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Kaz stepped out of the elevator, humming the Tecton theme song that the real Tecton actually despised.
He turned the flower bouquet in his hands, smiling to himself. It was a combination of lilacs and white lilies, Chase’s favorites. In his pocket, he had a really cool rock that he’d found, one that looked like real crystal. What business that had being behind a Centium City comic shop, he had no idea. But Chase would probably like it regardless.
Maybe he should take him out tonight. Chase was normally the one who planned their dates. Meticulous and perfect, down to what socks to wear. Kaz was the opposite, as was the way they were in many ways. He knew Chase appreciated a bit of spontaneity here and there.
Movie? Nah. They did that last week. Maybe a restaurant. Or the observatory Chase was obsessed with. It was all on Davenport's dime, so Kaz, as a vehement hater of him, enjoyed spending as much as possible.
He pressed his finger to the scanner outside the penthouse doors, a bit more spring in his step.
Okay. What the actual fuck?
The main area of the penthouse was trashed. chairs flipped, vases broken, tables demolished. There were punch holes in the steel walls, never a good sign.
Bree was ducked behind the island. Oliver was hiding in the stairway. Skylar stood in the midst of the mess, like she was challenging someone.
Kaz quickly made it to Oli. He tucked the flowers behind him. Where was Chase? "What's going on? Are we under attack?"
There was a loud roar. Kaz instinctively pulled Oliver to him protectively.
"Y-Yes? No?! I dunno!" Oliver gripped Kaz’s sleeves.
Huh? That wasn't that nuanced of a question.
"C'mon Chase," Skylar was saying, staying in fighting stance. "I don't want to hurt you, man."
“Chase ain’t here right now,” a deep, growly voice called out. It seemed almost familiar to Kaz. But off. Wait, Chase? “And do you think you can do shit, little girl? Go play dollies with your friends.”
Kaz poked his head out, craning to see around Skylar.
“Sky,” Bree leveled her hand. “Don’t.”
One of Kaz’s big medical textbooks that he never read like he was supposed to flew at her, narrowly missing her head.
“That’s it, I’m taking you down!”
“Try it, pointy ears.”
When she moved, Kaz’s jaw dropped. Chase? Was going to fight her? Attacked his sister? What in the backwards tomfuckery was this?
He stood calmly. But something was wrong. His shoulders were too squared. Too tense. His face was twisted up in a frightening smirk. Yeah, that did not look like Chase. It had to be a shifter.
Skylar lunged. He smiled easily, cracking his fist across her jaw. That also wasn’t correct. Not only that he’d just punched one of his closest friends not in a sparring match, but the fact that he attacked. Chase would’ve dodged. Would’ve done one of his fancy flips over her head and done a leg sweep. He was never upright brash, never not thinking through and always carefully calculating his strikes.
Skylar stumbled a step, before gritting her teeth. She hit his cheek all the same before slamming her knee into his gut. That should’ve broken something. Should’ve stopped him.
This guy just spat red onto his white button-up, grinning like a madman.
Kaz heard Oliver gasp, equally as shocked that he’d taken hits from Skylar Storm and seemed largely unaffected.
“Finally, a challenge,” “Chase” cracked his knuckles.
Kaz was shocked. They exchanged blows over and over. He recognized that Skylar had stopped holding back, yet Chase still stood easy.
He grabbed her arm, tossing her over the kitchen island. She crashed into the cabinets next to Bree. That was across the room. He shouldn’t have that kind of strength.
“Skylar!” Oliver shouted.
Shit.
“Chase” turned toward them, wiping blood from his nose. He took a step toward the two boys. Oliver clutched the back of Kaz’s jacket. Kaz was still extremely confused, but he put his arm out to protect him.
Skylar roared in anger, electricity crackling around her. She launched the bolt at Chase. He staggered, grabbing his chest.
“Sky, no!” Kaz cried. Sure, he didn’t think this was Chase, but seeing someone holding his boyfriend’s visage in pain filled him with panic.
“Don’t hurt him!” Bree begged, grabbing her girlfriend’s arm.
“Stay away from them, bastard!” Skylar didn’t seem to hear either, eyes glowing and face rage-filled.
The lighting faded.
Chase shook, still doubled over. Kaz realized that he was laughing.
“Tickles,” he turned back to Skylar.
