Young Writers Society

Blake opened his mouth to confirm what Wilson had just said, but, before he could so, Puck had interrupted their conversation. "You were friends with Ru?" he questioned. He looked Wilson over with a critical gaze, setting his lips into a concentrated frown and furrowing his brow. "You look a little young to know-"

He suddenly took a startled step back and promptly tripped over the bench behind it. "What the-" He rushed to his feet, looked wildly between the two and appeared to be debating running away from the way that he was glancing at the area around them. He looked at Wilson once more, eyes growing increasingly wide in horror as he pinched his arm.

And then he darted, his guise effortlessly shifting from one of a teenage boy to one of a bird that moved too fast for him to clearly make out.

Blake slowly glanced over at Wilson.

"I think he saw what you really looked like," he hesitantly said, "or what you don't look like."

Wilson stared as Puck backed away and ran and sighed.

"Ya'll take all the fun out of me being like 'hey, I'm the physical embodiment of time."

"You do break the known laws of the universe," Blake pointed out, his gaze traveling back in the direction that Puck had flown off in.

His mind was reeling as he tried to digest the information that had been presented to him. His brother - the one that he had only just learned existed in the first place - was alive. He was alive, and he was a magician. He had a boyfriend, too, and that boyfriend was a spirit named Puck. Probably a djinni, if the glance at his true form had given him an accurate impression of what he really looked like.

"I can't believe it," he said, under his breath. "Part of my-part of my family is alive."

Wilson leaned down slightly and put a hand on Blake's shoulder. He'd had a LOT thrown at him in just a few hours - or however much time had passed. Then again, she was supposed to know. She was time, after all.

"Do you want to... try and find them? Here? In your reality?"

The moment the question registered, he gave a firm nod. "I do. I've-I've spent my entire life imagining what it would be like to not be alone, and I'm not going to lose my chance at having that life when it's right in front of me."

He looked in the direction that Puck had flown off in.

"If we head that way," he said, raising a hand and gesturing towards it, "we're going to find my brother eventually, aren't we?"

Wilson followed his gaze. "I mean, yeah. Probably. Or I could like, transport us a few seconds ahead in time and like, find him with... time... or... we could do it the normal way."

He glanced back at her.

"Your way sounds a lot better," he admitted. "I'm still not used to be friends with time."

Wilson couldn't help but grin. She laughed, and grabbed his hand. "It's pretty fun, isn't it?" she said before in an instant, they spoofed into a dark warehouse. Letting go of Blake's hand, she looked around into the large, dimly lit building.

"Hmm. Well. I guess Puck and your brother have a taste for the dramatic settings, ey? I feel like he would've gotten that from your dad."

He opened his mouth to ask Wilson more about his dad, but promptly closed it when he heard voices coming from nearby. His magician instincts kicked in, and he switched from just being in the warehouse to actively listening to what the voices were saying. He also tried to pinpoint where exactly they were coming from, but that only took a handful of seconds - it was coming from the shadows in the corner of the room.

Definitely dramatic, then.

"Puck, what's wrong?" an unfamiliar voice said - at least, it was somewhat unfamiliar. It sounded very similar to his own, and that was all he needed to notice for him to figure out who it could possibly belong to: Arthur, the brother he had never known he had. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"There wasn't anything there," Puck answered. Blake had to strain his ears to make out the response. "I checked the planes but didn't see anything. Artie, I don't like it. There should have been something but there wasn't. Whatever she is isn't normal, and your brother is in even more trouble than we thought-"

"Puck," Arthur suddenly hissed.

"What?"

"Turn around and whatever you do, don't freak out."

Puck gave a startled cry the moment he spun around to see Blake and Wilson standing in the center of the warehouse.

Wilson smiled and waved when Puck and Arthur were finally made aware of her and Blake's presence.

"Hi! I'm Wilson! It might make more sense for you if I told you that I'm the literal physical embodiment of the abstract concept that is time! Not that that'll blow your mind any less I guess, but it'll explain why you don't see anything when you check planes or whatever. 'Cuz technically, I'm everywhere, all at once, at every point in time in every different reality. But uh - well - you know what. Let's not go into that. Besides! Your brother is here!" she said, suddenly turning to Blake, bending down a little and spreading her arms wide in a grandiose gesture to him.

