Hello, it's me again, rare-pairer, Ruri Aimi. Recently, I've hit a creative drought with my main fanfic, so I decided to try out some things to get me out of it. One of those was getting myself back into the flow of writing after not doing so for 2 months straight. Conveniently, my friend jokingly recommended a ship to me. It was so crazy and definitely one of a kind that I just had to write it for them. Again, like with my other Elsword fanfic, which is Add x Edel, I may choose to continue this in between dry spells for my main fanfic. So don't expect this or the other fic to be updated often. With that said, please enjoy this fic I wrote in 2 hours.

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"How many failed attempts must I go through…?" Shattered memories, fragments of events he could hardly remember, crashed against his head. "How many equations must I recalculate…?" Numbers and symbols plagued his mind like the venom in his bloodstream. "How much more blood will I continue spilling…?" A substance dripped down his face; whether it was blood, sweat or tears, he couldn't tell at this point. Regardless of what it was, he paid it no mind as he kept typing away at his holographic computer. Numerous screens were the only source of light in his dark laboratory. 'Attempt #245' read on one of them. Each press of a finger filled the screen with alien science and math, some he could understand, and some he could only hope to work in theory.

It has been several weeks since Add's last venture to the past, and much like the ones before it, it was a complete, utter failure. Wherever he ended up, whatever timeline or universe it was, it wasn't his. And this one fact, no matter how small the difference was, was enough to send him into an insanity-driven bloodlust. He could still remember what he did in the last jump: how he slaughtered that Add's family, the looks on their faces as they exhausted their last breath. It wasn't as if he didn't feel any sympathy for them. Somewhere deep down, he did. After all, that was his family. But it wasn't his. And whether he had gone numb to the feeling, or he simply lost all connection to his other selves was unknown. All he knew was that he had to try again.

"This… T-This ought to work now…" With a graceful swipe of his hand, the screens lined up and the pages upon pages of research and calculations he had done in one week were downloaded straight into his dynamos. Weakly, he stood up from his seat, which was nothing more than a mix of scrap metal and books. It was a shock how he even managed t sit on such a rough surface for almost a week. He almost fell to the ground had it not for his dynamos catching his fall. "Tch, I really need to eat something…" He slowly got back up again and walked into an open area in his cluttered lab. "Just one more jump… If it's anything like the other's, I should be home for lunch in a bit… lunch? Dinner?" His sense of time in his dark, solitary lab had been skewed, but to a time traveler, such a thing was worthless. His two huge dynamos pointed to the space in front of him, and energy started to surge from the tips. The instance the energy was released, the space that it aimed at shattered, almost like glass.

Unenthusiastically, he stepped into the hole, ready for the disappointment that he expected to follow suit. He had grown used to the jumps. As soon as his whole body was inside, his body was sucked into a free-fall down an abyss. Blurry vision, lightheadedness, and numbness to his limbs were the effects of huge time leaps. To many, this might seem like a frightening experience. But after 244 jumps, he started to see this as meditative, a time for him to reflect on whatever he needed to. Now, he only thought of one thing. "What should I eat for dinner…? I did leave at night, right?" After a few moments of isolation, he saw a haze of light rushing towards him. He braced himself for the imminent collision.

Somewhere in the grassy, green hills of the past, a crack in space-time opened and Add was launched out of it straight towards a hill. This wasn't the first time he had a rough landing. In fact, he's had worse, and he still managed to go on a rampage. But not this time. After plummeting to the ground, it seemed as if every ounce of energy he had left was drained. All he could do was roll himself over and face the blue sky, a scene he had grown accustomed to being stained with red. With no energy left, he could sense his consciousness fading in and out. As his view darkened, a shadowy figure appeared out of the corner of his eye. But before he could even register them, he had blanked out.

Add doesn't know how much time had passed, but by the time he had woken up, the bright sunny sky he last remembered was now a sunset red. However, this view came through a window, so he immediately knew he was in a house; someone's house. More analytical than he may seem, he observed his surroundings first before making any harsh movements. The softness under him was an old feeling, something he hadn't felt in so long, but recognized it as a bed. Not hearing anyone nearby, he slowly sat up at the edge of it. He looked around the room and noted that his dynamos we're nowhere to be found. So, either whoever brought him here left it outside where he passed out or is with them. And lastly, the delicious aroma of stew enveloped the room.

