Aizawa didn't pay to much attention to his neighbors ...at least, he <i>tried</i> not to. It hadn't been hard in the past because Hizashi had been busy with work. Nowadays, however, was a challenge. The celebrity DJ had begun spending far more time at home. It meant more disruption in Aizawa's life, though he had to admit he was trying hard to roll with the changes. If there was a lot of noise, for example, he put on a pair of headphones or left for a walk on the beach.
Of course, though it might be selective memory loss, he kept forgetting that his - <i>their!</i> -- soulmate lived there now.
He grumbled to himself as he opened a kitchen cabinet in the early morning hours. Once again, he'd used up all his coffee and had none. Rubbing his eyes and yawning he made his way to their door.
Aizawa coughed in surprise at seeing Elly open it. "I ran out of coffee," he grunted as an explanation, then hurried on, "I shouldn't have - I'm sorry. I'll go."
She stopped him with a hand on his shoulder as he spun around. "No, Aizawa, wait."
"I forgot," he muttered. "Again."
"Yeah, but we can't ignore each other forever, right?"
He looked back at her, his gray eyes haunted. "Can't we?"
"No. We can't."
"I'd prefer if we tried," he said and pulled away to dart back to safety.
She watched him go, sighing sadly before closing the door and walking back to the kitchen to continue cooking. Hizashi soon popped his head in from the hallway, freshly showered and wearing a black silk robe with a towel wrapped around his massive pile of hair.
"Hey, babygirl," he crooned playfully. "Whatcha doing?"
"Making breakfast, love." She turned her head and they shared a tender kiss.
"Ooooh, great. I'm starving. Must've worked up too much of an appetite last night." He rolled his eyes dramatically.
She chuckled softly. "Oh, and I talked to our neighbor."
Hizashi raised an eyebrow. "What's he want?"
"He wanted to borrow coffee again. But he freaked out and ran when he saw it was me."
"Sounds about right." He looked down at the coffee he was pouring for himself with a smile. "I think he's a little afraid of you."
She stopped buttering toast for a moment to look over at him. "Would you get jealous if we went somewhere together? To talk?"
He stood up and walked over to her. "No, dear," he told her softly, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her on the neck. "He's my friend and you're my lover <i>and</i> friend. I know I blew up when I first found out and I'm sorry. I'm trying to get over my insecurity, but that's my problem. I do trust you both."
"Hmm." She leaned into his touch. "I hate seeing him so unhappy. His life has been tough, from what you told me."
"Ha! Don't let him know you feel that way. Guy slammed the door in my face when I showed up to offer condolences after the death of his soul mate."
She sighed.
"You didn't get any coffee," she pointed out.
"That's fine." He tried to close the door but she shook her head.
"Let's go get some."
"Go... get some?" Aizawa stared at her blankly.
"Both of us. We can get some at one of the cafes nearby. We've done it before, it shouldn't be too much of a bother, right?"
He frowned, trying to process the information that was coming at him. "You want... to go someplace with me? I'm trying to stay away from you, but you want <i>to get coffee together</i>?"
Her ears flicked and she stared back innocently. "Yep."
Aizawa stood still, frowning harder. Eventually he raised a hand to rub wearily at his eyes. "You're not going to accept <i>no</i> as an answer, are you."
But she surprised him again. "If you really don't want to I won't force you. I'm as concerned as you are about our situation, though, and we need to talk."
He dropped his hand, his eyes looking more tired all at once. "All right."
They received some odd looks when they arrived at the cafe. It was a sit down restaurant and they ordered from an obviously flustered waitress who kept glancing at him as though he was going to attack her.
Aizawa noticed this and sighed quietly to himself. "Black coffee," he ordered.
Elly decided on a special coffee with flavored cream and sugar, and they sat back after they were done. They decided to wait until they had their coffee before talking but the silence between them wasn't awkward. She mulled this over in her head and couldn't figure out why, so she let it go once a hot cup was set in front of her.
"Thank you." A big smile to their server caused the young lady to smile back. Aizawa noticed she once again avoided eye contact with him, however.
"Thanks," he muttered anyway, but with as quickly she dissappeared he doubted she heard him.
<i>Why doesn't</i> she <i>treat me like the rest</i>?
Elly frowned briefly at the interaction but shook it off. "Let's start with the big question," she began. "Why did we match?"
He absently tugged at his sleeve that hid their Mark from view. "Could be anything. Maybe I do need -" he made a face before continuing in as dry a tone as possible, "a friend."
