Cavalry

The door to the dormroom shut with a soft click. Luca leaned back against it, let out a long breath and let his head fall back. All his muscles still hurt from the fight with Kaneshiro, and he really wasn’t looking forward to how practice was going to go tomorrow. Coach was sharp, and he was absolutely sure the man knew something was up. He hadn’t said anything about it yet, and Luca wasn’t going to try to come up with an excuse for it until he did. It wasn’t like he could tell the truth after all. ‘My friends and I are the Phantom Thieves of Heart and we’ve been beating up shadows in the Metaverse. Kinda takes it out of a guy’ was likely to get them all arrested or make people think he had started to crack under the pressure of his upcoming senior debut.
Neither option really appealed to him so, as sorry as he was for making his coach worry, he wasn’t going to lose sleep over it.
He pushed away form the door, crossed the room, and fell face-first into bed. Hair that was still damp from the baths tickled his neck and he brushed it away impatiently. His original plan had been to try and soak out some of the muscle aches out in the bath. Yusuke was certainly doing just that , and if he didn’t come back in a bit then Luca was going to go check to make sure the artist hadn’t fallen asleep. Luca just had something he had to do now that they’d beaten Kaneshiro’s shadow into submission, something he couldn’t really justify putting off anymore.
Why a pig-mech though? Ran through his mind again as he flipped over to stare at the dirty white ceiling. It wasn’t the first time he couldn’t make sense of the weirdass shit they saw in the Metaverse, but it was one of the...silliest so far. At least now that they weren’t trying to dodge the thing and avoid being flattened into Phantom-roadkill he could appreciate how stupid it really was. He might even find it hilarious someday. Eventually. As soon as his muscles stopped aching.
...And I’m avoiding this, he heaved a sigh and sat up, snatching his phone from the bed, where it had been charging. He checked his messages automatically but there was nothing new, other than Phitchit posting another picture to Instagram. Which it was well...Phitichit. He would be more concerned if the other skater suddenly stopped posting.
I’m still procrastinating aren’t I? He let out a breath, and flicked over to his contacts. His thumb hovered over the one he had had for years, yet never used, for a long moment before he pressed it.
The phone on the end rang for a minute that felt like eternity before there was a click as someone picked up.
“Caio,” the familiar cheery voice on the other end.
“Caio,” Luca answered back automatically, a habit he hadn’t dropped since leaving Italy and still sometimes confused people in Japan, “Dino, it’s Luca. It’s...been a while hasn’t it?” Actually, he wasn’t sure when the last time he’d spoken to Theresa’s fiance was. They weren’t exactly close, and there were several reasons that he really, really didn’t want to know much about what Dino and his sister did for a living.
“Luca?” Came the surprised reply from the other end, and something that sounded like a laugh. “This is a surprise! It has been forever since you…” there was a pause, “actually I don’t think you’ve ever called me.”
“Yeah,” Luca muttered, “sorry about that.” He was going to add that he’d been busy, but considering how many years he’d known Dino, it would be a flimsy excuse and they both knew it. He just never knew what to say to his sister’s boyfriend. Hell, he felt more comfortable talking to a couple of the Cavallone enforces than he did Dino most of the time, and that said a lot. It wasn’t that he disliked Dino really, he just...didn’t know what their relationship was even supposed to be.
“Don’t worry about it,” Dino sounded as nonchalant about it as ever. A chair creaked on the other end of the line as he responded, “So, how are you? Adjusting to Japan okay? Theresa was worried it would be too much of a shock for you, but you seem to be holding up pretty well.” “Uh, I’m doing okay?” That was a question Luca hadn’t expected. Theresa had been worried and tried to talk him out of the whole exchange student thing at first, but he didn’t think Dino would have paid that much attention. “I mean it’s not that different. It’s kind of a challenge using Japanese all the time I guess, and there are a few things that take getting used to, but I mean I’m used to be in other countries for competitions. So it’s nothing I can’t deal with.”
“That’s good to hear,” Dino chuckled over the phone. “You’re tough, and you’re smart. I told her you would be fine, but you’re still her baby brother. She’s going to worry.”
“I still don’t see why it’s such a big deal,” he crossed his legs and slumped back against the wall. “I mean, I was living in Detroit before this. It wasn’t exactly next door. She didn’t worry nearly as fucking much.”
