TERRAN SWEETS HID HIS SECRETS BEHIND HIS BLINDING SMILE. That was what he was told, anyways, when his co-workers realized that they didn't even know the man's birthday, let alone anything else about him, and he was so good at deflecting invitations that most had yet to notice Terran's permanent absence from every party or get together anyone had, always politely giving an explanation that no one could disagree with.

That didn't mean people didn't constantly try.

"It's Friday night, not even for a few hours?" the fourth grade teacher asked, now leaning against his desk, and he had to wonder when she had moved from just peering in from the doorway.

"Sorry, no, I already made plans with a friend," he lied, because the last thing he wanted was to be caught in a lie later on down the line, but he also didn't want to have to look this woman in the eye and tell her that he just didn't want to spend time with her.

"You could invite your friend to come, even for just a bit," she pressed, and Terran had to admire her persistence, even though what he really wanted to do was get her out so he could work on his lesson plans before he had to go home.

"How about you let me know in advance for next time and I'll see what I can do," he said, trying to hide his sigh as he set down the papers he had been trying grade, setting them down to hold her gaze; he knew people couldn't hold eye contact when they knew they were bothering someone.

"Okay," she conceded, smoothing down the front of her skirt, clearing her throat, "Well, just keep it in mind, okay? It'll be fun."

He gave her a tight smile that didn't quite reach his eyes—which was rather rude considering how easily he could fake a genuine smile, but he couldn't find it within himself to be overly nice—and nodded, moving back towards his papers.

When she realized she was being dismissed, she cleared her throat once again before walking towards the door, pausing in the doorway to look back at him in the hopes that he would watch her go or have something else to say. Of course, Terran wasn't about to give this woman any more false hope than she had already given herself.

"Have fun tonight," he said, his gaze only flickering to her for a moment before dropping back down to his work.

"You too," she mumbled, and Terran did feel guilty at the sadness in her voice, but he pushed it aside immediately, and it disappeared from his person entirely; at least his training was good for something.

Once he finished grading his students' homework—fortunately, teaching second graders made it so the most he would have to grade would be book reports and tests—he started on his lesson plans, because no matter how much he planned, he would always have to adjust it depending on how they were doing in the moment.

As he was working, his phone rang, and he slid his chair back as he answered, sighing with relief as he was able to stretch out his legs; no one ever took legs like his into consideration, because the average person could comfortably fit on a king sized bed, whereas he had to make sure that he had, at least, a California King. Needless to say, the space under his desk was incredibly cramped.

"Hey, bud, how's it going?" he greeted, looking around to make sure no one was trying to come in to talk to him.

"Terrible, we're out of ice cream," Nicky replied, and Terran wasn't able to hold back his snort, laughing as the young man let out an indignant shout, the sound of him stamping his foot making it through to Terran's end.

"Kiddo, you're old enough to drink, I'm sure you'll be able to get yourself more ice cream if you went," Terran said, grinning to himself, rolling his eyes when the only response given was a long whine.

"Nicky Green, you've done way too much with your young life to call me to complain about you running out of ice cream," Terran pointed out, standing to start packing up his things, holding his phone between his shoulder and ear.

"No, I've done too much to act like I'm not capable of getting ice cream for myself when I run out. I'll never be too old or accomplished to call you to complain because grocery shopping stresses me out," the young man pointed out, and Terran had to admit that he had a point.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it, do you want to go get groceries together today, 'cause I can meet you at ours in a bit," he said, slinging on his shoulder bag, going to make sure that he locked the doors to his room.

"Nah, it's okay, Rhett's going once his classes are done," Nicky said, sounding much less upset than a moment before.

"Then what are you calling me for?" Terran cried, but he was grinning wide and, even without seeing his smile, it was clear that he didn't have any issues with the younger man calling him.

"Because I like to complain!" Nicky groaned, and Terran thought he could hear the hint of a smile in his words, much to his excitement, "And I can't just wait for you to get home to complain then, so I might as well do it now."

Terran sighed, closing the door and checking that it was locked. "Yeah, I know. I'm still sorry about kicking you two out, Nicky."

"It's been months, Terran, it's okay," Nicky said, and he didn't sound upset, which was honestly a positive when it came to Nicky, who was a little bit of a raincloud.

"You know I don't acknowledge the passage of time, I still think you're still a little baby in high school," he pointed out, and he tried to remember how long ago it was that Nicky had moved in with them, living with them as he graduated high school and went on to get his bachelors degree then far beyond.

He hadn't changed too much, though Terran was proud to admit that he had worn him down enough to get him to genuinely smile at least once a day. Twice, if he was lucky.

