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writingpaperghost · 2 years ago

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Without You (Chapter 9)

Chapter 9: Family Trip, Peace For Now

The Igarashi family take a trip. The Akaishi siblings are also there. And the Ushijima family. And Hiromi and George. That's totally not weird.

Between the last chapter I posted and this chapter, I've watched Girls Remix, and then nearly all of W other than the last three episodes and the stuff after the series. And I'm only behind one episode of Geats. What I'm trying to say is I can watch stuff pretty quick when it's not Revice. Make of that what you will.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43371954/chapters/113749363

Makoto doesn’t think he’s ever been on a trip quite like this, but Genta wanted to celebrate Yukimi coming home. And Makoto figures it’ll be nice for everyone, since he’s almost positive Hana has never had anything like this, and Tamaki probably hadn’t either. There had been a few family trips since they’d been taken in by the Igarashis, but this was certainly unique.

Tamaki was probably the wariest of the whole thing, almost certainly because of his ears and tail that he was struggling to hide in the hopes of avoiding any unwanted attention. That was a part of why they didn’t often go out on trips, even not as a whole family. One part was that they liked to keep Happy Spa open, the other part was that Tamaki particularly had a hard time hiding his strange features.

Meanwhile, Hana seemed very excited, and certainly a part of that was getting to do something new with her family. There’s a bounce in her step – that wasn’t entirely new, though, that certainly was more brought on by Sakura. Makoto wouldn’t complain about his sister’s new happiness, even if he’d admit to being a bit skeptical of Sakura. That strange feeling he got from her kept in his mind, and it made him worry about all the time Hana was spending alone with her.

But it wasn’t the time to worry about Sakura or the Deadmans or any of the rest of that. Unless he had no other choice, Makoto was determined to focus on his family, on celebrating that Yukimi was okay. Come hell or high water, he was going to focus all of his attention on his family.

Obstacle number one presented itself as early as check in. Namely in the form of the Ushijima family, who walked in right after they did. The moment Hikaru saw them, he sighed, making a face that looked incredibly tired.

Mr. Ushijima smiled, “Oh, what a surprise,”

“The three of you have come here too?” Genta looked a bit confused, “Well, that’s a strange coincidence.”

Hikaru gravitated to Hana, “I swear I didn’t know they were planning this, or that you guys were going to be here.”

“Well I didn’t tell you we would be,” Hana responded, dryly.

Right, okay, well Hana would have someone else to spend time with while here, at least. She’d probably like that, so while it’s a bit strange that the Ushijima family is here, it’s not really so strange that he’s going to let it bother him much.

A few moments later, obstacle number two appears – all three of them, in the form of bickering siblings. “I still can’t believe you forgot about this,” Sakura groused, “I mean, really, you’ve got to stop spending so much time training.”

Standing beside her, an unamused expression on his face, Captain Akaishi – Daiji? – sighed, “I’m sorry,” his apology sounded halfhearted, “but I have things to do, you know.”

“Not that much.” She rolled her eyes.

Adjusting his hat, Ikki sighed, “Come on, you two. Family vacation, remember?”

Tamaki startles at the sight of the three, “Captain Akaishi?”

His words draw Daiji’s attention, who seemed a bit surprised, “Ah, Tamaki.”

Upon realizing Hana’s presence, Sakura hurried over to her, hugging her, “Hana!” As they hugged, Hana lit up, equally excited to see Sakura. Hikaru frowned and reluctantly stepped to the side.

Poor Hikaru, never even tried to tell Hana how he so obviously felt, and now he had to watch her with Sakura. He seemed to be taking it rather well, at least, not that Makoto had ever really taken him as the jealous type.

Then the final obstacle, number three, came in, in the form of one dramatic Karizaki, and an exasperated, tired looking, Mr. Kadota. Karizaki appears to have made Mr. Kadota carry all of the luggage – and Makoto gets the impression most of it is Karizaki’s.

Looking between the two families (Hikaru’s parents have already left, somehow, and apparently didn’t seem particularly concerned that Hikaru was still standing next to Hana), Karizaki gains a stupidly big grin, “Well, look at that. Both the Igarashi family and the Akaishi family.”

Both Hikaru and Sakura grab ahold of Hana before she can throw a kunai in George’s direction, certainly avoiding causing an actual, significant scene. Instead, Hana is just glaring daggers at him, which was a great improvement. Meanwhile, Daiji perked up upon seeing Mr. Kadota, seeming both confused at his presences, but also glad for it.

