Lying is a Sin, A Sin Hanagaki Takemichi Commits Too Often

Undirected Betrayal

June 25th, 2017

His hands were buried deep within his jacket pockets, the right one clutching onto the custom necklace Mikey had made for Takemichi. Hina returned with a distraught Naoto by her side not too long ago, everyone had now moved to different rooms in the villa to process the situation while Kazutora was alone with Takemichi in the living room trying to bring him back to reality.

"I always had a feeling," Mitsuya muttered into the silence. Several heads turned in his direction, everyone was tired and trying to sober up but it had caught everyone's attention.

"About-"

"The abuse," he cut Nahoya off. "But I was never sure, so I kept quiet about it. I'm an idiot."

"There's nothing you could have done Taka-chan," Hakkai reassured.

"He's right Mitsuya, there's nothing a bunch of teenagers could have done," Draken added.

"But Kazutora could help?" Mikey questioned, he just didn't get it. How could someone as mentally unstable as Kazutora Hanemiya help someone? Don't get him wrong, Kazutora was a good friend of his, always had been par the times he didn't talk to him when he nearly lashed out at Baji and Shinichiro during his less controlled state, but he wasn't going to deny his issues.

"Most of us who knew him earlier knew Kazutora was being abused, physically by his father and emotionally by his mother," Baji started, "he probably was able to pick up on the signs that we couldn't since he had experienced stuff like that first hand."

"Exactly, and we couldn't do anything to help Kazutora either other than be good friends," Pah-chin said.

"Some people just shouldn't be parents," Takeomi murmured, pushing some stray hairs out of his face. Senju glanced at him quickly and her grip on Yuzuha's hand tightened subconsciously.

"Uh yeah, not everyone has a picture perfect upbringing, but there is nothing we can do now either. We're all adults who are in control of our lives. Takemichi is in control of his life, okay? He isn't being hurt anymore," Senju explained.

Several people in the room tensed, exchanging secret glances. The other occupants of the room were still too intoxicated to notice, but Shinichiro did. He knew something was up, from Takemichi's secrecy and the constant hushed whispers between Hina and Naoto. He knew they knew something. And from the looks of it, Emma too. But what could it be? What could be the thing to prevent Takemichi having a relationship with Mikey and always looking like he was about to collapse?

.

Kakucho knew that Izana didn't like many people. It took a very long time for someone to earn his trust and respect, much more for Izana to actually take a liking to them. Izana had always been indifferent towards Takemichi, not particularly liking him but neither disliking him. However, since Emma and Hina's wedding, being an absolute success with the cake Takemichi made, Izana had become quite concerned about him. There had been multiple times since the wedding that he had remarked to him that he was worried about Takemichi because of his sickly appearance. Kakucho cared for Takemichi very much, obviously, but it still felt strange to see Izana so worked up over finding out about Takemichi being abused when he was younger since he never really knew him too well. Kakucho personally was beating himself up, he knows he shouldn't, because he wasn't there for the vast majority of Takemichi's childhood, but he can't but still wonder about the times Takemichi would come to school covered in bandages and bruises and would just say it was due to fights with older kids. The two were in the kitchen and Izana kept muttering under his breath.

"Izana-"

"Bloody hate child abusers. So many of the kids back in the orphanage had shitty parents like that. Hate those bastards, adults hitting kids, fucking cowards."