Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A loud ringing woke up the two men laying in bed, one groaning loudly before turning away from it and the other groaning to himself before grabbing the phone off the nightstand and looking at the number.

“Why are the police calling?” The pale man muttered before answering, quickly pulling the phone close to his ear as he sat up. “Hello?”

“Hi, sorry for calling at this hour but is this Cesar Torres?” The voice questioned from the other line, causing Cesar to perk up slightly.

“Uh, yes, I’m Cesar. Did something happen?” The other man in the bed turned to faced Cesar as the phone call continued, now curious as to who needed the other.

“Um, I guess you could say that. You see, a family member of yours passed suddenly and left behind their 8 year old son.” The caller explained, a sympathetic tone in their voice. Cesar sat there stunned, confused by a death in the family that he didn’t even know about.

“Is the kid fine?” Cesar asked, climbing out of the bed and beginning to pace by the bed.

“Oh yes of course sir he’s okay, a little shake up but he isn’t hurt or anything.” Mark, the other man, had gotten up now too; walking over to Cesar and standing beside him.

“Oh good.”

“But sir, the reason were calling is that our protocol is to call all living family members to see if any are able to take him in.” They explained before continuing. “We were hoping that you would take him in. You don’t have to but we were hoping that you would consider it.”

Cesar stood quietly, thinking it over in his mind until the lady interrupted him again. “If you do consider it, then just come to the station and we will get you two reunited as quickly as we can. Thank you for your time sir.” She quickly hung up after, leaving a beeping sound playing on the phone.

“Who was that?” Mark asked, looking curiously at his friend.

“The police department. They said that one of my relatives died and left her son behind. They were hoping we would take him in, but I don’t know. What do you think?” Cesar explained, looking up at the other curiously.

Mark stood there silently, thinking it over for a couple of minutes. “Why don’t we?” Cesar quickly turned to him, curious what Mark had to say. “I mean, having a distraction and something else to focus on after all the shit we’ve gone through together isn't that bad of an idea. Also, I would just feel bad for leaving that little kid alone to go into foster care or something shitty like that.”

Cesar began to pace once again as he thought over Marks words. He did have a point, a distraction and someone else in the house would help them a lot. Don’t get him wrong, he loves his best friend, but sometimes, being around each other becomes hurtful reminders of what happened 8 years ago.

“Ok, I see where your coming from, but do we even have the money to raise an 8 year old? And are we even mentally okay to do so?” Cesar began to ramble but was but off by Mark placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Why would they be calling us if they didn’t see us as mentally fit enough? The police department knows what happened and they know how it’s affected us, but they trust us enough to raise a kid. And money isn’t an issue, your on disability and I have a job that makes more than enough so we should be completely fine.” He said with a comforting smile, watching as Cesar smiled back before nodding.

“Thanks Mark, you're probably one of the best friends I could say I've had, even if sometimes I regret living with you.” Cesar jokes, watching as the other mocked offense before giving the shorter a smack on the arm.

“No one would ever regret living with me. I'm the perfect roommate!” Mark exclaimed while giving Cesar a cocky smile while he rolled his eyes.

“We should change, shouldn’t we? I mean, I don’t think they would want us to show up in our dirty ass pajamas.” Mark thought for a second before nodding, causing both to go to their respective closets and begin looking through them.

Mark was just grabbing anything that would resemble an outfit, a gray hoodie and random pair of jeans laid over his arm as he began to change.

Cesar on the other hand was putting more thought into his outfit. It was a common thing he did, always seeming to want to make a good impression on others and in public even if it was a quick trip to the grocery store or just walking around somewhere.

After some time, both men were ready. Cesar stared in the mirror as he fussed over his hair, trying to make it look like the both of them hadn’t just woken up. He seemed to be getting more excited and anxious as time passed though, excited to meet a family member but also anxious about what could happen and about the kid.

“Are you finally ready Cesar?” Mark groaned more than asked, looking over at the other to see how anxious his friend looked. “Nervous?”

Cesar quickly turned to face him, before turning back to the mirror. “Yeah. How are you not? We’re about to take in a literal living breathing child and you’re not even a little bit anxious?” Mark shrugged in response.

“No, not really.” Cesar shot him a suspicious look. “Okay, a little bit but I mean, ever since what happened 8 years ago I kind of haven’t been as strict as before. Now I just kinda, go with whatever happens.” He explained, walking over to the other as he did.

“But this isn’t something related to an alternate, it’s something completely different.”

“But are sure that it isn’t? Did they even tell you how the kids' parents died? Maybe it was because of an alternate?” Mark questioned.

“It wasn’t, they said it was sudden and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t even have called us to keep us safe. I’m even more sure that they wouldn’t have cause they know our history with alternates.” Cesar pointed out, watching as Mark seemed to think for a moment before responding.

“But alternate deaths can be quick.”

“But remember the second thing I said?”

Mark let out a quiet ‘oh’ before looking back at the other, who was now staring at him instead of the mirror. “Finally ready?” Cesar nodded with a smile.

“Are you?” Mark nodded.

“Okay! Let’s head to the department then!” He exclaimed, jogging out of the bedroom door and towards the front door of their shared house.

“Cesar, wait!“ He heard Mark call from behind him as he ran to the car, quickly hopping in the drivers seat and waiting for the other to climb in as well.

After a minute, Mark came out swinging the keys in one of his hands. “You forgot the keys dingus.” He said as he reached the car, climbing in and tossing them over to Cesar, who had a sheepish look on his face.

“Whoops.” He muttered as he put the keys in the ignition and turned them, the car powering to life with the motion. “All right, ready?”

“Ready as Ill ever be I guess?” Mark said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a packet of cigarettes. He quickly pulled one out and lit it, rolling down the window to let the smoke escape.

The smell of Tobacco hit Cesar’s nose, causing him to turn to glance at the other as he drove. “Seriously, now?” He deadpanned, seeing the other out of the corner of his eye pause and look at him.

“What?”

“What do you mean what?! We’re going to pick up an 8 year old and you’re smoking right now?” Mark rolled his eyes before continuing to smoke.

“I’ll be finished with it by the time we get to the station.” Cesar rolled his eyes this time.

Soon enough, the two pulled up to the police station and climbed out. Mark quickly put out what little was left of his cigarette as they walked in, tossing it in a bin by the front door.

As soon as both men were inside, Cesar quickly walked to the front desk and caught the attention of the woman sitting there, beginning to talk to her as Mark quietly stood there by the door.

As he waited for Cesar to figure out what they had to do, Mark glanced around at the walls, seeing multiple officer’s pictures decorating it along with their names. He walked over to two that had a large plaque above it. In bold letters, the words “In Remembrance .”

Looking at the two pictures, he saw a man with unkept hair and tired eyes staring at the camera with a smile that really didn’t match his eyes. Under the picture was a smaller plaque that read “Lt, Thatcher Davis”

‘I wonder what happened to him.’

The picture besides Thatcher was a woman with dark hair and tanned skin. Unlike the other, her smile reached her dark eyes. Just like the other picture too, a plaque was under it with her name. ‘Sgt. Ruth Weaver.’

“Mark Cmon!” Cesar called for him, making him turn to face the other to see Cesar waving him
over. Quickly, he followed him and the receptionist towards a room off to the side, catching up with Cesar without much struggle and walking by his side.

“What’d she say?” He asked, watching as Cesar glanced at him before looking back at the approaching room.

“Nothing much other than that the kids a little shaken up and hasn’t really talked since he’s gotten here.”

“And we still don’t know his name?”

“Oh yeah, that too. His name is Jonah Marshall and he just came here about 3 hours ago. They’ve done all of that evaluation stuff and are pretty sure that he’s not hurt, they just aren’t sure what exactly happened to his mom though.” Mark hummed in response before thinking about how the kid would be around them. Maybe he’d stay quiet for a little and then start getting more social. Or maybe he’d be social right off the bat, but Mark Doubts it.

“Okay, Jonah is inside if you two want to go in and meet him before we start the paperwork.” The receptionist said nicely, a sweet but concerned smile on her face. The two males nodded at her before taking a deep breath and slowly opening the door.

The room was small, if it could be counted as a room. Instead it should be counted as a closet since the room could barely fit a small couch.

Laid down on the couch though as a tanned 8 year who stared ahead at the wall, seeming to be thinking or just almost asleep. Mark and Cesar glanced at one another before stepping into the room, staying by the door to not scare the kid.

After a couple moments of silence, Cesar cleared his throat loudly, causing the kid to jump and quickly turn to face the two adults. He stared at the two with large innocent eyes before grabbing the little bear he was holding tighter, seeming slightly set off by the two.

“Hi, My names Cesar. What’s yours?” The shorter quickly introduced himself, keeping his voice soft and calm to not freak him out.

“J-Jonah.” He stuttered, slightly pushing himself against the other end of the couch as he responded.

“Well hi Jonah. It’s nice to meet you.” Cesar smiled, watching as the kid stared for a moment before smiling back. “Jonah, I'd like you too meet my friend Mark. Mark tell him hi.” Mark looked at the kid before slightly smiling and waving.

“Hi.” Jonah stared at him before waving back.

“Hi Mark.”

“Mr. Torres sir, the paperwork is ready to fill out if you’re ready too.” The lady said as she walked passed them, giving Cesar a small smile before heading back to her desk. He nodded at her before turning to Mark.

“I’m gonna go fill out the paperwork, are you okay with staying with him for a while?” He asked, watching as Mark nodded. “Great, I’ll be back soon. Just keep him some company and make sure he doesn’t get more upset about what’s happened.”

“Yeah, no problem. It’s not like he’s gonna attack me the moment you leave.” Mark chuckled, a small smile crossing Cesar’s face as well.

“Well, who knows? Don’t chance what a little kid can do.” They smiled at one another before Cesar turned and began to walk back towards the front desk. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Ok.” Mark called to him, watching as his friend disappeared around the corner before turning to the kid in the room, seeing that he was just staring at him. “Hey kid.”

Jonah just looked away before waving slightly, seeming too shy to want to talk, only watching silently as Mark walked further into the room and stood opposite of the couch. Mark caught his eye and sent him a kind smile, watching as he looked away before looking back.

“How are you kid?” Mark asked, wanting to break the tension and ease the kid into being able to talk to him and Cesar.

Jonah sat there quietly before responding. “Good.”

“You don’t talk much?” Mark wanted to see if he could get Jonah to talk a little more, hoping that he would be able to keep him calm while they waited.

“I do, it’s just, I don’t know what’s happening.” Jonah stuttered, holding his stuffed toy closer.

Mark cocked his head, looking at the kid curiously. “What do you mean? Have they not told you what happened?” Jonah shook his head in response.

Mark opened his mouth before closing it once again, thinking for a moment before walking over to the couch and pointing at a spot where Jonah wasn’t sitting. “Are you okay with it if I sit here?” Jonah nodded, watching as Mark sat down far enough to give the both of them space while keeping Jonah comfortable.

“How old are you, Mister Mark?” The younger asked.

“I’m 25. How old are you Jonah?”

“8. I'm practically an adult like you, Mister Mark!” Jonah exclaimed with a toothy smile, revealing that he had a couple of teeth missing. Mark chuckled before looking around the room more and seeing two backpacks strewn on the floor close to where the kid was sitting.

“Yeah, you are.” He stared at the backpacks for a moment more before point at them. “Are those yours?” Jonah followed to where he pointed before nodding.

“Yeah, my momma packed them for me so I could go see my poppa.” He paused for a second. “Before, whatever happened happened.”

“Are your parents divorced?” Jonah shook his head. “Then why are they separated?”

“It’s ‘cause my poppa is in Mexico with my abuela. She’s sick.” Mark frowned, feeling sympathetic for the kid. Not only was his dad not in the country, but his mom was now suddenly dead and his grandma has been sick for who knows how long.

“I’m sorry about that, I hope she gets better.” Jonah nodded.

“Me too, cause I wanna eat the comida she makes again really soon.” He smiled.

“Really? What's your favorite?”

Jonah was silent for a moment before responding with a smile. “I really like pozole. If not that then caldo de pollo is even better! I always eat a bunch of it because it’s so good.” Mark smiled at him before Jonah scooted slightly closer to him. “What's your favorite Mister Mark?”

“Oh, uh well I haven’t had as much hispanic food as you probably have but I would say rice or tacos.” Jonah nodded before it went silent again.

“Mister Mark, do you know if my momma is okay?” Mark was caught off guard by this question, making him look over at Jonah to see him looking at him with wide shiny eyes.

“Well, Jonah, um, no. Your momma is not okay.” Jonah gasped as his lip began to tremble, showing that he was probably about to cry.

“What’s wrong with my momma?!” He exclaimed.

Mark looked at him sympathetically before holding his arm up for Jonah to crawl into, watching as he shakily did. “Well Jonah, sometimes things can happen to people out of nowhere. Sometimes people are okay after it happens, but other times no.”

“Is this is one of those times Mister Mark?” He asked, looking up at him with large eyes.

Mark sighed before gently placing a hand in Jonah’s hair and waiting to see how he reacted, thankfully Jonah didn’t mind. “Yeah it is sadly.”

“So what’s gonna happen to her?”

“Well, when something like this happens, someone either comes out of it with a lot of things different about themselves. Or they don’t come out of it at all.” Mark took a deep breath. Hemight regret this later, but there was no going back on it now. “Jonah, you know what death is, right?” He nodded. “Ok then, what is it?”

“Death is when someone goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up. And then when they don’t wake up, they go to the land of the dead and wait for us there.” He explained, stuttering slightly but quickly fixing it.

“Yeah, that’s basically what it is. So you know that death is when someone doesn’t wake up. Well, something happened to your momma and she won’t be waking up again, just like you said.” Mark watched as Jonah looked down with teary eyes, beginning to sniffle and shake as he did. He really was regretting this now, but he hoped the kid would bounce back after. “I’m sorry Jonah. But sometimes our bodies can’t keep working and just stop. That might be what happened to her. Her body just decided to stop even though she was perfectly fine. But I can't really say I know what happened.”

Jonah’s shaking became worse as he wrapped his arms around Mark and shoved his face into his side, beginning to cry loudly to himself. Mark frowned as he placed a comforting hand on his back, gently rubbing circles as he began to comfort the kid.

“But why did it do that? If her body was working right then why did it do that?” He sobbed, rubbing at his brown eyes as he continued to cry. He seemed to accept Mark's little remark about what could’ve happened as the truth, seeming to not have heard what else he had said.

Mark knew that death was always kind of hard for kids to grasp or even get over, but he quietly hoped that Jonah would be able to get over his mothers death. He hated seeing people affected by others choices and deaths and seeing a little kid affected by it made him feel even worse.

“I don’t know Jonah, it just did.” He shushed, the wet spot on the side of his hoodie becoming more noticeable.

They stayed like that for a while, Jonah quietly crying while Mark comforted him until Cesar came back to the room holding a bunch of papers and quickly noticed the crying 8 year old.

“What happened to him?” He whispered to Mark as he walked over, looking at Jonah as he did.

“No one told him about his mom. He didn’t know why the hell we were here.” Mark whispered back, now gently massaging Jonah’s shoulder.

“And you decided to tell him?”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Not tell him!”

“Well then he would’ve wondered why he was going somewhere with two strangers and only one he’s met once in his life. We were gonna have to tell him eventually!” Mark whispered yelled at the other, watching as he thought it over before accepting defeat.

“Okay, you're right.” He said as he rolled his eyes before walking over Jonah and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey Jonah. how are you?”

Jonah looked out from Mark's hoodie as he rubbed his eye. “Good.” He stuttered.

“That’s good.” Cesar smiled, as he crouched down. “So, you know what happened to your mom? Right?” Jonah sniffed before nodding. “Well, you know I’m her cousin yeah?” He nodded again. “Okay, that's good. Well since your dad can't take care of you right now, me and Mark are, is that okay with you?”

Jonah’s eyes widened before he whipped his head towards Mark and watched as the other smiled at him. “Wait, you and Mister Mark and gonna take care of me?”

“Yeah, we are. I have all the papers right here that say we are.” Cesar smiled, watching as a small smile shaky crossed Jonah’s tanned face. He quickly jumped up and hugged Cesar, tearing up once again as he did.

“Thank you Mister Cesar.” He hopped back into the couch and hugged Mark too. “Thank you Mister Mark.”

“Aww, kid, you don’t have to thank us. When we heard you needed someone to take you in we wanted to.” Mark said, patting the kids head gently with a small smile.

“Yeah, we did.” Cesar smiled, placing a gentle hand on Jonah’s back.

“So what happens now?” Jonah asked with a smile, his hands seeming to shake slightly without him realizing.

“Well, I mean, we can take you to our house if you want to.” Cesar offered, beginning to laugh slightly as Jonah vigorously nodded. “Alright, alright. Let’s get going then. Mark, will you help me get Jonah’s things?”

“He doesn’t really have much. All he has is 2 backpacks that I don’t even know if they’re full or not.” Mark explained as he got up from the couch and grabbed one of the bags off the floor and swung it over his shoulder. “Oh this is pretty light, what's in here Jonah?”

“Some of my toys!” He exclaimed, smiling proudly at the two adults. “I can’t wait to show you guys!”

“Well, I would be very interested in seeing them.” Cesar said with a smile as he walked over to Jonah and held out his hand for him to hold, watching as he hesitated for a moment before slowly taking it and smiling.

Mark watched the two of them with a smile before leaning down and grabbing the other backpack off the floor, this one slightly larger and heavier than the other one. ‘This must have his clothes.’ He thought as he swung it over his shoulder.

“Alright, I think we should be ready to go.” Mark said as he tightened the two bags securely, looking back at the other two and seeing that Jonah was now somehow on Cesar’s back and was tugging at his black hair.

“Carry me! Carry me Mister Cesar!” He exclaimed, his toothy smile shining in the poorly lit room.

“I already am Jonah.” Cesar strained, seeming to be struggling with carrying the 8 year old.

“Jonah get off of Cesar’s back.” Mark said as he walked over to the two, watching as Jonah pouted before Cesar responded.

“No Mark, he’s okay, I just haven’t carried anyone in a while.” Cesar smiled.

“Cesar, he’s pulling at your hair.” Mark deadpanned, pointing at Jonah who quickly stopped when he did.

“I was about to tell him to stop myself.”

Mark just rolled his eyes before walking past Cesar. “Yeah, ok, sure.”

Cesar rolled his eyes as well, quietly mocking Mark to just him and Jonah, the kid laughing quietly while Cesar glared at him.

“Well, are we going? I am happy that we got Jonah but I really wanna go back to sleep too.” Mark said, turning to face the other too as he did.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re on our way.” Cesar quickly readjusted his grip on Jonah before turning to him. “You ready Jonah?”

Jonah smiled before nodding, moving his arms from Cesar’s shoulder to his neck so he didn’t fall. “Alright, let’s get going.”

All 3 of them walked out of the police station, Mark and Cesar talking quietly amongst themselves as Jonah looked around at everything but seemed most intrigued with the stars.

As he stared at one, he unknowingly began to reach for it. Cesar and Mark quickly took notice of what Jonah was doing, smiling as they both watched him reach for the stars.

Not soon after, they reached the car and unlocked it. Mark opened one of the back doors and tossed in Jonah’s two bags, putting them on the left side stacked on one another. Cesar gently got Jonah off of his back and led him towards the back seat, sitting him down in the middle of it and pulling the seat belt over him.

Once they both knew that Jonah was secure in the back, they both climbed into their respectable seats. Mark on the passengers side, and Cesar on the drivers side. Cesar quickly buckled himself in and looked through the rear view mirror at Jonah, seeing him look back at him and smile widely.

Cesar smiled back before looking over at Mark and seeing that he was staring out the window at something. “What? Is there something there?”

“Hm? Oh no, I just spaced out for a second.” Mark said as he sat back in his seat facing the windshield. Cesar nodded before noticing that the other hadn’t pulled on his seatbelt, instinctively reaching over and pulling it over him.

“Seatbelt.”

“Oh shit yeah.” Mark's eyes widened as he realized what he said. “Shi- Shoot.” He quickly corrected. He looked over at Cesar, only to see him looking at him disappointingly.

“Seriously?”

“It slipped out!”

Cesar sighed before turning back to face Jonah, seeing that the kid was laughing quietly to himself. “Jonah, that word that Mark said is a word we don’t say. Ok?”

“Why don’t we let him cuss? It can’t turn out that bad.”

“Mark callate! Don’t listen to Mark he’s just dumb.” Mark looked at Cesar offended but the other just ignored him. “So we don’t say that word ok?”

Jonah nodded with a smile. “Great! Now how about we go get ice cream from McDonalds and Mark has to pay for it.”

“Why do I have to fuc-flipping pay?!” Mark exclaimed, quickly correcting his slip up.

“Cause you cussed in front of Jonah.”

“What! Also he shouldn’t even have sugar! It’s almost 2 am!”

Cesar stopped before shrugging. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. Sugar shouldn’t affect a kid this late.”

“Ok whatever you say.” Mark rolled his eyes as Cesar started the car, hearing Jonah’s quiet giggles in the background. “But if he doesn’t sleep you’re gonna stay up with him while I sleep.”

“Yeah okay.” Cesar responded, beginning to drive towards the McDonald's in Mandela.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the restaurant, Cesar deciding to just go through the drive through and order through there.

“Jonah, do you want ice cream?” Cesar asked as he looked at the 8 year old through the rear view mirror, seeing a large smile across his face as he nodded. Cesar smiled before looking over at Mark. “And what about you Mark?”

“Eh, just a coke.”

Cesar nodded before ordering for the three of them and going to pay, apologizing to the worker for coming so late as he did.

“Oh don’t worry about it sir, we have overnight staff for a reason.” They reassured, smiling as Cesar apologized once again as they handed him the one ice cream and two drinks.

He quickly handed everything off to everyone before driving off towards his and Mark's house, feeling content and happy. “Hey Mark, do you mind keeping an eye on Jonah and make sure he doesn’t drop his ice cream?”

Mark nodded before looking back to check on the kid, seeing that he was happily eating his ice cream. “Do you like it kid?”

“Mhm! I didn’t get to get ice cream often with my momma but now I can!” He said happily, not noticing Mark giving Cesar a ‘I knew you would regret it look.’

