Kazutora was a bit surprised Rei hadn't shown up to school. The desk beside him sat empty and he found himself wondering if perhaps she'd run away. The thought both worried and infuriated him, she'd very clearly been distressed during their conversation yesterday. But she had covered it up well afterward, she had become rather adept at slipping on a mask of apathy in the time he'd been gone. It was only when there was a short break between classes that he checked his phone, despite giving her his number she hadn't texted him. This was both a good and bad sign. Though he had gotten a text from Baji, which he opened and read. 'Hey I know you care about Rei and all but you should seriously take a step back.' his eyes narrowed slightly at the message, he didn't know exactly what Baji knew or if maybe she'd said something to him. He sent a text back. 'So I take it, you know why she isn't here today?' he asked, hoping maybe his oldest friend would give him some answers. It took a few minutes but his phone went off again. 'I have an idea as to why, yeah. Seriously Kazutora, leave her alone. Let her come to you.' his suggestion was almost kind of funny, he had done that and the two never spoke. Kazutora wasn't going to let it end up like that for him, there wasn't a chance in hell. 'Look how well that logic worked out for you. So why isn't she here?' this time the response took a bit longer, he could picture Baji sitting in class eating his lunch and taking his sweet time replying and it was irritating. The phone went off and he opened it. 'Better than the self destructive spiral your arrival has sent her on. I think she's avoiding you.' That answered literally none of his questions, in fact it only gave him more. Clearly he'd seen her, to know she was in a self destructive spiral he'd had to have seen her. 'Self destructive, how?' The bell rang signifying the end of the break but Kazutora made his way outside as most people made their way in. He had every intention to go and find her, what exactly he was going to do when he did…he would figure that out later. 'She didn't know where she was, and she was a mess. Just leave her alone, Kazutora. She's not ok, and you're making it worse, she's running from you.' A part of him resented the fact that he was right, Rei had seemed almost happy when he'd first seen her. But when he'd talked to her it was as if her entire world crashed down. The only other time he remembered seeing her like this was in their childhood.
Her father was an abusive drunk, they'd met her at the playground they all used to hang out at because that was where she'd run away to when things got too bad at home. They'd only learned that fact after some time had passed, but Kazutora had his suspicions of it long before then. Growing up in a home filled with abuse and violence he could see it written all over her face everytime it got dark and it was time for them to part ways.
Despite knowing this to be a fact he couldn't just leave her alone. She was the only good thing he had left in his life aside from Baji, and Baji still worked with Mikey despite everything he had done. 'She can only run until she either tires herself out, or I catch her.' he thought to himself as he sped off on his motorcycle, while he knew the chances of finding her were slim he was damn well going to try.
Rei had managed to clean her entire van, despite sleeping til just after noon. She had also made an investment into some car fresheners, hoping to maintain the clean smell despite smoking in the vehicle. She was laid back in her fresh clean bed, feeling rather content with herself. Granted she felt a bit bad for calling out of school, but the school was understanding about it at least. They knew she was a good student and rarely just decided to not go in, and with the weekend ahead of her she debated leaving town for a little while. She had plenty of money to do it considering the work night she'd just pulled. Rei also didn't want to risk running into Kazutora again, or Baji either considering the state he'd seen her in. While the former worried her more than the latter, both were strong possibilities. She tried to shake the thoughts of Kazutora from her mind but they prevailed regardless of her attempt. 'He's going to be worried when I don't show up to school. He'd be even more worried if I had shown up though and then I'd have to deal with him.' In her own opinion she had picked the lesser of two evils, let him worry. It wasn't her problem even if he did. 'Unless of course he comes and finds me. Then I'm double fucked.' She sat up with a groan and a stretch, deciding if she did choose to go somewhere it would probably be best if she left at night. Being the middle of the day there was likely to be a lot of traffic. So she retrieved her sun shades, placed them in the windows of her car and laid back down in her bed, packed bowl in hand. Today was going to focus around resting and relaxing, no stress, no worries, money in her pocket everything was good.
Everything was not in fact good, with Kazutora at least, he had all the worries, and the stress. 'How many fucking white vans are there in Tokyo anyway?' He'd almost swear there was a convention for white vans in town as he had seen more than he'd ever seen in his life within the last two hours. He'd been searching for Rei non-stop, he was actually starting to have a panic attack. The constant swirling 'what ifs' plagued his mind. While his rational mind knew that in the six years he had been gone Rei had somehow managed to survive, despite clearly questionable choices. He found himself panicking, maybe he'd pushed too hard too soon? What if something bad had happened to her? He had only pushed so hard because she was the end all be all. Everyone else was gone, everyone but Baji at least. Despite Baji telling him he needed to fall back he couldn't. After six years away from her how could he be expected to?
