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The bowling alley is loud, bright, and so many other adjectives that Hitoya could probably best sum up as a sensory overload. There’s a sense of whiplash, too, given how surprisingly quiet the car ride over had been. Most of the time Hitoya’s driving around Kuko and Jyushi, which tends to equal a whole lot of fighting and loud music. On the flip side, Rei had driven them all over in a car that was just a little too new-looking to be his, and the most eventful part of the trip had been Dice shouting expletives at some kid on a motorcycle tearing by while the gambler had his head sticking out of the window like a dog.
Rei glides past Hitoya with an easy grin, and Doppo follows obediently with his usual tired look. Behind the salaryman comes the youngest of the Yamada brothers, explaining something with a glint in his eye to the attentive Dice. The last to enter is Rio, presence intimidating as always. Hitoya is years older, but still manages to be a little terrified of the guy. Dice insists he’s cool, and Hitoya wants to believe him but this twenty-year old idiot doesn’t have the best judgement.
“So, how long did it take to flirt with the guy behind the counter with the shoes ‘n shit?” Hitoya asks once Rei makes his way back over to the group. The elder man shrugs and claps Doppo on the back with gusto, nearly knocking the poor guy over.
“He seemed more interested in Corporate Slave over here.” Rei smirks easily. “Had a Matenrō patch on the jacket and everythin’. You had him with heart eyes, Kannonzaka.”
Doppo shrinks into himself, looking like he’d rather be literally anywhere not here. Hitoya tries to look sympathetic, but he probably fails. The “perks” of having to constantly glare at your two kids, he figures. “I-I…I think he was probably more interested in Hifumi-everyone who recognizes me always asks me about him-“
“That’s ‘cause you guys are joined at the hip whenever you’re in public.” Dice chimes in, rolling his eyes in a way that Hitoya deems hypocritical given how often he sees the little pink bitch twirling the gambler around during televised events. “Surprised the good doctor ain’t sick of ya.”
Doppo grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like “This is why I hate kids” and Rei laughs even though Dice is only about ten years younger.
Arm around Doppo’s shoulders, the conman guides his friend over to where the lanes are. Saburo is sat at that weird computer with 100 keys that Hitoya always refuses to fuck with. “Dice, I can’t hack into this, you idiot.”
“Aren’t you some kinda tech genius?” Dice fires back, crossing one leg over another. “Plus, ‘s not like I’m askin’ for anything crazy.”
“What is it now?” Hitoya asks, sliding into the cold plastic chairs held up by a singular metal pole that make him unreasonably paranoid. He hates bowling alleys.
“I wanted t’ see if the kid could change the character limit on the name settings, ‘cause I gotta be DEAD OR ALIVE, y’know?”
Hitoya sighs. “There are two things I hate. Cold plastic, and overdramatic, unreasonably long MC names.”
Rio glances over from where he’s lacing up his shoes. “Is your MC name not ‘Heaven and Hell’?”
The lawyer splutters. “That’s different. Mine actually fits me. What the hell does Dice’s have to do with gambling?”
“At least ‘m not Ramuda.” Dice counters. “Easy R’ sounds like some dumb innuendo.”
“You’d know, I bet.” Doppo mutters, low enough so Dice can’t hear but loud enough so Hitoya can. He figures this is just payback for Dice’s earlier comment.
“My question is what the hell is a ‘Mister Hardcore?’” Saburo asks as he punches in Dice’s name-his actual name, to the gambler’s chagrin. Rio sighs.
“If I knew, I’d tell you.” Rei laughs.
“At the very least, Saburo, you and your brothers have coordination. I dunno what ‘Tragic Comedy’ is supposed to mean and it definitely doesn’t match ‘Mastermind’.” he laments. Hitoya thinks about Kuko and Jyushi’s MC names, cringing a bit. Dice seems to pick up on this and nods in some kind of sympathetic solidarity.
Saburo grumbles wordlessly, and Rei almost looks wounded before going back to his typical mild demeanor. Hitoya pulls out his cellphone to make sure work isn’t calling-but the notifications on the screen could not be more of the opposite.
[dumbass 1 - 2:30 pm]
old man. old man. old maaaaan
guess what im doing
[you - 2:31 pm]
My mom?