“Well I don’t know about you eating it often, but we will definitely let you eat it.” Cesar said, chuckling to himself.

“Aww.” Jonah pouted.

Mark looked at Cesar before turning to Jonah with a smile. “Kid just tell me whenever you want ice cream and I’ll get you some.” He whispered, watching as Jonah’s brown eyes lit up.

“Really?” He whispered back. Mark nodded before giving him a thumbs up.

“You two do know I’m right here, right?” Cesar asked playfully, watching as Jonah looked away from him in the mirror with a smile. He laughed quietly before looking over to Mark and seeing him doing the same thing.

Not long after, they arrived at the house. Cesar and Mark got out first and went to unbuckle Jonah and grab his things. Cesar pulled him out and placed him on the concrete before reaching back in for one of the two bags.

“I'm almost done with my ice cream, Mister Mark!” He smiled proudly, showing the little sphere of vanilla ice cream that was on the top of the cone.

“I can see that.” Mark responded as he grabbed one bag from Cesar, swinging it over his shoulder and waiting for the other to close and lock the door.

“Shit!”

“Mark!” Cesar exclaimed, quickly turning to face the other adult only to see him staring at Jonah with a look of surprise as Jonah stared at his now dropped ice cream. “Wait,” He gasped. “Jonah!”

“Jonah!” Mark stuttered out, trying to muffle his laughs from the shock of the kid cussing.

“Mark, stop laughing!” Cesar scolded as he smacked him on the arm before turning to Jonah. “Jonah, what did I say about that word?”

“Don't say it.”

“Yes but I’ll let you get away with it this once, but if you say it again you’ll get in trouble.” Cesar lectured. Jonah pouted as he nodded.

“Ok Mister Cesar.” He mumbled, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Ok, oh my god that was too funny, let’s get inside.” Mark chuckled, holding out his hand for Jonah to take and the younger quickly doing so before reaching out for Cesar, catching the other off guard for a moment before he smiled and took the kids hand.

Jonah smiled before they all walked towards the house, Mark quickly unlocking the door and letting them all in. Jonah let go of the two adults hands as he walked in and looked around at the house, seeming amazed by it.

“Your house is so big! I’ve never been in one this big before!” He exclaimed with a smile. The other two smiling before closing the door and following Jonah as he began to explore the house.

“Why do you guys have so many of these things?” He asked as he pointed at one of the many rosaries up on the wall.

Cesar and Mark both stopped before looking at each other, not wanting to have to explain alternates to an 8 year old. “Uh, we have them for a reason that you’ll know when you're older.” Mark said with a reassuring smile, hoping that Jonah would take his explanation and not ask any more questions.

Jonah looked at the two of them for a moment before shrugging and continuing to look around, to the relief of the other two.

“I don’t want to tell him yet.”

Mark frowned. “Me either.”

They hoped they would never have to tell him.

But that’s wishful thinking.

After Ionah looked around for a little while more, they quickly got him settled for the night in their bed since they didn’t have anywhere else for him to sleep, staying with him until he fell asleep telling him stories that they both knew off the top of their head as he slowly dozed off.

Once they both knew he was asleep, they both left the room, walking into the living room and sitting down on the couch. It was silent between the two of them for a while until Mark spoke up.

“Who would’ve thought that we would take care of a kid.” He chuckled, looking over at Cesar to see a concerned look on his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just. The whole alternate thing, do you think he knows about them?” He said, one hand massaging his temple as he did. Mark thought for a moment before shrugging.

“It doesn’t seem like he does but maybe his parents warned him about them once or twice.” Cesar sighed, looking over at the other.

“It’s just, I don’t want to have to tell him that these things tried to kill the people that he’s now staying with and are still around.” He explained, causing Mark to nod.

“Yeah, but hey I bet it’ll be fine. Let’s not worry about it right now, okay?” He reassured the other, placing a comforting hand on his back.

Cesar looked at him before sighing and letting a small smile cross his face. “Yeah, let’s not.”

“But something we should worry about is getting Jonah a room with a bed and all that.” Mark said, watching as Cesar seemed to realize that as well.

“Yeah, we can’t just have him sleep in our bed forever.”

“Yep! So let’s start looking through catalogues!”

Chapter Text

A couple of months passed since the two first adopted Jonah. Thankfully not much has happened, only having to help Jonah work through his grief so far, but they didn’t mind.

Cesar was especially good with helping Jonah, since the same thing had basically happened to him. Both their moms died under mysterious circumstances and they were left in the dark about it. Mark would always be there for the both of them though when they began to grief together, being a sort of anchor for the two of them.

Jonah had become very used to two as well. Becoming accustomed to their schedule and learning what they did and how they knew one another. While Mark went to work, Jonah and Cesar would do things around the house and would play when they weren’t busy cleaning up the house or organizing Jonah’s room.

Mark would also play with Jonah and help around the house whenever he wasn’t working or was at home. Instead of doing chores though, the cooking was up to him, so while the other two would finish up things, he would cook the food for the three of them.

Food hadn’t also been a big issue either, to the relief of Cesar and Mark who had close to no clue what children his age ate. Jonah ate basically everything that was put in front of him, give or take a few sides or veggies, but it didn’t bug the two. They were okay with making him one other veggie as long as he ate it.

At this point, Jonah had just become another part of their lives now and they didn’t mind it at all. Actually, they loved that they had someone else in the house with them. It let them have a better sense of security and now they had someone else to be with than the other.

They hadn’t worried about telling Jonah about alternates either, deciding that they would eventually tell him when he’s older or if a situation like it ever comes up, but that wasn’t a big concern of theirs. Thankfully, it seemed like alternates were repelled by the religious items that decorated their walls.

Even though they made Mark slightly uncomfortable, it was the only defense they had, and they would rather give up comfort than risk a any of them getting hurt, especially Jonah getting hurt.

Cesar sighed as he finally finished cleaning the kitchen, being thankful that they had only eaten take out for lunch so it had cut down the cleaning amount immensely. He put the broom against the wall as he walked out the kitchen, walking out into the living room and sitting down on a recliner.

“Finally, a moment to relax.” He breathed, putting his hands behind his head as he let his eyes slide close for a moment.

He didn't have to worry about Jonah currently since it was the afternoon and that was usually the time when Jonah went outside to play. He would run around and play with his toys in the front or backyard, usually being loud enough that Cesar could always hear him from the living room.

He smiled as he relaxed, happy that he could have a moment to himself after all these chaotic months.

Until he realized that he didn’t hear Jonah outside.

Cesar’s eyes popped open as he looked through the front window, not seeing the 8 year old in the front yard where he usually went to play. He felt his blood run cold, a sense of fear running through his body as he jumped up from the recliner and ran to the sliding back door.

Cesar looked through the glass to see the backyard empty other than an animal or two, but no Jonah. He gasped before he ran back to the front door and to the front yard, frantically looking around for his son.

Cesar and Mark both knew that it was common for Jonah to wonder. He was a really curious kid, enjoying looking around the neighborhood and saying hi to their neighbors, but he never just straight up disappeared.

Fear quickly developed in his mind, scared that an alternate had gotten to Jonah or that he had gotten kidnapped. He quickly ran out to the neighbors, beginning to frantically look for the 8 year old.

Jonah wasn’t actually kidnapped or dead. He had just wandered over to a playground that was a block away from the neighborhood. He didn’t mean to wander far, but seeing the park had made him forget how far he had actually gone.

He walked over to the colorful play sets, a look of excitement in his eyes. Jonah had been to parks, but he had never been to one this big. He jumped happily while holding his bear tighter, quickly beginning to climb onto the small rock wall on one side.

Once he reached the top, he saw two older boys standing on the little bridge in front of the platform Jonah had climbed onto. He smiled before bouncing over to the two of them, giving them both a toothy smile as they turned to look at him.

“Hi! My name is Jonah! What’s yours?” He asked happily, bounding around erratically as they stared at him for a moment before laughing.

“I’m Jake and that’s Luke. Say,” Jake reached for Jonah’s bear. “Is that your bear?”

Jonah felt a rush of excitement. He was finally getting to make friends! With older kids too! “Yeah! I named him after my dad Mark!” He said, feeling his hands begin to shake but made no attempt in stopping them.

The two boys laughed again before Luke leaned forward this time, holding his hand out to Jonah with a smile. “Can I see Mark? I wanna see how cool he is.” He asked, snickering to himself after.

Jonah looked down at the bear before shrugging and placing it in Luke’s hand, giving him a smile as he did. Luke smiled back before standing back up and looking at the bear curiously.

“Do you like him? I got him from my momma! She gave him to me when I was born!” Jonah exclaimed, watching the other two with excitement.

“Heh, yeah, he’s pretty cool,” Jake said. “But do you wanna know how to make him even cooler?” Jonah’s brown eyes lit up as he nodded vigorously. “Okay, gimme him Luke.”

The other quickly handed the bear over and walked over to Jonah, crouching down to his height and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Alright, ready?”

Jonah nodded once again.

Jake chuckled before grabbing the bear by the head and torso before beginning to pull at both, quickly ripping its head off of its body. Jonah felt his stomach drop as the head separated, tears quickly building in his eyes.

Once Jake finally ripped it apart, he laughed before tossing it on the ground in front of Jonah, the stuffing flying everywhere.

Jonah didn’t move, he just stood there as he stared at his now decapitated bear, fat tears rolling down his tanned face.

“See? It’s so much cooler now.” Luke laughed before pushing Jonah, making him fall to his knees with a grunt.

“C'mon dude, let’s leave this baby to cry.” Jake said, waving Luke over to him before turning and walking away.

Jonah just stared, not knowing what to do.

That was until one of the bullies yelled before a loud bang sound was heard, making him look up from the ripped bear to see one of the bullies slumped against one of the plastic walls and the other backing away from someone.

Jonah watched as the other kid who was backing away from someone jumped off the play set and ran off before he could be cornered, seeming to be whimpering as he did.

“Hey.” Jonah looked back to where the person was before only to see him right in front of him, looking down at him curiously.

Jonah whimpered before pushing himself back, tears building in his eyes once again as he began to cower, scared that he would end up hurt or beat up.

“I’m not gonna hurt you!” The other kid reassured before grabbing the ripped plushie and walking over to Jonah, getting down on his knees and holding the bear out to him. “I only hurt those two cause they like hurting any kids that come here. I'm not gonna hurt you though.”

Jonah looked at the kid. He had pale skin and fluffy blonde hair that Jonah really just wanted to touch. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt with a colorful jacket over it, a pair of jeans completing the look.

“My name's Adam, what’s yours?” Adam asked as he held out the bear one again, prompting Jonah to take it.

“Jonah.” He stuttered, wiping at his tears as he grabbed the bear from the other.

“Hehe, nice name. Can I call you Jo?” Adam giggled, causing a small smile to cross Jonah’s tear streaked face as well.

“Yeah.”

Adam smiled back before looking at Jonah’s knees. “Wow, you got scratched up when they pushed you.” He commented, pointing at the others' red and bloody knees.

Jonah looked down as well, now noticing the damage to him. “Oh, I didn’t even notice.” He mumbled.

“Does it not hurt?”

Jonah shook his head. “Not before, but now it does. A lot too.”

Adam looked at the others' knees curiously, seeming to be thinking before an idea popped into his head. He got up onto his feet and held a hand out for Jonah, who looked at it curiously before taking it and getting up onto his feet as well.

“I have an idea! How about I take you to my house quickly and fix you up!” Adam proposed proudly, still holding Jonah’s hand with a smile.

Jonah hummed as he thought about it before shrugging and nodding. Adams' smile widened before he began to tug Jonah down the play set stairs with him. Jonah followed behind him with a smile, happy that someone else wanted to help him.

Meanwhile, Cesar defeatedly walked back to the house with tears streaming down his face. He had gone to all the houses in the neighborhood asking if they had seen Jonah, and somehow none had.

At this point, his mind was thinking of the worst scenarios. Those being an alternate attacking Jonah, someone kidnapping Jonah and planning to kill him, or Jonah being dead already.

He didn’t mean to, but it was his mind's immediate response. And with it plaguing his mind for over 2 hours already, it wasn’t going to go away soon.

Cesar stepped onto the front yard before glancing over at the driveway and seeing Mark's car there. His stomach dropped as he realized that he was going to have to tell Mark that the kid that they were tasked with caring for and keeping safe had gone missing.

He had stopped altogether as more tears began to roll down his puffy face, his whole world feeling as if it was crashing down on him at once.

“Cesar?” He looked up at the front door to see Mark standing there. “What's wrong? and where’s Jonah? He’s nowhere in the house.”

Cesar just stared at him before beginning to sob once again, whimpering loudly as he covered his face with his hands. He heard footsteps walk over to him before he was pulled into a hug. “Cesar, did something happen?” Mark asked, his voice beginning to waver as he seemed to realize that something was definitely wrong.

“Mark,” Cesar pulled away from the hug. “I lost Jonah. I don’t know where he is. And I don't know if he’s safe.” He cried, stumbling over his words as a look of despair formed on Mark's face.

“What?” He stuttered, tears slipping out and rolling down his face now just like Cesar.

“I didn’t mean to Mark! I looked away for one second and he just disappears! I don’t know if he was kidnapped or if he just wandered off but he's not in the neighborhood. I walked through the whole thing!” Cesar sobbed as he collapsed in Mark's arms.

Mark just stood there silently, reality beginning to set in for him.

“Let’s look again, now.” Mark said, grabbing Cesar’s wrist and began to walk towards the neighborhood again.

Jonah laughed as Adam made a funny face at him once again. He was enjoying his time with Adam. He was nice and seemed to actually want to talk to him, which Jonah was very happy about.

“So you have two dads, but they aren’t married or in love?” Adam asked once again, seeming amazed by the idea that someone could have two dads and no mom.

“Yep! They adopted me together but they aren’t in love.” Jonah explained, laughing as Adams blue eyes lit up.

“Woah! But you don’t have a mom?”

Jonah was caught off guard by his question. He looked away as he thought of how to answer it. He didn’t want Adam to see him as weird or be disgusted by him because he doesn’t have one.

“Well, I-“ Jonah cut himself off by his throat closing up and him stopping on the sidewalk, staring down at the concrete as tears rolled down his face.

“Wait, why are you crying? Did I do something?” Adam said as he turned to the other and looked at him worriedly.

“No, it’s just, I do have a mom,” Jonah began to choke up once again. “It’s just that she’s, well, dead.” He stuttered.

Adam stared at him, shocked by the others' response. He had just thought that Jonah’s mom had moved away for right now or something. Not dead.

Jonah shook as he waited for Adam to say something, hoping that he would go quickly and just leave Jonah without any teasing.

That was until Adam pulled him into a hug.

“Mines dead too.” He said, tearing up slightly as well. Jonah’s lip trembled as he leaned into the hug, swallowing the lump in his throat as he calmed down slightly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Adam said as he pulled away with a smile, wiping at the couple of tears he had. “It was a long time ago. I still miss her but it happened when I was a baby, so I’m not super affected by it.”

Jonah muttered a small ‘oh’ before smiling back at Adam.

“Well, let’s get to my house so we can heal your knees!” Adam exclaimed before grabbing Jonah’s hand again and pulling him along.

Not long after, Adam suddenly stopped in front of a house, which caused Jonah to almost run into him. “Why’d you stop?”

Adam pointed at the house with a smile. “We’re here!” Jonah looked over at the house to see it was slightly bigger than his. He felt his eyes light up as he looked at it, amazed at how big it looked on the outside. “Cmon, let’s get you fixed.”

Adam pulled him towards the house, stopping at the front door before walking over to a random rock and grabbing a key out from under it. Jonah looked at him curiously.

“Why do you have your key under a rock?” He asked, watching as the other unlocked the door and let them both in.

“It’s where we keep our spare key.” Jonah just became even more confused, which confused Adam as well. “Does your family not have a spare key?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Adam asked as he walked to the kitchen and grabbed the first aid kit from a cabinet, opening it and checking that everything he needed was inside.

“I don’t know. My dads just don’t like other people being at our house though.” Jonah said, watching as Adam walked back to him and pushed him gently onto the couch, making him sit down.

“Why not? Will they not let me in if I go?” Jonah pouted his lip in thought. He really didn’t know why Cesar and Mark didn’t want to let anyone in. He thought that maybe they just didn’t talk to a lot of people, but Cesar would go to church every week and talk to people all the time. So then why don’t they want people in the house?

“I don’t know but I’m pretty sure if I tell them that you're my friend they should let you in.” He said, looking down at Adam as he began to carefully cover the two cuts with multiple bandaids.

“Where’s your dad though?” Jonah asked, looking around and noticing that there seemed to be nobody here even though about this time everyone in the neighborhood would be coming back from their jobs.

“Oh he just works a lot.” Adam sighed, seeming upset slightly by the mention of his dad, but Jonah didn’t seem to notice it.

“Oh, what does he work as?” The other asked, his feet beginning to swing as he became more curious.

“I don’t know. He’s never told me but all I know is that he works.” Adam responded as he finished bandaging Jonah’s knees, tossing the trash in one near him.

“Oh. Well my dad works at the library and in an office.” Jonah said, hopping off the couch and hugging Adam as a thank you. The other just stood there quietly for a moment before hugging Jonah back, a small smile spreading across his face.

“Aren’t those kind of the same things?” Adam asked as they both pulled away.

“Are they?”

Adam just shrugged, staring at Jonah blankly. Jonah stared back, thinking about Mark's jobs, were they the same?

He was taken out of his thoughts by Adam beginning to giggle quietly, covering his mouth as he looked at Jonah. “What?”

He giggled again before responding. “You stick your tongue out when you think. You look silly when you do it.”

Jonah began to feel embarrassed as his face flushed a slight red, looking down at the carpet in Adam's house to not show the other his embarrassed look.

“It’s not a bad thing though. It fits you.” The blonde smiled, causing Jonah to look up at him.

“Really?” Adam nodded. Jonah smiled.

It was quiet for a moment before Adam glanced towards a clock on the wall. “Are you hungry? It’s about the time my family eats dinner.”

The mention of dinner caused Jonah’s head to perk up as he remembered something. ‘Dad and Apa.’

“What time is it?” He asked anxiously, noticing that Adam seemed shocked by his reaction.

“Uh, 6:45. Why? Is something wrong?”

“My dads! They’re gonna be so worried about me!” Jonah said as he ran to the front door of Adam's house.

“Do they want you home already?”

“No! Yes! Basically?” Jonah shook his head before looking back at Adam. “I’m not supposed to go farther than the neighborhood but I went to the park which is kinda far from it and didn’t tell my Apa so they don’t know where I am!“ He frantically rambled, hoping that the other would understand him, and thankfully he did.

“Oh, well I have a bike, I can give you a ride back as long as you tell me where you live.” Adam said, walking over to a door off to the side that Jonah didn’t notice before and opening it, waving the tanned boy over before disappearing into it.

Jonah ran into the room to see Adam getting on a red bike that had been leaned against a wall, quickly pushing a button to open the garage once he was safely on. “Get on the pegs and hold onto me, okay?”

Jonah stared at him confused. He didn’t know what pegs were since he didn’t own a bike. He had a skateboard that was Marks, but not a bike. “What are pegs?”

Adam stared back at him confused before just pointing at two metal cylinders that poked out from the back wheel. “Those. Now climb on so I can get you home.”

He quickly listened, placing one foot on each peg and wrapping his arms around Adams chest. “Okay, ready?” The blonde asked with a smile.

“Sure.” Jonah shrugged in response, returning the small smile.

“That’s good enough! Let’s go!” Adam exclaimed as he began to quickly peddle back towards the park, guessing that Jonah would just lead him from there.

Once the two reached the park, Jonah pointed at a street not too far from it, only a seperate street away. “That’s my street.” He instructed, watching as Adam nodded and turned to the road before slowing down slightly so Jonah could point out his house.

“You don’t live that far from me.” Adam said, feeling Jonah shrug before responding.

“I guess that means that we get to hang out whenever we want!” He exclaimed. Adam laughed before nodding.

Soon, Jonah pointed to a house ahead of them where two cars sit in the driveway and the front door wide open. “Why is your door open?” Adam asked as he slowed to a stop by the sidewalk, letting Jonah get off before he did.

“I don’t know. My apa would never leave it open.” Jonah muttered, beginning to feel slightly worried.

“Maybe they went to do something quickly?” Adam suggested, looking over at the now worried brunette.

Jonah shrugged as he moved closer to Adam, beginning to feel some type of anxiety settling in his stomach. Adam quickly took notice before putting an arm around the others shoulders and walking him over to the small porch they had, sitting them both down with a small comforting smile.

“Well how about we just wait here for them. They should come back soon.” He said, hoping that it would help comfort Jonah, who sighed before smiling at Adam.

“Yeah okay.”

Mark and Cesar were on their way back to the house actually, just not as calm or happy as Jonah hoped. Mark was completely silent, staring ahead with a blank stare as they both trudged along the road. He wasn’t mad at Cesar; even though Cesar felt as though he was. He was just thinking and feeling horrible as well.

They just lost their kid, who so far they’ve only had for a couple of months. They felt horrible. Even though Jonah’s only been gone for about 4 or 5 hours, it was already eating at the two of them. Gnawing away at their minds and making them grieve already even though they didn’t know if Jonah was alive or not.

Cesar glanced over at Mark, seeing the dark look on the other's pale face. He felt awful about losing track of Jonah, and he felt even worse when how badly it’s affecting the other. He knew that when he had left Mark with Jonah when they were at the police station, he had basically gotten attached to the kid almost immediately, not wanting to let him out of his sight for the first few days after they adopted him.

So now that Jonah was nowhere to be found, Cesar could just tell that it was eating Mark on the inside.

“I’m sorry.” Cesar muttered, feeling tears well up once again. “I made a dumb mistake and now I can’t even take it back.” He covered an eye with one of his hands, trying to stop himself from crying, but that seemed impossible.

“I know you are Cesar.” Mark said, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pocket that he had worn to work today. “But I'm not mad at you.”

The shorter looked over at him bewildered. “You’re not mad at me? Mark, I lost the one kid we were supposed to take care of! We don’t know where he is!” Cesar sobbed, stopping in front of the house next to theirs.

