I thought I could refrain from posting this until after I finished another story, but yeah, that didn't happen, so enjoy!

Chapter Quote:

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Brian

"Brian, you're not seriously considering walking home in this weather," Felicity Vickers demanded, crossing her arms and staring me down with her pale green eyes. She was the barkeeper's daughter, the girl I'd been in love with since before I could remember. However, she didn't know that. Felicity was still stubborn too, if not even more so than when she was a kid.

"My house is a ten-minute walk away. And it's just snow. Besides, I have Mobius with me," I said, glancing down at my German Shepherd who stared up at me, his tongue lolling out the side.

"It's pitch black and icy, and if you get yourself injured, or worse killed, I'll kill you." She ran a hand through her blonde hair while I contemplated pointing out the contradiction in her sentence. I decided against it, though. "Can you not just wait another ten minutes for me to get off work?"

I sighed. "I've been here since seven-thirty this morning. It's now nine at night. What are ten more minutes?"

"It's no one's fault but your own that you've been here longer than your shift."

"What? Everyone loves Mobius, and I enjoyed all the conversations."

"You also enjoyed all the free drinks."

"I will neither confirm nor deny that."

"It's fine. You got us a ton of tips. Just wait here, and try not to start any more conversations." Felicity smirked at me before disappearing amongst the crowd. I sat in a corner to avoid drawing attention to myself, and luckily, it worked. My coworker came over, all wrapped in her coat and scarf, and asked, "You ready?"

"Ready," I confirmed, getting up. We walked out of the bar and got into her truck. I was glad Felicity didn't mind Mobius getting in the backseat considering he definitely needed a nail trim and was going through a major shedding phase. But like everyone else, she adored him.

"So when is your truck going to be fixed?" Felicity inquired.

"The mechanic said by Monday, but two days ago he said it'd be ready today. So who knows," I complained. "Thanks for the lift."

"Yeah, of course. What are you doing tonight?"

"Dad's on a business trip, so I'm probably going to invite all my closest friends and throw a massive party."

"Seriously?" Felicity raised her eyebrows at me.

I snorted. "No. I'm going to throw on some sweatpants, work out, eat like crap, and binge-watch Netflix."

"I don't know about working out, but if you want someone to join in on the eating like crap and binge-watching Netflix, I'm down."

"Yeah, you're always welcome to join in," I told her, secretly pleased that she'd asked to come over rather than me asking her. I always worried I was bugging her by constantly inviting her over even though we were best friends. I knew she didn't like clingy, and I wanted to avoid being like that if I ever had a chance with her.

"Cool. I need to run home and change into clothes that don't stink of the pub. In fact, I'm probably going to shower. I can smell beer in my hair," Felicity remarked, taking a whiff of her ponytail and immediately scrunching up her face in disgust. "I'll be over in like... an hour, hour and a half?"

"I'll see you then," I said as she pulled up to my house. Thanking her for the ride once more, I hopped out of her truck and bounded up the front steps with Mobius at my heels. Once inside, I called my dad to see how he was doing. Other than sounding kind of tired from a long workday, he seemed okay.

While I waited for Felicity to return to my house, I ran a few miles on the treadmill. Mobius laid on his bed, falling asleep within minutes. Afterward, I showered so I would stink of sweat later on, and then changed into sweatpants.

Right as my feet hit the floor, the doorbell rang. Mobius barked until I opened it, revealing my best friend. My dog bounded up to Felicity, greeting her as if he hadn't seen her in years. She got down on the floor with him and scratched his belly.

"I took the liberty of picking up McDonald's on the way here. I figured you meant something fast food when you said you were going to eat like crap," Felicity mused.

"You know me so well," I laughed taking the bag out of her hand. The two of us walked into my living room, collapsing onto the couch and turning on the TV. I put it on the military channel because it was talking about the Usean Continental War. I was obsessed with it, especially since I had such close ties with it.

"Do you ever tire of watching this stuff?" Felicity asked, her voice muffled from all the fries she'd shoved in her mouth.

"No. I'm not going to tire until I know everything about it. If they would talk about Mobius One more often, that'd be great."

