fragments - the gifted -

X-02

Taylor

There was something about being on the roof that felt freeing. It was the only bit of freedom that she was still able to cling to, and so she did. She wasn't letting this feeling go, especially because they were fighting for their freedom. She loved the Underground and what it stood for and the work that they did, but sometimes living at the Headquarters was a sensory overload for her. It was a lot of noise, and too many faces swarming around. She took a break whenever one came, but that always seemed to be rare. Part of that was her fault, because she threw herself into her work to distract herself from her personal life. It worked sometimes, other times it just wore her down and she was still thinking about him and how much she missed him. She really didn't get out nearly as much as she once had, a new fear slowly starting to seep in around them.

Marcos had been right. They were being picked off one by one it seemed. It scared her. It shook her to her core knowing that there was a chance she wasn't going to walk away from this fight. She kept fighting though, despite all the fears. This battle was too important to walk away from.

"Mind some company?" A familiar voice asked, shaking her away from her thoughts. She didn't need to turn around to know it was John who was on the roof with her. She knew that voice by now, and he was one of the only people who came out here with her. They once shared a love of the roof as it was a place away from everything else. It helped him get away from the noise and gave them a chance to soak in a moment of being among themselves.

"I talked to Marcos." She said as he stood next to her, his arm bumping hers gently. "I don't think I got anywhere with it." She admitted, but it didn't surprise her. It wasn't like one conversation would convince him to abandon Lorna and she never expected it to.

"We can deal with it later. There isn't anything either of us can do about it right now." He spoke and she turned to look at him. He turned, facing her with a smile on his face.

"Okay." It was all she could think of to say before looking back up at the sky, breathing this moment in. She had her time on the roof, basking in what remained of her freedom and was sharing it with him. All in all, it was one of the better moments as of late.

"Right now, I just want to be here with you." He said, and she knew it was time to start reinforcing their rules. Sometimes their guards dropped, and they started to act careless around each other, knowing the path it was taking them down. They had their boundaries for a reason, because she had told Marcos the truth. They could not mix love and war. Yet, she wasn't in a rush to push him away, even though she knew she needed to be. Right now, he was right. She wanted to be here with him too.

"That sounds good to me." She admitted, taking a step closer to him, leaning her back against his chest. They were already blurring the lines, and she was going to take the moment to drink this in as much as she could. She loved how safe she felt around him, reminding her that he protected her in the same way that she protected him. That didn't stop just because they had new rules they sometimes followed. Those walls would go back up, and she'd step back away from him in a way to gather herself again. That was the hardest part, stepping away after the stolen moments. It was like he was so close she could taste it, but they had to pull away just before she could sink her teeth it.

Almost. They had to stop it at almost, no matter the toll it took on them. No matter the way it broke her heart each time.

"When we go back in, I could use your help looking over some stuff with Thomas." He said, and she knew that this brief time-out would soon come to an end. It had to. She knew that, but it didn't mean she liked it.

"Okay." She agreed, before pausing for a moment. "Can we stay up here for a little longer?" Maybe this was pushing her luck, but with everything that happened with Lorna, she wasn't quite ready to walk back downstairs quite yet. She just wanted one more stolen second to be able to fully appreciate how okay he was after the night.