#3 Chapter of

- "Atatakai egao de hitotsu" –

The next day, the 13th of December, it had gotten a bit colder and the sun had just appeared behind some clouds that had covered the whole sky since early in the morning. The bar in downtown Shizume was still closed and no one seemed to be inside.

Kusanagi, the owner, hadn't been in there since the evening before and so, all the staff members were absent.

But still, although there shouldn't be any customers allowed in the shop, there were noises coming down from upstairs. After a few minutes of constant movement on the second floor, the door slowly opened and the slim, naked foot of a woman stepped down the stairs still a bit hesitantly.

With a long yawn, the girl entered the main room of the building and meddled with her long, brown hair, that only looked a little messy although she hadn't yet have the feeling of brushing it, so she just swished them out of her face.

She looked around the place while walking around the counter to the oven and saw her surroundings neatly organized, as if there had never been a lot of customers in here just a mere 9 hours ago.

"Huuh…" Hoshi let out a long, deep sigh as she pressed her thumbs against her temples before continuing her walk to the kitchen.

She hadn't felt like eating since a few days and so she decided to just go with her regular cup of coffee in the morning, although she didn't really need it since she already was wide awake this early in the morning.

Without thinking about it too much, the pale skinned girl went around the counter and headed to the sofa to get more comfortable and kill some time until someone dropped by at the shop.

There had at least one of those guys to show up here sometime, right?

She asked herself a bit startled as she couldn't quite find an answer to it at the moment.

Hoshi suddenly remembered the night before and wondered whether the king and Anna had gone home.

Where did that red head and a small girl like her even live to begin with…?

She slumped down on the couch as her eyes stumbled upon the guy in front of her.

"Oh!" She muttered and remembered her not being the only one that had crashed at the bar, again.

"I almost forgot that guy was still here…"

The girl looked at the young man with helpless eyes.

Should she wake him up? After all, he didn't seem to have left to go home the past night and his parents had to be worried about him…If he still had any, she figured and took another look at the teen, rolled up on the couch.

He was lying on the right side, which was why she could see his face to begin with and his cheek rested on his shoulder while his nose was buried in the soft cushions what made him look even more- let's say- peaceful.

Giving it a second thought, it was the first time she saw that young guy without a beanie covering his chest nut hair which was quite messy. She sighed again, stood up after shaking her head to refresh her thoughts and walked back to the counter again as she figured it would upset her too, being stared at like that while she was sleeping like he did.

…Not that she would ever be so defenseless as him- of course.

"…What am I?" She murmured and lightly slapped her face to literally 'screw' her head on right.

"…A stalker…?!" She continued slightly pissed at herself for being that nosy about something so trivial.

"Huuuuh…" She sighed again as she didn't know what to do that early in the morning.

For the first half an hour, the girl had climbed up the counter and sat there cross-legged with the cup of coffee in her hands and stared out of the window without really doing anything useful.

After another ten minutes of utter boredom, she decided to work in the kitchen and slid off her seat and started cleaning up the counter, the sink and then went even further and polished all the glasses on the shelves.

As the first citizens were walking by the bar, Hoshi started to wonder when exactly, if at all, one of the staff would drop by this day.

There was nothing to do for her at the moment and that started bothering her although she usually wasn't some squirrelly kid that would complain whenever there was nothing interesting going on. Normally, when there were other people around, that might still be sleeping, she would barge into their room when it was past 12 pm already to simply wake them up, but this time was different; the guy sleeping on the couch was almost like a stranger to her and she wasn't in her own home; plus, it wasn't even 10 am.

At least she still had that degree of decency in situations like this.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pretty damaged looking 'smart phone' and plugged her headphones in, switched it on and zapped through her music to make time pass faster.

With her head resting on the palms of her hand, her look wandered around the room and stopped at the door that led downstairs. She wondered if the king and the tiny doll like girl were down there and whether she should check if they were still sleeping.

