Fulfilling a Promise

[Lilly]

Lilianna had behaved on the plane, her 'escort' had to give her that. Actually she had behaved largely because she had been sure that her babysitter would kill her if she'd even dared to bother him for longer than five minutes. After the initial conversation that had convinced him to allow her to come here in the first place, Lilianna had been very careful around the man. His temper flared so Lilianna had spent the entire flight biting the inside of her lip so that by the time they arrived at their destination, she was certain that said lip would be aching for a week. But at least she had yet to bite the head off of her excitable 'escort'. She was certain that Gregory Barrow had chosen this young man as her guide specifically to annoy her, probably in some form of retribution for her hacking attempt on his beloved computer system. It wasn't HER fault that there were flaws in it's security system! And besides that, even he had agreed how important it was for her to rescue her friend and bring her back to the relative safety of the institute. But she'd had quite enough of her babysitter when he'd taken her shopping for hats. She still didn't completely understand why that entire outing had been necessary. But since she'd nicely endured Kuro's chattering for the entire endless flight, when they reached the Airport Lilianna finally gave him a hard look and hissed, "Quiet now, it's time for work. We're going." And then practically dragged him out of the airport by the arm.

Kuro rather liked Lilianna. Sure, she was cold, impersonable, dull, and only cared about her beat-up old computer, but she was also the only other person at the Institute who wasn't accustomed to their surroundings. The young ascendant wasn't used to city life period, let alone life in a far-flung, culturally alien city. He felt a sort of kinship with Lilly in the respect that neither of them really belonged - and besides that, Kuro liked everyone, so the poor girl never really stood a chance.

Kuro had been babbling about something he saw in a brochure he held unfolded in his hands when Lilly hushed him. He only managed to comply for a few moments, however, before he asked as she led him out of the terminal, "Where are we going, anyway?"

The weather was fine, thankfully, with more than enough sun. Outside of the airport, there was a chaotic swirl of traffic, both human and mechanical. Near one shady area, though, there was a small clutch of scruffy looking youths, standing around and smoking.

Lilianna didn't have anything against Kuro, not really. It was just that she had NEVER, in her entire life, been talked at so much. She hardly said anything to him in return too... mostly because she had no idea what he was babbling on about. It either made no sense or he was talking about things she had very limited understanding of in the first place. She did manage to mumble an apology for crumpling his brochure though. "Didn't Greg grumpy pants tell you the whole reason we came here in the first place? I'm trying to find someone and it's urgent. I want to find her as fast as possible." She gave up dragging him and finally pushed him out the door and then glanced around, as if she'd be able to gain some sort of bearing in a place she'd never been before if she did so, and then gave him a push in the direction of the smoking youths, deciding that they might as well start in that direction for now.

Kuro cast a brief, mournful glance at his crumpled brochure before jamming it into his pocket and blinking up at Lilianna. "Greg grumpy pants? Do you mean Major Barrow? He seems like a pleasant man to me." Compared to his dad, anyway. Kuro rushed for a moment to catch up with Lilly, then fell into step beside her. "What's your friend's name? Is she in trouble or something? More importantly, is she cute?" He had a few more questions to ask along the same lines - if she was single, if Lilly would put in a "good word" for him - but before he could say anything else, the smaller teenager gave him a nudge toward a gaggle of young people who were loitering off to one side. He took the hint well enough; he was the more personable of the two of them, so he figured it was a good idea to do the talking. With a compliant nod, he drew in a deep breath and walked toward the knot of teenagers, greeting them with an awkward, slightly accented "Gidday!"

Once they got closer, they could see that the teenagers were scruffy and tired-looking, Some had track marks on their exposed arms, and they all had a wary, almost angry look on their faces as they approached. One of the taller boys turned his head and stared at Kuro, then snorted. "The fuck do you want?"

