a/n: Tiny drabble. After an alternate playout of The Answer, where Akihiko and Ken take Yukari's role (wishing for the past), and win. Always found Akihiko to be the hardest to beat, anyway. Thinking of possibly doing more on this, just for my own satisfaction (sure it's been done before).
Disclaimer: -Tada!
It's all blurry for a few seconds, then they're back in the dorm. The others are nowhere to be seen.
They stare at each other.
Ken speaks first, no stuttering, no muttering. 'Let's go.'
Akihiko hates himself for not being the one to speak first, for not getting himself together faster than a kid – a kid he shouldn't be leading into this mess, a kid he shouldn't be corrupting, a kid who shouldn't have anything to do with any of this, who shouldn't have to be making a choice at all, who should be able to just move on, become something – someone – better, older, wiser.
He can't even bring himself to speak. Instead he just nods and starts walking to the stairs.
But Ken doesn't follow him. There's a tug at the back of his shirt – Ken's gripping it like he's trying to twist a fist into it, but failing quite miserably due to the lack of extra material.
'Mr. Sanada? The… the key?' And while he takes a moment to spit it out, it's not really a question.
Ken's ordering him to hand over the key.
His head is spinning.
'No.' And then it lands on one thought. I want to see her.
Ken reacts much faster than he expected. 'The arena?'
He's too slow.
- has Ken been studying him? Has he just been waiting for the moment to –
He takes a long, deep breath. It's Ken. Ken. Who's what, all of eleven years old now?
'No, no, let's… let's not fight.'
Minako used to always avoid his questions about Ken. Junpei used to laugh at him. Yukari used to give him bemused smiles. But Minako didn't avoid questions about anything else except Shinjiro, and he knows exactly why that was.
She hated it when he fought with Ken. (He's already admitted it to himself, hundreds of times before. He already knows.)
'We… we both want to see her, don't we?'
Ken tooks taken aback, but only for a second – why couldn't Akihiko have been like that seven years ago? (because that was Shinji's role) – then he nods and says, pointedly not looking at him, 'Yeah.'
He feels like for once, he can finally understand Ken.