It's A Hard Knock Life Part 3
Waiting
"You see anyone comin' yet?" the petite young redhead asked Brandy.
"... No." Brandy stared intently out the broken window and through the weeds, watching the dark L2 streets for signs of the others.
"But it's two in the morning. Everyone should be done by now. Even if Syl and Maria are getting a lot of pickups tonight, they'll still be in soon if nothing's wrong."
Brandy sighed, looking back over at her. "I'm hungry. Where's the food, Cass?"
Cass, who looked ten and sounded twenty, laughed bitterly. She flipped her shoulder-length red hair over her shoulder, sighing as she sat on the floor. "What food, Brandy? You missed the one meal we get, and you know that there ain't any leftovers."
Brandy rolled his eyes, looking back over at Duo. After making a quick email to some guy named Heero or something at the nearest communications booth, Duo had returned to the warehouse and fallen asleep on the one shabby couch dominating the basement, snoring lightly.
/ ...Solo is going to freak when he sees the braided wonder again... /
"You want to play poker?" Cass asked. "I think we have a deck somewhere."
"You're the one who always wants to play it," Brandy replied.
"I was just askin'. You worried 'bout my brother and Xam, or is it something else?" she asked.
"Ain't nothin' to be worried 'bout."
"Then why've you been sittin' at the window ever since one thirty?"
"Fox and Xam are big boys, they can take care of themselves. I'm just worried about Solo. The girls and Syl ain't really gonna care one way or the other, they never knew Duo, but Duo and Solo were tight. Solo is gonna go into fits when he sees that Duo's still alive. How come you ask so many questions, brat?" he said irritably, trying to close the conversation.
"I'm gonna tell Foxy you're bein' nasty to me. He'll whale the tar outta you."
"Tell him. I'll get some licks in before he beats me unconscious."
"I'll tell him that, too."
"I'll tell him you were askin' for it, after I whup you good, kiddo. If Foxy's gonna kick the living shit outta me, I'm gonna make it worth his while. Maybe two black eyes will improve your face a little."
Cass flicked Brandy off behind his back, sticking out her tongue childishly.
Without turning around, Brandy replied, "Do it for money, sweetcheeks. Unless someone's got cash for you, be sure to keep those pretty legs crossed."
"Goddamn mind-reader." Cass sat down with the faded deck of cards, setting up a game of solitaire.
~*~
Brandy reached into his pocket and pulled out his digital watch, a cheap little thing he had hawked from a shop on Bottomside, but it told time, anyway. Three o'clock. He started to ask Cass what Xam and Foxy had been fighting about this time, but changed his mind.
Suddenly, he saw Syl and Maria walking up the street. Maria had her arm around Syl's shoulders, helping him along, so it was obvious he had been used hard.
Cass was listening to techno on the beat-up radio lying near the couch. She had it turned down low, so as not to wake up Duo. Duo's old portable CD player had long since ceased to work years ago. When Brandy got a real job instead of having to hustle pool at the nearest bar, he was going to buy another one, a big one for the warehouse. Maybe even one with a disc-changer. And some CDs, too.
Syl leaned down and whistled through the window. "Hey you guys," he said, grimacing in pain. "Give a guy a break and let us in, huh?"
Brandy walked over to the window, peering out. "You okay, man?"
Maria sighed wearily, but Syl just laughed. "Nothin' a hot bath and a T- bone steak wouldn't fix.
"Can ya help me out with either of those, Brandy-baby?" Brandy rolled his eyes. "Alright, I'll go around back and let ya in. Boy, you're a bundle of fun tonight, lil' bro. Don't you guys got anything else to do besides giving me strokes?"
Syl's only answer was another laugh as Maria helped him around to the back.
"Who in the hell is he?" the ten-year old boy said, scowling down at Duo. Syl ran his fingers through his short, spiky hair, dyed the color of faded turquoise. Maria just lifted her eyebrows in questioning.
"Shh!" Brandy hissed. "Be quiet! He's an old friend of Solo's. Don't wake 'em up."
"So, what the fuck is he doin' here?"
Maria put a light hand on Syl's shoulder, her dark jade eyes cool and calming. "If Brandy says he's alright, Sylvain, then he must be alright."
Normally, Syl would have flown off the handle at somebody calling him by his full name, but he had always let Maria do it, and tonight was no different. He just gave her one assessing look with his dark brown eyes, then walked off. He went to take a cold shower and wrap in some blankets, but before he fell asleep, he dropped his share of cash into the mason jar in the corner, as did Maria. After Syl was done with his shower, Maria went to get changed into her street clothes, washing the garish makeup from her pale face and putting back her dark brown hair. Syl fell asleep in the corner, wrapped in some ragged blankets, and Maria took some of them, wrapping up and falling asleep with her head in his lap.
~*~
It was about three thirty when Mao opened the skylight and gracefully dropped twenty feet to the center of the room with nothing but a quiet thump that didn't wake Syl, Maria, or Duo. "Who is this kid?" she purred, cocking her head as she looked at Duo. She smiled at his all-black outfit, then looked at her own outfit, black catsuit, black skullcap, black gloves. The thumb and trigger-finger were cut out of the right one.
