John woke up much earlier than usual, but he didn’t really have a plan for the day except for work—until this moment. At the time Virgil was about to leave the house for his work preparations, he noticed John heading downstairs. “Oh, hey. Did you get enough sleep?”
“Yeah, enough.” Noticing Virgil, John had a quick idea. “I might cook something a little different today. What’d you think?”
“Eh, not like I’ll ever mind that. I might help you out later, too.”
John nodded as he parted from Virgil, heading to the kitchen. While he was waiting for the water to boil, he went through the thoughts he had the day before. With a fresh determination or something of that sort, he gave the idea of making every day a memorable day a try. He had more time to spare this morning, so he might as well treat Virgil to his favorite dish. And once Carson woke up, he might actually ask Carson for things he liked to eat, too. Using guesswork wouldn’t cut it when it came to something like this.
As John continued to cook, he realized the weekend would come soon. Should he ask Carson and Virgil out for a battle, or maybe, do something more down-to-earth? But as he thought about Carson and Virgil, he was reminded of his other friends, like Zoey. So maybe he could spend time with her, or learn more about Carson’s and Virgil’s lives outside of this household.
And just right in time, Virgil came home to help him out. Since Virgil was one of John’s closest friends, he might as well ask him for suggestions.
“So… You want to do something special for the weekends?” Virgil asked, and John agreed—as he plated the dishes. Virgil then continued to stir the ingredients, pondering John’s suggestion. “Hmm… How about a dinner? You can’t really go wrong with a meal, when it comes to people.”
Carson’s voice came from the kitchen’s entrance, as he had just arrived in the kitchen. “What dinner?”
“Oh, sure. That sounds nice,” John replied to Virgil, as he turned to Carson. “Just about time. We were wondering about what to do for the weekends… What’d you think about dinner with our other friends?”
Carson cracked his neck, as he paused for a moment of thought. “…Isn’t tomorrow the weekend? It’s Friday today.”
And John thought it was still Thursday.
“Oh, well. I’m up for the dinner, and I think we’re gonna prepare everything on time. So, what’s the plan?” Carson continued.
“Hmm… Do you have someone you want to invite over?”
“I know Ace doesn’t have any shift this weekend, and hmm…” Carson thought, as he got inside the kitchen, trying to help Virgil out with breakfast.
As the breakfast went on, the three formed what resembled a plan for the dinner. John had a feeling that changes to the plan would happen. But with Virgil and Carson, but he felt as if he was ready for anything.
John had expected some kind of lively environment, but this state where everyone felt at ease during this dinner felt so foreign to him. With Carson’s loud reunion with Markus, along with Zoey and his sister being fast friends and such. Even the quieter ones, like Ace or Virgil, were a part of the dinner’s comfortable atmosphere. John wasn’t used to a friendly gathering in the comfort of this house. But as long as everyone was happy, it was fine to him.
A moment of excitement flew by, just like he expected. And John found himself staring away into the air, letting his mind sink away with his own demons as he placed the last dish down in the rack. Would today’s guests find this quite unsatisfactory? Would this be yet another passing memory? And so on.
He was quite lost in his thoughts, literally and figuratively. He knew he could have a clearer mind to really think things through, but he admitted, he was pretty drained. But at least, it’s not the kind of tiredness that would leave him hollow for yet another day, and he’s not in a place where he had to put on another persona. Within a moment of sinking in his thoughts, John noticed one thing—his mind tended to pace around when he was doing things alone. And he just realized that Carson and Virgil had already headed upstairs.
He could use a company.
Asking for people to accompany him wasn’t really his thing, but he could approach the exact people he wanted to stay around first. What’s next? He didn’t know, but he knew he could let fate decide.
As midnight approached, he spent today’s last minutes with Carson and Virgil in their bedroom. He would eventually end up parting from these two, but hey, enjoying the mundane moments with whom he decently liked was better than forgetting them. It might not be an answer to life, but it would be better than wallowing in emptiness.
“You’re still awake?” Carson asked, snapping John awake from staring away into the window. Carson wiped his own face with his hands, while Virgil was already snoring in his sleep. And John only nodded back. “Mhm, what’s keeping you up?”
“Not sure.” Carson shook the worry in his own expression off. “Probably just a nightmare.”
In this silence, John felt as if he had lost all socialization skills, as he simply nodded again—not knowing what to say to that. Just his usual words as an attempt to comfort someone wouldn’t be enough, he thought. As John zoned out for a moment, Carson stiffened his movements and breath—not wanting to wake Virgil up from his panicked movements.
“Do you want some warm drinks?” John asked, his voice calm enough to not disturb anyone sleeping.
Carson nodded, as he then followed John outside of the bedroom. After brewing some warm drinks and chatting, Carson had poured out some of his own anxieties along with the warm drink in his cup, as he chugged the drink to drown his worries away. As Carson rambled, John had pieced together that his nightmare had something to do with Markus. He hadn’t talked to Markus much during dinner, but he seemed like he was working with Ace with taking down the Crescent Squad bandits—and Carson had mixed emotions about it, much like John’s jumbled thoughts. He felt as if he had reached some kind of enlightenment, and at the same time, he was completely dumbfounded at wherever his brain raced at the same time. Something, something about dealing with life’s downs.
Oh, well. John hadn’t come up with any smart ideas at this moment, as he listened to Carson’s worries, nudging Carson to continue as long as he was comfortable sharing. At this moment, the least he could do was to stay by Carson’s side, as Carson broke down in exhaustion.
“Let’s head back, shall we?”
Once John got Carson back to the bedroom, he watched Carson for a moment, as he finally drifted off to sleep. Now that John was the only one awake, he felt as if he should be sleeping too—but his mind remained awake, as if it was rushing to find some kind of answer to an unknown question.
Something about knowing that his friends were having a peaceful sleep made him feel at ease—as if there was something telling him that everything would be alright, at this moment.
Writer’s Notes
tbh i was in a pretty shitty state earlier, and i kinda dreaded writing this chapter bc it’s the ending and you know, high expectations on yourself does stuff to one’s confidence
but yea after editing this, I’m now in a better state
ty for reading/supporting lost things :'D
i can finally decide on carson/john/virgil’s birthday now that I’ve finished this series
for reference, i set rael’s (from story simulation aka. older adim installment) birthday to be on march 17th, aka. the date rael is first on the page