DISCLAIMER: Bleach? Right. Not mine. xD
Chapter Two: The Mutt
Tatsuki jerked herself awake, mentally kicking herself. How do you fall asleep practically in the gutter when it's pouring rain? She growled low in her throat and wondered for a second what time it was. It was only drizzling now. The sun was starting to shine timidly through the clouds, surprisingly low-down. She was soaked through to the core. Oddly enough, it felt good to be drenched. The water running down her back was cold, but it was familiar, something she desperately needed in this lonely world.
She felt eyes burning into her skin; unafraid, she stood up and turned sharply. Attempting to hide behind an unlit lamppost was Keigo, grinning with his usual combination of mischief and stupidity. Seriously, he had to know he couldn't keep himself unseen behind a /lamppost/.
Didn't anyone else ever watch Saturday morning cartoons?
Tatsuki crossed the empty street, watching Keigo's eyes go wide. She'd almost reached him when he jumped up and started yelling into her face, shattering the calm silence of the deserted road, causing her to swiftly and suddenly punch him. He fell to the wet ground dramatically, whimpering. Oddly enough, she noticed he wasn't all that wet.
She was very relieved to learn that the boy had not been watching her sleep for long.
"Tatsuki! What was that for?"
The girl rolled her eyes, speaking quietly in a noble effort to prevent the headache she usually associated with prolonged time dealing with Keigo. She resisted the urge to punch him again.
"You can't conceal yourself behind a lamppost, you idiot, and don't shout so loud for no good reason."
He rolled over and curled into a ball. Tatsuki was almost completely sure that he wasn't still in pain. Keigo liked to exaggerate. He continued to blubber on the ground, shrinking away from her glare. With one foot she rolled him over, no longer angry, calm but dangerous. Curiosity got the best of her.
"Why are you out here, anyway? This is the middle of nowhere."
"They told me to come get you. Nobody really wants to sleep on wet sidewalks, you know."
A dog shuffling down the streets turned to look up, seeming to radiate defiance, then picked up its pace again, meandering away from the pair. Tatsuki watched it for lack of better places to turn her eyes. Without meaning to she lifted her foot from Keigo's chest, wondering for a second if she should follow the mutt. It wasn't like he was preferred company, anyway.
She realized her mistake a few seconds later as the boy leaped at her leg, grabbing it full around with both arms while smiling stupidly up at her. It was pathetic, really, how much he needed before he got the message. And see as he wasn't exactly new to the girl's ways, the facts should be more than obvious. Tatsuki's leg slammed him into the ground repeatedly until he let go. He resumed his curled position, feebly clutching at the air.
What a baby.
Tatsuki shoved her hands into her pockets, feeling the cold change in their depths, and started to walk off toward the end of the street. She hadn't moved more than two paces when Keigo made a little noise and inched forward. Expectantly, she turned back to him, eyebrows raised. He spoke first.
"…Wait–"
"Do you see me going anywhere?"
"Don't you want to know who sent me?"
Tatsuki laughed. What did he think this was, the next Mafia movie? "They" probably referred to her parents, or Chizuru, or maybe even Keigo's company of imaginary friends whom he invited to his tea parties. The way you imagined it wasn't the way it ever happened.
"They" were probably pretty unimportant.
"Hey, wait, where're you going?"
She'd begun to walk away again. At this rate she'd never get anywhere. She sighed and looked over her shoulder. He was sprawled across the pavement, one hand stretched out after her, apparently having decided to play the victim. Tatsuki couldn't imagine a more pathetic sight.
Simply because as melodramatics go, Keigo was pretty much rock bottom.
"I'm gonna go follow that dog. Don't come."
As Tatsuki moved, the dog lifted its head again, this time looking skeptical, but kept its wayward passage moving forward. She traced behind it, her footsteps echoing lightly against the much softer ones of the thin animal, mind wandering. Keigo's whining fell out of her consciousness as she walked. Motion always seemed to calm her, and as she came closer to the dog her thoughts were less confused.
It hadn't stopped going down the street, but she could see its shoulders tense. It knew she was following it. In a low voice, she called out to it, lowering her head a littler.
"Hey, mutt, c'mere."
(Author's Note - Hey again. This is, like, twice the length of the first chapter, so I'm sorry if short is sweet to you guys. xD Anyway, I'm having fun with this, simply because I have absolutely /no/ chapter outline, and I'm just kind of winging it as I go along. And this will be the last update for a while, since I'm going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere for two weeks, and computer access is a definite no. Reviews make me happy.
And that mutt is important.)