Sorry about the long break, guys. I appreciate the comments about fast uploads but it probably won't be so speedy anymore. I finally got a job and school will be starting soon, resulting in a rather sketchy amount of time to write well. Despite the limited amount of time I will spend as long as I need to make myself satisfied. That might take a bit, my lovelies! But hopefully you'll understand my struggle.
Enjoy 3
The staff of Dot ConneXion sit around bobbing their heads or tapping feet. One of the men, Jay remembers his name being Leon, chuckles, "Damn, you made these yourself?"
"Yeah." Jay says, unable to keep the pride from his voice. He should be happy. He shouldn't be thinking of what had happened back at the bridge. He believed that showing the staff some of his tracks would distract him, but Aiden has corrupted his thoughts. He can only remember the expression he made when he mentioned that girl: Lena. It was so stupid of him. He barely knew who she had been and what she meant to Aiden. Although, the anguish that had flashed for those brief few seconds on his face was enough information for him.
"I didn't think it would be this easy to find a good DJ," Chelsea, a pretty blonde with hazel eyes and a hell of a friendly smile, says before spinning in her chair, "Let's just hire him and be done with it."
Sid raises a tattooed arm, "I second that. The quicker we can get this place back up to par the better." He looks at Jay with a smirk, "Can you start tonight?"
"Um…" Jay hears himself say before realizing how much he truly wants to say yes. This is what he wants. Actually…it is the second thing he wants.
"Aw, he's stammering," Chelsea pouts, "You seemed pretty excited before, kid."
"I think he's thinking of something else," Leon says suddenly. He is the oldest of the group, and has clearly been through a lot. His right arm is cybernetic, spray-painted over multiple times. The way he moves it makes it seem like it has been there a long while. Half his face is taken over by metal as well, in a web-like pattern that it could almost seem like tattoo art from afar. Jay had asked about it, he said he was involved in things he should have, and that was it. Despite the metal, he is outrageously handsome, not Jay's kind of handsome, but that way nonetheless.
He clearly knew people. Or at least has seen a lot of people if he works at a club like this. He looks at Jay expectantly, "So. When did you get your color, kid?"
Jay frowns, wishing people in this city could talk less of their vague, code language, "My color?"
"You're wearing really shitty contacts," Sid says, "You're lucky we are decent individuals here."
Jay stares between them all. Aiden had told him that there were many places that welcomed psychics as people. He said that they most likely had one psychic running the place. The young man wishes that he could read Auras just a bit better, he would have found it out much faster.
However, he reaches up, taking the contacts from his eyes, blinking several times, "I guess I wouldn't be able to hide it…I use my powers when mixing the music." He tries to be casual, like he's been like this his whole life. He didn't want to be known as clueless anymore.
Leon narrows his eyes, looking closer, "Holy shit, those are ridiculous. What the hell happened to you?"
Jay curses to himself, "Ok, what does that even mean?"
"You know, most psychics have their little 'story'," Chelsea explains, putting 'story' in air quotes, "How they got their powers maximized…I think, right?" She looks at Leon, who nods.
"I don't know…I was just born with them. I thought all psychics were like that," Jay says, glancing over at Leon, "You're one…aren't you?"
Again, the older man nods, getting off his seat, "Sid, get the door, alright?"
Sid nods, "Am I allowed to punch out the cops if they give me that damn earpiece again?"
"No, that would be just a bit too conspicuous."
"Dammit, no fun in this place," Sid jumps off his seat, disappearing around the corner. Jay thinks of asking about the earpiece, but decides it to be unimportant, following Leon to the bar.
"I'm surprised that color is just from birth. Your right that we all are born with bright eyes, but the brightest are from the most powerful…the brightest have something broken," Leon says, reaching over the bar for a bottle, pouring a glass and sliding it across the bar too Jay, "What's your story?"
What's your story?
Jay stares as he catches the glass, struck without explanation. What is his story? Is it that he was sheltered his whole life? That isn't what he story is. He refused to believe that is all he is. Then again, what else is there?
He lifts the glass to his lips, taking a sip. It is a bitter brand, or perhaps it was because he barely ever had the opportunity to drink, "I honestly have no idea."
Surprisingly, Leon smiles at this, "You don't have to say. I get it."
Jay smiles back, sipping his drink. He hears Sid stepping back into the room, "Um…yeah…we have a visitor."
Leon doesn't bother looking, "Sid, we're closed."