She shot an energy blast at him. He sidestepped. It rocketed into a team portrait, eviscerating it to a smudge of soot.
“Chase” waved in a challenge.
Skylar clenched her jaw.
“Stop!” Kaz ran out in between them, arms leveled.
“Move,” Skylar ordered.
“No,” Kaz said.
“Kaz, move!”
His collar was grabbed and Kaz was lifted into the air.
“Woah-” he choked. “Woah, hold on-”
“I’ll rip your teeth from your pathetic skull and make a xylophone out of ‘em,” “Chase” informed.
“Uh-” Kaz tilted his head. “Actually that sounds pretty sick, man. But I like my teeth, which is the problem.”
“Chase” raised an eyebrow.
“You’re not Chase, are you?”
“No fuckin’ duh, dipshit.”
“Th-That’s Spike,” Bree explained. Slowly, to not agitate Spike further. “Chase’s Commando App.”
“Spike. Cool name,” Kaz said genuinely. “So, is Chase in there?”
“Yeah,” Spike seemed confused after, like he was wondering why he’d answered.
“Can I talk to him?”
“No,” Spike tightened his grip. Kaz heard the rest of the room inhale sharply, unable to do anything without risking Kaz.
“Ouch- Okay, that’s less cool. Why?” Kaz asked patiently.
“He’s scared. Don’t want out right now.”
“Well, damn,” Kaz sighed, doing his best to relax while being held a foot above the floor by a maniac. “I kinda needed to talk to him.”
“‘Bout what?”
“He owes me twenty bucks,” Kaz sighed again to sell it. “It sucks. Can I just ask him about it? And you can come back out if he’s scared again?” Honestly, Kaz didn’t have the faintest clue how this worked. Was Spike an alt-personality? He wondered why he’d never been told about this. What he’d just said, knowing his luck, could totally blow up in his face. But he couldn’t stand the expression on his boyfriend’s. What scared him?
Spike seemed to consider this. He looked at Kaz once more.
His eyes slipped shut. Shoulders relaxed. Face went slack.
They opened, and Kaz immediately fell to the floor with Chase on top of him, given Chase did not have the strength to keep him suspended.
Kaz coughed, having the wind knocked out of him. At least he didn’t brain himself, having by some miracle landed on a discarded throw pillow from the overturned couch. He wound his arms around Chase, lightly rubbing his back and somewhat fearing for the worst.
Chase’s fingers gripped Kaz’s shirt.
“Commando App disengaged,” he murmured tiredly. Then his hazel eyes cleared and he gasped in horror. “Commando App disengaged?!”
Chase looked terrified, scrambling off of Kaz and to his feet. Kaz’s head popped up, seeing him push his hair back and begin breathing irregularly. Chase glanced around the room, taking in the destruction. He looked at the blood on his shirt. Then to Bree.
They seemed to have a silent conversation as the two often did. She shook her head. Chase stumbled away, hands covering his mouth. He turned on his heel, dashing to the stairs and around still shaken Oliver.
There was silence.
Skylar hovered over to Kaz, lifting him into a sitting position. Oliver inched toward them, head turned over his shoulder.
“Bree, what the hell was that?”
Kaz didn't even register that he’d said anything, pulling from Skylar and flying to the stairs.
“Kaz-”
Bree put a hand on her shoulder, looking both sad and confused.
“He’s not dangerous anymore. Not to us, anyway.”
~*~
Kaz opened the door to their bedroom. He held the discarded bouquet in his hand. It had been a bit crushed under the chaos.
Chase was pacing back and forth, hands in his hair.
“Hey.”
He jumped, turning his back to Kaz. A force field shimmered to life between them.
Kaz raised his eyebrows.
“Uh… sor-?”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What?”
“You guys,” Chase clutched his arms. His thumbnail was bloody. “Y-You guys were never supposed to see it.”
“What? Spike?”
He flinched.
“Why?”
“It’s vile. Evil. Dangerous,” he took a shaky breath, dropping to his knees. “You were never supposed to see it.”
Kaz’s brows pinched at how pained he sounded.
He sighed, crouching down and knocking on the forcefield. Chase peeked at him. “Special delivery for Most Beautiful Man in the World.”
Chase gave him a tiny smile when he saw the bouquet. Kaz released a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. Progress.
