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Jon was about three drinks in when he started talking to the portrait of The Admiral that hangs on Georgie’s living room wall.
This wasn’t necessarily surprising to Georgie as Jon had always been a bit of a lightweight; god knows she’d dragged his stumbling from home when they were in university. Plus, she was pretty sure he didn’t really want to be here. Georgie was a little surprised that he had come in the first place. The gathering was small, just a couple of her friends from uni, mostly her and Jon’s former band members, but Jon had never been the most social of people and while he hadn’t come straight out and said it, she was pretty sure he didn't keep in contact with any of them. Nor had he had made any new friends, as he also hadn’t mentioned anyone outside of his coworkers. The Admiral, Georgie thought wryly, might be Jon’s closest friend. Perhaps that’s why he was talking at the Admiral’s picture.
The portrait itself, taking up a good half of the wall, was a fairly good rendition of Georige’s orange tabby cat in acrylic paint. A good friend of Georgie’s had created it for her in exchange for a bit of video editing that she had helped them with and it was one of her most prized possessions.
“Hey hey hey! I know you can see me because, you know, you have Eyes. Same Eyes as me! We’re the same!”
Jon chattered away at the picture, doing an admirable attempt to look into the painted cat’s eyes.
“I think that I may have drank a little too much you might want to come get me before some Dark avatar eats me up or something.” There was, of course, no response from the acrylic and canvas, but a few seconds later a soft ding sounded.
Georgie’s hand reached into her pocket and pulled out the phone on instinct. It was not her phone that had buzzed, but Jon’s (which she had taken to confiscating early into drinking nights after that unfortunately time that he had called Martin to rant about ‘work ethic’). The screen showed a text message that read ‘Hello Georgina. Please tell Jon that I’ll be there to pick him up in about 10 minutes.’ which was incredibly unnerving, as the text hadn’t been sent to her phone. The sender’s contact name simply read ‘👁❤️’ which was not helpful in the slightest.
Georgie blinked at the message for a couple of seconds, trying to think of how the fuck the mysterious eye-heart sender would know that she had Jon’s phone. She looked over at Jon, who was still rambling on about something (she thought he may have moved on to talking about the historical context of the black plague, but he keeps skipping words and going off on unrelated tangents so it was hard to tell) and waved to get his attention. He broke off mid sentence to wave enthusiastically at her, “Hellooo Georgie!” He greeted her happily, even though he’d been at her house with her for the last several hours.
“Hey Jon. Whose contact in your phone is just the eye emoji and a heart emoji?” she held up the phone as she spoke, but she somewhat doubted his ability to read and interpret text messages right now.
Jon tried to squint at the phone, but instead his gaze landed about a couple inches left of her head. His face scrunched up in concentration before lighting up with a grin, “Yes I know who that is! It’s J-” he breaks off suddenly at that point tilting his head to the side cartoonishly, as if he’s trying to remember something important,” Elias! Yes it’s Elias that is the name that he is called,” Jon finishes looking pleased at this recollection. “He is...” another pause from Jon after that and this time he actually seems concerned, twisting the sleeve of his sweater in both hands, “he is my...well I guess you could say- no that doesn’t work that’s not it,” he’s getting frustrated at this point; he’s frowning and the graping of the fabric has become more intense. Georgie is about to step in, to suggest that it’s not that important and that he can think about it later, when Jon comes to some internal conclusion and relaxes. “He is mine,” he decides firmly, nodding at Georgie with a solemn determination.
Georgie has heard of Elias. Shortly after they had reconnected, Jon had let it slip that he was ‘involved with someone’ (his words) and Georgie had pestered him about it until he had reluctantly admitted that his boyfriend (Jon had blinked rapidly and gotten flustered when Georgie had called him that, but he hadn’t denied it) was none other than his boss Elias Bouchard, Head of The Magnus Institute. She tried her best to be supportive, Jon had always found romance tricky and she had worried after their breakup about if he’d find someone else, but she couldn’t help being suspicious. Jon dating his direct superior? That was...frankly quite scandalous and Jon was the most straight-laced person she’d ever met. It was strange, to say the least, and so Georgie’s feelings towards this Elias were planted in the ‘negative’ category.
