Night Angel

Protected

Nezumi POV
The door slammed in my face. Alright maybe I shouldn’t have hit him, but he was unique. I frowned at the door. Reaching out I turned the handle it didn’t budge. I knocked. No answer. Hmmm. He was stubborn.
“You have three seconds to open this door before I kick it in.” I said. There was no response so I began to count. “One… two…” I raised my knee reading the kick. The door opened. His eyes were wet, red rimmed and puffy. I lowered my leg.
“What did I say wrong?” I asked him. He glared at me. No answer to my question. “I said you were unique? Why did that upset you?” I waited.
“Unique is the same as ugly, just dressed up fancier.” He mumbled.  I moved closer. Pulling him out of the doorway I pressed him against the wall. My thumb went to the scar on his face. My eyes followed it as I traced it downward into the collar of his shirt. It encircled his neck. I let my hand curl around his neck.
“I warned you, I will not tolerate anyone calling you ugly. Not even you.” My face was mere centimeters from his. So close that as I spoke my lips touched his slightly. “Fine you don’t like unique than let me tell you that I find you alluring.  I have never seen anyone more breathtaking.” Each word brought a taste of his lips. I didn’t stop myself from closing the distance.
His whole body jerked as my lips made contact. He rose up, was he trying to break the kiss? I wondered. It was only for a second before tentatively his fingers touched my shoulder then, inched around my neck. I kept my hands on the wall to afraid to touch him any more. I didn’t want to scare him away.
He clung to me, mushing our lips together. He wasn’t good at this at all. I wondered if he had ever been kissed before. I broke the connection. Drawing back I whispered his name. His eyes remained closed as I watched him.
The door banged open. “Shion you won’t…” he sprang away from me, eyes wide. I twisted to lean against the wall as Safu came in. She was waving a paper in her hand.
“… it she covered your play!” she finished unaware of what she just interrupted. Shion, face as red as his eyes hurried up to her.
“You don’t say!” He grabbed the paper from her.
“Who?” I asked.
“EVE!” They both shouted. I arched an eyebrow. Safu saw it as Shion was still engrossed in the article.
“You have no idea who she is do you?” she demanded with a smug look. I snorted. “She is like the Beyoncé of theater journalism. Only needs one name but she can make or break anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a performer or writer.” She looked so proud of herself.
“Is it a good review?” I asked Shion. He looked up from the paper. His red eyes were wide.
“She called me a master of language. An true artist of words…” I smirked.
“Sounds like she enjoyed it.” I stated.
“Yes, but it’s the last line that has me concerned…”
“Oh, you mean the one where she says she can’t wait to work with you?” I asked. They turned to blink at me.
“How did…” Shion began.
“That just came out not five minutes ago. I waited for the first copy.” Safu spoke over him. I pushed off of the wall.
“I have been preforming a long time. I have my sources.” I stated. I walked over to my bunk, slipping between the shelves. I sat down on the thin mattress that covered the steel bed frame. It wasn’t much, but I slept on far worse.
Shion. I first heard his name three years ago. Something about an accident in a bakery. How they found him living there after a fire. He was badly scarred or so they thought. When they got him to come out, his disfigurement had everyone astounded. The article continued stating he was the first albino found since the end of the war for civilization some hundred years ago.
Other than a passing glance at the article I didn’t think much about him. Then I started hearing things about a year or so ago. How the “Albino playwright" was gaining attention. It was then I saw him. Those red eyes filled with both fear and wonder as he looked into the camera. He looked so lost in the over sized jacket he was wearing.
That was when I decided to learn all I could about him. His mother’s death in a fire at the very bakery he had been found. It was why he had been found. He had only one friend a neighbor girl named Safu. She was toted at being his hand in society. Like he wasn’t human or something. Maybe that’s why I had an instant dislike of her.
But his writing. They would post excerpts of his plays. The writing was so different than others I had seen, others I had enacted. I wanted to meet him, this unusual soul that could touch a wretch like me through the pages in a magazine. So, when he came. When he hired me. I wasn’t sure I could finish this job. Without knowing just what their end game was, I knew I couldn’t hurt him.  Yet, it gave me the chance to see him, in living color.
Rikiga only asked him to house me because I suggested it. When we had walked into the office and he showed me the plans for my apartment stating how it wasn’t ready yet, but he would find one of his actors to take me in.
“What about the white haired kid outside?” I had asked. He had looked surprised.
“You mean, Shion?” he huffed. “He, well he isn’t… you know um…”
“What is he a serial murder? Some sort of crazy?” I asked.
