"(L/n)-san, huh," Shizuo mumbled as he read your name off the paper. "Weird name." He sighed and leaned back against the couch, staring at the paper. "She probably comes from another country, or has foreign parents," Kishitani said as he worked on patching up one of Shizuo's new wounds on his leg. "Why'd she give you her number?" Shizuo sighed, running a hand through his hair. He immediately regretted that decision as his fingers got caught in the bandage that the doctor had just wrapped around his head. He untangled his fingers from it, flattened it back down against his head before answering, "Dunno, she asked for my name, I didn't give it, so she gave me hers, along with her number." "Does she expect you to call her?" Kishitani asked, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Shizuo was interested in you, that was for sure. If he hadn't been, he would have thrown that piece of paper away without a second thought. You must have made a pretty big impression on Shizuo for him to even talk about you. Shizuo stayed silent, wondering. He didn't know whether you actually wanted him to call you or not. If you'd given him your number, then you probably did want him to call you. But you were so strange that you'd probably figured out by now that Shizuo would never call you. "Forget it," he said, chucking the piece of paper across the room, unintentionally throwing it at Celty's back. She turned around, the smoke coming from her neck turning thicker and blacker as she - supposedly - glared at him. "I won't call her," Shizuo finished as he glared back at Celty's inexistent eyes. Kishitani chuckled. Okay, you'd definitely made your mark on Shizuo. "Well, all done!" the doctor exclaimed as he clapped his hands and stood up. Shizuo stood up too, not feeling the pain that his leg should be feeling after being cut with a knife. He walked to the kitchen, grabbing himself a glass and filling it up with water. "So," Kishitani said as he leaned against the kitchen's doorframe. "What happened for you to be in such a condition?" Shizuo growled, looking down at the content of his glass. "Some kids decided to pick on the bartender," he answered, before chugging down the glass of water. Kishitani sighed. "Let me guess, they regretted it immediately?" Shizuo looked at the empty glass of water before nodding. "Yeah I think so." The doctor chuckled before crossing his arms and blowing some hair out of his face. "Shizuo," he said and Shizuo looked at him. "You need some form of control. Something that will help you control yourself." The blonde man growled, his hold on the glass tightening. "Something like a girlfriend, you know?" Kishitani said, smiling that mischievous smile. Shizuo's mind immediately wondered over to you and he blushed. He cleared his throat, slamming the glass back on the counter. "Tch." Shizuo said, looking away from his doctor friend to hide the blush on his cheeks. "I don't need anything." He pushed the glass into the sink, walked out of the kitchen, past Kishitani who was giving him a very strange look, and then out of the front door. ~*~ You sighed, looking down at the envelope in your hands with dread as you read the sender's address. You turned away from the mailbox, walking back up the stairs to your apartment. You picked up the scissors that you kept on the dining table and quickly opened the letter, hoping and praying that you weren't fired. Your eyes scanned what was written on the paper before putting it down slowly, your shoulders slumping. So you were fired, again, ey? Though it not being your fault was specified in the letter, you were still fired. That meant you had to find another job and quickly so you would be able to pay your rent. You didn't want to be kicked out of this apartment, it was nice and cozy. You frowned, before walking to your bathroom. You tied up your hair in a small, professional-looking bun, pulled up your tank top - again - and walked back toward your living room. There, you picked up the letter, your jacket, and walked out, locking the door behind you. You already knew another bar's address, since you'd looked at it before applying for the other bar that the mysterious blonde guy had completely destroyed, and you also knew that they were desperate for staff, so you were going to try to apply there as quickly as possible before they found someone else. You looked up at the sky as you stepped out of the building, before feeling happy that you'd brought your jacket. When you looked straight up, the sky looked fine. It was a bright blue with little clouds. However, you could see from the corner of your eyes that there were some dark and ugly cloud approaching. It would have to rain at some point during the day. You quickly slid the fluffy jacket on and walked down the steps that led to the building's main entrance. As you walked toward the bus stop, you couldn't help but wonder: what had the blonde man done with the paper? Had he decided to call you, or had he just thrown it away like every single other guy had? You giggled, mostly at yourself. You had only been here for a week, you had money problems, you'd just been fired, you couldn't afford food, yet you were worried about a man that you'd men only yesterday. You mentally slapped yourself for letting your mind wander, and focused back on how you were going to apply for your new job after what had happened yesterday. You had to work hard and stop those money problems before you worried about anything else. That's what you'd told yourself when you moved here. Yet, the blonde man kept on interrupting your thoughts. Had he thrown it away, or not? You shook your head. He's probably have thrown away the paper by now, you concluded. Without looking at it either. It was then that realization hit you. How in oblivion had he thrown that grand piano across the room? It was physically impossible for a human being to do this, so how come he had just picked it up so easily and flung it across the room like it was a tin can? He looked human to you, so he couldn't be an alien. Could he? The bus arrived and you got onto it, handing the driver your coins before walking to the back of it and taking the first free seat you could find, your mind still trying to figure out how in the world he had picked up that piano so easily. ~*~ Shizuo often found himself walking around