February Writing Challenge: Just One Difference

[Sean *]

It's writing challenge time! To enter, just post a ficlet (300-4000 words suggested) in this thread. When the voting for this month's OTM winners comes around, a voting poll will go up for this as well.

The Challenge: All characters, like all people, are the sum total of their personalities, their experiences, their fears, their hopes, their dreams...for this writing challenge, you need to change one thing about your character, and only one thing (if it makes it easy, think of it as though you were filling out an application and entered something different instead, which could be as simple as brown eyes instead f green eyes or as complicated as a different career entirely). How does that change affect your character's life? Does it have any tangible effect at all? Write about it. (For the purposes of this challenge, gender swap would apply but age swap would not. Power swap would apply.)

The rules:

• Characters must be in Hammel canon, but the ficlets are not site canon by the very nature of the challenge.
  
• Entries must be more than 300 words.
  
• You can enter no more than three ficlets. Any ficlets posted after the original 3 will not be considered for voting. If you want to post more, however, have fun.
  
• Ficlets must be titled.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Furthest Thing
Words: 1212
Also, there's a fair amount of swearing.

The first steps to the Hammel Institute were daunting. People always said that. Lucy had been told that. She'd tried to prepare herself for that in the short amount of time she had, but nothing could provide any comfort. She was on her own, but she was feigning some kind of belief that she had this.

Crossing the gates into Hammel's grounds, the Australian made that initial course towards the office. It was the type of thing a person was required to do on their first encounter with a place like that. She was met with paperwork; a lot more than she expected, but she took the time to filter her way through it. She felt as confused and as overwhelmed as she figured she was supposed to, but she was never one to ask her for any kind of help in an overwhelming moment. She pressed the lid of the pen handed to her against her lips when asked if she needed help, and she waved it off.

Eventually, it was done. She handed it back without a smile; nothing but a disjointed expression of obvious irritation. In her hand, she received a card instead. One she quickly shoved in her pocket. Loose directions towards a specific building - the dormitories - and she was on her way again.

It was supposed to be easy. Just an easy set of steps to the right dorm room. But where she ended up likely wasn't where she wanted to be. A push of a door open and she was so clearly in some kind of common area. Disconnected from any sign of bedrooms or dorms in the slightest.

"Shit," Lucy pursed her lips.

And there was a girl, sitting on her own in the empty room with the TV in the corner switched off. Instead, she had her attention on a book.

And she crinkled her nose, as if she'd caught the word and took offence to it.

Really? People could be so stupidly sensitive.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." Lucy went on, and this time she managed to drag her attention from the pages of the book. What she got was that large set of dark eyes narrowing on her instead. Looking at her - or really, through her - before they turned away again.

Lucy took steps towards her anyway. A second look, and it was just as short as her eyes rose from - what? A tilt of her head and she caught The Hobbit as the title of the book.

"Fuck you, too." Lucy replied as she lost her eyes.

Still, she exhaled an exasperated sigh. Of all the people to run into, she had to get stuck with the one person who seemed content to ignore her entire existence. Dragging the plastic card from her pocket, she fiddled with it between her hands. Bending it. Squeezing it as if she'd actually have the means to break it. Her thumb brushed across the lettering allocated to it.

"I'm just looking for the dorms." Lucy tried again, shrugging her shoulders at the fact. This time when she caught her eyes, they both lingered. Until hers dropped to the object in the eldest Serrano's hand, and she seemed to offer the slightest flicker of dwindled interest.

"You're a visitor?" She'd asked, a thick disinterested British accent rivalling the irked nature of Lucy's own Australian one. Her fingers running across the edge of the book as if she was toying with the idea of closing it.

"Yeah, I don't go here." Lucy admitted with a shrug, "Just my sister."

"You're supposed to wear the visitor's badg-"

"Can you help or not?" Lucy asked anyway, but this girl's eyes seemed steadily focused on the badge in her hand. Then it darted to the Australian's eyes. Back to the badge again.

