Last Train to London

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen told himself that he'd celebrate every good thing that came his way from now on--no matter how small. He wouldn't celebrate it in want of something but for it's own sake. After all, there was no higher power to bargain with. It was just him.

Him and two kids.

Him and two kids and a giant VW Bus he was 60% comfortable handling. And a magical piece of paper that kept their entire lives packed neatly and lightly.

He kept reminding himself of how far he'd come in just a few weeks whenever he started really missing a nice matcha. He had Doppio on a strict assignment to look out for even the instant stuff. Every day was a new lesson in unpredictability but they'd found that there were clusters of stability. Some towns had mostly escaped the rupture unscathed and others were like patchwork from a monkey's hands. You just took what you got, hustled, and hoped for the best.

Today--today wasn't bad. They'd lucked out with a highway cutting through a sprawling plain with small patches of life in the distance. There was no telling how long the road would last, but word had spread across the town they'd just left that it went on for awhile. The street signs weren't in a language he recognized but it's not like they'd serve their purpose even if they did. Reigen spared a thought for all the taxpayer dollars gone to waste.

"Quartermaster," he snapped his fingers and adjusted the thick technicolor shades on his nose, "coffee me."

Comments

[aoihitomi]

"I think so too," Hitomi said, more timidly.

[espresso_doppio]

“You’re handsome, you’re smart, you’re cool, you’re patient…” Doppio paused, remembering he was in girl mode. “Not that I’m interested but, yknow, just in case anyone nearby is…!”

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

This was too much for Reigen to take. His upper body folded over itself and he buried his face in his hand.

“Now, look… …”

…

Sniffle.

[throughthelookingmax]

"There, there." Max gave Reigen a good-natured pat on the shoulder.

[espresso_doppio]

‘Ah.’ Was Reigen…crying? Doppio shot a guilty look in Hitomi’s direction.

“…Um.” The guilty look melted away. “Wait…do you hear that?”

[aoihitomi]

"Hear --" But before Hitomi could finish her question, she heard it, too.

[throughthelookingmax]

"Donatella, are you okay?" The entirety of Max's body tensed as she saw the familiar sight of blood oozing out of the pink-haired teenager's nose.

[espresso_doppio]

“Huh?” There was a warmth on his face that wasn’t there before. He made a face when he tasted something coppery and touched his mouth—

“Oh.”

The ground shook beneath him and threw him off his feet, but he didn’t feel his body hitting the ground.

[throughthelookingmax]

"Oh no..." When Max reached up to her face, her fingertips came back wet with blood.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen's chair tumbled back and his reflexive maneuver to protect his head saved him just in the nick of time as he rolled over the cooler and to the ground.

The ground-splitting shakes stopped before Reigen could even find which way was up again. Still wine-drunk, the world kept spinning and if he opened his eyes he was sure he'd vomit.

"Sound off!" He coughed, getting his hands under him to sit up.

[aoihitomi]

"I'm here," Hitomi managed to get out as she clumsily pulled herself to her feet.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen breathed a sigh of relief, but it didn't last long when it was only silence that followed. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was Doppio collapsed into a heap.

"Hey!" Reigen crawled over to get a better look. His heart dropped to his stomach when he saw the blood but when Doppio groaned a little he could at least not fear the worst. "Hitomi-chan, help me move him to the blanket."

[aoihitomi]

"Sure," she said breathily. Somehow, she was able to stay more calm than she had been when Allen had been hurt. Had she become used to this?

She helped to lift Doppio and moved him to the blanket. It wasn't until he was settled that she realized she never heard Max call out a reply.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen seemed to realize the lack of Max's response at the same time as Hitomi.

"...Hey! Miss Caulfield?" He looked around and tried to squint into the dark. Nothing.

