[Waste]

“Come on Alex wait up!?” Ollie called as they walked through the neko settlement. Alex far out in front, it was getting late and he just wanted to get home and go to sleep. He was aching a little and his head still hurt and all he wanted to do was turn around and go back to see Luke, he faltered, the last thing had involuntarily slipped into his mind. I want to see Luke. he shook his head and carried on walking. He heard running footsteps and Jade fell into step beside him as they reached the fields.

“What’s wrong?” He asked quietly.

“Nothing.”

“Alex,” Jade reached out and made him stop walking, the neko turned to face Jade.

“What?”

Jade frowned, “You look like you did yesterday.”

“What?”

Jade shook his head, for some reason Alex just looked so sad, his eyes contained the pain of loss. Maybe he’d already given up on Honey, or maybe he was thinking of his brother. Ollie came to stand beside Jade and looked to Alex, finding his eyes that appeared to be so far away. He took it to mean that he was thinking of Rhys and moved forward a little, shuffling closer than Jade dared to get. He reached out and touched the boys arm. Even though Alex was older, he still looked so much like a boy.

“Alex what is on your mind?” He asked quietly.

The boy didn’t answer.

“Is it,” Ollie faltered, “Is it Rhys?”

Alex turned and walked into the corn field, Ollie glanced back a Jade, who shrugged, Ollie bit his lip and followed, his white ears flattened against his head. “Alex!” he called after him.

Alex wasn’t sure what was going on, he’d been thinking about Luke, and then he’d seen Rhys, he’d seen his brother in Luke’s eyes and now he just wanted to be alone. To think. Mainly about how he was going to get Honey out, how to get Luke on his side, how to get Rhys out of his mind. All the thoughts were driving him crazy.

“Alex.”

He stopped walking and turned to face Ollie, he pressed his lips together,.

“Alex I think it is time you told me about what happened five years ago.”

The silence between them became icy, and for Alex the cold silence turned the air he breathed into daggers. “He was murdered.” he couldn’t meet Ollie’s eyes and that hurt even more, like the evasion was harder to deal with, for once someone was asking direct questions and he realised how much avoiding them had been eating away at him. But how could he admit to the truth?

“By the man?” Ollie assumed.

Alex said nothing.

“The man murdered him, so how did you get away?”

He walked away again, disappearing into the corn that reached above his head. Walking fast and not really paying attention to where he was going, he paused for a moment in an empty channel between the corn and took a deep breath and when he heard a rustle coming from behind he turned to tell Ollie to fuck off when a fist came at him, catching him off guard he managed to move so it grazed his left cheek. He immediately pulled his hood up and hoped back as a human came out of the corn and shone a light in his face.

“Trying to steal from us are you?” the farmer growled, the guy was larger than Alex, with thick arms and legs from all the work he’d done on the fields. Alex felt his upper lip pull back in an instinctive growl. “Neko bastard.” the farmer shot, his voice gritty as he threw out the hand holding the torch, the metal rim hit Alex’s temple as he tried to duck out of the way, the pain caused his nails to lengthen and he lashed out, the farmer leant back to easily evade him.

Alex knew that he should run, a neko his size wasn’t likely to win in this kind of fight, but he was in no mood for backing down. The farmer threw his torch to the side so it’s light danced off of the corn as it span in the air, he then raised his fists and threw a punch at Alex. The neko dodged to the side and lashed out, missing again as the farmer grabbed his shoulder and pulled him close, punching his gut, Alex felt his knees weaken as he dug his claws into the humans shoulders. Scratching down he drew blood and the farmer threw him to the side. He pulled out his mobile to call the police, but Alex was still standing and managed to hop a few steps forward and scratch the farmers forearm, so he dropped the phone. Alex crushed the small silver mobile with his next step.

As he moved his arm back the farmer reached out with surprising speed and grabbed Alex’s wrist, something went through his eyes as he twisted Alex’s arm up behind his back. Alex let out a small squeak as he was pulled back against the farmer and the humans thick hand went around his neck. Alex lifted his chin and took a shallow breath as the farmer tightened his grip.

“Go on then.” Alex snapped. “GO ON!”

The grip loosened and he heard a thud as the human hit the floor.

“What do you think you were doing?” Ollie growled, grabbing Alex’s shoulder and spinning him around, he saw the tears in Alex’s eyes and quickly let go. He searched the boys face for an answer. “Do you have a death wish?”

Alex didn’t answer.

Ollie’s eyes widened, “You do don’t you?”

Alex opened his mouth, then thought better of it and closed it again, he looked away sharply as Jade came into the channel, he looked down at the farmer lying unconscious on the floor and shook his head. “They’ll have the patrols doubled tomorrow night.” he said as he picked up the torch and switched it off. He showed no sign of having heard what had been going on and even gave a small smile. “Come on you two, before someone comes looking for him.”

Jade disappeared into the corn and after giving Alex a long look that said ‘we’ll talk later’ Ollie followed.