EVERYONE! HIIII! It's been a long while but before we get to the chapter I would first like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who faved and followed and most especially to the dearest reviewers: Jinniett, YozoraVal, RainyRandom, Sorataro, Crystalpxhlqt, KimKat95, Einklley, Arya the Killer, izukugh, iizukun, Shini Kurogane, Bookhunter12, Tomarry's fangirl, Guest, stvrlightt, KimiGoesCrazy, Crystal Blue Butterfly, and FyreDraagyn12 💖💖💖
I'm so sorry I wasn't able to respond to each of your reviews but please know that I've read it all and I adore every single one. You've all been so encouraging and your generous sentiments really got me out of a dark place countless times, beginning last year. I'm not even gonna front, last year sucked. I'm not gonna go into the details but I assure you all, I'M GETTING BETTER. I'M DOING BETTER. I'm in such a better place now and I've got a LOT more to give, both IRL and on working on my fanfictions (*´︶`*)❁
Now on to the chapter! We're off to a whole new arc but first, the transition. We're now in the calm after the storm although a new one's brewing in the not-so-distant future. With this new direction the chapter titles won't start with the letter R anymore and some of them will be taken from certain songs. Enjoy‼! ^^
〖 Chapter Eleven 〗
What came after, What came before
Gone was the urgency in Mikey's mien by the time they arrived at the hospital.
He was startlingly silent on the way there, remaining stoic as he listened to Reiya's anguished retelling of how Draken got stabbed, his expression changing only once when she mentioned Kiyomasa's name. He didn't say anything but even then Reiya was certain of what he was truly feeling.
It communicated into his haste with a whipping intensity, funneling into his engine and into the roaring in their ears, in the wrenching cold prickling at their skin bearing down with the force of a thousand needles, driving him like fuel as they went beyond the speed limit and thereby breaking every single traffic rule there was.
But now a heavy mantle seemed to have settled over Mikey, giving the impression of a rather ominous sort of calm. His worry for Draken was obvious but he didn't let his emotions get the best of him, displaying a precocious maturity that both amazed and worried Reiya. But she kept her concerns to herself, knowing full well there was nothing else she could say to allay the severity of the situation. They were in for the worst of it now, and comfort felt like a faraway thing until they'd see this night through.
Until Draken's life was guaranteed beyond doubt. Until the future and their fate, especially Draken's, reached its final phase of being completely and permanently rewritten.
With Mikey following in measured strides, Reiya strode up to the receptionist's desk and all but made their presence known with the grace of a summer storm.
"Excuse me. We're here for a patient admitted through the emergency room. His name is Ryuguji Ken, brought in due to a stabbing incident. He should be here by now, along with some of our friends. May we know where he is? Please do hurry, it's an emergency!"
"A-all right, please give me a moment," the receptionist answered, giving their wet hair and dripping clothes a vaguely disconcerted glance before rifling through her records. It took her a few minutes to find and confirm where Draken was, directing the pair to the general surgery ward and bidding them to wait in the lobby with the others outside the operating room.
Reiya nodded and thanked her before turning to reconvene with Mikey. There was no need to relay the information for he already heard. He let her lead the way and she moved with ground-digging strides, turning this corner and that, navigating her way from pure memory.
"You seem to know your way around here, Cherry-chan," she heard Mikey say.
Reiya tensed but she didn't let it show. She didn't answer right away, waiting to reach a particular corner before doing so.
"I've been here before." Countless times, in fact. The hospital was hauntingly the same, and although she was no longer its resident Reiya could almost see phantoms of herself ambling aimlessly with her left arm in a sling through the very same halls, the memory reflected hazily in an out-of-time pace on the glossy vinyl floors.
The images ebbed away but the feeling it evoked grew. It was a past life, a desolate life…and it nearly made Reiya smile in irony at how all those years ago was the now. The now and the then, with the then being completely overwritten, parallel, as she traversed through the very same passage containing two entirely different lifetimes. And it was so strange…for Reiya to feel as if she were the ghost. She would never choose to return to a life full of regrets and yet it was where she'd found true love and real purpose. But that, too, was now fading away. Gone, completely changed.
Reiya shut her eyes briefly. She hated hospitals. Their too clean smell, the dismal atmosphere and the incorrigible coalescence of life and death, the bright pristine walls housing echoes of a thousand losses and hopes and so many shattered dreams.
And Reiya especially hated this one.
She could actually feel her skin recoiling the longer she was there, tensing and ticking not only because it was where she spent her time mourning a future that was lost to her, but also because it was his territory.
Suddenly Mikey pulled at her arm, his hand closing around her elbow to tug her close. Reiya flinched, realizing she was about to collide into a corner-wall junction if Mikey hadn't acted fast. She stared at him with startled eyes and for a moment she saw Manjiro (yes, not Mikey, but her Jiro-kun), but that image of him disappeared the longer she stared at his present self, proliferating into nothingness like wisps of sanitized mist, fading into the walls like another memory, another ghost.
"I-I'm sorry," she murmured, avoiding Mikey's gaze. "I got lost in my head for a moment…But we should be close."
Reiya glanced to the route ahead on the right and Mikey released her after making sure she was steady on her feet. "It's just around the corner over there, right?" he asked.
