"Hey, Kubota-san. Where you at? Are you alone?"

"I've done it. I've gotten my hands on this 'W.A.'!"

"I'm serious. I'm on my way to the office – wait for me."

The sky's fucking opened up by the time I make it back onto the street, clutching my gut like the effort will somehow keep me from bleeding out, though I can feel the fabric of my shirt getting heavy and hot with it. The rain's cold against my back, against my face, in my hair…but that doesn't matter. The pain doesn't matter. I told him I'd come. I told him to wait up. And I wasn't going to go back on that now. Not now that I had something to tell him.

I hit the door hard; going weak from what I fight to tell myself is relief. I try to catch my breath for a second, but I can already tell that something's gone wrong in my chest. When he opens the door, I can't keep to my feet, collapsing to the floor in front of his as he stares at me, his expression disbelieving for a second before it smoothes back to something a little more blasé. It's 'safe' here, but that doesn't mean we're not being watched. Doesn't mean Sanada won't be able to run back some kind of recording of this…he's just that kind of sadist.

"Wha—Komiya? What happened?!"

"S-sorry I'm late. I was attacked on the way…they took the drug from me…" I try not to look up just yet, he's kneeling but that's still too far away…my whole body feels sluggish, cold…I wish I didn't know so much about the process of dying. Wish I hadn't seen it happen before. "It was probably some Tojou—" I freeze, blood and froth spraying from my mouth as a hot shock of pain rushes through me. Fuck…why did I have to get caught today? Why did I have to fail today, when I was so fucking close?

"Alright. Don't talk anymore. I'll call a doctor and—"

I grab him before he can stand, move away. If he tries to make a phone call now…I just know I won't last long enough for him to hang up. I can feel it. I try not to pay attention to the sound of his voice, soft and worried and resigned all at the same time. We both knew it would come down to something like this. It couldn't really have gone any other way. Not for me.

"Komiya…"

"…san…Kubota-san. Kubota-sa…" My voice cuts out, the weight of everything I want to tell him choking me off as surely as the pain, the disgusting feeling of one of my lungs trying to outright collapse. It hurts. My whole body hurts, but after this I can just rest. I just…have to get this out. He reaches up and puts his hand over mine. It feels hot, blazing, against my numb, cold skin and…it's actually comforting. Like the hundreds of little casual touches he just kind of threw around before, either to make me wonder or to make me uncomfortable at first, and then…to just remind me that he was there and that he liked me. I'm glad for it now. It's something to cling to.

"Yeah."

I can't help but laugh, a small, hopeless sound. I can see it in his eyes that he understands that it means 'I'm so sorry I fucked up' and 'Looks like my luck finally ran out' and 'I didn't mean to break my promise' all at once.

"Kubota-san…you don't belong here." I choke the words out, sobering up and looking into his eyes, forcing him to believe me, to listen to me. "You can't…go on like this! You can't die like me…like this. Like an animal" I have to stop, catch what breath I can, still holding as tightly to the fabric of his shirt as I can, making that one last connection. "I want…you to…live."

"Okay."

And that word…the assurance…it's enough to let me let go. Kubota keeps his word. If anyone can get out…Kubota can. I just…wish I could have gone with him…