Mark stopped as well, looking back at his friend. “I’m not mad because I know that I might've made the same mistake too. Cesar you gotta remember, we’ve never taken care of a kid before.”

“Mark, new parents don’t lose their kid a couple months into having them!” Cesar yelled, tears beginning to fall down his face once again. “I know you want to be all neutral and shit because of what we went through eight years ago but that doesn’t justify you just not caring for Jonah!”

Mark stared at him, a look of shock and offense crossing his pale face. “You think I don’t care for Jonah, Cesar? I love that kid! He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me since the incident! I’m only using logic here dammit! We were gonna mess up somewhere! It was inevitable.”

“Parents don’t mess fuck up this bad though! They might fuck up once or twice but not just lose a whole child in the span of a couple of seconds! Jonah could be dead by a god damn alternate and your just sitting here spitting out bullshit!”

“Jonah isn’t dead! He’s smarter than that!”

“Then why can’t we fucking find him?!”

They both stared at each other, tears streaming down their faces as they stood there.

“Well Mark? Why can't we find him?” Cesar asked, glaring at the other.

Mark stood there, staring at his friend as he thought over his question.

“I don’t know,,”

It became silent, they looked anywhere but each other. Mark stared at the concrete while Cesar looked off to the side.

That was until Cesar began to hear footsteps approaching them. He looked to where they were coming from, which was behind Mark, hoping that he would see Jonah run up to the two of them.

But Jonah never showed up.

It was just someone else’s kid.

“Let’s go home Cesar.” Mark muttered, turning towards the house and beginning to walk. The other just stared at him before doing so as well.

They both stepped onto the grass, trudging slowly to their house until a gasp was heard from Mark. Cesar looked at him curiously before looking towards the house.

There was Jonah, curled up asleep onto the side of some other kid while they both sat on the porch. He wasn’t without a scratch though, his knees bandaged and his favorite bear missing from his arms.

Mark and Cesar stood there as they stared for a moment before quickly running over to Jonah and pulling him into a hug, which woke the 8 year old up.

“Mm? Apa? Dad?” Jonah muttered, leaning his head on Cesar’s shoulder as he began to fall asleep once again.

“Yeah Jonah, it’s us.” Mark responded tearfully, sniffling as he held back his tears.

They held him for another moment before Mark picked him up and carried him inside, taking him to his room so he could sleep in his bed. Cesar on the other hand watched as he did before turning to the other kid.

He didn’t recognize him from anywhere, but then again, Mandela county is kind of big. The kid had fluffy blonde hair and blue eyes that stared back at Cesar curiously. He wore just a plain t-shirt and a pair of jeans that were very used.

“Hi, what's your name?” Cesar asked, sitting down on the porch with the kid.

“Adam.” He simply responded.

“Well thanks Adam for bringing Jonah back here, we thought he got lost for a while but I guess he was just here the whole time.”

Adam shook his head, which immediately confused Cesar.

“He was at the park with me. Some kids older than us ripped his teddy bear and pushed him, so then I took him to my house so I could fix his knees, and then after that I brought him here and then you guys showed up.” He explained, making small motions with his hands as he did.

“Wait, which park?” Cesar didn’t remember a park near their house, but then again, he hadn’t really explored much outside the neighborhood. Adam got onto his feet before motioning for Cesar to follow him, which he did.

The kid walked to the end of their lawn and pointed down the street to where it ended. “There’s a park down there. Jonah was there when I saw him.” Adam then turned to him, watching him as he began to look for the playground.

Cesar squinted as he looked down the road, noticing that yeah, there actually was a park down there, but he had never noticed nor paid any mind to it. He hummed before turning to Adam. “Well, thank you, really. Me and Mark were really worried for Jonah, so thank you for making sure that he was safe.”

Adam smiled. “I was wondering actually, can I play with Jonah again? I really did like playing with him.” He asked, looking up at Cesar with large eyes.

Cesar was taken aback for a moment before smiling. “Yeah, of course. Just make sure your parents are okay with it.”

Adam nodded before running to his bike that lay on the sidewalk and hopping on, quickly beginning to pedal back to his house. “Thank you Mr. Cesar!” He exclaimed. Cesar smiled before waving at him and turning to go back to the house.

He walked in, closing and locking the door behind him, only to see Mark staring at him with a sympathetic expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry.”

Cesar stared at the other confused. “Sorry about what?”

“About our argument earlier.” Cesar quickly remembered. He had already forgotten about it since he was worried about Jonah and had also been talking to his new friend.

“Oh yeah. I'm sorry too.” He quickly apologized, walking over to the other. “I’m pretty sure we both said things we regret.”

“Yeah.”

They both were quiet.

“Do you really think I don’t care for Jonah?”

Cesar looked at him. “Of course not! I just,,said that in the heat of the moment. I didn’t think you were reacting enough for some reason, but you were reacting to it, just in your own way.”

“Yeah. I don’t know, I just don’t react with as much emotion to things as I used too. Not that I don’t have emotions, I just,,” Mark trailed off.

“Don't know how to express them?” Cesar asked.

“Yeah, kinda. There’s a bit more to it though.” He muttered.

“Like what?”

Mark sighed, “I,,don’t know how to explain it. But I just haven't felt them as strongly? I know it sounds dumb, but they just aren’t as strong as yours? At least that’s what I think it is.”

Cesar looked at him, a small comforting smile on his face. “Don’t worry about it, I get what you mean. The opposite kind of happened to me. My emotions and reactions just got stronger.”

Mark hummed before it became silent once again. Cesar looked down at Jonah’s room, the door open and showing the boy fast asleep in his bed.

“Who was that kid? The one with Jonah?”

Cesar looked back at the brown haired man, seeing his curious look. “His name was Adam. I'm guessing he and Jonah are friends now because he asked if he can come over to play with him.”

“Well, it’s good that he’s made a friend. He was in school for what? 4 months? And he wasn’t able to make a single friend.” Mark sighed.

“Well, kids can be cruel. You and I both know that.” Cesar responded, patting the other on his shoulders as he yawned. “I’m gonna go to bed, what happened today made me tired.”

“I’ll go to bed later, you go ahead.” Mark said, shrugging Cesar’s arm off his shoulder and giving him a small playful push.

“Good night.” Cesar laughed, walking off towards their shared bedroom.

“Night.”

A couple hours later, the brown haired man was asleep on the couch, accidentally falling asleep there when he was watching some TV. He slumped forwards slightly, seeming to be able to sleep peacefully in the uncomfortable looking position.

Well he was until a scream woke him with a jump. Mark quickly hopped off the couch and ran towards Jonah’s room, recognizing the small scream as the 8 year olds. On his way there, he grabbed a small pistol that Cesar and him had hung up on the wall for easy access for anyone in the house.

Quickly checking if it had ammunition or not, which thankfully it had an almost full round, he slammed into Jonah’s room, holding the pistol by his hip as he looked around for any threat. “Jonah what’s wrong?” He panted, glancing at the now crying boy.

“There’s a man in the closet.” He cried, curled up against the farthest corner of his bed from the closet.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get him out.” Mark reassured, pulling the gun up to an aiming position and slowly beginning towards the closet.

Once he got close enough to the door, he quickly shoved the sliding door open, pointing the gun frantically around the dark closet.

Until he saw someone.

Someone familiar.

“Jonah, go to Apa’a room. I’ll get you when you can come back.”

“Is everything okay dad?”

“Yes sweetheart. Just listen to me and go to Apa’s room.” He quickly heard Jonah climbing off of his bed and running off, waiting until he heard the other door close to lower the pistol.

“What are you doing here?” Mark demanded, roughly grabbing the man by his black hoodie and pulling him out into the room.

“I didn’t mean to kid! I just accidentally came her-“

“Bullshit.”

“No kid I swear! I was trying to go somewhere else but accidentally ended up here.” The Intruder exclaimed, holding up his plain white hands in defense.

Mark looked at him suspiciously for another moment before letting go of the man and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Anyway, now that you aren’t trying to kill me. How have you been kid?” Intruder asked, brushing out the wrinkles out of his hoodie as he offered Mark a small smile.

“Good.”

The other looked at him blankly. “Are you really that mad at me?”

“You almost gave my kid a heart attack.”

“Accidentally.”

“You still scared my kid.”

Intruder rolled his eyes before looking back at Mark. “Actually wait, when did you get a kid? Last time I saw you, you didn’t have a kid or a girlfriend.”

“One, rude. Two, we adopted him a couple months ago. His mom died and the police called Cesar since he was the closest living relative.” Mark explained.

“You and Cesar adopted him? Are you tw-“

“No we’re not dating.”

“Just checking.”

“We both adopted him since we both live together. Might as well raise him together.” Mark shrugged, hearing the other man hum.

“Well, tell the kid his grandpa says hi. I gotta go. I have some work to finish.” Intruder said as he walked towards the closet.

“You're not his grandpa!”

“How dare you talk to your father like that!” Intruder gasped as he entered the closet before closing it.

Mark rolled his eyes before walking towards it. “You’re not my dad.” He responded, opening the sliding door only to see the closet now empty. “Of course he left before he heard me.” Mark muttered, closing the door once again and beginning to walk to his and Cesar’s shared room.

Walking in, he saw Cesar comforting a crying Jonah, rubbing his back soothingly as Jonah laid in his chest. The other adult looked up when he heard Mark approaching. “Is everything okay? No alternates?”

Mark looked down for a moment. He didn’t want to lie to Cesar or Jonah, but he would rather not have them know that he was close to an alternate.

“Nope, just some rodent.” Mark walked over to the two of them, sitting down on the bed and placing a gentle hand in Jonah’s hair. “Hey kid, your room is safe, I promise. Let’s go get you tucked back in.”

Jonah shook his head, grabbing onto Cesar tighter. Mark and Cesar glanced at each other before looking back at Jonah.

“Jonah, your room is safe. Mark made sure.” Cesar reassured.

“I still don’t wanna go in there.” Jonah’s muddled voice said. They both sighed before looking at one another.

“I say we let him sleep in here for tonight. Just so he feels safe.” Mark said, petting Jonah’s hair gently.

“Yeah, I’m fine with that. What about you mijo?” Cesar asked.

“Please apa.”

They both smiled. “Of course kid.” Mark said, climbing onto his side of the bed and tucking his hands behind his head. “Go ahead and lay down.”

Jonah quickly did so, laying himself in between the two adults as he stared at the door silently. Cesar sighed before laying back down and pulling the blanket over both him and Jonah, noticing how intensely he was staring at the door, seeming afraid that something would come through while they slept.

Cesar tapped Mark on his shoulder, pointing at the 8 year old once he caught the others attention. Mark looked at Jonah and the door before ruffling Jonah’s hair. “Are you still scared kid?”

Jonah just nodded, not wanting to look away from the white door. Mark hummed, “How about this? You go to sleep and me and apa will keep an eye on the door. That way you can sleep and me and Apa will make sure that nothing gets in.”

“But don't you need to sleep?” Jonah asked, looking between the two.

“That’s the thing! We’ll take shifts. Me and your dad will wake you up when it’s your turn to watch, okay?” Cesar said, quickly understanding where Mark had been going with his idea.

Jonah thought for a moment before smiling and nodding. “Okay.”

Mark and Cesar smiled at one another. “Well, then you better go to sleep! You gotta be ready for when you gotta watch.” Mark said, pulling the blanket closer to Jonah.

“Okay.” Jonah yawned, closing his eyes and swiftly falling asleep. To the relief of Mark and Cesar.”

“Who knew we’d be this good at convincing a kid to sleep?” Mark whispered, laying back down with a yawn.

“Yeah, I don’t know why people say it’s really hard.” Cesar commented, laying back down as well and closing his eyes.

“Night Cesar.”

“Goodnight Mark.”

Chapter Text

“Happy birthday Jonah!” Mark and Cesar exclaimed, smiling proudly as Jonah blew out the seventeen candles on top of the cake, a large smile on the tanned boy's face.

“How do you feel, kid? You’re seventeen, a year away from being eighteen.” Mark asked, looking at his son with a small smile.

“Yknow, I actually don’t feel that different. Am I supposed to?” Jonah asked, looking between the two adult males, who glanced at one another before shrugging.

“It depends on each person, some people feel different with every new birthday and others don’t. It’s normal Mijo.” Cesar reassured, giving the other a small pat on his shoulder.

“Yeah, when I turned 17, I didn’t feel any different either.” Mark said, a cigarette loosely hanging in between two of his fingers.

Cesar got up, walking towards the kitchen and coming back with three plates and a knife. “Actually Jonah, I was wondering why Adam isn’t here. Did you two have a fight?”

Adam was Jonah’s best friend. Ever since they met, they basically became inseparable, Jonah always clinging to Adam whenever they were around one another, even now.

Usually Adam would be here, of course he would. He would hate to miss out on his best friend's birthday. But he wasn’t able to, his dad had the blonde teen what could basically be a lockdown because he got caught doing,,something? Jonah wasn’t sure what it was, but he guessed it was bad enough to the other’s dad that he grounded him for 3 weeks.

“No, me and Adam are fine apa. His dad grounded him for 3 weeks and he can’t do anything!” Jonah groaned, leaning back in the chair for exaggeration.

“With how many times you’ve said he’s gotten grounded so far this year, I would think that he’s doing something really bad but he isn’t is he?” Mark asked, muttering a small ‘thank you’ to Cesar as the other handed him a slice of chocolate cake.

“No! His dad is just an asshole!”

“Language mijo.” Cesar muttered, focusing on cutting a slice for himself and Jonah.

“Sorry apa.”

“But Mark has a point, there’s no way his dad just grounds him because he feels like it.” Cesar said, putting a slice of cake in front of Jonah, who took it with a ‘gracias apa’ and began to eat it.

“But that’s exactly what he does! Last time Adam was grounded was because he forgot a single dish while cleaning the dishes and his dad grounded him for 1 whole week.” Jonah complained loudly, his mouth full of the green themed cake.

“Okay, now that seems a little extreme.” Mark said, pointing at the teen with his fork. “Do you know why he got grounded this time?”

“No, he didn’t want to tell me. Saying it was ‘even dumber than last time.’” Jonah quoted, using his hands to help accentuate what the other had said.

The two adults glanced at one another before shrugging. “Sometimes parents are like that. They can get mad at the smallest thing their kid does, which is a pretty bad thing. It can affect their kid a lot.” Cesar said, taking a bite out of his slice as he did.

“Yeah. My biological father was like that. He hated it whenever me or my sister would do anything that barely even bugged him.” Mark added.

“Is your dad still alive?” Jonah asked, now curious about Mark's family. He knew about Cesar’s, which was only him and his mom, but Mark never seemed to mention anything about his.

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since I moved out.” The brown haired man shrugged.

“What about your mom? Your sister?”

“Same thing, well, other than my sister. I talk to her occasionally, not as often as you would think though.” Jonah nodded as he finished his slice of cake, pushing the plate aside and getting up.

“I'm gonna go to bed early. I'm really tired.” He muttered, rubbing at his brown eyes as they drooped slightly.

“Are you sure Jonah? Me and your Dad got some games so we can all play them together.” Cesar said.

“Yeah, work made me really tired today. Tomorrow though!” Jonah offered with a smile before walking towards Cesar and kissing him on his temple.

“Buenas noches apa.”

“Buenas noches mijo. Sleep well.” Cesar smiled. Jonah smiled back as he walked over to Mark, kissing him on his temple as well.

“Night dad.”

“Night kid. Happy birthday.” Mark said patting Jonah on the back.

“Thanks. Good night!” Jonah exclaimed, walking off towards his bedroom with a yawn. Cesar and Mark watched him leave before turning to one another.

“Kinda crazy we’ve been taking care of Jonah for 9 years, don't you think?” Cesar laughed, seeing a smile cross Mark's face.

“Yeah, but I've never regretted it.”

“Me either.” Cesar grabbed both of their now empty plates and walked into the kitchen, just tossing them in the sink before walking back over to the other. “You still wanna play a couple of the games we got?”

“Yeah sure. Why not?” Mark said, getting up front the table and walking to the living room with Cesar, putting out his cigarette in an ashtray he had by the couch before sitting down.

“I hope everything is okay with Adam.” Cesar muttered as he grabbed a box and began to unpackage the game.

“I bet he’s fine. The kids pretty headstrong. Let's just hope his situation doesn’t escalate.” Mark responded, giving Cesar a small smile.

“Yeah.” The tanned man sat down on the couch with a quiet sigh. “He actually seems to be happier when he’s around Jonah. I’ve seen him at church a couple of times and he doesn’t talk to anyone. All he does is stand off in a corner.”

“Maybe he does feel better when he’s with him. As long as the two of them are happy, I don’t care what they do.” Mark shrugged, beginning the game and sitting back. Cesar nodded before switching his focus on the game, sitting back as well.

-

Jonah wasn’t actually going to sleep. What he was actually doing was giving himself an excuse to sneak out through his window to go see Adam, which thankfully his excuse had worked.

He wasn’t that experienced with sneaking out as Adam was, but he was still able to, just not as well. Jonah only made a couple of mistakes whenever he had to sneak out while Adam was so good at it he would scare Jonah whenever he did since he was so quiet with it.

Opening the window by his bed, Jonah carefully crept out. He looked back at his room once he had landed on the grass to make sure his bedroom door was locked, which thankfully it was, before quietly shutting the window and walking off. He knew his parents would be too occupied doing something else like cleaning up or just relaxing for a moment that they wouldn’t notice the quiet footsteps outside.

Once he was off his lawn and in front of the house beside his though, Jonah began to walk normally, not caring if his shoes made noise or not. He stuffed his hands in his hoodie pocket, smiling as he could feel the little bracelet Adam had given him a couple years ago as a birthday present.

The bracelet wasn’t much, just a small fabric one that they had made in art class in the 6th grade, but Jonah loved it. He had worn it until he finally couldn’t get it around his hand and onto his wrist, which he then opted to just keep it on him wherever he went, stuffing it in his hoodie or jeans pocket as a kind of good luck charm.

Jonah didn’t know if Adam knew he had kept the bracelet this long, but it didn’t bug him if the other knew or not. All he cared about when it came to the bracelet was that it wasn’t broken and that he had it on him.

The brunette swiftly made it to the end of the street, looking ahead and seeing the playground that him and Adam had met at 9 years ago. The play sets weren’t in as pristine condition as they were before but were still very functional, occasionally serving as a quick hangout place for the two teens whenever they both wanted to get away from their houses or just go out for a little bit.

Jonah smiled at the colorful park before cruising the street towards Adams house, seeing the two story house tower above the houses next to it, which were only one story. He carefully stepped onto the lawn, knowing that he had to be more careful when it came to Adam's house, especially when he had to sneak into it.

You see, Adam's dad wasn’t the,,nicest so to say. It was painfully obvious to anyone that was around the father and son for more than a minute that Jude, Adam's father, didn’t really like his son. Jonah knew the reason too. When Adam was just a baby, his mother had killed herself for,,some reason, and his father blamed the death on his son.

Jonah didn’t know why she did, but it definitely seemed like Adam did. He didn’t try to bug the other as to why, knowing that it was definitely a sore subject. Instead, he would let Adam vent to him if needed, always paying attention to know any new or old subjects to not bring up and always comforting the blonde as best as he could.

It always pissed Jonah off whenever Adam would come to him upset because his father had reminded him of his mothers death. He hated seeing the other sad or mad. Whenever he would tell Jonah what his dad had said, it made Jonah just want to punch that asshole even more.

He couldn’t though, because if he did he would probably get arrested. He was always ready to do so though, always on edge whenever he went to Adams house with his dad knowing. Always ready to protect the other.

Jonah could see that the light was on from where he was, also because the curtains were wide open. Which meant two things, either Jonah was going to have to be very careful because Adam's dad was awake, or he wasn’t going to have to be careful at all because his dad was asleep. He didn’t know which applied to this situation though, so he decided to go very carefully and hope he didn’t get caught.

Jonah crept along the side of the house to where he knew one of Adam's windows was. The blondes room was on the second floor, which made sneaking in and out slightly harder for Jonah since he was used to just one floor. He knew how to do it though.

Looking up, he could see that the curtains were drawn, but that wasn’t going to stop him. He knew Adam was probably awake anyway, since it was becoming more and more obvious that Adam had severe insomnia. He would barely sleep for days on end and then crash one day and repeat the cycle.

Jonah tried to help him by giving him sleeping pills, but it barely seemed to help unless he was calm enough. The only way he knew would calm down Adam enough for the pill was by letting him relax against him. Jonah never minded it though, in fact, he enjoyed it. Liking the warmth and quietness of the situations.

Looking around, Jonah spotted a pile of rocks that were small enough for him to throw and not break the window. Quickly grabbing a handful, he began to aim for the window, missing a couple times at first before getting the right angle and hitting the window straight on.

It didn’t take long for the window to open and Adams tired and annoyed face appear out of the frame. Jonah smiled and dropped the rocks as he waved at the other, running to grab onto some vines that grew on the side of the white house before beginning to carefully climb them.

Once he reached the window, he held out his tanned hand for Adam to grab since there was a small gap between the vines and the window. Adam looked at him for a moment before smiling and taking his hand, reaching out with his other to grab onto Jonah’s torso.

“Seriously dude? You need to stop climbing the vines.” Adam laughed, pulling Jonah into his room. “Someday they’re gonna give out on you.”

“And that day will be the day that you have to save me.” Jonah flopped himself against Adams chest, a hand over his eyes dramatically. “Oh my handsome knight!”

Adam rolled his eyes as he pushed Jonah off of him, hearing the other laugh in response to his joke. “Yeah, I think I'll just let you drop.” He muttered, walking over to his bed and sitting down.

“Okay, sure.” Jonah muttered sarcastically, sitting down beside the blonde with a smile. “So, do you know what today is?”

“Uh, tuesday?” Jonah frowned before rolling his eyes.

“No! Well, yes, but there’s something special about today. What is it?” Adam looked at him confused.

“Uh, it’s summer?”

“No! Ugh, it’s my birthday!” Jonah groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

“Hehe, yeah I know. I just wanted to mess with you a little for your first present.” Adam chuckled, getting up off the bed and walking over to his closet.

