Sooo. . . here is chapter four, thanks for reading this far. Please let me know what you think :)
"Thanks for everything today, I should really be getting home," Anri told us outside of the Cuppycake.
"Alright, see yah," Mikado looked sad to see her go.
"Goodbye my dear Anri!" Masaomi called waving to her, and he and Masaomi started to walk.
"Do you need us to take you home?" Anri was really pretty and the streets of Bukuro were dangerous for pretty people. I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to just take her off the streets. Plus those creeps in the van have been really active lately, I would hate to have to find out what exactly was happening to those people just because Anri went missing.
"No, I'll be alright," She assured me, I wanted to argue but Anri was already running off and the boys were walking away. Masaomi was walking backwards and waving to Anri. Anri will be fine, I told myself as I started following the boys, She is so quiet most people won't even notice her, I wasn't sure I believed that but there was no way to go after her now without looking paranoid.
"You know I started thinking, I bet Saji and her friend Mika might actually together right now." Mikado told us
Suddenly Masaomi turned and started walking normally, the laugh gone from his voice, "The stalker got the stalkee?"'
"I don't know I'm not sure, maybe she kidnapped him or something."
"More likely," Masaomi said pointing as if he could point at the words Mikado had just said.
"If we wanted to, how could we find her?" He looked sad thinking about Anri's friend, and Masaomi and I made I contact we both knew several ways to do that, but none of them were safe.
"I say drop it, Anri said she's fine," Masaomi told him and I nodded hoping that Mikado would let it go, information in this town isn't cheap, especially with Izaya back.
"You would need a massive organization for something like this, like the Dollars." Mikado seemed lost in his own thoughts and forgot we were there entirely. Why does he talk about the Dollars so much?
I shot an alarmed look at Masaomi, but as always he kept calm, "Don't tell me you're seriously thinking about joining the Dollars." Concern colored his words and he looked serious, but not frantic, he really knew how to control his expressions.
"No, no way." Mikado said smiling again at Masaomi. I looked ahead of us and noticed a bunch of people wearing yellow and looking like trouble, my heart almost stopped. Tamaki was right, they are coming back. Masaomi just continued like they didn't exist so I did as well.
"You don't want that, color gangs are the kind of thing you do when you're young and then regret it when you're older." He told Mikado sagely, but he waved his hand dismissively as if the topic were light and meaningless.
"Yah but you gotta do certain things when you young?" Mikado said cheerfully as we walked through the group in yellow.
Mikado left us after that claiming he had homework to do, "Are you ok? I asked giving him a sideways glance," We watched Mikado walk away and I noticed another group of people in yellow walking down the street. Where did they all come from? I thought irritably watching the group, I haven't seen a hint of the Yellow Scarves in seven months and now they are everywhere.
"He looks so vulnerable." Masaomi told me watching his childhood friend disappear into the crowed.
"He's not," I told him with determination, "He has us, we can keep him safe." I smiled at Masaomi but even I could tell just how forced it looked.
We walked in silence for a while, and when we went through the park he pretended to shoot a group of Yellow Scarves with his finger. He's been really busy with Mikado lately so he probably won't notice if I start slipping back onto the streets. I just stayed with him, he's ignoring me, trying to come to terms with what's going on. He would do anything to protect those he cares about, so he can't stay made at me for doing the same thing, after all I am much more expendable than he is. I looked around irritated by all of the yellow I saw everywhere, Shit, why did I fail! I need to clean up this mess quickly. I ripped open a new bag of peanut butter M&M's and ate them.
"Kitomi? Why are you always eating chocolate?" Masaomi asked me.
"Well how else do you think I stay this sweet?" I laughed and ate a handful of Reese's Pieces.
"You're not sweet at all," he teased me poking my side,
"You're right," I told him shoving him off the rail he was sitting on, "So think of how bad it would be if I don't get my sweets." I smiled at him and we both laughed.
