#isoldmysoul

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“Please state your name and age for me.”

“Choso Kamo. I’m twenty two.”

You’re behind the two way mirror with Suguru, Satoru and Hiromi as you watch this questioning go down. Thank fuck for your connections because it was stressing you out wondering how this was going to go.

“What do you do for work Mr. Kamo?”

“I’m the lead singer of a band.”

“Of course you are,” Shiu smirks like he just won a bet. “Any songs I would have heard of?”

“Maybe,” Choso doesn’t say anything else and you laugh.

“That was helpful. Are you a bar band or are you an on the radio band?”

“On the radio, I guess.”

“Ooooh. Come on, humor me. If I wanted to look you up, what song would I have to search for?”

Choso sighs because even though he loves what he does for a living, he hates the hype around him like this. It just makes him feel awkward. “Come on. Who cares?” 

“I’m just trying to get to know all of our ‘persons of interest.’” Shiu pulls out his cell phone and types in Choso’s name. “You’re the band that released the song Battery Acid?! That’s number one on the charts! I guess you’re kind of a big deal. Aren’t you also the band that released Dacryphilia?” 

“That’d be us,” he shifts in his seat, praying that this part of the interview is going to pass soon. He’d rather be accused of murder.

“Wow. That’s cool. And I heard that you’re good friends with my partner's daughter. You know… Suguru’s girl? How do you know her?”

“She was my high school sweetheart.” Awwwwwwww.

“High school sweetheart? So you’re still together?”

“No. That’s just how I describe her. I haven’t been in a relationship with anyone else since.”

“That’s sweet. How long were you together?”

“Just under two years.”

“Wow. That’s a long time for teenagers. What caused the breakup?”

“The tragedy with her parents… she just… needed some space.”

“That’s sad. So, if you’ve been broken up for so long, why did you recently spend the night at her place? Did she get a backstage groupie pass at one of your shows?”

Choso glares at him and Shiu chuckles like it was a joke. “She works at that club, To Curse For. I saw her there and asked if she’d wanna hang out and catch up. We did lunch one day and I invited her to a show. After the show, I offered to give her a ride home, which I did, and we fell asleep talking.”

“Do you remember exactly what date you saw her at the club?”

“No. But you can probably get receipts.”

“Hmmmm. Do you remember what date you ate out with her?” Did he need to phrase it like that?

“It was around a week before the show. I’d have to look through my calendar and see what the date was.”

“Okay. Okay. Did you know that she has a boyfriend?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

You purposely left that part vague with Shiu and it’s coming back to bite you in the ass.

“Yes, I’m well aware that she has a boyfriend.”

“And you still offered to give her a ride?”

“I didn’t ask her to ride my dick, I asked to give her a ride back to her apartment.”

Both you and Satoru start to laugh and Suguru just buries his face in his hands. 

“Good one. How did her boyfriend react?”

“He was fine. If he was upset, I never would have done it.”

“Okay. So, you left the show together. Did you stop anywhere on the way back to her place?”

“No.”

“What did you do when you got in?”

“We hung out on her bed and caught up on everything that’s happened since we last saw each other.”

“On the bed huh?”

“Yes. It was late. We were both fully clothed.”

“Did anything happen between the two of you?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“No.”

Thank fuck.

“Nothing happened between two former lovebirds? Nothing?”

“It only went as far as waking up next to each other. That’s it.” He didn’t even include that you woke up cuddling, thank the lord for him.

“Can you tell me a little bit about your previous romantic relationship?”

“Why?”

“I’m just trying to get a look on everyone’s relationships and history with her. She is being targeted by a serial killer and I just want to get my facts straight. Come on. I love a good love story.”

“She was the beautiful cheerleader and I was the awkward punk kid who started a band with his brothers.”

“Usually cheerleaders date football players. How’d you get her to go out with you?”

“I asked.” Oh god. You love him.

“How? How’d you even get close?”

“We had the same English class. The people who sat at the same desk had to read a book and write a paper on it together. She sat next to me and after the project, I asked her out.”

“What book did you have to read?”

“Lord of the Flies.”

“Romantic.”

“I guess.”

“So, where’d you take the beautiful cheerleader on your first date?”

“Mug painting.”

Shiu bursts out laughing as Choso sits there with the most blank stare you think you’ve ever seen. “You’re serious?!”

“Why wouldn’t I be serious?”

“Neither of you seem like you’re into that kind of thing.”

“You only met me today.”

“Fair.”

“I’ve always been able to draw so I sketched something on the mug, painted it, and gave it to her. She still has it.”

“Sweet.” Choso sighs. “How fast did this relationship move?”

“In what way?”

“How long before you told her you loved her?”

“Two months.”

“Awww. How long before the two of you had sex?”

“We never had sex.”

“You said that the two of you were together for about two years.”

“That’s including the time that things were good to the slow end when she needed time for herself.”

“And that entire time you never had sex? I find that hard to believe.”

“You’re entitled to your feelings.”

“So you did nothing for two years?”

“I went down on her but that’s it.”

“Lucky girl. So, you ate her out and she gave you blowies? I guess that works.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“She didn’t give me any ‘blowies.’ I didn’t want that from her.”

Fucking blowies.

You look over to Suguru and he looks more mortified than the last awkward question Shiu asked. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine, Dear.”

“What a gentleman.” Shiu sucks, that’s all you can think.

“Ugh. What does this have to do with anything?”

“Did you know that shortly after you left her apartment she was attacked?”

Choso’s eyes widen and you fucking hate the way that Shiu phrased that. You didn’t want him to know because you didn’t want him to feel like he was responsible even though he couldn’t have possibly known.

“She was attacked?”

“Well, not physically. But someone was inside her apartment harassing her right after you left.”

“I didn’t know that. Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Her neighbor made sure that no one was there and she’s been watched since it happened. That’s why I wanted to ask you, what happened that morning and where did you go after you left?”

“We woke up together and I asked her if I could borrow a brush. She gave me a brush and a toothbrush and then I left because I had rehearsal. I got in my car and I went back to the stadium where we had our show the night before, picked up a few things, and then went back to my hotel. Once I got there, I showered and went to the studio to record, that’s it.”

“Can someone corroborate that?”

“Yes. Multiple people. Including my phone records.”

“Okay. Good to know. So… how did you feel when you learned that she was in a relationship?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t know how you felt?”

“I wasn’t upset.”

“But you describe her as a high school sweetheart. You had to have felt something.”

“I didn't ask her to lunch on the off chance that she would have wanted to get back together. I didn’t even know that she was going to be at the club that night.”

“Would you take her back if that’s what she wanted?”

“I can’t even think of hypothetical situations like that. We’re just friends and I’m fine with that.”

“What do you think about Mr. Satoru Gojo?”

“I like him.”

Shiu laughs. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“You like your ex’s new boyfriend?”

“He’s funny. He’s charming. He’s all the things fans think I’m going to be until they meet me.”

Awwwww, you think to yourself.

“You’re polite.”

“I guess.”

“So, the two of you got along?”

“We didn’t spend a lot of time one on one but I think that we did.”

“If I asked Mr. Gojo, would he say the same thing?”

“I can’t speak for him.” Shiu laughs. “What?”

“Her taste is all over the place.”

Is that the saying of the fucking year or something?

For fuck’s sake.

Two cups of coffee and three donuts later, the interview finally ends. You want to go out to greet Choso, but Suguru doesn’t want to give Shiu the impression that all of you are in cahoots together and tells you to wait until you get home. After Choso leaves with Eso, all of you leave the observation room and try to make it back to your car before Shiu stops you.

But unfortunately, he does.

“Enjoy the show?” Cocksucker.

“Better than Dexter.”

“Good one. Your ex boyfriend is clearly still in love with you.”

“He’s entitled to feel how he feels,” you say.

“How do you feel about that Mr. Gojo?”

“He’s a cool guy and he’s been respectful, so I feel fine.”

The three of you turn to walk away, but you do hear Hiromi before you get too far. “Please direct all questions, comments, and concerns to me instead of my clients. Thank you.”

“I know that they have to do their job but fuck, that seemed like a waste of time,” you complain once you exit the building.

“I hate to admit that my colleagues could be looking in the wrong direction, but I agree,” you didn’t expect to hear Suguru say that, but he does.

“Were you able to get the footage from my building?” It’s only been a day since what happened happened, but you’re desperate for answers.

“Not yet. The manager should be sending it over today. I’ll let you know if anything shows up, okay?” You nod and he kisses you on the temple. “Satoru, make sure my girl gets home safely. I gotta talk with Hiromi for a little bit.”

“Do you want us to stay?”

“Nope. I want you to enjoy your day and I’ll be there later to install some security cameras.”

“Okay. Love ya! Byeeeeee.”

You and Satoru climb into your car and you start on the drive back home. 

“We should fuck before your dad puts cameras all over your apartment.”

“Satoru!”

“What?! I’m just saying. I’m sure he doesn’t want me laying down the pipe on camera.”

“Where did you even learn that phrase?”

“Internet.”

Good god.

“I’m sure Suguru will ensure that we still have some privacy.”

“He’s not gonna put cameras in every room of the apartment except the bedroom. What if someone is hiding in there and something happens? Everything needs to be visible.”

“I understand your point, but I doubt that he’ll be looking at them regularly. They’ll probably only be checked if something happens.”

“I guess we could always make the love in your wonderful carriage.”

“That sounds uncomfortable.”

“You’re telling me? I’m the tall one. But I’d make it work for you, my loooveeeeeeee.”

Christ.

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Suguru is sitting behind his desk straining the hell out of his eyes by staring at the surveillance footage from your apartment building. 

So far, he’s about four hours before the timing where you heard the bang and he hasn’t seen anyone on camera. At first it made him wonder if someone snuck into your apartment in the middle of the night while you were asleep and then snuck out after everything happened but before Toji got there. 

However, the first thing that he did was watch the footage from right after the event and he didn’t see anyone leaving your unit. So since that was a dead end, he decided to rewind back to see if anyone showed up.

Suguru believes you, he really does.

Unfortunately, he seems to be dying on that hill alone. 

Shiu was out sick for a couple of days and his first order of business was getting an update on the case and then questioning Choso. But when he got Suguru alone, he made sure to complain that he feels you’re making things up.

Well, that’s a polite way of saying what he actually said.

Shiu Kong thinks that your parents' unsolved murder along with the string of new ones is starting to make you crazy and that while you believe things, it doesn’t mean that it’s actually happening. It took everything in Sugurus power not to beat the ever loving shit out of him for saying that.

Suguru spent about a half second thinking he was just biased because you were making the claims, but he shot that down immediately. Everything that’s happened to you has been proven except for this bang on the wall but he’s going to do all he can to investigate that. Even if it turns out to be nothing, he’s not going to just let it go.

“With all due respect, a box? A bang? You better get a hold on your daughter before she ends up the next Cindy James,” Shiu so rudely said. 

With that statement, Suguru clenched his fists and made his way to his office and now he’s been holed up in there for hours trying to work this out.

Suguru has never been super cocky, but he has considered himself to be good at his job. Leaving cases unsolved is not something that he wants attributed with his name so knowing that his daughter’s case has gone unsolved for years has been hitting him in more ways than one. 

Suguru is now five hours before the bang on the wall and he still hasn’t made any progress. All that he’s managed to see is your neighbor Toji returning to his apartment. He wonders if he works crazy hours or if he was out on a date or a booty call or whatever the hell the kids are calling it these days.

“This is a pain in the ass,” Suguru grumbles from behind his desk as he continues to watch the footage.

He feels like every time he turns around there’s something new going on that adds more layers to this case that slows down the investigation because he has to keep chasing down aimless leads that take him nowhere. 

On top of everything that’s been going on, Suguru has been making a list of all of the people who’ve visited his home in the past ten years even though it wasn’t that long since you started living with them. But since this person who wrote the letter has inside knowledge of his home, he’s not taking any chances. He’s also been scouring the entire family’s social media to see if there’s any photos posted online of your bedroom back at the house. He even has the young officer who found the mystery man on the CCTV footage browsing as well in case he misses something, even Choso’s stuff. He was excited as hell when he learned that he was at one time a member of the family and has since returned and even though he didn’t ask, Suguru can tell that he wants to ask to meet him. He’s been a hell of a helper so maybe he’ll arrange something. 

Although the letter from the ‘serial killer’ hasn’t been completely verified as being authentic, he’s going to investigate it like it is instead of wasting the time.

Now six hours have gone by and he still has nothing to show from this and it’s really starting to piss him off. 

There’s a sudden knock on the door and he welcomes the distraction for a change. He calls out for the mystery person to enter and finds that it’s the young officer, Haibara, he thinks his name is, the bright eyed young man who’s spent a lot of time helping him out by scanning footage. 

“Hey Detective Geto, got a delivery!” He’s holding up a bag with what looks like smaller boxes inside of it and he can tell that it’s food.

“I didn’t order anything.”

“It says it’s from your daughter.”

Suguru’s eyes light up and he crosses the room to grab the bag from him. “Thank you, Haibara. I appreciate it.”

He nods and walks out of his office. 

Suguru takes the bag over to his desk and sees a piece of paper inside that’s from you.

“Manami says you’ve been working yourself to the bone. Don’t forget to eat!”

He must be in rough shape if even the child who he no longer sees everyday is picking up on things. But he knows that all of the ladies in his life love to gossip so he shouldn’t be surprised. 

Suguru eats as he keeps watching through the footage and for fuck’s sake, he hasn’t seen anything of value yet.

He is officially so far back in the footage that he sees you and Choso returning to your apartment after the concert and he was bracing himself to see some flirty behavior between the two of you that would make any parent cringe, but luckily there was nothing. He follows behind you until you reach your door and the two of you are smiling at each other like a couple of giggly teenagers before he walks in right behind you. Nothing of note.

Even though he’s rewinding at double the speed, it still takes forever having to properly analyze every little thing, which there’s very little of. 

Eventually he makes it all the way back to when Utahime arrives at your apartment earlier that day to get ready for the show and he still hasn’t found anything worth taking a second look at. He does see a couple of the neighbors on your floor coming and going from the elevator, including Toji, but that’s about it.

After sitting in his office to well in the evening, he decides it’s time to call it a night. He’s disappointed that he hasn’t managed to find anything to prove someone was harassing you but that’s not going to deter him from continuing to look. But that’ll have to wait until tomorrow because overworking himself isn’t going to accomplish anything. 

But there is one thing that’s bothering him.

He’s been holding it in because he doesn’t want to freak all of you out, but he thinks that he should probably tell you all about the letter. 

He’s been so busy trying to work all the active leads that it made it difficult for him to have the brainpower to also make a list of everyone who’s been to his house and he knows that if he tells the rest of you, you’ll probably have it done in a couple of hours. Who knows who he may be overlooking by accident.

He looks over his desk at all the photos of his family, including the newly added one with Satoru when you all went to lunch that day and decides to pack up and head home for the night. 

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“Are you gonna be a good boy tonight?”

“Yes Madam.”

Oh goodness.

You did kind of walk into that.

You close the door behind you so that you can take a shower in privacy. 

It’s been some time since you last worked at the club, but Mr. Sukuna asked you to come in for a couple of hours and you agreed. Despite how burnt out you ended up feeling last time, you know that you just need to spend more time there. You love your job and the people that you work with so you’re gonna go down there tonight.

You reminded your boss about all of Suguru’s conditions and he agreed to them. He even agreed to letting Satoru hang around the club as long as he doesn’t act like a boyfriend, let alone a jealous one. 

You’ve been getting requests from a lot of customers, especially the regulars, so he asked you to come in to make an appearance so… why not? All you do is lay around your apartment because you have nothing else to do so you might as well go get paid for your time. 

