Cat's in the cradle (Melia and Taliesin)

Status
Not open for further replies.
"An hour is fine. I won't die in an hour," Matt said reassuringly to Kristie. "Not that I'd be doing any dying anyway. Especially from a little stab wound. That's very beneath me. If I'm gonna go, it'll be in a spaceship on the first human attempt for interstellar travel." He nodded firmly, keeping his hand above his head, which made him look rather goofy. He gave Kristie a crooked smile.

"But if you need funding, I'm one hundred percent confident you'd know exactly where to get it and exactly how to get it." He gave her a wink. Nonverbal permission to rob his bank account if she had the wits to figure out how. Most of them he had under the securest lock and key. However there was one bank account he had that he had left well enough alone as far as security went. And that was his very first bank account, the one he'd started with his father when he was very very young. His first allowance had been immediately invested and every single penny after that. He couldn't well hide a bank account that had existed almost since the day he'd been born. So he had left it as was. And from that came all of his normal everyday expenses. The bank account was still miles high, but as open and as straightforward as any of his bank accounts could be. If she was as sneaky and smart as she said she was, she could easily hack into that account. And he wouldn't stop her. There was no more realistic thing to happen to any normal person. And if anything such a thing would help him out. No one would be on to someone who so stupidly left his bank account under such simple surveillance.

Not that he wouldn't report it. But he was certain Kristie was more than able to protect herself against minor things like that.
 
Strangely enough, Matt’s babbling reassurances were actually doing their job. It was hard to believe he was near dying when he had that goofy smile on his face. Though as he mentioned interstellar travel she had to strongly resist the urge to start telling him all of the things that were going to go terribly wrong with that project. She had no reason to really know about that however so she told herself to keep it quiet for the moment.

At which point she completely forgot about it as Matt continued talking. It was beyond bizarre to be getting permission to hack something. She was pretty sure that thought was just an oxymoron. By definition hacking was doing something without permission. And now her head was starting to hurt the more she thought about it so she firmly let it go. “Now I know you must be in bad condition, you’re talking all kinds of nonsense. Stop saying such oxymoronic things and focus on keeping that hand up.”

She leaned her head back against the wall and sighed, finally feeling the startled cat in her settle down to the point where she felt mostly human/normal again. “You definitely shouldn’t be saying things that I may take you up on.” She added hastily. “Not that I haven’t been funding everything just fine on my own so far.” She had been, she just couldn’t dump too much money into the charity at one time or else certain agencies, mostly the government, might start getting suspicious.
 
Matt huffed in offense. "I am not in bad condition. I'm just fine. I will be just fine. And I mean just what I say. Do whatever you feel you need to do. If you want to."

With that, Matt sat back, falling into silence. Without the distraction of talking though he noticed the symptoms of blood loss a bit more than he liked. Notably the cold. He pulled the blanket around him more. And he wasn't particularly keen on that for the next forty five minutes or so before he would be seen.

"Talk to me..." He mumbled with his eyes closed. He hadn't fainted yet. And he had no intention of doing so.
 
Kristie huffed softly, but it was more in amusement than annoyance. “If you say so.” She glanced over at him, her brow still crinkled with concern. Talk to him? What about? There were a few things she would like to talk about but probably would be best somewhere other than a very crowded waiting room. “Err…well” She had a feeling she should lean towards stories, as he was probably not interested in talking or thinking too much at this point. “Uhm well I used to be just like those kids that messed you up. Well sort of, I wasn’t some confused violent brat.” She was just a little unhappy with the boys. “But you know I spent most of my time on the streets. I never really had any family so I ended up drifting from house to house until my er…father let me stay. He taught me a lot of what I know, or at least gave me the resources to learn it. Mostly he taught me how to read and then let me loose on his library.”

Kristie hadn’t actually existed in an official paperwork capacity until her ‘father’ took her in when she was 8 or so. “I never went to any proper schools, that library and the internet were my biggest teachers. I think I did pretty well all things considered. I learned to be really good with computers, enough that after a few years as a technician I was able to open my own shop.” That and she was getting a good amount of money from other areas and had good credit. “I guess you could tell by now that I’m a really big sap because once I was settled I started my charity to help out other kids like me.”
 
