~*~ Day 21- Arguing ~*~

"And then Mikuru-chan said-"

Kido barely got halfway through the sentence before she tuned him out. For the past week and a half it had been nothing but "Mikuru this" and "Mikuru that" coming out of Kano's mouth. Apparently Mikuru was the girl that usually sold Kano all his magazines when he went out to purchase them, and rather recently he'd been talking to her. A lot. And it was starting to make Kido sick. Even just thinking the girl's name seemed to leave a bad taste in Kido's mouth, but she ignored it.

She sat at the table, head tilted down so that her bangs partly covered her eyes that stared down at her now unappetizing food, her fork gently picking at it. There was nothing more that Kido wanted than to leave right now or at least put her earphones in so she could block out the conversation happening in front of her. But those were in her room, and getting up now would only cause suspicion.

Kano continued to chatter away energetically with Seto, who seemed to be laughing almost forcefully, and Mary, who seemed to be drinking in his words with fascination. Probably because she didn't understand the concept of 'flirting'.

Hibiya was the only other quiet one at the table besides Kido herself. Since Konoha usually went home with Shintaro and Momo (for some odd reason), Hibiya was the only other member without a home to go home to, and he was now an addition to their regular daily routines at the base. He was now sitting as apathetically as Kido, chewing whatever food he'd just recently crammed into his mouth.

Against her will, Kido was still catching bits of the conversation. "-she was so cute while fangirling. She reminds me if Mary-chan sometimes-"

Cute? Its sounds like a lot more than that,

Kido thought bitterly. What was wrong with her? She was just tired, she tried to convince herself, she was just in a bad mood, it happened every once in a whil- No. No, no, no. Okay, so she had to admit it to herself, she was jealous. She was jealous that Kano was gushing over Mikuru, like she was something special.

Her thoughts made her chest tighten. Was she anything special? Was Kido Tsubomi anything to be treasured and cared for? To be called cute or beautiful in a sincere way and not as if the person seemed like they were just trying to mess with her? In her opinion, not really.

Even with these gut wrenching thoughts, Kido's rage seemed to consume her more than anything. Why face the pain when you can get mad and drown it all out?

"Shut up." she found herself saying. It must have been too quiet because no one responded.

Kido stood up suddenly; her knees hit the table roughly, causing a tremor. "Shut up!" Kido said louder, almost to the point it seemed like she was screaming.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her. Her face heated up, but she convinced herself it was more because of her rage than embarrassment.

"Kido…. Are you alright?" that was Seto, seeming to sense her mood and speaking to her in a soft voice.

She disregarded him, but instead her gaze came up to boar into Kano who had an amusedly puzzled look, as if waiting for her sudden outburst to turn into something interesting. That, even of itself, hurt her.

"If you couldn't tell, I was talking to you." Kido spat out the words venomously without taking her eyes off Kano.

"Why?" he asked, "I didn't do anything."

Kido ignored him. "Do you get some sort of sick satisfaction over it?" she growled, fists clenching by her sides.

Kano raised both his eyebrows. "What are you talking about Kido?"

What was she talking about? That even Kido didn't know. She just wanted it to stop. For it to stop hurting. Silence spread through the air like a raging forest fire, and all Kido wanted to do was disappear.

So she turned. She didn't know where she was going, only that she was leaving, and headed for the door.

Her hand had already clutched the door knob when she felt a firm grip on her other arm. Kido didn't have to turn round to know who it was. "Let go of me." she hissed.

"Where is Leader even going to go?" Kano asked, his voice was teasing but she knew he was just trying to disguise the unsure tone threatening to edge it's way in.

"Let. Go. Of. Me." she said again through clenched teeth.

He didn't. "Kido-"

Before he could finish, Kido whirled on him. Her eyes were blazing as much as her dark ones could and the back of her hand slapped Kano across the face. His hand let go of her as he stumbled back. Even with all the times she hit him, this one felt different then the others.

Kido could feel tears forming in her eyes and she slammed the door behind her.