As you take your shower, it feels like you washed off all the unnecessary stress for the day and you take a little longer to just bask in the hot water. It’s always in the shower where the sexual frustration hits you the hardest and you want to take advantage of your alone time and masturbate, but you can’t because Satoru feels fucking everything.

You kinda get the feeling that he’d be more jealous of you masturbating than you having sex with another man.

You avoid temptation and step out of the shower to complete your skincare routine before you step back into your bedroom to start your makeup. 

When you walk out and take a seat at your vanity, you see that it's already been a little organized. There’s two eyeshadow palettes out and a highlighter one as well and you’re confused because you don’t remember doing that.

But then the answer comes before you have to ask the question.

“Can you do something with those colors tonight?” Satoru prepped your makeup table.

“Uhhhhh yes.” You look at the palettes and one is a combination of reds and the other is shades of blacks and silvers. “Do you have a preference?”

“I was thinking with those? I don’t think I’ve seen you do that yet.”

“Okay.” You make a mental note of the colors that he chose and prime your eyes to start applying everything. He picked out a vibrant red and a deep, shimmery black. You apply the black first and then smoke it out and into the red before blending that out too. You apply a cat eye with your sharpest and darkest liner before adding a line of red above that one too. When you’re done, Satoru points to one of your eyeliner stamps, it’s in the shape of a heart, and he says he likes that one too. You add one heart under both of your eyes and he’s beaming like this is the best thing. 

“Perfect.”

“I’m surprised that you picked out makeup for me. I didn’t think that you cared about stuff like that.”

“I care about everything that has to do with you.”

Fucking sweet heart.

“Well, maybe I’ll let you pick more stuff out for me then.”

“Great! Because there’s this one lingerie set that I haven’t seen you wear yet…..” Of course.

You let him also pick out what you’ll be wearing to work tonight and then you tell him to dress comfortably since he’s just gonna be hanging around for your shift. He changes into a white button down with dark blue jeans and you start to head to the club.

When you’re in the car, you run through the ground rules.

“If somebody asks who you are?” 

“I’m just a customer visiting the club.”

“What are you gonna do if a man hits on me?”

“Ignore them. Or tell your boss.”

“If someone gets handsy?”

“Call your boss.”

“If dancers hit on you?”

“Tell them I’m in a relationship.”

“I was just kidding about that last one. You can say whatever you want.”

“Good. I’m gonna tell them that I’m in a relationship.”

Shortly after your conversation, you arrive at the club and decide to enter separately to throw off suspicion. The girls would be furious if they learned that not only are you one of the top earners at the club, but you have the best relationship with Mr. Sukuna and he lets your boyfriend hang out.

You don’t need that cattiness. 

You give Satoru your keys so that he can lock up the car and he enters the club about ten minutes later. Mr. Sukuna waits close to the door that way when Satoru enters, he can bypass the ID and payment for the club since he’s not here to ogle the talent.

You’re really lucky that this man is so fucking charming and people are so loyal to you that they just let him get away with everything. But you should try to find out if there’s a way that you can get him an ID.

The club is pretty busy by the time that you get there and get changed so there’s not a lot of fraternizing with your co-workers, you just get straight to work.

For a while, it’s pretty uneventful. 

A couple of your regulars came in when they heard that you were working tonight and you even got a few marriage proposals thanks to the red, bandage, Honey Birdette lingerie set that Satoru picked out. 

And on top of all of that, Satoru is exceptional.

He is clearly the most likable person to ever walk the face of the earth and it’s a fucking sight to see. When he first came in, he took a seat at the bar, ordered a soda, and just played around on his phone. But shortly after, a random customer started speaking to him when they were ordering a round of shots and asked him if he wanted to sit with his group and everybody loved him. At one point when you and another server are dropping off drinks, you hear one of the men ask him what he does for a living and he said he was a demon and they were like, “so you’re a lawyer?!” You’re kind of living for him.

Not too long after he started hanging out with them, a bachelorette party showed up and of course several of the girls couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful blue eyed maniac who’s attached to you. Both of the parties end up joining and you wish you had the power to bring a bunch of strangers together like that.

That’s a fucking lie.

You’re an introvert and you’re fine with that.

But you’d be lying if you said that you weren’t a little jealous when you saw a few of the girls putting on all of the moves to get his attention. 

But you’re working, so you don’t have much time to worry about it. 

And there have been a few times tonight where the men hanging out with him have asked for your number so at least this shitty feeling is going both ways.

When you’re at the bar giving a drink order, Mr. Sukuna comes over with two dozen roses combined into one bouquet. “Here. Probably from one of your many boyfriends.”

“Ha-ha. Who delivers flowers at this time of night?”

“Don’t know. Guy just said that they’re for you.”

You pull the card off the little stick in the center and open it to see that all it says is, “xoxo Cho Cho.”

Well shit.

You didn’t expect a bunch of roses but you’re not gonna turn them down.

“Uhhh, Mr. Sukuna….”

“Yeah, yeah. Give me the fucking things I’ll put them in my office.”

“Thank you!”

“Who are they from?”

“Choso.”

“Damn. A rockstar and that fruity motherfucker in the back that all those girls are soaking themselves for? Most girls would be pretty jealous.”

“Good thing I’m not gonna tell them,” you respond in a sing-song voice. He just chuckles and takes the roses to the back.

About a minute after he leaves, you smell the familiar cologne and look over to see Satoru standing at the bar next to you.

“Hey pretty lady, got a name?” Is he serious? You give him the fake name that you give customers. “Pretty name for a pretty girl.” You roll your eyes. “You like roses?”

“They’re my favorite.”

“Noted. Got a boyfriend?”

“I have boys who are friends.”

“I’m sure. I wouldn’t mind being friends with you.” The bartender comes over to take his order and she smiles at you.

After she walks away, you keep up this charade. “I thought I heard you saying that you had a girlfriend. So why do you want to be my friend?”

“Can you blame me for wanting to be friends with the most beautiful woman in this club?”

“Is that really all that you want?” You bat your eyelashes at him.

He leans in and says, “I also really want you to ride my dick but I figured we could start with the exchanging of phone numbers.”

Your eyes widen but you try to hide your reaction. “Satoru! What the fuck?”

“I just wanted to see if hitting on you like a regular guy would do it for you. I can get you roses.”

“You don’t have to get me roses you stupid motherfucker. You live with me.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” you laugh and walk away. And that’s perfect timing since the bartender came back with a couple of glasses for him.

You feel him staring at your ass as you walk away so you make sure to give him a little show until you enter the dressing room.

One of the guys comes to help Satoru with the glasses and throws an arm around his shoulder, “don’t take it personally buddy, I’ve been hitting on her for years.”

When you’re touching up your makeup, your boss comes into the dressing room to talk to you. “Suguru’s kid, I have a job for you.”

Suguru’s kid?

That’s your new name?

“What’s up?”

“I want you on next year’s calendar.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“I will not. The shoot is in a couple of weeks. I’ll make sure someone is with you so you don’t get killed so tell your daddy not to panic. You can even take your frilly little boyfriend.” Frilly? “I know that you didn’t wanna do it last year, but I need you to do it this year. I want all the club’s highest earners there. I’ll even let you choose what month you wanna do. Good? Great. I’ll give you the details later.”

Somethig about having a conversation with Ryomen Sukuna is so fucking funny. 

Probably because it’s not a real conversation. He continues to talk like you did respond until he’s happy with the outcome and then he just leaves.

You kind of admire that.

You pull out your phone to let Suguru know in advance.

You: Mr. Sukuna wants me on this year’s calendar.

Suguru: Is this gonna be one of those Nudie Judy photoshoots? Like Playboy?

You: No. I’ll be wearing clothes.

You: Some.

Suguru: Hopefully enough that I don’t have a heart attack.

You: You’ll be fine.

Suguru: Congratulations Sweetheart. We should celebrate as a family.

Last year you were offered the shoot but turned it down because you were already working so much trying to build up a savings to get your own place. But now you have a little time to spare so you think you’ll take advantage of it. 

Now you just have to decide on the month for the shoot.

February for your birthday?

Or October for Halloween?

Awesome.

As you’re finishing up your liner, you hear some commotion coming from the rest of the club and you along with two of the dancers run out of the dressing room to see what’s going on. It turns out that one of the drunk customers got a little handsy with one of the dancers and was thrown out. The part that shocked you was that Satoru was the one who threw him out because he made it over to her faster than anybody else did. Now she’s hugging him and calling him her savior.

You understand but also… Why?

The rest of your shift flies by in a blur and aside from the little scuffle, tonight turned out to be really great. You got to spend some time with Takuma which is always a treat. He said he’d seen the news and offered you to stay at his place if the police ever need somewhere to hide you which you appreciate. You told him that Suguru would grill the fuck out of him first and he said to pass his number along anyway. That young man has a heart of gold because you can’t believe he’d put his life on the line for some girl he knows at a Gentlemen’s Club. 

When you’re done turning in all your money, you go back to the dressing room to get changed into your street clothes and when you return to the bar, you don’t see Satoru anywhere in the club. After looking around for a minute, you see him walking out of the office with your boss and then he runs over to you. 

“Your boss offered me a job!” 

WHAT?

“I’m sorry, he did what now?”

“He moved faster than the speed of sound. If you’re willing to let your boy toy out of your sight for a couple nights a week, I could use him. Let me know.”

“Oh. Oka–”

“Come on, I’ll give you your walk out.”

“Alri–”

“Hurry up.” Alright bitch chill the fuck out.

Satoru grabs your bag for you and follows you as you follow Sukuna out of the club. You unlock your car and he checks the backseat before throwing your bag in there and stepping back so that you can get inside.

“Thank you Mr. Sukuna.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’ll contact you within the next few days about the shoot.”

You start to drive out of the lot and once again, he stands by the entrance and watches you the entire time to make sure that you’re safe.

“What shoot?” Satoru asks you.

“For this year's calendar.”

“Oooooohhhh. What month are you?”

“I don’t know yet. He said I could choose.”

“Nice.”

“How was your night? Were you bored?”

“It was fine. It was kinda fun getting to know new people. But I really just like when we hang out at home and watch movies and play games and stuff.” Awwwwww.

“Me too.”

“So…..” he starts drawing invisible figures on the center console. “About that ‘riding my dick’ thing.’”

“What about it?”

“Interested?”

You start laughing so hard that you almost have to pull over.

This fucking guy.

This fucking guy.

You admire the balls on him though, you really do.

“Uhhhh. I’m kinda tired from work so I won’t be riding your dick tonight but I appreciate the offer, kind sir.”

“Oh, no problem. I just wanted you to know that if you’re ever tired of your chairs, you can sit on my face instead. I offer a wild array of services.”

“Array of services? Is that right?”

“Yes. I’m skilled in many ways. I just figured it’d be a good time to have some fun before Suguru puts in all those cameras.”

“Fuck! I keep forgetting about these fucking cameras!”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“I’m sorry that he was such a dick to you.”

Choso waves you off. “It’s not your fault. I understand that it’s part of their job.”

“But I know that the publicity of you being interviewed by the police can’t be good for you and your career. I mean, Suguru has been doing a good job at hiding a lot of things from the public, but now that you’ve been questioned, it’s going to end up in the public and then those theories that my boyfriend and I killed my parents are gonna be linked back to you and hurt your image.”

“What image? My image of being a moody fuck?”

You laugh at how nonchalant he is about all of this. “You seem pretty chill about being involved in an investigation.”

“I know that I didn’t do anything,” he reaches for his glass and takes a drink.

It’s been a couple of days since Choso’s questioning and he made some time to come over for lunch which was perfect timing since right before he arrived, Suguru showed up and kidnapped Satoru for the day. He didn’t tell you where they were going, he just walked in, gave him ten minutes to get ready, and then walked out.

You wanted to apologize to Choso for his shitty appointment with Shiu Kong which he just waved off and said wasn’t your fault. He’s pretty relaxed about the entire thing and while you’re happy that he’s not having a meltdown, you are a little concerned that the severity of the situation hasn’t sunk in yet.

“I know you didn’t and I know that you wouldn’t,” you agree with his prior statement. “But they had a million ways to exclude Satoru from the suspect list and that still didn’t stop Shiu from crawling up his ass and setting up a fucking office in there.”

Choso chokes on his drink as he tries not to laugh at what you said. “Fuck.”

“I’m serious! What if you start getting a lot of bad press because of this?!”

“So what if I do?” This man gives not a single fuck.

“I don’t want to be the reason that you start having problems in your career! I don’t want people thinking that you’re a murderer because of me! I just–”

Choso reaches across the coffee table and places his hands on yours to stop you, “hey.” You stop talking and look up at him, waiting for him to speak again. “Chill the fuck out before you have a fucking heart attack.”

Well damn.

You stare at him, mouth agape, for probably like thirty seconds before you just burst out into laughter. “Could you have said that any other way?!”

“You were psyching yourself out! You need to relax. You should take a vacation.”

“I work a couple of nights a week at a Gentlemen's Club, my life practically is a vacation.”

“That’s not the same thing and you know it. We’re going out of the country for the next leg of the tour, is there a way that I can convince you to come along?”

“You do realize that I’m practically under lock and key, you wanna deal with that shit when you have to work?”

“So what. It’ll be fun. We’ll get a chance to visit some of the places that we said we would when we were teens.”

“Lemme think about it.”

“I’ll take it! We’re not going anywhere for two months, at the earliest.” You hum. “Would it make it more convincing if I said that you could bring along Utahime and your boy toy?”

“Boy toy?” You scoff.

“Yeah. I’ll provide security for you, but you’ll have to protect him from the women who’re gonna be chasing him down.”

“Fuuunnnn. Even on vacation, I’ll still have to work.”

“Yeah, but all your expenses will be paid.”

“Two months you say?” He laughs at how fast you change your mind. “I have to do this shoot for Mr. Sukuna, and then I can do whatever I want after that. Also, you’ll have to do the convincing when it comes to Suguru.”

“Sounds good.”

The two of you sit around and chat for a while, allowing the time to just slip away from you. But you’d be lying if you said that your mind didn’t wander from time to time, wondering what the hell is going on with Suguru and Satoru. 

Out of nowhere you hear someone outside your door and you jump at the sound, causing Choso’s eyes to shoot over to you. Once your door starts to open and you hear Suguru’s voice, you relax.

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” that wasn’t convincing. “Just a little jumpy now that I’m potentially being targeted by a serial killer, that’s all.”

“Well, as long as I’m here, you’re safe.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” you hear Suguru say as he starts walking over to you.

“What did you crazy kids do today?” You’re dying to know.

“Dad taught me to drive!” Satoru shouts out.

“You learned to… what?!”

“He’s not going to be getting his driver’s license today, but he’s on the right track. He’s been picking everything up rather quickly.”

“You kidnapped Satoru to teach him to drive? We can’t even get him a license because he has no identification.”

“It’s always good to know in case of an emergency. As far as the license goes, I know a guy and we’ll be able to get him set up with all of his papers and ID’s and all of that stuff.”

“Fun.”

“But now that we’re home, I have a proposition for my daughter and her wonderful friend.” Oh boy. “I want all of us to have lunch, as a family, tomorrow afternoon. Are you available for that Choso?”

“Uhhh, sure. It’s been a while since I’ve seen everyone so that sounds nice.”

“Fantastic! My daughter can give you the details.”

“Yeah. When I get the details.” He laughs and says goodbye to all of you before reminding Satoru that they have another lesson soon and then he walks out the door.

“Sooooo,” Satoru sits down on the couch next to you. “Am I critiquing anything tonight?”

Choso scoffs. “Only if you plan on praising me the entire time.”

Well, that’s not how you expected that to go.

“If this was a report card, I’d get an A so the highest that you can get is a B.” Fucking Satoru.

