[Date: Tuesday, April 12th. Time: 2:30 p.m. Location: In front of Hotel le Kirb.] [Shiho is standing in front of the hotel and off to the side, so as not to get in the way of random pedestrains and passers-by. She's leaning back against a wall and taking very shallow, very quick breaths - in fact, she looks like she's halfway to hyperventilating.] [Start!] 06* Montana steps out of the hotel, gaze sweeping from left to right - and Shiho. "Hey," he says, concerned, and instinctively moves closer to block pedestrians' views of Shiho. "Breathe." 06* Shiho shaking her head, still quietly gasping. "I'm." Gasp. "-Trying-." Gasp. 06* Montana reaches out to touch Shiho's shoulder, but stops before he actually does so. Instead, he says, "In." Counts to three, then, "Out." And again. 06* Shiho follows Montana's breathing pattern after a few more short breaths, then stops, breathing normally again. "Thank you," she says quietly, looking away from his face. 06* Montana 's hands are safely tucked in his pockets again. "No problem. Wanna move?" Yes. I wasn't thinking, this spot's too open, I wasn't. Wasn't thinking. 01 It's cool. I'll do the thinkin' for you. Thank you. 06* Montana grins. "You just repay the favor later. Come on." And with that, he starts meandering away from the hotel, like they didn't just find out that the world had ended. 06* Shiho follows after Montana silently, mostly just watching his feet. 06* Montana walks for about ten minutes, taking a circuitous path through the city, before he glances back at Shiho. 06* Shiho is still watching his feet. She is not keeping even the slightest eye on her surroundings. 06* Montana notes that, then changes his path after a bit, eventually reaching an old style apartment building. "Headin' up," he warns her before he starts climbing up the fire escape. 06* Shiho glances up before following him. 06* Montana eventually gets to the top, then basically climbs up the rest of the side of the building, using handholds and a pipe, to get to the roof. He reaches down and helps Shiho up if she needs. 06* Shiho takes his hand and uses it as leverage to get the last little bit up. Then she doesn't really let go of his hand. 06* Montana notes that, and he doesn't make Shiho let go or express any discomfort, for that matter. "You wanna sit down?" Yeah. 06* Montana examines their options, then leads Shiho to a side of the roof and sits down, leaning against the concrete lip/rail and incidentally pulling her down with him. He'd normally consider sitting *on* it, but well... it's probably not a good idea right no. 06* Shiho follows where she's pulled. "You've been. You're a good friend, Montana." 06* Montana smiles, a little crookedly. "I don't do much, but thanks." No, you do a lot. You're consistantly there when I get upset, and you brought me ice cream, and you never ask questions I don't want to answer, so. I want to tell you. I've never told anyone, -no one-. The most anyone knows is- Harry knows what I was doing when he got me out of Japan, and he kept his mouth shut about that." You can't tell anyone. Okay? 06* Montana nods, wearing the same look of concern that he had in the hotel. "You know you really don't have to tell me," he says, probably unnecessarily. I want to. I'd like to, if you don't mind hearing it. 06* Montana shakes his head. "Nah. I don't mind." He shifts to face Shiho. "I swear that I won't tell nobody. Not Alysha, not Sonia, and not even God, or whatever the fuck's a god these days anyway." 06* Shiho manages a brief half-smile at that. "Thank you. Where the hell do I even start..." 06* Shiho sighs. "I'm not Japanese. I was born in Hong Kong, and the name my parents gave me is Jian." 06* Montana nods, like that's no big deal. "Mine's Montgomery," he volunteers. ...Seriously? Is that even a real name? 06* Montana laughs. "Yeah. Ma named me. Pretty much the only goddamn thing she did for me." 01 T'be fair, I think she *also* named Nigel. I think I like Montana better. 06* Montana tips his hat. "'S why I use it. Well. Mostly 'cause *I* like it better, but your opinion's a nice bonus." 06* Shiho gives his hand a quick squeeze. "Anyway. My father was a very important member of one of the triads... mind, nearly everyone's in a triad, or associated with one, in Hong Kong. But Father was important, and he was raising us to be important. Jun and I." 06* Shiho 's voice is hollow for a moment when she says, "He was my twin brother." 