Jaxon

Pictures

     Mint carried him into the kitchen and balanced Jaxon on his hip while he got a cup of water and added the strange powder. He mixed it together til the powder dissolved then Mint handed him the cup after he put a lid on it. Jaxon sipped on the cool water while Mint started to walk upstairs. They went into the computer room and Mint sat down with Jaxon on his lap.

     Jaxon's eyes widened as he looked at the far-right monitor. It was filled with pictures of the other guys from the ship. His mouth hung open a bit as he saw pictures of himself on the page too.

     'What is this?!' He leaned in closer to try and see how many of the guys were on there. Ash for sure, it looked like Mike, Kevin, David... twenty. Twenty of them plus himself. At least most of them looked like had gone to good homes. Jaxon's first wave of embarrassment started to wear off as he saw all the other guys in embarrassing situations.

     As he watched the screen, there was a mixture of them eating, sleeping, and wearing strange clothes popping up along with some of the alien language under them. There was even a few different ones of the guys in giant sinks like the one that Mint would put him in sometimes. They were screaming and fighting it too. He was feeling better that he wasn't the only one in this situation. He started to feel a bit depressed though that everyone else seemed to be in perfect health. Even Mike looked like the cast was off his arm now. He was the only one with an injury.

     Mint typed something under the pictures and different words came up soon after. Mint had started to chat back and forth for a while with the unknown person or persons. Then another picture came up on the feed. Jaxon turned pale. He recognized that red hair and angry lip curl.

     The guy had his arms crossed and eyes narrowed. He looked angry in the picture. Jaxon turned away quickly and started to shake. Blade. He didn't want to think about him. Blade had been the one who tormented him the most growing up. And if he ever found out about Jaxon's condition? He would never hear the end of it.

     'Calm down. Calm down.' Jaxon said to himself. 'It's just a picture. He's not here. He's not going to be here. Hace will protect me.' Jaxon looked up suddenly and his eyes went wide with what he'd just said to himself. Not only was this the first time he'd called Mint by his real name in his head. It was also the first time that he felt like Mint really cared about him enough to protect him.

     Jaxon never had anyone like that, not even Ash really. Ash might have been his best friend but couldn't always be there when things went south for him. His whole life, he had to learn to protect himself or get beat up. There were times when he would end up with something simple like a fat lip all the way to having a bone or two broken. Their commanding officers would do nothing about it. Some even laughed at his misfortune. The last time he'd been beaten up was just a week before he got the promotion to lead scientist. Blade and a few of his lackies had held him down and even at three to one, Jaxon was able to get a few good punches in before they knocked him unconscious. He gave a small smile thinking of the fat lip he gave Blade's friend, Thomas, and the black eye Blade himself got.

     A hand came down gently on his head and pulled him out of his thoughts. He blinked a few times and looked up at Mint, no, Hace who was looking down at him with some concern. Jaxon smiled at Hace and pushed his head ever so slightly into his hand as it ran along the side of his face.

     Jaxon had unconsciously decided then and there that he was done fighting what was happening. He might have been a soldier once, but he didn't want to be anymore. He had never wanted the job of lead scientist anyway. There was no going back to earth. There was no Earth Beta as far as he knew. This was the new mission now. He was still a scientist, that's what he was trained for. He wanted to learn all there was to learn about this place. He wanted to know more about his new home now and he wanted to know more about Hace. Because deep down, no matter how hard the military had tried to beat it out of them, Jaxon, like the other boys, were still just kids. Jaxon had known this fact; it just wasn't one he wanted to admit to himself.

     Hace continued to pet Jaxon for a bit longer before he carried him into his room and set him in his pen. Hace gave him his crayons and a few coloring books. Jaxon smiled and pulled himself to them. Hace left the room and Jaxon got to work on his notes from before. He still wanted to learn. He wanted to be able to understand Hace and one day communicate with him.

     Hace had been worried about Ardent a bit. When that last picture was posted, Ardent seemed to act almost afraid of the creature to the point he didn't even want to look at him. Hace had to admit that the little Inchoate didn't look friendly. In fact, it looked kinda violent. Ardent had started to shake and the look in his eye said that he was far off somewhere.

     "Ardent?" He said softly. There was no answer. He put his hand down on Ardent's head and started to pet down his face a bit.

     Ardent didn't jump or flinch. He didn't pull back. He looked up at Hace and looked... happy suddenly. He even pushed into Hace's touch a bit. It hadn't even been a week and Ardent seemed to have quickly taken to Hace.

     'And how did he know the word 'water'?' Hace thought as he walked back to his computer. 'I don't remember teaching him. Maybe it was Jap?' Hace was just trying to figure out just how smart Ardent really was.