Since I've changed the rating, and a few people have been asking when, I've decided to give a treat. So I sincerely hope you all enjoy!

How did this happen? One minute I was standing alone in his bedroom, the next Shizuo was there, his hands on my hips and his lips pressed against mine, the delightful taste of something sweet mixed with the ashy taste of nicotine dancing against my tongue as he deepened the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning against him and smiling as one of his hands slid onto my back, slipping his fingers underneath the edge of my shirt and spreading his hand flat against the small of my back. This wasn't like him…but hell I wasn't complaining.

"Mmm~ hey, what's gotten into you?" I asked him, my lips brushing his as I talked, but instead of answering me he simply moved away from my face, burying his own against the side of my neck and kissed the juncture, biting down on my pulse enough to leave an imprint. I gasped at the feeling; my breath shallow as I tried to figure out what was happening, what was making him act this way…and how I could get him to do it more often.

God I'm depraved.

"Hey…come on, answer the question," I said again, biting my lip when he bit my earlobe, gingerly, like it was as fragile as rakugan. The hand on my hip moved up, gathering material as it went until the entirety of my right side was exposed to the air and the hand on the small of my back moved to duplicate what its friend did, only to take it to the extreme and slip the neck hole of my shirt up over the back of my head. Shizuo detached himself from my ear and moved away just far enough for me to remove my shirt by myself and throw it into some random corner. I grinned up at him, taking delight in the sight of his blushing face and the way he tried to look anywhere but at my chest, despite just moments earlier trying to get my shirt off for that purpose.

"You haven't answered my question yet," I said playfully, reaching out to him with my right hand and hooking one finger into the v-shape of his vest to bring him back. With his blue sunglasses removed I could see them clearly, his beautiful brown eyes reflecting what he felt. Shyness? Hunger? Want? They all seemed to flash through as I took his hands in mine and placed them back on my naked hips, letting them touch and span the exposed skin he could see. As he rubbed my skin and touched my stomach, I placed my hands back on his vest, unbuttoning it to get at the under layer of fabric, and unbuttoning that as well to get to the layer of skin and flesh. "What's gotten into you?" I asked him, pushing the fabric off his shoulders and raking the tips of my nails down his chest and stomach.

"Nothing," he murmured, transfixed as he lowered his gaze and brought his dominant hand up to my breast, hesitant as he touched the fabric of the cup with his fingertips before spreading it flat against the curve of my breast. My face grew hot and my breath shallow. The hell was with him? And again…how could I get him to do this more often.

"C-come on, just answer the question," I begged, pouting as he ignored my plea and extracted his hand, lowering both to my hips and gripping them tightly as he lifted me up and held me against him. My legs wrapped around his waist while his hands slid underneath my butt, supporting me as he held me against him.

"Do you want me to tell you or do you want to have sex?" he asked me, the erection in his pants rubbing against my groin in an achingly pleasant way, turning my brain to endorphin-addled mush. I didn't answer; I only pushed my lips against his and wrapped my arms around his neck while he carried me to the bed, his knee sliding onto the sheets before laying me down.

"Do you really want to know why I'm acting this way?" he asked me. Unfortunately while he was talking he was also grinding against me and making me hate jeans for the first time in my life.

"I don't care anymore, just keep doing what you're doing," I moaned, wrapping my legs tighter around his waist and arching my back as he ground little circles into my pelvis, his huffs of breath in my ear as he groaned in pleasure.

"You're dreaming," he breathed out, burying his face against my neck once more.

I froze, confused by this unusual answer before I reasoned it to be a joke. "…What? Pft, no way, this feels too real to be a dream," I laughed, removing one of my arms from around his neck and pushing his blond bangs out of the way so I could see his eyes clearly.

"It's just a normal dream based on your repressed sexual frustration. You should probably wake up before you embarrass yourself," he told me, all the while kissing my neck and making me regret taking him seriously.

"No no no! I don't want to go back! I wanna stay here and have sex with you!" I shouted before the room blurred around us and I was pulled into the black chasm leading back into my sex-less reality.

