Title: Her Friends Says Her Dad is a King (and her brothers the Knights)
Fandom: [K] Project Anime
Characters/Pairing: Kushina Anna-centric, HOMRA early members.
Disclaimer: [K] belongs to GoRA and GoHands, I owe none and produce no money out of this.
Warnings: unbeta-ed, grammar errors ahoy, mentions of sexual harassment (kinda?), reference to the novel [K] Side Red information from [K] facebook fanpage. Written just after episode six.
A/N: After episode six, I need a lot of HOMRA fluff. Thus this is born. Also thanks to every single member of [K] fandom joining kidsfromhomura's livestream; I wouldn't have survived all the feels without you guys.
A [K] Project Fanfiction
Her Friends Say Her Dad is a King (and her brothers the Knights)
Kushina Honami is a good person.
"Anna-chan, Auntie bought you this beautiful red ribbon! It's a pretty red, isn't it?"
Kushina Honami is also a young woman living very much alone, every so often overworking herself because the school she teaches at doesn't have enough teachers, and she refuses to leave the students unless the school is closed. Anna takes it in stride; her late parents had been too busy to pay much attention to her back when they were still alive. Love and praises had come in the form of pretty dresses and delicious treats, not good-night kisses or hand-holding.
She doesn't tell her aunt that she's a Strain, but fate apparently decides that she should have the Red King by her side forever.
She loves Mikoto. She also loves Izumo and Tatara. HOMRA becomes a home for her before long; a bar warm with understanding smiles and free laughter, sometimes with jokes crude enough that Tatara will cover her ears with an apologetic smile while Izumo yells at the rest of the members. It's a family, both for her and Mikoto, who desperately need one although neither will admit it.
-o0o-
"How's school today, Anna-chan?"
"It's alright."
Izumo frowns, bends down to look her in the eyes. In her vision, Izumo's eyes are dark, probing, slowly reading her as if she's a book written in codes. She keeps her face impassive, but Izumo probably knows better. Anna has gone through his mind more often than Izumo perhaps ever realized, and even now sometimes she surprises herself with how perceptive the bartender is.
"Alright… huh?"
She resists the urge to fiddle with her marbles—her anchors to steady herself in the world whenever Mikoto isn't close enough for her to grab at. Izumo would notice, would lead her in a game of cryptic words to coax whatever she has in mind. She wouldn't really mind, not when it's Izumo or Mikoto or Tatara, but she doesn't like to talk. Talking makes everything even more real, tangible through her fingers, and she prefers looking at everything through her marbles.
She nods, sips her juice slowly, and Izumo sighs. A hand pats her on the head, careful not to upset the neat pigtails Kushina Honami did for her that morning.
She almost smiles.
-o00-
She just doesn't like her new homeroom teacher.
"Anna-chan, Sensei is calling you."
At times like this, Anna selfishly wishes her power wouldn't let her read other people's minds. She stands and walks forward, to where her homeroom teacher is smiling down at her, waiting with a letter in hand. There's a visible crease on his otherwise perfect suit, his tie is a bit skewed, and the gleam in his eyes has a familiar edge she often sees on Saruhiko's eyes before he drags Misaki upstairs to do something in HOMRA's spare room.
The look unsettles her for the first time, because it is directed at her.
"Sensei."
Her voice is steady, her face stays devoid of emotion.
"Oh, Kushina-chan." The hand holding the letter is extended towards her, and then she can see the thoughts. Of hands grabbing her captive, of fingers slipping underneath her dress, of lips tugging at her neck. She falters, looking up at her homeroom teacher intently, and carefully takes the letter without touching her Sensei's hand.
"That's for Parents Day next Friday—please bring someone with you this year, alright?" a hand touches her shoulder, and it takes everything in her not to jerk back. "Sensei is really looking forward to see your family."
-o0o-
She doesn't give the letter to Honami, because Honami is busy and she doesn't want her to meet the homeroom teacher.
She slips the letter underneath the jukebox, where everyone never bothers to check, and spends the rest of the evening fiddling with her marbles and listening to Tatara's song.
-o0o-
"Anna," Tatara says, smiling over his guitar and her glass of ice soda. "I saw your homeroom teacher on the way here today."
Anna glances up. Mikoto and Izumo both turns to Tatara, perking with small interest.
"You do?" Izumo leans forward onto the bar counter. "How does he look?"
"Very handsome," Tatara anwers cheerfully. "I've seen him several times around here."
"He's a very dirty person," Anna says quietly and finishes her drink. The ice in her glass clinks daintily when she sets it aside.
-o0o-
A kid in her class asks, "who is coming with you tomorrow, Anna-chan?"
She says smoothly: "No one."
-o0o-
She isn't in the bar when Tatara finds the Parents Day letter underneath the juke box.
He waves it around excitedly, nearly jumping Mikoto from behind when the Red King comes down from his room. Mikoto eyes him warily, and Izumo grabs the back of Tatara's neck to sit him down on the counter before Mikoto hits him on the head again. Tatara laughs, clear and light, and says, "so what are we going to do about this, King?"
