It was lonely as a bouncer. You couldn't go out in the day, see the parks. You slept. You didn't really have a life. You slept, ate and worked. Of course Volt had never complained about this before, but now he began to wonder. Was it the life he wanted?
Volt had always seen himself as a lone wolf. A man who never wanted to settle down. That's what had originally drawn him to Echidna. Neither had wanted anything from their relationship apart from the physical aspects. Now Volt found himself thinking about whether he did want a family.
He thought about how happy Sion and Dominique were. How happy Kou seemed, when a girl would try and chat him up. He knew that both of these examples had physical elements in them, but there was more than that. For Kou, there was the chase, the thrill of trying to catch the other. For Sion and Dominique, there was love.
"Whatcha thinking about?" Tatyana asked. Volt looked up at the fifteen-year-old girl. He's been thinking about Echidna. About how she had been trying to push their relationship deeper. Trying to get him to find feelings he was sure he didn't have.
"Nothing. Just blankly staring at the walls. Why are you here?" Volt asked her. Tatyana smiled and sat next to him on the wall. Her hair was turning black, Volt could see that. She'd been a brunette all her life. A few years and it's be completely changed.
"Just walking. I saw you so I decided to come along... Shouldn't you be with dad?" She frowned. Volt raised his eyebrows.
"Dauragon and Wong are with him. They're talking about Dominique," Volt explained. Tatyana's expression darkened.
"They should have left Dominique in the grave," She said. Volt's mouth twitched. He sensed a little jealousy. Everyone spent more time with Dominique than with Tatyana. It wasn't fair on the girl, to spend all her time in solitude. Volt tried to include her, but Dauragon shut her out. So did Echidna.
"Why don't we do something together, huh? Go see a movie, bowling, skating, whatever you feel like doing?" Volt asked. He watched as her face lit up.
"I'd love that! I've heard there's a really good movie on at the moment!" She began to ramble on about it as Volt laughed to himself. What it was like to be this young.
"I have to leave Tatyana, quickly," Volt proceeded to shove things into his bag. He looked at the clock and saw that it was almost five minutes since Mikado's CEO had been assassinated. They'd already think he'd done it. He had to leave now!
"Don't leave me here Volt! Please don't leave me here, with those mad men!" Tatyana pleaded. Volt turned to the girl and took her hand.
"I'll come back for you, ok?" He asked. She nodded. He wondered why he had even said that.
"Promise?" She prompted, holding out her little finger. He took it in his.
"Promise."
He woke up when his alarm went off. He looked, it was beeping at 6:66pm, someone had been messing with it. He got up and went into the kitchen to get something to eat, turning on the TV as he did so. When the TV's light hit the chairs he saw a dark figure on one of them. Without thinking he pinned them to the chair.
"T-Tatyana? What the hell?" He asked. She was still wearing the "No Escape" catsuit and she saw squirming under his grasp. He realized that he had straddled her, and hastily got up. She was breathing heavily.
"I have no where else to go," She said. Volt nodded, he wasn't about to throw her out on the streets. Why was he being so soft? Had it been Sion or Kou, even Echidna he wouldn't have thought twice.
"You hungry?" He asked. Tatyana nodded. She got up, jumping to her feet causing her body to arc. Volt swallowed, she was still ten years younger than him, he had to remember that.
"I don't really have anything in. I usually eat microwave meals," He walked into the kitchen. She followed. "It won't be anything fancy like at Mikado. Not that rich." Volt opened the freezer and pulled out the chicken curry package. Tatyana smiled.
"S'ok Volt, food's food as far as I'm concerned," She began to survey his kitchen. Her gaze stopped at a picture frame. She walked over, it was a picture of her, Dauragon, Dominique and Volt. Kaldea was in the background, waving. Volt saw her bite her lip. He set the time on the microwave then took the picture off her.
"That's the past. Make use with the time you have now," Volt instructed. She carried on staring at the picture.
"Ten years of my life disappeared in a day. Ten years. I don't know what I would have done in them. Now I won't get a chance to know. I can't go to university, I don't know if I could get a job. Oh Volt, they altered my mind. I can't even feel fifteen anymore," She cried. He heard the ping of the microwave but he ignored it.
"I'll ask my boss if we need another bouncer, if you know what I mean. Dominique only comes when she feels like it, so I'm sure you could take her place on the schedule. You could stay here, I don't mind as long as you put money forward for the bills," Volt offered. She looked up at him, smiling.
"Thanks Volt," She then peered past him into the microwave. He took the hint and began to dish it up. For a while there was only the silence as the two ate, it seemed that Tatyana didn't mind the taste of the food, or the fact she had to eat it off her lap. After a while she stood up and walked into the kitchen. Volt frowned, when she returned.
"You have any wine?" She asked. Volt thought for a moment then remembered the bottle that Dominique had given him once for his birthday. He nodded.
"In the cupboard left of the freezer," He told her. She disappeared for a moment, appearing a few minutes later with a glass of wine and a bottle of beer.
"Seeing as there's some very dusty bottles of wine, I'd say you weren't a wine drinker," She laughed. He took the beer, he usually didn't drink before work but he guessed it was different now. He was obliged to drink it.
"You mind if I get my stuff moved in, before going down to the bar. I'll be there just as your first shift ends," She asked. Volt shrugged, either way was fine for him. This was her home now, until she found somewhere else to live. The thought came with a mix of emotions.
"I'll see you down there," Volt left his half-finished food, downed the bottle of beer in one, then went into his rooms. He put on his jeans, a "Dog Street" T-shirt and his usual jacket. When he walked out again he found she wasn't there. He poked his head into the kitchen to see her washing the plates.
"I'll do those when I get back," Volt said half-heartedly.
"No you won't. I know how much you hate house work," She reminded him. Tatyana turned and beckoned him in. He glanced at the clock, a few more minutes and he's be late, for the first time since he'd worked at Fate. Curiosity got the better of him however.
She waited until he was behind her then pointed out of the window of his apartment. Hovering above the streets, at their eye level was a hawk. The bird rode the wind.
"Beautiful aren't they?" Tatyana asked. Volt nodded. "I can understand what it's saying you know," She watched the bird. Volt looked at her surprised, then remembered the Bionoid technology that had screwed her up. "It's so happy with it's existence. It wants no more than to feed itself and it's mate. To have a home to go to with it's mate... To have children. It's willing to work so hard for that to happen. And so, in a few months time, after the mating season, it will build it's nest and spend months looking after her. Aren't those romantic thoughts?" She asked no one in particular.
She then turned around, Volt had been almost resting his head on her shoulder, so they were too close. She stopped for a moment, shocked, then Volt found foam in his face. He screwed his face up, as the soapsuds began to pop.
"What was that for?" He asked. She shrugged and turned back to watching the hawk.
"You'd better get to work Volt," She reminded him. He'd forgotten about Fate, he'd have to run there now... He waved to Tatyana and closed the door. He'd left her the key.
As he jogged down the streets, he began to think about Tatyana as the woman she was now, not the fifteen-year-old she had been.
