Easy Comes, Easy Goes? [closed]

[Rhett Goddard]

((this is officially happening about a week more or less after There's Nothing Suspicious))

Rhett had spent that whole day with Odion. After going to town that morning, they had stayed in his room for some hours, gone to the Cafeteria for lunch, and then back to his room. The activities could have been pretty much summed up to: catching up for some of the things that had happened in the six months separated from each other, playing with Trouble and the occasional kissing session, most of which were followed up by the blonde's constructive criticism of Odion's in-expertise, something he was fine with, which he made sure to repeat every-time he could.

While in his room, they had both listened the door open and close a couple of times, so he could easily assume that at least one of his roommates was within the dorms too. When the dorm door was knocked, then, he dismissed it as someone visiting either Jordan, Izzy or Aaron, since the chances that someone was there to visit him were close to zero. Only when the door was knocked again, he listened a voice that only he could listen.

Rhett has been caught. Rhett and Trouble
The voice echoed for a second in his brain

Fuck. Rhett's eyes immediately, and widely, opened while his face went blank. It was the first time he ever wished he didn't just listen to a particular echo carrying information into his brain via his metahuman abilities. He swallowed saliva and immediately looked at Trouble in Odion's lap. So quickly? It's been like a week only... The door was knocked for a third time when Rhett finally snapped out of it. He stood up, opened his bedroom door and walked into the dorm common room.

"They're here for Trouble." He said as his hands started to shake slightly, completely doubting what to do next.

[Odion Martins]

Rhett was being impossibly theatrical. Odion was having a hard time keeping up with the boy, but he would never admit to it. The blonde received a firm thump to the head each and every time the older boy offered a critique on his kissing technique. As far as Odi was concerned, Rhett knew damn right about his lack of experience and if he wanted someone else, he should find someone else. The ginger had no problem sharing this opinion with the blonde as he rubbed Trouble behind the ears.

Odi had jumped a few times as people walked in and out of the room, Rhett laughingly assured him that anyone passing through, or sticking around, was meant to be here. So the redhead didn’t think much of it when there was a knock on the door. The thing that caught him by surprise this time, was the blonde’s reaction after a few more knocks. “What’s wrong?” Odion asked, sitting up a littler straighter on the boy’s bed, Trouble whimpering.

Rhett was looking at the dog, and Odion frowned. His companion left the room, announcing to everyone there what was about to happen. It was inevitable, but the red haired boy wished he could do something. He would give anything to speed up time for Rhett, so that the pained look upon his face would disappear. Odi looked down at the little white puppy, who was shaking as badly as his master.

Without a word, Odion stood up, Trouble in his arms, and placed him in Rhett’s arms. A knowing look passed between the two, and once the transfer was complete, Odi let his arms fall to his sides - this might be the last time he ever saw his Trouble again. They both knew there was nothing that could be done to stop the staff from taking the tiny canine. The ginger stood beside Rhett, unsure what else to do besides be there with his friend. This was exactly like the time they had been caught red handed in attempting to steal a rather expensive piece from a museum – that was before they had their powers. But even their powers couldn’t change a thing now.

[Izzy James]

Izzy had been reading a book for homework, actually reading it too, mind you, when Rhett and Odion came wandering in. Izzy didn't immediately recognize the redhead, except vaguely recalling him as someone who visited Rhett fairly often. Wasn't Izzy's business to pry. It was, however, Izzy's business to help out with the dog they'd all agreed to take in.

But one week?

"You guys are acting like there's no escape plan," Izzy pointed out. He set the book aside, swung his legs over, and rose to his feet. The two were exchanging looks and exchanging dogs, and Izzy was still, as usual, at a loss as to what exactly was going on. His eyes went to the door, hearing the knocking again. How exactly had he missed that? Not like it mattered now.

"We can always try something," said Izzy. He walked over to the other two, looking between them and the dog. "There's always hiding him or something. And, you know, time stuff."

Izzy shrugged. Worse come to worse, they'd get caught with the dog. He wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but he also wasn't quite sure like they were acting like Nazis were knocking on the door and demanding entrance.

[Rhett Goddard]

"What? No. We're not giving up just yet." Rhett walked back to his room and placed Trouble in there before closing the door in his way out.

