tw mentions of rape

"Ela Bosak?" The receptionist asks. Ela rises to her feet shuffling to the front desk, marble and stiff.

"You'll get room 2F, second floor." She drops a keycard in Ela's hand before waving on Rook. She hoists her bags on her back as she follows the stairs to the second floor. She follows her feet to the room and slides her card. This room is smaller than the one at the headquarters. It's cramped, the bed has barely any room on the sides of it.

Ela grimaces at the sight but drops her bag anyway. It'll do until she can figure herself out. Zofia's already taken the plane trip back to Poland. Ela has no intention of returning anytime soon. She figures she'll find a place in Florida. She has some money for it.

On the other hand, she wonders if she could get back into her father's unit. She could just return to what she was before Rainbow even started. It wouldn't be hard. She doesn't want to, but it makes money and it's stable.

Ela takes a moment to ponder this, juggling it with the fact she wants to explore more than just the military. She has no clue what she wants to do with her life and it bothers her. She's lost. Again. This time, she has no real clue as to where she wants to go. The only thing that's been on her mind is sex, but there's hardly a time when it's not. She doesn't admit to having any addictions, but she has admitted to being a little more connected to sex than she'd like. It gives her comfort. Makes her feel loved.

Ela's unpacking her clothes into the dresser, thinking on what the hell she does now when a door shuts across from her own and she watches Ying head toward the elevators. Ela licks her dry lips, watching Ying walk away, but she immediately shuts the door. She needs to calm the fuck down.

Ela lays back in bed but not before finishing her unpacking. Her mind wandering through the walls of these rooms to Ying. She's talked to her maybe twice before outside of their missions. She knows she's bright and likes working with others but that's about it. Looking at her here, though, long black locks laid down to cascade her ears, neck, and shoulders. Ela can't help but feel a soft nudge of lust pull her across the hall.

But she's only here for a couple of weeks at most. She needs to get back up on her feet, she knows that for sure. She shuts off the lights above her bed and stares out her window at the city outside. It's only 6 in the evening, but the sun is already setting deep into the horizon and exhaustion washes over Ela's body. She rests her head in her pillow and slowly drifts to sleep.

When Ela wakes, it's to a knocking on her door, sharp and firm. She groans as the moonlight streams through her window and her eyes stop at her door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Masaru." Echo. "Come with me, I'm taking a smoke."

"So?"

"So come out."

Ela winces as she sits up in bed, stretching her back and cracking it in the process before opening the door. To her surprise, Echo, Dokkaebi, and Fuze are all standing there. Ela raises her eyebrows at Echo, unsure of what's happening.

"We're smoking, you wanna come?" Echo asks, "It's just us and Hibana. Downstairs."

Ela blinks away the last of her sleep and despite her wanting to return to her slumber, she hasn't gotten an invite out like this in a long while and there is no way she could let herself turn it down.

"Yeah, sure," Ela slides on her shoes and grabs her cigarettes from the bedside table as well as that same lighter, "Any reason why you're inviting me out to smoke?"

"Figured we were at least acquaintances and hanging out with ex-coworkers isn't always a bad thing." Echo replies, "That, and it's a celebration of sorts. For obvious reasons."

Ela nods, spacing out as they reach the elevators and press the button to descend. Dokkaebi stands to the side, glancing across the hall at Fuze then to Ela, who she gives a soft nod of respect. Ela returns it with a weak smile of acknowledgment before they crowd into the elevator. Ela's sinking uncomfortably close to Echo, but she figures it's better than Fuze (who she's had an irrational fear of since she joined and she has no clue why).

The elevator comes to a slow stop and the doors slide open with a clear ding. They're at the base floor of the building with the front desk where Ela retrieved her keys.

Echo leads them down the hall, away from the receptionist, to the very end of the hall. He opens a door on the left with his keycard and welcomes everyone in. The room is quite a bit bigger than Ela's, but it's still slightly cramped with the number of people in it.

Hibana sits on the far bed, a blunt in hand and a hoodie covering most of her hair. Dokkaebi takes a seat next to her, immediately striking up a conversation about some sort of mechanical stuff that Ela has no experience with. Fuze stands against a wall between the beds and Echo sits on the second bed. Ela joins Echo, resting herself on the mattress.

Hibana gives Ela a soft glance as she rests the tip of the blunt in her mouth and lights it. Ela doesn't smoke weed, she's never been offered it before, so she never used it. She's a little anxious, she didn't even know that anyone in the room smoked, either, but she guesses it was the drug tests stopping them. They were annoying as hell and happened at least once every couple of weeks.

"You alright?" Echo asks from her right. Ela's eyes dart to him, to his hair, messy and disorganized, and the jacket sitting comfortably over his figure. She realizes her leg was bouncing and immediately stops.

"Yeah," Ela replies. She doesn't elaborate.

"Have you smoked before? Like this?" Echo asks. The blunt passes from Dokkaebi to Echo and the harsh smell of the weed fills the room. It makes Ela dizzy and the room feel stuffed, like a layer of blankets in 80-degree weather.

"No, not weed," Ela says. She watches as Echo takes two long strokes from the sweet and holds it out for Ela. She takes it gently and scans the room, slightly anxious to be the center of attention, but nobody is watching.

"Take a hit, we have a ton." Echo edges, "It's a celebration."

Ela presses the blunt to her lips and inhales. Immediately, the harsh taste fills her mouth, invades her lungs, and fills her with tension. As she exhales, coughing, it releases. She looks to Echo who's now talking with Dokkaebi about Melusi's sonic defense that she'd used the last time they worked together. Ela doesn't know much about it, she's only heard snippets from their years working together, and Melusi is somewhat new to the team. Or was.

