#would open the door for bigger mechanical contraptions in the future

[krawdad]

Wait those camera steadycam rigs are like sideways heavy capacity luxo lamps

I can hook springs up to parallelograms

I might be on the verge of some kind of performance enhancing contraption

[i-am-church-the-cat]

Time and Time Again

WC: 6292

Summary: The Kippens are from the 19th Century, and they’re time travelers. The GHC is from the 1970s and very much not. (Also did you know the name Cyrus was really popular in the late 1800s?)

AO3

TJ spun around in his office chair, trying to come up with a reason why it was so important to be at the office at three in the morning on a Saturday. Wensley had telegraphed him, asking him to stay late. He hadn’t been aware that ‘late’ meant ‘till the wee hours of the morning. TJ sighed and shot a balled-up piece of paper at the rubbish bin, smiling as it went in. He had come up with a game of getting the balled up paper in the bin, getting different points for different distances. As he was about to shoot a three-pointer, his mentor came rushing in, affectively hitting his wad out of the air. 

“Seriously”, TJ exclaimed while Wensley yelled, “No time for games, come with me! QUICKLY!”. TJ watched as he disappeared into another hall as quickly as he came and went up to follow his enthusiastic mentor. 

He followed Wensley into a smaller room TJ knew he used for more secret projects. The room was Wensley’s usual organized chaos with papers and gears and tools scattered throughout the room. At the back of the room, however, was a cylindrical machine. It had gears and pipes coming off of it, all curved to stick close to the side of the mechanism. The contraption had a door that seemed to lead to nowhere. 

Wensley was bouncing between different tables and muttering to himself. 

“What’s all of this?”, TJ asked as he made his way around half-made inventions and stacks of books. 

Wensley’s head snapped around. “TJ, come come come, it’s finally done”, he said, flapping his hand at the fifteen-year-old. 

“What’s done?”, TJ asked coming to stand next to the scientist, careful to not get in his way. 

“The time machine”, he answered like it was obvious, indicating the large machine in front of them. “I’ve been working on it for years. The mathematics were the hardest, finding a way to jump through space-time. I’m the beginning I had tried a more straightforward approach of just moving so fast that you were effectively moving at a different time than everyone else. But that would only make you go forward in time and was actually really hard to accomplish even if the math was there. I then…”

TJ realized his mentor wasn’t going to stop soon and math really gave him a headache, even when it was just being explained to him, so he cut him off, asking, “Does it work?”

“Well, I haven’t done human trials on it yet but all the rats came back fine”, Wensley said. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“Me?”, TJ blanched. “Uh-uh, no way, you are not putting me in that death trap again.”

”It’s not a death trap, it's a time machine”, Wensley corrected. “And I need you to do it. I can't do it because I have to be here to fix anything if it goes wrong.”

TJ debated it in his head. He loved Wensley, he really did. They had met when he was seven and he was fourteen. The other boys had been messing with him because he couldn't do a lot of things they could do. But TJ soon found out that Wensley could do a lot of things others couldn't, and they were a lot cooler than wrestling and playing around in the mud. Since then, TJ had been a constant guinea pig for his friend, and never once had he been seriously hurt in the testing of something. TJ groaned. 

“Fine”, TJ said. “How do we do it?”

“Step into the machine. All the controls are  .”

TJ nodded and walked toward the machine. The metal was cool as he pulled it open and went in. It was a little cramped—TJ was bigger than most people this age—but not unbearably so. He heard muffled words through the machine and tried to shout back, but he doubted Wensley could hear him. 

TJ day there for a few minutes before the machine started to spin. It started slow but soon increased in pace. The fast TJ spun, the hotter the invention got. TJ accidentally brushed against the metal and felt that it was still surprisingly cool. Suddenly, a loud pop rang through the machine and it stopped, throwing TJ into one of the walls. This thing definitely needed a seatbelt. 

He took a minute to keep the world from spinning before slowly opening the door. He opened it to see a long hall. He stepped out of the machine and looked around. He heard another pop and turned around. Where the machine should be was a storage closet and a note on the floor. TJ picked it up, seeing that it was from Wensley. 

TJ

You should not be able to see the machine since it moves things but not itself. I set you for July 1, 1880, 15:00. Be back here by 17:00 to get picked up. 

