I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.

Think fast, I tell myself, glancing from the tube to my hand fisted in Max's hair painfully then over to Jasper.

"I only invited one of them." I end up blurting, receiving a hurt whine from Max, which I ignore.

"Yeah, you fuckhead, you did!" Circe scoffs, smacking me on the head with the tube again, making me growl and try to take it from her but she glares at me and tugs it closer to her chest. "I'm your twin, you annoying little shit, you have to invite me before you invite my girlfriend."

"No," I point at Noelle. "I only have to invite you, if I want you to come with us. This was supposed to be a just-Noel experience, you little rotten mango."

Then a voice chirps out "What an insult" with a half-laugh half-cackle in his voice. "Reminds me of when Potato Queen tries to insult you by calling you a meanie, Daddy."

Hearing this honestly makes me think for a second if Circe smacked me one too many times on the head.

"For the last fucking time," Another deep voice growls out. "Stop calling me that, you shithead."

"Make me you giant trash panda looking ass." The same dumb voice replies.

I block out the voices as Max's arms wrap around my hips and he face plants into my waist, making me elbow him in the shoulder but have to block both the plastic tube from hitting me and the grapes that Noelle found from hitting me.

I didn't even know we had grapes -did she bring them?

What a chaotic, lesbian, mess these two are.

Suddenly, the redhead's weight is pulled off me, surprising me just enough that Cece is able to get closer to me and make me stumble back with three good whacks right on the top of my head.

Oh I'm definitely getting revenge later.

Stupid twin.

I hear Noelle squeak, curse loudly, then say, "Sup?" This is right about when the cascade of grapes stop.

She doesn't stop on her own, so I can only assume someone, possibly Max however unlikely that is, made her.

Cece gets the jump on me when my shoulder bumps the wall and she tries to trip me but I just grab onto the tube and balance myself -which makes her try to tackle me.

Obviously that doesn't work.

So I have no choice but to curse her out while trying to wrestle the tube away from her and pin her at the same time.

Without warning, she's pulled at the middle and slung over Jasper's shoulders, I'm not given any time to really comprehend the shift before he's slinging me over his other shoulder and taking the tube from Cece.

Narrowing my eyes at my twin as she flips me off, I flip her off right back, making her glare at me, about to chew me out- -us too busy insulting each other to question being thrown over the giant's shoulder- -when Jasper dips down again and drops us down on the kitchen floor.

I can only blink and think, what the fuck.

"Sorry." Jasper mumbles awkwardly, hands fiddling against his chest as his head tilts to the side.

This entices Max to whisper "He looks like a puppy." to Noelle, who nods in agreement.

"I just, um, don't like fighting? And you guys w-were a, were a surprise? So am I, I think? Sorry. I didn't mean to scare any of you."

He speaks, and I try to pay attention, but I just glare at Max. Jasper might act like a puppy who hasn't grown into his paws yet, but he's my puppy.

And just like Axel, Max loves to flirt and loves hugs more than any sane person should.

"Urm, Cas?"

Shit that's my name.

Looking up to the musician, I try to answer but my voice catches in the back of my throat at the adorably confused way he's staring down at me.

Thankfully, Noelle covers for me, "Aw!" She squeals. "You're adorable!" That I agree with. "You couldn't scare us." I agree with that too.

Jasper squeaks, he fucking squeaks and he turns red and it should be illegal how cute it is when he looks to me for help, like I'd somehow disagree, but I can't do anything but continue to stare at him.

Vivianna continues the conversation, one I tune out as soon as Noelle tugs on my arm, leaning into me. "Is he your mango love?"

"Mango love?" I question, nose wrinkling teasingly, I don't like mangoes that much and she knows this. "Are you high?"

"No!" The nerd slaps my bicep, brown eyes narrowing at me. "I forgot mango love isn't your thing...let me rephrase. Would you choose the dude over a strawberry milkshake?"

Pausing, I look back to Jasper who is nodding, him having a boyish grin, dimples showing off as he holds up two thumbs in reply to something his best friend said. "Right! Very scary, ten out of ten."

Without glancing back to Noelle I can tell she's grinning like a complete fool.

"Yeah," Saying this I sigh a little, not able to stop the small smile that slips onto my lips. "Every time."