"I'm still a baby, I just have a masters, a PhD, and more work than anyone my age could ever have considering the circumstances," Nicky pointed out, and Terran couldn't argue with him there; the military had paid for all of Nicky's school in exchange for his help, and he was incredibly proud, if not terrified beyond belief.

"Well, then, why don't you use your PhD to stop feeling threatened by the cashier at the grocery store?" Terran asked, not realizing that he had already walked off campus and was now on his way back to his apartment complex.

Nicky scoffed, mumbling about how his PhD was being used to help other people, so it wasn't up to his PhD to help him, but someone else's. Terran tried not to think about the years of therapy that Nicky still had to go through to try and start healing from the first two decades of his life, but he didn't mention anything to the other man.

"How's Rhett doing?" Terran asked, because no matter how understandable his choice was, he couldn't help but feel guilty for having to kick him and Nicky out for an issue Rhett didn't mean to cause.

"He's good, he said he wanted to talk to you about teacher stuff 'cause you work with kids and he's thinking he'd want to work with kids too," Nicky said, the sound of something being sipped through a straw filling the receiver.

"That better be water," Terran warned; Nicky didn't make a habit of exercising, so Terran couldn't help but worry about whether he was taking care of himself through his diet.

"I drank water all day, I was just craving a slurpee," Nicky argued, and Terran only sighed, because it wasn't as if he could reprimand the man, especially over the phone; the soft spot he had for Nicky was more than he had for almost anyone else.

"Then you can't eat ice cream today, you've reached your sugar limit," Terran said, unsure if he could push back if Nicky didn't immediately agree with him.

"Your last name is Sweets and you're trying to limit my sugar intake? That's really sad, Terran, the world gave you that name and yet here you are. You've disappointed the universe," Nicky tutted, continuing to make obnoxious slurping sounds.

Terran continued to walk, his smile slipping as he mulled over the young man's words. He knew what his original name was, as did Nicky, but he wasn't quite sure that the universe was the one to give him either of his names, new or old, and whatever past he might have had wasn't what he had to remember now.

"What's wrong?" Nicky asked, and Terran only realized then that Nicky had kept on talking.

"Nothing," he mumbled, and it wasn't a good lie, but Nicky fortunately didn't push it, the two falling into a silence that was only mildly uncomfortable; a silence on the phone is much harder to keep than silence in person.

It didn't take too long for Terran to get home, happy to just listen to Nicky tinkering around in his room, talking every so often to tell him about something that came to mind or what he was currently working on. Terran could see him now, the curtains perpetually closed in his room, the young man sitting at his large desk with his two computer monitors. He remembered when Nicky was still living at the complex, when he would go in every day to make sure he opened the blinds so the young man could get whatever sunlight they had, everything precariously balanced on his desk despite him preferring to sit on his bed, complaining about the rickety chair he had.

The rest of the complex's tenants would complain about Terran playing favorites, and while he was well-versed in the art of explaining that a second-grade teacher and pseudo-apartment landlord didn't have favorites, he had to admit that they weren't entirely wrong, because if he were to play favorites, Nicky would certainly be high up on the list, if not the highest.

Whereas everyone else in the apartment complex had some sort of power—behind every door was a mutant, inhuman, genetically altered science experiment, or whatever other term Terran, S.H.I.E.L.D., or the press could come up with—Nicky was the only one Terran had brought in that was as close to regular human as he could possibly get; what set him apart was his brain, but by mutant standards, it wasn't anything to write home about.

Terran had thought he would have gotten along swimmingly with Rhett—genetically enhanced soldiers weren't commonplace in Brooklyn—and he definitely had, but there was no denying that his soft spot was still for the little raincloud that had floated into his life, and with Nicky having no powers to speak of, it wasn't surprising that Terran's first instinct would be to protect him before anyone else; the others had some means of protecting themselves, but all Nicky had was Terran.

Fortunately, Terran didn't need to worry too much about that for the same reason that he didn't need to worry about anyone casually stumbling upon the complex uninvited and unannounced. It had taken a lot of time and cashed in favors, but he eventually was able to get immunity for him and the rest of his tenants, so that no matter which mutant professor, inhuman royal family member, or general person looking for a human weapon came knocking on his door, he would be able to turn them away without the fear of dooming everyone inside to a fate less than desirable.

He sighed as he climbed up the steps of the building and made his way inside. To a bystander, Terran would have just continued walking down the sidewalk like any other person, their gaze unable to stay on the complex for too long without getting a migraine that left them forgetting the past five minutes and any recollection of even thinking about the building or the person who hadn't even gone inside.

