A/N: Hope you all don't mind these long chapters! It's just easier for me to build with lots of scenes strung together like this. Enjoy!
Takasugi assumed he was the man of the house Inoue now, because Ai took him by the arm and insisted he stay for a while. Seated in his usual spot at the counter of the tea shop, Takasugi watched as Kinu dabbed her mother's arm with a freshly dampened cloth.
"Honey, I'm okay, don't worry." Ai said, but Kinu ignored the claim. "This is… your friend from before?" Nodding, Kinu blotted the woman's eyebrow. Instead of trying to dissuade her, Ai glanced towards Takasugi, careful not to move. "Ki is very good about not hurting him, but sometimes it gets out of hand."
"Why?" Takasugi asked, staring down at the new cup of tea Kinu had placed in front of him. The woman chuckled.
"He's… It's just… Because I asked her to."
Hands on either side of Ai's head, Kinu turned it to look for more injuries. She rotated her mother's arms and hands, and Ai chuckled, waving towards the girl.
"Really, Sweetie, I'm okay." Carefully letting go of her mother, Kinu placed the cloth on the counter. Just in case. She let Ai keep her usual spot. Took a seat at a barstool two down from the one eyed man. Ai smiled as though nothing had happened.
"Now that I look at you, I know exactly who you are. Small world, isn't it?"
"I don't believe we've met, aside from the last time." Takasugi said, lifting his tea to his mouth. Ai dragged the glass dish between them closer to herself and ashed her cigarette.
"Call it a mother's intuition, but if you two are doing what I think you are, my son is going to have more than a little problem with it."
"Really?" As if Takasugi was going to worry about some sister complex freak. He was probably an otaku. Ai nodded, humming as Kinu usually did.
"You're both one of the few men that came back decent. Not the same, but not like the rest of them. They're all parasites now. Drunks, angry, distant. Leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, you know? We're just waiting for the country to crash and burn." She leaned back with a sigh, then toyed with a book that had been tucked under the lower counter. "Hell, it's like the men that returned have no drive anymore. They just gave in to the Amanto, and that was it. He drove up a bunch of gambling debts; the other wives said their husbands did the same after giving up their swords."
"Most of them didn't return." Takasugi murmured, leaning back in his chair as well. The woman nodded. "Everybody is waiting for the same. Few of us have the drive to partake."
Ai's head tilted and she glanced at Kinu, and Takasugi followed her gaze. Lifelessly staring off towards the corner of the room, the girl seemed unaware of the conversation. Her lip was bleeding. She'd focused entirely on her mother, and hadn't thought to look in a mirror.
"Why protect him? He's too far gone." Takasugi murmured, as he took his pipe. He tapped it against Kinu's arm and she shot upright as the sensation burned through her arm. Kinu looked at him, but didn't focus. As if she was just acting out the motion, an empty shell waiting for a soul. Takasugi only glanced at the seat beside himself, but the girl carefully moved. Took perch beside him.
"It's… We can't give up on the men that tried to defend us. This country… Right? It would be wrong. After everything they… all of you went through."
Glancing at the woman, Takasugi ran his thumb under Kinu's mouth, and smeared away the blood, showing her the result, to which she quickly swiped her hand over her chin. He took hold of the damp cloth from the counter and pressed it into the offending blotch.
"Not necessarily." He gazed at Kinu as she pulled a box of pocky from the counter. Not looking at anything in particular.
"What if your family abandoned you when you came back?" Ai asked. As if that was a real question.
"If I had one, I'd hope they had the good sense to leave me." The man murmured. Kinu finally glanced at him, deadpan. "You shouldn't be waiting for her instruction." He stated. "Inoue-san, you should know as well as I do that porcelain doesn't bruise. It cracks. Shatters. And when it does, there's no telling what you'll have on your hands, be it blood, or…" He turned Kinu's jaw again. Studied the pink splotches digging across her cheek. Unbroken, but threatening to darken.
"I suppose this is an embarrassing way to meet again, isn't it? You shouldn't know anything about our problems, or…" The woman averted her gaze and Takasugi sighed.
