STORY WARNINGS:
YaoiMale/Male.
Rating: Mature. ADULTS ONLY. Contains graphic violence, some coarse language, explicit sexual content both consensual/non-consensual, forced/willing submission, bondage, BDSM, edging, safewords, aftercare, adult themes, guilty pleasure fantasy where you want someone to be a bit too forceful.

A/N: Sorry to keep you waiting for this! I was down with heavy flu. It wiped me out for a whole week and I was so out of it that it's taken a while to get my head back in gear. Everyday life was a bit jarring to return to, let alone two intense characters like these!

Your feedback has been amazing, I love being able to discuss this with you! Funny though how you can say opposite things on the same point – I can't win! haha (^^) I remain my own worst critic (every time I post a chapter I'm convinced it's the worst one yet...!) so all your comments and favs make me incredibly happy. I'll keep trying my best!

When you get there, about 2/3 of the way through the chapter, the song is 'I For You' by LUNA SEA. Lyrics translations are my own. Youtube has several versions if anyone fancies a backing track to that part of the chapter.

~ Nyx ~

DISCLAIMER: The Finder series and all recognisable characters belong to Yamane Ayano sensei.


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Chapter 15

Monday.

Maeda's flurry of apologies drew a blank.

"Why, what happened?" Akihito asked unsurely.

She looked at him as though he was a few screws loose. "I put you in a position where you couldn't refuse even if you wanted to."

Akihito once again came up empty. Actually that was a lie – things came to mind alright, just not what Maeda could possibly be referring to. Skin on skin... White hot, paralysing, heart-thumping, blinding pleasure...

She had to spell it out for him. "The bachelor auction? With Asami-sama?"

"Oh, right! Yes, that..." What a relief. It already felt like a lifetime ago when it was only the Saturday night just gone. Being with Asami tended to have that effect, like he'd been sucked into a world of decadence and debauchery where normal laws of time and relativity didn't apply.

"You still look peaky. I knew you weren't well."

Akihito laughed it off as lightly as he could. "I'm perfectly fine, just uh, too much of an adrenaline-high weekend." That was one way of putting it. "And it's good everything worked out with the auction. Honestly, I'm glad. There's nothing for you to be sorry for."

Ai was giving him that look again as though trying to figure out what he wasn't saying, but Maeda seemed reassured. But then, reluctantly, she dropped the bomb.

The judge had issued his community service transfer back to Sion, starting that very day.

That arrogant bastard! Akihito was this close to losing it. "Are you really sure, Maeda-san?"

The elderly lady flapped the printed form under his nose. It was the same one that Akihito had had rushed through to transfer him out of Sion, only this time it dropped him right back in the dragon's lair. Asami must be laughing his smoking hot ass off. If he wasn't fuming at Akihito's little escapade, that was...

"I don't really understand it myself. This yo-yoing is quite unusual, usually these community service orders are settled for months at a time."

"I'm sorry for all the trouble, I wish I didn't have to go."

"It's been good to have you here." The lady clapped him on the shoulders, squeezing with surprising strength. "You're a good boy, Akihito-kun. You take care of yourself."

"You too, Maeda-san. Thank you for everything."

"Don't be a stranger!" she waved as she rushed off to deal with some volunteers having a heated discussion over event plans.

Ai bumped his shoulder and a card was pressed into his hand. It had cute bunnies bouncing around a cell number.

She lacked her usual lustre, her eyes sombre. "Come back and see us, won't you?"

Akihito felt bad, knowing she was still getting over the stalker incident and could use a friend. "You know I will, Ai-chan."

He tried not to limp as he headed for the subway station.

It had actually been surprisingly easy to slip away, just a matter of timing, a touch of luck, and five seconds of embarrassing courage. Asami had stripped off right in the middle of the bedroom, smirking at Akihito's pink-cheeked gawking, and left him checking his phone – it had only been in Asami's bedside drawer all along – before heading for the shower. The beeline to the front door had fortunately revealed not Suoh, but one of the guards who'd stood by red-faced during the Didn't I let you come when you begged altercation outside Kou's building. So Akihito had simply walked out, sniping over his shoulder as though in mid conversation – "Like I give a shit, you perverted bastard! You're familiar with your right hand, aren't you, you only re-acquaint yourself to it multiple times a day!" It had worked a treat. The guard had frozen with embarrassment splashed all over his face and wouldn't even meet Akihito's eyes when he'd tried to share an eye roll. A hop, skip and a jump – and making sure his collars were up on his jacket lest anyone thought he'd been attacked by a wild animal, 'cos seriously, the bastard had gone to town and pretty much covered his entire body with evidence of their mortifying activities! – and he'd split.

He wasn't running away. There was no such thing as running from Asami. No, this was... a strategic withdrawal. Detox. His brain turned to useless mush around the man and Akihito didn't even know anymore what were his own thoughts and what Asami was making him feel. For however many hours or days Asami decided to allow him this time, he needed breathing space that wasn't saturated with Asami's addictive scent to wrestle the confusing jumble in his head to something remotely resembling order.

Akihito absent-mindedly beeped his suica card and followed the steady stream of commuters dotted with high school students through the turnstiles.

Was he just getting swept along by the tidal wave that was Asami? Or was this actually him? Not that he'd spent all that much time thinking about it, but he'd always assumed he'd settle down at some point, hopefully with someone who understood that he was never going to hold down a 9-to-5. He wasn't bothered about having a big home, just a happy one with friends always coming and going, and their kids would run to Uncle Takato to get them out of the tight spots that Uncle Kou always got them into. There were even a couple of dozy tortoises in the picture if he thought hard enough.

He was jostled along by the people around him as they flowed down the stairs to the platform.

He knew it was stereotypical, a rose-tinted image that would have never quite matched the reality. Other than Kou always getting his kids into mischief, of course, 'cos that was a given.

But this?

At no point did his imagined future ever feature an honest-to-god crime lord, for fuck's sake, with an infuriating ego the size of his vast, illegal territory, who had his wicked way with Akihito and totally blew his socks off to the next dimension and then some.

I'll give you everything, Akihito.

