A/N: Heeeeyyy! Literally just letting y'all know that I'm in the midst of publishing all my work onto ao3. It will be mostly the same - maybe a couple of dialogue corrections here and there etc. My username is RustyJeans (same as on here) so yeah. Tell your friends. Or not I guess.
'Well, you're proving to be veryyyyy useful.' Jason drawled, smirking wickedly.
Tadashi was sat in a chair, his shoulder slumped and eyes blank. He worked automatically, his hands flying across a keyboard. Jason stood towering over him, and yet the boy didn't seem to notice. He was focused purely on his work; a nuclear explosion could have occurred and he would be none the wiser.
Jason bent forwards and watched the screen as he typed, nodding along with every word. 'So you are smart. Caine was right. As smart as your dear brother though?' He asked, flicking him on the side of the head.
Tadashi didn't notice.
After a few minutes, the screen flashed green and Jason grinned. 'Excellent.' He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device, tapping a few buttons on it. Tadashi stood, his chair scraping against the floor.
'Thank you Mr Hamada. Although... I doubt you heard me. Expect to see me again soon. I am very much looking forward to our next meeting.'
He clicked a button and Tadashi turned and marched out the room, his arms swinging back and fourth like a robot. He walked quickly, steadily. Out into the corridor. Through the winding halls. Past the guards. Down the stairs. Past another set of guards. Through the locked door and to the right he walked, eventually coming to a heavy iron door in front of him.
Matthew Fournier stood at the foot of the door. 'Finished with you, eh?'
Tadashi didn't say anything; he only stared blankly at the man in front of him.
Matthew sighed and opened the door. 'God, I can't wait to kill you.'
Tadashi stepped out into the cool night air and marched over to his car. For a minute, he stood and stared blankly into the air in front of him. Suddenly, he gasped loudly and stumbled, smacking into the metal door. He cursed and rubbed his elbow, head frantically moving from side to side.
'Fuck.' He muttered to himself, 'it happened again.'
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering where the hell he was. For all he knew, he wasn't even in San Fransokyo anymore.
Tadashi opened the door and slid into the driver's seat, patting his pockets in search for his phone. After a few minutes of groping around in the darkness, he found it wedged between his seat and the centre console.
Almost immediately, the screen lit up. 6 missed calls from Rena.
'Oh,' he said softly, already beginning to panic. 'Shit.'
'Caine...CAINE.. I am... I am FINE!' Rena yelled, swinging her arms in the air.
Caine was stood next to her, a tight grip on her upper arm. 'Please just let me help, we're still very far above ground.'
She scoffed and wrenched her arm out of his grip, 'I am perfectly capaaaable! Capable? Cable! Cabe?'
'Nope, got it right the first time. Here, let me help.' Caine said, grabbing her hand and pointing to a wooden plank. 'Just step down onto there and then we're pretty much at the ladder.'
She did with some difficulty, stepping downwards and almost slipping over. She grabbed a metal pole and looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling very sick. 'That is.. VERYY high...'
'That's what I just said! Right, it's just along here...' Caine replied, edging towards the ladder. He kept a tight hold of Rena's hand to make sure she didn't fall to her death.
'Your hand is...is sweatyyy.'
'Oi! No it's not, the rail is just a bit wet.'
Rena snorted and Caine rolled his eyes. 'Have you heard back from Tadashi yet?'
She fumbled around in her pocket for her phone, clicking it on and checking the screen. 'Nope!'
Caine nodded and guided her to the ladder. 'I'm gonna go first, yeah?'
'I don't careee!' She sang loudly.
Caine rolled his eyes and stepped onto the ladder, carefully making his way down. He waited until he reached the bottom to yell at her to follow him.
Rena stepped messily onto the ladder, taking about ten times longer than she should have done. With Caine's encouragement, she managed to make it halfway down before any issues.
Her phone buzzed and without thinking she reached for it, slipping off the ladder completely and hanging there by one hand.
'CAINNEEEEE! I FELLLLL!' She screeched, scrabbling to get a hold of the rung with her other hand.
'Wait! Just hold on!' Caine yelled frantically, still very aware of how high up she was. He stepped on the ladder and practically ran up it until he was just below her. 'I'm gonna help you get back on!' He called, grabbing her shoe and shoving it roughly onto the rung.
Rena stepped down and sighed in relief.
Until the ladder slipped and they both went crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
'OW!' Caine yelped as she landed on his arm. He grimaced and lifted his head up from the ground, surprised to see that he wasn't bleeding.
