TRACK 8

Muse - Psycho.

"Ami-chan, Yama-chan, wait", Hiyori reached out to her Friends while crossing the main yard. Yama huffed in annoyance and made the gesture of leaving, but Ami held her from the arm, forcing her to face Hiyori.

"I want to… specially with you, Yama-chan, I…" doubted Hiyori, twirling her knuckles around her briefcase handle.

The long silence made the girl to look up to her friends, thanking the fact they were not rushing or put pressure in her for apologizing, which was already really hard for her. Ami had a concerned stare, while Yama tried to keep her annoyed face, but she didn't move an inch even with Hiyori doubting right there.

"What you'd do?"

"I would let her rot in hell…"

Bits of her conversation with Yato days before came to her mind, and to her horror, they were far from making her feel better. The memories of that afternoon, those intense blue eyes, so expressive, letting her see from his comfortableness to his confusion to mistrust, the only thing they caused was that tears began trailing down from her eyes, leaving wet traces on her cheeks. A wave of anger and embarrassment made her weep, scolding herself for not being in control of her own emotions. She tried to keep talking but she was actually making an awful job at that. Her friends tensed up.

"H-hey!" Said Yama, baffled, "D-don't cry! It's actually not that big of a deal! Apology accepted!"

"Ow, Hiyori!" Sighed Ami, and squeezed her in an embrace. "We're really really sorry too!"

Yama placed a hand in one of Hiyori's shoulder. "I'm really sorry too, Hiyori-chan."

The three girls walked to their classroom while Hiyori wiped away her tears. Somehow they had thought those were apology tears, and she wasn't going to correct that mistake. She was actually relieved to not having to give any explanation.

During lunch, Hiyori managed to fill the gaps on her story for SHRINE, but she ended up telling them about her little run-away with "Yuuto", the cruelty Yukine had revealed a white lie she just slightly mentioned – and that fortunately Ami and Yama didn't asked about, and the "punishment" imposed by the headmaster.

"Wow", sighed Yama, overwhelmed, "well, if it serves you of anything, my judo club still has some spots opened."

"If I go to my mother telling her I'm entering judo club I'll surely sent her straight to the hospital, but thanks, tho'", said Hiyori, lowering her head.

"That's right, you need to really ponder your options", said Ami, with a finger on her chin. "And about this dude, Yuuto-san, you said? I'm sure if he really cares about you, he'll listen whatever you have to say", se added with a smile.

"He has to choose!" yelled Yama, passionate, "It's either his friend or you!"

"…And that's why you don't have a boyfriend, Yama-chan", sighed Ami, "That's so not appropriate"

"Hey!"

"I actually don't think is so simple as telling him to pick one of us", said Hiyori. In that moment the bell announcing the end of lunch break rang, and the girls stood up, heading back to their classroom. Hiyori smiled. She finally had her friends back, but she couldn't stop feeling wrong; she still kept lying to cover things that were not so easy to say, anyways. But what else could she do? Tell everything just the way it was?

"Hey, guys?", called Hiyori, and the three stopped walking in the aisle, "would you believe me if I told you I knew SHRINE's members and I spent one afternoon with the guitarist?"

Ami and Yama looked at her with eyes wide open. Then they broke down in laughter.

"Whatever you say, Hiyori-chan!", let out Yama, sarcastically, and they kept walking with Hiyori a little behind, with her head sunk between her shoulders.

"That's what I thought…"

"It would be good if you'd get your ass to the kitchen to help for a change!" had said Daikoku some point within the week. He knew what he really wanted to see was some kind of reaction in him. There were five rooms in the house, but lately they were using just two. Yato had been locked up in the room he occupied when he was living there at the beginning, which was around the same size his whole basement in downtown was. He had tried to leave on the first days, but Daikoku had stopped him. He hadn't left his room since. Kofuku had come to talk to him regularly through the door, when she also realized he wasn't eating properly.

"Yatty-chan, you haven't eaten one bite again…" Kofuku was saying today, "we're sorry things have to be this way, but we have to keep you safe. This time luckily nothing happened, but if you were here living with us there had been no need for you to be exposed like that…"

Yato listened to her in his usual spot, sitting by the little table near the window who showed directly the blue cover of the pool, smoking. His hair was a mess and the blanket over his shoulders made him look like an owl on his perch. He could listen to her clearly, he knew what he wanted to say, but he just stayed there, unmoving. An ocean of simultaneous thoughts flooded through him: the deadline, how long he had been on that house, the shame-filled face of Hiyori, Yukine, that stupid brat, Hiyori, the new song he had left on the basement, the fact he didn't felt like eating anyhting, Hiyori, she still had his email, would she have written? Probably not, how easy would it be to just smash his skull against the window…

Yato smashed the cigarette butt with more violence than needed, burning his fingertips and getting them dirty with the pile of ashes from several days. He actually hated smoking, but nicotine was able to suppress his constant anxiety peaks and slow down his mind a bit. He was sure it killed brain cells, but that was okay. The only thing those little bastards did was idiotic thoughts that paralyzed him and deemed him unable to finish anything.

