"Joshua."
The concrete between them, still stained red with blood, felt much the same as their first meeting, minus Sho and the guns.
"Howdy partner, long time no see," he says, not taking his eyes off the ground, the one flaw in his smiling mask of normalcy being the distinct lack of eye contact.
"It's been six months. It's been six months since the Game, six months, and you decide to waltz back into my life now!?" Neku is shouting, charging forward, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pushing him up against the mural. "I waited for you! Here, at Hachiko, hell I even tried to break into that creepy pad of yours! So why now?"
"My temporary suspension from the RG has ended. I finished cleaning up my mess ages ago, and being forced to stay away put a damper on my conflict-avoidant tendencies." He grins, looking up at Neku, finding hurt and confusion and hope in his eyes.
"You? Conflict-avoidant? After all the shit you pulled that doesn't sound right." Neku rolls his eyes, letting go of his collar, only to grab him by the wrist. "I'm not letting you take off until you've explained."
Josh laughs, nodding. "Believe it or not, when I don't have the events in a conflict scripted, I will do everything I can to stay out of it. The Long Game was scripted, though you tossed out the script at the end by not shooting me." He can feel Neku tense at that, but before the other can ask, he continues.
"I'm sure you know what it's like, I chose you for a reason after all, dear. The most misanthropic person in Shibuya besides myself. Loneliness fed into misanthropy with fed into Shibuya, and she in turn fed self-hatred and misery back to me. Getting stuck in a feedback loop of negativity makes existence seem like too much effort, and well, if you shot me, my point would've been proven, Shibuya couldn't change, but I wouldn't be around to deal with the aftermath."
Neku huffs. "Well next time you wanna die, don't involve me in some fucked-up game again. Better yet, try getting some friends to talk to. Though, with how antagonistic you are, it must be hard, finding people to stick around."
"When you want someone to shoot you, the logical decision is to act as horrible as possible to them, so that when the time comes, they will pull the trigger. I'd like to think I'm not always as bad as what you saw during the Game."
"Well, I guess you'll have to prove it to me, because the first impression I got from you was a hole. In my skull."
Josh rolls his eyes. "You know, I was considering finding a way to apologize for that, but now it'll just sound forced. Still, I hope that in the future, I'll have at least one friend who sticks around."
Neku frowns, looking Josh over, looking at his hand on the other's wrist. "If I let go, you're not just gonna disappear for another six months, right?"
He has to take a breath, contemplate his answer, before looking up at Neku. "I promise, so long as I am capable of doing so, and for as long as you want me around, I won't disappear. I won't abandon you, Neku."
"If you ever do, I will never forgive you, for anything." Despite the harsh words, a small smile graces Neku's face as he lets go of Josh's wrist, and Josh smiles back.
Standing at an old, faded mural in the backstreets of Udagawa, Josh frowns. He shouldn't be here, it's late, this area is not known for being safe, and yet.
Another nightmare had hit, but this time, it didn't feel the same. It wasn't fear, but longing, and he couldn't handle that, he got up and left the house. He made sure to have his phone with him, but he couldn't stay still, so he let his feet guide him, only to end up at this place.
Staring at the ground, for a second he sees a crimson stain embedded in the concrete as he reaches the mural. He stumbles back, blinking and looking at the spot again, finding nothing there. The nightmare has blood, that's good to know, he thinks to himself, rubbing his head. One more detail to add to his dream journal, his dreams seemed to be bleeding into reality.
Pulling his phone out, Josh sits, leaning against Hanekoma's old mural. He opens it up, finding Neku's contact and shooting him a text. There was no point in trying to deal with this alone, and Neku always had a vibe about him, he always helped right the world when it felt wrong.
^Hey, I know it's like 3am, but I can't sleep. Nightmare again.^
He gets a reply almost immediately. ^You okay? I'm up for chatting right now if you need to talk.^
^I don't know… I just, I can't deal with this right now. All the nightmares, all the dreams, and I can't remember anything. There's /blood/ in them, or one of them? I think I had a different one just now.^
^Different? How so? If you want I can sneak over, chat with you in person.^
^No, it's okay. It didn't have the same sense of fear, of terror and pain, more like, wishful longing.^
^Huh, odd. And you sure? It's really not that hard, and if you're having a rough time I wanna be there to help.^ Josh sighs, smiling at Neku's insistence.
^Yeah, I'm sure. Sneaking over to my place would be pointless right now, since I'm not there.^
^I'm at Hanekoma's old mural over in Udagawa. Went for a walk, feet took me here, don't know why, just felt right.^
^Oh my god.^
^Josh.^
^It's 3am, that's not a very safe place to be, I'm heading over now.^
^Don't you dare protest this I am not letting you stay out there all on your own at 3am what the hell?^
^I wasn't planning on coming here, it just happened, couldn't stay in the house.^
^I understand that, but seriously! Hanging out at Udagawa alone at night can be dangerous! What if something happened and you got killed? What would I do then?^
^Wait until the next Game week passes, cuz then I'd be back.^
^And what if you lost, huh? What would I do without my best friend if you lost?^
^Well, for starters, you wouldn't remember me, probably.^
^That's not reassuring at all. That is the opposite of reassuring. If you die I'm gonna bring you back to life just so I can kick your ass for dying on me.^
^Haha, well, I'm not planning on dying any time soon here. Even with knowing about the Game, death does not sound appealing.^
^Your actions tonight fail to convince me of that.^
^This place isn't as dangerous as you make it sound. Sure some bad things have happened here, but the last time someone died here was ages ago. Besides, with you on the way, I'm sure to be safe :)^
^Ugh, you're horrible.^
^I'll be there in like 5 more minutes but my phone's dying and I want to save some of the battery life, so we'll chat more when I'm there. Call me if anything bad happens.^
^Kk, will do, Neku!^