Tessa Rogers (tiny_ninja) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-02-10 01:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-07-03, tessa |
Here's a final bullet to put our love to death, our days are never coming back.
Who: Tessa Rogers, Inaki (NPC), and Jacen Harris (NPC)
Where: The Red Dragon Dojo, via phonelines
When: Just after 8am
What: The past always comes back to haunt you, no matter who you are.
Unable to sleep the night before, Tessa found herself at the dojo long before the day’s classes were to begin. She could have gone upstairs to see Troy, knowing he was likely in his apartment, but she didn’t feel much like company at the moment, rare for a fire elemental. It wasn’t even that she was angry, but unsettled, and she wasn’t sure what it was about. The world around her was changing – but hell, she was an elemental, she’d been attacked by a demon, and there were a bunch of Very Bad Things out there. Maybe it was just a fact of life after the Light of May.
Tessa hated to dwell on it, knowing it would only serve to piss her off further. That was why she let herself into the dojo so early, Inaki following her, silent for once. Her familiar didn’t know what was bothering her either, and that only added to the unease she felt. Since he’d shown up on her doorstep, there was nothing Inaki hadn’t known, until now.
Sighing, she left her bag and shoes in the office and went out onto the dojo floor. Troy always talked about the importance of centering yourself, finding inner peace, and Tessa always had trouble understanding why it was necessary. Too often, her emotions controlled who she was; she’d come to terms with it a long time ago. Today, she would try Troy’s way. Maybe clearing her mind for a bit would do her some good.
Slowly, she stretched for a couple minutes before moving to her kata. It was the same routine of moves and stretches Troy had taught her when she returned from New York, after the disaster that was Jacen. If she focused on her breathing, on her moves instead of her thoughts, Tessa could feel some of the tension fall away from her. Any moment of calm was rare for the fire elemental; she’d take it while she could get it.
Tessa was halfway through her routine when the phone in the office rang. It was just past eight in the morning; the dojo’s first class didn’t start until 10, at the earliest. Maybe it was Troy, calling to see if she was here? Tessa dismissed the thought; he would have just come downstairs if he needed to talk. She couldn’t wait until Darcy started work. Granted, the girl had been injured in a demon attack, and Tessa understood the recovery time was necessary, but it would be awesome when she didn’t have to answer the phone or worry about the paperwork anymore.
That still left the phone ringing now. You should get that, Inaki noted, yawning from the corner of the room. It might be important.
She rolled her eyes. Figures, her familiar would try to act as her conscience. Deciding to get back to her workout later, Tessa ducked into the office. “Hello, Red Dragon Dojo?” Nothing in her voice gave anything away, crisp and professional. Just like she promised Troy she would be, at the dojo.
“Hi, I’m calling about self defense classes, I heard that you might offer something like that at your dojo?” The question was one Tessa had heard asked more and more since the demons first appeared – more and more since the Light of May in general, actually. People saw a need to protect themselves somehow from what they didn’t know; it was probably for the best that they didn’t mention the place was run by a couple of elementals.
There was something familiar to the voice, though, something Tessa couldn’t pinpoint at first – a man’s low rasp, like he’d smoked one too many cigarettes. And she’d heard it before, she was sure of it, she was just unable to place it in her memory. Trying to figure it out sidetracked her for a second, and a moment passed before she answered. “Oh, yes, of course. What kind of class are you looking for? Beginner or intermediate?”
“It’s actually not for me, it’s for my sister. She’s going to college up at UoM and you know, I worry about her.” There was a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. “Big brother’s prerogative and all of that.”
As Tessa spoke, she cradled the phone in between her ear and her shoulder, starting to go through paperwork. Somewhere in the mess that was the Rogers’ shared desk, there was an official schedule of all the classes they offered. She was fairly certain of what time her own classes were, but as Troy taught beginners’ self defense as well, she needed to look at what he had set up. “Does she know you’re looking into this, or are you planning it as a surprise?”
