Sorry for any delays in the updates boys and girls, but I'm moving house at the moment and the webternet connection is taking longer than I would like to set up. Bastards. Anyway, it's time for the first of the those camo's I promised my fine readers and reviewers. Since most of the requests were fairly outlandish they'll be easy to spot, but with a bit of luck - and very little skill on my part - they will fit nicely into the continuity of the story. Such as it is. Thank you to all that took the time to leave reviews. It's always nice to know that my writing style of appealing to the lowest common denominator is still working. GO ME!
Me no own, you no sue. I ain't drinkin' no milk. Foo.
XVII: Helena
The blonde woman stood under the porch of her apartment building shielding her light blue eyes from the bright glare of the sun, unable to keep her smile to herself. Her soft gaze trailed away from the cloudless sky and to the road before her and it's busy sidewalks cramped with all the people who walked them. Thanks to Second Impact the times when New York city received pleasant weather was few and far between. Stuck on the edge of a perpetual autumn/winter divide, most of the year it was cool and overcast, garnering little sunshine and less heat.
'Someone, somewhere has a perpetual spring or summer... They probably don't know how lucky they are.' She mused to herself absently stepping out from under the canvas awning and into the uncommonly warm sun. In a city that had become used to wearing what had been considered winter clothing two decades ago habitually this pleasant weather was an unusual but welcome gift. As the woman reached the end of her little path away from her apartment a group of children aged from around seven to the early teens ran past, nearly jostling her but dancing around at the last minute, laughing. An elder girl, perhaps seventeen dressed in a pair of faded denim jeans and a loose top ran after them a couple of seconds later calling out to the startled woman as she passed.
"Sorry Helena! Are you coming by the shelter later?" The girl paused in her run and turned back to look at Helena. The blonde's look of surprise melted into laughter and she giggled at the younger woman's harassed appearance.
"I'll be there in a while Sarah!" The young girl grinned, her long brown hair blown around her face by the warm breeze and obscuring her thin framed oval glasses. Helena watched a small girl dressed in a slightly ragged flowery sundress appear behind the teen and poke her in the back, startling her.
"Ahh!" The girl covered her mouth with her hand and giggled quietly when Sarah spun to mock glare at her. "Katie! Don't scare me like that!" Helena smiled widely. Crouching in front of the girl Sarah smoothed her hair and grinned as the small child laughed. Quickly poking the girl on the nose Sarah continued. "Promise not to do it again?" Helena laughed as the child shook her head negatively with glee. Sarah slumped, before turning towards the elder woman and shooting her a weak glare. "Easy for you to laugh! The kids all like you!" Helena nearly doubled over. Turning back to Katie the brunette teenager spoke to her again. "Katie where have the others gotten to?" The little girl looked up at her with huge glistening eyes making the elder girl clasp her hands under her chin and squeal. "Auuu! So kawaii!" Helena blinked.
"Kawaii?" Sarah turned back to the woman and nodded, oversized hearts having taken the place of her eyes behind the thin frames of her glasses, making Helena sweatdrop slightly, while Katie continued to beam happily in the background.
"Yeah. It's something Shoji taught me. It means 'cute' in Japanese." Helena nodded.
"I know. I spent some time in Japan a couple of years back and picked up the language pretty quickly. I just didn't expect to hear it here though." Sarah smirked slightly.
"Is there anywhere you haven't been?" Helena smiled quietly, thinking to herself that it was probably Japan that had an eternal summer if the heat when she had visited had been any indication before answering the girl.
"A few places." Sarah laughed and turned back to the small raven haired girl. "So where are the others Katie?" The little girls face scrunched up a little as if she was concentrating hugely on remembering the location of the others.
"They said they were going... to play with James at the Market!"
"They WHAT!" All hearts ands swirly eyes were gone now, replaced with horror and panic. Scooping a giggling Katie under an arm, Sarah spun and sprinted down the road towards the impromptu Market that had sprung up in the cleared square. "I'm gonna kill them! See you later Helena!" The blonde laughed again and waved an arm after them until they disappeared in the crowd of people at the end of the road.
'Wonder which of his gods James annoyed to deserve that.' Helena smiled and tucked an errant whisp of golden hair that had escaped from the hair clasp around her ear. She couldn't help but grin at the memory of Sarah with hearts in her eyes. She would make a great mother. She had the nature for it. 'It's too bad...' Shaking her head Helena followed the two girls down the street at a more sedate pace.
