Tris (funimmortal) wrote in cotic, @ 2017-06-22 21:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | adam, blake, tris |
Fear, Determination - and a side of Jealousy
Who: Tris, Blake, Adam
Setting: Monorail
Blake didn’t like the idea of people being stuck on top. Especially Ethan. Or people being stuck below. And he not be able to immediately get to Ethan. The message from Tris had him worried, but having talked to Ethan, it seemed as if all was at least okay...at least no one was seriously hurt and Ethan and Christian were fine. Anyway, he thought Christian was fine.
He’d grabbed a couple of bags from the station, they would have most everything the two would need to climb plus waters and limited medical gear. He then raced to the pod he shared with Ethan and grabbed the Xanax Ethan had said to grab, and then was on his way to the monorail station to meet up with Tris.
It took a little longer than usual, but he arrived, two big backpacks on each of his shoulders. “Tris..” he called out to the man as he approached. “Any news on what might be going on?” He then asked and looked upwards toward the top of the dome.
Tris had been pacing, frantic and feeling entirely useless. He met Blake halfway when he saw him. “Apparently everyone’s okay,” he started with. “I got a message from CIllian that they’ve set up some kind of camp up there to group in. All I know past that is that the monorail isn’t working and there doesn’t look like there’s any other way up there. Want me to take one of those?” he asked, reaching for a bag. He might have been talking rather too quickly, hyped up on adrenaline and worry that had nowhere useful to go.
Blake shrugged off one of the bags and handed it to Tris. “I heard from Ethan,” he said with a small nod, his eyes following the monorail. This was going to be a bitch. “Oh.. He told me to give you one of his Xanax’s,” he looked to Tris. “Need it?” He was talking quickly and he seemed concerned, of course, but he didn’t look as if he were going off the rails. “I think, maybe, we can climb the monorail? That’s going to take forever though since it goes around the whole thing.” He was looking for an easier and quicker route, but he wasn’t sure there was one.
Tris rolled his eyes. “Ethan’s just a drama queen - no, I don’t need it,” he said. He was just worried, he wasn’t entirely losing it. Then he took in what Blake had just said. His eyes drifted upward, following the line of the monorail track as it curved up and up and round the dome before disappearing to the surface. His gaze returned to Blake. “Climb the...wha?” he asked, dumbly.
Blake nodded and left the bottle of pills tucked away. If Tris started to get crazy on him, he’d insist he took the pill but it seemed as if he had his wits about him. “Yes, he can be drama,” he chuckled. “But there are times he is right, so I brought them just in case. If anything, he might need one by the time we get up there.”
“The monorail,” he answered, looking at Tris. “I know. Daunting task, but not impossible,” he said. “It will take too long, but it’s the only way uptop...unless there is something else that goes all the way to the top.” An elevator would be nice.
Tris stared at him as though Blake had grown another head. “You want… us… to climb… the monorail?” He hadn’t even thought about that. Hadn’t even considered it. He was frantic, thinking about Christian and Ethan stuck up there, but to climb the track? “I’m never climbed anything in my life. Not like that.” He couldn’t get past that basic idea.
“Want to get to Ethan and Christian?” Blake asked. “Then this is how we do it. In your bag is climbing gear, get it on. Or stay here. Those are the choices I’m afraid,” he said as he put his bag on the ground and started pulling out the harness. “I figure that we can just clip onto the monorail track for a safety and drag it along while we climb.”
Tris took the bag with numb fingers, somehow managing to get it open. He pulled out the harness - which to him looked like nothing more than a confusing mass of webbing. “And if we fall?” he asked, looking up again. He didn’t even know how to guess how far up the surface was.
“We’re not going to fall,” Blake said. “The monorail just winds around the dome. It’s a little thin, but it’s wide enough to walk on. We will tie ourselves to it for safety, but we’ll be okay,” he assured him. He took a rope and tied it in a specific knot to a clip and latched it onto Tris. Then he took the other end of that rope and latched it to another clip that could slide along the monorail and if they were to fall it would be that which would keep them from splattering all over the ground. He then did the same thing to himself and put himself in front of Tris. “Ready?”
