Chapter Two
Sadness.
Melancholy.
Despair.
Misery.
Steve looked down at Lei who lay on his couch staring into nothing.
Inside, he wanted to scream.
There wasn't anything else he could do for Lei; he housed him, fed him, tried to keep him sane. Still, Lei screamed for his lost partner. He was restless because he was out of work. Heartsick from being dumped again. A trend that would start from the time he was left at the altar on his wedding day twenty years ago, till now, stuck on Steve's couch, waiting...just waiting..
"Steve..."
The blonde looked up, when he heard Lei's voice break through the silence.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.."
His voice was a quiet whisper.
"I wish...I wish I were better. I wish I were stronger..."
"Stop that. Lei, stop talking like that." Steve said, approaching the man on his couch, curled up in his own despair. "Stop talking like you're going to leave me."
"Leave? Where can I go? Well..maybe to hell..." he said to himself. Steve caught it and raised an eyebrow. "You think you're living in hell. The home I've given you, the roof I've let you stay under is hell..."
"Steve.." Lei said, looking into his blue eyes, suddenly coherent. "No. No, I'd never say that..I don't mean that. You've been so kind to me...I meant to say that-"
"I know what you mean." Steve sighed.
"I want to show my appreciation. You've done so much for me.." Lei said, almost pleading. Steve sighed once more, and turned back to his friend. "You don't have to do anything." he said, shaking his head. "Just..stay alive. It's all I ask." "Alright. That much I can promise." Lei said, wearing a weak smile.
A stray tear left from his eye, and Steve handed him a tissue, while walking towards the window.
"It's a nice, sunny day. Do you want to go out for a walk?" he asked. "..." Lei was silent at first. "Sure. Sure, Steve, let's go." Lei said. He began to rise from the couch, and then he added,"but first, can I take a shower?" "Sure." Steve replied, watching as Lei went upstairs.
"Wait! Lei!" he yelled, before a shout came from the bathroom.
Hwoarang was naked, leaving the shower when Lei walked in.
Hwoarang shrieked and grabbed the towel, wrapping it around his waist. "Damn it, Wulong! Don't you know how to knock?!" he yelled. Lei shielded his eyes from the dripping wet fighter, waiting for him to leave the room. "Sorry!" he yelled, closing the door.
"Yeah, I forgot to tell you Hwoarang was in there.." Steve sighed, watching as Lei covered his eyes as he stood in front of the door, his cheeks completely blushed in red. It was enough to put a smile on the blonde's face. "What? Why are you laughing at me?" Lei asked. "Because you look so cute when you're embarrassed like that." Steve replied. "I'm nearly 50 years old. I'm too old to be cute." Lei snapped.
"Bullshit. You still look 20 to me." Steve said with a wink.
"Hey! You better not be flirting out there, Fox!" Hwoarang yelled from behind the door. "Shut up, Hwoarang! And when are you going to be finished, some other people need to use the bathroom too!" the blonde yelled. "You're one to talk, Steve, you're the one who took thirty minutes in here the other night after we ate at that pizza place around the corner!" the red head yelled.
Lei just looked back and forth as the two argued.
"It's not my fault I had a bad reaction to the pepperoni!" Steve yelled,"and why are you eating pizza anyway, aren't you lactose intolerant?" "You idiot. I had a bowl of pasta and a salad." Hwoarang said. "Oh yeah..." Steve said in recognition. "Besides, you looked like a fucking fool checking out and scraping your pizza. What were you looking for anyway?" Hwoarang asked.
"You know I'm apprehensive about pizza ever since I last ate it at Marshall and Paul's place." the blonde replied.
"What happened at Marshall and Paul's place?" Lei asked.
Steve was silent.
"Marshall put laxatives in Steve's pizza and he-" Hwoarang replied before Steve snapped,"Hwoarang! Lei doesn't need to know the rest...it was just.."
He looked away in embarrassment.
"Whatever. It happens to the best of us." Lei said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
A few more seconds went by when Steve yelled,"Hwoarang, what are you doing in there? Lei needs to take a shower, too!" "Hey, can't a guy piss without being pestered by his naggy wife?!" Hwoarang yelled. "Why is it taking you this long to piss? And WIFE?!"
"I am not your wife! I am not the woman in the relationship!" he yelled.
"You take it from me. I think that makes you total wifey material." Hwoarang said with a smartass smirk. Steve couldn't see it, but he knew he was wearing it. "Hey, I fuck you too, Hwoa." Steve snapped,"oh god, I'm sorry, Lei."
"You know, if you two keep arguing like this, maybe I should just go to Sayaka's house. She'll let me use her shower. And maybe make me dinner. You know how those Greek women are, they're always cooking." Lei said.
"She lives almost a half hour from here...you'll be wasting your time." Steve said,"besides, she's at work now." "Right.." Lei said,"I mean with how long we've been waiting, I would have been showered and clean by now if I went over there."
Suddenly the door opened and Hwoarang ran out screaming,"We're going to Sayaka's house?!"
"No. No, Hwoarang. We're not going to Sayaka's house. She's at work. And we can't just show up unannounced, she'll get pissed off." Steve said.
Lei took the opportunity of a distracted Hwoarang and ran into the bathroom, locking the door.
