Casual Encounters -CHAP.17-DRRR

  Quitting alcohol entirely was not easy… If it had been anything other than her pride at stake then Ritchie wouldn't even have bothered with it. As it was, she was determined to prove to Izaya that she could do it. Even if she had to resort to drinking at least several cans of energy drinks a day just to stay sane.

  And what made the situation even worse was that Izaya had been increasingly boring over the past few weeks. He'd clearly been onto some new gossip that had interested him, because he was away from his apartment more and more… And when he was there he was usually absorbed by whatever was on his computer screen.

  This did not bode well for Ritchie's already agitated state, brought on by her withdrawal symptoms from the absence of alcohol. Things with Izaya were always interesting – everything always came down to a new game, a new challenge, a new fight for control… He'd been the most exciting thing in her life since she'd moved to Ikebukuro, as much as she hated to admit it.

  And now that he wasn't playing ball anymore it was making her extremely frustrated. She couldn't find the same level of excitement elsewhere… Nothing else was quite the same. She'd come to rely on his interesting lifestyle entirely and that realisation just annoyed her even more.

  She'd conceded that whatever Izaya was working on, he wasn't going to let her in on it. Not yet anyway. Like everything else, he'd work it to his own advantage. Well screw him… Maybe she didn't want to know what it was. She'd just have to make her own entertainment… But that was easier said than done.

  Hanging around the club after her shifts didn't really appeal to her now that she could no longer drink. She wasn't really that dependent on alcohol – she'd had plenty of nights out in the past where she'd barely drank anything without even realising – but wanting what she couldn't have just made her feel permanently pissed off.

  She was so glad that she had Sei to rely on right now. Sei had sympathised with her situation – she'd learnt how dull it could be when your boyfriend was occupied with other things back from when Reita had bought his first electric guitar. He hadn't left his apartment in two weeks and when he had it had only been to buy more guitar picks.

  So she understood the whole thing perfectly. And she made sure that she put plenty of time aside to try and help Ritchie satisfy her boredom. It wasn't quite the solution Ritchie had wanted… But she was still grateful. And short of Izaya going back to normal, it was the best she could ask for.

  "How many of those have you had?" Sei asked as Ritchie grabbed another can of energy drink, having only just discarded the one she'd finished moments before.

  "Only three today," Ritchie replied, cracking the ring pull on her fourth one.

  Sei laughed. "Are you telling me that's an improvement?"

  Ritchie grinned back. "You'd be surprised."

  Sei just shook her head, still chuckling. "You're gonna end up overflowing our recycling bin!"

  So far they'd spent the evening in their pyjamas, watching Disney movies. It was a typically girly sleepover, which was unusual for Ritchie, but she found that she actually really enjoyed it. It was a nice change. At first it had caused a pang of sadness, since it had been Maddie who she'd used to watch Disney stuff with… But after a while Ritchie had completely forgotten about it.

  She'd realised that Sei was actually way more fun to watch them with. Her friend also came up with the amusing anecdote that there was at least one 'slut character' in every Disney movie, even the animal based ones.

  "Just look at her! That lion is totally on it!" exclaimed Sei, as they watched Nala recline back in the leaves with a rather sultry look on her face.

  Ritchie felt like she hadn't laughed so much in ages. "I'm never gonna be able to watch this the same way again!" she chastised her friend. "Or Robin Hood or Peter Pan! Or…"

  "The Fox and the Hound?" Sei suggested before exploding into giggles.

  "You can talk!" Ritchie teased. "From what I heard you only agreed to be set up on a blind date with Reita as soon as you heard that he was hot. That's totally what Vixey did!"

  "Shut up, I'm not some slutty fox!"

  "Well you're certainly no innocent Cinderella!"

  After throwing insults at each other for a while they concluded that Sei was Snow White, since she always seemed to like short guys – Reita himself was only about an inch taller than Ritchie was – and that Ritchie was Meg, since she had 'attitude problems' as Sei put it. Only a good friend could get away with saying that.

