| Match made in Heaven | Lucifer x Demigod! reader
summary- for the sake of your own safety you were send to Devildom, where Lord Diavolo would take you under his wing, being well aware of the abilities you possessed. you, being okay with going to Devildom, never expected to meet former angels. neither did you expect to fall in love down there.
masterlist-
part 1- Agreement
part 2- Welcome to Devildom, enjoy your stay~
part 3- Nosey Brothers
part 4- Demon Food
part 5- Familiar Face
part 6- shopping with the mighty first born pt.1
part 7- shopping with the mighty first born pt.2
part 8- press
part 9- lose control
part 10- interview request (soon)
part 11- party disaster (soon)
part 12- what do you even know (soon)
[I.D. an edited pyramid graph of maslow's hierarchy of needs where large text covering every section of basic, psychological and self-fulfillment needs read "people online telling me they like the thing i made". end I.D.] (imagine description by @lemondoddle )
Culture is defined by a collection of morals, ethics, traditions, customs and behaviours shared by a group of people.
Hierarchy and Social Structures
Within every culture, there is a hierarchy. Hierarchies are an important part of any culture, usually do ingrained that one within the culture wouldn't even question it. Hierarchy can be established either by age, gender or wealth and could even determine roles within their society. Sometimes hierarchy can may be oppressive and rigid whilst other times, ranks can intermingle without trouble. You should consider how these different ranks interact with one another and whether there are any special gestures or acts of deference one must pay to those higher than them. For example, the Khasi people of Meghalaya (Northern India), are strictly matriarchal. Women run the households, inheritance runs through the female line, and the men of the culture typically defer to their mothers and wives. Here are a few questions to consider:
How is a leader determined within the culture as a whole and the family unit?
Is the culture matriarchal? Patriarchal? Or does gender even matter?
How would one recognise the different ranks?
How would one act around somebody higher ranking? How would somebody he expected to act around somebody lower ranking?
Can one move socially? If not, why? If so, how?
Traditions and Customs
Traditions are a staple in any culture. These can be gestures or living life a certain way or to the way a certain person should look. Traditions are a personal detail to culture, they are what make it important. Tradition can dictate how one should keep their home, run their family, take care of their appearance, act in public and even determine relationship. Tradition can also be a double edged sword. Traditions can also be restrictive and allow a culture to push away a former member if they do not adhere to them, eg Traditional expectations of chastity led to thousands of Irish women being imprisoned at the Magdelene Laundries. Customs could be anything from how one treats another, to how they greet someone.
How important is tradition?
What are some rituals your culture undertakes?
What are some traditional values in your world? Does it effect daily life?
Are there any traditions that determine one's status?
Values and Opinions
Values and Opinions are the bread and butter of any culture. This is the way your culture sees the world and how they approach different life hurdles. These may differ with other cultures and be considered odd to outsiders, what one culture may value another may not and what opinion another holds, one may not. There will be historical and traditional reasons to why these values and opinions are held. Cultures usually have a paragon to which they hold their members to, a list of characteristics that they expect one to if not adhere to then aspire to. The Yoruba people value honesty, hard work, courage and integrity. Here are some questions to consider?
How important are these ethics and core values? Could somebody be ostracised for not living up to them?
What are some morals that clash with other cultures?
What does your culture precieved to be right? Or wrong?
What are some opinions that are considered to be taboo in your culture? Why?
Dress Code
For many cultures, the way somebody dresses can be important. History and ethics can effect how one is meant to be dressed such as an expectation of chastity, can impose strict modesty. While other cultures, put more importance on details, the different sorts of clothes worn and when or what colour one might wear. The Palestinian people (من النهر إلى البحر ، قد يكونون أحرارا) denoted different family ties, marriage status and wealth by the embroidery and detailing on their thoub.
Are there traditional clothes for your world? Are they something somebody wears on a daily basis or just on occasion?
Are there any rules around what people can wear?
What would be considered formal dress? Casual dress?
What would happen if somebody wore the wrong clothes to an event?
Language
Language can also be ingrained as part of a Culture. It can be a specific way one speaks or a an entirely different language. For example, in the Southern States of America, one can engage in a sort of double talk, saying something that sounds sweet whilst delivering something pointed. Bless their heart. I have a post on creating your own language here.
Arts, Music and Craft
Many cultures are known for different styles of dance, their artwork and crafts. Art is a great part of culture, a way for people to express themselves and their culture in art form. Dance can be an integral part of culture, such as céilí dance in Ireland or the Polka in the Czech Republic. Handicrafts could also be important in culture, such as knitting in Scottish culture and Hebron glass in Palestine. Music is also close to culture, from traditional kinds of singing such as the White Voice in Ukraine and the playing of certain instruments such as the mvet.
Food and Diet
The way a culture prepares or intakes or treats certain foods are important to a culture. In some cultures, there is a diet yo adhere to, certain foods are completely banned. With Jewish culture, pork is prohibited along with fish such as sturgeon, along with shellfish and certain fowl. Meat must also be prepared in a certain way and animal byproducts such as dairy, must never be created or even eaten around this meat. This is known as kosher. The way one consumes food is also important to culture. In some cultures, only certain people may eat together. Some cultures place important on how food is eaten. In Nigerian culture, the oldest guests are served first usually the men before the women. In Japanese culture, one must say 'itadakimasu' (I recieve) before eating. Culture may also include fasting, periods of time one doesn't intake food for a specific reason.
What are some traditional dishes in your world?
What would be a basic diet for the common man?
What's considered a delicacy?
Is there a societal difference in diet? What are the factors that effect diet between classes?
Is there any influence from other cuisines? If not, why not? If so, to what extent?
What would a typical breakfast contain?
What meals are served during the day?
What's considered a comfort food or drink?
Are there any restrictions on who can eat what or when?
Are there any banned foods?
What stance does your world take on alcohol? Is it legal? Can anybody consume it?
Are there any dining customs? Are traditions?
Is there a difference in formal meals or casual meals? If so, what's involved?
Are there any gestures or actions unacceptable at the dinner table?
How are guests treated at meals? If they are given deference, how so?
Sitting on his lap while rambling on about anything and everything. Meanwhile he's leaned back, hands everywhere. From waist over hips to thighs, his hands are traveling all across. Excitedly you tell him about your day, about what you did.
Until you stumble upon that one thing that pissed you off. As you go on and on about that one specific person, you also tell him that you dealt with the situation. Just like he told you to do.
Eyes fixated on you, voice deep with a smirk playing on his lips, he goes, "Atta girl."
Leaning forward to litter kisses on your neck, as he mumbles praises, "That's my fucking baby, just like I showed you to do."
Making you stutter in your sentence as he grabs your hips to grind up against you, a low moan slips past his lips, "Always such a good girl, listening and doing as i say."
S U M M A R Y - You and Ran broke up after a disagreement and never expected to see each other again 6 years later
T A G S - exes -> lovers, bonten timeline, smut, angst, romance, fluff, fem!reader, lots and lots of flashbacks, slow burn, love triangles, past unhealthy relationship, post break-up, jealousy, nostaglia, getting back together.
T A G L I S T <- click here to be added
W A R N I N G S - drinking... i think that's it. nothing extreme--yet
N O T E S : this is long as hell but i want to start things off on a good note 😊😁😁
M A S T E R L I S T
CHAPTER ONE
NOVEMBER 2006
“Shion.” You groan and rub your head, massaging your scalp to try and soothe your roaring headache. “I drank too much, I—I needa cool off. Where’s your room?”
“HUH?!” He yells in your ear, unable to hear you over the music. It’s a normal gesture considering the fact you’re at a party with loud music, but in this case it was the worst possible thing he could’ve done. Your head thumps twice as he yells, making you wince.
“I said—” you raise your voice slightly, moving to speak in his ear, “can I go to your room? I need to cool off.”
“M-hm-mhm. It’s upstairs to the left.” You follow his instructions and head up the stairs and to the first door to the left. Opening the door, you close it behind you and flop onto his bed, fisting the sheets as you moan and groan about your headache. You’re almost about to fall asleep when the door opens, the music booming from downstairs on full volume blasts your ears. “Shion, close the fucking door.” You say and even though you’re tired, there’s still a hint of aggression in your voice.
“Um, who are you and why’re you in my bed?”
You use all your strength to blink up at the man in the doorway, he’s holding a lighter in one hand and his other hand is on the door knob. His face is confused, brows creased as he tries to figure out what you’re doing inside his room.
“Thi—this isn’t your room. It’s Shion’s.” You dig your face deeper into the guys pillow and begin to hum as your brain slowly stops thumping.
“No. It’s my room. Shion’s is next door down.”
There’s a sharp pain ringing inside your head when you instantly sit up, apologies spewing from your lips as you slide off his bed, redressing the sheets that you crumpled up from laying down there all starfish like. “I’m so so sorry. I didn’t listen to the directions.”
Ran finds the entire situation amusing and holds back a laugh seeing you so jumpy over a simple misunderstanding. “‘S cool.”
“Yeah….”
You play with your hands behind your back as the two of you just stare at each other. “I’m just gonna…” You say once the situation got unbearably awkward for you to handle. Walking over to the door to head into Shion’s room, you’re stopped by him speaking up again.
“There’s no point. There’s a couple in there. You know how parties get.”
“Ugh.”
“You can stay here though. As long as you don’t mind smoking.” He gestures to the lighter in his hands.
“I don’t mind.”
“Cool.” He sits on his bed and pats the spot next to him. You hesitate a second before closing his door, walking to the bed, taking a seat next to him. You shift back on the bed so your back is touching the wall and cross your legs.
“Why’re you so far back? Come closer.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“You nervous? Never smoked before, or something?” The way he phrases the question makes you seem like he’s talking to a child. It’s oddly patronising and it irritates you.
“I have actually.” You say more sharply than you intended it to come out. His brows raise significantly at the sudden tone of your voice, but ignores it. He pulls out a scented candle from his drawer and lights it, setting it on the edge of his bedside table before lighting a cigarette.
You can’t help but stare at his side profile the entire time he’s lighting it. The lighter fails to light a couple times and he clicks his tongue in annoyance. You let out a soft snort as you watch the way his brows curve inwards and his eyes narrow at the lighter. The air gets sweeped from inside your lungs when he glances over at you. “What’s funny?”
“You. The lighter. The fifth failed attempt.”
“Yeah? You do it then.” He tosses the lighter and you fumble to catch it. It lands between your crossed legs and you don’t miss the way his eyes linger there for longer. At first you thought he was staring at the lighter between your legs, but when you pick it up, you still notice him staring.
“Come here.” You gesture for him to scooch closer to you, and he obliges. You hold his chin as you flip the lighter the correct way. You flick the lighter and it makes a noise, then dies out. The second attempt is successful, his face tinted orange as you place the tip of the flame on the edge of his cigarette, waiting for it to catch the fire before pulling it away and turning off the lighter.
“Told you I could do it.” You say with a cheeky grin on your face.
“Never once doubted you sweetheart.”
“Sweetheart?” The confused look on your face is too much for him and the way your head is slightly tilted is kinda cute.
“Well, I don’t know your name, so I gotta improvise.”
“You never asked for my name.” You uncross your legs and move to lay down on the bed, resting your face between your arms as you stare up at him. “Do you wanna know?”
“Is it necessary?” He pulls the cig from his lips and blows out a puff of smoke that just about dodges you. “How badly do you wanna tell me?”
