eleven
what took you so long
I didn't get a ton of sleep that night, drifting in and out of consciousness like a piece of driftwood going through the rapids. My mind swam, memories of the best and worst times of my life threatening to invade my last remaining shreds of sanity. A green photo envelope sat on my floor, empty save for a few pictures I'd fallen asleep before I had a chance to look at. The one lying on top was one of my favourites from my Sato days, seven of us gathered together in our little hidey-hole on the fourth floor where we'd spend our spare periods. The picture consisted of me, my then-boyfriend Shuntaro, Odajima Yuken (who I had learned moved out of Oya and joined Housen Academy) and a few other kids whose names I had forgotten but who I still held fond memories of.
I had just fallen back asleep when my phone started vibrating on my nightstand. At first I simply silenced it, rolling over and returning to the awkward purgatory between asleep and awake. The same number rang again, and I gave up any hope of falling asleep again.
Answering, I checked the time on my nightstand. 3:47 in the morning.
"What the hell do you want this early?"
"Midori?" A panicked voice responded on the other end
"Todoroki?" I said, confused "How did you get my number?"
Todoroki chuckled. "Loverboy had it in his phone. He offered us your address as well but I thought that would be kind of creepy."
"Yeah." I agreed "It would. What do you want?"
Todoroki sighed. "Murayama got jumped on his way home. He was passing through the Township and some guys jumped out of an alleyway. I don't know the full story, but he's pretty beat up and he's been asking for you."
"What?" I all but shouted, clambering out of bed and tripping over my Doc Martens. "I'll be there in like, twenty minutes. And for the love of god, don't let him do anything stupid."
Hanging up before Todoroki could say anything else, I threw my phone onto my bed and scrambled to find a decent pair of jeans in the piles of clothes littering my floor. Grabbing a Bad Omens hoodie from my closet, I quickly shoved my feet into my Docs, scribbling a note in purple gel pen for Noboru.
It was hard to quell my panic as I got behind the wheel of the car. What if something really bad had happened to Murayama?
When I got to Oya, I made a mad dash for the door, shoving a frazzled Seki -who looked like he had just come back from a date, and a good one at that, judging by the lipstick on his collar- out of the way. I pushed past a few first years who were crowded around a beer pong table, getting yelled at by an increasingly frustrated Kiyoshi. I was about to run up the stairs when Todoroki grabbed my wrist to stop me.
"Midori, slow down. He's perfectly fine, we managed to get the bleeding to stop." Todoroki chuckled, letting go of my arm
"Oh thank god." I breathed out, running my fingers through my unbrushed hair "why am I acting like this?"
Todoroki laughed "Because you're in love, Midori. Anybody with eyes and a brain can see that."
I didn't even try to fight it this time, knowing that Todoroki was right. I felt pathetic, quite frankly, but I knew that Murayama needed me, and that I had to shove my feelings aside and approach this calmly.
I followed the full-time leader upstairs, to a room with four beds and stack of discarded pizza boxes sitting in a corner. I had no doubt that this was where the part-timers lived. I paused in the doorway, hurriedly putting my hair in a braid before taking the medical bag from Furuya.
Murayama was lying on one of the beds, clutching an ice pack to his face. Cloths covered in dried blood littered the floor around him. I quickly sent away everybody else who was in the room, sitting down next to Murayama on the bed.
"They got you good, didn't they?" I chuckled, gently taking the ice pack as the boy sat up. He rolled his eyes, gently tilting his head back before he groaned in pain form the effort.
"Well," I started, examining the head wounds. "You aren't going to die, that's a good thing."
He cracked a small smile as I helped him take his shirt off so I could see the bruising "I'm going to kill those Sato assholes."
My stomach dropped to the floor. "Sato?"
"Some blond asshole in a Sato basketball jacket and some other guys. They looked like kids."
"Sato was my alma mater. I think I know exactly who you're talking about." I exhaled sharply, tensing up as I ran my fingers over the bruises on his chest. "No internal bleeding, but maybe you should get someone more qualified to take a look before you start spitting blood."
Murayama pulled his black t-shirt back on, his messy hair and wide little eyes making him a lot cuter than he should of been as he asked me who the guy that did this to him was.
I sighed, spraying some antiseptic on his cuts. "When I was at Sato, this blond idiot, Noboyuki, he was the school's top. Not in smarts, in aggression. He rarely ever lost a fight, spent his days hanging out on the rooftop waiting for somebody to come and challenge him. He'd been held back a few times already by the time I graduated, I assumed he was just going to be a permanent fixture. He was always power hungry, and I guess he got it in his head that if he could take over the bordertown that he could start a S.W.O.R.D power. I was never able to beat him."
The room went quiet after I spoke, neither of us quite knowing what to say as I pressed some gauze to his forehead. I started to get nervous again, wondering if somehow I had messed things up between us by talking about my high school days.
Abruptly, Murayama got out of the bed, dragging me towards the door with him "Come on, I want to show you something."
He looks like a five year old in a candy store.
I laughed as he pulled me towards another staircase. In his condition, I was honestly surprised that he could move that fast as I struggled to keep up, following him onto the roof.
"Wow."
The view was incredible: the eerie dark of the night punctuated by the lights of the S.W.O.R.D District. It was magical. Turning to my left I could see the soft lights of the Nameless City reflecting off the water. To my right, the lights of Club Heaven lit up the sky and reflected off the clouds. I truly can't describe it.
