A/N: Aaand we are back to the present! 

“And you want me to believe that these injuries are a result of an attempted mugging?”

“Yes.” Akito said, without blinking. 

The doctor turned to Sayako—Akito’s mother and a nurse—helplessly, his old face all too aware that such injuries were too distinctive to be from anything else.

“I heard there is a group of troublemakers who go around mimicking the Yakuza so that the police leave them alone,” Sayako said, “kids these days… Good thing Aki was passing by or else who knows what could have happened.”

That’s what Akito had told her.

“Who took out all the bullets then? Why didn’t your son bring him to the hospital immediately?” The doctor sighed, “Sayako, I don’t want to know, but whatever happens is on you, you got that? You seem to trust this kid, and to be honest, he looks like he has been through a lot, so let’s just get an X-Ray of the hand, shall we?”

“Thank you, Sensei!” Sayako bowed.

The Doctor still looked uneasy, and despite his words to the contrary, extremely judgmental. But their purposes were met, so Akito didn’t bother. His mother was the only one who could have helped him at a time like this. He didn’t know how she wasn’t asking him any questions, but he wasn’t going to volunteer any answers if she didn’t want to know.

“I have patients to attend to, I’ll come check on you two later, okay?” Sayako smiled, “Take care of him.”

Akito nodded as he took a seat on the chair next to the bed. He was grateful that she left. He had desperately needed time to figure things out. He was so tired. The night felt endless. The only thing that could calm him down even slightly, would be seeing Rein open his eyes again. 

He hated that he felt that way. 

The moron...killing Masahiro like that. How could he let his emotions get the better of him? It was hard to imagine how he would turn the situation around. Akito should have been happier about all this. Rein had unwittingly helped his agenda.

He looked so fragile lying there; like one nudge would shatter those ridiculously delicate features. The urge to hold him, to trap him in his arms and never let him go was overwhelming. Akito pressed his still shaking hands against his thighs to get them to fucking stop.

What was wrong with him? Had he developed…feelings? Akito fisted his hands hard enough that his nails cut into his palm. No, it was probably just the shock of him dying that had shaken him up so much. Yes, that was it. His brain was overreacting. It would take some time for it to sink in that he wasn’t dead.

“Damn it…” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, thinking he should probably inform Suzuna that her brother was fine.

“-ind him? Tell me you did!” The girl had begun speaking even before she brought the phone to her ear.

“Yes, he’s injured, but he’ll live. I’ve brought him to my mother’s hospital.”

“Thank god!” Suzuna cried, “Thank you Akito-Kun, thank you so much!”

“That’s alright Suzuna. I’ll talk to you later. Goodnight.” He could hear Kimiko in the background as he hung up, asking Suzuna if Akito wanted to speak to her.

Right, Kimiko. 

Akito groaned as he recalled what he had done. He couldn’t talk to her yet. Not until he figured out how he would fix things. He rested his head on the cold metal of the bed rail. The smell of sterile sheets and Rein invaded his mind.

He had planned the exact circumstances of his first kiss with Kimiko so meticulously, and now he had gone and thrown it all away. With one action, he had started their relationship at an impossibly high degree of seriousness. That had not been his intention at all. But there was no choice now but to go along with it. Anyone else would take more work and patience than Akito had to spare.

“My my…Himura-Senpai?”

Akito let the sheer disarming relief he felt at hearing that semiconscious voice disappear from his face before he lifted it to look at Rein. He saw the blue-eyed idiot sit up gingerly. A sudden rush of anger sizzled through Akito. He shot out of his chair and grabbed his stupid chin in a bruising grip. 

Rein gasped in anticipation of pain and tensed up on the bed, the monitors around them beeping frantically.

“I would punch you, but you wouldn't feel a thing,” Akito hissed in his face.

“Pain meds...” Rein rasped and dissolved into laughter, the high pitched, slightly crazed kind that Akito found incredibly unsettling. Akito let him go roughly, sure that he was wearing his most condescending expression.

“I’m leaving.” he said, noting that his hands had stopped shaking.

“Already?” Rein’s laughter trailed off, "Come on...Don't leave me alone?"

“The hospital will take care of the rest.”

Rein stared at a point over Akito’s shoulder as if he saw someone there. Akito resisted the urge to turn and look. Rein had been doing that a lot lately. Akito had chosen to ignore it, hoping it would pass like the previous times it happened. Rein caught himself, blinking a few times before saying, “But you were just being so cute, waiting by my bedside all worried and what not.”

How was it that he got on his nerves even when he was nearly dead? Akito refused to give him a reaction. “Suzuna is in Kimiko’s house. She got there safely.”

“I know. I ensured that.” Rein said, his face taking on an uncharacteristic sullenness, “Even if I couldn’t protect her when she needed it most…”

A good friend—no, a good person, a decent stranger even, would have asked if Rein was alright. Would have asked if he wanted to talk about what happened, if there was any way he could have helped, would have insisted they stayed over and looked after them. 

Akito opened his mouth to say something, but with Rein's hopeful gaze on him, he felt uncomfortably exposed. 

“See you later,” he said, fist clenched, and left.

****

A/N:

Oookayy, so yeah Akito is...complicated. As will be revealed in later chapters, there is more to his psychology.

But what do you guys think? What does he feel for Rein?