Didn't this kid ever ask just one question at a time? How was she even supposed to answer all of those? She only gave Kuro an odd look at his announcement that Gregory Barrow was a pleasant man. Whoever thought that guy was pleasant had serious problems with their head. "Are we talking about the same Greg Barrow? All he does is grunt and yell." She sighed. "My friend's name is Cye, and she will be in trouble if you don't help me find her." She hadn't, however, meant for Kuro to go and actually TALK to the smoking youths standing on the street, and by the time she realized what he was doing her hissing and arm waving didn't seem to make any difference. She hung her head slightly and hurried after him. Just who was babysitting who on this trip?

Despite Lilianna's trepidation, Kuro didn't seem at all concerned about approaching the rough-looking gang. They looked nice enough to him, anyway - nice in the same way as Major Barrow was, at least. "Information is the fuck that I want," he declared brazenly, and jerking his head slightly to indicate Lilly behind him. "She's looking for a friend named Cye. And also..." Kuro's hand dipped into his pocket and extracted the crumpled travel brochure, which he carefully unfolded and held up for the group to see. "If you know how to get to the Sydney Opera House, I would appreciate it a lot. Apparently there's a performance of 'Swan Lake' tonight, and I'd really like to see it."

Kuro gets stared at, by not only the boy he was talking about, but the entire group. In fact, none of them blink or speak for a few minutes, until they get over the shock of the first thing Kuro said. "We don't know anyone named Cye. And you're in Melbourne. Sorry on both counts, mate."

Lilly actually laid her head in her hand at Kuro's initial comment. Now she was absolutely certain that Greg Barrow had stuck her with this ridiculous kid out of some form of retribution for the hacking stunt she'd pulled. She actually stomped on Kuro's foot when he started to mention Cye though. That wasn't going to help at all! Once more she batted his brochure out of the way and pulled something from a pocket of the jeans they made her wear all the time now. They weren't that bad but they weren't all that comfortable either. Why did teenagers think they were the best thing since sliced bread? Or maybe it was just that she'd been silly and believed Kuro when he'd told her that... "Please, I'm looking for a friend of mine, she looks like this. If you've seen her at all, I need to know where she's gotten to. We haven't seen each other in a very long time and I miss her very much..." She held up a small photograph that contained Cye's face, she'd been very careful to remove all signs of the file she'd taken it from. "If you can tell me anything at all, even just a rumor, I would be very grateful."

[Lilly]

Kuro looked slightly disappointed by the answer he got to his questions, but offered a polite smile anyway and was about to thank them. Before he had the chance, though, Lilly slapped away his brochure - again - and cut him off. Undeterred, however, he piped up again once she had finished speaking, "And I would also be very grateful if you could tell me where Sydney is!"

"Sydney's about 800 kilometers northwest." He frowned and looked at the picture, and looked back at the group, before he looked back up at the picture. "See, we get that story all the time. Friends, lovers, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, on and on... some people just don't want to be found, love. Get the hint."

It took real effort for Lilianna to keep from slapping her forehead. Didn't Kuro get it that they hadn't come here to go to the Sidney Opera house?! She grit her teeth. She wasn't quite used to dealing with this level of stupidity. "I'm not your love." She shot back in a tone that was far to calm and level. Lilianna tended to lay the sarcasm on pretty thick, but she never really expressed any other emotions. "And normally you'd be right. But in this case, you're wrong. My friend doesn't want anyone else to find her. That would be bad for her. But she would be very happy to see me. And I will find her, even if you won't help me."

Kuro paled slightly when Lilianna started to talk back to the rather rough-looking young men. This probably wasn't the most well thought-out way to deal with this situation... "Ah, hold on a second, Lilianna," he urged the girl, patting the air with his hands to calm her down, then he turned to face the group of youths again. "All we need is a simple yes or no, and we can take it from there: do you know this girl?"

One of the other youths approaches the boy they were talking to, and whispered to him... the boy considered it, and looked back at Lilianna and Kuro. "Fine. We do." He figured that it was a small price to pay... he'd much rather not get his ass kicked for not telling the truth, especially if the girl was serious about finding her.

