23 - PROMISE

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"I DON'T THINK I'M GOING TO BE GOING HOME

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"I DON'T THINK I'M GOING TO BE GOING HOME."

It had been eight months since Rhett found himself in the future and the feeling of displacement was just starting to fade. His bitterness along with it, but that was mainly due to proximity to two of the happiest people with the saddest of stories.

"We figured as much," Terran said, jerking his head over to the door where Nicky was sitting, blissfully unaware of their conversation.

"Then why did you call me here?" Rhett asked. Terran wasn't much older than him, at least biologically, and he didn't feel as though the man had authority over him, as he acted more mature, but who was he to talk.

"Can you guarantee the safety of everyone here if something were to go wrong because you are with us?" the man asked, strangely serious, no trace of a smile on his face, an odd sight to see.

Rhett set his jaw. "I can't guarantee anything."

"Yes or no," Terran pressed, "Because if it's no, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. If this were another time, I'd be fine with you being here, safety or not, but we don't use weapons anymore, so if you're going to bring a fight, we can't risk being around you."

Rhett looked towards the door where Nicky was waiting for him. He had been smiling more, at least a little, more and more believing that Rhett wasn't going to leave him. He was just starting to break through, actually get attached to the kid, he couldn't do that to him.

"Yes," he finally said, looking the man dead in the eye, "Nothing will go wrong."

That was a lie he was not yet aware of.

º º º

It was winter break and Rhett was exhausted. After the whirlwind of finishing lessons, Steve coming in every few days as art wasn't a vital subject, he had been glad to get more time to himself, though that time was mostly spent trying to practice. Despite not having heard from Hyde, there was still the looming fear that he would appear, now that there had been more than enough time for him to resurface.

He had woken up late that morning and found Nicky walking back into the loft dejectedly, telling him that he had gotten to the stores too late and hadn't been able to get a new set of ornaments for the artificial tree they had bought.

The sad look on his roommate's face had been almost too much to bear, especially considering how hard the man pushed himself to enjoy the holidays, even though the ones in his childhood hadn't been ideal, so Rhett decided to test his powers even further.

Moving back into his room, he set his watch and closed his eyes, focusing. It took him much longer than usual, though that was to be expected, but he eventually felt the familiar ripple before opening his eyes, looking around to find that he was sitting in his room again, only the clock read it was early morning.

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