“Not that badly. It’s not that deep.” You shrug.
“You just want me to keep calling you sweetheart. I can see right through you.” You purse your lips, trying to keep them in a straight line before failing and hiding your face between your arms to hide the way you’re smiling right now. Taking note of your reaction, he also starts smiling. “Did I read you correctly?”
He watches you shake your head, your face still plunged between your folded arms. He shifts closer on the bed, his knee nudging against your sides as he tries to pry your arms open.
You turn over, now laying on your back as you stare at him. He’s looking at you with such a sweet look in his eyes and it’s making you melt inside. You’d never been looked at this way before. “What’re you staring at me for?”
“Just tryna figure out your name, since you don’t wanna tell me.”
“You’re never gonna guess.” You watch as he lifts the cigarette from his lips and puts it out on the ashtray beside his bed. “What’s your name?”
The door bursts open and a very worried Shion stumbles through. “I found you! I thought you’d gotten kidnapped or somethin’, you weren’t in my room.”
“Your friend kept me company.”
“Alright, let’s get you home before I pass out from exhaustion.”
You slide off the bed, fix up your clothes before walking over to the door with Shion. Just as soon as you reach the door, you wave goodbye to Ran and close the door again. That was the first time you both met, and Ran has been trying to find you ever since. But Ran is the sort of person that loves a thrill.
Loves a chase. If somethings too easy, it gets boring. He waited until another event where a bunch of mutual friends would be in close proximity and hoped that he’d see you there. But his hope dimmed as this was now the second mutual party event and your presence wasn’t there.
“Hey, Shion. What’s the girl's name? The one that was in my room couple weeks ago?”
Shion shoots him a look, one of surprise. This is the first time Ran’s been interested enough in someone to ask about them personally.“Yn?”
“Yeah, her.. Where is she? Isn’t she your friend?”
“Yeah! She’s my friend, but she’s working. She got a job at this gas station, and she only works late, so she doesn’t have any free time right now.”
“Where does she work?”
Shion knew he’d ask that question; and he’s not about to give it up so easily. He shrugs lazily, acting as if he doesn’t know, but Ran doesn’t buy that bullshit. “C’mon don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“Tell me where the girl works.”
“No.”
It takes a couple death threats and for Ran to hit him with his baton on the head once before he gives up the location of the gas station you’re working at. He waits until 2AM before heading out. It’s pretty local, just down the road from his house.
It’s completely empty and by the time he walks in, your face is flat on the counter, similar to how you were on his bed that day. “It’s a miracle your face isn’t squished yet.”
Hearing that sweet voice again, you whip your head up, surprised to see him again. “Stop. Don’t, I’m so tired.”
“Why did you take the night shift?” He bends down to your level, resting his chin on his arms, tilting his head at you with a patronising pout.
“I didn’t chose to.” He notices the way your eye bags are slightly heavy. It’s only been around 2 weeks since he’d last seen you. It’s a shame what exhaustion can do to a person. “I asked for the morning shift, but my manager is so rude.”
Using all the strength in your body, you push yourself up and off the counter. Ran follows, also standing up to his full height as he watches you scan the drink he’s placed in front of you. “That’ll be—”
You’re cut off when he simply hands you a note which costs around twice as much than what he bought. “This is—”
“Take it. A tip from me.”
“I’m not a waitress, we don’t do tips here.” You say softly, looking down at the note. “I can’t accept this.”
“You can, and you will.”
“But—”
He reaches inside his pocket, pulling out the coins necessary for his drink can and slides them across the table. “That’s for the drink, and that,” he points at the note, “is for you.”
“What did I do?”
He shrugs. “Be great company that one night?”
“You enjoyed my company?”
“‘Course I did.”
You catch your lips between your teeth, biting softly as you mutter something underneath your breath. “Huh? What was that?” He leans in close over the counter, a hand perfectly cupping his ear as he waits for you to speak again.
“I said thank you.” You repeat, still mumbling, but a little louder this time so he can hear you. He cups your face with one hand and pinches your cheeks.
“‘S no problem. I’ll come see you tommorow, okay?”
You nod and wave goodbye to him as he walks out of the gas station. You can’t help the feeling inside your chest as you watch him step inside his car, squealing to yourself when he drives off. You have to calm down because you think you’re acting like a high schooler who spoke to their crush for the first time.
APRIL 2012
“Missed me?”
You place your cup down and lazily turn your head to the right to stare down at the man’s shoes, your blood instantly froze hearing that same voice that haunted you years after the breakup.
You fiddle with the cup in your hand, drumming your fingers along the surface as you muster up the courage to turn around fully and look Ran Haitani in the face. From what you can hear, he hasn’t changed a bit. His voice is still sultry and smooth, even from those two words he uttered.
Soaking in a deep breath, you fully turn around, bracing your back against the table and look up at him. He’s gotten much taller and he’s cut his hair. His face looks the exact same,but if you saw him in public you wouldn’t have recognised him at all.
“Who even are you?”
His eyes narrow but his smile grows. You ignore the way that made you feel deep inside your stomach. “Haha, very funny. Yn. I missed you too.”
“Who said I missed you?” This conversation was going nowhere. 6 years of no contact, now you accidentally run into him at a business event and he wants to act like this. He follows behind you as you place the drinks under the dispenser and he notes how you skip past all the alcoholic drinks.
“Are you pregnant?”
“What?!” You swear you could hear a crack with how fast you snapped your neck up to look at him. “What kind of question is–”
“Why aren’t you drinking any alcohol?” He smoothly slides your cup from the dispenser, if you had been paying any attention, you would have realised that your cup was overflowing and spilling on the floor.
“Because I have to drive. Stupid.” You look at the rings plastered on his fingers, black and silver thick rings covering almost every finger. They look expensive. You travel your gaze up to his chain, which also looks expensive, but Ran has always been someone who’d loved his appearance, always taking care of his skin, nails and hair. He’d always smell nice and that was only with the limited money he had back then. Looking at him now, only a fool would not realise how loaded he is right now.
You recognise one of the rings you’d seen at a jewlery store you visited last month. It was so expensive the price almost blinded you. Never looked in that direction of the store again. “Not everyone has a personal chauffeur Haitani.”
“Haitani?”
“That’s your name isn’t it?” You glance at him from over your cup, slowly sipping on the overflowing juice to try and get it back to level. Ran zeroes in on the way some of your lipstick is getting on the edge of the cup, naturally, his mind thinks of where else your lipstick could stain. His skin, his lips, his—
“Or did you pay to get that changed?”
Ran laughs, the sound gives you flashbacks to all the arguments you used to have all those years ago. Back when the two of you were still young, still so stupid to even maintain a healthy functioning relationship. Almost everything ended in pointless arguments; you’d get mad because of the way he looked at another girl when you weren’t paying attention; he’d get mad when you’d get mad and accuse him of cheating.
Your mind flashes back to this one incident you had inside his car.
“Ran. Can you look up from that stupid phone for two seconds??”
Ran closed his eyes, as if counting to three in his head then switched it off and looked at you. “What?”
“I—I feel like you don’t communicate enough. I tell you something and you just hum or just stare at me. Like I need to know how you’re feeling Ran, you’re the most difficult person to read, it’s damn near impossible. I’m not a fucking mind reader Ran. Just talk to me, communicate please?” You whisper that last part breathless, trying not to let him know how tired you were. It was so tiring sometimes, but you kept on going back to him. Why? Because he was the only one that gave you attention.
Because he was Ran. He always knew where to tug to get you back. As much as you tried, you always found yourself wandering back to him and he always found himself wandering back to you. It’s so unhealthy, but it just feels right. Nobody else knew how to tame you like Ran did, and nobody knew how to put Ran in his place like you could.
Soulmates gone wrong.
“Ran?” He’s still staring at you, no emotion on his face, not a single facial expression you could read and be like: Oh, he’s upset, or he’s angry.
“What?”
“Did—” Is he serious right now? “Did you not listen to what I just said?”
“I heard.”
“So….?”
Ran leans back against the seat and shrugs. You scoff, teeth catching your bottom lip as you nod slowly. “Yeah, I can’t do this.” You grab your bag from the backseat and slide out the car. Ran simply watched you walk back into your house and slam the door shut. He waits a couple seconds to see if you’d come back out like you normally do.
He counts to 15 in his head. 1,2,3,4,5…10,11— The front door opens again and you sigh before making your way over to his side of the car. He smiles as he opens his door for you. The first thing you do is slap him, which catches him off guard, but then you’re pulling him for a hug, wrapping your arms around his neck as he slides his hands down to your waist. “Knew you wouldn’t go far.”
“...Shut up.”
“I see you still have quite a mouth on you.” Ran’s chuckle is low and you can feel it vibrating inside your stomach.
“I see you’re still annoying and don’t know personal space.” You gesture to how close he’s standing to you, your back is up against the table, you can feel the fabric of the white sheet covering the table rubbing against your thigh.
He stares down at you for longer, trying to make you break your whole stone-cold persona. The longer you stare into that deep purple eyes, you can feel the facade cracking, the smile hidden behind your deadpan face is slowly coming out, till you can’t hide it anymore.
“There it is.” He pinches your cheeks, “missed that smile.”
“Leave me alone. Don’t you have someone else to annoy?” You look over his shoulder, there’s at least 50 people here, none that you recognise though. They’re all way too rich for you. The only reason you’re at this formal event is because you work at the restaurant that catered the food for the event.
You lock eyes with a woman who’s staring holes through Ran’s back. Her green eyes narrow, her lips are curled up in annoyance. “You got a visitor.” Ran feels your fingers clutch onto his shirt as if to protect yourself from this crazy woman’s stare. He shifts a little so he can look over his shoulder, then curses under his breath.
“Ah, yeah. She’s um—” He can’t quite figure out the words to say so you shut him down.
“You don’t owe me an explanation. It’s fine. Go to her.” You usher him away from you as quick as possible and the moment he’s gone, you let out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding. Like that feeling you get after taking a nice long sip of cold water. It was refreshing seeing him go because now you could finally breathe properly. When he was this up close to you, every small action he did made you flashback to something that happened during your 2 year long relationship. It was painful, yet you also hate the way he’s interacting with that woman. She no longer has that glare plastered on her face, no longer looks like she wants to rip your throat out from your tongue. She looks like an angel now, and you watch as she laughs and grabs onto his arm.
She’s naturally gorgeous, she’s stunning. She’s rich. Why else would she be here? You also miss the way Ran’s looking down at her, with stars in his own eye. That’s probably his new girlfriend or something.
“Why do you look so down?”
It feels so nice to hear a friendly voice. Your co-worker Tamura stands next to you, nudging you gently with his shoulder. “Look, that woman’s eating your cake.” He subtly points over to the table, a woman, mid 60’s maybe, has a spoonful of that cake you made this morning, eating like a woman starved.
“Damn, she looks hungry.”
“She got it all over her face and everything.”
You giggle a little bit and he snakes his arm around your shoulder, pulling you over to his side. “Glad I could cheer you up.” He rubs his hands up and down your arm, giving you a little squeeze. It’s strangely affectionate; but you don’t push him away. “You gonna tell me what’s wrong now?”
“There’s nothing wrong, just ran into an ex.”
“Word? Who? Wait, let me guess.” He leans off the table, still keeping his arms around you, he looks over to the table of old men and point over to one of them in a white suit.
