TIME WARP: It's always sunny (open)

[Josef Muller]

May 1997

It was a beautiful day. He loved beautiful days. The sun shone down on the courtyard, the leaves glinted green, and there were birds chirping.

Actually, he could’ve done without the birds. They were disturbing his nap.

He was supposed to get an assignment today, or so he’d been told. So he’d come onto the campus, but was told that he was supposed to wait. He was a restless person. He didn’t like waiting, and being at Hammel made him remember his student days. But that was all right. He had liked being at Hammel—that was why he was back here now, and had served as a recruiter for a year now.

Which was great, except for the times when no one gave him anything to do. It was frustrating as hell. But for now he’d bide his time. So the twenty-six-year-old stretched out on a bench on the courtyard, fetched a baseball cap from his pack to put on, and then tugged it over his face to shade his eyes. He heard the bell indicating classes coming and going, then some crunching of twigs and leaves that had fallen.

“If you’re a student, you better be heading to class,” he said aloud, not bothering to lift the cap from his face. “It isn’t my job to be playing the truant officer.”

Although at least it would give him something to do.

[Bradley Reeves]

Bradley had been home for the last month, having just gotten back from Venice. He was still debating on where to take his next trip, so although he had a few students he was teaching for some extra cash, he also had a lot of free time to kill. Today he had though of perhaps checking out the new coffee shop in town, but something about the glorious day outside was making him feel a tad sentimental. So he decided to visit the Hammel grounds, see if any of his old friends were their, and hopefully visit the grand piano for a bit.

He was walking across the courtyard when a voice startled him. He though he recognized the man who was lying on the bench, but he couldn't recall his name. Between his surprise and the uncomfortable feeling of feeling like he was trespassing, he didn't realize he was speaking in German when he addressed the other man.

"Sorry," he said, stumbling a bit over his words. "I didn't mean to disturb you. And seeing how I am neither a student nor a teacher, I don't have a class to attend presently."

He smoothed down the tie he was wearing and tried force himself to look like he wasn't an interloper. He'd visited Hammel a few times after his graduation and it had never been a problem. He hoped they hadn't imposed some sort of new rule about alumni just wanting to relieve their youths.

[Josef Muller]

That…was not a student’s voice. It also wasn’t speaking English. Josef lifted a hand to lift the cap and peered at him a bit suspiciously. He thought he’d been speaking…German? Now Josef’s knowledge of German could be summed up as “Bad,” but between mumblings on structural stability, curses at his son’s rambunctiousness, his father had taught him a smattering of German. Just enough to be useless if he ever went there. Still, he thought he got the general gist of it.

And even if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have admitted it. The newcomer was cute, and Josef had a thing for blondes.

“Oh, are you visitor—uh. Not from—” His limited German failed him, and he shook his head, rising to his feet and pushing the bill of his cap up a little so he could look at him with a smile. “You speak English? I know a bit of German, uh…” He managed to repeat it in German, just in case, then added, “but it’d be easier if you spoke English.” He squinted at him. He looked a little familiar. He’d probably seen him around, which probably meant that he wasn’t going to be receptive to flirting. Josef had the best luck with people who hadn’t already figured out his game.

“Josef Muller,” he said after a moment, offering his hand. And he added in slightly more passable German, “Visitor or, um, graduate?” There. Not so bad.

[Bradley Reeves]

As was usually the case when he was nervous, Bradley hadn't noticed that he'd switched languages. So he was confused when the other man start speaking in broken German. Not that he had trouble understanding what was being said. When the realization dawned on him, he wasn't sure whether to laugh or run away and hope the man didn't find out who he was.

"Uh...sorry..."he said, switching back to English. First time meetings with people were always to troubling, even more so when he screwed it up from the start. "I uh...do that sometimes." He coughed and looked around the courtyard in the mad hopes that someone would suddenly appear to take him out of this awkward situation.

"Bradley Alexander Reeves," he said, glancing down at Josef's outstretched hand. It seemed clean enough, so he shook it. Still he made a mental note to wash up later. "Graduate." He answered, smiling and hoping the conversation would flow easier now. "Just strolling down memory lane, you know?" he laughed a little at his own joke, then stopped short feeling that he was making an idiot of himself again.

"And you?" he asked after clearing his throat. Sometimes it amazed him that he could speak in any language and still have some much trouble communicating.

[Josef Muller]

“Oh, you do speak English!” He grinned in relief and shrugged his shoulders. “No worries! If you’re a Hammel grad…well, that explains everything.” Probably omnilingualism. As a recruiter he didn’t really have to know all of the powers, but he did like to know them all the same. It was kind of fun to play with it—try to figure it out. Plus, no one ever figured out what his powers was. It was quite an advantage. He noticed the pause but shrugged it off. The timid ones were fun too. It just meant he’d have to be a little less upfront.

Mind, eventually he would have to go and pick up his assignment at some point. Oh well. This was more interesting for him in the short run. But all three names? Hm. A little proper, this one.