“No, but he is Shion. He doesn’t understand social rules.” Rikiga looked uncomfortable by my suggestion.
“Dose he have room for me?” I had asked the pompous idiot.
“Yes.” That was when Shion came back in. I watched as he walked by me to go to his boss. He was perfect polite. When those red eyes fell on me… I couldn’t breathe. He looked so…vulnerable. The feeling that had risen up inside me that night, it was nothing I had felt before. This was someone I wanted to protect. Someone who wouldn’t take my protection easily. Shion had fought for his very right to live, what right did I have of forcing my protection on him. I would have to do it without him knowing.
I fell asleep laying there. When I woke it was dark. Moving out to the main room there was no sign of Shion. I checked his bed. He was curled up without a blanket. Although it was chilly in the room. I pulled my scarf off. Shaking it out, I covered him. I watched as his tight limbs relaxed. His breathing evened out. Now warm he looked more peaceful as he curled one hand around the top of the fabric. I smiled. Rikiga was going to see just how skilled I was if he didn’t take care of Shion better.
I left him asleep. Heading out into the night I hunched my shoulders under the harsh bite of the wind. Making my way to he theater I headed up the back steps. He was in his office. I walked in without knocking. Strolling up to his desk he raised his lazy eyes up at me. A bottle rolled out from under his desk as he moved his foot. Another was held in his arms. I picked up his head.
“Nezumi…” he slurred my name. I walked away. Filling a bucket with cold water I brought it back and dumped it over his head. He jerked away from me.
“Shion.” I growled out the name.  He blinked stupidly at me. I slammed my fist down on the desk putting my face in his. “Do you even know how he lives?” I snarled. He laughed waving a hand.
“Everyone has their vise. Boy probably wastes his money on hookers. I mean who would touch him with a face like th…” my fist connected with his chin. He flew back as the chair he sat in was on wheels. I stalked forward.
“Whatever debt he has to you is paid, understand?” I demanded.
“Now wait just a minute!” He bellowed rising to his feet. “He took that loan out for that flat…”
“Because you wouldn’t pay him what he is worth.” I was in his face again. He never saw my knee come up. I rammed it into his gut, all the while keeping my hands in my pockets.
“I can take him away.” I smirked glaring down at him. “If I tell him who I am. He will follow me.” I warned.
“You, you wouldn’t do that?” he pleaded. I leaned into him.
“Give me his marker so I can tear it up. His debt is paid.” I punctuated each word with jabbing a finger into his gut. He scrambled away. All the while he was “searching" for Shion's debt file he tried to get me to reconsider.
“He took it out on good faith. He knew what he was doing!” he yelled. “I didn’t take advantage of him!” I kneed the back of his leg. He trembled, nearly fell if he hadn’t been clutching the cabinet so hard.
“You're a loan shark first and foremost. A thriving deceitful slug.” I hissed. “I can end your luxurious life here pretty easy, dontcha think?” I tilted my head, glaring at him. Three rats ran out from around his desk. They scurried up my legs to sit on my shoulder. I listened to their chatter then let the most evil look cross my face.
For me, a person raised in the art of performing, I was great at this. He stumbled back away from me. “My friends tell me there is even more to this. You are trying to tie him to you. Make him think he is worthless. Well, have you read the latest review of Eve's?” I asked.
He blinked looking like a dear caught in the headlights. “It didn’t even mention my theater. That bitch only went on and on about him. He is worthless…” my fist broke his nose. I snagged the folder out of his hands. It was Shion's.
Yanking it open my eyes glanced over the figures. He was paying Shion well, on paper. But taking most of it back in room and board. Shion was barley breaking even. Some months he didn’t even get any money due to inflation costs. I snarled.
“You filthy disgusting pig!” I snapped. My foot shot out swiping his feet out from under him. He fell into the chair.
“You will call Shion in here tonight. Tell him his debt is paid. That he owes you nothing. Not even the newest script he is writing….” This peeked his interest he sat up putting his face in mine. A gluttonous smile spreading over his face.
“He's writing again! Oh my boy….” His pudgy hand went for the folder. I threw it into the fire place. Kicking his chair back until the filenwas nothing but ashes.
“You pay him ever cent he is worth tonight, or I come back.” I took a step away from him. My eye narrowed.
“I won’t be as nice a second time.” I warned him.
“I don’t have that kind of money.” He wailed.
“Well you have twelve hours to find it.” I walked away. When I got back to the flat it was to find Shion yawning in the kitchen.
“Where'd ya go?” he muttered. My scarf lay in a heap on the counter.
“For a walk. Needed to clear my head. What are you making?” I slipped in behind him as he was preparing to cook up something.