It may have been a good think for Lililanna that she didn't tend to express emotions when she felt them. She just wasn't used to showing that she was happy or surprised or sad. So she didn't seem to have any reaction to what the boy said. But she felt her heart flutter a bit in her chest. She would find Cye. And if this boy knew her, then he was going to help her. Maybe he just didn't know it yet. She and Cye had promised to protect each other. Maybe she hadn't been able to do that very well lately, but that was going to change now that she was 'free'. "Do you know where to find her?" Lilianna pressed before Kuro could say anything else. "Could you take her a message for me?"

"Won't do a damn thing, Sheila!" One of the other youths shouted, and some of them fell over and laughed. The boy sighed and shook his head. "They're right. C'mon, though, I'll take you to see her." He started walking back into the alley, and then started walking up a narrow back staircase.

There were times when Kuro's linguistic limitations frustrated him, mostly when people found something extremely funny but he didn't even begin to understand the joke. Kuro blinked at the men who were laughing, wondering silently whether they were drunk as he followed the other young man into the alley and up the stairs. "So, is your friend involved in the same kind of things you were when we found you?" he whispered to Lilianna while they walked.

Again Lilianna's reaction didn't give anything away. If she was hurt at their laughter, she didn't give any indication of it. In fact, she wasn't even really bothered by it. They were probably right - taking a message to Cye probably wouldn't have done a whole lot of good, but she'd already planned to compensate for that. Besides, now she was certain that they really did probably know Cye in some form or another. She wasn't sure why this boy kept calling her all kinds of odd names though. "My name isn't Shelia." She said shaking her head as she moved to follow the boy. "It's Lilianna." She leaned closer to Kuro when he started whispering to her, though she didn't take her eyes off of her guide. "Should we be talking about this in public?" She hissed back. Then glanced over her shoulder and ventured. "Sort of... she was put through the same program I was. We were among the small handful who survived all the procedures, but Cye is different from me."

As they ascended the stairs, there was an increasingly strong stench of something chemical, almost like acetone or ammonia. The boy reached the door and turned back quickly. "You wanna say anything to anybody about what's in here, we'll be gone in twenty minutes." He opened the door, and the smell was almost unbearable... there was no light inside, save for a small desk lamp, shining over the head of a girl leaning over a sink, her face and arm heavily bandaged.

At Lilianna's question, Kuro shot a quick glance around the alley. He didn't see much 'public' around here. Just the two of them, their guide, and an old homeless man sitting up against the wall of another building. The teenager shrugged slightly and lent an attentive ear to Lilly's explanation. It didn't make him feel any better about this. In fact, the whole situation was beginning to smell more and more like fish the more he learned (he didn't understand that English saying either), and that nagging sense of chivalry his father had drilled into his head was beginning to bother him already.

For the time being, though, he opted to keep his mouth shut. Simply nodding in response to their guide's warning, he stepped through the door... and promptly clapped a hand over his nose. "Shimatta! What is that, ammonia?" his muffled voice intoned.

Lilianna didn't seem to be noticing the smell, despite the fact that it was turning her stomach. She was far more interested in the girl who was hanging over the sink. She was almost sure her eyes were playing tricks on her. It had been too long since she had seen Cye... far too long. Without thinking she pushed her way past the guard even further into the stinking room, calling out as she made her way to the girl. "Cye? Cye? Can you hear me? It's me, Lilianna, do you remember? Do you remember me?"

The girl looked up for a moment, and held up her arm, to stop Lilianna from coming too close. "Your companion is perceptive. It is ammonia." She kept her eyes on what she was doing in the sink, peering down at the bubbling contents.

Kuro knew quite a lot about certain things most eighteen-year-olds tended to steer clear of, and chemicals were one of those things. After all, all of his brothers and sister had to know how to make explosives and toxins and the like out of everyday household materials - for what exactly, his parents had never explained, and whenever he asked he just got a patient smile from his mother and a smack in the head from his father. Maybe they were worried about the government, or North Korea.

It wouldn't come as much of a surprise for anyone who knew him that all those admonishing blows to the back of his skull didn't deter him from asking the very same question now: "Why?"