A burning feeling spread in Stephen's chest as he glared back into John's icy gaze. Tensions were still high between them since the "incident" as John thought of it. If Stephen sleeping with Cara could be called such. They could feel that they were seconds from punches being thrown, yet again. But Cara, seeing the impending doom swooped in from across the lair. She stood in between them and looked from one face to the next, and pointedly ignored the anger seeping off of both of them.

"Tim's found another break out. A boy about fourteen has been teleporting into pharmacies and taking all different kinds of prescription meds. We don't have an I.D. yet, but Ultra has definitely caught wind of him," she explained. Her eyes never left John's, she waited patiently for him to break contact with Stephen and look at her. He blinked away the glassy film that covered his grey eyes.

"Where," was all he said as he turned and walked up the stairs, preparing to teleport.

"He hits pharmacies all within a ten mile radius of each other," here, these apartment buildings are roughly at the center, she finished showing John and Stephen where to go. John looked at her and she didn't have to read his mind to get the angry message, he's coming. She almost smirked but caught herself and kept the walls up, they couldn't know what she was going to try. Stephen stood silently by waiting patiently for them stop their silent discussion he was no longer a part of. Russell jogged up to the trio.

"Are we leaving yet?" he asked smiling as he disappeared. Cara and John quickly followed suit. Stephen felt the surge of raw power explode as he teleported, he stumbled a bit arriving not even a second after he jumped. His fingertips tingled as he looked around. A light wind cut through his thin jacket and t-shirt. The deserted road left him with the strange feeling of being utterly alone.

Cara and Russell were heading off around the front of the dilapidated apartment building. Stephen turned and locked eyes with John, again.

"I'm stuck with you," he said, we're starting from the roof . In a flash he was gone, to the roof no doubt. Stephen groaned aloud as his long day partnered with John ran through his mind. I'd almost rather be working with Ultra, he thought as he looked to the roof and teleported.

The gravel crunched beneath his sneakers as he reappeared, the light wind from the road level was a beast undisrupted up on the roof. It cut into Stephen's body like a knife. He quickly surveyed his surroundings and found no one except John. Who was quickly walking away. Stephen nearly had to run to catch up to him.

As Cara searched for the kid she was also keeping an eye on the children on the roof. She discreetly prodded at their minds and could feel how close they were to snapping. She wondered how much she could try until they realized she was tampering, they weren't like humans of course, eventually they would feel her presence if she wasn't careful enough. She skimmed a little closer and felt the cold dark walls that surround John's mind, the anger he was feeling shielded Cara from him. All she wanted to do was ease some of the hate they felt for each other, she didn't need to break the walls down, she had never been able to do that, but just touch upon the outer most layer. Stephen was much easier to feel. He was all emotion and swirling thought, he could keep you out when he tried, better than most, but right now he wasn't even shielding himself.

She touched both minds, tried to calm them slowly. Their anger started to wane into background annoyance, she pushed a little harder. All the fighting between them was only tearing the whole group apart, and she couldn't take any more of their bickering. She tried to alter how each felt about the other, only slightly of course, give them an opportunity to bond, mend their shaky friendship. She tried to push one step further.

John and Stephen walked unaware of Cara's poking and prodding. They glared at everything and would immediately look away if their eyes met. They were on the sixth floor practically shoulder to shoulder when their anger eased. They stepped into the routine they were forming before everything happened. John was the reserved leader and Stephen the reckless new recruit. When their eyes met again they held the gaze, the hate was nearly gone, replaced by some understanding of each other they told themselves they didn't have. Stephen slowly opened his mouth and was on the verge of saying something, anything to break the silence.

A blinding searing pain erupted into their heads. Cara reeled from the pain, it was stronger for her. The connection she held to John and Stephen burnt like a fuse, severing her hold. The unknown power crippled her and Russell on the second floor landing. Her mind became a wasteland of white noise and bright lights. She could no longer telepathically feel John or Stephen on the roof, or even Russell right next to her. She could not even warn them of the horde of Ultra operatives converging on the building.

Stephen felt the ripping explosion when some connection broke, the pain numbing his mind intensified the feeling. He tried to pull himself up, the pain eased as he stood. He knew this sensation. It was the new gadget from Ultra to incapacitate Tomorrow People to apprehend them with greater ease. He knew that it only had a certain range, he thought the higher we go we might get out its range. He looked to John who was struggling to stand, he quickly reached out and grabbed onto the collar of his jacket, pulling him back with him as he teleported to the roof. They crashed down onto the familiar gravel, John landed heavily on top of Stephen, whose hand still tightly gripped his collar. The both groaned as they hit.

