Chapter 35

"What are you doing here?" You ask in confusion.

"I came to see you~" Kazutora bubbles.

"See me?" You look at him confused. He slowly walks up to you. He stands in front of you, looking you up and down. He smiles a bit before looking at the bakery.

"I heard you live here in this bakery..." Kazutora sooths.

"You heard that? From where?" You ask. Kazutora smiles and looks back at you.

"Everyone knows..." He replies.

"Everyone? What do you mean every-"

"Are you really V?" Kazutora asks grabbing your hand.

"Huh?" You sigh.

"I mean... you can't do much with a broken leg..." he says pulling you towards him. You hear a motorcycle approaching. You slowly turn your head to see Draken stop in front of the bakery.

"Draken?" You softly say as Draken turns off his bike and gets off.

"Tch..." Kazutora slowly turns towards Draken with an irritated look on his face.

"Kazutora? What are you doing here?" Draken asks.

"pft... why are you here? Draken..." Kazutora scoffs.

"I'm Yuki's friend..." Draken adds.

"So am I-" Kazutora responds. You push past Kazutora and into the bakery closing the door behind you. Kazutora looks at you and then back at Draken. You sit down at a table and rest your head in your arms feeling stressed about the day and not wanting to be involved in anymore drama. Within a few minutes you drift off into sleep.

After a bit you are waken up by someone shaking you. You slowly look up to see Draken towering over you.

"Hm?" You hum. 

"We need to talk..." Draken says.

"About?" You question.

"About everything that is going on..." Draken says helping you up. You pull away from him causing him to look at you with a hint of irritation and shock.

"Then we can talk here..." You sigh.

"No... I came here to take you somewhere else for the night... It's not safe for you to stay here..." Draken says.

"What do you mean?" You pull at your sweater sleeve frowning a bit.

"Rumor is being spread around about you." Draken sighs.

"What rumor?" You say in a tired tone.

"About V..." Draken states.

"What about V?" You ask.

"About... V killing a black dragon member..." Draken adds.

"HUH?" You say in a panicked tone.

"I figured..."

"Figured what?" You question walking up to him. 

"You had no idea what I'm talking about... I figured you wouldn't know. Mikey thought the same." Draken sighs rubbing the back of his head. 

"..." You look down feeling kind of weird that people are using your name to cause havoc. Now thinking about it... why did you use that name... V...

"Is there anything you need to grab from your place before we go... like clothes or...?" Draken says as he puts his hands in his pockets and leans back a bit.

"Where am I going to stay?" You ask.

"At my place... it's more convenient." Draken responds. You nod and head towards the stairs. Draken sighs and sits down at one of the tables waiting for you. 

You walk into your bedroom and go into your dresser grabbing a few outfits. Then you grab some wash products and shoved them into a bag. You stop at the big book on the table. You look at the book before taking it and putting it in your bag. 

You slowly walk back downstairs and towards Draken. 

"I'm ready..." You softly say. Draken nods and motions you to keep walking as he gets up and walks behind you. He gets on his bike and helps you on behind him. You hold onto him as he drives off. You zone out thinking about a few things that don't seem to make sense to you. Your birthday isn't tomorrow but your friends are acting like it is... you used the name V but where did that idea come from... and why is Hana the only person who seems to be excited about your birthday...? Who's causing you all these problems for you while using your code name... why did you even get involved in any of this...

Why are you even here...

Draken drives to a spot and stops in a space. He then locks up his bike.

"We are going to have to walk the rest of the way there... you okay with that?" He asks. 

"Yeah..." You say getting off his bike. Once the foot with the broken leg touched the ground you feel a sudden sharp pain in your hip and thigh causing you to collapse to the ground. 

"You good?" Draken says walking towards you.

"Y-yeah..." You say trying to get back up, but it hurt too much. "Nope... I can't- ouch- it hurts..." You groan. Draken lifts you up and carries you on his back. He carries you into the city and then into a building. You can't recognize where you are. He walks into an elevator and presses a button.

