The curtains, hung over the bedroom window, didn't seem to do much as the sun's rays slowly intensified, piercing through the cheap material. Anyone would would wonder why such a thing was even used for what it was. The comfortingly warm light seemed to reach the boy's face, slowly creeping up to his eyes. He shifted slightly. The light had already woken him. The fact that he didn't want to get up was the reason why he kept his eyes shut. Turning over in his bed, he slowly opened his eyes to see the small alarm clock now in front of him. With one look at the time, his eyes shot wide open and he bounded out of bed. "Damn faulty alarm clock. . . Cheap rip-off. . ." was all the muttering that could be heard as he quickly made his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

"Yup yup yup. I'm getting there boss. Sorry!" he apologised on his brick-of-a-mobile as he briskly walked down the street. He was now 5 minutes late, and it'd maybe take him just a little longer to get there. Curse the boss for being so strict on time. Why couldn't he just open the shop himself?
His mind eased as the small cafe came into view. He said goodbye and then hung up, slipping the phone into his backpack that was slung over one shoulder. With something so big, how was he supposed to keep it in his pockets??

Good. No one's waiting outside, he thought pleasantly, making his way to the door and unlocking it, flipping the sign on the door to 'Open'. Turning the lights on as he got deeper into the little place, he made his way behind the counter and back to the storage room to put down his bag.
He ducked his head into the kitchen where the bakers already seemed hard at work. "Anything ready yet?" he asked.
"A small batch of the strawberry cakes are almost done. Wait 10 more minutes," one called back. Tyler nodded and made his way back to the front counter. He didn't see the point of coming so early when nobody would come anyway. . .


[[Sorry it's a little rushed. I had to get to school xD;;]]

A rather creepy looking male soon walked up to the cafe door, awkwardly walking, like he wasn't used to wearing shoes, which he really wasn't, but he didn't want to be thrown out of anywhere for not wearing them..He had bright red eyes that stood out against his pale skin and black hair, and wore pure white.A white, long-sleeved shirt, with rips in the sleeves and what seemed to be red stains, that appeared to be blood, also on the sleeves, and the belly, but could have easily been dark red paint, or a dark red drink, that appeared to be blood colored when spilled on white and that was left to dry like that, after a bad attempt at talking the stain out.

His pants were similar, pure white, soft pants, that were very close to just being pajama pants.He looked like he hadn't slept in a week, as his eyes kept slightly closing as he walked, he peeked into the cafe, seeing that noone was really there, he sat down near the doorway, setting the messenger bag, again, pure white, with blood red stains in splattered patterns, that hung over his shoulder beside him.He got odd looks from the people who walked by him, but ll he did was give them an odd, sort of innocent, but still quite malevolent look.His lips were emotionless, not even a subtle hint of a frown or a smile.Overall, he looked odd, very tired, and he most likely had ill intentions, or did he?It was hard to tell, his face barely showed emotion, and he just stared into space, stopping his contant stare only to blink, or doze off for a moment.

Tyler heard the door open quietly just as he ducked out to the kitchen to check. Wow. Somebody actually came in the morning. . . he thought, popping his head back into the kitchen. He didn't even have to say anything. "Yeah yeah yeah Tyler. The stuffs ready," one of the bakers grunted, making Tyler smile. He'd only been working with them for a month or two, and they'd already picked up on his annoying habit of checking up on them. They're on the bench there."
"Thanks!" Tyler chimed happily, taking the tray of mini-strawberry cakes to the display shelves behind a clear glass window.

He looked up as he slipped the tray on the shelves. "I'll be with you in just a sec," he called to the man with the black hair. He quickly wiped his hands and took his ordering pad, a pen and a menu, briskly walking to the table closest to the door with a smile. "Good morning. Sorry for the wait. Would you like anything? Only the strawberry cakes are available at the moment, sorry," he greeted, slipping the menu in front of the man


[[Sorry this is all extremely rushed. . xD;; I plan to type better when I have more time. . .]]

The man smiled very subtley and lightly pushed a bit of his fluffy black hair out of his face."it's fine..I just need a large cup of coffee, please.And one of those strawberry cakes sounds good, as well.." He said, looking up at Tyler from where he sat, as he pulled his laptop out of his messenger bag.

