Tino

Tin¤

Episode One
Average Day

He woke up again in what had to be the worst bed in the world. It wasn't even cool enough to be called a bed. It was just a tiny mattress that lay on the floor with white sheets and no comforter. It reminded him of the jail beds he often saw on TV, or the pristine plain beds he'd seen during his former visits to college campuses.

It was his own fault. He got so hot at night with even minimal cover that his mom had simply given up on him. Instead of having to wash a sweat-soaked comforter everyday, they'd both decided simple sheets, the thinnest possible and that's it, would be the ideal. Even though he'd lived there all his life, the humidity in Houston was not for him.
He needed to move to Canada.

Tino sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Everything else in his bedroom was pretty normal; a desk to work on, a personal computer with no upgrades whatsoever and a tiny television that only got basic cable. He had his favorite sports team, the Texans up on the wall...well, the cheerleaders anyway, and to his right was his favorite toy in the world, his mp3 player. He was just reaching over to grab it when his cell phone rang.
"H'lo?" he greeted as he stood up from the floor.

"Sup T? You want to come up today or what? My first class isn't 'till eleven."
It was Dartagnan, Dart for short, and Tino's best friend since childhood. After they'd graduated from high school in May, they'd spent summer together before Dart went off to college the week before. Tino was supposed to go too, but the Illness had changed that. Instead he was stuck at home doing absolutely nothing but the same thing he'd done for the past few years, work at the mom n' pop's grocery store named Hannah's.
He felt just a twinge of jealousy followed by guilt like he always did. He'd wanted to go to college for the past four years of high school and now he couldn't. But before he could truly get angry, guilt smacked him cold in the face. It wasn't his father's fault he'd got sick, so Tino had no right to be mad about that or anything. Life was what it was and you just had to take what it gave you.

"Uh, no, gotta work today, Dart," he hoped he hadn't taken too long to answer due to wandering thoughts.
"Oh, all right," Dart sounded disappointed. " Well, we still on for next weekend?"
Dart still had some sort of sad hope that Tino would raise enough money to single-handedly hop up to college by next year. Tino let him keep hoping because, well, miracles did happen, but short of pig's flying, Tino was pretty sure it wasn't about to happen. Not anytime soon and probably not while Dart went through his four years.
"All right, I can do that," he grinned anyway. "See you Saturday."
"Cool, later."

He hung up and put his headphones around his neck but didn't turn the mp3 player on, clicking through the songs instead.
It had been a month since his father contracted the Illness. He'd been putting in a normal day as a street musician when he'd suddenly collapsed. A good Samaritan rushed him to the hospital as soon as he could, but no doctor was ever quite able to put a finger on just what he was suffering from. They'd finally labeled it as cancer although by the hesitant glances Tino always saw, he had a sinking suspicion that it was something else, something they'd never seen.

No antibiotics, no chemo, nothing had done anything to help Tino's father so they eventually sent the man home to live out his last days in comfort. And for Tino, that meant of course, no college, not after having to pay all the hospital bills. His mom had been content to clean houses but after his dad was no more, she'd had to scramble for a better paying job to make ends meet. She finally was hired on as a teacher at the local high school. All of her money went to what they needed and suddenly, Tino's own meager funds from his part-time job went to the household funds as well. There was nothing left for anything else whatsoever. But Tino couldn't let himself dwell on those thoughts for too long. He ended up getting mad at everything: life, his father, his job, himself, but nothing solved anything.

Tino ran a hand through his curly, shaven hair and dressed slowly, not removing his headphones and in fact finding the right low-key hip hop beat to jam to as he did so. He ran a brush through his hair, grabbed his favorite hat and put it on backwards, then stomped down the stairs towards his father's room. They'd moved him into the downstairs guestroom to make it easier to move and feed him without climbing stairs. But recently his father had become bed-ridden, so it wasn't as if he were moving much lately.
Tino popped his head inside the room, smiling when he saw his father's face light up. Marshall Harris' lined face creased in the familiar way Tino was used to, his dark full lips moving to reveal a gleaming set of teeth.

