#people just stare at me trying to comprehend whatever spaceship i dropped out of

[littlemoriflower]

One very specific aspect of my experience being a mori girl in a very small town is that almost everyone stares at me.

It doesn't have to be for long, but some people I pass on the street either look at me out of (what I hope to be) genuinely curiosity, or like I just grew an extra pair of arms out of thin air, no in-between. Of course, some don't even acknowledge me or my existence, which is a little bit reassuring to me lmao

I bet this is a very common experience with mori folks (or any other j-fashion wearer), and I understand it to a certain extent. Mori can be quite "eccentric" to outsiders and people that don't know about it. For example, I have had my classmates tell me I look like a porcelain dool, or like I just came out of an old painting, or even that I crawled out of a fairytale book. While all of these observations are HUGE compliments to me, I just wish, as a deeply anxious person, that the staring wasn't as prominent tho 😭

[bowieandqueen11]

Unselfish Love / Peter Quill Imagine

Request: Hi! Do you do male!reader imagines? I sorta want one with Peter Quill, with him struggling with his sexuality and the reader comforting him despite not knowing about his crush on the reader 

Of course I do love! I’m a very firm believer in everyone being able to find their representation in fandoms :)

Comments are much appreciated! <3

It’s funny how different perspectives can become.

Especially when you compare a person who has lived on a spaceship for twenty years, to mostly everyone else on Earth. Peter remembers being one of those people, one of the ones who wanted to escape, but never knew how. He had loved watching Star Wars and Star Trek with Meredith, wondering what could have been.

He never thought it would end with him killing his own father. Everything about him, at the moment, just felt so up in the air. And as he watches the galaxy from where he sits in his pilot chair, he realises that the thought of exploring makes him feel more tired than anything else at the moment. He tilts his head, gazing upwards, eyes more open than they can be in the fullness of day. He’s not looking at one star, yet somehow sees them all at once. He stands up, fingers dancing down to the cassette player that rests on his belt, allowing the play button to click as he stretches his arms. He closes his eyes, beginning to let his feet shuffle against the floor, taking a final peep to make sure Drax wasn’t standing still in the corner, before he lets himself dance.

If there’s one part of himself that he’s sure of, it’s that music will always flow through him.

‘Pretty blue lights along the way, help you right on by

And the blue lights shining with a heavenly grace, help you right on by-’

You watch him from the cockpit doorway, laughing as he kicks his legs, utter concentration on his face, crackling somewhat from the old cassette. Usually, unless he really wanted to annoy Rocket, that ancient music machine was his only audience, watching with those two rolling eyes and scruffed tape. As he turned, his eyes caught you standing there, being less adept at hiding in the shadows than Drax was. Or perhaps, evenly so. He dropped his eyes momentarily before looking, his head tilted to one side and a hopeful smile playing on his lips. But you could see the exhaustion that he hid behind his eyes.

‘Quill, do you ever go to sleep?’

‘Not while there’s dancing to be done, my friend. I could ask you the same question. Can’t resist, huh?’

You frown slightly, in fear of your real reasons for being up so late with Quill being found out. But instead he only runs over, tossing off his jacket onto the floor so he’s able to grab your shoulders, laughing wildly.

‘The stars, Y/n, the stars!’

‘Plus, who can resist these moves?’

He starts to sway again, biting his bottom lip with a look of mock determination, until you knock him on the shoulder and sit down on the floor. With a dramatic sigh, Quill sits down on the step next to you, his cotton shirt brushing against your shoulder.

The darkness outside illuminated him in a light, brushing off the soft curls that lay a mess against his forehead as he takes a deep breathe. His eyes were soft, silvery and emanated a divine aura of everlasting magic and hope as he turned to face you with a smile.

‘Well, are you going to tell me what’s wrong Quill? I know we’ve talked about your dad before...’ 

He bristled slightly at your words, and you decided it was best to just allow him to talk when he was ready. The stars coiled their glowing tendrils upon whatever part of his face it came across, dipping the man in a radiant, hypnotic glow. It showered down as sprinkles of allure and pearly hues.

He was just so beautiful, you thought with a sigh, not noticing his eyes deep in question at the noise. He was handsome from the depth of his eyes to the gentle expressions of his voice. You loved the way his voice quickened when he sparkled with a new idea, or was so enjoying one of mine that he lost himself for a moment and quite forgot the mask he wore for others. You knew the second you had met the Guardians, you had given him his heart to keep it safe, that's just the way it was. You didn’t mind if he could never give you his in return. Just being here, on the Milano, was enough.

‘Can I be honest with you, Y/n. I’m just- I’m just struggling at the moment. I miss my mom, sometimes I miss Earth, and I just... don’t know who I am anymore, I don’t really know who I’m supposed to be.’

‘Wow, that’s the most sensible thing I’ve ever heard you say.’

The left side of his pale lip tugged upwards, creating an amused smirk on his god-like face, (as if he would ever let any of the Guardians forget he was half-god, technically). He bumps his tense shoulder further against your own.

‘Oh, ha ha. You’ve been spending too much time around Gamora.’

You did not say anything- you just did not know what to say. He was peculiarly conscious of you sitting next to him, your arm near his. Your silence was somehow comforting, he thought, it was peaceful in a way where he could feel at home and know that no matter what was happening, he was safe. He hadn’t felt this way since Meredith had taken him out to lie under the sky, the two of them sharing a pair of headphones, cheeks touching. It was bliss.

The two of you just sat there for a while, sitting under the stars, which were like a beautiful, surreal blanket above your heads, nothing but the soft breaths of him by your side.

‘But seriously, I spend all my time wondering if this is who I am, you know? I have such this... unselfish, I think? This unselfish love for everyone, and sometimes, I wonder if that means more about me than I thought it did before.’

You blink at him slowly, trying to comprehend what he was telling you. He took the lack of reaction as a bad sign.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to bore you.’

You only shake your head, offering a warm smile full of hidden devotion and awe in return.

‘You could never bore me, Peter. Watching you try and speak is far too entertaining for that. But I wouldn’t worry, everything will eventually just click into place, and everything will suddenly just make sense. Or you’ll constantly be evolving, changing, challenging yourself. Either way, you will always be perfect, Peter Quill, and you will always be you. So would you stop worrying, for once?’

Peter’s eyes were as immobile as the rest of his face, as if news like that was impossible to absorb any faster. He was frozen for maybe three whole seconds before the corners of his mouth resumed their usual softness and her eyes quit staring. As soon as the last syllable echoed its way around his head, you find yourself interlocked in a kiss. Your eyes widen and it takes approximately one point five seconds to realise Peter Quill, the man you love, is kissing you and a further two point eight seconds to realise that you’re kissing him back. Your eyes have fluttered shut and in the darkness you see light exploding. 

