Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It took all of Kudou’s remaining strength to pry off the planks keeping the door to the fifth floor shut.

Normally, he wouldn’t waste so much time and energy trying to find a sleeping spot, especially not in an inhabited apartment block, but the multiple ‘mold’ warnings plastered on the door were really enticing. They promised peace, quiet, and – most importantly – no other human being wandering about. He could risk getting a little sick, but he couldn’t risk getting caught by a civilian and reported to the authorities while the military was already raising hell trying to find him.

After busting the door open and finding a hallway full of empty apartments, Kudou’s shoulders relaxed in relief. This would do.

As he stepped into the hallway, his phone buzzed.

As he typed, Kudou walked into the furthest apartment from the staircase, picking that one for the night.

Kudou barely glanced at the reply, instead haphazardly throwing his blood-soaked jacket on the floor as he scanned the dusty apartment. Thanks to the faint cloud-covered moonlight coming in through the cracked window, he didn’t need to turn on any lights – not that he would have risked it in the first place. Walking past the small entrance hall, he noticed there was a bathroom, to his left, which might have running water, but he was far too exhausted to bother washing himself or change clothes. It was one of those nights where falling asleep in the stench of sweat and blood almost felt like a privilege, anyway; at least he had lived to see the end of the day.

The same couldn’t be said for half the men who had joined him on this mission. Rats had definitely begun scavenging on their corpses by now.

Wanting to forget all about his day, Kudou collapsed onto the closest dust-covered furniture at his disposal, a musty couch that would serve fine as his bed. But he didn’t want to sleep yet. Instead, he scrolled through his notifications. He ignored everything related to work, scrolling and scrolling until he finally found what he was searching for: Yoichi’s texts.

Clicking on the notification and seeing a wall of new messages, Kudou scrolled up to catch up properly.

Finally reaching the texts from yesterday, Kudou eyed the smiling emoji and sighed deeply. He had promised Yoichi this would be a short mission; however, what was supposed to be a simple mission in a city up north had quickly led to multiple life-or-death situations in the past 24 hours. He wouldn’t be back as quickly as promised – hell, he’d be lucky if he made it back by the end of the week.

No matter how long he was away for, Yoichi never blamed him or complained. The man understood these circumstances were beyond Kudou’s control. Nonetheless, Kudou felt awful.

Because it had been four days. Without seeing Yoichi. Without hearing his soft voice. Without seeing his smile.

Four torturous days.

Kudou hesitated to keep scrolling down and read Yoichi’s reply, which he hadn’t seen yet. He felt guilty despite knowing that, in the grand scheme of things, these messages meant nothing. Kudou would return a few days later than promised, is all. He had broken an otherwise-unimportant promise, is all.

Yet this was a promise he had made to Yoichi.

Words could not explain how easily it had been for Kudou to grow so deeply attached to someone he had originally planned to kill. They had gone from enemies to friends in a manner of hours, and it only took a week for Kudou to realize this ‘friendship’ didn’t make him feel the same way that his and Bruce’s friendship did.

But that was only how Kudou felt. Not Yoichi. Yoichi only thought of him as a friend.

At least, that’s what Kudou believed.

After turning to lay on his side, Kudou balled up a little as he scrolled down. The day had been a complete mess for survival. Yet he wouldn’t tell Yoichi the truth. He wouldn’t tell him All For One had managed to brainwash a member of the resistance into betraying them. He wouldn’t mention the fresh gash running across his arm, an injury he had received after barely avoiding getting assassinated by one of his own men. And he definitely wouldn’t tell him how many people he had killed today alone.

Yoichi didn’t need to know.

Of course Kudou remembered; that radio station was Yoichi’s favorite. The man had it on whenever he could, sometimes even listening to it while he slept. Kudou was at first indifferent to the slow music, but he learned to enjoy it; it was fine as background noise and – more importantly – it made Yoichi happy.

And Kudou would fight tooth and nail for anything and everything that made Yoichi happy.

His smile not wavering, Kudou huffed in annoyance. A flower and a sun? Seriously? For him? With no explanations whatsoever?

Kudou swiped down one last time, but the messages stopped scrolling. Reaching the end, his small bubble of happiness burst. There would be nothing new, for today. Even if he texted Yoichi now, it was nearly midnight; Yoichi was most likely asleep by now.

Asleep or not, Kudou had kept Yoichi waiting long enough. He had to show him some sign of life.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard. Texting ‘I’m safe’ was nothing short of a lie because he was still one misstep away from exchanging gunfire with All For One’s men. And Kudou definitely didn’t want to text a ‘I’ll be back tomorrow’ or any other kind of estimate since he had been proven time and time again that promises were just waiting to be broken.

Not wanting to worry Yoichi, Kudou simply chose to divert the conversation away from his day. And Yoichi had given him a perfect opportunity to do so.

Thinking that was good enough, Kudou closed his screen and dropped his phone by his side. He wished he wasn’t alone in the dark, curled up on a moldy couch, stuck with horrid memories of those he’d lost that day, but he tried to remind himself that things could be worse.

Before he could even close his eyes and try to let exhaustion knock him out, his phone buzzed again.

Something in him knowing it was Yoichi replying, Kudou picked up his phone in a flash.