The next morning, Rin and I stood outside of Skye, watching for something, anything, to happen.
We leaned against the glass in our usual spot in silence. It had become second nature to look over the crowds as they passed, occasionally earning second glances from some of the locals. This had been our spot for almost a week now and people were beginning to recognize us. We'd probably have to switch things up tomorrow.
I wanted to tell Rin this. But ever since Yuma and I's conversation last night, I found talking to her extremely difficult. Not only was the subject at hand a little sensitive, but the fact that I was a grown adult and found myself tongue-tied around a girl was downright embarrassing. And yet I could do nothing about it.
So we stood in silence, both with our arms crossed, both leaning against the building behind us, both examining the scene in front of us. Our elbows were almost touching.
"There she is," Rin said suddenly, causing me to jump a bit. I followed her eyes to a spot on the sidewalk across the street were a pair of unmistakable pigtails swung through the crowd.
"She's on her phone," I observed, speaking for the first time in the few hours we had been here.
"Means the others are getting info right now," she answered. We watched as she walked up the steps to the front doors, pushing her way into the office building.
We fell into a silence once again.
Just talk to her, idiot. Say something. Anything.
I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "How was that party last night?"
Anything except that.
She shrugged, a small smile lighting up her face. "It was alright. That whole dance thing was super weird, though."
"Why?"
"Just… interacting with people. Not my forte."
I chuckled. "I'm the same way."
She moved her hands as she spoke. Like she was trying to repeat the steps in her head. "There was this one part where I kept falling, too. And everyone would laugh at me every time." She glanced up at me. "I mean, it was pretty funny, but still."
"Yeah," I grinned. "I saw."
She ignored the statement that basically admitted I had been staring at her the whole night. Or maybe it flew over her head. "And then Kanon messed it up after that. It's funny because she was giving me the most shit, too."
I slid my hands into my pockets. "Are you sure it's okay for us to be talking with the locals? Those girls know all four of you now."
She shrugged. "We gave them fake names. I-" she added with a dramatic flourish. "-was Rebecca."
I shook my head. "You do not look like a-"
"Go home, fuckers," a familiar voice called. I wasn't even surprised anymore when Flower and Anon appeared out of nowhere for their shift.
Flower leaned against the wall next to me and yawned.
"Tired?" I asked her. After their dancing session, the girls had decided to bring drinks home to the cottage while Yuma and I passed out. Seemed like Flower was feeling the effects now.
"Shut up," she muttered, crossing her arms. "And go home. Before I change my mind and make you cover me."
Anon was, as always, her cheerful self. "She's just a little grumpy," she said with a smile. "She'll get over it."
Rin pushed herself off of the building. "Don't gotta ask me twice. Feels like my bed is calling me." She stretched her arms. "We saw her going in a couple of minutes ago. She was talking on the phone."
"Alright." Flower nodded at the relayed information.
"But that's it. So I'm going home." She turned her attention to me. "Let's get out of here."
"Bye guys!" Anon waved as we left.
The conversation had been cut short and I found myself unable to continue it on our walk home.
We had learned better than to walk into the cottage speaking. Yuma and Kanon could be intercepting a phone call at any time. And when we entered the living room, it was obvious that they were. Miku was still, or maybe once again, on the phone with Luka.
But we seemed to only be catching the tail end of it.
"-heading to the airport now," said Luka in a hurried voice. Rin and I sat beside the two as they hunched over Kanon's tablet. "Gonna be around a thirteen-hour flight. And then I'll be home."
Miku sounded like she was jumping for joy on the other end of the line. "Really?! Are you going to stop by before going home?"
"We'll see if I have the time."
This seemed grim to us, but to Miku, who always got her hopes up at these half-assed promises, thought it was the best news in the world. "Okay! Do you want to come here? Or should I go there?"
Luka sighed. "You know I don't want you near-"
"I know, I know. Sorry. So you'll come here?"
"...I'll try."
"Okay! I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"I said I'll try."
"Okay! Bye, Luka!"
"Bye."
Click.
"This is sad to listen to," Kanon muttered. "Like… I feel bad. And I don't even know the girl."
Yuma waved a hand to dismiss her. "I know it sucks, but let's just not talk about it. Stay focused on the task at hand."
"She lives somewhere around here," Rin observed. "But it's not Skye."
"It's probably the rainforest," Yuma said with a sigh. "I'd bet good money her base is in the rainforest."
"How are we supposed to find it? The Amazon stretches-"
"I know," Yuma cut Rin off as she began to raise her voice. "I know. Maybe we'll have to tail her like we did with Meiko."
"That sounds way too easy," I pointed out.
"Because it is," Kanon agreed. "There's no way we'll be able to follow a guarded convoy through the rainforest without being discovered."
"Let's just find her first and worry about following her later," suggested Yuma. "If she comes to Skye, maybe we can just take her out there. There's no need to follow her to the base if we don't have to."
"That's true," I agreed.
Rin let out a frustrated sigh. "So… we're just gonna keep waiting?"
Yuma nodded slowly. "Yup."
She closed her eyes as if trying to contain her words. After a tense few seconds, she opened them once more, mirroring Yuma's nods. "Okay."
