A Future Without You is Soon |Mikey x OC|

Chapter Thirty-Four

   Shiho sits on the wall of the small parking area, watching her friends work. "You could help, you know," Draken says.

   "I do," Shiho says. "But I don't wanna!"

   Mikey laughs. "It's okay, Kenchin. We're almost done anyway."

   "Besides, Jirou had wanted to do most of it on his own. I don't know if there would even be a way for me to help," Shiho says. She had helped briefly, and in that brief moment she had managed to get covered in oil. Mikey smothering her definitely didn't help it.

   Mikey sighs. He looks down at the bike and smiles. "I'm beat."

   "I am, too!" Shiho jokes.

   Mikey and Draken chuckle a bit. "Are you done, Kenchin?" Mikey asks.

   "Hold on," Draken says. After another moment, Draken turns and smiles at Mikey. "Try the engine now."

   Mikey walks over to the bike. Shiho stands and takes a few steps to get a better look. Mikey grabs the throttle. The engine roars.

   Mikey smiles brightly and looks up at his friends. "It works!"

   Mikey and Draken high five, then Shiho and Draken, then Shiho and Mikey.

   "Hell yeah!" Draken says.

   "Okay, I'll call him now!" Mikey says.

Mikey steps down the sidewalk and pulls out his phone. "Yo, Chifuyu! Do you mind bringing Takemicchi over here?"

Mikey pauses for a moment and listens to Chifuyu. Shiho turns away and looks at Draken. "How long have you guys been planning this anyway?"

"I don't know. A month?" Draken says.

Shiho looks at the bike and smiles at it. She can't help but think about how far Takemichi's come. Sure, he didn't win against Taiju. He didn't even come close to beating him physically. But he won the battle.

   And look at how everything turned out.

   After a minute, Mikey walks back over to Shiho and Draken. "Chifuyu is on his way with Takemicchi!"

   "Great," Shiho says, smiling at him. She pulls her hand away from the bike and places in it her jacket pocket.

   "What's the plan?" Draken asks.

   "I'm going to go meet them a little ways over. We'll make sure Takemicchi can't see and bring them over here," Mikey explains simply.

   "Sounds great!" Shiho says. "Guess all we can do now is wait."

~*~*~

   "It's fine," Mikey teases, his voice becoming louder slowly. Shiho looks at up his voice and slides her phone into her pocket. She stands up and moves next to Draken. "Don't let go, Chifuyu!"

   "Roger."

   "You're really scaring me!" Takemichi says.

   "Over here!" Shiho calls.

   "Okay!" Mikey says. "Open your eyes on zero, okay?"

   Takemichi nods hesitantly. Chifuyu peels his hands away from Takemichi's eyes and gazed at the bike in awe.

   "Three," Mikey starts. "Two. One. Zero!"

   Takemichi opens his eyes. He stares at the bike with confusion written all over his face. "A bike?"

   Mikey smiles brightly at him. "Yup! The CB250T. Aka, 'the Babu'. It's sorta like twins with mine," Mikey says.

   "Twins?" Takemichi asks.