Knowing that he had more than one person to add security measures and protection to the building made him sleep soundly at night, and no one seemed to complain when another layer was added.

"I'll call you later, Nicky, okay?" he said, and Nicky gave him a quick goodbye before hanging up, clearly engrossed in his work to pay too much attention, which Terran was more than happy with.

"Hey, everyone," he greeted, because even though most didn't do anything more than crack open their doors to call back a response, he still wanted to let them know he was making an effort.

He also liked how his voice resounded through the building that was more like a skyscraper than what the outside made it appear to be.

Terran made his way into the kitchen, lips quirking at the sight of the mix of takeout and cooked food covering the counter and large dining table that was only fully occupied during special occasions, some tenants opting to just eat their meals in their own rooms, which didn't bother Terran much.

"You know, you could cook every once in a while."

He turned to find Janelle standing right next to him, and from the amount of bags in her hands, as well as the faint smell of someplace that Terran still had yet to visit, it was clear she had just returned from another run, a perk of her teleportation abilities.

"Hey, I'd be more than happy to, but by the time I get home you're already done with everything," he argued, holding his hands up slightly as he watched her set the bags down on the dining table.

Janelle was his oldest and closest friend, one of the first people he had met in his life that wasn't fixated on how effective of a killer he was and whether or not they would have to do something about it. Of course, that was a concern everyone had at some point, but by the time Dr. McCoy and the others had decided that he wasn't going to be a danger and let him roam, everyone had already learned enough about the visitor that the biggest concern was whether he could speak English.

Unsurprisingly, considering what he had been trained to do, his English was more than adequate.

"Nicky called," he said, because he couldn't come up with anything else to report on, and Janelle was more than accustomed to his mother-hen tendencies.

"What a surprise," she drawled, and Terran felt the sudden urge, not unlike his own seven-year-old students, to throw a piece of paper at her head.

He moved to sit down on the dining table that, while much longer than that of the average household, was nowhere near as major as what could be found in the X-Mansion, and he couldn't help but think back to the dinners at the mansion, always sitting at the table regardless of who had actually gone downstairs with him, forcing himself to try and communicate with whomever was around him; it hadn't been easy at first, but he got a hang of it eventually, and he was glad he did.

"I think I'm gonna have my dinner in my room tonight, I have to redo my lesson plans again," he said, looking over to Janelle who had finally finished getting dinner ready, now leaning against the counter and drinking lemonade.

"Why do you have to redo them?" she asked, grabbing one of the takeout meals and handing it over to him, "Also, do you want to have it now or later, it's still pretty early."

"I'll just have it now, I'm planning on turning in early anyways. I don't want to be awake if I start getting texts from drunk co-workers," he explained, rolling his eyes at the thought, taking the meal from her, "And we're back from Winter break, the kids are rusty and need more time with some of the concepts, so we're just gonna play it by ear."

"Okay, well, good luck," Janelle said, patting his arm before grabbing her own meal, walking towards the stairs where one of the tenants was coming down, making a beeline for the food, "Thanks for catching it early, you think you could also let everyone know that the food's ready?"

"Yeah, sure," Jane—if Terran remembered correctly—replied, holding her hand out towards the food for a moment; because she was able to manipulate the state of being of certain things, she was tasked with keeping meals hot or cold depending on what they were, the effects wearing off once they were moved from their spot.

"Hi, Terran," she said, stepping backwards and tilting her head up in order to look him in the eye, and he smiled, shifting so that she wouldn't need to strain herself, "How're you doing?"

"Oh, you know, same soup just reheated," he said, shrugging and adjusting the strap of his shoulder bag, "But it's going good overall, so just gotta get back into the swing of things."

"Yeah, I feel that," she said, grabbing a meal for herself and starting back towards the stairs, Terran following after, "Classes start up again soon for me, and I don't know if I'm gonna stick with my major or not."

Terran made a sound in the back of his throat, giving her a sympathetic smile. "If you ever need to talk about it, I'm always here, though I don't know how much advice I could give. And, you know, there's a lot of other doors to knock on if you need."

She laughed softly, stepping off from the stairs, her room being on the second floor. "Thanks, Terran, I appreciate that. Night."

"Night," he called back, continuing up the stairs, smiling and greeting those that he came across, people starting to come out of their rooms as the news of dinner being ready circulated through the complex.

Terran slept on the top floor along with all those that were able to get to the ground floor quickly, which included Janelle, who could teleport, and the few tenants with the ability to fly or had super speed. He didn't have anything particularly tailored to getting around fast, but he figured that, in the event of evacuation, it would be best for him to be last out, and he could make his way around the different levels well enough that it wouldn't be much of an issue.

