Chapter Text
When the light cleared Reze was walking into an extremely familiar looking cafe. Too familiar. If it really was as long as she was thinking she was disappointed Bossman really never bothered to change anything.
Her eyes quickly scanned the room. At the couch tables was some kid she'd never seen before and behind the counter, where she was expecting to see the Boss, holding a bouquet of flowers. Was Denji.
It took all of Reze's remaining fortitude to hold back the sob forming in her chest when she saw him. In a lot of ways he looked exactly like the last time she got a good look at him but there was something different about him. Something in his eyes said that so much had changed. But in her heart she hoped that nothing had changed too much.
Something hopefully confirmed when he almost dropped the bouquet looking at her.
When he spoke it was the words that she'd dreamed of hearing as she spent all that time in that Hell, and hearing it gave her more comfort than she would realize.
"Reze?"
They stared at each other for what felt like another eternity before the pressure in Reze's chest demanded she step forward. Haltingly, before almost diving into him Reze found herself in Denji's arms. His grip on her was tight, like he was afraid she'd disappear again if he let go, and it was that pressure of his arms around her that kept her grounded enough to not start bawling as her feelings threatened to come crashing down on her.
Boss said something to the kid who said something back before they both moved for the back room, the feeling of Denji nodding at them the only clue she had he was even apart of that conversation as her ears were ringing so loud.
Reze buried herself into the crook of his neck afraid that she might wake up and find it was just another cruel dream. "Is it" her throat caught on a sob "is it really you? Denji?"
She could feel his arms tense as his grip on her grew tighter. It felt grounding, reassuring, like she was really there, really in his arms right now. "That's my line" was just about what she could make out. There was a sweet kind of anguish in hearing that Denij had been missing her that much. She didn't want to be a reason Denji was in pain but it was nice to think that he really did miss her. That he thought about her like she did him.
The rush faded as the enormity of what had happened in the last 5 hours, let alone the last year, began to settle over her. The reunion yes, but also, the escape, the confinement, Makima and what she made her do. There wasn't enough quiet in the Bunker for her to work through it all, she honestly doubted she'd ever get through it all. But now she had the space to start.
He had guided her to one of the tables and ushered her into the booth so they could sit for all this and Reze just wept. Feeling the enormity of everything that had happened to her. While she was active as an assassin she had gone through a lot. Her training was a lot. But after those two weeks with Denji, tasting "Normal" it began to hit her just how far from it she was. And she ached in that distance.
Time passed like that. Just sitting there. Together. It was the greatest comfort Reze had felt in a very long time. Until slowly Denji began to speak. "I… I waited the whole day for you. Mr. Yonezu too" Reze covered her mouth to stifle the gasp of shock leaving her mouth. In a sense she was touched they both cared so much about someone they'd known for such a short amount of time but it was still hard to hear that. He pressed further "I wanted to go looking for you but work got so busy and I didn't have the time to and then everything got so crazy and and,"
Now it was his turn to get overwhelmed and Reze couldn't help but smile in sympathy "Look at us. Real fairytale reunion huh?" She was laughing now, she was able to make it sound nice and light for his sake but they felt bitter in her throat.
They sat like that while Reze gathered herself. If he had the courage to tell her that he deserved to know hers. Well, one of hers. One day she would tell him everything. He deserved to know everything. Just.
Not yet.
Slowly Reze started to gather herself before. "I tried going back that day you know? To the cafe. I almost left by myself but I just-" This was getting harder than she thought it'd be, her voice catching as she recalled the events that day. The beach, to the city, into the train station. "I almost made it too, I was right-" The alleyway. It almost felt like she was back there again, being so close to it. Remembering it. The rats. The eyes. It was all she could do to point vaguely back to it before choking out the name of the one who'd ruined her hope at life that day. "Makima."
There was no concise way to describe how Reze felt about Makima. There was hate there truly, some fear, maybe a little respect for having the grip she did on Denji that complicated her first original plan when she still wanted to kill him.
