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(AN: I've now OFFICIALLY-officially lost nanowrimo. I'm a nanowrimo loser. There's always next year. Anyway, Steven is about to appear to be a complete idiot. I'd just like to point out that while he's been obsessing over Riley's warehouse and Marcus' warehouse in his head, he hasn't said anything much to Riley. That said, storytime.)
------- by: lira-chan -------
Outside the warehouse, the sky was slowly darkening with the approach of dusk. Steven knew this because even though he was inside the warehouse, he wasn't in one of Riley's stuffy, windowless, "personal" rooms. Instead, he and Riley were out in the main area of the warehouse, Riley's "sitting room." From there, Steven could actually glimpse the indigo sky through the tiny windows mounted high on the walls just below the high, arching warehouse ceiling.
It had been nearly twenty-four hours- one day- since Riley and Steven had visited Michelle's house and Steven's father's work. All in all, Steven wasn't sure which visit had been more disappointing. Visiting his house had depressed him, seeing how lonely and abandoned the building had become. Seeing Michelle's house, on the other hand, had almost made Steven angry. What right did those street punks have, in moving into Michelle's old house and taking over? Finally, there was Steven's father's work. Sadly, all Steven felt in seeing the torn-down remains of the building was a cold sensation in his gut, a feeling of emptiness. All of their searching had been fruitless.
Just like when Riley and Steven had returned from their first fruitless excursion, Steven was slouched on the hideous yet almost embarrassingly comfortable orange-y yellow-brown sofa Riley left out in the front room. Also just like before, Riley was sitting cross-legged beside Steven, eyeing his silent companion curiously.
"Steven?" Riley finally asked, voice incredibly soft. "We aren't giving up, are we?"
"Giving up?" Steven echoed. His words sounded hallow, even to him- as if the words really were nothing more of an echo of Riley. As if Steven himself hadn't spoken at all.
"Well… Is there anywhere else we could look for clues? Looking at your house was one thing, but we weren't able to look around Michelle's house or that office building at all! Steven… We can't give up yet, alright? Please?"
Steven paused, unsure of how to answer. At times, something to Riley's tone of voice bothered Steven. He couldn't explain exactly what it was about the way Riley spoke, but something inside of Steven always insisted that it just wasn't right. After all, Steven was the one who wanted to get back home- why was Riley so desperate to keep up with the search?
"All right," Steven agreed, finally. He noted how Riley's eyes lit up, the light shining from them a mixture of what appeared to be both relief and joy. Sometimes- oftentimes, actually- Steven just didn't get Riley.
"Good," Riley said decisively, whatever delicateness or vulnerability Steven had been picking up from him before fading away as if it had never been. "So what other places should we search for clues?"
"More places?" Steven couldn't help groaning. It was a bit fun, walking around the city with Riley… But whenever Steven got to an area he recognized, all of the changes he saw depressed him. He was almost beginning to wish he'd never suggested that they find a way to return him to the past. After all, living with Riley couldn't possibly be that horrible.
"I don't know…" Steven said, allowing his voice to trail off as he began to think. What other sort of places might have had clues? Places he'd gone to before being assaulted by thugs and waking up twenty years in the future? After leaving his house he'd only gone to the bank, and- Oh! He had ended up in Michelle's father's warehouse… And Riley lived in that area, too. It wouldn't even be out of the way to try and look for the proper warehouse- if Steven could even remember the number.
"Are you sure?" Riley prompted Steven, unaware of Steven's inner monologue.
"Michelle's father's work… The warehouse…" Steven murmured to himself, without even realizing that he was speaking out loud. He'd still been thinking about the possibility of finding clues there, but hadn't intended to say anything just yet.
"What was that?" Riley asked, rocking towards Steven without unfolding his crossed legs. The expression on his face was intense. "You didn't mention this before… Did you?"
"I don't think so," Steven said, sounding just a bit weary. "Michelle's father was the head of a big company that produced guns, right? That was his work, but I really don't know where his 'head of operations' or whatever was. That wouldn't be important- I've never been there, so there wouldn't be any clues. But Marcus also owned a lot of warehouses where he stored his guns… And I was just thinking that you live in the same district as Marcus' warehouses. We might even be able to find the warehouse the thugs dragged me off to. You think?"
"Do you know what I think?" Riley asked, seemingly at random. However, despite the randomness of the question, Riley still had an intense look in his eyes, and his tone had been utterly serious.
"What?" Steven asked patiently, content to play along.
"I think we should go for a walk!"