 All you can focus on is Peter. On the soft moan he just made, the way he tastes like caramel and midnights under turning galaxies. The way his hand rests over your heart as he pulls away.

‘I-I’m sorry-’

‘Don’t be, do it again.’

His cold lips brushed against yours as he tugged you closer. You pressed your hand against his sculpted chest, relishing the firm, hard muscle. Nestling closer, you felt for his heartbeat, allowing the two of you to melt as one into the night.

Buy me a Coffee?

[awhitehead17]

Universal Signs

Chapter 12 / Previous Chapter 

Also on AO3

Enjoy! :D

When Tim wakes up, he spends a good amount of time simply staring at the ceiling of his room not doing anything. There’s a lot on his mind and it kind of makes him not want to leave the bed so he doesn’t have to deal with any of it.

Wouldn’t that just be easier? To simply avoid everything and pretend that there’s absolutely nothing wrong. Pretend that he was in his large open bedroom in the Manor instead of a supply closet on a spaceship. Pretend he was on Earth with his family and friends instead of floating through space with over-powered aliens. Pretend his enemies were the press instead of a whole league of killers potentially after him…

He shakes his head and lets out a moan. He can’t believe this is his life right now. What the hell is he going to tell his family once he gets back to Earth? Would they even believe him? That’ll be a bridge he’ll have to cross once he gets to it. For now he needs to decide on whether he wants to face the reality of his current situation or avoid it for as long as possible. 

Unfortunately that decision is taken away from him as his room’s door opens up. Not even bothering to ask for permission, Kon walks into his room and stares at his sprawled out form on the bed.

Tim doesn’t bother getting up, he’s kind of gone the past the point of caring about impressions. Alternatively he curls up into a ball, wrapping the blanket tighter around him and shoots the alien a glare. “You know, we humans have a thing called knocking and waiting for permission before entering a room, also known as manners. Remind me to teach you about them at some point.”

Kon raises an eyebrow at him, Tim guesses that’s either because of his attitude or because of the subject. “Well hello to you too.” Kon says evenly. “You’ve been in here a while I thought I’d check on you but also invite you to join us while we train.”

“Train? Train for what?” Tim questions with a frown.

“Now we know that The League of Assassins may be after us, we thought it would be good to do more training to improve our fighting skills and strengthen our abilities. Would you like to join us?”

“I uh…” Tim blinks at him for a moment as he comprehends the question. Fighting? The only fighting he’s ever really done was dirty wrestling matches with his brothers and the self-defence classes he’s been through, however he admits he’s pretty good with a bo staff. On the other hand, he’s never actually been in like an actual proper fight before.

Plus there’s the fact of the fact these guys are aliens, he’s seen what they can do with their inhuman powers, what chance does he have?

Well, he’s always liked a challenge. “Sure, why not. It’ll be interesting.”

Smiling, Kon nods. “Great! When you’re ready just come on over.”

Kon’s manners are just as bad as they were when he first entered Tim’s room. The alien simply turns around and leaves, abruptly ending their conversation before Tim could question him further. He huffs in indignation. Manners; is that so hard?

At least these aliens are better than the ones he was imprisoned by, they didn’t even respect him like they do on this ship. Also another bonus of these guys and not the others (beside not being a prisoner) is that at least all three of them look human. On the other ship there were all kinds of creatures Tim had never even imagined seeing before. There were a couple human appearances but those people were simply assholes.

Somehow he finally finds the willpower to get up and out of bed. Once standing he does some light stretches to loosen his muscles before moving around his room to change into some clean clothing.

As he’s getting dressed he suddenly realises that his back hadn’t hurt at all, throughout all of that movement. Not once did it twinge in agitation or pain, he had actually forgotten about the wounds that had nearly ripped open his back.

If he had to guess he would say it’s been about three or four days since that incident happened. His internal clock is still haywire as he hasn’t yet worked out what time it would be. That cream the others have been putting on him has really done wonders if he’s already all healed up! Tim will get one of the others to check his back for him to make sure, but at least that part of his current life is over.

At this point, it’s all the little things.

Once changed, he exits his room and starts wandering down the corridor. Its only when he’s close to the common room that he realises he has no idea where they were training. He curses Kon for his abrupt leaving earlier and starts looking through every door he could.

On occasion he finds his mind getting distracted by the strange looking technology that fills up different rooms. He’s able to pull himself away before he gets too invested but makes a mental note to go back later on. He’s been on this ship for who knows how long and he still hasn’t explored everything yet!

Eventually he finds where the crew were gathered. Walking through the door, Tim stares at the room and takes it all in. On one side of the room there was some sort of simulator running. It takes up half of the room and currently has blue holographic bodies of all shapes and sizes running in different directions. There’s a blur of motion and suddenly the holographic bodies burst and disappear like sprinkles before reappearing elsewhere.

The second half of the room was split into three sections. One third had what resembled a variety of weights on a rack with different bench presses around it. The second third, the biggest of the three, simply had large mats placed on the floor. The final third had, from what Tim could see, a variety of weapons all stacked neatly in a large cabinet type of thing, it reminds him of something from a spy film when all the weapons get revealed from behind a closed door.

It was there on the second third that he sees Cassie and Kon. The two aliens were engaged in what looked like a hand to hand fight. He watches them with fascination as they kick, punch and dodge the other’s attacks. It looked like they were dancing, just a very fast and violent dance. Kon was brute force, putting all of his weight into his swings and kicks. Cassie, on the other hand, seems to be more agility based, dodging with speed and using a few different tricks to strike against Kon. With them two on the mats, that must make Bart the one in the simulator.

Tim stands there for a while watching the aliens spar with one another. It doesn’t even look like their tiring, which is insane, but eventually they spot Tim standing awkwardly at the doorway and soon stop to look his way.

“It’s about time. We thought you may have changed your mind.” Kon greets him with a smile.

Tim shrugs, “Nah, I’m not a chicken, I can handle a challenge.”

His comment gets him two identical confused looks, it’s then that Tim realises what he just said. Of course they wouldn’t understand the chicken reference, chances are that they don’t even know what a chicken is.

He sighs and waves a hand dismissing it, “Don’t worry, it’s an Earth saying. So, what’s the plan?” He glances around and sees Bart as a blur of motion on the other side of the room. He turns back to the others with a sudden thought, “How come I’ve never seen you guys train or even hear you mention it before?”

