CHAPTER 10

I just stare at him from across the table, that grinning face really getting on my nerves – as always. He just came by today, five days after I was put into this hell-hole. He called me yesterday too, to say that he was coming in the next five minutes, but if he was, then why call? Why does he always do this to me?

"How many times a day do you break a promise?" I ask him, and he just continues to smile at me.

"Sorry," he says cheerfully, but I glare at him, knowing that he isn't in the least bit sorry. "Anyway, I came to bail you out today. You should be grateful, instead of just staring at me like that. I was hung up yesterday, that's all."

"Funny," I say sarcastically. "Was that after, or before you hung up on me?"

He shrugs, and then looks away from me with those playfully cruel brown eyes, looking thoughtful. "I believe it was after," he says.

Suddenly, I heave a great sigh and slam my head on the table, right between my arms, which are lying in front of me. "It wasn't a real question," I groan, my voice muffled by the table under my face, but he laughs at me. "It was rhetorical..."

"Shiori," he says softly, making my face heat up slightly at the way he says my name. He always says it the same way – like it's some kind of delicious fruit, and it's extremely embarrassing. I can't mention it, though, because I know he's just going to make fun of me if I do. "Did you forget why I'm here?"

Yes.

"No," I say as I sit up again, looking at him with agitated grey eyes, my black hair sticking to my face because of the way I was on the table. "Now tell me the details of this apartment thing. How do I know I can trust you?"

"Wow, getting right to the point," he says, his smooth voice assailing my ears once more in that mocking tone of his. He leans back in his chair, like this is some kind of casual business meeting, and I find it weird that he can create such an atmosphere for himself here, of all places. "Well, I haven't told Namie about your location yet, so why would I tell her now?"

"I don't know that," I challenge him. "Besides, I don't even know if we're friends or foes at this point, so tell me why I should trust you."

"You're right," he says, "You shouldn't trust me. I'm a horrible person, and you will likely hear that from more than just Kida Masaomi. However, it doesn't look like you have a choice." He leans toward me and puts his elbows on the table. "It's either rotting in here for as long as there's no one to pay your bail, or if I do pay your bail, but you decide to stay away from me, you could rot on the streets. However, if you come with me, you will have a comfortable home and someone to check up on you now and then – and I promise not to tell Namie where you are."

I just stare at him, and then look away from those penetrating eyes. They're spears coming into my soul, taking in everything I'm thinking, everything I want. They're sucking the life out of me, but at the same time, they're offering me my only way out. He's right – I have no choice but to go with him, even if I have no idea what his motives are.

When I look back at him, I say, "You're right – you're a horrible person, but I'm stuck in here because of you, so I might as well get out of here because of you. There's just one more thing that I want to know."

"What's that?" he asks.

"Why? Why are you so willing to get me out of here?"

He smiles at me again. "Didn't I just finish telling you that you don't have a choice? Whether you trust me or not is irrelevant right now. Same as whether you know my name or not. I told you that I would be staying at my office most of the time, and it's not like you ever address me by my name anyway."

I glower at him. "That's because I don't know it," I say.

He laughs, and throws his hands up into the air as he leans back in his chair, yelling out, "Waiter!" He beckons over a security guard, who looks at him like he should be the one in the cell – which is probably true. The guard comes over anyway, and I roll my eyes as the man in front of me says, "I would like to pay this girl's bail. How much will it be?"

What a jerk-off, I think as I watch him stand up and walk out of the room as another guard comes over and puts handcuffs on me. I roll my eyes at this, thinking it's really not necessary. I mean, I was brought here for sleeping on a park bench, not killing someone.

A little while later, the man comes back with his hands in his pockets, walking behind the cop from when I was arrested. I sit up on my bed when I see them coming, almost hopeful that this guy didn't have enough money.

"This man paid your bail," the officer says as he unlocks the cell door. "He says you two are really old friends."

"Yeah," I say as I walk out of the cell with the man behind me. Then, I turn to the man and say, "Wait outside for me. I want to thank the officer for everything he's done for me." I smile at him, and when I know he's going to refuse, I glare threateningly in his direction.

"Alright, alright," he chuckles. "I'll meet you outside then, Shio-chan. Just don't run out the back."

As soon as he's gone, I turn to the officer and say quietly, "I know you had a conversation with him. Did he tell you his name?"

