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The first time was when someone in Company 7 found out that the new seconded girl from Company 8 liked to eat Taiyaki and bought her some for breakfast. When she sank her teeth into her favourite Taiyaki, her usual shy and reserved face broke into a blinding infectious grin for the first time since she had arrived at Company 7. Konro had to admit she had a very adorable smile that wrinkled the corner of her big eyes and those dimples at completely symmetrical distances from her mouth worked perfectly. He could see most of his men were staring transfixed at this new pretty outsider.
The next morning, there was Taiyaki on the table again. She was as confused as the rest of the company, until Shinmon Benimaru stood in front of her and said, “This is from the best Taiyaki stall in the whole Asakusa. It usually sells out by mid-morning,” as if he was trying to make a stand about something.
She was taken aback that the stoic and nonchalent captain of Company 7 would bother to queue (or maybe skip the queue) for Taiyaki so early in the morning, but she shyly accepted it anyway. Benimaru watched carefully as her teeth pierced through the perfectly baked skin, and the contents slipped into her mouth, and she let out a soft satisfied sigh with pure bliss naked on her face. Konro thought he saw Benimaru’s lips twitch.
She wiped her mouth daintly with her handkerchief, and stood up from her seat, folding her body in half. “Thank you, Captain Shinmon.”
Benimaru grunted and walked away.
The next morning, there was Taiyaki again.
The morning after, still Taiyaki . By now, Konro could tell even the new girl was starting to be uncomfortable at Benimaru’s strange behaviour. One of the men saw the Taiyaki on the breakfast table and went, “Taiyaki again?”
The glare that Benimaru shot him was so full of killing intent that Konro thought the poor man would piss his pants. (Afterwards, Benimaru personally punished him during training, and Konro had to step in before he ended up killing the poor guy over a comment about Taiyaki that was in fact on everybody’s mind.)
After breakfast, Konro pulled Benimaru one side and said, “You need to stop buying Taiyaki in the morning. She may like Taiyaki but she’s not going to eat it every morning.”
Benimaru scowled. “What’s wrong with eating your favourite food every morning?”
“Because you’ll get sick of it.”
Benimaru’s frown deepened but he seemed to understand. There was no more Taiyaki for breakfast the next morning.
---
The second time was when she went out to a woman’s bar late at night with the ladies from Company 8. For some odd reason, Benimaru wasn’t pleased and he called Captain Obi to demand for the address of the bar that his officers dragged the new girl to (although Konro knew that she had been looking forward to the trip for a few days now so she can’t possibly had been dragged to the bar by the Company 8 women).
Konro suspected that that night was the first time she had ridden on the Matoi too with Benimaru, because when he landed in front of the guardhouse, having picked her up from her late night trip, she fell to the ground and let out shaky breaths to steady herself. Instead of comforting her, Benimaru went straight into the guardhouse without a word, his room door sliding shut with a loud thud in the distance.
Konro approached her and squatted next to her. “Are you okay?”
She was still shaking a little but she nodded her head. Konro made a note to scold Benimaru later for bringing her back on such a dangerous mode of transporation and then ditching her to get over her fear alone.
“Is… Captain Shinmon angry with me?” she asked, quietly.
Konro smiled. “Don’t worry. You did nothing wrong. It’s your off day. You can do whatever you want on your rest day.”
“He just grabbed me from nowhere and shot up to the sky before I could prepare myself. That thing is frightening!”
“It’s late, and he’s worried about you getting back here by yourself, although I agree that the way he handled it could have been gentler.”
“… he’s worried about me?”
Konro continued to smile at the clueless girl. “Get some rest. You still need to wake up early tomorrow.”
---
The third time was Konro’s doing. Having seen Benimaru’s terrible way of flirting, he decided to step in. Asakusa held festivals regularly, and this was going to be her first festival since she was seconded to Company 7. You made Benimaru promise to take her around the festival grounds since he was the Captain and it was his responsibility to ensure she knew her way around the town. The other men who overheard the conversation were snickering in the background because they knew that was an excuse. Konro hoped Benimaru wasn’t that dense.
Maki, Tamaki and Iris from Company 8 had came by in the late afternoon and the four girls hid in her room, until she was to meet Benimaru at the entrance of the guardhouse.
“She’s late,” Benimaru complained, tapping his foot impatiently.
