Disclaimer: Everything belongs to their rightful owner(s)
Other Characters: Nothing's changed. Everyone's still in the RotBTD-verse.
Summary: Being in interns are so much fun when you're the annoying playboy, and she's the stubborn farm girl.

Author's Note: I'll try to make the plot and the timeline relatively clear. Thank you.

Ours
When she lost someone close to them
(and he was there)

It was pretty late when it happened.

"Jack! Jack!"

The young man in question turned around, one curious eyebrow raised. That's weird. She never really called him by his first name. If ever. So, he spun his body side-way just in time to watch her losing her balance by the door, skidding, not actually falling to the floor, while she caught herself up once again, her hand grabbed on the doorframe, regaining her balance. And he saw her face.

"Are you―" he squinted his eyes, now dropping the calculations in his hand away. "Are you crying?"

"Come quick," she gasped, wiping roughly against her chubby, damp cheeks. "It's Jellybeans."

"The ugly cat?"

She snapped her attention at him, spitting out a silent glare. Because he was never really good at handling crying women that had anger management issues, Jack shoved his hands in his lab coat and sighed, following her hasty lead.

"So... it died."

Jack glanced at her squatting form, one hand gripping on the shovel. "And this is the funeral?"

"Shh!" She shushed him, spatting his leg nearest to her, hard, and he bit back down a sharp yelp, glaring down. He watched as Merida trailed her skinny fingers over the fresh earth, catching dirt under her fingernails, where the dead cat was buried. He scrunched his nose at that. He privately noted to himself on how he's going to force her to wash her hands before they went into the lab. Gross.

"Yer know..." Merida began, snatching his attention again, and he narrowed his eyes down to her. "I've always wanted to get maself a cat, never could get one when me mom bein' allergic to it and whatnot." She sniffled, and Jack detected a smile by the end of her voice, although he wasn't so sure. But then again, he wasn't exactly sure about anything anymore ― not when they're standing at the side of the building with him holding a shovel that he just had to rummage a storage room through to get one, and her, crying out on a homeless cat that was no longer alive.

"I should have taken her in..." Merida trailed off, ducking her head and sobbing onto her arms.

Jack sighed.

Sometimes he wondered how he got himself tangled up in these things.

"Hey..." He managed, a minute later, when her sobs began to echo a little louder than he really wanted to ― and he squatted next to her, their arms almost touching. He held a sigh, rubbed the back of his neck and dipped his head lower, trying to see her face. When he knew he had nothing nice to offer ― he didn't know what to do, okay ― he decided on: "Let's go inside."

So, he held her when she tried to stand up ― his fingers on her arms, and her hair tickled the side of his jaw.

He came back 15 minutes later with a caramel frappuccino straight from Starbucks (just like how she liked it) and had her wrapped up in his favourite blue blanket.

He felt like, you know ― he'd let this one slide.