Despite making a stop by Cryo's message box and a few other conversations, Jason made it home with plenty of time to spare.

Mark had things well under control by the time Jason entered the house under an aurora-kissed sky. The aroma of dinner filled the house, the plates were ready and the silverware was laid. Everything was well past the point of perfection. The previous housekeeper had been dismissed for failing to understand that a guest for dinner was an occasion. The food had not been ready to serve within five minutes of her arrival, and so, when Mark had filled the position the next day, Jason had been sure to let him know.

"Welcome back, Jason," said Mark as Jason walked into the kitchen. "Could you do me a favour and check that I haven't forgotten anything?"

Jason obliged, taking it upon himself to fix the chairs in the dining room to be perfectly straight and a few other details he knew his mother would likely notice. "Did you require assistance with anything else?"

"I'll have everything prepared by the time the High Shadowspeaker arrives," said Mark. "Thank you for your help."

Jason inclined his head and went up to his room.

The room felt large and empty without Sae's commentary. Usually the auroras were a blessed chance for Jason to have a little time to himself, but right now, he would have moved Skypillar itself just to hear the Ascended talk. His chest felt empty as he stripped down to his pants, throwing his shirt and vest just shy of the washing basket.

Jason stood in front of the mirror, somewhat disgusted but unable to look away as he looked himself up and down. Slightly too-long black hair that would soon need a cut. A body that was neither fat nor muscled but somewhere in between that his mother approved of. A face that wore a blank expression, dead to the world around it.

He hated it all.

With a curse to the Other, he grabbed a fresh shirt--something casually formal--and his towel before stalking off to the bathroom.

He started the water, hot enough to steam up the mirrors so he didn't have to look at them. He took off Sae's earpiece--the Ascended always complained when Jason accidentally got him wet--and placed it on the bench with the rest of his fresh clothes.

The shower didn't do much to clear his head. If anything, it numbed the rest of him as he stood with his forehead against the wall, letting the water run over him, trying to prepare himself for the nightmare that dinner was likely going to be. He placed his arms flat from wrist to elbow on the wall either side of his forehead and tried to breathe, but he couldn't.

Alone, panic gripped him, curling him into a ball, a pathetic, tiny little ball on the floor of the shower where he stayed for the next who knew how many minutes until he grounded himself, searching for colours in the room. He found red in his shirt, just like in Banshee's garments. He found amber like Olivia's hair on the bathroom tiles. He found the rose-coloured starstone of her glasses in the ceiling.

Little by little, Jason unfurled himself. Still not quite right, he managed to straighten himself out, get out of the shower, dry himself off and get dressed. His fingers trembled around Sae's still-stunned earpiece form in his palm as he carried it back to his room, where the auroras had almost completely faded from the slice of sky outside his bedroom window.

Jason placed his earpiece on his nightstand and walked back over to his mirror, ensuring everything was straight and proper when his Liaiser buzzed.

Taylor's name flashed across the screen.

[We'll be there in five minutes. I'm looking forward to seeing you.]

Jason typed out a quick reply, grateful for her way of warning him. He pocketed his Liaiser and headed downstairs. His tattoo warmed, telling him that Banshee had transformed, but without a prior arrangement or a Manifested, no matter how much he wanted to, Jason couldn't join her as Cryo.

He was helping Mark with the final preparations and suggestions for the plate presentation when the front door opened.

Jason wiped off his fingers with a napkin, tossed it to Mark for the bin, and quickly removed himself from the kitchen. Aurelia, Taylor and Regan were making their way through the door, involved in a light conversation as they removed their jackets and shoes.

Jason approached Taylor, who was waiting for Regan to move out of the way of the coat rack. "May I assist you?"

Taylor gave him a small smile and passed him her coat. "Thank you, Jason."

After Jason hung her coat beside his own, he asked about her day. She told him about the auroras, and how she thought she'd heard something within them tonight. Though he knew how big of a deal that was for a hopeful Speaker, Jason couldn't make himself believe her. There was no passion to her well-modulated voice. She could have been recounting her travel to the temple this morning and he wouldn't have known the difference, had he not been paying attention to the individual words.

Still, he persisted as in the background, Aurelia requested that dinner be served in five minutes and told Mark that Nicolai wouldn't be attending dinner tonight.

"Your father must be awfully busy," said Taylor as Jason led her to the dining room and pulled out a chair for her. She sat down, smoothing out her skirts. "Is he often late at work?"

"It's not uncommon for him to be away at dinner," said Jason, seating himself in the chair beside her. "Being the Governor of the northern districts is no small task. It requires a lot of him."

