forty

break into the dark

The aftermath of the fight was possibly even more chaotic than the actual fight, and I blame Futa. I think everybody blames Futa, even though Agyo was the one who actually paid for the keg.

I was exhausted, collapsing on the porch steps as Noboru and Daichi came outside with trays of water and medical supplies to patch everybody up. Sakura was a little more attentive once she had some sugar in her, downing a glass of juice quicker than I'd seen Fujio chug beer at the cookout.

I graciously accepted an ice cold glass of water from Daichi, wincing as he tried to look at the bruising on my side.

"Jesus Chrust, Midori." Daichi grimaced. "What happened to you?"

"What do you think?" I snorted "You should see the other guy."

Odajima nodded in agreement. "She hit him with a car door."

"You what?" Daichi shouted. His astonishment reminded me that he'd never actually seem me fight before, or show any signs of aggression until I put my elbow through the wall the night of the cookout.

The Daruma Babies and some of the Oya kids had gathered the trash lying on the roadway and piled it in the center of the road. Futa had a crazed expression on his face as he doused everything in gasoline, Nakaoka pulling a tiny lighter out of his pocket. Within seconds, they'd created a dumpster fire, but without the dumpster. It probably wasn't going to burn for long, but the bonfire was nice.

"I love this guy!" Nakaoka shouted, pointing at Futa

"I think I found my protege!" Futa agreed, slinging an arm around the younger boy's shoulder

"Speaking of protege's!" Hyuga shouted, grabbing a red plastic cup from Shu Kato, who had just finished setting up the keg with Raita. Within seconds, Fujio had flocked to it, and was now suspended upside down and drinking half his boy weight in cheap beer. "I heard I have my own protege here somewhere!" His eyes scanned the crowd. "You. Kobayashi, right?"

Sakura stood stock still, like a deer in headlights. "Me?"

"Yeah, you. I know some guys in construction, they all talk. Shinya Orochi seems to think you stand a fair chance of becoming the next me. I think you'd look good in red."

Sakura's face turned red, and I could tell she was nervous. "Shinya was just kidding, seriously."

"What did he say?" Nakagoshi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It was the night I got arrested, Shinya was holding me back, trying to stop me before I did any more damage. Then he said 'you'd better pull yourself together before you end up like Hyuga Norihisa."

Yasushi raised an eyebrow "I've known you almost ten years and you have never been as bad as Hyuga, even when you went through that awful emo phase."

"You're one to talk." Sakura laughed, taking another sip of her drink. "Do I need to remind everybody of your mall goth phase?"

Yasushi's eyes widened. "Please god no."

"Anyways," Sakura said, putting her arm around Tsukasa's shoulders. "I think I look better in blue."

With that, the full-timers erupted into cheers. Frankly, I was quite happy Sakura planned to stay, especially after today's fight. I grew curious as Hyuga asked to talk to Sakura on her own, but ultimately remembered that she knew how to handle herself if things went sideways.

Over by the keg, Fujio was still insistent on making a fool out of himself, a few other stragglers joining on on the chaos. Nakabayashi took the next shot at the keg stand, and I found myself rolling my eyes as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders.

"Are you one of my kids, or my boyfriend whom I love very much?" I asked cautiously "Because Yasushi did this to me last week and I thought it was Murayama and I didn't look before I turned around and tried to kiss him."

"Well, it's me." Murayama said, kissing me gently on the cheek. "You were great out there."

I groaned in defeat , turning around to place a proper kiss on Murayma's lips. "My entire body hurts, Hot Shot. Why didn't you talk me out of this?"

"Because you're stubborn." Odajima and Murayama said in sync.

"Oi!" I shouted, kicking the blonde in the leg. "Nobody asked you, Yuken!"

"So I was thinking..." Murayama started, nestling his head in the crook of my neck. "I'm turning twenty-five in a few weeks, and I think we should do something. Just you and me. Like a weekend away or something."

I turned my head slightly, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of his head. "I thought Seki and Furuya were throwing you a party?"

Murayama shook his head. "I fucking hate parties. Too loud, too many people. Like, I'll go, but I'd rather not unless I'm seriously drunk."

