A/N: theplaywrite, Team5dsforever, guest, and dgzgtfan2004 - thanks a bunch for your reviews. They're very motivating :)
And now for this week's installment! Enjoy!
Saturday - Akiza
Akiza woke at 7:54am. She cursed under her breath. She had to meet the rest of her group at 8am. Glancing at Yusei to make sure he was asleep, she changed into some jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed her uni bag, and wrote Yusei a quick sticky-note:
"I'm out working on a group presentation. Cereal is in the cupboard and milk is in the fridge. Eat your heart out :) xx"
Then she dashed out of her dorm to the Health & Biomedical Science Library. New Domino City University, being the posh institution that it was, had a library for each faculty. That made things simple for organising meeting places. The Biomedical Library, as students called it, was as posh as the rest of the university. Hard angles, smooth glass, and four floors filled with computers, desks, and shelves upon shelves of books. Some of them were up-to-date compendiums of the latest scientific journals, while others were ancient, leathery volumes that simply gathered dust. The library was all a treasure trove. However, it wasn't on the same side of things as the student accommodation. It was 8:07am when Akiza arrived at the library doors, sweaty, panting, and belatedly realising she had morning breath. But she couldn't stop. She strode right into the air-conditioned building. All the study areas and meeting rooms were on fourth floor, and she dashed up the stairs, taking two at a time.
When Akiza burst through the door of meeting room 3, three pairs of eyes locked on her. Her pulse spiked.
"Nice of you to join us," said the brown-haired girl. She was smiling, but her voice was ice. That was Ally Keir. Athlete, medical student, volunteer - the perfect child of two perfect parents. And she made Akiza's blood boil.
So Akiza sat next to Keith instead. The blond man inched his seat away from her. Akiza pretended not to notice, but her face burned hot. She tried to control her breathing. "Did you guys get much done in the last eight minutes?" she asked.
"We're putting together the slide presentation today," Ally replied. "Did you do the bit on management?"
Akiza's heart dropped. "What? When did we even assign roles?"
"Two days ago, in the group chat. Don't you remember?" said Ally innocently.
"What group chat? I'm not in any group chat!"
"We, uh, must've forgot to add you," said the other girl somewhat sheepishly.
"Oh did you now?" Akiza felt tears prickling her eyes, but she held them back.
"Yes, it was all a mistake. But you always have an excuse, don't you?" said Ally.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Akiza.
"Never mind. We'll do it. Go home." said Ally.
"No, wait. I can do it while you're working."
"Go home."
"But-"
"GO!"
Akiza stared at Ally, agape and feeling sick. She looked at the others, pleading. "Come on! How is this fair? I am not useless! This is your fault!"
Keith spoke up. "Look, Akiza, you're great and all, but we really can't accept another excuse from you. Teammates gotta be reliable. I'm really sorry." But he hardly looked it.
"No, no, no you're not! You guys keep 'forgetting' to include me, to clue me in on things! How am I supposed to contribute if you don't-"
Ally threw a scrunched up piece of paper at Akiza's head. "Get out already."
Akiza flinched. She hardly felt the paper ball but it hurt, deep in her chest. "Does everyone else feel this way?"
Keith shrugged. The other girl pretended not to hear.
The tears finally brimmed. Akiza turned and left before they fell. She kept herself at a walk until she exited the library. Then she broke into a run and let the tears fall freely. Thankfully it was Saturday. No-one was out to see her.
No matter what, she wouldn't let Yusei see her cry. His situation was much worse than hers. No, she'd leave Yusei in peace to have his breakfast. Instead she'd wait on the bench outside the dorms until she saw him leave. Then she could be alone in her dorm with herself. Yes, that would be best.
So she sat on the bench and waited. The sky was still grey, but the rain had stopped. Akiza shivered. It was autumn now, soon to be winter. She rubbed her arms. A jumper would've been handy. Still, she waited. She waited under the cold grey sky, amidst a breeze that was lightly stirring. She waited until she shivered and saw Yusei leave the building. Then she ran inside.
She ran up to her room and locked the door behind her. Then she collapsed onto the floor and cried. Her sobs weren't light, little things. They were loud and ugly, borne of all the pain she felt in her heart. She didn't understand why they did this. She didn't understand why she couldn't make any friends. Maybe it was them? No, because it was almost universal, with every group she was in. The one common factor was her. She was afraid of everyone, afraid of provoking them, so she stayed well clear of their toes. But they found reasons anyway. She hurt so much and she didn't want it. She didn't want to live like this. She didn't want to be her.
