Chapter Three

"It must be hard being you."

"Ouch!" The yellow haired girl reacted suddenly to getting pinched by a small delamination on one of the metal pieces as it wasn't formed right. Cardin knew all too well how it was very easy to just get lost in your own head while working this very repetitive job and lose focus to the point where pinches, cuts and burns are frequent. Even though they were supposed to record any sort of injury incident no matter how large or small the injury to their supervisor, no one did. It was more or less because it was never major enough to stop production and fill out a form of what happened, why it happened and the sort, which was just a headache to go through most of the time.

Even though the large mechanical press screeched as pressure released and molded the metal, Yang could still hear the light chuckle that came from Cardin. Though she was mildly irritated that it happened in the first place, she still spoke up in her usual friendly, happy tone. "Got something to say?" She feigned offense as she set new parts in the fixtures before them. With her hair tied up into a ponytail and just how much of it she had, it seemed to bounce and sway with as much enthusiasm as she had.

"No, other than you're gonna end up without a finger if you keep getting distracted." Cardin was not a people person, his tone when talking to strangers was normally heard as stoic, uncaring or just bored, and in this instance… That's exactly how it came off. "Tetanus is a pain in the ass to deal with. Plus, don't you think you've got enough injuries?" He pointed to his nose, referring to the damage she had received from the thrown rock just a day before.

That comment got her to shut up, her mood shifting slightly as she remembered how painful it was and with remembering it was there, made her want to scratch the spot. Regardless, she smiled again and looked at him "This is nothing, I've had way worse." It was as if she refused to be anything but happy.

"There was this time me and my kid sister got into a fight with some random guys when we were young." She talked while working, remembering what happened "Three guys and a girl, all our age in the same school. I don't think I've ever seen so many tiny fists being thrown at once." She laughed "We got pulverized but managed to get away. Now that was painful." She spoke of the moment like it was a fond memory but to Cardin, that sounds miserable. He just didn't get it.

"Ok, so, your turn." She said, passing a metal part over to him.

"My turn?" He responded, confused.

"Yea, I share something, you share something. Come on, it's easy."

He was not the sharing type, nor did he know what the hell she wanted to hear from him. His life wasn't interesting to any degree, he found it normal, or as normal as it can get for someone like him. Bleak would be the word to summarize it. "Uh… You're really putting me on the spot you know."

"Uh, huh! And you're doing just fine." She held a thumbs up.

With a side eye to her as the gears turned in his head on why she was so nosy and something interesting to tell "I guess…" He was having a hard time "I remember when I was a kid, like thirteen or fourteen, there was this really nice girl and I was kinda of an asshole." He chuckled at that "And for a long while we hated each other, well really I think it was more like she avoided me and I picked on her when I could."

"Is this story gonna have a happy ending? Cause so far I'm not hooked."

Cardin, in a not so serious way, glared at Yang for her interruption "Let me finish, you'll see."

She covered her mouth with one hand for a moment and nodded, smiled and couldn't contain a light giggle "Sorry, please continue."

With a roll of his eyes, he paused only to remember where he was "Anyways, skip a couple years, we became good friends."

Yang stared at him, waiting, stopping the cycling of their production. Then realizing that was it, she blinked then shouted "That's it?! All that build up for just 'really good friends'? What a letdown! There's gotta be something more than that, like what was I supposed to take away from that?" She stepped closer to him, staring him down as if he were playing a prank on him, hands on her hips "You sir, are. A. Bad. Storyteller."

"Like you gave me any time to think about what I wanted to say!" He retorted, matching her loudness from before, even though he was yelling, for once it wasn't out of anger. A smirk came to him as he crossed his arms, forgetting for a second that they were in the middle of work. "Maybe you're just a bad questioner." Ha, checkmate.

"Questioner…?" This caused her to laugh "Bad storyteller and linguist. It must be hard being you."

Now that, that's what caused him to laugh. It must had been infectious as Yang also began to laugh. That ended quickly when their boss noticed their lack of work and while passing by made some quip about how the factory wasn't a social fair and that they should get back to work.

