A few minutes had passed in silence as Maemi, Kyoko or Jane, or whatever the fuck, was left alone. Snooping around wasn't really her style… at least not anymore since it was no longer the unknown woman's job to do so. She somewhat wondered what she'd find in the bastard's apartment, most likely a huge file of her and 'missing people'. Shaking away from that thought the brunette yawned widely for what felt like the billionth time. Maemi was so exhausted that she didn't even hear the door open. "Don't fall asleep now, Jane-chan," Izaya teased staring at her; he leaned on the threshold of the entrance noticing that she hadn't moved from where he left her. He guessed she didn't bother sneaking about in his absence. Izaya pushed himself off the door's frame before swinging the door closed behind him.
"Why not? You slept at my place," the female pointed out lazily. The male seemed to be unaware of the clearly false smirk sliding away from his lips, instead, sagging down grouchily. Maemi let herself fall into a laying position on her side while her legs still place over the edge. And as a cherry on top, she stuck out her tongue. "I have to get my payback some way. No matter how small," a little smirk of her own formed on her lips.
"You can take the train home," his strained muse was more of a demand rather than a suggestion. Izaya strolled over to her and bent down to be face to face with the unknown woman, "You'll find that I'm not as foolishly welcoming as you," the male hissed. "Now, out," he commanded adding a false smile at the end. To be honest, it pissed her off, even more, when he had that grin plastered on.
Maemi stared into his forced-to-wrinkle eyes before she abruptly sat up, "I get it now," her voice was small though the resolve was evident.
Izaya stood to his full length again, "Get what?" he asked casually… on the outside. He even lifted a hand in a one-sided shrug in an attempt at seeming indifferent. In truth, the male's frustration meter instantly launched. If she fucking saw through him again! God fucking damn it- no. No. Don't show it. Izaya innocently pushed his cheek up. This was easy-
"You're pushing me away because you think we've gotten too personal. Seriously Izaya, you need to take a chill pill," the girl drawled in boredom.
Izaya's brows slightly twitched into a frown as his lifted lips became bitter. "Is that so?"
"Yep," she muttered bleakly shoving the black wig back on her head, "Thanks for putting me through all that shit and making me drive here for nothing." Maemi or Kyoko stood and headed for the exit, her graceful and silent steps completely thrown into a fierce fire. Izaya didn't follow her with his eyes but his ears couldn't avoid the sound of her stomps. They listened as she grew further and further away.
"'For nothing?'" he quoted quizzingly, "What do you mean by that?" Izaya piped up all of a sudden, preventing the woman from leaving… That… That wasn't on purpose. It wasn't! It was just… 'Shit!'
"Dude, we only hung out for three days. We aren't close in the slightest." The unknown woman darkly chuckled, "Sure, you might know too much about me but that doesn't mean you everything… Or maybe it's more appropriate to say 'about-… No. I'll keep that to myself," she spoke to no one, in particular, hushing herself with her index finger over her darkly colored lips. The female raised her voice back to Izaya, "You freaked out over nothing," she spat the words tauntingly at him, giving the raven head a taste of his own medi- … poison.
Izaya found that he was no longer interested in what he supposedly didn't know, being too focused on the dagger-filled words. "I don't know what you're-
"'Talking about'?" she finished for him, "Remember what sh- I said before?" The woman paused a bit trying to recover from her fuck up. "You wouldn't admit the truth." The 'raven' head opened the door and turned to the garnet eyes, "Now, what do you want me to do?" the harsh woman gave him her piercing grey gaze.
"I want you to leave, Jane-chan." His grin didn't meet his eyes, like always.
She grunted to herself and slammed the door shut again, "You're bad at this, Izaya," the woman mentioned shortly, "Why do you want me to stay?" the mock-raven asked, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head as if she thinking he was being utterly stupid. He hated it. He hated that patronizing look she gave to him.
The male forced his teeth to unclench, "I don't. I just told you to-
"You're getting frustrated," the woman interrupted, "Is it pointed at me? Or yourself? Maybe it's both?" she derided in a whisper, stepping closer as if challenging him.
Izaya sighed deeply, "You're one hell of a human." She really was. He couldn't remember the last time someone tried to fuck with him this way. Humans either just threw punches which were easy to evade. Or they'd speak empty threats. Or cried and sob pathetically in front of him and scream out to him 'I hate you!'… Hilarious. Hi-la-ri-ous. It's fucking hilarious. But this one. This human in front of him now. She wasn't funny in the slightest.
"You're trying to change the subject, Izaya. Perhaps, you're attempting to swing this around to me?" She took another step gradually making her way to him sharpening her eyes.
"Oh, yes. Definitely," he said sarcastically with a bitter chuckle mixed in. Why wasn't she hilarious? Why couldn't he laugh? Why couldn't he laugh at this ridiculousness? Why was it so hard to accomplish all of a sudden? He never ever had any difficulty laughing in someone face! … Was it- … Was it because no one had ever got anything right… until now? Until her?