The white pain was only a dull throb so high up. John tried to blink away the black dots the covered his vision as he stood, "This is that new machine you were talking about?" he quickly questioned Stephen who still laid on his back trying to catch his breath. John extended his hand to the brown haired mess wincing on the ground. Stephen raised his eyebrow as he took the open hand. A light current seemed to pass between the men, they quickly let go, not acknowledging the feeling.

"Yeah, we have to get Cara and Russell out quickly. If left exposed for too long, it could leave permanent damage," I'll get Russell you get Cara, move as fast as you can, if we get caught in it we're screwed, period. John nodded to the words spoken in his head. They disappeared together and passed through the landing never fully stopping, grabbing a body each as they went. They both crashed into the lair with their hitch hikers in tow. As human Ultra agents stomped onto the landing continuing the sweep of the building, not stopping to think that who they were looking for were just there.

With her mind out of the wasteland Cara slowly began to understand her surroundings. Everything was sensory overload, the soft voices were like screams in her ears and the lights the sun. She wanted to curl up into a ball and wait it out but someone was tugging at her to get up, pulling her into his strong, safe arms. She didn't even need to look to know it was John who carried her. She let her mind go blank as she sunk into a deep sleep.

John laid Cara softly onto their bed. It was hidden in a room off some long corridor. The sheets were a dark blue satin, nearly black, stolen in their earlier days, along with the metal headboard the consisted of thick horizontal bars and squares. He chuckled thinking of them trying to get the headboard down there. His eyes drifted to her face, he gently pushed the hair from it. In the back of his mind the slightest of tugs couldn't really by felt, but he turned to look at the door anyway, Stephen jumped into his mind, he didn't even know if he was okay. John quickly leaned in and kissed Cara on the fore head and turned to teleport into the main hall of the lair. He stepped into the space that was nearly empty.

Stephen was leaned over one of the couches, Russell lay there sleeping just like Cara. John? John looked up from Russell into the piercing blue eyes that had held his gaze so often lately. Cara? He questioned John. Sleeping, was all John could respond.

"I have to - ," Stephen said as he motioned to the "entrance".

"Go," John replied as they nodded to each other in the same understanding from earlier. Where did the anger go, John wondered as he watched Stephen leave. He stood with his arms crossed in the center of his home, surrounded by his people, yet he couldn't stop the feeling of being alone as Stephen disappeared at the top of the stairs. It was almost as if there was a physical ache where Stephen's presence was. John reached out experimentally and touched Stephen's mind for a second and was filled with a spreading warmth he had begun to feel around the guy. He snapped back immediately as if burned. He'd look into that weird feeling another day.

Stephen collapsed onto his bed fully clothed, shoes and all. He was so mentally drained, he felt empty. The day was only half gone but he was done. His phone vibrated in his pocket, a text message, it took him five minutes to even build up the strength to read it. Even then he didn't respond. He rolled over onto his back kicked off his shoes and passed out. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was the deep look from John as he left.

Soft hands ran over Stephen's bare chest, with nails scraping down to the hem of his pants, one finger dipping in. Then it was gone, replaced by a kiss to his throat, he swallowed hard not wanting to open his eyes and ruin the dream, he knew he was dreaming. His breathing increased when another kiss was placed on his collar bone, than the center of his chest, just above his belly button, and finally above the hem of his pants. He could feel the blood pumping through his body, himself getting harder. Then the kisses stopped for a moment. Stephen scolded himself for becoming too aware of the fact he was dreaming thus ruining it all. But then a kiss was placed above his belly button again, yet it was different from the last. Stubble scrapped up his chest as a tongue dragged up the dip where his muscles met, only stopping at the hollow of his throat. Stephen's breath hitched as an open mouth kiss was laid on his throat sucking a mark into the skin. As the pain coupled with pleasure Stephen threw his head back and a sound he didn't know he could make escaped his parted lips.