“Waka, she needs to get ready.”
“It’s just another festival. They are all the same anyway.”
“To her, it’s her first so forgive her if she wants to make an impression.”
“On who?”
Konro chose not to reply. As dense as his Captain was, some things needed to be discovered by himself.
She soon appeared in a lilac yukata, flowers adorning the hems, the purple bringing out the colour in her eyes. Her long wavy hair that was usually let down, was now up in a fancy and complicated updo. She shyly approached Benimaru, a small tinge of blush on her cheeks, and bowed to him demurely.
“Thank you for offering to take me around the festival, Captain Shinmon.”
“You’re late. Let’s go.”
Konro twitched and using his foot, he discreetly stopped his Captain from turning his back on his date, at least not without sending a few compliments about her carefully made appearance first. Since Benimaru didn’t seem to know the proper etiquette, Konro needed to show him.
“You look very nice tonight, [Y/N].”
She giggled, her hand reaching out to touch her hair shyly. “My friends from Company 8 did my hair for me. What do you think of it? Does it look nice from the back?”
She spun around and showed the neat braids that eventually led to the hairbun at the nape of her neck. It did look nice. Benimaru kept silent and Konro had to elbow his Captain, shooting him a look that he hopefully interpreted as ‘Say something’.
Benimaru returned a scowl to his lieutenant. “It could’ve been better.”
Konro wanted to hit his Captain. Although Konro couldn’t see her face, he saw the tension in her shoulders, and when she turned around and said, “It’s a shame. They put in a lot of effort,” Konro could tell she was hurt by Benimaru’s blunt remark.
Konro really wanted to hit his Captain.
---
The fourth time ended up in a casualty, although said casualty had volunteered himself.
By now, everyone in Company 7 had witnessed the horrendous way their Captain had flirted with the seconded girl (Taiyaki for breakfast was now a running gag in Company 7), and how the poor girl had to sort through her feelings about all the weird signals she kept receiving from the destroyer of Asakusa.
One of the man had suggested martial arts training with her, because firstly sparring between members was not out of the ordinary and she was still a member of the Special Fire Force. Secondly, there was a high chance of physical contact between the trainer and the trainee, which could make Benimaru finally take action because of his jealousy. Not to mention, Benimaru was the most skilled martial artist in Company 7 so he would’ve have wanted her to spar with him, instead of his men. Or at least that was the plan.
Konro kinda knew this wouldn’t end well, but he had tried the ‘date’ thing already and even Benimaru screwed that up. Maybe he would do better showing his feelings by doing what he did best.
She didn’t suspect a thing. It was just another regular sparring session. This was the third day they were doing it, because somehow Benimaru was away for the first two days so their plan had failed, not that she was aware that there was a plan in the first place. Konro was tasked to lead their Captain strategically to the training grounds so he would ‘stumble’ across his girl getting handsy with another man.
Benimaru had a short temper. He was stubborn and often jumped to conclusions that were wrong, and Konro always had to resort to extreme measures to make him see the truth.
The moment Benimaru set eyes on one of his man wrapping his arms around her, he moved. One moment he was beside Konro, the next he was beside the two. He yanked her out of his man’s embrace, and although there wasn’t any firepower in his hit, it was still powerful enough to send the man sprawling backwards on the dirt.
“If you want someone to spar with, spar with me.”
“Waka!” The man scrambled to his feet (Konro let out a small breath of thanks that Benimaru hadn’t crushed the poor man’s ribcage). “I was demonstrating the most effective way to come out from a bear hug.”
“How about I demonstrate it on you?” Benimaru took a menancing step forward which caused the other man to take a step back.
“Erm…”
“Come at me! Or are you a coward? I don’t recall having cowards in my Company.”
Konro knew the man knew he was screwed and that Benimaru was serious about beating him to pulp in the name of ‘sparring’. Well, it was his idea, so he should’ve seen it coming.
The officer tried his best but this was angry Benimaru and angry Benimaru was merciless. Even without firepower, the fight only lasted 5 minutes. Konro instructed the other men to help the injured man into the infirmary. He shook his head in exasperation.
“Waka, it’s just training.”
“Didn’t look like it to me.”
“Then what did it look like to you?”
Benimaru was shifting his jaw agitatedly, as if he was sulking more than he was angry. At least he knew he overreacted in this incident.
