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It had been a pretty uneventful evening so far. Kiryu was wandering the streets of Kamurocho with no particular goal in mind, helping out whoever crossed his path that seemed to be in need of help. There never really seemed to be a shortage of them whenever he left the apartment. The city was already alive with the soul of the night, the first semi-drunk businessmen stumbling throughout the streets, on their way to the next club- or wherever their feet would lead them.
Walking down Tenkaichi Alley, Kiryu noticed a nervously sweating guy, fidgeting next to club Stardust. He had lived in Kamurocho long enough to be able to tell when someone was acting strange as opposed to the typically odd behavior Kamurocho brought out of its inhabitants. Being Kiryu, he couldn’t just walk past him without at least trying to find out what was wrong. Oddly, the man seemed to notice Kiryu’s sudden interest in him, backing away into the nearest alley, while repeatedly watching over his shoulder to make sure Kiryu still followed him.
Suddenly stopping, the man turned around. A mad grin plastered across his face he made a hand gesture and a few more people emerged from the shadows. Only then did Kiryu realize, that he ended up in Public Park 3. He had fallen scheme before, he knew what he got himself into. Being famous among the rats of the underground had its downsides. Everybody wanted a piece of the Dragon, or rather claim the title as their own.
After a particularly sweat inducing fight against a group of thugs that seemed to respawn out of nowhere, he exhaled deeply.
A small cloud rose in front of his face, as his heated breath met the crisp winter air.
It had been awhile since Kiryu had exerted himself against a larger group of people.
Some sweat was running down his temples and he wiped it off his face
with his sleeve.
He definitely needed a smoke right now, it must have been hours since his last.
Clearly exhausted, Kiryu sat down on the nearest bench for his well deserved break. He really seemed to have a face that just attracted people trying to start a fight with him- not that it was anything new. It was just tiresome, never getting to take time out and just exist for once.
Kiryu’s hand searched the pocket of his jacket for a pack of cigarettes, taking one out and putting it to his lips. With the other he tapped the front pockets of his pants in search of his lighter, only to come up empty-handed. Had he lost it during the day? Kiryu grunted through his teeth in annoyance, wanting to take the cigarette back out of his mouth, when black gloves suddenly filled his view. The smell of gas, the click of a lighter- a small flame lit in front of his face.
"Here ya go, Kiryu-chan."
Oh, he knew that voice way too well. Of course Majima of all people had to find him on a day like this, in a moment of what was supposed to be a break from all of this . Nevertheless he leaned closer to the flame, lighting his cig and taking a long first drag off it.
Majima somehow still just stood there, watching him quietly while he put the lighter back into the inner pocket of his snakeskin jacket. The smug smile on his face, as if he had something to say, made Kiryu uneasy.
Exhaling the smoke slowly into the air, Kiryu tried not to give in to the urge of blowing it right into Majima’s face instead, even though he was curious what kind of reaction that would get out of his elder. Majima was no longer above him, in theory at least. But Kiryu never found it in himself to disrespect the man like that.
“Thanks, Majima-no-nii-san. What are you doing here?”
“See, Kiryu-chan. Just because I don’t get to spend as much time chasing after ya anymore, doesn’t mean I won’t do it at all. Can’t have ya let yer guard down like this. Ya never know who might be out to get ya.”
Majima merely finished the sentence, before his hand reached behind his back, quickly pulling the tantō out of its sheath and completely switching his body stance into full on assault. Kiryu barely had enough time to act on it, dodging the knife that came swinging at his face by moving to the left and pushing himself off the bench, dropping the cigarette in the process.
Kiryu really didn’t feel like fighting again, especially after having fought a big group of thugs, but with Majima he never had a chance to talk his way out of it. His best bet was trying to shut the Mad Dog down as quickly as possible.
What Kiryu lacked in speed, he made up in brute strength and Majima knew that by heart, circling around him with his knife in hand, slightly leaning forward and keeping low to the ground. He couldn’t risk being hit head on by Kiryu or this fight would be over far sooner than he wanted it to. Luck seemed to be on Majima’s side, as he noticed Kiryu’s attention was partly on their surroundings. He probably was looking for something to strike Majima down with, a trashcan, a bicycle, it didn’t really matter- but for some reason nothing of use was lying around on the playground at all.