"Yo! I wasn't done in there!" Hwoarang yelled. He sighed and then turned to Steve, clutching the towel around his waist. "Besides, pissing off Sayaka is what I do best...please can we go, Steve?"
"I don't know why you're always bothering that poor girl.." Steve sighed,"one of these days, she's going to break your legs, or worse." "Well..it can't get any worse than her screaming while throwing things at me. At least she hasn't taken swings at me yet." Hwoarang said with a smirk.
The two left the room while Lei continued with his shower.
"So. What's this idea you have, Hwoa?" Steve asked when the two entered the dining room. "I'll tell you at lunch. I just texted Sayaka and she's done work, so I asked if we could meet her somewhere downtown. If that's ok." Hwoarang replied. Steve was silent. "What?" Hwoarang asked.
"I just told Lei we'd go for a walk first." the blonde replied.
"It's ok, Steve. You can go see her. I'll join with you two later." Lei said, coming down the stairs. "Lei!" Steve said with surprise. "Ah. Sorry. I should have said something before sneaking up on you two. But yeah. Go ahead. I know you haven't seen her in a while." Lei said with a smile.
"Alright. Do you have enough money to get into town? I'm going to drive." Steve said. "You mean you finally learned how to drive on the right side of the road now?" Hwoarang asked. "Fuck off." Steve snapped, glaring at his lover, causing Hwoarang to laugh. "Yeah, I'll be fine." Lei said, laughing at the two.
If there was anything that could keep a smile on his face, it would be Steve and Hwoarang. They got along so well. Not only as a couple terribly in love, but as best friends, too.
Just like he and Bryan.
Except Bryan wasn't that much of a smartass...he was, but not on Hwoarang's level. He was shy and bashful, but once he opened up, he was hilarious and always kept Lei laughing.
He watched as the two left, memories flooding his mind, of when he and Bryan would leave the precinct together in Hong Kong and go out for a celebratory dinner.
"because you survived today."
"because you haven't left me yet.."
"Because you killed me." Lei suddenly said to the closed door.
"No! No, I didn't kill you, Bryan! I tried to save you! I tried to stop them! I held you as you died, I was covered in your blood and my tears...and my regret..."
He fell to his knees and stared at the door, almost, as if he were waiting for Bryan to walk through it.
"If you call me one more time, Hwoarang, I'm going to rip out your hair.." Sayaka Swano sighed, hanging up on Hwoarang. Besides, it was illegal to drive and talk on the phone. And he had already called her four times in the past five minutes. She agreed to meet Steve and Hwoarang at Le Peg on Race Street and she was driving down Delaware Ave after leaving work on 34th Street.
She didn't know why she answered every time..
"Fuck you!" she yelled when the phone rang again. This time, she chose to ignore it. Again, it rang. "Doesn't Steve stop him at this point...does he know how annoying his boyfriend can be?" she snapped. Turning up the radio to the sounds of Scandinavian doom metal, she continued driving.
She didn't even see the stop sign..
"Yo what the fuck!"
Sayaka suddenly stopped her car when a man stood in front of it, holding his pounding heart. She gasped, holding her hand to her now-pounding heart when she looked at the man in front of her.
He was tall, pale skinned.
Greyish hair.
Ice cold blue eyes.
A deep scar down his left eye.
The man wore a green jacket and a black tank top along with greenish pants with a bullet belt around his waist and heavy black boots. Glaring at her, he snapped,"What the fuck, lady!" "What are you talking about? You're the idiot who walked in front of my car!" she yelled back in heavily accented Swedish.
The man looked at her incredulously.
"You. You ran a stop sign!" he yelled.
"What?" she asked, looking behind her. "Oh my god.."
The man moved out of the way and she drove forward, pulling over to the side of the road as traffic passed them.
She sat at the driver's seat, holding her hand to her head when the man came to the side of her car. "You ok there?" he asked. "Huh? I mean other than the fact that I ran a stop sign and nearly killed you.." she sighed.
"Whatever. I'm strong. It probably wouldn't have killed me." he said softly, placing his hand on the door of the open window. She was silent and turned down the radio. "What's that you're listening to?" he asked. "Spotify. It's my doom metal mix. It's music for depressed people." she replied.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Daylight Dies. American band." she said.
"Hmm..interesting. Maybe I'll give it a listen sometime." he said.
"I should get going. I'm going to meet my friends for lunch...I've left them waiting long enough. Again, sir, I'm really sorry." she said with a sigh.
"It's alright. Go on. By the way, my name is Bryan." he said, holding out his hand.
"Sayaka." she said, taking his hand,"see you around."
Quietly, she drove away, not even bothering to put her music back on. She looked at her mirror, the man's name was Bryan...he was watching her. And suddenly. He was directing traffic, standing in the middle of the street, halting all traffic until she pulled away and merged back into the lane. "What the hell is he doing..." she said, shaking her head.
He smirked and waved as she drove away, quietly crossing the street, ignoring all the screams and curses from the drivers. Yes, he very well could have killed them, but he chose not to. He was surprised the girl didn't notice all the cracked skin on his knuckles from his previous fight. Or the knife that was practically sticking out of his pocket..
Regardless.
He was on a mission and couldn't stop for distractions.
There was someone he was looking for..