Yay, another chapter at last! School's been really hectic, and I've only managed to get some time to myself to write tonight but I'm moderately satisfied with this chapter. It could probably be longer, but I like ending it where it is, because all crime dramas need a lot of cliffhangers. :D
I'm amazed that I've actually hit chapter 20. Honestly, I never thought that the cheesy, sappy word vomit I had initially dreamed up would turn into the monster that it now is. A shoutout to all of you who've been with me since the first upload of this! You guys make me so happy :')
The sound of banging on his door made him pause in the motion of brushing his teeth and glance over his shoulder with a frown. It was late, and he was in dire need of some sleep. Rinsing his mouth, he padded slowly towards the door, hoping that the person on the other side of the door would get the hint and leave before he reached it. Unfortunately for him, the banging only seemed to get louder, and he hastened to undo the latch when he saw the wood bend slightly from the impact.
"Wh—Aomine?" The furrow in his forehead deepened as he stared at the detective who was slightly winded from the exertion.
"I need you to go to Tetsu," the navy-haired man panted, the urgency in his voice transparent. "Go to him, and stay with him."
Kagami opened his mouth and then shut it again. He wanted to say something scathing to show just how annoyed he was to be presented such a ridiculous request so late at night, but upon closer inspection he noticed that Aomine was white underneath his tan and his hands were trembling slightly.
"What's going on?" The redhead asked concernedly. Even when he was completely drunk, Kagami had never seen the other man looking so flustered.
"I don't have time," Aomine snapped, tone unnecessarily harsh. He inhaled sharply and concentrated on calming his heart. When he felt better composed he shot Kagami an apologetic look. "I—I think he's in danger."
"Danger? Wha—" Kagami paused, thought better of it, and instead said, "Why can't you go over?"
"There's someone else I need to protect right now." And if he went over he'd just wrap himself around Kuroko and never leave the apartment. He glanced at his watch. This was taking too long. He needed to be somewhere else. He had called up Midorima the second he had gotten over the shock of seeing the pictures and had basically ordered the other man to head to where Mari was staying. "Look, I'll explain everything later, just please –"
Kagami held up a hand to silence him. His smile was understanding. "I'll keep you up to date."
Aomine was so relieved he could just hug the man. "Thank you."
xx
"It was a false alarm. There wasn't even a whiff of him."
Aomine grunted in response from where he had his forehead planted on top of his desk as he envisioned shooting the bastard murderer repeatedly in his mind.
"He was clearly trying to get you worked up, though." His green-eyed partner commented as he shuffled through the pictures. The silence echoed around the empty station until, "Your boyfriend is rather attractive."
"Dude," Aomine sat up to stare drolly at Midorima. "I have enough shit to worry about with this asshole, don't make me have to kill you, too."
The other man merely raised an eyebrow unperturbedly. "It was a compliment."
"Yeah, well, don't." The dark-haired man dropped his head onto the desk again, muffling the rest of his words. "He's mine."
"I would not have thought that you were the possessive sort, given that you hate those kinds of women the most."
It wasn't possessiveness per se – at least, he'd like to believe that – it was because he felt like if he looked away for a second too long, Kuroko would dance out of his reach. And just how frightening he found the idea was starting to worry him. "Me neither."
xx
"Ahomine!" The man whose name had been bastardized by the bellowed nick-named turned uninterested eyes towards the source, so sleep-deprived that he wasn't even startled, nor troubled by the enraged expression on his chief's face. Getting up slowly, he noticed detachedly that his chief also gestured for Midorima to join him, and he lingered until the other man was at his side before making their way towards the small office.
The second the door shut behind them, Aomine was jolted awake by the hand that slapped the side of his head forcefully.
"What the fuck?" He demanded, rubbing at the spot. The pain was instantaneous, and had faded just as quickly, but the area now throbbed with a dull ache that was bound to make the rest of his day miserable.
"Would you care to explain this?" Their Chief snapped, tossing an open file onto the desk, the action dislocating the multitude of photos it contained. Both detectives stared at the top photo, dumbstruck. Midorima turned disbelieving eyes to his partner.
