#requiring alkaloid and crazy:b to join forces to bring them back

[zmzebra-writes]

ES Rare Pair Week 2024 Day 1: AU

Title: Late Night Conversations Relationships: Hiiro Amagi/Kohaku Oukawa Summary: Kohaku is out for a late night walk when he runs into Hiiro also unable to sleep on a hot summer night before MDM. They talk about their shared responsibility to their families and their new friends.

Age Shuffle AU Alkakurei is all shuffled up age wise and everyone else is 1 year older aka music era main story takes place a year later in canon. Kohaku is 20 and Hiiro is 19. More information on the AU here.

Kohaku wasn’t sure what he was expecting lurking around at night. Maybe an answer to his troubles. Maybe a reason to stay. After being an idol for the past three years, Kohaku was wondering if it was all worth it. Sure, being free of his prison at home was nice, but did he really deserve this freedom? 

Tsukasa had offered Kohaku a place in Knights, but Kohaku didn’t want that. He had spent his idol life as a solo unit and he wasn’t looking to drag Tsukasa down for his sake. Kohaku was wary enough of Ibara’s plan to use Crazy:B as attack dogs on the rest of ES. Tsukasa couldn’t be involved with the underworld that tainted his very blood. Kohaku knew from the very beginning that the light was never meant for people like him. 

He just had to wait for the climax. This summer would be the final act in the performance of the idol, Kohaku Oukawa. Afterwards, no one would ever consider him to be worthy of freedom. It would be for the best. Come autumn, Kohaku would return to the shadows and take his rightful place as an assassin for the main family. It would be what he deserved after all the trouble he had caused for everyone. 

He turned a corner in the courtyard when he sensed a powerful presence nearby. Kohaku turned quickly towards the source. “Who’s—”

There in a tree sat a young man with curly red hair not unlike another idol Kohaku knew. “Hiiro-han, what are you doing?”

Hiiro looked down at Kohaku from his branch. “Sitting. What are you doing out here?”

Kohaku glanced away. “Enjoying the evening breeze, that’s all.”

Hiiro smiled with a tilt of his head. “... I’m going to miss these conversations with you when this summer is over, Oukawa-senpai.”

Kohaku refocused on Hiiro. “How did— I mean, what makes you say that?”

“After MDM, I plan to return to the village,” explained Hiiro, “My brother is happy and safe here. That’s all I needed to know.”

“That’s right,” said Kohaku, “Your brother mentioned you were in line to be the monarch.”

Hiiro nodded. “It is my duty to lead our people and keep them safe. This includes my younger brother. I couldn’t let him disappear after saying all those things. I worried that he wasn’t in his right mind and left irrationally.”

After all the stories Kohaku heard of the village from Rinne, Kohaku felt like Hiiro was the more irrational of the brothers. 

“Now that I can rest easy knowing my brother has found people to take care of him when I am not there, I must return to my fate.”

Fate. A word Kohaku knew intimately. “If you already know that your brother is safe, why stay? I’m sure the people counting on you would prefer you come home sooner rather than later. What keeps you here?”

Hiiro paused for a moment to think before speaking. “The little ones. Mayoi-kun and Tatsumi-kun. They are relying on me to lead them and save them from being fired.”

“Not Shiratori-han?” teased Kohaku, “He always seems to be close by when I see you around ES.”

“I don’t think it would matter much to Aira if I stayed or left,” said Hiiro, “I was trying to destroy the things he cherishes the most, afterall. The least I can do is protect what I can before returning home.”

With the way he looks at you, I doubt that’s the truth, thought Kohaku.

“What about you?” continued Hiiro, “Will you also be leaving after MDM?”

Kohaku was startled. “Huh?! What gave you that idea?”

“You appear detached from all of us, like you are holding us at arm's length,” said Hiiro, “You also jumped at the implication that I thought you were leaving earlier.”

“W-well, so what? You have nothing to do with me. None of you guys do.” He was not about to let some stranger guilt trip him.

“You’re right.”

“Huh?” Kohaku was expecting a lecture like everyone else in his life.

Hiiro shuffled his position on the tree branch. “I’m not going to judge you for leaving when I plan to do the same. I’m sure you have something important taking you away from here.”

Kohaku thought back home. The cold walls of his room. A gilded cage. He wondered if he would be allowed to do proper missions now that he was older or if they would use this opportunity to hide him away again. “... Yeah. Important.”

Hiiro nodded. “Exactly. We all have our place in the world and people we must return to. We can only run free for so long.

Something about Hiiro’s honest words stirred something in Kohaku. Something he couldn’t name. Something not quite sad, but… not satisfied either.

Hiiro looked away to stare at the sky. “I still have not become used to the lack of stars in the city. Back home, I could tell the time just by the position of the moon to the horizon. Now the buildings hide their path from sight.”

Back home, I could rarely leave to see them at all, thought Kohaku.

“... And yet there is something exciting about it, don’t you agree, Oukawa-senpai?”

Kohaku blinked. He wasn’t expecting that follow up.

“I’d never left the village before this year. It took me months to track down where my brother had ended up,” shared Hiiro, “It was not all pleasant, and at times I wondered if the city had swallowed up my little brother as it threatened to eat me. But I... We both pulled through.”

Hiiro smiled. “Every day is so exciting in the city, a part of me doesn’t want to leave all these people I’ve met behind. You understand, don’t you?”

Kohaku closed his eyes and held back his tongue. To say the truth would be a step too far. He had already walked too close to the edge to chicken out now.

“Hmmm, are you sure you want to leave, Hiiro-han?” Kohaku turned the question back with a twisted smile, “You’re sounding pretty sentimental to me.”

“It’s not a matter of want.” 

And didn’t Kohaku know it. Rinne hadn’t lied about his unfeeling older brother, but Kohaku was starting to think perhaps his younger unit member didn’t have the whole picture. 

“The monarch was born to lead, and lead I must.”

A feeling of a shared burden burned inside Kohaku. Someone who could understand his feelings. Perhaps he would never find someone else to share his feelings with, but still…

“Make sure to stop and say goodbye before leaving, alright?” said Kohaku with a wave, “I don’t want to have to track you down in your village to wrap things up.”

Hiiro nodded. “Umu. I’ll remember to find you before I leave. Will we be able to speak again?”

Kohaku smiled. “Maybe if the hidden moon aligns just right. Good night, Hiiro-han.”

“Good night, Oukawa-senpai.”

For the first time in a long time, Kohaku felt peaceful as he crawled back through the window into his empty dorm room. His heart was racing with conflicting emotions, but for some reason, Kohaku felt like things would be okay. He wondered if Hiiro had something to do with it. He would have to seek out the older Amagi again tomorrow evening in hopes of speaking again.