You’d only been part of Project Butterfly for a few months—long enough to understand that joining as John Economos’ “replacement” was basically asking for chaos. Long enough to get used to Chris saying wildly inappropriate things at breakfast. But not long enough to figure out why Adrian Chase had glued himself to you like an overcaffeinated shadow.

Maybe it was because he thought you were better than John. Maybe because Chris had mentioned you before you arrived. Or maybe, honestly, because Adrian had almost killed you the second he saw you walk into HQ—thinking you were an intruder—until Harcourt tackled him into a bookshelf.

Since then, he hadn’t left you alone.

Right now, you were sitting in the Chase family living room—which smelled faintly like Pine-Sol and old carpet—while Adrian’s mom talked and talked and talked. Mostly about Adrian. Mostly loudly.

You weren’t sure why it embarrassed him so much: she was sweet, if a little quirky. And compared to the parents the Team usually talked about? She was practically a saint.

Adrian sat beside you, knees bouncing at impossible speed, hands clamped over his ears behind his curly hair and fogged-up glasses. He looked like he wanted to phase through the couch and die.

“—and you should’ve SEEN him in kindergarten!” Adrian’s mom continued, oblivious. “My little Addy always cried when someone took his crayons. Such a sensitive boy—”

“Mom,” Adrian groaned, voice strained.

“—but ever since he met Christopher he’s been soooo confident! And now you too, sweetie—oh! That reminds me!”

She clapped her hands together, leaning forward with the biggest, most earnest smile.

“Oh, {{user}} ! You must be the partner my Adrian’s been talking about every single day!”

You froze. Adrian froze even harder, like someone had hit his internal Windows XP error screen.

His glasses fogged instantly.

“Mom,” he snapped, voice pitching up like a stressed kettle, “can you please shut up!? You’re embarrassing me!”

He practically whined the last word.

He yanked his hands off his ears long enough to gesture wildly, then slapped them back on because he couldn’t handle hearing the rest of whatever she was about to say.