"You're okay with carrying me like this?" You ask as the elevator goes up.

"Yeah. You aren't heavy so I don't have a problem with carrying you like this." Draken responds. The elevator door opens, and Draken walks in. You look at the pictures on the walls. There are pictures of different women and a list of rules. You look at the man behind the front desk and a couple of women standing at the desk talking to the man.

"huh-" The lady in a pink see-through dress hums. 

"Kenny... finally you're back... can you help me with something real quick..." The other woman sooths. You look at her. She has long wavy brown hair and soft brown eyes. The woman looks up at you and tilts her head. "Who's the girl on your back?" The woman asks.

"She's pretty " The lady says as she sucks on a lolly pop.

"Are you hooking up with her or something?" The woman asks.

"No... I'm not- and I can't help you right now... give me a bit." Draken sighs as he carries you away.

"Where are we... a brothel?" You quietly ask Draken. 

"Yeah..." he answers. Draken carries you into a room and closes the door behind him. You look around the room. It's clean and nicely decorated. Draken sits you down on a bed. You look at the pictures of Draken and his friends on the wall. "You live here?" You ask. Draken looks at you and sighs. 

"Yeah..." He responds.

"..." You look at his sweaters that are hung up... They all... look the same but with different designs... slightly different. "Why do you have a bunch of the same sweater?" You ask pointing to the rack of tops. Draken looks in the direction you're pointing.

"Do you have a problem with it?" He asks.

"No wonder you always look like you're wearing the same thing every time I see you" You listlessly say, squinting at him. Draken stares at you with no response.

"Your leg is still fucked up... right?" He says applying pressure on it causing you to cringe and fall over.

After a while you and him are both sitting on his bed. Draken is gently rubbing the parts of your leg that's not in a cast.

"You rubbing my leg feels weird..." You say pushing his hand away.

"You need to rest your leg more, Yuki..." Draken sighs. You move your leg a bit and sigh leaning your back against the wall. You slowly look at Draken causing him to look at you.

"What did you and Kazutora talk about?" You ask.

"Personal stuff..." Draken says standing up and walking over to his dresser.

"mmm..." You hum and sink down onto the bed.

"Did you bring anything to sleep in?" Draken asks. You slowly look at him.

"No- Damn... I forgot about that..." You softly groan. Draken narrows his eyes at you and grabs a shirt from his dresser. Then he grabs you and throws you over his shoulder.

"Augh... wait... what are you doing?" You ask. 

"You aren't sleeping in my bed in street clothes..." Draken responds carrying you out the room.

You are sitting down on a small bench in a shower room. Draken wraps a bag around your cast.

"When are you going to go back in to get your leg checked?" Draken asks tightening the bag.

"I don't know... Around Halloween I think..." You sigh.

"You think?" Draken responds.

"Yeah..." You sigh again.

"I was going to ask earlier... about that name... V... Why did you use that name?" Draken says standing up and opening the door leaning over a bit and grabbing something from the other side.

"..." You sit still staring off into the distance thinking about that. You aren't entirely sure why you used that name. You zone out a bit trying to think about it.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to..." Draken says handing you a towel.

"When I was younger... Hana and I- we used to play pretend a lot..." You say.

"Eh?" Draken raises an eyebrow. Now thinking about it, that's true. It all started off as a game when you and Hana were younger. You both were really into wizards and magic. Your name was V and Hana's was Cosmic Strawberry Pocky... Now thinking about that name, it sounds incredibly lame... She would refer to herself as just Pocky... like the treat... Hana kept mentioning your birthday even though your birthday isn't tomorrow. But now it makes sense. You both had a whole backstory on your characters. Which is why Hana says your birthday is tomorrow. Your mother used to go along with your imagination and got involved with it, by buying you things and celebrating certain things with you. Aimi was also a part of it... She didn't get to choose a name like you or Hana... since she was your sidekick, you gave Aimi her name... Aimi's real name isn't Aimi... but you have called her Aimi since you met her. So has everyone else. Now thinking about it... what was her real name?

