Son of Sam
I might be the son of Sam, the only child of a holy man.
I stand alone for all to see, 'cause they've never seen a war like me.
Luckily for you, the next day was Saturday so you decided to sleep in until your head almost felt like exploding from sleeping far too much. You ignored your mother calling for you to get up but it took your father's booming voice to get you to crawl out of your bed.
"Good morning," you yawned at your mother who gave a disapproving look at the clock on the wall.
"It's already past noon," she muttered as she handed you a bowl with some rice in it.
You thanked her while accepting it and greedily started to eat. Yup, there was nothing better than you mother's rice on a lazy Saturday morning.
"Is it alright if I meet up with some friends to do homework together?" you asked once you had finished your breakfast. You hoped that you mother wouldn't wonder when you had made any friends – except for Mikoto – but she just nodded with a small smile.
You thanked her once more and gave her a small peck on the cheek before hurrying upstairs to get dressed into something more presentable. Little did you know that mother knew exactly where you were going, but she found herself feeling happy that you had finally found someone to talk to, no matter who it might be.
Your father, on the other hand… She just hoped that he wouldn't find out any time soon.
Grabbing your schoolbag with your homework in it, you skipped down the stairs and waved your mother goodbye one last time.
"I don't know when I'll be home again, so don't wait for me with dinner!" you shouted at her as you passed the living room, hoping your father who was probably watching something boring on the television wouldn't stop you.
He didn't and you were outside before you knew it, breathing in the fresh air and the scent of spring. Why did the days when you had to do homework always have to be so lovely?
A cold wind suddenly picked up and you couldn't help but smile as you shrunk back into your jacket in search of some warmth. You couldn't wait to see the others again, even though you had already been with them yesterday.
"Good morning!" you yelled, scaring a few of the newer customers in the bar.
"Haru, it's already past noon." Izumo greeted you by lifting the glass he had been polishing higher into the air.
With a content sigh you went to sit in your reserved corner and suddenly realised you were the first to arrive.
"Where are the others?" you wondered out loud and placed your bag on the table to pull out some of your books.
Tatara had asked you for some help with English again and Mikoto had decided to tag along and see if it could be of any use to him as well, but nobody was here yet. Oh well, more time for you to relax!
Izumo placed a glass of water next to your schoolbooks and pointed upstairs.
"Mikoto's probably still asleep. You can go and wake him up if you want. Tatara should have been here by now, maybe there was some trouble at his house."
You nodded your head in gratitude and quickly drank your water before heading upstairs. You had known that Mikoto stayed at this place but you hadn't been up these stairs yet until now.
Izumo's voice came from downstairs, telling you in which room Mikoto was currently sleeping.
It didn't take more than a minute to find the door, but for some reason it felt like eternity. In slow motion, your hand grabbed the doorknob and opened it.
Time reverted back to normal when you saw the man in question lying on a bed, his limbs spread out across the mattress with his bare chest visible for the whole world to see. You could see the rim of his black boxers but you didn't let your eyes have any more fun than that.
Without showing any signs of being flustered you quickly walked over to the couch in the room, grabbed one of the cushions lying on it and chucked it at Mikoto with all your might.
"Huh…" was the only response you got as Mikoto slowly opened his eyes, not in the least fazed by the headshot you had given him.
"God damn it, Mikoto, cover yourself up. Not everybody thinks your body is godly enough to show it off to everyone!" you yelled as you tackled the half-naked boy who was still blinking tiredly.
He quickly regained his senses though and started to wrestle back. "It's your own fault for sneaking into my room."
Not realising that that had probably been his longest sentence since meeting him, you fell back faking insult.
"I did not sneak into your room. It is your own fault for forgetting our date,' you joked and stuck your tongue out at him.
Then you jumped off the bed and flung his clothes at him – which he captured perfectly – before disappearing through the door, down the stairs.
Downstairs you let yourself fall back into you seat and went to look through your books in search of a suitable subject to teach a student in middle school. Not much later Mikoto came sauntering down the steps. Izumo was busy with the customers and could only send a look in his direction, but it wasn't as if Mikoto could care less about that.
