Rosie's Thorns 🥀|18+|🥀

39 | Kōji Aoki

She Calls Me Daddy ~ King Mala

《¤Rosie¤》

Townsend was as country as country could get. Little homesteads and farms speckled the border of the tiny town, and fields upon fields and dense woodland took up most of the area. I swear if I were to blink as we drove through the center, I'd miss the whole town. Locally owned stores and restaurants sat brick to brick along the road, many people opting to walk or bicycle instead of driving on an early Friday afternoon.

We decided to meet at a little diner that was sandwiched between an herbal apothecary store and a newly erected Walgreens. The diner was old school, from the checkered floors to the red leather booth seats, and the old jukebox that moaned softly in the background. It sounded like it needed a bit of a tune up as it hummed an Elvis Presley song a bit slower than normal tempo.

I glanced at the top of the laminated menu I fingered in my hands. Grams Grub was scrawled in elaborate cursive in red bold ink. It looked hand drawn, actually. The prices were more than generous. I mean, $1.50 for a burger seemed like they were ripping themselves off. Back in New York that would barely buy you a bottle of water.

Dom sat to my right by the aisle. Well, Mío did. Dom had yet to surface and that worried me a bit. He's never been absent this long before. And then Hana sat to my left in the rounded part of the booth seat. She thumbed through the two paged menu, but by the frown on her lips she still had yet to have an appetite.

Kōji Aoki hadn't arrived. He was running a bit behind.

Even with Elvis playing in the background and the sweet bubbly girl waiting on us couldn't loosen the tense atmosphere surrounding our booth. Mío had order himself chocolate chip pancakes, with a side of sausage, eggs, toast, avocado, and maple syrup. Thats not including the black coffee and glass of orange juice he had sampled and left half drank in front of him. His plate was brimming with food as he ate slowly, savoring every flavor with a satisfied hum every other bite. It made me wonder if he ever got to eat when it was his turn to run around as Dom.

Hana had a coffee with about five empty packets of sugar and three cups of sweetener piled beside it. She was nursing it slowly, eyeing the menu as if it would suddenly make her hungry. She loved food, so for her to not eat, it was worrying.

Her silver eyes shifted in my direction and met my gaze. Ever so slowly, she lowered her menu and leaned back into her booth.

"I'm fine, bijo. I promise."

"Then eat something." I mumble quietly. "Even if its just buttered toast."

She grimaced. "That would make me even less hungry than I am."

"Hana." I sighed in warning. "You need to eat. You haven't eaten in almost two days. You need to eat something- anything."

"I understand you're worried." She flashed me a grateful smile. "But right now with everything happening, I'd rather not eat. With Chuck-" she swallowed. "And then Chichi coming. I just can't-"

"Can't what, musume?"

The voice was smooth like silk, with a twinge of an accent and a deepness that belonged to a man of authority. All of our heads turned on cue. From my peripheral I could see Mío swallow a mouthful with eyes wild with caution.

Beside our booth a man stood with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his black slacks. His matching blazer hung open with a white partially buttoned up dress shirt peeking through. His exposed chest and throat was heavily inked with symbols and Japanese words until his pale skin was nothing but a tapestry of art.