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“Traitor.” The executive spits the words with utter vitriol under Rei’s foot. Rei just smiles, and presses the executive’s head harder into the cracked concrete.
“I’d say you betrayed us first,” Rei says, purposefully carefree.
He’s doing what he needs to do. That’s all there is to it.
The twelfth executive, the two-headed fish Cispe- the last executive still on the run, and the most elusive. He’s in a sorry state- one of his twin heads is gone, long since scabbed over at his neck, and he’s shrunk quite a bit. His tail flaps uselessly, too weak to even leave a glancing blow anymore.
They’ve been searching for him for a while now. It was a stroke of luck that one of his minions managed to find him in this decrepit office building- the little creature heard rumours of pet disappearances in the area, and suspected an executive’s scavenging.
The minion in question is currently standing on a nearby windowsill, his stubby hands smug on his hips. Moonlight shines dimly through the broken window, illuminating a small embroidered smirk.
It’s amusing how much arrogance a ten centimetre doll made of wool and fabric and mothership circuitry manages to exude. Rei, admittedly, is somewhat to blame. His minions may choose their own appearances and develop their own personalities, but the vast majority design themselves off of their creator and his preferred face. This one has neatly cut yellow fabric as hair, and wears a trim grey suit.
Not that Rei resembles that face in any way right now. He always prefers to remain a faceless foot soldier when facing executives- shadowed and black from head to toe, save for a few skeletal embellishments.
It makes them let their guard down, after all. Even the idea of a ‘mere’ foot soldier beating them into the ground infuriates them.
(And it helps remind him who he’s doing this for.)
“Nothing but cannon fodder,” hisses the executive. “And you dare-”
Rei morphs his arm into a sharp knife, and slices the obnoxious fish’s head off in a single neat motion. He flicks his arm, shaking off drops of teal blood.
“Minion 0C,” says Rei, glancing over at the minion still on the windowsill. He steps away from the corpse, leaving himself enough space for it to be safe. His minions tend to be a little aggressive when it comes to their fire. “Burn it to ashes.”
Weakened from years on the run or not, an executive is an executive. Beating Cispe had been easier than expected, and Rei wasn’t about to risk him reviving somehow. Minion 0C nods eagerly, and hops down to the floor, his little mouth already beginning to glow with flames.
“Nicely done.”
Rei doesn’t jump at the familiar voice coming from behind him. It isn’t as though he didn’t sense the man the moment he arrived. He simply didn’t feel the need to acknowledge it.
“Ranger Red,” greets Rei, glancing back. “Content playing the bystander, I see.”
Shuuichi stands in the doorway, clad head to toe in that obnoxiously red costume of his. His full-face visor makes it impossible to make out his expression- but Rei is certain he’s smiling, that fool. A second later, Shuuichi’s visor is sliding back into his helmet, and Rei unsurprisingly finds he’s entirely correct.
(There’s a flicker of relief in those deep green eyes as well. Rei pretends not to see it.)
Quick, Rei morphs his arm back into a hand before Shuuichi thinks to do something stupid like kiss a sharp knife.
“You had things in hand,” Shuuichi says mildly, and closes the distance between them with a few short steps. He slips their hands together, squeezes once. Rei allows it.
Through Shuuichi's glove, Rei can't feel the deep black ring he knows Shuuichi is wearing. He can sense it though. It's a piece of him, even when apart.
“I did.” Rei grants him that much, and squeezes back.
The smell of smoke and vaguely rotten fish is beginning to fill the air- Rei turns back around, dragging Shuuichi with him. The fire crackles on the concrete floor. Rei watches its harsh glow, and pointedly keeps his mind utterly blank.
If his hand clenches Shuuichi’s the slightest bit tighter, no one needs to know but him.
(And Shuuichi, he supposes. Unfortunately.)
0C, however, is clearly far less conflicted about the death of the last executive. Little wonder. Vengeful feelings overwhelmed him while he was creating most of his minions, and that leaked into their little beings- they’ve always been far too eager to beat down an executive.
“Nu!” His voice is small but excited- leaping through the flames, he trots his way over to Shuuichi’s boot and scrambles up as far as he can go.
