Sixth installation! (really, someone has to cure me from announcing the number of chaps!) ^_^ Thanks again for reading, minna-san!
Eliar Swiftfire: Can't different ranking police work together? I dunno. *shrugs helplessly* If it helps, just forget that they have ranks. Thanks for reading, PJ-boy
SLL: *nothingtodo cautiously approaches sLL and nervously looks around for any signs of weapon* I'm glad you like this ficcie. : ) And thanks for that look left, look right tip! I might use it some time. ^_^ Make a movie out of my fic??? !!!!! Stop joking, sLL. Ha ha!
Joy: Yep, I rather like Kiara myself. Ha ha! More surprises? I dunno…
Ky: You think so? Thanks!
Yoriko: Thanks! (and hey, I was surprised you reviewed my long-forgotten poems! Ha ha! Thanks again!
Fiery Ice: Yeah, they've just finished showing YUA season 2 over here in Malaysia too. *drools at Shouji* I love that guy! Handcuff me? Now, really, fiery ice you wouldn't do that, would you? *nervously looks around for escape routes*
Idiotic Moron: Relax! No need to beat own self for not reviewing my fic – I'll gladly do it for you! Ha ha ha! Joking. : ) Thanks for reading my work, Mron! (oh no, that didn't come out very well – I meant your name! Not that you're a moron! *babbles on to explain innocence to Idiotic Moron*)
Kka: I like disappearing. ^_^ I'll try not to make you go nutso or chipso again. : )
Jo-sen7: *calmly watches as Jo-sen7 breaks into a bank* Just hope you'll have time to read this chap, and not get too busy waiting for Mitsui to come and catch you! Nyahaha!
Alexia: Thanks a lot. *blushes outrageously* And thanks for alerting me about the crazy sentence. I'll fix it!
Electric muffin: Arigato! Next chapter served!
Doujin: The lead HAS to be Mitsui. Nobody else fits the part so well, don't you think? I took the name 'Kiara' from Lion King. I'm not very good at making names, actually. *hides ashamed face* Keep on tuning to this story!
Ferohcious: Have fun studying – if that's ever possible. I like their conversations a lot too! Somehow, they things they say always amuse me! Ha ha! Let's see how else they 'interact', hmm?
Tiran: Cliffhanger? Where? Thanks! I'll keep up my work and you keep up your reading!
Coolpriss: Me likey their conversations too. : ) I dunno why I like to make them kiss a lot … still, no harm, is there? ;P
Rei-142: Another one who wants to chain me to the computer…. *shudders* I am surrounded by threats!
Tensaispira: I'm glad you like it : ) Have fun reading this chap!
Jeano: Am uploading!
It was uncomfortable and nerve-racking, Kiara concluded. Having a police officer by her side at all times was so weird she had trouble believing it was happening.
But it was.
Every time she looked around her, he was there, close by. Just watching her, his eyes digging into her skin as if he could scratch up the answers from there. At times, she found herself reaching out to pinch him, to determine whether he was a figment of her imagination or whether he was really, really there.
The results were all the same.
He was really, really there, frowning sometimes at her touch.
Every minute, she could feel herself slipping further and further into trouble. Misery crowned over her as she realised she was going to have to handle this alone, all by herself. At least Luna and Pit were together. If things took a wrong turn, Kiara was going to have to go to jail with nothing but her own company.
She shuddered at the image of a dungeon in her mind, and Mitsui came closer, concerned, but mostly scrutinizing her every expression. She gritted her teeth. "Stop watching me," she snapped. "You're free to follow me, but stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?" he queried nonchalantly.
She glared. "Like you're going to eat me alive."
"Why would I want to that?"
"Because you're angry with me," Kiara muttered. "That's understandable, but can you keep your anger to yourself? I don't care much for it."
"Why do you think I'm angry with you?"
Why did he ALWAYS answer a question with another question? Kiara didn't find that trait of his flattering. "Actually, I don't really care why you're angry with me."
"Good," he snapped. "Because you wouldn't have liked my reason anyway."
Moodily, they trudged back to the construction site. "I live here," she informed him stiffly. "And I assume you're going to insist on staying here for the night to watch me. Well, the two couches there are free. Your choice. Just don't wake me up in the middle of the night crying to go back to your home."
"When Hell freezes over," he retorted.
They settled into their own substitute bed grumpily, tossing and turning.
It was past one o'clock in the morning when Mitsui muttered: "What are you doing here, Aikawa?"
Kiara grunted in the dark. "Shut up. One of us here is trying to get some sleep."
"You're not," he replied. "You're just staring at the wall and checking every once in a while to see if I'm asleep so you can make your getaway." Kiara hissed in exasperation as he neatly uncoiled her plans and wondered how he could see her in such an oppressing darkness. "What are you doing here?" he repeated.
"What does it look like I'm doing?? I'm living. I'm trying to reach my twenty-second birthday at least."
"There are other ways to live and survive."
Kiara snarled. "You don't know what you're talking about, okay? This is hardly your place to tell me your fascinating observation about the way I do things."
Mitsui gave a short laugh. "I probably know more than you'll ever know."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I used to live in places like this too," he shrugged to her.
Kiara sat up. "What?" She squinted to locate him in the darkness.
"Ran away from home at fourteen. Started smoking at fifteen and took drugs at sixteen. Became a street thief and broke into mansions at seventeen. Got caught." He recited it unemotionally, as if he was reading from a history textbook. "Went into rehab and got out at twenty."
Kiara realised she was holding her breath, for some reason. "And then?"
Suddenly, he was right in front of her. He had crept over unnoticed. She couldn't see his face, but she felt the heat radiating from him and the overpowering presence of his eyes on her face.
"And then," he answered. "I realised there were better things I could do with myself. I became a police cadet, and am a policeman now."
He let the silence hang over them.
Kiara struggled to find something to stay, all of a sudden awkward. "Well then, good for you."
"That's beside the point," he told her. "The point is you."
She knew that was coming. Clearing her throat, she ordered herself to relax and sort through her thoughts carefully. "This is the life that I want," she informed him. "I love this place, and I like how things go around here. You needed a better life – I don't. But thanks for your concern anyway."
"Don't try that with me, Aikawa," Mitsui groaned almost painfully. "You're not a fool. You know deep down in that stuffy heart of yours that the world is a big place. You're just saying you love your current life because you're trying to disillusion yourself by pretending that it's perfect." He paused when she hissed.
"It is perfect," Kiara said defensively. "I get by. I have fun."
"That's because you have not seen the other things – better things – that you can do out of here. I bet you have never been out of Bokotu your entire life."
She paled – not that it was noticeable in the black darkness.
"That's the reason," he continued. "You grew up here with solid belief that every other place is like this, and that you have no choice but to live the way you do."
Kiara froze when his statement struck true.
"It's not the way you think it is," Mitsui told her, gently this time. "There are better lives than your seemingly 'perfect' one. I look at you, and then at this sorry room, and you don't fit at all." He took her chin with his fingers and lifted it to level with his. "I guess I'll just have to show you."
Kiara stared into his eyes, losing her logic in the process. She decided Mitsui's advantage over her – other than strength, muscle and smarts – was his eyes. Dark, powerful and hypnotizing. "Are you going to kiss me?" she asked foolishly.
His eyebrow arched. "Actually, I was thinking about taking you around my town and show you what there is out there waiting for you," he mused, tone changing into one of light amusement. "But since you've asked…"
*hentai thoughts start springing from the cerebral cortex* Ehem.