DITSY DAISY FLAT LAYERED FLORAL PRINT WALLPAPERS ADORNED WITH PINK STRIPES AND MEDALLION GOLD YELLOW BLOSSOMS SURROUNDED THE SETTING IN WHICH THEY STARED INTO A MIRROR THAT STARED BACK. A white porcelain bowl of ice cubes that slowly began to melt with the blooming hesitation.

"Just do it already!" The two girls shouted, startling the male who slammed his hand onto the girl's wooden bathroom counter. "Give me a second dammit!" Draken had his hand planted on Anari's face to keep her head from moving. His hand was rather large, it covered everything from her forehead down to her chin.

No wonder Emma liked to compare hand sizes with him just for fun.

"It's been five minutes and the damn ice already melted down into my freaking shirt!" Anari's voice bellowed as her brows knitted together, furrowing an upset dainty face. It was just another day spent of their summer break doing more stupid decisions. Yesterday was shaving Pah-chin's curly leg hair, and the day before that was an attempt at self tattooing with a safety pin and ink.

A loud sip erupted the cousinly bickering with Mikey leaning against the door frame, sipping the watermelon smoothie the pinkette had made earlier due to his complaints that she was a health nut with no candy in her home. "Where the hell do you want it done again?"

"The helix and the lobe! I told you this five minutes ago too!" Anari slapped his arm as he let out a hiss, "if you don't want me to stick this needle straight in your brain quit hitting me!" Draken roared, however his hands were shaking. Not because he was scared, but rather he just had an unsteady grasp.

"Someone get this dumbass away from my ear before he pierces the wrong damn spot and gives me an ear infection." Anari swatted away Draken's arms with a pout. Mikey handed his drink to Emma who held it curiously. The boy scooted Draken away and held the safety pin in his hand.

"I got this!"

"What?" Both Anari and Draken stared at him with eyes wide. In fact, Anari was more fearful of Mikey doing it than Draken, considering the boy had already messed up her hair once, which was one time all too many that she'd rather not repeat again. "Oh that's right, Mikey's pierced big bro's helix once before." Emma recalled aloud.

Anari never noticed Shinichiro even had piercings.

"Never done the lobe but how hard could it be? Just gotta numb the area with the ice and stick the needle through right?" Mikey shrugged nonchalantly as the three nodded their heads. All it had taken was one exhale of the breath and he pricked the needle through the cartilage within an instant and used the napkin to reduce the bleeding and rubbed some alcohol on it just to reduce the risk of infection.

All things Shinichiro had taught and instructed him to do when he was just nine, doing his own elder brother's ear piercings by hand in a not so sterile environment without gloves and with a safety pin they'd picked up off the ground and washed not exactly thoroughly.

He stuck the piercing of Anari's choice through. He had the same face of concentration as Shinichiro when the older male was working and tweaking on bikes, his eyes squinted to see the little spot marked and as he'd done before, he jabbed the needle through in an instant. "Done!"

The lot of them had gone thrifting the other day, and one of Anari's best finds were a helix to lobe chain earring, and from there it was love at first sight that impulsive Anari decided to get her ears pierced. "It looks so pretty ..!" Emma gasped, taking a closer look at it as Mikey puffed his chest proudly in the air with a grin.

"Looks like I still got it in me!"

The forty day summer break was taken full advantage of will full blown out days start to finish of both either fun, painful or not. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Anari jumped up and down, swinging her arms around Mikey's shoulder which hadn't taken much effort considering she was still a good two inches taller than him.

Two inches wasn't a lot, but to Anari it separated the span of a losing bet and a winning bet.

He pat her back, shooting a grin at Draken who merely scoffed in disbelief, but even a small smile cracked onto his face.

"Holy shit!" Kazutora touched the little dangling chain trinket. "Damn, first her hair now her ears, what's next?" Baji also found it a little awestriking. Goodie-two-shoes during school, wild little spontaneous Anari by break time. "My belly button!" Anari pointed. She'd never get one on her brow or nose, it just seemed too ... not her type.

"Mikey did it for me!" They turned their heads to said leader who was busy snacking on an anpan bun, muffling a reply.

They were all gathered that day to have a quick drive to Yokohama and head to its beach. Most of the boys already had their trunks on. Emma wanted to skip since she was on her period and couldn't find the will power to leave the house.

