Chapter 2

It was late that night when Hitoka finally went to bed. Her father had not returned home and she had been worried, but she did have to get some sleep or else she would not be able to work the next day. However, sleep did not come to her easily. Apart from the fact that her father was still somewhere out there, she also had to worry about their finances. She knew that her father had just spent more than half their income on a medical bill that they should have paid a month ago but had not been able to, which meant that now they did not have enough money to pay their rent, their gas bill and their food. They could afford to pay off one of their debts but certainly not all of them in their entirety.

Hitoka sighed, her job as a waitress did not pay well and the work for the laundry company was usually more trouble than it was worth. She washed clothes and sheets for a company that sold second hand goods. Every bed sheet, tablecloth or item of clothing she had to wash was something that a person in Aoba had deemed not good enough for their home anymore. Sometimes when the young, blond woman held one of the dirty sheets in her hands and saw a stain, which could easily be removed, she wondered how different life must be in the city. She had been only fourteen years old when her family had relocated from the northwest to Karasuno and she had become acquainted with her new lifestyle. She could hardly remember how it had been like to be living in a better neighbourhood, especially since her family had never really been rich. Her mother had been sickly after having given birth to her second child and so the hospital bills had had piled up. On top of this, her father had also been committed to providing financial support for his former mistress who had given birth to his child two years before Hitoka had been born. After Hitoka's birth, her father had ceased to meet his mistress, but he had not had it in his heart to not pay her some sort of child support. Nevertheless his former mistress had been forced to go live in Karasuno and had died when the child, a boy, had been about twelve years old. After that, they had lost contact and Hitoka did not know what had become of her half-brother.

Her own mother had died the year before Hajime had met Oikawa. The bills for the funeral had been ridiculously high, but Hajime had never held a proper job and stopped looking for one after having become engaged to Oikawa, as his fiancé had promised to provide for him. It had been at that moment that Hitoka had known that they would not be able to continue to stay in Shiratorida for long.

Hitoka sighed before falling asleep that night and she sighed when she woke up again the next morning. Her father had not come home after she had gone to sleep and she was now even more worried than before. So she got up, dressed and went over to her brother's home to check if their father had gone to stay the night there. He had done so in the past when he had been coming home late or when he had met Oikawa on the street and accompanied him for a drink.

As Hitoka was walking down the street she heard a bell ring. It signalled that the city gate was opening for permission slip holders and she knew that she did not have enough time to go to Hajime's house before work. The pothouse she worked at was about forty minutes in walking distance, so she had better hurry up. The city gate's bell was rung at exactly seven thirty and her workplace usually opened at eight. Hitoka took a deep breath and started running.

Work was as unpleasant as ever, but Yamaguchi was used to it. There was no such thing as pleasant work in Karasuno anyway. He could only dream of how working in Aoba was like and how people actually went to their workplace because they wanted to, rather than because they needed to.

As he walked through the streets during one of his errands, he heard the lunch bell being rung. The lunch bell was a different bell from the city gate bell as it was located in the middle of the Karasuno suburb and was rung two times a day; once at midday and once at midnight. Its official name was the Middle-of-the-two-parts-of-the-day Bell, but as the general public was not awake at midnight and the name was too long and stiff, it had been dubbed the lunch bell.

Using the lunch bell being rung as an excuse, Yamaguchi decided that his errand could wait. He turned around at the next street corner and started walking towards his favourite tavern. It was a small shady place, even by Karasuno's standards, but one of the waitresses there was really sweet. She was not very tall, had shoulder length blond hair and was easily frightened by burly costumers. Yamaguchi sometimes wondered why she had decided to accept the work if she was not able to hold her ground when bullied – not that he was one to talk; he usually avoided conflicts as well or gave in too soon when people who were physically dominant were his opponents in an argument.

He entered the place, which was slowly getting crowded and took a seat at a small table not far from the counter. He knew that this was the part of the tavern to which the girl called O-Sode usually served. Her nickname stemmed from the fact that she also worked as a washerwoman and often had wet sleeves.

"Your order?"

He looked up from the wooden menu in astonishment. "Where's the small chick?" He asked instead of answering. The person who had come up to his table was also not very tall and had shoulder length blond hair, but that was where the similarities to Yamaguchi's crush ended. First of all, the person who had come to take his order was a guy and his hair was not naturally blond – black roots were growing out and so he had what could most accurately be called a pudding head.