“Why can’t I also get an A? People take multiple classes at once and can get multiple A’s.”

“Not in this subject. I guess you could say that you’re the midterm and I’m the final.”

What the fuck are they talking about?

“An A, but in what subject? Some are more valuable than others.” You can’t believe that Choso is entertaining this. “You need to be able to read and write more than you need to be able to dance.”

Are you serious?

“That depends. What if I wanna be the most famous backup dancer and you start a bunch of books that you never finish?” Fucking Satoru.

“Or maybe I’m on the New York Times Bestseller List?”

“50 Shades of Grey ended up on that list so that doesn’t mean anything.” He has a point.

But what the hell are they even talking about? Are they still shaming each other about actually anything?

Thankfully, the universe answers your prayers and there’s a knock on the door but as soon as you stand up to answer it, Satoru stops you and runs over to check it first.

He opens the door and then yells out, “it’s the DILF!” Satoru for fuck’s sake.

“Satoru, where’d you hear that?”

“Utahime,” he responds like he doesn’t understand what the problem is.

But Toji just laughs it off like it’s the funniest thing he’s heard all day. “It’s fine, I’ll take the compliment.”

You walk over to the door and Satoru goes back to the couch but he and Choso continue to watch you.

“Hey. I just wanted to check on you. I haven’t seen you since that day and I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.” That’s nice.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I’ve been basically banned from being alone but besides that, I’m good. Thank you for checking my apartment even though it turned out to be nothing.”

“No problem. It could’ve been something and I just coulda been too late. But if you ever need anything, lemme know. I actually have an interview with the police tomorrow morning about the whole thing.”

“Fuck! I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to drag you down into my tragedy.”

“I don’t look at it that way. And it’s not a big deal, don’t worry about it. Gotta make sure Tsumiki’s favorite neighbor is safe, right?”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“So, Suguru is teaching you how to drive?” You’re putting away some laundry and can’t help the curiosity.

“It’s so exciting! I didn’t know there were so many different types of carriages. We even saw one where the doors opened upwards and Suguru said it had something to do with butterflies.”

“Butterfly doors?”

“Yeah. That,” he says with muffled speech due to the donuts he’s shoving in his mouth. 

‘So, how’d you feel about the process?”

“It was pretty cool, but a little nerve wracking if I’m being honest. I can’t believe you steer that giant hunk of metal around and you don’t panic. I was nervous and I was in an empty lot.”

“You get used to it.”

“I didn’t even like steering horse drawn carriages.”

“I think I’d be more scared of that than driving a car.” He looks at you like you’re insane for that. “So, how’d time go with Suguru? Besides the driving?” You can’t even pretend that you’re not curious.

“It was fun. Your dad is pretty cool. And women lose their minds whenever he goes somewhere. I don’t know how your mom deals with it.” Is he serious?

“Satoru, that’s what happens when we go out together!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Women are always doing double takes to get a look at you or they’re sneaking pictures. Waitresses always flirt and a lot of people act like I’m not even in the room.”

“I’ve never noticed that.”

“That’s because you’re a sweetheart.”

“Or.. maybe it’s because I only have eyes for you.” You roll your eyes and go back to folding clothes. “I’m serious! You’re my one and only, my loveeeee.” Instead of responding, you just continue to focus on the task at hand because you have to take advantage of the determination while you have it. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, Satoru.”

“Why don’t you call Suguru ‘dad?’”

“I just… uhh… I…”

Satoru sees how thrown off you are and tries to shut it down. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer. What’s next for dessert?!” Nice try.

“It’s okay, I was just surprised. Most people just accept it, they’ve never actually asked me.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make things uncomfortable. I just noticed that you always call him and Manami by their names and nobody seems bothered by it. But your sisters call them mom and dad… even I do,” he lets out a nervous laugh.

“Oh no, I get it. It’s just… I have a mom and dad– had , I guess. It just feels like I’m, for lack of a better term or phrase, cheating on my parent’s memory by calling someone else the names that I called them. I don’t want to upset them and I know that sounds stupid, but it just feels weird. It feels like a betrayal.”

“I understand that. I’m sorry for asking.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m not mad, I was just surprised.” You pick back up where you left on finishing up the laundry.

“Has it ever bothered you when I call Suguru dad?”

“No. Why would it? I think it’s cute.”

“Cute, huh?” Oh no. “It seems like everyday, there’s something new about me that you think is cute.” You know what he’s doing and you’ll let it work this time.

“Psh, yeah right. You have your moments, but you’re not as cute as you think you are.”

“No, I’m cuter than you think that I think that I am.” You stop for a moment to do the math and then just start laughing. “For what it’s worth, you can always call me ‘daddy.’”

You drop the shirt that you were folding and just stare at him. “With my whole heart… I hate you.”

“Bahahahahaaaaa!”

“You’re a literal monster.”

“But I’m your monster.”

This fucking guy.

“Instead of being annoying, how about you fold this laundry for me?”

“You got it, boss!” You watch him take a shirt and he just folds it in half once and then puts it on the side. Then he takes a sweater and rolls it up and you try to hold in your laughs.

“Satoru, my dear?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Did you wear clothes in your time?”

“Of course. Did you think I was just letting the townspeople stare at my massive cock as I walked nude down the street?”

“You do have that energy.”

“Massive cock energy?”

“No. The energy of someone who’d just walk down the street half naked– or fully, just so people know what they can’t have.”

“And what you think I have is…. A massive cock? Right?”

“Men,” you shake your head. “My point is… what the fuck is that?!” You point to the clothing that he’s supposed to be ‘folding’ and half of it is not even evenly folded or just in balls. Some stuff he just tossed to the side.

“What’s what?”

“That! Is that how you fold laundry in your time?”

“If I’m being honest, my love, the last person who made me fold laundry, I kinda wanted to kill.” Your eyes shoot open at the confession. “Don’t worry! I didn’t! She was just one of my previous masters and she was a… how do people say it in your time? She was a ‘bitch.’ I ended up not killing her because I didn’t want to eat her rotten soul. Every Time I thought about it, I made the same face you make when you see people doing shots of Vodka.”

You know that feeling.

“I’ll do the laundry,” you start reaching for stuff but he stops you.

“I got it. You don’t have me do anything else. The least that I can do is the laundry.”

“Satoru, it’s fine. It’s mostly crop tops and skin tight whatever else.”

“Then why are you folding things so that you don’t have to worry about wrinkles?”

“It’s just a habit from my parents that I’ve tried to keep up. I’m scared that if I stop, I won’t pick it back up when I need to. What if I end up working a corporate job and need my suit to not have wrinkles or some shit? It’ll be my fault.”

“I’ll do it.”

“No! I’ll do it! They’re my clothes, it’s my responsibility.”

When he reaches his hand over, you lightly tap it as a joke and to signify that he doesn’t need to do anything.

But that’s not how that works out.

Instead he shoots a glare your way with his eyes glowing brighter than you’ve ever seen and it’s fucking terrifying.

After a few seconds, he comes out of whatever daze he’s in and the only emotion left on his face is regret. 

Pure regret.

“I.. I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean– fuck. I’m sorry!” You’ve never seen him like this. He’s barely able to even get his apology out because he’s so frazzled.

“No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so sorry!”

“No! It’s not your fault. I’m just a little sensitive sometimes. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you!”

“No. I was wrong and I shouldn’t have done that. That’s not okay. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s just… one of my last masters got a little physical regardless if they got their way or not and it’s just something I’m still kind of sensitive about.”

“I’m so sorry,” you don’t remember the last time that you cried so hard. You’re so upset that it almost feels like you can’t breathe. “I’m so sorry, Satoru. I didn’t mean to–”

“It’s okay. It’s okaaaaayyyyy,” he starts to pull you close to him but all you can do is curl in on yourself and sob. “Why are you so upset?”

“Because… I hurt you.”

He holds you and takes a deep breath before saying the last thing that you were expecting, “Fuuuck. You’re so hot.”

You stop crying. You stop sniffling. You feel like you forget to breathe altogether.

“What?”

“You’re sooooo hot. I want you to sit on my face. I want to cover you in hickies so that everybody knows that you’re taken. I want to make you feel so good that Toji calls the cops because he thinks you’re in here fighting for your life. I want to do everything disgusting thing with you that I can think of.”

“How did we get here? Am I missing a piece of the puzzle?”

“We weren’t doing a puzzle. We were doing laundry.” You’ll never get tired of him.

“That’s not what I meant. How did we jump from being upset to talking about wanting to basically have sex with me in front of a crowd?”

“Because it’s so hot how much you care about me. I’ve never had that before! I always had to fend for myself and it’s led to some hard lifetimes. But you genuinely care about what happened right now even though it’s not your fault. God, you’re my everything.”

“You’re not mad at me?”

“How could I be when you’re so perfect?”

“Because I upset you… just now.”

“I’m not upset. That just took me back to a time that I try to forget. You do a good job of making me feel that way, I think I just had a hard time separating those emotions this time.”

“I won’t do… that again. I don’t wanna upset you.”

“I want your hands on me as much as I can get. You can punch me in the face if you want and I’ll thank you for it. This wasn’t your fault, I was just having one of those brain things where you can’t think.”

“Are you sure?”

“How could I not be sure?”

“I don’t want you telling me everything's okay because you don’t want me to be sad. I want you to be honest.”

“God. Please. Please! Please let me sleep between your thighs tonight! Please!” 

You scoff at his reaction. “Stop being a pervert for five seconds.”

“I think you like it,” he responds and then licks your neck.

“Satoru! Do you have any idea how many germs are in the human mouth?! It’s worse than a toilet seat!”

“But I have a demon mouth, baby. You’re fine. Let me put my tongue in your ass as an apology.”

“I’m finishing the laundry,” you untangle yourself from him and grab a handful of the laundry on the foot of your bed and you just throw it all in a drawer, as is.

“What happened to properly folding everything?”

“Fuck that. It’s been a long day.”

You walk back and forth throwing all the clothes in drawers before crawling back in bed with Satoru. He starts to talk about… something. But you’re struggling to focus on whatever it is because something feels off. 

You stand up and walk back to your dresser and open the second drawer, one of the ones that you just dumped shirts in and you realize what’s off.

“What’s wrong?” Satoru sounds concerned and you’re just trying to figure out what happened.

“This isn’t supposed to be in this drawer.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a necklace from my mom.” One of your most cherished possessions, as a matter of fact. “I really wanted a Tiffany’s necklace and she got me one when I became a teenager. But I don’t keep it in this drawer, so I don’t understand why it’s here.”

You start removing all the clothes you just placed in there to see if anything else is out of place. But everything else is where you usually keep it from your cute bag full of panties to one of your most read books that you like to keep close.

Next drawer it is.

You check through both the top and bottom drawers and see that everything is in its place in there as well and it’s only that the necklace is in the wrong drawer that throws you off. 

“Is anything else off?” You were so on a mission that you almost forgot that Satoru was in the room.

“I keep the necklace in the top drawer and I try to make sure that it’s tucked away, but it was in the second drawer.”

“I don’t want to upset you, but is it possible that you misplaced it?”

“No.” Your reaction is proof that you didn’t make a mistake. “I may get a little confused with trivial things, but not with the things that really matter. In all my years, I have never misplaced or damaged anything that belonged to my parents. I’m sure.”

He nods and then gets up to check your dresser with his dramatic glowing eyes as you stand back and watch him. 

“I’m sorry babe, but I don’t see anything.”

“Does that mean that this was my fault?”

“Not necessarily. It just means that whoever did this didn’t leave anything behind that I can trace.”

You’re so fucking tired of these multitalented murderer who’s able to maneuver around every goddam defense that you have. You even have a fucking demon by your side and even he can’t figure out who the hell was here and it’s really pissing you off.

“Alright, I’m going to scour my apartment.”

“For what? I don’t sense any energy.”

“I want to see if anything else is out of place. If this is the only thing, then I’ll just have to accept that I may have made the most out of character mistake of all time. But if there’s others, I know for sure that someone was here. But unfortunately, I can’t go to the police with just this because Shiu already thinks that I’m crazy. So, I have to do some looking around myself.”

“Alright, where are we starting?”

“Living room. Movies and books.”

“Got it!” He jumps off the bed and starts to follow you out of the bedroom. “On the bright side, when Suguru puts in those cameras, you can just look at the videos.”

“Fuck! I keep forgetting about those fucking cameras!”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Suguru feels like he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place more than he’s ever been in his life.

He’s on his way to your apartment complex to meet with the manager and see what’s potentially going on with the neighbor next door to you.

He just wants to rule out if that bang that you heard was someone messing with you, or just your usual neighborly things that result in people buying houses so that they no longer have to deal with it.

He’s struggling with what he wants to happen because he doesn’t want anyone to be so close to you and doing stuff like that. But, at the same time, he doesn’t want it to be nothing because it’s going to give Shiu more bullets in the ‘your daughter is crazy’ gun.

Ugh.

The struggle.

He takes several sips from his coffee cup and constantly taps his finger on the steering wheel, signifying his nerves. He didn’t tell you what he was doing today because he didn’t want to worry you until he has an answer for what’s going on. 

He puts in the code to enter your complex and parks in the guest parking, mentally bracing himself for whatever news he gets today. It’s been a couple of days since you heard the sound and nothing else has happened since, so hopefully it was nothing.

But one thing he’s learned as a detective is that, it’s usually not nothing.

After taking a couple deep breaths, he turns the car off and makes his way inside your building. As soon as he steps through the doors, the concierge is smiling at him and he’s grateful for that because he hates bringing police business into someone’s day when it’s already a bad one.

“Hello sir! How may I help you today?”

“Hello. My name is Detective Suguru Geto,” he pulls out his badge to show her and her smile falters. “I’m investigating an ongoing case and I wanted to meet with your boss. He should be expecting me.”

“Okay. Lemme check.” She grabs the phone and dials his office, relaying the news to him. “He said that he’ll be out in a few minutes.”

‘That’s great. May I ask you something, if you have the time?”

“Sure.”

“Have you noticed anyone lingering around who’s not supposed to be here?”

“Not supposed to be here?”

“Someone who you know for sure is not a tenant and you don’t ever see them with someone.”

She thinks for a moment and he’s desperate for an answer. “Honestly Detective, it’s hard to tell. There’s hundreds of units in this building so even if I see someone alone, it’s hard to know if it’s because they don’t live here or I just haven’t met them yet.”

“I understand. May I leave my card with you? Just in case something comes up.”

“Of course.” She takes his card and slips it into her wallet and the manager shows up right then.

“Hello Detective Geto, long time no see. Would you like to step into my office?” Suguru nods and follows the man down the hallway and into his office. “How can I help you?”

“Well, my daughter lives in the building and a few days ago she had an incident with her next door neighbor. Normally I wouldn’t interfere with her affairs in this manner, but if you’ve been following the news about–”

“That killer?”

“Yes.”

“Shit. Do you think that they might live here?!”

“Honestly, I can’t speak to that yet. I hope that’s not the case, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. We know for a fact that the killer has been to the building and I just want to make sure that nothing nefarious is going on, especially so close to her. Is it possible to ask her neighbor if they were hanging shelves or frames or something?”

“Shelves or frames?” He looks so confused.

“Between you and I,” Mr. Tanaka leans in close to listen to him. “She heard a loud bang coming from the unit next door. She heard it once and then again a couple minutes later. It wasn’t consistent. My guess would be that someone was just hanging something up, but…”

“It would take more than two spaced out hits.” They seem to be in agreement and Suguru really hopes that he’ll help him with this because he already knows he won’t get a warrant on two sounds alone. “Let me take a look in my computer and see who lives there. What number is your daughter in again?”

“237.”