“Fuck you dude.” Jonah went silent for a moment. “Wait, first present?”

“Yeah! You think I wouldn’t get you a present? Damn Jonah, you really think that low of me?” Adam said, dramatically placing his hand on his chest.

“Sometimes yeah.” Jonah laughed. Adam flipped him off before opening his closet.

“Whatever. Just close your eyes asshole. I gotta give you your actual present.” Jonah quickly did so, covering his eyes with his hands, a large smile on his tanned face.

After a moment of shuffling and footsteps, the brunette felt something be placed on his lap. “Alright, you can open your eyes now.”

Quickly doing so, he saw a small shoebox sitting on his lap. “Aww Adam. You got me shoes.”

“I didn't get you shoes, dumbass. Look in the box.” Adam rolled his eyes. Jonah mocked him quietly before pulling off the lid and placing it off to the side.

Inside was a dark object that Jonah couldn’t exactly make out at first, but looking slightly closer, he realized that inside the box was a black leather jacket. It was folded neatly to fit perfectly in the box, but still sadly had a wrinkle or two.

“I remember you mentioned that you wanted a leather jacket so before I got grounded I went to the thrift stores around town and found one. It may be a little too big but it’s all I could find,so you can either take it or leave it.” Adam anxiously rambled, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited to hear what Jonah thought about it.

“I love it.” Jonah smiled, staring down at the smooth black jacket.

“Wait, what?”

Jonah turned to Adam with an even bigger smile. “I said I love it Adam!” He stood up and pulled it out of the box, quickly slipping it over the hoodie he had on. “It fits nicely too! Adam, you got me the perfect gift!” The brunette threw himself onto the blonde, pulling him into a tight hug with a large smile.

Adam was caught off guard, holding his hands above the other for a moment until gently wrapping them around his torso and resting his chin in Jonah’s brown hair. “Thank you Adam.” He muttered into his hoodie.

Adam smiled, “You're welcome Jonah, but that’s not your only present.”

Jonah quickly popped up from his chest, stars in his dark brown eyes. “I got more presents?”

“They’re in the same box.” Adam handed the box back to the other, blushing slightly as Jonah adjusted himself to where he was sitting on Adams lap without realizing. He placed the box on the others lap and looked back through, seeing two lapel pins with bands Jonah listened to and another smaller box.

Pulling up the two pins first, he saw the familiar names ‘Nirvana’ and ‘Tally Hall’ accompanied with the matching logos.

“I was at the mall and saw those pins in a store and remembered that those are your favorite bands.” Adam explained, watching a smile cross Jonah’s tanned face, the moonlight from the window shining onto his face and accentuating his features, which caught Adam's eye.

“Aww, Adam. I didn’t think you would remember the bands I liked.” Jonah cooed before quickly pinning both pins to the left side of his new jacket. “I’m gonna wear them everywhere.” He smiled.

“Well, you still got one more thing.” Adam said, reaching into the shoebox and pulling out a box of hair dye, handing it over to the other. “I remember when we were little you wanted to dye your hair gray. I saw this while looking for the other stuff and hoped that you still wanted to dye it.”

Jonah stared at the box silently, seeming shocked and confused. “You remembered that? I barely even remember that.” He muttered, looking over the instructions and warnings in the dim moonlight.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to forget when you won’t let me take down that drawing you made of us when we were 9.” Adam said, pointing out a wrinkled piece of paper that was hung up on the wall above his desk. It had two very scraggly drawings of the two boys, Adam looking almost exactly like he did now and Jonah looking pretty similar too, other than the shiny gray hair he had given himself. The color was now more like a dull gray though due to time taking its toll.

“Oh yeah. I completely forgot that I made that.” Jonah laughed before looking back at the box of hair dye. “Thank you Adam. You know me way better than I thought you did.” He looked up at Adam with a small smile.

“Your welcome Jonah. Happy birthday.” Adam muttered, smiling back at the other as they stared at one another.

Slowly, without the two seeming to realize or care, they both began to lean close to one another. Their eyes sliding close before,,

“Adam Murray!” A yell echoed from the inside of the house.

The two snapped their heads towards the door, wide eyes and fear painting both their faces. Quickly though, Adam pushed Jonah off of his lap and ran over to his bedroom door, making sure it was securely closed and locking it before going back over to Jonah.

“Jonah I’m sorry but you gotta go. I don’t want my dad to catch you being here with me.” Adam said, grabbing Jonah by his wrist and pulling him off of the bed and over to the window.

“Why don’t you come with me? You can come stay with me! My parents don’t mind it!” Jonah offered, grabbing Adam by his shoulders as he looked at him. “Please Adam. I don’t want you to be stuck in a situation like this any longer.”

The blonde looked at him with watering eyes before glancing back at the door.

“Please Adam.”

Adams frown deepened as they looked at one another. “I’ll,,think about it.”

Jonah could tell the other just wanted to say yes, but couldn’t bring himself too. He didn’t know why though. Maybe it was his pride. Or maybe it was his fear. “Okay.” He accepted, climbing out of the window and grabbing back onto the vines with one hand, the other holding the box of hair dye. “Promise me you’re gonna be okay.”

Adam looked at him before looking back at the door as a loud slam could be heard. “I promise.”

Jonah leaned forward for a hug, but was promptly shut out by the window. He sat there for a moment before climbing down and landing softly in the grass. Even from the outside of the bottom floor, he could hear Adam's dad yelling at him, screaming about something that Jonah couldn’t exactly make out.

He stood there, waiting to see if Adam would come back and open the window for him, but after an anxious filled 5 minutes, nothing happened. Jonah just sighed before turning towards the street and beginning to walk back home.

Once he had reached the sidewalk, Jonah began to hear Adam yelling back, sounding even more pissed than his probably drunk dad. He cringed at how loud it was, still able to mostly hear it as he walked farther and farther from the house.

It didn’t take long for Jonah to reach his house, since he had walked a bit quicker to get away from the arguing and kept his pace until he unknowingly reached his house.

Quietly, Jonah snuck to his bedroom window and slowly opened it, making sure that the old battered frame didn’t make any noise. Once it was open, he climbed back in, landing on his bed and closing the window.

“Jonah?”

Turning to his bedroom door, he saw both of his parents standing there. Confused and tired as they had just seen their son sneaking back in after he had just snuck out. ‘I could’ve sworn I locked it.’ He thought to himself.

“Mijo, what were you doing? and where in the hell did you go?” Cesar exclaimed, walking over to the teen and cupping his face as he checked for scratches.

“No where! I just wanted some fresh air.” Jonah quickly excused, hoping that the two would believe him.

“If you just wanted fresh air then why were you half way out your window?” Mark asked, standing beside Cesar with his arms crossed.

Jonah looked at him nervously as he thought of an excuse, basically praying to anything and everything that the two don’t catch on. “I wasn’t getting enough air.” He shrugged.

They both looked at him as if they didn’t believe him, because they definitely didn’t.

Mark sighed, “Well, where did you go?”

Jonah just shrugged, looking away as anxiety began to build in his stomach.

“Jonah, you can tell us. We won’t get mad.” Cesar said, crouching down and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“But don’t think you’re getting out of this without a punishment.” Mark added.

“Yes! Of course, you’re still getting punished.”

Jonah huffed before he looked at the two, “If I have a good reason, can I get a lesser punishment?”

The two adults looked at one another, seeming to be able to have a whole conversation without speaking a word until Mark turned to him. “As long as it is a good reason.”

Jonah nodded as he began to play with his hands, it was a normal thing he did when he was anxious since it just helped keep his focus mostly straight. “I went to go see Adam, since he’s grounded I snuck into his room and he gave me my birthday presents. It may not seem like a good reason, but I didn’t want Adam to miss out on my birthday either.” He smiled, hoping that his parents wouldn’t be mad at him for that.

Mark and Cesar looked at him before looking back at one another once again, “I mean, that’s a pretty good reason. He just wanted to see Adam and I bet Adam wanted to see him too.” Cesar said to Mark, taking his hand off Jonah’s shoulder and standing up straight.

Mark looked down in thought, his hands in his sweatpants pockets. He sighed before looking back up at the teen. “Jonah, I get that you wanted to see Adam, and I know I shouldn’t encourage this, but one of us should’ve at least known. We’d rather know where you are instead of you sneaking out and leaving me and Cesar in the dark.”

“So, you two were okay with me going to see my friend who is grounded from leaving their house and seeing their friends? But not okay with me sneaking out.” Jonah asked, confused by his parents' reasoning.

The two glanced at each other, “Well, no, we’re not exactly okay with it but we get why you wanted to see him.” Mark explained, a small smile on his pale face.

“Yeah, I mean, I snuck into Mark's house a couple times when he was grounded. Sometimes he would sneak out and come to my house and my mamá didn’t really mind.” Cesar laughed, not seeing the other adult roll his eyes.

“But when you sneak out and don't tell us that you’re leaving, it scares us. We don’t know where you are and we don’t know if you’re safe or not.” Mark said.

“Why do you guys get so scared if you don't know where I am? If I leave you guys in a store you freak out. I literally have nowhere to go in a store except outside but you still get scared, why?” Jonah asked, looking at the two men curiously.

Mark and Cesar looked at each other, a nervous look appearing on both of their faces, Cesar’s worse than Marks. “Should we tell him?”

“Tell me what?”

They both quickly looked back at Jonah before one another again, seeming more nervous and scared.

“Nothing mijo, just, go to sleep. We’ll tell you what your punishment is tomorrow.” Cesar cut in before anyone could say anything, quickly placing a kiss on Jonah’s forehead and walking towards the bedroom door. “Mark. A word.”

Mark nodded before turning back to Jonah and ruffling his hair. “Good night kid. Have a good sleep. No more sneaking out.” He quickly responded before walking to Jonah’s door and pushing past Cesar silently.

Cesar glanced at him before turning back to Jonah with a plastered smile. “Good night mijo. Love you.”

Jonah looked at him curiously before just sighing, “Love you too apa.”

The other smiled at him and waved goodnight before walking off to where Mark had gone, gently closing the door behind him. Jonah stared at the blank wooden door, curious and determined to find out what his parents wanted to tell him.

After a minute of silence, the brunette got up and walked to the door, slowly opening it to make sure it didn’t make any noise before sliding out and creeping down the hall towards the living room. The closer he got, the more clearly he could hear his parents talking, well more arguing really, over,,something.

“Seriously? You had to fucking go ‘should we tell him?’ Now he’s gonna ask us about what happened and we’re gonna have to tell him!” Cesar imitated, a tone of anger clear in his tired voice.

“Well, what else were we supposed to do? Just not let him know why the hell we’re so protective of him?” Mark responded.

“Yeah, actually. I would’ve preferred that, because now we have to tell Jonah that alternates are a thing and almost killed both of his parents and want to kill him too.”

Jonah became confused. He had heard of alternates, it’s not like they weren’t ever mentioned by others, but he never really knew what exactly they did. He knew they were something that copied how you looked and tried to kill you but that was about the extent of his knowledge.

Adam had mentioned them to him as well, not often but sometimes he would ask Jonah what he knew about the creatures and would always be so confused as to how he knew close to nothing about them.

He would begin to talk about them, but would always stop after a couple of sentences and drop the subject entirely, seeming disturbed or bugged by them by a certain point. Jonah could ask and beg for him to continue, but he would just refuse, saying that ‘it’s not important anymore’ or that ‘it’s none of his business.’

So hearing Cesar and Mark mention alternates meant that they were keeping something from him, something that he would prefer to know about the two men.

“¡Jonah! ¿Que te dije? ¡Ir a tu cuarto! ¡Ya!” He heard Cesar yell from beside him, causing him to turn his head only to see his parents staring at him with a pissed off look on both of their faces.

“I just got thirsty apa! Sorry!” Jonah quickly excused, beginning to back up towards his room.

“Que thirsty ni que nada! Yo dije que te quedarás en tu cuarto y tú decidirás a empezar chismeando en nosotros? Que yo y tu papá hablamos no es nada que tu necesitas saber.” Cesar scolded, his face slightly red from anger.

“I just want to know why you two are so protective over me! What happened between you guys and alternates? Is that why you don’t like it when I’m not with you?” Jonah began to quickly ask, wanting answers from Mark and Cesar.

“Jonah, just do what Cesar said. Go to your room and don’t come out until we tell you too.” Mark said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“No! I want to know why the hell I can’t do shit without the two of you watching over me like hawks! Just tell me it’s not that fucking hard!” Jonah yelled, watching as the two became shocked and even more pissed at him yelling back.

“Jonah! Go to your room. Now.” Cesar angrily demanded, pointing behind him at the slightly ajar door.

Jonah huffed loudly before turning and stomping back to his room. He slammed the door behind him, not caring how loud it was.

“Do not slam doors in this house!” Cesar yelled, even more pissed than before.

Jonah didn’t respond, he was angrily pacing his room. He deserved an explanation. He shouldn’t just be kept in the dark like this! It’s not fucking fair to him.

Jonah paced his room until his feet hurt around an hour later, which is when he decided to finally lay down. He didn’t bother covering himself with a blanket, instead just laid on his side while holding one of the stuffed raccoons he or Cesar and Mark bought while he continued to think.

Jonah didn’t know when, but eventually he had fallen asleep, curled into himself while his face was buried in the synthetic fur of the plushie.

The brunette woke up hours later to a knock on his bedroom door, causing him to turn over in bed towards it. He didn’t call for whoever was there though, knowing that it was either Mark or Cesar.

“Mijo, I'm sorry for getting mad and yelling at you last night. Me and your dad just want to talk right now. No yelling or nothing. Come out and eat breakfast with us.”

Jonah sighed, he didn’t feel like getting up, nor did he feel like seeing his dad's faces right now. “I’m not hungry.” He simply responded.

He could hear Cesar sigh before responding. “Alright mijo. Just know that food will be ready for you whenever you come out.” He said before footsteps were heard walking away from the door,

His stomach was growling already, even though he had barely woken up, but he was okay with going without food for a while just to be slightly petty towards Mark and Cesar.

It made Jonah mad that they just didn’t want to tell him. He didn’t get it. Why was it so hard? If they can talk about it freely to one another but can barely utter a word of it around their own kid, then why even bring it up in front of him in the first place?

It makes no sense to Jonah, who right now would rather just be aimlessly walking to cool off, but was already tired of the cramped space that was free in his room.

Groaning loudly, Jonah turned back to the window, only to almost scream when he saw Adam's pale face staring back at him. The other just laughed as he saw Jonah's reaction, his smile becoming even larger as the other flipped him off before opening the window.

“Hey Jonah. I see you're still wearing the jacket I got you, and everything else you had on last night too.” Adam said, quickly scanning over the others’ outfit before looking back at him.

“I fell asleep in my clothes.” Jonah said, taking in a deep breath of fresh air only for his lungs to be filled with the smell of weed. “Adam, dude, you reek of weed. How much have you smoked?”

The blonde laughed as he leaned in with a small smile. “Just two blunts, and I still got more for you.”

Jonah smiled before looking back at his bedroom door. “I can’t go though, I got grounded.” Adams' eyebrows raised upon hearing that the other was punished.

“Jonah Marshall actually got in trouble for once? Astonishing.” Adam remarked, chuckling as Jonah flipped him off once again. “But you can just sneak out, like you did last night.”

“But Cesar and Mark are gonna come check on me. I just know they are.”

“Then just make a fake version of yourself with pillows, that’s what I do whenever I sneak out.” Adam shrugged, watching as Jonah hesitated for a moment.

“Are you sure it’ll work?” Jonah asked, not exactly believing the blonde.

Adam sighed, ”Jonah do you wanna sneak out or not?”

Jonah sat there for a moment, thinking, until he began to just grab the multiple pillows he had on his bed and stack them under the blanket, adjusting and moving pillows until he finally decided that it looked good enough.

Adam watched him the whole time, handing the other one or two pillows but not doing much else.

“What do you think?”

“I’d say it looks like you, if they don’t pull off the covers.” Adam commented, holding his hand out for Jonah to grab as he led him out the window.

“Yeah, but they usually don’t do that so I should be good.” Jonah responded as he turned to close the window, making sure that there was a small gap for him to open the window when he returned. “So I'm guessing we’re going to your house?”

“Hm? Oh no, I’m still grounded. I just snuck out because I’m bored and wanted to see you. I was thinking that we go to the park and smoke there.” Adam said, beginning to walk away from the house with Jonah following him.

“Yeah sure, I mean if we’re smoking weed then it has the best ventilation that you could ever get.” The brunette said with a smile, watching as Adam cracked a small smile as well.

“Well, it’s a plan then.”

-

Cesar sat on the couch with his head in his hands. He felt so bad for yelling at Jonah, but he wasn’t exactly thinking when he did. He felt like none of them were, except for maybe Mark since he seemed more calm and mellow about the situation, or it was his lack of response he had developed over the years.

Either way, he couldn’t get the guiltiness off of his mind. Cesar knew that he was going to have to discipline Jonah, it was a normal thing as a parent to have to do so, he’s had to do it before anyways. But this time he felt bad about having to do it.

He understood as to why Jonah was asking so many questions and was so persistent, he knew basically nothing about him and Mark. They didn’t exactly make it a priority to tell him about their whole past and especially about their run in with alternates, but it’s not like they never planned to tell him, they were just,,

Scared.

They were scared that just mentioning an alternate would attract one to them once again. Cesar was scared that it would go for Jonah instead of him and Mark. Cesar was scared that this time they wouldn’t be able to escape.

Cesar was scared that this time they wouldn’t live.

They had just gotten lucky last time, being able to live long enough after both of their self inflicted wounds to be found. Cesar had been able to stop the bleeding from his neck for a while and Mark’s gun had jammed right before the police came for him.

Being alive right now was a goddamn miracle. Not actively being hunted down by the one alternate that tried to kill the both of them was a fucking miracle. Having normal lives and having Jonah with them was a miracle.

That’s what Cesar saw it as. Miracles. But also as sheer luck.

He knew that if the police were a moment too late, he would’ve died. He knew that if Mark's gun had never jammed, he would be dead. And then who would be left to watch Jonah? To take care of him and feed him and comfort him?

Cesar heard footsteps walking close to him before the couch beside him dipped down, making him snap his head to his left just to see Mark sitting there beside him with a lit cigarette hanging loosely from his lips.

“Want one?” He asked, pulling the box from his pocket and flipping it open, offering one to Cesar.

Cesar wasn’t a smoker. He hated the taste of tobacco and hated the feeling that would be left in his chest after smoking. But right now, he felt like he just needed a quick comfort.

Swiping one from the box, he held his hand out for Mark's lighter, knowing the other always carried it around with him. He heard Mark shuffling beside him for a second before a metal box was placed into his tanned palm.

“Thank you.” He muttered before lighting the cigarette, quickly getting it to light up after three tries. Slowly, Cesar inhaled the tobacco, feeling it swirl its way down his throat and into his lungs before he exhaled, a gray cloud escaping from his mouth.

“You okay?” Mark asked, looking over at the black haired male with concern. Cesar just sighed before leaning back on the couch as well, his leg rapidly bouncing as he thought.

“I feel bad for how I acted to Jonah. He just wanted to know a couple of things and I screamed at him.” He said, pulling the cigarette back up to his mouth and inhaling once again.

“Well, he did completely ignore what we had told him. But I get it, I would be asking a lot of questions too if I was in his position.” Mark responded, leaning his head on his hand as he watched Cesar’s fidgeting increase, now his fingers were tapping rapidly on his thigh as he continued to think.

“But we got so mad at him. Now he doesn’t even want to come out of his room, even to eat, and I'm pretty sure the last thing he’s eaten was the cake we had yesterday.” The other said.

“Well, how about we make him his favorite food? Maybe then he’ll come out and we can talk it over.” The brown haired man offered, watching as Cesar looked over at him before shrugging and getting up.

“Alright let’s do it then.” He put out the barely used cigarette in the ashtray beside Mark before walking to the kitchen. Mark shrugged before doing the same, stretching loudly as he got up before walking to the kitchen as well.

Hopefully their plan will work.

They just want Jonah to be happy again.

-

“So they got mad at you, because you asked them a couple of questions?” Adam repeated, looking over at Jonah as he inhaled the smoke coming from the blunt.

Quickly coughing out the smoke, Jonah looked up at the blonde. “Basically yeah. I just want to know what the hell happened in their past and they got all aggressive and shit about it.”

Adam hummed as he listened, looking over the tanned teens' features. “That sucks.” He responded, quietly counting the small freckles Jonah had scattered across his cheeks.

“I know! It doesn’t make sense! I just want to know something that doesn’t even seem that hard! Why do they have to be so bitchy about it!” Jonah complained, stamping his foot on the play sets metal floor.

“Hell if I know. My dad has never told me shit about his past. I don’t even know how he and my mom met.” Adam said, taking the blunt from Jonah and inhaling the drug. “But I don’t care about his life. All I want to know is stuff about my mom.”

“Have you found anything?” Adam shook his head. “You haven’t found a single thing?”

“All that i’ve found out is that her name is Lynn, she killed herself when I was a baby, and her and my dad were divorcing by the time she died.” Adam said, tapping his foot lightly on the floor.

It became quiet between the two, looking around the play set and thinking about whatever came to mind. Jonah had slowly moved to lean into Adam, laying his head on his shoulder as he became more and more tired.

“Why are you so sleepy?” Adam asked, putting out the nub that was the blunt on the metal.

“I was so mad last night I barely slept.” Jonah muttered, adjusting himself to where his arms wrapped around the others waist and moved his head to Adam's chest, laying himself over his heart to where he could hear it beating faintly. “And because of the weed.”

Adam hummed as he moved his arm to wrap around Jonah’s shoulder, gently massaging it with his thumb. The other just sighed, letting his eyes slide close as he listened to the muffled sound of Adams' heartbeat.

“Y'know Jonah, I was thinking,” Jonah hummed. “What if we ran away? Left Mandela and looked for alternates and ghosts. We would make so much money from just looking around empty houses for people.”

“That’s not a bad idea but why do you want to run away?”

Adam looked up, leaning his head back on the dirtied plastic of the playground, feeling the rough texture against his scalp. “Don’t tell anyone else this, but I want to look for my mom.”

