Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 27

We couldn't remain in this room any longer, not in the numbers we currently held. To many mythicals, to many magic users, it made the humans uncomfortable considering the destruction we just laid upon a monument. At least, I liked to tell myself it wasn't from a deep seated prejudice. Or, perhaps, they had developed a distaste for us as war times had continued on. 

Many missed their Artifice systems, many resented having to work instead of laying down for whatever job was put before them. 

Pulling on a simple white shirt and jeans, it's the most domestic I'd seen Verando look in quite some time. I follow suit, desperate for comfort and to be out of the grit and dust that littered what was left of my tuxedo. The olive of my shirt complimented my skin, I tug absently at my belt as an attempt to not let my insecurities flare with the way the jeans hugged my hips. 

This body was still foreign to me, I wasn't used to the additional muscle where I once was much softer. While I lacked any extreme definition, I felt strong. Still, I wasn't quite comfortable enough to bear my body to the scrutinizing eye of Caspian's younger self.

"You look fine," Verando assures me, allowing his eyes to linger in a way that made me flush. Even if I was lingering on the what ifs, he had always had a way of pulling me back. Though, surely, he knew I was upset with him and wanted to gain my favor.

"I'm still mad at you." I remind him, resisting the urge to cling to him with relief for his health. Tiberius leads us down the hall, keeping Caspian wedged between us, we leave Legardo behind in the care of Lotta for fear that Pascal might come looking for him and disturb the careful balance of mortal and magic-user that the hospital trod on.

They had enacted a regulation of how many of us could be in one wing, thus the need to move us on our way for fear of 'violence'. I shudder, I hadn't realized we'd picked such a segregated part of town to get married in. Yet, I didn't spend much time in civilian life in these past months. 

"Ladies." Tiberius sighs, shaking his head. "We have a lycan to find."

"A lycan?" Caspian cocks his head. Wrinkling his nose as we're ushered towards the parking garage, he crosses his arms over his chest. "Good to see some things never do change... hundreds of years into the future, surrounded by this-" he gestures to the grand hospital around us, "And we're still vermin."

Frowning, Verando considers his words carefully. "Not quite, we are a threat. Humans don't easily forget the sins committed against them, I'm afraid." He tells him shortly, looking like he wants to say more as his lips part but eventually, he stops himself. We could not reveal too much, we could not risk changing the past. "I believe it's you that is causing them to act this way."

"Seems shit if you ask me. But, I suppose I am horrifying." Caspian nods, glancing up through the glass as we pass the massive windows looking out in the healing city. Battle scars raked across the streets from fights with elementals, a helicopter zips by and Caspian throws himself backward, Verando grips him, causing the man to grunt by the steel vice grip of the older man. Appalled, he jerks his arm away, "A lycan, hmm?" He murmurs once more. "Were the rumors true then?"

"It's a lot to take in." Verando appears conflicted, his strange empathy with this man is enough to make me uncomfortable. "The sooner we find my younger self, the sooner we can get you home."

I couldn't help but feel as though sending them back one at a time might be easier, but it's for selfish reasons. The wound was all too fresh from the day that Caspian had tried to kill me for taking Verando from him. Not quite lovers, I knew more than to think of it in that aspect, but intimate friends who knew each other all too well. Caspian had been ever hopeful, yet Verando had never fancied him as he had me.