Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘A man is in my house…’ Chisaki stated in his mind.

Connecting his irises to the barely renderable roof that lay stagnant above him, wooden and aged with boring, mundane memories and he focused on his restraint and (im)patience so his eyes don’t wander through the darkness and attempt to peer down at the warm, heavy breathing presence in the room that uncomfortably sprawled out over his cleanly floor, kicking, punching, rolling around in his seemingly stressful sleep.

“I’m too drunk to care…” Kai didn’t realise he muttered out loud until the aftermath of his speaking rang an annoying screech through his ears and forced him into a wince and roll to his side, now glancing at the wall.

The wall that pulled his vision dangerously close to the hyper-energetic man on the floor, who began to speak, “Drink… I’d… water…”

Mumbling absently, Kai fed into the conversation “You sound like a croaky old man. You want water?”

Bang! A loud crash jolted Chisaki with enough shock to finally look down at the sleepy guy who was now directly next to his bed.

Charcoal hair, grimy and platted together by the result of movement and grease lay limply across his face as he smothered his pointy head into the baseboard of his wonderful bed.

Was he knocked out or something? The bang had 100% come from some insane action the guy had done. Comparing his previous extreme animal-like movement to the fact he was completely stationary, was a noticeable juxtaposition from his… lively sleep fighting…

“Yeah… no sugar…”

Oh nope. He was still there. A miracle, I suppose.

His fingers annoyed Chisaki as they beat their way up and down the side of his bed, tapping an annoying groggy melody which was blended with his half-asleep voice (that almost sounded like a cough) which Chisaki took quite a while to decipher and realise he wasn’t talking in some ancient dialect.

Swiping swiftly, Kai’s hands slapped the sleep-weakened wrists off the side to halt their monotonous music endeavour, “Go get it yourself!”

Below, the continued his extreme breathing man rolled onto his back, his crimson eyes drifting to only remain open at a slit to view that stagnant roof in the deep darkness.

“Your judgement is wrong…” the man whispered out, contributing to his own exhausted rambling.

“Go back to sleep; 2am…” It was 5am actually- the time Chisaki appointed to throw his drunken, sorry carcass out the window if he dared try and stay for any longer.

Birds were chirping and a soft light was penetrating its way through the window, a single glance away from the prostrate guy on the floor would be enough to realise the fact it was time but in that moment, the care for the situation abandoned him. Growing increasingly drowsy, his eyes couldn’t fight the urge to shut.

