Another week and change had passed. Thanks to her spending so much money on her laptop, everyone's dinner, and her stay at the hospital, Anni had to work a bit of overtime to satisfy the bills. That's why she was walking home at 11 at night. Shizuo had said he would try to meet up with her and walk her home again, but as he wasn't waiting outside the shop, Anni assumed he was still at work himself or otherwise busy.
She started the trek by herself.
She still had her knife, and didn't feel sick anymore, so she didn't feel particularly worried. In fact she was gleeful. She had missed the quiet night air, and she still hadn't gotten over the joy of finally working everything out with her friends. Even Alex was happy for her, although he said so through sarcastic overtones. So she was almost skipping when a hand shot out of one of the alleyways and yanked her in. She reached for her knife, but her assailant seemed to expect that, even though it was her left hand. He grabbed her wrist and forced her to release her blade, the metal clinking against the ground. Even though he was bruised and bandaged, he didn't have much trouble slamming her against the wall and holding her there by her throat. Anni gasped in shock. Her speed was her only saving grace, and that was useless now.
"So a little birdy told me you're Heiwajima Shizuo's girlfriend, Annibel" he grinned. She really didn't like the way he leered at her.
-!DRRR!-
Shizuo was walking quickly. He would only be a few minutes late, but he couldn't really help it. He only hoped she didn't leave without him; he had a really bad feeling about tonight. Disappointment greeted him outside her work. She only got off a little while ago, so if he continued his pace, he would probably catch up with her. He started down the way he knew she always took home, hoping this time at least to catch sight of her.
About halfway to her apartment he heard a little scuffle in one of the side streets. Time wasn't on his side right now, he couldn't get himself into trouble before he made sure she got home safely. He had almost walked past when he heard a voice. It was the tone that caught him. It was absolutely infuriating, arrogant, lewd, and sadistic. "... I won't be paying another yen, and that monster wouldn't dare come near me again. Don't worry though, there will also be good things for you in this deal." Shizuo doubted he'd heard anything at all, but in the pause there a small squeak. "Now MOVE. I wanna get to the fun part" the voice hissed.
Shizuo had had enough. He started stalking towards the voice. All at once he saw Anni stumble out of a small alleyway, her mouth duct-taped and hands held behind her back. Her face was red, and distorted in fear and panic. Tears ran down her cheeks. The slime behind her was banged up, and looked familiar. Hadn't he been one of the difficult clients a few days ago? Shizuo didn't take the time to ponder who he was, all he needed to know was that he was going to kill him. That was, until the slime saw him and ducked behind Anni, grabbing her by the hair and holding what looked like Anni's own knife to her throat. "One more step and she dies" he threatened. A quick jerk of his hand brought Anni's head back and a small whine of pain. Shizuo stopped. He was still too far away. He couldn't cover that distance quickly enough, and with the way the scumbag crouched behind her, he couldn't throw anything either.
"I'll kill-" he started, only to be cut off by Anni's shrill shriek of panic as the scum pressed the blade harder at her throat, breaking the skin. Blood started to trickle from the cut generously, but it didn't look like the wound was too deep. He gritted his teeth. Every cell in his body was screaming for violence.
"Don't test me" the scum hissed. Shizuo was going to murder this bastard seven ways inside out. This slimeball had given up his right to live. HE MADE ANNI CRY. He clenched his fists and seethed in silence, awaiting his chance to tear the worthless slime to shreds.
As Shizuo forced himself to stay quiet, the slime smiled. "There's a good monster!" As he spoke, Anni met his eyes. Past all the other emotions swirling there, there was a small glint of something Shizuo couldn't name. He often saw it on the flea's face when he was screwing with him. As soon as he'd seen it, Anni's eyes closed and she went limp, falling backwards onto the slime. "F-Faint-? Stand up you-!" the scumbag panicked as her weight went from his arms to his injured ribs. It was all the opening he needed. The scum realised only too late that Shizuo had moved, and received the full force of his rage in the form of a fist. Anni tumbled back and her knife went skittering off further down the street. The slime himself soared off down the remainder of the street, crossing the next street and making an impact in one of the buildings there. He wouldn't be getting up again any time soon. Shizuo forgot about the scum and quickly bent to help Anni into a sitting position.
The first thing to go was the tape. His name was the only thing she choked out once her mouth was free, then she fell forward to bury her face in the crook of his neck to mutter things in english and sob. Even if his english had been perfect, he wouldn't have been able to make out the hysterical and muffled ramblings. Shizuo didn't know what to say, so he just held her upper arms. She was shaking, and not just from the sobs that wracked her small frame. From here, he could see that her wrists were bound tightly with a zip-tie. He would hurt her before he broke it. Where had her knife landed?
