Chapter Text
“Hyakawa, I have a case for you.” Aku suddenly heard behind him. He had just recently graduated from the FBI academy. His job for the past three months was just to catch up on other people’s paperwork. His supervisors didn’t care who did it as long as it was done.
Aki was willing to take pretty much any case to get out of it.
“Whats the case?” Aki asked, leaning back in his office chair. Slightly turned to face his supervisor. The pile of papers on his being neglected in the process.
“This one's a little close to home. You can say no if you want. Just figured you could give a better perspective on it.” His superior said putting his hand on the back of his neck.
“I can handle it.” Aki said wanting to prove himself as an agent.
“One girl murdered and another missing in Devil’s Creek, Texas. About an hour and a half north of here.”
Aki needed a cigarette and he needed it badly.
“Why are they sending us out, if it's only two?” Aki asked, already regretting asking.
“Local police have never dealt with a murder case like this before. Sherif Kishibe has his work cut out for him. What do you say rookie?”
“I could go take a look at things. I’m from there so I’ll have somewhere to stay.” Aki said regretfully.
“Sounds good, I’ll give Kishibe a call. Tell him you’ll be out there tomorrow.” His supervisor said already dialing the sheriff's number.
Aki excused himself from his desk and practically ran to the elevator. He needed a cigarette so bad, his hands were shaking. Not from the nerves of going back home. Of course not. Aki was over it, still he hadn’t been back in years. He kept his distance from Devil’s Creek and all of the things he left behind. He didn’t even remember making it outside. The Texas heat hitting him like a tidal wave. Cruel and unrelenting. He felt his white shirt under his suit begin to stick to his body. He quickly lit his cigarette and took a drag. It felt like heaven.
“You alright?” A voice beside him called. Beam stood there with a worried expression on his face.
“Yeah, just been a long day.” Aki offered hoping he wouldn’t pry anymore.
“All the other rookies are super jealous of you right now. You're the first of us to get an actual case. We're all going to be stuck doing your paperwork now.” Beam said annoyed and proud at the same time.
Aki has kept mostly to himself in the academy. Beam was truly the only one who was willing to push back on this hard exterior. Aki knew he had a lot of walls up. Both your parents and little brother dying suddenly will do that to a person. It was a rainy day, his father knew the roads around their house flooded quickly. Still they all went out that day. Aki went to play in the rain, splashing in the puddles while his parents and brother died. He spent the whole funeral wondering what he could have done to make them stay home. He took another drag of his cigarette, nerves still there, just mellowed by the nicotine hitting his system.
“You're from there, right?” Beam asked, bringing Aki out of his swirling thoughts.
“I moved to Devil’s Creek after my parents died.” Aki admitted.
He didn’t talk about his life before the FBI academy much. Truthfully, he would rather not remember it. Still, he felt stuck in his own past. Like a never ending road. No matter how much he ran. He would always end up back there. Looking at the sign that read “Welcome to Devil’s Creek!” from the back of the social worker’s car.
“Im going to try to stay with my old foster. Save myself a couple of bucks on a hotel.” Aki said, taking a final drag of his cigarette .
“Im sure they’ll be happy to see you again.” Beam said, trying to be comforting. If he only knew.
“I haven’t talked to her in years, so we’ll see when I get there.” Aki said putting out his cigarette that he’d smoked to the filter.
“You’re not going to call her first?” Beam called out from behind him.
Aki felt like he was out of his body finishing his work for the day and packing his stuff up. Mentally preparing for the hour and half drive north from Houston to Devil’s Creek, the following morning.
When he got home to his small apartment, he quickly made dinner, showered and stuffed as many decent clothes he had into a duffel bag. He was hoping that he wouldn’t have to stay long, still you could never be too prepared.
Staring at his ceiling, he remembered tracing constellations on the ceiling of his room in Miss Makima’s house. Glow in the dark stars they had put up together when he first arrived. He remembered laughing with Himeno, even as she got sicker. She still smiled, until she couldn’t anymore. Aki didn’t even realize he was crying. Feeling salty tears fall down his face. He knew his pillow would be stained, still he turned his head to the side. He couldn’t stand looking at the ceiling any longer.
It felt weird as he got farther away from the city towards the rural town. Streetlights and office buildings were replaced with farmland and roadside markets. He found it strangely comforting but also foreign. He rode with the windows down. Feeling the wind in his now lengthier hair. He’d grown it out since he’d left Devil’s Creek. He’d bet all the money in his pocket that Miss Makima would cut it the first chance she got. She had been nice enough to take him in after his parents died, having fostered Himeno for a year before him. She had experience and Aki had no other family to go to. It was open and shut for Social Services.
