This is the longest chapter since chapter 13 XD
Is my writing getting more messy or is it just me?
anyway, please enjoy the chapter (if you're reading it) XP
Note: Futon is a japanese mattres (in case you didn't know)
Not long after Shizuo left, Kazuo came while carrying a bunch of grocery bags. He handed some of the groceries to Miyuki.
"Hey, you left these behind when you went."
Miyuki received the groceries that Kazuo handed out to her.
"Ah, sorry about that, I kind of forgot about these. Thanks for bringing them here. I better go back now see ya."
Miyuki left, leaving the place without saying anything to the group of men that she said were her friends and acted as if they weren't even there. The group of men were sitting on the ground due to exhaustion from all the running and sighed in relief that they were still alive after making the almighty Heiwajima Shizuo mad. They did not realize that Miyuki had already left.
Kazuo was left clueless. He approached Celty that was still near the area to ask her what happened.
"Excuse me Celty-san, but what just happened? Wasn't Shizuo-kun here?"
Celty typed on her PDA and told Kazuo about all the misunderstanding that happened between Shizuo and the group of men.
"So that's what happened."
[Do you know these people, Kazuo-kun?]
Kazuo gazed at the men that were still on the ground and taking their breath. He sighed and faced Celty with his usual cool expression.
"Yeah, I know them. They might look kind of suspicious at first glance but they aren't bad guys."
[I see. I have some work to do so I'll take my leave now.]
Celty left on her black motorcycle that was actually a horse. There were no engine sounds coming out of the motorcycle when she left but there was the sound or a horse's nigh.
Kazuo doesn't know Celty's identity as the headless rider yet since he assumes that it's just a rumor and Celty is just an ordinary human even if she doesn't speak.
The men that were sitting on the ground are now back on their feet. They approached Kazuo that was thinking about the oddness of Celty's motorcycle.
"Hey Kuro, long time no see."
The man wearing a headphone around his neck said with a friendly tone.
"Do you know where Aniki went? She was just here a minute ago?"
The man with red bleached hair said.
"Aniki? You guys are still calling her that? It would make more sense if you call her Aneki since she's a girl, you know?"
"But Aniki sounds cooler for Miyu-chi and she often acts more like a guy than a girl anyway."
"Then you should be more consistent on what you want to call her. If you can call her by her name just do so. Anyway, she already left."
"What? She already left? But she didn't even say hi to us. Not to mention we've been looking all over for her."
The man with red bleached hair whined and put on a depressed look on his face.
"I'm guessing that she's annoyed with you guys, that's why she left just like that."
"But it's still a bit to harsh for her to just leave like that. It's not like we did anything wrong, right?"
The man wearing a headphone around his neck said.
"She was probably annoyed because you guys made Shizuo-kun mad."
"Well, if that's the case then it's Tetsu's fault all over again."
The man with red bleached hair said as he pointed to the bespectacled man. The man that was just called Tetsu doesn't seem to be in the mood to argue about the same problem again, so he just kept quiet.
"Why did you guys come here anyway? You mentioned something about looking for Miyu all over Ikebukuro, didn't you, Sho?"
"Well, there's going to be an event at Shibuya soon and we wanted to tell our beloved princess about it."
The man with red bleached hair that was referred as Sho by Kazuo said.
"You called her Aniki then you called her Miyu-chi, now you're calling her princess? You seriously need to be more consistent on what you're going to call Miyu by."
.
.
It was night time and Shizuo was just looking down at the streets from a highway. Celty happens to be passing though the highway and saw Shizuo, so she pulled over and stopped. Shizuo noticed Celty's presents and turned around to face her.
"Yo, Celty. Going home after work?"
[Yes. What are you doing here Shizuo?]
"I'm not really doing anything right now. I was just thinking about something."
[Is something wrong? You know that you can talk to me about anything, right? We're friends after all.]
After reading the words typed on Celty's PDA Shizuo stayed quiet for a moment before speaking.
"You know about today. I almost hurt her friends because of a misunderstanding. If she hadn't showed up back then, those guys would probably be in the hospital by now."
Shizuo said in a tone that evoked sympathy.
[But it turned out fine and the misunderstanding was solved so there's nothing to worry about.]
"But what if she didn't show up and I beat the living hell out of those guys back then? I bet Miyuki would hate me."
[I don't think she would hate you even if that happened. She didn't hate you after you threw a vending machine at her after all.]
Celty typed on her PDA hoping that Shizuo would cheer up and wouldn't worry anymore after reading it.
"But that was unintentional. I was really going to hurt her friends on purpose this time if she hadn't shown up."
Celty didn't know what to type next. It was rare for Shizuo to be concerned about whether or not someone hates him. A lot of people hated Shizuo, especially those who became his victims but he couldn't care less about them.
After a moment of thinking what to type Celty finally typed something.
