They stayed there. Staring. One single sip from their coffee could've done the trick had they not spent all night making sure not a single mistake was made in Jarek's paperwork—and still Oracle Bain was still screaming his throat off like there was no tomorrow for a single misplaced coma.
"Just turn me into a frog already!" They growled.
Bain lifted his eyebrow, "WHAT did you say, SEER?"
"N-nothing… sir…"
"Thought so!" He sighed. "How did we ever greenlight you?"
"I—"
"Don't answer that!" Jarek screamed from behind. His strong somewhat deep voice making Bain recoil. "I'm sorry, Oracle, they've been having trouble sleeping lately!"
"That don't matter to me!"
"Oh, but it does!" Jarek got in front of them. Jarek's hair was tied in a ponytail, shame. They liked seeing it flow. But his uniform still fit damn well: the tight blue plants filled with pockets all over the legs, the blue jacket over their black shirt that yelled in orange letters 'SEER', and the battle boots, this time they were black—theirs were purple.
"How so?"
"Well, Kai here is… hum… volunteering for a case! One of those steamy ones…?"
"A steam case?" Bain directed his dead green eyes at them.
Kai fixed their position on the chair with a grin, "Y-yes sir!"
"Alone?"
"No," said Jarek, "of course not alone!"
"Yeah, Jarek wanted to help out too. I just… hum… thought I'd have to do this paperwork before asking?"
"How stupid do you think I am?"
"How much honesty can I answer with?" They murmured.
Bain stood from behind his desk. Jarek took on step back with his hands in the air as he whispered, "Calm down, sir, please." But the man was already turning red, like always. Kai rolled their eyes before standing up themself and adjusted their jacket.
"Please sir!" They said, Bain raised one eyebrow. "I'm trying to prove myself to the Heart, how else could I do it? Everyone already thinks we're the worst seers ever."
"Because you are!"
Kai bit their lip, Jarek nodded with his head down.
"Look," continued Bain after a long sigh. "I didn't train you both so that you could just grab a case and go die! You're not alone anymore!"
"We can do this!" Kai insisted.
"Yes! I know that!" The man sat back on his chair, turned to the files on the desk and then stared back into Kai's eyes. "Are you really that desperate for approval?"
"Sir, you don't know what everyone else is like!" Jarek replied, "they mock us, hit us, give us their coffee orders… The only case we've been given was about a stupid kid who threw a piece of garbage a few centimeters to the left!"
"That caused a murder?"
Kai raised their shoulders, "No, but the killer got the idea from seeing the piece of garbage."
"How do you know that?"
"We investigated!" Kai smiled, "like you told us to!"
"Psyche and everything!" Jarek took his phone out. "I'm sure I have the studies here somewhere."
"Amazing! That's great!" Bain said, "soon they'll have you give you an actual case!"
"That was two years ago!" Kai let themself fall back on their chair. "They're not going to take us seriously. Ever."
"Why?"
"Because we weren't born into Heart." Jarek sighed.
"Alright, look, if by the end of the week you two still haven't gotten a case, I'll see what I can do! But I'm NOT giving you a steam case, alright?"
"But—"
"No but's Kai!" Bain half smiled. "Now go somewhere else, you're taking up my lunch time!"
"Fine!" Kai said.
"I guess you loved us…"
Bain threw a clip at Jarek's head, "I heard that, Jar!"
"Okay, okay! We're leaving!"
Kai laughed.
And both of them walked out.
* * *
Kai's coffee has gone cold. It didn't taste good anymore, but they still needed the energy. They sat behind their desk, staring at the diving wall turning one table into two desks and laid their head on the crystal that turned it into four cubicles.
"Nothing's there!" They said.
"Unborn!" Screamed someone. They turned around.
The precinct was a gigantic room with at least eight desks divided into four cubicles each. Behind them, though, only stood a couple people. The rest of the Seers were at the Oracle's office, the one big island at the center with see-through-walls. Jar was somewhere in the bathrooms, surely waiting for that cleaning guy he liked.
"Did you not listen!" Xavier, the stupid fuck who had the most cases—and mostly the one assigning them too, he was next in line to be the Oracle once Bain retired.
"What do you want?" Kai answered.
Xavier went down the steps of the Oracle's office and stopped walking once he was three meters away from them. "You haven't gotten us our coffee yet!"