Matt hummed, finding her story more than a little interesting, considering his childhood was very similar. Not exactly the same though. "Actually, mine is really similar. But sort of the opposite. I had parents. Up until I was about seven and they were really great. They died in a car accident. I was...in the car with them. The only survivor. Completely unharmed, other than, yknow, the obvious trauma of watching your parents die. And from there I was just passed along from foster home to foster home. And those sucked a lot. And here I am."

Well. There was way more detail to that story that he was leaving out. But it wasn't like he was super close to Kristie. She was an acquaintance at best. An acquaintance who just so happened to have dug into his house and some of his life work out of pure curiosity. Putting her at a higher level looking down. Just the way cats liked to perch higher up than every other animal. Kristie perched high above him, knowing far more about him than he knew about her. But she knew his methods and his living quarters. Not his motivations or reasons. While he knew her motivations and reasons and very little about her methods. And from that he only knew what she shared. Of him, she had seen things he had never intended anyone else to see. Well that was fine. Like a tree he would bend with the wind, not break. He would use this to help prevent someone else from getting in. She had managed it. And he could learn how she managed it and build an even safer fortress.
 
Kristie listened to him with wide eyes, taking his not injured hand and giving it a sympathetic pat without thinking about it. “I’m so sorry. I guess in some ways I was lucky that I never knew my parents.” It was entirely possible that her parents leaving her on the street was the only thing that had kept her safe from the threat that was the government though. “Sounds like we both turned out pretty good considering our situations though.” Pretty good was probably a bit of an understatement.

It hit her then, why he didn’t want to be in the cab and she suddenly felt terribly guilty. “I’m sorry about the cab too…I was letting my emotions get the better of me and didn’t listen to you.” She let go of his hand and clenched her own in her lap, looking away shamefully.
 
"I swear if you give me pity I will smack you," Matt said, pulling his hand away. "And don't you dare go feeling bad about the car because I'm not really sure there was a better or faster way to get here which was probably for the best. Otherwise I'd probably get my stubborn head in there and insisted on walking."

"Anyway, my parents were good people. Dad taught me all about investing just about the same time I learned to count. And they were both really encouraging about following your dreams and stuff. So I'm glad I had them around for awhile. And the day I turned eighteen I was out the door the moment the clock struck midnight. Didn't even bother saying goodbye. I already had all the proper credit and stuff to buy a house." He grinned. "My humble abode."
 
Kristie winced but quickly decided to let the subject drop. She was probably just being stupid and making things worse anyway. “I can’t imagine you really needed much credit to but that place.” She pursed her lips together and shook her head. “I can understand wanting some anonymity but that seems a bit excessive.” He had managed to find what seemed like the most seedy and dangerous place in town. Even as a street urchin Kristie would not have lived there if she could avoid it.

“To each their own though I suppose. Though your own did land you in the hospital tonight.” She was definitely going to find those boys and talk to them.
 
"Ahh, but the house picked me," Matt said, still grinning. "It's not that easy to purchase a house when you're only eighteen. Banks still don't trust you. And I still wanted to go about paying for it the old fashioned way, loans and mortgage payments cos let's be honest, a homeless orphan paying for a whole house up front is a bit suspicious, even if my parents did leave me quite a lot of money. Had to have gotten this genius from somewhere, right?"

"Anyway. I like the house it's got character. And termites. Who give the house life. Literally." He shrugged. "And I'm probably the only person in that neighborhood not cooking up meth in my basement." He was still being awfully babbly and that was causing him to be quite a lot more open in a public space than he normally would have been. He was quite proud of how much detailed thought he'd put into his lifestyle and government avoidance. Finding someone who felt the same way was freeing, in a way. He had spent so much time and effort in freeing himself from the government that he had also locked himself away in his paranoia. Not that he wasn't working on that because he was quite convinced that there was one place to go that he could be completely free and that was space.