“She was the one that set up the Detroit arrangement,” Dino reminded him, “you’re the one that decided to go through with this exchange student idea. She’s still getting used to you being old enough to make decisions on your own. Give her a bit to adjust to it. She’ll come around.”
Luca felt his shoulder relaxed a little. He realized that maybe he might have been worried about her reaction because he had ignored her objections. Thought she might have gotten a pissed at him. Maybe. A tiny bit. “...Right,” he muttered into the phone,”thanks”
Things lapsed into an awkward silence as Luca remembered the real reason he was calling, and it had nothing to do with making small talk about his sister. He cleared his throat.
There was a huffed laugh at the end. “Okay, Luca. Tell me why you really called me.”
“Huh?” Luca sat up straight. It was like Dino had figure out how to read his mind there for a moment.
“We both know that I’m not the person you would call up for a friendly chat. There has to be another reason you would remember you have my number ,” was the mild reply on the end. “So, what’s up? Something the matter?”
Luca licked lips that had suddenly gone dry and let out a breath. Of course Dino would figure it out. He wasn’t sure if he should be grateful or embarrassed that he was that transparent, “Yeah,” he admitted finally, “I’m kind of in trouble right now. I think I need help.” Taking down Kaneshiro's shadow should have changed his heart. All of them should be safe now, even Makoto.
Should being the keyword here. He wanted a backup plan just in case that ‘should’ didn’t work. Because while he was willing to bet he might be able to wiggle out of whatever Kaneshiro tried to do because of his connections, the others didn’t have that same sort of fallback. And he was not willing to leave them with just a should.
There was another chair creak from the other end of the line. “What kind of trouble?” Dino said sounding calm, “The ‘Need help getting rid of a body’ kind of trouble?”
“What!? No!” Luca sputtered, startled not just by the question, but by how completely nonchalantDino had sounded about it. Anyone else he would think it was a joke, but the scary thing was that Luca sure Dino probably completely serious
It was a reminder that, no matter his intentions, that this was fighting fire with fire. His relation to Dino didn’t matter. You didn’t call up the don of the Cavallone family, one of the biggest mafia families in Italy, for help unless you were aware of the risks. There were a lot of ways that this plan could go bad very, very quickly and Luca had gone over all of them in his head several times.
Dino was the just the only person he knew who had any chance of standing up to Kaneshiro in the real world, especially if half of what ‘resa said about him was true.
He was also one of the few people he thought would believe him and not be completely shocked by anything.
“So then, what’s the problem?” Was it his imagination or did Dino sound slightly more serious? Sometimes it was hard to read him. Especially when they were half a world apart.
Luca took a deep breath, and absently reached up to toy with the necklace around his neck as he spoke “There’s this guy out here, Kaneshiro. He runs a gang out Shibuya, doing phishing scams. People say it’s a mafia group. Haven’t heard which family is supposed to be running them though. He’s been trying blackmail me and my friends.”
There was a few second pause on the other end of the line.
“Wh..what?” came the startled reply, “...I’m honestly not sure if I’m more startled by you letting yourself get blackmailed or that you already have friends.”
“Why is the friends thing so shocking!?”
“Luca, Theresa was worried because your coach said that you really didn’t have any friends your own age and barely talked with anyone outside the guys you trained with. I never heard you actually call anyone a friend, not even Basil. You really didn’t like to get close to people. It wasn’t obvious you were pushing people away, but you never really tried to get to know people either. Apparently going to Japan must have been good for you if you’ve opened up this much.” Luca sputtered incoherently for a few seconds, glad that he was talking over the phone because he was pretty damn sure he was blushing for some reason and he did not want Dino to see that. “Th..that’s not important!” He managed to get out, voice cracking in a way that it hadn’t in years.
“Probably,” Dino said, and his voice evented out a little, “or at least we can talk about it another day. The blackmail thing though...that’s surprising for another reason. You mentioned he was running a phishing scam. Did you…?”
That got an indignant snort, “Please, I’m not an idiot. They might have been using Japanese but, I can tell a scam when it’s that’s obvious. ‘Come on, do a quick job for us. Lots of money! Not much work! And no asking what you’re supposed to be doing first!’” Luca tried imitating the annoyingly smug tone the thug in Shibuya had used on him on when they’d run into each other. “Thought they guy who tried to drag me into it was gonna deck me when I told him he was being too obvious.”
