Always Something There to Remind Me (A Black Lightning Jen X Khalil Fanfic)

Chapter Thirteen- Welcome Back

Chapter Thirteen- Welcome Back

Khalil's POV

"How are you back?" Khalil couldn't stop staring at Painkiller as he began to restlessly pace up and down in front of him, arms clasped behind his back. Some things never changed. "You disappeared two years ago."

His sandaled feet kicking up dust from the unswept floor, Painkiller shrugged. "I don't know, man. I liked bein' offline, and I want to go back to that until you work out a way to put us back together like you said you would." He stopped, pushing belligerently into Khalil's personal space with the usual sneer on his face. "Should've known you would work slow as fuck on that. What else is new?"

Khalil took a deep breath, steadying himself. Painkiller was starting with the hostilities early. Usually, he warmed up to being antagonistic, slowly boiling with unfocused rage, but this time, he was obviously getting right to the point.

"You put yourself offline? I didn't know you could do that."

Painkiller gave a scornful grunt. "Lot of shit you don't know, you never bothered to ask."

"Would you tell me if I asked?" Khalil raised an eyebrow, an astute smile playing around his lips.

As the shock of Painkiller's return began to wear off, Khalil was struck by a surge of relief so strong he nearly had vertigo. Psychotically angry venomous assassin or not, Painkiller was part of him, and when he had been offline (and that was some very new information, Painkiller being able to switch off like an actual computer), Khalil had felt the absence almost painfully. Not that he would admit this to anyone, especially not Painkiller, but it felt foolishly good to have him back. He still felt broken, incomplete, and knew he would until he did what Painkiller was accusing him of being slow to do, and found a way to merge their two halves into one again.

Scoffing, Painkiller returned to his pacing, wearing a path in the grimy floor, up and down the dojo, while Khalil waited for an answer to his question.

"Something brought me back to this place," Painkiller finally said, a reflective tone in his voice that Khalil had never heard before. He glanced around the dojo and smirked. "Still shitty as ever, try cleaning out your mind sometime."

Grimacing as he bent to swipe a finger along the seat of a bench and ended up smearing a thick layer of dust on his finger, Khalil defensively said, "I didn't need this space, with you gone. I was-."

"Happy? Centered? Calm?" Painkiller tossed his head back and let out a loud, sarcastic, and unquestionably fake laugh. "Well, something woke me, and it must be something your scary ass needs me to deal with."

His eyes, cold and flinty, fell on Khalil, who shook his head immediately. "You know I don't need you to deal with shit." He tapped his chest. "I handle business myself."

Painkiller pointed to the big screen suspended in thin air above them that showed the duo a clear view of Khalil's prone body lying on the floor of the supermarket washroom, his cheek pressed to the ground. Khalil's stomach rolled. As Painkiller had resurfaced in his head, he had passed out on the floor of the washroom Jen had pulled him into. What a fucking day.

"Yeah, you handling business alright. You're passed out on the nasty ass floor of a supermarket restroom right now." A contemptuous snicker. "Kind of business you handling from there?"

Khalil chose to ignore Painkiller's taunt and said, "You said something woke you? What was it?"

"I asked you a question first, bruh." Turning his back on the screen, Painkiller glowered at Khalil, his shoulders squared menacingly. "Who was that girl, and how she know my name?"