Chapter Text
“So… you’re saying spies don’t exist?”
Kuroo faced his lecture hall filled with first and second year students, gaping. That had absolutely not been what he just said. “What? No! Of course spies exist, haven’t you learned anything from your history classes?” What kind of stupid question even was that? More importantly, how did they even manage to get on this subject? Kuroo sure as hell hadn’t brought it up.
A hand shot up in the front row, but the girl barely waited for her gesture to catch Kuroo’s eyes before speaking, making the gesture absolutely pointless. “But you just said there are no spies!”
“Well… not now ,” Kuroo stressed, tempted to lift his hand to his temple to try to massage away the tiny headache forming. He hadn’t come into this goddamn chemistry lecture this morning expecting to have to debate the existence of spies with his students who—for the record—weren’t even his students. He was just filling in for the actual professor today since he was the assistant for the class. He wasn’t prepared for the class to get this derailed.
“But why not?” one kid asked, a bit further back. This kid had a shit eating grin on his face like he knew the entire class was purposefully distracting Kuroo and was proud to contribute. In his defense, they wouldn’t listen even if he did make a pathetic attempt to cover the course material. “You’re saying they just got rid of all their perfectly good spies?”
“ They ?” Kuroo asked, perfectly aware he had fallen for the bait yet unable to really care. He was trained for several situations, but trying to convince a lecture hall full of bored kids that spies weren’t plaguing their nation was not one of those situations. He lifted an eyebrow and placed his hands on his hips. “And who is ‘they’?”
“The government, duh,” another boy spoke up, leaning over the small shelf in the front row like he was ready to just fall asleep right then and there.
“Okay,” Kuroo humored, nodding. “So… who is the government supposed to be spying on?”
An array of answers were shouted out at him; too many for Kuroo to respond to, frankly. He was pretty sure he heard ‘white people’ and ‘aliens’ thrown into the mix, though. To silence the outburst, he shook his head and gave a little bit of a laugh, waving his hands to clear the air.
“If any of you actually paid attention to your history lessons,” Kuroo began as the roar of commentary died out, “you would know the government only resorts to espionage when it’s an international affair. America and Russia spying on each other during and after the end of the cold war. Uhh…” Kuroo waved his hands around a bit as he tried to think, the class eagerly waiting. “Klaus Fuchs. German scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project and spied for the Soviets and helped them build their own bomb. And there was that one guy who was working with American stealth technology while secretly handing it over to the Chinese.” Kuroo smiled at his class, feeling rather successful. “See? International espionage. There aren’t any Japanese spies roaming Japan digging through your social media accounts and looking for information. So sorry to disappoint.”
“Why do you know so much about spies?” one kid asked in the silence, followed by another commenting “yeah, sounds like something a spy would say.”
Kuroo shook his head and laughed instead of answering properly. “Life isn’t like one of your mangas, guys,” he said, turning pointedly toward his class. “Oh yeah, don’t think I don’t know where all of this is coming from. I know you’re all reading that new spy manga. It’s not real. The government doesn’t use spies on their own people.”
“Hah, yeah, and if they did, your precious teacher over here certainly wouldn’t be one of them. I mean just look at him.”
Kuroo didn’t even need to question who would make such a ridiculous comment, because even after months of not seeing the man, he still recognized the voice as clear as day. He turned his head to face the very top of the lecture hall, way in the back, where his old friend stood with a smirk across his face, arms crossed over his chest in an amused fashion. Kuroo hadn’t even noticed his entrance, and it seemed the rest of the class hadn’t either by the way all their attention turned on him.
Suga raised his hand in a small wave, teeth glinting out of his mischievous smile. “Hey.”
Kuroo tried to suppress his smile, but he was obviously failing. He could feel his cheeks straining as his lips curled back to expose his teeth. He shook his head, trying to pretend to be annoyed, but it wasn’t even worth trying to act. “I’m in the middle of class,” Kuroo settled on instead of any basic greeting. He wasn’t even sure how to respond to Suga suddenly showing up at his school unannounced, but he knew something basic like ‘hey how have you been’ wasn’t going to cut it with him.
“Oh?” Suga asked, taking the liberty to walk down the center aisle while all the students just watched, gossiping quietly about the intrusion. “And what class is this? Conspiracy theories 101?”
“Apparently,” Kuroo agreed, facing the rest of his class. What the fuck was he even supposed to say to them? They all kind of looked at him like they were waiting to know who this mysterious guy was, but Kuroo couldn’t exactly come right out and say ‘hey guys this is my teammate. We used to be spies for the government which I just convinced you don’t exist.’
Kuroo cleared his throat as Suga walked right past him, settling down in the swivel chair behind the desk situated in front of the massive chalkboard covering the back wall of the lecture hall. He made himself comfortable, folding his hands over his lap with an innocent smile.
“Please, don’t let me interrupt,” Suga insisted, gesturing for Kuroo to continue. “Which conspiracy are we talking about next? New World Order?”
“New World Order isn’t-”
“I heard the New World Order was made up of lizard people!” someone called out, cutting Kuroo off.
Suga hummed, nodding along with the ambiguous shout. “Huh, and here I thought it was made up of pigs.”
Kuroo couldn’t help but snort at the pun. Despite not knowing who this person was, half of his class immediately jumped into the conversation with him and Suga didn’t hesitate to respond with just as many stupid hypotheses and theories as the rest of them. So much for teaching chemistry for the day, but Kuroo couldn’t really be mad with Suga sitting right in front of him, smiling like a dork again and chatting away with the kids like nothing was wrong. He let Suga take over the class and resolved to bribe the kids not to tell the professor.
---
Kuroo couldn’t get the students out of the lecture hall fast enough. He didn’t push any of them out the door, especially the ones who hung back with Suga still deeply involved in a conversation about conspiracy theories, but he wouldn’t lie and say he let out a breath of relief when the final student waved goodbye, allowing Kuroo to close the doors behind them. He listened for footsteps and waited five evenly spaced out seconds before turning around to face Suga with a smile on his face, Suga returning one just as big.
“How the hell are you even here?!” he asked, practically rushing down the steps, skipping the last two for dramatic effect. Suga laughed from behind the desk.
“I literally walked through the front doors.”
“The fact that you even got this close to the school is impressive,” Kuroo commended, watching Suga sip at Kuroo’s coffee which he had hijacked and taken entirely for himself the second he saw it.
