Chapter Five: I Will Be Here
"You really do love her, don't you?" It wasn't a question, but Dojo let out a sigh and nodded carefully, his eyes never leaving his coffee.
"More than I ever imagined."
"You sure do cause a lot of trouble, huh?" Dojo sighed as sat quietly beside Iku's hospital bed, gently stroking the pad of his thumb across the back of her left hand.
He remembered the first time he'd held this hand. It was right before the Kurato Touma incident. He'd asked her to take him to the café that served chamomile tea. He remembered how she'd showed up to the train station barely five minutes late and saluted him.
"You were so nervous that day," he said with a soft chuckle as he lifted his gaze to Iku's face. "It was adorable."
It had been so obvious that she'd agonized over her outfit that morning. Nevertheless, he'd found her efforts endearing, though he'd never really gotten the chance to tell her. When he'd tried to compliment her, the poor girl had panicked like a deer caught in the headlights of an eighteen-wheeler.
"I don't think I've ever seen someone react so strongly to being called 'cute,'" Dojo said with a small smile as he lifted his other hand to tenderly brush some of her hair out of her eyes. "You certainly are one of a kind."
*SPOILER ALERT! – Going off of "Wings of Revolution" and what I know of volume 14*
It was on that mission that everything changed between him and Iku. He'd been shot and she'd been absolutely devastated. She'd told him that he wasn't allowed to die, that he had to be there when she got back. That was the day Iku told him she loved him.
"You idiot," Dojo whispered, the corners of his eyes growing wet as he stared at Iku's bruised body. "Why hadn't you been more careful?"
Dojo furiously wiped the tears from his eyes and tightly clasped his hands together in his lap, his forehead resting against the cool metal guardrail of Iku's cot as he tried to pull himself together.
Though they still weren't officially together, mainly because of Iku's mother, he and Iku had grown much closer since the Touma operation. They'd often spent their days-off either together or in the company of Shibazaki and the rest of Team Dojo; even the Library staff has started considering them a package deal.
At first, however, Dojo had been worried that their relationship would affect their workplace relationship or that one of them would be transferred. Much to his surprise, though, their relationship never felt awkward and it didn't get in the way of their duties either.
In fact, their work relationship hardly changed at all.
He'd still yelled at her for bone-headed mistakes and she'd still yell back at him for being too harsh, but at the end of the day, they were happy together and, for the first time in his life, Dojo had actually felt at peace.
Now, however, Dojo was beginning to feel that maybe it was too good to be true.
He felt so helpless, so useless, sitting beside Iku's hospital bed waiting for her to wake up and remember him. There was absolutely nothing he could do to take away her pain and Dojo could feel himself slowly starting to lose control.
He could handle being shot at and put through inquiries. He could handle getting thrown across office rooms and being dropkicked. Hell, he even handled meeting Iku's parents with grace.
This, however, was just too much.
He couldn't take this, he couldn't bare seeing her suffer all alone. It was his job to protect her. It was a promise he'd made to his parents when they let her remain on the Task Force, the promise he'd made to her father when he'd asked for his blessing.
It was a promise he'd ultimately broken because he was the reason she was running through town that day.
He was the reason she was laying beside him in a hospital bed.
They'd agreed to meet up for breakfast, to celebrate her birthday early before Shibazaki or the rest of the team could get a hold of her. Of course, Iku had protested vehemently at first, stating that she didn't want to go on a breakfast date right after her morning run, but Dojo had eventually been able to talk her into it. He'd wanted it to just be the two of them, to spend a peaceful morning eating breakfast together in a small diner in town without having to worry about being ridiculed by Komaki and the rest of the team. And so, with a pink blush and a small pout, Iku had given in and agreed to meet him at the diner that morning at 08:00.
"Why did you turn around?"
It was the question Dojo had been asking himself the entire day.
It had been around 07:30 when Dojo left the base that morning and it would have been around 07:50 by the time he'd reached the diner. He was only two blocks away when Iku was hit, so what had made her turn around? Why was she running in the opposite direction?
"Why the hell didn't you wait for me?"
