Hi guys! I'm back!

Many thanks to everyone who still reads this and to any newcomers: Hello.

Though I sincerely doubt the K fandom has newcomers.

Viexion, if you're reading this answer my text messages so I know you're alive plz and thank you.

Other than that, enjoy!

Chapter 3: Growth

Their lives grew hectic with everything that was happening; more people joined after that. Mikoto's control over his power grew more and more hectic. The Yakuza came after them. They met two teenagers, a brown-haired boy with glasses and a redhaired girl who were going to come back into their lives in a big way not that any of them knew it then. Not necessarily in that order. Totsuka thought she did more running in her seventeenth year than she had in the entire rest of her life put together, and she'd done a lot of running.

But the thing that stuck out most to Totsuka was when their old teacher: Honami Kushina, came to visit them at bar HOMRA. She brought her seven year old niece with her: Anna.

Anna was the strangest child Tatara had ever met, not that she spent a lot of time with children. She peered at Tatara through a red marble and said:

"If you stay with him, you wont live very long."

That pulled Totsuka up short, she'd heard the sentiment a thousand and one times but to hear it said so bluntly in a child's soft voice… And how did Anna know this?

Either way, Totsuka smiled gently and put a finger to her lips, "let's keep this between us, okay?" Anna seemed surprised by Totsuka's acceptance of her words but, at her request, said nothing to anyone else. Though she often wondered if she should have.

It probably wouldn't have changed anything though.

Shit. Mikoto leaned back against the wall with a sigh. Yeah, he was going to have to give up his job as a bodyguard, he was too strong now and his control over his strength was not good at all.

There had been some bad injuries but Mikoto hadn't killed anyone. Yet. He'd already been stumbling down a slippery slope when it came to violence but becoming the Red King had given him a snowboard to get down the slope faster.

He pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a flame from his thumb. Well, at least some good came of this. None of them were likely to damage their lungs from smoking and he no longer needed to carry a lighter.

Then again, maybe he did. "Shit," Mikoto mumbled aloud when the fire from his hand blew off half his cigarette.

"Difficult, isn't it?"

Mikoto's head jerked up. He would have sworn he was alone when he pulled out the cigarette but now there was a girl about his age in a high-tech wheelchair a few feet from him.

Mikoto didn't jump but it was a pretty close thing. Instead he raised an eyebrow, "who're you?" And, more importantly, what did she know about the difficulties of controlling magic fire?

"A frightened mouse who cowers underground," the girl replied. It said something about Mikoto's life that this was not the weirdest response to 'who're you?' that he'd ever gotten.

"Huh," he said, which was his most common response when he didn't know what to say (followed by broody silence and 'yeah' in that order), "and how do you-"

"I've had experiences with Kings in the past." Said the girl calmly, foreseeing Mikoto's next question.

"Are you a Strain?"

"Something like that."

She answered him but the other teen never reacted to his questions, no hesitation, no change in tone or expression, nothing. This kid was a little unsettling. And Mikoto didn't unsettle easily.

"What do you plan to do if you can't control your power?" It took Mikoto a second to realise that the girl was the one talking, not his brain because these days he asked himself that about three times a minute.

What a nosy little brat. Then again, if Mikoto couldn't control his power he could potentially kill her and everybody else in Shizume so maybe it wasn't unfair she wanted an answer.

Unfortunately, he didn't really have one. "Die, I guess."

"Well, perhaps all Red Kings are cut from the same cloth."

He couldn't answer that either. He couldn't say that was true, but he couldn't say it wasn't.

"Huh."

"Well, good luck, I'll be interested to see how you do." The girl left. It was only after she did that Mikoto realised he'd never said anything about being the Red King to her.

How had she known that?

Life then led Totsuka to a realisation.

Or, more accurately, Izumo led Totsuka to a realisation. That was Izumo, always ready to step in when his friends were being idiots. Stay strong dude, it does not get better.

"Do you love him?" He asked one quiet night when the bar was empty. They'd been talking about Mikoto, naturally.

"Of course I do," said Totsuka, had there ever been any doubt? She knew she loved them both and they loved her and each other.

"No, but are you in love with him?" Kusanagi pressed. He knew the answer of course, but he was sick of watching Mikoto watch Tatara watch Mikoto and wanted one of them to admit their feelings, even if it was just to themselves.

