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“No more!”
Tsukasa’s cry is what wakes Daiki up, the other’s body tense. It’s been a long time since this, since Daiki stayed long enough to fall asleep beside Tsukasa, or the reverse, and for Tsukasa’s dreams to turn sour, or the reverse.
Daiki gently shakes Tsukasa, whose tense shaking turns to completely frozen as he opens his eyes, slowly turning to Kaito.
And oh no, there’s the stars.
“Kaitou,” he says quietly.
“I’m leaving now—” Daiki says quickly, but Tsukasa makes a noise of dissent that sounds far closer to a desperate whimper than a demanding grunt. It sounds wrong on his lips. Of course it does, though. Everything would, right now.
Because the other woke up from a nightmare and now seems incoherent and curled up at Daiki’s side. Eyes going glassy, a little bit clingy, and Daiki can't handle this. He could barely do it before things went wrong, much less now. Tsukasa needing him, as heady as it is terrifying, as disgusting now as it does make Daiki want to sit back down.
And even if things are getting better, he can’t handle this.
Even if Daiki had planned to leave to make breakfast, not to get away. Even if they’d met and gone home, instead of to whoever’s place was nearest.
Hope. A dangerous word. One which Daiki had chosen to give up long ago, but it comes unbidden to Daiki’s mind now, having woken up to find Tsukasa with stars in his eyes, seeing everything and yet nothing.
Tsukasa will be fine. He’s lasted this long, and these things don’t last more than an hour or two, in any significant way.
Daiki should just leave.
He should.
Tsukasa’s been out half day. This isn’t normal, though when Tsukasa finally blinks, he seems adequately surprised that Daiki is there.
As surprised as Daiki himself.
“Da—Kaitou,” Tsukasa says. Almost saying his name, but he doesn’t. Daiki despises it. Tsukasa still isn’t getting up, just staring at Daiki’s arms around him. Daiki quickly moves away, crossing his arms and glaring.
“What?” He asks.
“You… stayed,” Tsukasa says. “Why?”
“Didn’t you say this was my home, too?” Daiki asks. And despite himself, that had made it easier to come back, time and again. But nonetheless, he has his pride. And despite his words, Tsukasa will always be Tsukasa, selfish and rude. “What the hell was that, and why were you out of it for,” he checks the time, “about 9 hours, at least?”
Tsukasa blinks. As though surprised Daiki finds it out of the ordinary. Still so closed off and yet so open, and in this moment Daiki remembers he doesn’t come out of this all at once.
“The Worlds,” he says. “Something… shifted. When it shouldn’t. I’ll be going, very soon. To figure out what it is.”
“Is that what you spend all your time doing, these days?” Daiki asks, because rarely do either of them talk about their… activities, heroism and thievery both. But he can’t deny the parts of him that remain curious.
Tsukasa shrugs.
“Sometimes,” he says. “That’s Decade’s role, to hold everything together.”
“And what do you want to do?” Daiki asks before his brain catches up to his mouth. Tsukasa’s very presence rips at his control in every possible way.
Tsukasa finally closes still starry eyes.
“Do you like being a thief, Kaitou?” He asks. And Daiki doesn’t hesitate.
“Of course,” he says. “To be free, to collect, it’s…”
It’s just who he is.
“I’m glad,” Tsukasa says. Which has successfully circumvented Daiki’s question. “I…”
“You what, Tsukasa.”
Tsukasa gets up, looking away from him.
“I should go,” he says. It’s a dismissal. So Daiki says nothing as Tsukasa gets dressed, stays in silence until the sound of the studio door closing can be heard.
And then he considers. It’s something he does rarely. Considering inevitably results in remembering.
Treasures. That’s what he steals, but what is a treasure to each person? That concept is so malleable, different for each person. For Daiki, it’s the powers of Riders, and it’s…
Tsukasa. Perhaps Asumu and the others of Hibiki World. Yuusuke and Natsumi, once. His brother, even longer ago. Daiki gets up then, too. He should be over chasing after Tsukasa. He shouldn’t be the one alone here.
He goes to his treasure area. He has several, but this one - the one Natsumi had made, and yes he’d known it was on purpose, even before Tsukasa said it, though he never would admit it - is special.
He takes out a normal salt shaker.
Tsukasa had played him, and yet he’d still been happy. It’s such a stupid memory to keep. But it reminds him of the little things, and of this studio that used to be home and to some extent still is, despite himself.
Thievery was a survival method turned coping mechanism that he doubts he can ever shake, by now, and he certainly still enjoys it, but…
“I’m glad.”
Decade might not still be such a good thing for Tsukasa, anymore. Figures, he needs them to be Decade.
It should have been one of them. God, wouldn’t that have been better?
Daiki’s treasure is breaking, and the treasures that can fix him are gone. Daiki can’t just watch it happen forever.
He’s a treasure hunter , surely he can find something useful , somewhere out there. Something to…
To…
Each person has treasures, but Daiki thinks he might do just about anything to get his back.
(To get them back.)