Ugh. Durarara has become way too addicting for it to be good for me. -_-'
Alright, so this is yet another Durarara story of mine… just a little something for the sole purpose of my two OC's and Iza-Kun, because as much of a little creeper he is, I can't help but love him. This story will probably only have a few chapters to it… like ten to twenty, but even so, it'll be filled with four cups of angst, a tablespoon of romance, a dash of friendship, and a pinch of insanity to it.
Anyhow, I was having some major issues with deciding if I should put this up yet or not, but whatever. I'll probably just edit and re-post this or something some time. And this is my first time trying out the First Person Omniscient Point of View, so it might not be that good. Just… read and tell me what you think, I guess.
And with this being said, I bring you my new story!
The Last Noel Productions Presents:
Sticks and Stones
By: Noel14
Disclaimer: Durarara is, in every way, shape, and form, a hundred percent not mine. I only own the Hasegawa family and the Yezhov family.
Chapter 1: Poke… Poke… Poke…
"Isn't it beautiful, Ninka?"
Ninka closed her eyes and stood out in the rain, spreading her arms out wide and spinning around both gleefully and gracefully. Her palms were open and facing out towards the sky, as if trying to catch the drops and a large grin had spread over her face.
"I'm singing in the rain~" She sang loudly and very out-of-tune to the tight crowd of Ikebukuro pedestrians that all gave her odd looks, "Just singing in the rain~" Her voice bellowed out into the city, but was easily lost in the large sea of people and voices that moved around her.
It was just another day. Just another day out in the streets where she thoroughly disturbed the citizens of her beloved city with her antics and enjoyed every second of it. The inquisitive and weary stares she received from the people around her thrilled her and made her so excited and happy.
So many people! So many people! So many people! So many people!
"Aren't they great?" A little voice whispered to her from the inside of her mind. Ninka bobbed her head up in down with a large smile on her face as if she was answering this small little voice. "So go out and tell the world!"
"Oh, I'm so happy!" Ninka finally finished spinning and wrapped her arms around herself in a tight embrace, smile widening. "I Love you!" She opened her eyes, revealing light yellow irises and shouted out to the now slightly apprehensive people around her, who took notice that she carried a heavy Russian accent. "I love you all!" She unraveled herself once more and reached out to some of the people surrounding her, as if trying to hug them. "I love you all so much!" Once it appeared that nobody wanted to take her token of love and appreciation, she began spinning with her eyes closed once again. "You all make me so happy! So happy! So happy! So happy! So-"
"Why do we make you so happy Annie-Chan?" (1*)
"It's him..."
The possibly mentally disturbed girl spun around, pale yellow eyes meeting bright red ones and her smile widened even more than before. "Oh, Iza-Kun! It's great to see you again!" She quickly rushed up to the boy, whom had a wide smirk on his face, and began walking along beside him. "It feels like forever since we got to see you last!"
"Oh, so very long..."
The red eyed boy snickered at this, paying no attention to the plural tense that she used when describing herself. "It's only been a day, Annie-Chan!" He told her in an amused tone. "I saw you around this time yesterday, you know."
"Yes, of course I know," she said, suddenly lunging at him and hugging his arm, leaning her head into his shoulder. Izaya gave little notice of this, just gently shrugged her off with a smirk. He'd learned long ago that she was simply a very touchy person, quite literally, and simple methods were best to get her off. "We just get a little lonely without you, Iza-Kun. Home school is sooo~ boring and there's nobody there but us, so I can't even doze off or daydream without being caught!" He cheeks puffed out like a five-year-old child's. "It's no fair!" She kicked at a rock with her foot when, suddenly her face lit up with an idea and her trademark grin was back in place. "Oh, I've got an idea, Iza-Kun!"
Izaya barely even gave her a sideways glance, but his smirk was still in place. "And what would that be, Annie-Chan?"
"You should stop working all the time and be my new teacher! You're smart, right? And then we won't have to be so bored all the time!"
Izaya chuckled to himself and turned to the childish teen slightly to ruffle the top of her head of black hair. "You know I'd love to take you up on that offer, Annie-Chan, but I've got work to do, you know? Earn some money?" His lips twitched upwards slightly as he added onto it. "Plus, I need some way to keep an eye on my humans, ne?" He looked at Ninka out of the corner of his eyes, but they kept darting off somewhere else into the crowd every now and then.
Ninka's eyes instantly narrowed at this comment and something along the lines of anger and annoyance bubbled up in her stomach.
"Not again..."
"You're not spying on another one of those suicidal girls right now, are you?"
Izaya stuck his hands into the pockets of his rather furry and warm-looking jacket and closed his eyes for a moment, grinning at her. "And what if I am, Ninka-Chan?" The use of her actual name set Ninka off slightly, but she wasn't about to back down. "Jealous that it's not you I initially here came to see?" His eyes opened again to look at her face. The girl's hands were now on her hips and a frown was embedded on her lips.