"The whole meth thing actually works in my favor, see," he continued. "Cos they use a lot of electricity to, yknow, do their thing, and I use a lot of electricity to do my thing and even though I try reaaally hard to offset it with the windmill and the solar panels, yknow, it kinda still racks up there. But living in the neighborhood I do it's not an especially unusual amount of usage because...yknow...plus I help cut the neighbors down a little bit on their usage so they're less suspicious as well. They appreciate that. Not that I'm condoning what they do or anything it's just...you do what you gotta do to get by in this world." He smiled brightly. At that moment his name was called and he stood up to meet the nurse, immediately wobbling on his feet. "Oh...stood up too fast..."
 
Well wasn’t that the truth. Both of their situations were case examples of doing whatever was necessary to get on in the world, let alone reach any of your goals. She was a bit slow to get up when his name was called, though she reacted faster than was probably possible at the sight of him wobbling. “Easy!” She hissed in concern, putting some steadying arms on his shoulders before guiding him after the nurse. She was pretty impressed by how quickly the time had passed once they started talking.

She, perhaps a bit over-fretfully, helped him up onto the doctors table before taking her place well out of the way. The nurse gave her a knowing look and her brow creased in consternation. She wanted to correct the assumption but if she did they may not let her stay in the room so she would tolerate it for now. She felt at least partially responsible for this whole mess and it was encouraging her to go to much farther lengths than she normally would to ensure he came out of this minimally the worse for wear.
 
The first question that the nurse asked was of course "what happened?" Matt already had a story ready for that, formulated in the time it had taken for them to move from the waiting room to the doctors office.

"I was doing dishes," he explained, "and the knife was sort of stuck blade up between some plates and I wasn't paying close attention and whoops!" He was already falling back into his typical arm waving habits as he talked which the nurse immediately put a stop to. She lectured him on pulling the knife out himself because that could have caused preventable damage and had probably caused him to lose more blood. However she did not bother with unwrapping his hand until the doctor came in.

Once the doctor had unwrapped the damaged hand though he felt himself get dangerously close to fainting again and looked over at Kristie instead to avoid looking at the damage. At least the bleeding had stilled a bit.

After all was said and done the doctor determined that some microsurgery would be necessary as well as some blood replenishment. Matt wasn't happy about that but he also really wanted to be able to use his hand again. As it was his pinky finger was completely numb. He had no idea if he could move it at all.

He glanced apologetically at Kristie. "I'm sorry you had to get involved with this. Go home. You don't need to stay."
 
Kristie had managed to both relax and become more fretful as the doctor came in and made his determination. She had been somewhat hoping to be wrong for once but she was glad she had decided to shove his ass into the cab after all. “Absolutely not.” She said firmly at his attempt to send her home. Luckily it was easy to vaguely insert herself into his story and he would hopefully understand what she meant. Surely he had not lost so much blood to be that obtuse. “It’s half my fault that you weren’t paying attention and I’m not leaving you until I’m sure you’ve been stabilized and gotten you safely home.” She crinkled her nose. “Well, safe might not be the best term when it comes to your place but you get the idea.” If she didn’t live in a tiny apartment above her shop she would make him come home with her. Perhaps she would anyway.
 
It took Matt a moment before he caught on to where Kristie was going with her statement but he went with it. Not that he agreed in any way. He didn't believe she was at fault at all. No one was at fault, other than maybe that ruddy Devon. Though Matt found it hard to even blame him entirely. He had rubbish parents who didn't give a shit about him and he was trying to hold up bonds with those he felt he had connections with. Even if those bonds were with the previous owner of his house and that particular person was in prison for lord knows what.

He had lost quite a lot of blood. The hand held some fairly major arteries, according to the doctor. And he and the nurse had insisted he be taken to the operating room on a stretcher. But stubborn as Matt was, he insisted just as strongly that he walk. "I will not be wheeled away on a stretcher for an injury to my hand, thank you very much," he stated firmly. "That's complete bollocks. My legs work just fine."