"I can't believe she doesn't even tell us anything about this," Izumo murmurs, passing the letter to Misaki when the younger boy peers over his shoulder. Behind him, Saruhiko hovers around. "Her aunt is very busy; Anna probably doesn't want to make her go."
"Should we go, King?" Tatara's eyes are positively dancing.
Misaki makes a questioning noise before raising his eyes from the letter. "It says only family can go for Parents Day."
"Silly Yata," Tatara leans back, resting his head on Izumo's shoulder. "Aren't we all?"
-o0o-
When five most prominent members of HOMRA waltz into her class like they own the school, Anna doesn't know if she should laugh or cry, so she keeps her face blank.
"I'm sorry," her homeroom teacher is stammering. "But this is only for parents or family."
"We're her brothers," Tatara replies simply, looks thoughtful for a second, and adds, "Though King is practically Anna's Papa."
Mikoto grunts something she can't quite decipher, but apparently it's enough for her homeroom teacher to close his mouth and nod his assent. Other parents standing on the back of the class look wary, keeping their distance to the HOMRA members flocking together near the door. Anna turns her head back, tries to process how out of place Mikoto and the others are in this classroom, then her gaze catches Tatara's.
He waves.
So do the other members.
Mikoto has an unlit cigarette in his left hand, but he raises his other hand in place of a wave. Anna raises her own, and nods.
"They're all your brothers, Anna-chan?" the little boy next to her whispers. "They look so cool!"
The corners of her mouth twitches up.
-o0o-
"I work as a bartender," Izumo says in front of the class. "I feed the guy with red hair standing over there, see him? Your parents might know him as the Red King."
"Wow," a kid pipes up. "He's a King?" There are worried murmurs around the class, but another girl raises her hand. "Does he have knights too?"
"Oh, I think they fall in that category," Izumo gestures to where Misaki and Saruhiko stand close to each other; Misaki looking nervous and Saruhiko nonchalant as usual. Anna thinks Saruhiko might only be here because Misaki drags him along, but she figures Saruhiko enjoys it anyway. He enjoys everything as long as Misaki is doing it, too.
"Do you beat up bad guys, Mister?"
Misaki straightens up, tensing. "O-oh! Yeah, I hit them with my baseball bat."
The girl tilts her head. "Don't knights use swords?"
"That's a long time ago, Miss," Tatara replies. "Our knights fight with baseball bat and skateboard, or with bare hands."
"Please," her homeroom teacher cuts in nervously, "Can we maybe not talk about violence in front of the childr-?"
And then there's a familiar clicking noise that Anna recognizes as Saruhiko's tongue-clicking. He's looking at her homeroom teacher, eyes bored and condescending, and her teacher falls silent again.
"What does a bartender do, Mister?"
"Well, I make people drinks," Izumo's smile turns into a smirk, a pride Anna has long associated with Izumo and his obsession with his bar flashing on his gaze. "See, I have wonderful recipes for drinks, so people come to pay me for making drinks."
For a moment, the classroom is silent. Then another boy says, "So Mister Bartender is the Maid?"
"Fuh."
Anna clasps her hands on her mouth. It's too late, though. All eyes are on her, intent and surprised and, in Tatara's case, gleeful.
"Ah, Anna, you just laughed!"
She shakes her head, schools her face back into its usual expressionless state, and says with as much dignity as she can muster, "I did not."
Tatara and Izumo chuckles, Saruhiko merely blinks and Misaki grins, but Anna's favorite is the way Mikoto's lips curl up into a small smirk.
-o0o-
Mikoto and Izumo vanish down the hall after class. Anna doesn't know what they're doing, doesn't know how Mikoto corners her homeroom teacher on the hallway near the faculty office, doesn't know how Izumo lazily blocks his other side.
She doesn't know how Mikoto lets the tip of his fingers burns with flames hot enough to make her homeroom teacher flinch. She also doesn't know how Izumo leans forward, smiles and says, "If you ever lay a hand on our Anna, you should be prepared for the consequences."
Because Izumo never needs her to say anything more than a sentence to figure things out, and Mikoto is literally an overprotective lion.
-o0o-
On the way home, she grips Mikoto's jacket the way she always does. Tatara and Misaki flank them, and Saruhiko hovers right behind her and Misaki, while Izumo goes to fetch the car.
"Today is really fun isn't it, Anna?" Tatara bends down to fix her ribbon. "We should come again next year."
She stares up, locks her gaze with Tatara's and imagines the warm gold color that supposes to fill Tatara's gray iris in her vision. She'll take her marbles out and sees everyone through them, later, just to remind her of how the world is painted with their presence. Mikoto shifts, turning and looking down at her, and she stares back up, remembers clearly the color of fire that is Mikoto's eyes.
And she smiles.
"Thank you."
-o0ofinitoo0o-