Otagema – I'm glad you enjoy the unique atmosphere between Koneko and Issei, the story is definitely a slow burn, but I hope that doesn't make it any less enjoyable!

LunaAnt – Indeed, this story is very brutal, but it isn't going to be all that dark either. I promise, there won't be a lot of dark themes and edginess, but just enough for character development. Koneko is a crutch for Issei now, just as he was for her. Doing this adds character dynamic and propels a few of the main plot points forward until Koneko is eventually able to summon her friends.

Aberrational Selection

Chapter 4: Something Comforting

Revelations 12:9

"The Great Dragon was hurled downward…"

Koneko and Issei began their journey shortly after eating the hearty breakfast of steak and vegetables that Issei had prepared for the two of them. Issei had decided to throw the black backpack Koneko had let him use over his own shoulders and leave Koneko carry a much lighter sack that she packed herself. The backpack itself that Issei donned easily weighed more than fifty pounds with all the cans of food and other supplies in it, but Issei managed just fine.

Koneko had recovered enough to start walking on her own now, albeit she was moving slowly and was holding the rolled-up bed sheet full of supplies they could potentially use later on, including soap, blankets and a few spare changes of clothes they both could wear, such as socks.

Koneko had taken a few of the flyers that Rias had passed out by her familiar and stuffed them into the sack she carried, hoping that she could eventually use them to summon Rias or tell her where they were, at the very least. Issei had asked about the odd-looking pieces of paper at first, but later on dropped it as they began to depart from the old school building in search of the truck that Koneko had mentioned.

Stepping outside the building, the first thing Koneko immediately noticed was something that both caught her undivided attention as well as make her worry. The bodies of the students that had once riddled the track field and surrounding grass were now gone, and the only remnant of their bodies being there were splotches of blood that had started to congeal. Koneko felt her breath catch in her chest as questions stirred in her mind. There was no way the police or medical personnel would have had enough time to collect all those bodies, especially not in one night. So, what exactly happened to them?

Shaking the thought away as Issei was beginning to leave her behind, she slightly sped up her slow and steady steps until she stood with Issei by her side once more, leading her to the lot where the teachers at the school parked their vehicles. Koneko couldn't help but think of the magic that she had felt from him when he awoke this morning, the feeling lurked around him and only grew as the minutes passed.

At first, she could only feel a slight amount of magic energy resonate off of Issei, but now that she had gotten closer to him, she was amazed by the amount he had actually developed. Instead of a normal aura that stretched out further as it grew more powerful, his was like a concentrated orb of energy. Powerful, potent and blinding to look at. It demanded respect and attention, and it was condensed around his body like she was looking at a sun, and the weight felt crushing.

Being beside him was enough for her own body to leech magic from him, similar to how devils shared energy when being close to one another. Because of this, she felt her own strength come back into her body slowly but steadily since she awoke this morning. That meant she was able to recover quicker from her injuries and was also able to utilize the strength given to her from her devil pieces. In fact, she was already starting to feel the effects of her evil pieces creeping back into her, which meant that soon enough she would be able to reunite with Rias and her friends.

That was something she was very thankful for, given her previously crippled status from the storm.

She looked at Issei as she thought about her eventual reunion with her peerage. What would he do then? Would he continue on his own or would he go with her and Rias? She had seen enough Apocalypse movies on the DeviTube to have an idea what could happen to Issei. She shook the thoughts away, not wanting to think about that 'what if' scenario and the pain the thought brought. Surely, whatever happened, it would all workout in the end.

Or so she hoped.

They arrived in the parking lot only moments later, and Issei immediately began to walk towards what he assumed was the truck. The one dead giveaway to his assumption was the fact that the truck in question had 'Power Wagon' written across the hood. It was a deep, submarine green truck with absolutely massive wheels clearly intended to plow over quite literally any terrain, regardless of how rocky, muddy, or steep. Koneko hadn't ever seen the vehicle before, but she could only manage to think of a few words to describe it.

