Sometimes being the only competent chemist at Van Eck Enterprises really kind of sucks, because it means Wylan is worked like an ox, despite being the only heir to his father's company. By the time he reaches his crappy apartment, he's so tired he falls asleep as soon as he reaches some semblance of a mattress.
Today he's so tired he starts hallucinating, seeing someone else's face in his mirror. He doesn't think anything of it until the face says, "Huh."
Wylan sighs and turns away only to find that he isn't in his bathroom anymore, he's at an expensive but sparsely decorated flat with ridiculously large windows. "What the..." He rubs his eyes and when he opens them he's staring at his tub. He runs a hand through his hair. "Gotta ask for a vacation," he mutters, barely making it into his bed before he passes out.
He doesn't think much of the incident, just goes back to work the next day and tries to act like everything's normal. He visits the WebMD site over his lunch break and doesn't make it past typing "f" into the search box. "It was nothing," he mutters, turning his phone off, "just need more sleep." Fucking Todd gives him a smug look over his yoghurt and Wylan tosses his apple in the trash can and walks out of the building.
The man from the mirror is sitting in his passenger seat. "Fascinating," the man says when he sees Wylan approaching, which is something that he shouldn't be able to hear because the mystery man is inside his car, and Wylan is outside. He warily opens the door and sits. The man reaches across the seat and pokes his cheek while he's turning the car on, repeating, "Fascinating."
Wylan pauses for a few seconds, then pokes the other man in the eye, reasoning that he can't feel it anyway. "Interesting," he says in a monotone. The man sniffs, affronted, and Wylan goes back to turning the car on.
The passenger seat is empty when he looks back at it, but he, whatever the fuck he is, appears again in the bathroom mirror and in his bed; Wylan sleeps on the couch for the rest of the week.
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It takes four more...visits after that for them to accept that this might be real and another two for them to learn each other's names. In that time, Wylan learns that they mystery man is named Kuwei and that he's isn't bad company when he's not being...well, him. Wylan figures he could've done worse in terms of soulmates or imaginary friends or whatever the fuck this is, especially considering how much time they spend together.
Most days Kuwei sits in the passenger seat of Wylan's car and rides with him to and from work and if he's feeling particularly bored, he follows Wylan to the bathroom to listen to Wylan curse Todd to hell and back in Irish, a language that Kuwei somehow understands despite never having been to Ireland.
When Wylan asks why Kuwei always seems to be near, he just shrugs. "I'm always bored." Wylan gets the feeling that there's more to it than Kuwei lets on, but he doesn't get the chance to ask again because Kuwei's decided that he wants to play twenty questions. "Where are you?"
Wylan frowns. "You know where I am. I'm in my apartment."
"No, I mean where are you? Like, in the world?"
"Oh." Wylan blinks, debating what to say, before he settles on, "Dublin. Ireland. You?"
"Seoul," Kuwei says after a long moment. "Korea."
Wylan hesitates before asking, "Which Korea." Kuwei shoots him a dark glare and he laughs weakly. "Just kidding." To fill the silence that follows, he asks, "What do you do? For a living, I mean."
"I'm...unemployed," Kuwei answers carefully. "But I used to be a scientist."
Wylan doesn't pry, just says, "I'm a scientist too."
Kuwei perks up at that and Wylan wonders at how real he is, for a hallucination. "How is it?" Kuwei asks, eyes bright, "I mean...do you like it?"
He considers his job, the long hours, the indifference of his father, his ridiculous coworkers. "Exhausting, but...worth it," he says, and realizes that it's true. (Although it would be more worth it his father wasn't the CEO and if they gave him a decent amount of sick leave.)
Kuwei relaxes into the seat, satisfied and leaves when Wylan pulls into the parking lot in front of his complex.
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The next time Kuwei visits, Wylan is far more cheerful than usual. Kuwei narrows his eyes at him but does nothing more as he watches Wylan move from one end of his couch to the other. "I've figured this thing out," Wylan announces as soon as Kuwei's seated. Kuwei raises a questioning eyebrow.
"There's probably a gas leak in here and that's why I've been hallucinating you," Wylan continues. "The inspector's coming on Tuesday." Kuwei begins to laugh. "What?" Wylan asks, frowning.
"I forgot you think I'm fake," Kuwei explains. "You do realize there are others right?"
"Others," Wylan repeats flatly.
"Other headmates. Six of them. We're a cluster or something. At least, that's what Kaz called us, although you can never really trust him."
Wylan stares blankly. "You're just making this up. You're fake," he says, more to himself than Kuwei.
Kuwei shakes his head, still laughing. "We're not fake. The whole thing makes more sense when you meet the others."
"And who else is there?" Wylan asks skeptically.
"There's Jesper, he's...well, I don't really know what he does, but he has a thing about guns, and Matthias is a cop, and Nina and Inej...I don't know what the girls do, but they're nice, you'll like them. Oh and there's Kaz, who's even worse than you. Fucker."
Wylan snorts. "Yeah, ok."
Kuwei smiles. "It's all true. You'll see," he says cryptically. Wylan rolls his eyes as the other man leaves.
The inspector doesn't come until Wednesday night, right as Wylan's about to go to bed. He sweeps the apartment with a detector for thirty minutes at Wylan's insistence before calling it. Wylan's not entirely sure how trustworthy his results are given that he was American and that the detector he was using looked like it was a roll of duct tape.
("Listen here, kid," he says, despite the fact that he looks younger than Wylan is, "the place is clear. No gas, no nothing.")
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They get more comfortable around each other as time goes on. Wylan gets more comfortable sharing personal details with Kuwei, who never fails to point out that the few things he does share are "boring as fuck." Their interactions develop a strange sort of pattern.
Kuwei somehow only visits when Wylan's feeling angry or sad or depressed and just sits until Wylan is composed enough to start a conversation after which Wylan realizes that he's not the only one who needs the company.
He trains himself not to stare at Kuwei too long when he appears in public; he makes himself relax when Kuwei suddenly appears out of nowhere; he makes sure there's no one else around when he talks to Kuwei; when Kuwei replies, his retorts are just sarcastic as Wylan's initial question, if not more.
They start adapting to each other, trying to help each other. Wylan starts taking walks so Kuwei can join him to escape wherever it is he's cooped up at, and Kuwei disappears for days at a time when the circles under Wylan's eyes get darker than usual.
It's still not the most convenient thing in the world to have a...head-mate or whatever the fuck Kuwei is, but its fine. Wylan can deal. At least, until the others show up.
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Nina Zenik visits in the middle of a board meeting that he snuck into; somehow he knows it's her as soon as she appears. He jumps when he sees her and ends up spilling hot coffee all over the pristine tablecloth. A board member yelps and leaps away from the table as Nina smirks and raises an eyebrow.
His father gives him the boot two seconds later, making sure that Wylan understands he's looking at demotion but Wylan doesn't really care. He doesn't care much about anything anymore; everything pales in comparison to this.
"Wylan," she says after the elevator doors have closed. He doesn't know if it's meant to be a question.
"Nina," he responds. She smiles. They ride the elevator down together and when they walk out to the car Kuwei is in the passenger seat, like always with a glass of water that Wylan knows is not his. His only response to seeing Nina is to blink. Nina does a half-nod thing in response and climbs in the back.
Half way to his house, Kuwei says, "I told you so." Wylan tips the glass, making sure all of the water spills as Kuwei glares and Nina laughs from the backseat.
