Chapter Text
“Shoulda Minded My Own Business.”
There weren't many regrets in Ranmaru's life. The ones that he did have were just small little things, like the time he failed his math class his first year of highschool, dooming him to have to play catch up even till this day, or that time he was babysitting Hinako and he let her pressure him into holding her pet tarantula, only for him to drop it on the floor and watch its limbs fly off in all directions. Ok so maybe the tarantula thing still haunts his nightmares from time to time, but compared to his current predicament, that was nothing.
“Ranmaru! Hang on just a bit longer ok!” Sara shouted at him as if running away from a group of armed men was a motivational morning jog. She yanked him by his collar around a corner, slamming her shoulder into a stack of crates, making them all crash in front of the incredibly shady men.
He stood in shock for a second, marveling at her strength before being snapped back to his senses. Right, scary shady men still try to kill them. Don't focus on superman Sara, don't focus on her hand right above his chest…
Too much was happening at once, his heart hammering in his chest as the guys behind them grunted and yelled for them to stop. Ranmaru knows he isn't the most athletic guy but they had to have been running for nearly an hour all around the city! Adrenaline could only take him so far, and yet Sara didn't falter one bit.
As if sensing his uselessness as a man, she cast him a reassuring smile, and pulled him to a sudden stop in some dark alleyway. He stepped into a puddle of mystery liquid, his labored breaths forcing him to gulp in the stench in the air.
Maybe, he could keep running for a bit longer…
He tried hard to steady his breathing, finding his fish out of water gasps to be oh so embarrassing. Seriously, how was Sara not on the verge of death! “Haaa, haa. Did, did we lose them?” Come on, get it together she's watching…
The moment's breath didn't last long, Sara hastily moving in front of him like some sort of human shield. In any other situation, Ranmaru would have got his act together and shield her instead. He in fact, was about to swallow the curse words at the tip of his tongue and do just that, until she sternly warned him.
“Brace yourself Ranmaru.”
*Mere Hours Before Ranmaru Wishes He Didn't Wear His Favorite Shirt Today*
Life has always treated him decently enough. There wasn't much to complain about, Ranmaru had decent enough friends, decent enough parents. School was a bit shaky, but he always managed. The little pink haired demon spawn he babysat occasionally was problematic, but other than that, there really isn't anything worth complaining about.
He had always kept to himself, played things safe and went through the motions of life without any high expectations or goals, and in return, the universe kindly forgot about him. He lived his days in routine, the occasional hyperfixation on a hobby here and there keeping him from boredom and having any sort of existential crises like his peers. Maybe that's how it started, he had just given up trying to become a self taught artist and was left with nothing to distract him from actually learning in class. Lost in his own little puddle of self pity, he half watched the students pile in and take their seats.
Once the bell rang signaling the start of class, one last student rushed in, standing by the teacher's desk. Sara Chidouin, a face he'd seen many times before on the school newspaper and website, a name he'd heard over the morning announcements practically every other day.
Sara and Ranmaru were from completely different worlds. She was popular, pretty, and incredibly talented. She had a bright future and everyone stepped aside to admire her as she carved her own path, taking what she wanted. Ranmaru didn't see anything wrong with people like her, those were the people who created the future.
The people that allowed Ranmaru to slack off.
Compared to Ranmaru, well let's just say it's been a good three months since he actually spent a fun night out with anyone other than his hamster. It's been even longer since the last time he was actually satisfied with his grades, and even longer than that since his counselor had advised him to figure out what sort of future he wanted to have once he graduated. It's just, all that stuff seemed pointless to think about in depth. Surely something would come up and guide him, that's how he got this far in life. He was just going to have to be ready to go with that guide once it showed up to take his hand.
When the teacher announced that she would now be a part of their class due to a schedule change, he woke up. Practically every seat in class was taken, except for two. The one next to him, and the one at the front of the class. Surely Sara would pick the front. That was a better seat, right next to the window, good students always sit in the front right? Having an empty seat next to him has been his saving grace. No partners meant no stress over group work, an empty seat meant he could place his backpack on it, which shouldn't be such a highlight of his day, but it really was. Ranmaru did not spend the last month being as difficult as possible to chase away anyone who dared sit in the seat next to him, just to lose it to a pretty face.
Even if she did have a very pretty face…
As if she could read his mind, she walked over to the seat next to him with no hesitation, set on ruining the little bit of happiness he had in this class.
Great.
