Prompt: 068 ~ Rape                                                                                                                                                                               May 2011©
Fandom: LM.C
Focus: Maya x {Miya & Aiji} x Haruki
Word Count: 1,959

            It wasn’t just something about the way she walked, or in how she was so aggressive. It wasn’t just in her resounding lack of cuteness and innocence. Miya was more than a bit off the mark for the average 20 year old girl with the world at her fingertips, and though Aiji noticed that fact, he couldn’t quite figure out why it was so.

            Aiji would watch her rough house with Maya, watch her boss him around and curse like a sailor. He would see her be completely at ease with Maya's crass and petulant nature. And then he would see her flinch at a gentlemanly gesture he made towards her, even something so small as holding the door or helping her out of the car. Even bringing her over something to drink on set or on stage.

            Miya, that Aiji had seen at least, never really looked entirely relaxed. She could be at ease and laughing, but there was always something just a bit guarded about her. After a long day she would curl up with her head in Haruki’s lap and look peaceful, but not quite content. While onstage, she was loose and fluid and ready to go where ever the show took them, the crazier the fanservice the more fun she had with it, but she never seemed out of sorts, never completely let go. In the studio she would bash Maya about the head for throwing one of his tantrums and bicker with him about their latest projects, but she never let the silence settle in around them while they basked in the afterglow of success.

            And sometimes she would disappear without a word and be gone for hours before turning up again like she’d never left.

            Aiji had initially asked Haruki about it. The question made her smile fade; nothing could ever make the drummer’s cheer vanish completely, but thinking about Miya’s running off was the closet Aiji had ever seen anything come to managing the feat. Haruki wouldn’t say anything about it. She would sigh and look sadly at Aiji’s confused expression, and then she would go back to doing whatever had held her attention before he’d asked her. Aiji had stopped asking her about Miya because it only seemed to make her sad, and it didn’t get him any answers anyway.

            Though he stopped asking Haruki, Aiji didn’t stop wondering.

            Or worrying. In fact, Haruki’s blatant refusal to offer up any information on the subject made Aiji worry about Miya even more. He’d often been accused of being motherly, he’d managed to keep Maya alive after all, but aside from his supposed care-giver inclinations, the guitarist was justifiably concerned about the girl. She was rapidly making herself an indispensable part of LM.C after all, as a nearly constant companion to Maya and certainly as a permanent fixture in his life. Miya was becoming a person who was a vital part of the universe that Aiji inhabited, and he needed to make sure that she wouldn't rip that universe apart. He also needed to make sure that it wouldn't rip her apart.


            “Let me buy you a drink.”

            Aiji had decided to confront Miya about it directly one night after they’d finished up a concert. It had only been a short show, so they weren’t very tired, and everything had gone flawlessly, so they were all in high spirits, and Aiji was trying to bridge the gap he sensed between himself and Miya. If she was going to be sticking around, he couldn’t let the wall between them stay erected. It wouldn’t be the smart thing to do in terms of keeping the band-relationships solid, nor in terms of keeping his personal relationships with Maya and Haruki on steady ground.

            He wanted to talk with Maya soon about what his thoughts were on making Miya and Haurki into more permanent members, rather than just the support team for these past few tours. But he was fairly confident that Maya would have already determined that they were all to move into together at the next opportunity and had simply neglected to tell the others about his grand scheme. Aiji wanted to ask Miya if she would even consider sticking around, he would have guessed so, but he could never really tell what was going on with her, least of all in inside her head.

            At the moment, Miya was hyper and happy, almost to the degree of being able to compete with Maya’s post-gig high. It was a relaxed sort of easy and honest happiness that made Aiji smile. She’d been on her way back to the hotel when Aiji had caught her eye and asked her out for a drink.

            She looked blankly at him for a few seconds, like she hadn’t heard her right, which prompted him to repeat the query. This time he made it more apparently question-like, and much more congenial, “Can I buy you a drink to celebrate our half-way point on the tour?” Less flirty, less demanding, this time, Aiji was soft.


            Miya stared at him for and instant, an expression of instinctive horror crossing her face. If Aiji hadn't been staring at her as carefully as he had been, he would have missed it entirely. Miya looked away from him suddenly. “I’m good,” she said hurriedly, her shoulders bunching up slightly, defensively.

            Aiji wasn’t used to having to be soft with her. He was used to seeing her tackle Maya to the floor without batting an eye. He was used to seeing her in the gym, beating the stuffing out of a punching bag. He was used to seeing her stride out in front of a crowd at their concerts, unabashed, aggressive, and kick-ass in every sense of the word. He was used to seeing her be strong. But as Miya was curtly refusing to make eye contact with him and was hovering about in front of the doorway he was blocking like a terrified rabbit, soft seemed the only way to go.

            He just didn’t quite know how to start.

            Miya used his distraction to try slipping by him and out the door. Aiji caught her elbow, coaxing her to stay with him as gently as he possibly could while making sure that she didn’t run away on him. He smiled softly at her, pretending that he didn’t feel her flinch under his hand. “At least let me walk you back to the hotel, nee, Miya-chan?”

            Miya didn’t respond, but she didn’t yank her arm free either.

            She simply pulled her phone out of her pocket when it buzzed and tapped at it with furious fingers, entirely intent on typing her reply as she waited for Aiji to do something. She didn’t wrench her arm away, but she would not let Aiji lead her by it either. If he tried to pull her, she would fight him.


