[fanfic] Lost Bonds 2
Title: Lost Bonds
Genre: Drama/mystery
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Written for the gen!meme. After an argument in which Masaomi tells Mikado he wishes they had never met, he wakes up the next day to find that Mikado no longer remembers him.
Original prompt here | Chapter One
Chapter Two
“You’re awfully quiet over there, Mikado-kun,” Izaya said, not looking up from where he was busily texting away.
“Mm,” Mikado agreed. Ostensibly, he was doing his homework, but Izaya knew him better than that. He could talk and do trigonometry at the same time. After a moment, he realized that Izaya’s statement had been as much a question, which he was obviously supposed to answer. “Oh. I’m just thinking about what happened earlier.”
Izaya nodded, having expected this answer. He hummed a happy tune for a moment as he received a particularly interesting text, then said, “You’re sure you’ve never met him before?”
“I’m sure, but . . .” Mikado’s voice trailed off. Izaya was his friend. He was the reason he had come to Ikebukuro. But there were some things that he just couldn’t tell him. He didn’t think he could have put it into words, anyway. There had just been something in the blonde boy’s eyes that defied explanation. A desperate look. Hopelessness. Mikado couldn’t explain why, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it, couldn’t stop feeling a dull ache in the back of his throat.
“But?” Izaya prompted.
“I felt like I should have known him,” Mikado finally said.
“Well, you’ve probably heard of him,” Izaya said. He arched his eyebrows at Mikado and then laughed. “This really did throw you for a loop, my fine young protégé. You haven’t thought enough to recognize the name.”
“Masaomi-san, right?” Mikado asked.
“Mm,” Izaya agreed. “Kida Masaomi-kun. The leader of the Yellow Scarves.”
“Oh,” Mikado said, startled. “I didn’t realize. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard his first name before. It still amazes me that we got through that entire mess six months ago without ever actually meeting. I kept expecting to turn around and find him right behind me one day.” He let out a rueful laugh. “But I guess not.”
Izaya clearly thought that this was just as well. He had already lost one protégé to Masaomi, and he had no intention of losing another. “You wouldn’t like him.”
“Oh?” Mikado asked, chewing on the end of his pencil as he worked through another program.
“Yeah. He’s got just about every quality you hate in a person. He’s impulsive, immature, and stubborn to boot. He’s entirely predictable. Plus he’s something of a coward.” Izaya listed these damning qualities in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
“He can’t be all that bad,” Mikado said. “If Mikajima-san likes him as much as you’ve told me.”
Despite himself, Izaya’s nose wrinkled. “They must have just gotten back.”
“You don’t know that. It’s not like they would have sent you a memo.”
“I would have heard.”
Mikado shrugged slightly. “Seems to me that if Mikajima-san wants to avoid you, she’d be able to stay off your radar.”
Izaya looked up and grinned at him. “Now you’re just trying to get a rise out of me,” he said, clearly amused. He was proud of his little protégé. He had come a long way from the stammering country boy that had arrived in the city less than a year previous. Izaya had had his doubts at first, but now he was glad that he had taken the boy under his wing. His growth was so amusing to watch. “But you’re probably right, about Saki, anyway.”
After a few moments, Mikado closed the textbook and put it away. “Why would he act like he knows me, though? He was trying to apologize for something. He really seemed to mean it, but I don’t even know what it was.”
“Maybe he was trying to apologize for everything that happened six months ago,” Izaya suggested. That seemed like the idiotic kind of idea that Masaomi might get into his head.
Mikado mulled this over. “While I agree that he might have some culpability for that, it’s hardly his entirely. And even if it was, why would he feel the need to come apologize to me? He doesn’t even know me.”
Izaya gave a shrug. “Weirder things have happened in Ikebukuro,” he said, and took a glance over at his younger friend. He saw immediately that his words were making no headway. Mikado had gotten the puzzle into his head, and now that that had happened, there was no going back. He didn’t know a single person who could be more stubborn and headstrong than Mikado with a mystery to solve. He laughed. “All right. I’ll e-mail Saki and see if I can find out what bee has gotten into Masaomi’s bonnet. As for you, I have work for you today, so put it out of your head. This is Ikebukuro, Mikado-kun. You’ve got to keep your wits about you.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Masaomi found Kadota and his little gang hanging out at Russia Sushi, which was just about where he would have expected to find them at the dinner hour. He was a little uneasy approaching them, not knowing how the dominoes had fallen this time around, but Kadota looked up and gave him the usual easy nod as he approached.