They both blink at him for a moment before catching up with his questions.

“We’re going to put you in the training simulator to see what you can do and go from there.” Cassie tells him pointedly.

Tim makes an ‘oh’ shape with his mouth but doesn’t comment. Her tone of voice was one to not argue against.

“As for why you haven’t seen us train is because we happen to train at random intervals. We often train individually or when we do train together I believe most of the time you happen to be sleeping.”

He guesses that explains their absences when he couldn’t find them sometimes. He never really even thought about them training or doing some sort of abilities practice.

Cassie studies him for a moment before turning to go over to the stacked weapons. “So what weapon would you like, we have a wide variety but whatever you feel comfortable with you’re welcome to use.”

Tim blinks before making his way over to her side and has a proper look at the weapons. There’s so much that stands out to him, plenty of things that he’s never seen before however his eyes drift to the plainest thing on the shelf and something he is familiar with. A bo staff.

Tim reaches out and picks it up, feeling the weight of it in his hands. It’s lighter than he expected it to be and wonders what it was made of, it looked like it was made from some kind of wood but there’s a high chance that he wouldn’t actually know the material used.

“This will do.” He declares looking at her.

Cassie gives him a funny look but doesn’t comment on it. She gestures to the other side of the room and makes her way there, Tim follows closely behind. Bart was now out of the simulator, having left it while Tim was choosing his weapon. The speedster was stood next to Kon and was speed talking away in the Kryptonian’s ear.

The two of them get to the other side of the room and Cassie stops, not knowing what else to do, Tim stands beside her. He watches with bewilderment as she brings up a holographic screen that materialises from out of nowhere and starts playing around with it.

Tim stares at it for a moment, not having any idea on what she was doing, before looking away and back at the staff in his hands. He twists it a couple times when a sudden though appears in his mind. “Hey what happened to that metal pole I had? The one I carried around when you first picked me up?”

Cassie shoots him a raised eyebrow before turning back to what she was doing. “Why does it matter? I have no idea.”

Tim shrugs, trying to think of the answer. He liked that pole, even got attached to it. “It, uh, doesn’t really… I was just wondering.”

“You dropped it when we got attacked by the Galavent. It got left behind and we didn’t think about it because we were trying to make sure you didn’t die!” Bart says blurring next to him.

Tim takes a moment to catch up with what happened and nods in understanding. So that’s what happened to the pole, shame, he liked that pole. It helped him find some kind of balance while he wrapped his head around everything that was happening with his life.

Cassie turns to him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Ready?”

Tim glances at her, at the simulator and back again. He swallows suddenly feeling nervous and jittery. “What do I have to do? Will it hurt me?”

“Different holographic shapes and figures will appear around you, all you have to do is fight them off and not get touched. If they do touch you, it may sting for a moment.”

Tim slowly nods in apprehension. Is it too late back out? He’s not sure if he wants to do this. A side-ways look shows him all the aliens are looking at him expectantly and he swallows thickly. He takes a deep breath to try and compose himself, as long as it doesn’t kill him right? Right.

“Let’s go for it.” He tells Cassie after a moment.

She presses a button on the screen and gestures for him to enter the simulator. Tim honestly has no idea what he’s got himself into as he walks into the centre of the room, he just hopes he makes it out in one piece.

-------

He’s pulled something. Tim’s pretty sure he’s pulled a muscle or something along those lines because he is sore.

Overall he spent a good 5 hours in the training room with the aliens. It’s been about two hours since then, during that time he’s stretched, had some food and had a very pleasant shower. Now that he’s back in his room, collapsed on his bed, all he can feel is the achiness in his body and the bruising he’s received.

In reality, training hadn’t been as bad as what it could have been. Tim certainly isn’t skilled enough to keep up with the aliens and all of their super-human abilities but he held his ground for a little while. Once he had finished in the simulator, he had sparred with each of them separately, it gave him an insight on how their powers work and just simply fighting against different abilities.

That’s also where he picked up all the bruises, hopefully they won’t freak out too much when they next see him because its only after the shower that they’ve started to show on his skin now. A nice variety of ugly black and blue patches in different areas.

It’s easy to say that fighting the aliens is nothing like wrestling with his brothers.

He did manage to get the drop on both Kon and Cassie however, which was a delight considering who they are. He had surprised them both by doing a flip to dodge their attacks and striking out with one of his own. They had stared at him in disbelief for a good minute before asking what he did.  

He showed them how he can perform a back flip as well as a front flip. They seemed to be absolutely flabbergast with it. At first they freaked out when he had jumped, all three of them seemed to be in the middle of rushing towards him by the time he landed safely on his feet. It took him doing the trick a few times for them to not feel so on edge with what he could do, especially since he had no powers to help him perform.

Tim laughed at their reactions and commented that they should see his brother. If they think Tim is fancy for doing a couple flips, then they should see what his acrobatic brother could do. He would love to see their faces after seeing the variety of ways Dick could bend, making it seem like he has no bones in his body.

It would certainly be interesting.

When he hears his room’s door open, Tim groans. He buries his face into a pillow and scowls. Hadn’t he just come into his room? What do they want now? He can’t be bothered to do anything else. Whoever it was stops by his bed but doesn’t move any more.

“Tim?” It was Bart. “Are you sleeping?”  

In response Tim simply grunts into the pillow, not wanting to be disturbed. Bart doesn’t seem to get the message because Tim was suddenly being poked.

“Tim?”

He puts up with three more pokes before forcing himself up on his hands and sending Bart an unimpressed look. “What is it Bart?”

Bart smiles, clearly not seeing that Tim was annoyed with him. “We’re at the next planet we need to collect from. Cassie wanted me to come and get you.”

Sighing, Tim nods and starts getting up from the bed. “Okay sure, I’m coming.”

“Okay!”

When Tim blinks and reopens his eyes Bart was no longer there. He shakes his head and just lets it be, he still isn’t used to that superspeed thing. It’s becoming less surprising now but he still wasn’t entirely used to it.

With little energy Tim drags his feet across the floor until he’s out of his room and heads down the corridor towards the cockpit. He wonders what kind of item they’ll have to collect this time, hopefully it’ll be easier and a lot safer to collect than the others, especially after the most recent one.

He doesn’t really want another adventure like that thanks.

Walking into the cockpit he eyes Kon up at the dashboard, then Cassie and Bart sat at the table going over some papers. Tim strolls over to the table and collapses in an empty seat. “Please tell me this item is easier and safer to collect than the last.”

