Takashi's POV — Chapter 2 Party (Part 2 of 2) (Patreon)

Hey guys 👋 This is the second and last part to Takashi's POV side story 😁 

Part 1 is here.

Let me know what you guys think about the story in the comment section or in the Discord Patreon channel! 🥰

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As everyone’s attention is distracted, you usher Rin toward them, one hand still holding your glass of bourbon. You can see Luka and Mikhail noticing you approaching and you grin widely.

"Luka! My old friend!" you exclaim heartily, patting Luka's back spiritedly with your free right hand, the amber liquid in your glass sloshing around wildly, dangerously close to spilling.

"Hello, Takashi," Luka sighs, but you can see an exasperated little smile tugging at his lips. "It's nice to see you too. Thank you for coming."

"Of course! How can I miss your dear nephew's twentieth birthday?" You then turn to face Mikhail and hold out your hand. "Ah! Here's the birthday boy! Let me be the first one at the party to wish you a happy birthday!" You beam at him.

He takes your hand and shakes it vigorously. "Thank you so much, Mr. Aikawa! It is such a delight to have you here as well. I appreciate you sparing some time to attend my birthday party." He sends you a wide grin, an awfully familiar confidence oozing from him.

It is at this moment that you’re hit with such a strong realization of how similar Mikhail is to his father. The same platinum blond hair, smokey grey eyes, the same tilt to his smile. Wait, stop, stop! You quickly cut the line of thought there. Now is not the right time for melancholy.

"What a charming young man! Just like your father…" you say instead, your voice has gone quieter on the last sentence and you can feel your wide smile faltering a bit. But before anyone can notice even further, you quickly force another smile on your face and subtly and softly nudge Rin softly toward Mikhail.

Rin rolls his eyes subtly—as if you wouldn’t catch that—before stepping closer to Mikhail on his own. "Happy birthday, Mikhail. I hope you've been having a nice day so far," he says in an almost flat tone of voice as he holds out his hand for a shake.

You frown slightly. C’mon, he could’ve at least been more enthusiastic in congratulating his childhood friend’s birthday. He was so nervous about meeting Mikhail tonight, even to the point of spending almost an hour dressing up, so why… Ooh, unless he wants to play it cool, of course.

Mikhail takes Rin’s hand in his, not even bothered in the slightest by Rin’s uninterested tone. "Oh yes. And it's just getting better…" He smirks… flirtatiously—at least you hope it is—at Rin.

Interesting… You bring the drink up to your lips and take sips so as not to blatantly stare at Rin’s and Mikhail’s interaction.

And then, without any warning, Mihail suddenly brings Rin’s hand to his face and plants a tender kiss on the back of Rin’s hand, bowing down a bit like a gentleman. "It seems that my night won't be as boring as I thought it would be…" He winks at Rin conspiratorially.

Automatically, you try to gasp, but instead, the bourbon you’ve been drinking gets into your airway. Coughing out loud, you try to get it out as your throat and nose burn from the alcoholic drink. You thump on your chest but you’re still keeping an eye on both Rin and Mikhail. This is too good to be true and much more to be missed.

Rin cocks his eyebrow as he mirrors Mikhail’s naughty smirk, his usually serious eyes take on a mischievous and flirtatious glint as he chuckles quietly. "Oh my… A charmer, aren't you? Just like the infamous Viktor Morozov…" There's something weird in the way he says that and you notice an unreadable glint in his obsidian eyes. You’re pretty sure it’s gotta do with Viktor. Your unrequited love for him is kind of an open secret between you and Rin and none of you have ever breached the subject first. The two of you just ignore it instead.

Suddenly, you see Rin's smirk falter a bit as he shifts his eyes to glance behind Mikhail and you follow his line of sight. Oh, you almost forgot that Ash is also present and he’s currently glaring daggers at your son, hands crossed in front of his chest. You’re not sure whether it’s your imagination, but you think you can feel a faint wave of heat coming from that direction, or maybe that’s just from the bourbon you drank, of which the remnants you’re still trying to get out of your goddamn airway.

Mikhail seems to feel the same discomfort and he quickly lets go of Rin's hand with a guilty expression on his face, which piques your interest—and a bit of concern too, if you’re being honest. Do Mikhail and Ash have something going on already? Or maybe budding feelings—well, Ash’s feelings have always been pretty clear, it’s more on Mikhail’s side that’s still a mystery.

Rin steps back to your side, not even showing the slightest hint of being shaken. You’re still breathing a bit heavily as you recover from your choking incident, but a wide grin graces your face. And why should it not? This is great progress in your years-long endeavor in matchmaking. You’re satisfied and in joyous rapture right now, although, you can also feel the wistfulness creeping at the edge. Oh, what could’ve been… You’re pretty sure you’ve imagined this kind of scenario as you swoon and pine over Viktor all those years ago.

Luka steps in. "Well, Takashi, Rin, I hope you don't mind, but I need to go to the front of the room to make a short announcement."

"Oh! Yes! Of course, of course," you tell Luka before ushering Rin away and out of the Morozovs’ path. Not wasting another second, you bend down a bit to whisper conspiratorially with Rin as the two of you walk back into the crowds of guests, who quickly make way for the two of you. “Did that just happen? I’m not dreaming right now, am I?” you whisper excitedly at him.