The magenta shine on that girl's eyes came back to his head with the strength and precision of a baseball bat and Yato hunched, hugging his knees, burying his face in the boney bumps.

"If you saw me like this, you'd surely think I'm a straight up loser", he thought, at the same time scolding himself for thinking that way, and simultaneously remembering that afternoon in his basement, where ideas were flowing, organized, where he looked at her eyes and everything was silent, where all the pieces fell into place perfectly.

He got up from his seat, almost knocking the table in his way, ripping away the blanket from his shoulders, his mind punishing him again for depending on a highschooler he had just met a few weeks ago, and for letting things to come to this point. He opened the bedroom's door, releasing the door lock, and he still could see Kofuku walking away hallway down, giving up. The sound of the door made her look behind, and seeing Yato made her face glow.

After receiving the bubblegum pink tornado on his arms, he looked at her, smiling.

"How can it be that we haven't had a rehearsal if we're all here?"

"I'll call everyone immediately!" sung Kofuku, and ran through the hallway like a butterfly.

Yato smashed his face over the kotatsu, hours later, his hair still damp from the shower he took after the practice… or whatever that had been. Daikoku growled angrily, asking him to stop getting the table dirty, and Kofuku slipped an arm over his shoulders, hugging him, speaking with the softest voice.

"Yatty-chan, c'mon, relax, OK? Not all rehearsals have to be good, much less after all that time", his friend's attempts to lift his mood only made his frustration bigger, and he turned his head to the other side. Yukine and Daikoku had turned on the videogame station and were having fun shooting the other team in an online match. At the current situation, Yato was unable to understand how a game of that kind allowed them to relax after that sucky rehearsal. He had been completely unable to concentrate, he kept missing his entrances, failed notes, and yelled in frustration about not being able to put two coherent ideas together. They decided to try the next day, although nobody really felt more calm. Hugged by Kofuku, Yato sniffed: "I wish I could concentrate like before."

"Hey, man, take your time," let out Daikoku, smiling. Seeing Yato out of his bedroom had relieved him somehow, "there'll be something to bring the kazillion-dollar Yato back."

"Bring a slut dressed as a schoolgirl, seems he likes that kind of shit" scoffed Yukine.

"Yuki…", Kofuku tried to reprimand him. Yato didn't even flinched with his words. The couple was completely aware that he was determined to ignore him as long as possible; but they were also sure Yukine said hurtful things on purpose, resented about receiving the cold shoulder, and they knew this was going to blow out really soon. Unfortunately, the teenager kept talking.

"Look at him, Kofuku! He's being pathetic on purpose for us to feel guilty about opening his eyes to the truth of his girlfriend", Yato blushed to the tip of his ears, but didn't answered. Daikoku gripped the controller with more strength than necessary, counting on the seconds. Yukine didn't looked away from the screen. "Anyways, I sent her ass back home and whatever she was planning to do will not happen, what a ridiculous thing to say she didn't had any idea of who we were!"

"So what?" said a harsh voice rising up from the kotatsu. Yato straightened up, and pierced Yukine with a cold glare. "Am I not able to even pick my own friends anymore?"

"Bah, accept it, you don't even know who to trust and since you think you can't trust us since what happened with Viina, you go and search for the first person to come across you". Daikoku and Kofuku closed their eyes at the same time. Something was indeed about to blow up.

"Viina, Viina! Goddamn it!" Yato made the table rattle under his fist. "I would really like for you to stop bringing her up every chance you guys have! I'm sick of all this, Yukine! What the fuck y'think you're getting with reminding me time and time again it was my fault she left?!" After the yelling, Yukine turned off the console, furious.

"FOR YOU TO DEEP-THINK ABOUT IT, MAYBE!"

"DEEP-THINK ABOUT WHAT?"

"HOW PATHETIC IT IS FOR YOU TO DRAG YOUR ASS AROUND SOME GOOD FOR NOTHING BRAT TO OBTAIN A BIT OF VALIDATION EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HER!"