"Hey, my boy, come here," Marshall motioned him forward with a thin wave of his hand. The hand always made Tino hide a wince. It had once been strong, meaty; now it was painfully thin; even the dark brown hand seemed lighter than normal.
"What's up, pop?" Tino sat beside him on the bed.
Marshall leaned forward with a mischievous smile. "I need you to get something for me but you can't tell your mom."
Tino laughed. "What is it?"
Marshall glanced back and forth as if expecting to see his wife crawl out from under the bed with a wagging finger. "Your mom brings me cantaloupe every day because the doctors say it's good for me."

"Right...?"
Marshall's thick eyebrows came down in the familiar way that showed he was frustrated. "For the love of God man, I want a banana!"
Tino threw his head back, enjoying his father's humor as always. "A banana?" he choked out. "That's it?"
"Yes. I know you can get me one. Here, get my wallet."
"Dad," Tino grinned, "I can buy you a banana, don't worry about it."
"You swear?"

"Yes."
"And mom won't know?"
"She'll find out on her own," Tino snickered. "Mom knows everything."
Marshall shuddered. "I know. Now get on, go to work, and don't forget your secret mission."
"Aye aye, sir," Tino saluted. They dapped as Tino hopped up and made his way to the kitchen, where his mom was making pancakes at the stove.

"Hey mom," he kissed her cheek. "Heading to work now, okay?"
"You're not going to eat anything?" Helen Harris' hair was always curly and she always smelled like mint, Tino had no idea why, but he liked it.

"I'll eat a bagel," he promised, picking up the aforementioned object. "And I'll probably be late today too. I'm gonna see if Hannah will let me work extra today."
"Oh honey, you don't have to do that."
"Yeah I do," he kissed her cheek again.
"Tino," Helen turned to him with that expression; he hated that expression. It was the one where she knew they were asking a lot out of him and she felt horrible. The one where she almost chided him for the taking the situation so well and begged him not to suffer in silence. "I'm sorry we...that you aren't in school right now," she started. "With your father..."
"Mom, come on," he slumped back against the counter with a sigh. "It's okay. It's my life and I'm living it."

"No, it's our life and we're holding you back."
"Mom..."
"I'm going to start a fund for your college again, okay?" she assured him. "Your father and I decided it was right. I know we had to use it for your father's sick bills but...now that...they're almost paid and soon he'll..." And then her eyes started to water.
Tino felt his own eyes respond in kind and quickly turned away, not wanting to see her cry or do so himself. "We'll talk about it later, mom. Seriously, it's cool right now. Okay? Don't let it get to you."

Helen could only nod as she went back to flipping pancakes. Without another word, Tino slipped out of the house and waited at the bus stop, placing his headphones back over his ears and turning his mp3 player on shuffle. A fast-moving hip hop song came on, making him want to run down the street to match its pace. Anything would work, as long as it took him away from the house and the thoughts within.

Sometimes Tino blamed himself. If he hadn't been so darn average in high school with average looks, grades and personality, then maybe he'd have stuck out more and gained a scholarship. As it was, he'd only ever put forth enough effort to pass satisfactorily but never anything past that. He and Dart used to joke that if their lives were television shows, they'd be cast as extras important enough to the story to be seen, but only with a few lines like, "Naw, that's not cool, man," or something like that. Then they wouldn't speak for the rest of the show.

"And that's where being average gets you," he muttered, hopping onto the bus and settling in for the ride to Hannah's. Not that he was sitting there wishing he could go above and beyond, doing something interesting like solving mysteries left and right and at the end of the day knowing he'd somehow saved the world. No, he just sort of accepted his place as where he was. But it didn't mean he had to absolutely love it.

He made it to Hannah's, stowed his mp3 safely in his employee locker and placed a giant green apron on over his clothes. He waved at Hannah, who owned the place herself and checked the job list for his job that day. His first task was to water the fruits and vegetables. An easy job and one he didn't mind. He made his way through the small grocery store, dodging people who were already there now that the sliding doors were unlocked. Hannah was doing pretty well for herself. She had niche fruits and vegetables and a lot of organic food that people appreciated, even for the higher price. It was through Dart that Tino had stumbled across the job in the first place since Dart had been working there since he was like twelve and had finally extended the offer was a job opening was available.

Tino placed the hose over the vegetables and turned the nozzle, nodding to the customers who smiled as they passed. The day passed as normal for the most part and it wasn't until he looked up and saw the two guys in suits that he realized he desperately wanted to leave...and fast.