His eyes flew open wide, he tried to push the person up to see who it was. John stared him down evenly. Lust clouded his face. Stephen tried to move back out of shock but his headboard stopped him. John leaned in slowly and caught Stephen's face in a calloused hand, he attacked the lips he was just hungrily staring at. A current of electricity flowed between them, igniting a flame in them both. Stephen stopped resisting and melted into John's touch. His other hand traveled down Stephen's side pull lightly at his pants. Stephen opened his mouth to breath and allowed John to slip in and explore. He ran his tongue first over Stephens bottom lip than deeper into his mouth dominating him. John nipped and pulled at Stephen's lip. His hips bucked up and ground into the hard heat of John.

Stephen sat up in a whirl, sweat covered his body, he groaned as he looked to his jeans. They were very uncomfortably locking him in. He fell back onto the bed and unbuttoned and unzipped his pants releasing his throbbing boner. He kicked his pants completely off and tore his shirt off. He let his arms fall across his face. John? He asked the empty room. His breathing was still labored and his dick was starting to hurt, he needed to release. One hand traveled down to his boxers, he hesitated trying to picture anything but John. Not his dirty blonde hair, or reserved look, or the feeling of his stubble as he licked from belly button to neck. Stephen started to work himself through his boxers, his dream still vivid in his mind.

John began to stir from a deep sleep, if he dreamed he didn't know. He was still in the place between sleep and consciousness. He began to feel warm, hot even. He turned over onto his other side away from Cara's still form trying to cool off. He started to slip back into true sleep when he swore he could feel someone rub his groin. He began to grow hard. His mind was waking up but his body wasn't making sense.

Stephen felt a dull wakefulness in the back of his mind that he ignored. He slipped his hand into his boxers a grasped himself.

John could feel a hand around his now hard dick, a low moan slipped from both of their lips. John shot up, fully awake and aching hard. He had felt Stephen, been in his head, he was the one, with his hand, wrapped around, another groan tumbled from their parted lips.

Stephen stroked himself slowly at first wanting to build up to it. He raised his hips and pushed his boxers just passed his ass with his other hand. Completely exposed he began to pick up speed. John's head bobbing up and down on him pulled him along, Stephen would have flinched at the image his mind was creating, not taken from the dream, but he felt too good to care. He quickened his pace again thrusting into his hand, seeing John take him to the hilt.

"Stop!" a raged voice croaked out as air swirled around the room. Stephen released himself with a start and jumped back. John was looking at him with tired hungry eyes, his disheveled hair implied he was sleeping just before appearing. Stephen was too shocked to speak, he felt like he was caught doing something dirty, which he was using John as material to get off, "Can't you sense it?" he continued, "You're in my head, even now…I can feel everything you were doing!" he choked out. Stephen finally looked down and saw the bulge in John's pants, the wet circle on the fabric. Stephen looked to his exposed erection, leaking, and back to John who had followed his gaze. John looked away for a minute, breathing heavily, almost as if he was being shy, but not really, he seemed to decide.

He moved to Stephen on the bed, who was also breathing heavy. They both saw how the other's muscles clenched, released, and it turned them both on all the more. Stephen realized the dull awareness in the back of his head was surging forward. He felt all of John without touching him. He could feel a connection he had always had but refused to acknowledge. He pushed his boxers completely off as John's weight on the bed made the springs squeak. Their eyes never left each other as John nudged in between Stephen's legs, as he pushed his sweatpants down below his throbbing erection. Their breathing was labored yet they were barely touching. John grasped them both in his fist and the pure pleasure of skin on skin, they moaned. Stephen moved first thrusting into John's fist, rubbing against the other man's dick. Neither of them had done this before, but it felt so natural between them. Their minds were exchanging every sensation as they thrusted together. They could feel what the other was feeling completely.

"John!" Stephen breathed out as he gripped the arm by his head, John knew what he was trying to say, he could feel it too. Stephen's other hand scrunched the sheets into his fist as his balls tightened and he came onto both of their chests. John came right along with him. Their minds were blank with the high of orgasm. A few more thrusts to ride it out and John rolled off of Stephen to collapse next to him in the bed.

They laid their silently as their heart rates returned to normal, feeling each other out. They could mentally catalogue every pin prick, every finger, the stretch of an arm, every sensation from both of their bodies.

"Should I be able to?" Stephen began cautiously.

"Feel every part of me, no," John finished.

"Do you?"

"Feel every part of you? How do you think this started?" John's hand fell from his face and landed in between their dirty sweat and com covered bodies. His hand brushed against Stephen's, a dual sensation spread through them both, they slowly intertwined their fingers and looked the opposite way.