"I can imagine," said Taylor. Then, softer, with her eyes on the table, she said, "I must say, that in spite of the tragedy that is Harpy and Wyvern going Dark, there is a silver lining. When the new Luminaries are chosen and my father is relieved of his duties as a High Poisonspeaker, I may actually see him home."

"I suppose that we must find any good we can in these situations," said Jason. "Are you looking forward to seeing him more?"

"I am," said Taylor. "The last several years have been tough for me, but especially my mother. She misses him greatly when he's engrossed with his work." Taylor smiled. "I hope your own parents can hold fast through that struggle, given both their highly demanding jobs now your mother is a High Shadowspeaker."

Jason couldn't imagine either of his parents actually caring about the other one, let alone missing them. "I believe they both find their work to be reward enough."

Taylor nodded. "She surely excels at her position." As Regan entered the dining room, she inclined her head in greeting. "Skypillar be with you, Regan."

"And you," replied Regan in his flawless tone.

It wasn't long after that Aurelia joined them and with her presence, Mark served their dinner. Aurelia delighted over the fragrant dishes that Jason knew they'd never be able to finish, giving her compliments to Mark many times over before he had brought the last dish to the table.

"I feel rather fortunate to have Mark's talents in our kitchen," said Aurelia as she dished small portions of every dish onto her own plate in such a way that none of it spilled. "He has a gift for cooking, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh yes," said Taylor with a small smile. "I've tasted his food before, I'm sure this will only be even more of a delight."

Aurelia picked up her silverware and began cutting her food into small pieces. Her gaze remained firm on her plate. "A rather pleasant way to end a somewhat disappointing day. Wouldn't you agree, Jason?"

"Indeed," said Jason, deciding it best if he kept his words to a minimum.

His mother wasn't about to let him off that easily, however. "I must say, I expected more from the performance group. Some aspects seem to be lagging far behind the others, despite having no other duties. What do you make of that?"

"I'm unsure," said Jason. "I'm sure the group will see them brought up to standards soon."

"I can only hope," said Aurelia, taking her first bite. "Especially given your own poor performance today, I suppose you'll be needing to spend far more time practicing your own pieces before you can fret about others." She gave Taylor a pitiful look. "I do apologise, dear, that you had to read along to such mistakes today. Your narration was as flawless as could be expected, given what you were working with."

Taylor inclined her head. "Thank you, High Shadowspeaker. I'm honoured."

"Jason?" said Aurelia, her gaze pointedly back down on her food. As if he wasn't even good enough to look at. "Do you have anything to say to Taylor about your own performance today?"

Jason cut into his vegetables just a little too hard, causing the knife to squeak across the plate. "I apologise for my lackluster playing, Taylor. I'll seek to improve it in the future."

"I... um, thank you, Jason," said Taylor, her words picking up from a mumble as Aurelia's attention landed on her. "Please let me know if there's anything I can do to assist you."

Directly across from Jason, Regan's smirk was all too obvious.

"Well," said Aurelia. "Onto slightly more positive news, Taylor, did you know that Jason received a boon from Cryophoenix just a short while ago?"

"Oh?" said Taylor, glancing up at Jason, who already knew why she was bringing it up. "What boon did you receive?"

Taylor's question was directed at Jason, but it was Aurelia who answered.

"A piece of nevermelting ice," said Aurelia. "Shaped to sit around his ear. It's--oh, Jason, darling, are you not wearing it?"

Sae. He'd left Sae upstairs, on his nightstand. "I took it off earlier. I didn't think it appropriate to wear in the shower, and given its relatively new presence, I admit I left it in my room afterwards."

"Oh, well, then," said Aurelia, her lilting voice enough to bring a cold silence over the table. She looked towards Taylor, who, somehow, still didn't appear uncomfortable. "If I were ever worthy enough to receive a boon from Banshee, I doubt I'd ever take it off, but perhaps that's just me. We Speakers value the trust of our Luminary far more highly than others, I suppose."

One corner of Taylor's lips upturned, like she'd tried to smile but couldn't quite manage one under the sheer gravity weighing on the room. "I suppose so, High Shadowspeaker."

"Please, call me Aurelia," said Jason's mother with a rare kind of warmth. "Now, I've heard that your speaking tonight went well? It's often thought that..."

They kept speaking, Taylor's face lighting up with excitement as even Regan joined in and the feeling draped over the room disappeared. Disappeared, that is, for everyone but Jason.