He'd noticed two peculiar things about him growing up; things he just passed off as being traits of himself. The first was of course the cold thing. He could go out in below 0 weather and feel perfectly fine, it was only in humidity that he felt stifled, uncomfortable and hard to breathe. He was prone to passing out in the summer if it got into the 90s and he stayed out for too long. So again, it was some cruel twist of fate that he was in Houston, one of the most humid places...ever. So he assumed, since he'd never left. But luckily Dart was the same way when it came to liking cooler weather, so Tino didn't worry much about it. His mom called them "Snow boys" and said they should've grown up in the north. Tino had thought about moving thereafter he finished college but now, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to leave home.

His second quirk was far more interesting and something Dart had never believed. He had to admit that it did seem like something straight out of the pages of Marvel comics. It was something of a danger sense. He hadn't known what to call it until he'd picked up Spiderman when he was younger. And just as Spiderman's "Spidey Sense" was able to tell him when danger was around, Tino found himself having the same weird intuition.
It was always the same and had been since he was young. Whenever something felt odd or weird, his body wanted to leave the situation immediately, carrying him far away from whatever it was. He never knew what would happened if he didn't go and he couldn't know how many times it had saved his life. The one time he had tried to stick around to see what was gong on he'd ended up with such an intense migraine that he left anyway. His mom said it was his guardian angel speaking closely to him and Tino took that explanation to heart because he liked it.

Well, his guardian angel was screaming at him today. The longer he stared at the two men in suits, the more his feet ached to move on their own. He had to grit his teeth to keep his shoes where they belonged but that only triggered the throbbing in his temple to flare up. He couldn't for the life of him figure out what was so strange about the men. Men in suits were a dime in dozen in downtown Houston, especially on a Tuesday morning. Hannah's was situated in the business district, squeezed in between two buildings, and business men and women always came in for either breakfast or lunch and even at five when they were heading home. So it wasn't the fact they were in suits that was setting his danger sense off, but he couldn't figure out what it was. In fact, he soon stopped caring. All he knew was he wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible.

He finally gave in to the feeling because the pain intensified until he started to see little flashes of lights before his eyes. He mumbled to Hannah that he was taking his break and fairly ran outside into the back alley, taking several deep breaths to calm down. His body wasn't completely satisfied, indeed it was as if it wanted him to go even farther. But at the very least, the throbbing lessened and the "FLEE NOW!" feeling turned to a slight nagging, "You should probably get out of here."
"What was that about?" he wiped his face, having just then realized he was sweating. "Man, I hope those guys don't stay long..."

"Hey! You!"
Tino turned to watch a girl run down the alley towards him. She was pretty oddly dressed. Her black hair was in two high ponytails on each side of her head, but the strangest part was the black frilly dress she wore along with white knee-high stockings and heels. She looked for all the world like someone roleplaying as a French maid...and last time he'd checked it was September and not yet Halloween.

"Uh...me?" What'd she want with him? He was sure he didn't know her.
The girl stopped in front of him and he could see she was about his age with dark eyes and skin like him. "Yeah, you. What...what's your name?" She was breathing heavily with the effort as if she'd been running for a long time.
"Uh...Tino."
"Tino? Cute. I'm Gracie."
"Okay...that's cool."
"Here's a hundred dollars," she handed over a crisp Benjamin.
Tino took it with wide eyes. "Um...what...? Is this some reality show?"
"Not enough?"
"No, it's-"
"Fine, here's three-hundred," Gracie handed him two more hundred dollar bills. "How about that? Greedy, aren't you?"

"What...why are you...?"
"I need you to do me a favor."
"I'm not into...um..."
"It's not what you think," she glanced around quickly. "Look, I don't have much time here. I need you to pretend you're my fiancé."
"Your fiancé?"
"Yes."
"Pretend?"
Gracie clucked her tongue impatiently. "Yes."
"And that's it? And I get to keep the money?"
"Yes, are you gonna do it or not?"
"Uh..." For three hundred dollars there was a lot Tino would do. "Sure."
"Good," she jerked him forward by his green apron and pressed her lip-gloss covered lips against his. Tino tasted strawberries and didn't move nor complain, mainly because she had him pressed against the wall but also because there were worse things he could be doing then kissing some random girl.