She tilted her head to the side, her eyebrows raising once; "Because you're a visitor."

"Well, you're a bit of a bitch, but I guess they don't make badges for that shit." Lucy shrugged, her words darting through the air with an evident nonchalant tone despite her humoured irritation. They stalled in a series of moments, suffocated by silence and a dark set of eyes on the card Lucy couldn't stop fiddling with.

Finally, careful fingers shifted to press to either side of the clip, and she locked it onto the pocket of her parka before dropping her hands.

Satisfied enough, she looked back at her book, "Out that door." She offered, tilting her head in the direction of the adjacent exit, "There are signs. I'd hope even you would be able to figure it out."

Lucy took a slow breath. It was supposed to be easy. Just an path to her sister's dorm, because she couldn't quite meet her just yet. And Lucy knew she was supposed to keep her mentality in check. Just the sight of her younger sister Nica and she'd be able to settle, she was sure. She'd be able to forget the ridiculous encounter with the chick in the lounge. Her own eyes darted to the door. A few paces and she'd be gone. She could breathe, and everything would be fine.

She took a step. Then another. She worked a third into her stride before she stopped.

Life without Nica was difficult. Pressing. Taxing and exhausting. Like she'd lost the ability to breathe since her younger sister got shipped off to this school.

Lucy turned around sharply and crossed towards the couch instead. She curled her fingers roughly around the book, closing it with a snap and tossing it onto the nearby table.

"You should really look into the tag, thing." Lucy pointed out, catching the Brit's eyes now that she had nothing else to hold her focus but the worked up Australian, "Uptight Redcoat Bitch in giant letters, yeah?" She raised her eyebrows, pausing in the moment, but she was hardly done, "Minor font points out that you suffer from having a pole shoved so far up your ass you can feel it in your bloody throat, so you're a useless fuck when it comes to talking to actual bloody people."

In that leaning proximity, Lucy lingered for a spare moment. Or two. Possibly more, she wasn't sure as she took slightly harsher breaths. Like the words and the frustration and the out-pour was far too much.

But she managed to step away, backwards paces to the door now.

And her hand reached for the badge at her jacket, because she wasn't done. With precise hands, she pressed the clip and - painfully slowly - she dragged it off again. "Enjoy your sad bloody existence. And your book about elves and magic and shit." She conceded, turning away and taking the exit offered to her.

Silent seconds in the now relatively empty student lounge. A set of wide eyes on their own with nothing insulting to catch with her ears. Nothing so abruptly rude to look at. Nothing to really look at. If she waited long enough, the moment would likely pass.

She quickly dragged herself up from her seat. The book on the nearby table was left behind without a second thought as hyped steps carried her to the door Lucy had just walked out.

Because this - whatever it was - was hardly over.

[Hunter and Terrence Park]

Chocolate Ice Cream
If Terry’s personality took over when their powers manifested
Word Count: 1,067

Hunter sat across from Terry at the wood picnic table in front of the ice cream parlor. Hunter stared at his twin brother, Terry. He noticed something really strange, so did Terry. They were both had chocolate ice cream. No one else would have been bothered by the Park twins eating the same flavor of ice cream, nor did they care. The thing that made the situation strange was that Hunter hated chocolate ice cream. He always had gotten vanilla. But there they were with chocolate ice cream. Hunter didn’t have a reason behind why he wanted chocolate.

“Terry, something weird is going on.”

“Just let it go. Twins are supposed to have some connection with each other. It’s nothing to worry about.” Terry licked his ice cream. Terry wasn’t at all worried about what was going on. Sure, he had noticed some things were a little off with Hunter but nothing to major. “Plus it’s normal to get something different every now and again.”

“Yeah, okay. I get the ice cream thing. What about my grades, uh? How you would explain that?” Hunter never had good grades. He always just barely passed his class so he could move on to the next grade. Seventh grade was no difference. He grades sucked. But towards the end of the year, the teacher had a talk with Hunter and his parent. If Hunter didn’t get his grades up he would have to take summer school or repeat the seventh grade. Some how Hunter’s grades went up and he was moving on the eighth grade.