But there was something else in there too, the remnants of emotions and thoughts that were not put there by Reze.
Love, Devotion. Wisps of emotions she was made to feel when she'd been captured by her and they disgusted Reze deeply. It's not enough that Makima had pulled Reze from her chance at a life she actually would have wanted, she also had to invade the sanctity of her mind so she couldn't even hate her in peace. It felt awful. Like she couldn't even escape her even after Makima was long gone. And then even after all that she used her powers to make Reze fight Denji.
God how was she going to explain that to him? Reze hoped that he didn't secretly resent her for trying to kill him and seemingly siding with Makima after disappearing for so long she was almost so caught up in this latest spiral that she didn't hear Denji had started talking again.
"You know a little after you, Uh, left, we started getting attacked by guys from all over the world to take Pochi- uh my chainsaw heart, and its got me thinking if you came for it too, uh originally, maybe when she caught you Makima shipped you off to wherever you came from?"
That was… not what she expected to hear from him about this. But she hadn't been trained to pass up an advantage when given one. "Yeah, I'm' originally from the Soviet Union and once Makima caught me, she sent me straight back." She tried not to overly obviously emphasize how expedited her deportation had been. She was seeing if she could test him. See if he would push back "I was only recently able to get back to Japan. So what was that about being attacked-"
And she spent the next 20 or so minutes trying to learn everything she could about Denji's life since she left it. There was a part of her that said it was just information gathering but it wasn't nearly as loud as the part that wanted to be a larger part of each other's lives. She wasn't so caught up in it however to watch the way Mr. Yonezu attempted to nonchalantly scoot his way back into the cafe. It was an amazing scene. Comforting in the wake of everything that had happened, but there was one little extra addition that had been added since last time.
Denji was so caught up in telling her about this Puppet Devil or something that it was all Reze could do to watch as the little girl that was sitting with him earlier walked up behind him and slapped him extremely hard across his back.
The slap resounded across the room as Denji jumped up in shock or pain Reze couldn't tell, while Sojurou fumbled with a glass he was cleaning, wincing in sympathy. On instinct alone Reze's hand drifted to the pocket she used to keep her knife in. She wasn't really expecting to find anything in it considering her old clothes and knife had been confiscated when she was locked up, but was idly surprised to feel it where it would have been. That Devil that sprung her did suspiciously good detail work.
While she mused on that, the little girl folded her arms looking quite satisfied with herself, presumably at Denji's reaction. "Good!"
Denji doubled back on her "Nayuta! What the hell!?!" So her name was Nayuta then. Now just who was she?
And why did some part of Reze feel like she was looking at Makima?
"Denji! Who is that?!" The girl, Nayuta, yelled at Denji. She pointed her finger at Reze and that same weird feeling was blaring all kinds of warning bells to get her to stop.
"Woah, hey, what did- you don't- urgh! Mr. Yonezu, I'm sorry can we have some privacy again?" Reze wasn't sure what was up with this kid, but whatever it was got Denji in a panic too as he tried to impose himself between the two.
Sojurou looked frustrated, but relented all the same. I always did seem the type to indulge kids maybe a little too much. But it did help them out in this case.
"I think she took my line, Denji who is this little girl?" She narrowed her eyes at the girl called Nayuta and hoped she had lowered her voice enough that Sojurou didn't hear her when she asked "And why does she feel like Makima?"
There was many calculations and assumptions she could make about this situation, but just as Denji presumably, gave her grace she was more than prepared to hear him out.
Didn't mean she was gonna take her hand off the knife.
"Ok um- hold on…" Denij's eyes flashed between the two girls.
"Who is this lady Denji? How come she smells like gunpowder?"
"Hey, I don't smell!" It had been about 3 hours since she sprang from the Bunker and transforming did tend to leave that. Explosion. Smell on her. She did a quick sniff test when she thought neither were looking.