“Of course she’d be hearing sounds then,” he chuckles. “And which unit do you think is causing the problem?”

“236.”

“Hmm.” He starts typing in a few more things before freezing and furrowing his brows. He starts clicking around and Suguru wonders why he looks so concerned. Certainly it shouldn’t be that stressful. “Are you sure that that’s the apartment you heard the sound coming from?”

“I believe so. It’s the one closer to the elevator, she has to pass it every time she comes and goes and I believe the numbers go up. So yes, I believe it’s 236.”

“Hmmm. Excuse me for a moment.” Suguru nods and he walks out of his office. He’s doing everything in his power to not lean over this man’s desk and see what his computer says. Maybe he decided to just run up and speak to the tenant, but this was definitely a weird reaction, in his opinion. “Thank you so much for waiting, Detective. Would you like to accompany me upstairs?”

“That’d be great! Thank you.” 

It’s a quiet walk to the elevator and it somehow feels even more silent once they’re inside. But as long as Suguru gets some type of answer today, he’ll be as uncomfortable as possible.

When the doors open to your floor, he feels a little guilty that he didn’t give you a head’s up today. He’s concerned that if you step out and see him, you’ll freak out thinking that things are worse than they are, so hopefully that doesn’t happen.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

The manager pulls the key card out of his pocket and just as he’s about to swipe it, Suguru stops him. He knows that there’s laws protecting tenants from landlords just entering their home whenever they see fit and as desperate as he is for answers, he doesn’t want to break the law doing it.

“Wait. Did you speak to the resident? Are they okay with this?”

“It’ll be fine,” he brushes off Suguru’s concerns and opens the door.

When they step inside, it looks similar to your apartment, except for all of the furniture being in slightly different colors. He wishes that he could have afforded a fully furnished place like this when he was your age but that makes him all the more proud of what you’re able to do for yourself. The manager makes a beeline for one of the bedrooms and starts opening drawers and closets. Suguru can hear him, but he doesn’t want to intervene.

“Just as I thought,” the man says once he re-enters the living room.

“What?”

“Nobody lives here.”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“Yaaaayyyyyy,” you hear Satoru whisper as you slowly start waking up. “You’re awake!” He whisper-yells.

“Barely.”

“I’m so happy.”

All you can do is groan in response. You never thought you’d see the day where someone is so happy to just see you wake up. 

It is kinda sweet.

“My loveeeeeee.” You feel him caress your cheek and you reach up to hold his hand. You hold him there as you try to squeeze in a couple more minutes and surprisingly, it worked.

You wanted to take advantage of whatever sleep you can get after the long night that you had. You and Satoru spent quite some time looking around your apartment for anything out of place and you did find a couple of things which freaked you out.

But you didn’t make any calls to Suguru because it was late and you didn’t want to scare him if it turned out to just be you not remembering where you put your own things.

So, you just went to sleep.

But you finally feel rested and wake back up.

That sucks.

Sleeping is your favorite hobby.

You stretch out all the stiffness in your limbs before opening your eyes and find Satoru staring back at you. “Do I have something on my face?”

“Beauty.”

“It’s too early for your shenanigans.”

“What’s a shenanigan? You use that word a lot.”

Aaaand you’re speechless because you don’t even know how to explain it.

Subject change.

“How are you this fine morning? Aren’t you bored just watching me sleep?”

His brows scrunch together and he looks at you like you’ve said the craziest thing. “No. Why would I be bored? I like spending time with you. It’s also fun watching humans do human things.”

“Hmm,” you climb out of bed and run to the bathroom and when you come out, Satoru has a Red Bull for you. “Thank you!”

“Those things will probably kill you but I want my girl to be happy!”

“What do you wanna do today?” You ask Satoru as you brush through your hair.

“Can we go to the beach?” He asks, but not in the over the top Satoru way that he does everything else.

“Of course. Let me just get myself together, take a shower, all that shit.”

You’re absolutely going to indulge him today because you still feel like shit about last night and you want to make it up to him.

“Okay.” 

You gather all your stuff together and head to the bathroom to get ready really quickly. You know that you don’t have to do too much prep to get ready for the beach, but you at least want to shower and complete your skincare routine.

When you step out of the bathroom, you see Satoru lying on the bed and continuing his addiction of playing Peggle Blast. You don’t know exactly what it is abut him playing that game that makes him so fucking cute, but you love it.

Imagine being an all powerful being and you’re mad because you ran out of balls when you still have orange bricks on the board.

He’s so cute.

You go to your closet to slip on a yellow bikini with hot pink strings and a few Playboy bunnies on it. It’s not the hottest time of the year yet, but you’ve been having warmer days so you want to make sure that you’re prepared. You also have a feeling that Satoru will toss you in the water just for fun so it’s better to be safe than sorry. You slide on a pair of jeans, a crop top over your bikini, and grab a pair of flats for the day.

While you’re searching through your closet for a bag to carry snacks in, Satoru gets in the shower himself. You like that he does what needs to be done to assimilate and you don’t have to really ask him to do anything. 

When you’re in the kitchen putting together a snack bag, you hear your doorbell ring. You look at the clock to see that it’s not super early, but earlier than you’d expect anyone to be showing up at your door. A few seconds later, there’s another ring and you walk over to look through the peephole to be surprised at your visitor.

Suguru.

You open the door to find him standing there in one of his work suits and you just hope that this isn’t bad news. “Hey Suguru, what’s up?”

“Hello there. You’re already dressed? Did I interrupt something?”

“No! No! Come on in.” You step to the side to let him in and already feel your nerves rising a bit. “Everything okay?”

“We’ll see.” Uh oh. “Where are you going so early?”

“Satoru wants to check out the beach, so we’re gonna go there today!” He smiles at your enthusiasm. 

“That sounds like fun. I was wondering why you weren’t wearing one of your special occasion outfits for a day for running errands. Now I know that it’s because you’re going to be getting in the water.”

“Not a ‘special occasion’ outfit? Have you seen this top?!” You pull your crop top on both sides so that he can clearly read what it says.

“Live. Laugh. Lobotomy. Nice.”

“Told ya!” 

“Does Satoru want a lobotomy as well?”

“What do you mean?” His eyes shoot down to your neck and you remember the little hickey that’s there. You forgot that you gave him a little freedom last night after the altercation and it’s coming back to bite you. You try to cover the little mark with your hair and it just makes him laugh. “Oh, excuse those, they’re just little bruises. It appears that I just fell on the head of a candlestick several times.”

“It’s fine. You’re an adult and you’re allowed to have your fun, just be safe.”

“I will.”

He nods and then his eyes start to look at something behind you and that makes you nervous. You turn around to see Satoru walking around the bedroom, still wrapping his towel so high that his dick is out, again, the way it always is.

Suguru closes his eyes and buries his face in his hands like he’s trying to process the situation. “Satoru, why wouldn’t you wear your towel lower? Around your waist, for instance.”

“That doesn’t make me feel as glam!” To be fair, he’s right.

“Anyway, I have to get back to the station and chase down another lead.”

“Wait! What made you stop by?”

“I don’t want to ruin your day. You kids have a good time.” He’s not getting out of this.

“Fuck that!” You see Suguru’s eyes widen. “Respectfully. Respectfully, fuck that, sir. Please tell me because if you don’t, I’ll be more stressed out.”

He sighs, but agrees. “Okay, it’s regarding the apartment next door. Satoru, please put yourself away before joining us.”

“Sure thing, dad!”

You and Suguru take a seat on the couch and you can already tell by his demanor that he doesn’t have good news and it’s freaking you the fuck out. 

“Between you and I,” he starts and you start bracing yourself for whatever he’s about to say. “It’s regarding the bang you heard.” You nod and he continues. “We’ve been reviewing the surveillance footage from this floor in an attempt to connect the dots about what’s going on.”

“Did you find anything?”

“We have what looks like a man, walking out of the apartment some time after you heard the sound.”

“Okay. And?”

“We haven’t seen them enter the apartment or return after their departure is caught on camera.”

“How can that be? Do they work from home or something?”

“It could be a few things, what you said for example. It can also be that we didn’t get footage that stretched back far enough and so your apartment manager is going to collect as much footage as he can to help out the case.”

“Okay. So… someone was there. That means it was probably a nothingburger, right?”

“Don’t panic.” You hate those words but you nod as if that’s something you can truly agree to. “Nobody lives in the apartment next door.”

Your stomach drops.

“What? How can that be?”

“That’s what the building manager and I are going to be working on. Someone was in there, but nobody is actually renting that unit and that means that whoever was in there, wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“Are you sure?”

“I was just in there myself.” It feels like you can’t breathe right. “I promise that I’ll figure this out. I’ll protect you.” You groan, but don’t say anything. “Well, you kids have plans today so I’m going to get out of here before I scare the shit out of you even more.”

“Okay.”

“Are you okay?”

“I will be. I think.”

“Okay. Then I’m going to give you two your time. I don’t want your entire day to be tainted with this. But I didn’t want to risk your landlord showing up and dropping this at your feet before I had a chance to speak to you myself.”

“I understand.”

“Have a good day. Enjoy the beach. Get Satoru three of those ‘little blonde bitches,’” You can’t believe he remembers that and it makes you laugh. “And don’t forget about family lunch with Utahime and Choso, preferably for tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’ll send out a couple of text messages.”

“Good.” And with that, he stands up and leaves. 

You return to your bedroom to see Satoru and he’s laying across your bed, on his towel, air drying like you do everyday. It’s kinda cute seeing the two of you take on each other’s personality traits. 

“Hello beautiful. Dad leave?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?”

“He said that nobody lives next door, so he has to do some more investigating to figure out who that was. On the other hand, he wants to do that family lunch tomorrow.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“He also wants Utahime and Choso there.” You watch his face to see if there’s going to be some sort of a reaction but you don’t see any.

“Are you expecting me to throw a fit or something?” He caught you.

“Kind of.”

“It’s fine. I’m excited to see the family.”

That makes you happy that you don’t have to worry about that because you feel like Suguru is hiding something and that’s bothering you. He’s super concerned with his family’s safety so you don’t think he’d hide anything that’s serious, but you can’t help but wonder anyway. 

You decide not to dwell on it and you grab Satoru, your bag, and head out for the day.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

You’re in the car, probably about ten minutes away from the beach, but the window is down so you can already smell the salt in the air. 

Satoru looks like when you roll the window down for a dog and they just close their eyes and let the wind blow their hair around without a care in the world.

It’s adorable.

When you make it past the apartments and can finally see the water, his eyes light up and that makes you happy for him. You never thought that out of all the things you have available to do in the world today, this would be the thing that makes him the happiest.

Eventually you make it to the parking lot right by the beach and are ecstatic to see that it’s not super crowded today. After you park, Satoru helps you pull out the towels and the bag you packed which surprises you because you honestly thought he was going to run right down to the water the second the car stopped. 

You walk across the sand until you find a spot fairly close to the water and set up the towels to avoid getting sand all over your clothes. You place the bag down next to it and kick off your shoes before unbuttoning your jeans and taking them off. 

“Oooohhh, lingerie at the beach?” He says with a smile.

“It’s not lingerie! It’s a bikini!”

“Yeah. Yeah. Lemme see the top!” You slowly start to remove your top and right as you’re pulling your hair through, he whistles. “Wooh! It’s like a peep show but at the beach!” Peep show? Goodness gracious.

“We won’t be going that far I’m afraid.”

He looks you up and down and licks his lips like you just placed a three tier cake from some fancy show on the Food Network right in front of him. “Looks good on you.”

“Really? Thank you. I don’t usually wear a lot of yellow.”

“That’s not what I was talking about. But that looks good too.” Oh. He’s referring to the purple mark he left on you like a teenager who just reached first base or whatever the fuck people say.

The two of you sit side by side on the beach towel for what feels like an hour, just looking at the water. It’s been a while since you’ve been here because you prefer to come on cold days and that means that you’ll most likely be by yourself. But you love the breeze and the sound of the ocean, it’s beautiful. You look to your left and see Satoru with his head back, just a little bit, his eyes closed, and a peaceful expression on his face.

“If I’d known the beach was your favorite place, I’d have brought you here first.”

He hums. “I miss it. It’s the only thing from my time that hasn’t changed over the years. The buildings around it have, but the beauty of being in a place like this hasn’t.” That makes you happy for him. “When I was human, I was always so busy taking care of my family that I didn’t really have time to experience things for myself. But when I got some free time, I’d go down to the water and just listen to the waves. It was the only thing I could ever make time for, and it was free, which was great since we were poor.”

“We can come here anytime you want. I’ll make the time.” You place your hand on top of his and he intertwines his fingers with yours. He leans his head on your shoulder and closes his eyes. You know that he can’t be physically comfortable, but if he is emotionally, you’ll sit here all day.

After a few more minutes, he opens his eyes and looks up at you. “What’s up, Satoru?”

“I want something sweet.”

“I already know what you’re going to say and my legs are closed for business. But I brought donuts with us.”

His jaw drops open before he smiles like he just got granted a ticket to Willy Wonka’s Factory. You open the bag that you packed and it’s basically sugary drinks with sweet snacks and bags of chips for you, although Satoru does convince you to have some peach rings. You like candy, but he’s not the one who has to worry about cavities so you try to be careful.

After having a few pieces of candy, the two of you decide to get in the water. Well, you walk over to it trying to figure out how cold it is first and he runs into it like the most excited puppy that you’ve ever seen. He’s laughing and splashing and having the time of his life. He comes back to the sand and wraps his arms around you to pull you into the ocean and he’s fucking cold, but you eventually warm up once you’re in there. 

“Kiss me, Bella,” he says and you oblige him without even thinking about it and that might actually be a first. You have a habit of overthinking everything but today, you just want to enjoy the day.

You two end up doing everything at the beach that someone who’s never been has fun doing. You play around in the water, he makes a rather impressive sand castle, and you bury each other in sand because he wanted to take pictures. 

This is a good day. 

Before you know it, the sun has started to set and you sit on the sand and watch it together. You don’t think that you’ve ever actually sat down on the beach and watched the sunset, but there’s a first time for everything. 

Once it passes, you pack everything back up and load it in the car so that you can start heading home. You start driving down the dark road and everything just feels so peaceful, it really was a good day. Unfortunately that’s when you remember that you’ve texted neither of your friends about meeting up for lunch tomorrow. You’ll just have to tell Suguru that it’ll need to be postponed for a day or two. You don’t even know Choso’s schedule or how soon you can plan a day with him.

Eh.

That’s a problem for another day.

Today was a fun day for Satoru and you’re going to leave it that way.

When you arrive home, the first thing that you do is get in the shower and without even thinking about it, you let Satoru join you. You’ve never taken a shower with a man before but he’s so cute and he’s been so respectful so you allow yourself to have a little fun. He doesn’t take advantage of the situation by trying to move things along more than they have. You get a couple of shoulder kisses but besides that, he’s very respectful. 

The more time that you spend with him, the more that you want to do absolutely debaucherous things.

When you get out of the shower, you both lay on the bed and air dry and let the tv play some random show in the back. 

“I love you.” Your eyes shoot over to him. You didn’t think the next time that a man told you he loved you for the first time would be with the two of you laying in bed, air drying after a shower. Well technically, you guess it’s his second time, if you count the phone call. “You don’t have to say it back. I just wanted you to know that’s how I feel.” You look at him, frozen at his confession. “I know you’re worried about everything that’s happening, but you don’t need to worry. I promise that as long as I’m here, I’ll keep you safe. And I’ll do everything in my power to protect your family and friends too, including Choso.”

That part gives you a little laugh because you didn’t expect that ending. “I… I don’t know what to say. After what happened, I never thought I’d be in a position like this again, to maybe have someone.”

“I understand.”

“I feel things, but I don’t completely understand them. Can I have some time?”