Aomine stared until his vision became unfocused, struggling to think coherently. The photo was taken from outside the large display windows of Kagami's bar, and in it, the focus of the frame were two bulky figures, one of them clearly Aomine as he sat facing the window, the other, he knew to be Murasakibara, sat shrouded in shadow, was caught in the motion of pushing something across the bar towards Aomine. The tan man knew what the rest of the photos would contain, and he was not naïve enough to think that the culprit who had photographed him would also include shots of him shoving the envelope back to the purple-haired giant.
"I did not train you to be this kind of officer," his chief was yelling furiously. He had to resist the urge to turn around to see if anyone outside was paying attention. When his chief yelled, the whole station could hear him. "What happened to your morals? Your damn values? What the fuck was it that he offered you that had you doing something so despicable?!"
Aomine waited as patiently as he could for the tirade of words to taper off. When his chief stopped, chest heaving and expression expectant of an explanation, the dark-eyed man wordlessly turned on his heels and walked out of the office. The sound of fists slamming into wood accompanied him as he stalked over to his desk, tugged open a drawer, and grabbed the thin object on top of a pile of miscellaneous receipts and notes. Casually, he walked back to the office, ignoring the stares as his chief screamed for him to return.
Still silent, he tossed the disc on top of the folder containing the incriminating evidence and turned to leave again.
"What the hell is this?" His chief asked, staring at the unmarked disc suspiciously.
"Proof that I'm innocent," Aomine returned with a shrug. Midorima and the Chief shared a glance. The dark-skinned man was about to shut the door behind himself when a thought occurred to him and he walked back in to swipe the folder off the desk top.
"And where do you think you're going?" His chief questioned, tone less hostile. Aomine checked his watch. Lunch hour was still some ways away, meaning that he wouldn't have to worry about missing his target.
"Got a date with the devil."
xx
Aomine barely registered the decadently furbished lobby and sleek-looking front of the company as he all but kicked in the glass door in his rage. He had reined in his anger while he was at the station, but the journey over had allowed him time to absorb the situation and the accumulation of all the fucked up things plaguing him since the night before had him wanting to break bones with his bare hands.
He burst into the large office in a fashion reminiscent of a raging bull as the secretary was heard protesting a few steps behind him. Two heads swivel around at his entrance, but he only had eyes for one of them. The silence was only momentary as the man seated behind the desk waved a hand reassuringly at his secretary outside. To the man that stood frozen in fear in front of him, he smiled apologetically.
"If you would kindly wait outside for a while, it seems that something urgent has surfaced." Nodding dumbly, the man gathered the pages of his report hastily and dashed out, head bent to avoid the sharp eyes that glared at him as he hurried past.
Once they were left alone, the earlier man having shut the doors as he left, the seated man steepled his fingers with a pleasant smile. "You have impeccable timing. I was getting bored of all the numbers."
"What the hell are you doing?" Aomine said curtly. He had not come here to chat.
Gold and red eyes blinked at him. "Trying to conduct a civil conversation."
"I mean with this," he retorted exasperatedly, as he took a few strides forward to throw the folder onto the expensive looking desk. "It nearly got me fired!"
"Nearly?" Akashi asked mildly as tapered fingers reached forward to pull the file towards him. Aomine waited as Akashi looked through the photos slowly, expression blank. When he was done he closed the file carefully and slid it back across the desk. "This seems very incriminating. How are you still a detective?"
"I got CCTV footage from the bar."
"I see," The redhead nodded thoughtfully. "How unexpectedly brilliant."
The silence that settled in between them was palpable with tension as the two men stared each other down.
"Well?!" Aomine finally burst out.
Akashi raised an eyebrow in question. "I beg your pardon?"
"Why are you going to such lengths to keep me from Tetsu?" The taller of the two demanded.
"You are the detective, surely you can conclude that this is not the work of someone under me."
"I don't believe you."
Sighing tiredly, Akashi pursed his lips. "I offered you that bribe as a test, I am sure you are aware of that. It was not my intention to trouble you to such an extent."
