Jealous

A Ban/Himiko Story by Rabid Lola

Disclaimer: Don't own Get Backers. Can't pronounce the names of those who do.
By the way, Himiko's OOC here.

...---...

How the hell did I manage to do that?

The question was beyond Himiko's answering. The Lady Poison was pacing up and down some random alleyway, deep in thought, face heated and red from...alternating sources. One, anger. Two, blushing. Yup.

How...how in the name of all that's holy, did I manage to...e-YUK, fall in love...really fall in love with...with Midou Ban!

Good question.

It was rhetorical, brain.

Ah, classic brain-character debates. Refreshing, ne?

AAAAAGH!

Himiko resisted the urge to bash her own head into the wall. She'd seen the effect it had on Ginji, when a certain guy with purple specs did it to him...

Ban again.

I am NOT going to say the cliché Why Can't I Get Him Out of My Head line. Himiko gritted her teeth.

Why can't I get him out of my head?

She groaned. No. No. Nooooooo. No, please, no acting like a lovesick fool.

No more acting like she had been for the past few days.

Damn.

She slumped to the ground, and buried her head in her hands. Why couldn't the realization just have hit me like a thunderbolt, and left me temporarily stunned for a while so I couldn't think about it? She thought miserably.

See, it hadn't hit like a thunderbolt. More like, popped idly into her head one day, while she was concocting some new scent--which, oddly enough, had something Ban-ish about it. She would've just accepted it and been content if it weren't for the fact that even if it wasn't shocking, it was unexpected, and had the annoying habit of nagging, and nagging, and nagging away at the back of her mind.

Double Damn.

What will I do now?

It isn't nice to have a feeling nagging away at the back of your mind. Even if it was a feeling that made you feel warm all over and gave you small thrills and caused you to vacantly stare off into nothing and...

I'm stopping right there.

She sighed as she got up. She had a feeling she should tell him. Drop a hint, somehow. Maybe not even to him, just to somebody. So that she could get it off her chest. And maybe forget about it.

Yeah right.

Why doesn't anyone else have these problems?

Damn them.

She groaned.

I'm damning a lot, aren't I?

Her infuriating brain answered again.

Yes, you are.

Shut up. I'm not talking to you.

Who are you talking to then? I don't see anyone else.

Himiko added other curses to the ones already muttered.

Okay, maybe she did want to drop a hint.

But not in front of everybody.

Unfortunately, Ban was never alone. Not really. Unless Ginji took it in his head to wander off and find quiet for a while...

Ginji.

Maybe Ginji could help! She thought, in a slightly more cheerful state of mind. Ginji was like a little kid, a little puppy: all happiness and caring. And he knew Ban best. Maybe he could tell Himiko what to do.

She set off to find the blond Get Backer right away.

...---...

"Nope, I'm telling you, that's impossible."

"Come on already, just do it!"

"Are you afraid, Shido-san?" Madoka's teasing tone did not quench Shido's annoyance or sway his disbelief.

"No, but..."

The door to the Honky-Tonk opened. Himiko gazed questioningly at the people within; strangely enough, all her friends. Or, the people she'd been having one hell of a time with lately.

Why do they all look...guilty?

Ginji, Shido, Madoka, Natsumi, Paul, Akabane, Hevn, Kazuki, Juubei, and Emishi were all smiling nervously at Himiko, waving and...sweatdropping. "Hi, Himiko-chan!" Ginji said in his usual exuberant manner. The others continued nodding, waving, smiling. Even Akabane. Creepy.

Ban wasn't there.

Himiko tried to squash down the little annoying voice in her brain that told her she was disappointed and grinned cheerfully at Ginji. "Hi everybody! Hi Ginji! I was wondering... I mean, I have a question. Um...ah..." To everyone's surprise, she grabbed Ginji's arm and yanked him out of the Honky-Tonk, blushing furiously all the while. "And a favor to ask you."

The door swung shut as Ginji and Himiko exited the coffee shop. Shido smirked, and Kazuki hid a smile. Akabane's smooth, cool drawl was directed at Natsumi and Madoka. "I am afraid, ladies, the odds do not seem to be in your favor."

Natsumi glanced at Madoka, who, to Shido's slight discomfort, was serene and unfazed. "We'll see."

...---...

Too many people passing by outside the Honky-Tonk. Which was why Ginji suddenly found himself in a dark alleyway (the same alleyway his companion had been occupying earlier) with Himiko, back to the wall. She faced him, and fidgeted. Nervously. He began to wonder.

