Title: Shiro, Lika, and a bottle of vodka

Author/Artist: Bscl43
Pairing: ShiroxLika
Fandom: The Demon Ororon
Theme: 20. the road home

Disclaimer: The Demon Ororon is the intellectual property of Hakase Mizuki. No profit was made from this pathetic little imitation of a story.

This is the second part of chapter one. If I was a good person I would put the two of them next to each other, but I'm not.

She gave up on the window and sat down next to me.

"Then why aren't you?" I asked mostly because I couldn't stand the silence with her so near me. She looked at me and that spark of anger I'm so used to flickered for a second before burning its self out.

"I don't know." She said leaning her head back against the window sill. It was the kind of thing that answered a whole slew of questions. It seemed like more a response to the inside of her head than to my question. It pissed me off, and I wished that anger had stayed in her eyes. At least, when we argue I know she's only paying attention to me.

"What about you? Why aren't you out raising hell?"

"If Kuro wakes up and can't find me he'll freak." It's not entirely untrue. She makes a sound like a laugh except its muted and hollow sounding.

"You're such a devoted big brother Shiro." The sarcasm was not lost on me.

"Hey, I'm not the one running away from home here."

"Nobody back there needs me." Lika got up and started pacing in front of me. I watched her black boots as she moved in and out of the light spilling in from the window. Out of the light they were just a deeper shadow in the dark. In it the light bounced of them. I tried to find a metaphor or some shit like that to describe it, but it turns out I'm too stupid for that kind of thing. The thumping from down stairs and the thunk as her boots hit the floor seemed to be the only sounds in the world at that moment.

"What were you planning on doing once you got down there?" It was out of my mouth before I realized I had thought it. She stopped dead in her tracks, and glared down at me.

"I was going to get drunk enough to not have to think. Then I was going to find a guy to take care of some of my more animalistic urges." I twitched my ears at her.

"I didn't know you had it in you Lika baby."

"Shut up" She grumbles and sits down right it front of me. She's looking off to her side like she's ashamed of her answer.

"No, it sounds like a good plan. Except the chicks down there are human and most of them don't dig tails." She smiles and almost looks me in the eye.

"Trust me on this one Shiro. A tail is the least of your problems." but she didn't say it in a mean way. It dawned on me that this was probably the longest conversation we've ever had with out degenerating in to school yard taunts.

She looked really pale just then in the yellow light of the city.

"There's a bottle of vodka in the kitchen."

"Really?" Those black eyes lit up like Kuro's do when you tell him he can have ice cream.

"Yeah," and I went to get us some refreshments.

The "kitchen" was nearly empty, which made it easy to find things. The booze was under the sink. There were no cups. The fridge had a bottle of cranberry juice and a couple of cans of off brand cola. I assumed she would want a chaser, but I didn't know which, so I took both.

When I got back she was leaning out the window again. For a second I irrationally thought she was going to jump. Stupid huh. But the words came out none the less.

"Don't!"

She turned and gave me a quizzical look.

"Don't what?"

"Nothing." She stood there glaring at me trying to get me to confess. It nearly worked until I remembered I had brought her booze.

"I didn't know if you wanted cola or juice so I grabbed both."

"Oh, hmm, definitely a night for bubbles."

We returned to are spots under the window. The bottles and cans between us. Lika wasn't the least bit squeamish about alcohol, which wasn't surprising really. She was never squeamish about anything else either. But as we made our way through the bottle I thought about it some more. Lika was a 15 year old student from suburban Japan and her best friend was literally an angel. Where did she learn how to drink? This was going to take some pondering. Unfortunately my developing buzz was not at all conducive to that sort of heavy pondering. It was helping my ponderings on 'animalistic urges' as they apply to Lika.

"So what's the story with you and Kuro? Don't you have parents or something?" She asked passing the bottle back to me. Suddenly the mouth of that bottle of vodka was incredible interesting, I couldn't seem to keep my eyes of it.

"Well yeah." I couldn't try to tell her we appeared out of thin air or something

"So?" I took a drink and passed it back.

"So, you ever heard of a cat or a demon making a good parent? You think a goddamn demon cat is going to provide a loving family environment?" That was probably a little harsh, but I didn't think of that until it was already out. But really what the fuck did she expect? Surprisingly she just lifted the vodka bottle in a mocking toast before knocking off more liquor and putting the bottle down on the floor between us.

"Well, at least yours have an excuse." She was looking down at her knees. I picked up the coke and downed half the can. It was already flat. Disgusting.

"Why what's wrong with yours?" At least vodka doesn't go flat

"Oh, I don't think it's something wrong. It's more like we're three people living alone in the same house. Which is better than it was I guess." I passed her the bottle before asking the obvious question.

"Was?" She took a drink from the bottle before looking at me and then back at the couch on the opposite wall.

"When I was very little they would have screaming matches and dad would storm out and get drunk. Mom would sit at the kitchen table and drink. Some times I would sit there with her and she would tell me stories of her old drinking buddies. It's odd hearing your mother talk like she's an actual human being. Moms are just supposed to be moms they're not supposed to be best friends with anybody but you. Certainly not Ayame who would get so drunk she would go out on the balcony and scream about her ex-boyfriends at 3 in the morning. Moms aren't a supposed to have ex-boyfriends either. Mine had plenty apparently. It could have been worse. I could have been raised on Disney, and spend half my life waiting for prince charming. Then spend the other half bitching about how he never showed up."

"Oh." That explained a lot about Lika, at least the bitchy parts of Lika. The drunkenness to, if mommy's a drunk and daddy's a drunk and neither give a damn about baby it wouldn't take much for baby to take up the torch.

"So I guess it's safe to say you're not going back home."

"Nope, I'm just like you and Kuro, I guess." I look a question at her and pick up the bottle.

"We don't have anywhere to go home to." That made me smile, but I couldn't figure out why.

"Can't imagine another reason to stay in this shit hole." I say smiling at her before taking a drink. It dawned on me that I had a very healthy buzz going. Lika leaned her head back against the window sill and was silent for a while.

"Maybe its not that we don't have a home, it's just that we haven't found it yet. Maybe we're on the way there but we're just a bit lost. That sounds better than just not having one at all." She turned and smirked at me.

"Then again, I'm a little drunk." We laughed at that.

Then we sat for a bit passing the bottle back and forth. It wasn't long before Kuro came in with Gomi following him. He stopped right in between the two of us and the cat jumped on to the window sill.

"Are you two drunk?" He asked with a yawn.

"Yeah." I admitted for both of us. I picked him up, and put him in my lap.

"You should be asleep." I admonished.

"Yeah well, you shouldn't be drunk." He admonished back. But, he was asleep 30 seconds after that.

"See I told you I didn't have enough time for a few drinks and a screw."

"I suppose not." She said, and she chuckled. She stood up and stretched. Then she leaned down and that long dark hair of hers was all around me. She kissed me on the cheek.

"You're sweet Shiro." She said while standing up. She hardly stumbled at all walking away.

Wow, this was meant to be smut. I missed big time on that one. They some how went from horny and sober to drunk and melancholy. Hmmm, I think I'm happy with it anyway. Next time definitely some thing more physical.

I'm a review whore. Please feed my ego.