“Do you want to take on her training then?” So that no other men can lay their hands on her, Konro didn’t say but he knew Benimaru could catch the implied meaning of his words.
It was subtle but Konro could tell Benimaru was embarassed, from the way his eyebrows furrowed deeper and how he shifted his weight to his left leg and then back to the right, as if it would help alleviate the awkwardness he was feeling.
“Captain Shinmon,” she suddenly spoke up, causing the two men to shift their attention to her. “As a Captain, you must be busy with many things so you don’t have to waste your time training me.”
“It’s not a waste of time,” Benimaru replied quietly.
Konro held his breath. Did the plan work? Was Benimaru finally going to say the right things?
“But you’re right. I have other better things to do. Konro can train you.”
It took all of Konro’s willpower to not want to strangle his Captain.
---
The fifth time, Benimaru approched Konro instead.
Benimaru was awkward around people. He said things without thinking, hurtful things, and it took a lot of time and patience from people to understand that he didn’t mean a single thing he said. He was just awkward.
Another awkward thing he tended to do, was when he had something on his mind but he didn’t know how to bring it up. So he would follow after Konro like a lost puppy until Konro had to ask him what’s on his mind.
“What is it, Waka?”
“… it’s about [Y/N].”
They were alone in the watchtower. It was Konro’s duty tonight, although Benimaru tried several times to excuse Konro from watchtower duty. But Konro needed it. He wanted to protect this town as much as Benimaru, and this was one of the less physical things he could do.
“Are you finally going to admit you have feelings for her, Waka?”
Benimaru fidgeted. “She makes me lose my cool all the time. I get irritated when I see her smiling to the other men. I get irritated when they touch her, even if it’s the briefest of contact like on the shoulder. I get irritated when she smiles at everyone but when it comes to me, her smile is forced and unnatural.”
“Sounds like you have feelings for her.”
“I think she needs to leave.”
Konro’s head snapped to his captain. “What?”
“She needs to leave. I can’t concentrate when she’s around. Send her back to Company 8.”
This… idiot .
“No,” Konro rejected flatly. “I will not send her back to Company 8. It’s not her fault Shinmon Benimaru has feelings for her but doesn’t know how to act like a proper gentleman around her.”
Benimaru’s eyes narrowed. “How is this my fault?”
“Because you’re not being honest with yourself, Beni.”
“Oh yeah? You want me to admit that I have feelings for her? Fine. I like her. I like [Y/N]. But I still want her to leave because liking her is getting in the way of my duties!”
“Because you need to tell her how you feel!”
“Why? So she can laugh in my face and tell me she will never like someone like me?”
There it was.
Shinmon Benimaru, destroyer of Asakusa, strongest man in the Special Fire Force combined, a deadly compound soldier who could create and control fire, was afraid of being rejected by the girl that he likes.
It started as a tickle in Konro’s throat, scratching at the walls, until Konro had to let it out.
“Stop laughing!” Benimaru glared at his lieutenant.
All this while, Konro thought Benimaru was just trying to show his feelings in his own strange ways, but it turned out that his captain was uncertain instead. He cared so much about her but was afraid that she didn’t care about him. If only he knew all the glances she snuck at him when he wasn’t looking, or how she had a copy of last year’s Fire Force nude calendar hidden somewhere amidst her belongings, the month permanently stuck on July.
“Waka, you need to tell her how you feel. And not in that weird roundabout way that you had been doing for the past few weeks.”
“Why is she so dense? I can’t be anymore obvious.”
This time, Konro allowed himself to smack his Captain across the head. “ You are just as dense. You hadn’t been forthcoming with her, how is she supposed to know what you’re trying to tell her?”
“Like beating up my men because of her isn’t obvious enough?”
“No.”
Benimaru hissed out in frustration, and Konro could tell the young man was getting impatient. “Waka, I’ll help you but you must agree to do everything I tell you to, including what to say and what not to say.”
“… fine.”
So Konro set them up on another date, this time with Benimaru’s permission and agreement to do everything right. He even sourced for this remote-controlled taser that he placed in Benimaru’s clothes and told him he would tase him everytime he did or said something wrong. Benimaru wasn’t pleased about it but he did agree to do everything Kondo told him to do, so he had no choice. Even Hikage and Hinata had joined Konro in the spying, because they wanted to see Benimaru being tased.
