"I DON'T THINK I'M GOING TO BE GOING HOME."

It had been eight months since Rhett found himself in the future and the feeling of displacement was just starting to fade. His bitterness along with it, but that was mainly due to proximity to two of the happiest people with the saddest of stories.

"We figured as much," Terran said, jerking his head over to the door where Nicky was sitting, blissfully unaware of their conversation.

"Then why did you call me here?" Rhett asked. Terran wasn't much older than him, at least biologically, and he didn't feel as though the man had authority over him, as he acted more mature, but who was he to talk.

"Can you guarantee the safety of everyone here if something were to go wrong because you are with us?" the man asked, strangely serious, no trace of a smile on his face, an odd sight to see.

Rhett set his jaw. "I can't guarantee anything."

"Yes or no," Terran pressed, "Because if it's no, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. If this were another time, I'd be fine with you being here, safety or not, but we don't use weapons anymore, so if you're going to bring a fight, we can't risk being around you."

Rhett looked towards the door where Nicky was waiting for him. He had been smiling more, at least a little, more and more believing that Rhett wasn't going to leave him. He was just starting to break through, actually get attached to the kid, he couldn't do that to him.

"Yes," he finally said, looking the man dead in the eye, "Nothing will go wrong."

That was a lie he was not yet aware of.

º º º

It was winter break and Rhett was exhausted. After the whirlwind of finishing lessons, Steve coming in every few days as art wasn't a vital subject, he had been glad to get more time to himself, though that time was mostly spent trying to practice. Despite not having heard from Hyde, there was still the looming fear that he would appear, now that there had been more than enough time for him to resurface.

He had woken up late that morning and found Nicky walking back into the loft dejectedly, telling him that he had gotten to the stores too late and hadn't been able to get a new set of ornaments for the artificial tree they had bought.

The sad look on his roommate's face had been almost too much to bear, especially considering how hard the man pushed himself to enjoy the holidays, even though the ones in his childhood hadn't been ideal, so Rhett decided to test his powers even further.

Moving back into his room, he set his watch and closed his eyes, focusing. It took him much longer than usual, though that was to be expected, but he eventually felt the familiar ripple before opening his eyes, looking around to find that he was sitting in his room again, only the clock read it was early morning.

He snuck out of the loft, not wanting to wake Nicky, and raced to the store he had gone to, buying the ornaments that Nicky had described to him, telling him that they reminded him of the ornaments his neighbors had, which was a story he had heard only snippets of.

The feeling of displacement followed him the entire way, causing him more than a good deal of panic. But he forced himself to relax, needing to be calm to be able to jump back, as he wasn't able to unless he was, something he had learned during his practice jumps. This had been one of his most extreme, jumping back hours, and it effected him greatly.

He had rushed back home, making sure that Nicky still hadn't woken up, and placed the ornaments in front of the tree, like a present. Then he walked into his room and raised his eyebrow, surprised to find his sleeping form, something he hadn't noticed when he first appeared.

He didn't understand how everything worked, and didn't care to. As long as they did, that was all that mattered.

He closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down. It took a good amount of time, as his heart was pounding and every small noise made caused him to panic, afraid of what would happen if he interacted with his past self; he then remembered that he actually had and nothing happened when he did it before.

With that knowledge, he was able to fully relax, the feeling washing over him not even a minute later. When he opened his eyes, he checked the clock, finding that he had reappeared forty-three minutes later, the same amount of time he had spent in the past.

"Gotta work on that," he sighed, standing up and making his way outside. When he did, he couldn't help but smile at the sight of Nicky already working on the tree, Christmas music playing.

"How'd you sleep through this?" the man asked with a smile, motioning to ceiling, referring to the music.

Rhett hadn't expected this, but then it all made sense. He had gone into the past and did something to change what his old present had held. Now this was his present, the other one was gone.

"I jumped back and got you those," Rhett explained, "You woke up too late to get them this morning."

Nicky nodded in understanding, lowering the music. "That makes sense...I'm guessing the you that had showed up to me during Thanksgiving was a you that I'm never gonna meet again, because this you had condoms when he went to Steve, but other you didn't."

"What did other me do?" Rhett asked, raising an eyebrow. Nicky shrugged, shaking his head; other Rhett hadn't told him how he had done anything, barely having even spoke to him at all, save for the direct instructions to give the him in that present what he had to and to tell him to walk Steve home.

"This is so confusing," Nicky sighed, moving back to the decorating the tree, "Instead of focusing on that, you wanna help me decorate?"

Rhett nodded, feeling a headache forming. "Yes, please."

The man held out a plastic container full of ornaments and Rhett took them, setting them on the couch arm as he pulled one out and stuck it onto one of the green wires, finding a place on the tree. The two worked in relative silence, the music once again filling the room, quickly relieving Rhett of his headache and leaving a warm feeling in his chest.

