He watched the small white fingers tie the knot around his neck with a flow he always admired. She moved like the night wind. When she was done he looked down and smiled up. Expertly done of course and exactly the right one, as it sat under his chin and on the light blue shirt. Siya had many talents. With a sharp lift of his chin he looked to Atticus and then back to Siya, “Princess, have you found your dragon?” He smiled right after and knew he should not wait for any response. The Max in him liked to tease but the Thad wanted to listen more. She said things he wasn’t sure he understood.

“What do you mean not there?” He twisted just a bit to look back over his shoulder at Veti as she was, smoking a cigar? Ha. He watched the smoke blow from her lips and he let himself thrill in the idea he knew them, or wanted them, or anything about them, those lips. He watched and when Veti put the cigar down he spun back to Siya and Atticus. “You’re here.” 

In that moment he realized he had no idea of the time frame or the date or even the reason they were back in the same building he died in. How long? He looked to Siya and his eyes asked the question before he even got it out. “Hard? You mean you guys haven’t just been playing truth or dare or pillow games while I was dead?” 

He grinned to Atticus. He looked for a change in him and although he couldn’t put his finger on it, not that he would want to, he did for the first time think that maybe time had past. How long? 

“I don’t know what you mean. What happened that was hard? And why would Veti not come back?” Thad wanted to know how long but that question just didn't seem to come. It didn’t really matter. He thought the whole gang would go on pretty easy without him. He wasn’t a major player even in Siya and Veti’s affections really. Or so he thought. They were the closest he was to anyone but still, he was gone a bit, how hard would that really be? Oh he wanted them to miss him, that was a for sure. But they had each other. They had the rest of this freaky gang. They went to clubs and did stuff. How hard?

Thad paused. Siya said she wasn’t there. Veti wasn’t right by her best friends side. Had something happened? No, he couldn’t believe anything would separate them for long. 

He decided to look to the boss man, the big guns, the one in charge of this. “Alright so it’s in your court, big guy.” He had been dead. He wasn’t so intimidated by the powerful anymore. “What the fuck is going on?”