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Soo sat on the couch, hunched over rolling his phone between his hands. He was bouncing his leg, periodically checking the clock. Ashton hasn’t come home yet, and with no contact his anxious mind only grew louder and louder in his brain. This wasn’t like him at all, it was now 11 am, still no word Ashton. He was done waiting, Soo got up, allowing his silk robe to flutter behind him as he briskly marched over to Rana’s door knocking in an annoying fashion. Stopping the beating to listen for footsteps walking closer. Nothing. Starting again for a few seconds. Stop. Listen. Repeat. You know the drill. It was taking Rana too long to respond to a high- level emergency right now. Before he could rear his hand back for another round  of rhythm, it swung open leaving the startled Soo face-to-forehead Rana.
“What?” in a scruffy voiced growl that reeked of morning breath

He had a full purple hairline pulled back by a teal headband, the immediate sharp look alerted both of them he wanted to roll back up in bed. Soo’s eyes were about level to his hairline, he noticed the grogginess wasn’t out of his companions brain yet as he didn’t even say ‘good morning’. A face full of contempt for being awoken at the earliest possible time, Rana looked up at Soo not wanting to repeat himself once again. 

“It’s Ashton he didn’t come home last night, or at least I wasn’t sure if he did.” Soo whispered in a panicked voice. 

“Why are you whispering it’s 11am, and you’ve already ruined my beauty sleep.” Rana rolled his eyes at his roommates’ attempt to be considerate after the fact. “Have you tried checking his room, bud?”

There was a brief pause, Soo didn’t want to answer that question with the wrong response.

Rana pushed out an exasperated sigh, “Just check his room, damn.”, and slammed the door in his face followed by the sounds of sifting through a dirty room. In a few moments the door swung open again in that short time Rana managed to put on shorts and a tank top. The duo turned their heads to look down the hallway at the closed door of Ashton complete with the edgy anime poster on the door. There was a slightly ominous presence that they felt as they approached the door, encroaching closer and closer only filled them with more weariness. Soo’s hair stood up on the back of his neck as he outstretched his hand to grab the handle. Taking one last glance at Rana, he pushed the door open. 

There Ashton was, asleep, in a deep sleep, skin grooves from the sheets on his face. Slight drool making his way from his open mouth onto the pillow, Soo welcomed the drool on his pillow rather than one of his best friends dead in the street somewhere. To his left Rana was unmoving, shoulders tense and raised. His earlier limpid eyes were widened, in a confused gaze.

“Soo, whoever you think this is, is not the same Ashton we know.” Rana spoke through gritted teeth, borderline hissing at the body that lay on the bed. 

“What are you talking about Rana, that is Ashton in the flesh.”

“Take a closer look man, a real close look that is NOT Ash.” he pointed his finger allowing his flow to seep out of the tip very subtly.

Soo knew that Rana wouldn’t just channel flow for nothing, begrudgingly he took a chance on what he was saying, looking closer at the snoozing roommate. He saw a limiter bound around his wrist, fully charged too. Since when did Ashton have flow, let alone enough to surge into a limiter in his sleep. Soo clenched his fist tightly, lightly gnawing on his lip, and right on queue that tiny anxiety demon in the back of his mind crawled itself to the forefront of his thoughts. Who was this? What happened last night? Where was Ashton? The peace he felt upon seeing the body transformed into a deep rage.

A green squall started around his body traveling up to his head, before rebounding to his feet pushing a turbulent gust of wind through the room waking up not-Ashton.  

“ Ugh, What the fuck was that?”Ashton joined the groggy, morning breath club as well.

“Who Are You?” Soo interrogated with a stern tone full of bad cop vibes.

“What are you even talking about man, also why are you creating copious amounts of wind right now?”

“Cut the shit, man” Rana cut in, “We know you aren’t Ashton.”

“Yeah , for starters, Ashton never had a visible flowstream until today. The previous day he didn’t even come home last night at all.”

“I had a late night yesterday. I got caught up in some shit with this monster called Corruptio-” he quickled clasped his hands over his mouth 

Rana and Soo both shot each other quick glances at the mention of the monster’s name. Rana shuddered terribly, light beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

Soo leaned in close to the edge of the bed, placing his full weight on the comforter bunching the fabric around Ashton’s leg. He wasn’t surprised when Ash shifted his weight slightly away from him.

“Now I’m going to only say this once, so listen closely. There are only a few things that only Ashton would know. If you can tell me anything. Anything at all, to make it easier for me to accept the fact that you’re in my world now.” Soo blew out frustrated air that filled the room with his mood, while groaning and pinching his eyebrows. Stealing a look at Rana, realizing he hasn’t said anything for awhile now. Rana’s eyes were locked onto  the Ashton in question, fixated like a shark watching its prey from the distance waiting for it to make any mistake at all so it could justify eating it up in one fell swoop.

Ashton chuckled lightly, squinting from the sunlight hitting his eyes. “This is too easy man.” Last month at Rana’s kickback my man got so fucked up he started to act out the spellcasting choreo, from CardCaptor Sakura.”

“Yep, that’s him alright.” Rana briskled turned away, embarrassed, striding out of the room. Soo, bewildered hiding his snickers that escaped his mouth, tried calling out to him before he heard the door slam shut. He looked Ashton up and down one last time, the aura of anxiety Soo let envelope his being, dissipated. In his mind the question’s didn’t stop forming. Ashton was someone who had no ties to the Infinite at all. Now after coming home late one night he has his own flow, He’s awareness of the Corruption wasn’t information that he just figured out. There has to be someone else, someone that taught him the truth of what he saw.

“Ashton, sorry for the outburst earlier, I-I was just concerned for your well being, but now that the secret’s out, you have to tell me, who told you what a Corruption was?” 

“Kai, that’s the only name that I got, chill ass dude, little quirky. “ Ashton sifted in his bed again pulling his legs from underneath covers preparing himself to hop out and get some breakfast. “But he is the guy that saved me, took me back to his place, and taught me somethings about drifters.”

Soo, relaxed his shoulders, someone out there was looking out for his friend when he wasn’t around. A person strong enough to take down a Corruption single handedly, is a person that they need to come into contact with as soon as possible.

“We need to meet this guy, can you connect us?” 

Ashton nodded. “Of course, I’m just kinda surprised how you managed to keep your drifter identity hidden from me for so long.” 

“Regulars often have a tough time seeing things for what they really are.” Soo shrugged, turning to leave the room with Ashton as they headed down the hallway. “It wasn’t us hiding it from you, but more of you couldn’t even comprehend what you were supposed to be looking at.”

“Damn, that’s heavy.”

“Now that you can, Rana and I can help you hone that new skill, even this Kai person can help too.” Soo looked down at Ashton’s face, an excited smile crept across it before breaking into a full blown grin.

“So I’m going to get crazy powers, right?” he prodded like a kid asking to go to ToyRUs on the way home. 
“If only it were that simple, you might think it’s a blessing, but the Infinite has been nothing but stressful since the day I was born. These powers are to protect you.” Soo felt nothing, but pity for Ashton. For the long road of hardship he might have ahead of him, clicking his teeth in annoyance. Sauntering off into the kitchen, to take a seat, putting his hands into his head. Nothing but stress.