“Tris!” Adam had headed over as soon as he could, backpack full of Riley supplies on his back, which was the only reason he was late. He waved at his friend, but frowned when he got closer. “What are you...you’re gonna climb it?” he asked, putting that together based on their gear. “Here, hold this,” he said pulling off the backpack and shoving it at Tris so he could take off his overshirt. “Great plan.”
Tris still wasn’t sold on the idea of it being any kind of plan at all. In actual fact, just the thought of it made Tris want to throw up. He wasn’t a hero. He’d never been a hero. He was the guy who ran from fights he couldn’t talk his way out of, who never did anything remotely dangerous. But, there was Blake telling him confidently it was going to be okay and Adam - the guy who was kinda like his little brother - jumping right in and, well, peer pressure was a wonderful thing. “Do we have another harness in there?” he asked Blake, hoping his voice sounded steadier than his hands felt.
Blake turned at the sound of Tris’ name being called and watched as the other man approached. Another guy to join in, he was okay with. Maybe it would help Tris be a little more settled. “Yeah,” he said, unhooking from the rail and pulling out the last harness for the other guy. “Glad you could join us,” he smiled and handed the harness out to him. “I don’t think we’ve met? I’m Blake,” he said. “Do you know how to put this thing on?”
“Yup, we had them at the construction site,” Adam said, grabbing the harness and pulling it on, tightening it over his jeans. “You hear from Kyle?” he asked, not sure why Tris would, but maybe he’d heard something. “I’m not sure where he is, other than up there.” He waved at Blake. “Adam.”
Tris raised a brow at the question, but swallowed down the bitchy comment that sprung to mind. Now wasn’t the time to say anything about the fact that as far as he was concerned, Kyle could go jump - anyone who made his best friend cry was never going to be someone Tris could give a shit about. “No, I haven’t,” he said, controlled as rechecked the harness once again.
“Great,” Blake said and gave a nod when Adam gave his name. He did the same things with the clips that he’d used for himself and Tris, clipping Adam to the monorail; his rope would slide with him, if he fell it would keep him from going splat. Once Adam was secured, he went back to his spot and clipped himself back in. “You guys ready?” He said as he adjusted his bag on his back that held waters and a slew of other things as well as medical gear. And then he started forward, walking along the monorail at a decent pace; he wanted to get to Ethan as quickly as possible.
Adam made a face, taking his backpack back as Blake clipped him up. “He’s got Riley.” He hopped up on the track with Blake and held out a hand for Tris. “Come on. Let’s go get them.” He was far too anxious about Kyle and Riley to linger, but he was used to this sort of thing. Odds were, Tris was not. And probably not willing to risk his life to get his boyfriend back like Adam was.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Tris said, swallowing down his fear and bringing up the rear. Looking at the way the monorail curved round and up, he figured this was going to take them hours - it had to be several miles to get to the exit to the surface. Having figured that, he tried to cast it from his mind. That would do him no good at all, thinking about how far anything was. Just don’t look down - that had to be the way to go.
The start was fairly easy, Blake picking up his feet and surging forward. Of course, after a little while the uphill climb started to take a little bit out of you. “Wish I could have found a better way up there,” he said, glancing over his shoulders at the other two. “A faster way,” he sighed, looking back to where he was stepping so he didn’t fall. “By the time we get up there, it’s possible that everything starts working again,” he chuckled. He didn’t mention that any time the monorail could come back on and they’d have nowhere to go.
“Now that we’re here,” Adam said with a small huff of breath. “Let’s hope it stays off.” He could see that being a huge problem, being on the tracks with the monorail on its way back down. It wasn’t like there was anywhere else to go. Still, what was going on was climbing to Riley and Kyle and that was all that mattered. Who cared if he was tired? He could do this all day if it meant they got closer to his boys.
