Chapter Text
Chuuya hadn’t expected to spend a day at the bathhouse with his coworkers.
Most of his days were spent working in some form or another; going to meetings, organising his subordinates or ploughing through mountains of paperwork were all part of the usual routine, and so to find himself walking into a common holiday spot made him feel slightly...peculiar.
As Chuuya lay on the floor of the men’s room after the day had passed, he couldn't help but find it difficult to sleep.
He could hear the snores of Tachihara and Kaji somewhere in the corner, and turning his head he could even see that Akutagawa had drifted off (even if he had his coat clasped tightly in his hands).
It was strange, because despite the comfort from the bath, the food and the booze, Chuuya had been staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, but he couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard he tried.
Kicking off the covers, pulling them over his head and lying in every position possible had done basically nothing to help, and when he realised that his efforts were starting to make Akutagawa stir, he just decided to count every visible pattern on the ceiling and hopefully pass out from boredom.
“Maybe it’s the change of routine…” Chuuya thought, spotting circle number sixty three.
He remembered how Mori had said they needed a “break to take care of themselves”, and while at the time he wondered why his boss had suddenly started acting like a philanthropist, he was starting to realise that he had a point.
All of his coworkers who had come with him, including himself, had probably been overworking just a bit too much recently; he couldn’t actually remember the last time he had been trying to make himself fall asleep rather than stay awake.
Thinking about it, it was also quite refreshing to be hanging out with everyone while not on a mission.
Sure, he would sometimes go to the bar with Kaji and Hirotsu or chat to Tachihara in the break room, but this was...different.
They were doing something normal, something that an everyday group of work colleagues would do, and while he knew that when the sun rose they would eventually have to return to their own version of “normal”, Chuuya was surprisingly happy to have been able to just have a little bit of fun.
It wasn’t a life changing trip in any way; sure, Kaji nearly blowing up the bath had been a bit distressing, but other than that nothing major had necessarily happened.
It had been a simple day out, and yet it made Chuuya crack a small smile to think about just how refreshing that simplicity had been.
In some ways, the relaxed, friendly atmosphere which had been hovering over all of them almost made him think of his times with the Sheep as a kid, and the thought added a hint of melancholy to his smile as he continued to stare at the ceiling blankly.
“Ah, I lost count.” He thought to himself, quickly pushing all sappy thoughts to the side to start over with circle number one.
Suddenly, Chuuya’s counting was interrupted by the sound of the door to Gin and Higuchi’s separate room sliding open.
Turning his head to the direction of his own door, he listened as he heard someone sit down on the landing outside, and was surprised to hear Higuchi’s voice.
“Yes...yes don’t worry, I’m okay...uh huh...that’s good...was school okay today?...woah that’s a good score, well done...”
Propping himself up onto his elbow, Chuuya couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation between Higuchi and the other person on the phone; when it came to Higuchi, he only knew her as the Akutagawa obsessed coworker who he would sometimes talk to by the coffee machine, so hearing a conversation like this felt really...actually, Chuuya didn’t know how to describe how he felt about it.
“...I’m sorry I’m not there tonight...was it a bad nightmare?...do you wanna get yourself a cup of tea?...oh yeah, of course, the kitchen’s dark…no, no, I don’t mind talking to you a little longer…”
Tip toeing over to the door so as to not wake any of the sprawled mafiosos below him, Chuuya sat down and opened it just a crack to see Higuchi with her knees tucked under her chin and her phone pressed against her ear.
He could only guess that she was talking to a friend or family member of some kind, and for some reason the thought made Higuchi seem distant and foggy in his mind.
After being so used to the determined, hard working image of her who he saw day in day out at the mafia, he felt a bit bad that he had never actually asked what her life outside of all the work was like.
He would talk about that kind of thing with pretty much everyone else he worked with; Hirotsu enjoyed studying German in his free time, sometimes he would bump into Gin and Akutagawa when they were on their way home from shopping, and Kaji would enjoy talking about his attempts at home cooking.
With Higuchi though, he drew a blank whenever he thought of what she was like outside the mafia, and so while he felt bad that he was technically snooping, he couldn’t help that his curiosity had got the better of him.
“...okay...yes, I promise I won’t get killed in the night...pinky promise...okay, I’ll see you when I get back tomorrow…goodnight…”
Pulling the phone from her ear, Higuchi placed it beside her and brought her hand beside the other on the top of her knees.
There was something about her expression which seemed tired, and it was one that Chuuya had never seen her wear before in the two years of knowing her.