There was a chuckle from the phone, “you’re lucky that he didn’t hit you. Even some of my guys would have lost patience with a mouthy kid tell them how to do their jobs.” Luca decided not to mention that he’d realized that it had been kind of stupid but...seriously. He was shocked anyone had fallen for something that obviously shady. Dino was still talking though, so he tried to pay attention to that, “I figured you would be too smart to fall into an obvious trap, so I was wondering what made you get involved in the first place.” There was a heavy pause, “So then, was it one of your friends the one that fell for it?”
“Not really,” Luca said, “none of them were that stupid either.” He’d already decided, before he even called, that he was only giving Dino as much information as he needed. There were just parts of it that would be really hard to explain if he tried to go into full detail.
There was a sigh, “then what does he have on you, Luca?” Dino asked, “and what does he want from you? If you’re calling me…” he didn’t finish the sentence. They both knew how serious it must have been if Luca had been willing to essential ask a favor from underground.
“What he wants is three million yen - shared among me and all my friends. I’m not stupid enough to think that he really thinks we can pay it.”
Dino gave a soft whistle. “That’s a lot of ask a bunch of kids for,” he said, “....unless some of these friends of yours aren’t kids?”
“All of them are about my age,” Luca answered quickly, “and before you ask, none of them are from anything any sort of shady background. And it wasn’t because of money. None of them are really rich either. You could tell he didn’t think we could really pay. This is just an excuse to drag us in.”
“So he’s after something more than money. You still haven’t said what exactly he has on you.” “Photos of us,” Luca admitted. This had been the hardest part into words without going into details about what they had been doing. Even if he felt like telling the whole story He was pretty sure Dino wouldn’t believe half of it if he gave him the full unadorned truth. Especially the parts that concerned the Metaverse.
“Photos?”
Luca let out a breath. Best to get this done now, before he let something ship he shouldn’t. “One of my friends is student council president” Completely true. He just wouldn’t mention which school she council president of. “Some of the students came to her for help because they got caught up in the scam, and she felt like she had to do something. So she started sniffing around, we ended up helping her somehow, and when we finally figure out who this guy was, she decided that she couldn’t wait. By the time we figured out what she was up to, she's convinced a couple of Kaneshiro’s thugs to take her to their hideout. We went after her to stop her or at least talk some sense into her, but she was already there by the time we caught up. That’s when Kaneshiro got a bit…..pissed off at us for just charging in.”
There was another long moment of silence on the other end, then something that sounded suspiciously like something between a chuckle and a sigh. “So you charged straight into a mafia lair?” Dino sounded more amused than anything else when he finally spoke, which Luca supposed he shouldn’t be surprised about. “I’m not sure if I should say you’re brave or stupid for that particular stunt. Even if he’s just from a local gang, you could have easily ended up dead.” Which of course he said with all the bland emphasis of sometime just stating a fact, which was somehow chilling.
“There wasn’t time to for us to figure out another way! It wasn’t like we could just leave her here there!” Luca tried to keep his voice from raising. He was ninety-nine percent certain that no one in the dorms on either side of the room spoke fluent enough Italian to understand him, but he really didn’t want them throwing questions at him either. Like demanding to know what he was yelling. Just because he got by on ‘weird foreigner doing weird foreign things’ a lot didn’t mean he wanted to push his luck..
“I’m not saying you should have,” Dino said, still sounding amused for some insane reason. “I probably would have done the same thing,” he gave a little chuckle, “Theresa will probably be proud of you too.”
“I’m not sure about proud,” he said flatly, “she might understand why I did it, but only after she’s finished getting mad at me for putting myself in that kind of danger in the first place. And you have got to know how she gets when she’s like that.”
There was a long pause on the other end. “...That is not a position I envy you being in,” he said. “And I take it that’s part of the reason you called me instead of her?”
“Large part of it, yeah,” Luca was forced to admit, “I mean I know she would listen after she finished yelling, but I don’t want her to worry about me anymore than she already does.”
That got another laugh from Dino, but this time a more honest one. “You’re a good kid,” he said, “but you do realize that she’s never going to stop worrying about you all together right?” Luca knew that, had known that since he was very small. That was one reason he’d worked so hard to make sure he stayed out of trouble. He didn’t want her worrying more than he she already did. He tried to keep from sighing and let his head fall back against the wall. “Yeah, I figured that out a long-ass time ago,” he said, letting his language slip just a bit because this was Dino and he’d probably heard much worse language on a daily basis. “I thought she would relax after I grew up a bit, but…”
“I don’t think it’s something either of you can grow out of,” Dino said, and he sounded almost wistful about that. But then he gave as sigh, “and even though I don’t mind talking about your sister, that’s not the reason you called, is it?” There was the sound of something clinking on the other side of the line. “So, how much damage did the lot of you cause?”
