Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.

WARNINGS: Implied rape and violence. Dark themes.

Picking Up the Pieces

Chapter 1

Broken

Akutsu first paused at the door.

There was nothing outwardly wrong with the door. No scratches, no marks, no signs of forced entry whatsoever. There was just the small scrape near the base of the door from where he always kicked it shut despite Taichi's repeated reminders that it wasn't a good habit and really Jin you should just stop. All in all, nothing should have caught his attention.

Despite the perfect condition of the door, something made Akutsu pause. He quickly concluded it was the little figurine lying on the floor as though forgotten, caught in his eye as his foot accidentally nudged it to the side, making it roll on the cold floor. He knew it well enough; though he knew neither the character nor the anime it was from, he'd seen it hanging from Taichi's keys too many times not to recognize it instantly. There was no way it could have fallen without Taichi noticing, not at the spot where he'd obviously take his keys out and see if it was missing. And there was no way he wouldn't have picked it up.

Even before he tried the door, Akutsu knew it wasn't locked. It turned out he was right, his hand finding no resistance from the lock. Taichi would have never left it unlocked, not in this part of the town. No matter how stupidly trusting he could be at times, he knew better than to do that; Akutsu had certainly made sure of that at least. The door wasn't supposed to be open... not if Taichi had any choice in the matter, anyway.

Practically throwing the door open, he rushed inside. "Taichi!" he called out before he was even properly in the doorway, a cold feeling spreading within him as there was no answer. Taichi was supposed to be home. He was always home at this time of the day unless he called and told him otherwise, and there had been no call today... Taichi was home, of course he was home, but if he was home why was the door unlocked like this and why didn't he reply?

Akutsu was only vaguely aware that there were things off their places, some broken or thrown around. He didn't pause to check, though, not considering such things important. Not now. Not when there was something far more important at stake. "Taichi!"

There was still no response as he rushed through the apartment, not that there was a lot of ground to cover; it wasn't like they could afford anything fancy with Taichi still at school and only Akutsu working full time. Nevertheless, it seemed to take him an eternity to reach the bedroom. The door was halfway open, it shouldn't have been halfway open, especially not with one of Taichi's precious notebooks lying under it with pages torn off...

The bedroom was small, small enough that it would have been impossible to miss Taichi on the first glance, not that there had exactly been any attempt made to hide him. The younger man lay sprawled on the bed, one arm hanging limply over the side, unmoving. His clothes had been torn off his body, bruises and blood tainting the paleness of the bared skin.

No matter what sport he took up, Akutsu always soon became known for his lightning-fast reflexes and the apparently impossible speed he moved at. Nevertheless, he was sure he'd never moved as quickly as he did now, rushing to the side of the bed to get to Taichi. It never even crossed his mind that whoever had done this might still be nearby. He just needed to get to Taichi.

Kneeling down next to the bed, he carefully gathered Taichi into his arms, trying to draw the bloodied sheets around the kid. Taichi was completely limp and quiet, pale and unresponsive as Akutsu tried gently shaking him awake. Well, as gently as he could manage in his nigh-panicked state, anyway. However, despite all the shaking and prodding and his calls of Taichi's name, he got no reaction from his lover.

For one long, terrifying moment, Akutsu was sure the kid was dead. Then, however, Taichi shivered, face distorting a bit in a pained frown. It wasn't exactly promising, but it was still far, far better than his being dead. If he'd been dead, Akutsu would have never forgiven himself for failing to protect him. Hell, he'd never forgive himself for this, either. Protecting your lover was the basic duty of a man. Even the worst thugs knew as much. If you couldn't even protect the one you slept with, you weren't much of a man at all.

And Akutsu had failed Taichi.

Okay. Time to be rational, now. Sure, it was usually Taichi's area of expertise, but then Taichi was obviously incapacitated right now so it came down to Akutsu to do the logical thing. However much it hurt his pride to admit it, he couldn't help Taichi right now. He couldn't even begin to guess what was wrong with the younger man – though he could take a few educated guesses, none of which were very pleasant – let alone treat him to any capacity. He had to get help, and he had to get it soon.

Shifting Taichi in his arms, he started prying the cell phone from his pocket.

Like Hell was he going to let go before he absolutely had to.

They suspected him. Of course they suspected him. From the first glance they took at him they were sure this was just a particularly bad case of domestic abuse gone too far. He bore their gazes, indifferent. He was used to gaining such gazes right now, had been used to it since he'd been just a kid. It didn't matter what they thought of him as long as they helped Taichi.

He wanted to go with Taichi in the ambulance but he couldn't go yet, not while the police were still questioning him. For a moment he almost wondered why he'd called them in the first place, it must have been the voice of Taichi in his head, but he suspected the ambulance crew would have called them on him if he hadn't done so himself. Besides, well, there had been a crime. Someone had broken into their apartment and hurt Taichi. It was the job of the police to solve crimes, right? So they should have been doing that instead of hounding him.

It took a call to his work place and the paramedics' assessment of Taichi's injuries to convince the police he couldn't have possibly been the one to cause the injuries simply because he hadn't been home yet. This made them let up ever so slightly, turning the focus of the questions from his alibi to whatever had happened. It wasn't until now that he actually took a moment to see if something was missing in the mess of a home that Taichi usually went to great pains to keep clean. There wasn't that much gone, mainly some electronics, small enough to carry and easy to turn into money. Taichi's laptop had at least gone unnoticed, tucked under the bed the night before as Akutsu had finally convinced him to put it away for the night. Not exactly much of a comfort.

It made him sick, seeing the police fussing all over the messed-up apartment, taking pictures and marking things, gathering evidence this and evidence that. The bloodied bed sheets apparently qualified. Akutsu tried not to think about what kind of evidence they'd expect to find from those.

After what seemed like an eternity they finally let him go, though not before some fairly ominous comments about how they would still have some questions for him. He ignored them. They could ask themselves sick for all he cared once he'd made sure Taichi was all right. ...Well, as all right as he could be, given the circumstances. The best he dared hope for was making sure Taichi would live. The thought wasn't exactly much of a comfort.

He thought back to the moment he'd found Taichi, the one cold, terrifying moment during which he'd been almost certain he'd lost the one damn thing that made his life worth living, and felt sick.

He felt even sicker when he realized it wasn't entirely guaranteed he hadn't lost him, yet.