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A few days had passed since ___ and Jack had seen each other. ___ was busy since Lyric was gone and Jack didn’t want to bug her too much. Although Jack was very curious. He could find himself thinking about her more than he’d like to admit to anyone. Although during his Skype calls with Mark, he just slipped talking about ___ sometimes. Mark was pressing him to go see her again since it had been just over a week.
“Look, you keep talking about her. So go fucking see her before I slap you.” Mark groans as Jack mentions ___ once again. “Seriously, if we were recording and not just playing. To keep this girl a secret we’d have to scrap the whole video at this point.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“You have died every time you’ve talked about her.”
Jack looked at his death total. “Oh”
“Exactly. So after this, march your scrawny body down to that cafe and just see her already.”
“Fine. But only if you win.”
“Well considering your death total, I’ve already won.”
“Well fuck you!” They laughed.

___ was cleaning up entire cafe, getting ready to leave for the night. Just as she was grabbing her coat to leave when she notices Jack outside of the store, since the door was locked. Today had been pretty hard being a Friday and not having Lyric there. So a smile plastered on her face and she rushed a bit to the door.
“Hi, Jack. What you doin?”
“Oh, I just wanted some cake.”
“I’m sorry. I just cleaned and closed up the shop. But I will be open again on Monday.”
“Oh.” A silence fell.
“So I’ve got to go home. But I think the shop is still open and I'm sure they still have a cake there.” She started to walk home.
“You’ve ruined me from liking other cake though. You have to take responsibility.” He whined with a joking tone and following after her.
She laughed. “I can make you a microwave cake if you really want cake.”
“Yes!” He exclaimed following her back to the apartment building.

Getting to the apartment building. “So your place or mine?” Jack said in a deeper voice raising his eyebrows a bit.
“Mine, I guess.” She whispered. Jack could tell he had just made her really uncomfortable. So he was quiet until she got her apartment open. “Come on in.” ___ extended an arm into her apartment.
“Thanks.” He walked in.
“If you just want to wait in here. I'm going to change really quick.”
“Alright.” Jack wandered around the living room looking at all the paintings and her choice in decor. He looked around until he saw an easel in the corner. It had a sheet over it. His curiousity got to him and he lift the sheet.
Jack was staring at a very detailed painting of himself. He couldn’t even think. He reached out to touch it.
___ smacked his hand and pulled down the sheet. Her whole face was red.
“What are you doing?”
“I was just curious. I’m sorry. It is really fucking good.”
“Please don’t.”
“But-”
“Please just don’t. It’s not done and I don’t know if it ever will be.”
“Why?”
“I started it awhile ago. I haven’t touched it in weeks.”
“So you started it before I came to your cafe?”
“Yes. I started it about 6 months ago as a feel better present. You know after your break up.” ___ whispered the last part softly.
“You started this just to make me feel better?”
“Yeah, but then a few week ago. I realized, you would probably like Shadow of the Colossals better. So I started that and stopped this.”
“You know,” he lifted the sheet, “I do like this. Not in like a lovin my face way, but in a this an amazing piece. I love Sam in this too.”
“Do you want me to finish it?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I’ll think about it. How about that microwave cake now?”
“Yeah that’d be great.” He smiled, letting the sheet drop. Following her into the kitchen.

