I groaned as I stepped into the morning air the next day. I hadn't slept at all. I, who usually slept like a brick wall, hadn't slept at all. I usually fell asleep within ten minutes after getting into bed, but I hadn't been able to fall asleep at all. I ended up watching night time telly to have something to do. With two buckets of ice cream in the bag, I made my way through the streets to Cass's place. As I neared the area of the café that was necessary to pass in order to get to the part of the city where she lived, I unconsciously became wary. It was still only 6AM, so I doubted anyone would be around there anyway. As I convinced myself that was a fact, I tried to look as normal as possible upon passing by.
"Good morning." I froze and sighed as I turned my head, seeing Ikki coming out from behind a wall.
"Just morning for me." I said slightly annoyed as I yawned. "You're early."
'Might as well try and be nice, maybe he'll go away.' I thought.
"To avoid the … traffic." He hesitated slightly. "Same to you." I held up the bag.
"On my way to Cass, she's probably in need of ice cream and an anime marathon."
"Again, I-"
"Again," I interrupted, "not your fault." He sighed.
"If you insist."
"I do. Now, I'm off. Still a ways to go." He nodded with a smile and turned.
"Be careful." Before I could make a witty comment, he'd already gone down the stairs.
Apparently, I'd blamed him so much for my sleeplessness that I started seeing him like the ultimate villain at some point. He wasn't that bad, but he was still annoying. I had no need for some random guy to talk to me. I was completely fine with the way things were.
I walked up the stairs to the door of her apartment and rang the doorbell in a signature tune. When no answer came I decided to knock. Still nothing. I got my cell phone out and called her number. There was no ring from inside, but she didn't pick up either. I sighed as I put it away and stared at the bag. It was always one of two things after a rejection. She'd either spend a few days locked in her apartment or she'd go have fun to drown out the sadness. I figured it was number two this time and slowly descended the stairs again before walking back home.
Approaching the café again, I noticed that the door at the bottom of the stairs opened. A man came out carrying some garbage bags. He put them down at the top of the stairs and sighed. I instantly recognized him and gasped.
"Wa…ka?" He looked up, his eyes widening upon seeing me.
"Waka!" I yelled as I ran up to him and flew into his arms, forgetting the stairs and tumbling down together.
"You okay?" He asked worried as he sat up. I rubbed the back of my head and nodded. Waka had always been a man of steel, so I wasn't really worried about him.
"Sorry about that. It's just been so long!" I said as I gave him a proper hug.
"Waka!-" Ikki's voice came from inside along with running footsteps and the door slammed open, right against my head. He knelt down and looked at me, then at Waka, then back at me.
"Ikki…" Waka's voice was ominous and Ikki shrank back a little. I held up my hand.
"Waka, no need to be angry with him." They both helped me up and stared at me with worry in their eyes.
"I'm sorry… I wasn't really thinking when I attacked you like that." I grinned as I bowed in apology. "Please accept this as an apology." I said as I held out the bag to Waka. He took the bag, sighed and nodded.
"Apology accepted." He checked the contents of the bag. "Come on in, let's get this prepared before it's all gone."
"Alice, is your head really alright? I think I hit you pretty hard…" Ikki said worried as he observed me. I knocked on my head and smiled.
"I can take a hit or two, don't worry about it." Waka seemed like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself and led us back inside.
"So, how are your parents doing?" I raised my shoulders as I ate another spoonful of the ice cream. Somehow, it'd been made to look so incredibly beautiful that I could hardly believe it was made from the simple ice cream I supplied.
"They were somewhere in the Australian Outback last time I heard from them." He suddenly seemed worried.
"They left you alone again?"
"It's not a big deal. I can take care of myself." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I still can't believe they would choose traveling over you."
"It's not that big a deal."
"But you're eating properly? And taking good care of yourself?"
"Of course, you have no need to worry."
"Well, if you ever do need something, don't hesitate to stop by. You can get a free meal anytime." I smiled.
"Thanks, but I'm not planning on becoming a freeloader. Dad would kill me."
"Probably, but it's me we're talking about."
"Thanks. It's good that I found you again. I always wondered where you went after that."
"I wandered around for a bit, then decided to set up a café. I didn't purposely choose something like this though. Someone suggested this would fit me well."
"And they were right. It fits you perfectly."
"I'm glad you feel that way."
We continued throughout the day by bringing back memories and laughing about days gone past. When I thought we'd been talking for about an hour, we'd actually been at it for more than 4 hours.
"Waka..?" Ikki cautiously interrupted our conversation. "It's closing time."
"Oh, alright, clean up and you can leave for the day." Waka ordered as he nodded.