Wensley

TJ shook his head and tucked the boy into his pocket. He closed the closet and looked down the hall. One side seemed to lead further into the building and the other had double doors leading outside. He chose the doors, deciding to see what America looked like five years in the future. 

In the end, it wasn’t much different. He walked around getting his bearings for a while. He had some money so he got a bit to eat. He mostly just watched people, until he came to a most peculiar sight. Outside a very wealthy looking mansion were glass spheres that seemed to capture light. There were no flames in the lamps. TJ looked on amazed as a butler of some sort flicked them on with delicacy, clearly not very used to them either. The butler gave him a look and he figured it was time to move on. 

He was pretty tired by the time 17:00 rolled around. It was pretty early, but he had been up for almost 22 hours by now. He stumbled into the building, stepping into the closet just as the first bell started to toll. He was in the machine again, spinning and hot, before it stopped with a jerk and he almost flew out of the machine and onto the lab floor. 

“Seriously?”, TJ grumbled, moving to sit in one of the chairs when Wensley started to bombard him with questions. He tried to answer them as best as he could, but TJ doubted he did a good job when the next time he opened his eyes, he was laying on the ground, a light shift thrown across him and light streaming through the windows. 

“What happened?”, TJ asked groggily, sitting up. Wensley popped up from behind a table at the noise. 

“Oh good, you’re awake”, he said coming up to him. “You passed out after you came back. Slept for two days. I’m guessing that the longer you spend in a time you aren’t supposed to takes more out of the body than the same amount of time in your present time. Though I think I’d new trials, I’m thinking we should…”

“There were balls of light”, TJ suddenly cut it, the image of the glass spheres flying back to him. Wensley gave him a look and he elaborated. “There were hollow glass spheres with little wiring inside that gave light when a switch was flicked. No flame.”

Wensley looked lost in thought, “Well, I guess a lot has changed in five years.”

TJ slowly got up and Wensley reached one of the tables and handed him a plate of food. Suddenly, the door burst open. 

“Tyberius James Kippen”, his sister Amber called coming in. Wensley flinched at the sound and gave Amber a glare who sent him an apologetic look. Amber was two years older than TJ and would probably be working with Wensley if she didn’t get her job at the library. 

“Hi Amber”, TJ said around the food he was shoveling into his mouth. 

“Don’t ‘Hi Amber’ me, you’ve been gone for two days”, his sister seethed. TJ turned to Wensley. 

“You didn’t tell her?”

Wensley gave him a confused look, “Was I supposed to.”

TJ shook his head and turned to his sister who was looking between them expectantly. 

“Sorry, Wensley made a time machine”, Amber’s jaw dropped open. “I tested it and when I came back, I passed out. I only just woke up.”

“We don’t know why”, Wensley cut in, not looking up from his table. 

Amber looked between the two before grinning widely. “I call next.”

***

It was about two months later and they had found out that if you go to a time where you were alive in, it was like you were giving energy to two people. All the exhaustion you’re counterpart felt, added onto your own. They hadn’t been brave enough to test if the same thing happened to the counterpart but Wenseley’s current standing was ‘no’. 

Amber and TJ have made several trips back and forth through time in those two months. They had learned a lot about what was to come and what had already happened. They went to big things like the signing of the Declaration of Independence and smaller things like the birth of their mother. They had gotten pretty accustomed to the ways of traveling space and time unnaturally. 

Something that always stayed the same, no matter where the went in time, they were spat out in some sort of closet or a small room that looked like the machine until you opened the door. They couldn’t control what room the landed in, however, which led to some pretty awkward situations (TJ walking in on a classroom full of kids and Amber having to sneak in and out of a boy’s bathroom).

It was two months of experimenting and science with no boundaries. 

So, of course, it was only a matter of time before that changed. 

Amber has just gotten back from a trip when there had been a knock on the building’s front door, which almost never happened, Wensley always delivered to his clients. TJ went to check it and found three men wearing suits and giving him a hard look. 

“You know where Dr. Wenseley Marks is, son”, one asked. 

“Uh yeah”, TJ answered uncomfortably. “I can bring him to—”

“I think it’d be better if you just take us to him, son”, another man said. 

TJ thought that was a really bad idea. He didn’t like people he didn’t know coming into his space and he only let Amber and TJ into his lab because they were friends and his field agents. He would certainly not like three strange men coming in here. 

