[Waste]

Alex nodded, the movement felt sloppy. He frowned and put his hand to his head. “Luke Willard.” He’d heard that name before, he watched Luke glance over his shoulder, no he hadn’t heard the name Luke before, just the Willard part.

“I think your friend is looking for you.” he said, Alex looked around, way too fast, he suddenly felt light headed and nearly fell off of the chair, Luke put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “How much have you had?” he asked.

Alex took a moment to comprehend then couldn’t hide his gasp “That was alcoholic.”

“What else would it be?” Luke laughed and got off of his stool. Alex got down too and felt himself swaying as the room seemed to flip upside down. Nekos were notorious for being light weights, in the most extreme sense, for some reason their bodies just couldn’t handle drink at all.

He felt Luke hold his shoulder to steady him, “You‘re…” his soft voice was drowned out by the sudden burst of drum and bass, the music struck Alex and he felt himself shudder all over, he caught Jade’s eye as a surge of energy ripped through him, he looked round at Luke and grabbed his hand

“Come on!” He pulled Luke across the dance floor towards Jade and then grabbed Jade’s hand and began jumping up and down, Jade was nodding in time with the music and Luke, who was a little tipsy, threw his arms up and began waving them around, every now and then Alex would catch his eye and they’d smile at each other as if they’d known each other all their lives. It felt to Alex as if they had, as each time he looked at Luke something inside him tightened.

The next song was a little slower but still upbeat, the three of them carried on dancing, sweat beading on their faces, a girl joined them and Luke wrapped one arm around her waist. “Guys this is Tammy.” Luke introduced her, Alex scanned his eyes over her and she grinned, long blonde hair, petite body, she was quite pretty. Her eyes flicked from Alex to Jade and she winked.

It continued like that for the next hour, the four of them dancing and laughing. Alex was completely unaware of the time passage, but before he knew it Luke had one arm around his shoulders and he had his arm around Luke’s waist, Jade and Tammy were in much the same position, swaying from side to side. Jade wasn’t intoxicated, just high on energy, Alex however sill felt as if he’d fall over at any moment.

“What’s wrong with your head?“ Luke asked suddenly, Jade and Tammy were sitting by the bar and it had just been him and Alex for some time now. Alex reached up to touch his head as he gave Luke a questioning look, he found that his hood had lifted up a little where his care free mood had let his ears twitch up. It took him the space of time that Luke took to rip his hood off for him to realise why not having a hood was bad. He heard Luke gasp, Alex quickly pulled his hood back on and looked up at the suddenly very human and dangerous boy.

“Luke, L…I..I” He stammered then felt Jade’s hand on his back.

“Time to go.” He shouted above the music, giving Alex a push, Alex stumbled forward, his legs giving way as he fell into Luke, he felt the boys arms go around him and knew that this was it, Luke would hold him until the authorities turned up. But instead Luke pushed him away and looked down at him.

“Alex?”

Luke swept his eyes over the nekos face and felt his gut wrench, it wasn’t like he’d never seen a neko before, it was just that they weren’t allowed in these night clubs, plus he wasn’t exactly allowed them as friends seeing as his father was a Lord working to ban nekos from human towns all together.

He wanted to ask why, although he wasn’t sure what he was asking about, why are you here could be the best start but he didn’t get the chance as the boy was swept from his arms by his friend. “Alex!” Luke shouted after him but the two had already reached the stairs, Luke didn’t bother to look for his friends he just began to push his way through the crowd, he saw Alex fall up the stairs and sped his pace, reaching the bottom just as the two nekos reached the top.

Luke ran up the stairs “Alex! Wait!” his friend reached the door, his hand gripping Alex’s upper arm, Alex turned and looked down at Luke catching his eye he looked as if he was going to say something but his friend pulled him out into the street. Luke burst out just two minutes after them, to find them both gone, he looked around the street but found only a few groups of teens walking around.

Luke walked in the direction of the nearest neko settlement, he wasn’t exactly sure why finding Alex seemed so important but… he paused, a noticed board had caught his eye, specifically a picture on it. “Alex?” Luke said quietly as he walked a little closer, that was definitely the neko he had spent the night with. Although maybe a little different, this Alex Rose had wide pink eyes and a genuinely happy smile on his face, his hair was neater and he looked about 16. Luke scanned the pin up for an offence but didn’t find one. He frowned and ripped the poster off of the notice board. The reward was 3000 pounds, his dad would know what the neko was wanted for. Just so he didn’t seem too suspicious he took down a picture of a sweet blonde who was only wanted for 500.

Luke made his way home, the recent events had sobered him up and he was ready to face his father, he checked his watch, hell he’d even make it home in time to have dinner with him, a late dinner but that was still something.

When he got home Wendy was waiting for him, he nodded to her and she gave him the once over, he noticed her eyes hesitate on the paper in his hand. “Your fathers in his study, you’re lucky he didn’t seem too annoyed that you weren’t there tonight. He was preoccupied with other things.” Luke didn’t like the way she said ‘other things’ but ignored it for the moment and headed up the stairs to the first floor. He then went down the hall until he reached his fathers study, he knocked on the door and waited. His father loved to keep people waiting so he knew he was going to be standing there for a few minutes. He knocked again, impatiently this time, a few seconds later he rose his fist to bang on the door when his father finally asked him in.

“Lucien,” Lord Willard’s eyes flicked to his son as he pulled his gold framed glasses off, he set them on his desk and rested his chin on his laced fingers, he was waiting for an explanation.

“Father, I lost track of time.”

He nodded as if he understood “I haven’t heard that one before.” He said, his voice laced with sarcasm. He sighed “So why are you here? You didn’t only come to apologise,” true, he never apologised.

Luke nodded and came forward “I was walking home and I saw the notice board, you know the one with the nekos on it?”

At the mention of nekos Lord Willard suddenly looked interested, “Yes?” he urged his son on.

Luke put the two wanted posters on his desk “I just wanted to know what sort of crime puts a price like that on your head.” he pointed to Alex’s poster and felt his stomach clench as his father surveyed him, he was waiting for the questions, but instead of asking Lord Willard settled back into his chair, picking up Alex’s poster he put his glasses and examined it.

“Alex Rose.” He said quietly, “He was condemned the night of The Accident.” He always called it an accident, not like his wife and son died or anything, just an accident, like it could be fixed, it made Luke want to yell at him, but he held himself back.

“What did he do?”

“He broke into a house with his friends and older brother, Mr and Mrs Green came home and it ended… badly.” His voice saddened, he met Luke’s questioning gaze and continued “Mrs Green is the only surviving witness, she watched the boy shoot his brother, and her husband.”

“He… he shot his brother?”

“Shot and killed.”