“Wasn’t really expecting to find you teaching when I walked in, though. That was a surprise,” Suga said, swirling the coffee cup in his hand. “I thought you weren’t a teacher. Aren’t you just an assistant?”
“Unfortunately,” Kuroo admitted with a sigh, swinging by the desk and snatching the cup out of Suga’s hands, downing the last of it before handing it back to him with a satisfied smile. Suga took the cup back, only having to hold it for a second to realize it was empty before promptly tossing it over his shoulder and onto the floor
“Unfortunately? Don’t you hate this place anyway?” Suga asked with a laugh, raising an eyebrow at him.
“I wouldn’t say I hate it, per say,” Kuroo dragged out, sliding over to the chalkboard and grabbing the spray bottle of water from the hook on the side. He grabbed the rag hanging on the hook below it too, attempting to clean the board as fast as he could so he could focus on Suga instead of everything the professor would yell at him for later. “I’d just rather not be some lousy assistant. Grunt work sucks.”
Suga snorted. “Now you know how Bokuto feels.”
“Uhm! No!” Kuroo interrupted, spinning to point at Suga accusingly. “Bokuto never got grunt work, Akaashi made sure of that! He passed it all off on us! He only gave Bokuto cleaning jobs so he could stare at his ass when he bent over. Don’t stick up for him!”
At this point Suga was in tears, clutching his stomach as he laughed. His cheeks glowed red from all the blood rushing to his head as he ran out of oxygen, his feet finally falling away from the desk so he could breathe properly. “Man, I fucking missed you guys. Daichi’s fun company and all, but there’s nothing like dancing around those two and their god awful sexual tension.”
“Yeah, speaking of Daichi,” Kuroo began with a small huff of laughter, placing the spray bottle back on the hook and discarding the rag. “How did you even get away from him long enough to get here? No way Daichi just let you drop by for a visit.”
“Daichi lets me do whatever I want, thank you very much,” Suga interrupted with a grin, pushing himself out of the chair so he could lean forward, palms pressed against the surface of the desk.
“Does that include sneaking out of a government building to say hi to one of the three people you’re currently prohibited from seeing?” Kuroo asked with a grin just as devious, leaning forward for added effect.
“I didn’t sneak out,” Suga insisted, crossing his arms over his chest like boasting about it made him feel proud. “Daichi knows I’m here.”
“Oh, then that’s worse. Now I’m an accomplice. Suga, if any of the big shots find out about this-”
Suga held up his hand to stop Kuroo, effectively silencing him. “Daichi knows I’m here, and so does everyone else,” he clarified. Kuroo opened his mouth to retort that, but he didn’t have a good retort for that. Why the fuck did they let Suga come here? If anyone was allowed to come see Kuroo, it was Daichi himself, and even then Daichi usually played it safe by meeting him in more inconspicuous places than the middle of a crowded lecture hall. That was ridiculous. They wouldn’t just let Suga drop by for a visit. That meant there was a reason Suga was here, and that suddenly wasn’t as fun as a secret drop-by. Anything to do with the government was usually less fun.
“Are… we in trouble?” Kuroo asked slowly, his grin melting away from his face.
“Kuroo, if we were in trouble I would not be the one sent to pick you up or deliver the news. Use your head, come on,” he replied with a laugh, spinning around so he could sit on the desk instead of leaning on it. He kicked his feet back and forth, his smile melting into something more genuine. “I was sent to get the whole team, actually. That’s how I knew what school you were at.”
Kuroo looked around dramatically as if searching for the other two, but he already knew he and Suga were completely alone. “Oh? I don’t see Bokuto and Akaashi here.”
“I came to get you first, asshole.”
Kuroo shook his head, cutting Suga off. “That doesn’t even make sense, though. Get the team? Get the team for what? And if anybody should be getting the team rounded up, it’d be either Daichi or Akaashi, not you.”
“Yeah, but I wanted to do it,” Suga said with another cheshire grin.
Kuroo pulled his lips back in disgust. “You sucked his dick so he’d let you do it, didn’t you?”
“Oh I did more than just suck his dick,” Suga replied without hesitation, throwing his head back with a laugh. “We did it in his office too. I’m pretty sure he has a kink for that.”
“Suga, man, I love you, but if you’re picking me up so we can go to Daichi’s office, I don’t want to know you fucked in there.”
“We did it all over his desk.”
“ Dude .”
“You’re just sad because you don’t have a work related romance,” Suga decided with an exaggerated pout. “I have Daichi so I’m basically the Pepper Potts to his Tony Stark, but I’m sexier so if anyone would be Tony Stark it’d be me. And Bokuto has our team leader wrapped around his finger. And you have... “
“My fantastic will not to need to fuck the closest person to me at all times,” Kuroo finished for him, grinning. “Now, hearing about your sex life with Daichi is fun and all, but is there a reason we’re getting the whole team for a meeting?” They were probably in trouble. They hadn’t done anything to get in trouble—not that Kuroo knew of—but those political pigs loved exhausting all their rage on people that had nothing to do with anything, which most of the time ended up being people like them because it was easy. Suga didn’t seem too worried though, but then again Suga was also a fantastic actor and loved to blow things out of proportion.
“Oh, yeah,” Suga said, as if he had somehow forgotten. “Daichi has a mission for us.”
Kuroo paused.
“A- a mission?” he asked, his voice feeling tighter than it had a second ago. That wasn’t possible though, was it? They had all been sent on a forced leave a year ago, going underground in basic jobs like being a fucking teacher’s assistant so they wouldn’t get caught like they almost did on their last mission. It hadn’t been their faults, not by a long shot. Someone else fucked up and it almost got the four of them outed, so as a precaution, their team was basically torn apart. Kuroo hadn’t been allowed to see his best friends in months, not since Daichi managed to get them all together for a short time just so they could see each other—more of Suga’s influence, he was sure. But a mission? Hell, their team wasn’t even signed back on an actual contract yet and Daichi was already talking about a mission?
“Suga… if you’re lying about this-”
“Why would I lie?” Suga asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Daichi has a mission for us, ran it by all the higher ups, and got approval. The last step is for our team to re-sign and have a debriefing, and we’ll officially be back in business.”
“It can’t be that easy,” Kuroo decided, shaking his head. He thought they’d be split up for years, plural. He thought he would be stuck in this school forever. It felt unreal. No way they could just go back to working on missions like everything that happened last year hadn’t happened. Things didn’t just work out like that. Nothing ever worked out like that.
