Phoenix of Starlight: Thanks for the review! It's pretty late here, so my reply will be brief. The chapter was unbeta'd so there's probably a lot of errors, and, for the last bit Dino repeated his name as a joke, meaning they could introduce themselves again since the situation was different. xGreibx: Hush, you. Hush. eternalilith: Thanks, Nee-sama! That was probably me typing too fast. seireeii: Thank you very much, Rei! I forgot you reviewed this at all, actually, so it was a nice surprise. Thanks! shuensha(dot)daku: Thanks! KurosawaCP: Oh, hey, Kuro, ahaha. defy(dot)mrt: Thank you! This is my first time writing anything remotely bloody, ahaha. I've actually been clicking random to see who will be killed off, and then deciding which get to interact in the future~ Thank you for the offer, anyway! PuroCieloFiamme: Haha, I know, right? LukaNezumi: Please do write one! I'd love to see more. Thank you~ the Red Undertaker: Isn't it? There needs to be more blood and gore, ahaha. I don't remember them at all, the wikipedia gave me random characters and I used them. C: RainingArrows: Thanks! I don't know whether your offer is still standing, I got back to you kind of late, ahaha.

家庭教師ヒットマン REBORN! © 天野明

美女桜
I'll be forever blue.

We quickly sussed that there wasn't anyone else left in the building. A few of the doors were either locked tight, meaning someone hadn't come home within the past hours or had trapped themselves inside and weren't replying (and therefore we weren't going to risk another encounter for strangers). Dino didn't bother even going into his apartment as, apparently, there wasn't anything important left in there. He didn't want to accept that he was going to be alone, probably.

He shuffled around uncomfortably when I unlocked my door and called out, "Haru?"

I could feel his curious gaze on the back of my head as I looked around. She would've normally run up to me and started to animatedly talk about her day and what had happened, and yet I was greeted with silence. There were no signs of disturbance within the apartment at all. Dino was still hovering in the hallway, though, and I felt a slight hint of guilt for not inviting him in. He didn't know anyone and I'd left him outside where he could have easily heard groaning and ran into another unnatural being. I invited him in with a nod of my head whilst I busied myself searching.

Haru was a smart girl. Her room as messier than usual; the wardrobe doors were open, the drawers left astray and random possession were gone. She'd taken the photo of the two of us she usually kept on her bed side table along with clothes, medical equipment—that she had always kept in her sock drawer for some reason—along with the baseball bat I'd gotten her. Something big had obviously happened if she abandoned our home and left without so much as a note.

I did the same when I got to my room. The awful backpack that I always hated was grabbed out of my wardrobe and had different clothing stuffed into it. The ridiculous locket that Haru had bought me and always tried to make me wear went in, too. It was the one memento that seemed appropriate to bring. Moving the various boxes and books out from under my bed, I reached for the blanket that I tried to keep hidden. The metal tonfas I'd received as a present were wrapped inside, hidden from Haru.

Ever since the first time I held them, I'd wanted to attempt to use them probably. I had always gotten into fights but if I'd had a weapon on me, the punishment would have never been so light. It was the perfect time to try and use them, even if it was dangerous.

"Dino," I called out, leaning back to see him enter my bedroom with a grim expression. He was nervous, still, and was looking out of the corner of his eyes to see anyone else was there with us. "Go raid my kitchen for foods that won't perish immediately."

"All right." He eyed me as if I'd lost my mind before disappearing to complete the task. I was just coming out when he called out to me. "Kyouya, you need to come here."

I should have given him my last name instead. "What?"

He was holding onto a piece of paper, leaning against kitchen counter. "Dear Kyouya," he recited in a neutral voice, "as soon as you get home, get going. Don't trust anyone and meet me at the school. Brina will still be in the building, so trust her. Please, trust her."

I snatched the paper from him and sure enough, it was from Haru. Her writing was rushed and scratchy, not the elegant scrawl I was used to. "Keep searching for food," I commanded, "I need to get something." If my bag was going to be full of clothes, he needed to share some of the load, too.