For a short time, she thought about taking a look at it and then instantly decided that what she was thinking of was just mental garbage she dared to let pop up in her head out of boredom.

Never, really never, would she really go where that sleeping beast of a man was, just to put her life on the line. She flicked her forehead and shook her head slightly ashamed of her own thoughts.

Softly humming the melody of the song that randomly started playing in her ears, she let her thoughts slide even further off to a somewhere far away place at the back of her mind.*

She had must have been listening to her music just like that for quite a while since when she looked at the clock on the wall in front of her, another hour had almost passed.

The clouds from early in the morning had disappeared, made way for the sun, which had started lighting up the place like crazy and the girl lowered the volume on her cell and listened to the noises around her.

She stayed completely silent for a few moments before she put her headphones back in her ears as nothing seemed different, but right as she was about to space out again, there was a sudden movement somewhere behind her in the back of the room.

The girl turned around on her bar stool and waited almost eagerly for a clearer sign that the guy on the couch was waking up.

The sound of a body turning around on the cushions came from the couch as the guy made rustling noises.

A halfhearted groan came from his throat before he decided to open his eyes and finally sat up.

Still a bit sleepy, his look wandered around his surroundings and he slightly squint at the bright light that came shining through the glass, had flooded the place which he was in and tickled his nose.

"Morning, sleepy-face." A sudden voice came from the counter and he jerked his head around in shock as he had thought he was the only one in the bar like always when he slept over here accidentally.

The words belonged to the woman sitting on a barstool with an indifferent look on her young face and one of her headphones dangling from her neck.

"Uhuh." He replied quite disoriented with a nod and blinked at the one in front of him several times before realizing who exactly was in the same room as him.

"Urgh…" He uttered disapprovingly as a startled look showed up on his now completely awake face

The girl he looked at quite surprised had crossed her legs, leant with her hands on her knees and wore a slightly oversized green checked lumberjack shirt, which almost reached down to the middle of her thighs.

Her look had changed at his sudden outburst of utter disapproval and she raised one of her eyebrows while giving him a calm look. After a moment of what seemed like a battle of who could stare at the other more fiercely, the long haired woman sighed and slightly turned her head away since she had to have noticed him becoming more and more nervous.

"Hey." She started with that clear voice of hers.

"Kamamoto told us to make sure you went home when you woke up again." The girl continued with closed eyes.

"But I guess that doesn't matter at the moment."

Now, as she had finished, her look at him had become friendlier an she sat up straight.

Slightly taken aback, Yata had to concentrate to not turn red as he tried to tell himself it was just a girl and that there was nothing to be so nervous about; just…a harmless girl…

Damn it-

His cheeks flushed red and he had to avert his eyes to avoid becoming even more of an idiot as he already must have looked like to her.

But surprisingly, the girl didn't seem to be annoyed by his strange behavior; rather, she seemed to not really care about it at all as a weak sign of a smile showed up on her lips just for the breach of the moment. As the teen with the chestnut hair had gotten hold of himself again, he suddenly jumped up on his feet as he seemed to have remembered something quite important – whatever the hell it was.

"What time is it?!" He tensely asked the slightly shorter girl on the counter.

"Calm down." She started with a calm voice as he lifted her hands reassuringly.

"It's only a few minutes past 10."

At these words, he obviously seemed relieved as he let out a deep breath and literally slumped as he relaxed his body from the sudden exaggeration of as he had overreacted.

"Aaah…God, I'm lucky." He surprisingly let out and caused the girl to suppress her chuckle while taking a fast sip out of her already empty mug.

Forgetting his slight fear of females, Yata had walked up to the bar and looked out of the steamed up windows.

The dark brown haired girl slid down off her barstool, put her right headphone back into her ear and walked around the counter.

"Wanna have something for breakfast?" She interrupted the short guys' thoughts and made him look at her again with a flabbergasted expression on his young face. He gave her an inquiring look as if he didn't really understand what she meant with the question, or the word 'breakfast' in general. Instead, there was a rumbling noise coming from his stomach as if he had just been reminded that he was starving at this exact moment.