Luca sat up a little, so he wasn’t leaning full against the wall, and frowned slightly. “Damage? What do you mean?”
“To Kaneshiro’s base? You said you just charged straight in there, right? I assume part of the reason he’s asking you for the impossible is because he wants compensation for the damage you caused getting in.”
Luca blinked a little as he sat up straighter, “but we didn’t really...cause any damage,” he said slowly. “At least I don’t think we did? ...Maybe Ryuji kicked in the door? Or at least wanted to kicked in the door? But I think we tried it and it was unlocked so we kind of ended up running inside.” He frowned as the tried to picture that moment again, “Sorry, that’s part’s a bit of a blur.” He hadn’t really sorted through many of what he considered the unimportant memories of that day. ‘Kaneshiro got ahold of Makoto!’ and ‘Crap we’re being blackmailed!’ were kind of at the top of the list and stood out with stark clarity. The minor details of exactly how they’d gotten to those points had totally slipped his mind.
“That was careless,” was the suspiciously mild reply on the end. “But it guess it wouldn’t matter in the end anyway. You got into his hideout. No matter what you did, he would have to make an example out of all of you for that. He would look weak in front of his men if he just let you go, and I assume that’s something he can’t afford to risk.”
“I figure it was something like that,” Luca shifted on the bed and something poked him in thigh, hard. After a moment of confused fishing around in the covers he found a pen he vaguely remembered leaving there while studying last night. He started to twirl it between his fingers as he spoke. “I mean, it wouldn’t exactly have looked good for him if people thought he was intimidated by a bunch of teenagers.” He watched the pen twirl then stop, twirl then stop. It calmed him down somewhat. “I just thought he would have his men kick our asses. That would have been simpler,” he stopped the pen for a moment, before sending it spinning again. “Not that I’m unhappy about it. I’m not exactly a masochist here. I’d rather avoid pain.”
There was a snort Dino. “Right. You say that with the career you chose.” When he didn’t dignify that with an answer, the mafia don continued, “I think I’ve got most of the story now. You’re lucky he’s only trying to blackmail you. It could have turned out so much worse for you. You’re aware of that, right?” He sounded unusually serious. Luca stopped playing with his pen.
“I know,” he said, “I’ve thought about it a million fucking times. There just wasn’t any time to think. She got dragged off before and we would have lost the car if we’d wasted time calling the police.” “I’m not saying you shouldn’t have done it,” Dino said cheerfully, “just that you were lucky!” He paused, “and I understand most of what went down, but you haven’t mentioned the pictures yet.” “It’s ‘cause his hideout was a strip club,” Luca said, remembering the place. Not that he’d paid much attention to the surroundings after they’d seen Makoto, but it was obvious what the building was, “he used his phone to snap a few pictures of us, and made sure to mention he got alcohol in the shot with us. Then threatened to send ‘em to our families and schools if we didn’t pay up.” Luca smirked a little, and started playing with the pen again. “It would have been a pain in the ass if Theresa found out and grilled me, or they got leaked to the media, but I figured I could explain things to you and her. School’s another thing though. They’re so damn strict over here and sooo worried about reputation that they probably wouldn’t wait for any sort of explanation before deciding on the consequences. Hell, even if they were willing to hear my side of the story, they’d probably still kick me out anyway. Can’t have a stain on school reputation after all.” He nearly spat the last part. It wasn’t just because of what Ryuji, Ann, and Akira had told him about Kamoshida either. Or even anything that had happened to him while he had been overseas. He still had a sour taste in his mouth from middle school and how he was almost kicked out for fighting when it was the fucking basketball team captain and his cronies that had jumped him and would have been perfectly happy to pound him into the ground if he hadn’t fought back.
(Asshole had deserved that broken nose he’d gotten out of it.)
Theresa had managed to pull off a miracle and proved he hadn’t started the fight, but even then the principal had only backed down when he feared it would go public. Bastard that started it hadn’t even really been punished, even when they were staring at proof of what he’d done. Oh, they’d been ready to expel Luca when he hadn’t won any major competitions yet, but the basketball team might put the school on the map. So, detention for a few days for them. Couldn’t have them missing practice after all.