Anari had only been to the beach once, but she didn't exactly enjoy the ever so salty water that stung her eyes, or the sand that persistently stuck on her legs and created a mess, but in the counterpart, she was also terribly pale, which brought Shinichiro to persuade her to go with Mikey and the others.

Following tradition, Anari simply sat behind Mikey on his own bike, which didn't go fast enough for her to need to be concerned of her life flashing before her eyes as she went flying off like she'd almost had once on Draken's bike, thus preferring to ride with the former. She never really had to hold on at all, maybe just the hem of his jacket which was all.

It was just a few days after the revelation of the new uniforms Mitsuya and Anari created themselves. Every member of the Tokyo Manji gang, the six males, had donned their new uniforms with Pah-chin riding with Mitsuya, holding the flag as they raced through the streets of Shibuya making the new presence of their forming gang known.

Anari wore a grey hoodie pulled over in which hid her face as she placed it on the top of the boy's shoulder in boredom. "Are you ever gonna cut your hair or part it, Mikey?" The girl gently tugged on a lock of the pale blonde hair herself.

Out of everyone in the group, Mikey was the only one who grew his hair out downward, leaving it an unruly mess when they rode and sped on their bikes.

Draken tied his into a small floppy bun, Mitsuya and Pah's were still relatively short and they'd likely keep it that way. Kazutora's was a short version of a pompadour, and Baji's was split down the middle, allowing his line of sight to be undisturbed by the wind.

Even from the side point of view on his shoulder, she could see how Mikey blinked every two seconds due to another irritating strand getting caught in his irises.

Slipping the spiral coil plastic hair tie off of her wrist, Anari brushed her fingers through his hair, in which the motorbike began to sway back and forth. "Oi, Rin.." Mikey warned as she hummed. "Just keep driving, otherwise we're both gonna crash without our helmets on."

He only let her continue the action as she slowly gathered hair to the top of his head and tied it into a little floppy fountain spewing loop of hair. "Better, right?" She placed her hands on his shoulder as he gnawed on a paper lollipop stick, "yeah, but how do I look?"

"I'm surprised it matters to you." Anari laughed a bit. He shrugged his shoulders before allowing them to fall, "it only matters if you're here." Mikey, well aware of what he said without an ounce of care in the world, caused Anari to freeze momentarily before pinching his cheek roughly, "hey! The more you say things like that, the more of an idiot you sound!"

"Quit the flirtin' and pick up the damn pace!" Baji barked at the pair who both scoffed at him. They were still on busy crowded city roads, not yet having reached Yokohama yet, so in that time, they obeyed by traffic rules. "I'll slash your tires, Baji!" Anari stuck a finger at him, it had always been like that with the two of them.

Then again, Baji picked fights with anyone and everyone, always voicing his opinions no matter the situation.

It didn't take long for sea-breeze to hit their noses as engines roared zooming through the streets and drifting as freely as could be, liberation soared through the sky in the form of wind that bellowed against their skin, spraying it lightly with salt crystalline cerulean water.

A natural habitat that they adored.

In the ever so colorless sin city of a world they endured, just a freckle of a light chipped away a delusionatory tale and broke away all aspects of bittersweet denial, it was a sight that could prove, the world was beautiful, even if just the slightest fraction of a bit.

Iridescent glory that even left the stoic expressionless face of Mikey's with the smallest hint of a smile. And in the dull emptiness of onyx orbs allowed light to fracture and drift, bubbling alive a vitality that rung to his very core, embracing the ocean breeze and even the cheering of his friends, and the awes of wonderment from the girl sitting behind him.

With such a sight that left her speechless, Anari was yet reminded, the world was still beautiful in some way shape or form whether it'd be a destructive beauty of a tranquil one, she allowed it to bring the sweet memories of times gone and hopes for a good future ahead. It served as a reminder; that they were here in this present moment, even as time ticked past, the present remained present.

As the boys wanted to go faster, they had to refrain from doing so, as Mikey's bike couldn't go nearly as fast as theirs.

Taking a small short break at a gas station, Draken sighed. "Listen Mikey, how long are you goin' to keep riding that mope? You're our leader. Just switch it out with an actual bike already."  Mikey had already taken out the small ponytail Anari had done and now was playing around with the plastic coil tie before looking up.

