Alright, tonight I'm definitely gonna score!

A few days had passed since Eiichi had agreed to share his territory with her, and Mayumi had spent most of that time familiarizing herself with the area. She'd been surprised to learn how much had changed in the year she'd been away, but she was pretty much used to everything now that she'd taken the tour again.

And she'd found the perfect prey.

He was obviously drunk, staggering into the alley as he was. She watched as he barrelled into a trashcan, apologized to said trashcan quite vehemently, then stepped around it with exaggerated footsteps to continue on his way. She tailed him for a bit, waiting until he'd trapped himself in the shadows that fell down from the adjacent buildings - then she leapt at him, her kagune unfurled.

She made sure to slit his throat first, so he wouldn't be able to scream for help, then, satisfied and practically bursting with hunger, she sank her teeth into his neck.

A guy this big would be enough to fill up her up for the rest of the month. She wouldn't have to bother Eiichi again in all that time, if she was lucky.

But, she was so engrossed in her feeding that she failed to notice the approaching footsteps.

Mayumi howled in pain as something sharp embedded itself in her shoulder; she wrenched it out quickly and sprang back, wrapping her kagune around the same fire escape from before to give her the advantage of height.

Her breath hitched in her throat.

"Well, well, well - Raven, isn't it?"

The dove smiled at her coldly, brandishing what the CCG called a quinque. She'd learned that much from the ghouls at Anteiku, and now she had a name for the weapon that had killed both Yoshimura and her brother.

She was strong, yeah, but against ghouls - not humans specifically trained to kill creatures like her.

And more than that... she was petrified of this man.

So Mayumi did the only thing she could think of - she ran. And to the only place that came to mind.

Goddammit, you better be home right now, Eiichi!

_________________________________________

She was breathing hard by the time she lost the dove - or, at least, she thought she lost the dove. Eiichi would never forgive her if she led the CCG right to his house.

Mayumi was coming up on his house, but she paused about a block away and ditched her bloodstained jacket. She also took the time to remove her mask and tuck it away safely into her messenger bag. Then, making sure she couldn't smell that disgusting hybrid smell of ghoul and machine (AKA a quinque) she rushed all the way to Eiichi's door.

"Open up, asshole!" she whisper-shouted, frantically ringing his doorbell, too afraid she'd attract unwanted attention by pounding on the door itself.

The door swung open suddenly, and Mayumi dropped back a step, gritting her teeth as Eiichi's unimpressed gaze bore into her.

"What are you doing here?"

Mayumi offered a sheepish - and very forced - smile.

"CCG spotted me," she said, knowing, if nothing else, he'd appreciate the honesty. "Chased me for a while. Don't worry, I don't think they saw me come this way. I left my bloody clothes a while back, too."

She fingered the mask hidden away in her bag; perhaps it was time she visited Uta, got herself a new one. Raven definitely wasn't doing her any favors.

"I came here... because I was scared."

Honesty was the best policy with Eiichi - hopefully, anyway.

"I don't have a lot of places to go, Eiichi."

Eiichi instantly moved out of the doorway, the gears in his mind turning visibly.

"Get inside, then," he instructed. "It'll just draw attention if you stand out there at this time of night."

Mayumi sagged with relief, her spine uncurling from its tension-induced pole-like position. That is, until Eiichi peered at her critically and asked, "You're sure you lost them?"

"I..."

She couldn't be sure, could she? Not until one of those doves showed up on Eiichi's doorstep.

She slowly shook her head, casting furtive glances around the street.

"Never mind," she said, too quickly, her voice too tight. "I don't want... to get you caught up in my problems, Eiichi. Coming here was a mistake. I'll be fine, so..."

And she turned right around, intent on getting as far away from Eiichi's as she could.

Eiichi instantly reached out to catch the back of her shirt.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded. "You're obviously not leaving here. That'd be stupid."

"But Eiichi! I'm bad luck, idiot!"

Mayumi squirmed, trying to get out his grip, and scowled when she found she couldn't, not as easily as she would have liked, anyway. With that scrawny body of his, she was surprised he even had the strength to hold her at all.