The only other bag in my apartment was Haru's dress up one. It was in the shape of a turtle shell, and he'd just have to deal with it. I threw it at him when I walked back into the kitchen, frowning as I gazed at the tonfas that I left on the side. He hadn't noticed them yet, but I was still having trouble thinking of how to store them.

"Are you sure there's nothing in your apartment that you need?" I asked again.

Dino ran a hand through his hair, sighing to himself. "Yes, there is. I was worried about you, though. I didn't want you to be in here alone."

"No, you didn't want to be alone," I corrected him. He smiled sheepishly at me in return.

There wasn't much speech after that. I stored half the food in my bag, and Dino took half, too. He seemed quite fond of his bag rather than thinking it was hideous. I'd joked that it matched his sweater and that gave him the wrong idea—I wasn't staying with him out of choice. I just needed to get to the school and if I left, he was as good as dead. He had no idea what the area was like and the chances of finding a detailed enough map were close to zero. Dino went into his apartment quietly and I hovered in the living room, just waiting for him to emerge. When he did, he was holding some sort of ridiculous rope. It was dragging along the floor and making an irritating sound whilst he was smiling like an idiot.

"Instead of a crowbar I'm more comfortable with this, you know," he said, shaking the rope around intentionally. Now that he was closer, I could clearly see it was made out of leather. My question of why on Earth he had a whip in his hands was asked through my eyes, rather than speech. "My uncle was a bit mad. He was obsessed with cowboys, and since he only had daughters, he taught me how to use it."

It sounded like he was from some inbred village. "I see," I said plainly.

"Whips are handier than you'd think," he tried to convince me; "I've accidentally killed a pigeon with it before when I was twelve."

He's definitely my saviour, I thought sarcastically.

We were done in his apartment after that. We travelled back to mine and I was still staring at the tonfas. I couldn't keep them in a jacket—they would have fallen out at the worst possible time, and the angle would have been awkward. Dino somehow attached his whip comfortably to his trousers without so, I came up with one solution: belts. I wrapped one around each thigh, creating a small gap in them to place the tonfas against my trousers. It worked, but I needed to just get used to the feeling.

"Have we got everything?"

Dino answered whilst still looking around for anything else, "Most likely."

The crowbar was stuffed into my bag just in case it was too dangerous for testing out a new weapon. If it was just the apartment building that was weird, we would've looked crazy once we walked out into the street. As we ventured down the stairs, we didn't listen out for any noises. We didn't open the doors to each level to see if anyone was there that needed help—they would've screamed out if they did. The putrid smell was wafting back to us when we'd reached the second floor, and we stopped in our tracks.

"There's more," he pointed out, walking in front of me, slowly.

"Are you going to help me this time?" I asked, not allowing him to go first. Pushing the door to the ground floor open, my stomach heaved at the smell. It was more concentrated from roaming around the room; it was the pure stench of rotting and with the eerie silence paired with it, my nerves were all over the place. Dino covered his mouth and nose with his hand, and I felt like I needed some sort of face mask to keep from vomiting. The smell was too intense. "On second thought, you may go first."

He raised an eyebrow at me before entering. I reached into my bag for the crowbar and clenched in within my hand, ready to attack anyone that was there. As my eyes were watering from the scent of decay, I'd looked away long enough to hear Dino choke on his breath. He was just across the lobby staring blatantly at the woman that was thrown across the front desk. It was either a corpse or another one of what we met upstairs—the woman had blood soaked into her pink hair, her dark skin not allowing the scarlet liquid to be seen. Her leg was sticking out at an awkward angle, the bone almost visible from the position.

"A whip can't kill anyone," I said to him, eyes still watering. He caught the crowbar I'd thrown at him automatically, hinting that his reflexes were good. "Make sure she's dead. I killed the last lot."

"Yes, master," he answered sarcastically, not at all bothered about being ordered around.

