When both of them are approximately five feet or so away from the closing doors of the bar Shizuo can feel the arctic breath of the night pounce on his body, chilly paws swiping its claws across his cheeks with a brisk slap. The cold air digs their way down through the loose twinning threads of his bartender uniform except the tightness of the black bowtie snapped around his throat keeps the draft from sipping away the core of his warmth. Celty walks beside him with light steps that he can barely hear. Her black boots almost seem non-existent in the inky darkness spare from the bright shop lights along with the blaring street lights that shine against her figure, pulling a shadow away from her distinct form but never leaving even a glint of light against her figure as if she was the darkness herself. Celty angles her PDA at him, several more words typed on it and the shake of her hands waving in an expressive manner as she continues to trot beside Shizuo.

He can feel the outer edges of his eyes ache and droop, the winter chill drying his eyes out which doesn't help the fact that he's nearly dozing off on his feet despite walking side by side with Celty. Other than the repeated flashes of white from her PDA and the constant nudges of her shoulder guiding them away from walking into the street keeps him awake long enough to give in and converse with her silent, excited chatter.

"Fuck if I know why Shinra does that stupid shit. Your guess is as good as mine..." Shizuo hums the words, letting the syllables tumble like rough gravel down his throat as his mouth decides to salivate at the savory smell of chicken broth wafting their way from the small traditional-styled dinner near the corner of the street. Their sign printed on a starch white cloth outside the sliding door trembles from the constant drafts and shifting of open and closing doors; Shizuo's scrunches his nose up in distaste as the smell of downtown funnels in with the scent of warm soup broth. The smell of downtown isn't the greatest: the smell of car exhaust and asphalt and the wafting scent of savory street food with the oddity of the garbage dumps tinged as the bitter, tangy extract in the inhale of breath.

Shizuo feels Celty nudge her shoulder against his bicep and when he turns to look, her head is tilted to the left and her PDA held just by her leather-clad fingertips and her other hand is almost tugging on his white shirt sleeve except she lets the weight of her hand pull it down when Celty watches Shizuo's eyes scan lazily over her words.

[...I know I shouldn't butt in], her hand shakes as she types rapidly despite the small hesitant pauses that are almost unnoticeable except for the fact that her head ducks down along with the rhythm of her chest as if she's gulping down mouthfuls of air. [But who are you dating? I know what you've said before about him but, do I know him perhaps?]

"It's, uh-" Shizuo coughs. His cheeks flush a pale pink, barely noticeable when the street lights have such a yellow glare and the store signs are shining such a contrast of white against the inky night. "I mean you might know him-"

[Is he like Kasuka? Is he also an actor?] Celty brings the PDA back down and against her own face, shoulders hunched up while her left hand scratches the bottom of her yellow helmet and her helmet rolls to the side again for a while before striking back words to the sleek keyboard of the device and quickly the screen is back to him again. [Is that why you can't really tell anyone? If so, that would make a lot of sense!]

The pace of their steady-to-unsteady gait slows to a barely-moving walk. Shizuo stares at the screen for a second longer than usual and he feels the tingles of a laugh feathering the insides of his throat and before he knows it he's letting out a small huff of a laugh. "He's not an actor, though he does wear suits a lot. Sorry, even if I wanted to, I really can't tell you his name or anything..."

[That's a bit strange though, isn't it?] Her shoulders shake for a second, and Shizuo can imagine a trailing high note of a laugh coming from her lips when she pulls her arms up to stretch away the building fatigue that he's sure is beginning to build up in his muscles as well. [Well, not that it's not normal for people to do, but...| ] Her fingers retract and curl when Celty looks up and catches a glimpse of an unfiltered grimace passing through his dry lips and her fingers are back on the keyboard typing up a hurried apology.

Shizuo shakes his head, hands raised and waving while offering her what he hopes to be a reassuring smile despite the heaviness weighing against the muscles of his cheeks pulling upwards when Celty's shoulders sags into a defeated gesture. That is until her shoulders pull back up again and she goes back to offering smaller and fainter words of apologies that leak with mournfulness.

"Nah, s'okay Celty. Really, it's alright."

[No, it's not! It's totally okay and normal to have a private relationship! I mean, just because it's something that I'm not accustomed to it doesn't mean that it's strange or not normal or is a bad thing and-]

Shizuo raises his hands to grab hold of the device and gently brings it down as he stares straight into her visor, seeing his own reflection peering back at him with an uncomfortable sag of his dry, chapped lips and his squinting eyes that hold dark bags beneath his bottom lashes. It's shocking to see how dark the bags are beneath his eyes, and it almost makes him wonder how much sleep he's actually been getting lately.