"Ginji...I have a question, and a favor to ask you..."

Ginji began to get nervous. You would too if one of your level-headed friends began to repeat herself. And was blushing while doing so.

Oh please oh please oh please...

"Where's Ban?"

Ginji exhaled in relief. And immediately a mischievous twinkle entered his eye. "Ban-chan? He took a slight stroll for a while, couldn't beat up Shido in front of Madoka-chan." He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Why?"

Himiko flinched. The question was long, drawn-out, and undeniably teasing. Ginji poked her in the arm. "Himiko-chan..."

She slapped his hand and snapped at him. "What?"

His grin was not the happy-Ginji-grin. It was one she hadn't ever seen before: a happy-evil-Ginji-grin. Not Akabane-evil. Trouble-spelling-evil. Oh no...

His voice was sing-song. "Why are you looking for Ban-chan?"

She groaned again and hung her head. Whose bright idea was it to ask Ginji for help?

Not mine.

She gritted her teeth and ignored her brain. It sometimes had a mind of its own. Although how a brain can have a mind of its own beats me.

"I think you know," she said. But Ginji didn't really hear it correctly. Her teeth were gritted too hard together.

"What?" He leaned closer.

"I think you know," she said again. She sighed, but her cheeks were still red and she was still staring at the floor. "Come on, Ginji, Don't tease me. Help me out here." Her gaze, still trained downwards, gained an evil sparkle. "Help me and I promise I'll help you with Natsumi."

Now it was Ginji's turn to blush.

Himiko and Ginji continued to talk, quietly, as she told him what she wanted to do.

And some tall guy with a brown, spiky head happened to pass by the alleyway and notice two figures inside.

This is what Ban saw.

Himiko, with red cheeks and staring downwards, at her feet, and Ginji, leaning forward, close to her, head bent downwards, too, and also blushing slightly.

He stared for a while. And would have laughed, if possible. Two things were stopping him...the fact that he'd be heard, and the strange, constricted feeling in his chest.

He wheeled around and away silently. And strode off to another place. And started having a conversation with his own brain.

Which mostly consisted of, on his part, the line, I'm not jealous. No, not at all.

...---...

"So you'll let me talk to him alone, Ginji?" Himiko asked delightedly.

"Un!" Ginji said cheerfully. There was something he wasn't telling her, though. The wicked sparkle in his eye was more pronounced. Himiko didn't notice. She was too happy.

"Thank you!" she said, pumping his hand up and down. "I promise, I'll help you with Natsumi! In any way I can!"

Ginji looked around, up and down frantically. "Not so loud!" he hissed.

Himiko grinned. "All right."

"If I find him I'll bring him to you. Somehow," Ginji promised.

"Thanks again."

They parted outside the alleyway.

Himiko strolled off in the direction away from the Honky-Tonk.

And when Himiko was out of sight, Ginji ran to the café and held a hurried, whispered conversation with all inside.

...---...

Fate sometimes wants to shake things up a little. So it led Himiko down the road Ban had taken. And led her to find him, seated morosely on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette. More forcefully than usual. He appeared to be deep in thought.

Himiko stopped dead in her tracks, and could not stop the flush that rose over her face.

Luckily it was gone by the time Ban looked up.

He grunted and looked down again. Typical Midou Ban.

"Hello, Ban," Himiko said normally. She continued staring down at the spiky head and tendrils of smoke. And he did not reply. Also typical Ban.

Himiko found her legs moving and folding under her, and setting her down beside Ban. Which was not typical Himiko.

And again Ban said nothing.

So Himiko stared up at what she could see of the sky, so that she didn't have to think, and didn't have to look at the person beside her so that her heart rate wouldn't go faster than it was already going.

She didn't think anything of the bird that flew across her vision and on towards the Honky-Tonk.

They stayed like that for a while, Ban smoking silently, Himiko staring at anything but him. The place they were in was seldom used, no one came to disturb them.

She was alone with Ban. Without Ginji's help. Yay...?

Alone, except for ten unnoticeable shadows that suddenly surfaced in obscure places near them.

Then Ban spoke. Harshly, startling her. "What were you doing with Ginji in the alley?"

Ban was cold, and boiling, at the same time. Inside. Silently. He was remembering, right now, something he'd heard from Natsumi: when Ginji had been in the hospital and almost kissed the girl sitting beside him now...

Which he knew Ginji hadn't enjoyed, because of his incoherent sputtering upon being questioned, but he didn't know about Himiko.