Sadly, after the botched first date, she didn’t bother to dress up for Benimaru the second time round. She was in a simple dress and her hair only looked like it was combed… maybe. No makeup, no nothing, almost like she didn’t want to be on this date.
“Compliment her,” Konro instructed into a walkie talkie he borrowed from Company 8, that was linked to the earpiece in Benimaru’s ear.
Benimaru visibly swallowed and he sounded like he had to force the words out. “You… look… nice.”
Irritated, Konro pressed the button on his remote control and Benimaru twitched. The twins squealed in glee.
“Say it nicely, Beni,” Konro scolded.
“Do I have to say it again?” Benimaru whispered angrily back, causing his date to stare at him like he had grown two horns on his head.
“Don’t reply to me!”
Benimaru scoffed and he took in a deep breath. This time, it sounded more sincere. “You look nice.”
However, she still looked suspicious. “Thanks, Captain Shinmon.”
“Don’t be discouraged,” Konro said into the walkie talkie, althought he wasn’t entirely sure if he was comforting Benimaru or himself.
Being the captain of Company 7, Benimaru was often in the spotlight in Asakusa. Everyone in the town knew him, whether as the destroyer of Asakusa or as a hero, everyone wanted him to be the one to put them to rest if they ever turned into an Infernal. Single ladies (and men too) launched themselves at him, trying to get him to give them a second glance, but not one of them succeeded.
[Y/N] was an honest but welcome surprise. Who’d knew that a simple girl next door (literally, since she was from Company 8) could capture the heart of Shinmon Benimaru with just one smile? Seeing him on a date now made Konro want to cry like a proud father.
Konro stalked Benimaru and his date from a distance, Hikage and Hinata hanging from his shoulders for a change. The earpiece in Benimaru’s ear could pick up voices and transmit them to Konro’s walkie talkie but Konro noticed that the walkie talkie was exceptionally silent. Were they seriously walking in silence?
“Press the button again!” “Again!”
The twins chorused and Konro obliged. Benimaru jumped from the sudden shock, and the twins fell onto the ground in silent laughter.
“Talk to her,” Konro instructed. He didn’t have to see Benimaru’s face to know that Captain was irritated at the sudden shock.
“So…” Benimaru drawled, searching through his brain to find a common topic. “How’s Company 7 so far?” Konro thought it wasn’t the best conversation starter, but he decided to let it slide.
“It’s fine.”
Seriously? Did she lose interest in Benimaru along the way or something? Way to kill a conversation. Konro opened his mouth to give his next set of instructions but Benimaru beat him to it.
“Are you happy here?”
She looked at Benimaru in surprise. When Benimaru turned to return a look of his own, she looked away with a slight flush on her cheeks.
“Yeah…”
“Do you want to go back to Company 8?”
“Don’t you dare, Beni,” Konro warned in his ear.
“I do miss Company 8, but it is nice here too. And everyone here has been so kind to me, even though my Company was met with hostility at the start. I was a little worried at the start, but I guess there was no reason to be.”
Benimaru cleared his throat awkwardly. “Let me know if they treat you differently.”
She let out a soft laugh. “And risk them getting beaten up by you?”
Even from a distance, Konro could see the flush on Benimaru’s cheeks. A rare sight but a good sign. This was going better than he had expected. He was so engrossed in their conversation that he didn’t notice the twins slipping their small hands into his pocket and stealing the remote controlling the taser.
“Captain Shinmon, can I ask you something?”
Konro felt his heart speed up. This was it. The crucial moment. If she confessed, that would save Benimaru from making a clumsy confession of his own. Benimaru couldn’t possibly fuck up a received confession, could he? Well, if he said anything wrong, Konro always had the taser to force him to say something appropriate. Konro reached his hand into the pocket to finger the remote, only to find that it wasn’t there. He stretched his pocket wider and stared into the empty hole.
Shit.
“Is Konro in your ear?”
Konro’s head snapped up to the couple. Before Benimaru could reply, he jerked involuntarily and then another, and another as if he was spasming. There was hysterical laughter on the rooftops above them, and something inside Benimaru snapped. He reached inside his hakama and threw the taser in the general direction of the laugh. There was a thud and Konro heard Hinata cried out, “Hikage”.