Rin sighs as he shakes his head softly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ahh, c’mon! Are you saying that interaction is all in my head, then?” you grin cheekily, waggling your eyebrows teasingly and elbowing him playfully.

Pouting in irritation, Rin reaches up and pinches your left arm quite hard. “There’s your answer,” Rin deadpans as you hiss quietly from the sting.

“Sheesh… So, grumpy…” you mutter under your breath as the room gets quieter for whatever announcement Luka is about to give.

A few hours later…

You and Rin are standing patiently in the Morozovs’ private… office? Meeting room? You’re not really sure, but the only people in this room are only the Morozovs themselves and their closest trusted people, including you and Rin. Ever since your father and Viktor’s father—who is currently speaking with his grandson—agreed to the alliance decades ago, the bond between the two families has only been growing stronger, especially since you’re good friends with Luka.

Although, you can’t help but think how tighter the bond can even be if you have gotten into a relationship and married Viktor… Alas, that had zero chance of happening in this world, even if he were still alive. Now, the ‘duty’ to tie the Morozovs closer to your family falls into Rin’s hands. And you do really hope he would succeed where you have failed.

Moreover, Rin clearly had some feelings for Mikhail from how he’s been acting and you want him to be happy, of course. You haven’t seen him show any interest in other people as strongly as you’ve seen him show Mikhail so far. You suppose he doesn’t need to worry about gold diggers and people who are only going after him because of his status and power with Mikhail Morozov and they’ve technically known each other ever since they were both kids. Thanks partly for your effort.

You don’t even realize how long you’ve been lost in your thoughts until you notice Ash walking over to Mikhail and handing him a birthday gift shyly. Mikhail opens the gift and pulls out a black combat knife and knuckleduster, because of course. Mikhail inspects the weapon under the dim light and smiles softly and thanks Ash sincerely for the gift.

After Ash returns to the place he was standing previously, you nudge Rin and he strides confidently to Mikhail with a small box containing a limited edition, luxurious watch. There are only twenty of them in the world, and you have one, Rin has one, and now, Mikhail will have one. Rin tells the same thing to Mikhail before adding, “I have the same one as well so we can be matching," he flashes Mikhail a small, teasing smirk.

"Matching like a couple?" Mikhail retorts back, cocking an eyebrow at Rin with a smug look on his face.

"Your words, not mine," Rin responds simply, his smirk still plastered on.

You knew it! You knew you were not reading too much into their previous interaction! Two flirtations in one night! Witnessing them alone makes you giddy. It seems that your matchmaking effort has not been for naught, Takashi, you mentally pat yourself on the back, grinning widely.

That is until you notice Ash who’s standing a bit to the side, watching what’s unfolding with a strong frown on his face. His brows are furrowed in a mix of confusion and doubt even as he glares a hole through Rin again. Seeing Ash reacting that way takes your giddiness down by a notch, not really because he’s glowering at your son, but because you can relate to him.

Having a crush on your childhood friend and the devastation and the agony of watching them flirt with someone else in front of you… The fact that they might not be able to see you more than a friend. To be honest, you’ll be acting like him if you ever witnessed Viktor flirting and being affectionate with… Yvette in front of you. And despite him technically being a competitor to Rin, you sincerely hope the best for Ash and that he won’t hold a strong resentment towards Rin if Mikhail ends up choosing him instead. You just want these three kids to be happy.

The next few minutes are spent holding conversations about various topics with Rin, Luka, Mikhail, and Ash. You talkies about family business stuff, cars, and watches, to reminiscing about the past. Everyone is enjoying themselves and having a good time until suddenly, the big holo TV near you flickers black before showing a masked and distorted face on the screen.

Luka grabs the remote and turns up the volume while Mikhail immediately freezes up, the two of them are enraptured. You decide to pay attention too to see what’s making them both so tense. At first, you are pretty ambivalent about it, but still wary, until the mysterious figure starts spilling out some of Yvette’s secrets. Although a part of you is glad that she finally got what she deserved, you also know it could potentially become a bad thing for the Morozovs once the terrorist gets to Mikhail’s identity.

Suddenly, you’re slapped in the face as pictures and short videos of Viktor and Yvette going on a date together in secret show up on the screen, and even a video of Mikhail’s birth and how Viktor affectionately carries him in his arms. While seeing Viktor again makes you feel sorrow, the sick feeling you get from seeing those pictures of him and Yvette overpowers it for the moment. The feeling moves on to his heart where it reignites the embers of pain, anger, and jealousy back to life. Who is this person and how did they get their hands on these? Just how much do they know?

But it seems the figure is not done yet in surprising all the occupants in this room as they seem to address Mikhail personally with a mocking and taunting birthday message. Immediately, everything clicks into place for you as it becomes clear that this terrorist has at least some kind of connection to Viktor’s death ten years ago. That’s right, you remember Luka telling you the story of what happened that night in the alleyway.

This bastard… So, they’re the one who took Viktor from you, from Luka, from Mikhail, and from all the Morozovs. After ten years, you finally see them, even if it’s only through the screen with the mask and distorters concealing them even further. But that doesn’t matter. You might not be able to drop everything and go after them with Luka; you have a lot of responsibilities now, and a family. But that doesn’t mean you’ll do nothing. You’ll make sure to offer every resource that the Aikawa has at their disposal to help and assist Luka and Mikhail and the Morozovs in hunting down this motherfucker and avenging Viktor’s death. That you swear.