second hand (maitake / takemikey)

the one that starts kind of like a crackfic but gets serious at the end

The clock on the wall seemed louder today. It wasn't actually, but he knew the festival was slowly getting closer and by association: the date Draken got stabbed. So whenever he let his mind drift, it circled back to this ticking time bomb of an event on the horizon and what, if anything, there was to do to stop it. He'd saved Draken last time, but could he prevent the whole thing to begin with? That's the question.

He was starting to believe certain events couldn't be changed, maybe time worked on a series of railways and unless he completely switched trains he couldn't change the outcome, but how would he even make a change big enough to switch trains? And even so, what's the guarantee the new destination would be better?

Mikey's smile was in the back of the mind, it had made its way there a long time ago and stuck like sweet honey, but now it was accompanied by three words and a laugh. I love you. A whole area of his brain was dedicated to Manjiro Sano, a mental shrine of sorts; the problem is he needed his brain for a lot of other things currently, like saving the future for said brain invader, so the blonde needed to take a backseat for a while.

Thankfully he already knew the content they were studying when the teacher jolted him out of his thoughts, "Can you answer this question?"

Of course he could.

School had become his personal reflection time, since he already knew it all. If he didn't? That was past him's fault he couldn't be held accountable. Once you've taken a class two times, a third won't help much; if you haven't learnt the information maybe you just weren't meant to.

If time was on a path of railways- which in hindsight was an ironic comparison since this whole ordeal started at a train station, but if it was; sometimes he felt like he'd gotten on a train but forgotten his ticket. That or he had the wrong ticket to begin with. His being just felt off. Maybe it was due to knowing too much, the isolation of losing relationships to time, or just his twenty something year old brain resting in his teen self; mismatched. A puzzle piece too big for its slot, but it shoved itself in anyway.

The puzzle piece was still the right piece, it was just too large. Just like he was still Takemichi Hanagaki, just a bit too knowledgeable for this time period. It had been that way before- with him knowing a bit more than everyone else, but not to this degree.

He decided to tag along with Mikey to a Toman meeting that night, realizing on the way that if he was remembering correctly... This happened before the altercation with Pah-chin last time. He wasn't sure if that change was good or not but he'd take it in stride.

As he talked with Mitsuya, he noticed Mikey keeping an eye on him from a distance. His friend laughed, "He obviously holds you in very high regards."

"You think so?" Takemichi sheepishly asked, whether the current discomfort he had was from his knowledge of Mitsuya that he had to pretend not to have or Mikey's attention and future words , he wasn't particularly sure. Mikey was standing on higher ground, so it really felt like a hawk watching his prey? No, that's not right...

Mitsuya gave a very subtle nod in the leader's direction, "He's hardly subtle." Mikey looked away for a moment, as if he'd noticed their conversation topic, although with the distance between them he highly doubted that.

Baji joined their conversation this time, with Chifuyu in tow, sending Takemichi's panic into absolute overdrive. "So you're Takemitchy?"

"Huh?" Takemichi's nerves were finally getting to him, "Yeah, that's me!"

Baji and Chifuyu shared a look, he knew his future partner long enough to know that was a judgemental type of look. He wasn't sure what to make of the whole interaction.