The end of the ride?

It hadn't been easy getting here, getting to a place where you felt like you didn't run for your life. There wasn't really many people in the world like him, and even at the academy there were only few students - but enough for him to want them to feel less alone. He thrived in the cold, the snow and he really didn't wish to head inside, but he had to make sure everything was ready for when the students would arrive. Jack was one of the few material art teachers here and had split the students up in more teams - mostly for their own good. You never knew what would or could happen here, not with all these mixed creatures in one place. He walked through the snow, dressed in nothing but a pair of black training shorts, a tank top and his runners. He had a gymbag hanging over his right shoulder with some equipment for the students. People had given him weird looks every winter for so long, but he couldn't really care less. He stopped for a second, with a frown on his face as his eyes scanned the area. Jack was a predator, a hunter of course he noticed a familiar scent and it kept him on his toes as he opened the doors and walked in.

The voice, her voice almost echoed through the room making him blankly stare at her. He had caught her scent, but he still looked so surprised. "What are you doing here?" His voice almost as cold as the temperature outside. Jack dropped the bag on the floor and closed the door behind him even through he didn't mind the cold breeze. "You know, I could turn you into an ice cube in a few seconds, so I suggest you just get the fuck out of here," he added and took a few steps closer to the his chair where she was seated so carefree. "I've  students coming in here in around ten minutes, so get lost."

She tried to give him a cold shoulder, but even if she didn't care about what he wanted - the demon had found all her way here, tracking him down? It looked like caring, in some weird way. He didn't reply to her comment about being pissed how things turned out last time, of course he was pissed. He had spend years in prison because of that, and other crimes the police had managed to blame him for. It was a miracle that the Headmaster here had taken a chance on him. Jack took a few steps further towards her, and he could feel his jaw tighten up, he was aware. Elena was a trickster, so sneaky and he had no idea why she was here. "I'm not really a warm person," he commented in a lower hiss. Jack wanted to keep his words to the minimum, to give her less information or idea of how he really felt about it. It was simple, everyone had a past, and his was standing right here looking into his eyes. Jack knew it would be so easy to just go back to that, the careless life.  His eyes didn't move from her, and she had a point. He couldn't promote attacking others, not while he was here at the academy. Jack still lived in Southside, and he was still part of his old gang - the serpents - they were his only family after all. "I might be more into crushed ice in that case," he replied, knowing she knew from his hesitation that he wouldn't. Had it been on more natural ground, perhaps his reaction would have been a bit more aggressive. But that smirk, it made the temperature in the pit drop.

"Why are you really here Elena?" He then asked and breathed out, every muscle in his body still tense from her just being present and he wanted her out from the academy. This was no place for her, and he had a responsibility to make sure this place was save from the students. It could become possible for him to cancel the class if Elena didn't leave on her own, and even that would be better than letting her wait. He was sure Lucas or Joseph, if not one of the other teachers would cover his ass if it came to that.

The real reason why he was so furious with her, it had something to do with love. They were rivals, partners in crime.. lovers.. they had been quite the pair, the two of them against all odds and the world - only for her to stab him in the back, removing the remaining idea of what love actually could feel like. One would say he was heart broken back then, and they would have been right - because even through the cyrobird didn't understand love or ever had felt it before, there had been something. Would he ever confess the fact that he had loved her? Most likely not. It was a past what would be too much to open up to again, and he had found peace within himself that it wasn't something that was meant for him. He cared about people, his gang, his friends here at the academy - the students, but love, he didn't even want to navigate in that. "You are asking about me, I guess I should be flattered," he responded with a witty little smirk. Elena was far from an open book, and the pages he had written had been hard to piece together, but he also knew how headstrong she was - and stubborn.

Jack took a slightly deeper breath in, and narrowed his eyes a little bit. He had to make a decision quite fast, and even if he called the guards of the school to remove her, it wouldn't really be a good look for him. He had promised his time here would be problem free, and having Elena here was already checking the boxes for trouble. "However, you want something.. so either you just tell me, or we get out of here. I don't really want you to ruin anything - even through you are pretty good at that," he put it up to be her choice. Jack could also just simply freeze the doors, making it unable for his students to get in, it would at least give him time, and his students would like a cancelt class.

