InsaneJournal

Leon was warm. Very warm. He’d had a fairly nice dream that had disappeared in the haze of waking, and he came to consciousness slowly and pleasantly, except as he realized how uncomfortably warm he was.

Revy was sleeping against him, arm flung across his stomach, but there was another weight on his chest. One that he couldn’t account for.

He cracked open his eyes. Spotted the top of a tow-coloured head. He blinked. Blinked again.

Then cried out in surprise, a loud “Whattheactualfuckinghell?”, sat up suddenly, and flung both the boy and Revy off of him. What was this? Who was this?

The boy screamed too, and for one almost-horrified moment, Leon wondered if he was theirs. It was toward the end of October, he knew, and the last two years other people’s future kids had shown up. But no, he and Revy wouldn’t have a kid, would they? He was always… okay, well, mostly careful about that. How had Finn shown up those other times? Why had he never asked Adora and Catra that?

And then the sleep-haze finished dissipating, and he realized it wasn’t his kid after all. “Chris?” he asked, flabbergasted. Older than when Leon had last seen him, but not as old as he should be. He glanced down to make sure he was wearing his boxers, then over at Revy to be sure she was wearing a shirt, and then back at his kid – still a kid, despite the fact that by now, he should have been old enough to drink back home in the States – brother. “What are you doing here?”

Chris blinked at him, eyes wide enough to give him an owlish look, and shrugged. “Iunno,” he murmured quietly, and Leon winced when he realized that he’d snapped at the kid.

Revy did have a shirt on, yeah. She didn’t have sleep shorts on because - why? It was their bed, she slept however she wanted, and it just happened to be a night she wasn’t ass out and tits out. Sleep was great. She was deep in it, fully aware that she’d take the secret of Leon helping her sleep well to the grave and into the deepest parts of hell, when shit got weird.

Shit always got weird, didn’t it? There was screaming, and her instinct was to reach for the nearest knife on the nightstand (there were, like, three of them). Until she heard Leon say, “Chris?”

“What?” she blinked, stupefied. The third person in their bed was Chris. Chris. She knew Chris. She had watched Chris. Bonded with him, kind of. Chris was family because Leon was family. “How did you–? Dude, why didn’t you knock? That’s a rule for a reason.”

Chris stared at them both, wide-eyed, and made no move to answer them. Leon forced himself to relax.

“I’m not mad, buddy,” Leon said, running a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for yelling. You just surprised me, that’s all. I shouldn’t have yelled.”

Chris seemed to relax a little, but now he was looking around their room, still wide-eyed and confused. Leon grimaced as his brother’s eyes started welling up.

“I don’t know,” he said, voice quavering. “When I went to bed I was at home. Where is this? This isn’t your apartment.”

Okay, okay. Fuck. Not the best thing to say to him. Revy knew damn well that this place could plop you where the hell it wanted, whenever. Chris’ story tracked. She just never in a million years expected to wake up with a kid – any kid, in his defense – suddenly in their room.

Could be worse. Could be her and Leon’s kid, which she hoped wasn’t anyone that actually existed as she wasn’t mother material, and never wanted to be anyone’s mother.

Revy scrubbed a hand down her face, sighing. “It’s Vallo, you got brought here by some fucked up magic,” she answered, not realizing it was probably in the kid’s best interest to not swear like a sailor. “What’s the last thing you remember from home besides going to bed?”

Leon shifted uncomfortably, and then laid a hand awkwardly on Chris’ hair. It had been more than a decade since the last time he’d seen his little brother; he’d forgotten how easily he could start crying. He’d figured if he’d ever see Chris again, he’d be over that stage in his life. He’d hoped so, at least, given that his brother should have been in his twenties.

“It’s alright,” Leon said. “We were all pretty shook up when we arrived here too,” he assured him.

Chris took a couple breaths and then scrubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. “I was doing homework,” he said. “Before bed? And Sam was helping me. Mom said that if I finished all my homework before the weekend then she’d let me go to the zoo with you guys.”

He blinked owlishly at them. “Is this like all those weird things that used to happen back in California?”

Leon thought about it. “Uh, kinda,” he said. Chris seemed to know Revy, so he assumed it must have been the version of California where they’d lived in Irvine, not in Los Angeles. He’d thought he’d kept his brother sheltered from all the weird shit in the Orange County; apparently Chris had noticed more than Leon had expected. “Close enough, I guess.”

Revy wasn’t surprised Chris had noticed the weird crap going on. Kids were perceptive. She sure as hell was at his age anyway, but she understood Leon wanting to protect him from all the things that felt impossible. There was no way to sugarcoat or bullshit an explanation for this place. “Yeah,” she agreed, giving Leon a fleeting glance before looking back at his little brother. “Sums it up pretty well. Uh, okay, let’s –”

Vallo had kept her here for a year, she couldn’t have forgotten how to handle Chris in that time – right? She just needed to wake up more, fuck.

