ღLast time on Picking up the Piecesღ
"I don't want to overstep my boundaries," I spoke, looking at him, "I'm here as your parents foster child. We shouldn't have these feelings for each other-"
Takashi stood up, interrupting me and walking around the table. He cupped my face and lowered his mouth to mine. Greedily kissing it. I was surprised, but placed my hand on his chest and shifted my head to kiss him back. He pulled away after a moment, looking at me, "You're not overstepping your boundaries," he whispered, kissing my forehead, "If you wish for this to continue, say so. If you do not, then I will stop making advances," he brushed his lips over my cheek.
I was silent for the longest time. My fingers curling around his shirt and then closed my eyes and smiled. "Alright," I whispered, "We can try. If Rai wins however, we have to end it there. I don't want you to get hurt."
He kissed me gently before sitting back down across from me and continuing our game. I smiled at him warmly whenever our eyes met. I was happy, truthfully. In those quiet moments before the storm broke, I was content. Just the two of us.
ღNowღ
It had been a few weeks since I had met my social worker. Takashi and Satoshi had talked to her, and I knew that she would be coming back to talk to me about Rai and arrangements. I had quite frequently stayed away from the others. Trying to separate myself early in case something happened and I was sent away. Of course, this didn't please the others, but they knew why I was doing it and didn't push me to do something I didn't want to. I had plenty of moments alone with Takashi, but those were becoming less and less frequent.
I was in the dojo, training. Akira had put me in training when he found me in the room punching one of the training dummies. Of course, I was just doing it to let out my anger and frustration then, but now it had become a life style of mine. Just as it was anyone else in the house. I heard the door slid open and someone entered. I ignored their presence and continued to train. A kick, punch, twist, and various other moves were fired off one by one. When I paused to take a breather the person clapped. I turned towards them. Kotoko.
"What are you doing here?" I asked coldly, irritated that I was interrupted by someone not in the family. She stood at the door, not stepping into the dojo. She didn't look professional at all.
"I just stopped to check on you before I go on a date, are you doing well?" she asked, tilting her head, "Your parents say you've been distanting yourself lately. Is it because you want to leave and don't want them to be hurt?" I stayed silent, not caring about her personal life and she couldn't be farther from the truth. She smiled sadly at me. "I'll be over tomorrow to talk to you about your adoption."
She slid the door shut before I had time to counter her words. I headed towards the door but paused and waved my hand. I didn't care. I would clear it up the next day when it was actually important. For now, I needed to continue training. It was an hour later that I emerged and took a shower. I went to find Takashi, but couldn't. I spotted Sakura and jogged over to her.
"Sakura, where is Takashi?" I asked with a frown. The woman smiled faintly.
"He's on a date," she explained, "You'll see him when he gets back."
My heart dropped and then felt anger bubble in my veins. I bowed slightly. "Excuse me," I barely managed to get that out before I was running away from her. Out the door. Down the steps. Further and further away. Running until my already aching legs were burning and screaming at me. I dropped down and was no longer me. With no one to hurt, I awoke a few hours later in the dark with aching eyes. My cheeks were covered with salty tears and my throat ached. My fists were bloody and had splinters.
I headed back to the house and took another shower, and wrapped my knuckles with a bandage and changed into something else. When I slid into bed, I hugged my arms around myself. I wanted to apologize to the other me...even if it would make me seem crazy. She was always taking the bad things for me. My pain, my emotion. I don't know what else could happen.
When Kotoko came over, I refused to leave my bedroom. Well, I technically just ignored them. I didn't refuse to leave. I finally got up when someone knocked on the door. I looked out and saw Takashi. I felt anger well up in my chest and pushed past him and headed downstairs to where I knew she would be. Takashi fell into step beside me, but I ignored him and entered the tea room, sliding the door closed before Takashi could enter as he was about to do.
I sat down across from the woman and narrowed my eyes at her. "I'm staying here."
She blinked, looking a bit alarmed but then smiled. "That's not entirely up to you, unfortunately. You'll go to where it's better for you to be."
"I don't think going to stay at a gang member's house is better than a respectable traditional Japanese family," I commented icily, not drinking the tea that was offered to me. I knew Sakura or a servent had brought the tea in, since she already had a cup almost halfway done. Kotoko's eyes seemed to harden slightly.
"You shouldn't be telling lies about your uncle to stay with your supposed boyfriend," she commented, writing something down. My mouth opened and it closed with an audible click.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded, how did she know about that. The woman smiled.
"I had a long talk with Takashi last night," her smile reminded me of Rai and I bit back a shiver. My eyes narrowed dangerously at her. My fingers curling into a ball. "He's very affectionate-"
My fist collided with her face and she screamed out. Face going from smug to terrified. It barely took a minute before I was pulled off of her by Akira. I kept having lapse of memory. Switching back and forth in consciousness. Kotoko clutched to Sakura's arm breathing deeply as my foster mother tried to calm her down. Akira held me tightly with an arm and pulled me from the room. He stood in between me and the room, an accusing look on his face.
Kotoko stormed out of the room a few minutes later. "Clearly staying here is not helping, in my notes she was reported to be violent at the beginning of your fostering," she spoke, her notes in her arms. "She is unfit to stay here any longer. Fujioka-san and I will be back to collect her in a week after I file this report."
She turned around and I snarled at her. "You manipulating bitch!" I growled at her, she looked at me in feign shock. Akira tensed, looking at her.
"Such language towards someone trying to give you a better life. Keep this up and we might have to send you to a correction facility," Kotoko threatened, heading out the door. Akira caught me before I attacked her again. Once the door shut, I shoved him away. Breathing deeply.
"What happened?" Sakura demanded, looking angry. "Why'd you attack her-"
"I don't like her," Akira spoke, looking at the door, "That look was almost mocking. What made you attack her."
Takashi and Satoshi were standing off to the side. I ran a hand through my hair roughly, shoving it out of my eyes. "She said that I was lying about Rai to stay here, and that I was only staying here because I wanted to be with my 'boyfriend'," the way I said it I knew was bitter and Takashi nearly flinched. The look on his face was enough for me to know he knew I knew. Sakura and Akira looked mildly shocked.
"You punched her for that?" Sakura asked, a bit surprised.
"No, she went on to think that I was dating Takashi," I laughed bitterly, "Apparently they went on a date last night and she said he was pretty affectionate amongst other things. I punched her because she impling that she and Takashi were doing things that I know Takashi would never do." Takashi left the room at that point, and I waved towards him, "See," I said, "He upset by her actions as well. I'll go talk to him."
Akira nodded and I slipped out of the main room and headed down the hallway where he left. I found him after a while in the library, staring at the chess board, a piece moved. I walked over and moved a knight diagonally to the pawn. He barely glanced up at me before he knocked the knight over. "The pawn did end up becoming much more than a pawn. She took out my knight," I hummed crossing my arms. He looked down guiltly. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you," I shook my head sadly.
He stood up and grabbed my arm as I started to walk away, "I went to talk to her-"
"Bullshit, you don't go on a date with my social worker if you just went to talk. You could've phoned her up or waited until today," I retorted quietly before pulling my hand from his grip. Heading towards the door. "Thanks to your stupid idea, I now have a snowballs chance in hell of staying here. Unless we can think of a miraculous idea so I can stay here."