Jonah glanced up at the other, waiting for reaction, but noticed that small tears were streaming down his pale face. “I thought she was dead Adam.”

Jonah knew that Adam became more emotional whenever he was high. They’ve been high together enough times for each other to know how different they are when under the influence. Jonah got tired while Adam became emotional.

“She is. But what if she came back as an alternate or a ghost? If she came back as an alternate then I can meet her and get to talk to her for once,” Adam paused to swallow. “Maybe I'll get to introduce you to her. I bet she would like you Jonah, people said that she liked talking a lot and making jokes and,,and.”

Adam gently pushed Jonah off of him as he hid his face in his hoodie sleeves, shaking as he hiccuped and gasped. Jonah stared at him for a moment before crawling over and hugging the blonde from behind, laying his head on his back as he petted Adam's hair.

He gently shushed him, feeling Adam turn in his arms towards him and wrapping his arms around his torso, hiding his flushed face in Jonah’s shirt as he continued to sob.

Jonah quickly returned to comforting his friend, still petting his hair with one hand but now the other was on Adam's back, rubbing circles into the black fabric. “Shh. Shh. Adam, I bet she would love to see you.” Jonah whispered, resting his lips on the others forehead as Adam cried to Jonah, something he never really seemed to do.

“I just don’t want to be in this shitty place anymore Jonah. I want to leave and I,,” He pulled away from the others chest, cupping Jonah’s tanned face. “I want you to come with me. Please. I can’t do this alone and you are the only person I've ever gotten close to. I don't want to leave you. I want to leave now, tomorrow, whenever I can, but I want you by my side. Please Jonah.” Adam cried, looking the tanned teen in his brown eyes.

Jonah just sat there quietly, caught off guard by the blonde. He was speechless. How the hell was he supposed to respond? Adam had basically just confessed,,something. Jonah couldn’t exactly tell what it was if he was going to be honest.

“Adam,,I don't know.” Jonah stuttered, looking down as he placed his hands over Adams, feeling the warmth from the other. “I mean, what about my parents? I know you don’t have a good relationship with your dad, but Cesar and Mark would be devastated if I just straight up disappeared.”

“Tell them then! I bet they would understand and let you come with me!” Adam exclaimed, a hopeful smile on his tear streaked face.

Jonah sighed as he thought over the idea. One side of him wanted to go, it really did. He wanted to follow Adam to the ends of the earth so he could be by his best friend all the time.

But the other part of him was reminding him about his parents. Cesar and Mark had taken him in when he was left alone by his mom dying, he would forever regret it if he just left without a goodbye or a thank you.

“I,,I've got to think it over Adam. I would love to help you look for your mom, even if I don’t really believe in ghosts, but just, Cesar and Mark would be completely heartbroken by me just straight up leaving without a word.” Jonah stuttered, feeling overwhelmed as multiple situations played out in his head.

Adam sighed before nodding, “I understand. If I had parents as great as yours I would be pretty hesitant to leave them too.” He chuckled. “How about tonight, if you’re gonna come with me, meet me at my house. I don’t want to wait any longer so I might as well leave tonight when my dads drunk. I can just steal his keys and leave.”

Jonah smiled as he looked at the other, seeing Adam smile back at him.

“But, just in case you don’t come with me and I don’t see you again.” Adam closed the space between the two, gently holding Jonah’s face as he kissed him.

Jonah sat there surprised. He didn’t expect a kiss over anything else, but it wasn’t all too bad. Actually, it was kind of nice. He closed his eyes as well, leaning into the kiss with an awkward smile.

After a moment of silence, they pulled apart, staring at one another as they breathed heavily.

“Gonna be honest Adam, that’s the most emotion I’ve seen from you in a while.” Jonah smiled, watching as Adam’s small smile dropped and he rolled his eyes before pushing the other away.

“Y'know what, I take that confession back.”

“I’m not wrong am I! All the time you're just like,” Jonah hunched over, crossing his arms over his chest before putting on a grumpy look, his eyebrows furrowed and a snarl on his tanned face.

“I am not!”

“Yes you are! That’s why people call you emo! Also ‘cause you dress in all black.” Jonah commented, pointing out the others choice of clothes, which were a black hoodie and a pair of ripped black jeans.

“It’s comfy! Also, you dress in all black too!” Adam exclaimed, pulling Jonah’s black leather jacket.

“One, I just got this jacket from you if you remember correctly. Two, my usual outfit is just a gray hoodie and jeans, so I don’t look as emo as you.” Jonah corrected, pulling at Adams hood. The other just rolled his eyes before pushing Jonah’s hand away.

“But I'm serious Jonah. Think about it.”

The brunette sighed, as he looked at his,,best friend? Who knows after what just happened, with concern. “You’re really gonna leave even if I don’t go with you?”

Adam nodded, “I know it seems like a spur of the moment decision, but I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’ve just finally decided to just,,go for it.” He looked at the other. “But it’s not like I don’t want to be with you. I just don’t want to be stuck with my shitty dad any longer and I want to try to at least find anything that I can of my mom. Ghost or alternate.”

Jonah nodded before opening his arms for the other, asking for a hug. Adam looked at him before smiling and accepting the hug, resting his chin on the others shoulder. “Promise that if I don’t go with you, you’ll send me cards?”

Adam chuckled before nodding, “I promise Jonah.”

They held one another for a while longer until pulling apart and smiling at one another. “I promise you’ll have an answer by tonight.” Jonah said, watching as Adam nodded.

“Okay, just know I wont be mad if you choose not to go with me. I’ll understand.”

“Thanks, emo.”

“Fuck you dude.”

-

Jonah sighed as he walked back to his house. He was conflicted, very conflicted. He wanted to go with Adam, but he also wanted to stay with his parents. It was a harder decision then he had thought.

He quickly reached his bedroom window, laughing to himself as he saw a blunt from Adam on the ground. Reaching to the panel, he began to pull up the window, only for it not to move.

Jonah stopped, shocked but just brushed it off. Maybe he didn’t pull hard enough. Tugging on it again, he quickly realized that the window had been locked. But he didn’t lock it? He had his bedroom door locked so Mark or Cesar couldn’t have gotten in and unlocked it. So then who did?

“Jonah.”

Turning to his left, he saw a pissed off Cesar and Mark standing there.

“Inside. Now.”

Jonah just stood there frozen before slowly shuffling his way to the front door, feeling the angry glare from the two adults behind him as he did.

Once he walked in, Cesar and Mark promptly did as well. Cesar pointed at the couch silently as Mark closed the door, an anxiety wracking silence coming from the both of them.

Jonah didn’t argue, instead just sitting down on the couch and watching as the two stood in front of him silently, seeming to be thinking how exactly they were going to punish him and how they were going to yell at him.

“Jonah, what did we say last night?” Mark asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Um, to not sneak out anymore.” Jonah responded, avoiding their stares as looked down at his hands, beginning to anxiously fidget with them.

“And what did you do?”

“Sneak out.”

“Exactly, and when you're grounded too.” Mark sniffed before leaning closer to the teen. “Jonah, why the hell do you smell like weed?!”

Shit. He forgot to cover the smell.

“Jonah, are you doing drugs?” Cesar asked, a shocked look crossing his face.

“Well, weed isn’t exactly drugs. It’s actually used as medicine in some places.” He said, giving the two an awkward smile.

“I don’t give two shits what else it’s used for! You aren’t prescribed it so there should be no fucking reason as to why your smoking it!” Cesar exclaimed, seeming even more pissed off now.

“Jonah, you’re grounded until the summer is over.” Mark sighed.

“What?! That’s not fucking fair!” Jonah exclaimed, getting up from the couch in a rage.

“Yes it is Jonah. Now go to your room.” Cesar responded, pointing at the hallway leading to the rooms.

“No it’s not! You guys grounded me yesterday just for asking a question and wanting an answer.”

“Jonah, that’s not why we grounded you. We grounded you because you were listening in on a private conversation between me and Cesar. What we were talking about was none of your business.” Mark said, seeming to be able to stay calm even though the other two were visibly upset.

“I just wanted an answer to my question! Why the hell are you two so protective over me? Is that such a hard question to answer?” Jonah was becoming more upset. All he wanted was answers. Why can't he get even one?

“Yes! Yes it is a hard question to answer! Jonah you have no clue the shit me and Mark have gone through! We don’t want you to have to worry about things like it!” Cesar exclaimed, looking at Jonah’s determined face.

“What the hell have you two gone through then? Just tell me! I want to know so I can try to understand you guys better! I have no clue who you two were before you adopted me! Who knows? You two could have been drug dealers!” Jonah began to fidget more, running his fingernails repeatedly over his thumb to keep him slightly stable, his mind beginning to jumble up the more he argued.

“We weren’t drug dealers Jonah. We were just two guys who lived together and decided to adopt a kid together.” Mark explained, noticing how fidgety the teen was getting.

“Really? That’s it? Then why the hell are you two so weary of who comes in the house? And who I talk to? And who we see on the street? You two act like every person that we don’t know super well is just gonna kill us or something!”

“BECAUSE THAT'S EXACTLY WHY!” Cesar cried, tears beginning to fall down his tanned face. “ME AND MARK ALMOST DIED BECAUSE WE LET IN A GOD DAMN ALTERNATE BY ACCIDENT.”

Jonah was stunned. He didn’t expect that. He glanced over at Mark, just to see him staring at the floor, he couldn’t tell if he was crying or not but something told him he might be.

“Apa, I’m sorry I didn’t know.”

“Yeah! I know you didn’t know! But now you do! Are you happy? You finally got your answer Jonah!” Cesar said, faking happiness in his voice to exaggerate what he said.

“I just wanted to kno-“

“Why were so protective of you? Me and Mark are so protective because we don’t want to lose you. We’re scared that if we take our eyes off of you for one second that an alternate will get you,” Cesar began to choke up. “And then we won’t have our little boy anymore. Because then he won’t be the little boy we raised. He’ll ust be an emotionless copy of him.”

Cesar sniffled before continuing, “We try to make sure you have the best life that you could possibly have while also trying to make sure that you don’t die just because an alternate decided to come back for one of us. You don’t know the anxiety that we live in daily because we’re scared that any person we meet is one. It’s horrible being on edge all of the time, I hate it.” He sobbed, looking at the teen with watering eyes.

“Apa I’m sorry.”

Cesar huffed as he wiped at his eyes, Mark reaching over and wrapping his arm around his shoulder. “Just go to your room Jonah. We’ll talk later.”

Jonah didn’t argue. He didn’t hesitate. All he did was turn and walk down the hall, gently closing the door behind him as guilt washed over his mind.

He didn’t mean to. All he wanted was answers. He really didn’t want to upset them. Jonah knew he was a pushy person, people had told him multiple times, especially Adam. He didn’t mean to push people but it was something he did way too often without realizing, to the point where it’s caused him to lose others in the past.

Jonah sniffed as tears began to build in his eyes, he wiped at them with the leather sleeve only for more to come. Soon enough, the brunette was uncontrollably crying and gasping for air. It felt like he couldn’t breathe. It felt like he was falling. Why did it feel like he was falling? He was on his bedroom floor wasn’t he?

Looking down, he couldn’t make out the floor. He was on something though, but the sinking feeling in his stomach was still there. Why was it still there?

Why was he crying? He didn’t go through what they did! He shouldn’t be crying. There’s no reason for him to be. But he just cried more. Why was he crying? Why can't he stop?

Soon, Jonah pushed himself off of the floor and sat on his bed, his face wet with tears. He could hear Mark and Cesar talking quietly in the living room, but he didn’t try to make out exactly what they were saying, he just decided to sit there teary eyed and listen to the mumbles.

They comforted him more than what they were probably saying.

He looked down at the jacket Adam had given him, beginning to play with the hem as he let his mind run freely. Jonah couldn’t stop thinking about Adam and him leaving. He wanted to go with him, he really did. But after the argument that just happened, he wanted to stay even more.

Why was a decision like this so hard?

A light knocking was heard from his window, causing the brunette to turn and see Adam standing there with a small smile. Jonah felt a small smile appear on his face as he opened the window, popping his head out to the other.

Adams' smile quickly fell as he saw the others teary eyed face. Reaching forward, he cupped Jonah’s face just like earlier. “What's wrong? What happened?” He asked, a tinge of concern in his normally emotionless voice.

Jonah sniffled, “I got into another argument with Mark and Cesar. This time was even worse though.”

“How? Did they hit you?”

“No! Nothing like that, just, I got my answer. I don’t really want it anymore though.”

Adam sighed as he leaned forward, kissing Jonah on his forehead before smiling at him. “Well, I wanted to come see you one last time.”

“You’re leaving already?!” Jonah exclaimed, grabbing onto the others hands as he nodded.

“I decided to go early. Might as well get a head start.” Adam shrugged.

“No! That-That's not fair!” Jonah stuttered. “You promised me tonight! It’s still day!” Adam just sighed.

“Jonah, I'm sorry, but I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to. You don’t have to come with me, just like I said earlier, I’ll still send you letters and such.” Jonah began to tear up once again as he crawled out the window and pulled Adam into a hug.

“Don’t leave me, please Adam. I don’t want to be alone.” He cried.

This wasn’t fair. It felt like his whole world was crumbling in on itself and it. wasn't. fair.

All he wants is just a moment to where it was just like yesterday morning. Where Adam was going to graduate with him and his parents weren’t mad at him. Where he had both people he cared for near him and happy with him. Not upset and leaving.

“Jonah, you already know why I want to go. You can come with me, no one is stopping you.” Adam said, holding Jonah as well and gently petting his hair.

He didn’t know which to choose.

Adam or his parents.

Adam or the people who raised him when he was left alone.

The person who’s been there for him whenever or the people who hide things from him.

The person who doesn’t hide anything or the people who hid something that Jonah deserved to know.

Jonah didn’t know how, but before he fully realized it, he had ended up in the car with Adam as the other began to drive away from his house.

No, not his house.

The house of liars.

-

Mark held Cesar as he cried, feeling the other shake and sob as he choked out small sentences and words.

Mark felt,,,conflicted. He understood why Jonah was upset. He should’ve known what he wanted to know. Mark himself hates it too when people don’t tell him something that he knew he should know.

But he also understood why Cesar didn’t want to tell him. Sure, Mark had been trapped in his room by the alternate, but Cesar had almost died by it. Mark had tried to kill himself but was caught before he could’ve. He didn’t even see the alternate, while Cesar had. He had seen it kill his own mother and then try to kill him.

It wasn’t like Mark wasn’t traumatized by it either. He still can’t stay in a room by himself, always needing someone else with him to let him know he isn’t alone. But he understood why Cesar was more affected by it.

Mark hadn’t been as hesitant to tell Jonah, but he still wasn’t exactly ready. He still had the fear in his mind that if they mention an alternate, one will just come knocking at their door. Sure it sounded ridiculous, but it was genuine fear that would build in his stomach whenever those creatures were mentioned.

The brown haired man looked down at Cesar, seeing that he was still shaking but his sobs had quieted slightly. Glancing up at the room down the hall, he became worried for Jonah. Mark couldn’t hear much noise coming from the teens room.

“Cesar,” The other looked up. “I’m gonna go check on Jonah, make sure he’s okay and stuff. I’ll be back.” Cesar just nodded before laying down on the couch, small tears still streaming down his tanned face. Mark sighed before getting up and walking to the room, knocking softly on the decorated door.

When Jonah was 12, he desperately wanted to decorate his door, saying that it would make him ‘even cooler.’ The two adults were hesitant at first before caving in and letting him do so, even helping him if he needed it.

Mark stared at the little decorations, letting a little smile come to his face as he remembered how excited the 12 year old had been once it was done, his hands shaking in excitement as he smiled and happily thanked the two.

“Jonah, are you okay?” He called, leaning slightly against the door as he waited for a response.

But none ever came.

Mark began to get worried as he pushed his ear against the door, trying his hardest to hear for anything, but the room was basically silent.

Wait.

Why does he hear wind?

Mark quickly tried the door, almost crying in relief when he realized it was unlocked. Bursting into the room, he quickly looked at Jonah's messy bed.

Only to see it empty.

Why is his window open?!

“CESAR!” Mark screamed, feeling his stomach drop to the lowest it’s ever been.

Loud footsteps could be heard coming towards the room until a shaking Cesar burst into the room, looking over at Mark with fear and concern.

“What?! What’s wrong?!”

Mark just silently pointed at the window, watching as the others' face dropped.

“He snuck out. Again.” Cesar seethed, feeling anger build in his mind. “Cmon. We’re going to look for him this time.” He grabbed Mark's sleeve and began to tug him towards the front door.

As Mark followed the other, he just couldn’t shake a small feeling that this wasn’t just like Jonah’s other two attempts. He didn’t know where the thought came from and he couldn’t pinpoint why exactly, but it felt different. He couldn’t explain it, but it was just like a small feeling in his gut that refused to leave.

Cesar angrily grabbed the keys from the little hanger they had by the front door before swinging the door open and stomping towards the car, growling to himself in Spanish the whole way.

“Get in.” He demanded, pointing at the passenger's seat as he walked to the driver's side. Mark quickly listened, not wanting to agitate his friend anymore. Climbing in, the feeling in his stomach grew for some reason.

He tried to just shrug it off, but it stuck, quietly whispering in his mind unintelligible words. Mark sighed as he felt the car start and pull out of their driveway, deciding to just let it stay and ignore it as best as he could.

“So, where are we going first?” Mark asked, glancing over at the angry man to make sure he was paying attention to the road.

“Park.” Cesar simply responded. Mark just hummed, deciding to not add anything.

It didn’t take long to reach the old playground, Cesar recklessly parking on the curb before bursting out of the car.

“JONAH MARSHALL YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!” He yelled, storming off towards the park with Mark anxiously following behind him.

Looking around, the taller could definitely tell why Jonah and Adam liked this place so much. Not just because it held memories for the two of them, but it also had little places for the two to hide away together.

Mark had learned that they had liked small spaces when he was watching them and the two of them suddenly disappeared.

After about thirty minutes of ripping the house apart, he heard giggling coming from under Jonah’s bed. When he finally looked under it, he could see the two boys happily huddled under it, having a normal conversation as if they didn’t just give Mark a heart attack.

He couldn’t even be mad at the two of them though, only smiling and telling them to tell him where they were going next time.

Even though the two weren’t with them, Mark could vividly imagine the two hiding in the random spaces while giggling and whispering to one another. He didn’t know where the love for small hidden spaces came from, but he didn’t exactly mind. As long as they were happy.

“He’s nowhere here! Damnit!” Cesar exclaimed, stomping his foot in the wood chips that decorated the ground.

“Hey, maybe he just ran off to Adam's house. I mean, where else would he be?” Mark said, placing a gentle hand on the shorters shoulder.

Cesar looked at him and sighed, “Yeah, you're probably right.”

“I know. Let’s go.”

A loud ‘HEY’ came from the other as Mark walked back to the car chuckling.

Soon, they were both comfortably in the car. Cesar already driving off to the blonde's house and Mark watching the other, just trying to make sure that he doesn't blow up once again.

Thankfully, Adams house wasn’t far from the park either, just about a street away, so not long after, they quickly pulled into the driveway.

Only to notice Adams' dad's car was missing.

“Maybe, he just went out?” Mark proposed, giving the other a small smile.

“Yeah, maybe.”

They both climbed out of the car and walked to the front door, standing there for a moment just to see if they could hear anything. All they heard though was the loud snores of someone.

Hesitantly, Mark knocked on the door, waiting for a response to come.

After a couple of minutes though, there was none. Cesar just grumbled something under his breath before walking up to the door now, deciding to try his attempt.

“Hello!?” Cesar exclaimed, knocking on the door harder than Mark did.

His attempt elicited a response, a couple grumbles heard before the door was unlocked and open, only to reveal Adam's dad standing on the other side of the door.

The man wasn’t exactly,,clean. Dirt was very visible on his exposed skin and clothes. Mark and Cesar knew that he worked for a construction company, but they had assumed that he would clean up after a day of work, not just stay covered in dirt and cement.

“Hi Mr. Murray.”

“It’s Jude.” The blonde grumbled, dark bags visible under his brown eyes.

“Right,,Jude. Look, do you know if Jonah is here by any chance? He ran off and we don’t know where he went. We were thinking he came here since he’s so close to Adam.” Cesar explained, putting on what was definitely a fake smile to seem nice and not disgusted by the other.

“Jonah shouldn’t even be here. Adams grounded. He shouldn’t have any friends over.” The blonde said, seeming to become slightly pissed.

“Yes, we know, but we just thought that maybe Jonah ran here and Adam might’ve let him in.” Cesar said, beginning to be agitated by the definitely drunk man.

“Like I said he shouldn’t be her-“

“Can you just check damnit!” Mark exclaimed, frustration clear on his pale face.

Jude was caught off guard by the outburst but just quickly nodded, turning and motioning for the other two to follow him. Silently, they did, walking in and glancing around the house they’ve never got to actually see.

The house was very obviously dirty, random crap was thrown all around the floor and furniture, random shirts and things covering anything that could hold it.

Dirty dishes also covered a lot of the tables as well, moldy food covering what used to be a clean dish.

“Jesus, I see why Adam comes over almost everyday now.” Cesar commented under his breath, definitely more concerned for the blonde teen more now than before.

“Yep, it seems like his dad makes no effort in cleaning.” Mark responded, moving slightly closer to the other as they continued to follow the drunk.

Soon, they reached the stairs, which were shockingly clean. There were a couple marks on it here and there, but otherwise they looked like they didn’t even belong in this house. Jude stumbled up them, almost falling multiple times but catching himself before he could.

Mark and Cesar followed behind him, the two trying their hardest to not laugh at the other adult, which proved to be very difficult.

But once everyone had gotten up the stairs without falling or bursting out laughing, the two quickly returned to their seriousness, remembering that they were looking for their son.

Jude walked to a very beat up white door before banging his fist on it, seeming annoyed by just having to do the action. “Open up Adam! These two wanna know if Jonah’s in there!”

It was silent, which gave Mark and Cesar the same anxiety they had before they realized Jonah had snuck out. They both just brushed it off, there’s no way both Adam and Jonah are missing at the same time.

