I <3 U, K?

(Dear God, this is too cheesy... I might die...

I don't know if I can reply to this... DX )

(XDD I'll change it)

"James, dammit, answer me!"

...

Wait, did the blond just scowl at him?

Well, considering how Justin had basically thrown him to the ground, that was expected. Hell, he deserved it. Such a dumbass, Justin. You always screw it up.

"James, are you okay?"

Obviously not, since he didn't even try to stand. Justin gnawed his lip, thinking.

Then, he pulled his head out to turn his body around and started to crawl inside.

James flinched as Justin began crawling through the small opening left in the elevator door. Suddenly his legs could function again and they worked beneath him, scrabbling backwards against the wall in a pathetic attempt at putting more distance between himself and the approaching boy. No, he wasn't going to make the elevator drop. That wouldn't be bloody enough. Now James could see that Justin was going to kill him with his own hands, or drop him down into the elevator shaft, or something equally horrendous.

He swallowed several times as he watched Justin like a caged animal , baring his hands into fists without really knowing what he was doing.

"H-here t-to finish me o-off? N-now that you know I h-hate heights are y-you going to end m-me in the worst w-way possible?" His voice cracked on the last word and James turned his head away, trying to get his erratic breathing under control.

Justin dropped, light as a feather, into the small "room", the shaft not even lurching in the slightest. Figures he knew how to do that now.

...

Wait, what the Hell, James.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" Justin demanded, completely thrown by what the younger (wait, was he technically a pedophile now?) had said.

"Dude, I thought we were past that shit!" He could only be referring to the previously abusive relationship, not much else made sense, since this didn't make much sense anyways. "I'm here to help you, I flipped out because I'm here to recruit you, which I don't wanna do, and then you ran and got yourself stuck in here!"

He held out a hand, not even realizing he had just told James what he had been trying to avoid in the first place.

"I'm gonna get you out, so stop going crazy and just listen to me!"

James flinched away, trying to burrow himself into that corner, like it would protect him.

"W-why the h-hell w-would you w-want to h-help me? Y-you're ju-ust lying."

The elevator gave another downwards lurch, though it thankfully held back from falling. James could taste blood on his bottom lip as he bit through the skin. A strangled cry sounded in his throat as his nails dug into his palms.

James gave a small whimper as his head lulled forward, blood pounding in his ears and darkness swimming in his vision.

"God dammit, James!" Justin shouted after steadying himself. He'd really forgotten how fragile people were when it came to fear. He needed to study and mingle once this was over.

"James, take my freagin hand or I swear to God, you will die here!"

He wasn't Locked yet, was he?... He shouldn't be.

"Come on, idiot, I'll get you out." he continued, softer this time.

The words swam in James' ears, muddling them beyond comprehension. The dark spots became more distinct, or perhaps less, as they began to blanket his vision. But he could see the hand, and he knew he would be dead either way, so why be a stubborn fool about it?

With a last strain of effort, James reached out to take Justin's hand. He collapsed into the other in a dead faint.

What was this, the second time now that he had fainted into the other?

Justin quickly wrapped his arms around the blond to keep him from falling to the floor.

"My God, you're a wuss..." he shook his head with a sigh of disbelief. "How the Hell she thinks you're gonna make it, I'll never know..."

He hefted him up and started trying to awkwardly maneuver James out of the elevator. In the end, he had to settle for lifting James up high and literally pushing him out of the elevator door, head first. It took a while and Justin thanked whatever was up there that James was so skinny.

Finally, the blond was safely out and Justin crawled out to pull him further from the shaft, then moved his focus to waking him up.

"Dude." he said, jabbing him in the arm. "Rise and shine, sulfur and shit, wake up."

James groaned softly, head turning slightly. His eyes flickered open, and slowly the world swam back into focus. Why did his head feel so...heavy? Wait...he had...just fainted in an elevator because it had been about to...fall...And...Justin.

He looked up, now noticing the boy that was crouching over him, nudging his arm none too gently. His breath caught in his throat and he wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel terrified or relieved or just act like nothing happened because in the few seconds it took his mind to catch back up to his body, everything came back to him and he just about wanted to jump out the window for being such an idiot.

He sat up slowly, avoiding the other's gaze.

"I'm sorry," the boy muttered.

Relieved to see the blond awake and coherent, Justin fell back to sit with his legs and arms crossed, a scowl marring his face. Anything to hide the worry.

"You'd better be." he huffed, now slightly pissed at the blond for even running off in the first place and getting himself stuck. How stupid was he in the first place? Never take the elevator!

He sighed heavily through his nose, practically glaring at James, before speaking.