His eyes scanned carefully every single movement of hers, how she breathed in the cold air in the room, when she blinked and how she moved as she got up from the chair. Jack wasn't good in conflicts, he was unpredictable in them - you never quite knew if he would flight or fight, but one thing was sure he never really froze in place. That of course didn't matter here, because her coming closer got him paralyzed without being approved. He could feel his heart grow heavier in his chest like a knot he couldn't untie. Jack's lips left a snort by her comments, he couldn't really escape the thought of her planting something on him to get the police to take him in again and leave her alone. The trust he'd had for her was gone, sadly, she was around the only person he had trusted back then. It was different now, he had friends and he still had The Serpents even after they got a new leader a few years back - but if it hadn't been for Veronica's relation to the Headmaster, Jack wouldn't had stood a chance. He held his breath was his eyes was basically stuck on her, and it would be a matter of time before a head ache would hit him from how tense he was. Finally her ocean blue eyes met with his dark ones. The next question was if he wanted to let her stay the hour the class took, if he actually could trust her words. One to many words to a stranger, a student or another teacher could end his reputation here.

Jack felt like he was stuck in quicksand and he was sinking deeper every second that past them. He was lucky that she wasn't a blood demon, let meant his heart could explode in peace without her knowing how fast it was beating. He wasn't really much for leaving her to her own devices even if she just said, she wouldn't cause trouble for him. "I rather won't risk it, then again you clearly missed me. You were the one who taught me not to let a woman wait,"he reminded he with a little smirk. He was still mad, yes, much more than he wanted her to know right now. He wasn't the type of person to plot revenge, it was a waste of time. "Besides, I don't think the students will complain about getting off the clock a bit earlier."

She left, and he almost didn't realize the students starring at him waiting for the lesson to begin. It was way to much power that woman had over him, and he hated easy it was for her to crawl back under his skin. The lesson began, but he couldn't help but feel utterly distracted, and after the hour was over - he even let the students go a few minutes earlier to the showers. Jack went to the teacher's showers, and grabbed a quick ice cold shower. He got dressed in a pair of black joggers, and used his towel to dry his hair a little. "You know you can't really hide to well from me, getting so close earlier -," he exhaled and looked around. His senses were greater than most, and catching her scent was beyond easy. Jack took a deeper breath in and started packing his gym-bag. "So," he looked up at her with his deep brown eyes and narrowed them a little. He still wondered what she truly was doing here, what did she need from him, since she made the choice to find him. "What do you need? Money, a place to stay?" He asked and crossed his arms a little.
Elena had stabbed him in the back, he wasn't going to forget that, but he was in a different state in his life right now. Jack was willing to give her help, if he could provide it, even if she didn't deserve it - he cared, and it would be his death one day if he wasn't careful. "Just don't bullshit me."

He frowned a bit, it was on the tip of her tongue, what did she need? He knew questions like that was odd and almost always impossible to answer - Jack had trouble answering it for himself, but she had to be here because of something. He couldn't help but feel like she was in some sort of trouble, or perhaps it was an old habit he had of being overprotective when it came to the demon he cared so deeply for in the past. His brown eyes looked in hers as she finally faced him, but there was something different. It made him frown a bit more confused, and as her lips parted waves of words floated the room and he had no idea how to swim through that stream. "Lena," he said her nickname in an almost whisper, and turned around as she walked towards the front door. Watch your back- just be safe, where was these words coming from. His closed his eyes for a few seconds and sighed. "Elena, god damnit," he hissed a little before running after her out the door, back into the snow. "Elena wait." He called for her a little louder. "Can we at least just talk?" Jack walked closer to her, able to toss the snow to the side with a simple movement of his hand, so it was easier for him catch up with her. He reached out for her in hope of reaching her hand so he could stop her. "You can't just drop a bomb on me like that and leave.. I have a smaller apartment in the city, we can go there and talk," he didn't really think his words through - but he also couldn't stand the thought of letting her go knowing she was running from something - she was always running from something - but he had a feeling this was different.

He should have seen it coming, she was in that mindset - the huntress, the prey.. all of them at once so aware and yet not listening to a single word he spoke, as had they completely vanished in the air. He would have looked like a fool if he had let her go so easy to him without a fight, and just like her, there was a survivor in him who fought when he was in danger. It was a pure instinct, like something just switched off and he acted. He grabbed her leg just before it hit him, while letting his left foot slide under the only connection she had to the ground. He sat down next to her and looked her in the eye. "Totally okay, next time save it or the pit - or at least outside of these ground," he said and gave her a little smirk. "You alright there Robin?" Another teacher yelled across the yard. "It's fine Joseph, no need to worry," he yelled back at his co worker and gave him a confirming nod before looking at Elena again. Jack took a little bit of snow in his hand and sighed. "I'm gonna take you home with me, because I think you owe me an explanation - for a few things." Jack then demanded a little bit. He could drive them back to Southside, but he only went there in the weekends or when he felt like spending an hour on the ride. It was the reason he had a small place here in town, so he could go from the academy - even if a room was provided for the teachers. Jack stood up and handed her his hand if she wanted it to get up.

