How we meet

Chapter 33

The autumn festival happened every year. It also happened in a different city every year. It was a fun time to celebrate harvest in the past and now it was more of a tradition. It was full of food and celebracion, many families got together to play games and see eacjother again. It was mostly a way to make money for companies.
A tall man sat with his liepard spralled across his feet. She rested underneath his desk, purring soflty as she slept. Her trainer sat in his leather chair an empty glass of his favorite wiskey infront of him. He flipped through papers, donations and sponsorships that he was running.
He had a goal with every sponsorship he did. He wanteded to mke more money to gain more publicity. He wanted the people of Unova to trust him, to think that he had their interests in mind. Every politician wanted their people to trust them enough to let them have power, to give them the final say in the world.
This time instead of the funding and the large donations going to charities and schools, he wasn't in this for money or public appeal. This wasn't about how the people saw him or trusted him. This was more so something that could indirectly affect him. He had his secrets, his crimes. He wanted to obtain the one thing that he had no control over, he wanted to make sure that the bloos that he had mopped up to stay hidden.
His other secret was his money, more accurately the loss of it. He had slowly been losing money, the calculations have been off, the data had been wrong. The more he and his workers tried to fix it the more it crumbled. If he didn't get it undercontrol he could lose everything. He couldn't have that. So he was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Fix his financial and criminal problems, then he wanted to swipe one final thing, a small bell that he knew you had.
It pissed him off. Some brat had gotten a hold of something that he needed, something that would be considered a relic too. No child should have been able to get a hold of it, any researcher would realize the value of such an item. He cursed the world for being so annoying, for his goals messing up after you vanished.
This so many things thats for you to regret. Not finishing meals, whining about vegetables. You regret words you had written, you regret forgetting things. You hated that you couldn't remember events the lead up to your worst memories. You wish that you remembered why you were so scared anymore. Perhaps you had more wishes than regrets, you knew that you mad mountains of both, but you couldn't name many.
The man had his wishes for power and success. What did you wish for? He wanted overwhelming strength, and if he couldn't get that he wanted to play his favorite game of poker. To puppet his pawns around their stage until the curtain dropped and he didn't have to hide behind people. He had an iron grip on his king and he would soon regain his control of the board.
You had a wish, an unspoken one deep inside your heart. It was a singing bird that went unoticed to you. Its song was sweet and pure, carried hope through your soul and it resonated with another. You had a wish that you had not yet learned about.
This bird and flower were waiting for you to notice. They waited for you to open the door and realize what you needed. They waited together as they replayed their favorite memories. They didn't turn away but morned when the images of you solving the same cube over and over again played in your mind. When your mind became hazy with a heavy blue fog they let themselves shead tears. They happily waited still. You would soon show them the sun you had all longed it see.
So you sat beside N now. A meeting long over, assignments handed out. You looked at the list a thousand times. You refused to believe that you had ended up so close to tumbling back into that dark cavern. If you made one wrong step your lustrous castle will come crashing down. Your crown will burn in the flames the ashes will coat your skin and will suffocate you as you cry. The coin toss had failed you this time, now you had to hope that everything else fell onto the correct side. A cursed coin toss is what it always came back to.
N wanted to question it. He wanted to ask but he didn't. His fears still clung to his arms, they stole his words from his mouth. They ripped away the words he tried to weave. So he gently placed his hand across your shoulder. He pulled you from your thoughts and the swarming fears as if he was ripping a fish from the depths of its watery home. You weren't left swarmed by the monstersof your mind. You took N's hands scooping up the papers leaving the confines of your thoughts. N cared, you wouldn't have to deal with anything alone.
You and N sat together, eating peacefully together. Silence hung in the air. Your mind was still lingering on things you wished to warn N about. How would he take it? Would he understand or believe you? Its not like he ever had a reason not to. You played with the ribon tied around your neck. The bell hung from your neck, cool against the skin of your chest, saftly tucked away from prying eyes.
You needed to let N cook more. Even though you were hung up on your thoughts and digging for answers you didn't have, his cooking made your stress melt away. Pure heaven. A cool fresh side that contrasted with the spicy main dish that you had helped guide him through. The few things that N had added of his own personal choice you questioned in the moment but had a vivid understanding of now.
"Make this again some time." you motioned to his dish, that was completely all him.
He nodded, he really was glad. You may not have sounded the nicest to people passing by, it sounded like you were demanding him and your voice didn't sound the sweetest. He knewthat you really did enjoy it. You kept taking bites of it and swiped a little of N's own portion when he looked like he wasn't paying attention and sometimes when clearly he was.
The two of you had fallen into this perfect routine. Each of you understood the unspoken and the unheard. Yet N couldn't know what was bothering you. If he was being honest, it scared him. He had been talking and laughing with you then all of a sudden you froze. All of your laughter had died, you became a cold empty shell, he could see the conflict in your eyes and the panic in your breath. He wanted to know everything.