“No, I really think—”, TJ tried again, but he was cut off by the men pushing past him and into the building. 

“Hey, you can’t just—”

“United States Secret Service, son”, one of them said, showing a badge. “So we can ‘just’.”

The men scoured the room and seeming not to find what they came for they made their way down the hall, opening doors and rummaging in rooms. TJ tried to protest, but there were three to his one and they were all bigger and older than him. 

One finally reached the lab and TJ could hear Wensley’s confused cry of outrage as the men in suits burst in. TJ quickly followed to see the men standing in front of Amber and Wensley who was looking perplexed and uncomfortable. 

“United States Secret Service, sir”, one said. “We’re here because we were notified of someone breaking space-time. One of our past agents saw a boy with blonde hair and green eyes twice nearly a decade apart, not having aged even a day. We have spent a long time finding you.”

“What do you want with my time machine”, Wensley said stiffly, not caring how they got here, just wanting them to leave. 

“We want to use it for the United States government.”

“No, no, no”, Wensley said shaking his head furiously, looking hard at the ground right in front of the men. “It’s my machine, you can’t have it.”

One of the men started to say something, but another cut him off. “We don’t want to take it from you. We want you and your two agents to come work with us. We’ll have agents assigned to your branch and they will defer to you and these two. You can run the machine and still conduct your experiments, we’ll just use it for missions every once and a while.”

Wensley was still shaking his head, but it was less an answer and more just a way to help him think. He passed his eyes over Amber and TJ, but they were as lost as he was. 

“No one will use the machine without my say so?”, Wensley asked. 

“No one”, the man assured. The guy he had cut off looked upset but the other guy was impassive. 

It was silent for a minute as Wensley deliberated. Finally:

“Okay.”

***

1 Year Later

“Good morning Agent Kippen.”

“Good morning, Nancy”, TJ greeted one of the assistants as she looked over the notes on her desk. “Is my sister in yet?”

“Agent Kippen should be in momentarily.”

“Awesome, thanks.”

TJ walked up the stairs to the upper control room. He greeted the technicians before walking back into the study. Wensley was looking a lot like he had the first time TJ had time traveled. He was mumbling to himself as he made notes on the pages scattered through the room. While he was thinking, he picked up a few gears and messed around with them. He got an idea and dropped the new device onto a table, now a miniature music box. 

“What’s going on, Wensley”, TJ asked, sipping his coffee as his old mentor and best friend fluttered around the room. 

“There have been some flukes with the new machine”, Wensley said, not seeming surprised that TJ was suddenly there. “The linger a mission takes the longer it takes to get the agent back. What time is it?”

“Uh, 07:00”, TJ said. 

“Amber should have been back an hour ago”, Wensley said movements speeding up. 

“How long has she been in 1975 again?”

“Two weeks.”

“Do you want me to go and get her?”, TJ asked. “Maybe her machine just got bumped a little.”

“Yes, yes, that could be it”, Wensley said, not really listening. “You can leave now.”

“Yep”, TJ said, popping the ‘p’. He left and told the technicians to set a machine to where Amber should be right now. They had since been able to control the landing of a machine so that it would learn and specific safe spaces. There were agents all around whose job was to be alibis for agents when they had to stay somewhere for an extended place of time. A lot can change in a year, TJ had discovered. 

He set his coffee down and waved at Nancy again before stepping into the machine. They had added straps but TJ was so used to it he didn’t need it. The room started to spin and soon TJ was hurtling to Shadyside, Utah, September 3, 1975. 

***

TJ was spat out into a plain-looking room. He exited and went downstairs. Well, finding his sister wasn’t too hard. 

“Amber”, he called and his sister whipped around. She looked worried. “What’s up, you were late and Wensley was starting to worry.”

“TJ, I don’t know what’s going on”, Amber said shakily. “I went to the closet at the assigned time, but nothing happened.”

TJ frowned as Amber led him to a room on the other side of the hall as the one TJ stepped through. She went to the closet and TJ stepped in, but he couldn’t find anything that could be disrupting the machine. TJ shrugged. 

“Well come on, just use mine, I told them to pick me up in half an hour. tell me about the mission.”

So Amber told him how she had found the informant and learned the location of the lost archives. The agents were a couple and their story was that they were new residents for their jobs. They both worked the jobs to maintain cover but barely interacted with the public. When thirty minutes had passed, they went into TJ’s room. They stepped into the closet, expecting the spinning of the machine. I didn’t happen. 