  And Ritchie couldn't help but feel that she was right on the money. She may not have had a Hercules, but she certainly had her own Hades. And of course as soon as she mentioned it that was where the conversation then turned to.

  "Urgh. He seriously fucks me off sometimes," Ritchie groaned, lying back on Sei's bed after her friend had asked how the 'dry patch' was going.

  "Well maybe if you hadn't gone for such an asshole…" Sei started suggestively.

  "Sei…" Ritchie warned. "Not helping."

  "Sorry," Sei conceded quickly, putting her hands up in defence. She then smiled. "You don't like it when I insult him, do you?"

  "Insult him all you like. I don't care – I do it all the time," said Ritchie uninterestedly. "What I don't like is the thought that you're insulting my intelligence." She knew that Sei was actually right to do so, but she wasn't quite prepared to admit that aloud.

  Sei bit her lip. Though she'd had more time to get used to the fact that her friend was dating the city's notorious intel broker, she still wasn't happy about it and she certainly didn't approve. But she knew that no amount of telling Ritchie that was going to make her change her mind. It was her friend's decision. She had to accept that.

  She knew that Izaya had done a lot of cruel things to people, but he didn't seem to treat Ritchie badly at least… So Sei supposed grudgingly that it could be worse. So unless that card was turned then she was going to at least try to be supportive.

  She sighed. "How about we just call you clinically insane instead?"

  Ritchie smiled up at the ceiling. "Yeah, okay. I guess that would be appropriate… Though in my defence he's generally the one who makes me that way."

  Sei smiled sympathetically. "You're really hating this dry spell, aren't you?"

  "I really am. It's so fucking frustrating!" Ritchie complained. "The worst part is that he's not even doing this on purpose... He's onto something big and that's all he's interested in right now. I don't even care what it is – it's just made him so incredibly boring. I know I shouldn't have to rely on him for fun, but… I guess I just do."

  Sei frowned, trying to process Ritchie's rant. She still didn't understand the twisted relationship that they had – not to mention the fun that Ritchie talked about – but she knew that her friend had gotten herself in deep and that that wasn't going to change anytime soon… In the meantime she had to try and offer her a solution to her current boy troubles.

  "Right…" Sei sat up into a cross-legged position. "I'm gonna help you find a solution to this… What's your favourite thing to do with your evil-ass boyfriend?"

  Ritchie sat back up as well, raising her eyebrows. She didn't even comment on the 'evil' remark. "Well I think the answer to that is pretty obvious…"

  Sei made a face. She did not want to picture that. "No, not that! From what you've told me about him I doubt he's the type that could be seduced by you just putting on a skimpy outfit or some sexy lingerie…"

  "Not to mention I already do both of those anyway," Ritchie pointed out.

  "Exactly. You need to lure him away from his work somehow though," Sei explained. "And it'll have to be something unique to him since he's such a weirdo… What does he like doing then?"

  "Messing with people," said Ritchie without having to think about it. "Ruining lives, being a nosy-ass bastard, playing with Shizuo Heiwajima…"

  "Hang on, what was that last one?!" Sei spluttered.

  "You've heard of Shizuo Heiwajima, right? The bartender?" Ritchie prompted.

  "You mean the freakishly strong guy who everyone knows would happily strangle your boyfriend to death if he ever got his hands on him?" said Sei pointedly, raising her eyebrows.

  "Yup. He already tried that before," said Ritchie nonchalantly. Of course that had sort of been her fault, but water under the bridge…

  "Yet your informant friend likes to… I'm sorry, what exactly?"

  "Provoke him into chasing him, throwing things, starting fights with other people…" Ritchie explained drolly. "Basically he just likes to annoy the crap out of him."