I was startled awake, shooting up into a seated position and panting heavily as my eyes darted from one corner of the room to the other, trying to discern where I was while simultaneously fighting to keep the fake memory of my near sexual experience fresh in my mind. The first several things I noticed were things that alerted me to the fact that I was in the same room I had fallen asleep in. Behind me I heard a snicker before it turned into a full blown chortle. My brother, the ever amused sadist who found pleasure in the most embarrassing of moments, had most likely heard something of worthwhile I was passed out. My only hope was that I didn't talk in my sleep, or moan, or moan Shizuo's name or, God forbid, all three.

"…Good morning," I said hesitantly, looking only at Carney and Setsuko as they ate breakfast. Shizuo sat across from them, right behind me as I turned to acknowledge my brother and his would-be bride, ignoring him fully for fear of having said something embarrassing. Not to mention that I couldn't quite look at him properly at the moment. The simple memory of his hands on me was bringing my mind to a boil before I pushed it to the back of my brain for later.

" 'Morning. How was dream land?" Carney asked me through a mouthful of toast, grinning cheekily as he did so.

"Ah—good! It was good," I said, fumbling for words that were safe to use.

"You were moaning in your sleep, so it must have been pretty good," he snickered, taking another bite. Beside him Setsuko blushed, quietly nibbling as she avoided her eyes.

"Yeah, an entire country made of chocolate and marshmallow," I lied, twisting around in my seat to face the table and its occupants.

"Did you eat it all? 'Cause you were saying 'More! More! Please more!' in your sleep," he said, imitating me to a fault, making me grit my teeth in irritation at my unconscious self and his continued insistence on wanting to know what I was dreaming about.

"There was a limited supply of butterscotch and I was pissed when there wasn't any more left," I told him, thinking of how to end this conversation quickly.

"A limited unlimited supply of candy?"

"Yeah."

"That's the story you're going with?" he asked me, setting down his half eaten toast and leveling a "tell-me-all-your-secrets" stare on me.

"That's the story that happened," I confirmed, noticing out of the corner of my eye Shizuo's blank stare on me, like he knew I was lying to cover something up. Which I was, that was a no-brainer.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Really."

"Yes!" I said, raising my voice, pissed he wouldn't drop it and accept my lie.

"Really."

"Fine! I was having a sex dream! Are ya happy?!" I yelled, caving in when he wouldn't shut up and stop saying that word. I hated when he used that word repeatedly during interrogations. The worst was when he was looking for a video game I broke and he kept saying it monotonously for four hours straight.

He reacted with disgust, covering his ears and falling backwards onto the floor. "No! Why did you tell me?!" he asked, yelling as he rolled side to side. Beside him Setsuko blushed shyly and across from them Shizuo coughed into his hand uncomfortably, his ears turning pink at my confession.

"Then why did you keep hounding me for the truth?!" I asked him, my face burning in embarrassment and anger at his unexpected reaction. If anything I expected him to laugh at me or tease me—although neither option was desirable. "What are you doing up anyway? It's like seven in the morning, even when you went to high school you didn't wake up 'til nine thirty at the earliest." I said, grabbing a piece of toast off of the plate in the middle of the table and sticking most of it in my mouth.

"It's Ikebukuro, I wanted to go explore before it gets crazy. That and Setsuko kicked me out of bed this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep after that," he whined from the floor, ceasing his rolling in favor of just lying there lazily.

"Oh yeah, about that. I have work in an hour so we should probably get going now," I said subtly changing his plans for minimal destruction.

"Where do you work?" Setsuko asked while Carney went still, processing what I said.

"Bakery," I answered, "and if we don't leave now I'm going to be late." This caught Carney's attention, making him sit up straight with a flourish and regarding me with indignation and defiance.

"Why do we have to come with you? We're adults, we don't need a babysitter."

I stood up, finishing my toast and looking down at him with a sneer. "You are in a huge city with gangs and Yakuza and human traffickers. Don't assume you're safe just because you have a katana and sadistic personality, Dipstick," I told him, leaning far enough over the table to stick my face in his, trying to make a point. "And if you don't believe me, then I'll just have to make you an offer you can't refuse."

