Why do we protect the ones we do? Is it out of love? Necessity? Duty? Or some reason the we ourselves do not know?
"When we get out of this I promise I'll explain everything." Ayame took off her black cloth that was over her eyes and tied it around her waist where she had been shot. Twilight had fallen so she was able to see at least a little bit in the dim lighting.
"I'm going to hold you to that." Shizuo grinned, this was something he could do. He didn't care for violence but he was good at being violent.
One of the men in the wolf mask held out a phone to Ayame silently telling her to take it. She glared at the man with suspicion and took the phone.
"Last chance, are you sure you wouldn't rather be my wife than to play house with that monster." Izaya's voice sang into the phone. Of course that snake would have something to do with this! He would be the only one to able to dig up that kind of dirt, but how!? Everything burned!
She didn't give a reply to the broker's question, instead choosing to throw the phone against the wall nearest to her. Like hell she would ever be that creeps wife! He knew when he got these guys involved it wasn't even a possibility!
That must have been the signal for the masked men to attack because they all moved in at once. Shizuo grabbed a dumpster and threw it knocking out a couple members of the group. Celty and Ayame both did what they could do to dodge their attackers. Ayame, who wasn't skilled in these types of situations, hissed as a knife ran a crossed her arm and stared at it for a second as white foam started coming out of the wound. Shizuo saved her from another strike by throwing a man into the one infront of her.
"Celty don't get cut!" Ayame turned to inform the headless rider of their predicament but noticed that she had a foaming gash on her right leg. Apparently she had discovered that their weapons were dangerous.
There was a large puff of shadows that came out of Celty's neck as she knocked Ayame to the ground. Shizuo had found a light post and was swinging it at what was left of their attackers. It seemed that he had done most of the work and ended up being the only uninjured person.
"Whoa that looks bad." Shizuo was looking at the injured women, it was slowly getting deeper, "what the hell was that stuff."
"Blessed silver and Purification salt." Ayame winced holding her side, it look a lot of pain for her to let it show.
We'll explain later we have to go now! Celt held up her phone to Shizuo.
He looked over at the shadow horse that was usually a bike, "I'll meet you home?" It would take him a little longer but he could walk there pretty quickly.
Can't wait that long, we're going to need you're help getting the bullet out. Ayame's small enough we should all fit. I can't use my shadows right now so we'll have to go on horse back. Celty's leg burned as she walked over to shooter. Her familiar sensed her pain and knelt down to allow her to get onto him easier. Once she was on Ayame got on behind her with Shizuo sitting on the back. Celty was nervous about how warm the girl behind her felt and held her phone out behind her for Shizuo to read.
Don't let her fall! With that warning she took off as fast as she was able to her home where Shinra was.
"I'm sorry." Ayame whispered. This man had been kind enough to let her into his home and she got him caught up in this situation, and bled all over him.
"For what?" His brown eyes looked down at her, he had lost his sunglasses during the fighting.
"I've caused you trouble, and bled on your shirt" white was a difficult color but if it was bleached right away maybe it could be saved.
Shizuo shook his head a little, of all the things to be worried about this girl was worried about bleeding on his shirt! If he found whoever did this to her they would be lucky if he stopped at just killing them.
Ayame reached up and touched shizuos face as they arrived at the apartments. She wasn't able to walk by the time they got there so Shizuo had carried her, "your eyes are much to kind for that look."
Shizuo was shocked out of his rage once more. Kind was never a word used to describe him this girl must have lost too much blood. Celty slammed open the door causing Shinra to run and meet him. She typed on her phone furiously and explained the situation.
"Put her on the kitchen table! I'll go get my supplies." Shinra took off running in the opposite direction.
Shizuo was a little shocked as Celty knocked everything to the ground.
Can you undress? Celty held out her phone to Ayame, who's breathing was becoming rapid.
"You first." She had to pause, "it had to hurt you more."
Like hell I'm first I don't have this stuff in my gut, and we've no idea how much your body can hane! Now do I need to undress you or can you do it yourself?
"I don't I can do it." Ayame winced as she was laid down on the table. Shizuo's face was full of worry.
Don't go anywhere! Anesthetic won't work on her and we need you to hold her still, I'll be right back with scissors. The minute Shizuo was done reading Celty ran over and began digging through drawers.
He would have to hold her down? What the hell was going on! Shizuo's stomach turned at the thought of having to participate in that kind of torture, surely there was another way. He looked up as Celty returned and then looked away a faint warmth in his face. Celty was cutting strait down Ayame's shirt and pulled it aside.