Steven just blinked in response, but even then, Riley wasn't about to give him time enough to speak. Instead, the other young man rose swiftly from the couch, grabbing Steven by the wrist and yanking him up as well.
"A walk, okay? We're going to go for a walk."
Steven paced back and forth outside Riley's warehouse, just thinking to himself. Riley was there, too, but he was actually being quiet for a change, so Steven wasn't about to break the silence. It had already been evening when Steven and Riley had first sat down in Riley's "sitting room," and when Steven looked up at the sky, it was a dark indigo color, with purple-black clouds moving slowly across it. Steven couldn't see any stars. He almost laughed to himself, though, realizing how silly he was being. It was almost nighttime- not exactly the best time to try to pick out one warehouse in a district full of dozens.
Introspectively, Steven looked out at all of the warehouses lining the street he was standing on. At first, all of the warehouses looked the same, but Steven knew that there were small differences. They weren't all the exact same size, and they were in various states of disrepair, even if they were all pretty far along the metaphorical road to ruin. Resisting the urge to close his eyes, Steven tried to imagine how the street might have looked twenty years ago. After all, one of the warehouses he was staring at might very well be the one he'd been dragged into after being abducted by Marcus' thugs.
Steven didn't really have to think about it, when it happened. One moment, he was scanning the line of warehouses. The next, his eyes had settled upon Riley's warehouse, and he was doing his best to imagine it as it might have been twenty years back. For one thing, the paint would have been newer, and the metal siding wouldn't have been quite so rusted. In fact, the building probably would have looked quite respectable. It probably would have-
Steven blinked. And then he blinked again. However, now that he'd conjured up the image, he couldn't separate his vision of the warehouse, twenty years newer, from what he was currently seeing. What he saw currently was one thing, but the image he saw overlaying that picture of the warehouse was unmistakable. Riley's warehouse simply had to be the same warehouse he'd been brought to twenty years in the past.
Steven had been living in Marcus' warehouse. He knew that Riley had said something about who owned the warehouse, but he just couldn't remember what it was, not any more. Steven was too hung up on the fact that he'd actually been living in the warehouse where some dim-witted thugs working for Marcus had actually suggested that they rape him. It was surreal. It was unbelievable. Steven thought that he just might be sick.
While Steven wasn't actually physically ill, he had begun shaking. His eyes hadn't moved from the warehouse Riley lived in, and he looked as if he were shivering badly, despite how warm the night air was.
Before Steven had even properly processed what was happening, warm arms had been wrapped around him. His own arms were pinned to his sides, so there wasn't a lot he could do in response. Riley squeezed him tightly, as if to reassure Steven that nothing was quite as wrong as Steven might think; to reassure him that things could only get better. Riley's chin was resting on Steven's shoulder, and while it was pointy and felt slightly painful, Steven didn't immediately attempt to shove Riley away. In fact, the thought never occurred to him- before it would have, Riley had drawn back, and was looking more than a little bit embarrassed. His eyes were staring fixedly at the sidewalk.
"Riley…?" Steven prompted, after an awkward minute of silence.
"Something's wrong," Riley said softly, not looking up from the ground. "Something's wrong, and I know it, but I don't think you're going to tell me what. But… But it can't be that wrong, okay? It just… It isn't. I'm sure of it."
"What do you mean?" Steven asked, confused.
"Why do you look so shocked?" Riley asked. He was still speaking softly, but he'd turned his head back up towards Steven, instead of addressing the ground. To Steven, Riley looked incredibly vulnerable in that one moment.
"Oh… Um…" Steven couldn't help stuttering; he knew what he had seen, but that didn't necessarily mean he knew why he was shocked. "The warehouse…"
"What about it?"
"It's the same one." Without meaning to, Steven allowed all emotion to drain from his voice. He sounded as if he were coming out of some sort of shock. "Your warehouse is the same one where Marcus used to keep his guns. It's where the thugs took me. It's where-"
Riley continued to look at Steven hopefully, waiting for him to finish his train of thought. Steven, however, had lost the nerve to do so. He didn't want to say anything about what Marcus' men had said. It wasn't any of Riley's business, anyway. Riley was still looking at Steven imploringly; Steven ignored the staring.
"Why did you hug me?" he asked instead. He didn't sound quite like he was accusing Riley of something- he sounded more suspicious than anything, but willing to listen.
"Oh… I dunno…" Riley looked down at the ground again, but Steven was certain that the youth did know the answer to Steven's question. "I guess… I guess you just looked so very depressed. I had to try and cheer you up. You're feeling better, right? I do hope you're feeling better…"
"It's fine," Steven said, just a bit stunned.
