The rest of the trip to wherever they were going was quiet. Sudou seemed lost to his own thoughts so Akihito used the time to try and gauge his injuries. His right arm was handcuffed to the seat belt and other than some tenderness, it appeared to be okay. His left arm wasn't so fortunate though. It was clearly broken, part of his arm hanging limp at an unnatural angle. The break was in his forearm, a bit before his elbow. He must have landed on that arm during his fall.

It hurt like hell.

The pain radiated out from the break and seemed to crawl up his arm. Every bump in the road speared new pain through him in an agonising jolt that had his eyes watering and he bit his lip to stop from crying out. Akihito was dizzy and could barely feel the rest of his body. He wondered if he had hit his head during the fall too. He must have, surely. Especially considering he blacked out and didn't remember hitting the ground. He tried to move his legs and pain lanced through him once again. He bit down harder on his lip to keep from crying out and tasted blood. He tentatively tried to move again. Left, it was definitely his left leg. His foot and ankle seemed okay so it was higher up. His leg seemed to look okay so maybe it was just really bruised, or maybe even a fracture. He must have fallen on his left side.

Akihito raised his head to look outside the opposite window. The motion heightened his dizziness and the flash of pain that action caused sent his senses reeling. The pain was threatening to cloud his mind. He spent long minutes trying to stay completely still while he breathed deep and slow. Finally able to push aside some of the fog in his mind, Akihito focused his gaze back on the window. It seemed as though his long struggle was in vain though because there was very little light outside and the scenery passed by as indistinct, shadowy blurs.

He let his head carefully flop back onto the seat and found himself thinking something he never would have believed previously. He thought back to that phone call he had with Asami weeks and weeks ago when he had first dumped the guards on him.

"The whole point of guards is to keep you safe, they can't do that if you've lost them."

"I can look after myself."

"You've already been targeted once. Don't make me GPS tag you."

Had Asami made good on his threat? He knew that Asami could track him on a map now. But how? If it was from the earpiece, that was currently in pieces on possibly the other side of Tokyo. Was it because his guards? Did Asami track his security team and just use them to know where Akihito was? He was always changing to wear different clothes, shoes and jewellery. He didn't always carry his cameras or camera case with him either. There was nothing he consistently carried where ever he went.

Wait.

His phone.

He never went anywhere without his phone. Too dangerous not to have a way to contact someone. Also very useful for internet searches on the fly. But that's the point, he always kept it with him. When would Asami have had a chance to get hold of his phone without him knowing? Except he had, he realised. When he got targeted the second time and ran from Asami, Akihito had been dragged back for some 'punishment' that he had completely passed out from once they were done. In the morning when he had gone to call Asami, the contact card had been changed from 'Asami' to 'Ryuichi' and he had assumed that the man himself had gone into his phone and changed it. Maybe, just maybe he had done more to his phone than just snooping through it.

Never in a million years would Akihito have believed that he would be relieved to have his things tinkered with and his privacy violated.

But still, he couldn't sit back and wait for rescue. He didn't know for certain if Asami had, in fact, GPS tagged his phone and the chances of Sudou leaving him alive long enough to find out were slim. Still, it was a small comfort that Akihito could feel his phone digging into him from his back pocket.

It felt like hours had passed by the time they finally pulled to a stop. He strained to try and make out where they were now but the lighting was still poor and his vision obscured by the cars interior. Sudou got out and opened the passenger door at his head before releasing his right arm from the handcuffs. Akihito didn't have time to prepare himself for the onslaught of pain that seared through his entire being and screamed as Sudou pulled him bodily from the car. The man held him up by the hair and reached around to pull out Akihito's phone. He watched through blurry eyes as his phone was thrown across the empty carpark, screen smashing on impact and it skid along the ground with the force of the throw.

"Y-you really," Akihito had to pause to suck in a breath and force himself to talk around the desire to yell with the pain. "Want to be found, don't you?"

Sudou twisted his fist in Akihito's hair and pulled him up even higher so that they were eye level, causing him to cry out once again. He grinned then, wide and manic. "Of course, that's the whole point. You're just bait, whore. Nothing more. But I'll get my fun out of you. You wasted precious weeks of my time with Asami-sama, so I'll make sure that you make it up to me."

The man started to walk then, practically dragging a sobbing Akihito behind him by the hair still. Walking was agony. Each step was excruciating, pain flashing through his leg while the movement jolted his broken arm. Through his tears, Akihito could make out that they were at some kind of factory. It seemed abandoned, the windows were broken and weeds starting to claw their way up through cracks in the carpark. He was pulled through the front doors and down a warren of corridors that he had no hope of remembering. The agony shooting through his entire body was making it hard to stay alert enough to force his legs to move. Sudou suddenly kicked open a door and dragged the photographer inside.