"I forgot… something… back in the dorms."
Dojo's eyes widened and his head shot up.
"Iku…" He whispered, eyes wide as he watched the blond turn her head towards him slightly and give a weak smile.
"Hey…" She sounded exhausted, but Dojo couldn't keep the relieved smile off his face.
"How are you feeling? Do you want me to get you anything? Should I get Dr. Kawasumi?"
Iku giggled softly, her brown eyes glittering weakly with amusement as she listened to Dojo ramble on and on excitedly.
"Do you… Do you remember me?" He finally asked, settling back down into his seat.
"Of course…" She yawned, her eyes half open as she gazed at him with a small grin, "You're the guy… who kept… apologizing."
Dojo frowned slightly, she didn't actually remember him; rather, she recognized him from before, which meant she hadn't made any real progress.
"Iku… what day is today?" he asked carefully, he needed to figure out how much she did remember.
"I don't know, what's the date?" she replied bluntly, grunting softly as she shifted on the bed, trying to face him better.
"It's August 31st, Iku."
"That's my birthday!" Dojo smiled slightly; at least she still had her enthusiasm. "Hey, where's Shibazaki? And Tezuka?"
She remembered Shibazaki and Tezuka but not him… Dojo felt his pride take a small hit but at the same time he was relieved to hear that Iku hadn't completely forgotten about the library. That was a good sign.
"They went back to the base. Who else do you remember?"
"Instructor Komaki, Chief Genda… Oh, and Miss Orikuchi… and Marie…" Iku said softly, her eyes settling back on Dojo and narrowing slightly. "Do you… also work at the Library?"
"Yes, I'm your commanding officer." Dojo replied evenly, though on the inside, his heart ached, it hurt to think that she couldn't remember him, even after all they had been through together.
"Then why do you call me by my name?" She asked, her blond eyebrows scrunched together slightly as she looked at him closely, as if trying to will herself to remember something about him.
"Because… we're together… unofficially." Dojo took Iku's left hand and gave it a small squeeze.
"Why 'unofficially'?" Iku asked, looking past their hands at Dojo as he chuckled softly.
"Your mother doesn't like me very much." Iku sighed and turned her gaze towards the ceiling.
"Do they know I'm here?" She asked softly, her grip on Dojo's hand tightening slightly as she braced herself for the answer.
"Not yet, but I can call them if you'd like."
Iku shook her head slightly. "No, I don't want them to worry. Mom will probably try and take me back home, again. I'd like for Dad to know, though."
"Iku, how much do you remember of this morning?"
"I went for a run this morning, and I think I was supposed to meet someone. I forgot something important in my dorm room, so I figured I could run back and get it in time, but then…" Iku stopped and looked down at her bandaged body.
"What's going to happen to me?" She asked softly, gazing down at her blanket-covered legs before lifting her gaze to meet Dojo's sad eyes.
"How about you go back to sleep, okay? You need your rest." Dojo said gently, standing to reposition the blankets when Iku gently took hold of his wrist and stopped him.
"You're keeping something from me… I want to know." Her brown eyes were filled with determination and fear, but she refused to let go of his arm until he sat back down. "Tell me."
Dojo opened his mouth but quickly closed it and looked away, unsure of how to delicately put the situation into words. He didn't want to tell her what Dr. Kawasumi had told them, it'd break her heart if she knew the truth. She had already suffered so much-
"Tell. Me." Iku squeezed Dojo's wrist and gave him a hard stare. She needed to know the truth. "Please."
"If she's lucky, she might still be able to have a future at the library, but it won't be in the Task Force."
Carefully turning his gaze back towards Iku, Dojo took a deep breath.
"To be honest, I don't know what's going to happen from here on out," he started, leaning closer as he slipped his right hand into Iku's left and lifted his free hand up to tuck her bangs behind her ear before gently cupping Iku's cheek, the pad of thumb lovingly stroking the rough, pale skin. "But, I can promise you that we'll be here for you, that I will be here for you, every step of the way."
"Do you really mean that?" Iku asked softly, her eyes darting from their hands up to Dojo's face and back again. "But I don't even remember who you are, why would you be willing to stay with me? Why would you do that?"