You cringe and make a gag noise. “I’m offended you think that’s my taste.”
“I mean, everybody in here is old and ugly.”
He hasn’t seen Ran then. You think, trying to stop your eyes from gazing over to his direction. You think that the moment you recame into contact with Ran, your senses automatically magneitsed themselves to him, no matter how hard you tried to force your gaze away from his area, your eyes followed his suit. By the time you look over, he’s already staring at you. Well not at you, but at the arm around your shoulder. Even from the distance across the hall, you can still see how his eyes are narrowed slightly, like he’s pissed.
And who the hell does he think he is if he’s genuinely pissed at that? As if his eyes weren’t sparkling for that woman two seconds ago. Pettiness overrides your entire bloodstream, you grab Tamura’s hand from your shoulder and drag it down to your waist, all the while keeping eye contact with Ran.
Tamura looks down at you confused, only to see you’re staring across the room. He looks over and sees Ran moving his own hand down to that woman’s ass, his fingers squeeze at the flesh making her yelp a little bit. The people she was talking to look a bit confused and she has to fake laugh and act like nothing happened. Ran has to rip his gaze away from you to apologise to his girl.
“Okay, so what the fuck was that all about?” Tamura asks the moment you look away from Ran. He puts two and two together, the tension so thick he could cut it with a butchers knife, the heated stares from across the room, the unnecessary flirtatious movements to make each other jealous. “Oh! Is he the ex?”
“Yes.” You slide his hand off your waist, “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Nah it’s cool. I woulda done the same thing if my ex-girl was tryna make me jealous.”
You smile down at the floor, then clap your hands together, as if bouncing back to your professional persona. “Alright, now Boss said we have to talk to these rich people right? Get some of them to come down to the restaurant.”
“Yup, already spoke to them over there.” He points over at this rich couple and your smile softens when you see him lean over and kiss her ring finger.
“I should probably go talk to the woman scarfing down my cake.”
Tamura dips his head and laughs. “Introduce yourself as the creator of the cake, she’ll get down on her knees and worship your feet.”
“Shut up.” You playfully hit his shoulder and usher him towards the centre table. He’s always been a smooth talker towards the customers, which is why he’s currently the top worker at the restaurant and was first pick to come to this event. He chose you to come along with him because he’s basically your best friend. You don’t know what you’d do without him.
He was there for you during your lowest times, comforting you and inviting you over to his place to hang out whenever he even senses you’re upset.
“Is he your new boyfriend?”
You don’t even bother turning around to know who it is. “No.”
“Seems if.”
You forgot your cup was almost full, it spilled down your dress and onto your heels from how hard you clenched the poor plastic. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” You don’t even realise your clothes are literally soaked until it sticks to your skin, suddenly making everything uncomfortable. “Fuck’s sake.” You cuss, and put the cup down on the table.
“You’re a mess.” Ran sucks on the toothpick between his lips and you look up at him with the deadliest glare. It’s a shame he doesn’t get intimidated by it.
“Go back to your girlfriend.” You start to head down the hallway towards the bathroom, completely aware of the looming figure behind you as he follows you. Just as soon as you reach the female bathrooms, you stop and turn to face him. “Are you going to follow me inside too?”
The smile on his face says it all and you already know his response. Ran leans forward as you lean back against the food, blocking you from leaving as he braces an arm just above your head. “Is that an invitation?”
You hate how close he is, but also if he was to pull back, you hate the way your hands would subconsiously grab onto the lapel of his blazer, to pull him back to you so you could feel his warmth and bask in his rich scented colonge. “No. It’s not. Go away.” You push at his chest, then frown when he doesn’t even budge. “Ran, I’m serious. I have to change.”
Ran blinks down, it’s a blessing being tall. With 0 to no effort, he has a freeway ticket down your dress, clevage on full display. The bra you’re wearing makes minimal effort in trying to hide it. “Hm.” He hums, lowly and calculated as you stare up at him. “I got a spare dress in my car, probably your size.”
“Holdup, what? Spare dress? Didn’t realise you were into crossdressi—”
“It’s for my girl, Yn.” The way he says it sounds amused, but the look on his face screams the opposite. He catches the way your brows raise slightly as you repeat his words in your head.
“So that was your girlfriend?”
He shrugs, not knowing what to label it. “Yes and no. D’ya want the dress or not?”
You have to swallow the ache in your heart that appeared the moment you found out this information. Putting on your best smile, you shake your head. “No thanks.” You slip inside the bathroom, locking it from the inside as you walk over towards the mirror. It’s a miracle you wore a black dress tonight, if it was white it woud’ve made the stain ten times worse.
You soak a tissue in some water and begin to pat down on the stain, hoping that some miracle would happen and make it disappear. Ran waits outside for you for a couple of minutes, then starts to hear his ‘girl’ calling his name from inside the hall.
Ir’s a shame when you walk outside and see he’s gone, but you also feel relieved. You walk back inside the hall and tug on Tamura’s sleeves to grab his attention. “What’s up?”
“Can I wear your jacket? I kinda—” His eyes immediately trail down to your hip area, your black dress is soaked and smells like juice.
“Oh god, what am I gonna do with you?” He jokingly shakes his head and takes off his jacket, holding you by the shoulders, he twists you so your back is facing him and drapes the jacket over your shoulders.
“Thank you so much.” You wrap your arms around his midriff, pulling him in for a hug.
“Y-yeah. It’s no problem.” He rubs his hand up and down your back before leaning down to whisper in your ear, “I spoke to that old woman, she said you’re her favourite person on earth and wants you to serve her when she shows up to the restaurant.”
“Really?!” You whip your head up at him, looking at him with a shine in your eye, one that makes him swallow hard. “You’re amazing, Tamura.”
“Ah, stop it.” He tugs you back in for another hug to hide how hot he feels right now, he finds it weird at how his body reacted seeing you stare at him, wide-eyed and innocent. Making him feel dizzy. It was almost too cute for his heart to handle.
Tamura had gotten whisked away from a bunch of rich old men trying to coax him into joining their business, saying he had potential to become as rich and successful as them. A backhanded compliment, he thinks, but decides to entertain their bullshit anyway because it’s hilarious.
So Ran decides it’d be a wonderful time to come and irritate you. You hear a chair get pushed aside and glance over to your side. “Ugh, what do you want now?”
“Is it wrong to catch up with you? C’mon, tell me how you’ve been.”
You shrug and pick your cup back up, ultimately deciding that downing yourself in juice is the best possible way to avoid a conversation with this man. Ran places his elbow on the table and stares down at you, waiting for you to talk. You’re a couple sips in till you realise that he isn’t going to stop staring at you until you speak, so you swallow your pride and open up to him. “I’ve been doing good, I guess. Working at a restaurant for a couple months, I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“Which restaurant?”
You tighten your grasp on your cup, thankfully it’s not full anymore, half empty in fact so no more accidental spillages. You could tell him which restaurant, after all it means more money for you, but it also means frequent visits from Ran and that’s something you’re trying to avoid right now.
“None of your business.”
“I’ll find out eventually.” He looks down at the white sheet spread across the table, the logo of your restaurant on full display on the corner of the sheet. “The Hive?”
“How did you–” You look down at the table and frown, “oh.”
“I’ve been there a couple times. Food’s good. You cook that stuff?”
You nod your head slowly and look down at your cup, shaking it from side to side gently and watch the small amount of juice in there hit the walls of the cup. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” The tone of his voice makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, that tone he always used to use when you were being naughty in bed, that tone that always had you obey him like a flick of a switch and your behaviour would switch.
You bite your tongue and drink the rest of your drink, then scooch your chair back. “I’m going outside.”
His hand instantly wraps around your arm, sliding down to your wrist before entangling your fingers together in a tight hand hold. “Stay.”
You mindlessly obey, sitting back down prettily inside the chair as you adjust Tamura’s jacket on your shoulders.
“Why don’t you like me?”
“I do like you. I’m still here, no?” The look he gives you is unimpressed, especially when he leans forward, using that hypnotic gaze he’s learnt that will 99.99% always work to gather the truth from you. You sigh and sink further into the chair. “You… you have a girlfriend.” You admit. You were perfectly fine without knowing that information in fact you wouldn’t even mind being in contact with him until you found that out. It’s not a nice thing to hear, but at the same time, you can’t really control who he dates.
You both are over.
“Technically,” he squeezes his fingers together with yours, making you look him in the eye, “she’s not my girlfriend.”
“Yeah… okay. I’m not mad or anything, I mean you’re a pretty couple and all so it’s not like—”
“You think I’m pretty?”
Of course that’s what he gets from the conversation. “I said you’re both pretty.”
He hums and leans back in his chair, similar to you, “So you still think I’m pretty?”
You furrow your brows. “When you’re with her then yeah. Solo, not so much.” You suddenly gain some sort of confidence back, seeing how hard he’s trying to get you to praise him so bad, “back when you had your doll hair I thought you were pretty. What is this now?” You lean up in his personal space, missing the way his breath catches in his throat when you grab a piece of his hair “you always had the strangest hair colours.”
“Fuck off, ‘m tryin’ something new.” He doesn’t move, just lets you fondle with his short hair, part of him wishing you’d sink your nails deeper and massage his scalp like you used to do. “Rindou has matching hair colours with me.”
“Cute.” You murmur, running your fingers down the back of his head, scratching slightly at his scalp. His hair is much softer than it was back then. It was soft back then too, but probably uses more hair products now to make it even softer. Ran’s always had weird hair colours, so this new purple shit doesn’t surprise you one bit, it’s even growing on you a bit.
“You seem to like my hair a lot?”
Nevermind. He just has to open his mouth and ruin whatever mood you’d set for yourself. “I don’t. It’s just soft.”
“Cause I take care of my shit.” He leans forward to grab your hair and you swat at him, taking both of your hands away from his head when he tries to grab your wrists.
“Let go.” You giggle, trying to rip his grip away from your wrists. He’s applying literally 0 pressure, yet it’s impossible for you to get him to remove his hand. The giggle you let out graces his ears, the last time he’d heard it was whenever he visited you late nights at the gas station and would say the most stupid shit to make you laugh. It’s a beautiful sound, one he realised he needed to hear all these years just to cheer him up.
He pauses for a moment and let’s go of his grip on your wrists and you instantly notice somethings up with him, he looks zoned out, like he just remembered something. “Why’d you let go?”
“Cause you asked?”
“Yeah but… nevermind.” You hadn’t actually expected for him to let go, it was just a banter thing, but the moment’s gone now.
“I missed that laugh. Almost felt 19 hearing it again.”
“Yeah? Well don’t get used to it. You’re not that funny to make me laugh that hard.” He says nothing and simply stares at you again. You decide to challenge him, purposefully ignoring the fact you’d lost all your other staring contests in the past. The longer you stare at his face, the quicker the smile appears on your face and you cuss and look away.
“I’m so funny I don’t even need to speak to make you laugh.”
“No, you’re just funny looking.” You retort and stand up from the table. He reaches behind and grabs your arm again, pulling you back towards his chair. “What?”
“Play with my hair again, it felt nice.”
“Bye Ran.” He watches you walk over towards Tamura who looks like he can’t stand another second being around these old men, so you do him a favour and tell him the car broke down and you need his help fixing it. Tamura looks at you like you’re his saviour and quickly scoops your arm in his grip and leads you towards the exit. Ran also doesn’t miss the way you spare him one last glance followed by a saccharine smile before exiting the building fully.
