A soft breeze rustled the curly spikes golden blond mane of hair, a soft sky blue sapphire gazed mirthfully to the blushing women that were passing by. A smug smirk worked its way to his face, causing his chiselled jawline to become more prominent and as a result made husbands, brothers and boyfriends to glare at him.
Looking up, the male looked at the burnt orange title of the restaurant and walked inside.
"Order up" the boys voice was higher then what was expected going by his physical experience as many of the customers eyes widened.
Almost instantaneously a Brunette with long purple braids tied into a bun, trapped behind a fish hair Net appeared. She wore a simple white chef clothing with badge that read. Head chef.
"Hey Hun, what brings someone like you back to town?" Said the girl, her voice sweet and inviting.
The sapphires rolled, and his eye lids seemed to partly close. "Not now Penelope." Said the male as he made his way to the front of the counter.
"Hun" grumbled Penelope while drinking in the boys form. For a sixteen-year-old he was the perfect mix between adult and boyish handsomeness, perfect for Penelope. His mane of hair touched his shoulders which were covered by a short sleeve biker’s jeans jacket that was above his burnt orange long sleeve vest. He also wore slim jeans and red shoes.
"Shouldn't I be wary of you ogling me?" He asked lazily gazing at her.
"Never hurts to look," replied Penelope staring without shame. "Any way, what do you want you never come here without wanting something" she accused suspiciously.
"Can't a guy order some food round here? Teriyaki with extra sauce would be nice." Was the sharp reply.
Penelope huffed and glared "this isn't over Kimiko." Before walking away.
"Whatever you say pen." Muttered Kimiko. "Whatever you say."
Once the food was prepared and the store was shut, Kimiko ate his food whilst telling Penelope his tale. The more he talked the less he was able to eat, as Penelope’s gaze grew more fierce.
"You did what!" Cried a voice as it rang through the restaurant and to the world.
"It wasn’t that bad." Sighed Kimiko, “sure I blew up their base, stole their money and had the females charmed by me." He smirked to the last one specifically. "But it's not that bad, it's not like they are going to try and lure me out to get revenge." He laughed hauntingly. "they haven't got the spine to do so!"
“Womaniser” she accused once again, but Kimiko didn’t seem to be bothered by the statement. “That doesn't mean that-" she was cut off before she could continue as the restaurant phone rung.
Penelope shivered. It was suddenly very cold as the telephone rang, and while it wasn’t uncommon for phone calls to happen not long after closing this one made her stomach tense uncomfortably. Putting on a brave face she went to pick it up.
"Let's see who this is." She said as she walked towards it. Picking up the phone she looked at the number before thinking about it. The number was anonymous. Which either meant two things. Trouble or business, however as a store owner, she was willing to take the chance, so she picked up the phone.
"Hello welcome to teriyaki deluxe, this is the head chef speaking, how may I help you?" Her voice was a lot different to before. Now all sweet and highly sugar coated.
She paused for a while and started to write on a note pads that she had in her pocket. Her face scrunched up in what seemed to be confusion before becoming neutral again. Once more her sugar-coated voice sung to the heavens. "Is that all?" She paused before writing something down and Nodding as If in completion.
"Thank you for choosing teriyaki deluxe as your choice of service, we should only be fifteen minutes, have a nice day." She put down the phone before muttering something unintelligent.
"You should be a voice actor." Dead panned Kimiko.
"Shut up and help me." Grumbled Penelope.
"Cooking’s a women's job, you know that" sneered Kimiko, he wasn’t a fan of the thought of cooking, he was a firm believer in what men and women should do in life. Designated roles if you would. "Women cook clean and take care of the children, men protect, work and provide, that's how it is." He paused to look dead into Penelope’s eyes. "That's how it always will be."
"Women aren't slaves Kimiko! We also can do well at jobs, sometimes better than men. We can provide, we are not weak!" Her forest green eyes blazed with anger as her voice reached new heights. Despite what he said Kimiko was a nice guy but with a bad upbringing. Unfortunately for her this was the other side of the upbringing rearing its ugly head to play. This was why despite their relationship they couldn't go to the next level. All because their views were now Kimiko’s.
For a second it seemed like Kimiko contemplated the idea before shooting it down.
"I know women aren't slaves. And job wise. Keyword being sometimes. I know that you can provide for me and a child." If one looked closely you could see the slightly lustful and leer aimed at Penelope’s figure.
