Iris- Chapter 2

  He stood outside, his suitcases in one hand, holding the frail black umbrella in the other. His laptop bag hung sideways over his chest. He looked like your average tourist standing out in the rain, really. After he had paid for his small meal at the internet cafe, he had finished speaking to Marzia. She had reassured him that what was happening was nothing majour, but when he had brought up the topic there was a brief pause before she spoke. He would have loved to continue talking to her, to figure out more, but now his main objective was finding a place to set down his bags. He couldn't just carry them everywhere he went, right?

  He momentarily stopped under a bus stop bench, being shielded by the pouring rain and being given a break from carrying such luggage. He sighed in relief as he closed his umbrella and looked around. There weren't that many people out, and those that were out really stood out. There was a lady walking her dog, the poor thing trying to pull her to some shelter so he would no longer be pelted, and there was a man wearing a suit holding a briefcase over his head as he jogged through the rain. There was also a shorter being, covered up in grey, talking to a small child who seemed lost. 

  This was not his idea of Florida. At all. He expected bright sunshine, warm air, beaches perhaps, people walking around like it was still the beginning of summer. This looked like...

  Tragedy. Poverty. Pathetic, lame, depressing. 

  He suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable, sitting there alone on the bench. His sides itched, as if he was being stared at. He looked around, but the world was so dark and grey and blurred by pouring rain that it was hard to tell if someone was doing so. He held his belongings closer- it was best if he just got out of this unwelcoming part of town as fast as he could.

~*~

  He really shouldn't have, but here he was, trying to calm down a bawling child in the middle of another shower of rain. His own want had beaten his logic, and he had pulled on his grey hoodie, slipped on his shoes, and walked out. He was mindful, this time, though. He brought gloves. 

  It had been five minutes now that he had been trying to soothe the young kid. It had started out with him just walking and he was planning to go back, but somehow he had found himself in the middle of a plaza. Before he could turn around and head back, the little kid had came out of nowhere and clung to him, pulling down his hoodie and sobbing into it. For a flash of a second, he was disgusted, horrified, surprised, shocked, and terrified. But it all was washed away, just like the rain sweeping away the debris of the trees, once the kid had looked up at him with those soft blue eyes.

  He felt like breaking down right there. Blue eyes. So innocent-seeming, so full of life, but they held so much sorrow, so much diminished hope, they were just overall pitiful. The sight of them had made him want to scream and hide- those eyes, he remembered them so well, and seeing them now, in real life and not in a dream, on the face of a living child...

  "Mister, do you know where my mommy and daddy is?"

  ...And his mind came back to the present, telling him, whispering it softly in his ear-

  That was long ago, Ryan... This is now. You won't let that happen again... It won't happen again. You can prevent it.

  The child had called out again to him, repeating his question between sobs. Ryan had kneeled down, further more drenching his jeans- then again, he was already soaked, so it didn't matter much -and legs, and held the boy by his shoulders gently. 

  "What do they look like?"

  Now the boy was pointing over to the man on the bench, his little index finger trembling in the cold weather. He had looked over- in the blurred view of the world, he could make out a few features, such as blondish hair and peach-like colour skin. When he looked at the boy, he had saw similar features. Short blond hair that was weighed down with water, pale- though, that could be the cold's fault -skin, and those terrifying blue eyes...

  "Your father looks like that?" he asked, looking back at the man. The little boy nodded, and he felt sympathy for him. 

  He needed to get back home. He needed to get warm before he caught ammonia, or a cold, or the flu, or a cold flu. He was weak enough as it was, with the lack of sleep, with lack of proper eating, with the lack of proper health all in all. But...

  The child... Could die if he was just left out here to wander all alone... 

  He bit his bottom lip, almost shaking- that was long ago, years ago, probably even before this kid was born. As the child trembled with hopeless eyes, Ryan fought his own inner turmoil, the words battling each other, throwing the phrases around to spin and dance on back. 

  The child sneezed.

  Without anymore hesitation, Ryan pulled off his hoodie. It snagged on him- it was overly too big, all the little folds catching on his nose and under his chin. As best as he could in the rain, he ringed it out. He slipped it over the child, who was only wearing a plaid sweater over a cotton T-shirt, and adjusted it to where it didn't drag.

  Now he was doomed to get sick. His long sleeved shirt was immediately soaked. 

  "Th-There. Is th-that better?" he asked. The little boy nodded. Ryan then took his hand and stood. "C-come on. Let's go find y-your parents." 

  The child stared up at Ryan. It was the first time he had seen the man. He had recognised him with the hoodie on- he had seen the man that hid under the green and grey alot. He asked his parents about the man, and they simply said that he was probably a loner. But now, the man finally revealing what was under that hood, he was a bit surprised. Out of all the stories he was told, he was warned that loners were ugly people, with scars, missing teeth, balding problems, and dark eyes. 

  The image of him was all contradicting that knowledge. 

  The child felt safe around him, and he squeezed the other's hand.

  Ryan smiled, though behind his pursed lips, his teeth wouldn't stop hitting each other and catching the walls of his mouth and tip of his tongue, filling his mouth with warm metallic liquid he had no choice but to swallow bitterly. It wasn't just from the cold, either. Words could not describe how terrified he was.

  What if somebody could remember, all those years ago..?

  What if they saw him..?

  He shook his head. "L-let's go see if h-he's seen him, okay...?" he said softly.

~*~

  The Swede looked just about ready to jump up and run when the child and man, as he could now see him a bit more clearly, approached him. He ordered himself to look calm. 