"Seriously?"
"Well, I don't see one in my hand, I guess that means I am being serious!"
"Dude, I'm not—"
Xavier smirked and reached for his pockets. Kai bit their lip.
"W-what flavor?"
"The usual, thanks hun!"
"Y-yeah…"
They stood up. Each step they took was heavier than the last, and their head down almost instinct at this point. As they passed next to Xavier, the man pushed them making them trip, but not fall.
"Look were you're going unborn! You're gonna infect someone!"
The whisper escaped their lips, "I'm not…"
It wasn't worth it.
One too many deep breaths later, they were walking by the Oracle's office. Bain was now going through another file, his face buried in the holograms whereas his hands toying with the bouncing pen they gave him last year. Surely it was a steam case, right? What else could he be so worked up about?
"Wait… is that Xavier?" they said noticing the reflection on Bain's glasses. The body lied on the ground, a single bullet to the head but everything down the neck was blurred out by other reflections. Kai gulped and kept walking.
Past Bain's office was the 'break-wall' or as they liked to call it, the 'go make me coffee' wall. It even had the order they'd prepared specifically to put in some hot sauce in without anyone noticing—all but Xavier had fallen, stupid fuck.
"Although, if he's dying soon—" They shrugged their shoulders and turned their gaze left, towards the corridor with a flickering light within a sea of brand-new ones.
Jar-jar was there, next to that intendent guy. Kai giggled, if it weren't for Heart's stupid rules they'd be kissing by now. Both guys were blushing like they've never seen Jarek do before!
"Maybe soon," they said.
Finally reached the wall. Kai took the bags and put them inside the mugs, then grabbed the tiny sauce packages and put one in every coffee. Finally, they put cup by cup into the heating waves—a hole in the wall with a blue streak of light that's infused with radio-waves to heat up anything put in it so long as the blue light swallows it hole.
Thirteen coffees later, they made another one. Without any sauce and put it in Xavier's spot of the tray.
"Is this really all I'll ever do?" they whispered, glanced once more at the hallway, and swallowed their smile. Jar-jar was holding guy's hips to help him with the lights—they've met, so they know their pronouns but… let's just say names aren't really that important when nothing can sprout from it.
Kai shook their head before heading back.
All officers were now just in line, facing the Oracle's office while Bain walked back and forth at the top, his mouth trembling. Wait, the jacket! He was wearing his Oracle jacket… he almost never does.
"Is it that serious?" they muttered, putting the coffees at the center table in the corridor between all desks.
"Where to begin?" said Bain. "Alright everyone, listen up!"
"YES SIR!"
"I've been handed a case by our Crystal. It's been classified as a steam case. However, victims seem to be in a proper moment to be saved." He stopped walking. His posture was perfect, chest high up, eyes forward and hands on his back, while the projection of H.E.A.R.T.'s logo, the oak tree, shone in the glass reflection behind him.
"What do you want us to do, sir?" Xavier answered.
"I…" Bain bit his lips. "I need volunteers."
Kai's hand raised.
No one else's did. Amazing! That can just mean that the job is theirs! GREAT!
Xavier walked one step up, turned around and before he adopted Bain's posture, his eyes set on Kai. First it was a cackle. Then a giggle. Finally, he pointed at them, making everyone turn as well. Another cackle. Someone burst into laughter. Someone else tried to speak only to end up in tears of laughter.
"HA!" Xavier said, getting his posture back. "The unborn thinks *she* can do anything! Pathetic!"
Their heart got squeezed and two weights tried to get tears out, yet all that came out was a trembling lip. They bit it. Their mouth started tasting of blood and their hand slowly came down.
"Oaky, okay, now that *she* has seen sense again, you guys, let's just divide into teams and—"
"I'm not a girl." They said.
"What?" Xavier lifted his gaze, daggers for eyes.
"I. Am. Not. A. Girl."
"Haha… you seem confused darling, you got a vag down there, right? You a girl!" Kai clenched their fist. "Now, let's ignore *her*," this one was on purpose! Like drawing a ball of acid into their stomach. "We'll—"
"I told you. I'm not a girl! M'kay ma'am?"
"What did you just?!" He stopped, took one breath in. "If you don't want to be called a girl, then don't use stupid makeup and stupid long hair!"
"I don't owe you androgyny!"