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None of the others visit until a few months after Nina and he thanks Ghezen for that, Kuwei and Nina are a handful all on their own, but he finds out more about the others through Nina and Kuwei than he thinks he would've by meeting them. He feels some of them too, late at night; or maybe it's only one of them he can't be sure.
"We're all spread out. I can't decide if I like it or not," Nina says one day, more talkative than she usually is. "Matthias is in Scandinavia, close to me, Inej is in India and no one knows where the fuck Kaz is, but we're sure it's not a good place."
Wylan considers asking where Nina is and then decides against it as he realizes she forgot one of his supposed headmates. ("Cluster," Kuwei had said, with something close to reverence in his gaze.) He bites his lip. "And Jesper?" The name sends a shiver down his spine; colors dance across his vision: deep purples and blues.
Nina gets a strange gleam in her eyes. "We're not sure where he is either," she says, carefully watching Wylan's face, "which means he's probably with Kaz." Wylan hums trying to dispel the colors and sounds and feelings and get back to his research.
She watches him turn the microscope's knobs before continuing. "You know, Jesper asks about you too."
Wylan freezes for a few seconds and then starts fiddling with the slide, mainly because he's afraid of what he'll say if he's left unoccupied. "Oh?" he says slowly, trying his best to avoid Nina's sharp gaze.
"Mm-hmm. All the damn time. The others do too, although I suppose that's my fault for telling the others so much about you, but you can't blame them for that. They're curious; Kaz says that's normal in a new cluster."
All thoughts of this Jesper go flying out of his head. "Kaz knows what's happening to us?"
Nina nods. "We're not sure how, but he definitely isn't keen on telling us anytime soon, that bastard." Wylan turns back around, scowling. Bastard indeed, he thinks. He swears he can hear a warm laugh in response.
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Kaz visits him on his way to the grocery store. He's in the car watching Kuwei and Nina argue about the nature of their bonds, Nina's sharp tone combining with the drier timbre of Kuwei's to give him the beginnings of what he knows will be an awful headache, when Kaz just appears in his passenger seat and says, "Jesus fucking Christ," staring impassively.
He takes another few seconds to listen to them squabble before turning in his seat with a shake of the head and Wylan thanks Ghezen that he isn't like the other two. "Van Eck," Kaz says turning to him with a strange glint in those dark eyes of his. Kuwei and Nina suddenly go silent.
"I'm not my father," Wylan says, confused as to why he's justifying himself to man he barely knows. "I..." he trails off, not knowing what else to say.
Kaz tilts his head appraisingly. "True," he states, in the same dispassionate tone. "Or at least, you seem to think so."
There's something knowing in the gaze that lands on his office ID, too knowing. "Have I met you?" Wylan asks. Kaz says nothing. The car is so silent that he can hear all of their breathing. "Did you...do you know my father?" Wylan continues. The corner of Kaz's lips quirk up into a nearly imperceptible smirk and then Wylan blinks and he's gone.
Wylan turns wide-eyed, to Nina and Kuwei in the backseat. "Fucking hell." Nina lets out a weak laugh and Kuwei sinks into the seats silently.
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The rest of the month goes pretty much the same way. Kuwei and Nina pop in at odd hours to annoy the fuck out of him and Kaz watches apathetically from a dark corner for a few seconds before vanishing.
Sometimes he sticks around to make some rude sarcastic remark that Nina will respond to just as rudely, usually with a few hands gestures and Kuwei will roll his eyes and steal some of Wylan's food only to realize he can't eat when he's visiting.
On the rare occasion that one them visits alone Wylan grills them for information about his condition. He learns that Kuwei only responds if Wylan plies him with a promise to let him taste every Irish breakfast cereal he can find, Kaz never answers verbally, and Nina can and will talk about this forever because she's the only one of them (besides Kaz) that knows anything about worth talking about.
"We're called sensates. There are seven of us, or at least seven that we know of," Nina says. "We're called a cluster."
"And are there more? Clusters I mean."
Nina shrugs. "Kuwei's been trying to find evidence of others online but he's got nothing so far."
"What does Kaz think about that? The two of you trying to find information on your own."
Nina shrugs. "If he has any thoughts, he hasn't voiced them to us."
Wylan switches tacks, realizing that she's not going to say anything more. "What's the science behind all of this? There's no way this is magic; it's probably a brain thing."
"I knew you'd ask about that," Nina says, grinning. She turns around walks into his meager excuse of a living room and when Kuwei follows he's in a pastel-painted restaurant with flowers everywhere. He blinks. "I don't know anything about that kind of stuff," Nina says around a mouthful of chocolate waffle as he whirls around. He blinks when he realizes he's back in his flat again. "Ask Kuwei."
Wylan wrinkles his nose. "Kuwei doesn't talk," he says petulantly to empty air as Nina leaves. Her bright laugh rings in his ears for a few seconds after.
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Wylan spends the next few days (and nights) researching everything he can think of. None of it pans out. Somehow, even in the middle of this, Nina decides that she's in charge of his social life. "What do you even do?" she asks one day, rifling through his fridge. (This seems to be a recurring theme with his cluster.)
Wylan sighs, resigns himself to the pillaging of his fridge, and climbs onto one of the countertops. "You know what I do. I'm a chemist for my father's company."
"I did know that," Nina says, "and now I also know that's the most boring job anyone could have. Do you even do actual chemistry?" She hands him a tin of biscuits.
He opens it and eats one and smiles at Nina's delighted squeal. "Good aren't they?" Nina nods vehemently. "I do science...sometimes."
Nina tuts sympathetically. "Oh you poor thing. You need a boyfriend."
Wylan stands at that. "You know I'm...?"
"Of course," Nina says. "You don't really do much to hide it you know," she says, giving him a pointed once-over. "Flannel? Really?"
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He meets Matthias on his day off which pisses him off a lot, but not nearly as much as it must annoy Matthias if the sudden anger he feels is anything to go by. He's walking to a coffee shop a few blocks away only when he rounds the corner he's no longer in Dublin. He freezes. "Huh," he says, turning in a circle as he watches the snow fall slowly.
When he turns back to the street, there's a blond Viking-looking man glaring at him from the next block over. Wylan trudges forward, trying to ignore the snow that's slowly making its way up his pants but the other man turns and stalks away in the other direction so fast that Wylan has no hope of catching up.
He asks Kuwei about it the next time he visits. His answer is delivered with far more cheer than Wylan is used to hearing from Kuwei. "You met Matthias! He and Kaz almost never let anyone in."
Wylan frowns. "He didn't seem like he was letting me in. Turned and walked the other way when he saw me," Wylan mutters.
"Yes, he is quite a grump," Kuwei agrees, more cheerfully than Wylan's ever seen him, holding up a half-eaten bar of chocolate with a pleading look. "Almost like you."
Wylan makes a face, takes a bite of the chocolate and says, "Nina told me you were doing research on this. Us, I mean, and I wanted to know if you knew anything about the neurological cause of this."
Kuwei pointedly looks at the chocolate bar and Wylan rolls his eyes and takes another bite. "Something to do with psycellium? It's some sort of fringe science thing. Apparently in most humans it's an inactivated part of the brain, although I'll need brain scans to determine the credibility of that information."
"Well you're a scientist right?" Wylan asks, reaching for his laptop. "Take a brain scan."
"I also recall mentioning I was an unemployed scientist," Kuwei says, his face suddenly going blank.
"So what? All you need is access to an MRI. Just check into a hospital or something."
Kuwei winces and looks off into the distance. "In my current situation that would be very...unwise."
