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Jayce Talis had a habit of misplacing things.
Keys, lab notes, time, the concept of a proper meal? Gone in the blink of an eye.
But this? This he didn’t misplace. This he lost.
The watch had belonged to his father. It wasn’t flashy, just a simple, battered thing with a worn leather strap and a face dulled by years of wear. It hadn’t ticked in a decade, and Jayce had never replaced the battery. He didn’t need it to tell time. It told memory. It told history.
He found it when he was sixteen, in the bottom drawer of a cabinet they almost packed away after the funeral. He kept it like a relic, the way other people kept family crests. Back when he still believed sentiment could shield him from how sharp the world was.
And now it was gone.
He realized it three nights ago. He’d reached for it out of habit before leaving for the lab, and the velvet box he always kept it in was… empty. He tore through the drawers. Checked his coat pockets, even though he never brought it to work. Checked under the bed. Under the fridge. The shower drain. Nothing.
His chest felt hollow. His thoughts scrambled. And the longer it stayed missing, the more irrational the panic grew, like if he couldn’t keep hold of this one stupid thing, then everything else would vanish too.
Mel found him sitting on the floor of their bedroom, palms splayed on the carpet like he was waiting for the earth to open up and swallow him.
“You’re brooding,” she said.
“I lost it,” he whispered. “The watch. My dad’s.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then: “I know.”
That made his head jerk up. “You know?”
Mel came over and sat beside him. “You left it at the lab. Three weeks ago. Sky found it.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Because,” she murmured, smoothing the collar of his hoodie, “you’ve been spiralling again. Viktor said he hadn’t seen you eat in two days. Ekko says you didn’t look up from your schematics even when he spilt coffee. Caitlyn was debating staging an intervention, and your mother’s been trying not to panic every time you cut a call short. So… we made a plan.”
Jayce stared at her.
“You made a plan.”
Mel just smiled. “You’ll see.”
The next day passed like a dream with a heartbeat. Uneven and too quiet.
Mel left early, claiming errands. His mother didn’t pick up when he called. Viktor was unreachable, which was strange, because Viktor always answered even if it was to send a passive-aggressive “what do you want, Talispaws.”
Even Caitlyn left him on read.
He went to the workshop for a bit but couldn’t focus. The world was muffled. Time felt weird. Like he was half underwater.
He sat in the kitchen long after the sun went down, staring into a cold cup of tea. Wondered, not for the first time, if he was doing any of this right. He’d accomplished so much on paper. Degrees. Inventions. Council seats. Medals. Statues. But he still felt like that teenage boy, sitting in a hospital hallway clutching a watch that couldn’t tell time.
Something inside him was still broken. And no invention could fix that.
At 5:03 pm, Ekko called.
“Yo, you busy?”
Jayce rubbed his eyes. “Not really.”
“I think the stabilizer’s acting up again. Like, buzzing and flashing and… not stable. Can you swing by the old warehouse? Just for a sec? Please? Before I end up bald?”
“Yeah,” Jayce said, already reaching for his coat. “Be there in ten.”
The warehouse was dark.
Jayce stepped through the open gate and frowned. “Ekko? What the hell did you do this time?”
Lights flipped on.
Confetti exploded from a hidden cannon. Streamers fell. Music began playing, something upbeat, almost obnoxiously cheerful.
And then a wall of sound hit him.
“Surprise!”
He flinched so hard he dropped his keys.
The warehouse was full. Warm. Bright. Alive.
Mel stood at the front, beaming. Ximena Talis beside her, tears already glimmering in her eyes. Sky near the back, holding another confetti popper. Caitlyn with her arm around Vi, who was wearing a paper crown and looking smug. Viktor by a table of cupcakes, which looked like they were made in an effort to not be toxic but still vaguely glittered with some kind of shimmer. Ekko grinned like a kid with a secret.
A banner stretched across the back wall. “Happy Birthday, Jayce!”
“…It’s not my birthday,” he said slowly.
Mel came forward, kissed his cheek, and murmured, “No. But we missed a few. So we’re catching up.”
His mother stepped up next. She looked younger than she had in months. There was peace in her shoulders he hadn’t seen in years.