"If all I'm meant to do is be there for you, that would be fine, right? There's still so much we don't know about Marks. People act like it's not scary, but it's only been a decade since they started showing up."
"I know." He stared morosely into his cup.
"I mean, look at mine and Zashi's, it's so <i>different</i> than most."
"Yeah."
There was a long silence. Aizawa's eyes were filled with pain and, as Hizashi suggested earlier, fear. He hid it well but as they had been talking his worries floated to the surface. His hands clutched the warm mug and he slumped in the chair, looking anywhere but at Elly.
She reached out and lightly touched his arm. When he jumped, nearly spilling hot liquid everywhere, she pulled back but left her hand halfway between them.
"I'm sorry -"
"Don't stop being who you are just because of me," he told her seriously.
Elly smiled warmly. "Thank you. I was kind of afraid I was being too, um. Touchy. I don't do that to everyone, but for some reason..." She trailed off with a shrug.
He grunted, deliberately ignoring that line of thought. "Our options in dealing with this are limited." He raised a hand - the one farthest from her -- and ticked them off on his fingers. "One, I move. Two, you move. Three, we don't interract although we live next to each other."
"Four," she added quietly, "we let whatever this is, happen."
"I don't want it to." His voice sounded as exhausted as he looked. "I don't, you don't, he doesn't. Not only because you two are bonded, but who would want <i>me</i> around all the time anyway?"
"I don't think you're a terrible person. I mean, I'm spending time with you now, right?"
"That's because these stupid Marks fucked everything up. The only person that really wanted me was..." He froze, then clamped his mouth tightly shut.
"You don't have to say anything."
He nodded curtly.
"But if you ever <i>want</i> to, I'd like to know more about him. He sounds like he was a really great guy."
His head drooped down, dark hair falling down to hide his face but he nodded again.
"Let me know any time. Text or call or ...hell, come over. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Aizawa remembered a few very lonely nights recently and shook his head. "I couldn't -"
"<i>Any</i> time," she repeated firmly. "I might be asleep or whatever, but I <i>will</i> get back to you." Elly laid her palm on his arm again and, to his horror, he felt his ears start to burn.
"Let's get back to our choices." He cleared his throat roughly and straightened in his chair. His tone became so gruff, in fact, that a passing waitress stopped and made a small sign with one hand at Elly out of concern.
"Uh huh." She shook her head, a smile directed at the anxious girl. <i>I'm okay,</i> she mouthed silently.
Her scruffy friend's countenance was emanating ominous vibes. His expression grew even darker as he thought. The waitress looked unconvinced but backed off. "I'm not going to move," he said firmly. "And I doubt you are, either..?"
"Well, that's not so easy. I just moved in a month ago! I don't want to do it <i>again</i>. Plus I like where we are."
He agreed. "And we can't ignore each other. We've tried."
"That only leaves option four," she reminded him gently.
"But we don't have to fucking <i>rush</i> things, do we?" He grew more agitated as he spoke, his hands balling into fists. "What did we get from today except - except..." His left eye twitched and he once again clamped his mouth shut, horrified at what had been about to come out.
<i>...except that my heart raced when you touched my arm, and I haven't felt that happen in years</i>.
Luckily Elly hadn't noticed, or she was kind enough to pretend not to. "We know what we're not going to do. We understand that we need to look deeper to get more information."
"The university would <i>love</i> this bullshit," he muttered.
Her ears perked wildly up. "Aizawa, that's it!"
"What?"
"The university. They have scientists dedicated to studying Marks. We should go and see if they could shed some light on our situation."
"No."
"What?! It's a perfect solution, they might be able to help!"
"I <i>work</i> there."
Elly paused, thinking she'd heard wrong. "You what?"
"I'm a professor at the university." He inwardly groaned, knowing he was going to lose this battle. She was as strong willed as -
<i>No! You're not comparing them!</i>
"What do you do there?"
"Research and lectures, mostly."
Her ears laid back in irritation. "Getting information from you is like pulling teeth, man. <i>Please</i> tell me what."
Aizawa hesitated until she laid a hand on his. Startled, he blinked down at the soft palm laying so gently on his larger, rougher hand. His fingers twitched and he rubbed nervously at the back of his neck with his free hand. "Ah... you're not going to like this..."
"You research Marks, don't you."
"I did, but gave it up years ago." He cleared his throat. "I've been dedicated to erasing Marks from people instead of researching their meanings."