"We have the same fashion sense. Black is classic in any season." She took her skullcap off and threw it in a box in the corner. She ruffled her fingers through her short, blond, red-streaked hair, soft as duck fluff. Mao giggled, making it messy and mussed, just like she liked it.
"Friend of Solo's," Brandy replied without turning around. "How went the heist?"
"Perrrrrfect, as usual," Mao said, smirking a little. After putting a couple of rolls of tens and twenties into the jar that held their collective stashes, she went and sat next to the window, her legs folded beneath her. "Lots of credit cards. I went and emptied all of the accounts. If I had waited, they would have canceled the cards, and I would have had to go through all that trouble for nothing."
"Why do you always take the roofs?"
"Less traffic," she replied, smirk widening a little. "So, who are you looking for, Brandy? Did you spot Ozzies or something?" Her catlike yellow- green eyes narrowed at the thought.
"No. Just waiting for the others to get back."
"They're big enough to take care of themselves, Brandy. Don't you want to sleep?"
"Not yet. I'll sleep when they get here."
Mao shrugged. "Well, I'm going to go sleep on the roof. It's hot in here."
~*~
Xam was the next one to come in, staggering and drunk. "Who... wass dis?" he slurred, reaching down to shake Duo's shoulder.
"Don't, Xam!"
"Why?"
"Just let 'em sleep."
"'Kay. Is Fox 'ere yet?"
"... No." Brandy turned around to look at Xam. His club clothes--black vinyl leather pants and a black, ripped muscle shirt--were a wild, exotic contrast to his hair, streaked with more purple than black, which was its original color. His Latino-tinted skin was smeared with glitter, and his dark, dark violet eyes were glazed with alcohol.
"Mmm... good... I'm goin' ta bed, then." The older boy stumbled off to find a quiet, dark corner of the warehouse to sleep off his booze. Brandy went over to the box in the corner, making sure the bottle of aspirin there had at least a few tablets left in it for the morning. He glanced over at Cass. She had fallen asleep on the floor, so he turned the radio off, rubbing his eyes and running a hand through his feathery white- blond hair. It had been a long night, and it would be an even longer day.
Suddenly, a gravely voice came from the outside of the window. "Who's back? Let me in."
"Sure thing, Fox."
Foxy was shocked when he saw Duo, his intense emerald eyes disbelieving. "He's alive?! How?"
Brandy shrugged. "I think he left L2. He never said. You and Solo'll have to ask him."
After the initial shock faded from him, Foxy got undressed into his street clothes, throwing some money in the jar. Jaded, the appearance of a boy that had been assumed dead for five years didn't faze him very much. He saw his sister sleeping on the hard cement floor. "How come you didn't tell Cass to go to bed?"
"She wanted to stay up."
"She eat?"
"Uh-huh."
"You and him eat?" Foxy said, looking over at Duo.
"No."
"I told Solo to bring back some bread and stuff on his way back. You guys can eat then, whatever they bring back. You go and check the tapwire like I told you, see what our friendly neighborhood Ozzies are doing'?" Foxy asked.
"Forgot, Fox," Brandy replied, sighing. "You want me to turn it on?"
"Nah, I'm too tired to even listen to what those damned greencoats have to say this mornin'." Foxy slumped down in a folding chair, throwing his clubbing clothes into a cardboard carton in the corner. He crossed one leg over the other, and started to take his boots off. "Don't let me forget to send Syl and Cass down to the laundry-mat tommorrow with some change, if we got it."
"Uh, better send someone else with her, Fox. Syl's gonna be a little sore."
Foxy grimaced, not asking any questions about Syl's run. He didn't have to. "Right. I'll send Emily, then."
Brandy had liked the way Foxy looked before the church burned down; strong, younger, tough, but not hardened. He looked older and more weathered now, since Father Maxwell, Sister Helen, Brew, Duff and the other kids died. Foxy looked over at Duo, picking the braided pilot up and moving him over to the other side of the couch. Duo mumbled a little in his sleep, but he didn't wake up. Then Foxy reached down and picked up his sister, lying her down on the other side of the couch, then throwing a blanket over both of them.
"Hey guys, we're baaaaaaaack!! Let us in, will ya?" Even though he had been out working all night, Solo's voice was no less bouncy or enthusiastic than usual.
Brandy went around to the back, letting them in. Emily, scowling and looking exhausted, walked in with her arms full of groceries, and Willow followed behind her, yawning. Leais followed them, carrying the dirty blonde little five-year old, Maxy, who had fallen asleep across her shoulder, her thumb in her mouth. Solo was the last one in, a bag of groceries in one arm and a jug of milk in the other.
That's when he saw Duo, sprawled across the couch next to Cass.
His stormy blue eyes widened, and the gallon of milk in his hand slammed to the floor, shattering, splashing white. The bag fell out of his other hand, spilling broken bottles and packets of cheap lunch meat.
Brandy jumped to his feet. "Solo! Look, Solo, don't freak--"
But it was too late. Solo had already fainted, his knees buckling and his eyes rolling back in his head. He collapsed in a heap amidst a puddle of spilled milk and broken glass.
"Damn."
Duo slept on, oblivious.
TBC...
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