Title: The Place Where I Live
Fandom: [K] / K Project
Rating: T
Pairing: None; entire HOMRA appearance.
Word Count: 2,724 approx.
A/N: My monthly prompt by Gyarii (a.k.a. Banana-sama) for February was something about Anna, so… yeah. A little before-all-the-feels-of-the-series story. Psst, I don't know humor. Reviews are more than appreciated! (✿◠‿◠)
Disclaimer: I do not own [K] / K Project in anyway.
"Charmander is red! Squirtle is blue! If you were a Pokémon! I'd choose you!"
Izumo Kusanagi stares at an extremely drunk clansman compassionately, as the latter relentlessly screams nonsensical words in delirium. After observing him for a while, Kusanagi says, "Chitose, I think it's better if you go to bed. And if you don't stop jumping on that table, I'm going to get mad."
"But… Hic! I choose you!" Chitose jumps off the table and plops himself on a barstool next to a little girl, who was least interested in Chitose and his antics, named Anna. "Anna-chan, would cha' hic— uh, marry me?"
Kusanagi almost drops the plate he was wiping as he stares at the hilarious sight in front of him. Chitose never acted like this… but that was because he never drank so much. Kusanagi reminds himself to never let Chitose drink more than a few glasses of his newest cocktail again. The bespectacled man was still curious as to what the little girl would say though, so he inches closer to them from behind the counter.
Anna looks at Chitose for a while, staring at his flushed face, unsure why the womanizer was being so… womanizing today; to her. She looks the other way, and in an extremely soft voice whispers, "Pedo."
Kusanagi snorts audibly, not bothering to return Chitose's sullen glare. Clicking his tongue, Chitose turns his face to the other side, ignoring Anna—who was smiling surreptitiously—and the openly snickering bartender. They were too 'un-cute' for him.
Neither of the three speak for a while, and except the sounds of Anna sipping some strawberry juice, the place is wholly quiet.
The silence in the bar doesn't last long though, and the habitual noise to which each clansman was accustomed to, returns, along with the rest of the members of HOMRA. The bell on the door chimes softly and Kusanagi sighs. The peace was fun while it lasted.
The first one through the door is Mikoto Suoh, their red king, his hands shoved in his pockets, with a laidback but solemn look (which only Mikoto could ever pull off) on his face that only ever spoke in volumes to Anna. She knew he was coming even before the others could see or hear him, because she felt him. Looking at him, she thinks only one thing: Mikoto's red… is pretty.
Almost instantly, he opens his eyes and looks at Anna, the sternness in his amber eyes melting away at the sight of her, and he walks over to the couch and drops himself on it, his weight making the side he was on dip. Hastily finishing her juice, Anna follows him and places herself next to him, and straightens out the frills on her dress, feeling an indescribable sort of happiness by just being close to Mikoto.
Before either can say anything, loud grunts and noises of stuff falling interrupt them. Yep, today was going to be just another typical day in HOMRA.
"Shut up, you bastard!" Yata Misaki, a brash teenager yells at his companion, Fushimi Saruhiko.
"Why should I listen to you, Mi-sa-ki?" The taller teenager retorts, pissing off the chestnut haired teen even more. Yata pushes off Kamamoto who tried to hold him back, telling him to calm down ("Yata-san, please don't fight! Don't—unf—") and Kamamoto crashes into a pot, breaking it into quite a few pieces.
Misaki tugs at Fushimi's shirt's collar and venomously whispers, "Don't call me that, you damn monkey."
"Oh, is Misaki pissed?"
Fushimi perfectly enjoys taunting Misaki, making sure that at least now; the skateboarder would look at him, and not their king.
They were the ones who were lost, broke, and orphaned together— Saruhiko and Misaki. Not Mikoto and Misaki. But Misaki seemed to have forgotten that ever since the 'red' king took them in.
Crimson flames were now blasting in all directions from Misaki and Fushimi chuckles to himself; because Misaki was so pissed. If only Totsuka hadn't stepped in at that moment, Fushimi was sure that he would have had to get his glasses changed. Not that he minded that though.
"Hey, he—y! Saru -kun, don't provoke Yata-kun! And Yata-kun, don't just attack your best friend!"
Yata snaps his head to face Totsuka. "This monkey is not my best friend, Totsuka-san!"
"Oh come on now, both of you should… just—"
Totsuka smiles awkwardly as the realization of how screwed they were hits him. Misaki and Fushimi just broke a few things inside the bar. And the aura that Kusanagi was emitting makes Totsuka shiver.
The brown eyed man whispers to the two teens, "I think it's better if you start apologizing."
Too late though. The bartender was standing right in front of the two and with a deadly calm smile plastered so unnaturally on his face, which meant nothing but, 'I hope you both have an explanation for this.'
It isn't even funny how eerie they both felt by Kusanagi's smile. Yata gulps before spewing his unending apologies while Saru just clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes, once again musing how he ended up in such a weird place.