Excessive being one of those few words. Why in the hell would anyone need a vehicle of that size? She had seen the videos floating around the DeviTube of 'Rebel' trucks in America going mudding or rock climbing, but that was an entirely different ballgame altogether. This was Japan… she couldn't even begin to imagine where something like the truck before her could be useful.

But the space on the truck was certainly going to be helpful to their cause. It had a bed behind the four-door cab, with more than enough space to accompany the two of them if they needed to sleep in the truck, assuming a situation like that was ever required. She had the strange thought that something like that would happen eventually, but she chose not to think about it as she threw what she was carrying into the back of the truck with little effort.

"You think it will start?" asked Koneko, watching as Issei threw his own bag in the back seat of the truck and hopped into the driver's seat.

"Not sure… but there is only one way to find out!" Replied Issei with far more enthusiasm than she expected. She couldn't help but to think that maybe he was a closeted gearhead like Rias was. Most people wouldn't have been able to tell—nor would they have ever found out—but Rias owned her fair share of fancy cars. Some more high-end than others, but all of them were exceptionally nice, including her Red Saloon.

Koneko, on the other hand, really enjoyed bikes. She had always been impressed by bikes, by their speed and maneuverability and as a result, she had always wanted to experience one first-hand. But that was a story for a different time.

As Issei inserted the keys and twisted the ignition, the engine turned over steadily. It didn't exactly 'roar' to life though. No, it only cranked at first. Issei released the ignition and waited a few seconds before he turned the keys once more. This time, they both breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the engine turned over and began to thump to life.

"Hey, there we go!" Issei muttered with excitement as he stepped on the gas pedal lightly. From behind the truck, she could very evidently make out small clouds of black smoke shooting out an exhaust that she couldn't see. The black smoke paired with a low, choppy, clanking and rattling sound that came from the front of the truck led her to believe it was a diesel engine.

A very not-so-popular engine for Japan. She couldn't even remember the last time she had seen a gas pump that sold diesel in Japan. Soon, her eyes trailed away from studying Issei's face and landed on the knob in the center of the cabin, a large metal stick with a ball and instructions on top that disappeared into the center of the floorboard.

The truck was a manual.

"Do you know how to drive?" Koneko asked him with a wondering expression, her eyes still looking at the intimidating knob and even more intimidating three pedals.

Issei let out a laugh, honest and deep as he registered her question as being a valid one. "Pfft! Haha, you actually got into the car with me and didn't even know if I could drive or not!"

She looked at him blankly, the joke crashing headfirst into the wall of stoic seriousness she constantly had erected across her face.

Issei's fit of laughter began to pratfall vaguely downward, resulting in the smile that formed from his humor to fall into an awkward laugh.

"Shesh, and here I was thinking we were making progress in this relationship." Issei joked again, only to be met with another blank glare from Koneko. "Tough crowd…"

To get her point across, Koneko pointed at the knob in the vehicle, assuming that Issei had maybe not noticed it somehow. His eyes followed her pointed finger until it landed on the metal rod. His face went blank as he stared at it.

"Do you know how to drive?" Koneko asked her question once more. Earning another smile from Issei.

She wasn't sure why, but every time he smiled at her, it felt infectious. Reassuring might have been a better word for it. Whatever it was, Issei had the ability to smile in the face adversity, and not only was that reassuring, but she also found it oddly attractive. Not that she would ever admit it to herself though.

"I'm sure I can figure it out. 'R' stands for 'Race Mode,' right?" laughed Issei, reaching for the knob.

And just like that, the reassured feeling she had was gone in a flash. She may not have known how to drive a manual, but she certainly knew that 'R' did not stand for 'Race Mode.'

He grabbed the knob with a complete lack of hesitation and moved it as far to the right as he could manage and tugged the thing backwards. Unfortunately, they didn't enter race mode, but Issei did earn a very horrible grinding sound, as the gears all but ate into each other. Issei forgot about the clutch pedal.

