Love/Hate (Lemon GarouxReader 🍋)

Sometimes Things Fall Apart

"Ok, ok..." Tsukiko backs up the conversation as you sit around in homeroom, waiting for the first bell. "Tell me the whole thing again."
She is still completely mindblown by the fact that Garou was in your house. And you're still quite mindblown yourself.
So you tell the story all over again, in hushed tones, lest one or more of your classmates overhear your tale of this clandestine meeting. Tsukiko stops you and asks for more detail at various points, despite having heard it all last night. She is just that gobsmacked.
"And so he wasn't even a dick then?" She says, popping a fuschia pink bubble and twisting the end of her long ponytail around her finger.
"Well, a bit," you think, looking to the ceiling, tapping your chin, replaying the whole evening in your mind again. "Maybe like, fifty per cent dick."
"Wow," Tsukiko shakes her head. "I mean, wow."
"I know," you say, as amazed as she is.
"Maybe he's sick or something?" she suggests. "Not thinking right."
"When is he ever thinking right?" you say.
"True."
And then, as if your conversation has made him magically appear... He arrives just as the bell rings and, because Mr. Yukimura is there, you move out of his seat without a fuss and go back to yours.
Tsukiko gives him her shiftiest stare as he walks by, eyes glued to him.
"I'm so on to you," she says, her eyes still following him as he takes a seat behind her. "You're onto something. And it ain't good,"
Oh for fuck's sake. It's bad enough being in school but to be stuck between you two-
"Right! Bell's gone!" Mr. Yukimura announces and Yumi takes over with the day's notices, looking rather glum without her usual beaming counterpart next to her.
And you sincerely hope that Tsukiko is onto nothing at all because just the thought of her finding out about your little triple tryst makes your face turn pure scarlet.

That afternoon, Ryo is much more excited to see Garou again than you are. This isn't good. You don't want your little brother being in such awe of a hooligan. You try to usher him to his room to do his homework but he's just about to burst with excitement, digging his heels in. You're about to resort to picking him up and taking him there yourself when there's that knock on the door.
"Onii-san!!" Ryo exclaims and slips out of your hands, running to throw the door open, tilting his head way back to grin up at Garou.
Oh God. This isn't good.
Shit, this kid is full of energy.
Ain't no bad thing though.
"Your sister home?" he asks, seeing you right there.
"Yes! Onee-chan!" Ryo spins around. "Look!! He's here!"
"Yes, thank you Mr. Smarty Pants," you finally manage to scoop him up. "And you can play with him when you've done your homework," you say and proceed to carry a wriggling, protesting Ryo to his room.
"Oi," Garou growls, "I didn't say nothing about..."
But you're gone and not listening anyway.
"Alright," you say, your hand on the door handle. "You don't come out of this room until your homework is done. Ok?"
"What if I do?" he asks suspiciously.
"The floor outside your room is lava."
He stares at you in innocent, wide-eyed horror.
"It will cool down the more homework you do. When you've done it all, it will be safe to walk on it again. See, I'll even close the door to make sure the lava doesn't get in," you say, softly pulling the door closed, watching his face.
"I'm gonna do it fast!" Ryo looks so determined, plunging into his school bag and pulling out his pencil case and exercise books.

Ok, you sigh in relief. Hopefully he'll be occupied for an hour and you can have some quiet. Not peace and quiet (because how can you feel any peace with Garou here?) but just quiet.
"He won't come out for a while," you inform Garou as you take your usual seat at the table and pull a book towards you.
"How do you know?" he asks, pulling another from the pile towards him.
"I told him the floor in the hallway is lava."
"And he believed you?" He asks, incredulously.
"Yeah," you say flatly. "You have a problem with that?"
Ryo definitely has one hell of an imagination on him, and you suspect that might be one reason behind his reticence in talking about school and the other kids in his class. It has a way of getting ahead of him, and not everyone can keep up.
"No," Garou shrugs. If it makes the kid happy then whatever. What business is it of his? Though he's probably having a rough time of it at school, he bets.
"Good answer," you say and refocus your attention on your research, writing down a particularly good quote you just found.