As soon as he got close to the woman, her arm twitched. It instinctively reached out to him, the fingers trying to grasp onto whatever was in front of them. Dino cringed, side stepping the hand and debating whether to kill them or not. He was visibly torn. When a deep growl resonated from their chest, he flinched, gripping the crowbar tighter. The woman pushed herself up, her head falling back at a painful angle causing the back to press against the flesh of her shoulder blades. Her throat was slit open so the head couldn't balance, and the muscle and veins were clear in view as blood poured out in thick trickles.

They wheezed and congealed blood fell from their slashed throat onto the floor, landing just beside Dino's shoes.

Dino flinched, taking another step back, before finally striking them in the back of their skull. More blood splattered around him and he continued to strike; bringing the crowbar down time after time until he was sure there would be no more movement. When he saw the smashed skull and bloodied brain matter, he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor. Dino wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, glancing at me sheepishly. The smell of the room wasn't any worse with his vomit, though.

I retrieved one of my tonfas and grasped the handle with my left hand, admiring the feel of it as I looked around the floor to see if there were any others in there. Dino did the same as me, still gripping the crowbar. I stumbled across what seemed to be a twin of the girl Dino had killed, so I swiftly took care of her. The end of my tonfa was slammed into her skull with an audible crack, and I winced as they stopped moving altogether.

We were alone together with blood splattered over our clothing and the worst kind of attitudes.

"What do you think it's like out there?" he asked, eyeing the front door cautiously.

As much as I wanted to believe I was in some sick dream and I'd imagined Dino myself, I knew it couldn't be. My sister had left along with most of the other tenants, Brina, the one that was supposed to help me out, was dead, and Dino had no idea whatsoever about where he was going. He didn't even know the apartment building that well, I suspected. We'd only been hauled up in the elevator for more or else six hours, and so much had happened whilst we were unaware.

"Just expect the worst," I advised, knowing full well that I was.

The road outside was empty. A few stray cars were parked in the middle of the road, the doors left open, and others were carelessly thrown wherever they could. In the open space the air was clearer, but the distinct smell was still there. Dino and I nodded at each other before venturing forward, stepping over a fallen corpse—the girl's head had already been smashed in. Someone had taken care of it and then left, looking for safety. There was no sign of anyone anywhere. Usually, the street would have been littered with children playing and a few adults just walking to their jobs or running an errand, and at that moment, Dino and I were alone.

"Kyouya," he called, lightly placing his hand onto my shoulder, "we have to get going already. You're the one that knows where to go as I don't even know this country at all."

I slapped his hand off me immediately. "Have you thought that I could just leave you behind?" I hissed, delighted to see that he looked taken aback and had to think before answering me back. "I don't need you to survive."

"Wouldn't you feel guilty if I turned into one of them?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and pointing his finger towards the corpse we'd just passed.

"It would be your own fault. I never said I wanted to team up with you, it just happened."

"So, let it happen," he suggested, placing his hand on the small of my back and pushing me forward. I gritted my teeth and purposely walked faster so he didn't have to touch me. "You might turn insane from not having anyone to talk to."

We walked on the pavement, looking around any corners before continuing. "I prefer solitude," I said, honestly, "that way men with peculiar accents don't bother."

"That's a low blow." He guffawed, walking ahead to check before me. "Kyouya, wait."

"Why?" Why would I listen to you? I thought.

"We don't want to go that way," he proclaimed, grabbing onto the curve of my elbow and pulling me back. "Let's go another way. There has to be one to wherever we're going."

"Don't be ridiculous." I tried to shake his hand off, but he stayed firm. "That's the quickest way to the school and doesn't require walking through a wood trail."

He tugged me back, a frantic expression taking over his face. "Dino," I hissed, more loudly than I'd intended. His eyes quickly darted to the corner besides us, as if looking to see if there was any reaction from the wall. I tried to say, "Let go of me," but the words came out muffled as he covered my mouth with his hand. From his hand being that close to my noise, I could clearly smell the scent of him. As he tried to pull me back—and couldn't do so very well since I was resisting—my back was pressed against his chest. He struggled, but continued to try. I elbowed him in the stomach eventually so he would let me go with a painful gasp. He clutched his stomach, making eye contact with me and shaking his head.

