Sudou had thought it a rather useless order when he was told to keep an eye out for Takaba Akihito. Asami had him under lock and key, under 24 hour watch. The kid was all over his clubs with his hidden cameras and recorders and Sudou was surprised Asami hadn't killed the snoop yet. Asami seemed amused by him most of the time, utterly besotted by him when he thought no one was watching.

Then Takaba had failed to show in Draecana for weeks. The order went from keep an eye out to actively search for and Sudou wondered if perhaps he'd been successful, gone in to hiding and Asami was hunting him down to patch the leak.

Now, here he is not dressed in his best, exiting a small, family owned supermarket where they knew him by name and there was Takaba Akihito. Peering through a viewfinder at the edge of the pier taking photos of the ocean, looking nothing like someone who may have been running for their life.

He looked down at his groceries, nothing that needed to be hurried to a fridge or freezer existed in his bags and he hadn't a phone on him. There was no excuse, he thought, for not bringing Takaba in himself. And there was no excuse to walk away and let someone else handle it.

#

"Takaba-san."

Akihito screeched, jumped a foot in the air and fumbled his camera, almost diving off the pier to save it. Lucky for him, Sudou had a hand free and yanked him back. Akihito fell on his ass and complained about it, as though Sudou had not just saved his precious camera from a dip in the ocean. Recovering from his shock Akihito looked up into his supremely dissatisfied face and scowled back.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" He grumbled, crossing his legs and beginning to flick through the pictures he'd taken.

"Asami is looking for you."

Akihito snorted and gave a world weary sigh, "yeah, I bet he is." He said.

Sudou rolled his eyes. Akihito sounded like a petulant child avoiding their homeroom teachers discipline.

"Any particular reason why?" Sudou asked, unsaid accusations spilling though. Akihito didn't reply for a moment, fidgeting uncomfortably, giving him a wary glance before focusing back on his camera.

"I left him."

Sudou was speechless for a moment. Akihito had never struck as the type to leave a job half done and he and Asami circled each other like gravity pulled them together.

"Any particular reason why?" He asked again, tone betraying his disbelief.

"Because I found him."

"Found him? Doing what? Banging a chick? Another guy? Don't feel too bad about it, you lasted the longest but he always gets tired of bed partners eventually."

"No I found him." Akihito said again, "I found evidence. It felt like it was just a game, because I was always playing catch up but I got ahead of him. I found him and I didn't know what to do about it and I couldn't make the decision with him."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"You made your decision though?"

"Yeah."

Sudou had before been in such heavy silence. One suffocating under the weight of just one secret. He looked at Akihito, his back was to him. It would be so easy for him to dump his groceries and have his shopping bag over Akihito's head, to suffocate him and throw him in the ocean. But he didn't, Akihito was rummaging in his bag, camera set on the pier before him. He caught a peek of a laptop but it wasn't that Akihito was reaching for.

"He's worried about you." He blurted out. "He's had us looking for you for weeks. It wasn't a kill order, and it wasn't a capture order. He just said to let him know if any of us saw you."

Akihito paused, seemed to consider the words carefully, then a ball of tension Sudou hadn't seen in him washed away. He felt around his bag a little more, pulled out a hammer, spun to the claw end and brought it down on his camera. Repeatedly.

When it was nothing but broken pieces he stashed the hammer, gathered the pieces and released them into the ocean. He watched them sink out of sight, turned away, grabbed his bag and before he left he stopped at Sudou's side.

"Don't call anyone, I can get myself ho- to Asami."

Not able to bring himself to look away from the edge of the pier he hummed ascent and Akihito hurried off, leaving him to his earth stopping shock and growing horror. If Akihito was loyal and in love enough to throw away his career despite damning evidence, if Akihito joined the company, worked for Asami instead. You would never be able to get one past them again.

He considered going after Akihito, he'd vanished for weeks, a corpse wouldn't be too unbelievable.

