Chapter Text
“Welcome to Hyakuya, Yuu!”
“Yuu, come play with us!”
“We’re friends, right, Yuu?”
“You’re really amazing, Yuu!”
“Hey Yuu, never forget – we’re family.”
Mika bolted upright, chest heaving, heart pounding, palms sweaty. He didn’t have dreams often, not anymore, but this one… this one had been vivid to the point of being terrifying. Hands practically trembling, Mika pulled the blankets off of himself and made his way to the bathroom, splashing his face with water. The mirror revealed nothing extraordinary: a tall blond in his late teens, water dripping down an expressionless face. Drying himself off, he kept questioning himself. It had been so long since he had even thought of Hyakuya Orphanage, especially since he tried to push those memories away as much as possible.
Somebody knocked on the door twice, and Mika put the towel down, striding over to tug it open, revealing a tall man with long, silvery hair and an arrogant smile. “Ah, Mika! It brings me such joy to see your shining little face so early in the morning. We should have a nice breakfast together, wouldn’t you agree?”
Mika scowled in distaste. Ferid Bathory was one of the most loathsome individuals Mika had ever met. Ever since Mika had been brought to the Tepes household as a child, Ferid had always lurked around incessantly, constantly bothering Mika with his haughty, presumptuous attitude. Ferid had never actually hurt him – Krul would have his head for that anyway – but it didn’t stop him from being strongly dislikable.
“Just tell me why you disturbed me.” Mika’s voice was flat and unamused. Ferid’s smirk only grew wider. “Well, to invite you to breakfast of course! You’re always so glum and boring, Mika, it’s a real shame. I guess I shouldn’t expect anything else out of someone like you. Next in line to be syndicate boss, that is.”
Mika started to close the door, hardly surprised when Ferid stuck his foot in the door to prevent it from shutting. “Fine, Krul wanted to speak with you, she wanted me to summon you.” The silver haired man pouted with a huff and then graciously removed his perfectly shined boot from the doorway, turning on his heel to stroll down the hall theatrically. Mika really wanted to make him vanish for good. Pushing all thoughts of the annoying man out of his head, he quickly turned to get ready to start his day.
Fifteen minutes later, Mika sat in Krul’s study, waiting for petite, pink haired woman to arrive. Her study was large and intimidating, with stained wood, numerous expensive carpets, a massive oak desk, and a multitude of books on shelves around the room. Other antique objects were arranged around the room: a globe, a chessboard, a typewriter, all obviously worth a lot of money. That was what came with being the head of a syndicate. It was a dangerous, often messy job, but the profits were high when you were good at running the show. Mika could only wonder what the odds were that such a woman would show up at Hyakuya Orphanage, choosing him out of the bunch as her next successor.
“Ah, you’re already here. I wouldn’t have been late had I not had some business to attend to.”
Interrupted from reminiscing over a childhood long past, Mika turned in surprise as Krul Tepes lightly crossed the room into her own study, her long hair tumbling down her back in smooth, graceful waves. She was tiny for someone with such a large presence, but was proud of it. Her outfits were usually all black and involved some sort of fancy, foreign dress tailored exactly to her height.
“I’m glad to see that you’re well. I heard from Crowley that your last few missions went just splendidly.” Krul placed a hand on his shoulder, displaying a rare moment of motherly affection. Or, it would have been affection, had she not been referring to the numerous deaths that had taken place at Mika’s hand. He hated his missions, and he had the feeling that Krul knew it too.
I have news for you. Very important news,” Krul’s cool voice carried across the entire study with ease. Mika still said nothing, silently dreading what she was about to say. Krul didn’t often stop by to chat with her adopted son when something fun and exciting happened. Usually they talked about business and the next target Mika was assigned to take out for the good of the syndicate.
“It’s regarding that Ichinose International. That company has been giving me a lot of trouble recently, and I’m starting to get quite annoyed.” Krul paused mid-speech as she paced around the room, twirling the globe with a manicured, sharp fingernail. “You see, they’re very powerful, and happen to fund private police forces across Japan. And just recently, they instated a unit in our district, a unit that is not very familiar with the way things work.” The globe came to an abrupt halt as Krul jabbed it with her finger. Krul losing her patience wasn’t a good sign.
“So you want me to take care of it.” Mika completed the thought for her. Krul tilted her head as she looked at him with reddish, calculating eyes. “I suppose you could say that. I just want you to leave a little present for Guren Ichinose. He’s the president of the company, and he needs to get it into his head that his vigilant little police forces won’t stop our syndicate, no matter how hard he tries. I was thinking that you could just leave him a nice bottle of wine with the Tepes seal on it, right on his dining table. Just so he knows who he’s dealing with.”