"Oops." He joked out, wincing as the noise finally left both of their ears. Trying again, he stomped onto the clutch pedal—which was the pedal to the far left—and moved the shifter into the position of reverse by moving it as far to the right and down as he could. He gave the vehicle a little gas and began to ease off the clutch and brake, feeling the car begin lurch as the engine began to bite at the gears and force the vehicle to move backwards slowly. "See? Told you I could figure it out. Trust me a little more, we're partners now!"

She didn't disagree with him in that regard. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, in fact, it was quite the opposite, even after the incident they had been through this morning. She had honestly come to trust the boy a great deal, something that formed inside her the moment he came to her rescue in that storm. It might have even been accurate to say she had a bit of an affinity—a natural attraction—to him.

Soon after their interaction, they began their journey to wherever it was Issei was planning to travel. But not before he tried cracking on last joke her direction as he blasted through an intersection that had been marked with an upside-down red triangle. That's right, Issei ran a stop sign without giving as much as a blink.

"That was a stop sign." Koneko said, looking right at him as he continued to drive, slamming through gears like he was some kind of experienced racer. She couldn't help but wonder where his skill with driving had come from, and mentally noted that she would have to ask him eventually.

"Ahh, well, you see… it was a California stop?" he joked out with a stifled laugh. Koneko just continued to look at him in amazement as she knew they were now going well over forty kilometers per hour—which wasn't even the posted speed limit that was much lower.

"The speed limit is twenty-five, numb-nuts." She pointed out, making a jovial jab in his direction. She wasn't the type to give nicknames to people she didn't like, and the title she just gave to him was something that was intended to be a joke to the joker that sat behind the steering wheel of the truck. Now, that wasn't to say she didn't call people out for their actions, she would very openly call a pervert as such without an ounce of hesitation.

"Pfft," Issei expressively dismissed her jab with a laugh. "I thought that was the 'advised' speed limit, miss?"

"Miss? Gross, what am I, old?" Koneko half-joked. They both knew each other, despite not making any formal introductions.

"Haha, definitely not. Though you seem to act like one!" Issei joked out in snappy fashion, before he got a death-glare from the girl with enough emotion behind it to stop him.

"Act like what?" Koneko dared him; eyes sharpened his direction.

"I said you act like a cat. Feisty. Snappy." Issei corrected himself quickly. The girl looked taken aback for a moment, but she returned to normal only seconds later. He held his hand out for the girl to take. "My name is Issei Hyoudou, it's nice to meet you. I know, I'm late to introduction, but it's better to be fashionably late than to never show up at all!"

"I know who you are." Koneko stated simply, looking at his hand for a moment and not moving. She contemplated taking his hand for more than just a few seconds, but ultimately didn't.

"Well, of course, everyone does for some reason." Issei began, still holding his hand out. "But we haven't officially introduced ourselves to each other, have we?"

Figuring he had a point, she took his hand with her own, immediately noticing the sudden, irreplaceable energy that flowed from him and into her that filled her with a warmth she couldn't quite understand. "Koneko Toujou, nice to meet you numb-nuts."

"Issei."

"Numb-nuts."

"Okay, say it with me: ee-say." Issei jokingly began once more.

"Numb… nuts?" Koneko hesitated, trying to make it seem like she was genuinely trying to pronounce his name but failing miserably. She shot, and completely missed the target, and she honestly would have laughed at the antics between the two of them by this point if she were watching this from an outside perspective.

"Eh, close enough." Issei discontinued, pulling his hand away from her that she hadn't even notice she had still been holding.

For a moment there was a stagnant and uncomfortable silence that loomed over them, only the steady drone of the truck's not-so-gentle humming engine could be heard. Koneko wanted to say something, just to start the conversations—that were honestly quite entertaining to her—back up. However, Issei being the casual Joker that he apparently was, beat her to the punch.

"Hey, cat from hell, want to hear a song?" He began, once more accidentally hitting the nail on the head, causing her to look at him again in genuine concern at the possibility he might have known something about her that shouldn't have been possible. She shook the passing thought away.

