Adam rubbed his arms, trying to warm himself up as mist left him with every breath, the cold torturing his bones with every step.

Why did he always want to meet under the fucking bleachers? The school had a few dozen places warmer and just as inconspicuous. Like the showers, the science quarter, the arts quarter, the greenhouse, etc. But no, let's keep the evil business under a subpar shelter with a floor coated in years of popcorn, nuts, and soda.

Well, at least Mark was already there this time, so Adam wouldn't have to wait in the cold for long.

“Finally.” Mark said, putting his phone away and his hands in his pockets, still leaning against a support bean. “Did you dark queen or whatever not want to let you come?” He rolled his eyes.

“I'm obviously not safe around you.” Adam fed his need for others' distress, hoping to keep him satiated. “So, yeah, she was apprehensive, to say the least.”

“You're as safe around me as you want to be.” He rolled his eyes. “Anyway, here. Catch.”

Mark took a hefty envelope out of his pocket and threw it at him, Adam catching it with one hand.

Adam looked at the envelope and felt it, squeezing in gently trying to assess the filling. Paper? Lots of it. Was it...

“Credits?”

“So, they're wheat bonds, of course they're Credits.” Mark confirmed with an eye roll.

Adam stared at him. 

“...Why?” He questioned, waving the bulging envelope in the air for emphasis.

“Why what?”

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“...Why do you think?” Mark retorted, looking at him as if he was stupid. “Its payment? You did something, you did labor, you're getting paid for it, that's how the economy works under antislavery laws.”

Adam looked at the envelope and back at him.

“...I thought I was being paid with your silence?”

“Initially, yes. But Bones seems to have taken a liking to you, so he told me to give you a cut.” Mark explained. 

“...Bones?”

“...Oh, yes, I never told you his name, did I? Sorry, I must have forgotten among the much more important details. The guy with the mask. His name... is Bones.” Mark said, visibly cringing a bit.

“OK.” Why was he cringing like that, Bones wasn't such a bad code name, especially when the guy walked around with a skull mask. Or... was it embarrassment for forgetting to tell him the guy's name?

They fell silent, Adam examining the envelope closer. It looked a crumb away from bursting. Just how much--

“It's 1000Cr in 20Cr notes.” Mark saved him the accounting. “Bones wanted you to be able to use it without raising suspicion.”

Adam's eyes widened as they focused on the envelope.

...1000Cr? As in... a 1 fo-fo-fooollowed by... t-t-thr-three 0s?

...Holly fucking shiiiiiiiIIIIITHAT WAS SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY! HE COULD GET SO MANY BLANKETS WITH IT! EAT HIS WEIGHT IN EGGS! FINALLY TRY LOBSTER, AND CAVIAR, AND WAGYU WITHOUT BUYERS REMORSE HOLDING HIM BACK! FUCK! HE COULD GO TO SPA AND SOAK IN A BOILING OUT BUBBLE BATH UNTIL HE A TEAR APART WITH A FORK SOFT AND PERMANENTLY STAINED WITH BATH BOMBS WITH THAT--

...

Blood money.

Adam looked at the envelope. At the bulging envelope filled with... blood money.

“Hm, something wrong?” Mark questioned. “Isn't it enough? If so, you'll have to complain to Bones about it. I'm not the one who made the 10/90 split.”

Adam raised his gaze at him. 10/90? That's... Alice and her parents' lives... they're were only wroth a messily--

He threw the envelope at Mark's face, the human shaped pile of rot catching it in one hand without even flinching, looking at him with displeasure he couldn't give two SHITS ABOUT, FUCK HIM, FUCK HIS FAMILY, AND--

“Fuck your blood money.” Adam said, through gritted teeth, his clenched fists trembling.

Mark approached him slowly, Adam bracing himself as he put a heavy hand on his shoulder. He unzipped Adam's puffy jacket and slipped the envelope into one of his inner pockets, a 10th of the drop in a bucket those sick, twisted, greedy fucks saw Alice's and her parents' lives worth as... And closed it back up, its weigh now stuck to the growing one in his chest.

Fu--

*SLAP*

Adam tumbled to the side at the impact--

*SLAP*

And suddenly the world was tumbling to the other side--

Mark grabbed him by the throat, just hard enough to steel him in place, and pulled him close enough to feel his breath, his cold eyes twitching with barely contained rage.

“Why is that, even when I'm just having a normal conversation with you, you go and test me, Adam? Do you enjoy getting punished? Or are you really that obstinate, that we'll be old and gray before I finally manage to beat you into staying in your station?”

Adam lowered his gaze, trying to contain a death glare. Riling him up would just make things worse... He didn't feel like going to work with an aching, freshly realigned jaw, just as the aches throughout his torso had begun to heal...

Mark released him with a little push, Adam backing away while shielding his neck with his hands.

“Anyway, since you're already here, we might as well go over our little hardworking counselor problem.” Mark said, putting on that usual machiavellian smile and-- Chuckling? “Sorry, I just... It was hilarious.” 

“...What was? What I told the counselor?” Was he really still laughing about that? It wasn't that funny... But then again, who knows what a violent psychopath like Mark found funny.

“No, no-- Don't get me wrong, that was also pretty funny, but... I'm actually talking about David.”

Adam's face hardened, a small sink forming in his chest as his friend's puffy and blood-shot eyes flashed into his mind.

“You should have seen him, he was constantly looking at his phone, constantly calling you, waiting for you to answer... He must have checked the whole school at least five times, even had Cassandra check the girls' bathrooms multiple times! And then, he went to the gates to ask about you and when the security guard refused to 'break a student's right to privacy', Cassandra had to hold him back from jumping over the counter and-- Ah, I should've filmed it! It was hilarious! Oh, and by lunchtime? He was glaring at me so hard, it looked like his eyes were about to pop out! He looks almost as funny as you when he's mad.” Mark recounted with a wide, theatrical smile, as if David's pain was the funniest story ever! ...Watching for a reaction. His smile became more genuine as Adam turned his irate gaze away, head lowered, visibly stewing on how much he wanted to pummel him into a pile of chum... “Anyway, I've been thinking, and I came up with a solution.” 

Mark paused, staring at him. 

...

Oh.

“Which is?” Adam said his line.

He smirked, that usual, annoying, malevolent smirk begging to be ripped right off his face…

...

Were those sirens... approaching?