Chapter Sixty-Six: Ultimatum

Eiji's eyes burned as they stared vacantly at the blinding screen before his face. It was only 10 AM, but his brain had long ago grown tired of thinking. Ash had almost convinced him to skip work. Though this time, it wasn't in his normal 'stay in bed with me' fashion. No, this time it was in a 'you need a mental break' sort of way. He came close to convincing him, but Eiji had a deadline today. He needed to finish editing and submit photos for the article he was working on. But his brain was miles away, thinking only of the mess he and Ash were in.

Suddenly, there was a loud snap in Eiji's ear, causing him to nearly jump out of his chair.

An older man cackled at Eiji's expense. "Photos are due by noon, Okumura."

Eiji's eyes jumped to the bottom corner of his computer screen. 10:06 AM. They jumped back to the man.

"Noon!?"

He nodded with a smirk.

"But they're always due at three!"

"Well, I'm leaving early today and need time to finalize the article. Didn't you get my email?"

Eiji's eyes flashed back to his computer. In a few clicks, he was staring at his email inbox. His eyes searched the screen frantically. He refreshed the page even though he'd just pulled it up moments ago. He looked back to his superior. "No? I didn't get it!"

"Well, you're looking at today. I sent it several days ago. Scroll back."

Eiji did so frantically. He shook his head. "Are you sure you sent it to me?"

"Positive. I selected the whole team."

He let Eiji panic a moment more before he broke into another cackle. "I'm messing with you, kid!"

Eiji's mouth dropped open in shock for a second before closing and creasing into a scowl.

The man laughed harder. "You should have seen your face!"

Eiji's eyes narrowed.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Cool it, cool it. They're due at three, Okumura."

A few others were laughing along with him now.

"You're cruel Tachibana," one cackled. He and a few others joined the older man at Eiji's desk.

"Though maybe if you pretend they're due at noon, you'll actually get something else done today too," another coworker added. "You've been staring at that same picture for the last…" he glanced at his watch dramatically, "Oh, I dunno, 45 minutes?"

Eiji opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. It wasn't worth the trouble. He turned back to his screen and said nothing.

"Alright, alright, I think Okumura has learned his lesson." He patted Eiji's shoulder and stalked away.

His other coworkers shared a few more laughs before dispersing back to their own desks.

Eiji stared back at his computer screen. Within moments, his eyes had glazed over once again.

"They may be acting like assholes," an iced coffee appeared on the desk beside his keyboard, "but they are right." He looked up to find Suni smiling down at him. "You're distracted."

Eiji cracked a half-smile in thanks. "I guess I am." He sipped the coffee and wiped the condensation from the bottom of the disposable cup.

Reading his mind, she grabbed a stack of post-it notes. She peeled off two and then two more. She stuck them together and placed it under Eiji's cup.

"Thanks." He sipped the coffee again, eyes smiling at the robust flavor.

"So what's stressing you out?"

His expression soured. He held the coffee in his mouth, pensively, for a moment before swallowing. He looked at Suni and then back to the pictures in need of editing on his computer. "Tachibana's right, I really do need to finish these. I'll tell you over lunch."

"Eiji," Suni began slowly after Eiji had finished filling her in on the Akira situation, "I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way…" She picked at her bowl of pickled vegetables. "But maybe…" Losing her confidence, her eyes strayed from Eiji and down to the table.

He raised his eyebrows. "What? Maybe what?"

She shrugged, "It's not my place."

"Please say it," there was desperation in his voice. "Please."

"Well, maybe it's… well a little bit selfish," she said hastily. She saw Eiji's brows furrow in confusion. "And maybe that's not the right word but… " She paused. "Wouldn't the most responsible thing be to involve the authorities?"

Eiji was silent for a long moment and Suni worried she had overstepped.

"If you knew more about Ash, you'd understand," he said at last, quietly.

Then it was Suni's turn to sit in silence. "He was hurt by the system?" She guessed.

Eiji shrugged. "Something like that."

