Shadows danced across the paper door separating Barry and Mineko. They had looked around Kanto for longer than planned, but once exhaustion started warring on them, they had no choice but to find a place to rest. Mineko had lead him to a small wooden hut, inside of which was largely left empty. There was a Tatami mat placed at the entrance and candles scattered around most of the furniture but they were the only things worth noting.

They had distanced themselves from each other the moment they entered that house. Flash had stored his suit away and changed into something more casual, well, for his era at least. Mineko had done the same, but instead of pacing back and forth like Barry did afterwards, she sat on the thin straw mattress and meditated.

The monks at Mineko's old monastery use to say that the more a person knows the less they talk. So, she endeavoured to take a few minutes each day to cease speaking and to instil a large band of silence inside herself, in order to forge a deeper and closer relationship with her own strengths. Only when she attained absolute quietude did she understand the supreme virtue of humanity and understand the meaning of both life and death. Only when she achieved absolute stillness could she come to a perfect realisation of the meaning of existence innate in all things.

A relieved sigh shivered passed her lips when her body finally started relaxing. Mineko was under the naive impression that she'd get a few brief moments of peace... but the man in the room next to her was so loud that even his footsteps sounded like a scream to her. The paper door was slid open and her expression scrunched up in mild annoyance. Her eyes opened and glared like dark daggers in Barry's direction.

"Hey, so... is this your place?" Barry asked, completely unfazed by the annoyance written all over Mineko's face.

"It belongs to no one." She replied simply, eyes trailing over the man and narrowing at his clothing. If anything he was even more noticeable like that...

"Oh, great. We're just in some random house then?" Barry groaned. "Are we even allowed in here?"

"The monastery built it. Whomever needs it may use it."

The man's expression turned to one of intrigue. "You belonged to a monastery?"

The woman sighed and unfolded her legs, finally coming to terms with the fact that Barry wasn't going to stop bothering her. "There is no 'belonged'. Past tense does not apply to the ones that studied there. You either are a part of their ranks or you are not."

Barry stared at her in bewilderment. She was like one of those old, wise men in the action movies he watched as a kid... only she was a woman, and she wasn't exactly old either. Overall, what he was trying to say, was that she seemed overly disciplined. Like she had been trained for one specific purpose and she didn't exist outside of that mission. It was kind of sad, really, to know that she had no desires of her own.

"Okay... so you are a member of the monastery then?" Barry asked, hoping that the answer would be a little clearer this time.

"That is not information that I am permitted to discuss."

"Of course it's not..." Barry said lowly. "Look, if we're going to be working together we should be able to trust each other, right?"

"That would be preferable."

"Then you need to tell me more about yourself." The man insisted, shifting to the spot in front of her and sitting down. "It's hard to trust a complete stranger."

"Trust is not about companionship, it should be based purely on the knowledge that we are on the same side."

"That's not how it works though!" Barry said, a little more frustrated this time at her vague answers. "People can switch sides just as easily."

"And they are dealt with when they make that decision, but as of now, neither of us have betrayed the other. Our trust should stem from that."

"You're asking me to trust you based only on the fact that you haven't tried to kill me yet?" Barry's expression twisted into pure confusion and uneasiness. "That's not a good enough reason."

Mineko couldn't comprehend the man's way of thinking. It was all so simple to her, but he acted as if it were a complicated concept. "If you are so insistent on this, then perhaps you could inform me where your new clothing came from. I did not see you bring them with you."

His eyes flicked down to the ring secured on his finger. It was gold and thick with his signature lightning bolt engraved on the top. He twisted it a few times and smirked. "That's a secret."

"Then you will excuse me if I do not wish to reveal my own 'secrets'." She replied, and though her words seemed polite, her tone was drenched in ridicule.

Barry grimaced at her evasive nature. She really was impossible to deal with... "Could you at least tell me what the Defenders of the Realm is?"

"We are an underground organisation. We protect the world from threats beyond regular capabilities."

"I gathered that much for myself, funnily enough." Barry said sarcastically. "But no one seems even remotely aware of your presence."

"We take precautions to ensure their ignorance remains intact."

The air was beginning to drop drastically in temperature, but in the midst of his curiosity, Barry barely felt it shivering against his skin. "And that's supposed to be a good thing?"

"Gifted individuals are not greeted with pleasantries here, no matter how great their desire to help is. Country-wide panic ensues whenever they witness something outside of their understanding, our people are killed if they are found."

"Killed?!" Barry yelled out in shock, voice seeming to echo all throughout the house.

"It is viewed as a form of witchcraft. Many have been burnt for their powers, others are simply murdered."

The man's entire face fell into absolute horror. His insides curdled like spoilt milk, and his lip twitched upwards in a silent growl. This place was one of the seven circles of hell, it had to be. "That's disgusting...."

"It is reality, nothing more." She replied with indifference.

The atmosphere thickened with tension. Barry couldn't believe that she was so unconcerned with the fate of other metahumans, and when his stare sharpened into slits, Mineko glared back at his rudeness. They were opposites in every essence of the word, and it made Barry dread having to continue working with her. He knew it was essential to finding Thawne though, so he'd have to grin and bare it.

"I think I'm just gonna go to bed." Barry grumbled, voice so low with irritation that it reverberated in his chest.

"A wise decision." The girl replied, managing to contain her own annoyance. She had been taught to ignore such feelings, and so it wasn't difficult for her. "We must get up with the dawn, so there is little time left."

The man muttered something under his breath, some word that Mineko didn't understand but sounded aggressive. She could only assume that he was insulting her, but still she remained unresponsive. Barry, on the other hand, was so tense that when he shut the sliding door he had created a tear through the paper.

Usually, he'd feel some level of guilt over that. This time, however, he just marched to the corner of the room without a second look. The bed wasn't so much one that would pass in the future. It was simply a wool blanket splayed over an uncomfortable straw mattress.

Barry was up most of the night, skin itching from the unusual bedding and shivering at the cold that seemed to pass right through his blanket. He didn't know how people survived in this era if that was what passed for a warm bed. His teeth chattering soon started growing louder, and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get comfortable. He was starting to miss his own bed, the one with 4 different blankets and a built in heater...

Suddenly, he heard the door struggle to open, the tear making more noise than it should have. He saw Mineko step in and something akin to distrust filled his gut. He shot up on the spot, glaring as if he were waiting for her to take out her sword... she never did.

The woman simply stepped closer to him and held out an extra blanket, expression still blank of any emotion. Barry glanced from the woman, to the blanket, then back to her again. This was the last thing he had been expecting...

"I... can't." He managed to force the words out of his sore throat. "That's yours."

"I am accustomed to this climate. It is your constant shivering that is denying me of sleep, not the cold." She replied simply, tossing the blanket onto the edge of his mattress.

"Oh... sorry." Barry said, though he instantly regretted it. Why should he apologise for his bodies natural reaction?

"Do not apologise, just rest. If you fall behind tomorrow I will not return for you."

Any guilt he had previously felt dwindled away. Her harshness made it difficult to feel bad about inconveniencing her. Barry nodded to show his understanding, and he even managed to mutter a 'thank you', but he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the whole situation.

Mineko left almost immediately afterwards and he didn't hear from her again until the sun started peering out from beneath the horizon. By this stage Barry had managed to get a few hours of sleep, but it wasn't enough to prevent the tiredness that lingered over him when he awoke. That was the least of his concerns though, if he finally caught Thawne he could leave this horrid place and forget that it ever happened.

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Author's Note: More cliche songs about running? No regrets XD