Please Stay

Chapter Seven: Why

Once the blues had cleared out Izumo turned towards everyone, their mouths gabbing open in confusion on what had just happened. No one had moved a muscle; they had no idea what to do now.

"Close your mouth everyone, time to head back to the base." Izumo said before turning and walking out, everyone still in shock followed behind without argument. The walk back was quiet and not the comfortable kind either, everyone was questioning their kings' motives. The same question running through their head, Why.

Anna grabbed ahold of Sage's hand giving her older sister a reassuring smile, "Trust the king," she said, loud enough for only Sage to here. She searched her younger sister's eyes for the answer to everyone's question, but her sister was harder to read then a rock.

All she could muster was a nod before looking straight ahead.

As soon as everyone entered the bar chaos erupted between the boys. Sage and Anna making their way to the couch as the boys continued their bickering.

"How could he do this to us?"

"What are we supposed to do now without our king?"

"I can't believe he just left with them!"

Everyone was yelling over each other, the confusion turning into anger.

"That is enough," Izumo said raising his voice above everyone else's, stopping them all, "do you all not understand why he did this?" He asked, clearly angry. He waited a moment for a response before sighing, "He did this, so we have full range to do what we want on getting our revenge."

Everyone was quiet for a second, processing what Izumo had told them. Yata being the first to speak.

"I knew he wouldn't betray us," Yata said smiling, "No blood, no bone, no ash" He began to chant with the rest of HOMRA following behind.

"So, what are we going to do?" Sage asked.

"We are going to start doing rounds," he explained and began to break everyone up in teams, "Sage, Rikio, and Yata you three with do the morning 7am to noon. Bando, Chitose, and Masomi you guys will do the afternoon noon to 5pm. Finally, Eric, Akagi, and Kosuke you three will have the evening rounds from 5pm to 10pm. This will start first thing tomorrow, understood."

Everyone nodded in agreement before going back to their conversations, Anna and Sage continued to sit on the couch silently.

"Anna, is it okay for Mikoto's Damocles to be crumbling like it is?" Sage asked finally, causing everyone to stop talking as they all stared at the two girls.

All Anna could do was shake her head no before laying her head on her older sister's lap. Sage saw how sad she looked and decided she'll talk to Izumo about it later. She laid her head back and closed her eyes allowing the voices of HOMRA to surround her as she lost herself in her thoughts.

Memories flashing through her head; memories of Tatara's smile, him making everyone gather around for their nightly music session, the times he would make Sage and Anna sing with him. All the laughs and smiles that use to fill this bar, Tatara was the glue that held this place together – the sticky fun-loving glue. The visions quickly took a turn to darker imagines; Tatara lifeless body, Mikoto walking away from HOMRA, his Damocles crumbling.

"Sage," Yata said as he shook her awake - she hadn't realized she fell asleep. As she looked around, she noticed everyone staring at her with concern.

"Are you okay sister?" Anna asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," Sage said with a smile, hoping it would make everyone stop staring at her.

"Then why are you crying?" Rikio asked.

Sage touched her cheek feeling a wet trail, how had she not realized she was crying.

"It was just a bad dream," she stated wiping her face.

"Should we be worried?" Izumo said handing her a napkin.

"No, it was just Tatara," she whispered as she took the napkins, "I think I'm going to go take a shower," she said standing. She didn't want to continue this conversation and at the moment all she wanted was to be alone. She stopped in front of Yata before taking his sweater off and handing it to him.

"Thank you for letting me borrow this," she whispered, Yata's face turning red as he nodded trying to avoid looking anywhere but Sage's face, she forgot to change out of the pizza delivery outfit when they made it back to the bar earlier that day.

Once she was done showering and drying her hair, she decided to head back downstairs. Everyone had pretty much cleared out for the night leaving Yata, Anna, and Izumo.

"Welcome back Sage, how are you feeling?" Izumo asked as he noticed Sage walking down the stairs.

"Better now that I got out of those horrid clothes," she laughed as she sat down next to Anna resuming the usually position with Anna laying her head on Sage's lap.

"Come on the clothes weren't that bad," Izumo chuckled, "what did you think about Sage's outfit today Yata?" He asked with a shit eating grin across his face.

"I-I don't know what your talking about," Yata mumbled hiding his face, the memory of Sage's outfit caused his face to heat up.

"That means he thought you looked cute," Anna giggled sitting up and poking her older sister's cheek.

"Aww is that true Yata, did you think I looked cute?" Sage joked, the atmosphere lighter now that it was just them four joking together.

Yata's face was bright red as he struggled to form an answer, stumbling over his words.

"Oh, Sage don't trap him like that, poor kid is going to implode," Izumo laughed.

The evening continued with the four of them laughing and enjoying each other's company. When the sun began Anna, Yata, and Sage started to help Izumo clean the bar. When the bar was sparkling, Izumo decided it was time for him to head home.

"Remember Yata and Sage you both have to be up early, try not to use to much energy tonight," Izumo winked at the two while laughing.

"Nothing like that happens!" Yata mumbled before heading upstairs leaving Anna and Sage downstairs giggling.

"Poor Misaki," Anna giggled before hugging Izumo bye.

"Be safe Izumo," Sage called as he closed the door behind him.

"Sage, can I sleep in your room tonight?" Anna whispered as the absence of Tatara and Mikoto fell over the bar.

"Of course," Sage smiled taking her sister by the hand and heading upstairs.

"Yata, Anna is gonna sleep in here for the night. Is that alright?" Sage asked as they walked into the room.

"Of course, you can sleep in here Anna," Yata said as he stood up turning off the TV. He quickly grabbed a pillow and small blanket for himself before heading back towards the couch, "You can sleep in the bed with Sage." He said smiling at the small girl who returned the smile.

"Thank you Misaki," she whispered before heading towards the bed.

"Goodnight Yata," Sage said following her younger sister to the bed.

"Goodnight Sage and Anna," he responded before turning off the lights.