  Sei didn't seem to know what to do with that information. "Right… Somehow I don't think we can use that…"

  But it gave Ritchie an idea. Okay, trying to get Shizuo involved probably wouldn't work out that well… But it was the chase that Izaya seemed to like. So maybe she could provoke him into chasing her instead? She had a feeling that if she made it into an actual challenge that he wouldn't turn it down.

  She explained as much to Sei, whose eyebrows rose even further. "So you're telling me that you and your weirdo boyfriend enjoy running across the rooftops like they do in Agrabah?"

  Ritchie grinned. At least she wasn't the only one who made random references to Disney movies. "Something like that."

  She half expected Sei to question her sanity again, but instead she just laughed. "Alright then. If you think it'll work then who am I to say otherwise? And if it doesn't then I guess you'll have to get the monster bartender involved as well."

  "As weird as it is, I think Izaya would actually love that," said Ritchie, pulling a face. "But personally, I'd much rather keep this a game for two."

                                                      *

  Ritchie showered at Sei's the following afternoon before leaving straight for Izaya's. It was times like these when she felt that it was quite pointless having her own apartment. She rarely spent any time there anymore… The only times she did was when she'd had a fight with Izaya. And surprisingly, that wasn't very often. Not a real fight anyway.

  As he usually had been lately, Izaya was on his computer when she got there. He wasn't surprised to see her, since she spent so much time there, but there was little interaction after she'd arrived. So Ritchie whiled away her time on her phone – used to this way of filling her time – texting Sei more about her idea and trying to plan out what to put in the note she was going to leave for Izaya. She had to make it good if she wanted it to work…

  She had an evening shift at the club tonight, which meant a boring start since it was generally pretty empty during the evening. But it also promised an early finish. And that fitted in with her plan just perfectly.

  So when the time for her to leave rolled around, she folded up the note she'd written with a feeling of excitement. She felt like she was arranging some kind of secret meet-up… Only this wasn't really the type of rendezvous that most couples would plan.

  Ritchie got up and strode purposely over to Izaya's desk. She planted the note in front of him, causing him to look up and raise his eyebrows at her. "What's this?"

  Ritchie avoided answering the question. Instead she ran her hand through one side of Izaya's hair, then leant over slightly so that she could speak into his ear. "Read it after I've left."

  Despite how uninterested he'd seemed in her lately, Izaya looked amused. "Colour me intrigued, Ritchie-chan… Just what are you planning?"

  "You'll see," said Ritchie teasingly, nipping at his earlobe before straightening up. "I'll be seeing you later." And with that she left for her shift, feeling confident that what she'd written in her note would be enough to make it work.

  'I know how much you like toying with people – me especially. So how about a real game of cat and mouse? I finish work at midnight. Catch me if you can.'

                                                   *

  The moment that the clock hit midnight Ritchie was off the stage and already out through the back doors into the alleyway. If Izaya was here and up for the challenge then the game had began. If he wasn't… Well, she could always use it as an excuse for exercise. Plus she knew that if this game didn't catch Izaya's attention then nothing would. So she was going to make it count.

  She threw herself at the wall opposite, scaling it as fast as she could. She'd swapped to fairly more sensible shoes this time in preparation. They were still high heels – she couldn't imagine wearing anything else for work – but they could manage climbing and running quite a bit better than the stilettos she'd been wearing the last time she'd done this.

  Once she was up she wasted no time in jumping across to the next nearest rooftop. She carried on at the same speed, leaping the gaps between apartment and office blocks, until she reached one that was too far to jump. There was a fire escape on the building she wanted to get to. All she had to do now was find a way back down to the ground.

  She chose the side of the building that seemed to have the most window ledges and began making her descent, quickly but carefully feeling for every foothold below her. If anyone was up at this time and looking out of their window then they were going to have a bit of a surprise.

  Once on the ground, Ritchie dashed across the alleyway that she'd ended up in and started climbing up the rickety metal fire escape on the other side. She made sure she kept her speed up. She still had no idea if Izaya would actually be following her, but she was going by the possibility that he was and she wasn't going to give him any advantages.