"It happens. Aside from being on this side of it, it's nothing new to me." Kinu frowned up at him. As if he had been the one to get injured and not the other way around. If he didn't know any better, she was on the verge of examining and coddling him as she had her mother. "He's not getting better." Takasugi stated, and the woman was silent. He returned to his drink, tossing the cloth back onto the counter. As he found his pipe again, Kinu laced her arm through his and leaned onto his shoulder, gazing across the room.
He guessed that was okay.
"He's getting worse." The girl stated, barely audible. She squeezed him into herself. Was unable to say it without something to solidify herself, and Takasugi let her take his arm to pinch and tug at his sleeve under the counter. "I told Onii-chan."
"You did what?" Ai covered her mouth, wide eyed and gaping at the girl.
Kinu slowly nodded, slipping another inch closer as her fidgeting branched out to his hand.
"He'd find out anyway. So I told him a while ago… " The girl murmured, sinking behind Takasugi's shoulder. Trying to tuck herself away and disappear for good. He ignored the way her fingers laced through his, then retreated to his sleeve again. Not bold enough to actually try her luck. All the movement was making him anxious by proxy, and he didn't even have anything on the line. "But not everything."
"He never recovered? His leg?" Takasugi asked, looking to her mother. She sighed and leaned back, suddenly more tired than before.
"No. You know, he said he nearly lost it, but maybe it would have been better if he had. Ki, what did he say when you told him?"
The girl shrugged. Pulled a pocky stick from the box she'd snatched out of thin air and held it up to Takasugi. He took it.
Ai stood, and pulled her phone from her sleeve.
"It's too late to call him, isn't it?" The woman murmured, and Kinu shifted in place. She didn't want to know what Gintoki would say. "Dear, I've got to get to work. We'll talk about this more later." As Ai started collecting her cigarettes and wrist pouch from the counter she glanced at Takasugi. "It was very nice to see you again, Takasugi-san. If you'll just make sure she closes up..."
"Likewise."
"Ki, don't stay up too late. And check on your father-"
"Oh that won't be possible. I'll be taking her with me again."
Kinu frowned up at Takasugi, and her mother paused. She scrutinized the man, expressionless. Then she laughed, slowly. As if unsure of what she had heard.
"Is that so?" Instead of answering, Kinu looked at Takasugi's sleeve. Kept toying with it. "I suppose spending time with such a handsome young man would be more fun than waiting for that asshole to come out again. You kids have fun!" The woman rounded the counter and walked to the door, stopping once more. "And use a condom. Honey, you need to get some birth control if this is going to be a thing."
"Mom!"
"Oh, and Takasugi-san?"
Glancing back at her, he didn't speak.
"I strictly forbid my daughter from any acts of terrorism. Don't get her grounded, Mister."
"I'll try to keep the terrorism to a minimum; but it's just so fun."
Ai laughed. Waved a hand at him, as if to be done with the conversation as a whole, and left.
"I'm used to it." After Ai left, Kinu immediately closed the shop down. She had been silent until bringing Takasugi to her room, and he sat on her futon as she attempted to salvage the mess of her stuffed animals before throwing them into a black trash bag.
"That's no excuse."
She stared down at the empty green fabric in her hands, and ran her thumbs across the velvety fuzz, sighing. Kinu slipped the empty carcass back onto the shelf behind her, and opened the window to clear the tobacco smoke from her room. On the ledge, a silver coin gleamed back at her. 100 Yen. How could it have gotten there? Kinu took the metal into her hand, frowning, but a familiar yellow sheen darted out onto the thin rooftop.
When she turned back to the room, Momo was balanced over her shoulder. His legs dangled against her stomach, tail switching back and forth against her arm.
"I get it. Really. But she can't defend herself..."
"That's not your problem. He's her husband, not yours."
"He's my dad." Fully focused on the alley cat, Kinu rubbed her nose to his. Kept him over her shoulder as she turned to her closet and produced a tin can. "I bet you're hungry, aren't you?" Her next line was addressed to the cat, and met with an eager chirp. Takasugi watched as the girl set a flat dish on her table and Momo sank his claws into her shoulder to fight his way up, before settling on the table where she presented his meal.
