Beautiful Disasters- Hawks x OC

Chapter 29

Mariko hadn't slept much that night, which wasn't a surprise to her. She always had a hard time sleeping when she was in a new place and arguing with Keigo just before bed didn't help in the slightest. She'd felt sick when she hung up- her insides let twisted and her throat was dry. She felt wrong, it was like arguing with him made her physically ill. The little sleep she had gotten had been plagued with nightmares mixed with memories from the horrible missions she'd done with Division 1. She only felt worse when her first instinct was always to call the blonde, only to remember she could not.

She was barely able to drag herself out of the bed to go to the airport that morning, and the cloudy skies and light drizzle wasn't exactly motivating her either. But she did, and she was able to make it to her flight just before they closed the doors- much to the gate attendant's displeasure.

She spent most of the flight thinking. Having calmed down and let the matter settle a bit, Mariko realized that even though she had done it to protect them both, she had kept her entire life story from him. She could at least understand him wanting to know more about her. That didn't give Keigo any right, however, to invade the privacy the way he did. He should've respected that she wasn't willing to reveal her past to him and what he did broke the confidence she had in him and left her in a difficult position to say the least. He'd left her with two options. 1) follow the law and report the leak to the Division 1 Coordinator and possibly get him killed and 2) Break the law of the country she had been serving since she was a child and tell him everything while praying he didn't betray her trust.

When her flight landed, she almost thought Hawks would be there to pick her up like he said he would. She quickly shook the thought out of her head; she couldn't possibly expect him to pick her up now. As she exited the airport, she looked around for any available cabs she could take to get home. It was storming, gusts of wind blew sheets of rain in her face. "And I thought the weather in Okinawa had been bad," she thought. She shuffled back and wrapped her arms around herself. She wanted to take shelter from the rain inside but couldn't if she wanted any chance of catching a ride home. Just as she had managed to wave down a taxi, a sleek black sports car pulled up in front of her. She scowled. She'd already been feeling shitty that day and had half a mind to kick the car and curse the driver out for parking right in front of her when there was a spot a few feet away. All complaints were caught in her throat however when a familiar blonde got out of the driver's side.

For a moment they just stared at each other. Neither of them moved, but they were both fighting the instinct to go and hug each other. They hadn't seen each other in three weeks and in that time, they'd suddenly become so distant... both of them wanted nothing more than to close it again. That distance, however, served as a reminder of the problem at hand. As a result, he silently took her suitcase from her and loaded it into the car while she got into the passenger's seat.

The ride home was eerily silent, they both knew they had a lot to say to each other, but neither one of them wanted to go first. They were too accustomed to keeping their thoughts and pasts to themselves.

Keigo turned on the radio, hoping to fill some of the strained silence. The happy tunes only made the atmosphere more tense.

When they got to the apartment complex, the elevator ride was just as uncomfortable, and the poor receptionist that had offered to take her bag felt it too. Unlike Mariko and Keigo though, he was able to duck out as soon as they got to her apartment.

She was the first one inside, partially relieved to be back home. She noticed some slight differences immediately; a lampshade that had been turned and was showing the side with the seam on it, a couple of picture frames placed differently than where she'd left them. Mariko sighed, realizing Hawks had most likely swept the apartment for bugs.