Chapter Text
One day, Saegusa-san (who had resumed his old position in the Force) came across a stray who turned out to be a down-on-his-luck bartender. Because Saegusa-san couldn't help but pick up strays, he reopened Cafe 3. Well, he did say that the last closure had been temporary. When the time came, he invited everyone to come celebrate.
The fact that it was also ST's anniversary, Saegusa-san insisted, was merely a coincidence.
Anniversaries were always interesting, especially when you could see how far everyone had come. Not that he cared, Akagi added his own mental note. He really didn't care. Really, really.
He sat in a corner, almost elbowed out of the way by an endless stream of guests. Matsudo-rijikan was there, uncharacteristically giddy as she goaded the bartender into making high-powered cocktails--more alcohol than mixer--that grew weirder with every new pour. Apparently, in addition to having nerves of steel, the woman also had stomach lining of steel.
Tsutsui's team had been against attending at first, except Makimura Shinji who followed the woman around like a lost puppy. But well-placed hints that their old team leader, Kikukawa, would drop by later, succeeded in getting them to step foot inside what they called "The ST Lion's Den", albeit reluctantly.
The cafe was not small, but this amount of bodies in one place--with the promise of more--was starting to make Akagi feel claustrophobic. He felt his hackles rise for some reason. Oddly enough, the certified claustrophobic of the team, Yuki, didn't seem bothered at all. In fact, she was chipper as Akagi had never seen her be. She was chatting up a storm with one of Tsutsui's new recruits, and apparently they shared a mutual love for.... who-knows-what.
Akagi slumped in his seat, he really was feeling a bit trapped and crowded out. This sort of setting was not good for him, the self-confessed lone wolf. It was odd, he mused into his coffee cup, how a year ago he was truly a bona-fide shut-in, whose face to face interactions were limited to one-minute exchange with the food deliveryperson (and the occasional, once a month two-minute exchange with Amazon.com).
His musing was interrupted by a none-to-gentle shoulder bump. "However way you count it, there's still one person missing," Aoyama said around a mouthful of omurice. The last mouthful too, Akagi noted the shiny, empty-plate. There used to be a time when she would've left some stuff on the plate just so that it wouldn't be so clean and empty.
"I guess," Akagi replied. They were definitely missing one person--the person who was wholly responsible for these reversals of personalities--that dandelion-haired idiot. Akagi rued the day he let Mister Yurine--and his idiot grin and his idiot hair and his idiotly perfectly tied and lined necktie--drew Akagi out of his lonewolf-hood and into the complicated world of humans.
"If you're talking about Yurine," Ikeda piped in, "he's still wrapping up a case." Akagi narrowed his eyes and sighed. Now that Mister had graduated out from ST and doing great things with the big boys across the park at HQ, they were stuck with Captain Stuck Up Four Eyes. Though Akagi must admit that Ikeda made a good Cap Two, who was bearable most of the time. The man had good instincts and a steady hand--the bomb squad had yet to get over their jealousy.
"Ah yes, the murder-suicide case," Yamabuki butted into their conversation, surprising everyone who thought he was quietly meditating in the corner.
"Mister doesn't hang out with us anymore," Aoyama pouted and ordered another serving of omurice. If Matsudo-rijikan had stomach lining of steel, then Aoyama had a black hole in her stomach.
Akagi did not have to look to know that Kurosaki was gloating. He was the only one Mister still hung out with lately, mostly to go to that amateur theater hour with Kurosaki's friend.
"You can wipe that smile off your face, Kurosaki," Akagi huffed. "The last time was over a month ago, wasn't it?"
Nowadays, it was more like radio silence from Mister's part.
* * * * *
When Mister first moved across the small park that separated their office building from the main HQ building, he would often come at the end of the work day to grumble at them. When Akagi grumbled back to say that they're not providing counselling sessions for ex-colleagues, Mister would come up with all sorts of flimsy excuses.
Like donut deliveries for Aoyama, or handing Yamabuki artisan incense cones. Or delivering concert tickets for Yuki. Akagi told his team mates they shouldn't accept bribes, but they all insisted that they paid for these stuff fair and square.
"If you feel left out, Akagi-san, just say so," Mister said with that idiotic smile on his face. "Here, for you."
Until today, Akagi-san still didn't know where or how Mister managed to get the Gakky bottle-cap. He didn't want to admit it, but it was one of the most sought after item in his bucket list, something not even someone with his sharp detective mind could track down. He chalked it up as one of Mister's quirks.
But those visits had trickled down from every day to thrice a week, to once a week, to biweekly, to.... never.
* * * * *
Some time before midnight, the cafe's door was flung open forcefully. Everyone turned around and sighed when they saw who stumbled in.
"Try to curb your disappointment, why don't you?" Kikukawa groused as he flung himself to the empty seat next to Akagi. "One large beer, please, Saegusa-san."
A few more people from Kikukawa's group breezed through the cafe door within the next few minutes or so. He recognized some of them, by virtue of them saving his ass during the Kaburagi case. And every time the door opened, everyone (to their horror and disbelief) turned around and couldn't help but be disappointed.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you're looking for Yurine, he's not coming," Kikukawa said, chugging his tankard down and belching prodigiously. "He said he's going home."