“Well, I don’t think they really wanted us on the mission, but the other team isn’t experienced enough to handle it and we’re pretty much cleared at this point, so going out shouldn’t be a problem anymore if we’re not paranoid cowards,” Suga decided with a shrug. His lips slowly curved into another smile, head tilting just enough to make him seem innocent. It was the look he used when he wanted to get his way. “So? How about it? Getting the team back together? Going out and fucking shit up instead of trying to convince your inattentive students you’re not a spy?”
Getting the team back together. They were getting the team back together for a mission. Maybe that wouldn’t sound so great to normal people, but the four of them weren’t exactly normal. Being a teaching assistant at some shotty college for some dry-mouthed professor was great and all, but it wasn’t for him. It wasn’t what Kuroo wanted to do with the rest of his life. He lived for the thrill of being out on missions with his best friends. Absolutely nothing could compare to that, and they had a chance to do it again now. A real, actual, chance, which he was starting to think he would never get again.
“Let’s do it,” Kuroo found himself mumbled, breaking himself out of his stupor not a second later to grab his bag and swing it over his shoulders. Suga pushed himself off the desk with a smile, hands on his hips. “Who are we getting next? Bokuto? Let’s go!”
“You’re not even going to finish cleaning the classroom?”
“Not my job anymore!”
---
Bokuto worked as a bodyguard. Kuroo had already known that before Suga dragged him to see him, but Daichi didn’t know that they all knew because they only talked about it the second he got up to use the bathroom during their last get-together; a mistake on his part. Still, Kuroo had already known Bokuto was a bodyguard. He figured the job would suit him well enough since Bokuto had the body of a god with shoulders to die for—not that being a sexy hunk had anything to do with being a good bodyguard, but at least he would look the part well enough.
He just didn’t really expect Bokuto to blend in so much with the job.
He and Suga watched from afar, mixing into a crowd at a food stall across the street, as Bokuto walked in front of some fancy politician that Kuroo was sure he had met at some point but couldn’t care less to remember. He wore a fitted suit with dark glasses and a black wire tucked around his ear, perfect posture with a serious expression which didn’t suit him at all, but if you didn’t already know his personality, it gave the illusion that he belonged there.
“God, he’s worse off than you,” Suga mumbled, shaking his head at the sight of Bokuto acting like that. “Forget getting him for the mission. We have to get him out of there before he fades away to nothing.”
“I feel guilty for not knowing he was suffering all this time,” Kuroo said with a sad nod and a hand pressed to his chest, watching as the politician entered the building followed by two of his other body guards. Bokuto only held the door open for him and then remained by the door, hands tucked behind his back as he gazed out at the crowd. It was painful to watch Bokuto standing so still. If Bokuto ever stood that still on a mission Akaashi would probably start worrying he had passed out or fallen asleep standing up. “He looks like he’s really paying attention to his surroundings. How much you wanna bet he’s daydreaming about Akaashi?” Kuroo asked, a grin sliding over his lips.
“Who in their right mind would bet against that?” Suga asked with a snort, followed by a quick tap to his shoulder. Let’s go . Even though it had been a year, their signals came natural to Kuroo like he had been practicing them in a mirror every day.
Suga already started moving out from the crowd, so Kuroo was left to just quickly follow after him. “Wait… now?” he asked, dodging a couple in front of him so he could maneuver his way back to Suga’s side. “He’s working,” he pointed out.
“Yeah? And I walked in on your class. Who gives a fuck?” Suga asked under his breath, quickly crossing the street even though the light to cross was still red. Kuroo hurried after him, not bothering to question him any further. If Suga wanted to get in trouble with the higher ups, that was on him. Suga didn’t even check to make sure Kuroo was still following him as he made his way toward Bokuto, waiting until he was just close enough for Bokuto to realize he was approaching to smile and lift his hand in a wave. “Bo!” he screamed, waving his hand frantically.
Kuroo thought, just for a second, that if Daichi knew how careless Suga was being about this, he would never give him permission to do anything of the sort ever again.
Bokuto’s eyes were still hidden behind the tinted glasses, but Kuroo didn’t need to see his eyes to know he had seen them. His strict posture dropped immediately, his lips breaking out into a wide smile.
“Suga!!” Bokuto screamed, instantly reaching up and tearing the glasses off to reveal wide, excited eyes. He laughed, turning to Kuroo. “Kuroo! Oh my god! Oh my god !” he screamed, abandoning his post without even a flicker of consideration and running up to them. Kuroo ran ahead of Suga, meeting Bokuto first in a ribcage crushing hug. Bokuto spun him around before turning on Suga, easily picking him up while Suga laughed. “I can’t believe you guys are here!” he continued to yell, finally putting Suga down, practically bouncing in place with how excited he was.
“I can’t believe you abandoned your post that easily. Seriously, Bo?” Kuroo asked, eyeing the empty door to the front of the building.
Bokuto’s eyes went wide, his head turning over his shoulder to check the door, as if to check for himself whether he had, in fact, just walked away from his post. “Uh… that should be fine!” he quickly decided, turning back to face the two of them. “Doesn’t matter anyway! You two are here! What happened? Are we getting the team back together?”
Suga snorted with a nod while Kuroo just gaped in astonished silence. How could he not even suspect that they were all in a huge amount of trouble? Aside from that, how could his mind just go immediately to a new mission?! Didn’t it seem more likely that they would just be getting together to be rebellious? “That was quick. Kuroo didn’t even believe me when I told him,” Suga said.
“Wait seriously?! We’re getting everyone back together?!” Bokuto yelled, jumping in excitement, ignoring Suga’s comment about Kuroo. “I can’t believe this! Akaashi said it wouldn’t happen, but it’s happening!”
Kuroo wanted to butt in and say he didn’t remember Akaashi saying that the last time they met up, but he held his tongue and instead just raised an eyebrow which Bokuto proceeded to not even notice.
“So you’re in, right?” Suga asked with an amused smile.
“Are you kidding me?! Yes!” Bokuto shouted. “This job is so boring. I just have to stand there all day. I can’t believe they gave me the worst job in the entire world. We still have to get Akaashi, right? Does he know yet?”
Suga shook his head. “No, we still have to get him. So let’s go. He’ll be at-”
“Fukurodani, the restaurant. His shift ends at six, so let’s hurry!”
