(A/N Wow, I got this out faster than ever. What can I say? I'm THE shit. *dodges a tomato* Anyway, after a couple really late nights, I give you this! Chapter Three! See, didn't I say no more six month waits?)
Chapter Three
Iruka hated nightmares, he didn't need much to remind him of this truth as he sat in a cold sweat and jumbled sheets. His heart hammered in his chest, sending unpleasant shudders down his spine and his brown eyes darted wildly around the room, slightly disoriented. The terror lasted maybe a whole thirty seconds before his senses came about and his surroundings became recognizable. He ran tan hands through his tangled hair free of its usual ponytail and sighed once his heart rate slowed to its normal beat. The young man rubbed his temples in frustration, all sleep gone from him at three in the morning.
With an incoherent grumbled, he threw the bed sheets to the side and swung his legs over the bed. His feet made contact with rough carpet and he blindly made his way to the bathroom, knocking over a hamper filled with clothes in the process. The light from the bathroom burned his eyes as the pupils contracted at the current assault, trying desperately to adjust. Iruka trudged to the toilet and flipped the ridiculously clean lid up, starting the process of relieving himself. The teacher exhaled his satisfaction, and finished the male urination process. Just as he reached for the handle, his bathroom partition shook from the force of something coming in contact with his neighbor's side of the building.
Curious as to what the need for such an act would be at this hour of the morning, Iruka side-stepped the toilet and pressed his ear against the cool drywall. This side of the apartment bordered the Mitarashi woman's and though he could tell her lifestyle was rather…eccentric he would rather believe it not to involve pounding on the wall at all hours of the night. He rolled his eyes at his assumption, just because she dressed, what was the word? Ah yes, revealing, that didn't necessarily throw her into the category of "working girl". Money may not even be involved in whatever was conspiring in her apartment.
Another tremor vibrated the picture of two dolphins jumping thruocean surf above the toilet, and a distinctly male voice followed. Iruka strained to hear what was being said, but couldn't make out anything audible, all he could make out was the obscured loud ranting of the said man. A harsh feminine voice, undoubtedly Ms. Anko's, responded only to be silenced a second later as another thud resounded to Iruka's side of the wall. It immediately became silent --eerily so he might add-- and the eavesdropping teacher concluded that the war was over. He shrugged to himself as he went to wash his hands, with the thought that the altercation could have been as simple as intercourse or as complicated as--he stopped his thoughts before they touched that subject. If he were to have any hopes of getting back to sleep, he knew to leave that more than well enough alone, after all, nothing is gained from living in the past.
****
Later during the same morning as the "pounding" incident, Iruka awoke to blinding sun in a dazed state of mind. After three weeks in this apartment and yet he still couldn't manage to get his bearings. With a stretch that produced several pops and a loud yawn, the teacher rubbed the sleep from his eyes and slowly wandered into the bathroom. He stared blindly at the texture of the white stucco while he relieved himself, his mind going over the worrisome noises from earlier.
I should stop over her place, just to check that she's alright, he thought to himself as he flushed and stepped to the sink, running his hands under cold water. Shaking his hands briskly and wiping them on his pajama bottoms instead of using a towel, he began to rethink the original idea of checking on his neighbor, after all they've only talked twice and he hadn't seen her since he --and he cringed at the memory-- rudely kicked her out.
The teacher grabbed a chunk of chestnut hair and wrapped a blue hair tie around it, making it into his signature ponytail. He dung through a pile of clothes on the bedroom floor, before pulling a-presumably clean-gray muscle shirt from the pile. Iruka slipped his toned arms through the shirt and pulled it over his head. Straightening his ponytail out some, he gazed at his reflection in the mirror and momentarily contemplated changing out of his pajamas. A glance to the clock answered his muse, only three hours had passed since his last awakening and already it was too bright to go back to sleep.
He stepped out into the living room of his apartment and brown eyes scanned the neatly organized spaces of the room and adjoining kitchen. His eyes rested on an open case of beer resting near the front door with two bottles missing from it. He frowned, thinking of his neighbor and how she hadn't kept good on her word, leaving him with a case of Budweiser…if in the company of others he could handle its unpleasant taste, but alone he feared it'd sit there for a year. Iruka shrugged, and strolled into the kitchen where the remaining cardboard boxes and bubble wrap sat piled in a corner. It didn't really bug him to have to look at the aftermath of moving, yet it was an eyesore and if he did in fact invite Ms. Anko over for breakfast and more importantly if she accepted…Iruka shook his head and gathered the remaining boxes, stuffing the bubble wrap into the larger ones. Tearing the remaining ugly brown boxes into smaller, more manageable pieces before starting out into the hallway of the building.
As he stood outside his door he glanced curiously down to the door next to his and blushed almost immediately, feeling like a kid caught with his hand in the candy jar. The young man diverted his attention back to the task at hand and started down the hallway to the elevator. Stepping inside the confined space made Iruka become nervous, having never been a fan of small areas. The ride went smoothly enough thankfully, no being stranded with some weirdo who only talked about fish and how in ten years there wouldn't be enough male fish to fertilize the female's eggs…he smiled at the memory of the time he and his mother were stuck in an elevator for two hours.
The light ding of the bell sounded, forcing him to leave that particularly good memory and he hurriedly stepped into the foyer of the building. His eyes scanned the deserted main entrance, the only other person being some lowly looking janitor buffing the linoleum floor. The wax shined so bright in some places, he could see his reflection as if looking into a mirror. He could almost see someone slipping if the floor got even the slightest bit of moisture, with his luck it'd probably end up being him.