He wasn’t exactly sure why he found himself going to Kadota whenever he needed information. The older man often knew what was going on, and it was certainly better to ask him than to ask Izaya. But it was more than that. Kadota seemed like the only person he knew who was capable of treating him like the kid he was, without patronizing him. It was a valuable talent, and one that Masaomi truly appreciated. Besides, Kadota was someone he could always trust to give it to him straight, and not talk around an issue.
“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked.
Kadota waved to the available seat. “When’d you get back in town?”
“Just a few days ago.” Masaomi took a deep breath. “I need to ask you something.” He spared an uneasy glance for the others and added, “Privately.”
Kadota sipped his tea, considered, and shook his head. “Nah. They’ll just eavesdrop anyway. Whatever you have to say, say it in front of everyone.”
Masaomi wanted to argue, but he knew he was treading on thin ice as it was. He took another deep breath and said, “If I tell you a story that sounds too weird to be believed, will you believe me?”
“Sure,” Kadota said, thumbed at Yumasaki and Karisawa, and said, “I hang out with those two.”
Karisawa laughed. “Dotachin, you’re so right!”
“This is weirder than that,” Masaomi said. “This is . . . this is Ikebukuro weird. It’s crazy. It can’t have happened, but I swear to you that it did.”
“Lay it on me,” Kadota said, then held up a hand for Masaomi to wait. The blonde shut his mouth, and a moment later, Simon arrived with their sushi. He greeted Masaomi cheerfully, set down the food, and then departed. “Okay,” Kadota said, picking up a piece of sashimi. “Go ahead.”
“Do you know Ryuugamine Mikado?”
“Course I do,” Kadota said, looking at him blankly. “You know that.”
“I don’t know that, that’s the problem,” Masaomi said. One more deep breath and he launched into the story. He skimmed over the specifics of the argument, not really wanting to discuss that in detail, and Kadota listened to the tale with his usual stoic expression. At the end, in a rush, Masaomi asked, “Do you believe me?”
Kadota considered, then said, “I can’t think of any reason you’d lie about something like this, and stranger things probably have happened around here, so yeah, I believe you.”
Masaomi gave a sigh of relief and finally started in on his sushi, although he wasn’t really very hungry. While he was thinking things over, Karisawa and Yumasaki got in a heated discussion of alternate timelines and the likelihood that this one was caused by either magic or technology. He sat for several long minutes, tuning them out, before he said, “I guess I need to know what happened. How things are different now.”
Kadota tapped his fingers against the table and said, “From the way you described things, not much has changed beyond the fact that Mikado-kun wasn’t at the ‘final showdown’, so to speak, or at least I don’t remember him being there. Which makes sense. If he didn’t know you personally, there was no reason for him to be there. The Blue Squares had assembled - as the Yellow Scarves, true - and the Dollars took them on. But Mikado-kun’s physical presence was unnecessary. He knew what we were up to. Which I guess he didn’t, in your version.”
Masaomi nodded silently, then asked, “What about Anri-chan? Was she there?”
“Yeah, she was there,” Kadota said. “You two are still friends, as far as I know.”
A sense of relief filled Masaomi. At least he hadn’t lost everything.
“Hey,” Kadota said, “what do you plan to do about this?”
Masaomi wasn’t sure what to say, especially with all four of them suddenly staring at him, even Togusa, who up until that point had been focused on his sushi. “W-What do you mean?” he asked. “I don’t even know how this happened. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I have no idea what I can do.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Kadota pointed to Masaomi with his chopsticks. “I don’t know how to fix it. My question is, are you going to try?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Masaomi asked, flustered. “Mikado is my friend.”
“Do you know what your problem is, Kida?”