What the hell amounted to everything between darkness and fire to a man like Asami? Something throbbed inside Akihito just thinking about it. But was the man even serious? It certainly felt like he was, what with saving Akihito's life and that stuff about protection, whatever it really meant. And there was all that aggressive rage too when Akihito, for just a very brief moment, had been taken in by Kuroda's disparaging comment. But Asami could attract anyone in the world that he wanted, someone cultured, of equal sophistication, not a noisy and nosy brat. So why Akihito, except as a source of passing amusement?

Shit, was he really considering this? Was he seriously entertaining the idea of a future with Asami? Akihito wasn't even aware of having ground to a dead stop in the middle of the bustling platform, morphing into a human bollard.

He'd only known the bastard a stone's throw over a fortnight, for pity's sake – and all his time investigating Asami's shady underdealings before literally running into him didn't count. Because, hello, shady underdealings?

Why was Akihito even mulling this over? He must be out of his mind.

Someone smashed into his shoulder as they rushed past. Jarred back to his surroundings, Akihito managed to stumble into the subway car just as the doors were closing.

How could there possibly be a future between them when Akihito could only be a giant pain in the ass for precisely the kind of person like Asami? Only ruin and misery awaited them down such a path. Though he supposed there was always the option of both getting busted and serving time together, where Akihito would while away the days with such contemplations like To drop or not to drop the soap...

He snorted, drawing disconcerted glances from the people packed in behind him.

In all likelihood Asami would soon tire of him and Akihito would just put this all down to a passing phase, a bit of experimentation before he settled down with a nice sweet girl, someone who saw the good in people rather than shooting them, and they'd have nice, safe, predictable, vanilla sex once a month...

His head fell onto the window with a dull thud. It was impossible. He couldn't even imagine having 'normal' sex now, where he wasn't left a total wreck, where every high wasn't a life-changing experience, where golden eyes didn't light him up with burning, desperate desire...

Forget Asami ruining him at some indeterminate point in the future; Asami had ruined him already.

"I hate you," Akihito grumbled to the window, making people glance at him again. They probably thought he was off with the fairies in his head. Yeah, it was a riot.

Akihito focused his eyes beyond his conflicted reflection to the dark tunnel rushing past. And with it rushed the most frightening admission of all – how he wanted, so much, for it to mean something.


Akihito marched straight to the judge's office.

It was the principle of the thing. He might have agreed to the transfer back to Sion, had Asami bothered to ask. But no, respecting Akihito's wishes was clearly beyond the realms of possibility. So Akihito, in turn, was obliged to kick up a storm.

As expected, however, the judge wasn't budging.

"Who put pressure on you?" Akihito demanded, knowing the answer already.

The judge wasn't giving an inch even if he knew the whole thing was iffy. "It came from above, that's all I can say. My hands are tied, Takaba-san." And then the grey-haired judge looked at him with genuine concern, "Are you sure you're fine on your own? I heard about the incident on Saturday night, perhaps you should stay with someone for the time being?"

Of course Akihito was fine. He'd been fine since, he'd be fine now. He didn't understand why the judge was asking. Still, he got several days signed off for sympathetic leave.

He was fine all the way back to the subway station, all the way in the subterranean tin can, all the way along the well-beaten path to his apartment building. He was fine until he stared across the street up at the walkway to his front door, the blue and white crime scene tape flapping lazily in the breeze – when all of a sudden he wasn't.

They'd come to kill him. Ten armed men had come after him, only three of them had walked away.

It hit him like a sledgehammer. If Asami hadn't been there, if Asami hadn't been as fast or as strong or as skilled, if Asami hadn't been as ruthless and dispatched seven of them with lethal, ruthless precision...

Knees shaking, heart pounding, barely able to breathe, Akihito staggered blindly into the nearest wall, struck by the reality of just how close he'd come to kicking the bucket. And it was only in that moment, suffocating in all the breathing space that he'd thought he'd wanted, that he realized how much Asami had insulated him from the shock and trauma of it all.

Not too long ago it would have been Yama-san that Akihito would have called, burying his fears and laughing it off while being buoyed by grumpy concern, ribbing the detective for being old and slow and demanding they finish up already so he could get back into his home.

But now there was only one name on his lips. "Asami..." Knees buckling, he slid down the wall, squeezing his eyes shut. "Fuck..."


Akihito finally made it to Kou's place two hours later.

His friend was out at work. He let himself in, he always did. Soaking in the bath here was a first though. He floated in the hot water, his injured arm dangling out of the tub to keep the dressings dry. Strangely drawing comfort from his faintly aching back, he let his mind wonder, which seemed stuck on endless cycles that always returned to golden eyes...

Emotionally drained, he barely made it to the settee before he fell onto it face first and into a dead sleep.


"Yo, dude!"

Akihito was instantly wide awake, starting so badly that he'd scrambled over the back of the settee before he knew what he was doing. He stood in the middle of the living room wild-eyed and panting as Kou looked on in shock.

"Aki?"

It was only Kou, back from work, his creased suit worn with obvious reluctance, little more than a nod at his employment status, his shirt hanging out on one side, his tie already removed somewhere.

"Shit..." The gasp bled out of Akihito as he sagged, only saved from falling by the back of the sofa and Kou who rushed over and caught him. He'd already been jumpy after the mugging. Delayed reaction after the shooting had left him a nervous wreck.

"Sorry," Akihito muttered, still with a death grip on his friend's arm. He gave a hollow laugh. "I'm a bit fucked up right now."

Kou opened his mouth, but closed it again, uncharacteristically at a loss for words. "I'm not surprised, something like that..." he said eventually. "Aki, I'm sorry. You should've called."

Akihito shook his head. "I wasn't... It's only since this morning. I was fine all yesterday."

"With Asami?"

Akihito nodded hesitantly, unsure how much he wanted to reveal just yet.

"D'you wanna talk about it?"

Akihito didn't think he could get the words out. "No. I really don't."

Kou considered him for a long while, probably wondering if it was wise to push it. "Well..." he started, and Akihito tensed, expecting a hundred probing questions... "I totally broke my dick today."

There was a pause. Then Akihito didn't know if he was laughing or crying as he let Kou blatantly distract him with a ridiculous debate on whether it was possible to get deep vein thrombosis in one's dick having to sit still for a mind-numbing 3-hour meeting wearing too-tight underpants.


