After a week and a bit that had been completely and utterly miserable, forcing herself to keep radio silence on the Jason front, Lala had completely fallen apart and spilled her guts to hr BFF. That had been yesterday morning. Since then, Lala had been in a sort of vegetative, meditative state, that basically meant sitting on whatever surface and thinking intensely. She hadn't even left the apartment, she didn't even know how much time had passed without her actually moving more than to worry at her lips or bite her nails and make weird facial expression at whatever her train of thought had brought her.

But it was closer to 4 AM when an epiphany had finally dawned on her and without even stopping to realize what time it was or think to actually put on actual clothes, or stop to think about the decision she had reached, she grabbed a hoodie, slipped into a pair of sneakers, got her wand and keys and apparated on Jason's street. She didn't even look around to see if anyone had spotted her. No, she was a woman on a mission! So she took the stairs, two at a time until she arrived at Jason's floor.

With a sort of demented determination, she knocked... or well, pounded really, at his door. It seemed like an eternity before the door finally opened and without even giving him the chance to speak, or take in his appearance which would've made it obvious that it was the crack of the morning, she took a deep breath and stared at him intensely.

"I like you. No—I mean— I like you, like you" she said breathlessly, forgetting to actually inhale at the end. "And it scares the shit out of me. I haven't had the best—I've had a really shit time where relationships are concerned" she stumbled through words, realizing she wasn't actually making her point. "I have issues with trust and intimacy and it's been so fuckin' long since I—since I felt like this that... it took me a while to realize it and then I only panicked more, because people are awful creatures and they hurt each other, sometimes without even meaning to. I mean I do it, and I do it unconsciously. Everybody does" she rambled on gesticulating wildly as the keys jingled in her hand.

"I—" she stopped to actually breathe and shrugged a little. "You're—you! And look at you, and I'm me... and—Ugh, for someone who talks like 100 words per minute I sure can't seem to be able to make a proper sentence right now" she mumbled through her teeth, sighing loudly. "I like you, I want more. I want you. I want all the things with you, and it sc—it terrifies me. And You're... you have a kid, you've been married, you have like a proper job and proper responsibilities and I'm... I'm not ready to grow up, I'm never going to be ready to grow up. And I'm chaotic, and you're like... super calm—oh, JFC I'm really awful at this!" she actually screeched through her teeth, biting at her fingernails and looking up confusedly at Jason.

"I convinced myself you wouldn't want me for—for this" she pointed between themselves. "But, ugh, sources of wisdom in my life said there's no way in hell I can know that, If I don't, like—ask you, which I'm trying to do now... and failing epically" she smiled bitter-sweetly and shook her head a little. "I don't care about it, that you're older or whatever, or that you come with... uh, a super-cute tiny human. But if—if you think I'm not what you'd like in a... more serious thing, then—" she took a really long breath and clasped her hands behind her back, slightly balancing on her heels.

"Then tell me now, so I can go home and lick my wounds. Or lick salt off my hand, and do the tequila" she mused, lost in thought for a moment, cringing as she got back in the now. "But, yeah I like you, like you. Basically." She ended on a more serious tone. She couldn't drop the F and L words right now, by which she meant falling in love, she probably could never do that, but she hoped she was getting her message across. It was only then that her eyes fell to her feet, and she turned to look around with big, bubbly eyes. "And—Oh, wow, I am so so sorry, I don't even know what time is and I'm... well you've seen me with less clothes on" she shrugged and smiled shyly.

She had stormed out of the tavern and he hadn’t heard from her since. Jason had considered sending her an owl, but... she said she would owl him. Right? And he didn’t want to seem desperate. Not when he was truly busy with work and getting the apartment completely straightened out and enjoying his week with Aidan. After all his years of experience with women, he was still no closer to understanding them.

After a fun filled day at the park and playground with Aidan, followed by a rather hearty dinner and messy dessert, it had been bath time, story time, and sleep time. Once he was sprawled across his little toddler bed looking as peaceful as he ever would, Jason had snuck out and collapsed on the sofa with a couple beers. That was the time he thought about his life, when he really evaluated what he was doing.

