I do not own K and the characters in K. I only own this story and my OC. K belong to GORA and GoHands.

CHAPTER 6

AWARENESS

The streets in Shizume City that day were unusually quiet, probably because everyone was just too lazy to go out and get stung by the sun. A man took a stroll through one of the street, not paying attention to the heat, and acted like he doesn't care how he was really standing out amongst the pedestrian, which was not many. Not only because of his red hair that grew not the same direction as any other normal hair, but also because of his appearance that looked like a wild caged lion that can break out and attack anyone near him anytime.

As usual, a cigarette was stuck between his lips and a small trail of smoke can be seen around the other end. That man, Suoh Mikoto, was just finished his little 'business' with the other member of HOMRA and was heading back to the bar. But unlike anyone else, he took a different path unconsciously. He wasn't really sure as to why would he take a longer path, but when he looked around, he understood, a little.

That path is the one he usually took when he was walking Maya home. It was probably out of habit, he thought. But that was not really the case. It had been three days since he hasn't taking her home. It was not like he missed it. Besides, they never really talked much when he walked her home. Or even when they were in the bar.

Maya was the one who usually took the initiative to start a conversation, although Mikoto simply responded with simple answers, or even a grunt. There weren't many things that they can talk about to begin with. So they were usually just stand by next to each other, sometimes he took her hand in his own, and a long silence fell. But it was not an awkward one, it was rather a peaceful one, and they liked it that way.

There was something about her that made him interested. Of course it was not because of her pretty face, or her big house, or something trivial like that. He never cared about something like that anyway. And he was pretty sure it was not about her being talkative too. Maybe it was because she never showed any kind of expression near fear when she was around him, which he thought was weird, because almost anyone that he had met got scared of him. Or perhaps it was because she had appeared once in his dream before. He always wondered about the last one though.

But maybe it was not because any of that. He always thought that he felt more at ease when she was around. It was like having an angel watching over you from your side and you felt like you can do anything without any fear of destroying something. Or maybe it felt like sipping a coffee on Sunday morning, and you just felt at peace? He didn't know for sure. Whichever it was, he always wanted to have her around. And he felt like protecting her all the time, as though as he needed her, like you need Oxygen to live. And the last thought kind of surprised him. Since when did he care so much about her?

His PDA rang suddenly, which called him back to reality. It was Maya who called him.

"Mikoto..?" The first word he heard from across the line right after he answered the call and pressed his PDA to his ear sounded a bit low, and she almost stuttered. Which was weird, there must've been something happened. Realizing it, he fastened his footsteps and almost running, headed to her house.

"What happened?"

"There're blood..everywhere..." Her voice almost sounded like she was crying and was in a great pain. As soon as he heard her, he ran as fast as he can. He didn't care even if his limbs were going to break if he was running at this speed. All he cared about was to get there as soon as he can, no matter what. He couldn't think of anything else beside her. Just by imagining her getting hurt, in any way, already sent him the shiver through his spine. He didn't even want to saw it in his dream.

"I'll be there soon, just wait." Even he was surprised that he was able to spoke in such a gentle voice. Maya replied with a little 'okay'. With that, he hung up the phone and fasten his speed, if even possible.

The gate and the front door of her house were opened, and the one who usually guard the post beside it was also nowhere to be found. This just kept adding his worries.

Right after he entered Maya's house through the front door he found bodies laying on the floor, covered with scars everywhere. But seeing all that, the only thing that he could think about was Maya. He moved his eyeballs wildly to every corner of the building, searching for her figure. He kept running through all the rooms in her house, cursing inwardly to the big and many rooms.

When he reached the stairs to the second floor, he found her. She was sitting on the floor next to the stairs, hugging her knees and hiding her face. He can saw her still holding her PDA in her right hand. He can't seem to find any injuries while scanning her, but he mustn't let his guard down yet. After he quickly called Izumo to inform him what happened, he kneeled beside her.

"Maya, are you alright?" She flinched a little when she heard him, she probably didn't realize him coming. Slowly lifted her head to face him, she tried to speak up.

"Mikoto… I'm fine, but everyone is ̶ " She couldn't find the right word to say, and her voice was shaking. She felt like there was something stuck in her throat, stopping her from spitting out another word. And her eyes started to feel hot again.

He could see trails of her tears on her cheeks, and there were some left at the edges of her eyes. This must've been the first time she saw bodies with blood, he thought. Even though her reaction was pretty normal when she saw his power.

Mikoto put his hands behind her back and under her thigh and carried her in bridal-style. She seemed a little bit surprised with this, but Mikoto didn't seem to have the intention to explain so she just being obedient and kept quiet. He brought her to her backyard and sat on one of the bench there. He seated her on his lap with her facing to his left. They just remained that way for a long time, and little by little Maya was able to calm down. She still hides her face in the crook of his neck, not wanting to talk, and it wasn't as if she knew anything anyway. Mikoto wasn't the type to ask questions so he let her be.

