Chapter: 3
The Flirt
Kaito chuckled. "Rin," he said after he was finished,"meet Len." the man introduced them.
The boy, Len, winked at Rin. Rin bristled and paled. She was always uncomfortable when people were so. . .straight forward like that. It was bad enough she got hassled whenever she quickly walked by a group of perverted men. After all, she was a stunningly beautiful girl. But they knew better than to lay a finger on her.
And now here was Len, a blonde haired blue-eyed boy her age who she was no doubt going to see daily from now on. She added another person on her list to avoid.
"What's the matter blondie? Did my sexyness make you speechless?" Len asked cockily while the dinky light illuminated his lazy smile making him look even more disturbingly seductive than Rin was comforatble with.
Seeing how bothered Rin was, and knowing about the lewd comments men would make about her, Kaito turned serious and slammed his palm onto the top of the table. The sound reverberated in the tiny room, immedietly wiping off Len's pleased smirk.
"Enough chitchat. Why do you want to live in Malevolent?" Kaito demanded with a sneer. He already disliked Len. The blonde boy had gonetoo far in making his best friend's little sister feel uncomfortable.
Rin flinched at the loudness of Kaito's voice and at how sudden the cheery man turned angry. It was the first time she saw Kaito like this. She shyly rubbed her arm, a nervous habit and avoided the hard gaze Len was boring into her.
Len's eyes flickered to the blue haired interrogator.
"I'm orphaned." Len said, throwing an attitude back in Kaito's face. At the slight tinge of sadness Rin heard under his tone, she immedietly felt empathy. God knew (if he even exsisted in a cruel place like this) she was in his shoes once and knew exactly how it felt, right down to the slight bitterness at the universe.
Before Kaito could open his mouth to ask what happened to his parents, Len knew what he was going to ask by the way Kaito's face softened. He answered his unspoken question.
"Some bastard slum rats murdered them." Len said spat, rage suddenly appearing in his soft blue eyes that were once teasing only two minutes ago.
Len stood up abruptly, knocking back his chair. Kaito was unaffected by the sudden outburst, but Rin was terrified.
"They were shot MULTIPLE times, as if once wasn't enough. But no, the bastards had to drag it out, make my parents, the only people I had left, SUFFER." Len was shouting now, and his soft blue eyes were now darkened with fury.
Len lifted the small aluminum table like it was weightless and tossed it in the corner, teeth bared, face reddened and veins bulging in his neck.
Rin wanted to leave NOW but she was too frightened and froze. She watched in horror as Len advanced towards Kaito with a finger jabbing the blue haired mans chest.
"So here I am, not even one fifth into my life and i'm MISERABLE and HEARTBROKEN. My whole life crumbled in the small amount of time it takes to pull a trigger." Rin saw Kaito fail at surpressing a shudder. She wasn't sure if Len was scaring him, or if Lens words pulled violently at his heart strings.
"And now, I'm alone! I want in not because i'd be living on the streets, but I want REVENGE." Rin gasped. Len wanted to join Malevolent to partake in the slum war's and kill his parent's murderer's. A 15 year old, carrying a gun and actually killing people was unbelievable to her.
Even if it was Len-whom she had started off on the wrong foot with-but that didn't mean anything. He was still a child, like her! And he was willing to kill in cold blood, even if the lives he took weren't so innocent.
Len's rampage didn't seem to stop. His anger kept boiling and boiling seeming not to end anytime soon.
As Len was about to throw the chair he had been sitting on at Kaito in a fit of rage, Rin's fear melted away realizing how dire the situation was. Doing what her instincts and training were yelling at her to do from the back of her mind, she ran behind Len and just as he was about to lift the chair and throw it at Kaito, she brought down a fist on a pressure point in his neck and knocked him out.
Len's eyes fluttered shut and he dropped to the ground in a heap, a deadweight. Kaito was stunned and at a loss for words. Rin never used her training to intentionally harm anyone outside of the ring.
Rin broke down and fell to the ground next to Len and sobbed.
She had never seen so much bottled hatred. Especially in someone as young and innocent as Len, who was her age! She cried for how miserable his life flipped upside down, at how life passed him a card from the same deck it had passed to Rin years ago.
Not only was she crying for Len, a stranger who she hardly knew, she was also pitying herself.
To her, Len was lucky. Atleast he knew who his parents were. He knew that they loved him as he obviously loved-and still loves- them now. How he had a sense of security and safeness that Rin had never felt before. Because she didn't know about warm feelings only being around ones family gave. She only knew sadness, endless fear, and hardships. Not to mention the most prominent emotion in her empty shell-of-a-heart; loneliness.
Yes, she still had Rei. He was the only thing she had. But when was he ever really around to comfort her besides when he was laying asleep next to her before she woke him from the only peace he would get out of this cruel world with her screams?
She envied Len. He had a past, he knew how his parents left him alone to face the world independently. And Rin didn't. She didn't know who her family was; she could only hope that they were loving and not horribly abusive like most of the other slum children's.
"Hey, hey, don't cry. It's alright." A soothing voice said from the other side of her. Kaito.
He started to rub her back without any hesitation like he normally would. To his delight, Rin didn't flinch away at the sudden affection.
