"You look bored," Chitose said sliding into the seat next to the girl seated at the bar. He spoke close to her ear so that she could hear him above the cacophony of music and voices that filled the bar.
She turned towards him, her cat tipped eyes narrowing. She knew what kind of man he was. One who was aware just how attractive he was and knew that women would throw themselves at him. Lucky for him this was a night when she just didn't care.
"Is it that obvious?" she asked, draining her glass of liquor.
With finely honed skill Chitose signaled the bartender to get the girl another glass. "You haven't once gotten up to dance." He gave her a winning smile. "I've been watching you."
She smirked. "I'm not a good dancer."
The bartender placed her refill in front of her and she held it up, tipping it in Chitose's direction in thanks before taking a sip.
"Ah," he said leaning closer to her and letting his hand trail across hers as he took her glass from her and took a sip. "Then why are you here?"
Sweeping a long strand of cotton candy pink hair over her shoulder she stood and leaned into Chitose, her lips almost touching his ear. "Waiting for you to get me out of here."
A large smile spread across Chitose's face. "Chitose."
"Arisa."
20 minutes later they stumbled through Chitose's front door, lips locked together, hands fumbling at clothing in hurried motions. They knocked against the hallway wall, knocking a framed piece of artwork off the wall in their frantic motions.
They made it to the bedroom, Chitose having already shed his jacket and Arisa having kicked off her shoes. Their movements were hurried, filled with need and want and too much clothing. They tumbled onto the bed.
Chitose quickly pulled the dress up and over Arisa's head with the skill of a magician performing a magic trick and followed her hands to his shirt, two pairs of hands fumbling with the buttons before giving up and moving onto the belt around his waist.
He bent his head while she worked the belt open, his lips finding her heated neck, making her arch her back. She had only her undergarments left for him to peel off and his own hands were swiftly tugging on the straps of her bra, sliding them down off her shoulders.
BANG.
Chitose and Arisa both froze, their heads snapping towards the sound that had interrupted their frenzied session.
There was another loud bang and then the sound of a door being kicked in.
"What the f-" Chitose started as two men in suits burst into the room. There was a moment as all four people stared at each other and then the men pulled out their guns.
Arisa dove off the bed, scrambling to get out of range of the guns and searched frantically for her bag that she had dropped somewhere on the floor. Her hands searched inside it's contents before grasping what she needed-a shiny gun of her own.
She looked up from the floor-Chitose was fighting the men with the guns, punches and expletives flying. She held the gun in both hands and pointed it at one of the men.
"I'll shoot!" she yelled, "I'll fucking shoot!"
The men froze and looked at her still in the middle of their own fight.
Arisa's hands on the gun began to tremble as she sat there on her knees, the gun growing heavy in her hands. The men in suits smiled at her and suddenly there was a shimmer behind the men and then something was grabbing her from behind, yanking her back hard and fast by her neck making her drop the gun.
"No you won't," the gravely voice behind her said.
"Fuck!"
Chitose's fist made contact with one of the guns a man in a suit had causing him to drop it. When he fumbled to catch the dropped firearm Chitose brought his fist back up, causing blood to splurt everywhere.
Arisa screamed and clawed and thrashed at the arm holding her captive. She made contact with the man behind her-kicking backwards and smashing her foot in his groin.
With a grunt she was dropped to the floor where she crawled on all fours to try to find a weapon to use. Instead a heavy boot hit her hard in the side of her ribs and Arisa coughed hard as the wind was knocked out of her, blood dribbling from her mouth. Just before her vision went dark she caught sight of Chitose covered in red flames.
"Arisa? Arisa!" a voice was frantically calling her name and her eyes fluttered open. Chitose stood in her wavering vision. He helped her move to a sitting position and then quickly pulled one of his t-shirts over her head. "Hold on just a second, we have to get to somewhere safe."
She found herself being pulled onto his back. It was hard to focus, she couldn't see straight and the pain in her side was overpowering her thoughts. Vaguely, she noticed the forms of what seemed to be bodies on the ground.
And then they were outside in the cold autumn air.
It was still relatively early in the evening-not even midnight-and so the bar HOMRA was still open even with no patrons inside. The occupants of the bar were instead several young men-a red haired King smoking lazily on one of the couches, a man in sunglasses, hat and hoodie and lastly another one in just a cap sitting at the bar speaking with the bartender who stood polishing a glass.
The last thing any of the members of the Red King's clan expected was for Chitose to open the door to the bar with an unconscious pink haired girl on his back and certainly none of them expected her to be clad in only a t-shirt.
A bruise was already beginning to show on Chitose's jawline and there were splatters of blood on his shirt that hung off of him.
There was a beat of silence as everyone turned to stare at the scene and then-
"Chitose!?"
"What the hell?"
"That's not how you treat your date!"
With a twisted smile, Chitose set the sleeping girl down gently across from the King. "Had a bit of an adventurous night."
Bandou walked over to the couch and looked down at the girl. "Did you drug her?"
He was answered with a sharp punch to the top of his head. "Of course not idiot."
"Then why is she unconscious and wearing only a shirt?" Akagi asked.
