Odd day on -- Part 2 ((4 Chords fic))

It was nearly ten o'clock by the time Mathis got back from his package runs. He shoved his way into his apartment, dropping his bag haphazardly in the entryway. The lights to his kitchen were on and what seemed to smell like someone's half assed attempt at making soup was being made. "Hello?" Mathis said tentatively. A bright orange mop of excitable energy poked her head out of the kitchen door.

"Mathis! You're back!"

Mathis flopped into his computer chair and rubbed his eyes. "Deyria, I thought I told you that key was for emergencies only?"

She looked to the ceiling as if to formulate a clever lie. She was always good at lying. Mathis guessed that's why she was good at jobs like retail and her aspirations of being a lawyer or some such complicated mess that Mathis could never wrap his mind around. "Wanting to try out a new recipe on you is an emergency." She said, complete seriousness on her face this time.

Mathis sighed and turned to his computer, "Whatever makes you happy, Dey." Deyria let a little squeak of joy as she disappeared into, what Mathis now assumed to be, her evil laboratory of mediocre cooking. Wiggling the mouse the computer woke with a start and a light whoosh as the fans started up within the CPU. His chat client was blinking. Mathis knew that he probably shouldn't talk to this person in his already less than desirable mood, but he could never resist the blinking of the tab on the start bar. He clicked it opening the message:

TA: you 2ure are a piiece of work you know that mh?

Sollux. Figures, with the way that Mathis had exited the prior face-to-face conversation and his complete disregard for the fragile feelings of Feferi, that this would happen. Mathis was tempted now to just close the chat entirely and forget about it all, but Sollux interjected again.

TA: ii can 2ee you onliine mh

TA: don't try to hiide

TA: you know you'll have two talk 2ooner or later

Mathis continued to stare at Sollux's one sided conversation, his hands resting on the keyboard the typing icon blinking with faithful patience in the text box.

PD: Why do you even care?...

TA: the lonely boy 2peak2

PD: Shut up... and answer my question...

TA: ii care becau2e ii care for ff

TA: obviiou2ly more than you do

PD: I care for Fef more than you know!... that's why I had to leave her behind so she wouldn't get wrapped up in all of my shit...

Sollux paused in his writing and Mathis stared at his screen wanting to burn a hole through it. He cared for Feferi, which is why he had to push her away, to keep her out of his problems, to let her have a normal life. He didn't even know if she felt the same way about him that he did for her.

TA: faiir enough

TA: but you could have done all of thiis wiith a biit more tact

PD: Whatever...

--twinArmageddons has ceased pestering you--

Mathis sat stoically staring at the last log. 'Fair enough', fair enough? Like hell it was. Nothing was fair when your life was dictated on the times you have to go into court and persecute your father. Persecuting him was not hard, he tried to kill him he as every right to persecute him and he will, it was showing his face in the court and silently screaming out to the world "Look at me I'm the son of a killer!". He lost a lot of jobs this way from people afraid of him, he would had done nothing, afraid of what he could do or what his father had done. It annoyed him so much, that people could make such snap judgements of him when he had done nothing. Mathis kicked his computer, leaving a dent in the shiny silver surface, and shoving him across the room on the slick wheels of his char. Deyria poked her head out of the kitchen a damp wooden spoon in her hand.

"What the fuck is bothering you now?" She sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "You've been in a foul mood ever since you walked through that door. Is it because I'm here?"

"No, Dey, I--"

"Then what is it?"

Mathis sighed and rubbed his temples, "The past. Finding me when I don't want it to."

Her face gained a knowing look. "Ohh.. Oh Mathis, I'm so sorry."

"Don't." He put up his hand, his eyes still closed. "Don't pity me. I don't need that kind of shit right now."

She was quiet for a while, twisting the spoon in her grasp. "Mathis, I care about you and I want to help you." She crouched down in front of him, one hand on his knee, like a mother to a mopey child. "And I can't do anything unless you tell me what is bothering you."

"You sound like my mother." He mumbled into his shirt.

"For all intents and purposes I am your mother. I practically do your job sometimes."

"Only in the mornings."

"I bring your fricking first package to your mail slot every day!" She laughed. "Now, stop avoiding the question. What came back?"

He sighed and stared into the space in front of him. "Feferi."

"Wow." Deyria said raising her eyebrows in awe. "I would have thought that reunion would be one of the happiest moments of your life. Seeing as the happier times you regale me with." She stood and walked back into the kitchen, but it didn't stop her from grilling him for more information. "So... What turned the reunion sour?"

Mathis propped his feet up on the desk and stared at his toes. He'd really rather not get into all of this, he'd rather shove it all away and forget about it, but he knew Day and he knew she wouldn't give up until she got the answers she was looking for. "Oh you know, only that I found out that she's dating a guy I play online games with. Small fucking world huh."
"That's like a one in a million chance of something like that happening." She popped out of the kitchen again and pointed the spoon at him. "You either need to get a shitload of lotto tickets right now or never step within thirty kilometers of a casino for the rest of your life."

"Thank you for your pearls of wisdom in my time of complete and utter despair, Deyria."
"Always a pleasure to teach you, Mathis!" She said, flouncing back into the kitchen. "But I don't really see how him being a gamer online is such a horrible fact that you need to act like it's the end of the world."
"It wasn't him that bothered me to begin with. It's that Fef still remembered everything. That she still knew my face after all... this." He motioned to the scars on his face event hough Deyria couldn't see his gesture. His face wasn't terribly scarred but enough for people to notice from time to time. The biggest one ran like a slash across his face, up his right cheek and narrowly avoiding his eye. Second biggest was one that crossed over his right jaw, and the smallest of which cut across his mouth.

"Well," She paused, "I don't know what to tell you to make you feel better. I can only remind you of stuff."
"Like what?"

Deyria returned from the kitchen, a steaming bowl of something in her hands and a towel over her shoulder, and said "Like, you have a court date tomorrow?"

"Ugh, don't remind me."

"Already did." Deyria set the bowl in front of Mathis' feet on the table. "Now eat this. I want to know what you think." Bringing his feet down, Mathis rolled back over to the computer table and took a tentative sip of the magma hot liquid. It seared his tongue and burned his throat all the way down, but it sat in his stomach like a hot stone; odd but comforting and satisfying. Deyria looked at him expectantly. "Well?"
Mathis paused and continued to stare at the bowl, tapping the spoon on it's ceramic edge. He stareted to raucously laugh, "It sucks!" He said in breathy gasps.
"Shut up!" She smacked his shoulder with the towel and laughed as well. "It's good and you know it!" Mathis hadn't laughed like this for a while. Maybe tomorrow would be a better day, past all the nastiness of court trials, and he could get on with his mediocre life.