Mikoto could hear the serene of an ambulance getting near. About time, he thought. When one of the EMT crew approached them, he just glared at him, telling him not to disturb them with just his looks alone, and the unlucky man just fled.

"Poor man, you must've scared the hell outta him." Mikoto glanced to his side and found Izumo's figure standing right beside them. When Izumo's eyes shifted to Maya, Mikoto just nodded, signaling that she was okay. Getting serious, Izumo continued, "What happened?"

"Don't know." Hearing this, Izumo sighed. That means he had another job to found out what happened, even though he could more or less figured out who's behind it. But it was weird, if Maya's uncle only after Maya, why would he harm anyone else? Well anyway, as long as Maya was fine, Izumo thought. And it seemed like no one was dead, the bodies inside Maya's house was just unconscious, even though they still needed quick treatment.

"Seems like all of her servants are hurt, and we can't let her alone now. I guess the only choice is to let her stay over at the bar, huh." Izumo stated this while searching for a sign of rejection at Mikoto, which is none. Looking at Maya's sleeping face he continued, "Then it's settled."

When Maya opened her eyes, she saw a familiar ceiling, but it was not her bedroom. A second later, she realized that it was Mikoto's bedroom. She was wondering as to how she would be there, and regret it later because she didn't want to remember what happened.

She could still remember it clearly how her servants looked like with many cuts on their skin and how it spilled out fresh blood until they made a little puddle on the floor. This was the first time for her to see so many people getting seriously wounded. And she felt so helpless for not being able to do anything to help them. What she could do was just sitting in the corner and kept blaming herself for making everyone injured. Maybe what the people in the Center said was right, she will harm someone with just being near them. That was why her uncle avoided her.

She just kept thinking that way and blamed herself until she couldn't take it anymore. By staying there, she might even hurt the people in homra, even Anna and Mikoto. And she definitely can't let that happened. She won't let it happened. So she decided to leave the bar.

The corridor outside Mikoto's bedroom was empty and quiet. It was probably already dark outside. She climbed down the stairs carefully, hoping not to wake anyone up. Just right when she was already halfway to reach the front door, she was surprised with another presence in the bar.

"Where are you going?" A man with spiky red hair sat on the sofa near her, staring intently at her.

"Mikoto… You're still awake?" Gotten caught when she was sneaking, she couldn't look him in the eye. But she knew that he was still glaring at her, trying to figure out why she was trying to go outside in the middle of the night. Still not getting any answer from the red head, Maya chose to answer him instead.

"I just want to go outside for a walk and refresh my mind." Fidgeting, she was wondering if he would get mad at her for going outside alone at this hour. She could hear footsteps approaching her, and right when their shoes were one meter apart, he stopped. Maya closed her eyes, waited for what would happen.

But not like what she expected, Mikoto grabbed her hands and pulled her towards the door.

"Mikoto..?"

"It's not safe to walk alone at night."

Maya's eyes were widened. She didn't expect this coming. She really thought that he would get mad at her, considering what happened today, yet she still intended on going outside alone, at night. But then Maya thought that, Mikoto's act always surprised her. She never able to read what was on his mind. And she actually liked that part of him. Wait ̶ did she just said like? Suddenly felt her face heated up, she looked down to hide her face.

Stealing a quick glance to Mikoto, she started to think about a lot of things about him ever since they met. Well, it's true that she liked him, but hey, she also liked Anna, Kusanagi-san, and everyone from homra. But somehow her feelings to Mikoto alone were different. It was more special. Lately she was confused with her own feelings quiet often, but she didn't really mind. She lifted her face and smile.

"Thank you, Mikoto."

Surprised with her suddenly talked, he turned his head over to her.

"For what?"

For saving me so many times. For calming me down. For making me this comfortable despite the things that happened earlier. For everything.

But instead of saying it out loud, she just widening her smile and tighten his grip.

"Nothing~"

A/N:

SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE! I know that with a mere apology is not enough, but here it is, the freshly typed chapter (?) Since everything that happened up until now is quiet serious and fast-paced, I tried to write something more fluff in this chapter, well, at least half of it. Since this is my first time writing something like this, please forgive me if this is not fluff/ cute enough for you. I'll, of course, try harder to write a better one next time.

Oh, that's right, I think that I forgot to mention this last time? This fic take reference from the novel (K Side Red), the manga (K Memories of Red), and of course the anime itself. In the translation that I read, homra and HOMRA is specially typed differently. HOMRA refer to the red clan as a whole, while homra means more to the clansmen. And the Nanakamado Scientific Research Center that I mentioned before was mentioned in the novel. In the novel, it was explained that Anna also went there before she joined to the red clan. But Maya went to the Nanakamado way long before that.

I want to say thank you very much to those who read this story. I can't believe you would waste your time to read something like this. And even more to those who follow, favorite, and even review this story. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I'm super touched. I'm sorry for the slow update, but I'll try my best to keep updating them. And I'm so sorry for mistyped words or even the bad grammar. Since English is not my first language, but I'll still try harder to typed it right.