Chapter Text
Draken isn’t stupid, you know? He may look like the stereotypical big, buff gangster but he can read people pretty well if he does say so himself. And he knows Mikey is hiding something.
He’s doing his third set of a hundred push-ups—just part of his daily workout routine to maintain his reputation as the feared Vice President of Toman—and his mind starts wandering. Mikey’s been suspicious lately, sneaking off during Toman meetings and pestering Draken for lunch less. He’s been hanging around Takemichi a lot more too, and they would arrive at meetings together, be at meetings together, and leave meetings together. Just what were they planning?
Draken gets up to mop the sweat off his brow and take a swig of water. He runs his fingertips across the dragon on his temple, rubbing the spot where it curls around his left ear. It’s a nervous habit he’s picked up ever since he got it tattooed, at first to soothe the ache, but now it helps him think.
Mikey has always been pretty touchy with Takemichi; the bike rides, the casual arm thrown around narrow shoulders. But it’s even more intense now. Nowadays, when Draken goes over to the Sano household in the morning to wake Mikey, more often than not he’ll find Takemichi already there, carefully combing and tying up Mikey’s hair.
When Draken does it, it is a two-minute process—comb, comb, wrap, twist, wrap, tighten, done. When Takemichi does it, it’s a 5-day work week, 9-to-5 job. Mikey is uncharacteristically difficult, accidentally moving his head this way or that, dislodging Takemichi’s grip and messing up the hairdo, forcing him to start over and over. It doesn’t help that Takemichi is so nervous and compliant either. He handles the blond hair gingerly, gently stroking the strands into place and apologises like it’s his fault when it doesn’t look right, redoing his work without hesitation.
After the sixth morning in a row of Draken having to watch the eye-twitchingly frustrating process, he claps a hand on Takemichi’s shoulder, “You know you don’t have to do this, right? It’s okay, I can take over. I’ve been doing this for years.”
Mikey twists around from his seat on the floor and fixes Draken with a dirty glare, “No, Ken-chin . He can handle it.”
There’s something venomous in his tone. He bats away Draken’s hand and gives Takemichi a toothy grin, “Right, Takemitchy?”
“Um, yeah! It’s all good Draken-kun,” Takemichi laughs nervously, “I’ve got it covered.”
Draken rolls his eyes. He’s got better things to do than supervise Mikey’s Very Important Hair-Tying. “Okay. Bye then.”
As he leaves the room, he could’ve sworn that he heard the sound of a high-five.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon, sunny but enough wind that it’s cool out. Draken’s at a typical Toman meeting, trying to pay attention to the captains who are reporting strength. The perfect temperature is making him sleepy and he stifles a yawn. He didn’t sleep well last night because the rooms on either side of his were fully booked up with customers through the night. Normally he could sleep through the slap-slap sounds with his headphones on but they just had to die on him.
Ugh. If he wanted good quality ones, he’ll have to splurge a little. He might have to survive instant noodles for the next couple of days.
Contrary to popular belief, Draken doesn’t laze around, going about town just to pick fights like some gangs do. Growing up in a brothel without parents means that he has had to be financially independent since...forever. He part-times at the motorcycle repair shop located next to the brothel, working about five days a week and picking up the slack whenever someone calls in sick. He’s managed to save up quite a pretty sum and learnt lots about bikes too. Draken’s always known that he wants to work with bikes when he’s older, open up his own shop with a repair service, maybe even build custom engines for commissions.
Mucho is finishing up his report on the 5th Division’s activities when Draken snaps out of his daydreaming and catches sight of something from the corner of his eye.
Recently, Mikey’s been insisting on having Takemichi next to him during meetings. Something about 1st Division captain duties. Draken can see his arm stretching behind Takemichi (To push him? To poke him?). Mikey’s jacket is obscuring the view when a breeze blows in, lifting up the fabric and he sees Mikey’s hand is grabbing at Takemichi’s ass.
Draken’s brain stutters to a stop.
Mikey is...grabbing...Takemichi’s...ass. What the fuck?????
Draken’s eyes dart out to the crowd. They’re at the top of the shrine steps and everyone else is gathered at the bottom so no one but Draken can actually see what’s going on. He looks back at the two. Takemichi’s face is scarlet but he makes no attempt to push Mikey away. On the other hand, Mikey’s smug like a cat that’s eaten a lifetime’s worth of canaries, hand gripping, massaging, Takemichi’s cheeks.
Draken blinks. And then he blinks some more. It’s gonna take awhile for him to actually process this.
The rest of the meeting washes over him without hearing a thing until Mikey nudges him with an elbow and he realises that the meeting is over and most of Toman has already left the shrine. Draken looks at Mikey, opening his mouth and then closing it. No words. He turns on his heel and hops onto his Zephyr, leaving a confused Mikey and distracted Takemichi behind.
It’s not until Draken’s halfway to the motorcycle shop that he pulls over to the side of the road and finally reacts.
“What...the...FUCK?” Draken slumps over the handlebars of the bike and thumps his head into his fists until he’s certain that there are red marks left on his forehead.
Did he really see that right? What’s going on between Mikey and Takemichi? Is Takemichi okay? Mikey isn’t the kind of guy who just grabs asses, right? Right?
Draken’s so preoccupied with these thoughts during his job that he’s unfocused to the point of dropping screws and messing up the simplest engine issues. His manager gets so exasperated that he sends Draken to the break room because he’s “clearly working through some shit”. Well. He sure is.
As he sits in the cheap plastic chair in the sweaty-smelling room, he twiddles with a wrench and tries to force himself to think about the issue rationally. Mikey would never do that to someone random without their consent. He may be many things but he’s definitely not a creep. He’s never done that to Takemichi before, so what changed? When did Mikey get so close to Takemichi?
Draken has only noticed the new behaviour since last Monday when Mikey turned down a lunch offer for the first time ever. What happened before that? Monday afternoon..Monday morning...Sunday night... shit. Sunday night. Toman movie night. At Takemichi’s house.
It’s like someone sprayed Windex directly onto Draken’s brain. Everything clicks perfectly into place and he understands. Why else would Mikey stay back at Takemichi’s house apart from confessing and/or canoodling? Now, as Draken recalls every interaction between them in the past week, he swears he can literally smell the romantic tension in the air, so thick that it’s dripping.
He gives a heavy sigh, fingers once again finding their spot on his temple. This situation is much better than Mikey just groping at random asses but objectively, the fallout if the rest of Toman finds out that Mikey is dating a newcomer who he very quickly promoted to captain might be catastrophic . Best case scenario is the two getting away with just rumors and some level of mockery behind their backs. But the worst case scenario? Toman dissolves into revolts and chaos, Mikey loses his reputation and Takemichi gets beat up for seducing the commander for a promotion.
As the Toman Vice Commander with a leader like Mikey, Draken knows it’s up to him to put out fires and manage PR. As long as no one finds out, this should be put to rest...hopefully.
Operation Hush The Lovebirds is in motion.