Sorry this has taken so long to upload! Hopefully I should begin to upload quicker after this month because I'm three chapters or so ahead of this! However, in the mean time I have written a 13 chapter really super short Mikoto x OC story, the first chapter of which has just been posted on this account! It's called 'A Burning Room' and I'm going to upload it weekly so it would be great if you took a look!

Please read and review! The more reviews I get the quicker I upload; and things are getting good!

Chapter 8- Hidden Blue

"Alright, so what's this really about?" Izumo challenged his cousin from across the table, stirring his tea with one hand. They were sat outside a small cafe just a few minutes walk from the bar, but the closer they got the more nervous Aoi had appeared, until she was tapping her hands repeatedly against her thighs with a blatant disregard for rhythm.

"Hm?" The tapping ceased and she looked up, eyes wide and innocent. "I don't-"

"Really, Aoi?" Izumo raised an eyebrow and for a moment he thought she would try and argue with him, but then she stopped and sighed, her shoulders slacking until she was half laid out on the table, her elbow almost knocking her coffee over.

"I need to talk to you." She mumbled, not meeting his eyes. It was all he could do to hear her properly; her mouth was half covered by her arm. "About why I came to Japan."

Finally.

Izumo sat back in his chair, taking a sip of his tea.

"Alright, then. Go ahead."

Aoi sighed, reluctantly, and Izumo resisted the urge to shake her, knowing that really she just needed time. It wasn't her fault he was perpetually impatient.

"The real reason I came to Japan...was..." She sighed and shuffled around before restarting her sentence. "I guess...I was scared. I have no idea what I want to do with my life and everyone was pressuring me to make a decision...I knew you'd let me work here so I guess it was an easy way out."

Izumo relaxed a little.

"Seriously?"

Aoi looked up, her mouth open ready to apologise, but Izumo interrupted her.

"And here I was thinking it was something bad." He settled back in his chair, only slightly enjoying the look of shock on her face. "Forget about it. You've got your education, right? So take it slow; there's no rush. You'll just end up miserable otherwise."

Aoi's face slowly brightened as he spoke.

"So, you're not mad at me for chickening out?"

"No." Izumo replied, after a moment of careful deliberation. "I'd be more upset if you had rushed into something and ended up hating it." He then scowled. "But don't think this gets you out of telling your parents. You'll have to do it eventually."

"Right, right." Aoi appeared to be too happy to consider the prospect, instead she showed her new found ecstasy by ordering the most expensive dessert on the menu, much to Izumo's irritation ('don't spend all my money on sweets, brat!').

When they arrived back at the bar, Aoi headed straight up to her bedroom and pulled out her laptop. She had been toying with the idea of writing for a while, and it was finally time to put her idea into practice. She'd never get anywhere by just thinking about it, right? Besides, now she (practically) had approval from Izumo and her parents to do whatever she wanted with her life (a slight extension of the truth).

Opening a new document, she began to type, her fingers flying furiously back and forth over the keypad, backspacing more often than not. She nibbled on her lip as she did so, occasionally scowling at the laptop, but after half an hour she felt like she was finally beginning to get somewhere.

Reading back over it she gave a nod and an excited grin.

Yes. She thought. That'll do. For now, that'll do.

-line break-

Aoi took a sip of her coffee and headed down the street, her other hand closed around a white notebook and pen. She was on her way out to the park where she hoped she would gain more inspiration for her story. While some of the customers at the bar were real characters, not everyone in her novel could be a middle-age borderline alcoholic. A pity, she knew, but it was true.

She took a seat on a bench, placed her coffee beside her and looked up and around. It was the middle of a warm spring day so the place was swarming with young children and their parents, running and laughing with sweets in sticky hands. The sight was endearing and it made her smile a little.

She forced herself to knuckle down and make notes and write for an hour. She listed interesting traits in the people she saw around her, picked random families and gave them a story and she was having such a good time until-

"You know that kinda makes you look like a pervert."

