#hmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Ever since Nova had been old enough to understand that Blue wasn't his biological father, he'd wondered who his parents were. He'd understood for longer that some second individual was missing from the dynamic, when most of his classmates could talk for hours about their moms and dads, but when he'd asked Blue about it, he'd just dodged the question and passed the conversation to another subject with all the subtlety of a dragon setting a bank on fire. His anxiety and regret had rippled through the air of the house for days afterward, making Nova so physically ill at that young age he'd had to stay home from school. 

As Nova sat on the low wall separating the front lawn of the school from the street, he kicked his feet to the beat of his music. Students clomped past him on their way home, a swirling cacophany of joy and satisfaction. A few flickers of fear that had him looking up, scanning the crowd, but there wasn't much he could do. The most help he could offer was to reach out through the crowd with his abilities, sending a flicker of optimism in the direction of the fear. It didn't disappear, but it got a little less potent. Enough that he lost the fearful ones as they headed further away, lost in the mass of limbs and backpacks. 

Nova forced his gaze back down to his lap. Heavy bass thrummed in his ears, and he scribbled away at the worksheet balanced precariously on his knee. The paper was just one strong breeze away from being lost forever, but waiting for his sibling to get done with school was always done on this very wall in this very place. And the wind felt great in his feathers, lifting them and making them shiver ever so slightly in the first hints of autumn chill. The golden stripes shimmered against the black in the midafternoon light, and he fluttered his wings gently. 

It was days like this that Nova got the urge to fly. Just… take off, and never touch the ground again. His wings fluttered gently as another breeze hit him, and he pinned the worksheet to his thigh with one hand while he lifted his head, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to settle his mind. For how much his body screamed for it, his wings would never hold him in flight; they were too small, the feathers too short to every support his weight.

When he felt a flickering spark of calm, with a hint of tiredness, approaching, Nova lowered his gaze from the universe above him and tugged out his earbuds. "Hey, Mal." 

His sibling looked tired, their eyes paled to silver as they hopped up on the wall beside him. They looked at his homework with cursory interest, then tugged a small calico cat stuffie from their pocket. Nova knew the cat stuffie well, "Archie," Mal called it. He didn't know where they'd gotten it from, but it had been around as long as he could remember clearly, and it was their favorite fidget toy. 

Now that they were together, all that they had to do was wait for Blue to come pick them up. Their house wasn't too far, but it was far enough Blue insisted on driving them home every day. Though waiting for him to get done with work inevitably meant they were the last kids off school grounds. 

They sat quietly for the most part; Nova had shoved his worksheet in his duffel and replaced it with the acting book one of his drama club friends had lent to him, while Mal played a game on their phone with one hand and pet Archie with the other. As they waited, the last stragglers and the teachers passed them by, offering nods and farewells until the boys were completely alone, waiting for their father. 

When Nova felt more emotions flicker into his range of sensing, emotions that made his stomach turn and his breathing hitch, he looked up, it made him sit up straighter and look around, wings shifting anxiously. He didn't see anyone, but that didn't reassure him at all. His empathic abilities were never wrong. 

Mal looked up, seeing Nova's behavior shift. They tucked their phone into their pocket to give Nova their whole attention, following his scanning gaze.

Nova shrugged, narrowing his eyes. His wings puffed up as he felt the sources of emotions — people — approaching. Still no one in sight. His eyes locked onto a van, prowling down the street. There. Nudging Mal and drawing their attention to the van as well, Nova watched it roll to a stop a few hundred feet down the street. "Pack up," he hissed, tucking his book into his bag. The emotions from the van were getting stronger, and they crawled across the edge of his awareness like bugs, sending his senses into red alert. 

As they both threw bags over their shoulders, the van's doors opened. Nova felt the air ripple and grabbed Mal's shoulder. Normally he wouldn't dare touch his sibling without express permission, but as the whoomf of some form of magic passed by overhead, Nova knew he'd made the right choice. Nothing happened to the building behind them, meaning it wasn't intended for high damage, but getting hit was still preferably avoided. 

As soon as the pair hit the ground, Mal started scrambling away from Nova. Nova saw their goal in the corner of his eye: Archie, which must have fallen from their pocket when he pulled them down. His feathers quivered in the charged air once again. "Mal, leave it!" 