He let himself fall down next to you on the couch and glanced around with a frown.
"Tatara isn't here yet," you informed him without looking away from the book lying in front of you, your fingers sliding along the page as you continued your search for something interesting.
His frown deepened at that, knowing Tatara was one of those people who would always end up arriving earlier than necessary without even trying. But now Mikoto had been faster and he was normally always the last to get there, despite living in the place himself.
"What's wrong?" you asked him in your very best English when you noticed his expression was even unhappier than usual.
As if on cue, the door slowly opened and Tatara walked, no, istumbled/i into the room. Everyone looked at him in shock as they took in his appearance: one of his sleeves was completely tattered and drenched in blood while the rest of his shirt had been torn to provide a makeshift bandage for his arm. The rest of his body was covered in bruises and scratches, but somehow he managed to keep a smile on his face, all the while claiming that everything was going to be alright.
"What happened?!" Izumo exclaimed as he grabbed the first aid kit he kept underneath the bar, quickly making his way towards Tatara who was being helped to sit down by you while Mikoto watched in silence.
"Ah, just the usual. Someone recognised me as one of Mikoto's friends-"
"Where?" Mikoto interrupted him. He didn't show any of the emotions he may or may not have been feeling, but the fact that he had clenched one of his hands to the point they were turning red was a dead giveaway.
Tatara smiled at his friend, ready to calm him down and persuade him it wasn't needed to beat those guys for revenge, but Izumo placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a meaningful look.
All you could do was stare at the boy's arm, trying to count the times that this had happened. Not only to Tatara, but also to Izumo and even Mikoto. You hadn't known them for very long but you had already forgotten how often they came in with such wounds. But now you were one of them too. You had to right to avenge them, too!
"I want to come with you," you stated, your eyes still not looking away from Tatara's now neatly bandaged arm.
Mikoto shook his head as he got up from his seat to which you clenched your jaw in frustration.
"Aren't I one of you guys now? I think I should get to see this side of you too. How can I really get to know you if I don't even know what you guys do whenever I'm not around?" you retorted angrily, not planning on giving this up any time soon.
Izumo held a hand up to stop Mikoto from responding. "I think she's right. She has the right to see who we really are, doesn't she?"
The redhead didn't reply to that and merely stared on straight ahead. Izumo took that as a yes and turned back to Tatara, asking him if he was feeling good enough to look after his bar while he was gone. The wounded boy merely nodded in response, smiling that smile of his.
"Just be careful," he called after the three of you as you left the bar with some of the customers in the background who were cheering for your group.
You felt nervous as you walked down the street and Izumo's silence was making the whole situation worse. But the silence from your left was nothing compared to the murderous aura that came from your right. Though Mikoto's expression was the same as always, the rest of his body screamed that he was ready to kill someone and you almost feared that he was actually going to do so. But then you thought back to Tatara's ragged appearance and anger flared inside of you, furious because someone could do this to another human being just because he was befriended with a certain person. Tatara was one of the most peaceful people on Earth, anyone who dared to touch him deserved to die!
People muttered as you made your way through the city towards the place Tatara had last been with his attackers, not caring if you bumped into others on your way there. Some tried to confront your group but never managed to get a reaction while the smarter people just tried to interrupt you as little as possible.
With every step you took, the dangerous aura from next to you seemed to be dying down. You were glad that he wasn't going to enter this fight with a head filled with nothing but rage, but once you rounded the corner from the busy main street into one of the side streets he seemed to recognise who he was looking for and his temper flared to what it had been a minute ago.
"Mikoto…" you started but were cut off when by Izumo who placed a hand on your shoulder, as if telling you that it was no use.
"Please stay here." And with that, he quickly joined Mikoto on his walk to the other side of the street.
Though they did nothing in particular to attract any attention, the group of men turned around to look the approaching men.