“Who was that girl?” Naomi approaches him from behind, raking her fingers through his hair, a habit she just picked up from seeing his interaction with you.
Ran groans and removes her hands from his hair.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”
Back at the Bonten base, Ran arrives with a list of names, planting them down on the table. “Found a couple people to investigate. Sanzu was right, they were at the event.”
Sanzu grins and looks around the room expecting some praise, only to be met with silence as the executives scan the list.
“Someone go investigate all those names.”
Rindou skims the list and notices something called The Hive. “What the fuck is the Hive? Is that a code name or?”
“No, not a code name. That’s for my personal benefit. Ignore it and investigate the other names, they’re all traitors that planned on using this event to meet up with other business people and leave Bonten.”
“There’s a lot of names on here… does this mean we’re gonna have to find new assistants and workers?” Sanzu asks the question, flipping the page over to read the other half of the list.
“Yeah. I got an assistant in mind.” The only person that comes to Ran’s mind is you. How he’d love to get you to be his assistant, be in close proximity with you all day everyday, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. He grabs the wipes from the middle of the table and begins wiping the foundation he placed on his neck to hide his tattoo.
“Okay, well this is disappointing, but we do need more assistants, so just hire anybody I guess. Don’t forget to do a background check in advance though.” Mikey stands up from the table and leaves the room.
Everybody else follows suit and everntualy, it’s just Ran and Rindo left in the room. “So,” Rindou folds the list and puts it in his pocket, “who’s your assistant?”
“Remember Yn?”
Rindo snorts. “No way. Her? Why?”
Ran shrugs. “Just missed her, I guess.”
“Naomi exists.”
“Fuck Naomi. She’s not Yn.”
Rindou sighs, pressing against his nose bridge. “Alright, good luck with that.”
+++
chapter two
reblogs are appreciated, dont be afraid to tell me if you liked it or not 😮
taglist hereeee 50 spots open so take em quickquick
ADHD is a disability. I know this. Nobody else around me does. When I say I can't do something, I don't need tips, I don't need encouragement, I need you to believe me. I need just one person to believe that I'm not lying when I say I am unable to do something because of my literal developmental disability. No more "just push through", no more "try harder", no more "I did it and you can too", because I am absolutely sure that in this moment I am unable to fucking do it! Please believe me for once. Please.
pairing: (husband) sanzu, ran, rindou x (wife) fem!reader
warning: some dirty talk, dumb jokes, comedy, and not proofread
word count: 1270 - dni/byf
HARUCHIYO SANZU: “Where did you get that scar, Mommy?”
You were sitting on the couch within the living room as you were reading your book while Sanzu was happily resting his head on your lap. His eyes were closed as he wanted to relax after a long weak of murdering people. Honestly that’s just one of the toughest jobs out there if you think about it. So now all he wants to do is rest peacefully in his home while being around his wonderful wife. But the peace can never last long.
A couple of minutes later, your precious baby girl enters to see her parents being too peaceful during this afternoon. She only grinned as she then hopped into your lap which made Sanzu jump. “GAHHHH!!”, he immediately sat up that only resulted to the two of you laughing at him. “You little runt”, he spoke with gritted teeth.
As you held your daughter in your arms, she can’t but notice for once the scar on your neck. “Hey Mommy?”, she spoken up as her eyes were glued to skin. “Where did you get that scar?”, for a split second you forgot that you even had it. “Oh this, well it’s a long story”, you chuckle only making her curiosity grow. “TELL ME!”.
“Hmmm? I’ll just be straightforward then… you’re father was trying to kill me”, you purposely changed your tone into a sad one to get her to feel sorry for you. “What?! Why would Daddy do such a thing?”, she wrapped her arms around your neck as she glared at her father angrily.
“WHAT? NO! SINCE WHEN?!…”, he tried defending himself which only made it seem even more guilty.
“It was because I forgot to bring him his favorite white sugar candy”, you made a pretend sniff as you then pretended to hold back tears. “It’s okay, Mommy. I’m here, I’ll protect you from Daddy if he ever tries to something evil to you again!”, she bursted out as she pointed at her father. “Don’t you ever do something bad again, Daddy!”.
2 Hours Later…
“Did you really have to tell her that story?”, he whined as he was back in the position that he was in before. He looked up at you with a slight frown while you could only smile. “Hey, she’s bound to ask one day. So why not tell her this story instead of being too open about that incident?”, your eyebrow rose though he understood what you meant. “Understood”.
RAN HAITANI: “How do you get pregnant, Mommy?”
The two of you were busy in your shared office at home when your door suddenly opens. There at the entrance, your son knocked because he’s too well mannered for a kid. “Yes Baby? Do you need anything?”, you turned your attention off from your screen as you see him approach you. “Not really. I just have a question for you and Daddy?”, hearing this Ran stopped looking through the stack of papers to hear this question.
“Well okay, go on then?”, your son sitting comfortably on your lap as he thought about how to word his question. “How do you get pregnant, Mommy?”.
This question left you speechless, hot, and extremely red as you turned to Ran for some assistance. But of course, your very supportive husband could do nothing but give his typical smirk. “Yeah Mommy, tell us how do you get pregnant?”, Ran rested his head on his hand as the two of them waited for a reply. You glared at him angrily while smiling, “I hate you”, you thought loudly.
“It’s quite complicated to explain”, you tried thinking of an old concept. “Your basically delivered by a stork”, your son’s eyes widened as he wanted to hear your explanation further. “Tell me more!”.
“First off your Mommy must have a Daddy. Then the two of us must be really good to each other. And once we were really good to each other the stork will deliver you to us”, you finished. But this only left him with more questions though he didn’t bother to ask.
“Then can I get a baby sister then, Mommy?”, your eyes immediately shot up to see Ran’s expression. “I don’t know, it’s been a while since I’ve been good to Mommy”, he chuckled as his eyes gave you quite a lustful stare.
“Anyways I’ll get to back to you on that question after uncle Rindou picks you up, okay?”, you said as you then dragged your thumb across your neck which typically means… you’re dead meat. “But for now, Mommy and Daddy are quite busy with work”, he just smiled as he then runs out the office.
Nevertheless, your hungry husband was needy after the thought about seeing your belly swell up again with his child, “So what do you say Mommy? Wanna have another little one running around?”, his seduction failed as you spun him around. “Go finish your work or else you won’t be laid for the rest of this week”.
RINDOU HAITANI: “Why were you crying last night, Mommy?”
Rindou was in the kitchen, one hand stirring his coffee and the other holding up his work papers. All of a sudden, the giggles of your son comes bouncing in as he sees his father sitting on one of the tall stools. “Daddy! Daddy!”, he cheered out as Rindou places his papers down to look at him. “Yes?”, he spoke in a slightly exhausted tone.
“I was just wondering about something?” he said curiously as Rindou was drinking his coffee. “Mmmhmm?”, he signaled as he listened to what he had to say.
“Why was Mommy crying yesterday night?”, Rindou nearly chokes on his coffee, you nearly dropped yours as you just entered the kitchen to hear that. “PFTTTTT”, you spit some coffee out violently as you tried to process the question,
“Well emmm oh uhhh?”, you looked towards Rindou for help only to see that he is in the same awkward mindset as you were. “Mommy and Daddy… we’re just fighting!”, he said confidently only to see your slap your forehead.
“So did you win, Daddy?”, he then asked as to see his finally chuckle lowly as he reminisced about last night. “Yup, totally by 1000%”. You can see him poking fun at you but you had a more important question to ask your son.
“Baby, do you mind telling me why you were up so late?”, you placed your coffee cup down in the island table. “I had a nightmare, so I wanted to sleep with you guys”, he defended himself as he twiddled his thumbs.
“Plus it’s not like it’s the first time you guys fight”, he lets out a small tired sigh. “WHAT?!”, the two of you spoke in unison as you looked at your son in disbelief. “WHEN?”, Rindou asked as he stood beside you sweating.
“You guys fight almost every night except when your not home Mommy. Then Daddy starts sounding like he’s in pain in the room. So I didn’t want to bother him”, now this was going to be a huge conversation your going to talk to your loving husband about. “Okay Baby for now on, Mommy will sleep with you if you ever have a nightmare… as for Daddy he. can. sleep. by. himself”, your gritted the last few words to really show him how much trouble he’s in.
But for now, all he can do is to sip some more of the remaining coffee he has left in his cup. Then he planned that he would rush to work and pray that you’ll be asleep by then when he returns from work. However all that flew out of his head when he heard, “Don’t. You. Dare. Think. About. It. Mr. Haitani”.
So,, who was planning to share the news that being queer isn’t something of “choice” but actually visible in your astrology.. AKA BASED ON YOUR ASTROLOGY CHARTS YOU CAN DETERMINE WETHER YOURE GAY OR NOT
"You can just leave your bag right there." You gesture to the empty spot next to your bed. Rindou obeys, sliding his bag off his shoulder and dumping it in said spot.
"Sorry, it’s a bit messy here. I was painting with my brother last night." You quickly kick away the dirty sheet that protects your carpet from the paint stains.
Rindou shrugs and says it’s fine. He feels weird being in your room. Home alone too.
"You can paint?" He asks, intrigued to know more about you. Rindou feels like he only knows the bare minimum that a fake boyfriend should know about their fake girlfriend. And he wants to change that.
"No, I can’t. My brother can, just not that well. But don’t tell him that." You fold the sheet up into a square and place it under your bed.
"Alright, let me go downstairs and grab my controller. Do you want anything? Like to drink?"
Rindou shakes his head. He’s not hungry or thirsty. At that, you nod and quickly head downstairs. Your heart is racing the entire way down, you even almost trip over your foot on the way down.
Having Rindou in your room shouldn’t make you this nervous yet it does. Why, though?
Rindou takes your absence as an opportunity to sneak peeks inside your room. He notices some awards that date way back to middle school. He can’t help but smile when he sees how adorable you look with that smile on your face as you hold up the award.
A woman is kneeling next to you, smiling as if she just won the lottery. Based on her reaction, he can only assume that the woman is either your mother or teacher.
She doesn’t look anything like you, aside from the same hair colour. Which could either mean that is your teacher, or you took your dad's looks.
He’s so absorbed in analysing the photo, he doesn’t realise you had returned with the controller and is currently standing behind him.
"That’s my auntie." Rindou is visibly shaken by your unexpected voice. "She moved away when I was 6."
"Oh," Rindou says awkwardly, familiar heat rising from his face to his ears at the realisation that he’d been caught snooping. There’s an object tapping his hand and he looks down at you handing him the controller.
Thankfully, you switch subjects and don’t tease him on the fact he'd been snopping. "Alright, sit down there." You command, pointing to your bed, "let me show you how a pro handles things."
"A pro?"
"Yeah, I finished the entire game once. Reached the end by myself with no cheats. If you can do that then you'll be declared the new pro."
Rindou says nothing more, just confident in his abilities that he'd 'reach the end' or whatever the hell that's supposed to mean in Minecraft terminology. He shifts to the end of your bed, resting against the wall as the TV starts up.
You decide to say fuck it and scoot as close to Rindou as you could, making sure to keep a slight distance between you two because you're certain you'd break out into a sweat being that close to him.
