𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 † tokrev

✧𝐕

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The ringing sound of the doorbell disrupted the peace inside Washi's apartment on a blissful weekend and confused him, since visitors was a very rare occasion for him. The other collegians would ring him up first if they came over and he had no such memory of it.

Hastily opening the door to interrupt the second wave of dissatisfying ringing, he was met with the sight of the two teenagers for whom he cooked a meal a week ago. He completely pushed their unwanted encounter to the back of his mind, hoping everything had been just a bad dream—another one in his boundless compilation of nightmares—but life didn't favour his as always. Sometimes he had the feeling that he was despised by it like Creon scorned Polyneices, when counting all the many terrible events he had undergone.

"'Sup, aniki. We told the others of our accidental meeting and Baji immediately asked us for your address. Apparently, he came by your place recently, but no one answered," Draken recounted with Mikey absently staring holes in the air behind him, "So, we came up with the idea to have you and the others finally get to know each other. Are you by any chance free today?"

Luckily, my fellow students invited me to go clubbing last time. But I should have moved away right afterwards. Now I have to suffer the consequences of my own naivety.

Scratching his neck with an uncertain smile he replied, "I'm not so sure about meeting up with your friends." I never did so in the past, so why should that change now? What absurd matter has befallen you to suddenly come up with this terrible idea?

However, to his dismay the shorter blond didn't give two shits about his opinion and grabbed his hand, dragging him forcefully out of his cozy home. His indecent actions of course irked Draken in many ways, but he knew his helplessness the very moment his friend had decided something and could only tag along, apologizing to the brunet for having his freedom being disregarded. Washi could only chuckle in nervousness and waved it off, consoling him that he was bored out of his mind anyways. Lying with a straight face was a great talent of his.

Being forced on the Sano's bike again, the three drove off with Musashi Shrine as their destination.

ılı.lıllılı.ıllı

This is so ridiculous, I cannot even find the will to laughen. It appears to mine eyes that everyone and everything is mocking mine very beeing.

Climbing up the stairs, they arrived and Washi was met with the familiar sight of a fanged grin, recognizing Baji with this particular trait. The latter saw his unique feature as well and eagerly ran up to him, practically knocking him down when he jumped at him like an excited dog seeing its owner after a long day. Everyone could see how much he had missed the older.

"Oi Baji! Don't jump at him like a fucking wild animal! He almost fell down, you dimwit!" Draken scolded him, gritting his teeth in irritation, since he was already done with Mikey's shit and didn't want to deal with his as well.

Offended by the insult and accusation he defended himself, "Shut up you traitorous asshole! You already got your chance to spend time with him, while I didn't!"

Their verbal exchange escalated to a physical one, which saved the brunet from Baji's arms. Though he wasn't given the privilege to sigh in relief, cause Toman's leader pulled him in the direction of the two bystanders, who had yet to mutter a word.

Ignoring the clash of punches behind him, Mikey introduced them to each other, "Guys, that's Me-chin, Shinichirou's best friend who suddenly disappeared two years ago. Me-chin, those are Mitsuya and Pah-chin, the other founding members of Toman."

"Just call me Washi," he added with a bland smile, being considerate towards their inner panic when he hadn't been presented by his full name.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Washi-san. We've heard a lot about you from the three," the silver-lilac-haired boy began, nodding in the direction of the mentioned people as Mikey had joined his childhood friends to have the others make the acquaintance.

Surprise was evident on his usual reserved expression, not having expected this information. The thought of them recalling him despite his disaffection and cowardice disgraced him so much. He felt as if he had been stabbed by a dagger and would die in derision like the Roman general and statesman Caesar. Both were leading and relevant figures in their corresponding world and died tragically, literally or metaphorically. Though they lived on in the history and the memories and a resurrection was not that improbable to happen.

"Yeah, they always gushed about you like some damn school girls that it got annoying," Pah-chin agreed with his friend, exaggerating his point, "so I'm pretty sure they're happy that you're back. Took you long enough, dammit."

Apparently not long enow, since their thoughts still swirled back to the vanquished and their yearning remained.

Remarking the small number of people present, he accidentally voiced his confusion out loud, unintentionally gaining the attention of one of the fighters, "I thought there are five divisions..."

"Today was a spontaneous idea, so they couldn't come, but they agreed for another time," Draken informed him while dodging Baji's axe kick, which made the black-haired boy just attack more aggressively, pissed at his failed aim.

Sweatdropping at the combat, Washi thought back to his accidentally spilled words, actually not wanting to ever meet them. But it was too late to take them back, so he abandoned himself to fate like he did the previous week and the past years.

Sooner or later the teenagers grew bored of just chatting and watching the fight, so when the beat Baji regained his energy he suggested to go to Tokyu Food Show near the Shibuya station. No complaints about the idea were uttered, so it was decided. On their way they agreed to waste Pah-chin's money for their entertainment, since his parents were successful business owners and tended to spoil him sometimes to their luck.

However, the only adult decided to interfere and proposed to pay for them instead of exploiting the poor parents, because the boy will get in trouble if that happened too many times.

"It's really fine guys, I swear," he tried convincing them, having some of them shouting in rejection and the other straight up declining his offer, "Allow me to apologize in this way."

His reason of action seemed to have shut them up and look towards their reliable leader, anticipating his response to the abrupt revelation. Reading his emotions was proven to be an impossible task as always with his blank expression and dark eyes, hiding any sort of sentiment deep behind the mask he ignorantly or willingly wore on a daily basis. No one could tell how he felt at the moment with the spiralling abyss in his dark orbs. At times not even he himself knew, always forgetting his desire in the course of action and in the presence of the others, since people dear to his heart were the highest priority from his point of view. Yet he knew someone—or rather something was inside him, slowly but surely clawing its way out of the hole he had pushed it inside and buried alive or dead—he didn't know which one and wished to not know.

Yet there was one sole exception.

It was as if Moirai knotted their black threads of destiny tightly together, coveting their encounter and their sickening similarities. The brunet was the only one able to read past his mask, but he only saw a reflection of his younger self, one of the many reasons for his escape.

Birds of a feather flock together, huh? Curse Ananke for this. Burn her with her own torch to crisps until nothing remains of her not even ashes.

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Fun fact:
Washi isn't exactly the only one who can read Mikey like a book, Shinichirou could as well (I'm assuming that, it's not proven canonically correct). On the other hand, the younger one couldn't read him, only his present-self started to understand certain actions and expressions the brunet did back then, but he caught up on his intention far too late. In Washi's case two to three people were able to figure him out to some extent, one of them being Shinichirou, but unfortunately they all had already passed away before 2005 could arrive.

[1442 words]