"Good. Now let's go."
"Go?" Steven repeated, still stunned, and now a bit confused as well. "Go where?"
"Somewhere else, of course!" Riley exclaimed cheerfully, grabbing Steven by the wrist and beginning to drag him off. "We're not just going to let you sit here and mope. We're going off in search of a change of pace!"
When Steven and Riley had been checking out the places Steven used to be familiar with, Steven had always led the way. For the first time, Riley was taking the lead, and it was different for Steven. It was only a small difference, and yet it was rather nice, to not have to think about every turn, or to not have to count the number of blocks they walked. Instead, he could just look around. He and Riley didn't exactly talk, but Steven's head wasn't lost in the clouds either, and Steven was enjoying himself.
Of course, that was the first few blocks. As far as Steven could tell, Riley wasn't really bothering to think about which way they were going. Riley made turns at random, and didn't seem to care at all how many blocks they went in any particular direction. It was all right at first, because the district the warehouses were in was large enough. However, after five or ten minutes, the area started to change, and their new surroundings were making Steven uneasy.
"Where are we?" Steven finally asked, as he continued to look around at the small, seedy-looking buildings lining the street they were walking down. There weren't any sidewalks any more, so Riley and Steven were forced to walk in the gutter. The feeling of "wrongness" hadn't left Steven yet.
"Oh… Um…" Apparently, the question had taken Riley by surprise. The kid really hadn't been paying much attention to where they were going. "Hold on, let me look around for a minute."
Steven stood beside Riley, as they stopped in the middle of the road to take in the buildings all crammed together along the side of the road. They really didn't look like they had ever been respectable. When people entered or exited the buildings, they did so a bit furtively, before straightening up and attempting to act as if they hadn't been doing anything unsavory.
"Oh, crap…" Riley finally said, after he'd taken everything in. If Steven remembered correctly, that would be the first time he'd ever heard Riley curse. "Here I am, trying to cheer you up by taking you on another walk, and I take us here…"
"Ah… Riley?" Steven began, trying not to sound overly annoyed. "I'm still not fully aware of where 'here' is."
"Oh…" Riley looked even more embarrassed. "This… This area of town is sort of where the night life is, you know? Like… Brothels and stuff."
As Riley spoke the last few words of his meager explanation, he lowered his voice unnecessarily, as if the simple act of explaining was dirty. Steven didn't really understand; it wasn't as if Riley himself was a prostitute. Of course, that was assuming Steven had even understood correctly.
"Brothels?" he repeated dumbly. "Like whorehouses? Prostitutes, ladies of the night, whatever you might call them? Like, girls you pay to have sex with you?"
Steven wondered if he could have been any more obvious, but he'd been unable to help himself. It was funny- he knew that places like this one street existed in his own time, twenty years back… But he'd never actually walked down any of those streets. It felt surreal, just like meeting the street punks back at Michelle's house.
"Yeah, pretty much," Riley agreed, as if just talking about the brothels pained him. "But… Not just women. There are such things as male prostitutes too, you know."
"Really?" Steven asked. Once again, he was unable to help himself. Female prostitutes he knew of, they were common enough twenty years ago, even if Steven hadn't gone out looking for them. Male prostitutes, on the other hand… They just never felt as real. Somehow, Steven was much more convinced of their existence when Riley brought up the subject, even if he still hadn't encountered a male whore.
"Of course." Riley sounded a little bit annoyed, but tolerant. "Steven, you are aware of the economic recession, correct? With the economy going to hell and all, there aren't exactly a lot of available jobs. A lot of people turn to stuff like this when they can't find something a bit more… Legal… To do for a living. And it isn't just girls, you know?"
"I guess you're right," Steven said numbly. He kind of felt stupid, to have asked something so silly. He knew how bad things had gotten, with the economy and everything.
"Don't worry about it, okay?" was all Riley said in response. Riley still sounded really tired, and Steven felt bad. Was he the one tiring Riley out? How had Riley fared, before Steven had shown up on his doorstep- or rather, in his basement?
"It's just… I guess I never realized quite how desperate the times had become… It's not like I've been here very long…" Even as he spoke, Steven continued to walk along the street. He wasn't certain at which point he and Riley had begun to move again, but neither of them were walking very quickly.
"I told you not to worry about it." Riley sounded a bit stern, as if he really wanted Steven to listen to him, but he hadn't actually snapped. "Just… Forget about it. Okay? I wanted to cheer you up, and all of this is probably just making you feel worse."
