Scenes

Yiona waited patiently in a well-lit cafe, getting antsier by the second. Wasn't really his scene, born near the middle though he was. He preferred seedier parts. But Tesei didn't have time to make the trip to lower north today so Yiona agreed to meet them in the mid west quad. Coffee and mileage was on whoever happened to be less busy, that was the rule.

And today that was undoubtedly Yiona. He hadn't even tried to argue something long-winded and half-offended about how valuable hanging around a bar was. Tesei looked as busy as they'd sounded over the phone. They walked in a flurry of loose paperwork and white hair, not one, but two briefcases, and a line of sweat streaking down their forehead. Their usually neat bun was coming undone. They'd ran here.

"Damn... You know you didn't have to come meet me. More casual invitation, less hostage scenario?" Yiona said when they neared his table. He watched them collapse into their seat with a soulful sigh. 

"Oh spare me, I am desperate for coffee and decent company. Got a total of 30 minutes before the meeting, that should do it. Language, by the way."

Yiona rolled his eyes. Removed the briefcases Tesei had left on their shared coffee table and tucked them near his own chair.

"Uh uh, give those back."

"How about you restore lung capacity first before lecturing me? Breathe, use a napkin, fix your hair and I'll order you something strong."

Tesei huffed a small, breathy laugh inbetween panting.

"Oh and you're the pinnacle of well-to-do and put together?"

"You have sweat stains. Today I am the pinnacle."

"Don't patronise me; and make sure it's clean black. No sugars."

"Fine. But payment first. Give me your fact of the day."

Tesei paused their nervous fidgeting with imaginary creases on their already ironed shirt and thought for a second. "Fun fact of the day: Black mamba venom can kill a man in 20 minutes."

"Thematic." Yiona snorted. "Making plans already?"

"Not yet... I mean, the man is frustrating to share a space with, but I've met worse bigots."

Yiona eyed the restless hands currently bunching up napkins and raised a brow in clear scepticism. 

"Problem is?"

Tesei dabbed at their damp neck. "Problem is this one's in charge of a whole police department."

"Thought you said he was perfectly well mannered last time?"

"Yes, he was very unsettling about it. And that was hardly a compliment. Just means he would've done better in politics than law enforcement. He has the... delicate dispositions for it."

Yiona grinned wide and mischievous.

"Hmm. Sounds like another one of your 'challenge' cases. Didn't you like those?"

"Sounds like you should be going to get my coffee."

They counted on big sibling privileges to save them from further conversation, but after receiving a cross-armed but friendly glare from their brother, Tesei switched gears.

"Yiona. Please. I really need coffee. It's urgent."

With a long-suffering sigh and the gait of someone forced to move at gunpoint, Yiona dragged himself out of his seat and trudged towards the counter.

By the time he was back with a sweet smelling cappuccino and a cup of pitch black sludge, Tesei had sneakily nabbed their confiscated briefcases and was looking over a bunch of documents. Yiona snatched them away immediatelly.

"Bad! Illegal!"

"Yiona... I swear..."

Yiona resisted the urge to crumple the papers into a ball and instead just neatly stuffed them back in the briefcase they very likely didn't belong in.

"I will tolerate no reading in my presence. Now shut up and drink your sewer water."

He raised his cappuccino for a clink and was met with a reprimanding glare.

"You can be so... so insufferable when you want to be..."

"Come on, you wanted company, right? Here I am. Eyes on me."

Easy as it was to write off Yiona's antics as an intolerance for being overlooked, Tesei could tell he was just trying to ease the tension off their shoulders. Distract them from work, inconvenient as the moment was.

"And I was not ignoring you, I was just double checking some things while you were away"

"'Double' checking." Yiona raised a brow again.

"Triple checking, quadruple checking."

"You've been working on this for seven months..."

"And last time I got turned down. Now we finally have our own funds and we're officially non-profit, everything has to work out well."

"It will."

"That's what I thought last time too. Surely we qualified for municipality funding."

"Tes, it will."

"It would've been a budget cut on something else, of course, but we would've broken even on lesser incarceration costs once the program took off."

"Tes. If he says no, I will key his fucking doorplate."

Finally, that made Tesei pause. And actually smile. One of those trademark 'you're such trouble but I love you' smiles Yiona was often privy to. They didn't even correct his french.

"How sweet" they deadpanned sarcastically.

"And maybe his face too..."

"Alright, that might be a step too far."

"Not at all. Tasteful scarification tattoo? Center of forehead, very eye catching? I have much artistic prowess."

Tesei shook their head with a grin and took a sip of coffee.

"What, I do. I draw a mean dick."

And immediatelly dissolved into laughter and coughing.

"On his forehead?!" 

Put a hand up over their mouth for posterity, but the dainty gesture did nothing to hide their creasing eyes. When their shoulders started shaking, Yiona doubled down, milking his tiny victories.

"Yeah, if you're nervous in there, just imagine him with it. And make it big and veiny."

They spent the remainder of their time shooting the shit together, paperwork forgotten for now. Good. Yiona's work was done here. By the time Tesei had to leave, their shoulders were loose and relaxed and the sweat stains had dried.

"Moment of truth. Wish me luck, Nani." Tesei smoothed down their blazer with finality and armed themself with both briefcases, looking more excited than nervous. There was that determined sheen in their eyes that usually meant hell for whoever stood in their way. Yiona bustled with pride.

"Luck's got fuck all to do with it. Now go, shoo."

"I'm going. Meet you all back at the bar tonight."

A few hours later they walked into Milohi's bar with a pep in their step and Yiona knew they'd gotten the approval. Tesei didn't tend to grin like an idiot for nothing.