"Blake! A rad kid who's smart, ridiculously punny, but also legitimately overwhelmed at the moment! So now ya'll can be in the same boat!"

There was a long, drawn out silence. Blake was tempted to break it with a greeting of his own, but found that he didn't need to. The moment he opened his mouth to speak, Puck and Arthur emerged from the depths of the warehouse's shadows.

It was bizarre seeing his twin. Though they weren't identical, they shared a striking resemblance - they had the same body shape, the same hair (though Blake's was longer) and though their eyes were different colors, the shades were so similar that one might have thought they were the same at a quick glance. They even were wearing similar outfits. Blake felt like he was looking at himself in a funhouse mirror, and it was only when he looked away from his brother that he was able to snap himself out of it.

"You look just like they used to say," Arthur commented. Nervously eying Wilson, he crossed the distance and stood in front of his twin. Puck followed in his footsteps. "I don't think I would believe it if they hadn't told me about you so many times growing up."

"Speaking of 'them'," Puck said, turning to his apparent boyfriend. "How are you supposed to avoid getting in trouble for sneaking off from the field trip?"

Arthur looked over at him. "We'd both be in trouble, not just me."

Puck stubbornly shook his head. "I'm not a student at your school, Pres. So I'm exempt from getting in trouble-"

"You're part of the math team," Arthur argued. "Even if you weren't, I don't think they'd be happy with you letting me go off on my own, especially when we're in magician territory right now."

Puck frowned. "Then we'll...we'll..." He wildly looked around the warehouse, his gaze settling back on Wilson and Blake. "We'll have to show them your brother as fast as we can, and bring time with us so we can distract Ru. Otherwise they might kill me, and I really don't feel like dying."

Blake, suddenly feeling a bit of the magician confidence that he had been lacking for the majority of the day, loudly cleared his throat to get the two to stop a conversation that didn't include either him or Wilson. Both did exactly as he had hoped; they fell silent and looked over at him.

"Who exactly is 'they'?" he demanded.

Arthur gave him a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Our parents."

Wilson blinked. Had she taken them to a different timeline? Should she have looked further into time? She really should have looked at more and paid more attention.

"Shoot, your old man's still around?" she asked. "I mean, if you're afraid of getting in trouble, you can always blame me. I mean, it kind of is my fault, in a way. Like. I'm a good scapegoat."

Puck looked her over. "I might take you up on that," he said, giving a nod in her direction before turning back to his boyfriend - who was currently watching Blake with a hardened gaze. Blake hesitated for the briefest of moments before returning it. What was his brother's problem? From that strong American accent, it seemed like he had come to the UK just to find him. He should have been welcoming him with open arms, not giving him such a cold attitude.

Then again, his brother was a magician, so that sort of attitude was to be expected. Blake squared his shoulders and tried to look every part the magician that he was, an action that Arthur replicated before turning his back and heading towards the warehouse's exit. "Let's go," he said. "We need to let the club know, as well as Aunt Emily."

Blake blinked.

I have an aunt?

Puck hurried after Arthur. "Pres, are you sure we should let him know about the club?" He dropped his voice down, but sound carried well in the warehouse. "I know he's your brother, but he might, you know..."

"He'll have the same abilities I have," Arthur replied. "He'll figure it out quick enough."

Blake cleared his throat again. "I can hear you," he said, following them towards the exit.

"I know you can," Arthur replied, his tone cold.

Wilson looked between Blake and Arthur with the kind of thoughtfulness of a detective piecing things together.

Arthur was probably assuming Blake thought the way he did like... a few hours ago or something. About demons and all that.

"For the record, I can hear all ya'll too! I like to be included in conversations. It's nice."

Arthur faltered at this comment. Clearly, the rudeness had only been intended for Blake, and Wilson hadn't meant to be caught up in it. Now that Wilson had called attention to how he had been acting, his brother was in the middle of a dilemma - apologizing to Wilson would make things awkward if he didn't do the same to Blake, but that would mean giving up the way he was treating him.

Arthur ultimately seemed to decide that staying silent was the best way to deal with the situation, something that made Blake raise his eyebrow in disbelief at. He still couldn't get over the fact that his brother was treating him like that, especially when he had started looking for him in the first place!