Akagi wanted to ask how come Kikukawa knew, until he remembered that this particular case was a joint one between Mister's and Kikukawa's groups. The mother in the murder-suicide case was a koban officer who drowned her son and took her own life after. It was a sad day when they heard it.
"It's always bad when it's one of our own," Ikeda told Kikukawa, raising his half empty sake glass in the air in a mock salute. "You've worked hard."
"Thanks," Kikukawa said tiredly. Akagi could tell that the big man only wanted to be left alone with his beer.
But of course Aoyama didn't care about that. "Did he forget about today? Did you forget to remind him?" Aoyama pressed. "You know he tend to forget things."
"No, I told him." Kikukawa had almost manhandled Yurine into the car, even. But ST didn't need to know that, so he kept mum.
"So he just didn't want to come?" Aoyama's disappointment was plain in her words.
"Who knows. Maybe he was just tired. The case was bad, and his team was fighting him every step of the way," Kikukawa replied, nodding his thanks when a plate of tamagoyaki was placed in front of him.
Akagi was frowning, as though thinking too deeply.
Aoyama--who guessed correctly what he was doing--bumped his shoulders, "I thought we decided we won't profile fellow members."
"But he's not really a member of our group anymore, is he?" Akagi said off-handedly.
* * * * *
Apparently one of Kikukawa's staff belonged to the same gym as Kurosaki, not that Akagi cared. It was odd to see Kurosaki speak two words a minute for the past half an hour solid. It's not much, but downright talkative for Kurosaki.
Akagi decided that he would eavesdrop elsewhere, he really wasn't into boxing after all.
"It must be real bad for Yurine," Ikeda later remarked to Kikukawa. "I thought they'd get used to him by now."
"We gelled up to him really quickly back then, didn't we?" Kikukawa said. "Then again, we're biased."
"Biggest mystery of the century. I still don't know why we did," Ikeda mumbled.
They looked up when they felt eyes on them, and saw Saegusa-san's concerned face. "You two know him rather well."
The two men's left brow rose in perfect unison. "Ya think?"
"Eh, I forgot you came up the academy around the same time as he did," the older man commented.
"Heh, time flies, doesn't it? We can barely believe it ourselves," Ikeda said, smiling. Funny how he no longer resented being passed for a promotion. Not as much anymore anyway. He still wondered sometimes, but had come to the conclusion that Yurine was a rare species that defied logical explanation anyway. "He's changed so much since then."
But Saegusa-san was already out of the door, phone in hand. Akagi frowned but said nothing.
* * * * *
Saegusa-san was gone an awfully long time. It was almost dawn when he returned. Akagi saw how surprised the older man was to find that almost everyone were still there, albeit in different stages of inebriation.
"If only he realized just how much you all worried after him," Saegusa-san commented as he stepped back into the cafe. He smiled affectionately as he saw all of them shot up straight to their feet like fireworks at a summer matsuri. He smiled gratefully at the sleep-deprived group. "I think you all better go home. It's still Friday and all you lot still have to clock into work in less than 4 hours."
Apparently, "all you lot" did not include him, Akagi thought darkly. Saegusa-san pulled him aside even as his friends and co-workers stumbled out of the Cafe and into civilization. He had a bad feeling about this, but Saegusa-san was adamant for some reason.
"Here," Saegusa-san slid a glass of water across the bar.
Wasn't this an ominous gesture? Akagi thought.
* * * * *
Akagi still didn't know why he should be the one to go seek out stray Mister Yurine. So he didn't come to the Cafe's big reopening. Big deal. Akagi used to miss events all the time, important ones like promotions and demotions or disciplinary board hearings.
"But that was a long time ago, wasn't it?" Saegusa-san said with exactly no inflection. Damn the man for being so sly anyway, Akagi thought, shrugging on his coat jacket and stepping out of the Cafe feeling expectant stares burning twin holes on his back.
Saegusa-san had told him that he might still be able to find Mister at the old ST office, the windowless basement from whence they had risen out of. Failing that he should try Mister's apartment.
His conversation with Saegusa-san had stretched across a good half-hour, so he was surprised to find Kikukawa sitting on the floor across the elevator by his lonesome. The others had gone home, Kikukawa said.
Akagi who had grown some manners within the last year or two, swallowed his "so why are you still here", and offered a grimace instead.
"The apartment address Saegusa-san gave you is old," Kikukawa said, climbing onto his feet, and brushing dust off the seat of his pants. "Here's the new one. He moved out over a month ago." One of the perks working at Personnel, Kikukawa received change of address forms earlier than even the higher ups. Yurine had asked him to keep it quiet for now since he was not settled in yet and might still move, but Akagi was on a mission that Kikukawa empathized with.
* * * * *
Consulting his GPS against the small piece of paper, Akagi discovered that Mister's new apartment wasn't so far away from the Cafe. Akagi went there first. Strictly because the apartment was closer and on the way to the other place, of course. It wasn't like he's profiling a friend or anything.
