Authors Note: Okay, so the secret is out: I am officially the worst person at updating multi-chapter fic ever! I did have this next chapter almost complete on my old laptop but I have recently moved from the UK to Italy and have a new laptop and forgot to transfer the file. So here it is!

Intermission: A Conversation

The door closed quietly behind Yoyo and Corn got to his feet. He took the heavy crystal glass from Gum before she had the chance to protest and refilled the whisky; the dangerously indulgent tinkle of bottle against glass filling his ears followed by the familiar sound of the dark liquid being poured at a steady pace. He made it a double; she looked like she needed it.

"He'd a good kid." Corn smiled without turning around. There was no immediate reply but then, he hadn't expected one. "I didn't think he…"

"Did you really think I wouldn't read your book?" The question took him by surprise and he trembled a little, steading himself quickly in order to keep the glass steady.

He returned to his chair, carefully placing the drink on the table in front of Gum and looking at her properly for the first time since she'd entered the room.

"I…" He started, failing to find the words. "I don't know."

"Well I did." She picked up the glass but didn't drink. "I read it so many times you wouldn't believe…and when my first copy fell to pieces I bought another, just so I could be sure…I turned those stupid limericks and sonnets or whatever they are called over so many times I thought I would go crazy." She finally took a sip of the whisky, her tears falling freely from her face but her voice cold and steady.

Corn sighed heavily and brushed a hand through his hair, pushing the stray locks of his fringe away from his frowning brow. "I didn't mean to upset you." He answered, feebly. "I guess…I didn't think anybody would actually buy it. It was the angst-ridden ramblings of an ex-rudie...someone with no home, no education, no profession. Why would anyone read it?"

Gum gulped again, with more intent, the alcohol already clearly getting to her head. "You knew people would." She smirked sarcastically. "Maybe not everybody, but you knew that the other rudies would be curious. Even back then the were famous, and you most of all. You knew that Professor K was never any good at keeping secrets, and that our business was always their business too." She looked Corn straight in the eye. "You knew that everybody who read your book would know that those poems were about us." She tried to keep the malice out of her voice, but there it was, the old bitchy Gum who could talk any rudie under the table in a game in insults.

Corn could hear small sounds from the corridor, the sound of running water from somewhere distant in the building. He swallowed hard. "I didn't think it through. Jesus, I hadn't seen or heard from you in a year when I finished that book. I didn't know where you were, whether you were still in Tokyo…you left without a word Gum…you walked out of the Garage one day without so much as a goodbye, as though the last ten years had meant nothing to you! So what, my poems were about you? You were the biggest part of my life, what else was I to write about? Every rudie in town knew."

"They didn't have to know what went on between the sheets Corn! How was it anyone's goddamn business what we, or any G.G got up to? Fuck, I hate them. They were simply dying to know at the time, and you just went ahead and indulged them!" She was crying heavier now, large swollen tears falling down her blushed cheeks, Corn wanted to move to comfort her, it was his first instinct, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He knew it wasn't the book or the poems she was really upset about and he asked her the question he'd been meaning to ask since she first walked in.

"Gum. Why did you leave?"

He could see her jaw tense, her whole body trying to control her shaking shoulders.

"I could never understand…" He started.

"Do you really have to ask?"

He looked her in the eye, trying to hold her gaze. He sighed once more. "Gum, were you pregnant at the time? Is that why you left?" His voice was gentle, understanding, without any trace of accusation or judgement but she gave a soft snort, as though he had said the most ridiculous thing ever.

"No, Corn, I was not pregnant." She answered slowly, almost patronisingly. "I left because I couldn't take it anymore. You…the others…once the Rokkaku were gone it was like we just looked for fights because there was nothing else holding us together. Don't you remember? You must! Garam and Boogie and Cube going down to the sewers just to piss off Poison Jam…Jazz and Clutch in Hikage…and you with that leggy brunette from Rapid 99…always spitting at each other."

Corn frowned, trying to understand.

"After all that…." Gum continued. "After all we went through, the years we spent trying to take down the real oppression, all of the real obstacles we had to overcome as a group…the thing that tore us apart in the end was ourselves. Why couldn't we just be satisfied as we were? I tried to tell you…but you were always being pulled into fights that were your own…there was a whole game of tug-of-war going on with you, everyone wanted a piece of the leader who had led the rudies to victory. Half of Tokyo were lining up to suck your cock. And I guess, in the end, I didn't want to share you." She had finished her bourbon now and he could tell from her posture she was already drunk. She dropped the glass, a little heavily handily on the table.

"Gum…" Corn felt tears in his own eyes. He gulped hard, fighting against it. "I…" He wanted to explain he hadn't realised, he was young and cocky from his victory, if only they had talked it through, but the sound of the back door closing had brought another question to mind. He had honestly forgotten all about Yoyo and felt vaguely guilty, the little squirt had heard everything. No wonder he had wanted to leave. He continued. "Why didn't you tell me you had a kid?"

Gum gave a surprised laugh that didn't have an ounce of humour in it. "What would I have told you? That some hot-shot college kid knocked me up and then left when he realised there was more to raising a kid than changing diapers? And what would you have thought of me? Oh. Silly slutty Gum has got herself in a mess as usual. I didn't want your pity Corn."

Corn touched his forehead, leaning forward, brushing his hair back once more. "I would never think that about you. I could have helped, that's all. In any way you needed…"

"Oh sure…" Gum snapped. "Child support paid from the money you were earning writing about how I set your heart on fire and then shattered it into a million pieces like fragments of glass…real nice. And what would you do? Play daddy to the bastard child that should have been yours all along? That I wished had been yours…I don't know why you have to torment me in this way Corn. I should never have come."

Corn tried to take everything she had just said in but it was hard, so many memories swam through his mind, so many regrets. Finally he stood up and took the empty glass from the table in front of Gum, touching her shoulder lightly as he walked past to get into the small kitchen.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." He said finally, pathetically, not turning around to face her. "And I'm sorry I wrote my feelings down in a journal instead of just telling you." He could hear the soft creak of the chair as she stood up, the shuffle of her feet as she walked across the hall. "You know where I am…" He finished quietly as he heard the door close once again.