Kathryn and JJ have been the Pogues' nightmare for the past twenty minutes. Having one of them going haywire is one thing, because the other tends to calm them down. Having the both of them team up is another thing altogether.
It's not that they don't take the situation seriously. Each and every one of them knows the consequences of leaving John B behind. Apparently, he ran out to find his father? Dead for almost a year? Kathryn has little to zero hopes that he's pulling a Jesus, and the worst part is they don't have any way of helping him right about now. Of course, the second they get to the OBX, that's a whole different matter.
Something that doesn't seem to soothe the couple.
"So this is what we're doing, huh? We're just sailing out," JJ starts, pacing. "We're just gonna forget about John B."
Kathryn, sitting, knee bouncing, shakes her head. "We can't just abandon him like this." Then, she springs to her feet, despite knowing full well that they can't, that they shouldn't, and that John B wouldn't want to: "We're going back."
"No!" Cleo screams out, stopping the pair dead in their tracks. "We're all gonna get caught. I get that from JJ, but really, Kat, what type of plan is that?"
"It's a plan to stick together, Cleo," JJ fires right back at her.
"Then we are dead together."
Kathryn scoffs, holding her hands up. "Fine by me."
It's not. If she was the only one, well. But not if all of her friends are. Of course, Cleo knows that, which is why she simply clicks her tongue at her.
"She's right," Kie adds. "We had to leave, or we'd all be zip-tied in the back of a pickup."
"Well, he didn't zip-tie me."
"Not helping. Look, we did the right thing."
Kathryn shakes her head. "I don't buy that. We did the easy thing."
JJ is about to add something equally as stupid and painful and frustrating, when something buzzes in Kathryn's expensive stolen pyjamas. She blinks, not exactly used to having a phone anymore, and pulls it out.
"Who's that?" JJ asks, trying to read above her shoulder.
She stares at the caller ID. "...Portis?"
"Portis? That's John B. That's definitely John B."
He tries to take the phone from her hands, but she swats him away and picks up the call, forgetting entirely to put John B on speaker from the rush of having confirmation that he's fine, or at least, alive.
The swell of hope bottoms out from the force of her anger she can't reign in. "You absolute dickhead–"
"Okay, nope." JJ immediately takes the phone from her. "Yo! Dude? Is this you?"
"Speaker," Kie urges.
"Yes that was Kat– Do you need us to turn around?" JJ puts the phone on speaker, frowning. "Yo, say it again. Say it again."
"I said don't worry about me, okay?" His voice comes out warbly from the low service. Kathryn heaves out a sigh, feeling reassured for the first time in hours. "Look... hot... OBX." Well, that didn't last long.
She stares at the phone. "Look hot in OBX?"
"Let me talk to him," Sarah asks, JJ immediately taking the wheel while his girlfriend and his best friend's girlfriend walk two literal steps away. "John B, are you okay?"
"Yes!... fine... good."
"He's fine. Thank God. What happened?"
"I... ound... ad. ...ive."
Kathryn can't help a groan of frustration. "Bee, we can't hear a single thing you're saying!"
"Kat? ...ad ...ve too. Kat?"
"I can't hear you!"
"Ge... tta here. ...you ...ildare. ...kay?"
"Kildare, when?" Sarah repeats.
The line cuts off before he can respond. Kathryn blows out a breath. They don't have a lot to go on with how garbled his voice was. But at least, he's alive, and meeting them in Kildare, which sounds a whole lot less bleak than what they had a few moments ago.
"Anyone glean anything from that?" Kathryn lets out, sitting heavily on the cushions of the upstairs cabin. "'Cause all I got was to look hot in OBX when he comes back."
Cleo frowns to herself. "You guys think he found his father?"
"He's been missing for almost a year," Pope reminds her.
"Not missing, Ward killed him," Kathryn corrects. "Like, Peterkin told John B what happened. He's concocting big time."
"So what do we do?" Kie asks. "Should we go back?"
She hesitates. She was so sure that they'd made a mistake before, but John B had found time to call, told them he was alright, and that they'd meet up. There's always this nagging fear eating away at her, since he disappeared, that he'll be taken from her for good this time.
But if she was in his place and thought her dad was alive by some miracle, would she want him to come back for her? Of course, it would help if every fibre of her being wasn't telling her that something awful was about to happen.
"Kat, we're sitting ducks," JJ urges softly. "So we need to make a decision, are we turning back around, or are we gonna keep going?"
Her teeth sink into her lower lip, looking up at her boyfriend, who trusts her completely to make the right choice. Kathryn doesn't.
"Sarah?"
Sarah turns to her, blinking. She swallows thickly, as if against the words she's about to say. "He said go," she reminds them.
JJ's grip on the wheel falters. "Hold on, listen–"
"Go."
"Sarah."
"Go!"
Without much choice, he nods once, clenches his jaw, and drives them away from John B.
🍓
They take turns to drive the boat back home. They stop on the coast of god (or Cleo) knows where, get some food that her and Pope definitely stole. Seeing as they decided to go oldest to youngest, Kathryn is the one at the wheel for the last lap. It's night, and the stars are shining on the sea.
JJ is here to keep her company. And make sure she doesn't veer off course.
"So you sure you didn't tell him where the diary is?"
As an overthinker of things Kathryn isn't, it makes her sigh. "It sounds like you're doubting me, Jay? No, I didn't. I said I knew where it was."
