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xxi. awkward first kisses are the best first kisses (maybe)
"gale, wake up, sleepyhead," a familiar voice (but riddled with voice cracks) said, trying to wake him up. "it's christmas, you dork. you don't wanna miss presents, do you?"
jason. gale practically shot up on the bed, opening his eyes to be greeted by a room with peeling blue paint, covered in posters and action figures. carpets laid on the floor, covering some of the wood flooring. there were two beds on opposite sides of the room, the one gale was in not made up at all, jason's bed being the exact opposite.
it was their room at ms. impera and arcana's house in new rome.
he turned to jason, and was slowly starting to connect the dots at the sight of a younger him. this was a memory, maybe like hazel's blackouts, from a couple years ago. it was one of the happiest memories of his life. he was able to piece that together due to the fact that this was a younger jason when he was still in his god awful buzz cut phase.
they were about twelve at the time. it was before the attack on mount tam, about four years into gale and jason's official entry into the legion, and two years after they met arcana. gale remembered those years clearly. a bit too clearly, to his dismay.
"this isn't real," gale said, dragging off his blankets to be greeted by his old pajama pants that had little stars on it. he cringed before continuing, "none of this is real. you aren't real."
he could've sworn he saw some gold flail around in the irises of jason's eyes, but it was gone as fast as it came. "what are you talking about? are you sleep deprived again? don't you remember last time-"
"no, i'm not, this isn't-" gale stammered out, but soon came to the realization that it all was useless. whatever this bog thing was, it probably put him in some memory from long ago, and there was little to no change gale could make at this point. was this time travel? a part of him hoped not. he didn't want to step on a carpet differently and change his whole fate with a simple action like that, like in those cliche time travel movies everyone just ate up for some odd reason. "yeah, i'm sleep deprived, i guess," he lied through this teeth.
jason furrowed his eyebrows, staring at gale with a disapproving look, "what did i tell you about that? you really should sleep gale. how the hell are you sleep deprived anyways? all you do is sleep."
"oh, uh, odd coincidence?"
"what does that even mean?"
"nothing."
he hoped he didn't just break the space time continuum.
something felt off, though. this wasn't the room that brought him comfort and happiness looking at the half open drawers and the hung up drawings. it didn't bring the warmth it used to when he got to stay in new rome for a bit, the warmth that flooded his body being able to live the life of a normal kid, being able to decorate and have a space to call your own, rather than being raised by wolves and thrusted into the role of a warrior and being expected to act like a soldier rather than a child. it felt cold rather than warm, left him with an uncomfortable feeling, which was the opposite of what he was used to. hopefully he was just reliving a memory, rather than actually time traveling because of the fucking bog.
