Mondo paced the floor of his kitchen, his foot occasionally catching on the loose bit of laminate that stuck up from one corner. He'd have to learn how to glue it back down later. Or maybe he should really get around to fixing the place up, he thought, and try replacing it with some proper tiles. Either way, that wasn't important right now.
Several of his friends were supposed to stop by. Naegi had already managed to get the money from Togami, and he'd given it to Leon, who was supposed to give it to his "mystery" mechanic. He was waiting on the three of them and the equipment they'd need, and they'd probably bring Hagakure along.
He wasn't sure why he was so anxious about it. It may simply have been that he'd never had people over at his house before— not anyone that wasn't in his gang, anyway. Takemichi had camped out on his couch a few times out of necessity, but more often than not, the house was empty, especially now that Mondo spent most of his time at Hope's Peak.
Mondo had called Kiyotaka to ask for advice, but had told him it was for a study session. And the prefect, as oblivious as ever, had suggested leaving out snacks. He'd followed the advice, though, and so there was now a huge assortment of snacks on the counter. It wasn't a very pretty display. He was a biker, not fuckin' Martha Stewart.
Mondo had to hold in his sigh of relief when he heard the doorbell ring— ten more minutes of nervous pacing and he might have lost his mind. As he'd expected, Naegi was the first to arrive. He hadn't, however, expected Naegi to be the one to bring Hagakure along.
"Hey, Makoto. Hiro. Since when do you two travel together?"
"Hi, Oowada-kun! I'm babysitting him for Kuwata-kun," Naegi admitted. "He's checking in with his mystery mechanic. So he dumped Hagakure-kun on me."
How long will it take this guy to drop the honorifics? Aren't we past that by now? Mondo wondered. But then again, his own boyfriend addressed everyone with honorifics with the exception of himself and Chihiro. Mondo stepped aside and made space in the doorframe for his visitors to pass through. Naegi gave a polite little bow before he did so.
"I didn't think you had a house," Naegi observed as he looked around. "Especially since it's... You know. Just you."
"Yeah, well, my brother bought it for us. It's a crash pad for the whole gang, really. It's the cheapest place in town, and that's saying a lot for this neighborhood. He worked on bikes and cars, saved up some cash, got the place after it was foreclosed on..." Mondo looked fondly at the crooked light fixture above the island. "I could always just get some apartment somewhere or live in one of the men's shelters, but I haven't had the heart to let this place go."
Naegi gave him a sad smile as he took a seat. There wasn't a kitchen table— just a couple of barstools pulled up to the island.
"That's pretty admirable. Or at least, I think it is. Do you pay the mortgage with just your stipend?"
"More or less. But I do basic mechanic shit and odd jobs, too, just for extra cash. Nobody in this town seems to know how to fix their cars, so I've always got plenty of customers. ...Mostly people's grandmas."
Naegi suppressed a laugh. The image of a little old lady knocking on Mondo's door at eight in the morning because her check engine light was on again, and then giving him twenty dollars and a cornbread muffin when he was finished with it, was strangely adorable. Maybe he even mowed lawns and helped people move from time to time.
"I think your house is... charming!" Hagakure blurted out. Mondo scoffed.
"Yeah, charming is just a code word for ugly... But thanks, I guess. I've been meaning to fix the place up, but I never get around to it... between school and managin' the gang and all."
"I'm sure you could get some of the class to help out," Naegi suggested. "The gang, too. They'd at least be good at demolition."
Mondo laughed.
"Yeah, probably. We're pretty good at breakin' shit."
The doorbell rang again. Mondo left Naegi and Hagakure in the kitchen and rushed down the hall.
"Leon," he said simply as soon as he had the door open. "Where's your mechanic?"
"Late, as usual," Leon laughed. "But don't worry. He's coming. And he's got all the stuff. He says he got a great deal on it, so he can actually give you some of your money back."
"I won't argue with that. Come on in! Makoto and Hiro are already here."
Leon settled in comfortably and ate most of the cookies, and at least thirty minutes passed. Just as Mondo started to wonder if their mechanic had bailed, there was another ring of the doorbell. Leon followed him as he walked down the hall.
"Hurry up!" A familiar voice cried. "I can't carry all of this in by myself!"