#

Asami came home to the sound of crackling oil and the acidic nose burning acrid smell of melting plastic. The lights were on, the penthouse was warm, and in his kitchen about to drop his pan in his sink was Akihito.

The relief that swept over him was mind numbing, heart stopping. Not even Akihito cussing out the pan as he dropped it, drained it and rinsed it could break the swell of emotion that drove him forward.

Akihito jumped when he pinned him against the bench, wrapped his arms around him and hurried his face in his neck. For a moment Asami thought Akihito might try to push him away, struggle, tell him to let go. Then realised who it was and relaxed into him. Raising a hand to sift through Asami's hair as the other shut off the water. They stood in silence like that for a long while until Akihito started to fidget and Asami found he could release him just a little.

Akihito turned to look at him, face turned up. He smiled at him softly, reached up to give him a peck on the lips before cupping his face with both hands as though he were something precious to him.

"I'm sorry I left. I-"

Asami's hands clenched in the back of Akihito's shirt and he cut him off.

"You should be."

They stewed in that. Akihito taking his hands back, fiddling with his fingers anxiously, looking away from him.

"Why did you go?"

There was that smile again, the one he saw the last time he laid eyes on Akihito. Sad and small and hiding pain he didn't want to share.

"Look at me, tell me why you left." He said, without the energy to even demand, to accuse or be angry about it. He was surprised just how much it had hurt him when Akihito had walked away. He'd been angry at him, furious, confused, but sad.

He hadn't wanted him. Their last meeting had been strange but Akihito was a strange person and he had strange moods at times. But it had been normal still. And then Akihito hadn't come home.

He looked back up into Asami's eyes and there it was, uncertainty, fear. Perhaps Akihito thought he might throw him out if he didn't answer. Perhaps he would for the smell that lingered and curled his nose hairs with every breath. He'd let him back in if he brought air freshers.

"I- I found you, and I didn't know what to do about that. I needed time to figure it out and I couldn't do that here."

"But you figured it out."

"Yeah."

"And you came back?"

"I did."

Asami didn't exactly know where to go from here. He was elated to have Akihito here, in front of him, in his arms. He'd missed him like an amputee misses their limb. He didn't feel like railing Akihito in punishment until dawn broke and beyond, well, he did, but the urge could wait. He wanted Akihito in his bed and he wanted to be in the bed with him. But he just want him close.

He grabbed Akihito's hand and and tugged.

"Come."

Akihito followed without argument. He led him from the kitchen to their room and just about flung Akihito on the bed and started tugging off his own clothes.

"Strip." He ordered, and Akihito did, watching him with wary eyes, expecting to get railed all night long. When Akihito was finally down to his boxers and had fingers slipping down the waistband he stopped him. He laid himself out on his side of the bed and beckon Akihito to him.

He crawled up the bed and waited at his side, not willing to make the first move when he had no idea what was going on.

"Lay down."

He did, he got comfortable, but not too comfortable, he kept a hesitant distance between them that Asami had no patience for. He grabbed the covers and pulled them up, moved right into Akihito's space and wrapped him up in a firm embrace and snuggled closer.

Akihito's hands inched over him, creeping into his own loose hug as though giving Asami the option to get away. Asami kissed the top of his head then rested his chin there, leaving Akihito tucked close so he could feel each breath on his clavicle.

"I'm sorry I left you like that." Akihito whispered.

"You came back."

"But I left."

"Nobody comes back Akihito."

"Oh."

There was nothing else to say about it. Hesitance gone Akihito curled into him, clasped his hands at Asami's back, uncaring of how numb the arm under Asami would soon be, and placed feather light kisses across his chest where he could reach.

Smiling, Asami kissed Akihito once more on the head and relaxed.

"Go to sleep Akihito."

Akihito hummed in return, "I'll be here when you wake up."

Asami drifted off, heart warm in a way it had never been before now. Content with Akihito back in his arms and a promise to wake to his love still beside him.