While she couldn't see it she could very well feel it, as such she shivered before moving away slightly. "As for strong I know that because of you." He sounded very calm and thoughtful at the last one, just like the Kimiko she knew and loved.
A scream of frustration left Penelope’s lips before going behind the desk to make the food. It wasn't long before a cold and deafening silence took place, only disturbed by the sizzling of food and chopping techniques to break up the silence.
A few minutes passed, and Penelope had finished cooking and put it the food into containers. Getting ready to leave she put on her red coat and went to the till to get the biker keys and helmet, making sure to avoid Kimiko. Almost like a plague.
"I'll take it." She froze in place at the declaration. No, not declaration. Demand.
Swiftly, she whipped round, eyeing Kimiko curiously before folding her arms under her breast. It was almost distracting.
"What makes you think I'll let you?" Asked Penelope. It wasn't common for Kimiko to offer his services to her.
"Think of it as an apology for frustrating you." Was his reply. It wasn't often that he apologised either and Penelope almost worried about his intentions. Her eyes brows furrowed before resigning and giving him the boxes of food.
He grinned. Not an annoying one but the one of the Kimiko she loved. Kind, sincere and playful.
Putting on his bikers jacket he left the restaurant, but not before catching Penelope’s sharp look.
It wasn't over. Not by a long shot.
It wasn't long before he made his way successfully to the address in under fifteen minutes, just like Penelope promised. He was confused by the address, however, as it was uncomfortably close to the Yung yakuza who were often avoided like a plague around their base. He may be arrogant and an asshole, but he wasn't stupid, that's how one survives as a mercenary.
Once at the front yard of the address, he got off his bike he walked to the cabinet and took the food before looking at the house he was delivering too. It was a standard large blue house, large enough for a massive family or event to take place, flashing lights of various colours could be seen as the music while slightly dulled from being heard from outside, was energetic and perfect for your standardized 21-century pub dances which were almost what the lights reflected.
Wanting to get this over with, he sped walked to the pale-yellow door and pressed the bell for two seconds before waiting. After waiting for a while which seemed like forever to him, he pressed the bell again for longer before hearing the sound of jeers at the back of the house.
Resigning himself to his fate, he made his way to the back of the house, following the conveniently placed stone trail marking the way, however not before checking for Yakuza. He didn't want to be jumped at a time like this by patrol.
Once at the garden door he pushed down the handle and pushed the wooden door open only to be met with the reaper gang, the gang whose one many bases were destroyed by him.
"Darn it!" He thought surprised. If it wasn't for the fact that he was wearing a helmet with the teriyaki deluxe design on his helmet and the night time civilian bikers jacket that he wore for normal civilian jobs, he was sure he would be dead by now as two large muscular giants stood guard at the inner door.
He gulped before stepping further into the back and took in the surrounding while keeping a respectful leisurely pace. Both men and women were dressed for swimming but that wasn't what they were doing, instead they were dancing which involved lewd dances and a lot of skin to skin action.
Almost immediately, Kimiko turned his head away and looked down slightly pretending to blush. In these situations, it was always best to play the slim, shy, inexperienced virgin male, who was painfully kind that it was a turn off-card. He sped up his pace slightly and looked away to what seemed to be the dancing area not wanting to further pain his eyes by the least then acceptable "dance" which both sexes were participating in.
Luckily or unluckily circumstance wise he found the boss of the gang which was a miracle or a curse depending on the point of view.
The boss was more of a beastly giant than anything, as such Kimiko was unable to tell his height as he was sitting down but he seemed to be around 7 foot. He was completely covered in muscle as nothing seemed to not bulge horrendously.
It was a surprise that the black shorts he was wearing fit and did nothing to hide to massive bulge in his pants, he was also the only male that he had seen so far that was wearing something to cover his chest, even if it seemed as though that the extra, extra-large baseball top strained to conceal his form even if it really didn't. He was a white bald man, wearing enormous brown beach slippers that seemed to be custom made to fit his size. Going by the sofa for one that he was sitting on, he was nowhere near a lightweight. He didn't envy the chair or the women surrounding him.
"So, you're the teriyaki boy." He boomed. His voice deep and disgustingly gruff. He wrinkled his massive nose which seemed to cover more than half of his face.
Kimiko acted light a deer caught in the headlights, even as he was genuinely surprised by the size of the opposing male. "Y-Yes S-Sir" he stammered completely immersed in his acting.