I'm not sure what he did to earn it, probably just be himself, but Circe points a finger up at Jasper and calls him oblivious.

The musician glances at me once before sitting down a bit in front of me, not having much of the wall left to lean against, as he replies, "I'm, yeah, I-I'm a little slow with, with some stuff? Also c-can we please introduce ourselves? I don't uh, know all of you."

Circe goes to introduce them all but then Jasper grabs onto my hips and pulls me away from the wall, shifts back to sit next to Noelle where I was, prop his legs up and pull my back against his chest in one swift movement.

My eyes widen as he wraps his arms around my waist, rests his head on my shoulder before nuzzling his face against my cheek and exclaiming a short, happy, "Hi, Cas!"

Is this motherfucker trying to give me a stroke?

Holy fuck, does he not know how cute that is?

Glaring down to the floor, I will myself not to turn bright red or turn my head to kiss him as I grumble out a small, "Hey."

Circe stubbornly grabs the plastic tube from the counter and bops Jasper on the head with it, "You're going to kill my twin, you tall, cute, nice goofy little -where the fuck am I going with that?" That's what I'd like to know. "Ah, god, fuck, Cas!"

Frowning, I throw a hand up, clearly asking what I have to do with this.

"You find someone taller than you and he's like, also the most wholesome sounding guy ever? I literally can't even get mad at him for picking me up. Or taking my bopper. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Uh, many things?" I raise an eyebrow at her. "But we don't talk about that."

She goes to whack me on the forehead again, but Jasper covers the top of his face with his hand.

"No hitting," The musician pauses before nicely adding, "Please."

"What if I just like, poke him, once?" Noelle, always the one for challenges, asks. "Might be hard, might not be. How quick you answer depends on his treatment."

Remind me again why I'm her friend...

"Um, no thank you..." Jasper's hand lazily slips down to hang in front of my chin as he cuddles into my neck.

Staring down at it, I'm physically unable to stop myself from making a sharp popping sound before biting his wrist.

It's not hard enough to hurt him, I know that, but it's definitely embarrassing on my end and makes his body tense against mine.

"Ah," I whisper, awkwardly pulling away from his wrist before gently kissing it in apology. "Sorry."

Jasper hums lightly, hand dropping down to brush against my neck instead of in front of my face. A slight half-chuckle half-giggle sounds out from the back of his throat as he presses a kiss to the back of my head. "You didn't hurt me, and I know that wasn't on purpose, that was also kinda funny."

Because this is coming from the man who laughed during Juliet's death scene in one of the old movies, I completely believe him when he says this amuses him.

Which is quite relieving compared to the usually disgusted or angry responses I get when one of my tics affect someone else.

Thankfully, I don't think I've bitten anyone who I haven't known for a while, given they're the ones who I let close enough to me for me to be able to bite.

Besides, we've known each other for a few months now. Biting at this stage...it isn't too weird.

"It's the Tourette's." Noelle explains for me, catching the confused expressions most in the room have. "The biting tic isn't doesn't like, happen a lot? But yeah, would not recommend hanging anything in front of his face."

Max turns to me, giving me a weird look. "You don't really have Tourette's, do you?"

"Oh my god," I say sarcastically. "You've just cured me by being such a doubting prick that the universe heard it and reversed my genetics."

"Hush, eggs." The man, who I'm going to say right now is probably the weirdo's father because who else could have made her, turns to us, waving his entire arm in front of Jasper's dad's face. "Why was the slanderous ginger bitch hanging off the annoyed strawberry child?"

Oh god, he heard the conversation me and Noelle had.

Honestly, should I even care at this point?

Yeah, no.

"I mean, why pay for therapy when you can bully Cas into giving you hugs for free, am I right?" Max says, annoyingly wiggling his eyebrows at me, to which I sink further into Jasper's chest so I won't lash out and punch him. "So I was trying to get one. He gives really good hugs."

Which he genuinely only knows because of the one, one, time I hugged him when I helped Noelle move into her apartment last year.

He was drunk and crying. I was confused and didn't know what else to do when he hugged me first other than hug him back.

And I still regret that.