After the Second Impact New York had been devastated by the resultant tidal waves and tectonic upheavals. Nearly twenty years later and it had been largely rebuilt. The immediate aftermath had seen a city of scavengers and an army of homeless among the rubble of the dead city. After a week or two a military deployment had moved into the city and enforced martial law on the remaining citizens. The troops had been under the command of a Lieutenant Halloway, and had not been under orders from the government. It had seemed that Halloway, understanding what the situation was likely to be like in the city had ordered the troops under his command as the highest ranked surviving officer to deploy into the city to keep an authoritarian presence. The city had remained under martial law for an additional month before the American government had sufficient control of it's assets to relieve the occupying troops and provide extra aid for the survivors, who had been living off surplus army rations and whatever the organised teams had been able to scavenge from the shell of the city.
Huge residential areas of cheap but sturdy housing and apartment blocks had been built to give homes to the survivors, as well as the influx of new residents and the infrastructure had been quickly reestablished by the inland States and their businesses and cartels. The area she lived in now was one of the older residential blocks and was therefore in worse condition than some. But it was still livable and the people that lived in it took care of their homes, repairing any damage themselves rather than neglecting it and not having enough to pay for it to be fixed.
The Statue of Liberty had not survived and in it's stead a pillar had been erected to commemorate the loss of what had been iconically - if not particularly originally - named 'Old New York' by the next generation and the thousands of people that had perished within. As a result of the devastation, as well as the inconvenience of having the buildings and amenities destroyed the average age of the New York citizenship (they had elected not to be renamed New York 2, like so many other rebuilt cities had decided to do across the world) was twenty-six.
With most of the original population dead there had been an influx of young people to take jobs in the now newly blooming industrial centre. The ethereal promise of jobs had brought many of the new residents most of them searching for unskilled work and manual labour, all of which was plentiful.
Helena slipped around a couple, smiling apologetically and made her way deeper into the throng of people moving towards the Market. Helena had learned of the Market soon after she had moved into her apartment. A collapsed skyscraper at the end of the street had been cleared leaving a sizable square, empty of buildings. Soon someone had set up a small stall at the edge, selling hot food and the like, while the children used it as a play area. The one stall became two, then five, then ten. Now dozens of stalls criss-crossed the square, leaving an area for the children to play in with climbing equipment and grass verges replacing the concrete that had been there before hand. Most of the stalls had been made semi-permanent rather than the original huts of flimsy wood that could be taken down overnight and a few small cafes had become permanent fixtures.
Stepping into the Market Helena looked around for anyone she recognised. The Market was in use on the Wednesdays and Saturdays of each week and was mostly run by small family business. Helena knew these Markets had sprung up in almost every district, but rarely had an occasion to visit any of the others. Walking down the main boulevard at the centre of the Market, the blonde woman greeted those she recognised, which amounted to pretty much everyone since she had wandered into most of the stores at one time or another in the year and a bit she had lived in the area. Calling out a greeting to Masterson the butcher, a man in a spotless white smoke and butchers hat tipped at a jaunty angle, who took time out from arguing animatedly with Wade to return the call with a wide grin before turning back to the slender young man before him and continuing their argument. Helena smiled. Those two had been arguing as long as she had known any of them. They argued about the economy, politics, religion - though that one was like having a boxing match in the dark for the two of them since neither knew much about the subject - and anything else they could think off. And then every Saturday night after the Market closed they played chess and downed bottles of beer in the back of the stall until their wives came and dragged them home until the next weekend. Soon they were out of sight in the crowd.
A couple of children, better dressed than the ones she had nearly been run over by earlier, were threading their way in and out of the people trying to avoid getting underfoot and pulling little multicolored balloons behind them. They'd probably come from James' store since that was the kind of thing he sold. The thought of the children 'helping' James run his stall made her smile. Perhaps she should hurry there before someone got maimed...
'Nah. It'll probably just be James.' A roughish smile rippled across her lips as she continued forward. After a few more feet she paused for a moment and stretched up onto her tip-toes, trying to see over the heads of the crowd. James' stall was towards the far end of the Market from her street and she was having trouble seeing it in the throng of people. Her gaze travelled upwards over the heads of the surrounding people to the silhouettes of the skyscrapers that had been erected after the devastation of the Second Impact. How quickly New York had recovered. Two thirds of the Earth's population had died and countless billions of dollars of destruction had been done yet in just fifteen years the city thrived as much as it had before, as if nothing had happened. Helena turned her attention back to her destination, having to squint in the sunlight.