Wylan studies him for a few seconds. "You're not just unemployed are you?" Kuwei walks out of the room quietly without giving anything away. When Wylan moves to follow Kuwei is nowhere to be found.
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A couple weeks after this very perplexing interaction, Matthias appears in the backseat of his car in between Nina and Kuwei. Kuwei chirps, "Hello!" in the highest voice Wylan's ever heard him use and Matthias, very begrudgingly it seems, gives him a small but sincere smile in return.
Nina, however, very pointedly ignores him and goes back to extolling the praises of chocolate waffles. "You can't ignore me forever," Matthias growls out of the blue twenty minutes later. Kuwei and Wylan jump, startled. Nina ignores him.
"Nina," Matthias says, moving closer to her. Nina proceeds to raise her voice as Wylan stares in what is slowly changing from shock to horror.
(If he'd had any idea that being part of a cluster meant having to sit through at least four seasons of hetero drama condensed into a few months, he would've said no faster than he could blink.)
"Nina." When Nina starts talking even louder Matthias huffs, glares at Wylan like this is somehow his fault, and then leaves.
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This happens at least once every week, and if the universe is feeling particularly cruel, up to three times. Never once do Nina and Matthias give any sort of hint as to what this whole ordeal is about but every time, Matthias leaves dissatisfied, Nina stays dissatisfied, and Kuwei seems strangely unaffected by it all which baffles Wylan.
It is nearly impossible to shut out Nina and Matthias' feelings now that he's been introduced to the clusterfuck that is their relationship, but oh does he wish he could when he wakes up in the middle of the night for the tenth time in three weeks, feeling hopelessness so potent he nearly punches a wall.
"Stop it Matthias," he growls, trying to shake it off. It doesn't stop. "Matthias."
All of a sudden, everything becomes washed over in a deep of shade of purple-blue and he realizes who this must be. "Jesper," he breathes. "Jesper?"
The feeling abates slowly and he sucks in a slow breath. "Hello, man in my head." A familiar laugh echoes around the room and he laughs too, more than a little hysterical.
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Wylan goes on a vacation for two months after he's introduced to Matthias. Tells his superiors he needs some "me-time" which is only sort of true, and because of the fact that he hasn't taken a single vacation in six years, they let him go.
He spends the next two months with Kaz, slowly wheedling out tips on blocking the others out and information on clusters and sensates. Kaz gives him the bare minimum, just repeats everything he's already learned from Kuwei.
When he complains to Kuwei and Nina because he knows Matthias won't have it, they shrug. "You're probably better off asking Inej at this point. She's the only one who can get Kaz to tell her anything worth knowing. You'll see...when she decides to show up."
He also learns as much as he can about Jesper. Jesper's some kind of gunslinger, he knows this much for sure, and apparently a very good one. The others tell him that they've figured out he's with Kaz, which he's learned could be anywhere. He's friends with all of them; he braids Nina's hair and indulges Kuwei and gets Matthias to use words with more than one syllable.
And there's also, "He will not stop asking about you," Nina says, trying to sound annoyed. "It's cute and I love you but honestly, the two of you need to let up. I can only visit you so many times before it becomes awkward."
Kuwei hums in agreement from his perch on the couch. "I concur. There are thin lines between cute, annoying, and nauseating and the two of you have crossed all of them."
"We didn't do anything to you, what have you got to be annoyed about?" Wylan asks, part affronted part...giddy.
"Jesper just agreed with you in my head," Nina says raising a pointed eyebrow.
"So?" Wylan says. He comes across more defensive than curious.
"He doesn't know what you said," Matthias answers dryly. Wylan looks away.
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The same thing happens again that night. Unlike the last time, he knows almost immediately that it isn't Matthias keeping him up this late; Matthias' feelings are loud, pushy and they usually disappear in a few minutes.
What he feels now is chronic, an ache that won't go away no matter how many times he tries to dispel it. "Please go to sleep," he pleads, turning over on his side.
He feels something indignant from the other end. I'm trying, they seem to say.
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"Wylan," Kaz says, appearing on Wylan's countertop while he's rummaging through his fridge for a midnight snack.
"Jesus Christ," Wylan says, fumbling with a Tupperware container for a few seconds before whirling around with narrowed eyes. "Give a guy a warning would you?"
"I need you to do something," Kaz says, ignoring Wylan's admonishment.
"Maybe apologize for barging into my house first?" Wylan says, voice high. Kaz stares at him blankly. Wylan groans quietly. "What is this for?"
"Us." Wylan tilts his head, confused. "Nina didn't tell you?" Wylan's brow furrows.
Kaz sighs. "There's...a lot going on right now. We...we're being hunted," he says, running a hand over his face and it is then that Wylan realizes how young the other boy is, how tired he must be. He can't be older than Wylan himself, and yet here he is, dark circles and too-prominent bones.
He's been protecting them, he realizes; Kaz's infuriating secretiveness and ever-present apathy are all part of an effort to keep them safe. "You...We're being hunted? By who?" Wylan asks, setting the Tupperware down.
"BPO. The Biologic Preservation Organization," Kaz says, somehow managing to make BPO sound like chamber pot, or something equally as disgusting. "No government ties which means no oversight. Like a certain conglomerate we know," he says pointedly.
"Van Eck Industries," Wylan says, eyes wide. Kaz nods. "What do you need me to do?"
Kaz inclines his head, eyes shining with the promise of danger, of damage. "We need you to get into the shipping records."
"Why?"
"We think that your father's involved in their transport efforts somehow."
"My father?" Kaz remains silent. Wylan shakes his head vehemently. "No, he wouldn't, he wouldn't."
"Jan Van Eck and his associates have done much worse," Kaz says sharply, "and you know it." Wylan deflates at that, because he does know. (He is six. There is a man in his father's office, which means Wylan's not supposed to go in because Papa's doing Official Business, but he's missing a blue crayon so he's sure Papa won't mind. The door slips open and all of a sudden the man is screaming-)
"Will you help us or not?" Kaz asks, his voice quiet but hard. Wylan inhales shakily, thinks of Nina's bright laugh, Kuwei's sharp wit, Matthias's quiet strength and Jesper. He nods.
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Next Monday brings him to the threshold of Van Eck headquarters in Dublin. All of his coworkers give him strange looks but they're all too accustomed to his strange hours and fluctuating work ethic so they let him pass.
He grabs a roll of aluminum foil from the break room and turns down a restricted hallway where Nina slips in, takes the reins and tosses everyone bright smiles (as him) while she lifts their badges and then Kuwei takes her place, wraps them twice in aluminum foil and raises an eyebrow when Wylan rolls his eyes. "Do you want to die because you couldn't be bothered to take a few seconds to create a proper Faraday cage?"
Wylan stops in his tracks, the word die rattling around his brain. "Kuwei?" Kuwei stops too. "Thank you."
Kuwei snorts. "Don't thank me. You're the only one who can actually die here."
Wylan makes a face. "Thanks, I really needed to be reminded of that again." Kuwei smirks.
"He's doing you a favor," Kaz says, materializing near the locked door a couple meters away from them. Kuwei makes a noise and Wylan swears and startles so badly he nearly drops the aluminum foil.
"That's not going to help you," Kaz says, nonchalantly, pulling lock picks from who knows where. The door is open a few seconds later. Wylan and Kuwei can't do anything but stare.
"Knew I shouldn't have trusted you," Matthias says gruffly a few seconds later from behind Wylan. Nina says nothing, but her body language conveys her agreement.