Masaomi sighed. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“You don’t know how to accept responsibility when you fuck up,” Kadota said. “When things went south with the Yellow Scarves, you bailed. When Saki got hurt, you avoided her. When things blew up with the Blue Squares again, you took a six-month vacation with your girlfriend. Are you seeing a pattern here?”
His face turning pink, Masaomi fought against alternating waves of rage and shame. “What’s your point?” he asked rudely.
“My point,” Kadota said, “is that you may not be able to fix this. You said it. You can’t take it back. Take responsibility. You made your bed; now lie in it.”
“Easy for you to say,” Masaomi retorted. “You didn’t lose your best friend!”
Both Karisawa and Yumasaki seemed to take an exception to Masaomi’s tone, but a quick look from Kadota squelched their indignant retorts. “No, I didn’t,” Kadota said quietly. “But you know who did besides you? Mikado-kun. And he lost his best friend the moment those words left your mouth, regardless of whatever supernatural hoodoo took over after that. So why don’t you go home and think about that before you decide whether or not to pursue this. Mikado-kun may be better off without you.”
“But not with Izaya,” Masaomi said. “Never with Izaya.”
“Who he’s friends with, who he works for, it’s not your decision to make,” Kadota said.
“Izaya isn’t his friend. No matter what he thinks. Izaya told me he was the founder of the Dollars, to come between us.”
Kadota sipped his tea. “Not in this universe,” he reminded Masaomi.
“He sold his name to Horada, who put a price on his head!”
“Then tell Mikado-kun that. Not me.”
Masaomi stood, ready to storm out, then remembered his manners. Whether he liked the answers or not, Kadota had told him what he wanted to know and probably been nicer to him than he deserved. Kadota always played it straight with him. He bowed his head and said, “Thank you for your guidance,” before turning and leaving the restaurant.
The others watched him go.
“How long before he figures out that Yagiri Namie did that, not Izaya?” Togusa wondered aloud.
Kadota let out a snort. “Probably about as long as it takes for him to go find Mikado-kun and start flinging accusations around.”
Togusa watched Karisawa and Yumasaki argue over the last piece of sushi for a few moments before he said, “It’s gonna be an interesting week.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Genre: Drama/mystery
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Written for the gen!meme. After an argument in which Masaomi tells Mikado he wishes they had never met, he wakes up the next day to find that Mikado no longer remembers him.
Original prompt here | Chapter One
Chapter Two
“You’re awfully quiet over there, Mikado-kun,” Izaya said, not looking up from where he was busily texting away.
“Mm,” Mikado agreed. Ostensibly, he was doing his homework, but Izaya knew him better than that. He could talk and do trigonometry at the same time. After a moment, he realized that Izaya’s statement had been as much a question, which he was obviously supposed to answer. “Oh. I’m just thinking about what happened earlier.”
Izaya nodded, having expected this answer. He hummed a happy tune for a moment as he received a particularly interesting text, then said, “You’re sure you’ve never met him before?”
“I’m sure, but . . .” Mikado’s voice trailed off. Izaya was his friend. He was the reason he had come to Ikebukuro. But there were some things that he just couldn’t tell him. He didn’t think he could have put it into words, anyway. There had just been something in the blonde boy’s eyes that defied explanation. A desperate look. Hopelessness. Mikado couldn’t explain why, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it, couldn’t stop feeling a dull ache in the back of his throat.
“But?” Izaya prompted.
“I felt like I should have known him,” Mikado finally said.
“Well, you’ve probably heard of him,” Izaya said. He arched his eyebrows at Mikado and then laughed. “This really did throw you for a loop, my fine young protégé. You haven’t thought enough to recognize the name.”
“Masaomi-san, right?” Mikado asked.
“Mm,” Izaya agreed. “Kida Masaomi-kun. The leader of the Yellow Scarves.”
“Oh,” Mikado said, startled. “I didn’t realize. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard his first name before. It still amazes me that we got through that entire mess six months ago without ever actually meeting. I kept expecting to turn around and find him right behind me one day.” He let out a rueful laugh. “But I guess not.”
Izaya clearly thought that this was just as well. He had already lost one protégé to Masaomi, and he had no intention of losing another. “You wouldn’t like him.”
