Don't Wait For Me | TakeMikey

Chapter 1

"Kakucho. If it's Izana's bowl you're looking for, he brought it in his room to eat rice with his noodles like the weird fuck that he is."

Mikey hadn't meant to sound angry with his choice of words but as someone who's lived in prison for the past 9 years, he really was keeping his curses to a minimum. The rummaging stopped and Kakucho peeked at him from behind the counter. The scar on the left side of his face running from beyond his hairline to under his left eye and to the side of his face always made him wonder what gruesome thing had happened for him to have such a scar. He never really asked for details. That wasn't something he was privy to and he knew.

Kakucho didn't look the least bit bother by the insult aimed at Izana, Mikey's adoptive older brother, his king, and his ambiguous partner, gaze a little hardened from all the things he had done in their line of work.

Mikey wasn't dumb. He knew people who were from gangs when he sees one. They came and go as they pleased in prison, bribing officers with their dirty money, with their tattoos littering their bodies like a canvas, and putting on airs at him when they encounter him, the "dead legend" of Shibuya's streets. He'd put them back into their places, below his feet, bloody face planted on the dirty floor, apologizing and begging for mercy.

Nobody ever told him off.

He was the "law" inside of prison and he took pride in all the titles he held, all but murderer.

Kurokawa Izana and Hitto Kakucho were gangsters.

The king and his loyal dog.

He recalls hearing their name from one of the rare gang underlings who paid him respects and knew his place. They owned and led Tenjiku, one of the most sinister gangs in all of Japan. They did all the disgusting and inhumane acts a man could ever think of. Yet Izana and Kakucho spent their time with him like teenagers who ate too much junk and had too much money to spend in their pockets. It was something that he appreciated from his estranged adoptive brother.

"Did he?"

Kakucho asked, eyes staring up at him unblinking.

Mikey returned it with a blank gaze, mouth constantly full with his food.

"He did."

Kakucho finally blinked, sighing before closing the cabinet door, not a single word of complain came out of his mouth as it did in the early days that they had started living with him in the Sano residence. No one thought that a yakuza boss would live with a miserable former inmate who lost his family to death and is living as a martial arts instructor just as his deceased grandfather had. That's why Mikey had no problems with them being there. Police never showed up at his place to interrogate him about fugitives, criminals, or murders. He lived in a fairly peaceful environment and he had no nosy neighbors to deal with. Not anymore since his grandfather's death.

Nobody really wanted to have anything to do with a former criminal.

Aside from Izana, Kakucho, and his students and their parents, no one visited him. Not Pah, not Mitsuya, not anyone. He didn't tell them when he was released and he didn't bother getting in touch with them. He knew they had reputable jobs now. Perhaps a family of their own. He wouldn't want to intrude in their lives now. He didn't want friends, didn't want to form bonds, he didn't want to get attached to anyone else for that matter. He didn't want anymore deaths to be caused by him just existing or by his hands itself.

Mikey doesn't know when things started spiraling down the drain. (Or maybe he does.) Perhaps it was when Pah-chin surrendered himself against Mikey's wishes. Perhaps it was when Draken died on that fateful night of August 3rd. Maybe it was when Baji died and he killed Kazutora with his bare hands on October 31st. Maybe- maybe it was when he gave Haruchiyo his scars.