Yata instantly put his hand to where the sound had come from and lowered his eyes in anger of his belly that kept begging for food although his mind tried to convince him of the opposite. The girl let out a cough and acted as if she hadn't heard anything what made the look on the chestnut haired teen become even more pissed before she chuckled and raised her voice again.

"Pancakes should be fine, I guess?" She asked with a provoking tone and smirked as she saw his face lighten up at the word 'pancakes'.

Hoshi had quickly gone from the fridge over to the oven and already heated a frying pan after she had prepared everything else in just a few seconds.

The slightly dumbfounded guy just slumped down on one of the barstools near the counter while blankly watching at the fast movements of the person in front of him while sitting there, unable to do anything but stare.

Before he actually noticed it, the girl was already busy watching the breakfast as it was already half done, still sizzling in the frying pan.

Hoshi, in the meantime, had a problem finding a plate to stack the food as she was looking at every place in her reach while letting out curses as she couldn't seem to find them. The guy on the counter raised an eyebrow as he noticed her fidgeting around and stretching the most she could to reach the upper shelves that were, to her disadvantage, way beyond where she could outstretch her arms.

"Dammit, that asshole Kusanagi for hiding his fricking plates up there…!" The girl hissed as she was about to climb up the counter just to get there while complaining without decency.

Yata had to concentrate to not burst out in laughter as he saw her short figure acting so frustrated like that from behind.

After a few minutes in which she kept complaining about that 'goddamn, good for nothing son of a bitch', which should by no means be taken seriously, she had finally found the plates after giving the young guy behind her a desperately questioning look after which he pointed at another shelf to her left.

Almost instantly, his jumpiness around the girl was gone as he had noticed how easy it was to piss her off. With a relieved sigh, she turned around, carefully placed the food she had made in front of the chestnut haired guy and gave him an apologizing look.

"Well – Sorry about that just now, forget what you saw, okay?"

The young pale skinned woman cleared her throat as she had calmed down again and made a more friendly face again.

Before waiting for his reply, she went back to cleaning up the kitchen and left a crooked smile on the young guy's face as he started eating as he suddenly realized his burning hunger that he hadn't noticed before.

A mere 15 minutes after that, Yata leant back in his seat and looked quite happy after eating a breakfast like that.

"Well, that was refreshing…" He subconsciously uttered and earned a "Thanks." from the girl that smiled while looking at her 'smart phone' and searched for a certain song.

As she seemed to have found it, her face looked up at the guy in front of her who didn't notice she was watching him a he rubbed his eyes.

"…You got bed head." Hoshi chuckled and pointed at his hair stat stood away from his head in any imaginable direction. The short guy went over to the couch, grabbed his beanie from the table and put it on again.

"Someone took it off while I was asleep…" Yata started and picked up his large headphones.

"Was quite a bad idea." He continued and let out a grunt while making a strange sign with his hands to the girl's direction which most probably should describe the mess on his head.

"Well that was Kusanagi-san." The girl stood behind the counter and chuckled while making another cup of 'Latte Macchiato' for herself.

"Thank him later." She ended her sentence in a provoking way.

Now, Yata looked at the girl with an irritated look on his face as he seemed to have forgotten his wear of women.

"Why?" The young guy raised his eyebrows.

"It's regular closing day."

The girl froze for a short moment as the meaning of his words reached her before she turned around to the irritated looking guy in the middle of the room.

"That would explain why I've been practically alone in here for the whole morning…"

Her light green eyes looked a bit annoyed as she massaged her temples with her thumbs while furrowing her eyebrows and letting out a deep sigh.

Hoshi didn't really know what to think of the situation after the chestnut haired guy had told her that. After all, she was in a land where she hadn't seen anything apart from Shizume city, where the bar was. Hesitantly, the pale skinned woman walked up and down in the room and was followed by a pair of hazel colored eyes which kept on watching her quite confused as he didn't know what was going on.