Another step closer both physically and mentally, "You use sarcasm a lot, but what people don't know is that you're not being sarcastic at all." Another step. "It's just a cover-up, isn't it?"
Izaya stayed silent. If he were to do anything at this point the witch would simply twist and turn his words and actions against him. Well, that sounded familiar. That was something he would do… But… was that even what she was doing right now? Izaya finally noticed the woman right in front of him staring up into him with those fake-gray eyes. She sighed in resignation and gently touched his jawline. He tried to stop himself from flinching.
She furrowed her eyebrows worryingly, "Come here," the woman whispered, her gentle tones coming back like a simple flick of a switch. Maemi easily saw the confusion upon the male's face as she gently tugged his head towards her right shoulder. She didn't realize how tall he actually was until now. He had to bend a little bit.
Izaya felt the unknown woman's warmth from her neck. He smelt that familiar richness of cocoa-butter in her hair. See the faked pale skin and her real dark brown hair that had little knots and kinks in it. When had she taken that god awful wig off? … That didn't matter right now! "What are you doing?" Izaya spilled out from within the woman's neck.
"Trying to comfort you," she told him simply as if there was nothing wrong with this scene. Or as if she hadn't been torturing him with her all-knowing words and mind reading ability only seconds ago! What the fuck was wrong with her? What on earth made this girl think that this was all fine and good! Sure, she had done it before conscious and not, but if it was weird then it's even weirder now!
The raven lifted his head up, "I don't need comfort-
"Shhh! Yes, you do," she forced his head back down and ran her other arm up to his back. Izaya didn't move, apart from blinking, nor did he try to escape anymore. Maemi could feel his eyelashes graze over her neck as well as his warm breath. It wasn't scary being so close to him which was news to her.
"Jane, this is ridiculous. Let go." His voice was quiet since he was right in her ear there wasn't much point speaking loudly. Or at least that's what he told himself. In truth, the raven didn't have great control over his tones, not even the words he spoke formulated properly. If he pushed out his voice the tiniest bit more, who knows what would have happened. And quite frankly, Izaya didn't want to find out. But even with his attempts, the woman only shook her head in refusal. "Let go," he repeated, however, he only received a more violent head shake. Izaya was filled with so many… human emotions; rage, indignity, contempt… and… Why the fuck was he happy?
"It's okay, Izaya, you can hug me back." Her voice was so very soothing as well as the tender touch of her ungloved fingers running through his short hair over and over. With each stroke, the garnet-eyed male seemed to lose tension and stiffness in his body. Bit by bit, he relaxed and maybe… that fury he felt before… maybe it was fading too.
Izaya couldn't believe this was the same woman who was taunting him previously. The same woman who easily took down four men twice her size – except that skinny guy. The same woman who committed so many murders. His limp arms slowly rose up to embrace her back… 'No. I shouldn't.' Izaya's mind wanted nothing more than to grab Jane Doe's shoulders and push her away but his body didn't allow it. It was like he was trapped in that bed with the woman again. His hands were apparently on auto-pilot and they softly rested on her back… Okay. Admittedly, this was really nice but… what the fuck!
Maemi stepped a tiny bit closer and he couldn't help but do the same. "Izaya~ I didn't know you could be so gentle~" the woman teased, attempting to lighten the heavy mood.
He chuckled into her neck making goosebumps run down her right side from his breath. "What? You like it rough?" he slyly hissed back.
"Oh god. No," she said dryly, "Don't say that ever again." He should really think before he speaks. Of course, the woman didn't like to be handled roughly!
He laughed more and more. It didn't seem natural but Maemi let it slide and didn't mention anything. She just kept stroking his hair and rubbing her thumb on his back. How the hell does he torture people like that? Kyoko Orojima, the 'stone-cold-hearted bitch' didn't even like saying all that shit, even though it was true. 'Oh, Izaya. You truly are terrible,' the woman sighed inwardly. "Hey, did you eat dinner?" she asked a few minutes after his "laughing fit".
Izaya had to think for a moment… Did he? No, yeah. He did… Wait, no. That was yesterday… Woops. That darn stupid habit again and not to mention his damned body being too used to not eating properly that it doesn't even signal an alarm anymore. 'Alarm' being the grumbling of a stomach. Not his stomach though. "… No," he finally responded shortly. He decided to not go into his strange dilemma and eating habits or the lack of. "Why?" he asked, his face still hidden in the woman's warm neck. Hmm… If he was a vampire he'd certainly feast upon her… Was that weird to think of? Yeah. Yes, it was. 'Brain. Fucking stop.'
Maemi sighed yet again, "Of course you didn't," she muttered seeming to already know his food problems. "You want me to cook you something?" she offered, having no idea about his strange thought.
