The Title Will Go Here - 14. Chapter 14

- XIV -

Leon watched Stratos’ car disappear in the night, and when it did, he considered throwing something big into the dark window of the library not too far from him. Instead of doing that, he sighed and pulled out his phone.

“Hey,” he said a minute later.

“Hey...” she said slowly, as if trying to figure out who it was that called her.

“It’s...” he started saying, and she immediately interrupted him.

“I know who you are, Leon... I am just wondering why you called me.... What’s up?”

“You feel like getting drunk tonight?” he asked seriously, and she was silent. “And by ‘drunk’...” he continued. “...I mean ‘incoherent-dropping-on-the-floor-drowning-in-your-own-vomit’ shitfaced,” he nodded, and this time, she let out a small sigh.

“What’s the reason?” she asked, and he didn’t say anything to that. “I see,” she said seriously a couple of silent minutes later. “Well...” she sighed. “It’s been a while since I drowned in my own vomit... So, yeah, let’s do that!”

“Meet me in the Mist Bucket in half an hour,” he said without a smile.

“See you there,” she replied in the same serious manner, and the phone clicked dead.

...“I thought you quit,” she said, nodding at the cigarette in his hand.

Leon looked up.

“It’s either this or a sniper rifle on top of a clock tower,” he replied seriously, and she gave him a quick smile.

“What did he do now?” she asked after she sat down and signaled for a drink. “Stratos,” she said patiently after he wouldn’t say anything. “He is the only one who can reduce you to...” She paused. “...this,” she finished with a firm nod and a slight hand movement.

“How was your date last night?” he asked suddenly, and she glanced at him while lighting up one of her own cigarettes.

“Tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine,” she said without smiling this time.

He sighed and leaned on the back of his chair. One of the waiters came closer to refill his drink and he looked up.

“Just bring me the entire bottle,” he said tiredly, and nodded at the look he received from the waiter. “This way, you won’t have to come back here every five minutes.”

He looked at the waiter who was walking away, his expression thoughtful. Finally, he sighed again and looked at her.

“You know,” he started saying with the same thoughtful expression on his face. “Two years ago, before you left, while you two were still together...”

He glanced up and nodded once more when the waiter set an almost full bottle of gin in front of him.

“...I hated you,” he continued after the waiter walked away. “I did,” he nodded after she raised one of her eyebrows.

“I kind of figured that,” she said in a low voice. “With all the screaming matches we would get into... And if that wasn’t enough...” She smiled and reached for the bottle. “You, crashing your car into that tree, while I was with you, was a dead give-away...”

“Yeah,” he hemmed, watching her through the blue floating cigarette smoke. “You would’ve done the same, just admit it.”

“No,” she said immediately, and he snorted at that. “I wouldn’t have slammed on my brakes right before we went into that tree... I would’ve driven faster...”

He laughed, feeling better.

“I had to slam on my brakes,” he said with a small smile. “You were my only witness... I had to do it, so you would tell them that I did everything I could to prevent the disaster...”

She laughed as well.

“So...” she said a minute later, and he sighed.

“So...” he repeated without a smile this time. “He called me today,” he said a minute later, his eyes fixed on the half-empty glass in front of him. “I knew that he would be kissing up,” he let out a very small smile and shrugged without looking away from the glass. “I had some plans, I admit...” he nodded and picked up the glass. “Figured that I might as well take a full advantage of the situation,” he continued after emptying the glass in one swift move.

Katherine wouldn’t say anything, watching him patiently while he lit a cigarette.

“Well,” he sighed a minute later. “It went promising in the beginning,” he nodded and leaned onto the table with his elbows. “For about...” He frowned thoughtfully. “...oooh, I would say, for about two hours... After that...” he hemmed and refilled his glass. “He started looking at the goddamn clock every three minutes...”

“Clock...?” Katherine blinked at that, and he looked at her.

“Yeah... He couldn’t wait to get rid of me finally... The only thing he wanted to do was to go back home...” He twisted his mouth in a bleak smile. “Two hours...” he nodded slowly. “That’s how long he could handle being away from him...”

She leaned a bit closer, pressing her elbows into the tabletop as well, and he glanced at her.

“Away from his goddamn kelari...” he said without any smile this time.

“What did you do?” Katherine asked a few silent minutes later, and he sighed.

“Told him to fucking go home already...” He let out humorless laughter. “Turns out, I still do have some pride left... Surprised the hell out of me,” he muttered and emptied his glass once again. “I mean...” he shrugged. “I could’ve played dumb... I could’ve pretended that I never noticed anything... I tried,” he nodded thoughtfully. “Didn’t work,” he sighed and reached for the bottle again. “So, how was your date last night?” he asked a minute later.

