『 I Won't Run Anymore』

Part 18 - Start

Amaimon had left shortly after Daiki had appeared, but not without a strong verbal fight between both boys. Daiki had voiced harshly against the lighter toned Amaimon, the green haired male refusing to budge from above my form to Daiki's threats; not until the darker haired male threatened to tell Mephisto about what was happening; which would send Amaimon straight back to Gehenna. His will to stay was clearly greater than the current situation as he left before I could blink, only a ghosting shade filming my irises before vanishing as if he had never been there in the first place. My singular blink fully removing the outlining of his likeness... which brings me here 5 minutes later; staring down at my friend's jean clad calves in a tense silence as he sat opposite me on the leather chair, my own form still situated on the plush bed in a now upright position.

"Thank you."

The brunette sighed heavily at my words as I forcefully drew my eyes up to look into half lidded emerald ones. He was clearly annoyed; whether it be with me, Amaimon or whatever else he had done through the day I was unsure of.

"You can be so careless. It's dangerous to tangle yourself in with demons as is, yet lowering your guard around one is life threatening."

It was me...

"He didn't hurt me."

"No?"

I shook my head; Daiki gave me a deadpan stare before grumbling incoherent nonsense I couldn't understand and rubbing the back of his head. Why was he so pissed? I knew... secretly inside I knew... I just didn't want to verbalise it... I knew he came to save me yesterday... he helped me from that demon, and the image of me he saw must have been... I grumbled lightly to myself in acknowledgement, fiddling with my fingers as I stared hard at the male.

"Now you see. Alice, please... please for yourself and my own peace of mind: get away from this place."

"Get away?"

"Yes. I can't stand the thought of you staying in this mansion with these demons! I knew you had gotten a job here and had figured that you just moved closer to the school for travel sake, but to hear that you live under the same roof as demon kings, that they kissed you when you came crying to me... Alice I can't bear the worry."

I blinked down to stare at my own hands, crossed over each other as they lay in my lap. My index finger twitched to rub the scabbing of my injury mildly before falling away from it to rest idly with my other fingers.

"Mephisto had said that you attended school here once."

Daiki blinked at my change in subject, tilting his head slightly for brunette locks to fall to the side.

"Yeah, I told you I came here. I spent all my high school years in this academy."

"Dual Daiki."

"Uhm... well... most people don't believe in nor see what I do. So when I found out about the exorcist cram school here, I got interested. I attended so I could be around more people like me, and fell in love when I found out that I could help people... but, you don't go telling pretty girls about the crazy stuff like that. I never knew you could see demons..."

He pouted and folded his arms over his chest like a child which caused me to smile.

"Daiki, you thought that I'd think you were crazy... That's why I never told you why I was here either. I never knew you could see demons."

I mocked his voice as a smirk twitched across his mouth, falling back into a frown before twisting upward again. He was unable to stay mad at me despite his attempts. A defeated sigh passed his lips as his head fell forward for a second only to roll back and press against the back of the sofa.