Track for this chapter:

Ok, first off, before I put the track, does anybody actually listen to these!? Comment if you do.

Chaconne, by Yiruma, from the album From the Yellow Room

"BOY! WHERE ARE YE!?"

Les's voice boomed up from the alley beneath Tsubasa's window, and he opened the sliding pane of glass, sticking his head out.

"I'm right here!"

"Why ain't ye at work!? If ye kin yell at me outta window, ye oughta be able te git ta work."

"I told you, Les, I told you a hundred times before", he shouted down, flailing his arms. "I quit. I'm done, I'm not going back."

"But ta WBBA NEEDS YE!"

"I don't care! If they needed me so much they would have said so!" Since quitting, he hadn't gotten one single phone call.

"They may not say it, boy, but they's gonna fall wit'out ye."

"It's not my problem anymore."

"Kin ah come up there 'n talk te ya?"

"If you want to."

"Okay." Les surveyed the ground around him. "Ye got a ladder handy?"

Tsubasa sighed. "Just go through the building, Les."

"Okay." A moment later, he heard Les knocking on the door.

Les stood outside the threshold, breath billowing in the unheated hallway. "Lemme in. Ah'mma die 'fore mah time if ah stands out here any longer."

Tsubasa moved aside and allowed him to step in. He and Les settled at the kotatsu with a coffee pot in the centre of the table, and Tsubasa, ever the good host, poured two cups of coffee and set them on the kotatsu.

"Lissen here. Ah thought that ye stayed at the WBBA cos' ye cared."

"I do care, Les, it's just that nobody else does. They don't see that I do my job or that I work hard. They just pile more on top of me." He cradled the hot coffee cup between his palms, inhaling the steam rising from it.

"Ah thought ye din't do yer job fer appreciation, son. Ah thought ye did it outta the goodness of your heart."

"Even good people get tired sometimes, Les."

"So ye needed a break?"

"A really long one. If I ever go back at all."

Les sipped from the coffee cup, thinking for a moment. And then: "Well, ah kin understand that. Ah just hope ye find it in yer heart to return. Ah'm afraid 'a what may happ'n te the world's young bladers if ta WBBA k'llapses."

"In that event, I would do all I could to help. It's not the organisation I have a problem with, it's the people who are trying to run it."

"Yeh." Les poured a little more coffee into his cup and sipped it again. "Ah kin see where yer comin' from, son."

"I assure you that if things start to really go downhill, I will consider returning; it's just that..." Tsubasa looked away, out the frosted-over window and towards the building towering over the drizzly city. "As long as they don't think they need me, they won't have me."

"Okay, son. Seein' as ah cain't convince ye otherwise, ah'mma hightail it. I'll seeye later."

"Okay, Les."

"Oh, an', uh. This don't mean ye gonna miss ta trip te New York, don't it? Cos ah think they still wants te bring ye wit them."

"I don't plan on missing it."

"Okay. Take a break. As long as ye kin support yerself an' they kin support themselves, ah guess you'll be alright."

Les left the cup on the kotatsu and headed towards the stairs, loping lazily out the door and shutting it behind him.

Alone in his apartment, Tsubasa stared at the coffee for a moment and then took his cell phone and called Ryo to see about getting his last paycheck.

"How could he do that? He's so self-centred!" Hikaru sat in the alcove hidden from time and space, arms wrapped around herself, looking distressed.

"Nah, Hik'ru...ye gotta admit ye wanted a break too awhile back. It's understandable. Ta workin' conditions set here ain't exactly fair, ye know." Les stood before her and crossed his arms, shadowy in the stark light coming through the alcove's door.

"It's not the same thing, Les! I came back. He just ran out and never turned back around."

"An' how de ya know he won't come back after all, Hik'ru? He's a trustworthy man, an' as long as things stay allright, ah think y'all kin manage wit'out him. What about Jason an' Keith Hallmark? They're good people an' ah know they's gonna help ye."

"Things are never going to shape back up if he doesn't return."

"Nah, ye don't know that. He'll come back if ye really needs him. Maybe all o' ya shoulda started 'preciatin' him more. He din't feel like he was needed or wanted, an' so he stopped comin' te work."

"That's not the same thing, Les. Don't you know Jack called Gingka to come and get him, and when Tsubasa heard that, he called you so he could avoid speaking to Gingka?" Hikaru crossed her arms and glared defiantly at Les. Les lifted his chin and glared at her.

"Yes, ah know that. He needs some room to breathe, Hik'ru. We all do sometimes. He hain't had it for a long time an' it's time he gotta little slack cut fer him. He deserves it. Furthermore, Gingka an' his father don' appreciate him. He's come from a hard background, an' people need ta be more understandin'."

"HE needs to be more understanding!"

"He's been understandin' fer longer'n ye know, fer longer'n he kin bear te stand nah more. Has 'e ever blown up in ta time't ye known him?"

"Well...no..."

"Then maybe it's time fer a little speakin' what we feel, hon."

"Okay."

"You'll be alright. If ye needs anythin', ah'm always at ta corner near his apartment, kay? I'll be keepin' an eye on both' ye ta make sure you're all right. Come'n check up on ye once'n awhile. Okay?"

"Thanks, Les." Les turned and went back to the timestream while Hikaru sat and thought about his words for a moment, and then turned and hurried back to the front lobby.