            He sighed and let her go.

            Without skipping a beat, she slipped by him and out the door. Aiji followed close behind as she walked along the street at her usual pace, refusing to be obviously under pressure from his presence. She was refusing to let the fact that Aiji was there hurry her, despite that Aiji could see he was making her uncomfortable. He didn’t like making her uncomfortable, but he couldn’t see any other way of trying to get through to her, and it was seeming more and more like he needed to get through to her..

            And she was still texting.

            “Who are you talking to?” Aiji asked casually, thinking that he already knew the answer.

            “Maya.”

            Aiji smiled. Maya and Miya had been texting each other a lot recently. They practically never stopped. “Has he calmed down at all yet, or is he still bouncing off the walls?”

            “He just sent me a picture of his shoe tied to the underside of a bridge,” Miya responded, her voice almost laughing. “You tell me if that means he’s calmed down.”

            It was the most relaxed that Aiji had ever seen her when she was alone with him without Maya or Haruki to hide behind. Hopeful, he kept up the conversation, saying, “Maya certainly is some spectacular sort of crazy.”

            “Good crazy, though.”

            Aiji shrugged. “Maybe you just haven’t spent enough time with him yet. He’s insane.”

            “He’s fun.”

            “Eh? Well then, you might be some sort of crazy yourself,” Aiji teased, careful to keep his voice light and playful. “Maya’s dragged me out on one too many of his crazy, half-baked adventures. I refuse to trust his judgment on anything now,” he explained.

            Miya stared at her phone for a moment. Then she said quietly, “I trust him.”

            “Your funeral,” Aiji laughed, noting her smile.

            “He won’t do anything too stupid,” Miya promised. “You’ve chewed him out enough over the years to make sure of that.”

            Wary of making Miya shut down again, but acutely aware that they were now only a block away from the hotel, Aiji ventured, “So you’ll go running off into the night with that lunatic, but strolling down the street with the man that’s been keeping him alive turns you into a timid little bunny rabbit?”

            Miya didn’t respond. Her smile disappeared.


            Aiji sighed. “You don’t have to explain or anything. I just want to make sure that you’re okay with this whole thing, with me. Touring around and working like this only works over the long term if we can all be completely comfortable around each other, if we can work together without any problems.”

            “Long term?”

            With a shrug, Aiji said, “Maybe. This has worked out pretty well so far. And the fans love you and Haruki. And Maya . . . he loves having you around.”

            Miya smiled softly, stopping in her stroll before they reached the hotel’s entryway. “This has all been fun,” she admitted. “Really fun.”

            “Really? Even when you have to put up with a nosy guitarist like me hanging around?”

            “It’s not you,” Miya promised suddenly, her voice quiet and serious again. She looked down at her phone as she said, “I just don’t like . . . people, not anymore . . . and being around people . . . especially nice guys, like you, who never make any demands. It just sort of freaks me out when I can’t tell what a guy wants from me. You do things for me, but never call in the debt . . .”

            “Haruki?”

            “She doesn’t count. She’s been looking after me since I was born.”

            “And Maya?”

            Miya was quiet for a moment. “Maya’s different.”

            “Well, I can deny that much.”

            “When I’m with Maya . . . or even Haruki, I just don’t have to think about things,” Miya explained. “But with you . . . I don’t know what to think . . . or what to avoid thinking. You’re too nice, too helpful  . . . and so . . . present without ever asking for anything, no demands, no goals, no aims or maneuvers or anything. I just can’t figure you out.”

            Aiji shrugged. “I’m a nice guy, when I feel like being one. Simple as that. I’m only ever really mean to Maya.”

            “He deserves it.”

            “Damn straight he deserves it,” Aiji agreed. He was not really any closer to figuring out exactly what it was that was that made Miya shrink away from him, to flinch at his gestures of kindness, but he felt that pushing it anymore tonight would only make things worse. Besides, he had made some progress, and that was good enough for him, at least for now.

            Aiji knocked his shoulder affectionately against Miya’s in a cautious show of camaraderie. Miya laughed and knocked him back.

            “Ai~Ji~” Maya’s voice made the pair turn around. He was pouting and for once in a blue moon he didn’t have a lollipop in his mouth. Pointing accusingly at Aiji, he announced, “So you’re the one that kidnapped Miya! I bet you stole my ChupaChups too, didn’t you!”

            With a laugh, Aiji pulled a large plastic bag of lollipops out from the pocket of his hoodie.

            “Guilty as charged,” he announced, smirking in Maya’s direction.

            Maya bolted over to seize the bag and Aiji worked diligently to keep it away from him. After a rather impressive tussle, Maya managed to snatch his prize. Twirling away in triumph, Maya grabbed Miya’s hand and pulled her into a short and ridiculous victory dance.

            “Mi~Ya~” Maya chirped suddenly, his voice sing-song and hyper. “Let’s go get ice cream!”

            Miya laughed and agreed instantaneously, conditioning that they had to try every flavor in the store or it wasn’t worth going at all. Maya rolled his eyes, because that had already been his plan to begin with. Aiji looked on at the exchange with a smile.

            As they charged off into the night he reflected on what Miya had told him.

            Maya certainly was ‘different’ and he made Miya feel comfortable.

            That was good enough for now, and Aiji could wait to start working out the details of ‘later’ until tomorrow, or maybe even the next day.


                                                                        ♡♥Finite♥♡