That gets him a laugh from Kon on the other side of the room, he spins around in his chair to face him. “This item is easy to collect, yes. Not all of us really have to even go, all we have to do is go to the supplier and exchange objects.”

Tim starts nodding in understanding before he stops and shoots Kon a look. “So was there any reason for Bart to come and get me or no? If only one of us needs to go then do I have to be here?” It was a bit blunt and harsh but he felt knackered after that workout session. It’s been a while since he’s done so much physical work and after being injured a couple times it’s kinda taken it out of him. 

Kon blinks in surprise at the questions. “Uh, we thought you would have wanted to know what was going on that’s all. I apologise that we disturbed you?”

The alien sounds so unsure on what to make of the situation that Tim feels bad for putting him in this position to begin with. He goes to apologise but Cassie jumps in before he could.

“Actually Tim, you and I can go over some details about The League,” She tells him, “there’s information that you should probably know and I want details from your time with them. Bart and Kon can handle collecting the next item.”

Tim raises his eyebrows but doesn’t protest. Maybe finding out more about The League wouldn’t hurt, though he has no idea what information that Cassie thinks that he may know, because he doesn’t know anything at all. When he was there, he couldn’t understand any of them and was too busy freaking out about being in space.

Kon turns back to the dashboard and guides the ship until they touch down on the new planet. The Kryptonian and the Speedster say their farewells as they exit the cockpit therefore leaving him and Cassie alone.

Tim still gets mixed feelings from Cassie, one moment she seems to be okay with him then the next she’s acting kinda hostile towards him. He didn’t know what to make of her but he really doesn’t want to cause any trouble.

The two of them end up sitting at the table and Tim sits there feeling tense and awkward as he waits for Cassie to start the conversation. At the moment the Amazon is sorting through some papers into a couple piles in front of her, promptly ignoring him.

Tim twiddles his thumbs and tries his best to not fidget too much. It was beginning to get uncomfortable and he wanted nothing more than to simply go back to bed, fall asleep and pretend this never happened. However he doesn’t always get what he wants.

There were several minutes of tense silence until Cassie finally engages with him. Showing him a variety of different bits of paper she starts explaining the history of the League of Assassins. Tim does his best to keep up with everything she was saying, any questions he had she answered to the best of her ability. Once they had gone through the history Cassie moved onto asking him about his time with them. Tim did his best to explain what he saw and why he thinks he was there, it wasn’t very informative but it was something.

They were still talking about the League when Bart and Kon return to the ship sometime later. The two aliens enter the cockpit smiling and laughing with one another, Cassie and Tim stop conversing watch them as they walk over to the table and settle down next to them.

Cassie raises an eyebrow, “Well?”

Kon waves a dismissive hand. “Surprisingly no conflictions with the trade, so it was a simple swap which makes a nice change compared to previous items.”

“Yeah he was pretty crash.” Bart grins. “He even gave us extra for no charge!”

Cassie hums noncommittedly. “Our next item is on the next planet from this one, it shouldn’t take too long to get there.” She gets up and heads for the dashboard.

Kon soon follows her and takes his seat in the pilots chair, the two of them work together to get the ship in the air once again and to take off so they could get away from this planet.

“How are you feeling?” Tim turns to Bart who was watching him. Tim shrugs.

“I’m fine. Cassie and I were going through stuff about the League.”

“There’s a lot there.” Bart hums knowingly. “They’re real nasty, its sad that you got involved with them.”

He knows that Bart doesn’t mean anything by those words but Tim couldn’t help the slight anger that rises up in him at hearing it. “It wasn’t like I had a choice in the matter.” He says sharply. Tim crosses his arms over his chest and looks away, thankfully Bart doesn’t continue the conversation.

Tim uses his time to go over the notes he made when he and Cassie were talking about the League, the files she had seemed to be great, however he couldn’t read any of them so to solve that problem he wrote his own.

He moves one piece of paper which uncovers the one hiding underneath it. Tim pauses, staring at the new piece of paper in front of him. Taking up most of the page was an image of the master of the league, the Demon’s Head as Cassie had called him, Ra’s Al Ghul.

The image was, what Tim would describe as, a mug shot. He looked human, with his Caucasian skin, long face, two green eyes, brown hair with white parts above the ears and facial hair that sticks out at the chin.

Tim shivers at the sight of him. He really hopes he doesn’t see that man again, he doesn’t know what would happen if he does see him but what he does know is that it won’t be pleasant. All Tim wants to do is go home and forget this whole space trip ever happened. It’s his fault Tim was in space to begin with, he’s the one who kidnapped Tim for whatever reason in the first place.

That being said, would he go after Tim again when he returns to Earth? What’s stopping the Demon’s Head from coming after him a second time? Will Tim ever be safe again?

Shaking his head he clears those thoughts and quickly covers the paper so he didn’t have to look at that hideous face anymore. He can’t be thinking about that right now, there's more important things to be dealing with.  

He glances up to see Bart staring at him with a slight frown on his face. Tim raises his eyebrows at him when they make eye contact as if to say, ‘mind your own business’, whether Bart gets the message or not he’s not sure. Tim’s soon distracted from the speedster because the other two soon join them.

“We’re on route to the neighbouring planet where we need to collect the next item. It shouldn’t take too long to get there. While we’re there we can do some stocking and check things over of the ship.” Kon informs them as he glances at each of them in turn.

��Okay, now that’s sorted, can I go back to bed?” Tim asks, almost whiningly. “It’s been a long day and I’m tired.”

The three aliens look at him and he fights the scowl threatening to take over his face. He’s tired but he wants his own space as much as he wants to go to bed, so just going to his room knowing he wouldn’t be disturbed for so many hours will be more than enough.

“Actually Tim, I was going to suggest an entertainment session. We haven’t done anything fun like for a while.” Kon says.

Tim sighs and hangs his hang in resignation. Stupid aliens and their capability to go on without sleep. Opposite him Bart brightens up in his chair. “Yes! We haven’t done one of those in eons! Whatarewegoingtodo? Arewewatchingsomethingonthescreen? Howaboutplayingsomegames? Ohohohohwhataboutthecards?”

Tim rubs his hand across his forehead and doesn’t even bother in trying to keep up with what the Speedster was saying. Kon, on the other hand, has no problem interpreting what he was saying.

Kon shrugs, looking between Bart and him. “Well I was going to have it as an open discussion. Perhaps if Tim isn’t feeling okay we can do it another time.”

Well, now he just feels bad. Tim sits up straight in his chair and looks at Kon. “Don’t worry about me joining in. I wouldn’t be much fun anyway, go on without me.”