He sighed when he finally made it to his room, opening the door and taking the one stride needed to reach his bed which took up almost all the space in the room. He closed the door with his foot, hardly needing to strain to reach it, then shucked off his shoes, setting his bag and food down before climbing into bed.

He thought back to the other beds he'd had growing up. He couldn't remember any beds of his childhood—for that, he had multiple scientists to thank—but he could remember the tiny bed with rough cotton sheets he'd had before he was brought to the mansion and given a queen sized bed with softer sheets. He hadn't had a bed that could truly fit him until he started working, getting enough money to open the apartment complex, get him an Alaskan king, and support the various tenants that needed to go to school or the hospital.

He spent most of his free time in bed, so he found himself thinking about them often.

Terran didn't like to make a habit of sitting with his thoughts, because they would ultimately start to take him down a path he'd rather than revisit, so he pulled out his things and started to work, focusing so hard that he failed to notice his food growing cold.

º º º

It was close to midnight when Terran was finally getting ready for bed. By the time he finished his lesson plans, it was already past the time he normally showered, and he had to rush so that he wouldn't be late to his nightly video call with Nicky; the young man had a habit of convincing himself that he was bothering Terran, so the blond made a point of emphasizing that he really wasn't.

Janelle would often joke that she was being replaced, and while Terran couldn't disagree that he gave a disproportionate amount of attention to Nicky, he had to admit that he couldn't ever be as close to Nicky as he was to Janelle; he didn't have to worry about what he said around Janelle, didn't have to worry that his crying could send her into a panic on whether she was a burden onto him and his life.

Their video calls varied in length depending on their schedules, and that night, despite it being Friday, was a shorter call.

"Quit apologizing, Nicky, you act like this isn't exactly what I've been asking you to do for years," he said, making his way around the building and checking all the locks and tech in place, as he did every night, "Don't worry about it."

"How're the defenses holding up?" Nicky asked, catching sight of Terran fiddling with one of the devices that the younger man had personally set up not long after he had first moved in, and the blond couldn't help the way his lips tugged at the question.

"Perfectly, as always," he drawled, finally reaching the front door, where the protection spells and machinery were the strongest, ensuring that they wouldn't be seen nor bothered.

Nicky commented as Terran went through the various deadbolts, checking the physical markers that signified whether the illusions and other non-technical guards were working at full effect or not. As usual, they were they were working at full capacity. He finished by checking Nicky's alarms and facial recognition scanners, both still working, then stood back up, catching sight of Janelle standing by the edge of the stairs.

"Quit stalling with me, Nicky, go to your movie night! With your friends!" Terran said, unable to help the excitement that slipped in when he mentioned the extra people that were going to be joining Nicky and Rhett that night.

"It's really not that big of a deal," Nicky said, rolling his eyes, "Calm down."

Terran shook his head, grinning brightly at him. "You know I can't, it's my job to get excited. Now, goodnight, baby, I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," Nicky hummed, falling silent as he avoided Terran's gaze.

"Come on," Terran coaxed, his lips pulling into a wide grin, "You know how this goes, you really need me to say it?"

Nicky shrugged, pursing his lips and looking towards the wall, glancing back towards his door where the sounds of Rhett talking could be heard, even on Terran's side. He glanced back towards Terran, then immediately looked away, his face turning red.

Terran shook his head, still smiling as he scoffed. "Nicky, we've been doing this for years now, c'mon, give us a smile. I can see it there, why're you hiding it, you know you can't hang up until you smile."

Nicky groaned, shaking his head, but even as he tried to turn away from the camera, a full toothed smile broke through, and Terran had to stop himself from fist pumping, wanting nothing more than to hug the young man, as well as congratulate himself, because years of trying were paying off.

"You're so dumb," Nicky huffed, but, despite his attempts, he was still smiling, and Terran was never going to let up, "See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, kiddo. I love you," he said, raising a hand to wave off the pointed look Janelle sent him, "Have fun."

"Love you too," Nicky murmured, giving him a small smile before hanging up the call, leaving Terran alone with Janelle.

The woman in question was leaning against the bannister of the stairs, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for him to reach her, the two starting up the stairs, her opening her mouth to speak, only for Terran to hold up a finger.

"It's not like that," he said, and Janelle scoffed, rolling her eyes, "No, I'm serious, Nellie, I know how he felt before, but things've changed now, I'm not giving him any false hope, he knows where we stand."

