Chapter Text
Car horns and smog-clogged air. Cigarette buds and wind-blown trash. The homeless and the apathetic. Ah, the inner city. To the adjusted eye, nothing was amiss.
To a science teacher who never expected to wake up to those sounds again, it was terrifying.
Ryland Grace didn't know where he was; just that he wasn't on Erid anymore. One moment, it was a normal day, taking a walk on the beach as he chatted with his best friend, Rocky, while his... adopted son? Ward? hitched a ride on top of Adrian. The next, he was tripping over his own feet and landing in this alleyway.
He blinked and sat up. It smelled disgusting. He was definitely back on Earth. But where, exactly? It was warm, but that could mean any number of things.
Grace had just started to get to his feet when a yelp and thud came from behind him. Whipping around, he saw Roni. And Roni saw him, eyes lighting up with relief.
"Dr. Grace!"
"Roni!"
They embraced briefly after Grace helped him up. Okay, admittedly, no son called his father "Doctor", adopted or otherwise, but what else was he supposed to call this? "Some child my best friend's mate picked up in space and kinda handed over for shared custody"?
No, that was terrible.
Pulling back, Grace noticed something. "You're- short."
Roni made a face at him. "Ouch."
"No, I mean- look!"
Roni looked down at himself and his eyes went wide. "Oh my God, no. No! Am I-?" He quickly grabbed his pant leg and rolled it up, then groaned. "I'm a kid!"
Grace stared at him. "What?"
"Look!" Roni gestured at his leg. "There should be a scar there; one I got ON my seventeenth birthday! It's gone! I'm a fucking kid again!"
"Language!" Grace scolded.
Roni ignored him, pointing at Grace. "You look younger too. Less wrinkly."
Grace felt his face. Yep. Although blunt, Roni was right. "What the fudge is happening right now?"
Roni held his head. "I don't know! We were just on Erid! And then you just- friggin'- DISAPPEARED and when I went after you, I ended up here!"
"You went after me?"
"YOU DISAPPEARED!"
"Okay, okay! Yelling isn't going to help anyone. We need to figure out what's going on." Grace took a deep breath. "There's a logical explanation for this. I'm sure of it."
"A logical explanation for how we just freaking teleported?!" Roni hissed.
"Yes! There's logic for everything!"
Roni gripped his arms tightly. "I'll tell you what logic we need to jump on right now; finding out where we are."
"And when we are," Grace added.
Roni tilted his head. "You think we time-traveled?"
"You're sixteen."
"Good point."
They were wandering around the streets, hopelessly lost. Why were there no maps in this area?! Anywhere?! Grace took deep breaths to steel himself. He needed to stay calm. He was the adult right now.
They eventually found a subway and stood in front of a map of the train schedules.
"Welp, I hope you can understand this, because I certainly can't." Roni gestured at the map.
"I lived in outer San Francisco for most of my adult life. I took a bike, not a train," Grace muttered, adjusting his glasses.
"Then we're doomed. We've got better luck going back outside."
Grace sighed. This was going to be a long day. He managed to work out a route that would take them up toward a plaza, where they'd hopefully find some information on their surroundings.
Even though no one gave them a second glance on the train or tried to sit nearby, Grace found himself keeping close to Roni. It was strange being around so many humans again, and he could tell by how Roni pressed against his side that he felt the same way.
Plus, neither of them really liked crowds in the first place.
Back on the surface, they were wandering again. Grace had found a paper map and was trying to figure it out while Roni trailed behind him.
"I think we're in Los Angeles," Grace said after a moment.
"The city of drugs and gambling? Great," Roni said dryly.
"Uh huh..." Grace mumbled, turning the map as if that would help.
Something flickered in the corner of Roni's eye and he turned, but didn't see anything. He squinted, trying to figure out what he'd just spied. With so much of his attention on the shadows, he didn't notice Grace had stopped until he slammed right into him.
"Ack- sorry!"
"It's alright. I'm going to sit down and... try to figure this out, okay?"
"Okay... but I think we might be getting followed."
Grace looked over at Roni, squinting in the sunlight. "What? Who'd want to follow us? No one even knows who we are."
Roni frowned, looking uncertain. "I don't know, I just... something doesn't feel right."
"It might just be the environment. It'll probably go away." Grace sat down at an empty fountain and went back his map.
Roni shot a glance at the shadows again. "Yeah... probably..."