"Is that supposed to mean something? Justify it?" The cat scarfed his food down, with Kinu at his side, scratching his back. She placed a coin on the table.
"Do you know how long it took to save that much?"
Staring at the orange ember in his pipe, Takasugi leaned back against the wall behind him. She knew exactly what he wanted her to do.
Kinu fell back on her futon, hands haphazardly splayed above her head.
"I was gonna take a train. Go far, until I couldn't stand it anymore, and then get a little apartment. With a cactus in the window, and a scratching post for Momo…" She kept her eyes on the ceiling. Fell silent.
"We could kill him." Takasugi wasn't able to stave off the curl of his lips as Kinu sat back up. Her brow set into a hard line, then softened. "While she's gone."
"My brother would know I did it." So what? He was a bad brother.
"I'll hold him down." The words were tauntingly seductive. Tried to break through the frigid refusal.
"And I'll slit his throat."
"Think bigger." Leaning towards the girl, Takasugi kept his voice low. As if shielding the cat from their heinous words. "Drown him in alcohol. Nobody would suspect a thing."
"I wish I'd slipped." The girl murmured, wrapping her arms around her knees as Momo abandoned his empty plate and licked at his jowls. "But I guess this is fine… This guy's always happy to see me." Her hand ran over the cat again and he raised up, with a gentle, throaty sound as he turned to the one eyed man.
He paused for a moment, then stretched his thick paws to the futon and plopped in Takasugi's lap. Momo rolled over, arms outstretched, and the one eyed man stared down at him. Couldn't resist offering a scratch.
Takasugi guessed that meant that they had joint custody now.
"As it stands, I've taken the time to consider your words, but I must insist on my previous choice. Gentlemen, you understand where I'm coming from, I'm sure." Amagi tucked a silver streaked chocolate lock of hair behind his ear. Before Takasugi could introduce the newest feline member of their crew, Kawakami had motioned to the hallway. They left the women in the sitting room, and once they were out of earshot, Kawakami presented the newest video. "Just look at the pictures, she'll be more than presentable after fixing her hair." There were, in fact, pictures to be presented, and Takasugi squinted down at the blurry image of Kinu drenched with rain and clinging to a red headed girl's arm.
Kamui's sister.
The next was her leaning under the hood of a car with mountains of mechanical rubbish behind her. The person she was looking at was out of frame. Had a white yukata, and black shirt under it. Only his stomach and arm were visible, but Takasugi was positive he recognized the blue swirls on the sleeve. Gintoki. As he expected, she knew him.
"Why, she's too cute to pass up. Looks exactly like one of father's dolls!" The doll in question was displayed, and Takasugi cringed at the sight of it. Orange, with soulless black eyes and strands of black hair puffing from its scalp. That was a terracotta funerary doll. What the hell was wrong with him? "I've always wanted a proper wedding night, anyway. Hang the sheet, and hold a big celebration afterwards. A real man's man gathering after, while she sleeps, you know what I mean. So I don't mind if she's a little unstable, we can get her medicated and sort all that out."
The message came to an end, and Takasugi met Kawakami's knowing gaze.
"I'm guessing we're not telling him that his wedding night fantasy isn't possible anymo-"
"Bansai!" Snapping back at the man, Takasugi narrowed his eye.
He knew they'd be caught. If not in the act, afterwards, by that tonal nonsense Kawakami was constantly picking up on. Or the noise. Takasugi suspected it was the noise, and not a mystical fairy song lingering in the background and shouting that he'd actually gone through with the defiling act.
Kawakami took his phone, and tilted his head. Frowned.
"Shinsuke, if she's not joining, or working on the ship after this, you know what's going to happen."
Sure. He knew. He didn't want to think about it right now. Takasugi hadn't meant to, he'd only wanted a little tea, good food, and decent conversation that wasn't a requirement, but an option. He didn't need to be told that his actions were more damaging than anything. Making her dependent.
"Just hear me out," Raising a single hand, Kawakami shook his head. "every time I see her, it's different. Louder." Takasugi wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean. "They're not a match, but I can't see any way around it."
