[If either of them had known what waited for him only a few weeks ahead, they'd have laughed themselves sick. At least, Jonathan hopes they'd have laughed. He'd rather laugh than cry, even as horribly dry as his eyes feel when he thinks back on this, four days into fear-driven deliberate insomnia.

But in the moment, all he could see was an ache on Akira's face, and that made his smile falter a bit before it steadied itself into a fierce grin.]

No problem. If that harpy thinks she's got the best of me after all of this, well... she can keep thinking that, it'll make it easier to take her down.