Chapter Text
Jon woke to his usual alarm. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, it was still dark. He sat up, the city was about as quiet as it usually got– the screaming had finally stopped.
Screaming?
He must've had a nightmare. He has work in an hour, he has to get ready. He stood and stretched.
He opened his closet door, he looked over his clothes. Mostly green sweaters– jumpers he corrected the odd mistake as he selected one of the darker ones.
He has a blissfully short commute, so he didn't bother with anything thicker than the jumper with black slacks. He combed his short brown hair to the left, then froze. He squinted at his reflection; normally, he didn't care much about his appearance. Shirt, pants and a jumper for warmth was about as far as he normally cared to go. But he actually matched today; he looked well put together.
He was probably just paying more attention. Today he would be working with Martin. His heart sped slightly at the idea as he left his home. Martin was the owner of Blackwood Brews; everything was built to his specifications.
He hand crafted each blend, every drink he designed. It was amazing to watch him work, and he was kind too. He noticed when Jon felt uncomfortable around the customers and would take over, or sent Tim or Sasha to his rescue.
He opened the door to Danny filming a video, as he often was, considering he was their ‘social media manager’ (in other words he was paid to sit around on his phone)
“Sorry,” danny said, barely biting back a grin. "I wanted oat milk, not almond.”
“Oat?” Sasha repeated with a dramatic look of shocked disappointment. “oh, I'm sorry.” she started sweetly, lifting the cup. Tim looked up. Leftover cream from previous takes still clinging to his eye brow foreshadowing the toss.
The cup exploded on his face, milk spreading across his cheeks, brows and nose. Jon gasped, holding a hand to his mouth. “And cut.” Danny smiled. “Nice job, Sasha, way smoother this time.”
He turned to Jon, “And your gasp of shock and horror really does tie it all together.” he clapped him on the back with a grin. Something that happened often and was both normal and comforting.
Despite the comfort, Jon took a step back. Danny's face twisted in a way it didn't often. “You alright, man?”
Jon nodded “fine. Sorry.”
Tim looked up from the towel he buried his face in, “you sure, double boss? You look queesie.”
Jon tilted his head, double boss? Of course, he forgot he had been promoted to manager recently. It was still an odd joke.
Whatever.
He relaxed his face, “yeah, im–” his eye caught on Sasha. Curly brown hair with sparkly make-up, same old Sash. Wasn't she blonde?
No, he must be thinking of his nightmare. It was so oddly detailed, why would no one notice Sasha suddenly going blonde and losing two inches of height? He blinked, walking behind the counter towards the lockers.
He took off his sweater– jumper, seriously what is up with that? And pulled on his apron. As he was tying it the door rung again.
He turned only to stall when he saw Martin. The hair that framed his face was the same super cool shock of white fading to light blue it had always been. His eyes lacked the bruise purple spots that hadn't left since Prentiss.
Jon smiled at himself, Jane was a regular that always got the same mocha and Danish. She was harmless, he was safe here. He should be happy and stop lingering in the past.
“Hey marto!” Tim grinned, loudly stealing all the room's attention. “Whats on the agenda today?”
Martin looked confused for a second, then he blinked and it was gone. “Oh,” he sighed, “the usual. We don't have any catering today.”
His hands reached up to toy with his hair, it was a new dye job, hopefully he wasn't self conscious. New? But– then those baby blue eyes met Jon's and he couldn't focus anymore. “Hey, Jon.” He said, in his sweet voice. “How are you?”
“Im good.” He said, aiming for casual. “Yourself? Any–” he choked on the question, it would be so weird to ask his boss/crush if he had any nightmares. Who talks about that first thing in the morning, honestly.
“Do you remember?” Jon asked, reaching for a power that didn't exist anymore– a power that never existed.
Martin swallowed, taking a step back. Jon was scaring him and being so weird, seriously he should just stop and go back to work. “You do, don't you.”
Tim glanced at Danny, “I do.” Danny only smiled confusingly at him “I just–” he swallowed thickly, “I was angry for so long. I wanted to pretend.”
Sasha nodded, “not much, I thought it was a dream.” and wouldn't it be so much easier to pretend that it was? Didn't he just want to go back to living his everyday life with his friends, all alive and good and safe and happy?
Maybe it would be easier for him to forget if his new life was better, nicer, safer with more friends. What? No, that's not the problem.
Everything nicely faded to black and Jon stopped talking to me