2 Chapter 2

The sky had begun to turn a softer shade of orange. The dropping temperature, beckoning the crickets to begin their afternoon sonatas.

In the middle of such a tranquil moment, two people stood awkwardly in front of an apartment building door.

"Ok! Are you ready to see your new home!?" Curtis grinned widely, but in her heart she was cursing Akagi cornering. 'Can't do anything my *ss!' She thought.

She'd spent the last two days proposing option after option, which were shot down almost as soon as they left her mouth.

But the one time she was joking about letting him stay with her, Akagi was suddenly on board with it.

Not only was she agreeing to it.

She had already prepared the paperwork and even the agreement from several higher ups from both her and their departments leaving her with no path of retreat.

She even had Tasha waiting outside the door the moment she was about to leave to seal the deal.

"Just try it for a week, and then if you're not satisfied, you're free to return him to us." Akagi replies to Curtis's glare.

"He's a kid! not a gym membership!" An exasperated Curtis screamed.

She'd been stuck with the kid before she was even able to formulate a proper argument.

She held her tears back as she reached for the door.

Somehow, the home she was coming back to would not be the same as the one she left this morning.

She looked at her new ward and sighed. 'You're not any more thrilled about this than I am, huh?'

It seemed that he had understood the underlying meaning behind her expression as he nodded silently when she turned back to the door.

"Well Tasha, welcome home!" She said, leading him in.

It would usually be considered a pretty decent apartment considering it's size.

It was good enough to fit one whole family with three bedrooms, a dining room and a living room.

It was almost impressive that it was bought on one person's income.

If only it didn't look like a tornado ran through the place. Cans of beer were strewn all over the place, mixed with empty packages of what was hopefully only week old instant noodles and canned food.

The amount of litter almost made it impossible to walk properly, almost needing to wade them to wade through this pile of tetanus infection waiting to happen.

The only good thing about all these worrying aspects, was how it came together.

Sure the left over morsels of canned tuna and instant ramen curry were disgusting and probably a cesspool of several new types of bacteria that could potentially start the next major epidemic, but the evaporating alcohol that was left in the beer cans probably killed them before they became airborne.

"I know it's not much..." Curtis was finding it difficult to find the words to give better describe the place, "but it's... not much.." She gave up.

"I have two spare bedrooms, mine is down the hall." She continued, "The laundry room is behind the kitchen which you can start using..."

*Click*

She stopped and turned to see Tasha open the fridge which was stocked from top to bottom with beer.

He looked at it's contents and then turned to look at her, then back at the beer, then at her.

Then at the empty cans of beer strewn about on the ground, then at her again before nodding slightly to himself as if he had finally made sense of something.

He didn't say anything, but somehow his gestures pissed her off, causing the veins on her neck to bulge as she forced a smile.

'Thank God he doesn't talk' She thought to herself.

"Ok... then I'm sure you can settle yourself into whichever room you choose.." She walked towards him. "As for me I'm going..." She reopened the fridge and grasped several cans of beers right in front of him. "To clean myself up and go straight to sleep after."

"As for these..." she held the beers up. "There's a draft in my room so these'll help me warm up." Immediately after saying that she marched herself straight into her bedroom leaving Tasha alone in the apartment.

He felt a little hungry, but the sight of the slightly open fridge told him there was nothing he could do about that tonight.

So maybe it was about time to choose where he would rest his head.

He'd never really been very fickle about where he rested so he just picked the first room he entered.

It was a simple and plain room. A bed, a desk and a closet. All in the monotone colors of white and grey.

He felt the wall with his hand, feeling the minuscule bumps of dried paint as he slid it along. The permeating cold reaching beneath his skin.

The bed, soft.

Almost giving an enveloping quality to it. And so needlessly light, bringing a little fear in his heart, that should he push it down a little too rough it would dissipate like a cloud.

In this manner he had familiarized himself with everything in the room. Touching every next furniture a little more sheepishly than the one before.

If Curtis was here, she'd be quite happy to see his expressions fluctuate so much for the first time. Even if those expressions were a mix of apprehension and skepticism.

...

After about 30 minutes inspecting each piece of furniture again and again, young Tasha was completely unsure what he was supposed to do.