"Well, of course I am! We all are!" She told him in an agitated tone, pointing at herself. "We hate it when you pay more attention to those other girls that don't even want to keep living than you do to me!"
"You don't really need them, do you, Izaya?"
"Yes, pay more attention to Ninka, Izaya!"
Izaya laughed loudly at this. "But I'm not even sure if this one's suicidal yet!"
In a flash, a hand gun was slung out of the girl's small purse and she was glaring at him. "Well, if she doesn't want to die, then I could always make it happen." Her words were deathly serious and practically dripping with venom. "Just tell me which one it is."
"Yes, kill her..." Another voice spoke to her in a hushed tone. "Kill her... Kill her... Kill her..."
Red eyes rolled and Izaya sighed. "Oh, Annie-Chan," he groaned, making her feel slightly better with the use of his nickname for her, "you're just as hasty and possessive as ever. Did it ever occur to you that I might want a few different tools than you at my disposal? And so many interesting things could happen with this one! Plus," his eyes rolled back over to Ninka, "there's a big enough chance that someone else might end up killing her at some point, anyways."
Ninka didn't even bother to object to the "tool" comment, mainly because she found it to be true; for as long as she could remember, she was nothing but another tool ready at his hands. Weapon, shield, toy, you name it; she was there for whatever purposes he needed. So instead, she decided to think carefully about what he had said. Well, if there was a chance she might die, then maybe she could let this girl off the hook…
"Besides, Ninka-Chan, you know that you're the only one stupid enough to fall in love with someone like me."
…
"Fair enough point," the gun was back in the pocket of Ninka's hoodie in less than a second. "It was a bluff, anyway," she shrugged. "Mama confiscated all of my bullets last night." She grinned at him; now looking like the bubbly, hyperactive person she was only a few minutes ago. "Well, we better leave you to your stalking, then, Iza-Kun! See you tomorrow?"
Izaya grinned at the strange girl. "Yep, see you tomorrow, Annie-Chan!"
"Good-bye, Izaya..."
He watched amusedly as she began to skip back off to her usually spot where she would pester anyone that would pass by with her antics, before she paused after a moment. She turned back to him and calls out over her soulder. "Oh, and Iza-Kun, Mana-Chan says 'Bye!'"
"Well, then," Izaya called back to the young girl, "tell Mana-Chan that I say 'bye,' too!"
She nodded, turning back again and her long black hair bobbed slightly as she started to skip along the streets once more. After a few moments, she disappeared into the crowd.
Smirking, Izaya looked back in the other direction. The head of wavy hair he had been following earlier made the usual right turn into the usual alleyway. Only a little ways off behind the girl, an auburn haired boy followed.
Izaya's smirk only widened.
"Well, Hasegawa Yuzuki, let's see how your life turns out today."
"I hate you so much."
Blank brown eyes stared at the black pavement with little to no movement. Sitting there. Watching.
The rain was pouring down in the busy streets of Ikebukuro, and most people had were taking cover either under the protection of buildings or their umbrellas, shuffling around the streets to get to work or home, possibly to a date they had set up with a special someone, or maybe just an outing with friends. People had places to go, people to meet, and that's the reason they were out there, right? People needed to company of others. People needed someone else in their life to share secrets with, or talk with every once in a while, because this was in human nature. Most humans needed others to survive.
But not Hasegawa Yuzuki.
She didn't feel the need for company like so many others did, didn't crave for attention, much unlike her little sister, whom loved to go for as many challenges as possible, didn't want to go out to see the world as her younger brother did. She just wanted to sit. Listen to music. Calm her nerves. That's all she wanted out of life: just music. Plain and simple.
She'd sit out in the pouring rain all by herself to drown out all other distractions if she had to, as she is now. And, at times, she sits out there for hours and hours on end, up until the Ikebukuro streets calm to indicate the night hours. A big alarm clock. That's mostly what she saw the city as.
Just one big alarm clock.
And a dump. That, too.
Often, she'd wonder to herself why she stayed in the city, since she hated it so much, hated all the garbage those idiots throw around the streets like they had the right to do so, hated the people that threw the garbage, hated even the people that didn't litter. It didn't matter who they were: humans were idiots. Humans were corrupt. She hated humans. And so humans learned to hate her back
Everyone is after something, she had convinced herself, and they just don't know when to stop going after it.
But she's not human, Yuzuki kept telling herself. She had revolutionized past the form of human long ago. She wasn't greedy or a back-stabbing liar like she convinced herself that everyone else was. No, she wasn't human.
But, then, what was she?
"Why won't you directly talk to anybody? It's annoying as hell."
Sticks and stones, she thought. Sticks and stones…
"No answer?" The boy standing in front of her sneered, as if the mere sight of her disgusted him to no end. "You really piss me off, Hasegawa. You know that?"
