"It was good seeing you, man."
"Good to be seen."
"Alright, you take care, lil' man."
"Sure thing, Bro."
"Try not to get lost going into the terminal."
"Shut up, Sis."
You four exchange your good-byes as the announcer comes over the intercom. You hit Dave in the back on the shoulder, and he returns the gesture with a punch to your arm. He smirks, and the corner of your mouth twitches up. You shift your weight, and in unison, the two of you look out the massive windows towards the outside.
"I feel like you just got here," you say.
"Yeah, I know, but I gotta get back. Houston's useless without me."
"Gotta dazzle those homebodies with your Strider charm."
"Bro's not gonna do it."
"That's for sure."
You two fall silent, and Bro walks over to you both. He looks to Dave.
"'Ey, kiddo. The plane's not taking off for a few minutes. Hang here, and I'll be right back."
"Alright," Dave replies.
Bro ruffles your hair roughly, making you grimace. You watch him retreat in the reflection of the glass, but you don't turn around.
"What you're gonna do?" Dave's voice cuts through your thinking.
You glance over to him and then you shrug. "Not worry too much about shit. I'm gonna buckle down and figure out where to go."
"You know we're here for you, man."
"Yeah." You turn to face him and lift up your fist. "I know."
You touch fists and rest them against each other. You two lock shaded gazes. Dave moves his hand and holds the right side of his shades. You mirror his image and nod. He lowers his hand and looks out the window.
"This place didn't seem so bad, plus or minus a few things," he drawls.
"What'd you see?" you ask, feeling interested.
He shrugs lazily. "Hooker, money, a guy throwing up."
"Heh, you caught us on our slow days."
"That's pretty damn sad."
"Yeah, I know."
You feel hands fall on your shoulders, and you tip your head back, looking up to Sis who was staring down to you.
"Come on, kid. We gotta get out of the way," she says, squeezing your shoulders.
"We can't hang around in the lobby?"
"Yeah, we can."
"Cool."
Sis looks to Dave and flashes a quick half-smile to him before she walks away. You turn and watch her. Bro passes by her, and the two high five as the oldest Strider makes his way over. "C'mon, kid. Let's go." Dave looks to you and sighs.
"Well, I'll see you in a while," he begins, walking backwards.
"Maybe, I'll come see you next time." You move backwards too.
"You better."
"Feisty."
He smirks and turns away, following behind Bro towards the gate. You watch as you walk backwards slowly. It's an empty feeling, but it was fun while it lasted. You stop beside Sis, your eyes still focused on the gate. She reaches up and touches your arm, but you don't look down. Dave and Bro turn slightly and wave to you and Sis. You raise your hand, some fingers curled to your palm, and they disappear as they walk out of view.
"You okay, kid?" you hear Sis ask to your left.
You nod and look to her. "Yeah, no biggie. Just having a Lifetime moment right here."
She snorts and leans back, turning her head to the right to look out the window to the plane. "For a second, I thought you got yourself a heart."
"Nah, the Wizard's fresh out of those."
"Figures."
You two linger around for a while. The plane doesn't move until a good ten minutes later, but when it does, it moves forward and then lifts off into the sky. You lift your hand again, even though no one waves back.
"Make sure you take out the trash when you get a chance."
"Yeah, yeah," you call back before closing your bedroom door.
After leaving the airport, you and Sis stop and pick up something to eat. You're always down for a burger and for once you weren't paying. Nothing said good food like free food. You plunk down in your chair and turn on your computer monitor. Your computer was already running. You hardly ever turned it off these days. You open up the usual programs before you stand up, getting ready to work on some synths until...
Your Skype phone starts to ring, and you turn towards the monitor, walking back to see who it was. turntechnologic is calling. You sit in your seat and secure your clip-on mic in the neck of your shirt before accepting the call.
"Took you fucking long enough," Dave says, hand moving to his shades.
"What, did the baby miss me already?"
You move your hand towards your shades, and the two of you lift them at the same time. Messy fringes are shoved back as the lens are propped up on your foreheads. Red eyes meet your orange ones, and you lean back.
"Nah, it's nothing like that," Dave replies, reaching for something off-screen. "Just making sure you weren't crippled with sadness since I left."
He pulls a white take out box and opens it up. You notice it's Chinese food.
"You didn't get enough while you were here?"
Dane slurps some noodles into his mouth. "It's you're fault. I'm addicted. Too bad around us, there's only shitty knock offs. If I want something really good, I have to go forward into the city."
"Wanna cry about it, baby boy?"
"Not even close, jackass."
You chuckle and relax against your chair. You hold up the conversation while he eats. Dave gives grunts and garbled conversation. When he finishes, he throws back the plans he has for you when—not "if"—you come to Houston. All of it sounds like night after night of ruthless training. There didn't seem to be room on the schedule for, you don't know, sleep. You point this out to him, and he says very typically "Sleep is for the weak". You can't argue with that. The conversation steers in to back and forth epic metaphors that seem to be going nowhere. You two bust into laughter after a while, realizing the sheer ridiculousness of your statements. He looks up to the screen, red eyes glinting wickedly.
You smirk; he smirks. It's all good.