“Oh?” Mikado asked, chewing on the end of his pencil as he worked through another program.
“Yeah. He’s got just about every quality you hate in a person. He’s impulsive, immature, and stubborn to boot. He’s entirely predictable. Plus he’s something of a coward.” Izaya listed these damning qualities in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
“He can’t be all that bad,” Mikado said. “If Mikajima-san likes him as much as you’ve told me.”
Despite himself, Izaya’s nose wrinkled. “They must have just gotten back.”
“You don’t know that. It’s not like they would have sent you a memo.”
“I would have heard.”
Mikado shrugged slightly. “Seems to me that if Mikajima-san wants to avoid you, she’d be able to stay off your radar.”
Izaya looked up and grinned at him. “Now you’re just trying to get a rise out of me,” he said, clearly amused. He was proud of his little protégé. He had come a long way from the stammering country boy that had arrived in the city less than a year previous. Izaya had had his doubts at first, but now he was glad that he had taken the boy under his wing. His growth was so amusing to watch. “But you’re probably right, about Saki, anyway.”
After a few moments, Mikado closed the textbook and put it away. “Why would he act like he knows me, though? He was trying to apologize for something. He really seemed to mean it, but I don’t even know what it was.”
“Maybe he was trying to apologize for everything that happened six months ago,” Izaya suggested. That seemed like the idiotic kind of idea that Masaomi might get into his head.
Mikado mulled this over. “While I agree that he might have some culpability for that, it’s hardly his entirely. And even if it was, why would he feel the need to come apologize to me? He doesn’t even know me.”
Izaya gave a shrug. “Weirder things have happened in Ikebukuro,” he said, and took a glance over at his younger friend. He saw immediately that his words were making no headway. Mikado had gotten the puzzle into his head, and now that that had happened, there was no going back. He didn’t know a single person who could be more stubborn and headstrong than Mikado with a mystery to solve. He laughed. “All right. I’ll e-mail Saki and see if I can find out what bee has gotten into Masaomi’s bonnet. As for you, I have work for you today, so put it out of your head. This is Ikebukuro, Mikado-kun. You’ve got to keep your wits about you.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Masaomi found Kadota and his little gang hanging out at Russia Sushi, which was just about where he would have expected to find them at the dinner hour. He was a little uneasy approaching them, not knowing how the dominoes had fallen this time around, but Kadota looked up and gave him the usual easy nod as he approached.
He wasn’t exactly sure why he found himself going to Kadota whenever he needed information. The older man often knew what was going on, and it was certainly better to ask him than to ask Izaya. But it was more than that. Kadota seemed like the only person he knew who was capable of treating him like the kid he was, without patronizing him. It was a valuable talent, and one that Masaomi truly appreciated. Besides, Kadota was someone he could always trust to give it to him straight, and not talk around an issue.
“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked.
Kadota waved to the available seat. “When’d you get back in town?”
“Just a few days ago.” Masaomi took a deep breath. “I need to ask you something.” He spared an uneasy glance for the others and added, “Privately.”
Kadota sipped his tea, considered, and shook his head. “Nah. They’ll just eavesdrop anyway. Whatever you have to say, say it in front of everyone.”
Masaomi wanted to argue, but he knew he was treading on thin ice as it was. He took another deep breath and said, “If I tell you a story that sounds too weird to be believed, will you believe me?”
“Sure,” Kadota said, thumbed at Yumasaki and Karisawa, and said, “I hang out with those two.”
Karisawa laughed. “Dotachin, you’re so right!”
“This is weirder than that,” Masaomi said. “This is . . . this is Ikebukuro weird. It’s crazy. It can’t have happened, but I swear to you that it did.”
“Lay it on me,” Kadota said, then held up a hand for Masaomi to wait. The blonde shut his mouth, and a moment later, Simon arrived with their sushi. He greeted Masaomi cheerfully, set down the food, and then departed. “Okay,” Kadota said, picking up a piece of sashimi. “Go ahead.”
“Do you know Ryuugamine Mikado?”
“Course I do,” Kadota said, looking at him blankly. “You know that.”