Dino, unaware of the way Luca’s thoughts were spiraling, clicked his tongue on the other end of the line. “True,” the mafia boss agreed, “when I was teaching English over, a couple of other staff members insisted on giving me a lecture about how important it was that I keep the school's reputation in mind,” there was a chuckle, “not that it really mattered to me much, especially with the school I was at, but you tend to remember being cornered and given almost the exact same lecture three different times.”
The pen went flying across the room as Luca lost control of it’s spin, and bounced off the door with a ping. “What?” He all but yelped. “Teaching? You were...What? That...How? And why thefuck would you do that!?” The first few words to the sentence kept repeating over and over in his head. There were just...so many questions. Like why the fuck a mafia boss from Italy was teaching English in Japan at a random middle school and how someone like that could even get a job here, and…he shook his head as he tried to get his thoughts in some sort of order.
On the other end of the line Dino just laughed again. “It’s a long story,” he said, sounding far to amused about his reaction, “it was only for a little bit, but it was fun. Teaching was harder than I thought though.”
Luca opened his mouth to reply to that then shut it, and reached up to rub his forehead. “Yeah, yeah, it probably was,” he muttered before replying a bit more loudly, “but still why would you..” he trailed off and shook his head even though knew Dino couldn’t see him, “you know what, never mind. don’t think I really want to know.”
“Probably a good idea,” Dino said, “it would be kind of...confusing for someone who wasn’t involved. Maybe you can ask your sister about it later.”
“...Yeah, maybe,” Luca muttered. On one hand, wow did he want to know what kind of a school would let Dino of all people teacher there and why. On the other hand he had a sneaking suspicion that it involved some of the shadowy activities that he really did not want to know about. He knew that Dino got up to stuff that was probably on par with Kaneshiro’s plan. And that Theresa was probably involved in most of it in some way, even if it was just as support. It was something he tried very, very hard not to think about most days. Theresa didn’t like to talk about half the stuff she got up to, and Luca was sure that was for a reason. She had done her best to make sure he was raised right, she’d admitted that to him once. He really didn’t want to know what she’d had to do to make it happen. Avoiding it was probably the cowards way out, and made more him than a bit of a hypocrite considering what he was doing right now, but it was Theresa. Maybe one day he would be brave enough to really take a look at why he avoided it.
Maybe.
One day.
When he wasn’t worried about so much other crap.
“Maybe,” he repeated out loud, “I’ll remember to ask her about your weird hobbies when I don’t have a different mobster breathing down my neck.”
He thought he caught a small chuckle before he spoke, voice sounding calm, “I’ll have to hold you to that at one point,” he said, “after I’ve taken care of Kaneshiro.”
Luca’s breath caught, and his hands shook a little. “So you’ll….help?” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. This was the entire reason he had called, yet hearing the actual words sent a shockwave of dread through him. The more rational part of him had always known that asking Dino for this favor was probably a bad idea. He was asking a mafia boss for help with yet another mafia boss. He might have been avoiding learning about specifics about what Dino was doing, but that didn’t mean he was stupid. Violence was a language all its own in the underworld. There was a very, very good chance this would lead to bloodshed.
He would have to deal with the guilt over that. Because from here on out whatever happened was something that he was partially responsible for. He calling Dino was be making a deal with the devil in a way, and had even gone over what it might mean in his mind in the week while they were making plans to deal with Kaneshiro. It just hadn’t seemed like something real until Dino had said he would ‘deal with him’. Or maybe it was just hard to picture Dino being that vicious until he said something that drove home just what he was.
“Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep this as neat and quiet as I can,” Dino said nonchalantly, as if he had managed to read part of Luca’s mind. Or maybe it was just because they knew each other at least that well by now. “If things get...messy, it’s going to be difficult to deal with, at least in Japan. It’s easier to try being diplomatic in situations like this. At least if the other party is willing to be reasonable.”
Luca wasn’t sure what Dino mean by being ‘diplomatic’ and wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It also made him wonder if Dino would have bothered with it if they had been in Italy, where all his contacts were. He had a feeling that he would never hear about what went down, but suddenly Kaneshiro would be gone.
