wash || alice in borderland

vii. "tis love that makes the world go round"

even though everyone had cleared out, at the insistence of chishiya, he and reiko stayed behind. the room became darker, the fluorescent lights that had previously made the walls unbearably white were turned off. the only light came from the shattered window she and usagi had crashed through. the whole room unnerved reiko. she looked around at the remnants of the game. the lifeless horse cap thrown to the corner of the room and bullet shells from the tagger scattered everywhere. blood that painted the walls of the room, dripping down like rainfall. reiko took it all in silently, she didn't want to intrude on the quiet chishiya seemed to have created intentionally.

chishiya finally made a move, slowly walking over to the corpse of the tagger before feeling around her jacket from something. reiko scrunched up her nose at the sight of him touching the corpse. the click of a button being pulled apart broke the stillness. at the sound of paper being unfolded, reiko walked over and crouched down next to chishiya.

in his hands was a small piece of paper with a very strange drawing on it. a messily drawn circle made with gel pen with wobbly lines across it, intersecting each other at seemingly random points. it was hard to tell, but a small hole, likely made by the pen, was placed at one of the intersections. reiko took the drawing in with a sense of familiarity, a light smile overtaking when she recognized why she felt she had seen it before. not only was she an artist, but she supposed she was a city girl at heart having been born and raised in tokyo. she knew the subway map when she saw one - but did chishiya?

she glanced at him and her smile grew. he had his head turned to the side, brows slightly furrowed in confusion. what a cutie. she debated telling him but she knew he was smart enough to figure it out. besides, why make things easier?

"what is it, nanami-san?" chishiya asked in a bored tone.

"hm?" reiko blinked at him a few times.

chishiya turned his head out of reiko's sight to conceal his light blush, she really was pretty. "you're staring. do you have anything useful to say or no?"

"oh am i?" reiko covered her mouth with her hand and gasped playfully. "what can i say? i like looking at pretty things," she teased. "that's all." she finished plainly, choosing to continue observing the room.

chishiya stood up abruptly, his heart beating rapidly. he didn't think he liked this feeling. his cheeks heating up, his heart speeding, the warmth of having her attention. she really was such a troublemaker for him - but secretly he knew he didn't mind. he hastily shoved the paper into his pocket while she wasn't looking.

"let's go back, we're done here."

"okay!"

━ ━ ━ ━

"kuina-chan!!" reiko smiled and ran up to her tall friend, jumping up to give her a hug. kuina was quick to react, catching reiko before she could knock them both over. chishiya rolled his eyes but gave a slight smirk at the sight.

"hi rei. nice to see you're still as lively as ever." kuina gently let reiko down, making sure to keep the shorter girl stead on her feet. "i'm assuming you won without much trouble?"

reiko chuckled, thinking about the climbing she had done on the side of the building. though it was fun at the time, she could tell her body was going to make her suffer for it the next day.

kuina put her hands on her hips and stared down at the girl who was giving her an innocent smile. "that's not a response rei."

reiko simply shrugged before running off in the direction of her room. she looked over her shoulder and waved at her two friends. "bye bye kuina-chan, bye neko san!"

kuina took in the look in reiko's eyes that had flashed with a look of excitement - and not the kind that arose from talking about dinah or chishiya. it was the kind of glint that made her seem sly and that whatever you thought you knew, she knew more.