Kaito continued to sit next to her and hold her in a half-hug while he alternated between patting and rubbing her back as her wretchingly loud cries degraded to choked sobs, than hiccups, and finally they stopped.
Rin finally fell asleep leaning against Kaito's shoulder, her tear-stained face pressed against his shirt as she inhaled and exhaled deeply.
Light filtering in from a tattered and thin curtain hit her face and slowly woke her. Her eyes felt tired and she could feel the puffyness from crying.
"Sis? How are you doing?" A soft familiar voice said beside her. Rin blinked a couple of times and turned her head to the side to see Rei.
Rin was confused. "R-Rei? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be. . .out?" Rin asked. Rei was never around during the day, not that she knew where he went either. For the first time she realized she was in an unknown place.
Rin sat up quickly and looked around, instantly on alert. "Rei where-?"
"Don't worry, Rin. We're in the infirmary. And Kaito told me about what happened as soon as I got back." He answered all her questions, avoiding his location before eveything happened. He was seated in a plastic chair beside her bed and was holding her hand.
Infirmary? As far as she knew she wasn't hurt.
The infirmary was inside of another small building somewhere in the Malevolent clan district. Rin realised that she had been laying down on a bed. It was a little bit lumpy and rickety, but she had never lain on a bed before. It definetly beat sleeping on a thin cot where you can feel the cold hard ground beneath you.
She looked into her brother's forest green eyes, eyes completely different from hers. Rin always thought how odd it was that they looked nothing alike, from their eye color, hair color and even their facial features. Then again, she didn't even know what her parents looked like.
For the first time she noticed that her and her brother weren't alone.
Rin's bed wasn't the only one in the room. Off to the side of her there was another one, and lying in the bed, his head elevated by pillows so he was almost sitting up, was Len.
And he was awake, just staring at her. He smirked weakly and put down the makeshift icepack he was holding on the spot where Rin had pulvarized him. She instantly felt guilty.
"Good Morning, Sleeping Beauty." Len said, immedietly starting the flirting. He winked. Rei shot him a look and looked back at Rin.
"I have to be going now, alright? Don't forget to practice, too." giving another deadly look of warning to Len, he left the room. Kaito, who was probably waiting beside it came in. The two friends nodded at each other and went their seperate ways.
Kaito took Rei's spot in the chair and smiled sadly at Rin as if he knew bad news. She noticed that Kaito was back to his normally happy self compared to yesterday. He looked at Len and started to speak to the both of them.
"You two will be seeing a lot of each other from now on." She knew it. Rin slumped back on the bed and let out a miserable groan of dissapointment. Kaito knew why she wasn't so thrilled but gave her a look that said 'don't be rude, he's right there.' anyways.
Kaito set his gaze on Len, "You've been accepted. So far now you'll be living with Rin and her brother Rei, who you just met earlier." Kaito stood up and walked over to Len and bent down to whisper threatningly in his ear. Rin strained to hear but she thought she heard Kaito darkly say;
"Pull any funny buisness with her, and i'll make sure I get rid of you, pretty boy."
Rin felt touched that Kaito was protective over her just as much as Rei was, even after how snobbish she seemed around him because he wasn't Rei.
Kaito walked towards the door and was about to leave when he turned with his signature sunny smile and chirped, "Don't forget to practice, Rin! It starts at ten o'clock tonight, ok? I'll be there rooting you on!" and with that, he walked out the door.
Rin sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
When she thought her life couldn't get any worse, it did all because of Len.
And know she was in an awkward position. Now what? After what happened yesterday she didn't know what to say or do. Should she comfort him about the loss of his parents or would it be best to keep her mouth shut?
"So cutie, what's this practice thing about?" Len asked her using one of his many degrading nicknames. It brought Rin out of her thoughts.
Maybe if I ignore him and pretend to go to sleep, he'll leave me alone. Rin thought.
The look on Len's face kept her from doing so.
Rin rubbed her eyes and took the blankets off her body and stood up. "Just. . .follow me. We have a lot to do." She said uncharacteristically harsh. Realising how mean she sounded, she asked softly, "How's your, umm. . . neck?" she felt so embarrassed.
Len smirked at the sligh blush on her face from embarrassment. She looked kinda cute.
"It's fine. BUT, a kiss will make it even better." Rin shook her head and started to walk out the door. Len scrambled up from the creaky old bed to follow her out.
Lame title is lame xP
Ok, I thought I should clear a couple things up;
The Panda drug and the Panda Hero won't be mentioned later on. Maybe two or three chapters. I want to explain some stuff first before I get to that point in time
What Rin "practises" will be revealed in the next chapter for those of you who are like, "Huh..?"
So what'd you guys think of this chapter? Sorry for not updating in a while, I have other writting projects going on so this one was sort of neglected. But if everyone keeps reviewing I might update sooner than usual! Also, I want to know if your guys are getting a good imagery in your head, like you can get picture of dirty and and dark and awful everything is in your head. Also are you guys getting a sad vibe from reading this for the mood of the story? And what about Len's character? Sorry if I seem kinda...nosey. I just need to know so I can improve the story feeling wise. I know this one was a little short, but now your curiousity is gnawing at you, yes? :D
~Sabby-Sama