Rindou makes you so nervous for no reason. It's so weird. You're never normally awkward around guys unless they give you a reason to be. Rindou's been nothing but nice to you yet you always feel on edge in his presence.
"What is that?" Rindou asks, directing your attention to the witch hiding behind the tree. You could tell him the truth, that she's a dangerous mob that you'd generally want to avoid but you want to see him struggle.
"She's nice! She gives you diamonds and stuff."
Rindou looks down at you with a raised brow, like he doesn't believe you.
"Just try it." You place your hand over his own, urging him to move towards the witch. You can't help but laugh to yourself when you see he's on his last heart. Just one attack from the witch would make him die and lose all his stuff.
It's cruel, yeah. But funny.
The witch instantly spots him and immediately throws a potion at him, taking up his last heart before the words 'You Died!' appeared on the screen. You look up and see his jaw is dropped at the realisation that he just lost all of his stuff in the middle of nowhere.
"Whoops…" you say, unable to hide your laughter anymore. You have to hold your stomach to stop the muscle ache.
"You're gonna pay for that."
"No, wait. I'm sorry—" Your hands fly up to block the incoming pillow that's about to get launched at your head. You try to grab the pillow, but Rindou grabs your hand with his wrist and manoeuvres himself on top of you to keep hitting you with the pillow.
"I'm sorry!" You say between laughs, trying to sit upright but his heavy weight on top of you only weighs you back down. "I'll get everything back for you. I promise."
Rindou halts his attack and looks down at you. "You mean that?"
"Mhm, just get off me." You try to push him off but flop back down on the bed instead. He's so heavy. Rindou is about to put the pillow back down on the bed, but you think he's about to tickle your sides so you flinch.
Rindou pulls back with a concerned look on his face as he stares down at you, assuming he's done something wrong. "Why'd you flinch?"
"I didn't."
"Are you ticklish?" He asks, grazing his fingers along the sides of your waist. Your body betrays your words and you curl away from his touch. "Oh my god, you are ticklish." He laughs out.
"No. I'm not." You start to panic when his fingers start assaulting your side. You try to contain your laughter, but fail when he starts tickling you from both sides. "Rindou, stop! It hurts!" You gasp out between breaths, sighing a breath of relief when he finally pulls away.
"I can't believe you're ticklish."
"Isn't everyone?"
Rindou shakes his head. "I'm not."
You find that very hard to believe. Everyone is ticklish. Right? Rindou can sense from your facial expressions that you don't believe him one bit. So he urges you to try to tickle him.
You tell him to lay down on the bed and you grab his foot and try to tickle him but there are 0 reactions. So you trail your hands up to his stomach and tickle him on his sides, the same spot he tickled you but once again, no reaction.
"No way." You say, pressing your fingers into his sides even harder as if to force some sort of reaction out. He's hiding how uneasy he feels with your hands all over his body behind a smug look.
"I'm untouchable." He states and you roll your eyes, not believing it.
"No, there has to be one spot. I'll find it." You sit up on the bed and begin trailing your hands up to his neck, tickling there but there are still 0 reactions. You're starting to get slightly annoyed. This isn't normal.
Rindou looks up at you then down to your hands where they're tickling his neck. Or attempting to tickle him. He won't lie, he is starting to feel a bit ticklish from the way your nails are gently scraping against his skin. It's an uneasy feeling, but not one to make him react the way you did and burst out laughing.
You eventually frown and pull away, realising he truly is untouchable. Rindou sits up on his elbows, watching you pout next to him.
"You're so weird," you start, "how aren't you ticklish? Everybody is!"
Rindou simply shrugs. "I'm not sure."
You then realise there's one spot you haven't tried yet. You look down at his armpits, eyes lingering there for a little while and Rindou can tell you're up to something. "What?"
You quickly attempt to tickle his armpits, when he grabs your wrist mid-air. "What are you doing?"
"I want to tickle you again."
"It's not going to work. You're wasting your time."
"Oh yeah? I think you're just scared I found your weak spot."
He's not scared. He just doesn't want you to tickle his armpits. You notice his grip on your arm has loosened from its tight grip from earlier so you quickly make a move for it and tickle him.
Something inside him just snaps and he completely drops your hand from his grip and flinches away from your touch. He doesn't laugh though, but that reaction was enough to know that you had found his tickle spot. "I knew it! You are ticklish."
"I'm not!" He defends himself, but you notice the hues of pink on his face that formed when he realises just how close the two of you are right now. You seem to have noticed it and attempt to back away but are stopped by Rindou's hand on your waist.
There's such a soft look in his eye that makes the whole situation seem more intimate than it should. You watch as his eyes subtly drop down to your lips, as if he's trying to send you a message.
You get the message loud and clear, but for some reason, you're just frozen in place. This can't be happening. He starts to lean in and your eyes are closing, already preparing yourself for the kiss, only to be interrupted by the sudden zombie noise coming from the TV.
The two of you finally divert your gaze away from the TV, to stare at the screen to see Rindou's character about to die from the zombies. You both had completely forgotten about the game.
You scoot backwards to allow him room to continue playing, but there's such an awkward tension in the room. Now and then, you'd stare at Rindou's side profile as he plays in silence. A part of you is grateful for the silence.
You have no clue what to say to him. Do you discuss the attempted kiss? Or just drop it and leave it alone. Rindou on the other hand is freaking out internally. His heart had been on edge the entire time and he can't help but have some sort of one-sided hatred for this stupid game for ruining his chance with you.
He bites down on his lip, wondering what your lips would feel like against his. Would they be soft? He hopes so.
You're looking down and fiddling with your fingers so you can't see how he subtly takes peeks at you every once in a while. He feels like the moment is over now and just desperately waits for another time where hopefully the moment doesn't get ruined again.
—
"You two almost kissed?" Mitsuya repeats his question as he trods his foot down on the sewing machine pedal.
You nod your head rapidly. "I wish I did kiss him. I feel so stupid for not making the first move."
You won't mention this to Mitsuya, but that same night after Rindou left your house when you went to bed you had a dream. It was that same moment on the bed from earlier, except for you, both did kiss.
And it was amazing. It didn't last long, but it was enough to have you thinking about the kiss all day.
You look down at the piece of fabric Mitsuya is sewing together. “What are you making?”
“Something for Kaash, she wanted me to replicate this dress because she didn’t want to pay hundreds of it. That cheapskate.”
You chuckle softly hearing this. "Speaking of her, where has she been? I haven't seen her around school."
"She's got an internship for this business. She was granted time off school to work on it and she's not allowed to tell anybody. I only found out because I overheard her talking to the school about it."
"Internship? Woah, I'm impressed."
The door bursts open, revealing an angry Ryuu with a bunch of his basketball buddies. "Uhh, you're not allowed to be in here-"
"Why did you cut our funds? We can't even afford a school bus for games no more. What the fuck?"
You blink a couple times, then look down at Mitsuya who just continues sewing and minding his own business. "I didn't do anything–"
"Liar!" One of his buddies speak up, "aren't you the captain or leader or president of this shit?"
"I'm actually the vice and I had no clue about any of this–"
"I did it."
They all turn around to see who just spoke. Suzu was at the door, holding her clipboard. "I cut it because no offence, you guys have lost every single game you went to and we need funds for the school dance."
You can't help but snort hearing the extremely valid reasoning she gave.
"The school dance? Who cares about that stuff. With the basketball funds, we'd be able to train more and—"
"I think you've done enough training. You've been training for 4 years and lost every single practice match and tournament. You'd be lucky if I didn't shut down the club as a whole."
The entire team's faces go pale as they start arguing with Suzu about why she should keep their club open. You can't help but roll your eyes hearing how loud they're being.
Rindou, having heard the loud noise from the corridor, came inside the room to tell the dude's to shut the fuck, only to have his voice die out in his throat the moment he sees you in the room.
You're too distracted to notice his entrance, only realising he's here when he hugs you suddenly, even lifting you off the ground slightly. Mitsuya can't help but look up when you suddenly squeal, wondering if you got hurt by something or someone, only to see Rindou instead.
"When did you get here?" You ask once he brings you back down to the floor.
"Heard everybody shouting and wondered who it was."
"Yeah, just ignore them. They're upset their funding got cut for the basketball team."
"Don't blame you guys for making that choice. They suck." Rindou says as he hops on the desk next to Mitsuya's sewing table. Ryuu heard that comment and told Rindou to watch his mouth to which Rindou told him to shut up.
Suzu eventually kicks all the basketball dudes out of the room and as they're leaving, another familiar face appears in the doorway, holding a bag. Rindou feels his face go pale and quickly hops off the desk to confront the person at the door.
You watch as he approaches the same girl you saw him with yesterday and can't help but feel a little bit uneasy. "Isn't that the girl from yesterday?" Mitsuya asks, spitting fuel into the fire as if you didn't already know that.
"Yeah, that's her."
"Why is she here?"
You shrug, wanting to know the answer to that yourself.
Rindou grabs her by the wrist and drags her outside, making sure the shut the door. "What are you doing here?"
"Relaxxxx, I just came to give you this." She hands him the enclosed bag and urges him to open it. Inside the bag was the money from all the credit cards he'd stolen yesterday.
"Why are you giving this to me in school?? Are you crazy?"
"I didn't want to hunt you down after school, that's long and I have other things to do–" Eri stops talking when she sees the door open and you head outside. "Oh, it's the girlfriend. Hi, I'm Eri! I'm Rindou's—"
Rindou sends her a glare, basically telling her to shut up but she ignores it.
"Business partner."
You raise your brow. "Business? What business?" You look up at Rindou for a better response but he's tongue tied.
"Yeah, we're a real partner in crime huh."
Rindou swears if she wasn't a girl, he would've knocked her out already. He mouths the words shut up but she just giggles instead. "I'm just kidding, we don't do business. He's my new neighbour, that's all."
"Then why did you give him a bag full of money?"
Rindou instantly shuts the bag and coughs loudly, "I'm hungry. Eri, can we talk? Alone please."
"Sure. Bye……?"
"Y/N."
"Bye Y/N!"
Rindou grabs her hand and leads her down the hall and you feel a bit uneasy again. Why was Rindou acting so strange? Heading back inside, you tell Mitsuya what happened and he basically tries to sum it up.
"So a couple days ago, Rindou was asking you about one million divided by 25? Then that same night, he pulled up with around 250K and now he has a bag filled with money? Is that correct?"
"Yeah… it's weird. Like, how did he even get that much money anyway? Is it legal?"
Mitsuya shrugs. "His dad is that one Haitani businessman, no?"
You whip your head around so fast, you see stars. "He is!?"
"Well… yeah. Who else has the name Haitani around here?"
You don't know why you didn't think of that before. "Oh true."
"Anyway, that's probably his father's money, or something."
"Then why was it in a bag and why was it brought here in school? And he's acting shady, like he dragged the girl away and stuff. Even all week, he'd been avoiding me. I have a bad feeling about this…"
You feel like you're diving too deep into this, but also you feel like— no. You know something is going up with Rindou. You want to help him before he goes down the wrong path, meets the wrong people, ends up in the wrong place.
You try to bring this up to him on the walk home from school, asking about the money bag. To which he tells you don't worry. You can't help but worry though. But you don't want to come off as too clingy or something. So you do drop it.
For now at least.
"Mom, how many years in jail could you go for money laundering?" You pop the question during dinner, making your father choke on his soup. Your little brother raises his eyebrow quizically at the sudden question.
