Warning: Mentions of suicide, and probably some boyxboy fluff in later chapters. You've been warned, now enjoy~
Mutt. Runt. Stray.
Eric was all three of these things.
He was a mutt. American and Japanese. Mixed-blood. He was no show dog, that was for sure. People always looked at him strange as he walked through the streets, most jumped slightly when he spoke Japanese, realizing he in fact wasn't a foreigner. He was a foreigner though. He was born in America, but his parents decided to move to his father's homeland, which was the first step to the worst years of his life. Hikawa. He was also a mutt in that way; his father being a member of the cruel gang and his mother being a relatively kind person, until her husband and Eric's father convinced her to join Hikawa that is.
He was also a runt. He'd always been thin, never really able to grow muscle. But when he was left to Hikawa's care he grew to resemble a toothpick. His owners would constantly complain about his lack of growth, complaining he wasn't tall enough, intimidating enough, or strong enough. But no matter how small Eric was, size meant nothing to his owners when they were feeling particularly cruel and lustful.
He was, finally, a stray.
He'd been abandoned, thrown to the streets and left by first his parents and then Hikawa. Eric couldn't help but fear what would happen if he were to be abandoned a third time by Homra. He didn't like to think of it.
But what Eric didn't notice was that he was surrounded by the best strays he'd ever have the pleasure to meet.
Mikoto Suoh was no mutt, and definitely not a runt. But stray, that much he could say he was. Instead of being abandoned by family, the entirety of the world seemed to have abandoned him.
Totsuka Tatara wasn't exactly a runt, and couldn't be called a mutt. Stray, that he could admit to, being abandoned by his parents in a park when he was a child.
Kosuke Fujishima wasn't exactly a runt of any sort, nor was he a mutt. Before he found Homra, he considered himself a stray, wandering around aimlessly in life after being thrown out of his home at the age of fifteen.
Chitose: Stray.
Bandou: Stray.
Shohei: Stray.
Dewa: Stray.
Yata Misaki: Stray. Probably a runt too, but nobody needs to mention that to him.
When Kosuke found Eric on the streets that day, it was just another stray added to a long list. If they were all strays, then Homra was a pound, filled with animals with no home to go to. Together, they had created a place to come home to. On that day Kosuke found Eric, the mutt, runt, and stray now had a place he could call home.
When Mikoto died, the entirety of Homra was subdued. Strays that had been rehabilitated were once again thrown to the streets with no owner.
And Eric was afraid.
Kusanagi still had the bar open to all Homra members, and often times they did come by and visit, but it was never the same. Yata still had girl troubles, Bandou and Shohei still bickered, Dewa still tried to keep Chitose out of trouble (key word there is tried), Kamamoto still lost weight as the seasons changed, and Anna still silently watched the strange group of friends. Yet nothing was the same. They were merely friends, which was still great, but they used to be so, so much more.
Kusanagi had grown quieter, more reserved unless he was doing his job as bartender. Once again he found himself to be a stray. Eric had become closer with him, through silent, sleepless nights of sitting at the bar with mugs of tea growing cold and forgotten in their hands as they thought. They'd both sit there until eventually Kosuke would come and convince the both of them they needed some sleep. At that point Kusanagi would take the mugs into the kitchen before going to his bedroom upstairs, and Eric would go home with Kosuke.
As the two of them walked home, they would always be silent, not exchanging a word until they were safely inside Kosuke's apartment he now shared with the blond. Then, and only then, would Kosuke again remind Eric that the sky wasn't falling, the earth wasn't breaking open, and the world wasn't ending. Eric would simply nod, in his mind thinking "It might as well be ending."
On certain nights, Kosuke would walk into the bar at some ungodly hour to send the men to sleep, but instead would find Kusanagi in a drunken slumber on the couch and Eric watching one of Totsuka's videos. Sometimes, he would convince Eric that it was time to go home and put the tapes away. Other times, he would sit next to his fellow stray and they would watch every video Totsuka had recorded in his last months, not saying a word until the last video of Totsuka's death was over and their heart's wounds were reopened.
Eric and Kosuke drifted between their home, and the bar that used to be their home, neither of them going all that far from either location. They would wake up, go to the bar, stay until late, then go home and go to bed. The cycle repeated everyday.
On August 13th, the deceased King's birthday, Kusanagi left, leaving only a note on the door saying that he left the key and Anna with Kamamoto.
