Double Trouble

Jack should have never gotten out of the hospital bed and moved to the chairs in the room, she should have just stayed in bed, clamped her eyes tight, rolled over, and forced herself to fall asleep. She know that had not been an option though. She owed Khaat too much to leave her with Vito and, though Jack would deny it, she had wanted to make sure Vito was alright. He had 'saved' her after all.. Or at least been there when she had been content to die, having no one who needed her.

He walked over and flopped into her bed. She leaned over and closed the door of the hospital room, hoping maybe he would just be content to rest. That was all she wanted to do and she did not even care if he took the bed and left her with this chair. Jack knew she needed to sleep, that it was the only way for her wounds to heal in a way that would not leave any lasting effects.

Now to get a cranky poltergeist to take a nap..

He questioned her word choice and her bleary mind forced her to try and reconsider what she had said. What had she even meant by that last word? She supposed she could say she had said that because she knew if he was going to cause havoc she would be required to put trying to stop him over sleeping, and therefore it was an argument against him causing trouble.

Or she could say she had added that singular word because she knew he must be tired too and he was giving him the opportunity to admit it without actually admitting it. As she considered it, she could not decide which statement would irk him more, knowing both would either upset him or amuse him to no end. No, she could not say either, and she had nothing else to say.

She had relinquished use of her bed, but she reached over and dragged an extra blanket from a bin next to the chair, pulling it over her as she turned to get comfortable. "Uh-huh," she said, as though he had been asking if he had heard her right, rather than asking her to clarify. She scooched down so her neck rested against the arm of the chair, her legs dangling over the other arm. "I am very tired."

There was a faint click, and the only door that belonged to Jack’s hospital room met with its frame, locking the pair within the small area together. Like two lions in a cage, though said lions weren't exactly in the mood to tear each other apart. Sorry folks, you'll have to come back later; there wont be anymore blood tonight. Show's over.

Under most circumstances, Jack’s assumption that Vito would simply call it quits because of a suggestion that she’d made would have infuriated Vito, and thus egged him on, leading to the destruction of something, but on this particular evening, everything that Vito and Jack had ever known was subject to change. Vito had saved Jack, something which should never have happened, considering how much Vito had previous wished for her death date to rear its head, for example. In fact, it was because of the Twilight Zone worthy evening that they’d had that Vito had grown too exhausted for any further argument. He too was beginning to see a good night’s rest as a lovely opportunity, and Jack’s halfhearted conversation was beginning to bore him to the extent of nearly knocking him unconscious.

Vito began to slip each of his feet out of his shoes skillfully, and continued to examine the patterned ceiling above him. A list of complaints regarding the state of the bed that he would be sleeping in had already formed in his mind. There aren't enough pillows, and the pillows that I have been provided with are far too firm to be found underneath my head.

Vito grumbled to himself for the near-hundredth time that evening, and began to dig at the blankets with his bare toes, as though he felt that he could take his aggravation out on the bed.

I can feel the springs in the mattress. Softener hasn't been used on this sheets. Wear is the satin? The feathers?

“For Hell’s sake!” Vito groaned over-dramatically after a brief moment of silence, “We’re going home, now. If I have to drag you there, I will. I can’t sleep on this bed.” He made no move to act on his words, however; as it had been when he’d spoken threateningly of the Minister and his daughter, Vito’s words could not have been emptier. He was far too exhausted to march out of the hospital room and continue on to Knockturn Alley - though it seemed to momentarily relieve him of his frustration to voice his complaints.

There truly was no pleasing Vito; even when he’d been given the only bed in the room, he found something to fuss about.

Jack tried to adjust, sliding down a little so that she was more comfortable. The chairs were plenty comfortable for sitting it, but for a seventeen year old girl to sleep in, regardless of how short she really was, it was incredibly cramped and uncomfortable. Still, she had been in worse conditions and if giving Vito her hospital bed would keep him from trying to murder the Minister’s daughter and their savior, than it was worth it.

She propped herself up a little so her shoulders were against the arm rest and then leaned to the right against the back of the chair, dropping her head so it rested against it, wrapping her arms under her legs, holding herself steady. She felt her eyelids droop heavily over her green irises, her body really throbbing now and reminding her of the toll it had took that day. She winced and readjusted, reaching her arms straight out and lacing her fingers, arching her back to hear cracks in her back and her fingers.

