Guns, Bullets & Bones [Tokyo Ghoul]

Ch. 10 ~ It's Just Business

     Going to the Cat's Cradle sweets parlour after he finished school was beginning to become a ritual for Dylan. It seemed any free time he had was spent there, sampling the wide selection of sweets and treats. He was yet to find something he didn't like.

       He found himself waiting for Rio, hanging on what she might say next. He was surprised he was so happy, running around after her. He finally had a friend, someone to laugh with, chat with. Even if he didn't entirely trust her nature, he trusted her.

     As she worked, she'd swish by his table, make comments, laugh with him, make jokes, and she'd even spend her breaks with him. Though, today, it was different. Rio had been no more busy than normal, but it seemed like she was making an effort to avoid Dylan, and he found himself rather annoyed and distressed, trying to count off the possible things he could've done to upset her.

      However, Dylan was soon distraught when he watched Rio bump through the doors of the back, back in her own clothes, bag over her shoulder, heading straight for the door. She walked right past Dylan, turning her back to him to bump the door open with her hip, and he felt his jaw drop. He had never felt particularly lonely when people had ignored him before, but those people hadn't been his friends.

     "Rio?!" He called after her, standing from the table too quickly and slamming his thighs and stumbling as he cursed in pain, moving the few steps towards the doors, poking his head out and scanning the crowds, calling out her name again, to receive no response.

      You would've thought it would be hard to lose Rio in a crowd, being rather tall, with a shocking head of pastel blue hair, but she was surprisingly quick and agile, and she had slipped into the crowd seamlessly.

       "Are you alright, Dylan?" A hand landed on his shoulder and he sighed and turned, looking at Ayako with a frown.

    "Why'd Rio leave early?" He asked, shuffling back to his table and plonking back down, picking up his fork and stabbing at his half-eaten lemon tart. Ayako collected her skirts up and delicately sat down across from him, resting her head on her closed fist, brown eyes blinking up at him.

     "I'm not really sure." She gave a half shrug, reaching out to mess with the little trinkets on the table. "I bumped into her in the back just as she got done changing. She just said she'd spoken to the boss, and she was leaving early today, had some business to take care of, or something..."

    "Weird.." Dylan muttered, for once having quite lost his appetite, simply drawing silly shapes in the lemon-curd with the edge of his fork. He sighed and push the plate away from him a little, resting the fork on the side. "I guess I'll just get going, then,"

     "Aren't you going to wait for me, then?" Ayako asked, wide brown eyes blinking in surprise, as if she already counted herself as one of Dylan's close friends, when in truth he'd only met the girl once or twice.

    "Oh... Sure, I can," He smiled and watched as Ayako beamed back, collecting his plate and bouncing up from the table.

    "Great, I'll see you soon~"

      The time went faster than expected, and soon, Dylan was walking towards the brook with Ayako at his side, laughing lightly and grinned widely in the dim lighting as the sunk sank behind the tops of the buildings and the midnight blue began to peek across the sky.

     He felt relaxed. He wasn't on edge, waiting for who might jump out around the corner of the brook, or desperately trying to decide if he was food or not. Ayako seemed more human than Rio and definitely more so than Tsukiyama. If he didn't know better, he would've said she was the least likely to be a ghoul.

     However, as they rounded the corner, Dylan was shocked who he saw. None other than Rio and Tsukiyama. He really should've expected something like this. Rio was stood perfectly still, poised like a predator, however as she noticed Ayako and Dylan rounding the corner her head snapped towards them and Dylan saw something blazing dangerously in her eyes. Tsukiyama was stumbling backwards, clutching his nose, blood dripping between his fingers and splattering the floor.

    There was a moment of silence, which would've been considered humorous if it hadn't been under such strange circumstances. Or maybe that's what made it so humours.

    "Why is he bleeding?" Dylan asked, unable to stop his eyebrow quirking up in enquiry.

     "Because he's an idiot," Rio replied almost immediately, clenching and unclenching one hand before sliding it into her hoodie pocket.

     "I didn't know idiocy caused people to just start spontaneously bleeding from the nose..." Dylan said accusingly, fixing Rio with a stern look, though she didn't seem particularly bothered by him.

     "I guess it's a new phenomenon," Rio simply shrugged, and Dylan almost wanted to burst out laughing, but he stifled a laugh in a cough and cleared his throat awkwardly, recognising that now wasn't really the time, considering he was more than certain Tsukiyama and Rio had just been fighting, and she had almost definitely just punched him and made his nose bleed. Dylan hoped it was broken. Rio turned towards Tsukiyama. "I think you should go,"

     And he did. He pulled out a clean white handkerchief, which surprised Dylan as he half expected it to a garish purple to match his ensemble, and he pressed it up to his nose and slunk away in the shadows the way he does best.

     "I think we should carry on..." Ayako said quietly, gripping Dylan by the arm.

     "You do that," Rio fixed Ayako with a sudden, hard glare and once again Dylan was shocked by the sudden mood changes Rio seemed to display.

     And they did. Dylan allowed Ayako to drag him down the brook and towards home.

~