Your Robbing Us? No, no, I'm Robbing You [Flashback][Invite Only][NR]

Rattle rattle.

Rattle rattle thud.

Eyelids flew open to meet complete darkness as Kouki was awakened suddenly. At first she didn't know what it was that work her up exactly, but as she continued to listen the rattling sound reached her ears once more. Someone was trying to get in the front door. Frowning Kouki turned her head so that she could see the digital clock that was on her dresser: the red glowing numbers said that it was three o'clock in the morning.

Her father would have been home from work for two and a half hours now, so it couldn't be him.

Kouki glanced over beside her to the sleeping forms of her brothers Lee and Yang who were passed out on their bunk beds. They were sleeping off the 'roast beef coma' that Kouki called it. They had had leftovers from the delicious dinner their mother had cooked the day before when her father had been allowed to come home early from work. Roast beef always seemed to kick her brother's in the butt.

Rattle rattle.

Right, the doorknob. Now wasn't the time to get distracted.

Knowing that her family was still asleep Kouki got to her feet, sliding out from beneath the cover of her blankets. Someone had a lot of balls if they were trying to get into their apartment, but Kouki had brass ones that were as big as church bells. Whoever was on the other side of that door was going to be in some serious pain when she was finished with them.

Wordcount: 260

Kouki had gone from half asleep to wide awake in under a second as she threw the blankets and sheets back onto her bed. She thought about waking up her older and younger brother but decided quickly against it: they needed their rest, and really there wasn't all that much room in their living room so all of them trying to whoop some buglar ass wasn't going to turn out well.

No, she would handle this herself and protect her family like she wanted to do. Like she had trained to do.

Kouki crept across the floor quietly, avoiding the spots on the floor that creaked and squeaked when stepped on: she had learned them well her first few days living in this fifth floor apartment with her family. She closed the bedroom door shut, not wanting to wake up her brothers and knowing that the curtain that divided their room wouldn't do anything to muffle the sounds of violence. She glanced over with blue eyes towards her parents door to see that it was already shut. Good. She wouldn't have to deal with that.

Kouki didn't bother turning on any lights or making any sounds. Instead, she simply found the darkest spot of the room which was incidentally right behind the front and only door to their apartment and waited. She could hear the sound of metal against metal and figured that whoever was on the other side of the door was likely attempting to pick the lock. She didn't care how they got in, she already knew how they were leaving. If they were lucky it wouldn't be in a body bag. Though, who knew?

Rattle, rattle. Scratch of metal against metal. A click. Then swearing on the other side of the door; softly but loud enough for her to hear in the dead silence of her apartment. Whoever had been trying to pick the lock had failed on their first attempt. Would they try again? Or was Kouki about to lose her chance at a proper fight? Time would tell...

Word count: 343 + 260 = 603

Kouki kept silent in her hiding spot within the shadows behind the front door. She kept her breathing even as she had been taught to do when in a confrontation or a dangerous situation - it kept her from hyper ventilating or from her adrenaline getting out of her control. The latter was good because anytime she 'lost' herself too badly it started the change to bijuu form, and a huge boil release dragon appearing in her living room wasn't going to do any good. She didn't even think Suiro would fit in the living room, or the apartment... No, no she couldn't risk that.

She heard more fumbling with the door knob and again the scraping sounds started up. She was able to picture in her minds eye a thief dressed in all black with one of those black ski masks like the kind she saw often on television or in the movies who was crouched down on the outside of her door with a metal lock pick. She had really no idea what this person on the other side looked like, but the picture was amusing to say the least.

More scratching sounds, another click, swearing. Again the process repeated itself. Whoever was working that lock on the other side was likely some sort of amateur. Surely a professional theif would have had that basic standard lock picked by now. The deadbolt wasn't even thrown - her father had likely come home far too tired to think to put it on: this caused Kouki to frown but she didn't dare lock it now because it made too much noise and would surely give away the fact that someone was up in the apartment to the thief.

Finally a series of clicks reached Kouki's ears and the doorknob turned before the door swung open slowly with a soft creak of a sound: the hinges protesting the movement of the old and ancient looking door. Kouki remained in her spot in the shadows behind the door, waiting for the thief to swing it shut. The thief closed it quietly but didn't notice her as she blended in with the darkness. The thief took several steps forward and bumped into the wooden end table at the end of their couch: he swore again under his breath.

"Really. Such a potty mouth you have.", Kouki called out from the darkness, unable to stop the grin from cracking across her face as the thief jumped a mile from being startled. The theif turned and looked around, his un-trained eyes attempting to penetrate the darkness of the unfamiliar apartment layout, looking for the search of the voice. "Wh--who's there?!", the thief called out softly.

Word count: 448 + 603 = 1,051

Kouki couldn't help herself, she was having far too much fun with all of those, and so she spoke a famous line from a movie, "Haven't you ever watched a scary movie? You're not supposed to ask that question. Don't you know the rules?!" Kouki kept her voice quiet enough not to wake her sleeping brothers or parents, but as she talked she moved - going from shadow to shadow as stealthy as possible - so that the robber couldn't get an exact pin point on her location. She didn't want the game to end too quickly even if she knew better than to draw something like this out.

"Wh-- wha? Rules?", the robber responded, turning in a circle as he continued to attempt to peer through the darkness with weak eyes. He even raised his arms, trying to feel his way around as he moved himself around the table that he dad smashed his knees into. "Where are you?! Stop playing games!"

"You don't know the rules?! Never ask whose there when you can't see the person. Never say you'll be right back because you won't: I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife!", Kouki exclaimed quietly, holding back her giggle at the obvious frustration that the robber must have been going through. This wasn't fair at all, and yet she still couldn't help herself.

"Why are you doing this?!"

"Why? Why are you breaking into my house? Why us? Why not the old lady down the hall with all of the cats? Why not the guy next door with that loud stereo who keeps us up some nights? Why my family who has done nothing to bother anyone?!", Kouki's rage showed in her last sentence, but she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down even as she felt Suiro begin to wake up inside of her. The bijuu would want out, the bijuu would want to tear this man from limb to limb and boil his body to nothing but a stain of goo on the floor - her mother wouldn't like that, she would complain for weeks about the carpet. No, Kouki couldn't allow that to happen.

"I-- I... I..."

"Stop stuttering. You had a reason you picked us. What was it?"

"I... you guys are always in bed early. Your apartment is quiet. I thought I could get in easy."

"Oh. So you thought us defenseless then? Weak?"

The robber was becoming more and more frightened of Kouki as she continued to move through the shadows. He was still unable to pinpoint her location. Unable to find where she was. After another several minutes of fumbling he found the lamp that was on the other side of the couch and flicked it on, casting the harsh glare of light throughout the room and erasing the shadows that Kouki had been using to hide.

Kouki was revealed across the room near the kitchen, in the open where she couldn't dart somewhere and hide. The robber, feeling brave, pulled out a gun that had been hidden tucked into the waist band at his back, hidden up underneath of his shirt. He pointed it at her without a tremble and Kouki had a sudden feeling that he had done this before... she had a feeling that he was going to fire that gun.

Wordcount: 555 + 1,051 = 1,606