Have A Heart (Food Wars! Mafia AU)

Chapter Three: Bana-Chan

Pinching myself awake on the bus after catching myself falling asleep, I was glad I decided not to take my car. Seeing my stop coming up ahead after the thirty minute long ride, I pulled the wire as I yawned and rubbed my eyes from sleep. 
Barely managing to get off the bus, I swayed a little as I walked through the gates of my apartment complex. Yawning again as I walked through the doors, I sure as hell won't be able to take the stairs in this condition. "Tachibana-sama? Are you alright." 
Smiling weakly at the doorman; Sōtsuda-san, I nodded as I tried to make my way towards the elevator. "Yes, I just didn't realize how tired I was." Pushing the button repeatedly to open, Sōtsuda-san looked at me worried. 
"A-are you sure you're okay? You look like you'll pass out any minute." Chuckling at him as the doors opened, I nodded before giving a bow goodbye. 
Once the doors were closed, I slapped my face harder than the last time to encourage myself to stay awake long enough to get inside my apartment. 
Walking down the end of the hall; I ignored the couples shouting, the loud obnoxious moans, and the sound of someone playing an action video game at high volume as I dialed in the numbers of my lock as I heard it click opened with its annoying ringtone. 
Forcing myself to go inside, I practically slammed the door closed as Yuki-Itoko came running towards me. "Where the hell have you been!? I thought you were dead! If it wasn't for Akira-kun letting me know where you were, I would've called the cops and report a missing person!" 
Not in the mood for her lecture, I made a beeline to my room after I had taken my shoes and coat off--my head the only thing on the bed while my body was slumped against the floor. 
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Pushing myself up after I had awoken, the fluffy pillows indicated that I made it into the bed. As the sunlight beamed on my face as I rubbed my eyes, the smell of something delicious being made, made my mouth water. My instincts got me off the bed and towards the kitchen begrudgingly. Sitting on the kitchen chair as Yuki-Itoko's cat meowed at me, I laid my head against the table and waited for the food to finish. 
"Good morning Bana-chan." Mumbling a "good morning" at the male voice, I knew it was Hayama-kun. "Your cousin let me in before leaving for work, since I'm not working today. She asked me to keep an eye on you until she came back." 
Humming in response, I was way too tired to actually respond. Smelling the plate of food in front of me, I grabbed the plate after Hayama-kun placed a fork in my hand. Scarfing down the pancakes, eggs, bacon, and toast with avocado, salt, pepper, and lemon juice; I drank the entire glass of lemonade he placed in front of me. 
"Are you done eating?" Nodding without opening my eyes, he continued. "Are you still tired?" Nodding again with a hum, I could hear his smirk as he spoke. "Do you want to go back to bed?" Nodding for the last time, I felt my chair move back slowly as I saw Hayama-kun giving me a piggyback ride back into the room. Placing me in my bed, he turned the A/C down more as the mechanical hum started lulling me to sleep. 
Closing the blinds and turning my nightlight on, I turned over to my side as Hayama-kun placed the covers over me. "Sleep tight, Bana-chan." 
"Thank you Akira-nii." Mumbling under the covers, it was silent again as I drifted off to sleep. 
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Waking up as I felt much more well-rested, I stretched and felt something move next to my feet. Seeing that it was Yuki-Itoko's cat; Usayo, cuddle up against my feet, I smiled before opening my blinds and saw it was Nautical Twilight outside. 
'How long was I asleep for?' Getting off the bed, I made my way over to the living room as Yuki-Itoko's Hokkaido puppy; Shikao, began barking happily as he saw me. Shushing the puppy to be quiet, he listened to me as he jumped on the couch as I stared at the wall clock. "Holy shit! It's four-fifty-six in the morning?" Looking for my phone that I had left in my coat pocket after I had whisper yelled. Checking the time to see if I was going crazy, I saw it was four-fifty-six in the morning, a day after I had come home. 'I slept through a whole day?!' 
Whimpering at me, I ruffled the puppy's head and asked if he wanted to go outside. 
Beaming at me with his happy-go-lucky smile, I wrote a note for Yuki-Itoko after I had gotten dressed in my workout outfit. Placing the doggie vest on Shikao, I put my wireless earbuds around my neck after I placed a twenty dollar bill in my shoe along with my I.D card in my wrist band that held my phone as we walked towards the stairs. Stretching and doing light warmups before this big boy goes crazy for his "walk", we walked down the stairs and stopped just before the second floor when I looked up worriedly. 
"Fuck! I forgot my pepper spray." Biting my lips, I knew I would be too tired to give Shikao his walk if I went back up, so I instead looked at him with a smile. "It's okay, I have a good boy here to protect me, right?" Giving me a loud "ruff" as he wagged his tail, I'm hoping his training kicks in if he senses I'm in danger, cause if not, Yuki-Itoko needs her money back. 
