A/N:

Thanks for all the awesome reviews, you guys are awesome. And sorry for the updates being very spaced out, I've got a lot of assignments due in the next few weeks, but I write what I can when I can. Hope you like it though XD

Bile rose threateningly at the back of Izzy's throat. What did he mean, someone beat him to it? Did that mean that he intended to kill Devi from the start? Izzy felt her knees weaken and she had to lean against the wall to support herself. She gave Nny the details of how to get in contact with Devi. In theory, she could have been responsible for Devi's murder if he had gotten his way. But, who was responsible now?

"Devi's… dead?" she breathed.

Nny remained composed, "Did I say that?"

"You… You said she was gone and that, someone beat you to it…"

"But were the words kill or murder used in reference?"

Now she was getting more annoyed than anxious, "Don't talk in riddles, Johnny, is Devi dead and what happened to her?"

He arched an eyebrow with an acute sense of smugness, "Oh was I not clear? Oh rest assured, Izzy, she's alive and well. When I say someone beat me to it, I simply meant that someone beat me to the contact. She's gone from my life, and is now apart of someone else's."

"I said no riddles."

"She is, in a polite way of wording it, courting." He rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't wish to intrude for her sake as well as mine."

There wasn't any self-pity in his voice, or regret. He was completely neutral as if merely commenting on the weather. So, in short, he had gone to find her, and found that she was in a relationship? Izzy was fuming, was he serious? He scared the crap out of her just for that? In truth, upon making his discovery, Nny had not made himself known for two simple reasons. The first, it made complete sense to him that she should live her life, that's what life was for, right? And secondly, it only made it clearer to him that he preferred his own company. No voices, no Devi, no Izzy, possibly the occasional visit to Squee but that was for the boys sake more than anything; no, just Nny and his own self. It wasn't self pity, it wasn't sorrow or regret. On the contrary, it was respectfully a rest of mind.

Izzy clenched her fists and almost felt like slapping him. She steadied herself and stepped closer to him so that they were inches apart. She didn't even care that he was almost a fully head taller than her, glaring at him with flamed cheeks. Nny suddenly noticed that her face seemed thinner, cheeks slightly hollow, and her frail frame all the more fragile. Yet she was stronger… There was no denying that.

"What the hell, Johnny? You scared me, I thought you'd gone and done something stupid! The way you put it, I thought she was dead!" resisting the urge to push him, she grew more furious, "Do you get a kick out of that? Are you laughing at me?"

Through her rant, a slight smirk twitched in the corner of his mouth, a wry glint in his eyes, "Feeling frustrated, Izzy, can you feel the anger inside, the remainder of fear lingering at the thought that you may be misunderstanding me a second time?" He looked down at her and suddenly melted his expression into approval, "Hold onto it, that's how you know you're alive after so long of numb contentment."

Again, he was testing her, she figured. She slumped her shoulders, "You've got more of a sick sense of humour than I remember…"

"Likewise, you've got more of a temper than I remember. Don't loose it." It might save your life one day, he added internally with a shift of his bag on his shoulder.

"I don't plan to." She replied, turning from him. She didn't feel right pressing him on the matter, from past experience, he'd open up in his own time. But something wasn't right. Nny had always been unhinged, cryptic and distant, but this was different. He was being scornful, resentful even towards her. "Have I upset you?"

"I haven't seen you for you to do so. And in the short contact we've had, you've been accommodating enough under the circumstances."

"So why do I get the feeling you've been angry at me or trying to get one over on me?"

He arched an eyebrow, "Is that how you're feeling, Izzy?"

"You're doing it again."

At this, he allowed himself a genuine smile, "No score to settle, no resentment, there's… nothing."

That hurt a little, "Nothing as in, nothing negative or nothing as in -"

"Nothing." He answered honestly. "I prefer to de-clutter my mind of needless notions. When someone leaves, more often than not me but I digress; the main incentive is to keep one image, and eliminate the rest. The memory is there to visit, but impossible to dwell on. It avoids all emotional attachments, ideas and those other links that would even relate me to the scum out there."

Izzy lowed her head. She remembered when she had tried to ask him about Devi. He had claimed it better to forget. He couldn't hurt what he couldn't acknowledge, he said. It made sense that he would do the same to her. By the sound of it, he did it to everyone he came close to. She remembered when she had been trapped inside her mind, when those voices took her. Shuddering at the memory, she recalled finding a box, just a small insignificant box. Nny's reserved memories. Blades, a gun… and pictures. Devil… Squee… Izzy… Was that all she was now, a single thought to be locked away out of an attempt at humanity?

"Do you keep an image of Devi?"

"Considering our recent topic of conversation, the answer is yes." He nodded, pressing his fingertips together.

"What one?"

"One that I chose." He stated warningly.

"And what image do you keep of me?" she asked gently, hoping to avoid irritating him any more than she evidently already had.

Nny studied her with calculating eyes, again taking note of her disappointed eyes, faintly sunken features from weight loss and eagerness to fight. Her well known curiosity still lingered, but almost drowned by such anger and demands, like his distance towards her was causing some kind of resentment in some way. He couldn't understand why. Again, he glanced at her once more. Yes, it was a valid question. What image did he preserve of her?

"Not this one." He answered, tilting his head, "Even if flickers of it show through now and again. But a flicker can't light a room, can it?"