“Simple. You didn’t want to go to summer school ‘cause that’s where you would be right now. Summer school, if you didn’t get your grades up. And you would of run the risk of repeating seventh grade.”

Hunter opened his mouth to say his brother was wrong, but his closed his mouth. He knew that Terry was right on the nose. Hunter sure didn’t want to be in summer school. He much rather be a kid during the summer instead of learning. Hunter licked the ice cream that was running down the side of his ice cream cone before it got to his hand. “Alright Genius, then wha-”

“I’m not a genius. I have common sense which you lack.”

Hunter stared at his brother again. He was not at all amused by his brother’s comment. “Shut up.” Hunter just ate his ice cream in silence. He let his thoughts fill his mind. Maybe he was just working himself up. Maybe Terry was right and there was absolutely nothing for Hunter to worry about. But there were Hunter’s pranks. Yes, he was still coming up with pranks and schemes to steal, but he wasn’t putting them into action. He also noticed that he was also thinking about consequences that would follow. Oh god, Hunter was becoming like Terry. “I’m freaking out and you’re thinkin’ about Lilly-May.” C’mon man. Dude, she’s are cousin.”[/b]

“I am not!”

“Dude,” Hunter looked at Terry with a ‘really?’ kind of face, “she’s are cousin.”

Terry went back to his ice cream. “Shut up!” He was embarrassed that he got caught. Then he realized something. He looked at his brother. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

Hunter shrugged his shoulders. “Twins are supposed to have some connection with each other.” Hunter mocked Terry.

“I don’t sound like that.”

The two brothers looked at each other. They both knew something weird was going on. Hunter did point it out to Terry and Terry was able to come up with some logical explanation that made sense. If Terry admitted something weird was going on then it would really freak Hunter and Terry out.

Three days pasted and the boys didn’t talk about what they had noticed. They were going to leave it alone. Terry did explain them. But the real answers were coming that a little later that day. A stranger stopped by the house around 1 o’clock. He introduced himself as a recruiter from The Hammel Institute.

Kei and his wife, Amy, took the recruiter to the living room to sit and talk.

“Would to be alright if Hunter and Terrence joined us?” The recruiter asked. Amy went to get the two boys. Once the three of them came to the living room, the recruiter continued, “The Hammel Institute is a school for meta-humans. Hunter and Terrence are a gestalt pair. It would be very wise if they attended at Hammel.”

“We’re what?”

“A gestalt pair. Basically you will become one person in two bodies. You two will think the same, have the same habits, everything will be the same. Right now Hunter and Terrence still have their own personalities, but as their power grows they will become one entity in two bodies. For gestalt pairs one or two things would happen. The two personalities would emerge together.” The recruiter interlocked his hands together to show the two personalities emerging together. “Or one personality would take over and the other one would no long exist.” The recruiter separated his hands. He made a fist with one and extending his fingers on the other hand to show one personality taking over.

Hunter and Terry glanced over at each other. They knew which one their were experiencing. Terry’s personality was taking over Hunter. At some point in time Hunter would be his brother.

“I have no problem with the boys going to Hammel. I went there myself and so did my brother. Amy, what do you think?” Kei spoke up.

“If it’s better for the boys to go, then yes let them go.”

“Hey, do we get a say in this?” Hunter looked around the room at the three adults.

“No. If you’re a meta then you go to Hammel or one of it’s sister schools. You two are going to Hammel and that’s that.” Kei informed his sons.

After a while of talking the recruiter left the house. Hunter and Terry went to their bedroom, which they shared with their younger cousin, Josh. The two twins kicked Josh out. Hunter and Terry had a lot of information that they had to take in and figure things out. They were going to move to Pilot Ridge, Vermont, to attend The Hammel Institute for metas.

“Look on the bright side, Hunter. If your personality took over then we would be repeating the seventh grade.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

The Bar

---

Josh stared at the Law Journal with incomprehension. His name should have been there. He'd spent months cramming, taking yet more classes (on top of the ones he had already completed) and engaging in tutoring and studying for this moment.

