Beautiful Disasters- Hawks x OC

Chapter 31

Mariko didn't drink often, even during social gatherings she rarely had more than one or two drinks. She'd only ever gotten drunk once- when one of her teammates from the SBU challenged her to a drinking game. Tonight though, she felt like she needed to forget. She'd been struggling with the idea of letting Keigo in again completely. She wanted to, but there was a part of her that was still stuck. Maybe if she could forget, if she could forget, if she could remember what it was like when he didn't know, she could see that the reward was worth the risk.

That was why shed walked into the bar at 10:30 at night and asked the bartender for the strongest they had. She'd taken shot after shot, drink after drink. They cut her off when the bar neared its closing time of two a.m. and by then she was completely drunk. The outcome of her inebriated state wasn't what she'd been hoping for though. Rather than forget everything that happened, it was all she could think about. She was more honest with herself when she was drunk though, and under the influence of alcohol, she'd revealed something to herself. The reason why she was finding it so difficult to go back to the way things were before. Mariko knew she wasn't a saint- not by far. She had blood on her hands and had seen horrible things- it had left her a complete mess. She didn't want Keigo to see that side of her: the side that hadn't been put back together the right way and was still a little crooked. She didn't want him to see it because he had his own demons, and it terrified that he might look at hers and decide that both of them together was too much.

Mariko wasn't usually a sad drunk, but an intense feeling of melancholy had settled over her. Now she was drunk and crying at a bar by herself at 1:45 a.m.

The manager had been nice enough to pay for a taxi to take her home. That's what Mariko had thought anyways- in reality, she had over tipped, and they used the funds to get her a car. It took an additional fifteen minutes for the driver to actually be able to leave though because he couldn't understand the address she was giving him through her tears, sniffling, and hiccups. By the time she did get to her apartment building, she had started to sober up- not much, but enough to be able to drag herself out of the car and not fall on her face as she walked.

She stumbled to the elevator and up to her floor successfully but was unable to unlock her front door. She didn't know why but the key wouldn't turn when she inserted it. She had tried several times, even grabbing her spare from the doorframe across the hall wot see if maybe hers was chipped or broken, but nothing worked. Not knowing what to do, she started to cry.

Keigo woke up when he heard a key go into the lock at the front door. He sleepily got up, wondering who it could possibly be. After all, he hadn't given anyone a spare, and he doubted it was the landlord just popping by for a minute. He tiredly rubbed his eyes and opened the door, only to find Mariko standing in the hallway, crying hysterically, and trying to unlock his door with her keys. He quickly noted the scent of alcohol that lingered around her.

"Mari?" he asked confusedly.

"Keigo?" she asked herself. She didn't understand why he was in her apartment.

"Yeah. What's wrong? Why are you crying?" he asked her.

She looked around the place, wondering why he was there. "What? No... that's not right..." she mumbled to herself. She spun around slowly as if wondering if she was on the wrong floor. Seeing that she didn't know where she was, she started to cry again.

Seeing the tears stream down her cheeks immediately sent the blonde into a panic. "What's wrong Mari? Whatever it is I'll help you," he said gently wiping her tears away. Her watery eyes went wide like a child's.

"You will?" she sniffled, rubbing her face with her sleeve.

He nodded.

The brunette looked around, and again... she started to cry. "I don't know where I am!" she sobbed.