"Yes."
He gave a short nod and Reiya let him lead the way this time. The air suddenly felt heavier now that they were nearing their destination, their path punctuated by a ringing thud on the wall and a strident curse.
'Mitsuya-kun?' she recognized worriedly.
They emerged from the corner. Reiya briefly met eyes with Mitsuya and Takemichi, who were accompanied by a tall teen she didn't recognize wearing Toman's uniform with a sash around his shoulders. The three were already expecting them from the sound of their footsteps, the mismatched rhythm echoing through the corridor like a frantic heart.
"Mikey-kun, Yunagi-san," Takemichi greeted, anxiety threading through the words. And then all at once the three boys were on to them, particularly on Mikey, their mingled volumes ringing through the hall.
"Keep it down," Mikey admonished. "We're in the hospital. You're being way too loud." He moved through them, not stopping as he asked, "Where's the lobby?"
"Up ahead, far left," Reiya answered, moving to follow and doing her utmost to match his calm.
The other three followed and Reiya's eyebrows lifted in surprise at seeing a roughened-up Yamagishi along with Makoto and Takemichi's other friends the moment they strolled into the lobby, the boys looking just as surprised as she was the moment they saw her.
Reiya's gaze went to Hina's next and the shorter girl caught it, their expressions a mirror of grim concern. Her arms were wrapped around a trembling Emma, who turned in her embrace as she cried for her brother. Mikey approached, briefly resting a reassuring hand on Emma's shoulder before going to sit in one of the benches nearby. Reiya stopped by the girls, placing both hands on either girl's back, the three of them watching Mikey who was now steadily gazing upon the glowing red sign bearing the words 'Operation in Progress' above the operating room's doors.
All eyes were on him and a particular silence fell over the group, a reflective and poignant understanding of the bond between a leader and his right-hand man, of a boy and his best friend. Anyone who knew of Mikey would know of Draken, and anyone who knew Draken would know of Mikey. They were a pair, inseparable. And now one of them was teetering towards the brink of death—the harshest severance of all.
It was an impossible fear. And Reiya was seeing it now—the depth of loss from which Mikey couldn't ever crawl out from if he ever lost Draken. With Draken gone, with a part of Mikey gone forever, it would be so easy for people to try and take up that part, to fill the void for their own benefit—people like Kisaki.
To keep that from happening, Draken needed to live. He was the one person Mikey should never lose, the key to his future.
If he died, if he couldn't be there…
"Things weren't the same after he died, though…"
"It's already too late for me…"
Reiya wrapped her arms around herself, shivering at the cold downward pull of despair as the auditory pang of Manjiro's haunting words and the images it brought weighed down on her. His dragon tattoo, the feel of it on her lips, the flash of his abyss-deep eyes and the gleam of resigned hopelessness in them…
"Ken-chin...He's always been a man of his word," Mikey said, his quiet and level voice stealing over her, shutting his future self's echoing words out. "He's not gonna die here. He'd never do something so dishonest."
Reiya dragged her gaze to watch him speak and Mikey brought his head down from looking up at the glowing red sign, cementing his claim with a big, close-eyed smile.
"Because he promised me…that we'd rule the whole country together. So Emma, Mitsuya, Peh-yan, Takemitchy, Cherry-chan…Believe in Ken-chin. He'll pull through."
Lightness engulfed the room. There was hope now, a solidarity, beating back against the unspeakable unease that threatened to suffocate them all just moments ago. And for the first time Reiya saw firsthand who Mikey was with his core trait at play—a natural-born leader. Strong and keen and charismatic, overcoming a moment of weakness by seeing the heart of it and striking first, knowing when and how to command a situation.
'So this is the Jiro-kun of the past…This is Mikey…'
Reiya straightened her shoulders. 'I should do what I can as well.'
"Why don't you two go sit over there?" she quietly suggested to the girls. With her hands on their backs, Reiya guided Hina and Emma on another bench near Mikey's. She turned to the others, addressing the room in general. "Mikey is right. Now, the surgery's going to take a few hours so let's settle in for now."
"Yeah let's go do that. My leg's killing me," Makoto whined, already walking off to take a seat.
The group dispersed; Takemichi and his friends occupying one side of the room while Mitsuya and the tall teen now identified as Peh-yan went to a separate corner, opting to brood and lean against the walls like the gangsters they were.
Sliding Viomaru's case bag off her shoulders, Reiya sat beside Hina as she began to rummage through it. She scanned the group, her eyes brimming with purpose.
"Hey did you guys see my glasses?" Yamagishi asked, patting his pockets before turning to his plum-haired friend. "Hey Akkun—"
"It's right there on your big head," Akkun answered, flicking the glasses down from his head with a quick swipe, the bridge landing on the shorter teen's nose in a crooked slip.
"Youch! Geez, thank you very much," Yamagishi snarked, carefully replacing the glasses on his throbbing nose while Akkun brought a fist on his mouth, wiping at it and frowning when he saw a small splotch of blood.
A slender hand suddenly appeared before him, offering him a thin wad of gauze.
"Here," Reiya said, regarding him with kind concern. "You can have this, if you want."
"O-oh, thanks," Akkun said, smiling faintly as he took it from her, earning envious glares from Makoto and Yamagishi. He turned to them and raised a brow as he pressed the gauze to the corner of his mouth. "What?"