Mikoto would never admit to anything he didn't want to, Tatara was the weak link so she was the one he put pressure on.

"I," Tatara, who's middle name might as well be 'shameless' actually blushed. "I…" Izumo saw the light bulb turn on behind her eyes.

Every noise sounded further away, she could hear people talking on the street outside, the hum of the electrical appliances, the squeak as Izumo cleaned a glass, "I do love him." Her voice sounded calm, as though she was stating the most normal, natural thing in the world but inside it felt like her blood was fizzing in her veins. She, who'd been called 'heartless' more than once because of her inability to see anyone or anything as more than a passing distraction. But she did. She loved HOMRA, the Kingdom they were all building together, Izumo, and Mikoto…

She loved Mikoto.

"I love Mikoto," she whispered. Yup, that sounded as stunned as she felt.

Izumo's lips twitched, yeah he was happy Totsuka was figuring herself out but it was hysterical that it was a life-changing insight for her when he'd known for far too long now.

The sun was hot and Tatara Totsuka loved Mikoto Suoh, who knew? He sure did.

One down, one to go.

"Are you gonna tell him?" He asked, turning back to the glasses he was cleaning.

Glancing back up when she took too long to respond, Izumo saw something he rarely saw on Totsuka's face; shyness.

"D-Do you think I should? I don't want to make things weird between us."

If she were any other girl on the planet, he would say no, she shouldn't. This was Mikoto fucking Suoh they were talking about. Confessions of love? Not his thing.

But, for better or worse, there was no one on Earth like Tatara Totsuka.

"Who knows? He might surprise you." Said Izumo, scrubbing at a glass he had already well and truly cleaned.

Tatara laughed, "I'm sure he will. I just don't know if that'll be a good or bad thing."

"What will?" Mikoto asked, coming through the door.

Little Miss 'Don't-Sweat-It-It'll-All-Work-Out' shrieked like a Banshee and leapt out of her chair.

"King! You're back early! And nothing! Nothing will be good or bad! We weren't talking about anything!" Wide brown eyes beseeched Izumo not to reveal her lie.

Kusanagi ducked his head so they couldn't see his face and prayed Mikoto couldn't see his shoulders shaking with laughter. "Actually, Totsuka's got something she wants to talk to you about." Yeah, he was a bastard but he couldn't take it anymore! Totsuka was actually bearable but Mikoto watching Tatara and silently following after her everywhere she went like a lovesick puppy made Izumo want to beat himself over the head with something heavy. Enough!

"I will get you and make it look like an accident." Tatara hissed. Worth it.

Trust Izumo Kusanagi to be the one to drive a pacifist to violence.

Totsuka and Mikoto looked at each other, Tatara swallowed nervously.

"I-I… I'm making spiced beef curry tonight so look forward to that! It'll be very delicious!" Totsuka half-yelled at Suoh before bolting for the kitchen ignoring Kusanagi's cry of 'get back here you coward!' he should know by now that would never work. Totsuka ran from things, it was what she did.

Mildly curious, Mikoto glanced at Izumo who pointed at the kitchen, saying without words, go after her. Mikoto shrugged inwardly and did so.

"Tatara?" He asked, ducking into the kitchen, a slight squeak was his only reply.

He found her by the sink, drying an already dry pot vigorously with a towel. "Yes King! Was there something you needed?!" She asked far too perkily.

Mikoto frowned, trying to think what could be wrong with her this time. They'd gained magical powers and she hadn't so much as blinked but now she stood with her back to him still, avoiding eye-contact.

Mikoto sighed inwardly, he was pretty sure he knew what this conversation was going to be about, he'd been expecting this for a while now. A long while actually.

"Spit it out," didn't mean he was going to make it easy on her.

"There's nothing to spit," if Totsuka polished that pot any more she was going to be able to see her face in it. Her shoulders were too tense.

Okay, maybe he was going to make this easy on her, Mikoto hated beating around the bush, "look if you wanna leave, just go."

Wait, what?!

Totsuka put down the super-clean pot, "leave?! Where did that come from?!"

Why wouldn't she want to leave? Just the other day Totsuka had been cornered by three members from a rival gang and only escaped injury because some youngsters from HOMRA literally stumbled upon the scene.

And Mikoto's power wouldn't hurt her -now- but how how long would that last? And she...

She could do a lot better than him. And-

Totsuka gently thumped Mikoto on the head with a closed fist, "cut that out. Didn't I say I wasn't going anywhere?"