Eiji returned home later than usual. His brain had remained functioning about as well as a ball of mush for the remainder of the day. He had stayed over an hour late in order to compensate for his brain's incompetence earlier in the day. The sun was setting, casting long shadows, by the time he slid his key into the front door. The house inside was dark, devoid of any artificial light. Only remnants of sunlight glinted off the kitchen countertops and stainless steel appliances, bouncing across the house as the sun continued to set.

"Ash?" Eiji asked the quiet house.

He drifted quietly from room to room, calling his name several more times before coming to the conclusion that Ash wasn't home. Though, perhaps stranger than Ash's absence was Buddy's. Despite his calls, the pup never came running.

Where'd ya go?

He texted Ash and pocketed his phone.

Eiji wandered back down to the kitchen. He stood before an open fridge, staring blankly at the ingredients it held. It was full of fresh produce, meats, and fish, but Eiji had neither the energy nor the desire to actually piece together a full meal. The freezer was stocked with frozen meals that would still require him to stir a pot, which was still more effort than Eiji cared to exert. He moved next to the pantry, staring vacantly into it the same way he had the fridge. Defeated, he shut the door to the pantry and moved back to the fridge, as if expecting something new to have magically materialized in his hour of need.

He startled from his trance-like state when the phone in his pocket chimed.

Outside, Ash responded.

The fridge thudded shut.

He found Ash outside, sitting on the engawa with his back pressed against the house. Beside him, Buddy appeared to be sleeping, though his tail beat against the wood as Eiji stepped outside to join them.

"You're home late," Ash observed. "You guys have a meeting?"

Eiji settled beside Ash. "No," he sighed. "Just couldn't focus at all. It took me forever to get all my stuff done."

"Mmm."

They sat in silence, watching the remainder of the sunset, though not truly appreciating its beauty. Ash's eyes, glazed with fatigue, seemed to look towards the painted sky but not at it. The air was thick with the gloom and exhaustion that Eiji knew accompanied Ash on days he saw Iku-san. But Ash had just seen her a few days prior, and Eiji had never known them to meet more than once per week.

"Why'd you go twice this week?" Eiji asked.

Ash glanced at him then back at the sky. "How'd you know?"

"I can always tell when you've seen her. Even if it was a good visit, you always seem… drained."

"Oh," Ash adjusted himself, self-consciously straightening his spine from the relaxed position he had been slumped in. "Sorry, I… I wasn't aware I…" he didn't finish the sentence.

"Don't apologize."

"I don't want to be a downer." Ash stood brushing imaginary dust, or dirt, or something from his legs. Buddy sluggishly pulled himself off the floor as Ash did. His claws dug into the wood engawa causing it to creak as he stretched, head near the floor and tail in the air.

Eiji lightly wrapped his fingers around Ash's wrist. "Please don't go in?" It was a question, a plea.

Ash gestured at his skin. "I'm getting eaten alive out here."

Eiji narrowed his eyes at him. "No bugs have bothered me yet," he said simply, seeing through Ash's escape attempt. He patted the floor beside him. "Please stay? I wouldn't have said that if I knew it would make you self-conscious. I would be exhausted too if I had to talk to her each week."

With the trauma you've had went unspoken.

Ash shifted anxiously from foot to foot. "No, I should really," he gestured vaguely at the house.

Eiji patted the floor again. "Just sit."

Ash did. Buddy settled down next to him again, seemingly pleased to resume his nap.

They sat again in silence, the world growing darker by the minute.

Abruptly, Ash began to speak. "She called me and asked if I would come in today."

"She called you?"

Ash nodded. "She said what I told her last visit was eating away at her conscience. She said I had given her just enough details to make her worry for my… or someone's… safety." He took a breath. "She said that if whatever I was withholding was important enough that I couldn't tell her that it was even that more important that she should know." He scoffed. "That's fuckin' rich, huh?"

"So did you tell her?"

"After Blanca we had made a deal. She would remain my therapist so long as my progress didn't stagnate. Me not being able to come to her with something big is a form of stagnation or so she says."

Ash paused. Eiji raised his brows, waiting patiently for Ash to continue.

"Basically she threatened to drop me as a client if I couldn't tell her this." He sighed and rolled his eyes. "So I fuckin' told her about Akira."

