Title: Come together
AN: This is a drabble of various different moments. I'm not too good at writing these things so please bear with me =x
"Shoot me! Shoot me! Shoot me!" A crying Miranda shouted to the heavens as she walked the ever-familiar train tracks outside the city she constantly failed. She ducked her head as more tears poured down the sides of her flushing cheeks.
Here the distraught woman thought she had a chance at holding onto her job. However after today she knew those had been false hopes. This time, like every other, she'd worked for less than a week then immediately after the sixth day she was let go. The pink slip, a new direction, cutting loses, termination, she'd heard it all. Her manager this time had tried to be creative; sending a basket of fruit with a letter of release. While the fruit may have soothed the soul of another employee Miranda found herself tip toeing the ideas of suicide like she did the train tracks. Miranda wailed once more and buried her face in her hands. Useless that's all she was!
"Come back here! Hey old lady!!! Lady!!" A boy called from his place atop the train loading dock. He'd been standing there for a while now watching Miranda, who had been so lost in her own sorrows she hadn't noticed she'd walked the entirety of the cities train tracks four times over.
"Old??" Miranda sobbed, lifting her flushed face towards the child. Her expression must have looked horrendous, because the moment she turned to face the boy he flinched. Miranda sobbed more. Now even her appearance created burden upon others! Was there nothing she could do without hindering another?! "I'm sorry!!" she wailed as she launched herself at the feet of the ten-year-old boy. "I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to damage your field of vision with my ugly appearance!!" The German woman paused, she recognized the boy. He was William, the train conductor's son. She gasped with realization." I was getting in the way of your father with my bothersome walking!! I'm so sorry!! I'll go kill myself right now!!" She cried, whipping around to disappear and off herself.
"Flattop won't care if you've been on his tracks!" the dirty boy yelled, grabbing a hold onto the frantic woman's fleeting shawl. Miranda turned back, confused and still crying.
He didn't seem angry with her. Miranda remained silent, wondering what else she could have possibly done. Did she owe him money? She owed a lot of people money. In fact she owed a lot of people a lot of things. She was after all a useless leech of a woman.
"-Come grooving." Miranda stared back at William. "I'm sorry?" Her automatic response. William groaned. "There's someone you need to meet!" Miranda gaped at the youth, why would someone try to help her? Maybe this was an extension of her never-ending failures. "Someone? What are they like?"
"Up ahead." The boy was blatantly ignoring her questions, but Miranda found herself following nevertheless.
Slowly she let herself be lead through the town.
He stopped his march at the doors of one of the many buildings she'd previously worked at and been fired from. Miranda hung her head in shame. William must be bringing her to the town sheriff to take her to jail. Though she hadn't done anything wrong there must be a law about being fired from as many places as she had.
"Got any change on you?" William asked.
"Ju-Ju-Just what are you intending me to do William?" Miranda clenched the neck of her shirt. The boy grinned at her fear.
"Eyeballs! It's a game this visiting traveler invented. He said if you can beat him he'll change your luck!" Miranda's doubt thinned.
He actually wanted to help her. William took her hand again and led her into the bar inside. The restaurant was bustling with energy. Townspeople were gathered around a single table in the building. Miranda found herself no longer being guided and walking over to the table on her own accord. She nudged her way through the crowd and emerged at the center of the circle where a single man sat alone in the center of attention. He had long curly black hair, an unshaved face, thick cracked glasses, and dirty clothes. His appearance was similar to hers. They both looked like they'd been dragged through the dirt in failures. However unlike Miranda this man was not weighed down with his missteps. He looked up at her as she stared, then jumped from his seat and pointed.
"One holy roller!" he called out, scaring Miranda into a frenzy of flails and squeals. "AHHH!!! I'M SORRRY!!" she wailed and covered her head. The man laughed. "No ma'am, you see. I have a special skill of being able to see a persons luck, and lady yours ain't pretty." The crowd laughed at the truth behind his statement. "And one thing I can tell you, is that your good fortune is hidden in your hair."
