Casual Encounters (Durarara!!) *Izaya/OC*

09. A Chance For Freedom

It felt like someone had upped the temperature on Ritchie and Izaya's relationship. The sexual activities were happening more and more frequently now and Ritchie found she was spending nearly all of her time with Izaya. It was insane. She was once again totally addicted to being in his company.

Izaya seemed perfectly happy with their arrangement. Whenever Ritchie attempted to branch off and socialise with other people a bit more he'd find some way to reel her right back in. At times Ritchie didn't even care about this. As long as he gave her whatever else she wanted she was more than happy to be at his side.

But another side of her felt the need to rebel. Unbeknownst to Izaya she'd started to widen her social circle - taking the time to talk to some of the other girls at work more, getting into contact with some of Sei's friends who had been on the bar crawl, arranging meet-ups with new penpals she'd been making on a website for a new gang called the Dollars that she'd joined not so long ago...

She felt smug that she could pull this off right under his nose and she liked that she was doing things of her own that he wasn't involved in. It all just depended on how long she could pull it off for.

Though over the next few weeks she was starting to wonder if Izaya did suspect something after all - he seemed to be keeping a tighter hold on her than ever. He was now meeting her from work after every shift, no matter how late she finished.

Ritchie had been testing the limits a little, chilling at the bar for an extra hour after her shift had ended the one night, but when she did eventually leave Izaya was still there waiting for her.

"Some people might think you're a stalker," she pointed out. How long had he even been out here?

As he so often did, Izaya ignored her comment. "You smell of alcohol."

"Well yes. That's what happens when you've been drinking," said Ritchie sarcastically.

"Don't you worry about your health, Ritchie-chan?" asked Izaya with mock concern.

"No," said Ritchie flatly.

Izaya just grinned - finding her attitude to be highly amusing, as he always did. "So are you coming back to my place?"

"Do I have a choice?" Ritchie countered.

Izaya gave her his best feigned hurt expression. "Of course you have a choice. You don't have to act like I'm the big bad villain all the time."

Ritchie rolled her eyes. The world would probably end the day Izaya actually gave her a real answer. But the longer they stood outside the colder she was. And Izaya's place was closer than hers. With Ritchie's extreme dislike for the cold it definitely sounded like the better option.

"Fine, I'll go with you," she agreed.

"Excellent," said Izaya happily, proceeding to taking hold of her hand as they started off.

Ritchie sighed, half-heartedly attempting to pull her hand away. "That doesn't mean you have to hold my hand."

"I'm trying to be nice here, Ritchie-chan," said Izaya, seemingly entertained.

"Nice doesn't suit you," Ritchie commented.

Izaya grinned. "Does that mean you want me to be bad instead?"

"No, I just want you to be normal. I know that's a stretch for you but you can at least try," said Ritchie cuttingly.

Izaya just chuckled. He still didn't let go of her hand. With another sigh, Ritchie grudgingly gave up trying to pull away. In truth it wasn't actually that bad. At least his hand was nice and warm - as opposed to how hers always seemed to run on cold blood.