They didn't even discuss Akihito staying with Kou. It was a no-brainer.

He drifted between the four narrow walls of Kou's apartment. Or at least, he did during the day, frequently glancing down at the street for a certain vehicle that didn't appear.

Akihito woke up gasping that night, bolting to his feet off the settee, expecting to be set upon by marauders with monster heads wielding machetes and shoulder-launched missiles, his dreams conjuring up warped exaggerations of his fears. Covered in cold sweat and thoughts racing, he stared at the front door, expecting it to burst open any moment...

Leaving Kou a text message to explain his whereabouts, Akihito snuck out to a 24-hour internet cafe just a block away. Dodgy men hunkered down behind their screens blatantly watching porn but Akihtio couldn't spare the energy to care. He simply couldn't stay in the apartment at night.


Tuesday.

Was this the bastard having a dig at Akihito for leaving the condo?

Asami, with a disarmingly charming smile turned towards the supermodel on his arm, had been photographed leaving a high-class restaurant the previous evening.

But that smile wasn't real. Akihito knew that look, the one that hoodwinked most everyone else from seeing the true shadows within. Glaring at the insane hotness that effortlessly outshone all the other glamorous people on the webpage, Akihito tore his eyes away from the celebrity news page.


"So... You and Asami-sama, huh?"

Akihito froze with the food halfway to his mouth. He'd known this was coming at some point, he supposed he should be grateful Kou had waited until he'd pulled himself together a little. "We're not..." Akihito waved his chopsticks still holding the slice of tonkatsu [pork cutlet in breadcrumbs], floundering for words. He came up empty and gave up, dropping his chopsticks back down. "Ugh, I don't know what we are."

"But you're together, right?"

"It's too complicated, ok? Like, super complicated. Astronomically complicated."

Kou leaned forward on his elbows. "So you're saying that it could be more than just fabulous sex?"

"Kou!" A blush crept up Akihito's cheeks.

"I knew it!" Kou pointed at him. "You did have fabulous sex! Takato was convinced you were just making out, maybe a bit handsy –"

Akihito groaned.

"– but I reminded him you were already sucking face right in front of us – "

"Oh my God –"

"– so why would you love birds need to disappear on us for a whole day and night if not to up the ante?"

"Ugh..." Akihito dropped his head on the table.

"I was right! Our best bud was having hot kinky sex with the hunkiest guy in all of Japan!"

Akihito was mightily glad his friend couldn't see his face right now. "I really hate you sometimes."

Kou grinned. "Grumpy much?"

"Boundaries!"

"But it's sex! We always talk about it. True, you're thin on the details and we have to poke and prod and guess it out of you, but it's never bothered you much before when you've been with a girl. Why is it any different just 'cos Asami's a smoking hot sex god?" Kou suddenly gasped, barrelling on in a conspiratorial whisper before Akihito could object to that description. "Unless he matters?"

"What's with that weird voice? He doesn't matter, he's –" Akihito could hardly spill that Asami was the nation's top crime lord. "He has the worst personality. He's controlling. And domineering. And arrogant and self-righteous and conceited. And he never listens!"

Kou sniggered messily, struggling to hold in a laugh.

Akihito grimaced. "Shit, he's turned me into a girl."

Kou stared for all of one amazingly stunned second – then he was howling with laughter, collapsing over the table and slapping it repeatedly, crying so hard he couldn't see a thing. In between his gasping hilarity he held up his hands in surrender – "Your words, not mine –!"

Flushing crimson, Akihito chucked a piece of tonkatsu in Kou's face.

Of course there was really only one way to hash it out after that.

Food fight!


It was immature and cathartic and totally worth the messy clean-up. So much so, in fact, that Akihito experienced that familiar itch again, the urge to stick his nose where people didn't want his nose stuck and sniff out dark and dirty secrets.

Still damp from the awkward one-arm-up shower keeping the bandages dry, Akihito logged onto Spotlight, intending to start feeling out for a new target. He made it precisely three taps on his phone into the forum before V1P3R brought him careening violently back to earth.

Another gift returned. That's two now. I should take serious offense.

But I won't. I'll forgive you this time since you brought me a conciliatory gift. What a prize, Asami Ryuichi himself! Alone, he was untouchable. Together, you've brought him within my reach and granted me a dream I never dared to dream. To think that Z4m4 M1r0 was Asami's pet all along! I haven't laughed so hard since the two of you destroyed everything.

Master and pet, you can die together. I will skin you alive, tear you limb from limb and feed you to the rats until you've used up all your nine lives.

Every bit of pain. Every drop of blood. Thanks to you, karmic justice can now find you both.

Akihito didn't get a wink of sleep that night. The machines at the internet cafe didn't have anywhere near the processing power that he was used to, but they were better than nothing with his laptop still in evidence lock-up.

He started digging.


Tuesday night, 3 am.

Kirishima was awake in moments despite having only just closed his eyes. He didn't hear the personal alert from his cell very often, and only people who mattered had the number or email address to trigger it.

Yo Mr Khaki (I'm going with colours, get it?) It's me. So I'm telling you this 'cos of that thing you said about not being a slacker about security stuff

Kirishima glared at the screen in the darkness of his room. Turns out it was people who mattered, and a certain meddlesome punk with no manners to speak of who was far too handy with a computer for his own good accessing contact details he had no business accessing.

Kirishima was sorely tempted to just delete the email that was already infuriating him in more ways than the number of words he'd read. But he could hardly ignore an unexpected message from the brat what with the boss' current... fixation, especially when security was mentioned. He reluctantly found his place again.

and this is one of those things. So that mess before that was actually mine but Mr Asparagus sorted for me (that's really a colour! I know, not really HIS colour but this is code so tough titties)

Kirishima broke off again. Good God, this punk... Bracing himself, he forced himself to read on.

It turns out that the creep behind it all might be angling for Mr Asparagus too. Actually it might all be a load of hooey but then again it might not. They mentioned unsavoury things about the feeding of rodents with our limbs so I figured you should tell Mr Saffron (you know, the big guy) to watch Mr Asparagus' back. Even more than usual.