"All I'm saying is remember his roots. I know he's gotten better since when we first brought him in, but no matter how much he's grown, you're still the first person who gave him the love and affection he never got before, that's an attachment you can't just drop. You mean a lot to him."

"Yeah, well, he has Rhett now, so you don't need to worry. And, you know, I know what it's like, and, you know, I've spent years trying to make sure I—" he began, struggling to find the words, feeling his face grow warm as he kept stammering.

"Sweets, calm down, it's me," Janelle said, grabbing his arm and forcing him to look her in the eye, her expression as kind and comforting as it always had been, "You don't need to explain anything, I was there for all of it, remember?"

"Yeah..." Terran sighed, moving to rub the back of his neck, trying to cool down, "I just...I don't like thinking too hard about these things, you know? I don't want to have to overanalyze our relationship and what it means, it's just a lot. And it usually just leads back to the same place, and I've worked really hard to repress those memories."

"But you didn't repress them," Janelle pointed out, moving to bump her shoulder against his arm, not even nudging him as they kept walking.

"Exactly!" he cried, throwing up his arms, sticking his tongue out at the younger woman as she laughed, "You're lucky you were there all of it, 'cause I wouldn't let anyone else joke about that."

"I know," she said, patting his arm and giving him a sympathetic smile, "And you know you can tell me if the jokes go too far. But you said that the jokes help, so..."

"They do," he said, the two stopping in front of her room just a few doors down from his, "And I will, but it's all good. Like I said, you were there for all of it, so I think by now you know how things go and what does and doesn't work."

"For the most part," she said, shrugging and opening her door, "I'm not a telepath, so I can never really know what's going on in that big head of yours. But I'm not gonna try and figure it out now. Night."

"Night," he replied, hugging her quickly before stepping back and walking down the hall, knowing fully well she didn't like closing the door if someone was just standing there.

Terran paused in front of his room, turning to face the center of the building, bracing his hands against the railing, looking out towards the other side of the floor level, eyes scanning over the doors, counting the rooms that were occupied and the ones whose tenant had moved on. Terran tried to keep in contact with everyone, but even if he hadn't spoken to them in years, he always did remember them, even if it took a second. He also had a notebook tucked away to keep record, but that was just for emergencies.

He sighed as he moved to brace his arms on the railing, leaning forward so he was flush against the metal and wood, looking down towards the bottom floor, the stairs winding up the various levels, keeping an area open so people could look up and down if they needed to find someone. Terran appreciated the openness, it made him feel more secure in that, if he needed to, he could know exactly where someone was in case they needed help. Fortunately, nothing ever happened beyond the odd twisted ankle in the hall or someone accidentally tumbling down the stairs, but he had a habit of taking more than extra precautions.

With one last look around at the building he had worked so hard to obtain, and the home that he worked so hard to create, he retreated into the privacy of his room, forcing himself to relax as he settled into his sheets, closing his eyes and mentally counting the doors and tenants of the apartment complex, both current and past, making sure everyone was accounted for, counting them the way a shepherd would count sheep.

He didn't always finish his count before he fell asleep, but it never bothered him much. It had been years since he'd ever truly needed to count, to make sure that he kept track of everyone; they trusted him, and he trusted them. The way he saw it, they would still be there in the morning, either in person or in his heart.

The feeling of security was a luxury well deserved, something he had worked years to obtain, just like every other part of his life, but he would soon remember that people, no matter how hard they tried, didn't always get what they deserved. Even if they thought it couldn't get worse.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 05.18.18 ; 01.23.21 )

Welcome back, everyone, long time no see! If you're new, hello, welcome to what I hope will be the story that I had wanted to write years ago and failed, and if you're coming back, hello, welcome to the rewrite of the story you read that I wish I'd done better. Glad to have you here.

I'm not in love with this first chapter, but I like it more than the original one from before, just because I didn't like the way I set up Terran's relationship with everyone in the apartment complex (I can't believe how many times I just used the term "complex" instead of, say, apartment building or, in regards to the people, tenants. So I'm gonna be better now.) I also didn't like the way his relationship with Janelle was written (because it was so nonexistent yet whenever he spoke he made it seem like such a big deal, so I'm trying to make it all make sense.

I was worried I had too much Nicky content in this first chapter, but then I realized that without Nicky I wouldn't have created Terran, and lowkey the entire point of this story is just a backstory to why Nicky wound up the way he did, so I have no regrets in fully establishing just how integrated Terran and Nicky were in each other's lives, and I don't know, I just liked the way I wrote their relationship this time around, because before I had Terran call Nicky first and that felt wrong to me.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!