{*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^Multiverse Mysteries ^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^}
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-Time And Place Verse*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
{8}
Chapter 3:
Friends, Family And Old Flames...
{*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^} *-Magnus-*-Magnus-*-Magnus-*-Magnus-*-Magnus-* {*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^}"-er not in Kansas anymore."
Alec, Raph and Simon groaned in perfect sync, rolling their eyes. Alec glanced over, brow quirking exasperatedly.
"Really babe, again?"
"What? I've missed out on this pun for over a year- cannot believe you didn't tell me Simon-"
"Can't imagine why..." Raph muttered, Magnus ignored him, continuing.
"I need to make up for it!"
And again with the chorus of groans. Raph huffed, shaking his head.
"Dios, this is gonna be a LONG flight."
Alec huffed out a laugh, glancing over, nodding towards Magnus.
"You really think he's gonna do it less when we're actually IN Kansas?"
Raphael blinked before exasperatedly rolling his eyes, head shaking again, glancing over at Simon.
"Why do you have to be from Kansas?"
Simon snorted, giving a bit of a wave.
"Hey not like it was my choice."
Raphael chuckled, tilting his head in acknowledgement.
"Fair enough."
Magnus rolled his eyes at the lot of them before waving it off, shifting a bit in his seat to get a better view of Simon, head tilting.
"I really can't believe I've known you over a year and I didn't know your home town. Why didn't you ever mention it?"
Simon gave a faint shrug, reaching up, tucking a couple wayward light brown curls behind his ear.
"Don't know...it just never really came up I guess."
He shrugged.
"Huh...odd..." Magnus paused, shifting a bit more in his seat, turning to better look over the younger man curiously, head tilting, a thought occurring to him.
"You know actually...now that I think about it I don't remember you ever mentioning anything about a home town...and it's me so I would. That seems aw-"
"Oh Amore, with everything coming up so suddenly I completely forgot to find us a place to stay. I know it's a pretty small town so there might not be a lot of options. Do you think we need to call ahead for a room or should we be good?" Raphael cut in, glancing up, catching Magnus's eye, giving a near imperceptible shake of his head before shifting over to his boyfriend, casually resting his hand on Simon's arm, squeezing lightly.
Simon seemed to startle faintly, glancing over, shimmering golden brown eyes catching Raph's gaze, an entire conversation slipping between the two. Simon settled a bit closer, reaching over, resting his hand on top of Raph's, flashing a soft grateful smile before seemingly catching himself, blinking, shaking his head, giving a bit of a wave.
"Oh no- that's no problem...well, okay so it would be if we were gonna be staying at either of the two motels...and yeah we SO don't want to stay there. Like EVER. The first one hasn't been updated since the early eighties and only ever gets cleaned up after tornado season for the news interviews- and even that basically just involves cleaning up debris, spraying a few coats of Febreeze and moving the trailers from the park next door back over. And that's the better option... the other has been featured on dateline...twice.
So yeah, no...not staying there. Drake said we can just stay with him."
Raph nodded, head tilting faintly.
"That's nice of him...though I do hope we won't take up too much room for the guy. I mean having Four random people just dropping in out of nowhere...you sure he won't mind?"
Simon smiled, shaking his head, brightening a bit.
" No, no...Definitely not an issue. Place is huge; there's a ton of room. The place is on a huge plot of land outside of town-it's been in the family for generations but his parents never really had much of an interest in it. They'd moved to New York wanting something more fast paced. It was good for them but not so much for Drake- he had issues in school, kept getting into trouble...ended up getting kicked out of the fancy private school they had him in...and another one...and like five more after that." Simon chuckled faintly, rolling his eyes exasperatedly, giving a fluttering little wave, smiling brightly.
"Guy was a total hellraiser, drove them up the wall. Them and his poor teachers...he'd make a game of seeing how fast he could get kicked out...think his record was forty-five minutes.
Eventually they kind of hit their threshold-or ran out of schools. They thought about military school or like an all-boys boarding school but he was pretty clear that he was WAY too good with that idea for their liking." He giggled, again rolling his eyes, continuing.