Bokuto moved to leave, but neither Suga or Kuroo followed. Suga crossed his arms over his chest with an amused smirk while Kuroo just raised an eyebrow at the boy. It took a second, but eventually Bokuto realized he wasn’t being followed, turning around with a confused expression. “What?”
Suga turned his smirk toward Kuroo for a second before looking back at Bokuto. “You know, we all knew Akaashi was a waiter at some fancy restaurant. But I had to ask Daichi for the name of it, and not even I knew what his schedule was today.”
Bokuto just stared blankly at them for a second, processing that information. Slowly but surely, the tips of his ears turned bright red. “O- oh,” he stuttered, sending Suga into a fit of laughter while Kuroo tried and failed to suppress his own.
“How long have you two been meeting behind Daichi’s back?!” Suga asked through his cackle, one hand wrapped around his stomach as he nearly keeled over, his other on Kuroo’s shoulder to keep him from falling over.
“You can’t tell Daichi! He’ll be so mad at Akaashi! And it was my idea!” Bokuto quickly began rambling, unaware that Suga had no intention of telling Daichi anything, obvious by the way he was conducting this entire mini mission of his.
“Of course it was your idea! I’m surprised Akaashi even agreed to it. But then again, it’s you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Bokuto asked, crinkling his nose and furrowing his brows.
Suga turned to Kuroo again, this time exasperated, before facing Bokuto once again. “So… you’re saying you two have been meeting this entire time, and you still haven’t slept together?”
It took about half a second for Bokuto to turn into a fumbling mess, his face entirely red while he stuttered, trying to find any words to defend himself. “We’re- ha ha, no we’re not- I mean- I like him I- but he doesn’t- so- so we’re not- I mean- because he-”
“Nice defense,” Suga commended smugly, his face scrunched up to prevent himself from bursting out in laughter again, while Bokuto just deflated in defeat.
“Can we just go get Akaashi now?” Bokuto asked quietly, still deflated. His shoulders sagged and his head hung in embarrassment which only caused Suga to laugh again.
“Uh, yeah, but Bo?” Kuroo interrupted, gesturing to the building. “Maybe you wanna go let someone know you’re abandoning your post before you just disappear?”
Bokuto’s face once again lit up. “Oh! Right!” he said, running back toward the building and leaving Suga and Kuroo to watch as he left.
“Who do you think’s gonna make the first move? Kaashi or Bo?”
“Kaashi, obviously,” Kuroo answered without any hesitation. “He’s just a coward.”
---
Akaashi didn’t lie when he said he worked at a fancy restaurant. Fukurodani was a sit down place with private rooms, mostly used for business deals and political meetings. The place had private vale and people who just stood by the doors ready to greet their guests. Kuroo was pretty sure you needed a reservation just to enter the place. It didn’t really look like the kind of place you could just walk in for an evening meal.
The building was surrounded by beautiful flowers, all expertly managed, with a small creek flowing under the tiny bridge that led to the front door. There was traditional art plastered all over the walls and windchimes hanging on the front banister. The place was beautiful, to put it simply. Just like being a bodyguard suited Bokuto appearance-wise, this place suited Akaashi almost too well.
“How are we even going to get in?” Suga asked, resting his chin in the palm of his hand while he stared at the building. They were currently hidden behind a few trees across the street since the restaurant was in a more secluded area for privacy reasons.
“We don’t need to get in,” Bokuto pointed out, holding out his phone to show Suga the time. Kuroo took note that it was currently 5:57 without commenting about the domestic looking background image of him and Akaashi together. “He’ll be coming out any minute now. Besides, Kaashi takes his job here really seriously. He doesn’t really enjoy it, but he treats it like he does.”
Kuroo hummed quietly, gazing out at the restaurant. Akaashi was going to be the most difficult person to get on board with this, which was probably why Suga planned on getting him last. Suga, despite his entire personality, was actually a serious planner. He had purposefully walked in on Kuroo’s class, most likely to observe him in that environment before he decided how to approach the subject of getting the team back together. He didn’t need the same precautions with Bokuto because he was more predictable. If Suga was going to Akaashi last, it meant he needed everyone’s help to get him on board.
The last time they all met, Akaashi had been reluctant to talk about anything related to their previous work. Of course, Daichi also discouraged talking about it too much, insisting they had only met up to meet as friends because they were all close and it wasn’t fair to tear them apart like that.
It wasn’t Akaashi’s fault, though. The screw up on their last mission—albeit, not their fault—had almost gotten Bokuto, specifically, exposed. The integrity of their team had been compromised, but Bokuto had been the target of that information. It was because of a mere coincidence that Suga ended up taking on Bokuto’s work that day, so nobody was hurt. The target was Bokuto, not Suga, so the assailants didn’t end up doing anything. But if Bokuto hadn’t burnt his hand on the stove that day, of all things, and had Akaashi not insisted he rest, he might have ended up in a pretty bad confrontation.
It was no wonder Akaashi was reluctant to talk about anything related to the team. He was their team leader, and not only had their last mission together ended terribly, but Bokuto almost got hurt.
Convincing him to go on another mission with them was going to be a lot harder than it was with Kuroo and Bokuto.
They waited for a few more minutes in silence until Akaashi exited the restaurant by the front doors. He was wearing dress pants and a collared shirt, his jacket folded over his arm professionally. He definitely looked like he belonged in the setting. His professional and calm atmosphere paired with the fancy getup was a perfect match.
Akaashi barely made it down three of the front steps before his head lifted, eyes scanning the entire area. His body showed no signs that anything was wrong, but his eyes locked onto everything around him, like he was searching. He continued walking toward the parking lot, dropping his eyes again when his back was turned to them.
Suga sighed, leaning back. “Damn. He caught us.”
Bokuto furrowed his brows. “He didn’t even see us.”
“He didn’t need to,” Kuroo pointed out. “He knew we were here.” He pushed himself to his feet, holding his hand out to help Suga up while Bokuto had no problem bouncing up with all the pent up energy he had. “So much for our element of surprise. Let’s go. He’s gonna be waiting for us.”
Suga made a small sound that kind of sounded like a whine as he trailed after Kuroo, Bokuto bouncing up by his side. They walked around the building to avoid being seen by anyone else, and when they got to the parking lot Akaashi was leaning against his car, alert. His arms were crossed over his chest but his posture told them he was waiting to be approached. It seemed, however, that Akaashi had not expected it to be the three of them by the way his eyes widened slightly upon their reveal.