“Sir,” he gestured dramatically. “I have to get through the barrier to deliver this and kiss your kissable face.”
“Pretty sure you could get fired.”
“Don’t care,” Kaz shrugged. “I’d get fired a gazillion times over to kiss the Chase Davenport.”
Chase smiled. It faded too quickly. He stared at his palms. “Who did I hurt?”
“What?”
He looked at the blood on his shirt and Chase’s shaking hands.
“Ohh,” Kaz said. “No one? I don’t think. I mean, you fought Skylar. But like you said, she could swallow an atomic bomb and be fine, so. It’s mostly yours. His?”
Chase clenched his fists.
“Speaking of, are you okay? You- he- jeez my tiny brain,” Kaz rubbed his temples. “One of you went toe-to-toe with Skylar when she wasn’t holding back.”
Chase looked at him wide-eyed.
“I know,” Kaz shrugged. “We were shocked too.”
Chase went quiet. “That’s… frightening. That’s it’s so powerful. I think t-the strongest adversary it’s fought was Adam. And he’s physically stronger than her, but she’s both more durable and has a whole arsenal of power.”
“Yeah… do you have secret super strength?”
“Uh. No.”
“Well, he managed to chuck her entire musclebound fifteen pounds heavier two inches taller self like it was nothing.”
Chase scratched his chin. “Mr. Davenport is the one who made it. Because I didn’t have any offensive capabilities. Without consulting Douglas’s notes- hence the instability. I think he gave it super strength.”
“So…” Kaz put his palms together, pointing at Chase. “Your “App” is a highly unstable psycho that was given super strength because your dad thought that was smart.”
“I think you got it straight.”
“Baby, I have never had a straight thing in my life.”
Chase smiled. Kaz returned it.
“So like… how does he activate?”
“...Kazimieras.”
“Yes, beautiful?”
“Are you asking if there’s a switch to flip because you think it’s cool?”
“Wha- psh,” Kaz waved him off. “I’d never!”
Chase gave him a look.
“Okay, yeah. He’s cool. Would be a good sparring partner.”
“It’d kill you.”
Kaz shrugged.
“And it’s happened before.”
He turned toward him curiously.
Chase hugged his knees to his chest, still keeping the shield between them. “My first day of school. My siblings wanted to be cool. And I’m not cool, so they activated it intentionally.”
“You’re super cool,” Kaz interjected before frowning. “You didn’t remember what happened earlier. You forget when you’re not in control? So that means… wasn’t that a day you looked forward to for fourteen years?” Normally he lovingly poked fun at Chase for being such a nerd, having seen an old journal about how much he wished to go to school when in another state in the country at that very moment Kaz wanted anything but. Now he felt upset.
The silence spoke volumes.
“That’s…” Kaz’s fingers dug into the carpet. “That’s fucked. Like really fucked.”
“Maybe,” Chase sighed. “But the oldest of them was sixteen. And that was Adam. So yeah, not the best decision-makers.”
“That doesn’t matter-”
“I really don’t want to talk about it,” he murmured. “Just please never trigger it intentionally.”
“Yeah, of course,” Kaz sat back. “Now that I know. Wait. How do you trigger him? In like a not “because I want to” way.”
Chase stayed quiet for a while. “Mr. Davenport made it to protect me. For battle. But it’s volatile because he didn’t understand my programming as well back then. Now it comes out if I get too stressed. Or overwhelmed. Or scared. Things like that.”
“Well, that sounds like a good thing.”
“It isn’t,” the force with which he said that made Kaz jump a little. “I’m trapped when that happens. I can’t move. Can’t think. Can’t control my own body. And I wake up knowing I hurt people or caused property damage. It’s awful.”
Silence.
“Well,” Kaz smacked his lips and blew hair from his face. “I am an asshole.”
“No,” Chase’s posture slumped once more. “You didn’t know.”
“What about your siblings when it happened back then?”
“Adam and Bree knew. There was a time when he made me angrier than I’ve ever been. Hit me one too many times. It was ugly.”
Kaz winced.
“Leo later somewhat saw it. I don’t think he understood the extent when he decided to keep bringing it back though. They thought it was a game. It wasn’t.”
A scowl stretched across Kaz’s face.
Chase dug his fingers into his arms. “I thought it was gone. So did Mr. Davenport and Douglas. Before the team was created.”
“Why?”