"We've been talking a long time…" I said slightly embarrassed.
"Catching up can take up any amount of time, nothing wrong with that." Waka reassured me as he stood up.
"Suppose so." I stood as well and gave him another hug, before letting go and smiling at him. "You've really come a long way."
"Same to you." He returned the smile as he led me out the back door and to the top of the stairs. "Take care on your way home."
"Will do, thanks for everything, Waka." I waved and made my way home with lifted spirits.
I shrieked when someone suddenly grabbed my arm, sighing in relief to see that it was Ikki.
"I think you owe me an explanation." He said accusingly.
"I don't owe you anything, but I'm in a good mood so why not." I properly turned to face him and smiled.
"Waka is kind of like my big brother." His eyes widened in surprise mixed with a tiny bit of relief.
"Seriously?"
"Well, not by blood, but if you count that out then we're like brother and sister."
"How did that happen? He's so… mean." That last word sounded like something a child would say and I couldn't help but snigger.
"I know what you mean. That's my dad's fault, really." Ikki just stared at me, hoping for an explanation.
"Well, my dad is a retired trainer. A trainer of soldiers and a good one on top of that, a feared one. As a result of that he was always really strict with everything. I guess Waka adopted that behavior a little." I could read the next question off his face and nodded.
"Waka was about 20 when my dad found him. He'd collapsed and was pretty much rotting away in an alley. My dad took him home and we cared for him. I was only 5 years at the time, but I still remember it very well. He stayed with us and learned everything both my parents had to teach. My mom with cooking and my dad with martial arts. Then he left five years later."
"I never thought…"
"I'm not surprised he didn't tell you. He's always kept to himself, even to me. Well, I was younger at the time so that could've been a reason."
"Thanks for telling me. Mind if I walk you home in return?"
"No problem."
I received a text and quickly took my phone from my pocket before flipping it open.
Cass:
Went to have fun with the others today, hope you don't mind ^^
He seemed more interested in you anyway
Well doesn't matter, you can have him ;)
It was her signature to always end every sentence with an emoticon. I sighed and grinned as I closed it.
"From your friend?" I nodded.
"She's going to be fine."
"Glad to hear that." He grinned slightly and for a moment I thought he'd secretly read along.
"Can I have your number?" He asked out of the blue.
"What for?"
"To give to Waka. He forgot to ask." I rolled my eyes and shrugged.
"Fine by me." We exchanged numbers and continued our walk.
"I can't help but wonder, though."
"About what?"
"Why you would possibly want to walk me home."
"Let's just say that you interest me."
"Really? Well, that'd be the first time anyone finds me interesting." I laughed, but he seemed very serious about it.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"Well sorry, but no. I'm just me, nothing special." He grabbed my arm, made me face him and leaned forward, pressing his lips onto me.
"You have no idea just how special you are." He whispered onto my lips as he pulled back and smiled before turning and walking back the way we came. I stood frozen for at least three minutes before finally thawing out and realizing that he'd just stolen my first kiss. Now, with Cass's approval, it all seemed a little less wrong, but it was still enough to make my head spin.
Hormones that'd been cooped up until last night were now running wild inside me and I lay sleepless once again.
At exactly three o'clock, just five minutes after I'd finally fallen asleep, the doorbell rang. I let out an uncontrolled growl as I pushed myself up.
"If it's that guy then I'm going to beat the living daylights out of him." I grumbled as I got out of bed and made my way to the front door, plainly opening it and staring at the visitor. A group of four girls stood at the door. Three of them looked rather plain in comparison to the fourth one, who seemed to come straight from some sort of fancy tv show.
"Can I help-" I feigned courtesy.
"You can." The fourth one interrupted me.
"Oh… Okay." She smiled as she looked me up and down.
"You know Ikki, do you not?"
"I suppose." I smiled to myself, now I could blame him for waking me.
"You've gotten quite close to him, wouldn't you agree?"
"I've known him for two days now, so no, not really. He's kind of annoying to be honest." I yawned shamelessly.
"How dare you say that about Ikki!" One of the girls at the back yelled as she wanted to jump me. The fancy one held up a hand to stop her.
"Regardless of what you think of him. We urge you to stay away from him or bad things might happen." She sounded dead serious, but I burst out in laughter at that.
"B-bad things?" I stuttered as I wiped away a tear. "Oh that's funny. Whew." I caught my breath. "Well, it's not like I go around looking for him or anything. He's the one going after me."
"Good, then the bad things don't have to happen."
"Whatever." She smirked and turned, her gang followed after throwing me some angry glances first. I shrugged and closed the door.
"Crazy, all of them." I murmured as I lay back down in bed and closed my eyes.