"No, but you do owe me a good sandwich now! Look what you've done, now I'm hungry! Go make one, unborn *woman*."
"Tough talk from the angel who can't even make coffee."
"Because women *like you* are in charge of that!" He started to clap his hands. "Can you believe this girl? Oh, my god. I'm so sorry. You're right, I should be more mindful!"
Kai took one of the cups of coffee.
Xavier went across the room and stood a couple meters away from them. "You're in your days, aren't you love? Yeh, that must be why you're being so paranoic."
"C'mon Xavi!" someone else shouted. "Leave *her* alone!"
That's it.
They smiled at Xavier, walked slowly towards him and once close enough, the man just bit his lip as if wanting them to feel intimidated by… the lack of any well buttoned clothes perhaps?
"Oh, Xavi, you should really listen to your wife back there," they poured the coffee on the man's crotch. "Looks like you peed your uniform again!"
Xavier jolted back and tripped on his ankle before falling. A silent gasp was followed by the grown man's moaning before he stood up grabbing his crotch and glaring at Kai. One growl later, he was charging at them.
Kai went to the left, leaving the man go further ahead, so they lifter their knee landing a good second hit to Xavier's dick—an amazingly stifled scream followed right as the guy fell to the ground. They shrugged their shoulders and jumped on top of the Seer. Another stifled scream.
"Now, who wants to figure out if I can tap-dance?"
The man arched his back tripping Kai back to the floor. Their head hit the floor and for a moment all light went missing, enough for the hard burning sensation of a foot on their stomach. And again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
"LEARN YOUR FUCKING PLACE YOU STUPID UNBORN!"
They spat out some blood and bit their tongue bringing anew the taste of its irony substance. Light came back. They were against their desk, explaining the sensation of something at their back, and Xavier was kicking their stomach. Again.
"YOU ARE JUST A STUPID HUMAN!" He finished, taking to steps back and rearranging his hair. "We angels are better. Got it? So we do the work."
"You're just… sad…" they managed to spit out in bloody clots, like tiny sacks. "And… pathetic…"
"Says the *girl* on the floor."
It burned. Like getting stabbed by a fiery, acidic blade everywhere at once. Their head hurt even more, maybe something broke there too. Their arm certainly was, so glad they couldn't feel it anymore.
_Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!_
And—
* * *
Heart was nice at night. At least in the intersection between Aorta and Pulmonary Avenue. The streets were made of grey bricks, and there were no sidewalks as those got replaced by a bunch of metallic planters with roses and a bunch of tiny pink flowers with yellow centers. Still though, the most beautiful thing was the center of the intersection, the gigantic oak tree with gleaming floating lanterns under the flying bubbles people used to move around.
It was all just so… romantic.
_Fuck! No! Don't think that!_
He shook his head, clenched his fist, and turned to left. Shit! Fred's face was there, with his gleaming dark skin, those dark pearly eyes, and his braids falling down to his neck going from black to a crimson red…
Nope! Look away Jarek!
"S-so… hum… it's nice here, aye?" said Fred.
They were sitting at the roots of the oak, on the benches where it was permitted. No one else was, not due to lack of trying though, it just was late, and few people were allowed to go out at night. Heart's rules.
"Y-yeah!" Jarek managed to mumble. "It's awesome! I mean, you're awesome… I mean… fuck! I said it right the first time!"
"You… sorry…" Fred shook him a bit. Jarek turned to see him. His heart flickered. "Sorry, I didn't hear you, could you speak louder?"
Jarek gulped, "I said… it's a really nice place!"
"Right?" he smiled.
Damn, even that smile was enough to make his heart jump out of his chest.
"Cute."
"You really need to speak up, man!" Fred answered, Jarek shook his head and buried his gaze at the floor.
"N-nothing. Nothing."
"Well… hum… thanks for coming with me! I've been wanting to see this place at night but, I need a Seer for that and they're all just…"
"Assholes?"
"I was going to say full angels. But yeah." He shrugged his shoulders. "You're lucky your father is so accepting."
"At least you're not called 'unborn' every time!"
"Dude, I'm just the handy-man, you're a Seer!"
"And yet all I do is interviews." Jarek sighed. "If anything, and most of the times they just tell me to do so without giving me any info so they can laugh at me."
"Your sister—"
"They're my sibling."