Akaashi looked over his shoulder before calmly walking over to them, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“What are you three doing here?” was the welcoming greeting they were all met with. Akaashi paused for a minute before gesturing for the group to follow him. He led them around a corner of the building with no windows near it so they were more secluded and not out in the open at a government owned restaurant.
“Hey Kaashi,” Suga said with a mellow smile once they were all alone. “Good to see you.”
“Likewise, I guess,” Akaashi mumbled, turning to Bokuto. “Why are you here? I told you to never come to the restaurant.”
Kuroo snorted under his breath. “Dude, you’ve been meeting him at his house? Kinky.” Akaashi glared at Kuroo but Kuroo just shrugged in innocence. “Suga is the one that got us all, not Bo.”
“Daichi asked me to,” Suga quickly threw out, treading carefully as Akaashi turned to him. “He-”
“No.”
Suga’s face fell, his shoulders deflating as he stared back at Akaashi who only looked back at Suga with a strict expression, his decision already lingering in the air.
“No?” Suga asked, his tone quieter than it had been before. “Akaashi-”
“We’re not getting the team back together,” Akaashi clarified, as if he hadn’t already made it clear enough what he meant by ‘no’.
“Akaashi, wait-” Kuroo attempted to interject, but Akaashi just cut him off.
“The team is done. We decided that a year ago.”
“No- no!” Suga said, shaking his head and putting himself right in front of Akaashi. “No, we didn’t decide that. We were laying low. We were on a hiatus because we needed to be, that’s what this was.”
“Suga, it wasn’t a hiatus,” Akaashi pointed out, his voice still perfectly composed while Suga struggled to find any composure. “Daichi terminated our contract.”
“So we’ll make a new one,” Kuroo decided, forcing Akaashi’s attention on him so Suga could have a moment to think. “Daichi already has a mission for us. That means he’s willing to give us another contract.”
“Why? So this mission can end the same way the last one did?” Akaashi asked, perfectly neutral, like he was indifferent to the situation instead of horribly bothered by it.
“Kaashi, that wasn’t our fault,” Bokuto pointed out quietly.
“It doesn’t matter, because it still affected the team,” Akaashi said, this time facing Kuroo. “It doesn’t matter if the last mission was our fault, because it still happened, and it could happen again. We got out of that situation because we were lucky, and only because we were lucky.”
“So?” Suga asked, bringing all the attention back on himself. He gestured to the restaurant next to them. “This is what you want the rest of your life to be, then? A waiter for politicians who all look down on you because they know you used to be something you’re not anymore?” Akaashi opened his mouth to retort, but Suga didn’t let him. “Did you know Bokuto hates his job? I mean, we didn’t even get to choose our jobs. We were only given our jobs because the government wanted us close by. Our lives, whether or not we’re done with this team or not, have always been and will always be controlled by the government.”
“That’s not-”
“What? You think the best agents the government has ever had go through one screw up and then suddenly they’d just be allowed to live their own lives? That’s not how this works. These positions of ours were temporary to begin with. It was a way for the government to monitor us until they determined our return would be safe. We’re not free people, Akaashi. We never were. This was always just a hiatus for us whether they wanted us to think that or not. To be honest, it’s not even really your choice if you return to the team or not, because if you don’t you’ll just be turning the government on you. We’re tools , Akaashi. Don’t act like you have free will. None of us do.”
“Okay, Suga, laying it on a bit thick,” Kuroo mumbled under his breath, but the only one who seemed to have heard him was Bokuto.
“Free will? And you think getting this team back together is giving you any form of that?” Akaashi retorted, his perfect composition clearly pissing Suga off. “I understand that the government is watching and controlling us. But we are not their tools, not anymore. We are assets, and we are threats because we have information they need contained, that’s why they watch us so carefully. That’s why they’ve kept us apart so diligently, because they don’t want us sharing that information. If they intended for us to return as a team, they would have hidden us together.”
Suga closed his eyes, taking a quick breath before turning his focus back on Akaashi. “They hid us separately so if one of us was found, the others wouldn’t be compromised,” Suga said, much calmer than before, but it was obvious Akaashi’s insistent denial of the situation was like stepping on Suga’s toes.
“The government has never been open with us, right?” Bokuto spoke up, effectively grabbing everyone’s attention. He didn’t look angry or composed, just involved. He looked between the two of them with wide, round eyes, his expression giving nothing away. “We’re not told everything because it’s none of our business, so who cares what they really intended? It’s not like they would have told us anyway.”
Suga opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but any argument he had died on his tongue when Akaashi let his eyes shift from Bokuto to Suga in an almost reserved manner. It was clear Akaashi never meant to start arguments, particularly because he wasn’t all that fond of fighting with people, but it happened more often than not, especially when it came to missions, and Akaashi always realized too late when he crossed a line or upset someone.
If Akaashi was the leader of their team, then Bokuto was his right hand man without even realizing it. Akaashi knew what he was doing and almost always made good judgment calls, but he struggled to communicate those decisions to people like Suga and Kuroo who ran more off of instinct than actual intelligence. Both of them were smart enough to function on their own, but Akaashi could read into situations better than either of them could ever hope to.
When the team was being put together, a lot of the higher ups in the political field who knew about the project complained that Akaashi wouldn’t be able to handle three rambunctious idiots on his own. Of course they didn’t say it like that, but it was more or less implied. In reality, though, Bokuto was the connecting factor between them. He ran off of pure instinct. He was never put in charge of problem solving or planning because that wasn’t his strong suit, but when an argument arose, Bokuto was always the one who recognized, aside from his instincts, what Akaashi was trying to get at. If Suga and Kuroo got too high-strung on their own conclusions, Bokuto was there to remind them to think from Akaashi’s perspective. And if Akaashi got too serious or overthought things too much, Bokuto was there to remind him that he wasn’t the only one on the team thinking. Surprisingly, Bokuto was the voice of reason in their team.
“Like, yeah, our last mission got kinda fucked up, but all our other ones before that were fine!” Bokuto pointed out when the silence stretched on a bit too long without a response. “We’ve been on so many missions so we can’t just assume every single one from now on will go terribly just because that single one did. But we can’t just ignore that that happened, right? Last time our mission got messed up, we all got separated and that kinda sucked and I don’t want that to happen again. And if the government is gonna keep us apart unless we go on another mission, I think we should do another one. I just don’t want to be separated from you guys anymore. But we could be more careful this time, and we should, so we don’t end up being separated again.”