"This thing is fine. You talkin' trash about my precious ride? My CB25OT 50CC Model Street Hawk!" The boy seemed so proud of it that it caused the rest to cringe ever so slightly.

"Mikey .. that's a moped." Anari broke the news to help out her cousin explain.

She, wasn't all too into bikes, nor did she dislike them. She simply picked up whatever information her ears heard, or eyes saw through Draken and Mitsuya, or Shinichiro when she'd visit the Sano family to drop off herbs, although most of the time since Shinichiro's bike shop was closer to her home, it was where she went instead.

Filling the spot for her older brother, Shinichiro well adapted to accepting Anari as another little sister as his self conscious duty of wanting to protect another young child who held the hopes of the world in her cradled hands all alone.

"Why don't you switch it out for another one already?"

Mikey only stared blankly, but the atmosphere was evaporated once a sudden scratchy voice rung out as if they were accustomed to screaming and shouting their whole lives leaving a raw shrill of a male's voice. Their profanities rung out and touched the ears of the seven. "Hey, hey hey, what the fuck is this!?"

There was amusement with cackling that followed. Motor bikes roared as load as Draken's as Draken took one singular step to the side, his height fully cloaking Anari's presence as she slipped her hood on once more, turning around and sitting back to back against Mikey's facing the other side of the street.

"We got a little pissbaby dressed like a gang member ridin' a moped over here! Tokyo Manji gang? Never heard of ya, where the hell'd you wash up from?!" All of the insults were directed toward their leader, the shortest of them all, Mikey who kept a straight face.

It didn't seem like any of the remarks bothered anyone.

"If you brats are gonna play pretend, do it at home and stay the hell out of Yokohama. But since we were so lucky to meet .. Why don't I trash that moped for ya? Don't need that shit or anything, right?" Perhaps they were so used to conquering the streets of Yokohama, and ensuing success and victory upon all of their victims, watching them surrender to a fate met by a swinging bat, but Mikey let out an ominous grin.

For a moment the light inside his eyes fleeted away. "Put one finger on my street hawk .. and I'll kill you."

"Huh?"

There was an activation of fight or flight. An animalistic nature implanted into their bodies as an instinct to live. For survival.

And they chose flight.

"Ah whatever .. if we see you around Yokohama again .. we'll torch ya bikes." With the final threat, they drove off. Baji and Kazutora turned their heads toward Mikey who peeled the hoodie off of Anari's head.

"Well, we gonna kick their asses?" Of course, always the violent one to repay favors with his fists, Baji was the first to suggest, cracking his knuckles. Kazutora seemed rather hyped up as well as his thumb twitched. "Sounds good! Since there's only like ten of 'em its an instant win for  us anyway!"

Mitsuya, surprisingly the pacifist despite having a strong knack in fighting had shook his head. It was likely his childhood of growing up with two younger sisters. "Forget it. They're gone already."

"It's all Mikey's fault for riding on that moped." Draken deadpanned. "Huh? What the hell?" Mikey raised a brow as everyone agreed.

"Oi, Anari come ride with me, your extra weight on Mikey's bike ain't making him go any faster." Draken nudged. But she frowned with a grumble. "Are you calling me fat?"

"You said it not me." The thirteen year old grabbed her arm, but Mikey waved it off. "Just leave her. We're almost there."

Sparing one more glance, Draken abided and hopped back onto his bike as they set off once more.

But they didn't exactly get very far. Because within five minutes, Mikey's bike began sputtering louder than usual, causing everyone to come to an emergency stop and look back. Another delay had thinned the well of patience, dissipating it in the blazing sun and lulling tides of a beach awaiting.

Mikey's moped had run out of gas, not wanting to be put up from their semi-vacation any longer, the six males played a game of rock paper scissors in which Baji lost, prompting him to take Mikey's bike and go walk it to the nearby gas station in the miserable blazing heat in a black uniform.

Seagulls cawed, soaring over the pristine sapphire blue water. Kazutora and Pah-chin set up an umbrella and laid out their own beach chairs propping up their sunglasses and tossing off the black Toman uniform in which Anari folded neatly and placed inside her bag.

Draken and Mitsuya began stretching for their race while Anari glared at a certain male with a beauty mark under his eye breaking out in beads of sweat. "You pervert."