Oh and don't tell Mr Asparagus you got this from me. His head's already so huge, he'll pop if he found out I helped him. [Tongue out emoji]

Mr Titanium (I get the coolest name, haha [Emoji with cool shades])

Kirishima blinked once, twice for good measure, not entirely sure what he'd just read. Sitting up straighter he read it again before rushing a call to Suoh. And of course, he promptly forwarded the message to his boss for his reference.

Wondering at himself, but supposing Takaba had earned one strike for his discretion with the names which would help in case the communiqué was intercepted, he thumbed out a short reply.

Mr Titanium,

Alert appreciated and passed onto Mr Saffron.
However security situation should already be stabilized. Forward me your source info and I will investigate.
Kindly keep any further correspondence professional and concise.

Regards, Mr Khaki

PS Aliases allow for imagining what we can't aspire to in reality.


Wednesday.

"Good morning." The two anchors bowed solemnly on the screen. "This is the news at nine.

"A new police inquiry has been launched regarding Kondo Tetsuya, the former high-ranking member of the Legislative Diet who was found dead at his home two months ago. Fresh evidence has come to light regarding alleged links to organized crime.

"Evidence unearthed by a consultant specialist, from a damaged laptop previously recovered during a police raid on yakuza holdings, revealed cash exchange trails and communication between Kondo and several of the yakuza enforcers who had been discovered dead last week at the scene where trafficked children were rescued from appalling conditions.

"Police have not ruled out further connections to the underground human trafficking ring that had been uncovered in recent days..."

Akihito stared without hearing anything more as the news moved onto other articles, caught up in the questions and thoughts suddenly whirling like a tornado in his head. But through the maelstrom there were two crystal points.

One – that was Akihito, he'd done that. He didn't even have to ask, he just knew. Damaged laptop – full of bullets, actually, and he was meant to be a 'consultant specialist' now, was he? Without any context at the time he hadn't known what he was looking at, but those spreadsheets he'd recovered had been full of names and numbers. Money trails for organized crime... For human trafficking... That Asami had then handed into the police... Fuck.

And two – doubly fuck. Because all of a sudden, Asami killing Kondo wasn't as indefensible as Akihito had believed. Because it meant that Asami had been on the trail of the human trafficking more than two months ago, and that might be what he'd meant by 'betrayal' on the video. So it wasn't enough that Akihito was already so conflicted where Asami was concerned, and now the bastard had to throw ethics into the equation as well? To kill one person, to halt unspeakable wrongs that that person was committing against children...

Akihito clutched his head, not even knowing what was right and wrong anymore.

"Why didn't you just tell me?"


Asami was in the celebrity news again, this time pictured leaving one of his exclusive clubs with some blond bombshell of a Russian heiress that Akihito had never heard of.

But it was that smile again, the one Asami had never turned on Akihito because it wasn't real. Feeling just the tiniest twinge of jealousy but nothing more, Akihito firmly clicked back onto his task.

Akihito was above such pettiness. He had bigger fish to fry and Asami would soon be eating humble pie.


Wednesday night, 11 pm.

Kirishima suppressed a sigh as his cell beeped his personal tone again. He found his threshold for forbearance a smidgen higher this time as he excused himself from his boss to check the message.

Yo Mr Khaki-san! (You're frowning, aren't you? I can tell. But I added 'san' so you can't be mad at me. Ha!)

Kirishima's jaw ticked. Last time had concerned Asami's security, he reminded himself, and suffered himself to continue.

That's the professional bit you wanted. And here's me trying to be concise. Mind you, I'm not a robot so I'm still going to ramble some. But you're the one who needs this so deal with it.

So here's how I see it. Mr Asparagus is taking heat from Mr Ultramarine for having dealt with Mr Kelly-green, but you've got nothing to even the playing field 'cos – if Mr Ultramarine is who I think he is – he's supposedly a squeaky clean goody two shoes who's never had a parking ticket or undeclared income in his life. How am I doing?

I'm hamstrung by this prehistoric machine that's meant to pass for a computer so you'll have to do the legwork. Rewind 34 years (haha Baby Asparagus – bet he was plotting to take over the world even in diapers!) You have a 28-year old Mr Ultramarine with his law career taking off, Ultramarine Senior with advanced Alzheimer's...

Kirishima scanned through Takaba's sprawling conjecture of Uehara, now the Chief of the Supreme Court, passing blame for an accident over three decades ago onto his now-deceased father who would never have even recalled the incident, bribing the first responding copper on the scene with a life-long trust fund for the now-senior detective's daughter with cerebral palsy, and utilizing him to neutralize two political rivals – as far as Takaba could determine – on trumped up charges during the course of his career.

There's no solid evidence. Find out who's funding the trust fund, and I'd suggest having a friendly chat with the copper but I mean it, keep it friendly. I'll be watching you. If I see anything more than TALKING going on I'll rain hellfire and brimstone over your asses.

But play it right and you've got the jugular that Mr Asparagus wanted.

Mr Titanium

PS In this case my alias perfectly matches reality, thank you very much. You're just sour 'cos you got Khaki.
PPS Did I mention this sure as fuck is NEVER happening again?

Kirishima had to admit a grudging acknowledgement for Takaba's nose. If the brat was right, and Kirishima's own instincts were screaming at something fishy, this could help them out of a bind.

But he sure as hell didn't answer to the brat. After placing several calls to his men to redirect their search, he handed the phone with the message open to his boss.

He was left blinking in surprise as Asami actually laughed – a soft shaking of the chest, his eyes crinkling and everything.

Perhaps the punk wasn't all bad for his boss... Kirishima decided to suspend his critical judgement of Takaba until he had further data for analysis.


Thursday.

It was the third time Akihito had visibly started as Kou had entered the room that evening.

"You know I'm not kicking you out, bro, but... Why're you here?"

"...D'you want me to go?"

"Baka, I just told you it's not that. It just feels like... I can't help wondering if you might feel better being with Asami at the moment."

Akihito sighed. "Maybe," he admitted. "But look at me, I'm a mess. I'll only piss him off hanging around him right now."

Kou looked doubtful. "You sure about that? Doesn't sound like the guy who'd save your ass twice, is all."

Actually Akihito was pretty sure Asami wouldn't mind – he'd probably find perverse pleasure in being the one to pull Akihito back together, in fact. But Akihito's reservation stemmed from his own reluctance to depend on someone who he couldn't entirely be sure wasn't just toying with him. "I need to manage this on my own."

