Meliora - Extricate - 10

[lady_mab]

Lysander Stavros

Kaito bounds up the stairs towards the restaurant like a kid about to enter a candy store. It wouldn't even be a surprise if he starts skipping.

My feet drag, and I pick absently at the rolled up cuffs of my shirt sleeves. What is it about buildings in the central ring of Eminence that just make you feel incredibly under dressed? I'm about to tell him to calm down, but he tugs open the restaurant door and waits for me to join him. "Dude, we're like ten minutes early."

"Uh, so? There could be a line? I could want to get good seats?" Kaito slips in behind me and immediately sweeps past.

I follow behind, wondering if he even knows where he is going.

Apparently he does, because we find ourselves in one of the open meeting rooms, tables shoved up to one side for a buffet, and nothing else.

There are a few others already in the room, wallflowers against a tacky beige foundation. The room is far too large to host such a small collection of people. I doubt that it will even fill up all that much, either.

"I'm so glad we got here early," I grumble as I keep pace with Kaito's shadow.

He makes his way towards the buffet tables on the far end, giving smiles to anyone who looks in his direction. "Shut up. You're not missing out on anything."

"It's a Wednesday."

"Christ," he groans, glancing at me over his shoulder. "You're not thinking about having to work tomorrow, are you?"

I grin despite myself. Between our little trio, Kaito is arguably the most successful, but also the most childish. "It's called being an adult. You should try it."

He tosses his hands into the air. "Don't give me that. Did Rhys tell you to say that?" I'm about to respond when he carries right on without waiting. "And don't do that hair and smile thing. It doesn't work on me."

I hesitate, trying to figure out what he means. "What?"

"That thing where you..." He makes a face that I suppose is supposed to be an attempt at a brooding model from a magazine. When he mimes raking his hand through his hair, I realize that I've been doing that a lot unconsciously. I almost reach for my loose strands, to shake them out and fiddle with them, but Kaito breaks character and arcs an eyebrow. "Is that what makes you a good teacher?"

He ignores my frown and turns to the table to start grabbing some food. I have to argue back all the same. “I teach secondary school. I don't flirt with my students."

Kaito's response is to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively. "Not on purpose, anyway."

"Hey--"

He chokes on a laugh and takes a bite of a carrot stick.

I swallow down a wave of annoyance.

I shove my hands into my pockets and start to make my way towards the center of the room. It will be a good place to try and see the scope of the rest of the meeting as it starts to get into swing. "It's almost eight, and no one looks like they're ready to step up and lead it."

Kaito holds out the plate, and I take a cracker and some of the cheese slices. "Then let's see if anything happens, and if not, I'm going to do what I do best."

I pretend to put some thought into this for far longer than I actually need to. "What, mix a mean cocktail or get phone numbers from at least three women?" I grin and fidget again with my sleeves as he laughs.

"Strictly business! Or unless she's really hot. You know I have a weakness for the pretty ones."

While he definitely does have a type, I refrain from commenting on it. Instead, the two of us stand in the middle of the room and watch people filter in. It takes about another ten minutes before the people stop their steady, if not awkward, flow into the space.

Definitely way too big of a room.

Kaito nudges me with his elbow and points in an arbitrary direction. "Shall we get started?"

I sigh and shrug. I know exactly what he wants to do, but I'm not entirely too certain how helpful it will be when the rest of the people are currently staring at us like we have a plague. "I don't know what you're hoping to achieve, but yeah, sure. Let's get going."

"I'm hoping to break the tension hanging onto this room like a pall," he says with a 'no duh' tone.

"Nice vocab word."

"Thank you. I thought the teacher would approve."

I snort, run a hand back through my hair and ignore his amused look. "Hah. Culture and Evolution, not Literature, but you get points for trying."

We make our way to the opposite end of the room, trying to keep up a casual pace and not look like we're pinpointing anyone in particular.

Kaito tosses his plate into a rubbish bin and, without breaking stride, brings himself into speaking range with two girls that are probably in university. "Hi there. My name's Kaito. You Informants for this game, too?"

The one on the left immediately ducks her head and mumbles something. The other glances between Kaito and myself.

Unfazed, my companion carries on with his usual charming smile in place. "I just thought it would be a good idea to start getting to know everyone. You know, since it doesn't look like there are any other plans for us." He makes a show of indicating the room. "I work at Temple Fusion."