"I know," It wasn't Sid's voice. Jay whirls around, facing a pair of bright, green eyes.
"Aiden...!" Jay speaks, his muscles stiffening at the intensity of his look, "How did you…? Where did you…?"
"We're leaving," Aiden says, stepping closer to him, "Now."
Jay stares back at him, feeling anger rooted deep in his thoughts. Aiden chased him down just to bring him back? That bunker is almost exactly like his past home now, Aiden is always pulling him back.
"No…" Jay speaks, strengthening the iron in his gaze to match Aiden's.
The older man shakes his head, seeming to be suppressing something, "Jay…I'm serious. We need to leave."
"What is going on here?" Leon looks at Jay, then at Aiden, "So that's your name, huh…pretty ordinary for someone like you."
Aiden addresses the man with little reaction, "You aren't involved in this."
"Well when the Fox enters my club I'd like to know what he wants with a fucking kid."
Aiden narrows his gaze, "You've already involved yourself recognizing me."
"I'm surprised more people don't."
"You overestimate."
Jay feels someone tap his shoulder. He turns, Chelsea waving for him to follow her. He finds himself moving silently after her without any hesitation. Right as they enter a back room he hears a crash behind them, Chelsea cursing.
"God dammit. Your friend better not mess this place up. Why is he even here!?"
"It's a long story," Jay says miserably, hearing another loud, shattering sound as he climbs over broken up equipment. The club is in an old factory, the back rooms covered in rusted pipes and probably dangerous old machines shoved aside for the purpose of room.
"Well whatever it is, I hope he's worth the effort," She says, stopping just before another door, pulling a box over to him, "When you decide to come back, you better have one of these."
Jay looks down at the box, it is full of masks. He crouches down, "A mask?"
"Yeah, so you won't have to wear contacts. There are some cool ones in there. Be fast though, I don't think Leon will last distracting that guy."
The young man looks down at the masks, sifting through them. He hears another crash, wondering if Aiden was actually hurting Leon. He frowns at the thought, his hand touching a glass-like material. He pulls out a vibrant, electric blue mask. He turns it in his hand, realizing with peaking hilarity that it is shaped like a rat head.
"Yep. Taking this one." Jay couldn't help but laugh.
Chelsea raises an eyebrow, "That one?"
"This one." Jay stands, slipping the mask on, the room tinting to blue, "Call it poetic justice."
Chelsea chuckles, "I can't say I know what you are talking about but whatever you'd like to call it. But this means you better come back."
"I'll find a way—"Both turn as they hear footsteps pounding down the hallway. Jay opens the door, staring out at the alley with broken fragments of frustration resurfacing from those few hours ago. He turns, shouting back down the way, "You're going to have to catch me, Aiden!" The challenge in his voice is dreadfully genuine.
He can see Aiden now, jumping gracefully over some fallen machinery, his eyes deadly, "Jay, you're not listening! You're in danger here!"
"And how do you know? You always think I'm in danger, I can protect myself now! I don't need your fucking help!"
"It isn't like that!"
Jay is breathless now, looking at Chelsea, then back at him, "Bullshit…" he bursts out the door, running down the alley. There is a boom of thunder rolling through the darkened sky. Jay always hated thunderstorms, but here, here he surprisingly didn't mind.
A small pipe explodes near him, spraying hot steam in his direction. Jay stumbles back, but keeps running. Aiden is far faster than him, he'll catch up in a matter of seconds.
He turns, knocking a dumpster down in his path before turning the corner. Bolting into the street he pushes past the crowd, dodging cars racing by before stumbling in one piece to the other side of the street. He gasps, seeing a boardwalk ahead. He runs across it, his feet clanging on the metal surface. He stops halfway down, a wave a spontaneous nausea taking over his feeling. His head pounds like someone is hitting it with a hammer.
"Oh no…" Jay mumbles, knowing exactly the kind of feeling he is experiencing, "No…no not now."
This is about the worst time to have a vision, but regardless of his struggle to pulls away the whole area begins to distort. He watches, everything melting away and reconstructing. He is baffled by the scale of the vision. Most of them were simply one or two images in and out of reality. However, this is far, far different. He shuts his eyes, fear brimming within him, the unfamiliarity unbearable.
"Jay!" He hears Aiden's voice, but it sounds like he's shouting from the top of a mountain. He hears it over and over until it breaks away, replaced with something else.