And Chisaki drifted into dreaming about the memories of what had occurred earlier on that day…

~~~~~~~~

The darkness outside could not enter the underground fight ring for lights shone brightly in all directions, neither could the brisk air outside for the sweaty fighting clogged up the air with thick heat that was almost unbearable.

At this point, Chisaki was especially boiling as the moist precipitation on his skin (that had accumulated during his previous win in the ring) left him steaming like water- it felt like he was at his melting point.

His chair (which was turned directly around, facing away from the table it was paired with) didn’t reassure his slightly sore back, the cheap wood was stubborn in its lack of comfort and aided the pain in its attack on Chisaki’s muscular body.

Honestly, he could barely remember why he went up their to fight in the first place, he usually can recall to execrate what hateful words were thrown at him from the whichever opponent riled up his resentment but all he can remember is it was something about winning land.

In fact, he didn’t even know why he was still there, none of his men were fighting; they were all blindly drunken to the point of immobility but all annoyance he felt towards the other Shie Hassakai’s recklessness had faded away long ago and now instead, his twisted mind was already planning out the consequences for them.

Maybe he could force them to patrol, constantly, for the next month on the land he won from the bet he had with the gang he just pummelled with defeat, death would be too harsh because they’re his own men- they didn’t betray him or do anything so there was no reason to hunt for the kill.

“You suck at fighting.” A deep voice interrupted amongst the loud noise, although at normal speaking level it seemed to float above the nonsensical shouting from all around, “You just put your hand out and kill someone, there’s no real skill” the unrecognisable voice continued.

Resting on his lap, his sweat-soaked hands tightened and a scrutinising gaze overtook his yellow eyes as he swiftly swerved his legs around the uncomfortable chair to face the side to turn his head easier so his petrifying gaze could hopefully make whoever said that quiver.

As he turned around, the deep voice presented himself as a muscular man, squatting on the chair (instead of sitting) opposite Chisaki’s own seat. The black jacket and cargos that guy was wearing matched his extremely long hair and forced his red eyes to pop and stand out, as well as the silver accents on his spiky boots and earrings in his ears.

Yet, after all that acknowledging of his features, he was still unrecognisable. Kai had never seen this guys face before and he would’ve been doubtful that anyone else in here did.

“And you are?” He questioned the surprise guest, “In all my years of being here, I have never seen you before, especially not in the ring”

“I in fact only arrived a few minutes ago since I am here because I was… informed by a comrade that this was a free training ground- I believed he was speaking of a type of gym I wouldn’t have to pay for.” He responded firmly, his hard, red eyes staring into the yellow irises of Chisaki.

If anyone was to scan around the huge, tightly packed room you would not see even the slightest suggestion of any running machine, dumbbell or rowing machine just a repetitive hoard of shoddy tables, tables, tables- in lines and reaching far beyond what was blocked by the silhouettes of many drunken, aggressive souls until they are forcefully obstructed by the walls, doors and other miscellaneous structures such as the bar. All items added to the room surrounded the large ring which was held in the ultimate centre of the room, exposed by the harsh light and elevated in order to be viewed by all- even the furthest security guards (who removed the weapons off all those who dared to enter) were able to see clearly from such a distance. “I can see now, this place is not a gym,” He continued.

“Well, you may as well leave because you are not in a position to critique a fight properly since you’re only here for training.” Chisaki bit back, leaning into the argument defensively instead of maintaining his grasp on his own temper.

Chisaki’s 2 empty half-pint glasses on the desk (he bought them in the first place for the beer inside wasn’t particularly nice) were swirled around by the mystery man, moved from side to side as he spoke unconcernedly, “I admit, I am no professional in fighting however, from my judgement and experiences, I have come to recognise how the abuse of quirks looks and you fit into that appearance perfectly When you battled against the other man. In other words, you’re completely terrible.”

“Well that scum was cured of his ego after I defeated him and that is all I could ask for therefore it doesn’t matter how much ‘skill’ I use,”

“Maybe, however it presents how you do not know how to properly fight.”

If only Kurono was here, then they could both outnumber him and make this random feel awkward enough to leave Chisaki alone but Kurono was off ‘sick’ at the yakuza base with some mystery illness (it was an excuse made because he had been working all night and was too tired to go to the ring but didn’t have the courage to say it directly). This man showed no signs of leaving, he had made himself comfortable on that chair in his uncomfortable position.

“And you do?”

Expecting a rigid, annoying answer, Chisaki’s legs swung around the table-fully this time- to be able to face him without straining his neck to irritate him further- fully subjecting himself into the heated discussion- almost hoping that the other would say something extremely insulting and have to lead to a fight so he could really demonstrate his capabilities.

But the other only shrugged his tense shoulders indifferently, sending a wave of slight disappointment over Kai but every cloud has its silver lining because, at least he didn’t have to hear the ‘pretentious’ (yes, Chisaki thought that- a bit hypocritical but what do you expect from him) voice the stranger had.

“What does that mean? You act all cocky and then shrug like you don’t care.”

“Cocky?” The other huffed in amusement, “That’s cocky to you? Pointing out your flaws is cocky?”

“Just don’t talk to me.”

However, that request was clearly not going to be followed as the stranger was preparing to speak once more after both their visions relocated to the two men walking into the ring.

The two men that walked on stage practically looked like brothers, completely basic and utterly boring. Their bodies lacked any distinguishable features, just a blend of hairy skin and relatively big muscles.

However, for where their similarities were alike, their personalities weren’t for the one on the left was calm and collected, not showing any signs of anything apart from full seriousness while the other was giggling like a school boy, as merry as a angel and practically floating in the air from his boastfulness.

“If that guy there,” the stranger pointed at the calm one- with hesitation- while examining Chisaki’s face at the same time, “attempts to overpower his opponent by only using his quirk and minimal skill, I will by you your next drink”

“I don’t drink” Chisaki responded, too deep pondering why he would do this to come up with a better excuse that could not clearly be disproven by the empty glasses on the table.

The stranger exaggerated his glance towards the empty alcohol glasses on the table,“And there was never an Epstein list.”

From the first look at this random, anyone (Kai) would’ve have assumed sarcasm would be a foreign concept to a serious soul like him from the constant scowl his face gave out however from this man’s bold comparison, that clearly wasn’t the case. Chisaki’s gaze tightened like his hand on the table, “Are you comparing-“ no, there was no point changing the subject; that would only make it harder to stop this guy’s diamond will, “I don’t want you to pay for my drinks.”

“Well, alright, you can pay for my drinks if he uses skill instead”

What is the point in arguing? After that (every time without fail) when Kai attempted to get another word in, the stranger would’ve made a painfully infuriating noise or sound to interrupt. If Kai wasn’t as sober as he was in those moments, his hands would’ve tightened around the stranger’s neck instead of the table.

The air compressed Kai, pressing down on him intensely as the men on the stage punched and prodded at each other in vital places. The intensity of the situation weighing down on him strangely, he sweated even though the situation was an obvious lose/lose.

Punches flew around and around and blue glows sparked around and around the area relentlessly.

On the one hand, he’d be on debt to some random man and on the other hand, he’d have to pay for this man, most likely the latter due to how it’s doubtful that his confident judgement is wrong.

Oppressive, incomprehensible white noise overpowered all speaking in the area with a sudden amount of ravenous force. From left to right, up and down, whichever direction and angle you can name vigorous blue energy blasted through the air, without the slightest bit of skill all coming from the hands of…

The wrong guy.

It was the wrong guy. The man the stranger chose was dodging and avoiding the sparks, sticking to strategy while the other drained his quirk over and over, relentlessly abusing his power and draining it until only seconds later, when the quirk despot fell to the ground, limp, and the battle was over.

And all noise ceased to remain for seconds after. Ears aching, muscles relaxing yet it didn’t soften the tension between both Kai and the stranger.

“I see.” The man opposite Kai spoke, tapping his fingers together.

It was pleasing to win however this gratification he got from his victory was a pointless since now he was in debt to this stranger, “It appears you lost, now if you don’t want to stick to your word that’s fine.”

The man only huffed in amusement at Kai’s condescending attempt of persuasion and removed himself from his seat, “Who would I be if I didn’t stick to my agreements?”

“Don’t.”

“You look like a Sex on the beach type of guy so if you have no objections I will get you that.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?” He shouted into the empty seat, void of any stranger that was once there for he was strolling along to the sparkling bar.

The exasperating sight was the reason why Kai’s head rolled back, flopping onto the wooden back of the chair, all contentedness was pulled away from him as he sat there in dissapointment.

The man strode over to the bar, its yellow light shining brightly and reflecting on his skin and making him glow himself. His rough hands positioned themselves on the side as he spoke to the bar man, having to shout for the bar man to be able to hear him.

The stranger fiddled through his pockets for some cash, “A sex on the beach please and uh… an… ale”

“Ill do you that!” The bar tender spoke “Sex on the beach, hey? I don’t judge, I just take money!” He laughed hysterically, forcing the other to return his chuckles, awkward and unsure what they were laughing about but doing it anyway as to not create a troublesome situation however, luckily, the moment quickly ended a since the barman went back to serving- giving the stranger the chance to flee promptly.

Soon enough, he strode back over with as much snark as he left with, gripping tightly onto two drinks of different content.

On the right, he held a curvy glass filled with exotic decorations: umbrellas, fruit on a stick, more umbrellas, all jammed between piles of ice that were coloured bright orange from the drink that lay underneath.

On the left, there was just a huge cup that his own hand couldn’t entirely fit around filled entirely with yellows-brown liquid and some froth on the verge of falling to its demise on the floor.

“No why would it be?” The stranger spoke (referring to the earlier comment about Sex in the beach) as he sat down, different to how he did last time for now he was practically sitting like a normal person if it wasn’t for his left foot being placed on his own chair.

He carefully slid the vodka submerged cocktail across the table, pressing it into the scowling Chisaki’s hands.

In his other hand, he grasped onto a half-pint of ale that frothed and bubbled over the edge, spilling drops onto the sticky table, with a face that seemed to have metamorphosed into something more smug.

As soon as his lips met the liquid, his once smug face turned into something laughably sour and he grimaced as the vile liquid ran down his throat (which caused Chisaki, from under his mask, to become a bit more smug). His distressed expression was filled with anger towards this disgusting drink he had clearly never tried before.

Chisaki preferred to bask in the hilarity instead of ruin it by making some comment that could’ve got rid of his upset expression so he shifted the conversation, “I don’t want you to buy stuff for me, I can give you some cash-“

“You can pay me back by getting me drink if that guy there coming on the stage just abuses the power of his quirk and doesn’t fight”

This man was annoying.

Super annoying.

Super stubborn.

Super irritating.

And there was no way he was going to change his mind.

“Fine. Alright. But don’t be upset when you lose again.”

Two more average men entered the stage, their muscles being their entire personality once more yet one of the pair was already showing off all of what his random quirk offered however, once more, the stranger bet on the one that was not showing off his quirk.

And as if time had reversed itself and played itself out again in cruel clockwork, once more the man the stranger had bet a drink on had used more of his ability rather than his quirk. It was unbelievable.

The stranger let out a deep, insincere sigh while his posture loosened into a low hunch, straining his knuckles in his plastic anger of having to use his sparse money to pay for these drinks.

“Oh. Well I guess this one’s on me”

Was there some sort of conspiracy going on? How was a man this confident losing everytime? “No that one doesn’t count-“ Chisaki tried to interrupt.

“If you have no objections, I will get you a Malibu and get myself one too because my judgement has lead me to discover that only fakes drink ale”

In any other scenario, any other timeline, any other universe two victories in a row would give him immense joy but Chisaki likes to pride himself on not being stupid, even after many drinks weighed down on his low alcohol tolerance he could tel that something was not quite right.

He brought the Malibu to his mouth as his eyebrows furrowed at the man infront of him. His stoic face indicated he was seemingly unfazed, much happier in fact because of how he had a nice drink. He grasped onto the cup firmly with the tense in his back relentless as ever but apart from that he seemed to be totally unbothered.

The tacky table was no longer visible under the collection of different shaped glimmering glasses, empty and staring at both men, not stacked on top of one another because none could fit in each other quite enough for it not to be a break hazard.

They kept piling, piling, piling, after each and every declaration of hoax confidence all around the table, dissolving both into their joint debauchery into a state where no one could save them from the consequential hang over they will face tomorrow or maybe the alcohol poisoning they were dangerously close to gaining.

The entertainment from the fight ring was sparse, bright one would like to admit it however it was apparent that is was each others spiteful comments (towards both the fighters and each other) that added a slight memorable aspect to it.

All the 3 fighters that came next sort of blended into the sea of other cocky men, except for this one guy of course. The outlier amongst them all that made the stranger need to pinch himself to concur he wasn’t dreaming and wasn’t having a stroke.

Chisaki squinted at the man’s 90 degree blonde hair that shot straight into the sky with enough gel to drown a small child, his clothes were… well… you can’t call them clothes, just a couple of cloths over the most vital areas which barely covered those.

Both men’s face’s squinted awkwardly out of the shock of the moment and the words were winded and choked out of their mouths at this peculiar scene.

“Who let this guy in here? Looks more like a stripper than a fighter.” The man said, gesturing drunkenly at the flexing fighter.

Kai’s words were slowed and slurred, “I don’t care, Akaguro!” When did the stranger tell Chisaki his name? He didn’t remember amongst the blur created from the cloudy drinks that swarmed his mind.

“how hard is it to put some clothes on? I don’t want to see all of what little he has!”