He didn't know who this person is, but from what he could tell, they were non- hostile towards him. However, this was just an assumption, so he still had to keep his guard up. As he opened the door which led to a stairway down the house, the aroma flooded him even stronger, and his stomach growled a bit to remind him that he was still hungry. Carefully, he walked down the stairs as he held onto the handle. Once he had reached the bottom, the view of a small living room which led to a kitchen welcomed him. He took one more step before the floorboard let out a loud creaking noise, alerting whoever was in the kitchen of his presence. Out of the doorway walked a young woman with flowing white hair. She adorned an odd combination of a lab coat and an apron on top.

"N-No… she can't be…" Her appearance was like that of his mother, albeit younger. Though her house was different to those he had come across in the past. It seemed more like a normal house for a single person than a mansion like his family had. In fact, since she appeared to be younger than all other variations of his mother, the timeline he stumbled onto must've been way before he was even born. "Another failure… Keh, I'm not even surprised. This is biggest one yet." He fell to the ground as this fact came to him. As tears began to well up in his eyes, the woman quickly ran to his side and knelt beside him.

"Hey, are you okay? I found you passed out in the yard." She spoke in such a compassionate voice. Through all the leaps Add had done, this was the only time when she wasn't screaming in terror. In fact, because she wasn't screaming, even Add found it hard to believe she was his mom. So, he had to make sure with one simple question.

"Who… are you?"

"I-I'm Grace Kim. And you are?" This confirmed it. His suspicions, his disbelief, and more importantly, his failure. He had gone to the wrong timeline. But how could he know that? As far as he knew, he had only jumped back too far into the past to the point where his mom still wasn't married to his father.

"There's still a chance… this could be my timeline. If that's the case, I better be careful with what I do here. I need to investigate more." Add struggled to stand back up, but with the support of Grace, he was carried to the dining table. He had no energy to reject, so he just allowed her to carry him. After a bit of waiting, his gaze to the table was interrupted by a bowl of hot stew. He looked up to see Grace, now with her apron and lab coat off, joining him in his meal. She began to eat without him, and soon after, Add joined her as well. Hesitantly, he used the spoon and scooped himself a mouthful of the stew. The rich flavors of fresh vegetables and seasoned meat danced in his mouth. He couldn't remember the last time he had something this delicious back in Elrios. He took another spoon, and another, and by the time he realized that his spoon wasn't filling up anymore, his bowl was empty. He saw Grace's smug smile directed right at him, her head leaning on both her hands.

"It's good isn't it?" Her smile widened even more. Even if she was younger, she was still his mom, so Add held a soft spot for her when he wasn't going on a rampage. His mother's kind, yet smug, smile made him answer her honestly.

"I-I guess so."

"Would you like another bowl? I made plenty."

"I don't mind." Despite his indifferent attitude to the offer, he slid his bowl closer to her as if asking her for more subconsciously. She took that as a yes and walked back to the kitchen. Add was counting down the seconds until he got his next bowl. Her food was so good (or perhaps the food he's been eating for so long was garbage), that he was looking forward to the next bowl. He soon got it and started digging right in. By the time Add had finished his second bowl, Grace had already finished her first. With both now full, she collected the bowls and headed for the kitchen to wash them. "By the way, would you mind doing me a favor? Nothing too big."

Sure, Add had gone insane, and he did have his bouts of murder, but other than those moments, he was calm and collected when he had spare time. He wasn't so social outside of his lab, and was kind of rude to others, more often than not. But with his mom, this mom, he felt none of those tendencies arise.

"Sure, what?"

"Would you mind just drying these bowls for me as I wash them." Add stood up from the chair easily now that he had regained his energy from the meal. He walked into the kitchen and used a clean rag she gave him to dry the bowls and other plates. "You usually invite strangers into your house for a meal and make them do chores?"

"Since you're the first stranger to fit those criteria, then yes, I suppose I do." Add doesn't remember his mom being this smug or having this type of attitude. Still, this was pre-marriage, and he had no idea how she behaved before marrying that monster of a father. He still couldn't rule out this timeline as his own. "So, you have anywhere to return to, or are you a runaway? You look a bit too old to be a runaway."

"I'm 20, I'm perfectly old enough to run away from anywhere."

"20, huh? That makes me older than you by a year." He took a mental note of her age as part of his investigation. Unfortunately, he didn't know how old his mom was when she first got married to his father, so this wasn't much of a lead for him. "My question remains. Do you have anywhere to return to or not?"