Mika nodded, deciding not to object. He had heard of more syndicate members suddenly getting arrested, but he didn’t know it was Ichinose behind it. What Krul said was true. The current police force, maintained by the government, tended to turn a blind eye to syndicate created crime. People got shot, people were stolen from, fights broke out, illegal goods were traded, but it was rare that the police ever made a huge bust. The fact that a new unit was now keeping a stern eye out was a bad sign.
“I know you’ll make me proud.” Krul patted him lightly on the head before gliding out of the room, collected as ever. Mika waited before her footsteps and the footsteps of her bodyguards faded out of earshot before slumping over in his chair. If he were perfectly honest with himself, he knew that he didn’t want this lifestyle. He didn’t want to threaten or kill people, or run a group of thugs who committed organized crime, no matter how powerful and rich they were. He just wanted to live out his own life in peace, either by himself or with- Yuu…Mika startled himself as the name surfaced in his mind.
More unsteady than usual, he lurched out of his chair, trying to shove those memories back down. Why was he only now starting to remember bits and pieces of the past? Why did he keep thinking of that smiling, raven haired boy…
He slammed the study doors shut. The orphanage was gone now, and so was Yuu. There was only the syndicate now.
“Dammit, get back here, you little shit!” Guren resisted the urge to chuck a chair across the room as he chased after the punk who had brazenly stolen his wallet and bought $1200 worth of video games with it. He was really regretting his decision to adopt a son at that moment, especially as Yuu turned to stick his tongue out. The kid was almost 18, for heaven’s sake. It didn’t help that, despite all the video games, Yuu was actually quite athletic and strong, and was having fun with the entire situation.
Guren decided to give up, completely done with trying. “Fine, you know what? Just keep the damn thing. You should just be grateful I take care of a snotty brat like you!” He pointed an accusing finger at Yuu, who pointed right back. “You keep calling me a snotty brat but it’s not like you actually care about how much money I spend on video games! Besides, would you rather have me beating up virtual people or real people?”
Grinning in triumph, although Guren’s lack of response was just from him being frustrated, Yuu tossed the wallet across the room and sauntered away to his bedroom. Guren managed to catch it just in time, scowling. Just then, his phone in his pocket began to buzz, and he yanked it out and looked at it.
Shinya Hiragi.
He hit the answer button almost instantly and was greeted by a familiar voice. “Hey, just calling to check up on you since I’m still in Paris at that meeting and I know you miss me dearly.”
Guren rolled his eyes, trying to hide the relief he felt at the sound of his annoying, yet close childhood friend. He could only imagine the silver haired man lounging at some fancy café on some street side, legs crossed, phone pressed to one ear, the sunlight hitting his attractive face at just the right angle- “What the fuck?!” Guren threw the phone onto the ground as soon as he realized where that train of thought was going. There was no way he had just envisioned Shinya as attractive. Well, okay, he definitely wasn’t ugly, but personality wise, he was almost as bad as Yuu. And besides, why would Guren even care what Shinya looked like? It’s not like he sat around studying Shinya’s symmetrical face all the time, why would he do that? Why would anyone even accuse Guren of even finding another man stunningly handsome, especially a man like Shinya Hiragi of all the people who-
“Guren, are you okay?” He could hear Shinya’s muted voice drifting out of the cell phone laying on the ground and the dark haired man snapped out of his reverie, bending down to scoop it up. “I just dropped my phone accidentally,” Guren said in his most deadpan voice. “Uh-huh,” Shinya said slowly, sounding unconvinced. “I’m pretty sure I heard some cursing mixed in there and a violent clunking. Did you throw your phone?”
Launching into an unsubtle coughing fit, Guren barked out forced laughter. “Throw my phone, what? That’s utterly ridiculous, don’t be silly.” Without warning, the phone was snatched from his hands by a smirking Yuu. Guren swiped at the teenager, letting out a stream of expletives, but Yuu easily danced out of reach. “He totally threw his phone across the room, Shinya. Probably ‘cause he really wants you to come back and give him a BIG FAT KISS.” Yuu shouted the last part just as Guren managed to wrestle his phone away. “Go back to your room you damn punk!” He tried to kick Yuu, but the teenager was already accustomed to Guren’s bad habit of kicking people and easily dodged it, sticking his tongue out. Guren was ready to disown him.
“You know, we did kiss that one time in middle school, remember?” Shinya’s voice helpfully chimed in. “Even if it was a silly dare, your face turned all red and you kept stuttering about how it was the grossest thing ever, but I’m pretty sure you were just-”
Guren hung up the phone. He would make sure to fire Shinya from his position as vice president of Ichinose International first thing in the morning.
“Leaving so soon, Mika?”
Ferid’s sing songy voice filled the weapons room as Mika took an inventory of all his supplies for that night. A small backpack just large enough to hold the wine, a pair of black gloves, an inconspicuous belt he could pull a miniature grappling hook, lockpicks, and a set of retractable blades from- he wasn’t bringing any serious weapons tonight. To some unsuspecting kid, it might have looked like cool spy equipment. To Mika, it was only one more reminder of death. If the plan went smoothly, however, he’d be in and out of the Ichinose penthouse without coming in contact with anyone.