His insistence sounded hollow, even to his own ears.


Asami clearly wasn't into eating humble pie. Not only that, this was a suckerpunch to the gut.

Akihito recognized her immediately, the companion who'd been with Asami at the Hibiscus before the mugging. The lady was grace personified, her svelte elegance radiating off the webpage right alongside Asami's devilish perfection. The photo had captured them just as she was casting him a look of half amusement, half habitual exasperation, while Asami's lips curved just a hint at the edges, his amused gaze directed down at the wine glass being lifted by elegant fingers.

Was it only obvious to Akihito because he knew Asami? This was no deceptively enchanting veneer this time. There was clearly a close familiarity, an easiness to a level that even Akihito hadn't seen.

He caught the name Oda Hazumi in the article and something about fashion before he couldn't look any more.

There had been nothing. No limo, no barging through the door, no whisking him away. No communication except for the few emails he'd exchanged with Kirishima.

... Had Asami lost interest?


Even Akihito wondered if he'd overdone it as he stared at the bottom of his fifth box of Pocky.

He grabbed the beer instead. It was totally gross after chocolate. He endured and continued drinking.


Friday.

"Uuuurgh..."

"Dude..."

"Don't talk... to me..."

A sigh. "Curtains open or shut?"

"Uurh..."

"Closed it is. Don't die on me, ok? Here, water, pain killers, bucket just in case. Toilet you'll have to manage. I'll see you later."


Saturday.

Great, so he was pitiful enough for his friends to trigger an intervention.

They dragged him protesting all the way to bowling and a film. But by the time they'd smashed the heavy balls at a load of pins and gasped and chortled and clutched at each other through a gory horror like a bunch of wusses, he had to admit he felt something more like his usual self as they tumbled out of the cinema, wrestling with each other and making ridiculous scary sound effects. They were completely juvenile and it helped dig him out of the mopy groove that he'd dug himself into. And he only looked around furtively about a dozen times too, and he was certainly not hung up at all about the fact that Asami hadn't come after him yet. Nope, not in the least.

That night Kou threw an impromptu shindig. Because if Akihito wasn't up for going out to party, apparently the party had to come to him. Kou usually came up with one excuse or other to throw a bash once a month, sometimes more. This time old friends mixed with new, including some of those Kou had met at Club Dracaena the previous week. He had open invites to his neighbours to allay noise complaints.

There was no getting out of it this time. Takato was also there with Chiharu so Akihito didn't really have a legitimate excuse to be somewhere else. Twenty twenty-somethings mozied about the small apartment, drinks flowing, music in the background and laughing and joking with each other.

Akihito was content to be the third wheel with Takato and Chiharu, nursing his beer in an undisturbed corner and nodding and smiling mostly in the right places. Kou bounded from one group to another in this unusual mash up of their usual friends from their college or uni days mixed with socialites more used to frequenting sophisticated surroundings like Dracaena. But it seemed to work somehow, Kou working overtime to fill the gap that Akihito usually would have, feeding endless energy into the shifting bubbles of people and injecting them all with amiable sociable glue.

Akihito had a contented buzz going on, taking the edge off all his hodge podge of emotions that week and enough to render him happy, when Kou crashed into their small group sitting by the wall with their legs stretched out, dragging a girl with him.

"Aki-chan!" Kou completely ignored Takato and Chiharu as he leaned drunkenly into Akihito. "You'll never guess who came, it's Yumi-chan!"

Akihito tasked his sluggish brain trying to work out if he was supposed to know her. "Yumi-chan?" He found the girl thrust towards him, falling into the narrow gap between him and Takato, their thighs squeezed together, and he had a faceful of glossy brown hair that smelt of apricots before she righted herself, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Yumi-chan, Aki-chan. Aki-chan, Yumi-chan. Cheerio!" Kou disappeared again into the undulating sea of friends.

"I'm so sorry!" Yumi pulled herself out from between them and went to sit on Akihito's other side, looking apologetically at Chiharu, rightly guessing she was with the other guy Yumi had just been thrown against. Chiharu smiled back, waving it off.

"Uh, I'm sorry too, but have we met before?" Akihito asked ruefully.

"Not in person, although I heard so much about you last week I feel like I almost know you already."

"Oh! Right!" Akihito finally remembered Kou banging on about him meeting her last week, before everything had gone to pot... "Sorry, beer brain," he waved the can, "I'm Akihito. And these are my friends, Takato and Chiharu-san. Kou insists on first names, so... "

"Nice to meet you. I'm Yumi." She smiled easily. "Don't worry, I've already undertaken Kou-kun's induction and made the solemn pledge on 'no walls between bros'," she quoted.

They all laughed.

"Oh, that pledge!" Takato remembered.

Akihito grinned. "Yeah, first day of high school, wasn't it? He practically made our whole class swear it."

Yumi laughed too. "I can imagine, he has that effect on people." She tilted her head. "I hear you're a computer whiz? I'm kind of a techie girl myself."

Akihito perked up. "Really? What do you do?"

"Nothing too exciting. I'm a security analyst, a bit of white hat on the side."

"Oh me too!"

"D'you have a cool alias?" Takato asked, the only thing he could contribute to this topic.

Yumi scrunched up her nose. "White Rabbit?"

Akihito grinned. "Follow the white rabbit!"

"Is that like, jumping into a mind-bending artificial reality prison in super cool leathers and shades," Takato asked, "or down the rabbit hole?"

"Aren't they the same thing?" Chiharu suggested. "It's a call to the great adventure. Do you hide away and return to the same monotony, or do you dare to answer and transcend to a new you?"

"Very poetic," Takato beamed at her.

If it had just been the guys Akihito would have been ribbing his friend about being so lovestruck. As it was, he had nothing to distract him from the twinge that ran through him. It hit just a bit too close to home for comfort.

"Do you mean transcend or descend?" Yumi asked. "Wasn't it all a bit trippy for Alice?"

"Is that what you were aiming for?" Akihito teased, firmly turning his thoughts from his own issues.

Yumi laughed with him.

"I like it," Chiharu said.

"Yeah, more imaginative than 'DigiH4wk' here," Takato elbowed Akihito.