She pulled back momentarily. "Cute and a good kisser. I've hit the jackpot," she giggled and leaned into him again. Tino relaxed and pulled her closer, sliding his hands around her waist. He felt her smiling into the kiss as she wrapped her hands around his neck, trailing what seemed like a heart shape into the back of his neck with a long fingernail.
And then with absolutely no warning, he wanted to run frantically, screaming like a baby.
He broke away abruptly, staring at Gracie for two seconds before snapping his head back to the alley entrance. Not three seconds later did the two men who'd made him uncomfortable in the store come hurtling around the corner.

"There she is! Gracie O'gende!"
"You! Unhand her!" The two men stopped directly in front of them, towering over them both. "Let her go!"
Tino did as he was told quickly, and it was only dumb luck that he didn't take off without looking back. The headache was returning though.
"Who is this?" The question was aimed towards Gracie.

"Told you idiots," she still hadn't moved from his chest. "I have a fiancé already. His name is Tino, so call off Domino's goons because I am not marrying his son. I've got a man already."
The two men exchanged glances then the first one took another step towards Tino. "We'll see about that. You, kid, come with me."
"N-No, I..." Tino moved away but the man grabbed his arm.
"Aaaah *$&#!" He dropped Tino's arm and waved his hand back and forth. "MUTHA-! FRACK! AAAAGH!!!" He went off in a litany of curse words then. All they could do was watch. Tino knew he could've been halfway home by now but he couldn't move.
"What the hell happened to you? Are you kidding or what? He didn't do anything," the second man said.
"Just shut up and grab him!"
"Why would I grab him after your reaction? You crazy?"
"Because I've got earth in my veins, idiot!"
"Are you sayin'-"
"I'm sayin' GRAB HIM!"

The second man did so easily, placing one arm over Tino's neck in a choke hold and grabbing his wrists in the other hand behind his back.
"HEY! Let him go!" Gracie started to hit the second man with her purse. "Let him go! Don't hurt my fiancé, you low paid, drug addicted goon!"
The first man smacked her away, having recovered from whatever Tino had apparently done to him. Gracie shrieked and fell to the ground and Tino couldn't help but snarl at the situation, feeling not only self-preservation roil up in him, but a chivalric desire to protect Gracie.

And then the air around them grew colder. He could see puffs of air coming from their mouths anytime they took a breath. The first man fell to his knees as if attacked again. "Knock him out! Knock out him, Luke! He's doin' it! Use whatcha got!"
A sudden sharp fire ripped up Tino's back, and then his world went black.

¤

The first thing Tino realized was his head was still throbbing. He slowly swam his way out of the blackness and came to realize he was tied up. He carefully opened one eye and then the other and gaped at what he saw.
For one, he was in a cage.
Two, he was naked.
And three, he was chained up.

None of those things were on his list of the way he thought the day would progress when he woke up that morning. He could barely move, not by the heavy chains coiled around his wrists and strung from the ceiling. They weren't made of any metal he'd ever seen either and glowed softly on their own as if they had their own heartbeat. His feet were chained in a similar manner, leaving nothing on his body to anyone's imagination. He blushed at his own decency being so exposed as he glanced around. But he couldn't see a thing, just one desk lit by a candle. Besides that, everything past the glowing cage faded into black.

"Damn, three hundred dollars is only worth this if I get out alive..."
His headache flared and a soft chorus of murmuring voices came towards him. Instinct told Tino to shut his eyes and pretend he was still unconscious, which he was sure had been his previous state.

"It's confirmed, Snare," the first voice, which sounded like a soft music note, said. "He is one of us."
"An actual full Tagu," the second voice, gravelly and rough, sounded pleased. "Domino will pee his pants when he finds this out, Simco."
"Possibly and that would be strange," the first one, presumably Simco, warned. "Except he's not full."
"What?"

"Not full," Simco's voice got louder which meant he must have leaned closer. "He's not full Tagu blood. It's interesting, and a little disgusting. There's so much human mixed in him that he can't be full. I assume he's half."
"Half...what the hell?" Snare snarled. "Your kind isn't supposed to mix with ours."
"I know, someone clearly broke protocol with this one."
"Think he knows what he is?"
Simco's voice moved away, far away actually, as if he were leaving. "The tests I ran on him show that his power levels are extremely low, some even untapped. He only has two that he uses on a regular basis and even those are mild. If I were to make a guess, I'd say he's lived as a human for his entire life."