We stopped outside of the hospital again, it had been a while since we had been here, but same as always we stopped on the corner outside and he looked at the window with pain, regret and sadness written all over his features. I wanted to give him a hug but I just let it be, she would be watching from the window and I didn't want to give her the wrong idea. Instead I offered him some of my M&M's, he accepted them but he didn't eat them, I could tell his mind was elsewhere. He pretended to be a player, but we knew his heart belonged to the girl in that hospital, she and I just had to wait for him to realize it.
"Why did you stop eating Reese's Pieces?" he asked me out of the blue staring at the M&M's in his hand.
"I threw some up a while back, it was totally gross!" he seemed confused.
"But they we're your favorite."
"Yah, but they weren't so great coming back up so it will be a while before I eat them again," I stared at Saki's window and made it clear that the topic wasn't open for discussion.
"What's going on with you?" He asked walking away from the hospital, we never went in to talk to Saki, but one day he would.
"Well, there is Izaya coming back to town and I got some Intel the other day that the Yellow Scarves were on the rise, but I didn't believe it. Today I had to double check to see who would start them back up but Kanoki didn't know anything. Izaya has bought out all of her business, he also brought out what was left of mine."
"You told me you were clean," he sounded exhausted but not judgmental. I wonder what you would do if you ever found out I was lying to you? Of course I was safe this time because I hadn't lied, when I told him that it was the truth.
"I was," this time it was my turn to sound exhausted, "After what happened you retreated into yourself and I stayed out to make sure the Yellow Scarves broke up. Don't worry most people won't tie it back to us, Vienna came back from the dead and took out anyone who still wore yellow. Ameko hasn't been seen since you left the scarves. Anyway I stopped seeing Yellow Scarves so I stopped going out, until the first day of school I hadn't been on the streets in six months. I still had a few guys getting info to me but I never met them, they texted me and then if the info was good I wired money to them. Even that had basically stopped in the last two months. " Masaomi nodded and kept walking knowing that I would keep up with him. It was just standard practices to cover our buts, if we're lucky this time next year no one would even remember us. Or at least him, I had to remind myself that I made my decision about the Yellow Scarves already, I wish they would just disappear.
"On the first day of school Tamaki told me he had some big info for me that he would only give to me in person, I went and it was a trap. I got away and went to tell Izaya to leave us alone, but obviously he didn't listen since he showed up and harassed you and Mikado yesterday."
"Yah, even with your warning I never expected to see him. After all we are just high schoolers now." he sounded lost and I couldn't blame him for that, I nodded trying to convey how right he was.
"You're right, we're just high schoolers now and this has nothing to do with us." I nodded to some more people in yellow. "Our Yellow Scarves is gone, I made sure of that." We looked at each other and reflected in his brown eyes I saw my own fear of being sucked back into that world. "We promised we weren't going back," I reminded him, "This changes nothing." He looked unsure, and started walking without giving the statement confirmation. Shit, he isn't sure anymore! I hated seeing him look so defeated when we hadn't even faced our enemies yet.
"We need to go to Russia Sushi," He told me, "Hopefully we can find out more about these Dollars." He didn't wait to see if I was following because he already knew I would, he never had to check and see if I had his back because I always did, leaving the streets hadn't change that.
When we walked into Russia Sushi we found Saburo Togusa, Kyohei Kadota, Erika Karisawa and Walker Yumasaki. They had been the ones to save Masaomi's girlfriend from the Blue Squares, they also left the Blue Squares because of her kidnapping. They would probably know something about the Dollars.
We got a back room so we could talk with them privately and once the door was closed behind Simon Masaomi started, "I was hoping you could tell me about the Dollars."
"What?" Kadota took the lead in answering the questions, he was in charge of this small group of oddities and so he normally took responsibility for anything to do with them.
"I'm trying to keep my friend from getting mixed up with them. " Masaomi answered simply.
Kadota took a drink of his green tea, "Why are you asking us?" His eyes flicked between me and Masaomi.
