Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There’s a lipstick mark on his pillow.
Specifically in the shape of a kiss mark.
Odd… considering never in his life had Hiiro worn lipstick, and he doubted that Rinne would have left it there as one of his ‘sweet reminders of who he belongs to’. Sure, he liked to be possessive but… this was not particularly his style.

After a few minutes deep in thought of could have possibly left it there, he opted to just flip the pillow around and go to sleep, he’ll ask around about it tomorrow.

However now, a couple days had passed and Hiiro still hadn’t found out who left the lipstick stain, Rinne assured that it wasn’t him, clear that he wasn’t lying due to the jealous tone in his voice from hearing about someone potentially being in love with his little brother. And after vigorous interrogation, Niki said it wasn’t him either, he never truly thought it was, of course, but running out of options meant Hiiro would suspect anyone.

Hiiro sighed as he walked to practice, he’s been so busy with his search that he doesn’t even notice the lingering eyes on his body from afar…

Throwing his bag in his locker he- what was that?

A letter.

Neatly placed atop his makeshift shelf in a pile of rose petals was an envelope, sealed with a lipstick kiss. There’s hints of a perfume scent lingering from it that encapsulated Hiiro for a moment before he snapped back to reality. His eyes widened in shock and confusion, and he took out the letter, opening it to read.

‘ Dear Hiikun, I promise we’ll be together soon once you see my love for you. I’ll treat you better than anyone could, you don’t need anyone else but me. Not Rinne, not your new roommates, not anyone else from Alkaloid NO ONE!!!
I love you I love you I love you… I could just steal you away from all of them and then you’ll be safe with me, me, ME ONLY ME YOU’RE MINE mine and you don’t even know it yet my sweet Hiiro…
— your new lover ’

The handwriting started off rather neat and carefully thought out before gradually turning into barely eligible scribbles, Hiiro can feel the desperation in the words, and fear arises in him… who would write this?! Is this even real?! Someone think about him this way…?!

He stares at the letter for a moment more and squints as he tries to decipher the scribbles…

Does that really read ‘else’? Anyone ‘else’ in Alkaloid? Could that really mean what it means… someone in Alkaloid?! And the cross out about ‘new’ roommates… okay… definitely Alkaloid. But no way would any of them say such things, right?

Hiiro’s starting to panic and quickly shoves the letter back into his locker, a sick feeling deep in his stomach as he realises that he’s going to have to see them at practice… a practice he is now very much late for. He closes his locker properly, still smelling the slight hint of perfume and runs off to practice, trying desperately to ignore all that just happened.

“You’re late.” It was said as a statement than anything else, and Tatsumi crossed his arms, staring at Hiiro.

“I- I’m sorry I was just… well…” Hiiro stuttered and frantically tried to think of a believable answer.

“You don’t have to explain, just try to catch up now, alright?”

What a relief… Hiiro nodded and tried to follow along as best as he could, yet throughout the entire practice he felt eyes on him, he figured it was just paranoia… the letter was obviously just to scare him, throw him off his game, right? At least that’s what he keeps telling himself as he tries to justify the horrified gut feeling in his stomach as just hunger.

After practice ended he rushed away as quick as possible, not saying a word to anyone. He didn’t want to go back to his locker either, trying to pretend he never saw what was there and instead started his way back to his dorm.

“Hiiro-kun?”

Hiiro flinched hearing his name being called and looked back quickly, seeing Aira standing behind him.

“Oh… hey… erm…”

“Why did you leave so early? I wanted to talk to you…”

Aira walked towards him, standing close.
Too close.
He was staring into his eyes and gently brushed a strand of Hiiro’s hair from his eyes.

“Are you avoiding me? Are you mad? Do you- never mind, but why’re you acting so weird?”

Aira’s voice sounded panicked as he rambled on, constantly questioning Hiiro. Asking about his every changed move. It was almost creepy how much he noticed about him, sure, they knew each other well but… his questions got more and more specific and obscure. Hiiro stayed quiet throughout most of this, letting Aira speak, and as he did he could smell a hint of something… huh… since when did Aira where perfume?-

Hiiro felt like his heart stopped for a second. It’s the same perfume that covered his locker. No… no way… Aira wouldn’t say such things, he wouldn’t feel this way, right?!

He examines his lips closely… no, no please don’t let that be the same shade as the marks on his pillow.

“Do you even care about me!?”

Aira’s voice sounded rushed and he was now gripping Hiiro’s sleeve. Both of their hearts could be heard beating faster… and faster… and faster…

“Hm?”

He snapped out of his train of thought, Aira looked close to tears. What even happened…

“…you care about me, right Hii-kun?”

“…of course I do…”

He’s breathing heavily and tried to take Aira’s hand from his sleeve, which prompted Aira to now grip his hand, tight.

“…A-Aira… I need to talk to you about something…”

Aira tilted his head a little in confusion, but a slight look in his eyes told Hiiro that maybe he wasn’t as confused as he appeared…

“What’s wrong, Hii-kun?”

“Did you… erm… did you write…”

He could barely finish his sentence and continues to stutter over his words, meanwhile Aira is smiling sweetly and reach up to cup his face with one hand.

“You saw it!… oh it’s nothing really… I just felt so awkward about directly telling you anything… you understand right?!”