She no longer held any semblance of romantic feelings towards Jon, no that ship had long since sailed, but that sort of connection didn’t just disappear with a breakup. Even one that had been less than friendly. Georgie’s attitude towards Jon had shifted to an almost laughable paternal view. It almost wasn’t a surprise. She had been referred to jokingly as the ‘mom friend’ by her friend group multiple times. Georgie always laughed at it, but she knew that her instinct to rear her head and keep those she cared about safe and near to her went beyond, perhaps, what could be considered a reasonable amount of possessiveness one should have towards friends. Why that was...well she wasn’t going to start psychoanalyzing herself at 10pm at her own party. That was a problem for Wednesday afternoon therapy Georgie.
The self-acknowledgement that her possessiveness of Jon was probably unhealthy did nothing to stop the scowl that came over her face when she heard a knock on the door. Only one person that could be, really. Georgie took a breath, composed her face into a more friendly expression, and went to meet Jon’s new partner.
The man that smiled at Georgie from the other side of the door had on an impeccable suit and slicked back hair and Georgie distrusted him on sight. He was simultaneously exactly what Georgie had expected, and also nothing like it.
Elias smiled at her, an expression that was most likely meant to be charming but which fell rather short of that mark. “Elias Bouchard. It’s a pleasure to formally meet you. I’m here to pick up my Jonathan,” he said and his tone was polite, but firm. My Jonathan. Another spark of possessiveness flared in Georgie and she mutinously considered barring him access to her home for a brief moment. As the thought crossed her mind, Elias’ eyes fixed on her intently and under the gaze of his cold eyes, Georgie was suddenly reminded of the time she told Jon about the experience that stole her fear. Georgie was about to open her mouth to speak to Elias with as much civility as she could muster (which, frankly, wasn’t much) when she was interrupted by the appearance of Jon from the other room.
“Elias! You’re here!” Jon wasted no time in immediately flinging himself into Elias’ arms, which had opened to embrace him the moment he’d seen Jon enter the room. Jon crumpled like a popped water balloon, every muscle relaxing at once as he dropped all of his, grantedly unsubstantial, weight onto Elias. Elias seemed to expect this, as he expertly tucked his boyfriend into his shoulder and Georgie, despite her general misgivings towards the man, chuckled at the sight. Elias dipped his head to whisper words to Jon, unheard by Georgie, but he looked up and shared a fond, bemused glace with Georgie; a brief connection between them forged by their mutually love for Jon. Elias broke the gaze first, in order to turn his face back to Jon, and the possessive tenderness in his intense gaze reminded her of her dislike of him.
“Eliassss,” Jon murmured into his partner’s shoulder, reaching up to tug on his sleeve. Elias paused from where he was gathering up Jon’s things, an already slow process seeing as he one of his arms was occupied by holding Jon against his chest and gave him a soft, indulgence smile, “Yes, dearest?”
Jon lifted his head away from Elias' shoulder to look at his face, but he didn’t move away from the one arm embrace. His hand moved from Elias’ sleeve to touch the side of his face gently. Elias leaned into it slightly and sighed in contentment.
“You are my Heart,” Jon spoke with over exaggerated slowness, making sure to pronounce each word clearly and steadily. Elias closed his eyes briefly and dipped his head so he could press his lips against Jon’s temple, “I know, darling. And you are, of course, mine as well.”
Georgie felt a strange mix of emotions watching this scene. It wasn’t jealousy or regret, she had gotten over their breakup a long time ago and frankly they were both much better apart, but a sort of fond sorrow, a past disappointment that had settled into faint resignation. The way Jon looked at and spoke to Elias...he had never felt that way about her. The way he looked at Elias: it was if he was the center of a universe only they could see. There was a strange sort of distant melancholy watching someone give a part of themselves to someone else that they could never give to you.
Oblivious to her internal musings, Jon was letting out a frustrated sound and pulling slightly away from Elias’ hands, fixing him with an intense glare. “No, no, no you aren’t seeing! You are the Heart of the Institute and I am your Archive. That makes you My Heart,” he told him firmly. Georgie couldn’t even begin to understand what that meant but Elias sharply inhaled and reached forward to gently cup Jon’s face in his hands. His hands looked like they were shaking slightly.
The way Elias looked at Jon...Georgie had never seen anything like it. Elias stared at him like a man who had prayed every day of his life for redemption and Jon was the archangel who had descended from heaven to answer his plea; like Jon was his sin and his salvation all in one.
Georgie had never seen a look like that one someone’s face before. Georgie knew that if she still had the capacity for fear, she would be very, very afraid of this man.
“Yes. Yes I am. Now and forever more.” Elias promised.
Georgie shuddered and turned away; the last thing she sees are Elias’ rapturous eyes and Jon’s adoring face.