"Sure, numb-nuts, serenade me." Koneko joked out, not caring at all what the word meant, but simply enjoying that the moment of silence had vanished.

Until he started singing, that is.

"Soft kitty~ warm kitty~ little ball of fur~"

She quickly turned her head away from the window she had previously been gazing out of, looking at his face that had a wicked-large smile on it from his own amusement.

"Happy kitty~ sleepy kitty~ purr, purr, purr~"

"Do you want me to punch you in your balls?" Koneko was only half-serious.

"I mean, not really. That's something I'm exactly into, you know?" Issei spoke to her before sending yet another joke her way. The man was persistent to get her going, that was to say the least. "But hey, I'm not judging. If you're into it, just be into it."

She actually released a small laugh at that, a very small smile made its way across her lips that he had picked up on almost immediately.

"Hey, there we go! See, it's nice to laugh and smile, right?" Issei began with a smile of his own.

"Don't push it." She dismissed his actions once more.

"One small step for me, one giant leap for Koneko." Issei managed one last joke before attempting to turn on the radio. She had expected to hear static, but instead, the radio didn't turn on at all. It had been completely fried from the storm.

She turned and faced back out the window, watching the buildings as they passed while her hand rested on the window seal and supported her head, blocking her mouth from view. She couldn't help but smile into the palm of her hand so he couldn't see.

It was nice to smile every once in a while.

Out on the road, everything looked to be surprisingly normal. Well, normal for a world that had just been wrecked by a storm that should have been impossible. The thing that stood out to Koneko most was the lack of vehicles that normally drove the street, instead there were cars that had crashed into the concrete walls that lined the roads they were currently driving on. Koneko didn't want to look into the windows of the cars, already knowing that she would see more than a few more dead bodies inside of them from the unfortunate souls who hadn't managed to escape the storm.

Other than that, and the looming eeriness in the air outside the truck, it was a beautiful fall day, the cherry trees lining the streets they drove along were in full bloom and falling in a light shower of pink that drifted along a gentle breeze. They passed several vacant restaurants, antique stores, houses, a new-looking art gallery and even an old-styled ice-cream parlor, with a sign out front that read in bold 'stretchy booza!' If the outside world wasn't so unbelievably fucked over by the storm from yesterday, the parlor would have looked like a beautiful, promised land for couples on dates, boasting an ancient recipe for ice cream at low-ball prices.

The village of Kuoh that had once been a bustling and thriving community, was all but a ghost town now, with newspapers rustling across the streets and debris thrown about from shattered windows and upturned trashcans whose contents were being scavenged on by the absolutely hulking black beasts with wings known only as the Japanese Crow. The black birds of the sky were large enough to disable and break internet and powerlines, and even lift animals from several of the zoos around Japan.

Staying on one of the smaller roads that paralleled the main highway and toll road to Tokyo, Issei continued to drive for a few miles into the town, turning into road after road like he had been travelling them for years. For a girl who was still relatively new to the human world, only spending a few years with Rias outside of the Underworld, Koneko had always been amazed by how compact everything in Japan was, as well as slightly discomforted. Tight roads with lines that barely gave any normal-sized compact car enough room to traverse with oncoming traffic and water grates that sunk deep into the earth, able to completely swallow a car's tire and cause a happy little accident on the road.

Yes, Japan was the exact opposite of the Underworld, and the Underworld—as funny as it was to hear—was similar to the America's in the sense that it was a very large place, with wide and long roads where villages and cities were strewn far and few between.

Eventually, Issei pulled up into the home that she knew all too-well was his own. It was a contemporary-looking style home with high ceilings, more modern than most of the Japanese houses on the same block, but still traditional enough to look normal. As soon as he pulled up, something inside her dropped, not because it had any relevance to herself, but because she knew it would bother her companion. Two animals lay in the yard, next to each other, both still and unmoving. Two paper-white Hokkaido Inu, often considered to be one of the wildest and oldest dog breeds in Japan and doubly so in initial expense and maintenance. As soon as the car parked and Issei rushed out, Koneko slowly followed his footsteps, weary of the world around her. The two dogs were very large, and if they were still alive, she was sure they would have barked madly at her.