"She's mine." More insult than intended spilled out of Takasugi. He'd thought he could mask it. Be calm, and calculated, as he always was, but the bitter taste had gotten the better of him, and the moment he spoke, Kawakami was frowning back.
"Are you… Have you decided on that together, or..?"
The words snapped Takasugi back to reality. No. Of course, that was presumptuous and entitled, and they hadn't said anything like that to each other. As far as he was concerned, Kinu had just thrown her virginity away to cross it off the list of tasks before offing herself. She wasn't his. It was a game, they both knew it was a game. Takasugi had been talking, without putting much thought into it, but when he looked at the deaf man, he realized he'd unloaded everything on him. All of it, without sparing a detail. They'd been standing there so long, Takasugi felt the pangs of his feet demanding he get off them.
Kawakami was holding the bridge of his nose. As if he had suddenly developed a splitting headache and needed to apply more pressure to keep his brain from spilling through his ears. Takasugi stood stark still, overly aware of the cat laying on his foot. Sleeping.
"Shinsuke, what do you think will happen when we leave?" No answer came. Takasugi's eye wandered towards the kitchen. Lingered. She'd crumble through his fingers like sand. "Are we taking her?"
Silence fell over the hallway. In the distance, Matako's voice echoed, and could have been mistaken for a one sided conversation, or the fruits of a delusional mind coming to play.
"No." He finally said, voice a touch lower than intended. Kawakami peered at him, head turned, but he didn't ask the question that naturally rose.
"Maybe he'll take an interest in the others? The women arrived while you were out. They're on the ship, locked in their quarters for now."
The first ounce of good news all night. They'd deal with this in the morning, then. For now, they wouldn't breathe a word about the conversation, or the lunatic trying to buy Kinu. The men started back as Takasugi propped Momo over his shoulder. An earth pet wasn't so bad. He could freeload as long as they were visiting, and it was Takasugi's custody day.
Back in the kitchen, Kinu was perched over the countertop, staring down at the book Matako was holding in front of her.
"You can take Thursdays with me, and Tuesdays with Bansai-senpai."
"If I'm here." Kinu murmured back, and Matako nodded.
"Yeah, but if you're gonna be here, you can't just laze around and poke at your robots or whatever you're doing. Shinsuke-sama has important things to do, and we're too busy to babysit you, so-"
They looked up as Takasugi and Kawakami entered the room, both frowning.
"Already dishing out chores?" The deaf man asked, and Matako looked straight at Takasugi.
"Well- I thought-"
"I'm bored." Kinu stated, and the woman eyed her. Quickly nodding, Matako took hold of Kinu's shoulder.
"Exactly. She asked me to. So she had something to do, Shinsuke-sama."
Sure. Whatever she said.
The evening was long and boring. Since returning with Kinu, the girl had stuck to Matako's side, waving her phone around and all but begging for the woman to add her, whatever that meant. Better than being at each other's throats, but Takasugi was so sick of hearing about user numbers and scene numbers that he was half tempted to drink himself into oblivion and call it a night. Or to demand Matako just add her and give her the damn Sparkly Points, or whatever Kinu was after.
Despite his annoyance, Matako seemed all too pleased with herself, especially when Kinu looked at her phone and gasped.
"You bought my outfit!"
Looking up from his book, Takasugi met the equally confused frown of his friend. Kawakami had been leaned over a stack of paper, his personal projects, from what Takasugi could assume, but the pair in the kitchen were growing steadily louder.
Matako offered a coy smile to the girl.
"Oh was that the one you wanted? I had no idea."
"Bullshit, I showed it to you. Yours isn't even a yandere, you don't get any bonuses!"
"If you want it so badly just buy it. It's only five hundred yen, sheesh." Dismissing the solid glare she was on the receiving end of, Matako leaned over the counter, pressing away on her phone. Grinning.
"I have better things to buy." Grumbling under her breath, Kinu rounded the counter, arms crossed. She took her bag with her, and dug out a box of pocky as she claimed a spot at the table and sourly stared down at it. As if it had also stolen her clothes. The girl snapped the stick off between her teeth, and pulled a novel from her bag, signaling that Takasugi would be able to read in peace, but no sooner than she cracked it, Matako was calling her back over.