The cop looks surprised for a moment before he looks at me like I've gone insane. "Um, no," he says slowly. "I thought you two were old friends. Shouldn't you know that by now?"

"He's not an old friend," I say honestly, but then I sigh and start walking away from him back to the Nameless One. I feel awkward just asking that and walking away, as I imagine all the assumptions that must be popping into the nice officer's head right about now. I don't really care, though, seeing as he's not an important character in this story – wait, what?

I really hate not knowing this guy's name.

When I step out of the police station, I see him standing in front of the doors, waiting for me. I don't know if I'm relieved or annoyed that he stayed, but he's there, and now I'll be able to live in at least a small apartment, if any. He could just as easily take me straight to Yagiri Namie, my foe without a face, whereas he seems to be my foe without a name. Yet I'm spending more time with him than I have with anyone else in the past two years.

"So," he says as we start walking, "Did you find out?"

"Find what out?" I ask, feigning innocence, but he knows. Of course he knows. He knows everything that goes on in my life. Why not? There isn't much.

"My name," he prompts me, and I sigh.

"No."

"Well, good, because this is too much fun to just end here."

"Yeah," I grumble, "It sure is." I look around and then back at him, wondering what kind of car he would have, but when we start walking down the sidewalk I'm a little disappointed. All I've been doing so far is walking, and now he wants me to walk more? I really hope he's insane, because if he's not, then he is definitely twisted. "We're walking?" I demand, and he turns and looks at me with a smirk on his face.

"Yep," he says.

"Why?"

"I want to," he says, "and I don't have a car."

"Why?" My voice has gotten darker now, with the more annoyance that has assailed me.

"Is that all you ever say?" he asks me. He stops walking now and pinches my cheeks, a smile coming to his face as he stretches the skin and watches as my face is contorted into an odd shape. "Why are roses red? Why are violets blue? Why is Shiori Shiori? Why does a rose have to be rose, even if it's called by any other name?"

"Ugh, shop dah!" I complain as I grab his hands in mine and try to pull them away from my face before he can do anymore damage. He doesn't let go, but just keeps pulling, spouting yet more stupid "why" questions from western fairy tales and plays, and sometimes twisting them to put a "why" in front of it. A few minutes later he stops, and I rub my newly red cheeks, grimacing in pain.

"Why do you always have to-?" I begin, but when he gives me a significant look, I step away from him and mutter, "Nevermind," while holding my face protectively.

"That's better," he sighs as we make our way through the streets of Ikebukuro to this mysterious place of his that he described to me as – actually, I don't think he described it to me at all. How annoying.

It turns out to be another apartment building, but the apartments themselves looks pretty expensive from the outside. There are a lot of windows and balconies that people seem to like, but I'm not really interested in those. They make me feel like I'm susceptible to constant attack, which I actually am, and therefore they just make me nervous. He opens the door to the building with a key on his keychain, so I have to assume that he comes here a lot – or something. Wait, does he live here? No, he said he lives at his office – practically. I don't know if that was an expression, or if he was being serious. I never know with him.

He takes me to the fifth floor, where from there is a balcony hanging over the edge, and a large glass door leading to said balcony. I feel uncomfortable looking out there, but he seems to enjoy it. I can imagine him as a person who likes to watch others, like he does with me. His eyes are always saying something. Most of the time he leaves it up to me to find out what, and other times he doesn't even let me figure it out, and just leaves it to my imagination. It's more like a condo than an apartment, which actually makes it better than what I expected. The colours are modest and tame – like brown and tan – in most places, but when I walk into the living room (the largest room in the condo) I find a crimson red ceiling and walls, and only the carpet and furniture are those same modest and tame colours I saw everywhere else. There's also a bookshelf along the far wall, but it doesn't look like it's been nailed in place.

He walks out onto the balcony as soon as we get here and leans over the railing, making me nervous, so I join him, looking down on the sidewalk and the street below. It's weird, but somehow I don't feel awkward, coming to a place like this with him. I mean, sure, it's unfamiliar, and he's letting me stay here on my own, but I don't feel like I'm intruding at all. Actually, it feels oddly welcoming.

"So," I say as I hold my hair, which is blowing in a faint breeze, out of my face and lean against the railing with my back to the people below. "Is this your place?"

