He nodded, asking Jason if he wanted to play them.

He nodded. "Of course." He said, smile genuine. His freckles bubbled with soft yellow and gentle lavender.

Surprisingly, Ash found that he enjoyed these "human" games, and was soon asking Jason to play more often than not. This filled some of the long, restless evenings. Unfortunately, once Ash learned the rules, he was nearly impossible to beat in strategy games like checkers, and his long life gave him a vast knowledge of lengthy, complicated words he used in Scrabble.

Jason found, at this point, that it was quite a challenge to try and beat Ash. He enjoyed it though, just trying was fun.

But there was an invisible wall between them now, a barrier only Jason could break.

He wasn't sure about doing so, though. He wasn't as afraid anymore of getting hurt emotionally, but sometimes when he looked at Ash, images would flash in his head. Quick and painful. Memories, short, that would remind him. But that one thing Ash had said, what he'd taken as a promise, still haunted him a bit. Of how Ash had said if he saw Jason again ... he'd kill him. A small part of him was waiting for Ash to just get it over with.

Who could blame him? You shouldn't take a death threat and just toss it to the side.

But he should probably talk with Ash about it.

Probably, but Jason probably already knows what Ash would say if he asked about it

Yeah. So he hoped that he could talk about it slowly with Ash, and maybe a real conversation would come out of it.