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It was frightening, almost, to be reminded that as a human, one wasn’t an inherently subservient being. Even with all the obedience in the world, there was often one nagging feeling, one that stepped out of line and plagued him.
He shouldn’t indulge - couldn’t . As it went with most things, Akane’s heart was in a different place than Teru’s. It was a well known fact, one he accepted, albeit begrudgingly in the back of his mind.
So Teru let himself drown; Akane swam in the other direction.
He thought back to the last time he had felt his heart hammer out of his chest like this, Teru’s blood turning icy cold in his veins. It was unadulterated worry, terror, for a particular someone. It curled in his gut unbudging like a pest. He traced it back to the instance some time ago - when Honorable No. 7 was kneeled over either side of Kou, knife clutched tight and face far away clenched even tighter.
Now, in his hands lay Akane’s glasses he had cast a spell on for him. They had been recklessly abandoned on the ground, so unlike the supernatural. Unless completely necessary, Akane wouldn’t get into his supernatural form and he was always incredibly careful as to never lose track of his savior from the world of apparitions. And seeing as they weren’t that close to No. 1’s boundary, Teru didn’t think it was far off to say that he had run into trouble.
It was obon, after all. Teru had seen firsthand the sheer amount of supernaturals that were roaming the hallways of the school around this time. Taking off his glasses for just a second, Akane could easily come face to face with something unseemly.
There were things he expected when he found Akane. Perhaps fighting a supernatural, perhaps in danger, perhaps with Yashiro, his brother, and No. 7 as happened often with dilemmas of the supernatural kind…
Taking in the scene in front of him, his first thought wasn’t humans shouldn’t stray this far into the far shore . A supernatural, half supernatural, even, could make it out of there. But the second a human brushed too close to death around here, they were irreversibly gone.
Instead, his mind immediately went to the close state of Akane and Aoi’s lips. They froze at the sound of feet behind them treading through the shallow water of the boundary, bodies tensing up further at hearing Teru announce his presence in words.
The two of them turned to face him, equally horror-stricken looks on their faces.
“Uhhh…” Teru tried to make his voice even, keeping only the emotions he wanted in it. (Confusion, easily explained off with his questioning of how they ended up this deep in the boundary. The rest was fabricated, almost cheery and joking.) “Did I… Interrupt something?”
He most certainly did, and Akane had no qualms grouching about it, voice raised.
Teru had no time to reflect on why his exorcist instincts were trumped when he saw Akane and Aoi. It was another thing that he would make up an excuse for in his head. (Because what would he do if not for the constant justifications of his off behavior regarding Akane, even when no one who would seriously bring up his dedication to his lineage was there to witness it?)
And so, he led the way out of there, knowing Aoi’s fate. Knowing her fate as Akane doted on her, discussing a date that would never come to be. There was a smile in his voice, a timidness in Aoi’s.
(He longed to look behind him. Imagining a relieved blush on Akane’s, appearing all too fond… Teru could pretend for a second it was for him, then he would snap out of it. The sting would knock the feelings out of him, what he had been praying for for month after month)
When they stepped into the light, followed by only one out of two of his passengers, he waited with a rock in his throat. It wasn’t long before Akane started yelling for Aoi, yelling for Teru to explain.
“Akane-san isn’t here.”
His head spun as he explained, near-blacking out and letting his exorcist knowledge take over lest he seemed too sympathetic. Teru hoped it would work, even when he couldn’t manage a smile or even a completely neutral face. His head spun further when Akane grabbed him by the collar and punched him with all his power. While fading, he still seemed to retain some of his ungodly supernatural level strength.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” He almost begged, out of his mind with panic.
“Even if I told you, it wouldn’t have done any good.”
Even if I told you, it wouldn’t have done any good in the same way that it was a useless endeavor to pine or be on the giving end of a confession for once. It was useless for Teru to fantasize about anything with Akane other than the solid hatred built between the two of them. He would keep it all buried to the day he died, hopefully the honorable one his father spoke of.
This time, he used his hands bunched up in his collar to slam Teru’s back against the wall. If Akane were anyone else, if he were not painfully too human, he’d be gone in a snap. Teru tasted blood, and didn’t exactly do anything to retaliate. Instead, in an attempt to snap him out of his hysteria as he ran back to where they came from, he returned the gesture.
Akane surely tasted far more blood and it sent a chill down his spike as the sheer amount of it all.
With the impending doom of what he assumed was all apparitions being separated from the near shore, the remaining ones still approaching and closing in on the two of them, and the fatal wound Akane couldn’t survive fully human…
Teru ran.
It was hardly a question as to why Teru helped.
The far shore wasn’t supposed to be a jail for all apparitions, as pleasant as it sounded. He wasn’t about to live in a world defying the future created by some meddlesome ghost.
(It was also explained by his comment of, I like Akane-san . He knew no one would pick up on what he really meant, rather than a joke meant to irk Akane into thinking he was making a move on his longtime crush.
Teru wondered how long it would be until the overwhelming guilt stopped. Until he could go back to how it was before one half-supernatural crashed into his life and ruined it all.)
At the very least, he still had his job. He could still retain his sanity by protecting humanity.
Brandishing his sword, the pitch dark of the early morning welcomed him. At every corner, evil lurked. He figured to let off steam would be to do what valued most, slashing through ill-meaning supernatural after ill-meaning supernatural. (Which was all of them, all of them , he repeated, no matter how human they came off-)
An apparition charged.
Why do you fight?
It didn’t actually speak, but its teeth gnashed violently and zeroed its sight in on Teru as if he was its next piece of prey. He couldn’t allow that. He couldn’t allow there to ever be another.
Because it’s my job.
Teru thrust his sword forward, slashing and admittedly struggling against its force. He sucked in a breath he had been struggling to catch, ignoring the sting in his side as large claws broke past defenses and raked through his clothes and down his skin. A blinding blast of lightning, and it was expelled. Humanity was free from another one.
Shutting his eyes for just a second, an attempt to breathe and quickly collect himself, images invaded his mind. There was Akane, hiding an amused smile at a joke of Teru’s, and then proceeding to tell him he was not funny. There was Akane, outraged and tied up in rosary beads, scowling at him and refusing to do any of the student council papers after the fact, instead sitting across from Teru and staring defiantly with crossed arms. Akane, Akane, Akane . It was all filed away in his brain, not allowing itself to become forgotten and cobweb-ridden, even when all Teru could do was wallow.
Why don’t you fight?
There was Akane, discussing a future date with Aoi, while she mumbled in response and uncharacteristically gave in to it, a dusty pink on her cheeks. There was Akane, enveloping Aoi in a hug when they succeeded in undoing the severance, kissing her so tenderly on the top of the head. There was an honor bestowed upon him at birth. There were training sessions and a sword and human defying power at his fingertips. There was a duty that Teru would never dare give into temptation and stray from.
Because it’s my job.