"Hey, it pays the bills, doesn't it?" Akihito argued lightly.

Yumi's jaw dropped. "You didn't just say DigiH4wk?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No way, you're Takaba Akihito?"

Takato gawked. "You know him?"

"He's blinking famous! He tracked down that botnet that ravaged Microsoft-based computers a couple of years ago!"

"I'm hardly famous," Akihito hedged. "Some hackers might have heard about me –"

"You hacked the Facebook server with an SMS text message! I mean, who'd even think of it? Every hacker in the world's heard of you!"

Akihito groaned as he remembered the mind-numbing hours that he'd invested on that one. "God, that was so boring!"

Yumi burst out laughing.

"Oh, here we go," Takato muttered to Chiharu with good-natured exasperation as the two started trying to out-bore each other with their most tedious hacks of all time.

"I think we've lost Akihito-kun," Chiharu agreed, leaning against Takato. "So what do you think of our shortlist of apartments?"

They were happy to wind off into their respective conversations. Yumi had graduated from uni earlier that year and was currently juggling several temping jobs while looking for something permanent. Somewhere between that and sharing inside tech jokes and grumbles, the impromptu karaoke inevitably started up around them with someone plugging their phone into the bluetooth speakers. It was a completely random mix of music as people jumped in with whatever idea they had for the next song but no one seemed bothered. Everyone just talked louder over it, or joined in with the out-of-tune singing if they liked a track.

Contented in his easy conversation with Yumi, where he could let go of all the anxieties that had plagued him that week, with no pressures, whether from anyone else or himself, Akihito was mostly tuning it out. Until one song.

The slow strumming of an electric guitar filled the apartment, the poignant tune floating around him without really registering at first. Kou was with two others that Akihito didn't know across the crowded living room, lamenting into beer cans with their arms slung over each other's shoulders.

"I know!" Akihito was saying to Yumi. "They're global pioneers but they're more holey than Swiss cheese. Critical bugs, back-door security exploits, buffer overflows. I can't complain though, they've paid my rent a good few times. It's almost predictable..."

If it was only to get hurt, that the two of us met
It's too wretched

"... the same thing, over and over..."

The lyrics haunted Akihito, the melancholy of the heavy reverb caught his breath.

From the heart, I want you to know
All I really want
Is to see the real you

He knew the song, the heart-rending rock ballad. From the heyday of the 90s visual kei movement, LUNA SEA had been one of the megastars of the Japanese glam rock era.

You still laugh clumsily
Because you still wear sadness well
If it was solely to meet you, that I was born, can we change everything?

The pain, the plea – it was startling and heart-wrenching.

People all around were belting out the chorus. Everyone except Akihito. He couldn't move.

From the heart, I want you to know,
There's too much hurt, but there's still time
From the heart, I love you
All the pain that befalls you, I want to erase for you
It's entirely
I for you

He didn't see Kou watching, his gaze way too steady and lucid for someone who was meant to be blind drunk.

Asami had dragged Akihito to hell and back, to heaven and back even. It was impossible not to feel something after all that, after everything Asami had put him through. But what? Akihito couldn't even tell if it was good or bad. And as to what Asami felt – well that was a whole Pandora's Box in itself. Was there even a possibility that they wouldn't simply destroy each other?

Still raw from the rough week, it was overwhelming.

And he'd totally blanked Yumi mid-conversation, he realized. He pulled an apologetic face. "Sorry..."

She shook her head, smiling gently. "Do you want a refill?" she asked, pointing to the can in his hand.

He'd been staring at it like it withheld the secrets of the universe or something. He tried for a smile. It came out more like a grimace. "Yeah."

They wove their way through the happily buzzed people to the kitchen, the guitar solo tugging on his heart strings all the way.

From the heart, I want you to know
If only I could always look upon your smiling face...

Behind Yumi, Akihito firmly shut the kitchen door against the knowing smirk that floated to mind, the glint of gold that penetrated through to his soul... There were two girls and a guy already in the cramped kitchen who looked at him oddly but he ignored them and just went for the fridge, pulling out two beers.

"Odd choice of song for a party, huh?" Yumi said as he handed her one.

"I guess."

She opened the can. "I hope she knows how lucky she is."

Akihito blinked. "Huh?"

Yumi merely smiled, looking a little resigned, holding up the beer. "Cheers."


They zigzagged their way back when the small apartment was bursting at the seams with a cringe-worthy rendition of cheesy J-pop. A bunch of people had gathered around Takato and Chiharu so Akihito cast about for a new spot. They headed over to the settee where one of the armrests was the only unoccupied space around. It was a tight fit. Akihito had to loosely sling an arm around Yumi so they could to both half perch together, but everyone was pretty cosy with everyone anyway with how crowded it was in the tiny flat. Side by side, they drank and chatted away, relaxed with their buzz and in each other's company.

Of course it didn't last.

"No way! You came!" Kou's boisterous delight rang over the din.

Kou had been in and out of everyone's conversations all evening and Akihito mostly tuned him out. But not the voice that followed.

"I'm not here by invitation."

Akihito's head whipped around so fast he almost gave himself whiplash.

Kou laughed. "Pish, there aren't any invites, just word of mouth. Come in! Grab a drink! Make merry!"

Akihito's eyes were drawn to Asami's like powerful magnets snapping together.

Five days had made no difference whatsoever. But why would it? That piercing gaze, the chiselled features, his stance oozing easy, devastating authority, and all perfectly packaged in the tailored three-piece suit and finished off with a tendril of dark arrogance... Temptation hit hard.

Then those golden eyes flickered across to Yumi, to Akihito's arm wrapped around her waist, and back to him – there was a distinct edge to it, spearing Akihito with an acute sense of dread.

Asami was bound to get the wrong idea! Akihito fidgeted, tried to move his arm and shift away from Yumi without being too obvious, and ended up stumbling off the armrest. She laughed and joked about him being wobbly that he didn't quite catch, and Akihito could only stammer incoherently in response, too nervous to think clearly, slurping his beer to mask his discomfort.