"They ended up shipping him out to stay with his dad's parents- figured there's less trouble he could get into there...there was... but of course it was Drake so he still found it. He always found it- had a total sixth sense for finding the craziest, wildest, most harebrained option possible and somehow making it sound like the sane, rational option."
Raph chuckled, shifting closer to Simon, slipping his arm casually around his shoulder, squeezing lightly. He smirked, glancing over at Magnus, catching his eye, brow quirking.
"Sounds like you two will get along like a house on fire."
Alec snorted, glancing over at his boyfriend before shifting over to the other two.
"It does...it also sounds like that might not be hyperbole...think we better keep an eye on them."
Simon blinked, eyes widening, giving a surprised laugh, nodding animatedly.
"Oh yes...most definitely...oh man I didn't even think about that! How did I miss that? Drake was basically my Mags growing up. Guy's a ton of fun, exciting, crazy, brave and impossible to dislike but trouble magnet doesn't even begin to cover it. He's more like a trouble pied piper. A magnet doesn't intentionally draw trouble in. He gets a real kick out of throwing people off, shocking them, making them sweat or fume just because he can..." he laughed, looking over Magnus again, gaze slipping from him over to Raph shaking his head faintly, glancing over at Alec.
"Oh dude...I SO did not think this through. We're gonna have our hands full here...You may not be too far off on the whole 'house on fire' thing...no way mixing these two up with Drake does not end in fireworks."
Alec, quirked his eyebrow.
"That bad?"
Simon snorted, glancing at the other two, at the brightly amused looks, patiently fake innocent looks and the barely contained smirks tugging at their lips, shifting back to Alec, brow quirking right back.
"We'll be lucky if we don't end up needing bail money."
Raph chuckled, flashing a flirtily teasing smirk, and a little wink, tugging Simon closer to his side.
"Well now I'm really looking forward to meeting him..." Raph murmured, shifting even closer, tugging Simon close to his side, smiling bright and indulgent, fingers idly dancing along Simon's arm, drawing little patterns with the feather light touches. Simon blushed, stumbling a bit before launching into another story, more than a bit flustered.
Raph catches it, dark eyes sparking, smirking tellingly, shifting closer, leaning in, brushing a soft kiss just behind Simon's ear. Simon flushed brightly, clearly distracted, stumbling a bit, giving a nervous little giggle before continuing, leaning into Raph a little more, light honey colored eyes flickering over, catching Raph's, stumbling again, blush brightening even more.
Huh...rather peculiar.
Raph's never really been one for PDA's. I mean he's not standoffish or anything when they're out, he'll slip his arm around Simon or hold his hand and respond if Simon kisses his or what have you but he hardly ever initiates something like that in public. It's not that he's shy or uncomfortable, he just tends to avoid being overly touchy and lovey in public, feeling those kinds of things are theirs, for them, not for prying eyes and nosey, judgmental strangers. The plane is fairly full and they're about five rows back- not exactly inconspicuous.
Raph was very obviously focused on Simon- which well...not news- but it seemed even more so than usual. He seemed relaxed, laughing and smiling, following along with whatever animated story Simon was telling but if Magnus looked closer he caught the little spark in those dark eyes, the little bit of tension he was purposefully willing out of his shoulders. Raphael was worried about something. Something with Simon...it didn't seem like it should be the case- barely seemed like a case at all from what he told them-
So what was it?
He has a feeling it has something to do with the trip...or more likely with just why Raph was so quick to cut his off earlier. That was rather unexpected. The look Raph had given him had quite clearly said the topic was off the table...which...kinda threw him to be honest.
Huh...off the table topic...
They really didn't have many of those...Actually Magnus kind of didn't think they had any of those. At least they didn't. But apparently Simon did.
And again...
huh...
Gotta admit Magnus was not expecting that with Simon of all people but logically if someone as loquacious as Simon had completely avoided a topic for over a year so perfectly that Magnus didn't even realize there was a topic being avoided then that's most definitely not by accident. He wonders what it is- tries to mentally flip through everything he knew about the guy but again coming up blank.
