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Aria Joie woke tense. It had been years since any assassination attempts. When she stepped out of public life they slowly trickled to a stop. The noise that woke her up came from her roof, it was an out of place footstep, a mistake. Not many people knew where she and her wife, Jacqui, lived. It really had been years since any assassination attempts, but she pulled the gun from under the bed without looking.
Jacqui was up as well, neither of them could remember being able to be anything other than light sleepers. She had also produced a gun. Jacqui pointed to the downstairs then to the roof with the shotgun while Aria pointed to the balcony. Jacqui kissed Aria's hand gently and headed down stairs. Aria moved to the balcony doors, sliding them open soundlessly. She led with the gun and peaked out. She saw no one there. She moved out and looked to the roof, no sight on the intruder yet. The ladder to the roof was creaky and Jacqui should've been flanking whoever was on the roof by now anyway. With her back against the wall and her gun pointed up, she shook the ladder, hoping to draw them out. She waited, listening to every sound as the echoes from the ladder faded.
"Aria it's cool," she heard Jacqui sigh from the roof. Aria was confused until she climbed the ladder cautiously and saw who the intruder was.
"Hey Aria," Mako Trig waved a little, he sat cross legged on her roof, Jacqui stood over him, her gun dangling loosely in her metal fingers.
"Mako what are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Aria crossed her arms, he looked older, a sight she never could get used to. She hadn't seen him in years and he had crows feet near his eyes. She tried to push away the thought of Maryland September who's eyes also crinkled in the corners. Aria was older too, she wondered if he thought it was just as weird.
"I actually came by this afternoon," he explained, "but I was like 'should I really bother her' and then started to leave but then I changed my mind and went to go knock on your door but then I wondered if maybe I should go do something useful instead of bothering you, but I thought but it'd be nice to see you and then I sat on your roof."
"Dude it's almost morning," Jacqui pointed to the sky which was just starting to brighten, "Did you sleep? Do you sleep?"
"I don't see why that's important," Mako answered like it really wasn't a big deal.
"Mako," Aria finally let her shoulders relax, she had been holding them as tense as when she woke up, "You can come see us, just call ahead next time."
"Yeah, you're right. I'll leave. I'll make sure to call first next time," Mako stood up, and he smiled. Jacqui made eye contact with her, they both suddenly had the gut feeling that if they let Mako leave now, they would never see him ever again.
"Actually Mako, uh, since you're here come eat breakfast with us," Jacqui said quickly.
"You said it was almost morning," Mako crossed his arms, "but it's definitely not breakfast time. You guys can go back to sleep, I've got to go do some work soon anyway."
Jacqui scoffed, "We saved the galaxy, work can wait."
"We wake up right about now anyway," Aria said and it wasn't a lie. It was more out of habit nowadays than nightmares.
Mako squinted his eyes, "Okay," he said and she noticed his shoulders tensed and untensed as he spoke.
Jacqui and her often cooked together in their retirement. It was a small thing, but to look into the eyes of her wife as they made pancakes made her feel better. Like it was all worth it.
Mako made and poured the coffee, chattering on like they were back on the Kingdom Come.
"Yeah I fogged into their shit, no problem," he said somewhere between a brag and an earnest excitement to tell her, "Then it went boom! No more bad tech for those guys."
He looked at her like he needed her to say something. Aria put a hand on Jacqui's back and absentmindedly rubbed her shoulders as she spoke, "That's cool Mako, glad to see you're still having fun."
He tensed and untensed, "Yeah lots of fun, what about you guys? Not getting bored of retirement right? Not missing being terrorists too much?"
Aria blushed while Jacqui laughed heartily, "I miss blowing up buildings," she admitted and made a mushroom cloud shape with her hands and spatula and made an explosion noise with her mouth.
Both Jacqui and Mako laughed as Aria tried to get her embarrassment under control, "I'm fine with a little less explosions," she said.
"But I bet you miss the crowds," Mako said pointedly as he put the cups of coffee on the table in their place.
She hummed a small flat note, "I guess I do."
"She still makes music," Jacqui said excitedly as she piled a plate with the pancakes she'd made, "And I help," she continued proudly.
"Oh, really?" Mako tapped on the table quickly, "I haven't listened to your new songs yet. But I will. I've just been busy," he tensed and untensed, the rhythm was becoming familiar to Aria.