But he had located the Bs.

Beringer, Tanya
Berman, Lewis
Bernell, Chloe
Bernhard, George
Berning, Willis
Berry, Anna
Bertley, Karl

There was no Bernstein listed. As he stared at the spot where his name ought to have been a hollow feeling settled into the pit of his stomach. This couldn't be real. Perhaps he was only dreaming, and he would wake up and find that the real list wasn't even printed out yet. Or...or perhaps his name had been left off by mistake. Surely it wasn't impossible that a name or two might be skipped over sometimes. He could call the office and ask.

Or he could await the official confirmation, the letter that would come later.

But what if it wasn't a mistake? Would he really want to wait all that time in uncertainty? He could handle uncertainty over rejection in so many cases. He would rather have uncertainty than rejection when it came to people he liked.

He would prefer uncertainty over rejection when it came to Sean.

But this, this was so much more important than his love life. This was his entire future. He had spent over a decade of his life in higher education expressly for this purpose.

This was his chosen path.

And he knew that so many of those names printed here were younger than thirty, had chosen not to pursue the furthest degrees possible. If they could pass the bar and he couldn't, what did that really say about his skills? And if, with the amount of education he'd had, he had still failed...

He couldn't do the one thing he had trained all his adult life for. What was he going to do now? He didn't have other marketable skills. He wasn't rightly sure he had any unmarketable skills, either.

And He had paid so many sacrifices to get here. He had broken up with Sean in part so that he could improve his grades so that he could in turn get into law school. He had taken up smoking. And during law school itself so much of his social life had suffered.

And his name wasn't there.

[Joe Honnick]

The morning came too soon and Joe yawned as he meandered down the stairs to start the coffee. Going into the office today wasn’t going to be pleasant. Joe and several others were currently battling a highly efficient defense lawyer and to make matters worse the evidence was wearing thin.

He filled his cup and turned on the news to catch up on what was going on in the world. Sipping slowly on his beverage, he heard the stairs creek and knew without looking his wife had awoken bringing with her the scent of herbs and sweet flowers.

“Good morning, love,” Joe said and got a semi-intelligible reply from the woman that made him smile. Jasmine, with a cup of coffee in hand joined Joe on the couch, sipping at her cup as she shuffled in her slippers.

Joe leaned over and kissed her, loving how even after all of these years she could still make his heart race. She smiled back at him and settled on the couch. “You’re up early today,” she said her eyes sparkling, like they always did when she had a secret.

“I just want to get into the office early, there has to be something that I’m missing,” Joe said, he regularly discussed his work with Jasmine, she was brilliant and insightful. Very much his other (better) half. Even though she didn’t know much about the law and knew very little of the proceedings, she peppered him with questions and in answering them sometimes Joe saw something he hadn’t realized before, or something she would come to a conclusion and it would change the way Joe looked at something.

“Ah, and here I was hoping to get you started in the garden,” Jasmine pouted.

Joe smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “You know I would love to but…”

“Joe,” Jasmine said humor resting in her voice.

“What?”

“It’s Saturday,” she said and Joe’s jaw dropped open. The woman giggled. “I mean you could go to court today but you’d be the only one there.”

Joe smiled, he’d completely gotten caught up he’d forgotten that when the Judge called recess until Monday that it was Friday yesterday, somehow he figured going into the office would give him more time to work, but well this was even better.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that,” he breathed and ran a hand over his bald head, “I would much rather be outside than working on this stupid case.”

After all, winter had finally broken and spring was rising out of the ground all around them. Plants in Jasmine’s mini greenhouse could finally come outside and be planted. After an hour of relaxing Joe got dressed in his jeans and an Ohio State t-shirt and did the heavy lifting of mulch and carrying the heavy potted plants. His time as a football player had definitely given him some residual strength, he was partially glad he got a knee injury now, he might have been tempted to go professional, but knowing what he knew now about concussions and early deaths he was glad he’d missed out.