She sighed again and dropped her arms into her lap, rolling her head before allowing it to rest heavily against the chair back. That was when Vito announced that there was no way in the world he could deal with this bed. She considered offering to Apparate him to Satan’s but decided that would offer only more chaos. Her best hope was to get him to recuperate here before they left, so that they could both rest and heal before having to face whatever verbal or psychological tirade accompanied their meetings.

She reached over to the new wand she had been given and pointed it at the bed, waving it at the bed, to see the mattress rise a little as it was fluffed and filled with her spell. She looked down at her wand and shrugged. It seemed to work just as well as the other but she missed the feeling of familiarity of her old wand. “Better I hope,” she said. She curled tighter and sighed, closing her eyes, hoping to sleep.

Before Vito had been given the opportunity to protest against such an action, Jack flicked her wand in his direction. As he’d stated previously, Vito hadn’t enough faith in Jack in order to permit her to cast any form of magic in his direction, for fear of being harmed in some way by the female. And yet she did so then, without so much as a warning beforehand. Despite the fact that he had allowed Jack to tread over that line earlier that evening, so to partially heal his wounds, and to transport him to the hospital they presently resided within, the rule remained. A truth which Vito was not certain that Jack was aware of. She’d either come to the conclusion that they had taken a step forward, and that hurling enchantments in Vito’s direction was no longer prohibited, or her recent near death experience had scrambled her mind.

For a moment, Vito pondered the possibility of Jack having done damage to her already, permanently flawed noggin. For as long as he’d known Jack, her logic had always been a weakness – or lack thereof- but how flawed could one’s senses become over time? At some point in the future, would Vito find himself short of one redheaded rival, due to the child having lost her grip on her sanity? Or lack thereof, Vito added once more.

This addition to his previous statement left Vito feeling confused; those three words contradicted every thought that had crossed his mind at that moment. He’d restarted himself at his question once more, with no answers and with curiosity painted across his face.

Whatever had caused Jack to act so recklessly as to force Vito to stare down the tip of her weapon, however, the enchantment that she’d used against the unbearably uncomfortable mattress that Vito had spread out upon had corrected every flaw that he’d complained of. Just like that, the bed had grown so similar to his own, that Vito had smiled. There was no deviance to the simple facial expression, nor was their any deceitful quality to it. Vito had been pleased by Jack’s favor, when he’d overlooked the fact that she’d risked injuring him in the process, and said pleasure had given birth to a genuine smile upon Vito’s lips. So strange was the sight; a poltergeist, grinning sleepily to himself.

“Are you certain you don’t want to share the bed?” Vito inquired in a seductive tone, and purred audibly. True to his nature, he simply could not allow the one moment of tranquility that had existed between himself and his companion to remain for longer than a second’s time. He took hold of a small pillow that had appeared beside his head under Jack’s command, and tossed it at her in hopes of hitting her in the head with it.

He missed, and the pillow hit the wall beside Jack's face with a thud. “F*ck.”

Vito was glaring at Jack for a second and she realized he was going to have a hissy fit over the fact that she had used magic 'against' him. He could be so petty at times. He was living in the dark ages. Of all the people he should trust when it came to trying to help him, and yet he would always ne supicious of her motives, of her adequacy as a witch.

And suddenly, he smiled. Jack could not help matching the expression on her own face. The moment was too rare not to be enjoyed. Vito smiling for the sake of happiness, rather than for some terrible success, some attack that brought him pleasure and joy. Jack tried to think back to a time when the two of them had smiled naturally, not forced, not faked, not part of some game.

This was a first.

And then true to his nature, Vito wiped the smile off of Jack's face and she rolled her eyes, scowling. "Oh, shove off," she grumbled, shifting in her seat, trying to roll over. A pillow flew at her but missed and she craned her neck to sneer at him, before picking it up and putting it under her own head. "Thank you so much, dear pal," she said sarcastically. "I needed this." She turned over.

It was weird. They were almost friendly.

She wondered how long that would last.