“Im tired of this game!” Chisaki shouted abruptly, his face just as red as his words (from the drinks and anger), “You’re cheating some how!”

Akaguro’s words were just as slurred, “I am cheating so I can lose to you?”

Bang!

Akaguro’s head smashed unexpectedly against the floor, all legs shot up in the air like fireworks as he was pushed backwards, his body bobbled slightly at the shock caused upon him.

The culprit of this attack? The drunk man who held his shaking, gloved hands out for a time much longer than necessary considering by that point he had already pushed Akaguro on the floor- Chisaki.

“Augh…” Akaguro groaned as he rubbed his neck, ascending slowly until their eyes could meet each other without the table or glasses blocking the way.

They brazenly stared into each other’s eyes, the intensity of what just happened came crashing upon them like a building as their eyes spread to be boldly open, like a bird stalking its prey.

They stared into each other’s eyes, none moving and slightly coming to terms with the fact they were viewing the other “like a bird stalking its prey” was kind of cringe as both men’s eyes loosened with the relaxation of their muscles.

They weakly stared into each other’s eyes, the alcohol now moving random cords in their brains to cause them to bite their lip and close their eyes to suppress any hints of bubbly amusement the alcohol may force out of them.

There was one thing about Chisaki. When he’s drunk (which had only been one night before this which he can’t even remember) the alcohol acts like a puppeteer and makes him do things he has barely ever done before, such as laughing or crying.

Akaguro broke the silence, “Are you trying not to laugh at me…”

This was so weird “………..no” Kai hasn’t laughed in a millennia, the hand holding the glass was shaking, the alcohol must be getting to his head and he needs to find a way to fix himself before he has a horrendous hang over tomorrow.

“You’re trying not to laugh at me.”

Crash!

The chair cowered to the side at the mercy of Akaguro’s powerful foot, sending Kai plummeting onto the same floor. Awkwardly landing on the extended leg of Akaguro and causing a sharp pain to wind him.

However, that wasn’t the worst of it; the fall had forced all the liquid in the glass to explode outwards, hitting everywhere but especially the now sodden shirt of Chisaki.

He looked down at the drenched mess with irritation, it was completely freezing, stabbing into him with metaphorical ice shards, “You made me spill it-“

Akaguro winced and the blunder of it drenching his, seemingly expensive, black shirt, he really didn’t mean for it to spill on this occasion so he thought for a way to fix it.

Reaching up, he swiped a tissue off the crowded table and jumped forward to sit regularly as his hands dabbed the paper intensely fast all over the spoiled chest, fast but through.

“My apologies, I suppose I’ll have to buy you another drink and another shirt”

“No!” Chisaki cried, swiping the helpful hand away from him, “I know you have some alterier motive to… in debt me to you!”

The same hand that batted away the tissue crashed down upon Akaguro’s head with an absurd amount of force, inflicting a second injury upon that poor place.

He threw his hands away from his head and jumped up so his upper half was out of reach for the sitting Chisaki, “Stop hitting me” Akaguro groaned. Soon after, he began to stride quickly towards the glowing bar for the 7th time that memorable night.

Pouncing from his sendent position, he grasped and whacked back the shirt before he could move any further, grasping him to in an attempt to stop all mobility.

But alas, the grip of a drunken man is comparable to that of a limbless baboon therefore the power that proceeded through each step forward overcast the attempt to stop back- effortlessly.

“I don’t want you to by me alcohol!”

Akaguro put on patronising voice and prying Kai’s fingers away from his shirt, he responded softly, “What about water?”

Akaguro was walking away with speed, he was about to buy him another drink and he could not have that, no he could not let that happen. He did not know what that guy was doing, he didn’t know who this guy was, he didn’t know if he had plans to do something else, it was terrifying how little he knew, Kai could grasp onto nothing at all, he could only remove his glove and rush up behind Akaguro, using his gloved hand to pull him backwards.

Placing his bare fingers on the back of his neck.

Akaguro crashed backwards weightlessly into the man, unable to move, unable to do anything but lie back against Kai with his broken legs beneath him, “What?! How did you- did you just disable me?”

He flicked his arms up and down in an annoyed struggle, adrenaline kicking him, forcing him to ignore the throbbing his swollen, broken limbs caused him. Breathing deeply, the heat of the room and helplessness of the situation drowned him in thick sweat.

The average weight for a 6ft man is 9.9 to 12.3 stone. An annoyingly heavy weight, especially heavy for those who have been drowned in high unit beverages the entire night.

So maybe only one leg broken is for the better… yeah… another tap to the neck was all it took for one of Akaguro’s legs to gain soul again but not enough soul to overpower Chisaki as he dragged him towards the exit.

“What the hell-“ Akaguro limping was a sorrowful, yet quite humorous, sight “You better give my leg back after I just bought you all those drinks” the scrape of his limp leg scraping against the floor was not funny though, it was disgusting.

“You’ll get them back after you leave”

Soon enough, he barged his way through the doors, strangling the other by the collar of his shirt as they charged out the dark building- eventually- into the drastic change of temperature outside, the fierce cold attacking the both of them.

“Are you kidnapping me?”

“No I’m dragging you away”

What was once confident strides quickly degraded into unconfident steps from the extreme vertigo collecting in his legs, arms and eyes all sending his body spinning in different directions and exertion quickly stole the mobility in his joints away from his drunk, exhausted body.

Being buckled forward and backward along with Chisaki, Akaguro squinted over at his sweating face,“Are you going to be sick?”

From Akaguro’s question, a vile imagining of retching tightened around his mind and almost made him gag, “…no”

“You’re walking like you’ve just been shot, you’re going to hurt both of us if you don’t give me my leg back”

“Shut up…” Akaguro was infuriating “I can fix myself” he claimed as he reaching his, still involved arm up to find his shoulder so he could tap and fix himself of this chaotic situation

“That’s my shoulder not yours” Akaguro stated, breathing as heavy as a dog- as if he had just ran for miles.

Little did he know, throughout all of this, Kai had shifted all his weight to lean on the limping black-haired man, who’s dark hair was a start contrast to his now bight red face which was focusing heavy on not making the both of them topple over, his breath being held in concentration as he kept the other up right.

“Oh-“

“Ugh just- while you’re there just give me my leg back and I can carry you” Akaguro sighed, balancing with one hand against the wall and ready to topple over at any given moment, “Maybe it was a mistake to buy you all those spirits…”

Burning yellow eyes pierced into the side of Akaguro’s face while the owner of said yellow eyes immediately spoke a sharp command like he was speaking to an animal, “You’re not carrying me.”

At the squint of disgust Chisaki let out, as if Akaguro had said the most disturbing thing ever, Akaguro huffed his annoyance out his mouth and tightened the hunch in his shoulders, “I can assist you in walking”

Wind brushed both their exasperated cheeks as if it was pushing them to get it over with, stinging their overheated bodies with frosty impatience.

Suddenly, Akaguro could once more feel the overpowering strength in both his legs and his shoulders relaxed in relief. Finally, he could maintain balance again however that didn’t help the pressure of the limp Chisaki’s body hanging over his shoulder.

Akaguro’s hand swung reluctantly under Kai’s shoulder- he was contemplating whether to leave this obnoxious man on the side of the street however he could realise that Chisaki’s intoxication was very much his fault and therefore he was responsible for this man’s state.

So he begrudgingly hobbled with the man in his spineless state, stumbling down the lightless, eerie streets that were abandoned in the thick shadow.

“Where do you live?”

Slurred and quiet, Chisaki said his address while being barely conscious- distracted by nothing but his own state.

Unfortunately, although Chisaki fixed his leg he did not fix the other’s drunkenness. He had a higher drinking capability than the other, definitely, but that doesn’t mean he was immune 6-7 high alcohol drinks.

Ergo after each step, alcohol wrapped itself tightly over his own muscles almost making him as bad as Kai. His durability was tested, yet his will to not collapse on the street and possibly get mauled by whatever villain may walk down said street was unmatched.

Therefore he walked, he walked, he walked each breath getting heavier by the second, both men’s breathing was the only thing interrupting the extremely quiet back streets. Why the hell was Chisaki breathing so much? He was being literally carried by the other guy, he was doing no work at all yet he was blowing out more air than a steam engine.

At long last, the street drew to a close and both men shared a reassuring glance to affirm that the location they were currently standing in was the correct one and they didn’t have to walk for another 20 minutes or more in their deathly state.

Akaguro practically threw the weight which was slung over his shoulders onto the wall, with too much power but not enough to cause harm to Chisaki, and out stretched his hand to the chopped door, “Do you want me to knock on the door?”

”That would wake everyone up… if there are people in this part of the house,” He returned without missing a beat, pushing himself off the grey alley wall to a wide stance.

All though the house was secluded in an alleyway, remote and solitary, it still kind of had the appearance of a regular detached house- some flowers on a ledge infront of the lower windows, a wooden awning above the door and of course higher windows (that lead to a dud bedroom).

This part of the house though, really, was a fake, for if you were to wander deeper within it, one of the rooms would lead to a secret passage way that travelled through more hidden walkways and eventually present a maze of yakuza business rooms would open up to your vision (that is if you weren’t captured before you got that far).

They could’ve walked for longer and reached the actual main alleyway to the proper yakuza section this place leads to however all of Kai’s intelligence he could muster up went into giving Akaguro the non-direct address- because after all he was a stranger.

However, the ins and outs of the house didn't matter at this point, for an opportunity to get in without waking anyone presented itself beautifully for Chisaki ergo he gladly stepped up onto the ledge.

“Wha-“ Akaguro’s eyes widened as the scene of Chisaki jumping and climbing up the canopy presented itself infront of him, “what are you doing? You’re going to break your neck.”

With all strength he could muster out of the will of his mind, he managed to pull himself up recklessly, kneeling onto the canopy to regain his energy for only a second before his legs pushed himself off the corner of said canopy and leaping to just barely get a grip on the higher window sill.

“Don’t underestimate me” he groaned, gripping desperately, his legs sliding up and down the wall in the brisk air just barely not being able to create enough friction to allow him to climb up the wall.

Struggling deeply, (due to the lack of surface area to put his fingers on since the window was closed) he attempted to push himself up on the half-inch window sill, shaking slightly with lack of opportunity to move until the friction on his legs wasn’t the only thing that was missing. He stared up at the dark window, reflecting the higher parts of the alleyway (because of the angle Chisaki was in), refracting the image of the roof and drainpipe above into his eyes. He couldn’t move up and he couldn’t get back. There was nothing else to do but start from the beginning. His fingers slipped and he fell back.

Shooting down through the air at the speed of a bullet, he crashed down into all that was underneath and created a huge slapping sound that echoed through the alley.

Luckily not a bone was broken and neither was any flesh harmed. The sound that rebounded off the thick walls off the secret alleyway was soft because he had not once interacted with concrete in his fall, instead he had fallen directly onto the prepared Akaguro- who was able to catch him with ease because of how he foresaw the fact Chisaki would’ve fallen.

“I told you you’d fall…” Akaguro murmured, pushing the drunken man upright again and leaning him against the wall while he was still in a state of dizziness and couldn’t react.

Then, surprisingly, Akaguro swung up the same way Chisaki went with out his drowsiness stopping him from being skilful, lying himself down on the canopy above the porch in order to reach his arms down towards the, now not dizzy, Kai.

When Kai didn’t try to hold onto his hands, he simply picked him up by the collar and dragged him up. Chisaki decided to was better to comply than choke and grabbed onto his wrists and soon enough both men were sitting on the canopy.

“Are you alright with me smashing the window?” Akaguro whispered, preparing himself to jump.

Pulling him back by his shirt, the other man responded in a similar hushed (but angered) tone,“No! That will create noise and damage!”

His red eyes squinted into an annoyed expression, “Then what do you suggest?”

“The window isn’t locked, I remember everyone on duty always forgets to lock it.” Chisaki started, without being able to finish due to the other’s abrupt lean forward and interruption.

“Why didn’t you say that before?” He jumped quickly, leaning forward to grip onto the edge of the window sill prematurely, creating enough whiplash to swing him up and just about stand on the small ledge- holding onto the pipe for support.

“There is a problem.” He nudged the window with his foot, only able to move it slightly ajar, “It won’t open anymore”

Chisaki only suspired deeply in response, leaning against the brick, “It’s a hook window, you’ve gotta close it slightly and disconnect it”

“That would’ve been useful before hand…” he panted as he crouched down to sort out the stupid goddamn window.

Fiddling around, pushing forward and back, to and fro, or whatever, it was difficult and upsetting, constantly needing to retry to open it.

“Well I would’ve said so if you hadn’t of already jumped…”

The hook pushed open, finally, and the window swung out- he would've fallen if it wasn’t for his lucky grip on the pipes above but thankfully he stepped over the open window and didn’t fall. Alas, after a yawn, he was able to hop through the open window, hiding all except his protruding head.

“Do you need help getting across?” Prompted Chisaki to leave quickly, once more barely being able to grip onto window sill since Akaguro had closed the window so he could get past. Shuffling quickly, he moved over so the window could be open again and he could land in the spare room safely.

Now he had to walk down 3 flights of stairs, wander through 10 separate corridors, open 9 separate doors (+ a cheeky bonus bookcase door) just to be able to reach his the main area and then walk up 2 sets of stairs and walk down 5 more corridors to reach his room..

But… although bland and basic… this fake room seemed oh so comfortable, it’s padded mattress, freshly washed sheets, uncontaminated floors… everything apart from the pale, panting coal haired man supporting himself with his hands on his knees in the middle seemed serine. It was perfect for Kai’s sore bones to relax in…

A loud thump echoed through the room which at first, because of the lack of light source, was impossible to find the source of until another scan of the room concurred that Akaguro was no longer in regular eyesight, no, you had to crane your neck to see him lying limp on the floor.

Chisaki should’ve kicked him up the moment he slammed onto the ground. Should’ve thrown him out the window. Should’ve slammed his head into the wall or something.

“Leave before 5am.”

But drowsiness was the bigger problem along with the over arching fear of an awful hang over so he just tucked himself into bed and drifted off quickly.

