This Again (Lani.)

[Odion Martins]

Odion was starting to get better at speeding through time. It wasn’t as flawless or natural as stopping and going back, but he was getting better. He was trying, because he desperately needed to leave Hammel. He wasn’t sure what the next step was, but being in here was almost as bad as being in prison. At least in prison everyone kept to themselves. Here, everyone was still trying to be his friend, and sometimes, he just wanted to be left alone.

Much like on one of the first days of being at Hammel, Odi could be found sitting atop a table in one of the many training rooms at Hammel. The ginger’s hair was shaggier than normal, curling a bit at the ends. It was easier to hide this way, at least, that’s what it felt like when he was trying to stay in the shadows. His feet barely touched the floor as he stared down the clock and it’s never blinking face. The seconds went by and Odion passed through them almost as though they were water. It was strange, to feel time around you, and with the bat of an eye, be able to make it stop.

But this time, he was waiting for someone.

And this time, he was making the clock move forward. He came prepared in black sweat pants and a plain white v-neck t-shirt. Nothing fancy, especially if they were going to legitimately work. Odion focused on the clock. It was seven in the morning, and Lani was supposed to be here around ten. That was what they had decided before hand. Odion didn’t want to lose track of time and be late, so he decided to do the complete opposite, and be amazingly early. He was going to get some practice in before his favorite blonde found him. He hadn’t told him which room they had.

The clock’s hand spun around clockwise, and Odion could feel his head start to hurt, but the pain soon faded. He was getting better at this. It wasn’t flawless. Sometimes the hands stopped completely or returned to normal, but otherwise, he went through two hours which for him lasted only a couple minutes. Odion didn’t move from his spot, didn’t take his eyes away from the clock. He needed to see time because he could no longer feel it. Sometimes it helped when he focused on something meaningful, a reason for existing. He thought of the few friends he had made, thought of everything he had been through so far and how he’d been made stronger. He thought of how much better he was that mostly everyone here. He thought of Declyn. Thoughts of Lani still confused and irritated him as Odion tried to decide where to slot him, but Lani didn’t have a spot – he was all encompassing.

One more hour to kill. Odion bore through the hour like an arrow through air, swift, precise, and right on time. He smiled softly as a familiar friend found the room. “Well I’m done training for today,” he said in an airy voice, pushing his hair out of his face and smirking at Lani. “And to think, you’ve only just begun.”

[Lani Hunter]

Ten in the morning. A rather normal time for most people. Lani yawned as he slapped the alarm he had plastered to the nightstand with duck tape. Even now his power tried to yank it up and send it on a sad short trip into the wall. He sighed and flopped back onto his bed realizing seven minutes later that his alarm was going off again. He groaned and pushed himself out of bed. If he didn’t actually move he was never going to actually going to do anything. Sticking the toothbrush into his mouth he worked on waking up. He yawned again, yeah, that was the last time he pulled a late night heist the night before he promised to train with Odion. It had been a good haul though. Sleep had escaped him. But he couldn’t completely blame staying up late for that. He needed to get moving or he was going to be late. Pulling on a pair of sweatpants and pulling his new favorite sweatshirt over his concert tee Lani started to feel like he was just preparing to go back to bed.

Laughing at himself he grabbed his cell and keys and a water bottle and stuck it into a bag. He went to the door before he stopped and a bottle of pills snapped into his hand. How could he have forgotten those? He paused for a moment assessing the pain. It was sometimes hard to tell the difference, the pain was consistent, so much so that most of the time he was able to ignore it. But other times it hurt more than usual and he broke down to take the pills. Lani paced down the hall out of the dorms and to the training rooms. Halloween. Now that had been an interesting night. Lani was no closer to his answers than he had been before. Well, one thing was clears. Two things actually. One, he and Adrianna weren’t getting back together. She had moved onto Venn, at least that was how it seemed. Two, he liked Odion a lot.

It didn’t occur to Lani that Odion hadn’t given him a room number. He sighed a little as he walked down the hall. This was lack of planning on their part. That needed to be fixed. He extended his power looking for the redhead. It didn’t take long for his power to find Odion and it did so eagerly and with a little thrill in the back of his mind. “Good morning,” he greeted following Odion’s. “How long have you been here?” He asked a little perplexed. They had agreed on ten hadn’t they? Oh dear, he was late wasn’t he? He looked over Odion. He had to say he liked the longer hair but it was ironic that at the same time Odion had grown out his hair Lani had gotten his cut a few days ago. He couldn’t stand having long hair.

Lani’s smile tipped up a little and he dropped his bag on the floor by the door and took a little sip of water before he promptly took a seat on the floor. He closed his eyes and started to go through the meditation rituals that his trainer had been pushing. It had helped, he had started trying to do at least a little bit of mind calming exercises when he woke up but he was starting to realize that that didn’t help when he got stressed in the middle of the day. Like before Lani was starting to get nervous butterflies and he was starting to think that something would go wrong. Something always went wrong. “You’d better not be done,” he commented opening one eye to look at the time turner, “We’re going to be in a poor position if I start throwing things at you.” His smile turned into a smirk.

[Odion Martins]

Unfortunately, Odion didn’t sleep much. When he wasn’t up to no good, he wasn’t up to much at all, but he did both of these things awake. He got up relatively early and went to bed pretty late most nights. About once a week he slept for nearly the whole day, and he supposed he also caught up on rest by zoning out on nothing in particular for who knew how long until he regained consciousness. The time had been chosen to benefit Lani – they couldn’t met at any time as far as Odi was concerned, for time was nothing but a number. Eventually Lani would be here, and what with the amount of times Odion had been late, he couldn’t say he was unimpressed. In fact, he really didn’t care when Lani showed up so long as he did. Lani was just lucky that Odion was a peppy person, and had in interest in pretending to be one, especially in the morning.