Besides, if he never started working at that law office some thirty years ago he never would have met Jasmine and wouldn’t have his two beautiful children. Speaking of…

Joe looked up at the sound of a car in the driveway. Over the small fence he saw Lesedi get out of the car and wave. Smiling he waved a hand at them and called to Jasmine who was working in the greenhouse. Lesedi walked into the backyard, her boyfriend, Tucker, trailing behind her. Joe straightened and crossed his arm menacingly and Tucker shrunk back. Joe figured it was always best to keep a healthy dose of fear between him and Tucker.

“Hi mom, hi dad!” Lesedi cooed and hugged Joe despite his protests about being sweaty.

“How are you sweetheart?” Jasmine asked exchanging kisses with his daughter.

“I’m doing really well, if I get this work done I’ll be ready to defend in August.” Lesedi was talking with her hands, waving them about and wiggling her fingers, something very uncharacteristic.

Joe pondered it and gave a glare, just in case, to Tucker, her psychic boyfriend. Joe had never liked meta humans so when Lesedi came home with Tucker Joe had almost blown a gasket. Tucker caught Joe looking and shrugged sheepishly. Tucker was a good kid, from a good family and very aware and careful of his power. He’d promised never to use it on Lesedi or anyone else unless he needed to, or they offered.

After three years Joe’s wariness of Tucker had decreased, now his front was all for show. Tucker had help Lesedi blossom, encouraged her to chase after her dreams and now she was in graduate school at the University of Vermont studying psychology. Admittedly, Joe had met that Sean from Hammel in the grocery store, once he learned of Sean’s power he had asked for information, not just about the power but about Tucker, hoping he’d get good news from Hammel about him. Understandably Sean hadn’t been able to give a lot of information, but he did give enough that protective father Joe worked to accept Lesedi’s choice in men.

A shrill shriek from Jasmine made Joe jump out of his thoughts and out of his skin. Jasmine was bouncing up and down her daughter laughing in her arms. Joe walked over to discover the fuss and that’s when she showed him the diamond on her finger. “We’re getting married!” Lesedi cried with excitement.

Joe didn’t know what came over him but suddenly there were tears in his eyes and he was hugging Lesedi smiling and crying like some blubbering idiot. He held her face in his hands like he had when she was a child. “My baby girl’s all grown up.” He sniffed.

“Oh Daddy,” she said wrapping her arms around him.

He wiped his eyes and coughed. “We must celebrate! Have you called your sister? Do and tell her to come over tonight, we’re going to celebrate. Jasmine I’m going to get cleaned up and head to the store.”

He kissed his daughter then he kissed his wife, beaming from ear to ear. He turned as if surprised to find Tucker there. “And Tucker…”

“I know, if I hurt her you’ll pull my spine out,” the sheepish boy said with a grin, when Joe’s eyes turned questioning Tucker flushed, “I mean that’s what you said when we first met…”

Joe couldn’t help it, he laughed, he had said that hadn’t he? “Take care of my baby girl,” he said offering his hand.

Tucker looked surprised and then a smile broke out on his young face. “Yes sir.” Joe was still beaming in the shower and in the car and in the grocery store. He had a list from Jasmine in his hands for what she wanted to cook tonight. His baby girl, his Lesedi was getting married!

“You seem happy today,” a familiar voice said to his left.

Joe beamed as he turned to find the school psychologist from Hammel. He always seemed to run into Sean in the grocery store, Joe was starting to doubt he actually existed outside. “Lesedi and Tucker are getting married!” He exclaimed unable to hold in his excitement.

“Ah! Congratulation!”

Joe couldn’t help it he pulled out a picture on his phone of Lesedi and Tucker and told him the story from this morning. He was giddy as a child in a candy store. Bidding farewell to Sean, until next grocery trip, Joe couldn’t help but feel like he was given a gift all his years. He was blessed with a beautiful and intelligent wife, two amazing daughters, and now a wonderful and kind son-in-law.

