sweet like honey | bonten x reader

33: finally over

downstairs, the bonten executives (sans ran and rindou) were in a meeting to talk about the night before.

mikey stood at the head of the table, his hands firmly planted on it as he sternly looked at the other men in the room.

"what the fuck happened?" he demanded.

an overwhelming silence filled the room. the night went disastrously, and it made it even worse that they felt so confident in their victory going into it.

kakucho clenched his hands into fists at his sides he felt obviously responsible for what happened. he swallowed hard and cleared his throat to speak.

"boss. i'm sorry. i failed to protect y/n when i should've been there." kakucho bowed a bit, keeping his eyes trained to the space in front of him. "i'll make sure this never happens again."

"sorry is not good enough, kakucho! that was way too fucking close!" mikey exploded. "did you see the state she was in?! he beat the shit out of her!! what if they had known who she was?!!?"

mikey let out a breath as kakucho continued to bow down towards him.

"all of you are lucky she's alive. otherwise you'd be dead like the rest of them." he continued, his voice lower.

it's not like they could have reasonably known the night was going to go the way it did, even if they could've been better prepared. after all, mikey was the one who made the call to do it.

but no one was going to point that out.

"mikey." takeomi said.

the blonde's head snapped toward the gang's advisor.

"what?"

"they knew we were coming. clearly there's someone leaking information. and we killed every last person in that building. we still need to verify we got every known gang member, but as for our rat problem.. we have a plan." takeomi reasoned. "it's over."

mikey was silent for a moment, looking around the table. when no one dared meet his stare, he shook his head a bit.

"fine." he said, sitting back down in his chair. "this won't be happening again, though. if i see a single bruise, scratch, or scar on her, all of you are dead."

the group nodded in understanding.

"everyone out." mikey ordered, finally done with them.

the group filtered out to the common room outside mikey's office. kakucho went somewhere else, but the others stayed behind to talk.

"damn, he's pissed." mochi said as he poured himself a drink. "what's he so worked up for?"

"seems like he's come to care for her.. whether it's because of her or her potential remains to be seen." takeomi observed.

"i guess. it just doesn't explain how they didn't know who she was though." mochi said.

"apparently she pretended she was one of our sex workers." koko answered, a proud smirk on his face. "so they thought she was just some girl."

"dangerous, but it was probably her best option." takeomi agreed. "honey's brain lives up to its reputation."

"you really shouldn't call her that." koko corrected, crossing his legs while he lounged in a chair. "she prefers y/n."

"eh? why not?" takeomi asked as he lit up another cigarette. "that's what mikey calls her."

"yeah. which if he cares about her, it makes it even weirder he still calls her a nickname she hates."