Thankfully, Izzy agreed with him. There was something they could do, right? There was always something to do, giving up just seemed not the right option, not this time, not ever. But what? If whoever was knocking already knew that the dog was there, hiding it seemed useless since they could always force their way into Rhett's room. If anything, keeping Trouble there only made Rhett the main culprit. Just as he had said the first time, he was the one going down whenever the time came, he just didn't think the time would come so quickly.

"You're right, Izzy, but what?" Rhett said to the blonde. "Deny, deny, deny until they enter my room and see him?" Perhaps that was they key, taking the dog out before they see it, but Rhett had already thought about it. "You're both time controllers. Even if one of you takes the dog and his toys and run out quickly with your abilities, the dorm does smell like dog." Rhett swallowed saliva and controlled his breath. He appeared calm even if he didn't feel like that. "I'm taking the fall, ok? And I'm talking too. Just don't try anything stupid, I won't let them take Trouble just now like this and you don't wanna end like accomplices."

Sighing, and not knowing what he was going to do, or say, Rhett went and finally opened the door. He wished he was a precog just now, things would probably be much easier.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was lying in bed wondering if he could build some sort of dumb-waiter like device to hang out his dorm room window, when he heard a commotion coming from his roommates. He burst in, almost knocking into Rhett. “What’s going on guys?” he said, rubbing Trouble’s head. He looked up at the redhead boy with a confused look on his face. “Wait, who are you?” he asked. “Another[/b[ roommate?”

“They’re taking Trouble?” AJ asked, about to cry. “But…but…he’s like one of the guys. Who told them?” Looking towards the new guy he pointed out his finger. “You?”

He started nodding when Izzy mentioned an escape plan. He was suddenly wishing he’d thought of the dumb=waiter idea earlier. Maybe Izzy could speed me up to next week when I have it all figure out. Maybe I can build on real quick. Or something close enough to work.

Running to his room, he grabbed some rope and a large duffle bag. “How about Trouble and I hang out the window for a while? I mean it’s not like military grade rope or anything, but I don’t think it will snap.” He paused for a moment trying to add his weight and Trouble’s. “At least I don’t think it will.”

AJ had already started tying the rope around him when Rhett started his I’m-taking-the-fall speech. “What? No way. You’re not the only one in on this. We can light candles or something,” he looked around the room, wondering if there were even any candles to light. “Never give up! Never surrender!’ he yelled, jumping a little. “Right?”

[Odion Martins]

These three guys were joking right? They didn’t honestly believe they could successfully hide a dog, right? He wasn’t very fond of house pets, but even he had taken a liking to Trouble. Odion remained stoic, until Aaron come onto the set, and the redhead simply raised an eyebrow. “I’m not a roommate, but if I had ratted you out I wouldn’t be here right now,” he said, aware that as soon as the person behind the door entered, everyone present would be blamed for the possession of the dog.

Was he the only one without blinders on? Seriously, the last guy to say anything looked like he was about to burst into tears. Odion believed that they all knew it wouldn’t last forever deep down inside. In front of everyone else, the boy had become quieter than he had been in Rhett’s room – but that was a different story.

Before Rhett went to the door, Odion weighed the options in his mind. Yes, they could hide Trouble – but it was avoiding the inevitable. Maybe they could slow down time enough to get the dog out and away, but then what? There was nowhere to put him. Rhett wanted to take the fall, and the ginger wasn’t sure how the rest of the guys here would take that, but they would have to see what happened. Odi fidgeted in his spot, uncomfortable with the whole situation. This was about the time he ran away.

Just who did this guy think he was? Odion’s lips pulled into a smile momentarily. At least Aaron was amusing. “There’s probably a power suppressor on the other side of the door, and either way, there’s not enough time,” he said, glancing at Izzy, assuming he was the other time manipulator. Odi didn’t see any hope in the situation, and wasn’t very much help at this point. They would be alright without the dog, right?

But he couldn’t be so heartless, especially when it was Rhett he was most concerned about. One glance at said boy was all it took, and Odion was removing the dog from Rhett’s arms. “Okay, let’s try,” he said, putting the little pup in Aaron’s arms. Next, he went towards the door, but it was too late, Rhett had already opened it. Odi glanced at Izzy, not sure how well he could control time, but he tried to slow down the activity near the door to allow Aaron enough time to manouver out the window.

No one could say he hadn’t tried.

