#flicker fade

You quietly padded out of your room and peeked in Gerard’s room. The door was cracked and you could see a mess of red hair on the pillow, his bare back to you. You blushed and went downstairs to see Frank asleep face first on the couch. You smiled and continued into the kitchen. Quietly you poured some coffee and slipped out onto the back steps.

Sitting in the fall air, you felt chilly as it had cooled considerably in the two the days since you arrived. You really hoped to go home today, or at least to a store to get some clean items. You heard the backdoor close behind you and you glanced back to see it was Ray. He sat down next to you.

“Mornin,” he greeted you.

“Hey,” you replied.

“So you’re a real deal seer?” He asked quietly.

“So I’ve been told. I guess it checks out, I mean I’ve been seeing things in my dreams or I’ve always just known stuff somehow without actually learning it. I saw Gerard in my dreams before he showed up. I saw his Grandmother yesterday. It’s bizarre, but makes total sense at the same time. What about you, I heard you cast spells and make potions like some kind of wizard?”

“Yea, no special powers for me, just old fashioned hard work.” He replied. “All my stuff is downstairs here. They got all kinds of space compared to my tiny shitty apartment,” he laughed.

You laughed as well. “Yea this place is crazy huge and awesome.”

You and Ray kept chatting until Gerard came outside.

“Sorry to interrupt, but (YN) do you wanna go home and get some stuff?”

“Oh yea, that would be amazing,” you replied getting up and following Gerard inside, giving Ray a warm smile. You found him to be down to earth and easy to talk to. You hoped he might be willing to teach you a thing or two about casting spells.

~

“I guess Mikey flew over a while ago and texted to say nothing seems out of order at your place. We’ll still be careful,” he said as you got into his car.

“Have you gotten any word from Andy?”

“Not yet this morning, Mikey was gonna try to get in touch with him this morning. If he’s already paranoid though, it’s gonna be harder.”

“Yea I suppose he might be harder to convince than I was. Seeing is believing, and whatnot,” you said with a laugh.

Gerard smiled at you. “You get anything last night?”

Your face fell, recollecting on what you saw. “Oh yea,” you sighed. “I saw a tunnel in the woods, but nothing specific. Umm, smoke, fire destroying the facility, but no one was around for some reason. Umm,” you paused. “I think you might get hurt. I might get hurt too, but that’s the risk we run I suppose.”

Gerard glanced at you concerned. “Anything else?”

“No,” you lied. You were certain that whatever you saw relating to death was for you, not him and you didn’t want him to worry.

He glanced over again anyway, sensing there was something you weren’t telling him, but he decided not to press you right now.

“So I’ll try to be quick packing my stuff when we get there,” you said changing the subject.

“Oh yea, I was gonna do something before we got there,” Gerard said. When you looked back over at him, his hair was a little shorter and a golden blonde. “Just in case they think they know what I look like.”

“I don’t think I’m ever going to not be jealous of that,” you laughed.

When you arrived at your house, you found your spare key and went in. Gerard did a sweep of the house and nothing looked out of order. The coffee mugs from the day Gerard appeared were still on your table, now stone cold. You pulled your luggage out of your closet and started loading clothes and belongings you couldn’t be without.

“Hey Gerard?” You called from your room, and he appeared in the doorway.

“Yea?”

“Can you look at my laptop and make sure it doesn’t look… messed with?” You said gesturing to the computer at the foot of your bed.

“Sure thing, Sugar” he said taking a seat at the foot of your bed, opening up the laptop and looking it over.

“You think my life will ever be back to normal? Like, back to living here in my regular life?”

“Would you want to go back to your old life?” He asked simply.

You paused at the question, your brow knitted as you thought. Did you really want that? Would that mean ending what was developing with Gerard? Did you really think you could ever go back to how your life was before you discovered your abilities?

"I just don't want to have to be running and hiding, looking over my shoulder that someone might snatch me up forever. I couldn't ask for a better group to get me used to all this though," you said with a smile to Gerard.

He smiled back. "I think it looks ok. You got everything?"

"I think so," you replied loading the laptop into the bag and zipping it shut. You then heard a vibrating.

"Its Mikey, he tracked down Andy and he wants us to go get him," Gerard said reading the text. "Oh and he's outside."

