Grey Times After College

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Windragonwolf

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It's been four years.
Four years since Riley met him.
Four years since he endured hell for him.
Four years since he disappeared without a trace. Leaving Riley with nothing.
Or, perhaps not nothing. Shortly after his disappearance, Riley received a small box in the mail. Nothing but a pair of keys and a cellphone. Riley didn't know what it meant. All he knew was that the box was stashed away in the closet of his room. Sometimes he's take the box out and hold the objects in his hands, and try to remember the boy that changed his life. Not much had changed, really. TO an outsider, life was the same for Riley: juggling work and school, living with that suspicious looking, cat-like girl. But to Riley, it was very different. He had no-one to occupy his time anymore. And so Riley just kept doing what they always did. Get coffee from the shop every day after school, and sit in the stations, watching trains go by. It was mindless, almost zombie-like, but it kept the boy close to Riley's heart. It helped him remember that boy.
Liam.
 
"Again with that" A young man said to Riley, he was a man who had grey eyes and black hair, he usually walked down to the station to go home after having dinner around the subway, and he'd always find Riley there, sitting with a sight good enough for a dead fish.

"You're always here" he said as he approached the younger man, sitting on the next end of the bench the student was sitting in, he sighed and took a sip out of the hot vase of coffee he was holding on his hand "You should move on with your life you know, that kid's not coming back anytime soon." he said, but of course it wasn't something he hadn't said in the last four years over and over ...and over again.

He wouldn't listen, not any single of the times he repeated that, truth was that he did once know that missing child before, and he had been in contact with him, however, he also knew not of the location of where he could have gone off to, to him, Liam was as good as dead already, wether from his bulimia, drug usage, murder, anything, he was so vulnerable after all.

"Stop coming, already..."
 
Riley said nothing, did nothing.
Like always.
He didn't know the man's name. He'd never bothered to ask. If anything the man meant nothing to him: all he did was repeat about how Liam would never come back. As if Riley didn't already know. And the fact that this man had the audacity to sit on this bench with Riley-THEIR bench...It had used to fill Riley up with a rage, but being a quiet boy he often kept it in until he just stopped caring all together. It was public property, after all.
He continued to stare straight ahead, eyes tired, and darkened with many nights of lack of sleep; a frown etched permanently onto his face. He didn't need to justify himself to this man. He didn't need to justify himself to annyone. He would sit here until closing like always and then go home.
And yet.
Today was different, somehow. Riley slowly raised his own cup of coffee to his lips and took a long sip.
"I'll see him again"
His voice was so hoarse, so brittle, and rightly so: Riley rarely spoke anymore.
"In paradise."
 
The man looked at him over the corner of his eyes with not much surprise "You thinking of suicide now?" he asked, to be completely honest, he did not care about what happened to that boy, to him, he was one foolish idiot who had wasted away his life and young years reminiscing about a slut who had bewitched him.

Of course, it was sad to see this, but he wasn't about to play doctor heartress and try to fix the wrong in him, after all, he actually wasn't even trying to get over Liam one bit, he always knew he was important, but not that much. This boy's dedication bordered over obsession.
"As you wish" he took a sip of his beverage and stood up when the next train came.

It was the last in line, the last wagon was pitch black, the doors forced themselves open, and a bunch of people went outside panicking and seemingly scared, and behind them, two men with shotguns, there was a third one amongst them, a young man of short white-ish hair, yellow eyes and a face worthy of a model, he was holding a riffle.

He motioned the weapon and the hostages left, the policemen in the station didn't even seem to have noticed what had just happened, after all, those men were mercenaries of black contracts, people who thought they were living in an action movie all the time.

-He wasn't in this train either! #$"$#%!!- one of the shotgun men yelled at the young man, but he only frowned while looking around.
"We'll find him"
His voice.
It felt as if Liam had just spoken, just a million times stronger.

The man by Riley's side only got on the train and turned to Riley "Maybe he's always been here, you know? You just never noticed, he never left, probably." the doors of the train closed and it started moving.
 
Again, Riley didn't respond. It wasn't that he was thinking of suicide, it was more like waiting it out. Like a scene straight out of a movie, Riley would pass away and meet Liam once more, only this time at the pearly gates.
But he was getting ahead of himself: Riley had a long way to go before death.

The young man watched the last train pull up, watched the mercenaries release their hostages. He should probably leave: he didn't want any trouble.

"We'll find him."
Riley flinched visibly. That man...he sounded so much like Liam...For a moment Riley fancied that it WAS Liam, come to sweep him away. He quickly tossed the thoughts asside as nothing but silly daydreaming and stood. Oh, how he would KILL to hear Liam call for him again. He began to leave.
 
"Wait" the young man said suddenly as he spot Riley leaving the place, he didn't let time slip, much less Riley, he simply jumped onto him and held him back by pulling his arm and forced him to turn around, in height and weight the young man was much smaller and thinner than riley, his face was like Liam's, his voice was like him as well, however, his eyes, were also like Liam's.

"It's not him, wrong guy" he said while turning to the men with shotguns "Where the hell is he" he mumbled while letting go off the guy and turning to him "See you later, Riley" he said out of the blue and ran back to other men, ordering them to rush out of the place and fled the station giving no time to ask questions.
 
Riely jumped, and stared in shock at the man who had grabbed him. He blinked a few times, and felt his heart sink. That man resembled Liam so closely, but it couldn't be him. It just...couldn't be.

"Bye Riley."

Riley gaped at the man, and tried to run after him. "Hey! Hey, come back!" The force of his voice surprised even himself, considering he hand't spoken in some time. "How do you know my name!?"
 