He looked at me curiously for a moment before asking, "Didn't you once say that you were above bribing people?" Across from him Shizuo chocked, putting down the glass of milk he was previously drinking to put a hand over his mouth while he coughed. "Maybe that's not true anymore?" he asked again, taking Shizuo's chocked silence as evidence that I had previously revoked my once somewhat flimsy rule. Although, then again, when was it ever a rule?

"All you need to do is wait out five hours in a bakery and then I will personally give you a tour of Ikebukuro until five," I started, waiting to see what his initial reaction would be.

"Five hour wait for a four hour tour? You're running a cheap business, Nee-san. Why until five?" he asked, giving me no insight as to his answer, although I haven't really sweetened the deal yet, which is probably why he was hedging.

"Second job starts at five, and despite the first two hours of it just helping set up, I cannot afford to cut out a few hours," I explained to him. This was taking too long, if we didn't cut to the chase soon I'd end up being late for work and Kyoko will probably bitch about endlessly.

"What happened to us at five?"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes."

"What's in it for me if I take the deal?" he asked, referring only to himself since Setsuko—this being the first time she had been in a big city—would do whatever she felt was safest. And yet she chose to be my psychotic brother's girlfriend.

"All the cinnamon bun cake you could possibly eat…at half-price."

"Half-price?"

"I can't give it away for free and I don't want to fully pay for your craving/addiction," I explained.

He thought this deal over for a bit—which in my opinion was way too long considering I now had a little less than forty minutes to get to work which from here took half an hour to walk—before offering a counter proposal. "Three hour wait and you pay half for lunch."

"Four hours and I pay in full. Now do we have a deal or not? Any longer and I'll have to run to work." This kid. How much of Mom's manipulation did he learn in all those years under her tutelage?

"Yeah, as long as lunch is free," he agreed before downing the rest of his orange juice and standing up, stretching as he did so before walking around the table towards the bathroom. Setsuko remained in her kneeling position, her satchel beside her as she finished her breakfast in a relaxed manner. Across from her Shizuo did the same, gulping down the rest of his milk before taking the empty dishes from the table and standing up, going into the small kitchen area and placing them in the sink.

"Shizuo, did you make them breakfast?" I asked him, looking over my shoulder at him with a slightly curious expression. Seeing as yesterday my brother had tried to filet him and my boyfriend had been nearly five inches away from knocking him away a clear three blocks minimum, I'd have expected them to be on edge around the other and at each other's throats. Then again my brother wasn't a cold, manipulative bastard who got off on seeing how others reacted to certain situations. I mean, he was slightly manipulative when it came to getting his way and getting free food but he's way more violent and…warm? No, not warm. Then again he isn't cold so he was to be warm.

"Yeah. They were hunger so I fed them," Shizuo said, leaving the dishes in the sink as he walked back over to pick up his bow tie off the tabletop.

"When did me and my family become pets?" I asked him, picking up the bowtie before he could and dangling it in front of him mockingly, thinking back to the puppy on the birthday card he gave, the one he said reminded him of me.

"Not all of them," he replied, reaching for the bowtie only to grab air when I held it just out of reach. I raised myself up on my tiptoes and pecked his bottom lip.

"Doesn't that make me happy," I said sarcastically, reaching up to wrap the bowtie around the collar of his shirt and secure the clip at the base of his neck.

"Hey! If you two are done being all lovey-dovey and making me sick, can we go now?" came Carney's lisp-filled voice as he reappeared in the bedroom doorway, having exchanged his t-shirt with a plain black sweatshirt, the strap of his katana slung across his chest and the scabbard against his back and nearly imperceptible had the hilt not been poking out like a sore thumb behind his head.

"Yeah yeah, don't get your panties in a twist, Otouto-kun," I said flippantly walking past him to change my clothes and find my wallet and keys.

"Don't get your men's boxer shorts in a bunch Nee-chan," he rebutted, walking away towards the door where Setsuko now stood patiently, having just finished her meal and changed clothes earlier. Yeah, there was a strong possibility that this would be a long day. Although with my luck combined with my psychotic brother's habits there was also the possibility that it would be bad. Well, maybe if I was lucky it would just be boring.