Ikebukuro without anywhere to go, without looking for anything to do. He liked to just walk around, on his own, without anyone trying to start a fight with him. It helped calm his nerves and really, he'd started to need it. He took a drag of his cigarette as he turned and walked into one of the bigger streets, full of people. To distract himself, he let his mind wander to you? He shook his head. Why in the world was he thinking about you, now of all times, and to calm his nerves? But did you want him to call? His mind moved back to what Kishitani said. "Something like a girlfriend, you know?" He grit his teeth. He could feel his cheeks heat up at the idea. No. He didn't need anyone. He turned to walk into one of the smaller alleys again when his body collided with something much smaller and much softer than him. He looked down with a growl, gritting his teeth, a vein popping up on his forehead. "Hey!" he explained, "watch where you're going, punk!" His eyes widened slightly as he recognized who exactly he'd bumped into. You hadn't even looked up from your collision, and apparently had not realized that it was him you'd bumped into either. You were staring straight ahead, as if you could see right through his chest. With a thumb raised to your lips, you muttered to yourself. "Alien? No. No I already decided he can't be," he head you say to yourself. "But if he's not an alien, then how could he have even- superpowers? Nah, too cheesy." Again, he found himself staring at you as if you'd just pulled a raw fish out of your pocket and slapped his face with it. And who the hell were you talking about anyways? Suddenly your eyes lit up, and you clasped your hands together, before poking his chest. "Adrenaline!" you exclaimed. "That's what you used yesterday to throw that piano! Ah. So you had realized that you'd bumped into him. And you were still asking yourself that same question. You hadn't moved from your spot to stop him from going anywhere else, so you could impress him with your incredible deduction, or power of stating the obvious. Sighing, he rubbed his face with his left hand. "I don't have time for this," he mumbled before walking around you and into the Ikebukuro Park. You turned around, watching him walk away. It took you a couple of seconds to realize that he was walking away from you without giving you any sort of praise or confirmation about your discovery. "Hey!" you called out, running after him into the park. You'd always found it entertaining how on one side of the road, there were streets crammed with people, and on the other there was a park that was the reincarnation of calm itself. You traced his footsteps, trying to match his pace so he wouldn't notice that you were following him, not that he seemed to care at all. You looked up at the trees and smiled. It reminded you of home. You weren't surprised when he turned around, a tick off expression on his face as he stared down at you. "What the hell do you want?" he snapped at you, and you flinched, raising your hands in a sign of peace. "Well I was just wondering, what's my name?" you asked, giggling. He didn't expect that question, obviously, as he stared at you silently. "What?" he asked again, closing his eyes, that ticked off expression deepening into one of pure anger. "What. Is. My. Name?" you asked again, poking him on the arm once for each word. He looked as if he was about to punch you until he realized that you were asking him if he'd read the paper you'd given him the night before. He thought about it for a moment, unable to remember your name. "Something like, (mutilated l/n)," he mumbled, looking down at his feet. "Right?" You burst out laughing, slapping his arm. "Almost. It's (l/n)!" you said, giggling to yourself. "At least you remembered part of my name," you whispered, wiping your eyes. He stared at you incredulously before turning around and walking away from you. Why the hell had he even bothered to spend the last 5 minutes trying to remember your name? "Hey, delinquent-san," you called out to him, since you still didn't know his name and he seemed like a troublemaker enough for you to give him that nickname. He froze in place, his cigarette dropping from his fingers, before turning around really slowly toward you, his face telling you that he really wasn't in the mood to deal with whatever you were going to put him through. "What?" he hissed between clenched teeth. You were seriously getting on his nerves. "What happened to your head? It's covered in bandages," you said, trying to reach up for it but he caught your wrist before you could touch it. "Did you get into a fight or something?" "Tch." He looked down at himself, trying to hide his blush, before pulling on your arm to make you stand closer to him, so that his tall form could tower over your small one, all embarrassment gone from his body. "Yeah," he answered, a smirk adorning his features. "You wouldn't want to get involved with that sort of stuff, would you? Now scamper off, little rodent," he said, looking down at you and trying to be as intimidating as possible. You giggled, which completely took him aback. What the hell was wrong with you? "What?" he asked. You giggled again, putting your hand over your mouth in a way that he found was actually kind of cute, the way your- What the hell was he thinking? He shook his head, trying to shake the idea of you being cute out of his head. "There's a hot guy," you finally said, which made him look around to try to find the person that you were creeping on. How rude, he thought, you were in front of a male and decided to go and perv on another male. He couldn't find anyone who fit the description of 'hot', unless what you considered 'hot' were several 13-year-olds smoking. He looked back at you with a 'I'm-really-not-in-the-mood' look, and you grinned up at him. You raised your hand to his face, and hesitantly poked him in the nose. "You," you said quietly, before shaking out of his grasp and running away, giggling uncontrollably. During your encounter with the mysterious blonde, you'd completely forgotten about applying for your job at the bar. You seriously had to do it before it got dark. He found himself, once again, stuck standing there, staring at your retreating form with the same thought as the day before running through his mind. 'What a strange person...'