"Hey she doesn't- I mean- can we-"
"I don't like her Denji did you meet her at school?"
"Denji you're in school now?" Reze was feeling a Very Complicated mixture of emotions right now, but if she had to name it it was a very strange mix of pride and envy.
"OKAY I'M TALKING NOW! Nayuta this is Reze, Reze, Nayuta. Reze was my first real girlfriend, and also she tried to kill me once." He turned to her blushing "not that it matters much, um, Nayuta is, um… my… um new…" Denji quickly faltered after that which would have been quite cute of him if Reze herself didn't feel like exploding (emotionally; positive) at being called his first girlfriend.
Nayuta spoke up to answer for him "I'm Denji's little sister and I'm here to help keep weird Devils away from him!" saying so she braced her hand in her other like she was aiming a gun. If she could tell Reze "felt like a devil" it could only be because she was one too, which definitely ruled out her being a sister Denji never told her about, and that finger gun…
"What is she doing? Denji, why does she feel like a Devil?" This girl was rapidly running out of grace for Reze to give, very much not helped by the fact that the vibe of Devil she gives off… A little too close to a certain someone else's. Reze tensed up to lunge in one way or another should she make any moves Reze didn't like.
Denji stood between them arms out like he was trying to ease them "Everything is fine you two! Calm down! Nayuta stop doing that I told you you can't do that in public!" An interesting request to make of a kid.
"You said I might need to defend myself from Devils" An even more interesting response. Whatever kind of devil she was wasn't one Reze was familiar with. Too human to be a lot of the lower kinds, too powerful feeling to be just a Fiend.
Suddenly Denji lunged over to his "little sister" picking her up and spinning her around in one smooth motion keeping her hands pinned to their bodies as he redirected her 'fire' "Stop trying to Chain her and I'll walk the dogs myself for a week!" Interesting. She was going to 'chain' her if he hadn't stepped in? Reze wasn't liking the picture she was painting for herself.
Nayuta's hands were by her side but that didn't stop her from glaring daggers at Reze "Three weeks!" Were they bargaining…?
"Two and I'll pick up ice cream on the way back home!"
"Deal!" Whatever all that was seemed to ease the little booger enough that she seemed to stop paying attention to Reze altogether as she leaned further into the impromptu hug they were sharing. Siblings, was all Reze could think at this scene, a mental sigh punctuating the whole thing.
Denji turned to look over at Reze as she shifted from possible self defense to putting on her performance. She put her best teasing smile on and hoped she wasn't too rattled to make it convincing. She didn't want him worried. "My turn?"
Denji took a beat to look at her before getting his 'sister's' attention to de-tangle themselves "Okay, can I trust you to stay here and not cause trouble for Mr. Yonezu while I go outside and talk to Reze?"
As Nayuta made a face as they rose and walked to the door, Reze wondered why they had to bargain with a 7 year old to do anything, "Okay. But you owe me something!"
"That's what the ice cream was for!" he teased. 'Okay I guess,' Reze thought, 'it seems he's pretty good at bargaining with that 7 year old.'
And at last they were alone, just the two of them. Denji grabbed her hands and she let them rest there. It felt nice, like this was something that had been missing for a while, and with the setting sun behind them casting a warm glow on the scene the little voice in Reze's mind that pushed her to start this whole trouble in the first place was doing little back flips and screaming. Reze was once again thankful for the degree of control she had over her expressions. Well, only to such a degree. She couldn't tamp down the giddy laugh about to escape so she disguised it.
"She's a little bit of a brat don't you think?" she giggled, maybe letting too much of her real thoughts out.
He seemed to take it well "I am the one raising her. Alone too."
Reze nearly choked hearing that, but she was able to curb it into an awkward laugh. 'Denji is raising her all alone?? What about her parents?? Could he afford that??
Why did it have to be him?