"Lena!"
Jay's eyes flicker open, lifting his head. It is now what looked like early in the afternoon, the sky a beautiful blue. The young man could almost feel the heat of the sun, and smell a distinct scent of popcorn and candy. He refocuses, seeing the area crowded with people. He is at a fair.
He hears a high pitched, girly gasp, a girl breaking away from the crowd and pattering over to a stall nearby. Her green eyes are wide as she looks at the array of stuffed animal prizes. Jay smiles, she was just a ball of adorable. She looks around ten though, he wonders what kind of vision this is supposed to be.
He then remembers the name: Lena.
"Wait…" Jay begins to say but is interrupted as a figure lifts the small girl off the ground. She giggles uncontrollably, squirming in the person's arms.
"What did I tell you about wandering off?" Aiden laughs. The sound seems foreign to Jay, watching the completely different looking man set the girl down, "You need to stay close, alright? I don't need you getting lost in the crowd."
"But uncle Aiden! Look!" The girl points at the stall, "Can you win me something? Please!"
Aiden smiles, a reflex Jay found to be so bizarre on him. It was a pretty smile, a normal smile. He frowns, beginning to understand what the vision is about. And dreading how it ends.
"I can try, but I'm not draining my wallet on these scams." He takes the girl's hand, leading her to the vender. Jay follows, going through several hallucinatory people as he joined them. The world he is placed in had all noises and feeling seem muted, except for the voices of the uncle and niece. Jay notices Aiden's eyes, they are a duller green, still bright, but not as brilliant as he has seen them before. He wonders if this is just the vision, but Leon's question from before becoming prominent.
We are all born with bright eyes. But the brightest are the most powerful. The brightest have something broken.
Jay gulps a little, a horrible feeling at the pit of his stomach. He watches back to the vender. The game was shooting a moving target with a toy gun. Aiden begins taking aim but looks down at the girl. Her name is Lena, Jay knew, but he didn't want it to be.
"Why don't you try and shoot it first?" He suggests, holding out the gun.
Lena pouts, "I'll miss."
"Well, if you do, it's just a game," He lowers his voice, "A dumb one at that. They are big cheaters."
This makes Lena giggle. She takes the gun, lifting herself on her tip toes over the counter. She shoots a couple times to miserable results. Jay smiles again, not being able to help it. The kid is so adorable, he couldn't stand it.
"You have one more shot!" The vender girl says with an overly peppy voice. Lena puffs her cheeks, closing one eye. Jay looks over at Aiden who watches with a rather devious look. He lifts a hand just above his waist, flicking it to the side as his niece shoots. Jay looks over, seeing the bullet just curve in the air before smacking the target down.
Lena squeals, jumping up and down, "I hit it, uncle Aiden! I hit it!"
The vender girl hides her obvious surprise as Jay saw, smiling at Lena, "Alright, what do you want?"
Lena observes the prizes with a fairly critical eye, pointing to a small lamb doll in the back, "That one!"
She receives the doll, hugging it tightly as she hurries back to Aiden. He smiles at her, "I told you."
His niece looks at him with a sly smile, whispering, "Cheater."
"I have no idea what you mean," Aiden lies poorly, smirking at her, "I didn't do anything."
Lena slaps his arm rather hilariously, "Yeah you did! You used your magic! I'm not stupid, uncle!"
Aiden laughs again, leading her to a bench, "Ok…Ok, I might have helped a bit."
Jay follows them, looking up at a large set of construction scaffolding behind them. He moves closer as Lena joins her uncle on the bench, swinging her legs back and forth, "Why don't you help other people with magic?"
"Well…people don't really like magic very much," Aiden sighs, clearly uncomfortable with the subject.
"Why?"
"People are scared of it."
"Why?"
Aiden leans back, "Well…some people…some people do bad things with magic, Lena."
Lena squeezes her new lamb doll, tilting her head, "Well that's not fair. Bad people make it unfair!"
Her uncle smiles again, a sad smile, "Yeah…they do. But no one is perfect. If we could solve everything wrong with the world we would."
The girl looks at him, beginning to speak but her face becomes confused, looking off into the distance. Jay follows her gaze, seeing a shadow behind the venders, a gun visible in his hand.
"No…" Jay speaks without thinking, "Aiden!" He looks at the vision frantically, but knew he wouldn't get an answer.