"…Hair?" Miranda touched the top of her head in confusion. Her fingers delicately traced the section of her scalp where she had pulled her unruly locks into a tight bun. "Wha-?" she looked back to the man, who was twirling the pearl decorated band she'd been using to hold her hair up. "How?"
"Down in the east you pick up a few tricks." He laughed. Have a seat and we'll start turning your luck around. That is if you can win." He placed the band in the center of the table and took his seat. "This will be the collateral to-"
"To-?"
His smile shadowed over. "To keep the game fair. Everyone offers up a collateral. If I win the game of eyeballs, I get the item. If you win, I'll change your luck."
Knees were one of Miranda's weaker points. Ask any one of her previous bosses they'd argue that fact till they were out of breath. To say the least they buckled instantly under the idea of her luck finally being turned around.
"Got to be able to get in the chair lady." He laughed. Miranda stumbled back up and sat promptly in the chair with a look of determination. "I want to play this game please." The man laughed. "The rules are very simple. You guess my eye color, then spell it out." Miranda looked confused. He sighed. "So if you think they're brown, then you need to spell out brown with the cards. To do this, you count the place of the letter in the alphabet, and then accumulate the points with the cards to represent each letter. Sounds simple right?" The German woman nodded. "Well it is if you can get the right cards. This is where it's kind of like old maid. We'll trade cards back and forth until the deck goes dry, or until you get the single joker card in the whole deck. After that, the round's over." Miranda breathed heavily. "Ready to start?" She looked up to the newcomer. "Y-yes." She replied meekly. The man distributed the cards, "Rules are that you draw first." She gulped and reached over with a shaking hand to his row of cards, carefully hovering each one. This one has to be it! My luck will never change if I don't win this game! Miranda closed her eyes then stole a card from him. Hush fell over the crowd as their curiosity claimed the best of them.
…A joker. She'd lost the game at the first hand.
He just fell over with laughter. He didn't even need to cheat her out of her money! She didn't need his help to lose!
"Do you want to try again?" he choked out between fits of laughter.
"What else could I offer up as collateral?" Miranda stammered feeling the weight of her losses grow.
He looked her up and down. There was little the woman could offer up fairly without handing over her pride in front of the crowd of people in the restaurant.
"Please, let me try again!" she begged, flinging her arms across the table and grabbing the nameless man's shirt with passion. He held his hands up and stared off. "Well- if you really want to try again…"
"Shoot me! Shoot me! Shoot me!" Miranda cried out for the second time today collapsing onto the table between her and the magical man.
He laughed from behind his growing pile of Miranda's possessions while the unlucky woman cried. He'd all but stripped her down to her skivvies. If not for the overwhelming presence of the town's men, he would have had no qualms in doing so. He sighed.
"-wear right?" Miranda lifted her head from the puddle of tears she'd created. "H-huh?" She couldn't tell his exact expression behind those thick glasses and the wall of tears coating her eyes. The man put a hand over his face and sighed. "You still have clothes to wear right?" He didn't know why he felt the need to comfort a woman he'd literally just met and robbed. Her tears bothered him though.
"No- I'm sorry, I should have been a better player at this game." Miranda whimpered, hanging her head again. "You were so kind as to teach me this game, and I went and ruined it." She clenched her fists tightly to her black dress, "I'm so sorry!" She bowed her head.
Shoeshine, bubble gum, hairnets, and seashells; these were all things Tyki won during their game. The woman who sat crying in front of him, her dignity falling apart at its seams as the townsfolk laughed at her. This woman's sorrow didn't set well with him. It wasn't something he could simply forget like the faces of all the exorcists he'd killed. A woman whose name he'd already misplaced had more of an impact on his heart than that of the man who's life he'd ended the other night. Tyki sighed and fell back in his chair. As the Noah of Pleasure, he really should have been finding more entertainment in this woman's despair. Her tears left an unpleasant feeling in his stomach though; it was infuriating. "Look lady-" he started, almost gagging at what he was going to do.