Fred bit his lip and corrected his posture. "Right, sorry. But they do have it a bit worse, aye? How many fights have they gotten into this month?"
"Five."
"Isn't that a suspension?"
"For them it's six, because 'we can't expect an unborn woman to control her periods'. I got six for being an unborn male!"
"How do you handle that?"
"I don't know." He leaned against the chair. "I guess I've never known anything else, so… maybe."
"Maybe what?"
"N-nothing!" Jarek turned to Fred. Another clenching of his fist. Frederick had a tiny light in the corner of his eye, a tear perhaps. "Hey! I'm used to it, I'm tough!"
"You shouldn't need to be." Fred shrugged his shoulders. "None of us should."
"They're still denying your promotion."
"Yep. Not a complete angel so I guess I suck."
"Haha… guess we're just screwed."
"Yeah."
Silence crept in.
Wind blew by with the scent of orange baked goods. Jarek took a deep breath in, Fred smiled and melted in his seat. So cute!
"Orange pancakes!" said Fred. "God, I'm starving."
"Are they good?"
"What? Yeah!" Fred got closer to him. "Have you not had one?"
"N-no. Bain isn't allowed oranges."
"Why?"
Jarek just raised his eyebrows. Fred nodded and leaned against his seat again, a nervous and guilty gleam on his face.
"It's okay, I'll just have to do a case where there are some."
"I guess so…" Fred murmured.
"Now who's talking low?"
"Shut up!" Frederick gave one single slap at Jarek's arm. His hand closed on it as surprise arrived at his face followed by a red color. Jarek turned to see him. Their eyes locked, black pearls reflecting each other. "S-sorry…"
"N-no… it's good…"
*RING!*
Jarek flinched. Fred took his hand away and turned to the opposite side. The phone had one single name on it: Dad.
"Fuck!" he said. "I gotta go."
"A-alright." Fred answered. "I… then I'll go home."
Frederick started to go through his pockets searching for the bubble-caller. Jarek nodded and answered the call, but right before putting the headphones in, he went closer to Fred. A good look at the man: blush, shameful eyes, biting lip and trembling fingers working their way through their holo-phone.
"See you tomorrow Fred!" Jarek said.
One kiss on the cheek.
He turned to walk away and put on the headphones.
Frederick flinched and squeaked.
And it dawned on him.
"What did I just do?" Jarek whispered.
He ran.
* * *
"You should rest!" Bain shouted across the room.
They were in their apartment. Bain sat at the dining table with a cup of water and his left arm resting at the sink. Kai leaned against the beige wall whilst the purple bracelet went up and down their arm, activating those healing bots.
"Well, maybe I will!"
"Good!"
"When you tell me why you didn't do shit!"
"Kai!" Bain hit the table. His voice broke by the end. "I'm sorry. You know I can't."
"No! I don't!" They walked to their room at the end of the corridor and grabbed the book on their bed before strutting back into the dining room with the open chapter that read 'ORACLE'. "It says you get to interfere once a month! And today I really needed you!"
"But it also says I shouldn't allow humans in the force!"
"Don't you mean unborns?"
"Kai, you know that's not what I meant!" He sighed and looked away. "I adopted you because I care for you."
"You felt guilty you killed our odd-selves!"
"I didn't do that!"
"Then why would you do this?"
"BECAUSE I WANTED TO!" He shouted. Kai clenched their fist already feeling the first tear burn in the corner of their eye. "Kai, I've told you and your brother over and over. I don't think humans are treated fairly here. I wanted to at least give someone a better life, and I ended up getting you two!"
"Our being born in the original timeline caused people to die!" they said, eyes on the wall. "If that's not a monster then—"
"You're not a monster!"
"Aren't I?" They turned to Bain. "Because Xavier and those fucks sure as hell don't see me like a human! When they're not seeing a 'woman' who's only good for coffee and having babies, they're seeing an object to abuse!"
"Kai…"
"NO!" They paused to gather some air. "No! I'm not even human to them!"
"The alternative is you working as a slave to those same men!" Bain said. "It's not fair! And it shouldn't happen, but for whatever reason, that's the way Heart wrote the law!"
Bain went through the pages of the book until finally the chapter appeared. Its titled mocked Kai with its very existence, half saying 'fuck you', half saying, 'I own you'. They gulped.
"Even the rules say I'm a monster!"
