Hello!
So here it is! The wedding! I hope you like this chapter, thank you so much for the support, reads and reviews - they are very much appreciated. ^_^
I hope there aren't too many mistakes or dodgy grammar. Please enjoy!
Warnings: Swearing.
}xXx{
Only a few hours after the boy had been allowed to finally go to sleep after innumerable orgasms and cries of delight, Akihito reluctantly gets up, leaving his lover to sleep in for a while because he really wants to make Asami a last breakfast and check all the components for today's ceremony. There's a quiet few knocks at the front door so Akihito grabs the two suits from the sofa, he has been expecting Kirishima to drop by in order to take their suits to the venue.
The guard gives Akihito a mild and concerned smile that the photographer just can't bare to look at.
"Please don't look at me like that, it's fine. Really..."
"I'm sorry Takaba..."
Akihito closes the door, resting his forehead briefly on the light polished surface. He really needs to keep it together, just for a few more hours...god knows what the outcome of this decision will be - would Asami really hurt him for this? Will he even be able to make it, somewhere else? He draws away and claws at his arm, squeezing his bicep until his eyes water and arm bruises, the pain helping him focus.
After both men are showered and fed, Akihito and Asami await the return of Kirishima and Souh in order to travel to the hotel where the wedding will take place. Akihito can hear his heart fluttering away as he counts down the minutes until his own great escape, even as Asami takes his smaller hand in his and places a kiss on Akihito's knuckles. The tender gesture startles the boy and he can't help it when his eyes tear up. Luckily it passing off to Asami as wedding day, rather than running away - jitters.
The long journey to the venue that morning is surprisingly silent, Akihito has never thought of the excitement couple's must feel when marrying the one they wish to spend the rest of their lives with. That just shows how jacked up this situation really is! Asami is still on the phone, as usual - to various business contacts, talking about this and that deal, and you must torture this or that person. And the young man can't help but sneak closer to his golden eyed crime lord, he rests his head on the broad, strong shoulder and snuggles into Asami's side. Snoozing.
Upon arrival, Akihito gets gently awoken by a pair of soft lips and he grumbles but follows faithfully behind Asami as they enter the venue. Akihito looks around and thankfully, security is concentrated on the main entrances like he had expected - although he suspects that's because there are so many competing criminals gathered today, and he can't help but worry that things might get ugly in here for Asami, ha - not that it's his problem anymore, he's setting off as soon as he can!...
With an hour to go, Asami and he get changed in the dressing room that Akihito had picked out for them, the photographer has already got everything laid out and set for them so they can take their time.
The young man places the finishing touches to Asami, tying his bow tie after several failed attempts and much chuckling from the older man, he fixes a boutonniére in the mans lapel making the crime lord look (even more) breathtaking, his masculine grace and attractive features causing Akihito to go a little weak at the knees - and wish Asami were dressed this way for him instead of some damn woman!
Akihito rests his hands on the mans broad chest, but really fighting the urge to put them other places too.
"You look handsome. You bastard."
"Thank you, as do you."
He smiles, and kisses Akihito with a gentleness that gives the boy shivers and encourages him to now go ahead and run his hands over any part of Asami he can reach, savoring this sensation.
Love.
"Ah! Uhn I'm gonna g-go check that the brides here, then we can take our place at the alter. I'll be back, 'Kay?"
He makes his way out the door, seeing Asami light a cigarette behind him and take a seat.
*Beep*
'Huh. A text...'
Your car is outside.
Akihito makes his way down the hall with his phone in hand, and clutches at the wall, just trying to gather strength...'A few minutes Aki, you're fine, just a few minutes.' Akihito runs his hand through his hair and feels the healing scar, he gulps.
'This is it...Don't you dare look back Aki!...'