Chase’s eyes widened. “Uh-”
“You don’t have to-”
“No. Someone… someone removed it without my knowledge. With bad intentions. I asked Mr. Davenport to never make another one. I don’t know how it came back.”
They stayed quiet for a minute. The only sound was the faint creaks of a new building and the tick of Oliver’s clock.
“Can you drop the barrier?”
“Kaz, I don’t want to-”
“You won’t hurt me. I trust you. And you look awfully cold. You’re too pretty to not have my big strong warm arms around you. Hurts me more.”
Chase rolled his eyes fondly. He chewed his lip, before the shield vanished.
Kaz was immediately right there, pulling him in. Chase sighed, leaning against him.
“What…” Kaz ran his hands up and down his arms. “If you want to answer- what upset you?”
Chase turned his face to hide in Kaz’s hood. “Mr. Davenport. After all that shit on the terrace, he just called me out of the blue to tell me to work on some stuff he doesn’t have time for.”
Kaz felt anger boil in him. He was always quick to when that bastard was involved, especially lately. “You’re not doing it. I don’t care if you said yes. It’s not happening.”
“I said that I’m busy too. He flipped out on me. Then Spike arrived.”
“Yeah well,” Kaz tightened his grip. “You’re fighting a war, leading our team through said war, dealing with your family crumbling, and basically running your dad’s company. I’d say you’re busy.”
Silence.
Yeah, he really shouldn’t have made the family comment.
“I-”
“It’s okay,” Chase sighed, snuggling closer. “I’m too damn exhausted to even be upset at this point.”
Kaz sighed as well, gently taking his hand to examine that damaged thumbnail. That was the only injury, despite the blood on his clothes.
“Well, that’s interesting.”
“What?”
“Whatever injuries Spike had didn’t transfer to you.”
“Yeah, that happens.”
“Huh.”
Kaz handed him the smooshed flowers and fished the rock out of his pocket. Chase identified it as one of those fake crystal rocks a person could buy at a gift shop, but kept that to himself.
“Go get changed,” Kaz kissed his cheek. “I’m gonna go grab snacks and the little projector dohickey that you built in all your badassery.”
“Why?”
“We’re going on a date.”
Chase smiled, pressing a kiss to his lips.
~*~
Kaz came down to the house mostly put back together, save for the burned wall and massacred portrait.
“Please tell me I didn’t hurt my favorite human.”
Oliver gasped. “Yes, you did by not referring to me as your actual favorite.”
She lightly shoved his face.
Kaz patted Skylar’s shoulder. “Nah, he’s fine.”
He listened to Bree explain Spike to them, saying things along the same vein as he dug through the cabinets.
“How’d you bring him down?” Bree asked. “That’s never happened before.”
Kaz shrugged.
“Where you goin’?” Oliver asked.
“To the room,” Kaz answered, arms piled high of gross healthy things. “Word of warning, don’t show up for a few hours. We’re gonna do some horrific shit in there.”
Oliver shuddered. The girls snickered, knowing horrific shit really meant watching nature documentaries.
~*~
Chase exited the bathroom as Kaz came in, towel around his neck and clothes commandeered from Kaz’s dresser.
“Damn,” he dipped his head in mourning. “I missed the show?”
Chase threw the towel at him while Kaz cackled.
~*~
“Hey.”
“Hello,” Chase paused his info dumping, laying on Kaz’s chest as they watched some bird tough it out on screen.
“Hi. I don’t think any different of you,” Kaz stroked over his chip rhythmically to relax him. “In fact, I thought it was more hot than anything-”
Chase’s head nearly slammed into his chin. “Kazimieras!”
Kaz snickered. “Hey, I’m an honest man.”
Chase gave him a “sure you are” look through the flush on his cheeks.
“It ain’t my fault, babe. I know normally in terms of manhandling we’re the other way around-”
Chase rolled free from his arms, nearly murdering Kaz’s Loopy-Loops, screaming into a pillow.
Kaz laughed, merely rolling with him and trapping his tomato-red boyfriend in his hold.
“But seriously,” Kaz kissed the back of his head. “I love you. Psycho murderer and all.”
Chase sighed, keeping his face where it was.
Kaz reached to turn off the projector and cleared the snacks off the bed, settling in for a nap.
“...It was hot though.”
“Kaz!”