Asami toed off his shoes and stepped easily over the sea of flats and heels in the genkan as though he was accustomed to frequenting impromptu get-togethers like this where no one cared how the shoes all piled up on top of each other. He was followed by Glasses who took to the task more stiffly. From there it took Asami a while to make his way into the apartment properly, having been surrounded by a gaggle of girls pretty much instantly. Most of the girls Kou had met at Dracaena recognized the affluent owner and even those who didn't were simply attracted like moths to a flame and swarmed over.

"Isn't that the business tycoon?"

Akihito turned at Yumi's curious voice to find her glancing over towards the entrance way as well.

"What's his name? Ama..? Asa...?"

Akihito pinched the bridge of his nose. "Asami."

"Oh, that's right! Asami-sama. I wonder what he's doing in a place like this? He's meant to be rich, isn't he?"

"I guess, a little."

That was an understatement and then some. Which made any notion of the two of them together even more outlandish... Akihito glanced over to see Glasses fighting his way through the enthusiastic wall of girls to the kitchen, a hard frown dragging at his face. Akihito almost laughed.

"Is Kou-kun friends with him?"

He glugged his beer. "I uh... I did a brief stint at his company. Kou met him that way."

"You know him? How so?"

Akihito was saved from answering Yumi's surprised question when Kou smacked into him from behind, clinging to him to keep himself from falling over.

"Yo! Aki-chan, look who turned up!"

Akihito hauled his friend around to his other side away from Yumi. "Why did you invite him?" he hissed under his breath.

"I didn't! How am I meant to have contacted him?" Kou winked. "I had a feeling he might show though."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Hey, it was just a hunch! It's not like I'm psychic." Kou became dead serious all of a sudden. "Aki, if it's that important to you, quit running already and sort it out with him."

"Sort what out with whom?"

They all spun at the cool baritone to find the man himself looming over them. Akihito blanched, his hands became clammy, his face was hot, his lungs were short of air. Asami was not healthy for him!

"N- nothing to do with you," Akihito croaked, stammering more than he'd have liked.

"Oh?"

"You need a drink!" Kou announced.

"Here, sir." Kirishima was there as if by magic, handing over a can of beer.

It was the same brand that Asami had grimaced at before at Akihito's place. And Akihito just knew that the bastard would do the same again, turn his nose up at it, flaunt their difference in class, shame him and his friends –

"Thank you, Kirishima."

They were all mesmerized as Asami took a good slug. Graceful fingers held the can aloft, the condensation wetting his fingertips as he casually tucked his other hand in his pocket.

Akihito balked. There hadn't been a twitch of distaste, not the slightest flicker. Why did Asami do that? He hated that beer. And the way the Adam's apple had worked in his throat as he'd swallowed... Akihito had to fight the furious blush trying to bloom across his face.

There was something in the intense golden gaze as they pinned him in place. "I missed you this week, Akihito..."

Akihito gaped, ready to retort as the other two glanced at him in surprise at what the billionaire was insinuating –

"– you were meant to have rejoined us at Sion on Monday," Asami finished.

Akihito could practically hear the 'Oh, that's what he meant' ringing in Yumi's mind. But he knew Asami's insinuation had been anything but innocent.

"That's still under consideration."

"Is it, now?" Asami's voice was deceptively, worryingly, soft. He smiled at Yumi. "Won't you introduce me to your friend?"

Akihito looked between them, his earlier sense of dread only getting worse. "Uh, this is Yumi-chan. She's Kou's friend," he added as an afterthought, trying to play down any imagined significance. "I just met her tonight. Uh... Yumi-chan, this is Asami."

Asami turned to Akihito, the movement sharp enough to suspend any response from Yumi. "Really, Akihito? You won't even give my full name?"

This, more than anything until this point, sent Akihito's pulse thudding. He swallowed thickly before trying again. "This is Asami Ryuichi."

Asami oozed charm as he exchanged greetings with Yumi, dazzling her as he had Risa in the limo after the mugging. But Akihito was glad of it for the moment, as it gave him time to fight down the warmth suffusing his skin. It was the second time that he'd ever said the name. Both times had been in introduction but even so, there was something intensely intimate about saying Asami's given name.

He couldn't escape Kou's keen eyes. His friend simply leaned into his ear and muttered, "Dude, you've got it bad."

Akihito furiously elbowed him away.

"This is rude of me but I'll have to steal Akihito away," Asami said to Kou and Yumi. "There's an urgent matter I need to discuss with him."

Refusal was right on the tip of Akihito's tongue. But a tiny part of him didn't want to refuse at all but jump the man's insanely hot bones instead... Which left him totally flustered in one second flat and he ended up saying fuck all.

"Well, if it's urgent, you'd better steal away," Kou laughed easily, nudging Akihito towards Asami.

Akihito spun to glare at him but Kou cheerfully made a shooing motion – the traitor!

But it wasn't like he had much of a choice. Asami would get his way and he'd have no qualms being his pushy, perverted self right in front of everyone.

"It was nice to meet you, Yumi-chan," Akihito said. "Good luck with that botnet, maybe give that spam route a try. You might be able to backtrack something."

She grinned. "Thanks, yeah. I'll let you know how it goes."

"Catch you later!" Akihito tried to smile back as Asami herded him none-too-subtly out to the entrance way.

Asami motioned a farewell to his friends with the beer, handing it off to Glasses as they found their shoes in the rabble of footwear. Akihito followed suit and only just managed to grab his jacket from the recessed cupboard in the genkan before the heavy hand at his shoulder was urging him out.

"What's the rush? I'm coming, aren't I?" Akihito glanced over his shoulder and found his own glare withering under the blistering one Asami returned. "What's with you?" His voice was noticeably less sure that time.

Asami's gaze was hard as he stared ahead, his grip on Akihito's arm harder, as Glasses followed them to the elevator where they were met by Blond Tank. The two men being stoic wasn't anything unusual but something about Asami was making Akihito weary, more than usual.

So much so that by the time they emerged from the suffocating elevator into the foyer, Akihito was ready to make a run for it.

"I'll only have you chased down again if you try and escape me, Akihito," Asami warned lowly, his grip tightening enough to make Akihito wince. "But this time, you may not find me so forgiving."

Apprehension darted down Akihito's spine at the ice cold notice. Suoh's flicker of a glance at Asami as though to gauge his mood didn't help any either.

"What the hell are you getting so worked up about? What did I do?"