"How...pointless," Snare's voice started to fade too and Tino was unsure if he was falling into unconsciousness again or if they were leaving.
"I think he's awake," Simco said. "It appears to be getting colder."
"Stupid useless halfie," Snare hissed. "Doesn't even know what he's got."
"Your jealousy's showing. It's quite obvious.."
"Shut up, we've gotta go tell Domino."
"And what about our young half-human"
"Turn the heat up. He won't be able to move with that."
"Understood."
Tino had no chance to even register what they'd just said because intense hot air coiled over his body as suddenly as if he'd been thrown into a oven. His senses failed him as he lapsed into unconsciousness again.

¤
The next time voice that woke him was female, deep and sensual. "Is this the one, Gracie?" she asked.
"Yes, and I'm so very glad I picked him. Naked Tino's just as hot as clothed Tino. Rowr."
Gracie!

He struggled to open his eyes but realized late and like an idiot that someone had covered them while he'd been asleep.
"Wow, I'll pretend you responded to me as a grown-up, and not the annoying, bratty seventeen-year-old sister that you are."
"Says the girl who just got the ability to drink."
"At least I can vote."
"Pah. What's holding him?"
"Co chains," the sensual voice returned, making Tino shiver in spite of himself. And he never shivered because he never got cold, so he knew it was for another reason entirely. "Oh, are you awake, honey?" She sounded amused.

Tino found he could only nod his head.
"You don't seem to be cold at all..." Soft hands ran over his chest and Tino drew in deep breaths. He felt like he was in some sort of tortuous s&m video although there could be far worse things if this woman looked as good as she sounded. "I think he likes me, Gracie. Too bad for you."

"Dammit, Maggie, just cut him loose," Gracie snapped.
Maggie's deep laugh made something happen to Tino's lower regions that made him thoroughly wish it was covered. "Stay still, cutie," she whispered close to his ear and then the chains melted away from his wrists. The ankle ones were next and he quickly reached up to remove his bandanna. Standing in front of him was...Maggie. At first that's the only way he could describe her.

Her dark eyes were covered in thick eyeshadow, her full lips were entirely too perfect and her two breasts loomed out at him from the skin tight cat-suit she wore. She flipped back her long dark hair and placed a hand on her hip, even as she sheathed the katana back on her back. "How do you do, little brother-in-law to be?" she greeted.
Tino blinked twice at her, then turned. "G-Gracie...?"

"Tino!" She pulled him into a tight embrace as if they'd known each other for more than five minutes. He had to admit that even the small familiarity had him feeling better. Gracie was still dressed in a strange maid outfit. "We came to save you!" she continued. "Are you all right?"

"I'm pretty naked," he ventured.
"Yeah you are! Oops, I mean, yeah, here," she tossed him a trenchcoat with a disappointed look, though he covered himself gratefully.
"Thanks...where am I?"
"Not the time," Maggie nudged her sister. "Come on, if we don't get out of here now, we'll cause more of a war then we already will by saving this kid."
"He's mine," Gracie slipped her hand in Tino's. "And they had no right to kidnap him. It's not our war, it's theirs."
"He's yours?" Maggie raised an eyebrow.
"She did pay for me," Tino offered.

Maggie rolled her eyes and motioned them forward, covering her beautiful face with a mask, thus lowering the intensity and allowing Tino to think straight. "Come on, lovebirds, follow me," she said.
"You're not going to kill anybody, are you?" Gracie sounded cautious.
"Of course not, why would an assassin do that? We're going to walk right on out using my skills of diplomacy. You know, because the Yates and the O'gende's get along so well anyway."
"Maggie..."
"What's going on...?" Tino whispered.
"Later, Sexy," Gracie squeezed his hand. "And if you're good, I'll give you more than an explanation."
Tino gulped
"Calm the hormones down or you'll scare him away," Maggie warned as she opened the door a tiny bit. "Only three guards? Stay here." She took something from between her breasts and drew it down the hall. Within moments coughing was heard and loud swearing. Maggie darted off, disappearing through the door and smoke, though Tino could make out enough of her to see her going to town.

