Chapter three: Strange enough
Tiredly, Jonathan stood up from the floor where he, apparently, had spent the night. He looked around suspiciously.
Right. He was in the kitchen. Why was he in the kitchen? Why had he slept there, on the floor?
"Something isn't right," he muttered, to no one in particular. Well, this was certainly an experience out of the ordinary. His back hurt like hell; apparently, tiles don't make good mattresses. What a great scientific discovery.
He looked down on the floor, just beside where he'd been laying. Herbs? His herbs, nonetheless. What were they doing, laying here? Had he been using them before he went to sleep – or dozed off, which was probably more correct – or had someone else put them there?
Jonathan seemed to recall a row he'd had with Warren about something of the sort, but he couldn't place that event in a timeframe. Maybe it had been last week, maybe last month. Last year? He didn't know. All he was certain of was that those herbs shouldn't be there.
He started picking them up from the floor. Frowning, he took out small glass jars from the shelf just above him, and sorted the herbs into them.
He gave one of them a closer look. Wow. That was a powerful ingredient to have laying around on the floor. Very powerful, and very dangerous in the wrong hands.
What was it you could use that for, anyway?
Well, as far as he could remember, it could be used for multiple purposes, but one of the more common ones was when you transcended to other worlds. Well, that wasn't what it had been used for, anyway. He'd have noticed if they'd been transported to a different universe.
Speaking of 'they' and 'them', where were they? The rest of the Trio, his friends – more or less so, anyway – were nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe downstairs," he said to himself. "Probably downstairs. They always hang out in the basement."
Not me, though, he thought sadly. I'm always somewhere else, doing something important.
He walked towards the stairs, and tramped down.
When he was halfway down, he stopped, gasping. What he saw, he couldn't believe even with the greatest effort.
---
Jonathan was speechless. He found no words – no words where adequate in this context.
It wasn't like he was homophobic or anything. Nothing of the sort. But the sight was nonetheless shocking.
Those were his partners down there – partners in crime, even. And they were... they were... kissing. Intimately, passionately, and whatnot. Holding each other tightly, so as not to let the other one get away.
Distraught and confused, he went back upstairs, walking carefully so he wouldn't draw attention to himself.
When he got up, he drank a big cup of disgusting coffee to clear his head.
That had really been sick. It was pretty mind-blowing seeing the people you live with and plan to take over the world with making out, when they've never shown any interest in each other before – well, at least Warren hadn't. The mere thought of the two of them together made Jonathan want to run to a galaxy far, far away and hide out for the rest of his life.
Fortunately, he hadn't come in later. Else he might have witnessed something even more mind-blowing.
No, he couldn't think like that.
The thing he really had to focus on was how that could've begun – what could've made it happen.
Sure, the two of them had had quite a lot of time together when Jonathan wasn't around. Out for walks while he was doing magic, a stroll here, a stroll there... but it still didn't quite suffice.
Yes, Jonathan could see why Andrew was interested in Warren. He certainly had his charms, although Jonathan had never seen him like that, of course. But Andrew...? What could possibly have attracted Warren in him? Granted, he wasn't exactly having any luck with the ladies at the moment, but had that immediately driven him into Andrew's awaiting arms? It seemed strange enough.
No, he just couldn't make it work in his head. Warren was most definitely straight.
Right?