Dino straightened up, grabbing onto my hand that time. "Don't go that way," he said again. "It's not safe and they might have realised we're here."

The message finally got across to me. If he had phrased it that way in the beginning, I wouldn't have resisted and had been so stubborn about turning away. There were definitely other ways to get to the school, but I'd been insistent on that way. I nodded at him before risking my chances and glancing around the corner.

The street was full of them. There were more than I could count, all wandering around in a large groups. Various limbs and vital organs were missing; some were stumbling, one pulling themselves along the floor with their arms, whilst others had large portions of their bodies missing. My stomach turned from seeing they were looking in our direction, moving in our direction, too. Some were faster than others—some were still far behind, but trying to catch up with grunts. The wafts of decay that were coming our way weren't so bad from the open air.

We hadn't been paying attention enough to hear their noises. Dino was trying to get us to go back the way we came, but that wasn't such a good idea any more.

"Dino," I said thickly. I swallowed and cleared my throat, trying not to let my emotions come out through my voice. "You just need to shut up and follow me. We can't go back that way."

He glanced over his shoulder before paling. There weren't as many as in the other street, but more than we could handle with just the two of us. We still hadn't adapted to having to deal with them, mentally or physically.

"Lead the way, then," he urged. "I'm not expecting anything worse than this."

We should have been, though. We ended up running along the street and trying to turn a few more corners, but they were still crowded. The numbers were going up and we couldn't see any signs of anyone else like us out there. Windows were broken and shattered, doors kicked in and splintered, and night was rapidly approaching. The sky was becoming stained with dark hues of navy and violet, and we had no choice but to move faster. Most of the streetlights weren't turning on; the soft glow that the bulbs usually emitted weren't appearing anywhere.

Taking out chances, we paused to catch our breaths. I was thankful that I had kept in shape, and Dino seemed to be, too. "We're not getting to the school any time soon," I confessed.

"Where's somewhere we can crash?" he asked, voice thick with worry.

"I'm not sure." And I wasn't lying. There didn't seem to be any safe places—they were everywhere, even crawling along the narrow paths I had thought were always clear. In only a matter of hours, things had turned upside down. I glanced around the street, noting that there were only a few on the opposite end, whilst we'd probably led a horde along behind us. They had to have been following her footsteps. We weren't concealing ourselves well enough. "I have an idea, though."

He'd noticed that we were almost surrounded, too. Dino gave me a boost up without a complaint, making it so I could get on top of and balance on a high brick wall. I was about to offer my hand down to him before he pulled himself up, easily following along after me.

"This gets higher as we walk along, so even if they do catch up, they won't get us," I explained, trying to keep my balance as I walked along. More than a few times, I almost lost my footing and had to stabilise myself all over again. "I'm not sure where it leads, though."

"Didn't you grow up here?" Dino asked. He was unintentionally showing off with his ability to balance and rubbing salt onto my wound when he put a hand on my shoulder or lower back to help me stay up.

"Yes," I replied through gritted teeth. I was malicious enough to push him down onto the road, there for anyone to attack him, as I was sure I couldn't handle seeing someone's stomach penetrated with a hand and the intestines slowly spilling out. "Did you expect me to pay attention to every single wall? Sorry, I'm not like that."

We weren't going fast enough. They'd caught up and merged together into a group, all crowding the street and walking over what was there. One tripped over the curb of the sidewalk and didn't even flinch from the impact of falling. It seemed as though they couldn't feel pain.

Thankfully, the wall was high enough that most of them couldn't reach. When there was one hand in front of me, I purposely stood on it and carried on as if nothing happened. I was trying not to look at them—not to see the lax jaws covered in gore and gradually rotting flesh. Flies were buzzing around our heads and landing onto whatever they could. My stomach turned as I saw one of the creatures below us didn't have a reaction to an insect settling down upon their eyeball.

"It's best if we don't look," Dino suggested, his voice soft. "They can't get us here; just pretend we're in a circus."