In addition, he started to feel nervous again since there was a girl around him which caused him to be unable to speak a single word without turning red. He couldn't help but be embarrassed for suddenly feeling like that again after being just fine around the exact same person for more than half an hour. (What was kind of a new record…)

The chestnut haired man went over to the couch and slumped down to not make it look as if he was that nervous all of a sudden.

Only a few minutes later, the door was carefully opened and the sound of the doorbell made both of the teens flinch as the turned to the entrance.

"Dammit-" Hoshi started slightly pissed.

"Isn't it regular closing day? Who the fuck would –"Then, she stopped abruptly as she stared into their 'customers' face.

"Kusanagi-san!" The girl uttered in surprise and her stern face instantly lit up as she saw the look on the older man's face as he seemed to think 'What exactly did I do now…?'.

"Aah, I see-"He started talking in a singing tone.

"Sleeping beauty finally woke up." His eyes were wandering over to the couch on which the shorter man was sitting before he jumped out of his seat.

"What? You mean me…?" Yata piped up quite hesitantly and not even half as furious as he would normally have reacted to an 'insult' like that.

Kusanagi ignored the younger guy's halfhearted outburst and gave him a friendly smile before he closed the door to his bar behind his back and pulled off the scarf around his neck. The blonde man looked at the upset girl in front of him with a soft smile before walking into the room.

"Has your luggage arrived already?" His gentle voice didn't seem to surprise her as she started to relax and settled down.

"No, not that I know." She replied with her calm voice and looked a bit more serious.

The tall man came a bit closer to the smaller girl and gave her a testing look as he watched her face with careful eyes. He slightly squint as he walked past her and put on a friendly face again.

"What kind of clothes are these…?" His voice sounded provoking and he raised an eyebrow while smirking at the woman's outfit. She closed her eyes, let out a sigh and continued with a mockingly clear tone.

"They're mine of course." She replied softly which the older man countered with a smug look in his eyes.

"What are you, my mom…?!" The girl turned around, almost slapped her hair through Kusanagis face and walked around the counter. The older man chuckled teasingly and ruffled her fringe.

"Hey, won't you at least brush this hair of yours?" He started and slightly pulled the girl on a few longer strands of dark brown hair.

"Look, they're in a mess." His long fingers were brushing through the 'ocean' of chocolate colored threads as if he tried to substitute a comb.

"Playing nanny, are we?" The one to which the hair in his hands belonged uttered with a quite friendly voice.

Kusanagi let out another chuckle and pushed his glasses up his nose. Then, he turned around to one of his fellow members who was sitting on the couch while listening to his music.

"Yata-chan." The younger male's head faced the other as he looked at his taller friend with indifferent eyes.

"Have you been here the whole night again?"

The teen gave him a slight nod as an answer and kept looking attentively at the one next to the counter.

"Go home and come back after taking a shower." He smiled softly.

"I guess it's not good to be here all the time." The blonde continued before raising his voice again, now a bit more serious.

"Even for someone like you."

The instant his words ended, Yata got up, made a sign with his hand instead of saying goodbye and walked out the bar quietly. The young guy had stepped down the stairs outside and disappeared out of their view and left empty looks on the girl's and the older man's face. Now that they were alone, the pale skinned woman let the fake calm expression leave her face and she lowered her eyes sternly.

Kusanagi let out a sigh as his friendly expression changed place with a more bitter one. The young woman looked up to Kusanagi with a slight glint of worry in her calm, light green eyes before stepping backwards and leaning on the counter.

"…You guys will be fine, right?" She uttered in a soft tone as she stared out of the window.

The older blonde didn't answer and walked around the bar to the cupboard as he took off his coat and put it inside.

