Close to You || Ash Lynx (Banana Fish)

Chapter 8

Ash watched your hooded self disappear along the shadows. Without any warnings, he stood up, confusing both Eiji and Shorter. "Ash? Where are you going?" The petite boy called on, his question passing through Ash's one ear to the other as he continued his way down the room, following on your tracks in discrete. "This girl...," He gritted his teeth, unable to mask the worries he harbored as soon as you left in his line of sight.

Although Ash is adamant in not agreeing on your terms on joining the dispute against Golzine, he still didn't want anything to happen to you. He settled on escorting you home from a decent distance; Ash doesn't know what had happened while he was in prison, he assumed the worst of course knowing Arthur and his men, but the word disappointment can't even rival to what state his emotions is when he came to a realization that you were caught up in the tangles, he dearly wished for you to stay away and forget about him.

He saw a ray of hope by the way you treated him like he was just a normal citizen, that alone is heart warming enough and he will forever treasure your pure intention, it would be too ambitious of him to not cut ties with you. Who knows? Maybe next time you might be gone in a blink of the eye, especially once Golzine or one of his men catch your tail.

When he saw you on the ground, rocking yourself in a rhythmic pattern, his heart ached in guilt—your tear stained face triggered something inside him, the lynx melted under your gaze, doing the unexpected next. You were like a kitten under his palms, stroking your already trimmed hair in an up and down motion. No matter how fixed his viewpoint about you, he still can't reject your plead, not when you sounded like your whole life depended on it.

"I want to feel alive. Make me feel alive, Ash."

Ash knew about it, he completely understand what you meant. The reason why he felt so attached to you at one meeting is he can see himself reflect on you (e/c) colored eyes.

You smiled but your eyes sparked with nothing, dull and lifeless.

Ash took a look at you through the corner of his eye, you kept a neutral expression but the bounce on your steps gave away your true emotions, he can definitely tell that you are pleased with how the situation came to be. At that moment, all that bothered the lynx didn't matter, that small tint of excitement your orbs showed was enough for him, he really did make the right call this time.

Ash silently prayed to whoever is there to grant his wish to not let this decision ends up with regrets.

—--—

"Why can't I room with Eiji?" You grumbled, Eiji scratched the side of his face, it has been an hour since you got here, after what the two who was left in the hideout assumed that you were able to work on the indifferences between one another, and yet, the two of your are arguing already. Eiji can't help but find such similarities with the two, "So why can't they just get a long?" He wondered to himself.

"Are you deaf? I just told you, we can't trust you with this old man here. He can barely kill an ant." Ash got a pinch on his shoulder, "Who are you calling an old man?" Shorter, not wanting the fight to become a threesome, stepped in, fingers on his temples, massaging it as a way to somehow release a few tension forming on his head. "Look at the bright side, you'll get to room with me baby doll!"

The two glared at him, he won't lie, it scared him a whole lot with yours and his friend's combined. "What? Why are you looking at me like that too man?" Ash rolled his eyes, he exclaimed, "I'm surrounded by idiots."

He turned to you who is threatening Shorter abour him and his perverted ways in which the man found amusing by how he grinned like a fool. Ash grabbed the end of your hoodie, pulling you away, "Fine, you're rooming with me, tough it up dog."