Yuzuki had many people that followed her to her spot behind an old garbage can out in an alleyway after school, lots of people keen on attacking her, sometimes verbally, sometimes physically. This boy was a frequent visitor, and every time he started yelling at her, it would be one-sided, for she would only sit there, headphones stuck in her ears and staring at the concrete just behind his leg as if she might die if she didn't. In her mind she would be repeating one line over and over again over the blaring music, and sometimes utter it out loud, barely a whisper, when things got bad enough.
"You're just plain pathetic." The boy crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes, nose scrunched up in distaste. He couldn't bear to look at her anymore. "I don't even know why you bother at this point. Let's face it, you have no friends, your grades are the worst in class, and I'll bet that even your family hates you by now."
"Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones…"
"Yes, yes," the boy grimaced and his shoulders slumped slightly. "I get it, Hasegawa; everyone gets it! You and your damn sticks and stones!" He shouted the last part at her. "What the hell is wrong with you?" It wasn't a question, but a demanding statement, one that was accompanied by a raised fist that soon found itself being thrown in her direction.
He had snapped again.
She had dozed off.
And when Yuzuki awoke, it had to be around ten O'clock at night, judging on the slowly dying night life and the streets, which were now brightly lit by lamps and neon signs. From what she could see and hear, it was still raining, and the water level had risen ever so slightly, as the alley she resided in was at the bottom of a hill.
"Ah," she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, blinking slowly. "The siblings will be worried." Her mind was slowly processing things as she stood up from the ground, wiping at a banana peel that had somehow managed to find its way on her skirt, and grabbed her backpack and walked steadily out of the alley, headphones still over her ears, with a slight drunken-like swing to her pace since her beating from a few hours ago still had her feeling off.
The walk back to her house would take only half an hour, so she'd be tired and soaked by the time she got home, but the thought of some adequate rest sounded nice enough to her. Hopefully Fumio wouldn't be too angry for coming home so late so that she could get to sleep more quickly. Things would be routine, Yuzuki told herself. Nothing would change. She would still come home late. She would still only eat a small, quick dinner. She would still have to cover up her bruises. She would have to leave the apartment for the torture called school in the morning, had it not been a Friday. But since it was a Friday, she'd get to sleep in and then get ready for the other tortures that her family decided to put her through called group therapy. It would all be the exact same.
But, once she made a turn to leave the alley, she was greeted by a new sight not even a foot away from her face.
It was a familiar person, but not one the people that usually came over to make her life a personal hell through abuse and not-so-friendly words. But this person was familiar, that was for sure. The fur-trimmed coat, tousled black hair, and crimson eyes easily identified him as the idiot that frequently got into fights with a blonde brute that had monstrous strength. Not that she knew what his name was- she never took the time to learn, unlike about ninety-nine percent of the rest of the inhabitants of this city.
His face was curled up into a devious smile etched on his face. "Hello, there."
She stared at him for a moment, just blinking at his face, before quickly turning on her heel and walking in the opposite direction, ignoring the boy. She didn't care if she had to take the long way back home and ended up taking a full hour; she had a feeling that this boy was more trouble than he was worth.
"Hey~!" The boy was whining now and soon she heard footsteps coming up from behind her. Soon enough, she found him in front of her, walking backwards so that she could continue on her path but so that he could still face her while speaking. "You know, it's very rude to ignore someone when they're speaking to you, Yuzu-Chan."
She stopped walking and simply stared at him blankly, two things on her mind.
One: How did he know her name?
Two: Why did he call her by the nickname that only the siblings and parents ever bothered to give her?
Her silence must have prompted him to speak some more, because that's what he did, although it had absolutely no relevance to what she had been wanting him to say in the first place. "It's not very safe for a young lady to walk out on the streets at this time of night, especially since you already look so beat up, Yuzu-Chan," again with that nickname. Yuzuki found that she was ever so slightly annoyed but tried her best to ignore it. "I just hope that you're grateful enough that I dropped by and thought that I might want to escort you home." He then suddenly looked around, as if just realizing the where they were. "Which, by the way," he drawled out in an amused voice, "you seem to have forgotten the location of." He gave the girl a cheeky smile before grabbing her arm and pulling her in the opposite direction. "Your house is this way, Yuzu-Chan! How silly of you!"
She tore her arm from his grip and let a few words slip from her mouth, finally having it with this boy who seemed to know way too much of her personal information for her comfort. "You a stalker?"
Not that she would have cared if she had a stalker in the least if she actually lived alone. She may have hated humans, but out of all humans, her siblings were the only ones she was fond of, probably because she was raised with them and their care. And, so, if she had a stalker, that technically meant that he knew where her siblings lived, putting them in danger as well. And she wouldn't tolerate that.