I laughed. "Alright. Let's go away for a weekend then. But, you have to graduate this year. There's no way I'm letting you stay back at Oyakou for another year."

Behind us, someone cleared their throat, and I had a sneaking suspicion I knew who it was.

"Yoshiki." My father's stern voice warned, Murayama letting go of me and jumping backwards in a flash.

"Hey Mr. Yamada." Odajima said, waving meekly.

There was no hiding the absolute chaos that was taking place outside.

"Nice to see you too, Odajima." My dad said, smiling weakly as he waved back at the blond. "I was just going to tell you that I have to head to he airport, fly back to Tenerife to finalize some of the stuff for the house, but don't mind me. I see you've already turned the house into an American fraternity."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, dad. You know me, I'm decently responsible."

"Yeah, decently."

I finished saying goodbye to my dad before settling back down on the steps with Murayama. Pretty soon, Sawamura came over to join us, tired of everybody's drunken antics, evident by the scowl on his face as he watched Shida place an empty solo cup on top a ladder, claiming he could jump up and kick it down in one fell swoop, instead missing and falling on the ground, the ladder clattering down on top of him.

"Jesus Christ." Odajima mumbled. "Remember when I used to be like that?"

I did remember. Very well. Him and Shuntaro both used to get totally hammered when they went to parties, and the aftermath was not pretty. He stopped drinking as much in senior year, but still managed to get pretty drunk.

Sawamura's scowl deepened as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, staring at the screen. "Those idiots with the wooden bats decimated my phone screen. I'm too broke to get it fixed again, man."

"Shouldn't have left it your pocket." Odajima shrugged as the phone started to ring.

Sawamura flipped Odajima off as he answered, speaking a hasty 'hey, mom' as he got up and ran somewhere quieter. I had no doubt that Mrs. Shoji thought her son was at Housen, likely doing schoolwork.

"Alright guys," Shibaman shouted, finishing his beer and getting to his feet. "I've gotta get going, Shizuka has the first ultrasound for the baby in the morning, I don't wanna be hungover."

"Oh come on!" One of the kids in the Todoroki Faction shouted "You're such a buzzkill."

Shibaman laughed. "I know, but I gotta do right by my girl and my kid."

"Once you've seen it once, there's not much special about it." Ukyo mused. "It's like divorce papers. Whatever you do, don't marry this girl, kid. You'll regret it. I got married to my first wife at nineteen because she got pregnant, and we fell apart by the time we turned thirty, so now I have an ex-wife who doesn't talk to me, a son that hates me, and two more ex-wives."

"Oh god." Sakyo mumbled. "Here he goes again."

"Don't listen to him!" Serizawa cut in. "He's just being a pessimist. This ultrasound will change your life, and if she's the one, she's the one man."

"Wait a second." I raised an eyebrow. "You're married? Someone actually manage to tame the Monster of Surzuran?"

Serizawa laughed. "That she did. I met her shortly after graduation, actually. I was on some retreat thingy with Izaki in Osaka. She's incredible, really. We've actually got a kid of our own, he's about six months old now." He smiled as he looked at his watch. "Which reminds me, I've actually gotta get home before she finds out I've been in another fight. I promised I'd quit, and she thinks I'm out getting drinks with Masaki."

"Alright man." Masaki said, pulling Serizawa in for one of those awkward dude-hugs "Tell the wife I said hello."

"Will do. And thanks for cutting Tokio and I in on this. I really missed it."

I waved goodbye to Serizawa, leaning further into Murayma, who had returned to his earlier position after my father had left, reaching for one of his hands and lacing our bruised fingers together. I closed my eyes, resting my head on his shoulder.

I wished we could stay like that forever.

"So you think we could kick the kids out so I can get some sleep?" I chuckled quietly

"You heard the girl." Murayama laughed. "Everybody out!"

"Oh come on, man!" Tsuji whined "Why is everybody being a buzzkill tonight."

"Fine by me." Sachio shrugged. "I'm beat."

I laughed, raising my voice a little. "He's just kidding guys! But seriously, don't be sick n my front lawn!"

NOTES!!!

just the two part epilogue left, get ready to c r y with me -