Everything's in order for the ceremony and even Miako looks stunning, and happy. Akihito places the groom at the alter after setting Asami's best guards at the double doors by the entrance way, this being his tactic so Asami can't ask the men why Akihito isn't there when he disappears in a few minutes. He grabs Asami's hand gently and discreetly, as the guests talk amongst themselves and he gives the hand a squeeze, drawing the mans attention.
"Asami, I'll just prepare Miako-san to walk down the isle and, we're good to go..."
He smiles, a bright, lingering last smile for Asami, hand sliding from his lovers as he walks away up the aisle, standing tall.
'Bye. Asami.'
He does prepare Miako in the hallway to make her journey into matrimony, but then takes a little detour, or rather grabs his stuff from the closet in his and Asami's dressing room. He knows that now, Miako is lining up at the door, music is starting, he knows it'll take about forty seconds to be out of the building and into the booked cab he has waiting a block away - and it'll take Miako around one minute thirty seconds to make it down the aisle.
Thank god for rehearsal.
He whips off his jacket and fine silk shirt, roughly folding them and placing them on the side, he puts on his worn T-shirt, beanie hat and grabs his rucksack from the closet with his new ID's and belongings in. Akihito places one last item in front of the large, lit mirror with the rose from his lapel before He jumps out the window, running for a moment before the cab comes into view, just up ahead.
'You've done it Akihito...' His vision blurs once again with tears as he grabs the door handle.
'You've done it!'
}xXx{
Back in the church, Miako is indeed making her way gracefuly down the aisle and it really looks like any other fairy tale wedding dreamed of by millions of young girls around the globe, the woman is gliding elegantly down the aisle, oozing happiness, the pearls around her neck gleaming and her father is looking as rich and bloated as ever, his cravat squeezing his neck fat nicely.
The only difference from those fairy tale weddings to this one though, is that this groom is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best man, not the bride. His sharp golden eyes stare straight past Miako to the open doors, expecting to see an apologising, stumbling Akihito, but there's nothing. Even as his bride arrives at the alter and the doors close at the end of the music, the boy is nowhere to be found.
He looks at his two trusted guards over by the doors to see them looking just as miffed as he, and all he needs to do is glare at Kirishima to have the man understand what he wants. 'Megane' discreetly leaves the room, just as the priest starts speaking.
'Damn brat, I knew he was acting strangely. I should've suspected he'll pull something like this.'
All Asami can do at this point is trust in Kirishima and carry on with the ceremony, he just hopes Akihito hasn't run off with the rings too. Damn sulking brat.
Kirishima makes his way straight to the main security office to look at the CCTV recording for the last few minutes, but as all he has is Akihito entering their room again after leaving the hall. The man breathes a sigh of relief. He must still be in there...
The guard knocks first, mindful that Takaba could be in a fragile and volatile mood right now, as his lover weds someone else just a few meters away. There's no answer though even after a few minutes, making Kirishima grow increasingly nervous, so he goes in - stopping immediately at the realisation of just what the boy has gone and done now.
'Shit, Asami-sama is going to be...' He gulps.
The window is open and he sees Akihitos clothes flung on the side, he picks up the jacket to confirm the finding before the letter and rose catch his eye. It was he who originally told him of Asami's plan, because he had honestly thought Asami would come to his senses. But here we are, Takaba has gone and Asami is really betrothing himself to this woman.
The bespectacled guard turns and walks swiftly back to the chapel room, determined to put an end to this. Even if he has to stop this wedding himself it has to be done, Asami-sama's empire can grow on its own merits - he doesn't need to borrow someone elses power.
He reaches the doors and enters discreetly, but as always Asami's sharp eyes catch the activity and he glances towards the back of the hall to Kirishima as the man holds up the letter and flower in his hands for his boss to see. Asami's eyes unmistakeably go wide as he looks at the items, clearly recognising the flower, and perhaps thinking its impossible for Akihito to have run away again, when this was such a big day for him. For the future of his business.
Asami reaches into his pocket and draws out his O.R.B earpiece, a discreet bluetooth device he slips onto the ear away from the guests and nods once, knowing kirishima will be able to decipher his meaning.