“I know,” he agreed, perfectly cheerful still. “I like to do it too from time to time. But I work here part time. I work here as a recruiter. Where you headed? If you’ve forgotten your way I could show you around.” He flashed him a grin, although he wasn’t sure if this one would be interested in him either. Eh, it was fun anyways.

[Bradley Reeves]

Bradley was glad that Josef seemed understanding about his slip-up. Even after his years at Hammel, he still had trouble controlling what language he used. Especially when he was anxious. Which seemed to be a lot of the time.

A recruiter? Talk about hard work. Bradley thought it was rough to have to teach one student at a time. Not that he minded kids that much. But he wasn’t about to line up for a job where he had to show up at their front doors and tell them their whole world was changing and then convince them to leave everything behind and come to Hammel.

Nope, not his cup of tea.

He’d had a hard enough time with it himself. Luckily his family had been close by. And his ability wasn’t anything dangerous.

“I didn’t have a particular destination in mind,” Bradley said, starting to loosen up a little. “Just wander around a bit. Maybe stop by the music room. That grand piano and I are old friends,” he smiled. “I think I can find my way around, but your welcome to join me.” As soon as he said it, he felt like maybe he shouldn’t have. He was sure Josef probably had better things to do. Although it would be nice to have someone to chat with and tell him how things at Hammel were going. One thing about the school was that things were always changing and there was never a dull moment. “Unless you have other obligations.”

[Josef Muller]

Good. He was starting to loosen up. Probably not as much as Josef would have liked, but he wasn’t the kind of guy who let it keep him down for long. He’d take what he could get. And right now, it was this.

“Oh, you play?” He flashed Bradley a smile. “Very nice. My mom kept trying to teach me when I was younger. She insisted everyone had musical talent buried somewhere deep inside.” His smile broadened into a grin. “Turned out mine was too deep for anyone to find. But if you don’t mind me joining you, I’d love to. I’m between assignments at the moment, and if anyone’s really desperate to find me, I’m sure they’ll find a telepath or something.”

The thought didn’t bother him. His roommate had been a telepath, and after a couple of false starts, they’d discovered there were some good benefits.

Like when it came to tests, for example.

“Music room’s this way, right?” He jerked his head to a corridor and smiled at him. “Any reason you came here today? Or just felt like it?”

[Bradley Reeves]

Bradley nodded his head excitedly. If there was one thing he was comfortable talking about, it was music. It was one of the few times in his life when he was certain he wouldn’t switch languages mid-sentence from anxiety.

“Yes,” he said, beaming. “I have my mother to blame as well, though I must say in my case it worked out fairly well. I’ve yet to meet an instrument I couldn’t play at least half decent, but piano…well that’s always been my passion.” He paused for a moment, feeling that he was being a little too proud. “Perhaps your talent just needed a little more encouragement?” he offered in an attempt to swing the conversation away from his self-praise.

“Yes, that’s a plus of working here I suppose. Or a minus depending on how you look at it,” he said when Josef mentioned having a telepath find him. Bradley had always been wary of people reading his thoughts. Even though he was friends with Sean, being around the man always made him a little unnerved. It was hard enough controlling his verbal slip-ups, never mind the ones only in his mind.

He smiled, but decided not to mention that he could probably find his way to the music room blind folded. As a student, he’d spent countless nights sneaking out of his dorm to “borrow” an instrument for a bit.

“Well, I’m back in town again from a trip to Venice. Just relaxing until I decided what to do next. And it’s been a while since I’ve visited. It’s nice to come home,” he blushed. “I mean not that Hammel is my home, currently, but…” he voices faded off as he turned toward Josef, hoping the other man would understand.

[Josef Muller]

“Mm.” Josef’s tone was neutral as he reflected wryly on all the encouragement he’d received throughout the years. “Nah. To be honest, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.” Now martial arts—for better or for worse, he had yet to find one he didn’t like. Reflecting on that, he brightened. “Or I might just have a different talent. Not for music. But I guess if we all had a knack for music it wouldn’t be as remarkable when someone proves to be truly amazing.”

And that was about as philosophical as Josef would get.

His brows climbed at the statement, and he shrugged. Having very little mind-to-mouth filter on the best of days, and not being the type to be ashamed of what he said or thought, he didn’t mind telepaths. Although it had been uncomfortable to have his first roommate be one when he’d first arrived at Hammel. The guy hadn’t much appreciated Josef’s choice in bedfellows—even if it wasn’t expressed at the time—and it had been an uncomfortable few months until Josef had, at last, requested a change for both their sakes.

“But it’s comfortable and familiar, right?” Josef smiled down at him. He got it. Spending a lot of time travelling, he understood how it felt. It was part of the reason he’d stayed in Pilot Ridge. He put his hands in his pockets. “Venice, huh? You’re pretty worldly then. Where else have you been? Paris? Berlin? Always wanted to go there.” Always wanted to, but never had the funds or the time. That was all right. Josef only had a middling talent for languages and no knack at all for foreign cultures. He figured he’d probably end up in prison by his second day of the trip. Better to stay in America, where he could be blunt, and people would just be offended because he was stupid, not a stupid foreigner.

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