Time Warp: Feedback (Odion)

[Odion Martins]

Odion’s skin crawled at the thought of having Lani help him with his time control, or lack thereof. He bristled and nearly complained but decided not to say anything that he was thinking – Lani could probably read it all on his eyes anyway. “Fine,” Odion said, caving in to the suggestion. He thought that planning for this kind of scenario was absolutely ridiculous. The only person who managed to snap him out of it was Jared over a year ago, and he wasn’t in Vermont at the present. That rapscallion was off gallivanting across the world doing god knows what. They were going to have to plan this out from nothing.

His eyes narrowed. “It’s only serious because you’re making such a big deal over it…” If Odion had his way, this would be water under the bridge by now. But just like how he didn’t let Lani get away with having a half assed power, Lani was simply returning the favour. It was irony in all its glory, and Odion was not enjoying one bit of it. Brow furrowed Odion shook his head, unsure. “I thought I was okay with it, I thought it wasn’t something for me to control…” But Lani was starting to have him think otherwise. So in other words, no, he wasn’t trying to come back anymore, just as he hadn’t been trying to leave in the first place. “What if there’s no way for me to return on command?” Judging by the determination Lani had displayed, there was only one way to find out, and Odion was already wary.

Odion smirked as Lani’s finger made a slight indent on his forehead that quickly disappeared. “It’s hardly convincing proof,” Odion said, nestling into Lani comfortably like the spot was made just for him. “I know,” Odion said, playing with Lani’s fingers absently, studying them as he made an internal decision. He believed Lani wanted to help him, that this wasn’t about some missed appointment or hurt feelings. It was about how Lani wanted him to give a damn, and that was going to take a lot of might he wasn’t sure he had. “I’ll give myself another chance if you do,” Odion said with finality. Their spat had been sour enough and he was ready to move on if Lani was also ready.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani couldn’t help himself, he was practically gleeful to finally extract the revenge he had been holding onto since Odion talked him into using Odion as a test pilot for his power. Lani bit his tongue to keep from saying anything along the lines of ‘now you know how it feels’. He kept his expression smooth and smiled softly at Odion and couldn’t help but chuckle at the reluctance in Odion’s voice. “Oh come on, it’ll be fun, we haven’t trained together in a while.” And Lani didn’t have to worry about accidently breaking Odion this time. Lani sobered, though he couldn’t say that Odion wouldn’t break himself. Lani believed in Odion, even if the redhead didn’t believe in himself.

“Because it is a big deal,” Lani snapped in reply waving a hand in frustration. Lani was about to keep plowing forward when Odion spoke again. The telekinetic shut his mouth to listen and with a ghost of a smile on his face he realized he didn’t need to say anything more. “It’s your power, it’s all yours to control,” Lani said, “Just like my…” he gestured randomly unable to find the words to describe what happened when he let all his floodgate down, “like mine is.” Cocking his head at the redhead, he considered the question. “We can only tell that if we try, and if that doesn’t work maybe you can learn to recognize it and stop it before it takes you away.” Odion didn’t think he was going to let fear stop Lani now. Planning was Lani’s thing, if there was a plan to be had Lani would find it. Planning kept Lani’s power from going wild on a day to day basis. Who would have ever thought Lani would meditate regularly?

The telekinetic chuckled and shifted into a comfortable spot next to Odion. Lani smiled to himself, comforted and relaxed having finally talked about this. Maybe keeping it bottled up wasn’t such a good idea after all. Novel idea. “Of course,” Lani replied, kissing Odion’s temple. Resting his head against Odion’s he closed his eyes and practically purred like a kitten. And speaking of, he opened his eyes at the feel of a paw on his leg. Darshay let out a loud meow as she hesitated. As if asking if they were done fighting she poked his leg before climbing into his lap and bumping her head against Odion’s elbow. Insisting that if they were snuggling she wanted in. Lani poked her in the side as she stretched out. She swatted at his hand as he kept poking her gently. Her paws swiped out and she braced herself waiting for his fingers to strike.

[Odion Martins]

Lani didn’t have to say anything about what goes around comes around because it was written on his face and Odion could just tell the telekinetic was dying to say so. “I wonder why,” Odion teased right back. Honestly, whenever they trained it was a mess. Things went everywhere, one of them usually got hurt, and things usually ended in a fight. Odion supposed Lani was more interested now because he wasn’t the one pushing himself. Now it was Odion’s turn. Odion supposed it was Lani’s turn to play trainer for a while. “We can start next…” Odion let his hand roll, waiting for Lani to finish the sentence.

Odion gave a nod, obviously thinking about something. “This is going to take some time,” he said plainly. He didn’t disagree with Lani, he was just feeling the burden of what it was going to take in order to remaster his power, and learn if there were any boundaries or not. There hadn’t been any fear in learning more about it when he was a teenager, but now it seemed he had more to lose if he lost himself. He couldn’t bear the thought of being trapped in a cyclical world of never seeing Lani again. He supposed he had done it to himself, what with trying to forget the love of his life and all. You couldn’t play with time like that and not reap consequences. “You think there’s a pattern to it?” Odion asked genuinely. Because if there was one, he wasn’t able to see it, his mind just didn’t work that way.

