-after sleeping on the streets for the past few months, y/n's
brother appears out of nowhere with a strange proposal. he
offers to give her a place to live and food to eat in exchange
for her to infiltrate an opposing gang under the disguise of
ichi...
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chapter five: the swim
It has now been about six weeks since you joined Toman. The weather has started to get a bit cooler but that doesn't prevent your division leaders to throw an end-of-the-month party for the whole gang at some empty park in the middle of the night. Although it may sound a bit weird, and it did to you at first, you have quite a lot of fun and enjoy yourself thoroughly.
You spend most of your time with Takemichi and Chifuyu as you typically do, talking about whatever random crap floats your way. A few beers land in your hand as well and that's all you need to loosen you up to all the laughter and excitement that fills the otherwise quiet park.
Despite all of that, you eventually find yourself in a moment where nobody is surrounding you. But near the lake by a tree you see Baji sitting by himself, so you decide to walk over with the extra beer in your hand you hadn't opened.
As you approach him, you tap the beer against his shoulder lightly. "Hey," he greets you as you sit down beside him, "Thanks."
"Would you mind some company?" you ask before getting yourself comfortable with your back against the tree.
"Not at all."
The two of you sit together for some time, enjoying the bit of silence away from the party nearby. You realize in these past few weeks you've gotten to know your new friends well, but still not nearly enough as they know each other.
"How long have you known the other guys?" you ask him amid the silence.
He smiles softly at your question. "Pretty much my whole life," he admits. "And they've saved my ass more times than I could mention. Don't think I'd be alive right now if your division captain wasn't around."
"Even though I've only known them for a few weeks, I can tell they're all good people. It's not hard to tell you care about each other," you relate.
"That they are," he hums. "And the best part of 'em is that we know pretty much everything about each other and hold no grudges or anything... as best as we can, of course. There have been times when things have gotten out of hand but that's just life, I guess."
You look away from Baji, a bit ashamed since you've been lying to them for so long, but what are you supposed to do? If you tell them the truth you'll just end up being some homeless girl again but this time with a whole gang of people hating your guts.
You open your mouth to continue the conversation before it gets too obvious that you're feeling guilty about something, but Chifuyu runs up calling your fake name before you can speak.
"Baji! Ichiro!" he calls out, stopping just before the two of you and the large tree, grinning brightly. "We're all going swimming in the lake. You guys have got to join!"
"Yeah, right," you chuckle. "With what? We've got no spare clothes."
Baji pats your back quite roughly to your surprise. "We're all guys here, Ichiro. We won't judge you if your fighting skills are compensating for something else," he laughs heartily.
Chifuyu then reaches out his hand to Baji and helps him up. When they both run away, you're left absolutely stunned by what's just happened. Slowly, you get up from your spot under the tree and make your way towards the late.
What am I supposed to do? They can't see me and I sure as hell don't want to be around all of them like that!
But luckily, not too far away you find Chifuyu who's about to strip down. You rush over to him and quickly grab him by the arm just in time before he drops his pants.
"Hey, uh, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not feeling too well and I'm going to go home," you lie straight to his face.
"You are? Are you alright?" he asks with concern clear in his voice.
"Mhm, I'm fine," you nod. However, just as you begin to back away from him, you feel a large presence loom from right behind you.
"What's going on here?" you hear Draken's deep voice once more begin to inquire.
You slowly turn around to face him and see that he's got nothing on above his waist. You don't even dare to look further down from his absolutely ripped torso in fear that you might just drop dead if you do. Six weeks with him and you've managed to keep a low profile but that doesn't mean you haven't been eyeing him up every chance you get.
"Ichiro said he isn't feeling good and he's going home," Chifuyu explains for you. However, your eyes don't leave Draken's as he continues to stare you down.
"Can you swim?" he then scoffs.
"Yes," you retort, not in the mood for his attitude. "Obviously I can swim. I'm just not feeling well and I think it'd be better for everyone if I went home."
"Did you go to your family's swim school back in Okayama?" he smirks, teasing you as he so obnoxiously always does.
"No, not quite," you smile fakely back, having more than enough of his interrogation. "I've had a bit too much to drink and I'm going home to sleep it off before I have a killer of a hangover in the morning now if you'll excuse me I'll be leaving now."
And with that, you quickly walk away from them. However, as your back is turned you aren't able to see the worried look on Chifuyu's face nor the confused expression written all over Draken's.