Both Akaashi and Suga turned their heads away in silence, like children being lectured by an adult. Bokuto turned to look at Kuroo like he was at a loss, so Kuroo simply made a gesture with his hand for Bokuto to continue.
“Besides, we’re gonna be watched either way, right? At least if we’re on a mission we have something to do and we’ll be together. It’s way better than wearing these tight suits all day and being boring like normal people.”
Kuroo gave Bokuto a thumbs-up as Akaashi bit his lip, deep in thought. Suga just looked down at the ground, probably thinking a bit himself, but more likely just waiting for Akaashi to say something. Finally, Akaashi lifted his head to face Bokuto. “Okay.”
“Really?” Bokuto asked, his face lighting up while Kuroo just smirked to himself. This was exactly why Suga needed Bokuto to get Akaashi.
“Yes, really. But I’m not agreeing to do a mission until Daichi tells us what it is.”
“I’m cool with that,” Suga decided with wide eyes and a smile. He nodded, turning to Kuroo. “That’s fine. Yeah. We’ll talk to Daichi first and go from there.”
“It’s good to have you back, Kaashi,” Kuroo said to lighten the mood, to which Akaashi nodded as if returning the sentiment.
“I’ve missed everyone so much!” Bokuto yelled, jumping forward and wrapping Akaashi and Suga in a hug at the same time. “This is the best day ever!”
---
“Man, it feels so weird just… walking back in here,” Kuroo mumbled, chin raised to the ceiling as he took in the entire expanse of the main lobby. Between the four of them, their footsteps echoed and overtook everything else. Not to mention them being recognizable faces in the building, so nearly everyone who knew who they were stopped to stare. Suga didn’t seem to have a care in the world, walking with his eyes straight ahead and his hands shoved in his pockets like being the center of attention was nothing new to him. Akaashi and Bokuto walked side by side in front of Kuroo, talking to each other in hushed whispers, and Kuroo trailed along at the back of the group.
“Weird? It doesn’t feel weird to me,” Suga replied through Akaashi and Bokuto, barely looking over his shoulder.
“You work here,” Kuroo reminded him with a scoff, nodding his head at a recognizable face as he passed. “Of course it wouldn’t feel weird to you. You’re here every day.”
This building was the home base of internal affairs for the Japanese government, loaded to the brim with powerful people left and right, half of whom Kuroo couldn’t even remember the names of at this point. It had been part of his training to memorize every single person in the building, but since then many had come and gone and none of that really mattered enough to remember to begin with.
The four of them hadn’t originally been popular faces. If they ever had to come to the office they never came in together, and they always visited under the pretense of having some small oddball job in the building or having a small business meeting with one party or another. Back then, nobody even knew about the connection between Daichi and Suga considering they thought it would be more professional to keep it to themselves.
Then their last mission happened. And now everyone knew who they were.
That was fine. It limited what they were capable of doing, but it was fine. The people in the building who knew had been forced to sign contracts of silence and got lectured by Daichi and a few higher ups about the dangers of spreading that information about. In fact, it was more likely that the people in the lobby were openly staring at them because Suga was leading a pack of well dressed men in like a small gang, not because they really knew who they all were. Some people did know who they were, though, and could therefore assume why they were all there together. That was intimidating, to say the least.
Suga led the three of them to the elevator, waiting until all of them were loaded in before pressing the button for the 10th floor. The doors closed, locking the four of them in the silent box together.
It took all of five seconds for someone to speak up. That person was Bokuto.
“Did anyone else see Takeuchi staring at Kuroo’s ass or was that just me?”
Kuroo couldn’t hold in his laughter, and it seemed neither could Suga because the two of them snorted at the same time, causing a chain reaction that left the three of them struggling to catch their breath while Akaashi suppressed a smile and turned his head away to hide it.
“Bo, Takeuchi is a seventy year old man who works with the military,” Suga reminded him through breaths of laughter, like that changed anything.
“Okay? So?” Bokuto asked with a laugh. “And he was staring at Kuroo’s ass!”
“What? Are you jealous?” Akaashi asked, turning to Bokuto with a smug look on his face. “You wanted Takeuchi all to yourself?”
Bokuto’s face turned bright red at Akaashi’s teasing which only caused Suga to keel over in laugher all over again. “That’s- no! No! That’s disgusting! He’s so… old .”
“Aw man, you three missed out this past year,” Suga choked out, bracing himself on the side of the elevator. “Takeuchi has taken to whoring himself out in his free time.”
“Oh come on. If you want us to believe something, at least make it realistic,” Akaashi chided, turning away from Bokuto who was still a bumbling mess in front of him.
“No! I’m serious!” Suga defended, picking himself up as the elevator doors opened on the 10th floor. He led the way backward so he could still face them and talk. This floor was the center of the espionage network in Japan, so quite literally everyone here knew who they were. And quite literally everyone turned to stare. Not that Suga even cared or noticed. “He gets in mysterious cars when he leaves work and I’ve never seen the same girl in the cars twice.”
“What, you’re spying on people in the building now?” Kuroo asked with a raised eyebrow, noticing the look on one of the squad trainers' faces as they passed. Kuroo turned to greet them with a small bow. “Nice to see you again.”
“I have nothing else to do with my free time, so yes!” Suga said shamelessly as Kuroo turned back around to face him.
Suga didn’t even need Akaashi or Bokuto to tell him when he had made it to the door to Daichi’s office, swinging around just in time to push the door open without slamming himself into a wall. Daichi looked up at the sound, eyes going slightly wide before a smile settled on his face.
“Wow, you actually managed it,” Daichi said with a small, amused chuckle, putting his pen down and pushing his chair out, abandoning whatever paperwork he had been working on.
“Daichi, your fiancé is a menace to society,” Akaashi said, closing the door behind all of them as Suga ran up to Daichi, propping his elbow on Daichi’s shoulder and frowning at Akaashi.
“I am not,” he said with a pout, turning to Daichi. “Akaashi’s exaggerating. I did everything exactly how you told me to.” Kuroo snorted, but Suga gave him a sharp look that told him to keep his fucking mouth shut, so he did.
“Glad to hear,” Daichi said with a tone that said he didn’t believe Suga but also had no intention of calling him out on his bullshit. That seemed to be a regular occurance in their relationship. “Good to see you all again. Akaashi,” he greeted, nodding his head at the man. “Kuroo. Bokuto.”