"How you feelin'?"

"Like a dumbass," James replied, eyes fixed on the patterns in the carpet. He rubbed his eyes behind his glasses(the stupid things had actually stayed on his face through the entire ordeal?!), waiting for some of the dizziness to subside.

He waited for Justin to speak, afraid to say another word. He could feel Justin's glare, and all the frustration behind it. James didn't want them to go back to how it was before, that was even more terrifying than falling on the elevator. Or maybe he was just exaggerating. He had fainted for god's sake.

Like a little girl. He'd probably even screamed like one.

Justin pursed his lips at the blond's obvious shame before giving an even louder huff and moving to his feet. He offered his hand to the blond.

"Hope I don't have to convince you I'm not here to kill you so you'd take it." he muttered, still very hurt over the entire ordeal. But then again, it wasn't like he didn't deserve it.

James took it Justin's hand and stood, still not saying anything. What could he say, that wasn't blaringly obvious anyway?
He'd freaked. Yes, that much was obvious. He'd forgotten. Also obvious. And probably really painful for Justin. He was stupid. Again, ob-vi-ous.

He could say sorry again, but he doubted that would do much either. So James just continued staring down at the carpet, glasses slipping down his nose. This silence was probably the last thing that would make things right, but he'd rather have things stay as they were than screw things up any worse than they already were.

Justin spent a moment, staring at James, analyzing his stance and he was again struck with the thought.

"... Am I a pedophile?" he blurted out, just to get the blond talking. Better than letting James fester in his thoughts.

"I mean, I'm, like, 200 or something. And you're 16. Or whatever." He paused. Yeah, that sounded about right. "I'm a pedo, aren't I?"

James blinked, taken utterly by surprise at the sudden question. Such a...random time to ask that kind of thing. Really...
He wasn't even sure how to reply, he was so caught off guard.

"I-you...uh...no." He shook his head as if to clear it and let out a small chuckle, unable to stop himself.

"That doesn't sound too convincing, does it? Let me try again. No, you are not a pedo."

But he couldn't say it with a straight face for some reason, and he had no idea why it was so damn funny, but all of a sudden he couldn't stop laughing and he had to hold his sides and lean against the wall opposite Justin in fear of toppling over again. Third time would have been quite the charm.

That was even funnier to the blond. He couldn't breathe, but he just couldn't stop laughing! What was wrong with him, laughing like this? His face was probably all red and blotchy like he was crying, but that didn't make it any less funny. He pictured Justin slapping him to get him to stop, and then he slid to the floor, laughing harder, not even fighting it anymore.

Justin watched on in... Awe. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed, really, it had been too long. Probably near a century. There had been the occasional chuckle or even a twisted sort of laugh that honestly scared Justin himself when he heard it but nothing like actual laughter, taking hilarity or humor in a situation. To hear James like this was oddly... Refreshing. He felt a bit envious, yeah, cause he doubted he even could laugh like that anymore, but it was still nice.

He smiled a bit. "you okay?"

James shook his head, laughing until he was gasping and had to stop or he'd pass out again. But damn did it take effort to calm down, to breathe. He held his sides, struggling for air as he stared up at the ceiling, anywhere but Justin so he wouldn't start all over again. This probably was an awful time to laugh really, and he might have just ruined all of his chances at patching up this mess that he had made.

"I'm sorry," he finally gasped, shaking his head. "It's just...you caught me off guard." The blond chuckled again and had to bite down hard on his already bloody lip to keep himself under control. Huh, that kind of hurt actually. He brought a lightly shaking hand up to his mouth, and it came away bloody red. He winced, not in pain, just at the sight of all the red.

Finally, James looked back up at Justin, but found that he was just a blur. He blinked, realized his glasses had somehow fallen off in the middle of his mental breakdown. He sighed and began feeling along the ground, almost tempted into a Velma immitation but knew it would only trigger the laughter again. PLus, there was the off chance that Justin had never watched Scooby-Doo in his life. Being 200 and all.

He grinned and bit harder into his lip to try to hold it back. His chest shook for a moment, then he took a slow deep breath and contained himself. Blood began to dribble down the side of his mouth. What a grim sight he must be.

"Sorry," he said again, only smiling now as he kept feeling along the carpet. Damn glasses. The world did not like him today.

Justin bit his lip too, watching the blond fumble around on the floor before deciding to cut the guy a break and help him out.

With a good natured sigh, Justin dropped to his knees beside the boy and grabbed the glasses that were two feet from James' scrambling fingers. He gently tapped the side of his arm and let them blond take them from him.

