Morg: Heyo!

Ikuto: What is going on?

Amu: You've done so much writing lately.

Morg: I just have the time.

Ikuto: I don't know if I believe you.

Amu: Sounds fake.

Morg: It doesn't matter what you think!

Ikuto: Sure.

Amu: Of course it does.

~Indebted~

Ikuto watched Amu take another bite of food before he sighed. "I got a call from Tsukasa earlier."

"Yeah, the one about the raid?"

"No," he said and watched as she looked up at him. "A second call."

Amu set her spoon to the side of her bowl as she took in Ikuto's serious demeanor. "What happened?"

Ikuto sucked in a hard breath before he found the words he needed. "I told you that Tsukasa was worried about a mole, right?"

"Yes."

"He went back to the precinct and found Saaya missing from her cell."

Amu was glad she'd stopped eating to talk to him. She was sure she would have choked if she'd had anything in her mouth. "What happened?"

Ikuto shrugged as he did his best to relay all the information he had. "Tsukasa said he checked the cameras but they didn't show anything and that the log didn't change. No one took her that was a cop who was doing what they were supposed to do. Whoever did it knew how to avoid the cameras and made it look like she simply disappeared."

"Why does he think she was taken?" Amu's voice broke a little during her question but she managed to get through it. "Who does he think took her?"

Ikuto rested his hands on the top of the table on either side of his bowl. He flexed his fingers as he forced himself to stay seated and not get up and pace. He knew that Amu still shied away when he got too physical with his movements and he didn't want to startle her. "He thinks it was the mole. He asked that Kairi and I watch the site that lists the people for sale. He wants to know if someone rescued her because they want her free or if they took her to punish her themselves."

Amu swallowed hard as she looked down at her bowl. She wanted to push it away and get up from the table. She wanted to go curl up in the bedroom and pretend none of this was happening. "What happens if she's put up for sale?"

"That's up to you," Ikuto told her as he rolled his shoulders to appear more relaxed. "We'll do whatever you want to do."

Amu bit her lip as she looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"She's your cousin," he said with a shrug. "We'll handle this how you want to handle it. If you want me to bid on her and bring her here then I will. If you want me to bid on her and put her somewhere else then I will. If you want me to do nothing then I will."

Amu continued to worry her lip as she looked back down at her bowl. "If I told you to let her be sold, you'd just let whoever wanted to buy her do so?"

"I want you to have a choice," Ikuto told her. "I want you to make a decision and know that we'll follow it."

"I don't want her to be sold to some creep," Amu admitted after a few minutes of silence. "But I also don't want her here."

"Then I'll make sure she's bought and then put somewhere else."

"But she'll be safe?"

Ikuto studied Amu's gaze for a moment before he nodded. "She'll be somewhere safe. Just not here."

Amu nodded as she looked back down at their food. "I don't know if I can eat now."

"We can save this for later," Ikuto said with another shrug. "You don't have to force yourself now."

Amu nodded again before she got up from the table. "I'm going to go lay down."

"All right." Ikuto watched her go before he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Kairi. Then he picked up his spoon and ate a few bites of the bland soup he'd picked out for their supper. It tasted like shit but he made himself eat it purely because he'd promised Amu that they'd eat the same thing that night and he wasn't going to break any promises to her.

XXX

Amu curled up in the bed and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt horrible. Not because Saaya was probably scared and being touched and drugged, but because Amu found that she didn't feel bad about knowing that. She wanted to. She wanted to feel shocked and angry and worried for her cousin but she couldn't force the emotions.

Amu wanted to cry. She wanted to sob that the world wasn't fair and that these things shouldn't happen.

But they did happen and she knew firsthand how they went.

And despite not wanting anyone else to go through it, she just couldn't make herself feel bad about Saaya.

After working through some of her emotions and finding that she really couldn't even pretend, she got up from the bed and left the room.

Amu found Ikuto seated in the living room. His phone was discarded next to him on the couch as he looked out the large windows as the world outside them slowly went dark. He had one arm stretched across the back of the couch and Amu found that she sort of wanted to curl up in the space at his side.

Clearing her throat, Amu hugged herself where she stood in the doorway. "Ikuto?"

He hummed as he turned his head to look at her. "What's wrong?"

"Am I a bad person?"

Ikuto's brows furrowed as he looked at her. "What do you mean?"

The words had slipped out before she'd thought about what she was going to say to him. But she found that she didn't want to take them back. "I thought I would be more upset to learn that Saaya was taken and that she's in trouble but I just… don't."

Ikuto kept his face tilted toward her but otherwise didn't shift his body. "I don't think you're a bad person, Amu. I think you can't help but realize that she brought this on herself and now has to deal with the consequences of her actions."

