Chapter Text
“Can’t you see we’re closed?” Akira can hear Sojiro say, he sounds upset and annoyed, Akira tries to say something but nothing comes out. He leans heavily on Sae’s back, his hands on where the back of her ribcage is as he tries to stand up, his legs still burn.
“It’s Sae, I need your help with something” She speaks, her voice cool and composed. His eyes can barely focus but he’s assuming Sojiro is getting more annoyed. Sojiro starts to speak before cutting himself off, Akira looks up to see what made him stop only to see him staring right at him.
“Hey b-boss…” Akira manages to rasp out, he sounds like hell and probably looks like it too given the wince Sojiro gives when Sae gently moves him forward into the light.
“Kid-” Sojiro says. “Keep him hidden and safe, the police think he’s dead so I suggest you don’t prove them wrong. I’ll be back tomorrow” Sae speaks, still calm but Akira can hear her mask slipping away, her composed persona slowly coming apart from seams.
“Wait, what the hell did they do to him?” Sojiro asks, grabbing her upper arm lightly, just enough to stop her from continuing to walk away.
“I didn’t watch the tapes but they beat him and they gave him a… some experimental new drug to make him talk. Listen, I have a taxi waiting for me but I will come back tomorrow.” Sae says, Sojiro takes his hand off her arm and she walks out the door
She hops back in the taxi they had arrived in, thinking back on it later Akira would realise he most likely left a blood stain on the leather seat. Akira still stands, hunched over, his usually pale skin even more pasty then usually with deep purple and brown bruises forming around his face and neck, from what Sojiro could see the bruises seemed to continue down.
“Come on, kid” Sojiro says, slipping one of his arms under Akira’s and practically dragging him up the stairs, had this been any other day Akira would have protested and told Sojiro he could walk up the stairs just fine but today he let himself be dragged.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Sojiro gently sits him down on his bed (Which was a nice word for it given the fact it was milk boxes and a duvet). Sojiro hands him his sleep clothes and then stands at the opposite side of the room turned around. As much as he wants to give the kid privacy he’s scared the kid’ll collapse the moment he’s away from him, he probably will.
The adrenaline from everything happening dies down and Akira’s state worsens, his mild fever of 38.7°C had spiked up to 43.4°C. Even though Sojiro was told not to tell anyone the kid was alive he also could not risk that statement no longer being true so he called Takemi clinic, when she answered the phone she sounded a little pissed.
“You do realise the time, right? I work long hours and like to sleep sometimes” She says, fully ready to scold whoever’s on the line for waking her.
“It’s Akira” Sojiro says. Takemi stays quiet, Sojiro can hear her breathing through the line “... What?” She finally asks so he repeats the words again.
“It’s Akira, he has a bad fever and a bru-” he tries to say but Tae interrupts him “The news said he died” she says, now it’s Sojiro’s turn to be confused, how did she know he was a phantom thief?
“What?” Sojiro says “Listen, I’m heading over now but you know right? I doubt the kid would tell me and not tell you, although that being said I did find out myself” She says, Sojiro is still a bit shocked that Akira’s told people and that the doctor who runs a small clinic and has been nicknamed ‘the plague’ is one of the few people who know.
“Yeah… yeah, thanks Takemi, I’ll make you coffee while I wait” Sojiro says, still a bit shocked that she knew. “Thanks” Tae says and hang ups, Sojiro makes a house blend and within three minutes she arrives.
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Akira lies on top of his bed in his night clothes, he feels hazy and in a daze as he stares up at the ceiling, Sojiro left a few minutes ago, Akira hopes he comes back, sitting by himself like this makes him feel extremely alone. He can hear muffled voices from the cafe.
“Let’s see what they did to you, kid” He hears Tae say as she walks up the stairs. He stares at her, shocked at her sudden appearance. “What? Do I have something on my face?” She jokes, crouching down by his bed to take his temperature, burning up, just like she thought. Sojiro’s already gone back down the stairs, hopefully to get a bucket of cold water and a hand towel.
“Tae?” Akira asks. “Who else could it be?” she jokes, taking his head into her hands to look at the bruises on his face. He closes his eyes and leans into the touch, Tae lightly flicks his forehead to remind him to stay awake. Sojiro walks back up the stairs with a bowl of water under his arm, he sets it down on the table.
