𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝖲𝗁𝗎𝗃𝗂 𝖧𝖺𝗇𝗆𝖺

hanma shuji

This isn't for the best.

Not when the trickles of water run down the side of your glass and swallow up all of your attention. Smooth richness of the top shelf drink being watered down second by second. Ice melting and causing a mess on the oaken bar counter.

Who would care though? It's not like this place wasn't like the old play house you had growing up. Your fort. You could do anything you wanted here and no one would say a thing. Not when you knew your father held a choke hold on the rest of this wretched city.

One of these days it would be passed down to you. Until then, all you had to look forward to was the pin striped man making his way across the room to you.

More than just a little familiar with the gang member who approached you this late into the evening. Shuji Hanma's criminal foundation paid for almost a quarter of the corrupt things your family let slip under the table during his campaigns. To be whisked away just as quickly as the tall man pulled up a seat next to you.

"What are you doing here?" You don't even greet him. Musing that his appearance must mean there were others in tow to grace one of your favorite retreats away from it all. It was a place, though touched by your family's affairs, still served as a place of relaxation to shed you bad reputation for maybe even a second.

"Can a man not enjoy a drink at the bar?" Shuji cast his eyes over to your untouched drink. Quickly he got the bartenders attention just to calmly explain that what was served to you was too watered down. And if they best value their living arrangements they'd pour you a new one. This time with the right amount of ice.

All but spoken for your tastes, you leaned into the bar as you set your chin to rest on your hand, "Why don't you make me my drink then? Since you know my tastes so well."

Faux smile curling on his lips, Shuji shook his head, "Wouldn't want to cause a scene jumping over the bar."

"In that suit?" You raised your brow at his grey pin striped attire, "Don't think you'd be doing anything but filing their receipts in that ugly thing." He said nothing to the comment. Before anything else could be said your refreshed drink had arrived. Just as Shuji had instructed it to be mixed. As well as the tender also setting down Shuji's drink though he hadn't ordered anything. Making you raise a brow once more to his actions, "Come here often?"

"Enough that I've seen the things you garner in an establishment like this," Shuji, fake smile still curling on his lips, brought his glass to his lips for a taste, "Is this just where daddy's little girl goes to play?"

Grip on your new drink tightening as you brought it up for a sip, you didn't outright rebuke his words but calmly set your drink back down before looking across at him, "I'd be careful. I had a temper tantrum once and daddy had half of the underbelly of this town seized and imprisoned." Shuji chuckled at the threat but didn't raise a hackle to what you said. So you circled back to the first thing you asked him, "I'll ask again, what are you doing here? And alone it seems."

He nodded behind the lip of his drink at your correct assumption, "I'm not all work. Sometimes I play."

"Like you played at the art exhibit opening last week?" You recalled what was technically only the third time the two of you had interact. Shuji then admitting he came down to the grand opening of some confounded donator just to mingle with you of all people. While your warnings then didn't seem to stick. You weren't about to explain to him again why an underbelly subordinate to your father's pollical career should steer clear of you if he valued his life even half as much as he valued his salary.

Though to be fair, you had little interest in playing with your father's toys. And as far as you were concerned the gangs who paid their way into your father's hearts and wallet, where just more toys at his disposal to keep his political chokehold on this city. With it came the venom that seeped into the rest of your family. You included. People understood where you came from. And your family's reputation spoke louder than any words you could ever muster in the face of those rightfully terrified of your name.