Chapter Text
Maki floated through the school gates, feeling the days blur together. Was this his second day up in a row or his third? His brain didn't distinguish between artificial lights and natural lights. Naps on the base's couch in between the running around did little to keep his thoughts from turning to a numb buzz. He went and sat in his homeroom and almost immediately knocked out.
*whisper whisper* *whisper whisper* Maki cranked his eyes open, trying to filter his classmates' chattering out from the static in his brain. "Is that class prez?"s "OMG it's Kobayashi-kun~"s and "Oh snap"s came from the small crowd. He turned his head to the side and almost came face-to-face with Kaito. TOO close! Kaito's flustered blush soon turned into relief at Maki's waking. Kaito straightened up so that they weren't nearly lip-to-lip, and Maki sat up in his chair to get a better look at the lovely dude. Kaito shot eye daggers at the people around to make them startle and turn away.
"Maki... It's almost the end of lunch, don't tell me you just put your head down as soon as it began..."
Wait, he'd slept into lunch? "Ahahah... yeah, ya got me..." Maki avoided eye contact. Kaito pouted.
"Well, do you have anything to eat?"
Maki cockily threw his hands behind his head. "I ain't giving you anything, Prez~" he chirped with a grin.
"Tsk. I mean for you to eat before class in a few minutes." Kaito pushed up his glasses on his nose. Maki opened his mouth to say 'of course' only to ruffle through his bag and realize he'd packed his lunch the Friday before, not that morning. He stood, a bit flustered.
"Y'know, that's easily solved." Maki grabbed his bag.
"The vending machine was broken by some punk, you know," Kaito nagged, worried he wouldn't make it for his next class.
"Who said I was goin' there?"
"... The clock saying you'll miss science if you take your time." Kaito placed a hand on Maki's shoulder and he obediently sat back down. Kaito gave him a pack of fruit snacks in consolation. Little did he know that his offering was also doubling up as breakfast and maybe tripling up as dinner if Maki was unlucky with who he ran into that night.
"Urgh--well, there probably isn't much of a point in going now, since I forgot my notebook, too..." He wordlessly thanked him for the fruit snacks and started eating.
"Wha-?! Fine, I'll lend you my notes this once, too, okay?"
"Oooo~ Kobayashi-kun never lends out his notes!" along with other "oo"s and "ahh"s from the onlookers. Maki blinked in confusion as to how this could be significant in any way. Kaito gave annoyed glances over his shoulder and dug a booklet's worth of notes out of his bag.
They were very nicely highlighted, underlined, and even annotated (why would the notes need notes...?). Maki felt a part of his body internally crumble away in shame. A hopeful light swirled through his eyes, though, and that was enough for his hand to open up and have the papers stiffly shoved into it. A slender finger pointed at a post-it note whose base was buried within the mass. "I marked that area for you; there's a separate copy with an abridged version~"
Maki blushed and turned to Kaito. His face faded in and out of focus. Maki knew the short version of the notes was probably the result of Kaito testing how much he could regurgitate without looking at his notes, but it still felt personalized. The notes themselves were a strangely purposeful gift, like Kaito was telling him they could both pass this class--graduate high school--together. Maki swallowed his bite of fruit snacks. "T-thanks, Class Prez..."
"Can you come over today?" Kaito asked in a semi-hushed voice, brushing hair behind his ear.
"N-not today... but nothing much will be going on at the base day after tomorrow."
Kaito cocked his head, curious as to what could be going on that prevented Maki from even being able to come over for an hour or two. "So you say you aren't busy day after tomorrow, then? I'll see you at our spot during study break, later." Kaito whispered the last part with a smug smile that relaxed Maki.
A few hours later, Daiki the Human Headache (affectionate) exited the convenience store with a bag of snacks and a black eye.
"Woah, dude, what happened to you?" Itsuki asked. Maki simply crossed his arms and waited for an explanation.
"Some gyaru with these long curly locks--and I swear her hair was blonder than any middle school lets 'em be--"
Maki internally breathed a sigh of relief. Tough middle schoolers and tough gangsters are two different breeds, with a couple notable exceptions, and Maki's folks were messing with the later breed more than they'd usually like to, lately. The area's gangs had abided by live and let live in the time since Maki's brother had been incarcerated, but Maki and his guys had been in a few more scuffles in the past few weeks, likely because of more jobs beginning to pop up than normal. Jobs, huh? Maki wanted to sleep forever after the one they just did over the weekend.
