Page 93 of Static/Cling

“It’s the army, Leif,” Kassian said, the regret deep, because freedom had been so very close. “They don’t stop because you took out their commander.”

“It’s not, though,” Leif replied, gaze fixed on the soldier. “The army, I mean. This isn’t a military base at all, is it?”

The man’s face paled and his gaze darted between them. “What do you know?” he croaked.

“What do you know?” Kassian panned to look at Leif.

“I heard a couple of them talking. This isn’t a military facility. Or if it was, it’s not now. So George isn’t a military general. He’s—what?” he asked their new captor. “A mob boss?” Bitter humour poisoned his voice. “Supervillain? Because General George is a stupid villain name. Just sayin’.”

“He has a vision,” the man spat.

“Had, because—” Leif jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s not seeing much at this point. Kind of short-sighted, if you ask me.”

“You need to not,” Kassian muttered, and Leif chuckled.

“Yeah, I do.”

And yes, he did. Because that’s how he righted himself, wasn’t it?

“So,” Leif said, “either shoot us, or get the fuck out of the way. Places to go, people to kill and all that.”

Kassian’s blood chilled at the dead, flat tone suddenly there in Leif’s voice. So much for righting himself.

The gun lifted to level at Leif’s head.

There was an echoing rat-tat-tat and Kassian jerked in shock.

Then the gun dropped to the floor and the man who’d been holding it toppled sideways.

“We’re not shot,” Kassian whispered.

“Not yet,” Leif agreed in his perfectly normal voice. His arm around Kassian’s waist tightened, warm and strangely comforting in its normalcy. “Can we go now?”

“How?”

“Move,” Leif ordered, and almost without his conscious decision, Kassian began to shuffle forward, more power in his trembling muscles than he would have thought possible.

“Shit,” Leif muttered. “I’m sorry.”

And like that, the will to walk was gone and Kassian would have fallen if not for Leif‘s shoulder wedged under his arm. Even still, he shot a hand out to grip the door frame for more support as the unexpected strength drained away.

“What the fuck?”

“It’s hard,” Leif said, voice straining. “To not…”

They stepped out into the hallway before Kassian could ask what was hard.

A few paces to their left, a soldier stopped in their tracks and pointed a gun towards them, but before they could pull the trigger, their gaze landed on Leif. The soldier’s eyes widened, horror twisting their face, and they dropped their gun, spun, and ran.

“What is going on?” Kassian tried to pull away from Leif, but he needed the support. When he looked at Leif, there was nothing but an exhausted, bruised Leif looking back.

Leif maneuvered him to shove him against the wall outside their cell so he could step away. “I’m not doing it on purpose!”

“Doing what?”

“I need out of here. I have to—Bjorn. Or Roger. I need?—”

“Leif!” Kassian managed to lean the laptop on the wall so he could take Leif’s face in both his hands. “Leif. Breathe.”

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