06* Montana nods again, concern flickering through his eyes. 06* Shiho takes a deep breath before continuing. "I was pretty flighty at that age. Sixteen, I mean. And one day I came home from shopping and the living room was covered in my family's blood. And, um... I can't remember her name." Jun's girlfriends were interchangable, vapid. He said he liked having background noise and a pretty body nearby. But she was there too, the latest one, dead. I realized someone had thought she was me. They thought I was dead too. So I took the emergency money from the family safe, took a flight out with several connections attached to the ticket, and left the airport illegally in Japan. 06* Montana squeezes Shiho's hand lightly and doesn't say anything. There's not many options for an illegal, underage girl in a foreign country. I knew Japanese, but had an accent. So I ended up in a hostess bar for three years... do you know what that is? 06* Montana shakes his head. "Not really. Never been to Japan." 01 I'm guessin' it wasn't entirely legal. Ah. Well, technically I was supposed to talk to men, flirt a lot. The club made money off of men buying the time of woman and overpriced alcohol. You get paid more for getting your own repeat customers, and the best way to keep a man's attention was to have sex with him. 06* Montana ahs. "Right. 'Course." They sort of are? Prostituting yourself technically isn't required, but it's certainly encouraged. It's a good way to make extra money if you enjoy sex, or can even pretend that you're enjoying sex. 06* Shiho rolls her eyes. "I can't even pretend. The faces and noises the other women said I was supposed to make were ridiculous." Anyway, sex is awful, and I barely did well enough to survive, until Harry Barker came along. 06* Montana laughs a little. "That's 'cause it is. Ridiculous, I mean. Only way you wouldn't think so is if you actually like it enough that you don't really care." He was supposed to be meeting a potential client, but the man obviously didn't know him at all, because he decided to have it at my bar. And then while they were there, one of Mika-chan's ex-clients came in with a -gun-, of all things. Do you know how strict the gun control laws are in Japan? -Really- strict. 01 Yeah, I heard about *that*. Bet sneaking one through customs is fuckin' awful. I wouldn't even bother trying. They have sword control laws, too, you can't carry one on the street at all. 06* Shiho seems to be doing a lot better now that she's not talking about her family. "Oh, so, Mika-chan had stopped seeing him because he went bankrupt, and obviously she wasn't going to give a shit about him if he couldn't pay for her. But he came in, waving a gun around and demanding they go get married that instant. Idiot." 01 Yup. Hundred percent. 06* Shiho says matter-of-factly, "So I got behind him and punched him in the kidney, then kicked his ribs when he dropped to his knees." 01 Makes sense. Totally fucks up his ability to aim with that thing. Harry was impressed and gave me his card, and then I got fired the next day for low sales and endangering customers by attacking an armed man, so I called him and signed on with Vollenstein Armaments. 01 And the rest is history, I guess. How long'd you work with Harry before you ended up with Alysha, or whatever her name is now? Seven years. I'm actually an official American citizen now, the fake Japanese documents VA gave me held up well enough that I could apply. And as far as anyone knows, I'm Shiho Yamada. But Hong Kong is... there's so many people, but it's still very small. I can't be sure someone wouldn't recognize Li Jian. 06* Montana shakes his head. "It's been a long time, and you grew up since then." I left that behind. If we didn't have all this ridiculous shit going on, I never would have even considered going back. I still can't be sure! 01 Nah. And you don't have to. But if you decide you wanna go, could get Sonia to help you out with a new look. She's good at that sorta thing. I just- I can't- It's been ten years and this is the first time I've breathed a word of it, do you understand how scared I am?! 06* Montana shakes his head. "Not really." No sense in lying about it. "But I know you're scared. And... look." 01 You don't have to go. Understand? You *don't* have to go. I sold my body rather than be there! I drank so much alcohol and threw it back up until my throat bled! But I- I- 06* Shiho looks desperate and holds Montana's hand tightly. "What if something happens to any of you because I wasn't there? What would I do with myself? What am I even worth if I let that happen?" 06* Montana just pulls Shiho forward, tugging on the hand he's been holding all along, and hugs her. 06* Shiho holds Montana tightly and starts crying into his shoulder. My family di- died without me! They all died and I wasn't there! 06* Montana responds with more hugs. 06* Shiho cries big, heaving sobs for several minutes, gripping the back of his shirt, until the sobbing starts to slow down and quiet. 