The Chronos Contract (RE)

Youngest Brother?

Balan was exhausted. As the head director and researcher of the Origin Project, he barely had any breaks. He worked from sunrise to sunset every day of the week, well, except Sundays. He never expected his workload to suddenly increase when the Schism between Rieze Maxia and Elympios dispelled a year ago. In fact, how he managed to become the lead spyrite researcher was a bit beyond him. While he had gotten the credit, he still a felt a little guilty for placing his name on a theory he only helped compose.

He looked over to his preoccupied desk behind him to see a young, sixteen year old teen lazily spinning a pen in his pale hand. His slightly messy raven hair partially covered the honey golden eyes as the teen stared out of the closest window. He wasn't dressed as a fellow researcher; a white button down shirt with a black jacket rolled up to the elbows, a pair of slightly faded jeans and sneakers were too casual for the uniform. It was an interesting combination to see the teen wearing a watch on one wrist and a multi-colored bracelet on the other.

The bracelet itself was a little odd. Its seemingly shining glass beads were strung together and clasped with a single cluster of clock gears. It was almost as if the teen wore two watches instead.

Balan smiled, half out of pride and some sort of contentment. The theory Balan introduced to the government was almost completely composed by the teen sitting at his desk. It started off as an off handed comment and it was quickly made into a theory that sat in the back burner for years.

It wasn't until the Schism broke did it spur the teen to completely finalize it. Balan wanted him to be part of the research team (he seriously couldn't pass up the opportunity to give the teen a full scholarship), but he was immediately shot down. The only reason the teen was at his desk was simply because he wasn't allowed to be left alone for longer than a couple hours.

Balan blinked for a moment when he reminded himself of an upcoming meeting. With a quick glance at the clock, he kicked himself into gear with a slight grimace on his face. Fifteen minutes was not very long to prepare. He picked up a file and shoved a couple others to the side. The yellow sticky note on one of the files nearly fluttered off, but he was quick to grab a piece of tape and reattach it to a file. He hadn't had the chance to look into it yet.

His sudden shuffling around the office had snapped the teen out of his daydreaming, who turned to watch him with curiosity. "Balan? Is something wrong?"

He tucked another file under his arm and shook his head, "Nothing's wrong, Jude. It's just a meeting." He suddenly paused when a thought came to him, "Wait, actually that might be a slight problem."

Jude only tilted his head, looking at him owlishly. Balan's eyebrows creased as he took one good at the teen. He seemed to holding himself well, if he ignored how Jude seemed to favor his left side a bit and his hands trembled faintly. It was one of those days.

"...This meeting might take a while, so I won't be here when Ludger comes to pick you up. Can you handle yourself until he comes?" Balan asked. Jude nodded as he picked up the math workbook in front of him with a smile.

"Yup! I finished the lesson Julius-nii gave me today, but I can always check it over again. So, don't worry about me," he said. Balan gave him a look before he plucked the book out of his hands. The teen froze for a split second and panicked. "Hey! Give it back—"

Balan didn't give him the chance to get it back as he held the workbook far out of reach. In all honesty, he didn't really believe that Jude had already finished his homework. As he flipped to the page marker, he was greeted with more than just finished work.

The borders of the page were covered with penned vines, complete with detailed flowers and tomatoes of all shapes and sizes. He almost spluttered when he caught chibi versions of Jude's brothers either holding tomatoes or the answer boxes. He even spotted a familiar round figure of a fat cat chewing on a tomato. There was even a chibi version of the artist himself cheering, "All finished!" at the bottom of the homework.