A/N: I finally updated this! :D LOL, don't think anyone is even reading this anyway...No one else seems to ship this pairing...
IA was extremely, extremely, tempted to kill him.
The black-haired boy was such an irritant! IA had never, in her short life of sixteen years, met such an annoying person. He seemed to know exactly what to do to push her buttons (a feat IA admitted was herculean, because annoyance had been thrown away — or so she thought, and to be able to incite that kind of feeling was...impressive). Things that pushed her buttons included, and limited to, twirling her hair around his fingers while she was eating, stealing her breakfast, and last but not the least, flirting.
IA would have slit his throat already if not for the fact that the girls seemed to know him, and he them in return. So it seemed that she indeed was the only one who didn't know who he was...or she forgot. Besides, she had her own suspicions of him, and her gut told her that now was not the time to kill him, and IA trusted her gut. So she would not kill him.
But she was getting closer to snapping point, and her fingers itched to at least shut his mouth up, because she was walking to the Director's office, thinking of what to ask and what to demand, and it was going to be hard if he wasn't going to shut up for at least one minute.
"—I can't believe such a pretty girl like you would be soiling your hands and killing people...Like, say, Rin and Len Kagamine, and oh, Miku Hatsune, too." He continued, and she would have ignored him if not for the fact that he knew it was her who killed those three. She turned her head slightly to face him, though her pace never slowed, and shot him a small frown that asked how did you know about that? The boy only smiled charmingly at her.
"Now that's for me to know and you to find out."
He was adamant at not giving her an answer.
Oh yes, he was very good at ignoring her questions. He replied, but he did not answer; honestly, all of this beating-round-the-bush was stupid and a waste of time. After a bout of precious silence, they rounded a corner and the door to the Director's office was finally in sight, at the end of the corridor. IA increased her speed, secretly relieved to rid herself of this nuisance.
And that realization made her stop in her tracks.
Relief? No, IA shook her head, hair flying around her and ignored the boy's looks of concern, that's not possible. Assassins do not feel relief in any way. Emotions are forbidden. Emotions are useless. Emotions will only trip you up in the path of bloodshed. I must be too annoyed at him. But wait, isn't annoyance an emotion too? Why? Why am I feeling this way? At...she glanced at the boy who was still standing there and facing her, this person, no less.
Someone I've met for only a day...or two? I don't remember how he got here. I don't remember, or know, anything about him. I need to ask the Director. At least he'll give me answers, even if he is a bastard.
She started walking again, stopping only to knock on the door and hear the Director's come in, and entered, deciding to store away these thoughts for a later time, a more suitable time to think through. For now though, she needed answers.
The Director's office was a boring starched white, white so blinding that it made IA's eyes water and she had to blink away the white. She heard the boy quietly let himself in after her, and ignored his awed gasp and focused instead on the Director. The smiling Director was the only splash of color in the room, his clothes a dark black in contrast to the bleached room and furniture and his white hair.
Piko Utatane? Rei silently read the nameplate on the white table and searched through his memory banks for the familiar yet unfamiliar name. There was little to no information about the white-haired man in front of them; no surprise there, though, since he was the boss of this lair of assassins and assassins revealed little about themselves. The little pocket of information Rei could find, however, was very...useful indeed. He smiled a little to himself as he thought of a time when the information would be useful in blackmailing...
"Director," IA started, cutting across his train of thought, "I believe I need an explanation." She gestured to him, and shifted her body to allow Rei into Piko Utatane's line of sight, before continuing. "Why was this...this idiot in my room, without my consent at that? And why does everyone seem to know him? Unless of course, my memory has been failing me again, and even so, I still ask for an answer."
Duh, Rei rolled his eyes discreetly, you memory has been failing you. Do you need some medicine? He snapped his attention back to Piko Utatane, wondering how he would answer. From there, Rei could deduce how this boss of assassins usually acted and this would be very useful information indeed, for his own little group of acquaintances. This would mean that they could know how the boss would use his precious assassins and how he would act in a case of emergency...An emergency so dire that everyone had to evacuate this place...Rei smirked.
Piko Utatane smiled leisurely, and shifted in his office chair, lacing his fingers together and placing them under his chin. "Well well," he said silkily, "so many questions at a time, Aria dear, takes some time to answer."
Aria? Rei furrowed his eyebrows. Wasn't her name IA? Why would the boss call her Aria then? A — his blood went cold and some feeling of possessiveness welled up — pet name, perhaps?
"I told you, it's IA now. Aria was a figment of my past." Was IA's stiff reply, but Rei could see from her equally stiff back that the name had struck a chord. Ahh, so that was all then. The ugly head of possessiveness retreated back, pleased with this answer, and he was glad that it wasn't a stupid pet name because he would be very...jealous.
(God, he was jealous? He must be getting really interested with this girl then.)
"Yes yes, IA. As for your memory...you haven't been taking your medicine, have you? Rei Kagane here," the boss waved to Rei, "was brought here by you when you were sent to get rid of Dell Honne. According to your report, he had killed your target before you, and was lying in wait for you...for whatever reasons I am very interested in."