'He's got that look.' Miranda darted behind a half demolished pillar, a trail of destruction following after her. She pressed herself up against the crumbling marble, holding her right arm closer to her chest as her Innocence spun rapidly. 'if I tip-'
"-Toe perhaps he won't hear me?" the man from whom she was fleeing sang, completing her thoughts. Miranda shook with fear, her Innocence wasn't offensive; she couldn't fight like Allen or the others. "That's what you're thinking right now, am I right?" Tyki called out, making his way over to Miranda's hiding place. She was too obvious. Miranda cursed her uselessness under her breath. 'I'm in a real-'
"-Jam here." He completed for her again, walking flawlessly over the different piles of marble left from the crumbling building. He couldn't read her mind; no that was his brother. This was his own knowledge of the woman. Miranda covered her mouth to keep a cry from escaping. Why did things have to end up like this? Why did that boy have to turn out to be this man? Miranda felt tears flow down the sides of her face. The warmth stung harshly against her cold skin. "You know-" Tyki whispered, inches away from her ear. Miranda gasped, her hands still over her mouth. "I really don't like playing this game-"
"-football, I think is what it's called. " the young man laughed to himself. Miranda had no idea what he was talking about, but she listened intently. She still had not learned his name though she felt no need to do so.
He had been more than gracious to her with his company on a dreary day like today. The German woman felt herself smile as she watched and listened to him tell his stories.
"-got nothing in common in with me I swear, but he seems to think we're family." The boy stared at her. "What are you smiling at?" he prodded. Miranda blushed feverishly while scanning the area for anything to distract his attention for her.
"M-monkey finger!" she shouted, pointing to the aforementioned object conveniently displayed in the window of a shop nearby their table at the café.
He stared with disbelief then laughed whole-heartedly. What a strange woman she was turning out to be.
"Shoot!" Miranda cried as she was thrown from her hiding spot into the open. Her tear-drenched face now covered with cuts and dirt from the blast. Tyki cringed and brought the king Teez up to his face. "You'll never--" he paused and stared at her trembling form.
"Coca-Cola, did you?" Miranda blinked, having zoned out again in the middle of their conversation. She nodded, unaware of his question and took a sip of the coffee in front of her.
He smirked.
"Say, Miranda." He started, resting his head on his hand; curly black hair fell softly around his dirty face. Miranda looked up from her drink and over to the young man. His eyes were still skillfully hidden behind those thick lenses. "Y-yes?"
"I know you, you know me...!" He spoke clearly behind the Teez. Miranda sat across from him, her body battered and beaten from their fray.
One thing he didn't like about fighting exorcists; they couldn't accept their end.
"I can tell you-" Tyki stopped, lowering the Teez over the shaking woman's chest. They had no more time for play, it was back to business.
"Is there anything you want to say before I kill you?" His face was sullen, his words lifeless, his hair covering his eyes. Miranda continued to cry as her fear immobilized her.
"You've got to be free." She spoke softly, carefully holding onto his rough hands across the table at the café.
"Come on. I'm no slave." He joked, wanting to pull his hands out of her grip.
Together they were a target, Road would notice him doting on this woman.
"…Right, I don't think th-there's anything I-I could say…" Miranda cried, "Th-that would st-stop you." Her tears were blurring her vision. He frowned and placed his hand on her chest. Any other time this could have been elating with a different kind of butterflies possessing him.
Now, those butterflies would never come. He frowned and let his Teez fly away. "No." His palm sunk seamlessly into her chest cavity. His hand closed around her heart. It fluttered in his grip.
"O-Over there…" she panted, turning her head slightly to the side. Tyki paused, and glanced over in the direction she indicated. "Yes?" She panted heavily, his hand around her heart laboring her heavily. "There's… something I never got to give you…" Tyki's eyes glazed over. "…please forgive-"
"…Me…" Were the last words to leave her lips before he ended her life. Tyki'd already wasted their time by playing their little game. He ripped her heart from her body, like every other exorcist he killed. The blood would never touch his form however since he simply rejected its existence. The pain on her face could never burn his memory because he had already looked away. He'd never hear her screams, perhaps because he rejected sound as well. He growled and threw the twitching organ into the ruble around them. Tyki stomped away from her fading form, anticipating the sounds of blood flooding into her lungs, despite his rejection.
"…Shoot me." He whispered, then disappeared into the swarm of insects he commanded.