I Come Alive

"Oh, how the mighty hath fallen." Beau remarked, being a calm, yet obviously glare to Parish who eyed Joshua and him suspiciously. "Hello, Parish."

"Am I going to get an answer, or are you going to keep playing the innocent little criminal act? Where were you and that boy last night?"

"Well, Parish, I would give you an answer, but I'm afraid it's just too... explicit for public ears." Beau laughed, almost in Parish's face when he gave the answer. Parish's expression hardly changed.

Joshua nudged Beau in the side, almost telling him to back off. Parish had so much power in each of the districts. He could say, "Jump," and most of the districts would go, "How high?" He had already accused Joshua and Beau of being involved with the fire, so this little showdown could honestly convince people that Joshua and Beau did have something to do with it.

"Very funny, Christo. But you're still avoiding my question."

"I was with my mate." Beau tightened his arm around Joshua's body, keeping him close. "And we were both at home the entire night."

"The entire night?"

"Don't go grasping at straws here, Parish. Just because you need a campaign boost doesn't mean you can come after us." Beau's tone grew from playful to a bit more serious. Joshua tried hiding himself for the most part as Parish's goons eyed the both of them.

The air was beyond tense between the group. Beau, trying to keep from losing face, didn't bother to back down, even as Parish's goons moved a little closer with every minute of silence. Parish never lost. That was his entire motto this campaign: "Because Parish doesn't lose." Joshua felt he should have jumped in more, but what else could he do?

Honestly, he could be doing so much more.

The corners of Parish's lips curled into an innocent smile, and he acted as though the rude comments exchanged were nothing but jokes between friends. "You know I'm only trying to tie up the lose ends of this fire here, boys. I don't mean anything rude when I ask these things!" Parish laughed nonchalantly, with a bit of ego along with it. "Would you mind me asking where your friend Ethylon is at the moment?"

Beau was struck dumb at the thought of Ethylon. He hoped he was with Rowan, or someplace else with Lejend, but nobody had called. Nobody had said anything to even hint that Ethylon was alive.

"He—"

"We don't know." Joshua jumped in.

"Joshua!" Beau hissed.

"We don't have the slightest idea as to where he could be. We've been looking for him everywhere, Mr. Parish." Joshua's eye grew wider, and his hands were clasped together at his chest. "We just want to find him as soon as possible. He's one of my closest friends.... If he were gone, I would just.... I can't lose anybody else." Joshua glanced at Parish past his locks of auburn hair. "Are you looking for him too?"

Parish, caught off-guard by Joshua's sudden submissive voice and looks, had nothing else to say besides an occasional stutter. Joshua smiled, but only on the inside.

"Y-yes." Parish shook his head, as though he were coming back to ground himself. "I mean, we're trying to locate him. But he's not the easiest to find. He's probably hiding out somewhere, like he usually does."

"If you find anything about him, you'll find us first, right?" Joshua pleaded.

Parish nodded slowly, giving an unsure blink before he realized he was being dismissed by none other than a small teenage boy.

"Yes, of course." Parish responded as though he were brainwashed by Joshua's small actions. "But, uh, we do need to bring you two in for questions eventually. Just... routine." Parish shook his head again, awakening from a daze. "We'll be in touch."

While watching Parish and his bodyguards walk away from the scene they themselves made, Beau grabbed Joshua by the arm. Joshua yelped and jerked his arm away, but Beau just tightened his grip impatiently.

"And what was that little act?"

"What act?" Joshua blinked, trying once again to bring his arm away from him. Beau had never grabbed him in that way, except when Beau was hiding him from the Solar Sailors, and even then, he didn't mean his actions to be so harsh.

"Don't do that! 'Oh, Mr. Parish, please help us find our friend because we're completely helpless, and you're our hero. Please, Mr. Parish?' " Beau mimicked Joshua in a higher tone, waving his hands dramatically and finally placing the back of his hand upon his forehead. Joshua pouted angrily before stomping off in the direction of Rowan's lab. "We don't need help from a person like him!"