"Your phone is ringing again. Who keeps calling you? It's midnight, what sort of guys are you hanging out with?"
Kinu didn't even look up from her book. Turned the page.
"Dunno. It's been like that for a while now, and the number's blocked."
"Have you answered it?" Matako held the device up, reading the screen. Unknown.
"Yeah, they don't say anything. You can try if you want."
Didn't that alarm her? Even a little? Takasugi met Matako's gaze from across the room. Gave a slight nod. Not enough to draw Kinu's attention, but the woman was perceptive enough to snap the phone open and put it on speaker. She answered. Waited, like the rest of them. Not a single sound met them through the receiver, aside from that of an open line, and stray wind. Matako tried again, with no results. Only a steady stream of what took the pattern of labored breathing.
Even Kinu turned back, nose wrinkled. Recognizing the odd pitch, maybe. Sounded like a man.
"You better stop calling this phone, lowlife bastard; we know exactly who this is! Give it a rest or we're calling the police!" Matako's third attempt earned something. The line clicked.
Went dead, and she frowned down at the phone as Kinu set her open book on the table.
"Was that..?"
Discomfort swelled inside of Takasugi as he met Kawakami's gaze. Didn't say a word.
"They've never spoken. Not even a sound, but that sounded like…" Kinu watched Matako set the phone down before grimacing at the wooden floor.
The moment Takasugi was left alone with Matako, the woman started on the exact topic he didn't want to discuss. He'd thought it was suspicious, the way she'd been hovering over the kitchen counter, staring at her phone as if she didn't have a better place to earn her Sparkly Points, but as soon as Kawakami took his papers, and his leave, she descended upon him with a bottle of sake and two cups.
He'd been trying not to.
Had made a conscious effort to not drink while Kinu had been engrossed in her book, but Matako knew he wanted that cup. Even if it was alone with her.
She filled his to the brim, with no qualms over the excess, and the questions started when he sipped it.
"I always thought that guy with the mustache was a good mechanic, Shinsuke-sama. What ever happened to him? Didn't he go to school, too?"
"His wife was pregnant. He stopped volunteering. Wanted to settle down." Lifting his cup, Takasugi glanced across the room. Her real intention was as clear as day to him. "Even sent a Christmas card with a family portrait, and the kid. They named him Hiro."
"Hiro?" Matako squinted back at the man and he raised a brow to her.
"Awful, isn't it?"
Matako shifted in place, stretching her legs beside herself as she finally sipped her own cup.
"I always thought there were enough heroes in the world. Everyone's a hero, but they're not strong enough to realize when it's time to get rid of everything that's not working."
Takasugi knew where this was going. She'd said something similar in the past. He tossed back the rest of his drink.
"Who are the real heroes, Shinsuke-sama? The line is so thin, anymore. Is it the ones trying to save the world? Or is it the ones trying to wipe the slate clean and start anew?" Matako bashfully raised her gaze. Tried to set her blue eyes on the man across from her, but she found an empty space.
He was gone! That quickly!
"Shinsuke-sama!"
Takasugi heard her behind him. Knew she was going to go straight for his room, because that was where he always went. His name echoed behind him again, and he ducked into the nearest door; more than willing to take a bath and bring an end to this awful night.
That was when he saw her. Standing under the shower faucet and rubbing at her scalp. Kinu had her back to him, but frowned over her shoulder at the sound of the door shutting. Her hands immediately covered everything he already couldn't see, and Takasugi's name echoed in the hallway, as she cut the water.
"What are you-"
Her voice was too loud. Slapping a hand over Kinu's mouth, Takasugi tried to quiet the girl but she shoved him back. She made him rough handle her. He had no choice, he was under attack and she was giving his position away!
"Shin- Shinsuke, what the hell are you-" The girl cried out when she toppled backwards, taking Takasugi with her, but the moment he hit the water, the idea solidified in his mind. His finger pressed into his lips as he met Kinu's alarmed gaze.