“Here, mi amor,” she said gently, and placed a small, velvet box in his hands. “We fixed it.”
Jayce’s throat closed.
He opened the box with shaking fingers.
The watch was inside, gleaming softly. Not new, never new, but whole. The glass had been replaced. The gears repaired. The leather band cleaned but left unchanged, the same scuffs and bends he remembered from childhood.
“It still smells like him,” he said, voice cracking.
Mel slipped her arms around his waist from behind. “Sky knew a restoration tech who specializes in heirlooms. We kept it quiet so we could do this. Viktor supervised to make sure it wasn’t damaged. Ekko added some micro-backing to keep it from degrading again. Caitlyn threatened the delivery guy into giving it to her personally.”
Cait saluted from across the room. “He said I was terrifying.”
Vi winked. “She is,” to which her girlfriend squawked
Jayce held the watch like it might disappear again. “You didn’t have to do all this.”
“We know,” Mel said, softly. “But we wanted to.”
“Because we love you, dumbass,” Ekko chimed in.
“Because you always do everything for everyone else,” Vi added.
“And because you never celebrate yourself,” his Sprout said. “So tonight, we’re doing it for you.”
There was cake. And drinks. And music that shifted from upbeat to nostalgic to Vi’s-pick, which led to five minutes of chaos before Ekko got control of the playlist again.
Jayce let himself be dragged through it all. He held onto the watch like a lifeline, but eventually, finally, he laughed. Not just a polite chuckle. A full, body-deep laugh when Viktor made a joke so dry it nearly started a fire.
Caitlyn brought out old photos and told stories he didn’t remember being a part of. Vi challenged Sky to a dance-off. Ekko beat everyone at a pop quiz about Jayce’s own inventions, which annoyed Jayce and delighted Ekko.
At some point, his mom hugged him so tightly he thought his ribs would crack.
“I’m proud of you,” she whispered. “Even when you’re lost. Especially then.”
He didn’t cry. Not quite. But the knot in his chest softened.
Much later, when the warehouse was a little quieter and everyone had wound down, Mel tucked herself under his arm.
Jayce was sitting on a crate, the watch ticking on his wrist again. Tick. Tick. Tick. Like it never stopped.
“I still feel… off,” he admitted. “I don’t know how to explain it. Like the sadness is still there, just quieter.”
Mel tilted her face up. “Sadness doesn’t go away on command, Jayce. You can’t fix it like your inventions.”
“I want to,” he whispered. “I want to be better.”
She cupped his cheek. “You are. Just by wanting it. Just by staying.”
They sat in silence.
“I thought I lost everything when I lost the watch,” he said. “It was the last part of him. But you gave it back to me. All of you. I didn’t know I… deserved that.”
Mel kissed him, soft and slow. “You deserve more than you’ll ever let yourself believe. But we’ll keep reminding you anyway.”
The apartment was quiet now.
Even the city had hushed, its usual humming pulse softened to a gentle murmur beneath their penthouse windows. Mel had fallen asleep an hour ago, curled into his back, her breath warm and even against his neck. She hadn’t meant to drift off in her dress, but Jayce hadn’t wanted to move her. She looked too peaceful. Too perfect.
He sat propped up against the headboard, watch still on his wrist. He hadn’t taken it off since the party. His fingers kept brushing over it like he needed to prove it was real.
Then his eyes fell to the card. It had been tucked inside the box, slipped there by someone who knew him well enough to know he’d read it in solitude. When no one was watching.
He picked it up now.
Just holding it felt heavier than it should’ve been.
The cover made him huff a quiet, disbelieving laugh. “Time flies when you’re saving the world. Or forgetting your own birthday.” Of course.
He opened it slowly.
Each note hit like a different kind of blow, not sharp, but precise. Surgical.
Front of the card:
“Time flies when you’re saving the world. Or forgetting your own birthday.”
Inside:
Jayce,
You thought you lost something, but you didn’t.
Not the watch. Not your father. Not us.
We’ve been here. We’re still here. Holding you through the quiet parts. Catching you when you forget you’re allowed to fall.
You never have to earn our love. It’s already yours.