Really, Odion was just returning the favour of promised chaos Lani had bestowed upon him. The room number hadn’t been decided, and Odi knew that right from the start. But he didn’t see it as a problem, it was just another aspect to the never ending games he liked to play. There were a few things he didn’t want to play games with though, and one of those things would be his relationship with Lani. It was still on rocky ground and it felt like it would forever remain there. But when Odion stopped to think about how far they had gotten since summer, maybe things were only half as bad as he initially thought. He knew that Lani needed time to think things through, or maybe put things off if Odi knew the blonde like he thought he did. But either way, time was something Odion had a lot of, and hopefully, some kind of skeletal map was being made.

“Your time or mine?” Odion asked, deceptive as usual. At least he wasn’t depressed, drunk, hung over, or crying. Things were looking up! “You’re only a few minutes late,” Odi said, rushing to conclusions before elaborating on what he had truly meant. He simply didn’t want to be late for Lani, and he really should be practicing so, why not? Wasn’t that what today was all about? Odion hadn’t let his hair grow out in a while. He decided he’d rather just leave it the way it was though, because it looked pretty good. It made him look a little tougher, and if that meant keeping more people away from him, the better. Lani looked good with his hair short like that though, far easier to see his eyes. There wasn’t going to be a whole lot he could use to hide with.

Odion hadn’t moved anything other than his gaze, which was now on Lani as he seemingly collapsed to the floor. Odi tilted his head to the side in observation. “Long night?” He asked, interrupting the meditation with good intentions. Despite Lani looking happy, he also had bags under his eyes. Why wouldn’t he just ask to cancel today’s training if he had been busy? Odi would’ve understood, there were hundreds of other days to choose from. But of course, it dawned on him that maybe Lani was excited to see him too.

Odi snorted. “Aren’t you throwing things at me anyway? It’s probably the only reason why you came.” Odion teased with a smirk of his own. His body ached from standing for so long, from lack of sleep, and now that Lani was here, he could feel himself start to become impatient. Obviously he wasn’t done though, for he was still in the room and wasn’t about to sit here and watch Lani train. “What are we doing today?” He asked, an eyebrow raised. Lani was after all, the master planner.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani was much more nocturnal than normal. When he missed sleep it wasn’t for choice. Lani loved sleeping but his late nights usually led to late mornings or even afternoons in some cases. He had blackout curtains just for the daytime hours. It was a good thing that Odion was patient because Lani was not in the least. Sure he could sit and wait for a long time but he considered that waiting building up his adrenaline and giving him more time to plan. It was a good thing they were meeting at ten, if the time had been any earlier Lani probably would have either vetoed it or been a grumpy telekinetic. But either way he was happy to be going to see Odion the sometimes painfully peppy morning person.

“Mine,” Lani answered though a little bit of confusion was laced into his voice. At least until his brain decided to start working and pointed out that if Odion had been traveling time hadn’t been the same for him as it had been for the slumbering blond. Lani swiped a hand across his forehead as if he were extremely relieved. “Sorry,” He said following that, “My alarm and I got into a fight this morning.” He chuckled at his own lame joke. Oh he was full of these. Lani felt a little guilty, but everyone ran a little late every now and again. It was just usually when Lani was running late for something like class or training he just simply neglected to go. And that was alright with him. It wasn’t like he was going to go onto be a Harvard grad or anything. He shook his head a little and decided to start working.

Lani slowly worked on getting his mind to become focused. Once it was relatively closed off to the other thoughts floating around in his mind Lani slowly let down his walls and his power spread out like a flood around him getting a mental picture of the room. He found the table and Odion, well his clothing at least but he figured it was safe to assume that Odion was still inside of his clothing. Lani quickly tore his power away from that, that was not a thought that he needed right now. He sent his power into the rafters and started counting dust bunnies to keep himself from reacting to that thought. He finally when he thought it was safe in his own head pulled his power back and started to work on letting out bits of it at a time like sections of a dam opening.

He opened one slowly, carefully and… “Long night?” All of them blasted opened at once and thanks to Lani’s quick closing of the floodgates that prevented everything in the room from jumping. He opened his eyes tossing an annoyed glanced at Odion for a moment then a thought occurred to him. But that would have to wait. “A little bit,” Lani said, “I’ll have to tell you about it later.” Then he mouthed the word ‘gold’ at Odion to give him a taste of what Lani currently had hidden away. He was not stupid to bring stuff like that into his room. No he had his own hide out and he had a middle man for a buyer who he was going to meet with. He had to admit that he liked the new freedom. Lani grinned and the people at the museum had boasted so much about how they were the safest place. There was only one place that Lani really believed that about and that was Fort Knox. As fun as it would be to try that one Lani wasn’t looking to be full of bullets.

Lani’s grin grew and he laughed. “Of course, it’s one of my favorite pastimes.” Lani rose to his feet and stretched toward the sky trying to wake himself up a little better. Lani smiled at Odion and rubbed his hands together. “A little more of the same but since I know you can stop me lets add a little more into it.” He said as he looked around the room for safe projectiles. A few balls here and there and a few heavier things that he was sure he shouldn’t use. The balls were foamy and soft. “Let’s see if you can do more than one at a time and then you throw them back and I’ll try not to stay in one place.” The goal of this was to force both of them to not get into trances. Last time they had just stood rigid and stared at each other. If they did something that forced them to also be aware of their surroundings and forced them to keep moving or get a ball to the face. It was something Lani needed. He needed to be able to keep his physical awareness as well as his mental one.