"Shh." The girl's brows scrunched together and she raised her arms to her chest, twisting away.
Then the door opened. He knew it was coming.
"Shinsuke-sama!"
Wide eyed, Kinu watched as the man ducked under water. Why was he hiding!? He was the boss, right?! He brushed against her legs and she shifted again, jabbing her foot into his shoulder and pushing him back. Kinu found herself face to face with Matako.
"O- oi you can't just come in without knocking. What if I was doing something embarrassing?" Like hiding an entire man between her legs; why the hell was his hand pressing into her thigh!? There was plenty of space on the other side of the tub!
"Save it, we have the same things, there's nothing embarrassing. Haven't you been to a public bath before?"
"Well, yeah, but…"
"I could have sworn Shinsuke-sama came in here. Have you seen him?"
Shit. Shit, she needed to lie. Blinking, Kinu turned her head.
"Uh… not…" His yukata was trying to raise to the surface of the water. Slapping a leg over his back, Kinu pushed the fabric down, turning to the woman in the doorway. "Not for a-" She could feel her pitch raising, especially when the man sunk forward and something, she assumed it was his clothes, brushed further up her thigh. "while!" Kinu squeaked the last word. Knew she sounded like a complete idiot, and gaped at Matako with wide, guilty eyes that the woman squinted at.
"Geeze, what's your problem? Are you that shy? You haven't actually been to a public bath, have you? We should go some time, it's actually really nice and not weird at all."
"Yeah- yeah let's do it." Kinu had been to plenty of public baths! That wasn't the problem! Matako took a step into the room, and panic rose in Kinu as the man between her legs tried to surface. He gasped, and she caught his head, pushing him back down. Then the bubbles started. Takasugi was a hassle to keep underwater, but as Matako watched from the doorway, Kinu shoved the top of his head back to the bench under her, and locked him between her thighs.
He didn't want to be caught, right?
So he had to stay down there. The woman in the doorway covered her mouth as Kinu wrestled with the man between her legs, still bubbling and splashing. So she slapped her palms into the surface of the water, and stared at Matako. As if this was a game. When he finally stopped, the woman in the doorway looked on the verge of a heart attack.
Thinking quickly, Kinu rushed to speak.
"I- I told you I was doing something embarrassing! I really had to fart and I tried to hold it but you kept talking and-"
"What kind of fart was that?!"
The kind where it was actually drowning somebody.
"I tried to hold it!" Deathly serious, Kinu shouted the words back, and Matako turned on her heel.
"Gross! Don't do that in public baths. Don't ever do that anywhere!" The woman let herself out and slammed the door behind herself, with Kinu staring after her. She breathed a sigh of relief and when she released Takasugi from her vice grip he shot to the surface of the water, coughing and sputtering over the edge of the tub.
Surprisingly not dead.
He glared at her over his shoulder, and she met his expression equally irritated.
"Frauds get the dullest guillotine. Especially ones that employ innocent bystanders."
"The dullest guillotine? Is… Is that from The King's Tailor?" Kinu didn't answer, but Takasugi was sure he'd read that somewhere. It brought him back to a palace courtroom, and gave him the faintest sense of a woman using magic to rip out a beating heart. The girl shoved him to the edge of the tub, then over the barrier of it, as if to evict him from his spot. "You nearly drowned me and you're quoting historical fantasies?"
"Whose fault is that? Get out! I still have shampoo in my hair, and you have clothes on!"
"I always do it like this." As if he had no idea what the issue was, Takasugi sank back against the wall of the tub, straight faced. "And since I'm already here…"
"You didn't shower!" His yukata billowed around him in the water. "You can't be in here, you're dirty! You're a dirty old man!"
"Oh, you have no idea." He smirked back, and stretched his arms across the back of the tub. "You want me to show you don't you? Just how filthy I am?"
"Ew, no!" Kinu's eyes crinkled and she held her hands up. Shrank back.
"I can hear the yes in your no." He purred, and she fervently shook her head, drawing the same word out, but longer. She giggled as she was pulled against the man. Weakly pushed his chest, but allowed him to take her.
