A/N [22/10/2018] : After contacting FF . net, a new Chio's School Road Category has been added! There is also a stable fandom tag available on AO3 - so get posting!
PHOTOGRAPHS
Most grown men kept pictures of their families – of their partners, and their children – in the transparent pocket of their wallets. Sometimes they kept pictures of their pets, who could be considered family all the same, or even just a friendly snapshot of themselves with friends or colleagues.
Perhaps some would not carry a reminder of their nearest and dearest at all? Maybe it was a worn image of a place, a clipping from a magazine or a scaled down postcard that rested inside instead; a reminder of somewhere special, or a destination to look forward that held dear memories.
Most men did not harbour illicit pictures of high school girls in their wallets. Mayuta Andō was not most men though, and it was only one school girl in reality. Harmless really. Nothing explicit in the photo at all – nothing to be considered naughty or illegal other than how it made him feel.
That should have been illegal.
It brought a tint to his cheeks like a, well, giggly school girl.
When he first met Chio Miyamo she'd taken him out with one well-timed blow and the clout of her bravado. He'd been too suitably terrified to notice the holes in Bloody Butterfly's story, though in retrospect Chio's act was more of a stretch to believe. Andō was intrigued though, especially when she'd blurted out how all of the secretive underworld tripe she'd blustered was a ruse.
How had one little school girl managed to pull the proverbial wool over his eyes? He was – or rather, he used to be – the leader of a gang for crying out loud. Granted, said gang didn't really get around to a lot of delinquency anymore, and they hadn't had the most impressive name to begin with…
Andō had desired to know more about his Bloody Butterfly. The young lady who'd diverted him onto the straight and narrow path of adulthood – who'd enabled him to be a productive member of society with a simple trick and a heck of a lot of encouragement.
She was brilliant. She must have stones the size of boulders hiding under that school skirt. Chio… it was really difficult to believe Chio Miyamo had no background dealing with or being a thug. The teen had been so convincing, and he was a sucker these days for any scrap of information he could find of her.
That was how Miyamo's shifty-eyed friend had suckered him into buying a set of photographs.
Andō was unsure to this day how and why Manana Nonomura had hunted him down, exposed her true colours, and demanded to know his intentions towards her childhood friend. Chio was precious to her, yes, but Nonomura was also the type to throw someone under a bus if it placed her in an advantaged position.
Andō had iterated as much. Andō knew her type. He'd smacked many of them round the head with a lead pipe or a piece of two-by-four before Chio had intervened. He was, of course, a reformed man now – and all the better for it, he supposed.
However, that didn't stop him from feeling like he'd committed a crime for snatching the polaroid photographs out of Nonomura's fingers and shoving a few bills in her awaiting, greedy palms. She knew he had it bad; knew she could exploit that from now on.
While that was going to be a lot of trouble in future, Mayuta couldn't bring himself to dwell too much on the matter.
Pinups. He'd bought pinups of Miyamo.
Two of them were cute. She pouted and smirked playfully at the camera, a cigarette hovering tantalisingly close to her lips. The third picture was the one he treasured most, and which sent his heart pounding whenever he clamped eyes on it.
Shadowed and menacing, Chio Miyamo stalked towards the photographer behind the lens; her face threatening a bad time while she prepared to take a languid drag from her cigarette. Crows circled around her in a panicked whirl of black feathers, and her eyes were narrowed knowingly behind the rims of her glinting glasses.
If Chio had taken a different path in her life – one full of bad guys, fist fights, busted lips, and biker leathers – would she walk with that same cocky swagger that she did in the image? If… if they ever got together (and Mayuta hoped and prayed she'd say 'Yes' when he eventually asked her out) could she be persuaded to wear leather protective gear and hop onto the back of his motorcycle? He'd ask nicely, let her borrow the helmet and goggles she favoured again, and would drive her anyway with pleasure.
Andō gulped, and carefully shoved the polaroid back from where he'd pulled it. That photographs sent dangerous thoughts flooding into his head, just as it sent a rosy flush to his cheeks and neck.
Most men kept pictures of their partner or children in their wallets. Mayuta Andō kept a snapshot of a scary high school girl playing at gangster in his. And he wouldn't have it any other way.
A/N [15/9/2018] : I've got a personal headcanon that Manana bribes Andō with the 'bad-girl' photos she's got of Chio dicking around with a used cigarette at some point. Like, psst, Andō , wanna buy a pic?, and she just opens her school satchel and brings out a wad of polaroids. (Andō buys every single one, because Miyamo already (unknowingly) has him wrapped around her finger and he's a sucker for her acting tough. He treasures the 'perfect' shot Manana took.) Come natter with me on my tumblr: yuilhan-writes-things !
A/N [24/9/2018]: Made a few adjustments.