Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 464. Sunday Evening

After showering, I rushed back into the room again.

A cartoon was quietly playing on Henry’s phone, yet he stared at the flowers I brought him, entranced.

My mind hadn’t really registered that Kitty and Ren were there before; I was too worked up from the assault I had suffered at the end of the walk and too blown away by the change in Henry.

Seamlessly turning from small and weak to tall, confident, and so eye-catchingly beautiful that it was impossible to look away.

Well, I clearly didn’t have to bring him flowers, given how just listening in had already cheered him up enough. I wasn’t so naive as to think the stalker puppy would stop his unruly ways, though I hadn’t thought that my reaction to my grandmother’s rambles was enough to assure him.

Not like this, turning the puppy into a cat, raking its long limbs, fully knowing its allure.

"You like them?" I asked Henry with a chuckle while getting to the mattress.

Kitty seemed to have woken up after dozing off while posing as a headboard, with Henry leaning against his fur lazily.

"I love them." Henry gave me a one-million-dollar grin, and my heart skipped a few beats.

The moment I stepped off the mattress and Kitty fought himself out of sleepiness, his red eyes were glued to me, expecting, DEMANDING what I had promised.

"Not yet." Henry lifted his arm and reached for Kitty’s head to tap it, noticing the tiger’s little movements.

Then the puppy reached for me to engulf me in a hug.

Henry had brought his arms around me and still fiddled with the flowers in front of my face.

I knew he’d like this cringe, pfft.

We heard a car outside, its doors slamming shut; Ethan was back with the doctor.

"Your grandmother didn’t tell them to bring anyone, did she?" Henry asked as if he wanted to make sure.

I turned around to look at his face speechlessly.

"Not even trying to conceal your eavesdropping?"

"Not even trying." He confirmed with a brazen smile.

"Pfft, I’m happy that you are feeling better. And no, she didn’t have her phone with her."

We only heard Ethan and the doctor entering the house, instantly proving my words.

"Good." Henry kissed the back of my ear, sniffing perversely for a while, and I let him, looking at the cartoon on his phone.

"Your grandmother came back while you showered; she just slammed a few doors while going to her room." Henry informed me, and I laughed.

"You have to get our food and bring it; I am in hiding. Who the fuck knew she’d go berserk? What the actual fuck? Why do I get assaulted? I didn’t fucking name her."

Henry chimed in, and we heard Ethan and the doctor greet Emma in the kitchen before going upstairs.

I was curious about what he had to report, so I listened in when he knocked on a door, and my grandmother asked them to talk in the office—which was clearly a throne room; who was she kidding?

The old dragon didn’t sound as furious anymore, which was good, but I still won’t come out of hiding after her outburst.

"How are they?" My grandmother asked the doctor.

"Apparently, they had been drugged, but most of them are already back to consciousness. They don’t pose any danger..." The doctor started.

So apparently, Ethan had told my grandmother about the people there being the ones from the center, or to be precise, the ones she knew from the Deer-Monster world. Well, she showed her knowledge the moment she started talking about Chelsea.

"Most of them?" my grandmother asked again.

"The blonde woman..." The old man hesitated, and Ethan explained,

"Dr. Lawrence, the doctor that was responsible for Mr. Howard during his stay in the center."

"And?" My grandmother voiced my impatience when the doctor didn’t continue immediately.

"She wasn’t drugged but had to be reanimated twice during my stay. Now she is stable, but I fear her organs are severely damaged."

Feeling the puppy beside me stiffen slightly, I turned my head and looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Hm?" I asked him, and he winced.

"You are also listening in?" he confirmed just to procrastinate.

"Obviously. Why do you feel guilty?"

"I might have...teleported with her." The intensely blue eyes slowly looked away as if fearing to get scolded while I tried to piece the information together.

"Wait, you used the way you teleport with her? And with the others?"

"Not with the others," Henry cut in.

"Seeing that Dr. Lawrence wasn’t doing so good, I called Ethan to drive us, like I told you."

"Ohhh, so you just conveniently let the teleportation part slide." I chuckled while the puppy stayed silent after whimpering adorably and then only glancing at me here and there while playing with his flowers and tightening his hold around me.

I had listened in with half an ear while talking to Henry, and at the end, their conversation could be summarized with ’Dr. Lawrence would survive in any case after the doctor had dutifully taken care of her’.

"How about you don’t teleport with people anymore?" I suggested, and the puppy droopily agreed.

"Though, if you teleport with me, I surely wouldn’t be in such a bad state given how upgraded I am." I contemplated trying that out.

The puppy laughed darkly as if I were absurd, changing face again so fast.

"As if I’d take that risk."

"Alright." I patted his head, hearing them upstairs continue to plan after the doctor had been dismissed.

"You will go to work with them tomorrow?" The old dragon asked, and Ethan made a sound of agreement.

"It would be good to register ourselves officially and show our obedience before we leave."

"We will leave in about a week." My grandmother suddenly said, and I looked at Henry, seeing that this was news to him too, though he seemed not really to care about moving sooner rather than later.

"We won’t leave the country but will go far away," my grandma announced.

Ethan asked if he should start making preparations, and my grandmother agreed.

I stopped the superhearing and told Henry to stop as well; enough eavesdropping for the day.

The cartoon played, and the happy tunes and topics in it were the most welcomed change to the chaotic matters of the past or the future, nearly lulling me into sleep.

But then Emma knocked at some point, and Henry unwillingly had to let go to get out after stealing a few pecks.

When he left the room, I woke Ren up.

He looked dazed and confused, as if he didn’t know why he was seeing me, but happy that it was the case either way.

"Food is ready; go eat." I told him, but he grabbed my arm reluctantly.