He sits down next to her, still standing and driving. "Doesn't enchant me that he now thinks you can lead him to it, but I'll take it. Why does he want it so bad anyway?"
She shrugs. "I told you. Delusion. He thinks the Merchant's gold came from El Dorado." JJ purses his lips, holds up his finger. Kathryn side-eyes him. "...Yes?"
"Okay, so the diary we have leads to a five hundred year old treasure that no one's ever found?"
"Yeah, 'cause it doesn't exist. El Dorado? It's just a story Gaspar de Carvajal made up. It'd be like looking for Olympus at the top of the mountain. Useless and probably dangerous."
"I'm in."
She snorts, nudging his face with her hip. "Of course you are."
"It's kind of like my best option at this point, so... Definitely beats sitting in geometry class," he adds, waiting for her to contradict him.
She obliges. "Eh? You'd rather die than study triangles?"
"I think the triangles are out to get me." He stands up again, occupying his hands with the console, guiding Kathryn so she stays on track. "I mean, I don't even know what'll happen when we get back to the OBX." He rakes a hand through his hair. "Nothing good. I can tell you that. Nothing good."
Kathryn looks over at him, sympathy wrapped prettily around her face. She thinks on it, a hand on the wheel, the other picking at the skin on her thumb nail. What's Henry going to say? He might cry. She might die, seeing it. She can't remember the last time she's seen him cry.
Worse, what if he doesn't want her back? He's housed her, fed her, cared for her, and she... Well, if she was to make a list of all the things she did wrong, they'd be here all night. Anxiety rises in her chest, spreads through her veins.
But mostly, Kathryn doesn't have time to focus on her own feelings, not when her boyfriend sounds so desperate. Not when she knows exactly what he fears. Not that nothing good will happen. But nothing happens.
She sweeps a strand of blonde hair away from her very favourite shade of blue. "What's going to happen is... I'll bring you home with me, if you want to. Henry'll be pissy, but he loves you."
JJ blushes slightly at her not so subtle offer of moving into the Palace. He isn't sure to be into the idea of accepting help from anyone, because when was he ever? But if it comes from Kathryn, he finds it weighs less on his shoulders.
"I dunno," he says, closing the distance between them, making her smirk. "I might miss sneaking in."
She makes a face, tilting it back and forth, her hair tickling his cheeks. "It did end up in my studio being broken in."
"Uh, well..." He thinks on it, for a second. "I have nothing. Can I still kiss you?"
Her smirk broadens. "You may."
The kiss is sweet, at first. JJ is always tentative about Kathryn's boundaries, never sure what is too much and what isn't enough. Clearly, something isn't enough.
Desperation clings to her every move as she brings his face closer to hers, tongue tracing the shape of his lower lip, hand firm at the base of his neck as his grab handfuls of her hips, chasing after her until her other hand has to let go of the wheel and hold onto his bicep for support, legs reduced to near jelly. Her lower back hits the metal.
He parts from her for half a second. "We're definitely not on the right course now."
She looks up at him, hooded-eyes, lips bruising. JJ isn't sure what he was thinking about, just then.
He dips down to kiss her again, shifting them so she rests against the console, JJ bracing a hand near her hip to keep them balanced, his other arm wrapped tightly around her waist.
Kathryn gasps a little for breath. "You have to stop kissing me or we'll never make it home."
"I'm trying."
Butterflies erupt in her stomach and a deep crimson blush dusts her cheek, which really doesn't help. When he goes in to kiss her again, she leans away, playful. His eyes narrow, as if to say, fine.
Next thing Kathryn knows, JJ props her up on the console, and dives for her neck, hands holding her hips firmly. She can't help the moan that escapes her lips when he starts peppering her neck with kisses, when his teeth graze the side of her neck. Heat spreads through her entire body, goosebumps rising under the flimsy satin pyjamas.
Her heartbeat grows erratic, but she blinks, and suddenly, everything turns nauseous. JJ's hands are scalding her, everything is too much, and she feels faint, short of breath.
"JJ."
JJ nearly jumps off of her. Kathryn immediately shakes her head, the lack of him now too cold. She reaches for his shoulders and tugs him back between her legs, just to hold him there, fingers playing with his hair. His hands rest prudently on the console.
She offers a lopsided smile, and a frown. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry," he says, a well-rehearsed dialogue they've had before.
"Well, you don't have to tell me that twice."
He's well aware of that. Kathryn would never beg for anything, not even forgiveness. Thoughts he shouldn't be having right this moment suddenly plague him.
JJ rubs the spot between her eyebrows, making her grin. "Why do you do that?"
"It makes you smile," he tells her. "And I hate to tell you, but you're damn gorgeous when you smile."
She rolls her lips in her mouth, blushing again, and frowning just to spite him. It makes him laugh. "I wish I had my glasses," she says. "You have a very pretty face, but I can't really see it now."
It's his turn to blush, clearing his throat. Kathryn's glasses are victims of the third week on the island, when someone tried to use them to start a fire, left them on the sand, and then sat on them.
"Wait, what do I look like to you right now?" he asks.
She bites the inside of her cheek. "Uh... like a blurry idiot whose arse destroyed my glasses?"
He makes a face at her. "Ah, ah."
"You liiiike me." Kathryn looks back at the wheel, hopping off the console. "So about the course...?"
"Oh we're way off. Opposite direction really."
"Neat."
Author's Note: Okay so next chapter tomorrow because it's already written I just feel like I can make it better? And I want it to be peeeeeerfect, so,, have cute JJKAT scene <33