Darker Than Love

SLEEPING WITH EYES WIDE OPEN

Sakamoto's job could very well fit a cat.

He only walks out at night and only gets to hide in much higher places. He has to be silent and observant but when there's a riot, he goes loud and violent... Especially if it has something to do with monopolizing what's his and Yanagi's. Or when someone tries to talk s**t about their family. It's not mostly rampages and riots, but Sakamoto has lived off his life picking up fights on the streets since the day he's entered the Yakuza life.

Most of the time, he just really loves marking his territories. That's the part that he enjoys the most when he strolls the dark corners of the city and finds something that suddenly interests him. But what he hates the most in this job, on the other hand, is the part where he needs to snoop around. And it's not just simple matters that he has been tasked to look into all the time.

Yanagi really has a knack for meddling into some kind of very confidential stuff that mostly gets Sakamoto in trouble because of his snooping business. And since he really has no choice but to follow his boss' orders, he finds himself in yet another violent scramble tonight. He's really getting old for these kinds of immature fights, but the good thing now is that he already has backup when these things happen.

Thanks for Yanagi's generous soul.

May he won't ever have to sleep a wink tonight after giving Sakamoto this ridiculous job.

"I won't kill you... yet," He whispers this so softly to the man who is now lying face-flat on the ground and grunting in pain, just after being beaten up by his guys. Sakamoto still has to give the guy some credit. He has been one hell of a puncher at first, putting Sakamoto in the deep end until his guys came to save him right away. It might be a little cowardly and weak of him, but Sakamoto's not getting younger anymore. 

He's forty-seven for Pete's sake. He's not conditioned to fight like he used to do way back in his younger years. But then, that's not really the point why he's even talking to this guy and still keeping him alive after what he just did to him.

Sakamoto could already feel an intense body pain coming for him in the next few hours. 

"Man, it's been so long since someone even had done a number on me and still manage to breathe after that," Sakamoto says in a harsh tone as he hunches over the guy on the ground. He then violently pulls his hair so he could raise his head up and stare right into his face. The guy tries to look up but he could only barely open his eyes. He groans as if the movement brought him intense pain and Sakamoto bitterly chuckles at the agony the guy's showing on his face.

"Look at you," Sakamoto only remarks as he stares down at him, "Why did you even do that in the first place? I just wanted to talk yet you just have to go and land your f*****g fist on my face!"

Sakamoto's rage explodes as he smashes the guy's head down on the ground, but not too forceful that he'd die on the spot. The guy grunted and lets out a loud choking sound as he squirms when Sakamoto stood up and spits down on him.

"That's what you get for not cooperating very well," he says as he takes the cigarette from one of his men who just silently hands it to him. Another man lights it for him and Sakamoto slowly takes a drag as he pauses for a few seconds.

"Now, why don't we go back and rewind everything again? Would that work for you?"

The guy just grunts, not even trying to answer coherently.

"One picture and one name," Sakamoto begins as he throws the half-used cigarette and takes out a photo from his pocket. 

"Cherry," he goes on, as he sits beside the guy and hunches on his knees, "And you better start talking before I change my mind and blow your head instead. Either way, you're still gonna die."

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Cherry feels someone shifting behind her on the bed.

She has spent the whole day just lying down and trying to ease out her boredom by occasionally walking around the room, then still ends up sleeping again by the afternoon. And now, the darkness has already filled the wide place Yanagi calls his house and she could sense someone lying beside her on the bed.

Behind her back.

She contemplates turning but she wants to know if Jin has just suddenly done this to make sure she's not moving from where she is right now. Or, maybe one of Yanagi's men has come in and...

"You're awake, aren't you?"

It takes Cherry a few more seconds to recognize that voice as she slowly turns around and lies on her back to look at the man who came snuggling next to her all of a sudden.

"Didn't you just say that it's 'nothing like that last night?"

"This is my bed."

That's also true, but it's absurd to think he's choosing to fit himself in the crampier part of the bed when there's a bigger space on the other side.