(Me too, I have to go to bed.D: early 'bed time' due to school sucks.D< Luckily, I stay up 'til, like, midnight or later playing portable video games int he dark.>3)

Tyler nodded, pushing a bit of his long-ish blonde hair out of his eyes. He guessed he needed a haircut. "Sure," he replied, taking the menu back and making his way back behind the counter to the coffee machine that he hadn't yet turned on. He flicked on the switch and retrieved one of the freshly made strawberry cakes from the cool display shelves. He placed it on a small plate, along with a small fork wrapped in a tissue. Quickly making his way back to the coffee machine, he cursed himself for not pouring the beans in as he turned it on.
Reaching to the cupboard under the machine, he grabbed the large jar of coffee beans and poured it into the compartment he was supposed to, almost filling it to the top.

He placed a coffee cup under the part where the coffee was supposed to come out and leaned on the bench, with nothing more to do than just wait, really. The loud sound the coffee machine annoyed him a bit, but all he really did was just absent-mindedly stare at the man. Black hair. . . and was it red eyes he'd seen. . . ? He was pretty sure he'd seen someone that looked remotely like. . .

"Tyler! Got another batch of cakes for ya! Two actually."
Tyler jumped slightly at the calling, quickly rushing to the kitchen to retrieve one of the trays, still the strawberry cakes. As soon as he got back, the coffee had started running, and all he did was wait until the cup was full before placing it on a saucer, about the same size as the one the cake was on. He also placed a small cookie and spoon on the side, taking both items and making his way to the man, now with his laptop in front of him. "Sorry for the wait," he apologised as he placed them down just behind the laptop screen.


[[xD I used to do that too~ Well, that was until I got a laptop and just went on that in my room. . . I agree. School sucks Dx ]]

The man smiled rather creepily and pulled the plates around from the back of his laptop gently."Thank you.." He said, turning back to his laptop as he took a sip of his coffee.

On his laptop screen was many internet pages, each one a different news page, each speaking about recent crimes, murderers, serial killers, and such..And all had not been yet captured.His red eyes read the stories with much interest, as he wrote the names of all the killers into a little red notebook, which had "Justice" written on the front in japanese characters.He definately seemed a bit obsessed about putting all the names into his notebook.Mnay more names were also in it, but most were crossed out.

(I WOULD do that, but me, my mom, AND my dad all are on the same instant messaging service, that turns on when I turn on the laptop, so if they happen to be awake still and on their computers and I'm not able to log off fast enough, I'm instantly caught.:P )

"Ah! I knew it!" Tyler instantly covered his mouth with both hands at the sudden outburst. He could feel his face go much much warmer, and probably a nice beetroot colour, by the look of things. Curses. . . Damn Tyler and his little random outbursts that sometimes got him in trouble. Bad habit ever since he was a little kid. Sometimes, he just couldn't keep his mouth shut tight enough, it seemed. But now that he'd said it out loud, and most likely captured the man's attention. . . "Errmmm. . . . . Sorry about that. . ." he apologised quietly and meekly, obviously embarrassed as he slowly moved away, hand scratching the back of his head, ruffling the blonde hair at the back. He wondered what his boss would do if he found out that Tyler started scaring off customers for no reason. . . But he swore he'd seen that freakish sort of smile before. . . Well, maybe not so freakish. . .

Tyler made his way back behind the counter and slowly sank behind it, not feeling like being in view of the man just right now. . . Every so often he'd poke his head out from beyond, but he'd immediately duck after a few seconds. Like a little kid playing peek-a-boo, or spying on someone. . . Though that was kind of what he was doing, wasn't it? Spying. . . ?


[[Ah, that sucks. . . >w>;; My parents refuse to get msn, and I always appear offline anyways, so I'm always good, though I usually go on when I'm positive they're either asleep or in their room. . .]]

The male was startled a bit by Tyler, but sort of ignored it, and took a bite of his strawberry cake, raising an eyebrow whenever he saw Tyler peek out at him.He had very good vision, though his red eyes made it look like he had some sort of odd condition.He turned to look at his computer screen, now half-covered with instant messaging screens, sending messages of praise, and also filled with links to other news sites he hadn't been to yet that day, or cases he might have missed.He smiled creepily again, starting to write the names in those cases down, now.He could have just been a college student, who's current assignment was studying about criminals, with a lot of friends, and a very odd personality, or he could be something much different..

