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Jonathan woke from the feeling of the sleeping bag next to his being empty.
He didn't know how that worked - where that new awareness of Tia's presence next to him had come from. It might be some kind of side effect of his... of that. Or not. It could just as well be the new pressing need to keep her in his sights, because otherwise, she might end up bleeding out on the ground from a heist gone wrong.
It had become so much more common. Yesterday, they'd passed by three kids on the ground, their faces still contorted in shock and fear. He'd thrown up into an abandoned trashcan. Tia had gone back to close their eyes.
Crazy times.
They were lucky, in a way, that the... things he could make... forcefields... were good at keeping things out. He hated setting them up, and he loved setting them up, and every time they found a new abandoned apartment to sleep in he looked forward to - dreaded - his fingers twitching in anticipation - bashing his head against the wall trying to shake his sanity awake-
The point was, they didn't need someone to keep watch at night. People kept away from... those things now. Superpowers weren't fun and amazing anymore; they were terrifying and deadly. Didn't he know it-
They needed the sleep, badly. Both of them. Sleep was the only thing they could still get plenty of, and you had to start somewhere, when food and water and clothing and peace and quiet and kindness and the sparking telephone lines were slowly dying out, so having unlimited access to even just one of those was a relief beyond imagination. It was the one thing that kept them somewhat sane.
It felt like it should be. Then why wasn't it-!
Tia hadn't seen the bloodstain on the outside wall yet. He was sure of it - she'd been inside when he set them up, and she couldn't have left with them still up. Unless there was a crack in the walls they'd missed, but they'd inspected the whole apartment before going to sleep, so there shouldn't be. She had to be somewhere nearby.
He found her in the bathroom, squeezed into the hindmost corner of the shower stall.
There was no running water here, or anywhere in the block. It had been shut off after the disaster that had turned the building they were hiding in into a ruin. And it had a name, his name was-
Tia wasn't here to shower, though. Unless she'd tried to wash the tears off her face before remembering, like he had, that the tap wouldn't work. He squeezed in next to her, pulling his knees up to his chest and crossing his arms over them, mirroring her posture.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey." She sniffled.
It ached.
"Did I swat at you again?" he asked, tenderly laying one arm over her shoulders.
She shook her head, looking away. The tiles on the wall were cracked. Like someone had tried to stick their finger through the wall. Or shot at it; it was impossible to determine which was more likely, nowadays.
"I didn't want to wake you," Tia said, wiping her face with her sleeve. All it did was smear the tears and snot up to her forehead, and knock her spectacles askew. "You seemed peaceful for once."
He did feel rested. More than most nights, at least.
Normally, he'd have protested about her words. Said that he wanted to be woken up if there was something upsetting her, that he should know... but maybe he'd broken too badly for that. That would explain why the thought didn't occur to him immediately. And why it sounded like a lie inside his mind.
Sleep was good, when it wasn't broken up by nightmares. A handful of hours when he didn't have to be... that thing.
"So?" he said. "What happened?"
Tia shifted, pressing closer into the corner. "...just had a stupid thought, is all."
Jonathan laid his chin on his arm and stared at her. That was all. Just staring.
He didn't have many things left from before. The only one that stuck around was her. He'd have left himself, if he could - tried to - wouldn't do it again - detergent had an odd pepper-y flavor, and the gasoline - he couldn't let her find out about the gasoline-
He didn't want to lie. He couldn't muster up the energy to.
He said nothing.
"It's stupid," Tia repeated, burying her head between her knees and arms. "You don't want to know."
"And if I do?"
She groaned.
He stared.
Finally, she sat upright, righting her spectacles. "I just... do you know what month it is?"
He shook his head. He'd forgotten to keep track of it since they'd left their home. It had been cold then - bone fragments embedded in the snow - it was warmer now, but not - children running across the courtyard laughing, chasing each other, scattering away from the one safe person they'd known-
"It's May," Tia said. "It's May, and I only realized that this morning. Gave me a real fright. I thought my heart was jumping out of my chest." She laughed in spite of herself, a hiccup of exasperation rather than anything to do with joy. "We forgot to file our taxes, Jon."
He blinked.
She looked at him and let out a sound closer to a real laugh. Not quite there, but closer.
"Taxes." he said.
"Told you," she said. "Stupid."
"I'm not even sure where we would file them anymore."
"Me either! Isn't it insane? I almost went to wake you up in a panic before I remembered. Taxes." She shook her head.
Jonathan laughed. He couldn't help it. He laughed so hard his chest hurt, until he had to uncoil his tense posture for fear of suffocating should he remain as he was. At some point, her voice joined his. He laughed until tears gathered in his eyes, too. The very air seemed to taste sweet to him.
He'd take that sweetness over detergent and gasoline any day.
"I love you," he choked, wrapping both arms around Tia. He couldn't squeeze too hard, or he would hurt her. But he could squeeze some. "You and your brilliant, stupid thoughts."
"I love you, too."
They fell silent, breaths and heartbeats mixing into a soft blanket of silence in the shower stall. His breaths were short from laughter. Hers were short from trying not to cry.
Someone had shot at the tiles he was facing. Or tried to stick their finger through the wall - who even knew at this point. Cracks fanned out around the holes like spiderwebs.
"I would give anything to be doing those stupid taxes right now," Tia said.
"I know," he said. "I would, too."