Anna watches them without any movement, unsure what to make of them. She looks up at Mikoto, but he was already asleep, and she doesn't know what to make of him either. HOMRA was, in all actuality, a really weird place.
Just when Totsuka sighs and sits next to Anna after seeing Kusanagi drag the two idiot teenagers to some corner for some censored talk (?), the door to the bar is flung open again and Eric walks in, clearly pissed off, with Fujishima tagging behind him, a weird black thing in his hand.
Eric mutters under his breath, "What are we? Some sort of animal charity?"
It's caught by Fujishima though, who only frowns and ignores Eric. "Hey, Totsuka-san, I found him outside. Do we have some leaves or something?"
Totsuka peers at Fujishima, and then at his hands, unable to recognize what he was holding. Just as he's about to ask him about it, Chitose—who was brooding silently over being rejected by Anna—rushes up to the orange haired man and looks closely at the tiny blob of black in his hands. "Ooh! Hic- 'was this?"
He pokes it, making that part of the creature's body twitch. "C-Cute!"
"Are you drunk?" Fujishima asks Chitose, before shaking his head in disappointment. He turns his attention to Totsuka, ignoring Chitose's whines and complaints ("'M not drunk! You are jus' so drunk that you think I'm—hic. Drunk—") and says, "It's a rabbit. I'll take him home, but for now…"
Totsuka smiles warmly at his companion and beckons him to follow him. He silently commends the man and thinks to himself, 'If only everyone were as nice as him.'
The little girl who was sitting quietly beside Mikoto looks at all of them and thinks how bright and lively everything became all of a sudden. How… red it became. She slips her hand into her pocket and pulls out her marbles. She runs her little pale fingers over them, thinking of nothing important in particular.
Holding one of the marbles in front of her, she inclines it at an angle where the light shines in through one end, and she sees the sight that she loved, loves and will always love. Red. The world for her was red and nothing but red.
It's only when she lets her hand fall back into place that Misaki and Fushimi are set free from Kusanagi's endless yelling. Fushimi eyes Misaki before retreating to a corner, while Misaki walks over to where Kamamoto was lying and tries waking him up in an extremely unconventional way (which was poking his cheeks). With a snort, Eric comments, "Chihuahua."
Misaki looks up at him, the air surrounding his body already flaring red, threatening Eric. The blond doesn't budge though, and Kusanagi has to flick the skateboarder's forehead to snap him out of his fit of anger.
For a while everything is quiet. Anna and Mikoto are peacefully resting on the sofa, Fushimi and Chitose in two different corners silently brooding over how stupid the world was, Misaki and Kamamoto eating some sweet bread, Eric peeking over the counter, trying to get a look at Totsuka, Fujishima and the little rabbit and Kusanagi just puffing out some smoke soundlessly.
Anna looks about her, taking in her surroundings. She feels Mikoto stir next to her, and her gaze rests on his face. He was awake, but his eyes were closed. She decides not to disturb him, and just looks at the marbles in her hand. "Brighter red…" she whispers, and looks at the door, holding up a marble in front of her eye and looking through it.
Instantly, two more clansmen tumble in, and she recognizes them without batting an eyelid. Shouhei and Bando.
Bando continues yelling as he enters, "Don't call me that, Newbie!"
Shouhei whines audibly and says, "That's mean, San-chan! I can't believe you did this to me!"
Yata, who was already pissed off because of all the noisy people (obliviously referring to himself too) yells, "Both of you, shut up! I'm gonna—"
Again, his forehead is flicked, and he tilts his head to look upwards and frowns. Reluctantly, he whispers, "Kusanagi-san, I'm not the only one who's at fault."
He gets a flat reply, "But you're the one with the loudest mouth."
He groans before beginning to munch on the sweet bread again and Eric comments in English this time, "Oh, did the poor little Chihuahua get scolded?"
This time, Fujishima's there to make Eric apologize ("Apologize, now. You're not supposed to say such stuff."), and Misaki swears to kill that insolent unapologetic ("Hmph. I'm not going to—ouch! Okay whatever, sorry,") guy one day, while silently muttering curses.
Totsuka walks up to the two newest additions to their company and with a wry smile, asks, "Okay, what did San-chan do to you now, Shouhei-kun?"
Shouhei explains how Bando left him all alone and ran away when a big bad bulldog started chasing them, using the newbie as bait. "…the dog was actually chasing San-chan at first, because of his weird sunglasses! I was just passing by and came to help San-chan!" He sniffs audibly before whining again. "He used me! San-chan is the worst best friend ever!"
Bando feels a vein throbbing in his forehead as he yells, "I am not your best—"
"...Noisy."
They stop their movement to stare at their king. He yawns before looking about, scrutinizing his clansmen. He feels some shuffling next to him and turns to his side. Mikoto looks at Anna as she looks back up at him.