"I don't see the problem. It got him off of our backs. Isn't that what you wanted?" Joshua retorted. The group of people around them had no scattered and returned to their numb schedules and daily activities. Few even noticed the argument between the two anymore.

Beau jogged to Joshua's side, shoving through crowds of strangely dressed citizens.

"I could have handled him just as well." Beau said. "I don't want to see you hurt."

"You don't..." Joshua stopped himself short, looking away from Beau's face.

"I don't, what?"

I'm not a child. You don't have to watch my every move like I'm four. Joshua thought. But nothing came out, even when he opened his mouth.

Joshua ignored his question, even as they approached Rowan's lab, storming towards the elevator that was almost completely empty. When Beau and Joshua walked in, the two women moved towards the walls as though they were being threatened. Beau scoffed and paid them no mind, staring down at his shoes instead of at the two horror filled women.

"You hurt my arm...." Joshua murmured. Beau leaned in, moving the white sleeve away from Joshua's arm. A small, almost unnoticeable bruise was forming, the outline of Beau's rough hands leaving an imprint on Joshua's creamy and freckled skin. Beau's emotions changed from angry, to regretful.

"Joshua, I'm sorry."

One of the women from behind them laughed, like Beau had meant to hurt his mate. Joshua pulled his sleeve down, hiding the bruise from plain sight. He didn't bother to say anything, because he was too busy fuming within his mind.

What happened to us?



"You haven't heard from Ethylon either?" Rowan asked as soon as Joshua and Beau appeared in the doorway. His eyes were frazzled, and his appearance beyond tired and worn out. He had been working himself so hard to find the robots, as well as his own flesh and blood that sleep had evaded him for the past week. The dark circles under his eyes were only accompanied by a yawn that passed every five minutes or so.

"No luck." Beau shook his head. "Nothing from him..."

"Or Lejend." Joshua jumped in as well.

Rowan rested his head upon a few folders on his desk, blinking once, twice, three times, and then yawning once again. His eyes were bloodshot, and his stare intense. Was he even bothering to listen?

Joshua turned his head, taking a long breath in of the room. It smelled... old. He hardly thought that made any sense, but the room around him smelled as though it had been standing for hundreds of years, when really it was only a few years old. Perhaps it was the cold case folders that were adding to the smell of the air.

"I'm worried." Rowan burst through the silence, and he let out a deep sigh of almost relief. "He's never done anything like this before. He knows if he were in any trouble, he could come to talk to me."

"You don't think he—"

"No, I don't." Rowan cut Beau short, before the horrifying sentence could be finished. "He wouldn't give up without a fight. He's always been a stubborn ass." Rowan laughed weakly at his own making fun of his brother.

Beau shifted his body onto his better leg, pushing his clammy hands into the pockets of his pants. Joshua wandered the room, staring at the bare, metal walls of the building. He swore if he were forced to be in this building 24/7, he would go insane just from the emptiness of it all. There was absolutely no color on the walls, and that itself was torture.

"So where do you think he is then?"

"He's been captured, of course." Rowan sat up in his chair. He twiddled his fingers impatiently in his lap. "By whom, I have not the slightest idea. The resistance? Maybe. Or maybe he's been captured by some party. Y'know, politics. Maybe they took him to Bion once again."

"But they would have announced the Bion, if it did happen." Beau said. "And what good would he do for a politician?"

"Do you know how much leverage that is in a race, Beau? To say that you captured an escaped criminal rebel at the place of a fire? Why not just put honey all over him and throw him on an ant hill? You know what I mean."

Suddenly, the mood of the room changed.

Beau swallowed a ball in his throat, taking a long breath before he bothered to speak again. "And if it was the rebels?"

Rowan laughed again. "Who knows? They could admire him for openly escaping Bion. Or despise him for bringing attention to their little gangs."

Joshua turned to Rowan. "So he could be anywhere?"

"He could be gone, for any matter." Rowan said in exasperation. "Maybe I think too much of my brother and he died in the building, what do I know?"

"Don't think that way."