"We're still a bit in shock, you know." He replied as he lowered his voice to a whisper and hid his face from the woman behind him as he turned his back to her. The look on her young face became slightly devoid while her eyes rested on the taller persons' shoulders that just seemed so much more fragile as they normally looked since Kusanagi would never show himself feeling down to other people as easily as he did now.

After another couple of minutes that were filled with a tense silence, the tall man in front of her straightened his back and lifted up his head before he started talking with a calmer voice again.

"From where do you take that confidence of yours?" His head slightly turned around as he continued.

"He is with us, there's no need for you to watch over us."

The girl flinched as his voice sounded warm all of a sudden and a soft smile appeared on his face once more.

Hoshi wanted to start talking back to him but stopped as she didn't know what exactly she should say to him in such a situation. Instead, she came over to him, placed her emptied mug into the dishwasher and put on a cheeky face while smirking up to the taller man's face.

"I'll be upstairs." She uttered and was about to walk away from the blonde bartender.

After a few steps, she suddenly paused as she noticed that the man behind her seemed to try saying something to her again, so the younger girl waited.

"I'm glad you're here again…" His words came out softly as it was nothing more than a whisper, what sounded more like he wa stalking to himself rather than to the girl next to him.

She waited another moment before she slowly lifted up her arm and reached out with her hand with a soft smile on her face. With her slender fingers, she touched the older man's shoulder and patted his back without saying a word before she walked away and left him by himself in the empty room as she made her way up the stairs.

Hoshi knew she wasn't that much of help for the other members of HOMRA since she couldn't quite grasp their pain of having lost an important friend. And although she had been his sibling and she had cared for him a lot, she felt like she didn't have the permission to be down because of his death and show it to anyone while she let it hit her quite hard. Totsuka was gone, but it wasn't her that mourned over him the most, she almost had never been there back when he was still alive, so why would she be allowed to cry over him when others were more devastated as they had known him way better than she had?

They had their king by their side and he seemed to be the reason for them to keep going on although their 'center' had been cut out of their daily lives just like that.

The girl had reached the door that led to the apartment Which now belonged to her for the moment. With hesitant movements, she pressed it open and stepped into the, by sunlight that came through the windows, flooded room. She sucked in the fresh winter air that came rushing in from the opened balcony door and let out a sigh after quietly shutting off her room from the corridor outside on the second floor.

Her naked feet were walking to the bed that had been placed in the right corner of the room, next to where another door led to a bathroom that had only been in use of guests those past years.

As an indication of her being quite worn out, she slightly tripped and put her fingers up to her temples to shake off the feeling of nausea that was shivering down her spine.

With a calculating look on her stern expression, the pale girl had reached the king sized bed after a few seconds of frail movement and bent down to the bag that she had put on top of the unused blankets. The young woman rummaged around inside a moment before she pulled out a PDA and squat down on the bed as she waited for it to turn on.

The look on her blank face seemed almost petrified as her fierce eyes glared on the screen that had just lit up while her fingers clutched the small computer and slid over the touch screen.

Her thin hands were slightly shaking as she sat there, hunching over the device in her fingers as she stared at the picture of a white haired high school student with algid eyes.

The young woman gritted her teeth in pure hatred and let out a choked curse at no other than the man, who called himself the 'colorless king'.

She didn't know who exactly he was, but the message of the video in which she had seen him for the first time was clear.

He was her older brother's killer.

#3 Chapter of

- Atatakai egao de hitotsu –

END

*Part of the lyrics of Fearless by Falling up ;) Guess that's the song Hoshi listened to that time.

author's note:

This was a chapter which I thought was complete crap while I was writing it but as I proof read just now, I really came to like it. I tried to work on the way I keep describing peoples expressions, but then, I utterly failed at apostrophizing correctly .

Well, what the hell.
Also, this chapter wasn't meant to be that long since I wanted to let a few more things happen, but as you can see, that failed too XD
I got the feeling that I keep talking about nonsense in about every damn line - what would be mainly the cause for the poor plot development...

Well, what the hell ~