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Jogging towards the entrance, I had to hold Shikao back from full-on running before I even opened the door. Putting the earbuds in as I started blasting music, I unlocked the gate with the pin number before starting a light jog. Thankfully, Shikao kept pace with me for about forty minutes or so when he decided to speed things up, running a bit further which caught me off guard as I tried to keep pace with him now. 
"Shikao! Slow down boy! I'm gonna trip if we keep going like this!" Damnit. 'What the hell was that word he learned from Yuki-Itoko? Something Feminine?' As if a lightbulb went off, I instantly remembered. "Fermare!!" Suddenly stopping, I tripped over and fell while rolling over a few times. Cursing under my breath at the pain, I shot a glare at the puppy as he licked my cheek before I pushed myself up. "E~w! You haven't had your breath mints yet!!" 
Trying to push the doggo away from me, he licked the scratch on my knee and I couldn't help but pet him, knowing he was concerned. 
"I'm okay now Shikao. Let's actually walk this time, okay?" Smiling at him, Shikao "arf'ed" as I tried pushing myself off the ground; hissing in pain as a few parts of my body were sore and scratched a bit. "I'll have to clean this up before it gets infected...c'mon Shikao, let's go find a twenty-four hour store." 
Just before I grabbed onto his leash, Shikao dashed off ahead of me before turning left. 
"SHIKAO!!" Flinching at the pain, I knew it was gonna leave a bruise but I pushed myself to run with a limp as I called after him. "SHIKAO!! FERMARE--FERMARE!! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Heaving out of breath, I stopped as I saw Shikao sitting on all fours with his head towards me. "SHIKAO!" Running to the doggo, I hugged him tightly around his shoulders before scolding him. "What the hell were you thinking?! I was so worried you would've gotten lost and not know your way back damnit!" Looking at me as he heavily breathed, I sighed before flipping his ears inside out and he laid on the ground upset, knowing he was in trouble whenever I did this with a pout. "Please don't do that again! You really scared me! What was I supposed to tell Yuki if I didn't find you!" 
"U-um...e-excuse me?" Looking above me, I saw a white haired boy with grey eyes looking at me in nervous concern. "I'm assuming this is your dog then?" 
Chuckling nervously, the sun had already peaked thanks to it being summer, but the streets were still semi-deserted. "Y-yes, sorry about Shikao, I don't know what's gotten into him. He usually never runs off like that." 
"Oh no, it's not a problem! Don't worry about it. He was a very good boy." Smiling at me, I had an iffy feeling in the pit of my stomach. 
"A-anyways, I should get going." Bowing goodbye, Shikao and I began walking in the opposite direction of home. 
Using the large window buildings next to us, I turned my head to the side and pretended to fix my hair when really, I wanted to make sure that guy wasn't following us. 
My heart started bumping rapidly against my chest when I saw that he was and had stopped not so close to Shiako and I while looking like he was on his phone. He wasn't moving at all and moved his head to look at me, but I went back to looking at the window before he noticed anything. 
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Gulping, I turned my head in the opposite direction and smiled at Shikao. "We're gonna run again, okay Shikao? But not too fast." Heavy breathing at me, I started jogging when my ankle started to hurt. Pushing past the pain, Shikao and I than ran into a full on sprint--crossing ahead into slight traffic before we ran right. 
Running into an alleyway behind a dumpster, I held Shikao's mouth closed as I kept my breath steady. "Come out, Princess. There's nowhere to hide. Your dog won't attack me, not after I blew the whistle at him." 
'So that's why Shikao was acting strange when I was scolding him. He doesn't really like strangers, so it was weird seeing him next to someone he never knew.' Seeing a broken piece of metal hanging on the dumpsters edge, my mind began swirling with adrenaline as I started yanking it out with full force. 
Cutting my hand and hissing in pain after, the white haired man popped out from the side. "Found you!" 
"Shikao, viaggio!!" Listening to me, he tripped the man by headbutting into his legs. 
Ripping the metal off with all my strength, I stabbed the man in his calf after he lunged towards me and I rolled to the side to get out of his way. 
Kicking him in the face with my good foot when he got too close to me, I scrambled to get up as I shouted for Shikao to follow me. Running back in the direction of home, I took a peak behind me and was thankful that the guy didn't seem to be following me. Looking back ahead, I ran into someone as they held me in an awkward embrace before we fell. Shrieking from shock as I tried to get up from this persons hold on me, Shikao barked angrily and bared his teeth at the person as they let me go. 
Pushing myself up and off of the person, I was about to run again when I heard a familiar nickname called after me from behind. "Wait, Tachi-san!!" 
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Last Edit: 4/27/21