[dumbass 1 - 2:31 pm]
fuck
youre no fun
anyway enjoy being boring with your old boring friends :P im gonna keep beating people up
Hitoya wants to reply with “What the fuck is that supposed to mean” except he…trusts Kuko not to die or kill anybody. The thought of actually trusting his chaotic kind-of son to not wreak havoc leaves him contemplating-but he decides to take Kuko’s advice and enjoy himself.
Rei is first-he moves cleanly, practiced, doesn’t stumble before sliding his ball smoothly-he knocks out all but one pin and Dice gapes. “Yo, the fuck-“
“This old man’s got some skill left in him, boy.” Rei grins, sharp and daring. Before Hitoya can gather his thoughts there’s the sound of a pin clattering to the floor and their screen lights up with a celebratory “Spare!”
“A’ight, a’ight, a’ight. Check this out.” Dice boasts, rolling his neck and grabbing a deep purple ball. “Lucky color…”
“Red’s luck. Are you colorblind?” Saburo asks bluntly.
“Nah. Purple’s lucky for me; so’s pink!”
“I wonder why?” Rio observes, somehow sounding extremely sarcastic and extremely genuine simultaneously. Hitoya buries his head in his hands.
“Yeah.” is all Dice responds with before absolutely flinging (hah) the ball down the lane…aaaand seven-ten split. “The fuuuuck, ugh.”
“Sucks to suck.” Saburo says smugly, and Dice whips around with a fire in his eyes. “Aye, aye-you wanna go, ‘Bukuro boy?”
“Boys, please.” Rio says, placing a hand on both boys’ head. “This is intended to strengthen bonds, not expand our boundaries.”
Dice shrugs Rio off before taking a deep breath and aiming for the seven pin-this time the ball is a light pink. The intended target goes down, but predictably the ten remains standing. The gambler sits down, thoroughly defeated.
Saburo is next, and the teen shoots a cocky grin to Dice before instantly bowling a clean strike, shocking the entire group into silence. “Not bad, kid.” Hitoya says, offering a nod. Despite his usual smug demeanor Saburo beams at the praise. “I’m next?”
Hitoya can do this. He’s an adult man who’s been bowling more times than he can count. When he says he’d tried to beat Jakurai in everything? Yeah, that hadn’t been an exaggeration.
The lawyer takes a deep breath, and turns to Rei who offers a supportive thumbs up. Forward, line it up…
The pins clatter to the floor easily, and when Hitoya looks it’s…another seven/ten split. Of fucking course. Dice’s dumbass finicky luck is rubbing off on him.
Almost as if he’d read Hitoya’s mind, Dice gives a sheepish little laugh. “We’re in the same boat, dude.”
“Fuck off, kid.” he sighs, tone good-natured but annoyed nonetheless. Every day Dice reminds Hitoya more of his own teammates.
“Ya need help?” Rei almost snarks, sliding up to Hitoya’s side, leaving him to wonder why he even asked.
“I’m a grown-ass man. I’ll be fine-“
“It’s about force. Ya wanna make one ricochet into the other at the right angle.” Rei advises, completely ignoring the other’s protests.
“I know, I know-“ Hitoya flings the ball, not coordinated to any degree but it bounces off the ten pin, sending it flying into the seven. Fuck yes.
“Not bad, hellboy.” Rei nods, using the nickname he knows Hitoya hates-at the very least Hitoya tells himself he hates it.
After a few frames, Dice slumps dramatically against Rio, letting out a world-weary sigh. “Rio, man, I’m hungry. Am I the only one?”
“I could eat.” Saburo puts in agreeably, nodding slowly. Doppo gives an exhausted thumbs up to show his support and Rio gently nudges Dice off of him so he can get up.
“We’re all for taking a food break?” Rio asks, surveying the group. Hitoya doesn’t really care either way, so he just shrugs and nods. And so they trudge over to the food counter that, logically, they all know will be absolute shit, but Dice is hungry and Hitoya knows well enough not to fight him when he is.
Once they stake their spot at the weird counters that are above the lanes Hitoya glances over to Dice, who’s licking his chops like a hungry wildcat over…a plate of breaded shrimp. At a bowling alley. What the fuck?
“What the fuck?” Hitoya says, verbalizing his frankly disgusted thought. Dice glares, popping one of the weirdly small shrimp into his mouth.
“Who eats shrimp at a fucking bowling alley?” Doppo asks, incredulous. “Gross. I bet they aren’t even cooked completely.”