His bitterness saw nothing this day, meta humans were just humans, no different than himself and his family. Tucker and Sean were alright in his book and that made meta humans alright in his book. He smiled up at the sun and thanked the lord for all of his blessings.

[Jesse Adams]

Pushing Me Away

Jessica Adams had everything a Californian teenager could want. A big house, a pool in the backyard, a gold credit card with virtually no limit. Private schools, designer clothes, all the latest in electronics. A loving, beautiful mother, and two equally gorgeous brothers. Keith was always swimming in girls as he came off the football field, and Simon was already proving to be quite the charmer despite only being ten. She was also no stranger to attention of the male variety, and her circle of friends left very little to desire. All in all, Jessie really didn’t have much to complain about.

~~~

“Keith, how was football practice?”

“Decent. Coach says if I keep playing like I am, I could have a shot at a scholarship.” The approval was clear on Michael Adams’ face.

“Good, good. And your history test?”

“Uhh... got a B.” The entire atmosphere at the table shifted as Michael’s expression changed from pride to irritation. Keith looked down at his plate in a vague attempt to avoid the oncoming storm.

“That kind of grade is not going to keep you in the running for a scholarship, Keith. You know full well I expect better from you.” At the other end of the table, Jessie offered out a buffer.

“I heard his teacher’s really tough this year, so a B’s actually really good, Dad.” As usual, her words fell on deaf ears. Beside her, her mother gently laid a hand on her arm, a silent reminder to leave the boys be. They’d sort it out, one way or another. They always did. Across from Keith, Simon piped up.

“I scored two goals in soccer today!” As usual, he tried to take the attention off of his older brother. Their father was tough on Keith, more so than anyone else, though Simon came in at a close second. Michael’s gaze flickered briefly from his eldest son to his youngest before dropping the subject, at least for now. Sarah smiled affectionately at Simon.

“That’s wonderful, Si.” Jessie smiled in vague encouragement at him as well as she picked at her dinner. As usual, family dinner made her lose her appetite.

It wasn’t that she was jealous of her brothers. She loved them, and she was happy that they were so successful. She just wished that sometimes, hell, just once, their father would actually pay attention to her. It didn’t matter what she did, he acted with her like one might a pet. Vague interest when he had to, but otherwise he ignored her. Good grades at school, dance recitals when she was a child, achievements in her after school track team... nothing ever seemed to be good enough. As she trudged up to her room, she began to wonder what it might take to gain his attention. If nothing else, maybe she could distract him from her brothers’ alleged ‘shortcomings’, even if it was just a little while. She’d always been the good girl, following rules and never straying from expectations, and for what? Sure, her GPA was up there, and her school record was virtually spotless, but it was starting to sink in that perhaps that wasn’t enough anymore. Sure, her mother loved her and encouraged her every step of the way, but even that was starting to feel hollow.

The first thing she tried was hair dye and make up. Her long blonde hair was tinted with dark red streaks, and eyeliner was less of an accent and more of a main feature. She broke the rules more than once for wearing her school uniform in inappropriate ways. Her father didn’t even look her way.

Next came the piercings. Like any good girl, she’d simply had single piercings in her earlobes for as long as she could remember. Slowly, she accumulated more in her lobes, then branched out into her upper ear and nose. An eyebrow and lip ring completed the look to her satisfaction.

Still, her father didn’t give her more than a glance.

Grades began to dip, and Jessie started finding new friends. Friends that liked skipping classes, sneaking drinks at lunch, and smoking behind everyone’s backs. For the first time in her life, Jessie felt... liberated. Who cared if her GPA was dropping, or that very few of her friends actually spoke to her anymore. Who needed school or prissy friends anyway? She was happier now than she’d ever been.

She was even happier when she met Gabriel Underwood. He was gorgeous, with constant scruff on his face and dark, artfully messy hair. He drove an insanely sexy car, smoked like a chimney, and Jessie was head over heels in love with him. Classes were often skipped in favor of making out with him in the parking lot. She didn’t care that he was a few years older, or that Keith had told her multiple times that he was no good. She’d simply told him to butt out and mind his own business. Sixteen was plenty old enough to make her own decisions. Besides, if what she was doing was really so bad, their father would have stepped in by now.