Rena sat up slowly, coughing. Her elbow was bleeding but she didn't seem to care much. 'Caine! Are you... are you okay?!' She slurred.
'Yeah, I'm fine. At least we got down onto the ground fine. Now let's go before the cops arrive. We made that much noise I'd be surprised if they weren't on their way.'
Rena nodded and Caine helped her to her feet, draping her arm around his neck. They stumbled down the street, laughing.
'You're a good friend.' Rena said softly, those words being the clearest thing she'd said in ages. She patted Caine's arm and smiled at him.
'Thanks. Are you gonna call your brother back?'
'Oh! Shit! Dicking hell!' She said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. Clumsily, she managed to dial in Tadashi's number and he answered it almost immediately. 'Heeeeyyyy!' She sang into the phone.
'Rena? What's- Are you okay?'
'I'm finnnneee! Peachy! Happy as LARRY!'
'Where the fuck are you? What's happened?'
'H..Hang on.' She covered the phone speaker with her hand and whispered to Caine, 'where are wwee?'
'We're almost at the park. Just tell him you're there and he can pick you up at the gates.'
''Dashi! Wait, whaddawere we talking about?'
'Rena. You're scaring me.'
'Park! I'm at park. Yeah? Y..yeah. Bye!' She shouted, before hanging up.
Caine dragged her along, catching her as she stumbled every so often. 'I barely know him yet I know he is absolutely shitting himself right now.'
Rena shrugged. 'Don't care. He needs to.. to get a grip. Can I have more alcyhol?'
'Absolutely not. ESPECIALLY seeing as you just called it 'alcyhol.''
'You're so mean to me!'
'Yeah, you like it though.'
'Oh yeah? Do I now?'
Caine smirked and put an arm around her. 'Yes, I think you do.'
'Maybe you're wrong. Maybe I... I maybe I hate you.'
'Oh yeah? Bet.'
They stopped in the middle of the street. Caine pulled her closer and grinned sheepishly. Rena hiccuped and he leant in... hands tracing her face...
He leaned in for the kiss just as Rena realised what was happening.
'No!' She exclaimed loudly, pulling herself away from him. She backed up quickly, stumbling on her own feet and landing in a heap on the ground. 'N-no. Absolutely not.'
Caine stared at her, his eyes wide in shock. 'Wait, I don't understand...'
Rena's drunken mind was reeling. All she could see was Clara, stepping away from her and telling her they couldn't be together. 'You.. You wouldn't. Caine... I'm sorry... I-'
'No.' He shook his head, 'I'm sorry. I misinterpreted things. Badly. I shouldn't have done that. At all.'
'It's not... not that I don't care about you! I do! I do I do I do! Deeeeeply. It's just...' She trailed off, instead fiddling with her shoelace.
Caine nodded. 'Okay. Well. I hope we can still be friends.'
Rena looked at him wearily. 'Yeah. Yes. Indeed.'
Caine sighed. 'You probably won't even remember that that happened.'
Rena looked at him. 'There's something I should probably tell you...'
Caine held up his hand. 'Stop. We don't need to discuss this, you don't need to tell me anything. It's probably the best for the both of us if we don't anyway.'
'Why? Whadda you mean?'
'I don't want to be the guy that takes advantage of you. Come on, you need to get home.'
'I'm not weak.'
'Far from it. But you're also drunk.'
'Not... not that drunk.'
'You had half a bottle of vodka. I should've stopped you.'
'It was my choice. You can't tell me what to do.'
Caine shrugged. 'Yeah. I know that.'
'So... where does this leave us?'
'I don't know. We shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have done this.'
'Done what? What's... what's going on?'
Caine sighed and took a step toward her. Then, he decided against it and took a step back again. 'I don't want to hurt you. But... at this point I can't avoid it.'
Rena's heart was hammering in her chest. 'What? Caine... you're scaring me.'
He shook his head and sighed. 'I'm sorry. Listen, forget about all that, yeah? I'm just... yeah. Forget it. Honestly.'
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She leant her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her.
'Caine?'
'Yeah?'
'Promise you won't leave me.'
'I promise.'
His voice was shaking.
'Are you drunk?'
Rena wiped the vomit from her mouth and looked at Tadashi. Unfortunately, he had pulled up just as she was vomiting into a bush at the side of the road. 'Now, what gave you that impression?'
Tadashi stared at her. 'Oh my god. You actually are. You're drunk.'
'I'm not!'
'You're slurring more than Aunt Cass on Christmas day!'
'Bad analogy.'
'Get in the fucking car.'