  "E-excuse me..."

  He stared at the older of the two. He was shocked. 

  Why was he just wearing a striped shirt in the rain!? Did he have a death wish or something!? Looking more closely, he saw that the other looked glum, freesing, scared, sick even. The child, who's hand he held, was wearing an over-over-oversized grey hoodie-

  It slowly clicked in his mind. 

  They looked nothing alike, the child was much younger than the man, and the boy had red eyes and was sniffling constantly. 

  Felix leaned forward, offering a smile, as if to reassure them. "Yea, what do you need?" he asked, trying to come off friendly. 

  "I was w-wondering if you've seen s-someone like him? H-He's lost," the older of the two had stuttered. Gears started to turn in his mind. Something about this... Seemed familiar...

  The older man's eyes trailed down to Felix's things. Felix flinched with discomfort, but became confused when he had frowned.

  "...You're a t-tourist, aren't you?" he asked, majourly disappointed. The child's eyes drooped. It seemed even he, a child at such young age, knew that the man probably never had seen his parents in his life. The older of the two sighed. "W-well, anyways..."

  "FRANCIS!"

  They all jumped at the frantic scream. All heads turned to see a woman with long blonde hair running towards them, a taller man a bit behind her. Felix knew immediately who she was. Only in one situation would a woman run faster than a man. 

  When their child was no longer in their grasp.

  "M-Mommy!" the small blond child said, bursting into smiles and tears. He let go of the man's hand and ran towards her, leaving him to stand just in front of Felix. The two men watched as the blonde woman fell down on her knees and embraced the boy, the blond man that was behind her catching up and placing a hand on their shoulders.

  "...Well."

  Felix looked over at the other man, who was watching them with a soft smile. Something still seemed off about the situation. The man looked at him, still smiling, and shook his head.

  "W-what?" Felix asked, slightly inching away from the other. He just smiled.

  "Y-you are a tourist, right...?"

~*~

  He was glad to be back in his home. Immediately, he threw off his hoodie that he had taken back from the child and slipped his shoes off. He sighed, feeling much better now that he was in the safety of his home. 

  "This is where you live...?"

  He stiffened and turned around. He saw the blond stranger behind him, setting his suitcases down and closing his umbrella. He had completely forgot about him. He had invited him over, being that his house was rather close to the plasa, so he could at least dry off and rest for a bit. Of course, he would kick him out after awhile.

  ...Or if he had an episode.

  He could feel it coming, as if it was tugging on his shirt the whole time. If it came to it's peak, he would have to apologise and kick him out, if not by force, before it unleashed.

  He felt so uncomfortable around the blond. He didn't know why- something just didn't seem right about it. Looking at the blond now, it seemed he felt the same. 

  "Erm... You can set your suitcases there by the wall. There's a restroom over on the left, and you can change into something dry there," Ryan offered, pointing in such directions. The blond nodded gratefully and complied after taking off his shoes.

  "Thanks, bro."

  Ryan just nodded before heading off into the kitchen. He hoped he was just coming off as friendly and not some kind of creeper he met on the street. 

  He shivered. He was still in his drenched clothes. He went to his room, changing quickly and grabbing his clothes in a bundle. He collected his jacket and went to throw them in his washer. He sighed, feeling much more refreshed, when the other man came out of the restroom holding a phone to his ear. He was speaking in some foreign language, laughing a bit in between his words. When he caught sight of Ryan, he said a quick goodbye and hung up.

  "Thanks, bro. I thought I was going to freese to death," he said jokingly. 

  "Well, maybe, next time, you should check the weather of the place you travel to," he said, shaking his head. He flinched when he caught the other staring at him. "W-what?"

  "That face you made..." he trailed, before shaking his head. Ryan waved it off.

  "Want me to make you something?"

  "Ah, no, that's-"

  Ryan had already left the room, not waiting for his reply.

  "...Fine..."

~*~

  Felix watched as the man that had so kindly took him in came back with a steaming cup. He sniffed. It was tea of some sort. He was being offered alot of tea, lately. 

  "Thanks," he said, accepting it as it was handed to him. He recognised the smell immediately now that it was close up. "Earl Grey?"

  "Heh, yea. It smells horrible, but it has a surprisingly sweet taste," he said before going back where he came. The kitchen, he presumed. Felix smiled before sitting down on the man's leather couch and taking a sip. As he swallowed, the heat of the liquid slowly coursed through his body, slowly warming him up. 

  Felix looked around. It seemed to be like any other ordinary house- a desk here, a chair there. His eyes roamed around the room, catching on something every now and then, in where he would stare at it for a moment before moving on.

  There were a few picture frames on the coffee table in front of him. He looked over them. It seemed to show members of the other's family. None had him in them, though. There was a desktop computer on the other side of the room, a TV up on a glass table... 

  He frowned. Something seemed off. He could feel it on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't spit it out, nor think it out correctly. What was it that made everything seem so familiar? 

  "Hey, you okay in there?"

  It snapped; in the back of his mind, the string that had held the thought back had snapped. It made sense now. He saw it in the rain. He saw it in his voice. He saw it in the man himself. He was just now noticing it. 

  "Are you alright?" he asked, coming into the living room with his own cup of tea. Felix didn't look at him- he just stared down at his hands holding the half empty cup of Earl Grey. The man frowned, inching closer.

  "You're Cry...aren't you?" 

  The man frose, and the cup shattered as it fell to the floor.