Get Out, If You Can

Bargaining Chip, Bet's Made

After Cyren had met with Kaeden and Eiji, TJ didn't hesitate to take her home as soon as possible. The conversation with the four of them was a little stressful for him, he allowed Cyren to mostly answer all of their questions for her and remained quiet himself. They had sat on the back porch and TJ busied himself with smoking and drinking his coffee, not really listening. Though the occasional shared glance between Eiji and him held an entire conversation in itself. At some point Eiji had looked away and nodded, as if he had understood what TJ was interested in, but failed to share his revelation with him. After dropping Cyren off back at her house Eiji had come along and suggested they go out for a bit, do things that normal people do, and inevitably turned into their own time. Returning home now TJ sighed getting out of the car, it was well into the evening and he could see that the lights were on inside. Meaning that Kaeden was awake and home somewhere within.

He looks down at himself to make sure that there wasn't traces of what he had actually been up to for the entirety of the day, satisfied with his last inspection he makes his way to the front door and lets himself in. Stopping in the doorway he looks to Kaeden sitting on the couch with his younger brother sat beside him, them both engrossed in some video game they were playing on the big screen television. TJ nods to himself and hesitates to hang his keys on the hook, contemplating if he should just leave instead, trying to find something or somewhere else to be. Eiji had wanted to go home, which surprised him at first, but he could understand, he also had no desire to be around another person at the moment.

"Aye, where the fuck you been?" Kaeden asks loudly, over the sound of the game now looking to TJ worriedly. "You seemed a bit pissed off this morning, I sent you a text, did you get it?"

TJ furrows his brow and digs in his pocket looking to the screen of the device, now seeing the text displayed on the screen. He sighs and rolls his eyes.

"My bad, I lost track of time with Eiji." He offers up in a disinterested excuse, pocketing his phone again lazily and pointing down the hallway, signaling that he wasn't going to be partaking in the events taking place in their living room.

TJ doesn't take his time to take a shower and rinse away the filth that was covering him beneath his change of clothes from the car. He was fortunate that Kaeden hadn't noticed at all. It was small things like this that had him worried that something would be suspected. He had assumed that his roommate wasn't all too worried about anything and they were extremely close as it were. Though he had been hoping for a quiet evening, being over stimulated with the many people that had been weaving their ways through his day lately, loneliness was a nostalgic feeling at this point, and he was starting to hate it. Standing under the blistering hot water he allows his mind to wander as he stares down at the pink streaks of the day coil and disappear down the drain, the water streaming through his hair a soothing feeling after the abruptness of everything else. This was the only thing that was gentle with him lately, not that he didn't mind the aggressive nature in which everything was being progressing, but it was tiring. Before all of this, it had been the opposite; days would bleed together, weeks could go by with nothing of interest taking place. He hadn't had such a bloodlust as strong as he did now, but that was due to his anger being provoked more often. And there was an endless supply of disposable people in the world, but the calm before this storm was definitely taken for granted.

"She's lovely. I can see why you admire her." Eiji had voiced while they were driving towards the city after dropping her off, his chin propped up on his fist whilst leaning against the passenger side window, his eyes scanning that streets absent-mindedly.

"And why is that?" TJ quirks not sure if he even knew himself.

"She's breakable. You like things that can break. Like yourself." Eiji sighs out sounding completely bored with the topic that he, himself had brought up.