Do Scars Fade: a Heisei Kumi Fanfic (7/18)
Author: ryosukekoibito
Pairing: Keito-centric, with some side Ariyama and Chiitaro
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence
Genre: Slice of life
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone.
Summary: Keito is left in a state of depression after the loss of his boyfriend, but with the help of his housemates he begins to regain his appreciation for life, and find happiness again.
A/N: This is another instalation in my Heisei Kumi AU! This fic is a direct sequel to Sequence of Upsets, and is the third one written from Keito's perspective. If you haven't read Sequence of Upsets, or the first fic, My New Family, then you may be confused. This fic starts at the end of February 2014, so about six months afterSequence of Upsets ends. Enjoy!Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
It was barely two days later, Keito in the living room, engaged in a fierce game of mahjong with Yuto, Chinen, and Yamada when Hikaru emerged from his office. Their leader was in a fine suit, black on black, his pin of their clan's crest on his lapel, marking him as someone of importance. His tattoos peeked out over the collar of his suit, the black designs creeping up his neck. He looked striking. He looked like a force to be reckoned with, and Keito's attention was pulled from the game completely when he walked in. Yuto blinked up at their leader in surprise, saying
"You know that Johnny's memorial service isn't for another week and a half, right Kumi-cho?" Hikaru didn't smile at the joke, his eyes wide, his fingers twitchy. He was nervous.
"Where's Yabu? If that bastard makes us late I swear I'm going to chop off one of his legs." Hikaru all but growled, but just as he spoke his right hand man appeared on the stairs, dressed sharply in one of his best suits, but Hikaru didn't seem any calmer when he saw him. Now all four playing the game had diverted their attention, everyone thrown off by the tension radiating from their leader.
"Kumi-cho? What's―"
"Shut up, Yamada." Yabu said abruptly, cutting the younger man off as he reached the landing. "We'll tell you all tonight...assuming everything goes to plan."
"It'll work. It'll work." Hikaru muttered, pursing his lips and exhaling sharply. "Let's go, Yabuchii." Yabu blinked in surprise at the use of his childhood nickname, but he nodded, silently following Hikaru out the door. Keito watched them go in bewilderment, Yuto calling out a nonplussed
"Good luck!" at their backs. Once they'd gone Chinen huffed, folding his arms across his tiny chest.
"That was aggravatingly secretive. What the fuck is their deal?" At that Yamada smirked, glancing over that their former leader and saying teasingly
"Says you, the man who had a secret boyfriend for something like six years." Chinen rolled his eyes, picking up a tile and effectively resuming their game. "We didn't date straight for six years. It was a very messy on again off again type situation. You should be glad you weren't aware of that disaster. Especially in 2010. It was a nightmare, honestly."
"What was a nightmare, Yuri?" Ryutaro's voice called, preceding him as he came down the stairs. He walked over to his boyfriend, Chinen reaching out and dragging him closer, his tone blunt but his gaze full of affection as he said
"You." Ryutaro snorted indignantly, a smirk growing on his lips as he leaned in for a kiss, his voice low.
"Look who's talking." They made eyes at each other, neither of the two actually initiating a kiss, just sitting there, pressed in close. It was then that Yamada yelled
"You're gross! If you're going to fuck just get a room and stop looking at each other like that." Yuto giggled, and Keito blushed at the insinuation, but Chinen just smiled, looking up at Ryu. Despite the younger boy's presence they returned full force to their game, Yamada winning and claiming his prize money. Afterward Ryutaro came and sat next to Keito on the couch, watching as Yuto picked up the last of his tiles from the table.
"So Daiki, Inoo and I were talking the other day, and it's been...three months since you woke up from that last coma. You're looking a lot better, Keito." Keito blinked in surprise, not expecting Ryutaro to compliment him in any way. It just wasn't something the kid did. He was brutally honest, and he chose his words, not willing to hold back his opinion to spare anyone's feelings. Keito nodded in thanks, wondering what had brought this on. But Ryutaro wasn't finished yet. "We were kinda thinking...since your mobility has been so much better recently, and I can't count your ribs through your shirt anymore, that maybe it might be a good time to start trying to spar again." He paused, letting that idea sink in. Keito hadn't aimed a fist at anything since their raid at the end of February, and even before then he hadn't done much in the way of fighting.
"We'd be willing to help you get back up to par, and I'm sure the others would too. It could even be fun." Keito was surprised by the coaxing, but Ryutaro was right. He'd lain around long enough. It was time he started training for his next fight; they never knew when they'd be attacked, and the kumi couldn't afford to have him drop the ball. Especially if it meant that someone else could get hurt.
