Need you like water

The wind drifting against his dark skin carried the faintest trace of burned wood, stone and plastic, making a slight frown grace his forehead. Though, it wasn't that big of a surprise when he walked down the street from his trip to the burned house. Just a week earlier, he had been at work there, putting out the fire licking the facade and had evacuated the humans inside the building.

He wasn't entirely sure of just why he had gone back there, since the neighborhood still brewed with fear and nervousness over the fire maybe returning, making his head throb. But he closed the voices out and kept walking, hand buried deep in his jeans-pockets. He didn't feel like returning home, the mere thought of it made him nervous, even if he knew that he acted like a coward, running away from reality. And that made his headache grow stronger and his frown deepen, before a familiar sound broke the mental wall he had put up around his mind. A big power line.

As he looked up the street he was just about to cross, he could see a familiar figure walk toward him. Fedora, blazer and ponytail, the man had only aged and didn't hold a cigarette, otherwise there weren't many changes in Takeshi Hiwatari. Or maybe there were...

Since when the older man came closer, Arashi could see the dark circles under the man's eyes and how the ring on his left ring finger flashed a little in the light. Then he remembered the rumors he had heard, about how the other had married Kiba after all, and that they even got kids. Might explain why he was there, in an area where mostly families lived, on a way which led to a kindergarten.

It didn't take long before Takeshi noticed him, but he wasn't surprised that he only got a lifted eyebrow as a greeting, before the other spoke.

"Fucking dreads? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Checking on my latest workplace." He shrugged and jerked his right thumb back towards the remains of the burned house, from which he had come. "And you, Powerline?"

"... I'm on my way to pick up my children." The slight softening of the other's harsh features didn't go unnoticed, nor did the change in the electricity's pace. It made Arashi frown a little, before he grinned big and started to walk down the street next to the older man.

"Children? Wow, so you and Yagami really did hit it off hard, eh?" He chuckled a little, and looked up at the blue sky with its fluffy white clouds. It was a fine day, with sun warming their skin as they made their way towards the kindergarten. So why did he feel that nervousness spread in his stomach again?

"If by 'hit it off hard' you mean 'had kids and got married', then yes, we did." Takeshi's words were harsh, as always, even if it seemed like his tone had softened somewhat over the years, as if he had calmed down and lowered his guard a little. The last one was easy for the mind-reader to detect, as the sound of electricity no longer was like a buzz ready to zap at any moment, but more even, like a regular cable. "Not that I can see how it has anything to do with you, you good-for-nothing."

"Hey, I just wanted to hear from you that I won the bet!" His grin grew, as he rubbed his right thumb to his index and long finger, indicating money. "After all, that was what I went for."

"Do you really think I care about that idiotic bet some intelligence-depraved freshmen came up with to get pocket-money?"

Arashi just shook his head a little with a chuckle, thinking back on how he had re-arranged his staking after getting together with Chouseki. After all, if they had ended up like that, the chances that Takeshi and Kiba would have, too, seemed just as likely as anything to him. Which was why he had been on the winning team that one December day...

"I guess you and that Houston are still together?" He frowned in irritation over the way the other addressed his fiance, but he also knew that it was just the way the fedora wearing man spoke. So he did his best to ignore it, and instead replied.

"Yeah, we're engaged and everything."

"Good for you." The words were almost gentle, or more like, spoken in a normal tone with a hint of warmth. Long from the way Arashi was used to hearing the other speak, since he usually swore like a sailor. But the dark-skinned man wasn't given any time to react, before Takeshi opened the small gate to the kindergarten and was greeted by one of the personnel and two children came running towards him.

And even if he hadn't been able to read their minds like open books, he knew that they were the other man's. If not only by the way the shouted 'Dad!' when they saw him, then their dark hair were a give-away.

A small smile started to play over his lips when he watched the other man, who had been just as feared as himself back at the Academy, crouch down and hug the two boys close. The scene was really sweet, and it made Arashi's heart speed up a little. Since it made him think of the future, where he might become able to hold his own flesh and blood like that, protecting it from the world...

His mind occupied by those thoughts, he did not notice as one of the boys walked over to the fence, and looked up at him with a pondering look on his little face. Though, when the small one spoke up, the dark-skinned man was brought back to reality

"Do you know my dad?" The question made him raise an eyebrow, before he chuckled a little and felt the kid's thoughts flow against him. They weren't as sharp as an adult's, but more fleeting and, stereotypes be damned, innocent. Even if the ones about taking a hold and pulling on his dreadlocks could be classified as 'bad'.

"Yeah, I do. I went to school with him." He smiled against the boy when he leaned over the gate, and tilted his head a little to the side, too. The child had big, wondering eyes, and he guessed it was around... Four years old?

"Oi, you frigging gingerbread-man, keep out of my son's head!" Takeshi's angry voice cut off his train of thought, but it only made him laugh a little. He shook his head before he replied to the other man who was looking over at him, with the other boy on his hip.

"I'm not trying to, trust me. Kids don't have anything interesting on their minds anyway." And like he had expected, the other seemed to take offense by those words, as if they were directed especially against his sons. So Arashi smiled against the father instead, but not a taunting grin or anything the like. Just a simple smile. "In general, that is. I once got across one that knew three different languages, was quite interesting to listen to."

"Still, keep the fuck out of mine." When he looked the other man over once again, on how he held the boy on his hips in a secure grip as he said goodbye to the nanny and walked towards the gate. A second time he was hit by how much that fearsome man had changed, and yet was the same.

There was no loss at power in the way he walked, no lack of sharpness in his eyes. No, in fact, he seemed even more used to authority now than back during the Academy years. And yet he seemed more open and relaxed at that moment, when he took the second boy by the hand. For some reason, seeing that made Arashi's worry die down in his stomach, and a realization struck him hard. His life might change in the most frightening of ways, but if this man, who had been all alone, could get through, why wouldn't he be able to?

He opened the hatch which kept the gate closed, so no children could run away out on a road or somewhere else, and addressed Takeshi again.

"By the way, what did you mean by that 'Good for you' earlier?" The words earned him a slightly surprised look from the other, but it was he himself who was left standing in surprise when the man left him standing there at the gate.

"Isn't that obvious? That Chouseki is the only one who can keep you sane, like Kiba for me."