Chapter Text
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s done.”
“Sure it is!” Pavel launched up from the folding table, going over to an open area of carpet before promptly flopping onto his back. To aid in demonstrating his point, he curled his legs up till his knees touched his stomach and then spread his legs wide, “See, just like this! I saw them do it once in a documentary.”
“What kind of documentaries do your parents let you watch?” Scotty asked.
Pavel grinned, sitting back up on his ankles, “Wandered past a sex ed class full of eighth graders one time. They didn’t even know I was there!”
From behind his rulebook Bones grumbled something about supervision for toddlers. To his right, Jim smirked but otherwise kept quiet; Pavel might be the youngest but that could hardly be held against him.
“Are we gonna continue the game or not?” he asked, and Pavel shuffled back to his seat, big grin still plastered on his face. After a bit of resettling, their game of Dungeons and Dragons continued, and before any of them realized it they were thoroughly engaged in the campaign. Bones was just about to roll the dice when a shrill alarm jerked his hand back, sending the dice skittering off the table.
“Dammit!” he cursed, yanking his backpack onto his shoulder and snatching up the timer to turn it off, “Sorry guys, my dad’s gonna have my hide if I come back late again.”
“See ya Bones!” the boys said, each picking up their own belongings and gathering the game pieces back into the box. Following Scotty out the back door, Pavel bid one last farewell to Jim before heading off down the long route home.
It didn’t take long before all he could hear was the tread of his bike against gravel and the crickets and frogs within the woods on either side of the path.
It took even less time to hear what sounded like footsteps behind him.
Now, for all that his friends gave him a hard time about it, there were many things Pavel was afraid of but one thing he had long since stopped fearing was the way home on a dark night. The human mind could conjure up a myriad of things if it so chose, and it wasn’t the first time he’d thought he heard someone following him only for it to turn out to be nothing.
Generally speaking though, one could not usually hallucinate an icy cold hand brushing against one’s back.
He didn’t turn. He didn’t dare turn. Every single horror movie he’d ever watched told him not to turn. Pavel’s feet couldn’t spin fast enough as he tore off down the gravel road, his ears straining to hear the sound of pursuit or feet thudding against the path. Down the lane, he could make out the lights coming from his house, and he peddled even harder, possibly cursing very loudly and yelling for anybody inside to hear him.
He reached the driveway, then flew past the mailbox, throwing his bike off to the side as he ran up the steps, praying the front door was unlocked. Instead, the door opened for him just as he reached for the handle, and he tripped right into the arms of his older brother.
“Close the door! Lock it! Lock it!” he screamed, and he collapsed on the floor as Hikaru reached over to slide the deadbolt. He peered out through the blinds for a full minute before turning to kneel down beside a huddled Pavel.
“You okay, kid?” Hikaru asked, brushing some of the sweaty curls away from Pavel’s face. The boy had his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth chattered. Hikaru sighed, “Hey, c’mon, at least get up off the floor. The couch would be more comfortable.”
The couch was farther away from the door or any windows, and it was for that reason alone he crawled over, kicked off his boots, and buried himself in the cushions. A few seconds later he heard Hikaru walk over towards him and tuck a blanket around his tiny body.
“All right, now, just take deep breaths and when you’re ready tell me what happened, okay?”
Pavel said nothing, his chest shaking as he tried not to cry. After a few minutes of silence, Hikaru got up and stomped up the stairs. Pavel could just barely hear the upstairs faucet running and the closet door open.
“Hey, I’m fetching some hot towels okay, that’ll warm you up quicker. While I’m heating these up why don’t you shake out of those clothes, they’re probably dirty anyway.”
It took a few minutes, but Hikaru finally came down the stairs, a damp wash rag hung over his arm and a fresh set of pajamas on the other. He stepped out into the living room.
“So are you gonna tell me what got you so spooked, champ-?”