  As soon as she was up on the roof again she leapt over to the next building on the left. She'd spent a good deal of the night before planning the route that she'd take. She and Izaya had been round this way quite a few times before, so she wanted to try and take a less obvious direction.

  After another few minutes of crossing rooftops Ritchie was aware that she was being followed. She didn't waste time looking back. Who else would be following her on her crazy race? Instead she grinned and carried on running. The cat had taken the bait.

  She pushed herself to increase her speed even more. Izaya was fast – she knew that well. If he'd already found her this quickly then the game wasn't going to last much longer unless she started throwing in some curveballs… And she really didn't want the game to end just yet.

  Crossing two more gaps, Ritchie then took a dive down onto the next building's fire escape. She was grateful she'd chosen shoes with strong heels – they absorbed the impact quite nicely. She took the stairs three at a time until she reached the bottom, then darted down one of the tight alleyways.

  There were old storehouses on either side, one of them already in the process of being demolished. Ritchie ran at the wall on her right and kicked off from it, using it to propel herself through the window opposite, rather than having to slow down to climb through. She ran through the empty, half-destroyed building and back out through the other side, where she then climbed the scaffolding as fast as she could to get back up onto the rooftops.

  She was sure that Izaya couldn't have known to follow her this way. And she hadn't heard him along the shortcut she'd just taken… This kind of game was as much about speed as it was about diversions and making good, fast decisions.

  As she took the next breach with a running leap she couldn't help but remember Sei comparing the idea to Aladdin. Of course anything Disney suited Ritchie just fine. She smiled to herself. "One jump ahead of the slowpokes. One skip ahead of my doom…"

  But there was no doom involved here. Ritchie wasn't worried about falling. She had no misconceptions about the possibility of slipping or miscalculating distances. She'd done this plenty of times before. This time was no different. The only worry she had was when she'd finally have to stop and the game would be over…

  One trick ahead of disaster. They're quick but I'm much faster. Here goes – better throw my hand in, wish me happy landing, all I gotta do is jump.

  She sailed through the air and landed easily on the next rooftop in line. She was starting to get breathless now, but she was just so happy doing this. Nobody else could possibly understand… But it was all about the freedom, the risk, the adrenaline. Pure adrenaline…

  But unfortunately there was always something waiting to bring her down. And that something usually came in the form of one person and one person only.

  "I was wondering when you'd be joining me, Ritchie-chan."

  Ritchie stopped dead in her tracks. No way. There was no way… But sure enough, Izaya had stepped out from behind the door to the stairwell that led into the building – his usual smirk plastered over his face. She hadn't seen him coming at all… So how had he managed to beat her here?

  "How the hell did you get here first?!" Ritchie exclaimed disbelievingly. Her annoyance was certainly enough to bring her breath back. It was game over now.

  "Because you followed the most obvious route," said Izaya, shaking his head. "You over planned things, didn't you Ritchie-chan?"

  Ritchie scowled. She guessed she had planned too much. She'd decided on what she thought was the least obvious direction to take. But since Izaya knew her so well it had clearly been all too obvious to him. Damn… And she thought she'd been so clever about it.

  "You really suck sometimes," she grumbled.

  Izaya just laughed. "This was your game, Ritchie-chan, and I won. It seems that I can catch you, but the real question is… can you catch me?"

  He turned on his heels and leapt the next gap between the buildings without even a running start. He then easily vaulted the railing on the other side. Ritchie gritted her teeth – how dare he try and make her game into his own – and then jumped after him, not taking into account the fact that her legs were a lot shorter than his.

  She just about landed with her toes on the opposite ledge, but it wasn't enough. Everything seemed to slow down as she fell backwards into the air with a gasp – all she could see was the sky above her…

  Then she suddenly slammed into the side of the building as her upper body was jerked forward. Ritchie stared up wildly. Izaya had managed to grab her hand over the railing at the very last second.