Issei's worries weren't on the two dogs though. No, they were rightfully on his parent's, and he rushed past the two dogs and ran up to the door, with Koneko following close behind in a light jog, walking up to the porch and following him into the house. Yet another crushing pressure fell over her as she entered the house, seeing the many utensils of kitchenware thrown about haphazardly with broken glasses… and the worst part of the scene that caused her own emotions to ignite.

Blood.

Red, congealed and copper-smelling covered the ground in certain areas, most of it found resting on top of the shattered glass, possibly caused from a struggle by his parents to reach some kind of safety during the panic. Put, the worst part was the blood that followed after the initial point. Bloodied footprints strained the white carpet of the house red, leading up the stairs, stopping only briefly as another, much larger pool of blood soaked into the carpet. Koneko's worry only grew, while she had lost her own parent's long ago and could hardly remember them—aside from the stories told to her from her elder sister—she could understand the horrible feeling that Issei must have been experiencing, and that single fight-or-flight emotion was the main factor that sent him running up the steps, skipping steps as he went.

And she followed.

Until they reached the one room where their successful and thankfully uneventful day had all but flipped on its side. Inside the room that Issei rushed into, he had seen something that had made him stop in his tracks completely. The emotion, the fear and anxiety behind his eyes vanished, replaced by something she wouldn't have ever wished on him. Despite all the time she had gotten to know him based on his school reputation, she would have never, ever wished what was behind that door on him. But she didn't follow him into the room.

She couldn't bring herself to cross the door's threshold and walk into the room that hid terror from her. The smell was bad enough for her to have an idea, and there was something else deep down that told her to stop. To let Issei have his moment alone in that room, and to just be outside… waiting for him. Waiting for when he needed her. And she knew, deep down, he would need her to be there for him eventually. She moved gently to the wall outside the room and began to snake her back down it, gently resting herself onto the soft carpet below to provide relief to her aching ankle that she had previously ignored and waited. And listened.

She didn't need to see him to know he was crying. And she didn't want to see him cry either. She knew, that if she were in the same position, she would want to be alone too. And so, she waited.

And waited some more, in complete silence, letting her thoughts be taken away. Until it felt like an hour had passed.

And eventually, Issei walked out of the room slowly. A single picture was held in his hand, a photo of himself and his parents. On the back, she could see words had been written, but couldn't make out what it was exactly, and a single symbol. A heart.

"I'm… sorry." Issei spoke, his voice low and hoarse. Koneko could feel the dread and despair in his tone as well as the depression the pair brought with them. And the feeling was so thick inside him, she could feel it resonate within herself.

"Don't be." Koneko began, carefully searching for the words to say as it felt like she had been treading on thin and cracking ice. "If you ever want someone to talk to… I'll be here. I won't leave you, okay? Promise me you'll talk to me."

Issei didn't immediately reply, and Koneko honestly expected that. He didn't have to reply immediately, and she didn't expect him too either. But she would, eventually. For his own sake. She already felt like she owed him her life and offering him her shoulder to lean on and her ears to talk to was a very small price to pay if it meant helping him out, and she was completely willing to do both of those thing for him regardless. They were companions now, friends.

"I'll… be downstairs. I'll see you." Issei gently spoke, walking away from her and leaving the door behind wide open.

Once Issei was gone from her sight, she contemplated to herself, wondering if she really wanted to see what horrific sight awaited her behind the door. There was a moment of gut-tightening inside her that made her pause as she finished standing and faced the door in question. Biting her tongue, she walked in and let her eyes fall to the only bed in the room.

Curiosity killed the cat, as the saying goes.