That's where the doctor had insisted on the wheelchair. Matt accepted, because that was slightly less undignified than the stretcher and he was feeling a bit queasy, though if it had been up to him, he would have insisted on letting his own body do the blood replenishing, and even if that might take a few weeks, he just didn't like the idea of having to have someone else's blood. That was probably his paranoia speaking though. And his stubbornness. It took a great deal of effort and setting aside of pride for him to accept help from others.

Luckily the operation went smoothly. And Matt had no problems with footing the bills, which were discussed before he was put under. He was quite disoriented when he woke up, and it was probably a good thing that Kristie had stayed, otherwise they would have required Matt stay the night. But because Kristie was there, they were assured he would have safe transport home, and so he was free to go after a mere half hour after he woke up.

Matt was quite huffy and in a bad mood, however, mainly because of how useless his hand now was for the time being and because he had to wear it in a sling. "How am I supposed to keep my shit in running order with only one hand?" he complained to her once they'd left the hospital. After all, it had taken a great deal of practice for him to get his daily computer routine compacted down into only twenty or so minutes, presuming everything was fine. But that required a great deal of fast typing. Matt's lower lip was temporarily fixed in a pout.
 
Once it was time for the surgery Kristie was shooed out to a different waiting room. She didn’t bother trying to fight that, she already felt like she was swimming in the scent of blood, she really didn’t feel the need to actually be there watching the surgery. Instead she took the time while he was under to catch up one what was going on with kids. Tessa had freaked out because she had come to see Kristie in the shop which had been closed and the first aid kit was out with a noticeable amount of blood on the floor.

So she spent a while calming her down before calling up the two boys who had been following Matt. They had returned the bike to Matt’s house and properly locked it up. They then decided to humor Matt just a little and actually brought the idiot kids who did this to one of the two centers currently built by her charity. They didn’t get any higher access but hopefully some of the activities and people there would intrigue the little twerps enough to keep them somewhat out of trouble and maybe even convince them there were better ways to go through life.

She finished any phone calls she could conceivably make and was still left with quite some time waiting. She alternated between sitting almost terrifyingly still and pacing manically around the room. She still didn’t know how to proceed from this situation. Matt was hardly one of her kids to be folded into the network, he was another adult with his own agenda who wasn’t entirely happy with what Kristie had done. Which was reasonable, and he didn’t even know half of it.

She finally settled on the fact that she would just have to wait and see how things turned out. Finally, before she could think herself into another tizzy, they said Matt was ready to go. She called another cab because while she could easily carry him all the way back that might look a bit odd and was definitely not on the menu. “You learn to be very fast with one hand.” She offered with a hint of amusement at his huffiness. She hesitated a moment before adding. “Or I could visit and help out.” She had seen him do it enough and she was quite good with computers.
 
Now that all had been said and done and there was nothing else to keep his mind busy, getting in the car had Matt's heart pounding, though he didn't resist it. He claimed the center back seat of the cab again, and immediately fastened his seatbelt and locked it. Sitting up as straight as he could, he braced his good hand against the ceiling of the vehicle and pulled his legs up into the seat with him, so he was as compact as he could get. Though it was most certainly overreactive behavior for any other person, Matt was so particularly paranoid about every thing that it wasn't at all unusual for him.

Though he very much insisted on facing perfectly forward so that he could warn the driver of any oncoming traffic (something that greatly irritated every cab driver he'd ever had, often to the point of kicking him out of the vehicle) he looked at Kristie out of the corner of his eye. "I still don't know how I feel about you being all up in my systems." At the same time, he could probably manage just fine with one hand on the day to day things. But if anything risky came up, he doubted he could manage to get it under control on his own. Finally he mumbled very lowly, "I'll let you know if I need help." Then grunted, as if it hurt his pride to do so, "and the same goes to you, if you ever need any help."
 
Kristie had expected him to do it this time so she gave him time to get settled before getting into the back of the cab after him. She still felt a twinge of guilt for putting him in a car again but she knew better than to actually say anything this time. Her mothering instincts could just take a back seat. “I won’t touch them again without your permission.” She promised. She certainly owed him that. Things had gotten quite out of hand with her meddling, though if there was some sort of emergency well...there shouldn’t be.