  She braced her legs against the building, almost as if she was abseiling, trying to keep herself upright. It worked but it didn't make the situation any less frightening. It didn't change the fact that the only thing keeping her from falling was the strength and the choice of the city's notorious info broker.

  "They say that pride always comes before a fall," Izaya informed her calmly. He then chuckled. "It looks like that really is the case."

  He was too calm. Way too calm… Right now Ritchie couldn't imagine a more frightening scenario than this. She was pretty certain that Izaya was just playing mind games with her like he always did, but she couldn't discount the possibility of him just letting go…

  And if he did then there wasn't anything she could do about it. The thought made her breathing speed up and her whole body tense. For the first time in years she was genuinely scared.

  Izaya had clearly noticed and it seemed to just make him all the more amused. "Are you afraid of death, Ritchie-chan?"

  "Of course I am!" Ritchie couldn't help but snap. "Who wouldn't be!"

  "You'd be surprised," Izaya said lightly. "Some people flirt with death every day. Others embrace the idea… And some even actively seek it out."

  "If you're trying to make me feel worse then it's working," Ritchie protested. There was no purchase on the wall of the building and her shoes kept slipping, reminding her further that there was nothing below her besides a very long fall…

  Izaya laughed. "Aren't you just a little bit interested to see what's waiting for you in the afterlife?"

  His fingers relaxed ever so slightly, teasingly… Ritchie's heart rate increased even more. "Don't be stupid; there is no afterlife!" she blurted out.

  "Oh really?" Izaya raised an eyebrow, his expression still amused. "And what makes you say that?"

  "Because when people die they cease to exist," replied Ritchie, trying to talk rationally in order to keep herself calm. It wasn't exactly working. "Their body still remains but their mind and soul just disappear. What possible life after death could there be for an empty shell besides rotting underground?"

  She practically screamed the last part at him. It was a very long time before Izaya answered… He was still holding onto Ritchie with one hand like it was effortless and, despite the situation, she couldn't help but wonder how strong he really was. Maybe that was one of the reasons that he could always go head on against Shizuo.

  But eventually he gave her a scarily sweet smile. "So you don't want me to let go?"

  "If you do I'll find a way to come back and haunt you," Ritchie swore.

  Izaya just laughed. It was clearly the answer he'd wanted because he replied with a cheery, "Alright then."

  With both hands he managed to pull her back up onto the ledge and help her over the railing. Once Ritchie was on the other side she practically collapsed against him. She mentally scolded herself for showing such weakness, but her legs were shaking so much that she could barely stand.

  When she was certain she'd be able to speak normally she commented as casually as she could, "It looks like you caught me again instead."

  Izaya smirked. "It looks that way."

  Ritchie knew that she should have been annoyed at him. Nobody else would have played such mind games with her at a time of peril like that… But then nobody else would have been so happy to chase her across the rooftops for fun.

  And he'd still saved her life. She couldn't really ignore that, as much as she wanted to.

  "Thank you," Ritchie mumbled grudgingly against his chest.

  Izaya pulled back slightly and cupped a hand to his ear. "Sorry, I don't think I quite heard you," he said loudly.

  Ritchie scowled. "Make me say it again and I'll push you off the roof."

                                                  *

  They both went back to Izaya's place after that. Ritchie was feeling distinctly bad-tempered about the whole event – especially the fact that her little game was over. But she had enjoyed it whilst it had lasted. It was the most fun she'd had in a long time.

  Thankfully her plan seemed to have worked though. Izaya wasn't completely disinterested in her anymore. In face, he was thoroughly amused by everything that had happened. But of course Ritchie always hated when that amusement was aimed at her, so she couldn't even be pleased that she'd achieved what she'd wanted in the first place. Not yet anyway.

  "I may have to make sure you grow bored more often if you always resort to such interesting measures," Izaya teased.

