Wish You Were Here (Bonten Rindou Haitani X Fem. OC)

Chapter Six:

A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the delay, I am currently a senior in college and I've been super busy between work and school, but I'm going to try to do better about updating :)

"You ready?" Natsu walks up to me and bows as he grabs my hand, placing a gentle kiss to the back of it.

"As I'll ever be."

Natsu and I sit quietly in the back of the limousine as we make our drive to the masquerade. The drive is pretty long since the venue is located in the heart of Shibuya while we reside in the outskirts.

Natsu manspreads to my left while I look out the window to my right, trying to distract myself from this uneasy feeling. I look down at my hands and attempt to not pick at my nails, a bad habit that I have when I'm anxious.

As I look down at my hands, Natsu grabs on the one of them and laces his fingers between mine, causing my to flinch. "Hey, you alright?" Natsu questions as he rubs soothing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.

"I just...I just can't shake this feeling that something is going to go wrong." I mumble into my shoulder as I turn my face away from Natsu and back towards the window, embarrassed that I would allow such a feeling to be conveyed on my face.

Natsu takes his hand out of mine and brings it to my chin to turn my face back towards him. "You know I'm here for you, right? All of us are...I mean not at this exact moment since it's just you and me here, unless you count the limo driver..." Natsu continues to mumble before I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him from rambling on.

"This is probably one of the biggest missions we've been on in a while. It's Bonten we're dealing with here, an organization known for not playing by the rules. I mean, we don't really play by the rules either...but there's just so much uncertainty." I explain to Natsu as he lets me explain my thought process.

"Well, there's only so much we can do Kaede, so we just have to play with the cards we've been dealt. It doesn't do us any good worrying over things we can't control." Natsu puts his hand back into mine and gives it a squeeze.

I look at Natsu in shock, shocked that he spoke such wise words, which is honestly very out of character for him.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Natsu panics as he pulls a pocket mirror out and starts looking at his face to see if he missed something.

"No no no, I just haven't heard you speak such wise words before Natsu-sensei." I joke at him, causing him to pout.

"Hey! I say some really smart things sometimes!" He looks at me offended.

"Sure you do..." I giggle at his efforts to cheer me up, appreciative that he seems to have gotten me out of my funk.

We arrive at the venue and the limousine driver makes his way to my side of the car and opens up the door for me. Natsu and I bring our masquerade masks up to our faces as we make our way out of the car. I slip my arm around his and take a few deep breaths to collect myself before we enter the wolves den.

When we arrive at the double doors, they swing open and we are greeted by the stationed door greeters and are handed complimentary glasses of champaign.

"Thank you." I nod in appreciation towards them. I down the entire glass in a couple sips, attempting to numb my anxiety for a bit. I look around and notice the overwhelming amount of people, probably around a thousand, gathered around the beautifully intricate ballroom.

An arm yanks me towards the crowd, pulling me out of my own head as I must have been zoning out. Natsu looks over at me and raises his eyebrow at me as if to ask me 'are you okay?' I nod my head in response and follow Natsu into the crowd. I bring my free hand up to my ear to ensure that the earpiece we're using to communicate with Ayuri and Ryoko is in place.

Natsu guides me towards the bar, knowing that we both need a little extra liquid courage to get us through the night.

"You there sis?" Ryoko speaks through the earpiece.

"We just sat at the bar." I speak back quietly to not bring attention to myself or make myself look crazy while speaking to myself.

"Good evening m'lady and sir, anything to drink?" The bartender asks the both of us.

"Ah yes please. I'll take three fingers of whiskey on the rocks and my husband will have a rum and coke." I respond, ordering both of our usuals.

"Coming right up." The bartender nods at us as he starts to make our drinks.

"Don't let Natsu drink too much tonight! We don't need a repeat of last time." Ayuri teases through the earpiece.

I bring my hand up to my mouth to hide my giggles as I peer over at Natsu to see him pouting.

"Here you are m'lady." A different bartender sets a drink in front of me.

"Oh this isn't what I ordered..." I look at the bartender in confusion.

"Yes miss, the man at the end of the bar bought it for you." He says as he nods his head towards the mystery man.

I subtly turn my head towards that direction, searching for the man in question. As I look across the bar, I make eye contact with the man. I nod my head as a 'thank you' towards him, hoping that the interaction wouldn't go any further than that. I face forward in my seat at the bar and look through my peripheral and see the man coming towards me.

"Incoming at three o'clock." I quietly mumble towards Natsu to get his attention, causing him to hum in response.

"Hello darling, is this seat taken?" The mystery man charismatically asks while his cat like eyes seem to stare into my soul through his mask.

"No, not at all." I respond while I discreetly eye up the man. The man is wearing an expensive red suit with a black button up that compliments his black stiletto heels, making it blatantly obvious that he's rich and easily one of the best dressed men here.

"You come here alone darling?" The man asks me as he sets his right elbow on the bar top and sets his chin in his hand as his body is turned towards mine.

"Ah no. I'm actually here with my husband." I loop my arm back through Natsu's, causing him to nod his head at the mystery man.

"Oh what a shame." The man pouts towards me. "I'm Kokonoi, but all my friends call me Koko." The man sticks his hands out towards me to shake.

"I'm Emiko Takishima and this is my husband Hiro." I response, putting my hand into Kokonoi's to shake.

"Lovely to meet such a beautiful woman..." Kokonoi brings the back of my hand up to his lips and gives it a kiss. This is awful.

"Thank you so much Koko." I giggle in response, trying to convey that I'm not bothered. 'This is awful, have I said that already?'

"Kiss ass." Ryoko mumbles through the earpiece.

"It's nice to meet you." Natsu intrudes as he sticks his hand out towards Kokonoi to shake.

"Mhmm." Kokonoi looks away from Natsu, ignoring his reached out hand. Natsu grumbles as he brings his hand down.

"So Emiko, what do you do for work?" Kokonoi brings his attention back towards me.

"I actually don't work." I bring my attention back towards the man.

"Oh really?" He questions.

"I'm currently just a housewife, but my husband is a consultant for the Matsumoto Corporation." I explain, hoping that my answer is enough to appease him and not raise anymore questions. "What do you do for work Koko?"

"I'm actually a Bonten executive...

.

.

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...Kaede."

Word Count: 1,356