"And so she speaks!" The black haired boy announced, clapping his hands together as if this was the most interesting part of his day so far. "You know, Hasegawa Yuzuki," he said her real name with a hint of scorn to it that would make any normal person cringe, "you have quite the reputation for silence back at school; in fact, lots of your peers have quite some crazy theories about you and your almost-muteness, actually. Usually you'll just ignore people, even when provoked, and just listen to your music. Honestly, it's a bit of a let-down that you actually spoke to me, Yuzu-Chan."
She didn't bother to acknowledge the fact that he'd actually did his fair share of digging around for her reputation at school. Nor did she bother to even think about how she'd only spoken about three words to him in total. It wasn't worth it. So instead, she stared at him blankly, the picture of indifference and apathy that she often wore. She wouldn't acknowledge him unless he answered her. All that she could do while waiting for him to respond properly was listen to the music playing through her mind.
"Now what's that look for, Yuzu-Chan?" The boy pouted, as if upset by her response, or lack thereof, to his information, but soon recovered from it. "Oh, yes! Your question!" He smirked at her and bowed, his head going down lower than necessary, with a large grin on his face. "My name is Orihara Izaya, but you can simply call me Iza-Kun if you want." As if, she thought to herself blearily, and then moved on to the thought of what a strange name he had. Orihara Izaya. It seemed to suit him rather well, actually; it was just as strange as he was. "And as for why I know where you live, I like to keep tabs on most of the people in Ikebukuro, which, yes, includes even the quiet and elusive ones such as yourself. So you can decide for yourself whether you would count that as stalking or not." Yes, it does. But her thought were interrupted when he waggled a finger in front of her face with a teasing smirk tugging on his lips. "And, I happen to know much more than just your name and where you live."
Oh dear Kami-Sama, help us all.
She'd had enough of this boy. Still holding a face as void of emotion that she could handle without showing her pure disgust towards Orihara, she pushed him out of her way and went along the sidewalk, deciding to go the quickest way home. He couldn't break into her house without permission or someone, be it her or her older brother, would call the cops for breaking and entering. And, who knows, she wouldn't put it past herself to charge him for stalking as well.
"Ah, Yuzu-Chan!" Orihara whined as he jogged a bit to catch up to her. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings! All I wanted to do was walk you home because there are so many bad people out on the streets at this time of night." The great insincerity of his words already had Yuzuki thinking the three words she normally only spoke to calm herself.
Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones…
"And I wanted to ask you a few questions as well," Orihara continued, walking along with her when she didn't reply to him. She didn't acknowledge him, which amused the teenager.
She was different, with her continuously ignoring him to the best of her abilities and using as little words as possible. In all truthfulness, she was the very opposite of one his former favorites, Ninka Yezhov, whom he very quickly found thrived off of the affection and attention of others, himself specifically for odd reasons. And yet, he thought, they were possibly similar in a one way, although he couldn't say for sure whether they had this fact in common.
The smile that was on his lips curled even father and, taking her silence as a yes, he continued on. "Well, first of all, Yuzu-Chan, why are you so shy?"
Shy? Not exactly the best adjective that could be used to describe her. More like anti-social. Or withdrawn. Then again, he could also use the words quiet, or reserved to describe her, as well. She could only guess that his word choice was meant to make her more on edge around him.
"I mean, you must have friends of some sort, right?"
Poke…
She tried to ignore him to the best of her abilities, but his voice still wormed its way into her head for some reason. Why did she have no friends? Was it really because everyone else was human, as she thought, or something else?
Sticks and stones…
"Here's another one," another spine-chilling smirk was sent her way. "I mean no disrespect or anything, but why won't you speak, either? You do have a head to speak with, right? So why not use it?"
Poke…
Yuzuki honestly didn't know why he was asking questions as stupid as these. Did she need a reason to be quiet? Couldn't he just take it that she wouldn't talk to him and leave it at that?
Sticks and stones…
His lips only curled up even farther at her silence, as if this was amusing to him. He faked a sigh and went on speaking. "I know that no matter what, you're probably not going to answer me… but I think it'd be fair to warn you: I've been watching you for a few days now, Yuzu-Chan," he said, sighing and craning his neck back to look at the cloudy city sky, not bothering to look at her face. He knew that she had the same, apathetic look etched across her features. "And I'm rather shocked that you always go back there. Don't you ever think that maybe you should just go home, rather than stay out in the open for those bullies to catch you?"
Poke…
It was so strange. Other people never made her think like she was at that moment. Normally, the others were so easy to ignore so that she could just get on with her life, but Orihara's words churned over and over again inside her head. It was as if this boy knew how stir the thoughts within her head, exactly how to get the gears going. This thought was unsettling.
