Chapter 7: It's Good to be Back

16 January 2016

The sounds of passing outside the bar were the only sounds that filled the silent bar as the three figures sat, staring between each other, silently contemplating and lost in their own thoughts.

Ayame shifted in her seat awkwardly, chewing gently on her bottom lip as she stared between the Red King and his Second-in-command, finding the mounting silence between the two painfully unbearable as the seconds ticked by. She lets out a heavy sigh before taking in a deep breath and clearing her throat softly, causing both men's eyes to snap towards her, making her squirm slightly under their intense gazes.

"So… I'm sure there must be a quite a number of questions you'd like answered, Kusanagi-san." She addresses the blond haired man hesitantly, ignoring the raised eyebrow and intense questioning gaze she received from the red head beside her when she began to speak, focusing her attention solely on the bartender.

The blond male gave his head a slight nod in reply as he continued to focus his attention on her, his hazel eyes silently urging her to continue while remaining silent, as if the shock from seeing his supposedly dead king still affected him, leaving him speechless and unsure of what to say.

In return, Ayame gave him a soft smile, taking in a breath of air before launching into the story of how she'd found the wounded King and slowly nursed him back to health, keeping him within the confines of her apartment until she'd deemed him fit enough to return to his clan.

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Kusanagi studied the petite figure seated next to his King, unable to stop a flood of gratitude from washing over him as he listened to her. He couldn't help but feel like a thousand pounds had just been lifted from his shoulders.

In the months that had followed the supposed death of their King, he'd watched the members of HOMRA slowly lose their lustre and usual rambunctiousness and it had only taken a toll on him as he was unsure how to cope with seeing the members in such a forlorn state. It had also instilled an ever growing sense of helplessness within him as he was at a lost as to how to help them cope with their grief when he himself was trying to get past the pain and sense of loss he'd felt.

But, with the return of their King, he hoped that once the initial shock of seeing the supposedly dead person had worn off, the usual liveliness would be restored to the bar and its members. Especially Yata, who'd seemed to be the one most affected out of all of them.

Kusanagi let out a short sigh, as he came out from his thoughts, his lips parting as he begins to speak for the first time since the pair had stepped into the bar. "Well, I think on behalf of HOMRA, we owe you a lifetime of gratitude. So, Thank you for bringing our King back to us." He gives the purple-eyed girl a smile filled with gratitude, his eyes flicking to the side as he turns his attention to the red head who'd remained silently even until now.

"And Mikoto, welcome back."

The silent man glanced up at the sound of his name, his signature smirk pulling at the corners of his lips, his eyes closing, hiding his intense amber eyes as he relaxed into the leather couch propping his legs up onto the coffee table, bringing his arms up behind his head, as he lets it fall back against the back rest of the couch, reveling in the familiarity and comfort the bar brought to him.

"It's good to be back." He murmurs, his gruff voice carrying across the bar, filling it with warmth and life once again.

-NOTE-

Tank you all for being so patient and waiting for my update. I hope this chapter is to your satisfaction, and hopefully you all won't have to wait so long for the next update. But please do bare with me as I seem to be suffering from a writer's block and I've been quite busy recently as I've taken up a part time job while waiting for my school posting.

Anyways thank you all once again for your patience and your support, I couldn't ask for better readers!