"You also know you don't have a choice," Kaz says stepping closer. Matthias takes a small step back. Kaz smirks and flicks his wrist, turning to Wylan. "Go on then, Carrots," he says, and not for the first time, Wylan gets the feeling Kaz knows something he doesn't. He walks in to see what must be a million boxes, stacked so high they nearly reach the ceiling and groans.
He spends ten minutes going through a box before he realizes there's no way his father hasn't digitized at least some of this. He takes another ten minutes to find it, five more to print the records with Kuwei pacing nervously behind him and another minute to skim through them, and when he does his heart sinks.
"Kaz was right," he says, sitting on a box. "My father wants me dead."
"Oh, Wylan," Nina says, wrapping him in a one-armed hug.
He shrugs her off after a few seconds. "We don't have time for this," he says flatly. "Let's go." Nina nods.
But of course, just when he thinks this might actually work, an alarm goes off. "Fuck," he breathes, hurriedly folding the records and stuffing them into his coat pockets.
"How'd this happen?" Nina says, panicked.
"We don't know," Kaz says, "but Wylan?" Wylan stops moving. "You need to get out of this building." Wylan is running before Kaz even finishes the sentence, shoving open the doors and bolting down the hallway, coattails flying behind him. It isn't enough.
"Sir," he hears, right as he's about to turn into the lobby, "you need to stop." He doesn't, and for his trouble he gets slugged in the chest.
Except it's not a punch, he realizes, that loud bang, means...he's been shot. He's been shot for trying to steal shipping manifests of all things. He nearly stops and falls to the ground right there, oh he wants to but the others need him.
So he keeps moving, sluggishly finding his way to the nearest exit and stumbling for a few meters before collapsing in an alley.
Nina sinks to her knees beside him. "Wylan."
"I'm fine," he says, waving his hand in the air to prove that he still can. "See? I'm-" His vision starts to blur and he hears Nina call his name but he can't move, can't breathe-
And then he hears another voice. "Hey Carrots," they say. Their voice is like honey as they place a hand on his cheek and Wylan wants to sink into that warmth and never move. "You gotta stay awake."
"I am awake," Wylan mumbles indignantly.
The person laughs, low and warm and all of a sudden Wylan realizes who this is: his 2 AM visitor. He tries to sit up clumsily ("Wylan, be careful-"). "Jesper," he says, fumbling for the other man's hand, "Jesper?"
"That's right, Sunshine." Jesper takes his hand and squeezes and Wylan knows that he's going to be fine.
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He wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed, Nina on one side, Kuwei on the other. "Where..." he starts, sitting up as much as he can and promptly doubling over in a coughing fit.
Kuwei hands him a glass of water. "You're in the hospital. The bullet's out; the doctors said it was a through and through. You should be good in a few days."
Wylan nods. "Jesper?" he asks, looking around and seeing neither Jesper nor security.
Nina's face softens. "He was here for almost ten hours before you woke up but then he had to work."
Wylan's heart sinks. "Oh."
Nina snorts. "You two are ridiculous," she says fondly, not bothering to hide the concern in her gaze. Kuwei nods in agreement. Wylan smiles weakly.
"Don't worry," a girl says from the foot of the bed. Inej, Wylan realizes. "Jesper will be back."
Wylan blinks, taking her in. "It's about damn time." Nina hums, fixing her with a hawk-eyed gaze.
Inej laughs. A few long locks of dark hair slip from her loose bun. "I'm sorry I did not visit sooner," she says. Her voice sounds like music. It's relaxing enough that Wylan sinks back into the sheets. "I had...other things to do."
"What other things?" Nina demands, eyes hard.
Inej meets her gaze coolly. "Necessary things." Nina scoffs. Inej sighs, takes her hand. "Nina," she says softly. Nina turns to face her, stubbornly staring her down. "You have to trust me."
"You know I do," Nina responds in a voice softer than Wylan's ever heard her use. Inej smiles.
"Wylan," Kuwei says, from his side. "Sooner or later, your father's colleagues are going to get suspicious. You're going to have to leave as soon as you can."
"I know."
"Remember," Inej says solemnly, "they can't ever find out what we are."
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He does it at night. Some idiot starts a fire in the waiting room and while they're moving him, Matthias punches the living daylights out of the police officers and steers him out through the back exits where there's a van waiting for him for some reason.
"What-How-" he starts, digging his heels into the ground when Matthias tries to shove him forward.
"Kaz," Matthias says darkly, which is enough of an explanation in and of itself. "Get in." Wylan gets in.
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He winds up back in his apartment anyway. His phone rings as soon as he gets in. "Hello?" he asks.
"Wylan," Kaz says from the other end. He jumps. What the-
"Kuwei found you on the Internet. You need to hurry. Destroy the phone, pack your things and get the fuck out." There's a click and then the dial tone. He considers his options: he could stay and get caught, he could run and get caught or he could trust Kaz. He picks the latter, against his better judgement. ("Cluster is like family," Nina had said.)
The next few hours are surreal. He packs everything he can think of: passport, documents, money, clothes, food, his laptop all while moving faster than he ever has in his life. He takes the battery and the SIM out of the phone and crushes all three with his shoe.
The others pop in periodically to remind him that he needs to keep moving, has to get as far away as he can.
He hides out in an Internet cafe for a few hours while he books himself a plane ticket to London and then turns off the tracking shit and takes out the battery, making a mental note to ask Kuwei to transfer the data.
Something else comes up before he leaves though. "I need your help," Matthias says shortly, appearing by the door of his squat.
"Something wrong?" he asks, standing up.
Matthias hesitates and Wylan knows almost immediately that something has happened. "I...don't know. Someone put something in my food but I can't tell what it is."
"Have you already ingested it?" Wylan asks.
Matthias nods. "Something's not right," he says. It's the first time Wylan has heard him sound anything but annoyed and Wylan needs to help him, but he can't because of course, right when he needs to visit his cluster his brain subconsciously decides that he doesn't actually need to.
"I'm...I can't," he says, staring down at his hands.
"Oh..." Matthias trails off, frowning. "It's a sedative," he slurs, collapsing.
"Kaz!" he calls as Matthias disappears, "Jesper!" He hears them wake up, follow the noise and prays to every god he knows to keep Matthias safe.
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Jesper visits while he's packing for his flight. "Matthias is okay. Kuwei told us what to do."
"You're sure?" he asks. Jesper nods. Wylan lets out a sigh of relief. "That's good," he says, viciously chucking everything back into the duffle he brought with him when he ran away from his apartment.
"Wylan-"
"I have to go," Wylan says, avoiding Jesper's quiet gaze.
"Wylan. You have to talk about this," Jesper says. His voice never goes above a whisper and Wylan realizes that Jesper's scared too; they all are. He can feel them in his mind, worry and helplessness crowding out everything else
Wylan holds his gaze and nods. "I promise I'll talk later."
Jesper nods and takes Wylan's hand. Wylan sucks in a breath, watching Jesper; everything feels...more, now. He can hear everything and nothing at the same time; his skin feels like it's being poked simultaneously by a thousand needles and the pain-pleasure does things to brain that impede his speech.
"Be safe," Jesper says, letting his hand fall away. "Promise me you'll be careful?"
Wylan nods. "Promise."
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Kaz is waiting for him when he lands. Under any other circumstance, this would be momentous-seeing one of his cluster in person is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to him, even more so than being shot, but it's a little infuriating to see Kaz Brekker everywhere because Kaz is the prickliest fucker he's ever met.
"How the fuck do you always know where I am?" Wylan asks, frustratedly. "Are you stalking me or something?"