“Don't say things like that!” Tris said, already determinedly not looking down. He had to be insane, even to contemplate this. But, two of the most important people in his life were at the other end. Not trying to get to them was unthinkable and this did seem the only way. He looked up. “God this is going to take all day.”
This sucked. Blake had done a lot of climbing in his life from trees and rooftops as a child to ladders and so on as he grew olders. He’d carried people out of burning houses on ladders and carried hoses up ladders to help spray a house down and he’d done rock climbing as well, but none of that seemed so bad compared to climbing a monorail that circled the dome. This was a pain in the ass. The only good thing about it was that Ethan was at the other end of all this and getting to him and making sure he was safe was all that really mattered to him.
Looking at the communicator on his watch, he clicked out a message to Ethan. “All I know is that when we get up there we aren’t coming back down until the monorail gets to working. I’m not climbing this bitch back down,” he chuckled. “And I just hope everyone is okay up there.”
“Well,” Adam said, hand on his hips as he tried to catch his breath. Kyle had finally messaged him back but he was too far away. Riley was too far away. “If it’s anything like a car, I’m sure we can hotwire it,” he said with a shrug. “Right? I mean, I’ve jacked a car or four before.” He didn’t want to think about anyone not being okay. That made his head spin. He couldn’t deal with losing his boys, not when he’d just found them.
Tris looked up at Adam’s back at that, jaw dropped in a displeased way. Not that it was that surprising - he knew what the odds were for kids in the system and crime, but still. He didn’t like to think of any of his foster siblings falling foul of the life. “We’d have gravity on our side, right? If we wanted to get back down - the main issue would be stopping it?”
“I don’t think it would be that easy,” Blake said. “I’m sure it’s all computer operated, but it’d be worth a try,” he nodded, continuing to walk. “When we get up there and make sure everyone is okay, Adam you might take a look and see. It’s worth a shot if we all want to get back down. As for stopping it, it’s gotta have breaks somewhere. If not, then gravity would have us wrecking a big portion of the monorail station.” He was quiet for a few seconds and then glanced over at the other two. “You know, if everything is down then we might be able to find a way off this island.”
Adam nodded. “So’s a Land Rover and we nicked one of those once,” he said with a shrug. “Big part is starting it, then the rest clicks on like normal. Or just figure out which buttons to push.” He tilted his head back and forth as he thought about stopping the monorail, looking back at the station a ways behind them. “Could always just pile everyone in the back?”
He blinked though, mind not fully taking in the leaving suggestion. “You think...you want to go?”
Gravity could have us wrecking a big portion of us, Tris thought, even though it had been his suggestion and even with Adam’s idea of sheltering in the back. Risk seemed to surround him. He hated that.
Blake’s other suggestion, though, got Tris’ attention, because he’d thought it himself. “If nothing works, that could mean that this is our best chance to get the exit doors open,” he agreed, mulling over that concept. He glanced down at the city below - then wished he hadn’t. He wondered where Anja was. She was the one missing piece from his just being able to not look back. “Yeah - I know I want to go. I don’t want to stay anywhere that they’re threatening to burn us at the stake.” Apparently fear made him blunt.
Adam made a fair point, even if the monorail was controlled directly from some office with some robot pushing a button, there had to be wires and a computer within the monorail itself to get it to follow commands. He wouldn’t know anything about starting one, but if Adam could then they at least had a chance of getting back down. “Makes sense,” he said to Adam. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
“I agree, Tris,” he nodded. “There’s got to be a way out, since there is a way in and if this whole island is down then we have a chance of escaping,” he nodded. “I want to leave, yeah,” he said. “I’ve got a whole family out there that probably thinks I’m dead by now, a family I’d like to introduce Ethan to, a life I’d like to live with him…” he trailed off and glanced over at Tris then to Adam. “So, Adam,” he looked back ahead. “Would you want to leave here if you could?”