Her phone pinged. She checked it. A message from Elly: "Here's your part to present. Don't freeze like last time."
She wanted to be anyone but Akiza. Anyone but her. She look at herself in her phone's reflection and she hated what she saw. It was all too much. She had to get it out. Out. Get it out. She dropped her phone. Went hands and knees to her desk draw. Opened the draw. Groped blindly. Found it, and picked it up. An ornate knife. Had bought it from a market in a far-off country. It was all hard edges with ornate swirls like vines and thorns that were speckled with rose petals. It glinted as she placed it on her arm. It was thirsty. It was alive. She pressed against her arm, next to the other scars, and prepared to cut. Then she noticed her bed.
It was made.
Her bed was never made.
And on it was a note. The same sticky-note she'd left Yusei.
Dropping the knife, she scrambled for the note and read it.
"Thanks for the breakfast. As payment I made your bed. Just so you'd know what cleanliness looks like :)"
Akiza choked back a sob, unable to keep the smile from her face. But she couldn't stop crying either, and she clutched the note to her chest like it was the only real thing in the world.
Saturday - Yusei
Yusei woke at 8:04am to the sight of Aki's plush toy dragon with a sticky note attached to his belly:
"I'm out working on a group presentation. Cereal is in the cupboard and milk is in the fridge. Eat your heart out :) xx"
Yusei's lips quirked. He certainly would. After rummaging through her cupboard, he found many different cereals, but all of them were sweet and sugary. Yusei shook his head and sighed. Aki should know better. But food was food, and he took her up on her offer. He poured himself one bowl of chocolatey cereal with milk and devoured it. Then another. And another.
After rinsing his mouth out, his mind turned back to the matter at hand. Rent was due on Monday, which meant he had today and tomorrow to come up with over $200. He had three options for doing that: selling goods, selling services, or theft. As far as services went, there was his job as a mechanic, and…other options. He didn't want to think of those other ones. They would lead him to nothing but trouble. As for what goods he could sell, he'd have to go back to the shop to figure that one out. And theft…he wouldn't do that either, unless he had no other choice.
He stood up and gave Aki's room one last look-over. It was a disaster. The bedsheets were a mess. Her clothes were strewn everywhere, even on her desk. Sheets of paper were haphazardly stacked in random places. He spotted a bra on a shelf with some textbooks and blushed at what his mind pictured. Yusei shook his head clear. Aki was his friend, he shouldn't be thinking those things. She had enough on her plate to deal with.
So Yusei decided to tidy up a bit. He didn't want to touch the papers, they looked important. His focus would be on the clothes and linen. He started with the clothes on the floor. Jacket. Jeans. A singlet. Shorts. Yusei's mind automatically pictured her in them, and he flung them away. This was ridiculous. He settled for making the bed. It smelled vaguely of her. Then he took the note off the dragon, wrote on the other side of the paper, and put it on the bed.
Yusei slung his jacket on as he left the dorm. A cold breeze brushed his face, sending chills down his spine. It was overcast, looking like it might rain later. Or maybe even snow. Yusei wouldn't be surprised with how cold it was. He made his way to the train station and caught the first train to the Satellite sector. The view from the window revealed the gradual decline in shine and polish in the buildings as the train zipped past. The downward socioeconomic gradient out of Tops was plainly visible, and it made Yusei's blood boil. How could the mayor, Rex Goodwin, not notice? Not care? There were so many voices who cried out at the inequity, not just from the Satellite, but from other suburbs as well. People were starving, shivering - dying, and Goodwin was blind to it. He acted like he was better than Satellite scum. The whole Tops sector did, and a few others to boot. Everyone. Well, not everyone. There was Aki. But she was the exception, a rose among thorns.
Yusei took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do about it right now. First he had to solve his money problem. His shop was only a five-minute walk from the train station. The Satellite was dilapidated and most of the buildings were half-ruined and falling apart. There were puddles and foul-smelling liquids at random places on the road. The sewage lines here were not well-maintained. There was also the occasional beggar. Their clothes were often torn and filthy. They were thin, weak, and malnourished. Yusei wished he could do something. This couldn't go on. And he would join them if he didn't find a way to make rent.
