Chapter Text
You’re used to the smell of blood. It doesn’t faze you the slightest bit any more.
Kiryu’s face down in his puddle of blood, an ugly puckered wound in the back of his head. You can’t help it - giving his body a light kick when you walk past to inspect the other body. Her . Tachibana Tetsu’s unfortunate little sister, her eyes frozen open in her last moment of terror, dark brown irises so close she almost looks cross-eyed. Like she was staring at the bullet milliseconds just before it pierced her forehead.
Had to do it to ‘em, you sigh, sheathing your smoking gun back in its holster. Wasn’t like there was any other way for me .
You make sure the soles of your shoes are free of blood before you exit the room, careful not to leave any prints behind.
You barge into Tachibana’s room in Little Asia. Upon your entrance he seems a tad miffed at his rest being disrupted, but you’re sure he won’t mind once he’s heard what you have to say.
“Get up,” you say, wrapping his blanket over his shoulders. He won’t have time to dress, you really want him out of this city before he can meticulously rationalise your decisions. “We have to go.”
“Oda-san?” He is so weak, so tired and drained from his abundance of medical conditions. He can barely stand on his feet. “Where’s Kiryu-san? Where’s my sister?”
You usher him out of the room and down the creaky, narrow stairway. “They’re gone. I’m so sorry ,” you offer, but you know this is only an acceptable apology in the heat of the moment. He’ll want a more detailed one later. “We’ve gotta get out of Kamurocho. Shibusawa and his boys’re coming for us,” you explain, knowing the probability of that is low since Shibusawa swore to uphold his end of the bargain and leave Li Hua alone. (The chances are low, but never zero, and you don’t trust a yakuza fuck like him.)
The expression on his face is nothing but despair and fear when you help him settle into one of the backseats of your van, so unlike the calm demeanour he usually displays. You hush him. “Ssh. Everything’s going to be okay. Just stay here and wait, okay? I’ll bring your medical equipment down.”
He nods, still on edge from this hasty departure. You swiftly load everything into the van, and with two shakes of a dog’s tail you’re off, speeding out of town as fast as the vehicle can carry you.
“Head down,” you instruct. “Please don’t lift your head until I give the all clear.”
“I trust you,” says Tachibana, and ducks his head as far as he can.
That evening, when the sun dips below the horizon, you stop the van on a road shoulder.
“Hey. Are you alright?” You hand him the bun you’d bought from the convenience store before going to pick him up. “Eat up, you’ll need your strength.”
“Thank you.” Tachibana’s voice is hoarse. “Do you have any water?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got enough for the both of us.” He can’t open the bottle with only one good hand, so you do it for him, just as you’ve always done. The plastic seal on the neck cracks, and you hand the bottle to him. He takes a large sip, almost a gulp, and then passes back the bottle back to you. You take a sip. Pass it back to him. And so on. Almost like you’re sharing sake at your wedding.
The blanket wrapped around his torso falls open, and behind that you see his skinny, frail body. How much weight has he lost since before your trip to Sotenbori? Your heart aches for him - not just for his body, but for his soul. He’s an empty shell of grief right now, and you want to be the one who will make it all better.
With love, all things are possible, right?
“Hey.” You cup a hand against his cheek, and shift towards him to close the gap between you two in the backseat of the van. You’ve never touched him this way before, not because you didn’t want to, hell, you would die a happy man to touch him like this , but because you never knew if he wanted it or not. “ Li Hua. ”
“What’s this, Wei Tian ?” returns Tachibana, but all spark in his usual banter is lost. “Getting all sentimental on me now, are you?”
“Hmm…” You caress his beautiful face with your hands, mapping out every dimple and bump and ridge you find along his jawline. “There’s something I want to tell you. It’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time. And I was worried that I would never get to tell you, especially after my recent brush with death.”
His eyes meet yours, so weary. “Tell me,” he pleads, so quiet you feel he’s slipping away through your fingers.
But you are determined to pull him back, whatever it takes.
“I...I’m in love with you.”
There’s a subtle shift in his expression - he is so unreadable right now, like his face is a puzzle for you to solve. Except you can’t find a single hint, a single clue on what’s hiding behind that face of his.
Show him. Show him how you want to love him .
And so you kiss him. You kiss him like your life depends on it - because he is your life, your very light of your world. There’s a second or two where he’s frozen but you don’t care, you press on with vigour. It’s selfish, but you feel you deserve what you desire, and you desire him . Only him. You scramble to put his hands on your shoulders and that brings the two of you even closer, so close that you’re trying to become one with him with the force of your kisses, and then finally-
Tachibana kisses back. His lips move against yours, calm and placid, so elegantly like he usually is. You push the blanket off his shoulders and grab at his smooth, warm skin - oh, how long you’ve waited , waited to touch him like this. You nibble along his lower lip, and he sighs.