“How about you try the door?” Mark suggested, genuinely confused as to how someone older than them two didn’t think of that to begin with.

“He always locks it.” Jude responded before motioning with his hands towards the door. “But if you believe you know what you’re doing then be my guest.”

Mark rolled his eyes before stepping forward and grabbing the doorknob, hesitating for a moment before slowly opening the door.

Only to reveal Adam wasn’t there either.

“Wait where the hell is he!?” Jude exclaimed, running into the room with the other two.

Cesar and Mark didn’t say anything though, because they could clearly see a note on the desk Adam had in his room. Slowly, Cesar walked over and grabbing it, unfolding it and scanning over it.

“What the hell is that?” Jude asked, walking over to the other two.

“Cesar what does it say?”

The other didn’t respond though, he just stood there silently as tears slowly fell down his face.

“What the hell does it say?”

Cesar swallowed before answering.

“It says he ran away and will never come back. And that if me and Mark are reading this then that means Jonah joined him.”

“Jonah knew about this?!”

“But it also says that he promises to take care of him, knowing how much we care for him and that if Jonah got hurt, he would take full responsibility.” Cesar began to cry. “He didn’t ever think it would have to come to this, but living in a shitty home has finally pushed him past his limit. He’s gonna go look for his mom, alternate or not, he wants to see her.”

“That bitch is dead!” Jude exclaimed. “He knows she’s dead! Why does he want to look for her!?”

“Alternate or not. Adam is gonna risk his life just to see his mom.” Mark muttered, feeling tears build in his eyes as well.

Cesar stood there quietly for another moment before lowering the letter.

“Call the police. Now. And report them two as missing. We need to find them before an alternate does.”

Chapter Text

A loud ringing woke up the two men laying in bed. One groaning loudly while turning away from it and one groaning to himself before grabbing the phone off the nightstand along with his glasses.

“Hello?” Cesar mumbled into the phone as he adjusted his glasses onto his face.

“A-apa. It’s me.” A quivering voice cried from the other side.

Hearing Jonah’s voice immediately woke him up, Cesar sat up and grabbed onto the phone tighter as his throat began to close up. “Jonah? Mijo, are you okay?”

Hearing the name Jonah, Mark turned to face Cesar now, a confused and hopeful look on his tired pale face.

“Apa, I made a mistake. I made a really big mistake. I need your help ple-“ A loud scream was heard from the other side along with a loud bang. “STAY AWAY PLEAse! You’re not him!” Jonah sobbed, sounding very afraid and scared.

“Jonah, is everything okay?”

“No apa.” He cried. “Me and Adam made a dumb mistake and now- now I don’t know if Adams okay and there’s something chasing me. Please Apa I’m sorry for running away. I'm sorry, I’m sorry.” Jonah began to cry as Cesar sat there with tears rolling down his face.

“Cesar, is Jonah okay?” Mark said from beside him, now sitting up as well. The other just shook his head, frozen in fear and shock as he heard the teen crying.

Mark quickly reached over and took the phone from Cesar, putting it up to his ear. “Jonah is that you?”

“Dad! Yes! It’s me! Please come get me. I don’t know where Adam is and I don’t know if he’s okay. And I’m stuck in the car and there’s something outside of it and,,and-“ Jonah just began to cry once again, sniffling and gasping as he seemed to be feeling even worse.

“Okay, okay, Jonah what exactly happened? You have to tell us if you want us to help you.” Mark said, keeping his voice calm to reassure the crying boy as him and Cesar began to climb out of bed.

“Okay, okay dad. Okay.” The teen shakily sighed.

-

Jonah hummed quietly to himself as he slept, his head slumped forward and leaned slightly against the car window. Adam glanced over at him, seeing the other sleeping soundly. He smiled slightly before turning back the road, hearing the other shuffle before going quiet once again.

Adam sighed, it had been two years since the both of them ran away together and they were living,,okay. They didn’t stay in one place for long because they really couldn’t. The two of them were wanted by the FBI for searching for alternates, which was dumb in Adams opinion, but it’s not like his opinion will change the law.

He felt bad for dragging Jonah into this but he never seemed to complain, and if he did, he kept pretty quiet about it. But Adam couldn’t really get mad at him if he did. If he’s gonna be honest, he’s pretty mad at himself too.

It was Adam's idea (that he mostly came up when he was high) to leave, and Jonah, after a fight with his parents, decided to join him. He had even written a letter and included a part in case Jonah did leave with him that was dedicated to Mark and Cesar.

He hoped that they had read it but Adam could never be sure unless they ran into the two of them. Which had a chance of happening but they hadn’t ran into them for the past two years so it didn’t seem likely.

Adam sighed before pulling off to the side of the road, laying his head on the steering wheel for a moment to relax. He took a couple deep breaths, trying to clear his mind.

After a couple minutes of Adam just calming himself down and Jonah quietly sleeping, the blonde began to drive once again, now not as focused on the road as before but he couldn’t waste any more time. The two of them had a job to do and they couldn’t lose this or else they would be screwed.

Adam didn’t know if they should really take this offer. It seemed like a good idea and it was an even better offer, $500 a night for three nights would keep them financially stable for a while. But Jonah kept occasionally mentioning that he felt,,off about this deal.

Adam always wanted to take Jonah’s opinion into account but he also wanted to make sure they could both eat without having to worry if they would have enough food for later on or the next day. Or that they would have to steal yet another car.

He was always ready for the moment when Jonah told him he wanted to leave. When he just wanted to go back to a normal life. And Adam wouldn’t argue, he would let Jonah leave but promise him that he would still call and send letters to the other. Just like he did when he made this plan in the first place.

But that moment hadn’t come yet. It shocked Adam that Jonah had stayed with him this long, but he wasn’t complaining, he was happy he got to this with his best friend,,or boyfriend? It’s still pretty complicated.

Jonah began to groan and shuffle around more, which told Adam he was about to wake up. Glancing over, Adam could see it too. The brunette was beginning to rub at his eyes and yawn as he stretched out his limbs.

“Good morning ya dork.” Adam said, hearing Jonah grumble back a ‘shut up asshole.’

“We’re almost to the house, we just need about 30 minutes till we’re there.” Jonah grumbled something before yawning once again.

“Ugh, what time is it?” Adam glanced at the clock in the car, seeing a dull 10:34 shining back at him.

“10:34.” Adam glanced over to see the brunette's dyed hair messy and unkempt. “Did you sleep well?”

“Mm, yeah, mostly.” Jonah groaned. “As comfy as you can in a car seat.”

The blonde chuckled, “I don’t know how you can even sleep in those. I can never fall asleep in them.”

“They're not that bad when you get used to them.” Jonah muttered, stretching out their stiff limbs.

“They’re still uncomfortable as hell.”

The other just rolled his eyes before sitting back, looking out the window at the passing scenery. Adam glanced over at them before looking back to the road, deciding to keep his focus on driving for now.

Soon enough, an old house came into view. It was slightly worn down, but seemed to still be pretty well kept. “Is that the house?” Jonah asked, leaning slightly closer to the window to look at it better.

“Pretty sure it is. This is where the GPS says it is.” Adam muttered, motioning to the device messily mounted on the dash.

“Yknow, these things work pretty well. I don’t see why they had to ban them.” Jonah commented, looking at the slightly scratched device.

“Well, they seem to think that that guy’s face could pop up on here and get you.” The other looked at Adam curiously.

“What has that guy even done? Scare a couple of people?” Jonah clawed his hands and put them by his head, smiling mischievously. “Oooo! Watch out! I can appear on your TV and scare you!”

Adam rolled his eyes, fighting back a smile as he smacked Jonah on his arm. “He’s done worse dumbass.”

“Okay, then what did he do?”

His smile faded. What did that guy do? Why can't he remember?

Adam decided to just play off the sudden feeling of anxiety he got, looking back at the house through the windshield and shrugging. “Hell if I know. All I know is that he’s done something worse.”

Jonah definitely noticed his change in mood, but just didn’t mention it, instead deciding to just drop the subject completely. He began to crawl to the back of their van, going to grab his and Adams equipment.

Adam decided to drop it as well, now getting out of the van and walking to the back. He glanced at the little ‘sign’ Jonah had made to help show people that they were in fact the Bythorne Paranormal Society and not just some random teens in a white van. The lettering was made out of black electric tape Jonah had ‘gotten’ (stolen) from a store.

He had done it without Adam noticing and surprised him with it, saying that it would stop people from calling the police on them. Which was partially true. Sure more people were less creeped out by the van and them, but people who knew they were on the run still called the police on them.

Thankfully, it didn’t happen very often. Still happened. Just not super often.

Adam opened the back doors, seeing Jonah already waiting for him with a smile on their tanned face. He held out Adam's bag that had been messily packed by them. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Jonah moved to sit back against one of the seats. “I already have my stuff set up, go see if you can get in.”

Adam nodded before closing the doors and walking away, hearing the freshly fallen snow crunch under his boots. He had always liked snow, it seemed to always calm him down. Jonah liked it too, just for the opposite reason. He liked it because he could play in it, always dragging the other out of his house to come play with him on snow days.

The both of them would play for hours before going back to Jonah’s house and eating,,caldo? Yeah that’s what it was. They would eat caldo made by Cesar and drink hot chocolate too. Jonah always said it wasn’t hot chocolate though, even though it was? They would say that it was abuelita. Adam didn’t know what that was but he didn’t exactly mind, as long as he got some he didn’t care what it was.

Adam walked up to the front door, noticing that it was slightly ajar. That quickly confused and freaked him out. Why would someone leave their door open if they weren’t gonna be there for a couple of days? He would get it if they left it unlocked, but open?

At that point, they’re just asking to be robbed.

He shrugged it off though, deciding to walk around the house before getting in through the door, wanting to just get a basic layout of where him and Jonah were gonna be for the next 3 days.

Walking to the right side, he saw a window about shoulder height right in the center of the wall. Pulling out his flashlight, he shined it into the glass, seeing two doors and an empty room inside. One of the doors had a cat door, which was expected. The owner did say that they had a cat, but why was the room empty?

Maybe it was just the cats room, it didn’t seem like the lady had kids or else she would’ve mentioned them so maybe she just had a whole room for the cat. Adam just shrugged it off, it’s not common but it’s not weird, people do that all the time.

Walking to the back of the house, where there was no fence which confused him even more but whatever. Maybe she’s gonna get one or just took out the other. She lives out of the county and away from people so she doesn’t really need to cover up her backyard.

Adam saw a sliding glass door and another window for what was probably the kitchen, but nothing else. He walked to the door and tried opening it, only to find out it was also unlocked.

“She really wants her house robbed, doesn’t she?” Adam muttered, opening the door more and walking in. He shined the light around what seemed to be the living room or dining room. He couldn’t tell because there was no furniture.

“Does this lady just not live here?!” Adam exclaimed, frustrated by the emptiness but brushing it off, there’s no point in getting mad about that.

Looking up at the walls, he saw an old camera pointing back at him. It looked like it hadn’t been used in years but was in pristine condition. Adam shrugged it off, deciding that that wasn’t really anything of importance. He reached into his bag and pulled out his walkie talkie, turning it on and looking back at the camera.

“Hey Jonah, there’s cameras here, except they look old as hell.”

A static came from the other side before Jonah’s voice crackled through, “Yeah, I’m already connected to them. These cameras are the kind that used tapes and shit, but I can thankfully still connect to them.”

Adam hummed as he watched the camera power to life, a red light turning on in the corner of it and blinking rapidly. “Hey, have you looked at the other cameras in the house?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Have you noticed that it doesn’t even look like anyone lives here? Like this place is empty.”

“Yeah but maybe she’s barely moving in, it’s common that houses are pretty empty before someone moves in.” Jonah proposed.

“But didn’t she say her cat died here? Like years ago?”

“Maybe she moved out and then moved back in. People do that.” Adam sighed before nodding to himself.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Anyways, see anything on the cameras?”

“Nope! But you can start your little ritual thingy. I’ll keep looking.” Jonah giggled, causing Adam to roll his eyes. He looked up at the camera and flipped it off, hearing Jonah’s giggles grow as he saw it.

“It’s not a ritual you dickwad.”

“Suree.”

“Just start looking!”

“Alright! Alright!” Jonah laughed through the walkie talkie.

Adam huffed before slipping off his bag and setting it down on the floor, zipping it open and beginning to dig through it. He pulled out a couple of things like his spirit box, a small bible, and an electrometer, leaving the rest in the bag.

Quickly turning on and setting up the items, Adam shined his flashlight around the room, noticing that the house seemed devoid of all life. There weren’t even any spiders or bugs crawling around the place.

Maybe the owner had just sprayed for bugs? It kind of unsettled him how there was close to no life here but whatever, it’s not like they have to stay in here. All his and Jonah’s ‘job’ was to see if there was a dead cat here and just help it.

He sighed before standing back up and shining his light at the three objects, clearing his throat before beginning his questions. “Kitty, kitty. Are you at peace here?” He paused for a response. “Are you happy?”

Adam began to hear giggles coming from the radio, making him pull it out of his hoodie pocket and turned it on, hearing Jonah’s giggles louder and clearer.

“You look so dumb.” He laughed. Adam huffed before responding.

“What else am I supposed to do for a dead cat?” Jonah laughed even more, causing Adam to become even more frustrated.

“What is it gonna do? Just,,heh, meow us to death?” Jonah laughed, which pissed off Adam even more.

“I don’t know why you're talking. You kept saying that this house scared you.” He muttered, getting back down and beginning to clean up the three things.

“It doesn’t scare me. I just don’t like it because,,I’m,,,allergic to cats.” Jonah stuttered. Adam looked at the radio curiously before rolling his eyes.

“Never knew you were allergic to cats.” He commented, getting back up and putting the equipment in his bag.

“Just never felt like mentioning it.” The other muttered.

Adam shrugged before beginning to walk around the rest of the house, shining his light around the rooms to see if there was anything there. Most were just as empty as the rest of the house though. He sighed before walking to another door that was shut, trying to pull it open only for it not budge.

He looked at it curiously before trying once again, and the door, once again, did not move. “That's weird.” He muttered before fishing out his radio and turning it back on. “Hey Jonah, there’s a door here but it’s the only locked door in the whole house.”

Adam could only hear static for a moment before Jonah’s sleepy voice came over the speaker. “What do you mean? Like it’s locked completely or?”

“What do you think I mean? Yes the door is locked and I can’t unlock it, but no other door in the house is locked.” Adam said, trying the door once again only to get the same results as before.

“Maybe she’s hiding something. Or that’s where the cat is.” Jonah yawned.

“What would some random lady be hiding?”

“I don’t know, maybe you could, yknow, break down the door and see.”

Adam rolled his eyes before lightly kicking the door with his shoe. “I’m not gonna break down some random lady’s door.”

“Well, it’s not like she’ll care. She might think that we needed to do it to put her little ghost cat at rest or something.” Jonah laughed.

“Yeah, no.” Adam responded before pulling out his camera from his pocket, turning it on and quickly snapping a photo while putting a caption with it. ‘The only locked door in the house.’

He walked around for a little while longer before deciding to go back to the car to sleep. He shivered as he stepped out into the cold, feeling the frost beginning to bite at his exposed skin. Adam quickly rushed over to the car, climbing into the front seats before closing and locking the door.

He sighed before looking around the car for Jonah, seeing the other asleep in the back part of the van. They were curled into themselves and shivering slightly. Adam sighed before crawling into the back as well, moving Jonah away from the walls to keep them slightly warmer and grabbing the blankets they had stacked in the corner.

He gently laid it over the other, making sure it covered Jonah before moving their head onto his lap, giving them a pillow that neither usually had. Adam began to relax, leaning his back against a chair as Jonah slept.

He felt tired but just,,couldn’t sleep. Adam was used to it though. He didn’t really sleep often, and if he was tired during the day, he would drink one of the energy drinks Jonah had, he couldn’t risk falling asleep while driving, because then that put both of their lives at risk.

Jonah would say that Adam had ‘insomnia’, saying that it was where people couldn’t sleep. He believed him, because it sounded like the other knew what he was talking about, but he didn’t want to worry Jonah. He would just say that he sleeps and he just wakes up before Jonah does.

Of course the other doesn’t believe him, but he never mentions anything. Jonah always offers to drive so Adam could sleep though, or say that they should pull over to relax for a moment.

Adam felt bad for worrying Jonah, he didn’t want to, but Jonah always reassures him that he should never feel bad. That it’s just how people care for one another. He still feels bad though, and that feeling just never seemed to go away.

Jonah began to shuffle slightly, turning to face Adam and his arm going above his head, resting close to the blonde's hip. Adam looked down at him before smiling slightly, deciding to try and sleep after all. He was getting tired of letting his mind run to its darkest depths.

Adam moved a hand to Jonah’s hair, tangling his fingers in the two toned locks. He leaned his head forward as he closed his eyes, hoping that he would be able to sleep.

-

The blonde hadn’t been able to sleep, instead he just rested his eyes until the sun came back up and reflected onto the snow. Once he saw the early sunlight, he opened his eyes, feeling exhaustion gnaw at his brain. Adam just ignored it though, looking back down at his lap to see Jonah still peacefully asleep.

He sighed before moving the others head off his lap and getting up. He walked over to the little cooler they had as their makeshift fridge, opening it and grabbing an energy drink. He also grabbed a normal drink for Jonah, deciding to just keep it beside him while he waited for the other to wake up.

Slowly sipping on the drink, Adam began to look through what they had to eat. He shuffled through a couple bags of chips and cookies before seeing an energy bar, quickly pulling it out and ripping it open. He snapped it in half, saving the other half for Jonah and eating his side.

After a while of silence, Adam began to hear Jonah stir, groans and shuffling coming from him. “Morning.”

Jonah looked up at him with tired eyes before smiling. “Morning.” He yawned, stretching his stiff limbs before crawling over to the blonde. “Do you have any food?”

Adam smiled before handing Jonah the juice and half of the energy bar, watching as he looked it over before slowly beginning to eat it. “Your hair is a mess.”

That was true. The two toned hair of the other was stuck up in random directions and was definitely tangled and maybe even knotted. “How long has it been since you brushed your hair?”

Jonah glanced over at Adam before shrugging. “Jonah seriously?”

“I haven’t gotten a chance!”

“Come here. While you eat I’ll comb through your hair.” Adam spread his legs apart enough for Jonah to fit before patting the ground between. The brunette looked at him curiously before crawling closer and sitting where Adam told him too, his back against the other's chest.

Adam smiled before grabbing his bag and pulling out a hair brush, he picked off the couple of blonde hairs it had before beginning to pull it through Jonah’s hair. The other became relaxed at the motion, slumping back slightly as he continued to eat.

It didn’t take Adam long to comb through all of the hair and make it look as if Jonah wasn’t crazy, just about 5 minutes or so. He didn’t push the other off of him once he finished though, instead he just put the comb away and loosely wrapped his arms around Jonah’s waist. Which the other didn’t mind, they actually leaned into it, beginning to curl into Adam's gentle hold.

They sat like that for a while, even after Jonah had finished his breakfast and the sun had risen even more, now shining through the windshield. It didn’t bug the two though, it just calmed them.

But they both knew that they eventually had to get up, even if they didn’t want to. After a while longer, Adam decided to be the one to get the both of them up, slightly pushing Jonah off of him before climbing into the front seat. “Aww, I wanted to chill for longer.” Jonah whined from behind him.

“We got a job to do Jo, sorry.” Adam said, a small smile on his pale face as he saw the morning sun shine on Jonah’s face.

“But our job isn’t even until night. Unless we’re supposed to do it all day?”

“I mean, she is paying us for 3 nights.”

“Yeah, nights, we can do whatever we want during the day.” Jonah pointed, a small smirk on their face. Adam just rolled his eyes before looking back at the house.

It became silent for a while, apart from Jonah’s shuffling and mumbling, until Jonah themselves wanted to break it. “So, did you find anything in there?”

Adam shook his head before looking at the other. “Nope. Did you see anything on the cameras?” Jonah shook their head. Adam just hummed before looking back at the house once again. “I mean I’m literally looking through the stuff I got last night and there seems to be nothing. It’s literally just some empty house.”

“Maybe the cats just locked downstairs.” Adam chuckled, causing a small smile to appear on Jonah’s face.

“Maybe but,” He paused for a moment. “You don’t feel off about this house? Like at all?” Adam glanced over at Jonah to see an anxious look on their tanned face.

“You still feel weird about this house?”

“Well, no, kinda. It’s just,,nothing feels off to you?”

Adam looked at Jonah weirdly. “Jonah. It’s an empty house.”

“Look, I don’t know but there’s just something that just,,I don’t know! Feels off about it!” Jonah exclaimed, gesturing to the house.

Adam glanced at the house before looking back at Jonah. He always wanted to take the others' opinion into account, but he really didn’t feel off about the house. To him, it seemed like just a normal house that’s just empty for some reason.

The blonde sighed, “Do you think you could suck it up for three nights?” He really didn’t want to lose this chance for a good amount of money. He wanted to make sure that him and Jonah would be able to survive.

Jonah’s head whipped towards him, a slight pissy look on their tanned face. “Dude suck what-“

A loud scream erupting from the house cut the other off. They both whipped their heads towards where the sound came from, quiet for a moment to see if anything else would come.

“Where did that come from?”

“I think it came from the house.” Jonah swallowed as they began to shake slightly. “I really don’t like this now.”

“I’m the opposite, I wanna go check that out.” Adam smiled, now insanely curious.

“Dude. Don’t.” Jonah said through gritted teeth.

“How can I not? There’s definitely something else other than a cat.”

“What if there’s an alternate? And then what are you going to do?”

Adam glanced over at Jonah, “Dude, you're overreacting, it’s just a ghost or something. If it was an alternate one of us would’ve seen it. I'm going back in whether you like it or not.” He began to gather his equipment once again, putting it all back in his bag much to Jonah’s dismay.

“Dude this isn’t a good idea. It could kill us.”

“Look, if we find an alternate and kill it, we could become famous dude. Going back inside is gonna be the best decision ever, alternate or not.”

“We already have enough attention just for looking for them, we don’t need anymore.”

Adam began to climb out of the car. “Whether you like it or not, I’m going back in.”

“Adam please.” Jonah pleaded.