The room was filled with dusty work tables and chairs. Sudou grabbed some thin looking rope from a table in the middle of the room and forced him into a rickety old wooden chair. It looked like rope you would get for going camping or rock climbing, versatile and lightweight. The other man made quick work of tying the rope around his middle, trapping his arms behind his back and pulled tightly against the back of the chair. It was all Akihito could do to not scream at the unnatural angle his broken arm was forced to stay in and he fought to remain conscious.

Akihito raised his head and looked up. It seemed Sudou was content to let him regain his bearings and was crouched in front of him with a knife. His eyes zeroed in on the gleaming blade and the insane man chuckled at his reaction.

"I told you, you owe me some fun for making me wait. I'm glad you are able to remain awake for this, far more entertaining this way."

He brought up the knife and set it against Akihito's cheek. He flinched at the feeling of the blade just starting to dig into his skin but otherwise didn't move. Closing his eyes, Akihito bit the inside of his lip as the blade was pushed in further and dragged across his skin, slicing it open. It wasn't a deep cut but enough that he could feel the warm wetness of blood oozing out and trailing down his face. The knife was pulled away from his cheek and he felt the sharp edge rest against his throat in warning. His eyes snapped open and he stared at Sudou with all the defiance he could muster.

"Oh? Not going to beg for your life?"

Akihito didn't move. He sat rigid and defiant. Even as the knife pressed in enough to draw blood he sat motionless, staring at his captor with blazing eyes. He wasn't so weak as to break and beg. The only person he had ever begged was Asami. He had begged his soulmate to tear him to pieces and put him back together again with his unique blend of pain and pleasure in the bedroom. There was no way he was going to sink to begging Sudou for his life. He wasn't going to give the man the satisfaction of getting what he wants.

He wasn't about to sit back and wait for rescue like some damsel in distress either.

The chair he was tied to was creaking and shifting under his weight. It was old and dusty but wooden rather than metal. It was possibly rotten in some places and felt like it might give way with one good heave. The knife was withdrawn and a hand shot out, slapping him across the face. The force of the blow left him reeling and Akihito bit back a cry of pain as his body protested at being jolted. The chair shifted as though it was going to give but then held.

"You're supposed to scream and beg me for mercy!"

Akihito snapped his head back around to glare at the man and received a furious scream for his efforts. Sudou lunged forward with his knife and Akihito threw his entire weight to the side. A loud crack rang out and the chair gave way, forcing Akihito and Sudou to fall to the ground in a heap. The photographer couldn't help the scream of pain that tore itself from his throat but he didn't stop moving. He rolled onto his good side, the rope falling away from him, and franticly looked around. The knife's blade had sliced open his shoulder in the fall but had slid across the concrete floor to the other side of the room. Sudou was pulling himself to his knees when Akihito spotted a gun on the floor next to the man. He dove forward and scrambled to pick up the gun. His fingers had just closed around the cool metal when Sudou seemed to clue into what was going on and tried to wrench it out of his grip.

Akihito held on for dear life. He was injured with only one working arm against Sudou's two hands but desperation fuelled his strength. They grappled on the floor, Sudou screaming profanities at him a stark contrast to the photographers strained silence. Akihito might be injured but the adrenaline was starting to kick in and the pain was numbed out to the back of his mind. Using his shoulder, he launched himself forward into the maniac, catching him by surprise enough that his grip on the gun loosened for a few seconds. That was all Akihito needed to wrench it from his hands as he rolled forward and sprang to his feet. He stumbled as his legs tried to give out beneath him but he raised the gun and tried to fire.

There was a small click and nothing happened. Akihito blinked in surprise and Sudou used the time to leap to his feet and grab a hold of the photographer.

"Don't even know how to remove the safety?" Sudou sneered. "What a pity, you just wasted your chance."

They wrestled for the gun again and Akihito tried to think about how they did it in movies. There was a little switch right? Something that he could knock with his thumb. He moved his thumb around seeking the switch while they grappled with the weapon. He felt something give on the weapon and cried out in victory. Sudou's grip weakened for a bare second as he looked at Akihito in confusion over the happy noise and he didn't hesitate.