Aomine leveled him a disbelieving look.
"Would it be to my benefit to upset my brother?" Akashi asked pointedly. "Plus, such a blatant display of unimaginative amateurism is an insult to what I stand for."
"I didn't think you stood for anything." Aomine snorted, much more toned down now that he knew that he was in the wrong place. He was starting to regret his decision now that his mind wasn't clouded with anger. He knew that Akashi operated from this building, it was something the whole damn country knew, but it would take a different type of idiot to stampede into the office.
He was not feeling good about himself.
Akashi was silent for a bit as he studied the detective, head cocked slightly to the side. "You should not criticize your own kind."
"I have no relation to you," Aomine shot back, eyes narrowed.
"So you would have the world believe," Akashi looked at him curiously. "Tell me, why do you hide? Your father does his job admirably, there is nothing to be ashamed of."
The other man stiffened. "We're not talking about my old man."
"Indeed," the redhead muttered. "A piece of advice, if you'll take it."
"Why?"
"I cannot possibly get rid of you without enraging my brother, so I may as well accept that you will be around for a while until he gets tired of you."
Choosing not to bite, Aomine waited quietly for him to continue.
"Tetsuya is a forgiving man. He is not one to judge who you are based on your history." The navy-haired man was about to reply when a loud beeping sounded from a side table across the room, making him jump.
"Excuse me," Akashi coolly walked across the carpeted floor and shut the alarm off. He then pulled open a drawer and dug out a pill box. Aomine watched him, but didn't comment.
"I have a heart condition. Too much stress and excitement could kill me," Akashi proffered to the room at large. His smile was sardonic as he spun around to return to his seat. "It is rather ironic that I ended up in such a line of work, don't you think?"
"Doesn't matter to me," Aomine mumbled vaguely.
"Here." The dark-haired man looked suspiciously at the envelope that was pushed towards him as Akashi settled back in his chair.
"What is it?"
"Something to help your investigation." Akashi replied, looking completely absorbed in his medication. "You are taking much too long."
Aomine stared at the peculiarly-eyed man in incredulity. "You know who is doing all this?"
"Perhaps," Akashi conceded. "Nonetheless, even if my guess is wrong, this will be of assistance."
The taller man was at a complete loss. Struggling hard to grasp the situation as his brain kept reminding him that he was not at his best, he managed a, "Why?"
"I have a large investment in the agency that is currently being targeted. My accountant, which you had rather rudely cut off, was just telling me that we were making severe losses because the girls were unwilling to model for fear of their safety."
"No, I mean, why not just solve this by yourself?"
Akashi shot him an amused look. "One does not get very far up the ladder by taking things into one's own hand. That is what people like you are for."
This was wrong. He didn't want to be in the demon redhead's debt. "I won't –"
"Think of it as payment for keeping your silence about my medical condition. You can imagine that it will dramatically influence public perception of me." Akashi interrupted.
Aomine stared a hole into the desk before saying, "You expected this."
"I merely covered all the bases. If you had listened to your instinct more I would not be required to interfere like this."
"My instinct?" Aomine frowned.
"I'm sure you already know who it is. Well, that is assuming that you have the same level of intelligence that your partner has."
"You…" Aomine began, wanting to ask him if there was no information that was sacred.
"Yes?" The mismatched eyes that returned his glare were disconcerting.
"Nothing," he said, picking up the file.
"By the way," Akashi said just as Aomine was about to leave. "Have you gone through the contents of the thumb drive?"
"No," he was wary of the thing. He wasn't sure if it could create a path for Akashi to go through his personal files. However, now he was starting to wonder if he should bother worrying about it.
"You should. That information will be invaluable to you in the near future."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't. But you do not have many options, do you?"
Aomine really wanted to wipe the smirk off the smaller man's face. He had no idea how Kuroko was able to put up with such an arrogant jerk. He paused, hand on the handle of the door. "Just for the record, I'm in it only for Tetsu."
"I know," Akashi replied, as he analyzed some papers in front of him. "It is the only reason why no one has had to fish your body parts out of the rivers."
xx
"Where the hell were you?" Midorima demanded as Aomine sat down opposite him. "Chief's been blowing his top all morning because of you."