“You always look so focused before going out to hunt.” Ferid was desperately trying to get under Mika’s skin, to make him snap. Especially since Mika ignored Ferid most of the time and didn’t bother reacting to his irritating statements. Without responding, Mika threw the backpack over one shoulder and left the room, thankful he didn’t have to deal with him the rest of the night.
He took his motorcycle into downtown that night, drawing little attention to himself as he drew closer to the penthouse. It was close to one in the morning by that time, and all the stores were closed for the night, most of the residences’ windows dark. He parked a few blocks away, going over the plan in his head as he walked the rest of the distance. In his baggy black hoodie and dark jeans, he blended in perfectly with the night.
The penthouse Ichinose lived in was on the corner he had marked on the map earlier, the layout just as Mika expected. What he wasn’t expecting, however, was for one of Ichinose’s doors leading out to a balcony to be wide open, a dim light shining out. It was practically an invitation for someone like Mika to climb right in. So Mika took it.
Ichinose lived on the sixth floor of the penthouse, which really wasn’t that far up. Also, rather conveniently, all of the penthouses had fancy balconies to accompany their bedrooms, which meant that Mika didn’t even have to use his grappling hook. Making sure nobody was on the street to witness it, he began to scale the building with ease. When he reached the sixth floor, he approached very cautiously, silently swinging one leg over the side of the balcony, staying out of sight. It was likely someone was awake in that room watching television, probably Guren himself. In that case, Mika would have to find another way in.
He slowly peered around the corner of the door, anticipating having to quickly roll back before being seen. He found himself looking into what was clearly a teenager’s bedroom, the television on and displaying the menu of a video game. The walls were plastered with posters displaying various bands and video game characters, there was a clutter of books and electronics and clothing filling up half the room. And in the center of it all, laying on the unmade bed, was the dark haired owner of the bedroom. Mika couldn’t identify them, since they were laying face down and snoring quietly, but they definitely weren’t the twenty six year old CEO of an international company. In fact, they looked around the same age as Mika, probably a little younger based on height. Mika didn’t remember reading anything about Guren having a kid, but perhaps the teenager was the product of some kind of hidden love affair or a distant relative. Figuring it didn’t matter anyway, Mika was confident the teenager would stay unconscious long enough for him to enter and leave. Dead silent, even in combat boots, Mika carefully made his way across the bedroom, quietly slipping out into a large hallway.
It was easy enough to find the dining room, in which Mika carefully lifted the wine bottle out of his backpack and placed it on the table. Mission complete. He was just thankful he didn’t have to confront anyone this time. And the low security of the place was an insane stroke of luck.
He made his way back down the hallway, not wasting any time going through any of Ichinose’s things. The sooner he got out of there, the less likely it is he would be caught. He slipped back into the teenager’s bedroom, where the kid was still passed out. Before he stepped out onto the balcony, however, something about the place made Mika pause. It was a strange feeling, standing in the bedroom of a normal teenager. Back in the Tepes manor, Mika’s bedroom was stark, probably one of the barest rooms in the mansion. He didn’t have a television, or posters, and especially not video games. In fact, he didn’t ever recall being in someone else’s room his age for the longest time.
The longer he stood there, the more he realized he didn’t want to go back to his own room, his own cold, bare room, surrounded by cold, bare people. Just the thought of having to return made his skin crawl. Before he could decide what to do, however, the boy on the bed spoke, catching Mika off guard.
“Come back,” the boy’s voice was slurred and almost incoherent. Mika realized the teenager was sleep talking, and he relaxed. The dark haired boy let out a groan and rolled over.
Mika’s heart stopped.
At least, it felt like it did. There’s no way, there’s no way. Mika kept the chant up in his head as he practically stumbled over to the bed, staring down at the other boy with wide eyes. How could he ever forget that face, even if it was preserved so clearly in his memories as a smiling, innocent 12 year old boy? Was it possible that the teenager was just a lookalike?
“No…” Mika said it aloud, falling to his knees next to the bed and leaning forward. “Yuu..” his voice cracked, and before he could stop himself, he felt something warm and wet running down his cheeks. Tears.
Just as he reached out to touch Yuu’s hair, make sure he was tangible and real, the television made a loud beeping noise, alerting anyone in the vicinity that it was going to shut off automatically. Scared that Yuu would wake up, Mika quickly ran from the bed, scrambling out onto the balcony. Before he climbed down, he looked back. Yuu was sitting up with a confused look now, rubbing his eyes and glaring at the television.
“Yuu…” Mika wanted so desperately to run back, to talk to him.
But he couldn’t.
When Yuu turned to look onto his balcony, Mika was gone.