Sticks and stones…
Her silence only excited Orihara even more, for he then walked ahead and stood in front of her, causing her to bump into him, her forehead bumping into his. Startled at the close proximity, she backed up and looked at him with a startled expression she hadn't worn in a long time. The boy's grin widened more. She hadn't even thought that was possible, given how wide his smile already was. "And, more importantly, why do you let them beat you up?"
Poke…
"Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones…"
"Hm?" Izaya tilted his head with a quizzical, yet still amused look on his face, and turned his ear in Yuzuki's direction. She still had her earphones on, but her eyes were now wide and she was staring at the ground beneath her feet, the rain now sliding off of her short waves of black hair. Face covered in black bruises. Hands balled into fists. Legs quivering.
She looked rather pathetic, really.
He almost laughed as he finished his next sentence. "What did you say, Yuzu-Chan? You're speaking so quietly I can hardly hear you!"
Poke…
Humans, he thought, they're so much fun!
"Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones…"
She said the words with an odd rhythm to them, almost as if they made up some sort of chant, but then he noticed that the pitch in her voice changed just barely as she kept repeating these words.
It was almost as if she was reciting a poem or something.
He leaned forward and his eyes narrowed slightly, but his wide grin stayed in place. "Oh?" He asked. "Sticks and stones, you say? What about them?"
Poke…
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words will never hurt me."
And Izaya actually did laugh at this. His loud, boisterous voice earned a few glares from the pedestrians surrounding him, but he ignored them, instead settling to revel in the moment, in the ignorance of this young girl and the irony that this quote carried with it.
Oh, how amusing it is!
Yuzuki's head had snapped up, surprised and, honestly, a little startled by his sudden outburst. She watched him with wide eyes as he shook, obviously trying to stop laughing but unable to. His reaction to her favorite quote was beyond confusing to her.
"I'm so sorry, Yuzu-Chan," Izaya bellowed out between his laughs, holding his stomach with one hand and covering his mouth with the other. "It's just… so funny!"
She tilted her head to the side, same apathetic yet hostile look on her face. The question she wanted to ask was clear on her face.
What's so funny?
"And now you want clarification, am I right?" Izaya finally stopped laughing and straightened up, although he looked like he could burst out into a fit of giggles again any moment. This slightly annoyed Yuzuki, whom didn't even want to be around this boy in the first place since he seemed like the most twisted human she had met yet. She didn't want this sick human sin to spread, leak on to her like a contagious disease. She just wanted to get away from this boy as soon as she could.
But Izaya wanted to be around her for the very same reason, even if it may have been in a different sense. She was by far the most twisted human he'd met yet, and he wanted to see just how much more he could twist her before she broke in half. He'd already done his fair share of research, knew the most prominent causes of what made her the person she was, and yet there was so much more to learn before he could do anything too drastic.
He still had some more poking a prodding to do, but for the most part, he was done for today. He had found out more about Yuzuki and gotten more information about her than he had initially expected, but it wasn't like he was complaining or anything.
She was so easy to read, he told himself, and yet there were still so many little puzzle pieces missing. Why didn't she just kill herself, if she hated this place so much? And why did she go to that same spot every day, and why did she never fight back, just sit there and let herself be pummeled to the point where she could barely walk even after a few hours or rest? There were so many thoughts, so many questions running through his head at the moment that the prospect of solving this mystery excited Izaya to no end.
But he did learn one thing, and that was that words hurt her a lot more than she'd like to admit. Thoughts and emotions were her one major weakness and that was why she tried to block them out with her music and ear phones. And he now knew that she never spoke to anyone because she thought it would make her invisible, make it so that no one would bother her.
A smirk spread over his face and he was very tempted to laugh again, but bit it back to the best of his abilities. "I don't think I'm going to tell you what's so funny just yet." She glared at him and pushed past the smiling crimson-eyed boy, looking like a mix between a hateful cat and a lost puppy. Izaya shrugged his shoulders, but followed after her nonetheless, beginning to speak aimlessly with her once more, but she only stared at the road in front of her carefully, trying to ignore him.
Hasegawa Yuzuki really didn't want to let humans and their harsh words into her life.
And letting Orihara Izaya know this would be her biggest downfall.
The door creaked noisily behind Yuzuki as she stepped from the outside world into the family's apartment. Her hair and clothes were dripping wet and from outside, Orihara, also completely soaked, was waving good-bye. She quickly slammed the door in his face and hoped he would go away.
"Who was that you were with?"
She wasn't too surprised to see her older sibling, Fumio, sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other and a newspaper in hand. On the stand next to him was a lamp, lighting the room he resided in just barely enough for her to see the look of worry and frustration etched across his face.
She looked towards the floor and slipped off her shoes, placing them neatly by the door. She shrugged her shoulders, as if to say, 'I don't know.'
It didn't really look to her as if Fumio bought it, since his dark brown eyes narrowed. "It wasn't a boyfriend, was it?" The tone in his voice was that of suspicion, as if he actually believed that she was the type of person to go snooping around with a boy at night.