[Shizuo, could it be that you love Miyu-chan?]
-First it was Tom-san and now it's Celty. Is it really that obvious that I love her?
Celty had already typed out the sentence when she realized that it was not the best idea to ask about that and immediately erased the sentence even though Shizuo has already read it.
[Forget what I said earlier.]
"Why do you think that I love Miyuki?"
Shizuo ignored what Celty just typed. Celty nervously typed on her PDA to answer Shizuo's question.
[It's just that Shinra once mentioned that you probably love Miyu-chan and it's not like you to worry about someone hating you or not.]
[But I do understand why you don't want Miyu-chan to hate you.]
Even though they don't know Miyuki very well but she has become a friend to Celty and Shizuo whose existent's were mostly unaccepted by normal people. Miyuki was nice and friendly to them and overall she treated them as if they were ordinary people, which they weren't while at the same time she didn't deny the fact that of their unusualness. To be hated by someone that has accepted them for who they are, it would be sad and Celty knew that.
"To be honest, I do love her."
[Does she know that?]
"No, she doesn't and I prefer it to be that way."
[Why is that? If you really love her then why don't you just tell her? I know it might be weird but it's just like me and Shinra.]
[He kept on telling me that he loves me from the start and even though I didn't accept his feelings at first, but I do now.]
Shizuo fixed his sunglasses after reading what Celty typed on her PDA.
"I just want to keep things the way they are. If I confess to her, will she accept it? I don't mind if she rejects it but what if we won't be able to be just friends like we are now?"
Celty wasn't sure on how to respond. In her case, she was the one that being confessed to and Shinra isn't someone with such complicated feelings.
"Being friends with her is more than enough. If she gets too involved with me, I'm afraid that something bad could happen to her. I'm aware that I there are a lot of people that don't like me in this city and there's that manipulative bastard, who knows what he'll do to Miyuki if he finds out about her."
Later that night when Shizuo was on his way home he saw that Miyuki was buying a drink from a vending machine. It looked like that there was something wrong with the vending machine and the drink won't come out.
Shizuo just watch Miyuki from afar and it looked like she was giving up on getting the drink from the vending machine, when suddenly she kick the side of the machine and the drink finally came out of the machine.
After Miyuki picked up the can from the vending machine she noticed that Shizuo was just standing not far from where she was and approached him.
"Ah, Shizuo! Great timing, I was just on my way to your place."
Miyuki gave a smile while Shizuo looked at the can that Miyuki held in her hand. It was a can of black coffee.
-It's already late and she going to drink coffee?
"You are on your way home, right Shizuo?"
"Y-yeah, why are you going to my place this late anyway?"
"Well, there's something I want to discuss with you. If you don't mind that is."
Miyuki followed Shizuo to his apartment and went inside. The place was pretty simple and plain. There was a sofa and coffee table in the living room, but other than that there wasn't much there.
"So, this is how your place looks like."
"I know it's not much, but having other stuff in here would be a hassle. I'll go and heat some water to make tea."
They both entered the kitchen then Shizuo heated some water in a kettle on the stove and left it to boil while Miyuki put down her can of black coffee on the kitchen table. Both Miyuki and Shizuo sat on the chairs that was in the kitchen as they waited for the water to boil.
"What is it that you want to discuss with me?"
"Well, actually about what happened today…I was pretty surprised when I saw you chase someone other than Izaya-kun."
He was surprised on the topic Miyuki brought up, but he was even more surprised that she mentioned he name of his archenemy.
"Usually you wouldn't chase others if they aren't Izaya-kun, right? Those idiots must've made you really mad that you had to chase them."
Shizuo was confused on what to say. He had some questions he wanted to ask her, but doesn't know what to ask first. He wondered what does she know about Izaya, what kind of relationship she had with the men that she said were her friends, and why do they call her Aniki.
"Are you still mad at them? What did they actually do to make you mad?"
Shizuo that was caught up in his thoughts came back to his senses.
"Everything is fine now. They didn't really do anything, it was just a misunderstanding."
Miyuki leaned back on her chair and crossed her arms.
"I see. Well, it's a relief to know that you don't hold a grudge on them."
"Who were those guys anyway and why do they call you Aniki?"
"Like I said back then, those idiots are my friends. The one with glasses is Kirisaki Tetsuya. The one that has red hair and talks a lot is Daisuke Shori. The one that wore a headphone around his neck is Fukuhara Shin. And the one that wore a headband is Toramizu Kurama. I became friends with them not long after I knew Kazu. They're a bunch of troublesome guys and often make people give a bad impression about them but their nice guys."
Shizuo was never good at remembering a lot names and he didn't really remember any of the names that Miyuki just mentioned. He just listened to what she said without remembering the names she had mentioned.