He knew he was going to get dragged through the mud at some point, he might as well be prepared for that - but for now, he wasn't going to let her do this on her own. Jack knew he was stupid for giving in, but who could blame him, as he watched the small tears trying to escape her eyes made him take a larger breath in. Jack nodded on the next exhale and grabbed her arm to lead the way. For him it didn't matter that he wasn't dressed for the walk, he was more comfortable in the cold - summer always gave him a hard time, so the freezing temperatures of this winter was like a dream. They walked closer to the gates in front of the castle like school, when someone called his name he turned around to see Joseph again coming after him with Jack's gym bag and jacket. "You forgot this," he handed it to him and the siphoner looked at the demon and held out his hand to greet her. "Joseph Blackwood, pleasure," he replied with a little smirk that made Jack slightly uncomfortable - or perhaps old feelings just stirred a little. "Thank you, don't you have a class to teach Blackwood?" Jack said almost a little harsh, almost like old Southside attitude came right out to play without warning. A little chuckle left Joseph's lips as he stepped back, "you are so right. Talk to you later," he then turned around and headed right back inside the academy. "Let's get going." He put his jacket on and the gym bag over his right shoulder, before walking.


Jack didn't say much on the way, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable for him. It was rare you could be around people where silence wasn't a problem, and he had always liked that. Finally they reached the apartment. It was on the cheaper end, the entrance to the building looked old and in need of a dear hand - but Jack had always settled for the cheapest living spaces. Once they got up the stairs to the top floor, he opened the door to a studio apartment. It wasn't that big, but it wasn't too small either - it had space. There was a bed on the right and a couch where he could sit and watch tv. Then he had the privilege of a broken roof, which he didn't mind actually. It was clear he had made his way up there a few times, and it was perfect for when his body was forced to transform every day. There was a punching bag close to the couch, so he could train a little whenever he wanted. His guitar close to the bed. "Make yourself at home," he finally spoke and placed his gym bag on the ground. "Are you thirsty.. hungry?"

He smiled, yeah it was a good thing he didn't need the heat. But then the smile faded and he looked over at her, "is it too cold? I can get you a blanket for something?" It was a quick instinct to make her feel more comfortable, not everyone was as comfortable in the cold as Jack. She didn't want anything to drink and he nodded. He had become more polite after becoming friends with Lucas, him and Lucas had an understanding - and perhaps that had been the foundation for one of the best friendships he's ever had. "I might just," he lifted up a hand and walked over to the little kitchen to open the top shelf. He sometimes like any other person had days where he just needed a drink, whisky was the only thing he really drank - and a beer now and then if he was asked for one. "Is whisky fine with you?" He looked back at her as she took the jacket off and went straight to the sofa. He chuckled lightly to himself with a wider smile on his lips as he took the bottle down from the shelf and found two glasses. Ice wasn't an issue, a reason he also had been popular at the Serpent bar - they never ran out of ice while he was there. He hadn't even waited for her to reply before he had taken both glasses and the bottle, as he made his way to the sofa. He placed the items on the table and sat down on the stool close to the sofa.

Jack still wondered what she had done all that time, she had plenty of years to come clean and get him out - but she hadn't. She had left him behind bars for years, and it wasn't like Gaia prison was a place for a Cyrobird - it was already rare for people to be a thunderbird, and when people feared something it was brutal - and he had some days been treated more like a wild animal than a human. Forcing him from transformation was perhaps the most painful experience he'd had in his life, because the transforming was painful enough on its own. However, Jack hadn't invited her here to talk about his pain. "What are you running from?" He asked quite blunt and frowned a bit. He wanted to ask her how she was feeling, if there was anything he could do to ease her pain. Love was weird, and it had been easy to hate her from what she did and everything after that - but she was still stuck under his skin, and he couldn't shake the awful feeling that something was wrong. Jack should in some ways not care, he should have let her go the second she walked away - but now here they were in his home. If that didn't screamed he cared, nothing would - just because she could walk away back then. It didn't mean he could, or was able to.

