Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It takes an embarrassingly long amount of time for Ariadne to realize Stanley Snyder has moved in with her family.

Granted, he already spends a lot of time at their place, holed up with Xeno in his room or his makeshift lab in the garage. Ari does what she can to avoid both of them, her brother because he’s even more annoying than usual these days (if only she had known that the one thing worse than her teen genius of a brother stressing out over his master’s thesis would be him stressing out over his dissertation), and Stanley because, well, he’s so intimidating it’s a bit creepy. Not that she would ever admit that to him.

She and Stanley have always shared the same bus stop to get to school, so it’s not weird seeing him there. She just didn’t realize that he was sneaking out the back door of her own home to get there each morning.

Dinner most nights is usually just her and her parents anyway. Ever since Xeno was old enough to drive himself to campus, he often spends late nights at the university, and when he doesn’t, he normally gets up to some vaguely illegal hijinks with Stanley. So it makes sense she doesn’t see the two of them at family dinner. 

It’s only when she runs into Stanley in the upstairs hallway in the dead of night, on a school night nonetheless, that she starts to get suspicious. She had just meant to get some painkillers—track practice that day had been so brutal that her aching limbs woke her up in the middle of the night—when she stumbles upon Stanley leaving the bathroom she shares with her brother, wrapped in a towel, hair wet. 

The first thing she wants to ask him is, “Why are you in my house?” shortly followed by a, “and why are you entering my brother’s room dripping wet and scantily clad?” but he disappears before a single word can leave her mouth. 

The next morning, he appears at the bus stop seemingly out of thin air, with no indication that he had come from the same home that she did. She’s about to question why he had slept over on a school night, something that to her knowledge he’d never done before, when she notices he has headphones in and is clearly not in the mood for a conversation. 

There are only a few occasions in which their mother demands Xeno join them for dinner, and one of them happens to be his birthday. These days, he’s normally able to pull the “I’m busy with my dissertation” card to get out of family events, but this time, their mother informs him weeks ahead of time that he would be required to attend his own birthday dinner. 

“It’s not every day your son turns eighteen,” she argues, “plus, it falls on a Saturday this year, so you can’t tell me you have any lab work or advisor meetings.” 

And that’s that.

On the day itself, there’s an additional guest to what is usually just a family event. “Glad you could make it as well, Stanley!” her father says, as Xeno and Stanley enter the dining room together. 

“Xeno insisted that if he had to go to his own birthday dinner, then I had to come along as well,” Stanley explains with a shrug, taking a seat next to Xeno. 

“It is nice to see you at dinner for once,” her mother says with a wink, setting down the main dish on the table. “I admit I expected to see you at more meals after you moved in with our family.” 

Ari spits out her water at this. 

“After... after what? ” she asks, reaching for a napkin and managing to spill her glass as she tries to clean up the mess she already made. Four sets of eyes stare at her in bewilderment, and she gets the feeling they all know something she doesn’t. 

“Uh, I’m going to... go get a dish towel so I can clean this up properly,” she finally says, unable to face this situation any longer. 

“Didn’t you say you were going to tell her?” she can hear her father hiss at her mother from the other room. 

“I thought you said you were going to tell her,” her mother replies, her attempt at whispering carrying through to the kitchen. 

“Tell me what?” she asks before she can stop herself, returning to the dining room. 

“Well,” her mother begins slowly, gaze moving back and forth between her and Stanley. “Stanley will be staying with us for the rest of the school year. There are some... personal circumstances in his life, and your father and I agreed when Xeno asked if he could stay here.”

Ari doesn’t have to think too hard about what these circumstances may be. There have always been rumors about Stanley’s father, and after Stanley showed up to school about a month ago with a black eye and a broken nose, those rumors have only increased.

“I can’t believe neither of you told her,” Xeno grumbles at his parents. 

“Well, you didn’t tell me either. I can’t believe you people don’t tell me things and then are surprised when I don’t know them.” She can feel the atmosphere getting more and more tense, something she’d prefer to avoid on her brother’s birthday, and especially when the person they’re all talking about is sitting right there in the room with them. She takes a hesitant glance at Stanley, hoping that she hasn’t ruined one of the few dinners her parents get with Xeno. 

He can only snort at the sheepish gaze she gives him. “Honestly, I’m just astounded it took an entire month for you to figure it out.” 

Chapter Text

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
date: Oct 13, 5756, 6:18 PM CST
subject: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Hello Mom, Dad, and Ariadne,

I have been informed the three of you have been revived recently. It’s fortunate that you were all in the same general vicinity when petrified, as that makes the reunification process after revival significantly easier. I hope all is well back in Houston. I myself have ended up in Japan, working on groundbreaking research with some truly elegant technology. That’s about all I can tell you, given this project is highly classified. No doubt you can tell from all the ridiculous moon mission posters plastered everywhere, but Stan has also been revived and is doing well. I am very busy with my work, but I can be reached via this email if you need to contact me.