"I don't know why their still calling me Aniki now. They started calling me that ever since we became a group in middle school and they said that I was the leader or something, though they do call me by my name sometimes, especially Sho-kun, he often changes the names he calls me with."
Talking about her friends, Shizuo remembered that he almost hurt them and his uneasy feeling came back like when he was talking to Celty earlier.
"Miyuki, would you hate me if I fought your friends until they have to be hospitalized if you didn't show up today?"
The question just slipped out of his mouth unintentionally. Miyuki uncrossed her arms and placed them on the table.
"I wouldn't hate you, but I might be mad at you depending on the situation. You're not the only one to blame in that incident, after all they're the ones who made you mad in the first place. The trouble that those guys get into is their own responsibility and I'll only act if it's necessary."
A few minutes passed by in silence, the water hasn't boiled yet and Shizuo had completely forgot that he wanted to ask Miyuki about what she knows about Izaya.
Tired of waiting for the water to boil, Miyuki opened the can of coffee that she had placed on the table and drank it until there wasn't a drop left in the can.
"Actually there's something that I wanted to ask you, that's why I came here."
"What is it?"
"Have you ever killed anyone before?"
She said so bluntly as if it was a normal thing to ask someone.
"No, I haven't. Are you accusing me that I've killed someone before?"
"I'm not accusing you, it's just that the thought came to me. Is killing someone easy?"
Shizuo had no idea from where did she have such thoughts and simply asked:
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean killing someone is pretty easy. All you have to do is stab someone in the heart or if you don't want to get your hands dirty you can just give that someone poison. There are many ways to kill someone, but is it really that easy? Killing actually requires a lot of mental strength. People can easily have the feeling of wanting to kill, but to actually kill someone is a whole different thing. To actually kill someone with your own hands is hard. It's hard to kill someone calmly."
Hearing all this talk about killing doesn't seem right to Shizuo.
"Oi, oi, a girl shouldn't be talking about stuff like that even if it's only joking."
"I know that it's something a girl shouldn't be talking about, but it's your fault I that I started to about it."
"How is my fault?"
Shizuo raised a brow in confusion.
"Yes, it's your fault. You keep on telling people that you really hate Izaya-kun and that you want to kill him or wish he was dead. You've known and chased him for years yet he's still alive. Do you really have the resolve to kill him? Can you actually kill him? Do you really intend to kill him every time you chase him around town? I kept thinking about it and it bothered me."
Miyuki complained and questioned Shizuo about his habit on hunting down Izaya.
"But after thinking about whether or not you could actually kill Izaya-kun, I wondered if I can take someone's life. I never really hated anyone that I felt that I want to kill them, but if that were to happen I would probably kill without hesitation since it's something that I have decided."
Miyuki said with a serious voice.
"To bad for you I don't hate Izaya-kun like you do. I don't hate Izaya-kun but I can't say that I like him either, I guess I just don't like him since he's so annoying. If I hated him as much as you do, I'm sure he'd already be dead by now. Not that I mean to brag, but I'm sure if I tried to kill him it would be pretty easy since I'll kill him silently without making a sound."
Miyuki said in a confident manner, overconfident to be more precise. She talked about killing someone as if they were talking about shooting ducks.
The talk about killing Izaya reminded him that he wanted to ask what she knew about him, but before he could ask that, the kettle on the stove let out a whistling sound that was the sign that the water is has boiled.
Shizuo got up from his chair and went to make some tea. After making two cups of tea he didn't know if he should put sugar in Miyuki's tea or not because he doesn't know if she liked her tea plain or sweet.
"Oi, Miyuki, do want some sugar in your tea?"
There was no answer and there weren't any sounds of Miyuki considering Shizuo's question.
"So, you want sugar in your tea or not?"
There was still no answer. After a few seconds of no response Shizuo felt like he was being ignored.
"Are you even list-"
When Shizuo turned around to see what Miyuki was doing he saw that she was already fast asleep. Her head was cushioned on top of her arms and she slept soundly on the kitchen table. She looked just like a little kid from Shizuo's perspective.
-Seriously, she sleeping after she drank a can of black coffee.
-She looks pretty cute when she's sleeping like that.
Shizuo just gazed at Miyuki's sleeping figure until he realized that he can't just let her sleep on his kitchen table all night. He could take her back to her apartment but that would mean his going to have to wake her up. He didn't want to disturb her peaceful sleep.
So, Shizuo lifted Miyuki gently while trying not to wake her up and brought her to the room he uses to sleep in. He tucked her in a futon that was already laid out on the floor and turned off the lights. Before getting out of the room, Shizuo looked back to see Miyuki's sleeping face then he went out and closed the door.
Since the futon he uses to sleep on is being used by Miyuki, Shizuo decided to just sleep on the sofa that night.
Please review and tell me what you think
critics are also accepted ^_^
I'm not sure if the title actually fits the chapter or not :P
Next Chapter: A Strange Feeling