“Of course,” he leans over and kisses you on the cheek before getting up. He goes to the closet and puts on pajamas and grabs something for you.

“Satoru! This is just a crop top! You didn’t even give me panties!”

“I was already going against my better judgement giving you the top. But I didn’t want you to be cold.”

“Satoru… get me a fucking pair of panties and a fucking robe before I whoop your fucking ass.”

“Ooohhhhhh, I like this spicy side of you. Yes Madam.” He returns to the closet and gets you enough clothing to pass for at least around the house clothes and you get dressed. 

You take a seat in bed and grab your phone to get working on Suguru’s lunch plans.

You: Hey bitch. When are you down for lunch? Suguru wants the whole family there.

Utahime: Whenever you want. Especially if your dilf of a dad is gonna be there.

You: Utahime!

Hopefully texting Choso won’t be as bad.

You: Suguru wants to have a family lunch and he wants you to be there. Interested?

Choso: Anytime you want, Princess. 

You: I don’t know your schedule. When are you available?

Choso: Whenever you want me.

Did he have to say it like that?

But maybe you can make tomorrow work.

You: Tomorrow afternoon.

Choso: I love it. Is Satoru going to critique my dessert skills like he’s Ron Ben Israel from Sweet Genius?

What the fuck is he talking about?

Oh.

You: Choso!

Choso: I’ll see you tomorrow xoxo Princess

This fucking guy.

He hasn’t changed at all.

You write back to Utahime now that he’s confirmed.

You: Choso said he can do it tomorrow. Are you down?

Utahime: He must be desperate to get as close to you as he can if he’s agreeing on the spot for the next day.

Utahime: Did you send him some Nudie Judy’s?

You: Utahime! For fuck’s sake. No, I don't send nude photos.

Except you send risque ones to Satoru but that’s it.

Utahime: Okay, I’ll be there tomorrow. I’m gonna bring a rose for your dad okay?

What the hell is she talking about?

Why would she do that?

You: If Manami whoops your ass tomorrow I’m not gonna jump in to help your dumbass.

Utahime: Maybe that’s my kink.

Utahime: They’ve been together for a long time, maybe they’re interested in having some fun with a third.

Utahime: Maybe you’re gonna get a new parent figure.

You: I hate you so much that it hurts.

Utahime: Love you! See you tomorrow!

“Everyone is confirmed for tomorrow!” You shout at Satoru.

“Fun! I can’t wait to see how much his fingers are lacking in dexterity!”

Is everyone just drinking aphrodisiacs tonight because what the fuck is going on?

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“Hello! Hello! Hello!” You say as you enter your former home and Manami comes out of the kitchen to greet you.

“Hello, Love. I’m so glad you’re home.”

“Well, Suguru didn’t ask, he told me we were doing lunch so… Here I am!” 

“You know how he is. Come on, your friends are in the kitchen with me.”

You follow Manami into the kitchen and see Utahime & Choso sitting at the table with Nanako and Mimiko fawning over him.

What’s it like to be famous?

Are the parties really as cool as everyone says?

Do you have a girlfriend?

Do I get a family discount on tickets?

Those are just a few of the questions that you hear fired out in rapid succession. 

Everyone greets you when you walk in and you can tell Utahime takes note of you and Satoru’s outfits. It’s not elaborate or anything, it’s just a pair of jeans with a white, knitted sweater that’s covered in blue hearts. But of course he had to replicate it so that you match with each other. 

“Where’s Suguru?” You ask.

“He got a little held up at the office but he should be here soon.”

You take an empty seat at the table and everyone engages in mindless chit chat while Manami cooks and you wait for Suguru to arrive. It’s nice to be here with everyone, but you just have a feeling that there’s some alternative purpose instead of just bonding time for the first time in years.

Right as the thirty minute mark is approaching, Suguru comes home and greets everyone. He looks mostly like himself but you can tell that he’s tired and it makes you feel awful. You know that his job is already stressful as fuck, but you know that your safety potentially being in danger is probably making it so much worse. 

“How is everyone this fine day?” Everyone mumbles ‘good’ like they’re at an open mic night and wasn’t expected to participate. “Choso, long time no see. How have you been?”

“Could be worse.”

“Could be worse?” Says the rockstar.”

Choso buries his face in his hands. “I guess.”

“Shy as ever! We’ve missed you tremendously. Utahime, what about you?” He switches his attention to her and goes down the line speaking to everybody before helping Manami set the table outside in the backyard.

Everyone else helps carry stuff out to set up and you’re glad there’s so many people here because Manami was apparently cooking to turn this house into a buffet. Nanako and Mimiko both have dishes with food, you and Utahime have glasses and drinks, and Choso and Satoru have plates and silverware.

Damn. 

She went all out.

“Is this the Last Supper or something?” You tease once everyone takes their seat at the table in the backyard.

“I know, I know,” she starts. “I may have gone overboard but it’s been so long since we were all here together and I wanted to celebrate that. We also have a new addition this time with Satoru, so I figured I’d go all out.”

You understand that.

Lunch is actually pretty nice.

The food is good, which doesn’t surprise you, and everyone is getting along really well. Choso agrees to let your sisters go to a show as long as Suguru or Manami goes with them, to be safe and they start begging the both of them. Utahime and Satoru start to act like it’s the Comedy Central Roast of the other one and have been teasing each other back and forth. 

Oh goodness.

When the plates are practically empty and the bottle of wine follows suit, Suguru clears his throat to speak and that’s when you knew that you were right. Sure, he could just be getting ready to say something like, “today was such a lovely day. I hope that we can do it again sometime.” But you’ve gotten pretty good at reading his face and there’s a subtle look of seriousness in his eyes and you can just tell that something is coming.

“Okay everyone, I have a confession to make.” Bingo. “While I am having a lovely time and I’m happy that all of you could be here, and I’d love to do it again, I do have something to tell you.”

Everyone starts to look worried, but nobody interrupts him.

“We’re all family here, so I don’t feel I need to stress how serious it is that what I tell you all remains between us and only us. I didn’t want to worry everyone so I’ve been keeping this to myself, but with the caseload and everything else going on, it’s hard for me to have the brainpower to work on this myself and I need help from the rest of you.”

Everybody starts to look around with furrowed brows and wonder what’s going on.

“Recently, I have received a letter.”

“What kind of letter?” Nanako asks.

“A letter that’s potentially from the killer.”

Everybody’s jaws drop and eyes widen in shock. 

A fucking letter that’s probably from the fucking killer?

What the fuck?

“It’s something that’s hard to authenticate seeing as the killer is obviously still unknown to us. But unless it’s someone who’s playing a prank, I have a feeling that it’s genuine.” He clasps his fingers together and rests his hands on the table. “There was some information in there that made me believe that it’s real and that we should be concerned. I’m only telling the people sitting here because I genuinely don’t believe anyone is involved with everything going on. And aside from my personal feelings, everyone is easy to rule out.”

Okay.

The way he’s saying everything is really starting to scare you.

If he had to basically vet his family, there’s a reason for that.

“In the letter, there was information in there that someone would only know if they’ve been to our home.”

“Shut the fuck up,” you accidentally slip out.

“I know. That’s why I need everyone’s help.”

“What information was in there?”

“A description of your bedroom.”

It feels like your brain just shut down.

It feels like the wind was knocked out of you.

It feels like the world just stopped, but every horrible feeling that you can imagine hits you all at once. 

You’re nauseous. You’re terrified. And most of all, you’re fucking pissed. 

You were so out of it that you didn’t even hear anyone calling your name. You were finally pulled out of your thoughts by Satoru when you felt him lightly shaking you.

When you come to, you see that everyone is looking at you like they were scared that you were going to drop and never get back up. 

“Are you okay?” Satoru asks in the most gentle tone of voice that you’ve ever heard from him.

“Yeah. What’d I miss?”

“Nothing.”

“We can come back to this later,” Suguru says but you stop him.

“No. I need to know what’s going on. Please continue.”

“Are you sure?”

“Please. I need to know what’s going on.”

He nods and continues. “I know that this is shocking and I really wanted to protect everyone from this, but it’s imperative that I receive your help. I’ve been trying to compile a list of every single person who’s been to our home since you joined us, but it’s hard doing it on my own. We have the security system, but I’m not sure how far it goes back and that’s very time consuming. I also know that I can write down everyone that I’ve seen, but that’s not enough when there were times where you babysat the girls with Choso and their friends came over. I’m not saying young children are responsible, but they do have adult parents. I have to cast a wide net and I need a lot of help with this.”

Everyone mumbles some sort of agreement and that’s when he offers something that you weren’t expecting.

“Would you like to hear the letter?”

Everybody says yes with quickness and Suguru pulls his phone out of his pocket. He clears his throat and begins to read the letter. It’s so quiet except for his voice and every word he reads off fills you with a sense of dread. You knew that things were terrible, but you didn’t think there was a chance that the killer could be so close to home.

“Do you honestly believe that this is from the killer? How do we not know that it’s not just an old friend or someone who wants to prank the family?” Utahime takes the words right out of your mouth.

“You could be correct and I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t thinking that. It doesn’t make sense to me that someone who’s been so close to us would expose such horrible crimes that they’ve spent years getting away with. But a lot of killers hate when they’re not getting a lot of attention from the public or ‘not getting credit for their work.’ It could be a hoax, but I want to treat it as if it’s the real deal. So I’d like for everyone who’s been to the home, no matter how long it’s been, to make a list of everyone who they’ve seen here. I need to start interviewing all of those individuals.”

Everyone nods in agreement and Suguru goes inside the house only to return with a bunch of notebooks. “I don’t like to rely solely on technology in case there’s a malfunction or something accidentally gets deleted.”

Everybody takes a book and a pen and starts jotting down notes about not just anyone who they remember being inside the home, but also people who just seemed a little… off. You never know what may come in handy and this is the definition of an all hands on deck situation.

“You haven’t released the letter to the public. Do you think you ever will?” You ask Suguru.

“I want to hold on to it for as long as possible before it seems necessary to release it. At this point, I don’t see the need other than to give the writer the attention that they do desperately crave. I would much rather wait to see if they get upset that it hasn’t been released. The more emotionally unstable that these people are, the more mistakes that they make. We haven’t been able to track where this one came from just yet. But, if someone gets upset that it wasn’t shown on the news, they may write another one and make a mistake when sending it out.”

There’s only one piece of information about the letter that he’s leaving out.

The fact that it was typed up on a typewriter. 

Regardless if it’s revealed to the public or not, he’ll make sure to keep that to himself. 

That’s an excellent piece of guilt knowledge for many reasons. 

When it starts to get a little cooler outside, everyone decides to take a break and return inside to just hang out. Everyone hands over their notebooks to Suguru and he locks them up in the safe that he has in his office.

When he returns, he says the one thing that you weren’t expecting. “Anyone up for a board game?”

Really?

Now you’re all sitting around the coffee table, watching everyone play Clue. 

You don’t play yourself because the universe is fucking against you when it comes to this game and you never win which in turn, pisses you off. So instead, you’re helping explain it to Satoru even though you made it clear to him that you’re probably the worst teacher for this game, but he doesn’t care. 

And what happens?

He wins the first fucking game!

What is it that people say?

Those who can’t do, teach.

They aren't wrong.

“I mean this in the most respectful way Detective Geto, but if you can’t even beat that goofy fucker right there, I don’t have much faith in you solving this case,” Choso says once Suguru loses for the third time in a row.

“I’m a genius,” Satoru says out of nowhere and you laugh.

But Suguru doesn’t get offended, he just laughs it off. “I’m afraid you might have a point.”

“He’s right! Look at him! He’s like Spongebob in that one episode where his head was empty and he was doing that stupid dance,” Utahime couldn’t wait to pile it on.

“I’m an excellent dancer,” Satoru defends himself. “Can any of you do the Argentine Tango?”

“I can’t even Tang’,” fucking Suguru.

The rest of the night is pretty chill and time just gets away from you. Before you even realize, it’s already midnight and you opt to spend the night instead of driving back home. Utahime had a few drinks so she also decides to spend the night as well and instead of spending the night in the guest room and putting Satoru on the couch, Manami talks Suguru into letting you two sleep in the same room as long as the door remains open. But Choso decides to return home because he has to be at the studio in the morning and you couldn’t imagine having to work until late at night at these shows and then waking up early the next day.

Fuck that.

“See you soon?” He asks before he gets ready to leave and you agree.

Everyone helps clean up the mess from snacks and the games before going to their separate rooms for the night. You give Utahime a change of clothes and a bottle of water before bidding her goodnight.

You and Satoru return to your bedroom and it just feels weird being in here now. Knowing that the potential killer not only has seen it, but spent enough to recall specific details is for lack of a better term of phrase, freaking you the fuck out. A part of you wants to change those details but you also don’t want to do that because it’s sentimental and you don’t want that asshole to win. But, if he received another letter detailing the changes, that’d confirm that it’s someone close to you regardless if it’s a hoax or not.

Seriously, what the hell are people doing?

As a horrible criminal, aren’t you supposed to be hiding away from the police, not fucking contacting them. You really hope that their cockiness is what gets their dumbass captured because who the fuck would do something so stupid?

It makes you think of that guy who was caught because he was bragging and used Mapquest and they tracked it back to his computer or some shit.

You really hope that’s what happens in this case.

“You’re doing it again. Stop it.”

“I know.” You’ve really got to learn stress relief techniques because this is sucking the life out of you. You really admire people who can just shut their brain off and enjoy their time because that is not a skill that you possess. 

“Everyone is safer right now than they ever have been, because I’m here. So relax.”

You groan for dramatic effect before changing into your pajamas and crawling into bed. “Shit, I forgot to open the door back up.”

“I’ve got it.” Little things like that are enough to make you love him back. “Alright, what’s our bedtime show?”

“Anything you want.”

He puts on an old season of Marriage Boot Camp on and that makes you laugh a little bit. You used to love this show when it first came out and it made you watch the old episodes of Bridezillas that featured the cast members. 

Ironic that the original hosts don’t look like they’re together anymore.

You take a few moments to try and clear your mind before getting cozy in bed and curling up to Satoru. He wraps his arms around you and you rest your head against his chest, finally allowing yourself to relax for the first time today.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Utahime: They both want you, what are you gonna doooooo????

You: Focus on not getting murdered and then worry about my love life the next day.

Utahime: Boo! You not-whore.

Utahime: You should let them spit roast you.

What the hell is that?

You google it.

You: Utahime! You think I should go from no sex to plugging all my holes like I’m a row boat leaking water? That’s supposed to be a good idea?

Utahime: Yes!

Utahime: There’s no rule that says that you can’t put the jelly in two holes in the donut.

Really?

You: I think I prefer the traditional method but I appreciate your enthusiasm.

Utahime: Fine. Fine. Fine.

Utahime: What are you and that silly white haired fucker doing now?

You: We’re getting stuff together to go hang out at the pool. I’m also gonna show him the gym, I think.

Utahime: I keep forgetting your apartment has all of that!

Utahime: Rich bitch.

Utahime: I’m sorry.

Utahime: Can I come play soon?

You: Of course, you stupid slut.

Utahime: Yaaayyyyy!!!

You asked Utahime to call or text you when she got home to make sure she was safe, but you didn’t expect afternoon shenanigans. 

Satoru, Utahime, and yourself all left shortly after waking up in the morning before hearing your sisters arguing over nonsense with no caffeine in your system.

“Satoru! Are you ready?” You yell from the living room.

“Yup! Are you wearing a dress for the water?”

“It’s just a cover up over my bikini so that I’m not super exposed on the way down there and back up.” You fill up a bag with towels, robes, and candy for quick snacks to have down at the pool. 

“I’m so excited! I’ve never been to a pool before!”