"Is this the guy I was suggested to kill for further pay? I doubt even a bullet would scratch him" panicked Kimiko in thought. His palms started sweating and his lips trembled slightly, it was the first time he had genuine fear in a long time.
"Awe, scared!?" teased the monster, but instead of a sweet tone, it came out as an evil leer. "What’s your name boy?" He asked darkly.
Kimiko gulped. He was no longer sure if he was acting. Thinking quickly, he thought of a name. "Henry McKenzie S-Sir" he squeaked, it was the name of a petit client that he had and for once Kimiko had a reason to actually thank the guy, he was a constant screw up that he wished he could banish from his mind.
The beast stood up and Kimiko ended up having to strain his neck just to look at his face. The beast stalked Kimiko before resting one heavy hand on Kimiko's shoulder, ignoring the fact that half of his hand covered Kimiko's shoulder completely, and grinned at him almost ferally. His teeth were like sharks, sharp and plentiful, Kimiko had no doubt that they were as hard as one.
"Forget 7 foot, he must be 9 foot!" He thought before resisting the urge to wrinkling his nose. "Let's add stinks like a garbage truck with all the stickiest things in the world put together in his list of descriptions."
Straining to keep eye contact Kimiko said a few parting words. "Thank you for-" he was interrupted as a barrel to his far-right exploded sending people in the area flying and luckily landing in the pool looking slightly worse for wear. At the sound of the explosion, Kimiko ducked and faster than the speed of light raced towards the exit ignoring the furious rain of bullets soaring in the air.
He swerved left and right dodging member after member of the gang as they dived after Kimiko determined to catch him. All to suddenly he was slammed into the ground head first, his head erupted in pain, blood burst and flowed down his forehead.
He twisted and forced his body up in an attempt to force his attacker off, only for said attempts to be in vain as the attacker launched a powerful punch towards his temple, breaking apart some of Kimiko's helmet. Kimiko's brain imploded, nerves went haywire and limbs fell limp. He cried out in pain as a fury upon fury of blows met his body. He wasn't exactly built to take blows, he didn't have a high pain tolerance either.
Suddenly a wet substance crawled over his clothes soaking them and the body that was holding him down felt lighter than a feather. At that moment the hormone known as adrenaline flowed through his body, blood pumped, limbs tensed, and all sense of pain left. With a burst of energy, he twisted his body and as a result, the body fell as he ascended. Looking down he confirmed the body before racing off to his bike despite how dizzy he was.
Within seconds he met his bike, threw off the helmet, getting fresh air to his wound and jumped in his bike to race off as fast as possible, which wasn't very fast as he was using a civilian business bike.
"Next time" he sighed. "I'm bringing my own bike and a weapon to defend myself." He winced at the pain pulsing at his temple, before driving to the restaurant.
The trip to Teriyaki deluxe was a fast one for Kimiko as he found himself placed in front of Penelope's office. He blinked at the sudden revelation before opening the door and freezing himself in place at what he saw.
Penelope had a gun pointed at her head. Her rosy cheeks flushed despite how calm she seemed. Behind her was a gangster and going by the dress code and gun, the Reaper gang no less. The gun was clearly a custom made double barrelled semi-auto hand cannon, a gruesome weapon up close.
"Stay where you are or I'll s-shoot!" Stammered the gangster, sweat dribbled down his brow to his cheeks, hands shaking slightly. "Stay there! I'll do it!" He cried, but it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.
"Who is he talking to?" Kimiko asked himself in thought. His position frozen like ice, afraid of Penelope's life, even as blood flowed freely from his head. Kimiko looked the gangster in the eye noticing the fourth party in his eye. Slowly he turned towards where the fear was present, and his Peripheral vision picked up the barrel of a gun pointed in his direction.
"Shi-."
BANG.
The powerful sound of the gun rung through the cold, unforgiving air. Blood splattered on the floor, at that very moment a body hit the floor and Two pairs of eyes opened and noticed the gangster was dead.
Quickly, Kimiko moved in front of Penelope covering her from the potential shot awaiting. This, however, seemed to be the wrong thing to do as the gun ended up pointing towards him. He stared the attacker in the eye and as a result was frozen in place by the powerful but empty, bright yet cold, golden eyes. Yet despite how bright the dulled gold eyes may have been, it didn't stop the complete orbs of gold from sucking all hope from his very soul. All too abruptly, the room felt cold and Kimiko shivered. Who was he? What was he doing here? Would they live?