He realizes he actually knows very little about Simon before he became an officer. He's heard him tell a few stories and from the case at the school he knows the guy had a lot of awkwardness when he was younger but beyond that he doesn't know. He does remember the guy being quite protective of Max during the break-in case, unusually focused. I mean granted- it involved Max they all were pretty damn focused- but even so he seemed to really connect with Max over it.
He had thought it was just Simon and the case and Simon being the lead on the case- along with the camaraderie that the younger detective had built up with the teen but now he's kind of wondering if there was more to it. He's realizing he really does know anything about the guy's past. Didn't know where he was from, never heard him mention going home, never seen anything at his place that had 'Lawrence Kansas' on it. Never heard him mention his parents...he didn't even know if he had any siblings.
Oh...h-he has a feeling whatever this is he's not gonna like it.
Glancing over again at Raph next to Simon, practically cuddled next to his side, arm protectively around him, sharp, deep eyes flickering over Simon's bright, animated expression with a mix of adoration and trepidation.
Umm...yeah...he's not gonna like this.
Damnit...
How had he missed this? And how did it take Raph rather blatantly cutting him off for him to register it. He should have picked up on it before actually asking the darling. He's never that off his game- he's blaming the sudden trip and trying to figure out what the hell he's gonna wear in freaking Kansas. Fashion emergencies do tend to make him a bit fuzzy headed. At least Raph was quick enough to step in and ease them through Magnus's little stumble. He wants to apologize for overstepping but he knows that'd just bring attention to the fact that he realized he overstepped...which would likely make Simon feel like he had to explain.
That was the last thing he wanted to do.
He'd like him to tell him what happened, hopes he knows after everything they've been through this past near year and a half he can talk to him about anything but if he doesn't want to talk about it he's not going to push him. If Simon didn't want to talk about it they weren't talking about it. They'll go, meet this Drake, see what's going on, if there's an actual case or just someone getting dumped, figure out what's going on, get it settled and then head right back home. Going by Raph's reaction this isn't gonna be an especially enjoyable trip for Simon but if anything at least he has support.
Hey, it's them, after all that they've been through Magnus has no doubt whatever this is they have it. I mean hell, over the last year they've thwarted evil businessmen, broke up one of the biggest smuggling operations Santa Barbra has ever seen, foiled a bank heist, tracked down multiple murderers, tangled with a delusional 'warlock' who was half a step away from a comic book supervillian and even managed to bring the reign of one of the most feared monsters-disguised-as-a-human-criminals in the country to an end.
They have this...they can handle anything...
"- and then Drake grabbed my hand and said to run so we ran and there was this huge bang and an explosion of sparkles and confetti and it scared the elephant who bellowed and then fire alarms went off and by the end there were floppy shoes and rainbow wigs everywhere and that's how Drake managed to get our town banned from every circus route in the Midwest..." Simon finished giggling, shaking his head at the insanity, looking around at the other three with a bright grin.
Aaand apparently they're gonna have some pretty interesting backup to boot here...
Magnus blinked in surprise, laughing. Raphael chuckled, soft and indulgent, giving a faint nod.
"He definitely sounds like something else..."
Alec snorted, shaking his head, glancing over at Magnus, brow quirking.
"He sounds like you."
Magnus grinned.
"Great-then we know we'll like him."
Simon giggled, nodding animatedly, bouncing lightly in his seat, reaching up, tucking a few wayward light brown curls behind his ear, light brown eyes sparkling.
"Oh yeah- totally not gonna be an issue. Drake's awesome- totally impossible not to like. I've actually seen him get out of a ticket cause he made the cop laugh too much to write it out. Twice. He may be the pied piper of trouble but as skilled as he is at getting into it he's twice as good at getting out of it. Even the stuffy snooty uber conservative people he likes to purposefully screw with have a bit of an exasperated soft spot for him... You really can't help but love the guy. He's fun and loud and crazy...it's a lot and it's insane but it's always worth it. Even when it drives you up the wall." He huffed out a faint laugh, again rolling his eyes, an affectionate smile tugging at his lips.
