The Price We've Paid

SMUT WARNING

It's not easy, losing someone. And unfortunately, the grief we feel isn't a physical wound. We immortals can't just take a few deep breaths and watch grief expel itself from our bodies like bullets. It takes time...and it sucks. But I guess that's the price we've paid...for being who we are.

I shouldn't be sad...Booker got what he wanted. And yet I find myself waking most mornings with the leftover sting from his sacrifice.

We lost one of our own. There are only six of us now. In total, if Booker and Lykon weren't gone, there'd still only be eight. Eight immortals in hundreds of thousands of years.

I wonder why so little. I wonder why us.

Perhaps one day we'll figure it out...me and my team. Because now, even more so than before, we've got all the time in the world.

...

You woke to the sound of the sheets rustling. You looked over to see your wife turning over in bed, half asleep. Her hair was messy and there were chills along her bare back. 

You smiled.

You had missed this.

"Andy," you cooed softly as you snuggled in closer to her. "Good morning."

"G'morning," she mumbled through the pillow, completely unmoving. It was clear she was not in the mood to wake up just yet.

"I'm gonna go make some coffee then head to the lab for a bit. Come find me later?" You asked as you ran your fingers along her arm.

"Mmhm," she hummed, still half asleep.

You chuckled. Andy always was a late riser. But you couldn't blame her too much for wanting to sleep in this morning; you'd been up quite late the night before.

You slipped out of bed and quickly threw on some clothes; some clean joggers and a plain t-shirt. You pulled on your slippers and a comfy robe, and slowly made your way out of your bedroom.

As you sauntered into the kitchen, you heard Tyler and Hunter talking on the couch in the living room.

"That's it, now you just insert the code here and voila!" Tyler encouraged his boyfriend.

Hunter typed a few commands into the laptop on his lap and pressed enter. As the website popped up he looked at Ty, overjoyed. "I did it!" He exclaimed.

"You did it!" Tyler hummed, laying a gentle hand on Hunter's shoulder.

After the whole Khryste Enterprises thing, Tyler and Hunter had officially become part of the team; and Tyler had immediately begun teaching Hunter how to "hack like the best." Hunter had been really eager to learn, and in the last three months, he'd mastered all the basics. You had to admit, having Tyler and Hunter around would come in handy, once the team started taking missions again. You would be able to split your focus a little bit better between tech stuff and fighting. Khryste Enterprises had shown you just how much you'd missed the fighting.

The weeks following the incident were hard. Everyone came to terms with Booker's death on their own time; but Andy, of course, took it the hardest. It wasn't easy for you either, truthfully; but you tried to avoid dealing with your grief in public by throwing yourself into all the work that needed to be done.

Though the threat at Khryste Enterprises was neutralized, you still felt it best to abandon your Manhattan apartment. And after some discussions with the team, you decided to buy a small vacant school, and it's surrounding 20 acres, in London, to act as your primary residence. The team had all agreed that staying out of the United States for a while was probably for the best.