The Tiger And A Thousand Winters in That Place

Tiger

Inhale. Exhale. Take deep breaths. Keep thinking, don't ever stop. Because if you do, that weak coward inside of you will take over.

'What's two scrawny kids doing inside our turf?' The high schooler sneered with an arrogant smirk, pushing his face close to mine. 'Lost your way to kindergarten?'

'Looks like someone missed their plastic surgery appointment.' I scoffed straight back, lips curling into a small sneer. 'What, they couldn't fix your resting bitch face?'

With an angry, slow roar, a fist hurtled towards my face, threatening to break my nose and offset the bone.

I had about a split second to regret provoking the guy before Kazutora surged forward, a blank look in his eyes. His fists trembled with dreams of violence. Oh dear. There went my plans of eating at the restaurant across the street.

Then I was moving, leg curling up to smash straight into the delinquent's head - a move I had bribed Mikey to teach me with dorayaki made at a renowned traditional sweets shop.  Kazutora followed up by tackling the guy into the ground, delighted laughter ringing out.

One down. I took a deep breath, using my momentum to slam my foot into the delinquent's stomach. Two more to go.

I shook my short hair out of my face, breathless with excitement. My blood hummed under my skin as Kazutora and my eyes met for a split second, identical grins on our features. There really was nothing that got my blood pumping as much as a fight did.

I turned , giving the remaining two guys a quick look over. One of the delinquents had a bat - that wasn't fair. I dashed forwards, kicking the metal out of the male's hands before I shoved him roughly against the wall.

Before I could take care of the last guy, Kazutora had moved, grabbing fistfuls of the remaining guy's hair as he yanked full force with a psychotic smile.

'Do we still look like kids to you?' I asked the guy I was holding by the neck against the wall.

'Fuck you.' The guy gasped out, somehow finding the strength to flip the bird. I liked this guy. He had spirit.

My hand clenched harder around his neck, resulting in a pained cry. With another quick kick, he was down on the curb.

I dusted off my hands, wiping the blood on my shoes off at the nearest patch of grass.

'Let's go before the cops come.' Kazutora offered me a pleasant grin after he peeked around the corners to make sure the coast was clear.

'What's the point? I yawned audibly, walking over to our parked bike. Kazutora shoved me aside to walk ahead. Prick. 'They never catch us anyways.'

'Not if you keep dawdling like that.' Kazutora hauled himself on and started up the engine, flashing me what he must've thought was a charming smirk.

'Yeah, yeah.' I got on after Kazutora, corners of my mouth tilting up when Kazutora pressed our lips together messily. Our teeth clacked against each other painfully, as I'd predicted, forcing Kazutora to pull away with a mild grimace.

'Where are we going again?' I yawned audibly as I slumped on top of the other male, sleepy now that the adrenaline was fading.

'Kim's Udon Kitchen.' Kazutora stared at me like I was dumb. 'Didn't you say you wanted to try their latest bucket challenge?'

'Not after fighting right next to it, dumbass.' I scowled, slowly hearing the faint wail of sirens. That was faster than usual. 'I don't wanna eat with cops asking round. Let's just go home. You up for takoyaki?'

'Fine by me.' Kazutora shrugged, tossing me a helmet and grinning when I complained that I wasn't a pussy. With a soft purr of the engine and a deafening noise, Kazutora took off, speeding past all the red lights he could find. I held on for dear life, but laughed without abandon when Kazutora cut in front of a particularly fancy car. The driver stuck his head out and yelled, but we were already gone.