“Let’s make love,” you offer, lips brushing his. It’s quite the step up from kissing, but you’ve waited for this for years and you would die if you waited any longer. “I want you.”
“I...have no problem with that.” A smile plays on your lips as you tenderly cradle the back of his neck and lower him onto the seats, climbing on top of him. You worship his body with your lips, your hands, marking every inch of skin that is revealed to you as you help him undress fully. It drives you plainly mad with desire, this beautiful man - his beautiful body, the beautiful way his breath hitches when you lick a stripe down the centre of his chest. The beautiful way he squirms against you when your fingers dance down his sides, the beautiful way his body arches as you slip his soft cock into your mouth. The beautiful way that he smells, sweat and cologne, the beautiful way he tastes. He is a masterpiece , sent from the heavens, to bless you who is so unworthy.
You want to ride him, but you can’t get him hard, even after an hour of trying. “Sorry,” whispers Tachibana, curling into himself. “I don’t think I’m fully in the mood today.”
“”t’s okay,” You assure him, pulling his back to your front, and you press a kiss to the top of his head. “You’re grieving. We’ll try again another day.”
The next morning you awaken with an angel in your arms. Then the two of you are off again, continuing on your journey to the next city.
You end up in a motel that afternoon. Tachibana will not make it without another round of dialysis, so the afternoon is spent just waiting as the machine filters his blood.
When he rests, he looks peaceful. There is no tension in his brow, no melancholy in his expression. Calm, as he always is.
You’re idle, sitting in a chair by his bed.
(You wish he never lost his arm and got his kidney problems to begin with. You’d give up your own kidney just so he’d have his strength back again - but alas, you weren’t a match.)
(You kinda regret not taking along Makimura Makoto’s kidney along with you when you left. Surely, being related by blood, hers was far more likely to be a match. But you hadn’t prepared an ice bath or storage or anything like that, so it would’ve been futile anyway.)
(Perhaps you could start looking into the organ market for options.)
By nightfall, his treatment is done. He’s still weak, but not any weaker than he was before the session. You leave him in bed, propped up by his pillows, as he watches some random program on the television. The bright screen casts on him a ghostly glow.
“I’m going out,” You announce, tucking a stray lock of his hair back behind his ear. “Getting dinner at the convenience store. Your knife’s in the bedside drawer. Don’t answer the door for anyone, alright? Even if you know it’s me.”
His eyes don’t meet yours. “I won’t. You know how careful I am.”
“Good.” You lean down to plant a kiss on his forehead, and then you are leaving with the only key. You won’t be gone for long.
You return ten minutes later with two bentos. You give a few short raps on the motel room door. “Tachibana, it’s me,” you say. Insert the key. Turn. Click .
He’s sitting up straighter in his bed, knife in hand. When he sees you his posture relaxes, and he drops his steel blade back into the bedside drawer where he’d retrieved it from. “That was fast.”
“It was just right down the street.” You lay a bento across his lap, a simple meal of chicken, pickles and rice. “Eat up.”
He picks at his food and it reminds you of a child refusing to eat his vegetables. It’s times like this where Tachibana looks younger, more boyish than he already is. Meanwhile, you’ve already finished your bento. It’s filling, but in hindsight you probably should have bought more.
Tachibana pushes his bento away from him. “I’m not very hungry today.”
“You need your energy.” Taking the initiative, you pick up his chopsticks, and scoop up a wad of rice. “If you’re not going to eat it yourself, I’ll feed you.”
“There’s no need to treat me like an infant,” groans Tachibana, but he accepts the rice anyway. The two of your fall into this simple rhythm. Lift a bite of food to his lips. Wait for him to accept it. Watch him chew. Swallow. His lips, as you reach past them with your chopsticks, are soft and pink.
He finishes his bento in the time you could have eaten five. “That’s not so bad, is it?” You smirk, clearing the food off the bed.
“I feel more rejuvenated already. Thank you, Oda-san,” he says, his voice soft and gentle. You’d do anything for him to talk to you like that.
“Oda-san?” He asks suddenly, a fair bit more serious now. You tuck away the empty bento containers into the plastic bag they came in, and then set it on the ground.
“What is it?”
“If it doesn’t bother you too much, could I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” You reply, smiling to put him at ease. You would rip out your own heart and present it to him on a platter if he asked. A question, then, is almost nothing. You would answer him without question.
