Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

1 - Recognizable

Tango stretched as he walked out of the hallway, hearing the automatic door to the room close as he stepped out. Jimmy noticed him from across the room and got up from the table he sat at to meet his soulbound. 

"Dude, what took you so long?"  He asked.  "Me and two other people walked out before you and we went in together!"

Jimmy also wanted to ask about exactly how many needles they stuck in Tango, because for the past 20 minutes he could feel every one of them.  But he never got to that part, and he never bothered to continue.

"You know how they are," Tango responded casually, doing his best to refit his dark red fingerless gloves onto his hand without his unnaturally sharp nails cutting them up, "I tell them I don't know what kind of genes I got in me and they think I'm just dumb and try every other DNA test in the book,"

Right after he finished his sentence, a speaker box on the ceiling in the corner of the room blared to life, speaking in a robotic voice.

"Participant interviews have been completed.  Final checkups around the area are being wrapped up and will be finished in approximately 10 minutes.  Thank you for your patience and cooperation with the project." 

"Right, well," Jimmy said, "I already met some of the guys and I was just watching them play cards, so if you wanna come with me that'd be great,"

"You say that like I have any other options," Tango laughed a bit, walking along with Jimmy, "I don't know anybody else here!"

"Tango, I guarantee as soon as we get to that table you're gonna know someone because their mother's boyfriend's sister was your 5th half cousin or something,"

Both of them laughed at this. Tango was notorious for somehow being connected to every person he met, even more so knowing that he had something to do with them. It was a miracle he wasn't related to Jimmy in some way, and sometimes Jimmy wonders if that's the real reason Tango agreed to be his platonic boyfriend. 

Three people sat around the table Jimmy led Tango to. One of them was against the far wall, kicking his anthropomorphic fox legs (which Tango wrongfully assumed to be wolf at the time) up onto the table while still leaving plenty of room for the other two to continue their card game. A mask covered his nose and mouth as well as half of a scar that ran down from his left eye, and a bandana held the grey fox ears on the top of his head upward. Bandages wrapped around his upper arms and just below the knee of his legs, covering up the ending to his dark navy shirt sleeves and dark blue jeans. A dark green vest went over all of this, and a fox tail rested behind him on the seat. He seemed to be scrolling on his phone, but despite this, it was like his attention was devoted to the game, because any time the others asked him any kind of question or told him anything, he would answer them all with 100% sincerity and correctness.

One of the players weren't seated at the table at all. Rather, he sat on a wheelchair with a white and grey tabby cat on his lap that was purring to the soft pats she was receiving from her owner. Scars ran across this man's face like nobody's business, going across his right eye, left cheek, nose bridge, and from his chin to his upper lip. There were also a few small scars on his hands, and Tango had a feeling there'd be scars all over his arms too if he were to roll up his sleeves. He had fairly brown hair and a dark brown overcoat that went unbuttoned, revealing a very obviously tightly fitted white t-shirt underneath that detailed every bit of muscle on his chest. He had black trousers that were held up by a large brown leather belt (not like they had a risk to slip off anyway), and finally a pair of brown pointed-toed shoes. He gave off the energy of a wealthy mob boss, a humble business owner, and a broke gambler all at the same time, and Tango had no idea how he was pulling it off.