“What about we use the screen instead?” Cassie suggests. “Tim can still rest but we can do something together?”

Both Kon and Bart nod, seeming satisfied with the idea that they still get to hang out together and do something. Tim simply agrees to his fate, they want him to join in (which is appreciated) and he isn’t getting away from not doing so, perhaps he could fall asleep on the couch?

A little while later, Tim finds himself lying on one end of the couch with a pillow under his head and a blanket covering him. The others are all sprawled out along the couch beside him, everyone watching the screen in front of them.

Tim has no idea what they’re watching, there were a variety of blue and purple blobs with faces resembling something like DaVinci would paint on the screen, he figures this is perhaps some planet’s animation. He has no idea but he’s pretty sure he’s going to get nightmares from watching those things. They’re terrifying.

He must have actually drifted off to sleep in the end because the next thing he’s mildly aware of is someone picking him up off the sofa. He makes an unhappy whining sound because a sudden rush of cold air meets an uncovered part of his body, Tim attempts to curl into the warmth still there as much as he can.

Soon enough Tim’s being placed back down on something soft, he’s then covered with a blanket and is left in peace. Tim succumbs to sleep pretty quickly after that.

[arc852]

Space Barista (2)

Formerly known as Not Your Average Coffee Shop AU, since the title no longer really fits.

Summary: Time to see how Virgil is doing in space!

Warnings: Fear, panic, injury, and kidnapping

_____________________________________________________________

 Virgil simply watched as the spaceship landed, it was all he could do after all. He was still wrapping his head around what had happened. That Logan, someone he had considered his friend, was actually a giant alien and had kidnapped him from earth to take him to his own planet. Virgil placed his head in his hands, trying to keep the tears back. He had always hated the unknown and now the unknown was suddenly his whole life.

 The ship jerked and Virgil flew to the side of the room, hitting the wall with a groan. He pushed himself away from the wall and looked out into the spaceship. Logan was still sitting but he was no longer pressing any buttons. Looking out the windows of the ship told Virgil that they had, in fact, landed.

 Ready or not, he was about to face a world made for giants.

 When Logan suddenly stood up and turned right toward him, Virgil flinched. Cowering into the corner, he was helpless as Logan moved towards him. “We have arrived.” Logan’s booming voice stated, getting another flinch out of Virgil. Logan simply sighed as he saw this before pushing a button off to the side of Virgil’s prison. 

 Virgil braced himself, knowing the last time Logan had done that he had been grabbed. But instead of the windows opening, he felt himself being jerked forward. Looking around, he realized the small room had come out of the wall. Turning into an all-glass prison. Which was great for being able to see when Logan’s hands took hold of the sides and picked it up. Virgil had no choice but to stay in the middle, ignoring the hands on either side of him and the very long fall below.

 Virgil watched as Logan began to walk towards the door in the back. A door that Virgil assumed led to the outside. And he was correct as the door opened for Logan automatically and they found themselves in a large room, light coming from a skylight above. People, giants, scattered around the room, all focused on different things. Including computers, each other, and...him.

 Virgil scooted back, despite that putting him closer to Logan. At least Logan was a known threat. Semi-known, actually, considering he apparently knew nothing of his ‘friend’. 

 ...Had they ever really been friends?

 “Logan! Glad to see you made it back in one piece.” A man said, coming up to them and smiling at Logan. His gaze soon turned to Virgil, however. “And it looks like you brought that little human with ya after all!”

 Virgil heard Logan sigh and he looked up to see the underside of a deadpan look. “Yes, Remy, you were there during the video call. You already know this.” Turning back to the other giant, apparently named Remy, he was giving Logan a shrug.

 “Anyway, boss man wants to see you. About your little human.” Virgil heard Logan sigh again.

 “Alright, I suppose that is where I am headed next then. Thank you, Remy.” Remy did a mini salute before leaving them. Logan walked through another pair of doors, coming into an empty room. Logan paused, biting his lip.

 Virgil then found himself being placed down on a crate, noticing that the room was full of them. He looked up at Logan with wariness in his eyes. Logan looked at him apologetically. “I am sorry about this Virgil but I don’t think it would be good to take you with me. I will be right back though, I promise.” And with that Logan exited the room, leaving Virgil all alone.

 Virgil pressed himself up against the back wall before sliding down and hugging his knees. Everything was moving too fast. And now he had to deal with the knowledge of multiple giants all in just the next room. It would be far too easy for them to come in and take him. 

 Virgil shifted positions and shoved his hands into his pockets before he froze. He grabbed something from his right pocket and brought it out, realizing quickly that it was his phone. Virgil simply stared at it for a moment before he felt a spark of hope. But he quickly pushed it back down. He was probably a thousand or so light-years away from earth, there was no way he had any signal here.

 He unlocked his phone and looked at the top right corner. His eyes widened.

 He had a signal. 

 He doesn’t know how but at the moment he didn’t care. This was his chance! He quickly went into his contacts, glancing up every few seconds in case Logan or someone else came back. He scrolled through his contacts.

 His work? No.

 His parents? ...Yeah, definitely not.

 Virgil tried to scroll down more before realizing that...that was basically it. All his other contacts were either of family he didn’t talk to or old numbers from high school he got when he did projects that he never deleted.

 There was no one that Virgil could actually call that would care that he was gone.

 And, Virgil deflated as he realized, even if there was someone who cared about him, they would never believe him. And in the off chance that they did...there was nothing they could do.

 Virgil turned his phone off and let the arm holding it fall limply to his side. That’s probably why Logan was so comfortable in taking him. Virgil himself had told him he didn’t have anyone. Logan probably saw him as the perfect target to take back with him. A human that no one would miss.

 He heard the door open, suddenly, and his head snapped up to meet eyes with Logan. He quickly looked back down, curling into himself. As Logan got closer, he could hear that he was muttering to himself. Something about ‘too much paperwork’ or something along those lines. Virgil watched, through his bangs, as Logan shook his head and stopped his muttering. He looked down at Virgil and Virgil looked down once again as well.

 “Alright, time for us to go home,” Logan spoke and Virgil braced himself as his prison was once again lifted up. He tried to keep his eyes pointed to his lap as he was moved, but couldn’t help but glance around him as they stepped outside.

 Surprisingly, the outside reminded him a lot of earth. The sky was blue, the grass was green. He might think he was still on earth if it wasn’t for the second sun in the sky. Virgil just barely glanced at it before he turned away. Too freaked out by it.