Much more..Homicidal, then just a college student, or a wanna-be detective.

I know him, I know him. . . . I swear. . . Those were pretty much the thoughts that just circled round and around in Tyler's mind, but somehow, he just wasn't convinced. "Tyler!" As quickly as possible, Tyler made his way to the kitchen, glad to be doing something. His mind seemed to wander too much when he didn't have anything to do, which wasn't exactly a good thing. . . He entered the kitchen and saw another 4 trays of mini cakes, but now in assorted berries. He smiled. If they kept this work up, he might have a few cakes to take home, providing that some of his co-workers didn't hog them all. . . Though Tyler was usually the one to get them. "Nice work you guys!" he praised happily, taking two of the trays to place on display, returning for the other two.

His eyes glanced over to the man, busily on his laptop and writing down things in a notebook. Studying, perhaps? Well, there wasn't anything else for him to do. . . He could always ask the man. . . But then he'd look like a complete idiot. Well, I already made a complete idiot outta myself before. . . he thought glumly. Maybe just much more of one. . . But Tyler was still curious. Plus, he'd never known anyone else with red eyes. . . Of course, there were many many people in the world, but the single feature more-or-less urged him to come to the conclusion that he wanted.

He wandered over to the man's table, as if to just check whether he'd finished his coffee or cake. "Is everything okay? Do you want anything else?" he asked in a nice friendly tone, taking a better look at the man. He silently sucked in a breath as he readied himself. He'd either be made into more of an idiot or. . . he didn't know. "You. . . Your name doesn't happen to be Hajime. . . Does it?" There. He'd said it.

"I'm fine, thanks.." He softly said."And yes, it is..Hajime Himura." The man smiled again."But there are plenty of people named Hajime, and I'm sure I'm not the only one with these features..In fact, a cousin of mine has these same eyes, and the same name.Shame he died, a while back.." He said emotionlessly, turning back to his computer as he said his thanks to his 'friends' and closed the messaging windows, then took another sip of his coffee.

"Actually, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like some more coffee..I've been..Staying up rather late.I have strange insomnia, can't fall asleep at night, can't keep myself awake in the day.." Hajime laughed, it matched his smile.Rather disturbing.

Tyler frowned slightly at Hajime. Why would he concerned whether he had the right person or not? He was also slightly concerned at the fact that he didn't seem the least bit sad about his cousin's death. . . Well, it wasn't his business to stick his nose into in the first place. "Uhh, sure thing," he replied a little slowly. Gah. What was it? Something else about the man reminded him of someone. . . Kind of like dejavu, though he was more than certain he'd met this person before. . . God this was irritating. He took Hajime's empty coffee cup and went back to the coffee machine, making some more coffee in a fresh new cup, placing the other one in the sink. The loud sound of the coffee machine started up again.

Tyler folded his arms, leaning against the bench, looking at the man as if examining him, which he was doing. Kinda. "I swear I've seen you before. . ." he said, though he didn't know whether his voice would travel over the sound of the machine. He was somewhat hoping it wasn't, but kind of did at the same time. "Childhood maybe? At the orphanage. . .?" This was more to himself really. It wasn't any of his business whether people were orphans or not.
The sound ceased, signaling Tyler to take the cup of fresh coffee back to Hajime, just placing it down on the table, this time without a word.

Hajime smiled again up at Tyler."Thank you..What's your name, by the way?Maybe if you can't recall when we might have met, I can..I can't remember your face, but I may remember your name..I have quite a good memory for names, but not faces, at least with people other than my family." He said, his voice trailing off in volume, eventually reducing to a small whisper as he looked deep in thought at his computer screen.