06* Montana lets Shiho do that, still holding her. In the silence that follows, he says quietly, "You're a really great person, Shiho. Hell, you're goddamn amazing. Don't... think that you don't got worth, even if something happens to one of us. It ain't all your fault." 01 If you were home, back then, you just would've died. That ain't your fault, either. Maybe you were lucky 'cause of that - or unlucky... you can feel bad about it, but you shouldn't feel *guilty*. I just always wondered if... if they knew what was happening. If they died quickly, or if they knew what was going on and pretended Jun's girlfriend was me. 06* Montana lets out a long breath through his nose, then says, "No way to know. They still would've wanted to kill everyone there. No witnesses." Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 06* Montana relaxes the hug, and he'll let go if Shiho indicates she wants to move away. 06* Shiho takes several deep breaths before pulling away, but she just sits to his side, leans into him, and pulls his arm over her shoulders. "Tell me something distracting." 06* Montana settles into the new position, squeezing Shiho around the shoulder. "I saw some woman wearing one of them checkered jumpsuits on the way here. She was carrying a denim purse and had a watch worth at least four grand." I hate those jumpsuits so much. I want to set them all on fire. 06* Montana raises an eyebrow at Shiho. "With the woman inside?" Maybe she wants to die with her awful jumpsuit. I don't tell people what to value in their lives. Denim's nice, though. It's making a comeback, so hopefully we'll be seeing more jeans. Flared legs are due for a resurgance, actually. 06* Montana laughs. "That'd be be good. It's been pretty hard, gettin' some decent jeans over the past few years." 01 All right. Set her on fire, take her purse and watch first. Right. You can have the watch, I don't typically wear them. I'll keep the purse and honor her memory by looking amazing with it. 01 Between you and me - I think watches that expensive are pretty fucking hideous. Jewelry's nice, don't get me wrong, but at that point it's usually a question of how many gems you can shove in one of 'em. 01 I'm just interested in the resale value for that one. That's why I don't wear them, and you're welcome to resell our imaginary watch. That and I keep breaking them. 06* Montana grins. "Who said it's imaginary?" You might think it would be easy to find her again and take it, but I'm very sorry to inform you that checkered jumpsuits are getting to be fairly common. Hopefully, so common they fall out of style. 01 Well, ain't no use in lookin' like everyone else. Exactly! 06* Montana thinks for a moment, then says, "You know, we *are* in Paris. Ain't that the capital of fashion? I heard that somewhere." 06* Shiho looks up at Montana with wide eyes. "Montana. Montana, are you offering to go shopping with me?" 06* Montana briefly considers how doomed he is before he says, in his most solemn voice, "Yes." 06* Shiho 's slowly forming smile turns into a beaming grin for just a moment. "I would never make you do that, but that is still one of the sweetest things anyone has ever offered me. Thank you." 01 Oh no. You ain't lettin' me off that easy. We should at least do some browsing. With a time limit. If you -insist-. I'll buy you some new jeans to make up for it. Ones you can work in, not the really tight ones that are in vogue at the moment. 06* Montana laughs. "Ain't necessary, firebrand, but I appreciate it. 'm sure you got good taste in that kinda thing." 06* Shiho blinks at the nickname, then snorts and covers her mouth and nose for a moment. 06* Montana just grins at the reaction. All right, we'd better at least head back and check in. Whatever-her-name-is would probably like to know I didn't run into the middle of the street or something. ...Where the hell are we, anyway? 01 Honestly, got no fuckin' clue. But I could retrace our steps, and I counted at least ten shortcuts. 06* Montana squeezes Shiho one last time before he removes his arm from around her shoulders and stands, reaching down to help her up. 06* Shiho takes his hand to stand up, then looks over the side of the building. "Why is getting down always so much harder than getting up, anyway?" 01 Climbing down's always harder than up. It's like with cats. We can go down the inside. 06* Montana smiles. "Worst they'll do is kick us out." True. Okay, after you. 06* Montana walks to the door down from the roof, casually opens the padlock, and heads right on down like he belongs there. 06* Shiho follows him, smiling. [End!]