Eye of the Storm

All you need

The black Mercedes that Chester had seen belonged to Mike Shinoda, and he along with his curly-haired friend drove it out of the city and towards his magnificent estate. The Asian let his friend take the wheel so he could sit back on the ride over. Work was tearing at his sanity and stress ate at his nerves.

For a while, they sat without talking, but halfway through the trip, Brad decided to ask something he'd been curious about since he ran into Rob.

"Who was the boy from the bar?"

"What boy?" Mike had his head back on the headrest, and his eyes were shut peacefully. He hardly moved to reply.

"The one you asked Rob to take home. I saw them when I left," the thinner man elaborated, steadily driving along the freeway.

"Oh, I don't know. He was just some kid exploring where he doesn't belong," the Asian shrugged off.

"But why are you helping him?" his friend pressed for his reasoning.

"I'm not. I simply let him get out alive, and gave him a way to get home," the tall, dark man was indignant, not sure himself what prompted him to give the man even a scrap of his attention.

"Why?" Brad persisted.

The dark-haired male finally opened his eyes to look at his friend next to him, pulling his head from its comfortable position resting back. "Because he looked so small and helpless."

"Ah Shinoda, are you getting soft?" he was teased. The thinner man wore a smirk that from anyone else would be met with a hard fist.

"Shut up, Delson. I'm not heartless," he said defensively. "He's just innocent like we were once," the half-Japanese man countered.

"Except that when we were that 'innocent' we were still only kids," his friend pointed out snidely.

"You know, whatever," the Asian waved him away. "We were there at one point."

"You like him," his friend taunted him some more, knowing that he was hardly capable of being nice, let alone liking anyone.

"He means nothing to me," Mike deadpanned, forcing his companion to drop the subject.

After some silence, Brad went for another sensitive topic. He knew his friend was stubborn, but he couldn't help wanting the man to truly be happy, not just play around. Mike Shinoda had everything he had ever wanted, but there was something missing that he didn't even know he needed. There was a void in the man's life of which he was unaware, and to evade recognizing it, he screwed around.

"Mike, seriously, do you ever think of maybe having an actual relationship?" the brunette asked earnestly.

"I can't afford to put my trust out there. I saw what happened to Rob. He got destroyed because he gave his heart to a woman," was the Asian's immediate response.

"It wasn't that bad," Brad tried, but his friend just looked at him incredulously so he switched tactics. "What about me and Elisa? We're doing well," he said proudly of himself and his girlfriend.

"Where are you going though? It can still turn terribly wrong. Remember Joe and Karen? They were fine, too. Then all of a sudden they went through a nasty divorce," Mike reminded him.

"Dave and Linsey are happily married," the curly-haired man used their other friends as an example, but his best friend wouldn't have it.

"Anything can happen. It is far safer to not get involved with feelings and love," the Asian was adamant.