betasquadcollab | one hundred

There’s a cool summer breeze blowing across the countryside and the sun is setting, painting the landscape in red and orange, and John is late. His phone has been buzzing with texts and missed calls for the past couple of hours, and if it weren’t for his impeccable sense of road safety, he’d have read them. As it is, he can already guess.

Most likely, most of the buzzing has been from Dave, leaving him lengthy text messages that make pop culture references and lewd jokes that don’t mean anything, but try to hide how worried he is. Jade’s probably send him a text or two as well, but she’s probably the one who’s tried calling him the most, because she’s always cared the least about cellphone laws in the car. As for Rose, she’s probably reporting on how worried the other two are, mostly so she doesn’t have to talk about how worried she is.

He’d have pulled over to check on his phone by now if he weren’t so close. His GPS has taken him on a wild goose chase so far, but he’s absolutely sure that he’s got it this time. The sign for the lake is right there. He can’t get lost now.

John pulls his car up next to the other three vehicles there - a motorbike, a mini-van, and an old Toyota - and hops out. Immediately, he’s got a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders, and a mass of hair tucked gently under his chin.

“John! We were getting so worried about you!”

This has to be Jade. John laughs and pulls her into a tight hug. “I just got a little lost! That’s all! What have you three been doing without me?”

“I believe I penned the next great American novel in the time it took you to arrive,” says a blonde girl, standing back with her painted black lips in a smirk. Definitely Rose.

“So at least it was profitable, right?” John teases.

“Sure, it might make money,” says the third and last person, “but can it make up for the hours of my life gone down the drain waiting for you? I’m never gonna get that time back. I’ve wasted the best years of my life sitting on a moldy log going, ‘yo, where’s john at,’ that’s all gone out the window now.” John grins as he takes in the person speaking - a short blonde guy wearing shades, even though the sun was setting. Dave. Definitely Dave.

“Man, I thought you’d be taller,” John says.

“Man, I thought you’d be less of a jerk.” But even as he says it, Dave is smirking, and he allows John a quick bear hug. Rose does as well, even if she accepts the affection much in the way of a cat that doesn’t really want to be held by its owner.

“So where is this moldy log anyways?”

The three of them lead John back into the lake area, which is thankfully empty apart from them. It had taken a good deal of google maps-ing to find this place - roughly midway between all of their houses, and small enough that they could be assured it would only be them. In hindsight, John figures he should have been a little more cautious in agreeing to meet three “strangers” out in the middle of nowhere, but he trusts them. He’s always trusted them.

There is indeed a moldy log by the lake, but the four of them lie down on the grass instead, staring up at the ever-darkening sky. John bumps his shoulder up against Rose’s, and she links their arms together as Jade and Dave giggle on the other side of her.

They stay that way, talking about nothing and everything for hours, until the sun has finally set and the stars come out. And even then, they continue to talk, making up constellations and telling stories.

Dave names one after an “asshole monster” that he’s dubbed “Galebreaker,” and something about it rings familiar to John in a way he can’t put his finger on. Rose rambles on for a while about a pair of lovers trained as assassins and forced to kill one another, and Jade comes up with a story about princes and princesses locked in their towers.

John stares long and hard into the sky to figure out his own story. He knows it’s never going to outpace the others, because telling story is Rose’s element, and he can’t hope to match Dave’s wit or Jade’s enthusiasm. But he’s determined to give them something good, and so he goes with his gut.

“OK… that one!” John points up at the sky, though he isn’t sure the others are following him. Dave and Jade are busy making eyes at each other, and though John feels as though he should be jealous about it, the notion doesn’t really occur to him. “It looks sort of like a house, see? Like, those stars make the roof and there’s the little chimney bit, and then underneath is a box. And… and these four kids decide to play a game.”

“And what does that have to do with a house?” Rose asks him, her tone carrying curiosity rather than criticism.

“Well, it’s like a house-building game,” John says, improvising, though he thinks that sounds about right. “Or that’s what they think it is. But it’s actually a game that brings about the end of the world!”

“Sounds stupid,” Dave remarks.

John makes a face at Dave from across the girls. “Your monster story was stupider. Anyways, they destroy the world and end up on these weird planets and they gain all of these special powers…”

He keeps talking without really thinking through the details, the next step in the story coming to him naturally, like an old song he thought he’d forgotten the lyrics to years ago. It ends up being a little ridiculous in the end, involving several different types of alien, numerous resurrections, and an oddly active afterlife. But despite all that, the others don’t interrupt him.

“...and then when everything is done, they win the game and end up in front of a door that looks just like that house-constellation does,” John finishes, quietly proud that he can find a way to tie the whole story back to the constellation.

“And then what?” Dave asks.

“Huh?”

“I mean- what happens next? You can’t just end with them at the door. What’s behind the door? Do they end up happily ever after or whatever?”

“Well…” Stupidly, John finds himself unsure. The answer is there on the tip of his tongue, just out of reach.

“Clearly they walk through the door,” Rose continues. “They couldn’t stay in that room forever. But what happens after is...”

Dave picks up the pace. “They get reincarnated. Scattered. Thrown around different universes and timelines, never really meeting up again because fate’s a bitch.”

A heavy silence falls over the four of them. The memories, John finds, don’t come rushing over him all at once. In fact, he doesn’t feel like he’s being assaulted by memories at all, even if he can suddenly remember more lifetimes than he can count. They’ve always been there - he just hasn’t quite been able to get to them until now.

Jade’s the one who breaks the silence. “I’ve missed you guys,” she says softly. “And having all three of you here..”

“Yeah. Just not the same without everyone,” Dave agrees. “But we’re gonna stick together this time, right?”

“Of course we are. Assuming that John can manage to be on time for our next meetup, of course.”

They all laugh, and John joins in. He doesn’t even care if it’s at his expense, because he’s found them again, finally. He curls in toward them, finding comfort in their closeness. He never wants to lose this again.

“So where are we sleeping tonight anyways?” Dave asks, his voice muffled against Jade’s shoulder. “Little too late to start the trek back home.”

“Well, there’s always seedy motels,” Rose offers. “But, assuming that we’d rather not crowd together on a bed of questionable hygiene, the seats to my minivan fold down. There would be room for us to all lie down there.”

“That sounds perfect!”Jade snuggles in a little more between Dave and Rose. “And then we can find a breakfast place tomorrow morning to sit down and talk and figure out where we go from here. Because I don’t want to lose any of you again.”

“Me neither.”

“Yeah, no way you’re getting rid of any of us.”

John is grinning so hard that his cheeks are starting to hurt, and he leans over to press an enthusiastic, if sloppy, kiss on Rose’s cheek. “I love you guys, you know?”

“Yeah we know. Love you back.”

“We love you too, John.”

“Love you!”

Everything falls quiet after that, leaving just the four of them lying under the stars. It feels like it’s been lifetimes since he’s last felt this happy, this complete. He’s lost them or narrowly missed them too many times to count.

But they’re here now, and that’s what matters. Everything is going to be OK.