Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 26: The hip new indie pop artists, Mac and the Cheesies

Warning: This chapter contains transphobia. (Anita why)

It had been a rather uneventful train ride after Jill had left, and now Hachi stood and waited for the squid-hat Toda to open his front door. This little squid seemed like such a pushover in some ways, his scrawny arms, fairly dull brown eyes, huge delicate-looking ears, not to mention all the injuries he currently sported. But all of this was apparently misleading once she considered who gave him those injuries. She wasn't sure what to make of him exactly.

"Moooooom! I'm hoooome!" Toda called as he limped through the front door, carefully taking off his shoes as he did so.

"You're early!" A woman's voice called back.

"I know!" He replied, shutting the door after Hachi stepped inside.

She was thrown off a little, the apartment was the same as Bato's, only flipped, with the living room to the left instead of the right, and so forth. Their living room had a long short table next to the couch, which filled up the room more and made it seem smaller. There were some photos on the walls in this house as well, which Hachi decided not to dwell upon, instead flopping out onto the couch. It felt so good to get off her feet...

"Okay." Toda said as he sat down in the armchair off to the side. "I guess we should probably go over a few things quick. If, well, you're up to talking for a bit?"

She sighed and turned just enough to look at him.

"So, my Mom works from home, which means she does stuff on the computer and sends it in to other people; she usually stays back in her office, which is also her bedroom, until evening while she works. Oh, and we're not allowed to go in there unless it's an emergency. My Dad should be home soon; he's an auto repair guy. Err... he fixes cars. You're probably going to end up sleeping on that couch, my Mom's more strict about that sort of thing than Bato's parents." He hesitated for a brief moment, tilting his head a bit in thought. "Do you... sort of know what you're going to say if they start asking questions?"

She shook her head.

Toda frowned a little, trying to think. "Well... I think you could pass as 17, almost 18, and you could say you're unemployed right now... which would explain why you need somewhere to stay for a couple of days..."

Hachi pretended to act like she was paying attention, but she was slipping. She wanted to go home so badly, then she wouldn't have to try to lie. How was she appointed to the surface when she could barely lie to literally save her life? Would she even be allowed back home? Had Orion said she was dead? She could be locked out of the system... She had to find that out...

"–Before it... closed..." Toda was saying "It could explain how we met, I get sundaes all the time."

Crap, she had no idea what he was talking about now. Best to act like she heard everything and just needed clarification. "... Sundae?"

Toda blinked. "Oh, not as in the day of the week 'Sunday', as in ice cream 'sundae', with an E instead of a Y." He paused, then added. "It's a cold, sweet dessert thing. It's... a little hard to explain." He said, glancing down at the floor like he'd dropped something. Perhaps his common sense. She'd have to remember that burn for later.

Either way that cleared almost nothing up. Why was this so hard? Why couldn't they have told her more about the surface in training? Why? "If I got rations for every time something was hard for you squidlings to explain, it would start to spoil before I could eat it all." She huffed.

"I can imagine..." He agreed, then the two fell into the type of silence that felt a lot longer than it actually was, each falling into their own thoughts.