"Well let's go I guess," you said grabbing one bag and Gerard grabbed another before heading out. You took one last look around your place, unsure if you would ever see it again. You sure loved it this place, but it wasn't safe right now. Gerard was your safety now, and if his Grandmother was right, you were his as well.

Mikey was sitting on the hood of Gerard’s car when you lugged all of your stuff out. "Got everything?" He asked taking the bag from you.

"Almost literally," you replied.

"Let's go get him then," Mikey said.

You arrived at a park and found Andy on a bench under a tree, exactly as you pictured, with a duffel bag at his feet.

"You're Andy," you said tentatively.

"Yep, you must be the seer, and the other shapeshifter. And you're all gonna keep me from getting killed, right?"

"That's the plan," Gerard replied.

"Let's go, I'll explain everything on the way."

~

Once on the road back to the house Andy divulged everything he knew. He had been working for a large pharmaceutical company called Restoricom as a researcher for a few years. He explained that as a kid he had been able to communicate with animals, but at the same time he didn't know if he really even believed the messages he was receiving. He started at Restoricom after college because he was saving up money to get into veterinary school and heard they didn't use animals in their research, but after some upper level changes he became less sure that was true. That is when he started digging.

He found that there was an entire separate division that was actively suppressing alternative medicine developments that would make the treatments the main corporation was working on obsolete. These alternatives included the possibility of magic. When he last had access to their information, they were only starting to gather information on potential people with powers. He quit out of fear that his power may be uncovered and used against him, or the animals he sought to protect.

"That's why they took John and Mikey, they needed to do research on them, or get information out of them," you concluded. "But now more than anyone else, they're gonna want Ray, his ability to craft spells and potions would be beyond valuable to them, or detrimental depending on how you look at it."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"We'll have to keep him undercover at the house so we can keep an eye on him and keep him safe. I’m sure he can put a protective spell over the house as well," Gerard decided.

When you arrived at the house everyone unloaded the car.

"Should probably let Ray know what's going on," Gerard said.

"Can I come down too?" You asked. "I've never seen someone working on actual potions before."

"Yea sure, he won't mind," Gerard replied. Following him what was most striking to you was how well soundproofed the basement was because when the door opened loud music hit your ears.

"Hey man," Gerard shouted over the noise as he rounded the corner. Ray was at a workbench that was covered in notebooks, spell books, pens, glass jars and beakers.

"Quite the Breaking Bad vibe going on down here," you joked. “You sure everything is on the up and up?”

"They can't regulate what they don't believe in," Ray said with a laugh.

"That's just the thing," Gerard started and Ray turned to look at him with a very concerned expression.

"What's going on?"

"We think Restoricom is gonna come after you," Gerard replied.

"The pharmaceutical company? Really? Why?"

"Because you're capable of making cures for diseases that they don't want to cure," you explained.

"But again, they're a pharmaceutical company," Ray argued.

"And if everything is cured, especially by magic, they go out of business," Gerard said with a tone of disgust.

"That's fucked up," Ray said quietly. He looked like he was going to be ill. You and Gerard nodded silently.

"I think if you can cast some kind of cloaking spell on the house, we will all be better off. And it's probably best if you stay here until we can get this all figured out too." Gerard said matter of factly.

"Yea, sounds good. I'll start looking into the spell," Ray replied before turning back to his books.

You and Gerard made your way back upstairs and you noticed your bags were still by the door, but Andy and his bags were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh come on," you muttered when you realized what happened.

"What's wrong?" Frank asked from his spot on the couch, where he had barely moved from since he woke up a few hours before.

"I think my room just got taken," you said, turning to march up the stairs, but your way was blocked by Mikey was coming down. Mikey shot Gerard a wink and a smirk as he walked by him. Gerard shot him a look back to let him know he didn't need a setup, not like this.

"Come on," Gerard said picking up the bags and going up the stairs.

"But aren't all the spare rooms full?" You asked following him up. At the top of the stairs, he turned into his own room. "Gerard no, I can't put you out like that."

“(YN), I insist,” he said setting the bags down on the floor. “You need to sleep well so you can tell us what’s coming.”

“But I really don’t want you to have to sleep in a chair,” you paused. “I mean, I don’t mind sharing,” you said blushing and glancing down at your shoes.

Gerard tipped your chin up so you were looking him in the eye. “Whatever you want, Sugar,” he said with a smile and pressed a kiss to your lips. “I’ll let you get settled,” he said before stepping out.

Chapter 6