Warnings: Potential spoilers as from Volume 8.
Disclaimer: DOLLS and its characters belong to naked ape.
A/N: Plotted in an insomnious May-day night, written mostly during the breaks in working hours. That said, is pretty pointless.
Asou knows well how to deal with Hasui The Earnest Professional, aimed to achieving results. He can always rely on his quick thinking, eloquent speech and undying drive towards justice. Time and again, he has to restrain Hasui from extremes — not that it always works with this stubborn, self-opinionated guy, anyway, — and it's Asou's duty to provide him reliable cover and steady assistance. He can't help grumbling and rolling his eyes at his workmate's quirks, but that is all — he's got into the way of coping with them pretty much.
What Asou absolutely doesn't know is how to treat the emotional wreck, the crushed, heartbroken Hasui, who clings to his shirt in desperate anger, bitterly laments on his breast and struggles to suppress the tears. And Asou doesn't say a word, because he doesn't want to interrupt the sudden flash of genuine sincerity. He listens to the choking outpouring and bits his lips, because he's awfully afraid to blurt out something inappropriate again and hurt him even more.
This is the second time when he is happening to witness Hasui's outburst.
This is the first time when he is entrusted to serve him as a pillow to cry on.
Asou slowly raises his hand and tentatively touches Hasui's stiff, trembling shoulder. And then, after a moment of discreet hesitation, he gingerly enfolds the petite frame of his old acquaintance in his arms. And faces no resistance.
He had his thoughts and assumptions, of course, but never knew exactly what it means for Hasui to be side by side with that man. What are the bonds that kept him sticking to his blissful delusion? Between the sobs and gasps, it's been said enought to make a deduction. And in this crucial turning point in the collision of the past, the present and the desired, he strokes Hasui's back, breathes in his hair and ruefully admits that he will never be worthy enough to take the place of the handsome terminator with a mole.
But even so, he will try his best.