The girl on the right perks up immediately at that. "Oh, I love that bar!"

“I’m flattered! I guess I should have said by I work there I meant I own it, but I guess I technically work there too.” Kaito carries on with the conversation well enough on his own.

I do my own little part, smiling politely and shaking their hands when he introduces me. But to be honest, I’m perfectly content listening to their conversations carry on around me. I watch the tension in the two girls ease, and then a few more people come and join in.

Kaito doesn’t pressure anyone to talk, keeping the conversation moving as they discuss the lack of structure in this so-called meeting.

When he moves us on to the next person, I take a moment to glance around the room at all of the others standing around. After seeing Kaito strike up a conversation easily enough, the tension seems to have broken and a few others are starting to talk. While the average age range is university to mid-thirties, there are a few that are clearly teenagers. I barely recognize one of them from around campus, and he stands awkwardly to the side, not really partaking in the conversation with the older women next to him.

Our next target is another university student -- or at least, I’m pretty sure he is. He has a very sour expression that makes it hard to tell.

“Hello!” Kaito chimes without hesitation. “The name’s Kaito.”

“Rain,” he replies.

I stop short, staring at him in confusion. Even Kaito is caught off-guard.

The young man sighs. “My name, not the weather.”

This startles a laugh out of me. “You get that a lot, don’t you?”

“It would be a lot easier if my parents didn’t name me after a common weather occurrence, yes.” His smirk shows enough good humor that I at least don’t feel like we’re bothering him or he’s insulted over our reaction to his name. “I hear you work at Temple Fusion.”

“Yeah! Have I found another fan?”

Rain makes a noncommittal noise. “Sort of. My teammates frequent it, but it’s not really my sort of thing.” He mirrors my posture with his hands shoved into his pockets, so I fidget and pull my hands free. But he’s not really paying much attention. Which, to be fair, I’m not doing a lot of talking. "I can see how it will be handy in this game."

"I hope so. That's kind of what I'm hinging on really."

Once again, I let my focus drift off, still listening to the conversation at hand, as I watch the people shift and swirl around the room. So many different types. And, like Kaito and myself, not invited to be a Participant.

Does everyone else feel about this game the same way that I do? That it's unfair and very unsafe?

My gaze focuses on the only bright color that I can see -- purple curls, attached to someone keeping pace exactly opposite from us.

A nudge comes to my ribs and I jump in surprise. "I'm sorry," Kaito teases, "is this boring you?"

I rub the back of my neck, feeling very tired and really needing a smoke. Something about the tension in this room is getting to my already frayed nerves. "No, it's just... there's a guy across the room who keeps looking at us."

"Whatever." Kaito moves on without waiting to see if I'll follow, but I do anyway. "We'll get to him when we get to him. No one is going to escape my charms."

I shake my head and roll my eyes. "You say that like it is possible to even try."

As we dive into the next group, I try to make myself focus on the conversations more than previously. I try to participate more, though my hands are starting to get a bit restless.

I asked to be Zoné's Informant because I wanted to participate in the game that promised information. I won't be much use if I can't get myself to pay attention long enough.

Every so often, I spot the purple-haired man shadowing us from the opposite end of the room. We still haven't closed the distance between us.

However, the opportunity arrives when he stops long enough to refill his glass with water.

Kaito and I move toward him, skipping past a few others. We didn't even have to say anything to each other to know that we are both terribly curious as to why it seems like he's avoiding us. "Hey there!" The sudden greeting makes the man jump slightly and stare at us with wide, ghostly pale eyes. "I'm Kaito. I own and bartend at the Temple Fusion."

I hold out my hand. "I'm Lysander. I'm a teacher."

His expression is quickly schooled into a picture perfect level of control as he studies us. "Jonas." Then he points at me and says, "No, thank you," to a question I didn't ask. "Mildly interested," is delivered to Kaito with a slight raising of his eyebrow.

Oh. Well, that's not what I expected as a greeting.

Kaito laughs, clearly amused. "Do you enjoy long walks on the beach, too?"

The frown that Jonas sports shifts ever so slightly into a crooked smile. "Not in the sludge they have around here."

"What do you do for work?"

"Day job is a hairdresser." Jonas turns to me, and an instant later, he's pointing at me again. "Speaking of. You could definitely use a haircut. The split ends were crying out for my help all the way across the room."