"Ah, if it isn't Mikoto Suoh. What a coincidence, we were just talking about you! Well, more about that poor friend of y-"
The man couldn't even finish his sentence as Mikoto's fist slammed into his stomach, making him double over with pain. Before anyone could react, Izumo had grabbed the heads of two of the smaller group members, smashing them together which immediately rendered them unconscious.
As if a sign had been given, the remaining men – still quite a few – jumped Mikoto and Izumo at the same time. Young and inexperienced, the sudden display of teamwork caught the boys off guard and before you could blink a complete brawl had been started. All you could do was stare in horror as blood spatters flew about, men howling in pain and yelling as if that would make their punches stronger.
But suddenly one of them decided it had been enough and grabbed a knife, striking out at someone you couldn't see. You couldn't stop yourself from yelling in fright when you saw him pull his arm back, a little blood now dripping from his blade. Unfortunately, the noise you had made caught the attention of one of the men who was standing outside of the group in an attempt to regain some energy.
He smirked, thinking he had found some easy prey, and started to make him way towards you. You stepped backwards until your back hit a wall of bricks and slid to the ground as if that would somehow help you escape. You held your hands up in front of you to try and protect you from his fists.
When the punch never came, you looked up just in time to watch the man topple over, a familiar knife sticking out of his back. Mikoto stood behind him, an empty look on his face as his eyes met yours before he turned back to kick someone who had been trying to sneak up on him in the stomach. The new attacker groaned in pain and slumped to the ground.
Izumo himself was done with his share of kick-ass and you watched him wipe away some of the blood that was coming from a small knife wound on his cheek.
"Ah, let me help you with that!" You got up and quickly ran over to where he was standing while pulling a handkerchief from your pockets which you then carefully pressed against his face.
As you did so, you took in your surroundings. The bastards who had dared to touch Tatara were now lying all over the place, some groaning in pain, others unconscious and one of them even dead. On the one hand you felt kind of proud that you had found friends who would go to such lengths to avenge their friends, but on the other hand you were afraid. What would happen to you if you decided to do the wrong thing? Was it even safe to be near people who could do this to others?
The same silence hung around your group on your way back to the bar, but this time you were the one responsible for it. Izumo tried to spark a conversation with you and you refused to reply with anything that gave him the chance to talk much more. With Mikoto's murderous intent satisfied, you felt a little less nervous but still couldn't feel quite comfortable in between these men.
Tatara greeted you happily once you arrived at the bar, already looking much better. Mikoto immediately excused himself without taking the time to check for any serious wounds, claiming that he was tired and wanted to sleep again, while Izumo replaced Tatara behind the bar.
That left you and Tatara to do what you had actually planned to do all day: homework. But you didn't feel like it, your enthusiasm to show off one of the very few things you could actually do completely drained. Tatara immediately noticed this and found that even though you hadn't been all that involved in the fight, you were the one it had affected the most.
"I should've known that going with them wasn't a clever idea." He sighed and ruffled your hair, making you feel three years younger than him instead of older.
He placed an arm around you and pulled you towards him in a hug.
"I know what you might be thinking, but you should let it go. You've been accepted into our group, that is enough proof and no matter what you do, you'll never be able to get on their bad side. You might not be completely safe by his side, but I promise you, Mikoto will do his best to protect you," he explained in his soft voice and managed to make you forget all your previous thoughts.
You trusted Tatara and knew he wouldn't lie for the sake of others and so you decided to believe him and throw all your doubts out of the window. You were all friends now and friends tried to protect each other as much as possible.
Tatara watched your transformation from a small, gloomy girl into your usual cheerful and proud self.
"Alright! Let's do this!" you exclaimed in English, pumping a fist into the air in excitement.
Remembering what you had been planning to teach the boy, you immediately got started, even surprising Tatara himself with your sudden mood switch and your readiness to help him with his homework.
"S…sankyeu…" he tried but gave up when he saw your frown.
"No, no, no! It's with a 'th', not an 's'! Th! Thank you!"
And that was the day that Tatara learned that you were even fiercer with teaching than Mikoto was with fighting.