~~~~~
“You, you there, you got us his address now do you wanna do this?”

“What?”

“All you have to do is put this in his glass when he comes in”

“Why? Spiking drinks is a cowards way out. I did what you wanted, now go do it yourself”

“N- ugh”

~~~~~
A banging, banging, banging throb pumped through his swollen head, a thick blood flow could almost be heard flowing into his brain. The knocking of his head was accompanied by thick ringing that grasped onto his vulnerable ear canal, knocking him into a state of hysterical unsteadiness. His eyes scraped open against his moist eyeballs and an obnoxious light blinded all he could see. Ugh a hangover. He felt like absolute death, he was sluggish, obtuse and irritated as soon as he woke up, he clawed back at the gates of sleep but could not return to a peaceful slumber for the life of him, for the bile threatening to rise up his throat was too violent to send him back into a comfortable dream.

With a solid press of a hand to his neck, all sickness removed itself and he was overhauled back to a normal state… however his quirk could not fix his mood. A feeling of suffering from the absolute irksome sluggishness spread through his body like a fatal illness, causing him to groan like he was aching.

His solitary breathing powered throughout the room, loud and violent like a thunderstorm. There was no other breathing in the room apart from him.

There was no other person in the room apart from him.

That was weird. He could’ve sworn there was a second one lying down on the hard ground. Painfully, he managed a brief glance to the floor to see if maybe the man just died in his sleep or something (he drank enough alcohol for that to happen) and that’s why there was no breathing but no, there was simply no one there.

Did he dream it? Was this all a bad dream? Was he going senile in his old age of…23? No. That would be stupid, he wasn’t dreaming, for the draft created by the gales of frost that drafted in from the wide open window provided Chisaki a reasonable hypothesis for that man’s escape…

‘What was his name again? Aka… Jiro…? Aka something…’ names, dates, times all span round and round throughout his head at such fast speeds they were impossible to remember. ‘Akaguro. That was him…’

He relaxed on his mattress, positioning himself on his left side. He thought of nothing but the need to cry for any yakuza in the building to feed into his sloth and close the window for him so he doesn’t have to move from the beautiful heat the covers provided him.

Today, he wanted to do nothing… he couldn’t be bothered today… nope… it doesn’t matter about the fight club, it doesn’t matter about Akaguro, he’s staying at home.

“Kai!” A voice shouted.

Oh dear.

Even in the most blurriest of moods, he could recognise that voice even if it was embedded in a commanding and angry tone that grew louder and louder by each pounding footstep.

Getting closer and closer and closer, not giving Chisaki a chance to even attempt to prepare himself before the door was forcefully swung open.

“Kai- where were you for the whole night?!” His father panicked, frantically stepping into the room.

This brought an unneeded stress to his His hoarse throat was unable to do anything but mumble softly, “Pops I…”

And that laziness in his voice was all it took for the yakuza boss to come rushing closer, his eyes shining with stern worry, “What’s wrong? Have you been injured?”

“No, no” sitting up quickly, and batting away any affectionate hands that may have tried to search his head for any injuries, “I’m just… tired… feeling the effects of… drunkenness”

“Drunkenness?!” And it got worse, for the boss crossed his arms and stepped back, “You got drunk last night, that is where you were?!”

“I didn’t mean to get drunk…”

“Kai you need to be careful! There are disturbing people out there” he held his head in his hands, “I can’t believe you…”

Kai groaned, tossing and turning on his bed, “Yeah I met one.”

“You met one?!”

“No, no, he didn’t do anything he was fine… just annoying.”

“Well thankfully didn’t meet anyone with bad intentions while you were this drunk!”

“Yeah…” what the boss said struck a chord in his head; he realised for the first time Akaguro wasn’t the worst person he could’ve had the misfortune of interacting with… he had destroyed his shirt with alcohol (the stain was still somehow visible on the black shirt) but that was around the worst he had actually done- and it wasn’t out of no where, it was a response to Chisaki’s own actions.

Still. He was annoying.

“Also, why are there loads of scruffy letters that came through the post box piled on the floor in this house? Did you have anything to do with it?”

“Wha- no…” was that Akaguro or did some gang find his address? Surely Akaguro would be too hung over to do that but there was no way for someone else to know his address… it was probably someone else’s problem, those were the words that comforted him back into thinking about Akaguro.

Amist the deep pondering of Akaguro’s confusing character, pops had somehow left without making a noise to distract Kai away, he was lying in this spare room all alone.

That reinforced his wish to stay in bed that day

The day after he didn’t leave too, slightly groggy but in the most part alright.

3rd day He decided that day to go back to the fighting ring.

2 rounds of easy fighting wasn’t exactly satisfactory, neither was it worth all the trouble of making himself come all the way over to the fight ring in the first place. Not to mention all the ale that was made tasted exceptionally disgusting today, especially compared to the cocktails Akaguro got him the other night.

He was stood up, slightly hunched, with sweat pouring down his back like a salty waterfall and breathing in deep sighs to take in as much air as possible.

Now that he reflected on it, he came to realise that night with Akaguro wasn’t half bad; it was, in fact, quite entertaining for him due to the amusement the bickering gave him. He scanned around the room thoroughly looking for hints, traces, indicators of him being in the fight club again but alas there was none. He seemed to be not here.

Chisaki didn’t let himself frown at that though (well, he didn’t let himself frown deeper at that for he always frowns). He didn’t really have anyone to talk to since Kurono wasn’t here again but that was fine he liked the silence.

Amongst the loud bickering from all the other tables, it really was silent to Chisaki.

Very very quiet.

He may as well have left because no one was here, Akaguro had probably been kicked out of the building for critiquing the rules or something on of the nights he foolishly decided to stay at home. Which is such a shame considering now he is constantly in debt to this stranger.

He was on his own.

“You trying to use more skill now?” A recognisably hoarse voice spoke, indicating all those statements really jinxed themselves and the foreshadowing was complete.

To say Kai was excited for Akaguro’s magical arrival would be an…overstatement but he must admit him being here wasn’t all that bad- even if the content of what he’s saying it utterly wrong.

“You looked good… well… you looked better at least, you should try and use skill more often…” a sly voice continued, daunting and enticing while pretending to be carelessly monotone.

“Don’t patronise me.” Kai mumbled in response, suddenly stepping forward to free a chair from the firm grasp the table had on it in order to sit down only slightly infront of the other, “I didn’t change anything”

“My judgement says other wise” Akaguro concluded, picking up an empty glass (which belonged to neither of them) to prod into Chisaki’s shoulder as a distraction as his in unused hand made itself useful by pushing a fabric onto Chisaki’s previously empty lap..

A black, cotton freshly washed button up shirt comforted his lap with serene sterile warmth which deeply surprised Kai, compelling his confused, gleaming eyes to look at the bashful Akaguro who shrugged it off.

“Well your judgement is far from correct,” Kai delicately waved his fingers through the layers of fabric, “Why don’t you go up there and show how you fight, you can add some weight to your high and mighty words.”

It was a kind gesture. A gesture that revealed a strange side of this random man to Kai’s observations, a side that emphasised the fact that he was not he a creature who willingly created agony for no reason. It was wonderfully fascinating. However it was an unneeded gesture.

Kai did not except charity, nor did he except pity or any other means of belittlement, no, no, even if this was actually only paying him back he still didn’t want to weave himself into more debt to this guy- maybe he could use not taking his shirt as a way to throw Akaguro into his own debt- and really, even he could admit that being constantly above with the other man, him buying him things was embarrassing…

“No, I wouldn’t like that,” Akaguro started, only to get interrupted, briefly, by the returning package being forcefully pushed into his lap, “…I came here because I wanted to get stronger at a training ground, not taken out instantly by someone who can disable my legs with a touch”

Chisaki leaned back onto his chair the puddle of sweat, that wouldn’t leave him alone, causing him to stick to his seat, “You found out it was not a gym the first time we met so why would you come back?”

In response, the other leaned forward in his awkward position and repeated his previous attempt to force the other to hold onto the shirt, this time pressing it on his lap for longer, “I was drunk out of my mind and made someone spill a drink on a, probably expensive t shirt” (who’s going to tell him it’s a shirt only meant to look expensive from a Japanese version of primark)

“I spilt it on myself,” he reinforced, pushing it back into the others lap with much pressure.

“This isn’t my pity, it’s making up for it.” Pushes the t shirt onto his lap.

As they spoke, two men walked into the ring. One chanting, singing, shouting with boastful words and the other glaring at the first guy, very much angry…

“I bet” Akaguro continued before Kai could return the shirt, “he will only use his quirk and not try and use any skill.”

On that day, he wasn't able to settle his debt with Akaguro. Not the day after or the many days following. Hell, even Kurono managed to get in debt with him on the few days he joined Kai, Chisaki thought another face may have deterred Akaguro but his iron will remained as strong as steel and he bought them all a round of cocktails.

I think it might’ve been something to do with Kurono saying he’d PayPal the debt back or something but Akaguro somehow managed to get Chisaki’s phone number which was… delightful… hours worth of messages and arguments filled their phone, so much to the point where it filled up the storage on Akaguro’s phone and he needed to delete on of his 25 VPN apps..

As the days went past, Kai still was winning (and was in debt by) 23 points to 6- because on some days they decided it was better to only drink quarters of regular sized drinks; it was better to save money and save themselves from liver failure.

“Silence!” Chisaki said without any real bite.

“Why? What did I even say?”

“You’re too loud! You speak so loud but you say nothing”

“Have I not just been explaining to you the difference, at a politics standpoint, between each 5 Avengers in lots of detail?”

“I never thought a topic could tire me much as whatever comes out of your mouth”

“You cannot talk going on about your yakuza yesterday, that could put anyone to sleep, you should make an audiobook talking about that, I’d listen to it every night.”

“Hrrrrrrrhhjshshsnsnsksjsjsjsjsjs” came from a separate voice, a tired man with blue scars wrapped around his body, he waved his pale arm as all above the table but apart from his irregular antics he looked like an average, unrecognisable guy.

Akaguro and Chisaki only satisfied this man with a glare for a few seconds before securing each others confusion and glancing to each other, having a silent conversation to ask whether the other was familiar with this peculiar man.

Actually, wait, that man was recognisable- for he was the loser of the first fight they both bet on, the blue flashy one whose powers dissipated instantly. His hands, which were grasping onto some powder, were still shaking with obvious fatigue that hadn’t cured from the other night.

But, although they were shaking, shaking violently, they were also pouring, pouring something out of that packet slyly so its powdery remains landed into Chisaki’s drink. Somehow sneaky enough for only deep red eyes to barely catch in a random glance.

Tightly around his wrist, Akaguro gripped onto the trembling man’s frame and ripped him forwards, much to Kai’s utter shock, the drunkenness holding him back from catching on quicker.

“Hey-!” The random man cried

Akaguro replied calmly, “I don’t think you could’ve been more obvious if you tried…”

“Let go of my hand, you asshole!”

