Man, I had the idea for this chapter for the longest time, but I couldn't write it!
Well, that's kinda a lie. I had the first part totally thought out. But it ended up not being long enough, so I added the other part in there. I decided that even though this is eventual Shizaya (or Izuo, I haven't chosen yet) she should meet other characters.
Don't worry, there will be more character interaction to come.
But for now, enjoy the chapter!
Oh! Almost forgot! Thank you to teamouri1, Cristinkn, and k42138 for following Ghost of our Past! It means so much!
When Rei shakes herself out of the deep sleep the dream had brought on, her cheeks were hurting from the smirk it had caused.
"I am so lucky I didn't actually say that. If I had, I don't think I'd be here now." The redhead slowly sits up in her cot and looks out the window, cringing at the strong sunlight leaking in. "Man, how late did I sleep?"
All of a sudden, two invisible hands wrap around Rei's head and start squeezing, giving her an all too familiar ache.
"No, no, no! Not again!" Rei cries out as her own hands fly to her temples to try and lessen the sudden pain pounding against her skull, but to no avail. Quickly as she can, she rolls over with one hand still pressing as the other reaches down beside the bed and tries to grab the bag from last night, as the pain in her head continually gets worse. Her fingers flail until finally she manages to hook her pinky in the loop, bringing it up to sit on her chest, digging out the bottle of water and the pills. Cursing herself for not doing it sooner, she moves both her hands down to the bag to remove the plastic seal on it as the pressure in her head builds, making her see stars.
"Why do all of these things have to be so goddamn hard to open!?" Rei yells in frustration before the cap to the pills pops off, sending a few stray ones flying to the ground. Cursing again, she dumps a handful into her hand and grabs the water bottle, squeezing it too hard and sending water splashing all over her.
At this point her head felt as if it was about to explode, so she throws back the entire handful of pills as well as the remaining half water bottle that hadn't spilled all over her. Dropping the empty plastic down, her hands return to her head to try and relieve the pain.
-0-
About 20 minutes of extreme agony later, it finally starts to ebb away, slowly but surely, and after another 15 Rei is able to stand up straight without the threat of falling back down on her face. She calmly makes her way back to her bed, returning the cap onto the aspirin loosely, in case of another sudden headache.
"I am so hoping those don't last forever, because I don't know how long I can deal with them every day!" The young teen yells at empty air, punching her pillow in a spurt of anger. "Honestly, I'm here to see you guys again and all you can do is fight! What is it this time? Did he look at you funny? Or did he actually say something mean again?!" Breathing heavily with every word, Rei forces her voice to steady, and forces a smile onto her lips, that eventually melts into something a little more natural looking.
"Well, in any case, maybe I can ask Shinra-kun for some medicine while issues are being worked out." Nodding her head, she smoothes down her bedhead with her fingers and wrings the excess water from her clothes and hair before changing into a new outfit for the day. Smiling to herself in a small pocket mirror, she turns and opens her apartment door, stepping into the dusty hall full of creaky boards, but the small girl manages to avoid making a single noise as she makes her way to the ground floor.
-0-
Rei starts to mindlessly walk towards Shinra's apartment building, but then she remembers her encounter with his supernatural wife and stops cold, causing another teen running down the sidewalk to crash into her, sending them both sprawling on the ground.
She recovers first, rolling over her shoulder and getting back to her feet to see the boy frantically gathering all of his school things that had exploded out of his bag. Feeling bad for him, she kneels down and grabs a few runaway pencils and pens, studying him as she does.
"I'm so sorry! I was running too fast because I'm going to be late for class, and I've never been late before, and-" Rei's laugh cuts off his nervous stuttering. She hands over the small stack of supplies and her hand lingers over his.
"Don't worry about it, kid. I get it." He sighs happily in relief, stuffing the pencils back in his bag before taking off again, albeit a little slower than before. Rei follows along, finding herself with nothing better to do. "So, what's your name? I can't keep calling you 'kid.' My name's Rei."
The boy eyes her suspiciously, but she just smiles happily. "R-Ryuugamine Mikado."
"That's a weird name, but it's nice to meet you, Ryuugamine-san! Although, do you mind if I call you Mikado-kun instead? I know we just met and all but it feels too stiff and formal otherwise." The teen -Mikado - mutely nods his head. "Yay!" Her eyes shift downwards to his uniform that had been covered in dust and dirt from his tumble. "So, you're going to Raira? It's a pretty good school from what I remember. Though, my classmates were a little on the eccentric side..." Rei delves into her memories and Mikado continues to stare at her, completely confused.
"W-Wait a minute... you look like you're my age! But I've never seen you before at school!" She starts, then smiles.
"Looks can be deceiving. Believe it or not, I've been out of school for nine years now. But, enough about me, I thought you were going to be late for class?" Mikado starts, quickly pulling his bag closer to him and running off.
"You're right! I'm sorry, I hope we can meet again soon!" And off he goes, his feet pounding against the sidewalk and hastily swerving around any passerby that might accidentally step in front of him. She giggles to herself. It didn't seem that long ago that she herself was doing that. Feeling a sudden urge to reminisce, she continues down the sidewalk towards the school.
As soon as it appears on the horizon, Rei breaks out into a run, only to slow down at the sight of the young boy she had just met standing in a small group with two other teens. The first is a yellow-blonde teen who gesticulates with large motions every time a word escapes his mouth, and the other is a small statured black haired girl with glasses and a large chest. Unconsciously, Rei puts her hand to her underdeveloped chest and sighs. It would be a while before she could have a body like hers.
However, with the way the girl seemed to curl in on herself, it was hard to be jealous of her. She obviously didn't use them to her 'advantage' like some did.
The whole scene reminds Rei of her own high school days, where her and Shinra would meet up in the front of this high school and gaze out into the busy roads and talk. Well, Shinra would do most of the talking, of which 99% was of his roommate Celty, and Rei could barely get a word in edgewise.
Of course, their relative peace was almost constantly interrupted by the appearance of a smirking Izaya or a disgruntled Shizuo (or in some cases, an irate Shizuo if Izaya had gotten to him before the school did). Their morning was then spent calming the blond down and barely making it to class.
Remembering those near constant fights when Shizuo would hurt himself every time brings a pang of sadness to the redhead. Now, his body was used to the beating he always took and his anger towards Izaya seemed more out of habit than anything else, but back then, it physically hurt Rei whenever she visited him in the hospital to find him in a cast. She had begged Izaya to stop harassing him, but he always told her it was too much fun to stop.
'I wonder,' Rei thinks to herself, 'why exactly he found it fun.' Sure, Izaya came off as crazy to an average onlooker, but he wasn't. She knew this for fact. The raven-haired man was devious, definitely. Cruel? Yes. Sadistic even? Mhm. But the man was completely sane, both then and now.
And this makes her think. There is a point where a sane person can't continue their actions without a motive. If it's for their own pleasure, then they've crossed into the infinite realm of insanity. But every fiber inside her told her that this, this constant fighting, was a product of something different.
Very, very different.
Alright, so, favor time. I'm running out of 'in-between' stuff that should happen before my main stuff really goes down, so if you have something that you want to happen - certain character interaction, a plot point to occur, a conversation or memory for Rei - I am all ears!
Seriously, please help a girl out. It takes a lot of effort to sit down and write, but if I see comments like that (or any reviews really) it makes me wanna do it!
So either way, be sure to review! (If you do, you get a free internet cookie and my thanks (oh, and a faster chapter update, so there's that!))
I'm rambling, so... Bye until the next chapter!