"--Yeah, you definitely deserved to be punched for that."
"Hm? I gotta go punch someone?"
Itsuki shook his head at Maki's eyebags, tossing him his energy drink. "No, he's the one that needs the punchin'." He pointed over his shoulder at Daiki.
"Hey hey hey! I already got my punishment, alright?" Daiki and Itsuki started pushing each other around like lion cubs. Maki yawned like he was their lioness mother, even though they were both older than him.
"Alright, Daiki, did the transfer go through?"
"O.O" He scratched the back of his head.
"He means the screen when you enter in the card info," Itsuki whispered into his ear. "Did the numbers change?"
"Ah! Right, boss Sho'. Yes, they did change!"
"'They?'" Here comes the headache part of Daiki's existence.
He ran a hand along his retro, stupidly huge pompadour and snapped a finger gun at Maki. "The numbers!" The others looked around, hands protectively on their bikes. Daiki caught on and lowered his voice. "By almost a million yen~!" Maki's eyes shot wide open.
"Nii-chan~!" Shoyo beat on the rubble ground like he was trying to make the dilapidated building collapse. "Why?! Why can't we live in a normal house, with a normal family, with a normal mommy and daddy?!" Ryuu resisted the urge to put out his cig on Shoyo's huge forehead and took a drag.
"NoRMaL this, nOrMAl that; y'know what happens to the lowest of the low, Sho'?"
"T-they get covered in dirt?" Shoyo sniffled, running out of breath in the forty-seventh minute of his fit.
"They end up on the other side of the world. With penthouses, overlooking the ocean. With miniature pools inside'a them. With concrete islands inside'a those!" He turned around and firmly grasped Shoyo's head. "Don't you ever doubt the path we're on. 'Cause someday, we'll cheat the world outta all they stole from us and more." Shoyo nodded, despite his eyes still wavering. Ryuu let go and straightened up again. Shoyo sneezed from the cigarette breath. Maybe he'd see Ryuu with a big cigar, like the grown-ups in the movies he snuck him into, someday. Maybe then, things would calm down.
"Someday..."
"Hm, what was that, Boss?" Maki snapped out of his daze to his curious underlings.
"Nothing..! Just, let's head back. We gotta let Michi-nii know."
The others agreed. After confirming the exact amount and logging it in the one notebook that should actually matter to Maki, he led them back to the abandoned (under the table operational) warehouse they called home. Seated at a few barstools around the kitchenette's island, the trio ate the convenience store food with its hallmark taste of rubber as they waited for Michi and/or Goto to arrive. Itsuki occasionally took a breath and glanced at Maki. Maki would nod only for him to look away. This repeated a few times.
"Are you just gonna keep gaspin' like a fish for air?"
"I... was wondering about the specifics of the plan for that... delivery, we made a couple days ago. What was the deal with the trailers?"
"What about them?"
"I did some thinking," that was dangerous for someone like Itsuki, "and I realized there were two too many for the amount of guns."
"You n' Daiki were plants, plain and simple." When the highway check opened up their trailers, they'd found nothing but old children's toys; Goto and Michi's trailers, on the other hand, transported the goods with a couple extra crates as a cover-up.
"Whaddaya mean I was a 'plant'? I thought li'l sister told us not to use slurs anymore or whatever."
"I said you're a 'plant' as in you were our decoy," which was decided as a group beforehand, "not calling you a vegetable."
"Vegetable." *gasp* "You see this, Daiki?"
"Wow, boss, calling Itsuki a vegetable is a new low, even for you." Daiki 'tsked' 'tsked,' trying to play the 'older-than-you' card. Maki grit his teeth in frustration.
"Decoy..." Itsuki fired up his braincell and tried to remember that night. Moments passed. A shiver suddenly went up his spine. "Ayo?! I got stopped by the cops, y'know! She took her sweet ol' time friskin' me!"
"Can confirm," Daiki nodded, "he was so lucky~ and then mine was some old fatass who looked like he hated everything, probably because he wanted to be Itsuki, getting all felt up by a hottie cop--"
Maki reached over and smacked the back of Daiki's hair. "Quit your complainin'."
"H-huh?! Why isn't he getting it too?!"