[Odion Martins]

The boys were patient in different, and conflicting ways. Odion was patient for people to flourish, Lani wasn’t and expected certain things from everyone. Odi was willing to go on a heist without any prior planning, Lani wanted to sit down and have a plan before things happened. Neither of them were right, well, Odion believed he was right all the time, but they simply had different ways of going about doing things and he was simply trying to accept that.

“Isn’t your alarm taped down?” Odion said, an eyebrow raised, a little smirk on his face. He’d been in Lani’s room once or twice that Lani knew of, and many more times that he didn’t know about. But Odion, like Lani, paid attention to detail and reveled in knowing those things about someone. Better late than never, Odion supposed to himself, ready to get to work as much as Lani was. It had been a while since they’d trained last, and while that hadn’t been such a disaster, Odi wanted to see if Lani had gotten any farther with his powers.

Odon watched Lani prepare himself, and suddenly felt like he was being watched by a million pairs of eyes. It was a creepy sensation which sent goose bumps down his spine. Unfortunately Odion couldn’t read Lani’s mind as he watched the telekinetic presumably let his powers wander around the room. How else could he explain the sensation of eyes all around him? Odi pressed his lips together but soon they formed into a playful grin. He nodded once to show he understood and let Lani get back to work. Still, he was excited at the prospects of riches. How did it feel Lani, to be able to keep it all to yourself?

Odi’s sharp gaze didn’t leave Lani as he blonde stretched. He was already looking, to look away now would signal something, and Odion didn’t want to let onto anything he didn’t have to. Besides, Lani was nice to look at. Odion glanced around the room as well, wondering what it would be today. Odi nodded, thinking that he understood what Lani was getting at. “You want me to throw them back in the present time?” Odion asked, because he needed to know which plane he’d be working in. He assumed it would be the present, but he didn’t like assuming. Lani was only in the present plane unless Odion brought him somewhere else, and that kind of training was probably too advanced for them at the moment. Lani playing in the past did make Odi smile though.

Pushing off from the table finally, Odion made his way swiftly over to where the various balls were and picked out three distinct ones: a dodge ball, a football, and a tennis ball. He smiled at the last one, thinking of August. He went back to meet Lani, a few feet away, and giving him the look: what was he supposed to do this them? Just start throwing them?

[Lani Hunter]

They were so alike but so different in so many ways. Slowly but surely they were peeling away the protective layers that each other had set up. It was a tedious but rewarding endeavor. Lani loved every minute, every frustrating and enlightening minute. Sometimes he came away with seemingly empty hands but every time he was with Odion he was learning falling even more with every time. Lani kept his face expressionless as he looked into those eyes. It wasn’t fair. He couldn’t control it but thoughts of the redhead tended to warm him heart and make him smile. He hadn’t really noticed until he had talked to D over the weekend. He wondered if even if he was frustrated or annoyed with Odion he would still get a smile on his face when he thought of him.

Lani smiled at Odion. He crossed his arms and made a face like he had just been greatly wronged by the alarm clock. “That doesn’t mean we can’t bicker.” He said laughing. Leave it to Lani to have arguments with inanimate objects. Well, it partially made sense for a telekinetic to talk to objects but Lani had done this before he had gotten his power. Old habits die hard. The point was that his alarm had wanted him to get up and he had not wanted to get up. Their disagreement would usually sent the poor object to its fatal end against the wall but the tap saved it from such a fate. It should be glad Lani had secured it. But the ungrateful little machine just kept buzzing and buzzing. Lani shook his head at his silly thoughts.

Odion would probably enjoy the shiny quality of Lani’s recent acquisition. Lani already had a little something picked out of the collection that he thought might make a rather nice Christmas present. But Odion didn’t need to know that. Lani was actually not even sure he wouldn’t chicken out of giving it to him. He winked at Odion as he nodded and his grin only grew. This had been a big payoff for him. Lani had to admit that he was a little worried because a friend of a friend of an enemy had let it slip that this had been a goal of his old boss. Lani just couldn’t resist taking more away from the man. He was going to take from the man just as much as he had taken from Lani. Sure Lani was walking a razor’s edge with this foolish vendetta but he thought it was worth it.

“That’s the idea,” Lani said, “See if you can pause time and act in the present.” Lani’s eyes were flashing with excitement for this new experiment. He knew that Odion could pause time around something and pause time and walk through it. He wanted to see if Odion could do both. “Or,” Lani said an idea coming to him as he held up a finger. “You can throw it back through time in the present.” Lani nodded. Could Odion do that? Could he turn back time on an object in the present? In theory it wasn’t difficult. Just send the ball back on the original path but to keep everything else from rewinding was the more difficult part, but Lani was still having a hard time thinking of time as something changeable. He wasn’t sure what the limits were, he didn’t even know what his own limits were.

Lani watched Odion move and picked the balls out of Odion’s hands as he stood across from him. Lani was going to do the first throwing. He casually placed his hands behind his back and had the three balls floating around him. His lips were tilted upward into an impish grin. Odion didn’t think he was going to become target practice today did he? Lani threw the tennis ball first, starting with the most familiar. It fast approached Odion and Lani waited, starting slowly, he didn’t really want to hit Odion. His breath held as he waited to feel Odion’s power against his. That warm feeling that gave him chills. Lani’s mind focused on the objects and he started to feel that out of body sensation. He pulled himself back to focus by shifting his weight. Odion had better be on top of his game today because Lani was rested and ready, at least as far as his power went.