Reze pushed a little further. She didn't want to push too hard but as his first girlfriend she assumed some degree of leeway. "So who is she really? She doesn't look anything like you so I know she isn't actually your little sister."
"She could be!" Aww he was cute when he was indignant like that.
"Try saying that again when you've dyed your hair black okay?" She said between genuine giggles "Boss Man is just being nice because he has a soft spot for sob stories." She knew that well. It was how she was able to get in so good with him in such a short amount of time. He was lucky she wasn't sent to kill him.
Denji deflated a bit "Okay, she's not my sister, but now she might as well be. I don't know how Miss Makima's-" he made a circle gesture with a hand "-whole deal worked and I only really got some of the story from this old guy I worked with but we couldn't actually kill her. She cut a deal with the president of Japan or something that whenever she was killed someone else would die and she would be fine and I figured out we couldn't kill her. She had to die in a more…" Denji trailed off mid rant.
Just that gave Reze a lot to think about. That was probably why no one was able to put her down for any notable period of time. And never without consequences. It was also very admirable that it seemed Denji found some way to kill her permanently, even while they were trying to kill each other it amazed Reze the way Denji was able to think of novel ways to deal with new obstacles. But there was something else weird in his story…
Denji seemed to have found his footing again as he continued taking a big breath in "-well anyway, we got it to stick, but because Miss Makima was a Devil she was gonna reincarnate in Hell and then back here again once she died there. And then we waited a little, and here we are. She was found in like China somewhere I think?"
It seems like Denji was done talking as he used his free hand to scratch the back of his head but Reze still had more questions. But she had to be careful how she went about them "Wow I knew you were super smart! But…" trained professional though Reze may be, she couldn't help let more real feelings leak into her voice from here. "But why did you have to take her in? You were working for the government! Couldn't they have raised her or gotten a real adult to take care of her? You're not much older than kid yourself!" Even Reze was surprised at how candid she was talking now, almost yelling. She really didn't mean to but it just wasn't fair! He finally gets out from under that Witch and now he was stuck with something that most normal adults struggle with even when there were two of them! When did they?- When did he get to live his life like everyone else?
Denji put his hand back in hers but his whole body sagged like gravity had increased just for him. "It couldn't be the Government, that just felt like kicking the can down the road! It had to be me because..." Denji screwed his face up thinking "…cause I dunno!" He threw his hands in the air "It felt like, like I owed it to. Someone! I dunno! But it's my responsibility now! I'm trying to be! Like, better! Back then I was just like a dog, doing whatever anyone told me without thinkin' about it, so now I'm trying to make my own decisions. And I'm trying to live with those now. Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"
Reze paused for a moment, taken aback. It seemed a lot of things could change in the span of a year. Denji wasn't really one to put on airs from what she knows of him so the outburst and everything he said were all genuine, which means that Denji was genuinely trying to change for the better. She still didn't understand why he felt that this was what he needed to do, why this was where he dug his heels in.
'I guess it means a lot to him…'
Reze smiled, maybe a little more bitterly than she meant it but she kept her tone light "Wow, smart and mature! I sure know how to pick them."
Denji just stared back dumbfounded for a second, she was worried that he might have started to see past her before "You mean. You're not mad or anything?"
Now it was Reze's turn to be surprised. "I don't know why I would be." She reached for his chest, pointedly avoiding his starter so he knew she was talking about him "It seems to me you've got more than enough room in that big ol heart for the both of us!"
Denji broke into the biggest grin she had seen in a while. It was nice all things considered. To see him so happy. It seemed to her that his situation was particularly perilous trying to raise a child by himself, especially when it seemed he was trying to give her something neither of them had had a chance to experience themselves. A normal life.
There was more she could do, but for now she wanted to make up for lost time.
"I was mostly wondering how you got a 10 year old little sister since I'm pretty sure you were an only child when I saw you last like, a year ago." For now she felt like teasing him a little, joking to kill some of the tension in the air and distract from her years long frayed nerves.