"Hell especially then...it's like his super power."
Raphael laughed, shaking his head, glancing over at Magnus before shifting back to Simon.
"Man you weren't kidding, he really was your Mags."
Simon snorted, nodding.
"Oh yeah totally. We were inseparable, anytime someone seen one of us they knew the other had to be pretty close by. And of course because we were both not straight everyone just KNEW we were together. If anything at least they thought we were good together. Junior year someone even put us in for cutest couple."
"How'd you guys do?" Magnus asked, brow quirking teasingly.
Simon shrugged, smirking.
"Came in second."
Magnus laughed brightly, slapping his leg, approvingly nodding. Alec huffed out a faint chuckle.
"Yeah cause obviously since you're both into guy's you MUST be hooking up."
"Right?!" Raph nodded, rolling his eyes, shifting forward, gesturing towards Magnus.
"Same thing when me and Mags were in school."
Alec sighed exasperatedly.
"It is an annoying assumption...though at least with yours it was outside idiots who thought you were dating someone...not the other someone."
Simon startled, blinking, looking over in confusion.
"Huh?"
Magnus nodded over towards Simon.
"Yeah what he said..."
Alec chuckled, giving a kind of confused shrug.
"Apparently freshman year I had a boyfriend for over six months and didn't even know it."
The other three blinked in near perfectly synced confusion, glancing at each other before turning back to Alec, Raphael tilting his head, raising a finger.
"Uh...think we're back to huh..."
Alec laughed, blushing faintly.
"Okay well in my defense I can be kind of clueless when someone's interested-"
"Not news..." Raphael chimed in.
Alec huffed, giving a sarcastic look. Raph just smirked, brow quirking.
"What? It's not...you didn't even pick up on Mags flirting...and he's freaking MAGS."
"That's n-"
"Sweetheart, I kissed you over three dozen times, we made out twice and woke up in bed together with you wearing my pants- and you STILL didn't figure it out."
"Th-"
Simon giggled, shrugging, reaching up, tucking a few curls behind his ear.
"Okay now lay off guys...he just didn't want to assume or risk your friendship- I actually think it was romantic..." He paused shrugging, flashing an impish smile, head tilting.
"Well when it wasn't irritating as hell anyways."
Alec mock glared while the other two chuckled, huffing, rolling his eyes. Magnus sighed, shifting over, leaning in, pressing a soft apologetic kiss to his cheek.
"Sorry darling, I wasn't making fun...I thought it was adorable...still do..." He smirked, nuzzling lightly against his cheek.
"Besides not like I have any problem having to clarify my intentions so they're easier to see."
Raphael snorted, giving a flickering, exasperated wave.
"Mr. Magoo could see your intentions."
Simon giggled, giving a slight shrug.
"Okay guys to be fair it can be kinda hard to tell sometimes...especially when someone is normally affectionate and tactile. Think that was a big part of it with me and Drake. Like I said we were always together, we'd hug, he'd usually kiss me hello or goodbye- though I think he did that just as often to weird out the homophobes then just to be affectionate. Even so it wasn't an uncommon thing...I think most people thought we were together. Hell Senior year there was a betting pool going round about when we'd get engaged."
Alec laughed, blinking in surprise.
"Man- all Jamie thought was I was gonna take him to homecoming..."
Magnus laughed, flashing a warm smile at his boyfriend, head tilting curiously, gaze shifting back to Simon.
"So what'd Drake think of it?"
Simon snorted, rolling his eyes exasperatedly.
"He said we should find out what had the longest odds then have someone put a bet on it for us and split the pot."
Magnus laughed loudly, shaking his head.
"Oh man I'm gonna love this guy..."
Simon grinned, nodding animatedly, brushing a couple light brown curls back behind his ear.
"Like I said you can't really help it...he really is something else."
Raph huffed out a soft laugh, nodding faintly before pausing, head tilting curiously.
"Sounds like it. The way you talk I'm actually kinda surprised you guys weren't a couple..."
Simon chuckled, shrugging, shaking his head faintly.
"Well actually we did try that for a while, but we eventually realized we just worked better as friends."
