Chapter Five
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Shiki was not in a very comfortable position. In fact, she couldn't see how anyone could be comfortable around Neku for more than five seconds at a time- even in silence, his anger radiated off him like heat from live coals. Of course, she had no idea what he was so mad about, but she wagered it had something to do with her.
Clutching her school bags even tighter to her chest, she watched the cracks in the concrete sidewalk roll by, trampled by myriads of feet at this time of day. Crowd noise buzzed in her ear, an empty sound worse than silence. At last she spoke softly to Neku.
"I'm sorry for making you walk me home."
He kept his silence, but his eyes flicked over and studied her for a second, eyes an impassive smoky blue.
"If you're going to apologize, you could at least sound genuine," he muttered, turning back to face the crowds before him. "And not just say something so you hope I'll be nicer. This is how I am- so deal with it." (Yeah, he's totally an ass.)
"Excuse me for trying to be civil," Shiki ground out as she forced back tears. What am I doing wrong? He hates me! He totally hates me!
"Well, you don't have to talk all the time. It's just adding to the noise."He indicated the crowds around him."I thought that since you lived in the city, you'd learn to appreciate silence. Hey,"he suddenly noted, tilting his head to peer up at her face."Are you crying?"
"No," she growled stubbornly, a rebellious tear suddenly sliding down the far edge of her cheek on the opposite side of Neku. She silently wished it would escape his notice. It didn't.
Neku looked away suddenly, shoulders tense, and the silence he so seemed to value was restored, albeit thicker than before.
"Look, I already said this- it's just the way I am. You're no worse than anyone, so... don't take it so personally. I just don't get people, ok?"
She turned at last to fix him in her dark brown gaze, and demanded with more courage than she felt, "You haven't met every person in the world, so that can't be true."
Neku raised one eyebrow, unimpressed, and Shiki bit her lips as she searched for words. "It's like... sewing."
The eyebrow went higher- she persevered. "There are still lots of things I can't sew, but that doesn't mean there aren't things I can sew. Like, I remember when Eri and I made a maid's outfit for her older sister's school play. We were going to have a lot more lace, but I was having trouble and almost wanted to quit sewing all together. But Eri reminded me that I had already made the ruffles in the skirt and the puffed sleeves and the detachable apron, and no one would really care if we asked for some help on the dress."
Shiki bit her lip harder as she remembered, sharply now, the pang of loss Eri had left behind when Yoshiya Kiryu had arrived at her school. "So, maybe you've just been trying to sew lace all this time, Neku. You should try to sew... a skirt?"
The eyebrow lowered slowly, and Neku hid his expression behind his spiky orange bangs and adjusted his headphones.
"You have really weird logic, Stalker."
"Hey!" Shiki glared at him as best as she could from behind her glasses- judging by his body language, it was not very fear inducing. He ignored her, in fact- "Just how far away do you live, anyway?"
"Oh." She stopped in the middle of the street, trying to gather her bearings, and looked up just in time to see Neku vanish into the crowds.
"Hey, wait up!"
By some miracle, she managed to catch Neku and drag him back to her neat little apartment complex. It was simple, and a more traditional style than Neku's- also larger, but she hoped he wasn't thinking that as she knocked on her door.
There was a shuffling noise at the window, then the blinds split and a pair of dark eyes surveyed the pair standing on the porch. Then there was a rather childish squeal from a rather adult female voice.
"Aoi! There's a boy on the porch with our Shiki!" The voice was a motherly one that had been wrenched into a fan-girl-screeching-soprano and caused all of the blood to drain from Shiki's face.
She had forgotten this terrible tendency of her mother's- Ririko was an only child, and had an only child despite her effort with Shiki's father to have more, and was completely obsessed with making sure her daughter married early so as 'to have many fruitful years'. This made Shiki feel like a cow, and had caused several stomps upstairs to the sanctity of her room and nighttime sulky phone calls to Eri.
