Sin with a Grin
These scars I scratch, I tear, are there under my skin, where you've always been
Thank you for reminding me to sin with a grin
That is how you continued the next couple of weeks. You would do your best to better your results at school – but to no avail – and to keep your contact with the boys to a minimum during the weeks. Except for Mikoto of course, with whom you always ate your lunch at school. Then during the weekends you would go to Homra with the excuse of 'doing homework with some friends from school'.
Speaking of which, since your paranoia of getting bullied had disappeared almost completely, some of your classmates had started trying to befriend you. One of the girls had even told you that since you had become friends with Mikoto, you seemed much friendlier, to which you responded by blushing heavily.
But in the blink of the eye, your whole rhythm had been disrupted when your father announced that during the two weeks of spring break, he was going to visit family in one of the rural areas of town and you and your mother were to come with him. That meant no contact with the rest of the world until you got home again. There was no way of going back for a few hours, because the only way to get anywhere from that shithole was by car and, unfortunately, you didn't have a driver's licence, or a car.
But if there was anything worse than a family reunion, you did not yet know of it. Your grandparents and one of your aunts and her husband and children lived there and they could easily make you want to be in the company of your father all by yourself if that meant you could get away from them.
Well, your grandparents weren't the horrible ones. You always did wonder how it was possible that your father was who he was with such lovely parents. They always showered you with presents whenever you came over and you always had lots of fun whenever your grandfather would take you around on his tractor or when you helped your grandmother to cook dinner.
But then there was that aunt of yours: she was just as bad as your father, but at least your father tried to keep his horrible side a secret. Your aunt would openly insult her children and the worst part was that they would fight back. Her husband would just sit by and watch it all happen with a sheepish look on his face which made you feel sad for him. How could he have fallen for such a woman in the first place?
After those fights your father would always manage to show how 'proud' he was of you, because you never struggled against his judgement and because of that your aunt disliked you, to put it mildly. She would always try to rub that in by making some nasty comment about how her children were doing so well at school.
Two weeks later, on the last Friday of the break, on the trip back home, you found yourself feeling much more tired than before the holiday. You hoped that the cursed part of your family would die out very soon by some deadly mutation that only affected evil genes.
The very moment you arrived back at your own house, you didn't even bother unpacking your bags and immediately left for Homra, only telling your parents that you wanted to enjoy the rest of your free time with your friends from school.
"You're back!" Tatara almost cried in happiness as he semi-tackled you, pulling you into a bear-hug.
"Owowowow!" you yelped at the pain his bone-crushing hug was causing you and it took all of Izumo's strength to separate the boy from your body and even then he would not let go of you, clinging to your arm as he pulled you down to sit.
After quickly glancing about you found Mikoto was sitting on a stool at the bar, his back turned towards you. The sight pained you slightly; you had been away for two weeks and had missed the redhead most of all, but when you return you find that he couldn't care less.
"You want to wake Mikoto up?" Tatara inquired, pulling you out of your thoughts. Wake him up? So… he was asleep right now? You could almost kill yourself in embarrassment for your previous thoughts.
Waking him up wasn't necessary, however, for he turned around as if hearing his name had been enough. He looked at you and you saw a ghost of a smile on his face. Butterflies fluttered around in your stomach but something just didn't feel right and the poor creatures died down before they could fully take form.
Something was wrong. Something was different. Something had changed…
"What happened?" you voiced your concerns, giving the three boys a stern look to tell them you weren't going home with anything but a proper explanation.
"Oh, you mean this?" Izumo asked with a big smile on his face as he watched your eyes widen in shock.
"Wh… How?" you stuttered as you stared at the flames that were licking at his arms. He didn't seem to be feeling any pain, so how…?
"While you were gone, Mikoto was blessed with the powers of a King, from the Dresden Slate. We are his vassals and got these cools powers," Tatara explained, excitement rolling off him in waves.
Mikoto snorted at that and Izumo joined him with a laugh.
"Cool powers, says the one who flipped out and almost burned someone's arm off," Izumo teased the boy.
Tatara pouted childishly before retorting. "As if you were doing any better."
You could only stare at them as they continued their bickering, faintly catching something about how Mikoto had controlled the flames perfectly fine from the very beginning. What was the Dresden Slate? Kings? Were there any others like this, then?
