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 Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 9:54 pm
Michael was missing. It has been twenty-four hours already and there was still no sign of him. Chris was there now at least, and he was doing all the things necessary to look for their brother, such as calling the police and setting up a missing persons report, and calling the hospitals, while Peter scoured the Internet for news articles about car accidents that might have been Michael.
Peter kept glancing over at the clock now, because he was almost a hundred percent certain that Caspian would show up at any minute now that he knew that Michael was missing. Why wouldn’t he? He was Michael’s friend (probably only friend) and had been hanging out with him a lot since the night he was brought home by Michael after being hurt by a Negaverse officer.
Of course, it figured that the one time Peter wasn’t trying to get in touch with his parents, that was when his mom decided to call.
“s**t, Chris, it’s mom,” he said in a panic over his shoulder to his older brother, who was in the middle of trying to look up the number for another hospital in the city, just in case that was where Michael was. Reluctantly, Peter got up from where he had his computer at the counter in the kitchen and took his phone to pace anxiously as he answered the call.
“Hey mom, what’s up? D-dinner? Uh…” he sputtered. “Probably not tonight. Y-yeah, I’m not, uh, feeling well,” which was probably not a good thing to say to their mother who tended to worry a lot. Chris could only stand there and wince in sympathy as Peter took the call from their mom, and then watched as Peter tried to fumble his way through an explanation about why he didn’t need her to come over and make him soup or take him to the doctor.
It had been difficult enough to convince Paris that he needed to stop by Michael’s place before heading home after being away for almost two weeks. She’d sounded entirely disappointed and a bit concerned, and he was sure that she would be trying to check up on him if he didn’t get back in contact with her soon.
He could see movement outside, and glanced up when he saw a boy, maybe college age, with black hair and a strange assortment of colorful clothing making his way quickly towards the door. It didn’t take much for Chris to realize who the boy was, and moved the few steps to the door to open it before he had the chance to knock.
“You must be Caspian,” he guessed, frowning in a way that he hoped wouldn’t cause too much alarm.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 10:30 pm
Caspian found that he was angry.
Maybe not at Peter, though perhaps just a part of him was angry at Peter just on principle, even if he liked the kid. But he was angry at Michael, for up and disappearing on him, for deciding that he wasn’t picking up any of his calls, for...well, Caspian wasn’t quite sure at the moment, but for a lot of things he couldn’t put into words.
He pushed aside all of the anger and settled instead for worry, because worry was easier and didn’t require quite so much heartache as anger did. And besides, maybe something had happened to Michael, something terrible, and that just made it all the more worse, especially after all the talking they had done when it came to keeping safe.
Michael, you idiot.
Peter was right, of course, in thinking that Caspian was going to show up at any second, and he did a few minutes later, rambling up the front walk in his normal neon attire. Caspian did not have time to knock, however; the door swung open before he could, and he came face to face with an unfamiliar young man maybe a year or two older than himself, with the same color hair as Peter and Michael both had, except perhaps maybe a shade lighter.
It was probably a little rude, but Caspian merely nodded at him as he came inside, heading towards the living room without stopping.
“And you’re Chris,” he said, finding Peter a second later. “Hey. What the hell do you mean, Michael’s missing? What the hell happened? I’ve been trying to reach him all day. Is he okay? Do you know where he could have gone?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 7:43 am
Oh great. And now Caspian was there. And he was already shouting about Michael. Peter tried desperately to wave him off, the phone still up to his ear.
“No, no, mom. That’s just the TV. I walked too close,” he tried to explain after her immediate reaction to wondering what was happening to Michael and asking about the unfamiliar voice in the house. “Mom, mom, seriously, it’s fine. I’m, uh, we’re going to have dinner with Chris. Yeah, he’s here and don’t call Paris, okay I love you, I’ll talk to you later, bye!”
Peter quickly ended the call before Caspian could cause any more trouble, finally turning to him as he watched Chris shut the front door.
