Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.31]

"ꪻaryn," Jess interrupted her thought process as she tried desperately to figure out the answers to one of the questions in front of her. Ignoring him, as he had done twice previous, Taryn focused back on her work whilst shimming the blanket back around her shoulders. Whilst it remained to be slightly warmer outside, she still felt the cold biting at the skin underneath her sweater. He, putting a sing-songy tone to his voice, called again, "Teeee."

"Jess. Bio exam," Taryn responded without even looking up from her page, focus unwavering.

"Coffee, uncaffeinated," he replied, matching her tone whilst sliding a mug of coffee in the place of where her last drink had been. 

"Is that the time already?" she muttered under her breath whilst turning to look at the clock, her brow furrowing at how that portion of time could have passed so quickly. Upon looking back to the books, her gaze caught him for just a second. Succumbing to the urge, she looked up and felt her eyes widen ever so slightly. Jess leant against the counter with his sleeves rolled up just below his elbow, messy hair and a certain type of look within his eyes.

She looked him up and down slowly and as she did so, he chuckled softly,"Tee?"

Taryn cleared her throat and fixed her gaze on her textbook once again, "Nothing."

"Tee..."

Taryn looked up and instantly had a love hate relationship with the smirk plastered on his face. "Upstairs?"

He quirked a brow whilst leaning in closer to her. He lowered his voice whilst asking, "Thought you had a bio exam?" 

She shrugged. "Study break."

Jess, whilst softly laughing to himself, checked that Luke wasn't watching the two of them. Given how quiet the diner was and how he was currently doing inventory, he figured they had a good twenty minutes before their absence was noticed. To answer her question, he took her hand over the counter and the two of them hurried upstairs with quiet, stifled laughter.

-

The following day, after a rather disastrous morning, Taryn decided to let herself go to the bookshop before attending her usual study sessions. In doing so, she had unintentionally found a book they had discussed at great lengths. She knew Jess really wanted to read said book so she picked it up, kept the receipt and even wrote a nauseatingly sweet note on it as a joke even though she meant the sentiment behind it. Being too excited to wait until his birthday or some sort of other special occasion, Taryn  walked straight past her usual seat in the diner and went upstairs. She found herself greatly glad to see Jess within the walls of the apartment as she couldn't quite remember whether he had work that evening or not. 

"Hey, I found that book that we were talking about at the tiny bookstore," she called out whilst shutting the door behind herself. When she heard no response, she turned into the apartment and frowned at the sight of him. He faced the opposite way to her without saying a word, his shoulders tense underneath his gray shirt. "Jess?" she paused whilst placing her bags on the dining table. She hurried over to him and kissed his cheek over his shoulder but he still would not turn or even look at her. Instead of being offended, as she initially felt, she attempted to see the circumstances rationally. After such a drastic change from yesterday, she instantly assumed something had happened in the past twelve hours to bring out this side in him. So, quietly, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jess responded at a mere grumble, his jaw tense and gaze stuck into place on the wall.

"Mariano, come on," she spoke gently, hand placed on his shoulder comfortingly. Jess, knowing there was no way of getting out of this without somehow hurting her, sighed deeply before he turned around. He watched her expression change as her gaze trailed over his face. She noticed the black eye quickly and confusion mixed with concern flooded her facial muscles. Her gaze however, remained full of complete care."What happened?"

"Not a fight," he almost snapped, clearly holding some form of annoyance to the very idea that it could be a fight.

"I didn't assume a fight," she responded softly and watched as surprise widened his eyes. Instead of choosing to dwell on his previous tone of voice, she simply repeated her question, "What happened?"

"You didn't assume a fight?"

She furrowed her brow before asking, "No? Why would I?" Without responding to her question whatsoever, he simply took her face in his hands and brushed his lips against hers. As he pulled away, she frowned, "What was that for?"

"Nothing," he whispered back and chuckled softly to himself before he kissed her again, this time with much more intensity than the last. Taryn caught on pretty quickly and pulled away, not wanting to let him change the subject.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

His lips formed a line as he unwrapped his arms from her. "Promise you won't laugh?"

Her eyes widened slightly as she replied, "Oh no, is it that funny?"

"Tee-"

"I'm kidding. I won't laugh, promise...Wait, hang on..." she trailed off before walking into the kitchen. She grabbed a clean cloth from the bottom cabinet and some ice from the freezer. She wrapped the ice in the cloth and used a hair tie to hold it all together whilst she walked back over to him. Gently, she pressed the cloth to the bruised area of his eye and held it there. "Sorry," she whispered as he winced at the cold, her hand going to hold the other side of his face. "You can tell me now."

He paused as she moved the ice bundle to the top of his eye. Then, he sighed deeply and began, "A swan. A stupid swan."

Her brow furrowed, her gaze flickering from the bundle to his eyes, "At the lake?"

"By Larson's dock. I was just walking by and the thing came out of nowhere and beaked me in the eye."

She, whilst he had assumed she would laugh despite her promise, kept the gentle and caring look within her eyes and he felt himself fall for her even more - though he hadn't known that to be possible before. "I'm guessing Luke assumed you were in a fight?"

He scoffed whilst nodding, "Like everyone else around."

Quiet followed whilst she remained to move the ice around the sides of his eye, hoping the cold would soothe some of the pain and help the healing process somewhat. There had to have been a reason that her Dad's always used a cold compress when she hurt herself as a kid and even now, it couldn't be just magic as they always swore it was. She, whilst catching a falling drip of water with her finger, whispered, "I demand to see this swan.