As he dragged Mal back from their plush, Nova felt the magic brush against his wing, numbing the muscle and making his wing hang limp. Cursing, he grabbed Mal's shoulder again. Their voice rose in a wail as Nova pulled them away from Archie, but if he had to choose between upsetting them for a little while, and probably being alive to feel better later, he would drag them away a thousand times over. 

Nova wasn't entirely sure what happened next. He felt the magic buzzing towards them, coming too fast for him to move himself and his sibling out of the way. All he could do was wrap his wings around them and squeeze his eyes shut, his own magic flaring in panic. 

And the whole world fell away into darkness. 

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When Nova opened his eyes again, the surroundings were too bright: he were standing under a bland, solid blue sky sprinkled with clouds. The sort of color that made Nova feel bad for the people living here; they didn't get to experience the notion of looking up and seeing the whole universe unfolding above them, or if they did it was the smallest sample of what OuterTale's sky could look like. 

Attempting to sit up, Nova let out a groan. Every muscle in his body ached as if he'd run a marathon, and his chest felt tight, like the time he'd pushed his magic casting illusions for a play. When he managed to prop himself on one arm, a quick scan showed that Mal was pressed into a gap between a pair of dumpsters, fingers curled tightly around their hood as they covered their face. 

Fear spiked through Nova, and he forced his cramping muscles to push himself to his feet. His wing still hung off his back limply, pulling him off balance, spreading his other wing to keep himself upright. "Mal?" He asked, stepping towards them. "You okay?" 

They didn't answer, pulling their hood tighter over their head and pressing deeper into the shadows. All Nova could feel from them was waves of stress as they trembled. "Hey, deep breaths," he said, hands hovering near them, but not touching. 

They gasped pitifully, their fingers tightening around their hood. Nova almost thought he could hear their joints creaking in protest. He hoped that wasn't the case.

"I know, I know," Nova found himself slipping into the tone his father used when Mal had episodes like this. "I'm sorry." He looked around, but the plush was nowhere to be found. "We'll find Archie later. Right now, we have to figure out what happened." 

Mal, however, seemed to be in no state to speak, or move. With no other ideas, Nova tugged his phone (miraculously unbroken) out of his pocket and called their papa. 

There wasn't even a ring. "The number you are trying to contact is not available at this time. Please try again—" Nova hung up and tried again. And again. And again. The message felt more and more like it was mocking him. 

It was close to twenty minutes before Mal slowly uncurled from their ball, and their breathing evened out. "You okay?" Nova asked, breathing a sigh of relief when they nodded. It seemed the worst of the meltdown had passed, and he managed to get them out of their hiding place and sitting on the floor of the alley beside him.

With the immediate issues dealt with for now, Nova took a moment to look around; they appeared to be in a city under that boring blue sky. Around them, he could sense people going about their days, but it felt off: where emotions should have been mixed between positivity and negativity loosely in half, almost every aura he sensed was a buzzing flood of positivity.

Feathers quivering with anxiety, but he forced himself to ignore the pit of foreboding coiling in his gut. 

As he pulled himself back into normal thought processes, he realized that Mal had pulled up a screen, information scrolling across it as their thin fingers darted across it. "See anything useful?" He asked, shifting to look over their shoulder. 

Mal pointed at the AU number, a string of digits designed to help people with AU-hopping abilities zero in on where they were going, as well as for identification. Their other hand lifted to sign. "JR's AU," they said, lifting their other hand off the screen to add, "we should be nearby." 

Nova looked towards the mouth of the alley, more than a little surprised that no one had noticed two teenagers alone. Then he reminded himself that this wasn't like the little asteroid where he'd grown up; no one knew them here, and everyone probably had their own important stuff to do. 

"Okay," he said slowly, "think we can find our way there if we ask enough random people?" 

Mal shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

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In a large, ornately decorated office, a pair of golden eyes blinked, lips falling still mid-briefing. The man tilted his head slowly, massive golden wings shifting uncertainly as he tried to make sense of what he was sensing. A change in the balance, like rain falling across a pond. Not adding much, but enough to be noticeable. 

The woman standing in front of his desk fidgeted with the knife in her hands, watching him intently. "Boss?" She prompted, mismatched eyes glittering with interest. "What's up?" 

A frown formed on his face, and the man studied the wood grain of his desk as he thought. Finally, he shook his head, fluttering his wings to shake off his doubts as he came to a decision. A smile pushed its way onto his face instinctively.