#73 - Cling
A Thousand Miles
Segment Notes: This is a follow-up to the prior piece. The suggestion for the first scene and Jack's reaction is XenoEmblemFTW's. I am tentatively thinking the alternate Crow Kalin saw may be the one who featured in Arc-V, but I haven't positively decided that.
Kalin's return from the alternate dimension he had been trapped in resulted in a flurry of reunions. When he went back to town with Radley, all the Bunch and Nico and West glomped him in joy. A quick call to Yusei to let him and the others in the City know resulted in him immediately driving out, flanked by their other friends. Jack was so emotional to see Kalin after three weeks of him being missing that he tried to lunge and punch him for making them worry. Crow and Radley both grabbed his wrists to stop him. It was Jack's fiery way, but Kalin hadn't been missing on purpose and neither wanted to see him hurt.
Finally they all settled in the diner for a reunion dinner. Kalin sat at a table with Yusei and Radley on either side of him and the kids across from him. The others tried to sit as close as possible too.
"Okay, so now, really, where the heck were you?!" Crow exclaimed. "You said some alternate dimension, but where?! What was it like?!"
Kalin sighed. "I don't know where," he said. "I saw an alternate you. He tried to help me figure out what was going on and find a way to get home."
"Seriously?!" Crow gawked.
Kalin nodded. "When I realized there was an alternate you, I also realized I could probably get home if I could find an alternate Radley and he had a portal-opening pendant."
Radley quirked an eyebrow. "Wouldn't I . . . he . . . have been in an alternate Satisfaction Town?"
"I wasn't in the City," Kalin said. "It took some time to be able to get back to this area, especially when I didn't have my motorcycle." He shook his head. "You should have seen his and the alternate me's expressions when I showed up."
"I can imagine," Yusei said, shaking his head too.
"Was he able to help you?" Radley asked.
"It took a while," Kalin said. "His pendant was more erratic and for a while was opening portals to the wrong dimensions, and every time he or I tried to use it, it drained us a lot." He sighed and looked down at his glass. "I was starting to think I would never get home."
Radley shuddered at that thought. "Well, at least you finally did," he said, laying a hand on Kalin's.
Yusei nodded. "That's the most important thing." He smiled.
"Wait, so a bunch of other portals got opened?" Crow frowned. "Did you have to go into all of them to find out where they'd lead?"
"If it wasn't immediately obvious, yes," Kalin said.
"Were any of them super different?" Scotch wondered.
"I saw a lot that were similar," Kalin said. "I only saw a really weird one every now and then."
"Like what?" Crow asked.
Kalin looked away.
Radley frowned a bit, as did Yusei. Clearly Kalin didn't want to talk about that, at least not now or here. They wouldn't push it, and they hoped the others wouldn't either. Radley would ask when they were alone, but then not ask more if Kalin still didn't want to talk about it.
"It was probably too weird for this happy occasion," Radley finally said with a smile. "Nevermind."
Kalin gave him a grateful look.
". . . So you just crashed there for a while?!" Scotch exclaimed. "How'd things work with two Kalins?!"
"It was . . . confusing," Kalin said. "But the alternates were very kind and willing to help. They understood how worried you would all be and never gave up until the right portal was opened."
"I'm so glad," Radley said.
"Did you see an alternate me?! What was he like?!" Scotch demanded.
Kalin chuckled. "I saw alternate versions of all the Bunch. Honestly, though, they were all pretty much the same as here. So was everyone else."
"Me too?" West asked.
"Yes, I saw you and Nico," Kalin said. "It was comforting that much was the same as here. But I am so glad to be home."
Yusei smiled. "And we're so glad you are."
xxxx
Yusei and the others decided to stay over that night at the hotel and be with Kalin more the next day. Kalin was happy for that, but very anxious to get home and have some quiet time with Radley before sleeping. It had been such a long day, and a long three weeks.
It was unspokenly agreed that they would share a bed tonight, after being apart for so long. Kalin climbed in when they were both ready and Radley smiled, literally welcoming him in with open arms.
"I missed you so much," he whispered. "I never gave up hoping, but I was so afraid you couldn't ever come home."