[Izzy James]

It probably said something about the tenants of room 502 (and the token redhead boyfriend) that they thought of "time controlling" and "dangling out the window" over dog sitting or lying first. Izzy was already trying to think of how best to utilize his ability, and really wishing that he'd had a few sessions to hone it. Knowing his luck, he'd try to focus his ability and wind up making things even worse than they usually were. At least the other guy seemed a lot more confident.

"Still thinking we could just run out or something," said Izzy. Still, he was focusing. Odion focused on the door, more or less, and Izzy tried the same thing, focusing with all his might. Per usual, his power was completely unpredictable and far too powerful. Meaning that it probably canceled out anything constructive that Odion was trying to do, unless the redhead knew better than Izzy how to redirect or something. Heck, maybe Izzy would even get lucky and Odion could do something with the little pocket of sped up time that Izzy was starting to produce.

"Better get moving, AJ," said Izzy. He looked over his shoulder, considering for a few moments. What exactly would be the most useful place for him at the moment? Probably standing there and focusing all the power and energy and stuff. Really, what other choice did he have?

"You can talk to them at least, right Rhett?" asked Izzy, looking to his roommate and possibly his friend. "Because I'm kind of against the whole you taking the fall thing. Especially 'cuz we all decided to do this together and all."

[Bill Collins]

Bill had been working easily through his paperwork and training plans for his students, when a picture of his dogs at the corner of his desk caught his eye for a moment. He smiled at the four of them, all happily posing for their pack leader. Bill was in the picture with them, of course, holding Chibi with her stomach upwards and her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Disco and Bernard were actually behaving but not looking towards the camera, though Lucy was. Bill loved the picture--which was why it was on his desk.

But didn't he have a fifth dog? He could have sworn....A student in the dorms had tried to keep a dog in his room, even though he knew it was against the rules. Bill had volunteered to take the dog--because the student couldn't keep it and Bill didn't want the thing to go to a shelter--and had been keeping him. Trouble his name was.

How very appropriate.

But...no wait. Bill scratched his head. Bill hadn't met Trouble before, and only one of the boy's seemed to be familiar. He stood and sorted his things on his desk and then sighed. Today must be the day that he met Trouble. Why else would he have a vision of said dog. He made his way through the familiar hallways of the school, and to the boy's dormitory. He allowed the familiar steps of his future self lead him to the proper dorm and he knocked.

And knocked.

And knocked.

He could hear them inside. They must be trying to hide the dog, or something ridiculous. He knocked again and finally it was opened by the boy that was familiar. Now that he saw him with his own eyes, he remembered that it was the boy that almost stole his wallet, but didn't. 'It fell out of his pocket.' Yeah. Right.

"You know why I'm here." Bill didn't bother to mince words. "Are you going to cooperate or do I need to get some of the security team down here?" He asked, his hands in his front pockets. Bill knew the bond between people and dogs, and knew this wouldn't be easy for them, and he would try to be as sympathetic as possible--but they were still breaking the rules, and got caught.

[Rhett Goddard]

Letting Aaron and Odion play their little plan, Rhett heard Izzy out. He growled lightly. Why would you want yo take the fall with me? To Rhett it was not easy to understand. He was actually doing something noble by protecting his roommates from what he did, he actually didn't want them to be judged as guilty for something that was his own fault, and yet Izzy was there proposing the complete opposite? He was clearly supporting Rhett and his cause, and not letting him go down alone was the way to show it. But why? We're not friends. He knowingly, and on purpose, blinked really hard. No one had ever done something like that for him. The closest thing to a friend he'd had in the past was Odion and when Rhett was at his weakest, Odion left him. He didn't care, he didn't want it back then, but now... Even if confused, he felt good.

Before opening the door, Rhett smiled at the other blonde for a split-second. It was his subtle way to say thanks, saying it out loud was too much for the heat of the moment.

Seeing an unfortunately familiar face behind the door was by far unexpected. He lightly growled again. Out of all people... He face-palmed himself mentally as the trainer spoke. Security team? Do we have like a SWAT team now? Looking behind at whatever shenanigans Aaron and Odion were attempting, he considered what to say. Denying, lying or hiding had no meaning now, Rhett knew the man had some sort of extrasensory way to gain information too. He knew the man knew about the dog, which was why he was there, alone. Guess that kills the chance of Jordan being the snitch.

"Is there some way to avoid this?" He finally turned to see the man after inviting him in and closing the door after making sure he was alone. "I took him from the streets. He's homeless, he has nowhere to go."

