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Ryo shows up in a new car every time. Akira doesn't know how he keeps getting away with it, but he doesn't ask. There are a lot of stunts that Ryo manages that Akira doesn't need to understand. For his own peace of mind, it was easier to just trust that Ryo knew what he was doing. It was always pretty easy to trust Ryo.
"What... what year is it?" is what Akira does ask, feeling pointedly dumb.
"1969 Skyline. Not mine," Ryo says, glancing at Akira in the passenger seat. "Do you like it?"
Akira looks away. He doesn't really know anything about cars. Ryo had always been into them.
"Uh, yeah. Where are we going, Ryo?"
"You'll get in the car but it takes you this long to ask," Ryo says with a smile. A nervous reflex. "So... how do you feel about going back to the Asuka estate?"
"Hm," Akira thinks for exactly half a second, "Not so great."
Ryo laughs. The last time they were there plagued Akira’s nightmares even still.
"Well then, sorry about this."
—
They make it in record time, but Ryo slows upon approach. He pulls in past the broken gate, the smashed stone wall, and beside the side entry. Stepping out of the car Akira notes the new grass growing out of the rubble. It's quiet and peaceful here now, like Akira remembers from childhood.
He envisions a slightly younger Ryo and his father on a summer afternoon in the driveway. They’d be working on a car together. Some project car that was more about the process and bonding than driving the car itself, however classic or rare.
Akira suspects these memories might be why he acts gentler around Ryo despite how his demonic strength and confidence has changed his interactions with Miki and his classmates. Or, at least part of the reason. There's also something about how Ryo looks so sure and focused when he drives, and the breezy way he now beckons Akira over with a single finger.
Akira thinks it must be a funny sight. Tripping over his feet at the mere gesture. In brief moments, it’s like he never changed at all.
He follows Ryo through the house, walking quickly. Ryo doesn’t stop to inspect or reminisce. He seems to not even see what was once his family home as he heads toward the entry to the hidden basement. To Akira, it briefly feels like the night they were last there, and it gives him a bad feeling.
—
When they get there, the room is cavernous and trashed. Besides the dried blood, it's more like the remnants of a party that got out of hand than the massacre that took place there months ago. There are no bodies in sight; no viscera, as if human and demon corpses alike vanished into thin air. Akira thinks it’s eerie and bizarre, and turns to find Ryo beginning to clutch his arms in a shiver.
"It's weird isn't it?" Ryo murmurs through a grin.
Akira hums in agreement. "Very weird. Ready to tell me why we're here? And are you alright, dude?"
"I’m fine. Okay. Okay," Ryo puts two fingers up. "It’s a two part answer. One: a confession. And two: to do something about it."
Akira chokes a little at the wording, and mumbles to the ground "...Well, you've been acting really fucking weird recently..."
"It's not what you think,” Ryo says, shaking his head.
“Listen, Akira." Ryo folds his arms, then unfolds them. "I have to tell you something. It's... it's something I'm troubled by. Deeply troubled. Or scared maybe. I am scared by this..."
Akira knows that Ryo gets like this sometimes, like a kind of overwhelming paranoia, but it doesn't ever get less jarring.
"I have to admit something to you,” Ryo begins seriously, “In this very room, on the night of that ghastly Sabbath, I was recording the event from a camcorder on top of the stereo system over there." Ryo points vaguely behind him to a tower of equipment and machines.
"I've watched the footage again and again. I've captured the moment your body and soul combined with the demon. I've captured your ensuing bloodbath. Countless times, I've watched the scene unfold..."
Akira thinks Ryo is shivering again and he can see Ryo’s hands trembling.
"I think it's dangerous for it to exist... the tape... it's damning! I keep... having these thoughts, too... these what-if moments... of utter contradiction. Things that'll hurt you bad, Akira. They'll hurt you very badly and I don't know why I think them. But I'm worried! I'm worried. I'm worried about–”
"Whoa, whoa," Akira says, stepping towards Ryo.
His hands hover indecisively around Ryo's shoulders. Akira is… confused. He knows Ryo as well as he knows himself. Akira has seen Ryo's mental state deteriorate before, he's seen him do crazy and dangerous things, but Ryo has never done anything to hurt him. In all their years of friendship, Ryo had never been anything but a caring, patient friend. Akira's hands fall firmly on Ryo's shoulders.