It was also a good time for him to flip through some of the healer journals he subscribed to. It had been a while since he last submitted an article for one. Perhaps it was time to dip that quill and get to it. There had been some remarkable breakthroughs in the cases of direwolves, thanks to mandatory testing. It was still no closer to helping... but the research was fascinating. Sometimes just putting findings out there helped a community come to conclusions.

After a while of journal, he set it down and turned the wireless on softly. The lights were turned off as he propped his feet up on the arm of the couch, stretched out with a pillow under his head. The late night radio was soothing to the man who couldn’t focus long enough to sleep.

Of course, he dozed off at some point, soft snoring as his body relaxed. Soft oldies (or that’s what they called them; Jason remembered them being new when he was growing up) filled up the living room.

Until the banging started. It startled Jason up off the couch quicker than a hex. He let out a curse as he banged his knee into the coffee table, rubbing at it as he stumbled to his feet. He frowned as he turned to the door: what in the hell? With his wand drawn, Jason marched over to it, opening it up far enough to see - wait. He blinked as he looked down, face slowly morphing from anger to... uh... well. Shock.

And then she started to blabber on and it was all he could do to keep up. He rubbed absentmindedly at the stubble on his face, his hair a disheveled mess while he leaned into the door.

There was a lot to take in. By the time she was done his eyebrows were raised and mouth pursed in thought. Where to start... Jason scratched the top of his head and glanced over his shoulder. Speaking of tiny humans... he really hoped Aidan was still asleep. By the time he looked back, her gaze was coming up to him again. “Uh, ye-yeah. I don’t know what time it is either.” He gave her a small smile before drumming his fingers on the door. “Well... come in.” His voice was soft, quieter than hers, mindful of the tumultuous child sleeping just down the hall.

Jason leaned on the door after he closed it, watching her a moment before taking a slow breath in and pushing off, walking past her towards the kitchen. His hand motioned her to come along. Once in, he started the kettle, leaning on the counter next to the stove as he watched her. “If I didn’t want to be with you, in a-” His hand moved between them, “-relationship way, I would have told you. Or I would’ve... not... gotten so attached. I like you too, Layla. Is that what this past week has been about?” An eyebrow rose at her; he rubbed his eyes after closing them with a sigh. “You can’t just go running off when you get overwhelmed, Lala. You have to talk to me. Like you are now.” Jason was quick to point it out.

Finally he turned his attention to the cupboard, pulling down two mugs. One he had purchased solely for her, the other a geeky favorite of his. “Do you want to be in a serious relationship?”

His silence was killing her, not just killing her, but cutting shallowly into her skin, rolling her through salt and then dumping her into a pool of lime juice. His first words were certainly not what she expected, and her heart stopped in her chest, but it was the smile that got her breathing back in service. He seemed... reluctant, quiet when he invited her in, but nevertheless she nodded, eyebrows drawn at the middle, and stepped around him and into the flat.

She felt awkward, she'd been her times and times before, had done things on quite a lot of surfaces around the apartment, but for some reason she felt like a stranger for the first time inside now. What if she'd blew it all up? What if she was late? She stopped stupid in the middle of the apartment, one hand coming t grab at her own arm and squeezing hard, almost defensively. Jason passed her on his way to the kitchen with no words, and she wondered if he was gonna call the cops on her. Or the aurors? Did they even do that? Domestic disturbances... When he motioned for her to follow she swallowed audibly around the knot in her throat and followed with her head low.

The kettle on the stove eased up some of the tension, but she still felt so out of place. With a big inhale she made herself stand straighter, appear more relaxed if nothing and leaned on the door frame, crossing her arms over her chest. She wanted to get closer, brush up next to him, but she didn't know if she was welcome to do that... or if she was just generally welcome at all. "I like you' the words cut through all the chaos in her mind and she gasped loudly, heart one loud thump after the other.