"And what did she say?" Eiji asked, keeping his voice even and calm.

Ash was quiet. The light was mostly faded now though even in the darkness, Eiji could see his eyes growing red with unfallen tears. His fingertips pressed into his arm, engraving tiny crescents there. Eiji gently pulled Ash's hand away from his skin. He held his hand in both of his own.

"Ash? What did she say?" He asked softly.

A tear slid down Ash's cheek. "That if I don't call the police by tomorrow at noon… she will."

Eiji slid an arm around Ash's shoulders, pulling him close. "Oh, Ash."

"Shunichi will have to take her." Ash said definitively as he pulled back the comforter on their bed. "Iku-san is certain we won't be allowed to," he added numbly.

They decided they would call together in the morning. Eiji would call in from work and they would face this thing together. But tonight, they agreed to get some rest.

"He's not going to want to, Ash." Eiji pulled an oversized night shirt over his head and slipped into bed after Ash. "Shunichi has never structured his life around wanting a family. I don't think that will magically change."

Ash's face scrunched with anger. "I don't care what he wants, it's his duty now."

"That's assuming they even take her away. I mean, that's not a guarantee. The evidence we saw might not be enough to—"

"Are you kidding me right now?" Ash asked hotly.

"I'm not saying I agree." Eiji said into Ash's eyes. " I'm just saying it's a real possibility."

Trying to regain his calm, Ash closed his eyes. He took a deep breath that was shaky when he released it. "I hate this fuckin' world."

Eiji pressed his lips together in a straight line. He thought of all the beautiful things in the world that he had been allowed to love and appreciate since a young age. There were large and important things; his family, friends, his love for vaulting, his love for Ash. Then there were the simple things; the way water at Inasa beach sparkles in the setting sun, or the way the spring air smells. As a child there was the way his lungs burned after racing the other boys, and the way ice cream tasted on a particularly hot summer day. And there was so much more. In many ways, the world had been so good to him. Sure, he had seen his fair share of anxieties and hardships, but overall, he considered himself to have had a fairly easy life up until he went to America and met Ash. The beautiful parts of the world were starting to reveal themselves to Ash now, though up until recently, he had not had that luxury.

"I know, Ash," was all he said.

Ash fell asleep surprisingly fast, though he was not graced with uninterrupted sleep. Stressful dreams of worst case scenarios drifted through his subconscious. He tossed and turned, doing so quietly as not to wake Eiji. At five in the morning, however, he admitted defeat and slipped from bed.

Buddy followed him downstairs where he scrolled mindlessly through the television stations, looking for something decent to watch to distract his anxious brain. Ash's thumb beat rhythmically against the remote as he ran swiftly through the channels. Bits and pieces of audio were all he needed to decide if something was worth more than a few seconds of consideration. He continued to run through the channels when, suddenly, something caught his attention.

"A young girl from the Shimane prefecture was reported missing late last night—

He scrolled past the station and immediately backtracked to hear the rest of the report.

[—say the seven-year-old went to school yesterday morning like any other day, though parents became concerned when their daughter, Akira, never returned home. Authorities urge you to keep an eye out for a—]

Ash's ears were ringing too loud to hear the rest of the report. His heart was in his throat and adrenaline rattled his muscles. He hadn't felt quite like this since New York. It was a feeling he didn't welcome in the slightest.

"Stay," he told Buddy firmly. He took a step and when the dog obediently stayed perched on the couch, watching, Ash then bolted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Though he was fast, he was silent. The grace and stealth that once kept him alive returned like he had used it only yesterday. In under a minute, he was standing, fully dressed, in his and Eiji's bedroom.

He pulled out the top dresser drawer and plunged his hand to the very bottom. Expertly, he found the handgun he had stashed there and slipped it into his waistband. There was only one problem, it wasn't loaded and the box of bullets he kept beside it was suddenly missing.

"What the hell," he hissed under his breath.

The next drawer creaked as he pulled it out. With less grace now, he rifled around, searching for the box. There was no box. He pushed the drawer shut and moved onto the third one.

