Chapter 3: The Twilight Zone

Ren's lips are locked on mine. To my great surprise, he kisses me back with as much desire as I kiss him. My tongue runs over his lips and finds its way into his mouth. I break the kiss to take a breath, forgetting that I can do both at the same time. He's panting slightly.

I stare at him with my mouth open, more awake than I was five minutes ago. I realize what I did and how he didn't pull back.

We stare at each other. He is no longer Bruised-colored Blur. I can see his golden eyes and his sharp nose and his exciting jawline.

My hands are still on his face, caressing his cheeks lightly. His skin feels like it was recently shaved.

"I should go." He breaks the silence, but not his gaze.

"Stay." I whisper into his mouth.

"No, nothing good will come of this. You're drunk. You can't consent if this begins to go any farther." He starts to get up. My hand grabs his arm.

"I don't want to be alone tonight." I look at him with pleading eyes. "Nothing will happen. Just don't leave me alone." I can feel tears welling up in my eyes. It stings. I don't know why I do this. I can't confirm whether it's me or the alcohol talking. I just want him to stay. I've waited so long to have him in my life, now he's on my bed and I'm not letting him walk away just like that, dammit.

"Pirika…" Ren doesn't even turn around to look at me.

"Please," my voice sounds pained, "stay."

Ren looks at me, takes out his phone, calls Chauffeur Blur and tells him to head to the hotel, he'll be in contact in the morning. Ren takes off his sports jacket and places it on my couch at the foot of my bed.

I am too drunk to tell if what I'm feeling is happiness or something similar that I convinced him to stay. I think I'm just content. I think I'm just relieved. I think.

"Let's get you under the covers." He coaxes me to get in bed fully dressed.

"Your pants," I wave my hand in a downwards motion, "they'll wrinkle."

Ren follows my instructions and takes off his button up, shoes, socks, and pants. He lies next to me on the bed clad only in boxers and a thin undershirt, making sure to stay over the duvet.

He doesn't touch me.

I move my back into his chest. We're technically spooning, save the wall of blankets between us.

He doesn't touch me.

I wish him goodnight.

He grunts in response.

I awake to the rude sound of a phone vibrating violently and Ren picking up. I can hear him answer in a low, groggy voice. He gets up from the bed and sits on my couch,

"Yes, I can be there… In about 20 minutes, probably less...That's not a problem…Yes...I will… Fine by me… I'll see you soon." Ren ends his call and dials a new number, "It's me. Pick me up from where you left me last night. I have to be at the hotel in less than 20 minutes." He hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket.

"Goodmorning." I say as he starts to dress. He doesn't acknowledge me or my voice. "About last night-"

"Did you know that taking care of drunk you is eerily similar to taking care of my two-year-old?" He zips his pants.

"Holy shit, you have a son." I spring up on the bed. This is the first time we've discussed his family.

"I do." He puts on his shirt and begins to do the buttons.

"And you and Jeanne are…" My voice trails off as I sniff my clothes.

"Divorced." He sits back down on my couch to put his socks on. Reusing socks. Gross.

"I'm sorry." I say automatically. I take off last night's blouse and throw it into my hamper.

"I'm not." he says casually, "We realized we were a bad fit a few months into our marriage. We only got married because she was expecting. After Men was born, she said she needed to clear her mind back in France. A few months later she came back to China with Lyserg and the rest is history." Ren was now tying his shoes.

How can he summarize his relationship with the mother of his child that way? So dry and cold, as if feelings never played a part of it. Also, why did he tell me that? That's more detail than I expected.

"Do you resent Lyserg?" I got out of bed and walked into my kitchen, taking out a glass and pouring milk into it.

"Not at all; he made things easier. Had Jeanne come back empty-handed, our relationship would have dragged on and Men would be the one to suffer the consequences." He turns to me, I can't read his face. Maybe there's nothing to read.

I offer him the glass of milk. He takes it, smirking slightly.

I don't know what else to say. He just answered most of my questions and it feels rude to keep prying. He's already said more than I expected.

"Would you mind if I brought him back here?" Ren asks me, setting down the empty glass on the counter.

"Lyserg?" Why would he come here?" Don't do this to me, Tao, my head hurts and I'm thirsty.

"Men. My son." Ren looks at me with a concerned expression, "Jeanne and Lyserg are headed for England in a few hours, leaving Men in my care. I thought it would be nice to spend some time here before going over to Yoh's for lunch."

Crap. I totally forgot they're hosting a lunch, too.

"What time is it?" I look over at my clock, unable to read the digits from this distance.

"It's about 7:30." He heads for my door.

"Why am I awake at 7:30 A.M. on a Sunday?" I fix myself a tall glass of water and begin to hunt down my bottle of aspirin.

"Go back to bed. I'll be back in an hour or so." Ren opens my door and leaves.

What the fuck just happened?