Taking the opportunity, Majima lunged forward, tackling Kiryu’s waist and using his bodyweight to ramp up the force, thus bringing both of them to the ground. Not losing any time, Majima straddled Kiryu’s chest, placing his legs hard on his shoulders to keep him down.
Chuckling to himself, he brought the tantō up to Kiryu’s cheek.
Kiryu struggled against Majima’s strong legs holding him in place, testing the resistance but not really getting anywhere with it. He grunted and glared at Majima, who seemed to take this as an invite to get closer to Kiryu’s face with his own, not breaking their eye contact.
“See Kiryu-chan, yer not paying attention! I can’t have the Dragon of Dojima walk around like a clueless idiot when I claim to be the one who gets to take yer life. Makes me look dumb as shit.”
Being so close to Majima’s face, Kiryu felt a weird warmth radiating off him, which in itself was nothing unusual when they fought, but they had barely moved at all so far. He squinted suspiciously, which Majima noticed right away. T hey were certainly not doing anything but glaring at each other still anyway.
“Majima-san, are you alright?”
“What are ya babblin’ on about?” Majima spat, clearly caught a bit off guard that Kiryu didn’t give in to any of his provocations.
“You’re sweating. Already.”, was all Kiryu gave him in response.
Needless to say, Majima didn’t like Kiryu acting like a smartass, driving his knife into the ground next to Kiryu’s head. Of course he knew exactly what Kiryu was talking about, but that wasn’t what he came for. He came for a fight and a fight he would get , none of this mollycoddling bullshit . It didn’t matter how his body felt, it had to obey and do whatever Majima wanted to. And right now, that was to get his adrenaline pumping and fight the stupid dragon underneath him.
Kiryu used Majima’s agitation to push himself down a bit, out of the harsh grip of his legs and pushed Majima over by grabbing his thighs and shoving him face down into the dirt- where Kiryu’s head had just been a few seconds ago.
Kiryu got back up on his legs as quickly as he could, in what little time he had until Majima would be on his as well, certainly pissed about what had just happened. There was a fire in his eye, telling Kiryu he truly had pissed him off with what he had just said and done to him.
Losing no time, Majima was already on him again, this time more frantic, his movements still quick but not as precise anymore. Kiryu still had to be fast to move out of the way, blocking the punches he couldn’t dodge, noticing the lack of strength behind them.
Majima was growing impatient by Kiryu’s lack of offensive, which just fueled his fire.
“Are ya just gonna keep up not doing anything?! This is why ya never save anyone Kiryu-chan, ya can’t just take the blows and never give ‘em out!”
He spat those words in Kiryu’s face like venom, trying to goad him into action and judging by Kiryu's darkening expression , it evidently had worked. Now it was his turn to be angry. He knew Majima was just trying to get him to be exactly that, but Kiryu’s day had been shit so far and his only break had been interrupted by Majima himself.
Instead of just defending himself from Majima’s next attack, Kiryu caught his hands by the wrists and held them in a fierce grip, tightening until Majima yelped. Then he pulled him closer in a sudden movement, bringing their heads together and essentially headbutting Majima, who in return instinctively went to cover his forehead with his hands. That gave Kiryu the opportunity to deliver a hard kick to the Mad Dogs chest that sent him flying. Following him right away, he knelt over Majima, giving him a few punches straight in the face.
Kiryu was just about to take another swing, when Majima coughed and spat out blood to the side. That snapped Kiryu out of his momentary rage and he stopped. Lowering his arm, he still knelt over his opponent, panting hard.
A few moments of silence, filled just with them breathing passed before Kiryu slowly backed off of Majima, kneeling on the ground next to him.
“Sorry.”, he murmured barely audible, looking at Majima, who was sprawled on the ground, only his chest moving heavily from his breathing.
“Don’t sweat it, I got what I wanted, ya can go home now.”, Majima replied breathlessly, still motionless and staring up at the night sky. He was still panting, even though Kiryu’s breathing had already calmed down again.