“I’m so, so, sorry,” he said a bit breathlessly and probably still looking a bit panicked. . “I don’t know what happened. One minute I was trying to ask him about when he was in the Navy, and the next he just… left! Like, ran out. He didn’t even take his phone,” Peter pointed to the phone left on the counter.
“I swear I would have told you sooner, but I don’t have your number,” he lamented, looking down at his own phone and quickly typing Caspian’s name into the contact list and holding it out for him. Hopefully he would get the idea to put his number in. “I was hoping he would just go to your place.”Chris didn’t seem to mind the quick nod as Caspian made his way into the living room, simply shutting the door behind him and checking his own phone for any messages or missed calls.
“He might have just left it on accident, Peter,” Chris suggested, the frown he wore was both sad and worried. “This isn’t like Michael. He hasn’t responded to my messages, but he might just not have something to write with,” he explained, purposefully not mentioning that Michael should still be able to use his ring to communicate like a radio. “He might not even have his ring with him,” Chris fitted a likely reason into the scenario, hoping that was just the case.
“I only sent the message to you as a heads up. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you, if I did,” Chris apologized, although he still wasn’t entirely sure how close of friends Michael and this college student named Caspian were. They might be pretty close friends if Peter thought to call Caspian first.
“I’m sure he’ll come back soon. I don’t know where else he would go,” he said with a small sigh and shook his head. “But just in case… the police have been notified… I checked DC Memorial and DC General hospitals. The DMV will contact me if anything with his car comes up… I really think he just needs some time alone.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:19 am
Caspian folded his arms across his chest and stood waiting there while Peter blustered his way through the phone call, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so vocal in his annoyance, and it wasn’t really fair to Peter or Chris for him to get snippy with them; after all, neither one of them had really done anything wrong, and Chris had been the one to send him the message to let him know about Michael in the first place.
Calm down, he told himself firmly. It’s fine. Michael’s fine. It’ll be okay.
Maybe if he told himself that enough times, he’d actually start to believe it.
“He just up and took off?” Caspian asked, eyes narrowing slightly. He reached out for the offered phone and tapped in his number before thrusting it back at Peter, feeling much too jittery and on edge to stand still for too long. “And no, he didn’t come to my house.”
That b*****d, he thought, but didn’t stay. Caspian ran his fingers agitatedly through his hair, the blue and purple shifting briefly beneath the black as he walked in a lopsided circle, trying to relax. Michael had given him that damn speech about being careful and not taking risks, and now he was just...gone. Missing.
It could be nothing. It could be anything. He could be fine.
He could be hurt.
He did not want to think about the last of these thoughts.
“I’m not upset,” said Caspian tightly to Chris, except this was about half a lie, and he was relatively certain he was making a bad first impression on Michael’s second brother. He leaned against the counter with his hands curled around the edges of it. “I’m just trying to figure out where the hell he could go if he didn’t come to my house.”
Why didn’t he come to me? I thought we were…
I thought…
Caspian forcefully shoved those thoughts aside and turned around to look at Peter.
“What exactly were you asking him about the Navy?” he asked. “Was it anything specific?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 12:15 pm
Peter nearly fumbled his phone when it was thrust back into his hands, but managed to catch it before it went crashing to the ground, and clutched it tightly in his hands as he watched Caspian turn to pace.
“Yeah, I mean… he just up and left. I got curious so I tried seeing if google had anything about him, since, you know, he… uh… well,” he paused, not entirely sure what to tell Caspian if Michael hadn’t already talked to him about things. Michael probably would never talk about things. Last time, Caspian seemed to want to hear things from Michael instead of Peter, which was entirely fair.
But that was also before Caspian started hanging out a lot.
“I found an article about him getting hurt in the Navy. I’d asked him about some of the scars he has before, but he said they were from a motorcycle accident. Hang on…” he took a step back and went to the kitchen garbage can, where he’d crumpled up the printed page to toss as requested, pulling it back out and smoothing it flat. There was a picture of a few young men in uniform, and something about purple hearts, but the rest had been saturated with whatever liquid was in the trash and blurred the ink. “Peter, what the hell…” Chris said quietly, trying to figure out just what was going on and if they should actually be concerned about Michael. “Why would you think that was a good idea?”