"A boy, Ririko?" The blinds opened again, and as Neku shifted his weight uncomfortably, the voice that the dark green eyes belonged to rumbled in a reassuringly sane tone of voice, "Why don't you let them in?"
"It's a boy, Aoi," Ririko cooed again, then the door swung open and Shiki's mother now had to restrain her glee. "Welcome home, Shiki and her boyfriend."
Ok, so maybe restrain was the wrong word. But, strain, yes, strain was very good. Shiki rubbed her forehead; her nerves and will to resist sudden self-destruction made her voice squeak almost as much as her mothers. "Mom, I'm just his tutor. Please let us in."
Ririko stopped, and then winked. "Of course you are. Now come in. I'll make us some tea," then her slightly pear shaped body was vanishing into the kitchen, short frizzy brown hair wafting behind her as Aoi and Neku eyed each other.
Aoi was less susceptible to fly off the handle at the thought of multitudes of grandchildren, and more likely to scare off boyfriends by passive aggressive tactics. He seemed unimpressed of the orange haired teenager who was staring fixedly at the carpet and muttering something about 'it's like the Castle from Beauty and the Beast' and hiding his face as best as he could behind his school uniform's collar.
As quickly as she could, Shiki grabbed Neku's wrist, ignoring his growled yelp of surprise and hauled him off to her room just as Ririko returned.
"Remember, Shiki," she called before they were safely out of hearing range, "there are preventatives in the bathroom cabinet."
As soon as the door had shut behind them, Shiki threw herself facedown onto her bed, crushed Mr. Mew in a hug, and gave a muted scream into the pillows as her soul died of shame. Which, even while dead, twisted the proverbial knife in the wound by reminding her that it was a rather short skirt she was wearing and there was a very good chance she had just flashed her skivvies to Neku.
Shiki sat up, totally crimson, and noticed Neku surveying the fire escape.
"S-sorry about that," she gasped out at last, ready to kill something. Her 'student' made no sound or motion, his expression shadowed behind his bangs and his shoulders stiff.
"I take it you haven't brought many guys home."
The question, though very personal, was asked in a cold, impersonal manner. Shiki bristled a little, then sighed and forced a smile into her voice that faltered mid-syllable. "You're the first."
He half turned towards her, lips parted as if there was something he wanted to say. He looked away again, however, and muttered, "What's today's lesson, then?"
Shiki dug her old English papers out of her desk and began shuffling through them. "I'll give you a mock assignment from one of the books I got an A+ on, ok?"
Neku said nothing in reply, so her tutor sighed and continued her work. Eri, I have to get through this. For you.
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By some act of God, Shiki's mother had not bothered the teenagers the entire afternoon, and Neku had successfully escaped by the time Shiki was to meet Ai and Rhyme at 104 for a day of shopping bliss.
She had changed, of course, out of her uniform and into a kitten sweater and jeans combo from Natural Puppy, and was quickly pattering through the Shibuya streets, dodging clumps of noisy youths like herself and clusters of busy adults as she struggled through the sea of people and reached the massive shopping center. The teenaged girl caught sight of the blonde first-year and the brunette fourth-year before they saw her- as usual, Shiki mentally sighed as she squeezed between a gaggle of elementary kids and a business man with a scowl and a cup of hot coffee, joining Ai and Rhyme in staring up at the D+B advertisement flashing on the massive screen above.
"Oh, hey, Shiki," Ai greeted her cheerfully, working the Sheep Heavenly look with ease, as Rhyme beamed and adjusted her Mus Rattus clothes. Ai was one of the few girls not so caught up in Joshua as to forsake everything else, and for that Shiki was grateful. Rhyme, however, was the one who had orchestrated all of this, being the little ray of sunshine she was, she had no trouble making friends and seemed to do it by accident.
"Shall we go inside?"
Shiki snapped out of her daydreams and smiled to the younger girl. "Yes. Let's go."
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Malls are totally an excuse in introduce lots of characters in a short period of time. XD