"I told you it was incredible up here at night." Murayama laughed, settling himself on the leather couch. "You should see it at sunrise, the light reflecting off Daruma's temple."
I smiled, moving to sit next to him. "I should stick around then, one day. That way I wake up early enough to see it."
We sat in silence for a moment, staring at the lights from Sannoh in the distance. I'd never thought of S.W.O.R.D as a beautiful thing. No, I had thought of it as something unnecessary, something immoral. I'd thought that putting four millennials and a nightclub owner in charge of keeping the peace was a terrible idea.
If only the Midori Yamada from three years ago could see me now.
"You seem to talk pretty fondly about high school." Murayama chuckled, slipping his arms into his trademark blue flannel. "Strange, for someone who couldn't get out of Oya fast enough."
I chuckled "I had my moments. Missed a lot of school for training and competitions. And just because I flat out lost interest. It was a different time then, I was a different person."
I stopped for a minute, thinking of all the spare periods the seven of us wasted in that unused classroom, the pointless scribbling and art we had drawn on the walls, desperate to leave our marks on the world. The day Odajima said he was moving. The party we threw to give him a proper sendoff.
"You know, I didn't even go to prom."
Murayama stared at me intently. "You skipped out on prom?"
I pulled the sleeves of my sweater over my hands, face turning pink as I stared at the ground. "Guns N Roses were in town, you seriously cannot blame me." I laughed, turning back to face him. "You can't tell me that there wasn't someone or something you would have done that for."
He sighed, lost in thought. "Pay money to my Pain. Didn't even tell my parents, went off to Yokohoma for the weekend. I burst into tears the second they started playing Paralyzed Ocean. I skipped school to go to K's memorial."
"Pay money to my Pain, seriously? Wow, I would have saved my tears for Pictures."
"They played that one right after, I don't think I had any tears left."
"Well," I chuckled "I only know the songs from Sugarless, but those two were at the top of my playlists back then, mixed in with some English scene groups. Thought it made me cool."
"You watched Sugarless?"
"Hell yeah, every Thursday. Lived it, too." I smiled, leaning my head back against the couch. "I was like Shiiba, only I actually won my fights. Dated a guy that looked exactly like Kirio."
Murayama laughed "Now that I have to see."
"I'd show you if I had my phone, but I think I left it inside."
I gently turned my head to the side, facing Murayama. The lights from Club Heaven lit up his features, highlighting everything in a soft purple.
He was gorgeous.
We sat there for a minute, my breath caught in my throat as I seemed to get lost in his galaxy-like eyes.
"Dori-chan." He said quietly, breaking the silence
"Yeah?" I responded, voice equally quiet
"Can I kiss you?"
Instead of answering, I leaned forward slowly and attached my lips to his, one hand gently coming up to caress his cheek. It was the kind of kiss where you half expected fireworks to go off behind you. The one that made you want to stand on the rooftop and proclaim to the world that you'd just been kissed. I smiled into it, his hand moving gently to my waist as we pulled apart.
"So." He smiled shyly, a new look for the big, tough leader of Oyakou. "Be honest, am I a better kisser than Masaki?"
I couldn't help myself as I burst out laughing, my right hand coming up to cover my mouth. "Yes." I managed to say with a straight face. "Way better."
"Good." He agreed with a smile before kissing me again.
We stayed up on the roof for a little longer, my head on his shoulder as we stared at the stars. I pointed out a few constellations that my cousin in Okinawa had shown me one summer when I was younger. Murayama just chuckled, pressing a kiss to my temple and commenting on how cute I was.
It was perfect.
I was disrupted slightly by the sound of soft snoring, causing me to gently shift my position and turn to look at Murayama. He had fallen asleep, a peaceful expression on his bruised face, messy hair in front of his eyes. I smiled to myself, grabbing a blanket that someone had discarded up on the roof and laying it over his body. I placed a gentle kiss on his forehead before turning to leave the rooftop, an exact mirror of what had occurred the day I fell asleep during the movie.
I pushed the door to the rooftop open, surprised to hear scuttling footsteps leading away from the scene, interrupted only by the ringing of a phone. Seki and Furuya stood on a nearby landing, huge grins on their faces.
"So." Furuya chuckled "Little Man finally made his move."
I laughed, nodding as I walked to meet them on the stairs. "You saw the whole thing, didn't you."
Seki nodded, pressing his phone to his ear and motioning for us to quiet down as he descended a few more steps.
"He's asleep, so you can either leave him there or bring him back inside, just try not to wake him. And maybe get someone to check out the bruises o his chest and stomach, I just want to make sure there isn't any internal bleeding." I said quietly, out of respect for Seki's phone conversation
Furuya nodded as Seki hung up, a very annoyed expression on his face.
"I have to go get Tao's daughter. I swear, this family is going to be the death of me."The slightly hungover man rolled his eyes "Destruction of property and assault. What's next, arson?"
Furuya laughed, shouting after Seki as he turned to leave "Don't jinx it!"
"Who's Tao?" I asked, a knowing expression on my face.
"Tao Kobayashi is his girlfriend. She has a daughter Tsukasa's age, always getting herself into trouble. But he really loves this woman."
I nodded along, truly understanding the way Seki felt about Tao, as I realized that it was the same way I was beginning to feel about Murayama. And that's why I knew exactly what I needed to do next, not just for Murayama, but for myself.
I was going to go after Noboyuki.
NOTES!
look, another long ass chapter that I should have made smaller.
but I regret nothing.