"Shizuo can you help Celty get that off please." Shinra had came back with everything he needed and was busy prepping his tools and getting gloves on.
Shizuo nodded at Shinra's brisk voice and lifted Ayame off the table enough for Celty to be able to completely remove her shirts. This was not the way he would image undressing the woman in front of hims. He shook his head a little and stood back noticing that the girl's torso was riddled with scars.
"I was pretty so they didn't want them anywhere it would show." She winced as Shinra wiped the area around the bullet entry.
"Hey you said when we made it out of this you would explain everything. Well we're not out of it yet." Shizuo wasn't really sure what he should do. They said they would need help but, he didn't get to finish the thought.
"Hold down her legs while Celty holds her torso still. It's very important she doesn't move!" Shinra waited until the two looked like they had a good grip on Ayame and gritted his teeth. Someone would pay for this!
Ayame gritted her teeth as Shinra cut into her stomach. Her legs flexed as she tried to curl up or get away from the knife. Shinra swore a little as she managed to pull a shard out of the wound, of course it couldn't just be a simple in out and out wound. They had used a light casing that had exploded once inside it's victume. Ayame made the mistake of looking at the wound and felt dizzy.
"Hey! Don't pass out! If you do your healing will accelerate and you'll absorb this into your body and will die. Shizuo dammit hold her still!" Shinra glared at the blond as his patient struggled against his scapulae. "And get her to talk about something!"
"Dammit I'm trying but I don't want to hurt her anymore than she is!" Shizuo glared at the doctor, "and what the hell am I supposed to talk about!"
"It wont matter if you break her bones just keep her still! And anything!"
"How the hell can you say that!" Shizuo was getting pissed off.
"She will heal faster from a broken bone than if this spreads any farther than it does! And if I happen to cut into a major organ that could become problematic. So right now a broken bone seems alot better than death!" Shinra was trying to keep his voice calm as he worked. He understood his friends worry, but in this case it only hindered things.
Shizuo growled in frustration and leaned more of his wait onto the small girl until she was unable to move her lower half, "How the hell did a girl like you get Izaya to want you to marry him?"
Shinra glanced over at Shizuo as he pulled another piece of bullet out of his sister and nodded. She needed to focus on something besides what was going on.
Ayame smiled even though she was in pain and gave a small laugh, "That's actually a funny story." She caught her breath for a second before beginning.
"It all began with an internet forum. I had heard rumors of this guy who was tricking girls into killing themselves with him. In their weakest moments this guys would play with them and either drive them to actually killing themselves or get them to live through hating him. I enlisted Celty's help and planted a few fake blogs about how terrible my life was and that I wanted to end it all. Eventually the creep took the bait and we began messaging for a while." Ayame balled her hand in a fist and winced as Shinra had to cut the wound open again. There was a disadvantage of healing quickly sometimes.
"I met up with this creep as he put his fake kidnapping into actions. I knew I would be saved but I played along making sure that I could get him to show himself. Finally I was able to be face to face with the snake that had preyed on so many people. He made it too easy, choosing to meet on a roof top. I waited while he talked for what seemed like an endless amount of time until he was close to the edge and then grabbed his hand and pulled him off the edge with me. His face was priceless!
Celty was waiting with a net of shadows of course so I wasn't in any danger. When he asked me why I had done it I told him that life was about fighting and anyone who played with people while they were debating on giving up was worthless. He then proceeded to propose to me." Ayame made a face of disgust.
"Of course that rat would fall in love over something like that." Shizuo shook his head but found something inside him settled. So she really wasn't interested in him and wasn't playing hard to get.
"I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. I've got all the fragments out but I have to flush the wound to get the salt out." Shinra felt his heart break a little bit. He didn't want to hurt his little sister but in the end it would be for the better.
Ayame took and deep breath and nodded. Shinra cut opened up the wound bigger to ensure that there wouldn't be anything left inside it and poured his cleaning solution inside it. Ayame screamed and pulled against her captors restraints. In her wiggling she had managed to free her leg and ended up kicking Shizuo in the face causing his nose to bleed. Ayame lay still breathing heavily as Shinra dressed the wound and moved onto her arm. The wound was almost to the bone by now.
"You should have listened." Shinra ducked as Shizuo swung his at him, "I need your help one more time Shizu-chan. Can you hold Ayame's arm still while I clean in, Celty is getting tired." He gave a loving glance over to the headless woman.