[Odion Martins]

Most of the time, Odion did his best not to think about Lani, though this was a successful task. Even on the dullest of card dealing days, Odi found something that reminded him of the telekinetic. Even if he was staring blankly at nothing at all, his mind seemed to go to Lani first. It was heart wrenching and terribly unfair, but Odion didn’t tell anyone about it, especially Lani. Everything was up in the air now. Adrianna had almost been an excuse, one that kept Odion from really trying. Now the only thing keeping him from showing what he was feeling, was himself. It was the damndest thing in the world, because if Odi couldn’t trust anyone, how then could he trust himself? What if he hurt Lani? Or what if he was rushing him? There was no clear way to tell and part of Odi didn’t want the way to be clear, but he simply didn’t know what to do.

A light smile perked up Odion’s lips. “Fighting implies more than simple bickering,” he said, his eyes soft and full of expression. He and Lani bickered all the time, they didn’t fight. There was a clear difference. Odion smiled when Lani laughed, wondering at it. He supposed Lani didn’t mind so much that Odi had picked up on the small things.

Lani wasn’t the only one with a plan up his sleeve. Odi had found something he thought the blonde would enjoy; the problem now was to decide whether to present it during Christmas, or his birthday. It was a pretty lovely gift, but he still had time to consider his options. Either way, it would be given with a flourish.

Odi caught onto Lani’s excitement and smiled in return. That was probably the best reaction Lani would get out of him, perhaps later on if they were successful he’d receive a happy laugh from Odion. The redhead simply wasn’t very expressive of his happier emotions, if only because he hadn’t indulged much time into them. It was easy to be mad and throw punches and harsh words in someone’s face. It was another to revel in joy and feeling comfortable doing so, it just felt so, unnatural. “I could try,” Odion said meekly, wondering when he would ever need to use such a skill as Lani was suggesting in the real world. But maybe they lived in a world of smoke and mirrors.

Warmed up and ready to practice, Odion held back his smiles. He would have to concentrate now. The tennis ball sailed towards him and fell into that old habit of stopping time. It was “caught” with relative ease as time met the boundaries of telekinesis, suspending the ball in the present. Odion stared at it, not because he was trying to keep it there, no, his power had become accustomed to Lani. He was staring at it because he wondered if he could propel it back in time, not just pause it to keep it in the present. How did that even make sense and where did that begin and end? For now he decided to leave it and looked back to Lani, giving him a nod. He was ready for the next one.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani was just glad that Odion was keeping him awake anymore like he had when he had thought that the redhead might potential ruin everything for him. That had been a time when Lani was a flight risk and the second he had had a chance to really disappear he would have done so. It was mutual and perhaps frustrating for the both of them that they were both on equal grounds of terror. Terrified of what might happen and terrified that they might fail. So Lani was going to keep putting it off. He was just adding it to the long list of things he was putting off dealing with. He really should have learned from the first time that when he put things off they usually ended up exploding in his face but Lani was thick and didn’t like to learn his lessons very well. Avoiding things was the best solution.

Lani gave a lazy shrug. “Ok, so maybe it came to blows.” He laughed a little as he looked into Odion’s eyes. They were unguarded and beautiful and no… He cut off the thought in his mind but he could see Odion’s point. They bickered but Lani could count on one hand the number of times they had actually fought and he had to swallow his pride and say that that was his fault for being pigheaded and stubborn about his lies. It wasn’t so much that Lani didn’t mind that Odion remembered little things like that so much as he was getting used to it. Odion always noticed more than Lani gave him credit for. The fact was that Lani did mind, but it was contrary to the normal assumption that that would upset him. He found it touching that Odion remembered small details.

It was going to be interesting, these two thieves trying to keep something from each other. So far as Lani knew Odion hadn’t found his secret stash and he had a feeling that if he kept his room just messy enough Odion wouldn’t be motivated to look. Lani felt a small smile lingering on his lips as he thought about it and he sighed running a hand through his hair and looking around covering the smile with a glance around the room to determine the things he had felt with his mind. He caught onto Odion’s smile and it fueled his enthusiasm. There was nothing better than waking up and jumping into training, well, sometimes. With anyone else he wouldn’t be nearly this enthusiastic. He would be dragging if he had decided to show up at all.

Lani grinned at Odion’s hesitation. Never underestimate the usefulness of a skill. Even the smallest thing could come in handy one day. Lani smirked a little at Odion’s doubt. “Do.” Lani corrected with a sly smile. Try implied failure was an option, perhaps if Lani didn’t make that an option it would encourage Odion. Or it would piss the redhead off, which Lani figured would have a similar outcome. Maybe that was a little more than Lani was ready to handle but live and learn. If one didn’t err one would never live. Sometimes the mistakes piled up a little too high but when that happened Lani just tended to sweep a few under the rug. Like when he pulled a few detentions out of his records. They didn’t actually expect him to go to all of those before he graduated did they?