"Suit yourself," Cherry just says as she starts to shift on the bed to move on the empty part beside her but Kenji's arm slowly pulls her back when it snakily wraps her on the waist again. He's got to stop doing that now. She's starting to really feel like she's getting too putty in his hands.

"Where are you going?" she hears him asking her in a whisper against her hair that tickles her as his hot breath fans over the side of her cheek.

Cherry tries not to be flattered by all this intimacy and touching. She's used to this now. Though it has been so long since the last time she's been in bed with a man, she's no longer a virgin to ever feel embarrassed anymore.

She already slept beside a naked man before, this is surely not her first time. But Kenji feels a little different than those times she used to be with a man, and Cherry forces herself not to get too attached with all these futile attempts of flirting—if this is ever really considered as still flirting.

"What are you doing?" she tries to takes his arm off of her, but he is too stubborn as he just tightens his hold on her body.

"I'm so sleepy."

"So what?" Cherry spats back, glaring over her shoulders towards the annoying man, "Let me go, I don't care if you're going to sleep."

"But I'm too comfortable now."

"Didn't you just say it's 'nothing like that last night?"

Cherry really hates repeating that phrase now but it seems like the man is not much of an honest one with his words. If he keeps this up she might have to kick him on his shin or his jewels. Whatever. She just doesn't really want the feeling of his entire hardness plastered all over her body behind her. It's making her imagine so many unwanted thoughts inside her head now.

"I take it back," she even hears him telling her back, "I want something to keep me warm tonight. But we don't have to take our clothes off."

"What?"

"Not yet, though."

"WHAT?!"

He did not just say that. 

"I'd really kill you this time, you know that?"

As soon as she says it, Cherry starts to really think of doing it for real now. She tries to free herself from the arms of the absurd man but Kenji just blocks her again by putting his leg over hers.

"Aren't you worried that I might sneak out once you fall asleep and kill you in an instant?"

It's an empty threat, but it's also not impossible. She might actually even do it, now that she realizes other ways on how to kill him tonight.

"Well, I know you would," Kenji even briefly answers her, sounding like he already expects but still not in the slightest worried of it, "But Jin won't ever let you if you even dared."

Upon the mention of the other man's name, Cherry tenses beneath Kenji's arm.

"He's here?"

"He's always around."

And she does not really need to ask for any proof to even believe it. She's already at a loss.

"Damn it."

"So let's just sleep for tonight," She soon hears Kenji murmur those words at her, faintly whispering it to her ear again. "You can continue planning on killing me by morning."

"Don't even try me."

But Kenji has already fallen into a deep slumber as soon as she says it. She could feel his even breathing, the warmth of his arms, the scent of his skin, the defined muscles of his broad naked chest... Wait.

Cherry almost closes her eyes if she didn't realize that part of the situation. She tries not to think her hunch has been right. Is he sleeping without his...?

She tries to cop a feel, not that she's a pervert or anything. She just wants to make sure that she's not imagining weird things. But as soon as she touches that 'part' of him, and finally gets the feeling that it's all bare, she almost screams. Yet she chooses to do it inside her head. She isn't a little girl anymore.

What is he doing sleeping naked beside her?

What is his plan for doing this?

And why is Jin watching them sleep this way?

She wants to shout and yell and do something to finally kill the man behind her but she can't for now. She has to be patient. She has to remember why she's doing all of this in the first place.

She's now lying on a bed beside a naked man... A man she barely even knows but hates so deeply. She shouldn't be acting like a foolish woman just because a handsome man is trying to sleep next to her. She needs to retract her priorities. She needs to remind herself of why she wants to kill him in the first place. 

And she would really kill him. Though, not just tonight. Not yet. But soon, she'll make sure of it. She'll make him suffer just like she did after he took the only thing that had made her happy her whole life. She will put him in misery and slowly punish him until she's satisfied. She'll have to see his tears because he's going to pay for what he did to her. For the sins, he'd committed and done in the past. For the people, he had hurt and will hurt in the future. So just sleep on, Kenji Yanagi. Because your days are now numbered.

Aoi Chiba will be the one to put an end to everything for you soon.

This is now her turn to play the game around.

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