Raphael blinked in surprise, swallowing, giving a faint nod.
"Oh...yeah...that makes sense. It's nice that you guys were able to remain friends...not a lot of people can manage that."
Simon nodding.
"Yeah usually that's the case but like I said it's near impossible not to like Drake...besides everything was on good terms. There wasn't some big break up or anything..." Simon trailed off, giving a faint laugh, shaking his head.
"I actually don't think we really even had like a break up-break up...which made seeing as we didn't really like have a get together thing either. We were best friends, then it just kinda shifted to something more for a while then it just kinda seemed to shift right back." He shrugged, giving a bit of a wave.
"I don't know, sounds really odd but it just kinda worked out that way. It really was for the best. And I know that's what people tend to say but in this case it really was...I mean this was like eighth grade going through the first half of freshman year. I'm really glad it worked out how it did cause otherwise I'd of lost the best friend I'd ever had just when I needed him the most. No way I'd of made it through high school without him." He shrugged again, glancing over, catching Raph's eye, smiling softly.
"That's good Amore..." Raphael smiled back, nodding, squeezing his shoulder, leaning in, brushing a soft kiss to his cheek, lingering faintly before giving a soft sigh, pulling back slightly, blinking his eyes open, gaze shifting from Simon over to Alec, a faint smirk tugging at his lip, head tilting cockily, brow quirking.
"So now...exactly HOW did you end up dating someone for half a year without realizing it?"
{*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^}***End Of Chapter Notes***
{*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^*_*^}Yay! Another chapter done. I know it cuts off kinda abruptly but I kinda wanted Raph to just try to subtly change the subject and get Alec flustered so the other two could concentrate on him and not on Raph realizing in about an hour he's gonna be meeting what sounds like Simon's childhood sweetheart...or that he's gonna be staying at the man's house...
Awkward...
I like how this one went- gotta admit it's harder for me to find motivation to write on this verse- don't get me wrong I love it, I really REALLY do but it's just when compared to the other's it's harder for it to hold my attention. Still I like how this is going. I know Simon should have thought to mention that Drake was an ex but I don't think Simon really thinks of his as an Ex- just as a really good friend. Thinking Raphael meeting Simon's 1st boyfriend is gonna be kind of rough terrain for Raphael...he's usually pretty unflappable but this is Simon so...yeah...
So as always here's the update list:
A Start Of Something New (Verse 7)
The Guy/Demon In The Mirror (Verse 4)
Nosey Neighbors (Verse 9)
Love Bug (Verse 2)
Picture Perfect (Verse 8)
You Can't Go Home Again (Verse 1)
A Study In Chaos (Verse 6)
This Is Why You Don't Wander Away From The Group (Verse 5)
Death Was Just The Beginning (Verse 3)
Next up is The PsychicVerse. This one at first I was a bit hesitant about- it's one of the few that the Raph/Simon isn't gonna be all smooth sailing- that's hard for me but I know where I'm going with it and I can clearly see how I'm gonna get there so I'm actually really excited about this one now...One of my favorite things about having the different verses is getting a chance to explore different variations of the relationships between the cast.
On a slightly unrelated but I think pretty pertinent note Today we got a new President!
we have an adult at the helm again...I know it's technically unrelated but it kinda is as one of the things that's slowed my writing down this past year was the constant insanity and uncertainty of the election and all the crazy trying to thwart our election. I felt like this entire last year has just been waiting for the other shoe to drop- and oh my god there were a lot of shoes to drop...it's like being in an Adidas store during a freaking earthquake- but we're past that. I know everything isn't just gonna be fixed overnight but just the idea of having a real, level headed adult in charge as opposed to a screaming, race baiting, twittering wannabe dictator is such a relief.
I know I say it near every time I do an update but I really do think I'll be able to pick up the pace on the updates without the constant barrage of crazy.
I really think this year Is gonna be better- both with my updating and just in general.
So what do you think of the story so far?
Excited to meet Drake?
I know I am...
* 20 *
{*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* ~8~*FutureVerse*~8~^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^}