Mio x Ritsu

'Mio and Juritsu

A/N; I have to give you guys a warning now that there is going angst in this chapter, as well as more violence. And in the next chapter, (as a forewarning) there will be smut.

Breakeven

ZzZzZ

What am I supposed to do

When the best part of me, was always you?

ZzZzZ

"I will get your friends to safety." Ritsu noticed Chika's voice in the darkness, and felt cold hands clasp her own, slipping a rounded object into her hands.

Ritsu knew it was hopeless to argue. A small flicker of light sprung to life, laminating her face, and letting her see Chika's own in the shadows. He looked distraught, but was keeping his cool. She had to do the same.

"You know what they're going to do, don't you?" He asked, as Ritsu fumbled with her own torch, until Chika flicked the switch for her.

"O-Of course!" She snapped, guilt washing over her.

"Go find Akiyama. God knows who he shot."

She felt like she wanted to cry, scream, do anything. But she couldn't and she hated the fact she had to agree with something that her gut didn't want her to do. But her heart selfishly wanted to do this more than anything.

"Please make sure they're okay." She mumbled, feeling all of her pride slowly crawl under a rock somewhere – she wasn't anything like herself at this point, and it crushed her.

She took off though, shoving through crowds, bowing her head so she couldn't make guilty eye contact with anyone she knew, and hoped that no-one would notice her either. The thing that made her feel this was right was that Mio was the one they were after, not anyone else. And that shot...That shot was burning in the back of her mind, killing her inwardly.

'I'm so sorry, Mio. I had no idea...'

The guilt towards Nawakara doing this wasn't the only thing that burned in the tawny-haired girl's mind. The other thing that kept her head pounding was that those lyrics were about her. This whole thing wasn't just because of her turning down Nawakara. Mio was in love with her, and she hadn't taken any notice.

Her feet were feeling more heavy every time they made contact with the ground as she ran, the flashlight shaking in her hands, causing some people to cry out, and she heard shouting from all around her.

'How long has she felt like this...? Was I hurting her as much as Nawakara, or more?'

Her eyes followed the torch all around her as she ran, and she couldn't see a glimpse of Mio, she couldn't even see a glimpse of anyone from the band.

'They've either moved to a safer place, or they're doing the same as me...Mio...Please be safe.'

She couldn't figure out her feelings. Her head was reeling from the pain of aching, already injured limbs, panic was making her feel dizzy, and she was running out of breath way to fast.

The flashlight fell from her hands, dropping with a clang to the floor, which caused a split second of silence in places. Her hands pulled down desperately on the door-knob, and she threw herself into the corridor behind the stage.

"M-Mio!"

A short-lived relief washed over her, and she collapsed onto her knees in front of her best friend.

"I-I'm sorry..." Ritsu cried, using her last strength to lift her head, tears streaming from her eyes to lock with the dark, terrified orbs that belonged to Mio.

"I'm sorry that I didn't realise sooner. I...I-"

Mio reached down as everything went black.

ZzZzZ

You said you always keep your word
Show me what you're after
I thought you promised me the world
Tell me what you're after.

ZzZzZ

"P-Push harder!" Satoshi shouted, desperation filling his voice as he slammed his aching shoulder against the metallic fire-escape door once more. Alongside a few other boys from his school, and some of the girls. One of which was a determined Yui Hirasawa.

Another shot was heard, alongside more screaming, and that had to be the 6th one that night now. They were looking for someone...surely.

Satoshi's mind clicked as he finally broke through the door, tumbling over onto the pavement outside, landing hard on his knees.

They were looking for Ritsu...

He had lost his sister when the lights went out. An upperclassman had told him that he had seen Ritsu, and that she was fine. And then said that he told her that he would help them escape the building.

Ui and Jun had managed to pull the fire escape switch, which would trigger in the fire department, and make them immediately on call. It made Satoshi glad of the law for once – at least in that they weren't oblivious. They had to show up as soon as possible for a school building for obvious reasons; the children were told they were the heart and soul of the country.

He noticed a hand held out to him, it was Tsumugi Kotobuki, "We'll just have to get to the closest, safest place and then figure out who's missing."