He pulled her into a hug and it was the most comfort she had found in a long time. More than even being out of the Bunker it gave her great comfort to know that he would be with her too. That even if trouble from either of their pasts showed back up it was something they could face together, that she was no longer alone.
And maybe she could help raise Nayuta too.
She sighed burying herself deeper into his embrace. It felt nice to be this close to him. To anyone really. Between her upbringing and the Bomb in her chest it made it very hard to get close to anyone for any length of time without worrying about them dying on her or her needing to kill them. Neither of them she had to worry about with Denji.
It was this feeling that escaped her and made her say it out loud soft enough that a small part of her hoped he couldn't hear "I really missed you Denji." Those words alone and their meaning alone was almost enough to bring back the tears.
Reze giggled when all he could think to reply was "…Yeah…" but in its own way she was grateful that it wasn't turned into some big poignant moment. And besides, he was cute when he got all flustered like that.
Reze broke off the hug afraid they were gonna be in front of the cafe like that all afternoon. "Okay, we should go back inside now. I'm sure bossman is tired of hiding in his storage room from a bunch of kids."
For the second time that day Reze walked back into the familiar cafe feeling like her life had drastically changed. She could only hope it was for the better, but hand in hand with Denji any doubt to the contrary was far from her mind.
They'd managed to sweet talk Bossman into what was apparently another round of sandwiches, under the guise that Reze hadn't eaten all day (only a partial lie, they never bothered feeding her at the Bunker as she would be killed and regenerate before hunger would even have been a factor). She did offer to help out as she did work there but apparently disappearing for a year meant they weren't exactly keen on keeping you on retainer. So she sat around the tables with Denji and Nayuta just another customer.
After they finished everything Mr. Yonezu cleared his throat getting everyone's attention "Alright, now that we've had second dinner I have something to talk to you about;" He turned to Denji, then Reze in turn "Both of you actually."
Nayuta got a look in her eye that reminded Reze that Denji was raising her before cutting in with a loud "OOOOOOOHHHHH" Luckily everyone here knew to ignore kids when they were doing annoying things and continued on.
Reze smacked her forehead remembering the situation she found herself in."RIGHT I don't-"
"Have parents to take care of you, right." Sojurou finished. Reze recalled what she told him over a year ago about talking to her parents. It wasn't even technically a lie. She didn't know her biological parents, them having given her to the Soviet government, and no one in the government bothered giving her any parents to even pretend to have. Sojurou continued "Before your little disappearing act the agreement we had was you get the loft upstairs as long as you work the cafe, the Deal is part of this but I want to address what we were talking about first." He said turning to Denji. "In addition to looking into Reze for you I believe you also wanted to talk with me about giving you a job."
Before Reze could properly register the fact that Denji was apparently looking into her, and through Sojurou Yonezu of all people, Denji nearly jumped out of shock, eyeing Reze nervously. "Oh! Right! I guess now that she's back you'r-"
"Are you kids gonna let me finish my sentence?!" Bossman raised his voice to be heard over Denji's, looking fed up with the interruptions, crossing his arms. Boss may be soft but he wasn't a pushover. Reze felt she should apologize on their behalf. He waited a beat before continuing. "Denji you asked me i-" "Sorry Boss keep going." "Screw it! Denji you're working the cafe now!"
Panic had caught Reze off guard and now she was feeling desperate as both she and Denji erupted with "WHAT?"s followed swiftly by one annoying "HA! YEAH!" from Nayuta apparently not following that this could end with Reze on the streets.
Reze gained (some of) her composure first "Boss, if this is about me interrupting you I'm sorry but you don't have to throw me out over it!" As her rational mind started kicking back on she reasoned that she probably wouldn't be that bad off out on the streets. Plus maybe it would mean Denji could take her in. Though there are all kinds of complications to that idea.
