[PRP] The Truth Hurts

[insidiousEnigma]

Oh.
...What was this?

The teen felt a strange, but pleasant, warmth fill his chest as Jerome gently squeezed his shoulder. It was a rather satisfying feeling, which was a bit odd considering another it had been caused by another person. "Friends." He repeated softly, unable to stop the delighted smile that spread across his face at the confirmation he hadn't been aware that he needed. His first friend in...well...quite some time to be perfectly honest. But that was okay! Quality over quantity was certainly a phrase that he believed in thoroughly and Jerome was definitely a good friend. Great in fact.

But oh wait. He was distracting himself.

"Well, it does seem a bit detrimental to your health to be jumping from buildings and joining Team Rocket." He agreed with the older man before stuffing the rest of his half of the cupcake into his mouth. "Not that I'm really one to talk. Living safely is rather dull." He shrugged slightly as he dusted his hands of any crumbs. "Perhaps instead of saying 'Happy Birthday' one should simply tell another person 'Congratulations' since they have in fact managed to live another full year." He mused thoughtfully.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Glancing sideways for a moment to the younger Rocket, Jerome catching the quiet work that he spoke.
He recalled the kid's history, what Zacharie had told him anyway, He probably didn't have very many friends.
Jerome himself knew how important they were, even more so in his age, it just felt so second nature his entire life.

His mouth full of cupcake Jerome let out a chuckle at the revising of 'Happy birthday' to 'congratulations'
His mouth still full he spoke "Sounds 'bout right."
Finishing off the cupcake he balled the wrapper up into his palm
"When's yer birthday?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Hm, well then congratulations on surviving another year." Zacharie muttered around his mouthful of cupcake before swallowing thickly. "There are people who cannot boast about having surviving to age thirty...because well...they're dead." He finished awkwardly with a shrug. "But you have successfully made it and there's something to be said about human tenacity." He hummed lightly as he held his hand out for the wrapper so he could toss it into the trash can near the foot of his bed. "My birthday?" He paused and thoughtfully stared into the distance. "I turned 18 on July first...I don't really celebrate it or anything though." Because of this, he hadn't been surprised when it had seemed as if Jerome had forgotten his own. "But I suppose since I've joined a criminal organization where I could be killed at any moment I should start partaking in the celebration of having survived another year."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome let out a very brief scoff of a laugh, a light grin and his eyes falling to the ground between his knees.
"Aint ya know how true that is bro'" He said with a soft tone of knowing.
How had he survived all of this? could it really just be explained in tenacity?

"Yea, maybe ya should r'somethin'" Jerome reached an elbow out to nudge the boy "Maybe we'll start makin' a bigger deal outta living each year huh?"

Bro' who had long since become bored of the humans birthday talk had instead started going through the piles of stuff that belonged to various rockets. though, in order to keep from being yelled at and stopped he stuck mostly to the things around Jerome's belongings.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie laughed lightly as he swayed a bit from Jerome's nudge, "I don't really think that surviving 18 years is particularly impressive...considering that I spent the majority of it in libraries and my room. But it could be...fun, celebrating my birthday." The 'now that I have a friend' went unsaid but was implied. "It would be another excuse to eat cake at least." And he did really like cake...and most other types of pastries that were loaded with sugar.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome shrugged "sometimes kids don't make it that far."
Though the older man frowned, realizing just then that it might not have been the best thing to say.

Cake was nice to have, Jerome couldn't say he got it very often, but who ever needed an excuse for cake.
So Jerome nodded, and glanced away, catching sight of Bro going through things with a bored look on his face. "Man, don't make a mess again." The gangster said, pushing himself to his feet just as Bro knocked over one of the bags of Izaya's things, spilling the contents all over the ground.

There was a moment of stillness, where the Gengar grinned almost sheepishly.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"That's true." Zacharie agreed quietly with a solemn nod.

...Time to change the subject.

Luckily for him he didn't have to think of anything particularly witty to say since Bro seemed to take that exact moment to come up with a distraction. He'd have to give Bro something nice to devour as a thank you. "You really shouldn't go through people's things without asking, Bro. It's not polite." Not that he thought that Bro cared for such things...at all. He himself only followed such basic manners because he hated it when people went through his things before asking for his permission.  

[Blood_Goddess]

The Gengar's half lidded his eyes at Zacharie giving him a look that just said "Really?" before grinning broadly and swooping down to start picking up some of the things that fell out.

"S'Izaya's crap, ain't even sure what f'this he really wanted er not." Jerome said, reaching down to pick up some of the fallen books.
He had just grabbed the first things he saw that looked important. Its not like he had much time to think about the stuff that Izaya used or not.

One of the books slipped from his hands as he straightened back up falling open on its spine.
swearing softly the gangster let out a soft sigh, reaching back down to pick the fallen object up, but something about it caught his eye. His movements grew slower as he carefully scooped the book into his hand, making sure to keep the page he was on.
As he straightened up again the gangster said nothing as he scanned through the writing within.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Ah, well it was kind enough for you to grab any of his things." Zacharie said with a slight shrug as he came over to help pick Izaya's things up. "He should be happy someone remembered to pick his things up while there was all of that chaos going on." He muttered as he bent to scoop up a handful of papers. Weren't people now a days all about using computers for well...everything? Sighing softly, he tucked the papers into a random book and the put it back in the bag Bro had tipped over.

