7 – In a predicament

The grass roots of Mukuro's little dirty business were still on his track, that he knew as clearly as he knew that he was eating ice-cream that very moment. Right, ice-cream, sometimes life smiles on you.

There were a couple of issues that hadn't been raised so far, and where the heck they were going to spend the night was one of them. Mugen side-glanced at Fuu, who was sipping this very pink, unhealthy-looking milkshake of sorts, and scowled privately. What the heck. How had this come to happen?

.

.

Her whining had cut no ice with him since the beginning. He was a tough guy who didn't give a care about her sensitive feet, or whatever, and if they didn't find somewhere to stay the night, well, it was all right with him for all he minded, he'd slept in alleyways at least half of his life.

She drone on and on, and, upon seeing her complaints falling on deaf ears, she complained even more strongly.

"Call it a day, willya kiddo?" Mugen said, irritated. "Damn I don't know why I'm still around ya…"

Fuu pouted, and Mugen realized he hated that she did that, and she did it all the time, but behind closed doors he couldn't tell if it was because it was childish and annoying, or because it looked so innocent so… cute? Mental slap, and a hard one. Flat chested teenagers could be associated with no positive thought, final stop, and what the fuck. It was easier said than done, mind you, because the way her lower lip stuck out each time she couldn't think of a mean comeback to his sharp words made him want to whack her and at the same time, offend her again so that she'd do that again. He was going insane, he concluded. Downright insane.

And judging by Fuu's present look, she thought something along the lines as well.

He scowled at her.

.

.

Fuu'd wrinkled her nose at the sight of the barred windows and run-down roofing tiles, but had come to accept his decision for lack of a better idea. It was going to be only one night, anyway, just one. She hoped. After a long lasting struggle between her sense of decency, her pride, morals and weariness and self-consciouness, she crossed the threshold, also ushered by a look of blatant annoyance coming from Mugen's side.

"Not time to be all princess-y," he commented as she made a face of disgust when a rat fled by.

"But… ew!" she retorted, casting him a glance of, you do sleep in places like this don't you. But stayed silent as he showed her the place by means of a lighter (no, he hadn't been to that abandoned house either, they'd come across it by chance as they wandered roofless.)

They searched the whole place until they decided on staying in one of the rooms, that looked like it had belonged to children once. It was grotty and dusty, but it could have been definitely worse. Still, Fuu cursed the law of the jungle inwardly. It was so unfair that some people had so much money they owned at least three houses in different touristic points, and she had to spend her life from that point onwards taking pitiful shelter in old shacks like that one.

.

.

She was beyond thankful that she was not alone. Because, although Mugen the contemptuous roamer was just about the worst kind of company possible, well, deep down there he wasn't so bad. He'd saved her life, for goodness' sake!

He was lying on his side, his back to her. She was sort of hungry too, and at that point her thoughts made little sense. But she was surprised to find that she could tell chapter and verse of each time he'd happened to rescue her from something, and that was odd, at least to her mind.

He was clearly snoring now, however far from him she'd placed herself, and she scowled. It was going to be a long night, she felt. After a while she finally fell asleep, thinking about how silly it was to sit in judgement about a man she knew nothing about, and when I say nothing, I mean, nothing.

A/N: Aha! Now they're breaking into abandoned houses :P Trust Mugen to trespass?

( Sorry for the shortness. )

Next chapter: Our characters fight over food, and Mukuro's thugs join the party.

Thanks so much to Hana-Liatris, dbzgtfan2004 and Luv4Uncas for the reviews!