Time Change (bxb)

Twenty-Eight

"Karma," Jordan smirked, snapping her fingers in Time's direction. Time's still red face remained red, but not for the same reason as embarrassment; it was now out of anger. If Time wasn't in my arms, then I was sure he would have launched himself at Jordan; I knew he would have because it felt like he was about to leap at her regardless. It would be weird moving forward, as Jordan disliked Tiny and Tiny most definitely disliked Jordan.

If only they had started out on a better foot.

"Welcome to my little part of the world," Marcus's father said, opening his arms as he walked over to a small cave-like area near the edge of the cliff we were standing on. If I took to many steps to the left, I'd fall right off the cliff. Inside the cave was what I had expected in the basement: beakers and vials, thick ancient-looking books, and a lot of plants. It was pretty cool. "Watch your steps, though," Marcus's father said playfully, but I tensed regardless, looking down to make sure I didn't step on a single thing.

We hurried into the small cave, following Marcus, who walked over to a sitting area surrounded by a television, which wasn't actually shocking at this point. It felt nice to sit down, not that Tiny was overly heavy or anything, he was on the skinnier side of the spectrum, but holding someone in your arms for as long as I had been made your arms sore.

Marcus's father tidied around for a moment, attempting to clear the center table in his lab, but it seemed like it would be a while, as the entire table was covered in clutter. As tidy as the house had been, none of those cleaning skills seemed to be implemented into the cave lab. It was pretty clear that Marcus's father wasn't a cleaner. When he moved one thing, he simply stacked it onto another—a never-ending cycle of disorganization. Hopefully, Marcus didn't inherit this messy habit from his father.

"Bring Time over, will ya?" Marcus's father called, looking at something through a small microscope. I was beyond intrigued, and so was Tiny.

I carefully placed Tiny on a small part of the table that was now 'clean.' The wooden table didn't look like the ones you'd see in a store, it looked as if it had been formed that way, and considering something small called magic existed, it probably was.

"Why do you have a microscope?" Time asked, looking at Marcus's father, questioningly. I listened as well, curious as well. This got a soft smile from my future father-in-law.

"Everything, including magic, has a scientific background," Marcus's father informed us, smiling. "But I was looking at a plant's cell that had been contaminated with one of my wife's potions," I looked at the man with attention. This was the first time I've heard about a wife, or, more importantly, Marcus's mother. At least, I'm assuming his father is still married to his mother. "But let's worry about your ankle," Lifting his hands up, medical gloves appeared on his hands. Tiny was watching him with a shielded gaze, looking as if he wanted to run away from the warlock.

I understood his fear and hesitation towards magic. When previously offered magical healing, said healing only made things worse. Marcus's father seemed to notice my smallest mates hesitation towards him getting touched by someone with magical abilities.

"Hey, I'm not going to attempt to do anything yet, I just want to see your ankle," The sincerity in the words spoken seemed to calm Tiny down slightly, giving the guy a hesitant nod of approval. Marcus's father, a guy who's name I needed to figure out. I'm getting tired of mentally calling him Marcus's father. The future-father-in-law thing is cute, but no something I can say out loud without getting first-hand embarrassment.

Marcus's father carefully removed Tiny's left shoe and based on the way his face tightened, and he bit his lip, I could tell that it hurt. Badly. Time let out a quiet whimper at the jostling of his extremely bruised ankle. I winced at the coloring, the black tint of his bruised skin contrasted in a weird way with his naturally paler looking skin. Tiny looked ready to yank his leg away from the guy but held still to prevent the wound from worsening.

"Quite a sprained ankle you have there," The man mused, lifting it slightly, moving it slowly, and I could have sworn that Tiny was about to bitch slap the guy. Marcus's father lowered Tiny's ankle, and he yanked it backwards, attempting to get as far away from the guy as possible. The father looked over to Marcus, who was watching from the couch attentively. Marcus walked over to stand beside me, looking at his father, questioningly. "What did you try?" The oldest male asked, looking at his son for the response.

"What we usually do, the healing spell," Marcus said, looking at his father desperately, clearly eager for the answer. I knew why it had frustrated him; he thinks he wasn't able to assist his mate in a time of need. I knew he tried his best, and I think Tiny knew that as well. It seemed that Marcus was the only one still stuck on what he considered a failure.

"And it didn't work?" The father asked, reaching for Tiny's ankle again, inspecting it closer than before.

"Nope, and I tried twice,  resulted horribly both times, only worse," Marcus informed his father, being rather vague about what exactly happened when he tried to heal Tiny.

"Interesting," The father said, his hands immediately glowing. My eyes widened as Tiny attempted to jerk backward, only to be halted by the father-in-law's other hand. The moment that glowing fingers touched Time's ankle, it was like I was reliving the events of earlier, only intensified. Like before, we were all pushed backwards; only this time, we were in a much smaller contained area. Time flew off the island table, landing on the floor. I was pushed against the wall. Marcus and his father were shoved against the counter.

The sound of crying was the first thing that I heard after the pressure dulled to nothing.

I didn't like hearing my mate cry. 

A/N: To think this took me three days + to write. :(