A splutter of laughter escapes Kaito, and I attempt to not be offended by this stranger. "Rhys told you to get a trim."

He has, though he nags about a lot of things. I wonder if sometimes he can't stop being an older brother, even to his friends. "I know--" I toy with the stands, glancing at them out of the corner of my eye.

"No excuse now."

"Okay, yeah, I get it," I say. I manage not to snap it. A haircut has been on my to-do list, but it never gets shifted into a priority spot. I always have better things to do, or more important things to spend money on.

Jonas watches us, one finger toying with collar of his sweater. "You two know each other outside of this event?"

Kaito and I exchange a brief glance. "It's been, what, almost two years now?"

I try to remember how long it has been since I found the Temple Fusion, when I first stumbled into Eminence. For show, I grimace. "Most unfortunate."

Good natured as always, Kaito smacks my arm. "Hey, I give you free beer, so you better not complain." He turns back to Jonas. "Do you know anyone here? You've been avoiding people this whole time."

Jonas covers his mouth with his hand and makes a small sound in thought. "Mildly. A few business partners, but no one I would want to bother associating with more than absolutely necessary."

I think about the way he has avoided not only us, but everyone else in this room during the course of our rounds. "Does this sort of thing make you nervous?"

He snorts and frowns at the idea. "What, a social gathering filled with bland small talk? Hell no, my job entails this sort of awkward setting." His eyebrow lifts, challenging me to tell him that he's doing his job wrong. "I'm doing what my team hired me to do: Observe."

Hired? How does that even make sense? Does he not care about the outcome of this game? We haven't asked how a lot of the other Informants came to be here. While Kaito and I both have variations of inviting ourselves into the game out of curiosity, that couldn't have been the case for everyone.

"How can lurking in a corner help you figure things out? Shouldn't you, I dunno, go up and talk to people?" I finally ask.

Jonas looks at me for a good moment before shifting bodily towards Kaito. "You're a people person, right?" He waits until he gets a nod in confirmation before going on. "I'll tell you what I've learned by watching. First, you are a very insincere flirt and I'm going to say you also have 'younger sibling syndrome' but that, admittedly, I'm not too sure about. Your friend here," Jonas doesn't even point to me or look at me, "is an addict."

His words sting a lot more than I thought they would. I know I have habits that, while I don't notice, people have pointed them out to me. I know I have the scars to prove it, and I try not to tug down the sleeves of my shirt.

But before either one of us can get a chance to cut in, Jonas moves on to point out other people in the room. "He has a drinking problem, he's having an affair, and she's pigeon toed -- which, admittedly, isn't really a handy piece of information in the long run, but I am just really bothered watching her shuffle around the room in an attempt to walk normally. Also, I think those three men in suits are in a gambling ring."

I study each of Jonas' subjects in turn, watching a man twist a wedding ring on and off one hand as he chats with a woman beside him, watching a woman waddle around the room, and watching the men in suits stand in a rough circle chatting.

Kaito is the first to speak up. "You're pointing at four people."

"Yes, but one of them I know is a gambler. The other three, I'm not too sure about." He lifts his cup and watches us over the rim of it, waiting impatiently for our reactions to his display.

Kaito focuses on one of the people, squinting in confusion, so I take it upon myself to break the silence.

"Former addict. It's been a few years." My fingers drum against my thigh. Three years and seven months, though I still indulge in things that I really shouldn't. Alcohol and nicotine are easier vices for me to control, at least. Good thing I don't have a sober sponsor, or I'd make them tear their hair out.

"I don't care," Jonas says, as if it's such an easy thing to brush off. "You still show signs of it."

My fingers tense, my hands clench, and I force them to relax.

Kaito finally pulls himself back into the conversation. "And you can tell all of this from watching people."

"Of course. I know how to read people."

I shift my weight from one foot to another. It's a struggle to keep my frustration in check, because I'm tired and this meeting has been such a waste of time. "And are you ready for this sort of scrutiny? We're going to be pitted against someone unknown, and he's going to be contacting us only over a cellphone."

He can't possibly expect to be in a room surrounded by others in order to simply people watch.