Dojo let a small, tired smile make its way onto his lips before speaking, squeezing her hand gently as he whispered those three special words. "Because I love you, Iku. I have for a long time."
Iku was speechless, and Dojo simply gave her a sad smile before leaning up and gently kissing her forehead, his thumb rubbing soothing circles into the back of her left hand.
"How do you think they're doing, Kasahara and Instructor Dojo?"
Komaki glanced over at the young librarian as she carefully took another sip of her tea. He could feel her concern radiating off of her as they sat in the bar with Chief Genda and Maki Orikuchi. He could understand her nerves, he was worried too, but something about Kasahara's situation felt off to him.
"I'm sure Dojo is making sure that Kasahara is as comfortable as she can be. Right now, we just have to wait and see what the police investigation turns up." Genda responded as he took another big swig of his beer.
"Why are you so hung up on the investigation anyways, it's not like the police will be very helpful. She's a TF agent, shouldn't we be allowed to do our own investigation?" Tezuka added bitterly from his place beside Shibazaki.
"Until the police release some sort of case report, we aren't allowed to do anything. Kasahara's accident occurred off-base, it's not within our jurisdiction to investigate, Tezuka." Komaki explained calmly, though he could feel the tension in the room beginning to build as the discussion continued and it was starting to make him feel a bit uneasy.
"That doesn't mean I can't look into things." The Library agents directed their attention towards Maki and she took a pen and notepad out of her bag. "Tomorrow morning, I'll go back to the intersection where Iku was hit and ask around to see if anyone there saw what happened. Shibazaki, you said she left the base around 7:00, right?"
"That's right." Shibazaki confirmed before taking another tentative sip of her tea.
"Thank you, Maki." Genda nodded towards the reporter before turning back to Tezuka and Shibazaki. "You two should head on back to the dorms, it's late and we're going to have a very long day ahead of us tomorrow without Dojo and Kasahara around."
Tezuka paused as he was standing to look at Genda. "Sir?"
Genda glanced around at the rest of group before looking back up at Tezuka and sighing. "You always were slow when it came to those two, Tezuka."
Beside Genda, Komaki chuckled as Tezuka opened his mouth to protest. Shibazaki, however, beat Tezuka to the punch.
"Come on, you," she said as she tugged on her coat and picked her purse off the floor before taking Tezuka by the arm and leading him towards the exit, "the grown-ups need to talk amongst themselves."
"Hey, I'm not a little kid, you know. Captain, what is it that I'm not seeing? Why is Instructor Dojo not coming to work tomorrow? I understand that Kasahara can't but what about him?"
Shibazaki suddenly stiffened, her back remaining turned to the rest of the group as her eyes darkened sorrowfully. Surprised by the intelligence agent's sudden change in mood, Tezuka turned back to face his superior officers to find that both Komaki and Genda, even Maki, all shared the same disheartened expression as Shibazaki.
A moment of silence passed through the room before Komaki sighed and lifted his head meet Tezuka's confused gaze. "Tezuka, this morning, Dojo and Kasahara had plans to eat breakfast at a diner in town, to celebrate her birthday."
Tezuka nodded, "Okay, but what has that got to do with-"
Komaki held up his hand, stopping Tezuka mid-sentence. "You didn't let me finish."
"Oh, sorry, Sir." Tezuka mumbled and Komaki waved it off.
"Dojo was going to propose to Kasahara."
A/N: Alright, my little chickadees, I'm kind of hurt. I hardly got any response whatsoever from the posting of chapter 4. I leave for a year and this is what the world comes to? Tsk Tsk.
Well, here, if you all be nice and review and read this chapter, CHAPTER 5, I will work on Chapter 6.
Geez, I never update this often, and it's been a week since I uploaded chapter 4. Are you all still alive?
Come back to me, my lovelies and let me write for you!
Anyways, thank you 123anime for sticking with me, I appreciate it greatly.
As for the rest you... I plan to win you all back and shame on you if you removed this story from your lists!
Sincerely Yours,
~Smash41KMF