The shadow suddenly shifts, throwing a round object into the scaffolding. It is beeping. Each noise stabbing through Jay's ears.
Three…two…one.
Jay stumbles as the grenade explodes with ravage force, seeing Aiden and Lena fly off the bench, rolling on the boardwalk as civilians scream. He sees the figure beyond the venders making a panicked wave of his hand. The scaffolding beyond collapsing into the boardwalk in sheets of sharpened metal and bolts.
Jay's head reverberates blazing pain as time seems to speed up, cops appearing from nowhere, civilians escaping. He runs around the pile of scaffolding, skidding to a stop as some of the metal catapults from it, stabbing into the wood viciously. He sees uniforms backing up as shrapnel flies in every direction.
From the excess emerges Aiden, blood staining torn bits of his clothing. He collapses just beyond, a limp body matted with blood and dust in his arms. He holds his niece close as the officers shout orders, suddenly pointing their weapons at the man.
There is a deadly, steady silence, the world muted as Jay stares at the scene. Aiden looks up, his eyes shining brilliant, emerald green.
Jay gasps as there is an enormous crash, the scene ripping from existence in a matter of seconds. He feels like he's getting launched into oblivion, images rushing through the back of his eyes and voices flashing in loudness through his ears. He shuts his eyes again, everything disintegrating into the dark.
~WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW~
He wakes as if being pulled from a freezing lake, his breathing heavy and his shirt soaked in sweat. He barely registers that he is in yet another alley, a few bits of rain plopping on his head. He glances over, seeing the rat mask he had on now at his side.
"Jay?"
Jay looks over, Aiden is standing against the other wall, shadows slashing over his face. His eyes are still prominent, even in the darkness. Time has certainly passed.
"What…happened?" He manages to ask through shaky breaths.
"You fell unconscious on the boardwalk." Aiden strides to him, "You were staring at me then you just fell…"
Jay stares up at him, "I did?"
Aiden shakes his head, taking Jay's arm, lifting him to stand without his consent, "I thought you were hurt." There is a weakness in his voice, softness that Jay can't explain.
"I wasn't…I…" Jay tries to find the right words, "Aiden. I saw what happened."
"What are you talking about?"
"What happened to…" Jay hesitates to say, "…to Lena."
Aiden is silent, but steps back with wider eyes. He tries to speak several times but doesn't finish. His expression finally settles on a bitterness Jay is familiar with, "You shouldn't have seen that."
"Well…I did," Jay says, "I did and it is over with now…I understand now…I'm so sorry, Aiden…for what I said."
Aiden watches him, shaking his head again, "We are going back now."
"No." Jay grabs his wrist with a shaky grip, the vision still taking a toll on him. He looks up at Aiden's emerald eyes, "Not yet."
The older man does not speak, only looks at the younger with an odd gaze, a broken look. Jay takes a step forward; kissing him with attuned gentleness.
The moment is a couple seconds. When no reaction comes Jay begins to pull away, thinking it a mistake.
He feels a hand crawl through his hair, pulling him back forward with demanding force. Aiden kisses back with overwhelming intensity, a bright and fiery feeling of desperate passion. He feels his back press against the alley wall, a roll of thunder beckoning the storm. Jay hastily grips the front of Aiden's shirt, matching his fire with vicious, breathless symmetry.
Every inch of heat radiates from Jay, every sensation covered in the scent of gasoline and rainfall. He pulls away just barely, catching unconsumed oxygen. Aiden's breath is soft and close to his ear, but verbally he is silent still.
Jay's crystalline eyes glance above, the storm beginning in sheets, yet nothing touches them. He looks at the drops move around, sliding away as if an invisible bubble surrounds them.
He meets Aiden's eyes, his hand's palm up, causing the phenomenon. The younger smiles slowly, taking the hand, moving it away, letting the rain break through to them, soaking every heated pore. Aiden curses at the sudden impact, his muscles coiling against the freezing water. Jay grins, pulling him close again.
He suddenly hears a steady, light laugh, then, a quiet whisper, "This…this right here. It didn't happen."
Jay meets his eyes, kissing him gently again before whispering with perfect confidence, "Yes it did."
Thank the Gods, the chapter is done!
*throws obscene amounts of confetti* I hope you all enjoyed that little number, because I sure did! :D
Although I was just about to throw myself out a window writing that Lena part, but I didn't, so that's good! Please R&R it really does help and will have more chapters as soon as I can.