chapter eighteen

can't be love

The army of seagulls honking in the backyard, noise wafting in with the cool breeze through the open window was the best way I had been woken up in a very long time.

Still groggy, I peeled my eyes open, taking in my surroundings. For one, this definitely wasn't my guest bedroom, a pair of shiny silver handcuffs dangling form the headboard, forest green bedspread wrapped around my body.

A weight fell across my midsection, and when I saw the tanned arm draped over me, I smiled widely, lacing my fingers with those of the boy who was lying in bed next to me. He stirred slightly, half-lidded eyes staring at me in adoration when I turned to meet his gaze.

"Morning, beautiful." Tetsu smiled, gently pressing his lips to my forehead

"Morning, handsome." I said back with a grin, angling my head so that our lips met, the sheets re tangling themselves underneath us, and unfortunate occurrence after we had spent almost an hour earlier that morning straightening them out again after I had gotten tangled in the cotton so much that I fell on my face in an attempt to get to the shower in the dark.

"It's almost noon." I said gently, Tetsu's soft lips grazing the underside of my jaw. He hummed in acknowledgment but made no move to get out of the bed. "Don't we have stuff to do?" My mind wandered back to the notebook on my bedside table, all the secrets I still needed to uncover.

However, I didn't need to read the book right away, content here in Tetsu's arms.

"Yeah, each other." Tetsu joked, running one of his hands down my arm

"Very funny, Casanova." I laughed, kissing him again. When I pulled away, he chased my lips, desperate for the contact. "Go have a shower, I'm going to get dressed, then I'm going to go bake something."

"Or you could stay here?" The boy attempted to persuade me, gently wrapping his hand around my wrist.

Laughing, I shook my head. "Darling, I'm hungry and if you looked at the state of your hair in a mirror, you too would realise that you need a shower."

With a groan, Tetsu flopped back on the bed as I laughed, sidestepping out of the open doorway before cutting across to the guest bedroom so I could get dressed ( and find a chunky bracelet of some sort to cover up the handcuff indentations on my wrist ).

The world had a different color to it that morning, as I realized that I finally had something worth living for. So what if I put the metaphorical rose-colored glasses on that morning? The world already felt brighter as soon as those seagulls starting honking. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I danced into a pair of skinny jeans and pulled a lettuce-edged baby tee over my head, messily running a comb through my hair.

For a bit of background information, I hadn't baked anything since the morning of my step-father's funeral. Calling Yuki my step-dad had always been strange: he was simply 'dad' to me. Or tou-san, depending on the day. Sometimes I'd throw Japanese words into conversations here and there when I was younger just to show how good at learning that part of my heritage I was, even if there wasn't a single trace of Japanese DNA in my veins.

Anyways, that morning, I had made three trays of his favorite muffins, a recipe I had long ago memorized. It was second nature as I danced around Tetsu's kitchen, pulling the ingredients out of shelves. Frankly, I was surprised that Tetsu had certain ingredients, seeing as how I'd never seen him make anything that didn't come from a box or a packet or a takeaway menu. Or Naomi's kitchen. When I heard the upstairs shower click on, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and put my U.K pop punk playlist on, starting to dance to WSTR's 'Hide Everything Sharp' as I began to prepare the dry ingredients. In my mind, there was nothing quite like a British pop punk song that made you want to dance, even if the lyrics were slightly depressing, such as the chorus.

"Are we stupid, Or just incompetent? 'Cause the truth is, I'm tired of doing this."

I felt like I was seeing the world in a whole new perspective as I danced around the kitchen, my mismatched horror movie socks ( Pennywise the Dancing Clown on my right foot, Jason from Friday the Thirteenth on my left, in case you were wondering ) sliding across the linoleum floors like nobody's business.

Over my dancing spree, I didn't hear the shower turn off upstairs. Ad I definitely didn't hear Tetsu beginning to creep down the hardwood stairs, stopping halfway to lean against the wall and watch as I prepared two separate bowls of muffin mix, while dancing to Creeper's ;Darling' and singing at the top of my lungs.

"The sky falls, and I don't really really care at all! You know, everything about me so, I'm still praying for a comet to wipe out, everything I promised you!"

"So that's what good old American cooking looks like." Tetsu grinned, marching into the kitchen and startling me so much that I knocked the empty egg carton off teh counter when I jumped.

"Can you not?" I laughed, reaching to turn the music down as he wrapped his arms around my middle, nuzzling his head into my shoulder and nipping at the marks on my neck. "You're being distracting."

"I'm okay with that."

I smiled, disentangling the two of us. "Just let me get these in the oven, and then we have all time in the world to do couple-y things."

"What's in them?" Tetsu asked, nodding towards the mixing bowls.

"One tray of chocolate chip, one tray of blueberry."

"Sounds incredible."

We were practically glued to each other's sides for that entire day, be it a walk around the various docks that made up the complex's backyard, or cozying up to each other on the couch while Tetsu tried to introduce me to some soap-opera caliber drama that one of Naomi's friends from the Ichigo Milk gang had gotten him into (it was actually a lot better than I think I initially gave it credit for), or- and this might have been the highlight of the morning, but I'm biased- the makeout session.

Long after the sun had set, and we both decided that it was time to pack it in for the day, everything changed, and my perception of my father would likely never be the same again.

"Will you be joining me in bed, milady?" Tetsu joked, raising my hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to my knuckles.

Chuckling, I backed into the guest room door. "Let me grab some fresh pajama's and I'll be right there."

As I walked into the neutrally-toned room, something felt off. Like someone had been in my room. And given the recent threats from Daruma Ikka, I figured it wasn't unlikely, or maybe I was being paranoid.

Nevertheless, I proceeded with caution, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. When I turned to look at the window frame, with the intention of closing the blinds and then getting the hell out, my heart stopped.

A single red enveloped was lying on the desk. Inside the room, this time, not wedged in the window frame. Hands shaking, I opened the second envelope.

"Tetsu!" I shouted, tearing my eyes away from the note as my lover came tearing into the room, panic in his eyes. My voice shook as I spoke up. "Who the fuck are Daruma Ikka, and why are they sending me death threats?"

"Well, that's a conversation that could take a good few hours, why do you want to know?" He asked quickly, before his face morphed into one of panic. "Wait, what do you mean death threats?"

My hand shook as I passed him the note. "Start talking, pretty boy. This isn't the first note, and I'm worried it won't be the last."

We warned you, Gillian Wagner. Stop looking into Yuki Morizono. This is your final warning.

NOTES!!

next chapter we finally get to find out what hyuga wants with gilly. . . dun dun DUN