Chapter Text
Tsukasa is holding his hand, almost gently.
It’s a pleasant dream, Daiki thinks.
Or maybe Heaven?
…but no. That would mean he was a good person.
This must be a nightmare, some twisted torture to remind Daiki that he is worthless. He’s far too tired to think about it.
“This is a nice dream,” Daiki says, nonetheless. Words feel heavy on his tongue. “Is it hot because this is hell?”
“You have a fever,” Tsukasa says. “You’re alive.”
…but then he can’t be Tsukasa. Tsukasa doesn’t care , not about Daiki. So definitely a sick form of torture. Daiki shifts, a little. Looks away from the false Tsukasa.
“I doubt it,” he says. “Tsukasa wouldn’t stay. Not for me. He wants to die, anyways.”
“Not always,” the false Tsukasa says quietly. Daiki laughs.
“Sure,” he says. “But enough. And I love Tsukasa anyways.”
“I’m sure he still loves you,” Tsukasa says. Daiki hmms.
“Tsukasa loved them ,” he says. “Tsukasa said…” said he loved him, but then Tsukasa was breaking, and then Natsumi and Yuusuke died, and now Tsukasa doesn’t, anymore. “…Tsukasa just needs me. But I need Tsukasa, too.”
The false Tsukasa tenses.
“And what do you want from him?” He asks. Daiki laughs.
“This is hell,” he says. “Don’t make it worse. You’re too soft, for Tsukasa.”
“Alright,” the false Tsukasa says. He kisses Daiki’s hand, once more. “I suppose you think he’d leave, now.”
Daiki closes his eyes.
“No,” he says. “I’m the one that leaves.”
The false Tsukasa sighs.
“Get some rest, my Kaitou,” he says, and oh. Yeah. This must be hell. That’s where… “We will always love you.”
Tsukasa watches, waits, until Daiki does fall back to sleep. It’s the most he can do, as they are now.
It hurt, to…
But it’s what Daiki needed.
He couldn’t accept reality, like this. So be it.
He turns, slowly, to the nurse.
“I was never here,” he says. “Do you hear me?”
And then he leaves.
Daiki is alive, but he wakes up alone.
So he was right. That wasn’t Tsukasa. That was…
That was just hell.
They tell him he’s going to be stuck here a week. They don’t tell him how he got here. Maybe it was…
Oh. Of course it was Tsukasa. But not long enough to be anything but life support to a man who wants to die. Love feels like…
(Like loss.)