"The reason we can't really tell anyone who I'm dating is because..." Shizuo merely breathes and the air feels more like crumbles of dirt and rocks in his mouth; it was simpler to think in his head, to discuss the topic but now that he's saying it out loud it feels all the more childish and incredulous to even try to understand from a logical viewpoint. Shizuo switches his fixated eyes from the yellow of her cat-eared helmet with the blue streak going across it to the cars on the street that seem to pass them by either in groups or the sole stragglers that linger behind the car posse as they drive on the cusp of the speed limit like what a good citizen should do. "He and I, it's just something that the two of us want to keep private for a while. And with the type of jobs he gets into and for the type of person he is, sometimes it's, well, better to keep this relationship just to ourselves..." Shizuo chuckles apologetically, his right hand raised to scratch the back of his nape as his eyes fall to the floor. "It's just really complicated; it's just, kinda hand to explain at the moment, sorry 'bout that, Celty."

She stares at him for a while, his reflection still stark against the black of her visor before she turns her head away to look at the night traffic and the reds and yellows of headlights of cars. Her PDA rests still and silent by her thigh, her thumb stroking the screen as if she's waiting for a message, or for just a moment of time to think of something to say, but the silent isn't wholly unwelcome in the situation. Shizuo watches her, before he too looks into the traffic of cars with her and watches the lights of the street turn from green, yellow, and red and back again for a while. And by the time he's counted up the second yellow light, Shizuo sees Celty type back on her PDA again.

[Even if it takes a year or so, I do hope that eventually on your own time you and him will come out and be able to enjoy the simplicity of things that most couples can do publicly like Shinra and I...] Celty stops, her forefinger stroking the keys as if she's deciding how to phrase the particular sentence she wants to say next, and before Shizuo can tell her anything, she taps the keys silently albeit the continuous rush of cars passing by them and how the silent yet fast taps of her keys match the thrumming of his heartbeat. [And even if you guys never start to date publicly, I will still support your relationship.]

Celty turns her face away, smoky black visor fully pointed down the far vanishing point of where the sidewalks takes a sharp turn to the right and disappears into a different road that hides behind the grocery store: filled with cheap sweets and a couple terrible low-end brand liquor that mostly devious high school kids buy to get a cheap high. Shizuo watches her walk away, her heels tapping into the ground delicately yet heavy from each sharp tap of the heel of her motorcycle boots and Shizuo soon follows after her. They don't mention the hesitation of Shizuo following her seconds later, and they don't mention at all the way of how Shizuo's brows furrow, his hand timidly raising upwards to pull at his earlobe and then finally resting on the back of his clammy nape; they don't mention at all the fact that it's so blatantly obvious how he looks guilty, but Shizuo boils it down to the fact that only one of them knows why he feels that way, and that person is certainly not Celty.

There are words that claw his throat, bubbling against the soft tissue of his esophagus but Shizuo can't find the words to tell in exact detail in the way that he wants too. He feels the spark and the high-strung anxiousness to grab Celty's hand and spill the truth, but what is the truth? And what does he even want to say? But the as fast as the words want to erupt they equally ease down when his cellphone buzzes in his pocket the same time Celty's phone rings with a new text message.

She swiftly comes to a halt and pivots, almost twirls on the balls of her feet and steps back to him with her attention caught on to the few messages popping up on her phone. She types a message back into her phone, typing quickly on the keyboard as if instead she's tapping on a game controller instead with her rapid speed and intensity. After ending the message she looks back up to Shizuo, who's been watching her for a while, waiting for what she wants to say and barely cracks a small smile at the way Celty's shoulder hunch upward before dropping into a deep sag as if she's sighing with regret.

[My new client from Shinjuku just texted me saying they need their parcel package in several minutes due to some complications.] Celty places her left hand on her hip while she types some more. [I really wanted to talk to you some more, but I've really got to go now so I'll see you later, alright?]

Shizuo's hands are beyond clammy despite the chill of the night and he feels another quiet vibration of a message of his cellphone in the deep pockets of his black slacks and he can barely breathe. The words he wants to say lay tangled together on the tip of his tongue but the words of warm-hearted goodbyes come out alright when he tells Celty with an awkwardly forced smile that he'll definitely see her later. Celty doesn't comment much about these awkward things about him like how most would, thoughts grazing left and right through his mind that Celty knows and respects his space much more than most, but it almost feels like a bad thing that she does on night such as this one.

The nights where sometimes there are things he wants to say right before she goes so he can drag out time to avoid the unavoidable.

But sometimes there are unfavorable situations that can't be stopped.

Celty leaves him a few more responses that drag out the dry and tired laugh from his lungs as she walks around the corner of the street of where she's left her equally sleek and black motorcycle. Trudging back to him with her motorcycle, Shooter, by her side, She angles her device back up to him. [I'll be a bit busy this week since my schedules a bit full with a lot of new and old clients, so let's try to hang out sometime next week!]

She slips herself into the seat of the motorcycle that's already humming to life, phone in her hand that's a second away from being dropped down the slim sleeves of her leather bike suit before she catches herself from doing so in order to type some more before leaving. [And also, good luck on solving the complicated issue with your partner!] And with that, Celty steps on, revving the motorcycle that leaves a strange shiver of goosebumps washing across his arms as the the revving sounds more like a high pitched whiny of a stallion. In a flash, Celty speeds away into the empty street roads and straight into the direction of the highway.