Black and white

"Urgh... Fuck!", Alex cursed, he was trying to think of something, but his thoughts were only running in circles.

He jumped down and closed the entrance again and sat down. His legs crossed, the elbow on his knee and his chin supported by his palm. His expression was dark and brooding.

"That was Alice, right? What happened?", Gale asked concerned, his head turned to the direction Alice had left in as if he could see right through the wall.

"Sorry, I need some time for myself."

Alex jumped up, opened the hatch again and left the hideout.

"It's been a while since I have seen Alex like this.", Eric said, his eyebrows scrunched together in worry.

"Don't worry so much, Idiot! You know how he is, he will just come back later and tell us if he has any plans.

The person I'm more worried about right now is Alice. I can roughly guess what happened, but I'm gonna go take a look. The rest of you stay here and wait for Gardos, okay?", Gale said, leaving the hideout as well.

"What should we do now?", Eric asked with a worried look on his face after Gale had disappeared.

"We wait of course."

***

"Shit, this wasn't supposed to happen!", Alex grumbled.

He was running and jumping over the roofs. He was too distracted to think about getting seen or causing a commotion.

Not much later, he reached his destination. It was a certain place in the western part of their territory. There was a small triangular garden with a tree right in the middle where the backsides of three houses closed of a small area. He didn't know how it came to be like this, but this small area was completely cut off and there was no regular entrance.

This was actually one of their secondary hideouts they could use in case their current one got discovered. The only problem was that there wasn't a roof in this place, so the only protection from the element would come from the tree right in the middle.

In one last jump, Alex landed on a branch of said tree and proceeded to climb it down. With the back against the trunk, Ale said down in the high grass. Obviously, there was no one who took care of this place, so the grass was almost higher than his shoulders.

The grass to his left rustled and moved in two places.

"Oh, black, white, you guys are here too?"

His brown eyes became a little brighter and a small smile stole itself on his lips when he saw the two cats coming out of the grass.

"You two are always together."

The cats were thin and dirty, it was clear that both of them were living on the streets, just like him. One of the cats came to the boy and sat down in his lap, looking him expectantly into his eyes.

"Sorry, I have nothing for you. But now that I look at them, your eyes have the same green color as hers."

Disappointed, the cat turned her head away and lied down in his lap. Petting the cat's dirty white fur, he asked it: "Hey black, the two of you, do you ever fight?"

"Yeah, these two fight pretty much every day. But seriously, stop talking with those cats, that's something for old hags that don't have any other friends anymore.

But seriously, why are you calling the white cat black and the black one white? How does that make any sense?"

A boy jumped down from the roof and into the grass. In a few steps, he reached the tree and sat down beside Alex, taking the other cat on his lap.

"Why shouldn't I call them that? I think they like these names. It's good that you are back Gardos, but how did you know that I'm here?"

"They are god damned cats! They don't have the slightest idea what their names even mean! I think they would complain if they did though, I would at least if someone called me by my hair color."

"But I'm not calling them by..."

"Yeah, you gave them each the name of the other on top of that, that actually makes it even worse. And as to how I found you, do you even need to ask? You were running atop the roofs without a care in the world, its a wonder you weren't seen by any guards.

But now tell me, and not the cats, what happened? Acting like this is not like you. Did something happen between you and Alice?"

Gardos stopped petting the black animal in his lap for a moment and looked to his side. The profile of the other boy showed a mixture of worry and sadness with a tinge of anger at himself.

"How did you know?"

"That something happened between you and Alice? You should have seen your expression when you talked with that cat about the color of her eyes. God was that line cheesy, even if I were alone I would never dare say something like that. Anyway, what happened?"

"I... said something stupid...", the boy looked down sadly as he said that.

"A little bit more concrete please!", Gardos rolled his eyes.

"I...", Alex began recounting the events that happened earlier.

"Well, that sucks. Both of you had valid positions and the stress from the last week made both of you explode. But don't worry, you were definitely not in the wrong here. Although the same goes for Alice."

"But..."

"Thats how it is, sometimes there just is no perfect answer. You, as the leader, have to worry and consider completely different things and made the right decision from that position. Although it did escalate.

But let's be honest, that girl can be incredibly stubborn some times. I don't think it would have ended any different even if it didn't escalate like that at that moment."

"Haah... Yeah, you are probably right about that. And now that I think about it, I should have expected something like that and prepared myself for it from the start."

"Right, so stop worrying like this! While there was no right decision at that moment, neither of you was wrong as well! And you know her. She will somehow find a way to do whatever she wants to do. This city is smaller than you may think. We will definitely meet her again sooner or later.", Gardos continued encouraging the other boy.

"Yes, you are right. I can't let myself get pulled down by this! Even still, I can't stop worrying. Someone should take a look at her tomorrow."

"Not now?"

"No, it's still too early. She won't have decided what she wants to do and I don't think its good for anyone of us to meet her before that."

"But how do you intend to find her then? The only person who would be able to find her, in that case, would be Forster, and he can't talk."

"Right, maybe someone else should go as well?... No, I don't think there is any need for that. Forster on his own is enough I think."

Putting the cat down from his lap, Alex stood up, a determined expression on his face.

"Let's go back!"