“Even when you were alive?”

“Nope!” Sweet baby. “That was for rich people.” 

“Well, let’s make it a fun day then.”

You thought about this on the way home and stopped off at a store to get a bunch of pool toys. You got noodles, floaties, including a giant ducky that Satoru picked out. It’s a good thing you bought the coffin and giant bat ones a long time ago and saved them for the future. You even picked up a Hello Kitty set just for variety.

You pulled out your fancy tumblers, a black and pink rhinestone one that says ‘Killin’ It” with Ghostface on the side and one completely covered in pink rhinestones that Satoru picked out.

Your favorite thing about spending time with him is probably that he’s so unapologetically himself. He’s excited about everything and he’s not going to let anyone talk him out of it. It’s nice to spend time around a man who’s not afraid of the color pink, he just goes for it. It makes you more excited to do things with him no matter what it is. 

He grabs the bag with all the pool stuff and you leave the apartment, ready to look for the pool, having forgotten where it is. Because you don’t want to wander around all day, you ask the concierge and she points you in the right direction, reminding you that there’s also vending machines out there.

Great.

Nothing you love more than a seven dollar Coke.

But you know yourself and you know that you’ll probably spend the money.

You swipe your card to unlock the door and make a beeline for a couple of empty chairs. It’s actually not packed like you thought, but you still like having the option of choosing whatever you want.

“Hi” You sit your bag down on the ground next to your chair and Satoru puts his bag next to yours. “Hiii!” You start pulling stuff out of your bag and hang the towels on the backs of the chairs. “Hiiiiiii!”

“Hey kid!” Satoru’s words pull you out of your thoughts. “How’s it goin’?” You look over your shoulder and see Tsumiki in the pool, inside a donut floatie.

“Good. I thought me and daddy would be the only ones here.”

“We were, for a while,” he confirms her statement.

“I’m so sorry!” You start frantically apologizing. “I didn’t know anyone was speaking to me. I have a bad habit of zoning out. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. Are you guys gonna play?” Damn, kids recover fast. 

“Yeah. He’s just gonna blow up all these floaties first.” You give Satoru your coffin first and he blows it up in record speed. It literally took like a minute and both Tsumiki and Toji are left speechless as to how he did it. “That was impressive.”

“I’ve got real good lungs.”

“Damn straight.” One by one you hand him the floaties and he blows them up with minimal effort. He finished all of them in just over two minutes and you start tossing them in the pool.

“Ooohhh! Powerpuff Girls!” Tsumiki’s eyes light up when she sees that one.

“You know what that is?” You’re in shock because she’s obviously significantly younger than you.

“Yeah. I banned Peppa Pig and Frozen and stuff from the apartment so she’s been watching nineties cartoons,” Toji answers for her.

“Why’d you ban those things?”

“Because they’re fucking annoying.”

“Daddy!”

“I agree,” you say before bursting out laughing. You tell her that she can have the Powerpuff Girls floatie and Toji helps her into it. You’d say that you miss the age where little things like that made you happy but they still do. A few months ago, you bought a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards and Sailor Moon socks just because, and it was the highlight of your week.

You take off your cover up and carefully climb inside your coffin floating in the pool.

“You’re gonna hide out from the pool water?” Satoru asks.

“It’s cold!” He decides to get a running start and fucking jumps over you, doing a cannon ball into the pool, causing a bunch of that cold ass water to splash all over you. “It’s cold, Satoru!”

“That’s because you gotta just go for it, babe! Come on! Join the dark side or whatever it is that people say.”

“I’ll shiver.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

Next thing you know, you’re underwater. 

All you remember hearing was someone behind you saying, “you’ll get used to it,” and then you’re underneath.

Did Satoru distract you so that Toji could move behind you and flip your floatie over, knocking you into the pool?

Yes the hell he did.

The cheek.

The nerve.

The gall.

The audacity.

And the gumption.

But you’re here, might as well get used to it. 

You pop back up and all you can do is laugh at the betrayal since everyone else is laughing too.

“I can’t wait to do that to Utahime one day!”

“Utahime will set you on fire if you do that.”

“That’s okay!”

“I think she’ll need at least a two week Satoru break after yesterday.”

“What happened yesterday?” Toji inquires.

“Satoru kept beating her at Clue while teasing her in the process and she got really annoyed.”

“She’ll be fiiinnneeee!”

You pull your hair out of your face and go for one of the pool noodles instead. You use that to hold yourself up so that you can just float around without having to do anything. Satoru is swimming at fucking record speed like a goddam mermaid and Tsumiki is kicking her feet trying to catch up to him. You and Toji look at each other and shake your heads like you’re both parents watching your children go crazy.

While they’re playing around, Toji joins you on the other side of the pool. “So, I met your dad.”

Your eyes shoot open. “What? How?”

“I went in for an interview.” 

WHY DID YOU FORGET THAT THAT’S USUALLY HOW PEOPLE MEET SUGURU?

“I hope he wasn’t too much of a hard ass,” you joke.

“Naaahhh, he was fine. The other guy was a bit of a dick.”

“Shiu?”

“Damn. You guessed that fast,” he says and you laugh.

“He’s been difficult with me in the past as well. He tried to insinuate that Satoru is a cheater and is abusing me.”

“That puppy dog over there? The one who would literally crawl on his hands and knees with your purse in his mouth wherever you go? That’s supposed to be the threat?”

“Apparently.” You laugh at the absurdity. “It really bothered him that Satoru doesn’t know how to drive.”

“What does that have to do with being a criminal? I don’t want Tsumiki to ever drive. People suck when they get behind the wheel of a car.”

“You’ve never been more right in your life. Satoru grew up in an unconventional situation and it resulted in his parents never teaching him and I’m fine taking him anywhere he wants to go because I barely leave the house so it’s not like I’m too busy.”

“Except when you’re hanging out with rockstars.”

“Rockstar… plural. I’m not as cool as that one night made me seem.”

“I dunno. I think he’s puppy dog number two. I don’t know his music more than what’s on the radio, but I’m sure you have more than one purse.” This fucking guy. He says everything in the most serious tone even though his words are ridiculous and you can’t stop laughing. “I don’t know about your gothy boy toy, but that snowy motherfucker doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

“I think he’s too busy trying to get into the Guinness book of world records for most donuts eaten in a day.”

You and Toji continue to talk for some time while Satoru plays with Tsumiki and she’s clearly having the time of her life. He pulls her around and she calls him a dolphin and they toss a beach ball around. 

They’re so cute.

When it starts to get dark, everyone starts packing up and all of you walk to your apartments together. You tell Tsumiki to keep the Powerpuff floatie and promise her that Satoru can blow it up whenever she wants and she smiles like she just won the lottery. 

You wanna smile like that.

You wish you didn’t have responsibilities. 

Once you get inside your apartment, the first thing that you do is take a shower to wash off the chlorine from the pool and that means that Satoru, or the Puppy Dog, follows suit. You know that people probably think you’re too close, but you’re loving the little routine that you have going on. 

You just want to eat and spend the rest of the night watching movies, so you start bringing blankets and pillows out to your couch in the living room and setting up to not have to do a single thing for the rest of the evening. 

You pull out your phone to browse through restaurants on a delivery app and ask Satoru what he wants. He just says dessert, so you’ll just add that on to wherever you pick. You settle on tacos and pick the place that looks the best before placing your order. 

“What are we watching?” He asks while resting his head in your lap. He’s literally sitting on the floor like an actual dog, maybe Toji wasn’t wrong in his assessment. 

“I don’t know. What do you wanna watch?”

“Something horror. But one that gets straight to the point. I don’t need something edging me for two hours.”

Of all the ways that he could have described that.

You browse through streaming services and settle on Escape Room because you think that’ll meet his wishes and it does. 

About thirty minutes into the movie, your food is delivered and you bring plates and utensils over to the coffee table in the living room so that you can eat there.

As you sit on your couch and Satoru is on his, your heart warms at the routine you’ve cultivated. You thought always having someone around would be annoying, but you love having him here. He does his own thing and you do yours, but it’s just interesting to see how things have progressed. He has his own side of the bed, dedicated space in the closet, and you have yours. It’d be super romantic if you didn’t know that he’s essentially a demonic hitman who’s going to devour your soul.

Well…

Maybe it still is romantic.

Shortly after you stop eating, you hear your phone ring. The first time it goes off, you ignore it because you didn’t want to interrupt the movie by talking on the phone. But when it immediately starts ringing again, you start to get a little concerned and think that you should answer it. 

It’s not super late at night or anything, but that doesn’t mean that something can’t be wrong. 

“I’m gonna be right back, okay?”

“I’ll pause!” He’s so sweet.

You run to your bedroom and grab your phone and you already know that Utahime is going to kill you for not answering right away, but you’ll apologize later. 

You grab your phone, and answer it. “Hello?”

“Hey. Are you busy?” That’s an interesting way to start the call.

“Not really. Everything okay?”

“Shit. What’s wrong?”

“I just left Atsuya’s place and accidentally made a wrong turn. When I was setting up the GPS on my phone, I noticed a car behind me just kind of lingering. It freaked me out so I just started driving and called you even though I don’t know where the hell I am.”

“Okay. Okay. Don’t panic. I’ll stay on the phone with you.”

As soon as those words leave your lips, Satoru appears in your bedroom. “Is everything okay?”

“Utahime noticed that a car has been following her but she doesn’t know where she is.” You direct your attention back towards her, “do you see any signs or anything? Businesses?”

“The last that I saw was Kowlik boulevard. I’m starting to freak out.”

“Don’t freak out. We’re gonna work everything out.”

“I was gonna drive to Suguru’s station but I don’t know how to get there from where I am.” You hear the nerves in her voice and it really worries you. Satoru goes to get his phone so that you can try to look up directions without diverting your attention from the call. “I think this person wanted me to know that they’re following me.

‘What do you mean?”

“You know how most of the time people who are following someone try to be discreet so that they can get away with it for as long as possible?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, when I started feeling like I was being followed, I started making random turns just to see if it was me or not and this person would drive close behind me, continue to drive like they’re going to go another way before making a sharp turn and following me. And now that I’ve just been going straight for a while, they’ll occasionally speed up and slow down at random.”

Fuck.

That’s terrifying.

“Do you have a license plate number?”

“Unless it’s on the back, this car doesn’t have a license plate. But, the letters that spell out the name of the car have been ripped off, but I can still tell what it says.” She gives you the make and model of the car along with anything else that may be recognizable if someone was looking for it. You make a note of it and ask Satoru to call Suguru with all of the information. “They’re speeding up again. I gotta get the fuck out of here.”

“We’re gonna get you out of there. What do you see now? What type of area does it look like you’re in?”

“At first it looked like I was just on some backroads. But now it looks like I’m entering a more residential area. Everything is spaced kinda far apart, but I am seeing houses even though there’s not that many yet.”

“Are you still on the same street?”

“Yes.”

“Read off every building number that you see and Suguru is going to try to track your location or get someone to you.”

“I feel like I’m getting further away from civilization and this fucker won’t leave me alone. I don’t wanna end up driving right into a dead end.” She’s psyching herself out.

“Don’t worry, he’s working on it. Just remain as calm as you can so that you don’t accidentally drive off a bridge or some shit.”

“Imagine if I died in some movie shit like that. That’d be so embarrassing on the news. ‘She was trying to escape someone following her and she drove herself to her death.’”

“Well, that’s not going to happen to you.”

It’s been about two minutes with her driving relatively fast and she’s only read off three building numbers so these buildings really are spaced out. But you tell them all to Satoru and he reads them to Suguru to hopefully track her down. 

With every second that passes, you can feel her worry more and it really scares you. Out of all the friends that you’ve had, she’s the one who’s always ready to throw hands if necessary. So to hear her like this, it’s terrifying. 

“They’re speeding up again.”

You don’t know what to say, so you say the only thing that’ll hopefully help. “Suguru is going to find you, I promise.”

“Hopefully alive.”

“Obviously!”

“They’re slowing back down. What the fuck is going on?”

“Have you been able to get any looks at the driver?”

She reads off a few more building numbers before answering. “No. The windows are like, illegally tinted. It’s impossible to see anything. I don’t even understand how they can see out.” She reads off another building number.

Satoru takes a seat on the bed next to you. “Suguru said he thinks that he tracked her down and he’s on his way out there.”

“Did you hear that Utahime?!”

“No. I’m too busy metaphorically shitting myself. What happened?”

“Suguru thinks he knows where you are and he’s on his way out to find you!”

“Thank fuck!” She sounds a little relieved, but not by much. “I feel like I’ve been at this for hours.”

“Well, hopefully it won’t be much longer. Satoru said that he also said that he’s putting a tracker app on your phone and a tracker on your car and it’s not up for debate.”

“Yes daddy.”

“Did you have to say it like that?”

“I could say a lot of things.” At least she still has her sense of humor.

You mute your end of the call so that you can speak to Satoru. “Did he give you an ETA?”

“He’s not eating?” He’s so cute.

“Estimated time of arrival.”

“Oh, I’ll ask.” He directs his attention back to Suguru. “She wants to know if you have an EAT?” For fucks’s sake. “He said no longer than fifteen minutes if he’s lucky.” That’s a long time, you’re glad that you muted your voice for that so you don’t freak her out. “But he said that he’s driving the opposite way to catch up to her so as long as there’s no traffic, it shouldn’t take that long.”

“Bitch!” You hear Utahime yell and you unmute your phone.

“What’s up?”

“Did you just mute me so that you can slob on your boyfriend’s knob?”

“Yes. I muted you so that I can suck off my boyfriend. That’s exactly the reason and nothing else would make more sense.”

“Ha-ha.”

“I’m still here. I was just asking Satoru something.”

“Okay, just checking. I don’t even wanna leave the house without a police escort ever again.”

“I bet Suguru is going to try to implement that once all this is over.”

“Good! I won’t even argue. Shit, they’re speeding up again.” You mouth to Satoru, asking if he can get to her, but he says that he doesn’t know where she is. Fuck that’s stressful. “They’re really close this time. I’m sure your dad will understand if I speed.”

“Of course he will.” A few seconds go by and then all you hear is a scream. “Utahime!” 

“They fucking hit me!”

What. 

The. 

Fuck.

“He said he’s close,” Satoru whispers in your ear. 

“Suguru says he’s close!”

“I can’t believe they just fucking hit me! They’re speeding up again! Fuck!” You brace yourself for another scream, but it doesn’t come.

“Utahime, what’s going on?”

“They stopped.”

“Stopped what? Did they turn off and leave you alone?”

“No. They just hit their brakes and stopped completely in the middle of the road.” That’s terrifying. A few seconds of silence go by. “I can’t even see their headlights anymore. I don’t know why they just stopped. I’ve got to get the fuck out of here.” It’s quiet for about a minute as you sit there in silence, shaking, and freaking the fuck out. “I see headlights, but they’re coming from the opposite direction.”

“That might be Suguru!”

“I’m scared to slow down.”

“He can turn around and follow you, just keep going. Just in case.”

“Okay, you’re right! It’s daddy!” Nice to see that the other car didn’t knock her ridiculousness out of her. You hear her car skid to a stop and just hear her call out for him. “Suguruuuu!” She starts crying and that breaks you because you can’t remember the last time that you heard that badass in tears.

“It’s okay, I’m here now. You’re safe.” You vaguely hear him say to her.

“They fucking hit me!”

“I’m gonna fucking hit them!”

Damn Suguru.

Go off.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“Today’s date is April 20th. I’m Detective Shiu Kong and I’m conducting an interview with Utahime Irori… starting at 10:57 am. Please state your name and age for the recording.”

“My name is Utahime Iori and I’m twenty two years old.”

“Very good. Can you tell me what you were doing three days ago?”