The twist of the hand threw the blue man into the floor and acted as a whistle for huge hunk of a man came running over, staring down onto the sitting men and screaming curses of all kind.

Kai squinted at the hunk as he held up such random objects as weapons- bottles, keys, forks, and couldn’t help but wonder why they were so upset and why Akaguro tried to agitate them, “Why did you do that, Akaguro?”

Sighing profusely, he began to formulate a response, speaking clearly over the noise, “They were-“ however he choked on his tongue as a huge bottle crashed into the back of his head- slicing it and stabbing it with stained glass shards, glistening all through is black hair and stabbing deeper into his skin with every turn and nod.

At the horrible sound of glass shattering and the sight of a brutal attack, Kai stood up immediately, his chair pushed back at such force it crashed into another table. He pushed the attacker back and punched him in his stomach, as Akaguro was still groaning out of shock, so that he also crashed into a table.

Great, Kai must have been drunk if he was helping another guy fight when he was the one that started it.

Standing up slowly, making less noises and tightening his fists, Akaguro joined him standing up- stretching his back in preparation, “Were you painfully oblivious to seeing what this guy was pouring into your drink?”

“What?” He mumbled. Yeah, Akaguro wasn’t bad at all, definitely not.

The spiker attempted to fly his fists into the back of Akaguro’s knees and cripple his walking abilities and make him tumble onto the floor where he was, yet he missed from such an easy angle and was treated with a dirty boot pushing him into the floor in response.

“Filthy Shie Hassakai” he muttered from beneath Akaguro’s shoe, his voice quite and hard to hear.

That was enough to rile up and already uneasy Chisaki, “Who are you?” He mumbled with spite as he stabbed his foot onto the opponent’s stomach.

Kai’s glove was discarded onto the floor, cruelly, leaving his hand open to the bare, open environment which, just the sight of it, scared dozens of gang members off.

A solitary, confused grunt began to ask, “Where are you-?“ however he was silenced by a unsuspected right hook to the face, Akaguro’s knuckles indenting his cheek and smacking him onto the floor. Chisaki jumped as the punch flew before his eyes into this stranger’s face, the shock jolting him to stand up baring his fists and Akaguro soon followed.

“AUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” screamed an obnoxious man, making himself known as he charged towards them bearing his slightly strong wrists.

Then what soon followed was the bright explosion of ruby, crimson, carmine, scarlet, cardinal, all shooting in the air like a gruesome firework as the man’s arms twisted and dissipated, leaving these bloody remains as the only proof of their previous existence.

All it took was the touch from Chisaki’s ungloved fingers to do that, even to the man behind him, it was quite scary. It was obvious the, now howling, man could’ve had a much worse fate; this was only a warning.

The bomb of blood fired everywhere, it even landed on Chisaki’s hands, transforming them into a shaking, hive-y surface although that didn’t deter Akaguro from reaching out to wipe the blood on his extended hand onto his own to lick it.

As his long tongue wrapped saliva around his fingers, swallowing the blood, it made Kai wonder why he was bothering with this disgusting man however when the screaming guy fell to the floor, no longer screaming or able to move, because of the lick, his harshness on the gross sight faded ever so slightly.

“AUUUGHHHHHHHH”
“AUUUUGHHHHHHH”
“AUGHHHHHHHHHH”

And many more cries as well, of different pitches, volumes and lengths came idiotically charging forward like an army of little immature children that took a measly warning blow as an act of pure war.

Rapidly, Akaguro pulled out a knife (which should’ve been confiscated at the entrance) from his shoe and jabbed it towards the few at the front of the march and Chisaki leisurely took his other glove off.

Chisaki looked down at his hands.

Suddenly, two huge men jumped from the side, at such a speed that it was almost impossible to react to, they noticed and grinned with utmost pleasure and bloodlust when they noticed the target (Chisaki) pre occupied, they charged towards the distracted man, not showing any sign of halting or mercy- prepared to crush him where he stands and laugh at his splatter on the ground.

Tap. Chisaki turned and touch them with ease and the both of them exploded, similar to the firework man from before their blood splattered in a foul sludge, punting the room in deep red.

At the same time, from the other side of Chisaki, the charcoal haired man rolled across the ground to dodge a revenge jab before kicking the attacker in his stomach to bring him down before he could slice his neck.

Slash, tap, slash, tap, slash, tap, in perfect harmony, defeating those who so dared to stand against their might. Kai and Akaguro circled around easily, their joint effort of Chisaki’s overpowered quirk and Akaguro’s thirst for using his agility saved the both of them effortlessly as if it were all rehearsed and they’d done this millions of times before.

“Don’t get the blood on me-“ Chisaki shouted (as if he hadn’t already got enough blood on him to fund a grown man’s body) as the other’s victim squirted high pressure blood out his neck and landed on Chisaki.

Stopping and standing still on the active battle field, he threw his knife onto the floor and crossed his arms, “Oh okay, I’ll just let them punch us.” that joke was attempted to be taken advantage of by some homunculus of a man who grabbed onto Akaguro’s back in a bear-hug and shaked him around Akaguro was only rescued by his 2nd hidden knife (which should’ve been confiscated) that was pulled out of his sleeve and he stabbed the perpetrator.

“Us?! You aren’t protecting me.” He shouted over the shouting and cheers coming from the crowd that had gathered.

Splash! Once again blood pooled over everywhere from explosions and Kai had finally adapted to be able to duck, avoiding most of the blood so it would encase Akaguro’s body instead of his own (which was a good thing because he could then lick their blood).

The blood they splattered was utterly disgusting, the most repulsive vile thing in the world. More blood splattered as Akaguro dived and spun around (to avoid multiple unique attacking methods), slicing legs, arms, stomachs, necks, hearts with his blades that seemingly appear out of nowhere.

More people charged on the horizon like a light brigade, although Chisaki seemed to fixed on his anger to care about the overwhelming amount of challengers, for he was thrashing them were he stood so why should he move if more came? Though, Akaguro was very much of the opposite opinion.

He slashed the man infront of him, “Chisaki, as much-“ he tried to speak before being interrupted by a splash of blood and loud shouting,

“Would you like to say that about the Shie Hassakai again?!”

‘What did they even say again? He’s too riled up right now over absolutely nothing at all’

“Chisaki-“ he tried again, using his elbow to poke him and he shouted louder and more annoyed.

“Where’s your leader?” He overhauled another, “Or spokesperson or whoever that was? Did he run away?”

“Kai!” He screamed at the top of his lungs (while punching some people infront)

“What?!”

As soon as he received a response he was pleased and stopped shouting, choosing now to lean backwards to get close enough to his ear for a whisper to be heard, “There’s like 50 of them, we could kill them all or there is a large probability that’s increasing of one of us being hurt”

“I can fix myself.” He responded through gritted teeth, only just dodging a punch due to the distraction Akaguro brought to him (he exploded the attacker’s legs after)

“Right, however I cannot, let’s at least get to a more open space, it will make it easier for the both of us.” Without giving him a chance to even response, he abruptly ripped the other away with a strong grip on his shoulder and charged through the crowd, blocking everyone with his elbow; trying to run fast enough so none of the opposition would have time to prepare their fists.

“Get under the tables! You can’t charge through them all!” Chisaki shouted, this time not letting Akaguro get a word in before he switched their positions and snatched the other to drag him into a crouch and run under the tables together.

Legs, chairs, bags were three of the many things they sprinted past, trying their very best not to crash into any of these things by sliding through the gaps (luckily the effort was prosperous). While the mob looked around- confused- wondering what to do next, although it soon caught on and they weakly tried to chase them but by that time, the two men had gladly managed to break free of this place and run up the stairs, through the alleyway to the slightly more open square of gang-owned buildings.

The mob behind them all halted at the door, they didn’t dare to follow either two while being unarmed, instead choosing to wait (very impatiently) to receive what they were forced to hand in as soon as they entered- guns.

Right, so if they didn’t sprint fast enough they would probably be shot. Lovely.

Still held by Chisaki from behind, Akaguro staggered along (since his captor was pulling him backwards every second so he wouldn’t run ahead). He sighed as they reached this rip-off MacDonalds some gang made for a drug spot and ran around the sharp corner for a few minutes of relieving cover which would hide them from the relentless mob.

One thing was clear to Akaguro- he was too drunk for this.

He hummed and clicked his fingers before turning to properly speak at Kai, “You can finish fighting them another time, it takes a bigger man to know when the games gone then one who continues the game-“

”…What?” He paused to stare the other in the eyes, seeing his awkward, contemplative face and responded with a perplexed one, “What are you talking about?!”

“I don’t know, I just saw it written on an alleyway one time, probably by some incel, it was semi-inspirational and it’s all I can think of, I’m just trying to convince you it’s better running off then fighting for no proper conviction…. Especially when we’re drunk,”

“The conviction is the way they spoke about the Shie Hassakai”

“And they learnt their lesson after we killed the surplus of their men… I’m not saying they don’t deserve to face justice and perish, I’m just saying to not try and do it all in one fight.”

They both stood silently, no longer running. Kai was contemplating, not between agreeing or disagreeing, no, he would never agree not until they were all slaughtered, he was thinking of the best disagree response that really conveys his feelings.

However before he could really express his distaste towards Akaguro’s disheartening words, loud squeals and loud curses (directed towards these two) overpowered the silence, gradually becoming louder and louder.

Akaguro sighed, “You’re free to fight them on your own.”

He jolted off down into a near by alley and ran through it swiftly and before Kai could find somewhere else to go or turn around to fight, he ran with him. For no reason, he ran with him.

“I suppose we can fight them another time after this, if we beat them every time in different times that would be better than all at one.” Kai grunted and betrayed himself as the both stood to another halt, hidden in a secluded- and very very tight- alley, leaving both of them pressing against each other (which the yakuza found gross since the other was drowning and dripping in distinct blood).

Amongst the chipping paint, eroding bricks and ancient spray paint there was really nothing else to been seen, even if it was light nothing out of the ordinary would be there- Akaguro observed- but higher up, there was a broken ladder and drainpipes all around, none of them extending to the floor.

Cracking his knuckles while he walked to the side, the blood-soaked man placed his foot against the wall and huffed under Kai’s judgemental gaze. Soon after, he pushed off the wall with enough power to make him jump up and pierce the air. His grip tightening around the wet drain pipe (and he slipped down it a little but he managed to stay on).

“If you look behind you, there is a ladder you could’ve grabbed with much more ease.” Chisaki continues

He refused to look down, he looked far down the alleyway with his height advantage to see what lied ahead, “Well I am using the pole, what’s your problem with it?” He added spitefully.

Akaguro’s hands (which were lubricated with blood) took upon the difficult task of raising him up the pole, his hands gripped around the thick girth of it. His eyes were just locked into the horizon, squinting to make out what mystery location the end of this alley lead to. Kai took at exasperated sigh at the man’s sudden and cold questions, “Have you sobered up already? Why have you turned annoyed all of a sudden? You’re acting like you weren’t the guy who was ‘kindly’ paying for my drinks,”