“The whole island isn’t down,” Adam said, gesturing at the lights below them. “Just the robots.” He bit his lip at the question, looking over his shoulder at Tris before shaking his head. “No. I don’t. I finally have everything I never knew I wanted here. And if I go back I’ll just lose it all.”
“You wanna introduce Ethan to your family?” Tris asked, the question out before he could bite it back. God, he hated how he sounded, off slightly. Hopefully it wasn’t noticeable. Blake was everything he wasn’t. Fuck, the guy had a family, for a start. And he had everything Tris didn’t. Mr. fucking Perfect every damn time. Still, it wasn’t any of Tris’ business - he’d told himself that and he was busy silently cursing himself for a slip when he actually, really slipped. He missed his footing on the rail and felt himself fall. He had time enough to realise what a fucking long way down it was, for his life to start to flash before his eyes - when he was brought up short by the rope, leaving him hanging, just below the rail.
Blake looked down at the lights below them. It made him wonder what was really going on with this place. Robots were down, monorail was down… “Maybe enough of the island that there is a way to get out now, to escape,” he suggested. It was an idea, one that they might be able to follow through. For now, though, the idea was to get to the top and to their loved ones. “You realize that what you have here can easily translate out there, right?” He looked back over at Adam. “Ethan was afraid I wouldn’t want to follow him to New York if we got out...but I would,” he stated. “I have what I didn’t know I wanted, either,” he then added.
At Tris’ question, he did hear the sound in the man’s voice. Was it jealousy? Shock? He wasn’t sure, but it put him on edge a little bit. He had his suspicions about Tris and his feelings for Ethan. Before he could answer the question, Tris was falling. Thank god the harness held as did the clip that anchored Tris to the monorail.
Blake reacted, moving quickly to the spot where Tris dangled from, laid on his stomach and held out his hand. There was a small, jealous part of him that wanted to just leave the man there, but he knew Ethan would never forgive him and he wouldn’t forgive himself. “Come on,” he said. “Adam, I’ll need some help if you can? Grab his other hand?”
“Yeah, my life doesn’t translate out there,” Adam said. Someone would take Riley away, maybe give him to whomever he really belonged to. Kyle would go, with Riley gone, he’d realize he was attaching himself to someone that was no better off than he’d been before they broke up. And well, Jeffrey..he’d come for Adam.
Then Tris was falling and everything else Adam was worried about narrowed down to just his friend, his brother. “Tris!” Thank god for Blake though, because Adam was still half freaking out, hyperventilating a little even, when Blake gave him the direction to grab Tris’ other hand.
Legs flailing in nothingness, Tris allowed himself to be pulled up, grabbing onto the cool metal of the monorail when it was in reach. His hands were sweaty and his grip slipped at first. It took him a few tries to get a firm hold, but with the help of Adam and Blake, he scrambled up and back onto the safety of the track. Breathing heavily, he lay down, not convinced that his legs would hold him as he heaved in breath after breath, trying not to think how easily he could have fallen to his death.
Blake grunted slightly as he helped to pull Tris up. When Tris’ hands were on the railing, he then reached for a leg to help him swing his lower body up. When he was finally safe, Blake took a seat and let out a sigh. “Let’s not do that again,” he chuckled and dug through his pack to dig out bottles of water for all of them. They could take a rest, let their hearts calm down if need be. “You alright?” He looked over at Tris, and then Adam. “Both of you?”
Adam was half glaring at Tris, standing over him from where he was laying on the track. “That was stupid,” he told the guy, hands on his hips. “I’m fine. Just had a minor heart attack.” At least the gear had held up. They were safe again.
Tris opened his eyes to look up at Adam. “It’s not like I took a dive on purpose,” he said, the deadpan he’d gone for not quite working through an unsteady voice. “Fuck.” He took a deep breath. “Yeah. Yes. I’m okay. Just… give me a minute. And don’t tell Ethan or Chris this happened, okay?”