“What is happening?”, TJ asked once they had stepped out. 

“I don’t know”, Amber said. “But I think we’re stuck here until we figure it out.”

“You’re telling me we’re stuck a hundred years in the future?”

“It’s not like we haven’t been in worse situations.”

“Our tech always worked in those situations. We have no security now.”

“Look”, Amber said sharply, trying to stop her brother’s freak out. “It’s just for a little bit. Wensley will find a way to get us out. We just have to act like normal teenagers.”

“Oh yeah, and how do we do that?”

TJ wished he hadn’t asked. Cause two weeks later, he was walking into Grant High School. 

***

Amber was eyeing everyone suspiciously. She had gone into her first class as a senior and had quickly gotten bored. She took her job very seriously and made sure to know the school curriculum of every generation. She could do 1975 in her sleep. What she did not know how to do was act with these people. She knew her brother was probably freaking out somewhere but he hoped he didn’t have to do too much math. TJ was smart, but Math didn’t work for him. Amber has learned that it was called dyscalculia and had tried to help her brother so that he wouldn’t struggle too much if he had to use math. She never expected him to have to use it at school though. 

Amber’s eyes continued to scan the room as she stepped into her fourth period. They caught on a girl with short black hair doodling in her notebook. This was a senior art class and she clearly wasn’t a senior, but the page seemed to come alive underneath her pencil. Amber wanted to talk to her. 

So she did. 

“Hi”, she said, coming up beside her desk. The girl looked up and Amber swore she was the cutest human Amber had ever seen. “I’m Amber. I’m new.”

The girl smiled up at her. “Andi”, she said, reaching out a hand which Amber shook. “You wanna sit?”

Amber nodded eagerly and slid onto the stool next to Andi. They quickly got lost in art and conversation. 

***

TJ’s day was going better than he thought. Math still sucked, but he rocked History, English, and Science. He had seen his sister at lunch and they talked briefly. Now was TJ’s last class: Physical Education. 

TJ had always been good at sport, even before he was trained by the United States government. He doubted he had anything to worry about. 

But of course, he was wrong. He has lots to worry about, just not what people normally worry about in PE. 

He was almost too good. He ran double the laps as everyone else without even breaking a sweat. He was nearly asleep as he did the normal drills. When he got to the rope climb, he scaled it in six seconds flat and dropped without worrying and landed on his feet in front of the whole class. Compared to the other kids, he was almost Superman. And he, of course, drew attention to himself. 

“You trying to make us look bad?”, a boy slightly smaller than him asked, breathing heavily. TJ had run circles around everyone at basketball. The only one even barely keeping up with him was this girl who was glaring at him from next to the boy. 

“Why would I do that?”, TJ asked. 

“Who are you?”, the girl asked sharply. 

“Uh, my name’s TJ?”, he answered like it was a question. 

“Lay off, Buff, we can’t help that he’s good”, the boy said again, straightening out. “I’m Marty, this is Buffy.”

TJ shook the guy’s hand. The girl, Buffy, still looked a little upset, but she also shook his hand. The three of them spent the rest of the class chatting and running around. Buffy eventually loosened up to him and he learned that they were both ran track and played basketball. Buffy said they should shoot some hoops some time and Marty said he should try out for the team. TJ said sure and that he would think about it. 

The trio walked out of the gym together after school, heading to the front. They were walking up to a group of people and TJ was laughing at something Marty said when he nearly stopped in his tracks.

In front of him was the cutest boy he’d ever seen talking excitedly to a boy and girl he didn’t know and...his sister?

“Hey guys”, Buffy called as they strolled up. The group turned to them and Amber let out a bark of a laugh. 

“Hey little brother, fancy seeing you here”, she said as the group looked back and forth between the two. 

“He trumped us in basketball so we had to bring him”, Marty said, Buffy, saying that he didn’t really ‘trump’ them. 

“Marty, Buffy”, Marty said pointing at himself, then Buffy. He turned to TJ and pointed to the other three. “Andi, Cyrus, Jonah.”

TJ’s eyes lingered on the cutlet boy as he was introduced and he knew Amber could tell. 

“Amber and TJ Kippen”, Amber said. “At your service.”