He barely tasted his food. He struggled just to keep it down. His stomach tied itself in knots and it was a huge effort not to fidget where he sat or simply get up and leave the table, but somehow, he managed. He sat there and channelled Sae's energy, freezing himself, his thoughts, his mind, his anger and the urge to transform right in front of his mother purely for the look on her face when she realised--

No, no. He couldn't. He wouldn't do that to Banshee. Or Olivia, now she was in the High Shadowspeaker's warpath. If nothing else, he would endure his mother's spite to protect her. He would endure, and he would survive.

Getting through that dinner was harder than any battle that Cryo had fought, yet eventually, Mark came to collect their plates and after only a few more minutes of agonising conversation, Aurelia dismissed him.

Jason made for the stairs like he was drowning and his room held the last air in existence. He opened the door and went straight to his nightstand, picking up Sae's earpiece and throwing open the window just so he could breathe.

"I didn't think I was going to make it through that," Jason murmured to Sae, hoping to entice the little Ascended into his usual shape.

But it wasn't Sae that answered him.

"I thought your mother was being a little harsh," said Taylor as she stepped inside his room, having followed him up the stairs. "It seemed unfair. She's placed a lot of responsibility on you for the performance, so naturally your own solo pieces have suffered a little."

Jason recovered from his shock and straightened his shoulders, thanking the starlight that his back had been turned to her. "I expected it. It was my failure that brought her disappointment on me. I deserve it."

"Still," said Taylor, placing her bag by the door and approaching him. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder--one he left there, despite wanting to shrug it off. "She should know that you would have nothing less than perfection ready for your violin when the performance night comes. You would never disappoint me."

Jason gave her a smile. "Thank you, Taylor. Those words mean a lot to me."

They didn't. Not really. He felt numb to them.

Taylor didn't know that, couldn't hear his thoughts as they screamed at him inside his skull. "You mean a lot to me too, Jason." She stepped in front of him, her hand running down the front of his chest from his shoulder. Her eyes landed on Sae's piece of ice in his hand as her fingers trailed over his wrist. "Is this the boon she spoke of?"

Taylor reached to touch it as Jason curled his fingers over the piece of ice and pulled away from her touch. "It is. It was my idiocy that saw me take it off earlier." He placed it back on his ear. "Will you be staying the night?"

"I will, given the later hour and my arrangements with your mother in the morning," said Taylor.

Jason nodded. "Then I shall ensure the guest room is prepared."

"You don't have to do that," said Taylor, holding him by the wrist and pulling him back as he went to walk away. "Stay with me a while. I haven't had the chance to talk to you, just you, in so long. I've... missed it."

And so, somewhat reluctantly, Jason sat down on the edge of the bed beside Taylor. They passed from one conversation topic to the next as politely as they usually did, skirting subjects such as his mother or the performance, much to his relief.

They edged further onto the bed until Taylor sat with her legs crossed in the centre of the bed, forcing him further onto the mattress to face her. She laughed more than usual, pulling her hair out of its braid with delicate fingers, her eyes never quite meeting his even as she shook her hair loose and massaged her scalp with her fingers.

"I'm glad," she said in reply to the generic comment he'd made. Taylor shuffled closer on the bed, right up until her knee came to rest upon his thigh. She took one end of her hair and curled it around her fingers. "Given your duties with the Shadowheart girl, I'm rather impressed that you've had so much time to dedicate to the performance, you know. I think you've been doing rather impressively, all things considered."

"All things considered?" said Jason, wondering where this new tone had come from.

"Well, she seems to require a lot of attention," Taylor said carefully. "She seems like a nice girl, but she takes up a lot of your time, and she doesn't appear to understand temple customs very well. It seems to be draining on your own independence. I think it's rather admirable how well you're handling the responsibility."

"Olivia is far more independent than anyone gives her credit for," said Jason, pulling his leg from under Taylor's. "She's entirely capable of handling herself. If anything, I'd say that I've had the privilege of being able to speak with her so regularly. I'd thank you for not assuming otherwise."

Taylor was silent for a long moment. "I apologise, I didn't mean to offend your friendship with her. She really does seem like a genuinely nice person, despite her occasional... cluelessness?" Taylor smiled. "I'm sorry, Jason."

He really didn't know why he was getting so defensive about the whole thing. Olivia wouldn't have cared what a few temple-going people thought of her--why did he? "There's nothing to apologise for, Taylor. In fact, I believe I may have come off too harshly in my reply."

Taylor leaned forward and tapped him on the forearm with her fingers. "You're silly, Jason. You're defending a friend, it's acceptable." Her hand lifted up, covering her mouth as she yawned. "It's getting rather late. Should we get comfortable for the night?"

"As you wish," said Jason. He stood up from the side of the bed. "I'll ensure the guest room is prepared for you."

