break. Maybe she just needs to stay away from her father for a few weeks, give herself some time to breathe.
Yeah. That's what she’ll do. She’ll tell him she’s super busy with shows (that, at least, is something he’ll respect) and that she really doesn’t have time to hang out with him. Maybe he’ll see through the lie, but she doesn’t care.
She just…needs a break.
Shutting off the water, Zatanna reached for a towel and dried herself off, throwing her hair back into another towel hat before pulling on the pair of pajamas John had left for her.
Emerging from the bathroom, Zatanna follows the smell of pancakes to the kitchen where she finds John dressed in a pair of sweats and the same shirt he had on before, setting up the tale.
“Just in time,” she said, when he saw her. “Just finished.”
“And you didn’t burn them,” Zatanna observed as she took a seat at the table. “Good job.”
John just rolled his eyes. “Well, that does tend to happen when you actually pay attention,” he replied as he sat next to her and they both helped themselves to the meal.
Zatanna smiled. “Did you do this to make me feel better, because you did something wrong , or because you want something from me?”
John just pouted. “I’m not allowed to do something good for you without you suspecting my intent?”
“Hmm…” Zatana pretended to think about it for a minute. “Well, maybe this once you could be. But your track record.”
“Oi!” John shouted while Zatanna just laughed at him, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek.
“I’m teasing,” she promised, even though she knew he knew that. “Thank you, John. I appreciate this.” She took a bite, finished it, then casually added, “Maybe I’ll even reward you. There might be something in the bedroom, you’d like.”
She laughed fondly when he choked and suddenly, she wasn’t in such a bad mood anymore.
And don’t worry, she gave John the reward she promised him. Several times.