“Yes, he is in my ear,” Benimaru said, calmer now than he had his revenge on the twins. “And he thought it would be funny to tase me everytime I say something wrong.”
Now that Konro’s cover was blown, there was no more reason to hide. “Waka! Please accept my apologies,” he called out. “The twins took the remote without me realising it.”
Benimaru removed the earpiece from his ear and threw it in Kondo’s direction. “Forget it. I don’t need this anymore.”
Then, he took her hand, pulled her away from Konro and the twins and disappeared into the night.
---
You stared at the calloused hand, holding you firmly but not too tightly, guiding you through the quiet night streets to god knows where.
Benimaru Shinmon, Captain of Company 7. When you saw him for the first time, there was a mysterious force that pulled you to him. He was completely your type; cool, mysterious and maybe a bit of a pottymouth, but at least he was honest. You were so sick of silver-tongued men sprouting lies shamelessly from the same mouth they used to kiss other women. For you, an honest man like Benimaru was definitely a breath of fresh air. Since then, you couldn’t take your eyes off him, except of course when he was looking at you and you had to pretend you weren’t staring at him for the past few minutes (or hours).
The Taiyaki was the moment when your little eyecandy had developed into a crush. You liked the attention from him. You liked that he cared to make you feel comfortable so much that he bothered to buy Taiyaki for you every morning. It was strange yes, but you took any small pleasures that you could.
Then he suddenly stopped by the fourth day without any explanation. You tried not to let it bother you.
Then you had tried to stop the crush from developing out of control (because the yearning was getting too much for your heart to handle) by agreeing to go out to a woman’s bar with Maki and Tamaki. Maki had described the bar as a woman-exclusive bar, a place with men in skimpy clothes serving alcohol to women clients and a lot of provocative dancing on stage. It was extremely sleazy but it was a perfect distraction. Maybe you were attracted to Benimaru because of his physical qualities, so this trip is a way to prove to yourself that there were other handsome men out there to crush on, other men that were perhaps more within your league.
Until you came out of the bar, a little tipsy because everytime a handsome man approached you, you would drink nervously, and Benimaru had appeared out of nowhere. He grabbed your wrist and pulled you away from your friends, and into his chest. Your body froze from the sudden contact and your brain swirled from the alcohol and confusion. You didn’t even have time to react when he used his pyrokinetic powers to shoot both of you into the sky. You almost vomitted into his clothes.
Then he threw you onto the ground outside of Company 7’s guardhouse and disappeared again without a word. Luckily Konro was there to help you to re-center yourself again.
A few weeks later, Konro made Benimaru take you out to a festival. Although it wasn’t technically initiated by Benimaru, you still felt your heart soar. You told yourself Benimaru could have refused but he didn’t. By now, you completely gave up on trying to quash the crush you had on the compound soldier. Maki, Tamaki and Iris were kind enough to pick out a yukata that brought out the purple in your eyes. They even took almost 2 hours to finish your hairdo, only to be told by Benimaru that it wasn’t good enough.
It was the worst date you had ever went on.
Everytime you complimented something in Asakusa, Benimaru would brush it off like your expectations were too low. At first you wanted to cry because he was being mean for no reason at all, but then your sadness soon became irritation and you decided that night you weren’t going to shed any tears for Benimaru. He was an ass, and if he didn’t appreciate you, that was his loss.
Surprisingly, just when you thought of giving up on Benimaru, Company 7 seemed to unilaterally decide to matchmake the two of you. You feigned ignorance when they tried various methods to get their Captain to notice you, all of which ended up in failure. Then one of them asked you to train with him in martial arts, and you agreed. A part of you was curious to see how Benimaru would react.
He was jealous. It was as plain as day to everyone witnessing his temper tantrum. Despite telling yourself to give up on Benimaru, it made you happy.
Except he told Konro train you instead.
You gave up.
Not on your crush on Benimaru, but you gave up on understanding him. It was far too tiring to keep up with his senseless antics. You decided to just go with the flow. If it happened, it happened. If it didn’t, it didn’t. Besides, once your secondment contract ended with Company 7, you could kiss Benimaru and his mixed signals goodbye. You only had to bear with it for the time being.
