Chapter Text
There's something about this mission that seems off. Angus can't decide if it's because he's there or if it's because the place they're in just feels wrong.
The voice in his head tells him it's because of him but he brushes it aside because he has to be here. He's the world's moon's greatest detective and the boys need him to be here.
It's not a grand relic per say, but it is something powerful and dangerous that has lead to the deaths of more people than the Director is comfortable with—the fact that there's a number she is comfortable with doesn't escape Angus and thinking of it makes him shiver as he walks next to Magnus.
Magnus, with his surprisingly good perception, notices. "You good, little man?"
Angus does his best to smile and nod the way he usually does. It falls a little flat. "All good, sir!" Magnus raises a bushy eyebrow and Angus falters. He forgot that they know him, at least well enough to know when he's not being totally truthful. He's not used to being around the same people for long enough for that to happen. "Uh, I'm nervous? I guess? Its just start-of-mystery butterflies! I promise I'm alright, sir!"
Magnus studies him for a moment more before Merle waddles up to them, elbowing Magnus in the side—though it falls more at his upper thigh, a sight that almost makes Angus laugh—and says "Leave the kid alone, Maggie. He's just a baby out in the world for the first time."
"I'm not a baby, sir! I’ve been on more mysteries than I can even count and taken down murderers and thieves. Besides, I'm nearly eleven years old!" Angus protests. It's not a lie, technically. Just a stretching of the truth because he had just only turned 10 when the Rockport Express murder happened so in a another 5 months he'll be 11. Five months counts as almost, right?
"Your birthday isn't for another five months, Agnes," Taako drawls from the back of the group and Angus falters.
"I—I didn't—how did you...?"
"I have my ways," Taako says airily, his chin tipped toward the sky. He looks like every inch the high-elf he is…until he turns his head just enough to look down his long nose and Angus and wink. "Just kidding my man, I totally stole a bunch of the personnel files to have stuff to gossip about." It's a lie, he’s sure of it, but Angus doesn’t know quite what Taako is lying about. It could be the reason for stealing the files or it could be the actual theft itself. The one thing he does know is that clearly Taako cared enough to remember the date. Angus hides a smile behind his hand because it's all very Taako to care enough to know his birthday but also goof on him just a little bit.
"Keep an eye out Ango," Magnus calls from where he's moved a few feet ahead. “Don’t get too distracted.” Magnus makes a silly face at him and then grins when Angus laughs.
"I'm always looking, sir!" he replies and it's true. No matter how hard he tries sometimes, he can't help but look or investigate or pry. It used to get him in trouble all the time when he was younger.
Angus why can't you just go outside and play with the other kids, his nanny would say. Why must you always be underfoot?
He had always fumbled with excuses but the real reason he didn't go out with the other kids because the other kids wouldn't have him. It always ended up with Angus saying something he shouldn't by accident and then him limping him with a bruised little boy body and dirty clothes. His father would take one look at him and then huff, pointing up the stairs. Angus would shuffle into the bath to clean himself up and be presentable for dinner. It was wholly embarrassing and shameful to have his father see him like that.
Angus shakes his head and focuses on the woods around them. The path is old but worn, probably being used for centuries to get through this forest. He likes the way the dirt crunches beneath his sneaker despite how Taako had complained that it was making his robes dusty. Magnus seems to be the happiest here, even over Merle whose domain is literally nature. Angus reflexively kicks at a stone on the path, sending it flying up ahead of the group. It bounces a few times before rolling to a stop in front of Merle as they catch up.
Magnus looks over his shoulder and smirks at Angus before elbowing Merle out of the way and sending the rock tumbling down the path. The dwarf smacks Magnus on the arm, complaining loudly about pushy humans and stupid games. Angus cracks another smile, kicks another stone and the game begins.
One of the things that he loves about the Reclaimers is that they’re very much like large children. They sometimes act the way he assumes kids his age would—he doesn’t have much to go by except for the things that he likes—and he thinks hanging out with them is kind of nice. He and Magnus kick rocks ahead down the path for a few minutes, laughing when Merle complains again about how easily humans are entertained. Taako snorts out laughter of his own when Angus accidentally kicks a stone directly into the back of Merle’s heel and it bounces up to hit him on the butt.
Angus realizes that this is just really nice. For a moment he doesn’t feel like he’s constantly in a life or death scenario where people are depending on him. He feels a little like a real life kid.
Which is, predictably, when everything kind of falls to shit.
It takes him a second to notice actually, which makes him panic because that might mean he’s slipping. He draws his foot back, kicks at a rock, and sends it flying. It bounces once, then again, and then disappears with a quiet sound that reminds Angus of summer lightning storms from when he was a child.
It’s almost embarrassing how long it takes him to put two and two together.
Merle is shaking his head and looking back at the two of them where he leads the group and Angus is small but he’s pretty fast. It’s easier to dart forward and grab Merle than it is to shout a warning—though he’s pretty sure he yells something unintelligible too. He grabs the dwarf over his shoulders and yanks him backward, pulling Merle on top of him as they crash to the ground. Merle squawks out a sounds that might have been funny if Angus wasn’t so sure that his friend was about to die.
It also might have been funny if Merle hadn’t landed directly on him and if something in his shoulder hadn’t made such a sickening pop.