Sure enough the device beeps in this ear moments later so he presses answer on the silent phone in his pocket, as the priest reads a long and boring sermon about a religion Asami doesn't even practice.
"Asami-sama, he has indeed gone. Through the window in your dressing room, he appears to have planned this quite thoroughly..."
Asami says in a hushed voice, drawing a curious look from Miako...
"The letter?"
There is a tearing noise and a shuffling of paper and Asami stands there, tense and thinking that this is bad news, Akihito leaving a letter means...
"Ah. The letter he left with the rose reads..."
"Asami.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry to do this to you today, I'm sorry for not doing this sooner.
I can't be your, what ever I am, anymore. If I'm not worth anything, if I'm not enough for you then why do you even keep me with you?
You're too cruel.
I've lost who I am, I guess I can't blame you for that though. It's my fault for coming back to you.
But.
Before this, like an idiot. I thought we were happy. Weren't we? Well, happy for us anyway...
After Feilong, Sudou and all the shit that's happened, haven't we been doing fine? Why did you have to fuck it all up?
Fuck you Asami.
I don't understand why you would do this just to gain more money and power. Do you actually care for her, and didn't want to tell me?
I don't even know why I'm asking you these questions when I'm not going to get the answers from you. I never do.
I know this will make you smirk or laugh or whatever smart ass thing - asshole - anyway, you know this 'cus I blurted it out before, but all I want to say is,
I love you.
I think.
it's hard to say really 'cus you make me so damn mad.
And you've broken my heart.
Congratulations Asami, I mean it.
Bye.
Akihito."
Kirishima finishes the letter, and he knows he should be at least a little embarrassed that he had just had to read - out loud - a letter throwing insults at his employer but he knows this will be the defining moment for the man. If he does go through with this deal, Asami knows now just what he'll be losing, instead of losing face and a little pride to salvage some business relationships, he'll be losing the one person who has ever managed to get close to him.
Asami is numb, his mind blank and yet humming with so many indecipherable thoughts, and feelings. There's that sense of wrongness and a bleakness creeping back into the corners of his vision as he see's his hand get lifted up by Miako's smaller ones. She slips a white gold ring onto his finger that she had got from the page boy and looks up to her husband to be, reading the peculiar look on his face. It's hardly the adoring, blushing one she's giving him.
As she repeats the vows read out by the priest, this feels - he feels - increasingly angry. He had wanted Akihito to be here. Why? Isn't this deal what he wants? He looks at his bride to be, he's going to get the wedding papers and get the contracts from Takenouchi. Right? Asami'll get the deal's settled, repair the tatters of his reputation. Own the underworld once more.
'Fuck that brat - if he wants to run, let him.'
But.
As the ring finishes the journey up Asami's finger, the crime lord thinks the ring feels so heavy. The burden of the commitment to not just the business tied in with another, but to this woman, her father...His mind unwillingly thinks back to the last few months, Akihito's submissive, withdrawn behavior. Akihito asks for nothing, well - maybe just for the acknowledgment of feelings Asami knows are there. He took a bullet for him, he'd do it again. And the sense of wrongness grows...
'That smile, I'll never see that damn smile again? Last night, he was so..."
"Asami-san?"
'It's so easy with him, he's so predictable, and yet. He goes and does something like this.'
"Asami-san?"
'I can still get him back, drag him back if I have to.'
"Asa-"
"Kirishima." He talks at normal volume now, over-cutting Miako's concerned calls. It's time to decide Asami.
"Yes Asami-sama?"
"Stop this damn farce of a wedding!"
Asami yanks his hand out of his brides reach and removes his ring. He starts to storm back up the aisle and there are gasps of surprise and cries of outrage flowing from all the mouths in the room. The crime lord strides forward to his two best men and they both actually look relieved, smiling as they step forward to attend their respected boss and he makes a mental note to ask 'what the hell are they on, grinning like idiots?...' Later, for now though...