Following his instincts, Kiryu got closer to Majima’s face, touching it slowly- as not to startle the man. And just as he expected, Majima was feverishly hot to the touch.
“Nii-san, you’re burning up. Are you sick?”
That only earned him a grunt in response, followed by Majima trying very hard to prop himself up on his elbows and failing at that. Kiryu’s hands shot out to help him sit up, more out of habit than anything else, but that earned him another glare from Majima.
“I told ya to piss off.”, he hissed, slapping Kiryu’s steadying hand away from him.
“And you’re sick. I’m not just gonna leave you in a back alley after I beat you up, while you’re sick. Even if you kind of deserve that. I’m not such a person.”
Majima only cackled weakly at that and gave in. He wasn’t in the shape to keep bickering with Kiryu, especially not when he knew how the Dragon would get once he made his mind up.
“Fine, if that makes ya feel better.”
Not even acknowledging Majima’s remark, Kiryu took out his phone and called Haruka, who was in their apartment to let her know they’d have a guest tonight.
Getting Majima home wasn’t an easy task at all, especially because he kept refusing Kiryu’s help to walk steadily, but somehow they made it. Kiryu even managed to stop and get some over the counter medicine for the fever, without Majima acting too much like a child.
Once inside, Majima started to look more alive- and less like death walking, when Haruka opened the door for them.
“Uncle Majima? Uncle Kaz, you should’ve told me who it was!”
Haruka stood in the corridor pouting at Kiryu for withholding such information from her.
“Aw, don’t be all sour Haruka-chan!”, Majima chirped in his usual sing-sang voice, trying not to show that he wasn’t in his best form at all.
“He’s… not here for fun, Haruka.” Kiryu’s hand went to pat Harukas head and he gave her a slight smile.
“Can you make him some tea? He’s sick, that’s why he’s staying over.”
Nodding silently, she made her way into the kitchen. Both men slipped out of their shoes and proceeded to step further into the small flat, where Haruka and Kiryu currently were residing. It wasn’t much- a small room for either of them, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. But for them it was enough. Kiryu didn’t plan on staying for much longer anyway, he just needed to figure out where he’d go with Haruka to give her the life she deserved- away from everything crime-related.
Kiryu led an unusually quiet Majima into his room, which was only filled with a bed and a small table with beer cans scattered on it. There also was a children’s drawing of what seemed to be Kiryu on the wall above the table, probably from Haruka.
“This is my room. You’ll be sleeping on my bed.”
Majima thought about making a sly remark about the room being fitting for Kiryu, but didn’t. He somehow didn’t feel like it. Well, the only thing he really felt right now, was burning up from the inside. Kiryu didn’t question Majimas silence, he figured it was probably for the best not to remind him to be his usual self right now.
While Majima walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, Kiryu opened his wardrobe and began searching for something. After a few annoyed sounds, he turned back to Majima, throwing him a shirt and a pair of sweatpants.
“Put these on. Can’t have you sleeping in this... “ said Kiryu, gesticulating at Majima’s clothes.
Majima took the shirt in hand, looking at it in full size. It probably was too big for him, but considering the body difference between him and Kiryu it wasn’t much of a surprise. He did the same with the pants and grunted to himself.
“Don’t think these are gonna fit.” was all Majima said.
“It’ll be fine. They have a drawstring… they might be too wide, but they shouldn’t fall down if you tighten it enough. Get dressed, I’ll check on Haruka.” And with that, Kiryu left the room and closed the door.
As soon as the door closed, Majima sighed deeply. He wasn’t so sure why he went along with all thisl. Maybe his brain stopped working in his current condition, at least partly. He just didn’t have the energy to put on his usual annoying persona right now.
He slowly slid off the snakeskin jacket, realising how much it stuck to his skin due to his sweat. G etting it off him felt heavenly, with the cool air brushing against his clammy skin. . Following the jacket with his pants, he started undoing his belt and once again, cursed to himself for choosing to wear leather pants all the time. They were tight on him, barely moving at all and it took an embarrassingly long time to get them off.