"Since when did I ever have any regular friends?" She asked smoothly, now loosening the tight bow that came around the neck of her uniform.
As far as the family knew, she didn't have any friends or people that she talked with after school. All they knew was that she went out after school and didn't come back until late at night. For all they knew, she could be out at the library studying the whole time or vandalizing city property. But the one thing they could be sure of was that she didn't hang out with any other kids her age because she never talked about other people.
Fumio sighed and a look of sympathy spread across his face while he changed the subject. "You look pretty beat up again. Anything you want to talk about?"
She frequently came home with bruises, but Fumio was the only one to stay up long enough to see, or know about, them before she got a hold of mother's makeup and covered them.
She shook her head. The answer was simple, plain. She didn't want to talk about it.
"Are you sure?"
Yuzuki ignored him and quickly threw her backpack down on the floor and made her way to the bathroom, grabbing an apple that was lying out on the counter on her way.
She was just able to catch his voice before she slammed the bathroom door behind her. "Just remember that tomorrow's Saturday- you've got to get up at ten to get ready for your appointment." Then she was alone in the bathroom.
It was a routine thing, honestly. She'd come home late at night and after a small exchange of words he'd ask her if there was anything she wanted to talk about, then she'd deny it, grab something to eat, and go to take a shower and put some cover-up on before going to bed.
She didn't want to speak with her siblings or parents about her horrible social life. The way she saw it, it was her burden, not theirs.
So after consuming her dinner of a single apple, getting rid of most of the filthy rain water that covered her body by taking a shower, and covering up her bruises, she went into the room that she and the siblings shared. Fumio had gone to bed by now, curled up in the same bed as Kazuki like he usually was by the time she finally finished getting ready for bed. Hana was lying down by herself, gripping the covers to her bed tightly.
When Yuzuki lay down on the bed with Hana, the little girl stirred slightly in her sleep, her closed eyes tightening and loosening periodically and tossing and turning, before, finally, she faced towards her older sister and opened her chocolate colored eyes. A small smiled spread on her face. "Neesan," she said sleepily, her small fingers loosening their grip on the covers. She was glad her big sister finally came and that she wasn't alone any more. "You're home."
Yuzuki nodded, eyes trained on the ceiling.
A little yawn left Hana's mouth, but the smile stayed on her face. "I'm glad. I feel lonely when you're not here, Neesan."
Yuzuki's eyes left the ceiling for a moment to look down at her youngest sibling. The little girl's eyes were only half-lidded and there were small little rings forming under her eyes. She had obviously tried staying awake so that she could wait for her; she always did that and because of it, she was always out of energy in the morning. "Sleep."
Hana's eyes closed and her head just barely nodded up and down at her sister's soft command. "'K."
Yuzuki smiled faintly and ruffled the younger girl's hair softly.
"Night, Yuzu-Neesan. I love you."
Going to bed always was the best part of Yuzuki's day just because she got to hear her sister say those three words. She never got to hear them from her parents since they were busy most of the day and never got to see them and since she didn't have any friends for over two years, she hadn't heard any words that were even remotely similar to those from them. It was nice to know that someone appreciated her life every now and then. It made her life worth while
"Love you, too."
Back then, Hana really was the only thing that kept her going.
Mr. and Mrs. Yezhov were anxious, to say the least. It had only been about a year and a half since their small family of three had moved to Japan, thinking that they could finally start over, and possibly get their daughter to pull her act together. But there was something wrong with their child; they had figured that out a long time ago, but never did they think that their child could be a possible killer until Selena, the Mrs., found a gun lying around Ninka's room the night before.
Of course, she had confiscated the bullets and hidden them away in a safe place from her daughter as soon as possible, but she didn't have the courage to take the actual gun away from her, and neither had her husband, Sergei.
As ashamed as they were to admit it, they were a little afraid of their own child.
Ever since she was a tiny girl, they knew there was something off about Ninka. In her first few years of school, she kept laughing in the middle of class for no apparent reason and yelling out strange things that made no sense. And then she started talking to people that nnobody else could even see. They'd tried putting her in the special Ed class at first, but then it became apparent that she was perfectly smart, possibly brilliant, even. The problem was just her eccentric personality. Things got so bad that they eventually had to pull her out of public school during the second grade and teacher her at home because she was becoming too much of a distraction to classes, but it wasn't like it fixed things.
She kept laughing to herself at seemingly nothing and talking about these people that never even existed; it was starting to really freak Selena out. Sergei was concerned about it, as well, which is what led them to their current hushed conversation in their living room.
"It's obvious that the only solution is a mental institution," Sergei insisted to his wife. "We've already tried counseling, but I think we both know that it's not doing anything, Selena." He held onto her hand with a tight grip.