“Three days ago?! I barely remember what I ate for breakfast this morning.”

“You can’t remember anything that you did just a few days ago?”

“I was probably working and then–”

“I’m sorry Miss Iori, but we can’t work with ‘probably,’ I need you to be as sure and specific as possible.”

“I–, I–”

“Relax. I apologize for my partner. We do have to ask these questions, but he doesn’t need to be such a hard ass,” Suguru interrupts the interview to calm her down before she has a panic attack. He technically wasn’t supposed to be part of conducting the interview since he’s so close to everyone, but as the lead detective on the case and the one with better bedside manner, he was allowed to.

“She doesn’t need to be babied, Geto. She needs to be properly questioned. She’s a suspect in a very serious murder investigation.”

“I am?!”

“No,” Suguru is quick to assuage those fears. “I would say that ‘person of interest' is more accurate. But that’s why we hold these interviews, so that we can rule out anybody who is not involved.” 

Suguru was actually against interviewing Utahime and was kind of hoping that she’d lawyer up. But once she got the visit from law enforcement after you reported the letter to him, she and her family wanted to clear her name as soon as possible.

Suguru knows that this is the wrong thing to do, but he already believes that Utahime has nothing to do with any of this. He truly believes that someone set her up as a red herring and even you don’t believe she’s involved. You were crying on the phone to him about how much you blame yourself for her being dragged into this even though it’s not your fault and she has no ill will towards you either.

But this happening to her is the main reason that he insisted he be here for her interview. He’s terrified that someone may try to railroad her as a means to ‘solve’ this case when it’s very obvious she has nothing to do with it. 

“Just do your best to tell us what you’ve been doing over the past few days,” Suguru tries to smooth things out.

“May I look at my phone? I always take pictures of my food and a lot of the time when I go places, it’ll make me more accurate and also help with what time I did everything. I’ll even let you search it afterwards to confirm everything.”

“That’s fine.” That’s typically not something that they’d let someone do, but they’re willing to in this case because of the fact that she’s going to let them corroborate everything when she’s done.

“It looks like the past week I’ve worked the same shift everyday and a couple of times I had lunch with my boyfriend on my break.” She gives them the times and dates to the best of her ability along with a description of what she wore everyday, thankfully to her taking regular pictures of her outfits. 

“Have you been anywhere near any post offices over the past week?” Shiu decides to dive right back in.

“I can’t recall if I was just ‘in the area.’ It’s very possible that I passed one by just driving down the street. But I didn’t actually visit any. I can’t even remember the last time that I went inside a post office, it must have been years.”

“What about those individual mailboxes that you’ll see when you’re walking down the street? Have you used any of those recently?”

“No. I hate those things. I always get shocked when I touch them.”

“So if I look through someone’s Ring camera footage, I won’t find you on any?”

“Not using any mailboxes. But probably not at all. I’m not really a walk down the street for no reason type of person, I hate exercise.”

“Hmm. What’s your relation to the young woman who received the letter?”

“She’s my best friend, and she has been for years.”

“Did you know her parents?”

“Yes. I spent a lot of time there and at their restaurant. It’s kind of like we were each other's parents' adoptive kids. They always had a great relationship with me and my family.”

“Were you friends with her on the day her parents were murdered?”

She pauses and looks down before answering. “Yes. We walked home after school everyday and I was with her when we arrived on her street and saw the police circus.”

“Where were you during the time of the murder?”

“Are you fucking serious?!”

“Yes,” Shiu says like he didn’t just ask a girl if she was already a serial killer by the time that she was a teenager.

“I was at school with her. We had a couple of the same classes together and then we met up after school to walk home together.”

“Hmmm. And you did this everyday?”

“Every. Day. Sometimes someone else would walk with us, but regardless if anyone did or didn’t, we were always together unless one of us missed school.”

“Okay. Very well. We’ll move past that. Why do you think someone would do something like this?”

“Because they’e a fucking asshole! I don’t know.”

“Why do you think that the perpetrator, assuming it’s not you, would send a letter to your best friend and write on the envelope that it’s from you?”

“Because they’re a fucking asshole, I just said! I can’t get into some psychopaths' mindset because I’m not one.”

“I’m aware of that. But don’t you think it’s a little weird that someone would use your name to taunt your best friend?”

Utahime sighs. “No. If someone is trying to make her miserable, trying to isolate someone from their support system is one way to do it. That’s probably why the letter said not to trust her dad.”

Shiu raises an eyebrow. “How do you know what the letter says?”

“My best friend is the one who received it. She told me what it said.”

“She tells you stuff like that?”

“She tells me everything.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I’d just assume that she’d keep something like that secret from the person it’s addressed from.”

“Well, both she and I know that I didn’t send it so there was no point to hide anything. This is a big deal.”

“Did you write the letter?”

“I already said that I didn’t.”

“I recall you saying that you didn’t send it. I don’t remember you saying that you didn’t write it.”

Utahime is really trying to keep her cool because Suguru has told her so many times throughout the years that you have to remain calm during questioning. “I didn’t write it or send it.”

“Okay, just asking. You could have written it for an accomplice so I just have to ask.”

“I don’t have a fucking thing to do with any of the bad shit happening to my best friend. Not to mention, I was also harassed on the fucking street on my way home one night.”

“That’s true. But it was by a car we were never able to find so… there’s that.”

“Shiu, stop.” Suguru stops him from saying whatever the hell he was going to say that was going to piss her off. “We have surveillance footage showing that she didn’t make that up, so let’s just move on from that.”

“Fine.”

The interview continues with Shiu basically asking the same question a hundred times but phrasing it differently in an attempt to trip her up and get information out of her. But there was nothing to get out of her because she didn’t do anything. Suguru interrupts every so often to prevent Shiu from becoming too aggressive with his questioning and shutting her down. But what it ultimately comes down to is, there was nothing learned from this.

It was a little disappointing but at the same time, Suguru knew he wasn’t going to get anything from Utahime. She’s not an accomplice to the asshole who’s doing this to you and she was just put in a bad spot to send police in a different direction.

“Conclude the interview,” Suguru wants to let her go before she gets too upset. If he ever does feel that she’s involved, he’ll be the first to admit that he’s wrong. But he doesn’t want her persecuted for something that there’s no proof of.

˚ . ₊    ‧⠀︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵⠀‧⠀˚⠀₊ Last Night ˚ . ₊    ‧⠀︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵⠀‧⠀˚⠀₊

Suguru is lying in bed with Manami when he hears his phone ring and he can immediately tell by the ringtone that it’s you. 

He’s a little caught off guard because you don’t usually call someone at night, so he assumes that it’s something important.

And he was right.

“Hey Sweetheart, is everything okay?”

“Uhhhhhh. I kinda have an issue…. I guess you could say.”

“Okay. What’s the issue?”

“Uhhhmm. Are you sitting down?”

“I’m in bed.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you up! I’ll call you back tomorrow.”

“What? No! Tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t want to ruin your entire night with this. I’m so sorry. You’ve been working so hard and I really should have called you earlier today. I’m sor–”

“Breathe. You’re doing that thing where you ramble to calm down a situation that doesn’t need it. I’m not upset. Just tell me what’s going on?” Manami rolls over and asks him if everything is okay but he just shrugs. “Please tell me.”

“Okay. Well… I was hanging out with Satoru today.”

“You’re always with Satoru. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was surgically attached to your hip.”

You laugh. “Yeah. That’s true, huh? Well, today he and I did something that I forgot to do for like a month.”

“And what was that?”

“I checked the mail.”

“You forgot to check your mail for a month? Were you finally expecting a package or something?”

“No. I just remembered when I woke up. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes since I have to go to a specific area to do it. I don’t just pass the boxes on the way home.”

“Well that’s alright. Your mailman probably hates stuffing the box but besides that, there’s nothing wrong with that. Did your mail get stolen or something?” He knows that you’re stalling but he really doesn’t want to push you if you feel like this.

“No. Satoru helped me carry it back up to my apartment and separate and organize everything.”

“That’s nice of him. Did you really have so much that you couldn’t carry it all yourself?”

“I kept dropping stuff as I was walking so it’s a good thing he was there.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. Anyway, we were looking through some of the stuff that came in there and it was the usual, bank statements catalogs, all that stuff. Ya know?”

“I’m more than familiar,” he says with a chuckle.

“Yeah. It’s annoying. Anyway, as I was looking through everything, I saw something that stood out to me.”

“And what was that?”

“I got an envelope that looked like when Utahime would give me letters when we were in school. It even had her name on it.”

“She sent you something in the mail? A letter? That’s sweet. Most people don’t do that these days.”

“I know, right? Satoru thought it was nice too. But when I opened the envelope, I didn't think it was from her.”

“But you said that it had her name on it?” He starts to feel a little nervous the longer that this goes on for.

“It does. But once I read what the piece of paper had written on it, I realized that it wasn’t from her.”

“And how did you determine that?”

“By what it said.”

“What’d it say?”

“Don’t trust your father.”

“I’m coming over.”

You do your best to distract yourself while you wait for Suguru to arrive, but it feels like it’s impossible. You already feel awful that you waited all day to call him and now you feel more awful for waiting until tonight to tell him. He has to work all day and you let your procrastination get the best of you so you’ll have to get him a muffin or something to apologize.

You bounce back and forth from pacing across the apartment to just sitting on the couch and fidgeting every time you don’t have something in your hands.

Satoru hasn’t been his usual over the top self. Every time you catch a glimpse of him, he’s just watching you with concern written across his face. You can’t exactly blame him, all you’ve been able to do for the past couple of hours is panic.

When you hear the beep and click signaling that Suguru has arrived, you feel relieved in the sense that this problem will get solved. But you also feel anxiety and dread in what this bullshit has caused. 

You sit back down on the couch and see Suguru walking in with a black bag in one hand and you’re starting to think that this case is going to be the death of you, if not physically, then definitely mentally.

“Hey. How are you doing?” He asks you when he sees you sitting on the couch.

“Oh ya know, the usual. Hi. What’cha doin? What’s your favorite scary movie? How do you wanna die?”

He tries to hold in a laugh, but it’s unsuccessful. “I’m sorry. Now’s not the time to laugh.”

“Better than the panicking I’ve been doing all day.”

“When did you discover the letter?” He opens up his bag and starts pulling out a bunch of smaller bags.

“Honestly? This morning or… early afternoon when I woke up.” He nods. “I’m sorry. I should’ve called earlier–”

“Stop. I’m not here to judge. I just want to see what’s going on. May I see it?” He puts on a pair of gloves and walks over to the coffee table, and you point to the piece of mail that ruined your day. ‘Don’t trust your father.’ Is this all that came in?”

“The envelope it came in is right there. But that’s it.”

He nods and holds the letter in one hand and the envelope in another. 

Something about this feels familiar, but he can’t quite figure out why just yet and he doesn’t want to freak you out with theories. 

“I’m sorry Sweetheart, but I have to ask… is it possible that Utahime sent this to you?”

“No. She refers to you as ‘daddy’ more than ‘father.’” He chuckles and you feel your heart fall into your stomach. “Please don’t let her know that I told you that!”

“It’s fine. My lips are sealed.” Oh, she’s gonna love that comment. He puts the letter and the envelope into a plastic bag before sealing it, and putting that inside another bag. “I have to call this in. And… you know that we’re going to have to question Utahime.”

“But she didn’t do anything.” You do everything to stop tears from forming and Suguru removes his gloves to go over to you.

“I know. But we have to. It’s important that we exclude her. I know that she wouldn’t do anything like this to you, but it will make everyone look bad if we let her get a pass. Satoru, Choso, and even your neighbor have been questioned, we have to go through the process for everyone. Does she know that this came in?”

“No. I didn’t want her to think I believed she did it.”

“I understand. I can’t call her and give her a head’s up, but you can. I don’t want her to feel blindsided if law enforcement shows up at her home.” You groan. “I know. But we’ll figure all of this out. I promise.”

“Fine. I’ll call.”

“Good. Call. No texts. We’re going to have to review these messages and we don’t want them to think there’s collusion going on.”

“Like right now?” 

“Yes. Exactly like right now.” He steps away to make a phone call and you go to your bedroom to make yours as well.

And that was your night.

A bunch of fucking panic.

˚ . ₊    ‧⠀︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵⠀‧⠀˚⠀₊˚ . ₊    ‧⠀︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵⠀‧⠀˚⠀₊˚ . ₊  

“Here you go, you child.” You pass Satoru a plate of pancakes with whipped cream that forms a smiley face and chocolate chips for eyes. You even add sprinkles and powdered sugar and he’s living his best life.

“Thank you, my loveeeeee!”

Ten years ago, you would have loved a plate of pure sugar for breakfast, but you’ve grown out of that. But you still make him his plate of cavities for breakfast while you just sip on a cup of coffee.

You’ve been trying to do anything that you can to pass the time while you wait for a phone call from either Suguru or Utahime and your nerves are through the roof. You can tell that Satoru feels it too because he’s been extra chipper and silly this morning, probably as a distraction.

You feel a fork touch your cheek and you look over to see him pushing a giant forkful of food in your face. “Eat!”

“I’m not hungry, Satoru.”

“You need it!”

“I’ll survive.”

“You’ll survive easier if you eat.”

You roll your eyes and look away but you feel him repeatedly poking at your cheek with his fork. You accept that he’s not going to let this go and so you turn and take the bite, and it’s a choice. You’ll never understand how you used to be able to eat stuff like this as a child. You can’t help but scrunch your face up, but he’s not phased by it.

“It’s good!”

“Very good, Satoru. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

It’s quiet for a couple minutes as all the horrible possibilities of what could be going on continuously run through your head. 

What if Utahime is being arrested because Shiu has a stick up her ass?

What if she wants nothing to do with you now that she’s been attacked and painted as a murderer?

This is so frustrating.

“Stop worrying. Everything is going to be fine.” How does he always sound so sure of everything? You don’t even know who the killer is and somehow, he feels nothing but confidence.

“But what if–”

“Stop. Everything is going to be fine. She’s not guilty of anything so it’s not going to be a problem.”

“Innocent people have gone to prison before, Satoru.”

“I know. It happened in my time too. But there’s a big difference between then and now…”

“What?”

“I’m a demon and I’m not going to let anything happen to your friend.”

“Thank you.”

You continue to sit next to him as he eats breakfast and you keep waiting for the phone call that could change everyone’s life. You’re so desperate to know what’s happening but you’re also terrified of what’s going to happen and it’s honestly just annoying.

It feels like you’ve been waiting for days when your phone finally rings and you run so fast over to it that you almost knock down the stool that you were sitting on. 

“Hello?”

“Hey. How are you doing?”

“Thank you for asking, Suguru. As a matter of fact, I’ve been fucking panicking like it’s the new trend.”

“Poor dear. Well, we’ve concluded the interview with Utahime and we’re officially ruling her out.”

“Thank. Fuck!”

He laughs at your enthusiasm. “I’ve been thinking about something regarding the case, but I don’t want to discuss it while I’m at work, or where people can hear me.”

“Should I be worried?”

“No. I just have some things on my mind and I wanna discuss them with you in private. I’ll stop by later to speak with you about them. But until then, don’t fret. You’re fine and I’m sure your friend will be as well.”

“Okay. Does that mean you’re coming over?”

“I’d rather we go out. Maybe my daughter will grace me with her presence for a late lunch and I’ll even pay.”

“Well… if you’re paying….” He doesn’t have to say more than that.

“I’ll call you when I’m on the way.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you too Dear, see you later.”

You hang up the phone and just sit in silence for a moment. You wonder what he wants to talk about that he doesn’t want to do it at your apartment. 

“How’d it go?” Satoru asks with a mouthful of pancake.

“He wants to meet up later, to talk.”