"Kirishima, you stay here and handle things with the rest of the men. Souh. Penthouse. I'll see if he's still there..."
Just as people start to shout and rise from their seats, the bride is seen wide eyed and devastated as her slim arms raise as if to claw the man she loves back to her, it's unfortunate, but there's only one person Asami is thinking of now.
}xXx{
"...The person you are calling is curre-"
"Fuck."
Even though Asami decided to back out of the deal it's by no means over. He can't contact Akihito even after trying his phone eight times on the journey to the penthouse and he curses again, lighting a cigarette as he dials an old acquaintances number...
*Bip*
"...Asami, fufu...I believe congratulations are in order?"
"Cut the crap Feilong. I need your help on something..."
After a long and painful call to the sniggering Chinese crime lord, Asami also makes calls to all train stations, airports and the police to be on the look out for a 'Takaba Akihito' as a missing persons. He mobilises his own teams and calls in the private detectives he had hired to tail the boy, on their rare day off.
He damns himself for being complacent, expecting the boy to have remained close to him over the course of today, and the honeymoon.
They arrive at the penthouse building and he gets to his apartment quickly, opening each room hoping the boy might be here after all, sulking. He goes into Akihito's room and sees it empty, of course. Disappointed, he sits on the boys bed and loosens his bow tie, running a hand through his hair as he surveys just whats missing from the room, a gauge of how long the boy will be gone. As expected all of Akihito's camera equipment is missing and clothes are dotted around the floor...
Asami sees that in the over flowing wastepaper basket there is a pile of letters, the same kind that he had just received.
He gathers up the screwed up paper, taking the first letter from the pile to un-crease it and see that sure enough, the letters are rough drafts of the one he had received earlier, and he can see why these were abandoned. Some are totally unreadable because of the fat tear drops having blurred the ink, others are abusive, amorous, pleading...Sad.
A few minutes later as he's staring into space in Akihito's former room contemplating on the boy's words and actions, his phone rings and he rushes to answer, hoping it's Akihito but no, it's Kirishima reporting from the wedding venue. The news is as expected, an enraged would be father-in-law and distraught would be wife.
Well that's too damn bad, Asami thinks.
"Asami-sama, I know you may not want to talk now but Takenouchi-san would like to talk to you."
"Pass it over..."
"Asami, you bastard! We had a deal, you don't value your life after all?"
"Hn, it wasn't that tempting an offer to me after all. And I don't know why you're so angry Takenouchi, as since going into business with me your shares have increased te -"
"Yes and that shows how well we could do! I'm not going to let this go Asami - you better play ball or you're finished. You hear m-"
Asami ends the call and chucks the phone on the bed behind him, absentmindedly touching the tender place on his neck that sits just below the loosened collar, fingertips lingering on the love bite Akihito gave him. He thinks of the young photographer, he knows he won't regret leaving the woman at the alter but already the penthouse seems much too quiet and he considers causing a little chaos himself, to fill the brat shaped void.
Asami eventually moves to the living room, finally opening the gift Akihito brought him as he maps out the next viable options in his mind, and drinks well into the night. He thinks over all the things he does regret and there's not many of them - until it comes to the boy. He regrets causing Akihito physical and emotional harm again and again. The kid isn't one of the money hungry, shallow lovers Asami has encountered in the past and he feels guilty for often treating him like one. This boy, his boy is one Asami had selfishly taken as his own when it's clear he really doesn't suit being the lover of a crime lord at all, having such high morals and constantly being a little shit.
But even now the man doesn't intend to give him up. He can't.
Asami gently holds all nine of Akihito's letters in his hands, cradling them still as he savours the smokey taste of the vintage whiskey - but noting the lack of a certain sweetness, that he would only gain from Akihito's skin.
I hope it was OK that I made Asami a runaway groom and it wasn't too cleché - I couldn't face him being married. It's too heartbreaking :(
