Second chapter of my fic. I hope you like it.
I do not own Ninja Assassin or any of its characters
2.
As soon as the meeting was over, Mika stormed out of the room as fast as she could. She knew Raizo watched her do so, she could feel his eyes on her back. As soon as she reached her office, she locked the door. As if that would help, she laughed emptily.
"Ugh, I can't believe Ryan," she groaned, falling into her chair. "He could've warned me. Could've send me a text. It's not that hard." She sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, he did look good. She groaned again. After a year, this was not how she imagined their reunion.
"He didn't even greet me," she muttered, "not even a nod." Mika didn't know what she expected. Of course he was like this. After all he left her wounded with a large gaping hole in her chest. What made her think that he would be remotely happy about seeing her.
A knock started Mika out of her day dream. Outside stood Maslow and Raizo. Mika quickly hurried towards the door to unlock it. "I have a problem," Maslow started with no introduction, "there has been a mistake at the hotel and none of the other agents will take him." Mika opened her mouth to refuse, but Maslow stopped her before she could begin. "You are the only one who is aware of our... little secret. I can't very well let him stay with Blumenthal."
"And why not? Blumenthal is an ass. And birds of a feather flock together," Mika countered. Maslow cringed and Raizo didn't betray any form of emotion. But after he came over the initial shock, Maslow just stared at her with his detective gaze and Mika caved, to her shame, after only a moment. "Fine, he can stay with me." She scoffed at Raizo and then walked away.
She could just hear Maslow say: "Good luck with her."
Raizo was just behind her, silent as always. Mika had the urge to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Never, not in a million years, did she think that she would ever invite Raizo in her apartment. Before he left, because he would've just sneaked in, and after because she would've never allowed him. Or so she thought...
Because it was undeniable when he stepped in that she invited him. And that she liked him, as a guest, as much as she would like to make Maslow and Raizo believe otherwise.
Raizo, however, did not notice her inner turmoil. Or pretended not to notice. Knowing him, Mika thought, it was probably the latter. She was so sunken in thought that she didn't realise that Raizo casually was taking the things he needed to make a bed and grabbed himself some water in the process. "I'll that the couch," he said, rudely stopping her train of thought. She didn't immediately answer though, but observed the neatly made couch.
"How did you.. Never mind," Mika muttered, took the file and curled up in the comfortable lounge chair in her room. She started reading it, a twinge of sadness for a girl she once called friend. Her head was clean cut off, and it did happen in the middle of a party. She had a crow's feather placed on her chest and her hand was oddly contorted. It didn't surprise Mika that Carr would've had enemies. Unlike most of the friends she had back then, Carr was from the richest part of London, being the daughter of a software expert, specialised in government security. Not only that, but Mika remembered that Carr had quite a bad personality. She was manipulative, violent and ruthless. Especially as a hacker.
Soon, Mika was so engrossed in the details of the file that she didn't see Raizo standing in the doorway, looking at her. He forgot how determined she was, whether it was tracking down a clan to saving his life. He knew that they needed to talk. He expected that she would come at him, hit him until she could hit no more. He would've allowed it. Instead, she gave him the cold shoulder and he didn't like that. It felt like she had given up on him, that she simply didn't care anymore. And he couldn't deal with that. He refused to give her up.
When Beth shuffled back in her house, she knew someone was there. A laugh escaped her. Out of all the ways she thought she would die (in a fire, by the hand of an abusive boyfriend, the cancer returning) by ninja was by far the least likely option. "You can come out now," she called out into the shadows. It was silent for minutes, but after a while she could barely hear the tentative footsteps of a single person. Beth was impressed. After her eyes gave out, her already hypersensitive senses picked up even more. But she really had to strain to hear her guest and guessed they were a 'he'.
"You're here to kill me," she said, but no answer came. She shrugged. "Do you mind if I get drunk first? I mean, if I get killed, I'd rather be killed while intoxicated." Still no answer, so she shuffled to the liquor cabinet and pulled out a half a bottle of tequila, a bottle of rum and a box of cheap wine. "So you're a ninja? I've never thought I'd die by the hands of Naruto. I always thought that I'd go per hit-and-run or cancerous cells."
He still didn't answer and she laughed. "Did anyone ever tell you that you're hard to hold a conversation with?" Beth remarked. Once again, her guest didn't answer but she could hear him sit in the chair across the sofa she sat on, so she shrugged and got drunker than she had ever been.
When Mika stopped reading the file, she noticed it was already dark out. She walked cautiously to her living room, but it was empty. He was gone... again.
Mixed feelings of relief and panic overcame her and she started calling out his name. She was in the process of putting on her shoes, when she felt a nudge from behind her. "Where are you going?" Raizo asked, that infuriating smirk on his face.
Mika decided that it was best to counter that with another question. "Where have you been?" she retorted, but that only resulted in making that smirk grow.
"Getting dinner," he answered, pressing a warm brown paper bag in Mika's hands. The scent was familiar and she looked in the bag. Chips and a hamburger. She turned around to Raizo, but he was with his back turned, getting a kettle and putting some noodles into a bowl of hers. "Do you have chopsticks?" he asked.
"Second drawer on your right," she answered flabbergasted and sat down on the table. Raizo placed a plate and some ketchup in front of her. She didn't thank him, but instead proceeded to place the ketchup next to her chips.
When his noodles were done, Raizo took the seat across from her and looked at her intensely. Mika pretended not to notice, but he wouldn't let her slide this easily. After a pregnant silence between the two, it was Raizo who broke it with two words she dreaded the worst.
"Let's talk."