"Perhaps," he acknowledged. "But, if your luck is so bad, then what would happen if it got you caught? Pray, explain to me, what it would look like that you go off every day during lunch with a loner like me?"

Mayumi pouted, but couldn't really deny that. They'd no doubt interrogate the students at their school if she was caught, and she thought some students would be all too eager to point fingers at the strange, bookish boy that no one really wanted anything to do with. Finding out he was a ghoul would probably be a comfort to them, as then they wouldn't have to believe that any human could be so weird.

"...Fine," she relented, following Eiichi into his home.

A wave of nostalgia washed over the moment she stepped over the threshold, and she sucked in a sharp breath.

"Been a long time since I was here," she murmured.

Eiichi nodded his agreement, gesturing towards the dining room.

"It has. Take a seat anywhere. Just move whatever's there to the side."

That said, he disappeared into one of the adjacent rooms.

Mayumi pulled out a chair at the dining table. Like she'd thought, it was stacked high with books. She carefully moved them to the ground before sitting down.

Books, books, books. Even a manga here and there. Eiichi certainly knew how to party on a Thursday night.

While she waited for Eiichi, she slid his textbook over to her side of the table, wanting to see what other classes he had at the moment. She furrowed her brow; ugh, math was not her strong suit. Still, lacking something more constructive to do, Mayumi made a grab for one of his pencils but... the moment she had it in her grasp, it slipped from her fingers, as they'd been too shaky to get a proper grip on it.

She bit harshly into her lip and buried her hands in her lap, clasping them together in an effort to ward off their incessant trembling.

Her whole body was shaking, though, and she couldn't stop.

It had been so long since her last encounter with a dove, she thought she was over this fear of hers... she thought it had been replaced by rage.

But no, she was as terrified as she'd ever been, and now, all she could picture was the sight of her brother falling to the ground, bloody and broken.

Mayumi squeezed her eyes shut, clamping her mouth shut to keep his name from escaping her lips.

"You'll stay here," he announced upon his return. "You can use... you remember Seiko's room? You can use that one. We'll have to go to school in the morning, it'll look suspicious if we stay home. We'll leave together, but we'll separate on the way. The same for our way home. Beyond that, you'll have to stay here. If they stay out for awhile, I can bring food in. That's the plan I've come up with."

"Seiko?"

Mayumi didn't want to focus on the gist of what he'd said; she hoped he understood from her silence that she agreed with him. It wasn't like she had an actual home to go back to.

"That's right... where is Seiko, anyway? I meant to ask how she was doing but it completely slipped my mind."

For a while, Eiichi said nothing. Mayumi sat there, a prickling sense of unease creeping down her spine the longer the silence stretched on. When Eiichi finally spoke, his voice was glacier-cold.

"Gone," he announced bluntly. "It's just me here."

Mayumi stiffened. She couldn't turn around to face him, didn't want him to see her face.

Ghouls, when they had family, were close-knit. Every family unit she'd come across acted like that, always together, looking out for one another. They didn't abandon their own.

So... for a family as loving as Eiichi's to just be gone...

She swallowed hard, ducking her head.

"...Huh."

She heard the sound of hardbacks sliding across the table and guessed Eiichi had taken to moving things aside for the sake of convenience.

"I haven't looked in her room for a while," he announced. "So, I can't remember how clean it is. If it's a mess, just let me know, I have no problem straightening up. The rest of the house is probably dusty. I'll have it fixed in a day or two, so... if there's any problems, just let me know."

Mayumi simply nodded. She was still processing things. Takashi, Seiko... everyone. Each and every refuge she'd ever had - bar Anteiku - was gone. Except for Eiichi. And he was just as alone as she was, though he probably didn't feel it quite as keenly.

"Thanks, Eiichi. You're... great, ya know?"

Eiichi paused in his stacking.

"... great?" he echoed.

She smiled weakly, still turned away from him.

"Yeah, great... so great, I don't know why you put up with me. You have enough to deal with without dragging around a useless bad luck charm of a ghoul."

"... if you were useless, you wouldn't be alive. You survived, didn't you?" he muttered under his breath after a moment of consideration. "... so, you're not useless. Don't call yourself that."

