Authors' Note: This is not the real chapter - it's just a preview of the chapter that is currently in progress.

We had to take some time off. Anissa has been abruptly catapulted into spearheading a national project that is the future of her industry, doing stuff she's totally unprepared for like writing process manuals. The two weeks on, two weeks off alternating shifts that she's been on for the last year? Yeah, that's over for her, while the rest of her team sits at home with pay, she has to go in to work every day now and deal with the most incompetent, borderline bonkers, conspiracy theorist supervisor - she's going to end up taking his job just so she doesn't have to deal with him. Meanwhile Lois has not caught a break since Christmas and just finished doing inventory for her entire store. They all seem to think that she's the ONLY person who can identify what random not-tagged items are, and the hell of it is, they're right. We are both frankly too freaking exhausted to write.

We have a week off coming up, and if either of our jobs calls us to come in, we're going to pretend to be out of town. Or dead. At the end of that week, we should have a chapter or two ready to go. And things should slow down at both jobs in mid-March to April. So expect to see this chapter replaced with a complete one on about March 14th.

All of you please take care of yourselves and your loved ones. We appreciate you all.

Sebast had cleared the first hurdle – they let him board the bus. Marlene still watched him carefully; she'd always been protective, and her tolerance for foolishness was very low. He knew he had to step carefully until he proved to all of them that he wasn't going to have a melodramatic meltdown again.

"Do we still have a free bunk?" he asked as they all filed back on board. "I don't think it'd be a good idea to share the loft anymore."

Kala winced a little at that. "I hadn't even thought about that yet. You can have the loft, I'll take a bunk."

"You sleep more stretched out than me, you need the space," he countered, and plowed onward through the awkward silence occasioned by him casually mentioning her sleeping habits. "Besides, you were the one who picked the loft in the first place. You should get to keep it."

She managed a smile for him, but the tension was there now. After stowing his bag in the spare bunk, Sebast came up to the front again, where everyone else was hanging out and eating their various snacks from Community Loaves. "Okay, so, I guess I have to make an announcement," he said.

Robb, Ned, and Morgan all looked at him in varying degrees of concern. He'd talked to them – beginning each conversation with the admission that he'd fucked up and an apology – but he hadn't gone into detail about the situation with him and Kala. Speaking of whom, she froze, her eyes wide. Marlene's gaze pinned him in place, and Sebast had the uncomfortable feeling that she might just pull the bus over and throw him out if he stepped wrong. So he spoke quickly, a speech he'd thought about and rehearsed all the way out to Los Angeles.

"I'm not here to fuck everything up," he began earnestly. "I'm here because you and I were best friends first, Kala, and that means more than anything else to me. You're important to me. More than the band, even – I love you guys, but she got me into this. She's been my best friend since we were fourteen, and you can't find that just anywhere, you know? So I'm not gonna let it get screwed up this time around. No matter what we need to do to keep it cool, I'm down."

Kala was looking at him cautiously, the boys seemed flummoxed, and Marlene just looked skeptical. Sebast plunged onward. "We gotta have boundaries, we talked about that. You get the loft, that's fine. You get the house, too, I can stay with my parents. You need it more than I do, and the band needs the practice space. You were the one who took care of the band while I ran off, I've got no right to demand the house. We can figure out the title and stuff later, I promise not to be a dick about it."

"Sebast," Kala said softly, her brow furrowing.

He held up a hand. "Lemme finish, mi Kala. You need space, I'll give you space. But if you need a hug, I'm here. If you need me, I'm here. I'm still your best friend. I always will be, no matter what. I don't want you to worry that I'm gonna pull some bullshit on you, okay? You got a boyfriend, I understand that. I understand why you kept it on the down-low. I was wrong to be a whiny bitch about that. I'm here to help you, okay?" And by that, he hoped to convey once more that he intended to help her with the hero gig, covering for her disappearances, doing anything he could to make her rock star life and her superhero life blend a little easier.

She gave him a tremulous smile, and he came out with the hardest part of all. "I'm not gonna be that shithead best friend talking trash about your man, okay? I've got Team Todd t-shirts on order for the whole band. I'm here to support you, mamita. No matter what. Besties before testes, right?"

That had been their saying for years, a spin on the 'bros before hoes' that some guys claimed, and Kala started to laugh even as tears shone in her eyes. Morgan, Ned, and Robb all looked very uncomfortable with the level of emotion on display.

Kala finally rubbed her eyes and cleared her throat. "Oh, Sebast. I love you so much."

"I love you too," he said, and meant it, in whatever way she could accept it.

She seemed to rally, and gave him a sad smile. "But what everyone else on the bus already knows, you should too. Jay and I broke up." That caught him flat-footed, and he could only gape, seeing all the pain she was keeping locked up. She could play it cool for the rest, but he saw the strain in her, the weariness in those hazel eyes. It was worse when she added, "On New Year's Day."

"Fuckin' idiot," Sebast snapped, an instantaneous reaction without thought or consideration. "On New Year's? What an asshole!"

"He didn't know," Kala said, shrugging one shoulder.

"Well he should have," Sebast growled. Kala always had issues with New Year's, thanks to the freaking kidnapping. Which had been so much worse than he even knew, until recently. The goddamn Red Hood should've known better. He squared his shoulders, and added, "Estupido cabrón. You want me to go kick his ass, Kala?"

She managed a laugh. "You can't kick his ass, Sebast. He's got multiple martial arts titles."

And also he was the Red Hood, he probably had all kinds of weaponry, but no one was supposed to know about that. Sebast just raised an eyebrow at her and kept it humorous. "Does he have any moves to defend against a flying chancla? Say the word, I'll go do it."

"No, Sebast. Mostly because I threw him through a wall when he did break up with me," Kala said, and then her eyes got wide as she realized what she'd said and who she'd said it in front of.

"Holy shit, like a brick wall? I need to take some karate, then," Sebast said quickly, making light of it.

"No, just lath and plaster, and it was more of a shove, but still," Kala said.

"Oh, well, yeah. That's easy. Mikey threw a bowling ball through drywall one time," Sebast offered.

"He deserved it, for breaking up with you," Robb said staunchly, and Ned and Morgan backed him up.

Kala just shook her head. "Thanks, guys, but it was complicated."

"Nah, he's an asshole," Sebast said. "That look in your eye says he did it the douchiest way possible. Shit, now I've gotta cancel the t-shirts."

"Wait, you actually ordered t-shirts?" Marlene interrupted.

"Yeah, I really did. I probably won't get back my deposit either, shit. I'll send him the bill," Sebast said with a shrug. The shirts hadn't been too expensive, but he'd figured it was the best way of demonstrating to Kala that he was serious.