She takes her second drag, this time her head becoming shrouded in emptiness as she passes it on to Fuze who has now pulled out a flask and is taking turns between smoking and drinking.

"How long?" Ela asks.

"Until what?" Hibana replies. Ela blinks up at her.

"How long until it hits?"

"30 minutes. Max." Fuze replies, taking another swig and passing the blunt.

"Don't hit it again, either," Dokkaebi says, "Unless you want to have a bad trip."

Ela nods, watching her hands in her lap. The room is beginning to feel more and more stuffy, but so far nothing has changed. She hears lots of talk about technology, mechanics, and electronics. Everything from Echo's drone and how it works and the software and hardware for it to the fact that all Bandit's been using a car battery for years and that's all he's needed to get through their missions. Echo talks about how he's wanted to get him something better that would be faster, but since the team disbanded, there's not much use anymore.

"Anyways, Bandit was an asshole to me last time I saw him. I think he was high off his ass, though." Echo says.

"When isn't he?" Hibana jokes. Echo offers the blunt to Ela who, after a moment of hesitation, takes it and hits it again.

"Bandit is... a different breed." Fuze sighs, "He doesn't want to admit he has a problem, but he has a big problem."

"What's the problem with Bandit?" Ela asks. She'd only talked to him maybe a dozen times through the time they worked together and each time it was only for work. Nothing else. She didn't even know Bandit got high like that.

A blanket of tension rests over the room, the mood shifts and Ela quickly feels anxiety seep under her skin in a wave of needles. She passes the blunt, desperately trying to get any attention off of her, but that's when Dokkaebi inhales deeply and says, "Rainbow is over, so there isn't much harm in letting it get out. I mean..." She glances at Echo.

"He's a cokehead," Fuze says bluntly.

Ela nods, staring back at her hands. The room has gone too stone-cold sober for her liking, but that's when she looks down at her hands and they're not her own. Her eyes rise back up to Echo and Hibana whose faces look fuzzy and hard to comprehend. It's not scary, but it is intense enough that she has to take a deep breath and grip her legs.

"You alright?" Fuze asks,

"Yeah uh..." Ela trails off, unsure of where the thought is going or if there even is an end to it. The fabric of reality is unraveling and the world is warped. Ela isn't sure what's going on and the jeans wrapped around her legs feel like snakes without teeth, consuming her limbs.

"Ela?" Her glance darts up to meet Echo's who's got a small smirk on his face. She doesn't even realize the blunt is being passed back to her, but it's longer than it was before. It takes a moment to click that this is a new blunt and that it's already her turn in rotation again. Didn't she just pass it?

She takes another puff, figures that if her tolerance is low, she might as well get as fucked up as possible. Hibana raises her eyebrows and shakes her head in disbelief as Ela takes three inhales this time and passes it to Fuze.

There's a chatter coming from somewhere in her right ear, but it takes at least a full minute to realize it's coming from Dokkaebi and Hibana now about Iana's holographic equipment.

"You alright?" Echo asks, resting a hand on Ela's shoulder. It feels like stone.

"Mmm," Ela replies, unsure of how to answer because it's such a weirdly composed question. She wants to get back to bed, honestly. It seems like the nicest place and being somewhere with people she doesn't talk to often is starting to throw her off, "I wanna go to bed."

"Right," Echo stands, "You need help getting back to your room?"

Ela nods, staring up at him. It sounds like such a nice idea but Dokkaebi quickly cuts in.

"I can bring her up." She says, rising to her feet.

"Are you sure? Because-"

"It's fine, Echo. Let me handle it."

Dokkaebi takes Ela's arm as she struggles to stand on her own. The whole world looks so distorted, the floor is miles away, and she keeps drifting to the left. She's pulled out of the room before she can argue or ask for Echo or anything.

"Why can't Echo..." She trails off as they walk slowly down the hall, "Echo..."

Dokkaebi stays silent at first, Ela isn't sure if it's because she doesn't know what she's is asking or because she just doesn't want to answer. It comes clear when they get to the elevators and Dokkaebi says to Ela, "Echo gets girls high enough to the point where they can't say no and then he fucks them. I'm not letting that happen tonight."

Ela blinks back shrouded emotions of confusion and then sprinkles of betrayal. Echo seemed okay.

"Oh..." Ela says as Dokkaebi leads them inside the elevator. She lowers her eyes to her feet, "It wouldn't bother me if he..."

"Still, it's a bad way to ride your trip." Dokkaebi smiles gently. "You should enjoy it while you can. The first trip is always the most intense. Everything after that is just chasing that feeling."

Ela understands. It feels great, she feels a warmth spreading from her chest out to her limbs. The world is different and everything seems bigger than it is. She doesn't know how sex would feel like this and she sure as hell wants to find out eventually, but she does appreciate Dokkaebi's concern for her wellbeing.

They stand in silence for a good couple minutes before the elevator stops at Ela's floor and they leave. Ela's got one arm around Dokkaebi, barely able to walk, but she manages despite almost falling twice.

"Here?" Dokkaebi asks, stopping in front of Ela's door. Ela isn't sure, but she tries the door anyways.

"Keycard. Do you have it?" Dokkaebi asks. Ela blinks away her exhaustion and manages to retrieve the card from her back pocket. Dokkaebi slides it for her and the door does manage to open, thankfully.

"Thank you," Ela says softly, gripping at her pants. The fabric makes her feel sick.

"Do you need anything?"

"No."

"Alright." Dokkaebi looks around for a moment before smiling gently, "Take care. If you need anything, I'll be downstairs."

Ela nods, "Okay."

Dokkaebi gives her one last reassuring look before she shuts the door and the ringing in Ela's ears explode.