Heihachi looked up at the sky. It was starting to get dark.
I should go and apologize, he thought to himself.
Picking up his courage, he got to his feet and made his way back to Hatsu's apartment. He knocked once but this time, no one answered.
There was no light coming from under the door.
Apparently, Hatsu had gone out.
But nothing could break the dark-haired boy's resolution this time. He was going to apologize to the blond male and declare his feelings to him no matter what.
Sitting there in the corridor, he waited for Hatsu to come back home. After an hour, he couldn't remain into place anymore and decided to wait for him downstairs, at the entrance of the building, in the open.
Another hour passed by and he was beginning to grow desperate to see the older male when, at last, the latter showed up.
Hatsu went still at his sight, his eyes widening at the younger boy. Heihachi noticed that the blond was wearing the same clothes in which, he had seen him for the very first time in Kagami Gushiken's office.
'I'm really sorry for earlier,' apologized Heihachi, with fervor. 'Forgive me! I shouldn't have said that. I know very well that you haven't abused of me. We were both consensual. I wasn't that drunk and besides, you neither. I remember every moment of it.'
He blushed at the memory, averting his eyes.
'If I told you all those things earlier,' he added, more slowly, then. 'It's because...' Heihachi felt his courage begin to waver. 'It's because...'
'Because of what?' Hatsu asked, his eyes full of emotions, as he drew up to the dark-haired boy and grabbed the latter's forearm, as though, he feared that the boy would transform himself into a bat and fly away.
'Because I like you a lot and I fear that, for you, I only represent a one night stand!' declared Heihachi, having closed his eyes.
He didn't dare to open them to see Hatsu's expression.
'I like you too.'
At this, Heihachi's eyes blew open and he stared at the blond, unable to believe his ears.
'I don't want your pity!' he mumbled, turning his face away.
'It's not pity! How can you say such a thing?! Heihachi, I really do like you a lot! I would never have slept with you if I didn't like you!'
The dark-haired boy's heart skipped a beat at these words and looking back at the blond, he found the latter gazing at him fondly.
'Will you be my boyfriend, Heihachi?' Hatsu asked, with a gentle smile.
Blushing madly, Heihachi nodded.
Hatsu cupped the side of the shorter boy's face and he sealed their lips in a kiss.
A while later, the two boys were cuddled up together in bed, Heihachi's head resting onto Hatsu's left arm.
They were both lying bare-chest, with the blanket covering them up to the waist.
Intertwining their fingers together, and lifting Hatsu's right forearm slightly, Heihachi trailed his forefinger over the healed wound at the blond male's wrist.
'This scar...' he whispered. 'It was when one of Kokkuri-san's canids bit you, I remember...'
'It's on that day that you began to see Shun as your family, isn't it?' murmured Hatsu.
'Yes. No one had ever tried to protect me before her. For me, she's like a sister, you know.'
'Say, Heihachi,' said Hatsu, hesitantly, 'You've never told me about your parents. I don't even know your family name. You... don't have one?'
His last words had come out strained.
Heihachi lowered their hands onto the blond's abdomen, his expression filled with sorrow.
Hatsu's stomach clenched. He preferred it when the younger boy looked happy.
'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have questioned you like I did. We'll talk about it only when you're ready.'
Heihachi glanced up at him, giving him a grateful smile for being so understanding with him.
'Does it still hurt you?' he asked, raising Hatsu's forearm to trail a finger over the healed bite wound again.
'No.'
To Hatsu's surprise, the dark-haired boy kissed the scar. He stared at Heihachi for a few seconds, before he rolled on top of him and pinned the latter's hands onto the bed.
'Don't hold a grudge against me! It's you who started!' he said to the boy and leaned down to kiss him passionately, the two going for another round.
***
The next day...
'I need to do some shopping at the supermarket. Are you coming with me, Shun?'
'Do you really want me to come with you?' I asked Tsunan, a bit surprised. 'I mean, I don't want to encumber you.'
The day had started out with excellent news.
Hatsu had called us earlier in the morning to announce us that Heihachi and he were officially together. And since it was a Sunday, Tsunan had decided that he wasn't going to work for the day.
'Accompany me! I don't like the idea of having you all alone at home in your state.'
'Okay,' I agreed, cheerily, appreciating his concern.
***
On Cho Kururugi, Agasa Tsudzuri and Yanagi Hakushū's side…
The three girls had taken the habit of spending all their free Sundays together in Shiratori neighborhood in the hope of coming across of Tsunan by chance.
And this Sunday also, they were following the same routine but today, it was going to be a little different…
Rounding the corner of a shelf, their eyes fell onto a familiar redhead holding herself there, a small distance away from where they were in the supermarket.
'Look over there! It's Shun Shutsuki!' said Yanagi and instantly, they came back on their steps to hide behind the shelf; even if they didn't understand why they were hiding.
'What is she doing here?' wondered Agasa.