"Are you an idiot?" I snapped. "We're in a circus, are we? That crowd isn't very happy with our performance, then." The words came out before I could stop them. I needed to keep my temper under control so I could concentrate, but nothing ever worked out the way I wanted it to.

My feet just didn't listen to me. I was losing my balance and falling towards the crowd below in a matter of seconds, and I had never been happier to feel Dino's hand wrap about my wrist. He pulled me back up, somehow managing to stay balanced himself, and stared at me with a grim expression.

"This isn't a good idea." He kept his eyes on me before glancing around to see where we could go. "You're not in the right state of mind to do this."

I took his comment the wrong way, again. It sounded like he was mocking me—saying I was inferior and therefore shouldn't have been attempted what he could do perfectly. "Shut it," I hissed, turning around slowly and continuing to walk on. I craned my neck to see what street we were on and where there was that we could go. They were still below us, trailing along the road after us.

"Kyouya." He gulped.

I snapped, "What?"

"We can't do this—the sun will be completely set soon and you can't even see your feet that well. You'll fall and somehow I'll end up joining you." Him dying would be my fault, of course, I thought sarcastically.

"Do you see that girl?" I asked, pointing to the overweight girl that had thick blood-coloured hair. She was just below us, her dirty nails dragging along the bricks and leaving behind a sickening trail of blood from the pressure. She wasn't even flinching. "That's Rikopin. Try calling her name."

We'd stopped moving so it was safer whilst we spoke.

"Kyouya…" He looked at me oddly, as though I'd lost my mind. "Fine." Dino sighed. "Hey, Rikopin."

She continued to claw at the wall. A fingernail snapped off, the blood oozing out onto the bricks as she trashed to try and reach us. I stood on someone else's hand as they were taller—when they pulled away, their fingers were bent in the wrong direction.

"Rikopin sends me a card for my birthday every year," I said. "She also confesses her love for me to my sister and annoys her a lot."

"And why are you telling me this?" Dino asked with an amused smile.

It seemed like I was the one that always had to point things out for him. "She's not reacting to me or you. She's not responding to her name at all; so, do you think she has any humanity left?" Still, she had the friends that she was usually with around her. I didn't know their names and at that point, it didn't seem to matter. The whites of all of their eyeballs stood out more than usual and their irides were dull and lifeless. The pasty colour of their skin, that put even mine to shame, was contrasting too greatly with the smears of blood in certain bits. "There's literally nothing left of her."

"You're right, but now really isn't the time for that. We need to get going," he answered, grabbing onto my hand as another one reached up to try and latch onto our ankles. Dino jerked us away from the wall, causing me to lose balance as he jumped down on the other side of the wall. I landed with a wobble, only just being able to land properly without hurting myself.

"Are you an idiot?" I hissed, trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible.

He tugged me along, still, and quickly ran around the side of the house. We didn't pause to see if there as anyone in the windows, or look behind us to see if we were being followed. The only noises were our breaths as they came out loudly and heavily, along with our feet harshly being slammed down onto the pavement repeatedly. The sun was continuing to set, and we were standing to get anxious about where to stay. Being in the open wasn't a good idea, especially with them out there with us, too. We started to jog after a while, pleased to find that our steps were quieter, before we rounded a corner onto a road of shops. We paused, uncertain of whether it was safe.

"There's no one there," I pointed out, taking a step forward but trying to be quiet, still. Dino agreed and followed as he ventured down the pavement, peering into each of the windows that we walked past. Some were trashed, some had no windows at all, and some had smears of blood over the panes.

"This one's empty," Dino announced, opening the door as carefully as he could. A bell chimed from above and we flinched before swiftly walking inside, checking the space to see if we were alone. It turned out to be a café, one that I came with my sister to on the odd occasion. The owners were nowhere to seen, along with any costumers that had been there before. Everything was abandoned, but in good condition.

I eyed the windows with distaste. "We need to cover them up," I said, removing the tablecloths from each table whilst thinking of a way to bind them together. Dino appeared from behind the counter with a small container of pegs along with a roll of black tape. "Nice," I praised, raising an eyebrow.

"I try my best." He grinned.

