"HAPPY NEW YEARS!"
Reika laughed as a heavy arm swung around her shoulder, pulling her into her uncle's drunken chest. With a bottle of beer of her own, she raised hers to toast to his with a loud clank. Her mother laughed as she pried the tipsy 40-year-old away from her just-as-drunk daughter. Reika let herself be dragged by the middle-aged woman to a stable seat on the couch, where other guests occupied.
"Happy New Years!" Reika laughed as she plopped onto the couch. She shamelessly clung to her mother, her fists clasp over her pretty white blouse as she buried her face into her neck, giving her a hug.
"Happy New Years." Her mother, the more sober of the bunch patted her head soothingly. "What's your new year resolution?" She asked with an attentive grin.
"Hm? Resolution?" Reika thought, staring at her mother's matching light brown eyes. She looked away, her thoughts scattered and unreasonable. She grinned as she stared at the ceiling. "My new years resolution.." She started. A face popped into her mind, though through her drunken haze she couldn't recognize the person. She could, although, identify the person as a male. "I'm gonna marry that guy." She slurred happily, dropping her gaze back to her mother's face. The woman tilted her head in curiosity. "Do you love him?"
"Hm?" She hummed, her eyelids drooping. "Love who?"
"That guy." Her mother exclaimed, surprised that she forgot already.
"What guy? Reika spluttered, confusion painting her happy expression. "Mom you're weird." She muttered as she leaned into the couch, raising her beer to her lips for another swing. The woman sighed heavily, pressing her lips against her temple and walking off, surely to tend to other guests. Reika sat there as she stared helplessly at the popcorn ceiling, trying to fruitlessly count all the tiny bumps. The music and sound of her family and friends in the room was drowned out, her mind off to somewhere else.
An hour of hopeless staring at the ceiling, she finally reached into her pocket for her phone, wanting to check the time. She tugged it out, flipping it open in her view. 1:04am. Where the time had gone, she didn't know. Though as she stared at her phone's tiny screen, she felt as if she was forgetting something. Somehow, she found herself looking through her contacts for a name. Who was it again? She picked the first name that stood out to her and dialed the number, pressing the phone against her ear groggily. A few rings occurred and the anonymous person answered with a cough.
"Rei-chan?" The smooth, young voice asked.
"Mhm." She hummed. "I was forgetting something."
"Is that so?" He laughed, his voice sounding like soft chimes which tickled her ear.
"You have a nice voice." She said suddenly, obviously not thinking.
"You're drunk." He declared with a sigh.
"No." She said after a pause. "I'm fine."
"Yes, yes." He said, his voice rich with amusement, not swayed in the slightest. "So what are you up to?"
"I don't know." She said slowly. "I wanted to say something to someone. I'm not sure if that's you though." She laughed. "I think so, because your name popped out to me."
"Really now," He answered absentmindedly. She could hear tiredness in his voice, as if he had just gotten up. "What is it that you had in mind?"
"I don't know." She said again, and she heard him sigh. "It's a new year." She finally finished lamely.
"Yes, I am fully aware of that." He said with a quiet laugh. "You should get some sleep-"
"Are you alone?" She suddenly asked.
There was silence. A long pause that answered her question itself. "It's one in the morning, Rei-chan." He said blandly.
"It's New Years." She countered. "You shouldn't be alone, even if you're sometimes a butt-hole."
"Oh?" He could only say.
She suddenly gasped. "I-I don't know why I just said that."
"Which part?" He laughed at her again.
"The butthole one." She said firmly. There was another pause and she found herself at a loss of words.
"..What were we talking about again?"
Another sigh. "You were saying that you were going to sleep now."
"Right! I am a little tired." She grinned. "Happy new years! I love you!"
She hung up, without another word, happily shoving her phone into her pocket and closing her eyes. Not the least bit bothered by sleeping on a couch, and completely ignoring her parent's guests, she dozed off within few minutes.
Izaya blinked as the line went dead, indicating that she had hung up. He flicked his phone close and placed it onto his nightstand, staring at the ceiling as he laid back on the bed. Correct, he had spent the evening alone in the comforting solitude of his spacious apartment. He had given Namie a day off, seeing as she had wanted to spend the evening with her precious brother - though she had viciously denied it. Humans were so predictable. He had ventured off on his own to Ikebukuro, where he managed to pester the brute in a game of tag, with the usual of dodging street furniture, before purchasing ootoro and skipping happily home. He was well aware the Reika was not in the city for New Years, visiting her family of course. He hadn't spoken with her since the incident of her most recent breakdown, and hadn't expected her to greet him a happy New Years. Sure, Shinra had given him a brief, slightly irritating, call wishing him a good year that went straight to his voicemail- but that was to be expected considering he had always did that every year.
Although Reika's call, clumsy as it was, was surely unexpected and not as irritating as he expected to be. Not that he had imagined her call. That would be silly. His eyelids fluttered down as an infamous smirk stretched across his face. She hadn't even realized that she had said that she loves him. Know her, she probably meant the statement to be as innocent as possible, intoxicated no less.
Despite knowing that, he could not stop the blood from rushing to his face. His smirk dropped and his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.
She was such an idiot.
