The Accompanist

Chapter 13: Sayaka's Stubbornness

Once Boutarou was relatively clean (Shiki refused to scrub anything in between his shoulders and his feet), and he was in a new t-shirt and sweats, the only thing left was for him to take an EVE A and flop back into bed. Brushing his teeth would, respectfully, have to wait until morning.

"Don't you get tired of lugging him around?"

Shiki raised an eyebrow as he walked into the bedroom with Boutarou on his back, Sayaka already claiming her half of the bed.

"It's better than lugging a dead body through an alleyway."

She stared at him for a few seconds before casually flipping her hand as if her stubby nails were more interesting. "Fair enough."

As much as Boutarou thought Sayaka was going to protest sleeping in the same bed as him, when he was actually laying down, he understood why she hadn't. With the size of the bed, their sleeping arrangement was no different from laying two futons next to each other. And they had done that plenty of times as kids.

Shiki picked up the glass of water on his nightstand and popped a white pill into his mouth. "Don't ever exercise that much again. And don't forget to explain everything to Sayaka."

He wanted to argue that it wasn't really how much he exercised but more of the ridiculous amount of reps he tried to do at once on pure adrenaline, but the pill and the water prevented him from saying anything.

"I'm leaving," said Shiki, putting the glass back down on Boutarou's nightstand. "If you need anything, steal the idiot's phone and text me. I'll keep mine off of silent... And don't leave this room."

"Kaay."

The second the door was closed, Sayaka fell silent.

"...I guess I should start explaining."

"Don't bother," said Sayaka, rolling over to turn off the light with a masked wince.

"Hey! This is important information."

"Boutarou."

Something about the urgency in her voice stopped him. There had to be something... Something obvious he hadn't caught onto.

She sighed. "Whatever it is, I don't want any part of it. I'll do what you say and stay the night here... But I'm going back in the morning."

Back to her usual cold voice. Boutarou wished he could make a fist, but his stubborn fingers only twitched. "You're not going back."

"I need to practice."

"Then we'll bring your bass here."

"With Katsumi."

"Screw Katsumi." He didn't want to hear that idiot's name again. Why was she acting like this? There had to be something he was missing. "Sayaka, whatever he's threatening you with, Shiki can take care of it. His entire clan can take care of it. He isn't even scared of the police."

Sayaka reached over and covered his mouth with a wince. There was something in her eyes that begged him not to talk anymore. A terror, and an urgency for him to be quiet. He furrowed his eyebrows and nearly opened his mouth to lick her hand in attempt to make her remove it. But he thought better of it.

When she finally unclamped his mouth, her demeanor changed, a more distant and unamused look on her face.

"...What?"

"Have fun peeling your contacts out of your eyes in the morning."

With that, the light of the lamp flicked once before plunging the room into darkness.