She looked at her almost empty glass for almost a minute without saying anything. Finally, Leon sighed, picked up the bottle that was sitting next to him, and refilled her glass to the brim.

“There,” he said with a slight nod, and she threw a quick look at him, still silent.

He watched her semi-patiently after signaling to the waiter for another bottle, and finally, she sighed and emptied almost the entire glass in one quick, wince-free move. Leon blinked at that.

“Look at you go,” he muttered with a shadow of respect.

“I am a pro by now,” she said seriously and lit a cigarette. “My date was disappointing,” she said without a smile, and Leon raised one of his eyebrows after taking another bottle out of waiter’s hands.

“Do tell,” he nodded when she wouldn’t say anything else.

“It started in a promising enough way...” she gave him a tiny smile with the corners of her mouth. “We had dinner, got to dessert... I was about to offer to open the wine...” She emptied the glass completely, and Leon immediately refilled it, noting her slight nod. “Then...” She sighed and took a slow drag on her cigarette. “I decided to take a risk,” she shrugged after she lowered her hand.

“Risk,” Leon repeated, and she nodded again.

“Yeah,” she blew a cloud of blue smoke out of her nostrils. “I made a move...”

“Oh, God...” Leon briefly closed his eyes. “He pushed you away...?”

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” she asked in a low voice, and he opened his eyes.

“Yes and no,” he said honestly, and Katherine let out a quick, short laughter.

“No,” she sighed and stabbed her cigarette in the ashtray. “He didn’t push me away... Actually...” She frowned somewhat thoughtfully. “I think he liked it...” She slowly nodded and drank more gin from her glass, not as quickly this time. “Yeah,” she nodded a few seconds later. “He definitely liked it...”

“So what happened?” Leon frowned when she fell silent again, and she hemmed.

“What happened was...” she paused once more. “His...” There was another pause. “His ‘goddamn kelari’...” she gave him a slightly hazy, mocking look. “...stormed off, jealous as hell...”

“Jealous...” Leon repeated very slowly, and she gave him another quick look.

“As hell,” she nodded seriously. “You should’ve seen the way he looked at me... If looks could kill, you’d be drinking with a very pissed off ghost right now...”

“He was jealous...” Leon said in the same slow manner without looking at her, and she slightly narrowed her eyes. He noticed the look on her face and straightened up. “What happened then?” he asked without saying anything else.

She looked at him for a few thoughtful seconds, and then shrugged.

“After he stormed off, that was the only thing Stratos could think about,” she said almost casually and lit another cigarette. “Didn’t hear a single word that I was saying...” She looked at the glowing tip of her cigarette. “Kept staring upstairs and muttering ‘He is hurting’ every few seconds...” She twisted her mouth in a quick, bitter smile and took a drag on her cigarette.

“What did you do?” Leon asked her seriously, and she sighed and stabbed her half-finished cigarette in the ashtray.

“I left,” she said simply and smiled again in the same bitter manner. “Turns out, I have some pride left as well...”

“Good for us...” Leon muttered and refilled both of their glasses. “To pride...!” He raised his glass a few seconds later, and she gave him another smile and did the same.

“To pride,” she said with a serious nod and clinked their glasses together.

They smoked in silence for a few minutes after finishing their drinks, and then Katherine let out a soft snort.

“Mmm...?” Leon glanced at her.

“If you ask me...” she said in a low, slightly slurring voice. “...this whole affair is not going to last much longer...”

“Uh huh...” Leon snorted as well. “That’s what I thought almost a month ago...”

“No, seriously,” she nodded and whipped out another cigarette. “I know Stratos well enough, and when he will finally realize that I was right about that kelari lying to him... Which he will...” She nodded again, flicking the lighter several times in a row without producing a single spark. “When he realizes that, he will kick him out sooner than you could say ‘Told you so’...”

She tutted with dark, impatient irritation when the lighter wouldn’t cooperate, and Leon sighed and lit his own lighter, bringing it closer to her.

“Mmm...” she said with appreciation after dipping the tip of the cigarette into the small dancing flame.

“What do you mean, lying...?” Leon asked when she wouldn’t say anything else, and received another soft snort.

“That kelari fed him the cheesiest bullshit ever,” she said and leaned on the table with one elbow. “He told him that Stratos was the very first one in his entire life who made him come... Said that he’d never orgasmed before...” She slightly frowned. “That’s a word, isn’t it...?” she asked no one in particular, and then snorted yet again. “Stratos swallowed that without even blinking... Talk about gullible...! A whore that never came... Hey, that would make a great movie title!” she nodded with sudden inspiration and reached for the bottle.

“He wasn’t lying...” Leon said dully, watching her filling up her glass, and she frowned and looked up.

“Huh...?” she said after several silent, dumbfounded seconds.

“He wasn’t lying,” Leon repeated in the same dull manner.

