Sleepless Nights (on hiatus)

Fog

Cassian wasn't really sure where he was exactly. Well, actually, that was a lie. He was outside—that much he could tell just by looking at the sky that peeked out from between the tall buildings around him. He wasn't sure why he was outside either. Some vague feeling told him he was supposed to be inside, but he wasn't sure where inside was anymore so he decided to wait where he was, finding a nice ledge to sit on overlooking a lower section of land covered in dirt and graffiti. He was certain Jeff would come around to find him soon, he just had to wait for him.

He looked down from his ledge at the sharp sound of voices to find three people approaching from one of the nearby buildings. A man in blue, another in black, and a third wearing a mask. They seemed to be having a rather heated discussion, though that paused when their eyes fell on him perched above them.

"Hey, boss, what are you doin' up there?" the one wearing a scarf spoke up, a smirk dancing across his face.

"They're talking to you, Cassian."

Admittedly, it took him a minute to register that they were, indeed, referring to him; it took a moment longer for him to figure out how to respond. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing on top of the wall either.

"I'm waiting," he settled on after an almost awkward length of silence.

"Waitin' for what?" the blue one spoke up. "You usually aren't here around this time, are you?"

Cassian couldn't really understand his question. He'd always been here, hadn't he? He couldn't think of anywhere else he would be instead.

"Hey, don't you dimwits remember? Driver said something about him not being like usual?" the third member of the group spoke up, whacking the other two across the back of their heads.

"HEY! Don't hit me, asshole!" The man with the scarf struck back and within moments the whole trio had broken down into a miniature brawl.

Cassian watched them from above with disinterest. He couldn't remember what they wanted, but he knew they were loud and he didn't like it.

"You should stop them."

Why though? He didn't know them, so it wasn't any of his business what they did, right?

"You do know them. They're villains that work under you."

Did he? He couldn't remember. They felt vaguely familiar—like a sense of deja vu—some memory buried behind a thick fog he was too tired to sift through. Why couldn't he remember? He wasn't sure. Another thing bound by the fog.

"Hey."

The trio froze at his word, toppling over into a pile of tangled limbs. Cassian wasn't really sure how to react to that; he ended up forgetting what he wanted to say and stared at them in silence for what felt like an agonizingly long time (though it couldn't possibly have been more than a minute or so).

"Cassian, you should head back to Driver."

"Who's Driver?"

Cassian could sense he'd said something wrong the moment the words passed his lips. The shocked expressions of the three below him spoke loudly enough of that. Cassian didn't want to be there anymore. He had to go somewhere else—he didn't know where, but here wasn't right.

Before the trio had a chance to respond, Cassian was on his feet—though he was just as quickly not on his feet as he suddenly found himself tumbling from the ledge, having lost his footing in his haste.

He lay stunned in the dirt for a moment, trying to blink away the dizziness as he was abruptly hyper-aware of the exhaustion in his limbs. He halfheartedly wondered how he had ever managed to sneak past Driver given the condition he was in.

"Shit, that looked nasty. Are you okay boss?" the one with the mask spoke up, rushing over as Cassian sat up.

"Got dizzy—" Cassian shook his head, trying to clear the haze over his thoughts— "I'm okay."

Cassian stood and tried to brush the dirt off of his knees but with little luck. The metal hands made it hard to do anything, really. He didn't like it. He didn't like how they felt—they were so heavy and he was oh so tired. He didn't like being dirty either; all the dust made his skin crawl. He wanted a shower, and probably a nap, too.

"Christ, Cassian! There you are!" Cassian's eyes snapped up at the sound of his name. A short man clad in purple was running toward him and the trio.

"Oh hey, Driver!—why are you so out of breath?"

"Because someone couldn't stay put for ten minutes while I was gone," Driver huffed, sending a glare at Cassian. "I had to track you through your phone, thank god you still had it on you."

It took him a minute to realize that Driver was referring to him.

"Sorry."

"It's fine—jeez you're dirty, how did that happen?" Driver eyed the kid up and down, taking in the dust and dirt that practically coated him. "Well whatever, let's go back and get you cleaned up."

The other villain offered out his hand and Cassian took it. He waved goodbye to the trio of younger villains as Driver lead him away.

~

"Honestly, I leave for five minutes," Driver huffed, plopping Cassian down on the couch.

He'd gotten up to use the bathroom and within the 5 minutes and 23 seconds that he was gone, Cassian had up and vanished from the living room. Driver ransacked his entire workshop trying to find him before eventually pinging the villain's cell phone to find that he was outside.

Driver let out a long sigh as he flopped down in his chair with a dramatic flair only a theater kid could manage. (Well— ex-theater kid now)

"What were you even doing out there? I asked you to stay put, didn't I?"

Cassian looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging.

"Ok, well—" Driver froze as he was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing.

He dove across his desk to grab the offending device, answering it quickly when he saw that it was Chaeha.

"Hello?"

"Driver, I found him."