"Sorry," Mikoto muttered, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"That wasn't what Kusanagi" -the snitch- "and I were talking about."

But she declined to tell him what they had been talking about, Mikoto noted.

But that was dashed from Mikoto's mind when Tatara gently rested her hands on his shoulders.

Equally as gently she leaned up and brushed her lips over his.

Totsuka pulled back, her face rapidly turning the colour of Mikoto's hair as he stood there, rooted to the spot with shock, "I'm really not going anywhere so please don't worry about it."

Her face scarlet, Totsuka turned to leave, snapping Mikoto out of his shock. He sighed inwardly, again. Gotta do everything myself, he thought, amused.

He caught Tatara around the waist and kissed her so thoroughly that her head spun, she twined her fingers through his hair and kissed him back.

Poking his head through the doorway, Izumo saw them and retreated immediately, shaking his head. Finally.

In the months that followed Tatara's eighteenth birthday the infamy of their clan continued to grow. This resulted in an influx of new potential members but Mikoto's screening system never failed. If you weren't suited for HOMRA instead of making you a clansman, the red fire would burn you when you took Mikoto's hand. Many weren't brave enough to even try. Totsuka heard rumours about the ones who were brave enough to try, but failed. Some rumours said you got a burn in the shape of a hand over yours that didn't fade for three weeks, other rumours said a column of blood-coloured flame incinerated you where you stood. She heard Mikoto called everything from sorcerer, to charlatan, to demon. People had such wild imaginations but no one came close to the truth.

The newbies tended to drift in and out. They answered any call Mikoto, Izumo or Tatara sent out but no-one had the time to be HOMRA almost 24/7 like they were. They came and went, meeting new members and older ones they'd passed by every day. Tatara found she was the one everyone went to when this happened.

No one bothered Mikoto and if there was anything -for lack of a better term- 'work' related, they went to Izumo. But when it came to people, they went to her.

Tatara met people from all walks of life. Most were the 'young punk' type she was used to but there were others. She made friends, introduced people, broke up fights and even gave advice about love sometimes.

One time when she did this a young woman named Bando who had just joined them, caught her glancing at Mikoto when she answered a question about love. Tatara turned scarlet and glanced away. Bando could act like a dolt sometimes but her sensitive eyes saw more than most. If she had any opinions, she chose to keep them to herself.

Time passed. Mikoto's power continued to grow. Tatara, who slept like a cat, moved her things into his room so she could be with him at night. He tossed and turned in his sleep, only calming when she spoke to him or patted his hair. Sometimes red fire rippled across his body, she was forced to wake him then, least he set their sheets on fire.

One day, Izumo pulled Tatara to the side and asked if she'd heard of an app called jungle. When Totsuka admitted she hadn't he showed her the app. He didn't know a whole lot about it either but it seemed to have apps for just about everything and a ranking system that went from J at the top to E at the end. Members could do quests and get points for succeeding them. Failing missions lost you points, gaining enough points moved you up to the next rank, while losing enough bumped you back down or even got your account terminated. Very basic stuff.

What had caught Izumo's attention was that people online were swearing that if you made it to N rank or higher you were given supernatural powers. Green fire was the most common among the abilities listed. It was also said -although this was a more unsubstantiated rumour- that if you made it to J rank you got to meet the 'King' who ran jungle and be given real power, power that couldn't be taken away by losing your rank.

"Huh..." said Totsuka thoughtfully as she and Izumo read all this, "you think it's another Clan?"

"It's very different from HOMRA, it's hard to be sure," Izumo murmured, still reading, "it's more similar to the Gold Clan, they have hundreds of workers but only a small portion of them have power." Izumo said.

Totsuka nodded absently but she didn't totally agree, "still, this just… feels different, I guess. I can't make myself see these average players as clansmen… They just seem like..."

"Scapegoats," Izumo said.

"Pawns," Tatara said at the same time.

They glanced at each other and then back at the screen, "what's that, scroll down and let me read it?" Totsuka asked, pointing to the bottom of the screen.

She was right, she had seen the name HOMRA. 500Jp (jungle points) if you could add a new name to a list of HOMRA members. There was a list below. Mikoto's name was right at the top, Izumo's underneath, Totsuka's underneath his.

"Well Hell," Izumo breathed as they scanned the list.