Kazutora searched desperately for the stupid bumper sticker he'd noticed she had on her van. So far none of the vans he'd seen had a neon pink sticker that said 'Back off the Bimbo Wagon' She was such an idiot, a cute idiot, she'd probably thought the sticker was hilarious. Now it was the only way he had to find her, he knew he should have tried to memorize her license plate. He still didn't know what he was going to do once he found her, if he found her. What worried him more was in what state he was going to find her. As all these thoughts raged he sped past a small truck stop rest area, spotting a secular white van tucked just under a tree he decided to check it out. 'Van number 375' he thought to himself, he'd honestly lost count after 150 white vans that were identical to her own.
He pulled into the spot directly next to the van, trying not to look entirely sketchy as he peeked at the rear end of the vehicle. There was the stupid bumper sticker, he almost believed he was hallucinating it for a moment. But when he blinked hard it was still there, now he had to figure out where Rei was.
He parked and made his way into the small gas station, looking around he didn't see her. He debated risking asking the attendant if he'd seen her, so he grabbed a bottle of water and paid for it. Only asking once the transaction was done. "Hey, have you seen a girl here with silver hair, green eyes, about this tall?" He gestured about where her head had been when he'd hugged her. God that hug had been the closest he'd been to her in years, he wanted to keep her there forever. The sadness in her voice when she told him she should have turned her back on him a long time ago, that it was cruel, hurt him beyond any words he could come up with. "Uh yeah, the night shift guy told me to make sure the silver haired chick in the van was all set, guess she showed up looking pretty rough. Are you her friend or something?" Kazutora nodded and thanked the man, quickly making his way back outside and to the van.
He'd thought that he'd been stressed trying to find her, but now he was really feeling stressed. So he decided the best thing to do was knock on the back door of the van, hopefully she wouldn't be expecting him to show up so she'd open it. If it came down to it he'd pick the damn locks on the doors.
Rei was startled by a sudden knocking on the back of her van, she'd been laying back reading a book she'd been meaning to read for awhile. She grabbed her blankets and pulled them over her head and tried to make herself as small and quiet as possible. Whoever it was she wanted no part of dealing with, so she hid. There was another knock, a little bit louder. 'God damn it no stress, no worries, no problems.' she repeated the mantra in her head, she only had 4 more hours until the sun started to set. Once whoever this was went away she'd go on a little weekend vacation and come back totally ready for whatever bullshit life threw at her. There was a long period of silence, she peeked out from under the blankets. Maybe whoever it was had mistaken her van for someone else's. Kicking off the blankets once more she sat back and read her book. Rei couldn't remember the last time she'd just laid back like this and felt comfortable. Granted her injuries from the night before still hurt, she'd forgone layers for this reason wearing just her sports bra and a pair of underwear. The less clothing there was to rub on what was still fresh wounded all the better.
She read a few more pages of her book before her door popped open. Rei let out a small surprised shriek and threw the nearest object, which happened to be her window scraper, at whoever had just opened the door. Of course her window scraper attack was massively inefficient and Kazutoras head poked into her van. "Fuckin shit Rei what the hell." He grumbled as he rubbed his knuckles where he'd slapped the scraper away. Looking up at her he froze, a small voice in his head tried to remind him that he had been worried she may have been dead and this by comparison wasn't so bad. But all he saw was how absolutely beat to hell she was, so many different bruises, bite marks, and scratches littered every single part of her skin. It took a moment to realize she was basically naked, only wearing a bra and underwear.
Rei on the other hand was shocked, had this man seriously just broken into her fucking van? How the fuck had he even found her at all? "What the fuck Tora?!" Was all she managed to get out, though it summed up her feelings rather well. She didn't even notice she'd used his nickname. She grabbed the blanket and went to throw it around herself but he grabbed an end of it, stopping her from doing much more than covering her lap. When she looked up at him ready to yell his eyes caught hers, for the first time since he'd appeared back in her life she saw the Kazutora she used to know, not the one whose eyes did not reflect his emotions. But the emotion his eyes held was despair mixed with absolute bone chilling fury. "What happened?" His words were remarkably calm but his eyes gave him away, he climbed into the back of her van closing the door behind him. Rei was entirely speechless, what did she say, should she say anything?