Embroidered eyes pleading, mouth pursed into a pout- why do all of the Batch 0 minions have absolutely no shame when it comes to Akai Shuuichi? They’ve kept their blazing fury against the executives, but against Shuuichi, they’ve grown softer and softer. Rei would glare if that didn’t mean acknowledging 0C’s nonsense.
Unfortunately, the pathetic pastiche of cuteness is effective against his too-indulgent lover. With a small chuckle, Shuuichi scoops 0C up from his leg to tuck him into a pants pocket.
…A Batch 1 minion peeks out from the very same pocket, his little green eyes and black beanie a dead giveaway. In all honesty, Batch 1 minions are often difficult to tell apart, even for Rei- he blames Shuuichi’s lack of fashion sense. It infected all the minions inspired by him. But judging how happily 0C snuggles into him, this must be Minion 1A.
That explains how Shuuichi tracked him down so quickly- 1A probably got the whole plan out of 0C, then went and bothered Shuuichi until he followed him to this abandoned building. Shuuichi can’t comprehend the simplified language that the minions speak, but he trusts them enough to do that much.
“Traitor,” Rei accuses half-heartedly. 0C ignores him in favour of dragging 1A down deeper into Shuuichi’s pocket.
“Perhaps he just wanted his partner to know he’d be facing off against a dangerous foe,” Shuuichi says. His voice is mild. It isn’t even accusative.
Rei still can’t quite meet Shuuichi’s eyes.
“We’ll go home soon,” Rei just says, choosing to simply not acknowledge Shuuichi’s words. He gazes back down at the crackling flames.
They’re painfully red. He’s never liked that colour, not one bit.
“Once that’s nothing but ashes,” he continues.
Shuuichi doesn’t say anything in response. But he does squeeze Rei’s hand again, which isn’t half-bad.
And probably more than Rei deserves.
Soldier 2680.
That’s Rei’s true name, and one that still feels right to him in many ways. Humans don’t tend to like it, of course. It’s why 2616 goes by Hiro now, why 2631 goes by Date, why they’ve all chosen human names these days.
But Rei has always been a bit stubborn, and when it came time for him to choose a human name to put on his new legal documents that the rangers fought so hard to obtain, Rei chose 0.
Perhaps the executives numbered their goons because they didn’t particularly care about their individuality. Rei, however, couldn’t care less about what their more unscrupulous creators felt.
2680, 2616, 2631, 2603, 2694- they’ll all always be a part of that same Batch 26, and Rei refuses to just abandon that. He’s made 2680 into his name, and into a connection to those he always cared about most.
Even if a human inexplicably also counts among that number now. After all-
When Rei first decided to betray the executives, he had no intention of siding with the humans.
Why would he? The executives treated them like worthless pawns, certainly, and Rei had no love lost for them.
(Especially after they killed Doctor Elena.)
But it was rare that they would kill a foot soldier permanently. They were designed to be reusable- eco, even. An endless swarm of soldiers who would come back to life even after being sliced into two. It was the rangers who could and would kill them for good, with swords and guns and spears that would sever their connection to the mothership and disintegrate them into true dust.
And when Rei tentatively put his trust in a rookie ranger of the Red Squadron who saved his life, when he foolishly thought that they could work together, that they could build a place for foot soldiers away from anyone who would misuse them-
That same rookie annihilated 16 without the slightest mercy just months later.
(Or at least, that was what Rei thought for years.
And it wasn’t as though he was wrong about the rangers being responsible for 16’s death. If the Ranger Squad hadn’t changed its ways, squeezed out its rot through a new generation, Rei wouldn’t have ever sided with them.)
He couldn’t trust the humans, who betrayed him. He couldn’t trust the executives, who never saw them as allies to begin with. And while there were still foot soldiers he trusted, he couldn’t bring them into this fight. Most foot soldiers had little in the way of combat ability, and plenty couldn’t even properly transform.
But he couldn’t build a third side in this pointless war without support.
And so, he used every bit of knowledge Doctor Elena let slip over the years to create his own minions, deep in the depths of the mothership. They weren’t meant to die, but to live. He made them cute, so rangers would hesitate to land a killing blow, and he made them small, so they could easily flee.
