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April was a great month, and spring was a great season.
Kouyou liked this time of the year, especially this time of the year. She was a cold-blooded assassin maybe, but that didn't change the fact that flowers were pretty.
So yeah, she liked this time of the year, she liked flowers, she liked their smells - and she had money. Lots of money, which was thanks to her position as an executive in the Port Mafia. Now what did this had to do with the fact that she liked flowers?
Money meant privileges, like having an expensive hobby.
Hobbies were things people did to relax with the things they liked, and Kouyou liked flowers, so it ended up in her having a flower garden.
It was not anywhere around the Port Mafia Headquarters - hell no, she wouldn't put her precious flowers anywhere near there. It was far from there, in another corner of Yokohama, where she wasn't an assassin or an executive but just a woman with a hobby.
Spring was when her flowers bloomed, specifically April was when they smelled the best, so she found herself on her way to her garden with the newbie by her side.
The boy didn't look very enthusiastic about that, though. He had his hands in his pockets, pouting, and was furrowing his eyebrows. How rude, Kouyou thought. Even if all she was trying to do was to get him out of work for a while and show him her beautiful garden.
"Stop pouting, Chuuya." she said sternly, walking towards the entrance of the small building leading to her garden.
"You didn't tell me where we were going, Ane-san." the boy replied hostily. He was rather short tempered to Kouyou's liking, but he certainly respected the woman, be it her place as an executive, as his mentor or her image in general. Unlike a disrespectful brat she knew, who tried to commit suicide by eating her flowers when she brought him here. That was enough for Kouyou to keep him under her wing and get him out to get some fresh air.
Well, he hadn't given up on using the word Ane-san, but maybe that wasn't that big of an issue.
"It's not related to work, Chuuya. Be patient." she said, pushing the door open after unlocking it.
It was a small place with a few cupboards, a table and chairs - nowhere to stay, just somewhere for primary needs. It had two doors - one which Kouyou and Chuuya had entered, and the other leading to the garden, the place Kouyou wanted to show Chuuya.
The boy had been through so much just recently, and Kouyou would be lying if she said she hadn't felt any sympathy for him.
Broken souls were all that came to the Port Mafia, after all.
She felt the need to make him touch grass, so here she was, bringing him to her precious garden.
Chuuya was still furrowing his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything else. He was curious about where his mentor could have possibly brought him outside of the work.
"And, here we are." Kouyou said, pushing the other door open, stepping out of the small building and into the garden's stone road. "Welcome to my flower garden."
It was a garden with all kinds of flowers in all colors, painting the scenery beautifully. Petals were covering everywhere on the ground as a few of them floated around.
Just as Kouyou thought, her garden looked the best in April.
She turned around slowly, smiling, to look at Chuuya's face. He was surprised, eyes widened, just as she expected.
"Oh."
She raised an eyebrow. "Well?" she said in a questioning tune.
"Oh, uh, Ane-san, I... Don't think that's a good idea." Chuuya responded as he swayed on his feet, reluctant to step into the garden.
Kouyou furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?" she asked. "This is my garden, one I built with my own hands. I'm giving you the chance of seeing it, and you're rejecting it?"
She huffed. "Ungrateful brats..." she muttered under her breath.
Chuuya's head perked up. "No, no, that's not it—"
"Then come over here."
"Uh... But..."
Kouyou rolled her eyes, dragging Chuuya in by holding his arm. "Come on, no need to be shy. It's all mine."
Chuuya stumbled forward, stepping on the stone road. "Ane-san—"
"Isn't it pretty?" Kouyou sighed dreamily. "Truly a place to get some fresh air." She inhaled slowly, closing her eyes.
Chuuya blinked at her, then turned his gaze to the flowers.
Yeah, they were pretty, definitely pretty, but...
There was a problem.
"Oh, come on," Kouyou nudged him on the shoulder. "You do that too. The Mafia's air isn't really refreshing, you know."
"Uh," Chuuya started, "Yeah."
He kept staring at the flowers, breathing as little as he could.
God.
"Come on, come on," Kouyou said, patting his head. His current behaivior wasn't exactly her favourite, but she could bear with that as long as he respected her flowers. "Breathe in."
Chuuya blinked again, only to avert his gaze and turn his face to the side, pretending to look at the flowers on the opposite side of Kouyou. "Yeah." he said, now with his face out of Kouyou's view, pretending to take a deep breath by widening his chest. "It smells... Good."
"Right, it does." Kouyou said, certainly pleased. She walked around, leaving Chuuya standing awkwardly.
And oh, Chuuya had nothing to do as he silently prayed to postpone the inevitable as long as possibly.
But it came, eventually. And it came right at the moment Kouyou turned back to him to throw him a bite about how he was silent today.
His breath hitched one time, two times, eyes closing.
Oh, here it comes.
"ACHOOOOOO!"
A sound so loud echoed in the empty area surrounding the garden, causing Chuuya to throw his head with the force as his nose almost blew up. A shock wave radiated around, starting from his body through the garden. Flower petals swinged, a kid in the distance fell on his back as his toy dropped to the ground, a huge rock fell down from a mountain and detonated, the ground rattled as the stones trembled on it, waves exploded in the ocean, the sky roared, the world shook.
God damn.
Kouyou had closed her eyes shut, her hair flying behind her with the force coming from Chuuya's sneeze. Her lips became a thin line as she waited for the atmosphere to calm down, then raised an eyebrow as she opened her eyes.
Chuuya was wiping his nose with his sleeve, his nose flushed red.
"Bless you." she said with a straight face. "You have pollen allergy?"
The statement made Chuuya's ears and the rest of his face go red too as his head perked up, lips falling slightly agape. "Uh..." he started, "Maybe..."
Kouyou sighed.
Chuuya probably considered it a weakness and hadn't said anything about it.
As Chuuya's breath hitched again, Kouyou took cover, bracing herself for the impact. It was as loud and powerful as the first one, but she wasn't shocked this time, so that was a pro.
"If I knew, I wouldn't have brought you here in the first place..." She sighed again, walking back to Chuuya.
"It seemed important to you, so I didn't want to..." Chuuya quieted down as Kouyou wrapped an arm around his shoulders, turning him around to walk towards the exit. "Doesn't matter," she said. "Next time anything like this occurs, let me know."
Sure, she wanted to show him the garden and was actually a little bit dissapointed, but it didn't matter.
Chuuya simply nodded, nose still flushed red. He sniffed.
"For now, though... Let's get out of here quickly before another, uh..." She brought her hand close to her lips. "...natural disaster catches us."
Chuuya flushed red again with that, nodding furiously. He hurried his steps towards the exit, causing Kouyou to chuckle.
His sneezes were surely... Something.
Kouyou felt the ground under her shake again as Chuuya sneezed once more, closing her ears with her hands and scrunching her face a little.
"I'm sorry!" Chuuya exclaimed with a high pitched voice from where he was a few steps ahead of Kouyou now without looking back. God, he was embarrassed.
Kouyou openly laughed this time, exiting the garden right after Chuuya. "It's okay." she said, though she wasn't sure if Chuuya had heard her or not.
She swore to not to bring any flower close to Chuuya after that day, because the world might not welcome the wrath of the gravity user that well everytime. Someone might die with the way Chuuya sneezed - no, with the way his nose detonated.
Sure, they were cold-blooded mafiosos always ready to kill with a lot of blood on their hands, but really, what kind of mafioso killed someone with the sole power of sneezing?
Chuuya kept surprising her everyday.