“So, where are you guys from?”, Jonah asked as they started to walk away from the school. 

“New York”, they said at the same time, cause it was true. 

“Why would you ever want to move from there?”, Cyrus asked. 

“Trust me, it wasn’t our idea”, Amber said. 

“We move around a lot”, TJ said. “Our parents’ jobs mean we move around a lot, but New York is kind of like our headquarters. We’ll move somewhere for a bit, then go back to New York, then we’d be on the road again.”

“I couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than Shadyside”, Andi said and the others agreed. 

They ended up outside a diner the others say they frequent often. They were there for a few hours before it started to get dark and they had to leave. The Kippens headed home a little lighter than when they had left. 

***

Just because they were stuck in a different time, didn’t mean his training was any less important. Amber had rolled his eyes when he had told her he was going on a run but had waved and told him to stay safe before going back to talking on the phone with Andi. Which they were definitely going to talk about later. 

TJ was jogging around the park, feeling calmer the more tired he got. He looked over at the playground and saw a familiar face on the swings. He and Cyrus hadn’t been able to talk much over the week, so he didn’t know him very well. TJ desperately wanted to change that. 

As he got closer, he heard Cyrus singing. 

...go down

That’s how we make the swing go round

Drag your feet

You go slow

The more you drag

The less you go

“Nice song”, TJ said. The boy jumped and turned to look at him. TJ hadn’t really planned for after that so he said. “Got one for the slide?”

Cyrus preceded to sing his slide song.

“I did not expect you to have a song for that”, TJ said honestly, giving Cyrus his best smile. He returned it and TJ felt something in his chest flutter. 

“Wanna sit?”, Cyrus asked, nodding his head toward the other swing. TJ went over and sat down, swaying a little. 

“What are you doing out here so early?”, TJ asked. 

“You’re out here, too”, Cyrus replied, avoiding the question. 

“Yeah, cause I can’t run in my house and I have to meet Buffy and Marty for basketball in an hour.”

TJ looked over at Cyrus and he seemed to be debating something. TJ started to swing. Cyrus would tell him if he wanted to. 

“I come here when I’m feeling bad about myself”, Cyrus finally admitted quietly. “So, fairly often.”

“Why is that?”, TJ asked, just as quiet. Cyrus shrugged but it wasn’t really an answer. 

“Bet ya I can swing higher”, TJ challenged, trying to lighten the mood. 

“I’m scared to swing high”, Cyrus confessed. TJ grinned down at him before launching himself off the swing. He ran behind Cyrus. 

“Underdog!”, he yelled, pushing the boy up and over his head. The boy gave a surprised shout, but he didn’t sound upset. TJ turned to look at him and found him grinning down at him. 

“That was exhilarating!”, he cried. 

“What another one?”

“No thank you.”

“Hmm, too bad.”

TJ started to push him and Cyrus laughed as he ran under him again. They swing and chatted until they saw Buffy and Marty coming up to them. TJ waved to them before turning to Cyrus one more time. 

“Call me whenever you want to swing again”, TJ said. “Or just, whenever.”

Cyrus smiles and nodded and TJ gave him one last big smile before running up to Marty and Buffy. 

“You and Cyrus look comfortable together”, Buffy said as the walked to the court. TJ shrugged but he couldn’t shake the huge smile on his face. 

Maybe being stuck here wasn’t so bad. 

***

Amber watched Andi as she talked excitedly about the new headband she wanted to make. Amber and TJ had been in Shadyside for a few weeks and were no closer to finding a way to get out. Amber was starting to not really want to. 

“Amber are you listening?”, Andi asked. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course”, Amber quickly assured her. 

Andi gave her a look and Amber continued to smile at her. Andi blushes and suddenly looked down a small frown gracing her face. 

“Maybe we should finish this tomorrow”, Andi murmured, not looking at Amber. 

“What?”, Amber asked, confused. “Why?”

“I just remembered I have a lot of homework I need to finish”, Andi said standing up.

“But—”

“I’ll see you later”, she said. Then she was gone. 

***

TJ liked Cyrus’s house. Well, both of his houses. They were a lot more cozy and comfortable than his house with bare walls and cold rooms. Cyrus’s house was covered in color and cloth and pictures. It was an actual home. Not just a base. 