Taking the sweatpants in his hands, h e slowly put them on by awkwardly shuffling into them from his sitting position. He was starting to feel dizzy and didn't want to try and stand up. Trying not to think about how ridiculous he just had to look right now, he tightened the pants as good as possible to keep them from sliding off his hips. He didn’t feel like putting the shirt on, preferring the cold air of the room on his skin right now. After all the hassle of getting dressed, he just laid down on the bed, trying to stop the room from spinning by focusing on a certain spot on the ceiling.
Meanwhile Kiryu explained to Haruka, that he preferred for her to stay away from Majima, so she wouldn't get sick as well. Once again Kiryu was grateful for how mature Haruka was for her age, as she handed him the tea for Majima and excused herself to her room to read before bed, already wishing him good night as she left the kitchen.
Tea in one hand, the tiny bag full of medicine he bought earlier in the other, he made his way back to his room, knocking on the door lightly before opening it. Majima was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling with a concentrated face. Kiryu had to muffle a laugh, when he actually took in how ridiculous and small Majima looked in his old pants. It didn’t even surprise him that the other hadn't bothered to put the shirt on , he rarely ever wore one anyways.
Walking slowly as to not spill any tea or to startle Majima, who so far still hadn’t acknowledged his presence at all, Kiryu walked closer to the bed. He carefully put down the teacup on the floor next to it, to get the medicine out of the bag.
“Here, Majima-no-nii-san.”, Kiryu said quieter than he expected his voice to come out, offering Majima the cup of tea and the medicine for his fever. Slowly but surely, Majima stopped looking at the ceiling to sit up. He took the things out of Kiryu’s hand, not even bothering to ask what kind of pill he handed him before swallowing it. Luckily the tea had already cooled down quite a bit, or he would’ve burned his tongue by the way he hastily emptied the cup. He exhaled audibly and handed the cup back to Kiryu who took it away from his hand carefully. Then he let himself plop back down onto the bed with a satisfying thud.
Kiryu got back up, and left the room to put the cup away and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed as well. Seeing himself in the mirror, he recapped the day in his mind and finally allowed himself to calm down . Washing his face, he noticed some leftover blood on his knuckles from his rage fit and it reminded him that he should probably clean Majima’s face before letting him fall asleep with blood on his face. Just what had Kiryu gotten himself into this time? Taking Majima home of all people, just because he knew the guy wouldn't take care of himself after being beaten up and Kiryu couldn't leave him . It kind of was Majima’s own fault in a way, for always trying to find the right spots to press to make him angry, but he shouldn’t have given in so quickly. He was just so exhausted that he didn’t think twice about hurting him. Kiryu shook his head in an attempt to stop thinking about the events of the day and continued to clean himself off.
After he got all dressed and ready, Kiryu walked back to his room with a wet face cloth, this time not bothering to knock as Majima was already dressed and in bed this time.
Unexpectedly, Majima already had fallen asleep, facing the wall and breathing evenly. Kiryu could only see the eyepatch that covered half of his face and settled on putting the wet face cloth on Majima’s forehead as good as he could without waking him up again. If a man like Majima fell asleep that quickly, he truly must have been exhausted.
Kiryu sat back down on the ground, just now coming to the realization that he didn’t have a futon, nor a second pillow or anything to sleep on, really. Sighing, he folded his jacket as best as he could into a makeshift pillow and just laid down on the ground next to the bed. It didn’t bother him too much, lying on the ground- he barely ever slept more than a few hours anyway. His thoughts kept him awake. Staring at the ceiling and trying not to be overwhelmed by memories, he just listened to the sounds of Majima’s even breathing.
This place. He had seen it before, hadn’t he? But where? He tries to remember, coming up with nothing. It’s dark around him, but he can see a room. Then he hears voices, they sound so familiar. He still can’t make it out yet. They get louder, one of them shouting. It’s a female voice, quite young. And a man. He sounds older, his voice is loud and clear but calm. The girl is screaming. Why?
His body trembles, he tries to move, but nothing happens. He feels weighed down, like his body doesn’t belong to him. Where is he? There’s nothing around him, it feels like he is watching a TV screen, the image before his eyes never changing, no matter where he tries to look.
Then the voices get louder, they’re coming closer. The door slams open, he sees the people whose voices he heard before, and knows he has seen them before. The girl gets dragged into the room by her hair, crying and screaming for anyone to help her, to explain what’s going on.