There was a determined glint in her eye that made him smile, and he took her hand. Without a word they began to run.

Jun was dragging Ui along behind her, who wouldn't stop looking back at the school building. They hadn't the time to realise why until they found the most local café. It was a few estates up from the school, quite posh and expensive, but they hoped on a whim the owner wouldn't be stuck-up enough to turn them down for a place to stay until the police arrived.

They burst into the café doors, Satoshi cringed as the wind chimes fell from the top of the door, and customers stood up from their seats, a woman crying out in shock at the state of the ex-prom goers.

"Please let us stay here, outside isn't safe!" Yui Hirasawa bowed.

It was strange, and quite horrible to see the friends of Ritsu look so serious. They always relaxed and had fun, but not tonight.

He had always wanted to see that side of them, but not like this. He respected them as musicians, but hearing their half-dead voices hurt him deep, and he wanted to see his sister safe.

XxX

The owner was an old-woman, with greying hair. She was quite short, and held her arm up, offering a pale white phone to a fidgeting Yui, whom Satoshi had noticed was glancing around the group continuously, each time looking more frustrated, as Ui held her arm.

As she typed in the numbers in a rush, having to delete them multiple times because she had panicked and entered extra keys, she managed to contact the police.

While she explained the situation, walking into the back room, the old woman ushered her customers out of the doors, as some of the students that had escaped with them apologised for all of the trouble they were causing.

The old woman seemed to take a light shoulder to their sudden entrance, and smiled it off. Changing over the sign on the door from 'open', to 'closed.'

As people began to sit down, contacting parents and other people, talking, crying, amongst themselves, Satoshi looked for familiar faces. Feeling his own panic fleeting in the pit of his stomach.

A few people from the year under him in his school were there, a few girl's from other schools too. Jun Suzuki, Ui Hirasawa, Yui Hirasawa, Kotobuki Tsumugi...No Azusa or Mio.

He sighed to himself in frustration.

Why did his sister want to do so much for one girl?

ZzZzZ

When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears

When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears

And I held your hand through all of these years

But you still have, all of me.

ZzZzZ

"M-Mio! Mio?" Ritsu suddenly jolted upright, making the raven-haired girl yelp in surprise.

"I-Idiot! Calm down, I'm right here!" She said, her cheeks flushed.

Ritsu squinted, looking around the almost pitch black room. Cardboard boxes were piled up behind a row of shelves next to Ritsu, a few chairs and others things were propped up against the door. Ritsu realised they were in one of the school's storage closets.

"It's not over, is it?" Ritsu mumbled.

"Ritsu. You have to tell me if you know anything about what's going on. Is this a personal attack on you? What have you done...Oh god..Was it when you got attacked?" Mio's eyes widened.

"No, i-it's not about...Me, Mio."

Ritsu knew that she was smart enough to notice the pause in Ritsu's sentence, she inwardly sighed.

"Will you please just tell me! We're supposed to be best friends, Ritsu."

"O-Okay, okay. Do you remember when we were all in kindergarten, there was a guy called Nawakara? Well, we used to play together until he met Satoshi. When he met Satoshi, a lot of things changed and Satoshi grew distant, and Nawakara grew vicious. I found out that he'd been bullying Satoshi into doing things for him, and giving him things. Just like his father did to get money. Eventually he brought me into it, and when we all went into middle school, he kept saying he loved me. He started to bully me into stealing things for him, and made me stay around him whenever he got the opportunity. He always found you in the way Mio. Always. Me and you were best friends after all, and he wanted me to himself. Eventually when our families had their feud, he backed off entirely, but now he's back. And for some reason he dislikes you now more than he ever has." Ritsu didn't know where to look as she spoke, her eye not even focusing its view on anything in particular, just skimming the room, guilt washing over her.

"Why didn't you tell me at the time?" Mio questioned, looking as if she was about to cry. Ritsu couldn't help but stare at her face now.

"Enough was already happening between our families, and I thought that...I thought they would take you away from me if I got into any more trouble. So keeping it a secret meant they had no way to say you were getting involved with me, even if they did find out what was going on." She looked pleadingly, hoping the raven-haired girl would throw her a life-line. She didn't have the energy to argue anymore.

