echo.

.

   "You know the drill."

   Jason called out, opening the front door. He walked inside the house and shut the door behind him, slipping his sneakers off and heading up the carpeted stairs in front of the door. He went into his room, shutting the door with his foot and sliding open the window for Mochi to enter.

   Mochi walked around the side of the house, grabbing a pole that ran up all the way to the roof. He stepped against the wall, held the pipe, and began walking up to a then opened window. Mochi climbed in, holding himself up via a bar they put up just outside the window, before dropping into Jason's room. It was a gray-ish blue, with a small bed in the left corner closest to the window. He had a decently sized wooden desk where he kept a slightly low-end laptop and a bunch of tech stuff he'd take from the trash for Mochi to tinker around with, since he was always into technology and mechanics.

   "Did you pick up that bag of old cable thingies I told you about?"

   Jason asked, sitting up on the side of his desk as Mochi sat down at a small desk chair. He was focused on the contents of the old bag he had found, directions given to him from Jason beforehand. The brown eyed boy focused his eyes on Mochi's perplexed face before getting a response.

   "Yeah, I did. Some pretty alright stuff and some wires but most of the shells and buttons are just scrap,"

   Mochi responded, not looking back at Jason as he fiddled around and dismantled the cable boxes.

   "All in all a decent find. I wonder who threw all these away.."

   Jason nodded, slowly panning his head to the right and towards his room. Some of Mochi's stuff was put on shelves and hung up from nails and pins in the walls. All sorts of random gadgets and junk he'd think of, since Mochi didn't have a consistent place to store them.

   "Anything new on the drawing board?"

   "Yeah, I've got some ideas. First, I need my own laptop. I know a guy who knows a guy who can get me hooked up with one, but it's a little sketchy."

   The angst-y-looking boy stated, reclining back in the chair and pushing away from the desk, spinning slightly and looking at an old phone he had acquired.

   "Well, if it's important, I can go and get it for you-"

   Jason offered quietly, quickly checking his phone to see that it had hit 4:36 PM. He hopped off the desk and let himself fall onto his dark gray covered bed. Mochi followed, pushing away the desk chair towards the door and flying to Jason's left. He landed on his side, supported by his arm and thus sitting up a bit. Jason looked up at the reckless boy, his heart skipping a quick beat before regaining it's composure.

   "I've gotta go in about.. an hour or so. Got some work to do on the shipping container, and some supplies to scavenge for my computer,"

   Mochi explained, rolling over Jason with a smile and laying on the opposite side to where he was.

   "I'll see what I can do about getting some stuff for you, I don't want you to be exhausted from scavenging and I certainly don't want you getting in trouble,"

   The concerned Jason stated, a more stern look on his face as he looked into the relaxed Mochi's eyes, a brief bit of a silence before Mochi asked a question.

   "Where'd your parents run off to..?"

   Mochi questioned, his eyebrows furrowing a bit as his eyes focused on the bedroom door. Some noises were heard, including a pair of car doors shutting and some footsteps. The almost emo looking boy leapt up from the bed, throwing his stuff into his bag and rushing to the window. Jason followed him to the window, shaking Mochi's shoulder which prompted the boy to turn to Jason and look at him. The scrappy boy gave the other a quick and punchy kiss, both hands on Jason's cheeks. Mochi then stepped back and hopped out of the window, grabbing the bar and sliding back down to the pipe and eventually back down to the suburban grass. He threw the bag over his shoulders and darted off back to the overpass to cross the city.

   Meanwhile, Jason dusted off his desk and shut his window, leaning onto the wall next to the window and looking at the sun beginning to descend, high above the tall buildings of Los Flamingos. Jason was interrupted by his mother knocking on his door, to which he answered with a quick 'open' and a step to the center of the room.

   "Just checking if you were here, We'll be downstairs if you need us."

   Jason's mother stated exhaustively before closing the door. Once she left, Jason fell back onto his bed, his hair flying onto the blanket behind him and around his hands. He gazed up at the ceiling, thinking about his day so far, and how useless he was in the morning. Jason told himself repeatedly that he let Mochi down, who had spent a long time teaching the meek boy ways to defend himself and stand up for what was right. He spun around roughly, shoving his face into his pillow.