Work Text:
Her ears ring from the explosion. For a single fragile moment, she believes that maybe she'd somehow just been knocked around a little by the blast... but when she goes to take a breath, the worst pain she'd ever known in her life ricochets off of every bone in her chest. No matter how hard she tries, her lungs won't fill properly with air.
Even if the agony isn't enough to immobilize her on its own, her limbs won't move beyond a few pathetic twitches.
Any other day and this would be fine. Annoying, painful, but ultimately harmless... But the Revive-o-Matic was down for critically needed maintenance.
Maybe the sole blessing in all of this is that the bomb had been implanted in a piece she hadn't yet installed. If someone else could follow the instructions she'd meticulously noted down as she'd worked, then even if she didn't make it, the SDU could still have a functioning machine.
That thought does nothing to bring her relief. A sob catches in her throat, her lungs too weak to force it out. She doesn't want to die here.
Oh, if only Yugamu were around...
But no, of course not. Whether by luck or design, the only other member of the SDU who was here was...
A shadow falls over her.
She turns her head to look (the one part of her that still seemed to obey her will) and... yeah, those pristine, bleached white shoes and pants could belong to nobody but Eito. He stands over her, unmoving. Watching?
A pit forms in her stomach as she realizes this is a shining opportunity for him. It wasn't exactly a secret to anyone who wasn't Takumi Sumino himself. They'd all seen the way he looked at their leader. She'd seen plenty the way he looked at her. Like she'd bewitched his lover away from him. This situation, her dying in an unfortunate accident, would work out perfectly for him. She'd be out of the way, unable to be revived. Takumi would have no choice but to focus on the war, to make sure this could never happen again. Eito, as his number one advisor would have him all to himself.
It wouldn't even have been his fault! It was obviously sabotage from the outside. She wouldn't be dead by his hand; all he had to do was be a little too late to find her.
She is reasonably certain he wasn't involved, anyway. He was a lot of things, including a traitor, so maybe that's naive of her to believe... but he should be on their side now. Without the Special Defense Unit, humanity would continue their efforts to raze the planet mostly unopposed.
"How... bad is it?"
What the hell did he mean, 'how bad is it?' Couldn't he see her bleeding out on the—
Or... could he? Something in the way he'd spoken those words in a quiet tone she'd never heard before, stopped her disparaging thoughts from running too far.
"... Bad," she replies, and even the effort of speaking sends fresh waves of pain through her. "I... don't... think I'll make it."
"I... see..."
She wishes she could see the expression he's making. His voice gives so little away, despite its slight tremor. Is he silently gloating over his little victory?
"The... Revive-o-Matic is still down, isn't it?"
"Y-yeah. It's a... almost there. Just... the... thing, and the..." She can feel her mind slipping, consciousness growing harder and harder to cling to.
Suddenly, his face swims into view.
He...
Looked scared.
Eyes wide and panicky, not a trace of smug pleasure anywhere to be found.
"How? How do I fix it?" he asks urgently,
She's pretty sure her lungs are full of everything but air by this point, if the painful cough that spewed blood all over the floor and Eito's shoes was anything to go by. (To his credit, he doesn't move away.) She expends the last bit of energy to tilt her head, to look towards her desk. It is all she can do before darkness envelopes her vision and she is gone.
Her last thoughts before she dies are of Eito. The terrified expression he wore burned into her mind. She... mostly trusted him. He'd been reliable and steadfast for the last couple years since rejoining the team, but she never got the sense that he truly cared about anyone other than Takumi... But... maybe...
She wakes up in her room, Takumi hovering over her, tear tracks staining his face. "Oh thank god!" He grabs her hand the moment she moves.
"I... I'm alive?"
"Yeah! Of course you are," he beams. "I mean, you died, but you must have fixed the Revive-o-Matic before the explosion went off, so jokes on whatever idiots tried to bomb us."
"... How long was I out?"
"Not sure. A few hours maybe? The alarms went off here, so we rushed back home as fast as we could. Found you in the Revive-o-Matic and..." Takumi's expression falters, worry creasing his forehead. "Well.... the others are looking for Eito right now, actually. He wasn't in the library, but there's no sign of struggle so I'm sure they'll find him..."
"Right..." The moments before her demise take a while to return clearly, and before she explains, Takumi insists she rest up while he takes care of everything. Now that she's awake, he can focus on other matters.