"I bought it," he tells me, and I just stare at him. Geez... what is he, rich or something? When he sees my expression, he smirks and says, "You'd be surprised at how much an informant makes every year. People will pay a lot of money just for someone to tell them something about what's going on in this city."

"You're an informant?" I enquire as my mind goes back to the first night that I discovered that people were actually following me. They mentioned an informant, and as far as I know they were talking about me. I lean my head back and look at the sky, letting my arms hang below the railing as I lean against the only thing holding me up. For a moment I wonder if it will give out, like the fence did at school, but then I remember that no one but he knows that I'm here. However, that thought doesn't necessarily make me feel all that safe, considering it is him. "So you're the one they were talking about," I mutter, and I feel his eyes on me once more, but I don't return his gaze, and I don't answer the questions that he's silently throwing at me.

"Shio-chan," he says suddenly, and only now do I turn my head to look at him. His eyes are laughing at me again, and that same smirk he always has is on his face. I have to admit, it's starting to grow on me, that smirk of his. It annoys me most of the time, but that's only when I'm in a bad mood, which has been most of the time lately, but now that I have a roof over my head – at least until he turns me over to Yagiri Namie – I actually find it kind of cute... in an evil way. It suits him.

"What would you do if I suddenly knocked you over the railing, and made you fall to your death?"

I stand up almost immediately, staring at him with wide eyes.

"What?" I demand. "Why would you ask that? You know what I think about falling from a building! It's disgusting!"

"I know," he says calmly, "but what would you do?"

"I'd drag you down with me!" I snap at him. "I wouldn't let you go free after something like that! What kind of moron do you think I am?"

"I was just wondering," he says as he turns and heads back into the condo, and I go back with him, closing the glass door behind him. Geez, he wasn't seriously thinking of doing that, was he? Maybe he really is insane. When we get back inside, we end up in the living room, and enter the kitchen, where he puts a set of keys on the table as he turns around to face me.

"These are for the apartment," he says as he takes off his fur-lined coat and puts it across the back of a chair that he has pulled out, and now sits in after getting a drink from the fridge. "I come here sometimes, but mostly I just stay with Namie at my office. Basically, there's everything you need, including TV and internet, but I don't have a computer, so the internet is useless."

"Then why do you have it?" I ask blandly, but he ignores me as he takes a sip from the bottle that he has put on the table.

"There are towels in the bathroom if you want to have a shower, and there's shampoo and other bathroom stuff too. I don't have any razors or shaving cream – or whatever you girls call it – that's good for a girl, so you'll have to get a job to get your own stuff." I roll my eyes. He should know my job situation by now, shouldn't he? "Everything else is pretty obvious. There are also books in the living room."

For a moment I look around, unsure of what to do, and then I too walk over to the fridge and take out a drink. There's some cheap beer in the front, which is what I think he's drinking right now, but I didn't really pay attention to him when he took it out. Plus, I learned my lesson on alcohol with that sake. Ugh, that stuff was gross. It tasted like... well, like something had died and then all the bodily fluids were poured into a bottle and named something fancy. Sake. It sounds pretty at least.

"Shio-chan," he says from behind me, and I almost hit my head coming out of the refrigerator, at which he smirks when I come up again to look at him. "There's some pop on the bottom shelf."

"O-Oh," I mutter, feeling my face go slightly pink. "I figured something like that."

He laughs at me, as always, making me even more embarrassed. Why did I have to take so long when I'm trying to decide on something? I really have to break that habit. I take a pop out of the fridge and turn back to him, sitting across from him at the table. Suddenly, I chuckle under my breath as a slightly nostalgic feeling comes over me, and he looks at me in surprise, the beer bottle already pressed to his lips as he looks at me curiously with those sharp brown eyes of his. He lowers the bottle before he even takes another sip.

"What are you laughing at?" He sounds like he never expected me to laugh at all, ever, like he thinks of me as some kind of supremely depressed robot – well, I guess the supremely depressed part isn't so off.

"It's weird," I mutter, and I feel myself blush slightly as I realize that I'm about to share my thoughts with this man. I guess he has grown on me. "It almost feels like I'm having a friend over to hang out again, like I did when my parents were still alive." I twirl the bottle of pop around under my fingers on the table, looking away from him. "It's been so long since I actually had a friend, and now, even though I think of you more as an enemy than anything... you've actually helped me out more than any of my friends would have. Geez," I add with a dark laugh. "They all deserted me when they found out my parents were killed like that. They treated me like a freaking leper!"