He moved closer to the counter to see the smudged print out, wondering if it would be easier just to pull it up on the computer again, but Peter looked reluctant, especially after he shrugged in response to his question and mumbled something about how it was better the time he confronted Michael about things before.
“He might have just gone to Jupiter,” he offered, which would make sense if they couldn’t find him. Nevermind the fact that he took his car with him and had no idea where he might have parked it.
“That…” Chris started with a small frown, looking over the piece of paper, “Was during a rescue operation, I think. They were shot down, but that’s all dad said about it. I don’t think Michael had many memories of the incident.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:11 pm
Caspian tried very hard not to pick up the nearest spatula and bean Peter with it, though it was tempting on many levels.
I found an article about him getting hurt in the Navy.
His gaze flickered down to the crumpled, stained newspaper that was being held out to him, Caspian’s heart thudding a little faster. He could see the uniforms, the blurred text that told him nothing, but already he could feel a cold beginning to steal over him, his fingers trembling a little. His arms remained tightly folded across his chest, hiding his hands from view as he swallowed hard against the rising emotion in his throat.
s**t.
s**t s**t s**t.
What had Peter just said? He said it was a motorcycle accident.
“You…” said Caspian, then stopped, because getting angry at the wrong person was useless, even though the temptation to throttle Peter was becoming stronger. He glanced sideways at Chris, lips pressed together to maintain at least some semblance of calm.
“He does,” he said quietly. “He does have memories of it.”
He did not know the details, because Michael had not told him; Caspian did not even know if this was related to what Michael had said that night at the table, their hands entwined in a fragile connection that had meant everything to Caspian.
The last friend I had, in the Navy, died from his injuries.
Caspian turned to Chris, his hair whipping against his cheeks.
“You can’t go to his Wonder unless he takes you, right?” he said. “So you couldn’t just check on him since you’re both Jupiter Knights? Can you send him another message?”
He took a breath, his mind racing, trying to figure out what to do.
“Send him another message,” said Caspian again. “Tell him I’m coming to find him.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:44 pm
Peter gaped at Chris and the information that he had, probably because he was older and asked about it, or was told, or who knew what. The fact of the matter was that Peter was being treated like a little kid still when he was already fifteen.
He didn’t see the way Caspian’s arms were too tightly folded, but instead peered down at what he could still see of the piece of paper, trying to remember just what he’d read, although instead of anything about the incident, the article instead listed out accomplishments and things like that.
“Michael looks really young,” he pointed out, his finger on the young man who was trying to look stoic for the photo, but there was clearly a smile in his eyes. He said it mostly to Chris since he apparently knew everything about everything. Typical. “He’s twenty-five here, right?” Chris shook his head at Peter’s question. “More like nineteen or twenty. See? He’s not wearing all his ribbons, so this was probably right after he was commissioned as an officer,” Chris explained to his brother, almost not hearing what Caspian said.
He looked up in curious surprise, another sad frown making its way onto his face. Chris couldn’t help but wonder what other things Michael had told Caspian but not his own family. Which was fine, but why did he not go to try and meet up with Caspian if he knew about these things? Or at least some.
“No I can’t. I could try to go from my Wonder to his, but I’m not sure how the terrain would be, or if it would be possible,” he explained, leaving off the fact that he probably shouldn’t be powering up if he could help it. But in this situation, he would do anything that might help them find Michael.
“Yeah, I can send him another message,” he agreed, reaching around Caspian to pull open the junk drawer to find the pen and paper he knew was in there, pushing some of Michael’s ribbons and medals to the side as he did so, and shut the drawer once he was done.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 5:16 pm
He felt too on edge, as though any moment now they’d get information that something terrible had happened to Michael; or that something completely awful had occurred, or something. Caspian tried not to immediately lean towards gloom and doom scenarios, but after having heard what had instigated the whole flight in the first place…
His eyes flickered down to the newspaper again, tracing the lines of Michael’s face. He was so young - Caspian’s age, he realized with a sickening swoop in his stomach, and with no idea of what was to come, or maybe something had already happened. There wasn’t the quiet sense of resignation and pain in this Michael’s eyes, not like there was now.