[espresso_doppio]

~~

"Tuesday: €8,400... Wednesday: €7,900..." Doppio murmured softly to himself as he tapped his pen on the margins of his notebook. He was at a cafe table for two all by himself, but it meant more room to spread his things out a little. It was a beautiful day in Naples, and he was outside and nestled comfortably under the shade of the table's umbrella. He even had his favorite drink when he was down this way, the cafe's special--Brazilian Coffee. On one hand, he should have been enjoying his time outside to decompress. On the other, he had spent several hours already reviewing ledger statements and he was really bored of doing it bent over yet another hotel desk.

"Tuesday: €8,400... Wednesday: €7,900..." Doppio made a face. The numbers clearly clashed with the reports from the dealers. The sloppy handwriting from the capo's ledger only irritated him further. It made the likely skimming even more of an insult.

Doppio glanced at his suitcase where his phone was, but decided against calling him. He didn't need to bug him about this--yet. He could handle this himself. This new capo hadn't been around long and they had already lost so many. Maybe a scare was all he needed to sort himself out.

"...Oh." He deflated when he saw that the milk foam had gone flat. He had gotten so distracted he had forgotten he'd ordered it at all. He stirred everything together with a mopey sigh.

[throughthelookingmax]

Okay.

Max was definitely not in wherever-that-place-was, but she definitely wasn't home, either. She wiped the oh-so-familiar trail of blood from her upper lip.

She looked around, taking in her surroundings more thoroughly, then caught sight of a familiar figure.

"Donatella!" Relief flooded over Max as she rushed to the table where Doppio sat, pouring over a notebook. "Hey. What happened?"

[espresso_doppio]

Doppio had only just set his cup down when a stranger was filling his field of view. He jerked from surprise and the table jerked with him—clash! The glass tipped and shattered onto the warm pavement.

“Ah!” Doppio stood and held his head. “Oh, man…” He had barely had a sip of it. This kind of stuff always happened. ‘I should’ve stayed in the hotel.’

Doppio looked up. The stranger was still there. He looked behind himself and then back at her.

[throughthelookingmax]

"Shit, sorry." Max wasn't directly responsible for what happened, but it didn't stop her from feeling guilty anyway. "How long have you been here?" It looked longer than she had been, judging by the notebook in front of her.

[espresso_doppio]

She was definitely addressing him. People didn’t come up to him on the street, especially not women. And especially not women dressed like they were ready to go skiing. ‘Seriously…isn’t she dying?’ Still, she was a civilian, so he would do his best to be polite.

“…Um. Sorry, Signora. Are you looking for someone?”

[throughthelookingmax]

"Yeah, you," Max said. "You're Donatella, right?"

[espresso_doppio]

He just stared and then scoffed in laughter. “That’s a woman’s name. Sorry, you must be really confused. I’m a guy.”

‘Is…she making fun of me?’ If so, she was really lucky she was a girl.

“Are you feeling okay? Did you hit your head or something?”

[throughthelookingmax]

Max felt embarrassed. "Do you have a sister? I swear, you look just like my friend."

[espresso_doppio]

“Um…no. Were you supposed to meet your friend around here or something? This is a pretty popular cafe, so…” Doppio started to feel a little bad for this woman, but before she could answer the waitress was outside and trying to sweep up the broken glass.

“Ah! I’m so sorry about this…it was an accident. I’ll pay for it! How much?” Doppio turned to her and fished around in his pocket for his loose bills.

[throughthelookingmax]

While Doppio was distracted, Max tried her best to get a good look at the open notebook page while his attention was still on the waitress.

[espresso_doppio]

“Again, I’m really sorry…” Doppio patted down his other pocket for more as the waitress gave him a tired glare.

The notebook, left wide open, was a mix of stapled documents to the left and Doppio’s own handwriting to the right.

To the right, the pages were dog-eared and the ink was smudged in a few places. It was clear he attempted to keep everything straight but the legible writing was broken up by notes to himself that had nothing to do with the rest and the same doodle of an eerie-looking Venetian mask flowing over from the margins or even woven into the text itself.

To the left was a ledger of some kind. It was in handwriting that wasn’t Doppio’s, but his own notes were jotted down in a few places. The biggest one was “Way too low. Taking matters into my own hands.”