InsaneJournal

The apartment had been deceptively easy to get inside. An older Jacob would've seen that for the warning signal that it was. People weren't stupid enough to break into this apartment. A measly amount of research could've told him that. And maybe he would've done that research if it wasn't his sister's apartment. Her all grown up and smug and knighted. Bloody hell. There had to be a treasure trove of weapons in this flat, he was sure of it.

And really he wasn't wrong. He just missed the second trap on the wall stash and found himself swinging from the ceiling by a booted foot. His dad's cane sword rattled to the floor and he tried in vain to not lose anything else off of his person but coins and knick-knacks tumbled to the ground around him.

"Bollocks," he grumbled petulantly. Pulling himself up to try and get a look at the binding around his ankle was a lot harder than it looked. He only managed half an inspection before he swung back to his start position and rocked back and forth in the quiet apartment for a long moment. He started to sigh but the sound of a key in the door froze him in place. "Oh come on," he hissed. It wasn't like he could hide.

Serefin had lost Jacob. Not that it was difficult to do; he was quite aware that Jacob would always be a master of disappearing when he needed to and appearing when he wanted to. However, it wasn't usually vanishing from him. But Serefin supposed that his rapidly decreasing age made him more prone to slip off. It was like raising Adrian all over again, except this time Serefin was doing it by himself.

Jacob was easily predictable over the years, but this teenaged version felt like a wild card, plucked from a deck of wild cards. The one remaining factor, and the only one Serefin could rely on, was that he would look to outfit himself with a weapon—more weapons—in a spot that wasn't the train where Serefin couldn't keep an eye on him. The only other option was his sister's flat, and while Evie was on patrol, Serefin took his honorary key to get inside.

He had intended to wait for Jacob to show himself, perhaps climb through the window where Serefin could corner him and—what? Tell him not to give into his instincts? Serefin hadn't quite worked out the details, but it seemed he didn't have to linger long because the man, the boy, in question was currently hanging upside down.

Serefin put his hand to his mouth to cover his immediate laughter. "I know I shouldn't, but how—no, no I know how. I just thought you wouldn't," Serefin said, approaching the dangling Jacob like they had all the time in the world. He bent down to rifle through the loose change on the floor. "This is convenient, perhaps I could leave you here? And we would know where you are at all times while you're like this."

"Oh, great, of course it's you. Are you following me?" Jacob tried to swat Serefin away from his scattered belongings but all it did was make him sway wildly like an out-of-control pendulum. Belatedly, he remembered he had a whole lot of knives stashed away on his body and he started to reach for one to cut himself down but the spinning really wasn't doing him any favors. He closed his eyes - idiotically - to try and regain his equilibrium. "Oi why do you even have a key to this place?"

Serefin was unphased by the swatting and pocketed one of Jacob's coins as he swung away from him. He was almost tempted to leave Jacob hanging there just to see how he would get out of this predicament, but Serefin was the most softhearted for two people in this world, even if one of them was a pain. "If I was following you, I would have stopped you from coming inside here before you were strung up like a wild rabbit," Serefin said as he circled Jacob, the opposite way he was spinning.

"Contrary to popular belief, your sister does like me enough most days to give me permission to enter for emergencies. This wasn't exactly an emergency, but I did have a hunch." Serefin grabbed a hold of Jacob's coat to abruptly stop him from spinning. He had no desire to see this tiny version lose the contents of his stomach. "Now, I can wait to see you work yourself out of this little trap, or I can release the latch and let you drop. Up to you, I have plenty of time to spare."

Jacob was sure he was handling this whole everyone in your life is either absent or old now and you're in a completely different world thing very well, thanks. But this bloke, this one here, with his handsome face and knowing eyes threw Jacob in a way he couldn't understand. Even upside down, he tried to square his shoulders. As if there was a way to dangle in a distinguished way.

"You had a hunch? About me visiting my sister? Well, aren't you a bloody psychic!" Jacob knew he sounded childish but he couldn't help it. He was embarrassed and that never brought out the best at him. "Give me my money back, you prat." He slapped at Serefin's pocket, his attempt to go for a knife forgotten. No doubt there was something terrible to be said about a person who made him forget to focus on freeing himself. "Maybe then we can talk about your oh so gracious assistance."