They were currently in his head at his mom’s house. They were stuffed full from dinner and were laying on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. They had been talking for a while, but now they just laid there in comfortable silence. 

“Hey TJ”, Cyrus suddenly called. 

“Hmm?”

“What does your name stand for?”

“Why?”

There was a pause, probably Cyrus shrugging before realizing TJ couldn’t see him. “Just curious.”

“Tyberius James.”

“Like Star Trek?”

“Like who?”

“Captain James Tyberius Kirk from Star Trek.”

“My parents named me before that show came out, Cy.”

“Oh, right.”

TJ pauses before saying, “Everyone thought it was weird so I made it an acronym.”

“Everyone thinks my name is weird”, Cyrus said. “You and Amber are actually the first ones to say ‘Cyrus? That’s a funny name’, or some variation thereof when you met me.”

“I’ve known a lot of Cyrus’s”, TJ said. “Though none like you.”

It was quiet for a second. TJ didn’t know why but the air seemed to have changed. Cyrus sat up then and TJ followed. They looked at each other for a bit and TJ was about to say something—he didn’t know what but he talked when he was nervous—when his mind went blank. 

Soft lips touched his own but before he could react they were pulling away again. Cyrus looked terrified and TJ was pretty sure he was saying something but TJ couldn’t hear him, just wanted him to stop freaking out. So he grabbed his face and kissed him. The boy froze in shock before melting against TJ. TJ drew out the kiss a little longer before he pulled back. 

Cyrus looked flushed, his eyes still closed. He opened them slowly like hew was waking up from a dream. “We shouldn’t have done that”, he said softly. 

“Why not?”, TJ asked. 

“We just, shouldn’t”, Cyrus said, dropping his hands from where they had grabbed TJ’s arms. “We aren’t supposed to.”

TJ grabbed his chin softly and raised his eyes to TJ’s. “Why not?”

They stared at each other for a bit, the words hanging in the air, and TJ was sure Cyrus was going to push him away and tell him to get out. But he didn’t. He pulled him back in. And TJ forgot that he wasn’t supposed to be here at all. 

***

Andi has been avoiding her. It had been a week since Andi had suddenly left her in Andi Shack and Amber had only caught glimpses of the other girl. She was upset and she couldn't figure out why. Well, she could, but she didn’t want to admit it. 

It all came to a breaking point when they got paired for an art project. Andi has barely looked at her all day, but they had to work on it. They walked to her house in silence, every step making Amber angrier and more anxious. 

Finally, Amber let out a frustrated groan and garages her friend. Andi let out a shocked noise but Amber just dragged her around a corner and back behind a building. 

The building was close to the forest so the could t be seen from the street and there were no doors on the back wall. Amber stopped and spun around to face Andi. 

“What’s going on?”, she asked. 

“I don’t—”

“No”, Amber cut in. “Don’t say you don’t know. You leave me sitting in Andi Shack with no explanation, you avoid me for a week, and now you won’t even talk to me. Please, Andi I just want to know what’s going on.”

The girl was looking down at the ground looking guilty and sad. Amber felt regretful and was about to apologize when Andi said, “I’m scared.”

“Of what?”, Amber asked. 

Andi looked up at her before surging forward. Amber caught her in her arms as their lips met. Amber was frozen for a second, but she soon melted against the smaller girl and pulled her closer. Andi gave a little sigh as she pulled away. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that for three months”, Andi admitted as she rested her head against Amber’s. The blonde hummed in agreement. 

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to make up for those three months”, Amber said and softly pulled the girl back. 

***

No one but their friends knew. Marty and Buffy had basically figured it out and Jonah just seemed to think it was normal. When they were with their friends or alone, they belonged to each other. And it was getting increasingly aggravating that they couldn’t do that in public. 

Both of the Kippens knew that this would always how it would be. They didn’t even think they’d have what they did, in all honesty. But it still wore at them that they had to spend their days next to their partners and pretend that they weren’t madly in love with them. 

And that was just the normal problems. 

They still hadn’t told anyone who they really were and there was a looming threat that one day, the boy would come and they’d be called back. Not the best circumstances for anyone, let alone gay teenagers in the 1970s. 

It was New Year's Eve and they didn’t have any plans. All their friends were spending time with their families out of town—or state in Cyrus’s and Marty’s cases—and their ‘parents’ had to go to D.C. for a debriefing. They were sitting at home watching the box tv broadcast the ball dropping. 