 Virgil looked straight ahead, eyes widening when he saw what they were headed towards. It was obviously supposed to be some sort of vehicle, but it was no car. For one thing, it was more rounded with windows surrounding the entire top half of it. The second thing, was that it was floating a few inches off the ground...so, yeah. Virgil decided not to think about any of this too much. He had enough to deal with, being captured by a giant and all.

 Logan opened the not car, which had a door in the back that lifted up, and got inside. He set Virgil down on the floor, because with a start, Virgil realized that there were no seats. Everything was floor. He also realized, looking around, that there was no steering wheel either. Just a bunch of buttons similar to what he saw in the spaceship.

 Logan seemed to know what he was doing though as he immediately started pressing said buttons. The not car came to life and before Virgil could comprehend what was happening, they were moving. 

 The ride was silent, only filled by the buttons that Logan pressed. The ride itself wasn’t that long though, as when what seemed like five minutes passed, the not car stopped. Virgil found his prison picked up once again as they exited the vehicle. Virgil looked up to see a fairly nice house. It looked like a lot of houses he had seen on earth but slightly off in a way that Virgil couldn’t pinpoint.

 He didn’t get a chance to figure it out though as they quickly moved inside. “Finally, home at last.” Virgil heard Logan speak as he shut the door behind him. Virgil glanced around what he assumed to be the living room, taking in how similar but hi-tech it was.

 He was placed on a table and that was when Logan started to speak. “Are you alright?” Logan started off with. But Virgil decided not to answer, instead pressing himself more into the corner and wrapping his arms around himself. Would he regret not answering?

 He heard Logan sigh. “Please Virgil, just talk to me.” Virgil wanted to laugh. Talk to him? How on eart-whatever planet they were on was he supposed to talk to him? He doubted Logan would even listen to a word he had to say.

 “Alright then, we’ll do things your way.” Virgil almost lifted his head at that but started to panic as he heard the door to his prison open. He braced himself for a hand to wrap around him, unable to do anything to stop it. But it never came. Instead, Logan spoke once more.

 “There. Now will you talk to me?” The voice was not booming like before though. That fact alone made Virgil lift his head, only to see Logan as he had originally known him. Human-sized.

 “It took some convincing, but they let me keep the watch. I figured it would come in handy in situations like this and it appears that I was right.” Logan continued to talk as Virgil slowly got himself up. He started towards him.

 “I know you were thrown into all of this but really, I mean you no-!” Virgil cut Logan off with a hard punch to the face.

 He watched as Logan stumbled back, hand covering the right side of his face, mostly near his eye. Virgil smirked in victory, the punch having felt great, but his smirk slowly dropped as he realized what he had just done. 

 Just because Logan was currently on level with a human, did not mean he was one. He was a giant and could turn back into one in under a minute. Virgil started to shake as he realized how much trouble he was probably in.

“I-I am so sorry, please, I wasn’t thinking, I-” Virgil pulled at the hairs on his head, panic slowly overtaking him. “Please, I’m sorry, I didn’t-” He was cut off.

 “No, it’s alright, I...I deserved it.” Virgil blinked, hands leaving his hair as he looked up at Logan. He was still human-sized, rubbing at the already forming bruise right underneath his eye.

 “W-What?” Virgil asked, keeping his distance. Though he did feel more comfortable with Logan when he was like this. He could almost imagine they were just hanging out at one of their lunch dates. Almost.

 “I have not been handling this situation as well as I would have liked.” Logan sighed, he took off and cleaned his glasses, which had just barely missed Virgil’s hit. “But I would like to make up for that now. Please, ask me anything you’d like. I’ll do my best to answer.”

 Virgil searched Logan’s eyes, gaze going down to the bruise he had left on Logan’s cheek. There were so many things Virgil wanted to ask, most having to do with why he had taken him of all people. But instead of asking that, Virgil found himself asking another kind of question. “Were we ever really friends?”

 Logan’s eyes softened. “Of course, Virgil. I...Virgil, I truly mean you no harm. And you aren’t a prisoner here either.” Logan answered, putting his glasses on with a slight wince. 

 “Not a prisoner? You kidnapped me! From earth! You took me away from my home, my life! I’ll admit it wasn’t the best life but it was mine. And now I’m stuck on an alien planet full of giants! Does that-does that not seem wrong to you?!” Virgil yelled, moving his arms in wild gestures. He couldn’t believe Logan. If they really had been friends then why had Logan kidnapped him?!

 He watched Logan carefully as Logan’s eyes widened before going sad. He looked down with another sigh. “I...I am sorry.” Virgil blinked, anger replaced by confusion.

 “What?”

 Logan looked back up at him. “I...have just now realized I may have rushed into all of this without thinking. Like I had stated before, my mission was not to bring anyone back with me but to simply observe. But when I met you I...well, you fascinated me in more ways than you may think. I never ‘clicked’ so well with anyone before, not even those of my own kind. I considered you my-my best friend not long after first conversing with you. I wouldn’t be on earth forever though and I slowly began to realize that I...I would not be able to leave you behind.” Logan explained before running a hand across his face, wincing as he forgot about his bruise. “...I should have at least spoken to you about it first. I am sorry.”

 Virgil just stared at Logan as he processed everything he had just said. He brought his hands to his face, rubbing at it. “Logan…” Could he say that he understood Logan’s actions? No. However, he could understand where Logan was coming from. “I was starting to consider you my best friend as well. My...only friend, really.” He watched as Logan smiled.

 “So you are saying you would have said yes if I would have asked?” Logan asked, eyes alight with hope. But they dimmed when Virgil shook his head.

 “Honestly? I don’t know. At this point I would have for sure said no but I don’t know what I would have said if all this went differently…” Virgil would have liked to say it would have been a for sure no but...given the choice, the prospect was intriguing. 

 “But Virgil, I can provide you with everything! I know how much you hated your job and now you no longer have to work. Your home was less than ideal and now you have as much space as you could hope for along with technology humans have yet to think about! You will be well taken care of here.” Logan took a step towards Virgil but Virgil followed with a step back. Logan frowned at that.

 “...You sound like I’m some pet.” Virgil muttered, glaring at Logan. Logan’s eyes once again grew wide.

 “No! That isn’t it at all!” Logan put his arms out in a form of surrender. “I see you as an equal-as  a friend, Virgil. And as my friend I want nothing but the best for you. Which I can give to you here.” He motioned to his home around him before taking another cautious step forward. This time, Virgil didn’t move back, which Logan seemed happy about.

 “Logan, I...I can’t. This world clearly wasn’t meant for me. I know my life was sucky but I want to go back to it. Please.” Please don’t keep me here.