Happy not-quite-birthday.
Happy “you’re still here” day.
—With all our love,
Mel:
"You’re not alone, Jayce Talis. You never were. When you’re ready, I’ll remind you every day until you believe it.
(PS: Next year, we’re throwing you a real party. Black tie. No arguing.)"
Mama:
"Mi cielo, mi corazón.
Your father would be so proud of the man you’ve become. But more importantly, I’m proud of the man you are when no one’s looking. Kind. Loyal. Stubborn as a mule.
(PPS: Call me more. I miss your voice.)"
Viktor:
"You left your damn watch in a box of conductive filament. That’s either poetic or profoundly irresponsible. Possibly both.
Regardless… I’m glad you’re still ticking too.
(PS: Take a break. Or I’ll install sleep protocols in your lab.)"
Sky:
"Happy-Kind-Of-Birthday, Jay!
Don’t ever scare us like that again. But if you do, we’ll still be here. I promise.
(Also I did the confetti. You’re welcome.)"
Caitlyn:
"You always put everyone else first. Let this be the one day you let us do the same for you.
You’re loved. Deeply. And not just for what you build, but for who you are.
(PS: I kept Vi from decorating with glow-in-the-dark dildos. You owe me.)"
Vi (scribbled in pink ink):
"Next year, I am decorating with glow-in-the-dark dildos. Happy Birthday, Golden Boy. Don’t fuck it up."
Ekko:
"You’ve been like a weird big brother/mentor/chaotic uncle to me. I know you don’t always see it, but we all look up to you.
Thanks for sticking around. Keep doing that.
(PPS: I promise not to kick your ass at Mario Kart for the next month. You’re welcome.)"
His mother’s handwriting made his throat tighten. “Mi cielo, mi corazón”, She still said it like he was small. Like he hadn’t grown up too fast, trying to carry a grief he didn’t know how to name. Her words about his father nearly undid him.
Viktor’s dry tone made him smile through the ache. “I’m glad you’re still ticking too.” Viktor would never say “I love you” outright, but this was his way of saying it. Jayce had learned how to read between the lines of Viktor’s affection years ago.
Sky’s message, pure sunshine, trying to hold back the storm.
Caitlyn’s grace, sharp and gentle. Ekko’s raw, boyish honesty. Vi’s chaotic threat, complete with doodles. Gods, they all knew him too well. Every single one of them had written something that struck true.
But it was Mel’s note that lingered the longest.
“You’re not alone, Jayce Talis. You never were. When you’re ready, I’ll remind you every day until you believe it.”
His throat closed. The card trembled in his hands.
He didn’t cry, not loudly. Not in the way he had after the funeral. This was different. Quieter. A slow leak of emotion he’d been holding back for years.
He let it come. Let the tears trail down his cheeks as the words soaked in like balm on a wound he hadn’t realized was still bleeding.
He’d been walking around half-hollow, pretending that if he stayed busy enough, loud enough, useful enough, he could drown out the emptiness.
But the watch ticked now.
And so did he.
Mel stirred in her sleep, murmuring something soft in her native tongue as her hand reached for him in the dark.
He kissed her temple. “Go back to sleep,” he whispered. “I’m okay.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Not tonight.
The next morning, Jayce was up before the sun.
He left the bedroom quietly, careful not to wake her. The kitchen was littered with leftover cupcakes on the counter. He didn’t touch them.
Instead, he put on a kettle. Pulled out the eggs. Toasted bread just the way Mel liked; lightly browned, buttered and jammed.
He moved slowly, deliberately. His shoulders still felt heavy, but the weight was different now. Lived-in. Bearable.
He plated the food with quiet pride. Scribbled a note on one of Viktor’s old gear-shaped post-its and stuck it on Mel’s mug.
“Love you.
Also, I didn’t forget the jam on the toast. Progress.”
When he sat at the kitchen table, his tea steaming and the sun beginning to rise, Jayce looked down at the watch on his wrist.
It ticked.
Soft. Steady. Certain.
He exhaled.
Tomorrow still scared him. He wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
But for the first time in a long time…he wasn’t afraid to meet it.