"Yamagishi-kun?" Reiya called, the boy instantly whipping around to smile at her.
"Yunagi-chan~! I didn't know you'd be here!"
Reiya smiled. "I can say the same thing to you."
"Our buddy was in trouble. Gotta have his back, you know?" Yamagishi stated proudly.
Reiya's smile turned into a grin and she thought, 'What good friends.' The smile diminished, however, when she noticed his bruised nose. "Someone did quite the number on you, didn't they? Your nose looks like it's about to bleed again, but it doesn't look like it's broken." She gave him a thin patch of bandages. "Here. Use it just in case, okay?"
"Yes ma'am!"
Yamagishi happily accepted the patch with two hands and Makoto bolted upright just as Reiya drew close, looking up at her like a puppy about to be fed. She lifted a hand on her chin, studying him with a pondering hum.
"Well, you don't look like you're bleeding anywhere," she remarked. "You'll be fine, Makoto-kun."
Reiya gave him a close-eyed smile and moved away. Makoto deflated, dramatically sagging against the bench with a hand on his heart. "No but the bleedin's on the inside," he sniffled.
Reiya approached Takemichi next, smiling when she saw his left hand was already wrapped in a handkerchief. "Oh, good. You've already found a way to stop the bleeding."
"Ah. It's all thanks to Takuya," Takemichi answered brightly, referring to the sandy-blond on his left, who was smiling timidly at the both of them.
Reiya smiled back before bringing her gaze to Takemichi again, the tacit connection between two fellow comrades desperate to save one life passing between them.
"How are you feeling, Takemichi-kun?" she asked softly.
"Oh, uh, it hurts everywhere. But I feel better now that Draken-kun's getting treated in there." Takemichi paused, his smile dropping as he asked, "What about you, Yunagi-san?" His eyes swept over her and he yelped a little at seeing her bloodied knee. "Ah! Your knee!"
"Oh. I forgot about that…" Reiya reached down to press the edge of her skirt against it. The hem was already a mess anyway, so it wouldn't matter if she used it like a rag right now. "It looks worse than it hurts. I'm perfectly all right." She looked up, smiling. "And I really wanted to help everyone else first." She turned to the room and murmured, "Everyone has been through so much tonight…"
Her lashes lowered over anguished eyes, the sweep of her gaze ending on Mikey who was looking away (but whether he was looking away from her or from the operating doors, she couldn't tell).
"Is anyone else wounded or bleeding somewhere?" she asked, stepping further in the midst of the group. "I still have a few bandages."
Mitsuya grinned, his throaty chuckle carrying over from where he stood. "You're like a hospital inside the hospital, Yunagi-chan."
"Well, we might as well treat ourselves while we wait," Reiya answered sensibly. She approached him—noting with some surprise that his hair wasn't silver as she initially thought but rather a silvery purple—before inquiring gently, "What about you, Mitsuya-kun? Are you okay?"
Mitsuya nodded, a touch of fondness gracing his smile. "Nothing I can't handle."
Reiya's gaze moved over to Peh-yan, his eyes flitting up as he noticed her looking at him but then it flittered away just as quickly.
"Peh-yan-kun, was it? How about you?" she asked. "Are you okay?"
"'M fine," he mumbled, glaring at the floor.
"Don't mind him," Mitsuya said to her. "He's sore and tender on the inside but he'll be okay."
"Shut up," Peh-yan grumbled. He made himself look at her again and all of a sudden recognition sparked. "Wait aren't you that big girl? Pah-chin's neighbor with the crazy dog?"
Reiya tilted her head. "Crazy dog?" And then she flushed. 'B-big girl!?'
"You shoulda let your dog beat that stupid mutt of his," Peh-yan fussed, pushing away from the wall to face her properly. "Somebody oughta teach that dog a lesson!"
"Pochi is a perfectly good dog," Mitsuya cut in, giving her a wry smile. "Peh-yan's the only one Pochi couldn't stand."
"Yeah well I can't stand that damn mutt either," Peh-yan retorted. "Stupid-ass dog with fancy hair and a dumbass name." He turned away, huffing, but not before Reiya saw the hint of pained warmth in his eyes. "Just like its stupid-ass owner…"
Reiya's face softened, her soft smile weighed with melancholy at the edges. 'He must be really good friends with Pah-chin-kun…But…' Reiya felt her brows pull. 'I don't remember ever meeting him. Did that happen sometime in my past life and I just forgot? Pah-chin-kun was the one who stabbed Moebius' leader, wasn't he? The reason why Mikey and Draken fought, the catalyst for the war…Was I really neighbors with that person?' A shred of anxiety grew in the line of her thoughts. 'His conflict with Moebius…How did that happen? Was that even a coincidence?'
Reiya clenched her hands, her eyes hardening as she determined how there were no coincidences wherever Kisaki was involved.
Mitsuya sighed through his nose. He smiled at her and Reiya felt the emotions behind it, perhaps because it was all the things all of them were feeling in that moment—weary and yet wired all the same, hoping to end the night on a positive note—all of them knowing Toman's fate rested upon whether Draken lived or died.
"What a night, huh?" he commented lightheartedly.
