"Is this a prank? Are, are you messing with us?" Stark looked around the table at the others.
"No, though I would probably prefer that." Jake rubbed at his face, focusing a glare on Stark before speaking. "I don't suppose any of you have heard of DID?"
They shook their heads, great . Sighing, he closed his eyes, resigning himself to this fate.
Why do you not simply leave?
Jake bolted upright out of the chair, turning towards the bastard pigeon. " Khonshu! ¡Te dije que no hicieras eso! ¡Maldita sea, si Steven estuviera de frente podrías haberle dado un susto de muerte! ¡Paloma bastarda!"
—"I told you not to do that! Fucking hell, if Steven was fronting you might've scared him to death! Bastard pigeon!"
His head fell back to look at the ceiling, "¡Deja eso!"
—"Stop that!"
Jake groaned, hand ranking through his messy hair. " Khonshu , No voy a discutir con un puto robot."
—"I am not going to argue with a fucking robot."
Khonshu chuckled, clearly amused at his suffering. "Cállate, esqueleto polvoriento." He pointed at the bird.
—"Shut it, you dusty skeleton."
Jake turned, directing his finger and glare at Tony. "Will you shut that fucking thing off! Khonshu , Casi usé "sangriento", maldito seas Steven. Bloody idiot is what he is.
He was pleasantly surprised to not hear the repeated words from the Ai, his relief was doubled when he felt Marc pressing to the front.
'Marc! Gracias Khonshu, tú te encargas de esta mierda. Me está dando un puto dolor de cabeza.' 'Thank Khonshu, you deal with this shit. I'm getting a fucking headache.' He retreated to the back of the headspace happily.
. . . .
Marc frowned, right hand moving to his head as his left grabbed onto what felt like a table behind him. His vision swam for a moment, nausea rising as the sour burn of acid and bile scraped at his throat. The sluggish weight of his limbs feeling overly uncomfortable.
Ah, my son. Perfect, Lockley was being entirely unhelpful. Khonshu's voice reached his ears first, quickly followed by Stark's.
"Jake?" Marc's brows furrowed as he turned his head to look at the group.
"Wha—" He paused, ' Shit , now I see why Jake left so quickly.' eyes widening as he took a moment to adjust and get his bearings.
"Who are you then?" Stark spoke again.
Marc felt unimaginably uncomfortable, he looked down at himself, painfully aware he wasn't wearing the ceremonial armor. His panic skyrocketed, 'Jake, what the fuck!'
'Mierda, cálmate Marc. Todo está bien–"
' Calm down ?! This is absolutely not fine! How the hell am I supposed to calm down in this sort of situation! What even happened?!'
Stop arguing and li—
'Shut up!'
'¡Cállate!'
The two told off the god, Jake didn't bother to leave any silence, quickly skipping over the pigeon's poor attempt at getting them to listen.
'Respira, Marc. Apenas les dije nada antes de que llegaras, todo lo que saben es algo sobre DID y nosotros tres.' - 'Breathe, Marc. I hardly told them anything before you arrived, all they know is something about DID and the three of us.'
'And you thought that was okay?! We're supposed to talk about telling others before deciding anything!'
'Lo sé, pero ninguno de los dos estaba aquí. Así que tomé una decisión.' - 'I know, but neither of you were here. So I made a decision.'
Marc scrubbed his face, trying to swallow back the sick. "-y Hey." A hand rested on his shoulder, startling him, he backed up. Body rigid and wound up, he was definitely still suffering from the stupid trauma after falling into the ocean. Marc glared cautiously at Captain America who raised his hands carefully, saying something to try and plaicate him.
'Puedo encargarme de nuevo si lo necesitas, tío. Definitivamente te despertaste muy temprano, no les diré nada más si no quieres.' - 'I can take over again if you need, man. You definitely woke too early, I won't tell them anything more if you don't want to.' Jake offered, worry clear in his voice as he joined to co-host.
Marc could only nod, he didn't trust that he wouldn't throw up if he spoke. The bile and acid taunting his tongue viciously.
"Estás bien, todo está bien. Nos tengo." - "You're fine, everything's fine. I've got us."
He spoke aloud as the other retreated, his face immediately contorted with disgust as he slapped a hand over his mouth. Despairing the inevitable sick that would no doubt linger on his tongue for hours afterwards, he hardly had time to look around before he was bolting to the convenient trash can. Bent over the small thing as he wretched up the bare contents of his stomach, most of it was just liquid fortunate or unfortunately. It only meant he was left heaving over the can longer, his stomach insistent on getting every devilish drop out.
Once it finally passed, he groaned pathetically, leaning back against the wall. Painfully aware of the hesitant crowd keeping their distance, Jake rubbed the back of his hand over his mouth. " Mierda ." He grimaced, slowly standing up, he kept a hand on the wall—just in case—as he glared at the group.
" What ?" He barked, voice rough from the previous abuse.
Stark looked between the group before looking at him, "Okay, I think everyone needs to just relax right now…Does—"
Jake knew what the unspoken question was, "Yes and No, it just worse because…" he frowned. 'Worse because Marc is still dealing with the wave of trauma.' But he wasn't going to say that, he promised Marc not to tell them anything else until the other agreed.
Cap raised a hand in front of Stark to stop him from continuing the questioning, offering Jake a small apologetic smile. "I think it would be best to let…Moon Knight get some more rest." The group—Stark aside—nodded, taking their leave from the conference room one or two at a time.