Feeling like he was a kid caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do by their parents, he turned back to what he was initially doing and kept quiet not willing to risk the position he was in and it also seemed like Yang had the same thought.

For the rest of the work day, they kept their talking only about their job. Though, he thought about the moment they had for hours. When was the last time he had a good laugh? And how did she manage to get him to just… Talk like that? Normally, he kept to himself but somehow she got him to not only tell something about himself but to be silly as well. He was impressed.

The end of their work day came quicker than he thought even though his hours had been extended. Cardin had done his normal cleaning routine before exiting, not really saying or seeing Yang during or after cleaning up, but that was ok with him. He needed some time to just process the day and make his way to get more of his medication. When stepping outside and getting a couple feet from the building, he heard his name called. "Hey! Cardin!"

Turning, he saw Yang waving at him as she walked her own path home "See you tomorrow, partner!"

Hesitantly, He slowly waved back to her, this was all very new and not in the usual routine of things. It caused a lot of emotions to bubble up. He was certainly overwhelmed. Shyness, embarrassment, annoyance, aggravation… Excitement.

"I guess that's who I'm gonna be working with for the next month… Exciting." He spoke under his breath in a sarcastic tone as he walked to his next destination.

The streets he was heading to weren't the safest for normal people for multiple reasons which, inturn, made him feel safe, mainly, this was the area most Defected's who were kicked down into the dirt would culminate in large groups to survive. Much like how it worked in the apartment he lived in, but different in the fact that this was much more massive. Buildings simply taken over, normal people were pushed out and compensated as the government didn't want to push resources into solving this issue they thought wasn't important enough.

Who would have known that Atlas would treat you like an afterthought regardless of who you were. It only seemed those who had actual purpose in this world held any importance and got what they needed and then some.

Walking close to the ruined buildings, he soon came upon an opening between a couple of particularly destroyed buildings. Down the alley, a figure stepped out from behind one of the large garbage bins that overflowed with old, moldy trash.

The figure was small, a female with a petite frame made obvious by the nice, tight purple hoodie that hugged her figure. Her jeans were ripped at the knees for fashion which frustrated Cardin. Why would someone go and ruin a nice pair of jeans like that? Well, she would.

"You're late. Again. You know how dangerous it is for me here." Her hands hid inside the front pocket of her hoodie. Though the hood itself covered over half her face but her snow white hair cascaded down her shoulder. Her icy eyes, perfect in every way except the scar on her left, only met his blue ones to glare at him, expecting an answer.

"You look fine to me." He had pulled out of his pocket some bills "Can we get this over with please?"

The girl pulled out from the hoodie pocket a small cardboard box and just as they were making the exchange, she took it back for a moment. "I have to tell you something first." She looked away, putting the box back in her pocket.

"I'm running out…"

"Wait, what? What do you mean you're running out? You said I didn't have to worry about anything." Cardin was understandably frustrated, after almost two years of business and comfort, she drops this so suddenly?

When she met his eyes again, there was fear and uncertainty in her eyes "Look, it's getting more difficult to get this stuff. I'm pretty sure I'm being scouted-"

"And you came here?" Cardin cut her off, finding the impatience to leave was growing. "I can die for this, you know."

Another glare came from the girl as she corrected him "We can die from this. Father is well known to take the lives of people who steal and sell his work. Both the buyers and sellers. Just remember that I'm still putting my life on the line for you. Be a little more grateful."

With teeth almost grinding amongst one another, Cardin offered the cash one more time as his dealer pulled out the small box and exchanged items with him.

"It's only five more doses. Don't blow through it all, I won't be here for a month. At least." She took a deep breath, making sure the hood she wore was in a good position to conceal her which, with her white hair, didn't do very much for her. Maybe it was just for her own piece of mind as she uncovered a moped that she hid behind some garbage.

She looked back one more time, looking as though she wanted to say something else as she mounted her vehicle, instead, she looked away and turned forward and sped off.

With only five doses in hand, the daily user stood there in silence as only the sound of slight wind washed through the alley, covering him with cold, palpable to the cold feeling of dread that consumed him. Staring at the box in his hand for a long while before mumbling in sheer grief.

"Five doses... I wish you were still here..."