"How can I not think that way, Beau?" Rowan replied. "This is the best way to imagine things right now. I don't want to fool myself into thinking that Ethylon is still out there, living and breathing, when his body could be cold and disguised in rubble and ash!" Rowan slammed his hand down on his desk, pushing himself off the chair faster than he should have. "My brother is all I have, possibly had, and if he's gone, I have nothing but this stupid job, so why can't I just prepare for the inevitable?" Rowan paused and then murmured. "In case you haven't noticed, not many positive things work out for Ethylon and I. The odds aren't usually in our favor."

After his rant, Rowan grabbed his head, groaning in pain and sitting down once again.

"Beau...." Joshua walked next to his mate, whispering under his breath. "We need to leave."

"We can't leave him like this, can we?" Beau glanced at Rowan in pain once again.

"Imagine how much it would hurt to think about something like this. Imagining his own brother gone? That's a nightmare." Joshua wrapped his fingers around Beau's wrist. "Let's just leave."

Beau gave in to Joshua's small tugs, turning his back on Rowan and his filthy desk. He bid Rowan good luck before he left the room with his small mate.

"Joshua?" Beau asked quietly. Joshua nodded. "Do you think we're the reason for all this?"

Joshua hid his gaze from Beau, but he nodded.

"We're to blame?"

"It's not blame." Joshua said quietly. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he didn't bother to wipe them away. "It's just that... It all started with us, Beau. Everything fell apart with us. We were the ticking time bomb..." Joshua looked at his feet, as they shook involuntarily. The lamps above their heads were swinging back and forth while Beau's tall and stocky figure swayed back and forth.

"Beau, what's going on?" Joshua leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Beau's waist. He held on, almost for dear life.

"It's not an earthquake." Beau stated. We've never had one of those... The shaking became more intense until finally a spine-chilling boom! echoed through the halls of the building. "An explosion?" Beau shouted. Joshua latched on Beau's arm, pulling towards the stairs.

Without giving it a second thought, Joshua and Beau jogged to the stairs, carefully making their way down the stairs and to the exit on the first floor. The lobby was empty, not even the secretaries were there. Through the glass windows, they could see dark black and gray tufts of ash and clouds floating through the air. Small chunks of rubble and building collided with the delicate ground, leaving dents in the sidewalks.

"What do we do?" Joshua yelled. Beau looked through the ash clouds, almost searching for an answer. There was nothing, until he saw a group of people emerge through the ash, and the ringleader of them all was none other than a familiar face. None other than Drew.

Joshua took a sharp breath, his chest tightening at the thought of Drew visiting them at the night, staring at them, watching them sleep. Why had he talked to Joshua the other night? Was it to warn them about this? No, he hardly mentioned anything about what he had been doing. He only mentioned Beau.

"I have to see what he's doing." Beau said.

"Then I'm coming with you."

The air changed between them. Beau looked down at Joshua, and he sighed.

"You can't. Not this time."

"Why?"

"It's too dangerous out there, Joshua. It's not event he fact that you're my mate, and that I think you're some delicate flower. Only a madman would go out in that."

Joshua held onto Beau's hands, tightening his cold fingers around Beau's. "Exactly. So please don't go out there."

"I've always been a little crazy, Joshua." Beau smiled weakly. "I'll be right back. You stay here, behind the desk to avoid the ash, but you stay right here. I can't risk losing you out there, and I know that's what will happen."

"But what if you get lost, Beau?" Joshua's voice cracked in mid-sentence, and his eyes had tears welling up already.

"I promise I'll be right back."

Beau's fingers wiped away the tears on Joshua's cheeks, and he kissed the trail of one away.

"Okay." Joshua mumbled, nodding numbly as Beau turned and made his way through the door. He held the collar of his shirt to his nose, trying to keep himself from inhaling any ash. The black cloud outside seemed to open, and then close right after Beau pushed himself through it.

He was lost.

Joshua walked behind the secretaries desks, slowly sitting down on the ground and curling up. He pulled his knees up to his chin, taking short breaths.

Beau promised. That was all Joshua could think. Beau promised.