Yato took Yukine by the arm with violence and led him outside. Daikoku made the intent of standing up, but Kofuku stopped him putting a hand delicately on his arm. Smiling sweetly, she made a negative movement with her head.

"Yatty-chan would never hurt Yuki", she said, with a spark on her eyes, "he's not the same as before."

Daikoku sat down again and looked outside, worried.

Outside, Yato practically threw Yukine against the blue sports car and looked at him with rage, before starting to remove the covering canvas. He took the keys out of his pocket and removed the locks. He opened the driver's door.

"Get in", he said. Yukine kept standing next to the car, crossing his arms, "I SAID GET IN!", insisted Yato with a growl, and Yukine walked around the car reluctantly, closing the door behind him with a bang.

"Where are we going?" he asked, not showing any trace of the attitude he showed seconds before, feeling nervousness building up. Normally, when a fight got to this levels, Yato was the first one avoiding it, usually by leaving. Something had changed.

Yato put his key on the slot by the wheel and turned the switch on. He looked at Yukine straight in the eye and saw him revolve on his seat. This kind of energy was something the kid had never saw in him. Without answering to the question, Yato turned the stereo on and searched for an unexistent station. Static filled the car's cabin and Yukine looked at him, confused. Yato didn't broke visual contact while turning up the static's volume to an almost unbearable level. The blond turned his face into a pained one while covering his ears.

"Does it hurt?", Yato yelled.

Yukine looked at him in disbelief while he turned the volume up even more. Even Yato's face was showing signs of pain.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Yelled Yukine, getting his friend's hand off the volume button with an upwards slap, turning the volume down and punching the off button.

"That was my brain", Yato said. The glare in his eyes made it hard to believe he wasn't telling the truth. He turned the stereo on again and searched a station of calm music. A violin quartet caressed the notes sweetly. "This is my brain when I'm with her."

Yukine smashed his forehead against the car's board with a grunt.

"Dammit, dude! Obviously you have feelings for the girl but there's no need to be so cheesy, you disgust me!"

Yato blushed instantly.

"THAT'S NOT IT!" he kept blabbing seeing the skeptical stare Yukine gave him, "Don't you understand, Yuki? THE WHOLE TIME something is going through my stupid brain and I'm not able to filter everything… until I met her, at least…. For the first time in a long time there's silence… I can focus. I know I probably shoulda' been more careful but…"

Yukine opened the car's door.

"I already knew you were an idiot", mumbled Yukine, bitterly, "but I wasn't aware you were this fucking crazy."

Yato chuckled.

"I guess I am a bit crazy."

Yukine got off the car and turned around, talking with his hand on the edge of the door.

"Do whatever you want, ass", he passed the other hand through his hair, ruffling it, "but think about the fact that whatever happens today onwards would be entirely her fault, and therefore yours, for involving her where she shouldn't be."

Yukine closed the door, and Yato got the window down before the kid could go far.

"Say, Yukine, what would you think if I was in your place and Suzuha was Hiyori?", Yukine froze at the spot, "what would've happened if when you invited him over I had showed the same attitude with him that you showed with her… stepping over him, making him feel humiliated?"

"It's not the same thing…"

"Oh, really? Because it seems to me the circumstances are actually similar, Suzuha comes here all the time and only you know who he is…"

"But I trust him!" he said, hot-headed, turning around again and glaring at Yato with furrowed brows.

"And I trust you. I also trust Hiyori."

Yukine snorted and kept walking.

"I would have smashed your face in that moment."

"Apparently the one who's in love is someone else", sung Yato in an annoying tone, typical of him.

He immediately got the window up, turned the car's engine on and pushed play in his stereo's CD player. While he turned around the fountain to get off the house ground, he watched Yukine's face turn red as a tomato, but he couldn't listen the "FUCK OFF!" yell, nor see him throw a handful of gravel that didn't made it to his car.

"You're sure you don't need any help from us, Hiyori-chan?", asked Yama. Her and Ami were waving Hiyori off at the school gate.

"That's very nice of you, guys, but the deal with my brother was taking care of it myself." Said Hiyori, smiling apologetically, getting ready for an afternoon of hunting event halls, banquet services, florists, invitations…

The idea alone was overwhelming, but she had to begin somewhere. But Hiyori actually knew this was the perfect excuse to stop thinking about all that happened and get distracted from the constant jump to her mind of that pair of bright blue eyes appearing out of nowhere, in completely random situations, passing through any thought. While she was collecting phone numbers in the commercial district, she tried not to pay attention to her surroundings, that talked about him, that was trying for her to remember him painfully with every detail. It was completely inexplicable, even absurd. How could it be so hard to stop seeing someone who you'd barely knew?

