Time Specials

Learning Lessons (Part 3)

"I can't believe you made that entire outfit yesterday while we were out getting the adoption papers finalized," Incubux said. "Are you sure you want to wear that to school? I mean it looks great on you. It's just that people will make fun of you."

"Incubux, be nice," Moonlight said. "I think it looks good on him."

"Bro, Chronos is wearing a gray sleeveless turtleneck, black skinny jeans, black high laced combat boots, and a white poncho with black fur on the rim of his hood," Incubux points out. "He looks good, but the other kids at school might make fun of him. Hell, there's a chance some of the usual bullies might target him. Even if Mr. Erratum's presence at school has changed things, there's still a high probability that others will pick on him."

"Guys, I'll be just fine," Chronos said as he hugged a doll of Paper Crane close. He wasn't going to lie, he always wanted to wear his brother's clothes. Now he had a bit of free time to make them fit himself. "I don't care what others think. I really like this outfit. Someone really close to me wears this exact outfit. So, what others think won't bother me."

"Chronos is right," Nightmare said as he finally came down the stairs. "It doesn't matter what the others think. Besides, it's our job to look after our new charge. If Chronos gets into any trouble it's up to us to protect him. Especially since this is Chronos's first day at school."

"Night, I can handle myself," Chronos says.

"I know you can," Nightmare said. "I just think we can help you out if anything happens. That way you can get out of trouble faster. Anyway, let's go."

All four of them got into Nightmare's car and went off to school. After the test and Movie marathon on Saturday, things got very disturbing. Basically, Chronos's adoption day turned into the day the Joku family tried to stay sane.

After Chronos cooked them breakfast, all three of them went out to get the adoption papers finalized. When they came back, they saw Chronos had finished his current outfit on the kitchen table with no signs of a sewing machine or packaging. So they had no clue where or how Chronos got it, but they didn't want to ask since they saw how happy Chronos was to show them the outfit.

Then Chronos had them sit down and listed the same issues he told Geno. However, Incubux made the mistake on how he got the list of issues. Chronos made a more realistic version of how he encountered his abusers for this Multiverse. During this discussion, Moonlight, Nightmare, and Incubux questioned and commented on how everything about the situation was impossible. Chronos only shrugged and gestured to himself before continuing the very graphic description of his issues. At that time, the three of them threw up what was their breakfast and lost their appetite for lunch. Chronos apologized profusely but was told it wasn't really his fault.

The Joku family wasn't okay after that discussion and decided that they would all go to therapy, including Chronos. The family mainly worried about Chronos's haphephobia and phonophobia. Going to a school where everything is loud and there was always a possibility that someone could bump into him. Later that night, Nightmare called to see if he could get some special accommodations for Chronos to make his transmission into the school easier.

Then there was the fact when night came around and Chronos couldn't sleep. It took them two hours to try and get Chronos to give them the solution. The reason it took so long was that Chronos was dodging and deflecting the question. Luckily for them, Moonlight remembered that Chronos had a strong liking towards anything chocolate and made chocolate chip cookies while his dad and brother were talking with Chronos.

So they learned that Chronos couldn't sleep alone, and Moonlight was the first to jump at the opportunity for Chronos to sleep in his room with him. Thankfully, Chronos didn't object due to the fact that Moonlight made him cookies.