DRRR!

"Come on, answer the question seriously!"

"That was serious, accept the answer and move on."

"There is no way that's true."

"Yes it is! You're temperaments match perfectly, you should be flattered since they're a fine animal," Carney said, putting another forkful of cake in his mouth, this piece being his fourteenth. Currently I was leaning against the glass countertop beside the cash register, waiting for customers to come in or people to call. In the back room Miss Yuumi worked on baking bread, Setsuko working right beside her since, as Miss Yuumi put it oh-so-delicately the same week I started here, I sucked at everything that had to do with making bread.

"I am not a Shiba Inu! Nor do I resemble one," I said indignantly, straightening up while he continued to slouch in his chair, the last morsel of cake disappearing down his gullet. While I continued to argue against the question I had posed to him several minutes ago—what kind of pet we all resembled in one way or another—I also questioned myself where, in his thin body, he put all that cake in the last three hours.

"Okay," he started, setting down his fork on his empty plate and crossing his legs at the ankle, "let's go over this one more time. You're both high-spirited, act like you're big when in reality you're small, pretty good reflexes, good runner, strong desire to escape being locked up—or however you define trying to gnaw through rope—"

"You tied me to a chair and hung me from a tree—"

"Which you later used on your chosen victims with a slight variation on which way they were hanging. Stop interrupting, I'm on a roll," he said, admonishing me. "Going on, you both have some aggression, are stubborn and possessive, and, as much as it pains me to say, you're both clever…you can talk now if you want, I'm done listing all the similarities," he added cheekily, forcing me to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from yelling back a long strain of obscenities as a customer came in.

"If I'm a Shiba Inu, then what are you?" I asked him when the person left soon after, a bag of various sweet breads gripped tightly in his hand as he glanced at my brother cautiously, like if he didn't watch him he would attack him.

I couldn't really blame him since my brother had that air about him, not to mention that he was glaring at him for interrupting our conversation. Rolling my eyes I walked over to him and slapping him upside the head with my good hand. "You wouldn't suit being a cat—a small one anyway. So then what king of dog are you?"

"Hey, I know I'm not perfect. Clearly I'm a Doberman."

"Don't Dobermans guard people and, you know, not the opposite?"

"Do you want a second opinion?"

"A second opinion is better than your opinion," I told him bitterly, walking into the kitchen and finding a floured mess. "Hey! What'd I say about wasting flour?!" Unfortunately their opinions were the same, with even Miss Yuumi agreeing that I resembled a Shiba Inu she had once owned when Kyoko and her brother were children. It was sad how true it was when she showed me a picture; the bronze/yellow of its fur darker than most, almost a red color.

As upset as I was about Shizuo's ("true") assessment, I didn't let it get to my head. Nope. I absolutely did not let it get to my head.

"What do you mean he's right?! There is absolutely no way that I am a Shiba Inu!"

Yeah, I'm totally not letting this go to my head. Luckily before I could launch into another argument—the likes of which I probably had no chance of winning since it seemed everyone I knew agreed on that one singular point—a customer appeared, saving me from a long one-sided argument. Pinching the pressure point on my ear, I reappeared inside the front room of the bakery, a smile on my face and my anger simmering under the surface as it slowly dwindled.

"Hello! Welcome to Sakura Bakery, how may I help you?" I asked the scruffy looking man who had just come in. Would scruffy be the right word? More so he looked sketchy with his beige trench coat, newsboy hat and unshaven face.

"Yeah, 'cause that didn't sound rehearsed at all," Carney said from his self-assigned table. The scruffy-looking man seemed not to take notice of him—that or he didn't care—and approached the glass counter that doubled as my work station and tripled as my unusual sleep spot, staring at me as he did so before speaking. Good thing too, I was about twenty seconds away from having my new self-appointed guard dog beat him to the ground for staring at me so long.

"You're Tachibana Amai, right? Heiwajima Shizuo's girlfriend?" he asked me, making my smile drop from my face and my eyes narrow in suspicion.

"You a cop?" I asked him, getting a reaction in the form of a small surprised widening of the eyes.

