Routine

CHAPTER 8

"Hey, Tiana! We're going to pick Alice up from the airport. You coming?" Runo asked, peeking her head into her room to see Tiana sitting on the bed, looking down at her phone with a sorrowful smile on her face. "Tiana?"

Tiana seemed to come back from wherever her mind had wandered, only now realizing a stray tear had made its way down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with her sleeve, locking her phone before Runo could see what she was looking at and placed a forced smile on her lips.

"I'm not really feeling up to it today. Tell Alice I said hi," Tiana instructed, looking down at her folded hands on her lap.

Runo looked hesitant for a moment but obliged when Tiana sent her a pleading look. With a quick goodbye, Runo headed out, leaving Tiana with her own thoughts. She took a deep breath and unlocked her phone, looking at the picture once more.

It was her and Jax when they had gone to the park. She had taken the picture herself, so she was the closest to the camera, while Jax peeked out from behind her shoulder, resting his chin on it with a cheerful smile on his face.

It had been taken about a week before he had been taken away from her and they looked as happy as they could be under the family circumstances. Their parents had been fighting again, so Tiana opted on getting Jax out of the house and away from it all for a while.

A bitter smile made its way onto her lips. Even her happy memories had unhappy strings attached to them.

"Are you alright, Tiana?" Nemr asked, jumping onto her shoulder.

"You know, with everything that's going on with Masquerade and Vestroia, I feel kind of stupid worrying about my own problems," Tiana laughed but there was no amusement behind it.

"There's nothing wrong with worrying about your brother."

Tiana took in another deep breath, locking her phone once more and allowing a few more tears to roll down her cheeks. "I guess you're right."

"Everything will be alright, Tiana," Nemr reassured her.

"It's funny, people say that to me all the time...but it's not what I want to hear..."

"Then what do you want to hear?"

Tiana thought for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows and biting down on her lower lip as she searched for the right words. "I don't want someone to tell me that everything will be okay because, deep down, I know it will be. I just want someone to tell me that they'll be there when everything isn't..."

There was a moment of silence before Tiana wiped her eyes dry with her sleeve and stood from the bed, throwing her phone on the pillow.

"Where are we going?" Nemr asked, still sitting on top of her shoulder.

"We're going for a walk. We haven't done that in a while," Tiana said, placing a sincere smile on lips. There was no point in sulking. There was a world out there that might need her help one day.

°°°

Tiana wandered aimlessly through the park grounds, her eyes cast down and Nemr silent on her shoulder. She hated times like this; times where her thoughts were allowed to roam.

Why was she even doing this? Did she think that she would just magically find an answer to all her problems if she just put one foot in front of the other with absolutely no destination in mind?

No, because life wasn't that simple. It never was and never will be. At least not for her or her friends and family. Why did everything always have to happen to them? Why couldn't it happen to anyone else? Why couldn't things be simple? Why couldn't she just have a normal life? Why her? Just, why?

Tiana came to a stop, shut her eyes and took in a deep breath. There was no point in asking when she would never receive an answer. The reality was, everything was happening to her, to everyone around her, and there was nothing to be done about it. All she could do was face it head on and hope she made it out sane.

"It sure is a beautiful day today," Nemr commented out of nowhere. Tiana opened her eyes slightly to glance at the Bakugan, raising her brow. She then turned her gaze up towards the sky, letting out a small hum of agreement while a small smile played on her lips.

There wasn't a single cloud visible in the brilliant blue sky, allowing the sun's rays to cast down upon her skin and give her a pleasantly warm feeling. The rays reflected off the water of the river on her left and gave the effect of crystals floating on the water's surface.

"It sure is, Nemr..."

°°°

"Alice!"

Tiana instantly threw herself into said girl's arms as soon as she stepped into Runo's family's restaurant, the others closely following her inside. Alice let out a lighthearted laugh as she returned the hug.

"It's good to see you too, Tiana."

The two girls stepped away from each other and Tiana turned her gaze towards the rest of the group. They gave her an innocent smile which quickly disappeared when they saw Tiana staring at them with crossed arms and a raised brow.

"What?" Dan finally asked.

"WHAT TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG!" Tiana yelled, flailing her arms in the air in aggravation.

"Well, we ran into these two boys..." Marucho started to explain but was interrupted when Runo placed her hand over his mouth, causing Tiana to raise a questioning brow.

"What Marucho meant to say was, Dan got lost and we had to find him before we could leave," Runo said with a nervous laugh, a bead of sweat visible on her forehead.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! Those tourists were the ones that pushed me!" Dan defended himself, waving his arms in the air like Tiana did a second ago.

Tiana laughed and shook her head at him, ruffling his hair as she said, "Sure they did, Kuso."

"It's the truth!"

"Well," Tiana said, clapping her hands together. "You guys must be hungry if you came here. So, what will it be? Tuna surprise or tuna surprise?"

"Tuna surprise!" Everyone cheered, causing Runo's mother to stick her head out from the doorway of the backroom.

"Did I hear someone wants my Tuna surprise? I'm on it!" With that, she disappeared into the kitchen. The group only laughed at the woman's antics while Runo looked slightly embarrassed of her mom.

They made their way to the back of the small restaurant to take a seat while Alice stayed behind with Runo.

"Why didn't you tell her about what happened?" Alice asked her blue-haired friend.

Runo looked over at Tiana who had a bright smile on her face as she listened to what Dan was telling the group, a smile playing on her own lips. The girl's they met had a similar story to Tiana and Runo didn't want Tiana to think about Jax. She knew how much her best friend missed her little brother.

"She wouldn't be happy if she knew we battled without her. She'd react worse than Dan did," Runo lied.

Alice looked reluctant but nodded her head as she accepted Runo's reasoning, the two girls joining the rest of the group. Tiana sent them a cheerful smile as they took a seat next to her, both of them returning it.

Tiana looked over the group that sat around the table, laughing as Dan fell over in her chair at Runo's remark. If she had to face everything the universe threw at her, she was glad to have her friends behind her, because she probably wouldn't be able to do it alone.