Tyler looked over at the Hajime, who was now looking back at his computer screen, seeming somewhat disinterested, but he answered anyway. "Tyler. Tyler LeCras," he replied plainly, standing there, wondering whether or not he should be moving back to his assumed space, or just stay there. He really didn't have anything to do. Just as if to take his attention away, the door opened and Tyler looked up at the man who had just entered.
The man seemed in his late 50s, maybe even 60. He greeted Tyler with a warm smile. "Mornin' boy. The usual please," he said in a rather low, but smooth voice. One of their regular customers. Tyler hadn't really had conversations with him before, but they knew each other well enough not to address the other as strangers. Tyler smiled back with a nod. "Coming right up, but the berry cakes aren't yet ready yet. Do you want a strawberry one instead?" he offered.
"That would be great," the man replied, taking a seat just two tables away from Hajime. Seeing as his previous question had been answered, Tyler made his way back to the coffee machine and selected the blend he wanted, waiting for the machine to spew out the liquid that was required.

After bringing the man his order, Tyler glanced back at Hajime, just to see if he needed anything else, or if he was done, or something.

Hajime finished his strawberry cake and his crimson eyes turned to look at the old man, then he looked back to his laptop, mumbling something in japanese as he typed something to one of his friends, most likely..Or one of his admirers."Tyler..Tyler LeCras..Sounds sort of familiar.." He murmured to himself, tapping his fingers on the table in front of him as he looked aorund the room in thought, no doubt pulling a bit too much attention to his eyes.

"Eeh, I'll remember it soon, I'm sure." He said softly, going back to what he was doing on his computer.

Noticing the empty plate, Tyler made his way to the table to retrieve the empty plate, taking it to the back to get it washed, something it seemed he'd have to do himself until the place became a little busier and someone else came to wash the dishes. Using the sink that still enabled him to keep an eye on the cafe, Tyler simply washed the coffee cup and used plate from this morning, as well as a few day-old plates he found in the sink. He wondered which of his lazy co-workers were to blame. The washing kept his hands busy as his mind drifted. He was just trying to think of the name. Hajime Himura. Hajime Himura. Hajime. . . He even said the name out loud quietly, quietly enough for no one to hear. "Hajime, Hajime, Ha. . . Ha-chan?"

He finished washing up and just let them to dry all by themselves as he moved back to where Hajime was sitting, taking the seat opposite from the man, arms folded on the table. He was certain this time. 100%. "Hajime Himura. Ha-chan?" he said with a slight smile, wondering if he'd remember the nickname, if it was the right person.


[[. . .Does Hajime like nicknames?? xD;;]]

Hajime looked up once his nickname was said."Tyler LeCras..Ty-kun?" He said softly, his usually sleepy looking eyes now wide, blinking at his and Tyler's sudden rememberance.He fully pushed his hair out of his eyes, revealing this twisted, yet sad red eyes.They had quite an insane look to them..If the eyes are a window to the soul, his soul was hollow, and lonely, like a young orphan, but more sick and twisted..He had dark rings around his eyes from lack of sleep, as well.

If Tyler was to remember little Hajime from long ago, he wouldn't have changed much.He had been a strange child, as he had seen the horrors of his family, close and far-related, stabbed to death, and chopped apart.He looked like a lonely, sad child, who was very close to being in a mental hospital, as he was terribly traumatized from seeing everyone he ever knew, chopped to bits.

Tyler stood up excitedly from his chair, face instantly euphoric. "So it is you! I was right!" he exclaimed happily, huge grin on his face. He was pretty sure the old gentleman had given him a glance, but he didn't really care. Tyler had to hold himself from diving straight for his childhood friend to give him a hug. That would surely bring wrong ideas to the man's mind. He slowly sat himself down to inspect Hajime more closely. "Wow. Those dark rings really don't suit you, y'know," he commented. "They're darker than ever." He was just really happy to see Hajime again. The man was something like almost two years older than Tyler himself, so naturally, he'd left before Tyler.

Tyler had made plenty more friends before, but Hajime was the first one he'd befriended, and one's company he enjoyed most, even if he did have his scary moments. Tyler guessed he was probably one of the only people Hajime had actually made friends with. Most, if not all, the other orphans seemed kinda scared of him, though Tyler didn't really blame them, but he did hope they'd get past the fact that appearances and first impressions shouldn't impact on anything. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in such a long time!"

