It was his lunch break when he got back to the RV camper. One hand scratched through the black of his hair just before he opened the door. He looked a bit disheveled but not bad. The smell of fire and sheered metal was imbued in his clothes and somewhere in the dies sweat along his neck. With a yawn he opened up the fridge door, "Voo? You in?" He called out to her while he grabbed an orange juice and poured, "I was going to order some Chinese for dinner, did you want some?" The offer sounded like an obligatory one.

-

The redhead peeked out of the room. "Damn your brother got hot! Have I said that yet?" asked Lexi as she folded her arms and looked at the smaller teenager. "Many times..." Voodoo replied seeming something less than amused by her statements. "Well I'll say it again.. Your brother is hot. I wonder if he remembers me. Maybe I should go say hi." Voodoo looked a bit panicked. "Leave him alone, Lexi... You need to leave until he does." Lexi circled around Voodoo and grinned, "Why? Don't want Bro-bro to think you're crazy pants?" asked the redhead. "He already does..." she told her and stood.


Voodoo was still in her pajamas. She hadn't left since they'd arrived, hadn't introduced herself to anyone. She wasn't sure if they knew she was also living there at this point. She'd leave when it was dark, sneak out and sit alone. Voodoo moved from the room, "Sounds good.." she barely mumbled.

-

"Voo, did you hear me?" He was trying not to sound so annoyed. He could hear that she was talking to herself. Again. Sighing he pulled out his cellphone and dialed up the RhyDin Chinese Dragon Pow for food. The speaker was to his ear when she finally took a break from self-crazy talk to respond to him, "What do you want? Chicken? Teriyaki beef? I'm about to order." At Least this way there'd be some food int he fridge for her for when she got hungry now or later.


The buzz of a voice came in on the other line and he spoke, "Yeah, I wanna place a delivery or-- yeah, I can wait." Been waiting all damn night. It's okay. Can wait a few minutes more.

-

Wincing lightly, either at something Lexi said, or his almost unwilling annoyance. Her eyes darted between the bedroom and him, "Tell him I want chicken with a side of him..." Lexi said, seeming to lounge on Voo's bed. Well, she did want chicken, but now that was ruined. "Beef, please..." she mumbled softly and then her eyes widened as she moved into the bedroom at a fast pace. "Don't touch that...!" she whispered a hiss, and the picture frame went crashing to the floor. "Damn..." she whispered. Stuff around the camper was often breaking, and it was the same story. I didn't do it. And she didn't.

-

"Fuck, Voo, I told you a million times to be careful with shit. We're not made of money. Was it just the glass? Is that mom's fram-- yes, sorry. I'm here. Yeah, I'd like to place an order for two teriyaki beef delivery. To the glen in the white camper with the horizontal blue stripe. And some of those crab thingies. The ragoons or whatever. Ummm... four is fine. Yeah. He can just call when he pulls up and I'll meet him up front. Cool. Thanks." He hung up and then shoved his cellphone into his back pocket before he moved over to where the frame fell to see what the damage was.

-

Of course it was Mom's frame. "You're getting me in trouble..." she hissed softly. "I bet he's cute when he's mad..." She was picking the glass out of the frame, but the photo was still in one piece, thankfully. "It wasn't m--" Yeah, he was going to believe that. "...it just...fell.." she whispered, defeated. Her voice never seemed to go above a whisper or a mumble these days as she began picking up the glass from the floor and gathering it. She'd cut the tip of her finger only slightly, and brought it to her mouth.

-

"I'm not getting you in trouble, Voo. I told you not to put stuff on the edge like this." He signed and then picked up the frame, "It's going to be fine, though. Just a new piece of glass or whatever and it'll be like new." There was a pause, one that felt slightly larger than what was normal or more comfortable, "I'll get the dustpan. Don't cut yourself." He moved to get it. When he returned it was also with the small sweeper. "Just put the larger pieces in there. Careful." The pause extended, heavy with what might have been guilt that prompted him to say, "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. The frame's going to be fine. I can get some frame at the dollar store and swap out the glass and it'll be like new."

-

The silence killed her, because leave it to Lexi to be quiet when she desperately needed her to talk. She looked over at the girl, for a good, hard moment, though he wouldn't see nothing but her staring at the wall. Nothing. She winced lightly, still sucking on her finger as she dropped the glass into the pan and frowned against her digit. She listened to him speak, but offered no return words, so there was another painful silence. "C'mon... Say something to him before he thinks you're totally crazy pants.." Voodoo winced, "I don't know what to say..." she whispered. "Ask him about work.." Her gaze snapped to her brother, awkwardly. "Oh, right... How was work?"

-

"Two of the guys called out so I'll be working late again. You'll have the chinese food and some tea and soda so you should be okay." He saw her suck on her finger and sighed, standing up and turning to dump the contents to the dustpan into the garbage bin hanging off the side wall. There was a plastic white hook that the dustpan and brush comb hung off of. He rubbed his eyes with one hand, the wish-wash motion of his hand showing that he was already tired. It's almost one am and it's his lunch hour.


The hydrogen peroxide and bandages were pulled out, "Come over here." At least she wasn't talking to herself. It bugged him when she did that because he never knew if she was talking to him or if he should respond or just... pretend he didn't hear it? Usually he was more patient with her but the promise of an even longer shift had cut his patience short.

