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What is addiction if not misplaced loyalty? Too much of anything has the potential to harm, whether that be simple vices or people. One can certainly cut their lifetime in half if stupidly dedicated to both like Jonathan was.
Peer pressure never came from the people, not really. It's not like Jon got invited to parties as a teen, but in the off chance he found himself in a social setting, he could not help but gravitate towards the smokers. Perhaps it was the dark alleyways that called out to him, those cold, hard walls offering support on a rainy day. Perhaps it was the mystery of the smoke itself, the fog that would obstruct the faces of passerby's. Maybe it was something simpler; control. The knowledge that every puff is your own, every inhale and exhale at your own pace. Whatever it was, despite their godsawful smell, cigarettes have always had a hold on the archivist.
Jonathan didn't actually pick up smoking until his twenties, despite his previous urges to pick up any offered cigarettes. He had other things to focus on, well mostly just education and finding a job, it's not like his social life was blooming. Besides, he didn't exactly want to end up at his girlfriend's at the time lecture about the dangers of smoking and addiction.
That relationship was short-lived, like nearly all connections were. But that didn't matter now, he had a job, a weird job with annoying and even weirder coworkers but it was stable enough.
Stable didn't necessary mean it was good for his mental health, the archivist found that out only after a week of working at the institute. Turns out that never ending paranoia about being watched or worse really does 'screw with ya' as Tim eloquently puts it.
Jon watched as the smoke curled upwards, blending in with the grey skies of london. Half way through the day and this was already his fifth break. Just a bad day, he thought, fully believing he was above a nicotine addiction.
"You've been abusing these smoke breaks lately, Jon." Elias popped out of seemingly nowhere. The man was always silent when entering, yet his presence was impossible to ignore. Elias carried himself with far too much arrogance and authority to be simply dismissed even if he wasn't the head of the institute.
"Ah...Elias I was just um..."
"I thought you said you'd quit?" Elias replied smoothly, not even giving the archivist a chance to make up some lousy excuse.
"I said I'm trying to quit." Jon responded as he slowly exhaled the smoke. A part of him wanted to blow the smoke in Elias's direction, make that smell cling to him as it once did to him. Yet for all his arrogance, Jon could never quite bring himself to hate the man. "Besides I'm not that addicted, I just... Need a break from being in there all the time. It's just a bad day...that's all."
"So you've said." Elias hummed in thought as he leaned against the cold stone walls of the institute. "I do wonder what drives you, Jon. Is it praise? Discipline? Routine?"
His voice was light, playful almost, but the stare that came with the words was anything but.
Jon blinked in thought for a moment, he didn't exactly know why he was entertaining such a ridiculous question, but it was Elias asking, he always felt compelled to answer.
"Routine I suppose."
"Mhm. And if routine is...taken out of the equation?" Elias replied, taking the cigarette from Jon's lips, taking a long drag himself.
"Look is this going anywhere..." Jon sighed, watching his precious cigarette escape his grasp. "If this is about the smoke breaks then I do apologise-"
"Relax, I just want to know how you work. You are new and getting to know my employees is part of my job, and well, taking you to dinner seems hardly appropriate." Elias smiled in return, blowing the smoke in his employee's face without as much as a flinch from the man.
The cigarette looked so natural between Elias's slender fingers. To look so confident without even trying is something that Jon could never achieve. He's been trying for so many years afterall, and all he's managed to gain is a nicotine addiction.
"Don't suppose I could bribe you with a promotion if you stay off these for a week?" Elias spoke up again after a while, handing the cigarette back and watching the archivist cautiously taking it back, taking a much shakier drag than him.
"No, I suppose not." Jon managed to smile slightly, trying to pretend that the fact he was sharing a cigarette with his boss wasn't affecting him in the slightest. Besides his racing heart rate, he truly believed that he was rather good at hiding how he really felt.
Elias Bouchard was a strange man, shrouded in mystery. Perhaps that is why he drew Jon in so much. His damn curiosity would be the death of him he knew that, he could only imagine the chaos his life would become if he threw in people into the mix.
He exhaled slowly, blowing the smoke in Elias's face just as the man had done previously. Just testing the waters, testing the limits of how far his curiosity could take him before it kills him.
"Discipline causes routine in the long run does it not." Jon found himself eventually answering the stupid question anyway without much thought. "But then again, who doesn't like praise... It depends on the situation, I think..."
He trailed off slightly when he noticed Elias has moved in closer, once again taking the cigarette. His cigarette, his only form of control he had right now. A part of him wanted nothing more than to take it back and just leave, to gain his control back. Yet his body was rendered useless under Elias's gaze.
Jon managed to finally snap out of his haze when he felt a sharp burning sensation on his arm, exactly where Elias has just put the cigarette out. Bastard.
"I believe you should go back to work now, archivist." Elias blew out the last of the smoke from his mouth, dropping the cigarette onto the ground and turning on his heel to leave before he could hear any of Jons protests about his little stunt.
Jon was more shocked by the audacity of the man rather than the burning sensation itself. Now he had annoying co workers to deal with and a boss who wouldn't hesitate to burn him up. He hated how the idea thrilled him just as much as the cigarettes once have.