"Did you commit a crime darling?" Your mother asks with the same matching look on your brother's face.
"No, I'm just nosy. Dad, do you know?"
After the Dad wipes the soup that spilled down his face, he responds. "Up to 5 years. Depending on how old."
"If they're a minor… How many years?" You feel like you're being a bit too obvious about these questions, but you need to know.
"Y/N, you're starting to scare me. Did you commit a cr–"
"No! It's not me. I'm just nosy. Just answer the question."
"Less than 3 years. I guess. Why?"
"No reason." You continue eating your food after successfully changing the topic. But the entire time, you couldn't help but feel queasy. You couldn't imagine Rindou going to jail for this stuff. Your nerves were getting the better of you.
hey rindou where were u at school today? I was waiting for you
To yn:
sry i was busy
***
Wednesday
From yn:
Rinnnnn are u sick or something? I havent seen you all week
To yn:
No im not sick im just busy
From yn:
ok well you missed the homework but i can go over with you if u want?
***
Friday
From yn:
rin? Are u mad at me?
To yn:
No why would you think that
From yn:
Because i feel like ur avoiding me
To yn:
Im not im just busy
From yn:
Busy with what??
Hello?
"I think he's cheating on you." Hakkai speculates as he scrolls through the messages. "Well, technically is it even cheating if you're not dating?" He directs the question not at you, but to his best friend, Mitsuya.
It's silent in the room as the two of you wait for his response. To which he only shrugs. "Why are you asking me that? I'm not a relationship guru."
"But you are wise." Hakkai states, handing the phone back to you.
You can't help but deepen your frown. Last week was going so well with Rindou, now he's just purposefully avoiding you. For what reason? I'm busy.
"What could he be so busy with that he can't tell me?" You question, biting your bottom lip as your mind starts to wander. You're aware of his family problems, and that may be a valid reason for anybody to distance themselves. But you not only told him that he could come to you whenever he's sad, but you also showed him too.
Hakkai could sense that you're feeling upset about Rindou being MIA for whatever reason and can't help but be confused. It's fake dating for a reason. So why are you upset……….. wait a minute.
"Oh my god." Hakkai blurts out.
"What?"
"Oh my god." He repeats and Mitsuya groans out loud.
"What is it?"
"Y/N has a crush on Rindou."
Mitsuya's jaw drops and he turns away from Hakkai to face you. You're looking down so he's unable to see your flustered face. Once you've regained yoru compose, which surprisingly didn't take very long, you lift your head up to face the two of them.
"Where did you even pull that shit from?"
Hakkai begins cackling at the way your voice slightly cracks at the end. A clear sign that you're lying. He knows you very well. "I knew it! You do!"
"I don't! We are just friends, minus the whole fake dating stuff." You flinch as if you've been physically hit from the way Mitsuya is staring at you right now, as if he's scanning your entire face, trying to see any cracks in your whole facade.
"Staring is rude, Mitsuya."
"So is lying."
"I–" You open then close your mouth, unsure of what to say now. You can't help but feel a little bit humiliated. This is why you can never go to these two without them exposing you in some way. They can both read you so well, it's frightening.
You didn't even know you had a crush on Rindou till Hakkai said it. Like yeah, you found him attractive, his voice was pleasing to hear, you felt your heart rate pick up everytime he approached or touched you, you replay his laugh over and over in your heart hours after it actually happened, you rush to grab your phone when you hear a notification thinking it's from him—
Doesn't mean you have a crush on him though.
"I don't like him." You put on your sternest face, one that is strong enough to not shatter under Mitsuya's intense gaze. His eyes rake over your own, scrutinizing your every move.
After a couple moments, he pulls away. "I think she's telling the truth."
Hakkai makes an audible squeal, offended that Mitsuya basically snubbed his whole theory. "She's lyin'!! I'm telling the truth."
Mitsuya shrugs and moves back to his seat, ready to move topics. You're on board with Mitsuya. All this Rindou talk is hurting your head.
You grab your smoothie and start to sip on the straw slowly, enjoying the peace and quiet in the room right now. Mitsuya copies you, taking his drink in his hand and starting to sip on it. Hakkai is the only one left sulking, but fortunately for you, he doesn't bring up the topic again.
***
Ran and Rindou eventually got bored of the theft, and Koko taught them how to pickpocket. Ran was better than Rindou overall. They decided to make it a little game, see who could pickpocket the most before they tapped out.
Ran managed to grab 4 wallets and 2 credit cards. He flexed the credit cards in Rindou's face as he pouted, staring down at his single credit card. The only reason why he even got that wallet was because the person was asleep on the bench, so Rindou could easily just open their bag and steal the card.
By the time they woke up, the two brothers were already long gone. Rindou prefers pickpocketing to robbing houses. He feels less claustrophobic. For example, in the house, if they get caught, there's barely anywhere to run, unless you got the entire map of the house memorised.
Out in the open, Rindou finds it easier to escape before getting caught. The only downside is that Rindou literally sucks at pickpocketing. Mucho, Izana and Ran were all amazing at it, almost like it was second nature. Not only is Rindou the youngest, but also the worst out of the four. They always remind him of both facts too.
Koko took pity on Rindou and got one of his good friends to help him out because it was honestly embarrassing to watch. Koko couldn't bare to see him come back empty handed.
"Oh, she's a girl." Rindou stares at the girl currently standing next to Koko in genuine bewilderment. He immediately retracts his statement, realising how bad it sounds moment after the words left his mouth.
"W-wait. I'm not saying that cause you're a girl you can't, um–"The girl simply just laughs. It's not a patronising laugh, but instead one that's real and authentic. Almost as if she's amused by the situation.
"It's alright. I get that reaction a lot strangely enough." She wipes her hands on her pants, rubbing the sweat that formed off her skin due to the heat in the room. "Just call me Eri." The girl now known as Eri brings her dry hand up to Rindou's, shaking it professionally. "You must be Rindou, right?"
"Uh-huh." Rindou is still a little tongue-tied. When Koko said he would bring in a professional, he didn't expect someone his age or more or less a girl to help.
Rindou feels a little embarrassed, being so speechless so he swallows all his confusion down. Now returning to his original state. "Yeah, I'm Rindou. So you're a professional?"
Eri nods. "I've been doing this for years. I met Koko while attempting to pickpocket him. It was pretty awkward." Eri chuckles softly, hands moving to the back of her neck as she recalls the incident.
Koko scoffs and rolls his eyes. "She was so swift I almost didn't even notice. But I have a very keen eye for shit. So I caught her."
Rindou listens to the story quite amazed. With Eri's help, he'd be able to steal more cards than Ran ever could and he could rub it in his stupid face that he's finally better at something.
"Alright Rin, let's head out." Eri grabs her bag from the couch and starts to walk outside. "I can call you Rin right? I think it's a cute nickname."
"Yeah, you can call me that."
"Bet."
Eri takes Rindou out to an open restaurant and teaches him how it's done. She starts by sitting her chair close to her target, taking her jacket off and putting it behind her chair, covering her arm.
When her targets facing the opposite way, she digs her hand through their bag, which is seated next to the chair leg. From the security cameras POV, it simply looks like she's digging inside her coat pocket from the way it's positioned.
Rindou watches from the other end of the restaurant as she pulls the wallet and their phone out from the bag and stuffs it inside her coat pocket. Standing up from the table, she puts her coat back on and gestures outside with a tilt of her head.
Rindou stands up immediately and follows her outside. The moment they're out, they walk a couple feet ahead into a more secluded area. Eri reaches inside her pocket and hands Rindou the wallet plus the phone. "Voila!"
"Wow. You did that so…. effortlessly." Rindou says as he opens the wallet, seeing a bunch of notes inside as well as 3 credit cards. Once he finishes examining the cards, he checks out the phone. "How much do you think this would be worth?"
"Hmmmm." Eri takes the phone in her hand and checks out the front and back. "Not sure, we're gonna have to go to Koko for that stuff." Eri places the phone in her backpocket, "But I'm keeping the phone. You take the wallets."
"Do you want the other half of the money or–"
"No." Eri cuts him off, "I have enough haha, you keep that. Think of it as a reward for being such a good student." She says teasingly while patting the top of his head.
Rindou grumbles something under his breath and lifts her hand from his head. "I'm not your student."
"Oh? What are you then?"
"Uh…. an observer?"
Eri raises her brow, realising he stated his answer more as a question than an actual statement. "Observer. Sounds like a courteous word for stalker to be honest."
"Fuck off."
Eri laughs as Rindou turns his body away from her, starting to walk away. "Where are you goin'?!"
"I wanna try to steal some shit. Come observe me." Rindou calls out from the other end of the street as he scans the area for a new potential target. Eri catches up to him in no time as he finds his new victim, waiting to cross the road with headphones on.
Rindou sends her a look and smiles when she gives him a thumbs up from a distance. Rindou swiftly walks behind the dude and notices his wallet sticking out from the back pocket of his jeans.
"Idiot." Rindou thinks to himself as he quickly swipes it, stuffing the wallet inside his sleeves before turning back around to where Eri is standing. They wait for the man to cross the road before opening the wallet, seeing the contents.
"Sheesh, this dude is broke." Eri pulled a face as she brought out the very few notes in his wallet. "I almost feel bad."
"I don't." Rindou comments, stealing the wallet from her and checking for any credit cards. "How are we supposed to use this exactly?" Rindou remembered that he didn't have the PIN for the cards.
"Take everything back to Koko. I don't know what he does exactly, but he always brings me the money so I just trust his methods."
Rindou nods at her words, putting the card in his pocket with the other ones he collected.
Eri's stomach grumbles and she clutches her stomach as if that'll solve the issue. "God, I haven't eaten since this morning." Rindou looks around the street, noticing there's barely any food stores. Except for this one smoothie place.
"Do you like smoothies?"
Eri shrugs. "Never had one."
"What?!" Rindou quirks an eyebrow. "You serious?"
"Shutup, you're making me feel embarrassed…" she mumbles.
"You should be. Come, I'll buy one for you." Rindou grabs her hand and leads her towards the store. She doesn't want to go, but can't protest her disagreement because Rindou's grip on her hand is a little bit too strong for her to easily pull away from. In the end she just sighs, realising there's no getting out of this.
As they enter the store, Rindou asks her if she's allergic to anything to which she replies peanuts. Rindou laughs at her for having a peanut allergy, then winces as she knees him in the stomach. She scans over the menu and orders a typical strawberry banana smoothie.
Rindou cringes at her order because who the fuck likes bananas. The second she got her smoothie, she allowed Rindou to take a sip to shut him up. Rindou would never admit it to her face, but it actually tasted….. Decent.
They took a seat opposite each other and he watched as she drank her smoothie. Rindou can't help but wonder about her story. Everyone that goes to Koko for money either is in dire need of money and desperate enough to commit illegal acts just to get quick money, or they're just bored and want a thrill in life.
Rindou can't tell if Eri just wants that thrill in life, but something tells him there's more to her.
"I got a question."
Eri waits until she's swallowed her drink before responding. "Hit me."
"Why did you start.. y'know." Rindou doesn't want to bring up the word but she knows what he means. Rindou can sense her hesitation a bit and quickly adds on, "if you don't wanna tell me that's fine. Like if it's personal."
