sweet like honey | bonten x reader

73: things will change

"so wait, have you guys been sitting here the entire time?" you asked kakucho as you walked up to mikey's vehicle.

"no. sanzu and the haitanis got here half an hour ago. the rest of us arrived about 10 minutes ago, but sanzu had already gotten to you and was on the phone with the rest of us so we could hear what was happening."

"so everyone knows?"

kakucho casted you a sideways glance, but you kept your gaze straight ahead. you still couldn't really look at him, feeling unsure of where everything stood.

"yes. we heard everything after him saying you had been brainwashed by us." he explained as you approached a large vehicle.

"alright." you took a deep breath, steeling yourself for whatever waited for you. "let's do this i guess."

he opened his mouth to try and apologize before you went in, but you were already grabbing the door handle. silently sighing, kakucho came in after you, lingering at your side but still a step behind.

all faces in the car turned towards you. koko looked at you with slight concern on his usually indifferent face, while rindou sat with a laptop open in front of him, wearing his glasses and the sweats he had lent you. you could see the regret written all over his face, but you tried not to dwell on it as your eyes came to mikey, who was watching you with a blank expression.

there was a brief moment of intense silence until someone stood up and rushed over to you.

"my god y/n!" mochi exclaimed, closing the distance between you and trapping you in a bear hug.

he had blood on his clothes already, so he probably didn't mind getting more from yours.

"um.... hi." you said. your voice came out weak, uncertain by the sudden mood shift and the fact he was crushing you in his arms.

i guess this is happening now, you accepted.

"mochi, you're going to kill her." koko said in an annoyed voice, tapping on mochi's shoulder so he could have his turn to say hi to you.

mochi eventually let go and gave koko a dirty look.

"i'm relieved, alright? i had my doubts, but i'm glad i was wrong." he said as he went back to his seat.

your eyebrows furrowed together as you stared after him but was quickly interrupted when koko kissed your cheek.

"koko?" you asked, feeling your face heat up.

"i'm glad you're fine. we have one of our doctors on the way over." koko said, stroking your other cheek with the backs of his fingers as he gazed at you longingly. "i have another phone call to make now, okay?"

"alright." you replied, and he walked away only for takeomi to take his place. evidently there was literally a line of men waiting to speak with you.

the older man looked down at you, and for once a cigarette wasn't dangling from his lips.

"you gave me quite the scare. i thought we would need to take care of you." he told you plainly, but you understood the true intention behind his words.

"akashi, you weren't supposed to tell her that!"

rindou and koko rolled their eyes, knowing that you had already put that together.

some people may have been offended by what takeomi said, but you knew that would've been necessary for them. they didn't call him the god of war for nothing.

"that makes sense." you shrugged.

"he approached you the day i took you shopping, didn't he?" he asked.