Be careful with broken people, you may cut yourself on the shards of their shattered lives.
The only life that came from the pale, sterile house was the upstairs bedroom. Adagio had confined Sonata’s enthusiasm and antics to the upper floor. As a result, the pale upstairs walls were coated with doodles and glitter. The two youngest sisters shared a room, much to Aria’s misfortune. She kept her part of the room simplistic, and made sure to keep her obnoxious sibling away from any of her possessions. When Sonata’s annoying personality finally got to her sisters, Aria spent most of her time either looking for work, or trying out part time jobs. Adagio didn’t have much to do, seeing as how nobody else was upholding the house, she had decided to become the nanny of the house. Not an easy task, cleaning up after three.
Adagio swung around the bannister to call up at her younger sister. Her shrill voice reverberated off the sterile white walls several times. After the echoing stopped, the house fell back into its lifeless state.
"Sonata!"
"Whaaat?" Sonata peered out of her room, pop music blasting out of her room. She had a pink towel on her head and an unflattering bathrobe on. It was littered with pictures of Tweety Bird, and it went down to her knees.
"I thought I asked you to take out the kitchen trash before you got in the shower!" Adagio asked, obviously aggravated.
"Ugh, but Aria never cleans up after herself! Why don't you make her do any of the work around here?"
"Because, Aria's the only one of us who's been trying to get a job. Now that our pendants are gone, we have to make a living just like all the other losers here."
Sonata groaned and covered her face with her hand.
"Does she know you’re the one taking all of her stuff?" She continued, “I’m tired of taking all of the blame just for you.”
Adagio kept quiet, and avoided eye contact with her younger sister. It was hard to focus with the blasting music in the background.
"I know you're like, trying to help us by selling her gaming stuff, but it's not right."
"I know it's not right!" Adagio screamed, traces of tears in her eyes.
Sonata took a couple steps back into her room. Adagio brushed the hair out of her eyes as she took a deep breath. A single chuckle escaped her before she explained herself.
"We're not going to survive in this world if we don't all pull our own weight. I'll get a job soon, but for right now, Aria's stuff is what’s paying the bills."
Sonata looked down at her sister, and silently retreated back into her room. As soon as the door shut, the music stopped playing throughout the house. Adagio gazed up the stairs, mindlessly staring at the walls.
"You're still taking out the trash, right?" She asked, sarcastically.
Someone knocked at the door, and Adagio turned around and started walking towards the front room. She stood on her tiptoes to look out the peephole. Standing right outside, just feet away from her was the repairman. Adagio groaned upon seeing him. He was the kind of guy who would share famous quotes and proverbs, as if his words could somehow make their day better. To make matters worse, he hadn’t left once they lost their powers. It was almost as if he thought they were friends.
She unlocked the door as slowly as she possible could, and faked a bright smile when he became visible.
"Oh, hi! Jason, was it?"
He chuckled, "Uhh... No. You’re nowhere near, actually."
Opening the door had let golden sunlight and fresh pine air fill the bland house. The buzz of city life, dogs barking in the distance, cars going by, people chattering. He didn’t say anything after that, and Adagio was biting her lip, looking into the distance. After what seemed like an eternity, he took a deep breath and raised up his hand to gesture.
"Are you going to... Y'know. Invite me in or something?"
"Oh, sure. You know I..." Adagio faked another laugh, "enjoy your company."
The repairman smiled whenever she talked. "I'm glad to hear it. It'd be a shame if I was coming over for nothing, am I right?" His energy fell flat towards the end of the sentence.
He closed the door behind him, following Adagio as she escorted him to their dining room for their bi-weekly tea. While Adagio was in charge of entertaining the idea that he was welcome here, Aria and Sonata sometimes helped her get a break from the annoying invader. Even though at some times it was grossly apparently they didn't want him there, he still tried his best to not only stay, but to fit in.
The repairman broke the silence as they continued to walk. “So, how’s your day been so far?”
“Hmm, not bad. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately, you know?” Adagio lied through her teeth.
Usually people would say they’re sorry, or ask what happened to make them feel so bad. This wasn’t the case for the repairman.
“Don’t worry. The darkest days call for the brightest of smiles.”
It was one thing to feel cold on the outside, but feeling cold on the inside was a whole other matter. No jackets could save Adagio as she approached her sixth hour standing outside in the freezing rain with nowhere to go. All the comfortable memories of living in Equestria, her family, they all went out the window. A flickering streetlight was her only source of warmth while the sun was blocked out. As if to torture herself, she had been standing outside her former house the whole time.
Aria and Sonata were gone. It took a couple of weeks, but Sonata had finally told Aria the truth. She could barely stand to look at either of them. How could anyone treat their own family like this? She packed her bag within the hour and ran away. Of course, Sonata begged to come along. Her cries finally broke Aria, and they left together. Now Adagio was left all alone with all the task of taking care of the house and paying for it. It wasn’t long before she lost everything.
The rain was the perfect disguise for her tears. Part of her wanted to be left alone, but another part begged to be noticed. All she ever wanted was to be noticed, to be appreciated. Now there wasn't a single person that cared about her. She might as well be dead. The rain had stolen her heart along with her happiness. Fierce wind blew through her frizzy hair, whispering the words her broken sister had told her before she left. The bus stop down the street looked like a good place to find shelter from the rain and go to sleep, but it’d be a new personal low if she gave in to the temptation.