Mister's apartment wasn't exactly in the poor part of town, but neither was the rent astronomical here. And a person with no friends and no social life like Mister could definitely afford something even better than this anyway.
The door was unlocked, one of Mister's careless traits. It was dark and quiet and he wondered whether Mister was even home.
But Akagi Samon was an inquisitive person at heart, some people (like Mister) might call him nosy, so he decided to poke around a bit. Out of everyone who had passed through his life, Mister was the biggest enigma of all.
"He was a rather rare bird himself," Saegusa-san had once told him. Perhaps Saegusa-san was right about Mister after all.
He waited a while for his eyes to adjust to the relative darkness, and saw square patterns on the walls. It would be like Mister to have plaid wallpapering, he thought.
He padded barefoot deeper into the apartment, and marveled at how sparse it was. A few movers' boxes were stacked neatly into one corner, even though it had been a month since he moved in.
He made his way to the other end of the apartment, noting sparse kitchen. If he opened the fridge, he might find it empty. The small cramped bathroom/toilet was even sparser, he noted.
The deeper into the room he got, the more 'populated' it looked. At least Mister had unpacked a few things, it somehow made Akagi less worried for some reason. He decided to think more about it later, now he had some exploring to do. A medium height bookcase cramped with books and folders, a small low table facing a big window, and finally a futon still folded and pushed against the side wall toward the back of the room.
* * * * *
On the table was a small lamp, enough to cast long shadows across the wall and to eerily illuminate Mister's head, bowed over something he was scribbling furiously on.
"You really shouldn't have your back to the door, you know," Akagi said, in lieu of greetings. "You might get stabbed in the back."
The scribbling stopped and the head snapped up and around.
Under dim light was a Mister that Akagi had never seen--wild-eyed and lost, brows knitted in a way that must have hurt, mouth twisted in the kind of sorrow and pain that Akagi never wanted to see anymore on Mister's face.
"You need to have a better sense of self-preservation," Akagi said as he pushed down the sense of cold dread that was rising up in his veins. He flailed instead, his hand made vague stabbing motion aimed at Mister's back.
"Sometimes..." Mister ventured a word slowly, as though he wasn't sure it should be said out loud. "Sometimes, I don't think I would mind."
* * * * *
Akagi's mind had very specific memories about Mister and each of them came together to give him a glimpse into the enigma--someone whose heart bled for everything and everyone, someone who fought hard to make and keep a place for five very broken and very flawed geniuses, someone who had drawn Akagi out of his shell with the sheer force of his will and earnestness.
Someone who couldn't profile a suspect worth a damn. Someone who couldn't say anything without first referring to his notes. Someone who had taught them how to be human.
Someone who fought to see the good in everyone, even in serial killers. Someone who's unfailingly kind that he would automatically be the good cop in any good-cop-bad-cop scenario.
He knew a smiling Mister (either the genuinely happy or the forced one), a frowning Mister, a cocksure Mister, a horrified Mister, a drunken Mister, an angry Mister, a frantic Mister, a steadfast Mister.
But the Mister he saw in that small room threatened to open the world up from underneath his feet and swallow him whole.
* * * * *
Akagi found himself rooted to the spot, helplessly, unable to move even if he wanted to. He looked helplessly as Mister stared at him like he was some apparition.
"I'm sorry," Akagi said even before he realized what he was saying. He didn't know what he was even apologizing for, but he thought there's many things he had to apologize for anyway, for past mistakes, and even future ones.
He didn't know why but he felt horrified when he saw Mister trying very hard to offer up a smile. An apologetic one, and an ugly one because it contorted Mister's face into a mixture of sorrow and acceptance.
"Did you... just apologize?" Mister's voice was heavy and scratchy, but his eyes and face looked dry. "Why?"
"I... I don't...know?" Akagi was as a loss too. Why indeed? He never made it a habit to apologize, Mister usually made the apologies for him and for everyone else. Akagi suddenly realized that, in the last five or so years, Akagi had apologized only a grand total of two times, and all of them had been directed to Mister. He wondered why. "Why indeed," Akagi finally decided on saying, aiming for levity.
Inwardly he cursed Saegusa-san for sending him on this fool's errand. If Saegusa-san thought he could root out whatever problem Mister was facing, Saegusa thought wrong. Akagi might sooner drive Mister to suicide, than console him.
The horror he felt must've been plain on his face that Mister laughed suddenly. "Don't worry, I'm not going to off myself," Mister said tiredly, offering a smile. Akagi wondered whether Mister was trying to offer one of his 'Reassuring Smiles', because it was the saddest smile he had seen on anyone.
"I'm okay, really," Mister said in a way that made Akagi plop himself down to the floor as quickly as possible. So he didn't have to think about how compulsive he was, Akagi busied himself by moving around so that he was fully inside the room's perimeter. He also wondered now how big Mister's personal bubble really was. Just to be safe that he's not treading on proverbial or literal toes, he inched sideways, toward the curtain covered balcony door.
It was uncharacteristic of him, come to think of it, especially when he wasn't even sure about normal human feelings. The only thing he was sure about whas the urgent need to make Mister understand that Akagi Samon was not leaving.