Hesitating slightly, he quietly stood up and slid the door back, walking out onto the landing and standing next to her.
—
“Chuuya?” Higuchi blinked; she had just gotten off a call with her little sister when suddenly she heard someone clear their throat, and she turned around to see the executive standing next to her on the landing. Since it was late at night, this wasn’t what she was really expecting. “Not to be rude, but what are you doing out here?”
Chuuya’s eyebrow twitched slightly, almost as though he actually hadn’t thought about that, but he quickly replied with a casual air as though walking around at an ungodly hour in the morning was completely normal.
“...couldn’t sleep.” He deadpanned. “Anyway, who were you talking to?”
Higuchi smiled nervously, scratching her chin while glancing over at her phone. “Uh, is that an executive’s order?”
Barely anyone knew about her sister at home except from the boss, and for some reason the thought of sharing that seemingly everyday fact with someone else felt a bit daunting.
Chuuya crossed his arms with a thoughtful expression before sitting down next to Higuchi, giving her a friendly smile.
“Since we’re still on a mini holiday, no, it’s not.”
Feeling reassured, Higuchi’s expression relaxed as she looked out at the garden beyond the landing.
“My little sister.”
Chuuya’s eyes widened. “You have a little sister?”
Higuchi nodded, letting out a small laugh. “Yeah, but she takes care of me more than I take care of her, that’s for sure.”
As she said that, something in Higuchi’s face lit up in a way that Chuuya had never seen before, and she was like a completely different person to the one he saw at work.
“Does she know about all the…” Chuuya made a small gesture with his hands. “...you know.”
“Yeah, she does...at first I really didn’t want her finding out, but she’s pretty good at getting things out of me. She probably knew what I was doing from the start.”
Chuuya opened his mouth as though he were about to ask something, but he shut it again as though deciding it would be best not to.
Higuchi had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to say, though; she had been asked it plenty of times in her two years of employment:
“Why would someone like you join the mafia anyway?”
“I’m guessing it’s just you two, then.” Is what he said instead, and immediately Higuchi wished he had asked the original question.
“Just us.” She replied quietly, looking out at the garden beyond the landing.
It was littered with purple hydrangeas, and above them the clouds had started to darken, threatening to burst with rain.
She hoped it would rain; the sound was always soothing to her, and more importantly her sister. If it was raining over the city, then hopefully it would help her sleep...
“It feels slightly strange only just finding all this out after two years of knowing you.” Chuuya’s laugh snapped Higuchi out of her thoughts, and she started to panic slightly.
“Is that a bad thing?” She asked worriedly. “Is it unprofessional? Should I start talking more ab-”
Chuuya let out an impatient groan, waving his hand dismissively. “I told you, we’re still on a mini vacation, we’re not at work.”
“Oh, sorry.” Higuchi mumbled, a small thought suddenly blooming in her mind. “...is Akutagawa okay?” She asked, looking up at Chuuya inquisitively.
She noticed him roll his eyes with a frown, an expression which in her experience of talking to him at the coffee machine at work meant:
“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to get to this bit.”
“Yes, he’s fine. He’s asleep.” He answered shortly.
“He didn’t have any trouble or anything, did-”
“I already said, he’s fine.” Chuuya let out an exasperated sigh. “Honestly, I do wonder,” he turned to her with narrow eyes. “why do you obsess over him so much?”
Higuchi raised her eyebrows. “I don’t obsess over him.” She answered, confused.
Chuuya scoffed, looking out at the garden as rain drops started to patter down outside. “Then what would you call it?”
“I’m doing my job.” Higuchi replied stubbornly, feeling slightly annoyed at his sudden sour attitude. Sure, she was used to it, but it still bugged her, especially after he had been all “we’re not at work let’s be friendly” thing just a few minutes ago.
“Sounds like you’re over exceeding your job a little bit.” He pointed a finger at her. “You’re his partner, not his babysitter.”
The final jab at the end made Higuchi grip her knees tightly, and she felt her temper bubble dangerously in her throat.
“It’s not like you know anything about having a partner.” She muttered, staring determinedly at the downpour which had burst from the clouds outside.
Even though she couldn’t see him, she had a feeling that she had stepped over an invisible line, one which Chuuya had drawn for himself to form a circle around him and which no one was allowed to cross.
However she had done just that, and she found it a little hard to come up with a way of cutting through the tense silence which seemed to radiate from him and spread throughout the entire inn, even quieting the rain outside.
The situation reminded her of when she had done a similar thing to her little sister a few years ago, and at that time it took what felt like an eternity to get her speak to her again.
She felt bad. Then, and now.