But once again he took a deep breath and cleared his mind. He opened his shop and began to take inventory, ignoring the gaping emptiness. Ignoring that Jack should've been here. He should've been groaning at Yusei to relax, people didn't wake up this early on Saturdays.
Yusei's inventory wasn't very promising. There were his tools and a scant amount of replacement parts for peoples' vehicles. On their own they were no use to anyone. There was a fridge, his motorcycle, a washing machine, a bit cutlery and some dishes, a spare pair of pants, two singlets, a collared shirt, five boxers, his laptop, and nothing he could really sell that anyone would want. Except the laptop, but he needed that for uni and his darned, unpaid internship.
He sat on the stairs to his room and sighed, face in hands. What was he going to do? Mechanic work? He wouldn't earn $200 in two days on a weekend. But the crime gangs…no. He wouldn't. They would eventually make a murderer of him. Or he'd get caught and thrown in jail. Or he'd get himself killed.
Suddenly, there was banging on the door. Yusei startled. He darted to the kitchen and hid a knife up his sleeve, then answered the door.
It was his landlord. Today looked like one of his worse days. He was dishevelled and his eyes looked particularly sunken. His rotting teeth and shaking hands did nothing to add to the image. It couldn't have been more than a few days since his last hit, judging by the look.
"I need your rent now," he hissed.
"It's due on Monday. That's when you'll get it," Yusei replied coolly.
"You'll give it to me now, you rat." The landlord advanced onto the threshold.
Yusei stood his ground. He slid the knife to his hand and raised it. "You'll get it on Monday."
The landlord took a couple of steps, hands in the air. "Alright, alright. Take it easy." He grinned and whipped out a gun he had tucked into the back of his pants. "Just give me the rent you owe."
Yusei paled, but remained calm. "If you can wait until Monday, you'll get double. How does that sound?"
The landlord frowned speculatively. Then he nodded and put the gun away. "That's actually better. Alright. Double. $400 on Monday. If you don't have it, you'll be dead," he said, smiling.
"Sounds good," replied Yusei, and shut the door.
Yusei clenched his fists. Now it was $400. What on Earth was he going to do?
Saturday - Akiza
Akiza couldn't get to sleep that night. Her thoughts spun relentlessly in her mind. They rubbed and chafed in her brain causing friction, causing fire. She thought of Ally and Keith, and how they were just another blip in a long history of loneliness and exclusion. She thought of Yusei, blood on his face and tears in his eyes. It was an image she would never forget. He deserved so much more. She would do anything to make things better for him. She thought of her coward of a father, her spineless mother, and the plethora of broken promises strewn throughout her childhood. And she thought of herself. How she was useless. Powerless. Unable to change it. And she couldn't take it anymore.
She threw off her covers, took out her ornate knife from her desk draw, and opened her curtains. Pale, clear moonlight flooded her room. It was full tonight, and it seemed to be watching her. Watching what she'd do. Did it want a show? A spectacle? She didn't know, but she'd certainly show it something.
Akiza pulled back the pyjama sleeve on her left arm and placed the knife parallel to one of the scars. She gazed at the moon, ready to add a new silver tally to her chalkboard of tragedies.
She sliced. A gasp escaped her. A rush of life and fire flooded her veins. Blood seeped out. And the moon watched eagerly, wanting more.
It wanted more, did it? Well so did she.
Breathing hard, Akiza lined up her knife next to the freshly made cut and sliced again. Another gasp. Another rush. A release. The blood flowed down her arm to her elbow. She watched it absently, drinking in the sight. It was her blood, her very life, pouring out of her. She was high, and floating, lighter than air. Almost breathless. She looked back at the moon.
And it whispered. It glowed, apparently happy with what she had done. Then she felt another rush, different from before. Instead of the warm exhilaration of release, this was cold and crisp, and it flowed in through her wounds. It traced up her veins, to her chest. It stayed there for one heartbeat. On the second the moonlight exploded through her entire body. She was cold, and clear, and alive. And a sudden panic stirred in her chest. She had no idea what just happened. It had never happened before. This was just a fatigue-induced hallucination. Had to be.
So she tended to her wounds and went to bed.