Chitose rubbed the back of his head and gave the surrounding audience a sheepish smile. "Ah, that. Well we were...interrupted. Yakuza I think. Not sure why."
Kusanagi looked at the girl and sighed. "Well we can't leave her here like this."
The sunlight filtering through her eyelids was too bright. It was too early and she hurt. Arisa tried to go back to sleep but there was the sound of someone moving in the room.
"You know," she said still not opening her eyes. "There's rough sex and then there's rough sex. I think this would be the latter, ouch."
There was a sound something like a grunt and snort.
Arisa opened her eyes and blinked in the bright sunlight that was streaming in the window. The person in the room was decidedly not the man she'd gone home with the night before and she sat up quickly before the pain in her side sent a sharp stab of pain causing her to double over.
Trying to breathe through her pain she thought back to what had happened the night before, the events of the evening not matching with the man in the room who was currently pulling a shirt on. He turned around and fixed her with a lazy stare.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Golden eyes narrowed. "You're in my bed."
Her mouth twisted into a frown as she met his gaze. "Not by choice, I assure you."
And suddenly the man was bending over, his face inches from hers. His presence was too close and too overpowering-something about his gold eyes and the way he stared at her made her shake. She wanted to look away but she couldn't, it was as if he held her captive.
"Hm," he said in his deep voice and then he was gone and out the door.
Arisa sat there trying to process what had just happened. The moment the red-haired man had left she felt a pressure release her. Just who was that man?
After several minutes of sitting alone in the strange man's bed-and room she guessed-she decided she might as well find out where the hell she was.
There were stairs leading down to something and she padded down the stairs in barefeet, still only wearing the t-shirt Chitose had quickly given her the night before. She stopped when she got to the bottom of the stairs.
Was she in England?
"Ah you're awake!" a cheerful voice said and suddenly there was a tall man with light brown hair smiling brightly at her. He gently steered her to a stool at a long wooden bar and sat her there. "You missed breakfast but I made lunch! It's my own recipe I've been experimenting with and-"
"Totsuka," a gentle voice said and a tall man with sunglasses on appeared behind the bar. "Perhaps the young lady would like to know where she is first?"
The happy man stopped mid sentence and seemingly unphased by the interuption continued, "Kusanagi, of course you're correct. I'm Tatara Totsuka and this is the owner of the bar HOMRA, Izumo Kusanagi. Chitose brought you here after your-ah-incident last night."
"Arisa Takehashi," she replied automatically.
"If you don't mind," the older man-Kusanagi-said with a slight smile. "Could you please tell us a !?little bit about exactly what happened last night?"
And so Arisa found herself explaining exactly what had happened with a dark face. "That would be my asshole of an ex-boyfriend." She accepted the glass of water Kusanagi handed her and took a drink. "Itachi Ito. Pretty high up in the Yakuza and one really sore fucking loser apparently."
"I do have a question," she asked staring down at the wooden bar through her glass. "What the hell was with that red glowing thing Chitose did?"
After a long lecture from Kusanagi about kings and clans and swords and the fact that the world she thought she knew was all just a lie, Arisa thought she had handled everything fairly well. Granted at one point Kusanagi gave her a nice cocktail in the early afternoon to help her come to terms with everything but she hadn't cried or ran away.
It was decided that Arisa would stay at HOMRA, rooming with Anna, until they could determine her safety. It was clear that if the Yakuza could find her at Chitose's place she certainly wasn't safe to go back to her own apartment and for some reason Arisa found herself accepting the offer.
The doors to the bar opened just as Arisa stood to go upstairs and shower away the previous evening and in walked two more boys-one a tall blonde in a track suit and the other in a beanie with a skateboard tucked under his arm.
"Ah!" Totsuka said with a smile, "Kamamoto, Yata-say hello to our new guest, Arisa!"
The boy in the beanie froze as he took in Arisa standing there.
Arisa cocked her head to the side and waved gently at him. In response he seemed to convulse, his face turning bright red.
"Wh-wha-what? Gi-girl!" He turned angrily to Totsuka. "Wh-why!? No cl-clothes!?"
She was suddenly very aware that despite the fact Chitose's shirt reached down to just above her knees she certainly wasn't wearing anything else.
"Noisy," came a deep voice from the couch behind her.
"M-Mikoto-girl?!" Yata was still stammering as Arisa made her way upstairs and to the bathroom that Kusanagi had directed her to.
After 3 weeks of not being able to leave the bar HOMRA Arisa had devised a simple plan. She understood that the reason for her not being allowed out was because of the fact that the Yakuza seemed to have a hit out on her and they were all being protective but she could only handle the restriction in freedom for so long.
Everyone was nice enough-Tatara and her had been getting along great and the rest of the boys seemed to have accepted her existence without much thought and Anna well, she had turned into something of a little sister for Arisa.
All the same, 3 weeks was a long time to have stay in any place, even one as lively as HOMRA.
It was around 4 in the morning and Arisa quietly zipped up her jacket before tossing the hood over her pink hair. As silently as she could in order to not wake Anna, she lifted the window to their shared room up and slipped outside into the cold air.