Had he really just said that? But then a bucket of ice came in the form of his next words and she broke eye contact, staring holes into the ground. Yeah, she was an immature girl that ran in the face of actual conversations. How was this even going to work? Sure, she talked a mile a minute about anything and everything, but she was used to keeping the things that mattered inside. Intimacy of this sort was something she never had.

The clink of china drew her back into the now, and she smiled fondly at seeing the pink little octopus mug. She let out a little hum and pushed herself off the frame to get closer. The question came bluntly and caught her completely off guard and she literally just froze. Did she? And, yeah, yeah she most certainly did, but hearing it said out loud like that had certainly flipped her fight or flight switch on. But she wouldn't do that. Not now. She already ran away once. Her expression softened along with her body and she grinned brightly at Jason.

She approached him with a stupid, content expression and hugged him tightly, cheek on his chest and sighing contently as she breathed him in. "Fuck... Yeah, yeah I most certainly do" she finally said, dropping her head far back to look him in the eyes with the same ridiculously happy grin. She curled one arm around his neck and lifted herself on tiptoes, placing a soft, tight kiss on his lips and practically rumbled. "Holy shitballs, Batman, I missed you."

While he leaned on the counter, he had a perfect view of her. Jason frowned slightly, watching, taking in her little nonverbal cues. It was a curious frown, mixed with sleepiness and surprise. It would be so much easier to just see inside her head and know what was going on, but that would also cut out all the fun of a relationship, where you were supposed to build off what you knew and keep learning.

They would both have different things to bring to the proverbial table if it came to that. They would each have their own stories from before them. Their own mistakes and past worries; essentially everything that made them who they were. It was fumbling through all of that and realizing how to piece each other together to start fresh memories that was sometimes difficult. And always interesting.

Then he had turned from her, to rummage through cupboards that still weren’t full. He didn’t know if they ever needed to be full. When the cups were back on the counter, he started to turn to her. The hug was a nice surprise. He wrapped his arms easily around her, glancing down to the top of her head as he smiled. Then he met her eyes when she looked up to him; he bent down easily to kiss her back.

Batman... that was a familiar name to him, but it took a moment to dawn on him. He laughed softly and kissed her forehead, drawing her into a big bear of a hug. The groan that escaped him was comfort. The kettle started to sing, and he pulled away from her quickly to take it off the stove top, the fire turned off quickly.

Jason smiled, a little bashfully, before his hand found her cheek and then ran through her hair to the back of her head. He held her there before kissing her brashly, pulling back to look over her face. “Aidan’s sleeping.” And if he didn’t want the longest day imaginable, he really wanted to keep it that way. Pulling back from her, he started to fix their tea. "Grab out the cream, please."

"Oh, shit" she said eyes bubbling out of her skull, turning around to look as if through the walls to Aidan's room. Of course he was sleeping. It was the crack of dawn, for cheesus' sake. "Sorry" she said with a small voice, bashful expression on her face. For all the talk about grabbing life by the balls and taking responsibility for her own dreams, Lala sure as hell didn't show it. I mean, who came basically kicking at one's door in the middle of the night to declare their feelings? Especially when the object of said feelings had a tiny human? Well, Lala, for one... But that was besides the point.

"Cream, yes, of course" she said absently, watching Jason walk away. "Wait. What? No" she suddenly said with a look of pure revulsion on her face. "Ew. Cream. Tea" she said, wildly mimicking her feelings on the matter. "That is disgusting. If you want to poison your tea, you can get your own cream" she said, still reeling in from the acute feeling of nausea. all this, while actually moving in to grab the cream... "Bleah, dude, here's your polluting agent" she said, without even looking towards the area where the tea was being prepared.

She liked him anyway, she realized she was going to say, cream in his tea or not. Her disgust fell of to make room for a small 'o' between her parted lips, followed soon by a warm, sappy smile. One might say there were twinkles in her eyes, but Lala would fervently deny it and punch you for it. "I like your stupid perfect stubbly face" she said softly, barely a whisper and giggled, actually, honest to god, giggled. She cut herself short and placed the creamer on the countertop a bit more forcefully than intend. Surely her period was about her... Hence the hormonal storm and extreme feelings.