And he let them choose.
Not entirely, perhaps. He poured his own essence into his minions, and many mirrored him as a result. They didn’t hesitate to side with him.
…At least at the start. In later years, more and more Batch 0 minions began defecting to Akai Shuuichi’s side, which had been horrendously infuriating at the time. There was even a short period of time, years and years back, when Rei had more Batch 1 minions by his side than Batch 0.
Luckily, plenty returned once Rei finally buried the hatchet with the bane of his existence. And luckier still, not a single Batch 1 minion ever betrayed him, so he was never completely without help.
(Rei probably should’ve guessed how Shuuichi felt about him from that alone.)
“There’s curry in the fridge,” says Shuuichi, once they’ve stepped back into their apartment. It's a question and an offer both.
“I’m not in the mood to eat today,” Rei just replies.
It isn’t as though he needs to. He subsists off of the mothership, just like every other foot soldier, just like his minions.
Just like the executives did, before they killed them all.
(Not that Rei doesn’t still enjoy a good meal, normally.)
Shuuichi hums, but doesn’t press. His hand slips up to Rei’s shoulder, and he leans in, pecking a light kiss against the light blond hair of Rei’s preferred face.
“I’ll be in bed,” Shuuichi says, and slips away.
Rei watches him go in silence.
Then he exhales a breath of air that’s not quite a sigh, and heads out to the balcony.
It’s a clear night, and the moon is almost full. Shuuichi - and Rei, effectively speaking, as much as he used to be loath to admit it - live near the top floor of this apartment building. It’s more company housing for the Ranger Corps than a true apartment building, which everyone generally agrees is for the best. Back in the day, it got wrecked every couple years.
So there’s no other high rises in the immediate vicinity of the building - too risky, what with the frequent attacks - and the view is spectacular. Still-
Rei stares up at the shadowed blob that’s been darkening the skies of Tokyo for almost four decades now.
-the view from the mothership is far more striking.
He could go there, right now. All he’d need to do is slice himself apart, and his body would crumble, his particles streaming back to the mothership to heal and reform.
But there would be no point. No one there would welcome him, not anymore. The few foot soldiers who still call the mothership home are loyalists. They bitterly agreed to the peace treaty only because they lacked the power to refuse.
Rei’s hands clench tight against the balcony’s metal railing- his false skin ripples, almost shifting back into shadow.
It’s over for now, at any rate. The last executive is dead. Most foot soldiers are doing their best to integrate into human life, to make themselves seem charming enough to keep society from turning back against them. And if the home planet they’ve never seen - who wouldn’t see cannon fodder as one of them either way - were to send reinforcements, they would take centuries to arrive. The records in the mothership console were clear about that much.
Perhaps Rei would still be alive then. Somehow, he doubts it. They still know so little about what powers the mothership- for all Rei knows, he could drop dead tomorrow, along with every other foot soldier on the planet. His knowledge is far more in the realm of how to use the power as opposed to how to generate it.
(And besides. Shuuichi would be long long dead by then as well.)
Still. Rei feels more resigned than relieved. No matter what path he chose, he would’ve been a traitor. So he could argue that determinism absolves him, but his feelings stay as muddled as ever.
He should really feel guilty.
His eyes close.
Not every executive had been heartless.
Executive Ance dragged him down to Earth with a few others - dead now, all but one of them - to serve as her bodyguards as she infiltrated human society. He spent years under a human face far too soon after his creation, learnt how to eat and laugh and lie before he learnt how to die like cannon fodder should.
She treated them like sapient beings like any other, and that’s why he could never forgive them for what they did to her.
He was there as Executive Ance became Doctor Elena in more than just name. He was there as she raised two children of her own with a human man.
And he was there as Executive Seira killed Doctor Elena for betraying their cause, for abandoning world domination.
(16’s iron-tight grip on his arm had been the only thing that kept him from racing in and getting himself stupidly killed for nothing.)
It worked out, in the end. Doctor Elena’s husband was killed, but her daughters escaped. The executives are gone, but Rei survived. 16 was dead, but now he’s not. Rei chose to be loyal to his fellow foot soldiers even as they eyed him with suspicion for his too-human mannerisms, and most of them made it out alive.