(“The kid was completely asexual... Ironic... No matter how much you would try to pound his brains out, he wouldn’t get even semi-hard... ”)

Katherine set the bottle on the table, her glass half-full.

“How do you even know...?” she asked incredulously, and was about to say something else when he sighed and interrupted her.

“I just do,” he said shortly, and then snorted himself. “And apparently...” he started saying slowly, watching her to pick up the bottle again. “...apparently, he is a partially Locked telekinetic who sleepwalked last night and freaked the shit out at some melody Stratos was playing at four in the morning, exploding the entire goddamn window in that ro...”

He jerked and spilled some of his drink when there was a sudden loud crashing sound interrupting him.

“What the f...” he started saying, and Katherine leaped off her chair in one quick, angry move, interrupting him once again.

“Son of a bitch...!” she growled, and this time, her voice wasn’t slurry in the slightest.

“You dropped the bottle?” he asked incredulously, and received a very dark look from her.

“You should be a detective,” she said sharply and stepped aside when the same waiter who served them earlier came to clean up the mess on the floor.

“How drunk are you...?” he laughed rather loudly, and she rolled her eyes.

“Not that drunk,” she answered in the same sharp manner, and moved her chair to the other end of table, away from the broken pieces of glass. “Your fault...” she looked at him again. “Bring us another bottle,” she said quickly after the waiter straightened up, finishing with the broken glass disaster.

“My fault,” Leon repeated, feeling slightly better by now – the scene really did make him laugh.

“Telekinetic...?” she narrowed her eyes. “Locked...? You don’t say shit like that when someone is trying to pour a drink...!” She took another bottle out of the suddenly appearing waiter’s hands and dismissed him with a barely noticeable nod without even looking up. “Seriously...” she blew a curly strand of hair off her forehead and quickly opened the bottle, making Leon blink with another shadow of respect when she made it look incredibly easy. “Go ahead...” she said in a low voice after refilling both of their glasses. “Elaborate... It’s fine now,” she threw him another dark glance, and he sighed and drank some of his gin.

“Well,” he said a few seconds later. “Apparently, Stratos had a hell of a night...”

...“Holy...” Katherine said slowly almost half an hour later. “...everything,” she finished after pausing to search for the right word.

“Mmm,” Leon shrugged and finished his drink, pushing away the empty glass. “Right now, I don’t even care...”

“Holy...” Katherine muttered again without looking at him. “What the hell was he playing?” She finally glanced up. “And what the hell was he doing, practicing at four in the morning?”

“He wasn’t practicing,” Leon thoughtfully looked at the bottle in front of him, wondering if he wanted more gin. Then he sighed and lit a cigarette instead. He’d had enough alcohol for tonight, he knew that. If he drinks any more, then tomorrow morning he would probably try to throw himself in front of a bus to end his misery. If he would be able to walk far enough to find the said bus, that is. “He wasn’t practicing,” he said again, and briefly thought that Katherine didn’t look inebriated in the slightest, even though she drank more tonight than he did.

She frowned and leaned onto the back of her chair.

“You said he was playing...”

“He was,” Leon agreed with her, feeling pleasantly numb. “But he wasn’t practicing; he was impro...”

A suddenly loud hiccup shut him up in mid-sentence and he blinked several times, as if not believing he just did that.

“Sexy,” Katherine nodded without a smile. “You were saying...?”

“He was improvising,” Leon sighed, feeling no shame whatsoever. “He said he woke up, couldn’t sleep, went to play some random music... Oh, hey...!” he let out quick laughter after remembering something. “Funny thing...!”

Katherine glanced at him in the same serious, thoughtful manner as she did before.

“He said that he played the same thing as he did a few days ago... I remembered what he was talking about, I was there... It was a peculiar little melody, but original...” He managed to swallow another hiccup. “Went something like this...”

He half-closed his eyes, thought for a few seconds, and then hummed a small portion of the melody that he remembered somewhat well, slightly waving his hand in the air.

“Well...” he shrugged when he stopped humming. “Not exactly like this, but close enough... Wonder if he decides to start composing now... Hey...” he called when Katherine just sat there without saying anything. “Hey... You okay...?”

He leaned a little closer when she didn’t reply, and then blinked at her expression. She looked like someone who has fallen asleep with their eyes open.

“...and speaking of your eyes...” Leon muttered and leaned a bit closer, wondering whether he drank too much and was now seeing things.

For a second or so, he could’ve sworn that Katherine’s black eyes weren’t black at all right now – they were some weird, dark-maroon color, and they didn’t have pupils or whites.

“What the shit...?” he muttered and leaned even closer, when his elbow slightly slipped and knocked over the ashtray, spilling dead ashes and cigarette butts all over their table.

