"Nic… " Nic looked up, a question in his eyes. When he met Kei's gaze, he stiffened. Her expression was equally baffled. Not afraid, just slightly nonplussed, with a crease on her forehead. Puzzled. Bewildered. Taken aback.

A pristine calm behind the mask of a storm. Opposing. A utopia past dystopia.

"B-boss?" A mafia man mumbled, his voice unsteady. Nic's eyes swept past the dumbfounded girl, who had stepped away from the corpse on the ground.

Corpse. Missing its head.

Nic looked down at his feet, then at his blade.

If Nic weren't Nic, he might have gasped, fainted, or even dropped to his knees. But since Nic was Nic, he didn't do anything. He didn't show the perplexity that was raging inside of his mind when he watched a fat drop of crimson liquid roll down the dull side of his katana, as though a ball might down a hill. Didn't furrow his brow when he noticed strands of golden hair and tiny, severed arteries clinging to the sticky sword. Didn't display any sort of emotion at all.

Didn't voice his observation on how even though Kei had had nothing to do with the killing of ol' Blondie, a single index fingernail was stained with a tiny scarlet bloom.

"How'd he… " One man muttered. Nic didn't hear him. Couldn't, obviously. But he felt the small tremors. Vibrations of sound. He looked up to watch the lips of the disgusting Normals move.

"I didn't even see him move," Someone whispered.

"When did that happen?" Another added.

"Damn Twilights," A third growled. The word twilights was what brought everyone back to reality. Nic made the tiniest get down motion at Kei. She gave the hint of a nod, and just barely lay down in time for Nic to vault over her and the prone form of the now-dead Molester Chester, to slice and dice each and everyone of the men into pieces. He smashed heads, cut flesh.

He's beautiful, Kei thought to herself.

Blood sprayed everywhere, tainting the dull gray walls of the alleyway. The poor cronies didn't even get to scream their last words before they were turned to pulp, like fruit in a blender. Nic paused when he was done, and when one of his victim's looked as though her were about to escape, he stomped on the man's head.

Bruised melon. Cracked melon. Fruit salad.

Turning to Kei and shrugging off his blood-stained jacket, he handed it to her. She stood slowly, and hesitantly took it. She gave him a confused look.

'Wash it,' Nic quietly explained with a few gestures. 'Payment.' Kei made a small 'o' with her mouth, and nodded. Nic looked like he was about to elaborate, but seemed to think better of it. Kei watched him bend, then yelped when he moved to sweep her off her feet - literally.

"Nico let go! What are you doing?" Kei hissed, only to receive a blank stare in reply. She crossed her arms with a frown. "If you're doing what I think you're going to do… " She glared, her eyes narrowing. "You're not going to get any dinner at all tonight, much less apple pie." Nic didn't answer.

" … Nico, say something."

" …."

" … Nicolas Brown, I swear to god - " She never got to finish her sentence. With not even a grunt, Nic shot into the air, hopping with ease from rooftop to rooftop, his boots knocking loose tiles from their precarious positions. Kei let out a very uncharacteristic shriek, and Nic smirked inwardly when she wrapped her arms around his neck, snuggling into the crook. Out of fear, he supposed.

In truth, she just didn't want the wind and dirt blinding her.

"I AM GOING TO STRANGLE YOU WHEN WE GET BACK," Kei yelled over the whistling of the wind. Nic ignored her threat, and focused on a) not dropping his precious cargo (and he doesn't mean his katana) and b) not falling off whatever building he was currently stepping on. Several times, just to tease her, he would pretend to almost drop Kei, making her shout at him and pull his ear.

Long story short, he went hungry that night.