The other man cocks his head in response. "We're psychically linked, Wylan; I'm always in your head, and your thoughts are very loud."
Wylan sighs. "Unbelievable," he mutters. "Let's go," he says, gesturing in front of him. Kaz smirks and walks on, his cane quietly tap-tapping against the ground every few seconds. Once they're outside, Wylan shakily asks. "Is Matthias really okay?"
Kaz gives him a long look. "Matthias is fine. He is recuperating well."
"Where the fuck do you get these?" he asks, staring the cherry red convertible currently parked in the airport garage. Kaz smirks at him and gets in. He lets out a low whistle, feeling the tail end of Jesper's appreciation, running a hand over the sleek exterior before tossing the duffle in the back and climbing in the passenger seat.
He tries to turn the radio on a few minutes into the ride but Kaz slaps his hand away. "No," he says, scowling at the road.
"It's way too quiet in here, I just want to fill the silence-"
"The top is down and I can hear the cars; the only way anything would be silent now is if you were deaf," Kaz growls
"But-" Wylan protests.
If I want to listen to music, I will turn the radio on myself," he says, giving Wylan a pointed look despite Wylan's very loud request that he watch the road as the car skids dangerously close to a guardrail.
(Kaz does, in fact, turn the radio on a few minutes after that. He fiddles with the dial for a good minute before settling on a loud rock station that Wylan suspects he picked just to annoy him.)
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Kaz settles him in a hotel room after a conversation with the managerial staff that leaves them pale as milk. "I'm sorry about him," he says, equal parts apologetic, horrified and amused.
"No problem," one of the men says, clearly still in shock. Wylan decides to give them a minute.
The bellhops are the first to snap out of it. One of them points to his bag and asks, "May we take your things sir?" Wylan blinks and nods. The other staff gives him a polite smile and scurries away as Wylan follows the bellhop (CHARLIE, his nametag says) into the elevator.
His jaw drops as soon as he walks into his room; the place is enormous, with columns and massive windows. The bellhop hands his bad and leaves. "What the hell," he breathes, dropping his luggage and leaping onto the bed like he's in some nineties movie.
He takes a minute to revel in the feel of the silk sheets and then he hears a low whistle and bolts upright. "Hey, Sunshine," Jesper says, craning his head to peer at the chandelier.
"Kaz," Wylan says by way of explanation.
Jesper hums. "Of course. You sure you'll be safe?"
Wylan nods. "Almost certain. Kaz spent five minutes threatening the hotel staff."
"Five minutes?" Jesper asks, shooting him an amused look. "Well golly."
Wylan smiles weakly, the fascination wearing off in place of worry; guilt. "Matthias?"
Jesper sighs and sits down next to him on the mattress. "Wylan. This wasn't your fault. Matthias is fine now; he'll be the first to tell you that."
"Matthias is always fine," Wylan says, shaking his head and looking down at his hands, "and it is my fault," he insists. "If I had figured out how to visit him, then he would've been okay sooner."
"I don't think Kuwei appreciates that implication," Jesper teases. Wylan gives him a look. Jesper hesitates for a few seconds then says, "You should probably practice visiting on cue right?"
Wylan perks up at that. "You'd help me?"
Jesper smiles. "We all will." His expression goes a little sour. "Well, except for Kaz."
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Matthias comes at night. "Wylan," he says, as Wylan is getting a glass of water.
Wylan nearly drops the glass. "Fucking-"
"It's not your fault," Matthias says bluntly, frowning. Or, Wylan thinks he's frowning. His beard has gotten so big nowadays that Wylan has to remind himself that Matthias still has a face underneath. "You know that don't you?"
Wylan scoffs. "Stop trying to-to console me or whatever the fuck this is," he says angrily. "This was my fault, if I had-"
"Kuwei found us a couple weeks before you did," Matthias cuts him off coolly. "He didn't learn out how to visit on cue until two months ago." Wylan goes quiet. "It's not your fault." Matthias says. Wylan nods.
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Nina wrinkles her nose when she finally figures out his problem (but not before going through a list of increasingly embarrassing scenarios.) "It's been, like, a year Wy. How have you not learned to do this?"
Wylan glares at her. "I asked you to help me not make me feel even worse," he mumbles.
"Visiting on cue...it's like...a sneeze," Kuwei tells him, mimicking the action. "It builds. For me at least."
Wylan gives him an unimpressed look. "A sneeze," he says flatly. "That's what you're giving me?"
Kuwei adopts a helpless expression. "It is all I have to give," he says, trying to hide his mirth, but there's something else there, a grave kind of truth that Wylan is too tired to try and puzzle out. "Are you sure you've worked everything out up here?" he asks, pointing at his forehead.
"We don't have time for therapy sessions!" Wylan says, frustrated. "Just teach me how to do this shit. What happened with Matthias can't happen again."
"You're still feeling guilty aren't you?" Inej sighs.
"No," Wylan says unconvincingly. Nina shoots him a look, crossing her arms in a way that screams I don't believe you. "Maybe but it doesn't matter if I am because Jesper's already talked to me about it."
"Maybe you haven't talked about it enough," Inej says, giving him a pointed look as Wylan scoffs.
"Or you just need to relax," Nina says. She tilts her her head appraisingly. "You do trust us, don't you?"
"Yeah, of course," Wylan says sincerely. "The six of you saved my life."
"Well, you're not lying," Nina says her brow furrowing, "so there shouldn't be a problem."
"Nina is right," Inej says, hopping onto of his very large countertops. "You need to clear your mind." Wylan makes a frustrated noise. Nina shoots Inej a grin and Inej smiles back, soft like she can't help it.
"Ok," Kuwei says, "so just...imagine a door in your mind, us on the other side, and then imagine opening it." Nina gives him an incredulous look. "What?" Kuwei says indignantly. "Visualization has been effective in other situations."
Wylan closes his eyes and concentrates. When he opens them, he's still standing in the hotel. "Nope," he says, discouraged. Everyone else looks discouraged too.
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He stops trying for a few weeks after that, tells himself it'll come naturally. The other frowns when he tells them but they don't say anything, so he takes that as an ok. It's depressing as fuck. He counteracts the depression with a quart of ice cream and a shit ton of research. He's fine. (He's not.)
The others visit too, which is nice. Kuwei visits when he needs fresh air, although he still won't tell anyone why he would need to psychically travel all the way to London for fresh air; Nina and Inej sometimes settle down next to him when he's in the middle of a movie marathon. Jesper visits late at night, right as Wylan is about to fall asleep and they stay up until 2 AM, although Wylan finds he doesn't mind now.
One day Jesper visits earlier, around midday. "I think I've figured out how to solve your problem."
Wylan cracks open eyelid and then immediately closes it, groaning and rolling over. "I was just wounded," he moans. "I need rest."
Jesper flops down onto the mattress, ignoring his protests. "Your problem is that you're not relaxed enough."
Wylan throws a pillow at him. "I'm plenty relaxed," he says, "and I will be even more so, if I'm allowed to sleep." Jesper casts a pointed look at the sun. Wylan sits up, sighing. "So what, you're going to relax me?" Wylan asks. "How do you plan to do that?"
Jesper tears his gaze away from Wylan's chest and grins. "How about how I show you," Jesper says, eyes shining, leaning forward. Wylan makes a noise and pushes him away.
Jesper laughs and then Wylan can't say anything because Jesper takes his hand and this is all that matters: him standing stock still, toes curling into the plush rug and Jesper, lacing his slim fingers in between Wylan's, watching him with a bright gaze and Wylan can't breathe as every thought that isn't Jesper flies out of his mind.