"No! No, it's fine, really-"
"Steven." Both Riley's face and his voice were calm, and he cut Steven off without even blinking. "I wanted to cheer you up. That isn't going to happen if we continue to hang around the red light district. Instead… Here, I know a place we can go. C'mon, I know somewhere else."
Taking Steven's hand gently, almost reverently in the face of the wonderful place he was attempting to show off, Riley led Steven into the park. It wasn't a particularly large park, just a small circular track with trees surrounding it and making the track nearly invisible from the street. Riley led Steven through the trees and onto the track. At first, Steven thought that they were just going to walk for a while. Then, Riley cut through the trees again, and they emerged right in front of a small playground.
The playground wasn't very impressive, of course. It was kind of nice, the way all the trees and the pathway blocked the park off from the main roads, but there wasn't much there. The playground basically consisted of a single, long metal slide and a jungle gym. The jungle gym wasn't the incredibly old metal kind, but a newer sort, which combined all sorts of plastic and metal pieces. The slide connected to a part of the jungle gym which looked like plastic stairs in the shape of pieces of Swiss cheese. It was kind of cute, in a strange sort of way.
"Isn't it marvelous?" Riley breathed. His tone of voice was as reverent as his clasping of Steven's hand had been. His eyes were wide, delighted.
"Um… It sure is something?" Steven tried, even though he himself wasn't particularly in awe of the park and its playground.
"Come on. We can sit down and talk. It'll be fun, like we're little kids again."
So saying, Riley dropped Steven's hand at last- he hadn't let go of it since first grabbing it just outside the park. He walked over to the jungle gym, a look of reverence still spread across his face. Despite being considerably too big to play on the playground, Riley managed to climb up the tiny little stairs, reaching the top of the jungle gym and perching on a plastic-coated metal bar suspended above the slide. Steven tried not to laugh, and walked over to the side of the jungle gym.
"I don't know about this place being marvelous," Steven said honestly, not wanting to have lied to Riley, "but I am surprised that it's still here, after all this time. Even twenty years ago… We didn't exactly have a lot of parks. Not a lot of greenery, either. It was… Kind of sad. I guess it still is."
"I know," Riley said, still sounding surprisingly cheerful. "That's why I like this place. I come here a lot, actually- not since you've shown up, but then you looked so depressed, earlier this evening… I figured this would be the perfect place to go, if I wanted to cheer you up!"
Somehow, Steven was touched. It was a bit odd, being told that this dinky little park was supposed to perform some miracle in cheering him up… And yet… Perhaps the park already had succeeded in cheering Steven up. It was a rare sight, at the least.
"You're too big to play on it though, you know?" Steven finally teased, before sitting down at the bottom of the slide and staring up at Riley. "You look ridiculous."
"I don't care," Riley countered stubbornly, sitting down on the plastic platform the slide was mounted to. "I like it here."
"I can tell," Steven agreed, with a laugh, before his thoughts from earlier began to come back and haunt him. He remembered the brothels from as little as an hour before, and all of Riley's talk about how bad the times were. Steven was already beginning to be able to tell. It was dark already, and Steven couldn't see the playground very well, but it was actually quite relaxing sitting there with Riley. Steven felt as if he could ask anything, and get away with it. "What about those brothels, anyway?" he tried, as a result of genuine curiosity. "The times are really that bad, huh?"
"Yeah. They kind of are." When Riley replied, he sounded distant, and Steven almost wondered if Riley was avoiding giving a straight answer. However, he was willing to believe that Riley just didn't want to talk about whores and whorehouses, and decided that Riley was probably not being deliberately evasive.
"But you know…" Steven said slowly, not really wanting to press the issues of the brothels despite his curiosity. "Don't the religious people in the city have something to say about half the population working in whorehouses, and the other half visiting?"
"Religious?" Riley echoed, as if he didn't know the meaning of the word.
Steven offered him a puzzled look, before trying to explain. "Yeah, religious. Like, religious people usually practice the 'Rites.' I think there used to be other religions, but the rites are the only religious code I still know about."
"Religion?" Riley said, sounding more and more like an echo by the minute. "What's that?"
"You aren't serious, are you?" Steven asked, completely taken aback. "It's only been twenty years- you aren't saying that you really have no idea what religion is, are you?"
"I'm not sure," Riley admitted, and Steven had no choice but to believe him. "Explain these rites to me."