He chose to be loyal to his compatriots over even the executives, and he can’t regret that.
Even when he’s called a traitor for it.
The problem is, of course, that Rei can’t see himself ending up as any less of a traitor even in a worldline where most executives hadn’t treated them all like throwaway trash. Not when obeying the executives’ mandate would’ve meant dooming far too many humans to pointless deaths.
Not when it would’ve meant killing Akai Shuuichi.
They’ve had their differences. Rei did genuinely want him dead, once upon a time, even if only through a misunderstanding.
But at the end of the day-
He can’t imagine a world where Shuuichi doesn’t convince him to stay by his side.
The sound of the balcony door clattering open hits his ears.
Rei glances back. Shuuichi is stepping through- though he hadn’t even bothered to change into pajamas. He’s still in that same all-black undersuit he always wears under his armour. The gloves are gone though- the piece of Rei he gave Shuuichi is as stark as ever on his ring finger. That, at least, is always nice to see.
“I thought you were going to bed,” Rei says, a touch snide.
“I felt like a smoke,” Shuuichi says blithely. He settles next to Rei, their shoulders brushing, and lifts the unlit cigarette in his hand with a smile.
“I’m not your lighter,” Rei says with a huff, and- “You’re headed to an early grave, you realize?” but-
He reaches out to snap his fingers, and the flame that sparks out lights the cigarette. The small red glow of its ember shines too bright in the dim moonlight.
“Thank you,” says Shuuichi, and pecks a light kiss against Rei’s lips.
“Yes, yes,” Rei grumbles back, and flops his head against Shuuichi’s shoulder.
Shuuichi draws a hand around Rei’s waist, warm and firm, and really, Rei can’t help the way his body unclenches, his eyes flicking closed. He can hear Shuuichi taking a drag of his cigarette, smell it too- acrid smoke, bitter and familiar and relentlessly comforting despite everything.
It’s a disgusting smell. It would probably bother him more if he were susceptible to human illnesses.
(He’s fooling himself. As long as that scent reminds him of Shuuichi, he’ll never quite be able to hate it.)
Rei exhales, then- “Aren’t you going to ask?”
“Mm?” The sound is perfectly confused. It’s infuriating.
“Why I went after the executive alone,” snaps Rei.
“You don’t work on a ranger squad,” Shuuichi just says.
“So I had no obligation to inform the Ranger Corps of an executive sighting?”
A neutral hum.
“But I imagine my partner of six years would’ve liked to have known regardless.”
Rei can feel Shuuichi shrug lightly, carelessly, as if to say- so what? It isn’t as though that stopped you.
He bites back a self-inflicted wince.
“I didn’t want the rangers to end this.” The words rush out of him, a foolish justification that’s no real excuse, in the end. “I didn’t- they made us. They were our parents, in a way.” His eyes blink back open, and his gaze shifts back up towards the mothership in the sky. It looks as endlessly dark in the night as it does during the day. “Don’t you humans talk about the sins of the father?”
“They didn’t see you as their children.”
“Some did.”
Shuuichi is silent. He clearly doesn’t have an answer for that.
“It won’t happen again,” Rei promises.
“There are no more executives.”
“Precisely.”
Shuuichi chuckles, a touch dry. He takes one last drag of his cigarette, blowing smoke into the chill night air, then stubs it half-finished into the railing.
“Rei,” he says. “Come sleep.”
Rei doesn’t need to sleep- he can’t, really. He learnt a mimicry of it while undercover, and while he’s grown to enjoy zoning out and letting his mind sort itself out in the background, it isn’t as though he dreams. He skips ‘sleep’ more often than not.
But he can read between the lines. It’s comfort Shuuichi is asking for. Confirmation that Rei is still here, still alive.
His mind is still muddled, an ugly bog of emotions Rei doesn’t care to decipher.
He loves Shuuichi though. That much is something he’s painstakingly come to terms with over the years.
Rei gives in.
“Very well,” he says. “Let’s sleep.”
It was such a gradual thing, how Shuuichi managed to worm his way back into Rei’s heart.