But, no he still hadn’t so much as batted an eye over her behaviour. Her mother and brothers were worried, yes, but that wasn’t the point. There was only one person she wanted to make worry, and so far nothing had worked.

In the end, it only took two words for him to finally, finally notice her. In a confident, almost smug manner, she made her announcement at the dinner table before her father could command anyone’s attention.

“I’m pregnant.”

That got his attention.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

You're the One

You are the air
Inside my chest.
You're the one.
You broke my heart.
You made me cry.

“You’ll find someone else.”

Everyone told him that. Robert, Daphne, Greg, their other friends. His parents after he had come out of the closet to them. Although when they said it, they meant it as a command as opposed to reassurance. Their formerly heterosexual son would not allow his personal life to disintegrate because a man three years his junior had broken his heart.

Even Josh had told him that, as though it was consolation for the end of their relationship.

Sean wanted no one else.

Whenever he imagined himself in a relationship, he saw Josh beside him. His dreams always involved Josh. His fantasies only involved Josh. Sometimes, when he awoke in the middle of the night, he felt the younger man beside him in bed, only to turn on the lights and realize that he must have imagined that his pillows were a person.

Despite that, he had moved on, or so he told himself. At the very least, all other areas of his life had failed to deteriorate. He had completed his medical residency and had then opened up a private practice. His practice flourished, because of his unique set of skills; telepathy had proven an asset, and the memory manipulation doubly so. To think that he had vowed as a student at Hammel that he would never use that power once he graduated. Because his practice was so lucrative, he found himself flush with cash. He had long since paid off his student loans, and he paid his bills easily while setting aside a nest egg for retirement. His parents expressed their pride in his success, but he could not care less about the money. He cared about the patients.

He had managed to maintain a wide circle of friends, including Greg and Daphne and the rest of their group from college, the ones who had not scattered to the four corners of the earth or who had not died from AIDS. They met with him willingly and frequently: for lunch between work hours, for supper after work or on the weekends, to go to outings and political rallies. Sometimes they went on day trips or weekend getaways, and he played third, fifth, or seventh wheel, depending on which of his friends were romantically involved at the time. Occasionally, they asked him when he would go back on the market, and he always brushed it off.

He desired only Josh, and Josh had moved on.

Sometimes, his friends tried to set him up on dates. Doing so surreptitiously proved impossible when a telepathy was involved, and Sean always managed to cancel when left to his own devices, or otherwise he managed to “lose” the contact information. Men or women, it mattered not, because he had no interest in dating. Nobody else could meet his emotional needs, and what physical urges he experienced, he took care of himself. After all, he was not a monk.

He lived in the same apartment in the Village that he had shared with Josh. When the younger man had ended their relationship, he had told Sean to keep the apartment. He had done so, even though he could afford to move. Eventually, the apartment building switched from a landlord to a co-op system, and he had converted from renting to ownership. He had offered to pay Josh back for the time they had shared it together, but the younger man, now pursuing higher legal education instead of taking the Bar Exam and entering the work force, had told him it was unnecessary.

Josh remained in his life, which became his highest priority. The months immediately after the Break Up had been the most difficult, since he had feared that the younger man wanted nothing to do with him. Even with the promise that they could still be friends. However, bit by bit, the law student had returned to his life: meeting up with him for drinks or coffee or for lunch or just to talk about life.

It had been awkward at first. Sean yearned to take the other man in his arms, to embrace him, to kiss him, to pledge his eternal love and devotion.

He never did. He knew that Josh would react poorly, and he could not stand the thought of losing their friendship, could not stand the thought of losing Josh from his life completely.