"Not a cop, too dingy looking," Carney replied for him, making the man in front of me look over at him with acknowledgement.

"Undercover cops can look like anything."

"Ever seen one like that?" he asked, giving him a once over before turning away with a short laugh.

"Yeah, you're right. Are you a reporter? And if so which one? If you name the one I know then I'll do to you what I promised I would do to them."

"What did you promise?"

"Standard stuff. So answer the question and if you answer it correctly I won't beat you to a pulp," I said sweetly, turning my attention away from my brother to the man.

"Oh…okay, my name is Shuji Niekawa. I'm with Tokyo Warrior…?" he said, handing me a business card and trailing off and looking for approval that I wouldn't hurt him.

"You're safe, go on," I told him, glancing over the card and throwing it onto the countertop dismissively.

"Tokyo Warrior? Our brother loves that magazine. Doing any special stories?" Carney asked him.

"Yes actually, that's why I'm here. See, I'm doing a story on Ikebukuro's toughest man and the people I've talked to say it's Shizuo Heiwajima—"

"Obvious."

"I've been here less than two days and even I know that."

"So then what are you doing here?"

"You know him on a personal level so I'd like to ask some questions about him," he explained, taking out from his pocket a small notepad and pen.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" I asked him, although the answer was kind of obvious.

He laughed a little, sighing pathetically and looking away in embarrassment. "I actually tried to yesterday but…it didn't go…that well," he said, before adding, "He really has a hair trigger, doesn't he."

"You didn't research him all that well, did you," I said grinning, wishing I had seen it happen. If only because it was always fun to watch Shizuo fight.

"That is the reason why I'm here after all. After I met him, well, after he sent me flying through the air, he brought back this rush I felt when I was young. If you could just answer some questions for me," he explained, getting a little excited and looking at me expectantly. Taken aback by the unusual amount of attention I dumbly agreed, counting the questions in my head so I had a limit—not that he needed to know of course.

"How long have you known Shizuo Heiwajima? And how did you meet?" he started.

"Ever since February. I actually hated him at first because the first time I ever met or heard of him he threw a deadbeat through the store window."

"Really? How did you get together if you hated him then?" he asked, curious. I gave him a look, coupled with stony silence before telling him outright that I wasn't answering questions about our interpersonal relationship. "Oh, sorry, that was just my own curiosity. I'll ask a different question: Have you ever seen him in a fight?"

And so it went on for a few more questions, all circling around his fighting style and personality, and all questions I answered vaguely with Carney putting in his own personal opinion. At one point he asked me about his brother, to which I laughed and replied that while I had never met him, I knew enough not to mention him in front of Shizuo. When I gave the reporter the same advice he simply laughed a little and looked sheepish—instant clue that he had mentioned him in his presence.

"Man~ I'd wish I'd have seen it~. He looks so cool when he fights! Super sexy," I said almost to myself, leaning heavily on the counter and practically drooling at the image of the last time I had seen him fight Izaya—although that may have also been coupled with the fact that I wanted Izaya to get pummeled into the ground.

"You don't think his power if terrifying? That he's frightening?" he asked me, making me bark out a short laugh.

"Terrifying? He's amazing! His body's the personification of awesomeness! His brain doesn't have the limit that normal brains have, which is why he can use his full strength. It's amazing what the human body can do when you take off the restraints and screw the consequences, and it's even more amazing the way his body could take the constant abuse and come back even stronger! Nnn~ he's so cool!" I gushed, babbling like a fangirl—or like Erika.

"Really, so you don't feel—"

"Sorry, that's all the questions I'll be answering," I interrupted holding up a hand to stop him.

"But—I—"

"Dude, quit while you're ahead. She's won't be answering any more questions, she's stubborn like that, you know, like a Shiba Inu," Carney told him, interrupting his stunted sentence and making me narrow my eyes at him.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll move on then," he said disappointed, closing the note pad and stuffing it and the pen inside his coat pocket and turning to leave.

"Aw~ don't be that way Niekawa-san. Hey, if it'll make you feel better I'll give you the name of someone Shizuo knows," I said, dangling the bait in front of his nose. It worked, causing him to stop in his tracks and turn back asking me who it was. "Ah ah, the interview was free, but the name isn't," I said, causing him to go sour and turn halfway away.