“They look like something my school cafeteria would serve.” Saburo mutters bluntly, gnawing on a rubbery-looking slice of pizza. When Dice stares blankly he adds “Negatively speaking. That place sucks.”
“I haven’t been in a school for over five years and thank Lady Luck for that.” Dice laughs, pulling Saburo into a side-hug. “Yer lucky you got brothers to ask for help. I got ‘bout the book-smarts of one of Rio’s tarantulas.”
“I mean, yes,” Rio starts, “but book smarts are not everything. You are well versed in the ways of survival, after all.”
Dice grins a little. “Thanks, dude.”
As they ate and talked, Hitoya pondered-he had honestly expected to hate this, being forced to talk to a bunch of people he barely knew. But as it turned out, this was nice-despite how wildly different they all are they seem to fit well as a team.
(Distantly, Hitoya thinks that maybe if he can get along fine with these people he doesn’t really know, he can befriend Jakurai again. But that’s a thought he really doesn’t want to deal with right now, so he shoves it into the back of his brain and finishes his shitty pizza.)
And so the game had continued; everyone (except Dice) was actually pretty good. Doppo, apparently, has that berserker energy when doing anything, not just rapping. However, to (mostly) everyone’s surprise, the winner had turned out to be-
“Saburo!” The eldest Yamada calls when they step out of the building into the blinding sun-bowling alleys are dark. Somehow, the leaders are all here, and everyone else had followed. Hitoya barely has time to blink before Kuko and Jyushi are there, grinning up at him with an identical shine in their eyes.
“Didja kick everyone’s ass, old man?” Kuko asks, trying to sling an arm over Hitoya’s shoulder but failing due to their height difference. The lawyer snorts, ruffling his teammates’ hair affectionately.
“Nah. Lost to the youngest Buster Bro, but I can deal with that.” Jyushi smiles shyly, clasping their hands behind their back.
“Speaking of them…I had fun with Jiro today, and uh-he wanted to know if he could come to Nagoya sometime?”
Kuko glances at Hitoya with an almost nervous expression-he can’t put his finger on why, so Hitoya replies “Sure, I guess. What did you guys do?”
As Jyushi rants about his day out with the second liners Hitoya glances around; Hifumi has his arm linked with Doppo’s which is a point on the board for Dice, who’s yelling at Yumeno from his division-as usual. Rio has a rare smile as he relays the day’s events to Aohitsugi and Iruma, while Saburo bickers with Jiro and Ichiro tries to calm them. Sasara is chattering Rei’s ear off from the looks of it; Rosho has a tired expression and a grip on both of his boyfriends’ arms. “Alright, looks like all the teams are reunited. You guys want dinner?”
“McDonald’s.” Kuko says, not a suggestion but an order, and Hitoya sighs. Whatever. McDonald’s isn’t the end of the world.
“I-I’m going to say goodbye to Jiro first!” Jyushi rushes out, face red as Kuko’s hair, and they dash off. Once they leave, Rei makes his way over, clapping Hitoya on the back.
“Had fun today. Let me know if you’d wanna come back here with your kids and I’ll bring the ol’ balls ‘n chains with.” the conman jokes.
“Balls ‘n chains?!” Sasara exclaims, bringing a hand to his chest in faux-shock. “Ya insult us too much, Rei. So much, I oughta use a three strikes ‘n yer out system!”
Rosho glares. “Wrong sport, idiot.”
As Rei’s teammates bicker Hitoya offers his friend a tired grin. “Yeah, I’d like to do this again. And I’ll…I’ll talk to Kannonzaka. See if he wants to bring his team along.”
Rei cocks an eyebrow. “Shinjuku, huh?”
“And the others too, of course.” he adds quickly, not quite wanting to spill his whole sob story for Rei. “I think I can spare sometime to have another game.”
Sasara nearly topples over laughing at Hitoya’s pun, and the lawyer lets himself smile, an actual, large smile with no bitterness or sarcasm. That’s what friends are for, he figures, twirling his keys and going to gather his teammates.
And he can’t quite help but think that one day they could all bond like this, with no rap battles or bad blood-just some kind of weird fucked up family like he has in Jyushi and Kuko.
Speaking of Jyushi-
“Hitoya! Jyushi fainted ‘cause they’re gay and talking to a boyyyyy-“
Hitoya groans. Maybe he doesn’t exactly want a family like BAT.
But, well. That’s a lie.