She took a deep breath and leaned back on the fridge, crossing her arms. "So... tea."

Jason merely smirked at her reaction, shrugging his shoulders. It wasn’t as if he could turn back time and change her noisy entrance. So far, the little guy was still in his room. That was... potentially a good sign. Usually Aidan just... came out and started bugging whoever was around. And if Jason wasn’t awake, that usually meant gentle prodding until finally slapping his dad in the face until he was awake. Which was usually after the first slap.

“Mmmhm... You can deal with him if you woke him up.” Jason was only half joking, though; he hadn’t gotten much sleep, after all, and would enact revenge if the need arose. So far, so good.

He paused long enough to raise an eyebrow at her, eyes steady on her face as she refused his cream request. Eyes rolled as he made a heavy sigh, picking up the kettle without a word. Jason poured it slowly, listening to the sweet sound of hot liquid filling up the mugs. He mouthed ‘I can get my own’ to himself; hadn’t he just made her tea?

“Stupid... perfect... I think you need lessons in English, love.” But then suddenly the cream was there and he was adding it to his tea with a satisfied smirk. “Thank you.” He stirred it together before sucking the spoon and setting it aside, turning to offer her her cream-less tea. “I like your stupid perfect non-stubbly face.” Jason leaned down and kissed her, lightly, teasing her lips with his tongue before pulling back. With his cup in hand, he walked back out of the kitchen.

He settled on the couch and yawned, free arm stretching across the back of it. “Come on over.”

Gulping once, she set her face as serious as possible and drew a cross over her heart. "I will deal with everything" she said ridiculously dead-pan. "Cross my heart." In truth she was terrified at the prospect... She loved the little dude, don't get her wrong, but sometimes she felt exceptionally unprepared in the face of a child. It's like they could look right through your soul and sense your fear.

If a soft snort escaped her at seeing Jason be all muttering and just done -with her, obviously- all with that bed hair and face, she couldn't be held accountable for it. However, cream in tea was simply unforgivable. It was her turn to roll her eyes and sigh heavily as Mister Stubble Face commented on her choice of words. "My English is a-okay, it's you who needs a crash course in pop culture and Tumblr" she huffed, one hand on her hip the other swinging the creamer dangerously around. "One of these days" she threatened quietly and rather ominously under her breath.

But then spoon. Her eyes sort of went comically large as she watched him casually sucking the spoon. And if her throat closed and swallowed tightly... well. Who wouldn't? Her mouth was open to note on the unfairness of it all but then he was talking and leaning in, and her brain shut down and her heart violently skipped a beat and she just— There was really something very unfair about the fact that he could completely fuck her thinking capabilities with just a kiss.

And then not even finish it. She groaned, actually groaned, and glared at his back. But he'd just... “I like your stupid perfect non-stubbly face.”. Her smile grew so big it threatened to split her face open. Kicking her shoes off, she plopped down on the couch, cuddling into his side, with her head in the crook of his neck and let out a long, dreamy sort of sigh. "You're kind of a-dork-able" she practically cooed, giggling into his neck.

She placed a small kiss, barely a brush of lips, over his stubbly jaw and pulled back to look at his face. "I'm sorry I've been stupid." And if her eyes were sort of sparkling and there was this sort of contentedness settling in inside her that she hand't felt in—ever, really... Well. She was done panicking and running. She would've liked to say she just stood there, cuddling and basking in whatever this was, but this was Layla Styles and Layla did not just stand still. "So... How much sleep do you actually need?" she asked with a devilish glint in her eyes, biting her lip just so. "I can be quiet" she murmured, leaning in to nose at his neck.

Layla had babysat before, Jason knew she could deal with Aidan if need be. And this time he could pay her back in more ways than one. Even if it would be her punishment for waking the rambunctious toddler up. He could probably turn on the radio and entertain the child with a few toys while he laid half awake on the couch. Which was his plan for the morning until nap time, anyway. Late nights were rough.

