Memories

XX

DIE FOR THE HYPE

'A juvenile sinner
A car-crash winner
Don't let the devil take you out for dinner'

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The rest of the banquet had gone well, if your definition of well was a steaming pile of shit. After Neil and Thalia had insulted Riko to their maximum levels, they'd been moved tables. Thalia had realised it was probably best not to ask Neil or Kevin what Jean had been talking about when he called Thalia and Neil 'The Butcher's Children' but had made a very strong mental note to hound them about it later.

After the dinner, Wymack had forced the unwanting Foxes - Thalia, Neil, Andrew and Kevin - to join the party or talk to people, at the very least. They'd gone around in a small group, talking to players and coaches they'd played and ones they hadn't. When they were outside of court conditions, most of the people there were tolerable, Thalia realised. 

Riko and the Ravens had approached the four of them, and had almost started another fight between the two teams, as the rest of the Foxes joined the boys and Thalia. Neil and her were summoned off the court as soon as Riko's uncle and the Ravens' coach, Tetsuji Moriyama, had arrived. His eyes had lingered on Thalia for only a moment before turning on Kevin. Thalia didn't want to leave, but knew that Andrew would be able to help if he was needed.

Jean had led the two into one of the locker rooms, where Riko was checking to see if there was anyone in any of the bathroom stalls. Once he was sure they were alone, he'd led the two into the front room. Then Riko turned on the two and smiled that icy sneer that put Thalia on edge more than she liked.

"Nathaniel, Nathalia, it's been so long," Riko said. Thalia didn't like that people suddenly started calling her Nathalia, and liked it even less coming from Riko's horrid mouth. Also, Thalia realised, Riko had added a 'Nathan' to the start of Neil's name. What did that mean?

"My name is Neil," Neil defended. "And this is Thalia." Thalia nodded in agreement with her teammate. 

"Do not lie to me again," Riko snapped. "You will not like the consequences." Thalia wanted to speak up, but a small hand on her's told her to stay quiet. "And she does not even know who you are, do you, Nathalia?"

"I know I'm too sober to be putting up with your bullshit." Thalia said. Riko didn't seem to be happy.

"Imagine my surprise when the results got back," Riko continued as if Thalia had never spoken. "Your fingerprints. Kathy gave me your glass as a souvenir." Thalia didn't know what Riko was talking about, though Neil obviously did. It must have had something to do with the Kathy Ferdinand show, Thalia figured, as that was the only time she could recount Neil and RIko ever having met.

"Explain something to me," Riko said, moving towards the pair. His eyes were fixed on Neil, however, and Thalia was still wondering what she had to do with all of this. The situation seemed almost laughable - a known member of a crime family was approaching Thalia and calling her Nathalia, saying that Neil's fingerprints had something to do with something, and wasn't cluing her in on the things she didn't know.

"Jean said Kevin did not know who the two of you were. And after seeing Kevin's reaction, I am inclined to believe him. Perhaps I can understand, Kevin is very close-minded when it comes to Exy. I may even forgive him for sheltering you from me. But I know that you, at least, Nathaniel, know you you are. So I'd like to know exactly what you think you are doing."

"I'm just trying to get by," Neil responded. Thalia was confused, but Riko's eyes flicked to her as if expecting an answer. She shrugged.

"I got picked up by the team when you killed one of theirs." Riko smiled again. It was the truth then, that he'd been the cause of Seth's sudden demise. Thalia had never known him, and from the games she'd watched, he seemed like a bit of an asshole, but she didn't know his full story, and was getting bits of it from Allison, and knew that he didn't deserve what he got.

"If I'd known our families were business partners I wouldn't have signed Coach's contract." Neil said, leaving Thalia even more confused before. She'd been putting things together throughout the rest of the dinner and time walking around the floor with the boys while staying completely silent.

Jean had called her and Neil 'The Butcher's Children' which would mean that they were either particularly close, or actual siblings. She knew the Moriyamas were a crime family, and so if what Neil just said, that their families were 'business partners' then that meant Neil's family were also in crime. And if what Jean had said was actually true, then that meant Thalia's family were in crime, because she was Neil's family. 

None of it made any sense, but Thalia stayed silent. It was what she was good at.

Riko seemed genuinely offended by Neil's words and stopped so close to the other boy they were almost touching. "You're lying."

"I am not." Thalia didn't know how Neil wasn't flinching. Thalia would have curled into a ball and begged to be set free by this point, even with the calm and powerful exterior she tried to put on most of the time. "I don't want to cause any trouble for your family. I don't want you to cause any trouble for mine. I'm just here for a year and then I'm gone again, I promise."

Riko looked sideways to Thalia, then back to Neil. "You don't want to cause any trouble for my family," he repeated Neil's words. Thalia was so uncomfortable she wanted to run out of the room or break something, and she didn't know which one would be a better stress reliever at this point. "You have already caused my family a sizeable fortune, eight years of trouble, and was to be my offensive dealer." Riko spat.

"How?" Neil asked, avoiding the last point Riko had brought up. "The money we took was my father's." Riko looked as if he might laugh.

"If you think that acting stupid will help you, you are very mistaken." Riko said eventually.

"I'm not acting." Neil said, stepping back. "My mother never told me why we were running. She said it was my father's money. She didn't even tell me about you. If I'd known the money was yours-"

"Nothing your father owned was his." Riko snapped, interrupting Neil. "Especially not you." he turned to Thalia, who'd been silent in an attempt to blend into the shadows. Riko then pushed Neil against the wall.

"I refuse to believe she never told you." he spat. "All that time running and you never asked why?"

"Have you met my father?" Neil asked. It was clearly rhetorical, and Riko understood that, staying quiet. "I didn't need to ask." Riko dropped him and turned on Thalia.

"I bet you asked, didn't you," he said. "You always were a curious little bitch." Thalia's throat went dry. There was no way she could have known Riko as a child. She would have remembered that cold face and icy eyes, even with severe amnesia. He walked towards her, but Neil tried to hold him back. Riko pushed him again and Neil got the hint, though Thalia wished he'd keep helping her.

"I don't -" Thalia was interrupted by a door banging down the hall. She didn't move her head to the noise, afraid that Riko would take that vulnerability and attack her. "I don't know. I don't even know why the fuck I'm in here," then something dawned on her. Something else Jean had mentioned.

'That and faking your own death to escape the Raven's nest.' He'd been talking to Thalia, about Thalia. It was clear to her now. She had known Riko and Kevin. She didn't know how long for, but she'd lived with them. Those little snippets of memories where she mentioned her 'friends' and her mother had cut her down. They were real, and they were about Riko Moriyama and Kevin Day.

"You were not running from your father, Nathaniel," Riko rounded on Neil again, obviously knowing he wouldn't get anything out of Thalia. "You were running from his master." Thalia was almost too caught up in her thoughts to even hear him, but the words stuck in her brain as background noise to be processed later.

"He didn't have one," Neil replied.

Then Matt was in the room, and he didn't seem pleased. "What is going on here?" he asked.

"He didn't have one," Neil repeated, as if whatever he was saying made it true. Maybe it did. Thalia didn't know. But she did realise that there were things that she remembered that had always felt out of context. Things that, until now, weren't relevant. She'd have to go over her memories, coherent or not, and link them to everything she now knew. Today had been better and worse than she ever could have imagined.