Eric and Kosuke both stood in front of the door, eyes fixed on the note. Chitose stood behind them, phone at his ear as he tried to contact the damn bartender, who stubbornly refused to answer.
"Where do you think he went?" Kosuke asked, question not directed at anyone but rather open to anyone who had a answer.
Eric happened to be the one with an answer.
"To find Mikoto."
Kosuke and Chitose both gaped at Eric, the phone slowly sliding from Chitose's hand. Eric simply have a pathetic chuckle of sorrow, shaking his head as he averted his eyes to his shoes.
"Uhm," Kosuke spoke. "What's that mean?"
He wasn't sure if he wanted an answer or not.
"I think we both know what that means," Eric looked his housemate dead in the eyes.
Kosuke bit his lip, shaking his head and shoving his hands deep in his pockets as he turned and stomped down the street, hands balled in fists in his pockets. Chitose looked from the blond to the redhead, trying to figure out what they were saying.
Eric simply met his eyes and shook his head.
A week later they got the call.
Kusanagi was in the hospital.
Eric and Kosuke stood outside the hospital room, talking to a doctor who was a hundred percent sure that the two of them weren't relatives of Kusanagi's. The doctor couldn't care less, as long as they cared for the patient, they were "family" enough.
A car accident.
Semi-truck VS Kusanagi's van, and I think you can tell who won.
As Eric and Kosuke were finally able to see the bartender, they could definitely tell who won.
Kusanagi was awake, having only woken up a few hours prior. Luckily his head was mostly spared in the accident, instead only suffering from broken bones and lacerations.
He was propped against a pile of pillows, his body suddenly appearing a lot less intimidating than it normally did as he laid in the sterile white hospital bed. His eyes were no longer hidden by his sunglasses, but still the two younger men were unable to see his eyes as he avoided their worried glances.
"Kusanagi-san," Kosuke broke the silence that had remained in place as they'd entered. "Uhm, Anna wanted us to bring you some candy, but Kamamoto kind of ate it,"
At this Kusanagi laughed, a pathetic sound somewhere between a chuckle and a sob. "Good to see Kamamoto's appetite'll never change," he still didn't dare look at his two fellow clansmembers.
An awkward silence fell again. This time it was Eric's turn to speak first.
"You weren't planning on coming back, were you?" Eric's voice didn't break the silence, but rather joined the silence.
Kusanagi took his time responding. "No, not exactly,"
"You would've preferred that that truck would've killed you, am I right?" Eric's eyes burned into the back of his older friend's head.
His response was silence.
Silence meant yes.
Some nights, Kosuke and Eric would just sit on the couch, hands tightly locked together as if afraid to let go. No words were exchanged, they just simply bathed in each other's presence.
So much had gone to rubble, so many people had left, the feeling of a warm hand within theirs was their only reminder that they would never abandon each other.
That night after visiting Kusanagi in the hospital happened to be one of those nights.
Eric's eyes were fixed on some point in the distance, or maybe not fixed on anything at all. Kosuke watched his housemate carefully out of the corner of his eye, trying to figure out what was going on his head.
"He was going to kill himself," Eric said suddenly, his voice once again working nicely with the silence that they were stuck in. "He never told me that, but I could see it,"
"How could you tell?" Kosuke asked, his voice not sounding as natural in the silence as Eric's did.
"He was acting like my dad did before he killed himself,"
Kosuke took a moment of hesitation before responding. "I thought both your parents died when Homra took down Hikawa,"
"My mom did," Eric's voice was empty. "My dad decided it best to join her."
"So Kusanagi decided to join Mikoto?" asked the other.
"Mikoto, Totsuka, his uncle, his brother," Eric listed off the dead. "He's lost a lot more than you might think,"
Kosuke stared at Eric, disbelief shining in his amber eyes.
"Hey Eric," Kosuke's voice was closer to the volume of the silence than Eric's had been. "How much have you lost?"
Eric smiled dolefully, the smile not reaching his eyes.
"I've lost everything,"
A moment of hesitation from the red headed stray.
"You still have me,"
A heartbroken chuckle from the blond mutt.
"No, you're something new," Eric corrected him. "You're one of the few things I've managed to gain instead of lose,"
Kosuke squeezed Eric's hand, smiling at him warmly, though a terrible ache remained at his heart.
Much like strays, they both sat.
They both patiently waited for their new owners to come and help them thrive again.
For a moment, just a moment, Eric didn't feel afraid anymore.
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