An eyebrow arched. “Tumble her?” He was pretty sure he was pretty good at anything that involved gymnastics and women. Jason knew he wasn’t very up on the today’s top anything; most of it was rubbish. Still... he could put up with a little of it from Layla, he supposed.

Once on the couch, and with her making use of his free arm, Jason wrapped it loosely around her and sipped his coffee as his feet found the coffee table and crossed over each other. “Ah-hah, I caught what you did there.” What a silly play on words. Jason took another sip and glanced over her, letting her face nuzzle in his neck as his eyes took in her... colors. “It’s ok, I forgive you. And your wardrobe choice.” Cause, really, it left a lot to be desired.

“I mean... did you beat a unicorn over the head for it? Did you terrorize a cyclops?” He poked fun at her with a grin, taking another gulp of tea while admiring her face from her new position of it.

Her offer was not so thin that he didn’t catch it. On the contrary... his eyebrows rose just slightly as he looked down her choice of garments once again before licking his lips. “How about... we play a little game.” Another gulp of tea and then he set the mug aside, leaning forward towards the coffee table with a soft groan.

Once settled back, he smirked. “I try to nap... and you do what you can to distract, uni-cyclops.” He pulled his arm from around her and lightly clasped his hands behind his head, leaning back into the sofa more.

"Tumb-ler, you ignoramus" she dead-panned with a straight face. Wizards. "Like a thing that tumbles. It's a social media platform like no other" she sighed like this was Aidan she was dealing with in the face of a never-ending string of questions and done, so done with attempting to find explanations on his level.

She snorted wildly, tucking her body further under his arm. "Good. I was worried one of these days I might have to scour the internet for a pun dictionary" she said very seriously, biting into her lip to keep from laughing like maniac. He really was adorable sometimes. She smiled giddily as his forgiveness came, warmth bubbling up inside, but she was shooting up like burned when the next words came, slack-jawed and practically bug-eyed.

She was about to tell him to shut his whore mouth, because nobody - not even Mr. Sex on Legs with Perfect Stubbly Face -got to comment on her style, but then he just went and dug his hole further. Shock quickly turned into a twitching eyebrow and her lips thinned to a straight line. "I'll let it slide because you're cute and all but you should know nobody escapes with their... manliness-" her eyes lazily slid down to where his pants hung loosely on his hips "intact after insulting Nyan Cat and my ridiculously cute monster PJs" she jabbed her fingers between his ribs and huffed petulantly.

And then he had the nerve to eye her outfit skeptically again as she made her proposition and implied he might actually nap while she—she worked her womanly charms on him. How dare he? Her jaw opened wildly while she swatted at his chest, obviously insulted, albeit more jokingly than actually irritated. "Are you implying you might be able to sleep while I do my thing? Are you? Really?!" she scowled at him and crossed her arms, wiggling her butt to get away from him.

"You're horrible and I dun even know why I like you. Hmph" she declared with a sulk, turning her face away from him, with eyes closed and her chin tilted up. "I take back everything. You go on ahead and sleep I'll amuse myself" she smiled sardonically.

Why would he be interested in a thing that tumbles? His face said as much. Social media meant very little to him. Jason rolled his eyes and shrugged, deciding that it was more important to not argue after she decided to come knocking bearing gifts of her adoration. But she kept making muggle technology references, and they continued to go over his head. Inner-what?

She seemed to crack herself up with it, however, so he left it where it was. Usually if he needed a dictionary, he either purchased one or checked it out at the library. Come to think of it... he had quite a few, he just had them all in his office. Potion ingredients were numerous, and it helped if you had a way to reference it all depending on what you were treating. That was a little different than her pun dictionary on her tumb-ler through an innernet.