"Well…" Steven began, uncertain of what to say next. "I was never a religious person myself, but I do know that my friend Michelle's father, Marcus, was a firm believer in the truth behind the rites. The story goes that there used to be all sorts of religious books, and various religions centered around each book, varying based on location, and culture, and all sorts of things… But as technology and modernization became more and more important, religion became less… Necessary. The rites are rules derived from several different religious works. They're supposed to govern the lives of everyone and everything, human, animal, and otherwise. I personally think it's a load of crap, but whatever."
"So your friend's dad, he believed in this stuff?" Riley asked, slowly.
"Yeah. He kind of did."
"But… He had some of his employees attack you! You say these rules govern the lives of everyone, but what sort of list of rules would allow one person to do something like that to another?"
Steven almost laughed. Riley was entirely correct, but he didn't even know the half of it. After all, he didn't even know the details of the "attack."
"Yeah, I know you're right," Steven admitted, just a bit bitterly. "Problem is, the people interpreting these rules, they don't want to admit that you're right. So they don't. But don't you have anything like this in your time? Maybe the name changed, but you have to have religion."
"No…" Riley said slowly, still sounding confused. "I do know what you're talking about, though. We learned about it in school. Religion has been dying ever since… Well, before your time, actually. Like you said, with all of the modernization going on, there isn't space enough for both faith and science, so one would have to replace the other, eventually. And that's what happened- despite the state of things, science won out about a decade back. Or maybe it's because of the state of things- you never know."
"So religion is dead?" Steven asked dumbly. He couldn't even believe the words exiting his own mouth.
"Pretty much," Riley agreed, as if it were no big deal. "Of course, that's only this county. International trade has sort of died away, but other countries might still have their religions. You never know. It just seems kind of silly."
"Silly? Silly how so?"
"Silly… Like what does religion really ever do for you? You pray and you pray, to get into heaven, to be given a better lot in life, for whatever… And yet nothing ever happens. If there really is a god up there, he's gone deaf to our pleas. People here just became disillusioned. They saw that prayer wasn't doing much for them, and finally learned to help themselves for a change."
"That's a pretty harsh way of putting it…" Steven murmured, but even in the darkness, he could see Riley's almost disdainful look in response. Riley seemed to think he was right, at the least.
"Whatever," Riley finally said, after a moment of silence. "I think we've had enough talk. You're cheered up now, right? Let's go back."
Before Steven had even been given a chance to agree or to disagree, Riley had stood up on his little platform above the slide. He grabbed onto the metal-and-plastic bar he'd been sitting on before, swung under it, and slid down the slide. When he collided with Steven at the bottom, all he did was laugh. He grabbed Steven by the wrist again, and hauled them both up off the slide. Still laughing, Riley led Steven back out of the park and onto the main road, which would take them home to Riley's warehouse.
Riley was the first to walk inside, and Steven swiftly followed after. Ever since he'd showed up in the future, he felt as if he were following Riley. He didn't feel like he was really giving anything back to Riley, either. Riley was being incredibly kind, giving Steven a place to stay and trying to help Steven find his way back to his own time. Steven couldn't help feeling like he was only getting in the way, and he was the one they were trying to help out. He'd freaked out when he first found out he was twenty years in the future, and then he'd failed to find any clues to how he'd arrived in the future, when Riley came up with that idea. He'd finally managed to half-ruin one of the few moments when he wasn't worrying about the past and the present by talking about the differences between the two times- talking about religion, of all things.
All in all, Steven felt like more than just a bit of an idiot. He didn't understand why Riley was so very keen on having him staying in the warehouse. Sure, it was a big building, and it probably got lonely, but why Steven? If Riley wanted to live with a random stranger, Steven was certain he would have been able to find one earlier.
Having passed through the kitchen with Riley in order to get to their bedroom, Steven paused beside the bed. He stripped off the majority of his clothes- or rather, Riley's clothes- and crawled onto the bed, slipping under the covers with Riley lying down beside him. He still didn't understand at all why Riley wanted his company, but that didn't mean Steven wasn't thankful for the fact.
In fact, Riley had said that he was going to cheer Steven up, earlier after Steven had first seen Riley's warehouse as "Marcus' Warehouse," and after Riley had taken Steven down the street with the brothels. That was another thing Steven was thankful for- Riley had taken him to that park of his, just in order to cheer Steven up. Steven privately thought that it wasn't just the park that had cheered him up, but he was pleased nonetheless.
Steven still wanted to get back to his own time. He was still confused by all the differences between the "present" and the "past"- or, to him, the "future" and the "present." He still didn't know how he'd gotten to the future, or how he would get back to his own time. He was still willing to search for clues. He didn't know what Riley would want to do the next day, but he'd probably be willing to do it, whatever it was.