Wordless questions are asked, which are also answered silently. He turns his head upwards and lights a cigarette. Remembering something really important (to him, at least), Totsuka strides over to Mikoto happily and chirps, "King! Let's take a photo!"
The king puffs out some smoke and says, "What?"
"Let's take a group photo!"
Kusanagi rolls his eyes at Totsuka. "Now you're into photography?"
He's faced with a scarily grinning brunette, just inches away from his face, with sparkly eyes. "I was surfing the net—cameras are so cool, Kusanagi-san! And I want to take a HOMRA group photo first—"
Chitose butts in now, still not sober at all. He makes a weird face, with his tongue sticking out, and stands between Kusanagi and Totsuka, earning some incredulous and amused looks from the entirety of HOMRA. He's too drunk to notice anything of the sort though.
"Hic. I'm a bird!"
Silence ensues after this strange declaration, during which Chitose promptly passes out, falling into Kusanagi's arms. Totsuka bursts out laughing, while Kusanagi just stands there, a heavy twenty something man snoring into his shoulder. The bartender wonders why on earth was he so lucky. Note the sarcasm.
He drags Chitose to an empty barstool in a corner and places him there and walks over to the stairs. Looking towards the floor above, he yells, "Dewa, get down here! I need you to take care of something… troublesome for me!"
He shoots the drunken clansman another pitiful glance before sighing and lighting another cigarette. The one who was summoned comes down soon, yawning and stretching his arms. "What's the matter, Kusanagi-san?"
A thumb is pointed toward the passed out guy and Dewa sighs. He walks over to Chitose and slaps him slightly. "Oi, wake up. You, hey, I'm not carrying you. Idiot."
Before he can complain to Kusanagi, Totsuka claps his hands and chirps, "This is great! Everyone's here! Come on, come on, and gather around HOMRA!"
The clansmen either groan or grumble as they listen to Totsuka. Despite that though, they drag themselves to the middle of the room, and surround the couch where Mikoto and Anna were. Totsuka sets up his camera and the other equipment he had borrowed from one of his high school friends and waits for everyone to position themselves.
He looks through the viewfinder, and asks everyone to smile and "Say cheeeeeese!"
They don't (say cheese that is); but they do smile (at least the ones who weren't scowling or were unconscious). As the clansmen look at the camera, they genuinely feel that that moment should last a lifetime. Being in HOMRA was the best thing that had happened to each and every one of them (even if some of them didn't believe it). Totsuka gives everyone a thumbs-up and grins from ear to ear.
Before everyone moves away, Misaki yells, "Totsuka-san! You gotta be in the photo too!"
The clansmen state their hearty (and loud) agreement and he scratches the back of his head. "Ahh… this thing is pretty old. It doesn't have an auto-click option. So…"
Suddenly, a tiny voice says, "I'll do it."
Anna jumps off the couch and walks over to where Tatara was. He refuses, telling her that she should just relax and let him take care of it, but she takes none of that. She's just a little girl, she accepts that, but she's not a useless little girl.
Finally he leaves her to it, not wanting to be bitten by the lolita (because damn she had sharp teeth for a small kid and goddamn she liked biting hands when she was mad) and walks over to the rest of the clan and snuggles close to his senpai, Kusanagi. The bespectacled bartender thinks he hears something coming from Totsuka, but he can't hear anything over the noise of the clansmen being themselves. Seriously, he thinks, HOMRA is just full of stupid little idiots.
He smiles to himself thinking that, and he turns his gaze to Mikoto. He was the one who had saved them all: the red king; their red king. Somehow, he finds himself hoping that moments like these would just stay forever, and mentally slaps himself. 'I'm a grown man already. I should stop thinking like a child.'
Anna silently looks at HOMRA: Misaki cursing Fushimi and Kamamoto trying to stop them from fighting; Dewa trying to hold Chitose up as he stumbles backwards like the drunkard he is; Eric peering at the rabbit in Fujishima's hands as the latter looks at the others; Shouhei trying to kiss Bandou, and the reluctant guy pushing the former away with all his might; Totsuka resting himself on Kusanagi, content with everything ever; Kusanagi looking at Mikoto both thankfully and admiringly; and finally—Mikoto.
According to the little girl, he looks like he always did. Like a king; a true red king.
Anna looks through the viewfinder at everyone standing before her and a small smile appears on her face.
This is the place where she lives: HOMRA.
Her nimble fingers bring a marble to her face and she places it in the gap between her eye and the viewfinder and her smile disappears as she gasps. For a while, everything is forgotten. There's no camera, no bar, no air, no nothing.
There's only Anna and the rest of HOMRA.
She can't say anything—no; she doesn't know what to say. So she just stands quietly, looking at the prettiest sight she had ever seen, and only manages a small whisper:
"HOMRA is beautiful."
And with a flash, that moment is captured.