Izzy shrugged in pretence passiveness, but was greatly let down. Sure she'd changed over time, but she wasn't aware that she'd become almost unrecognisable to him. Maybe it was a bad idea coming back… The night had drawn on considerably since arriving in the hotel room. Clouds and smog formed a blanket over the town, blocking out any sign of stars or moonlight. Nny stated that he should leave, but Izzy wasn't giving up so easy. She'd come back to see him, and that's what she was going to do if he liked it or not.

"You can stay here the night if you like?" she offered quietly, "You get some strange people outside at this time of night."

"No there isn't." he stated, but then took one large step through the doorway so he was out in the open air, "Now there is."

She shook her head with a smirk, "I've seen stranger."

"It's not something to boast about, Izzy."

"Who's boasting?" she asked, "I'm just being honest. And anyway, you're not leaving until you give me back my knife."

He blinked in mild surprise to which she simply held out a hand expectantly. Nny slowly slid the bad from his shoulder and reached into the depths, producing the small dagger and handing it over. She smiled and took it from him. As disappointed as she was, she knew that she wasn't going to be able to make him stay. And besides, she'd find him again if need be. She had a knack for it, even if it wasn't always in the ways she expected.

"Well, the offer's there if you want it." She muttered, "Shit!"

Izzy had turned away from him to put the blade in the draw of the bedside cabinet, but upon opening the thing had encountered a fur-covered critter with angered black eyes and a slithering worm-tail. It squeaked at her warningly. In surprise she slammed the door shut and jumped back, almost colliding right into Nny. He sidestepped nonchalantly and with a look of slight boredom. She lowered her eyes in embarrassment and cleared her throat.

"What? I don't like rats." She blurted defensively, "They shouldn't be in a fricking hotel room."

He stepped past her and reopened the draw, pulling the creature out by tail and letting it dangle uselessly struggling, "You deal with many rats on a daily basis, just in different forms. What makes this one so different?"

Watching the rodent flailing, she winced at the question. Glad that he had invoked some reaction in her, Nny simply tossed the animal out of the open door and watched it scurry away. He noticed that Izzy still had goose-bumps on her arms; it amused him how she was so repulsed by such an insignificant creature and yet she held next to no distain for those around her. In his eyes, the rat was superior to any human out in the world; the rat had the filth and scurry built into its nature, what was a human's excuse?

"Well," Izzy swallowed, shaking off the disgust and returning to her reluctant annoyance at the man before her, "you'd better get going. Obviously there's nothing keeping you here." It wasn't a scornful tone, it was honest, but blunt nonetheless.

It didn't go ignored, "Maybe I could stay, the bastards at the 8th Street bar will still be bastards when I see them same time next week."

Choosing not to ask for details on that one, Izzy tilted her head, "Seriously?"

"Well if a simple animal gets such a reaction I think it would be entertaining to watch how you act towards anything that may be festering in here."

"Gee, thanks… So you're offering your services as an exterminator?" she asked lightly.

"I think you should know by now," he started, closing the door with a click, "it's kind of what I do."

The small success at humour lingered for a matter of minutes, but was once again faded by the heavy air between them. They didn't talk much, it felt like there wasn't enough to say. Or rather, they'd been apart for so long that natural conversation just didn't come as naturally as if had before. Sure in the past there had been moments of silence and uncertainty. Silence from him, uncertainty from her. But it seemed that Izzy had been away from his unique mannerisms and such for so long, constantly surrounded with the norm of humanity that she was at a loss to how to treat him. She knew his limits of banter, you don't forget about things like that when such familiar weapons were near; but it was like she was meeting him for the first time all over again. And it didn't feel like how she imagined it would be.

In turn, Nny felt like he was meeting a stranger, and he didn't like strangers. There were too many memories returning to him. Wasn't the reason he'd chosen to move on was to gain some peace. Only morons dwelled on the past, things that cannot be regained or relived, things that are dead. In theory, she was dead. In theory, Devi was dead. And yet… he stayed. To appease himself, Johnny mastered the excuse that he was simply satisfying his own curiosity of exactly where this was going. It was just a waiting game. And waiting was something he was very good at.

"You can take the bed if you like, I'll sleep on the floor."

"You know very well that sleep is -"

Seeking revenge for his word-play earlier, she arched an eyebrow knowingly, "Did I say the word sleep in reference to you? I remember, Nny, I don't forget things as easy as you."

Ease has nothing to do with it, he thought to himself, not to mention you look ready to pass out and that wouldn't be much fun "Don't waste one of your necessities on me; sleep."

Knowing there was no point arguing, she lay atop the blankets, not wanting to see what filth lurked beneath, "And what are you going to be doing all night?" He shrugged, not openly refusing to give an answer, but still keeping quiet for the simple purpose of the fact that he didn't exactly know. Again, she didn't see the point in arguing, "Okay… are you going to still be here in the morning?"

"If it's such an importance to you, then why not?"

"Promise?" she asked, eyes dropping from sudden fatigue. She'd been getting tired a lot more as of late… but there was nothing to worry about…

He blinked, "What?"

"Promise?" he repeated, practically unconscious.

Nny swallowed. There is was. The image that he'd kept behind. Such fragile and pointless words strung together to create a security that would ultimately shatter. And yet, she relied on them, lived by them, was only alive right now for sticking by them. As she fell victim to the slumber he so skilfully avoided, he gave a curt nod of approval.

"Yes. I'll promise."

A/N:

Things will start getting more to the main story soon, I promise, this is all stage setting and stuffs. Hope you like it so far, and don't be shy to give me any ideas of yours, I'll do what I can for you. Until next time folks! XD