“DAICHI!” Bokuto yelled, running up and wrapping his arms around the man who had no choice but to return the hug. “I missed you!”
“Missed you too, Bo,” Daichi replied, carefully pulling himself out of the hug. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you guys together sooner. I had to wait for this mission proposal to be approved before I was allowed to do anything.”
Kuroo smirked, plopping himself down in one of the chairs in front of Daichi’s desk. “And let me guess. The proposal has been approved, but you getting the team together hasn’t yet because they want to be the ones to do it, so you got Suga to do it instead.”
“I didn’t get Suga to do anything. He persuaded me-”
“ Persuaded ,” Kuroo echoed with a smirk while Daichi just gave him a look.
“Yes. Persuaded me to let him do it.”
“Of course, if you didn’t want that to happen, you could have just not told Suga about the proposal to begin with,” Akaashi pointed out, latching onto Kuroo’s point. “But you did tell him, which meant you wanted him to get us before the higher ups could. I didn’t know you bent the rules so much, Dai.”
“Oh, yes, you’re both very intelligent, congrats,” Daichi cheered sarcastically, sitting back down at his desk while Akaashi took the other seat beside Kuroo. Bokuto easily bounced over to it, taking a seat on the armrest which Akaashi gave him without argument. Suga, of course, just stood behind Daichi’s chair as if he wasn’t also being briefed. “Are you interested in hearing about the mission or not?”
“We’re interested in hearing about it. That’s it,” Akaashi clarified.
“ He’s interested in hearing about it. The rest of us are interested in accepting it. But proceed,” Kuroo corrected, smirking at Akaashi before turning his attention back to Daichi.
“No surprise there,” Daichi replied. “Akaashi was always the only logical one between the four of you.”
“Uhm, excuse me?”
“The mission is yakuza,” Daichi said, cutting anyone else off from making remarks about what he just said. It worked, because instantly the entire room was silenced and waiting for more details.
Kuroo had never worked a yakuza case before. Usually the government didn’t get particularly involved with the yakuza because that was better handled by law enforcement. Or… it was better reported in by law enforcement considering they didn’t do shit about it. But sending spies into the yakuza? That was new. It also sounded extremely fun.
“Recently there have been a lot of hits in Tokyo, mostly traced back to the yakuza. They’re getting out of control and it’s becoming something the higher ups want to keep an eye on.” Kuroo didn’t see what was so special about murder in the yakuza, but he kept his mouth shut on that point.
“So it’s just an intelligence mission?” Akaashi asked, reaching forward to accept a file of documents Daichi was handing him over the desk. Bokuto and Kuroo both leaned over to read over Akaashi’s shoulder, Bokuto having more luck than Kuroo considering he was practically sitting on top of Akaashi.
“Just intelligence,” Daichi confirmed. “We’d have you four sent in with aliases to related gangs.”
“Oh, so we wouldn’t even be in the actual yakuza?” Suga asked, walking around the desk so he was standing behind Akaashi instead, also reading over his shoulder.
“The government is powerful, but we can’t just fake connections to people in the yakuza. You only get in the yakuza by knowing people, and unfortunately we don’t have any double agents right now, so you’d be going into related gangs. That way you can sneak around the territory and get involved the business of some of the people who wouldn’t kill you for snooping around.”
“But that’s not the kind of information you want,” Akaashi pointed out, handing the folder back over his head to give it to Suga because the man was practically breathing into his ear trying to read it.
Daichi nodded. “Preferably, we’d like to know what’s going on with all those hits. It’d be even better to get an idea of how the yakuza is currently running since all of our information is out of date. But the priority of the mission is figuring out the origins of those hits.”
“Let me rephrase that,” Akaashi decided, folding his hands together in his lap. “The information you want is the origin of those hits. What do the higher ups expect to gain from this mission?”
“Probably dirt on this Ushijima guy,” Suga spoke up from behind Akaashi, flipping through the documents.
“Ushi who?” Bokuto asked, getting up to see the documents again.
“Ushijima Wakatoshi. Yakuza boss,” Suga read from the documents, pulling one particular file out from the rest and holding it up for everyone to see. “What a stud.”
“Suga-”
“Don’t worry Daichi, I’m kidding. This man looks like a blank sheet of paper. I mean who just looks that serious all the time? Well… I guess if you’re running the entire yakuza that makes sense, but still. The man could have some personality,” Suga rambled, walking over to Kuroo and handing him the paper. Kuroo took it, looking over the man in the pictures. He looked serious, but then again all these pictures were taken in public. This Ushijima guy probably had an image to uphold. “And… Tendou Satori. Oh man, this guy looks like a basket case.”
Suga dropped another picture in Kuroo’s lap which he quickly picked up as well. The guy had bright red hair sticking straight up, and in every single image he was either staring maniacally directly at the cameras like a madman or he was hanging off of Ushijima, and looking like a damn fool while he did it.
Kuroo snorted. “Who the hell is Tendou Satori? A lunatic?”
Bokuto came up behind Kuroo to see the pictures. “I think he’s the killer.”
Kuroo laughed to himself while Suga snorted behind him. “Yeah, Daichi, if anyone’s the killer it’s definitely this Tendou guy,” Suga agreed as he continued flipping through papers.
“Tendou Satori is Ushijima’s second in command.”
The four of them instantly fell into silence as they stared down at the pictures. No way Tendou was second in command of the yakuza. The guy looked psychotic. Compared to Ushijima who was the epitome of composition and authority, this guy looked like he robbed banks for fun.
“Did not see that coming,” Bokuto mumbled after a moment of silence.
“He seems like the type of person anyone would underestimate,” Akaashi decided. Kuroo looked over his shoulder, realizing Akaashi was right behind him. He didn’t hear him get up.
“He looks like a basket case,” Suga repeated, flipping over another paper. “Who the fuck is this guy then?” he asked, dropping the paper in Kuroo’s lap. “Kozume Kenma?”
Kuroo picked up the paper, once again looking over the pictures carefully. This guy looked nothing like Ushijima or Tendou. Instead of being composed or just outright crazy, Kozume Kenma looked more… calm. There were less pictures of him than the others, and in every single one he was by Ushijima’s side. His hair hung down to cover his eyes in most of the pictures, his roots long since overdue for a new bleach job. He was also small, especially compared to Ushijima.