"I had a hunch that you would find trouble while visiting your sister's. I always do. Her tea times can be dangerously brutal." Serefin gave no mind to Jacob swinging and grabbing for his pocket, he was too busy attempting to find where the whole contraption was set up, and more importantly, where the release lever was. He was making little hmm noises, before a soft ah ha

Jacob may have forgotten about trying to secure a knife, but Serefin did not. While Jacob was reaching for a single coin—a distraction, a clever trick that older Jacob had taught Serefin—he grabbed for the closest blade at Jacob's wait with a quick movement. "Just borrowing, towy nóżczko, I'll give it back, do not hurt yourself," Serefin said, disappearing behind a bookcase. There was a thunk, and then the line went immediately slack, dropping Jacob in the process.

Serefin came back and crouched down beside Jacob. "You can talk about my gracious assistance now, if you'd like," Serefin said, holding out the coin and the knife. Even for all his unpredictability, Serefin didn't think he'd take the money and run. Or well, he hoped not.

All of Jacob’s instincts warred with each other – a stranger, well something close to a stranger anyway, getting all up in his space, stealing a knife, but also freeing him. Well, it rang a lot of bells for Jacob and not the warning kind. Maybe he was a shit assassin. No doubt Evie wouldn’t have let anyone steal from her twice in the space of two minutes, let alone being stuck in this position in the first place.

“What did you call m—“ Jacob crumpled to the ground, thankfully quick enough to protect his face and roll out of the fall so that he wasn’t right at Serefin’s feet. His face flushed with embarrassment. He rolled to his knees and snatched the offered knife, looking it over like he suspected Serefin might have switched it for a lesser copy in the shuffle. “Keep the money. For your trouble.” He tested the point of the knife with his thumb and pushed to his feet. “I don’t like owing anyone. Just tell me what that other language was and we’ll call it a square deal.”

Serefin sighed, exasperated. Not with Jacob, but with the situation. Being significantly older than Jacob posed all sorts of problems, especially one where Jacob was highly suspicious of Serefin's knowledge—knowledge that he had to downplay for days without causing this Jacob to stab him immediately. Serefin would almost rather do it to himself in order to keep his mouth shut until he reverted back to his younger self.

He pocketed the coin and followed to standing slowly after Jacob. The fact he didn't immediately bolt out the window was to Serefin's advantage; he didn't want to pretend at being an assassin and crawl after Jacob across rooftops. He had never been any good at it. "Ah, Tranavian. A language you do not understand yet and are unlikely to have heard of. You do eventually learn it, some of it," Serefin said, glancing around the apartment, before staring Jacob down.

"What were you looking for in here? Most of the things on the train are yours, you know."

“Tranavian,” Jacob frowned. He was hardly what one would call studious, but he was reasonably sure there were no countries in his world called Tranavia. Other worlds was a thought that boggled the mind but he was in one, wasn’t he? That part was starting to feel like old news at least. And according to this bloke and his too old sister, he’d been here a long while in some strange future.

“Why would I learn a language from a world I’ll never see?” The answer to that felt like it was staring him right in the face but that freaked him right out, so Jacob waved a dismissive hand and started to circle the room. “Nevermind, just, forget it, alright? I’m just having a look around. Do you have any siblings? Because if you do, you should know what it’s like trying to get a leg up on one.”

"For fun, perhaps," Serefin said, despite Jacob's attempt to nevermind him. Though he looked immediately sour at the mention of siblings; Malachiasz tended to always cause an adverse reaction. Worse so, the naivete from Jacob about said brother.

"I have one sibling, and he is not nearly as nice as your sister is. Though she might gut me for saying that, so do me the honor of never repeating those words for her. I like being alive." Getting a leg up on his sibling had never quite happened, not prior to Vallo or during that brief stint where—well, he did not speak that part out loud. Jacob, this version of him, wouldn't understand the severity of letting that information slip out.

Instead Serefin followed behind him, ready to stop him from stepping into more traps around the Lance flat. "There's a compartment behind the icebox," Serefin said, pointing toward the kitchen. And that was the only one he knew, unfortunately. There was only so much he was privy to as the brother-in-law. "And what do you plan on doing with all these weapons once you get your leg up on Evie? And what's stopping me from saying anything? Perhaps you should offer me more coin for my silence."