 Logan looked at him, searching his eyes. Eventually, he sighed. “I understand.” And with that, Logan turned around and walked right off the table.

 “Logan?!” Virgil’s eyes went wide with a sudden panic and he started running towards the edge. But before he made it, a blurry shape rose up quickly. He stopped and looked up, seeing Logan as a giant once again. The human took several steps back as Logan looked down at him with sad eyes.

 “Patton, call work.” Logan called out to the room. Virgil was confused and even more so as a bubbly voice spoke up, seemingly from nowhere.

 “Sure thing, Lo!” The voice said. There was then a ringing all throughout the house before another voice spoke up.

 “Hey, you’ve got Remy on the line.”

 Logan groaned. “Remy, why did you answer Thomas’ phone?” 

 “He’s currently out but I am more than capable with helping you out with whatever you need.” Logan looked to be getting frustrated. 

 “Fine. I need to schedule another quick trip to earth as soon as possible.” Logan requested, causing hope to rise in Virgil. Logan was actually going to take him home. 

 Some typing echoed around the house. “Sure thing, let me just pull up your file here...huh.” Logan blinked.

 “What? What’s wrong?” Logan asked and they both heard Remy hum.

 “Sorry gurl but it looks like you’re no longer authorized to go down to Earth.” Both Logan and Virgil’s eyes widened.

 “What do you mean?” Logan pressed.

 “Well, according to the contract you signed for the mission, you were only authorized to go on this one trip to Earth. For liability or some crap, I don’t know. Either way, going back to Earth is a no go, sorry.” Remy said nonchalantly.  

 Panic welled up within Virgil, so much so that he felt dizzy. He sat down before his legs gave out beneath him. Logan noticed this and quickly went to go end the call. “Goodbye Remy.” 

 “Hey, wait-” The call cut out and Logan to kneel near the table.

 “Virgil, I am so sorry. I didn’t know I wasn’t able to go back to Earth, I-”

 “Remy is trying to call back.” The bubbly voice from before, Patton, said. Logan groaned.

 “Not know Patton.”

 “Alright, sending it to voicemail!” Logan turned back to Virgil, looking worried.

 “Virgil?” Virgil took in a shaky breath, before looking up at Logan.

 “Welp, looks like you got what you wanted. I’m stuck here.” Virgil stood up on shaky legs and turned around. He headed to the only other place he could go. Back into the glass prison.

 “Virgil, no I-” Virgil cut him off as he climbed inside and took a seat, back still facing Logan.

 “Just...leave me alone.” Virgil mumbled. Afraid that talking any louder would cause the tears to flow. Logan stared at Virgil before nodding and standing up.

 “Alright. I shall give you some time alone to...process, everything.” Logan walked towards his bedroom, sending one last glance to Virgil before disappearing from sight.

 Leaving Virgil alone to think once again.

[aewriting]

You Can't Jump the Track - Part 5

Here is all is on AO3

Warnings for mention of firearms, restraints.

***

Whatever reaction Michael is expecting… this isn’t it.

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Alex just, just crumples. Turns away from Michael, fast, as if he doesn’t want him to witness this. He’s bringing a hand up to his mouth now. Michael’s straining against the ropes, trying to take in details, desperately attempting to piece together what exactly is going on. Gun’s still on the coffee table, far out of reach, thank god.  Alex has stepped farther away from him now, is actually leaving the room, going down a hall. 

Michael swallows nervously.  Is, is he getting something? Like, to use on him? Threaten him with?

It’s a long five minutes or so before Alex returns and, really, he’s looking at Michael as if nothing ever happened.  Sits down in the chair, calmly.

“We need to talk.  About what you just told me.”

Michael’s quiet. Alex looks at him expectantly, until it’s clear that Michael has no intention of responding.  “I, I owe you some information, too. I’m thinking we take turns.  Like, you get a question, then I get a question.  All I ask is that we’re honest with each other.  Like, if you don’t want to answer, just say that, but I don’t… don’t want us to lie to each other.”

Michael narrows his eyes.  “Easy for you to say.  You’re not the one tied to the chair right now.”

“No,” Alex acknowledges, but makes no move to untie him or offer any other assistance.  “Why don’t you go first?  Ask, ask me anything.”

Michael debates even responding, for a minute, but the curiosity is too great. “Did you know aliens were real? Before, like, ten minutes ago?”

“No,” Alex says tightly.  “Not for sure.” He crosses his arms across his chest.  “My turn.”

“Hey, hey!” Michael protests. “I think you owe me a little more than that.”

Alex eyes him warily.  “My dad.  My dad, he… he warned me. About aliens.  I thought he was lying. Or… or insane.”

Michael feels cold. “Your, your dad?” Jesse fucking Manes? “What, what did he say?”

Alex sighs.  “That’s like your third question in a row. It’s my turn now.” He purses his lips.  “What is that piece of glass, really?”

Michael has no reason to trust him.  None.  He lured him back here to the cabin, knocked him out, somehow took away his powers.  And yet…

He thinks he might need him.  Definitely needs him to untie him, let him go eventually.  Needs him to give him access to the bunker and all its contents, including the big hunk of spaceship. Yes, unfortunately Alex holds all the cards right now, with an apparently well-honed bullshit detector.

So Michael answers him. “I think it’s part of a spaceship.”

“A, a spaceship?”

“Yup.” Alex looks thoughtful.  “My turn again,” Michael is quick to say. He knows he should ask about what Jesse knows.  Maybe figure out if Alex knows his powers are blocked.  Get some additional information about what Alex wants with him.  But at the moment, there’s only one thing, top of his mind.

“What the hell happened to you?”

He, he thinks it hurts Alex, the question. He didn’t necessarily intend that, and he’s startled to find that he’s actually disappointed. In himself. But no, no. Alex tied him up, knocked him out –

“My dad happened. You were there for some of that, unfortunately,” Alex says wearily.  “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of that whole situation. And that just, just set everything in motion. The Air Force. The deployments.  The leg and the discharge and the shitty recovery.”

Michael frowns.  “But, but why are you here, like this?”

Alex gives a barky little laugh.  “You figure that out, and maybe I can stop seeing psych at the VA.” He’s quiet, then.  “There… there’s more to it than just that, but… but that’s all I’m going to say about it right now, okay?”

Michael glares a little, shrugs.  “Not okay, but you’re kinda holding all the cards here, Manes.”

Alex exhales deeply and looks at Michael.  Eyes him, up and down. Almost unconsciously, Michael presses himself backwards in the chair.  Alex opens his mouth, closes it.  Takes a breath and opens it again.  “What can you do?”