[Aaron Walker]

When Rhett finally opened the door to try to explain the situation to Bill, AJ was already half-way out the window with Trouble in his arm. When his feet were already dangling, Trouble leapt from his arms and started running around the rooms. It seems he wanted to join in all of the excitement going on around him. “Trouble!” AJ said trying to reach out to grab him back (he still though the whole dangle-out-the-window plan was sure to succeed). But since he’s feet were on nothing but air, when he let go of the window sill to get the dog he started to really fall. He’d forgotten the whole part about tying the other end of his rope to something sturdy.

Lucky, he only slipped a few more inches out the window before he caught himself. “Please don’t take trouble,” AJ said from his position mostly out the window. “We’re his only family.”

He tried to pull himself back into the room and failed. “At least don’t send him to the pound of something. He’s a good dog. He’d never last in a place like that.” He would have asked for a little help from his roommates to keep from falling, but he was more concerned for poor Trouble at the moment.

((sorry this is so late))

[Odion Martins]

Odion looked helplessly over at AJ, who had let the dog loose in the room, and he was now barking, quite happy to be the centre of attention. The ginger went into AJ’s room and helped him off the sill, a task he thought the brunette could have managed himself. Without a word he strolled back into the room, glancing at the man in the door. They were done for. Odi was glad that everyone in the room was willing to take the blame, something Rhett couldn’t fight, not today.

They would all be serving detention for harboring said pet.

The word ‘family’ made Odion glance at Rhett once more. Did the blonde really consider this small dog his family? AJ and Rhett fought for the mutt, who was now bounding around Odi, pawing at him. The ginger picked him up, and Trouble licked his face. He didn’t want to smile, not in this moment, but he couldn’t help it. The white pup was too damn cute. Odion glanced at Izzy, wondering if he had any more ideas.

It seemed like they had been caught and there was no way out. Odion didn’t plead for Trouble’s sake. He knew the man at the door was going to take him away. Their time had been cut short with the little dog. The redhead couldn't feel as attached to him as the other boys did, even though it had only been a week. Odion had only met the small dog today, and despite his cuteness, didn't think it was the end of the world if he needed to be taken away. Dogs died all the time in the streets.

Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t get Trouble back after he was taken.

[Izzy James]

Had they sent somebody with dog detection powers? That somehow wouldn't surprise Izzy in the slightest, and he was seriously wondering when else someone like that would be useful in the slightest. Unfortunately for Izzy, his brain was skipping out on sections of the conversation again, hopping around at near random and only giving Izzy little flashes of what was going on. At least it was pretty easy to figure out.

"He's not really doing anything," Izzy pointed out. "Plus it's not like we all didn't agree to let him stay here," well, all of them but Jordan, but he wasn't here to say anything one way or another. "Do you really want to be the guy who took the dog away?"

Okay, so it was rather a lame tactic, but Izzy couldn't think of anything else. He glanced over at the redhead, Rhett's friend, wondering what was going on there. Seems like Red was handling it better than the rest of them. Then again, Red wasn't exactly Trouble's best friend or something.

It then occurred to Izzy that someone should probably help AJ, so he wandered over to the window, leaning over to give AJ a hand up, even going so far as to pull his roommate, if it came to that. He still tried to pay attention to what was going on behind him though, more than a little concerned for the little ball of fur that had managed to bungle their "awesome hiding plan."

[Bill Collins]

Recognizing the voice of one of the other students in the dorm, Bill nearly rolled his eyes. One of the students he trained was in on this? Bill fiddled with the keys in his pocket. He was really torn here. His sense of following the rules, and his love of animals and sympathy towards those with animals were at ends, here. He really couldn't let them keep the dog. Four teenaged boys, where at least one of them was a trouble maker, who went to school most of the day (and he doubted any one of them had a job) couldn't take care of the dog properly. He sighed.

"The rules are the rules." Bill looked at the boy, a 'duh, obvious' look on his face. He really couldn't believe any of the boys hadn't thought they would get caught. Hammel was full of teachers with extra sensory perception, precognition, telepathy, and any number of other power's that meant the wool couldn't be pulled over their eyes. It really was almost insulting that these boys would try to do something like this.

Bill nudged his way into the dorm, the smell of dog in the air. "I'll be taking the dog myself. Aaron can probably recall that I have several of my own already. Trouble will be well taken care of." Speaking of the thing, the dog ran around the room, yipping happily. Bill crouched down and held out his hand for the dog to investigate. After the dog licked his hand, Bill picked him up.

