4
"Mirai-chan!" Izaya called from the bathroom while I was preparing dinner for us.
"What?" I shouted back while seasoning the curry. I heard footsteps on the hallway as he made his way to the kitchen.
"You die your hair?" He asked holding a flask of hair die as he entered the room… with only a towel around his waist and dripping wet on my parquet!
"Dry yourself before going around the house! You're wetting my parquet!" I almost yelled at him, trying to hold back a blush and look at his face, not other places.
His eyes widened slightly before his face turned into a teasing one. "Are you embarrassed seeing me almost naked, Mirai-chan?"
"I swear you won't get any dinner if you don't disappear form before my eyes this instant."
"But if you don't want to see you could just look away." Of course, I couldn't look away. I cursed the moment when I decided to let him shower at my place.
I narrowed my eyes at him in a scowl. "I won't be repeating myself."
Fortunately, he gave up and returned to the bathroom. I was glad. There was no way I would negate him dinner, since I was happy he visited after a week of silence. And I even got a bonus.
-xxx-
"Why do you die your hair, Mirai-chan?" He asked again during dinner.
"I don't like my natural hair color." I simply answered.
"Why not?"
"There has to be a reason to not like a color?" I questioned pouring me some tea and offering him some, too. "Hm…" He nodded and I poured some for him, too. "There's not?"
I stared at him for a while. "I used to get picked on a lot when I was little for my hair color."
"Really?"
I nodded.
"When did you start to die it? I had no idea about it and I investigated about you a lot."
"How back did you go, Stalker-san?"
He ignored my remark. "First year of middle school. That's when you moved in Ikebukuro from Hokkaido, right?"
I nodded. "I started right before moving here."
"What is your natural color?"
"You want to know?"
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know." He stated drinking some tea.
"Then how much are you willing to pay for this information?" I rose a brow at him in a teasing expression. "This is how it usually works, isn't it, Informant-san?"
He mused for a bit. "I'll take you out for dinner next time."
"I'll show you after dinner." I said resuming eating.
-xxx-
I was rummaging through a box in my closet while Izaya was sitting on my bed waiting for me to find what I was searching for.
"Oh, found it." I said holding the object in my hands and walking towards him.
He took it when I extended it to him and I sat next to him. "A yearbook?" He said opening it. "From elementary school." He noticed flipping through the pages until he found the picture of a younger me with long wavy dirty blonde hair. He stared at the photo for a while then looked back at me then back at the book.
"You look more Russian here." He stated after some minutes. Yes, I'm partially Russian, from my mother's side… she is half Russian half Japanese.
"Right? It's amazing what hair color can do to a person's appearance."
"But why die it? People here are more open to foreigners than in the countryside of Hokkaido."
"I wanted to blend in. And since black hair is Japanese standard I thought that it would be the right choice."
"Then you took blonde hair from your grandparents? Or your mother dies her hair black, too?"
"From my grandfather. Mother has natural black hair, like father. Kids would often say that I didn't look like their daughter at all."
He mused about something for a while. "But your eyebrows-"
"Nature thought it would be funny to give me blonde hair and dark brown eyebrows, so it would seem like my hair was died." I explained before he could finish his sentence. Really, when I was a kid I used to think that nature just wanted to mock me.
He flipped through the pages of the book, looking at the photos while I laid back on the bed letting him study my younger self. I knew there weren't many photos of me there, because I hated being in pictures.
"Do you have those from middle school and high school?" He asked with his eyes still on the book.
"I do. You want to see those, too?" I sat up looking at him.
"Um."
"Ok." I went to grab the yearbooks from middle school and high school. "Here."
He took the middle school one and went through the pages. "Did you know, Mirai-chan?"
"Know what?" I sat on the bed looking at the book and my heart skipped a beat when he stopped on a picture of the sports festival.
"That we went to the same middle school?" His smirk grew wider while I was gawking at a picture of me running the 400 meters dash… Izaya was in the background, casually walking. He flipped some more pages, stopping on the rooster page.
