Nikki sighed as she walked into her home, she was so happy that the week was over now she could relax and lounge around for the rest of the week. She made a face when she heard Lena's voice followed by a male voice in the house. She walked into the living area and saw Lena eating and chatting with a dark-haired male.

"Hey, how's it going?"

Lena smiled as she looked over at her tired friend, she didn't even realize how late it was.

"Hey Nikki, this is Izaya. I met him a while ago and again today so I invited him to the house. He's super cool you should hang out with us."

Nikki introduced herself to Izaya before shaking her head, she was tired and just wanted to go to bed.

"I'll have to take a raincheck, it was nice meeting you Izaya. Lena, we'll uh talk later. I need a bath and my bed."

"It was nice meeting you Nikki-chan."

Lena and Izaya watched Nikki disappear upstairs before going back to their conversation. Lena didn't know what it was about the handsome stranger but she was drawn to him. He was so charismatic, something she wasn't.

"Well, I think I've been here long enough. Thanks for having me over Lee-chan. Let's exchange numbers so we can hang out again."

"Sure, here."

Lena gave him her phone and vice versa as they swapped numbers as she walked him to the door.

"Well, I'll text you because I'm not good at making phone calls. I'm super awkward and I usually don't know what to say or I just talk too much…"

"I get it, texting only. I'll see you around."

Lena waved and as soon as she closed the door she screamed and ran upstairs flinging the bathroom door open. Nikki made a face as she watched her friend bounce in the bathroom and sit down beside the bathtub she was lounging in.

"I'm pretty sure I locked that door. So what's up with the short guy downstairs? Did he buy you manga or something?"

Lena shook her head as he thought about the dreamy stranger.

"I don't know what it is about him but he's pretty amazing. Maybe it's because he's everything I'm not. Confident, charming, smooth, hot!"

Nikki sighed as she let her head fall back against the tile. Here we go again, she thought. Her friend had a way of finding these guys who were terrible humans. Yeah, they looked good and were super charismatic but they were despicable.

"Just don't dive in too quickly with this one. You're in a foreign place and things are different here. For all you know, charming and handsome could be a human trafficker."

Nikki made a face as she thought about the handsome stranger she had come into contact with a few times. What if he was scoping out his next victim and what if she was it? Her mind wandered over the thought a million times over she didn't even hear Lena leave the bathroom. If she saw him again she would definitely stay clear of him.

Nikki and Lena made themselves comfortable on a bench as they ate ice cream. Nikki was slightly dreading the flavor she got. For once in her life, she decided to try something new and she hated it. Lena on the other hand was too preoccupied with texting her new friend. Nikki's eyes quickly met a familiar stranger. She got up and threw her ice cream away as she watched the tall blonde follow a shorter male. Was he dangerous?

She looked away quickly when he turned her way and mentally thanked the heavens when she saw Akagi heading in her direction.

"Hey Akagi-san, over here."

Ren made a face as he looked back at his girlfriend who was preoccupied with something in her purse before making his way over to the short foreigner.

"Hi, what are you doing here? You don't strike me as a park kind of guy."

"You barely know me and you're right, I was just walking around town with my girlfriend. What about yourself? You don't look as bright as you usually do at work."

Nikki laughed as she looked down at her summer dress, he had a point.

"Just checking out the sights with my friend and roommate."

Ren watched her point to the caucasian girl who was super interested in her phone.

"Hm, so two American's huh? You're the prettier one."

Nikki made a face as she looked over at Akagi, in her 21 years of life she had never been told that she was prettier than any of her friends. She felt her face burn as she looked away from Akagi, unfortunately for her, she ended up making eye contact with her stranger who looked like he was waiting for someone.

"Anyways I'll see you at work. Later."

She gave him a small wave before walking back over to Lena, but before she could get there a few males stood in her way. All of them were wearing yellow. Were they part of a gang? Did she make eye contact with the wrong person? Not even a month in Japan and she was already gonna be killed off by a gang. Before any of them could say or do anything fear flashed in their eyes and they took off running.

Shizuo frowned as she stood behind the foreigner that had begun to cloud his mind, he quickly turned and walked away before she noticed he was behind her and leaned against the tree beside Tom.

"Back to creeping on the cute foreigner huh? Maybe you should just try to talk to her and see where it takes you."

"I did and I'm pretty sure I scared her, besides it's better this way. If she doesn't know me, she won't get hurt."

Tom shook his head and she got up and headed over to the two foreigners, both of them looked up at him as he stood in front of the bench they were sitting on.

"Hello, I noticed that the two of you aren't from around here so I wanted to come over and say welcome to Ikebukuro. I'm Tanaka Tom, local debt collector."

Tom held his hand out for the girls and both of them exchanged looks with each other before standing up and bowing.

"Hello, Tanaka-san it's nice to meet, and thank you for welcoming us. We would love to stay and chat but I think it's better if we head out."

"Wait, before you go can I introduce you to someone? He's the strongest man I know and the best worker a boss could have. My associate back there trying to blend into the trees is Heiwajima Shizuo. He may look tough but he's a good guy."

Nikki looked over at the blonde and gave him a small smile, Heiwajima Shizuo. She repeated his name in her head several times. It had a nice ring to it.

"Well it's nice to meet the both of you, we must be off."

Tom's smile fell when he realized he didn't get any of the girls' names, maybe he shouldn't have started with telling them he was a debt collector. At least now they knew Shizuo's name.

"Was that weird or what?"

Nikki and Lena laughed loudly as they headed back to the house, talking about their day and the type of people they ran into, living in Ikebukuro was turning into a fun adventure for both of them.

