Aftermath.
After the trek home, with Sarah kept subdued the entire time, she slumps her way into the darkness of their squat beneath the city. She has gotten used to the place enough now that she does not trip over anything or fall down on her way to the nest of blankets she has called her bed. Heavily, the woman falls into the semi-soft embrace of her pallet upon the floor. Immediately, she yanks a pillow over her head and groans, "Turn the illusion off, Jason."
Jason flicks his fingers and Sarah experiences sweet release from blond hair and exhaustion. He does not take to his bed, but props his elbows up against the edge of her pallet as he drops into a sprawled-slump onto the concrete.
Her spiked back is hunched up, exposed bone rising up above her body. There is a sudden series of shudders that wracks her body. This time it is not anger that is causing it. The pillow can be heard ripping as she pulls it hard against her horned head.
Jason watches from his flat-against-the-ground position. For the sake of self-preservation, he does not touch her. But he watches.
Sarah cries. She either chooses not to or cannot restrain her sobbing. It is very clear however, that the woman who makes it a way of life never to show any vulnerability or emotion, is laying there across the dim expanse of the subway station from Jason, and crying her eyes out.
Jason does not interfere. He does not blanket her with chemical like sensations to distract her, nor does he pluck her from her pallet somewhere nicer, or somewhere worse. Instead, he stretches out his arm to run a cautious fingertip against her ankle.
The ankle does not recoil, but Sarah's voice comes lashing out. She tries for her harsh hiss, for the voice that makes Marrow, Marrow. It falls short and somewhere in there, she sounds more like a normal woman. "Don't fucking touch me," she commands, between those wracking sobs.
Jason withdraws his fingers, ginger. "Sorry."
The pillow is pulled more tightly over Sarah's mess of maroon-dyed hair, her body practically curled into a fetal position. Whatever has gotten into her head has cracked her defenses badly and she is not happy with it. The only end to it comes when Sarah cries herself to sleep.
Jason watches until it's over. Only then does he pry himself off the floor, stiff.