Clear your mind, Inej had said, relax, and in that moment something clicks. He blinks. When he pulls away he's not standing in the hotel room, except he is. He feels the rug under his feet but he sees dark walls, light filtering in through bright curtains.
"Oh my God," he breathes, stepping away from the other man, looking around at the leather jacket thrown over one arm of the couch, the rack of guns leaning against one wall, the boots placed haphazardly next to the door. "This is your place?" Jesper nods, beaming.
Wylan walks to one of the windows and pulls the bright orange drapes. "That's...the Empire State Building. You're in...New York?"
Jesper nods again, smiling, and holds out a hand. "Wanna go see the others?" Wylan grins and takes it.
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Norway is freezing at six in the morning, but Wylan finds he doesn't mind. The sky is clear and crisp, a soft purple-blue. He can hear the snow crunching under his shoes as he shivers, laughing as the cold air turns his nose red.
He turns slowly, reaching out to catch the snowflakes on his hands as they fall. Jesper laughs, tilting his head back to stare up into the sky.
Matthias is at the end of the street, walking a wolf on a leash, which, even after all of this, is the single most absurd thing Wylan's ever seen. "You're actually here," Matthias says, blinking.
"You know I've been here before," Wylan says, beaming.
"So you have." He is smiling now. The wolf at his side lets out an impatient huff. Matthias murmurs to it something before saying, "Would you like to pet her?"
"What, the wolf?" Wylan asks, taking a step back. "Are you crazy?"
"Oh come on Wylan," Jesper says, stepping past him to carefully put a hand in front of its nose. "Don't tell me you're scared of an overgrown dog."
"That thing is an apex predator, I'm not going near it," he protest, stepping even further back as Jesper strokes its flank, ignoring Matthias' insistence that it's domesticated. Two minutes later, he's got one imaginary hand buried in its fur as the beast whines in something that might be displeasure.
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New York City is loud, almost too bright despite it being almost midnight. Kaz is in front of a computer; the glow of the monitor throws the sharp planes of his face into sharp relief. There are more high-rises reflected in the computer monitor than Wylan has ever seen in his life.
"Go away, Jesper," Kaz says absentmindedly, fingers flying across the keyboard. "I don't have time to clean up your messes today."
"I've come to collect my winnings," Jesper says smugly.
Kaz looks up quickly, gaze flitting from Jesper to Wylan, standing a few steps behind him. "You're here," he says coolly, turning back to his monitor as if nothing has happened.
"I am," Wylan says.
"Pay up," Jesper says, holding out a hand.
"Congratulations Jesper," Kaz says dryly, "your first and only successful bet."
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Nina is still sleeping when they visit; she's sprawled across her mattress, snoring slightly, her blanket half on the floor. Her blinds are open and the city lights turn her pale skin warm shades of yellow and orange.
Everything is quiet outside; the birds chirp and the leaves on the trees rustle and that's about the only thing he can hear. Denmark is relaxing in a way Dublin never could be to him, what with his father breathing down his neck all day.
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India is warmer than everywhere else, which is unsurprising. It's not an unpleasant kind of warmth.
Inej's house is huge, the walls painted a pale orange. A rosebush crawls up the side of one of the walls; potted herbs sit on a windowsill. A courtyard in the middle of the house is almost entirely dedicated to one large mango tree.
The sunlight filtering in through turns everything a bright gold as Inej's family slowly goes about their day. Inej holds a plate in the air, grinning as her siblings try to reach for it. Her father laughs from where he sits as the dining room table and her mother shakes her head as she waters a bush.
"This is," Wylan breathes, craning his neck and closing his eyes.
Jesper hums. "I know."
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Kuwei lives in an all-white flat that Wylan would be inclined to call minimalist, if everything wasn't so haphazardly placed. He can't see much of anything outside; all the windows are boarded up, and the few personal objects that are displayed: photographs, a brightly colored tote bag, are all hidden away, behind too-white furniture, under bedding.
"Huh," Jesper says, blinking.
Wylan looks at him in surprise. "Have you not been to Kuwei's place either?"
"I have." Jesper walks around, glancing at the walls and the floors. "It just looked...different then."
He sighs, running a finger along the edge of the kitchen counter and stopping when he reaches a photograph of a woman, a woman who looks startlingly similar to Kuwei. "Unemployed, my ass," he mutters.
"Something's wrong," Jesper says, gaze going unfocused. "Kuwei should be here."
"Well, he probably is here or we wouldn't have come here, right?" Wylan asks. "Maybe there's somewhere we haven't looked." He eyes a door next to the pantry.
Jesper follows his gaze and mutters a curse under his breath. "Well, go on then," he says, waving a hand at the door. There's a staircase that leads down to a stereotypical basement: dark, damp.
Kuwei is down there, huddled in a corner behind a large tank with an older looking man. It takes them nearly an hour to find him, but only because the basement is huge and they keep having to leave for bathroom breaks. They nearly don't see him, until he moves and a small ray of light that's slipped in through one the holes in the plywood blocking the window catches on Kuwei's sleeve.
"...Kuwei?" Wylan asks, staring incredulously at his clustermate.
Kuwei's eyes go as wide as dinner plates. The man next to him looks between Kuwei and a spot an inch to the left of Jesper. "This is them, isn't it?" he says, sounding a little bit too excited for a man in his situation. "These are the people in your head."
"They shouldn't be here," Kuwei hisses.
"Well we are here," Jesper says, trying to sit down next to Kuwei and pulling Wylan with him.
"And so are the Russians," Kaz says suddenly from somewhere on the other side of the boiler. "You should probably leave."
As Kuwei kicks down a piece of wood in the wall and crawls through, his father close behind, Jesper gets out from behind the tank and asks, "How long have you been here?" Kaz has disappeared by the time Wylan turns the corner.
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By then Kuwei is long gone, so they go home which could be anywhere at this point: Nina's favorite cafe in Denmark, Inej's sunlit courtyard in India, the lake in Norway.
He ends up with Jesper; of course he does. Jesper collapses into his couch as soon as they get back. "I think I'll take a nap," he says, rubbing a hand across his face. The warm light of the lamp on the table next to him spills over his dark skin, softening the hard edges of his face; he looks angelic.
"You're still wearing combat boots and all of the rest of your clothes. You can't sleep like that," Wylan says, leaning awkwardly against a wall.
Jesper opens one eye, grinning devilishly. "Would you like to rectify that, then?" he teases.
Wylan goes beet red. "Don't be ridiculous," he says, stepping forward to pull Jesper's boot off while ignoring his protests. "You're obviously too tired to do this yourself." He thinks for a beat. "Speaking of which, what did you do today?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Jesper says. That was meant to be teasing, Wylan is sure, but Jesper's too tired do anything more than sink into the cushions like a stone in water. Wylan shoots him a look. "Why do you want to know?"
"You shouldn't be this tired," Wylan says, reaching for the other one. "We were only in Seoul for twenty minutes."
Jesper a noise in agreement and cranes his neck to look down at Wylan blearily. "Right as you are, you shouldn't be doing this," he says, trying to sit up. "I'm perfectly capable."
Wylan pushes him back onto the couch gently. "I'm not doing anything, technically," Wylan says, smugger than he should be. "It's all you."
Jesper laughs shortly and gives him a peculiar look. "I suppose so."
Wylan holds his gaze for a few seconds later before clearing his throat and looking away. He reaches for Jesper's jacket and the other man freezes. "Is this...okay?" Jesper exhales slowly and relaxes ever so slightly, shrugging the jacket off his shoulders and letting Wylan do the rest.
