The Mafia Boss's Secretary

Out of sight, but not out of mind

The next week passed by with little to nothing happening until a couple days before the school fair started. I haven't told my roommates that Kai and I had become sworn brothers yet. The other two roommates had arrived on Wednesday, but I still haven't met them. As promised to Nobu and Nori after I returned from dinner I became invisible. I haven't left my room except to shower, and since that means I haven't eaten or drank anything I didn't have to make many trips to the bathroom during the day. There were a few times that it sounded like someone was knocking on my door, but I just pretended to be asleep or studying and since I had headphones on it just looked like I couldn't hear them when they came in. It's a good thing I don't change clothes in my room.

I was feeling so off today that I didn't really have much of a choice on leaving my room. I need to eat something. I had just managed to get to my door when I heard a conversation going on in the living room. I leaned against the wall and the desk next to the door so the door didn't alert them to my being there.

"I think something is off, man." I heard. "He's always sleeping, nose deep in a book, or asleep at his desk."

"So?" 

"Classes haven't even started yet, there's no need to be studying that hard yet." The first voice argued. "Have any of you actually seen him eat?" A chorus of no's followed his question.

"What are you trying to get at, Nobu?" The other voice; who I'm assuming is Nori, asked.

"No one has seen him aside from me checking on him, and no one has seen him eat in about a week now." He pointed out. "He said we wouldn't even know he was here, but now I can't help feeling like he's neglecting his health just to keep true to that promise."

"Maybe we just haven't been around when he comes out of his room." A new voice I didn't recognize pointed out.

"I know exactly when he leaves in the mornings to take his shower, and that's the only time he leaves his room." Nobu answered. "He also sits in front of his window with it open in order to talk on the phone, and the only people he ever talks to are his family."

How does he know that? Has he been watching me? What kind of reputation do I have in this territory? Why does Nobu even care about me? 

I decided to just sit at my desk instead of standing here since their voices were raising now. I put a random playlist on my phone on shuffle and sat my headphones on my desk in case someone decided to check on me because of this meaningless conversation they were having. At least my books are already on my desk and opened. I laid my head down and continued to listen to them.

"If he's avoiding us that's fine with me." I heard Nori say loudly. "He doesn't belong here anyway."

"The fair starts Monday, and it's mandatory." Another new voice added. "How is he going to be invisible at a mandatory event?"

"Who cares?" Nori asked. "The bastard needs to go back to his own land."

"Nori, you realize that him being a bastard means that he's not actually a high ranking clan member, right?" Nobu asked. "He probably decided to go to school off his territory because of how he is treated there." He stated hitting the nail on the head.

"If he's bullied why doesn't he say anything?" One of the new voices asked.

"He's the chief's adopted son." Nobu answered. "A son of the chief who can't defend himself or handle his own problems would be an embarrassment to their name." I sighed, this guy knows way to much. "Adopted or not."

"What, are you on his side?" Got asked angrily.

"No, I'm not taking sides, but the kid doesn't have anyone here, and if someone like you; tries to fight him after he's possibly starved himself for a week; he won't be able to defend himself at all; you'd hospitalize him or even kill him."

"Oh, good point." Nori stated. "We can get him suspended for fighting, and tarnish the Kurosaki name in one go."

"What is your deal?" Three voices rang out in Unisom.

"He's a Lotus!"

"So, he's one person, and he's no bigger than a sixteen year old girl." Nobu answered. "Why do you feel so threatened by him?"

"Fine, if he's bothering you so much why don't you go check on him?" I heard and put my headphones on silencing anything else that they said. 

I laid my head down again as best as I could. I closed my eyes, and realized that I didn't notice how tired I actually am until I started dosing off waiting for someone to walk into my room. It was a little while later that someone finally woke me up, but it wasn't anyone I was expecting. When I threw a punch and it was caught; I followed the arm to meet a very familiar pair of eyes. Kai.

"That's how you greet your brother?" He asked.

"I'm sorry." I said bowing my head. "It was instinctual."

"So, I hear that you haven't left your room in a week." He stated. "What have you eaten?" I held up a partial bag of chips. "You're lying." He stated. "The walls are thin enough that your roommates would have heard the bag." He took the bag from me. "Don't lie to me; when did you last eat?"

"Monday night; when we had dinner."

"What?" He pulled me to my feet with the fist he was still holding. When I wobbled he sighed. "Let's go." He put his arm around my shoulders and started leading me out of my room before he sighed and just opted for picking me up. "Have you at least been keeping yourself hydrated?" When I didn't answer he just sighed again. "What's the point in having a sworn brother if you won't take the oath seriously?"

"You're sworn brothers?" Nori asked angrily.

"It was mom's idea." Kai answered. "She thought I needed more friends, and after some convincing Hatchiko here agreed."

"After some convincing?" Nobu asked.

"He was overthinking the repercussions I'd face if he agreed." Kai explained. "He did the same thing when he helped me in a fight. Even though he got hurt he was still more worried about how his assistance was going to look on me."

"See, I told you he wasn't a problem." Nobu whispered not so quietly to Nori. "Poor kid has been starving himself for no reason; just to make you happy."

I felt Kai's grip on my shoulder tighten. "Don't, this was my doing no one else's." I said quietly. "Where are you taking me anyway?"

"To eat." He glared at the twins before continuing out to his car. "You need your strength if you're going to be a part of my family, you can't pull this kind of thing again."

"I'm fine." I stated.