"Well you're the only one I can talk to," Masaomi smiled sadly at him and I blushed and hung my head.
"Guess you can't really ask Izaya Orihara about it, huh?" Erika asked, I wanted to slap her for bringing up that name because it made Masaomi look even more depressed, but I knew she didn't mean to be rude so I let it go.
Kadota looked at me as if trying to decide something, "Why would you want to join the Dollars?" he asked suddenly.
I blinked a few times, unsure if I had heard him correctly, "I don't." my voice sounded flat and harsh even to my ears, "Another friend of ours keeps talking about them and we are worried about him." I wasn't sure if he believed me, but that didn't really matter, we just waited for the information.
We sat in an awkward silence until Kadota decided to talk, "Look, we don't really know much about them. Their kind of a mystery. We don't know a whole lot about them either, but since you're here I'll tell you what we do know." Masaomi perked up a little just waiting for anything he could be told about the Dollars.
. . .
We walked in silence again after leaving Russian Sushi, both of us trying to make sense of the whole situation, the information hadn't been anything new so there was nothing left to do but wait and see what happened. Suddenly Masaomi spoke, "Mikado?"
I only half heard, "What?" but Masaomi started running so I chased after him, then I saw Mikado up ahead, but while we were running I bumped into some guy. I slowed down a little, "Sorry." I told them, but the glares I got held me in place.
"No it's going to take more than that," Some guy in a red shirt with a yellow bandanna around his neck said putting his arm around my shoulders.
"In case you haven't noticed, dork" some black guy with a lip ring and dreadlocks held back by a yellow bandanna said looking intimidating, "You just bumped into the yellow scarves." His smile creeped me out, and I suddenly felt exposed in my school uniform, Shit! I don't have my knives with me! A third guy had circled to cut of Masaomi's path.
"If you don't want your girlfriend to get hurt then come with us," The third one told Masaomi, I shook my head but he followed as the three of them lead us into an alleyway. I'm not his girlfriend, it was the most ridiculous thing to be thinking of, but I wasn't Masaomi's girlfriend, I am much more dependable than Saki.
We were backed into a corner when Masaomi finally spoke, "Interesting, so you say you're with the Yellow Scarves?" His tone oozed disbelief.
"You don't joke about that," the guy with dreads growled, he was obviously the leader of this group.
"I said it because I doubt it," he declared leaning against the wall nonchalantly, a devious smile started spreading across his face.
Dreadlocks dude came forward and grabbed the collar of Masaomi's jacket, "You little."
I got ready for the fight to start but at that moment Mikado called yelled our names, "Masaomi! Kitomi!" He ran down the alley towards us, Shit, we can't fight these goons in front of him. The guys claiming to be a part of the Yellow Scarves looked at Mikado confused.
"Mikado, why do you have to show up now?" I asked quietly. The situation had just gotten dangerous, Masaomi and I could easily take them out but we couldn't let Mikado know about that.
Thankfully the city sent a distraction, some freak ran down an adjacent alley yelling "Monster!"
I made eye contact with Masaomi, "Lets go," He said pulling on Mikado's arm. I slipped away from the guy that was holding me and followed. We bolted heading for the main street, I thought I saw them running after us, but we lost them quickly.
The three of us stood breathing heavily but then we grinned and started laughing. Nothing like a shot of adrenalin to improve your mood, I popped some more M&M's in my mouth to cover the bad taste at the back of my throat and watched as Masaomi put his arm around Mikado. "Man you had me so worried," Masaomi told his childhood friend.
"You had me worried too,"
"I could tell," then they both laughed again.
"So much love, why don't you two go get a room!" I teased causing them to both come after me. Warding off their friendly attacks I was surprised how quickly the mood had changed. Mikado really has no idea just how much he has saved Masaomi. We walked home talking about nothing important and just being kids, it was the perfect way to end the day. We are just kids, I smiled happily, and that's all we have to be.