"I'll get us something to drink," Reiya said, returning his smile.
"I'll go with you."
Surprised but not about to refuse the offer, Reiya left to retrieve a few bills she always kept in one of her case bag's pockets and off they went to the vending machines. On the way there, Mitsuya told her in depth about what happened, about Draken's ambush and what Peh-yan had done. Shock, sympathy, and angered dismay rose into a writhing amalgamation within her.
What Peh-yan did was undoubtedly a foolish thing—committing treason and banding together with Toman's enemies with the intention of ending a life—but what drove him to do so wasn't something Reiya could easily ignore. It was becoming clear to her now that the war—which was originally initiated with the goal to avenge—turned out to be an orchestrated clash of wills, an avalanche of exploited emotions.
Peh-yan might have done the wrong thing but now he was doing the right thing. There was hope for amending what was broken, hope for the stolen things to return. Hope, that whatever Kisaki set out to do, would forever elude him.
The pair returned to the lobby with an assortment of beverages, Hina, Akkun, and Tatsuya coming to help with the distribution.
"It's the least I can do," Reiya said with a smile.
"You're the best, Yunagi-chan!" Makoto gushed. Suddenly he froze, eyes on her feet. "Eh? Yunagi-chan…What happened to your shoes?"
Reiya started to turn red as the others shifted to stare at her. Other than the girls who already knew, it seemed as if the boys had just collectively noticed how she was actually barefoot.
"Oh, um… I was in a hurry when I heard what happened. The straps broke so I had to throw them away."
"In a hurry? You mean you ran all the way to the festival?" Akkun speculated.
"Oh yeah! Wasn't that violin contest you joined supposed to be today?" Yamagishi exclaimed, distracting his friend's curious suspicions which Reiya was internally grateful for. "That's why you're wearing a dress, right? How'd it go?"
"She won," Hina volunteered smilingly, garnering awed cheers from the boys who immediately extended their congratulations.
Reiya thanked them in return, smiling in sheepish indulgence until her eyes landed on Mikey's solemn figure.
The pale-blond was quiet. His eyes were closed and his head was down, showing no outward reaction to the bustle around him. He looked relaxed, serene even, but there was a fragility in his stillness, bringing to mind the image of a dewdrop, one that would fall apart at the barest touch.
Reiya excused herself from the group and carefully sat by the empty seat beside him, his name hovering on her lips before escaping in a gentle, subtly worried note.
"Mikey?"
His eyes opened—his face blank, his shoulders hunched—and he looked at her as if he didn't recognize her for a moment. "…what is it, Cherry-chan?" he asked eventually, his voice still so calm, so low and so quiet.
And then Reiya understood.
Mikey's preternatural composure, his serenity…
All of it had nothing to do with calm.
Because there…right in the heart underneath all of that simmering calmness…was a tremor.
He was terrified.
He was terrified, and Reiya didn't even notice. Too engrossed in her awe for the boy he was to remember that he was just that, a boy. A boy doing his hardest not to break. Because he was a leader, because he was the Invincible Mikey, and the invincible must never break. Not here, not with this many eyes. Not when they were all looking up to him.
Her heart plummeted, falling for the boy in front of her but not the good kind. It was pounding in her stomach, quickening her pulse. Driving her with the need to hold him, to surround him in softness and comfort. To ply him with tenderness and tender words. To tell him it's okay, you can cry...
Instead, Reiya smiled. Not too big, not too bright. Something neutral that did nothing to reveal her true emotions, her escalating worries.
"You should drink something. You must be thirsty." She brought a couple of drinks between them, hot and cold beverages clinking together in a colorful misting heap as she sorted through the pile. "We have water, but would you like something warm to drink first? There's hot milk tea and cocoa, and—oh. We have something else if you prefer something lighter..."
Reiya tucked a damp lock behind her right ear, watching him patiently as Mikey contemplated the beverages with a heavy blink, a ghost of a smile making its way across his mouth. It widened as he lifted his gaze but his eyes closed before she could see what was in them.
"Thanks, Cherry-chan. Maybe later." His voice was as pleasant and calm as the smile on his face. So natural, so in control.
It tightened the knot in Reiya's heart, splintering her chest as she saw the way he pressed his hands between his knees, the way he hid them, the way they twitched and shivered with sporadic chills. Mikey was freezing, trying his hardest to control every tremor. And whether that was from the air-conditioned premises or from the late night rides under the rain, or from the unabating adrenaline that pushed him on and on as he fought and fought, fighting beyond using his fists and legs on a physical enemy as he awaited the operation's results, Reiya couldn't bear to watch any longer.
She was hesitant to touch him—dewdrop, so fragile—but she latched onto his wrist, pulling it up to place the warmest drink she could find in his hand. Mikey's eyes flickered open and darted down, watching as she took his other hand to place it on the can before folding both of her hands over his, molding their hands together around the warming tinned beverage.
Mikey brought his eyes to find hers, looking completely mystified while tangible heat continued to waft over and around from within the sphere of their palms. She smiled at him, softly and politely in the way she might've had in order to convince a customer back at the café she used to work at, when all she wanted to do was to wrap him in her own warmth, coddle and comfort him just as he'd done for her in their future-past.
