This got a bit long so I put a read more, but you can also read on AO3 here!
Atsumu remembered the first time he saw Akaashi Keiji, the awe he’d felt watching the other setter toss for the Fukurodani Volleyball Club. He was sure that it had been love at first sight.
He remembered the first rejection he’d received from Akaashi Keiji in their third year of high school. It’s not ideal to date someone from another prefecture. Atsumu wished he’d known the real reason Akaashi had rejected him, perhaps he could have avoided this entire situation then.
He remembered the second and third times Akaashi had rejected him, in their first year of University and still living in different prefectures. You need to stop asking me on dates, I cannot say yes. Atsumu was glad he now knew why he really should have stopped asking, though he doubted it would have made a difference.
The last time he asked Akaashi out had been different.
“Keiji, I really like you, and I know you keep saying no, but I’m going to keep asking until I don’t like you anymore. Will you go on a date with me?”
Akaashi’s gaze paused, looking both pained and as though he might say yes. Atsumu held his breath in anticipation for what might be.
“Atsumu, I like you too, but it is too dangerous. I cannot risk your wellbeing, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened,” he said, “You mean too much to me.”
“What could possibly be too dangerous, Keiji? I can look after myself, just as much as you can look after yourself,” Atsumu said, beyond confused about how the male beauty before him could possibly have the power to get him hurt or killed.
He watched the conflicted expression pass over Akaashi’s face, closely followed by one of pain. Atsumu felt his heart skip a beat, perhaps Akaashi had real reason to worry.
“One date. We will get coffee and then we never speak of this again, do you understand?”
Atsumu nodded.
The date had been a short six hours ago, of that Atsumu was at least seventy per cent sure. Those six hours felt like a lifetime ago though.
The darkened room he sat in on what he thought was a wooden chair had meant that he didn’t have much to do other than wait. The ropes that held him to the chair dug into his wrists and ankles painfully if he tried to move, and he was sure that he’d have scars from where the ropes had rubbed. The rope around his stomach wasn’t as tight, but was preventing him from stretching his back, something his muscles had been screaming at him for for the majority of the time he’d been locked in.
When he’d first woken up in the chair there had been a kind young man talking to him, despite knowing Atsumu was gagged and had no way of responding. That man had either been relieved of his shift, or murdered. Atsumu hated that he’d probably never know which it had been: home time or death.
A loud crash alerted him to the intercom being turned on. He wasn’t sure if fear was the more appropriate reaction, or if his curiosity was just getting the better of him, but he was impatient for anyone to say something.
He heard a series of crashes before a voice spoke to him, a squelching sound echoing loudly through the room. The reality of the situation finally hit him.
“Guess your boyfriend doesn’t like you enough to come for you himself. He just sent one of his goons. Too bad they didn’t have the foresight to keep themselves alive. How do you feel about talking to the head on a pike? We could also feed you the organs of this goon if you’d like.”
The voice was soothing, and did not match the words coming from the speaker, but he knew that they were dangerous. There was no way that the person who he assumed was meant to save him had survived.
Another hour passed before an explosion shook the room he was in. Alarms blared throughout the room.
“An intruder has been detected. All staff kill on sight,” a metallic voice said calmly.
“Hmm, perhaps your knight in shining armour did come to save you. It’s unfortunate that neither of you will be leaving here alive,” the soothing voice said over the intercom.
There was another explosion, it felt closer this time. Much closer. A loud crash sounded over the intercom speaker, followed by a loud grunt.
“Well, isn’t this unsurprising. I expected better,” the voice said.
Atsumu hoped that the voice was implying what he thought it was. That maybe Akaashi had finally arrived to save him.
A sickening squelch sounded throughout the room, like that of organs being removed from a body. And then the door swung open, revealing his saviour. Akaashi stood there, blood covering him head to toe and what Atsumu could only assume was a human heart in his hand.
He thought he might faint.
He held his breath as Akaashi untied the ropes that bound him to the chair, pulling the gag away from Atsumu’s face once he was free from the ropes. Atsumu could barely process the lips that met his, only briefly before loud voices interrupted.
He watched as Akaashi pulled two knives from his belt, leaving the room. The only reason Atsumu knew what was going on was the sound of bodies hitting the floor with loud thumps.
It was five minutes before Atsumu ventured out of the room to follow Akaashi through the corridors of his prison. Every time the came across another one of Atsumu’s captors, Akaashi took care of them. Human hearts littered the ground, all of them laying beside the body it belonged to.
By the time they made it out, Atsumu had realised that Akaashi did this regularly. He had a signature to let these people know he’d been there. The hearts were like a warning, a threat even.