'First time in a long while that I've missed having sunglasses.' Giving up on seeing the stall from this far away Helena began moving forward again, trying to weave and wind her way through the mass without getting squashed in the process. A sudden flare of noise from her right stole her attention suddenly and she whipped her head to the side to follow the sound, leaving her blond hair to trail behind her like a fan. Someone had set up a TV next top one of the newer stalls - so new in fact that Helena had no idea who ran it, which was saying something seeing as she came to the market every week.
The large screen was showing a recorded rock concert and pounding out rythmic beat with so much bass the blonde was pretty sure she was vibrating like a tuning fork. As she watched, with her attention still caught by the sounds, the picture switched to that of who she assumed was the performing bands lead member being interviewed by a thin, mousey man in an ill-fitting obsidian wig. A caption scrolled across the bottom of the screen identifying the singer as twenty-eight year old Shinzo Saiyuki. Helena blinked. Unusual name for a singer in an American band. She had heard enough of the J-pop and J-rock they had in Japan during her stay there to have recognised the fact that, that was most certainly not what they were playing. The guy might have been originally oriental but it was hard to tell under all the make-up. If that was the case then he was very fond of the tanning machines because his skin was a golden bronze, while his jet black hair was waist length and tied in a tight braid.
'Gotta be hair extensions.' She thought. 'No guy would go through all that trouble if he didn't have to.' The figure turned to face the camera full on and Helena blinked. One iris was the lush green of the forest and the other a vibrant purple. 'Contacts as well.' Helena shook her head and abandoned her post in front of the screen to continue her journey. 'Musicians are getting weirder and weirder these days...' The crowd had tapered out a little and allowed her to get to the stall she sought faster than she expected. Yells and screams got louder the closer she got, which was no real surprise since she pretty much new what to expect.
Emerging from the crowd into a small clearing formed by passers by stopping and observing the ensuing insanity, Helena watched the thin bespectacled proprietor of the stall chasing one of the kids that had danced around her earlier in a circle while the rest cheered their friend on. There was no sign of Sarah or Katie yet. It seems that they had gotten lost in the crowd somewhere. Finally the owner succeeded in shooing away the young boy and leant over onto his knees to catch his breath. Looking up at the crowd he spotted Helena and gave a half hearted wave, too exhausted to do any more.
"Hey Helena. What's up?" The blonde woman smiled and waved back as she approached. James didn't speak much about his past even to those who knew him well, but his accent was curiously inflicted British with an overtone of American. It was widely accepted that he was British born and head moved to the US after the Second Impact, though when presented with this theory James always smiled or laughed. He never really confirmed or denied anything and it had eventually reached the point were people had given up asking, except in jest. It didn't really matter, after all. Hundreds of people had used the 'opportunity' provided by the chaos surrounding the Second Impact to disappear and create new lives for themselves. Records had been lost and destroyed over two thirds of the world so it wasn't hard to achieve hundreds of people had chosen to abandon their old lives in favor of the anonymity provided by new guises and identities. Perhaps James was one of these. Whatever reason he had for concealing his past, be it as drastic as being a fugitive or as basic as bad memories Helena had given up prying.
James brushed down the dusty overall he was wearing as she approached, coughing slightly at the cloud of tan dust that rose as he patted himself down.
"I hope the kids haven't been giving you too much trouble, J." The man looked up, giving her a flat glare at her blatant insincerity, his spectacles catching the sunlight leaving the harsh light to glint off the metal frames and the thin convex lenses. Her impish smile didn't fade under his scrutiny, however. Eventually he grunted and his frown morphed into a smile. That was one of the things people loved about James, or J as most people called him, never held grudges. Most of the time it seemed that he never even lost his temper, even with the kids who plagued him constantly. Waving a hand to beckon her over to his stall he turned and staggered back to it tiredly, after making sure she was following. Ducking under the small canopy that was supported by the thin cane poles set into the ground, J pulled a pot of brewing coffee off the small heater he had set up and poured himself a cup of the dark liquid. Helena rolled her eyes.