I find my aspirin bottle and struggle to open the cap. Does he want me to meet his son? I take out two pills and wash them down with The Most Necessary Glass of Water. Does he want me to bond with Men? I'm so confused. What the hell is going on?

My door opens. Maybe I can get some answers while his carriage arrives.

Hao walks into my apartment, wearing his civvies. This is not who I expected. This is not what I expected. What a morning.

"Why are you in my space this early?" I ask, half-glaring, half-asleep.

"I wanted to see if you had made it home safe and survived through the night." Hao sat on my bed like he owned the place.

"You couldn't have called?"

"And miss seeing hungover Pirika? Not a chance."

I must look a sight. Standing in my kitchen in my bra and a wrinkled skirt with my hair sticking up from all sides. I didn't wash my makeup off last night, so I'm pretty sure that's smeared on my face. I feel sticky and smell off. My breath must be awful.

"I'mma shower." Still not fully awake, I walk to into the bathroom a few steps away and inspect my face. Just like I suspected: I look like a clown got in a fistfight with a vengeful make-up artists.

Upon exiting the bathroom, recently showered and still in my towel, I notice Hao diligently working in the kitchen. Not only that, he has changed my sheets and made my bed. My are dirty sheets in my hamper. What kind of parallel universe did I slip into last night? Am I still drunk? Sensing my confusion, Domestic Hao attempts to clarify my foggy mind.

"I made you some soup with that beef you had in the fridge. The protein will help you not feel like a house fire." He serves the soup in a bowl and offers it to me.

I look at him with a bewildered expression.

"It's not poisoned." He jokes. I'm still too dumbstruck to form coherent sentences. "You're forgetting that I basically had to raise Opacho."

The world makes sense again. Hao still takes care of her. Opacho has her own apartment near the Funbari Onsen in case she ever needs anything while Hao is in the Great Spirit. The rent is paid for by Yoh and Anna, as is her tuition to Shinra Secondary School. She adores Hana and is often seen at the onsen playing with The Little Rascal after school.

"Thank you." I say, taking the bowl from his hands and grabbing a spoon from the cutlery drawer. Normally, I would have gone for chopsticks but my motor skills still aren't fully functional. "Are you gonna have any?"

"I already ate." He guides me to the couch and hands me the T.V. remote.

"How old is Opacho now?" I ask while I turn on the T.V., choosing a cooking competition show. Hao and I like to watch these and critique the contestants from skill to ingredient choice. By critique, I mean yell at the screen and make snide remarks. The words "moron" and "mistake" are thrown around a lot.

"She's twelve." He watches the screen as I taste the soup he's made.

"Woah! That'll put some hair on your ass!" Hao smiles at my praise. The soup's quite good, but the taste will wake up the dead. Not too many vegetables nor overly seasoned. The meat isn't dry. I guess he's learned from watching these shows.

"Hao…?" I begin, placing the empty bowl on the coffee table, newly revived by the warm soup.

"Hm?" He already knows what I'm going to say.

"Thank you," I pause to add emphasis for what comes next. I want to tell him that his company, while strange, is always appreciated.

"I know what you're going to say - save it. I'm not the good guy." He keeps his eyes on the screen as he speaks.

"You're not the bad guy, either." I nudge him playfully.

"Not anymore." He sighs. I get up to change into actual clothes.

We spend the next hour watching T.V. and making bad jokes. I keep trying to braid Hao's hair and he keeps batting my hands away. By the end of the hour, he gets up with a smirk on his face and walks towards the door. When he opens it, I see Ren with a diaper bag slung over his shoulder and carrying Men. Ren stiffens and clutches his son closer to his body.

"Hao." Ren glares at the Shaman King on instinct, adopting a protective stance.

"It's good to see you, too." Hao's smile widens.

Of course.

This is what he wanted. This is why he came over. He did all of this - made me breakfast, changed the sheets on my bed, stayed the entire hour - just to see Ren aggravated that Hao, the very man who killed us, is nonchalantly existing in the same space as me.

Ren's been away in China for eight years, not interacting with his murderer, not knowing that he's a different man. However different Hao may be, he is still the one who killed Ren's family and friends, and Ren, himself, twice (although, once through one of his lackeys). However different Hao may be, he still finds pleasure in fucking with people.

My mind begins to race and skip, trying to downplay my excitement when I realize that the reason Hao is here is because he knew that Ren would be here this morning. Meaning, Ren had planned to either go home with me or expected to come see me this morning since last night.

Damn, I got game.

Author's Note

Such a short chapter with a lot of things going on. Next chapter is going to be longer, I promise. I like the kind of relationship that I've developed between Hao and Pirika. It was inspired by a fanfic called He by Micelle that I read way back in the day. For some reason, it's always stuck with me that they're just chill friends and no one gets it.

Replies:

poketat: Wow, thank you so much for the kind words! I try to make Pirika as sincere as possible in order to make the story more realistic. I hope this, too, is to your liking. Your English is very good! Don't give up :)