Sometimes he woke in the middle of the night in the bed that they had shared, in the bedroom that they had shared, in the apartment that they had shared but which belonged to him alone now. In a panic, because he feared that the last time he and the younger man had gotten together for whatever innocuous activity was the last time he would see Josh again. He had recurring nightmares about the younger man telling him that they could never see each other again.

To avoid that, he did everything he could to remain worthy of Josh’s friendship. He bent over backwards to accommodate the other man in everything that they did.

Had he ever seen a mental health professional for himself, perhaps they might have accused him of trading one obsession for another.

Robert Hopkins was not a mental health professional, although he knew the inner workings of the human mind better than the most experienced Ivy League graduate. “Let me help,” his mentor offered, nearly every time he visited.

Yet Sean never accepted the offer. Without his consent, Robert could, and would, do nothing. So the cycle continued.

Until one day, something changed.

He and Josh had gotten drunk to celebrate the fact that the younger man had passed the Bar Exam. Technically, Sean and Josh’s entire family – parents, siblings and their spouses/S.O.s – had taken the middle Bernstein child out for a nice supper and dessert to celebrate the occasion. After that, the telepath and Josh had found themselves in the nearest pub, drinking one another under the table.

One thing led to another, which eventually led back to Sean’s apartment.

In one sense, the telepath had forgotten what it felt like to have Josh in his arms, to taste his lips and to feel his stubble (which the younger man insisted was a beard) against his cheeks. In another sense, Sean could never forget. How he had yearned for this again, to have Josh pressed against his body and to feel their minds touch in a way that no non-telepath could hope to understand.

“I love you,” he promised, although the (now, certified!) attorney cut him off with another kiss.

The next morning, Sean woke to find Josh asleep in bed beside him. As the memories of the night before filled his mind, a wide smile broke across his face.

They were back together!

How he had waited years for this. How he had barely let himself dream of it, fantasize about it, alone in this bed late at night.

It had finally come to pass.

He leaned over to press a kiss to the still-sleeping man’s brow, before slipping from bed and donning his robe. His mind a flutter with everything he had to do.

He had to tell everyone. He had to call Robert later today to assure his mentor that he was fine, and that everything had worked out for the best. He had to think of a way to inform his family that would not cause them to recoil (although the fact that he had not dated in more than five years had largely gotten the point across to them). He had to tell Greg and Daphne, and already he had plans to invite their mutual friends out to a big brunch somewhere to celebrate this weekend.

He had to help Josh move back into the apartment. Although the other man had his own place, Sean was sure that he would prefer their former mutual living space. For one thing, he owed no rent, because they had converted to a co-op, and he had already paid off the shares in full. For another thing, Josh’s apartment was a tiny loft, barely big enough to house one adult comfortably. Trying to fit both of them there would be impossible. And Sean’s neighborhood was nicer: more friendly, more open, certainly containing more gay and bisexual men as neighbors. Plus, the memories of their first time together permeated every inch of the space.

Before doing any of that, however, he needed to thank his boyfriend for everything with a big breakfast.

The telepath kept a full kitchen, including many of Josh’s favorites, in case his friend – his boyfriend – came over for one reason or another. Grateful for his own foresight, Sean got to work making a full meal for the younger man.

He toiled away over the stove, making crepes from scratch and decorating them with a mixture of fresh fruit and preserves. Although November was not the best season for fruits, unlike summer with the berries, stone fruit, and melon, he managed to make an acceptable spread. He cooked a fresh omelet (including pimento cheese) and several links of sausage, and freshly diced hash browns. Then he brewed the strongest coffee he had in the house and topped the whole thing off with a tall glass of orange juice.

He set the table with some flower petals from one of the plants he kept.

Then he tiptoed back into the bedroom to wake his boyfriend with a kiss and a smile.

Instead, he found the bed empty. Josh’s clothing and shoes were gone.

The bathroom was empty.

The bedroom window was open, the one that led to the fire escape.

His telepathy confirmed that Josh was gone. He had left without so much as a good morning.

Breakfast forgotten, Sean curled up on the side of the bed on which the other man had spent the night and gathered the pillow in his arms. Silently, he began to cry.