Prompt: things left unsaid (Akemi's revelation about Akai's identity)

Characters/Relationships: Akai/Akemi


Moroboshi Dai's eyes look like her mother's. There's something about the shape of them - something about the intelligence that flashes in his eyes that feels achingly familiar.

It's almost ridiculous that this is how she finds out he's an undercover agent.

She digs through old letters that her mother kept and hidden. Miyano Elena, formerly Sera Elena, was the sister of Sera Mary. Mary Sera married a man named Akai.

She asks a programmer friend of her parents to do research, and soon after, she learns that Akai Shuichi is an agent of the FBI.

Akemi's first response is a strange, sudden burst of happiness. She didn't know that she had any other family - she and Shiho have a cousin.

Does Shuichi have siblings? Are his parents still around? Akemi's programmer friend runs into an unusual dearth of information about them, but she supposes that isn't unexpected considering he's undercover.

And her second reaction, when it hits her - she cries. She can't stop crying for a long, long time.

What would the Organization do to him if they found out? They would also retaliate against her. Akemi can't leave Shiho alone, by herself - what if they hurt Shiho, too?

How much of this is real? Was every single thing about their first meeting and subsequent dates meticulously planned?

And Akemi was never a scientist like the rest of her family, but she wonders - how much of this is blood? Family members who meet each other as adults - maybe it's a perverse one-sided attraction - would he be disgusted if he knew?

Dai - Shuichi, but no, she can't think of him like that - finds her curled on the couch of her apartment, huddled underneath a blanket, her hair a mess, her eyes red.

"Sorry," she says. "I was thinking about my family."

It isn't, technically, a lie. Dai's gaze shifts over to the picture of Akemi's sister on a nearby table.

"Your sister," he says, with a nod. "She's still in America right now, isn't she?"

"Studying...researching," Akemi says. "She comes to Japan, but not very often. I worry about her, Dai-kun." She lets out a little huff of laughter. "She reminds me of you."

"Oh?" he says, face impassive, head tilted.

"Too serious most of the time," she says promptly, gently reaching out to twist her fingers into his long dark hair. "Focused and silent. I wish they would-"

I wish the organization would let her have a break. I wish that they would let her be a teenager.

The old habit is ingrained in her, and she bites her tongue. Even if Dai is FBI, it wouldn't be good to open up to him, to noticeably treat him as an enemy of the organization.

She's part of his cover, after all.

She says, "It's stupid of me. I'll call Shiho-chan tomorrow."

She is surprised when Dai doesn't ask to talk to Shiho. Instead he looks at her, green eyes sharp and intense (eyes like her mother's, her sister's, maybe his mother too), and then she just - she doesn't care anymore, she falls into his arms and thinks about him smiling at her after waking up after the 'car accident.' She thinks about the long quiet rides he'd taken her in his car; she thinks about the time he kissed her, tasting of cigarettes and coffee.

He wraps his arms around her, absurdly tall and long-limbed compared to her.

And Akemi tells herself: I have to be strong for Shuichi and Shiho. I have to make sure my family doesn't get hurt.

She pulls away, musters a shaky smile, and wipes the tears from her eyes.