"Really?"

"If you were a bad person then you would have done what she'd done. You'd work for them and sell out other people to save yourself."

Amu bit her lip as she glanced away from him again. She wanted him to put his arm down so that the temptation to snuggle with him would go away. She wanted to curl into his side and have him put his arm around her. "Or let her get sold to whoever?"

"No," Ikuto said firmly. "Her being sold has nothing to do with you. You already made the choice to try and save her. Don't try and put more guilt on your shoulders, especially when you shouldn't have to carry it anyway."

Amu nodded as she looked back at him. In a way, she knew he was right. She'd chosen to try and save Saaya if they could. Her feelings for her cousin didn't change that she was still trying to do the right thing.

Then she caught sight of his arm and that inviting space beside him and decided to stop torturing herself. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Ikuto glanced at the open seating around the room as he shrugged. "Sure. Wherever you want."

Amu dropped her arms to tug at her sleeves. "No, I mean, I want to sit next to you."

Ikuto started to drop his arm and shift over when Amu made a noise that had him freeze. "What?"

"Don't," Amu said before she swallowed hard. "Don't move yet."

Ikuto frowned but relaxed back to how he was sitting before she came into the room.

Amu could tell that he was holding his breath as she moved between his knees and the coffee table to sit next to him on the couch. She waited a second with space still between them before she moved closer to him. When he didn't object, she pressed against his side.

Ikuto let out a slow and shaky breath as Amu tucked herself in next to him. "Amu?"

"You make me feel safe," Amu told him quietly. "When I'm around you I know that I'm safe. And you were sitting here like you were keeping this spot safe for me and I just couldn't… Ikuto."

"I understand," he told her just as quietly. "I rescued you and I brought you here and kept you safe. You are safe with me, Amu. I will always do my best to keep you safe."

"Can we sit like this for a little while?"

Ikuto tilted his head and looked down at her. She looked so small against his side. "Of course. For as long as you'd like."

Amu made a noise but didn't say anything further as she relaxed against his side.

XXX

Ikuto watched his phone screen light up several times with incoming messages but did nothing to pick it up. He didn't want to disturb Amu. She'd fallen asleep against his side and he wanted her to get as much rest as she could.

When his phone started ringing, he reached with his other hand to snag it from the table. "Hello?"

"Why are you whispering?"

"Amu fell asleep on the couch and I don't want to disturb her."

"Then get up and leave."

Ikuto rolled his eyes at Kairi's blunt advice. "What do you need?"

"Saaya went up for sale but it's a closed auction."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Kairi said firmly while the sound of him working on his computer came through in the background. "That only certain members are allowed to bid. You aren't one of them."

Ikuto closed his eyes as he dropped his head back onto the couch. He wanted to groan and chuck his phone but knew he'd wake Amu and he didn't want to frighten her. She'd admitted that he was her safe space and he wanted to keep it that way. "Why would they make the listing public then?"

"I think they want you to see it. I think they're trying to send you a message that no matter what, you can't stop them."

Ikuto bit back a growl. "Please inform Tsukasa. He wanted to know as soon as we knew what was happening. I'll tell Amu once she wakes up that we won't be able to do anything to help Saaya."

"I even tried to enter it under a false account but they aren't allowing anyone they don't know in."

"They're definitely sending a message," Ikuto agreed. "And I don't like it."

"They think that they are untouchable," Kairi agreed.

"Maybe so," Ikuto said after a moment of silence. "But that just means that they're going to get a little sloppy. We'll be ready for them this time."

"I'll alert Tsukasa and see what he wants to do."

"Keep me posted."

"Will do."

Ikuto set his phone to the side after the call disconnected. He left his arm draped across the top of the couch but rubbed his forehead with the fingers on his other hand. Whether the mole told them or Saaya did, they knew that Ikuto was working against them. The profile he'd built to be let into their auctions to gather information was ruined.

Sighing, he dropped his hand to rest it on his knee as he looked out the dark windows at the city lights. He'd always had to be careful because they knew his ties to Utau and he knew what they'd done to her, but this was different. They had proof now that he was actively working against them.

Their game of cat and mouse had just taken a drastic turn and Ikuto found that he was not prepared for it. He didn't know what came next. He didn't know what to do.

He sighed again as he looked down at Amu.

That wasn't entirely true. He knew that he had to protect her. He had to keep her safe. He had to keep his sister safe and all his friends.

They knew about Ikuto which meant they were all in danger.

.

Morg: Don't you just hate it when everything goes wrong?

Ikuto: Yep.

Amu: Don't act like you aren't writing that way on purpose.

Morg: Not acting! Admiring all my hard work!

Ikuto: What?

Amu: I don't think I'll ever understand her.