"Shio-chan," he addresses me again, and I look up at him once more to find his eyes still on me. "You don't think I'm doing this because I'm being nice, do you?"

"No way," I laugh darkly, but I'm being totally honest. "I definitely think you have an ulterior motive for bringing me here, but I don't really care, as long as you don't hand me over to this Namie person. I don't know what you want from me, but that's none of my business right now anyway, and knowing you, I wouldn't get that information even if I wanted it." He smiles at that, and I continue to share his gaze.

"What if what I wanted was your body?" he asks me calmly, and I feel my heart skip a beat at this question, but I don't look away from him. "Would you be alright with that?"

"If you wanted my body, I would have no choice," I tell him, and I see an almost indiscernible spark of surprise and amusement come into those dangerous eyes. "I owe you a lot, whether you're doing this to be kind, or you just want something to blackmail me with in the future. Either way, you're..." I stop myself here, though, unsure of whether I really want to call him what first came to my mind or not. I look away from him, and continue to watch my fingers twirl the still unopened bottle around on the table. I really don't want to finish that sentence, but I know he's going to ask me to do so eventually.

"I'm what?" he asks. Great, there it is, I think to myself sarcastically.

"Nothing," I say as I stand up, suddenly ignoring my pop. "I'm going to have a shower. If you really want my body, now would be a good time to take it. If not, then leave."

He gets up, still looking amused as he leaves his unfinished beer on the table. Suddenly, he reaches toward me and grabs my wrist as I pass him, pulling me back toward him. I gasp in surprise and horror as he pushes me onto the table, and holds my hands above my head, his eyes cold and dark. He's smirking at me again, and my eyes have gone wide with the horror and shock at what he's just done... and what he's potentially going to do.

I feel myself shaking under his weight as he presses himself on top of me, his face only inches from mine, his breath warm on my skin.

"Tell me, Shio-chan..." he begins slowly, smoothly, "Do you really agree with what you said back there? That if I really wanted your body, I could take it without any question? Or did you think I was being hypothetical?"

My eyes go wide at this, and I feel my heart begin to race. His body is so warm, his hands so rough, but oddly comfortable as he grips my wrists above my head. When I hesitate, I feel him force my legs open with his body, fitting right between them. He's getting closer to me, and pressing on me even more than he was before, and my heart won't stop racing now.

I'm mortified. I really did think that what he said was hypothetical. I even thought that he might actually be joking, because he doesn't seem like the type to do this sort of thing, unless he's just teasing – but I can see in his cruel, easily-amused eyes that he is not just joking. He's being as sadistic and horrible as he can, and chances are that having my virginity taken by someone like this won't be pleasant, especially against my own will. My breath is coming in short gasps when I finally look away from him, trying my best to look calm about this, but it's not working. My voice is trembling as much as my body, and my arms are instinctively trying to come down by my sides to protect myself, but he's holding them firmly against the table.

"I..." I begin slowly, "I thought... that you were being hypothetical. Y-You don't s-seem like-" Suddenly, a slight whimper comes out of my mouth as he shifts his hips between my legs, and my entire body tenses. My breath is taken from me in one fell swoop from him as tears simultaneously come to my eyes. He chuckles under his breath and comes toward me, tilting his head slightly so that our noses don't touch. At first I think he's going to kiss me, and I tense again, closing my eyes and turning my head to avoid it, but he stops halfway there, only to laugh at me again.

I've given up. I was right to think that I couldn't trust this insane man. Of course, he only cares about himself. However, I did say that I would have no choice if he wanted to take me, so I guess I should stick with that, as long as I'm obviously not in a position to bargain.

My throat is dry. "It's obvious that I don't have any defence against you," I hear my voice say, still trembling. "So I'll just say one thing: be gentle."

Suddenly, he bursts out into a fit of laughter and bows his head as his body convulses on top of me, and I feel myself getting even more uncomfortable at that. I wince and try to move away from him, but he's still holding me so securely against the table.

"I almost expected you to fight me there," he laughs. Then, unexpectedly, he kisses my cheek, pressing my face into the table as well as he continues to laugh at me, even with his mouth against my face. He lets go of me then, releasing my arms as he stands up and backs away from me, closing my legs as he steps out from between them. "You're just too easy, Shio-chan."

