Jack took off the cap that came with his uniform and sighed. Another day over. One step closer to leaving Burgess.

He had handed in his resignation to his boss, and this was his last week at the Burgess Bite. Once he was done working here, he would go to Pitch, and they would leave for England. Pitch had promised him that his career would take off once they reached London, and it would be smooth sailing from there. After a few months, Jack would even be able to return to the US.

Return to Burgess? Jack had pondered that. Would he return to Burgess? Probably, in the end. He had to see his sister, and his family. But Burgess held too many painful memories…

He shook his head. Perhaps it was better that he was leaving for a while.

The door opened.

"Sorry, we're closed for today," Jack said automatically, without even turning around.

"Don't you have time for an old friend?"

Jack turned, and found Tooth standing by the door. She clasped her hands awkwardly in front of her, and looked at him expectantly. Instead of a typical garish outfit, she wore instead a simple white dress.

"Tooth." Jack pasted on a smile. "How can I help you?"

Tooth eyed him. "When are you leaving Burgess?" she asked.

Jack's smile faltered. He'd only made the decision a few days ago – which is when he'd last seen Aster. "Not too long ago."

"And you're going with Pitch."

"Yes."

Tooth stepped closer towards Jack. "Jack, what are you doing?"

Jack bit his lip. "Can I get you some coffee?"

Tooth hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."

~~Page Break~~

Jack and Tooth hadn't seen each other since he and Aster broke up, which made things all the more awkward. They sat quietly at one of the café's many tables as the sun set on Burgess. Autumn was returning to Burgess, and the leaves were falling. Jack had always seen fall as the season of death, where everything was decaying and rotting.

Tooth sipped her vanilla latte in silence. Then, finally, she put down her cup and looked Jack properly in the eye.

"Are you sure you've thought this through?"

Jack looked back at her. "Thought what through?"

"Leaving Burgess."

Jack exhaled. "Yes. Yes, I have."

"I ask you this as a friend, Jack."

"Yes, I have thought it through," Jack repeated.

Tooth regarded him with open, sad eyes. "Don't rush into decisions like this, Jack."

"Tooth, if you've come here to argue Aster's case, I'm not interested," Jack snapped, suddenly impatient. "I told him everything he needs to know a few days ago. There's no need for you to talk to me."

Tooth just shook her head. "You're right," she said. "I've come to speak to you about Aster. But I'm not asking you to give up your plans. I want to tell you what you did for Aster."

Jack just stared at her.

"Aster came to Burgess a broken man. He wasn't whole, he was completely shattered by his parents' rejection. It destroyed him that his parents couldn't accept him for who he was. It took years for him to properly recover. I watched him – it was long and hard. It was a long time before he was able to smile. Even by the time you came along, he was reserved. Quiet. Cordial, but almost never warm.

"Then, Aster met you. And you changed his world. You turned him back into what he had been long before. All of a sudden, I found myself facing a new Aster, one who laughed openly and had a completely new understanding of fun. I watched him as he rediscovered a side to himself that he'd thought had been closed off forever by pain, watched him as he saw the world with new eyes. And it's all because of you."

Jack waited.

"His love for you reawakened him. I don't know what it was, but something that had been sleeping inside him woke up with a vengeance. He was restored, returned to what he once had been – and it's all because he loved you. I know this because I watched it happen. And now I'm watching it all go into reverse."

Tooth leaned forward. "Aster is struggling, Jack. He has retreated into himself. He's feeling a kind of pain I don't think he's ever felt before, even after he left Australia."

"Maybe he should be the one here talking to me then."

"He won't come to you because he thinks this is what you want. He thinks he's forsaken any right to come to you and demand your love. But he loves you, Jack, fiercely so. And I've never seen him like this before. Love built him back up when he needed it, and now it's tearing him into two again." Tooth put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Fix him," she whispered. "If you have any lingering affection for him, fix him. Go to him and at least talk to him. See him through this."

Jack gritted his teeth. "Affection?" he hissed. "If I have any…affection…for him?! Tooth – I love him."

Tooth gazed at him.

"I still love him." Jack's voice broke. "And I'm never going to love another. That's how much I love him. Aster is always going to be my one and only."

"All the more reason," Tooth urged softly. "I can't see why you don't go to him then, if you love him."

"For precisely that reason." Jack took a shuddering breath. "It's because I love him that I can't go to him. I can't go through that kind of pain again – the feeling of him pushing me away, judging me, rejecting me. I love him so much that I would forgive him anything, but how he treated me – it ate me up inside, hollowed me out. And that was because I loved him. And if I go to him, what if he hurts me again?"

Tooth's chair scraped back, and she was crouching next to Jack. "You know," she said, "the Ancient Greeks believed that once, all humans had two heads, four arms, and four legs. But Zeus, fearing their power, split them into two incomplete halves. And now we are doomed to spend our entire lives searching for our other halves."

Jack sniffled.

"Most people never find their other halves," Tooth continued. "But Aster has found his in you. And you have found yours in him. You are lucky beyond words, Jack, because you have found your soulmate. The choice remains yours: leave, and enjoy a safer life, without Aster. Or go to him now, and embrace the uncertainty and the fear, and love all of that as part of Aster – as part of yourself. Because that is what Aster is."

Jack's lower lip trembled, and at last, the dams that had been holding back his emotions crumbled. Jack began to weep, sobbing deeply and uncontrollably, rocking back and forth. Tooth gathered him in her arms, holding her close to him.

The choice was made even before the tears had stopped flowing.