Mikey! (Manjiro Sano x OC) [Tokyo Revengers]

IX. Change

Mikey bets in his mind that Karina Maya would give up and stop.

But so far she looks far from quitting.

He sighs and places his cheek on the palm of his hand. He's sitting on the wooden porch in the garden of Maya's house. He'd instructed her to do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 crunches, and 100 burpees. For the past thirty minutes, her weak body hasn't managed to successfully do a single push-up yet. Mikey looks up at the sky and hears his stomach grumble.

Fuck.

He forgot that he hadn't eaten breakfast yet. His head has been in the clouds since agreeing to help Karina Maya. He remembers her crying form. She looked so fragile and emotionally battered. He is aware that the girl already has so many problems on her little shoulders and Mikey's words only added to her hurt. But, what could he do? He only told her the truth.

Although, after their encounter, for some reason, he's been looking forward to seeing the weak girl again, wondering how she would react to their meeting and how she would look. She doesn't look fine at all. She's even more unsure and nervous, doing her best so that their eyes won't meet.

"E-excuse me..."

"Huh?" Mikey responds to her trembling voice.

"W-would you like to eat? I can prepare us something."

"Can you?"

"Of course!" She looks close to smiling. Is she... proud? That's new. "I always cook," she says.

"Okay." Well, seems like, somehow, the girl's already fine with what happened to them the night of Ken-chin's birthday. She was beginning to get over it. Maybe she wasn't as rattled as Mikey thought she was. Good.

They head inside the wooden house. He notices that only the living room is dirty. The rest is clean and shiny. Mikey accompanies Maya as she gets the ingredients and places them near the sink. He cannot help but stare at her. The girl suddenly looks confident and sure about what she does. Why can't she be like this all the time?

She must have sensed Mikey's gaze because she stops from washing the carrots in her hands and looks at him. "I-is there something wrong?"

Then she blushes.

Cute.

WHAT?

What the hell?

He didn't just think of that.

No way.

No fucking way.

Damn that Emma. He shouldn't have agreed to her request.

"It's nothing—" Mikey blindly walks away, hitting his forehead against an open cabinet. His wound bleeds, making him close his left eye.

"Sano-san!" Maya is already by his side, tissue in her hand she wipes some of the blood away. "Stay here. I'll get alcohol and some bandages. You can clean your wound by the sink."

Used to injuries, Mikey washes his forehead with the running water.

"Here." Maya gently pats some alcohol to clean the wound and covers it with a band-aid. "It's small but it's a bit deep. I hope it won't scar." She lightly taps the bandage.

This close, the boy becomes aware of her scent. She smells like kitchen ingredients and vanilla. Inside Mikey, he feels something stir.

He hates it.

He bristles and brushes the girl's hand away. "I'm alright. It'll heal. Didn't you say you'll cook?"

"Y-yeah." She continues what she's doing inside the clean kitchen. Soon, she places the cooked omurice on the dining room table.