affinity. takashi mitsuya.

THREE

july 4th, 2005

the sound of the door slamming made hitoka flinch and wake up from her sleep. disoriented, she realized it was her father who made an appearance. she didn't know why. when he did come home, it was always during the late afternoon hours. if he came back this early, it must have been bad.

kai angrily stomped up the stairs to his daughter's room after getting a call from school that she was absent that day.

feeling hazy with sleep, hitoka hasn't realized what was going on at that moment. sleepiness soon disappeared as her father forcefully opened the door of her room. tangling his fist in her hair he pulled her out of the bed and made her kneel on the floor. kai sharply slapped her, and she fell from the force, hitting her elbow. that is going to bruise, she thought.

before she knew it, hitoka was a defenseless little girl again at the mercy of her father. her eyes soon filled with tears, and she felt fluid leaking from her eyes and her nose.

"is this how you thank me? by skipping school? i provide for you! if i hear you were hanging out with that lowlife hanagaki again, i will not be this polite next time? do you understand me?" just like that, as soon as he appeared, he was gone.

hitoka was left sitting on the floor with a few drops of smudged blood on her hands and shirt. adrenaline was slowly wearing off, and she began to feel the pain her father graced her with.

the pain was familiar to her. she wished takashi was there. he was the only person who could help her relieve it.

she felt a little dizzy when she got up and went to the bathroom to clean herself up. pinching her nose and leaning her head forward, she stared at her messy reflection in the mirror, tears gathering in her eyes again.

not long after she stopped the bleeding, hitoka let out a sigh of relief, "it's over hitoka, snap out of it," she told herself lightly slapping her other, not swollen, cheek closing her eyes and taking in the silence.

-

"hitoka-senpai!" takemichi yelled after knocking repeatedly on her door. hitoka recognized the voice and slowly dragged herself out of her bed.

he knew about her home situation, but hitoka made him swear to never tell anyone.

"coming!" she yelled to stop his attack on her front door. as soon as she opened the door, she started, "michi-kun, didn't you see my message-" she was cut off by takemichi slamming into her arms and hugging her tightly.

sighing, she realized what this meant. he had gotten into another fight. as per usual, he came to her house right after so he could cry in her arms and so she could fix him.

"what happened, michi-kun? this isn't like you," his breath hitched for a second, scared that he already got busted by hitoka, an older sister figure who knew him better than anyone else.

little did she know, getting beaten wasn't the only reason he was crying.

"don't just stand there. come in! i was about to make some lunch."

takemichi calmed down a bit after getting taken care of by hitoka. he saw a few drops of blood on her shirt and got worried, feeling sorry that he hadn't noticed it sooner. hitoka wasn't blaming him. he was distressed after all.

"did your father-" takemichi started but got interrupted by hitoka, who didn't feel liek talking about him, "don't worry about it, tell me what happened to you instead?"

hitoka flashed him a comforting smile, one that always made him feel like everything was going to be okay.

-

nine-year-old hitoka was sitting on her favorite swing, trying to stall going home as much as possible. at eight years old, she was in her third year of elementary school. not long ago, they moved to another town, leaving their old life behind. hitoka still had no friends, and she planned to keep it that way.

just as she was about to stand up, two boys around her age tackled each other. she gave them a stink eye, but they didn't notice it, too busy fighting each other. the piss-haired one was obviously losing.

even though it wasn't her battle to fight, hitoka knew firsthand what it was like to experience a beating. thus, she made it her rule to stop something like that from happening to someone else whenever she could.

she decided to step in to try and save the little sanity the smaller boy had left. hitoka stood with her hands on her hips, straightening her back so she would appear taller.

"hey!" she said, but they all barely heard her over the shouting and whining that left the boy's mouth. hitoka pinched herself between her eyebrows and gave an exaggerated sigh. she regretted not staying out of it.

raising her voice this time, all the boys' heads snapped in her direction. "stop it already! i don't know why your little brains are fighting over this time, but i advise you to go before i call my father!"

that was a lie. she would never call her father. but if she wanted to chase the boy off, hitoka had to pull out the authority figure card.

the boy who was winning earlier looked at her, not very intimidated by her but he still decided to go before she really called someone. hitoka stared him dead in the eye as he passed by her, ramming his shoulder into hers on purpose.

"bitch." he whispered under his breath, but she stood her ground and let out a small laugh. "yeah, go cry me a river."

hitoka turned to look at the boy, only to see him staring at her with tears in his eyes.

she eyed him up and down, seeing some bruises already forming on his face and arms. she realized that there were no serious injuries other than a busted lip and a few minor cuts, "go home and put some ice on that, you'll live. and stay out of trouble because i won't be here to save your ass next time," his eyes widened at her foul language, but he nodded nonetheless.

she turned to leave before he stopped her. "what's your name?"

with one last look over her shoulder before leaving, she muttered a few words. "name's hitoka, hitoka-senpai to you. that's all you need to know."

and then she was gone.

author's note – august 5th 

it took me so long to write this, i don't know why. here is a little backstory. even though hitoka is cold at first, she has the charisma that people are attracted to. this is going to be important in the development of her other relationships. i somehow see her as someone naturally wary of men because of her father. she is much more relaxed around females.