Even if she wasn’t necessarily close with Chuuya, she had known him for two years and in that time, he had been really encouraging and kind, even if he made it clear when her rants about Akutagawa’s health were starting to drive him up the wall.
Slowly, she picked up her phone without really thinking, and her face was illuminated with the cold, blue light of the screen.
Pressing button after button until she was satisfied with the right picture, she passed the phone to the man beside her.
He didn’t pay any attention at first, but after about a minute of her holding it in the space between them, he reached out from his hand drawn circle and took it, looking down at the screen as the blue light illuminated his face.
Glancing at him, Higuchi realised just how tired he looked.
His eyes had dark shadows beneath them, indicating the hours he had spent working into the early morning and the stress from his job.
“This is her?” Chuuya asked quietly, staring down at the picture of her sister who was smiling awkwardly outside a high school entrance, wearing a uniform which was slightly too big for her and with her short hair hanging by her shoulders.
“That’s from this Spring when she started high school.” Higuchi said, waiting nervously for Chuuya’s reaction to see if he would return to being friendly again.
His mouth was pulled up into a small smile as he let out a tiny laugh. “She looks just like you.”
Higuchi frowned slightly. “You know, I don’t really want to be told that I look like a fourteen year old.”
Chuuya grinned slightly. “Nah, I’m joking, I can just imagine that this is what you looked like way back when you were a kid.”
Relieved at the fact that the executive seemed calm again, Higuchi reached over to press a button on the phone, flicking to another image of her sister.
This time, she was much younger, around ten years old, and holding a drawing which she had just made with a proud expression. Her hair was much longer and tied into plaits, and in the corner, Higuchi’s hand had cut in front to give a small thumbs up.
Chuuya pressed the button which Higuchi had, and continued to look through the photos of her and her sister, making comments every now and then or just letting out a small laugh.
It felt slightly weird to Higuchi that she was sharing so much with Chuuya, especially since not even the boss had seen this much of her sister, but for some reason she felt secure showing him.
“Is this one you?” He suddenly asked, tilting the phone slightly to show her the picture of a young, blonde girl with long hair tied in a braid down her back, wearing a high school uniform and surrounded by a group of friends, the black scrolls in their hands an indication they had just graduated.
Higuchi panicked slightly; he had gone pretty far back.
“Uh, yeah, but that’s from a while ago.” She laughed nervously, quickly grabbing the phone back and exiting the photo library. “Anyway after that point it’s all just boring pictures, so yeah.”
Chuuya snorted, but tried to pass it off as him clearing his throat.
Before he could form a reply, however, Higuchi’s phone started buzzing, and she made a quick “sorry, I need to take this” glance at him as she quickly answered.
“Hi sis…yep, I’m still alive...you really still can’t sleep?...counting sheep didn’t work, i see…” Higuchi looked over to Chuuya, who was clearly listening but looking out at the garden. “...how was my day?...shouldn't you be trying to sleep?...oh, fine...well, it was fun, I was hanging out with my coworkers…”
She could hear her sister humming with interest on the other side of the line, and she couldn’t help but smile.
“You were?” Her sister asked, and she could practically see her leaning forward in her seat on the bed with wide eyes.
“Yup, one of them nearly blew up the bath.” Higuchi said, listening to her sister make a small sound of confusion before giggling.
“They blew up the bath?”
“Uh huh, and Gin knocked me out at one point.”
“Woah! Wait, Gin is…”
“Akutagawa’s sister.”
“Oh yeah! Then there’s also the old guy with the monocle-”
“Hirotsu.”
“Oh! Was Kaji the one who blew up the bath?”
“That was him, yep.”
“Uh...and then there’s...Tachi...Tachi…”
“Tachihara.”
Higuchi could hear her sister snap her fingers over the phone.
“That’s it! Then there’s...Chuuda?”
“Chuuya.” Higuchi corrected with a snort.
“Isn’t he the cool short one who’s really super strong?”
“Um…” Higuchi turned to the man in question, who had looked over at hearing his name mentioned. “Yeah, that’s the one.”
Her sister went slightly quiet. “I wish I could meet them. It always sounds like you have so much fun.”
Higuchi smiled weakly. “I wouldn’t necessarily call my job fun.”
“Yeah, but it definitely sounds more fun than school...”
Noticing the frown in her voice, Higuchi remembered how she had come home the other week crying, curling up into a ball on the sofa.
Her missing shoe and wet uniform despite the sunny weather outside told Higuchi everything she needed to know, and she wasn’t surprised when she was asked to go into school for a meeting a few days later.
