Chapter Text
Objectively speaking, they were dead. Seishu was desperately looking for a way out, unsuccessfully.
His teammates and friends were either unconscious or trying to keep their divisions calm.
Hanagaki and Mikey moved somewhere else and they couldn't see them anymore; in the meanwhile the Kantou Manji Gang somehow got the upper hand again. They didn’t really understand what happened and how they ended up like that, but this time their opponents wouldn’t have taken prisoners. Of course, they were willing to fight till the bitter end, but there was no escape. It was only a matter of time, even if they were hidden, the enemy would have found them.
They were going to be killed soon.
It was so unfair… Just when he finally managed to meet Koko again, when they could have had rebuild their relationship, when maybe-
“We are not going to die”
Seishu turned his head to look at Koko, surprised. He had reached his hand (the second time today, Seishu thought irrationally) and was looking straight ahead at the hopeless battlefield. He was shaking. Probably they both were. Not that it mattered.
“We won’t die here” he repeated, this time looking at Seishu.
“Not now, not like this, not when I finally made peace with myself and not when I can finally be with you again. The right way this time.”
“Koko…” Inui whispered. He knew why Koko was talking like that. He could hear it in his aching voice and see it in his eyes. The situation was painfully clear to both of them.
“Inupi, everything I said before, I meant it. I’m sorry I made you suffer and if you want me, I’ll be by your side and I’ll try to make amends. You came here for me and I won’t let you die for that.”
Seishu couldn’t help but smile, just a little bit, only for Koko to see.
“You called”
“I called?” Koko was genuinely surprised, eyes wide open.
Seishu giggled and then sighed again, equally amused and exasperated by his friend’s lack of self awareness.
“I like to think that I know you Koko, just a little bit. When you brought Hanagaki half dead to the shop, the things you told me… if that was not a cry for help then I don’t know anything anymore.”
After a moment of silence, Koko snorted.
“I guess I can’t really hide anything from you, mh?” He looked for a moment at the sky, to collect his thoughts, before focusing again on Seishu.
“It was not my intention, I just wanted to make you believe I was alright. I didn’t want you to worry about me. I shouldn’t have come in the first place, but I couldn’t leave Hanagaki like that, he didn’t deserve it. Your place was the first and most logical option I could think of. And maybe I just wanted an excuse to see you again… I could never have imagined Hanagaki would have rebuilt Toman just to fight against Mikey. I felt like dying when I learnt you were one of the captains.” His voice trembled, his grip on Seishu’s hand stronger. “I didn’t want you to end up like this.”
Seishu loved Koko. He had known it for years. He had no regrets joining the fight to get him back. The life he was building for himself was good, he couldn’t deny it, but felt incomplete without Koko. He wanted to believe that time would have healed the wounds, that he would have stopped thinking about him and missing him; he was doing a decent job living without Koko, right?
But a decent life wasn’t appealing anymore, not when the slightest chance to bring him back appeared, right after the loss of Draken, of the umpteenth person he cared about; not when Koko was trying and failing to make him believe he was happy, even if he was all alone and miserable, living a life he hated.
He had no regrets, except maybe one. And since they were going to die anyway, there was no reason to hold back anymore.
“Koko, I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. You did what you thought was right and so did I.”
With his free hand, he cupped Koko’s face, his thumb stroking his cheek in the middle of that bloody battlefield. Koko immediately leaned into the touch.
An unspeakable sadness pervaded Seishu’s heart. Happy endings belonged to fairy tales, not to them. Maybe in another life…
“I know you don't feel the same Koko, but just for this time, let me be selfish for a moment, I don't want to have any regrets.”
He took a breath, to calm himself and to find the courage, Koko’s confused eyes fixed on him.
“I didn’t want to tell you, it was enough to be with you as your friend but I can’t look the other way anymore. I'm in love with you and if I have to die, I’m happy to have you by my side.”
It took Inui years to speak those words, but he finally did it.
Koko’s face was shocked, eyes wide open and mouth agape, but he did not seem disgusted as Seishu feared.
On the contrary, after a few seconds, a shy but genuine, (and somehow relieved?) smile appeared on his face.
“Inupi I-”
An indiscernible roar interrupted them, scaring all the people still standing. This gave them the time to escape and to find the other Toman members. Apparently the police were on the way. The only thing to do for both sides was to flee.
_______________
It took only a few kilometers to feel like they were in another world. Inui was driving his bike in the middle of night on secondary roads, to avoid the police and surveillance cameras. Inui loved driving at night, and driving with Koko resting on his back, arms around his waist for the first time in years felt like a dream.
But he knew he couldn’t let his guard down, not yet, they first had ro reach home.
He had seen most of the Toman guys, many of them wounded but still breathing. That was the important thing. He hoped all of them made it out of the battlefield alive and that the police didn’t find them.
Chaos erupted in the following hours, between people sent to the hospital, missing people and, unfortunately, dead ones. Just like it often happened after those events, police were going to open an investigation and Kantou Manji Gang members were the most wanted, given the rise in importance of the gang in the criminal underworld.
Those who could, gathered to D&D, the unofficial Toman headquarter, where they tried to help each other.
It was almost dawn, when the situation finally calmed down a little. When the last person left the shop, both Inupi and Koko breathed a sigh of relief. They somehow made it.
It felt the most natural thing in the world to hug each other, out of the blue, just to confirm the presence of the other. They stayed like that for a while, enjoying each other's warmth, alone in the staff room of the shop.
When they separated, Koko’s gaze was exhausted but kind. Seishu realized he probably had the same expression. He was just glad to be there with Koko.
“Are you tired Koko, do you want to sleep?”
“I am tired but I have so much adrenaline that I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep at all today. And you?”
“Same, I guess we can just take a shower and have breakfast. You can go first, I’ll prepare something to eat”
It looked like Koko wanted to say something, but in the end he just thanked Inui.