His minions accepted it far easier and far quicker than he ever could. As much as it galled him, Rei hadn’t been capable of creating fully autonomous, intelligent beings, not like the executives could. He lacked the knowledge, and had no way to gain it. So his minions were far less complex, and often blindly swayed by emotion.
At the start, the minions who modeled themselves off of Rei hated Akai, just like Rei himself did. But Rei’s emotions grew conflicted over the years, his pride and lingering hatred and helpless longing waging an endless war within him, the minions grew divided too.
Rei hadn’t let it bother him when the first minion left him. He considered it his fault, really, for blindly assuming that 1G was disintegrated and that they would reconvene in the mothership. Instead, Akai had picked up the injured creature and brought him back home. Rei doubted that Akai had much in the way of bedside manner, but he won 1G over regardless.
But then a second defected to Akai’s side. And a third. A fourth, a fifth…
By the time his last Batch 0 minion ran off to snuggle into Akai’s pockets or whatever it was that they did together, Rei was well and thoroughly pissed off. To add insult onto injury, every new minion he made to replenish his numbers chose to become a Batch 1 minion instead.
He was surrounded by Akai Shuuichi day in and day out, and it made him want to scream.
So when Rei stormed down to the city that day to terrorize some humans, he was in the mood to pound some rangers into the ground. Or at least try to.
He wanted foot soldiers to be a part of the zeitgeist of this era of rangers and executives and their endless battle for humanity. But he neither wanted to leave himself at mankind’s mercy, nor further the executives’ goals by freely slaughtering humans.
So he played to the cameras, and flawlessly acted out the role of a villain who’d be remembered, but not too unkindly. He would terrorize, but not kill. Lightly injure at most, and property damage at worst. Though he made it clear that this wasn’t due to any weakness on his part.
That day, he chose to target an aquarium, built on top of a skyscraper with dozens of floors. It was an especially easy target- the villainous monologues wrote themselves. I’ve come to judge humanity for the suffering they’ve put their fellow beings through, etcetera, rinse and repeat.
Unfortunately-
“I can’t say I disagree,” mused Ranger Yellow, her lips pursed under her half-visor. “These tanks are tiny!”
Ranger Red hummed in vague agreement next to her.
(Rei wasn’t entirely sure if it was because Akai truly agreed, or because Akai just wanted to side with Rei, and so his eyes narrowed.)
“Red-san, Yellow-san,” Ranger Blue said, voice as long-suffering as always. “Can we focus on the fight?”
-it seemed as though Rei’s monologue worked a touch too well this time around.
The Ranger Corps were a massive organization that employed hundreds of people. But when it came to fights against the executives - or against Rei - it was typically only the main five who were deployed.
The current Ranger Squad, who all stood in their signature battle poses below him.
Ranger Blue, the sharp-witted leader who used electric balls as weapons, of all things. Ranger Pink, who boasted unparalleled skill in karate. Ranger Green, a Kansai boy talented with the laser sword. Ranger Yellow, a close-range sharpshooter from America.
And Ranger Red.
Rei knew Ranger Red. He would always know Ranger Red.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t fight.” Ranger Yellow spun her twin guns in her hands, her smile sharp. “Fear King Zero did still terrorize those poor children who didn’t know any better.”
Rei took a step forward along the edge of the tank.
“Ha!” he spread his arms, letting his long white cape sway with the movement. His eyebrow rose under his domino mask, even knowing no one would see it, and with a sly smirk, he threw out this persona’s catchphrase- “Ignorance is no excuse, Rangers.”
Then he leapt down, his hands blazing with flame.
There were always helicopters buzzing around during their fights, news reporters eager for the latest scoop and the Suzuki Foundation eager for good footage to use as propaganda. They didn’t fund the rangers solely out of the goodness of their heart, after all.
Rei always played things up for the cameras, acted out his persona to the best of his ability. Not cruel enough to be despised, but not kind enough to be pitied. A human face, to draw sympathy, but a foot soldier’s body and abilities, to draw fear. A careful balance.