The aforementioned janitor smirked a pretty much toothless-what few teeth he did have Iruka doubted they'd be any useful-grin and offered a gruff, "Mornin' sir." As Iruka passed by him on his way to the large double doors. He returned the greeting pleasantly enough while managing not to stare to hard at the various gaps and black gum-line. He briefly wondered where you could find these people and, even more so, why anyone would hire them. Has to be equal opportunity employment, but you would think there'd be a drug test. Ah, just stop it already…maybe he just doesn't have dental.
Humid air heated by the morning sun blasted the young man's cool skin as he stepped out of the large apartment building. Even the normally busy streets of the inner city seemed empty, with only a few taxi cabs and the six a.m. bus going about their Sunday morning routine. He observed a bum pushing a shopping cart either suffer a seizure or a drug induced hallucination, Iruka was willing to bet it was the latter. Steam rose from a vent on the side of the high rise apartment building giving off the scent of laundry detergent as he rounded the corner and neared the dumpster. As Irukaheaved the last of the empty cardboard boxes into the dumpster, a wave of satisfaction rose in his chest. It was finally finished, now his new life could begin and things could go back to normal. He wiped his hands together, reappearing from the narrow alley just in time to see the one person he was most concerned about. An unnecessarily bright lime green taxi had pulled up to the curb, and exiting, in a very unladylike fashion, was his neighbor. He approached the building slowly, playing it off as if he hadn't seen her and hoped -- no prayed that she would notice him.
"Hey, you!"
The teacher turned toward the sound a bit to eagerly and grew a sincere grin at having been noticed. "Oh, hello Ms. Anko. You're up rather early."
She released a snort as she threw, literally threw a few bills at the driver. "More like late." She slammed the door and walked to him in a brisk manner.
His grin only grew at the sight of her quickened pace. "Ah, late night bartending?" he asked as he held the door open for her, noticing with a keen eye she was a bit disheveled. His observations traveled to her neck where several small bruises caught his attention. "Looks like you're had a rough night." The grin now absent from his features as the noises from earlier replayed in his mind and he wondered how she had gone from home to wherever she had come from in complete silence. Unless it was just a dream…but it seemed to real, he thought to himself, not taking his eyes off of her.
"No shit Captain Obvious," she spat, adjusting her trench coat, pulling the collar closer, slightly irritated by his concerned stare. Her gait quickened to the elevator, regretting acknowledging him in the first place. How the hell was she to know he was so prying? And to make matters worse, she couldn't, for the life of her, remember his name! She hit the button for the elevator and the door opened with a hushed whoosh.
The young woman entered the cramped space followed by Iruka, who kept a respectable distance. Her fair skin prickled with his never ending stare, she sighed too tired to put in the effort of arguing. After getting called-or, rather forced back to work last night, she had not the strength to be her hotheaded self. She rose a hand to a tender cheek and fought back a wince from the contact. Damn, I hope he's not the nosey type. I can only imagine how bad I look,Anko thought despairingly.
"I'm going to make some omelets, would you like to join me?"
Anko jumped at the unexpected question and stared back with confused smoky eyes. She recovered rather quickly, or at least she thought so, and grinned cheekily, pushing other emotions to the back of her mind. "Sure, I could use a drink."
Iruka faltered, that was not what he had anticipated her response to be. "Wha-but it's not even seven in the morning!" He emphasized the seven and morning. "You can't start drinking this early!"
"Hey, it's five o'clock somewhere right? Besides, I've had a rough night I could use a little liquid pick-me-up." The door opened and she stepped out and waited. She yelped in surprise and shot her hand in-between the closing doors when her companion failed to exit within the given time. "Hey, you coming or what?"
He shook his head, clearing away the clouds from his mind. "Yeah, sorry about that." Color rose to his face as he stepped into the hall, more than a little embarrassed.
"You're not going to kick me out again, are you?" she asked, leaning against the wall as he unlocked his apartment.
He frowned. "No, don't worry…I'll be a good host this time." He opened the door and motioned for her to go inside. She declined with the shake her head. "What? I thought-"
"I am, but a girl needs to get cleaned up first." A not to innocent grin crept over her lips, lighting those pale brown eyes with something akin to mischief, but worse. "You'll be able to brag to your friends about this." She checked her wrist watch. "I'll be over in less than fifteen minutes, think you can keep it hot for me?"
Iruka promptly turned bright red at the innuendo and stammered for a response. "I-I…you…" he stopped and stared at her smirking lips and settled for shaking his head. "You're too much."
"I know, see you in a bit." She continued to her apartment and waved to him before disappearing inside.
He stood, awestruck for a few seconds…did he just see her-- no, no it couldn't be. Something wet and coppery brought his attention to his lips, he wiped a finger under his nose and when he looked at the digit there was blood on it. Yep, he had just seen some of Ms. Mitarashi's assets, but he wasn't complaining. Oh no, he was not.
So, what'd you think? Well, you see that button over in the corner? The one that says "Go" next to "Submit Review"? I know you see it, don't play dumb, you see it now? Good. Now click it. .) -- I call that the Tobi Smiley Face...it still has yet to catch on...
Disclaimer: I don't own or claim the creation of any of these characters. I'm only borrowing them for my amusement.