"I care if someone gets sexually assaulted by a cop. I don't care if you dislike how one looks. Now--I know it must've felt majorly inconvenient for you to get stopped, but there was a reason things were like this. Did they record anything about you?"
"Hmm, after they checked our trailers, no..." Itsuki responded, tugging at his wispy chin hairs. "Didn't even take down our licenses, just glanced at 'em."
"Heh heh~ I only got beat for coming home at seven in the morning." Daiki put his finger along his chin. Maki ignored that comment, because that was honestly better than some of the other shit Daiki's uncle would put him through.
"Good. Thanks to you, Michi n' Goto made it through the police check without a hitch. Means the cops didn't check their cargo thoroughly."
"So... You're saying that, even though us two got the short end of the stick, it worked?"
"Mhm. I told them in advance there would be four deliveries instead of two--that two would be decoys that still had the correct code." Maki flashed a guilty smile.
"Wow, boss is so smart!" Daiki cheered. He skipped around like a lamb. Itsuki was almost disarmed by this, but Maki's smile appeared more devilish than angelic this time around. He lowered his voice.
"Yeah--but, why didn't you tell me, at least?" Itsuki leaned in, patting his chest. "I woulda been fine with it."
"No you wouldn't've."
"Well that's because it's fuckin' dangerous!" He flung his hands out in exasperation. "Aside from the two of us potentially gettin' arrested, what woulda gone down if Goto and Michi were caught with all those?"
"I was ready to bail them out if it got too intense; I was just a mile down the road." Maki's bike, pitch black, almost unidentifiable, approaching the sound barrier with the proof of payment in hand, making a ruckus, speeding down the highway--it would've caught any cop's attention. "Besides, they're grown ass adults. They can handle themselves."
Itsuki nodded. He moved next to Maki and patted his shoulder in resignation. He didn't wanna get clocked for talking back too much, again, so he went for a different angle. "I'm a grown ass adult too, Sho'. I'm just saying: don't do anything stupid when I'm still here."
"Ha! You say that like you're about to take a bullet for me."
"There better not be any more of those things in the area."
"Hey guys, look what one of the guards gave me!" Daiki stopped his happy dance and held up a pistol into the air.
Both of them crossed the distance and tackled him to the ground in a flash.
"Don't wave around gear like that!!" Maki hissed.
"'Never point at something you aren't tryna shoot' or all that jazz!" Itsuki added.
"What's going on in here?" Michi entered the kitchenette and sassily flipped his hair.
"A threesome," Itsuki rolled his eyes and took the gun.
Maki teleported across the room, mortified. "NOTHING. It just turns out those guys gave us a 'bonus', too." Itsuki set the gun on the island. Michi's eyes widened. Maki'd already received one as collateral for the shipment. They gave a firearm to... wait, neither Itsuki nor Daiki made sense to try to poach from Maki's gang.
"Hmph. Sounds a little too generous in my eyes." They were trying to flatter their group for something beyond the weapons delivery they'd done. Michi addressed Maki, the most serious person in the room. "Think they're trying to offshoot here?"
"Or maybe absorb us into them--"
"And tangle us up in their schemes..." Michi dragged his face down with a hand. "Shhiiiit."
Daiki sat up, still on the floor, legs crossed at the ankles. "But it don't make sense." Michi raised an eyebrow and looked down at him, allowing him to continue. "What'd a syndicate like them want to do with some fuckboys like us?"
"..."
"..."
This was the third job they'd gotten in the last month. Granted, the other two weren't nearly as huge, but the waters were definitely smelling of blood. More gangs were messing with them, too, rather than the friendly rapport they'd cultivated so carefully since the last major war.
"Well, things have been picking up in the area..."
"Ahh, so they're putting their eggs in our basket." Daiki seemed content enough with that answer, but the other three stared at the ground, processing the same question: but why?
"Y'know..." Michi tried to rationalize, "We have a huge leg up on the others."
"We're small enough to easily destroy?" Itsuki sassed.
"Tch, our size is one of our biggest setbacks and advantages." Itsuki caught glares from the other two for setting him off on another one of his rants about how superior they were. "We aren't respected enough to use official smuggling routes, but we're small enough that--if we're careful--it doesn't really matter. . ." Michi continued to ramble, going on about the glory days when they had more members and a combative leader. However much Maki Shoyo enjoyed the spark in Michi's eyes he only got around Ryuu or talking about Ryuu, Shoyo wanted to give Itsuki a bonk on the head for that one.