Denji jumped in next, "You're going to throw her out?! I mean living homeless wasn't that bad when it was just me BUT STILL" Aw, he's worried for her.
Reze could tell Sojurou was getting fed up through her people reading skills honed by years of spy work, for instance she could tell that he was annoyed by the fact he smacked his face and ran his hand down it trying to calm himself down. "I'm not kicking anyone out! Denji you needed a job to help care for your sister, Reze, You still have the loft but I can only support one part timer, so in exchange for the room you have to go to school and go looking fo r a part time somewhere else." He huffed into his coffee, and took a long swig of it to put a final end to this comedy routine.
Everything was about what Reze had expected when she stopped to think about it but there was one thing… "So I get to stay here, and go to school…"
Denji seemingly picked up her line of thinking "And I get to show up here every day…"
Sojurou took a beat to see if they were gonna say more before sitting up a little straighter, thinking. "It certainly won't be everyday, you're part time kid, it'll 4 days for 4 hours at most. That's all I can give you but that is the gist of it yeah."
Reze was near endlessly excited at the thought that she would be going to school. Real school, with Denji. Not sneaking into one late at night and pretending from what she remembered from movies real actual school with other teens like her! Well, ideally not exactly like her but still.
"Wait but school already started, can she even get in now?" Reze and Sojurou passed a glance between the two of them like this was some joke they might not be in on but it seemed like it was just Denji not knowing about late transfer.
"It'll probably be fine. They'll probably want to know why she wasn't around for a year-" Shoot, Reze was never in the school system properly. She'll have to do some extra work to cover that up for Boss's sake "-but I can probably work something out with them."
Reze looked to Denji smiling bigger than she thinks she ever had ever. He looked at her with that comforting grin that made her feel like she wasn't a freak with a bomb in her chest, like she was like any other girl. There wasn't a lot in Reze's life that she could say she was happy with. Sometimes one of those things was her being born in the first place. But sitting here in this cafe now, with people she actually felt comfortable and safe with, she was able to believe that there would be much more of these moments to come.
"Okay, now get out of my cafe, it's almost 8 and I need to close." Mr. Yonezu cut in after they continued for some time.
Reze didn't want them to leave so soon, even if Nayuta was getting on her nerves "Wait, shouldn't he stay for closing?" This was a threadbare excuse and she knew it but if it worked maybe she could get them to stay longer. "If he's gonna do that from now on wouldn't it make sense for you to show him how?" Denji seemed to agree nodding along but it seemed like Bossman had other plans.
"Look, it's not a bad idea normally, but…" He trailed off gesturing to where Nayuta was sitting chin resting on the table and looking like she could pass out any second now.
Denji quickly, but quietly, untangled himself from the booth he was sitting at scooping out of her chair to see if she could stand. "Shoot, is it that late?!" Reze guessed it made sense for her to have a bedtime considering how young she was and how hard he was trying to raise her "proper".
Upon seeing her melt back into her chair, Denji checked with her one more time"Hey, kid ready to go?" crouching so he could give her a piggyback ride, Nayuta was so tired it seemed all she could manage was a "mhmm"
As the two carefully bounded out of the cafe Reze mused that Nayuta could actually be pretty cute when she wasn't pointing some weird juvenile Control weapon at her. If they were both going to be so tied to Denji's life she guessed they'd have to learn to get used to one another one way or the other.
"Alright Reze, your room is still upstairs, I haven't really changed anything since you last came by so everythi-" Reze interrupted Sojurou's explanation when her eyes shot open remembering something, and made for the door, hoping she was fast enough before they turned a corner. Leaning out, she saw they were just about to do so and shouted after them "Denji!" he turned with that silly wide eyed expression on his face. "See you soon!"
He had to be careful as he adjusted his grip on his little sister so he could wave back, that beautiful sun of a grin she could see clearly all the way from here plainly apparent.
"Totally!"