Blake opened his water and took a good drink. He watched the other two for a moment and then looked down. “Sure…” he said about not telling Ethan or Chris. He wasn’t one for keeping secrets, but he guessed this wasn’t something either of them needed to know. “And, yeah,” he looked over at Tris. “To answer the question before the fall, I’d introduce Ethan to my family.” Because, to him, they were that serious.
Why did Tris care about Ethan? Adam made a mental note but still took his break, forcing himself to relax and not think about how they were wasting time.
Tris swallowed, closing his eyes again for a moment and just concentrating on his breathing. On not thinking about how far up they were. “He’d like that,” he said, finally, when he was feeling far more steady. He took one last breath and pushed himself up. “So - should we go on?” he asked. The sooner they got to the top, the better and he needed something else to think about.
Blake’s jaw muscles worked as he looked at Tris. “I would hope he would,” he finally said and then stood up. Water bottles back in his bag, he started forward again. He didn’t like the feeling of jealousy, didn’t like the feeling in his gut that Tris had feelings for Ethan. As they started to move forward again, he looked upward and sighed. They were making slightly good progress but he wished he were much closer. “So, Adam,” he called back so they weren’t just walking along in silence. “You mentioned Kyle and Riley. Boyfriend, friends?” He questioned.
Adam was glad to get going again. He just wanted to get closer. “Boyfriend and...kid? Sorta. He’s not really mine. But he lives with me. I’m raising him.” He struggled with the answers. At least he knew where he and Kyle stood now, but despite what Kyle said, he still didn't feel like he was a proper dad.
“You're dating Kyle again?” Tris asked, his voice just this side of disapproving. He didn't know the guy, other than he'd really upset Ethan in the past. That was enough, in Tris’ book, even if he knew that Kyle was actually a friend of Christian's.
“Mad props to you for raising a kid that isn’t yours,” Blake said approvingly to Adam. “In a world where a lot of men don’t want to take responsibility for their own kids, it’s really something when one comes along to take care of one that isn’t even his.”
To hear Tris’ disapproving voice, even if it were just slightly, Blake thought to himself that maybe Tris just had issues with other people dating, period. He glanced over his shoulder at the other two and then kept walking. “You don’t like them dating?” He asked.
“Yeah,” Adam said, unable to hide his smile, Tris’ attitude aside. “I’ve been in love with him from the start,” he explained, shrugging his shoulders about Riley. “I used to date his mom, then she...well she died, so I hung on to him.” Ran away with him was more accurate, but they could fudge the details.
Tris shrugged a shoulder, trying to play his tone off as nothing. Now wasn’t the time to bring up drama, or risk a fight and someone getting upset. “From what I hear, Kyle just has unreasonable expectations, that’s all,” he said, lightly. He looked at Adam with a smile. “But, as long as you’re happy - that’s the important thing,” he said, firmly. “And you still gotta introduce me to the kid - that offer of piano lessons still stands.”
Blake nodded. He thought Adam was a swell guy for doing what he was doing for the kid. Thought he was an exceptional guy. “Well, that’s great,” he said. “Good that the two of you are together and not separated by this place...or, well, you know what I mean.” Because right now, they were separated, but that was easier to fix than had one been here and the other been somewhere else in the world.
Blake didn’t know Kyle and had never heard a thing about the man, so he kept out of that part of the conversation. It was apparent that Ethan knew him, from the messages they’d shared, but he knew that Ethan knew a lot of people.
Adam laughed, nodding mostly to himself. “He does. But it’s mostly for himself. He just wants everything to be perfect. It’s endearing in a way. And I tend to bring some needed chaos to his life.” He smiled to himself. “Yeah, something brought us back together again, so I’m not letting go. Hence why I’m here with you. Lost him once, not going to lose him again.”
“Yeah,” Tris agreed. “None of us are gonna lose anyone,” he said, head down as he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, moving his safety rope up every now and again. If there was one thing he didn’t want, that was to fall off again.