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

As the clock struck midnight, the house shook and they both heard a loud pop. They looked at each other in surprise before quickly running to check their closets. The note was inside of Amber’s

Amber and TJ

If you are reading this letter, it means we finally hit the right time when time machines started working again. For some reason, all-time machines fail during 1975. My most likely guess is that it is now January 1, 1976. We have not figured out why this anomaly occurred, but it shall be rectified. The pickup time set in place will be on January 10, 1976, at 18:00. 

Wensley

They didn’t know what to feel. They stared at the letter. Then at each other. Then at the closet. Repeat. They sat there as the bell struck the half-hour, the first hour, and so on. They say there until they couldn’t anymore, ‘til exhaustion overtook them and the fell asleep in front of TJ’s closet. 

***

School states again on the fifth. It was the first time they would be seeing their friends again since they got the letter. They still didn’t know what to do. So they did what they did best. Disappeared. 

They made themselves nearly invisible at school, a feat of impossibility seeing as the two had quickly become pretty popular in the way athletes and pretty girls tend to do. If you checked the attendance you would find them in every class, but no one could have told you if they had actually been there or not. They could tell they were worrying their friends, but they were too scared to face them. How could they tell them that just as everything was fitting together, they were leaving? 

But avoiding a problem doesn’t fix it. And in this case, it only makes it worse. It was the tenth, and Amber and TJ were getting ready to leave. 

They didn’t have any stuff there, so it was mostly mental preparation. The clock struck 18:00 and they stepped in the closet. They didn’t notice the bedroom door opening behind them. 

They walked out onto the lab floor and were quickly met with agents checking on them. Then the door behind them opened again. And out stepped their friends.

***

“This is the biggest breach of protocol I’ve ever seen. How could you have let this happen? Did you lose all your training in three months? I should have known better than bringing children into a government organization...”

The Kippens stood at attention in front of their supervising officer. They felt his glare on them like a ton of bricks.

He was right

They had let their emotions take over basic protocol and have almost ruined their best friend’s life work and put their friends in serious danger. If they had just told their friends they were leaving they could have avoided everything. But they didn’t. 

“You know better than to get attached”, he finally finished, sounding tired. He sighed. “Look, you two are my best agents. But I don’t think you can do this...”

The Kippens started to argue but he held up a hand. 

“I don’t think you can do this right now. You guys are still kids. I shouldn’t have pushed this on you”, he looked over at the one-way glass that separates them from where their friends were sitting, very confused. 

“Maybe, you guys should grow up first.”

“Sir?”, TJ asked. 

“Agent Kippen, Agent Kippen. I’m giving you two a long-term mission. Explain to your friends what all of this is, then go back to Shadyside. When you’re eighteen, or now for you Amber, you’ll go to the government’s training academy and get ready for this branch. Once you’re finished, you will come back here with your positions waiting for you.”

The pair looked at him in shock. They stared at him for a minute before he asked, “Am I understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, you are dismissed”, and with that, he left. 

They looked at each other for a bit before turning to look at their friends. 

Amber took a deep breath. “You ready?”

“Not even a little bit.” 

Then they walked in. 

***

2 Years Later

“I can’t believe senior year is almost over”, Andi said as she leaned back into Amber who was smiling behind her. 

“We could always go back”, TJ jokes and laughed at the five shouted ‘no’s. 

Their friends had been more than a little surprised when they told them. Amber and TJ had been scared they would be mad at them. But then Marty made a joke about how they could be in 2075 right then and they realized they weren’t. Amazed and upset they hadn’t told them, yeah. But not mad at them. Not really. 

They had met Wensley who complained to TJ and Amber that they were abandoning him. They assured him they weren’t and they were never more than a time jump (or the new time call that Wensley had invented) away. And the Kippens were more than happy to bounce back to whenever Wensley was.

Their friends started to talk and Cyrus turned around in TJ’s arms. He smiled and kissed him slowly for a minute, forgetting anyone else was there. He pulled back to rest their foreheads together.

“Promise you’ll come to visit as much as you’re able”, Cyrus whispered.

“Of course”, TJ promised. “Yours is the only time I want to be in.”

Cyrus rolled his eyes before pulling him back into a kiss. Time travel was the best thing to ever happen to him.