On the right side of the room stood Gabriel, Stephan, Misha, and Yuki, and on the left, Jake and Masha. The latters were staring at each other with narrowed eyes, sparks almost flying. They had been at it for a while already, shooting daggers and whatnot. Yet, neither seemed ready to avert their eyes, much less open their mouths.
The room was plunged into silence, and only the ticking of the clock resounded. It grew louder with each passing second, becoming almost deafening to Misha's ears. It was all he could hear, along with the quick beat of his heart.
'This is suffocating,' he thought. 'Gosh, the silence is killing me. Why the heck do they want to jump at each other's throats?! Masha, we said no murder!'
As his anxiety rose, Misha couldn't help but inwardly whine, glancing back and forth between Masha and Jake. The two hadn't had the opportunity to meet this week as work had been bustling on Masha's side, and it was thus the first time they met face to face since that day. Of course, Misha knew these two couldn't play friends out of the blue, and Masha had years of hatred and anger built up, but it'd be great if there were no blood bath tonight.
With this in mind, Misha decided to intervene before it was too late. However, Gabriel put a hand on his shoulder the moment he was about to speak up, shaking his head. Albeit reluctantly, Misha swallowed back the words about to fly out of his mouth. Alright. He should stop worrying. His sister wasn't that bloodthirsty. Probably…?
Regardless of how Misha felt, minutes passed, and only after what seemed to be an eternity did Masha deign to speak. Her voice was cold like ice and sharp like a blade, so much that it cut through people's eardrums—enough to make Misha want to cover his ears.
"First of all, I hate your guts, very much so. But…" Masha paused to purse her lips, then reluctantly continued. "But, well, thank you for protecting my brother. He told me what you did, and for that, you have my gratitude. I still want to beat your sorry ass, though."
Jake answered by cocking an eyebrow, not commenting whatsoever.
Masha had put up with his sloppy flirting and pushy attitude for the past few years; she always smiled despite the nonsense he spouted days and nights. Her reactions were somewhat meek and submissive, almost like a timid girl. But now that she was aware of his little charade, there was no point beating around the bush and playing stupid. Her behavior now had made quite the turnover. Though Jake had always been aware of her real temper, it was nevertheless startling to be at the receiving end of such straightforward words.
"Anyway, we're not here to talk about my feelings," Masha sighed, pulling a chair to sit on it. "Let's be serious for a bit. I think you owe us an explanation, Jake."
"An explanation, huh… I don't think I owe you anything, but I agree it'd be counterproductive to stay silent."
Jake's expression was frosty, and Masha glared back. It seemed like they would never be able to see eye to eye for whatever reason. Jake did not like her, and did not hide it either.
"However, it's kind of a long, crazy story," Jake started, closing his eye for an instant as if to reorganize his thoughts. "First off, I started to remember my previous lives a few months after Gabriel traveled back in time. It took me years to accept that these dreams were perhaps memories of previous lives. A part of me still couldn't believe it until just recently."
In this case, "until just recently" meant a few days ago. After Gabriel told him about his and Misha's little trips back in time, Jake could finally come to terms with these dream-like memories of his. If others also remembered lives that shouldn't exist, however small, it proved that he hadn't gone nuts. But whether he felt relief or grief at the thought was another story.
"I don't know if you want to ask questions first or—"
"Then, can I ask something…?" Misha raised his hand, and Jake nodded. "How did I die in the first life? Sorry, it's not a very, hum, pertinent question, I guess. But I really want to know. I've been curious since I heard you say I had a "bizarre" death, so…."
For the past few days, the teenager had reined in his curiosity. On the one hand, Jake was on bed rest and needed time to recover, while on the other, they had all agreed to meet on the weekend to talk about Jake's past lives. It was better to interrogate Jake once, not a dozen times.
"It's actually a good question, and maybe you'll be able to enlighten me here. Your body was found in a snowbank on Christmas, and the police speculated that you were dead drunk and fell asleep by the roadside, then froze to death. Apparently, you wandered about half-dressed in a snowstorm with a bottle of vodka in hand. So, tell me, if you weren't courting death, what were you doing?"
The teenager responded with silence. Right. He had been a little reckless that day, now that he thought about it.
"Mish', mind answering his question?" Masha asked with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "It seems like you lied to us about a few things, hm?"
"I didn't lie, it's just that you didn't ask…."
Of course, Misha had related his meeting with Santa Claus to Gabriel and his sister a few years back, but he hadn't gone into detail about what he was doing or where he was going at the time. He just said that he and Santa crossed paths on the street, and the friendly older man invited him over for a cup of hot chocolate. It wasn't exactly a lie.