Why are they taking her? What did she do? Did she do them wrong?
He tries to remember, he knows he has seen this girl before. His heart is beating so fast, it feels like his chest is about to burst open. Then he sees the guy pull something out of his jacket. He’s hoping that it won’t be what he expects it to be. But it is.
The man points a gun at the girl’s head. Tells her it’s not her fault, but he has his orders, he can’t defy them or he will end up in the same place. He mentions a piece of land she owns. She stutters, begging him to let her go. How they got the wrong person. She doesn’t own anything in this country, has nothing of value.
Then there’s a loud bang. She falls to the ground, motionless.
And his heart, he swears it stopped beating. He wants to scream, but he can’t.
There’s no sound coming out, his body is keeping him a prisoner in this place.
Suddenly, everything turns to black.
He’s standing in a room, a bunch of guys in front of him. One of them points a gun towards him. Unmoving he watches the situation, and hears more than sees a bigger man to his left. The guy seems hurt, he’s kneeling on the ground, clutching his side with one hand, steadying his posture with the other on the ground.
“Lee-san! I got your cigarettes, can I come back in?”, the voice of a girl shouts into the room. Two of the men turn around, taking the girl. She starts screaming, demanding to know what’s going on, where is Lee-san? Why isn’t he helping her?
They drag her out of the door.
That little distraction was all the guy next to him. He’s throwing something towards the guy holding the gun, who grunts in pain and almost drops the weapon.
“Go, you’re the only one who can save her now. Don’t let them get h-”
A gunshot rings through the little room. The guy goes down on the ground with a thud.
He’s angry now, charging at the man with the weapon, knocking him clean out. In a swift motion, he picks his knife off the ground and downs the other two. He has to get to the girl, he has to. But he doesn’t know why. Yet his legs keep running.
They’re walking down the street, he spots the two thugs dragging her along. People around them are scared, they know not to mess with the Yakuza or they’ll end up in her place. He doesn’t mind, he has to do something. Catching up to them, he tackles one after another. When they’re both down, he grabs the girl’s hand. Tells her to stay close to him. She’s so scared, she sounds like she’s about to cry, but she still manages not to. But she complies and follows closely, never letting go of his hand.
Hiding in groups of people they try to get to a safe place. Somehow they really manage to outsmart them and turn around a corner.
It’s just the two of them now. A frightened girl, and a man trying to get her away from the bad guys. Then she breaks down, clinging to his leg, crying. And just now he notices how she stayed close all the time, clung to his hand and panicked whenever he loosened his grip on her to fight one of the thugs. She can’t see anything, can she? His hand finds a place on her head, patting it slowly to calm her down.
Suddenly he remembers why he’s there. Remembers his brother. It’s his fault he is in jail. It should have been him. Why did they lure his kyoudai into the trap and not him? But this is how he will make up for it. Be free again, make a name for himself and a place for his brother to come back to, so he can get the punishment he deserves.
It’s only one little thing he has to do. Obey his orders like the good dog he is. A well trained dog always heeds the command, right?
He pulls his tantō out of his jacket, unsheathing it at the same time. There’s no remorse, it’s not his decision to make. He drowns out his thoughts, he is no longer his own person. Stopped being that over a year ago.
A clean cut.
There’s so much blood. It’s running down her neck.
Her face drains of color and she drops against his leg, slowly sliding down towards the ground.
It never was his choice to make.
Kiryu woke up to the sound of whimpering, something that sounded like words. He sat up on the ground, looking towards his bed. Then he remembered who was currently occupying it and why.
Getting up and sitting down on the edge of the bed, he noticed Majima’s erratic breathing and aggressive movements. Trying not to startle the sleeping man, but not wanting to let him live through whatever nightmares he was going through right now, Kiryu slowly put both of his hands on Majima’s shoulders, prepared to push him down to keep him from freaking out.
“Majima-san, wake up.” He slowly shook him to get him to wake up.
As Kiryu expected, Majima jolts awake in a panic, trying to sit up but being held down by Kiryu’s hands. The pupil of his eye was blown wide open and it seemed like he was staring death itself in the face. His breathing started to turn into panting and Kiryu had to calm him down quickly.