Jack and ___, somehow end up on the couch sipping coffee, talking about anything and everything that comes to mind. They decide to put on Pan’s Labyrinth for background noise. Eventually they ran out of things to talk about for a few. Jack was engrossed in the movie when he felt a heavy weight on his shoulder. Looking over, ___ was deep asleep on his shoulder. She must have been worn out from working alone. Jack brushed some loose hair strands behind her ear.
The warm touch woke up ___. Her (e/c) met his blue eyes. “Hey.” He smiled warmly at her. ___’s eyes were glazed over. Sleep was still weighing down on her eyelids, she hugged his arm. Nuzzling back into his side, she fell back asleep. ’She must think she’s dreaming.’ Jack smiled at his thought. He leaned his head against hers and finished watching the movie.
Jack sighed as the movie ended. He really didn’t want to wake ___ but he did need to get home. She was so sweet curled up next to him, he could see patches of flour in her hair. He sighed, it was so nice to just relax but she should really be sleeping in her bed.
“Hey, ___.” He lightly shook her shoulder. A groan came from her as she stretched and yawned.
Rubbing her eyes. “Sorry I fell asleep during the movie.”
“It’s fine, you cuddled my arm and I just let you nap.”
“Wait, I cuddled your arm?” A slight blush dusted her cheeks as Jack nodded. “Sorry.”
“No. It was perfectly fine, I understand you are tired. Plus you were so cute all curled up.” She averted her eyes away from him, clearly embarrassed. “You know.” He paused trying to choose his words correctly. “You are very beautiful and so very talented. In a lot of ways. I would like it, if we could be comfortable around each other. I understand you’re shy. Can you try to start being more comfortable around me?”
“I can try.” She whispered giving him a smile, then yawning.
Jack stood up. “I'm glad. I will see you again soon. You should go to bed and I should go home and start doing more of my job.”
“Alright. That sounds like a plan.” ___ stood up and walked to the door to let Jack out.
“Would you like to hang out tomorrow?”
“I have to do a few errands but I’ll be here around noon.”
“Do you just want to hang out here or go get something to eat?”
“We can just hang out here and I can make us some snacks and food. It’s cheaper.”
“Alright, do you want to do anything certain?”
“We could watch some movies and play games. I also have some board games. We can just have fun.”
“Alright.” Jack opened the door. “I’ll come knocking later than.”
“Goodnight Jack.” Letting Jack out then closing and locking the door.
___ smiled, she was very anxious to hang out with Jack tomorrow. She always wanted to be his friend. Getting ready for and then crawling into bed.

___ was tossing and turning. Memories of the car wreck and screams of her child. She shot up in her bed. ___ reached for her phone and tried calling her friends. She couldn’t stop crying, it’s been so long since she’s had that nightmare.
Quickly kicking off her sheets, quickly pulling on pants and slippers. ___ rushed out her door and started knocking on Jack’s door. Tears running down her face, Jack opened the door groggily but quickly snapped out of it as ___ hugged him.
Jack then realized she was crying and hugged her back tightly, bring her into his home and closing his door. They sat down on his couch as she cried into his chest. Jack was a little too shocked to even ask what was wrong. He decided to hold her until she calmed down.
As her tears started to subside. “___, are you okay?”
After a few sniffles. “I just had a nightmare about the car crash. I haven’t had that dream in a long time. It just scared and shocked me.” Sitting back and wiping her eyes.
“Do you want to talk about the nightmare?”
“No. I really don’t. I just need someone, no one was answering their phone.”
“Well I'm glad you could come to me.”
“I'm glad you answered your door. I'm sorry for waking you.”
“It’s okay. I'm more than happy to just be here for you.” Jack stated pulling ___ into another hug. They relaxed together for awhile until they both fell asleep on the couch.

A few hours later Jack woke up with ___ still dead asleep on him, her crying must have worn her out. Looking over at the clock on the wall he could see that it was about 2 in the morning. His back was starting to ache from the awkward position. Trying to sit up ___ woke up from the movement and pushed herself up.
“You really like sleeping with me don’t you?” Jack joked as he sat up.
___ lied her head on his shoulder and hugged his arm. “Shush, you’re comfy, let me go back to sleep.”
Jack chuckled. ’Maybe crying in front of me and coming to me for help. Helped her be more comfortable around me.’ “Can we at least get comfortable first?” He whined.
“No, I should probably go actually.” ___ sat up and stretched. “I need to go to the store and get some things prepared.”
“I can go with you if you’d like?”
“No, I'm going to nap for a bit then I'm going to get ready to go.”
“If you say so.” Jack escorted her out and went to get coffee so he could just go straight to recording in a few.