Michael gives him a quizzical look.

“You’re an alien.  What, what’s your power?”

Michael’s quiet as Alex looks at him expectantly.  He debates telling Alex he won’t answer, but he doesn’t want to piss him off.  “I can move things.  With my mind,” he finally says.

Alex sags a little in his chair.  “Wow.  Okay. Can you prove it?”

Michael snorts a little. “That’s another question, and… and you know I can’t prove it, not right now.”

“Shit…” Alex whispers.  “Oh my god, it works.”

Michael stares at him.  “I’ll take my question now.  What did you give me?”

Alex’s jaw tightens.  “Pollen.  Put it in the whiskey.”

Michael lets his head fall to his chest. “Wow.  Shame on me, huh? Accepting a drink from a stranger.”

He thinks he detects at least a little regret on Alex’s face. “What kind of pollen?”

Alex holds his gaze. “We’re pretty bad at this alternating questions thing.” Michael scoffs a little.  “But I’ll answer,” he says.  “I don’t know what it is, exactly.  My… my dad gave it to me.  While ago.  Said, said that if I ever got myself into trouble, with an alien, I could use that and it would stop them.  Stop their powers.” Alex eyes Michael’s bonds. “I take it it worked?”

“Your dad?  Your dad gave you this?”

Alex nods.

“Well shit.  Thought you said you and your dad didn’t get along.”

“We don’t, we really don’t, but… fuck, Michael, he scared me.  Told me about aliens and tried to scare the shit out of me. I thought he was out of his mind but – “

“But not enough to throw this shit out and tell him to screw himself, huh?”

Alex gives a frustrated sigh. “No.  I guess not.” He’s staring at Michael again in that unnerving way.  “Moving stuff.  Is that really your only power?” There’s an edge of desperation to his voice that Michael can’t quite comprehend.

“Yeah,” he replies.  Pauses.  “Why… is there something else you’re thinking that I can do?”

Alex’s brow is furrowed. “Like, you can’t… can’t make people feel things? Get, get in their heads?”

Ah. “No,” Michael says, a little gentler now.  “No, I can’t.” He stares at Alex. “Why’d you knock me out?”

Alex’s mouth twists around a little.  “You were lying to me.  About the glass. You said you’d never seen anything like it before, but your body language, respiration – they were all telling a different story.” The side of his mouth quirks up.  “And I figured if I’ve seen something like that before, then you probably had, too.”

“Wait, what?” Michael gapes at him. “Where have you seen something like that?”

“The Emporium.”

Michael actually laughs a little at that.  “Shit, Manes, that’s right. God.” He shakes his head.  “You know, most of the stuff there is shit, but there are a few legit pieces.”

Alex looks at him a beat too long.  “It’s the same thing at the warehouse.”

Michael stills. This is the first he’s hearing about a warehouse.  “What?”

Alex licks his lips.  “Yeah. First summer I worked there, um, Grant Green had me working at the warehouse three days a week.  Cleaning stuff, labeling.  Like you said, most stuff is complete shit, but… but I always thought that some of the stuff was actually pretty convincing.  Like this one big piece of glass that glowed when you touched it.” Alex quirks an eyebrow.  “Always wondered how Green managed that trick.  Guess now we know.”

“Yeah,” Michael says, slowly, shocked at the news, shocked that Alex is telling him this. “Where is this warehouse, exactly?” He’s sure he’d find it, eventually, with his tracker, but getting Alex to tell him would be so much easier.

Alex’s gaze drops to his lap.  “Um, I think it’s my turn for a question.”

And he knew it was too good to be true.

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

Michael cocks his head to the side.  “Right now?  I’m trying to answer your questions to the best of my ability so you can untie me and let me go.”

“With the spaceship parts,” Alex says, flat and unamused. 

“Oh, you mean like, am I trying to take you over?  Dominate Earth.”

Alex frowns.  “That’s not funny, Guerin.”

“No,” Michael says, straining at his ropes for emphasis, “it’s not. This isn’t.” He sighs. “Not sure how much you remember of me, from high school,” Alex’s jaw clicks a little, at that, “but things were pretty shitty. Never really had a, a place. A home.  I’m hoping that if I can put my ship back together, the ship that brought my people here, maybe I can study it, figure how to use it to find answers.  About who I am.  Why I’m here.”

Alex looks thoughtful.  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” he finally says.  “While you were knocked out, I hid the piece of the spaceship and the tracker.”

“What?”

“So if I cut you loose, then you can’t just take me out and do whatever the hell you want.”

Michael’s feeling mad now.  “Who the fuck do you think I am, Alex?”

Beneath Alex’s coldness, there a trace of sadness. “I really don’t know.  That’s what’s making this really hard.  Because… because ten years ago, I thought I knew.  But I’m realizing now that even then, I…” he trails off. “I didn’t.”  He swallows. “I’m going to cut you loose.  Drive you to your car. If you want that ship piece and tracker, you better not try to hurt me or, or pull any tricks, you know? You wanna get in your car and head straight back to Albuquerque? Fine by me.  But if you want to work together on this, have continued access to the bunker and the stuff in it, then we meet somewhere tomorrow.  Somewhere neutral. Continue this conversation.  Frankly, I don’t want ot see you back here till we know a little more about each other. Trust each other a little more.”

Michael scoffs.  “That’s gonna take some doing.”

“Yeah.” Alex sighs.  “What do you say?”

“Put your gun away first.  Back room, something.  If you untie me, I don’t want you fuckin’ shooting me in the back or something.  And I don’t need you to drive me to my car.”

Alex rolls his eyes. “Yes you do. You’re miles away and it’s getting dark. You don’t know these woods.”

“How do I know you’re not gonna drive me straight to a lab? To your dad?”

Alex winces.  “Fair question. I…” He frowns.  “I’ll leave my gun here.”

“Like you don’t have one in the car, too?”

Alex lifts an eyebrow.  “Not bad, Guerin.  What do you suggest?”

“I… I don’t even know!” Michael says.  “I just, god, I want to get out of here.  Like, I need to not be tied to a damn chair and grilled about things I’ve never told anyone, okay?  But, but I also need answers.  So… I’m gonna give you my word.  I promise not to do anything to hurt you if you let me go.” He swallows.  “I… I wouldn’t do that, Alex.  Not to you, okay?” He thinks he sees… something, in Alex’s eyes, at that.  Something of the Alex he used to know, those many years ago.  “Can you promise the same?”

“Yeah, Michael,” Alex says, softer than before.  “I promise.”