"I know who it is," Aomine cut his partner off before Midorima could complain about how he had been the scapegoat in Aomine's place. It got him the intended effect. Green eyes widened in shock behind the glasses.
"What?"
"These," Aomine passed the file he had received from Akashi over to the other detective. He had gone through the contents earlier, and had had time to digest the information. He was pretty sure that the expression of confusion mixed with disbelief on Midorima's face was identical to what he had on when he had first gone through it.
"How did you get these?" Midorima asked, tossing him a narrowed glance. "It wasn't that guy from the bar, was it?"
"You saw me push the money back. Why would I go look for him and tell him I changed my mind now?"
"I don't know," the other man muttered almost under his breath. "You have a knack for doing stupid things."
He couldn't really disagree. What he had actually gone and done was infinitely more stupid than looking up Murasakibara and talking to him.
"Anyway," he chose to ignore the words. "Satsuki has all of these models. I saw them when I went over last night."
"Momoi-san?" Midorima frowned. "She can't possibly be the killer."
"No, and she never buys the cameras. They're all gifts." Aomine paused for effect, enjoying himself immensely now that his day was finally starting to redeem itself. Midorima leaned forward, expression clearly impatient. "Kou Shougo sends them through her manager."
xx
He felt like skipping. The day had been getting progressively better ever since they figured out that it was Momoi's ex who was the face behind all the killings. At that very point in time, Midorima and a handful of other law enforcers were waiting for the man at his apartment. As soon as they arrested him the case would be closed and he could take time off his job to relax. Preferably in a foreign country with a certain pale blue-haired man by his side.
For now, he would have to settle for a relaxing day with his bed. The fatigue he felt was overwhelming, and he had barely managed to drive home without falling asleep. It was the only reason he wasn't skipping his way up to his apartment.
When he pushed the key into the lock, the thought that maybe something was waiting to ambush him on the other side of the door did admittedly cross his mind. But it was something fleeting, and he had his gun on him. In the state that he was in, anyone short of Kuroko on the other side of the wooden structure would probably get shot, even Momoi.
He trudged into the dark hallway, happy to note that nothing had been shoved into his body yet, and proceeded to kick off his shoes as he let his eyes adjust to the dull lighting struggling to cast it's pathetic shine over the apartment.
It was when he had tossed his keys onto the table by the door that his eyes had gotten used to the gloom and he finally noticed his surroundings. Feeling his heart sink, and hoping fervently that he was delirious from the lack of sleep, he flipped the switch for the light, blinking away the momentary blindness that followed the sudden burst of harsh fluorescent light.
Surrounding him was utter chaos. There was nothing left in its original place, even the heaviest pieces of his furniture had been toppled and stacked all through the living room in such a way that it would take some hazardous maneuvering to be able to cross the makeshift boundary. He climbed over the collapsed cupboard that had been the home of his basketball trophies that were now tossed around his living room, some in broken pieces.
Cautiously peeping around the corner of his room, he saw his clothes strewn around, torn and stretched, along with everything save his built-in wardrobe completely dismantled. His kitchen was in a similar state, with all his drawers scattered over the floor, bits of what he surmised had at one point been his dining table and chairs, and his fridge flat on the ground, the weight of the object having severed the wire connecting it to the power. In his bathroom, as almost everything was attached to the wall with cement, only the products that he used had been tossed about violently, and his mirror was cracked, having been smashed in by the leg of one of his chairs that now sat on the floor of his bathroom.
Across the broken glass, something red – possibly blood – was smeared in a streak. If it truly was blood, that the perpetrator had injured himself while smashing in the mirror.
Aomine turned to look back at the chaos he had stumbled through, the only thought he was capable of processing as he pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial for Midorima was that he was going to need some seriously strong coffee.
I dunno if Akashi is weird in this… He's always very formal, yes, but he's also supposed to give off this disturbing vibe, and I don't think I captured that very well here =/ Well, at least I portrayed his brother complex decently. I think.