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Ezekiel Jones has always been the little brother in the group. And more often than not, he acts like it, making jokes and annoying the others just for a little fun or getting himself in stupid situations because he got distracted by an animal. The normal things little brothers do, plus some things that are just childish in general. So by this point, everyone was used to him doing this, so they knew what to look for if they thought he is going to do something stupid. But this time, they don't notice it till he's already gone.
“What do you think, Jones? … Jones?” Stone asks, looking back only to see that the youngest librarian is not waking behind them anymore.
“Where did he go this time.” Eve sighed, looking around to see if Ezekiel was nearby. But in fact, he was not, “How long has he been gone for?” the others don't know. They had been talking to each other and did not notice that Ezekiel stopped making comments.
“Alright, Stone, Cassandra, stay here in case Jones comes back. Me and Flynn are going to go back” The two nod and find a place to sit on a nearby bench.
While Flynn and Eve are walking, Flynn says something, “We need to get Jenkins to make a tracking watch or something for him. This is the 6 time we've lost Ezekiel this week.”
That actually made her laugh; she knows if Jenkins made such a devise, he would never put it on. If they forced it on, he would pick the lock off in an hour, if not a minute. Yet then again, they make a living chasing magic, so who knows, maybe there would be a spell to make it unpickable.
That was the moment Flynn decided to suddenly run across the road, much to the annoyance of some drivers. She came after him yelling sorry to the cars on the way. Once to the other side, she asks him why he ran across the road.
“I saw Jones.” He replied.
Eve sent him an unimpressed face and said, “You didn't have to run. It's not like Jones is going to disappear off the face of the earth.” she paused for a second, thinking, then continued with an annoyed huff, “What am I saying? It's Ezekiel Jones. He would find a way to.”
“Over there,” Flynn points to an ice-cream shop where Ezekiel is happily enjoying an ice-cream cone in the window.
“Ice-cream? That's where he went?”
“I guess,” Flynn shrugs.
“He's even more of a child than I thought.” She shakes her head, opening the door to the shop for Flynn.
“Jones.” Eve says right behind Ezekiel, making him startle.
“Oh, Hi, Eve.” Ezekiel says.
“Come on” She pulls him out of the seat by his collar, leaving his bowl of ice-cream behind.
“Ow! Hey, my ice-cream!” He cried once outside the shop.
“What were you doing, Ezekiel?” Flynn says, walking beside Ezekiel, who is now being tugged on the arm, much to his protest.
“Eating ice-cream.” He said, “Could you stop pulling on my arm, mate?” that one was directed to Eve who only pulled harder.
“Why didn't you tell us that you were going to get some?” Flynn asks
“You guys were talking.” Ezekiel was still grabbing at Eves's hand, trying to get it off his arm with no luck
At this point, Flynn had to try not to laugh at the scene unfolding before him, “You could have told us. Who knows, maybe Cassandra would have wanted some ice-cream” He says, trying to talk senseinto the young adult, that at this moment looked like a little boy fighting against his mother
Ezekiel was about to reply but instead yelled, “Eve! That car almost hit me!”
He only got, “It didn't, so don't complain” as an answer. Eve was acting all serious while Flynn was acting all weird and what could be caring(but it's hard to tell since Flynn can't show emotions in any way that makes much sense), and he had no clue why. All he did was walk away to get ice cream. He's an adult; he will live without them being right next to him for a moment.
They made it back to the other two, who gave them a funny look when seeing Ezekiel being sort of dragged by Eve but also fighting her.
“Where did he go?” Cassandra asked Eve
“An ice-cream shop.” Flynn replied while Eve pushed Ezekiel on the bench. She let go of him once he was on it but grabbed back onto him when he tried to get back up.
“Whaaattt?” Ezekiel groaned out, annoyed at how Eve was acting
“Sit.” She said after pushing back down. Ezekiel again tried to get back up, but only to get pushed down.
Eve looked over at Stone, who walked over and put a hand on Ezekiel when Eve took hers off. She then walked out of earshot and called someone.
“What's going on?” Ezekiel asks, now heavily confused, and none of them reply. Cassandra looked kinda confused herself but not as much as him.
A few minutes later, a door is opened, and they all go throw, but Stone never lets go of Ezekiel, even when they are in the Annex.
“You going to let go yet, mate?” Ezekiel asks Stone, who is not paying attention to him
“Guess not.” He mutters to himself
After a bit, Stone lets go of Ezekiel because he was nonstop complaining, and they go back to researching artifacts(Stone and Cassandra are the ones that go back to work; Ezekiel just plays games on his phone)
The next day everyone but Ezekiel comes in on time and works like normal. Once Ezekiel does come in, he goes to his desk and starts to do work(what he calls work since he never really does “work”) when the clippings book goes off. The team reads it and goes through the door to start the next quest.