A blond boy that Bill did not know tried, very pathetically, to guilt him into letting them keep the dog. "Look, boy. Keeping a dog in a dorm under the care of a bunch of fifteen-year-old's is not decent nor sanitary. He'll be better off where I'm taking him and you need to except that."

"As I recall....it was....you," Bill turned and pointed at Rhett, "were the one to initially bring him in...yes. That'll be two weeks detention for you, and a week for your conspirators." Bill then pointed at the three other boys in the room.

[Jordan Scholl]

It was a typical day (or at least it was supposed to be) for Jordan. He'd had his classes, done his power training, and was now once again walking back to his dorm room to try to avoid his roommates. He wasn't on very good terms with them ever since he'd opposed keeping Trouble. It didn't help, of course, that for the first few days he'd regularly asked Rhett when he was getting rid of "the thing." It was only a matter of time, he knew, before they were caught. After being told to shut up about it, he hadn't asked again, but he always looked askance at the dog and had kept himself locked in his room to avoid being charmed by its huge puppy eyes.

Thus his plan was to, once again, sneak into his bedroom and not really talk to anyone else. At the very least it would keep them from hating him more. He was listening to his music as he went to his room and thus didn't hear the commotion from just inside the suite. When the door flew open, though, it was hard to miss the fact that the main room was crowded.

With a quick glance Jordan took in the scene. His three roommates and one extra kid, plus a staff member. He thought the man's name was Mr. Collins, or something like that. He was unsurprised to see the dog in the teacher's arms and the upset looks of his classmates--hadn't they all known they'd be caught out sometime?

"Oh," Jordan said, unaware that he was coming in just at the moment of punishment. "You're here already. Well, I guess that's that." And he made to head to his room. "Bye, Trouble," he called without any real sympathy. "Hope you have fun at your new house." He turned his back on the group so he could open his door.

[Rhett Goddard]

Rhett could barely keep up with everything. Aaron jumping out the window of a fifth floor while vouching for Rhett's cause, Izzy going to the rescue of Aaron and re-affirming his clear support while Odion deciding to silently stay aside from the discussion. The blonde wasn't sure if this last thing was good or not, though. He was indeed expecting the ginger's support, but it made sense that he wanted to stay out and avoid getting into trouble being so freshly arrived to Hammel. It wasn't a smart idea and Rhett respected it, but something inside him just kept telling that it was wrong. He felt a little disappointed but shoved the thought, and/or feelings, away.

The power trainer's speech didn't make things better. The mas was right, there was nothing to do about it, it was against school rules and they broke them. Rhett, however, did not agree on them not taking good care of Trouble. As far as he could tell, they were doing a good job and it was unfair that they were told they weren't when the dog was happily, and healthily dancing around, but what was he going to say? Rhett had always disliked older people because most seemed to think they were always right and they knew best because of experience, and when you add this to a position of power, like being school staff, saying "you're wrong" was next to useless unless you had bulletproof proof, so he only sighed as he heard his punishment. Detention? Not like I live in the school anyway.

He sighed and readied to talk once again when Jordan suddenly entered the dorm. He should be thankful Rhett didn't have anything at hand because the way his body heated up with Jordan's words he couldn't have abstained himself from doing so. If it weren't for the fact that the power trainer was still there, Jordan may had been even tackled.

Rhett only sighed. He wanted to explode at the man taking his dog. He wanted to explode at Jordan for being... he didn't even know why he wanted to explode at Jordan, but he wanted to anyway. Yet, he also didn't want to show he cared. He didn't want anyone to show he cared enough to make a big deal out of this like all the other roommates were when in reality, he was pretty much ready to cry and punch random stuff. Everyone in that room should be thankful Rhett's power had no physical manifestation, they should be thankful his metahuman ability only affected him as showers of information started to rain in the boy's head. He now knew the trainer's full name, Odion's shoe size, Izzy's blood group, Aaron's favorite food, Jordan's underwear's color and dozens of other tiny little facts about everyone in the room and the rooms around them.

Rhett's face wrinkled as he closed his eyes in pain.

"Fine." Rhett covered his eyes while turning to walk up to his room. "Take him."

He slammed his room's door as he closed it and quickly jumped into bed, hiding his face beneath his pillows and wishing to wake up from what he couldn't help but call a nightmare.

I'm going to fix this.