"How can you drink that stuff in this weather?" The scent of the strong, black coffee reached her sensitive nostrils making them twitch in distaste. "How can you drink that stuff at all?" The elder man laughed and ran the calloused fingers of one hand through his dark hair, now tinged with strands of silver grey, while the other brought the polystyrene cup to his lips.
"I've drunk so much of this stuff in my life it's pretty much replaced my blood. I need to be topped up regularly or I grind to a halt." After taking a swallow of the drink he placed the cup on the counter top and leant down next to it staring out into the crowd. Helena stepped up next to him, glad to be in the shade for a while. The trip from her apartment had only been a short one but she was feeling uncomfortable in the light already. Absently she looked around the little stall, taking in the brik-a-brak that cluttered it, either for sale or belonging to James himself. For the most part the only times people ever saw J was at the Market on Wednesdays. During the week no one saw him. Helena wasn't even sure anyone knew where he lived. Most assumed that he worked the other days of the week. But Helena had seen him wondering through the city streets, window shopping and just seemingly occupying time at various times during the week. If pressed she would have said that he didn't work, but if that was the case then there was no way he could afford to keep living.
He had showed her the banking on the stall once, to show her how the stock keeping system worked because she was curious and she knew for a fact the stall only just broke even. There was no way it alone could support him. Which meant that if he didn't work it was because he didn't actually need a job. The only reason she knew any of this was because the times of day she had seen him made it unlikely he was in work, like herself. She had been curious but had never approached him. Considering how reluctant he was to talk about his past she didn't want to look like she was intruding.
"You seen Sarah today?" James' gravely voice brought her out of her introspection swiftly. Leaning down next to him she recanted what had happened a few minutes earlier, leaving him chuckling quietly. "That a fact? Had Shoji in here a while back, looking to see if she was about." The man grinned as he spoke and Helena couldn't help but smile. It was obvious to both of them that Shoji was head over heels for Sarah and it was not much of a secret that she felt the same - though she would hotly deny it, and blush fiercely whenever it was brought up. If there was anyone more devoted to Sarah than the Japanese boy Helena had yet to meet them. She was glad the girl was happy, if only for now.
The conversation lapsed into a comfortable silence. Every Wednesday Helena came down to the market to keep J company. It had started out as mostly out of boredom, but soon she realised that she truly enjoyed the elder man's quiet company and wry sense of humour. It had become a little tradition that they both honoured, health permitting. Helena shot a glance at the man out of the corner of her eyes. She was probably the only one who knew about J's illness. Not because he had purposefully confided in her, but because she had wondered in one day unnoticed and caught him coughing blood into a handkerchief. Whatever he had - he claimed the name of it was stupidly long and dying people didn't have enough time to be learning long things - it was eating at him without visible side effects. Except the coughing fits. He had told her after she found him that the reason he hadn't told anyone was because he didn't want any sympathy or pity from anyone. He'd had a relative who was in his position once. Everyone knew about the illness and everyone pitied the man. The remainder of his life had been overshadowed by his approaching death. That was not something he wanted. He was happy seeing the smiling faces of the children and his friends. He had laughed and said he was even happy seeing Sarah's enraged face when she was angry with Shoji and his terrified one as he tried to escape her grasp. That was something precious to him - their smiling faces, not seeing Shoji getting maimed - and it wasn't something he wanted to give up just yet.
She had promised to remain silent about the information. She had not looked at him with pity, and only she alone knew why. She liked J. The world would be a better place with more people like him. She had watched him playing with the children and laughing with them, and guessed that his one true regret in life was not having children of his own. He would have made a good father. Probably would have spoilt his kids rotten. She watched as he absently unscrewed the cap of a small plastic container and tipped a single yellow pill capsule into his upturned palm. Waving his free hand at a passer by he seemed to recognize he casually slipped the tiny pill into his mouth and bit down. He told anyone who asked that they were vitamin tablets.
She looked away. He wouldn't like her watching.
"Yowza." Of course all people have their bad habits. And J's had just walked past. A young woman, just above twenty had walked past. Her short skirt was riding up and she got appreciative glances from more than one man as she passed. J's vice was that he was a pervert. Nothing overt - he didn't howl or whistle as they passed. In fact the most he ever did was stare at a woman walking past or serve the pretty girls at his stall with a little more enthusiasm than anyone else who bought from him received. Helena sighed good naturedly and let slip a small smile. Everyone has a vice and J's was pretty tame as far as they went. As long as Sarah didn't catch him doing it all would be fine.
