We had no time to say goodbye (no event)

[rideonmyharley]

Kia sat in an open area near the greenhouse and lit another cigarette. There were already a dozen butts crumpled in the ashtray next to him. He didn't know when it had happened, but Ran was gone. Just when he'd thought he'd broken the last bit of ice and had been about to hear the words he'd managed to pull from every other person he'd pushed

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[rose_of_sideb]

It wasn't often many others stopped by the greenhouse, of all places. Kia rather stuck out.

Curious eyes played across the suffering young man as Chloe drew closer, his original intent momentarily forgotten. The flowers would have let him know if something was amiss. This seemed slightly more pressing at the moment.

He seemed familiar. Kia. That was his name...though the details of their meeting were still a little fuzzy in his head. Still, he would have offered his services, such as they were, to anyone he thought in need of them, stranger or otherwise.

"...penny for your thoughts."

[rideonmyharley]

Kia turned when he noticed someone approaching him. He vaguely remembered meeting the blond before, when they'd had animal features and his hand was bruised from punching the wall in frustration.

He held his cigarette as if he didn't know whether or not he should put it out and took a slow breath. "Why do you want to know? We didn't end up saying much the last time I saw you." It seemed funny that both times they'd come across each other, Kia was hurting because of Ran. First physically and now emotionally.

"This place is cruel," Kia muttered as he eyed the roses still sitting near him. He knew their meanings only because of Ran, and would never be able to think of flowers in the same way.

[rose_of_sideb]

"You just seem troubled," he replied evenly, tilting his shoulders in a faint shrug. "I would have asked anyone looking as you do the same." He trailed off as the other turned his gaze to the flowers, wistfully.

This was a grief not easily soothed, whatever the cause.

"It can be, yes."

[rideonmyharley]

Troubled seemed like an understatement to describe his mood right now. Kia laughed painfully and looked up at Chloe. "Someone I'd become close to here is gone now. He's probably back in Japan with no memory of being here or knowing me at all. It's better that way. I pushed him every step of the way, after all."

If Chloe could piece together Kia's words now with the last conversation he'd had with a certain redhead, he might be able to figure out who was gone.

[rose_of_sideb]

He suspected, but he was loath to assume such things. Still, there was that niggling suspicion in the back of his mind as he listened to the other, his own expression turning thoughtful.

No harm in asking to be certain, though it seemed a stretch.

"You're not...by chance...talking about Aya, are you?"

[rideonmyharley]

Time for more confusion. Kia knew him by a different name, for reasons known only to said redhead. He arched an eyebrow. "He told me that was his sister's name." But why would two people know him as two completely different things? This would be interesting to sort out.

[rose_of_sideb]

No question, then. It was Aya, unless there was another Japanese man wandering around using his sister's name.

"Ah...so you're the one." Cryptic Chloe time, and he regarded the other with a look that was not so much calculating as searching. He was taking him in, in earnest now, as one might inspect a painting for whatever the artist's purpose might be.

[rideonmyharley]

Of all the people to end up talking to, it had to be someone that Ran apparently knew. And Kia had just casually mentioned that he wasn't here anymore. Oops.

"What does that mean - has he mentioned me to you or something?" Talking about someone to others generally meant that they mattered in some way, which both reassured him and made him feel worse that he likely didn't remember any of that now that he was back home.

[rose_of_sideb]

Chloe merely smiled. Aya trusted him with what he had told him, and he would not betray that trust, even if it meant reassuring this boy. Loyalty to a teammate, even a future one, held priority.

"I knew he was feeling conflicting about something or...someone. I suppose then that that would explain how, exactly, the hotel is choosing to be cruel, this time." Something dinged, then.

"Wait. You said...he's gone?"

[rideonmyharley]

Kia put his cigarette out. Talking to someone else who knew Ran seemed more important than finishing it. He understood loyalty and not betraying trust as much as anyone who worked in a moral grey area could.

"If he's been confused lately, it's probably my fault," he admitted. Telling someone he could never be with in reality that he loved him was bound to get anyone's head spinning. He nodded at the last words and picked up the darker rose. "I went to find him a few days ago; there were other people using his room and his things weren't in it any more." Kia didn't like explaining that, but he had to say how he knew it.

[rose_of_sideb]

"Then, he found a way back..."

He appeared to muse over this for a moment, before his gaze focused once more upon Kia. "That doesn't mean he won't return. I've heard of people coming and going. It is...a little more sudden than expected, but I suppose you can't choose. I'm sure he would have said or done something, if he'd had his way."

His pale gaze drifted down to that rose, and he felt a small tug of pity for the boy.

[rideonmyharley]

"I was gone for a while earlier, right after I promised him I'd be waiting for him to make a decision. But while I wasn't here, this place seemed like a dream I could barely remember when I was awake. He's probably dealing with the same thing." And that, more than Ran being missing, was the painful part. Kia had known it would happen at some point. They couldn't stay here forever, after all. But thinking that everything he'd worked for effectively meant nothing in the real world made him clench the hand not holding the rose. He didn't need to prick himself on it.

Kia didn't know what to do or feel right now.

[OOC: Kia's not too much younger than Chloe - 24]

[rose_of_sideb]

"...I had thought that might be the case," the blond murmured, shaking his head slowly. "Still. Once returned, you recalled the events that passed here, did you not?"

[ooc: Didn't mean for it to seem like he thought he was that young... ]

[rideonmyharley]

Kia nodded. "I remembered just before I came back, actually. After I remembered, I wanted to be back, went to bed, and the next thing I knew, I was here again." He'd had a promise to keep. Kia might do a lot of things people didn't think was right, but he disliked breaking promises.

[OOC: It wasn't a problem, just amusing to consider someone his age a boy]

[rose_of_sideb]

"Well then, I doubt there will be any issue of his return. Aya fulfills his obligations, and he would certainly see leaving you hanging as an issue in need of addressing, from the way things appear," Chloe replied with a faint chuckle. That did indeed relieve him as well, though he wasn't about to say as much. Mentioning his own relationship to Aya would just make things awkward, at best.

"...he's stubborn that way. I'm sure you've noticed."

[ ooc: Blame his mun, who just got off of work and is too stressed and tired to care much about the distinction between 'boy' and 'young man'. XD ]

[rideonmyharley]

Hearing that reassured Kia more than he thought Chloe could know. It wouldn't bother him to know about their relationship, either personal or professional. He wasn't the sort of person to be jealous about a body or heart with another claim on it.

"Calling him stubborn is like calling a blizzard 'a bit of a snowstorm'." At first, that had been the biggest appeal, but the more he learned, the more reasons he had to stay interested.