Work Text:
.
.
Cellular service doesn’t work across timelines, not for lack of trying anyway. Amelia had spent two hours trying to figure out if her watch can generate wifi and then throwing in the towel on that. In her mind, there had to be a way to monitor timeline 1337 without… well, visiting.
That sounds kind of mean. She feels like a zookeeper that got locked in the lion pen, skirting around the walls and going I’m not her, woo, don’t blink.
It’s not that visiting is bad, it’s just that if she’s visiting it usually becomes a vacation. Someone wants to talk to her, someone else wants to hang out with her, they want to introduce her to new friends- on and on. Not a bad thing! Not bad. She’d just like to be able to retrieve an office file from her desk without being grabbed by the scruff and thrown into a family dinner.
It turns into a game. She hadn’t meant to turn this into cat and mouse, she didn’t! Let the record show, she was perfectly fine scheduling hang outs and meet ups and whatever annual birthday they wanted to get shitfaced at. There’s an instance that stands out strongly in her head of when she wanted to get her favorite toothbrush and she was barely in her bathroom for a second before Kronii was putting a hand on her head roughly and saying well well well.
Which led her to where she is now, dangling upside down in between the throws of time with nothing to defend herself aside from her toothbrush. She’d long given up holding her skirt down. Her arm was tired! This whole thing was ridiculous.
“I have things to do.” Amelia complains. “Kronii.”
The time warden was immaculately combing her fingers through timelines, diligent in her work and completely ignoring her.
“Kronii.” Amelia drawls.
“Hm?” Kronii hums.
“I’m missing my investigation!”
“I’m sure it can wait a few hours.” Kronii says. “What’s time to a time traveler, right?”
“Ohh, you.” Amelia oaths. She waves her toothbrush threateningly. She knows what this is about. Kronii probably fired off a text to the group chat and was holding her like a rat until they could ambush her. “We have a party scheduled literally next month!”
“Mhm.” Kronii agrees, swiping her fingers over a curtain of timelines. “You have time for boba, right?”
Amelia frowns spitefully, “No.”
“Ame said yes.” Kronii says, like she’s typing it out and lying! Amelia squirms, thrashing her toothbrush around in one valiant attempt to kill the time warden. It doesn’t come close. “Alright. Calli and Bae are free.”
“This is messed up.” Amelia complains.
“You’ll get used to it.” Kronii says amusedly.
Which only fuels her spite when she pops by next time. She’d been hesitant because of previous incidents. Kronii can monitor her no matter what, so she’d gone through great pains to make a bootleg arm cannon that holds her watch like a time cage. Kronii couldn’t track her and she can grab Bubba’s lost squeaky toy from her apartment without anyone-
It’s almost comical. The dog toy isn’t there, but she’s a hardcore detective. Finding a squeaky toy is no big deal. Finding out Gura had kept it like a souvenir is both funny and exasperating. Less so funny when Amelia is trapped in a bubble.
“You suck.” Amelia says. Her voice sounds swimmy from underneath the bubble. Gura squeezes the rubber ball at her, the squeaky noise infuriating her. Gura looked too smug for her liking, lounging on her living room couch with her laptop cradled in her arms.
“And you just got got. ” Gura claims.
“There’s no way you planned this.”
“I didn’t but it was funny.”
“Aw, did Gura want a dog toy?” Amelia taunts. “Wanna teeth on it? Get some dog food?”
Gura laughs, bright and loud, “You’re the one in the dog house! What if I kept you there and fed you nothing but dog treats?”
“Gura!” Amelia can’t help but laugh. It’s ridiculous. “Let me go, you damn fish.”
“Later. You’re coming with me and Mumei.”
“To do what? You guys are gonna perform sick experiments on me, aren’t you?”
Gura snorts, “Yeah, right into your little kidneys.”
“Sick! You’re twisted!”
“And you’re gonna enjoy a cat cafe whether you like it or not.” Gura taunts, impish smirk curled onto her face.
It’s not so bad, but she’s not here for this kind of stuff! She stalks around timeline 1337 like it’s a bomb, frequently returning to her new timeline out of breath and her heart pounding. It’s exhilarating in a funny way. Sometimes she’s caught. Sometimes she gets away, smug about the circumstances enough that she starts to make up reasons to go back just to run away.
She’s made new friends in her timeline who look at her with amusement when she shows up holding a lamp.
Amelia sheepishly hides it behind her back, “Souvenir.”
Each of them captures her in a different way, the mouse they dangle from their paws and smugly show off to everyone else like I got Ame! Amelia could escape some of them easily. When Gigi picks her up and holds her above her head like she’s a log, Amelia dramatically goes slack, groaning in exaggeration.
“It’s okay, ma’am!” Gigi laughs. “I saw your legs and thought you might be tired holding up all your ba- your boda- your balongadonga-”
“My boobs are not that heavy, Gigi.” Amelia says dryly.
“Oh well, seeing as I have you right here anyway, let’s go get fries.” Gigi says.
Amelia snorts, jabbing Gigi in the wrist but the chaser isn’t phased in the slightest, only going weeeheh. It’s pretty comical to arrive at the fast food place where Kiara’s waiting for them with Gigi holding her above her head the whole time. Kiara’s laugh was dazzling.
It makes meetups a little less of a novelty when they’re scheduled. Amelia ends up dropping into things unannounced more often than she’s expected. It’s not often still, her visits, but it’s enough that she feels like she doesn’t have to monitor 1337.
She’s out with a friend to get coffee when they ask, “Are you ever gonna move back?”
“Maybe.” Amelia says. She doesn’t have the drive to, not when there’s a mystery sitting before her in the paper she’s manhandling into an origami crane. Duck. Whatever she’s making. Her free hand is holding her drink. “I still have so much to do. I’ve barely started!”
“Don’t you miss them?”
“Always.” Amelia rolls her eyes at this, fondly. “It’s not like it’s gone.”
“It’s far away though.” Her friend says.
“Yeah.” Amelia agrees. She flicks the origami bird in the nose, watching it topple across the table with a smile. “I guess that just makes it special when I see them again.”
She spends her birthday in her new timeline. When she visits 1337 again, Nerissa gifts her a pretty necklace with green gemstones, slyly placing a kiss on her forehead. Amelia rolls her eyes, flattered, cradling the gift closely.
“You didn’t have to.” Amelia says.
“I wanted to! It’ll look good on you.” Nerissa flips out her phone. “Okay, now let’s take a picture and make everyone insanely jealous.”
Amelia laughs heartily, amused. The necklace gets a lot of questions from her new timeline. She’s shy, her toes curling happily, her chest warm.
How lucky I am to have more than one home. She kicks her feet, unable to wipe the smile from her face. There’s pieces of them forever on the walls of her home. In the squeaky toy Bubba chews on. In the weight of a necklace around her neck.
Okay, she admits to herself, but never out loud, maybe I do like the game.
.
.