"Oh-thanks," James said, jumping slightly as the other touched him on the arm. He closed his fingers around his glasses, trying to stop his face from turning a darker shade of red than it already was. With still shaking hands, he straightened out the frame and slid them on his nose, feeling like a blundering idiot who was incapable of doing anything but making himself seem like more of an idiot with every stupid word that left his mouth and every stupid thing he did.

And finally the urge to laugh was gone. He looked up at Justin finally, who was crouching on his knees beside him.

"Justin...What are we going to do?"

Justin breathed heavily through his nose and clicked his tongue once, twice.

"... I'm going to Initiate you."

Even as he said these words, the dread came back and smacked him full force in the chest, almost knocking the wind out of him. God, why hadn't they warned him how quickly he got attached to people?

"I'll Initiate you... Show you the ropes, keep you safe, all that..."

He looked up.

"If you want, that is. It has to be consensual."

James nodded, trying to process what that would mean for him. It would...mean that his double life would become a triple one. James, Camden, then whoever else he would become learning from Justin. No rest for the wicked indeed.

"What...what am I actually going to be doing then? Missions? Or is this going to somehow...translate to being Lucid? I don't really...see how I'd be any use to you guys when I'm...James." He sighed.

He knew he'd say yes, that he'd get roped in to a whole new layer of insanity, but he needed to know why they wanted him when they could have Lilith or Derek or Diana or Ian or Rowan. He was nothing special, not unusually powerful or confident or precise. He just got the job done, and still slipped up often enough to have to rely on Rowan a bit more than he'd like to admit.

"I mean I barely even know what you guys do. You haven't even told me what the group is called. I know you're protecting people, places, or something like that but..." He rubbed his face, making his glasses go crooked.

"I guess I just want to know what I'm about to jump into."

"Honestly?" Justin started with a shrug. "I don't know what you'd be doing exactly, either. And, no Camden, but James. They wouldn't give Camden more to do.

"But they recruit people for several reasons. One, is LC more than like knew what would happen between..." he motioned between himself and James. "Us. And she doesn't like making us make those awful sorts of decisions, between work and relationships and protecting people and protecting the people we care about, and shit. She likes to work in big inner circles, to leave out the loose ends.

"They also recruit for reasons such as what you do in the Lucid realm. Previous supernatural confrontation and involvement. I was bitten before I was Recruited. They like people who aren't total... magic virgins, no matter how gay that sounds. LC wants to make sure not everything is too unbelievable for them. Makes the transition easier.

"There's also morality and upbringing and shit. Alienated people work best, the type that never quite fit in with what they had. They usually adapt to new things better than others cause they were never really grounded in the first place. Morals are good, she doesn't want them to have a very high sense, but not a completely morbid sense either. There needs to be some leeway. And there's the family thing. A close family won't work. Too many things to drag the person down and back, ya know? Too many variables.

"Trauma, too. Something's gotta be mentally wrong in there so she can have a base point and know you can handle whatever's thrown at you. Granted, you might not handle it well, but you probably won't kill yourself. Like I almost did." His eyes glazed involuntarily.

"And, the reason they're choosing James over Camden is the attitude." He quirked a grin at him. "Gotta be more cynical. Able to understand that the world sucks and that you're not God, no matter how juiced up you get. Camden, he gets that, but not like you."

He paused, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"... Plus, LC's a sucker for the whole "Peter-Parker-gone-badass" thing. She's a sucker for irony."

James blinked. He...hadn't actually expected such an honest answer. That there would be perfectly logical reasons for someone to pick a loser like him for something that sounded as important as...whatever it was he would be doing.

"...Peter Parker gone badass? Really?" He smiled again, shaking his head.

"She sounds like a real interesting lady. Am I going to get to meet her?"

"God, I hope not." Justin stated bluntly, meeting James' eyes to hopefully convey his serious feelings towards the matter.

"She'll look at you, then at me, then back at you, then stop at me and get this stupid grin on her face, like she knows everything- which she does, mind you- and we'll ask what she's doing and she'll just chirp "nothing~" in that voice of hers and waltz away and that'll be it."

He paused.

"Damn, that sounded really bitter, I hope she isn't reading this..." he sighed and grinned to himself, rubbing his closed left eye, thinking.

"... She isn't that bad. She'll answer all your questions with a riddle or a reference you've never heard of or won't answer it at all, but she'll give you what you need. She isn't a total bitch, she helps you if you really need it. A good ally, actually, loyal to a default, and no matter how much she fucks with you, you're just as loyal back..." His grin morphed into a smirk.

"I guess we're all just her bitches, one way or another."