Mako

Good morning, today is already the 23th of december, so our calendar is coming to it's end. I hope you enjoyed it and had a somewhat relaxing month, but I doubed it a little bit... Anyways, thank you so much for reading and commenting, it also made our days to read your feedback! 

Here is the almost last chapter of this story for now, I will continue writing it, but Underdog needs some new chapters too (for I haven't written on it since almost two weeks, I think XD)

Tika wants to show Take-chi something, but what might it be?

Tika stepped out of the kitchen just as Take-chi was already fully dressed, that is, if you want to count his shoes and meagre jacket as fully dressed. So while the dark brown-haired man was getting ready to leave, Take-chi played with his waistcoat pockets, his fingers coming across a note. Carefully, he fished the piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it.

He had to squint his eyes a little to make out anything in the already dim light. Written in pencil on it were heaps of numbers, names and also notes. "Shi-tan, 24, often writes down the wrong size, very easy to forget...", he read out, muttering a little.

"Huh? Who?" inquired Tika, who by now was standing in the doorway, seemingly just waiting for his new roommate to decide to leave. "Oh, nobody, I don't know, it doesn't exactly say.... I just found this..." he explained himself, holding the folded paper out to the slightly shorter man for a moment before putting it back in his waistcoat pocket.

"Oh... I see. You ready to go then? Tell me, how old do you think you might be, or are you having a hard time remembering that too here?", of course Take-chi didn't know his exact age, but a feeling told him that it might have been the case even before. "I assume your silence means something like 'no', right? It's a bit more complicated now, of course, but we'll manage somehow, others get in without IDs too, after all," Tika smiled to emphasise once more that there would be no more complications and 'Tachi' retorted, not knowing exactly what his host was actually up to.

" Let's go then, just follow me, shall we? You'll like it, I promise! Just relax.", with these words Tika locked the door behind them and led Take-chi through the stairwell, which was at least five stories high, to the exit. Now the prince could see why this house was so high, there were probably other people living in it.

In front of the house was a wide path, at least 4 metres broad, it was evenly made of grey stone. Take-chi had not quite finished inspecting everything when Tika beckoned him to come along and pulled him to the right. Soon, through the narration of the smaller one, he found out that the path was a road and right next to it were some so-called skyscrapers.

They also met a few people on their way. Most of them seemed to be in a hurry and rushed past them without looking at anyone. Only twice did Take-chi get to see a so-called 'car', those strange, tinny vehicles. The first one had almost scared the taller of the two so much that he fainted, and he was quite happy that this road was not so frequently used.

At some point, after they had wandered straight ahead for quite a while, Tika turned into a slightly narrower side alley. Take-chi felt a similar shiver down his spine as the ones he got when he went into the forest, back home. It was dirty there, always a varnish on the cobbled floor, a middle-aged man sat leaning against the wall of a house, he didn't seem in his right mind and grinned at the two of them.

Take-chi gave him a hesitant wave, but Tika just kept walking. A little later, he whispered to the taller man that he shouldn't bother and 'he'd be fine on his own.'" He wasn't so sure about that, but he tried to believe Tika's words, after all, he knew his way around. Nonetheless, he kept glancing back, this man looked like he was at the end of his rope....

"Not long now, we'll be there." announced Tika, who was now not wearing his red coat, but had thrown on a casual 'faux leather jacket' as he called it. When the response was somewhat meagre, he turned to his comrade and pouted. "Seriously now, are you still thinking about that guy from earlier? You see that kind of thing all the time here, that's guys who just want to put their worries down after work, in whatever way they can, you know? Then the next day they go back to pretending nothing happened."

The shorter one's words sounded plausible, for now, and Take-chi actually decided to concentrate on other things, it really wasn't as if he could do anything to help... "What is this place we're going to, anyway?" he now dared to ask for the first time. The answer, however, consisted only of a laugh and an outstretched index finger pointing to a building, or rather, a small door.

'Renegades' was written on the sign above the entrance to the 'pub' into which Tika and Take-chi were now moving. Shortly after entering, two big, bulky guys had positioned themselves. "IDs please," they demanded. Take-chi made an uncomprehending expression on his face, what was an "ID card?", again? But Tika seemed quite familiar with the term.

"He's coming with me, we're part of the band, do we really need our IDs? It's been checked beforehand, isn't it?" one of the men thought for a moment, but then actually let them pass.