Ranmaru Kurosaki- Wounded Heart

4. Forming of a bond

Ranmaru 's p.o.v

Inescapable. It's dark. My heart is threatening to quit on me. Sweat comes down my neck as i try to keep my eyes from blurring. Fog. Silence. I can hear my own rapid breathing. My hands and legs are shaking as I'm moving forward. I am getting cold. Panic overwhelms me. I can't breathe...i can't..

Dripping in sweat I woke up from another nightmare. I turned my head but Hirijikawa and Jinguji were sleeping. I sat up on my bed and reached for an extra shirt changing out of my sweaty one. I rested my elbows over my knees, closing my eyes for a second. I haven't had this sort of intense nightmare in a while.

I looked at the phone, the screen blasting in my eyes. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, but i made out the time. It was 5am.

Fuck it. There's no sleeping now. I decided to just go for a run.

"Morning sunshine." The demon girl waved at me. She looked puffy in the eyes, but she was out stretching, ready to run.

"Kurosaki Ranmaru." She said my full name to get my attention. "People think we run together every morning because of this."

I gave her a look. "Then don't go running this early."

"I was doing to avoid running with you again. I don't want people putting me in the same group as you." She smirked.

"Fine." I started stretching ignoring her. I wasn't in the mood to hear her trashing me.

I went ahead running before her, but to my surprise she ran in the same direction as me catching up.

"It's cold today, isn't it." She said through her breaths, as if talking about the weather was something we did.

Why did change of behavior when we always ignore each other during the run?

"Ranmaru."

I got out of my head as she said my name.

"Please do run on the left track."

I noticed I was running really close to her side. "I'm going to run where i want to."

"Rudeeeee." She complained

"So."

"Well, I'm going to be rude back." She replied.

"Be my guest." I replied.

She seemed to be observing me for a while and then made a face I couldn't read.

"Reiji has a lot of misconceptions about you."

"Huh?" I tried to match my speed to hers.

"He was so worried about you being over worked and not paying attention to yourself. But you look fine to me. Would an over worked person  get up early and be rude first thing in the morning?"

I ignored her and ran faster to avoid more talking. Why was that fool Reiji worried about me. I was fine. I haven't been working more than usual...probably.

Misaki's pov

Ranmaru looked awful and Reiji was fucking right, even though I didn't want to admit it.  The moment I noticed his sluggish walking this morning I knew why Reiji was worried. He was lacking energy. The dark circles under his eyes were unmissable. Even the anger in his words was pathetic.There was no power to his insults. No provocation worked.

I didn't want to say anything about it. I didn't care. It was none of my business.

Yet something inside me didn't let me be quiet about it, so I made a slip and told him Reij was worried. Not that it was going to change anything, but it was better to make him aware if nothing else.