This reminded Add that his dynamos were still somewhere out there or in the house. But even if he did manage to retrieve it, then what? If he returned to his original timeline, the discrepancy rate of his leaps might not lead him back to this timeline. So far, this was the only anomaly of his jumps, but it was also his best chance at changing his past. Not wanting to take a risk, he decided to stay here until he could figure out the truth of this timeline.

"Nowhere."

"Is that so? Well, I guess that makes the both of us." Add perked his ears up at this. He would never have guessed that his mom was a runaway in her earlier years.

"Runaway?"

"Yup, my family was more into agricultural, or farming. I was more into science and technology. One thing led to another, and I ended up leaving my house to pursue a career in research. What I am researching, however, is a secret, even to you." This was, without a doubt, a version of his original mom: a scientist at heart. And what her secret research was no secret to Add, but he kept that to himself. "By the way, I never did ask for your name. Care to share it?" Add was not too comfortable sharing his name with her. Then again, he was never comfortable introducing himself to others, not even the Elgang he encountered before going his own separate way.

"Why should I tell you?"

"Come on, you know my name. I fed you. And look, we're close enough to wash dishes together. Reward me with at least the name of my new friend."

She called him a friend so casually. When was the last time Add heard someone call him a friend? He couldn't remember, but hearing those words somehow made him happy. He thought that maybe revealing his name to her wouldn't be the worst he could do in this timeline.

"Just… Add."

"Add? As in, the mathematical operation: add? Like, 1 plus 1 is two? That kind of addition? Or like ADD? Attention Defici-" Add got a tad annoyed by her teasing and decided to stop her before she could finish that last one. He never knew his mom was this goofy in person and in this age. "I kid, I kid." She let out a light chuckle to herself. "Nice to meet you, Add. You don't seem like a bad person."

"Or maybe you're just too trusting."

"Maybe that. But since we're both runaways, I guess I can let you live here for a bit. At least until you decide to return to wherever you came from, or find a stable home somewhere else." The two finally finished washing the dishes. After putting away everything into the cupboards, Grace led Add to his own temporary room. Luckily for him, the house she bought came with a guest room, and she never thought she'd have to use it until now. "I'm assuming that these are the only clothes you have. If that's the case, I'll help you shop for some clothes tomorrow." Add nodded before he began taking his skin-tight suit off. He didn't even care that Grace was still there, but Grace certainly did. In a state of panic, she grabbed the closest thing she could find and threw it at him, hitting him squarely at the back of the end.

"Ow! What was that for?!" He turned, now topless. Grace was now forced to cover her eyes with both hands as her face flushed a deep red. She was a shy girl, and more so when it came to matters involving men. So, the sight of a man undressing in front of her sent her into a fluttering mess.

"D-Don't just undress in front of a woman so nonchalantly! Learn some etiquette!" Add just rolled his eyes at her reaction.

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the room, good night, Mo-… Grace." He gently guided her out of the room with her eyes still blocking her vision.

"Y-Yes, good night!" He closed the door and he could hear her stomping footsteps slowly fading away, assuring him that he was alone once more. In just his underwear, he closed the lights and laid on top of the bed. He then remembered that his dynamos were still outside. With a tap on the wrist of his suit, it didn't take long before his dynamos flew in through the window. He opened a personal log to document his stay in the timeline.

"Log #1. I've arrived at a timeline where, for once, I am unsure whether this is my original or an altered one. The current time period is earlier than my mother's marriage, so there is no conclusion thus far. Take note of my mother's personality pre-marriage. Naïve, comedic (more or less), smug, annoying. But…" he paused a bit, recollecting her better moments. "kind and compassionate, as I've always remembered. The investigation will continue and remain in this timeline." With that, he saved it and shut off his dynamos, hiding them under the mattress. Tonight felt like he was going to get some decent sleep, and he had no idea he would ever get one during one of his time leaps. He shut his eyes for tonight, wondering what tomorrow would bring him

"Good night, mom."

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Yes, in case you haven't noticed, this will eventually turn into a romance between Add and his younger, may-or-may-not-be-original-timeline mom. I'm not sure if this will get a lot of backlash in the fanfic or Elsword community since I've had some friends voice their dislike of this idea. Nevertheless, I'd love to know what you think of the ship, idea, writing style, etc. So feel free to leave a review! I feel like this helped me with my main problem, so I achieved something out of this mess at least. Until next time!