"I can just ask someone outside for free if I want."

"Yeah, you could, but how reliable, nay, true would it be?" I asked, smiling like a Cheshire cat as he stubbornly pulled out his wallet and crossed back over, placing a few thousand Yen bills on the counter in front of me. "Keep it coming, I gotta pay for this one's lunch later and he's a big eater despite the thin structure." He forked over another five thousand begrudgingly and I swept it up and folded it in half, smiling mockingly as I placed it in the front of my pocket.

"His name's Simon Brezhnev. He works over at Russia Sushi a couple blocks down from here. And yes, that is how he speaks."

"Thank you for the information."

"Thank you for your collaboration," I said, smiling as he left the shop and walked quickly away down the street without a second glance. "Heh, easiest ten thousand Yen I ever made," I said happily, taking the money back out and counting it.

"Are you saying that in general? Or was standing on the street corner all night not paying off as well as you'd hoped?" Carney asked, pushing the plate towards the edge of the table and propping his feet up on the table and leaning far back in his chair, far enough that if I were to place a five Yen coin on his head it would cause him to fall onto the floor.

"Suck it, Dipstick, when was the last time you made this much?" I asked him subtracting from the amount the money I owed for the three cakes he single-handedly ate and placing it inside the cash register.

He tilted his head back, making his chair wriggle a bit, and thought for a moment, mouthing random words and numbers as he thought to remember the amount he got and person he got it from. "Are we talking ten thousand even or in the ballpark?" he asked before continuing on anyway, "I made a few hundred thousand yen pawning off parts of my enemy's car."

I froze before giving an exasperated sigh and giving him a "what-the-hell" look. "Your enemy? You mean Yuuki's brother?"

"Hey, that dick will be my enemy until he stops hitting on Setsuko and gives me back the bike he destroyed!" he said loudly, setting his chair back on the ground and his shoes off the table.

"Twelve years and you still hold a grudge for an accident out of his control?"

"Yeah, like you're one to talk."

"Okay fine, I'm not, but I'm not the one facing jail time." he looked at me with a near pitying face and said:

"Oh ye of little faith, how you doubt me with not getting a proper alibi and fake departure time, Nee-san."

"Little…I don't even know what to call you."

"Call me what you want, just don't think you can psyche me out, Nee-san," he said, relaxing back in his chair and going back to his former position while I walked around the counter and approached his lean body.

"Just wait until…five tonight, then I'll try my luck again at psyching you out," I told him, leaning my hip against the table and reaching out to touch his forehead, pressing down on it lightly and watching amused as he fell backwards, his arms wheeling to catch something to stop his fall but ultimately failing as he hit the ground hard. Yeah, I would enjoy tonight, or, more specifically, I would enjoy his reaction.

DRRR!

The look was nearly priceless, as was the several minutes of stunned silence before he said, astonishingly and thoroughly surprised, "What the fuck is this?!" and took several steps back from the display of dancing, grinding, and flamboyant gay men in front of him.

"This is where I work," I told him, putting a hand on top of my head to make sure my wig was secure before slapping my hat on top of his head for safe keeping. "And because you made me late, you get to spend the whole night here," I added, sitting him down in one of the stools beside Setsuko in front of the bar with some force before sliding back behind it. "Hey, just because I know who uncomfortable you, I'll give you a tip. If you act flippant and try to brush them off—"

"They'll leave me alone?" he asked hopefully, swiveling his seat around to face me and turn his back on the gay men behind him while Setsuko did the opposite.

"No, they'll only want you more. Some of them do not give up their target," I told him, squatting down behind the bar and scrounging around the kegs and bottles before giving up and going into the back to find a non-alcoholic champagne. Maybe if I told him it had alcohol he'd loosen up a bit because of the placebo effect.

"Alcoholic, alcoholic, alcoholic…Hey Akira-san! Where's all the non-alcoholic shit?! I can't find anything back here!" I yelled, calling for my boss in the back room, but jumping ten feet in the air when he came out of the dance room and surprised me.