Suddenly, an idea popped into her head.
It was silly, but the thought of her sister curled up on her bed alone made her stomach feel heavy.
“Well, you know, Chuuya’s actually next to me right now.” Higuchi said, making Chuuya raise his eyebrows and tense up.
“Really?” The excitement in her sister’s voice was a huge contrast to what it was like a few moments ago, and she must have been so surprised that she didn’t even bother asking why they were hanging out in the middle of the night. “Can I say hi?”
“Of course you can!” Higuchi replied instantly without even asking the executive in question, and she passed the phone to Chuuya who was shaking his head and mouthing something along the lines of “not good with children” and “don’t want to upset her”.
Stubbornly, she kept the phone in front of him; if she was going to get in trouble for this when they were back at work, that was fine.
Eventually, Chuuya took the phone and regained his composure, giving Higuchi a small glance which delivered a message of both nervousness and hatred.
—
“...is this Higuchi’s sister?” He asked timidly, trying his best to dial down his executive voice.
“Woah! Are you Chuuya?!”
The voice on the other end was loud, excited and high, and Chuuya found himself leaning away from the phone slightly when she practically yelled at him. It didn’t annoy him like he expected though, and he found himself smiling as he brought the phone back to his ear to reply.
“Mhmm, that’s me.” He laughed. “What’s your name? I’ve only really known you as ‘Higuchi’s kid sister’.”
“Oh, I’m Natsu!” The small voice replied immediately.
“Hi Natsu, it’s nice to meet you. Or, rather, speak to you in this case.”
“This is so cool! I’ve wanted to speak to one of sis’ colleagues for ages! Tell me, what’s she like at work?”
“Hmmm…” Chuuya scratched his cheek in thought, giving a quick glance at Higuchi which made her raise an eyebrow. “She’s pretty cool, I guess.” He grinned, only puzzling Higuchi even more. “But I wanna know, what’s she like at home?”
This made Higuchi start to reach for the phone, but Chuuya quickly dodged and pushed her away again.
He could practically hear Natsu role her eyes over the phone. “God, she’s super lazy. You know, I have to do all of the chores? I have to cook dinner and everything and I’m a high schooler!”
Chuuya suppressed the urge to laugh, especially when he saw Higuchi with her face in her hands; she was clearly having regrets about this.
“What’s high school like?” Chuuya asked, genuinely intrigued by the idea of it; he’d never been and honestly barely knew anyone who had.
However the phone went quiet, and Higuchi looked up from her hands with a worried expression.
Oh.
“...not great, huh?” He sighed.
“No, not really.” The voice on the other end was a bit quieter than before.
Chuuya rubbed his temples in thought. “Is it the work, or the people?”
“Um...the people, I guess.”
“I see…” Chuuya hummed to himself; he didn’t really understand what high school was like, but he did hear about the bullying problem on the news or in the newspaper. Hell, it was even in some tv shows he’d watched.
“Do you know what I should do?”
Chuuya frowned, feeling guilty that when it came to that question, he genuinely didn’t have an answer.
If a subordinate was having trouble with people, he would say “beat them up” without hesitation, but when it came to a normal kid, he had no idea what to say.
He looked over to Higuchi, who looked...sad. The kind of sad that comes with guilt and worry.
Thinking for a moment, Chuuya lowered the phone and pressed the “speakerphone” button, before bringing it back up to reply.
“Well, how do they...make you feel? The people?” He asked quietly.
“Um…” the voice crackled through the speaker, and Higuchi’s frown deepened as she heard the sadness in her sister’s voice. “...it makes me feel lonely.”
Chuuya didn’t know why he was going out of his way in the early hours of the morning for a kid he had never even met, but they were already this far into the conversation so there wasn’t...really any point in going back now. What’s more, she made him think of the kids he used to look after in the Sheep.
Sometimes, they would come home to the hideout with black eyes, hanging onto his arm as they talked about how they had been beat up by other kids in the slums with teary eyes.
In those situations, he would always make them point him in the direction of whoever beat them up, and give them twice the damage, even if they were twice as big as he was.
This time, however, he couldn’t do that.
Gripping onto the phone a little tighter, he racked his brain for a reply he could give.
“Okay...do you know what makes you feel...better when that happens?”
“Well...talking to my sister helps…” the voice replied. “She might drive me up the wall, but she always gives good hugs.”
“Good hugs, huh?”
“Uh huh.” Even though he couldn’t see her, Chuuya could tell she was smiling as she continued. “Her hugs are the best. Also, when she does bother to cook, it’s somewhat edible. When I first told her about the people at school, she made me a chocolate cake.”