In the meanwhile, Selena looked as if little tears were about to burst out from her eyes at any minute now and she kept looking frantically to the front door, expecting their daughter to be coming in at any time now. "Surely, there must be something else we can do for her, dear." She told him in a hushed tone. "Maybe we could switch her to a new therapist for a while and see how she does, just for a little while! I don't want our only child to be taken away to a mental hospital when she's only sixteen!"
There was a desperate tone to her voice, one that really made Sergei want to listen to her, to actually comply with her request, no matter how unreasonable it may have been. He sighed. "OK, look," he nervously scratched the back of his head with the hand that wasn't clutched by his wife's," I've heard about this therapist that specializes in group therapy for kids like Ninka." At this, Selena's eyes gave a slight glimmer of hope that just made Sergei go on. "I'll see if I can get an appointment in for tomorrow, but we're only going to try this for ten weeks, OK? If she's still…" he trailed off in midsentence, not sure if he was able to use the word 'insane' to describe his daughter quite yet, "… You know, after that long, we're going to put her in a mental hospital. It is for her own good, Selena."
The yellow eyed Russian woman took a deep, shaky breath and slowly nodded her head, looking a bit hesitant. "OK, then. I guess it is for her own good…"
"So it's decided then," Sergei sighed, looking somehow relieved yet upset at the same time. He was relieved that they had finally decided on a course of action concerning their daughter, but it also set him a little on edge, knowing that in ten weeks, Ninka could be sent to an asylum…
It's for her own good…
"Oh, by the way, you did hide those bullets, didn't you?" When his wife bobbed her head up and down, he sighed in relief. "That's good, so where are they, then?"
Selena smiled slightly. "The one place we both know she'd never look in her entire life."
Sergei raised an eyebrow in thought for a moment, contemplating on this. The one place she'll never look?
A smile crept up on his lips.
"Vegetable cabinet?"
"Precisely."
A small moment of laughter was shared before the sound of the door clicking open alerted the two parents that their daughter had finally returned home.
"Oh, Mama~, Papa~"
Eyes widening, Selena and Sergei quickly straightened themselves up just as Ninka literally skipped into the living room, wearing her usually eccentric dress.
Their daughter, for whatever reason, liked to dress up like some princess out of a space, sci-fi movie or something. The dress had several layers to the skirt part, the first cutting off just above her knee while the others then went further down. The sleeves were... well, there were no sleeves, just a part of the dress that went up and swallowed her throat like a turtleneck and some long glove-like things that she had to manually slip onto her arms to make them look as if it really did have sleeves. Honestly, she had about ten different pairs of the same outfit, but all in different colors, but the one she wore today was a mixture of black and different shades of grays.
And, of course, there were also the mismatched toe-socks that she wore with her sandals. There was always that…
"I'm home!" This was followed up with a huge grin and little tiny giggles that sent chills down her parents' spines.
"Oh, Ninka, Dear!" Selena was the first to speak, thinking back to her days in drama class at high school. She forced a bright smile on her face and clapped her hands together, but then quickly pushed up the glasses that were falling down the bridge of her nose. "It's so great to see you home!"
"Yes, yes," Sergei's hand gripped tightly onto his wife's, a nervous tick of his that he did frequently whenever Ninka was near. "How was your day, Sweetie?"
"Oh, it was wonderful!" Ninka started spinning around in circles, laughing joyfully while she made her way over to the kitchen. Once she reached the refrigerator, she stopped spinning, although little giggles kept escaping her mouth. This set her parents on the edge of their seat, clutching each other and shaking uncontrollably. The teenager reached her hand into the fridge and pulled out a pudding cup, then proceeded to grab a plastic spoon from the cabinet.
"It was wonderful," she repeated, gleefully taking a bite out of the pudding. "I got to see so many things while out on the streets! And so many people were looking at me! It was just wondrous!"
They took this as a good sign, very good, and actually found themselves relaxing a bit. She didn't always come home in a mood as good as this one; often, yes, but not always, and they had learned long ago not to take these kinds of things for granted when she came home, screaming, in a fit of rage one day and nearly destroyed their apartment with her bare hands. They were just thankful that they hadn't gotten kicked out because the complaints from their neighbors that night were so numerous that Selena nearly had a heart-attack when the old woman from next-door came by the next morning to bite her head off, along with her son, who just so happened to be a cop.
A light, warm smile found itself on Sergei's face. "Well, that great, hon-" He was suddenly cut off when the pudding cup in Ninka's hand was crushed, sending the sweet brown substance all over the kitchen floor and said teenager's hand.
The two gawked as Ninka suddenly looked around the kitchen as if she wanted to murder someone.
Selena took a large gulp of air as she suddenly ran over to the closet and grabbed a mop and came back to clean up the mess. "Ninka, what was that all about?" She tried to add a chiding tone into her voice as she disdainfully mopped up the brown gunk from the floor, but it came out sounding more nervous than anything.