The blonde had often wondered why he had never looked at her in such a manner. She wasn't arrogant enough to think herself the ideal woman, but she knew she was attractive. But he had never looked at her that way, not even the first time they had met. She had never asked and he had never volunteered the information so they left it at that.
"Hey Shoji. Back again?" The oriental boy slumped into the stalls shaded area and collapsed on the countertop on the far side of J from Helena. J laughed as Shoji , groaned into his arms, placed strategically under his face for cushioning. "You could at least say hi to Helena." One of Shoji's hands lifted into the air and waved from side to side lazily. His other arm left his mumbled hello a muffled grunt. She couldn't help but laugh. J was grinning.
"My dad's trying to kill me!" J burst out laughing and nearly fell over. Shoji's father was a man notorious for his sense of hard work and honour. Anyone who dealt with him knew he would keep his word once it was given. His son however had a tendency to receive the brunt of his tenacity, whether he wanted any part in it or not.
"What's he got you doing this time?" Shoji slithered off the counter to lie nearly comatose in the floor, groaning as he did. Helena and J leaned forward over the counter to look at the boy on the floor, sighing at his theatrics. At least they hoped they were theatrics. His thin whine traveled up from below as he explained his plight.
"Dad's sponsoring the Youth Centre- "
"But that's great! We need the money!" Helena interrupted, pleased at the news. Shoji's eyebrow began to twitch.
"If I might finish..." Helena blushed lightly in embarrassment. "...Thank you. He's sponsoring the Youth Centre, which is indeed good," He said glaring up at the blonde tiredly and making her roll her eyes. "but what is less than fabulous is that he's roped me into it."
"How?" J hunkered down and began to pat the boy on the head condescendingly. "I'm sure it will all be ok, sonny. There, there." Shoji grunted.
"Your concern for my well being is appreciated. Anyway he heard that we needed a new kitchen and-"
"He's buying us a kitchen!" Helena flipped over the counter and knelt in front of the exhausted boy, grabbing the front of his shirt. "Why didn't you say he was buying us a kitchen? How could you not tell me he was buying us a kitchen? KITCHEN!" She had begun shaking him with each word so that now his face was simply a slightly green tinted blur. J spoke up gently.
"Um, perhaps you should stop shaking him...?" Helena looked closely at the young man and hurriedly released him. After a few seconds Shoji stopped moving, having gotten used to being shaken and thus carried on without outside intervention for a while. After the swirling in his eyes had disappeared he focused a slightly queasy glare on the embarrassed woman.
"...I really don't like you sometimes..." He sighed and dragged himself to his feet leaning on the wall and continued. "YES, he's buying us a kitchen, but guess who gets to help install it?" J made a show of serious thought and sipped his coffee while Helena grinned at Shoji's misfortune.
"Benjamin Franklin!" All eyes went to J who was holding his coffee aloft in one hand like the Olympic torch and beaming manically.
"...What?"
"You said to guess who got to help install it and I decided to go for someone no one else was likely to think off. It's always the last person you expect." He nodded sagely and slurped his steaming drink again.
"That might be because he's over two hundred years dead." Shoji said without much emotion in his voice, except perhaps dazed confusion and a raised eyebrow beneath his spiked dark hair. J raised a finger while he drank to indicate he had a line of reasoning to follow his ridiculous statement.
"Granted but - " The sound of Shoji's face thudding into the wood repeatedly derailed J's train of thought. Helena winced at the sight. After a bit the young man stopped and looked up. Helena nearly burst into giggles at the sight. The repeated contact with the tabletop had pushed the boys gelled spikes into a vertical wall of hair starting at his fringe and continuing upwards. He looked like he had a cliff of hair affixed to his head. J was loosing a battle with the grin that seamed intent on annexing his face.
"The point is that I have to single handedly install the kitchen myself." Helena frowning, puzzled.
"I thought you said you just had to help?" Shoji snorted, though a small smile had worked it's way onto his face, despite his disparaging countenance.
"Yeah it'll be just me and dad. And dad's idea of help is sitting on the stool behind me and handing me the instructions. 'It'll be a bonding thing, son'. The only bonding that will happen is if his ass fuses to the seat." J burst out laughing and Helena giggled quietly. Despite his words Shoji cared for his father and family as a whole deeply. Though his less than flattering opinion on how much help he was going to get on the kitchen renovation was probably correct. "So there goes my weekend." J grunted around his coffee cup.