"Chick?" The guy spoke slowly, almost lazily and without emotion. His eyes were dead and he seemed apathetic to what he was doing. "You mean O-Sode? She was fired today."

"Fired?" Yamaguchi's eyes widened.

"Yeah. She was late for work." The guy shrugged. "So, your order?"

"Oh. Potato salad and veal sausage."

The guy nodded and walked off without another word.

So she had been laid off. Where was he now supposed to meet her? Yamaguchi thought as he panicked. He had liked her so much! She was such a sweetheart and was always cheerful, a rather rare quality in this place. Not that everyone in Karasuno was depressed or apathetic like his new waiter, but most people weren't friendly with strangers. They kept to themselves and it was difficult to get to know a person and see them laugh. O-Sode had been his oasis in this desert. Loosing her was painful.

It took about twenty minutes before his waiter returned with a plate. His name was Kenma, Yamaguchi remembered that he had seen him before, but at that time he had still had black hair. Kenma set the plate down without a word and was about to walk away when Yamaguchi asked: "Any idea where she went?"

"O-Sode?" Kenma seemed honestly confused as to why someone would ask him such a question.

"Who else?" Yamaguchi frowned. It was not in his nature to be noisy or to snap at someone, but Kenma was not being very helpful right now.

"Hm… I just heard a rumour from another customer that she might be at the Cat's Den, the owner there had hung out a sign saying that they had a cute new hire. "

Yamaguchi's eyes widened. His precious O-Sode had been reduced to working in such a place? His heart sunk. Seeing as Yamaguchi had no further questions, Kenma turned around and walked away, leaving the freckled man alone with his thoughts.

Was there something he could do to help O-Sode? He instantly started to wonder. She was so innocent and sweet; she would not survive in a place like the Cat's Den. No, that place was too cruel and O-Sode would break within a week. Her kindness would be taken advantage of and her soul would be crushed. They would suck the life out of her, take all the cheerfulness and goodness of her and in the end they might accidentally burden her with new life, new life that would remind her of the soul sucking work she had had to do to scrap by.

Yamaguchi froze in his movements. Suddenly his food did not taste like anything and he was sure the dreadful sausage was a bad omen. Why had he gone and ordered something so perverted? He eyed the sausage with suspicion. Did he want to feel O-Sode's pain of when she would see her first customer? The thought of putting it into his mouth suddenly disgusted him.

He paused, his knife dangling over the long, phallic piece of meat. Or was he trying to take revenge for O-Sode's innocence being lost forever by taking this food item as a stand in? His eyes narrowed as he stabbed his food with full force as if he wanted hoped to cause someone great pain, before smashing his cutlery on the table.

He blinked, he was about to get up and walk away but then he remembered that he did not have the luxury of wasting food. So he took his cutlery back in his hands and finished off what was left on his plate before paying and leaving the tavern. When stepping out in the bright midday sun, he blinked and decided that he would finish his errand as quickly as possible and then check if the rumour about the Cat's Den was really true.

Sitting in the small room that her new employer Kuroo had shown her into, Hitoka felt very unsure if this was really the best way to earn money. Of course, this line of work was well known for being well paid, actually better paid than any other work in the whole Suburb, but she could only work in this profession for a limited amount of time and if her fiancé would ever find out that she had descended to this kind of work, she did not know if he would still want to be with her. Thinking of the tall blond man who had offered to take care of her for the rest of her miserable life made her fight back tears. He was too good to be true, loving her despite claiming to be unable to love anyone. He had never in so many words said that he loved her, but for him to ask her for her hand in marriage, she knew that Tsukishima was serious about her. But she also knew that he had a stern moral compass. He knew what he wanted, he knew how he could achieve it and so he worked for it. He therefore also expected her to behave in a way that would not sabotage their future. However, doing what she was about to do was a serious breach of their understanding, a betrayal of his trust and Hitoka felt unsure if his attachment to her was strong enough to make him take the risk of keeping her as his wife if he would ever find out what she was about to do now. In addition to Tsukishimas own possible aversion to the morally impure work, he would need to take into consideration that merchants and customers in Aoba where very particular about with whom they did business and they would certainly avoid him if it where to be known that he had married a former prostitute.

