They made their way out of the graveyard toward Aron's car, a beat up old Ford hatchback that he had struggled to help JR get in and out of. The younger waited patiently as Aron opened the passenger door, then after he was helped into the seat, he mumbled a thank you. He hated to use his cousin this way, though after the debacle in the hospital room, he wasn't about to embarrass himself again. Besides, he felt tired. Not so much physically, because he felt like he was well rested despite the lack of sleep the previous night, but just emotionally exhausted. As if no more tears could come even if he tried to make them.

"Are you hungry?" Aron asked as he buckled his own seatbelt, then gave a sharp laugh as he started the engine. "Never mind. I'm an idiot. Um."

"No you're not," JR answered automatically, though even to him the words sounded unconvining. "I'm just..."

"Yeah."

No more words were exchanged, the radio playing quietly the only noise as they drove through the small town, headed back toward St. Louis. It rankled at JR that his parents hadn't been able to be buried in their home town; the cemetery had been wrecked by the meteor shower, and so most people had been buried in one of the nearby towns. He hadn't expected to be able to come out to see them so soon, but Aron hadn't even asked, had simply assumed that it would be the first thing JR would want to do. He had been right, too, though JR was certainly feeling the emotional toll.

To try and distract himself from his thoughts, and maybe get to know his cousin a little more, JR turned toward him. "Thank you for moving out here. You didn't have to."

A small smile pulled up the corner of Aron's mouth, and he glanced at JR before speaking. "Sure I did, you're my baby cousin. I couldn't be here for you if I still lived in LA! Besides, the flights back and forth were ridiculously expensive, it made more sense to just come on out."

JR nodded; it did make sense, but it wasn't something he would have expected his cousin to do for him. "Where do you work?" he asked, partly actually curious, but mostly trying to keep his mind on the path he had decided on. There would be no dwelling on the pain for him. 

Aron turned the radio down a bit lower. "A software manuacturing company. I get to help build the games that people obsess over."

"Nice," JR replied, then hit a snag in his plan. What to say next? He hadn't really made friends when he was a teenager; he had been more into reading and playing music than meeting people, and even though he had spent three out of four of his high school years actually in the classroom, he hadn't made any lasting friends. He was just... the awkward, thin boy. What did one say, 'Hi, I'm JR and I've beaten cancer twice and I'll probably die of it next time, do you want to be friends?' And so he had kept to himself, preferring his adventures with the lead character of his favorite manga, One Piece. At least through that he could become a pirate and have many friends, something that the real JR couldn't do.

"You're in your head again," Aron chided, and JR blinked back to the present. He had apparently been spaced out for the last fifteen miles or so, becuse they were nearing the city once again. "So where were we? Oh yeah. I was a computer engineering major," Aron continued, taking the off ramp of the highway and heading toward the outer sections of the city. "I graduated from UCLA and got the job I have now. It's very un-glamorous, mostly working with coding and formatting, but it's fun. Like a sneak peak of the newest apps that people are going to be going crazy over."

"Uh, cool?" JR knew he didn't sound convincing, but he didn't know what else to say. The amused look Aron gave him was understanding, though, and the elder continued speaking.

"My apartment is pretty little, it's got one bedroom right now, but I can upgrade at the end of the month when my rent is due. So we just gotta hang in there for the time being. And the fridge is usually stocked with food but it's not that crap that you can just take and eat, sorry. I'm a cook and I don't eat that stuff. I can buy some for you, though, for when I'm at work."

JR was nodding even as he finished speaking. "Yeah, that would be nice." He didn't add that he had wanted to learn how to cook; maybe that would come with time. For now, he would try to let that wound scab over before deliberately picking at sore spots. 

Aron kept up a mainly one-sided conversation, talking about someone from his work - JR got the distinct impression that he was just talking so as to keep JR's mind off of anything else. And it worked, allowing him to focus on the mundane story and not go down the dark paths his mind was wanting to take. When they pulled into a red brick apartment complex, Aron parked the car and hurried around to the side to help JR out and into his wheelchair. "I'm so glad that I had the foresight to get an apartment with an elevator," he joked as he pushed JR up the ramp and into the complex.

Aron's home on the fourth floor was what JR would have expected from what