Mondo stopped and turned to stare at Leon. Leon grinned.
"I should've expected as much," Mondo laughed as he opened the front door again.
He was greeted by the sight of a guy in a jumpsuit and beanie, one with bright pink hair and eyes. He had a wagon full of supplies with him and what appeared to be a wad of cash in his pocket.
"Souda-kun." Mondo did his best to sound polite and reached out for a handshake. The mechanic in question shoved it away and instead offered a fist.
"Y'don't have to be so formal, man! Just Kazuichi is fine."
"I guess you're right. Kazuichi, then— thanks for stoppin' by."
Leon gave his friend a quick bump on the fist before taking the toolbox that Kazuichi had under his arm. Once he'd been relieved of the burden, the pink-haired man seemed to remember something.
"Oh! ...Uh, just so you know, I didn't plan to come alone! We're waiting on one more person."
"Really? ...Who else are we expecting?" Mondo asked, his curiosity piqued.
Kazuichi assumed his usual carefree stance, the one where he folded his arms behind his head. Mondo wasn't sure how he found that so comfortable.
"Leon said that the girls are planning stuff, too, sooooo I called up a lady friend of Ishimaru's to ask if she knows anything... She thinks it might turn into a competition at this rate. So if we're all gonna be workin' on the bike together, we need somebody guardin' the place, right?!"
The mechanic said this proudly, like it was an idea he'd put a lot of thought into. Mondo nodded slowly. It did make sense to have someone keep an eye on the street for snoops like Asahina, but couldn't Naegi or one of the others do that? Mondo suspected that Kazuichi had simply wanted an excuse to invite another person.
"...Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for, uh... That. For thinking of me. I guess." Mondo elbowed Leon. "Who else did he invite?!" he whispered. Leon shrugged.
"Oh, did he invite somebody else?"
"He just said that."
"Oh? Didn't hear it. Anyway, I've got no idea!"
You are the worst fuckin' liar, Kuwata.
"Anyway, he'll be here very soon. Until then, we'll get everything set up!" Kazuichi pushed past Mondo and made his way into the house. Mondo rolled his eyes. He'd forgotten that Kazuichi was the kind of guy who would invite himself in.
"...Go straight down the hall. The little mudroom off of the kitchen— the door there leads to the garage. You can, uh, take a soda from the fridge or a snack from the counter if you want to," Mondo called after him.
Kazuichi stopped in the kitchen to talk to Naegi and Hagakure, who were still standing around the counter and enjoying their snacks. Leon and Mondo joined them.
"This is a really nice place," Kazuichi said, biting into a sandwich (with those weird shark teeth of his) that he'd made from crackers and pepperoni. Mondo's eyebrows raised.
"...Ya think so, huh? It's pretty small. Old, too. Was the only place my brother could afford."
"Is it small?" Kazuichi asked, glancing at Leon. Leon nodded, looking strangely embarrassed. Kazuichi shrugged. "Guess I wouldn't know. It's about the same size as my place, and it's in much better condition. ...My house is set up kind of the same way. Mostly garage."
"Yeah, we were more interested in a place to keep the bikes than in bedrooms with breakfast nooks or balconies or anything like that," Mondo explained, laughing sheepishly. He'd forgotten that Kazuichi's family was even poorer than his. If that was even possible.
"But anyway, I actually have a lot of experience with motorcycles," Kazuichi bragged. "You should see my bike at home! It's so fast that it's not even street-legal!"
Mondo whistled.
"Really?! How fast are we talkin'—"
Suddenly, before he could finish the question, there was a pounding and insistent knock on the front door, almost like someone had repeatedly kicked it with the side of their foot instead of using their knuckles. Mondo jumped.
"The hell is that...?!"
He began to storm down the hallway. What kind of person kicked a door instead of using the bell? Before he reached it, he heard a familiar voice, very loud, come from the other side of the door.
"Open up, will ya?! Keep me waitin' in this goddamn cold... Fuckin' bosozoku bastard!"
Mondo stopped for a second, stunned into silence, before he started laughing uproariously. He threw the door open a little too enthusiastically.
"You fuckin' yakuza scum— who the hell invited your scrawny ass?! ...Come here, you son of a bitch!"