"Stay here a moment" he instructed, pushing her back into a sitting position. Her eyes widened in a moment of panic. "I'll be right back" he soothed reflexively. Anni slowly nodded, too occupied trying to contain herself to speak. She let her head hang limp while she waited, still trembling. Shizuo felt like it took far too long to find the blade. When he finally did, he ran back to the kneeling girl. "Stay still, I don't want to cut your wrists." Blades never had been his strong suit. Somehow he worked the knife under the tie and sliced it without opening her skin as well. As soon as her arms were free, Anni turned and flung them around his neck, returning her face to the crook of his neck. It would be stupid to ask if she was alright, so he tried something else. "Should I take you to see Shinra?" He got his answer in the shake of her head. The poor girl was trying rather hard to get control of her breathing, but failing miserably. There would probably be a lot more complaining if he tried to pry her off than if he carried her, so he pocketed her knife and picked her up, carrying her to his apartment. Something told him it would be best if she wasn't alone.
-!DRRR!-
Anni usually disliked being carried. Now was an exception. She couldn't imagine trying to stumble home on her own feet right now, and was grateful for the chance to concentrate on just getting a hold of herself again. She'd had her mind mostly under her own control for a while. The panic faded quickly once Shizuo had her, but her tight throat and hitched breathing simply would not go away. She gritted her teeth in frustration, which only served to make matters worse. The last thing she wanted was to go back to thinking about what had just happened, so she distracted herself with other things. Anything. The way the light changed as they passed by streetlights. The way her arms ached with how tightly she was clinging to her savior. He probably didn't even notice. It's not like someone of her meager strength could do any harm to him. Had his bullet wounds completely healed yet? She would have to ask later.
Anni sadly wasn't distracted enough to not notice when he started climbing stairs. She hadn't been paying attention to where they were, and was surprised when the stairs seemed to go on and on. Her apartment was only two storeys, why was this taking so long? She only lifted her head when they stopped, and was about to start fishing for her key when he unlocked his door. After taking their shoes off, Anni was deposited on the couch. Once she was seated, Shizuo used a finger to push her chin up, so he could see the scratch her attacker had left on her neck. Anni knew it was shallow, but the stain on Shizuo's shoulder told her it was happy to bleed. "It doesn't hurt anymore" she asserted. It didn't sound very convincing, cracking in the middle because of her stupid disobedient throat. That alone made her want to cry out of frustration.
"Uh-huh" Shizuo said, going to get something from the bathroom. She was left with the impression that he didn't believe her at all. He returned with what remained of the bandages Anni bought and a wet washcloth. He then went about washing away the excess blood and cleaning around the wound, very gently. Excessively so. If Anni didn't know any better, she'd have assumed he was dusting tiny glass sculptures. She was glad she wasn't in a better mood, or she would have laughed at him and his overcompensation. There was no way she was going to break out laughing now, so she closed her eyes and focused on staying still. He eventually seemed satisfied with his work and bandaged the cut. "How's that?"
"Good. Thank you" she managed past the lump in her throat. She reached up to run her fingers over where the cut had been. Shizuo got up and headed to the kitchen.
"Do you want some tea?"
"...Tea?"
"Ya, tea. I tried a bunch of calming teas a while back, but none of them really seemed to help me, so I have leftovers. They might be able to help you though. Want some?" Shizuo explained, pulling tea packets from the back of a cupboard Anni had never investigated while she lived here.
"Yes please" she said, pulling her knees up. Shizuo picked one out and got everything together while Anni enjoyed being in a ball. She couldn't avoid what had almost happened to her for long, and she didn't want her dear friend to see her face as she sorted through it. Even going back to what had happened wasn't pleasant. The thug hadn't hurt her very much physically, but he seemed to think look-don't-touch policies were a myth, especially when it came to the friends of people he didn't like. And the handsy thug had gotten so easily past her defenses. She couldn't even fend off a heavily injured man when she started out with a weapon. Her knife wasn't enough.
"Anni…" Shizuo sat beside her after he set the water to boil. When she didn't respond, he reached over and pulled her so she would fall into his side with his arm around her shoulders. "You're safe here. You can stop hiding." Anni never decided to curl into Shizuo's side, but she did it anyway. She never decided to break down crying, in fact she very much decided against it, but she did it anyway.
-A/N-
Edited by my dear friend Faded Phoenix