“And thank you.” She gave him a warm, if weak smile. She appreciated the offer though she couldn’t immediately think of anything she might need his help with. Emergencies with her would probably involve strike teams from the government or something and calling him would definitely not be her first thought on that.
 
"I meant I could set up a system for you that's kinda like mine, if you wanted me to. Though you're obviously pretty pro with computers so you probably don't need my help. Plus you're pretty suave and sneaky. But. Thank you. For not touching them anymore. "

Though he could be pretty obtuse with other people's feelings most of the time he could sense Kristie's worry and fretting. He had, after all been experiencing it for quite a few years and he could pick up that emotion quicker than any other.

"Please. Could you just, not, do that worrying motherly thing? I just...I feel like I've got a handle on things and I just don't really like it when people do that. I'm not helpless."

He realized he wasn't really sure where the cab was taking them and he started jiggling his foot so fast he appeared to be vibrating. "Um. So..." He began hesitantly. "Are we...do you consider us...friends?"
 
Kristie flushed ever so slightly as he pegged her fretting right on the head. “Uhm…yeah sorry about that. Acting like a mother is kind of natural for me, as you might imagine.” She was trying really hard not to overly mother him and put him off.

“Friends?” She blinked at the question and tilted her head, smiling hesitantly after a moment. She couldn’t help but think he looked absolutely adorable jiggling around like that and muffled a giggle. “Well, it might be a bit early yet but I think we are well on our way to getting there. After all we’ve gone through a crisis together and know fairly big secrets about each other. Even a bit about each other’s pasts.”
 
"I like to think I've don't quite well without a mother for many years. So, not that I don't appreciate the care or anything, I just really really need you to, to not."

He was bad at friends though. He'd kept to himself pretty much his entire life. There's been other foster kids he'd been in touch with but he'd always been too busy with his bank accounts and stuff to deal with them. He'd taken care of all of his business at the local public libraries of the different cities he'd lived in. Anonymous enough, and the lifestyle of the foster child involved so much moving that his privacy was relatively well maintained. Regardless he did little to hide what he was doing. This was still when he was working with his one bank account anyway. And fiddling a bit with the money his parents had left him.

Not that he technically had access to that money. But he worked the know how to continue with his fathers investments anyway. A sort of back door approach to actually having all the control he needed over his parents funds. He didn't need to physically access the money yet anyway. Just as long as he was still making profits with it was all that mattered.

But as far as friends went he was pretty darn clueless. He sometimes mistook people for being nice to him as friends. And after that had backlashed on many occasions he stopped assuming that and always asked. He'd never known someone with such an in depth knowledge of what he did with his time however. Here was someone who actually understood it. To an extent. Which meant he was actually connecting with someone instead of them showing just kindness. At least he thought they were connecting. This was why he was such a good candidate for going to space. He had nothing holding him here anyway.

He offered her a small smile. Is that what was required in a friendship? A crisis? And sharing their pasts? Well. That was certainly fine. He could do that.

"Where are we going, anyway? Does this guy have any idea? Are we sposed to be going to my place cos either he's taking the long way and scamming us for money or he's clueless." More likely the first. Cab drivers were so slummy sometimes.
 
Kristie sighed lightly. She really was trying not to do the mother thing with him. The guilt she felt just made it a bit harder than usual. Trying to be more of a friend was a bit awkward for her as well. Back with her master there were a few other’s that she had sort of considered friends but never got close enough to really get the concept of friends. Some of the other kids on the street were probably about as close as she got but since a lot of her time on the street consisted of being a cat full time…well she had probably already hit the friend horizon with him by that standard.

She chuckled a bit at the thought, feeling a slight longing to actually be able to share her real big secret. At least she had Tessa but it always drove her a bit wild that she had to constantly hide her true self from the rest of the world. “Hmm?” Kristie blinked out of her thoughts at Matt’s words and looked around. She realized immediately what was going wrong and sighed heavily. “East Maddison, not west.” She reminded the cab driver, who sort of shrugged but went ahead and changed lanes to make a left turn and start heading more towards their area of town, though Maddison was definitely the street her place was on rather than his.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.