The grip on his hand got tighter and Hiiro stayed quiet for a second, stunned that Aira was so fast to admit such a thing…

Hiiro quickly pulled away from him, freaked out by this whole situation…

“I- I just… I need a minute… I’m sorry I-“

And with that he runs off back to his dorm, trying to process what just happened. He’s lucky that Aira didn’t attempt to follow him, and despite the awfully creepy demeanour of the situation, he felt bad he ran off like that. Could he even tell anyone about this? Rinne would listen right?… or if Niki was at their dorm he could always tell him. But something about it made him feel scared to tell them. What if Aira found out and got upset? No… it’s fine… he can deal with this himself, right?

He reached his dorm room and turned around his pillow, more lipstick kisses. He felt sick and took off the pillow cover, kicking it under his bed and sitting back against the bed frame, hugging his knees and starting to cry…

Of course he cared about Aira but had never thought about him that way… maybe he would have considered it if Aira had just talked to him normally, but why did he have to find out this way… he’s practically already in a relationship! Speaking of that… no way he could tell Rinne, his jealously would overtake and there’s no telling what he’d do to Aira…

A pair of eyes watched him through the window, while at first upset, they softened and he whispered to himself.

“Don’t cry my sweet Hii-kun… you’ll accept my love soon.”

Chapter Text

《 You have one voicemail from ‘Aichan ♡’ 》

Hiiro groaned and grabbed the phone sitting on his bedside table, deleting the message without even listening. He’d already heard the first twelve and doubted the topic would have changed in the slightest.

It had been barely twenty four hours since the incident itself and he’s thankful that Aira hadn’t decided to run after him, or worse, show up at his dorm. It’s not like Aira didn’t know where it was, but Hiiro hoped that the morality left inside the blonde had stopped him from running over there the second his first call was ignored.

During the past day he’d been hiding in his room, giving the lamest excuse to getting out of daily training (‘I’m sick.’), and had no intentions of leaving any time soon. At least not until he’d formulated some sort of plan to either not run into Aira for the rest of his life, or to confront him in a way not to hurt the boy…

Despite his previous lie, he really did feel some kind of sick. Sick from his encounter with Aira. Sick from the feeling like someone was still watching him and sick from the constant dismissal that he knew the one potentially watching him was in fact his dearest friend. His worries caused a deep paranoia to settle within him, if Aira hadn’t have already tried to seek him out… does that mean he’s planning something? Something worse? No… no he can’t think this way.

His phone buzzed again.

“Dammit Aira-“

He stops and his face softens when he sees who it is, Rinne, his Nii-san, oh his beloved Nii-san…

《 respond already!! or i’ll steal niki’s key and go after ya myself! 》

《 sorry. 》

《 why so down? is this why you’ve been in ya room all day?? 》

《 I’m sick. 》

《 I don’t believe that, come outside, meet me after training session, yeah? 》

Hiiro sighed and stared at the message, it would be good to get outside right? Forget about what happened with Aira… it wouldn’t be so hard to avoid him if he got to Rinne as fast as possible.

He told Rinne he’d be there and shoved his phone in his pocket, finally getting up from bed. It’s not like Aira would be waiting right? Yeah… yeah he’s not insane or anything. The thought of Aira being right outside was terrifying but luckily one quick look through the door’s peep-hole reassured him no one was there.

He’d walk out the door and quickly make his was across the square, Crazy:B were training pretty far from the dorms but it was unlikely he’d run into anyone this time of night.

He keeps checking his phone as he walks, most likely due to paranoia. That would also explain why he’s looking around at every snap of a twig…. but despite his fears he attempts to stay staring forward. It’s fine… nothing’s going to happen… he’s completely safe… safe and alone… safe?…and alone and…

Snap

Hiiro feels a strange metal-like object beneath his foot, and before he has a chance to register what it is, it clamps around his ankle, dragging him to the rough ground. He spends a few seconds desperately trying to move, but the pain of the object around him increased the more he struggled, causing him to lie there defenceless on the ground, a few stray tears falling from his eyes.

He still has his phone, right? He scrambles to grab a hold of it, the pain refuses to let him lift his head too much but just enough to-

“Trying to call for help, Hii-kun?”

Hiiro’s eyes widen and he looks up as best as he can, barely getting a glimpse of the figure in front of him. His heavy breathing causing him to stutter as he finally speaks.

“Wh-what… who… what?”

Aira crouches down and puts a finger under Hiiro’s chin, forcing him to look him in the eyes.

“I could tolerate you being a little freaked from my sudden confession… but not responding to my calls and messages for so long? How could you ignore me like that after all said…”

“I… I erm…”

Hiiro continues to stutter and whimper as he speaks, the pain continued to flow through his body and his eyes begged Aira to ease his confusion.

“You can’t ignore me now, my precious Hiiro-kun…”

“What-!”

Before Hiiro could question any further, he suddenly felt his sleeve being pulled up, Aira pressed a needle to his skin.

“I doubt you’d be able to cooperate now… especially with your ankle in such a state… just relax, my love, you’ll be safe with me soon enough…”

He injected him.

Hiiro felt more tears falling down his face, his eyelids growing heavier even through his tears, and soon enough, he fell unconscious.