Lani felt the warmth of Odion’s power as it wrapped around the ball. Lani’s stubborn power pushed against it but it help really well. Lani smiled his power wasn’t hell bent on fighting it this time, when Lani realized it wasn’t moving his power was able to relent. It didn’t coil to attack the person fighting him like it usually did. Something had changed. No the creature in his mind still wasn’t happy about it but Lani was able to keep a better leash on it. It raged against his mind as if insisting that this was wrong and something needed to be done about it. But it didn’t protest too strongly when it felt the warmth of Odion’s power. Odion’s power was not one that he needed to fear. Odion’s nod Lani threw the football. He didn’t let up on the tennis ball, however. He kept pressure on it. He felt Odion’s power close around the football and without waiting for a nod he sent the dodge ball flying up and to the side coming in almost behind Odion instead of from the front. Lani smiled wondering if Odion would be able to get it.

[Odion Martins]

Odion snickered. “You know all that could be avoided if you simply got up,” he suggested with a shrug and a purposeful glance at the floor. It wasn’t really meant to be taken seriously, but he was going to go with the all time reasoning and say that he had a point to make. Odi was trying his best not to dwell on Boston, but it was a part of him now. The only thing he could do, was move on, and give Lani the benefit of the doubt. Odion wanted to think he understood more fully now that he had met Caroline. He was trying to relish the time he had with his closest friend, because not everything could be reversed.

Odi nodded. He would do what Lani asked, if only for the hell of it. And if there was failure, Lani wouldn’t know about it because Odion would just rewind time and try again. For some reason, Odion wanted, no he needed Lani to be proud of him. He needed a purpose again, a reason for being here at all. Hammel wasn’t keeping him here, not really. In the end he was here by choice, and now, he just needed to have a reason why. He needed a reason to be pissed off and someone needed to put some drive into him, but it was up to him to decide which direction he was going in.

Lani’s power wasn’t affecting Odion yet, but the redhead was keeping himself in check and not assuming anything. Odi couldn’t and didn’t view his power as anything separate from him, but another limb which was part of the whole. He wished Lani could view his power in the same way but perhaps this was impossible based on the fact that their powers were quite different. But he wanted to work with Lani, if only to prove that impossible things were possible. The second ball came towards him in the present time which he and Lani were situated in, and soon, it joined the tennis ball in the past, hovering ominously. He looked between the two, judging whether they were in the same past, or if the tennis ball was further in the past than the football. He couldn’t really tell because he wasn’t with them. The final one mad it’s way to play behind his back and Odion sent it to the past as well, wondering how any of this was working or made sense in the slightest. Had he taken over Lani’s power?

A playful grin crossed Odion’s face. The dodge ball was easiest to retrieve in time, and for a moment, though neither of them could see it happening, it disappeared from view completely and reappeared in Odi’s hands. Time was doing funny things. “You still have this one?” He asked, the first two still inanimate in front of him. He looked at Lani for some kind of clue, having forgotten what he was meant to do. He wasn’t so sure about this, it felt kind of stupid. Or maybe he did, not knowing what the point of all this was.

[Lani Hunter]

“Eh,” Lani uttered waving his hand in a dismissive manner. The chances of Lani ever just getting up would be slim to none. Maybe in the far future but as far as Lani was concerned alarm clocks were an enemy. Lani was better at ignoring things that were hard to deal with. Not necessarily a good thing but he had a bad habit of turning a blind eye to things that were problems in his own life and he was so much better at focusing on external problems. That hadn’t changed, unfortunately. Lani shook his head of the thoughts and decided he was going to ignore the fact that he had problems. It was easier this way.

This was something he could do. Train and get things done. Inactivity was in Lani’s mind a worse sin than the one that got a person where they were. People had no right to complain if they weren’t going to do anything about what they were complaining about. Lani had long since accepted that his status as a super senior was completely his fault. It wasn’t just his power it was his classes and the fact that he hadn’t gone. But he still wasn’t going. He didn’t see the point he had gotten the books and was reading them from time to time and he was learning on his own. He didn’t need classes. So he thought, but then he had a stubborn streak and a reputation as a skipper to uphold.

Lani laughed lightly under his breath his mind was wandering. He needed it to focus. He focused on Odion and his power coiled behind his mind’s eye and he knew he had to power to make this hard for Odion but he really was just going for quick changes here. That and working on thinking on his feet. He focused on staying with his body and he felt his power wrap around him like a supporting glove and for a brief moment Lani could see how he and the power were the same because they both wanted the same thing. Lani couldn’t have said anything about how this was working, Odion knew better about time than Lani did. But the objects were still somehow tangible in the present because Lani could still feel them. He pushed at them tugging them one way or another but it appeared that feeling them and being able to move them were different things at the moment.

“Woah!” Lani cried out startled. The dodge ball was there one moment and then it was gone and Lani’s power converged on empty air. His power’s backlash was violent as it shared Lani’s surprise and utter confusion. How could something just vanish like that? Lani’s power released the other objects in worry that they might as well vanish. The dodge ball appeared and before Lani could stop it his power surged on it all of his power pressing against it feeling the little grips covering the ball and the shifting of the air inside the plastic as his power pressed against it. The strength of his power against it pressed it into Odion’s chest and after a full examination that the ball felt the same Lani shook his head and blinked. “How did you do that?” Lani demanded his voice a little shaky. He wasn’t used to things just disappearing from his power it had him and his power successfully unsettled.

Lani took a deep breath and pulled his power back under control. “No, give me a sec.” Lani said before his power got comfortable in his mind again. Its hackles were raised and it was on the defensive but the more terrifying thing was that it was again starting to look at Odion as the enemy. Lani sighed and reminded it of who it was reacting to. It helped a little but only so much as changing ‘enemy’ to ‘competition’. Lani could live with that because that was about where he was at the moment. He shook his head and got himself back into focus. His power grabbed the ball and tugged a little before he let it go. “Alright,” he said with a little nod and he tugged at the tennis ball and football pressing against them with all of his strength. Lani felt a little bit of sweat break out on his brow as he focused solely on the two. Or at least that was what it seemed like. A stream of his power slipped through the cracks and knocked the dodge ball from Odion’s hands and sent it to perch on the redhead’s crown.

