Out of Time

Chapter 4 - I'll Be Staring at the Sky

Author's Note: Did you really expect everything to go easily? ;)

~ Amina Gila

There is so much that just doesn't make sense, but Crosshair doesn't fully have the energy to think about it right now, to demand to know why they were going to find him when he...

Tech is gone.

He's just... gone, like Mayday, like...

But Tech is the one he grew up with. Tech is... Tech. He'd always been there, and he was the first to walk away.

Crosshair is used to living without them now, but that doesn't make this easier knowing. He thought, because he hadn't heard of them for so long, that they'd have long since settled down somewhere, and that they were safe.

(He's surprised Hunter trusts him enough to let him touch him, and it hurts more than anything else. It'd be easier if he didn't. At least he wouldn't feel so guilty.)

"Where will you go?" Hunter asks, a short while later – it could be much longer for all he knows, but Crosshair has long since lost track of time – once he's calmed somewhat. He's changed a lot. Hardened. Darkened. Crosshair doesn't know why he didn't expect that – of course, he has. It's oddly fitting, he thinks, that even apart, they've been changing together. Their time apart broke him. He shouldn't be surprised it did the same to his brothers.

But still. He hasn't seen Hunter cry in years.

Crosshair pushes himself up a little, unwilling to pull back yet – he's missed him far too much, and being near him again is drowning him with a desperate longing, leaning half on him and half on Gonky who came over somewhere in the middle to join them.

And the answer is... he has no idea.

"I have nowhere to be," he answers, and it feels oddly exposing to say, even if it's the truth. There's nowhere he really belongs anymore.

"You can... stay," Hunter offers, and there's a strange undernote of desperation in his voice. They've all changed, and it hurts, but it's just as expected.

He's afraid to. He doesn't know what it would mean for them if he did, but... he's here again, and he can't imagine walking away again.

He doesn't think he could, even if it would be best for them all.

He doesn't have time to answer, either.

And if he's being honest, it isn't as though he wasn't considering it, anyway. He never had anywhere else to be, and they – they wanted him. It was him who chose to leave.

It always was. (Not... really.)

Hunter stiffens suddenly, pushing Crosshair upright.

"What?" he asks, just a shred annoyed at the loss of contact.

"Someone's coming," he answers, picking up his helmet and standing.

"Crosshair?" It's a bit muffled but still him.

"Fives," he calls back, standing. Crosshair sways a bit unsteadily, and Hunter instinctively reaches out to steady him. The familiarity is enough that it hurts. He – it – it sometimes feels like nothing changed, even if everything has.

The reg himself enters, pausing in the doorway. "Huh," he says, pausing, studying Hunter. "Another time traveler?"

Hunter's gaze snaps to Crosshair, though his face is blank. He looks hesitant, uncertain. No doubt questioning why people already know.