He called you out on a date for the second time. He didn’t explictly say it was a date, but he said he wanted you to take a walk with him. In everyone’s (but Benimaru’s) eyes, it sounded like a date, but this was Benimaru. You didn’t know what he was thinking. So you didn’t bother dressing up. He was going to say it sucked anyway.
“You look nice,” he had said. Twice .
If his behaviour was weird before, this was even weirder. You also remembered Konro said the exact same thing on the first date, so it was suspicious.
You ended up being right. Konro was controlling the ‘date’, but it went askewed thanks to the twins, although you enjoyed seeing Benimaru flinch multiple times during the ‘date’. It was extremely difficult not to laugh at the usually flawless Benimaru twitch uncontrollably everytime Konro hit a button. If you ever told Company 8 about this incident, none of them would have believed you.
Benimaru led you to a small hill overlooking the Asakusa town, a place you didn’t know existed. He sat himself down on the soft grass and sprawled his back on it. Not knowing what to do, you sat down beside him, adjusting your dress.
“This is a nice place,” you found yourself saying. “I didn’t know this is part of Asakusa territory.”
“It’s not,” Benimaru answered. You realized he had closed his eyes some time ago, and you took the opportunity to observe his face.
The night was quiet except for the crickets in the background. There was also a light breeze that played with Benimaru’s hair, something you had always wanted to do but you valued your life too much to even dare to try. If only he didn’t open his mouth, he wouldn’t be so bad.
If he knew that you were staring at him so brazenly, he did nothing to stop it. The more you stared at his face, the more you wanted to touch it. What would he do if you did? Would he retaliate violently? But it wasn’t fair, was it? He touched you so many times before, even pulling you into his chest without caring about how it made you feel. You deserved to return the favour.
You reached your finger out and touched his nose. “Bloop,” you said, in an attempt to lighten the mood.
You waited with bated breath for any outbursts of any kind, but there was none.
Benimaru crinkled his nose as if your touch had tickled him. “What are you doing?”
You could feel his breath on your finger and you withdrew your hand in embarassment. Thank god he continued to keep his eyes closed, because your face was as red as a tomato. You wouldn’t be able to look at him if he had opened his eyes.
You flipped your hand to use the back of your knuckles and you used it to lightly caress his cheek instead. His skin was soft and cool, thanks to the night air. His eyebrows seemed to relax a little more upon your touch, and you tried your best to stop your heart from racing.
You wanted to kiss him.
But if you did, and he didn’t like it, you would never be able to face him again. No matter how much you wanted it, you had to fight against it.
While you contemplated on your options, Benimaru suddenly opened his eyes. It was then you realized you had shifted from your position to tower over him, so when he opened his eyes, yours were right above his, staring straight into his mismatched irises. You froze in place.
He reached his hands up to touch your cheeks, and you felt your brain die from the contact.
Then he pulled your face towards his and your lips landed on his.
---
You were back in Company 8 for the night to celebrate Captain Obi’s birthday. Being back here, you felt like nothing had changed. Shinra and Arthur was arguing over something stupid, Tamaki was trying to keep her top on, Maki and Iris giggling about something, Hinawa’s new hat, Vulcan confused by Viktor’s weird theories and Obi just watching over everybody like a proud father. Except this time, Benimaru was beside him, sitting quietly and observing the weird antics of his allied company.
“So… why are you here again?” Obi asked, scratching his jaw awkwardly.
“[Y/N] invited me,” was all Benimaru said. You could tell it wasn’t a decent enough explanation because Obi still looked confused.
“Erm, well, Company 8 is like family to me. And I just wanted to formally introduce my boyfriend to my family.”
Despite the chaos going on in the background, everyone heard your words loud and clear. They froze and the room grew so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Then like a spell being broken, everyone started speaking at once.
“B-B-B-BOYFRIEND?”
“MAKI, IT WORKED!”
“OH MY GOD, I’M A PROUD MAMA!”
“Congratulations!”
“Huh, even a weirdo like him can get a girl.”
Benimaru’s lips twitched upwards, and the room fell into another silence, surprised at seeing Benimaru’s smile. But you knew all of his smiles. There was the drunk one that was more of muscle memory than emotions, there was the happy one that rarely happened but it exists, then there was the sadistic one when he was torturing his men and enjoying it. The smile right now was the last one.
“Nice to meet you, Company 8.”