“What happens in fight club stays in fight club.”

“Oh quiet yourself.” Kai scowled as he looked up at the man jumping his way up the pole, “I don’t understand why you’re running, where we’ve entered is in my yakuza territory so they won’t dare come in here.”

“Then I suppose charging mob I hear must be ghosts”

“That is… they shouldn’t be here… I won this land fairly.”

Akaguro sighed and slid down the pole, he held out a disgustingly a bloody hand out which Kai grimaced at with a disapproving glare as the insane shouting increased in volume.

“I’m not touching your bloody hand” Chisaki stepped back, the metallic smell of the blood sending repulsive shivers down his tense back.

Which didn’t stop Chizome from extending his reach from the pole, extending his hand at the speed of sound in order to not be killed by the other after he wiped his bloody hand onto Kai’s own sterile arm (he originally went for the shirt but discovered it would be best without two soiled t shirts- they’re expensive for someone with as sparse of money as him!).

Not only did he have the snark to wipe his arm, he also decided to pull the other up in a weak grip by only grabbing onto his shirt (like he did the other night), before realising it was insecure and instead deciding to wrap his scruffy arm around Chisaki’s back- smushing him and holding Kai tightly against himself so close that the heat inside both of them faintly began to spread to the other in the cold night.

The worst part about this was how Chizome did it in a complete straight face. He started to climb up the pole again, with speed and precision, all why he had Chisaki in his arms like some rescued princess- it was infuriating. Absolutely.

Heating up rapidly the anger (and only anger) he felt rushing through his blood to his face overpowered his expression. He couldn’t help but scowl and shove his elbow into the other’s side as rebellion. “Never do that again.” He pushed Akaguro away.

“If you tried to run away down the alley you would be dead; they have gained guns since they left the fighting ring.”

“And why do you care”

“I saved you from being spiked, may as well go the full length” He sighed, grabbing two minuscule blades from in his pocket and firing them down at the men below, “You may leave, or whatever”

‘Are these the guys that have been sending me mail? If so it wouldn’t matter where I went, but there’s no way to be sure. I can’t bring these hobos to my doorstep…’ Kai mentally groaned.

“I’m waiting here until they have something better to do in case they follow me home.”

Kai solemnly opened his Samsung phone, (after taking three attempts to because of the annoying password system), shuffling around the roof in preparation of what he was about to message his unsuspecting father, ‘Sorry, pops, I seem to have angered a puny gang again somehow. They tried to spike my drink first before I hurt half their legion, I swear on the yakuza’s life.’

Looking up from the phone before he sent it, he caught the view of the back of Akaguro who was strangely sitting down over the ledge even though the bullets were flying toward him.

He rolled his eyes as he swung his rusted blade around in circles, causing every bullet to ricochet and fly in all directions except his own. Blood on the blade also powered through the air, draining the cleanliness out of everything it splattered on.

Chisaki pressed send with a shaking thumb, quickly deciding that muting notifications was the best idea for him to not break down into hysteria at the sheer thought of receiving a message which condemns his useless fighting and shoving the phone back into his pockets.

Turning to face Kai, Akaguro spoke once more, “They’re going to find the ladder if you stay here forever”

“Ladder?” “Ladder?” “Ladder?” All erupted from the hive mind of pawns below, all frantically turning around, whipping their heads to look and following each other like ants as they marched around the building.

“They may have given up if not for you telling them there is a ladder,” Chisaki shouted to the black haired man wo was walking away as he spoke, leaping between buildings.

“Go to one of your yakuza safe houses or whatever you have” Akaguro responded as the brown haired yakuza followed him in his jumping. An old yakuza would’ve had safe houses all around the place, especially in territories they own like the one they’re currently standing in, but the dying Shie Hassakai was rather short on recourses, all the safe houses were much further away and he wouldn’t endanger that house by going there even if he wanted to.

“They’ll follow me no matter where I go” They most likely wouldn’t of if they both ran away fast enough however it’s best to be safe; he doesn’t want to imagine the boss’ face if he was to bring back a horse of angry gangsters with him.

He took a huge pause to think through his next words, picking them carefully in case he changed his mind mid sentence, “If you don’t want to risk any of your safe houses being compromised then- I suppose- you can come with me, if you’d like,”

Kai took the exact same pause, grimacing slightly “… I suppose that’s my final option.”

The jumped over and over buildings (their drunkenness luckily not making them trip over their own feet), until it was the perfect place to disembark from the building, sliding down a drain pole and luckily not hurting themselves doing it. They landed themselves in another slimed alleyway maze with puddles of an old mixture of oil and water on the floor- far enough away to where the gang was.

“It’s hard to navigate these alleys but it’s best to not run through the streets while I look like Lady Macbeth and if we run far enough, their high ground doesn’t matter and they will not be able to find us.”

“If you just hadn’t told them about the ladder it would’ve been easier for the both of us”

“Get over the ladder,” Akaguro groaned as he started to run through the twisting maze, “In all honesty, I said that loud on purpose, there was absolutely no chance they weren’t going to find that ladder and gang up on you,” Chisaki only sighed and ran along side him.

“Wait-“ Akaguro held out his arms at a crossing and rapidly threw his head between left and right, “Right” he said and they ran that way… before he threw up his arms again, “No wait, left,” he stated before running back to go left.

Kai’s mouth was left agape at the madness which clearly showed the drinks had effected his head more than his normal-acting body showed, “Are the spirits getting to your head?”

“I don’t see you helping, but it’s okay, don’t tire yourself out, I wouldn’t want you to become limp out of your debauchery and plummet to the floor.” He murmured, feeling his rough hands along the wall for support as he ventured forward.

“I don’t know where you’re going” Kai muttered, closely following the man ahead while covered in gross sweat.

Soon they emerged from the thin alleys and entered an open piece of land, deserted and grim. They didn’t stop running however they went at a slower pace to walk more carefully, for stepping on the discarded debris of disgusting junk that sprawled along the floor.

The smell outside was horrific, the pungent stench effected everywhere outside- from clogging up the streets to weaving its way through and plaguing the air in the large forest.

Birds and any other creatures were sparse, only some appearing in the wooded area but never daring to enter the disgusting neighbourhood. It was completely silent except for a few houses further on down with shouting people and since an area like this having big, fun parties was doubtful it was most likely a brothel that hasn’t been caught by the heroes, because why would the heroes even want to enter a place like this? Even though they definitely should, the people around here were worthless enough for no one to care about.

But the lack of police also provided shelter for Akaguro, making it unlikely he would get arrested and since he was there to help the townsfolk, the crime rate was lower than it should’ve been which is exactly all Chizome could hope for.

“Where even are we? This place is gross…”

“Sadly, this is where I live…”

They crossed the empty road to make their way towards a dull, grey house, the bottom windows slightly cracked and the windows of the top floor were completely blocked with damp cardboard. The door was still on but it was covered in indents and markings like a wild dog had attacked it. Kai wanted Akaguro to walk past this house and show that he actually has a much nicer and cleaner house down the street but it was obvious they were walking to this building.

“That shouting…-“ Kai began to ask.

Akaguro interrupted quickly, although once more preoccupied with another task- that being the task of fiddling through his pockets, “It’s coming from the brothels, it’s alright though, I regulated them so that noise probably the Shiba sisters fighting… again,”

“You regulated them?” He replied with a scornful glare, turning his gaze away from the filthy land, deserted of any basic hygiene.

“Well, I did as much as I could…” he sighed, grabbing his rediscovered keys in his pocket and (since he found his keys and no longer needed to look down) he turned to quickly glance at Kai, discovering his disapproving gaze, which is when he decided to spill the story of what happened, “I held a knife to a small gang leader’s throat to threaten him and his gang to be security guards for the places and they’ve held up their part. It’s still really dirty though since I couldn’t do anything about that.”

“So the whole neighbourhood this disgusting? Is this your house? It’s gross”

“Well, not legally,” he whispered, more focused on unlocking the door than responding, and when the door did creak ajar, he gestured for Kai to enter first, holding the door open for him.

Kai was way too drunk for this, therefore he didn’t have enough energy in him to say anything else, choosing to give in and enter. He viewed the inside as he entered and concluded:

The house was as bare as an asylum.

No sofa, no table, just a plain grey empty space that stunk of sweat, blood and mud (which thankfully wasn’t as bad as outside and was ignorable with Kai’s mask). The entire thing was bare and rotting away, not a single glimpse of life flourished inside, it was a completely boring room, boring enough to make Chisaki cringe as he wandered inside and stood awkwardly against the peeling wall.

The kitchen was plain too, only a broken serial killer-esc fridge as if he’d just took it out of Jeffery Dahmer’s house, a rusted oven that didn’t look safe in the slightest and a surprisingly large, steel sink and that was literally it. Nothing else that wasn’t built into the house (like stairs) was there.

A wet clunk from a dark, stained shirt slopped onto the floor, soaking the wood with its blood and soaking the air in its thick, putrid smell- which left Akaguro entirely shirtless, yet he was still being swallowed by the blood that had previously soaked through his shirt.

Wow. The deep red was an obnoxious reminder that Kai and Akaguro really just had killed dozens of men together, it’s like they were in sync out there; neither one of them were harmed enough to let it be well known, like a miracle conceived from teamwork.

It was weirdly difficult to not glance over at evaluate the man’s naked upper half for Kai, who seemingly wanted to assess how muscular he was although, from all the fighting, he could understand this man was incredibly strong; his brute force killed many, he didn’t even have a good enough whir to make him stronger, he was just like that. If the agility he portrayed in battle wasn’t a good enough indicator for his vigour and battle experience, the fact he was engulfed by the scabbed slashes on his chest was.

“Surely you won’t want to make the stench of your house any stronger.” Chisaki boldly stated, glaring at the bloody shirt, moving to hold his hand over his masked mouth, as if the house did not already have a pungent iron smell to it.

Re-gripping the stained t-shirt, he never lost focus on his weaponry even as he tossed the disgusting shirt out the window into the garden outside (that hopefully was not public property and couldn’t get stolen), “I don’t notice any smell”

‘Why don’t I leave? They probably won’t find me anymore… this guy… well… I’m here now am I not? It would be rude to leave considering he hasn’t kicked me out… I mean… it’s not the worst place to be…’ Chisaki leaned against the wall. Chisaki would never usually come into anyone’s house no matter the circumstances but Akaguro did just save him from being spiked and fought with him so there was no point in constantly pondering it over and over;

He was moderately trust worthy.

“Your head is bleeding.” He sighed.

Though, that didn’t make him (while he was covered in crimson fluid) any less disgusting.

Akaguro only shrugged, taking the gaping holes in the back of his head without the slightest bit of seriousness. The glistening glass shards digging into his scalp hadn’t effected his attitude, or he was pretending that it wasn’t crushing his morale as he nonchalantly wiped his dirty swords clean of the stains of battle.