Two figures, hardly distinguishable, rested together on white and blood-stained bedsheets. Held in what should have been a loving embrace, was everything but, and looked like something straight from a Jigsaw film. With dried blood from their mouths, eyes, noses and ears, their faces had been almost unnoticeable. The smell hit her all at once with even more force, and she wanted to reel back in shock. She looked away, unable to handle the sight anymore and instead found her eyes landing on the nightstand beside the bed.

A bottle of wine laid open on the surface, a puddle of water from condensation rested under it. And the more noticeable thing, was an overturned bottle of painkillers, the small pills laid scattered out on the floor, the bed and the table as if some struggle had been given. And the smallest fingerprint rested on the bottle's white label. It was a soul-crushing sight, to say the least.

Koneko moved to the covers of the bed that had been piled up by their feet and threw them over the two corpses, covering them from her sight. She didn't want to see anymore. The sight of death was nothing new to her, by any means, but the scene didn't look like anything she had seen before. The scene she had just saw was something that she could only explain as horrifically grotesque. It looked like a murder scene, and she wished that Issei wouldn't have had to see it. He deserved to know, but not like this…

She turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her with the image still fresh in her mind. She needed to go to Issei. And that is exactly what she did, moving away from the room and rushing down the steps carefully, she saw Issei sitting at the kitchen table. He had picked the table up and sat at it with his head resting in the palm of his hands. He wasn't crying anymore, but she knew the sadness was still there. She approached him carefully, until she was standing beside him. She picked a chair up off the floor and placed it down close to him. When she sat down in the chair, she offered another action, this one in the form of wrapping her arms around him.

The action she offered wasn't returned to her in any meaningful way, and it didn't have to be returned to her either. The hug she gave him was merely there to offer him a temporary comfort that she knew she couldn't give. Nothing she could do would ever fill the void that had forced itself into his heart. She just needed him to know that she was here for him. She didn't want him to do anything self-harmful. Thankfully, he didn't push her away.

There was no exchange of words between the two of them, Koneko simply held him and rubbed his back gently. The action was surprisingly foreign to her, it wasn't something she had ever done before to someone, but Rias had done something similar to her when they first met. She had experienced her own bout of depression and remembered each step she went through to get out of it, and she would do the same. He needed something comforting.

And she would try her best to be that something until she wasn't needed for that role anymore.

"I know you're only following me until you find Rias and your friends…" Issei voiced out, his voice cracking slightly as he spoke. She was taken aback for a second at his tone, it sounded nothing like the Issei she had come to know. But she didn't pull away from him. "But regardless. I was happy to have someone with me, because deep down… I already knew all this happened. I knew they were dead, I just smiled it off and refused to believe it."

Koneko simply listened, not exactly liking the direction the conversation was going but decided to not let go and continue listening as she stayed close to him.

"I'll do everything I can… to make sure you get back to them." Issei finished, his implied meanings going straight to her mind. She had been in his position, and she knew all to well how someone spoke when the felt like they had nothing to lose.

"I know how you feel. I lost my parents when I was just a child, and I lost my sister only a few years ago. The only family I have are my friends. You are one of them now. I came with you because I trust you, because I wanted to." Koneko began, not faltering even a moment as she effortlessly thought. "I know how it feels to be alone, lost and useless. You are none of those things."

There was another moment of silence between the two of them as Issei seemed to be deep in thought. Before he suddenly stood up with a start, his eyes red from his tears and rubbing his eyes. He held his head high as she looked up at him. As she looked at him, she immediately noticed the look of determination present behind his eyes. Yes, the sadness had ben replaced by a profound determination that set a fire behind his eyes she swore came out as a slight green…

The same color she had seen behind his eyes last night.

"Look at the windows of this house." Issei began with a point. "The glass is thin, and it shattered sometime during the storm. But the glass at the school is much thicker and didn't shatter. We survived because of that."

Koneko was amazed. Through his moment of strife where he was at his lowest, he had been able to pay enough attention to his surroundings to form a very valid argument as to why people—when indoors and protected—still died at the might of the storm. He was strong-willed and while it hurt her to admit it, that trait was attractive to her.