[Odion Martins]

Odion’s grades were only half bad. What was really keeping here, was his power. It was extremely difficult to graduate when you couldn’t control half of your power. Much needed to be explored in that area, no matter how useless Odi deemed it. The past was set in stone and fun to explore. The future was uncertain, and it could change at any given moment, that he felt it was a waste of his precious talents to be going somewhere that might not exist later on. He only hoped to continue seeing Lani in that shaky but hopeful future. Odi was barely going to any classes at all, only one in fact. Why, when already had all the requirements to graduate would he continue taking courses? But not taking any would be suspicious, so now, he only appeared lazy. That was fine with him.

Suppressing a chuckle which turned into a haphazard grin, Odion could physically feel the force of the ball in his hands and didn’t think how it had gotten there to be that complicated if he really thought about it. “It’s sort of... tricky,” he said, wondering if he could explain it at all. “But somewhere along the time continuum, you must have moved it here with your mind.” Probably somewhere in the future, but Odion wasn’t too sure about it, and, he wasn’t exactly concerned either. “I didn’t do it Lani, you did.” Odion smiled wider. “You like philosophy, try wrapping your mind around that one.” Odi would be damned if he couldn’t keep Lani on his toes.

Going to examine the dodge ball again, somewhere in the back of his mind Odi knew there were other balls being suspended by him in another time frame. It just worked, he could explain it if he had to, but it seemed such a shame to ruin a good thing. Odion would’ve lost himself in thought, but his snapped his eyes to Lani once he was ready again. Now he was going to have to play hardball. It was strange, because Odion knew that those two balls were in the past, in different pasts, but they were in the present, yet somehow, Lani could still reach them, because the past those balls were in, he was in that same past. And then it dawned on Odi, as the balls slipped between the both of their hands, that Lani had control in the past, the past Odion controlled. They both had control.

Until Lani sent the dodge ball to Odion’s head, making the ginger look up and break his concentration. The tennis and football flew at him in the present and Odi barely caught them, having to step back from the sheer force they had on him. “You need to relax,” he said, thinking now would be a good time to regroup. He stuck the balls under one of his arms and raised his eyebrows at Lani. “And get this off my head.” He still couldn’t see what the point of all this was, other than to spend more time with Lani and perfect their powers. But Odion wasn’t sure what Lani was trying to accomplish, or what he was supposed to be doing. He tossed the balls over to Lani so they could try again. “I have to wonder if we’re doing this correctly,” he said as casually as possible, wondering if Lani would humour him and explain things a little better.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani figured that graduation was something he would never see. Not officially, he would just have to slip away quietly as some sort of drop out. Not someone who dropped out before they had taken the classes but rather as someone who just didn’t have the grades to graduate and passed quietly into nothingness. He figured he could always get a GED, he had the ability to, just not the effort. Well, good thing nothing he was planning on doing with his life required a diploma. And he knew enough forgers where that might not even be a problem. Control of his power was going to be the real test and Lani felt good it was one he could pass. But he hadn’t officially trained with his power, he was just getting better at not letting it freak out. That wasn’t really control but rather someone trying to hold back a river with sticks. Perhaps it would get the job done, but only for so long.

The chuckle did nothing to calm Lani’s nerves. He had never just lost hold of something like that. It had him rather rattled. Lani listened as Odion tried to explain. He groaned a little, time travel was never something that was easy to understand and there was all of this continuum prattle. Perhaps it was time that Lani bit the bullet and decided to stop trying to understand time but there was no way that would happen. “Oh that’s… what?” Lani asked helpless in his attempt to understand. He sent Odion a glare. How could he have done it he didn’t even feel it? Lani rubbed at his forehead and shook his head a little. He stuck his tongue out at the redhead. This was philosophy on steroids combined with the physics of space and time. “You’d give Einstein a headache,” Lani accused.

But none the less Lani tackled the problem. Ending up in Odion’s hands would have been the proper trajectory, at least if it had the ability to go through Odion’s back. So perhaps Odion had just let it jump ahead in time. And it had stopped because that was where Lani had intended it. But that didn’t make sense. He didn’t actually want to hit Odion, he would have stopped it before it got close. Lani’s power surged against the time walls. Odion certainly was strong and Lani felt as if he were pushing against a wall. A wall with eyes and history, it looked down at his power as if it was nothing more than a lion pushing against the stone wall. It paid him no heed, it didn’t need to. Lani could have control in the past on the balls but moving them forward was fighting against time itself and that was something he couldn’t do. No matter how strong or how determined.

Lani’s power stumbled a little at the sudden lack of resistance. He had hoped for the wall to give a little not for a complete vanishing of the wall. So when his power sent the balls flying at Odion panic struck Lani like it hadn’t in ages. That vicious reminder that he could hurt people without meaning to, the careful steps he needed to take to keep those around him safe. Lani pulled his power back with a fierce pull. It fought him but he was more determined. Eyes wide and teeth clenched Lani watched Odion catch them with relief. If that had been anyone else… He had grown too comfortable, too confident in Odion’s abilities that he stopped thinking about the threat his own posed. It coiled around him and it terrified him. It was like having a monster in the back of his head that at any moment might break loose. And sometimes it was to protect him, but Lani didn’t want to be protected at the expense of someone else.

