Work Text:
Klint opens the door to his own office, and Genshin looks into his eyes with such an expression of terror that Klint thinks he must know.
Genshin is sitting, his head hanging, elbows resting on his knees. His head snaps up suddenly at the sound of the door. He looks— for as much as Genshin Asogi can look it— horrified. And waiting for him. Genshin meets his gaze, and the realization that he damned himself for nothing travels up from his stomach and into the back of his throat. It coats his tongue. He swallows. Then he turns on his heel and leaves. Runs like the cowering beast he is. It must damn him further, surely, in Genshin’s eyes.
The all-knowing eyes of truth the man possesses can surely see deep into his heart. They always have. They must know now, upon first glance, what he has done. They must know that he is dead already. They see him for what he is— an animal carcass cold and picked clean on the forest floor—
The heavy door swings open and slams shut again.
“Klint!”
Genshin Asogi is a pragmatist. He does not raise his voice unnecessarily, but now his shout echoes off the high ceilings.
Then his footsteps give chase down the hallway. He’s always matched Klint’s stride when they walk side by side, and has always been quicker and lighter on his feet. He has an agility and grace like a dancer may possess, and all of the same hidden strength. In a fair fight they’d likely be evenly matched, but Genshin’s speed and decisiveness could easily overtake Klint’s strength and finesse, he’s always known it.
So of course Genshin catches up quickly, before Klint can take a step down the stairs and escape the hallway.
He catches Klint by the arm; a familiar grip. Strong and sure. Tight but not painful.
“Klint, I’m so sorry. I only just found out. If I’d known earlier…”
Grief reaches Genshin’s voice in a way Klint has never heard before.
He is sorry.
Klint turns to look at him again, and thinks that the only reason that looking Genshin in the eyes does not bring him to tears is that he has lost the right to cry.
“…I know how close you two were. I can’t possibly imagine what you’re feeling right now.”
He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know.
A more convincing lie Klint has never told in his life, and he has not opened his mouth to say a word.
Genshin pulls at his arm with a staggering gentleness.
He wants Genshin to throw him down the stairs.
He wants Genshin to draw his sword and cut off his head.
He wants Genshin to tear his throat out even if it takes his blunt teeth endless bites to break through his skin.
But Genshin lets his hand drop to Klint’s wrist and laces their fingers together, and Klint loses all hope that he will meet justice today.
Genshin pulls again.
“Nobody will fault you for taking the day for yourself. I’m sure it’ll take some time before work returns to normal at the Prosecutor’s Office. At least…”
Genshin sighs and looks at the ground, and finally Klint is free of his gaze.
“…At least until after the funeral.”
His thumb runs over the back of Klint’s gloved hand.
“Come with me.”
Klint lets Genshin pull him back down the hall and to his office, but only because he thinks he hears someone coming up the stairs.
God forbid, it could be Mael Stronghart, and in the state he is in, he may use his own hands to do the deed this time, and let Genshin watch.
-
Klint is already sitting at his desk when he is truly lucid next. It must be only a few short moments, but he cannot remember being taken back to his office with distinct clarity. He feels as though Genshin must have locked the door more than he remembers it.
Now the detective sits on Klint’s desk, facing him but positioned to his side. Klint sits with his hands shielding his eyes from the light.
“I doubt I can say anything that will help, but for what it’s worth, I am very sorry. The Lord Chief Justice was a good man—”
“And if he wasn’t?”
It is the first thing Klint has said to Genshin all morning, and he cannot meet his gaze to say it.
“…Klint.” He says his name with only concern and care in his voice.
If the kindness is a pain, Genshin placing a hand on his shoulder burns.
“You understand this monster,” Klint whispers, “perhaps better than I do. The Professor only kills the corrupt—”
Profiling, spoken like a prayer's recitation, in hopes of warding off the Devil.
“Klint, look at me.”
He uncovers his eyes and lets Genshin run his free hand along the side of his face and tilt it upward. The hand where he wears the ring. The one Klint hopes will snag at his skin where Genshin tries to be gentle with him.
“It isn’t your job to consider that. It certainly won’t help anything to think that way. This case has already asked enough of you.”
Klint’s eyes pinch, and his jaw tenses. “Has it?”
“There’s not a single person who’s given up more than you have for this case. It’s… An unimaginable cruelty, for a personal friend of yours to be caught in the crossfire. Honestly, I can’t believe I ever thought…”
Genshin trails off and focuses on a spot on the ground.
Klint looks back up. “…What?”
“It’s nothing. Forget I said anything. I’m worrying too much. I’m sorry for coming into your office before you got here. I understand this case has been… Difficult. Perhaps we’ve been distant because of it, but I didn’t want you to try drowning yourself in work. I wouldn’t have come without warning if I didn’t think it was so important.”
“I didn’t think I would see you today. I was startled to see anyone at all. Thank you. Thank you.”
Genshin breathes in. His expression is kind, and not unlike that of someone waiting, hand open, for a dog to approach of its own free will. And approach, he does.
A hand threads into Genshin’s long hair and draws him forward. They kiss.
Klint cannot remember how long it has been since they last did this. He cannot remember much at all these days; just blood, and throats, and hounds of Hell. Not comfort or warmth or familiarity.
Genshin has been absent from his sight, his lips, his bed, because Klint has been avoiding him deliberately— God forbid those eyes turn on him and see what is right in front of him.
Genshin lets Klint rest their foreheads together.
“I couldn’t have left you alone,” Genshin says. “Not now. What kind of a partner would that make me?”
What kind of partner, indeed. A sorry excuse for one Klint is being. It is one thing, to be distant, as Genshin has said. A man’s heart can harden as the years go by, and that is no crime. It is another thing entirely to see one’s partner picking up the threads of truth, and to sever them, tangle them, or burn them completely, all in fear of being discovered. It goes against everything they are as a partnership, and in Klint’s heart, it is a deeper betrayal to lie to Genshin Asogi than to kill a man. He’ll go to a deeper Hell for it, where the great betrayers of history must accept their dues. He will deserve every moment for the next eternity, and he will save God the pain of begging for forgiveness.
“I’m not doing a very good job of keeping your mind off things, now am I?”
Klint needs to stop his mouth and stop his questions, because Genshin has a way of drawing answers out of people whether they like it or not. He pulls Genshin down to meet him by the lapels of his jacket. Klint’s lips touch his partner’s, his tongue blotting out the spot where Genshin’s own might form words. His teeth need to bite something or he’ll scream or sob or kill again, so into Genshin’s lower lip they sink. He needs Genshin’s eyes closed and his mouth busy. He needs Genshin—
Genshin tries to make this something softer, but it will not stick. So he lets Klint be a set of jaws that can never truly hurt him.
“I do not deserve you,” Klint says as a bitter truth. “You are— and always will be— a better man than I am.”
“Don’t say that,” Genshin whispers.
Then he sets about removing the bitter taste from Klint’s mouth.
Genshin has the selflessness to answer a massacre gently. It makes Klint want to believe the man could pull the truth out of him with his teeth.
The reality is that Genshin Asogi loves a coward.
He deserves the truth more than anyone in this world, and Klint cannot give it to him.
They end with Genshin’s lips at his hairline and a hand running through Klint’s hair. Klint is warping the fabric of Genshin’s jacket with how desperately he clutches at it with both hands.
“Are you going to be alright?” Genshin’s eyes are wide open when he whispers it.
“...I don’t know.”
Genshin takes Klint’s hand and presses his lips against the knuckles in promise.
“I’ll find the monster that did this and make him pay for his sins. I swear to you.”
“Dear Lord, I hope you do.”