I sit up, horrified, and watch him as he goes around the table and grabs his coat from behind the chair, still laughing. Suddenly it occurs to me that he was being hypothetical all along, and I had no need to worry in the first place, and when he did that, he was only playing with me.

As he walks by me, I stand up off the table and pull my leg back, only to give him a hard roundhouse kick in the back. He's not expecting this, and it sends him forward about two feet, but he's still laughing.

"Ow, Shio-chan," he complains with a grin on his face, "What was that for?"

"What do you mean, what was that for?" I demand, making my voice whiny and annoying as I imitate him. "That was for pissing me off! You slimy, underhanded, useless imbecile!" I punch him in the chest this time – or at least I'm about to, but he's expecting an attack and quickly grabs my hand, stopping it halfway there.

"Wow, Shio-chan, I've never seen you this angry before," he says to me, "Why weren't you like this when I attacked you?"

"I wasn't expecting it," I snap at him suddenly, and he raises an eyebrow.

"Why not?" he asks. It's a legitimate question, I realize, but that's what I hate most about it. The why not that he just said actually fits the context of what's going on, and I hate it. I hate it!

"What do you mean, why not?" I demand as I pull my hand away. "Why would I be expecting that from you! I know you're not a pervert or anything, so why would you try to rape me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" he asks, raising his arms innocently. "After all, you said yourself that I'm always playing with you."

"I never said that!"

"Oh yes you did," he says. Leaning toward me, he taps my nose gently with his index finger, teasing me again. He's always freaking teasing me! Suddenly, I grab his finger and bend it back as far as I can before his hand goes back too, and, laughing, he tries to pull away. "Shio-chan-"

"Don't call me that!" I yell at him, and then just start spouting insults at him. "You're a pervert! Just a twisted, stupid, freaking clown! No one will ever take you seriously because you only ever play with people! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" Suddenly, I feel tears come to my eyes as I scream this at him, rage boiling inside of me. "I hate you!" My voice cracks the fourth time, and I realize soon enough that tears are rolling down my cheeks, so my eyes go wide with horror and I turn as far away from him as quickly and as far I can, still holding his finger back.

He looks at me for a moment, still as amused as ever, before he takes his hand away fro me and puts it on top of my head. Right now, I'm so humiliated that I don't even care, and I just let him. He chuckles as he ruffles my hair a bit, and then brings his face close to mine again, but this time he avoids being uncomfortably close, as he was last time.

"Gomen, Shio-chan," he mutters to me with a laugh just itching to come out through his voice. "Would it make you feel better if I told you my name?"

I look up at him now, feeling like an embarrassed little kid who just burst out sobbing in front of their best friend, and I sniff pathetically, wiping my tears away with the back of my hand. Really, I think I probably look like a little kid to him. He laughs at me and then helps me wipe them away, his hands resting on my cheeks as his thumbs do all the work.

Then, he tells me: "Orihara Izaya, but to you, I'll just be known as Izaya... OK?"

Looking away from him, I sniffle a little and nod. "OK," I mutter pathetically. He laughs at me again and then backs away from me, and I find suddenly that he's towering over me, for which I hate him – again.

"Well, I'm off," he says as he opens the heads out the door. I follow him to say goodbye, but right at the door, he turns to me, and I see that his eyes are once again laughing at me. Hopefully he doesn't tell anyone else about this little incident. "Byebye, Shio-chan." He waves to me as the door closes behind him.

A few minutes after he's gone, I turn to the rest of the apartment and suddenly realize how big it is. With two people here, it doesn't seem that huge at all, but with just one... Suddenly, I feel as if I've been left behind. I lean against the door and slide down it, looking around hopelessly.

How long will this feeling last, I wonder to myself. How long will I have to stay here, alone, without any company at all? How long will she be looking for me? I pull my legs in and hug myself tightly, burying my face in my knees as I look around. It seems so dark now that he's gone, and cold too. When he was with me, I hardly even realized it, but this place is huge – it's dark, and it's cold, and it feels more like a dungeon right now than it does a safe place to stay. I hug myself tighter yet and close my eyes, remembering the warmth he offered me on the roof that day...

"Izaya..." I hear myself whisper to myself, and I blush slightly at the sound of his name.

I like it.