Figments of Beauty

I

When they were all together like this, Chuuya didn't find himself saying much. He sat back and watched, nodded along and added a few comments here and there, but nothing of substance. He always felt... strange around them. Out of place. Like he didn't belong with them. It had been that way since he'd joined—there was the Sheep, and then there was Chuuya.

Even with Shirase and Yuan, his closest friends, he felt that way. They all put him on a shiny pedestal anyway, and so he watched them from afar.

The day quickly wasted away and by the time the sun was almost set, the Sheep had been there for hours talking and laughing like little kids. More than half were tipsy and Shirase was nearing blackout drunk when he suddenly stood up, swaying slightly, and began shouting. "We should do something to show the pompous assholes 'round here that we're not second-class citizens! That they underestimate us!"

His words were slurred and even Chuuya was having a hard time understanding him (which was impressive because he'd dealt with drunk Shirase the most out of everyone in the Sheep) but the jeering response from the rest made all that meaningless.

Chuuya wasn't among the rest, though. He had enough sense to know that this was a bad idea.

"Let's go ransack some rich bitches and remind them who we are!"

The answering shouts could have deafened Chuuya had he not been used to it. He stood near Shirase with the slightest indication of a frown on his lips. This couldn't possibly end well and as much as Chuuya did want to remind the people who had it easy that they couldn't mess with people like them, he didn't want the Sheep to put themselves in danger. What would happen if those rich people decided to get them all locked up?

But Shirase was already leading the way and did Chuuya have a choice? Not really. That was how things were, most of the time.

No one actually knew what Shirase had in mind when he said he wanted to 'show the pompous assholes' until the Sheep found themselves standing in front of a tall, shiny building with glass doors, and the words Port Mafia Modeling stuck to the fronts.

Shirase turned to face the gang. "We're going to go in here and show these knuckleheads who we are! We're going to remind them that they can't step on people like us, that they're no bigger than we are!"

The Sheep jeered and yelled, throwing fists in the air and shouting things like "let's show them!" and "the rich can die!" while Chuuya stood in the middle of it all, wondering what the best course of action was. Part of him wanted to join in, but the other part knew that this would end badly and he needed to stop it before that happened.

For better or worse, he didn't get the chance.

Shirase slammed his beer bottle into one of the glass doors, accompanied by a thick punch, and the glass fractured. It didn't take long for Shirase and a few helpers to break the door completely and suddenly, the Sheep came flooding into the building like a sea of chaos. Chuuya somehow got washed up in it thanks to his indecision, and now he was watching as everyone set to work destroying everything.

To be fair, it was a pretty nice place to be wreaking havoc on. There was a plush sitting area to the left, and the counter to the right was full of breakable things. No one wanted to touch the electric fireplace, but Chuuya watched Yuan and her cousin throw a large decorative bowl up at the chandelier, which came down with a crash and shot tiny glass jewels everywhere. Chuuya watched Shirase trip on one and face plant into the white leather couch, and snorted.

He would have kept laughing if he didn't catch sight of an unfamiliar head of blonde hair and a pair of unfamiliar brown eyes from past the lobby and around the corner, peeking out from behind the wall.