Surface R: Reunion

Part 02.3

::THOMAS::

The door suddenly slides open, some kids are running in.

"Kids! You are not supposed to be running in here or holding sharp objects, especially while running!"

And the kids are laughing.

"Whoa!"

Then one of them trips and an arrow flies towards me.

"Tom, look out!"

I leapt side wards and tumble a bit. I saved myself... but my suit has a tiny rip. I stared at it, a bit paralyze. But then, there was no real reason to panic anymore, was there? I shrugged and unzip the neck part and step out of the giant sandwich bag. Jenny was too busy scolding the kids to notice.

"You almost shot him! You kids have to be more careful before you hurt others along with yourselves!"

"Hey, go easy on them. Kids will be kids, you know." I said casually. But Trey's gaping at me, I grinned at him. "You look like a dog."

Trey shook his head. "Thomas, you took off your suit."

Jenny seemed to notice now too.

"Observant, aren't you?" I faced him. "Well, now that it's obvious that the radiation isn't gonna kill me, then I don't have much cause to be concerned." I shrugged. "It got ripped anyway, so it didn't exactly give me a choice anymore. But it's not a real prob—"

I trailed off as Jenny is suddenly hugging me tight. "So you aren't going back, oh, that's great!"

"Uh... Yeah, hehe."

I laughed light-heartedly but I think it came out awkward. I wrapped my own arms around her. I remembered how Jenny always got snappy at me and got upset by the smallest things, but she also had her moments that made her a sweet girl. Then I noticed Trey trying to mouth something at me but I couldn't make sense of it. I raised a brow at him. He narrowed his eyes then I felt a familiar tingling sensation in my head.

//Lindsay Caghan, dude. Make up your mind.//

I widened my eyes and scrambled away in surprise. I'm still not used to hearing voices in my head.

"Gah!"

"Woah!"

"Ouch!"

Lori wakes up in shock, probably from the noise. "Huh?! What the—" He looks over at us. "Uh, what's happening?"

"I'm ba—" Corrin chooses that moment to return. He trails off and doesn't look pleased. "What."

I swear I'm sweating. "Er, I can explain..."

I can figure it looks bad; I've tumbled into Trey's bed with him, my head lying on his nether regions. Trey's face is probably an expression of pain. And Jenny's sprawled over my lap. The kids—the demons they were—pointed at my general direction, all chanting at the same time.

"It's his fault."

Needless to say, Corrin has officially kicked me out—almost literally—for disrupting the rest his patients should be getting. I can hear him scolding Trey from outside, so that made me feel a little better. But now Jenny's upset with me, too, so I have a stinging cheek coupled with a sore butt.

I walked around the train for a while, to find something to do. I met up with Jonah and Leon doing—well, what Trey probably wants to do with Corrin. And they looked very worried, like I'd judged them for it. But I just nodded at them and ask why they looked worried since I didn't see anything and they both looked relieved and grateful. I asked them if they'd seen my brother and they pointed me to the right direction. When I walked away from them, though, I heard Leon scolding Jonah for getting them caught by me and he mentioned that both Cody and I knows now—

I face palmed, hoping with all my cynic mind that what Cody walked into was something more safe for work than what I saw. When I found my brother, I saw him playing with a ragged soccer ball along with Nina—who was, now, out of her suit as well.

"So, tired of being a walking plastic bag?" I quipped.

Nina smiles at me, before then again, she was side-glancing my brother, so really, who was she smiling for? "Yeah, I was going to come and tell you that I was staying. That's why I took off the suit before I came looking for you. You couldn't very well forbid me to stay if I was already contaminated. But I see that you—"

"Yup, I'm staying too," I nodded. "Not like returning underground's gonna be any better if I've got a death sentence waiting for me. Besides, someone's gonna have to help your brother get Corrin."

Nina laughed but Kytes only looked confused. "Get Corrin?"

"No way," I blinked. "you don't know?"

Kytes is still puzzled. "What?"

"Bro, he's into Corrin. Like, uh," I leaned forward to whisper. "How you're into Nina?" I leaned back. "If I'm not reading it wrong, of course."

Kytes turned red. "Tommy!" He nudged me and I laughed. I grabbed him in a head lock, giving him noogie. "Ah! Stop it! I'm not a kid anymore!"

"Nope! You're still my kid brother!" I laughed before finally stopping and embracing him. "And you always will be..."

Kytes sighed before hanging one arm around my back. "Yeah, guess I am..."

It really feels good to have a little brother again, and if I ever had any regrets during this whole thing, and if I figure I would die tomorrow anyway with the whole radiation exposure thing, I'll still be thankful to share this one moment with my brother.

"So, again, you're sure Trey's into Corrin? I mean, he did like Lindsay back then."

... Even if he can be a little dense about certain things.

"Yeah, yeah, he is." I sighed. "And I don't think his man-crush likes me much after today—maybe Corrin likes Trey, too, and he just sees me as a competition. I'm gonna have to fix that..."

Kytes raised a brow, and I look at him curiously when he gave me a once over. "Nah. Trey can do better," he grinned cheekily at me after. "Corrin's got no competition."

"You brat—!" I gave him a noogie once more.