"Want to join us?" Mikoto's voice rumbled from next to you and you snapped your head to the side only to get a nice view of his jaw, his chin resting on your shoulder.
And since when was Mikoto one to get so close to anybody?
You jumped away from him and turned to see him holding his hand out at you. You examined it carefully, as if it could explode any minute now, and shook your head tentatively.
"I can't. Not right now, anyway. My father would kill me-"
"He doesn't have to know," Mikoto interrupted you. He stared into your eyes, hoping you would change your mind. You were involved with him now after all and he wanted you to have some way of protecting yourself if it was needed.
But you continued to shake your head and felt guilty when you saw the disappointment flash through his eyes. You felt as if he had just confessed his love for you and you had shot him down.
"Someday, I promise." You tried your best to smile at him and your heart jumped in relief when you noticed the corners of his lips twitch upwards. Had he really missed you this much?
"Oh well," Izumo started with a sigh. "Let's go somewhere to celebrate our reunion before you two decide to find yourselves a room."
Tatara could only laugh at your red face while Izumo went to collect his coat.
Outside the bar you realised that despite being slightly freaked out by the boys' new 'talents', you felt quite safe walking in the warm aura they seemed to emit. While Tatara and Izumo discussed which bar they should visit, you tried to have a conversation with Mikoto, sharing your stories of your horrible aunt with him while he listened in silence.
Something you soon noticed was how he would glance at you more often than he normally would when talking to you. But then we would quickly look around, not shy towards you but cautious about his surroundings.
"What about this one?" Tatara asked no one in particular, pointing at a fancy-looking shop at the end of the street.
Your stomach growled loudly in response and your face turned bright red in embarrassment once more. "Maybe we should find something simple that sells food?"
So you ended up getting ramen from a small stand at the side of the street. Izumo even paid for it, which managed to make everything better.
It was still rather light outside, but the sudden coolness signalled that it was slowly becoming night. Even so, you didn't feel any cold while eating your ramen, surrounded by the new flames of your boys.
"Maybe we should go somewhere fun together, in the next break," you mumbled once you had finished your food.
The others laughed softly and Izumo replied, "You sound as if everything has changed."
Staring at the ground, you shrugged. Hadn't it changed then? Was it just inside your head, or could they not yet see it, with their new abilities?
"Hey, is anybody still hungry? I'm going to buy something else." Izumo easily changed the subject and lightened the mood as Tatara immediately jumped up, ready for seconds.
The two of them went back to the stand, leaving you alone with Mikoto, who somehow was still eating his first cup of ramen.
"Sorry for ruining the mood," you apologised, but he merely lifted his shoulders, not seeming very bothered by anything at the moment.
That changed however, when he got up to throw his cup away into a dustbin that was situated farther down the street, leaving you by yourself for a minute or two. Before he could return, a group of men strolled by, most of them looking rather bored.
They seemed to notice you and you smiled bravely at them, telling yourself that not all men are disgusting pigs. That theory was destroyed when one of them opened his mouth.
"Hello there, cutie. You alone here?" he asked you in what probably should have been his most seductive voice.
You shook your head, trying to find the boys who had been here with you seconds ago. "N-no, I'm here with some friends."
"What, how could they leave a little girl like you all by herself?" another exclaimed, seeming pretty upset by this.
A third man grabbed your hand and softly pulled you towards the group. "Why don't you join us? We're not going to hurt you, I promise."
You quickly shook your head again and tried to free yourself from the man's grip. This angered him slightly and he tightened his hold on your arm.
"O-oi!" one of the men called out, causing the rest of them to turn around in curiosity.
Mikoto was standing before them, his eyes glowing strangely as he glared at the men.
Someone seemed to recognise him, for he quickly started to apologise to the redhead. "Please forgive us! We didn't know what we were doing. We might have had too much to drink, you know?"
Most of the others agreed with him and they swiftly tried to leave, but the one holding you didn't seem to like that at all.
He muttered some obscene swearword and pulled at your hand once – you weren't sure if it was on purpose or just an accident – before releasing you, but it was still enough to make you stumble over your own feet.
You hissed in pain as you felt your knees scrape against the ground and you didn't even have to look to confirm that the thin fabric of your jeans were now decorated with tears in the knee-area.