"I just remembered that my day wasn't all that good," Ninka threw away the pudding cup as she said this and licked the remaining pudding off of her hand before any more of it could drop to the floor. Both of her parents watched this with a mixture of weariness and slight disgust at her lack of decency to get a paper towel and clean up with that rather than her own tongue. However, the yellow eyed girl paid no attention to this and, instead, her face twisted into a sneer. "Iza-Kun has another new favorite," she groaned, dropping herself dramatically into her chair.
Selena and Sergei exchanged a look.
Izaya. Yet another issue they had yet to address about their child. For about a year now, Ninka has been obsessed with his boy, Orihara Izaya. She always went out to have 'play dates' with him, as she called them, talked about how hansom and smart and funny he was nonstop at dinner, and took pictures at random photo booths around town with him so that she could show her parents what he looked like and how much fun they had. And, at first, they were excited that Ninka had made her first friend that was actually real since moving from Russia, so much that they even invited him to dinner to show their thankfulness and hospitality.
Only, when they had actually met Izaya, they later wished that they never had.
The boy terrified them from them moment he first addressed them. "Why, hello there, Mr. and Mrs. Yezhov!" He had exclaimed as he bowed to them, a wide smirk on his face and a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet my dear Annie-Chan's parents!" They could even remember how they had wanted to puke at the sarcastic, insincerity of his words and at how his smirk that they had learned to hate so much over time seemed to widen even more every time their daughter hugged him or clung onto his arm like a baby monkey to its mother.
Needless to say, they didn't approve of Ninka hanging around this boy, believing that he was a horrible influence on her, and this theory was only supported when they later found out that he had not only already graduated high school, but messes with people like they were his own personal playthings. And it was only a matter of time before the boy found someone he deemed more interesting than Ninka and tossed her aside. But there was nothing they could do about it at that point because Ninka had claimed to have "fallen in love" with Izaya and when Ninka wants something, her parents have always lacked the ability to stand in her way. But, thankfully, nobody had stayed as Izaya's favorite plaything long enough for Ninka to find out who it was and strangle them to death.
Sergei was about to say something that he thought would be comforting to his daughter, but abruptly shut his mouth when the teenage girl's hate-filled gaze fell on Selena.
"Feodora told me that my day might not have stunk so much if you hadn't confiscated my bullets, Mama. And I, for one, agree with her."
The sound of the chair scraping against the wooden floor made its way to her parents' ears and they watched with wide, horrified eyes as she stomped over to her room and slammed the door shut.
Wide brown eyes met with bright yellow for a brief moment, but they kept flickering over to the now closed door that led to their daughter's room, where what sounded like a rather loud mixture between hysterical laughter and uncontrollable sobbing could be heard from.
Neither of the two parents said any words, but there was an unspoken message lingering in Selena's eyes, a plea for help, that Sergei could easily read.
She couldn't lose this one to a mental illness and violent tendencies. She just couldn't. The pain of losing their first child was hard enough for them, but it would just kill her if Ninka, no matter how mentally unstable and absolutely terrifying she may have been, had to be taken away from her at such a young age. It would too heartbreakingly painful for her to take.
And so he sent his own silent message back to his wife, one that she was all too grateful to receive.
Don't worry, Selena, Sergei told her, we're going to save our daughter, and by any means necessary.
Noel Note:
1*: OK, so Ninka is basically the diminutive Russian form of Anne or Antonia (or at least, that's what my source says), so that's why Izaya's nick-name for her is Annie-Chan. I just couldn't see him going without calling her by a nickname and Nin-Chan didn't really sound all too great in my opinion. So… yeah, that's where that rather random nickname came from.
"Just a quick note, anything in quotation marks and italics are usually Ninka's voices, which you will learn more about the next chapter."
And so there it is! I really hope this wasn't too stupid. I haven't really done angst or 3rd Person Omniscient (if you even consider this to be omniscient) before, so I can't really say I'd be surprised if it stank. Plus, Izaya is just one tough cookie to write!
This is not my best piece of work, but (I'm sad to say) it's not my worst, either. If you guys like it enough, I'll continue as it is, but I'll probably end up re-doing this chapter. I'm just much too fond of this story to scrap it.
Warning me about if I'm creating a Mary-Sue or two or if I'm making any of the characters OOC would be much appreciated. Just drop a review and tell me how I did. Constructive criticism, flames, an "OMG! Dis iz awezome!", or a twelve page rant about what made this good/bad would be amazing.
Oh, and also, there is going to be a love triangle between my two OC's, Ninka and Yuzuki, and Izaya, so if you could tell me which one of them you like better, that'd be awesome. I mean, I know how this is going to end and all, but I'm just lacking a few small details.
So, yeah…
Thanks for reading and please be sure to review!
~Noel-Chan