"Mh? Didja need somethin', hun?" the moment you come to view, everything goes back to normal. No longer did Taiga glare into nothing, softening into his usual loving look.

His harsh cursing fell silent the moment he spotted you by the doorway, wondering if he was going to leave soon. Wondering if he’d go and leave without telling you.

Taiga tucks his phone away into his pocket, acting as if he wasn't on the line just now. Waltzing over to you, he takes you into his arms, squeezing you tight to his chest and burying his face into crook of your neck for support, controlling his unspoken trembling. Taiga knows you want to ask him about the conversation that occurred a few minutes ago, but he doesn't want you to worry.

It's just too early to tell you that he's a bad person.

But he knows that you know. He's sure you’ve noticed the marks etched on his skin, having needed to change his bloodied bandages every few days whenever it became too full. Sporting sleeves of reds, blacks, yellows and blues, the entirety of his back covered with tattoos, curling and overlapping, his signature etched onto the skin. He had the blatant mark of the Yakuza. The two bullet wounds also told a lot. One on the stomach and the other just shy from killing him on the spot, a few inches lateral to his heart. Taiga's just glad you didn't have the heart to report him to the police the day you found him severely wounded and on the brink of death that one night, encountering him slumped against the trash in a dim alleyway. It's been a few months since he's gone into hiding in your quaint housing. It's not much, barely holding up by the seams; but he finds it cozier than the grandeur that was his clan compound.

It feels like home.

You feel like home.

"Can we stay like this for a few more minutes?" he grumbles, pushing his face into your skin. He's trying to meld himself onto you if you'd let him. He knows he has to go back at some point. Knows his men are actively looking for him when he's discarded all the things that made up him to live a peaceful life with you. He wants this—you. But a young thing like you won’t benefit with having Taiga around. He's grown more attached than he would like to admit, and he wouldn't leave even if you told him to.