An anger wave filled her starting from her stomach to the last fiber of her fingers, cooling them until they began to ache and she had to stop the pen's movement that was still collecting phone numbers, even with her mind way too far from there. The girl kept walking, trying with all her will to blink until making the growingly bothersome sting at the corner of her eyes to go away. One rub in the eyes with her fists, a bit of a shake with her head, and she was ready to hunt again with a falcon's eye some other place to collect information. She searched around, at the other sidewalk, trying to sharpen her sight. Maybe if she crossed the street…

She had barely made that choice, and she was shifting her feet to go there, when a loud honk made her jump like never before in her life, and with the heart pounding hurtfully looked at the damn crazy person who had smashed the horn of the blue car right next to her… an electric blue sports car… she had seen that car somewhere…

The tinted window of the co-pilot seat got down slowly, and it wasn't even halfway down when from the inside of that Subaru WRX came out an extremely familiar voice.

"What happened, Hiyori? Saw a ghost?"

She would recognize that voice anywhere.

"Yato!" Hiyori hurriedly came near to the space left from the window, almost sticking her head in the inside of the car, "what are you doing here?"

"Isn't that obvious?" he said, giving her a flashing smile, "I'm looking for people without a cellphone to put up an exhibition in a museum."

"Ha-ha, very funny", she said, stoic, "does Daikoku-san knows you stole his car?"

The face Yato did couldn't have been funnier, and Hiyori almost couldn't hear his reply from the laughter attack she had seeing it.

"Just for you to be aware, miss", he said, crushing his chest with a hand, indignant, "this is MY car." Hiyori let out an incredulous sound, and Yato snorted, exasperated, "Are you getting on or not?"

She smiled and opened the co-pilot's door. She sat down, put her briefcase on the floor between her ankles and buckled her seatbelt.

"Where are we going, Toretto?" Hiyori asked, still smiling. Yato looked at her from head to toe, almost in disbelief. Inside of his head, at that time was nothing but silence. Without answering, his face turned into a mischievous smirk, and looking to the front, he hit the gas.

"Who are those?" asked Hiyori, dipping one French fries in a plastic pot filled with dressing.

"Red Hot Chilli Peppers -d'you really didn't know this place?" Asked Yato, incredulous, taking one of the French fries of the bag she had.

The crisp-clean mat below Hiyori's feet squealed when she shifted one of them, seeing them with a little smile. She had been asking him continuously the names of the bands playing the songs on his car's stereo random setting, and Yato answered each band's name with the patience and passion of a good teacher; he was indeed more concerned about the fact she had never been in that park in particular. It was a charming spot buried in Tokyo's bay, in which throughout the years portions of land had been placed in order to be able to build more things. In front of them, like a cutout against the sunset light, they could see the shape of the Diamond and Flower ferris wheel, and Yato insisted to stay until the lights were lit. Meanwhile, they just sat in the car listening music.

Yato relaxed his back against the door, with the window down to allow the smoke of his cigarette to go out. Hiyori looked at him. They hadn't really gotten into the subject.

"I'm sorry" she said, simply. Yato froze for an instant, but didn't said anything for a while. He smiled sadly, looking to the front. She couldn't see the expression in his eyes.

"How long had you knew?" he asked, finally, doubting before continuing, "did you saved me from that accident because I was a member of SHRINE?"

Hiyori doubted too. She actually wasn't sure Yato was going to believe her.

"To be honest, I hadn't heard about you until after the accident."

"I don't know if that helps me or it's actually making me feel worse" he said, laughing a bit bitterly. He had relaxed again completely. "Actually, I think the one who needs to apologize here is me… Yukine… he's…"

"Chill out", cut Hiyori, shaking her head a little, "Yukine-kun was just a bit defensive."

"And I really don't know why to be like that with you, but it was indeed wrong… oh, by the way!" he said, and leaned to the back of the car, getting a pink scarf and Hiyori's CD, "I didn't had the change of getting those back to you."

After a shy "thanks" from Hiyori, Yato returned to the topic.

"Hey, I know it's not like a big deal but, in case you want, we can invite you over to a rehearsal…"

"COME AGAIN?!"

I know, I'm an awful person and I'm sorry sooo sorry for letting this fall behind out of nowhere! I promise I will keep updating and thank you all for reading!