Both Genta and Yukimi were gaining looks of increasing confusion, as Makoto comes to a horrifying realization. Coincidence or not, the presence of both the Akaishi siblings, the Ushijima family, and Karizaki and Mr. Kadota were certainly going to make it very hard for Makoto to focus on his family. He gets the impression that Karizaki was certainly going to make his entire existence the Igarashi family’s problem.

---

“I’m going to go spend some time with Hikaru and Sakura,” Hana said, with a cheery tone and air of excitement.

“Huh?” Genta sputtered, “What happened to family time?”

Yukimi takes his arm, “Oh Genta, let her have some fun. It’s not often she gets to spend time with her two favorite friends.” She likely only described both as friends because Makoto suspects that she hasn’t given up on her hopes of Hikaru doing something about his crush, as much as Yukimi seems happy that Hana’s with Sakura.

Hana practically skipped out of the room, clearly excited to see Sakura and Hikaru. Makoto watches her leave, an amused expression on his face, knowing Hana wasn’t likely to pass up an opportunity to be with either of the two. Both at once she would certainly not let pass by, though Makoto had to wonder how much the two actually got along with each other.

He was rather content at just staying with the rest of his family – especially since he doesn’t get to see as much of Tamaki as he used to, since Tamaki had joined Fenix. And at least in this room, Tamaki didn’t really need to try to hide his ears and tail. He’d tried when they arrived, but the moment they were in the room he’d yanked his had off, his ears generally not fond of being shoved in one. Probably made too much noise, too.

“Your fur’s a bit dirty,” Makoto notes, gently running his fingers over a patch of fur on the back of Tamaki’s arm.

Rolling his eyes, Tamaki responded, “I probably just need to actually… really scrub it. It’s fur, it picks up all the dirt.”

It was a bit ironic, for all that Tamaki was determined to keep his glasses’ lens clean, he wasn’t nearly so specific about keeping his fur as clean. Then again, it took more effort to get all the dirt out of fur, and far less to clean glasses. They’ll have to make sure he gets it fully clean, today.

Thankfully, it seemed Tamaki had at least kept his tail in decent order, back when they’d first met their parents, or Yukimi at least, it had been a decent while since the three had a bath, and Tamaki’s tail had been a mess of dirt and knots, matted as it so easily became when they were on the streets. Tamaki had it the worst, what with the fur that so easily got dirty and matted. Hana’s fuzz wasn’t nearly so temperamental, even if it was also easily dirtied.

“Does it bother you that much?” Tamaki asked, beginning to brush his own fingers over his fur.

Shaking his head, Makoto assured, “No, no, it was just an observation,”

Tamaki’s quiet, after hearing the response, sharp fingernails tapping on the table as he drummed his fingers absentmindedly. After another few moments, he asked, voice quiet, “I know we just… kinda assumed something had happened to you, too. Because of the scar. But did you ever have some other reason to think that?”

At the time, Makoto hadn’t thought much of it. When he’d first stumbled into Tamaki, who’d looked so terrified, and later when they found Hana, in the midst of a fist fight with someone or other. Makoto had just been so used to feeling like he didn’t belong in any given place, feeling so alienated from his peers, that he felt more at home with Tamaki and Hana, who clearly weren’t normal, than he’d had with just about anyone else. The scar that he shared with Tamaki and Hana was just a later guess as to why they got along so well. A sort of sign of why they should stick together.

Though thinking back on it, it felt as though there was some kind of voice that was telling him he should stick with them. Makoto never thought much about it, never really even realized it was there until now. But he couldn’t really tell Tamaki that – at best, Tamaki would roll his eyes, at worst, he would think Makoto was crazy.

Instead, he answers, “I’m not sure, I guess I just sort of… had a feeling.” That was close enough, what he would have answered even before now. And in a way, it probably was the more honest answer. The only voice in his head was his own, after all.

---

Makoto’s previous assertion about Karizaki making himself everyone’s problem turned out to be rather accurate, at least by his own standards. Case in point, he thinks, the fact they can’t even relax in the hot springs without Karizaki also being there. Though Makoto figures it’s probably better Karizaki than someone else, given Tamaki’s here and probably feels a bit more comfortable with people who already know about his features than not. Still, Makoto is pretty sure Karizaki is up to something.

Karizaki wasn’t the only one there outside of their family – Daiji and Mr. Kadota were there too, seated next to each other and both watching Karizaki warily. It seemed Makoto wasn’t the only one who figured he was up to something. Tamaki sat on one side of Makoto, while Genta was on the other side.

