𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 | 𝗠.𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘂𝘆𝘂

────── eight

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──── ˚✩ ༘*ೄ˚ ────

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EYES DRIFTING OVER THE SHINEY BIKES, the smell of leather and oil invaded her senses. Akiko looked around the bike shop labeled 'SS Motors', owned by Shinichiro. Draken had offered to stand watch outside while the older male tended to Akiko's wound.

After the adrenaline had worn off, Akiko felt the pain and she felt utterly exhausted. She let herself be pulled into a room in the back, where Shinichiro gently pushed her to sit on a chair. He retrieved a first aid kit from a cupboard, pulled up another chair to sit on and reach for a pair of scissors.

"I won't ask you to undress yourself in front of me," Shinichiro explained softly, smiling reassuringly.

With a cut here and there, the wound became exposed to their eyes. Akiko winced at the sight, scrunching up her face in disgust at the deep cut. Minimal amounts of blood still oozed out of the wound.

"How did that even happen?" asked Shinichiro with a hint of curiosity. "Usually, gangs like to brag with their muscles. They only use weapons when they want to play unfairly."

"Kurayami didn't have a knife. I did," Akiko clarified, causing Shinichiro's eyebrow to quirk up in surprise. "He was strangling me. I stabbed him in the arm to get free. But I didn't expect the blade to go straight through."

A hiss of pain emitted from her throat when Shinichiro cleaned up the wound. Instinctively, she grabbed onto his arm, momentarily stopping him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, and he patiently waited for Akiko to give him a sign that he could continue.

"It's fine. I just have a low pain tolerance." She released his arm and let him continue treating the wound.

"How do you know Mikey and the others?"

"Mikey is my little brother."

"But that would mean ..."

"We're cousins. Yeah." Shinichiro grinned. "Welcome to the family, I guess."

A humorless laugh slipped past Akiko's lips. Shinichiro furrowed his eyebrows at her reaction. Then he remembered that her father had needed to threaten her into returning home and she still refused him. Family must have been a sore spot for her.

"I don't even know what family is anymore," Akiko admitted in a whisper. Pain accompanied her voice, not physical pain, but the kind of pain that tore your heart in two and kept you awake at night. It was the kind of pain that took a long time to subside because you couldn't just put a bandaid on it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" offered Shinichiro. He shortly glanced up from her shoulder to meet her eyes, her glossy amber orbs. "It might help."

Akiko let her head fall back and closed her eyes. For a moment, all she did was breath. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. In her mind, she relived the night's events. She felt lost, without direction, without a place to call home.

"If I allow myself to think about it for too long, it'll send me into a downward spiral. And talking about it won't make the problem go away," she retorted after a minute.