Chapter Text
“Hakuryuu, you have gotten a letter from your father.”
The twenty-year-old white-haired young man, who at that moment was sitting comfortably on a large couch in the middle of a bright and spacious living room, raised his red eyes from the book he was reading at that moment with a clearly frowned brow and looked at the woman who had just entered the luxurious apartment where they both lived in the beautiful city of Milan.
She was a still young woman whose face shone with enormous scarlet eyes with long eyelashes. Considered a true beauty among her acquaintances. Her silky, long purple hair fell over her shoulders behind a fine updo decorated with a gold brooch.
She was his mother.
The young man lowered his glasses to rub his eyes and murmured in a hoarse growl, “I have no father.”
She raised her eyebrows and smiled in amusement, offering him a letter in an exquisite lilac envelope. “At least read the letter to see what he wants.”
Hakuryuu accepted the envelope and she went to the kitchen to pour herself some iced tea, returning to the living room and sitting on the armrest of the couch while she watched attentively as her son opened the envelope with a silver sword-shaped letter opener that had been a gift from a good friend.
He took out a sheet of thick paper of the same color and lavender scented from the envelope that came with the Family emblem and wrinkled his nose. He could immediately distinguish the careful and elegant handwriting of his father's secretary and let out a heavy breath.
“He didn’t even write to me himself, disappointing but not surprising.” He skimmed the letter, raised a single eyebrow skeptically, and threw the envelope and the letter on the tea table in front of the sofa. "Incredible."
“What does your father want?” the mother asked, taking a sip of the aromatic tea with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“He’s inviting me to a party he’ll hold on Halloween.” He leaned back on the couch and rolled his eyes. “I’m not interested.”
She drank the tea again, tapping the cup with her long nails that made a crystalline sound. “Don't you want to see your half-brother and your friends?”
"Not if it's at that miserable party, and besides, where you're not welcome, neither am I."
“Oh, don't worry,” she smiled. “Munetatsu called me last week to invite us personally, I can't imagine the face his wife would make when she found out. In any case, I told him that if he wanted to invite you, he should contact you himself.”
“Are you going?”
"Me? Heavens, no. What have I lost in that place?” The woman sipped the tea. “But you can go and enjoy the night with your friends, you can even bring a partner.”
Hakuryuu didn't miss the mocking glint in his mother's eyes and snorted. “I have no desire to see that man.” He stood up, leaving his glasses on top of the book and stretched. “I'm going out, mom.”
“Where are you going at this hour?”
“I'm meeting Taiyou at the gym and later we are going out for a drink together.”
“Oh, give my regards to him… and to his father.”
“I'll do.” It was the young man's turn to look mockingly at his mother. He didn't say anything and went to his room to change clothes. When he left with sports clothes and a bag, he left a kiss on her head and said goodbye.
🐺🌕
Hakuryuu arrived at the door of the gym where he had to wait for his friend Amemiya, he was not there yet but he didn't worry because he was always five minutes late for the meetings. He took out his phone to reply to a couple of messages and memes he had in the Resistance Japan chat and put it away in time to see Amemiya appear at the end of the street next to Yukimura.
“Good afternoon,” the white-haired man greeted politely, even though Amemiya rushed to hug him. “I didn't expect to see you today, Hyoga.”
“Taiyou convinced me to accompany you two despite this damn heat that still won't let up,” he explained. “Why isn't autumn coming yet? We are already in September.”
The blue-haired had a plastic cup of slushy in his hand and seemed to be sweating a lot more than either of the other two.
“I see,” Hakuryuu agreed kindly. “But September is still summer, buddy.”
“Unfortunately,” he grunted, rubbing his forehead to wipe away a few drops of sweat.
Amemiya laughed and slapped him on the back. “Come on, sweating isn't that bad, especially in bed.”
Hakuryuu and Yukimura blushed when they heard him and cleared their throats, they were waiting for the second to finish his slushy to go in to train and when he only had one sip left Amemiya took it away with a quick movement and finished it in one gulp.
“You damn animal!” Yukimura huffed, kicking him in the back of the thigh. “The last sip is the best!”
He looked at him with the eyes of a slaughtered lamb and Yukimura gritted his teeth, Hakuryuu laughed and indicated the door to enter.
They left their things in the locker room and went to the weight machines, Hakuryuu was sitting doing weights when Amemiya approached again with his eyebrows slightly furrowed.
“Everything okay, buddy?”
He looked at him confused. "Yeah? Why do you ask?”
Yukimura also approached, leaning on the edge of the bench. “Because when you lift that much weight it's because something worries you or you're angry.”
The white-haired sat up, wiping the sweat from his face. “I hadn't noticed it.”
"So?" the young man with greenish eyes insisted.
Hakuryuu cleared his throat thoughtfully. “I got a letter from my father.” His two friends looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes and then turned to look at him again. “He invited me to a Halloween party, at his mansion; But he is crazy if he thinks I am going to come back to see his face after what he did to us.”
Amemiya let out an exclamation, jumping on the spot. “But man! Haku! Haku! He invited me too. The invitation arrived this morning and I was talking about it earlier with Hyoga to convince him to come as my partner. Man! Let's go! Let’s all go!”
“What part of me not wanting to see my father have you not understood?” his friend growled. “Besides, how did he even invite you?”
“Hey,” he complained, feigning hurt pride. “My father, despite what he may seem, is an important person and a businessman with a renowned professional career. In the end they belong to the same social circle, so I imagine he had to invite us for show.”
“Taiyou is a moron and wants to go even though both families don’t get along,” Yukimura reported, crossing his arms.
“It's a great excuse to come back to Japan and see friends.”
“The friends who are still in Japan,” Hakuryuu said with a laugh. “Almost all of us are around the world.”
“Yes, but I am sure a few of them will go back for this party,” Amemiya observed. “Ibuki will go obviously.”
"Obviously?" Hakuryuu laughed. “I'm not so sure that Munemasa wants to go.”
“He will go as an excuse to see Kita,” Yukimura said simply and his two friends laughed.
“Besides that, Shindou will go for sure, and he will invite Kirino… And from what I know, Kariya and Kageyama will be also invited. Besides the coaches, I haven't seen them in a long time, Akira must be super grown by now.”
“He is,” Hakuryuu smiled. “Yesterday Akio showed me a video of Akira eating and he has grown a lot…” His expression changed slightly. “Sometimes I feel sorry for not being there enjoying my real half-brother more.”
His friends laughed loudly. Amemiya continued, “Then you will go? My father is very excited to see your miss mother again.”
The white-haired raised his eyebrows, covering his mouth and lying down again to continue with the weights. “My mother doesn't want to go either, but maybe if she knows that Mr. Amemiya is going to be there she will change her mind.”
“Hey, once the required greeting has been made, you don't have to put up with your old man, the group of friends can all be together. Also, think that you can invite Kyousuke.”
Hakuryuu almost slipped the weights and cleared his throat with a blushing face.
🐺🌕
When Hakuryuu returned home that night he wasn't so sure he wasn’t going to his father's party, and when his mother found out that the Amemiya family were going, she also seemed willing to reconsider the situation.
Hakuryuu looked at his cell phone, opening the conversation he was having with Tsurugi privately and bit his lower lip thoughtfully. Would his dear friend accept the invitation? The truth was that he really wanted to see him again, talking by text or on camera was not enough after spending his adolescence joined by the hip.
He sighed heavily and dropped the phone after sending him a wolf sticker, despite knowing that he was sleeping.
The desire to see Tsurugi far exceeded the desire to avoid his damn father.