All That Glitters

Golf Cart

Tw: blood, mild depictions of gore

There were two things that made JJ leave when he did.

The first reason was that despite their efforts to prove him wrong, Luke was right. He always went back.

The second being that JJ needed to figure out a way to get Barry, the gunman dealer from deep in the Cut, off their backs so that what happened in the forest didn't happen again.

Even if it meant he had to fight him off himself.

Even if it meant going to his dad for information on him.

JJ swore before taking his arm out from under Pope's neck. Shifting slowly so as to not wake him.

It was just starting to turn from night to morning when he had opened his eyes.

He watched intently at Pope's sleeping form, taking in how delicately his eyelashes fluttered. Probably from a dream of some sort. The revelation of this pulled at the corners of his mouth.

Pope was scrunched up in a loose ball. Unlike how he was whenever the four of them shared a bed. Content rather. With the space he was taking.

A fleeting thought entered JJ's head. Fast, so quick he only caught the last two words before it buried itself back into his head. — for me .

That alone made his cheeks flush bright red. But Pope was like that whenever there was only one person sharing with him. At least whenever he was around.

JJ as quietly as possible flipped himself off the pullout, tearing himself away from the comfort of the early morning. A desperate yawn shook in his bones, blocking his hearing for a moment.

With a sad glance back at Pope's snoring lump of limbs, JJ pulled on a thin hoodie he'd packed in his bag before hastily leaving the chateau on his tiptoes. Pulling the back door up on it's hinges so that it didn't squeak when he let it close.

—

The gurgle of bubbles in his throat was what snapped his consciousness back into reality. What he thought were bubbles. His hearing had gone blank, leaving just the pressure of a scream that was choking him against his eardrums.

JJ stumbled forward, extending his hands out in front to catch himself. A sputtering series of coughs erupted from his chest, drowning the scream coarsely. He clutched at the fabric of his shirt as he fell to his knees.

It was so hard to breathe.

He let out a strangled groan with his head against the ground. The world was spinning and it was colder than it was supposed to be towards the end of summer. He dug his fingers into the soft ground for a second trying to find a way to breathe efficiently without feeling like his lungs were being probed.

JJ hadn't even opened his eyes yet. But he could tell he wasn't at his dad's house anymore.

"God—" he managed to say something in between his gasps for air, "—damnit." As he spoke, a long, hot sting shot from his lips all the way over to his jaw. Like the skin was being ripped from his face. He dragged his hand up.

The tips of his finger grazed the frayed edges of jagged contusions in his cheek. A shaky sigh was all he could muster before his eyes grew damp with tears. His chest swelled with a horrified cry.

It was too bright for him to open his eyes.

Not that he even had the desire to see what afflictions he bore. Just the feeling of it all hitting him at once was enough to curb his curiosity. It was bad this time. Really really bad. That's all he could figure at the moment. It was bad and Pope had warned him.