He let out a breath. Whatever happened after this would be something he would have to deal with. “Thanks,” he said out loud, “I owe you for this.” Because this had been his idea and he wasn’t going to let any of the other Phantom Thieves drop into debt with yet another gangster because of a decision he’d made.
“Don’t worry about it,” Dino said, “you’re a good kid, remember? You don’t ask for much, and this isn’t that big of a deal. You should hear about the situations I’ve had to pull my guys out of!” Dino chuckled at that, but Luca decided he really didn’t want to know what situations the mafia boss was talking about. The stuff he had heard Ivan talking about when he was drunk was more than enough.
He wondered if Dino would still think he was a ‘good kid’ if he knew the fully story about why they’d ended up involved with Kaneshiro.
“Besides,” the Cavallone boss continued, “at his point were practically famil…” Dino’s words ended in an alarmed squeak that sound almost hilarious coming from him, there was a creak, a thud and then something that sounded like a crash and the sound of the phone clattering across the floor.
Luca sat up straight, “Dino?” he said quickly, alarm ringing through him. “You okay? Hey? Dino?”
Everyone always told him how strong Dino was. Ivan had brought it up more often than not. Theresa had said that he was, and her opinion was one he trusted no matter what. The Cavallone compound was also pretty secure from what he remembered, but he didn’t know where Dino actually was right now, and even the strongest person could be taken out if they were caught off guard and….
“Dino! Hey!”
The sound of running footsteps and a door slamming open echoed through the phone’s speaker. “Boss!” Luca knew that voice, it was probably Romario. His breath froze in his throat, and he swore his heart dropped to somewhere around his stomach for a moment before a slight groan echoed from somewhere near the phone.
“Ooooww…”
And he let out that breath and slumped back again. That had sounded more like an ‘ow I stubbed my toe’ ow than a ‘hey I’ve been shot or stabbed’ ow.
There was some more mumbled Italian from the other end that Luca couldn’t fully make out, then a slight scrape.
“Sorry about that,” Dino said into the phone, “must’ve leaned back a little far in my chair. I think it broke on me.”
Dimly Luca heard another voice echoing behind Dino as it said “The chair’s fine, boss.”
“What?”
And Luca heaved a sigh at the response. Maybe that was the reason that kept forgetting just how dangerous his sister’s fiance really was. When you’d seen someone trip over their own feet and slam into the frame of an open door, you tended to forget that he was head of the third most powerful family in Italy.
Dino cleared his throat, “Well that aside,” he said, “I’ll be in Japan soon to figure out exactly how I’ll approach this. Just hold out until then, okay?”
“Yeah,I can do that,” he relaxed a little. Hopefully, but the time Dino showed up Kaneshiro would already have confessed to everything.
He hoped.
“And thanks again,” he said, falling back against the bed.
“I said not to worry about it,” there was a scraping sound, then he faintly heard the creak of a chair from across the live before Dino leaned back. “Although there is one thing that I want you to do for me.”
Luca tensed up again. “And that is..?” he said slowly, cautiously
. “I’m going to have you explain everything to your sister after it’s taken care of, all right?” Dino said, sounding perfectly cheerful about this.
There was a long pause then Luca dropped a hand over his face. “So you’re sending me on a suicide mission?” he felt a smile start to form. “Isn’t making me suffer like that much a bit much?”
“Ah, you’ll be fine,” came the carefree voice from the other end, “she’s your sister after all. I don’t think she can actually stay mad at you for very long.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t make the time she’s actually yelling at me all the pleasant,” he said flatly. “Do I really have to….?”
“Oh?” Dino’s voice had that mild quality that meant something, “so you want to lie to her when she starts to figure out something is up?”
Luca paused then, tried to picture lying to her, and even just the thought of it was enough to make him feel guilty. He had come to terms with the fact that she had lied to him directly in order to protect him, but when it came to him lying to her? He would give half-truths, dance around the issues or avoid it and feel guilty. Directly lying to her was a different thing though, and he could never picture do it believable. He had a feeling she would be able to tell if he even tried.
“Okay, no,” he admitted.
“I don’t really want to lie to her either,” Dino said, “since I’d rather not betray her trust. I’ll try to keep her out of the loop until I’ve actually got a plan to deal with it, but she does come to with me to Japan sometimes. She might not question me to closely at first, but she’s going to figure out what’s going on or just ask me directly.”
Luca was not looking forward to Theresa’s reaction to this. He let out a breath. “Fine, I’ll explain it to her,” he said.
