31_days | [April 9] [Gokusen] Protect

Title: Protect
Day/Theme: "chill that runs stright to the bone."
Series: Gokusen
Character/Pairing: Odagiri Ryu
Rating: PG

:::

Later, he would wonder what had taken so long for the images to come around and bite him in the ass.

The memory of it would crouch in the darkest corner of his mind, waiting patiently like a great beast for him to fall asleep to spring on him. It would tear into him with its vividness and dangerous possibility.

It would take months before Ryu would manage a full night's worth of sleep that isn't interrupted by nightmares so real, he wakes up gasping, a shout on his lips and drench in a cold sweat.

That is later, though.

Now, Ryu stared at the gun. A gun that shouldn't be there. A gun that is being pointed at the most important person in the room; in his life.

Ryu knew that Kentaro was dangerous. Kazama had said as much, plus the thugs they had encountered gave credence to his words. They were dangerous, and Kentaro was much more being the ringleader.

Perhaps Ryu has grown complacent from having Yankumi in his life. Maybe they all have. A part of him knew that Yankumi and her family were the exception to the rule when it came to criminals and other yakuza. He knew that; yet the sight of the gun made him freeze because what kind of person pulled a gun on another person.

Oh, yeah, a freaking drug dealer.

He couldn’t breath. He couldn't look away, not even if his life depended on it. And a life did depend on it, he thought half hysterically, only it's not his life that's on the line and that makes his heart almost stop beating. It's her life, and that's...that's not acceptable.

Ryu wants to move, wants to jump onto that stage and kick Kentaro in the balls, punch him in his smug face. Mostly, he wants to stop him from pointing that gun at Yankumi.

He can't, though. He's helpless, again, and not because Kentaro's thugs are holding him down.

No, she's holding him down, forcing him watch as she once again protects her precious students.

Ryu doesn't understand why she doesn't get it. They are not her students anymore; he's not her student anymore. They have grown into men, men strong enough to protect their precious people so why can't she let them protect her for once.

It's infuriating and frustrating and so Yankumi that it makes Ryu bite his lip to keep from laughing.

He supposed that she wouldn't be the woman she was, the woman he admired, who they all admired, if she let something like their age, or the fact that they were all graduates, stop her from doing what she thought was right.

He hopes that now that he's going to work with her, he can finally get her to stop from acting so recklessly and start relying on other for once.

She's not in this alone. Not anymore.

She has all of them.

She has him.

But that's later.

Right now, there is a gun-waving idiot he has to punch...

...and a woman he has to protect.