He listened to her, frowning a bit as she mentioned who she was running from. "So nothing new?" He chuckled a bit to keep his spirit up, as he grabbed the glass of whiskey waiting for him. As she held her glass over to him, it was a pure reflex for him to cool it down. It wasn't anyone who liked his ice-like powers, even if some of the students from the academy was so amazed by the movie frozen, that they didn't see the horror in having abilities like Jack's. I'm sorry, he held his breath, feeling the coldness around his system spread, letting the chocolate brown eyes turn ice blue for a split second. Just a split second. "You can't be," he breathed out and the air around him was so cold, his breath looked like a smoke. "You don't even know what you did to me," he turned his eyes back to her. Yes, she knew she backstabbed him, left him in the backseat of a police car - but everything he had been through while being in prison, she had no idea. Jack didn't have many ways to say he knew love, because he didn't - no one has ever taught him what being love was meant to be like, only Elena. But her leaving him, it wasn't what he had seen other places, or maybe it was. Lucas had left Cecilia, even through he clearly still had loved her. Love made people do crazy things, he knew that, he was the product. "Damnit Elena," he cursed to himself and downed the whiskey before placing the glass on the table again, the table seemed to freeze a little bit around the area he had placed the glass. He turned his eyes towards her again. "You don't hurt the people you love, you don't leave them for dead and you for sure don't run away from them - just because you are scared," he shook his head as he got back on his feet.

Jack had gotten new friends after the police had figured he wasn't the one they wanted for the crime, it had taken them almost ten years. Ten years he had been kept down and caged up like an animal - drugged so he wouldn't transform and his whole nature had been put down. He had been nothing other than the bad guy, no empathy for who he was. Then again, no one did know there he came from - there had never been any information about his biological family - of course a guy who ran away from the orphanage was doomed to end up in prison. "You can hide here if you need to, but if you ever stab me in the back again.. you are going down with me." He warned, the ice returned to the eyes shortly, he was serious. He could have spilled the tea a long time ago, and not just letting her get away with putting him away - still he hadn't.

He didn't want to be angry at her, and anger wasn't even the best emotion to describe how he was feeling - he was hurt. Jack was hurting, and he had little outlet to tell that, because hurt was such a large spectrum of emotions and he had almost only known that feeling in his life time. He watched her, and he could feel the beast inside him chill just a little bit as he remembered to breathe. He had to breathe, if he didn't want to lose control or in worst case force a transformation upon himself - neither was wanted. Something was off, why wasn't she fighting back. He frowned a bit picking up on the signals she was sending, and he didn't like it. It wasn't because he couldn't handle someone being emotional, but Elena of all people, sometimes he had thought she would rather die before showing any weakness. It was a mentality he knew, it was how you survived in this cruel world - or how he had, he knew he needed to change for better things to come his way. Something was making her upset and it made his stomach tie itself up in a tight knot. She was hiding her face away in her hands, and despite his former outburst of slightly anger, he was only few seconds after on his knees in front of her. "Hey, it's okay," he said with a low much softer voice. He placed a hand on her knee, and his eyes looked to worried at her, almost terrified. "El, what happened?"

His dark brown eyes longed to see hers, and short after the hands felt down and grabbed his. No, that whole situation wasn't okay. It was far from okay, but anything seemed to be far from okay the closer he looked. Jack took a slight deeper breath in while he kept his gaze on her face, watching the silent tears as they rolled from her eyes and his jaw tensed. Jack tried to collect all the information, but he wasn't sure how to decode it. It was like she jumped over the hard part, which he couldn't really blame her for. He knew from himself anger or explosive joy was much easier for him to navigate in this, being on his knees to comfort her. "You couldn't have known," he whispered underneath his breath and really tried to figure out how he should be dealing with all of this. "I know," he took a deeper breath in, and frowned a bit. Yes, he had been heart broken and felt left alone for dead, but it wasn't her who had put him through that - it had been some officers who thought that was what he deserved. Luckily it had been discovered he wasn't the right guy, and he owed Evelina everything for figurering that out - and just hope she wouldn't find out about the other things he had done.

Jack took a deeper breath in and tried to relax his worried heart. He wanted to be better than the guy they had put behind bars, and for sure he wanted to make sure he deserved his time at the academy. It was debatable if a Southside serpent could teach a class, or more clear, the leader of a gang. "Lena.." In Jack' eye no one could better than the ones who had been set to loose everything, be able to show there was hope. "What house Lena?" He then asked, he hadn't forgotten that mentioning, and since she tried to change the topic from that - his instincts told him that nothing good followed. It wasn't like he never had broken into a house before where he had wished he had thought twice before doing so, but this was different.