“Is that your favourite?” Chuuya asked.
“Yeah, it is. It didn’t taste very nice, but she spent hours on it so I ate it anyway. Oh, yesterday she actually waited for me after work to walk me home from school! I can’t remember the last time she walked me home since she started working at the mafia, so it made me really happy.” Natsu continued to ramble about how Higuchi had run to the store in the middle of the night once to get food when she was sick, stayed up with her until morning when she’d had a bad dream, and countless other stories.
As Chuuya listened and the kid’s voice continued to crackle through the speaker, he looked over to Higuchi at times to see her looking down at the floor, rubbing her eyes furiously every now and then.
After a few minutes, Natsu yawned, and her voice became droopy and slurred.
“Do you think you’re ready to go to bed yet?” Chuuya asked, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible.
“Y-yeah, I think so.” She replied, stifling another yawn. “Can I say goodnight to big sis? I don’t want her getting worried or anything.”
“Of course...oh, and Natsu?”
“Uh huh?”
“I’ll be sure to pop by some time so I can say hi properly.” He said; he knew he’d be cursing himself later since he didn’t really have much time to do something like that, but he pushed the negativity to the corner of his mind just for the moment.
“Really?” The kid’s voice was tired, but happy. “That’ll be awesome…”
“I’ll hand you back to your sister now.” Chuuya smiled, passing the phone to Higuchi.
However, the big sister in question was still looking at the floor, and it took awhile for her to pick up the phone from Chuuya’s hand.
“...goodnight, sis…yeah...I love you too...goodnight…”
When she snapped her phone shut, Higuchi rubbed her eyes again, and looked at the garden; the rain had passed, and the purple hydrangeas were illuminated by the moon which had passed out from behind the clouds.
—
Higuchi was trying her best to get herself together.
She knew it was unprofessional, and that to be too sappy in the mafia was stupid.
Passing the phone between her hands, she thought over how Chuuya had happily talked to her sister in a way that she had never heard before; she had been expecting him to be his usual blunt, brash self, and when he mentioned high school she felt her blood go cold.
Despite her assumptions, however, he had been really good about it.
It made her feel happy, but also curious as to why he would persist that he was so bad with kids despite that clearly not being the case.
“Thanks for talking to her.” She said eventually, her throat croaky and dry. “She’d always wanted to talk to you in particular. She really likes the whole thing of fighting and stuff, so you’re probably the favourite out of all the coworkers I tell her about, so you um...you made her really happy.”
Chuuya remained silent for a moment.
“You don’t give yourself credit, you know.” She heard him say. Glancing over, she saw him looking at her with a friendly smile. “As a sister, I mean.”
“She kind of overshared with some of those stories, though…” Higuchi laughed to herself. “Anyway, you don’t give yourself enough credit either.”
Chuuya blinked. “How so?”
“You’re surprisingly good with kids.”
The executive rubbed the back of his neck as though embarrassed. “I’m not most of the time...it’s just that your sister reminded me of someone I used to know.”
“Really? From your early days in the mafia?”
Chuuya shook his head, a slightly melancholic smile crinkling his eyes. “From before all that.”
He didn’t say anything else, and Higuchi didn’t ask any further.
Never before had he even mentioned anything about his life before the mafia to her, and he didn’t know if he had ever actually opened up about it to...anyone she knew.
“Well, I promise I won’t mention anything when things go back to normal tomorrow.” She grinned, giving him a soft punch in the shoulder.
“Yeah you better not.” He said, giving her a slightly harder punch and getting up from the floor. “Anyway, I’m gonna have to pay a visit to your place, remember?”
Higuchi felt herself shudder a bit at the thought; her apartment wasn’t necessarily the most impressive.
“I’ll probably need a bit of prep before that, if it’s okay.” She laughed nervously. “But, Chuuya, seriously... thank you.”
Chuuya sighed wearily, rolling his eyes but still smiling.
“I’ll see you in the morning…” he said, turning back towards the door to his room. “You know, it’s really nice talking to you when you’re talking about...you.” He gave one last friendly smile before going back into the room and sliding the door shut, leaving Higuchi out on the landing.
Taking one last look at the moonlit garden outside, she too went into her room, unsurprised to see Gin awake and looking at her inquisitively.
“Shut up.” She mumbled, yawning and flopping onto the floor, falling asleep straight away.
In the other room, Chuuya fell asleep a little easier, not by counting patterns on the ceiling but by thinking of more topics to talk about with Higuchi in the break room when they got back to work.