Oh why had Tsukishima left Karasuno at this time? If he did not have to go to another town for business then she could have asked him for a loan and look for honest work to get through this slump. Hitoka sighed.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Kuroo stuck head through the opening. "Got acquainted with your workplace?" He asked, a sleazy smile on his face. She nodded, unsure of how to answer. "Good, I have your first customer for you."

The door fully opened and a man of average height, brown hair and freckles on his face stepped in. Hitoka immediately recognized him as a regular from her old job. "Yamaguchi-san…?"

"O-Sode-chan." He smiled wearily and took another step into the room. As it was a very small room, he was therefore now standing right in front of her, his crotch right in her face as she was sitting on the soft floor. The room had been floored with a semi-hard mattress so that there was no need for a bed. "I was at the Snake's Pit for lunch and I was told by Kenma that you had been laid off for coming in late." He looked down at her. He did not seem to mind that she was sitting and he was not. Hitoka wondered if she was supposed to stand up, but she was not comfortable with the idea since she had been dressed in weird clothes that weren't all that decent when she was standing upright, so she tried her best to conceal that fact by sitting. "I was so worried about you, so I asked Kenma if he knew what you were doing now and he told me that I would most likely find you here."

She nodded, unsure of what she was supposed to say. He seemed so different from when she had last see him in the tavern. But maybe she was imagining things? This was after all a different place from where they usually met, so maybe she was just as different from her normal self as he was.

"So I came over." He explained. "It broke my heart knowing that you were here… I thought the least I could do was help you out. I don't have much money, so paying to be with you here is probably the only thing I can do to make your life a bit easier."

It dawned on her that he too was here as a customer. Yes, he wanted to help, but obviously he wanted to be compensated for helping her. How could it be any different? She suddenly felt nauseous.

"Maybe" He continued. "You could help me get it up first." He unbuckled his belt and dropped his pants, revealing his genitals. Like most people in Karasuno, he did not bothered with underwear. "It's my first time too. I'm so happy that it will be with you." His eyes were shining.

Hitoka turned her head so she did not have to look at how he grabbed his penis. She breathed in deeply. He smelled. How could he not? Most people smelled in the suburb, they were not like the people in Aoba City or Shiratorida who used showers frequently and put on perfume.

"Are you shy?"

She did not dare to look up at him again. This was definitely not her imagination. He was different. He was not sweet and nice as he usually was. He was like every other man on the street, driven by lust and thinking he was entitled to it. She was disgusted.

He grabbed her head, forcing her to face his dick. "I've been dreaming of having you so close, you know… Don't… Please don't tell me you don't want this." He pleaded and sounded almost unsure.

He was a kid after all, she suddenly thought. This was not in his nature. Maybe she could make him reconsider what he was doing?

"Kuroo-san."

He hated being called by his employees but there was probably no helping it. He stood up from his desk and walked to the next room where Akaashi sat. He was basically his accountant, but the black haired man also managed the shop entrance and looked after the basic needs of the staff that worked in the rooms.

"What is it?" Kuroo asked with a grumpy smile.

"I hate to say this, but that guy you just let in to the room of the new girl…"

"What about him?"

"He paid with counterfeits."

Kuroo cursed and walked off to find the room of the new girl. He would beat the crap out of that guy who had dared to try to tuck him up.

On his way to the Cat's Den Yamaguchi had wondered what he would do once he reached there. He knew he did not have enough money to pay for the lovely O-Sode-chan but the thought of another man having her first drove him crazy. He already hated the fact that that cold hearted, tall and unpleasant fellow Tsukishima had set his eyes on the lovely, small, sparkling person and was going to marry her in the not so distant future. The thought of her being with yet another man tormented him.

And yet it did not exactly sit well with him that he was going to that kind of establishment to meet her. Even if it meant saving her from a stranger…

The Cat's Den was no place for her.

Karasuno in itself was no place for her. She was too cheerful… Too innocent… She was his angel.

And angels did not belong in hell…

Maybe it was strange that he had formed such a strong attachment to someone who was not even his friend, but she just looked like the person he had found a picture of in his mother's dairies after she had died. He did not know why she had had that picture stored away, since it had neither name nor date written on it and nothing about it was mentioned in her dairies, so he could only guess, who the woman on the picture was. He had dubbed her his angel, until he had seen O-Sode for the first time and had fallen for her. She was perfect.