The ensuing manhunt for Eito exhausts the rest of the day to no avail.
The next morning, Tsubasa hears that he arrived safely home on his own sometime in the night, apparently after having tracked down and killed the ones responsible for sending the bomb. Takumi fills her in on most of it, but is rather cagey on the details in a way that she decides means she would really rather not know.
Two things stick with her about Takumi's explanation. The first and most intriguing one, was that Eito had apparently not bothered to explain his role in saving her life when relaying his version of events to Takumi. She couldn't understand why, since saving Takumi's girlfriend would only win him favors and gratitude... The second, was that he beelined it straight to his room and locked himself in there. He definitely hadn't eaten since the night before, and when she stopped by the garage to take stock of the damages, she'd found the remnants of his last meal in the corner on the floor.
That at least would be as good an excuse as any to stop by his room.
She gives him a few more hours before steeling herself to ring his doorbell.
It takes a few patient minutes for him to open the door and immediately upon seeing who his visitor is, he tries to shut it in her face. Not about to let him worm his way out of this, shoves her foot in the way. "I won't bother you for long. First, take this." She pushes the door open further and shoves a meal into his hands.
It's a ready-meal she brought from the Gift-o-Matic. She'd warmed it up before ringing the doorbell, and despite his reluctance to open the door, it was still warm enough to be palatable. Eito stares blankly at it, uncomprehending.
"Second, I wanted to thank you."
Eito recovers himself enough to give her a haughty look. "Just remember you owe me one."
She almost snaps back, 'That isn't how this works! But fine. It you want to be insufferable like that-' ... But she still remembers how frantic he was when he found her. That wasn't the look of someone being self serving and tactical. He'd been genuinely worried about her. Deep breath. "Eito, I know machines aren't really your strong suit, but you got the critical parts of it up and running in time to save me. You did good back there."
He fidgets under the praise.
It's a side of him she hasn't seen before. A vulnerability. One she can tell he's gearing up to cover up with hostility, so she talks faster. "I'm really glad you came through for me. I know we don't always see eye to eye about things, but when push comes to shove, it's good to know I can trust you. You're actually really reliable... I want you to know you can trust me too."
"We'd be in quite a pickle without our genius mechanic." Eito shrugs. "That's all."
Annd there was the cold front. She'll let it go though. He's obviously a lot more shaken up by all this than he wants to let on, and she can let him save face about it. He saved her life after all. She beams at him instead. "You sure would! We'd be in trouble without you, too though. So, thanks again, and enjoy your meal."
He fidgets again. "So long as I can clean your slime off the tray, I'm sure I'll be able to."
Tsubasa pulls her foot out of the doorframe so it can close and takes a mental note. Praise? He likes to be praised? The stoic cold murderer traitor human hater wants praise? She could do a lot with that information... "See you later, Eito."
"Yeah." He pushes the door closed and locks it with an audible click.
Huh...
A few weeks later, Eito arrives unannounced in the garage as Tsubasa is working. He's not in uniform, so it's not official duty, so... Tsubasa stands up and wipes the grease off her hands.
"I've come to collect on the favor."
She looks him over suspiciously. "Oh?" What could he possibly want? She hadn't actually expected him to call it in. After he resolutely refused to claim hero for saving her, she'd assumed he never wanted to speak of the moment again... but he really was the type to hold onto things forever, wasn't he?
"I want something to block out sound. A personal device of some sort. It has to be small enough to wear in public without it being a statement piece, and adjustable on the fly. Can you do that?"
What?
She debated on trying to explain that he really didn't have to call in the favor for that. Crafting a device like this was the sort of thing she'd do for any of her teammates. Hell, if they had a need for something to help them out in their duties, it was literally her job, and she had a feeling he could use this if Takumi kept dragging him along to meetings.
But... he's asking her for help.
It feels like progress somehow.
"Yeah, sure!" She waves a hand, her mind already rushing to come up with ways to make it work. "That doesn't sound too difficult. I might need some supplies though, if I can't find them lying around... And maybe while you're at it, you can get me some other stuff? I've been collecting a list of things..."
He meets her gaze, and his eyes narrow. They both know exactly what she's doing.
"Very well," he says.
She jots down a few more things on her 'shopping list' and passes it over to him. He takes it and leaves without another word.
What a strange guy, but... he's really not so bad as she'd thought.