The Reckless & The Brave Book 3: Casual Affair [SakuAtsu]

The worst way of leaving would be better

Osamu sits in the cold metal chair. The room is mostly white, the bright fluorescent lights reflect off everything and make his eyes hurt. There is a table in the center of the room, stainless steel and bolted to the ground. His husband sits on the other side. Maybe not his husband actually, Osamu isn't sure that their marriage was even legal at this point. He tries to ignore the deep ache in his chest. It's been there since The Voice called him back to headquarters two nights ago.

"Is he alive?" He keeps his voice flat. He wonders if anything was real.

"I've been here, you know more than me," His husband shrugs one shoulder, he's sitting slumped down in his own hard metal chair. Osamu knows that one of the legs on that chair is always shorter. He searches his husband's, or whatever they are now, face for a sign of anything. There's nothing there but cool indifference. Osamu tries not to think about his warm smiles and soft touches. Osamu wants to be strong but he doesn't know how he's supposed to do that when one of the only two people he's trusted in his life is missing and the other might be responsible.

"Was any of it real?" What's the point in trying to hide? Osamu gave everything to this man. He gave him his heart and his soul and his body and he'd planned to spend every second of the rest of his life by his side.

"I don't know how to answer that."

"With the truth," Osamu nearly snaps at him. He needs to remain calm. They might be alone in the room but they're definitely being watched. If they think Osamu is getting too emotional they'll pull him out. If he can't get answers then someone else will.

"Am I going to die?"

"Is my brother?" is all Osamu can say back. He has to stay focused, it's not just Atsumu's life on the line. Sugawara and some rookie crow are missing as well.

"What do you want my answer to be Samu?"

"I want you to tell me that they're wrong," He wants to know what was real, was there ever any love in their relationship? Did he imagine it all? Was he that good of an actor? "I want you to tell me that you weren't responsible for this." Osamu knows that the answers he wants would all be lies. There was no surprise on his face when Osamu walked into the interrogation room. He knew this was coming. He knew all of the secrets that Osamu had been forced to keep from him.

"Did you ever love me?" Osamu asks in a soft voice, hoping that the microphones won't pick it up.

"I don't think I could ever stop," Somehow the words feel like a stab to his heart. "But I understand if you do." Osamu is going to lose it if he stays here much longer. What is he even supposed to believe anymore.

"I'll let you know when I get my brother back," He says instead of the barrage of questions that threaten to burst out of him.

"You're leaving?" That seems to finally get some sort of reaction out of him. He plants both his feet on the ground and leans forward a bit.

"Someone competent has to help bring that idiot back," Osamu wonders again if it's a fool's errand. He's been out of the field for years now. He's out of shape and out of practice but the idea of his brother being out there and in danger while he sits around doing nothing makes him sick to his stomach. He hadn't even hesitated to volunteer when Kuroo had come to him with the news.

"And if you don't come back?" There's concern in his eyes. It looks real. It feels so much like what they had before. Osamu knows that he can't trust it though. He knows that they can never go back.

"Dunno," He lets his eyes scan around the room. It's not as clean as he'd thought it had been. A spot of dark red paints a corner. "I guess there won't be anyone to patch you back up then. No one else here would be willing to do it." He stands up then, because he has to. It's too much, the worry for his brother and the pain from the betrayal. It's all too much. He leaves the room without a backward glance, letting the door slam shut behind him.

Three people stand there silently, giving him a chance to pull himself back together. Osamu wonders if they're pitying him, or if maybe they're mad that he trusted Rintarou. He gives himself a minute and then he studies them. He doesn't know Daichi well enough to read the look on his face but he's spent his whole life with Tetsurou and he can see the anger masked behind his carefully crafted look of boredom. It's not aimed at Osamu though and for that he's thankful. The third man is more of an enigma to him. This is the first time that Osamu has ever actually met him but all it took was one look at the dark curls and the two moles on his forehead to know that this was Omi, this is the man that Atsumu's been in love with for so long.

"My turn then," Kiyoomi says from behind his black mask. He slips on a pair of gloves as he steps around Osamu and enters the interrogation room. No one else says anything as the door locks shut. Osamu accepts it when Daichi throws an arm around his shoulder and leads him away.