I spent the rest of the day looking over my gear in my room. Though the bag had been over my shoulder constantly since we landed, I hadn't cleaned and inspected my gear for any malfunctions since Fairbanks. Catching up with the maintenance took me the entire rest of the day.
Plus, it felt kinda nice to shut myself in my room for a little while.
As the sun began to set, I heard Yuma and Kanon leave the cottage. Half an hour later, Flower and Anon returned. I had no idea where Rin was. I had a hunch, however, that she had locked herself in her room like me.
The lower the sun set, the hungrier I became. I was determined to not leave the safety of my room, however, so I scavenged a bag of chips from my luggage and stared out the window as I enjoy my meager dinner. It was enough to hold me over for the night. Tomorrow, I'd get the courage to emerge from my room once again.
The sun had set. An hour afterward, the door downstairs opened again. Kanon and Yuma had returned. The lack of yelling told me that nothing eventful had happened for the day and I was free to fall asleep.
I sat on the edge of the unmade bed, staring out the window as the last rays of light disappeared over the horizon. The Amazon River reflected the bright colors of the sky. For the first time in a while, I remembered LA. The sun used to set just like this against the ocean. I had been able to see it out of my apartment. But, back then, I never really thought much about it. Now, it was much different.
Afraid to fall into a reminiscent mood, I stood from the bed and closed the curtains. They weren't nearly as thick as the drapes in Fairbanks. Light trickles in around them, but I would at least be able to sleep.
With a sigh, I cleared my bed of my remaining gear, setting it gently in my bag, and pulled the covers over me.
The entirety of the situation swept over me in a giant wave and I found myself falling in and out of an uneasy sleep throughout the entire night. Here I was, worrying about my love life, while I was on the brink of a full-on war.
Yuma was planning our lives after all of this, but the joke he made yesterday echoed in my mind. We're all probably dying soon, anyway. Would his planning be for nothing? I had never interacted with this Luka girl before, but she sounded dangerous. What really were our chances of surviving this trip?
Never before had I been this aware of my own life. A sudden appreciation for the air filling my lungs and the heart beating in my chest rose up in me. Even laying there, doing absolutely nothing but drifting in and out of sleep, I was aware of how easily all of that could be taken away at any moment in the next few days.
It was an uneasy feeling, to say the least.
These fears swirled through my head throughout the entire night. I woke up over and over again, each time glancing out the window to see a dark sky through the curtains. Will this night ever end? I asked myself at one point. I had dreams that were just as unsettling as my thoughts, but each time I woke up, they disappeared from my memory.
Does Rin feel the same way? Does everyone feel the same way? How do they deal with it? Rin especially. She's the one always just near death, causing it or in danger of it. Of all of us, she'd be the most familiar with this feeling. I couldn't imagine living with it.
I was half asleep when I reached my hand out, eyes still closed, and furrowed my brow. The bed next to me was empty. Where is she? My muddled brain wondered.
"Rin?" I asked softly, my voice hoarse from sleep. The sheets were soft, but they weren't what I was looking for. "Rin?"
I blinked my eyes open, then let out a sigh. Idiot, I thought, looking at the empty spot next to me. In my sleep, I seemed to have forgotten that Rin wasn't with me, to begin with. She was probably next do-
I propped myself up on my arms as the door suddenly opened. The light in the hall was off, but I could tell from the little light provided by my think curtains that Rin was standing in the door.
"Are you okay?" She asked quietly.
I widened my eyes. "Uh, what? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."
She was in her pajamas, hugging herself. "You… called?"
"What-"
"The walls here are pretty thin, Len," she explained. Though I couldn't see it in the dark, I could hear the smile in her voice.
Fuck. How do I explain that? There was no way out of this awkward situation. I was infinitely thankful for the darkness that hung over the room; it hid my red face from Rin's eyes. I felt my heartbeat picking up. Sure, we'd slept in the same bed before, cuddled, whatever. But we'd never really acknowledged it. And telling her the truth would be doing just that.
I didn't really have a choice, though. She still stood in the doorway. Waiting for an answer.
"I, uh. I just… I thought you were here. So I was confused when you weren't. I was basically asleep. Um… sorry."
I couldn't read her expression in the dark. After a few long moments, I heard her soft giggle. It rang through the silent room like a train horn. A really sweet train horn.
Then, the door shut. I thought she had returned to her room until I heard her footsteps across the floor. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, she slid under the covers next to me, snuggling her nose into my chest like she did every time. I clamped my eyes shut. My heart, that she could definitely hear, was beating embarrassingly quick. I took a deep breath in an attempt to slow it. If I thought I would have trouble sleeping before-
I frowned. Sure, she might have heard me through the walls, but there was no way I had woken her up. "...Couldn't sleep?" I asked quietly at the realization.
She shook her head, her hair brushing against my cheek in the process.
I blinked down at her a few times. My own depressing thoughts had bothered me through the night and the image of her tossing and turning to the same troubles was enough to make my heart ache. "You okay?"
She refused to look up at me, instead opting to hide in my arms. A sigh escaped her. Just when I decided she wasn't going to answer, her small voice echoed through the room once again.
"I am now."
Ah, the calm before the storm...
Thanks for reading!