Akihito forced the gun up as high as he could while it was mostly in his control and squeezed the trigger. A loud bang echoed in the silence and he stumbled back at the force of the recoil. Sudou screamed as he scrambled backwards, blood oozing from his shoulder.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

Sudou's eyes were wide and crazed as he stepped forward again, hand clutching his shoulder. A feral grin stretched his mouth wide and that sight combined with the blood leaking down through his fingers, he looked positive insane. Like the manic serial killers depicted in movies. Akihito's blood ran cold but he raised a shanking hand again and pulled the trigger once more. Inexperience combined with his shaking made the shot go lower than intended and ripped through Sudou's thigh. The man crumpled to the ground with another scream and Akihito turned to run out the room. His legs nearly gave way at the pain of the first step and he dropped the gun as he caught himself on a table. He left the weapon where it dropped and forced his feet to move. Each step was agony, the adrenaline seemed to be finding its limits and his entire body was trembling. Sudou's whimpered cries of pain were drowned out by Akihito's racing heart pounding in his ears.

Finally at the door, Akihito pushed his way out and stumbled, falling against the opposite wall. He used the wall as leverage to try and push himself forward. One step, he kept telling himself. Just one more step. He focused his entire will on putting one foot in front of the other.

It was pure agony.

Tears were streaming down his face, blurring his vision. He tried to take another step and his legs buckled, giving way completely. He screamed as he hit the ground, his left arm jutting out at a grotesque angle. He lay there, shaking with the force of his tears and the fear circling his system. No matter what he tried, he couldn't move. His body screamed in anguish each time he tried and all he achieved was his limbs scrabbling against the cold hard floor.

His head spun, fuzzy with the pain and exhaustion that crept in so it took some moments to recognise the sounds of footsteps and yells. Akihito cried out as his body was shifted so that he was lying on his back. He blinked, trying to make out the shapes above him through his tears.

"-Hito. Akihito."

"A- Asami?"

"Yes, it's me. I'm here."

Akihito reached out with his good arm and burst into tears when he felt a large warm hand curl around his own.

"Shh, it's okay. I've got you."

He felt a hand caress his cheek and finally gave into the threatening darkness.

VFVFVFVFVFVFVFVFVF

Asami gestured one of the guards over when he realised that Akihito had passed out.

"Take him to the car and get him to the hospital. Kirishima will call ahead." The man was one of the members of Akihito's security team and his mouth was set in a thin, hard line. All members of his team had proven themselves loyal and were out for blood after what had happened. Especially with three of their own currently in the emergency ward in hospital. He was of a mind to give it to them. He glanced over to his secretary but the man already had his phone out and was rapidly talking down the line.

He stood as he watched the guard carefully pick up the limp body of Akihito and made his way to the exit. He would have preferred to take his little soulmate himself but he couldn't restrain the beast roaring for Sudou's blood inside of himself. Asami turned to look at Suoh who was standing next to an open door and the man gestured inside.

Walking quickly, he strode into the room and made his way over to two guards positioned on either side of a limp body. He recognised Sudou immediately. Blond hair and tailored charcoal suit. The suit was now soaked in blood. A red pool surrounded the man's body and he lay unmoving. There was far too much blood for him to still be alive.

"Asami-sama, it appears as though there was a struggle. From what we can gather, Takaba-sama fought back and was able to get hold of the gun." The man gestured to the weapon lying beside a table. Blood was smeared across the table and there were matching droplets on the floor. "Sudou was shot in the shoulder and thigh, the bullet to the thigh severed the main artery there and he would have bled out within minutes."

Dead. The little fucker was dead before he even got to lay his hands on him. Asami stood, rigid, staring down at the lifeless corpse, wishing he could bring him back purely so he could get the satisfaction of seeing the life fade out of those eyes while he begged for mercy. It took several tense minutes to calm the raging fire enough for him to realise that Akihito was the one who killed Sudou. He looked around to see that Kirishima had slipped into the room while he was lost in thought.

"This does not leave this room. Akihito wounded Sudou in his struggle to break free but it was me that pulled the trigger to end his life. If Akihito ever finds out the truth, I will kill you all myself. Do I make myself clear?"

All four men bowed and swore themselves to silence. Asami pulled out his gun and strode forward. He kicked Sudou's head to the side so that he could get a clear shot and squeezed the trigger. The bullet that embedded itself between his eyes was far less satisfying than he hoped.

"One day I'll see you in hell and finish what I started."

A/N: Okay, no one shank me for the lack of a torture scene okay? I know a lot of people wanted it but this was how I planned Sudou to go out right from when he was introduced. And Akihito is a self-rescuing princess okay? :P But for those disappointed by the lack of torture (and trust me, Asami is pissed off at me too) bear in mind that Sudou wanted it. Sudou wanted Asami's attention and didn't care how he got it. He wanted Asami to catch him. But instead he died not only by Akihito's hand, the one he hates the most, he died knowing that Asami was on his way. Knowing that Asami was coming for him and that he wouldn't see him. Technically, he got denied in the worst possible way. That's my opinion anyways