No one seemed to have noticed your fall – except for the one who shouldn't have seen it.
Mikoto's hand flew up to a random neck that had been trying to escape, easily lifting the man who was a little bigger than himself from the floor. The man yelled in pain when the hand holding him was suddenly engulfed by red waves, the flames slowly eating away the flesh under his jaw.
The redhead didn't let go of the man, not when the body he was holding slackened, not when the rest of the men started yelling in anger and panic, not when he looked up to stare you dead in the eye where he could see your fear, not even when he may or may not have realised that what you were afraid of was him.
The only thing that managed to pull him from his trance was when someone ripped the body from his hands and went to stand in front of him in an attempt to confront him, maybe to distract him so the others could get away.
"What's going on?" Tatara and Izumo both cried out at the same time once they finally returned.
"He freaked out. Those guys, they kind of annoyed me a bit but when they saw him they were going to leave… But one of them accidentally made me fall and he just freaked out," you replied without letting your eyes stray from Mikoto's enraged form.
His aura seemed to be a huge flame encasing his body, burning everything surrounding him except himself. The remaining men stood in front of him, petrified, watching his every move as he slowly made his way to the man standing in front of him.
"He's not just going to hurt them. He's out to kill them! Izumo, Tatara, you guys have that skill too, can't you help them?!" you begged them, shaking their arms in fright but your heart sank at the pained looks on their faces.
"We can't. Don't want to risk getting attacked by him right now."
You turned back towards the happening and found that people were starting to gather around the fight. If Mikoto really couldn't distinguish between good and bad, then this was the worst place for this to take place.
Meanwhile, Mikoto grabbed the collar of his challenger and punched him with all his might. His enemy didn't even try to fight back.
"Mikoto, stop."
In surprise and ready to defend himself, he quickly turned around and punched whomever had been standing behind him. He blinked slowly when he saw his fist collide with your cheek, someone in the background calling your name as you twirled before landing on your knees again.
This somehow broke the spell on the other men who proceeded to run into an alley in an attempt to escape, but Mikoto didn't even spare you a second glance before going after them as fast as he could. You yourself didn't even think as you quickly got up and followed them, ignoring your headache and the voices of your friends yelling your name.
Apparently Mikoto had already caught up to the slowest member of the group, who was curled up on the ground, trying to survive the kicks Mikoto was giving him. You could feel your stomach twist painfully when you saw the wicked grin on the 'King's' face.
"Mikoto!" you yelled and grabbed his hand to capture his attention.
You hissed as his flesh seemed to burn yours and cursed yourself for not accepting the powers he had offered you only hours ago.
He seemed to hold himself back from doing anything to you and ran off after the two remaining men. You didn't allow yourself any time to rest and tried your best to follow him, which ended up being easier than you had expected for in his rage, the redhead kept stumbling over boxes and dustbins. But every time you got a little too close to him, he would throw a punch or a kick your way. Sometimes he would hit you but sometimes he could barely even graze your body.
Finally the narrow paths ended and you entered a wider space that led towards three other alleyways. Mikoto stood in the middle, looking around wildly as though he didn't know which one he should choose.
"Mikoto, please calm do-" you started, but you couldn't finish your sentence for he slammed his fist into your stomach.
The shock caused you to fall face-first to the ground. Apparently you had pissed him off now because he pressed his fist against your back. It wasn't a punch, it was just a light dab on the small of your back, but the result was immediate: searing pain through your whole body as if someone had just set your insides on fire.
That night was the first time you actually screamed in pain. You had never known that falling unconscious could ever be so relieving.
Once you had stopped writhing about, Mikoto seemed to snap back into reality only to find your still form. He slowly realised what he had done and he couldn't stop his breath from hitching in his throat as he carefully turned you around, relieved to find your chest still going up and down.
Footsteps came from one of the alleys and it didn't take long before Izumo and Tatara joined him by your side. They noticed his look and sighed as the stress in their bodies vanished.
"Mikoto," Izumo started sternly, grabbing the redhead's chin to lift his face. "This isn't just your fault, okay? You had to snap eventually to adjust to the flames, do you understand? Haru shouldn't have gotten involved, you weren't being yourself. Got it?"
Mikoto didn't reply, he merely stood up with you in his arms and started to make his way towards the nearest hospital.