“Welcome to Devil’s Creek!” Brought him back to reality, almost as if it was welcoming him back, with that came things he’d rather forget.
The first thing he had to do was talk to Sheriff Kishibe. This meant that he could prolong his and Miss Makima’s reunion. He wondered how she would react to seeing him after all this time. As he drove around these familiar roads it felt like a home movie was playing in his head. It didn’t feel real, but he knew it was.
Pulling into the Sheriff’s Office parking lot, he had to sit for a moment and take everything in. He heard a knock on his window and looked out to see a blonde man staring back at him. His eyes were sunken and dark from the hours he seemed to be putting in.
“Aki Hayakawa right? Thanks for coming.” Sheriff Kishibe said extending his hand into the window Aki had just rolled down.
“Sorry we had to meet under these circumstances.” Aki said, offering his hand into a tight handshake.
“Devil’s Creek is a small town, not much happens. I never would have imagined that something like this would happen.” Kishibe said while moving out of the way so that Aki could get out of the car.
“Mind showing me the file?” Aki asked getting straight to the point.
“Follow me inside. Coffee?” Kishibe asked as he held the door to the Sheriff’s station open.
“I'm good, thanks.” Aki said dismissively.
“Kobeni Higashiyama, 16 years old. She was found by the river. The cause of death was asphyxiation.” Kishibe said, offering rather gruesome crime scene photos.
“Christ. She’s missing her teeth.” Aki said, looking at the pure violence before him.
“Weird right? No DNA was found on her. The only thing he took were her teeth.” Kishibe said taking the photos back and putting them in the file.
“He? Do you already have a suspect?” Aki asked, looking up from the now closed case file.
“It's obvious a man did this, Agent Hayakawa.” Kishibe offered.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Aki said not happy with the answers he was being given.
“The second girl who went missing, Power. She had a brother, Denji. Seems Power and Kobeni had it out for each other after Power crashed her car.” He explained.
“That doesn’t explain why he would kill his own sister though.” Aki said, trying to make sense of this conclusion.
“Maybe Power knew that her brother killed Kobeni, so this was the only way for him to cover his tracks.” Kishibe was trying to make this narrative fit. It became obvious to Aki that he was under a lot of pressure to solve this case. Under pressure even the best of law enforcement agents can make mistakes.
“I’ll have to look at all of the evidence first.” Aki said hinting that he wanted to have a look for himself.
“I have to be at the search party for Power in fifteen minutes. The evidence will have to wait till later, I'm afraid. You're welcome to join the search party.”
Aki was disappointed at this. The search party was less to find Power and more to find her body. No one thought she was alive and Aki couldn’t blame them for it.
He took the copy of the casefile left out for him by Kishibe and went out to his car. He sat there for a moment taking it all in before starting the engine.
If he was supposed to believe that Denji had killed not only Kobeni, but his own sister, he would have needed hell of a motive. The story about the car only gives Power a motive, not Denji. It felt weird, like trying to put together pieces of the wrong puzzle.
The drive there was peaceful enough, his hands shook a bit as he drove. The car swerved a bit in the process.
He felt a bit overdressed when he got to the park where they would be looking. He was walking a white dress shirt and the nicest black pants he had. Most of the people there were dressed very casually.
What caught Aki’s attention the most was the flow of red hair coming from a bench nearby. Sitting there was a boy with fiery pinkish hair that sat just below his shoulders. He was eating an ice cream cone on the bench watching the organizers before him. He was wearing a white shirt and overalls. He was a beautiful boy by any definition of the word. Aki felt self conscious for a moment, trying to smooth the creases in his shirt.
“So you’re the FBI guy they brought in from the city?” The boy asked, taking another lick of his ice cream.
“Im just here to help out the police, they have enough on their plates.”
“This town was totally dead before all of this.” The boy emphasized the “dead.”
“Are you here for the search party?” Aki was curious as to why the boy was here.
“No. I was just bored. Thought this would be a good show.” He said taking a bite of the cone.
“You should be careful out here, there's a killer on the loose.” Aki said, unsure of what he should say.
The boy got up from the bench, sliding a bit from the white rollerskates he was wearing. He skated over to Aki and declared “They only go after girls and I'm not a girl, so I have nothing to worry about.”
“Still you should be careful.” Aki said feeling a little flustered at the closeness of the two. Their feet are only inches apart.
“I can take care of myself.” The boy smiled before skating away into the opposite direction of the search party.
“Hyakawa! Over here!” Kishibe called out.
Aki ran over to where Kishibe was standing, looking at tire tracks in the mud.
“Looks like a bike track.” Aki said, taking a closer look.