“Oda-san...how did my sister die?”
Oh. That.
You still have to give him an answer, right?
“She died bravely.”
“Oda-san, please, why?”
“Did she say anything? Before she passed.”
“Held her as she died. In her final moments...hm, she wanted me to tell you, that she missed you dearly. That she was heartbroken at the fact that she couldn’t see you again. And that she wished you, with her last breath, the strength to recover from her untimely death.”
“Kiryu-san, Oda-san, what’s happening?!”
“Oda, put the gun down!”
“And Kiryu-san?”
“He was there to protect her, and he gave his life for it.”
“I’ll shoot, Kiryu, I’ll really do it, now move out of the goddamn way so I can -”
“I’m not stepping out of the way until you put the gun down.”
“Wanna die a hero, huh? Don’t come any closer, Kiryu, don’t you fucking dare-!”
Your gun goes off the first time, and a fountain of blood spews from Kiryu’s chest.
“O-Oda...you bastard…”
Your gun fires a second time. Kiryu gurgles, choking, and falls face down into the puddle of his own blood.
“He was gone too soon, that young man.” You sigh, finding his hand under the sheets. You grasp it like a lifeline, because he’s all you have right now. “You always said he had potential.”
“He really did,” sighs Tachibana. “If we had gotten through this incident unscathed I was really considering bringing him on officially.”
“K-Kiryu-san?!”
“You’re next, missy.”
“I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry for...everything, please, all I ask is t-that you never take advantage of girls like me again…”
You slap the bitch across the face with your gun, and she sprawls out on the concrete floor.
“Oda-san, I’m sorry…”
“Good night.”
Your gun goes off for the third time that night, and the source of your torment is dead.
“You were lucky to have escaped, then.” notes Tachibana. “Though the mission was a massive failure...at least you’re alive, Oda-san.”
“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if you had died, too.”
“I didn’t know that your concern for me runs that deep. Thank you, Tachibana. Li Hua ,” You tack on his Chinese name to the end, in hopes that will help break down a barrier. The name Tachibana Tetsu is merely a facade for his dealings in Japan. Its sentimental value is next to zero, and yet he had insisted you refer to him that way in private. You longed to call him Li Hua once again, because that was the man you fell in love with - the tough, ruthless street gang boss who could wipe the floor with you any day and you’d still thank him for it.
“ Wei Tian .” His voice is soft, and is accompanied by the gentle squeeze that he gives your hand. “I do not wish to think about such grim matters tonight. I need a distraction.”
“What can I do for you?” Your heart races. “I’ll do anything.”
“Oda-san, we’ve known each other for years. Surely you must know at least a few things we could do that would take my mind off things.” He smoothes out the sheets across his lap. “I’m asking you to provide me with a suggestion, as it may.”
Now’s your chance. Your throat goes dry, and you make the proposition again, the same proposition you made in the van just the day before. “I’ll pleasure you.” This is by no means an explicit phrasing of what you’d like to do to him, but the thought makes your blood run so hot it shows plainly as a thick blush across your cheeks. “I’ll make you feel so good.”
“I put my body in your hands, then.” You surge forward to kiss him again, and this time he kisses back almost immediately - a shorter delay time than before, so you think he’s more into it today. Your kisses trail down his jaw, his neck - you think about sucking a mark into that pale, unblemished skin, marking him as yours. Because you could not see him as belonging to anyone but you.
You start on nibbling into the lean flesh of his shoulder, but Tachibana hisses, pulling you away from him. “Jun, please, no marks.”
A twinge of disappointment hits you, but then you remind yourself that you’re lucky to have the privilege of touching him in the first place. “As you wish, Li Hua .” You press a kiss to the spot in apology, and move on.
Once again you find yourself with your face between his legs. You recall him snapping some poor sop’s neck with his thighs once. That was hot. This time he swells in your mouth, and you’re glad. You take him as deep as you can, suppressing the urge to gag, and work him along your tongue until he’s hard, and then a bit beyond that. Tachibana then pulls you off him by the scruff of your hair. Your scalp tingles; so does every other part of your body. You’re so turned on by him right now it’s crazy.
“Get up here and take your trousers off,” commands Tachibana, in the same manner he would urgently chide you to take a taxi down to Pink Street and buy that records store for me before someone else does. You comply, of course, because there’s no reason you’d disobey an order from him. Especially one as appealing as this. Your fingers are trembling as they struggle with your belt buckle, and once that’s out of the way you pull your trousers and underpants down together so quickly you think you hear a seam rip.