Bothered by the observation, Akaguro mumbled in response, “I noticed. It’ll stop eventually, it doesn’t hurt”

Before either man could realise another sound joined the scraping and squelching of blood on the swords, that being the quick but short lived footsteps of the yakuza as he strode over to stand directly behind the other man, glaring into his scalp.

The hair was as messy as it was when he was asleep, there was no parting or crown in sight only a sea of long black locks crossing over eachother and knotting tightly but even still you could make out the darkening red on the hair, disgustingly dripping down, pouring onto his pale neck.

‘If only someone could make this hair less messy, less tangled, less gross’ was not what the man exactly thought but it carried the urge his feel to lift his hand up and dig said hand through the messed up hair.

The feel of the hand, not quite on his head just yet, slowed down Akaguro’s pace- not stopping completely but becoming more unrushed and in turn become more alert. Squinting down at his swords, his grasp on them grew tighter.

‘What am I doing? His hair is gross’ Chisaki hesitated. Chisaki noted the white cloth covering his fingers. He recalled the open wounds on the head below and also the statement made about them not hurting.

He would never usually do this but something had to cover for the fact the alcohol was about to make him run his hands through his hair like a love struck maiden and as long as he had somewhere to wipe his gloves he’d be fine.

Tap.

As close to one of the wounds as possible without laying a finger actually on it, he dabbed his gloved finger, provoking and hoping for any noise of pain from the seated man.

Even if it wasn’t on the cut directly, the area was burning with a thirst for pain and sprinkled with shards of glass that penetrated his fragile flesh and dug further into the skin with the slightest pressure therefore Akaguro couldn’t suppress the grunt that released some of the agony.

Although it was fun to see the reaction that doesn’t mean Chisaki didn’t immediately regret it and instinctively pull his fingers away only moments after to wipe them on the closest surface available that wasn’t his own clothing, that being Akaguro’s bare shoulder blade.

Thankfully, there was no blood on his gloves in the first place but now the gloves had gathered a layer of oily sweat from the seated, wincing, man.

Chisaki held his hands up so they were situated by his face.

Akaguro’s expression morphed from pained to angry.

The pain muted itself quickly, all torment was replaced by adrenaline that forced Akaguro, compelled him to swiftly, intensely, deliberately swing his arm down towards the unprotected shins of Chisaki- with a tight, iron grip securing his knife in his palms all at the minuscule sound that was made at the removal of Kai’s thin gloves

Although not stabbing him, only holding it there as a threat and warning to prevent the offended man from trying to proceed with any malicious intentions he may have at the action.

“I’m fixing you…” Chisaki sighed, “it’s in return for preventing someone from spiking my drink I suppose…”

Although the knife remained pressed against his leg it relaxed slightly, Chisaki tried to ignore it though and opted to keep moving his hand forward. Directly on top of the head, Chisaki’s hand was positioned and was in the quick process of cleaning up the rapidly dissapearing wounds and dislodging the glass from his hair.

And maybe, Chisaki was trust worthy himself.

Silence persisted as it went on

“Thank you…” Akaguro spoke while returning his knife back to his lap, resuming cleaning it and his raised eyebrows and hunched shoulders eased into a comfortable position. “What are you in?”

Maybe it was because he was preoccupied by how he gave into his urges by starting to swipe the glass out of Akaguro’s hair or maybe the man just didn’t make sense because Chisaki couldn’t understand what he just asked, “Pardon?”

“What yakuza are you in?”

Finally, something he could easily let the alcohol talk about for him that was not boring, “I’m in the Shie Hassakai, it’s a top class and secretive yakuza. My pops is the boss and I’m sort of the heir, I suppose,”

Instantly, the response back was annoyingly negative, “Never heard of it,” causing Chisaki to submit a long sigh.

“The Shie Hassakai is the only remaining good yakuza to exist…” firmly in his finger tips, his knuckles whitened as he grasped, pulled and tugged at the unsuspecting charcoal hair that he didn’t realise he was grasping, pulling and tugging on, “The way we do things is more proper than any other gang that may try and pretend to be an excellent Yakuza. I was raised into who I am by the Shie Hassakai and I’m confident no other yakuza could’ve turned me into the person I a toda-“

Akaguro’s teeth ground and his irritated eyebrows lowered together to prevent a groan that formed from annoyance and the pain his strained hair caused him, “Yes, yes, alright, you should continue this speech after you sit down”

Dusty. Blood-soaked. Dirty. The floor also looked very old too. When was the last time Akaguro cleaned his house? Who knows. The only thing that was known was that 100 drinks and a knife to the throat could not force Chisaki to sit on that floor.

“I am not covering my jeans in this filth.” Chisaki declared.

A quiet tap hit the floor, softly and gently as what was thrown by the charcoal haired man was nothing that was hard, only a piece of red cloth (a scarf) that was embroidered with cheapness, yet was surprisingly high quality when you felt it, making it look worn despite barely being used at this point in time however above all else, to put credit where credit is due, it was quite clean compared to everything else. Not a stain in sight.

A louder noise came from Akaguro’s invitation for Chisaki to sit on it, a loud pat from a hand (one he had thankfully wiped with the other side of the cloth used to clean in blades) on top of the scarf that he had to lean over to fully reach.

He retreated back when Chisaki put up no effort to fight, releasing the stern grasp on his hair and crossing his legs so his body touches the floor as little as possible while sitting on that scarf.

The conversation was almost winded to a stop at the sudden abrupt rearrangement of seating so for many seconds silence persisted. Only the chirping birds and beeping bugs could fill the void (and the one or two drug addicts roaming down the street). Chisaki and Akaguro were both just there.

Akaguro looked down at his many steel weapons that glistened brightly in the sun just as much as his red eyes did.

There wasn’t a word to describe his eyes, not one Kai could think of that wasn’t out of character for someone like him to be saying about another, clearly signalling even without being spiked he’s still acting mad.

“You seem co dependant on your yakuza” was all it took from Akaguro for Chisaki to stop admiring his barely distinguishable features in a drunken daze and shift his face to one of a disturbed expression. He rested his eyes and used his drunken strength to scowl,

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Echoed through the silence, exploding the peaceful moment.

“Im not saying you’re not allowed to love your organisation or anything but you need an identity separate from your yakuza,”

The fact that that man didn’t even hesitate, didn’t even look away from his poor attempt of polishing his knives, or even change his regular voice to a provocative one, no, he was being a bitch on accident.

“I am seperate from it,” Chisaki retorted, trying to focus on the other man’s distracted eyes, “Your attempts to psycho-analyse me are pathetic-“

“Name one thing you like apart from the yakuza.”

What was this? A game? Kai didn’t know whether to be annoyed at his lack of seriousness or be angry about the serious topic but he was feeling some sort of feeling towards this irritating man.

Scoffing, Chisaki shrugged the weight of the question off his shoulders with absolute ease, huffing out his deep breath at the rather simple question… until the man looked up.

For the first time, he focused away from his rusty weaponry to shoot a glance directly into Chisaki’s own yellow eyes which dropped the discarded weight back on top of him, sending Kai spiralling into a daze, entangled with opinions on this man’s thought-provoking glare.

‘What do I actually like?’ ‘Why are his eyes so red’ ‘This must be just a weird coincidence and I’ve forgot all the things that I like’ ‘Why is his face so long?’ ‘What do I actually like?’

“… the boss,” Chisaki managed to state after a few long seconds, the alcohol making him choke in his words slightly (which felt like hours of excruciatingly embarrassing silence).

Akaguro’s weapon was placed on his bloody lap to stretch out his muscular arms (one pushing forward, the other raising up to cover his mouth) closing his eyes to yawn out his drunken exhaustion, “That’s still associated with the yakuza”

It almost made Kai yawn back and give into the other man, “Am I not allowed to like a father figure who just so happens to be in the yakuza?” He refused to give into his siren like attempt to make him yawn, it was a devious plan to make him let his guard down… or something… because he could be easily manipulated because of the drinks that Akaguro himself had been practically pouring into his throat… probably… something like that.

Although he was thinking of these scenarios, he couldn’t quite believe it himself, his mind scrambled and nitpicked at things in a poor attempt to latch onto a malevolent story but nothing could stick especially as he stared right at the man’s face. He was just was a trustworthy guy and Kai couldn’t handle it.

Akaguro shrugged off Chisaki’s statement with ease, scratching the back of his muscular neck to prove his lack of bother, “Well if he is the reason why you like the Yakuza in the first place, which it probably is, it shouldn’t count”

Chisaki’s eyebrows shifted to point down, disturbed by how much the other thought through things to disprove whatever he said no matter what.

Unknowingly, Chisaki placed his hands on the dusty floor and leaned back on them to shift into a more comfortable position while preparing for how he is going to change the conversation to get it off himself, “What about you? What do you like?”

“All might…” Akaguro replied without a beat, faster then comprehension itself as it took Chisaki a few seconds to understand his answer.

Chisaki chose to avert eye contact and scoff in amusement, “An all might fanboy? Really?”

“What’s the problem?”

Out of all the top villains like All For One, out of all the biggest dictators and terrorists in the world this peculiar, peculiar man decided that All Might was who he was going to like.

“I wouldn’t expect that from someone like you”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you look like you’d hate All Might and all heroes”

Gasping in strange shock and drawing attention to himself, Chizome responded quickly in an awe-struck tone, “Have I not explained to you my entire ideology while trapped in the grasp of 10 drinks?” He rhetorically asked, Chisaki turned his head in slight curiosity, “That is awfully strange, usually when I get drunk enough I ramble on about what I believe in over and over.”

“If you try explain it to me right now, I’ll use overhaul to kill you.“

”I see how you are, not wanting to finish something you started-,”

“Name something else you like” Kai butter in to change the topic.

“Fair Judgement posed upon criminals, preferably with a blade”

God, this man was so political.

“Oh and do you do that?” Kai sarcastically asked.

“From time to time.” He said calmly, yet he was annoyed at the struggle to get the last bit of blood off his blade.

“So are you some sort of vigilante?” He scoffed, tilting his head to the side.

“I am, yes,”

“What’s your vigilante name then… and normal name since I only know your last name”

Akaguro stopped all of what he was doing and composedly turned to gaze into the other’s eyes,“…Chizome Akaguro. And my vigilante name is Stendhal.

“The writer?”

Chizome rolled his eyes back to his weapons and didn’t respond.

To not create an awkward silence, the subject was changed to the first thing he could think of, “Your floor isn’t comfortable.”

“Well, the only cushion-like object I have is my mattress”

“Oh-“

Chizome stood up strangely fast, rapidly walking over to only stay a few inches away from Kai as he bent down, “Come.”

“No I am alright here,” but he was already pulled halfway up the stairs before he finished his sentence.

The mattress wasn’t only just the singular comfortable item in the gloomy room, it was the one and only item that filled this room. Although it was clean with black bed sheets to match the room aesthetic, there was no bed frame or anything (which made Chisaki conclude that Chizome probably has a lot of back problems).