Mayumi could barely pick up on his words, but she grinned a little when she managed to decipher them.

She had a vivid memory of when they were younger, when Mayumi had been playing outside with him, and she tripped and skinned her knee. She'd bawled from that, and Eiichi had been so shocked by her tears that he couldn't do anything but talk logic to her - that she'd heal in a bit if she had something to eat, that the pain would stop, it wasn't that deep of a cut. All she'd wanted was for someone to hug her back then, but now, she could see the appeal in Eiichi's brand of comfort. Having someone else spell out the situation for you in black and white put things into perspective.

"Just not around you, Eiichi," she said after a beat.

"Then stick around me," he offered simply.

Mayumi stifled a laugh.

"I don't have much of choice, now do I, Eiichi?"

Still, she thought, being with Eiichi again was in its own way a comfort. He was familiar, someone from her past. With Takashi gone, she needed that sort of link.

Then there was the fact that he was alone, too. He wouldn't admit, perhaps he didn't realize it, but no one should be alone - not for as long as the two of them had been.

They were good for each other, as unlikely as that may have seemed.

"Not like I wouldn't stick around anyway."

"That's true," he said, shifting the over-organized stack of books into his hands. "I can show you the room. It's been a long time."

Without waiting to see he respond, he quickly started back into the entryway so he could make his way up the stairs, books in hand.

Seeing no other choice, Mayumi left her seat and followed Eiichi up the steps. She couldn't help but study everything they passed; he didn't seem to have changed much from the last time she was here. Except...

"Eiichi... did you take the pictures down?"

"Yes."

She flinched slightly at his bluntless, but she could hardly blame him. That first month after Takashi had... after Takashi was gone, she couldn't bring herself to pull the picture she had of them together from her pocket even once. It just... it hurt so much.

Still...

Her eye twitched.

Despite her recent thoughts, just once she wished he'd open up to her. Eiichi was weird, but he wasn't insane. Losing his entire family would cut like a knife into his heart. And no one should have to deal with that on their own.

But there was no way he was going to share anything with her, so she kept her mouth shut and trudged on steadily behind him until they reached Seiko's old room. It was dusty and vacant, and utterly devoid of the warmth Seiko had once given off. Mayumi almost didn't want to step foot in it; it felt as though she were disturbing something sacred. Eiichi wouldn't see it that way, though, so she bit her tongue and set about organizing things herself.

"I can take care of my own cleaning," she said when she caught him staring at her.

"... if you say so," Eiichi replied after a moment. "Then... I'll leave it to you."If there's anything you need..."

"I'll let you know," Mayumi promised, shooing him out of the room. She offered a grin that felt about as real as possible, given the circumstances. "No need to do everything for me, Eiichi. I'm already free-loading off you. Go finish your homework."

He shrugged, turning back to the hallway.

"It's done," he explained. "I was reading."

That said, he stepped outside the door, vanishing down the hallway.

Does... does that mean he was reading the math textbook?

Mayumi stuck out her tongue in disgust. She was happy being an idiot if it meant she didn't do things like that in her free time.

Rolling her eyes, she turned her attention back to the room. Where to start? The bed was probably the best place to begin, if she'd be sleeping on it later.

It was covered in a fine layer of dust, so much so that Mayumi couldn't see the print of the comforter underneath. She'd have to wash the sheets later, but for now, she simply stripped the bed down to the mattress, setting aside the blankets and such by the door. That done, she picked up the stray books and dolls lining the floor, moving to place them on the shelf built into the wall opposite the door.

Her hand brushed something stiff as she was laying down one of the dolls, and, curious, she fished around until she pulled out a broken picture frame.

She smiled faintly, looking at the image of Seiko and her family through the cracked glass. Little Eiichi was almost cute to her now.

But her heart panged all the same, knowing now what Eiichi had lost.

Mayumi had never known her parents; for as long as she could remember, it was her and Takashi. So while she occasionally felt hollow grief for her mother and father, she couldn't imagine the pain Eiichi had felt in losing them both after years of love.

Poor kid... I wonder if my being here's gonna be a nuisance for him...