Five against one was always a tough fight, though his minions did try to even the odds. That day, however, he was stuck without a single Batch 0 minion, and the rest of his minions never could quite learn how to breathe fire. Rei was being pushed back far quicker than usual. Even his Batch 1 minions’ desperate distractions could only do so much.
Perhaps that was why he hadn’t noticed Akai’s peril until it was almost too late.
Whenever he could, Akai preferred to stay in the background, providing back-up with carefully aimed sniper shots. So Rei hadn’t found it odd that Ranger Red lagged behind the rest of the squad, keeping his distance as he kept Rei dancing from his shots.
But then, Rei - stupidly, idiotically, moronically - retreated up to the rooftops of the small buildings built on this highrise roof. The rooftops without a single guard rail.
And as Rei parried a slash of Ranger Green’s laser sword, he spotted Ranger Red tripping off the edge of the roof.
If he spent even a moment to think about it, he would’ve realized how strange it was. Akai Shuuichi wasn’t the type to be that clumsy. Ranger Red would never tumble off of a sixty-floor skyscraper by pure accident. It makes Rei grit his teeth to think back on how easily Akai played him.
At the time though, fear overwhelmed him, and panic too. His emotions ran too high for Rei to pause and take an objective look at the situation.
“Akai!”
His strangled cry took all of the rangers off guard, and the brief lull in the fight was all Rei needed to blast through them with a burst of flame. He shot straight off the roof, the fire from his soles propelling him as fast as he could.
Akai was hurtling to the ground, a too-small red splotch against the concrete grey landscape. It only took a precious few seconds for Rei to catch up and match Akai’s falling speed, but each second ticked by far too quick.
He wasn’t too late though.
(Not this time.)
Rei scooped Akai up in his arms, and carefully swooped them back up toward the sky.
“You bastard,” Rei hissed. His hands clenched onto Akai’s thigh, back, like a steel clamp. “You utter-” He took an angry breath- if he had a heart, perhaps it would be racing.
Akai’s full-face visor was as expressionless as ever. But out of nowhere, he flopped his head down against Rei’s shoulder, and Rei stuttered to a stop halfway back up to the roof.
“Rei-kun,” Akai started.
“2680,” Rei corrected with a snap, and too late realized he should’ve insisted on his villain name instead.
“2680-kun,” Akai continued smoothly, “I’d still rather not have you as an enemy. And it seems you’re beginning to feel the same.”
“…I simply see no point in mindless slaughter.”
“Humans betrayed you once. I won’t deny that. But we’re flawed beings, and we make mistakes. Can’t you give us one last chance?”
The words sounded superficially genuine, but coming from Akai, they seemed far too scripted. Akai would never be this open, this naïvely earnest. Something was off.
Rei’s eyes narrowed, and he scanned Akai’s body.
It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. On Akai’s collar- a small microphone.
No doubt this was being broadcast to the entire nation.
He thought back to Akai falling from the roof, how odd it was for Ranger Red to be that clumsy, and the pieces slotted together.
“What would you have done if I hadn’t chased after you?”
To Akai’s credit, he didn’t bother to deny a thing. “This suit is upgraded.” Rei still couldn’t see past that full-face visor, but he had no doubt that Akai was smiling that small infuriating smile of his. He continued, “Anti-gravity capabilities.”
“All to trap me,” Rei said, disgusted. A plan like this had Ranger Blue written all over it, but he had no doubt Akai had been a fully willing co-conspirator.
“You’d consider it a trap for us to prove you care?”
“Yes,” Rei huffed.
Akai laughed. It was far too cheery, far too fond, to match Ranger Red’s silent and cool archetype. Ridiculous. Did no one care about their public persona but Rei?
“My apartment is filled with little stuffed dolls in your image,” Akai said dryly.
Rei could read between the lines. So I took that to mean you were done with fighting, or even I could see you wanted to be with me. His eyes narrow behind his domino mask.
“My minions make their own decisions,” Rei insisted, voice filled with offence.
Akai hummed, obviously doubtful. “2680-kun,” Akai said. “Perhaps it’s riskier for you to trust humanity again. But the rewards match the risk.”
If he trusted humanity- trusted that they would treat foot soldiers like the sapient beings they were, trusted that they would allow them to live life in peace instead of killing them all-
Akai’s hand slipped up to his collar, covered the mic there. He leaned up, lips brushing Rei’s ear- “The public loves a good redemption story.”