"I've been okay I guess..I'm thinking of trying to go to college soon, I've tried before, but I think everyone is scared of me..Even my own roommate whispers to his friends sometimes that he's going to call an asylum in a heartbeat if I do ANYTHING stranger than I already do..I can't help that my past has given me some..Mental issues." Hajime said, nervously looking over at the old man who, no doubt, was staring at him."Maybe it's just better if I do go to a mental hospital, though..Wish there was a better way..I just want to know if my family's killer has been brought to justice, and if I can just get therapy or somethin to help my little..Attacks."

Hajime laughed nervously."It's been getting worse lately, since some bad thing have been happening on the streets..I hear anything about a stabbing and I black out, wake up covered in blood with my roommate jus staring at me, before he takes me home from wherever I go.."
(hope you don't mind if I mirror your little style, I feel odd with you having fancy effects and I don't.:P )

Tyler tilted his head to the side at Hajime's first comment. "I do think you have that sort of impression on people," he stated plainly, pointing a finger in his direction. "I mean, how're you supposed to attract people with that kinda face, I wonder." A little smirk showed on his lips as he continued to listen to Hajime, the up curve slowly disappearing. Well that certainly didn't sound normal. He raised an eyebrow as he forced a sort of mocking smile onto his lips. "Are you sure you're not just getting roaring drunk and then waking up with your own blood all over yourself?" he suggested in a teasing manner. "I mean, you could have very well just gotten into some bad fights and not being able to remember them is all."

The thought still worried Tyler though. Stuff like that certainly couldn't be normal. What could Hajime be up to? Something he seemingly couldn't remember the next time he woke up. "But," Tyler continued in a much cheerier tone. "I don't think you're quite yet ready for a mental asylum. I mean, I don't see you going around and stabbing people for no reason in broad daylight, just yet. If you can't find any solid evidence, then I guess just leave it for now, eh? I mean, you can't really be any more mental or scary looking than what you used to look like back at the orphanage." He paused. "Or so I thought."


[[It's perfectly fine~ ;9]]

"I-I don't drink that much..Plus, my roommate says I'm actually really...'Cuddly' when I'm drunk, his girlfriend calls me a 'cute' drunk, so it's not that..And I only wake up like that on nights when I don't go out to a party or something with my roommate, nights when I just do normal things." Hajime said, sighing."It seems to happen alot when I meet someone that remainds me of one of my family members..I find out the next day that that person was brutally stabbed, and is either dead or in critical condition in the hospital..I'm scared that I've been doing something and forgetting it all within the night.."

"And trust me, life's been hard for me since I left the orphanage..I can't get a job, I'm scared I'll scare people at college, so I just end up living with the only friend I really have right now other than you, my roommate, Hikaru, and his girlfriend..And even they don't really trust me..Plus, it's hard to live normally when you grew up never wearing shoes, I get alot of odd looks or 'can you please leave's from people since I spent the first three quarters of my life in a place where I didn't wear them, or in the orphanage, where noone cared, since I was already the mentally insane freak there..I'm thinking of also getting color contacts soon, or just wearing sunglasses more often..Due to these. " The male said, pointing to his eyes."I'm a mess nowadays..Wish I could back up time, be brave enough to run for help, or to warn at least one member of my family, or to just beat that killer to the ground..Or just..Try to forget it all, so i could have been a normal kid, and been adopted by a loving family..I only had one family ever think of adopting me, did you know that?They Ended up being creeped out by my phobias and habits, and went for a perfect little kid, one fo the ones that always picked on me, even.Didn't even talk about getting me help..I know, I was a very good eavesdropper at that age. "

Tyler poked his index fingers into his soft cheeks with a big grin. "It's because you need to do this more often, silly!" he laughed, making his eyes look to the centre of his face before returning it back to normal, thinking what would happen if his boss had suddenly burst in and seen him mucking around instead of working. "If you don't smile, of course people would be scared of you."
"Tyler!!" Tyler's head turned to the kitchen's direction. "Got more food for you!!"
"Coming!!" he called back before giving Hajime a short glance. "Be right back."

He scurried off to the kitchens where there were now a great selection of sweets, and two actual cakes, all ready to be put out. "If you don't put them in a cool place soon, they'll all die," grumbled the head chef. Tyler bowed quickly as an apology.
"Right." He carried out the several trays of sweets as fast as he could without trying to get them to fall with a splat on the floor. Now that would have been disastrous. He quickly made his way back to Hajime's table, wiping his hands with the waist apron he had on before sitting himself down at the table again, wondering where to pick the conversation back up from.