Their usual table up front near the bar had Yiona and Balu gathered around it with drinks (all on the house) while Milohi tended the counter, occasionally dropping by when all customers seemed sufficiently watered. Millicent tended the tables. 

"I got it!" Tesei proclaimed.

"We know!" Balu tried to clap their shoulder as they shuffled behind them to get to their seat. "It was all over your social media, stupid."

"How'd it go?" Yiona ventured past a mouthful of bar fries.

"I. Got. The. Approval! Fun fact of the day: The Iris flower is a symbol of hope."

"I fucking know, I mean was it smooth, was it difficult, did you have to hold him at knifepoint?"

"Actually went better than I'd hoped. I signed today, we officiated the launch of the organization and then immediatelly gained access to inmate files. We are literally operational, starting right now." Tesei waved a binder full of individual folders around with excitement. Give or take, it looked to contain the intel of about 20 people.

Yiona reached for it immediatelly.

"Ooh, can I see?" 

Tesei weighed the papers down with a hand and shot their brother a grin.

"Confidential."

"We can bribe you with booze?" Balu intoned sweetly from their left, undeterred by Tesei's trademark fond glares. "A guy I know lets me order on the house. Watch this. Milohi! One whiskey and rum for our guest!"

Milohi looked up from what seemed like a bulk order for one of the busier tables, raised a hand to automatically approve the request and then spotted Tesei. His face lit up.

A few seconds of mimed, silent gesturing between the two followed. How did it go? I got the approval. Great, I'm a little busy but I'll be right there.

"These are just petty criminals." By the time Tesei was done, Yiona and Balu had crawled all over their case files like ants and were commenting on them already. Balu seemed oddly disappointed. Figures.

Tesei sighed. "Yes, we're starting from the most mundane cases. Petty theft... one-time destruction of property.. some of the scrappier guys, ex-cons out in the wild most at risk of reoffending. Etcetera."

Balu opened a different file and her face fell.

"Some look pretty young..."

"Mhmm... Four cases, 19-23. Top priority at the moment. And you guessed it, none of them have older guardians we can trust to keep them out of trouble."

"Are you volunteering?" Yiona wondered, nose peeking above an open case file cheekily.

"I'm volunteering to help." Tesei usually defaulted to defensiveness when it came to Yiona's teasing, but this one made them think. "But... if they end up trusting me enough that I become someone they come to for aid... then all the better."

"Oh you're so volunteering!"

"Congradulations on the approval!" Milohi chose the perfect moment to butt in. "What are you looking at?"

He patted them on the back and placed a whiskey, rum and coke on the table.

Tesei let out a relieved sigh. "Oh, you're a godsent. Thank you. This is our first set of case files."

"You're already working?"

"Tesei? Working? Noo." Balu huffed a laugh while reading through another file. Her little eyes lit up mischievously. "Ohh, Yiona. Look."

The bluenette in question leaned in to take a peek and whistled. "Hohohoo, jackpot. Is he single? Does he take conjugal visits?" 

Tired of their antics, Tesei grabbed at the case file. Balu moved it out of reach.

"This is not a dating pool. Give those back, I'm not even supposed to be showing you anything before I meet these people."

"Meeting him, you say? Can you pass on my number?"

"I don't get to choose who I'm assigned to. And No."

Yiona took on the look of true martyrdom and heartbreak. Tesei considered him while sipping whiskey.

"If you play nice and do what I say for a month, I'll think about it."

"That is extortion. Illegal."

"And bribery isn't?"

Balu slid closer along the table conspiratorially. "Pass on my number and I'll get you peonies from topmost."

"Sold"

"Un-fucking-fair!"

Milohi, ever the mediator, ventured to change the topic before Yiona could get anymore melodramatic.

"Alright, alright. We're talking about a good, honest thing here." He looked over the pile of documents strewn around the table, inspected some of the photos. He turned to Tesei, then, voice soft. "I'm proud of you by the way. You're doing nice work here."

He raised his glass and clinked it with Tesei's, sharing a look of mutual mush. It lasted for all of four seconds before he defaulted to being nosy too.

"So, which one would you want to work with, if you had a choice."

The answer wasn't immediate. Tesei fell deep in thought for a solid minute before diving into the case pile, looking through the photos with consideration. One made them pause, scan it with their eyes, then turn it around to show the trio. Their nail tapped the bright, grainy image of a blue-haired young man.

"Cassius Niiera." There was a small, fond grin on their face. "Petty thief and general nuisance. Heavily modded at only 23, steals mostly from the wealthy, loves making himself an obstacle to law enforcement and drinks so much energy drinks his piss probably fizzes. But. I think he's a good kid."

"Just a little misguided?" Milohi intoned like he was intimately familiar with the sentiment. Tesei knew who he was thinking of. Someone equally as blue and troublesome.

"Perfectly well-guided, if you ask me. Just awful at evading arrest."

"Oh..."

Tesei smiled a little too innocently.

Before they could be interrogated by Milohi, they felt a pair of skinny arms wind around their neck from behind.

"Hey auntcle, congradulations!" Millicent shouted into their ear. It was an.. endearing sort of loud. "Who's this now?" She reached forward to turn the file back around. "He's cute."

The table exploded with laughter. Milohi bristled.

"Haha, I think that's enough of that. No shoving our noses in this business anymore."

Tesei exchanged twin conspiratorial looks with Millie and invited her to sit right next to them. The night was young and they bet she hadn't had the time to hang at the table and relax for long. Yiona was still trying to set up dates from the con roster. Balu busied herself with giving Milohi shit for his parenting. Millicent lapsed into her usual hobby of supporting auntie in the onslaught.

Tesei... felt warm. Everything was falling into place. Everything was... good.

Maybe tonight they'd finally pay the family tab.

"Dad, can I have vodka on the house?" 

"No!" 

Maybe...