33. "You wanna go see a movie or something?" Shizuo asks. Mai raises her head from the box of take-out ramen she's been munching through, huddled on a cold park bench. He's sitting on the other side, leaving a large, uncomfortable gap between them. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see her shivering now and then and thinks maybe he should move closer to her. But then he isn't sure what she'll think of that, or how much territory her personal space covers. "It's okay if you don't want?"

"A movie?" She asks.

He nods, refusing to look at her.

A snort of laughter escapes through her nose. "I was just going to ask you the same thing. There's one I've been wanting to see for a while now."

This time, he looks at her, a little relieved. It was easy asking her out today through text messages, but asking her face to face is….he doesn't want to say intimidating, but he can't think of the word right now. This relationship isn't what he would call typical, not that he really expected it to be. Nor does he really know what constitutes as 'normal', come to think of it.

Seeing a movie together seems normal, he supposes, but it sounds a little cliché, doesn't it? It's different from their usual. Since they officially started going out a week ago (three if he counts the time she spent on her job), they eaten at Russia Sushi twice, went for a walk once, then there was the shrine today, and the ramen now…. "Which movie?"

"You remember Masako?" She asks.

"Yeah, your little sister, right?"

"Kinda." She slurps up a few strings of ramen. "Anyway, she's co-starring with Yuuhei Hanejima in a movie called Noisy Ghost, and it's supposed to be paranormally accurate. Apparently, the scriptwriters, director, producer, and all the other bigwigs wanted authenticity, so she was acting as a consultant, too. It sounds really cool." She grins sheepishly and scratches at her cheek. "Plus, it'd be fun to see it with you before I carry out my promise to take Mairu and Kururi."

"You know the twins?"

Mai gives him a dull glance, then brightens and gives a disturbingly accurate demonstration of Mairu's shrill voice, "Mai-oneechan!" He flinches away at the sound, and she rolls her eyes. "Maddening."

"Sounds like it." He looks up at a street sign. "So Noisy Ghost?"

"If you don't mind." She adds, shrinking into her more shy self. "I don't really know what you're into, so…."

"No, it sounds fun."

"You sure?"

"Mm-hm."

"Okay."

-0-0-0-

Author's Notes: I didn't think I'd finish this one tonight, but here it is.

Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.

Durarara! is owned by Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Akiyo Satorigi.