Hours passed. Pedestrians walked by and talked behind her back, cars slowed down to take pity on her. Now completely crushed, she slid down to the ground, not caring about the wet concrete. She was already soaked. Adagio put her head in between her knees, and bawled louder than she ever had allowed herself to before. It took a minute before she realized that the rain had stopped hitting her, yet it could still be heard pattering off of the asphalt. The sobbing Adagio Dazzle looked up to see her repairman holding a ridiculous white and blue-polka dot umbrella above her. He was always in the same clothes, long sleeve flannel shirts and jeans.
She sniffled and tried to pay no attention to him, putting her head back between her legs as she curled up against the house’s fence. Adagio struggled to speak, but she knew if she didn't, they'd sit in awkward silence for the rest of eternity.
"What are you doing here?" She quivered, the rain about to take her breath.
"It's Tuesday. We have tea every Tuesday, remember?"
Adagio scoffed and smiled as she continued to weep.
"Doesn't something look off here?" She asked, astounded.
The repairman looked at her house, which had a "For Rent" sign in the middle of the lawn. His eyebrows raised when he figured out just how severe the situation was. Not caring about the wet concrete either, he sat down next to her, holding the umbrella above both of them.
"I just figured you just liked the rain as much as I did."
She laughed at his innocence. At his ignorance.
"You don't understand. I'm broke, I have nowhere to go. No one to--" Adagio choked up, "No one who likes me."
He let her continue to pour her heart out to him. When her sobs became more quiet, he placed a hand on her shoulder and beamed when she turned her attention.
"I think for once, we can have tea at my place."
Adagio looked up at him and sniffled.
“O-Okay.”
His studio apartment was much more cluttered and dimly lit than Adagio's former house. Furniture was scattered around haphazardly, and stacks of books gave a somewhat cozy feeling to the place. A single radio was playing some kind of talk show in the corner of his room, and the room never fell silent.
"What did you say your name was, again?" Adagio asked, feeling awkward being in a completely foreign situation knowing next to nothing about the person who invited her.
"It's apparently a name not worth knowing, seeing as how you forgot it."
He spoke without any hatred or impurity in his voice. Somehow that made her feel more guilty than if he had been mad.
"So, are you still in school?" Adagio asked, noticing a pile of math books next to the recliner faced towards the miniscule television.
“Nah. But just ‘cause I’m not in school doesn’t mean I can’t learn. You like learning, right?"
Adagio chuckled. "Not really. Math’s not going to help me get… where I want to go."
She reached around her neck, expecting to feel her pendent, but grasped at nothingness. It was difficult to accept that things would never be the same again. The repairman giddily bounced out of the small closet he called a kitchen, carrying four cups of tea. His dextrous handiwork was useful when carrying two cups in each hand.
"Hot or cold?" He inquired, giving Adagio a smile.
"Hot, please." She didn’t respond to the smile.
He slid the cup across the small table towards her, to which Adagio picked up the warm cup and quickly drank it all in three gulps. She stared down her empty cup, and her hands began to shake. Everywhere she looked, there was something that reminded her of what she had done.
"I don't know what to do next."
"It may be hard to believe, but I've been where you are."
Adagio quivered for another reason now. There was no way this puerile, lowlife repairman could possible understand what she was going through.
After some silence, he resumed. "I've had... my dreams shattered. The people I've called my friends left... It was... Impossible for me to live the life I once lived. Everything changed in just a matter of minutes."
Now the repairman was looking down at his still-full cup. The talk show continued playing in the background.
"And there was no going back. I was horrified." He continued.
Looking at him feel sorry for himself, Adagio realized that there was a part of him that was human, and maybe he wasn’t always the goody-two-shoes he made himself out to be. No, deep down he was terrified. Even deeper down, he was furious. She could see his entire life flash through his face.
"What happened?" She asked.
Still staring at his glass,, the repairman’s eyebrows scrunched up.
"Nothing nearly as bad as what just happened to you."
The two of them reclined in their seats, listening to the ambience playing on the radio. They were quiet for hours, looking around the room, sometimes at each other. Sometimes a cheesy joke on the talk show made them laugh. Adagio wanted to feel something towards the person who helped her out when she hit rock bottom, but she felt something way different. It was almost like a parental relationship. He had been trying to teach her life lessons through his nonsensical stories, and she never bothered to listen. She never wanted to listen, until now.
Adagio reminisced over the stories he told twice every week. Most of it was blurry, but some of it was transparently clear. She glanced back at him when she noticed he was staring.
"I'll let you stay here."
She had to have been hearing things, there was no way that some stranger was giving her a second chance. The look of astonishment on her face just fueled the repairman’s joy, and he grinned from ear to ear.
"W-Why are you helping me out like this?" She stammered.
The repairman took in a large breath and exhaled slowly, savoring the humid air of his leaking apartment.
"Because those who know how it feels to be helpless, those are the people who help."
He silently got up from his chair and took her empty teacup back into his kitchen, and slowly filled it back up.
While he was away, Adagio looked around the room at the disorganization that plagued the small apartment. There had to have been a lifetime worth of information in the notebooks he kept by every chair, tons of information in all the books he kept around the place. Hearing his voice echo about how he used to be helpless, Adagio wondered just how helpless he had to have been to be this helpful.