She sat down, paying him no mind as she pulled out her note book, following along as the teacher lectured. Class passed by painfully slow that day, Ranmaru barely keeping his eyes open, trying to subtly jerk himself awake every other minute or so. Last class of the day was always harder, even harder since it was math.
He didn't wake up to the teacher knocking on his desk, or him snoring so loud that he startled himself awake, or all the other numerous embarrassing ways he imagined.
No, instead it was far more mortifying.
Soft giggling had flooded his ears, soothing and delightful. Sara, Sara giggling, how cuuute~ It made his sleepy mind happy and dreamy, a comfortable warmth consuming him.
Until his head slipped off his hand and slammed violently down onto his desk.
A few options were presented in his mind. There was, without a doubt, that everyone heard the loud slap of his noggin on cheap plastic. So he could one, keep his head down in shame and hope that no one would say anything about it. Or two, try and act completely normal and just jot down random stuff in his notebook to blend in.
Ranmaru unfortunately went with a third option, making the situation worse.
He wiped the drool from his mouth, sitting up quickly, "Uh that wasn't me uh HNN-" Too quickly, momentum and gravity did its thing and made him tip backwards, dragging all his books down with him as he landed on his back.
Death had never seemed more desirable.
"Oh my gosh are you ok!?" Sara moved to help him up, gathering his books and placing them on his desk, “Sorry for asking you to grab my pencil! I didn't realize how far away it rolled!”
Ranmaru had no idea what in the world she was going on about, but from the nervous way her eyes were moving, looking from him to the front of the class, no from him to the teacher, OH.
Oh, she was covering up for him.
He fixed himself on his seat, handing over his pencil to keep the act up, “It's uh, no problem.” For the moment, the teacher had felt satisfied with their act and went back to doing whatever he was paid to do. Probably teaching whatever formula just occurred to make him humiliate himself beyond belief.
As soon as class ended, Ranmaru grabbed all his things and planned to discreetly slip out into the hallway and beat himself up all the way home, until a voice stopped him.
“Wait!”
It was Sara, of course it had to be Sara. He should have just pretended not to hear her and kept pushing his way down the hall. She should have just let him go and forget all about him, continue her day, not worry about someone like him.
If she did, maybe he wouldn't have fallen for her so hard.
There was no other choice but to try and act cool, try and forget the most devastating moment in his entire highschool life, “Uhh, Sara was it? I'm Ranmaru, anyways thanks for covering for me.” He placed his hands in his pockets, trying to appear relaxed and dare he add cool.
She gave him a bright smile, a friendly tone ringing in her voice, "You looked a little tired back there, doing ok?"
What had he ever done to the universe to deserve this?
"It's boring in that class!" The words came out too fast, too loud, instantly causing Ranmaru to blush, "Don't worry, it's not something that happens often." He silently begged for this to end, making false promises of going to bed early so this wouldn't happen again.
Sara looked amused, clearly enjoying his freak out session, "Well, if you ever need any of the notes we missed, just ask me. We are partners now after all." And with an award winning smile, she handed him back his pencil and stole a bit of his heart that day.
He wasn't the greatest at making friends. Not that he was lonely, certain people just always seemed to find their way to him. He had enough to never quite be alone, enough casual conversation to get him through the day, but given the option, if it weren't for the critical eyes of his peers, Ranmaru would prefer to be alone.
It was different with Sara. They didn't interact much, but he found that more and more he was looking for excuses to talk to her. Borrowing a pencil here and there, asking for an answer every other day. She was understanding and patient, a good teacher.
They started teasing their teacher together, the rumors of him having a fake toupee all their doing. Once they had a group project and Ranmaru felt honored that Sara chose him so fast. They barely scraped by with a C, too busy goofing around and trying to get to know every little detail about their likes and dislikes, probably to use against each other in the future. It was fun, Being able to lightly tease and pass the boring class period by just having these quick side conversations.
They became the highlight of Ranmaru's day.
So that morning he decided that he was going to commit. Going to commit to becoming Sara's friend. He admittedly, didn't know much about her or how to have a deeper friendship other than just asking for the answers to last night's homework. He had no idea where she sat at lunch, or who else she spent time with, so finding her during school was going to pose a challenge. He did, however, know that she came to school extremely early, and left extremely late. A bit of laziness had prevented him from mustering up the patience to wait for her after school, so he figured waking up a little earlier than usual wouldn't hurt.