"Ash?" Eiji asked, propped up sleepily on one elbow. His hair, pointing in fifty different directions, would have been endearing to Ash if he weren't in a state of near panic. "What are you—" he yawned, "looking for?"

"Nothing, Eiji." He tried to play it cool. "It's early, go back to sleep," he added calmly.

Eiji flopped back onto the bed and Ash continued his search. Every sound he made as he dug through the contents of each drawer sounded far too loud for the quiet room. The last drawer left him empty handed and Ash closed it louder than intended.

"You just ransacked that whole dresser," Eiji observed from the bed.

"Go back to sleep, Eiji." Ash moved on to the closet.

Eiji sat. He eyed the gun in Ash's waistband venomously. "Why, so you can continue to destroy our room looking for your goddamn bullets?"

Ash turned sharply to face him. "I knew they had been in the top drawer. Where did you put them?"

Eiji's eyes narrowed. "Why on Earth do you need them?"

"It's not important."

"Whatever you need bullets for at 5 AM is fucking important, Ash."

"Please, Eiji, there's no time to explain." Pleading, he sounded on the edge of panic now.

"Make time."

"Make time? How am I supposed to make time?!" Ash ran his hands frantically through his hair. "I need those bullets, Eiji. Where did you put them?"

Eiji repositioned himself so that he was now kneeling on the bed. "If you want them, you better fucking tell me why!"

Ash let out a shaky breath. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to yell… I just… Akira's gone, okay? I saw it on the news just now." He waved an angry hand through the air. "Her parents reported her missing late last night. She never came home from school yesterday."

Eiji was standing now, clearly rattled though trying to keep his head. "Okay. Okay, Ash, let's try to stay calm."

Ash released a short, chilling shrill of laughter, bordering on psychotic.

"I'm serious. You won't be able to think clearly if you panic."

"I'm way past calm."

"Then the last thing you need is a loaded gun."

"No, actually—"

"Forget it, Ash! I'm not telling you where they are! I hid those bullets for a reason! I'm not risking you breaking the law and being deported!"

Ash saw the tears in Eiji's eyes and backed off. He didn't voice what he was thinking, that he was good at what he did and he didn't plan on getting caught. Assuming, of course, he actually used the gun. He wanted them for peace of mind, if nothing else. Instead, he just nodded.

"I don't want to lose you over this," Eiji said, voice breaking.

"Okay." He removed his gun from his waistband and set it back inside the dresser. "I'm sorry. I won't…" He eyed the gun. "If it means that much to you, I won't take it."

Eiji nodded, not trusting himself to respond in actual words without crying.

"I'm still going to look for her though. If you can get dressed quickly, you can come."

Eiji nodded again and began getting dressed. "Her parents reported her missing?"

"Yeah," Ash said stiffly.

"Okay," Eiji sighed. He pulled a clean shirt over his head. "That's a good sign. That means she probably just ran away and—"

"Just ran away? How is that a good sign?"

"Well…" he paused, wanting to choose his words carefully as Ash was already visibly worked up again. "Kids run away all the time but they usually don't stay gone long. My guess is she'll be back by the end of the day. Running away is usually harmle—" he stopped when he saw Ash's expression turn nearly feral.

"Harmless?!"

Eiji's eyes widened, realizing what his words meant to Ash. "Ash, I'm an idiot, I'm—"

"I ran away, Eiji! Dino found me, need I remind you? It led to ten years of torture. I will likely go my whole life without fully recovering from that shit. It was the furthest thing from harmless!"

"I know. I wasn't thinking." He stepped forward and gently wrapped his arms around Ash's waist. "I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. I'm so sorry, Ash." Eiji breathed in Ash's scent. "I guess I was just trying to see the silver… silver whatever it's called. Izumo isn't New York. It's much less dangerous here. But still, I wasn't thinking… and I shouldn't have said it."

If he didn't have Akira's disappearance weighing on him, Ash surely would have broken down. As it was, he couldn't. He took a brief moment to return Eiji's embrace. "Freaks exist everywhere, Eiji. C'mon, we have to get moving. Every second we're here is a second too long."