Serefin following him should probably have annoyed Jacob; the man had just seen him dangling from the ceiling like the catch of the day after all. But he found he didn't mind the company. There was something familiar about it. And it turned out Serefin was a bit of a shit, so that helped too.

"Wow, blackmail. We're a little early in our acquaintance for that, don't you think?" That said, he followed Serefin's direction and checked out the hidden compartment with his eagle vision. The edges of it lit up strangely in his sight, like nothing he'd ever seen. He grimaced and stepped away. "Look, I don't have any more anything. I spent all those paper bills I found, because I don't really know how much any of them are worth and it's not like you can ask without making a big mark of yourself anyway--"

Jacob blew a breath out through his nose in frustration. "I just wanted something to show her I'm not a child and I can do things, alright?" He didn't know why he was even telling Serefin all of this. "Now piss off!"

A little early in our acquaintance nearly made Serefin pass out. This whole situation was going to end him if he didn't get some common ground between the two of them. And still, Serefin still couldn't help but say: "Blackmail works better if we do not know one another. We do not have to worry about guilt later."

Serefin pulled out a chair and sat, backward, and propped his head in his hand and his elbow on the back of the chair. This way he could keep an eye on Jacob, but also not feel as though he was hovering too much. Serefin wouldn't have done this with his older-ish counterpart, but at this age, he couldn't help it. He was concerned.

"Are you against asking for help? I cannot tell at this age," Serefin asked, seemingly unphased by the piss off; he had heard worse, especially on training days with Diego. "If you wanted to prove to your sister you aren't a child, you could just investigate whether or not anyone knows any of her moves, ask how to find her weapons without breaking in, and collaborate with her friends to set her up. But please, do continue stalking around her flat blindly. This is filling up my afternoon."

Jacob threw his hands up in the air, but there was a helpless laugh trapped in his throat even as he spun around. “What is your deal? Why do you even care about any of this?”

He thought about wandering off into the kitchen and just raiding Evie’s fridge. But he doubted she had anything exciting in there. The pantry could be full of prunes and bland crackers. Whole grain something something. He sighed and tipped over a statuette on a bookcase. It made a solid thunk and then stayed where it was. Anticlimactic but it felt good anyway.

“Ugh, don’t answer that. I’m just going to go. I don’t need a babysitter telling me how to properly antagonize my sister. If you want to follow me to that fancy wine cellar under the club, then maybe you can keep bothering me whilst I’m getting sloshed."

That was what did it—the babysitter comment—that suitably tipped him over the edge. Somehow, he still wanted to be somewhat impressive to tiny Jacob, and not seen as someone who was simply getting in his way. Serefin wanted him out of danger, not necessarily out of trouble. What was a little trouble if not excitement and fun? Especially for what Serefin knew of Jacob's childhood and what he was, more or less, rebelling against.

He pushed himself up out of the chair, without sliding it back in. Evie would know someone was in the apartment, no need to hide the evidence. "The wine cellar is mine, I'll have you know. If you plan on getting sloshed at least allow me to point you to the better wines. You will get lost down there, and then I will have to tell your sister to come get you. How is that for showing her you're not a child?"

Serefin slipped past Jacob and to the door, throwing it open, leading the way for the both of them. "Just do not touch anything else on your way out. You are lucky the statuette wasn't a tripwire to set off a tranquilizer."

Jacob visibly brightened. Stealing the wine was fun; stealing the wine from this man who challenged him at every turn was much better. He collected his cane sword from the ground and swung it in a cheeky circle as he followed Serefin to the door.

"Your concern for my well-being really is touching. Really, I'm flattered." He gave a little bow, hand over his heart. "But I'm not afraid of my sister's traps. Or your disapproval for that matter." He sounded like he meant it, anyway. So what if it was a lie. He still jammed the end of the cane into the bookcase closest to the door and tipped over a posh vase. Somehow, he managed to dodge the first dart that fired and had enough time to look smug about it too. It was the second dart that caught him in the side of the neck.

He slurred - "Aw, bollocks" - and tumbled towards Serefin like a mannequin with its strings cut.