"Amai-tan~ who's that little cutie over at the bar by Minori-chan?" he asked me once I got my heart rate back down to normal.

"That's my nineteen-year-old brother, Carney. He and his girlfriend are visiting for a few days before heading down to Shinjuku and due to some circumstances I had to bring them along tonight," I told him, getting a step ladder from beside the door to see if the higher shelves had the things I sought before Akira pointed to a bottle in the far corner of the back room storage area. While I got down off the step ladder, he went over and grabbed it for me, handing it to me before leaving, going behind the bar to chat with them for a bit. In truth I only wanted to bring Carney with for the sheer fun of it, not to mention I wanted to make sure he didn't raid my roommate's apartment—even I hadn't done that yet and that was for two reasons: respect and the knowledge that he was single for nearly a year and on a "no men" cleanse. I would have left Setsuko at home with Moo-Moo and her kitten, but she insisted on coming along for a social study. I guess taking a week off of school was making her antsy.

DRRR!

Like I told him several hours before, if you're cold and aloof—or whatever the hell I said—you'll only make them want him more. I was right, until he said, and I quote, "Get the fuck away from me or I swear to God that you won't have to go to a doctor for a sex-change." It might have been either the threat or the small knowledge that there would be no anesthesia, but the several guys hovering around him quickly backed off, severely off put by his attitude and the feel of rejection. Despite this though he had one person who stayed and flirted, even when Carney gave the poor kid nothing but cold stares.

"All I'm asking for is one dance. Please? Just one and I won't bother you anymore, I promise," the kid said, his hands folded together in plea. While this was a club and bar made expressly for adults, we sometime's got underage kids—course when I say kid I really mean no less than seventeen or eighteen.

"God! Just give it up kid! I'm not gay and I'm not dancing! The only reason I'm here is because my stupid sister doesn't trust me," Carney said, finally snapping at him, but he only succeeded in making him flinch before coming back with something he couldn't argue against.

"Did you know that the more you deny something, the more it ends up being true?" the kid said, narrowing his eyes and smiling at his reaction. His reaction being, of course, stunned silence followed immediately by his mouth opening and closing as he sought a comeback. Eventually he gave up and asked me for help.

"Hey Amai, can I get some help here?" he asked, unwilling to turn his eyes on me as he looked at the boy next him, like if he took his eyes off him he would attack him.

"Nah, I'm good just watching from here," I said happily, watching with amusement as he looked over at me and growled in frustration, letting his head drop forward before he flopped it back to stare at the ceiling, a large frown on his face as he snarled in defeat and named his terms.

"I'll give you one dance, but don't touch me anywhere below my stomach, got that kid?"

"So shoulders are cool?" I asked him, hoping to rub in some salt.

"Cram it, Amai," was his response before he slid off the stool and stalked to the very edge of the dance floor, far enough away from anyone else. The kid before me grinned happily and hopped off the chair, practically racing to where Carney stood.

"Aw~ don't they make a cute couple?" I asked aloud watching the kid fret and fidget nervously while Carney mostly moped. Setsuko simply stared, the slightest bit of amusement on her face as she watched with me before she turned away and asked me something.

"Um, Amai-chan can I ask you something?"

"Well, you just did, but fell free to continue."

"Carney-kun told me what you said in the interview. You really love him, don't you?" she asked me, although her question felt more like a statement.

"Yeah, just don't tell him that, I've yet to say it in words as a statement," I answered, getting out my phone to take a picture—or maybe a video?—of the scene before me, but stopped when the chat room I visited appeared on my phone by itself. 'Did I leave it on by accident?' I asked myself, scrolling through the messages before a long list of red caught my eye. 'Oh great, I guess "Kanra" couldn't ban this guy,' I thought, skimming past the repeating messages. Instead of reading mother, it was back to random ass, stunted messages. Failing? Waiting? Who was this freak and what where they waiting for at South Ikebukuro Park? A lot more messages went by and while most of them read the same thing, a few of them also now read love. Lots of love apparently if the amount of kanji on the page meant anything. It wasn't until I came across his name that I froze in confusion and mild anger.