Odion sighed and let his head rest gently on Lani, smiling from the reassurance. Fighting was the worst feeling in the world, and he didn’t like doing it, but sometimes there was no other way to get to actually talking about things. And if this was the path most taken, well, at least he had comfort in knowing it was only a path, not the destination. They weren’t going to break up every time they fought. The ginger hadn’t realized his eyes were closed until Darshay pounced up on them. His dark blue eyes flicked open and he almost panicked before realizing it was just her. Her turned his face inwards and pecked Lani’s cheek while he teased their cat. “We can still go for dinner you know, just because.” It would be nice, Odion really hadn’t wanted to miss it.

[Lani Hunter]

The telekinetic snorted in response and gave a shrug as if he had no idea why they’d stopped training together. Somewhere in his consciousness he should have had a little voice to tell him that he should stop gloating, but somewhere along the road his conscious had been left behind and he couldn’t keep himself from grinning. It was a purely selfish emotion, he didn’t want to lose Odion again and seeing him like that had just killed Lani. That there was nothing he could do made it even worse. To say he had issues with things he couldn’t control would be an understatement. No matter how he denied it, Lani was a control freak. All of his planning had to be just so and all of the things that came up needed to be dealt with, or completely avoided if they couldn’t be dealt with.

“I don’t doubt it,” Lani said in agreement. He knew the meaning of struggling with a power, he knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, he knew it would likely get worse before it got better, he also knew that no problem had one clear cut solution. Lani hummed and didn’t answer immediately, instead looking into space and thinking. “Perhaps,” he said finally, “I’m not sure.” He had noticed some things but he hadn’t been looking for them and he was wondering if he was seeing coincidences now in retrospect. It wouldn’t do to make an analysis off of the current data. Lani was still thinking about it when he felt Odion’s head on his shoulder. He smiled softly and looked down at the redhead, no fighting wasn’t good for them, they were still trying to figure it all out. For two thieves honesty and vulnerability were the last things they liked to show and being honest and vulnerable with each other was no different. A lesson learned, Lani acknowledged, he would try not to let his emotions fester next time. While Odion’s power was a big deal, the fight wasn’t.

He smiled contently, resting close to his lover, the fighting had passed and in the aftermath was still love. He smiled to himself as he felt Odion jump ever so slightly when Darshay dropped onto his lap. The warmth grew in his heart and in his skin as he snuggled with his boyfriend. Lani leaned his head against Odion’s and his smile only grew. “I’d like that,” he said his tone completely changed from earlier. Lani looked at Odion with a sly smile on his face. “You realize you’re going to have to get dressed to go to dinner, right?” He teased, despite the fact that it was still only mid morning. Darshay swatted at his fingers and finally having enough of his poking jumped away. He chuckled softly and gently tightened his hold around Odion’s shoulders. “I’m sorry I was an ass.” He looked down at Odion. He entwined his fingers with Odion’s and kissed Odion’s fingers, giving Odion his best puppy dog eyes.

[Odion Martins]

Odion smirked at Lani’s lack of response. “That’s what I thought,” he said almost smugly. He wasn’t exactly on the right end of the conversation here, he was after all about to be studied and theories were about to be tested on him and his time control, or lack thereof. Still, they were a couple, and couples bantered. Odion had bigger worries he hadn’t shared with Lani, and that was, what if no matter what they tried or how they tried it, what if it didn’t make a difference? It was why Odion thought it was better just to play dead now and not worry about trying to control the weather. Predictions could help, but what if there was nothing to be done?

Keeping his thoughts to himself as they snuggled, Odion had already cast the issue to the back of his mind. At least they had talked about it, now Odion wasn’t sure what the next step was. He assumed Lani had a plan already, and was probably just waiting for the right time to use it. Odion knew that the more he thought on this, the more frequent the episodes would become. It would be best to simply avoid it altogether.

Odion laughed and accepted the apology with a playful look in his eyes as he made to stand. “Well, if you insist.” He made his way towards the hallway, tossing his towel aside once he was just out of view. “You realize dinner isn’t for a while, right?” He teased, his footsteps echoing after him on his trek to the bedroom. Forgiveness had many perks in store for the telekinetic.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani wrinkled his nose at the time turner. He decided not to give Odion the pleasure of a verbal response to that one. It would hopefully be better than when they did Lani’s power since Odion’s power wasn’t as combative as Lani’s telekinesis. He was much more into the idea of fixing it than losing Odion forever. They were going to be pushing the limits and who knew what would really happen in the end. He wasn’t going to let Odion sit back and let his power just run away with him. And if Odion wanted to argue that then Lani had more than his fair share of examples. A strong power like either of theirs was dangerous on a normal basis, uncontrolled they were like walking bombs, maybe Odion’s detonated more internally but it still affect the people around him.

Lost in his thoughts about where to go from here the telekinetic was balancing a line between what was a logical test and what might be the final step that took it over the edge for Odion. He wasn’t sure if it was random or if it was emotional or physical distress that might cause time to go all wonky. It could be any manner of things, maybe this last bout was really because Lani had left his shoes in the hall? The telekinetic shrugged and knew that they would figure it out, either how to stop them or prevent them, but at the very least how to get Odion out of them. Smiling, Lani watched Odion rise and move toward the bedroom. Lani knew that look and he rose a brow, grinning like an imp. Not too long after Odion discarded his towel did Lani rise and follow after his lover.

~End~