“Your brother didn’t come?” Mr. Kadota asked, looking to Daiji.

As Daiji sighed, Karizaki turned his attention towards him, and Daiji responded, “Ikki doesn’t like being in public. Especially things like bathes.”

Genta frowned, “But he comes to Happy Spa so much?”

“That’s different, he makes sure to come when you’re not busy and he’s certain no one else will see.” Daiji explained, “Practically staked out Happy Spa for months just to figure out when that would be. It was a bit weird.”

Under the water, Tamaki’s tail whacks Makoto’s side, “That seems like a lot of work, why bother going at all?”

With a shrug, Daiji said, “We never figured it out, it’s just a thing Ikki does.”

The subject changes, as Karizaki turns his attention towards Genta – and Makoto has never wanted to strangle this man more, or at least yank him away, as Karizaki moves closer to Genta. “So, your Tamaki and Makoto’s father, huh?”

Surprisingly, or perhaps he was just ignorant of Karizaki’s arguably strange behavior – even if not by Karizaki standards – Genta responded with his usual lighthearted smile, “Well, yes, I am.”

“You must be very proud of them,”

“Of course – Yukimi and I, we’re always proud of our children,” Genta still seemed unaware of what Makoto would consider the concerning behavior of Karizaki. Or maybe Makoto was just being paranoid.

“Papa…” Tamaki tried to lower himself further into the water, to hide his embarrassment.

Daiji is looking between Karizaki and Genta with a mix of confusion and concern. It seemed he too was wary of whatever it was Karizaki was trying to do, while Mr. Kadota just looked tired. Makoto couldn’t imagine how anyone dealt with Karizaki on a regular basis – especially since one of those people was Tamaki.

Inching even closer, Karizaki said, “They’re quite the trio – even if Hana there tried to stab me.”

“Probably should have let her.” The thought came to Makoto’s mind before he could even try to stop it. Immediately, he chased the thought away – if nothing else, letting Hana stab anyone wouldn’t be a particularly good thing.

Ignorant of Makoto’s thought, Karizaki continued talking, “And you know, it’s quite interesting, there’s something that the three mentioned before that I’m curious about-“

Rolling his eyes, Daiji interrupted, “They’re on vacation, Karizaki.” He glared at him, “leave them be.”

Clearly annoyed, Karizaki grumbled a little, moving away from Genta. Genta only seemed confused by the whole thing, but quickly shrugged it off. He was perhaps a little too unaware of the strangeness of Karizaki, or at least far too willing to brush it off.

Now that his attention wasn’t on Genta, though, and instead landed on Makoto, with a curious look. “Fine, fine,” there was something about Karizaki’s expression that made Makoto extremely uneasy. Then again, he found there was a lot of things about Karizaki that made him uneasy. “Oh, Makoto, you know, I never noticed, but you’ve got quite a few scars on your arms.”

Makoto’s chest tightened upon hearing Karizaki’s observation. Of course he hadn’t noticed, Makoto made sure that no one could see. The reason for his sweaters, and even the long sleeves he wore under them, for all the effort he put into making sure his arms were covered. Because though most people wouldn’t notice the scars on his arms, some would, there would always be one person, who would notice.

With a tense voice, Makoto responded, “So what? I don’t see what’s so notable.”

“Ah, well I wouldn’t think they’d come about particularly naturally,” There’s a causal tone to Karizaki’s voice, but he has to understand well just what he’s doing. “maybe they were caused by something from before you met the Igarashis?”

“That’s none of your business,” Makoto snapped. He’d never told anyone, not his siblings, not his parents, about before he ran away, and he really wasn’t going to start now. Certainly not with Karizaki present. Tamaki may have thought he was simply weird, but Makoto could see that he wasn’t harmless. He was sneaky and knew exactly what sort of power he held over people, over members of Fenix. He knew exactly how to get what he wanted.

Unless Karizaki wanted to rile him up, Makoto was determined not to give Karizaki what he wanted.

“Really because I figured-“

Makoto doesn’t know what exactly happened after, but next thing he knows he’s moved forward, and Tamaki’s got ahold on his arm, “Geez Makoto, chill!”

Confused, Makoto sat back down in his previous spot, Tamaki’s hold lingering on his arm.

This time, it’s Mr. Kadota who speaks up, an expression of concern on his face, “I have to agree with Daiji, stop bothering them, Karizaki. They’re on a family vacation, they owe you no answers.”