It was then that he noticed that Jerome was staring at one of Izaya's books.

"Is it anything interesting?" He asked curiously, shifting a bit closer to the older man. "I can't imagine anything that Izaya would read would be entertaining."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Yea- Was his partner's thinkin'" Jerome admitted, she at least gave him the order of the specifics he should grab, Jerome might not have thought to think to grab some of it.

Jerome didn't say anything to Zacharie's question, he didn't really know what to say at all.
slowly he turned the page, glancing over the hand written notes with a soft grimace growing over his features.

"Informant notes." He said after a while. "Sgot m'ol gangs names n'here and their hide outs..."
Jerome sounded confused as he read through this.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie...didn't know what to say to that.

He knew, vaguely, of Jerome's past. Knew enough to know that his life with the gang hadn't ended all that well and that the older man was lucky to be alive. He didn't know much about that sort of life and so he had always tended to simply listen when the other had ever mentioned his past. "Oh?" He peered around Jerome's shoulder to catch a glimpse of the what the book had written inside of it. There was this...feeling, in the pit of his stomach. A rather unpleasant one at that. Whatever was written in that book couldn't be good if Izaya had never thought to show it to Jerome.  

[Blood_Goddess]

A hand moved over the man's head, scratching at the shaved hairs on his mostly bald side, as he gave the book an intense, confused stare.
"Was he sellin' my bortha's out?" He asked allowed, though from what he was gleaming from these notes, Jerome already knew the answer to that, the question right now was, was he accepting it?

Bro had since floated up behind Jerome, his green eyes wide, unable to read what was on the paper but getting what Jerome was ********' who?"
Who else? Who else would have used these dates and locations...  

[insidiousEnigma]

That didn't sound very good at all. But what could one expect from Izaya? He'd heard some things from a few of the other members and it seemed that the informant was always causing trouble in some way. "Selling them out?" Zacharie repeated, a little confused. He wasn't a hundred percent sure what that meant, but if it was what he thought it meant...then was Izaya the reason that Jerome's gang....?

What should he do?

Jerome didn't seem to be in any sort of distress but news like that...it certainly wasn't the type of news that left you feeling happy. He tired, briefly, to recall what his books had told him to do in such situations but Jerome was neither crying nor turning to him for any sort of verbal or physical comfort. Something that he was distantly thankful for. While he didn't mind the occasional hug or pat on the head or shoulder....he simply could not handle crying people. ...Not that he thought that Jerome was the crying type or anything. He wasn't entirely sure how Jerome dealt with this sort of thing and he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to find out.

But he stood beside his friend and silently waited, ready and willing to offer up whatever sort of words or comfort would be helpful.  

[Blood_Goddess]

It was Bro who started talking first. going off on whatever poke'language that he had.
For whatever reason, Jerome had not moved, he had not said anything, and had it not been for an increased breath and a shifting in his hands as he turned the book from page to page it would he hard to tell that he was not just a statue.
Bro on the other hand, had something to say, seemingly trying to talk to Jerome, reason with him at first, as if trying to convince him of something. But before long, as Jerome continued to sit there in silence the Gengar began to grow angry, slapping the book in the ex-gangster's hands and snapping barking out whatever he was trying to say his face contorting.

Jerome's expressed moved to something much similar, his head jerking up to glower at the Gengar for a few seconds, silencing both the pokemon and the man's sudden movements.

"I ********' get it, Bro'" He grumbled under his breath to the pokemon, forcing the book closed in his hands and clamping his fingers around it.
It was with a mixture of shock, and a growing unease in his gut that Jerome found himself in. If Izaya wasn't in prison now he would be up on the man so fast to figure this s**t out. But as fate had it, Izaya was locked up in Camphoreon, leaving Jerome to sit and wonder just how far this informer s**t had gone.

After a while Jerome moved his gaze back up to Zacharie, who had been standing there quietly the entire time.
Jerome shook his head curtly "Forget it." He told the kid.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie, contrary to popular belief, actually did not like it when people got angry. He knew that the older man wasn't angry at him, but it made him uncomfortable all the same. Bro's snapping and the generally angry way that he was motioning didn't really help soothe his anxiety either. So, he did what any other mature, seasoned eighteen year old would do...he covered his ears to block it out. He watched the Gengar flail and point and Jerome stand there silently. Though it was pretty obvious that he was tense...like one touch and he'd snap in half.

He flinched at the others sudden movement even though the intimidating glare was directed at him. When it became apparent that Jerome wasn't going to snap at him or anything, he slowly lowered his hands. "I..." He began slowly, "...I am unsure what to do in a situation such as this. But if you need...anything really. Someone to talk to...a hug, perhaps, do not hesitate to ask. I have been told that I am an excellent listener and well...you are my friend so a hug wouldn't be out of the question..." He rambled nervously, picking at the hem of his uniform shirt.