We worked quickly to cover the windows. The cloths were pegged together before we moved the tables to stand on and tape the rest of the material onto wherever we could. We locked the door before searching the rest of the store for any more entrances. We found a small changing room, full of lockers that were left open. There were a few articles of clothing still left there, too. The only other entrance we found was within the kitchen, but it was bolted shut already, most likely as a safety precaution.

"Well, if we get hungry we have sweets," Dino joked, leaning against the wall in the kitchen. We decided that it was best to stay there, mostly because we felt safer with the different things we could have used as weapons beside us. He slipped down to settle down onto the cold tiles of the floor, and I soon joined him. The tonfas were uncomfortable to sit with, but I refused to take them off. "I guess… we should sleep."

"I don't think I can," I said begrudgingly. The bag on my back was quickly removed and shoved beside me. I removed the cell phone from the front pocket and watched as the screen illuminated. "There's no signal."

"You don't have any credit, remember?" Dino felt the need to remind me of my lie.

"I do." I sighed, closing my eyes. "I just didn't want you to worsen the situation by calling the police. I had no idea what was running through your mind at that time."

"Sorry," he apologised. "I just wasn't thinking properly."

"It's too late to think about it now," I chastised him, feeling the familiar throb of my forehead. I added pressure to my temple in an attempt to make the irritating pounding go away, but it didn't work. Sucking in a breath through my teeth, I said, "Just be quiet. I have a headache."

"I'm sure how long I can stay quiet for." He smiled sheepishly. "I babble when I'm nervous and as it's just the two of us, I can't exactly go and talk to someone else."

"Dino," I stressed, closing my eyes once again.

He hummed in response before shutting up, finally. The silence wasn't as comfortable as it had been before; we were both alert, straining our ears to see if there were any noises being made outside of the two of us. I was prepared in case someone came wondering in, and it seemed that Dino was, too. It wasn't the best time to sleep at all, but exhaustion wasn't going to get us very far. He was breathing quietly across from me, and from the lack of response I received from clearing my throat, Dino had fallen asleep first. I stood up and brushed the dirt off of my clothes, deciding that it was best to keep moving around so I didn't fall asleep. I inspected the rest of the kitchen—peering curiously at each of the different machines and tools that were in the room—before moving out into the front. The windows were still covered, the door shut with various tables in front of it. There was no sign of anyone else besides the two of us, and I was fine with that.

One of the doors within the kitchen led to a small locker room of sorts, and there didn't appear to be any locks on any of the doors. I peered into each other, sometimes letting out a snort of amusement when I saw what was in there. One girl had somehow managed to leave a school uniform along with a diary, whilst others were simpler. There were just a few textbooks and novels, so I picked up a hardback one in case I became bored of waiting for Dino to wake up. It was best if we slept at different times, after all.

There was only one door next, and I let out a sigh of relief when I soon found out that it was a rather large bathroom. There were stalls with toilets within them, whilst others with what I assumed to be showers. As soon as I'd entered the room and found an overpowering smell that even drowned out the disinfectant that was surely there, I froze and took in a deep breath. There was no mistaking it—the putrid smell of rotting was reaching my nostrils, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My footsteps were cautious as I slowly opened each of the stalls, my palms moist against the doors.

"One," I murmured under my breath, "two."

Only when I was half way across the room did I realise something important. There was a steam of dark liquid, slowly streaming out from one of the stalls and flowing down the middle of the tiles. The liquid was dark and scarlet, as if it had been there for more than a while. I gulped, telling myself I'd faced worse already.

To check whether the rotting smell was coming from someone alive—in any way—or just a corpse, I did something stupid. My knuckles connected with the door as I knocked three times and waited to hear a groan or any movement.

I could barely comprehend what happened next. A hand shot out from under the door, reaching towards my ankles, and soon a second one followed. The flesh was a dull colour, coated in various cuts, scratches, and smudges of blood. "Shit," I hissed, only just jumping back as they continued to claw at me, pulling themself out from under the stall. My mind was a blur as they continued, and as soon as a dirty head popped out and I saw the hair that as matted with dirt and blood, my stomach churned uncomfortably. Gripping onto the handle of one of my tonfas, I acted in instinct and slammed the steel down onto their skull, my arm shaking from the impact of the blow.