"Stop complaining. It won't take all weekend." Shoji shook his head despondently.
"I've done this kind of thing before, so trust me it will take the weekend. The first day is spent putting it together and the second is spent trying to figure out what you did wrong, taking it apart again and putting it back together again."
"Ah, well. Tell you what, why don't you join me for a spot of 'ornithology' while you're here? The pickin's seem to be good today." Shoji perked up noticeably at the offer.
"Really? Don't mind if I do then." Both he and J began rubbing their palms together and giggling maniacally while Helena sighed at the display. They were both perverts.
"You know, if Sarah catches you at that then you're going to regret it. You especially Shoji." The two waved her off and continued to stare out the front of the stall waiting for a pretty woman to cross their gazes.
"She can't be everywhere at once. I think we're safe for now." J observed judiciously, but his eyes slipped form side to side as if he was trying to pick the girl out of the crowd, prey trying to spot a lurking predator. Helena shook her head and leaned next to the two men, though not for the same reasons as they obviously. She had asked them soon after she had first met them both how they could justify degrading women to mere objects to be ogled. J had asked her if she admired flowers if they were pretty or dresses because they were pretty. When she had answered yes without thinking, he had asked her how it was better to prefer one flower over another because it was prettier of one dress over another because of style rather than function or comfort.
She hadn't been entirely comfortable with the argument and pointed out that people are not flowers or dresses. J had become serious and mumbled under his breath that he wasn't sure setting humans above things like flowers was the best idea. She wasn't sure she had been meant to hear, but a few seconds later he had grinned and winked at her and said that appreciating the female form was his duty and since none of the woman took offence and it didn't hurt them in any way what did it really matter? She pointed out that they didn't mind because they didn't know and he had said exactly and taken a gulp of coffee. She considered it poetic justice that the coffee burnt him.
She heard the two of them begin to giggle and laugh under their breath as they waited for a suitable 'specimen' to pass by. Helena contemplated drowning herself in the coffee machine but decided against it. After all Sarah should arrive in about eight, seven, six...
"Wow, there's one now! Hohohohohohoho..."
"Oh baby! Hehehehehehe..."
'Bad timing guys... five, four...'
"Now that is beauty!"
"You said it man!" The two perverted men high fived each other in glee and continued their little 'hobby'.
'Three, two...and go.' A shadow suddenly appeared over the two men as a form blocked the light of the weak bulb behind them. Their insane giggling quickly faded as the hairs on the backs of their necks gently rose, trying disparately to tell them that something bad was about to happen. Very, very soon. From Helena's position she could see the sweat begin to roll down the faces of the two men, mingling with the silent waterfalls of tears they had both suddenly sprung. The shadow loomed further over them as their doom approached.
"J? We're gonna die aren't we?"
"Yes, Shoji. Yes we are. The Horsemen are riding." J seemed oddly calm in the face of death.
"I don't wanna die like this! I'm too young!" Shoji's waterfall of tears doubled in volume. J placed his hand on Shoji's shoulder and only continued once he was certain he had the terrified youth's attention. His free hand formed a fist and he struck a pose.
"We will die like men Shoji." This didn't seem to console Shoji any for some odd reason. The young man was slowly trying to edge his way to freedom without being too blatant about it. The fact that this meant scrambling over the counter didn't seem to deter him in any way. A delicate arm snapped out to grip the back of his shirt before he got far. Helena thought she heard a whimper. J hadn't moved from his pose though he too, had begun to cry more. The arm began to slowly retract dragging the hapless male back over the counter, erasing all the ground he had gained in his attempt to escape. Shoji's fingernails left claw marks in the wood of the countertop as he tried to hold on desperately.
"Was there something you were saying, Shoji?" Sarah's voice was soft velvet. If soft velvet sounded like a swiftly approaching violent death anyway.
"No dearest, o-of course not. Why would I be saying anything? Anything at all? You know me I hardly ever talk, guess I'm just the silent type that way, right?" Shoji began babbling in self defense. J coughed into his hand and muttered 'whipped' under his breath at the same time, confirming Helena's suspicion that he did, in fact, have a death wish. The sound of a vein popping out on the brunettes forehead was loud and clear in the stillness of the stall. There was a blur and suddenly J was face down on the floor nursing a bump on his head. Shoji's whimpering became louder. "A-As I was saying.. erm... I wasn't talking all, was I Helena?" The blonde opened her mouth to speak but was railroaded before her lips could form the words. "No? See Helena agrees with me. Never said a word. Have I told you how beautiful you look today? I'm sorry for everything I've ever done, please don't kill me." Shoji gradually ran out of ammunition for his spray and pray apology and resorted to praying to Buddha for a pleasant reincarnation in the next life, preferably as something or someone that demented women would never take an interest in. He cracked an eye open and found himself looking into his semi-girlfriend's softly smiling face.