A muscle ticked in Asami's jaw as he dragged Akihito over to the limo and threw him inside.

"Oomph!" Akihito rubbed his cheek and rolled to sit up as Asami slid in after him. The door slammed and the limo made a swift departure through the quiet dark streets, pushing them back in their seats.

"I let you off for a week and that's how you spend your time when I'm not around, is it?"

"What are you on about? I was just chilling with some friends!"

"Just chilling?"

A large hand whipped out and snagged his hair before Akihito could duck away, dragging him forward against the taller man. He grabbed at Asami's arm in a frantic attempt to ease the painful grip.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"Flirting and seducing is just chilling, is it?"

"... Is this about Yumi-chan?" Akihito shoved at Asami with one hand, to no avail. "There was nothing going on! We were only sitting close 'cos it was so crowded."

Asami twisted his head back, the sharp wrench on his hair making Akihito's eyes water. "She'd make a cute girlfriend for you, wouldn't she? You'd be a cute couple together."

"It's not like that! Asami, let go!"

"Clearly you're in need of a new girlfriend since breaking up with your ex."

Even his neck was aching at the angle his head was being forced. "...Please, it hurts."

Asami glared for another long moment before flinging him away.

Akihito scooted away, glaring as he massaged his scalp. "Has it occurred to you that you're just assuming I'm as loose as you are? I'm not the one who's been out with someone different every night, you know."

There was just the slightest glimmer, but that's all he needed. Akihito knew. "That was on purpose! I knew those photos wouldn't have got out if you didn't want them to!"

"And I knew you couldn't resist looking me up," Asami sneered, explaining nothing.

"Baka, they were in my face whenever I tried to look at the news," Akihito hedged. "They were practically stalking me."

There was a flare of dim orange as Asami lit up, taking a long drag as though seeking Zen through the chemical fumes.

Akihito fidgeted as they closed in on Asami's place, the nightlights rushing by. It felt like a gulf had morphed between them. It bothered him.

"There's really nothing going on with Yumi-chan, OK? She's just a friend. A new friend. We were just talking."

It was like talking to a brick wall.

"Why am I explaining it to you, anyway?" Akihito huffed.

Asami blew out smoke. "Clearly you feel you need to."

A frown creased Akihito's brow below his fringe. "No, I don't. It has nothing to do with you."

"Doesn't it?" The voice was ice cold.

Akihito opened and closed his mouth a few times, and when he finally pushed the words out they came out quieter and quieter. "It's not like... like... we're together, or anything..."

Rage ignited in those golden eyes.

Akihito shrank back. It wasn't how he'd meant to say it at all. "... Are we?"

He was barely aware of the limo drawing up in front of the luxury building, only conscious of the storm of silent fury he had provoked right in his own face. He might have cowed in silence save for his need to clear up this misunderstanding before it was too late.

"I mean, we can't! You're Asami, for fuck's sake, and I... I take down bastards like you. We'll destroy each other, it'll never work!"

"Have you understood nothing?" Asami seethed, the tremor of barely controlled rage in the quiet hiss even more frightening than if he had shouted and raved. "Have you learned nothing?"

"Learned what?"

Asami reached for him and Akihito scrambled away, but there was nowhere to go. The taller man grabbed him and yanked him close, his lips curving in a feral smirk. It wasn't a kind look. "You leave me no choice. I'll have to drill it into you. All. Over. Again."

Alarm and apprehension and a sharp twinge of lust flooded Akihito just as the door was opened. Asami slid out, dragging the blond out after him, easily overpowering Akihito's attempts to pull back.

"Asami, wait –!" Akihito grunted as he was heaved over the broad shoulder. "Bastard, let me go!"

Of course Glasses and Blond Tank wouldn't help him, but hope flared when they passed the concierge. But the elderly man merely bowed his capped head, not even looking twice at the young man being carried as he protested colourfully.

"Stubbornness will get you nowhere."

Akihito squirmed, to no avail. He couldn't dislodge himself. "I prefer to call it knowing my own mind. And I know I'm not doing this with you!"

He was thrown to the back of the elevator car, flinching as he hit the polished mirror. He immediately darted for the door but Asami shoved him back, grasping his jaw and pinning him back.

"Don't worry, Akihito. You'll be honest with me before long and begging me for release with every fibre of your being. Like you always do."

"Asami!" Akihito wailed in protest, horrified eyes flickering over to his men in the elevator car, their backs turned.

"Get over it. Soon you'll be screaming loudly enough for the whole building to hear you."

Akihito could only splutter and flail uselessly as he was hauled out of the elevator and half carried, half dragged to the condo.

"Put two men on the door. And this time make sure they're fully aware of the consequences of letting Akihito leave without my permission."

"Understood, sir," Suoh acknowledged gravely.

Did that mean...? When Akihito escaped last time...? "What did you do to that guard?"

Asami threw him a cool look. "He failed in his duty. He paid his dues."

Akihito paled. "What did you do to him?" he repeated.

Asami shoved him through the front door of the penthouse and slammed it closed. "If you're so concerned for the welfare of my men, don't run this time. But don't worry, he's still alive, and relatively unharmed. And there's no need for you to be so afraid. I'll let you out eventually."

"I'm not afraid of you!"

Asami took an abrupt step towards him and Akihito flinched back before he could stop himself.

"So I see."

Akihito glared furiously at the returning smirk. Asami stepped out of his shoes and headed into the living room, turning the lights on as he went. His voice floated out after him. "Are you going to stand there all night?"

"Let me go and I won't have to," Akihito retorted.

"Scared to come in?" Asami taunted blatantly.

"I know what you're like. I prefer to stay here."

Asami reappeared in the living room doorway. "So you are afraid."

Akihito grit his teeth, knowing full well he was only being baited. But he couldn't just cower in the genkan all night. And besides, he wasn't entirely sure that he really wanted to walk away...

He raised his chin and toed off his shoes, stepping onto the smooth wood floor. Asami smirked as he disappeared into the living room again.

Akihito stared at the empty doorway for long moments. "I'm out of my goddamned mind," he mumbled eventually as he followed.


A/N: Haha, yes I'm mean, I really did cut the chapter off there. Hmm, I wonder what could possibly await them in the next chapter? I couldn't possibly guess... (^^)