"Ooo~ Sure!" There was no way he was going to refuse. He hated cooking! And the udon last week was so good. She nodded her head and let go of the male but he didn't, at least not straight away. It was really just a second. But that one second said a lot. He turned to the kitchen and motioned her to follow, "Hmm…" he stuck his head in the fridge making sure his back was facing her, "There's not much in here," he told the female truthfully.
The brunette thought for a moment on his strange behavior. Izaya always, always looked at people head on. "Do you have rice?" she asked casually.
"Yeah. But it's not cooked." He still didn't look into her eyes.
"Do you have a rice cooker?" she went on testing him.
"No. But I have a microwave." Izaya pointed behind him at the heating device.
The male still unnecessarily gazed into the fridge; it wasn't like there were a lot of contents to scan. He was no doubt avoiding her eyes on purpose. Izaya would never go on for that long without even glancing at her if it wasn't intentional. The woman opened the pantry turning her back on him purposefully. She guessed she'd go along with it, "Rice vinegar?"
Izaya shut the fridge and stole a glance at her from behind. Why was she avoiding his gaze like he was all of a sudden? Was she also feeling a bit… awkward? This situation was way too bizarre! Her words, "We're not close in the slightest." How could they be true after that? Maybe he's just freaking out over nothing again. But last time he checked, humans didn't go around embracing others that didn't mean a god damn thing to them. Maybe it's just because this woman was so fucked in the brain. "Ooo~ Are you planning on making sushi?" he asked in an uncharacteristically chipper voice.
"Rice balls," she corrected. "It's late, I'm tired, and to be completely honest I don't want to do this. I'm not going to spend two hours in the bloody kitchen," Maemi told him bluntly. She could hardly believe that she even offered to do this. Why couldn't he just feed himself! When was the last time he ate, anyway? Maemi turned her head to the sink. There were two mugs stained with a dark brown on the inside. Coffee. Fucking that's it? Damn it! Looks like she had no choice at all now!
"Mmm~" he complained pouting. But sushi's so good~
She huffed a short laugh and turned to ruffle his hair, "Fine. Next time, okay?" she gave him a smiled that didn't have any tension or awkward demeanor to it. It was simple and sweet and maybe a little bit… caring. Izaya nodded in response but to be honest he forgot what he was agreeing to. "Good," Maemi smoothed, "Now go take a bath."
He chuckled, "What are you? My sister?"
"Urg!" she made a revolted scrunched up face. "No. I would have understood if you said 'mother' but 'sister?' Really?" she questioned exasperatedly. Maemi was attempting to break any ice that seemed to form thanks to the raven headed idiot.
"Mother? Oh right," he mumbled to himself. Since when did Izaya Orihara mumble? "I suppose that does make more sense." It didn't occur to him before because… his biological mother wasn't really motherly. She was more the type to wave a hand dismissively and say with a sigh, 'I'm busy. Later on, Izaya.'
Maemi seemed to comprehend what she just said, "But don't see me as a mom either! Jeez… I'm younger than you anyway." She muttered that last part then slapped her hand to her mouth.
"Hmm~? You're younger… It can't be by much though, right?" Izaya singsonged, grinning ever so widely. It was a better sight but… The girl snapped a loud 'shoosh' his way. "You're twenty-two then," he decided.
Her wide eyes and stunned behavior only added to his statement. "Wha- how- No! I'm nineteen, remember? That's all I meant!" The twenty-two-year-old woman crossed her arms. Izaya couldn't help but chuckle at her obviousness. She really let down her guard, huh? "Anyway!" the brunette said after a deep inhale, she put a serious face on. "What… What relationship do we have?" Again, a ringing silence fell upon the two. "I-I mean… well, just while we're on the subject," Maemi side glanced around the kitchen awkwardly. "I just… I know how I view you but I really don't understand what you make of me."
"How do you view me?" Izaya asked while smirking, only a hint of curiosity showing through.
"Well, you're definitely not my big brother nor my son." Maemi found herself chuckling and caught the smirk turn into a small grin on the male's lips. "It's a little hard to explain but I'd say you're kind of like a friend… Actually, no. That's going too far. Familiar face? No, too shallow. Acquaintance? Hmmm… yeah, I guess. You're not a good acquaintance to have but you're an acquaintance nonetheless. But you can see me at most, a friend, alright?" concluded the woman complicatedly.
"A friend?" he smirked again.
"At the most! Now just go take a bath!" she said a bit too forcefully out of discomfort.
He giggled impishly, "Why of course, my friend," Izaya teased.
"You're never going to let me hear the end of that, are you?" she grumbled.
"Nope." Izaya popped the 'p' as he skipped to his bedroom with an en-suite inside. Even when he closed the two doors, Izaya kept up his grin. But was it real? This newly found relation, it was bad news. So why? Why was he grinning like that? It couldn't be that he was actually happy about it… Wait… "Shit!" he violently whispered.
Author speaking... sorry for not updating in a while... I will give no excuses! Just more chapters to make up for the lost time.