You move across the bed to reach him. “Are you going to fuck me?”
“Turn around.” He lays you on your side, your back turned to him. You jump as he grabs at one of your thighs, kneading the muscle beneath his hands. “Good, very good.”
“My thighs? Is that what you want from me?”
“Yes, Oda-san. I’m going to fuck your thighs.” You’ve never heard him use such coarse language before, and that goes straight to your dick. You haven’t even touched yourself and you’re already hard and leaking. You hope he notices - some attention from him would be nice right now.
“Anything for you.” You suck in a deep breath as he presses himself flush to you. “I-er, didn’t shave my legs. Is that alright?”
His hand rakes through the patch of thick, dark hair on your leg, and when his fingers catch on a few long strands he yanks on them, earning a squeak from you. “I certainly don’t mind,” He whispers, breath tickling the shell of your ear. “Perhaps, I might prefer you this way.”
God, he’s making you blush. “Hurry up,” you grit your teeth, pushing your hips back into him. “Just fuck me already.”
He glides against you effortlessly with the slick lubrication from your spit. You can feel him, pumping between your legs, that blunt, stiff hardness that provides such warm pressure. He has a hand on your hip, drawing you in close - and then he draws away, as much as he can, and plunges back in. He’s not looking to be tender, no - perhaps you had expected your first time with him to be a bit more affectionate. Slow, gentle kisses. Hands lazily drifting over each other’s bodies. But there is none of that here, as he rocks into you at a frenzied pace, slapping skin against skin. He cares not about your pleasure at all, not reaching around to stroke you off, not even stopping to ask how you’re doing.
He’s using you to get out of his head. To make him stop thinking, stop feeling.
You are the last line of defence stopping all his thoughts from overwhelming him - a responsibility you would gladly accept.
You only hope in time, he comes to love you too.
With a last grunt, Tachibana pushes in to the hilt and sprays ropes of white along the seam where your thighs are connected. So hot, so thick. Your ass feels so pathetically empty now, craving the feeling of being filled up. Then he pulls away completely, his warmth leaving you.
All of a sudden, you feel almost lonely.
He sits up in bed, cross-legged. “Oda-san. Touch yourself. I want to see you.”
“Yes,” you croak, your voice hoarse. Your fingers dance in the damp puddle of his release on the sheets as you scoop up a handful to stroke yourself off with, and you coat two fingers of your other hand in his warm seed, inserting them into yourself as far as they can go.
That’s the closest you’ll get to having him inside you. To having his cum inside of you.
Your thoughts churning, it doesn’t take long for you to reach orgasm, emptying yourself onto the sheets, fluids mingling with Tachibana’s. You let out a cry of his name, so high and reverent on your lips, and he is there when you come down from your high, rubbing circles into your back.
That night, you hold him again. You hold him so close to you it’s like you want to merge with him into one body, and truthfully nothing would make you happier. To be by his side always.
“Where are we going?” Tachibana mumbles sleepily into your shoulder. “Where are we running to?”
You rest your chin atop his head, and wrap your arms tighter around him. “Hiroshima. We’re going to Hiroshima.”
Elder Chen had recommended Hiroshima when you’d asked him about where to go if, in a hypothetical situation, you and Li Hua had to leave Kamurocho. The region was Yomei Alliance turf, and neither the Tojo Clan nor the Omi Alliance dared disturb their territory. In addition, the Saio Triad back on the mainland had been smuggling secret-born heihaizi into Hiroshima for a number of years, so finding a Chinese community there probably wouldn’t be much of a problem.
Your van rolls into Onomichi just as the sun dips below the horizon, casting its golden glow across the waters. Fishing boats bob along the harbour; seabirds fly overhead - just what one would expect from a sleepy little fishing town, and something in your gut tells you that it’s perfect.
Far from Kamurocho, far from the reaches of the Tojo Clan. As long as everything about the Empty Lot never saw the light of day, you could take your secrets to the grave.
“So this is Onomichi,” marvels Tachibana, his hand resting on where you’d put yours on the stick shift. “We’ll be staying here for quite some time, I presume.”
“Yeah.” You didn’t look at him. “It’s our new home now.”
The loud honk of a rickety old bus stuck behind your van snaps you out of your thoughts. You flip the bastard off, to which your companion chuckles. And then you get the hell out of the way before the bus honks at you again.
Your future is yours now. The man you love is by your side, both Kiryu and Makoto are dead, and there’s a new life waiting for you here in Onomichi.
All in all, life’s going quite splendidly for you now.