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A lone figure walks down the dark street, the figure was slightly bopping his head along with the beat of the music he's blasting over his earphones. He had his hair up in a low ponytail though a few stubborn strands fell over his face, shielding it from sight. He runs his hands through his honey blond hair, pushing it back temporarily, whistling as he shoves his hand in his pocket to shield them from the cold, crisp air. His teeth chatters slightly and he curses himself for his idiocy.
Haruki Nakayama owns a flower shop, he mans it by himself -he could hire someone but currently no one wanted to work in a flower shop- and has always made it a point to go back home before the sun sets but he fell asleep at the counter today and now he has to walk home in the dark. His apartment isn’t far but the neighbourhood he lives in is far from safe in the middle of the night. He wraps his arms around him to fight the cold and continues on home.
“Get down on your knees,” a gruff voice came from behind him.
This is not happening.
“Are you deaf? I said get down on your knees.”
Why today of all days!?
“Hey! I said to get down on your knees.”
I slowly sink myself down to the floor, trembling and hoping that the mugger doesn’t do any bodily harm to my person.
“Now, turn. Slowly.”
I hold in a whimper as I slowly turn myself, towards my mugger. I don’t know what I expected but whatever it was, it was definitely not the Adonis in front of me. It was too dark to make out every feature on his face but those striking green eyes of his stood out. He stared me down, eyes never wavering and it felt like his eyes were piercing my very soul. I matched his stare with my amber eyes and before I could stop myself the question came tumbling out.
“What’s your name?”
What the hell, Haru!? Do you want to die today!?
“What?”
My mugger sounds confused well who wouldn’t, you’re mugging someone and your victim asks for your name.
“Why are you mugging? Do you not have a home? Not enough money to pay bills? You don’t have to do this, you know? There are people that can help you. I can help you. This is not a healthy lifestyle. If you get caught, you will be thrown in jail and let’s face it, you’re too pretty for jail. I promise you if you put your knife down right now, we can go to my house and you can stay there for however long you need to get back on your feet or I can give you a job.”
“Shut up.”
“I promise I won’t call the police.”
“Shut up.”
“You can come with me, I can give you a job. You can stop mugging people. It’s not safe to be doing this.”
“Shut up.”
I want to shut up too but for some reason my mouth is not stopping. I guess deep down I realized that this person needs help.
“I can give you the help you need.”
“SHUT UP!!”
I look him in the eye and make sure my tone is soothing and my voice is soft.
“Come with me, you won’t have to do things like this ever again. I own a flower shop. It’s doing really well, I’m thinking of opening another shop on the other side of town and I have got all the papers set and ready to go. I just need to hire someone to hold down the fort as I cannot be in two places at a time. I can give you the job.”
He looked away, hope grows in me as each moment passes, thinking that he would reconsider what he’s doing. He inhaled sharply, and locking his eyes back to mine he shakes his head and says,
“Hand me your phone and your wallet.”
My heart breaks a little as I could see the longing in his eyes.
“You don’t want to do this. I could see it in your eyes. What’s stopping you? I meant what I said. I’ll take care of you, you can stay at mine until you can stand on your own two feet, no rush. I promise I won’t call the police and I won’t do anything that’ll hurt you. I am sorry that you have to rob people to survive but you don’t have to do that any lon-”
“I said give me your phone and your wallet. Don’t make me use the knife.”
My heart breaks hearing him say that. It didn’t hit me until now how invested I was about helping him. He looks young, maybe twenty, he could have a better life. I smile despondently as I hand him my belongings.
He hesitates before taking it and run and if that wasn’t a cry for help I don’t know what is. Unfortunately, it was way too dark and way too cold for me to chase after him.
I walked home in a brisk pace, reaching my apartment in no time. I unlock my door, and slides down it as I close it. I feel tears fall down my eyes, remembering another time, a much happier time. Laughter rings through my head, laughter that I’ll never get to hear ever again. I lean back and let the hot tears to slide down my face, a sob escapes my lips and it feels like a dam broke as all my sorrows came pouring out, each sob more heart-wrenching than the previous one. Memories fly across my eyes, a smile, pretty grey eyes, laughter and a gunshot. I hug my knees to myself as I feel myself starting to calm down. I sit there for a while just staring into nothing, immersing myself into old memories I thought I have buried deep inside.
All of a sudden a ring burst through, jerking me awake. I rub my eyes and look at the clock 5:45 am, well shit, I stand up and stretch feeling my back pop and walk over to my coffee table where the house phone is located at. I pick it up and groggily answer it.
“Hello.”
“Hey.”
I instantly perk up, the voice sounded familiar. I thought back to my Adonis mugger and dismissed the thought immediately.