The breakfast felt weird to her. Not that the mood changed drastically or the food was bad, it was that they all remembered the last time they ate together. The last time had been that last good day on Apostolos before the battle really started. Before people started dying. She spent the meal going through her memories. Had it really been that long? She had seen Mako after it all, she tried to be the one who told him about what happened, about AuDy, about Cass. But he'd already heard it somehow, maybe he fogged a communication center, maybe he could tell by the look on her face. After that she saw him every few years, sometimes for business, sometimes at galas. He always left early, but he'd always tell her goodbye at least. The first time, she asked him why he didn't stay and he said shrugging that he didn't like to dance and anyway he had to go do something. She strained trying to remember if it was a shrug or the now familiar tensing and untensing.
He stayed to clean up the plates, but the whole time she noticed him rocking on his feet, glancing at the door.
"Hey, come back any time," Jacqui ruffled his hair like they were kids again, and they were kids when they started all this, kids who were way over their heads playing criminals.
"Yeah, when I'm not busy I'll head over," he continued to rock in the doorway, "and I'll call first too!"
"Bye Mako," Aria said waving a little.
"Yeah bye," Jacqui said putting an arm around Aria and squeezing her.
"Bye guys!" Mako said and turned.
Jacqui locked eyes with her once again, it was more resigned this time. And Aria felt an emptiness that told her if she didn't do anything this really would be the last time she'd see him.
"Mako what's wrong?" She called and he paused mid step.
Tense, un-tense, then he turned back around smiling, his crow's feet crinkling, "Nothing's wrong!" He called back.
"Mako what's wrong?" she said it louder, almost shouting it, squeezing her eyes shut, tears stinging.
The only sound was Mako's soft footsteps back toward the house. Aria opened her eyes again and put a hand on his shoulder. He was older, but he was still so much smaller than her.
"Mako, you can trust us right?" Jacqui said it even though she knew it wasn't about trust.
"I can hear it," he said softly, and he didn't say what "it" was but they knew. He continued before they could react, “It’s not controlling me, trust me, I did the tests, all the tests. I did tests for years. It’s not going to come back. But I can hear it.”
“Mako,” Aria said softly as Jacqui gripped his other shoulder.
“And I don’t know what to do,” Mako said, “I’ve never known what to do.”
“That’s not true,” Jacqui said fiercely.
Mako seemed to ignore her, “So I came here because maybe you two could fix it because we used to fix stuff too right? It wasn’t all explosions was it?”
And in that moment Aria missed Cass desperately. She always missed them of course, but there were moments when she would stand in her kitchen, be walking to the store, cleaning a gun and the fact they were gone would feel fresh. Like they were dying again and again and she was being hit just as hard by the news each time. The thing was, whether it was true or not, she felt that Cass would know what to do. They could help Mako. They always had a plan. “I don’t know what to do either,” she admitted, a little helplessly, dropping her hand from his shoulder.
Jacqui looked between the two of them, and pulled them into her, not meeting resistance. She was crying a little and hugged them close. They stayed close and silent for a while before Jacqui finally spoke, “We can’t fix it.”
“Yeah,” Mako agreed not looking up from the ground.
“I think it’s a thing we’re going to have to live with,” Jacqui said.
“We?” Mako said backing out of the embrace.
“Yeah we,” Jacqui said, “I was alone for a long time and then I got a partner. Then I was alone again. Then I had all of you. And as soon as I got comfortable I almost lost everyone again,” She squeezed Aria tighter, “And a lot of them are dead. And we can’t fix that. We can’t fix the sound of Rigour in your head either,” she said, saying the name of the beast, “But I’ll be damned if we don’t have dinner together again.”
Mako wiped his tears away with the back of his hands, “It sucks a lot though.”
“Yeah things suck, but we won.” Jacqui said smiling a little wild.
“We won,” Aria repeated also unable to keep herself from smiling.
“And you are going to come over when things suck and when they don’t suck and we’ll play games, write music, and eat dinner together,” Jacqui said.
“You don’t have to call ahead, just knock on the front door, not the roof,” Aria added in, “And we’ll come visit you too. And we should invite Orth too right? I haven’t seen Maxine in years either. We’re not letting you disappear too.”
“Okay,” he said, “okay,” he repeated, “Okay, I’ll see you later then.”
“See you later,” Aria said squeezing his shoulder one more time.
“Yeah, later Mako,” Jacqui said punching him in the shoulder.
As Mako walked off, Jacqui looked into Aria’s eyes. Aria didn’t know if the sound of Rigour would allow him to come back, but she’d be damned too if they wouldn’t go out and find him and have shitty take out together if they had to. They were going to have dinner again. The Chime, even torn apart as it was now, was going to have dinner again.
They watched him leave until he was out of sight. He walked with his shoulders kind of slouched, but not tense.
It wasn’t until later that Aria wondered why the streetlamps had been on as he left, they were usually off in the early morning. As if someone, or someones, turned them on for him. It was an interesting thought but she let it float away not dwelling on it much longer.