He pulled the shorter man, also laughing, into a bear hug. The yakuza slapped him on the back, hard, a couple of times. He always did that— "I may let you hug me, but I can still kick your ass any day of the week". That was probably the kind of message he was trying to send.
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu had hated Mondo, initially. Peko had always said that it was because they were, quite simply, too similar. They'd nearly come to blows every time they passed one another in the halls. But then Peko and Kiyotaka had met in a kendo class and become good friends, forcing the two to swallow their pride and learn to tolerate one another. Once that was out of the way, they'd realized they had a great deal in common and developed a fast friendship of their own.
It was funny, really. Mondo always seemed to start out hating the people who would become the most important figures in his life. He'd punched Naegi in the face the second time they crossed paths. He'd called Kirigiri a know-it-all bitch once. He'd thrown Leon through a window (it was the first floor and he was fine, alright?), told Chihiro to toughen up. Most striking of all, he'd hated Kiyotaka once. Now, he couldn't imagine a life without any of those people. And Fuyuhiko was included in this. His brotherhood meant more to him than he felt he could possibly express, and he'd missed having him around the school an awful lot.
But that didn't matter. He was here now, casually strolling through his home.
"Didja hear the wind out there? Came outta nowhere. It's fuckin' crazy. I thought I was a goner for a minute there," Fuyuhiko rambled as he reached the kitchen. Naegi was the only one surprised to see him. After giving the luckster a nod, Fuyuhiko turned to Mondo and smirked. "What, not gonna offer me any food? Is that how it is?"
"Take whatever you want, man," Mondo laughed. "What the hell have you been up to lately?"
Fuyuhiko chewed on a cookie before responding. He'd always had a very demanding sweet tooth.
"Well, my old man is fixin' to retire soon. I've been learning the ins and outs of the business. Peko's been brushing up on her swordsmanship, too. ...Not that she really has anything to learn, but you know how she is."
Kazuichi shuddered. Fuyuhiko talked about his "family business" so casually that anyone listening would think he was talking about a hardware store, and not about the largest organized criminal syndicate in the country.
The group of six spent about ten minutes catching up and reminiscing about old times before Kazuichi suggested getting started. He'd set his tools down on the coffee table and the living room floor rather than putting them in the garage, so Mondo and the others helped him pick everything up. Kazuichi was so eager to get started that he threw his armful of things down rather quickly and moved to look over the bike (after removing the dust-cloth that Mondo had thrown over it).
"Not bad!" Kazuichi whistled. "This is a pretty sweet ride you've got!" He knelt down beside the bike and started inspecting the sides of it, and the others slowly set down their tools and supplies and moved around the garage in search of seating. Mondo snorted.
"I'm in charge of a biker gang. What were you expecting?!"
Kazuichi only shrugged, indicating that he hadn't meant much by the comment.
"Aren't Kawasaki bikes a little hard to handle, though?" he thought aloud. Mondo flashed a proud grin.
"Not for me, they're not."
Naegi chuckled and rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.
"Let's see what we've got here," the mechanic mumbled to himself. He was quickly lost in thought as he tinkered around. Even Mondo, the owner of said bike, couldn't quite tell what he was doing, but Hope's Peak didn't hand out Ultimate titles for nothing.
In the meantime, Mondo glanced up, curious as to what the others were doing. Naegi had brought in the snack platters and set them on an empty little work table, and Hagakure lounged in a folding lawn chair and yawned. Leon was in the process of setting up a second chair for himself. Fuyuhiko, for some reason, was glaring at the garage door.
"You alright over there?" Mondo asked. Fuyuhiko scoffed and pointed at the door with his thumb.
"And exactly how the fuck am I supposed to keep watch?!"
Mondo stared, trying to figure out what he was talking about. And then it hit him. Fuyuhiko, on account of his stature, couldn't see through the garage door's windows. He tried not to laugh— he didn't have any intention of dying before reaching his anniversary.
"Here," Naegi said with too much forced enthusiasm, "use this!" He pushed an empty wooden crate in Fuyhiko's direction. The blonde frowned as he studied it, and then he shrugged and flipped it over. It made an adequate stool and allowed him to see the street.