At the sound of his nickname Shizuo relaxed, the danger was over. He jumped onto the table, not minding that he sat in blood, and pulled the girl into his lap. He held her injured arm so she wouldn't be able to move it.
"I'm sorry it's almost over." He rested his head on hers, somehow he knew even though she was in pain she would still have that stupid smile on her face. How she managed to smile while someone dug bullet fragments out of her stomach he'd never know.
Ayame gave a small nod resting all of her wait on the man holding her. She couldn't tell what the odd light in Shinra's eyes was when her looked at her before her began to cut around the wound. The bullet had just been filled with salt so it wasn't so bad just painful, the knife on the other hand was worse. The fact that it was a combination blessed silver and purification salt made it act like an acid. As quickly as he could Shinra cut around the effected area and wrapped the wound. It would take a couple day before that wound completely healed, and it would leave a nasty scar.
Shinra picked up Celty, "I'm going to take care of her now. It's getting pretty late how about you two crash here for the night. If your here Shizu-chan then dad shouldn't bother Ayame." He smiled back as he left the two in the kitchen.
Ayame wasn't shy about her body so being in just a bra really didn't bother her that much. The fact that she was covered in blood did, "I need to shower."
"Where's it at?" Shizuo moved her off his lap and got off the table and proceeded to pick her up. The thought of loosing this girl had been almost more than he could handle.
"The first door by the front door." Ayame couldn't complain too much about being carried. She was tired and showering was going to be difficult enough.
Shizuo sat the girl inside the bathroom and sat down on the floor infront of the bathroom door. He planned on waiting for her here until she was done his leg bouncing in agitation. He was torn in between tearing the city apart and staying beside the girl until she was healed. after some time Shinra came over and kicked Shizuo's shoe, jumping back when the blond kicked at him.
"Let's wait for her over here. She doesn't handle being smothered well. Celty and I made that mistake when she first showed up here." Shinra walked over and sat down on one of the couches.
Shizuo growled, Shinra was right. Shizuo stood up slowly and walked over to the couch opposite of Shinra and sat down. He had to stop himself from immediately jumping back up when the girl came out of the bathroom in a towel using the wall for support. He growled as something dark covered his eyes, only when he turned his head away did Celty's shadows move.
She's better than when she first came here but she doesn't like to show that she's hurt. She's going to be impossible once this she heals! Can she continue staying with you for a while?
Celty was walking with a limp as she came over to Shinra and sat next to him. She couldn't help remember the girl that Egor had brought to their door step. When she first came to them Ayame was all of 90 pounds, had hair that touched the ground and an empty look in her eyes. Egor said that he had traveled with her for 5 years and that her father wanted her to stay with Shinra and Celty until she adjusted to city life. Her eyes had warmed the last year but not near as much as they had from the short time she had spent with Shizuo and Celty wished to see more of that progress. They never got the full story about what had happened to the girl just a light gloss over from what Egor knew, and even that wasn't much.
"She can stay as long as she needs or wants to. It's been nice having someone else around, and she cooks great as well." Shizuo examined his vest and shirt and wondered if he should remove them. They were covered in Ayame's blood.
"I miss her cooking! Celty you should get her to teach you sometime!" Shinra teased the headless woman.
Maybe you should ask, she seems not to mind when you ask things like that. I don't think I could!
Celty seemed to be a little emberessed as she held out the phone for Shinra. The two continued to go back and forth in their playful banter. Shizuo was used to this, it's how it had been since he had known Shinra. His leg stopped bouncing as Ayame came into vision from the corner of his eye. It took almost everything Shizuo had not to turn his head and look at her. She was wearing a large t-shirt and pair of pajama pants.
Ayame's heart raced, what if he hated her after she told him everything. What if she could never walk with him again. Or worse what if all he did was pity her like Shinra and Celty did when she first met them. She sat down on the same couch as Shizuo and hugged one of the throw pillows to her chest.
"If you don't want to talk about it you don't have to tell me." Shizuo leaned back trying to look relaxed.
"A promise is something that shouldn't be broken." Ayame shook her head the smile she hid behind in place, "just please don't think any different of me when you hear."
Shizuo looked over at the girl and gave a nod. He would do his best to not treat this girl any different. No matter how fragile she looked he knew that she wasn't easily broken. If nothing else today proved that.
"It might take a while but here goes." Ayame took a deep breath. It was time for those who she trusted to finally know her.
sometimes a wound must be reopened to heal, but who do we become once it finally does? Do we remain the same or become someone different? Do we stay in the past stagnant as the world moves on around us, or do we grow?