"Ok how about this one? I'm trying not to be as extra as I usually am but I still want to maintain some sort of originality with my outfits that I wear to work."

Lena shook her head as he looked over the outfit Nikki was fashioning, it was cute but too boring, she looked through a few of the outfits and tossed a dress at her to try on.

"Do this one, it's royal blue. The whole world knows you look amazing in royal blue, plus I'm sure it'll turn your coworker's heads. The cute one from the park that called me ugly. Yeah, I heard him so don't try to cover for him. It's alright, I'll let it slide only because I don't care about what he has to say."

Nikki apologized to her friend before slipping on the dress. Lena was right it was perfect, she wasn't sure about turning Akagi's head but it would definitely stand out.

"Thanks, I'll wear this one. I hope this meeting doesn't last as long as the first one I was in. But then again, I wasn't part of the presentation. Also, Akagi has a girlfriend so I don't care if I turn his head. I'm not a homewrecker."

Lena shrugged as she skipped out of the room and into hers. Izaya was supposed to be meeting her for lunch tomorrow and she was so excited she didn't even know what she was going to wear. Clothes didn't fit her as great as they fit, Nikki. She was chubby and Nikki wasn't overly skinny, she had perfect boobs, a butt that wasn't too large and she was short and cute. Nikki always told her there's nothing wrong with being a little chubby, but to her everything was wrong with it.

"Are you doubting yourself?" I can practically hear your mind from my bedroom. Listen, you've got thick thighs, a fat ass, and a small waist. Girls all over the world would kill for a body like yours. Just because you're in the land of tiny females doesn't mean they don't want a body like yours. So stand tall and cute because you are."

Lena smiled as she watched her friend dance out of her room. Nikki was right, she was cute and she had to make sure Izaya saw it too.

Nikki sighed as she stood beside Akagi while he talked about the new system they had been working on. Even though she was part of the team her job was literally, stand around and look pretty. Which she didn't have a problem doing she just could've done it from a chair instead of standing awkwardly beside Akagi. As soon as the presentation was completed the duo bowed before leaving the meeting room.

"That went well, and everyone seemed to like the way you look so that's good too."

Ren looked down at the short girl beside him, she was looking forward and also looking very confused. He shook his head before heading to his desk.

"Thanks, I guess, um are you doing anything after work?"

Ren raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Nikki, she was looking away. A small smirk made its way onto his face as he moved over to her desk.

"No why? Are you trying to ask me out on a date? If you are that's a bit scandalous since I do have a girlfriend."

"No! Not as a date just as two coworkers hanging out after work. We're both young and I'm still kind of new to the area so I'm just trying to figure out where everyone goes and hangs out."

Ren nodded as he moved back over to his desk.

"Sure, I'll pick the place but since you invited me you're buying."

Nikki chuckled and nodded before turning towards her computer, she didn't notice but Ren had turned and looked over at her profile. In the short amount of time she had been there, he was enamored by her. She was different from any other girl he'd met and that was what he liked about her. No one else would be caught dead wearing a royal blue dress and none of the other females in the building could make it look that good, not even Miki, and Miki was considered a babe. No, Nikki had a different kind of beauty, her beauty was rare. Something that most people overlooked but he wasn't an idiot and he wanted her.

After work Nikki turned her computer off and grabbed her backpack before standing up, she looked over at Akagi who was still sitting at his desk, watching her.

"Well, are you ready?"

Ren nodded getting up, he returned Nikki's smile and followed her out of the building. They made small talk as Ren took her to the Russian sushi place she was so used to going to.

"How is it that you picked the one place I frequent?"

"Oh, would you like to go somewhere else?"

Nikki shook her head before opening the door, almost immediately she recognized Tom and Shizuo who were sitting at the sushi bar. She quickly looked away and followed Ren to one of the tables before sitting down.

Ren made a face when he noticed Nikki tense up, did she not like this place, and was too nice to say something about?

"Hey, what's going on? Did you want to go somewhere else?"

"No, it's just there's a debt collector in here that introduced himself to me this past weekend. I didn't think my student loans were going to follow me all the way from America."

Ren looked behind Nikki and chuckled when he recognized the two males. If they were trying to get money from her they would've done it a long time ago. Plus he was sure they handled different loans."

"You don't have to worry about them, besides they only handle shady people. If you have student loans the government will be the ones coming after you. Besides Heiwajima Shizuo is the strongest man in Ikebukuro, I doubt he's interested in roughing up a cute foreigner."

Nikki felt her face burn at Ren's comment. How could he say that without a hundred percent confidence? She wasn't that pretty, to herself she was pretty normal in America. Not pretty but not ugly, just average. Now that she was in Japan she felt less than normal because everyone looked at her like she was an alien.

"Are you doubting your…"

"Hey."

Both Nikki and Ren looked up to see Tom standing at the table, he had a small smile on his face as his eyes traveled over to Nikki.

"Hi, again Tanaka-san."

Tom scoffed at Nikki's honorifics, he was probably older than her but he honestly didn't want to be called by his last name.

"Please call me Tom, Tanaka-san sounds too proper. The last time we talked I didn't get your name."

"Is there something you need? If not I would like you to leave so I can enjoy the rest of my date."

Nikki gave Tom a small smile, as he nodded and walked away. She looked over at Akagi who was happily eating the sushi that was just placed on the table.

"You sure are something Akagi-san."

Shizuo shook his head as he walked out of the restaurant, Tom should've known better than to go and talk to them. He didn't care, as interesting as the foreigner looked, he just wanted to keep doing what he was doing before. Keep a low profile and not see that piece of shit that was Izaya. He had been on edge for a few days now and that only meant one thing. The flea was back in town.