"I trust you," he says softly, as if he can't believe it.
"I know."
Wylan doesn't realize until after he's left that Jesper never really answered his question.
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They don't hear from Kuwei for two weeks. Wylan can't feel him on the other end of their bond and neither can any of the others. Kaz scopes out his flat one day and finds it empty. "I don't understand where he could've gone," Wylan says, beginning to place. "Did the Russians find him?"
Nina sits upright, spoon in hand. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" she demands.
"Why do you care?" Jesper says. "You're not Russian." Nina raises a pointed eyebrow at him. "Oh," Jesper says after a long moment. Nina sniffs, affronted, as Matthias sighs fondly from the other side of the room. "Well, the people that are after Kuwei and his dad are Russian, so." Nina sniffs again.
"Regardless of how offensive this may or may not be," Kaz says rolling his eyes, "we need to find Kuwei."
"No need," Kuwei says. Even Kaz jumps a little.
"You should've talked to us," Inej says sternly. "It's been two weeks."
Kuwei shoots her a look. "My father and I had trained spies on our trail up until four hours ago. I couldn't afford to."
"We're imaginary, Kuwei, they can't see us," Jesper says exasperatedly. "Plus it doesn't take long to pop in and tell us you're okay."
Kuwei shakes his head vehemently. "You don't understand," he insists. "They're like us. They're sensates." The room goes silent at that. They all look towards Kaz who says nothing, just grips his crow's head cane a little tighter.
"He didn't know," Inej says, tilting her head. Kaz gives her a cool look.
"What do you know?" Matthias asks.
Kaz shrugs slightly. "Kuwei was reborn as Sensate earlier than the rest of us. His father has information about our kind that BPO wants," Kaz says, watching Kuwei's face carefully. "Did I get it all?"
Kuwei shrugs. "Pretty much."
"I thought the Russians were after you?" Nina says, frowning.
"They're...Russian sensates?"
Wylan heaves a sigh. "Well fuck."
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After that everything becomes even more urgent. Nina becomes hypervigilant, gaze shifting constantly, fingers drumming against any surface she can find, as she scours the room for...well, Wylan doesn't know really, but it's unsettling to see her like this. Matthias becomes even quieter, more curt and gruff. He keeps an eye on the door at all times, even when he's visiting. Kuwei becomes less animated, cutting off his sentences awkwardly when he's reminded of something he'd rather avoid.
It's hard to see that the others have changed, but they do. Inej starts visiting more and more. He wakes up to find her perched on his windowsill, quietly keeping watch, a mug of coffee in one hand. Kaz stops visiting entirely so Wylan starts visiting instead to check up on him and finds him in front of the computer, surrounded by stack of paper and more than a few guns. Jesper becomes louder, drawing attention to himself to keep if off Kuwei and Inej, brushing off near death experiences and the odd bullet wound as if they're minor inconveniences.
It's worrying, but Wylan doesn't know what to do about it. The seven of them are in seven different countries and he's not exactly the best with words himself. He tries to convince himself he's going with the flow when he does nothing, accepts Jesper's new found flippancy, smiles at Inej every morning. (It doesn't work.)
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Somehow, despite all of Kaz's planning and cautiousness, it's a bakery that finally does them in. Kuwei goes to get a loaf of bread and finds a half dozen Russian sensates waiting for him. He barely has time to call for help before he's knocked unconscious.
Wylan manages to hack into some database, Kuwei's voice in his head as his fingers flit across the keyboard, even with Kaz watching the monitor like a hawk over his shoulder. They find him just outside Sydney, although none of them can visit him for more than a second at a time.
Until one day they slip up and Kaz finds himself in a hospital, Kuwei perched anxiously on the end of the bed next to him. Wylan nearly drops his toast as relief flood through him and reaches out almost immediately for Inej.
"Did he-" Inej nods. Everyone else is already there when he gets to the hospital, crowded around Kuwei's hospital bed. He's not conscious. "We have to get him out," Wylan says.
Kaz takes a quick look around. The nurses are gazing furtively at Kuwei and the guards on either side are having been checking their watches for the past few minutes. "They're about to move him," Kaz says.
"We'll do it then," Inej says, standing and pulling a knife out her boot. They come for him five minutes later. Kuwei stirs when they start wheeling the bed down a hallway, head turning frantically. "Wylan," he rasps. "Inej."
"We're getting you out," Matthias says from somewhere near his feet. As soon as Kuwei is wheeled past a set of double doors, Matthias socks a security guard in the face and Jesper punches another one in the gut.
Inej hooks her arm under Kuwei's shoulder as Nina takes the other and together, they carry him to the exit as Matthias incapacitates the last guard. Nina tries the handle and swears. "It's locked."
Kaz fiddles with the lock and two seconds later, the door's open. "What the fuck," Wylan mutters.
"Go," he says, watching Kuwei with a haunted look in his eyes. "Take Kuwei away. I'm going to fix this." He's gone before any of them can say anything.
Nina shrugs. "Let's go." The four of them kick the doors open, Kuwei supported between them and pile into a taxi.
"Drive," Wylan growls as Kuwei as Nina as Inej. The driver gives them a peculiar look but follows their instruction, speeding off into the streets as if he's being chased.
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He's back in his apartment when he blinks. There's a dent in his wall that was probably from Matthias. He's shattered the glasses that were on his counter and his knuckles are bruised almost to the point of bleeding, but he can't find it in himself to care as he leans against his wall and tries to breathe.
"Kaz is flying to Sydney," Jesper says. Wylan opens his eyes slowly. "He found a hotel for Kuwei but Inej and Nina pressured him into hiring guards."
"That's nice," he says, on an exhale. "We're sure Kuwei's safe?" Every part of his body feels heavy; he feels like he could sink into the floor if he wanted to.
Jesper pauses for a moment. "He will be." Wylan nods sluggishly and then he's pitching forward, too tired to keep himself up, and landing on...Jesper. "Come on, Sunshine," Jesper says quietly. "Let's get you to bed."
Wylan protests weakly but he's too tired to walk properly, much less undress himself and find the bed so he lets Jesper maneuver him gently, lifts his arms so Jesper can take off his sweater, only half aware of his actions.
"Jesper," he breathes. Jesper pauses. "I trust you too," he says, eyelids drooping.
He feels Jesper smile into the soft skin of his neck. "I know you do Carrots."
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Wylan wakes up the next day in an interrogation room straight out of some buddy-cop drama. Kaz is in a chair in front of him and there's a man pacing on the other side of the room. "Kaz?" he asks. Kaz glances at him briefly before looking away.
The man pauses to watch him (them?). "Is that your cluster?" he asks. Kaz doesn't answer. The man laughs. "So you're one of the silent ones. Is your cluster the same?" Kaz watches him without saying a word.
The man snarls. "Do you what they call me?"
"In which part of the world?" Kaz asks, looking more bored than anything else. The man reaches forward to punch Kaz in the nose so hard he starts bleeding. Kaz laughs at that, even as blood drips down the side of his face. "They call you Whispers, like you're some kind of pet-" The man hits him again.
"They call me Cannibal," he growls. "And for good reason. You see, I'll find your cluster eventually even if you stay silent, so you'd be better off just telling me, don't you think?"
"How'd he find you?" Wylan asks. "Who is he?"
Kaz stares resolutely at the wall. "Not if they find you first, Rollins."