Taylor didn't reply as he left the room and walked down the hallway above the staircase to the guest room. The door was open and the light was on, and frowning, Jason stepped inside.

Mark was in the room, having just finished stripping the sheets off the bed. He looked up as Jason entered and inclined his head. "Did you need something, Jason?"

Jason bit back the words he wanted to stumble over until the sentence was formed inside his head. "Taylor is staying the night, I was coming to ensure the guest room was prepared for her."

"I apologise," said Mark. "Your mother asked me to change the sheets for the guest room tonight, and there won't be any ready until tomorrow morning."

"Ah." Jason kept everything off his face. Even in front of Mark, he would not let it show. "So the room is unavailable for tonight, then?"

"It is, I'm afraid."

Jason inclined his head and quietly left the room without another word.

When he reached his room, Taylor was half-laying on his bed, her upper body propped up by the pillows from his bed as she scrolled through her Liaiser. She'd changed into her pajamas, assuming you could call them that. A silky, pale blue nightdress covered her, if barely. It seemed far too short given the current temperature.

"It appears the guest room is unavailable for tonight," said Jason. "Since you're my guest, I'll relinquish the bed to you tonight and take the couch. I apologise for the inconvenience."

Taylor put her Liaiser aside and sat up a little higher, her arms just off to the side but still in front of her chest. "I wouldn't want to take your bed from you, Jason. The couches are far too short for you to be comfortable on."

"I wouldn't wish to intrude on your personal space for my own comfort."

Taylor gestured over the bed. "Since this is my bed tonight, I'm more than willing to share with you. It's big enough for the both of us to fit easily." She beckoned him over. "Come, sit."

"I... have to change first," said Jason, grabbing his pajamas and heading to the bathroom.

The door was barely shut behind him when Sae changed into his regular, fluffy form.

"Stuck in a bit of an, uh, interesting situation here, aren't we, featherbrain?" Sae said.

Jason pulled off his clothes with a little less efficiency than usual. "There's nothing interesting about it. My mother intends for me to share the bed with Taylor tonight, for whatever reason. Inviting her over to stay, changing the guest room--if she finds me on the couch in the morning, I don't doubt she'll be even further displeased with me. Given the last few days, I was rather hoping to avoid that."

"So?" said Sae as Jason stared as his own bare chest in the mirror, marked with the sigil of Cryophoenix. "Share the bed, doesn't have to mean anything. It's definitely big enough for both of you. Nothing has to happen. Just don't let her see your tattoo and you're safe."

Jason finished pulling on his pajamas and buttoned up the shirt, covering up his tattoo. "I suppose. It's ridiculous to think that my mother expects... that. Even for her, that seems rather extreme. Taylor has never shown an interest in it, either." He took a deep breath. "You're right. We can share the bed. Nothing has to happen."

With Sae back on his ear, Jason returned to his bedroom.

Taylor was now laying down in the centre of the bed, stretched out on top of the covers, mostly pulled back beneath her.

She gave him a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes as he entered. "Welcome back, Jason."

"Thank you?" he replied as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Taylor didn't move over. Instead, she bit her lip, her hand lifting up once, twice, before she finally seemed to make a decision.

"You're sleeping with this on?" Still hesitant but determined, the back of Taylor's finger flicked the buttons of his pajama shirt. "It's far too hot for a shirt. Unless you're embarrassed by me?"

"I'm not embarrassed," said Jason. It wasn't awkward, he told himself as he lifted his legs into the covers. "It's just usually what I sleep in, I suppose. I don't find it to be particularly hot."

"Well, that could... change," said Taylor after a few seconds. Her leg brushed against his with only the cover to keep them apart. The sheets were warm, not the usual crisp cold that he was greeted with upon bedtime. "And if it were to change, I'd be, well, I'd be more than happy to help you out of your shirt."

And as her fingers started to play with the top few buttons of his shirt, Jason couldn't do it anymore, and not just because the removal of his shirt would reveal Cryo's tattoo. It felt wrong to have Taylor beside him in a skimpy night dress, speaking words that weren't her own special brand of gentle, caring sentences. He just couldn't do it.

He pulled his legs out from under the covers and took one of the blankets folded up at the end of his bed under his arms.

"I apologise," said Jason, inclining his head towards Taylor without actually looking at her as he stood up and removed himself. "I believe it may... may be best if I allow you to keep your own space for tonight."

With that, Jason walked to the door, bid Taylor good night, and went downstairs to sleep on the couch.

*+*+*+*

A/N - Was the cringe warning necessary? X) Also pls don't murder Taylor or me many thank yous <3 

Next chapter: Olivia does Olivia things.