Where he let her love of muggle technology go, refusing to argue about it, she couldn’t seem to get past his lack of enthusiasm with her outfit. Which was most obvious, firstly, in her nonverbal language. His eyes also looked down to the mentioned part, eyebrow cocked. What cat? He took a slow breath in and held it until the finger forced his air out in a breath of a laugh, moving away from it. “You’re the one who showed up looking like you’d missed the train to Hogwarts Sleepover.”

A soft laugh escaped and Jason shrugged. “You brought it up. I simply offered a challenge.” Another roll of the eyes followed, but he really was too tired to keep on and mess with her. His hand reached over and gently rubbed the back of her neck before resting his head against the back of the sofa, digging his body into the cushions until he felt himself getting more comfortable, eyes heavy as he settled in. “Just keep it down.” His hand patted her before pulling back, fingers once again locking behind his head.

"Hogwarts Sleepover" she repeated dead pan and straight-faced. Her eyes narrowed slowly and her fingers moved just so, wiggling in the space between his ribs. Victory was written on her face when he laughed, moving away from her. Twat. "I haven't slept in 3 days,  and it's like five bloody in the morning. You'll have to excuse my inappropriate attire" she said sullenly, looking wanly at him.

His explanation was not okay. She was not amused. "I am not amused" she declared lifelessly, batting away his hand as it came to rub at her neck.  She glowered at him as he merely settled himself better in his seat, apparently set on actually sleeping. What. Her eye actually twitched as his hand patted absently at her, lips drawing into a thin, dangerous line and frown threatening to cover her eyes entirely.

She moved further away and pulled her feet up, small of her back on the armrest and hands circling her knees as she simply eyed him quietly, waiting to see if he was actually sleeping. One foot extended slowly, poking at his thigh slowly. "Get up." And then more insistently. And a lot more insistently, as her other foot joined in and kicked -albeit softly- at his side. "Get up, get up, get up, get up, get uuuuuuuuuuuuuup" she started muttering obnoxiously, yet keeping her voice down as to avoid any competition in the who can provoke anger and exasperation quicker department.

Gathering her feet under her, she raised on her knees and put her hands on her hips menacingly. "Jason" she threatened lowly, without much effect. She sighed heavily and flopped down, head landing heavily on his stomach. "Fiiiiine, you complete fart" she gave up, tilting her head back to look up at him. He really did look like a dork like this. Must've been the adorable ears. "We can sleep" she relented with a grunt, crossing her arms petulantly. "If we move to bed. I'm never getting up again if I sleep on this. My back is that of an old arthritic woman" she sighed, putting her hands forward to offer the impetus necessary for getting up.

Concern etched over his face as he looked her over. “Why haven’t you slept in three days?” For a moment his teasing stopped, long enough to worry as he gently rubbed her chin. It changed, of course, to more teasing as he tried to stay awake. Jason pulled his hand back and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t be difficult.” After all of that, and she was going to act moody?

Talk about needing some sleep. Still, he gave her a fond smile before he dug into the cushions.

And then with her acting like a toddler, really? He had one of those sleeping already. He kept his eyes closed, thinking that she might stop her silly tirade if he just kept quiet. If he did smirk at his name, Jason pretended he was still sleeping while keeping his eyes closed and body relaxed. A noise escaped as her head found his stomach, a grunt of air escaping him before he could do anything.

His eyes cracked up and he looked down at her, grinning big. Pushing her gently out of the way, he stood up and scooped her into his arms. “Finally.” He couldn’t help it if she was such a pain in his arse and stubborn that she had wasted valuable sleep time. He carried them towards the bedroom, shushing her as they passed Aidan’s room. He deposited her onto the bed gently, crawling over her as his hands fought her terrible shirt.


“Come on... I need a decent nap before the terror awakens.” He kissed her neck and then her lips, breathing noisily as hands pawed at her shirt and at the sheets. She could also get some good sleep; they could have fun without actually doing fun. Once that hideous shirt was out of the way, he dragged her under the covers and wrapped his arms around her, cuddling up. “Don’t fight it.” He was muffled against her hair as he sighed into it.