"It doesn't!"
Kai pointed at the first paragraph and read, "'The humans who become odd-selves out of being born are most likely to always be born after the anomaly, so in case of any conflict to the timeline, we shall keep them and eliminate the memory of the mother, for their mere existence threatens our balance'."
Bain didn't say anything.
"See?" Kai plummeted onto the nearest chair. "We're not even a measly human."
"You're so much more, Kai!"
"Doesn't matter to them!" They shouted. "And I needed my father's backup!"
"If I ever lay a hand on Xavier, everything I've done to get you and your brother to become seers will be taken away. You'll go right into the slave programs!"
"So give me a fucking case! Even an easy one!"
"You know the Oracle just oversees investigations. I can only give steam cases, and those are way too dangerous!"
"What does it matter? Jar and I are the best, right? You trained us!" Kai looked back at the wall. Another tear burning and their stomach longing for something, but not food. "You said we were better than—"
"For me to even consider it, you need at least three cases!" He said, his tone back to a calm one. "Xavier won't let that happen."
"So you don't ask for volunteers and just pick me!"
"And leave your brother with those assholes?"
"Those assholes at least treat him like a pet! I'm their 'go-get-me' 'girl'!" The word just made them crawl in their skin.
"What do you propose then? Huh?"
"Give me a case. Any case. Look in your files, there must be an easy one! Even if just for a bit! C'mon, dad! If I can do just one steam case, then they'll have no choice but to respect me!"
"You know that's not how it works!"
"But it could!"
Bain sighed. Kai's jaw dropped the tension and their fist unclenched. The tears finally fell as their stomach kept on aching. Nothing would come though: Bain had that look in his eye, frustration for wanting to help and sadness from being unable to do so. Great. It was done, then.
"I can't give you one." Bain said standing up. "But," he went through the pockets of his pants and left the keys to his office on the table, "everyone in my precinct knows how distracted I get so my keys could go missing at any moment, and maybe there'll be a case in the top of my file cabinet."
"Dad?"
"However," he grabbed Kai's shoulder. "It's always a mission of two, and they'd have to get there before I do."
Their heart flickered.
"So, until that happens, guess I just won't know where my keys went, huh?"
"Thanks, dad." Kai whispered, waterfalls down their eyes.
And a smile.
* * *
Kai's door opened. Jar-jar was at the frame with some ice-cream on his hands. His hair was a little messed up, did he finally have a moment with janitor-guy?
"So… dad called. You two fight again?" He offered the ice-cream.
"Kinda," they sat and smiled at Jarek. "D-did you mean it?"
"Mean what?"
"That you wanted to solve a steam case?"
Jarek closed the door behind him, "I mean… yeah! Doesn't everyone?"
"Okay! Cool… so, what would you say if I found a way to do it?"
"I'd say you were crazy!" He sat next to them and offered the icy candy once more. Kai shook their head before pointing to the window in their room, both moons shining bright in the sky.
"One of those is Earth. The other is what Earth could be, right?" They said. "That's what we're told in school over and over. And we know that odd-selves who kill make steam cases that could deviate Earth from there!"
"Well, yeah but c'mon, Kai!" Jarek let himself fall on the bed. "Steam cases are closed off for a reason! Too dangerous and shit!"
"You're just scared you won't get to see janitor-guy!"
"WHAT!" Jar-jar jolted into a sitting position. "NO! I'm… no! And, and, and, he's not a janitor! He's the handy-man!"
"Oh my lord, it's SO different!"
"Don't be an ass!"
"Don't be a woos!"
"I'm not going!"
"C'mon! I need my partner!"
"We don't even have three cases!"
"That's why," Kai took Bain's keys out, "we're going to steal it!"
Jarek stared perplexed at the shining metal before his eyes. Then back at his sibling and once more at the keys. First his mouth opened, was he going to shout? But then, there it was! It was still there! YES!
Kai's grin became as big as the moons.
"Fine!" Jarek said with his glimmering eyes as always. "But we take the easiest case, and if it becomes too much, we'll ask for help!"
"Deal!"
"AND!" Jarek got up to stare Kai directly into their eyes. "The moment we're in trouble, I'll blame you!"
"You got it ma'am!"
"Okay then, how do we go about this?"
"Well… that's the interesting bit!"
* * *
Maybe, just maybe, they should've stayed home.