She sat in the passenger seat, her head leaning against the back of the seat. Tadashi sat in the driver's seat, clutching the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. They were still parked up on the road beside the car. Rena didn't dare ask why they weren't moving.
'I can't believe you.' Tadashi said, shaking his head. 'Do you not remember what happened last time you got pissed? You know, when your friend fell off the roof and I had to take you both to hospital?'
Rena winced. 'Thanks for reminding me. I'm not even that drunk. You're just dramatic.'
'Yeah, and that's why you could barely walk in a straight line to the car.'
'Dramatic.'
'IT'S NOT A GAME!' Tadashi yelled, slamming his hand on the dashboard.
Rena jumped and stared at her brother in shock. His face was red and he was breathing so rapidly you'd have thought he had just run a marathon. Her mind drifted back to the night he attacked Hiro and she balled her hand into a fist. 'Please don't shout.'
'You have no authority over me.'
'And you have no authority over me.'
Tadashi sighed deeply. 'I'm just trying to look out for you.'
'Well fuck you. I don't need you to be my parent Tadashi. I can look after myself.'
'I'm not trying to be your parent! I just don't want you to go get drunk every night? Do you know what could happen?'
She groaned loudly. 'Oh my GOD! It's happened twice in my life! I'm not dead, am I? What's the big deal?!'
'The 'big deal' is that you're one of the only people I have left!' Tadashi shouted, 'and I'm not having you putting yourself in danger!'
'IT WAS A BIT OF ALCOHOL!'
'AND? Alcohol poisoning? What if you fell off the roof? Met a dodgy man on the street? Fell into a river? You don't know what could happen!'
'Jesus christ you're overreacting!'
'Rena, you almost died earlier this year. Sorry for being a little-'
'YOU RAN INTO A FIRE!' She yelled suddenly, sending him into silence. 'You can't dictate to me what I can and can't do, Tadashi!' She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. 'You ran into a fire.' She repeated quietly.
'This again. You always bring up the fire. I've apologised - what more do you want me to do?'
'I don't know!' She replied, 'I don't know.' She reached forwards and fiddled with the buttons for the radio, looking for something to fill the silence. An unfamiliar country song played quietly and she turned the volume up to hear it properly.
It was the third of June, another sleepy, delta day
I was out chopping cotton and my brother was baling hay...
'An ode to Billy Joe.' Tadashi said, the ghost of a smile on his lips.
'What?'
'The song. An ode to Billy Joe. Dad hated it, he'd always turn the radio off when it played. I don't think it's all that bad.'
'Now that you mention it, it sounds familiar.'
And at dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And mama hollered out the back y'all remember to wipe your feet
'Tadashi.'
'Yes?'
'I don't understand.'
'Understand what exactly?'
Today Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge
'Why Hiro wants to kill himself.'
Tadashi turned the music off. 'Why would you say that? Now? Really?'
She shrugged. 'It's weird we never talk about it.'
'Is that the alcohol talking, or you?'
'Both?'
He sighed and didn't answer her for a long time. 'I don't know why. I don't want to talk about this right now.'
'You never wanna talk about it.'
'Neither do you! You're only asking because you're drunk.'
'Are you mad?'
'...Not really. A little. I don't know. There's a lot going on.'
She squinted at him. 'Like?'
'Just... school.'
'Somehow I don't believe that. I know there's something going on with you. I always know.'
He smiled. 'That you do.'
'So? What is it?'
'Nothing. I'm fine.'
'Fucking liar.'
'Say whatever you want, Rena. I'm past the point of caring. Let's just go home before you vomit in the car.'
She grimaced. 'No promises I'll make it that far.'
Tadashi rolled down the windows as he backed out. The fresh air was cool on his face. 'You know you can talk to me about anything, yeah?' He said, looking at her slumped figure out the corner of his eye.
'Right back at you.' She looked out the window and sighed. 'When did everything start going to shit?'
'Probably about 11 years ago, to be fair.'
'Do you think we're doomed, the three of us? Like... we're destined to always end up back in this car not saying what we need to say?'
'We're all doomed. We're all gonna die one day.'
'God, that's fucking depressing.'
'Doesn't have to be. Life's only beautiful 'cause it's short.'
'I don't think I'm destined for my life to be beautiful.'
'No. You are. Just... give it time.'
'What if I don't want to?'
'Well, tough luck. You're not going to leave me. Or Hiro.'
'Considering it.'
'Well that's rude. What have we ever done to you?'
'I have a spreadsheet.'
'Fair enough.'
Rena looked out the window and chuckled softly. 'Yeah. Fair enough.'