The next day, Maki remembered his lunch for school and did not, in fact, fall asleep while making out with Kaito in the janitor's closet (which totally didn't happen the day before). They both lingered in the closet and caught their breath. Kaito finger-combed his hair, and Maki adjusted his shoe.
"Hm? You got a rock in your shoe?"
"Nah." Just contraband. Maki cut it out and looked out the door's slates. "Seems like the coast is clear. You should go first, as always~"
Kaito giggled at his gentlemanly bow and let himself be shooed away. Once he was gone, Maki went back to trying to hide his switchblade. It gave him so much grief. His brother had always told him the shoe was the worst place to leave it. "Yer Sho' not Shu," he chided, then dunked the back half of the kid's head in bleach. Joke's on him. In Maki Shoyo's second year, Ryuu was put away for at least three years for disturbing the peace; so, Shoyo put his blade in his shoe and not his waistband, and he let his hair turn pink and never again dyed it hotheaded-red. He's Sho', not Ryuu.
After school, Maki sighed at Kaito's text that he'd be over a bit late because of his student council duties, mockingly pleading for more detention to spend time with him and heading on ahead. The gang was going to have a meeting about their latest patrols (at a random time determined by whenever everyone managed to be at the base at the same time), and Maki was going to at least be available for when that time came. Obviously he and Kaito would be in the furthest recesses of the warehouse that were somewhat clean, but the guys could just call his phone or whatever.
Maki started his bike and put on his helmet, humming to himself about how he could make his futon as comfortable as possible so that he could easily lick Kaito's *******. Riding through abandoned midtown, he already felt in a better mood, refreshed.
Then some jackass rode up next to him and tried to run him off the road. After a couple near misses, it became apparent this gaudy bike was intentionally trying to ram him. He looked a bit closer and noticed it had the mark of a rival gang. Maki got the message and pulled over. His bike was elderly and precious--dents would not be tolerated. Maki huffed in annoyance as he took off his helmet. Every now and then, one of his guys would come to him and say they were intimidated for even passing through another gang's turf, so this wasn't entirely out of the blue, but pulling over Maki himself for something that a month before was a total non-issue took some guts.
The other guy pulled over and took off his helmet too. With a glare that wanted to strike Maki dead, he cocked his head in the direction of a warehouse. Maki put a hand in his pocket and followed, keeping a distance. He scoped out the place in the fading light. There were a couple piles of junk around, covered in cobwebs, but it was mostly open floor space.
"One of Shinoto's, right? Why don't you explain yourself?" Maki was not in the mood for this. He'd let this slide if he could just leave and get to his boyfriend.
The guy pulled a knife. "I don't feel like explaining to scum today." Maki felt a spark of irritation highlight some repressed area inside him.
"You have a mouth on you, don't you? Put away that knife 'fore you get yourself hurt," Maki spoke through tongue clicks and gritted teeth.
"You still have that smug face of his... This is the start." The man looked up with a desperate glint in his eyes. "You're all going down. You, Ryuunos--"
"Don't you mention my brother in my presence." Maki's wary look was replaced with something sinister. The man stiffened. "I can't think your boss is that stupid to send you out here with m e ."
"There ain't nothing stupid about this! I'm just tying up the loose ends before the knot unravels."
"Knot? What, you got a court case yer 'bout to lose or something?"
The guy only wheezed out laughter to the point he nearly doubled over in mockery of Maki. Ticked off, Maki suddenly didn't really care what he was referring to. He went for his shoe and the man took that moment to charge at him head on. Narrowly dodging, Maki rolled through the grime on the ground to a squat, turning and springing back the man's way to tackle his knees. Ducking his long swing with relative ease but extreme anxiety, Maki knocked the man over.
As he recovered balance, Maki retrieved his knife from the bottom of his shoe. "Grrgh," the man gurgled. "You still fight like yer three feet tall."
Maki tried not to blush as Michi's influence instantly came to mind. Eyes trained on his opponent the entire time, he flicked out the blade. The man came charging again, like he was a bull. Maki easily discerned the arc path of his swing based on his fixed arm position. Maki side-stepped the charge and countered the swing, finding himself at the side of the man and going for his upper leg (leather jacket looking so tough it wouldn't be able to be pierced).