The blonde didn’t listen to Jonah, he instead slammed the door in their face and began to walk back to the house. Jonah just sighed before leaning their head back. He hated arguing.

-

As Adam got closer to the house, he began to feel kind of,,off. He tried to just shrug it away but the pit in his stomach wouldn’t leave and seemed to just get worse the closer he got.

‘Jonah’s really starting to take an effect on me.’ Adam thought as he walked into the house, pulling out his spirit box and turning it on, grabbing his flashlight as well. He walked to the closest hallway, letting the device go on its own before he started to ask questions.

“What are you?” Adam asked, shining the light around the empty hall.

“Can you hear me?” Jonah’s staticy voice came over the radio still in Adams hoodie.

“Yeah, you're good.” He didn’t think that Jonah would’ve wanted to help him since he had basically ignored him but it was nice that the other wanted to still be there.

Adam cleared his throat before continuing. “Is anyone here?”

No response.

“Are you a ghost?”

Still no response.

‘This is starting to get annoying.’ Adam thought as he waited once again, but nothing seemed to want to come through.

“OH MY GOD BEHIND YOU!” Jonah suddenly screamed from the radio, causing Adam to jump slightly before rolling his eyes.

“Shut up.” He responded, shining the light around the hall once again before taking a careful step forward.

“OH MY GOD BEHIND YOU!” Jonah screamed once again.

“Dude quit.” Adam said, starting to get slightly pissed. Of course Jonah would mess with him, what else did he expect?

“OH MY GOD BEHIND YOU!” Jonah screamed for the third time.

But he didn’t stop?

“OH MY GOD BEHIND YOU!”

“BEHIND YOU!”

“BEHIND YOU!”

“BEHIND YOU!”

“Dude fucking quit!” Adam yelled, now completely done with Jonah’s antics.

“What the hell did I do?” The other asked, sounding genuinely confused.

What the hell? Does he not know what the hell he just did? Adam froze for a moment, a slight sinking feeling in his stomach.

He pushed the feeling off to the side, deciding that maybe Jonah really was that good of an actor. “Nevermind.” He muttered.

-

Adam continued to walk around the house before finding an empty room with a small window in the corner. Looking through the frosted glass, he realized that it was night already. How long had he been in this house?

He sighed before pulling out his camera and snapping a picture. Captioning it with ‘Guess I'm sleeping here tonight.’ He hoped Jonah would see it but he couldn’t be sure.

Adam sighed before walking over to the corner and laying down, he groaned as he felt the hard floor against his back. He wanted to go back to the van, but he also wanted to get evidence of whatever was in this house.

Sighing, he reached into his bag and pulled out a motion camera that he had recently gotten, quickly setting it up before turning onto his side. Adam decided to try and sleep once again, hoping that the camera would capture something.

-

Jonah was beginning to get worried. Very worried. It was already nighttime and Adam hadn’t come back to the van. They were tired but they didn’t want to sleep until they knew Adam was ok or was even coming back.

He could feel his leg bouncing rapidly as he waited,but it seemed like Adam wasn’t coming. He felt slightly ridiculous too, sitting by the large back doors like a lost puppy. Jonah frowned, he turned back towards the front of the car to glance at the house, seeing it still empty and no Adam walking out of it.

He groaned before laying on the van floor, feeling the cold against his clothed back. They grabbed their radio and pulled it close, deciding to try and talk to Adam. “Hey Adam, when are you coming back?”

It was silent for a moment before a voice came over the speaker. “I’m still looking.”

Jonah rolled their eyes, “Dude, there is no way that an empty house is that interesting.”

“Why don’t you just come inside if you want me to be with you so bad?” Adam responded. Jonah didn’t know why, but they got this slight sinking feeling in their stomach. Something felt,,off.

“Nah, I'm good. It’s just there’s literally no place for you to sleep in there.”

The static stopped for a moment before returning. “I’ll come out soon, don’t worry babe.”

Babe?

Jonah felt his face flush. Adam had never called him that! Is he supposed to call him something back?

“Uh, Adam, are you sure you’re okay? You’ve never called me babe before.” Jonah stuttered, holding the side of his face as he stared at the dirty van floor.

They heard what sounded like scrambling or cussing before Adam came back over the speaker. “Yeah I'm fine. Sorry, just slip of the tongue.”

Oh.

“Oh, it’s fine then.” Jonah muttered, feeling a sense of disappointment.

“Alright, well, I’ll come back out soon. Promise.” Adam said.

“Oh ok. Be careful.”

“Yeah, mhm, I will.” Was the last thing he said before shutting the radio off, cutting off the static coming from its speaker for Jonah.

He sighed before laying back down, grabbing the closest blanket and pulling it over himself. He should probably get a little sleep while he waits for Adam.

-

Adam didn’t know where he was. It looked like an endless church to him, but he couldn’t be sure. He began to walk through what seemed to be the many pews that, logically, should eventually lead to an exit or a shrine.

He glanced around the church walls, seeing the same angel decorating every stained window. It had long blonde hair and pale skin, it’s hands were clasped together as if it was praying. It had a long white robe with a rope cutting off the midsection and bright white wings behind it.

Adam didn’t know why, but it unsettled him. Instead of bringing him the comfort it should, the angel made him afraid.

“Hello Adam.” A voice echoed. Adam quickly began to look around for the source, but finding nothing.

“Who are you?! Where are you?!”

“Why Adam, I’m the angel Gabriel, and I have come to save you from sin.” The voice responded, a smile in its tone.

“Gabriel? Like the archangel?”

“Correct my little disciple.”

Adam relaxed, knowing there was an angel here calmed him slightly. “Why are you here? Am I in danger? Is Jonah in danger?”

“No my child, I have come to save you from sin.” It answered.

“Sin? Like what?”

“I cannot answer that right now my child, but for me to save you, I need you to wake up Adam.”

Adam became confused. Wake up? He was awake though! “What do you mean by wake up?” He asked, but no answer came.

Instead, multiple voices began to loudly repeat for Adam to wake up. He quickly covered his ears in response, but that didn’t work. It just made it all louder.

One thundering voice trumped over all of the others though, talking directly to him. It didn’t sound human, it sounded robotic. It caused a twinge of fear to run through Adam.

“You followed the shepard.”

“Follow my voice instead.”

“Wake up Adam.”

“Don’t make me wake the others.”

Adam woke up with a start, holding his thundering chest as he gasped for air. He gulped down his fear, trying his best to calm himself down. He’s never been this scared. Why is he so scared now?

He sighed before getting onto his feet, deciding that maybe he just needed to walk around the house for a second. Maybe even go back outside and go in the van with Jonah. Yeah, that would help him.

Groaning as he felt his head begin to hurt, Adam began to gather his things, putting it back in his backpack before a loud whispering was heard right by him. It was unintelligible but caused fear to spike up his spine. He yelped before swinging his bag onto his shoulder and running out of the room.

He needs to go back to Jonah. Maybe being around him will stop all the creepy noises he’s hearing. Adam sped through the house, trying to get out as fast as he could before he ran past the basement and saw something,,different.

Now the door was open. He stopped, looking at the door curiously. It was closed just a couple hours ago. Locked. Why is it open now?

Meows were heard from the bottom, meaning that either that cat is down there or that it's a ghost. He pulled out his camera and snapped a quick photo, sending it to Jonah and captioning it, telling the other his discovery.

Adam slowly stepped to the doorway, looking through it to see a set of stairs leading down to a basement. He didn’t know why, but he was tempted, no, drawn, to go down the steps. He swallowed before slowly stepping down the first step, hearing it creak under his weight but staying still.

Slowly, he made his way down, each step creaking whenever he stepped onto it and creaking when he stepped off. Soon, he had made it to the bottom of the stairs. Looking around, he saw a very old and dusty room, it looked like it hadn’t been cared for years.

Adam walked slightly forward, taking careful steps into the room as he looked around. The meows were clear as day but there seemed to be no cat, which confused the hell out of Adam.

Something quickly flashed on, blinding the blonde for a moment before he looked at the object, seeing a now on TV shining at him. “What the,,” He muttered, looking around the basement once again, now able to see a couple of things clearer than before.

Adam turned to look behind him, seeing a wall with some writing decorating it. It was large but messy handwriting, but the message sent chills down his spine.

‘NOTHING IS WORTH THE RISK.’

Adam began to hear his radio crackle from his hoodie pocket, quickly pulling it out, he turned back to the TV. Jonah’s voice didn’t come over it though, just silence.

“Dude, did you see that the door is open now?”

No response.

He smiled. Now Jonah might listen to what he has to say.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” Adam teased with a small smirk, kneeling down to the TV and poking it, never having seen one in person before.

“Dont Adam. Just don’t.” Jonah said, his voice strained and worried.

“Now you want to listen to me? Now you want to take this seriously?” Adam responded, still looking at the TV.

“Adam, I've been serious this whole time. I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Oh really? Then why have you been making a whole joke out of this?”

Jonah scoffed out of shock. “Making a joke out of this? I haven’t been making any jokes about this. Yeah maybe I’ve been messing around a little but Adam that’s just how I am.”

Adam didn’t know why he was so mad now, but it wasn’t stopping him. “Well maybe it shouldn’t be! Every house we’ve gone to, you make a joke out of it.”

“Because I'm scared Adam! I'm scared that one of us is gonna get hurt at a location! Or that we’re gonna get caught! I'm sorry that I worry for us!” Jonah yelled, starting to sound as if he was crying.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t be.” Adam responded, getting off of the ground and looking at the radio. His anger was growing, but he still didn’t know why he was mad. Adam couldn’t stop himself from getting mad at the other.

“ Look Adam, I’m sorry that I’m not as devastated as you still are. I'm sorry that I can’t help you carry this damn burden anymore. And I’m sorry that I don’t know how to help you.” Jonah cried. Adam stopped as tears began to fill his eyes, he growled and wiped them away.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It means I'm reaching my limit Adam! I know you want to find your mom, I get that, but why haven’t you accepted the fact that she might just be dead?!”

“How would you know?! It’s not like you even met her!”

“Neither did you Adam! You never met her either!”

Adam huffed. “If you’re so fed up with me, then why haven’t you left yet?”

“Because Im trying to make sure you don’t kill yourself! It is so blatantly obvious how dangerous alternates are but you still run to them every chance you get!”

“I do not!”

“FUCKING LISTEN TO ME! You’re not invincible Adam! I thought you knew that when you talked me into joining you on these,,,death marches! And nothing happened! I was just like you! I felt like we could go up against anything! But this right here is real.”

“I know this is real! Why do you think I don’t know what the fuck is happening? I asked you if you wanted to join me! Wanted, Jonah. You didn’t have to join me.”

“I joined you because you’ve been my only best friend! I couldn’t lose you Adam! Don’t you realize how much I sacrificed to run away with you?” Jonah cried, his voice becoming uncontrollably wavy as tears rolled down his face that Adam couldn’t see.

“I TOLD YOU! YOU. DIDN'T. HAVE. TO. JOIN ME!” Adam yelled, now finally letting the tears freely fall.

“I WISH I NEVER JOINED YOU! ESPECIALLY TO LOOK FOR YOUR MOTHER BECAUSE SHE IS DEAD AND GONE. WHY CANT YOU FUCKING ACCEPT THAT?!”

Did he just?

He did.

“What did you just fucking say to me?!”

“I’m sorry that we’re here where we are now, but Adam Murray if you walk down those damn stairs. You’d be joining her.” Jonah hiccuped before continuing. “And if by some goddamn miracle you walk back up them, I don’t think you’d be yourself. And I am going to tell you this right now.”

“That I wont be here to confirm that.”

“WELL THEN JUST FUCKING LEAVE THEN! LEAVE!” Adam screamed, beginning to choke up.

No response.

Adam waited for a moment.

Still nothing.

It dawned on him.

He left. He really left.

Adam yelled before chucking the radio at the ground, falling to his knees and beginning to sob. For the first time since Jonah came into his life, he felt completely alone. He hated it.

The TV flashed on the corner of his eyes, making the blonde turn to face the screen, seeing a males face staring back at him.

“Who are you?” He whispered, looking at the man with teary eyes.

“Wake up Adam.” The angels voice came from the TV. “You know what you’re meant for. Follow your destiny.”

“What destiny? What are you even talking about?” Adam sobbed. He began to hear a lullaby song playing from behind him, he grabbed his bag and pulled out his spirit box, seeing the screen now a bright orange instead of a normal green.

“Nobody’s coming to help you.” A female voice came from the speaker.

Looking back up at the TV, multiple flashing images began to glitch on the screen. Most being unrecognizable, but he saw two pictures of Jonah’s parents, Mark and Cesar flashing across the screen. They looked younger than they look now. Do they know anything about this?

But then it completely stopped.

A female came on screen.

“Mom?”

-

Jonah couldn’t stop the tears streaming down his flushed face. He was shaking uncontrollably, heaving and gasping for air as he drove aimlessly, just wanting to get away from the house.

Just wanting to get away from Adam.

He wiped at his tears but they just wouldn’t stop. They kept flowing down his face no matter what he did.

Jonah wanted to go home. He wanted to go and hug Mark and Cesar. He wanted to tell them sorry. He wanted to have them comfort him like they always would.

But he also wanted to turn back. To go back for Adam. To drag him out of the basement and to the van. Where they would be safe. Where they wouldn’t get hurt.

Jonah whimpered, his lip trembling as he tried to hold back his cries but they just kept going. “I'm sorry,,,I'm sorry Adam. I'm sorry.” He whispered, knowing that the other couldn’t hear him. That didn’t stop him though, Jonah just kept crying that phrase to himself, trying his hardest to not keep crying.

It was so hard though.

The radio was playing music that they didn’t bother to listen to, instead it just sounded like random muffles of rhythms and voices. The bright lights of the road shined in their face, making them feel even worse. Jonah just continued to drive through, going at a speed that definitely would get them stopped.

“You left him behind.” A voice crackled from the radio, an emotionless tone to it. It just made them cry even more though, now sobbing into their hand as they drove with the other.

“What will he do without you?” The voice now asked, seeming entertained by Jonah’s breakdown. The GPS went black, catching the brunettes eye.

Replacing the inky darkness though, was a smiling face. It taunted him. It scared him. It was making Jonah feel almost every emotion at once. And he hated it.

“Open your eyes. Open your eyes. Open your eyes.” It began to repeat, not moving and just staying on the screen.

“SHUT UP THE FUCK UP!” Jonah screamed, but the voice kept going, burrowing itself into his mind.

“SHUT UP!”

“SHUt up. Please.” Jonah pleaded, beginning to just give up. He couldn’t do this anymore. He had left behind his family and now he left behind his best friend. He felt horrible.

Sobbing, Jonah pulled off to the shoulder of the road, continuing to whimper as he reached for the door handle. Before pulling his hand back.
There was something in the mirror.

Oh my god.

What the fuck is that?

The creature slammed a large clawed hand on the van, causing Jonah to jump before quickly locking the doors and crawling to the back, wanting to make sure it didn’t see him. He covered his mouth, trying to muffle his cries and heavy breathing.

It still knew Jonah was in there though, walking to the windshield and smiling at him, making Jonah just cry even more.

He wants Adam.

He wants Mark.

He wants Cesar.

Anybody.

Will anybody help him?

-

Mark and Cesar jumped into their car, not caring about changing their clothes or anything. Mark was still on the phone with Jonah, telling him to stay calm and not show fear. Cesar on the other hand was beginning to speed through Bythorne, wanting to get to Mandela as fast as he could.

“Look Jonah, we’re on our way. Don’t leave the van under any circumstance.” Mark pulled the phone away from his ear. “Cesar, did you get the guns?”

The older man didn’t respond, instead just nodding his head as he focused on the road ahead.

“Why does it look like Adam dad? Why does it look like him?” Jonah whimpered, not being able to tear their eyes away from the now identical copy of the blonde.

“I don’t know Jonah. I don’t know, but just don’t let it get to you. If you do then you’ll most likely die. And we don’t want to lose you forever.”

“I don’t wanna die dad. I don’t wanna die.” Jonah cried. “Please don’t let me die.”

Mark could feel tears streaming down his pale face. He hated that he couldn’t guarantee that Jonah wouldn’t die. It broke him. “We won’t let you die.”

The younger male glanced at the other, seeing Cesar completely blank faced. “Cesar, what are we gonna do? We haven’t dealt with an alternate for over 18 years.”

“We’re gonna show that fucker that it messed with the wrong family.” He growled, a dark look in his brown eyes. Mark was taken off guard by the other cussing before a smile crossed his face.

Turning back to the phone, he heard a voice other than Jonah’s.

“Hey Jonah, why did you leave me behind? That hurt me really badly.” A distorted voice was heard from the other side.

“I didn't! I didn’t,,I didn’t,,” Jonah began to cry, seeming to be falling back into another panic.

“Nonono! Jonah! Jonah! Do not listen to it.” Mark ordered, trying to make sure Jonah wouldn’t develop MAD.

“But I did leave him dad. I left Adam to die.” Jonah muttered, continuing to cry as they tried to ignore the alternate.

“We’re almost there, mijo. Just stay where you are.” Cesar called out before leaning over to the other. “Ask him what his car looks like and where he might be.” Mark nodded before turning back to the phone.

“Kid, I need you to tell me what your car looks like.” Jonah sniffled, swallowing before responding.

“I’m in a white van with black tape on the side that spells out BPS.” He stuttered, heaving slightly as he tried to distract himself.

“Ok, ok, and where do you think you are?”

“I’m on the highway where you go from Bythorne to Mandela. I was gonna go back home but then I stopped ‘cause something started talking to me.” Jonah whimpered, keeping himself facing away from the windshield where the copy was still standing.

“Ok, ok.” Mark began to look around the road, hoping that they would be able to see it.

“THERE IT IS.” Cesar yelled before jerking the car off to the shoulder and grabbing the shotgun from the back. “Hang up. Now.”

Mark hesitated before doing so, reaching back and grabbing his pistol from his pocket. “Ready?”

“Hell yeah.”

They both climbed out of the car and aimed their guns at the alternate, watching as it turned to face the two of them. “Hi Mark. Hi Cesar.”

“Shut the fuck up and get away from the car.” Cesar growled, cocking the shotgun to prepare it for shooting.

“Aww, but I just wanna see Jonah.” It said, its voice beginning to become distorted as an inhumane smile crossed its face.

“Get the fuck away from our kid.” Mark said, getting slightly closer to aim the gun better.

The creature just smiled before beginning to laugh, its feature becoming completely inhuman before jumping at the two of them. They jumped out of the way, Cesar falling into the metal rods on the shoulder and Mark falling onto the road.

‘Adam’ laughed before lunging at Cesar, causing him to yell before shooting at it and hitting it square in the head. It didn’t stop though, instead just jumping onto Cesar with its now bleeding smile.

“MARK FUCKING HELP ME!” Cesar screamed, trying to shoot at it once again but was unable to. Mark quickly got back up, aiming the pistol at its back before shooting and hitting it on its left side.

It yelped as the force knocked it off of the brunette, landing on the metal barrier before trying to lunge at Cesar once again.

The other was ready this time though, now quickly cocking the gun and shooting, hitting the creature in its chest. It stopped for a moment before turning and charging at Mark, who quickly aimed the gun for its head again and shot, hitting off a chunk of it.

It still didn’t stop though, tackling the pale man to the ground and beginning to try and claw at his face. Mark screamed before taking the gun and hitting what was left of its head with it, messily taking off another chunk of it.

“Move Mark!” Cesar yelled, charging at the now mostly decapitated creature and slamming the but of the gun into its torn chest, black ooze sprouting up before going back down.

The other had thankfully dodged, able to get above it as Cesar gave the finishing blow. He panted before pushing himself off the rocky road and running to the van, knocking at the driver door desperately.

It didn’t take long for Jonah to unlock the door and jump into Mark's waiting arms, sobbing into his fathers sleep shirt as he held him. Cesar smiled before running over and embracing the two as well, tears beginning to fall down his now stained face.

“Apa,,Dad,I'm so sorry.” Jonah whimpered, gasping for air as he finally felt the embrace of his loving parents after two years.

“Nonono, mijo, don't be sorry. Nothing is your fault.” Cesar reassured, rubbing Jonah’s back as he let the younger cry it out.

“But-“

“But nothing, we’ll worry about everything that happened later. All we’re concerned about right now is if you’re okay.”

Jonah swallowed before nodding, wiping at his bloodshot eyes with his sleeves. “But I don't know if Adam is. Please you two have to help me get him.” He pleaded.

The two glanced at each other before nodding, grabbing Jonah’s hand and leading him to their car. They all climbed in as Cesar began to drive towards where it seemed the two teens came from. “Mijo, just tell me where to go, okay?”

Jonah nodded, still crying slightly but now calmer than before. It became silent, the two looking around to see if there were any houses but there weren’t many near here since they were in the country.

“Cesar, didn’t you use to live somewhere around here?” Mark asked, seeing certain things that were familiar to him but he couldn’t remember exactly why.

“Yeah, I did.”

“There it is.” Jonah mumbled, pointing at a normal looking house that was slightly hidden by the trees surrounding it.

Cesar and Mark stopped, looking at the house with an unreadable expression.

“Jonah,”

“Yeah apa?”

Cesar turned to face the teen. “You and Adam went to my old house?”

Jonah stared at his dad, shocked and confused. “Wait, this was your house?”

“Yes Jonah , I lived here when I was growing up.” He said, climbing out of the car while continuing to look at it.

“I didn’t know apa. I'm sorry.”

“Jonah, you didn’t do anything wrong. But we need you to tell us where Adam is so we can get him.” Mark said, climbing out of the car as well.

“He went to the basement, I don’t know if he’s still down there though.” The two nodded before Cesar closed his door and locked the car, leaning to the backseat window.

“Stay in there Jonah, if anything tries to get in, use Mark's pistol.” Jonah’s eyes widened but he quickly nodded, trying to put on a brave face for his parents.

Cesar smiled at him before getting back up and beginning to walk to the house, a sense of dread washing over his body, he ignored it though, not wanting to remember why it was there. Mark was behind him, holding a flashlight he had brought from the car ahead of him and shining Cesar’s way into the house, seeing that the inside was even darker than the outside.