"You can come back after eating." He brightened up but was still a bit unconvinced, tugging at me.

"I can’t go; I am hiding from a dragon." Placing my finger on my lips mysteriously, the kid laughed while covering his mouth with both hands.

I chuckled, and the kid ran out; now it was just Kitty and me.

Well, if everyone is eating already...

I nudged the tiger behind me into waking up again, and he did with a high-pitched "Rrruu?" that didn’t match the almighty tiger.

"Rrru?" I asked him back, and after blinking the sleep away, he turned his head to the wall, as if he were embarrassed.

I laughed and stood up, opened the window, and breathed in the evening breeze.

The sun had set; it was awfully warm... but I didn’t hear any insects.

I tilted my head and leaned in; I hadn’t noticed before because the wind was so strong, but shouldn’t something chirp or buzz?

Looking up, I found a swarm of birds flying in the sky, wandering west.

"Come here." I motioned to Kitty, holding my hand out.

The tiger finally stopped staring at the wall, his eyes taking on a hopeful gleam. Kitty stood up and leaned into my touch while I tested a theory I had.

I looked at the table in my mind, took the coin, and flipped it while providing conditions:

’Show me the future, but without letting me see my future self.’

Black; palm; eyes and ears uncovered; correct future of Kitty.

I stand in the grassy field on the side of the house, in my own body. ’FutureKitty’ stops running abruptly, coming to a standstill beside me.

The tiger turns his head, and I follow his gaze in the direction of the car coming; it was one of ours, and squinting my eyes, I recognize a very annoyed Ethan driving it.

I can feel that this is tomorrow evening.

Coming back, I looked at Kitty before leaning out of the window and conjuring up three batches of fish.

Kitty instantly perceived the smell, and instead of running out through the door the kid had left half open, the tiger jumped, rather wriggled, out of the window.

Henry came back, balancing two trays with a bunch of food.

I closed the window to lock the fishy smell out.

"I know what the problem is." I said with a grin, seeing Henry stop after closing the door with his foot.

"To what?"

"I just flipped the coin on Kitty and looked into his future. There was no problem..." Seeing his face twist between anxiety and anger, I continued,

"...because I didn’t see my future self." I finished.

"Nobody stared at you? No pressure or unexplainable fear and danger?" He stood still as if he forgot that he was still loaded with food.

"Nothing, just like in the past." I walked to him and took one of the trays before sitting down on the edge of the mattress and placing the tray on the floor.

I propped my arms on my legs and looked up at him.

"I got it now. The moment I created a space for the ’first time’ and became afterwards actively aware of this part of my ability—of my power in SPACE—it added weight to my presence when walking through time and space to see, hear, or feel..." I didn’t really know how to explain it.

"I can’t see my direct future through others anymore because my presence is too strong on both sides, alarming the natural law." If my awareness about my presence in SPACE were to continue to grow, I would probably not only see, hear, and feel, but also actively appear there.

Maybe how Henrietta and her counterpart were needed to open the first portal in this world; maybe I would be able to travel through time for real, with the help of either my future or past self, or with one of my counterparts.

I had even partly time traveled by myself already, not with my whole body but with my consciousness and wounds.

Luckily I haven’t been so close to death again since then, though it’s hard to believe when thinking that the stabbing that triggered the time travel came before the giant.

Just that after fighting the giant, the giant’s blood had already pieced me back together— no need for sending consciousness and injuries somewhere else to heal.

Anyway, instances where I could neither speak with people nor influence anyone, locked into a solitary cell, were very seldom, and with how powerful I am, this shit will hopefully not be necessary again.

However, I knew, at the very latest after feeling the earth-shattering threat of the natural law, that the time when I had been stabbed would be my only adventure regarding actively traveling through time.

The natural law wouldn’t allow it, and maybe my consciousness and wounds back then had only traveled because I was so ’unaware.’

Yes, yes, yes, awareness comes at a cost; I got it, I got it.

"If you looked into the future before and saw yourself, even if that future self had that awareness already, it hadn’t mattered because that knowledge had just been one-sided, contrary to now?" Henry asked, bending down to put his tray down beside mine to then take a seat beside me.

I hadn’t thought about that.

"Good point; this was probably the case."

Finally knowing the conditions under which I could still look into the future again, and that without fearing to get eradicated the next moment by some outer force, I felt much calmer and more secure.

The food smelled so good that I used the pause in the conversation to dig in, and Henry did the same.

"What did you see in the vision you had of Kitty?" He asked after most of our hunger was filled.

I told him about the absence of insects and the sole bird swarm in the sky first, then about the vision of tomorrow that probably meant we wouldn’t die today.

"The chemical stuff in the air?" I offered as a suggestion for the missing insects.

Henry hummed, biting into a self-made, absolutely delicious burger.

"Though the smell isn’t as present as when we arrived."

"We could have grown accustomed to it."

"True, maybe the insects and birds flee because of the fire?"

"The one you set?" I chuckled, and he finally seemed to be in a better mood since I told him that I had looked into the future again.

"It was beautiful~~" The serial killer and potential arsonist in him came through again.

I nudged him with my elbow.

"Until we leave, I will flip the coin daily to take a look."

He didn’t like it, but for now, this was the best course of action, and he seemed not to dare to get angry at me after our talk in the morning.

Anyway, we finished unhealthily fast, and I leaned back after taking my last bite and was instantly drowsy.

"Sleep; tomorrow we’ll have to go to work." Henry placed his hand over my eyes after wiping it on the wet napkins that came with him on the tray.

Never thought I’d hear such a normal sentence out of his mouth, as if life hadn’t derailed at all.

I hummed, drifting off immediately while Henry wiped my hands as well in the most careful, most tender, but also in the fucking slowest—clearly prolonged—way possible.