"They don't know much about Mobius One though. Speaking of, did they ever respond to your letter?"

"No," I said, slightly annoyed. "It doesn't surprise me. It's been over a year. For all I know, I've been put on a list saying I'm a potential terrorist for trying to get in touch with them."

"If you had been, you wouldn't have been able to travel on planes with your dad. Well, actually, considering your dad's status, you probably still could."

"Do you think Mobius One ever got the letter?" I queried, munching thoughtfully on a chicken nugget. "I mean, if they received it, could the government at least tell me that they did so I'm not wondering about it until I die?"

"Would you honestly wonder about it until you died?" Felicity countered, raising her eyebrows dubiously at me.

"Without a doubt."

"You have problems."

"Yet you still hang out with me."

"We've grown up with each other, and you're my best friend. Besides, I can't ever leave you. You know too much about me."

"Hey, it goes both ways," I pointed out. It was true, though. I'd grown up with Felicity. We'd always been friendly before the war, but we became incredibly close during the war and stayed close after it. We'd been through a lot together, and despite our constant sarcasm to each other, we would defend each other no matter what.

Felicity was the girl of my dreams. Always had been. I'd accepted long ago that we would only ever be friends, but I had a feeling there would forever be some part of me that loved her in that way, as something more than a friend.

I was broken out of my thoughts by a fry hitting me in the head and Felicity going, "Earth to Brian!"

"What?" I replied.

"I've been asking you the same question about five times, and every time you ignore me."

"Oh, sorry. I zoned out. What was the question?"

"I was asking if you'd heard back from the University of North Point yet. It's the only one you're waiting to hear back from, right?"

"Yeah, and of course it's the only one I genuinely want to get into. They have the best investigative journalism classes in the country."

"Maybe something will come soon. All right, I don't know about you, but I'm fading and fading fast. You're welcome to stay up, but I'm going to sleep. Night Brian."

"Night Felicity."

I woke up at seven in the morning to Mobius licking my face. As much as I wanted to stay asleep, I knew my dog needed to go out desperately. With a small groan, I walked to the backyard via the sunroom. I stood on the patio while Mobius rolled around in the snow for a few minutes before bounding off into some shrubs to do his business. When he finished, he emerged with one of his balls in his mouth. He dropped it at my feet before staring at me expectantly.

"How can you have this much energy in the morning?" I chuckled, picking it up and chucking it as hard as I could. Mobius bolted off after it. When he returned it, I tossed it again, but this time not as far so he could jump in the air and catch it. He loved doing that.

I'd tossed it for the tenth time, but instead of going after it, he turned his head to stare at something unseen around the corner of the house. I couldn't see what he was looking at, but I could hear it, and there were distinct footsteps. Mobius ran to approach them, causing me to lose sight of him. Of course, I went after him to make sure he wasn't going into attack mode. Not that he would attack unprovoked, but you never know.

Half of me was expecting it to be Felicity since she was here; the other half of me was hoping it would be my dad returning early from his business trip. But no part of me thought there would be an unfamiliar woman strolling up the path, especially in this cold and crappy weather.

She was kneeling on the ground, Mobius sitting in front of her and thoroughly enjoying the attention he was receiving.

"Hi there," the woman greeted, her blue eyes meeting mine. "I heard noises in the back and came to see who it was since no one answered when I rang the doorbell. Does a Brian Galbraith live here?"

"Yes, ma'am. Who's asking?" I queried. My dad had taught me early on always to be careful of who came to the house, considering who he used to be. While the girl seemed nice enough, one never knew. However, Mobius seemed to trust her, and he was pretty good at judging people. I had a saying that if my dog didn't like you, then I didn't like you either. Still, I wanted to double-check.

She stood up. "My name is Bryn Holloway. A year ago, you sent a letter to Mobius One. I'm here on behalf of that."

"Mobius One sent you?!" I exclaimed, not quite believing what I was hearing.

Bryn smiled. "I am Mobius One."

Hope you enjoyed! This is the start of a great story, and I'm excited to be writing this! The things I have planned for these characters :D