“I don’t know that, that’s the problem,” Masaomi said. One more deep breath and he launched into the story. He skimmed over the specifics of the argument, not really wanting to discuss that in detail, and Kadota listened to the tale with his usual stoic expression. At the end, in a rush, Masaomi asked, “Do you believe me?”
Kadota considered, then said, “I can’t think of any reason you’d lie about something like this, and stranger things probably have happened around here, so yeah, I believe you.”
Masaomi gave a sigh of relief and finally started in on his sushi, although he wasn’t really very hungry. While he was thinking things over, Karisawa and Yumasaki got in a heated discussion of alternate timelines and the likelihood that this one was caused by either magic or technology. He sat for several long minutes, tuning them out, before he said, “I guess I need to know what happened. How things are different now.”
Kadota tapped his fingers against the table and said, “From the way you described things, not much has changed beyond the fact that Mikado-kun wasn’t at the ‘final showdown’, so to speak, or at least I don’t remember him being there. Which makes sense. If he didn’t know you personally, there was no reason for him to be there. The Blue Squares had assembled - as the Yellow Scarves, true - and the Dollars took them on. But Mikado-kun’s physical presence was unnecessary. He knew what we were up to. Which I guess he didn’t, in your version.”
Masaomi nodded silently, then asked, “What about Anri-chan? Was she there?”
“Yeah, she was there,” Kadota said. “You two are still friends, as far as I know.”
A sense of relief filled Masaomi. At least he hadn’t lost everything.
“Hey,” Kadota said, “what do you plan to do about this?”
Masaomi wasn’t sure what to say, especially with all four of them suddenly staring at him, even Togusa, who up until that point had been focused on his sushi. “W-What do you mean?” he asked. “I don’t even know how this happened. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I have no idea what I can do.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Kadota pointed to Masaomi with his chopsticks. “I don’t know how to fix it. My question is, are you going to try?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Masaomi asked, flustered. “Mikado is my friend.”
“Do you know what your problem is, Kida?”
Masaomi sighed. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“You don’t know how to accept responsibility when you fuck up,” Kadota said. “When things went south with the Yellow Scarves, you bailed. When Saki got hurt, you avoided her. When things blew up with the Blue Squares again, you took a six-month vacation with your girlfriend. Are you seeing a pattern here?”
His face turning pink, Masaomi fought against alternating waves of rage and shame. “What’s your point?” he asked rudely.
“My point,” Kadota said, “is that you may not be able to fix this. You said it. You can’t take it back. Take responsibility. You made your bed; now lie in it.”
“Easy for you to say,” Masaomi retorted. “You didn’t lose your best friend!”
Both Karisawa and Yumasaki seemed to take an exception to Masaomi’s tone, but a quick look from Kadota squelched their indignant retorts. “No, I didn’t,” Kadota said quietly. “But you know who did besides you? Mikado-kun. And he lost his best friend the moment those words left your mouth, regardless of whatever supernatural hoodoo took over after that. So why don’t you go home and think about that before you decide whether or not to pursue this. Mikado-kun may be better off without you.”
“But not with Izaya,” Masaomi said. “Never with Izaya.”
“Who he’s friends with, who he works for, it’s not your decision to make,” Kadota said.
“Izaya isn’t his friend. No matter what he thinks. Izaya told me he was the founder of the Dollars, to come between us.”
Kadota sipped his tea. “Not in this universe,” he reminded Masaomi.
“He sold his name to Horada, who put a price on his head!”
“Then tell Mikado-kun that. Not me.”
Masaomi stood, ready to storm out, then remembered his manners. Whether he liked the answers or not, Kadota had told him what he wanted to know and probably been nicer to him than he deserved. Kadota always played it straight with him. He bowed his head and said, “Thank you for your guidance,” before turning and leaving the restaurant.
The others watched him go.
“How long before he figures out that Yagiri Namie did that, not Izaya?” Togusa wondered aloud.
Kadota let out a snort. “Probably about as long as it takes for him to go find Mikado-kun and start flinging accusations around.”
Togusa watched Karisawa and Yumasaki argue over the last piece of sushi for a few moments before he said, “It’s gonna be an interesting week.”
~ ~ ~ ~