“No.” He sounded cocky, and in a flash she imagined Jacen grinning on the other end of the line. “She thinks we’re going out for lunch, and I was planning on bringing her by to see the place. If you had something that would work out for her, that is. She’ll need to start at the very basic level, I don’t think she’s ever even hit someone in her entire life.”
The more he talked, the more the voice clicked in her mind. Jacen. That wasn’t possible – he should still be in Albany, not back in Scarlet Oak. It had been a year since the last time Tessa had heard anything from him, the last screaming match that resulted in him throwing her out of their apartment. If Troy hadn’t called when he did, she might still be there, in the crappy hotel room she’d found, pining for that asshole.
And his sister was Michelle, Tessa remembered, prissy little thing who couldn’t be bothered getting her hands dirty. Like hell she’d ever step foot in the dojo, let alone be any good at fighting. Tessa would have liked the chance to take her out, in front of her older brother, the one who told her that being with her was just “too hard,” that he couldn’t “deal with her anymore.” He was lucky, so lucky, that he didn’t know what Tessa was.
“Are you still there?”
Behind her, what few papers were left in the trash can went up in flames. She forced the next word out through clenched teeth, needing to know for certain. “Jacen?”
For a moment, there was silence, followed by: “I never told you my name.”
“You really think that, after being with you for what, a year and a half, I wouldn’t recognize what you fucking sound like?”
“Tessa.” Her name was a hiss, spat into the phone.
“Damn straight. Why in the hell are you calling my dojo?” Sure, it was Troy’s name on all of the paperwork, but they ran it together and she considered it to be as much hers as it was her brother’s. By now, she had as much invested in the success of the business as he did.
Jacen snorted. “Because I didn’t think you’d be stable enough to actually own anything in your entire life. Tell me, how goes that photography career, Tess? Or should I say, lack thereof?”
The flames grew bigger, and Inaki was by her side, rubbing up against her legs. At the moment, Tessa barely recognized either fact. “Like you give a shit. You’re the one who threw me out, remember? You don’t get to come back and ask about anything. You get to go die in a fire.” And oh, did she mean that. She could even arrange for said fire. How was Jacen in Scarlet Oak? Why was he in Scarlet Oak?
“I threw you out because you’re fucking you, for Christ’s sake. You ever try listening to yourself for a change?”
She snarled at him. “Fuck you.”
“You wish.”
Tessa didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer. Hanging up the phone, she threw it against the wall, hearing it smack and fall to the floor in pieces. At the moment, she didn’t care; she’d buy Troy another one. Slumping to the floor, Tessa pulled her legs up to her chest, aware of how badly she was shaking. It was so much easier to pretend that she’d gotten over Jacen when he was states away from her. To have him in Scarlet Oak, even if it was just to visit family, it was too much to handle.
Was this the source of the unease she felt that morning? Could she have known he’d call her, at the one moment when she was the only one in the dojo? Fate was a bitch. Tessa should have just stayed in her apartment until classes started.
Inaki nudged her with his nose, and it was then she remembered how close the fox was to her. Put out the fire. Your brother will be very unhappy if you burn the place down. His voice was quiet, like he was whispering. The fox wasn’t scared of her, but he was worried for her. Could a familiar feel her emotions? She didn’t know, but if he could, poor thing was going to be fucked up eventually, dealing with her all the time.
I won’t be damaged by being with you. If we see him, we’ll light him on fire together.
It took her a moment, but soon the flames died, slow at first, dwindling until there was nothing but smoke drifting through the air. She was lucky none of the smoke alarms went off, because the last thing she needed was the fire department to show up on accounts of a fire elemental whose emotions went haywire.
Reaching out to pet Inaki, Tessa drew a deep breath, the tears coming now. As emotional as she was, she rarely cried, and never in public. Troy was the only one she’d let see her like this, but at the moment she didn’t have the energy to move from this spot. Inaki curled into her lap, his face pressed into her hair. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed there, on the floor of the office, holding the fox and wondering how she was going to deal with getting through the rest of the day.