-

Eyes trailed to Lexi nervously. As much as she hated the way the girl made her look, she needed her. She probably would've been worse off if Lexi hadn't shown herself every day. Even in death, Lexi was her best and most loyal friend. Even if she did give her endless amounts of shit and tease her. "Goooo." Lexi said, waving her off. "Right. Sorry..." she moved over towards her brother and stared up at him with those wide eyes, holding out her finger. There wasn't much of a cut, just a tiny one where the glass had poked her lightly. She pushed her thumb hard into her index finger to coax more blood out, watching it with an almost crazed expression. She liked to see her blood, and she hadn't a clue why.

-

Chase seemed like he was ignoring her stare at the red that was building up, pouting into a droplet at her fingertip. It wasn't as bad as he thought, given she'd been sucking on her finger. He took a napkin and then turned the peroxide bottle upside down before pressing it into her finger. When that was down he held the side of her finger firmly, blowing on it until it dried off. There were some small old bandages that he could use, the sort that were just about a half inch wide. He stripped the white plastic off the sticky side, swearing under his breath when the static electricity made it stick to the back of his hand. He wrapped her finger in the band aid and the picked off the plastic and wrapper, balling it up and then tossing it in the waste bin. "Don't let anything get into that, k? What have you been getting into today?"

-

"Look at him... being the heroic brother.. I gotta say, if I didn't die? I'd hit that. I'd hit it hard.. It's not fair," she said bitterly, plopping down onto the bed but barely stirring the blankets. "I died before I even got to have one little kiss." Pouted Lexi. "I know, and I'm sorry..." whispered Voo. "It wasn't fair..." When he finished wrapping her up, she took her hand back and wrapped her arms around her like she was cold. And she was... She was always cold since Lexi died. Wore jackets in the dead heat, skin felt chilled all the time. "He asked you what you did today..." said the pouting ghost. "I stayed in here, did a jigsaw puzzle with-- ...myself... and I looked out the window... Saw some kids playing, and a cat... Maybe we could put food out.."

-

"Don't feed the cat, Voo. We'll get a million strays and they will all have kittens. Last thing we need is trying to feed and save the world." Leave it to him to feel like saving one would feel like the burden of saving everyone. Maybe that was just him projecting. "You could have tried to play with the kids just don't... try not to do that thing where you talk to yourself this time?" It hadn't gone over so well with the other kids. Chase knew kids could be assholes and at her age, the were even more so. Not that it ever got any better, adults just tended to wait until you were out of the room or to shrink back instead of say something. When she got older, it'd be easier. He sighed, "I'm not saying don't be you. I'm saying that you need to let people get to know you before they see tha--" and then there was a knock at the door. Dinner's here. The sentiment was broken and he detached from her to answer the door.

-

"I don't talk to mys--" she tried to cut him off, but the door seemed to cut both of them off. She swallowed hard and watched him go. Voodoo loved her brother, in... Well in the best way someone like her could love someone living. It was hard, on both of them. He couldn't hear Lexi, he couldn't see her--he couldn't ever understand. No one could. When he walked away she followed him towards the door, but stopped. "Why don't you tell him about me, Ridian?" she asked. "He'd never believe me..." Lexi frowned, "You don't know that.." she tried. "Yeah, I do... He'll think I'm crazy." Those eyes fell. "Like you said...He already does..."

-

"Thanks man. That's for you," he gave the guy a cash tip and then brought in the plastic bags. He couldn't tell what Voo was saying because he was focused on the exchange, only that she was muttering to herself. Again.


"See? That's what I'm talking about. People get kinda weirded out when you do that. Maybe after they get to know you it'll be like me," where it was only sort of annoying to try to figure out if she meant to address him or herself, but that it was largely 'forgivable' as some eccentric trait. Ever since her friend and grandma he knew she had been lonely. There was an age gap between them and.. well... yeah. He knew she wasn't leaping to have his immediate company. It was a slightly warmer-than-not tolerance of one another. "I'll be back at like....six or seven am." And then he'd be sleeping for the next eight hours as soon as he got home.

-

That schedule should've been hard on her, should've made her lonely. Unfortunately, she was never alone. Lexi didn't sleep, so it was hard for her to. Still, she liked to go out at night. She'd met a guy that didn't act like she was completely insane, so that was...something. He was older, about twice her age, but he talked to her, and that felt nice. Though she did refrain from talking to Lexi. She wouldn't tell Chase about that, though. Wincing when he again mentioned her talking to herself, she let it go like she normally did. "Okay.." she whispered softly. "...be safe." Maybe it was a warning, maybe she was just wishing him well. She'd pick at the food later, but for now, she'd watch him out, hugging herself.

-

He took up one of the plastic bowls and dished out some of the rice and beef, plastic wrapping the top and then adding more OJ to his glass. His gaze went over the to go boxes and then returned to her as he motioned, "If you aren't going to eat anything, put it up. I don't want to have to deal with any bugs in here, okay? I'll be home soon and check in on you then." There was, finally, a smile for her and it looked like he hadn't really smiled all day. It wasn't a warm smile, more of a goodbye smile more than anything. Holding the bowl to his ribs with one arm and his OJ in he other, he worked open the caravan door, "I got my cell on me if you need anything."

-

Lips pursed and she offered a half smile, one of those smiles that made it seem like she'd forgotten how. She didn't know how long it had been since she smiled, really smiled. She walked away from the door without much sentiment, "Okay," she said in a flat tone. "This is so painful..." hissed Lexi, and she looked at him almost desperately. "She's won't tell you, but I will... She's not crazy.. Look at her. Hell, look at me! I'm here!" The ghost was howling at the top of her lungs, and it made Voo cover her ears and crouch. That happened more than it should, really. When he left, Lexi settled, so did she. Slowly, she began to put the food away. "Mm.. Hate to see him go, love to watch him leave..."