Lani dropped the control he had over the ball the instant Odion said something about it. He had almost forgotten he had put it there. Nodding numbly Lani sent his eyes to the ground and shook his head. Relax. Relax, he could relax. He took a few shaky breathes and looked back up at Odion. “I’m so sorry,” he said his brow coming together in worry. “Are you alright?” He was such a fool. Such a dangerous fool. His heart raced as he watched Odion and looked for signs that he was unsettled as well. He seemed rather calm all things considered. Why was Lani the one freaking out here? He hadn’t almost been pummeled by hard objects. Lani started a little and caught the balls with a combination of his hands and his power. The tennis ball in his hand turned into somewhat of a stress ball. He passed the ball from hand to hand his eyes watching that instead of Odion.

“No, I don’t think so,” Lani agreed, “I was trying to figure out some way to not get lost in the power.” But he failed. He got so caught up in it that he became numb to the fact that his best friend was the challenger. Their powers were so strong that it was easy for them to get lost in it. Odion got lost in time all the time. Anything emotionally trying and Lani got lost in his mind. He shuddered a little at the memory. He never wanted to get stuck like that again. It had taken Shapiro literally beating sense into him to get him to snap out of it for the first time. And he couldn’t forget the time he had cornered Odion only to find that he had lost a few days. Not hours, days. That was terrifying. “Maybe,” Lani began hesitantly, “Maybe we should call it quits for the day.”

[Odion Martins]

Odion didn’t really care that much if he graduated or not, he didn’t subscribe to this society and didn’t play by its rules. He was here now to have a safe place to perfect his power and so far that hadn’t been happening until recently. But he knew, deep down inside, that he was here for something far greater than the betterment of his powers, and he knew that Lani had to know that as well. He wasn’t going to let a piece of paper define him, and he wasn’t going to let anyone else define him ever again.

It was probably a good thing Lani and Odi had their respective powers. If they were to trade, Lani would be switching everything around and seeing just how far back in time he could go, and Odion would have near total control over all objects with relative ease because when it came to powers, he just let it be. It wasn’t what he was interested in understanding, not when people were much more complex. Time travelling was a cinch. “And that’s the reason why I came,” he said in matter of fact tone of voice, obviously not trying to hide his amusement. Lani could stump Odi with riddles all he wanted, but Odion was a riddle in human form, it was no contest who would be forever winning this battle.

And Lani had control into the future while they were in the past because Odi had decided long ago they were working together. The ball had simply gone around him at some point in time and when the point was shouldn’t matter to Lani as much as the fact that their powers had worked together without collapsing completely, he just didn’t know it yet. Time jumps were something Odi was used to and viewed as normal and perhaps Lani was questioning all the things Odion took for granted. So what if he lost days at a time? He could always go back and review them. However now was not the time to be skipping ahead to see what had happened to the dodge ball. Odi wasn’t a mind reader, but he could sense Lani’s frustration, and ever since more and more walls were coming down between them, there was more access to understanding Lani.

Feeling Lani’s power disappear around him, Odion wished Lani would just let things go, and see his power in a different way. The problem wasn’t Odion and his power as competition, it was Lani against himself. He was too worried, and definitely too stressed out. Odi wondered if Lani thinking about what made him happy or something sappy like that would help to let his power roam. Lani would still be holding the ropes, but they didn’t have to be so taut. Odi gave Lani an almost constipated look. “They’re just balls Lani, we’re just training. You’re not going to hurt me.” Apparently humour wasn’t going to work in this situation, Odi tried a new tactic. He really did believe in Lani, he believed that Lani was afraid and feeling vulnerable and anxious, but Odi also knew Lani would never hurt him. Never intentionally, of course. Odion was going to have to trick the trickster.

Odi watched Lani focus on the object at hand while he spoke. Lani was a peculiar man, not in a strange way, but in that way which peeked Odion’s interest. There was so much more than he let on, and Odion constantly wondered what Lani was wondering. “Maybe, you’re supposed to get lost.” Odi said softly, not wanting to interrupt Lani’s thinking, but just trying to help his friend see what he saw almost every day. Odi’s eyes turned hard, “No, you’re not quitting on me.” Unsure where this determination had come from, he held onto it while also feeling surprised. Looking at Lani now, Odi wanted to help him succeed, but more than that, he wanted to make him smile. Odion paced towards Lani, quitting wasn’t the break he meant. “Do you remember when we first trained?” Of course Lani did, he wasn’t stupid, but that wasn’t what Odi was getting at. “Most of your power feels unsure to me, angry, or hostile,” he put a hand on Lani’s shoulder for comfort and to keep the blonde’s attention, “but if you get the chance to go exploring, you ought to be excited.” A smile crossed Odi’s face and he nodded a little for emphasis. Was he getting through to Lani at all?

[Lani Hunter]

Lani may not care but it was convincing his parents that that was a good outlook on life. Perhaps they were right but Lani was too much his father’s child to admit to being wrong. The future was indeed in for a treat, or rather a doom, with the pair working in tandem. Lani already had a good feeling about them as partners. Ever since the dance and the fireworks they had worked so smoothly together. Really who could stop them? They weren’t just relying on powers either they had enough cleverness between the two of them to leave any sort of law enforcement in the dust. Lani liked to think he was clever but he had to admit that Odion had him beat when it came to thinking on his feet. Lani liked plans and Odion was spontaneous. Spontaneity was something that Lani enjoyed so long as he wasn’t doing something dangerous.