However, his sister didn't share the feeling and cried out in exasperation, "That's called lying by omission!"
"Fine, fine!" Misha grunted. "It's just that I met Gabriel at the bar and got really pissed off when he didn't recognize me, so, you know? I kinda snapped."
"I didn't recognize you?" Gabriel repeated, surprised. "How come?"
"Like hell I know! We hadn't seen each other for, what, almost ten years? The last time you saw me, I was a teenager, not an adult. In addition, that ass," Misha pointed to Stephan with his chin, "had me dressed up as a fucking reindeer for the holidays. I looked nothing like my younger self, maybe."
"You sound like you're trying to make excuses for Gabriel," Stephan chuckled. "I wonder why that is?"
"Shut up!" Misha puffed his cheeks. "Anyway, I just saw red and beat Gaby to a bloody mess, then ran away and snatched a bottle of vodka in passing. I'm not very proud of that, so, yeah, I didn't want you to know! You're all always hiding a shitload of things from me, so why can't I do the same?"
The room fell silent at the accusation. Masha and Jake averted their eyes, looking at their feet, while Gabriel cleared his throat and Stephan whistled not-so-innocently. That bunch of pricks…
"So you're not denying that you're hiding things from me?" Misha snorted. "How surprising."
"Let's get back to the topic at hand," Jake said, cutting the subject short. "So, you wandered outside after storming out of the bar, and then?"
"Well, I did lie in the snowbank to take a nap. But I barely had the time to close my eyes when Santa shook my shoulders and woke me up. He invited me to his house, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere now that I think about it. Anyway, he gave me a cup of hot chocolate, and we discussed a bit, though I don't remember very well what we talked about. I was drunk, after all."
"Didn't I tell you, over and over again, not to accept things from strangers and follow them wherever?" Masha's mouth twitched. "Goodness, he could very well have put something weird in your beverage!"
Misha shrugged; he had nothing to say to that. He wasn't thinking clearly at the time, and he was aware he had done something foolish. He wouldn't make excuses, not when his dead body was found the next day. His choice led to his death in that timeline, and he left behind his friends and Gabriel. He didn't even want to imagine how devastated Dereck had been after hearing the news, nor how guilty he felt at not being able to stop him from storming out. Misha remembered fairly well his friend screaming his name at the bar, but he had ignored him and dashed out anyway. Hence, the last thing Dereck had seen was his back disappearing in the snowstorm.
Thinking about such things made a shiver crawl down his spine. Misha then knew nightmares would plague his sleep tonight. But that wasn't important right now, and he tossed his feelings aside for the time being. They still had a lot to discuss.
"I guess after your mind left for your younger self," Gabriel started coldly, "you dropped dead as I did, and our dear Santa just tossed your corpse outside. After all, it wouldn't do to let it rot in his house."
"Or maybe said house disappeared, leaving behind said body," Stephan suggested. "Anyhow, we can't know the whole story behind Misha's death unless we interrogate Santa."
"Why not try to ambush him on Christmas Eve then?" Yuki proposed.
Gabriel shook his head. "We can't. We tried to do that a few times in the past, but he never showed up. He said we'll meet again when it's time to return the watch from the first timeline. So, I guess that until then, he'll not respond to our summon no matter what we do."
Yuki nodded, and a short silence fell. It was soon broken by Masha, however.
"So, now that we have cleared up Misha's death, how about clearing up mine? I find it hard to believe that I took my own life. What do you have to say about it, Jake?"
To Masha's inquiring tone, Jake responded with a sigh. It was one of the many things he knew he'd have to tackle but didn't want to. Whatever answer he gave, it wouldn't be anything any of them wanted to hear.
_____________________________
Edited by Clozed! ♥♥
Author has something to say:
Baffling wrote a smutty fanfic of SD for my birthday (May 14)!!! Buffy adult Misha is something I didn't know I needed, hehe. You can read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38964255
Val drew an awesome fanart of Misha! I'm so in love with it!!!!! I shared the masterpiece on my discord here: https://discord.gg/QhWkRY28tF
Aaand Clozed made me a super carrd here: https://r-s-vaesen.carrd.co
I've been blessed this year!!! I can't thank them enough for all the gifts!!! ♥♥♥
For early access (UP TO 10 CHAPTERS!!!), feel free to check out my P a t r e . o n !
P a t r e . o n : https://www.patreon.com/rsvaesen
Twitter : @ VaesenRs
Ko fi : https://ko-fi.com/rs_vaesen
Discord: https://discord.gg/ZsEYr5eh6h