A/N: Just a random one-shot that came out after watching the final episode today (of Season 1, anyway). Pardon me for any OOC-ness on Awashima's part. Spoilers for the final episode, so please don't read this if you're not aware of its contents!
Hints of SuohxMunakata, so if you don't like this pairing, don't say I didn't warn you.
Edit: Rewatched beginning of K, and a shout-out to Kaoriocha, who reminded me to confirm the season. XD My bad... I had this weird impression it was summer. Ugh. What an idiot I am.
Half
Chapter 1 - Dead
The Captain has changed.
It is not a lot, not enough to be noticed by other members of the Blue clan. Munakata Reishi is a man who commands respect and adoration, and even against the Red King, not once did he falter in the execution of his duty.
Still, she can see it; working for so long under him as she has, it would be a transgression, almost, if she had not. His recent absorption in puzzles that are adorned in distinctly red shades, an ashtray that sits discreetly underneath the mountain of paperwork at his work desk, the faraway smiles that do not quite reach his eyes…
The icy composure the Captain had always possessed is beginning to splinter at the edges, and more than anything, it is that which frightens her most.
No one knows the full story of what happened in his fight with Suoh, but one glance at the Captain's blood-spattered hand was enough to reassure them that the Blues had emerged victorious. At the time, she had not bothered to ask the details, but now she regrets not doing so. Their leader had killed the Red King and prevented a catastrophe like that of Kagutsu Crater's, but clearly it had come with a heavy price.
"Awashima-kun," he asks her pleasantly one afternoon, a warm cup of bitter green tea resting in his hands, "if the bar owner of Homra were gravely injured and beyond medical assistance, and he instructed you to kill him, would you be able to do it?"
In the midst of adding more red bean paste to her plate of sweets, Seri stills. The silence that settles in the room, undisturbed even by the quiet sips he takes, carries an ominous air. She wishes to say something, but nothing will come out. Her mind is as white as the snow that fell on that winter night weeks ago, on the death of the Red King. She can only imagine a painful, forced laugh from Kusanagi as he gestures for her to finish him off, and against her will, she can feel tears forming at the corners of her eyes, tears that she tries to blink away, rapidly.
The Captain does not seem to expect an answer, however, and as soon as he finishes his tea, he politely excuses himself and leaves. He does not bother to tell her where he is going, and when she tries to place a call, the service abruptly informs her that he is in a location with no connection, or he has turned the batteries off.
She suspects he has gone back to the ruins of Ashinaka High School.
He and Suoh Mikoto used to have a twisted sort of friendship, she knows, not altogether different from the relationship she shares with Kusanagi. The Captain has never seen anyone as his equal, save for the Red King, in whom he had taken a particular interest in. His eyes were only ever truly alive when he was facing Suoh, their skirmishes ultimately ending up in stalemates but no less exhilarating nonetheless.
Suoh was everything the Captain was not, brash and violent and impulsive, his crimson eyes gleaming like molten metal as he conjured his flames. For her, those were intrinsic character flaws, but the man Munakata Reishi had been drawn to them.
Perhaps, she thinks, reflecting on the deadened blue eyes of her Captain after he had returned alone from the forest, in his own way he had even loved the Red King.
Kings are only attracted to other kings, she has told Fushimi, and she wonders if Scepter-4 will be able to carry on as it has before, with its main rival, Homura, no longer officially a clan without its King, and the uncertainties that the Captain battles against in solitude.
Helpless as she is, she can do nothing but have faith that this time, too, their Captain will return.