The Aberrations of S.I.D.E.

No. 4: Julian

"Uh, sorry, can we go back to that thing about the tiger plushie?" Roman interrupted, grinning. "What was its name?"

"Stripes. He was three when he named it."

"Oh---oh, that is perfect."

Janus let out a snort. "Definitely makes it a lot less harder to actually be scared of him."

"It's hard for me to be scared of him, really," Jules admitted. "It's kind of hard to even believe that he'd go that far..." He trailed off.

"I think he's just scared," Patton told him, resting a hand on his arm. "He saw what your parents did to you, and he doesn't want that to happen to him."

Janus muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Remus reached over and squeezed his hand.

Jules bit his lip. "Yeah... yeah, I guess."

"It's really cool of you to be here," Virgil said. "And not just because you're offering to help."

He gave him a smile. "Thanks for that, um..."

"Virgil."

"Right. Thanks, Virgil."

.........

Being blind in one eye was something that Augustus was probably never going to be used to.

He still wore his sunglasses, which now had a second purpose. As long as he wore them, nobody would notice his eye, or ask him how he'd lost it.

It was also a lot harder to fight. He and Ian sparred almost every day, just so he could practice with only one eye, but Augustus was nowhere near the level that he once was. He actually found himself missing the weird-ass challenges Remy would put everyone through back at the Academy.

I just need practice, Augustus thought, running a hand through his hair. I just need practice, and I'll be able to fight again.

But not for the Circle. Not for Mom.

"You're staring off into space again, Gusty," Ian said, sitting down next to him. "You okay?"

Augustus started. "Yeah, just... thinking."

"About your mom?"

He hesitated, then nodded.

Ian nudged him. "If it makes you feel any better, I like the scar. It adds to your whole sexy-bad-boy vibe."

Augustus snorted in spite of himself. "I hate it when you try to cheer me up."

"No, you don't."

"Could you stop saying that?"

"I'm just trying to get you to tell the truth." Ian rested a hand on his shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it, or do you want me to distract you?"

Augustus shrugged him off. "I want you to leave me alone."

"Gusty, I've been leaving you alone all summer. You have to talk about this eventually."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't particularly feel like having a heart-to-heart with my best friend about my mom making me stab my eye out," Augustus snapped. "Or is that too unreasonable for you?"

"Gusty."

Augustus looked up at his friend, who was giving him a look that he hadn't seen in a while---one of genuine concern.

"Can I see it?" Ian said quietly.

He sighed. "Go crazy."

Ian gently tugged the sunglasses off of his face. Augustus winced slightly at the light.

"Well, it's healed pretty nicely," Ian told him. "And I'm right about the scar."

Augustus let out a little laugh. "Nice to know I look good, at least, even if I am an ass."

"Aw, you're admitting it. That's a step in the right direction."

"What, no comment about how I have a nice ass?"

Ian shrugged. "That's not best-friend territory. Keep up your personal growth, and you'll get a boyfriend who can do that."

Augustus rolled his eyes with a smirk. "Ah, shut up."

When the two of them had started being open about their sexualities, everyone had automatically assumed that the two of them were a couple. Both of them thought it was absolutely hilarious, and Ian had started joke-flirting with Augustus as a result. It was two years since the two of them had come out, but the joke still stayed.

Ian's smile faded. "Are you... are you still going to follow her?"

Augustus blinked. "What?"

"The entire reason you became such a jerk was so you could prove yourself to your mom, but now---" He stopped. "Never mind. Not my place."

"Well, you can rest easy," Augustus told him.

Ian's head snapped up. "What?"

"I don't wanna fight for a cause that I don't believe in, and I don't wanna do anything for Mom," Augustus said, looking down at his feet. "I wanna bring the Circle down."

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious."

"Gusty, I---" Ian shook his head, grinning. "I've been wanting to help you do this since Jules! You've finally developed a moral compass!"

"Don't go praising me just yet, Frosty," Augustus said, shoving him. "I'm doing this so I can get back at Mom for doing this shit to me. I'm not gonna start wearing daisy chains and singing love songs anytime soon."

"Well, you can't sing for shit, so---"

Augustus threw a pillow at him. Ian responded by tossing it back.

"So," Ian said, scratching the back of his neck. "What's your plan?"

"What?"

"You have to have a plan for taking down the Circle, right? Or at least some semblance of one?"

Shit.

"I... uh..." Augustus cringed. "I actually haven't gotten that far yet."

Ian stared at him, then flopped backward on the bed with a groan.

"Hey, c'mon, I don't have the best aptitude for planning!" he protested. "The only reason I became the leader of my crew was because Mom arranged it! All of my plans consisted of 'bust in, knock some heads, and scare them so badly they'll spill secrets!'"

"And burning one of your teammates, Gusty, don't forget," Ian added, pointing at him.

Augustus hunched his shoulders. "Could you back off that for a second and maybe give me an idea as to how I'm gonna pull this off?"

Ian sat back up. "Well, you're going to be starting to work under Maximilian next week, right?"

"Yeah, just my luck," Augustus muttered. "Doing tech work with one of the most pretentious legacy bigshots known to the Anomaly world, when I know absolutely nothing about computers."

"From what I can remember, Elena also works under him," Ian reminded him. "And she wants the Circle gone as much as you do. She and Sylvie both."

Augustus paused. "I mean... I guess that's a shot that I could take..."

"And don't forget, one of her cousins is dating one of the Circle's targets. You did say that your mom wanted to go after Patton, right?"

"They aren't in contact, though," Augustus said. "Logan's dad disowned himself before Elena was even born."

"Still, it's not a bad idea." Ian patted him on the back. "Think about it. I'll be in the training room if you wanna give beating me another shot."