"No, it's ok. I'll tell you." Eri scoots her chair in closer. "My mum was sick so my dad took out a loan from a dude who happened to be a loan shark. Paid for my mother's treatment so she's better now but my dad got in debt then he got kidnapped by the loan sharks and I feel like he's dead honestly. But I promised him that I'd pay back every penny he took from them. I've been doing this since I was 12 so around 5 years now and I'm still not even half way through but I'm too far into delinquency to just quit now. I got caught a couple times so I do have a record but it's whatever."
Eri takes another loud slurp from her smoothie. "What about you? Why are you doing this?"
"I just need to get money for my mother to divorce my dad." Rindou feels like his story is a little bit mediocre compared to hers.
"Divorce? Oh shit, what happened?"
"Dad is a whore."
Eri erupts in laughter before quickly closing her mouth, realising she may have came off as insensitive. "I didn't mean to laugh-"
Rindou decides to play tricks with her. "Yeah, it was really offensive." He feigns injury and stands up from his chair, ready to trick her into thinking he’s leaving, when he’s stopped by her hand on his arm.
"No, wait. Stay, please? I’m sorry."
Rindou feels his whole facade cracking when he sees the slight pout on her face, then suddenly feels bad for lying. "I was just kidding, don’t worry. You didn’t offend me."
Eri’s face falls flat and she threatens to dump the rest of the contents of the smoothie on his face.
Hakkai can hear some boisterous laughter coming from inside the store and uses his height to his advantage. He lifts his head up like a giraffe and scans the area, only to see familiar blue and yellow.
Then he notices he’s sitting opposite a girl he’s never seen before, so he can automatically rule out the possibility that she attends his school.
"Um, Mitsuya." Hakkai taps Mitsuya’s arm to grab his attention.
"Yeah?"
Hakkai doesn’t respond verbally, instead just gestures for him to look up ahead. Mitsuy, who’s slightly shorter than Hakkai, has to stand up from his seat in order to see across the store.
"Oh my god."
The two of them look down at you, who fell asleep on the desk with your smoothie half in hand.
"He’s actually cheating." Hakkai says.
"It’s not cheating if they aren’t together." Mitsuya adds on and Hakkai scoffs out loud.
"I asked you earlier!! You said you didn’t know!"
"Keep your fucking voice down." Mitsuya slaps his hand over Hakkai’s mouth, temporarily shushing him. "We need to get Y/N out of here before she sees the two of them together."
"Why? You said it’s not cheating though."
"It’s not, but you said it yourself. Y/N likes him, so she’d be equally as heartbroken."
"So now you believe me when I say she likes him."
Mitsuyas face falls flat. "Shut up."
The two of them gently tap your arm to wake you up. The plan is to get you to leave through the front rather than the back of the store. The back is where Rindou and his ‘date’ are sitting closest to.
You grumble something in your sleep as Hakkai keeps on poking you. "Leave me alone."
"Y/N there’s a fire we need to go!"
You remain seated with your head down and Hakkai sees that you either don’t care and rather die in the fire, or you know he’s lying. Either way, after this he’s made a mental note to practice fire drills with you.
"What sort of excuse is that?" Mitsuya rolls his eyes. "Y/N, it’s pretty late. Let’s get you home so you can sleep."
Hearing Mitsuya’s soft voice, sleepy you can’t help but obey. "Fine…" you mumble, lifting yourself off from your chair and packing up your books that were splayed out on the table from your previous tutoring/lunch session with Hakkai before you fell asleep.
After packing your bags, you feel the sudden urge to pee. You begin to slide out of the booth only to feel Mitsuya stop you with a hand on your wrist. "Where are you going?"
"To the bathroom…"
Hakkai can feel his skin go pale. The way to the bathrooms were at the back, meaning you would have to pass Rindou and his date.
"No!" He calls out a bit too loudly, also grabbing the attention of the rest of the store. Including Rindou.
Rindou from his seat can see you and two of your friends. "Oh shit, that’s my girlfriend." He stands up from his seat, "stay here, I’ll be right back."
Eri nods and continues sipping her drink as she watches Rindou walk towards you.
You feel an arm suddenly wrap around your shoulder and you look back to see which boy is deciding to harass you this time, only to be met with Rindou.
"Oh my god? When did you get here?" Your worries from before flew out the window the moment you wrapped your arms around his shoulders for a hug.
"Sorry I haven’t seen you all week. I was really busy."
Here he goes again with the busy stuff. But busy with what. Hakkai and Mitsuya feel like they know what he were busy with.
"Cheating." Hakkai says, his voice disguised as a drastic cough. You and Rindou didn’t understand what he was saying, only Mitsuya did.
"Busy with what?" You ignore Hakkai’s health conditions and ask Rindou the question you’d been dying for an answer.
Rindou can’t tell you the truth. Oh I was just practicing how to pickpocket from people so I can steal all their money.
No, you’d probably just report him to the police.
But he can’t think of anything else. Studying? Yeah right. You’d probably find that more unbelievable than the pickpocketing story.
"I can’t tell you. It’s… private. But I promise I can make it up to you soon."
"How about now? I mean, my parents aren’t home until 11 and my brother is on a school trip for 2 days."
As much as Rindou wants to, he has to get the credit cards in his pocket back to Koko.
Rindou feels pressured to respond by the way Hakkai is glaring into his soul, as if his life depends on how well he answers your question. "Yeah, I’ll come see you today. Infact, just give me one second."
He pulls away from the hug and you watch as he walks back over to his table and pulls something out from his pocket. He hands the credit cards over to Eri under the table and tells her to give them to Koko.
Eri understands and waves him goodbye before he heads back over to you.
You can’t help but wonder who that girl was. Is that why he’s been busy? He’s been hanging out with her? You suddenly find it very hard to swallow, as if a lump has formed in your throat as your brain racks all the possibilities.
"Hey, if I’m coming round to yours, can you show me how to play Minecraft properly." Rindou’s question pulls you out of your thoughts.
"I did show you properly last time! You just suck!" You defend yourself, grabbing your bag that was on the seat and hoisting it over your back.
"I don’t suck, you’re just a horrible teacher."
"Shut up Rindou." You mumble and both start to head out the store.
"Don’t you need to use the toilet?" Mitsuya calls out mockingly the moment you’re out the door. You stick up your middle finger behind your back to shut him up.
You did have to use the toilet, but Rindou matters more.
"Here ya go." Kokonoi hands Rindou an envelope filled with notes. "Next time it won't be this much, I only gave you more because you're my friend and it's your first time."
Rindou opens the envelope, seeing the tons upon tons of cash notes inside. His lips part in surprise as his fingers rake through the notes, mentally counting the amount. "Koko, I didn't actually think this would work to be honest."
Koko chuckles slowly before sitting back on his desk chair, putting the notes through the cash counter. Rindou is still in shock. Of course he knew it worked because Ran showed him it did yesterday, but for some reason, he's still shocked. "This is so cool!"
"Calm down there, half of that goes towards your mother, no? Ran told me."
Rindou forgot the entire reason why he's doing this for a moment. Realising this money wasn't exactly for him. "Oh yeah. It is." Koko takes the money from the cash counter and puts it inside an envelope.
"Give this to Ran. It's his end." Rindou nods enthusiastically and takes the envelope. He wonders if Ran has more inside than him. The amount of money inside depends on how much stolen goods they gave to Koko.
Koko has tons of wealthy clients, so he gets his friends to steal items from them. Could be credit cards or expensive items. If it's credit cards, Kokonoi has people that can get access to the account and take the money inside. If it's wealthy items, Koko has people working for foreign countries such as the US that he can sell these authentic Japanese items to for an expensive price.
Rindou, since it's his first time, had broken into the house with Mucho and stole roughly 16 items. He wasn't sure if they were of any good value, only going off his instinct.When he brought the items back to Koko, apparently they were worth 1,017,163.40 Japanese Yen or according to Koko, roughly 7.4k USD.
Ran and Rindou decided however much they earned, they would give 75% to the bank for their mother, and keep the rest for themselves. Rindou had a puzzled look on his face trying to figure out what 75% of 1 million yen is.
Bringing his phone out, he decides to call you. Even though he could just use the calculator app on his phone, he'd rather hear your voice. Rindou places the envelope inside the kangaroo pocket of his hoodie in order to hold his phone better in his hand.
It's been around 8 rings and yet still no response. Rindou then realises the time, and how it's currently 11 PM on a school night, meaning you're probably asleep. Just as soon as he's about to hang up the phone, you pick up.
"Hello?"
"Um, hey [Y/n]. Did I wake you?" Rindou asks, biting his bottom lip, feeling bad if he did wake you up this late.
"Oh, no. You didn't. Everything okay? What's up?" You have to stand up from your bed and shut your door to drown out the arguments currently taking place in the next room. Truth is, you couldn't sleep even if you tried.
A part of you is hoping and praying that Rindou isn't hearing your parents arguing right now. It's embarrassing. Unfortunately for you, he does hear, but decides not to bring it up.
"I just needed help with a calculation." Rindou's smile grows when he hears your cute laugh.
"A calculation? Doing maths homework late at night?"
Rindou shakes his head, then remembers he's on the phone so you can't see him. "No, what is 25% of one million?"
You hum, fingers on your chin as you calculate the amount he's asking for. "That should be around 250,000."
"Sweet." Rindou opens the door to the room where Ran and his friends are currently sitting inside. He reaches inside his pocket and hands Ran's envelope to him before heading over to the table at the back of the room and putting your voice on speaker so he can split the money in two.
"So what are you doing right now?" Rindou asks, trying to make small talk to keep himself busy, not wanting to hang up the phone just yet.
"Not much, I can't sleep. What about you?"
"Yeah, can't sleep either." Rindou successfully takes his half of the money and places it inside his pocket. Rindou feels like the reason you can't sleep is because your house is currently a war zone. Even though your door is closed, he can still faintly hear the arguments through the phone. "Are you hungry?"
You blink a couple times. "What?"
"Are you hungry?"
"I guess so. But I don't feel like making any food."
"Wanna… sneak out and get something to eat?"
You sit up on your bed slightly hearing this. It sounds fun to do, but it's really late at night, and you don't even think anything would be open. Besides, you're broke at the moment. "I spent all my money shopping yesterday and my allowance is on Sunday." Approximately 4 days from now.
"I can pay for you. Anything you want, I'll buy it for you." Rindou compromises.
Ran turns his head to the back of the room where Rindou currently is with a raised brow. "Who is he talking to?" He nudges Mucho next to him.
Mucho shrugs. He has a vague idea of who Rindou might be talking to but would rather focus his energy on counting his half of the money. "Probably his girlfriend."
"Girl who?"
"He never told you?" Mucho watches Ran shake his head. "Oh, I thought it was pretty obvious."
"He's so whipped."
Rindou rolls his eyes hearing his friends' rebuttals behind him, shoving them to the back of his mind as he tries to convince you to sneak out and meet him.
"Are there even any stores open, Rin? I mean it's almost midnight."
"I'm pretty sure there are stores open. C'mon pleeeeeeaseeeee."
You can't help the smile forming on your face right now at his pleading. It fills you with an emotion you can't describe. "Okay, give me a moment, I gotta sneak out."
"Yes! Okay, I'll meet you near the park, okay?"
"Okay, see you in 15." You hang up the phone and take a deep breath. Sliding off your bed, you grab your jacket hanging from your door and place it on. You don't think you should change your clothes, because technically, this isn't a date. Right?