This would turn out to be his downfall.
Was it weird that he came this early to see her? But wouldn't it be weirder if he stayed so late after school looking for her? He didn't want to come off as a stalker…
He waited outside the school entrance, hoping he would catch her walking in, but either he didn't come early enough, or Sara wasn't going to be at school today. Trying to hide his disappointment, he was just about to make his way to his first period until he saw her. Just a glimpse of ginger hair whooshed passed the corner of his eye. He turned his head, watching her make her way towards the bathrooms.
She seemed like she was in a hurry, maybe even a bit nervous. Normally, he wouldn't have stuck his nose where it didn't belong. They weren't even technically friends right? Just acquaintances, it would be so weird for him to just go right up to her and ask if she was ok. But then he thought about that day in class, how she covered for him, how she asked if he was ok.
Alright, alright, so maybe he did romanticize the whole ordeal a bit. Either way it moved him to follow her.
Trying to keep himself appearing casual, he placed both his hands in his pockets, taking his time approaching her. Instead of going towards the bathrooms, she walked past the building. That was weird, there was nothing past here but the school gate…
Sara looked around before scaling the gate like it was nothing, and dropping down onto the other side. Ahhh, ditching now are we?
Ranmaru grinned to himself as he approached the gate, Sara fumbling with her phone. She was so distracted with her phone call that she didn't even notice how close he was to her. Feeling a bit mischievous, he pressed his face to the gate.
"Boo."
Sara jumped so high she nearly hopped right back over the fence. Her phone had fallen in the process and skidded under the gate, landing right by his feet. At first her reaction made him laugh, but she didn't look amused at all.
"You!"
"Gotcha. Where are you heading, star student?" He picked up her phone, handing it to her through a hole in the chain link gate.
Any joy Ranmaru had was quickly zapped away as she practically snatched the phone back. Sara paused and tried to collect herself, putting on a quick smile for him, but something was clearly wrong.
He frowned, remembering how nervous she was earlier. Guess that means he didn't make her jumpy at least, "Hey, are you ok?" Once the words left his mouth, he instantly regretted them, "Nevermind you don't have to tell me, unless you want to."
Smooth.
She flinched, staring at him through the gate bars, "I have to be somewhere important, shouldn't you be in class soon?"
"Shouldn't you?"
Ranmaru had no idea why he responded the way he did. There could be a million reasons for why she had decided to ditch, and him bugging her just made him one big stick in the mud.
Still, something wasn't right.
They held eye contact for a second, before a look of panic took over Sara's face. Her gaze went past him, her movements frantic, "Ranmaru, climb the fence."
Hurried footsteps grew closer, shouts of alarm ringing out. Her fear was contagious, forcing his body to listen to what she said. He didn't have even half the elegance and skill she had when she climbed the gate, but he managed to make it to the other side decently enough.
Not even a second after his feet touched the ground, Sara grabbed onto his hand. There wasn't even any time for him to process the fact that a pretty girl was holding his hand as she suddenly took off running full speed, dragging him along.
"S-Sara! Why!?" Ranmaru barely managed to gasp out the words, trying to keep up with her inhuman speed. What was she some sort of track runner!?
If she attempted to answer him he certainly didn't hear it. As soon as they made it down the street from the school, a black SUV pulled out barreling down the street and seemed to be aiming right towards them.
"We have to get off the sidewalk!" Sara yanked him off the street and ran right into someone else's backyard. Ranmaru took one last glance behind him, watching as the SUV's doors swung open, men jumping out and beginning to give chase.
The next series of events sort of blur by for Ranmaru. He's vaguely aware of being smacked on the head by an old lady with a spatula, him and Sara tumbling through a rose bush, thorns pricking them everywhere, and may or may not have been bitten by a dog. There definitely was a dog, but was he able to outrun that thing? He is still alive, every spot on his body was screaming, so it was hard to tell what was what exactly.
His throat felt raw from screaming his head off and he couldn't count the amount of times he had to close his eyes and just allow Sara to pull him along.
Right before he could collapse, Sara had pulled them at the end of some filthy alleyway, standing in front of him like a human shield. There was no energy left in him, all he could do was hope that those strange guys had lost them.
“Sara just what is going on!?”
“I'm sorry, I know you must have a lot of questions, but for now,” She pulled her hair back wrapping it into a bun, “Brace yourself Ranmaru.”