"Buddy, take a breath. We can just destroy the tape, can't we? And why would you show it to anyone?"
Ryo shakes his head and takes a stabilizing breath. He brushes Akira's hands off his shoulders gently.
"It’s not so easy. I don't know what demons out there might have regenerative powers. Even a patient human can piece a cut up tape back together, you know. Even if we burned it... it's too risky."
The breath he took seems to have flipped a switch in Ryo. Akira has seen this before too. As if he wasn’t just shaking, sweating, and raving at all.
"Here's what I propose:" he begins again, "I think we should record over the footage, and I'll give the tape to you. If I try to do anything with it, it won't matter. The footage will be different."
"Record over it? Here? Right now?"
"Yes, right now, for the duration. Something nice, okay? A good memory this time. Something we wouldn’t have a reason to show anyone else." Ryo wipes his sweaty palms on the front of his jacket and reaches into the inner pocket. He pulls the tape out.
"Something… nice? Here?" Akira almost wants to laugh. He finds Ryo's confession strange and frightening, but nearly incomprehensible.
Ryo's state alone was enough to alarm Akira, and he thinks he wouldn't mind doing whatever if it would ease his friend’s mind some.
"The stereo system is pretty good." Ryo turns to walk over to the stereo with the tape. "So you wanna dance, Akira?"
Akira does bark an incredulous laugh now, out of shock, "Dance? That's what you brought me here for? All alone in this huge place?" Akira feels his heart beat speeding up. "You think I know how to do that?"
"It’s easy, man. Slow dance," Ryo says, fiddling with the camcorder. "All you need's a pair."
Akira groans. He just might rather eviscerate a demon on film and show anyone who’d watch.
"Hey now, trust me. When the music’s on, all you ever want is to be the only two people in the room. You could say we’re lucky."
"Well, how would I know that..." Akira grumbles.
"You'll know soon. Don't worry. Oh, and thanks for helping out."
"Yeah, yeah. Always," Akira says, hearing a low hiss and crackling as the speakers turn on. “But you owe me.”
Ryo laughs now too. His first real laugh of the day.
"Sure. Anything you'd ever like, angel." He hits record, then, on the stereo, he presses play.
The sound is loud and clear and echoes throughout the room. Akira wonders if it's a problem for it to be this loud but Ryo seems unbothered by the noise as he very nearly staggers back towards Akira.
Akira thinks Ryo is about to crash into him when he's gripped firmly by the waist. Ryo digs his thumb in a circle against the fabric of Akira's shirt, and with his other hand, he takes Akira's palm into his own.
Ryo's hand is cold and clammy against Akira's warm skin. Akira recalls Ryo’s rambling from moments before with vague unease.
"Ready?" Ryo coos, soft and close.
Put your head on my shoulder...
…hold me in your arms, baby…
Akira isn’t ready, and starts on the wrong foot, but Ryo guides him gently with a sway.
“S’okay,” Ryo whispers.
...Squeeze me oh-so-tight… show me…
..That you looooove me too…
They’d been more familiar with each other every day, but dancing like this was the closest Akira could remember them ever getting. He wondered if it was all leading to this, or if there was more. Or maybe they could get even closer.
Put your lips next to mine, dear…
...Won’t you kiss me once, baby?
“I can’t believe you called me ‘angel’…” Akira mumbles absentmindedly, focused on how his feet were supposed to be moving.
“Too forward?” Ryo asks with a grin, pulling back just slightly.
“...No… maybe just that word. The uh… irony.”
“Nah, it’s true. So not too forward?”
Akira says nothing, and Ryo continues smiling.
Just a kiss goodnight, maybe…
...You and I will fall in looooove…
“Aren’t you the angel?” Akira murmurs.
“How so?”
“Well, y’know… you’re all graceful. And pretty.” Akira steps on Ryo’s foot.
“Ow… so… like a girl to you?”
“No! Just… angelic. In a handsome way. Fuck. Are you ribbing me?”
“A little. You might find I’m not a saint. One of these days.” Ryo nudges Akira back into step, “But I’ll take the compliments.”
“I don’t know why you say cryptic shit like that.”
With a hand placed gently on Akira’s waist, Ryo extends his and Akira’s arm over Akira’s head in a halo motion, sending him into a spin.
“I’m trying to make it so you won’t have to find out.”
Tell me that you love me too
(Tell me that you love me too…)