George pouted, but complied, even if he was still eyeing Makoto curiously. Makoto just followed Tamaki’s previous example and tried to hide himself more with the water, determined to keep his arms as hidden underwater as he could.

“What an asshole,”

He shrinks himself further and tries to chase away the thought as Mr. Kadota moves, his attention still on Karizaki, “I think it’s probably about time we go,”

---

Sakura held Hana’s hand as the two walked, Hikaru following behind with a frown on his face, even if he was trying to hide it. Hana felt a bit bad, felt that she should do something more to try to help Hikaru feel included. She just wasn’t really sure what she could do. Sakura was one thing, but Hikaru was another, and she wasn’t really sure what she could do with both of them.

“What are the odds we’d all be here at the same time?” Sakura smiled, “I mean, who’d have thought. Especially since father was the one who arranged our trip.”

“Yeah,” Hana said, her voice skeptical, “What are the odds?” They both knew that Sakura and her siblings being here was no coincidence.

If Hikaru noticed her sarcasm, he didn’t voice it, “It is a bit strange.”

Glancing back at him, Sakura hummed, “At least it means both get to spend time with our wonderful, wonderful Hana.”

“And at least you’re not stuck with your parents the whole time,” Hana stopped walking, turning towards Hikaru, “Not that I’m sure Sakura or I make that much better company.”

Quickly, he hurried closer to her, “No, no, I love spending time with you Hana!” he glanced over at Sakura. “and I guess Sakura’s fine, too.”

Rolling her eyes, Sakura looked mildly amused, thankfully. Better than annoyed. Sliding closer to Hikaru, and thusly Hana, Sakura said, “You know, it’s almost a shame I don’t see more of you.”

“Is it?” Hikaru asked, clearly unnerved by her behavior. “I mean, I didn’t think you… uh, super liked me that much.”

Still too close to Hikaru for his own comfort, Sakura responded, “Well, since you’re so dear to Hana, I think it would be good for us to get along better.”

Hikaru pulls himself away from Sakura, “I guess…”

“It’s alright if you two aren’t that close,” Hana said, wiggling herself between the two. While the closeness was normal for her and Sakura, the incredibly close proximity to Hikaru was not as common, at least in these circumstances, and caused her to blush slightly when he bumped against her. “I’d just like you two to be able to be in the same room together and tolerate each other’s presence.”

“That’s fair,” Hikaru said.

“Of course, anything for you, my bee.” At Sakura’s words, Hikaru frown grew just the slightest.

Hana thinks this walk with them might be either the best or worst walk of her life. Well, maybe not the worst, but definitely not a good one, if it went that way. Hikaru still was clearly not that fond of Sakura, and Sakura seemed mostly just interested in Hikaru because of Hana. She didn’t have high hopes of the two getting along that well. Still, she also wasn’t going to make one of them leave, not right now, at least. Maybe she’d try to hang out with them individually after this.

---

“Ikki!” Vice whined, “I want to feel the hot springs too!”

As Vice and Ikki were the only ones in the room, it made Vice both the main source of noise and also very hard to ignore. Although Ikki often felt bad about ignoring him, at times, but this would probably not be one of them. Ikki sighed, “Vice, I’m not even going to go out to the hot springs.”

Though Vice’s mouth was hidden by his mask, Ikki just knew he was pouting, “But Ikki…”

“I don’t want anyone noticing my tail,” Ikki was confident enough he could probably hide his horns and feathers enough, but his tail was… a bit tricky. He couldn’t really hide it with a coat like normal.

Sakura had made some attempt to convince him to go with Daiji, but even she knew better than to waste much effort. Besides, Ikki didn’t mind being in the room alone – he was used to it, anyway. He was the least important of the three, so it was often that he found himself with only Vice as company. This wasn’t any different than usual.

Vice takes on his physical form, sitting down beside Ikki with a small huff. Ikki doesn’t know why he waited so long to do so, but sometimes, Vice just liked making Ikki talk to himself. Usually, it’s when it would be funny, though, and here they lacked an audience. “Guess that’s kind of my fault, huh?”

Quick to respond, Ikki assure, “Not really. You couldn’t control any of this.”

“Maybe. Hey, at least our tails match!” To no surprise, Vice saw some Brightside to everything. It would be better if Ikki hadn’t heard the same words over and over for eighteen years or so.