And now that perfection was to be destroyed.

As he was standing in front of her with his pants down he wondered if maybe he just liked being the one who was burdened with this task. Maybe it was better to be hated by her than to not be in her thoughts at all, because he would not have been allowed to comfort her.

He forced her mouth open with his fingers. "Maybe you'll come to like it" he whispered and was about to shove his member into her mouth when the door was opened with so much force that it banged against the thin wall and the handle probably left a dent in it. The owner of the place stood in the doorframe, he was fuming.

"Step back right now!" Kuroo shouted. "You slimy, little, cheating bastard!" Yamaguchi was grabbed by his collar and dragged out of the room within seconds.

The young, blond woman was left alone shivering from what had just happened, but was glad that this nightmare had been interrupted. A while later Akaashi came to tell her that she could go home for the day. Having her first customer beaten up was not a good omen for her to continue work for the rest of the day.

Yamaguchi was not as lucky as her. He took a heavy beating and was unable to move for the rest of the day. He lay outside a dumpster where Kuroo had left him after beating the crap out of him and Yamaguchi wasn't sure if he would ever walk again. He had actually planned to go to work again after his visit to the Cat's Den, but he was not sure if his ribs were still intact so he just lay there on the heap of garbage, hoping he had no open wound that would be infected by some bug or something.

When night had fallen, he finally had rested long enough to stand up again and head to the next pub. He was in no mood to go home and just stay in his room. He had to drink or else he would not be able to get rid of his frustration. He had been banned from the Cat's Den and so his only chance to meet his lovely O-Sode was gone. Angrily he went to the next pub and drank as much as he could with his limited funds.

It was past midnight when he was kicked out of the pub and he staggered through the streets until he reached the riverbank. He was about to lie down in the grass when he saw two tall figures with short hair and travelling clothes in the distance. He immediately recognized one of them to be Tsukishima. He was back earlier than Yamaguchi had expected but that did not matter. He would give him a nice welcome; he decided and began to walk towards the figures.

They came closer but suddenly there was only one guy. What had happened to the second guy?

Well, who cared…

Yamaguchi staggered closer. "Oi Satoh!" He called but did not get an answer; the guy did not turn around. So Yamaguchi started yelling again, but still received no reaction.

Well, what had he expected from the co-cold guy? He was toooo righteous to assssociate himself with a drunk. He was toooo prrroperr to even take notice of someone as low and dirrrty as… as…

Yamaguchi almost tripped. He steadied himself on a fence post. He had no idea where that fence post had come from, because there was no fence to speak off. The wire from the fence had been stolen ages ago and most other poles too. He was also not sure why he pulled the post out of the ground and held it in his hand. He only knew that he was suddenly so angry with Tsukishima.

How dare he ignore him…

How dare he let the sweet and innocent woman he wanted to marry work in a brothel?

How dare he ignore him, when he was calling him out on it?

How dare he even think of being the right man for his O-Sode?

How dare he ignore him!

And that was when he struck him first. He swung the fence post over his head and struck the taller man's back with all the force he could muster. He hit him and hit him and hit him over and over and over again until the tall man was lying on the ground unmoving, until Yamaguchi noticed that this man's hair was grey and slick and not blond and spikey. That this man's coat was not that of a traveller's but of a vendor's. That this guy was by no means Tsukishima Kei but Haiba Lev, the man who had let him off only half a year ago.

As he dragged the body down the riverbank towards the water, Yamaguchi could not help but notice that there was another man doing the exact same thing. The brown haired man snickered. What a coincidence that the other one too should have brown hair.

Translation note:

Just in case someone was wondering – the 'Sode' 袖 in 'O-Sode' is indeed the kanji for "sleeve", however, the kanji for the last name 'Satoh' 佐藤 is not the same as the kanji for 'satoh' as in sugar 砂糖.

Author's note:

Hello my tortoises and munchkins kittens

I ought to give many, many, many thanks to my beta LilyPhantomhive01 who betaed this chapter and also the last one, as well as some chapters from my story Most Important. Trust me when I say that having a beta (especially one that is as good and fun to work with as Lily) is the best thing ever.

Okay, nothing else to mention here, I guess.

Jia ne