“Who is he?” Kuroo asked, looking up at Daichi.
“As far as we can tell, Kozume Kenma is something like Ushijima’s ‘lapdog’,” Daichi informed them. “He does his own things from time to time, but he always seems to be by Ushijima’s side whenever anything important happens. I don’t know what his job is specifically, but from what I’ve heard he’s just a pet Ushijima keeps around.”
“Yeah, no,” Akaashi decided instantly. “This guy knows how to hide from cameras like it’s his job. Besides, why would Ushijima need to keep someone like that around?”
Bokuto shrugged. “Sex?”
“That’s vulgar,” Suga replied, shivering the thought away. “And come on. Does dead-eyes Ushijima look like the type to keep his boytoy on a leash like that?”
“It looks like he’s listening,” Kuroo observed, dragging everyone’s attention to him. Kuroo pointed to one of the pictures where Kenma was by Ushijima’s side. “Look. He’s not looking at Ushijima or the other person that’s just off the picture. He’s just sitting there.”
“Maybe he’s depressed,” Bokuto suggested.
“Or maybe he’s an asset to Ushijima,” Akaashi decided, placing his hand on Bokuto’s shoulder as if saying ‘nice try’.
“Either way,” Daichi interjected while Suga continued digging through the files. “Those three people are people the government wants dirt on. But they’re not running this mission, I am. So these three? Don’t get anywhere near them.”
“Oh, Daichi, it’s so sexy when you take control like that.”
“Suga…”
“You want us to avoid getting information on them?” Akaashi asked for clarification. Kuroo wanted to focus on the mission briefing, but he really couldn’t stop staring at the pictures of his guy: Kozume Kenma. If he was just a pet, then why would the government want information on him so badly? There had to be more to him than that.
“I want you to avoid everything to do with them,” Daichi clarified. “These three are not the mission.”
“And Nekoma?” Suga asked, holding out another paper.
“What the fuck kind of a name is Nekoma?” Kuroo asked, reaching up to grab the paper from Suga. Nekoma wasn’t a person like he expected, though; it was a place. The paper showed pictures of the club in downtown Tokyo with a lit up sign on the front that said ‘Nekoma’ with bouncers outside. “So… is Nekoma important?”
“It’s Ushijima’s meeting spot,” Daichi told them. “He does business deals there for some reason. We think he’s close with the owner, Iwaizumi Hajime.”
“This isn’t just a club though, it’s practically a strip joint,” Kuroo pointed out, handing the document to Akaashi. “ This is where Ushijima makes deals?”
“Yes, and it’s somewhere we don’t need you four going,” Daichi replied. “If this place is filled to the brim with Ushijima’s men all the time, going in would be a death wish”.
“So… basically all we have to do is avoid the bigshots and their favorite hangout spot and we’ll be fine?” Bokuto summarized, peeking over Akaashi’s shoulder at the file on Nekoma.
“I don’t think it will be that simple,” Akaashi said, eyes glazing over the paper in front of him. “It looks like Nekoma isn’t just Ushijima’s favorite spot. It’s the center of all activity in the Tokyo Yakuza, which would explain why crime rates in that area are so low.”
“How does that make sense?” Kuroo asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t there be more crime there?”
“Not if there’s no law enforcement to report it,” Suga butted in, leaving Kuroo with his jaw hanging open in silent realization.
“Which means that entire sector of the city is left up to the yakuza,” Akaashi continued, nodding at Suga. “That’s why they need to send us in. They can’t send law enforcement in to really deal with anything because it’s not their territory and they know it. I’d bet even getting into that area as a reporter, cop, or politician would be damn near impossible.”
“Those jobs are best left for the common folk anyway,” Kuroo decided before gesturing to the group of them. “Us, of course. Assuming…” Kuroo trailed off, waving his hand around to gesture for Akaashi to continue with his final answer. Akaashi merely rolled his eyes at him.
“I need more time to look over the documents and-”
“Akaashi,” Suga emphasized, hands on his hips. “It’s really not that complicated. Like Bokuto said: restaurant host and never being able to see your friends or infiltrating the yakuza with your best friends?” Kuroo wasn’t sure if that was a great way to put it considering it sounded like the worst game of never-have-I-ever in history, but if it worked it worked.
“It’s really not even a difficult mission,” Kuroo added on, reaching out for the papers Suga had recollected. He shuffled through them dramatically, if only to let Akaashi know he was doing it. Ushijima Wakatoshi. Tendou Satori. Kozume Kenma. “Basically we just get to fool around as long as we avoid the big bad bosses of the yakuza underworld.” Kuroo looked up to see Daichi giving him a look . “I mean not fooling around. Being professional, of course,” he corrected. “And anyway, all these guys will be too busy actually running the yakuza to care about what we’re getting involved in off to the side. We’ll never even get close to them.”
“We’re not just joining the yakuza to poke around,” Akaashi reminded him, turning to face him in his seat. “Did you miss the whole part about investigating yakuza hits?”
“Yeah, whatever, no big deal,” Suga waved off with a smile. “We’ve dealt with worse.”
“Besides! It’s not like Ushijima or the other two will care about some nobodies dying,” Bokuto contributed.
“That is so fucked up Bokuto,” Suga mumbled, obviously trying to restrain himself from laughing.
“They’ll do their thing and we’ll do our thing!” Bokuto continued as if he hadn’t heard Suga, which he seriously might not have. Everyone else seemed to have heard him just fine though. “I mean, we’ve investigated murders before and we’ve been fine. This is just criminals breaking the law because they’re bored, probably. It’s nothing compared to our usual missions.”
“If it was anything too serious, Ushijima probably would have already taken care of it,” Kuroo added, nodding his head to agree with Bokuto. “But if he hasn’t, that means he doesn’t care. And neither does Tendou or Kozume. So there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”
Akaashi pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth as his eyes focused on the ground, clearly in thought. The entire team waited on him, eagerly leaning in and invading his personal space as if that would help influence his decision. Daichi waited patiently behind his desk like an actual professional, no doubt having every intention of following Akaashi’s decision despite what the rest of the team said. It always worked that way. Akaashi was, after all, their team leader. Too bad they all collectively had probably a bit too much influence over him when they ganged up on him like this.
Finally, after what felt like forever, Akaashi sighed, lifting his head to look up at Daichi. He held out his hand with a neutral expression. “Let me see the contract.”