"...I was expecting this place to be dusty," Fuyuhiko grumbled. "It's why I didn't wear one of my suits."
"Most people just use their garages for storage. I spend a lot of time in here, so I keep it clean. ...I was tellin' Makoto earlier that I fix cars and shit for extra money. If it's working well enough, I have 'em pull it in here. It's also where my gang members bring their bikes if we're gonna hang out, or if we need to lay low for a while."
Naegi raised an eyebrow at Mondo at the mention of "laying low". Mondo only winked.
Another minute passed, and Kazuichi was ready to begin working. Mondo stood and moved to help him with whatever he needed. He was excited to implement the changes and could only hope his friends wouldn't get too bored waiting until it was done.
----------------
"...Okay, I think she's gone. She freaked out when she saw me."
As expected, Asahina had appeared and tried to sneak a glance inside the house. Fuyuhiko had glared at her through the window and punched the garage door. It seemed to have scared her off.
"Where'd she hear about it, anyway?" Mondo wondered aloud. Kazuichi was suspiciously quiet. He'd always been terrible at keeping secrets.
"By the way, Naegi, thanks for securing the funding!" Kazuichi said loudly, as if to distract from the subject. Naegi laughed and shrugged awkwardly, his half-eaten sandwich still in his hands.
"Yeah, well, I'll probably end up being Byakuya-kun's slave for a thousand years at this rate. He's always reminding me that I owe him favors, but then he'll make some snide remark about how I probably can't do anything useful for him."
"Togami is... Togami," Mondo sighed.
Kazuichi and Mondo had been working together on the bike for about an hour. Mondo had run out of proper snacks, so Naegi had gone back inside to make sandwiches. At the moment, Mondo was carefully holding the fancy new backseat in place as Kazuichi fastened it in. The sidecar was the next order of business, and Mondo had a guy (one of his gang members) coming over later to help with the paint job.
While everyone waited and worked, Leon and Kazuichi explained how they became such good friends. Fuyuhiko and Mondo joked around about their criminal rivalry. Hagakure teased Naegi about his obvious crush on Kirigiri, and then he tried to offer Fuyuhiko a fortune-telling discount. Fuyuhiko retaliated by suggesting that he instead give him the eight million dollars he owed his younger sister— "trust me," he said, "you're better off dealing with me than with her."
Mondo wouldn't drop the subject of the Ultimate Detective so easily.
"Really, though— why haven't you asked her out? If I managed to fess up, I don't see why you can't," he prodded. Naegi fidgeted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning.
"It's just complicated, okay? I can't read her, so I don't know what she would say. Sometimes I think that she likes me, and other times... I don't know."
"Maybe Taka and I should repay everything you've done for us and set the two of you up," Mondo laughed. Leon scoffed.
"Yeah, right. You can't out-Kirigiri Kirigiri. She'd guess your every move!"
Mondo frowned.
"That's... Probably true."
"You and Ishimaru," Fuyuhiko said quietly. "You know, I always thought something was kind of fishy there, but I didn't wanna throw around accusations. Wish I could have been involved in the whole thing. Peko does, too."
"It was your senior year!" Naegi said defensively. "We didn't want to drag you guys into things, since we figured you'd all be really busy preparing for all your big exams."
Naegi didn't go into more detail about those exams— midterms and finals, at Hope's Peak, usually involved proving that the student had improved upon their special talent. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know how the Ultimate Yakuza's final exams had gone.
"That, and it was a pretty personal inter-classmate kinda situation," Mondo added. "The people who got involved were the ones we both spent the most time with every day. We didn't mean to leave you guys out, and it's nothing personal."
"I'm not mad," Fuyuhiko clarified. "I just wish I coulda seen the dumb look on your face when he said 'yes'."
He flashed a cheeky grin. Mondo snickered and told him to go to hell. A moment, and then Fuyuhiko wandered closer, suddenly looking very solemn.
"A year already... So, uh, how serious would you say you are about this?"
Mondo blinked incredulously before he laughed.
"I wouldn't have stuck by him all this time if I wasn't serious, would I?"
"I know that, I just meant... I mean, where are you two headed? Are you planning to walk down the aisle eventually?"
Mondo's smile vanished.