This shameless bastard, engineering a situation where Rei would be foolish to not at least try.
Rei let the flames at his soles grow stronger, propel them back up toward the roof.
“Fine,” Rei said. “I’ll hear you out.” He could feel Akai perk up in his arms, so he quickly added- “Though I still rather think that aquarium is an affront to the planet you claim to protect.”
“…We can discuss that too.”
When Rei ‘wakes up’, so to say, there’s a minion lying on his face and a Shuuichi dozing in his chest. Careful not to disturb Shuuichi, he lifts the minion up into the air by his collar.
“Nu nu!” declares the minion, smiling. He’s a Batch 1 minion- either 1D or 1Q, Rei would guess, based on the slight blueish tinge to his beanie.
“Good morning to you as well,” Rei says quietly to Minion 1D-Or-Maybe-Q, and tucks him in a less obnoxious location on the pillow by his head.
Shuuichi’s arms wrap around Rei, squeezing tight.
“And to you,” Rei says, unimpressed at Shuuichi’s attempt to mimic a clinging lamprey.
“Mm.” Shuuichi cracks an eye open at Rei, utterly shameless.
Rei just rolls his eyes and stares up at the whitewashed ceiling. Even on an idyllic morning like this, sunlight trickling bright from cracks in the blinds and his partner snug in his chest-
Uncertainty still fills his chest.
“I don’t feel guilt at killing the previous Ranger Red, you realize,” Shuuichi says suddenly, as though they’re discussing the weather.
It’s a complete non sequitur. Rei blinks. “Excuse me?”
“I let the rangers think I do,” continues Shuuichi. “But I can’t say it’s the truth.”
Rei doesn’t particularly fault Shuuichi for that. He never really thought it was something that tormented Shuuichi in the first place. The previous Ranger Red had been a sadistic mass-murderer, tolerated only through his sheer mastery of combat. Few mourned his death.
But Rei has also never pretended to be a paragon of morality.
“Don’t let Shinichi-kun find out,” Rei says, voice dry.
“I don’t intend to.”
And when Shuuichi falls silent once more, Rei huffs. “Was there a point to that tangent?”
“Why feel guilt for not feeling guilt?”
“…Perhaps I’m just truly torn by my actions.”
“If that were the case, your minions wouldn’t have been so eager to see them dead,” Shuuichi counters.
“You do realize my minions aren’t actually synced with my emotions?” Rei demands, flicking Shuuichi’s nose light with a finger. They’re admittedly influenced by his emotions fairly easily, but it’s not a certain thing by any means. If it was, Minion 0A wouldn’t have run off with Minion 1O to go work at a café.
Shuuichi shrugs into Rei’s chest. “They still crowded my apartment when you fell for me.”
“That wasn’t because I fell for you. For one-”
It’s easy to fall into a familiar argument, even if Shuuichi is more inclined to smile and hum and shake his head than get worked up. Rei grumbles as they slip out of bed, argues as they change into proper clothes, debates as they cook themselves breakfast.
The normalcy is comforting.
And as they sit themselves down at their dining table, pancakes stacked up on each of their plates, Rei finally sighs and gives in.
“But you’re not wrong,” he says begrudgingly.
“Oh?” Shuuichi raises an eyebrow, ever-so-slight. Still, for him, it’s as good as a show of utter shock.
“It’s pointless to feel guilt at not feeling guilt.”
He wanted to protect his loved ones. He wanted revenge for Doctor Elena’s murder. So he hunted down the executives with the rangers, and he succeeded.
That’s something to celebrate, isn’t it?
It’s easier said than done to just throw his muddled feelings into the bin. Still, somehow, his chest already feels a little lighter.
“Shuuichi,” says Rei.
“Mm?”
He should probably apologize. He should probably thank him. But the act of being genuine is counter to the very core of his being.
“What do you want for dinner tonight?” Rei asks instead.
Shuuichi’s gaze softens. Ridiculous as ever. “Katsu curry?”
“I’ll make it,” Rei says, and helplessly smiles back.