He raised his hands up in both defense and surrender, "we're at a beach of hot babes, I'm not Draken or Mitsuya who're immune. I can't help it!" Anari still threw a sandy flipflop at him. Pah-chin laid back, cool as could be as the eyes hidden beneath the shades were eyeing girls and women left and right.

Anari had already stripped off her shorts and unzipped her hoodie, leaving a simplistic blue and white two piece. Her stomach was a pale ivory white that contrasted the tan lines upon her arms. Draken sprayed the sunscreen on the back of her legs as she slapped some onto his back along with Mitsuya's.

A small breeze not strong enough to pick up the miniscule grains of sand had caused the pinkette to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear to avoid it flying into her eyes.

The sound of rummaging still continuously sounded out. "Mikey? What're you looking for?"

".. My swimming trunks."

"You aren't wearing them?" He only shook his head plainly.

Anari moved him over to go look through the stuff herself incase he accidentally missed it. Gently folding the clothes and placing them in a neat stack while doing so, Mikey squatted down in front of her. "Crap. It's really not here.." She placed all the stuff into the bag while looking up at the fluffy white pearly clouds.

Mikey offered an arm for her to stand as she accepted. By then, it was too late to call Draken back to address the issue considering he'd already gone sprinting to the sea with Mitsuya racing with salt water in their eyes cursing about it later, so Anari had already brought eye drops for that.

"I'll head to the beach's surf shop and grab a pair." Mikey pointed over in the direction she assumed the shop was at.

Anari grabbed her hand purse from the backpack, "i'll come with you. I wanna buy a popsicle!"

"Suit yourself." The blonde seemed the slightest bit satisfied with the girl's choice as he was brought with a sense of gratification.

And unknowingly to the pair; with Kazutora staring at the two who disappeared into the distance .. the same hand that Mikey had offered to help her up with .. had never been let go of.

Hand in hand they walked away, Anari's gleeful laughs still sounded out in the distance, kicking sand toward Mikey's legs with her barren feet as he attempted to dodge while keeping their fingers intertwined.

Along the way, Anari picked up a few shells from the ground, placing them into a small bucket. "What's the point of getting all those shells if you're just gonna keep em in a bag when you get back home?" Mikey questioned. But Anari was delighted to answer his question,

"I wanna make a chime for your brother's shop with these shells ... and besides, I've read that they're a symbol of good communication and positive healthy relationships .. so maybe I'll make us one in the future too~" Before Mikey could snap his head and address the last sentence of her reply, she was even faster and changed the topic by pointing to some broken beer bottles in the sand, scooting him over to avoid them.

After some time, Anari realized they hadn't gotten to their destination, "where'd you say the surf shop was again? I don't remember it being this far." After walking barefoot on hot concrete for a while, the girl was at her limit as her skin was about to peel off on searing hot rocks.

"Sorry 'bout that Rin .. you caught me totally off guard that I forgot to tell you that we're making a detour!"

The aqua eyed girl tilted her head in curiosity. "To where?"

"Gotta go check on my bike, you can wait here if you want. I'll be back soon." That was the suggestion, but Anari didn't take it, shaking her head trailing behind Mikey. The little hand purse around her wrist was a small sachet that was tied together with a morpho butterfly charm hanging off of it.

Characters that represented a promise, and so she placed her trust in Mikey and continued on.

And she was wise to do so as the sound of motorcycles and gasoline burned the air along with the rowdy riff raff of simpletons who had set their fate in stone as Mikey's eyes landed upon a certain friend.

"Baji!" Anari called out, her voice couldn't help but contain the slightest tinge of worry. He was bruised with a trickle of blood dribbling from his lips. Of course she had grown accustomed to the aftermath of his fights. But in his fights .. the involvement of weapons were almost never included.

It was a scum's dirty rule to use weapons in a fight.

She hadn't a clue how many times he had gotten hit by the swinging bat .. but above all, his body still shielded Mikey's precious bike.

For a moment, the boy's lips parted until he turned around and pat Anari's head. "Baji and I will make quick work of the eyesores." Mikey let go of her hand as she took a step back into the cradling shelter of a shadow casted upon by a poll.

It seemed that she was always the shadow, a hollow wisp of her own liberation.