"I... I would like to, Fuyuhiko, but I can't. It's illegal, remember?"
"...Oh. I guess it is."
Fuyuhiko clearly felt bad about asking. Leon puffed a heavy breath out through his nose.
"I'd never really thought about it all that seriously before, but it's kinda messed up, huh? I could marry some chick I meet on the sidewalk tomorrow if I wanted, but you guys can't get married... That's fucked."
Mondo shrugged, but didn't comment on it any further. It seemed like a dark cloud had formed over his head that had dampened his mood. It must have been a sore subject for him.
"There are other ways, though," Fuyuhiko murmured, so quietly that Naegi could barely hear him. Mondo squinted at him.
"What's that?"
"That... It... It's nothing." Fuyuhiko hid his face. He seemed to be thinking very deeply on something. Maybe he and Mondo could address it, privately, at a later time.
Surprisingly, it was Kazuichi who managed to lighten the mood once more.
"Somebody's asking an awful lot of serious relationship questions," he said mockingly. "Thinking about something or someone in particular?"
"The fuck did you—" Fuyuhiko took a moment to recover, and then he turned into his usual yakuza self, glare and all. "Can I interest you in a pair of custom concrete shoes?!"
Fuyuhiko's blush rendered the threat ineffective, so everyone laughed at his expense instead.
"Y'know... This has been fun," Hagakure chuckled. "We should totally have a big class reunion. Classes 77 and 78, together again!"
"Really?!" Kazuichi couldn't help but giggle at the suggestion. "I'm surprised you guys would miss us, considering all the trouble we caused!"
"Not to mention the property damage," Fuyuhiko grumbled, having been successfully distracted.
"Well, I don't miss Hanamura-san's weird sexual comments," Naegi said through a shudder, "but I do miss other stuff, like Koizumi-san's amazing photographs of every school event, and Nidai-san's great encouragement, or Tsumiki-san being able to help whenever someone got hurt... I even sort of miss Saionji-san's insults. The school feels kind of quiet without your class."
Everyone hummed or nodded in agreement. Mondo smiled wistfully.
"You know who I miss? Fuckin' Gundham. I mean, yeah, he's weird, but that guy is a riot. Never a dull moment with him around."
"Yeah, but he might be too busy for any reunions," Kazuichi mused as he finished securing the last of the screws and gave the chair a testing shove. "Last time we talked at length, he said he was heading to Novoselic for a couple of weeks."
"Novoselic?" Fuyuhiko's eyebrows shot up. "Is he visiting a certain princess?"
"Well, there's that, too, but he said it was to help with some kinda animal rights thing Miss Sonia wants to start. Those Makango things aren't treated very well. ...I'm still not really sure what they are."
"Dude, I have tried to find out," Mondo groaned. "They don't show up on google. I feel like she might have been fucking with us. I mean, how would we know?!"
Naegi leaned back in his chair, looking very relaxed and at peace.
"I think that's nice," he said. "Class 77 is really living up to its potential."
"Yeah," Fuyuhiko agreed through an embarrassed laugh. "I'd like to think we are."
Setting up and securing the sidecar, along with testing the removal and re-attachment mechanism, took another few hours, if not longer. Leon fell asleep in his chair while the others continued chatting and telling jokes. Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko were practically interrogated, as Naegi and Mondo wanted to know everything about what Class 77 was up to. The sun has started to set by the time everything was done.
Mondo assured his friends not to worry about throwing away their plates, promising that he would clean up the mess himself. Kazuichi attempted to hand over the rest of the money after he woke Leon.
"It's not even mine," Mondo said, pushing the wad away. "Makoto's the one who got it for me."
Kazuichi looked curiously at Naegi, who shrugged as he offered up a friendly smile.
"Keep it," he insisted. "Byakuya-kun isn't going to miss it."
"Don't mind if I do!" Kazuichi shoved the cash back into his pocket.
Mondo bid each man a fond farewell, hugging some and shaking hands with or high-fiving others, and after a short while, he was alone in the now dim garage. He turned on the overhead light. It would only be about twenty minutes before his gang member arrived to help him paint the new sidecar to match the bike.
He grinned. He could hardly wait.
This plan was already turning out even better than he had expected.