"I was afraid too," Kalin said. "It was nice to see an alternate you, but he wasn't you. He wasn't the one I've had so many experiences with and he wasn't the one I've committed to spend my life with forever."
"Did he have that kind of unique relationship with his Kalin?" Radley wondered.
"I think so," Kalin said. "They didn't actually say, but they didn't need to. I could see the love in their eyes and it didn't seem to be of a romantic nature."
"Would you know if it was?" Radley curiously wondered. "Since you're asexual and aromantic, I mean."
Kalin grunted. "I know how you and I look at each other. I saw that in their eyes."
"Fair enough," Radley chuckled. He leaned back into the pillows as he sobered. "I'm glad that you were with good people. I worried so much about where you were . . . if you were being treated well . . . or if you were lying at the bottom of that canyon and I just hadn't found you. . . ." His voice caught in his throat.
Kalin hugged Radley close. "I tried more than once to concentrate and reach out to you and Yusei. I don't know what I was thinking . . . that maybe my strong desire would push the message through dimensions, I guess."
"I think it did," Radley said. "I heard you calling to me many times. And . . . last night I thought I actually saw you walking with me. You disappeared when I tried to reach for you." He hugged Kalin closer. It was so incredible to actually feel him this time, to know it was real and to have him back.
Kalin kissed the top of Radley's head. "I'm so sorry. I'm home now, and I won't be going anywhere anytime soon."
"Yes, let's have our patrols together from now on, like usual," Radley said.
Kalin smiled. "That's great with me."
Radley hesitated. "When you were dimension-hopping, I hope you didn't see anything horrible. . . . You seemed troubled at dinner."
". . . I didn't want to say anything to the whole group, but I saw a world where you were a fifth Enforcer," Kalin said quietly. "We wondered what would have happened if we'd stayed in touch as kids, and that's what happened there. You went to me when your family kicked you out, and I brought you into the group."
"Really?" Radley said in amazement. "How did that work out?"
"Things played out much the same in some ways," Kalin said. "I still lost my mind and broke up the team. But after the Dark Signer mess, I went to Crash Town a lot sooner. I knew you were there and I was deliberately seeking you out. You were hurting because of so many things. . . . You rightfully blamed me for breaking up the team. You were grief-stricken because you thought I was dead. And you felt like the others didn't care about you and had only wanted you because you were my friend." He shook his head. "I still kept pushing you away, thinking that was what was best for you. I hurt you so much more. . . ."
". . . That wasn't you," Radley said. "It was an alternate you, with a different soul."
"I know," Kalin said. He sighed. "At least he didn't leave you in the mines. He kept looking for you so desperately. He didn't find you until it seemed almost too late. But thank God you pulled through. When I found that world, he and you were there happy and Yusei, Jack, and Crow were visiting."
"That's good," Radley said.
"Now that I know all the pain that came from that world, though, I don't know whether I think it was better for us that we didn't stay in touch as kids in our world or not," Kalin said.
"I still wish we had," Radley said. "As long as I still met the Bunch in that world. . . ."
"They were all there," Kalin assured him. "They were in every world."
"I'm glad," Radley said.
Kalin fell silent again. ". . . I also saw a world where you were gone and your Kalin had re-named the town in your honor out of his grief. . . ."
Radley stiffened. "What?!"
". . . It was so hard visiting that one," Kalin said. "But I did finally find you alive and get you reunited with your Kalin."
Radley smiled and relaxed. "Of course you did. You had me worried there. All of our alternate selves need their happy endings."
"Yes, they do," Kalin said.
"You didn't see any truly terrible worlds, I hope," Radley said in concern.
"All the worlds I saw turned out right." Kalin hugged Radley close. "And every world I visited only made me more homesick for ours."
"And now you're here and you don't have to feel homesick anymore," Radley said.
"It almost seems unreal to be home," Kalin said. "Part of me wonders if it's a dream. And yet I know it's not."
"It seems unreal to me as well," Radley said. "But thankfully, it's so very real."
Kalin smiled. "Yes."
They fell asleep happy and peaceful in each other's arms.