She wracked her mind for the words, for any level of explanation and was zapped back to reality by his fingers touching her skin. His gaze was particularly on the bites littered across her neck, the ones his fingers ever so gently touched. Her throat felt tight, this was exactly what she had been trying to avoid. But why was it also exactly what she wanted? There was something there for once. The smallest glimmer of her Kazutora, the one who promised her he'd always take care of her. The one she had thought she loved once. He was sitting right here and she couldn't find her words. The only thing she managed to get out was his nickname, which made his sandy eyes flicker up from her injuries and meet her own jade gaze. Before she even knew what the fuck she was doing she'd wrapped her arms around him and she heard his back hit the van wall. His arms carefully moved to be around her, scared that he very well may break whatever moment they were having currently.
He'd expected to be yelled at, to be told he was insane, maybe even have her slap him. He was entirely prepared for all of that, yet he found he was unprepared for this. She was crying, he still wanted answers but there was no way to get them from her when she was like this. So they sat there, with him trying to comfort her despite having no real idea why she was crying. "Why didn't you call me?" He asked and she looked up at him, eyes still full of tears, she was absolutely heartbreaking. "Because you haven't been you Tora. This is the first time I've seen you actually show any level of feeling towards me since you came back. You know how shitty that feels?" Reis' throat burned as she hiccuped small sobs and Kazutora pulled her back in. Was that what she'd been talking about when she'd said he wasn't him anymore? The blinding panic he'd felt trying to find her had been all consuming, he hadn't even realized how much more emotional he'd been acting about this entire situation until she said it. "I'm sorry. I just-" he didn't know what to say, she was an absolute wreck. He felt like such an enormous fucking asshole, he'd thought she was crying about whatever had happened to her. But instead it was him, something she saw in him that he simply couldn't see.
She pulled away from him again sitting up to wipe her eyes in frustration, she'd always hated crying. "So what, I have to get hurt before you actually feel something? Cuz I'll go for another bender if it does fuck I'll-" Her words were cut off by his hand slapping over her mouth, his eyes met hers still full of the emotion she had been so desperate to see from him since he'd come back. He'd pushed her back so she was laying back in the bed and he hovered above her. It scared her a little because she could see the anger in the gaze he had fixed upon her, but she was still happy to see it nonetheless. "If you ever do that shit again, I don't know exactly what I'll do but I can tell you it will certainly earn me more than six fucking years. You want me to be emotional? You fucking have it." The words were said in a growl and his hand remained firmly planted over her mouth, making sure his words actually sunk in. He took a breath, trying to calm himself before he removed his hand from her mouth.
Rei remained silent for a moment, this was the Kazutora she remembered impulsive, emotional, and a bit mentally unstable. She realized now that she had him back she had not a clue what to say to him. So instead she grabbed his arm and tugged on him slightly, he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Lay down with me you jackass." She grumbled, and he complied with her request without complaint. He laid on his back staring at the roof of her van, moving an arm so she could move closer to him. She hesitated ever so slightly but moved into him resting her head on his shoulder. He pulled her a bit closer and she felt her heart squeeze uncomfortably, it was embarrassing how comfortable this was even after all this time. "So everything's ok now?" He asked, needing her reassurance that now things could go back to how they were. "For the moment yeah. I can't say they'll stay that way. They usually don't." Rei wished she could say everything was ok now, but even though he was acting like he used to it didn't mean everything was just magically fine now. He'd still been gone for six years, he'd still changed a lot and so had she. While she was happy to have cracked through to his more emotional side it didn't mean everything was just ok. "I can kill whoever did that to you, would that help?" He sounded so serious and it chilled her, she pinched him lightly on the side. "Don't fucking joke about that shit you dumbass." He looked down at her, with a twisted little smile on his face. Her heart beat a bit harder at that, she both loved and hated the fact that he was having such an effect on her. "You know I'm not joking." Kazutora said and she nodded as she did in fact know that he was a bit of a sociopath, she'd always known. It seemed though that he'd gotten worse, more broken, she wondered exactly how much worse it was. She was scared to test how deep those waters went. "Yeah I know you're not. It's scary." She was honest with him, and she felt his grip on her tighten up just the smallest bit. "You're scared of me?" He asked, sounding a bit forlorn and she shook her head quickly, she didn't want him to think that. She could never be scared of him, he was still the boy who'd come whenever she called, he'd been someone she loved once. "No not of you…more that you're going to do something reckless and impulsive, that you're going to disappear again." It was the truth, she was terrified she was going to lose him again. Kazutora had always acted on pure emotion, it was dangerous. Considering Kazutoras emotional state had always been rather flippant. But it was also something she loved about him, that was why it had bothered her when he wasn't being truly emotional with her. "But you love when I'm reckless." The smile he wore was dangerous and made her stomach flip, his hand moving up from around her waist to hold her chin making her look directly into his eyes. "Don't you?" He asked and it was suddenly painfully apparent to her how very close together their faces were. How she could feel his breath on his lips when he asked her that. It made her head spin. "N-not when it puts you at risk Tora! Not when you might get taken away again." She tried to maintain her composure at least somewhat, putting her hands on his chest to keep him at a respectable distance. He made a small noise of contemplation before he spoke again. "So you don't want me to leave you?" Her entire face burned hot and she shoved him a bit. He was being such an ass about this. "It isn't about me stupid! You're missing years of your life by spending them locked up!" It was also kind of about her but she wasn't going to say that, Kazutora of course saw right through her. But he allowed her to have her small win. "Yeah sure, whatever you say Rei. So are you going to tell me what happened to you?" The bite marks, and bruises that covered her were still bothering him.
