Bounded by Chains (Orangebat)

Chapter 5: Out and About

I squirm a little in my seat under the intense glares. Orange's friends came over for dinner and their eyes have been glued to me since they arrived. Well at least one of their eyes.

There are three friends in total. A blonde male, a black-haired girl and a blonde girl. The blonde girl was the first to stop paying attention. She cared for a bit, but she seems pretty aloof. Then the boy stopped. He glared at first, but now he'll occasionally give me a cautious glance. The black haired girl, however, is still glaring at me. I don't really understand why, but she abhors me with her whole being, or so it seems.

I look back at the food in front of me and try to eat, but I can still feel the menace radiating off of her.

That's it. I'm not going to deal with this anymore. I look up at the owner of the house. "Hey, Orange. Could you do something about your guests?"

"Do something about us? How about you do something about yourself!? You're the person that went berserk and started that whole war! Not to mention shooting Inaho! He doesn't have an eye because of you!" I look over to see the black haired girl with purple eyes.

Even though I was charged with the assassination plot, I wasn't the person who started this all. "You need to fix your attitude. Whether you like it or not, I live here now so get over it."

She fumes and clenches her fist. I can tell she's holding herself back from jumping across the table to strangle me. I give her a triumphant look in return.

"Inko, please calm down. He may get on your nerves, but he's going to be here for a while," Orange says in a steady tone. Then he turns his attention. "And if you don't control yourself, I'll have to make you eat dinner in your room."

I glare at him. He's treating me like a kid! I'm probably older than him if not the same age! I stand up and grab my plate. "Eating in my room sounds good right now." I pivot and walk towards my room.

As I leave, I hear Yuki sigh. "He's been causing Nao-kun a lot of trouble recently. He's been here only a couple days but he keeps-"

I don't listen to the rest. I quickly finish the distance between me and my room. Once I'm in, I close the door and sit against it.

I never expected them to like me. I didn't even expect them to accept me. But I don't want to deal with this for a year until I can finally leave. I sigh and eat again. This room is the best thing that's happened so far and that's saying a lot since I hate the colour.

I hear a knock sound behind me and nearly drop the plate in surprise.

"Slaine-kun?"

I sigh again. "What do you want?"

"May I come in?"

I put the now almost empty plate to the side and stand up. I open the door to see the brunette. Surprisingly, he looks a little annoyed or upset.

"..Inaho?" It doesn't really feel right to call him Orange right now.

"Yes?"

"Mm.." I don't really know what to say. "What'd you need?"

"I just wanted to see if you'd like to go somewhere with me."

Huh..? I blink, still not really understanding what he's trying to say. "What do you mean? Why?"

"It was rather rude of my friends to immediately judge you like that. I'd like to get to know you better so I can defend you next time."

I give him an incredulous look. "Why would you want to defend me? I'm just a criminal you were forced to take in. They're your friends."

"But you aren't as bad as everyone makes you seem."

I have no idea what he's trying to get at right now. "Okay. Let's go. I should probably know the area anyway."

He nods and leads me out of the house. We pass the kitchen and once again Inko glares at me. What did I even do? There is no reason she should hate me this much. Maybe I should ask Orange.

Once we're outside, I look around a bit. It's plain. The house faces a road with sidewalks on either side. And the houses surrounding the area are neatly aligned along the road. It's different. Mars looks nothing like the Earth. It seems plain yet beautiful here. I do remember how it was on Earth from when I lived here, but it's still beautiful.

I shake the thoughts from my head. I need to ask Orange why that girl hates me so much. I open my mouth to ask, but I feel something weird. Orange just casually held my hand??

"Orange, what the fuck are you doing!?" Holding my hand like this! In public! We're not dating or anything so what the hell is he thinking!? I feel my face heat up and inwardly scold myself. Stop! It's nothing! And even if it meant something, you shouldn't get embarrassed like this!

"You weren't even listening to my explaination, Bat?"

I jolt out of my thoughts and meet his crimson eye. "Huh..?"

"The reason I'm holding your hand is so you don't get lost."

I scowl. "I don't need you to hold my hand. I won't get lost." But I don't take my hand away. It's oddly comforting like this. Despite that, my face is still warm.

We walk around in silence for a bit. For me, it's awkward, but I'm sure he doesn't feel any of that. This is just another one of his weird habits or something. I don't even know why I'm so embarrassed about this.

I furrow my brows, deep in thought and not paying attention to my surroundings.

"Bat."

"Hm?" I say, only halfway paying attention.

"No. Slaine, look." I snap out of my daze. No suffix? I first look in his face. Traces of..terror? Disbelief? have betrayed his normal expressionless face.

I follow his gaze to a glass window. On the other side of the window is a TV flashing a message.

"Empress Asseylum found dead."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Too lazy to make an author's note.

Bye, bye!

29-6-17