Fallout: Aftermath (Phantom/Avenger) [IC]

[alderwitch]

((Continues from Fallout))

Jack sighed softly, releasing her hand as he looked up at the open sky above. "Thanks, Taylor." He couldn't quite look at her. "I'm sorry about earlier, that...that didn't really work the way I'd planned it. I don't think anything did." The sand crunched beneath his boots as he walked, his cape blowing behind him in the breeze. "It's not fair. This isn't supposed to happen with people. With heroes, I mean. We're supposed to be able to work that out."

"Heroes are just people with masks. You're the one who pointed that out to me," Taylor said with a sigh as she sat down to take off her shoes and socks. Slipping them into the void, she stood up and dusted the sand off the seat of her pants. She took her time catching up to him, her pace relaxed as she tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans as she added dryly, "You are right that tearing the scabs on peoples wounds was probably not the best tactic. Let tempers cool for a bit. There was a lot said in that room and none of it can be taken back."

[Avenger Assembled]

"You're telling me." Jack looked down at her, his face open, and said, "You know, if they all had to find out at once, I guess that was a good way for them to find it out. Ace was the only one who asked any of the awkward questions." Tentatively, he reached out and put his arm around her shoulders. "They were a little busy focused on themselves. But right now, I just want to be focused on you." His mouth quirked, just a little. "What do you think we should do?"

[alderwitch]

"I think we should relax." Taylor said promptly. She didn't pull away as the arm slid around her shoulders, which was certainly something. "I still can't believe you said that! I'm not a coward."

When her body relaxed enough to lean against the leather of his jacket she pulled back and frowned, "I can see why we don't cuddle in costume. Between my cloak and your jacket, it would be near impossible."

She held out her hands for it, "I can put that in the void, if you want."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Okay," agreed Jack, stripping out of his jacket and handing it to Taylor with a half-smile on his face. He was in a black t-shirt underneath, considerably better for snuggling. When his arm went around her again after his jacket disappeared, he said, "I'm sorry about that. My own issues were talking." He smiled down at her as best he could. "Let's just...just forget about them for a while."

[alderwitch]

It certainly was much nicer to cuddle without the jacket. She wasn't sure why the Avenger jacket had pokey parts to it but it was probably better not to ask those sorts of questions. Taylor nodded and slipped her arm around his waist. It was pretty, certainly, and so much quieter than the city. She couldn't see as well as Jack but the moon was bright enough that Taylor could make out the beach well enough. It wasn't like the dark bothered her any.

"So, now what?" She asked after a moment of silence, "With things the way they ended, what do we do now? Just go on with our own costumed careers?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I guess my secret's out," said Jack reflectively. "I can't imagine all those people are going to keep it to themselves that Avenger, or that Jack Faretti, is a vampire. Even if most people don't believe them, those with reason to know will know." He was thoughtful for a minute. "I told Elena that heroes are supposed to inspire people. Maybe it's time I lived my words. Avenger's not going to inspire anyone, much less my own people, if no one can see his face. And as for a team...we'll start our own damn team. Where we're honest with each other, and don't hide in the dark. Shine a little light, even at midnight."

[alderwitch]

"A team with a witch and a vampire? Now that will be something." Her cheek dimpled in the rare sharp but playful smile that he was more used to seeing below the cowl of her costume. Things had been so very serious lately that it was a relief to laugh and banter with Jack. Even if they had to go half way around the world to do it, "Look out, Freedom."

She paused then turned their path for the water, her smile turning flirty in a way that it really hadn't since she'd found out. "Do you swim?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Why, are we going to get wet?" asked Jack with a teasing smile. In a more physical reply to her words, he smoothly pulled his shirt up and over his head, revealing the pale, smoothly muscular torso beneath. "Because if that's the plan, I think you and I can do something fun."

[alderwitch]

Taylor moistened her lips and her gaze skittered away before returning to Jack. The words playing with fire came to mind. She knew eventually she'd have to either accept all of what their relationship entailed or walk away. She wasn't quite ready for that yet, but, oh, she had missed this part of their relationship.

"Do you?" She teased, "Then you'll have to catch me."

With a flick of her wrist, she dissapeared in a swirl of shadows only to reappear from beneath the water a few yards away. Her husky laugh drifted back to him as she slicked her dark hair back from her face. Except for the dark glitter of her amulet, the pale curve of her shoulder was bare under the moonlight.

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack's smile reflected in the moonlight, his straight teeth perfectly white. His body boiled apart in a cloud of mist, not hiding from Taylor as he settled down over the water nearby, slipping easily in as he reformed. His costume had evidently not made the transition this time, either. "I have to warn you, Taylor," he said, sliding toward her in the water, "I am a hunter. I'm very good at catching my prey."

[alderwitch]

Taylor laughed and retreated from him teasingly. She was obviously using her ability to float to make manuevering in the calm water easier although she remained - for the moment - solid. Taylor fully expected him to cheat, after all.

"Catching me isn't going to do you any good if you can't hold on to me," she challenged with a laugh, "And catching me may not prove as easy as you think."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, won't it?" Jack grinned wickedly and dived beneath the waves, swimming with quick, powerful strokes right between Taylor's legs. He was very fast, and very agile under the water. "I'd show you how long I can hold my breath," he said with a laugh, rising to his feet several feet away, "but you already know that."

[alderwitch]

"About as long as I can," Taylor's grin flashed as he broke through the surface of the water, "Forever."

This time she followed him rather than retreating. She had to go a few feet further in than he did before she could stand up on the sand. "Which would make a dunking contest either very boring or terribly entertaining."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Any time, any place," said Jack, his pale skin casting absolutely no reflection on the water beneath him. "Question is, how far can you go?" he asked her, backing her against the water. "Short of flying away, I think I've got you pinned. Shall I move onto demands now, or would you prefer to fight me for it?" He grinned at her.

[alderwitch]

"I knocked you into one wall today, what makes you think I can't manage it a second time." Taylor lifted one hand from the water and wiggled her fingertips at him. Eldritch light arced from fingertip to fingertip but it was nothing like her earlier explosion. "Why don't you tell me these demands and then I'll decide. You know I like to make this sorts of descisions as informed as possible."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack told Phantom his plans for the evening. Though some of them involved travel, none of them required leaving the beach, assuming they were careful about the soft sand that squished between their toes in the water. They were also the sort of plans best-carried out in the dead of night, by two people skilled at keeping themselves from being seen or heard.