A cold fog blurred his sight slightly and it was only then that he realized that the room was getting colder simply by the attacker's presence. Simultaneously, his act of defiance faltered, and he looked away from the piercing and preying eyes.
"Who are you?" It spoke, voice baritone and dare say emotionless, dead. Kimiko did, however, pick up on the demanding tone rather than a polite ask. However, considering the previous circumstance he couldn't blame it.
"Who the heck are you?!" This was the wrong time for male pride to rear its ugly head, but he couldn't help it. He just ran away from a fight, got beaten up, saved, couldn't help Penelope and then saved again, one would think he was a damsel in distress. "Which I am not!" He valiantly denied in thought.
Its eyes narrowed at the burst but didn't comment and instead predatorially stared into his soul.
"His name is Kimiko Takara, age seventeen, mercenary and my boyfriend. I hope he didn't offend you, sir?" Penelope's voice hung in the air bravely, almost as if nothing had previously happened. She was brave but not defiant like he was and was careful with her words.
It took a very obvious tug on his arm to realize that the gun was no longer pointed towards him and to move out of the way. It was ignoring him, no longer seeing him as a threat, It and Penelope.
"A merc, Hmm?" It hummed in thought. "Stay out of trouble, otherwise I expect payment next time." Penelope nodded not going against it. It then turned towards the male. "You too stay out of trouble." He didn't say it or need to, but the 'or else' clause hung in the air like a guillotine. Kimiko copied Penelope's previous action and with that, the male disappeared.
The trip to Penelope's home was uneventful, and once they showered into separate rooms, laid down in Penelope's bed.
Kimiko enveloped Penelope in a secure hug even as her back was towards him. He was tired, really tired and eventually his eyes started to close even as he was determined to stay awake. Tiredly, he asked a question. "Who was that guy?"
His voice was quiet she noted. "His name is Kaiser Yung" she started then paused to collect her thoughts. "He's the heir of the biggest Yakuza here, I met him a while back, when 'you' were on a job."
That stung. Kimiko was almost sure he winced. "When exactly did you meet him?" He asked, voice timid.
"That's a conversation for another time," said Penelope, sparing no glance at Kimiko's defeated form.
"I love you." Penelope's heart tightened. "You know, that right?"
"Yeah" she sighed snuggling into Kimiko's embrace. "I know" she whispered. She received no response, but she already knew.
He was asleep.
Penelope woke up startled. Blood pumped furiously, cold sweat raced and heavy breathing occurred. "Just a nightmare, just a nightmare" she repeated.
It was morning she noted, and Kimiko wasn't in bed with her, meaning one of many things. He was either once again on a job or her parents had arrived and had chased him away. However, she pleasantly surprised to find Kimiko dressed in a blue gown walking towards in with two teas and a small breakfast. She raised her eyebrow before shifting her position on the bed, so her legs swung off.
"I thought you would've gotten a job, or my dad might have chased you off by now" voiced Penelope. Clearly confused with why he was still here.
Kimiko placed down the tray holding the food and tea, before handing Penelope her breakfast. Kimiko gazed into her eyes before answering. "Actually, your dad is kind of the reason I'm still here." Penelope raised a brow; her father was what she liked to call 'the most unnecessarily overprotective dad ever'. "Your parents came back earlier than expected and caught me making breakfast for you. Your father then proceeded to interrogate me and on the condition that I make them breakfast for me to stay."
So much for overprotective dad. She did, however, agree with the condition. Kimiko was a killer cook, one that should be considered illegal. Which was exampled on her face as she hummed in bliss as she ate the food during the explanation.
Unfortunately, it was interrupted by the ring of Kimiko's phone, he gave her an apologetic look before picking up the phone. Not once did Kimiko speak and only till it hit the five-minute mark did his eyes bulge in surprise. "That much?" He questioned. Going by his facial expression and question a lot of money was offered. "Deal," he said with no hesitation.
"What’s it this time?" she questioned with her food left at the side now feeling cold and left a bad taste in her mouth.
"I'm going to school, YOUR school" he answered.
"You? An academy student? Yeah right" said Penelope in disbelief.
"Unfortunately," he sighed, body hunched a bang of hair hanging before his eyes.
"And don't you forget our talk," she said reminding him, casually watching the television as she ate her breakfast that was delivered to her in bed.
"Love you too,” he retorted unhappily.
ns 18.68.41.179da2