She pulled back from the hand that still had her chin in its grasp and sighed, laying back into the bed a few inches of space between them. "Not really much to say, I went on a bit of a bender. Left school got some of what I believe might have been acid or something. I have no idea. Everything kind of came in patches. I know I slept with the drug dealer, I think there were at least 3 or 4 others too? Then the next thing I remember is running into Baji at the convenience store near school. Which was certainly not my most shining moment." She felt embarrassed even just saying it. She could only imagine what he probably thought about what he'd seen. Kazutora was annoyed, he was hoping she'd have a name to go with every single mark and bruises on her. He'd every intention to kick the shit out of whoever had hurt her. "So that…was because of me…because of our conversation." To say it aloud stung, and she wouldn't meet his gaze nor did she object. All of which told him he was right. He stared at her for a moment trying to think of something to say but she got to it first. "It's fine, just…something that happens sometimes. I made a lot of money, if nothing else, a little more than eight hundred bucks." She smiled, as though the fact that she had done this before and made money off of it made up for it. She seemed so proud of herself but it was a twist of the knife stuck in Kazutoras heart. "This isn't worth eight hundred dollars Rei." He gestured at how battered she was, the bruises and bites a stark contrast to creamy skin. 'You're worth more. There isn't even a price high enough.' He so badly wanted to say those words but he refrained. Knowing Rei she would scoff and tell him everything and everyone had a price. "It is to me. I just made what some people make in a week in a single night. Besides, they only hurt a little." She was as stubborn as always, he wanted to shake her. Instead he laid his hand on the top of her head, giving it the lightest of pats. "I really wish you'd stop, I can take care of you if you let me." He offered and she rolled her eyes, moving his hand off her head and instead holding it in her own. "We might be having a moment right now Kazutora but that doesn't mean I'm about to just let you take care of me. Besides, I like making my own money. It feels nice." She was absolutely beaming with pride, it hurt that she wouldn't accept his help. So instead he made a counter argument. "Why don't you just get an actual after school job? I know you won't make as much as fast but you'll be a lot safer." He squeezed her hand ever so slightly which drew her gaze to him. He'd missed this, them just being able to talk. Even just to be able to look into her jade colored eyes brought him a level of catharsis. "I tried, the school wouldn't let me get a work pass. They said even with my good grades my….less than stellar home situation didn't allow for it." The school only knew that her mother had died and from the times they'd tried calling her father he'd always been drunk and uncooperative. They of course had no idea she'd been living out of her van since a few months after her mother died. "How is that going…the whole home thing?" That was a baited question. "I mean how does it look like it's going." She gestured around them at the van that surrounded them and he looked at her curiously. It took him a moment to get it. "Wait…you're living in your van?" He was stunned, Rei just nodded, he'd just figured she had the bed in the back for nights she didn't want to go home to her father. Nights where he got violent. To know she'd been living in a van just sat wrong with him. "For how long?" She bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows ever so slightly as she thought about it. "Probably almost five years now? It's actually not so bad, compared to living with my dad at least." She shifted a bit, feeling uncomfortable with him staring at her the way he was. Kazutora was flabbergasted, suddenly all the pieces were coming together. Why she hadn't responded to any of his letters or Bajis, she hadn't gotten any of them. She'd been by herself living out of a van for the whole time he had been gone. "You've really been alone this entire time haven't you?" He asked and she looked at him with a shrug. Clearly he was far more upset by this than she was, not like that surprised him, she'd always been rather careless when it came to her own well being. "It's no big deal, you know how my dad used to be…it got worse after my mom died. This is the best place for me to be." He again found himself wanting to shake her but again he refrained from doing so. "You should come stay with me, the place I live isn't the best. Just a room and a bathroom with a shared kitchen. But it's safer than this." 