Aoi looked up, cheeks splotched with red, and glared at the boy sitting next to her, squishing the ripped up page she had just removed in her fist. He had joined her about twenty minutes previously and had sat reading through files the entire time, though he could only be a few years older than her at most.

"Do you mind not saying that so loud?!" She replied in a hushed, irritated tone. "You can see exactly what I'm doing and you know very well that it's not...!"

The boy grinned languidly and flipped his file shut, slipping it into the bag he kept beside him. He had black hair that half fell into his face and wore just a thin sweater shirt and jeans, though he looked oddly uncomfortable in them.

"If you've nothing to hide then what's the big deal? Unless, that's not really what you're writing..."

"S-shut up!"

"You sure you're not a per-"

"I said shut up!" Angry now, she threw the balled up piece of paper at him, feeling the suspicious glares of parents and elder siblings boring into her. And she was having such a good day!

The boy merely batted the missile away with a wave of his hand and a quiet, barely perceptible 'tch'. If they hadn't been sat so close, being on the same bench, Aoi wouldn't have heard it.

"Alright, jeez. I was just kidding."

"Well it wasn't very funny!"

For a few seconds more they glared at each other, Aoi's eyes heated while the boy's remained mildly irritated but, for the most part, impassive. Then she blew out all the breath in her lungs and turned away from him, choosing to focus on the page in front of her.

After a minute or so she heard another 'tch' and the boy stood up slowly, taking the time to stretch before walking away slowly. His gait was lazy and almost half-hearted (if that were even possible), allowing him to almost float away rather than anything that required effort. Not that she was watching.

When he reached the edge of her peripheral vision she sighed in relief. He was gone. Now maybe she could work in peace.

She had only been writing for a few more minutes at most when there was a soft 'plunk' and long pale fingers deposited beside her an instant coffee mug. Aoi looked up in confusion as the boy sat down beside her; and did she imagine it but was he sitting closer this time? Aoi opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"You drank your coffee right? So drink that one."

There was a moment's pause in which Aoi looked down at the coffee, decided it as good as an apology as she was ever going to get, then looked up and smiled.

"That's right. Thanks."

"Whatever."

-line break-

Aoi re entered the pub, notepad tucked under her arm, humming along to her iPod. As it turned out the guy she met wasn't that bad; in fact, he could be quite nice, if a little unresponsive. Whatever; it seemed she had made a new friend, if they ever met again, that was.

"You seem chipper." Izumo noted as he leaned up against the end of the bar. "What happened? Get a lot done?"

"That's not it!" A voice cried, and Aoi was swept up by the hurricane that was Tatara Totsuka. She hadn't noticed him previously, sat in one of the booths with Anna and Misaki, but he dashed up and grabbed her face between his palms, pinching her cheeks. "She met someone!"

Anna made a small noise, Misaki turned bright pink and almost choked on a peanut while Izumo jerked in surprise, his elbow sliding off the bar top and sending him sprawling onto the floor.

"What?!" Aoi cried, her cheeks flushing pink.

"What?!" Izumo cried, his entire body turning purple.

"You met someone! There's no denying it, you know." Tatara stated matter-of-factly, stepping back and folding his arms across his chest. "So go on, who was it?"

"I didn't meet someone." Aoi excused herself, beginning to unbutton her coat. "Well, I mean, I met someone but I didn't meet someone if you understand."

"We'll see about that!" Tatara challenged. Anna sighed. "Tell me all about him! Go on, tell me! What happened? I bet he's interested in you!"

When did I say it was a guy...?

"Nothing happened." Aoi rolled her eyes, hanging her coat up and slipping her shoes off. "He bought me a coffee to apologise for being rude, at least I think that's why he did it, and we talked a bit. That's all. I don't even have a way to contact him."

"But you got his name, right?"

Aoi rolled her eyes.

"Fine. If you're really that interested, it was Saruhiko Fushimi. Happy now?"

There was a long, pregnant silence, abruptly broken by the sound of Misaki's skateboard clattering to the floor. His face was darker than before as he exited the bar in a hurry, the door slamming shut behind him, leaving the rest of the bar's occupants in a stunned silence.