Stay: A Russie Features Short

Atlanta, GA

United States of America

September 2009

8:24PM

“You have to admit that you were expecting it to happen already.” Three pairs of eyes glanced Tadashi’s way; Tadashi merely gave a dead shrug and took yet another shot of a drink Ross had ordered minutes back. The alcohol stung and burned. “You two were already like this drink.” Ross raised his cocktail, “On the rocks.”

The pun was met with groans from the rest of them. Eri shot Ross a hard look, to which the other merely smirked and sipped from his glass. “That was horrible, O’Neill. And not the time or place for it.”

“What?” Ross shrugged, “It helped, at least. Sato can’t spend the rest of his time sulking. Let the man laugh.” They looked at him again and Tadashi felt uncomfortable. Letting loose a nervous laugh, he drank yet another shot, to which Sol gave him an apprehensive look.

“That’s not going to help,” she told him quietly. “Drinking isn’t going to help you, Tad. You know that.”

“It seems like the best option for now,” he muttered. Clutching the glass tightly, he glanced towards the bottle to which Sol pushed it away. Ross caught sight of it and cocked a brow, leaning in a little closer and inspecting Tadashi closely.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “You don’t look too good, man. Sol might be right in taking the bottle away from you.” In response, Tadashi could only groan and rest his head on the table, mumbling for them to fuck off.

Ross O’Neill and Sol Ramirez were two other agents who Tadashi and Eri worked with. The two of them were one of the small percentage who preferred working alone, teaming up with others only if necessary. This was a stark difference from Tadashi, who had originally been part of a team, and Eri, who worked a bit higher up compared to the three of them.

However, things were a little different that time.

“Maybe he doesn’t look good because he lost his team, O’Neill.” Eri cut. Ross’ eyes darted to Tadashi, and the former visibly deflated while heaving a sigh.

“Okay, okay. Alright.”

It was silent for a while; Eri excused herself to go to the restroom while Ross and Sol discussed while drinking. Tadashi merely kept his head on the table, not really talking and not really continuing to drink, only listening as his co-workers – his friends – enjoyed the evening.

He felt bad, he really did. He wanted to interact with them, have fun, let loose and drink to his hearts’ content. He had the money for it, after all, so what was stopping him? The answer almost came immediately. He glanced up then made a point to look down again, covering his face. Sol and Ross noticed, the former of the two gently nudging his shoulder.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“She’s here,” was all that came out of Tadashi’s mouth. The two looked at each other before surveying the rest of the bar; lo and behold they saw Sumire there, accompanied by a few other friends. They weren’t exactly sure why she was there, but judging by how many friends she had with her, she was probably doing the same thing Tadashi was doing with them.

Trying to mend a broken heart.

“I don’t think she’ll be coming this way,” Sol tried to reassure him, but Tadashi merely faced the wall side of the booth. “Tad…”

“Let him mope, Sol. The rest of it might be too raw.” She looked at him with confusion in her eyes and he did a double take; “What, you don’t know?”

“I just know that Sumire broke up with him—”

“Shit,” Ross breathed. “Okay. Okay. Let me run you down.” after casting a look at Tadashi, he exhaled and explained what had happened with what was previously known as Squad S. “He went on a mission with his team around two, three weeks ago. I think it was two weeks. Well, shit happened. They lost one of their members during the mission itself, and another one of them ended up in the hospital. Critical condition. The family eventually chose to pull the plug because nothing was working,” he explained darkly.

Sol gaped at the news and he went on, “While all of this was going on, Sato and Sumire were already on the rocks. You can probably guess what this whole thing made them do after,” he ended with a grimace.

“…so that’s why Sumire quit,” Sol murmured. Ross shrugged.

“More than ending her relationship with Sato, I don’t think she could take the pressure of working at HQ much longer. You endanger a lot and sacrifice a lot. Some people are made for it. Some aren’t.” he glanced at Sumire’s group; they had their own booth and one of them was rubbing her back. “Sumire wasn’t.”

“And Tad can?”

“Mhm.” Eri came back at that moment, frowning upon seeing Tadashi’s position. “We’ve got a bit of an issue, Eri. See, Sumire actually arrived and is right over there,” Ross told her, the female immediately glancing at the table being pointed at. She stared for a few moments before shrugging and sitting down, taking back her drink.

“She won’t be bothering us.”

“How do you know?”

“She just won’t. She’s not here to create drama.” After taking a drink, she continued, “If she were, then she would have came to him immediately.” The rest of them looked at Tadashi again, Sol finally sighing and poking his shoulder to make him sit back up.

“Come on,” she whispered. “At least look good in front of everyone else.” Tadashi managed to sit up at that, looking at them wearily before running his fingers through his hair. “You good?”

“I think so.” He glanced at the bottle and instead pushed the shot glass away, exhaling and leaning against the seat with his arms crossed. “…if she comes, I don’t want to talk to her. Please.”

“Got it.” conversation resumed from that point, though it was getting obvious that Tadashi had completely lost his will to interact. Talk of his ex being in the same place he was wasn’t something he wanted to recognize. At all.

The night went on; eventually, the four of them had to leave. Sumire’s group had left first, which made him a little less tense but the wound hurt a little more. Seeing his state, Sol volunteered to drive him back; it wouldn’t be a bother, she reassured the other two. Eri gave her a dubious look at first until Ross smirked and agreed, pulling Eri away so that the two could catch a cab together.

Left alone in the parking lot, Sol cleared her throat and let Tadashi lean on her. “Come on,” she murmured. “Let’s get you home.”

“I can get home on my own,” he argued in a state of semi-drunkeness, and she shook her head in response, holding onto him a little tighter. No qualms came from him. “Marisol…”

“You’ve had too much.” He stayed quiet at that point and eventually ended up in the seat beside her, bucked up nicely and his head leaning on the window. Sol sighed as she started up the engine, sitting there quietly for a few beats before backing out of the parking and beginning the drive back.

It was quiet. There was nothing much to say; the alcohol in his blood was beginning to act up and Sol felt like there was nothing more to be said. All of it was revealed back in the bar by Ross, so why open up old wounds?

It took them half an hour to get to his apartment.

She managed to get him out; stumbled inside and into the elevator. Rode until the eighth floor, took his keys from his pocket, was able to go inside despite Tadashi’s mumbling and nonsense words pouring from his mouth. She could have sworn that her name was within the jumble but pressed to ignore it.

The sooner she could get him to bed, the better she could get out and drive home.

They entered. She kept trying to bring him inside, dragged him to bed, pulled off his shoes. And Tadashi struggled, muttering something she couldn’t understand. “Stay,” she demanded, pushing him onto the bed for the nth time.

He stayed.

She exhaled, going to the bathroom. Pulled out pain-killers she knew were safe, put them next to the glass of water she set up next. Tadashi stared at the objects on his bedside table, eyeing the water and medicines as if they were completely foreign to him.

“You should be okay,” she muttered, pulling on the cardigan she had discarded on one of the chairs. “Get some sleep. The meds are right there if you need them.” She turned around and started to make her way out, fingers wrapping around the doorknob—

And then she heard it.

A quieter voice, still slurred, a bit of understanding mixed in.

“…stay?”