"Okay, well, moving on," Circe says, holding a hand out only to shake the air as Vivianna does the same on the other side of the room, their hands parallel. "I'm Circe Rex, I'm Cassie's twin."

"And I'm Noelle Monikol-Rae, I'm his new sister, thanks to Circe being in love with me." Love how she just throws that out there. "The ginger is my best friend, Max Mitch, feel free to call him Maxi-Pad if you want to."

Max and Noelle start to bicker but I'm pretty sure everyone collectively ignores them and turns back to Jasper as he makes a startled noise.

His hands grip my sides, making me jump in surprise as he turns me on my side to be able to face him.

"Castor?"

I'm pretty sure my jaw drops as my cheeks flush, breath stalling in my lungs as my brain short-circuits.

"Your name is Castor, right?"

Fuck, fuck, fuck when was the last time someone has even said my real name?

Even then, nobody has said my name like that.

I don't even like my name, it's weird to say, weird to hear, but fuck if I don't like him saying it. What the hell is wrong with me.

Why are my emotions so conflicted over something like this?

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with me?

"How the fuck do you know that's my name," I ask, hand snapping out to hold his jaw as I lean into him with a glare. "And why did you say it?"

"W-well um," Jasper gulps, eyes glancing above my head. "Your siblings' names are, um, Atlas, Selene, Circe and Eris...so um, they're all gods. So um, you uh, you have to be one too?"

Something close to a growl leaves my mouth but I'm sure my glare and that noise completely contradict my flush and the startled way my heart is pounding in my chest. "I'm not a god."

Jasper pouts, making my glare double but annoyingly, that doesn't seem to affect him.

Stupid smart musician.

"Well, now that we have his awkward first name out of the way because hell, the dude even likes his stupid middle name more," Noel snorts, tossing a grape at Jasper's grumpy father -who looks utterly surprised as the fruit bounces off his forehead and is expertly caught in the grown weirdo's mouth. "Who are you people? We don't know you either."

I don't care about how we know them or not, literally I don't at all.

What I care about right now is being able to kiss Jasper.

Or going on a run to get this sudden pent up energy in me out.

Stupid dimples.

Stupid pout.

"Well, I'm Vivianna's- -that one right there- -father," Ding, ding, ding, guess which dumb fucker was right about the weird ones? Me. "And this is Bar Red, just call him Red, he's little J's grumpy dad and my daddy. Clear distinction. Anyways, I'm Augustine but you can call me Gus, like the mouse from Cinderella? That fellow."

"I'm not actually that motherfucker's daddy," Jasper's 'papa' grumbles out, arms crossed. "But I am Jazz's father. I haven't decided if it was nice to meet you yet or not. Besides you, Cas, you're good."

What did I even do that made me 'good'?

Like...I don't even know the guy.

"And I'm," Viv waves in jazz hands, hazel eyes twinkling. "Vivianna. Though, just call me Viv 'cause otherwise I can and will get ten times more annoying. Now to you, bestie." She points to Jazz.

Jasper seems to blank as she points to him, and hides his clearly flushed face against my neck -making a shiver go down my spine at how warm he feels.

"H-hi!" He moves one hand from my middle to wave, making me scoot back into him at the movement, leaving me cold. "I'm Jazz, like the, um, the music?"

Is that seriously how he introduces himself?

Noelle looks up at Bar, grinning while asking, "Did you really name him that?"

The older man scowls, glaring at her while snapping out "The fuck you think?"

But sadly for him, growing up around my dad and Uncle Kace taught us that snarls and glares like this don't mean anything but: "You're annoying" or "I love you."

Seeming to prove my point Circe grins just at him, not bothered at all. "I think you definitely did."

"That's not his actual name," Vivianna says, sounding all too amused. "No one calls him his actual name, though. Just Jazz, 'cause he has this... thing about sound. Music career and all that."

"Oh, the synesthesia." Noelle says this like it's nothing, which is reasonable for her but when it comes to Jasper I know he's more sensitive.

Circe doesn't even pause, just looks over to the musician and asks, "You have synesthesia?"

Jasper tenses against him, arms flexing on my waist and I can feel his jaw clench against my neck.

Please don't tell me he's panicking? Did he not make the connection that the sister's girlfriend that has synesthesia is Noelle yet? Fuck me.