Suddenly, Majima’s hands grabbed Kiryu’s wrists, trying to pry Kiryu off of him. His face showed that he still wasn’t aware of what was happening, probably still thinking it was another nightmare. Kiryu never had seen that look on Majima before, and for some reason he felt like he was never even supposed to see it. The distress on his face was clearly visible, his fevered dreams obviously haunting him and Kiryu was determined to bring Majima back to reality. Gently.
Knowing that he was probably going to get punched for it, Kiryu used what he learned worked best, whenever Haruka woke up screaming in the middle of the night from another nightmare. The child had seen things no person should ever have, and it regularly showed during nighttime. So at least Kiryu had some experience on how to handle the situation.
He quickly freed himself from Majima’s hands, and opened his arms wide- and pulled him into a tight embrace, tight enough to keep him from hurting either Kiryu, or himself.
“Majima-no-nii-san, it’s alright. You were dreaming. It was just a nightmare..” Kiryu tried using his most soothing voice, and after a few more moments of struggling, Majima went still in his arms.
When Kiryu was certain Majima was awake and aware of the situation, he released his hold on Majima and backed off from him completely . Or at least- he wanted to. When he tried to pull his arms away, one of Majima’s hands came to grab it. But this time, it was not a hostile movement. Instead, it was asking Kiryu not to leave. And so he did.
Kiryu stayed close to Majima, who was actively working to not meet his eyes , while making some suspicious sniffling sounds and occasionally wiping his free hand over his face.
They sat like this for what felt like an hour to Kiryu, but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t dare to break whatever moment both of them were having, and he didn’t want to make Majima angry. So he waited until he was completely calm again. Just letting him have that moment.
“Ya know… having a tragic-ass backstory really sucks sometimes Kiryu-chan.”, Majima broke the silence, trying to make fun of the situation as usual, instead of allowing himself this moment of weaknes s. He probably learned it was better that way.
“I think we all have our fair share of demons, Nii-san.”, Kiryu replied reassuringly, while rubbing slow circles on Majimas back. Of course they did. They were Yakuza after all, it was only natural for them to have had bad experiences. That was the life both of them chose.
Majima only let out a noise that was probably meant to sound like an agreeing one and for Kiryu that was more than enough.
“Are you feeling better at last? Your fever seems to have gone down quite a bit..” Kiryu tried to change the topics to get Majima’s mind off whatever happened in his nightmares. He also got up at the same time, walking a few steps and stretching, allowing the bones in his back to pop . When he looked back to the bed, Majima was looking straight at him. There was something in his eye that Kiryu couldn’t exactly pin down, but it felt like Majima wanted something from him.
The thought somehow made him blush, making it harder to voice what he was about to ask. Maybe he shouldn’t- maybe he read the mood wrong, but he was Kiryu after all, and being blunt about stuff like this was one of the things that made up his personality.
“Uhm… the ground isn’t quite the comfiest place to sleep. Do you mind moving over a bit, Nii-san?”, and the way Majima grinned slightly told Kiryu he wasn’t that far off after all.
“Sure. Ya feeling lonely down there, big boy?” Majima teased Kiryu, while slowly moving closer to the wall and making space for Kiryu to lay down next to him.
Kiryu just huffed a small laugh and settled his body down next to Majima, who was already laying down again, facing the wall as to not make this even more awkward than it had to be.
Pushing his luck, he put his arm around Majima’s waist, pulling just a little to see what reaction he would get out of him. Majima didn’t say anything- but he shuffled closer to Kiryu, so his back was flush with Kiryu's chest, enjoying the steady rhythm of his breathing so close to him.
Both just existed in the dark together, Kiryu slowly stroking Majima’s arm in a soothing manner.
And just before Kiryu was about to fall back asleep, he heard it. It was so quiet, he almost thought he imagined it.
“Thank you, Kiryu-chan.”
He hugged Majima tighter, and both of them fell asleep exactly like that, sharing warmth and forgetting their pain for once. Because they both might have lived through enough pain to last multiple lifetimes, but at least they had each other.