A lot of questions were shooting through his mind, but for the moment, he was competent with just trying to keep his sanity together. He could hear them, any second now and the men will have caught up to them. The men with their large numbers and shady cars. There didn't seem to be anything to use as a weapon, and relying on Sara to figure something out, just what kind of man was he to allow that!?
“You should run, I'll distract them!” Now why did he have to go and say something he didn't actually mean. There's no going back now, this really might be their only option!
For the first time today, she gave him a genuine smile, “Don't worry, I'm the kendo champ!”
Despite the circumstances, seeing her smile relaxed his beating heart just a little. She stirred something in him, allowing him to clear his hea-
“SARA WHERE IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET THAT!”
With all the confidence in the entire universe, Sara whipped out a gun from her school bag.
“Didnt I just tell you? I'm the school's kendo champ!”
“That's a gun Sara! Not a bamboo sword!”
“Same difference.”
Without any further warning, Sara fired the gun. Ranmaru could do nothing but cover his ears and close his eyes as shot after shot was fired. Never had he ever felt a fear so strongly as this, and the worst part was he couldn't tell if he was more afraid of the people chasing them, or of Sara herself.
“Dang it.” Sara grabbed a hold of Ranmaru’s hand again, chucking the now empty gun at their pursuers, “Why is he taking so long? He should be here by now!”
Before Ranmaru could ask who “he” was, sirens started blaring, lights painting the dark alleyway in reds and blues. The remaining guys who somehow managed to survive Sara’s merciless shooting were slammed into full force by a cop car.
Ranmaru did not recall learning that in drivers ed.
The car came to a screeching halt mere inches from them, spraying the mystery liquid all over the pair. The smell was too horrid to be able to place. Even if he could remove whatever stains this toxic waste would leave behind, he would still have to burn the entire outfit from the smell alone.
Sara let out a frustrated sigh, marching up to the car with Ranmaru in tow. She flung the door open, practically stuffing him inside before taking a seat right next to him.
“Took you long enough.” Sara grumbled at the driver, glaring at him from behind, "Did you really have to splash us?"
The man behind the wheel adjusted the rear view mirror, casting her a lazy smirk, “Wahaha, it takes time for Mr. Policeman to track you all around town.”
“If you just showed up on time, I wouldn't have had to flee for my life and get Ranmaru here involved. What even is this stuff! I'm rubbing this into your seats as revenge!"
All of this information was incredibly vital to Ranmaru’s survival, and rightfully so he took it all very seriously. The tone these two crazies used however, was the tone a parent might use when scolding their three year old. Ranmaru was not a three year old and wanted to get right the heck outta this car.
As if just realizing there was another passenger in the car, the man tilted his head slightly to get a better look at Ranmaru, “Ahh, so that’s the boy you won't stop talking a-”
“Keiji, I will make us crash this instant.”
“Cant have that now can we?”
To Ranmaru’s relief, Keiji focused back on the road, leaving the two now filthy teens in silence. Ranmaru didn't know what to say, if he could say anything. His entire body was shaking, sweat pouring out in buckets. Was this what it felt like being in shock? He tried to move his hands to wipe away the sweat from rolling into his eyes, but found that Sara was still holding onto his right hand firmly.
The whole situation was bizarre enough, but the added warmth from her hand in his only made his body freak out further. All his nerves felt on fire, his senses overloading. For a moment he wondered if people spontaneously combusting was more common than he originally thought, because it sure did feel like everything in him would explode any second now.
Sensing his discomfort, Sara finally released his hand, “How are you doing, Ranmaru?” Her voice was gentle but laced with concern. Not replying right away only seemed to heighten her worry, making her shift uncomfortably in her seat.
He knew he should say something, to answer her, but he didn't exactly know what one says after they've been chased down by a group of armed men, and stuffed into the back of a corrupt cop’s car.
Ranmaru licked his lips, trying to get a hold of his voice before he lost it again, “Wish I didn't wear my favorite shirt today…”
Silence. Silence is golden and any words that come out of Ranmaru’s mouth are the greenish yellow color of the mystery liquid.
Sara stared at him in worry for a second, before letting out a little laugh.
Ranmaru could do nothing but stare at her back, hoping she would just shake him by the shoulders and tell him he had fallen asleep in class again and it was time to wake up.
Maybe he had taken his life for granted, wasted precious time drifting. Whether that was true or not, life as Ranmaru had known it was about to change forever.
“Shoulda Minded My Own Business.”