"Jasper I, I told Noelle that you have synesthesia because she has it too. That's why I invited her in the first place," I wince to myself, eyes closing instead of staring at the ground in half-panic. "Because you said that you never met anyone else with it and neither has she, I thought it'd be nice to be able to talk about-" I squeak. "-it with someone who actually understands, you know? It's a lot better than just telling me about it, since I can only imagine and even then, I'm not very useful when it comes to helping with it."

Turning my head over to him, I can't help but to blink, surprised at the...adoration in his minty eyes.

"Is that...is this okay?" Asking, I'm fully prepared for it not to be and my anxiety kicks in.

But that all just vanishes as Jasper nods, one hand coming up to cup my cheek as his other tightens on my waist.

"Thank you."

With that he leans in and kisses me gently, I sigh out and press more into him in order to properly kiss him back.

"That was adorable!" Circe cheers, making me sheepishly pull away and hide against his chest to avoid her pinching my cheeks like the dork likes to do.

"Now that we have that out of the way," Noelle takes the plastic tube from her girlfriend and smacks Max on top of the head with it, making him yelp. "Tell me what color that was for you. To me, it was lime."

She is so weird.

And me saying that has nothing to do with the colors.

Slowly, we all migrate from the living room, Noelle running around the dorm and asking Jasper a bunch of questions until he starts to ask her ones too, not even about colors but how it feels and the emotions part of it.

It's kind of adorable, it's like two little kids who thought they were the only ones who could speak a secret language start to talk to each other.

"Hey, kid," I turn at the sound of Bar's voice, him leaning against the hallway wall. I raise an eyebrow, glancing curiously at Vivianna's dad who peeks creepily over his shoulder like a hippopotamus -something I doubt Jasper's dad knows he's doing. "Thanks for doing this, like fuck, I know it might not seem like it but this typa' thing means a lot to Jazz. May I?"

Though it does take me a moment to realize he's asking for a hug, eventually I nod and awkwardly open my arms.

Bar steps up and squeezes me, making me almost laugh -he gives the same bone-crushing hugs my dad does.

Patting him on the back before pulling away I nod up at him, it being clear where Jasper got his height from.

"Your dad hug is spot on." I say.

He scoffs, rolling his eyes as he gruffs out "Can't fucking image why." but I can clearly tell he's amused.

"Wait, wait," I hear my best friend giggle as she comes into a screeching halt in front of me from where she ran over from our squeaky bathroom cabinet. "Cas, noise on cue-"

"Oh come on Noel," I groan. "This is why I have the tic in the first place."

"Nonsense," She bops me with the tube. "On cue!"

Rolling my eyes, I take a small breath before letting out a deep growl- -this time on purpose- -when she points two finger guns at me.

Jasper freezes at the sound, eyes on me but I doubt I'm exactly what he's seeing at the moment.

Whatever it is makes his cheeks turn red.

Frowning I glance between him and the now cackling Noelle. "Does it look that weird?"

He doesn't know how to answer, that's clear by his flimsy half-shrug and wide minty eyes.

Sighing, I spare a glare on Noel, "You broke him."

"You broke him." She retaliates.

"I can break him too." Circe adds in, making me doubt that she actually knows what we're talking about.

Max snickers while saying, "I bet I can too."

I'm pretty sure both me and Jasper's dad snarl at the same time but I'm the one who actually continues the threat. "Max remember the-" I growl twice in a row. "-rules I gave you for being around Nemesis?"

Paling, the redhead nods, eyes instantly shooting the ground.

No talking to, looking at, touching or making eye contact.

Nemesis isn't big on physical contact either but she's a lot closer to Noelle and Circe, so they visit her more -making me create these rules about a year ago. I like to say the punishment is left up to the imagination and my fists and apparently, that's enough for him to take it seriously.

"Great." I smirk in cruel fashion, arms crossing. "Same thing applies to Jasper."

"Buzzkill." He says, obviously not happy about this.

Jasper tugs on my arm, turning me towards him. I'm not sure I'm even aware of it but the smirk leaves in place for a smaller smile and the hard glare I definitely had in my eye when looking at Max completely vanishes.

After a few moments he still hasn't said anything so I say, "Yeah?"