Iris
Salty- So...I WANT to say that I was busy but...Uninspired or uninterested would probably be a better word. I wrote something, but didn't like it. I hate saying this after all this time but... PLEASE REVIEW! It helps, I don't know how, but it DOES. Also, you'll find out what happened between Yamashita Kei and um...what was her name? Ren, right, Ren.
*Side note, I listened to The Kill By 30 seconds to Mars while writing. By the way, the Suzuyama whose house Eiji was in was Suzuyama Kei. Just thought I'd add that.
Chapter 21. The Run
I sat in the corner of my room, dazed. There was no work to do, no tennis games to watch, no younger brother there to hang out with, no goth chick to watch horror movie with, nothing to do. It was the middle of the day, nearly lunch time. In the corner of my room, I could see outside of my window from my unmade bed. Across the street was the WacDonalds beneath a bright baby blue sky, not a cloud in sight. I assumed it was warm, because the air conditioning wasn't working in my apartment and it was freaking BLAZING.
Then, suddenly, came a rapping at the door, which is a slightly outdated way of saying that someone knocked. The heat, however, made my response slow and lethargic, agitating the knocker to knock three times a freaking second.
"I'm coming!" The knocking stopped, thrusting the room into silence. I crossed the livingroom and threw open the door, only to find no one. The knocker had either left or...no. No. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO! NO! NO! NONNONNONONNONONNONNONOOOOO!
~I~R~I~S~
Kikumaru POV
I sat at the bottom of the stairs, the stairs which lowered from Katsumi's apartment door, twisted at a ninety degree angle and lowered down to face the parking lot behind the building. My breathing was surprisingly heavy and my face hot...even though running from the door hadn't been much exercise.
Nervousness had made me run, I knew that. But I wasn't exactly sure what convinced me to go to Katsumi's house in the first place. A vague idea that I had liked Katsu-chan had made me run there after leaving Suzuyama-chan's house, and an even vague one that I wanted to tell her made sure of it.
Standing in front of the door, though, had done something weird. Hearing her voice made me run away. I still couldn't completely understand the feeling. Something like dread mixed with a sudden loss of confidence. Insecurity, maybe, but maybe not.
The point was...that I felt like a creepy prankster for running from ALL the way from Raki-chan's house to Katsu-chan's, just for the purpose of knocking on my crush's door and more or less ding-dong ditching. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME?
I lifted my head from my knees and saw that some older woman was staring at me from her old blue truck. Her souless eyes stared at me from spectacles at least fifty years old. Spooked, I did the only thing that I could. I ran.
~I~R~I~S~
Katsumi POV
OMIGOD I HAVE A GHOST IN MY MOTHER******* APARTMENT BUILDING! GODDAMN IT WHAT THE HELL DID REN DO OMIGOD!
~I~R~I~S~
*Three days before, the Happy POP! Cat Cafe, 7:30 pm, Tokyo, Japan
Third persons POV
Both Yamashita Ren and Suzuyama Kei glared into eachother respective hazel-green and indigo blue eyes intently, waiting for the other move. Both knew that the other had information that they knew the other wanted, and wanted some in return. Ren made the first move.
Over the white and red spiral design table, she spread her hands, folding and unfolding them with a graceful calm.
"So," she drew out the words until Kei was unsure she was about to start again. "I know you want to know about my client" she emphasized the word. "Saitou Katsumi, mortal. And you know that I want to know why you are the way you are."
Kei sniffed in disdain, raising her perfectly tipped nose into the air. "I don't know what you mean."
Ren's eyes narrowed, resembling something suspiciously catlike.
"You know what I mean," her calm voice itself was somehow worse than shouting.
Kei inhaled deeply, a scratchy sound of congested lungs following. "Fine. But you go first, Yamashita-san."
Personally, Suzuyama Kei had never spoken to Yamashita Ren, but she certainly knew of her.
Yamashita's legend of gothic adventures had spread throughout the school; raiding morgues, kicking the ass of a nearby gang leader because they had claimed she was not gangsta, greeting the principal every morning with the Bird, and last but not least poisoning her enemy's pets with old fish.
Yamashita Ren then rolled her eyes, secretly glancing at the large, whimsical clock at the ceiling. Only three hours until Katsumi was supposed to be home.
"Alright. My client has feelings for your client, but doesn't seem to realize it. Well, subconsciously, anyway."
"What do you mean 'subconsciously'?"
Ren's eyes softened, just a little as she stared past Kei's own.
"My client has lost quite a bit in her time. A close family member, her home. As a way to not lose anyone else, she makes sure that in a good situation, everything remains the same. More or less. For example, if she...wants to buy a cat. If she wants to buy a cat but realizes the buying that cat could ruin the flow of the pet shop, she may adopt another cat, who she feels can be improved."
"As in...she's dating Fuji-san so that she doesn't go out with Eiji because she fears that she'll lose him? That's some effed up logic there. Isn't she afraid of losing Fuji-san?" Kei wondered as she leaned into her chair, realizing suddenly that she knew next to nothing of Saitou Katsumi and was actually curious.
"The thing is, and I'm stating this with no sense of malice, Katsumi is an absolute dumb-ass when it comes to her own personal life. Every movement she makes is primitive and unconscious at that," Ren sighed deeply. "And somehow..."
"That's rather harsh, Yamashita-san." Kei's eyebrows rose in a sudden burst of appreciation for her upperclassmen. "I wouldn't think any less of the Black Rose of Seigaku."
"Herr alle mächtig! War das mein Spitzname?"
'Damn!' thought Kei, a little impressed. 'German too?'
"Anyway, Kikumaru is Katsumi's special person. He was her first friend besides me and Tooru-this other guy you don't know-so she was especially careful not to break any boundaries. She's probably just confused right now. Kikumaru must be as well."
Kei stared at her black clad upperclassman, her deep silk kimono as well as her bright red combat boots, and then stared up the clock overhead.
"All this time, I knew she wasn't using him. And I knew that he felt something for her, but I didn't think that it was at all complicated. But they should really just get together already. I'm pretty sure that someone's going to get hurt if it continues on this way."
Ren scratched the scruff of hair behind her neck through her long, black cloak of hair and gazed into the back of her eyelids. Something like annoyance passed through her entire being.
"I know that already," she stated quietly. "And I'm pretty sure that there are others with agendas similar to mine. Not yours though. Yours seems to be obstructing our collective plans."
"Sorry, but I made a promise, some time ago. Not just to myself but also to Eiji. I promised to never make that thing happen again."
Ren opened her eyes and leaned into the table, reguardless of the stain of whipped cream she gained on her elbow length sleeve.
"What thing?"
Kei and Ren glared into one anothers eyes once more, all sense of comraderie gone.
"The first time that Kikumaru Eiji ever fell in love."
~I~R~I~S~