- Xeno
Science is Elegant!

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 14, 5756, 10:31 AM CST
subject: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Hey Xeno.

This whole situation is a lot to take in. It’s almost completely disorienting, but then I see stuff on the internet about how you’ve already cooked up a rocket for a moon mission, and that’s about the only thing convincing me this is all real.

You know Mom. She looks at your endless list of achievements and wants to leave you to your devices so the list can keep growing. Dad’s too awkward and emotionally stunted to be forward about this. But I’m not. I think you should come visit us back in Texas. I know we’re on the other side of the world, but Mom and Dad miss you a lot, even if they don’t want to admit it to you. 

The government was nice enough to give us a place to stay for the next few months, but other than that, we have nothing but the clothes on our backs. The government gave us those too. It’s not like we have the means to come visit you.

I know you get withdrawal symptoms whenever you spend too much time away from a laboratory, but our parents miss you. Maybe you can take a break from making rocket engines or whatever it is you’re doing to reinvent passenger planes so you can fly out here. 

Ari

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 14, 5756, 6:03 PM CST
subject: Re: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Hello again Ariadne,

It really is unfortunate, but the transportation infrastructure simply isn’t what it used to be. It would take a minimum of one week of travel to get to Houston, and that’s only one way. However, you’ll be glad to hear that many of my colleagues in the commercial aerospace sector have already been revived for a few years now, and are working day and night to restore the world of commercial aviation. Both Tokyo and Houston used to be airline hubs, and I suspect that they will be among the first locations to support commercial air travel.

It will be much more feasible for our family to reunite in person once commercial aviation is back up and running, which will likely happen within the next two years. 

Give Mom and Dad my best, 

- Xeno
Science is Elegant!

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 14, 5756, 8:40 PM CST
subject: Re: Re: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Hey Xenon!! All these millenia, and you’re still annoying as ever!!! You figured out a caveman rocket engine, but can’t figure out how to come visit your own family? Whatever. I told our parents that you penned in a “maybe in two years or so” for a family reunion. After they questioned if it would really take that long to reinvent airplanes, this then developed into a conversation on how different rocket and airplane engines could possibly be in the first place.

I don’t care if your research is classified, some day I’ll wriggle it out of you, and it better be something insane like a time machine or a colony on the moon, if it’s important enough for you to ignore your loving family. 

Hey, speaking of family! Your own husband is a military pilot, is he not? So screw commercial aviation, just have him fly you out or something!

Hoping you evaporate into a noble gas,

Ari

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 15, 5756, 2:36 AM CST
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Ariadne, 

You know how much I dislike that nickname. That hasn’t changed in the last 3700 years. I also dislike the implication that rocket and airplane engines are the same in any capacity. The only similarities they share is the end result of propulsion of some kind of aircraft. I have a section on this exact topic in my dissertation. Even though I have already restored it into a present-day digital format, I won’t bother attaching it because I know you would never bother reading it.

Yes, Stan is a military pilot, but I am not going to ask him to appropriate an aircraft from a foreign military for this purpose.

Also, humans are primarily composed of water and carbon, and can’t exactly evaporate into noble gases.

Hoping you recall basic high school chemistry soon,

- Xeno
Science is Elegant!

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 15, 5756, 3:40 PM CST
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Oh! So now you start caring about the rules. Funny how that works. Also funny how you have a gaggle of fangirls and an entire internet forum dedicated to you, and none of them know about the time you almost blew up Stanley’s backyard shed. Or the nerve agent incident. Or the time that you, Stanley, and Kỳ all got arrested for vandalism and trespassing. 

What’s with this sudden regard for the law? Who are you, and what have you done with my brother? Blink three times if you’re under duress. 

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 15, 5756, 3:41 PM CST
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Wait, you restored your dissertation? As in, recalled each word and typed it all up on a dinky stone world computer? Wasn’t it 300 pages long? How on earth did you remember it all? 

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 15, 5756, 5:53 PM CST
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Greetings After 3700 Years!

Ariadne, 

What do you mean, ‘How on earth did you remember it all?’ I wrote it. Of course I remember it. The only tricky part was re-running the experimental portions to gather supporting data. 

Also, in case you didn’t know, blackmailing a person only works if they care about the information going public. 

- Xeno
Science is Elegant!

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 15, 5756, 11:21 PM CST
subject: Please Stop Emailing Stan

Ariadne,

I don’t know how you got his contact info, but please stop emailing Stan about stealing an airplane to fly me out to Houston.

- Xeno
Science is Elegant!

from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
date: Oct 16, 5756, 12:41 PM CST
subject: Re: Please Stop Emailing Stan

So I’m not allowed to take some initiative? Never thought I’d see the day where you and him would become such goody two-shoes. It’s funny that you think I’ll stop here. I might have to do something drastic to get you to come visit. 

Ari