"Setsuko, can you read me the name on here and tell me what it says? I think my eyes are trying to trick me," I asked her, holding the phone out for her to look. She squinted her eyes and pushed her glasses up further on her nose, reading the screen for a moment before saying what I already knew.

""I'm waiting at South Ikebukuro Park, Shizuo. Come to me, come to me again. I'm waiting Shizuo. I'll wait all night if I have to. I love you. I'll wait Shizuo and I'll love you. I'll love you too. I too. I love you too."…Amai-chan…what does this mean?" Setsuko asked me timidly while I fought every instinct in my body not to break my phone in half and throw it at someone.

"What does it mean? What does it mean?! It means some two-bit slut is trying to steal my boyfriend and that bitch is waiting in the park! Carney! Carney! Get your thieving little ass over here! I need you to help me steal a car!" I yelled, ripping the short blond wig off of my head and letting my bright red hair fall like a curtain against my back. "Taka-chan!" I shouted, startling the man as I shoved the wig in his direction, "Watch Setsuko for me and don't let her out of your sight." He nodded furiously, while I got out from behind the bar and dragged my brother off the dance floor towards the front door, all the while he shouted at the kid he was formerly dancing with to call the number he had given him. for a second I wondered what number he had given him and why he had done so, but a glance down at my phone made the fire burning in my chest all the bigger.

I got as far as three feet from the door before my boss's voice caught me and forced me to turn back to him in question. "Amai-tan! Where the hell do you think you're going?!" he asked me, crossing the bar area in long strides.

"To find the bitch trying to steal my boyfriend!" I answered, earning a chorus of cheers and support from my coworkers, ranging from 'you go girl' to 'give that bitch hell!' and ultimately forcing Akira's approval. It's not like I needed the permission since I would have gone even if he wanted me to stay, but it's nice to know that my job would be intact when I was finished with my business.

"You're not even going to ask me why I need your help to steal a car?" I asked Carney while I waited for him to finish breaking in. Quickly after we had exited the club, we walked the near-empty street looking for a suitable car—suitable in this case being that it had little to no security and could drive fast—and when we had found one, Carney went to work, popping the hood expertly and messing around in the engine.

"Not really, I already know you're a terrible driver and since you have a bicycle you would have no need to drive or steal a car. So you most likely got rusty," he answered, disabling the security and unlocking the doors.

"Actually my bike was stolen a few years ago, but right when you said I've gotten rusty." While my tone may have seemed conversational and my overall attitude nonchalant, I was still raging inside while looked over the new messages appearing on my phone, growing more and more murderous with each declaration of "love". 'I swear, if I have to wait any longer to kill this bitch…' I trailed off, snarling as another message went by and freezing when a new message—different from the rest—popped up on screen.

Saika: I found her

Saika: I found her

Saika: Amai

Saika: Amai Tachibana

Saika: Cut

Saika: I'll cut her

Saika: I'll love her

Saika: He'll be mine

Saika: I'll cut her. He'll come

Saika: Amai Tachibana. Cut

Saika: Cut her. Make her one of us

"Hey Amai?" Carney asked, his voice normal as he spoke beside me, "Who are they?"

He remained normal, and why shouldn't he? He hadn't just read creepy threatening messages, not to mention with all the creepy shit he watches, I doubt he'd be surprised by a smallish group of five people with glowing red eyes and glinting pieces of metal in their hands slowly advancing on us. Me? I might have been more accustomed than Colm ever could be what with Hikaru's fascination with cheesy slasher flicks, but to have it happen in real life was making my skin crawl.

W

H

O

.

A

R

E

.

Y

O

U

?

Karin: Who are you?

I typed into the small screen, not once taking my eyes off the seemingly possessed people in front of me. What they typed back sent a swath of ice water down my back and along my spine and what they said had the same effect.

Saika: We are Saika

"Let us love you Amai Tachibana."

Saika: Cut. I want to cut you

Saika: Love. I want to love you

Saika: Cut. Love

Saika: I love you. Love you. Love

"We love you too Amai Tachibana, we love everyone, now become one of us so we can love you all more."

And to think, this day started off with such a great dream.