Making her way across the fire escape and out the alley, Arisa took a deep breath and stretched her body as soon as she was out of sight of the bar. She'd go back when the sun began to rise she'd decided. She just needed some air.
Walking in the chilly early morning air she wasn't paying attention to where she was going-her focus instead on stepping on the fallen leaves that were crisp with frost. She didn't know how far she'd gone until she stepped a foot too far to reach a particularly crunchy looking leaf and bumped into something solid.
Arisa jerked back and looked at the person she'd bumped into and immediately felt heat flooding her cheeks.
He was probably the most handsome man she'd ever seen in her entire life. Tall and solemn with dark hair and rimless glasses-the man smiled benignly down at her.
"S-sorry," she managed to squeak out sounding a lot like Yata did around females.
"Nonsense," the man said in a deep voice that maybe made her toes curl just a little bit. "I am also at fault. I was taking the straightest path and thought you'd notice in time to change your course."
"Ah. I see…" Unable to stop the ferocious blushing Arisa moved to the side. "I'm sorry."
He smiled at her again and she wondered for a moment if he was an angel. Surely only angels were allowed to look like that when they smiled. "Perhaps I should continue my walk with you, if you don't mind?"
Arisa gaped at him.
"I often find an early morning walk does wonders for clearing my mind for the day. But it is also nice to have a companion to walk with. It is rare to find others besides myself up for the day at this hour."
"I-I...I needed to clear my head," Arisa managed finally.
The man nodded serenely as though he knew this all along and began walking comfortably beside her. "The cool air can be refreshing on the mind."
Arisa gave the man a sideways glance. Maybe not an angel, she amended, perhaps the personification of Buddah? "I always liked winter," she said finally.
They walked in silence until light began to glow at the horizon.
"Ah, the sunrise," the man said, coming to a stop. "What a perfect example of the beauty that surrounds us."
Snapped from her reveries, Arisa looked towards the brightening sky with a gasp. She needed to get back to HOMRA and fast. Anna was an early waker and she needed to be safe in their shared bed before she woke up.
"It's lovely, but um...I have to go," she said whipping around and taking in her bearings. Luckily they had traveled back the way she came so she didn't have far to go to get back. "Nice to meet you!"
She left before he could answer, running swiftly back towards the bar. She managed to make it up the fire escape with minimal noise in her rush just as the sky lightened another shade.
Holding her breath she eased the window up and climbed halfway through the window, torso first, sure that victory was in her hands when-
"What are you doing?" the decidedly low grumble of the Red King Suoh Mikoto froze her in her tracks.
She was nose to nose with him as he sat up, shirtless, in his bed.
Arisa closed her eyes sadly. "Wrong window."
Mikoto grunted and Arisa found herself being pulled through the window by the back of her hooded jacket much like a kitten being carried by it's mother. She was unceremoniously dropped on the bed with an oomf.
She turned to look at the king, certain that she was going to be punished but he had already laid back down and closed his eyes.
With a breath of relief she stood to exit the room when a hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist, making her topple backwards onto the bed and right next to the sleeping king who looked for all the world like he was asleep.
Trying to extricate herself from the situation though made things worse as he released her wrist and threw and arm over her waist, pulling her across the mattress and blankets until her back was flush with him. She could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck.
When she tried to pull away, the heavy arm across her body tightened. "So troublesome."
After awhile she was certain that he had actually gone to sleep, his breathing smooth and rhythmic and tickling the back of her neck. Accepting her fate, Arisa felt her own eyes closing as she fell into sleep as well.
"Someone needs to tell Mikoto."
That was the general consensus of members of HOMRA after Anna had come downstairs and declared to Kusanagi and Totsuka that Arisa was missing. The other members of the red clan had made their way to the bar but by early afternoon it was clear that Arisa was still missing and someone had to tell the king.
Totsuka made his way up the stairs and without knocking as he was apt to do, opened the door to Mikoto's room, a small wrinkle of worry appearing on his face as he thought about the missing girl.
Instead he found his king lying asleep in bed, one arm draped protectively over the missing girl. With a smile at the image they made, Totsuka quickly whipped out his phone and snapped a picture at innocent tableau they made.
"What did Mikoto say?" Kusanagi asked as Totsuka made his way back down into the bar.
Totsuka smiled broadly. "He's still asleep. I didn't wake him."
"HEH!?" came the outraged cry from Yata. "You were supposed to tell him that she was gone!"
Kusanagi silenced Yata with a swift punch to the top of his head and waited for Totsuka, who was smiling like he knew something funny, to explain.
"Yata," he said retrieving his phone. "I didn't want to wake them up."
There was a moment of confusion and then.
"Them?" Akagi was the first to grasp that particular pronoun.
Totsuka nodded and pulled up the picture he snapped with the air of a mother showing off her darling child's exploits. "The sweetest thing…"
There was a lot of fumbling and swearing and a couple of punches as the members of all tried to surround Totsuka's phone. Everyone looked down at the picture of the two, the King in all his laziness, arm wrapped around the girl who was wearing all of her clothes and still had her hood up, sleeping in blissful ignorance.
"HEH!?"