Jake had managed to mostly compose himself, opting to give a thumbs up instead of nodding. He didn't want to risk doing anything that might make him return to the steaming can. Slipping past the two, the familiar bandages wrapped around him, the color was black this time. He didn't have to care about putting on Marc's suit since the group already somewhat knew, he relished in the familiar feeling of his suit. Fingers gripping the brim of his fedora as he tilted it downwards slightly, pressing the button for the elevator and sighing.
'Any objections to sleeping for an entire week?' As suspected, there was no response, but he took their absence as an answer. Knowing they would be in agreement to the proposal.
The trip back to their apartment was calming, the nausea had almost completely disappeared by the time he collapsed onto the unbelievably comfortable bed. He didn't even remember if his head hit the pillows….
. . . .
They hadn't actually slept for an entire week, on account of Khonshu's persistence of them protecting the travelers of the night. Marc decided to stay in the headspace for the most part, trauma was always an awful experience for him specifically. Especially since most of the trauma surrounded water and, well…You see the picture. It wasn't any easier when it started raining in the city, rain was the worst, Marc had retreated further than ever in their shared headspace. And Steven was acting like a worried and overprotective mother, leaving Jake as the only one capable of controlling the body. He didn't entirely mind it, since he didn't often have control of the body when it wasn't in danger, or when he wasn't gathering information. It was a somewhat nice change, although it gave him more down time to be bored. Meaning he decided to spend that time punching bad guys.
At least it made the bird happy, and it gave Jake a reason to not sit around and twiddle his fingers anxiously. A win-win in his option, though that also meant he ran into the Avengers, which he really did not want. Unfortunately, it had to be this specific rainy night, where Jake had just gone five rounds with a particularly tenacious group of vamps. So he was, rightfully, not happy. Especially since one had gotten a particularly good hit on his jaw, the fucker had a dangerous right hook. Thankfully, it ended fairly quickly. Although the vamps were left a lot more bloody than usual, Jake blames it on their taunting and pissing him off. Besides, Khonshu was pleased by it, anything to keep the pigeon from bothering them as much.
But Spiderman clearly didn't agree with the harsh treatment, he'd been freaking out and berating Jake for the past half hour. "¿Quieres callarte?" He lost his temper, the feeling of Steven jumping to co-front caught him off guard.
"Jake! The kid is right, don't take your frustrations out on him." Steven spoke aloud.
"Como el infierno, sólo hice lo que tenía que hacer. Esos bastardos no se habrían detenido ni aunque les metiera la cabeza por el culo. El mocoso no se ha callado desde que llegó y me está doliendo la cabeza." - "Like hell, I just did what I had to. Those bastards wouldn't have stopped even if I shoved their heads up their asses. The brat hasn't shut up since he arrived and I'm getting a headache."
"I know you twat, but he's rightfully upset about those vamps being killed." He huffed.
"¿Y qué se supone que debo hacer al respecto? ¿Preocuparme? Puede sentir lo que quiera, Khonshu quería que se detuvieran, están detenidos. ¡Además! ¡Ellos atacaron primero!" - "And what am I supposed to do about it? Can I care? He can feel however he wants, Khonshu wanted them stopped, they're stopped. Besides! They attacked first!"
"Yes you're supposed to bloody care! I get it mate, but you could have stopped them without killing. But you've been too antsy lately, is…Is it because of Marc?"
"No, no es por ese idiota. Puede enfadarse todo lo que quiera por lo que me importa." - "No, it isn't because of that idiot. He can sulk all he wants for all I care." He grumbled.
"Jake…He'll be fine, he just needs some time, you know how hard it is for him. There's nothing to protect him from, he just needs to work through it himself." Steven said softly.
Jake frowned, looking at the ground. "Lo sé…"
"U-Um, excuse me, Moon Knight?"
He almost slapped himself for forgetting about the child in front of him, sighing, he looked up at the spiderling. "What?"
"Ugh, s-sorry. But, what just happened?" The kid twiddled his fingers.
"Ah, right. You weren't at the conference." He muttered to himself.
The kid tilted his head, confused. "Conference…?"
Jake waved dismissively, "We have DID, I don't know if you know what it is. The others certainly didn't."
The kids' eyes widened, suddenly jumping slightly in what Jake supposed was excitement. "Oh! I actually do! I did a project about it in high school! Then…If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"
Jake was surprised, the kid knew more than the adults. He chuckled, "Jake Lockley." If he had to guess, the kid was smiling unbelievably wide.
"I—Don't suppose Marc shared my name with you?" He tilted his head.
Jake raised an eyebrow "No, they forgot to mention that." He turned his head to find a reflection so he could glare at Steven for leaving that detail out.
'Hey! It was frankly shocking when it happened! And I thought you were paying attention since you were there to encourage Marc to jump out of the window! It's Peter, by the way.'
Shaking his head, he looked at the kid again. "They?" S-Peter, questioned.
"Yeah, Steven and Marc." The kid nodded.
"Is Steven the one with a British accent?"
Jake nodded as Steven smiled and waved at the kid, "Ello! Wonderful to properly meet you, I apologize for Jake's rudeness. He's just protective and tense since Marc has been…preoccupied…"
Peter frowned, Steven could tell from the slight drop of his mask. "With what?" He quickly put a hand over his mouth, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked. Especially if it's personal." He waved his hands in front of him.
"It's alright, I know you didn't mean anything by it."
Jake grumbled in their headspace as the two conversed, deciding momentarily to join Marc. It makes him uneasy when the other gets like this, being as the other usually deals with everything outside of the body. But more importantly, it bothers Jake when he can't help the other. He's supposed to be the protector but he feels useless right now, unable to do anything to help the other, to protect him from his trauma…
. . . .