"I know you'd never say anything or do anything that you know I would totally disagree with Shoji. Like preying on the innocent women that happen to cross your path and treating them as objects." Almost absent mindedly she kicked J, who was still on the floor figuring that playing dead was his beast option, and garnered a muffled grunt of pain out of him. "So how about we go and get something to eat then? Just the two of us?" Hesitantly Shoji stood up straight and smiled weakly.
"Sure. I-I'd like that. It'll be fun!" Sarah nodded her head as if she were passing judgement.
"And then we can go shopping for a bit." Shoji's smile, which wasn't exactly lively to begin with, abruptly slipped off of his face like a turtle on a glacier.
"Erm. Yes, I suppose that is an option we could explore..."
"Perfect!" Sarah beamed. "And I'm sure we can find you something to buy me to apologize for all the things that never happened." Shoji slumped forward in pained aquiesance. Grinning the girl almost skipped out of the stall, waving a casual good bye to Helena as she left. The downcast man dragged himself after her, mumbling about his wallet getting thinner. Helena watched them go with tired amusement at their antics as J picked himself off the floor, still gingerly fingering the lump he had on his head.
"They're cute together, don't you think?" Helena smiled and nodded absently. "Damn that girl has a hell of a punch on her though." Helena couldn't help but laugh.
Helena had spent most of the day with J at the stall watching the children play and talking with Sarah and Shoji when they returned from their impromptu shopping trip, discussing how the new kitchen would be set out in the Youth Centre. After a while both the youths had drifted off, ostensibly to head their separate ways, but more than likely to spend some time together privately. She had remained behind and had volunteered to help J take down his stall. The man had grinned and thanked her for her offer but said that it wouldn't take him long and that she might as well head home. She had smiled and left him to his work. Now she was walking under the amber street lights on her way home. She had left J to himself about a hour earlier and wandered down to the local supermarket for her weekly shopping. As it was the bags were weighing her down some and made it difficult to walk. The heavy bags kept bumping into her legs, making walking naturally rather difficult. As she paused briefly to readjust her grip on one of the bags so that it wasn't digging into her hand quite as much, another hand slipped into the plastic loop and lifted it away from her grasp. Turning in surprise she saw him standing next to her holding half her shopping. Her face heated.
"You seemed to be having trouble." She nodded her thanks and continued her walk home in silence. Occasionally she would sneak glances at him out of the corner of her eye. He stood taller than she did, though not by much. His hair was dark and medium length hanging low on his neck, with the individual bangs falling over his eyes. The trench coat he wore was non-descript and his jeans blended in with the low lighting. The coat was unbuttoned revealing a casual shirt underneath. He never looked at her, though the profile of his face was harsh and weather worn. His voice was deep and rough.
They arrived at her apartment and he took the remainder of her bags from her as she fumbled with the lock in the dark. Once the door was open he handed her the bags and nodded to her.
"Good night." She nodded in return unable to meet his eyes, before he turned and left. She closed the door and retrieved her shopping off the floor of her small hallway. Quickly moving it out of her way she locked the door and fastened the chain. Then she proceeded to flick the five bolts on her door into place. Only then did she allow herself to breath. Squeezing her eyes shut she turned and grabbed the white plastic bags preparing to haul them into the kitchen. After that she could take a shower. And perhaps this time she could clean the stench off.
This was a chapter I really didn't want to write. It's necessary for the later plot, but as you can see it leaves the current plot arc completely, one which I was quite getting into. Also this chapter afflicted me quite severely with writers block, because nothing actually happens barring the introduction of new characters, which is why it's a bit shorter than the norm. That and the fact that I managed to pick up another Eva fic and two parter Final Fantasy VII fic and a bunch of Naruto one shots explains why this chap took much longer than I thought it would to churn out. Anyway next chap will take us back to Shinji and his problems with Nerv. Look forward to it!
Ja ne!