“You wanna, uh. We can have breakfast, and pick up some clothes. Show you around a little?”

Right. Clothes. Of course Chris was going to need clothes. And … other stuff. Not a lot. Leon was sure he wouldn’t be staying long. Was positive he wouldn’t be. But he’d need enough to get by for a couple of weeks.

Chris nodded. “I’d like that,” he agreed.

“Alright,” Leon said, hauling Chris up over his shoulder. Chris yelped with surprise and joy, and Leon set him down on the floor. “We’ll take out out somewhere. Think about what you want for breakfast and we’ll take you out. There’s a decent waffle place not far from here. But you gotta get out of here so Revy and I can get dressed. Scram.”

Chris shot Leon a fond grin and nodded, and he left the room to give Revy and Leon some privacy.

“And I thought waking up with tattoos after your birthday was a weird way to start the day,” Revy said after dragged out yawn – which then segued into a heavy sigh. Chris. Shit. She wasn’t opposed to seeing him, but the surprise was a bit much. It had taken a bit for her to consider herself, uh, kid friendly. Keep the weapons away, no gory merc stories.

Dropping f-bombs left and right was a work in progress. So was yelling. Revy yelled a lot.

But Chris wasn’t at a fragile age. He was self-sufficient. He could entertain himself.

Leon sighed heavily and flopped back onto the bed, pillowing his head on Revy’s firm, thick thighs. He’d stay there all day if he could, though he knew he wasn’t going to have time for much more than a breather.

“This is definitely weirder,” Leon agreed, and then let out a relieved sigh. “But, you know, probably less permanent. People’s kids show up all the time at this time of year.” He managed a wan smile. “It’ll be nice to have him visit for a couple of weeks though.”

Revy was about to get up until his annoying ass (head, technically) flopped back on her. She allowed it, drowsily giving his head some scratches. “If that’s what this is,” she replied with a shrug. “People usually get their own fucking kids for this kind of thing, right? I mean, I’ll take Chris over that any day.”

She drank and smoked too much for her body to be in any child-rearing shape, and she didn’t want kids anyway - her own or adopted. She was too selfish and fucked in the head for that, and every kid that crossed their path that wasn’t theirs felt like a relief.

“You and me both,” Leon said. He was not confident about his ability to become a father, and the idea of Revy becoming pregnant filled him with enough anxiety that he decided to lock that particular thought away and never, ever look at it again. Once upon a time he’d thought about being a dad, in a vague sort of way. In the kind of way that told him that that was just what people did. Back when he figured the American way of life involved a bombshell wife, a white picket fence, and barbequing burgers on the weekends. That had been a long time ago. Before D. Before Valarnet.

He closed his eyes and let himself one more moment of enjoying Revy’s touch in his hair before he sat up.

“Alright, well, I guess we should get going,” he said, searching the bedroom floor for a relatively clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt. “You think that The Shirt Shop has a kids section?”

“You fuckin’ shop there, you tell me,” Revy mumbled after a final yawn, dragging herself out of bed for the same thing. She showered the night before so all she had to do was slap on some deodorant, brush her teeth - the latter which she’d do after putting a respectable pair of pants on. “S’good to see him again though,” she added, because she did genuinely care about Chris - even if he cried easily. “Didn’t think I would while being stuck here, y’know?”

“No, me neither.” Leon pulled on his jeans and picked up one of the shirts from the ground. He stared at it in his hands for a long moment, lost in thought. “Not at this age, in any case.” And not a version of Chris that knew Revy. The thought nudged at him that the other Chris, the Chris who’d lived with D in LA, wanted nothing to do with him. That wasn’t new information; he’d known that since before he’d left LA in the first place. No point in dwelling on it. He pushed it out of his head, and slipped the shirt over his head. “But hey, might as well make the best of it, huh?”

Revy would have glared at him in disgust if she wasn’t used to his wardrobe. Good thing that she thought he was hot as shit despite the hideous threads. “Sure,” she said, rolling her eyes as she half-zipped the front of her jeans and grabbed a hair brush from the dresser. “Better come up with a back up plan too in case this sticks, though. I hear sometimes people keep their kids after this kind of thing.”

“Yeah, alright,” Leon agreed, immediately disregarding the suggestion. There was no way in hell Chris was staying longer than two weeks. No way. He was gonna go home and live his best life with his family. And in the meantime, Leon was going to enjoy having his little brother around without needing to worry about all the ways he would mess him up.

He opened the bedroom door. “Alright, Chris, let’s go get us some waffles.”