I.II The First of Many..

"We-Well.. Sorry for being worried about your well being then ma'am." He stammered, taken aback by the sudden dosage of snark that was being given to him. "I'm not exactly a trained professional. Er- I mean I'm trained but-"

"Yeah. I get it." The woman waved nonchalantly as she made her approach. "Though maybe next time, try cutting back on the cheese~"

The man-made his way towards the attemptee, left hand shielding him against the wind. He already figured that he was talking to a girl the moment he heard her voice; it was soft, yet strained... almost as if it belonged to a small child.

"You should go back inside, you might catch a cold."

The woman simply stood in front of him, wearing a baggy, gray sweater shirt and black shorts. Her posture was distraught, her back length hair fluttering to the howling winds. She looked really tired. He beckoned her to follow him back inside the hotel. Maybe he should-

"I don't think I want to go inside just yet." What? "The rain's still pouring. Perhaps I could keep you company?" What kind of logic was that? The man gaped as the woman sauntered towards the tall 15-meter cell tower situated on the side of the rooftop. "Besides, you shouldn't worry about me mister, you should worry about doing your job."

Don't remind him. "But you're drenched. You should really get inside and take a shower."

They were closer to the tower now, the bright lights of the nearby maintenance shed now illuminating the vicinity. The woman turned and looked him in the eye, dull green orbs twinkling with unbridled mirth. She seemed so full of life. If not for the fact that he could clearly see the deep bags under her eyes and the redness from what he assumed to be from constant crying, he might not even think that she'd be willing to step off the nearby ledge.

"I'm already taking a shower. You should go and take care of what you came here to do, really." She suggested as she stared intently at the top of the tower. "And judging by the lack of lights, I'm assuming we don't have a connection right now?" How would she know that? "So that leaves me with nothing to do even if I go back to my room. Might as well savor the rain."

The man chuckled, lightly amused at her remark as he made his way towards the offending cell tower. He can suppose that it was damaged by the stronger winds of the storm and the signal weakened as a result. He didn't particularly care about faster internet, but the Bossman's pestering him to do it now..

And he liked his current job posting thank you very much!

"Are you sure about that?" A slight chill entered his body as he opened the chain-linked barricade separating the site from the rest of the roof. "It's not even December yet and it's freezing. Let alone being in the cold rain."

"I'm not gonna get any sleep anyway. You expect me to languish in my room with no internet?" Fair point.

"Fine, but you should wear this."

The man took off his raincoat and handed it to the woman. She held her one arm out as if trying to refuse it.

"I don't need it. What's the point when I'm already dripping wet?" She questioned, irritation evident in her voice. "Besides, the rain is much more pleasant to the skin than plastic."

"Oookay then."

He grudgingly put the raincoat back on and proceeded to work on the tower. He started by putting some of the dangling parts back into place, twisting a wire here and bending a wire there, trying to make it all fit their respective functions. With an irate boss back inside and the biting cold outside, he can only grit his teeth as he begrudgingly continued the repair.

"This sucks."

⬛⬛⬛

The soft, soothing impact of the rain on her skin was helping the woman's nerves. She always loved the rain, along with it's dark, dreary atmosphere. On good days, she would have been happily snuggled between the bedsheets in her room. On days like these however... she chuckled at the thought. Not that it mattered to her anymore.

She eyed the ongoing repair with small interest, occasionally getting a glimpse of the man's features. With a fringe of brown hair peeking through the front of his hood, blue eyes shone against the light as he meticulously made his way throughout the tower's inner workings. He's doing fairly well judging by the purpose of his gait. Coupled with the mature look, pronounced jaw, and the five o'clock shadow, he's essentially a model repairman from the few stock photos she saw while browsing aimlessly on the internet.

Heavens no. She was just wondering why he held such a menial job with model grade looks. And he was not her savior.

The woman set her gaze away from the tower and back onto the dulled lights of the cityscape below. Of course. She knew that already. She knew far too well.

⬛⬛⬛

The man was getting rather uncomfortable with the eerie silence between him and his apparent charge, with only the squeaking of soft metal and rain hitting the ground keeping them company. He looked at his companion, noticing the faraway look she sported on her face. Actually, he just realized that he knew next to nothing about the woman in question. In fact, he never even knew her name, conversely, he also never introduced himself. That could be a start.

"The name's Eremes, by the way."

"Ale- Athena..."

"That's a nice name."

"Likewise..."

Silence permeated the rooftop once more. Athena huh. Fairly common in their Greek-speaking country.

Having done all that he could to fix the broken tower, Eremes checked whether or not the blasted thing was actually working now. He eyed to the top of the tower, only to be greeted by the sight of a not blinking light bulb signifying that it's working as intended.

"Of course it's not gonna be that easy."

The repairman sighed as he went to work on the tower's maintenance cabinet, opening the door to see a mess of wires and a diode blinking an ominous red.

That was disconcerting.

He went on with his repairs, all while mulling over the failed attempt at conversation with the newly named Athena. While earlier brimming with admittedly high levels of snark, her responses now were painfully short as opposed to the ones that she said a few minutes ago. She also looked downtrodden, as if she'd absolutely given up. He wanted to help. He really did. But without knowing what the problem was, he had to choose his words carefully lest he offended her or even worse, make her rethink her decision about not jumping to her death. She seemed stable for now and he wants to keep it that way for as long as he can. He noticed that his acquaintance was now staring into the sky with her arms open, embracing the cold hard rain with no signs of shivering.

"Aren't you, you know, cold?"

.....

No response. He fiddles with the cabinet some more as he thought over his next move. Maybe a direct question would work? Nah, even he's not that dense to know that you don't just ask someone why they wanted to kill themselves.

"I'm sure you're curious about my current predicament and quite frankly, so am I."

Athena now had a blank look that he can't quite read. Her eyes were looking outward, seemingly nostalgic in nature. Her lips were curved into a small smirk, maybe she was reminiscing.

"But that's a story someone like you doesn't need to know."

As if reading his mind, Athena answered the one question that was swimming in his mind. He supposed that it was kind of not his place to know her personal problems. He himself has his own secrets to keep, what right does he have to know hers?

The wires in the cabinet sparked and Eremes was suddenly shaken off from his thoughts. The blinking light has gone dark as the water from the rain has made its way into his little project, frying the circuitry and the chances of it being a simple repair job along with it.

"Oh for fuck's sake."