It's just two friends hanging out.
But aren't pyjamas a little bit underdressed? You’re so deep in your thoughts you don’t realise your bedroom door has opened, nor do you realise your little brother is standing outside your door, seeing you get ready.
"Where are you going?"
You visibly jump. "Tifari, get out."
Instead of him listening, he just smiles. A chilling one that sends chills down your spine. The infamous smile you know well that indicates he's about to make your life a living hell.
"I said get out."
"And I said, where are you going?" Tifari rebutes. "Why do you have your jacket on?"
For a 10 year old, he's so observant. It's a good trait, means he cannot be swayed by others easily, but times like this, you wish he'd just be blind. "I was cold."
"That's the coat you wear when you're going outside."
"Does it look like I'm outside?"
"No, but you're going outside. Right?"
"Okay, fuck off. Yes, I am going outside. I can't stay in this stupid house." You grab the pair of slippers by your door and slip them on. Tifari watches as you get ready, judgement written all over his face as he views your outfit.
"You can't go outside like that, you look homeless."
"I will slap you."
"No you won't."
"Just go to sleep." You're already exhausted from this conversation. Tifari makes every single conversation draining. You miss your older brother. He's currently away for university so his room is empty at the moment. He was the one to deal with Tifari's irritating self.
"I can't sleep either. Mum and Dad are too noisy."
"Okay, take these then." You hand him your headphones and laptop. "Password is 4435. Go crazy and don't delete anything."
"I don't want to watch anything. I want to go outside with you."
"Are you crazy? It's almost midnight. Mum and Dad will notice you're gone!"
Every night, your mother says goodnight to your younger brother and tucks him to bed. Tonight, she hasn't done that yet because she's too busy arguing with your father. But granted, once she realises the time, she would enter his room and kiss him goodnight.
"They'll notice you're gone too!" He argues back but you shake your head.
"No, because they don't check up on me. I'm 16, there's no need to."
"They will check up on you. If I tell them you're sneaking out."
There it is. You knew there was a reason for that cheeky smile earlier. "No you wouldn't."
"Yes I will."
Sad part is, you knew he would. You knew it so well. "Fine… go grab your jacket."
The smile on his face now is a more genuine one. As if he's excited to be out this late at night with you. You watch him skip out of your room and down the hallway to his own room. You're going to have to break the news to Rindou on your way outside that you have unwanted company joining the two of you.
Your brother returns 5 minutes later with a jacket on and tells you he's locked his door. It's not until the two of you sneak downstairs, then you realise it's so quiet downstairs. You peek inside the living room, seeing your mother fast asleep next to your father. Almost like the two are cuddling?
"Weren't they just arguing two minutes ago?" Your brother asks the question you'd been thinking the moment you laid your eyes on the pair.
"They're so…" You scoff before heading towards the front door, letting your brother leave first before shutting it behind you. You had your keys inside your jacket, so you locked the front door.
"Confusing."
You look down at your brother with a raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Earlier when you were describing Mum and Dad, were you going to say they're so confusing?"
No. You weren't. You didn't know what you were going to say. But confusing does sound like the most PG word to describe their relationship. "Yeah. I was."
Tifari just nods and holds your hand as you both start walking towards the park. "So do you have any plans or are we just walking around?"
"I was planning on meeting my—" Do you refer to Rindou as your boyfriend? You're both faking the relationship, so introducing him to your family as your brother sounds a little bit misleading. But introducing him as a friend just seems wrong also. "Boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?!" He looks up at you, lips parted and brows raised slightly. In total shock. "You never told me you had a boyfriend."
"Because it's my business. Not yours."
"Yeah, but still…"
"You never told me about your girlfriend you had in grade 3. I had to find out through Mom." You snicker as you watch his face go bright red.
"She wasn't my girlfriend! She just had a crush on me."
"Yeah yeah sure." You both turn the corner to the park and your eyes dart around looking for Rindou. It's not that hard to spot him, his hair being the biggest giveaway in the dead of night. "Is that him?" Your brother asks, noticing the way your face softened slightly when you spotted Rindou.
"Uh, yeah."
Rindou is sitting on one of the empty park benches, his phone in hand illuminating his face. He hasn't spotted the two of you yet, until he hears your brother should "[Y/N]'S BOYFRIEND!"
Rindou looks up and sees you about to slap the living shit out of your brother for embarrassing you like that. "Tifari, I will send you back home right now."
Rindou is surprised to see you with a little kid but welcomes him anyway. The moment Rindou approaches the both of you, your brother is already giving him a hug, as if they're reunited friends. "I'm Tifari. What's your name?"
"Uh, Rindou."
You didn't want them meeting like this, but it's whatever. The earlier the better. "He didn't want to stay at home with all the yelling and stuff. I hope you don't mind him."
"No, it's fine." Rindou crouches down to his level. "Where do you want to go?"
Tifari puts his hand on his chin, imitating a thinking face. "I want burgers."
"It's midnight. You're not eating burgers." You speak up and Tifari sends you a mean glare.
"Rindou asked me what I wanted."
"And I'm telling you, no burgers. It's too late for that."
Tifari looks at Rindou, expecting him to back him up, but Rindou feels conflicted. "One burger won't hurt right?" Tifari cheers and you facepalm yourself. Tifari begins walking ahead and the two of you walk behind him.
"You can say no to him, you know that right?" You whisper to Rindou.
"I know, but I felt bad. I wanted to make a good first impression."
You don't know it, but Rindou is actually super nervous inside right now. It's only been a month and a half since your whole fake relationship, but meeting the family is still a nervous thing. Fake or not. You would understand where he's coming from, because you were also nervous to meet his family, even before the whole fake relationship scenario.
In a way, Rindou views you as his girlfriend for real. Well, he wants to but then remembers you're still hung up on Ryuu. That piece of shit. Rindou isn't good at interpreting his own feelings, but he can tell what he feels for you definitely isn't platonic. He does like you, but feels like to say he's caught feelings is a bit of a stretch. He just enjoys fake dating you.
If you were to call the fake dating off, he would be a little bit upset, but wouldn't be surprised because you don't like him back, in that way.
Tifari ends up leading you both down the street and to the 24 hour fast food store that just happens to sell burgers. You didn't even know this place existed, but decided in order for Tifari to not snitch to your parents about your 'relationship' with Rindou, you'd let him eat a burger. Only one though.
Rindou hands Tifari a bunch of notes, one that has your brows rising in shock because who on earth just carries that much money around. You mentally count the notes in your head, realising there was about 250,000￥. Then your mind travels back to the calculation Rindou asked you earlier.
Did he genuinely have 1 million yen? You have your suspicions raised, but decide to not pry into his business. The three of you find seats in a booth big enough to fit 4 people. You and Rindou are sitting on the same side, and your brother is directly opposite the two of you. Kicking his feet and humming happily as he digs into his extremely fatty meal of burgers and onion rings.
You know your mother is going to kill you if she ever finds out about this. You're too deep in your thoughts, you don't realise Rindou snakes his hand under the table and links them with your own. The contact makes you whip your head around to him.
Rindou feels like he crossed a boundary, but you still haven't moved your hand yet, so it must mean that you don't mind it. His theory is proven correct when you adjust your positioning, laying your head on his shoulder, gripping his hand tighter. Rindou feels like he could just explode right now, but composes himself for the sake of your brother.
"You okay?" Rindou asks, resting his cheek on the top of your head. He's asking to know where your head is at, because he's aware things are tough at home for you with your parents and their divorce.
"I'm alright." You're so grateful you have someone like Rindou to help you during these tough times. None of your friends know about your parents divorce, not even Hakkai or Mitsuya. But for some reason, Rindou was the first person you told. Despite knowing him for the least amount of time. It just felt right.
You look up at him. "Are you alright?"
Rindou feels fine to be honest. Now that he has this whole money heist shit with Ran and his friends, he isn't worried about his dad divorcing his mother. Even if his dad gets full custody, Rindou turns 18 next year so he can just go live with her then. "I'm good too."
"Ew." Tifari comments, temporarily stopping his chewing. "Get a room."
You roll your eyes. "You have ketchup on your lip."
Tifari''s tongue darts out, trying to lick around his lips, but he just keeps missing the spot. Rindou laughs as he watches him struggle slightly. You sigh, lifting your head from Rindou's shoulder (completely missing the way his body shudders slightly, missing your warmth) and reach across the table, wiping the ketchup away from your baby brother's lip.
"Thank you." He says with a huge smile before digging into his burger.
This time when you get back to your seat, you don't rest your head on his shoulder anymore — which slightly upsets Rindou, but he doesn't say anything. Tifari finishes his food, burping loudly which makes you roll your eyes for the millionth time tonight. "Thank you Mr Rin!"
"It's no problem kid." Rindou is genuinely happy that he's managed to make your brother feel better tonight. Rindou knows your brother heard your parents arguing tonight, and isn't sure if it's a daily occurrence, but if it is, he's happy to take your brother out places to get his mind off the arguments any day.
You don't show it either, but you're grateful Rindou did this too. The look on your brother's face makes you happy internally as well.
"Where to now?" Your brother asks, sliding off the booth and onto the tiled floors.
"To bed. It's almost 1AM."
"B-but-"
"You have school in 7 hours, c'mon."
You tell him to wait for a second before talking to Rindou. You give Rindou a big hug, whispering inside his ear that you're grateful he did this and next time it'll just be the two of you hanging out. Rindou can't hide the smile on his face and neither can you. The indication that you'd sneak out the house for him next time is enough to get his hopes up.
***
The moment Rindou returns home, he heads straight for the bedroom only to be stopped by Ran. The look on his brother's face screams I'm bout to annoy the shit out of you.
"What is it Ra—"
"Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend?"
The words in Rindou;s throat die out and he looks up at his brother, a bit surprised that he found out. "She's not my girlfriend."
"Mucho told me she is."
"Yeah, but she's not my girlfriend. We're fake dating, because she likes someone else and wants to make him jealous."
Rindou watches as Ran's facial expressions shift into a grimace. "That such a stupid idea."
"Well, I'm having fun so." Rindou turns around to head towards his room, only to be stopped by the following words.
"You gonna have fun when she leaves you for that dude?"
"She won't."
The two of them have a staring contest that only gets more intense as each second passes. Rindou is always the first one to break eye contact, his brother's gaze is always too strong and overpowering.
"So you're telling me… you're both going to do this stupid plan, then she makes the guy jealous, then what? She just forgets the dude exists and continues fake dating you? Or does she leave you for that guy? Enlighten me, Rin."
Rindou actually doesn't know what the plans for the future are right now. Will you actually leave for Ryuu? Or are you done with him? If you are, then why are the two of you even doing this fake dating shit to begin with?
"Your silence speaks volumes." Ran claps a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Just don't get heartbroken."
Rindou slaps his brother's hand off his shoulder, offended that he thinks that the fake relationship would never work out. "It's going to work."
"Sure. Just don't get distracted from our actual goal, not some petty high school love triangle shit."
Ah, that's right. The money heist. They have another one tomorrow night. Rindou watches his brother disappear into his room before making his own way to his room. The entire time he's changing, he thinks about the future of the two of you and if you're genuinely going to leave him for Ryuu or not.
***
ive been sick all fucking week oh m god im sorry if this chapter sucked total ass my brain is on hold right now