She glanced sideways at him, noting the ice-blue eyes behind the purple shades. Unfortunately, the tone he had asked the question in was exactly the one that always got on her nerves. "What does it matter to you?" she snapped.

"Why so touchy about it?" Ban shot back, not looking at her. An unusual reaction from him.

"We were talking. I had a...a favor to ask," Himiko said. She blushed again as she remembered exactly the person she was talking to was involved in the favor.

"Hah," Ban replied grumpily. Himiko cocked her head. She'd known Ban the longest from all his current friends, and in all the years she'd known him, she'd never heard this exact tone of grumpiness before. It had a bitter note, and something that sounded like...

"Ban, what did you think we were doing!"

He snorted. Definite bitterness there. "What a man and a woman in a dark alleyway would normally do."

Ugh. She hated that tone. It was all arrogance. "Well, we weren't doing that, for your information."

"It certainly looked like it to me!" Ban snapped, temper flaming.

And that, that was definitely..."Ban, are you jealous?"

She couldn't help it. Her own tone was teasing, and sing-song. The tone that got on his nerves.

And so he locked himself up. "No," he said coldly, icily. Both to Himiko and to that annoying voice in his head.

Himiko's eyes flashed anger and hurt. Which he couldn't see since he refused to look at things other than cement.

But she'd noticed the widening of eyes when she'd asked if he was jealous.

Roughly, she grabbed his face in her hands and made him face her. His cigarette fell from his lips onto the ground, and he said a few choice curses in annoyance, trying to avoid her glare, pick up his cigarette, and slap her hands away all at the same time. He succeeded in the first two but not in the last...

"Ban. Look at me. And don't use the Jagan on me or I swear I'll dump all my poisons on your spiky head."

He stopped struggling, though Himiko thought her threat was rather weak, and glared back at her. His gaze was the normal arrogant, cold Midou stare, but not the Jagan.

And suddenly she found herself leaning forward and kissing him softly on the lips.

What the hell!

My idea, her brain said smugly.

What. Ever.

Ban's eyes widened. Wide. Very Wide. Himiko kissing him was giving him an electrical shock more than Raitei could ever generate.

He pulled back roughly and crossed his arms. Himiko, surprised, lost her hold and fell backwards. He stared down at her coldly. "Was that what you were doing to Ginji?"

Himiko felt like screaming.

"No," a completely different voice said. Both jumped and stared up into the grinning face of Ginji. Himiko began to blush more badly than she had before.

Ban stared at the new expression on Ginji's face that Himiko'd discovered. The happy-evil-Ginji-grin. And it was creepy.

"Himiko was with me in the dark alleyway because she asked me to promise to leave you alone so that she could do that to you, " happy-evil-Ginji informed Ban. He bowed to the still-seated Ban and Himiko, grinning. "Since I am a man of my word, I will keep my promise. See you later!"

Before leaving, though, Ginji bent down and whispered into Ban's ear, in his happy, childlike tone again. "I knew it, Ban-chan. And I think you know it too." Suddenly he popped into his tare form.

"So go for it!" Tare-Ginji said loudly. Ban groaned, and cuffed him lightly on the head, a slight grin forming on his face, and Ginji reverted to his normal form and walked away, whistling innocently.

Himiko continued staring at the ground, still blushing, so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn't heard Ginji's last piece of "advice". Then she felt a sudden rough hand take her own.

She lifted her head and stared. Ban was holding her hand--true, staring at the cement again, cigarette back in mouth, and...

Holy...is he blushing?

A sight to remember forever, and add to the list of things to say when she wanted to annoy him.

"Himiko?"

She jumped slightly. "Hai?"

"Sorry."

She grinned. "It's ok."

They remained seated, staring at anything, hand in hand. It would look odd. To anyone.

Then, a very Ban-ish growl and grumble. Himiko looked questioningly at Ban just as he said again, "Himiko?"

"Ban?"

Silence. Then, a very reluctant, said-through-gritted-teeth, "I was jealous."

Himiko grinned to herself. She tugged one of his brown spikes and had the satisfaction of making him grunt in annoyance again, swatting her hand away.

"You have no reason to be," she told him.

He smiled.

...---...

From the dark corners near Ban and Himiko, ten faces peered out. And three faced the other seven, beaming brightly.

Ginji, Natsumi, and Madoka faced their dejected (and shocked) companions, with toothy grins and open palms. "Pay up."

---end---