The couch was empty, the blanket strewn carelessly onto the floor. Hikaru groaned and made a mental note to lecture Pavel on cleaning up after himself; their mom was stressed enough as it was. Only when he searched through the rest of the first floor and called multiple times did he begin to worry.
“Pavel! Hey Pavel, where the hell’d you go?”
Silence. The kind of silence that wasn’t empty, that was holding its breath as if waiting for someone or something to make the first move. The hot towel and pajamas were dumped long forgotten on the couch as Hikaru went through every room, checked every door and window. All locked, except for the back door of the kitchen, and even then the lock had not been tampered with.
He raced out into the backyard, bare feet immediately cold from the dew as he spun around in circles looking for the direction his brother could have gone. There was nothing. No trace or tracks. No little boy wandering in the dark. He rushed back into the house again to continue the search.
Outside, the silence breathed relief, and rushed off into the night.
~~~~~~~~~
Nyota was certain this has been a bad idea.
“Told ya.” Christine sighed, “I told ya we shouldn’t have come. I told you it was gonna suck and that we would be bored and some asshole would try to screw you.”
“Shut up.” she muttered, digging her face into her palms. Of course Christine was right, leave it to her to be the sensible one. But she was never going to admit that to her friend, and besides, the party hadn’t been a total waste: the beer wasn’t a cheap brand and they still got to hang out next to a big outdoor pool.
Of course, they also got to be thrown into it without an extra change of clothes, leaving them to either freeze outside or change in the house. Nyota was thankful she had caught the knowing look on Christine’s face before she naively took up that second offer.
Still, now they had to walk back to the car soaking wet, and there was no way she could explain this to her mother without confessing to the party.
Yep, definitely a bad idea.
“Midterms stressing you out?”
Nyota looked up, “Huh?”
Christine shrugged, “You always get like this when midterms come up. You get stressed out from overloading yourself with studying and then I have to drag your ass back after you go off on some rebellious fling.”
“It’s not a rebellious… I never….!” Right on both accounts, dammit.
“It’s okay, I get it. I just wanna make sure you stay safe. Gotta watch your back, hun.”
Nyota wanted to stay mad at her friend, she really did. But they were two frigid cold teenagers huddled together in the middle of the road at midnight. She giggled, and then her giggles turned into shaky laughter. Christine glanced over at her before smiling, shaking her head as she chuckled at the absurdity of the situation.
The light mood stayed that way until she got back home. She was expecting the mood to be ruined by her mother lecturing her on parties and drinking. Instead she found Jim practically glued to the landline, staring straight ahead into dead space with his mouth slightly parted in shock.
“What are you still doing up late, nerd?” Nyota asked, but Jim didn’t reply. He looked down at the phone and then mumbled something before shaking his head and hanging up. When he finally turned he blinked rapidly at the sight of his sister dripping water on the front welcome mat.
As if the sight of her sparked something in him, he snapped back to attention, rushing towards her, “You don’t happen to know where Pavel is, do you?”
“Why would I know that?”
“It’s just… it’s just…” he groaned, tugging at strands of his hair. Something he only did when he was very, very stressed. Nyota set her purse down and sloshed out of her socks, heading for the stairs in hopes she could make it to her room before her mother discovered them, “You should get back to bed, I’m sure Pavel was just a little late getting back to the house. Figuring him, he probably got distracted or something.”
Pavel was many things, but he was not prone to distraction under threat of curfew. Jim wanted to tell her this, explain, but his sister was already up the stairs, and so he found himself standing there alone in the foyer.
Perhaps she was right. Hikaru tended to be a bit of a worrier about his brother anyway. Maybe Pavel had gone out to the shed to get something and Hikaru simply hadn’t searched there? Maybe his mom called and he went out to run an errand? Jim tumbled through a series of increasingly more desperate explanations as he wandered back up to his room, but even as he lay in bed he couldn’t help but feel something significant had happened. Something had changed, something that he should be have been paying attention to.