"Sure, let's do it." Ryutaro grinned.
"Great! When do you want to start?" Keito shrugged, glancing around and finding the two of them now more or less alone, their housemates having all moved to the kitchen in a hunt for snacks.
"Now?" He offered. "I mean, if you want. I have nothing better to do." It was then however, that Chinen peeked around a corner, catching Ryutaro's eye and motioning up the stairs. Ryu immediately got to his feet, blushing a bit as he said
"Maybe...could you ask Daiki? I've got..." His face grew even redder, but he didn't back down, already inching over toward Chinen. Keito found it rather amusing to see them so open about their relationship, especially after having kept it hidden for so long. They seemed happy, Chinen especially, the younger man more and more physically affectionate with all of them, more prone to smiling and joining in the conversations. Keito mused that this new situation―Chinen having given up the leadership position, but having gained the ability to be open about his relationship with Ryutaro, and to just be himself, without worry of the consequences―was definitely a more healthy one for his housemate. Chinen was blooming now that he'd stopped restraining himself, and it was in turn bringing Ryutaro even more out of his shell. Keito nodded, motioning for Ryu to just go, and the younger boy skittered away, he and Chinen retreating back upstairs together.
"Ah!" Yuto's shout caught Keito by surprise, and he turned, startled, to look at his friend. Yuto was pointing at him a big grin plastered on his face as he said, almost accusingly "Keito smiled!" Keito didn't know how to react to that, so he didn't. Yuto however, was extremely excited, saying "I saw it! A genuine smile!" He came closer, wrapping his arms around Keito roughly, squeezing him tight, his strong arms constricting Keito's breathing.
"Yuto...could you―"
"What's all the noise about?" Daiki asked, tromping down the stairs, looking confused and a little disgruntled.
"Keito smiled!" Yuto declared. Daiki turned to Keito.
"Did you really?" Not sure, Keito just shrugged. Daiki scoffed.
"He did! I saw it!" Yuto insisted. Keito didn't see why his friend was making such a fuss, and regardless he wasn't even sure if he actually had smiled anyway, so while Yuto would tell anyone that would listen, Keito himself didn't say anything. Keito didn't end up being able to start sparring that afternoon, despite his conversation with Ryutaro. His housemates all seemed to become busy as soon as he became free, the lot of them either off swindling girls or getting into high stakes poker games or simply not around. Finally, right before dinner was about to start Takaki came home, offering to help Keito out, but it just wasn't meant to be.
They were on their way to the alley that ran in front of their home when the front door burst open, an ear splitting whoop drowning out all other sound for a long moment, Hikaru standing there and just yelling, his face all scrunched up. As he yelled he rocked further and further back on his heels, bending his knees and throwing his head back. It was a happy sound, an excited sound, and the rest of them all froze, staring in bewildered awe at their leader. Never had Keito seen Hikaru like this. Finally the older man stopped, returning to his full posture, and Yabu appeared behind him, an eye engulfing grin on the taller man's face, and he let out a much shorter, smaller cheer, pumping one fist in the air. Next to him, Keito heard Takaki mutter
"What the fucking hell?!"
"I did it! We did it!" Hikaru declared, coming into the house and flicking the door shut, a grin plastered across his face. By this point all of them had heard the noise and had abandoned whatever they had been doing, bewildered looks all trained on Hikaru. "I can't believe we pulled this shit off. Fuck." Hikaru said, turning to Yabu. The older man just nodded, blinking empathetically.
"Sorry Kumi-cho, but WHAT THE HELL?" Inoo yelled, his question backed up by lots of nodding on the part of their housemates. Hikaru just laughed, not upset in the slightest by the outburst, and he said
"Is dinner going to be ready soon?"
"Five minutes."
"I need to change out of this suit then." He started heading for his living quarters, acting as if he hadn't just made a big display, as if nothing unusual had happened at all. "I'll tell you at dinner!" He called out, the words trailing behind him as he disappeared into his office. Yabu too went upstairs to change, leaving the other eight of them all staring at each other in bewilderment.
