* TwEnTy TwO * The Ride Here

Still Koki's point of view

Dan's house used to be Steve's house, of course. Once we arrived, Taryn knocked on the door. Dan answered sleepily.
"Yeah?" he asked with his eyes half-closed.
Taryn crossed her arms, obviously annoyed. "Dan, guess who this is?" She poked my shoulder.
Dan looked at me still with tired eyes. "Uh, some rock star?"
Taryn sighed, and I rolled my eyes.
"Thanks, Dan, I appreciate the compliment. But you're wrong. It's me, Koki. I haven't really cut my hair in a while," I said, conscientiously grabbing my now long bangs dangling in front of my eyes. My hair was the length of Taryn's.
"Oh! Wait! . . . OH!" Dan shouted, obviously waking up. "Koki! Hi! Wait! Why are you here with Taryn? What?!"
"Ryder found him and brought him to me," Taryn answered dully. "He could have just left him alone."
"Even if he did leave me alone, I would have followed him," I stated, slightly smiling.
"Maybe he knew that, but I will never know because he likes to joke all the time," Taryn said.
"Why does he listen to you . . . sometimes anyway?" I asked.
"I don't know. He follows me around as if we're friends, so I figured I would be bossy. If he listens: yay for me! But as you know, he doesn't listen to me all of the time. I'm also surprised he doesn't get annoyed with my bossiness."
"He seemed annoyed earlier," I noted.
"Maybe he's finally realizing then."
I shrugged then noticed Dan leaning on the doorway and trying to fall back asleep. "Dan! Stop it!"
Dan darted back into his standing position. "Sorry! So why are you guys here?"
"We're here to start planning to find Rio," Taryn stated calmly. "Where's Eeris? Ryder said she was here with you."
"She was, but she left to get food."
"Well, start thinking of stuff . . . and remember this: we are all going to meet at my house tomorrow at three in the afternoon."
"Got it," Dan yawned.
Taryn sighed.
Dan closed the door, while Taryn turned around to walk away from the house. I quickly caught up to her pace. "So where are we going now until tomorrow?" I asked.
Taryn gave another sigh and stopped walking. Stumped. "I don't know. Where do you want to go?"
"Shouldn't you go back to Ryder?"
"Does it look like I care? For once he isn't following me, so I'm okay with taking longer to meet back up with him."
"You really don't like him, huh?"
"Well, I don't hate him. It's just having a guy cling to me and not telling anything about himself is suspicious. I feel like he has some secret evil plan behind those eyes, but I can't tell."
"Then why do you have him around?"
"I already told you: I can't make him leave!"
"Oh, tried asking?"
"Of course."
"Oh."
She stared at me for a minute. Eventually she started walking back to the town, and I followed.
The streets were more crowded, since we left. People were heading to their homes to sleep. We dodged drunk people and late people. A few times, Taryn was accidentally knocked back, but I caught her and helped her continue on. Another time it wasn't so easy. Some angry guy with long hair ran into her pretty hard that she fell to her butt.
"Watch where you're going, little boy!" he shouted with a glare.
I helped Taryn up and looked at him. "You watch it, angry man!" I shouted back.
His eyes went blank for a second as if he realized he was late or something. Then a voice from behind him was heard. "Hey! Calm down!" A girl walked out from behind the man. "Sorry! He hasn't been himself lately, and it makes him angry that he can't remember himself. But anyway, sorry for the inconvenience, bye!!" she said and quickly pulled him away.
I watched, slightly surprised at their speed to leave. Then I returned back to where I was. "Taryn, are you okay?"
"Of course, it's just my butt that's dusty and sore now. No worries!" she smiled calmly.
Once we started walking again, the roads were more clear to walk freely.
"So why was Ryder in your house anyway?" I asked, suddenly thinking about that.
Taryn processed the question quietly. "I told him to get something for me, but I forget what it was." Her eyes squinted as she tried to remember.
"Well, we can ask him if he got it. I know he grabbed something, when we left the house."
She nodded.