The playful demeanor Jonas sported through our entire conversation shifts -- the corners of his eyes narrow and I watch the languid posture sharpen into something more threatening. "Bitch, please. I don't plan on hiding behind a tiny ass little screen the entire time. I got my ways, and I'm going to use them."

Kaito holds up a hand to cut me off, a lot like the way I had to step in between him and Rhys recently before their arguments could spiral out. "Alright, now you've got me curious. First you mention business partners, and now you're talking like you're some sort of international man of mysteries."

Jonas tenses, watching and studying Kaito. Weighing pros and cons. "You said you bartend at a nightclub, right? Then undoubtedly, you've heard some people around your establishment mentioning Deco, right?"

Kaito is nodding along to the conversation before his eyes widen. "You're the one. The genius behind Deco?"

"Unfortunately, I'm second place to his abilities," Jonas says with a wince and a sad smile. His posture has resumed its relaxed angles. "I've maintained the connections he's made, and in return furthered them beyond his original vision. But... he's not a part of it anymore."

Despite being here for two years, I can't say the name rings any sort of bells. "What?"

Kaito hesitates before explaining. "I wouldn't exactly say that Eminence has a bustling underground scene or anything, but there's a well-known gang called Deco." Jonas inclines his head as Kaito indicates him. "They used to do odd jobs for money, but a few years ago, they started to take on a more criminal aspect."

Jonas gasps and presses a hand to his chest like an offended woman in church. "Woah now. It's only criminal if we're charged for it."

"Remind me not to get on your bad side."

The flirty tone is back when Jonas says, "Play this game right, and you won't have to." The expression returns once again to something more serious, and it's a wonder he can flip between the two so quickly. "We Informants have got to stand up to this 'faceless entity' sending out messages through the indifferent medium of cell phones. We're all working toward the same goal, so we should at least work through it together."

Kaito and I exchange glances. I know that he wants to try and use Temple Fusion as a meeting place for other Informants to hang out and chat.

I consider his words, running them over in my head. "You mean like an alliance?"

"Please, this isn't one of your history lessons. At least, not yet."

No, definitely not yet, but it will be before too long. I wonder if this will get a chapter in the new texts for Culture and Evolution once it is all over.

Kaito reaches out and shakes Jonas' hand. "Feel free to stop by the bar at any time. It will be a good gathering place to exchange or collect information from other teams."

"Sounds great," Jonas says in a way that I can't quite tell if he means it. "You think this APM guy is ever going to show up?"

I glance at my phone. It's already after nine-thirty. "Probably not."

Turning to look at the rest of the room, Kaito crosses his arms over his chest. "I wonder if he's somewhere else watching."

"Or even one of the people doing a terrible job of mingling." Jonas lifts his brows when we both turn to look at him. "What? It's possible."

It is possible, but unlikely. I think having too much knowledge while surrounded by so many people without it would definitely give you away.

Jonas carries on with a sigh and an idle fluff of his curls. "If nothing happens in the next two and a half minutes, I'm leaving."

"Alright, but before you go, let me get your number." Kaito has kept his phone in his hand the entire time we've been here, getting numbers from quite a few people throughout the room. "You're more than welcome to stop on by for a few drinks."

He smiles and bats his eyelashes. "Twist my arm, why don't you."

We exchange numbers, though Jonas looks less than pleased at having to give me his. With that, Kaito and I resume our mission around the room.

"I don't know what the point is of staying here any longer." I don't even realize that I've said it out loud until Kaito makes a small sound at my side. "Besides, I have papers to grade."

"Guh, you are teaching summer school, and you give your students papers?" Kaito rubs a hand over his face, looking very disappointed and tired. "Just a few more people then we can go. Or I can always just finish this on my own."

I don't miss the subtle look he gives me out of the corner of his eye. I don't miss the implication of his words, and I take a deep breath to steel myself from a default reaction. I'm only on edge because Jonas brought it up so casually. "No, I've been here this long, might as well keep going for the final stretch."

I move on without him, determined to see this out until the end. I'm stronger than the ghost of the drugs I used to take, and definitely stronger than the craving for a cigarette. And while it stings that it sounds like he doubts me, but I know that it's also his way of showing concern.

He's seen me when I've slipped a little too far, and it's not something I want to repeat.

I'm fine, though, and it's not a lie. So I put on a smile and move on to the next group with him beside me and we work our way through the rest of the gathered Informants.

Previous | Masterpost | Next