“I’ll hold you that,” Dino said cheerfully, “and try not to stress too much. Just concentrate on your skating, and on your studies. You won’t have to worry about this very soon.”
One way or another, Luca supposed it would be. He just hoped that it would be the actions of him and his friends that had changed everything, not something Dino had triggered in the real world.
“So I guess I’ll be seeing you soon too,” he said. Exhaustion hit him like a hammer. He had been able to forget about just how tired he was while he worried about what Dino would do or say, but now that was over. His body had decided that he needed rest.
“Yeah, you probably will,” was Dino’s reply. “Take care, Luca.”
Luca knew a dismissal when he heard one, “Yeah, you too,” he said, and hung up the phone. He lay there for awhile longer just staring at his phone before he closed his eyes and dropped his hand back to his bed. He brought his free hand up and rested the back of it against his forehead. Had he really done the right thing here? What would the other Phantom Thieves think if, or when, they found out what he had done? He’d seen the way they reacted to Kaneshiro. They probably wouldn’t be happy about him dragging in another mafioso to this mess no matter his reasoning behind it. Hell, he wasn’t sure how they would react if they found out he was basically related to a mafia family at this point, let alone one the size of Cavallone. The hand that still rested on his forehead curled into a fist. His relationship to Dino, to Cavallone wasn’t something he had ever really lied about. He’d just...danced around what Dino actually did when someone asked where he got all that money. There had always been some fear that maybe a reporter or something would find out, but the thought of his friends finding out about it scared him more. He was sure that Makoto was smart enough to put things together, if she actually got curious. When that happened...how was he going to explain things to them?
The sound of the door to the room creaking open shattered his thoughts. He shoot up in alarm, only to let out a breath when he saw it was just Yusuke. A soft breath left him. Of course it was just Yusuke. No one else would just walk into his dorm room.
He had to fight the the urge to reach up and smooth his hair back, make sure he look presentable.
“Hey, Yusuke. Need something?” he said instead. Hoped that was casual.
Yusuke looked at him curiously, a few strands of damp hair clinging to his forehead. Now Luca was glad he was across the room so it was easier to fight the urge to brush Yusuke's hair away. It was unfair how nice he looked, even though he was still disheveled from the bath. “So you were here,” Yusuke said as he stepped inside. He closed the door behind him before turning around again and speaking. “Are you alright?”
That was...not the question that he had been expecting. “Uh..yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?” He crossed his legs and sat up straight..
“You were talking about how much you were looking forward to a bath, yet you left after only few minutes. Plus, Ann noticed that you seemed...worried when we left the Palace, even though we had beaten Kaneshiro. You were so sure that it would work and ‘things would be all right’ that it seemed odd to her. I thought that perhaps your injury from the battle was worse than you had let on.”
It took Luca a long moment to actually process what his friend had said, since that was not a usual Yusuke thing to bring up. There were so many things that popped into his head. He hadn’t even realized Yusuke had been paying that much attention. Then he had to concente hard to keep from grinning like an idiot. He was not thirteen anymore, and he was not going to act that obvious. “You were actually worried about me?” he said, and he knew he probably sounded a bit like an idiot. He only hoped Yusuke didn’t notice.
“Yes?” Yusuke crossed his arms elegantly and looked slightly offended, “you don’t have to sound so surprised by it.”
“I’m happy about it,” Luca admitted after a pause. He was trying very hard not to blush, because talking about emotional things was not him. “But you gotta admit, you don’t usually notice something like that.”
Yusuke looked indignant for a moment, and Luca cut him off before he could say anything. “So thanks for that, but I’m fine,” he spread his arms out. “See? I…” he glanced at his phone out of the corner of his eye, “..just remembered something I had to do.”
“Something…?” Yusuke started to walk into the room. There was a muffled crunch as his foot came down. They both froze in place for a moment. Slowly Yusuke lifted his foot, stared at the moment then glanced at the sole of his slipper. “Blue,” he said in surprise.
“...Crap. The fucking pen!” Luca scrambled off the bed to observe the damage. He busied himself with ink stains and broken pens, to keep from thinking about things.
(Including how close Yusuke was when he kneeled next to him. It was unfair that someone was that distracting.)
Everything that had been set in motion; their theft of Kaneshiro’s heart, his talk with Dino...they were out of his hands now.
All he could do was sit back, watch how they played out, and hope it ended up being for the best.