"Huh? Really?? I got a family just about a month after you left, for good. . . A weird lot, but a family kinda thing nonetheless. They've been out of town for over three months now. Planning to stay out for another two, I think. Maybe more," Tyler explained, trying to get the conversation going again. "So I'm currently on my own. They gave me a bit of money to start off on, but now I'm almost completely independent now. . . . I think some of my friends are planning on paying for my flat sometime soon," he said with a mystified chuckle. "Nut cases."
"But red eyes look good on you. Besides," he said, trying to get the enthusiasm back into his voice. "What colour contacts would you get anyways?"

"I creep people out more then I smile..Plus, smiling isn't that easy for me, for some reason.My forced smiles look weird, or too fake, and my normal smiles creep people out. " Hajime chuckled.

"Must be nice, having a family.A weird one even.I hear I have a second cousin who survived the tragedy that fell upon my family, he lives somewhere in America, though..Too far for me to go.I hate flying..Just the idea of being in the air scares the crap out of me." The red eyed male laughed again, this time more dementedly."I perfer things like trains, though they can't take me to other countries..Public transport is more interesting, you have the excitement of something bad suddenly happening.same can happen on a plane, but most bad things on planes lead to death.."

(screw color, my mom's going to scream at me soon for staying up too late.XD)

Tyler tilted his head to the side with an amused grin on his face. "And yet, people are scared of you, you say," he mused. It seemed kinda cute how one second, Hajime was talking about how creepy people thought he was, and the next thing, he was talking about what scared him the most. What a weird turn of conversation. "Well, we'll just have to work on that, no?" Tyler offered, hearing a chair scrape as the man stood up from his seat. In response, Tyler stood up as well, moving to the man to accept the payment before he left. "Thanks for coming. I'll see you again sometime?" Tyler said as he stood at the entrance, waving to the man, who nodded in response.
"You know it," he called back before his back turned to Tyler to set off to wherever he was heading to.

"Sorry about all these distractions. . . Part of the job," Tyler sighed as he moved quickly to the register to deposit the money before making his way to the kitchen to see if any more sweets were available. "Hey, do you have a job or anything?" Tyler asked Hajime before popping his head into the kitchen to check. Nope. "Just curious," he added with a smile as he walked back to the table, folding his arms on top, leaning forward a bit after he had sat down.


[[Sorry I took so long to reply to. . . >.< Life has been. . . Bleh. D:]]

('tis okay.X3)

"Not really a serious one, but I do have one..I work at a bookstore down the street." Hajime smiled."I like it..It's so nice and quiet, all the noises of the city get blocked out by the music they play in there, too..My co-workers are nice too, though they're a bit nervous around me sometimes since I'm really quiet, I think it creeps them out, but oh well." He giggled lightly.

(Sorry for short, brainfart of writer block fail.D: )

Tyler chuckled at Hajime and description of his co-workers being afraid of the man. Tyler had never been one to be scared of him. He just never saw what was to be afraid of. Seriously, the guy was completely harmless. Or so he thought. "Then make an effort to seem nicer!" he replied with a chuckle, flashing a wide grin. "It's easier to make friends that way too."
"TYLER!" The boy jumped as his name was shouted, standing up quickly with his chair scraping loudly on the ground. "Why on earth are you making small talk with a customer when there is plenty more work to do?!" Tyler's eyes darted to the door, sighing in relief as he lay eyes on the young woman in the doorway. One of his own co-workers. And a pain at that.

"I'm creating a friendly atmosphere," Tyler replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, earning a glare from the female. He made a saddened face. "Aw, come on Lulu. He's an old friend. At least let me talking to him for a bit."
She stared at Tyler for a few more seconds before letting out a tired sigh. "Fine. Five more minutes and then you have to get back to work. After all, the place'll be busier soon." The woman passed the pair to the back room, Tyler sitting back down with a look of triumph on his face.
"Now that's what I call scary," he said with a chuckle. "I mean, she didn't even say 'hi' to the customer."

[[8DD Finally replied~ > w < lol]]