"Y-You're such an idiot!" She shouted, but her voice was shaky as tears streamed down her pale face, smudging her make-up that looked oh-so-perfect earlier.

She couldn't help herself, one hand reaching out unconsciously to her face.

Mio froze, and so did Ritsu.

"There's something you're hiding from me too though, Mio. You and Azusa are hiding something. Those lyrics, the way you've been acting, the way you're being shifty. Even Azusa knows there's something, and I bet she knows for sure what it is, but I don't." Her thumb brushed some of the tears away, "Please tell me Mio."

"Please don't hate me, Ritsu." Her voice cracked as she cried more, but Ritsu wouldn't back down this time. She needed to know.

"I could never hate you, idiot." She smiled warmly.

"I...I'm...I'm in love with you. I'm sorry, I know this will kill your trust of me, maybe you think I'm sick or a pervert but...I'm in love with you, Ritsu. I don't know how long for, but I can't keep resisting it when you're always there. Always. You do so many little things that make me want to wrap you up in my arms. I can't let go of you Ritsu and I can't ever lose you. You really are...You really are everything to me." Her words were quick, and some stumbled as she spoke due to her hiccups and her crying. But Ritsu couldn't really tell. She processed the words over and over in her head, and memories flooded back all too quickly.

She did everything she could for Mio, she really did.

Only a few years ago she would wrap Mio up in her blanket, and sleep on the floor so the raven-haired girl could have her bed after they watched horror movies. Ritsu would sit up until Mio fell asleep just so the older girl wouldn't be afraid. She convinced Mio to enjoy herself with music, learned drums because drums and bass were in harmony with each other. Knew each other inside out, just like they did.

She would constantly pester the bassist, making fun of her, bullying her for how easily frightened she was. Sometimes she would irritate Mio just to get her attention. All of this time she thought it was just a friendship thing, and even the past week she had began to think that Mio was crazy because Ritsu had suspected Mio was starting to like her.

The drummer didn't want to be vain about it, but when Mio had crushes, she had a hard time hiding it.

No wonder her mother and Nawakara had acted so angry about something she hadn't even realised. And she couldn't help herself expressing just that. About to throw herself head-first into another disaster.

"I love you too." She blushed, eyes nervously staring into Mio's now, serious dark orbs.

"I hope you understand I don't mean like a sister or a best friend, Ritsu..." Her crying had stopped. She looked almost...agitated.

"I-I do understand." She mumbled.

Mio leant in closer to her, her head tilting just a little as her lips just brushed Ritsu's as she spoke, "I'm so sorry that you have to feel like this...I just, I can't resist you, Ritsu. I-I...I selfishly want to get sent down to hell, as long as you're by my side. It's...It's all I live for now."

Ritsu would of answered, 'me too.' But Mio's warm, quivering lips covered her own. Her mouth was nothing like Nawakara's. It was soft, sweet-tasting. Mio's lips were smooth, and for such a shy girl, she was already dominating the kiss.

Blushing, the drummer felt her hands slowly move up to Mio's shoulders, as the older girl had her arms either side of Ritsu's waist, holding herself over Ritsu's body with her hands.

"This is the federal police! Drop your weapons and come out with your hands up!"

Mio broke the connection. She was blushing now too.

They stared at each other for a few moments, trying to process what had just happened.

It wasn't the time to be enjoying a moment like this. Mio got what she wanted but she wouldn't indulge in the middle of a crisis.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Mio asked, her blush still immanent on her cheeks. The question at hand caused Ritsu's own to flare back up again.

"Of course." Ritsu grinned, giving Mio a soft peck on the cheek.

"I wonder how long we've been in here..." Mio mumbled, more to herself than Ritsu.

"We need to get out of here and find the other's." Ritsu's eyes locked onto the blocked door. "We'll have to try and sneak out."

XxX

Unblocking the door had taken them quite a while, but they were in too much of a hurry to be generous with the school's supplies. They simply threw or pushed them out of the way. Waiting a few seconds, they finally slipped out of the door.

Starting to walk quietly, crouching. Ritsu noticed Mio glance back in the direction of the storage closet and smile slightly.