We finally made it to the bar and walked to the table Ryder was now napping at. Taryn curiously put her face close to his to see if he really was napping.
"Aw, so cute and innocent looking! So unlike his awake self!" she exclaimed with a joking grin.
I smirked.
Ryder's nose twitched, then his eyes flickered, becoming aware.
Taryn kept watching vigorously with a scrunched expression of wonder. I watched and chuckled quietly.
Then Taryn reached her hand to his face and poked his cheek lightly. In a split-second, Ryder's eyes shot open in shock. Apparently his built-in reaction was to grab what touched him, because that is what he did. He grabbed Taryn's arm and pulled it behind her back in a number of seconds. His mouth was a straight line, and his pose was dominating. His blue eyes were shadowed and filled with anger. Taryn yelped, once she realized what she did. Ryder looked down at Taryn then looked to me and snapped out of his state. He let her go and backed away slowly.
Taryn turned around and looked at him carefully.
Ryder cleared his throat. "Sorry . . . about that. I don't like being touched in my sleep."
"Well, I figured that out the hard way, now didn't I?" Taryn asked with a small smile, rubbing her wrist.
Ryder stayed silent, regaining himself.
"So, uh, did you get whatever I asked for?"
"Oh . . . yeah," he replied, reaching into his back pocket. Eventually he pulled out a small book and handed it to Taryn.
She stared at it, trying to remember why she asked for it. Once her eyes lit up in remembrance, she looked to Ryder. "Thanks!" she said with a smile.
He looked surprised for a second then gave a shrug and said, "Whatever."
Curious, I thought.
Taryn sat down at the table and started skimming through the book.
"What is it?" I asked, sitting beside her.
"Tai's journal . . . " she replied calmly, glancing at me. She looked back at the journal. "I can see now what moments were you."
I stayed silent.
"You annoyed Tai a lot more than Kei did."
Ryder was leaning against the wall on the other side of Taryn by now, eying the book swiftly. "'Kei was teasing Taryn again today. I'm going to punch him next time I see him.' Ha! Jerk from the beginning, huh?" Ryder scoffed at me.
I steamed a bit then cooled down before saying, "I never got that punch."
"Kei got it then?" Ryder asked.
Taryn nodded, smiling in remembrance.
"How did you guys . . . or how did Kei not notice these off things that happened? Couldn't he just say, 'I was at home that day!'?" Ryder questioned.
"I wouldn't know," I replied.
Taryn sat pondering then responded, "I think he knew you took his place, but just shrugged it off every time . . . even when he received consequences from your actions, Koki." She chuckled a bit.
"Got away from a lot of that, huh, man?" Ryder asked with a devious grin.
"You sound like you've done that, too," I replied, smirking. "You're so on edge, you gotta be aware as you sleep."
Ryder stopped grinning.
Ooh, strike!
I searched his face as it turned into a glare. He relaxed. "Want to know why?"
Taryn glanced at him with an answer of interest.
"Sure," I stated.
"I have people after me, so I'm being hunted down, of course," he responded calmly.
Taryn glared at him.
"What?" he asked with confusion.
"If you're being hunted, why are you with us?" she asked roughly.
"Well . . . maybe I just like being around you!" he gave a lying kind of grin.
Taryn sighed and rolled her eyes. "You do understand we would just hand you over, if they show up, right?"
Ryder just chuckled with a laughing smile. "I can take care of myself, Sweetheart!"
"Would they pay us to catch you?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Nah, they would pay you to kill me." He kept his smile, loving the attention.
"What did you do? Or are you too secretive to tell?" Taryn asked, expecting it to be a secret.
Ryder gave off a laugh that made Taryn jump. "I'm no lake of secrets, Sweetheart!" He flashed a sweet smile.
Taryn obviously hated this nickname more than "Boss."
"Poetic. So what happened?" she asked.
"Hm . . . I am - well, was - an assassin. Shocking?"
"Let me guess, you couldn't kill a target for some personal reason, so they fired you?" Taryn questioned.
Ryder chuckled his signature chuckle. "Nothing romantic as that. As an assassin of my 'Home,' I was to remain neutral between everything and kill whoever I was ordered to kill."
"So what? You took some kind of side or something?" I chimed in.
"Nope. I was an assassin, but I decided to take on an infiltration job."
"What does that have to do-" Taryn started.
"In my 'Home' each person has a specific role, you can't take on other roles."
Taryn and I looked at him, trying to decide if we understood.
"So they're trying to kill you for that? Why so extreme?"Taryn asked.
"Well, if I just took the job and succeeded, I would have only gotten a slap on the wrist. But I failed it. Infiltrators can never be seen or found out in any way. Obviously, I was noticed."
"Why does it matter so much?" she kept questioning.
"Because it was a top-ranked job. Therefore the information I got is very important. They still want it, and that's why they're after me: to get it and then kill me. I'm not giving it over. They'll most likely send a few assassins after me. It takes a few to kill one. Especially me." Ryder smirked evilly. "I'm the top assassin. I've kind of just a little gone . . . rogue now."
"So why are you staying here?" I asked.
"I got the information around here. I don't want them getting it from me or it's source." Ryder started fondling one of his knives.
Taryn eyed him carefully, looking for something . . . an answer . . . a hint?
Ryder stared at me intently. "So you see why I got you so easily at the house?"
"Huh, top assassin? Fancy," I replied, smirking. "I'm nothing close to that. Care to train me? Maybe I'd consider you a friend."
He gave off his laugh again, placing his knife in one of his pockets. "I'm starting to like you already, man!" Ryder rubbed his chin. "I'll train you, if you're really up for it."
"Deal!"
Suddenly, Taryn stood up in a flash and ran over, standing in front of Ryder. She looked into his eyes carefully. Ryder was stunned for once. Then Taryn's speed kicked in again and she swiftly pulled up his shirt to reveal a muscular but scarred stomach. There were a lot of scars, but Taryn was eying a small specific one. This time Taryn quickly pulled on Ryder's shoulders toward herself, and he was too shocked to react. So he was falling down to her, but she turned him around to push his back to the floor. They landed with a thud. Ryder swore at the pain, and Taryn straddled over him.
"You! You were the ninja!" she shouted angrily, holding him down.

Author's Note

Oh my goodness. I took forever!