So he decided maybe he should bathe first before doing anything else.

The bathroom door slid open with a little effort. Letting some steam waft out and mingle with the cold air outside.

As soon as he stepped in however, he had to stop.

As immediately in front of him was a naked Curtis immersed from the neck down in the bath.

"Oh right... I forgot to tell you.. Uh... the bathroom is shared for all three rooms, so you should try to knock next time.." It might be the heat from the bath or the three to four beers whose cans were now floating on the water, but Curtis was completely flushed.

"And uh..." She was almost about to say something else, but then she saw it.

There.. right on his bare body, where his right arm should be, was nothing.

What was left was a conspicuous patch of a stump.

The pinkish brown skin marked his body distinctively, almost looking like parasitic roots that spread from his shoulder to the center of his left breast.

That was one of the big ones, but it was far from being the only one.

Flesh and skin had healed over what looked like they came from pretty bloody wounds. It would never look the same, crevice like scars now adorned a body only the unluckiest of soldiers should ever have.

And she'd seen wounds, even had some of her own. And looking at his, her mind was stuck wondering about how long he'd been struggling.

How does a twelve year old have wounds that were probably a quarter as old as they were?

It was difficult for her to figure out what she wanted to feel in this moment.

A lot of emotions were racing to take predominance of her conscious mind and she wasn't sure which one to give more sway at this exact moment.

One thing was clear though.

Anger was quickly and surely taking a lead.

She stood up immediately, ignoring the fact that her body was bare, "I'm done with the bath, the water's still hot, add more if you want to."

Nearing the door, she dropped something in the trash before she exited.

If one were to look inside, they'd see the beer can in a miserable state.

It wasn't just crushed or flattened, it had been completely compacted into a smooth ball.

...

*Ring Ring*

"It's almost 10 o'clock, someone better be dead or dying." Akagi spat into her phone.

"Dear God you're like an old person." Curtis's voice rang out from the phone.

"Like you have the right to say anything 'Crow's feet'" she answered.

"H... I don't!. You!" Akagi smirked.

"As if nobody really noticed that you started using make up." She continued.

"I just want to look more presentable as a teacher, it has nothing to do with crow's feet!"

"Sure, and I wear a lab coat everywhere so that everyone respects me as a scientist." Akagi retorted.

"You don't?" Curtis's brows furrowed as she asked.

"No, my love handles magically disappear after day after day of take out and 8 hours a day in an office chair!" The volume coming out of her phone was so loud, Curtis had to push it away from her face. "Get your head out of your ass Curtis, why're you calling me so late anyway?"

"It's about the kid..." Curtis answered.

"Didn't I just hand him to you 5 hours ago? Are you kidding me!? You've already given up?" Even through the phone, she could hear Akagi's exasperation.

"Actually it's the opposite... wait.. what do you mean already?" Curtis interrogated.

"Haaaaaa!" Akagi so obviously fake yawned into the phone, "y'know, it's quite late, what was it you needed again?"

Curtis knew she was being deflected, but she put her suspicions away.

Knowing Akagi, the issue was probably a little more troublesome than she first assumed. But it was nothing she couldn't handle.

"Yeah... I guess I'll take the kid off your hands for awhile..." She decided.

"Oh is that it?" Akagi asked, unperturbed.

"You don't seem surprised..." she said.

"Yeah it's not really that surprising... I mean.. I'm a head psychologist and all.. and you're my oldest patient." Akagi answered.

"Go to hell!" Curtis shouted.

"I wrote my whole doctorate thesis surrounding you." She continued. "Actually more surprised you didn't offer to bring him home much faster... hehe, jokes aside you need anything else?"

"Yeah, one thing." Curtis spoke, but her tone was flat this time, almost as if the banter they had just a second ago never happened.

Akagi unconsciously gripped her phone tighter, the temperature felt like it had dropped suddenly as the hairs on her nape stood up. "Hmm?"

"Tell those guys that I don't care what they decide to do to him after all this is done, but make sure I never see him again." Even through the phone Akagi could feel the ferocity building up behind those words as she gulped. "Because if I do, it won't matter if he's getting around in the world or standing behind those walls they call a prison... Get what I mean?"

"Yep! Mmhmm!" Akagi "The thing is... about that..."