He looked away, tearing his gaze from the paper and focusing on Chris instead.
“Tell him if he doesn’t get his a** back soon, I’m gonna punch him,” said Caspian sardonically. “For ******** sake, what the hell was he thinking, just running off?”
He hated the fact that he didn’t know - that he had tried so hard to get Michael to open up to him and now Michael was just...off somewhere, and who knew what had happened to him by this point? Mingled fear and anger and frustration coiled in Caspian’s stomach, and he ran a hand again agitatedly through his hair, ignoring, or perhaps not noticing, the shake to his fingers.
He turned abruptly, the toe of his shoe clattering into the trash can as he kicked it - probably rudely, as it wasn’t even his ******** hell, Michael,” he snapped, fists clenched at his sides, and his back was to both brothers, rigid with tension. He was still vaguely aware of the terrible impression he was making on both of them; Peter knew him well enough by now to probably think him just as young as he was, but seemingly levelheaded Chris?
Well, it was too late now to take it back.
Caspian turned back around.
“I’m going to go look for him,” he said tightly. “There’s one or two places, maybe, that he could possibly be. I don’t know if he’s there, but he could be.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:25 pm
”Jeez, what the hell, dude,” Peter stared at Caspian’s little outburst, although he said it quietly since he was very aware that he was probably the cause of Michael freaking out and leaving like he did.
Still, he could understand the anger and concern. Peter didn’t really know what to tell Caspian to help calm him down, since he had no idea where Michael would have gone and had all the skills and resources available to disappear if he wanted.
Peter cast a glance over to Chris, who didn’t seem too bothered by the show Caspian was putting on, but was obviously just as concerned. “I can probably ask around… I don’t think Michael would like it, but… I can see if some other senshi I know might have seen him,” he offered, his voice still somewhat guilty. He did not want to have that discussion with mom and dad, but if they needed to look faster, they probably should call in more reinforcements. Chris simply watched Caspian in wary surprise, wondering just who this young man was that Michael was apparently friends with. Not that he blamed him for being angry and upset, but for all they knew, Michael just needed some time alone.
The note he wrote didn’t include the more violent threats, but instead said: Remus is looking for you, as well. Please respond if possible.
He removed the ring from his finger to place to the note, watching as it disappeared. Any voice contact with Michael hadn’t been successful, so there was no point in trying again. He just hoped that, if Michael didn’t get in contact with him, that he would at least find a way to contact Caspian.
“Alright, it’s been sent. Need either of us to come with you? Peter, you should probably stay in case he comes back, and I need to let Paris know I’m okay before she has a meltdown, too.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:35 pm
He ignored Peter’s comment, which was, in Caspian’s opinion, better than responding with a snarky, sarcastic one of his own, which he bit back just in time. It was not either Peter nor Chris that he was truly angry at, and he had, at least, the presence of mind not to drag either of them into his frustration at the current moment.
“I thought,” said Caspian, in a quiet voice, barely audible. “That we were making progress.”
He closed his eyes momentarily, his chest feeling tight.
I thought we were getting closer. That you were okay with us getting closer.
I thought we had something different.
He did not want to think special because that sounded childish in his own head. Caspian toyed with one of the rings on his fingers, absently twisting it around.
“No,” he said, and then added quickly, “Thank you. I, uh...I think if I find him, it would be better if...if I could just talk to him. Or something.”
Not that he was arrogant enough to believe he had a better way of handling things than Michael’s two brothers that he had grown up with, but a part of Caspian was having a hard time dealing as it was. He did not want to drag Chris and Peter into his own mess.
“Thanks,” said Caspian, a little belatedly, as he turned towards the door. “Call me if you hear from him; I’ll let you know if I find him.”
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