However, the young one only turned to him for a few seconds, and then ran off with them, he didn't stop, and he also didn't turn back to look at him once more, he seemed like he was in quite some rush and didn't have time to offer any explanations, and even if Riley went outside, they had vanished from the streets.
 
Riley frowned, and looked about. It appeared the man had disappeared. For. The first time in a long while Riley felt something: fear. He didn't know that man, yet he seemed to know Riley, and what was worse was that the gunslinger was part of the mercenaries, which meant nothing but trouble. Not knowing what else to do, Riley began to head home.
 
After a while life went on as usual, nothing changed in the routine and that man would still go home at the same hour every day and he'd see Riley every day in that station at the same hour, no matter how much he hoped for his gloomy prescense to be there, he was there, but this time it was different, he had gone out of work earlier, and there was somebody else sitting on the bench, Riley had probably hadn't gotten there yet, but that person was sitting on his usual spot.

"It'd be a bad idea for you to sit there" he called at that stranger when he sat down on the other end of the seat "There's this kid who always sits there. He'd hate it if you stayed there" however after further inspection he realized something he didn't know how his brain could have ignored, it looked like this one was a very young child, whom was wearing a black hoody sweater with bunny ears and blue jeans, his face was hidden under his hair and hoody, he was very very young.

The man rose to his feet and looked around looking for the mother but didn't find anyone around, he sat back down and stared at the little boy. "Hey, where's your mom?" the little boy didn't reply, actually he moved away a little further. "..."
 
Riley observed the scene with dull eyes. Now it was common to see the mercenary in the station after school, and almost impossible for Riley to get answers from him. Riley decided to make it like everyone else: melding into the background as the world changed around him while he stayed stuck in one place. He took a sip from his coffee and waited for them to leave. They'd be gone soon enough.
 
(OOC: He didn't come back after that one time, please don't asume if I don't point it out)

However they didn't, and the little boy didn't even make a sound, he didn't budge, not even when the train came and the older guy had to
leave, even then, the little child remained sitting in that spot of the bench, not budging from his spot, not even when a police officer offered to take him home or call his parents, not a sound came from the boy and he didn't move a single finger, he was still ad silent, like a tumb.
 
(9Ah, shit, sorry, I thought you said he did. My bad))

Shuffling over, Riley sat next to the kid and began to sip his coffee. It wasn't his exact seat, but Riley wasn't about to push a devastated kid off of the bench. He sat there, drinking for a while, watching the trains pass before looking at the kid. "You cold?" He asked at last. "I can buy you something warm to drink, if you want."
 
The boy turned to look at him for a moment and looked away and down again " ... no ... " he simply mumbled, moving his hands and rubbing them for a little heat. "Daddy's coming tonight to take me home" he mumbled just loud enough for him to be able to listen to him "He swore" he finished pulling down his hoodie further. His hair was white.
 
Riley let a bitter smile touch his lips. Who needed fathers? His had cast him out a long time ago, and Riley hadn't heard from him since. But why crush a small boy's dreams? It was best to let him ride out out and wait for society to pass their cruel judgment. Riley wouldn't be a part of that. "Alright," he said at last, taking another swing from his coffee cup. "Do you want me to hang around? I usually stay until closing, and I can stick around if you want." Riley let the silence fall over them. "My-my friend...he'd sit here with me every day. All day if we could. And we wouldn't do anything, just sit with coffee and watch trains and sometimes talk. I guess...I guess I'm waiting for him too." Riley turned his head and coughed, trying to clear the lump in his throat.
 
The boy at first didn't even move for a single second, he didn't look at the older man or even made a sound, but at the last line, he turned to look at him, he blinked and turned to look at the stranger "Mister, are you sad too?" he asked, an absolutely innocent sight on his face, his lips were already reddened by the cold while he rubbed his little hands and breathed into them "I am..." he mumbled "Daddy's always leaving me alone... but today is my birthday, he loves me... but..." he shrugged, looking like he was about to break out crying " ... He is coming... right?"
 
Riley sighed. "Yeah...I'm sad..."He crushed the now empty coffee cup in his hands and listen to the boy. Slowly, he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I dunno. I've never met him. But there's nothing wrong with hoping, I suppose."
 
The instant his hand came into contact with the boy's shoulder, he shuddered and looked at him scared, like he was some sort of villian in a children's cartoon, at first the smaller one didn't even make a sound, but then he slammed it away with a loud screech like he had turned from a villian to a nightmare fuel monster "Don't touch me!!" his voice was high pitched because of his very young age, he jumped from the bench and ran all the way to the one on the other side of the station.
 
Riley jumped back in shock of his own. "Wh!?" he gasped, not understanding what had happened. Riley smacked himself lightly. "Idiot...if he's out here alone it figures he's had a rough life." Riley sighed and stood up, looking for a vendor to by something sweet. Perhaps he could apologize and promise to leave the boy alone. Boon in hand, Riley began searching for the kid, hoping the cookie wouldn't go to waste.
 
The little boy was still rubbing his hands, due to the fact that his hair was covering his eyes under his bunny reassembling hoody it was hard to tell what his expression was, but his little body was trembling all over, even tough he had a thick vest over his black hoody and a long neck shirt under both -viewable because of both jackets having the neck open- and small fingerless gloves, his pants were thick looking and his little boots were very amusing looking, they had a bunny drawn on them by hand, not by some designer, it looked like a marker had done it.

He looked at the stranger for a moment and then turned to the cookie on his hand "That ... for me?"
 
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