[jordans house—sunday, late morning]
HE REACHED the attic slowly, savoring the feeling that each footstep brought. Heavy. Final. Ominous.
Ominous. What a pretty word. It sounded dark when you said it, making your heart hitch. He felt ominous today, with Ron and his mother disappearing—he'd barely spent any time with his brother this weekend, too caught up in his own problems to even really pay attention to Ron for one second, Jordan was such a terrible brother—and Tate was pissed, furious, and he had every right. Billie seemed to have disappeared, and this whole thing with Five was terrible. He was frustrated by their almost-kiss (which was interrupted by your local cock-blockers, The Commission) and by their inability to talk about it. His nightmare, although almost all the details had faded (something to do with a butterfly struck him as particularly odd) it had scared the living shit out of him, and Klaus knew it.
He finally reached the landing, and they all looked up.
"We saw them leave," Allison spoke up, voice hesitant. Absently, Jordan wondered if Klaus told them about his episode this morning.
"Are we allowed downstairs now? I really need to take a piss," Klaus said. Jordan laughed, but it felt hollow.
So far, everything today had. He hated it. It was the only thing he could feel, honestly; a muted anger and hatred at everything, and the fact that it was quiet made him feel like pulling his hair out.
"Yeah, you guys can go downstairs. I'll scrounge up some money and go buy some groceries later, but for now you're stuck with whatever we've got left."
"Oh, thank fuck!" Klaus exclaimed, scrambling to his feet. He grinned and lazily hooked his fingers in his belt loops. "I haven't eaten enough!" Then he ran downstairs, footsteps echoing as he obviously tripped. He swore and continued on his way.
They all laughed, and it still felt empty to Jordan. He'd had days like these before, but never this bad.
He wanted this day done. He wanted to be done.
"I'm going to go make sure he doesn't eat you out of house and home," said Ben, smiling softly. Diego stood up as well.
"I'm going to go help Ben stop Klaus. Also, I'm hungry." The two disappeared, acting comfortable, but anyone could see the tenseness between them.
Luther excused himself to the restroom. Allison looked over at Vanya before saying she was going to stay with her.
Five just brushed past Jordan, not saying a word. As he walked past, the scent that is uniquely Fives' wafted into his nose; it smelled both like old man and like young teenagers, with undertones of Jordan's houses' smell and a bit of coffee in a hidden café, home to book-lovers and sweet college romance.
His hand brushed Jordan's and he was reminded of the sweeter parts of a faded dream; fingers interlaced under a diamond-stuffed sky, cold breeze lifting the strands of his hair, brushes of lips against hot skin.
Jordan feels his face warm as Five disappears downstairs. He's left alone with Allison and Vanya.
Guess she's the only one to consult about Number Seven.
"Hey," he said, settling down next to her. Allison smiled brightly at him, although her knees where drawn to her chest. She looked so much younger than she was.
"Hey. What's up?"
Jordan wanted to say: I'm worried about what to do with your sister, because she seems dead and maybe she is, but what do I do if she's alive? Or maybe, I need a hug because of a dream I barely recall.
Instead, what came out was this: "Nothing much. How about you?"
Mentally, he wished for death (again). Why couldn't he ever say anything right?
"Not much going on with me either. My sister might be dying, we don't know; one of my brothers returned from the dead—two, actually, but one wasn't actually dead. Just in the future, until he came back and had us stop the apocalypse. Except we failed and had to run.
"Now, we're stuck back in our thirteen-year-old bodies in a strangers attic who has strange family and strange friends and is altogether strange, although I trust him. Also, I think he has a crush on my brother." She looks at Jordan and smiles weakly, oblivious to the way his heart has stopped fucking beating; her eyes look tired. "Just a run-of-the-mill month for Allison Hargreeves, yeah?"
Jordan's tongue felt like a brick. "Yeah." He managed. How did she know? "I'm sorry, what?" He repeated, struggling to sound confused. Feigning confusion would probably help keep her from finding out, although she seemed a bit too observant to trick easily.
"Sorry," she winced. "I probably shouldn't've assumed you had a crush on Klaus."
For a second there, Jordan is frozen in surprise. Then he laughs—a real, solid laugh that comes from a place between his stomach and his heart.
"Klaus?" He says, wheezing for breath. "That's who you think I've got the hots for? Oh, God," he holds his stomach and Allison smiled, puzzled.
"Fucking hell, Alli, you're funny." said Jordan, rubbing his eyes. They feel like tears are trying to find paths down his cheeks, and he's too focused on not crying to realize the nickname slipped out.
Allison's smile turns real, but she doesn't mention it. Instead, she turns her gaze to Vanya, who shifted. Sign of not-deadness. That was good.
"What should we do about her?" Allison sighed, resting her chin on her knees. Jordan shrugged, reigning in his laughter. (Klaus? Klaus?! Ha!)
"Personally, I think we should keep an eye on her. When she wakes up, someone capable of dealing with her needs to be there so no one gets hurt."
The words Like Last Time sat unspoken, like a fog shrouding their conversation.
"That's a good plan." Allison says finally, picking at some lint on her plaid skirt. "But not Luther."
"Why not?" Jordan said, confusion in his words.
Allison avoided eye contact. "He...I just don't trust him with Vanya."
Something in the way she says that stops Jordan from asking why. But it's there, the undercurrent of it suffocating.
"While we're on the subject of her," Allison leaned over and dug through a small bag. Jordan hadn't ever noticed it
As she tossed objects out, he noticed a notepad and red marker. He wondered vaguely why she had them.
"Can you get us some butterfly identification books? None of us know much, and we need to identify this." In her dark palm, she held out a butterfly, its delicate wings a shining blue. As she turned it in the sunlight coming in the window, the shades of blue exchanged themselves for greens, pinks, and purples.
The animal sent a spike of fear into his heart. But why? It was just a butterfly—dead and beautiful. Like most things.
"Yeah. I'll stop by the library as soon as I can." said Jordan, eyeing the insect. It was very much dead, though. A pristine corpse, if anything.
"Thanks." Allison said warmly, carefully petting the wing of the butterfly. "Also...if you haven't got a thing for Klaus, who is it?"
Jordan just smiled. "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'm not the best liar there is."
Which was a lie in itself; he was the best liar he knew. How else would he have kept the secret of his powers under wraps, or him liking dick?
But for now, he sat with Allison in relative silence (the boys downstairs where quite loud), gazing at Vanya. He thought about the butterfly, his rapidly-fading dream, about Ron and Tate and Billie, but mostly about Five.
Five and how to explain his own damn powers.
A/N:
Ughhhh I hope this chapter isn't super boring?? It's more of a filler kind of thing, although it's developing Allison / Jordan's friendship which is i m p o r t a n t. Kind of. There's also like little foreshadowing and things, but it was more of a filler/set-up for things to come. I'm sorry they haven't been interesting at all in, like, the past three weeks :/
Soon though we'll have another (probably horrible) attempt at me writing some super ~k e w l~ action scene ! So that's exciting right ?
Anyways, my trying to justify my boring writing aside, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter anyways, didn't forget to vote/comment (*wink wink*) and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!!!
(Also, as an afterthought: I'm sorry if I seem awkward when I reply to your comments? I try not to be awkward but I'm kind of really fucking awkward...but i do super love reading all of your comments and they make me pretty much scream with joy and excitement. Thank you guys for commenting & voting because it really does just make my year, even if I don't reply, or am really awkward when I do.
Also sorry for the super long authors note)