'He-he!' sniggered the Gothic-Lolita, and her two friends looked at her. 'Are you thinking about the same thing as me? She can't see. It's ideal to play pranks on someone in these conditions!'
'Uh, I don't think that it's a good idea,' declared Cho. 'I remind you that Hatsu have us at his mercy!'
'Huh?!' Agasa and Yanagi's faces scrunched up at her. 'You haven't decided to class yourself alongside her because she took you out of that well, have you?!'
The ginger-haired girl cringed away, putting her hands up in front of her nervously. 'What? No! Of course not! It'd be ridiculous!'
If they learnt that she had paid Shun Shutsuki a visit and what she had told the red-haired girl…
'I simply don't want Hatsu to diffuse those humiliating pictures of us!' she added, putting more conviction in her tone.
'We don't risk anything if we don't let ourselves get caught!' encouraged Yanagi.
The three girls took another peek at Shun and this time, their eyes fell onto the person who accompanied her.
Their hearts skipped a beat.
'Tsunan is with her!' they exclaimed all together.
'I'm of Cho's opinion! I don't think that we should do this!' said Agasa. 'She's not alone and with Tsunan around...'
'Don't be dumb!' Yanagi muttered at them. 'Can't you see that this is a golden opportunity to humiliate her one good time in front of Tsunan?! I don't know about you, but by seeing her with Tsunan, I want to do it even more!'
Convinced, Agasa stated, 'Yes, you're right! Shun Shutsuki, you're in for it!'
Cho sighed, giving in reluctantly.
This was how they began to follow Tsunan and Shun out of the supermarket, keeping a good distance away from the two.
'Is it ready?' asked Yanagi.
'Yes,' replied Agasa, having filled balloons with liquid cheese to make "cheese bombs".
She handed one of them to the Gothic-Lolita and a diabolical smile appeared on the latter's face. 'Perfect! With this she's going to stink really bad!'
With the help of a spell, Yanagi propelled the cheese bomb towards Shun but the sound of the red-haired girl's skirl never came, since the balloon found itself pinned by the top, against the wall of a building, with a needle of Tsunan.
The three girl's mouth hanged open. Not only did he stop the balloon, but he did it without breaking it!
Shun Shutsuki didn't seem to realize that anything happened at all and Tsunan made, as if, nothing too, keeping his eyes in the front as they walked.
Yanagi hurled another cheese bomb at the red-haired girl but this one also, found itself pinned to a wall. The Gothic-Lolita continued to hurl many other cheese bombs at her at almost a frenzied speed, but Tsunan prevented all of them from hitting Shun without making them explode.
'Sugoi! He's so agile!' the three girls exclaimed, squirming all excitedly, in full admiration at his prowess for a minute, before they hung their heads, becoming depressed as they remembered that they had lamentably failed in their attempts.
'Let's not despair!' declared Yanagi, as she found her spirit again. 'How many cheese bombs do we have left?'
'None,' replied Cho. 'We're out of stock on cheese and balloons. Do you want me to buy some more?'
'No. What else do we have?'
The ginger-haired girl checked the grocery bag. 'Well, we have eggs...'
'Eggs?! He-he! It's even better! Tsunan will not be able to stop them with his needles!'
Cho swallowed hard at her two friends; they looked almost scary with the expressions they were wearing.
Continuing to follow Tsunan and Shun, Yanagi hurled an egg at Shun's back but Tsunan caught it with his bare-hand before it could hit the red-haired girl. He stopped all the ones that Yanagi continued to hurl at the Shun, and that without breaking any one of them, putting them in his bag.
This time, Shun Shutsuki seemed to realize something.
'What is it?' she asked, having heard the doctor ruffle through one of the bags he was carrying.
'Nothing. I was just checking if we have well put the eggs in a separate bag.'
'Oh.' She smiled, joyously.
'Sugoi!' Agasa, Yanagi and Cho cried out, falling into admiration in front of the doctor's prowess yet again, before they became depressed at their unsuccessful attempt.
Agasa's eyes fell onto a group of children playing close-by at that moment. 'Can you see that?' she asked, an evil glint in her eyes. One of the boys of the group was trying to scare the girls with a fake spider, making them scream.
A minute later, Cho was counting her money, shedding a few tears. It hadn't been easy to convince the little boy to sell his toy to them. The kid had accepted to sell the plastic insect to them only at ten times its normal price.
'It's for the good cause!' Yanagi comforted the ginger-haired girl, patting her head.
The-The good cause… Cho thought, cynically.
'Watch the fun!' giggled the Gothic-Lolita, with a devilish look. 'Usually, girls like her have a real horror of insects. She's going to give herself in spectacle in front of Tsunan!'
With the use of another spell, Yanagi made the plastic spider descend down onto Shun's head. The red-haired girl reached up when she felt something land onto her head but before she could know what it was, Tsunan put his hand down onto her head and it was with Tsunan's hand that her fingers came in contact with.
Cho, Agasa and Yanagi glowed bright red with fury. Tsunan had laid his hand on her head and she was touching him!!!
