FicWad

Alvin noted the watchings of an older woman. He had yawned only moments earlier, and she had caught a glimpse of his tongue. Pity for her they weren’t on the train anymore. Alvin leaped and landed in a puddle, splashing water over the old hag’s shoes. She squawked and began to shout.
“Young man you listen here! People like you ought to be locked up! It’s the mentally deficient like you that are causing the moral decay of this city!”
Alvin yawned. “Sorry. In a hurry to go beat up a flock of nuns and get rip-roaring drunk. You know, young people things,” he said, adding a toothy grin for good measure.
Her shouts faded to the back of his mind. But she didn’t have to be so rude. Strange that everyone thought the young’uns were the ones corrupting left, right, and center.

Angrai seemed to thrum with activity, although the streets were empty, save for the rain. It felt like everyone was inside, partying and gossiping and specifically watching him. Alvin tried to put it in a different perspective, but that is what it felt like, and it made his skin crawl.
Teeth chattering, Alvin squelched down the street. He shouldn’t have climbed that stupid flag pole. He shouldn’t have taken this umbrella. Would Jin even let him into her apartment if he was this soaked? He could feel eyes on his back and he flinched, blinking hard, and turning around. Stop watching me, he thought. He was no different from anyone else, he just heard voices that weren’t there.

A door swung open onto the slick sidewalk. Alvin narrowly avoided it. A man of about forty-five in a well-tailored suit gave him a quick once-over before stepping into an idling black motorcar that had one wheel on the sidewalk. The door banged back into place, harsh strikes of a foreign language lettered on it.
The inside was filled to riot with different flowers. Common daisies crouched beneath fussy orchids. Irises lilted beneath some sort of spiky, rose-like vine. Sunflowers pressed their faces to the window, seeming perfectly happy with the miserable weather.
Chicks liked flowers. Jin was a chick.
Alvin went in.

“Hello?” he called. There was no answer. Which ones would Jin like? God, what was he even doing? What was her favorite color? Or flower?
Come to think of it, he knew barely anything about this girl.

A voice croaked at his elbow.
“You want plants, young man?”
Alvin nearly fell on the floor and died. “Yes!” he shouted loudly, trying to make up for his brief fright and ending up sounding like a complete lunatic.
A small, wizened woman stepped out from underneath a bush covered in white, star-shaped blooms. Her tan face was lined like an old boot, and her black flyaway hair was streaked with grey. “Who for?” she whispered, reaching with gnarled fingers for Alvin’s wrist. He pulled away.

“Just a...girl?” he responded. The old woman nodded, eyes narrowing. “She live around here?” she asked.
Alvin hesitated. He knew it was a trick and then everyone would probably know for a fact about Jin and him.
“Perhaps?” he responded coyly.
The old woman laughed softly. “What’s her name?”

Alvin bit the inside of his cheek. Oh, why not? He’d already gone this far.
“Jin. It’s Jin. She lives over on--”
The old woman interrupted him. “Full name?”

“What?” Alvin said. Jin’s full name, what was it again? She hardly used it and she was fine with the stupid shortened version of it he gave her. Plus her full name was in the language of her people and his pronunciation was terrible.

“Dijinneyeh Jochi?” tried Alvin.
The old woman hummed knowingly.
“Calla lilies.”

Alvin bought a dozen of the white, bell-shaped flowers, feeling a sort of odd satisfaction that he was carrying lilies in the rain. The monotonous grey cobblestones seemed to never end, but his feet faithfully took him to Jin’s apartment.
He knocked with the hand that was holding the flowers. A wave of nausea rolled over him. He had forgotten to eat breakfast. God, he was such an idiot. What on earth was he doing? Him and Jin weren’t even steadies, if anything, and she probably thought he was stupid and crazy...
The door opened.
“For you!” blurted Alvin, shoving the plants forwards. Gideon, who answered the door, made a small noise of surprise. Alvin had hit him quite hard in the face with the calla lilies, and getting brained with flowers before a certain time in the morning requires a required amount of surprise.

“Jeez! You’re just everywhere I don’t want you to be, aren’t you?” snapped Alvin, shouldering his way inside and leaving a wet mark along Gideon’s pale blue shirt.
Gideon kicked the door shut, and gestured for Alvin to take his shoes off.
“I know, you ape. Shoes off, got it.”

_______________

Kaylee chewed on her lower lip. Was this truly Jim’s house? It was a relatively small two-story house, not entirely decrepit, but it looked like nobody had lived there for years. The paint was peeling, window frames were yellowing and splintering, and shingles hung helter-skeltered.
Well, no matter. Jim was probably inside, working on cancer cells, and changing the way that others saw things.
Kaylee zigzagged up the crooked walkway, past the calf-high grass, and knocked on the door. It was as if she flipped a switch. The door swung open immediately to show a sallow-faced girl with limp blonde hair. Her dress was patched and stained.

“You must be the maid. Is Jim home?” said Kaylee pleasantly.
The girl nodded slowly, and beckoned Kaylee into the foyer. She turned, and with blonde head lowered, scuffed off to go find her employer.

The foyer was immaculately clean. It was a mecca for straight lines and overstuffed ottomans, incongruous with the exterior. Kaylee felt a sense of shame, thinking of the general mess and clutter of her own home.
“Miss Freck?” Jim’s voice lurched between high and low registers, tinged with panic. “Wuh-wuh-What are you duh-duh-doing in my house?”
Kaylee turned. Jim was leaning on a smooth white wall, and he looked like he hadn’t slept, or changed his clothes in days. And she was speechless. What on earth did she say to boys? She wanted the two of them to go out, and she should have waited until he asked her, as that was only proper behaviour, but what if he never asked?

“Dr. Jekyll, dear, we should pos-i-lute-ly...go out somewhere?” she asked.
Jim paled. “I-I-I don’t thuh-thuh-thuh-think so? I cuh-cuh-can’t?”
Kaylee blinked. She didn’t feel angry at the rejection. Why would she? She was a swell gal and Jim probably just didn’t know what he was missing yet.
“C’mon, Jim! One coffee? We won’t have to go far, I promise!” she took a step closer. Jim flushed, and pulled at his hair.
“I, um, I-I-I’ll have to get changed?” he stammered.
“Well, obviously, Dr. Jekyll, you can’t go out like that.”
Jim glanced quickly up at her, and then fixed his eyes on the floorboards. He scuffed a foot back and forth.
“One coffee. And then straight home?” his voice raised, asking for permission rather than confirmation. Kaylee squealed and clapped her hands. The maid skulked away and into the basement.

_______________________


Jin stared blankly at the flowers. Alvin bit the inside of his lip.
“Do you like them?” he asked.
She blinked, then nodded, slowly. She reached out silently and took them, raised them to her nose, and smelled them.
Her breath hitched, and she burst into tears, pushing her tattooed face into the flowers, shoulders shaking.

Alvin jumped. “Easy. Steady. Oh, God, Jin, I’m sorry, I just, I wanted to be nice, and the flower lady--”
Jin raised her head, tears forming tracks between Honor and Strength.
Alvin internally cursed his luck. God, what was he supposed to do here?
“Jin, remember when we first met? My parents were supposed to investigate you for performing, um, exorcisms, but they were out on call, so I showed up?”
She stared blankly, still gripping those damn flowers.
And neither one of them said anything.