It was true that the present would be a far different place had their powers been switched. Lani had too much of a desire to change things. At least with his current situation he could err on the side of the past being the past. He was sure if he begged Odion he would let him go back and change something but then whatever thing Lani wanted to never happen Odion would know about and the past wouldn’t be forgotten. The time continuum was too confusing. If he changed something then the present would be different and if the present were different than who knows who would be different. Perhaps circumstances set up by the universe were meant to be. Perhaps Lani would be his father’s favorite son if he changed that he ever became a thief, but honestly if that had happened he and Odion would hate each other. Lani rubbed at his temple. “Well now that we understand the goal here let’s get down to business,” Lani joked. He was here to throw things at Odion and Odion was here to twist Lani’s mind into knots.

Lani was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the disappearing ball. It would make sense if Lani’s power would have diverted the ball around Odion to avoid him it would make sense that Odion didn’t get hit and was holding it. But Lani’s mind was spinning. All he knew for sure that there was a ball there one moment and the other it was gone and then there again.

Odion had the right assumption about that. If Lani was too strongly engrossed in one emotion or another his power wandered and did so in a way that reflected those emotions. Anger and fear were the strongest, which was probably why it had that parasitic seeming aspect. When Lani was angry or afraid it jumped to defend him from the offending person or thing. It probably had something to do with the manifestation of it all. He couldn’t really tell but he had his theories. “But…” Lani started but shut his mouth. As much as Odion wanted to get through to Lani, Lani wanted to get through to Odion. He gave Odion a sour look the joke lost on him. He wasn’t sure if Odion had ever been hit in the face by a fast moving tennis ball but it wasn’t at all pleasant. Lani saw it more so as Odion not taking this seriously.

Lani shook his head denying that thought. But damn Odion, the words spoken into his thoughts made the thought swirl in his mind but that was too terrified. He had been lost before he didn’t want to go back. True, he had been closer to his power when he let it roam and his control had been better but Lani’s mind was a terrifying place. Lani’s eyes snapped up and got caught in the hard stare of his friend. He sighed but at the same time he felt doomed he felt motivated. His eyes were wide in surprise, he hadn’t expected such a strong reaction out of Odion. Lani sighed as Odion approached and his crossed his arms as if that would distance himself from the reality Odion was spouting. “Of course I do,” Lani said a little wearily. How could he forget? Odion’s power felt warm but Lani’s power was too combative to be anything but dangerous. He tried to dislodge his eyes from Odion’s but the hand on his shoulder rooted them back in. He clenched his jaw. That wasn’t helping. How could he help how his power felt? Before he had a chance to protest Odion was speaking again. “It’ll get into trouble if it goes exploring,” Lani insisted. He raised his hands in yielding and it was Odion’s smile that pushed him to that. “Fine,” he muttered.

“We’ll do this your way,” Lani said making sure Odion knew he wasn’t happy about it. “I don’t know why my power feels hostile or whatever. But aren’t you afraid that if I let it go that might do something… unpleasant?” He decided on the last word after a moment of hesitation.

[Odion Martins]

Whatever Odion stole he was sure no one would miss. Many of Hammel’s students were a prime example of that. If he did steal something of sentimental value, it was due to needing to make a point. Odi didn’t have a family or anyone else to answer to, and thus, he made his own rules. He wondered if things would’ve been different had his parents found him like they had found Declyn. He probably wouldn’t be here right now, he never would’ve met Lani. And if by some chance he had wound up here, would he have cared in the slightest about Lani? They never would have connected the same way. Was Lani worth the alternate reality? Odi smiled at the thought of it. They were the perfect team because of their imperfections.

Lani was still uncomfortable with Odion, and the redhead immediately retracted his hand upon realizing this. “I didn’t say your power, I said you.” If Lani could relate his power to himself, find the similarities both good and bad, the easier things would be. The easier the relationship if you will, between the meta and his power. Odi smiled at Lani insisting that whatever happened would be all Odi’s fault. So be it.

Odion rose his eyebrows. “You want to talk about unpleasant?” Odion said, about to go off on a rant. But he shut his mouth and let his look say it all. He was going to say something about Lani not trusting him, but Lani did trust him. Lani just didn’t trust himself. No, he wasn’t worried about something going wrong, he wasn’t afraid of Lani’s power. Impressed by it maybe, but he was no more afraid of it than he was of the shadows. If Odion could be a street kid, a gangster, a thief, and think on his feet well enough to get Lani out of the grips of his former boss, Odion was starting to feel he could handle a lot of hardships. Maybe that’s why he was meant to be here, right at this very moment. Odion wasn’t a coward anymore, and maybe, he never had been.

“Look, it’s not going to be perfect, that’s why we’re here, but you don’t try, do.” He stepped further away again. “Anything, anything at all goes wrong, I can stop it.” Odion had confidence in what he did best. “What would you tell me if I tried reeling in time and kept it all to myself?” He asked. It wouldn’t work, he’d start going crazy, he might lose his whole life at that rate. The answer to this, was that Lani’s power might benefit from constantly being around everything instead of cooped up inside his head. His power was so much bigger than how Lani was seeing it. Odion could contain moments, but he wouldn’t ever trying the daunting task of holding time forever or as a whole, and Lani was being ridiculous in thinking that was the only way to master how to use it. Maybe it wasn’t about controlling it, maybe it was about befriending it. “I can do this Lani,” Odi insisted, biting his bottom lip and getting into a readied stance. He needed this, he needed something to have risks and to be worth living for. Otherwise, he had nothing. “If you feel safe, you can do it too.”