“Hey, so this is your mugger. I mean I have your phone and wallet. Do you want it back, Mr. Nakayama?”
Dumbfounded, I stood there not knowing what to say.
“Hello? You there? Damn, I knew I should not have ca-”
“No! Hi! I’m here! I’m here! Don’t hang up! Yea, I want my stuff back how about I meet up with you at 7:30 at the park around the corner from where we were just now? Is that alright? Remember to bring your person with you; wait, what I mean to say is- is that I want you to come not just my stuff. Okay? Hello?”
Did I come on too strong? Damn. I was just so surprised he called back.
“Yea, no prob.”
And he ended the call, I stood there for a few moments before jumping around in a happy dance. I don’t even know why I’m so happy. 7:30 came quickly and I bundled my way through familiar pathways to get to the park. When I reached there, I do not see my handsome mugger and so I decided to wait. Also deciding that I will not be opening shop today. Before long, I see a tall figure enter the park and striking green eyes swivel about looking for me, I stood up and waved wildly trying to get his attention. He turned to look at me and my breath stopped.
He has blonde hair and he was taller than me -and I’m considered very tall already- he was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and blue jeans that did everything for his butt and long legs. His legs look like they would never stop, he has thin lips and a tall nose.
I felt my heart stutter as I make eye contact with his beautiful green eyes, the way the sunlight hit it made him look like he just came out of a fairytale. He walked over, rubbing the back of his neck with his ridiculously big hands. Oooh, what I would give to feel those hands on me. Wait, no. Shake those thoughts, you’re here to help him not sleep with him. He came to a stop in front of me and I realized that I have to look up slightly in order to talk to him comfortably.
“Yo.”
He’s blushing. He’s adorable.
“Hullo.”
I gestured for him to sit down with me and we each took a seat, turning slightly so I’m facing more towards him I found that he did the same thing and that his eyes has little gold freckles in them. He thrust his hand out, a small pouch in hand.
“H-Here’s your stuff.”
He looked down, blushing. I smile slightly and took my stuff gently, hoping that he doesn’t leave right after.
“My name’s Akihiko Kaji. You can call me Aki,” he said abruptly.
Nodding, I held my hand out for him to shake.
“Haruki Nakayama. Call me Haru. How old are you?”
“20. Is that job offer still open?”
He is so pure, I just want to take him up in my arms and not let go. And that’s the sleep deprivation talking.
“The job offer is still open, but right now I need to sleep. I didn’t really sleep last night. What with all the mugging and stuff.”
He looks down and mumbles what I assume is suppose to be an apology, I wave it off and asked if he had a place to stay and apparently he does not. He currently sleeps in his Ex’s place. I offered him to come home with me and he grudgingly accepts the offer. The walk home was slightly awkward but I ignore it in favor of asking Aki all sorts of questions. “So, how long have you been mugging?”
I close my eyes and resist the urge to smack myself in public, lest someone decides to call the mental hospital and call it in. “Don’t answer that. The was incredibly rude of me and I sincerely apologize. I’m usually not like this. I promise.”
Aki chuckled and shook his head slightly, “I’ve been robbing since I was a kid. I didn’t have the best home life. Mom ran out on me and dad, so he got drunk and he was not a nice drunk. He was abusive and useless. I had to steal food to survive. When he got fired from his job for showing up drunk again, he finally decided that enough was enough and tried to kill me. A neighbour heard the noises coming from our apartment and decided to call the police. If they hadn’t shown up when they did I would not be standing here right now. After that, they pushed me into the system which obviously doesn’t work unless you’re one of the lucky ones. So I ran away from the foster home and ended up on the streets where I had to steal for a living. Up until last night, where I met this really weird person. I was holding him at knife point and he decided to offer me a job, as a florist of all things. I did the most logical thing to me at that time, run. I called him after that and decided that I really want to give the florist thing a shot. Plus, it helps that he’s really cute.”
He looked me dead in the eye and I couldn’t take it anymore, I yanked him down from his shirt and smashed my lips against his. I felt him tense a bit before melting against me, wrapping his large hands around my waist and pulling me close. I arms wound up around his neck and my fingers played with the hair at the base of his neck.
We pulled away from each other, the need to breath was getting in the way. I felt like I couldn’t get enough of him, I peek up at him through my eyelashes and saw him staring at me. I feel a smile tug at my lips before interlacing our hands together and pulling him along to my apartment. My smile turns into a grin when I felt him squeeze my hand and I squeeze back, assuring him silently that everything will be okay now and that I will help him through this. He presses a kiss into my temple and at that moment we knew that everything will really be okay, cause we’re here to love each other and sometimes that’s all there is to it. Just loving the right person.