Beautiful Disasters- Hawks x OC

Chapter 28

            As soon as he'd gotten over the initial shock that Mariko might actually be betraying him, he started checking for listening devices and hidden cameras throughout the apartment. He hated doing it, but he had no choice but to be suspicious. He couldn't risk getting caught on such a delicate mission. If the League already knew that he'd been spying on them for the HSPC he was absolutely screwed.

           In the three days that had passed since he'd found out, he hadn't found any bugs, but that didn't do much to ease his mind. The only thing that might calm him down at this point was to talk to her so they could figure things out together. Unfortunately, she still wasn't answering his calls or texts.

           The lack of contact from the brunette made her calling him completely out of the blue Thursday at ten p.m. all the more surprising. His expression was dark when he answered the phone.

              "Hey Keigo," she started speaking as soon as he picked up, I am so sorry I've been blowing off your calls. The program managers made the schedule so full it's almost impossible to keep up with everything. How are you? I hope the apartment's still in one piece," she said jokingly.

              "Mari, we need to talk," he told her.

              "...You didn't seriously destroy my apartment did you?" she asked with a playful, but warning tone in her voice.

               "No. It's got nothing to do with that," he said. He heard the brunette shift slightly on the phone.

              "Okay, what's up?" she asked confusedly. He rarely used a serious tone with her so something was definitely wrong.

              "I found the box," he stated.

              Mariko's breath hitched, "What?" she asked, her voice a hoarse whisper.

               Keigo exhaled and shut his eyes tightly. He wanted this to be a nightmare. He wanted to just wake up and have everything be normal again. "I found the box. The one with your-"

               "Stop. Stop talking," she interrupted him. "Why the hell did you go in there?" she growled angrily.

             "Mariko do you understand what kind of situation this is?" he asked, upset that she was snapping at him when he was the one that should be angry.

            "No, Hawks. You don't know what kind of situation this is. Damnit I knew I should've burned that shit when I had the chance. You have no idea what kind of situation you've put me in," she spat.

              He flinched at the use of his hero name. The only time she ever called him that was when they were in public and she had to. "The hell are you getting pissed at me for? I'm the one who should be pissed you lied to me!" He exclaimed.

              "I'm pissed because you went through my things without my permission and put both our lives at risk! You're such a fucking hypocrite. You preach shit about trust and friendship but go through my apartment the second I leave?"

              "How can I not be a bit paranoid? What kind of person never talks about their family or past? The only people I know have been in your life are Hayato Kusumoto, Mineko Shimizu, and Sakura!" he shouted.

              "YOU! You're that kind of person! The only thing I know about you is what you do for a living! Trust is a two-way street. Did it serious not cross your mind that this is seriously sensitive information? You think I would just blurt something like that out?" She shouted back.

              "Because you had said that you trusted me and told me you were willing to put your life in my hands- yes. I thought you trusted me enough to tell me," he said disappointment evident in his tone.

               "Maybe I would have... now you overstepped that boundary on your own. But what's done is done there's no going back now," she muttered bitterly. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down a bit. "Look... I get back tomorrow. We'll talk about it then. If you at least care about your own life, you won't tell anyone about this. Not a living soul, not even the HPSC. Don't call me about this again Hawks," she said and hung up on him.

              Keigo glared at the contact on the screen and gripped the device tightly. He couldn't think straight- his emotions were a wreck. She'd basically lied to him about her entire life. He felt like an idiot for trusting her. He laughed bitterly, "I really thought... I thought that she cared... that I was important to her; but she didn't even mind lying to me about everything."

              He tossed his phone on the coffee table, sat down on the couch, and put his head in his hands. He wished he'd never found that godforsaken box and that things could go back to how they'd been just a week ago.

             Meanwhile, Mariko was extremely agitated. Keigo had uncovered the country's best-kept secret without having clearance for it. People who found out the reality of Division 1 agents when they weren't supposed to were usually punished with death along with the idiot agent who'd let the information slip. If the wrong people discovered that Hawks had found out from her that Division 1 was a group of child soldiers they would both be killed.

            The first thing she did was call Hayato. He would know what to do; he always did.

            "Hayato? She asked when he picked up.

              "Mariko?" he asked tiredly. In her nervous frenzy, she'd forgotten that her friend liked to go to sleep early. Seeing that it was almost eleven p.m., she had definitely woken him up.

              "We've got a problem," she told him.

              "What happened?" he asked, the sleepiness gone from his voice.

               "Hawks found out about Division 1."

               "Shit, how?" he asked. The only thing Mariko had told him about the blonde was that he was her neighbor.

              "He was in my apartment and-"

             "He broke into your apartment?" he asked surprised.

              "No- I let him use it," she explained.

             "What?" he asked confusedly. Having known Mariko for his entire life, he knew the brunette wasn't someone to let strangers into her house, much less give them access to her apartment while she was away. That meant that they were probably a lot closer than she had let on. That explained the panic in her voice- she didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

          "It's a long story and that's not the point. The point is he found the box," she stressed.

          "The one with the photos," he clarified.

         "Yeah, he found those and the dog tags," she told him.

          Hayato was silent for a moment. "How much does he know for sure?"

          Mariko sighed, "I'm not exactly sure. We were on the phone when he told me... I got pissed and we started arguing. It kind of spiraled from there."

           "He told you on the phone? Mari, that's the worst thing- you need to come back. Both of you need to leave in case someone listened in on your conversation.

            "He didn't use specifics, at least not enough to determine the subject of our conversation. I told him not to call me again and not mention it to anyone," she explained.

             The male sighed in relief, "Alright... you're still at the training right? There's not much you can do until you get back. If you want I can head over there tomorrow morning and keep him hostage 'till you come back," he offered.

              Mariko smiled a bit, knowing he was joking...mostly. "That's okay... I come back in the morning anyway. I'll keep you posted," she said.

              "Okay. Stay safe out there Mariko," he told her.

             "Yeah... you too."