Late into the night, Kinu tiptoed back into Takasugi's room. He was fast asleep, and hadn't stirred in the slightest when she pried herself free of his grasp and crawled over him to excuse herself to the bathroom. It was one thing to stay on his ship, and a completely different thing to start staying for nights on end when they were so close to home.
Her belt was folded beside his bed, and she was sure her actual yukata was tangled in his sheets, courtesy of a stupid game they'd played before settling into their own books. Some childish wrestling match where Kinu was in no way matched to his power levels. She'd bitten his side, and suspected that he was secretly ticklish, because he'd jerked away, then retaliated with the scorn of a thousand angry geese.
Kinu leaned over him, careful not to touch the bed or let on that she was searching for her yukata. The man had barely moved. Wasn't likely to. They'd been talking since the bathtub. Or rather, she'd been pressed to entertain him, because the moment she started washing his back, he'd told her to tell him something.
It was lofty, and so simple it had been difficult to decide what qualified as something. So she told him everything in her brain. Books, memories, weird facts she'd seen in passing online. And he diligently listened until his fingers were raking the shampoo from her hair, and she was leaned back across his thigh, barely murmuring.
A second was spent admiring his back, and the well defined muscles peeking out over the edge of the covers. Then his arms, and the edge of his boxers; some little green things that were too tight to be regular boxers but not tight enough to be briefs.
Kinu didn't know much about men's underwear, but she'd never seen a pair that perfectly fitting and the sight of him in them was a heart attack waiting to happen.
Black fabric caught her eye, and she squinted against the faint trace of moonlight spilling through the closed blinds as she reached for it. Tried to scoop it up to change without him noticing. Just as she thought she'd been successful, her wrist was seized and she was yanked down and pinned.
Something thin, and ice cold pressed into her throat. She lifted her jaw as she peered up at Takasugi and his one closed eye, suddenly rigid.
"Oh," He said, blinking once as he stared down at her. "Oh, Kitten," The metal pressing into her throat was carefully lifted and glinted in the moonlight. A dagger. Where had that come from? "I thought..." The man over her lifted his weight from her chest, wide eyed. Why was he surprised!? He'd done it! "Did I scare you?"
No shit. He'd attacked her! Turning her head, Kinu waited for the man to get off her. To fully sit up, and turn towards the window to think about the way he'd almost brutally murdered her after he was the one that forced her there in the first place.
Sure, Kinu kind of wanted to die sometimes, but not without a warning! She wanted to be prepared!
"You're leaving?" He asked, and Kinu picked herself up to look down at the clothes she'd been clutching over her chest. The girl hummed a yes, careful not to look at Takasugi, and unsure of what more to say. She unfolded her yukata. Felt the pangs of not wanting to actually dress and walk back to the tea shop.
Why had he attacked her? He'd been sound asleep. It was as if the dagger had materialized out of thin air. Was he a stand user? That was how stands worked, right? His back was turned. He was looking out of the window, at the moon. Completely unfocused on her.
"Why?"
"It's late." She stated, trying not to look at the man as he turned to her. It seemed like the right thing to do. Did he always keep a knife near him? Under his pillow, or wherever he'd pulled it from? Was he that paranoid?
Setting her yukata down, Kinu met the man's olive eye. She'd thought it was best to leave, but now...
Kinu had spent so much time thinking about her own shitty life that she hadn't even properly considered that he'd had problems of his own. Even if he was free, and in complete control of himself and his environment. Was it so crazy to think that he needed this as much as she did?
Scooting towards the man, Kinu carefully reached for his shoulder. He didn't move. Kept his gaze on the dagger in his hands and lap. Her fingertips slipped down his back, suddenly aware of how hot he was. That he was coated in a layer of sweat, but the ship was freezing. She took hold of his arm, eyeing the knife as he spoke.
"I'm sorry. I didn't-"
"It's okay." Gently wrapping her hand around his wrist, Kinu pushed it towards the windowsill. When Takasugi dropped the dagger, she wrapped her arms around him. He barely let her pull him into herself. Wasn't keen on hugging, apparently, but that was okay. As long as he knew she was willing, if he ever needed physical comfort. It was the least she could do. "I try to kill me too, sometimes."