“How is he?” Sojiro asks. “Pretty out of it, the bruises are bad but will probably go away soon, nothing too ba-” Tae cuts herself off then moves her hands to cover Akira’s ears before raising her voice “Is that a fucking boot mark!?” She states, Sojiro gets up to look at the side of his head and sure enough, when Sojiro pushes the hair around the side of Akira’s head away, there’s a dirty, rough and opaque boot mark on the side of his head, someone, some dirt bag, stomped on the kid, ‘no, on his kid’ he corrects himself mentally, some dirtbag stood on his kid’s head and probably stepped on other parts of his body too.
“Akira, I’m going to take your shirt off to assess the damage, okay?” Tae says, Akira nods, eyes fluttering shut again, “okay?” She says again, this time a little firmer. “Yes, yes tha… that’s okay” Akira says, mumbling, his eyes harder to keep open.
“Only a little longer, then you can sleep this all off” Tae says before gently rolling up his shirt and lifting it over his head. Nothing Sae or Takemi could have said would have prepared him for this, bruises of many colours, mainly red, purple and brown, map out his torso as well as cuts on his side, just below his ribs. Like Sojiro had thought, there were also boot marks on his ribs and side. Tae winces as she looks at Akira.
Tae looks away for a brief second to look at the bruises, ‘the fucking choke marks’ he thinks to himself, on Akira’s neck “Puncture marks…” Tae says and grimaces. “Did they give him something? Like a drug of some sort” Tae asks, trying to hide the shock in her voice. “Yeah, she said it was new and experimental” Sojiro answers. Tae sighs “This means we can’t give him any pain killers until at least tomorrow. Um…” Tae thinks for a second “Do you have an ice pack? I could run down to the clinic to get one” She asks.
“No, no that won’t be necessary, I have one here” Sojiro says, heading down the stairs to grab it from where it’s been hiding at the back of the fridge for the past few years, Sojiro briefly wonders if ice packs go off before pushing the thought away and returning up the stairs.
“It won’t do much” Tae says as Sojiro hands her the ice pack “but it’ll do enough for him to at least be able to sleep”. Sojiro nods, “As much as I’d like to stay and do something, there’s nothing I really can do as of now…” They fall into a silence “I’ll come back tomorrow though, the moment he wakes up I want you to call me and I’ll head over as quickly as I can” Tae says because, as hard as she is trying to act calm and unbothered by this, she cares for Akira, he’s become more than a guinea pig or just some high schooler, despite being an only child Akira is too her what she thinks a younger brother is like. He’s helped her in ways that she can never repay him for, if there is anything she wants to do to help, it’s this. “And don’t worry about payment, I would never charge you for this.” Sojiro walks her to the door of the Leblanc and watches her walk down the road just to make sure she gets to the clinic alright.
Sojiro walks up the stairs and grabs the chair from Akira’s makeshift desk so he can sit next to Akira’s bed. He dips the hand towel into the bucket and wrings it out before placing it on Akira’s forehead. Seeing Akira sleeping makes Sojiro realises just how young he is, he’s sixteen, sixteen and being beaten and interrogated by the police, the kid is barely older then Futaba. Sojiro sits on the stool next to his bed and brushes the kid’s hair out of his face. To think this kid has a criminal record, the thought makes Sojiro want to laugh.
Sojiro goes to stand up and leave before hearing, almost missing it, a small voice speak “Please…. please don’t leave” he hears Akira murmur. Sojiro stands staring at the kid, he hadn’t even realised the kid was awake. “Please d-don’t leave me” Akira says again, his voice much watery “I don’t wanna… be alone” he begs, starting to combine and jumble up words. Akira lazily reaches his arm up to try and reach Sojiro.
“Don’t worry, kid, I’m not going anywhere” Sojiro says, sitting back down and rubbing Akira’s head. Sojiro really isn’t the best at comforting or emotions in general so he does what Futaba had said Wakaba had done for her after a nightmare. ‘Right, Futaba’ Sojiro thinks to himself and realises he hadn’t told Futaba why he hadn’t come home yet. ‘Shit’ he almost says out loud because he knows she’s most likely seen the news saying Akira’s dead and Sojiro hasn’t been answering his phone.
“Akira, I’m going to go downstairs for a few minutes because I need to tell Futaba where I am and how you are but I will be right back” Sojiro says, extremely slowly to make sure Akira knows what he’s saying. Akira mumbles something and Sojiro gets up to grab his phone and call Futaba.