But Reiya would give him his space. Safeguard his mode of coping in whatever form he might choose it to be.
"I understand," she said. "But can you hold on to this at least? We still have a few hours of waiting ahead of us, so…let this keep you warm for now, okay?"
Mikey didn't reply but she detected the change of something agreeable from him. His hold tightened around the drink and Reiya slowly drew her hands away from his, a thin haze of heat following her fingertips.
She stayed by him, matching his composure. Both of them silent in their bubble and grounded by the warmth in their hands.
Hours passed and nearly all of them stood and straightened to the tips of their toes by the time the operating room's glowing red sign clicked into a dimming finality.
Reiya braced herself as the surgical team came out to greet them, steeling her nerves not only for the operation's results, but knowing instinctively that he was among them. She saw the glinting gossamer strands of his silver hair, slipping out beneath his surgeon's cap in unruly whisks. The distinctive feature belonged to a tall middle-aged man with sharp honey-brown eyes, and his gaze caught hers before she could look away.
A spark of bewildered recognition flickered briefly in the space between their shared gaze. To his credit, the silver-haired man didn't show any other outward reaction. He dutifully stood by as the head of the team stepped out, Reiya instantaneously transferring her focus on the dark-haired surgeon.
The rest of the group fixed their eyes on him, holding their breaths with unblinking eyes, clasping their hands and clenching their fists.
"We've passed the first hurdle," the head surgeon finally announced. "The operation was a success."
Reiya released an incoherent sob, tears of joy rising and clinging to the corners of her eyes while the rest of her companions erupted into echoing cheers of indescribable relief. She spun toward Mikey, the boys whooping and cheering all around them while Hina continued to hold a wailing Emma, but her wide and tearful smile abruptly faded away when she saw he was already leaving.
No one else seemed to have noticed his sudden departure. So immersed were they in their tumultuous celebration that it seemed as if she was the only one.
'Mikey? Where…'
"Alright, pipe down you guys," Mitsuya chided with a grin. "Let's go tell the other guys waiting outside!"
The others agreed and wasted no time in rushing out of the lobby. Reiya was slow to leave, aware of a certain somebody who also stayed behind. There was only the two of them now, as his colleagues had already returned inside the operating room and her companions had long since fled, the sound of their mingled footsteps growing smaller in the unseen distance.
Reiya knew she didn't have much of a choice. The faster she dealt with him, the faster she could leave.
And so she straightened her back and turned to greet her stepfather.
"Hello, Tetsu-san."
Natsukage Ittetsu looked her up and down, his fine silver brows scrunching together. "Reiya-chan. You…" He shook his head in wonderment before turning around. "Stay here. I'll be back in a jiffy!"
Dumbfounded, Reiya reluctantly did just that as her stepfather rushed back inside the operating room. A moment passed and she began to fidget in impatience. She contemplated running away (not that she had no intentions of going back) as Mikey's whereabouts was much more important to her at the moment, but then the sliding doors slid open and out came her stepfather carrying a fluffy white towel in his hands.
He held it up before her astonished eyes, panting slightly as if he ran just to get it. Knowing him, knowing the extent of his regard for her, Reiya didn't doubt that one bit.
"Here. We don't want you catching a cold, do we?"
Reiya took the towel, a bit wary but grateful at the same time. "Thank you."
Tetsu smiled, his eyes forming into near-indiscernible crescents above his surgical mask.
"Now," he began, making Reiya inwardly wince in dismay. Questions were impeding but she interrupted him just before he could voice them out, her legs already shifting for escape.
"Sorry but I have to go, Tetsu-san! Thank you so much for the towel but there's someone else who needs this more than me right now, so I'll have to give it to them right away. I'll be right back!"
"Eh? What?" Flabbergasted, Tetsu could only waver in place as Reiya ran away from the lobby. "Where are you going? Reiya-chan!?"
Ignoring his echoing calls, Reiya hurried down to the intersecting corridors, frantically wondering where Mikey could've gone until she spotted a singular trail of wet slipper tracks heading off to the opposite direction of where the others went.
She halted, her breath catching. And then she moved to follow it.
Mikey had wandered outside in a quiet, mechanical haze. He didn't know how he found his way out there, exactly. Only that he was falling apart and that he needed to be alone.
He collapsed with his back sliding down against the wall, unable to withstand the weight of his emotions any longer. He was aching everywhere, the pain sharp and hot, and when the tears finally came Mikey could only let himself be swept away in their overwhelming tides.
Fuck. The relief. It kept on surging up from the very depths of his soul, changing the pattern of his breaths and the very frame of his bones, even the way he shivered—still shivering—like he was being untethered. He was barely hanging on, every breath and every tear coming from a place so dark and deep and so damnably familiar that it threatened to break him beyond the reach of repair.
"Ken-chin." The name left him in a wracking sob, his next words following in shaky whispers. "You asshole…Don't scare me like that."
He couldn't bear losing anyone anymore. A part of Mikey knew he wouldn't survive it. And losing Draken—his best friend, his right-hand, his brother—would utterly destroy him. But it was over now, thank fuck. Draken was alive and safe. He was going to live. And Mikey wouldn't have to lose another member of his family. Not tonight, never again.
He pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes, breathing deep and slow, needing to regain control over his emotions. He tried to put a stop to the shaking in his bones but his body just wouldn't listen to him. The fear of almost losing Draken was slow to leave, impossible to push away. He couldn't stop from shaking, from crying, from keeping his breaths from breaking. He felt so helpless, so overcome, so raw and vulnerable and holy shit he was going to make Draken pay for making him cry like this, that quasi-bald beanpole.
With his head growing heavy, Mikey folded his arms on his knees and hid his face in them. He felt so incredibly tired. He just didn't have the strength to halt his sniveling, his body wracked with unabating tremors. And amidst the utter loss of control, he found he couldn't move at all in spite of all the shaking, even as he heard the soft but agitated rise of long-striding footsteps.
The sound grew closer and closer, causing Mikey's breath to seize mid-sob. He froze in preparation to face whoever it was, his hands clenching, wanting to regain at least half of his dignity but the rest of his body refused to cooperate. He could only sit there and wait in helpless frustration, with hiding his face the only recourse. At the very least, he hoped that whoever it was would leave him alone the moment they'd see him like that.
Mikey held still as the footsteps had skidded to a stop, the invisible pressure of someone's gaze fastening on him making him tense even more. There was a short pause before the intruder made their move, footsteps making its way towards Mikey until they were now directly in front of him.
Slowly, Mikey began to lift his head, his quietly hiccupping mouth pulled into a frown, annoyance bubbling at whoever actually dared to approach. But before he could even flash a glare his eyes caught the sight of bare feet, dirty and pale and undeniably feminine.
His eyes widened. The unlikely intruder crouched down to Mikey's level, the blood-spotted hem of her skirt touching the wet ground entering his downcast vision. The weight of something soft and fluffy was suddenly pressed all around his head, blanketing his quivering shoulders.
Mikey stilled. His chin lifted, the towel's hood-like arrangement on his head casting a shadow over his eyes, keeping his face from being fully exposed (a small mercy).
"You're going to catch a cold," the intruder said, and the sound of her gently pragmatic but irrefutably tender voice caused the tension lording over his body to dissolve into a frantic sort of ease, his heartbeat growing warm and fast.
He was still crying, tarrying tears sliding down his cheeks but Mikey no longer felt as lost, or as hurt, as he did just moments ago. Her familiar form gradually gained prominence against the watery blur in his eyes, and a curious surge of unfamiliar relief began to roll over him, relief at the fact that it was only Reiya after all, just her.
And for some strange reason, being found by her when he didn't want to be seen by anyone else only made the flow of emotion impossible to stop. But he needed to. Mikey had never felt so lame, caught crying like a baby in front of the one person he didn't want to think he was lame.
Reiya moved her hands over his head, patting the towel gently to dry his hair but Mikey stopped her, grabbing her by the wrists. She held still, remarkably unfazed even as his fingers began to tighten against her skin with a pressure that could be nothing less than borderline painful.
Mikey's throat felt scratchy and tight, but he managed to speak in an acceptable force and tone.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
Reiya's reply was gradual, her long-lashed eyes of lavender moonlight bright and brimming with careful concern. "I was looking for you. You suddenly disappeared, and…I got worried."
Something rippled in Mikey's chest. Something pleasant but tight. It hadn't occurred to him that anyone would look for him in the aftermath when he wasn't even the one whose life was nearly taken.
"…I'm fine," he muttered, sniffling, and Reiya agreed.
"You are. You're going to be. But not if you're going to catch a cold."
She pressed the towel gently against his tear-streaked cheeks. Her touch was comfort, and Mikey honed onto the sensation, closing his eyes and breathing deep and slow as he felt his limbs unfurl like a decompressing rubber band after it's been stretched past its limits. He knew he was at a disadvantage and yet he didn't want to move. Couldn't, if he were to be completely honest with himself. He felt so heavy all of a sudden, so tired. And it felt nice relinquishing himself in Reiya's care like this. It felt right.
His grip eased, his thumbs brushing against her callused palms. Mikey held still upon feeling them, opening his eyes a smidge and letting them roam over her. Reiya was as drenched and unkempt as he was, maybe even more so considering how she was currently barefoot, her flowy white dress marred with streaks of dried blood and dirty rainwater. But still, there was something radiant about her—a permeating warmth Mikey not only noticed but felt since way back in the general operations' lobby, when she made sure that everyone was settled and cared for.
Tonight had been the result of one surprise after the other but Reiya showing up out of nowhere was perhaps the most surprising one. Mikey could hardly believe his eyes when he saw her back in the parking lot. He couldn't remember the last time he saw someone so out of place in a gang war and yet there she was, fearless and determined, her aid indispensable in getting Draken to safety.
And now here she was, taking care of him with a decisive indulgence as if there was nothing else she would rather do, nowhere else she would rather be.
But they both knew she wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
"What are you doing here, Cherry-chan?"
Reiya blinked at the question. Mikey sat up straighter, leveling their eyes. He could see that she understood how this particular question was unlike the first one he asked earlier and it almost made him smile. She's quick and he liked that.
"Hina-chan told me what happened. I couldn't keep still knowing what was happening, and I was nearby."
Her eyes broke from his, going down to her left hand where his thumb had begun to wriggle inside her palm. His other hand did the same with her right hand, causing her ministrations to pause.