'you'd be safer with me' once again words left unspoken although he wanted to he also didn't want to come off too strong so quickly. Asking her to stay with him was already moving into that territory. Luckily for him Rei laughed a bit, rolling her eyes. "Ah yes I can see it now me waiting at home for you like a worried wife, patching up your booboos, making you dinner." She said it sarcastically but to Kazutora it sounded really nice. He could picture her giving him crap for not taking out the trash, making dinner in the small shared kitchen, waking up to her every morning. "Doesn't sound so bad to me." He said and she gave him the smallest of smiles. He really could be sweet when he wanted to be, it was nice to feel like he wanted her around. "Of course it doesn't sound bad…I just…fuck I don't know Tora. If you're really that desperate to help me then just let me use your shower. It's a bitch to have to pay five bucks every time I want a shower, or I have to shower at school which is awkward." She was willing to accept the slightest bit of his help, just enough that it wouldn't burden him. Or make her feel as though she were taking advantage of him. "It's not exactly what I want but fine, at least then I have a reason to see you every day." He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes, moving to flick him in the forehead. "After this weekend maybe, for now I actually should get going. I kinda planned to go on a little vacation with a bit of my hard earned cash." Kazutora looked at her with dejection written all over his face. It instantly made Rei feel a bit bad, but she'd kind of gotten her heart set on spending the weekend somewhere else. "Maybe we can go on a little vacation together?" He knew how unlikely she was to accept this, but he had to try. Kazutora really didn't want her to just leave, especially not after they'd just started talking again. "Tora, you are most of the reason I need this vacation. One day we can, eventually take one together. But that day is certainly not today." While parts of her statement stung, and he really didn't want to let her leave him, she said 'one day' not maybe and not if. So there was hope that one day they could go on a vacation together. He pouted a bit, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Fine, I understand. But you're at least giving me your number so I don't spend the weekend worrying about you." It wasn't what he wanted, but it was something more than he had started with so long as she agreed. Of course Rei did, besides maybe it would be easier talking to him over the phone. She felt…weird around him in person, her heart would beat funny and she'd get embarrassed when he'd get too close, her old feelings towards him rearing their heads. No one else made her feel like that. She sent him a text, showing him her phone in order to show him she had in fact sent a text. "You saved me under Tora on your phone? That's really cute." Her face got hot again and she punched him in the shoulder, causing him to laugh. "I was just teasing you, jeez!" He said and she rolled her eyes at him, he could be such a dick. "Whatever you say Hanemiya." She grumbled and he looked genuinely incensed by her use of his last name, grabbing her cheeks and pinching them. "Don't you dare start using my last name! We've been past that since we were twelve!" He said as she laughed, despite her cheeks being held between his fingers rather tightly. "Yeah, yeah fine. I was just teasing you, jeez." She said mimicking his own words back to him impersonating his voice terribly, he'd almost forgotten how much of a brat she could be at times. He released her cheeks from his pinching assault and she grinned at him. "I'll see you at school on Monday, Kazutora. I swear if I come back and you're dead in the eyes again I'll kick you out a window." She said in an attempt to be threatening, but he actually found it quite adorable that she thought she could threaten him. "You better send me pictures of your vacation." He said moving to exit the van and she rolled her eyes, giving him a lazy salute. "Sir yes sir." His mouth twitched in the slightest of smiles as he opened the door and exited, closing it behind him, evening had come and the sun had all but set at this point. He climbed on his bike to leave and noted Rei had climbed into the driver's seat and had started up the van, music began blaring so loud her windows rattled and she jumped a bit before turning it down which made him chuckle. She peeked out her window, her face a bit warm noting that he had certainly seen her jump scare. She cracked the door ever so slightly. "Have a good weekend Kazutora." She said and he smiled a bit, finally starting the bike up. "Yeah you too, be safe." He said and she smiled closing the door and he took it as his opportunity to leave.
As he sped down the highway he saw her van exit the parking lot in his mirror and head in the opposite direction. For as much as things hadn't gone exactly as he would have liked them too he was content that she was at least speaking to him again. 'Now I just need to not fuck this up.' he thought to himself, feeling a bit nervous that much like with most things in his life he would love her until he broke her. Like a child who played too roughly with their favorite toy. Even with that worry in his mind he found that he was actually looking forward to Monday.