He’s done this before. The dislocation isn’t the best feeling in the world but at least he knows he can fix it. Angus steadies his breath and remembers it being reset once in a healer’s ward after a nasty confrontation with the school yard bully and then resetting it himself once during a particularly exciting chase with an escaped murderer.
He bites the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out because right now they don’t really have time to do anything but figure out what the hell is going on. Magnus grabs Merle beneath his armpits and lifts him up. Angus scrambles to his feet as quickly as he can without jostling his shoulder.
“What the hell, kid?” Merle shouts and Angus flinches back just a little bit. He knows that Merle isn’t really mad but at the same time it’s a reflex that he can’t help. Being a small boy in a very big world means that adults yell at you a lot, but he’s also learned that most of the time it’s just because they’re scared.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he says, quickly. “I didn’t mean to startle you—“ Merle grumbles something about how nothing startles him and Taako rolls his eyes. “—but watch!” He picks up another stone from the path and tosses it at the air in front of them. They all watch as it disappears with a sizzle.
Taako walks forward and Angus scrambles, grabbing at the sleeve of his robe. He lets out a pained noise when the instinctive movement wrenches his arm. Taako freezes and whirls to face him. “Angus—“
“I’m sorry, sir!” he releases the wizard’s sleeve quickly, like he’s been burned. His arm drops back to his side and hangs limply. His shoulder is burning like fire but he blinks back the tears. He’s not a baby. “I didn’t mean to—I just thought—“ Angus looks at all of them and they stare back.
Magnus blinks slowly. “Angus your—“
He can feel his lower lip trembling but he clears his throat instead and moves toward the barrier. “I t-think it’s some sort of barrier but what’s odd it that—“
“Angus,” Taako says, taking a step forward. Angus snaps his mouth shut. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine sir!” he lies. “Just an achy shoulder!” He tries to shrug but his smile turns more into a wince and a stupid tear slips down his cheek. He wipes it away quickly.
Magnus narrows his eyes. “Angus,” he says seriously. He takes a step forward and goes down on one knee in front of him. “We—we’re not mad. We just want to know if you’re okay.” His hands hover near Angus’s shoulders but don’t touch. Angus can see the way his eyes are calculating the strange angle of his shoulder and the way he flinches if the hands get too close.
Angus blinks again and feels another hot tear slip. “I landed on it funny,” he says quietly, knowing there’s no lying about it now.
“Oh, pumpkin,” Taako murmurs. “You were just going to waltz around with a dislocated shoulder? How long did you think you were going to be able to keep that up?”
“I thought w-we should figure out what’s going on with the barrier—“ Angus tries. He doesn’t want to get in trouble for not being careful and for lying. He doesn’t want them to keep sounding so disappointed.
Merle’s gruff voice cuts him off. “We will, eventually! Kid, you can’t just go on like your shoulder ain’t broke!” He starts to call up Pan to perform a healing spell but Angus stops him.
“Merle, sir! Don’t—I can fix it myself I think. I’ve done it before! We don’t need to waste a spell slot on healing!” The Reclaimers stare at him. Angus can feel his face heating up. “We might need them and uh, I mean, I’m like 95% sure I can fix it and it’s not like you need me for fighting right? It’ll just hurt for a bit but I think I can like, figure out a way to make something cold to hold on it with Taako’s Ring of Frost and—“
Taako claps a hand over Angus’s mouth mid-sentence. “You’ve ‘done it’ before? What does that mean?”
Angus stops himself from shrugging just in time to save himself from even more radiating pain. “I’ve reset my shoulder before, sir. I was tracking this murderer who was into this really gruesome stuff and I fell off the fire escape of this one building. It was all pretty exciting until I realized that I’d dislocated my shoulder again and I couldn’t go home with it like that! My dad—“
“Again?” Magnus asks, bewildered.
“Uh, yeah,” Angus says. “The first time a healer did it for me.”
Magnus scrunches up his face in a way that Angus has come to associate with thinking. “How did it get dislocated the first time, Ango?”
“I was in the way of a boy in my school who wanted to beat up my friend,” he replies. They weren’t really friends because even the low kids on the totem pole didn’t really want to associate with him, but Angus had never been a fan of seeing other kids get beat up. “He tried to move me out of the way and I, uh—um I tripped, I guess.” He looks down at his shoes knowing that this is another lie but having had repeated it so many times that it seemed true.
“Jesus, Angus,” Magnus breathes.
“So you reset your own shoulder in an alley?” Taako asks, his voice a little bit accusing.
Angus glances up at him. “I had to, sir! The suspect was getting away and my dad—“ He sees Taako nod slightly and that’s all the warning he gets before he feels warmth from Merle’s hand on his good shoulder that seems to spread across his chest and settle like a blanket over the burning pain. “Sir! You shouldn’t—“
“Shut the fuck up, kid,” Merle grunts. “We’re not about to let a 10-year-old reset his own shoulder and suffer through the pain on his own. We’re not monsters and besides, the Director would kill us.”
“And Carey,” Magnus adds. “And actually, Killian too. And probably Avi.” He thinks for a moment. “Actually the whole Bureau of Balance would totally murder us if we let that happen.”
Angus lets the relief settle over him and closes his eyes. When he opens them, completely healed, Merle and Magnus are bickering but Taako is still staring right at him. “Mr. Taaco, sir?”
Taako shakes his head and sighs. “You’re a mystery, kiddo.”
Angus isn’t really sure what he means.