Chapter Two: Power Witnessed at First Hand
Rikuo and Kazahaya had finished restocking the shelves and finished early without a word or a glance between the two of them. They put up their store aprons and the first words were spoken that shattered the silence into more than a billion pieces.
"Let's get this over with." He said and began to show him around the store first, then the meeting room where everyone ate and lastly, up stairs to the shower and bedrooms. That's where they found Kakei and Saiga who were surprisingly awake.
"Who's the kid with rent boy?" the man in black leaned over Kakei's shoulder and asked in a whisper.
"Him? That's Kudo-kun. He's going to be staying here for a while with us." He said with a blissful smile up to him before turning to look at the two. He figured by the way they were both looking in opposite directions and how Rikuo had his arms crossed and an aggravated look on his face that they were still having trouble getting along. "Did you tell him everything?"
"Yes." Rikuo spat out in a dead tone. He turned to leave but Kakei said something else before he could walk out.
"Even about extra things outside of work?" he knew quite well that Rikuo didn't tell him about that. Kakei pulled out a couple of dollars from his lab coat pocket and handed the money to Rikuo. "Take him out and explain to him all that he needs to know."
"Fine." Himura's voice stayed the same as he took the money and shoved it into his back butt pocket. He started out the door with Kazahaya following shortly behind him. All the way to the Mocha Café, Kazahaya stayed four feet behind Rikuo.
"Good day, sirs." The waitress said with a bow and a bright red smile from her lipstick. She showed them to a little table in the corner of the café and handed them each a menu. With one more bow, she walked off.
"I've never been here. What's good?" Kazahaya asked as he flipped through the menu. He pried his eyes from the menu to Rikuo when he heard no answer. His eyebrow twitched at his ignorance. "Are you listening to me?" he asked and tugged the menu from his hands.
Rikuo looked up at him, showing the least bit of interest.
"I asked you what's good."
"Anything." He said and plopped his elbow up on the table. He placed his chin on the palm of his hand and rested it there. He tilted his eyes over to the window and watched the passing cars and people go by.
"What was it that Kakei wanted you to tell me?" Kudo asked and nudged his partner's knee with his own. It worked to make him look at him.
"Are you ready to order?" the waitress returned to ask. She picked up their menus as she spoke to them.
"I'll have a vanilla latte."
"Same." He said absentmindedly.
"Thank you. Your order will be ready in just a few minutes." She wrote everything down and smiled once more to the both of them before walking back to the counter.
"You sure you can have caffeine?" Rikuo said with an almost mocking smile.
"So you can say more than a few words!" Kazahaya threw his hands in the air in a surprised way. He hoped that Rikuo was finally opening up to him.
"Yeah, is that so surprising?"
"Well to me it is. You haven't really spoken much to me after I came. I'm happy that we're on speaking terms now." Kazahaya said and handed him a smile.
Rikuo just shrugged. "Anyway. Kakei wanted me to tell you about jobs outside of the pharmacy. They are side jobs to retrieve lost artifacts or things. They pay good money but I don't see why Kakei would send you on these jobs. You can't do anything special but screw around."
Kudo froze in his seat. Could Kakei know about my power? He sure knew that I had no place to go . . . that must mean . . . "Is Kakei a stalker?"
"What?" Rikuo nearly fell from his seat. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"He knows everything about me! It's kinda creepy if you know what I mean . . . " Kudo seemed to trail off into space while speaking his words. "But what about these crazy side jobs? I mean . . . you don't look like you're good for anything either. Just the muscle." He looked at him in disbelief. This was so much like a fairy tale and he thought that Rikuo was just making all this up just to freak him out.
"Actually . . . I can break things using my mind." Rikuo looked to him with a slight grin. "What could you possibly do?"
"You seriously don't think I'd believe that kinda crap, do you?" he asked and stood up. "I'm out of here. I'm going back to the store. Bring back my latte for me, will ya?"
"If that's what you want."
Kazahaya had not gone back to the store but to the park. He had climbed up into a tree and passed out on a branch for what seemed hours. Until he heard Rikuo's familiar voice call out to him from below.
"Come down, you idiot." He said as he tossed a rock up to Kazahaya and hit him smack dab in the head when he sat up. Rikuo had been down there for the past five minutes trying to get him to wake up.
"Ow . . . " Kazahaya groaned as he sat up and rubbed the little red mark on his forehead. "What are you doing here?"
"When you didn't return to the shop, Kakei told me to get you here. It's getting late so come on down."
"I don't want to." He yawned his words and stretched back out on the branch. "Keep throwing rocks if you like but I'm not gonna come. Your make believe fairytale is silly."
"Make believe?" he asked then snorted. "If I get you to believe, will you come down?"
"Sure."
"All right then." Rikuo grinned devilishly up at him and then focused his eyes on the branch. Within seconds, the branch snapped into two and Kazahaya came crashing to the ground. Rikuo quickly caught him before his body could make contact with the hard Earth.
"What the Hell?" Kazahaya gave a startled yelp as he fell into Rikuo's arms. "Ha-how?" he asked and looked up to him. He was panting hard after getting his breath knocked out of him. Kudo had actually met a boy that had a strange power just like him. He was happy that he wasn't the only person considered a freak to those humans without the power; but special to him. "How did you do that?"
"I just did it." He chuckled at the glint of amazement in his partner's eye. He started walking out of the evening lit park and back to the drugstore.
"Are you gonna put me down?" the brown haired boy didn't struggle the least bit in the giant arms that held him close to Rikuo.
"No. You're staying right here." This made Kazahaya smile. He gave a small half smile back in return. Maybe it won't be so bad after all.