"So you went…knowing it was dangerous?" Mikey asked.
She tensed in a sheepish way, but it was only for a moment. Reiya released her hold on the towel and closed her hands around his thumbs, her eyes clear and resolute with promise.
"Yes. And I'd do it again."
She brought their hands down atop his bent knees and smiled bright, the dimple in her left cheek appearing with a riveting flash.
"Because that's what friends are for."
He felt something change in his expression, something small but vital. Sensing it, her smile gentled but her hold around his hands went tight.
"You're not alone, Mikey…And after tonight you won't have to be."
It was an affirmation that Mikey didn't even know he was waiting for. It shot through him like exhilaration, swelling in his chest with grounding warmth. He smiled, and it almost surprised him. He didn't think he'd be able to smile again so soon after what happened. Not with this kind of gentleness, and not with this kind of ease.
Upon seeing it, Reiya's smile deepened into a tender grin. "There's so much to look forward to now."
She sounded so reassuring, so hopeful, that it made Mikey forget just how horrible the night turned out to be. How disturbing Hanma's parting words were and how they weighed on his mind like an irremovable splinter.
"Yeah," he answered, his little smile growing. It was still small, but genuine.
Draken was alive. Toman had won and Peh-yan had returned to them. And for now, that's all he wanted to think about.
Reiya, especially, was a very effective distraction. She was a good…friend. Going out of her way like this with nearly no regard for her own well-being, and for one dizzying moment Mikey couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be actually loved by her, to be her number one, if she went this far for a friend.
He remembered two days ago, when Reiya played that song for them, the song that made her win. Mikey had never seen anyone move with such heartfelt precision. And as the song became more and more alive in her hands it was like something inside of him resonated with it, like something that'd been sleeping for so long was finally awakening. He had been transfixed, having never heard something so delicately intense, so sweet and so pure and yet somehow so terribly heartbreaking. And as he listened, Mikey became mesmerized with other things, too. Like the fervent intensity in her tender eyes and the softness of her dimpled smiles. The way the afternoon sunlight glided along her rich midnight strands in hazy, shimmering ribbonettes; the way it brought a golden glow on her rose-ivory skin and the way it outlined the smooth, dreamlike movements of her shapely hips.
Reiya had been extraordinary that day. Her and that song…which she chose as a dedication for somebody truly special to her. And listening to it hadn't just been listening to a mere musical performance—it was an experience, a gift. And in it, as far as he could tell, was her everything.
Something sharp twisted inside Mikey, and he recognized it as the very same kind of feeling as he listened to her that day. Their eyes had connected more than once as she played, and every time he could swear he was the only one she saw. That in spite of everyone else being there, he was the only one she played for.
But even then, Mikey knew…
It wasn't for him.
Even now, even when she was here, with him and for him…
She had someone else.
'He's annoyed,' Reiya bewilderedly realized. Mikey's eyebrows had rushed down, his eyes had narrowed and he was pouting. She wondered what put this on when he'd just been gazing at her with the gentlest look she'd seen on his face all night.
Reiya was about to ask what was wrong when his finger was suddenly on her waning dimple, the pressure light but also somewhat vindictive. But there was no real heat in Mikey's eyes. However, he was definitely upset about something.
"Mikey? What is it?"
He pouted some more but the sight leaned towards being comical rather than worrying this time.
"You're gonna catch a cold too, you know," Mikey tutted as he gave her dimple two indulgent taps, his forefinger plunging gently against her cheek. And then he smiled at her, his face reverting back to its default pleasant placidness. "You should head back inside, Cherry-chan." He took his hand back and was about to pull the other one still held passively in her grip, but Reiya stopped him by squeezing it with renewed force.
"Then let's go back together," she offered. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't cold and Mikey might've seemed okay now, stable, but she wasn't about to leave him all alone again.
Putting on a stubborn pout of her own, Reiya narrowed her eyes and said, "I won't if you won't."
It wasn't her intention to be amusing but it made Mikey smile anyway; a slow one, a genuine one, accompanied with a soft huff.
"Okay."
Reiya's face brightened in relief. She stood up, pulling him with her, Mikey slanting towards her with the towel sliding off from his head to pool around his neck—
"Ah. But there's something you gotta do for me first, Cherry-chan~."
The abruptness—the memory—had Reiya tensing in bewildered wonder. With the towel gone she finally had an unobstructed view of his obsidian eyes, and the cheeky glow she saw in them brought her back to that particular morning in July, where she had been the one to look up at him with slightly puffy eyes.
Mikey stepped back, squeezing her hand as he nonchalantly kicked his slippers off and casually nudged them by her bare feet. He latched her gaze up to hers and the smirk turned into a smile, all teeth and sweetness as he let her hand go.
"Here. You wear 'em, Cherry-chan. You've been walking around without any shoes on since way back in the parking lot, right?"
Something in her melted. A warmth so painful it was a miracle she hadn't doubled over and fallen to the floor, dead before she hit.
Although Reiya's instinctual reaction was to refuse but it was checkmate and they both knew it. She stared at the pair of yellow slippers, a growing smile filling her face and eyes with tender weight.
"You have the most unexpected conditions," she said, as softly as a whisper.
