Envy.

08:00 AM

"Takato?" Alice called into the empty bedroom, her steely eyes scanning the meagre room with curiosity. Getting no response, she sung her bare legs out of the bed and stood upright. She walked out of the room without so much as a glance back, only stopping to pick up her clothes that were next to the door. If she had looked back, then she would have found the sheet of paper that Takato had written on two hours previous.

Fully dressed and getting increasingly worried and self-conscious, Alice strode out of the front door, looking the street up and down for her absent boyfriend. Not seeing him, she began walking with no particular destination in mind. She walked for several minutes, her brain working in overdrive, trying to figure out where Takato would deem more important than in bed with her. Her walking landed her right in the middle of Shinjuku Park, right outside where the Tamer's hide out was. Thinking that a trip up the stairs wouldn't kill her, Alice ascended the aged stone pathway.

"Takato?" she called into the empty building. Not getting a response, Alice strode back out of the stone structure. She looked back, praying to see an over-sized dog sitting there, prouder than any lion. A tear threatened to fall when it failed to materialize.

Alice harshly wiped the offending liquid from her eyes, angrily walking out of the park. Her mind was now set on finding her boyfriend, and strangling him for leaving her in bed alone.

She walked while thinking tiredly, her mind lazily sifting through important and not-so important locations in Takato's life. She found herself surrounded by night-clubs, their neon lights switched off for the day. Why did her feet take her here? She knew exactly why she was here, but refused to admit Takato would do that to her. He didn't have a cruel bone in his body. No, Takato Matsuki was simply not capable of doing something like that to the woman he loves.

Alice turned the corner, entering a familiar street, one that she prayed Takato wouldn't be on. Her prayers were not answered by anyone but the Devil himself. There he was, her Takato, standing outside the restaurant owned and run by Jeri-fucking-Katou.

Fury clouded Alice's vision as she ran down a street in Shinjuku. She didn't know where she was running to, but she was well aware of what and who she was running from. That was enough reason to run to the end of the Earth. Her rational brain kicked in, telling her that the Earth was spherical, and that it was physically impossible to run until you got to the end of it.

How about I just keep going until I hit water, she stated inside her head, snapping at her own mind.

This plan was agreed upon by the back of her head and the part she felt that she was actively controlling. It, however, was a flawed plan, with several obstacles standing in the way of success. One of the major ones was somehow managing to run until Alice could not go another step, only to find she'd stopped right where she started.

How the-

Alice's thought was cut off by a thousand demons screaming their victory on the battlefield, or Jeri F. Katou trying to get her attention. It all depends on your perspective. Alice preferred her view of the situation over what was actually happening.

Maybe I'm losing my mind, she hypothesized, completely ignoring the approaching redhead. Perhaps that's why Takato would prefer to spend his morning with her rather than wake up to the girl he lost it to. Or maybe-

Alice was again pulled out of her self-depreciating thoughts by a soft, strong hand gently shaking her shoulder. "Alice, are you mad that I'm secretly sleeping with Takato?" asked the demons.

Jeri, on the other hand asked:

"Alice, are you mad that Takato freaked-out this morning?"

Alice was too consumed with plans to slaughter each and every demon to notice the cautious and understanding signs Jeri's body was giving off. She was too busy plotting Takato's assassination to care that she was being slowly led across a street and into a building. However, she quite consumed or busy enough to miss the story Jeri had begun to tell. Something about Rika's 'morning-after' reaction.

"It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. She was so nervous! It was almost as if I had had no say at all in what we did. You'd think she knocked me over the head and raped me, the way she apologised."

Jeri continued on and on about Rika, the way most teenaged girls in love do, but Alice took no notice of her dreamy voice or far-off expression. She instead continued to focus on her horde of demons, even though her imagination was slowly dwindling their numbers and giving them another set of eyes above their already existing pair.

"Stop it!" Alice screamed while trying to force Jeri back into her demonic state. The last of Jeri's breakfast customers looked up at the apartment, wondering what the young owner was doing with the blonde girl she'd led upstairs.

"Stop what?"

"Being so nice, and friendly. It makes you a very hard person to hate," Alice said, tears spilling down her face. Jeri moved to embrace her friend but she was roughly pushed back. "Just stop it!"

"Hate? Why would you want to hate me? What have I done?"

"You're taking Takato away from me, and you're probably more experienced in bed than me," said Alice before collapsing on Jeri's bed.

"Why would I want Takato? I've got Rika," said Jeri, confusion filling her voice. Alice's eyes narrowed, her mouth opening to rant about how Takato was more desirable than Kazu and Kenta gave him credit for. Jeri cut her off. "Not that there's anything wrong with him. I just..."

Alice watched as brown eyes glazed over, lost in memory.

"I love her, with everything that I am and all that I can ever hope to be. I'm never going to give that up."

"I still say you're too perfect," said Alice, trying to cling to the remaining slivers of her anger.

"If it helps, I yelled at Ai last night and slapped Rika the night before."

"It doesn't."