"Argh--" he hissed as he turned and stabbed directly at Maki's head. Maki crouched and left another slash along his chest where the jacket was left open. Keeping momentum, he ran forward to dodge the man's downward strike. He turned on his heel and attacked the man's leg again, near the back of his knee. His lunge let his face get elbowed by the man's recoiling arms, however.
"Nghh!" Maki stumbled back in surprise. He put a solid distance between them, jumping back along the level ground and sneezing at the blood pouring out of his nose like a confused cat. Despite the shock, he didn't drop the knife in surprise; his grip didn't even loosen. His grip tightened, like blood that hadn't run through his hands was finally rushing back and stretching his tendons until his knuckles turned white. 'He's serious. He's serious.' No more ankle-biting and cat scratches. If he wanted blood, blood he'd get.
The man ran towards him, almost unaffected by his strikes. This only confirmed that Maki had to go further to properly teach him a lesson. The man went for the core, and the impact sent sparks flying. The guy's knife flew up, slicing Maki's arm, as he hadn't moved in time. Maki hissed as he leapt behind the man again, reversing his grip. The man went for another stab Maki dodged, and Maki sliced at his fingers. He dashed away from the man's attempt to grab him--something like that would surely be his end--and kicked out the injured knee again.
Maki used the momentum from his kick to avoid the man's flailing hands and leave a deeper slice in the man's torso. The man stumbled, trying to get up. He coughed, body crumpling under its own weight multiple times. Maki struck the knife out of his bleeding hand, almost taking a couple fingers with him, and shoved his heel into his cheekbone. Still careful not to get grabbed, he yanked the jacket over part of the guy's arm, mapping out where he could best strike him. Maki's chest heaved like his retaliation against his incapacitated assailant was only beginning.
Artery or nerve? A r t e r y o r n e r v e ? The man felt himself being sized up like a piece of meat and tried to kick Maki away, earning a hard stab to his thigh. "Agh--FUCK!"
"Did I tell you to move?" The teenager twisted the knife, his eyes no longer showed any trace of benevolence or hesitation.
"... What the fuck?!" Maki stood straight and took a small step away while still towering over him.
"The fact is y'all have been getting way too cocky. You all need a little reminder." Maki's voice felt hollow, like the words he was saying weren't his, like his blood was moving too quickly for him to process what it was deciding. All he knew was that he could never see this man's face again. He switched his grip again. Artery will make sure of that.
"Fact is you ain't some kid... You're a monster..!" he spluttered, trying anything to throw his target off game. Maki's eyes didn't soften one bit. Maybe nerve would shake him enough to take back his words. "Yer going this far?! My boss knows where I am; the gang's out look--" He shut up as soon as Maki gave him a look that said he'd be willing to forego arms and go for the neck in a heartbeat. Maki was trying to think, and this guy's disgusting groveling was irritating him.
"Real question is 'do I take out your arm or do I leave you here to bleed out alone?'" No response came. More blood pooled around the two of them each second. "I can do either with one strike." He leaned down to where he could even smell the man's chewing tobacco. "Hm?" He placed the knife in one area of his arm. "Hm?" He moved it to another. "Coward," Maki spat as he stood again, "thinking I can't take shit if my bro ain't here."
The man cried and pissed his pants. The sight egged Maki on. He decided on the artery.
"Last words." He lunged.
"H-h-he's returning?" he pitifully gasped.
Maki--or shall I say Shoyo--nearly dropped his knife, stumbling forward, blood splashing around. He tried to breathe and turned around. Unless this was taking a sudden 'Jesus remember me' twist, those words could only mean one thing--
The man had crawled around the corner into the light in the time it took to process this information. Dammit. If the guy wasn't just blowing hot air, someone would find him before Maki could safely... maim him? MAIM him?
Shaking his head, Maki made his escape out the storehouse's back door and quietly hustled back to his bike. The gang was everything to Maki. Even if they never got another job again, if they could just meet like they always did and have fun together and support each other, that was all he needed. Fuck 'reputation' or 'putting people in place' or anyone who wasn't okay with how Maki ran his gang. Maki had his stainless steel island in the middle of a worn-down warehouse in the city he grew up in. A grudge wasn't worth the risk.