for daisuke;

[endpapers]

If Hanamaru was really honest with herself, she was honestly upset that she had to give up her activities as the library aid.

Thankfully being a part of the school idol club was allowed, and Aqours usually didn't practice for very long, which was a plus. She had to wave goodbye to her friends as she rushed to the sleek car that had parked nearby, trying to get to it fast before some of her friends asked. Since she wasn't going home with Ruby anymore, they'd had a few questions, but it'd usually stopped when she said it was something to do with her parents and the shrine--which wasn't exactly wrong!

As she came to a stop in front of the car and slid in once it was opened for her, Hanamaru pursed her lips and slid into the car, pulling down her long skirt and exhaling slowly.

As of today, it'd be a week that she'd been pushed into this arrangement with Takamori-san. Going 'home' this way still felt wrong and foreign, though especially so with the added... could she call them 'security'?

Hanamaru leaned back, closing her eyes as she tried to both catch her breath and clear her mind. The one week was over without much fuss, so maybe the arrangement wouldn't be so bad?

The car purred into motion with everyone inside, and she peered at the windows, watching the ocean pass by as they started their way back to Takamori-san's home.

Comments

[welcomethefamily]

If Daisuke was being honest with himself, he didn't know why those old-timers were so eager to stay in the fold. Their family hadn't been important to the way things ran since Japan surrendered - probably hadn't even been that important in their prime.

So they'd slipped up in paying respects to the head. So they'd forgotten to come to the meetings. So what? What pissed him off wasn't that, it was seeing them bow their heads to the ground.

Maybe they were scared of some kind of retribution, but if they'd paid him some money, he'd look the other way. Then again, they had paid, hadn't they? When they'd started begging him not to hurt their daughter, he'd gotten an idea.

And that was how he'd gotten a little pet - he'd probably marry her in a couple of years, if he didn't get bored. She was pretty enough.

Even if waiting for her at the front of his estate still felt like a pain. School was the problem. Pulling her out of it would be too much of a fuss. God forbid some concerned teacher came wandering around. But it meant she wasn't here half the day, and when she was his girl, that was a problem. He'd have to figure something out.

But she was here now, and his lackeys were letting her out, and that was all that mattered. "Yo," he shouted across the driveway of his estate, raising his hand. He didn't exactly fit the image of a dignified Yakuza boss, with his messy hair and ruffled clothes, but then, they weren't a big family anyway. If they were, he wouldn't be hitting up some forgotten, withered branch just to get some action from their daughter.

"Hana-chan, come here. Rest of you, give us some alone time," he said, and the lackeys all bowed their heads as they helped Hanamaru out of the car. They weren't really proper looking yakuza, either - even the men under his personal command looked like low-rent thugs. Then again, suits and sunglasses would make them stick out too much.