"There are a lot of schoolhouses, just like this, and most stores have thick windows as well to protect from robbers. Seven Elevens usually have an airlock where someone has to go through two thick glass doors to reach the actual store. We could potentially stock up on more long-lasting consumables from there on the way. Gas pumps won't be working, but there is plenty of cars we can siphon gas from on the way north. But we should make looking for your friends here a priority. Do you have any idea where to start?" Issei asked, ending the explanation of the plan he had formulated.

"Trust me… we will find them if we keep traveling." Koneko discontinued. She wasn't sure if they would find them at all. She was fairly positive they were nowhere they could reach anyway. She was sure the answer to finding them lied on the templates she brought with her from her clubroom. She was sure she could eventually scavenge up enough magic with Issei by her side to summon her friends.

"If you're sure about that, I'll take your word for it. Anyways, when we get started traveling, I don't want to take any chances out on the road, so whenever we see any kind of storm. Any kind that looks like something more serious than a light rain, we will be stopping. I don't want to risk either of us getting in trouble. I promised I would get you to you friends, and I will do exactly that. I guess we should start packing and getting ready."

Koneko was still amazed. Even through his own sorrows and the horrible things he had just seen, he was still worried about her. He went out of his way to save her, out of his way to help her, and now he was going out of his way to plan in order to keep her safe. It was alluring just as it was thoughtful, and the feeling she had building inside her chest wasn't something she was familiar with. Rias had offered the same to her, but having a guy do the same was something new to her. Especially when said guy wasn't simply trying to breed her for enjoyment.

"Oh! Your ankle, I forgot… sorry for making you exert yourself like that. There should be some painkillers around her somewhere, I'll go and search for them." Issei began.

A scene ran on repeat in her head in the moment, visions of the painkillers sprawled out across the night table. Issei hadn't noticed in his crying, but she did. And she would do anything to prevent him from going back into that room for her sake. And besides, her pain was manageable at the moment.

"Don't worry about it. It doesn't really hurt that bad, I promise." Koneko insisted, not moving from her seat as Issei moved away from her. She was honestly a little disappointed at the lack of warmth but was happy he was now up and moving of his own volition. Issei made a hum before he moved to a cabinet beside the kitchen refrigerator. He pulled a small blue box out of it and sat it on the counter before gently opening the fridge.

"Hey, it's still cold!" Issei let out an excited raspy cheer as he pulled a carton of milk out of the fridge and placed it on the table as well. Next, he reached for two glasses, turning towards the cabinet with his back towards the blood so he couldn't see, and placed them on the counter and poured two glasses of milk. He placed the blue box on top of the two glasses and carefully walked them over to her.

It was a family sized package of Oreos.

"Here you are, you like Oreos, right? I'll go and pack up some stuff and we can set off. We should only be here for an hour or so at most. I guess I'll be right back, okay?" Issei said, beginning to walk away to leave her to her own devices, but she reached for him, just like she did last night.

"Stay…" Koneko began, causing him to turn around and face her. "Please have some with me?"

It was odd to them both. Odd to Koneko because she was never the type of person to beg people to stay with her, nor was she the kind of person to offer to share treats that were given to her, but she felt some different kind of way when she looked at him, and while she knew it was probably best for them to eat somewhere other than in kitchen where there was blood still noticeable on the ground for his parents, she didn't know where else to go.

"Sure, I don't mind." Issei replied with a smile and a thumbs up, sitting back down at the table and facing away from the unsettling scene and joining her. She looked at the package as Issei opened them from the top, revealing the chocolate cookies inside, double stuffed and waiting for them. While the cookies didn't provide the most comfort, at least it was something.

It was important to enjoy the little things.

End of Chapter 4: Something Comforting

Sorry for how long this took. No real excuse, honestly. Busy life, busy with time, and have a lot of projects on my plate. But I hope the time away doesn't make this story any less enjoyable!

Please leave a review and let me know how I did, it motivates me to continue.