"You get Diana a Christmas present?" Nicky asked, barely looking away from his work.

"Didn't she celebrate Hanukkah too?" Rhett asked in return, "Though, yeah, I did."

"That was when her dad was alive, now it's just Christmas with the Thompsons. And good, so did I. I heard her mention to Peter that she had presents for us, wanted to make sure we had stuff for her." Nicky was clearly trying to distract himself, he only ever rambled on a certain topic when there was something bothering him. It was a very specific aspect of him that only Rhett could notice by that point.

"Okay," was all he said, because he wanted Nicky to be happy. That was all he wanted. He would tell him if he wanted.

Case in point, once their work was winding down, Nicky spoke. "What are we going to do if Christian comes back?"

Rhett opened and closed his mouth. "I mean, we made it through once, we can—"

"We can't let him come back," Nicky interrupted, his voice even and calm, different from how he usually reacted, "We can't keep living our lives just waiting for him to come back. Last time, we didn't know what we were doing. This time, we have to be ready."

"What do you have in mind?" Rhett demanded, "We kill him?"

Nicky shook his head, startling back at the question. "We don't kill people, Rhett—"

"I don't either!" Rhett exclaimed, "I just don't know what your plan is, we can't just let him run around."

"Look, I have some ideas and I might have some pull," Nicky said, motioning for Rhett to follow him to his room, the man just on his heels.

He entered the room, taking a deep breath as the sound of humming computers filled his ears. Nicky's room was one he could never be in for long, no matter how much he loved him. Nicky needed noise to sleep, but Rhett wasn't like Steve who had been trained to wake if it was too silent, he was a soldier with no one to fight, he needed the silence. Odd because silence made one think, but for him, silence kept him from it.

Nicky reached over his desk and pulled out a vial. "It reverses the effects of your serum. I don't know if it'll age you biologically to match the time or if it'll just keep you from jumping, I have theory to believe it's the latter, but point is, if you get him, he's gone. Forever."

"How're you gonna prove that he killed someone from the past, no one will believe you," Rhett countered, eyes glued to the vial that Nicky set back down so casually.

"Ah," the man said, smiling as he moved to his computer and pulled up a few files, "Here's what S.H.I.E.L.D. has on him. Funny, they have stuff on you too, but it's nothing major since all they said was they lost you. They gave up after that."

"Gave up on the whole project?" Rhett asked, eyebrows raised, "Why?"

"They didn't want to risk anything more," Nicky shrugged, "Anyways, focus on this. Hyde's killed more people. Throughout the years. He had been working this whole time, practicing. But he went back to the past so he could never get caught, practiced because there were guards stationed all around him at all times. This guy is genius, but if we can stop him here, they'll do the rest."

"How'd you get into the files?" Rhett asked, unsure of the nature of S.H.I.E.L.D. as they were never affiliated.

Nicky sighed, rubbing his face. "I think—I think I always had access, I tried to get into them, but I already had something on my computer that gave me access, I don't know..."

Rhett frowned. "What are you thinking?"

Nicky mumbled something softly to himself, but shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Listen, Rhett, all you gotta do is inject that into him, even just a bit at first, and we're done. You're home free. Free to do anything, free to leave, even."

"I'm not leaving," was all he said.

That seemed to frustrate the younger man, though he couldn't fully understand why. Before he could ask, Nicky spoke, "Whatever. Point is, we just need you to do this. You need to get into close enough range, you might not even need to use your powers. Who knows."

"What's wrong, kiddo?" Rhett asked, leaning back on his arms and looking up. Nicky shook his head, leaning against the wall.

"I can't lose you," whispered, finally saying the one thing that Rhett had been waiting nine years for him to finally admit, "You're all I have left, I...I don't want you to leave. You can't leave me."

Rhett stood, coming to stand in front of Nicky who pressed himself flush against the wall, not looking at him, but his jaw set and eyes trained on the floor. Rhett sighed and pressed their foreheads together, their eyes closing instinctively.

"I'm not leaving," he said, lips barely moving, hands holding the sides of Nicky's face, "No matter what, I will not leave you."

Nicky sighed, his lower lip quivering as he swallowed thickly. "Promise?"

Rhett nodded, pulling him close. "Promise."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 01.13.18 )

This wasn't as long as I expected it to be, but next chapter is gonna probably be super long, I'm talking around maybe 5000 words (if I somehow make it to that, which I want to, because I want this to be as realistic to the whole thing as possible)

Also, lol, nevermind, after this there are two chapters left, the fight, then the aftermath. After that, the End Credits scene and the Deleted Scenes, though I don't know if I'm just gonna post them like immediately after, tell me what you guys wanna see! Also! Give me ideas for Deleted Scenes, I have some in mind, but I wanna hear if there was anything else in particular.

That's all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!