"Starting a shoot-out is really extreme, just for his obsession with you..." Mio whispered as they walked, turning the corridor to start down another. Heading in the direction of the stairs. They needed to get off the top floor.

"He was obsessive with everything he couldn't have, the longer he couldn't have it, the more extreme he became. They diagnosed him with something but I can't remember. He was probably just being attention-seeking anyway. But this..I just...I hope everyone's okay." She whispered back, a deep sadness in her tone.

"Tainaka!" Mio screeched, quickly clasping her hands over her mouth as she heard a male voice calling out to Ritsu.

Ritsu swerved around, squeezing Mio's hand that she hadn't noticed she'd been holding all that time. It was Chika Amano. And a group of other boys.

"There's something I think you need to hear. I think it's your friend...I'm not sure. Umm, would you mind if I asked my friend's to take Miss Akiyama back to her household? They'll make sure she stays safe and guard the doors."

Ritsu then realised that Amano must have his own gang. She scowled at leaving Mio in their hands, but had to agree.

"Mio, please go with them. I promise I'll stay safe, the police will have the building under control in no time. C-Call me if anything comes up." She looked apologetically, giving Mio a tight hug before they parted ways.

"Please, be careful." Mio whimpered.

XxX

They had escorted Mio down the stairs, and Ritsu knew nothing more. She felt irritated by being separated from her just moments after being with her.

But whoever she knew who was in there was her top priority. No more suffering.

"Here's the room." Chika mumbled, pressing his ear to an old classroom that the teachers hadn't bothered refurbishing – it was only used for filing old student's work.

Not being need to told what to do, she pressed her ear to the door to.

Panic hit her like a tidal wave.

Would this ever end!

She heard the terrified voice of her rhythm guitarist.

Nawakara had taken Azusa Nakano.

ZzZzZ

Blame the family, blame the bully

Blame it on me, maybe they needed to be wanted.

ZzZzZ

She crouched down next to a fallen filing cabinet in the shadows of the room. Amano was on the other side, Ritsu knew as they communicated by signalling with their shadows, instead of themselves.

Her eyes watched the twin-tailed girl sat on her knees in the middle of the room- sniffling and pleading with him, insisting that she wasn't Mio Akiyama.

No, Mio Akiyama was safe, and had been all that time.

"You really think you're playing us, don't you, Akiyama?" Nawakara grinned, shoving the rhythm guitarists shoulder, making the girl whimper in terror.

"C'mon Akiyama! Why do you think your love for Ritsu is more special than mine? Yours is sick and wrong, two girl's can't be together!"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Azusa shouted.

As Nawakara rose his fist, Ritsu finally stepped out of her hiding place, and into the dim light of the room.

"Her name is Azusa, not Mio. Believe me." Her voice was dead and emotionless, her one eye focused straight on Nawakara with the dirtiest look she could possibly give him. That made him more angry.

"Why won't you just give up and be mine, Tainaka? How many more people have to suffer for your selfish-ness? You can't be like this! It might be fine elsewhere but not here! This is MY part of Japan, and this place ain't gettin' filled with trash!" The glint of silver from behind his back was a jagged combat knife, Ritsu noticed it from some game or another she had played. Her eyes widened.

"I don't care if this girl ain't Akiyama! She's gonna die too!"

"I'm sorry, but Kurohana has become extremely out-dated. A little like your father." Amano brought the baseball bat down, hard, on Nawakara's head. And his body dropped, slipping into unconsciousness as Amano grabbed ahold of a whimpering, sniffling Azusa.

"Where are the rest of his gang?" Ritsu asked, wishing she had the time to soothe Azusa.

"They must off been holding up the police. We need to get out of here, I can't risk having myself caught."

"R-Ritsu-senpai...Thank you so much...And to your friend..." Ritsu smiled weakly, ruffling the girl's hair.

"This is the federal police! Anyone left in the building please come out with your hands up!"

"Let's go."

END!

XxX

A/n; Man that took me forever to finish, but finally I'm going to let the couple have a bit of relaxation in the next chapter. But that doesn't mean all of the suspense is over! There's probably a lot of mistakes in here because I kept putting this off. Sorry in advance!