“Hey, hey our tails match!” Vice cheered, so much larger than Ikki was at the time.

Alone in “their room” as the members of the Deadmans had told him, Ikki stared at Vice with confusion. “You… have a tail?” he doesn’t remember when Vice first appeared, but he’s pretty sure it’s when the tail and the horns grew in. Or around then. Maybe he’d heard Vice’s voice before that, but he can’t remember.

“I do,” Vice assured, still sounding far too happy for Ikki’s liking. Too many bad things had happened for him to understand how Vice could be so happy. Vice moved, and positioned himself so that a tail, one that looked just like Ikki’s, but bigger, appeared. “See?”

Ikki reached out towards Vice, before remembering he couldn’t touch him and pulling his hand back. “They… do.” Vice wasn’t really there – Ikki didn’t doubt that he was real, but he wasn’t able to be touched or even seen by anyone else.

With a roll of his eyes, Ikki said to Vice, “You always say that.”

Vice just made an amused sound, and Ikki tries not to laugh. As much as he hated to admit it, there were times when Vice was the only thing that even slightly brightened his day. There was something about Vice’s childishness and carefree attitude that made Ikki smile, even when he wasn’t sure he’d be able to otherwise.

He felt bad that he couldn’t do much for Vice. That he was stuck with Ikki. Although a part of that problem was how far from human Vice appeared. Even if he wasn’t stuck with Ikki, he wouldn’t be able to do most of the things he keeps saying he wants to do. The hot springs were not the first instance of this, and Ikki knew it’d never be the last.

“I’ll get us something nice, a sweet or something when we get home,” Ikki offered, although he supposed it probably sounded a bit out of the blue.

Glancing over at Ikki, Vice seemed confused for a moment, before practically cheering, “Yeah, that sounds great!”

Vice was the closest thing to a normal child Ikki got to be the brother to.

---

“You know, I think that being away from Fenix has somehow made Karizaki more…” Tamaki struggled to find the word he wanted to use to describe Karizaki.

“Strange, pushy, weird, uncomfortable…?” Makoto offered.

“Insane,”

Again, Makoto ignored the thought.

Tamaki seems to finally find a word he was okay with, “Karizaki.”

Barely biting his tongue and keeping himself from saying something harsher, Makoto responded, “He’s always Karizaki.”

“Well, being away makes him more, I guess.”

It really seemed like Karizaki just had less supervision here – not by much given he didn’t have a lot of supervision to begin with. Maybe he was just becoming bolder. It really didn’t matter, Makoto just knew it was going to grate on his nerves. “I hope he goes back to being less Karizaki.”

“…that’s fair.”

---

Daiji glared at George, annoyed, “Why are you two here?” he wasn’t so annoyed about Hiromi’s presence, but George was a different story.

“Hiromi being here is nice. But this guy… ugh.”

George gave a smile that was some mix of smug and innocent, to Daiji’s confusion. “We’re keeping an eye on the Igarashis – Commander Wakabayashi’s orders.”

“Even though a Vistamp went missing the other day?” Daiji, of course, knew where it had gone, but George and Hiromi didn’t.

George shrugged, “One Vistamp is manageable, at least. We know Makoto can deal with another T-Rex Deadman. Besides, they’re pretty safe in Fenix, given all the security.”

Groaning, Daiji really didn’t know what to say to that. “And why didn’t I hear about this plan?” Daiji knows he didn’t.

“We were only informed this morning ourselves, it was rather last minute,” Hiromi explained, “I’m sorry for such surprise.”

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” Kagerou sighed, “I just want Hiromi to ourselves.”

Again, Daiji chose to ignore Kagerou. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” Daiji assured, “I’m just sorry you’re stuck babysitting Karizaki.”

Rolling his eyes, George shot back, “I don’t need babysitting, the commander just sent him along and I didn’t get a choice.”

Kagerou slips into control, saying in a mockingly sweet tone, “That’s because you do need someone to keep an eye on you, you’re just too-“ Daiji, realizing where Kagerou was going, pulls control, shoving Kagerou to the side.

“You do in fact need someone to keep an eye on you, you’d get yourself in too much trouble, otherwise.” Daiji finished, attempting to recover from Kagerou’s words.

“We’ll be fine, Daiji,” Hiromi assured, “and I’ll keep him out of trouble.”

With another sigh, really wishing he’d just gone back to be with Ikki and Vice, Daiji said, “Yeah, yeah, I know you will.”

#kamen rider revice #kamen rider #without you #my writing

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