"Fine?" He asked looking down at me. "Really?" He gave a forced laugh. "Need I remind you that I'm carrying you because you aren't even strong enough to walk on your own right now?"

"I just need some rest is all." I stated.

"You've already lost weight." He remarked bouncing me a little to prove his point. "Have you even looked in a mirror lately?"

"I'm not obsessed with my appearance, so no." I answered. "A little weight loss isn't bad." I added.

"A little?" He gripped my shoulder. "Are you forgetting that I picked you up twice on Monday?" He glanced down at me again just as we made it to his car. "This is noticeable enough of a weight loss that I'm half tempted to take you to a hospital."

"Like I said; I just need some rest, and I'll be fine." I repeated with a little sass. "Not my first rodeo with fasting."

"This isn't fasting." He argued placing me in the passenger seat. "Why didn't you call me?" He asked leaning against the roof of the car so he could make eye contact with me. "If anything just to bring you something to eat, or get your roommates out so you could eat."

"I didn't want you to think I was abusing our oath."

"You've got to be kidding me!" He nearly shouted making me jump. "Don't you realize the point of a blood oath?" He asked. "We made an oath to be there for each other no matter what, and if this is what having roommates is going to do to you, then I don't want you to have roommates." He ranted before closing my door and going to get in the driver side. "I do have that kind of power, don't forget that."

I decided to just stay silent after his comment; It's not like I was questioning the fact of him having the power or not. I don't know why he felt the need to make that point to me. I stayed silent the whole time he was driving. He tried to talk to me a few times, but I didn't have anything to say that wouldn't anger him, so I just stayed silent. When we finally arrived he glanced over at me, but I just got out of the car and waited for him in front of it.

"Are you really giving me the silent treatment right now?" He asked slightly amused.

"I'm not stupid enough to anger someone who's driving." I stated making him sigh.

"Good point." He patted my shoulder. "Let's go eat."

We slowly made our way inside, and Kai lead me over to a table right away. He left me to sit while he went and ordered for us. I made sure to tell him nothing to heavy or it'd just go to waste. After about ten minutes he came back and sat with me until out number was called. I couldn't help but laugh when he handed me chicken nuggets and fries. I suppose nothing is a better light meal than a fast food chicken nugget meal. He felt the need to tell me to slow down a couple of times while we were eating, but I managed to eat everything without getting sick. I'm fairly certain that the soda helped.

"How do you feel now?" Kai asked after we were just sitting at our table for a few minutes once we'd finished eating. "Better?"

"My stomach hurts now, but yes, better." I answered honestly.

"Why did you try to lie to me earlier?" He asked making me sigh.

"I didn't want you to worry." I shrugged.

"I have eyes you know?" He remarked as he threw his hands up. "I could see for myself that you weren't okay; you were basically unconscious when I got there, and I don't mean just asleep either." He sighed and looked at my hands that were tearing the paper covering our tray to bits. "I was shaking you for almost five minutes."

"I'm sorry." Was all I could think to respond with. "I didn't mean to make you worry about me."

"I have an idea." He stated catching me off guard. "I'm going to get the dean to allow you to have a mini fridge and a microwave in your room so that this can't happen again."

"You don't have to do that." I pleaded.

"It's that or you get a new dorm." He left no room for argument. "It's your choice one or the other." He stated. "If you pick one, I'll leave the twins out of this." He bargained.

"Fine." I sighed. "I'm not moving dorms, I can't go through that headache again." I Chuckled at the memory of having to rearrange my room multiple times to make room for everything. "Also, you should know Nobu wasn't any part of the problem; he actually was the only one who thought to check on me all week."

"Consider it done." He smiled at me. "You have to use them though." I just nodded in agreement. "If he'd been checking on you why didn't he think to get a hold of me sooner?" He asked. "You're a guest on our lands anything happening to you while you're here is a problem for everyone."

"You're the next leader." I pointed out. "Would you have called if you were him?"

"Point." He stated. "Let's head back, it's getting late."

When we got back to my dorm everyone was sitting around the common area. I attempted to go straight to my room, but Kai grabbed the back of my shirt and stopped me from going anywhere. I glanced up at him, and back at the four boys sitting around the room, and back at him. I already told him this was my fault.

"We are sworn brothers; that means that he is a part of my family now." Kai let go of my shirt and hugged me from behind. "If you do anything to cause him harm that's an attack on me." He stated. "I'm letting this go because he has insisted that you two had nothing to do with it." He spoke directly to the twins now. "I will be here for the night, so once I help him get settled and make sure he isn't going to get sick you guys can ask any questions you might have." He let me out of the hug and gently pushed me towards my room. "Go get changed I'll give you a few minutes."

I got changed as quickly as I could and crawled in bed before he came in behind me. My bed is actually the reason that we had so much difficulty with making everything fit in my room. I was already falling asleep when Kai sat on the edge of my bed after looking around my room.

"You're oddly organized." He remarked. "How is your room so clean?" He asked continuing to look around. "You haven't left since you came back from dinner."

"I haven't done anything, but try to get ahead with school work, or sleep; so I haven't had to worry about keeping up with cleaning." I answered with a slight shrug. "It's easy to keep things clean when there's nothing to add to make a mess."

"That's true, and since you don't seem to have any extra room left in here anyway anything out of place in here would make it look really cluttered." He remarked.

"Mmhm." Was my almost asleep answer he received.

He chuckled and shifted the blanket so that it covered my shoulders. "Get some rest, and remember that being out of sight doesn't mean that you're out of mind too."