Mikey tilted his head. "Hm?"
"Oh, nothing!" Chuckling lightly, Reiya hurriedly tried the slippers on. "Thank you, Mi—ah..."
Mikey looked down, he and Reiya blinking once as they saw how the slippers barely fit her. It perfectly accommodated her toes and soles but her heels—
"Pfft."
—were protruding by at least half an inch.
Mikey snickered and Reiya flinched in mortification, her cheeks turning bright with burning color.
"Well…you are a little bigger than me, Cherry-chan," Mikey said and he wasn't even teasing her.
'Noooo! Mikey thinks I'm big, too!?'
"I-I'm not that big!" Reiya clarified which, of course, only made him snicker some more.
Mikey started the short trip inside the hospital and Reiya immediately followed, her self-conscious protests and the blond's easy laughter echoing pleasantly in the air, persisting in lingering waves even when they were no longer there.
Takemichi sighed; heavy, breathless, confused. He looked up and stared at the glittering night sky, the ripe scent of petrichor infusing his lungs as he breathed deep.
In hindsight—and precisely because of it—Takemichi knew what he'd just seen and heard was not as unsurprising as it was, and yet it was beyond what he'd expected when he was looking for Mikey.
He didn't think Reiya would be there, too. He didn't think she'd be there tonight at all.
But, be that as it may, someone he knew confoundedly did.
'Naoto…it's just like you said...'
A/N: Ya'll know I don't usually pop out at the end of a chapter like this but I wanna talk about TR with you guys for a minute (spoilers for those who didn't read the ending yet! Also, long vent ahoy)
So…it finally ended, huh? And boy was it not like how I thought it would go. I was honestly prepared to be tolerant with how it'd end considering how the series made us so used to heartbreak but now that it's over, I can't help but have mixed feelings about it. I'm glad everyone gets to live but at the same time it's so…disappointing. I'm sorry to say. I really love TR but the way it concluded everything left a stale taste in my mouth. I'm not saying the characters didn't deserve it. Everyone and their grandmothers knew they went through a ton of undeserved shit most of the time, and that's exactly why how it ended didn't give me the satisfaction I sought in terms of character development, because it made everyone's struggles somewhat pointless. What made my jaw drop though was Takemichi and Mikey going back as kids and Shinichiro coming back to life. Feel free to hate me for this but for me, he should've stayed dead (and I'm saying that with all the love in my heart for the guy).
I loved him dead and I especially loved how he was so influential even as a dead person like I just really fucking love that trope, you know? There are many other characters like him even, with my favorites being Aika Fuwa in the Zetsuen no Tempest anime and Aguri Yukimura from Assassination Classroom—both dead from the start of the series and yet so powerful because of how they affected the story, and I seriously believed Shinichiro was on that same level. His death was also a way of payment for killing that time traveling old man and I liked that the karma was settled with him getting killed too. Which brings to mind the BIGGEST and MOST OVERLOOKED factor of the story—the time travel. Its specifics was what I was really waiting for but Wakui didn't break it down AT ALL. I feel like it was somewhat explained but it never stuck because it wasn't thorough. Thanks to that though it looks like I don't have to wear my clown costume after all for making a forehead kiss as Reiya's trigger lol. Thanks a lot Wakui! =D
The ending showed us their smiles and that part is swell and all and truly great but the "conclusion" only left me with more questions than answers, and more wtfs than hoorays. Like what about Kisaki and Hanma's backstory? The paradox of Mikey's dark impulses when they traveled back to when they were kids but he's basically still the same person, wasn't he? And what about Toman? Was it necessary to form it in the first place when Shinichiro's well and alive? All this seriously makes me wanna go feral and punch a wall.
Then again, this is why fanfiction exists. This is why I made Cherry Jade. To fill in some gaps, at least. To give a solid resolution to Mikey's dark impulses, to keep certain people from dying, and to tie it all together with a conclusion that won't shit on all the characters' efforts. In any case, the ending only solidified my initial plans of ending this story on my terms, not Wakui's. And if that's how he spun it, then mine couldn't possibly be any worse. I can at least guarantee that I'm not gonna rush it. That said, I can't promise it won't be tragedy-free but what's a TR canon-compliant fanfic without some die-sicles, amirite?
High fives and air kisses all around! Next chappie's gonna be in both Taito and Takemichi's POVs on how everything played out so far and I'm just as excited about it as you are! In the meantime, if you enjoyed the Drakemma scenes last chapter may I offer you some Drakemma smut? It's titled Treat (for good reason) which you can find on my profile so if you haven't checked it out yet you should totes head over and cliiiccckkk.
ALSO! A quick confession; this chapter was already around the 5k mark last year and was really supposedly meant-to-be posted that time, but then I went through a breakup and I...didn't have the heart to finish it =( but aahh, look at my babies‼ my angels ReiJiro ? ﾟﾒﾕ writing their story heals my heart in a way even I didn't expect, concerning I derived some inspiration from that particular relationship for this story. Our story is over but Cherry Jade is certainly just beginning, and I hope this update brought you a momentary respite from life's curveballs, just like how it did for me (*´︶`*)ꕤ*.ﾟ
Thank you so much for bearing with me everyone‼ Ya'll take care now ❤️