Apart from the odd All Might poster and multiple prominent weapons holders mounted on the walls, the bookshelf was the only unique thing that stood out due to the fact it was a bright pink and didn’t match the edgy feel the rest of the room had for it.

Thankfully, this room was safe from the stench of blood which Chizome spread everywhere like a virus.

As Kai was assessing the room, Chizome’s eyes never once left the others- squinting as he tried to understand how angry or dissapointed or disgusted he felt from his face, he only turned away when the other naturally looked back after feeling the eyes of another on him.

Yawning softly in a graceful distraction, he bent over to readjust the bed covers in an attempt to make them seem more friendly to the average clean freak,“Sorry it’s only a mattress”

“Its fine-, You’re tired, I don’t want to take your bed from you”

“Sitting on my bed won’t make you indebted to me or anything you don’t want it to be so just sit there,.”

How could Kai have responded to that? What could he have done apart from stutter and accept defeat without any further fuss? For any further fuss would surely lead to an argumentative path of stress that both parties quite frankly didn’t want to deal with right now. Not only that, he believed, without ever thinking too much into it, that it was best not to ruin the lighthearted banter and turn it into attacks of anger.

Chizome placed himself on the floor at the end of the bed, facing his back towards Kai to hide his anxious face. Feeling anxious was something he was unfamiliar with, something the drinks were rabidly pulling out of his core. There wasn’t even a reason to feel anxious, if he didn’t like the man on the bed he could just kick him out.

But he did like the man on the bed… if he didn’t he would’ve booted the other out his house by now and most likely put in his long list of yakuza to kill… but strangely, he was alright with him. However, that still leaves the question- why was he feeling anxious?

Kai sighed, leaning back against the peeling walls behind him and finding it strange how comfy this hard mattress was, “You need to sleep, Chizome, I’m not taking your bed from you. As soon as you go to sleep I’m sitting on the floor and dragging you into the bed.”

Maybe he wasn’t feeling anxious, he put his hand against his stomach as he felt the mental tightening of it and squinted. Maybe he was sick… best not to tell Kai that though.

“Fine but if you go to sleep on my bed you can stay there.”

“What- no-“ Kai started, only to be conveniently interrupted by the sharp turn of the other’s head loudly speaking over him:

“You want a book?” Although it was barely a question, for 2 worn, paper-back books crashed down onto the duvet by Kai’s feet: The Red and The Black and The Charterhouse of Bahma, apt books for a man of Akaguro’s investment in politics.

Groaning as he picked up the book on his left (The Red and The Black), he decided against arguing back. It wasn’t worth it; Chizome was the most stubborn man he had ever met yet he could never get seriously mad at him… The ruthless, merciless Kai Chisaki couldn’t be angry at this one man…

They didn’t speak after that. Not one noise to each other, they relaxed into a comfortable silence as they read for ages.

At least 30 minutes had past before Chisaki let out an exhausted yawn to break the silence, though Chizome left no remark on it.

No offence Marie-Henri Beyle to but after a few cocktails his writing on the page merges and slurs together and becomes utterly sleep-inducing, in fact, Kai’s chance of dropping off into slumber while reading this book increased rapidly- he had probably read the same page on whatever Julien was doing around 5 times because he forgot all of what happened.

Drooping, drooping, drooping, his eyelids were crashing down into his inevitable sleep… he couldn’t fight it was much as he wanted to, he was going to steal Chizome’s bed tonight and have a great sleep while the other will most likely have a poor back ache.

The drowsiness caused him to feel a large sensation of guilt that fell upon him like a monumental wave, pushing his head upward to take once last glance at the other man, who was most likely still reading a book.

However, the most likely probability was very obviously wrong for he was slumped against himself- either dead or sleeping- and Kai hadn’t noticed this entire time.

He could’ve won this mini battle between both men easily if he had just looked at the other man’s peaceful face, surprisingly clear skin and shiny hair and examined him to see his sleeping form.

Ergo, he ripped himself out of his state of tranquil and launched forward to firmly grasp onto the broad, weirdly smooth, muscular shoulders Chizome was equipped with and gently attempting to pull him up., although there was a problem- his eyes were rapidly closing on themselves.

But it’s okay. He was NOT going to let himself sleep. NO. He was going to drag this man’s passed out body onto the bed before he drifted off to sleep.

Tiredly switching his hands from his shoulders to his side an endless amount of times, while completely exhausted from the teaser of sleep, he tried his best to lift him without awakening him and without giving into the further blindness his brain was forcing him into, in the end, Chisaki had to hook his hands under his legs to semi-fireman lift him and position him to lie against him on the mattress. Luckily Chizome stayed asleep.

Breathing in and out gently, he subconsciously tucked into a ball on the mattress (while still embedded in Chisaki’s arms) and shuffling slightly to foreshadow the future extreme movement that he usually does.

Breathing in and out gently, Chisaki also focused and copied the other’s hypnotising and tranquil breathing in a state of lack of motivation, he wasn’t bothered to move the vigilante off of him even though he usually would’ve.

Never mind, maybe he was going to give in to slumber.

He just tensed and wrapped his arms tighter, supporting the both of them. After that, nothing else could be remembered as the night grew darker, much darker, and Kai’s eyes became heavy enough to the point of not being conscious any longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One, Two, Three. Awareness struck the brunette yet he didn’t open his eyes at the stabbing sensation.

One, Two, Three. Jabbing into his back, digging into him… something was constantly moving back and fourth into him. Calling it harmful would be being dramatic, it was rather soft but packed enough power to make someone who was unsuspecting and asleep wince.

One, Two, Three. Okay. Now it was just getting annoying. Jokes over. Yellow eyes hinged open to only be met with just as much darkness as they had when their were closed.

Connecting his irises to the barely renderable roof that lay worn yet appreciated above him, wooden and aged with years of lively, eventful memories. He lay still.

This was not his usual, quiet, clean room.

This room had an almost metallic and damp smell to it that came with age and a lot of rain, emphasising the non-sterile environment he was in.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five. He had almost forgot about whatever was jabbing into him amidst his confusion.

He rolled to see what was there because he had no guesses. What could it have been? A pogo stick? A conveniently built mechanical device that had landed in the bed?

He blinked to try and clear his eyes, to cleanse his vision from any hallucination that may have entered his mind but no matter what, what he was looking at was worse than the other two options that he had thought of before.

He was lying on a mattress (in a different position to how he first lay in it), a stale mattress, a cheap mattress getting his arse kicked in by the very close Chizome Akaguro.

And he was mortified.

Darkness hid the true colour of Chisaki’s embarrassed face, sweat began to accumulate in his forehead in big chunks to try and exaggerate its existence and fluster Chisaki further.

He even noted how, throughout his passed out antics, Akaguro had intertwined their legs to be able to be covered by as much blanket as possible. But apart from continuing the stunned staring at him, he couldn’t find the strength do anything.

His short hair moved with the gentle breeze of Akaguro’s breathing in a humiliatingly peaceful scene, luckily his breath didn’t smell bad at all (which was weird considering he had only had alcohol to drink the day before) so it didn’t disturb Chisaki (which you could argue made it worse for his confused state).

One, Two, Three. Moving like a wild animal, his legs kicked forward into Chisaki’s, now turned, body.

To say it was nice to see Akaguro like this, eyes closed, mouth closed, chest slowly rising and falling was a correct statement Chisaki could’ve agree with but not in any ‘weird way’ It was only because no insufferable snark or anger came out of his mouth usually quick and strong mouth. Chisaki could’ve said the scene was rather tranquil however that dangerous trail of thought was halted quickly because thinking like this was sickening, really, as soon as his staring at Akaguro had started to make his stomach started… itch? Ach? The feeling was weird and he refused to like it.

All anger that he felt from the disruptive acts of (softly powered) violence strangely faded down to the point where it barely existed for no reason at all, the only reason that may be applicable as an explanation is maybe a sickness was overpowering his anger.

The sickness which was deepening the pink shade of his face even more into an opaque red.

“Sorry-“ a hoarse voice punched through Kai’s eardrums, “Was I kicking you?”

Finally, the heat reached the capillaries in Kai’s brain and clogged vessels with cringe embarrassment that would surely burst and cause a stroke if he was to have one good look at, the now awake, Chizome Akaguro.

He needed to think of something quickly…

Thump!

Before Chizome could uncage his droopy eyes from more than a squint and take in the scene infront of him, Chisaki’s fight or flight response had already activated and left him plummeted on the dirty floor.

“Kai, be careful the floor is unkempt because I cannot find time to mop it.” he says in a strangely considerate way, the exhaustion seeping through his voice, extending his both arms down to grasp onto Kai.

Burning, he tried to fight being pulled up as the muscular arms wrapped around his stomach and lifted him thoughtlessly (yet with a lot of effort to maintain the strength to lift Chisaki since he’s rather heavy), the formerly disgusting floor seemed like heaven to whatever he had to face on that bed, even if he’d have much rather been lying there right now.

He just couldn’t bare to withstand the sensation that was rapidly roaming, rapidly creating problems throughout his whole face, bursting heart and low stomach, changing his colour all around.

Alas, it was too late, he had been lifted back on the bed, being fucking hugged by this goddamn vigilante. He could’ve noted how much more comfortable it was than before with the welcomed warmth and lack of attacking however he restrained himself from such thoughts.

Chizome didn’t realise he was doing this but he did feel the effects of it, the warmth in his hardened bed was softening the mattress and making it easier to sleep, the grasp he had around something as well finally added a purpose to his arms and prevented them from creating uncomfortable positions.

He wrapped his arms tighter and Chisaki didn’t shudder like he expected to, he relaxed. Shoulders softening, eyes closing, head lowering further down the pillow to enter a thoughtless state. Thoughtless yet full of stubbornly hidden appreciation.

If Chizome had woken up any further his face would’ve turned blood red too, luckily he never did and drifted back off into a thick slumber with ease and even if he did, he was too far into quit; his arms were already locked in place and his head found itself comfortable against Kai’s shoulders.

“Hey, Kai…” Chizome yawned, mumbling in his practically sleeping state- not in the right state of mind to flesh out his statements properly, “When I kept giving you alcohol, that wasn’t in a creepy way, it was only part of the task.”

A groan of consideration to whatever that meant was all that was let out in response from Chisaki for he was almost entirely back to sleep.

The last thought Chisaki’s mind could string out before it descended into babbling unconscious nonsense was, ‘I wonder how long it will take for him to start kicking again?’

————————————
“What? You just let Chisaki kill all our men? That was half of our squad, are we a joke to you?”

“It wasn’t just Chisaki, sir, it was the other too?”

“‘Other’? I don’t know who you’re talking about- oh, I know who you’re talking about”

“Him and Chisaki worked together”

“So what? If Chisaki has a date with him that don’t give you the excuse to let him destroy us?”

“Yes, sir, I’m sorry”

“You wouldn’t be forgiven unless I had a plan I need you to pull off to get back at Kai Chisaki for good”.