"How are they verifying this?" She knew everybody on that list and they were all members. Surely the King, if that's what the person who ran jungle was, had some way of telling if they were really HOMRA members or not.

"And what do they want to know that for?" She continued.

"Dunno," said Izumo, continuing to scroll down. "But I doubt it's to send us all friend requests."

Izumo was correct.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of them," Totsuka commented cheerfully, peering through the bar's glass doors.

Lackeys from jungle, she could not even think of them as Clansmen milled on the road around HOMRA, they'd been at the doors before until a pillar of red-pink fire Izumo sent their way made them jump back. They were now inching closer as their numbers continued to grow. Totsuka couldn't see anyone's face because they were all wearing not-at-all-creepy plain white masks with smiling black mouths.

There was a scuffle at the back of the group, the two young teens they'd met months ago, not wearing masks, seemed to be struggling with the rest of the group, Tatara saw them appear and disappear as the crowd parted and came back together again. The last she saw of them was the brunet teen, the boy, being grabbed by members of the mob.

A sound behind her made her turn around as the back door swung shut behind Mikoto, "yer goin out there?!" Kusanagi demanded in disbelief that one of his friends could be so stupid.

Tatara raced out the door after Mikoto, "fine!" Izumo gave up on his friends acting intelligently.

"You two keep those kids safe!" Was the last thing Totsuka heard him say, his voice almost drowned out by the fireworks the mob had begun to set off in the direction of the two teens. This was getting dangerous.

She reached Mikoto just as he released his own power in a swirl of red, pink and purple tinged with orange. Totsuka caught her breath, no matter how many times she saw it; Mikoto's power was still as beautiful as he was.

The girl teen was sitting on the ground in front of Mikoto, the boy teen was standing right where Mikoto's power hit the fireworks.

Quickly Tatara ran up to him and as gently as she could, wrapped her arms around the exhausted, beaten looking boy, pulling him into her arms.

The fire swirled around Totsuka harmlessly and she smiled, "that was a pretty close call, huh?" She asked the boy in her arms. "Are you okay? Did your face get burnt?" She rubbed his head idly, he didn't seem to be much of a talker so she answered her own question, "I see, you also lost part of your eyebrow." His eyebrow. Jeez. A couple of centimeters lower and…

She turned to Mikoto, still half supporting the boy, "King!" Fire still swirled around Mikoto but slowly died at the sound of her voice. "You overdid it. Mr. Kusanagi told us to try and keep the innocent kids safe."

Mikoto raised his own eyebrow at her, "I didn't hurt anyone." He said something else but Tatara missed it as the two youngsters called out to each other.

"S-Saruhiko…"

"Misaki!"

The girl scrambled off the ground and threw herself at the now wide-eyed boy who detached himself from Totsuka and caught her hesitantly. She was crying and thanking God that he was okay, he held her loosely, seeming shocked at her emotions.

Aww. Young love was so cute. They seemed close. It'd be a real shame if something happened to ruin that relationship.

After the girl -finally- finished crying Tatara ushered the two younger teens into the bar but stopped when Mikoto touched her shoulder just outside. "You okay?" Mikoto asked.

Like he needed to ask, "of course I am. You should worry about yourself. You used up a lot of power out there, don't push yourself."

Mikoto almost snickered at the idea that such a tiny amount of power could tire him out, he brushed his thumb across her cheek and, humming slightly, Totsuka leaned into the gesture for a second. "C'mon, let's get these kids outta here before they decide to join and I have even more brats underfoot." Mikoto said.

Totsuka half-laughed, following him inside, "I hope that brat comment wasn't directed at me."

"I hope you weren't hoping too hard."

Totsuka laughed properly this time and mock-glared at him, "I hope they do join, that'd be fun."

Mikoto just sighed and shook his head.

"You're more than enough for me," he told her wearily.

Totsuka hummed again, "hey, King?"

He turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow.

She wasn't talking about being a brat or getting underfoot or being fun now. "You're more than enough for me too."

I LIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEE! Wow. Two chapters in 6 months. Aren't you guys lucky? That was actually a really long chapter, did it seem super-short to anyone else?

Okay, I'm gonna start moving my K project fics to Ao3 so look out for me there.

If anyone's reading my other K fic The Horror of Our Love, I'm gonna see if I can get the next chapter of that up so fingers crossed.

Hope you enjoyed guys! Bye!