The white-haired man's gaze turned snake-like as it landed on Rei and he suppressed the urge to shudder. This man's eyes were piercing in their own right, but they were dangerous, unlike IA's cool gaze that was only a little uncomfortable and instead sent a shock of electricity coursing through his body. The man seemed to be satisfied by whatever he found in Rei and turned his eyes away from the black-haired boy, much to said boy's relief.
He saw IA's head nod slowly as she processed this information, and she seemed to have finally gotten an inkling of Rei's identity. He saw her head shoot up to meet the boss's leveled gaze and internally applauded her for being able to stand his eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but Piko Utatane waved her unspoken question away. "That's all for today, IA. I wish to speak with this boy here...Now if you don't mind, please wait for him outside my office."
IA frowned, but complied, and as she brushed past Rei, he could see the cogs of her brain working, thinking and turning over what the white-haired man had said, trying to piece together her memory of the previous day. But that really wasn't Rei's concern now, because he had a fair idea what Piko Utatane wanted from him. It was most probably about how he had trespassed that hidden room and that must have been something fairly important too.
"So, Rei Kagane, would you like to tell me why you were...ah, trespassing private property the other day?"
Ah, bullseye. He was going to feign innocence the whole way through though, so there wouldn't be any point of questioning (or rather, interrogating) him.
"The other day? What other day?"
"Oh, you know very well what I'm talking about. Galaco personally came to tell me about your little adventure yesterday."
"Ohhh, that. You really think that you can get an answer out of me?"
"Yes, of course. You'll answer my questions, won't you?"
"Of course not."
"Ah, but you just did."
This was an old trick, and Rei couldn't believe that he actually fell for it, so he kept silent in defiance, eyes wandering anywhere but the man in front of him. There was a period of silence before Piko Utatane broke it. "I can see that you're not going to answer any of my questions, so this is simply a waste of time. You may leave now, though I will be watching you."
And Rei hightailed it out of the creepy white room with the creepy white-haired dude.
.
The walk back to her room was surprisingly quiet, IA noticed. She expected the Rei guy to jump her with tons of questions, and yet all he did was stare at the ground, seemingly contemplative. That was good enough, though, because she had her own things to think about.
Things such as her past and her forgotten emotions.
IA hissed in annoyance. The nerve of the Director to call her by her old name, in front of this black-haired kid, furthermore! No one here knew about her old name, and this idiot just had to be one of the only ones who did. It brought up unwanted memories of when she was separated from her family, memories of the black-suited men, memories of the bloody mark...
Thinking of the mark made her think of Rei Kagane though, for some reason. Something told IA that the reason for this lay in the previous day's events — that she just had to forget. It was her own fault, however, since she did forget to take the medicine...
How annoying.
And that brought her to the most important issue. IA simply could not believe that a mere boy could bring forth already two stupid, stupid feelings. What had happened to Master's teachings? What had happened to the walls she built around her? Kaboom, within one day she let down her guard and they went down. This Rei Kagane had managed it with just his presence and it made IA ponder what would happen if he stayed around her. Perhaps he...she shook her head. It was no use thinking about such things (she was an assassin after all, and all they needed to think about was their next mission) and she could only come to the conclusion that Rei Kagane was dangerous.
Still, it was only two. IA had no doubt that she could remain impassive if she avoided the boy.
Yes, that was what she would do.
.
"...Stop. Following. Me."
"Sorry, no can do. I'll get lost if I don't. And you're supposed to take care of me anyway, or at least, that's what you said yesterday."
"...Oh. ...Boss?"
"You know, Piko Utatane? That creepy white-haired dude?"
"...The Director?"
"Yeah. I call him the boss. He's like, the final boss in a game where you assassins are his minions."
IA, if she were a normal girl, would have burst out laughing. But she was not a normal girl after all, so she simply sighed and continued her walk to the cafeteria. There were many errors in his analogy, like the Director being the boss and her one of his minions. She definitely wasn't one of his underlings; IA was only here because the Director offered her food and shelter and she in turn, contributed some of her...earnings to him.
And since she was only here to have her basic needs met, she saw no need to familiarize herself with any other person in this wretched place. She would only leave and abandon them soon, after she turned of age. Knowing their names was enough, and she had never stayed around a single person for more than half an hour.
So having Rei Kagane tagging along wherever she went was quite disturbing. Even more so if he was sitting opposite her in the cafeteria for an early lunch and staring quite unabashedly at her.
And what made it even worse was when Lily slid them both trays containing their lunch and winked at IA and then Rei, before leaving while humming a tune. Lily never hummed. IA played around with her food for a while, counting to ten mentally, and snuck a glance at the boy in front of her. He was still staring at her, though his hand was shoving food into his mouth mechanically.
An intense staring match started up, ice blue boring into amber yellow and vice versa. IA kept her gaze leveled and didn't blink. God, she was like an owl! His willpower weakened more the longer she stared at him. Rei couldn't help it. Her gaze sent shivers up his spine and his senses on alert, though she didn't seem to be aware of that fact. With her eyes alone, it seemed that she was burrowing her way into his soul and staying there, and it was getting uncomfortable, so he broke the staring contest, looking away into his food.
He heard the clatter of a chair being pushed back, and looked up to see IA leaving. He made to stand but she motioned for him not to.
"Where are you going?"
"...Restroom."
"Oh, ok. Have fun there!"
"...What?"