Rogue

Chapter 13

"Bye, Tachikawa-san," Izumi waved to his captain as he followed Akira into her bedroom. He had volunteered to take the first watch shift so that the two could catch up, but as soon as the door closed, it seemed that their chat would be more tense than anything.

The blonde moved straight to her bed, not even bothering to turn on the lights. She dropped her bag on the mattress and began unpacking her belongings, albeit silently. "So, what? No 'welcome home'?" His teasing fell on deaf ears as she seemed to move robotically with no response. She then shifted over to her dresser where she collected the jackets she had stolen from the boy, piling them along with the ones she had kept with her at Tamakoma. It was the way she grabbed them and shoved them into his chest that alarmed him.

Izumi weakly held onto his hoodies while his heart dropped to his stomach. She was rejecting him? He hadn't even done anything to deserve this kind of treatment. "Akira, what's wrong? I thought we fixed things before I left!" Akira continued to ignore him, folding all of her clothes and putting them back into her dresser. "I haven't even been here for a day and we're already back at square one," he muttered spitefully.

He was quickly losing his patience with her as it seemed that their relationship would never amount to anything more than her being upset with him and leaving him to figure out how to make things right. "What could I have possibly done this time?" Akira froze with her back facing him. His unfriendly tone was enough to make her straighten her shoulders and clench her hands into tight fists.

"Maybe it's because you broke your promise and didn't come get me right away like you were supposed to," she spat back. The boy sputtered for a moment at her accusation.

"What are you talking about? We just got back this morning!" Akira was quick to glare at him over her shoulder. Her eyes glowed with anger, sending shivers down his spine.

"Don't," she threatened, "lie to me."

"I-I'm not lying." The blonde fully turned to face him, her anger now on display.

"Really?" She took a step toward him prompting him to take one back. "'Cause Jin told me you got here yesterday." She took another step, slowly closing in on him. "He also told me about last night."

Izumi gulped. He didn't want to back down and admit defeat. However, she had him totally figured out and there was no way he was gonna get past this one. Her glare intensified, if that was even possible. "He told me about your little trip to Tamakoma to capture the Neighbor with the Black Trigger," she said finally with her tone a bit louder and more harsh than she originally intended, but she guessed it was her emotions beginning to spill out.

Izumi was finally catching on to her outburst, his own temper simmering away slowly.

"We weren't coming for you―"

"It doesn't matter!" She could feel her eyes beginning to sting but willed it away as she was done crying over trivial matters such as this. "If Kido will go after Kuga, then he's just as likely to come after me! There's no difference between us. We're no more than Neighbors to you guys!"

The male began to feel bad as he considered her words. She was absolutely right and she had every right to be upset. In fact, he wondered if she was even pissed. Hearing the things she was saying, he wondered if she was scared of him. "Even now, I know Kido still probably wants to throw me in a cell and take my Black Trigger for himself. I figured that if I came and surrendered myself to you then I might be safe, but clearly I was wrong.

"And you..." She bit her tongue. She really liked Izumi and there wasn't a single part of her that wanted to hurt him, but she was so scared. "If I can't trust you, then who can I trust?"