'Aren't the bags too heavy?' Tsunan asked Shun, as the latter turned her face towards him when he put his hand on her head. 'I could carry yours too.'
'No. It's okay. They're not heavy at all. And it pleases me to be useful,' she told him, grinning cheerfully.
'Alright.'
As he removed his hand off her head, in a stealth move, he removed the fake spider also and slipped it into his pocket.
Shun didn't seem to have noticed anything of what happened to his relief. He absolutely didn't want her to stress herself about anything.
He glanced over his shoulder then, really beginning to wonder who could be behind all of this.
Cho, Agasa and Yanagi backed up against the wall behind which they were hiding, covering their mouths with their hands to keep themselves from making any sound. They didn't dare to move until a few minutes, when they were sure that Tsunan wasn't coming into this direction, having discovered about them.
They continued to skulk the red-haired girl and the doctor, feeling their bloods boil at Shun, who was happily smiling and talking so easily to Tsunan.
'This time, she's in for it!' growled Yanagi, putting on a glove.
'Do you know that you resemble a crazy scientist of an old horror movie all suddenly?!' gibbered Cho.
'Maybe, we're going a bit too far now, don't you think?' said Agasa.
Ignoring her friends' comments, the Gothic-Lolita emptied the small packet of itching powder on the palm of her gloved hand and with a spell, she blew at the powder in direction of a completely oblivious Shun Shutsuki.
Out of the blue, the red-haired girl began to fall forward and Tsunan caught her just in time before she would hit the ground; having crouched down.
Shun's eyes were closed.
'What did you do?' panicked Cho and Agasa. 'She was supposed to scratch, not faint!'
'It never touched her; she collapsed before it could. I missed her! Dammit! It's not possible for someone to have such a luck!'
'Wah! What is he doing?!' shouted Agasa. and the three girls thought that they were going to explode in jealousy as Tsunan picked the sleeping redhead up to carry her piggy-back, having grabbed the bags she had been carrying.
They were only a small distance away from the Hitachiin's family compound now, for Cho, Agasa and Yanagi to attempt anything else, and especially, not without risking that the doctor gets touched alongside Shun Shutsuki by accident.
They followed the two up to the main entrance of the residence, their eyes throwing daggers at the back of the red-haired girl.
'Tsunan?' called Sekien Hitachiin, as he across of his grand-child. He took a glance at the girl he was carrying piggy-back. 'Is she alright?'
'Yes. She's only sleeping,' replied Tsunan.
'Ah, okay.'
'This must be a nightmare! Tsunan's grand-father has asked about her!' moaned Cho, Agasa and Yanagi, crying bitterly.
Unexpectedly, the old man came out of the door, surprising them.
'Hello there!' he greeted them with a crooked smile. 'You're Tsunan's friends, aren't you?'
The three girls froze, going pale.
'He-Hello!' they stammered, before they took to their heels, rushing out of sight.
***
I awakened against the warmth of a body. It was somebody's back. And that intoxicating scent, I could recognize it from a thousand ones. It was Tsunan's smell.
'Tsunan?'
'You fell asleep.'
I flushed up in embarrassment.
'Oh my gosh! I'm really sorry. This narcolepsy is such a pain!'
I became aware of familiar voice nearby then.
'Is it your grand-father's voice that I can here?'
'Yes,' he replied, before he added, 'The members of the clan are more tolerant towards you since the Hangonkō incident.'
'Yes. I've noticed,' I whispered, smiling. It pleased me a lot. I didn't like it when Tsunan was in complete disagreement with his family.
'You can put me down now, you know?' I murmured, blushing.
'We're almost to the house. Let me carry for some more.'
I blushed harder.
***
Later…
'Do you think that the old man realized that we were spying on Tsunan?' asked Agasa, as the girls and she plumped down on the grass by the river in Kuribayashi.
'Yeah. There's a good chance!' said Yanagi.
'Let's just hope that he doesn't make mention of it to Tsunan,' Cho told them.
If it were the case, Tsunan would realize that they were behind all the incidents that had happened during his small trip back with Shun Shutsuki from the supermarket and if it got to Hatsu's ears…
All color drained out of their faces at this, and they felt their heads start to swirl.
'God! It was really a strange day today!' declared the ginger-haired girl, with a sigh.
Strangely, she wasn't as upset as her friends that none of their pranks worked. But she couldn't help but think about the way Tsunan had protected the red-haired girl unbeknownst to the latter.
'I think that I'll get back home now,' she told her friends, then, and saying goodbye to them, she began to head away.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she wasn't paying attention in front of her and her crutch caught into something. She was about to fall right onto her face on the ground when, a pair of hands caught her by her shoulders, steadying her.
She looked up instantly and saw that it was Shirane.
'Pay some attention in front of you! You almost hurt yourself very badly so much you were lost in your thoughts!' he told her, grumpily, giving her a small bump on the head with his fist, before he continued his way.
She caressed her head in a reflex, following him of the eyes, a bit stunned.
Thank you for reading!