The sound came out unexpectedly loud, and Katherine finally blinked and looked at him.

“Smooth move,” she said in her usual sarcastic manner, and Leon blinked again – her eyes were tired and somewhat sad, but they were the same bright black, and looked like any normal eyes would, demonstrating both pupils (even though it was difficult to see them in the middle of bright blackness) and perfectly fine whites. He sighed and picked up the ashtray, quickly swiping the mess off the table with a napkin. The light in this place, he thought. It was dim, and everything was hiding in shadows – the usual light settings for an intimate bar.

He crumpled the napkin into a misshapen ball after the table was somewhat clean, sighed again, and thought that he wouldn’t mind going home now, just so he could fall on his bed and blissfully pass out. He was about to say that he would take off soon, but Katherine spoke first.

“He shouldn’t Unlock him,” she said very seriously, and Leon leaned on the table again.

“That’s exactly what I told him,” he nodded, and gave her a quick, cynical smile when she looked at him. “And he pretty much told me to stick my head up my own ass and mind my own damn business, since he didn’t give a flying shit about my opinions...”

“He shouldn’t Unlock him,” she repeated without a smile. “If he does, it’ll be...” she paused.

“...idiotic?” Leon helped her with the word search, and she slowly nodded.

“I was going for impulsive and irrational, but that works...”

“Tell him,” Leon shrugged and grabbed his lighter and a half-empty pack of cigarettes off the table, absent-mindedly shoving them in his pocket. “You...” he paused. “...he might actually listen,” he nodded a second later, and she let out a sigh.

“I doubt that,” she muttered. “You were right,” she threw him a quick, serious glance. “He is completely different when they are together... At first, I thought you were bullshitting me out of spite, but you weren’t...”

She fell silent again, and Leon stood up, pushing his chair back.

“I am going home,” he announced after he threw several bills on the table. “All I wanna do right now is to pass out for the next decade or so... What’s kelari’s usual lifespan...?”

She looked up at him, and this time, she smiled.

“Same as humans’,” she nodded. “But if he is really telekinetic, then it’s a hell of a lot longer...” she sighed and pressed her chin into her palm. “Abilities let you live for a very long time...” she nodded thoughtfully. “You should know,” she added after a second, and Leon grimaced.

“Well,” he said shortly. “I am going home, good night...!”

He was about to start walking away, when she said:

“Gem...”

Leon turned around and looked at her.

“What?” he asked and she straightened up and lowered her hand.

“That’s what Stratos calls him,” she said seriously. “Gem...”

“Ah...” Leon said a few seconds later, almost changing his mind about leaving. Gem, he thought. Short for ‘Gemini.’ “Screw it,” he muttered darkly and pulled his car keys out of his pocket.

He started walking away, and then thought of something and stopped.

“How much does it take nowadays to get you drunk for real?” he asked with genuine curiosity, and Katherine blinked at that. “I mean,” he continued. “You drank a hell of a lot more than I did, and I am not a light weight, but I am beyond warm and fuzzy right now... But you...” he hemmed. “Seriously, what’s your secret?”

“You have no idea how wasted I am right now,” she said in a low voice. “I seem fine because I am sitting down, but believe me, the minute I get up, I will probably try kissing the floor...” She gave him a somewhat goofy grin. “There is no way in hell I am driving tonight... I am going to call for a cab...”

“I can drive you...” he started saying, but she quickly shook her head.

“Nah,” she gave him another goofy grin. “I don’t want to leave just yet... Cab will be fine. Thanks though... Oh...!”

Her eyes widened to a comical degree when an unexpected and rather loud hiccup jumped out of her throat, making her hand fly up and cover her mouth.

“Sexy,” Leon hemmed, and she looked at him with the same wide eyes. “Try not to puke,” he said and walked away for real.

...He was half-way home when he suddenly realized that tonight, he was the only one genuinely drunk – Katherine wasn’t intoxicated in the slightest, and that last loud hiccup was nothing but an attempt to hide the fact that she was stone-cold sober.

“How is that even possible...?” he muttered without looking away from the empty dark road. “And why would she hide it...?”

He had no idea. He kept thinking about it and muttering to himself all the way home. When he finally got there, he left his car on the driveway, never bothering with the garage, opened the front door, and made his swaying way to the bed, pulling off his clothes as he walked.

He collapsed into the inviting, tantalizing softness of the pillows and blankets, exhaled with great satisfaction, and fell asleep almost immediately. Right before he was completely lost in the growing darkness, he thought, “Actually, he should Unlock him; it’ll be better for him too... What he shouldn’t do, is to play that goddamn melody ever again...”

He had no clue why he thought that, but before he tried figuring it out, he was asleep. When he woke up at noon the following day, he had no idea that thought even existed – he remembered nothing.