"Well...I guess we should hurry up and set the table then." Keito said quietly, Takaki snorting bemusedly but nodding, the two of them turning back to the kitchen. There was speculation as to what Hikaru could be screaming about, but none of them truly had any idea as to what would cause their leader to behave that way. Keito's only thought on the matter was that it was probably whatever had been taking up so much of Hikaru's time in the past months, and he hoped that it―whatever it was―was now over, and Hikaru could relax. Just as it had been predicted, five minutes later the food was ready and the table was set. Yabu and Hikaru reappeared, dressed down, the both of them in ragged old jeans and tank tops. There was an excited tension in the air as everyone took their seats, and silence engulfed them, everyone looking expectantly at their leader. Finally, Hikaru spoke
"For a while now I've had a big project I've been working on. The foundations for this were actually lain by Chinen, it was one of his last acts as Kumi-cho. So we have him to thank for making this opportunity for us." Chinen gasped, eyes wide with understanding, and Hikaru's smile grew wider, nodding in confirmation to the former leader. Chinen cursed under his breath, as Hikaru continued. "This has been a very long time incoming, and it's been a very delicate process, but with help from Yabu, today I finally managed to close a deal that expands our territory. Without any bloodshed, we have managed to nearly double the area that belongs to us. We've now got jurisdiction across the river, to the west covering all of the university campus and the surrounding housing, and continuing north up the riverside through the southern half of the neighboring town."
"What?" Yamada sounded shocked. Numb. Keito understood the feeling. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been this.
"For real?" Inoo squeaked out, and Hikaru nodded.
"Shit." Ryutaro murmured. "Shit. He's not joking." Hikaru smiled, nodding slightly, and Keito just watched in amazement as what this meant for them registered with their housemates. More territory meant more money coming in, it meant more businesses paying protection fees, and now with the addition of the university, his housemates had a practically endless supply of naive girls to swindle. It meant they had more power here, and in the Kitagawa Group, and Keito found himself smiling, because Hikaru had done this for them. He'd had a goal, and he'd succeeded. Keito had never in his lifetime heard of a kumi expanding this much without fighting and bloodshed, and he felt a glowing pride growing in his chest as he looked at Hikaru. He was so proud of Hikaru. He was proud to call him his companion, his leader. It was amazing. There were cheers, whoops of celebration and amazed curses, and the boys on either side of Yabu were patting their friend on the back. It was then that Hikaru turned specifically to Yuto, saying seriously
"I really, truly am grateful for your help in handling that drug dealer, and I've been wanting to do something to show my appreciation." Yuto opened his mouth to defer the thanks, but Hikaru held up a hand, stopping him. "And so, as a thank you I reworked the agreement and I managed to secure the cemetery where Raiya's buried in the new territory for you." Yuto's eyes grew wide, and there was a moment where he was obviously stunned, just frozen there, looking at Hikaru. And he bit at his bottom lip, tears suddenly welling up. Keito watched, happiness for his friend making his own smile grow bigger. Yuto finally just let out a choked sob, and he stood, launching himself at Hikaru and wrapping his arms around the older man in a hug. He let murmured thanks fall from his lips in a mantra, and Hikaru hugged him back, smiling as he pulled the taller man close.
The rest of the night was spent in celebration, Yabu procuring a bottle of champagne, and everyone in high spirits. They all teased Yuto for crying, Yuto too happy to be mad, and there was one resounding thought that Daiki voiced toward the end of the evening, during the ten person poker game. "We're going to be all anyone's talking about at Johnny's memorial service." There were grins at that thought, and Keito couldn't help but watch Hikaru that night, enjoying watching the older man looking so triumphant. So relaxed and happy. And as he did, he realized that he felt―just a little―happy too. In small groups they all eventually went to bed, Keito resisting the sleep heavy on his eyelids, watching them all go, waiting until finally he and Hikaru were the last ones up, Hikaru slowly cleaning up the playing cards scattered on the kitchen table. They'd fallen into a comfortable silence, before Keito finally said
"Thank you." Hikaru looked back over his shoulder at him in mild confusion. "For working so hard for us, I know it's been tough." Keito clarified. "I...I'm really proud of you." He murmured, his voice getting softer as he got more self conscious. "I'm probably being stupid, but..." Hikaru had set the cards down, and the older man leaned forward, from where he was on his knees on the ground, Keito leaning in to meet him, so that Hikaru wouldn't have to stretch so much, and Hikaru put a warm hand on his shoulder.
"It's not stupid, Keito." Hikaru assured him. "I appreciate your sentiment." He paused. "It makes me happy." Keito nodded, and Hikaru retracted his arm, pulling himself to his feet. "Now, you go to bed. I heard you're going to start sparring again tomorrow. You're going to need all the sleep you can get-they're going to hand you your ass on a platter." Keito nodded, standing as well, and with a small nod he shuffled up the stairs, and into his bed.
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