After the initial shock, I was finally able to process some words. "You… you didn't change at all." I muttered taking the book form him and staring at the picture. Turns out, he was my senpai. Izaya is a year older than me. "I had no idea we went to the same school… I don't remember ever seeing you around at all."
"You hurt me, Mirai-chan!" He said in a whinny tone. "We even bumped into each other once."
"Really?" I was dumbfounded. I have a good photographic memory, and I'm sure I would remember bumping into someone like Izaya. I mean, let's face it, he is good looking.
"Yes. You didn't even spare me a glance." So that's why. "You changed a lot, however. Form middle school." He added taking the high school yearbook and going through the pages.
"Really?"
He nodded. "I like the Mirai-chan from now more." He glanced at me, probably just to see what shade of red my face turned. I looked away and he chuckled.
"Hehe. I found a picture of Mirai-chan in a maid outfit." He said and I almost snapped my neck turning at the book. I did wear a maid outfit for the cultural festival in my second year of high school. They actually forced me to! All the class had to participate in the activities. "Would you wear one for me too?" He was teasing me.
"I'd rather not."
"But you love me, don't you?" He smirked.
"I never knew you were the type to like kinky stuff like roleplay." I wanted to avoid the subject as much as possible.
"I don't. I just want to embarrass you." His smirk grew wider. Figures.
I snatched the book from his hands and took the other two, too. "That's enough fun for you for a day." I said as I put the yearbooks back in the box, and the box back in the closet.
He chuckled and laid on the bed on his back… Oh, Buddha. You really hate me, don't you? Now try imagining the man you're in love with lay on your bed casually with a small portion of his abdomen visible while he is stretching himself, yawning and making suggestive sounds. Yeah, torture, when you can't actually do anything.
"Mirai-chan, I'm tired~ and sleepy~." He said in a 'tired' voice. He was teasing me again.
"Then go home and sleep." I had to keep it together.
He sat up slightly, using his elbows as a support. "Can't I sleep here?" He asked as if he thought it wasn't even worth asking.
"No." I delivered my reply immediately and firmly.
"Why not?"
"Because I said so." It's not like I wouldn't sleep if he stayed over, but it still pissed me off to know he wanted to sleep over just to mess with me. "Now get up and go home." I crossed my arms and made a gesture with my head towards the door.
"Mirai-chan~" That tone sounded like trouble. "If I remember correctly" I knew exactly how that sentence was going to end. "You said that if the person you were in love with was to ask you to have sex with him, you would accept. So why are you telling me to go home when I'm asking you to sleep over?" Of course.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes and trying to calm myself. Thinking about sex with Izaya won't help my situation. I mused for some time for an answer. There were many and I tried to picture the outcome of each of them. Somehow, I felt like whatever answer I would give him I would be on the losing side. I guess there was no way for me to win against him. Who was again the one saying that the one to fall in love first is the one to lose the game even before it started? I can't remember, but he was right. Though it's probable that anyone would lose to Izaya regardless the timing of falling in love.
"Mirai-chan?"
"I'll sleep on the couch." I said, suddenly too tired to argue. That was the less damaging reply I could come up with.
"Eh?"
"If you insist on sleeping over, I'll take the couch. I don't have a guest futon."
"But the bed is big enough for both of us." Of course it is. It's a king sized bed. "Besides, shouldn't it be me to take the couch?" He chuckled.
"I can't really picture you sleeping on the couch."
He laughed. "Then let's sleep together." He was really pushing it. Sadist.
"Izaya, that's enough already. I understand that you enjoy messing with my head, but let's end this before one of us regrets it." Strangely, I was becoming more and more clam.
"Why would I regret anything?"
"Why indeed?" I sighed. "I'm going to take a bath. Do whatever you like. You always do it anyway." And with that I left him there and I went to take my bath.
When I finished, Izaya was gone.