Slowly, they walked in, glancing around the room but not seeing much, just seeing an empty rotting house staring back at them. “Jesus, 19 years later and your house still gives me the creeps.” Mark muttered, causing Cesar to chuckle quietly.

“My house always gave you the creeps you scaredy cat.” Mark rolled his eyes but didn’t respond, instead just following the other towards the open basement door.

“Did you ever even use that?”

“What? The basement?” Mark nodded. “No, my mamá only put old stuff of ours down there. Other than that though, it didn’t really have a purpose.”

“Huh, my family loved using our basement. For whatever reason.” Mark muttered, shining the lights down the creaky wooden steps.

“Yeah, well, yours was actually fun and not haunted by some alternate.”

“True.” Mark shrugged.

Carefully, Cesar tested the first step, hearing it creak but it seems the steps were fairly stable after not being used for almost two decades. The two crept down the stairs, Mark now turning off the flashlight to not alert anything that the two of them were there and Cesar holding the shotgun closer to himself.

Once they reached the bottom, they clearly saw another light source from the other side of the dusty room, a bright white light shining from the floor. And in front of it, a dark hooded figure.

“That has to be him.” Mark muttered, squinting his eyes slightly to try and get a better look at the figure.

“But we can’t be sure. It can be another alternate copying him.” Cesar proposed, glancing over at the other.

“True, but let’s hope not.”

Slowly, the two males crept over to the figure and the light, trying to see the source of it and if the figure really was Adam. Mark noticed that the light seemed to be just like a TVs, knowing that because of the memories he had sitting with his sister and watching shows on it.

“Hey Cesar.” The brunette motioned for Mark to continue. “Did your family ever put a TV down here?”

“Yeah, why?”

It quickly dawned on the two of them.

Shit.

Mark bolted towards the figure, tackling them out of the way and covering his eyes as the TV shone brighter, a loud static beginning to emit from it.

“I think it knows we’re here!” Mark yelled over the increasing sound of static.

Cesar didn’t respond, instead Mark could hearing him stomping towards the device before the cocking of the shotgun was heard, followed by a loud shot. “Not no more.” He muttered, turning to the others and grabbing Mark's hand, pulling him off of the figure.

“Hey, are you okay?” Cesar asked, leaning towards the figure with a hand held out.

No response.

“Do you think they’re scared of us?” Mark whispered to the other. “HEY!” He yelled trying to get their attention.

Still no response.

Cesar gently pulled down the figures hoodie, revealing a passed out Adam. He looked mostly unharmed thankfully, but the two were still slightly weary.

“Mark, do you think you could take him? I have the gun with me so,,” The other just nodded, grabbing the teen off of the ground and holding him bridal style. He could clearly see that Adam was, thankfully, still breathing, quiet shallow breaths coming from his mouth.

“Let’s get back to Jonah.”

They walked up and out the house without issue, Cesar mostly avoiding looking at anything. even if the house was empty. He was too scared to chance any old memories resurfacing.

Mark glanced around, but ultimately just kept looking at Adam to make sure he’s still alive. Which thankfully he was, it still seemed like he didn’t have any injuries but they couldn’t be fully sure.

Once they reached the car, Cesar unlocked it, accidentally scaring a sleeping Jonah awake. “Huh? Oh hi.”

“Hey, do you think you can hold Adam on your lap?” Jonah nodded yes.

“Why?”

“Well, he’s currently passed out and I don’t think we have the time to try and sit him up right now.” Mark said, Jonah just nodded before beginning to help the other two put Adam in the back with him, making sure that they accidently wouldn’t drop him or anything.

Once Jonah had the other secure, the other two climbed back into their respective seats, Cesar still driving and Mark in the passengers. “Alright, ready to go home mijo?”

Jonah looked surprise at the mention of home, but he just smiled and nodded, Cesar smiled back before starting up the car and beginning to drive.

He wasn’t in such a rush to get back because now they had Jonah back.

And neither of them wanted to let go of him again.

-

Cesar glanced into Jonah’s room, seeing the brunette cuddled into Adams side as they both slept. He sighed, closing the door and walking back to the living room where Mark was asleep on the couch, his head leaning forwards as he snored.

“Jesus, everyone really is that tired.” Cesar muttered before yawning, realizing that he himself is also tired. He didn’t want to go to sleep though, too paranoid that an alternate was going to get into their house and go after the two teens.

So he walked to the kitchen and began to brew a pot of coffee for himself, knowing that it wasn’t the smartest idea because of how late it was but no one’s awake to stop him. As he waited, he spaced out slightly, staring down at the floor thinking of what exactly they were supposed to do next.

A pair of footsteps took him out of his thought process, making Cesar look up and see a disheveled Adam looking back at him.

Cesar usually didn’t say this about people. But Adam looked like absolute shit. His blonde hair was stuck up in random directions and was obviously knotted and tangled in multiple places. Very dark bags decorated his under eye, showing how tired he truly was. He was also dangerously skinny, his shirt just hanging off of him instead of even slightly clinging, and his arms were thin and frail.

Cesar stared in shock before waving him over, watching as the teen hesitated before walking over and leaning against the counter across from the adult. “Morning Cesar.”

“Um, morning Adam. How do you feel?”

“Like absolute shit. My head hurts and so does my leg and chest. I feel like I’m gonna pass out any minute and I feel like throwing up.”

Jesús, Cesar doesn’t even know if he had enough medicine to help him.

“Oh, um well, how about we see if a couple of painkillers and some stuff for your stomach works. Okay?” The brunette offered, giving the other a comforting smile. Adam smiled back and nodded, watching as Cesar walked past him to the bathroom down the hall and went inside.

After a minute or two, he walked back out with a couple of pill bottles in hand and handed them to Adam, telling him to take his pick as he grabbed a glass from the dish rack and began to fill it up in the sink.

The blonde didn’t really care what brand pill he took, instead just grabbed the ones he felt were necessary and quickly read the label to figure out how many he’s supposed to take.

Once Adam gathered all of the pills, Cesar was waiting for him with a cup of water, smiling as he handed it to him and went back to the coffee machine. Quickly, Adam swallowed the pills, feeling them make their way down his throat before going wherever they needed.

He chugged the rest of the water before putting the cup back in the sink, hearing a small ‘thank you’ from Cesar. Adam smiled before looking at the coffee machine as well, hoping that he would be able to convince the other to let him have some.

“Hey Cesar, can I have some coffee?” He shyly asked, not having seen his boyfriends? Friends? Whatever’s parents in two years.

Cesar sighed before looking at him. “I would give you some mijo but I don’t think it’s a good idea, maybe you should go lay back down and sleep for just a little bit longer, maybe it’ll help you feel a bit better.” He said with a smile, patting Adam on his shoulder before pulling away his hand.

“Okay.” The blonde nodded, smiling at Cesar before beginning to shuffle back to Jonah’s old,,no, Jonah’s room, walking in and seeing the tanned boy still fast asleep.

Adam sighed before closing the door behind himself and laying back down beside the brunette, almost immediately clinging to him. Jonah groaned before turning to face Adam in their sleep, immediately going slack once again once he was comfortable in Adam's arms.

He smiled, stuffing his face in Jonah’s fluffy hair and closing his eyes. Maybe Cesar was right, maybe just a little more sleep should help him.

-

Jonah woke up to the smell of eggs and pancakes, making him smile as he remembered where he was. He slowly opened his eyes, seeing Adams chest in front of him. He giggled before beginning to pepper it with kisses, hearing the other groan quietly.

“Wake up Adam.” Jonah smiled, moving up to be face to face with the blonde.

“Ughh, my head hurts.” Adam groaned, opening his eyes slightly to see the other.

“I’ll get you some medicine for that, stay here and stay awake.” Jonah said, crawling out of bed and walking to the door.

“Can’t promise anything.” Adam said, causing Jonah to laugh to himself as he walked to the bathroom, opening the mirror and beginning to search for pain killers for the other.

He soon began to hear footsteps coming towards the bathroom as well, turning to the door, Jonah saw a sleepy Adam standing in the doorway. “I thought your head hurt?”

“It does, but now I'm hungry.” He muttered, stumbling over to the tanned boy and leaning himself on him. Jonah laughed before grabbing a pill bottle and opening it, shaking out 3 pills and handing them to the other.

“Well let’s go eat then.” Jonah said, walking past him and going towards the kitchen, but was stopped by Adam grabbing onto their arm.

“Are you sure your parents aren’t mad at me?” Adam asked, looking at the other anxiously. Jonah just shrugged, they couldn’t talk for their parents but they had a slight feeling that Cesar and Mark would be able to forgive Adam.

The two teens walked into the kitchen, seeing Mark and Cesar talking quietly to one another as Cesar was cooking breakfast.

“Hey Apa, Hey dad.” Jonah said, causing the other two to turn and face him.

“Morning mijo. Good morning Adam, do you feel better than before?” Cesar asked, a sweet smile on his tanned face.

“Before?” Jonah asked, looking at the other.

“I woke up during the night and your dad gave me the same meds that you did.” Adam explained before turning to Cesar. “Eh, kind of. I still have a headache but I feel way better than before.”

“That’s good, now sit. You two are going to eat food that isn’t that nasty junk food.” He ordered, pointing at the island in the middle of the kitchen. Jonah and Adam quickly obeyed, sitting down on the stools and watching as Cesar continued to cook.

“What do you two want to drink?” Mark asked, getting up from his seat to go to the fridge, swinging it open and waiting for their responses.

“Coffee?”

“No.”

Adam pouted as Jonah giggled, knowing that Cesar and Mark didn’t like it when the two drank anything that gave them artificial energy.

“Can I have some juice dad?” Mark nodded, pulling out the carton and putting it on the counter.

“What about you Adam?”

“I’ll just have some juice too.”

Mark hummed before closing the door and grabbing two glasses for them, pouring the juice and handing it over to them.

“Breakfast is done!” Cesar exclaimed with a smile, placing the multiple plates in the center of the island and grabbing four empty plates, handing one off to everyone before sitting down himself. “Go ahead and eat, you two look like you need it.”

Jonah and Adam became confused before looking over one another and noticing that the both of them were awfully skinny. “I never noticed how thin we were before.” Jonah muttered.

“Me either.”

Silently, they both turned to the set out food and began to serve themselves, getting more than they could realize. Mark and Cesar watched with amusement, waiting until the two were done getting food before beginning to serve themselves.

It was quiet as they ate, only the sounds of silverware and chewing was heard. Jonah and Adam were too nervous to try and talk to the two adults while Mark and Cesar weren’t exactly sure on what to say to the two of them.

Mark looked up at the two, noticing that Jonah’s hair was a different color than before. “Jonah,” The younger brunette hummed. “Did you dye your hair?”

Their hair was now a bright silver color and longer than before, now one side flopped into their face, covering their right eye.

“Oh, yeah, I dyed it because we were on the run, and because I always wanted to.” They sheepishly smiled, nervous what their parents would think.

“It looks nice mijo, really. It suits you.” Cesar complimented, Mark nodding in agreement.

“I told you I knew how to dye hair.” Adam muttered, chuckling as Jonah gave him a glare.

“At least my hands weren’t a bright silver for three days.” Adam just stuck his tongue out at the other, watching as they giggled before continuing to eat.

“Asshole.”

“Sureee.”

“Language.” Cesar said, taking the other two out of their own world.

“Sorry apa.”

“Sorry Mr. Torres.”

Mark stifled his laugh, covering his mouth to hide his smile from Cesar. “Mark, stop laughing.” Cesar muttered to the other, which just made him laugh even more.

While Adam was looking at the two curiously, Jonah reached over with his fork, grabbing a piece of bacon off of the others plate. Which Adam quickly noticed.

“Hey! Mr. Torres! Jonah stole my food!”

“Snitch!” Jonah yelled through a full mouth, making Adam just glare at him.

“Not snitching when it’s my food!” Adam yelled back.

“You want it back?” Jonah stuck out his tongue, showing the now thoroughly chewed up bacon. “Here!” He began to lean towards the other.

“Ew! Fucking disgusting!” Adam exclaimed, pushing the other away.

“I know you want it Adam.” Jonah teased.

“Jonah, ya párale.” Cesar said, watching as the tanned teen pouted.

“Pero apa-“

“Jonah.” He warned, watching as the teen became quiet, an obvious pout on his face.

The four quickly finished eating, Cesar gathering the plates and putting them in the sink once they were all finished and just planned to just go ahead and wash them later.

He sat back down at the island, noticing how tense it truly was between the four of them. Adam avoided eye contact with everyone except for Jonah while Jonah was trying his hardest to keep everyone in a light mood, joking and messing around. It wasn’t exactly working though.

Cesar sighed before clearing his throat, making all attention go to him. “Well, I guess we should discuss what happened. We can’t avoid the topic forever.”

“I would rather not apa.” Jonah said with a strained smile, an anxious look in their brown eyes.

“Jonah we’re gonna have to talk about it eventually, might as well do it now to get it over with.” Mark said, watching as Jonah’s look became worse. Adam was just silent, staring down at the table in thought.

“I’m good, I can wait a little longe-“

“I’m sorry.” Adam cut in, stopping Jonah mid sentence. “I’m sorry for convincing Jonah to run away with me and I’m sorry for him getting hurt. I was being a dumb teen but by the time I wanted to turn back and bring him back to you two it was too late. We were too far into our little fantasyland that something even worse could’ve happened if I brought him back.”

He swallowed before continuing. “And I'm sorry for taking him hunting for alternates even though it was obvious you two have a bad history with them. I just wanted to try and find my mom, alternate or not, but all that did was put both me and Jonah in danger.”

Adam was fully crying now, big fat tears rolling down his pale face as he hiccuped. “And Jonah I’m sorry for not listening to you when I should’ve. I don’t think before I do something, but I should’ve listened to you when you said that you felt off about that house. And I'm sorry for arguing with you over you just not wanting to go in there. That was dumb and selfish of me.”

The other three stared at Adam for a moment, taking in all that he had said before Cesar was the first to speak up. “Uh, Adam, what do you mean by convincing Jonah to go with you?”

“I told him about the idea and said he should come with me, and then I came to say bye to him and-“

“Adam, you didn’t convince me, I went with you because I wanted to. Sure it was also influenced by the argument I had with Cesar and Mark that day but I really was wanting to go with you. And when you came to my window after the argument, I saw leaving you as an out from me just having a couple of shitty days.” Jonah said, intertwining his and Adam's hands, the other looking at him with teary eyes.

“Yeah, Adam, we never blamed you. We knew that there was definitely another reason as to why Jonah had left with you. We never saw you as the one who just made him go with you.” Mark said, looking at the blonde concerned.

Adam swallowed the lump in his throat, “Are you sure?” Everyone nodded. “Well, now I feel dumb.”

“You aren’t dumb you dork.” Jonah laughed, causing a small smile to cross his pale face.

“Well, I guess it’s our turn for an apology.” Cesar said, looking down at the table. “Jonah, mijo, me and your dad are sorry for not telling you what you wanted. You have to understand we were too scared that something would come after you if we did, but we’re guessing that not telling you put you in more danger than it would’ve if we had just told you.” He sighed.

“Telling me what?”

Mark and Cesar glanced at one another before looking back at the two teens. “Me and Mark have survived alternate attacks. We were lucky, it’s not common that people survive them, especially after being wounded by them, but we did. I was attacked by an alternate when I went to check on my mom after she screamed for some reason. That reason being that an alternate had attacked her. After it was done with her, it came after me, slitting my throat and copying my appearance.”

“Then it called me, pretending to be Cesar and asking me to go to his house as he ‘takes his mom to the hospital’” Mark recited, using air quotes to show that it had been a lie. “I went to turn on cameras for him and an alternate followed me back to my house, the same alternate that took the appearance of Cesar.”

He sighed, “It trapped me in my room for three days, messing with me and trying to push me to the brink of insanity. Either to open the door or to kill myself. Eventually, I attempted. But as you can guess, I lived. Only because the police came to my house after a teacher asked for a wellness check on me, which they then went to Cesar’s house and found him on the brink of death and were thankfully able to keep him alive.”

“You would think that we wanted to stay away from one another, especially because a copy of me had tortured Mark, but we both became to paranoid that we decided that maybe sticking together would keep alternates away. And then a couple of years later we were called to adopt you Jonah and well, here we are now.” Cesar finished, looking at the teens' shocked faces.

“Wait, you didn’t want to tell me that the two of you had survived alternates?” Jonah asked, still trying to process what exactly had been said.

“We were scared that if we had told you anything about alternates, it would attract them to you, we didn’t want to risk you getting hurt or killed.” Mark answered.

Jonah thought for a moment before asking another question, “Wait, it that also why you two didn’t like it whenever I went somewhere without telling you?”

“Well, yeah, but also you snuck out and you aren’t supposed to do that Jonah. Don’t think you were gonna get away with that without any repercussions.” Cesar said, watching as the other nodded.

“Wait, so if you two know how they work, do you know if my mom actually could’ve come back as one?” Adam asked, an excited look in his blue eyes.

Mark and Cesar glanced at one another before looking back at him and shrugging. “Maybe she could’ve, but if she did come back as one, I don’t think that you should be trying to look for her. Especially with how dangerous they are.”

“Oh, well, did my dad ever find out about me running away?”

“Oh yeah, we were the ones who went to him asking for him to check if you were still in your room since Jonah had already ran off. When he saw you weren’t there he got kinda pissed, and then got even more pissed when he saw that you had taken his car.” Mark chuckled.

“And then we went to the station and reported you two as runaways. After that though, we haven’t really heard from him. We’re pretty sure he doesn’t like us.”

“Yeah that’s pretty normal. He hates everyone.” Adam muttered, causing Jonah to laugh quietly.

It became silent once again, all four trying to think of something else that they might have needed to ask about but nothing came to mind. Cesar was the first to get up from the table, walking over to the sink and beginning to silently wash the dishes.

Mark followed soon after, muttering that he ‘needed a smoke’ and walked out of the kitchen to the living room, most likely going to the front porch to smoke.

Jonah and Adam sat there for a moment longer before pushing away from the table and walking back to Jonah’s room, an awkward silence between the two of them.

Jonah quickly collapsed on his bed, grabbing his blanket and wrapping himself back in it while Adam just sat on the edge of the bed, staring ahead at the wall in thought.

“Kinda crazy that my parents survived alternates huh?” Jonah asked with a smile, watching as Adam turned to face him before laughing slightly.

“Honestly, it’s kind of badass.”

“Well, then we’re badass now too since we survived too.” Jonah said with a large smile.

“Yeah I guess.”

It became silent once again, Jonah staring at Adam as the other was deep in thought, staring at one of Jonah’s many posters.

“So, um, did you really regret calling me babe?” Jonah muttered, remembering the conversation from earlier.

“When did I call you babe?” Adam asked, not turning to face the other.

Jonah became confused. Is Adam messing with him? He had to remember, I mean no one just forgets that!

“When I asked if you were coming back into the van? Do you not remember?”

Adam looked at Jonah now, a confused look on the blonde's face. “You never asked me? I think I might’ve been asleep.”

“But you responded! You said that you were still looking and then said ‘I'll come back soon babe.’” Jonah recited, looking at Adam with an anxious look now.

“I was asleep. You shouldn’t have gotten a response. Did it sound just like me?” Jonah nodded. “Maybe an alternate copied my voice? Cesar said that happened to him.”

“But then it would’ve copied your whole look.”

The two of them stared at one another before Jonah but in with a question. “What happened when we met?”

“What?”

“Answer me, what happened when we met?”

Adam looked at him weirdly for a moment before answering. “Some assholes ripped your teddy bear and then pushed you. I beat their ass because they always did that to anyone and then I helped you and we went to my house.”

“And?”

“You freaked out cause you forgot to tell Cesar where you were going and I gave you a ride back to your house on my bike and then we waited for your parents to come back on your front porch.”

“What was my teddy bear's name?”

“Mark, and your mom gave him to you before she died.” Adam added, watching as Jonah relaxed before reaching over and pulling the other into a hug.

“It is you thank fuck.” Jonah sighed, feeling Adam wrap his arms back around the other.

“You thought it wasn’t me because of the voice thingy huh?” Jonah nodded, feeling Adam sigh before climbing onto the bed with the other, laying them both down. “Let’s relax for a little dude, we’ve been through way too much.”

“Hell yeah.” Jonah muttered, adjusting themselves to where their face was stuffed in the other's chest and their arms wrapped around Adam's torso. Adam had his arms under Jonah’s armpits, his face slightly hidden in their silver hair.

“If you want me to call you babe I will.” Adam muttered, feeling his face heat up but he went with it anyway.

“Nah, give me a different name. Too cheesy.”

“You’re so picky.” Adam laughed.

“Shut up.”

Jonah pulled away from Adam's chest for a moment to look at the other, seeing the tired blue eyes looking back at him. “So, uh, are we dating?”

Adam shrugged, “If you want to.”

“Hell yeah.” Jonah said, a dorky smile crossing their face. Adam smiled before pulling them in for a quick kiss, hearing the other giggle into it.

“Dork.” He laughed when they pulled away, Jonah sticking their tongue out in response before stuffing their face back into Adam's chest.

“Love you Adam.”

Adam hesitated for a moment, not used to saying ‘i love you’, “Love you too Jonah.”

-

Mark and Cesar leaned into Jonah’s room, checking on the two teens just to see the both of them peacefully sleeping. They smiled before closing the door once again and looked at one another.

“Do you think they’re dating?” Mark asked, leaning against the wall as Cesar fixed what was hung up on the wall.

“Maybe. I'm fine with it though. Jonah can love whoever he chooses.” Cesar shrugged, beginning to walk to the living room.

“Honestly, I was just expecting it to happen with how close they were and still are. They never want to let go of one another.” Mark said, sitting down on the couch with Cesar joining him.

“Me too.” The tanned man laughed.

“Hopefully they’re okay. Alternates can fuck up people pretty bad.”

“They seem mostly okay, but we’ll be here for them if they need it.” Cesar said with a smile, leaning back and relaxing.

They finally had Jonah back and it felt so relieving. They don’t have to lost sleep about if he’s ok or if he’s dead, because now they have him here with them.

And they don’t plan to let go of him ever again.