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When Wylan slides into Nina's loft, she's sleeping on her couch, her head resting on Inej's thigh. "Wake up," he yells.
Nina opens her eyes slowly, groaning. "Do we have to?"
Inej sighs and puts her book down, gently carding her fingers through Nina's hair. "Well, Wylan said to," she says, only a little mockingly. Wylan glares at her. She sobers up a little. "Is something wrong?"
"Kaz is in trouble," Wylan says, running a hand through his hair.
Nina snorts. "That's his normal state of being."
Wylan glares again. "This is different. He was in an interrogation room or something. Some dude named Rollins punched him."
Nina sits up abruptly. "Rollins? As in Pekka Rollins."
Wylan nods. Inej and Nina do their knowing-looking thing and stand up. Wylan blinks. "So, are we..." Inej rolls her eyes and walks out of the room. Wylan follows only when he reaches the threshold, he's not in Nina's flat anymore.
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The first thing Wylan notices is that Kaz looks terrible. There's dried blood crusted above his upper lip and his teeth, also stained red, are bared in a snarl. Nina lets out a low whistle when she sees him. "Fuck."
Inej sighs. "This isn't going to end well," she says, frowning. Nina hums.
"What the fuck did he get himself into this time?" Matthias growls from the other side of the window.
"Fuck if I know," Jesper answers, stopping just in front of Rollins and tilting his head curiously. "What'd he say this guy's name was?"
"Pekka Rollins," Nina says, raising her eyebrow pointedly.
Jesper freezes. "You're sure?" Nina nods. The five of them leave to find themselves in Kaz's loft, in front of Kuwei who's slowly finishing off a tub of ice cream. "What the fuck," Jesper says.
Kuwei blinks. "Did something happen?"
Nina squints at him. "Is this really happening?" she asks, poking Kuwei's leg and ignoring his cry of pain. "We've been worried sick about you, and you've just been sitting in Kaz's loft, eating."
"I've been doing more than that!" Kuwei protests indignantly. "Who do you think got Kaz into that room?"
Matthias pauses. "You mean he's in there getting punched on purpose?"
Kuwei gives him a look, as if to say duh. "This is Kaz," he says flatly.
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Kuwei gives them the location of the loft after a few hours of threatening and coaxing and protesting ("Kaz didn't want me to; he knows what he's doing-") but after that it doesn't take long for them to come up with a vague plan.
Four of them board four different planes to Reykjavik (Jesper and Kuwei don't come; Kuwei still can't be seen and they insisted someone stay with him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid) and as a result they land at four different hours. Nina is so tired that she's barely coherent, but Wylan can barely sit still when he gets off the plane. It's exciting meeting them
Their strategy is terrible (they know because Matthias and Inej have told them so at least ten times each and Jesper has voiced his support for it several times) but at this point there's really nothing they can do. Kaz will sit in that room and let them hurt him until he can't move or worse and they can't let that happen. They won't.
They go in dressed as BPO operatives in stolen Hazmat suits. Inej knocks the guards unconscious in a few seconds and lets Matthias takes care of the bodies as she and Nina move on to fooling the scanners and then ten minutes later they're kicking down the door to Kaz's room.
He grins when he sees them, all split lips and bloodstained teeth. "I told you so," he says.
It doesn't take long to incapacitate Rollins. They force him into Kaz's chair, kicking and screaming. Wylan feels his stomach turn, feels Kuwei flinch from New York, but underneath the disgust is a grim satisfaction that the others aren't nearly as shy about expressing; there's a gleam in their eyes he hasn't ever seen before but finds he doesn't entirely hate.
And Kaz. Kaz is a different story; he looks like a monster straight out of the story books. There's blood all over him: his face, his neck, the collar of his blazer. His dark eyes shine like cold jewels. "I wonder if you recognized me when you brought me in," he says, tilting his head.
Something in Rollins' expression twists; he looks defiant still, but also scared. Kaz watches him like a lion chasing a mouse. "You didn't, did you? You still don't." he says, in the same voice, soft and slow and almost smooth.
"In 2004, you killed a boy. Do you remember?" Rollins' eyes go wide. "He was like us," Kaz says.
"Rietveld," Rollins breathes. "You...you're the brother."
"That's right."
"I-I'm sorry," Rollins stammers.
"I have no need for apologies," Kaz says, "but I do have no need for vengeance."
Rollins laughs. "Vengeance?" he spits. "You're barely of drinking age."
Kaz smiles darkly. "I don't need to able to drink to commit a crime." Rollins sneers. "I have your son, you see," Kaz says like he's telling a secret.
Rollins goes stock still. "Don't you dare hurt him-"
"I had my people bury him in a crypt," he continues as if Rollins hadn't said anything. "Do you think you'd be able to hear him crying if you got close enough?" Rollins snarls.
Inej steps in front of Kaz hurriedly, shooting him a look before turning to Rollins. "You care for your son, don't you?" Rollins nods. "I thought so," she says, pulling a knife from the sheath on her thigh and pressing it into his chest. Rollins tenses up again, sucking in a quick frightened breath. "I'm giving you a deal right now," she explains.
"Is that so," Rollins snarls.
"It's simple: you leave the seven of us alone and we leave you alone," Inej says, her voice as smooth as silk. "But," she continues, smiling a little as the knife tears through the cloth of his shirt, "if you decide to come after us, then we come after you."
"You little-" Rollins starts, cutting himself off as the knife breaks skin too.
"There's a little reminder," Inej says, smiling and stepping away. "You're free to go now."
"Tick tock," Jesper says, smirking.
A few seconds later, after they're sure Rollins is gone, Kaz leans against the wall, wincing. "Right," he says, "that's done."
Inej blinks. "You mean you didn't have his kid?"
Kaz laughs shortly, his face twisting into a strange sort of half-smile. "We both know that I have much better uses for both my time and my people."
Nina shrugs and starts making her way to the door. "Fair enough."
.
.
.
Wylan goes back to the flat in London. He has far too many bad memories of Dublin, and he's probably been fired from his father's company for a while now so there's really no reason to go back. He's half asleep the moment he opens the door but he has just enough energy left to actually make it to the bed.
Jesper's in the living room when he gets back. His leather jacket's been placed on a side table by the door and Jesper sits in the armchair, legs crossed.
"It's too early for this," he mumbles half-heartedly, trudging into the kitchen for some coffee.
"Oh come on, Wylan," Jesper says, holding back a grin, "where's your can-do spirit?" Wylan tosses a glare at him over his shoulder.
Jesper tuts, his expression strangely knowing. "I think I know what your problem is." Wylan stills and slowly sets the coffee pot down. "I think...you need to relax." Wylan stops breathing as he hears Jesper step closer.
"Oh?" Wylan asks, shakily. Jesper makes a noise low in his throat. "And you're going to relax me all the way from New York?"
Jesper laughs, low and soft. "I'm not from that far away."
Wylan turns around, confused. "What do you mean, not-oh." He cuts himself off on an inhale, eyes going wide. Jesper takes a few more steps forward as Wylan reaches for him, fingers trembling. "You-you're-"
"-here," Jesper says, taking his hand and it feels-it feels like heaven.
.
.
.
notes: first off, please don't try to pet a wolf in real life; that is a Bad Idea.
+ music: wide eyed, billy lockett (god, this song almost killed me) / where's my love, syml / trouble, valerie broussard
+ this fic was inspired by "as your sun sets (i know you in bleary-eyed 3 AM)" by theprophetlemonade on ao3
+ find me on tumblr at piperreynas!
+ as always, comments/reviews are always appreciated!