Back then that's how you met Eli and Aimi... Hana and you both started that pretend game since you both were 4... after watching some sort of animated film the both of you imagined yourselves as magical beings with cosmic powers. Hana and you argued with each other about not wanting to work with each other anymore. You both would ignore each other for days when your parents would hang out. You decided to find a replacement and that's when you met Aimi, making Aimi your sidekick which pissed Hana off. Hana then found Eli who was playing at the park with his cousins and older sister, dragging him off the play equipment and forcing him to be her sidekick. 

You smile to the thought of all of it.

"Why're you smiling?" Draken asks making you snap out of it.

"Oh... uh... I was just thinking about things." You reply.

"What did you mean by play pretend?" He asks.

"We would pretend to be wizards..." You reply. "My nickname was V and Hana's nickname was Pocky..." You say.

"Pocky? Like the snack?" He asks. You nod. He smiles and shakes his head. "What a nerd" He chuckles. You furrow your eyebrows.

"Nerd?" You tilt your head to the side.

"Yeah... Wizards? Really?" He says smiling at you. You squint your eyes at him.

"You're acting like you weren't weird when you were younger..." You say pointing up at him.

"Nah... not like that- and what a lame ass name... V? That's all... Pocky sounds a lot better than V..." Draken teases.

"Her full name was Cosmic Strawberry Pocky..." You reply. Draken stops laughing and looks at you with a weird face then he bursts out laughing. You smile at him laughing.

"Stop- It's not even that funny..." You say trying to hold in your laugh.

"BAHAHAAA" 

You stand still in the shower with your eyes closed.

"I don't normally shower with other people like this so don't mention this to anyone." Draken sighs as he scrubs your back.

"... What's going to happen to me since there's a rumor going around that I killed a black dragon...?" You ask. Draken stops scrubbing your back causing you to look over your shoulder. Draken leans his face closer towards you and sighs as he places his hand on the wall, leaning on it a bit.

"I don't know..." Draken replies.

"Do you think they will be after me now?" You ask.

"Yeah." He answers. "The thing about them though is that they would actually kill you..." Draken says.

"Is that why I'm here?" You ask.

"Yeah, Mikey wanted me to watch you until he's ready to meet up..." 

"Is he busy?" You question turning around to get a better look at Draken.

"Him and Mitsuya are trying to figure out what's going on... there's so much shit going on at once though... There's Baji leaving toman, the thing with Kazutora... Valhalla... and now this..." Draken groans leaning his head back a bit and moving a bit to let the hot water hit his hair and face.

"I'm sorry..." You softly say. Draken looks down at you.

"Why're you sorry?" He asks.

"I'm causing you all a lot of trouble... You should just let me take the fall for it and leave me instead of taking the heat" You sigh looking down. Draken places his hand on your head and moves it a bit to make you look up at him. 

"Yuki... You're special to us... to Toman... to Mikey... We are willing to take this kind of heat for you... Stop being a baby about it and be tough... I know you're a girl but don't cry about it... Just show us the love we are showing you... that's all we want." Draken says rubbing your hair and pushing it down a bit. 

"Are you sure?" You quaver.

"You mean a lot to Mikey... Mikey doesn't just like anyone... If Mikey likes you then you're special. It might not seem like it, but I care about you Yuki..." He moves your hair from in front of your face. "You're Toman's girl..." He says smiling at you. You slowly nod still looking down. "So don't cry... I don't like when girls cry... It's ugly-" He adds. "Okay?" 

"..." You furrow your eyebrows a bit causing Draken to raise an eyebrow.

"Did you even hear what I said...?" He huffs.

"Draken..." You softly say.

"Eh?"

"You're hard..." You slowly say. Why did I say that...

"..." He looks down at himself and then back at you. You slowly look up at him. You both stare at each other for a brief moment.

"I think I'm clean enough." You say breaking the silence.

"Yeah... Come on... let's get out..." He says turning off the shower and walking out, throwing a soft pink towel at you.