  "Shut up," Ritchie grumbled testily.

  In an attempt to keep her mind occupied so that it would be easier to ignore Izaya's taunts, she'd sat at his desk and was trying to figure out the board game that he always had set up behind his computer. After realising what she was doing, Izaya had sat down opposite and had been watching her in amusement.

  It wasn't working anyway. The game was just trying Ritchie's patience even more. It made absolutely no sense! The board was a regular Chinese Go board but sitting on top of it were a mix of chess, Othello and Shogi pieces… Just what kind of game was this supposed to be?

  "This doesn't make any sense!" Ritchie complained, swiping several of the pieces off the board and onto the floor in frustration.

  "Ritchie-chan, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean that you can destroy everything," said Izaya reproachfully.

  He was practically pouting over it. It was so absurd that Ritchie couldn't help but burst out laughing. "What's up with that face?! Does this stupid little game really mean that much to you?"

  Izaya seemed mollified and quite amused by her reaction. Ritchie didn't often strike him as the laugh-out-loud type. He was clearly pulling her in ever closer…

  He reached down to collect the pieces that Ritchie had abused and placed them back on the Chinese Go board. "Not exactly. But I guess you could say that to an extent this could be classed as a representation of Ikebukuro."

  "How do you mean?" asked Ritchie, confused.

  "Well let's see…" Izaya picked up one of the black pieces and set it down centrally on one side of the board. "I'm the king, of course. And I suppose that you would be the queen…" He picked up another black piece and placed it beside the first one.

  "Lucky me," said Ritchie sarcastically. She didn't even bother pointing out how cliché it was that they were in black.

  Izaya ignored her and picked up some of the white pieces instead. "Celty would be the other queen, Shizu-chan a knight and Simon a bishop." He placed each one back on the board as he spoke.

  Ritchie tried not to seem interested, but she couldn't help it. She was getting just a little bit of insight into the info broker's mind here… "What about Shinra?" Surely he wasn't going to be the other king. He didn't seem to fit that role somehow.

  Izaya took one of the black knights and changed its position on the board. "Shinra's not quite so black and white. Right now he's working under my hand… But he could quite easily go either way."

  He tipped the piece over, where it rolled partway across the board and came to a stop nearer to the white queen. How ironic.

  "And then we have these three…" Izaya continued, collecting three other white pieces into his hand. "Three high school students. Three friends. Three very central characters to our story." He placed the king and a bishop down in turn. "Two gang leaders… And then a girl who'd not quite like the rest of us." The other knight followed its fellow pieces onto the board.

  Ritchie raised her eyebrows. "So you're telling me that high school students are in charge of gangs now?" she asked sceptically. "Are you talking about the Dollars?"

  "Maybe," said Izaya simply, not giving anything away.

  "Is this what you've been so interested in lately?" Ritchie asked instead.

  The corners of Izaya's mouth turned up into a smirk. "Maybe," he repeated.

  Ritchie scowled. "New choice."

  Izaya just laughed. "That's all I'm going to tell you, Ritchie-chan."

  Ritchie folded her arms in a huff and stared down at the board. She still didn't understand the point of the Othello and Shogi pieces. "You only explained the chess pieces," she pointed out, reluctantly continuing the conversation as her curiosity got the better of her.

  "Yes, I did," said Izaya. He didn't elaborate but he was watching her expectantly, waiting for her to ask more questions.

  Ritchie had a feeling that the more questions she asked, the less he'd give away. She chose her next words more carefully. "So just what exactly are the rules of this game?"

  "Isn't it obvious, Ritchie-chan?" said Izaya. "They're my rules." He got to his feet. "We always play by my rules."

  His rules… His way. It was always his way. Izaya worked everything to suit him. He really did control Ikebukuro, even if nobody else was aware of it. But then maybe one day that would be subject to change…

  Once Izaya had turned away, Ritchie reached for the black king and childishly knocked it over.