But by the time the first bombs fell
We were already bored
We were already, already bored

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

-Arcade Fire-The Suburbs


Chapter 2! Just a heads up...these chapters aren't in any order...that makes sense to you. To me they do. Someone once told me that Tite Kubo (Bleach mangaka) drew to music, and which song he was listening to became that characters theme. Well, the first time I imagined a slightly lost careless girl in Ikebukuro, I was listening to a good song. A very good song. So, I guess Marya's theme is The Songs we Sing by Charlotte Gainsbourg. Now whenever I write about Marya...I hear that song...it reminds me of her 100%. Well...enjoy. наслаждаться...naslazhdatʹsya!


People make you angry. People make you seethe. People make you want to throw things, people make you want to stick things in their eyes.

Some of us have control. Some of us lose it, and yell till the storm cowers away.

But we all have physical restraint. Survival instinct. Brain to muscle! Brain to muscle! THIS WILL FUCK YOU UP. I REPEAT, THIS WILL FUCK YOU UP. WE CAN'T PICK IT UP, PUT IT DOWN!

Not him. Not the blonde guy in a bartender suit. Fortunate, unfortunate, whichever way you look at it...it's awesome. Some say it's nature's way of breeding out people like him. Some say it's a gift. Some don't care.

That particular night, Ikebukuro was buzzing. Like the entire city was on edge, all the girls were running around on tippy-toes, the guys were pumped. Everyone excited and tireless, looking around, confused about this surge of energy. The lights were extra bright, burning into the horizon, like a blemish on the earth's face.

One of these people was Marya, the hawk-eyed Russian. The juxtaposition.

She was skitting around the streets, also somewhat excited. The summer night was so warm, she'd left her jacket at home. Home? Well where-ever she was expecting to sleep.

She'd heard a yell earlier that night, from her office window.

A pretty familiar yell.

A very well-known yell.

"I-ZA-YAAAA-KUUN!"

Upon hearing that, she'd looked up from her lap-top slightly, stared into the darkness.

"Ah." she'd said, startling the sleeping air around her.

Being more bored than intrigued, she'd set out to explore, abandoning said denim jacket on the carpet. The night was still young, so Marya decided not to hurry anything and mooned around the city like a curious ghost till she ran into either one.

Strolling down a pavement leading to the paved courtyard with the lighted fountain, paved with trees and ryegrass, she watched the stars.

If it's him, I'll buy vodka tomorrow. If it's the other one...I'll stick with sake.

That was about when a figure drew her wandering eye. A tall, well-built figure. A smoking figure. A Shizuo figure.

Sake.

Marya stopped, facing the other way to him.

"Yo."

Shizuo looked up slowly. He was in no particular hurry to verify who the accented Japanese was coming from.

"...Hey."

"Come for a walk." she smiled with inverted eyebrows.

To be honest, Shizuo didn't mind Marya's frequent requests for strolls around the city. She was one of those people who seemed to turn up with a face-full of surprise, but was the best cure for anger. She was the most calm, uninterested, goddamn contradictory person around.

She'd either confuse you into a puzzled but deep sense of concentration,

"If you try to fail, and succeed, what have you done?"
"Wh-what?"
Or just manage to walk somewhere really beautiful while listening to you rage and rant. Last time, she'd just stood and watched as he'd reached his limit and threw a small tree at a brick wall. Then continued on walking.

So despite his hesitant steps at first, they fell into the rhythm of walking. They set off, at the same pace. Marya was intrigued by their legs walking in synchronization for a few minutes till they reached the steps. He took two at a time, she only managed one. His scowl eventually dissolved.

They passed shops and shoes, people and power-lines, thieves and trees, bars and banquet halls, till Marya stopped in another courtyard, smaller than the one before.

She jumped up on a bench and sat on it, leaned back, chest facing the sky. Shizuo sat on the bench itself and took a cigarette. He threw her one as well. She held it in her mouth and leaned froward towards him, cupped a hand around the cigarette and he lit it.

"I though smoking stunted your growth." Marya remarked, after a long drag.

"I didn't smoke during my growth spurt. In fact...I started around the time you came. 5 years ago."

She laughed, loudly, throwing her head back and letting it rush out in peals.

"You should be thankful, smoking really helps your bad-ass image."

"What age did you start smoking anyway? Or drinking for that matter. When the hell did you start any of that crazy shit you do?" he said, finishing with a que-sera-sera sigh.

"16, 17 and I have no idea what you're talking about, Shizuo,"

She flashed a you-know-better-than-to-question-that smile. Which was identical to her I-need-a-drink smile. But completely different from her everything-is-alright smile.

He chuckled weakly.

"One day, I'll figure out whatever it is you do, and you'll have to tell me all about it."

She stared for a while then began to giggle. With a serious look on her face. Juxtaposition, strike 2.

"3 years, Shizuo, it's been 3 years since then. I won't ever tell you!" she smirked.

"You might have to. Look at the text I got forwarded by an unknown number." he passed her his phone without looking away from the fountain.

She took it, and beeped through it with a bemused expression and an exasperated sigh. She saw the text, a forwarded conversation. They were talking about the Dollar's main hacker being able to take on the informant's hacker. She looked at it, completely still, cigarette poised in her hand. Serious, bored expression playing on her Russian doll face.

"Ooh! A threat! How scary, Marya-chan!" chimed a teasing voice.

Orihara Izaya was standing behind Marya, leaning forward reading over her shoulder, eyes glazed with crazy.

"Hey Izaya." she said, completely bored, still contemplating the message. Smoking.

"I-ZA-YAAAA-KUN!" grated Shizuo.

Marya dodged the lamp-post that flew past her and ignored Izaya and Shizuo's yells as they sped off into the city blemish, leaving her with Shizuo's phone.

She shrugged inwardly, staring after them, forgotten again.

Lief eez lief, she told herself, how all the other idiots said it back then.

"Ah well, may as well play around." she murmured, taking a picture of herself, armed raised to the heavens.