Takasugi's mouth curved into a lopsided smile, and he snorted once, as if dismissing her words. Even so, a layer of tension peeled away.
Rubbing the curve of his shoulder, Kinu managed to break the awkwardness of their position by wrapping her legs around his hips and crawling into his lap. He still didn't look at her, or respond beyond a simple turn of his head when her mouth pressed into his collarbone.
"Let's go back to sleep." Kinu propped her chin on his chest, peering up at Takasugi. He just sat there. A useless lump of a man. "I don't wanna walk that far. Come on, lay down."
Coaxing the man with her, Kinu turned and laid back. Though Takasugi was slow to follow her lead, she managed to bring him to her chest, stroking his back and toying with his damp hair.
"You'll get sick if you sleep like this…" Tugging at a dark tress, Kinu stared up at the ceiling.
"I don't get sick." Well okay, then.
"Something funny happened in my book."
"Yeah?"
"Mhmm…" Glancing down at the man, Kinu couldn't help but feel like she had accomplished something. She wrapped her leg around his thigh, pleased at the sensation of an arm curling under the small of her back. She was cold, so his body heat was more than welcomed. "The victim was locked in a garage, and even though he left no weapons, he didn't know she was a chemist. She found some plant food and antifreeze, and threw them on him when he came in-"
A low snicker vibrated against Kinu's stomach, and she lightly ran her nails over his scalp.
"The author built him up the first few chapters, like he would be the main character but he burned to death, just like that. And then his brother-" Kinu continued to murmur through the dark, gently prodding Takasugi's hair and rubbing every inch of him that she could comfortably reach until he was back to rhythmically breathing against her stomach and chest, essentially trapping her again. Not that she was complaining. He knew why she couldn't sleep at the tea shop.
Somehow made her feel like the most social, talkative person in the world, and more surprisingly, he was never annoyed by it. Even when she thought she hadn't shut up in the last hour, he was ever attentive and mildly amused just listening. Kinu had never been so comfortable speaking. Had never met anybody that wanted to hear her go on and on about the newest amanto technology she'd read about, or how she thought that one character should have just pushed her victim in front of the train instead of slowly poisoning them over the span of a few weeks, because maybe then, she would have lived and gotten away with it.
Four hundred thousand yen and a few bumps and scrapes was worth every second of it. Maybe it wasn't so bad to stay. Just tonight. Because he was impossibly cozy, and he needed somebody to distract him, too. Even if it was only sometimes.
Despite his orientation he hadn't so much as flinched when she reclaimed her spot on his lap in the tub, and made her move. Kinu was horribly underread on what guys felt, or if something as simple as rubbing him between her thighs did anything, but when she did, Takasugi had only looked at her, brow raised. Leaned onto the barrier beside him with his mouth propped on the backs of his fingers.
"I've never seen someone get punched so hard…"
Kinu thought it was silly, saying that out loud. Worse that she had liked the sight. There was something about seeing men shove each other around in general, but there had been a certain ruthlessness in that punch. It had been heavier. Sharper. Thrilling, even.
"If you thought that was impressive, wait until he really pisses me off."
He'd punched her dad, and while she didn't think it was particularly about her (Takasugi would never fight for her, obviously) she wanted to imagine it was. She thought back to the words he'd said as he bent her over the wooden edge of the tub; mouth against the nape of her neck, and one hand in her hair.
"I knew you wouldn't disappoint." Whatever that meant. "I get bored so easily now… Put on a good show for me." He'd actually had a condom this time. The entire experience she was hyper aware of his rough hands, and the force of his grasp; enough to sweep her away and possibly break her in half if he so desired. She wasn't sure if it was a good show, but his final merciless stroke came with his fingers wrapped around her throat and his mouth locked against hers.
So it was good for her.
She wished she could keep him. Kinu was well aware that she couldn't actually do anything for him, or offer him anything aside from friendship, food, and physical comforts. While she wished there was more, she decided that it would have to be enough. She would try to be better at all three of them.