She jumped onto the first guard, wrapped her legs around his neck and brought him to the ground, making a quick motion that seemed to crack it. Then she kicked out a heeled boot to the next's guard's groin, leapt up and did an roundhouse kick to finish him off. To dodge the last one, she jumped sideways onto the wall, pulled out a long string and caught it around the last guard's neck, pulling it tightly. He fell to his knee's, choking until he passed out.

Maggie stood, licked the string and put it back around her waist. "Lovebirds, let's go!"
Tino didn't argue with the assassin and let Gracie pull him forward. They passed through another long hallway, heard guards coming from another way and Maggie nodded to Gracie.

Gracie hopped onto a window sill, scratched over it with her nails for a long time, then pointed at a certain spot. Maggie did the rest, kicking the rest of the glass through and then looking down to the grass below. "Only two stories. This is our best bet. And it's right near where I parked. Convenient, much," Maggie pulled a grappling hook from Gracie's purse. "Okay, shimmy down. Gracie first. Then Mr. Interestingly Endowed and then me."
Gracie went first and Tino could only blush.

"Interesting?" He was scared to ask.
Maggie only pointed. "Go."
Tino shimmied down, reached the ground and found he was in the garden of some sort of large, sprawling mansion type home. He didn't even know it had existed in Houston, if that's where he still was. He looked up and watched Maggie spread her hands to each side like a "T", then leap down the two stories, landing on her feet like it was nothing.
"Show off," Gracie grinned. Maggie retrieved the grappling hook, passed it to her sister, then ran through the bushes to where a beautiful violet Ferrari was parked unapologetically over two rose bushes.
Gracie squeezed his hand again. "Let's go, Tino, we'll take you home."
Tino ran after Maggie and hopped into the passenger side. "And then someone will explain what just happened, right?"he hoped.
"Meet us tomorrow," Gracie hopped onto his lap. Tino hadn't expected that but he buckled the seat belt over them anyway.

"Tomorrow?"
Maggie gave them a shake of her head, revved it and peeled out of the parking lot. Tino had never been in anything that even smelled that fast, let alone went from 0 to 160 in no time. He felt his head smack back against the headrest and Gracie's body press again him, but not in an uncomfortable way. He had no clue what was going on and everything was moving too fast for him to be frightened yet, but there could be worse situations...maybe. At least nobody had prodded him with anything; not while he was awake anyway.
"Tomorrow?" he asked again once he caught his wits. He looked at Maggie, but apparently she was done talking.

"Here," Gracie reached into her large leather purse and handed over a card. "Come here tomorrow and we'll explain some things. We'd take you home with us tonight," her lower lip wobbled, "but they probably already suspect us. If you go home now then they might think you got home on your own."
"How, um...can't they just kidnap me again?" Whoever "they" were.
"Not after daddy deals with them," Gracie giggled. "You're safe. Well, not with Maggie's driving right now."
Maggie hissed at her.
"And you COULD die tonight," Gracie continued. "But I hope not. Anyway, if you make it through the night, I'm sure you'll be fine."
"If? What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I don't know what they injected you with," Gracie gave him a curious stare. "Do you feel tired or different at all?"

"No."
"Weird. The Yates love experimenting on everybody." Gracie put her nose to his. "I hope you're okay."
"Yeah...me too." He sincerely hoped he was okay!
"Do you want me to sleep with you tonight?" she whispered.
"Yes," he answered immediately without thinking, then caught himself. "I mean, no, no, that's cool, I'll be fine."
"Hehe, the heart speaks before the mind," Gracie murmured but backed off.
"Um, do you want your money back?"
"Nope," Gracie grinned. "You look poor. I'll think of it as charity. That way you'll never have to eat dog food soup again."

"I'm not that-"
"Just meet us bright and early tomorrow morning at that address, okay?"
"I have to work."
"Nope, not anymore. Not tomorrow. Match arranged it."
"Match?"
Gracie waved a hand. "Tomorrow."
"Oh...okay. Agh, oh no! Dammit!"
Gracie watched him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh my God, what?"
"The banana," Tino sighed. "I never got the banana."
Gracie and Maggie exchanged glances and then Gracie kissed him softly. "Don't worry, boo. I'll make sure we get your banana."