They persisted, though. Crawling out from under the stall and staining the dirty tiles with congealed blood, I pressed my foot into their face and pushed them back with the strength I could muster, making the tonfa collide their their skull multiple times. Splatters of scarlet covered my clothes, the walls and most of the bathroom by the time they were unmoving, and their muscle was either highly damaged or in pieces on the floor.

Only just holding back from emptying the contents on my stomach once again, which would've surely been liquid alone, I walked over to the basin and washed any blood from my weapon before storing it once again. Dino must have been still asleep as he hadn't come barging in, and somehow I managed to drag the corpse to the corner of the room and placed a shower curtain upon it for now.

After washing my clothes the best I could and deciding to save a shower for a later time, I ventured back into the kitchen and slumped down beside Dino who was, indeed, still asleep. I simply stared at the ceiling until my vision became blurry, wondering whether or not it was a good idea to stick with him.

He'd proven he could kill if need be, but the fact that he rambled when nervous was, surely, soon to become annoying. Although he was stopping me from resorting to talking to myself, it didn't mean I appreciated him.

I hadn't realised I'd fallen asleep until I awoke with a start. Dino had shook my shoulder slightly, and my reaction was to panic and hit my back against the wall. "That wasn't necessary," I complained.

"I didn't mean to scare you," he apologised, squatting so we could be face to face and grinning from ear to ear. "You could have woke me up last night. I would've helped with the corpse in the bathroom."

"It was moving when I found it," I mumbled groggily, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands.

"That's exactly why you should have woken me up." Dino groaned. "Well, that's in the past now. I placed it outside whilst the coast was clear and then locked us up again."

At the mention of him going outside, I glanced at him curiously through watery eyes. Did that mean it was safe to go outside, or had it changed within the last few hours? I wasn't sure of how long I'd slept, after all, but it didn't seem to be that long.

He caught the unasked questions. "You slept for just under ten hours," he confessed, shrugging lightly. "I didn't want to wake you up, plus I was up and looking out for us." That meant that it was either early or late afternoon, so it wasn't quite dark yet. We needed to go early morning if we had any chance of somehow making it to another location without getting cornered. "I kind of messed up earlier."

"What did you do?"

"I attracted some attention." He winced. "Some tried to get inside, but it's been a few hours since. I don't want to risk it and go outside already."

"You're an idiot," I said bluntly, pushing myself up and stretching my arms above my head. "Don't do anything without me."

We stayed put another night. Using the utilities to make food and wash ourselves, the only reminders that something was wrong, other than the fact that Dino was the one I was with, was seeing the covered windows and the constant reminders to each other to keep quiet. He was clumsier than he'd left on—quite a few times Dino had tripped over thin air, even, and ended up bleeding from his nose for a few minutes.

Once again I found myself slumped against the wall, fiddling with my phone and trying to see whether there was any connection.

There was none, still. "Damn it," I hissed, stuffing the device back into the pocket of my bag and closing my eyes whilst leaning back.

"Kyouya?"

"Here," I answered, not bothering to see where he was coming from.

"Hey," Dino called, his footsteps light as he entered the room. The scent of soap and shampoo soon reached my nose, and that explained why I'd been left alone for such a long time. He purposely sat down beside me, our shoulders pressed against each other. He was like a child at times, and it seemed that close contact seemed to comfort him. "Do you want to try and leave in the morning? It should be fine if we fall asleep at the same time tonight."

"All right," I agreed, yawning into my hand.

That was the first night I'd fallen asleep with someone leaning against me.

AN: In every other story of mine Kyouya keeps his tonfas in extra pockets in his jacket, but that's not very practical in a zombie apocalypse. Bondage is more appropriate.

DEAD LIST: Cervello (two), Renko, Rikopin, Sanappi, Mayu-Mayu, Mako, Torikabuto.