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Akira hates this. He hates how cold his forehead and chest feels on the metal floor, he hates how alone he feels, he hates how he can see the guards watching him, he hates how they keep coming in even though he’s told them everything. They could kill him and he wouldn’t say anything about his teammates because he did this all by himself, there was no outside help. So why won’t they leave! Akira feels close to ripping his hair out, maybe that would reduce the pressure in his head.
He hates this so much, he wants to go back to the Leblanc, he wants to go home. Back to the dusty attic, back to where Morgana would scold him for trying to go out after going to mementos, back to where he would sit and listen to Futaba rant to him about the latest Featherman episode, back to where Sojiro would teach him how to make coffee, back to where he and his friend’s hung out after school. He knows he’s crying, he can’t feel it but he knows. He can’t feel anything at all. He feels everything and nothing at the same time, his whole body is in pain yet everything is numb.
Akira can’t stop the sob that escapes his lips and once the first one comes out, it’s like a dam of emotions breaking, he feels so alone, he can’t feel anything yet everything is too much. He wants to wake and find this is a bad dream, to wake up and see Akechi smiling at him and teasing him about falling asleep to the crappy cop show while Morgana rolls his eyes at Akechi, to wake up and see Ryuji and Ann asking if the movie was so boring that he slept through it, to wake up to see Futaba and Yusuke watching and arguing over a new anime, both of them being to engrossed in the show to notice him falling asleep, he wants to wake up to see Makoto helping Haru with her vegetable garden and for Makoto to scold him for sleeping instead of helping but he doesn’t.
As hard as he tries, he stays lying on this cold floor, fighting a sleep he fears will be eternal. He lets himself sob, he feels pathetic and disgusting but he can’t stop, he can’t stop crying.
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After explaining to a very frightened and on the verge of tears Futaba that Akira was alright and that he would be staying at the Leblanc to make sure he’s alright, Futaba assured him everything with her (and her friend, Kasumi? He’s not sure if he heard right, that Sojiro didn’t remember her asking to invite over (then again as long as she’s making friend’s)) was fine Sojiro hung up.
Ascending the staircase he expects to see Akira fast asleep, instead, he finds Akira shivering and curled up in a ball. Sojiro walks over faster, replacing the wet hand towel on Akira’s head, hoping that will stop him from shaking. Instead of uncurling and ceasing to shake like Sojiro had hoped, Akira started to sob, not quiet cries or small tears but actual, gut wrenching and choked sobs. Sojiro remembers how bad he is at this as he struggles to comfort the crying boy.
“I-I don’t know anything e-else” Akira mutters through sobs. Sojiro realises this is some form of flashback. He sits Akira up to help with his breathing and holds his hands while the boy calms down. Akira looks at him with unshed tears in his eyes.
“Huh…. ‘jiro?” He mumbles, looking scared and confused. Sojiro nods “Yeah, it’s Sojiro. You’re at the Leblanc right now” he says, Akira blinks and stares for a few seconds “Akir-” Sojiro is cut off by Akira practically throwing himself at Sojiro and hugging him, sobs engulfing him once more. Sojiro hugs him back and rubs his hair with one hand as Akira cries into his shoulder, the damp towel that once lied on Akira’s forehead slips down and falls to the ground, neither of them pay much mind to it though, Akira just holds onto Sojiro like if he lets go he’ll be gone forever.
“It’s okay, Akira, it’s okay. It’s over now, you’re alright” Sojiro says, rubbing circles on his back, he feels like he’s taking care of a kid who just vomited, not that he minds though, as much as he wants to deny it, Sojiro sees Akira as family.
Sojiro is now realising how strong the kid is, he practically has an iron grip on him, he’s sure it won’t bruise or anything but he still underestimated Akira.
After around twenty minutes of bawling his eyes out, Akira’s sobs turn to cries and then into sniffles before stopping all together. Sojiro stays still for a few more minutes, making sure the kid really is asleep, before (trying to) gently maneuver him into his bed and under the covers. Sojiro stands up, his knees cracking as he does, and is about to walk to the small couch where he plans to sleep on when Akira’s hand lightly grazes his wrist.
“It’s alright Akira, I’m staying right here” He whispers comfortingly.
“Thanks… dad” Akira mumbles before leaning his head back and finally falling asleep. ‘Dad, huh’ Sojiro thinks to himself 'I really wouldn’t mind that'. Sojiro then walks to the small couch where he plans to get at least an hour of sleep before he needs to get up and open.