“It’s a public park, but Power was known to ride a bike.” Kishibe said adamant. “She went for a ride on her bike before she went missing.”
“Have the search team look in this area. See if they can find the bike.”
“Oh by the way Hayakawa, we’re going drinking after work today. You should come. It's the only bar in town, so I trust you can find your way.” Kishibe said before walking in the direction of the search team, which was circling the nearby trees.
They didn’t find anything in the park. Aki didn’t think they were going to either. The whole town was basically a crime scene. No one knew where these girls were the days they went missing. Towns like Devil’s Creek were supposed to be safe, so most just like their kids run around. Now no one was letting them even leave the house.
The Famished was the only bar in town, it was run by Fami. A girl who could out eat and out drink anyone in town. Aki remembered field parties with her. She had some crazy beer pong game. If you had her on your team, it was certain that you’d win.
“If it isn’t Aki Hayakawa, I almost didn’t recognize you.” She called from behind the bar.
“Fami, it's good to see you.” Aki smiled slightly.
“Its been years and you're an FBI hotshot now, wow.” Fami said, pouring him a beer that he didn’t order.
“I'm good.” Aki politely declined.
“Come on Aki, it's a celebration you just came home.” Fami said, passing it over to him.
“It’s weird.” Aki said, taking a sip.
“Have you seen Makima yet?” Fami studied with him.
“Thats where I'm going next.” Aki put the glass down, not wanting to take another sip.
“She’s got a cousin living with her.” Fami said, pouring drinks for other patrons around them.
“Didn’t know she had family.” Aki said with a puzzled expression.
“He’s strange, reminds me a little of you.” Fami smiled. “I guess you’ll meet him tonight. You’ll have to tell me how that goes.” She excused herself to the other end of the bar, greeting them with a smile.
Aki finished his beer that Fami refused to let him pay for. He drove the long way to Miss Makima’s. He felt curious about this cousin, Fami hadn’t told him much. He was the same age as them apparently. When he pulled up Miss Makima was already on the porch.
“Aki, How nice of you to stop by.” Makima said from her seat on the porch. She was sitting in a rocking chair nursing a cup of tea.
“Hello Miss Makima, I was wondering if it was possible to stay with you. Just while I'm in town.” Aki looked at his feet embarrassed.
She got up from her seat and showed him to the front door. “Your room's the same as you left it.” She declared walking up the stairs that faced the door. Two other staircases followed it. The railings around the top floor boxed the foyer in. It almost appeared like a cage from above. The same boy from earlier watched from a cracked door. She opened the door to Aki’s room leaving Himeno’s room in between their rooms. Across the hall from Himeno’s old room was Makima’s. He watched as Makima took her cup of tea to her room and closed the door.
“It's rude to stare.” Aki said, looking in the boy’s direction.
“Sorry it's just that you’re so fascinating.” He said, opening the door fully and walking across the threshold, past Himeno’s room towards where Aki was standing in the doorway of his own.
“You didn’t even tell me your name. You must have known who I was.” Aki said studying him.
His red hair fell into place on his blue night shirt. It looked ruffled from the wind blowing through it as he rollerskated. Some strands were falling into his face. His eyelashes were long and his lips were pursed, he was studying Aki right back.
“I’m Angel.” the boy said continuing to study Aki.
Aki watched as he moved a strand of hair out of his face. Aki made note of how his hands moved. How they lightly brushed the side of his face. The red of his hair covering part of his hand. Aki wondered how it would feel in his hands. If his hair was really as soft as it looked. He imagined brushing it-
What. The. Fuck.
Aki brought himself to reality and felt disgusted. Having imagined this random annoying boy in such a way.
“You haven’t told me yours.” Angel said, filling the silence.
“You already know my name.” Aki said composing himself.
“Maybe, I just want to hear you say it.” Angel smiled.
“Aki.” He said looking into Angel’s amber eyes. He watched as his lashes touched the skin below his eye, as he blinked.
“It's nice to meet you Aki, I assume we will be seeing a lot of each other.” Angel said, turning back to his room.
“I guess we will.” Aki said, watching him walk away.
Angel stopped for a moment before closing the door of his room, looked back at Aki and said “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Aki whispered quietly after Angel had already closed the door. His heart was pounding thousands of times a minute.
He remembered he had left all of his stuff in the car, so he walked downstairs as quietly as he could. He grabbed his stuff, locked his car and went quietly back up the stairs.
He threw his stuff on the bed of his old room. He didn’t even turn the lights on. The only source of light was the glow in the dark stars, illuminating constellations on the ceilings.
Aki crashed onto the bed and tried to fall asleep as quickly as possible. He tried not to think about the radhaired boy that was just a room away.
He was so fucked.