“And Utahime?”

“He said she’s being cleared.”

“Good. I’m glad that it’s being made official.”

“Me too.”

“So, what do you wanna do today? I have a few hours until I have to meet up with Suguru.”

“I kinda want you to sit on my face.”

“Satoru! Of all the things that you could want in the world.”

“You’re right. I really want you to sit on my face.”

“I’m playing Crash Bandicoot.” You stand up and walk over to the couch.

“Ooh! Put on Crash Team Racing so I can beat you!”

“Satoru, you’ve never beaten me.”

“I will today!”

You roll your eyes and put on the game he requested and wait for him to finish breakfast so that you two can play. 

You can’t believe how much you love this goofy motherfucker. If it wasn’t for the fact that you might die soon due to your soul being eaten, you can see yourself spending years with him, at least. 

You love how he feels about you, but you try to not to think about it too much because you know that it’s probably not possible for the two of you to have a proper relationship.

He’s here to do a job and once your life is saved, you’ll just lose it anyway so that sucks.

He quickly washes his dishes, which you love, and then runs over to join you.

“This is my favorite part of the day,” he says as he takes the seat across from you and you smile. “It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. I know that you want me.”

You scoff and start the game up.

He’s right.

But you’re not going to give him the satisfaction. 

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“You look hot. But I can’t wait for you to get back home and take all of it off.” One of Satoru’s best qualities is that he’s always there to hype you up.

“Pervert.”

“Damn straight.”

You’re just wearing a long sleeved, black dress, with a giant bow that ties up in the back. It’s not the most elaborate thing you’ve worn, but you appreciate that he likes it so much. 

Suguru is on his way to pick you up and you’re anxious as fuck about what he wants to talk to you about. Thank goodness for Satoru always being around to be an absolute nutbag and distract you from your problems. You couldn’t imagine that space on the bed not having him there at this point.

Kinda makes you wish that you sold your soul a long time ago.

“Satoru, I need to tell you something before he gets here.”

“Anything, my love.”

“If Suguru wants some one on one time with me, I need you to stay home.” He doesn’t move, save for his eyes shooting away from his phone and over to you.

“Someone wants to kill you and you want me to stay home?” He didn’t have to say it like that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to word it that way.” Damn him being able to feel what you feel.

“It’s just, it’ll be too hard to act like you’re not there if you’re there and you’re not supposed to be.” Hopefully that made sense.

“But he doesn’t have to see me, we’ve done that before.”

“But that was in the beginning, when we were still figuring things out and hadn't spent as much time together. You’ve spent so much time with my family that if I had to pretend that you weren’t there, I’m not sure I’d be able to do it. I don’t want to accidentally address you and then Suguru thinks there’s something wrong with me or our relationship and Baker Acts me to a padded room.” 

“I guess…” 

“Look. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. He may want you to come along, but on the off chance that he doesn’t, I don’t want to risk ruining a good relationship because I can’t keep my cover. I’ll be with him, so I’ll be safe. And either way, you’ll know if I’m not.” 

He’s still pouting.

You crawl across the bed, over to him, and straddle him. “I’m not saying that that’s what’s going to happen. I just didn’t want to spring this on you in case that’s what happens.” You try to meet his eyes and they’re just full of shock. “Satoru, are you upset with me?”

“Not anymore.”

You go back to getting ready so that you’re not having Suguru wait around for you when he gets here and Satoru is quiet.

Too quiet for him.

At first.

“You’re sexy as fuck. You know that, right?”

“Satoru,” you look at him over your shoulder and roll your eyes.

“What? It’s the truth. What you did just now, that made me hard.”

Your eyes widen and you turn away from him. You don’t know why you feel so embarrassed, he’s clearly into you and there’s no reason to feel like you did a bad thing.

He laughs at your shyness and moves closer to you, wrapping his arms around your waist and rests his head on your shoulder. “Why’re you so shy all of a sudden? You’re not shy when you’re walking around in a tiny crop top and a pair of panties in front of me. Or when you let me sit with you while you’re taking a shower. Or when you’re trying to get comfortable in bed, and your hands or your ass brush against my–”

“Okay! I get it!” You stop him before you feel like you might lose it.

He chuckles at your reaction before pulling away. “Finish getting ready. The sooner you leave, the sooner you return and I get to rip this dress off.”

“Oh goodness. You take no breaks.”

“Of course not. You could steer your carriage into a wall and I’d just be grateful that I’m next to you.”

“That’s so unhealthy, Satoru. But I’m glad that your crazy is on my side. I’ll take it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” 

He stares at you for a minute, eyes bouncing from your eyes to your lips and you can see the wheels turning in his head. He wants to make a move, but you move slowly and he doesn’t want to pressure you.

You love this.

You love that he respects your boundaries, but also that you can fluster a demon.

It kinda makes you wanna pick out some sexy little dominatrix outfit and just tease him for hours.

Hell, he’d probably love that.

You’ve thought of this before, but maybe you’ll commit sooner rather than later.

While you’re lost in thought, you feel a pair of lips meet yours. 

This sexy motherfucker .

But instead of just giving into him, you pull away from him and you see fear flash in his eyes like he just made the biggest mistake of his afterlife. He immediately starts to stutter out an apology, but you turn around and wrap your arms around his neck and pull him closer to you, and kiss him.

You feel him freeze up for a moment before relaxing into it, and practically shoving his tongue down your throat. But you’re not going to complain about it today. You don’t give in to him like this all that often, so you like to indulge him on occasion.

This demon kisses you like he rose from the pits of hell just to do this. 

When you feel him starting to destroy your hair, you finally pull away.

“Alright, be a good boy. I have to finish getting ready.”

“Yes Mistress,” he takes a seat on the foot of the bed and watches you even though you’re not doing anything differently from how you normally do. If he had a tail, it would be wagging.

Actually.

“Do you have a demon form, Satoru?”

“Of course. Wanna see it?”

“Maybe some other time. I was just curious.”

You finish getting ready and do it in perfect timing because Suguru arrives right as you’re pulling your shoes out of the closet.

“That’s a nice dress,” Suguru says as you walk into the living room. “This is a first. You two aren’t matching.”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted me tagging along.”

“Oh, for god’s sake. Put on some fucking shoes so that we can go.” You love that Suguru speaks to him like that because Satoru already finds him intimidating and it just makes it funnier.

Satoru runs back to the closet in your bedroom and switches up his outfit while you put your shoes on as well. 

“That young man of yours, I swear. All of you are going to turn me grey long before my time.”

“They may make nice highlights,” you respond and he glares at you, making you laugh. “Oh please! Like there’s anything that you can’t pull off. Manami will like everything too so it’s not like anything is a hindrance. You could be the most fashionable ‘Salt & Pepper’ daddy at the station if you’d let me dress you.”

“‘Salt & Pepper Daddy?’ Is that what they’re called?”

“It sure is.”

“That’s nice. But I think I’m fine just being a father of three beautiful girls.”

“Boring!”

“I suppose,” he chuckles as Satoru returns, wearing a shirt that matches your outfit.

“I’m ready, dad!”

Oh boy.

Suguru just laughs it off and you follow him out of the apartment. 

The three of you arrive at a little diner not too far from your apartment and that’s when the nerves start to kick back in. You take a seat at a booth that’s all the way at the back of the restaurant and almost a little isolated. 

“Planning to kill us and leave us here, Suguru?” You joke as you slide into your seat, Satoru following closely behind you.

“I want to make sure that nobody overhears us. That’s why I chose a place that we’ve never been before. I also don’t want anyone to sneak up on us, that’s why I’m facing the door.”

Shit.

That seems way more serious than you initially thought.

What the fuck is going on?

After ordering drinks and appetizers, Suguru deems that the perfect time to talk.

“I’m sorry for the dramatics, it’s just a precaution. I didn’t mean to worry you,” he apologizes but all you can do is wonder why he needs to jump through these hoops.

“It’s fine. Better safe than sorry. I’d just like to know what’s going on.”

“I understand. I have something to tell you, but I need you to remain calm.”

“Nothing soothes my soul like hearing those words,” you say sarcastically.

“I know. I apologize. But I have a theory on the case and I didn’t want to discuss it inside the apartment, or even at the house.”

“How come?” What could he need to say that he doesn’t feel comfortable saying it at home?

“I’ve been leading this task force and working as hard as I possibly can to solve this case, but it still feels like this killer is several steps ahead of me. It feels as though they know everything about our family dynamics as well our homes, and everything that’s going on in the case. I’ve been struggling to get ahead because every time it feels like I’m starting to, something pushes me back.” 

He looks defeated and that breaks your heart.

“I’ve spent the last day vetting people, hoping that it’ll give me some clarity and at least some starting point. So, like I said, don’t panic. But my theory is that this killer is someone that we know.”

You lean back into your seat, feeling incredibly conflicted.

A part of you is surprised, but then a part of you isn’t.

It kind of makes sense.

This was a theory that was already in your head, but it feels more real now that he’s said it out loud.

“Soooooo… what do you think? That’s it’s like a family friend or something?” How the hell do you even narrow these things down?

“Potentially. I want to vet all of the regulars in our life, even if it’s work or school related. That means that I want to interview everyone super close to us, even Sukuna, Nanami, Utahime’s boyfriend, everyone. I’m even going to bring in the regulars down at the restaurant who see Manami all the time.”

Fuck.

That sounds like a massive undertaking.

“Does this mean that the letter is authentic?”

“We’re treating it as if it is, just to be safe. That’s one of the things that’s making me believe that it’s someone close to us.”

“It’s just–,” the waitress walks over and interrupts him.

She brings the drinks, appetizers, and takes the second part of your order. But she’s flirting hard with Suguru as she does all of that and you kinda wanna fight her on Manami’s behalf.

“Damn. You two can’t leave the house without random women throwing their fucking panties at you.”

Suguru chokes on his drink. “What are you talking about?”

“She was flirting with you!”

“What? No she wasn’t.”

“God. It’s like you and Satoru have only one brain cell and they’re fighting for third place whenever the topic of women is brung up.”

“I’m super smart,” you can’t believe that’s the only defense Satoru had to that comment. 

“I’ve been out of the dating pool for quite some time, forgive my ignorance.” Fucking Suguru. He always sounds so chill and like he’s writing a novel. You wish you had that skill.

“Anyway. You think that someone that we know is doing this to us?” You can’t let that go now that he’s brought it up.

“Yes. That.” He takes a deep breath before speaking. “I came to this conclusion based on a few things. One, everything is so perfectly timed. For example, the fingerprint box being left there, Utahime being followed home, how the hell does this person always have a timeline on your personal life?”

“What if they’re just watching us all the time?” You’re terrified of the killer being someone that you know and you’re coming up with every excuse for why it may not be.

“It’s not impossible for that to be the case, but it’s highly unlikely. This person would have to be watching the family twenty four seven on top of monitoring social media. And… since that letter is truly authentic, that means that they’ve been inside our home. Or, someone who knows us is either an accomplice, or close to the person who is doing this and is unknowingly feeding them information. The fingerprint, the night of the concert, the letter, there’s several things that lead me to this conclusion. But the letter in particular is really setting this in stone for me.”

“The ‘Utahime’ letter?” You say with air quotes.

“Yes. She’s been completely ruled out as the sender of that letter and that’s why I’m so stuck on this theory.”

“Her not being the sender is more proof that it’s someone close to us?” That’s confusing.

“It’s someone who has to be able to move unseen. I’m not saying that it has to be a close friend of several years, but someone who has access because they know most of our circle. Utahime took a look at the envelope and she confirmed that it was her handwriting and that she did write that. But she said that she gave it to you several years ago for your birthday.”

That’s why it looked so familiar!

“That’s even more confirmation that someone has been inside our home and had access to our stuff.”

Sooooo… someone has been inside your fucking room and used your own keepsakes as a weapon against you?

What a fucking asshole.

“Sooo.. interviews and then what?”

“Interviews. Handwriting tests. Photos in case we have eyewitnesses and they can identify someone. Fingerprints. Anything that I can get out of someone without a court order, I’m going to get.” You nod in agreement. “I have a feeling that your boss is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He just has ‘if you don’t have a warrant, get the fuck out of my face’ energy.”

“Suguru, you could charm a bee out of its honey. I think you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah dad, everyone likes you,” Satoru adds before taking a sip of his Shirley Temple which looks like just syrup.

“Thank you, Satoru.”

The three of you continue to eat and chat for a while, trying to work out if anyone in your life has seemed suspicious as of late. 

“Shiu thinks that Choso might be involved,” Suguru almost causes you to drop your fork when he says that.

“I thought he’s been getting ruled out for years. Why the fuck is he on the suspect list?” You didn’t mean to sound so defensive, but here you are.

“Honestly Sweetheart, I don’t believe that he’s involved. But if someone has a suspicion about somebody else, we have to investigate them.”

For fuck’s sake.

The last thing that you wanted was for him to be involved in a fucking murder investigation.

Again.

And again.

“But I thought that this monster has been doing what they’re doing for a while before my parent’s case happened. How could someone so young have a victim list like that?”

“Unfortunately, if someone has a changing… ‘method…’ for how they take their victim’s lives, it’s a bit difficult to narrow down the victim list. This person also has victims out of our jurisdiction and that’s another thing that makes it difficult to figure out exactly how many innocent people have crossed this person's path. For all we know, that part of the letter could be a red herring and that’s how Shiu is looking at it.”

“Do you believe it was just an attempt to throw off the investigation or do you believe them?”

“I believe them. We have no idea who they are, so there’s no reason to lie. Plus, there have been a few things that were different at different scenes and I feel that we are able to narrow it down. Shiu does want to look into Choso again, but I have no intention of wasting time on him. I really want to speak with the people I haven’t gotten a chance to yet.”

You finish eating before getting back into Suguru’s car and starting on your journey back home. 

You look calm on the outside, but on the inside, your mind is just racing with any and everything that could be a red flag that you overlooked.

“Relax,” Suguru pats you on the shoulder, so maybe you don’t look as calm as you thought that you did. “Don’t start spiraling. I only gave you this information because if I’m correct, I really want you to always keep your eyes open. If anything looks suspicious, I want you to tell me. But don’t let them get to you, that was the point of the letter and the attack on Utahime. They want to isolate you. They’ve tried twice with her and now once with me, but we’re not going anywhere and we don’t want you to hide out. I truly don’t believe it’s any of your close friends or even your boss, so I don’t think you have to panic about them. Like I said, just keep your eyes open. I’ll start on new interviews this week and go from there.”

“Okay.”

“Good! No more stress! We can go inside and play games!” Fucking Satoru.

“Yes. Listen to this young man who’s constantly up your ass.”

“Suguru!”

“Dad!”

He laughs like he didn’t say what he just said and you just roll your eyes. When you reach your building, you say your goodbyes and you and Satoru make your way back to your apartment.

You’re so mentally exhausted that you don’t even do any of the normal things that you do when you get home. You drop your purse on the floor, kick your shoes off and leave them… somewhere. You just sprawl across the couch and decide that this is where you can take a nap.

When you wake up, you find Satoru on the floor, leaning up against the couch, and playing games on his phone. 

“I didn’t know if I should let you sleep all day but you seemed pretty tired by the time we got back so I didn’t wanna wake you.”

“That’s fine. It’s not like I’m on a traditional schedule or anything. I only need to be woken up if I have plans for later that night.”

“Okay.” He sets the phone down and leans his head back, making eye contact with you.

“Satoru?”

“Hmmm?”

“Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are like water coolers?” He scrunches his brows in confusion. “I just wanna stand around them and talk about other things.” You laugh at your own bad joke but he looks like he has no idea what the hell is going on.

“What’s a water cooler?” You love him.

“It’s a giant water dispenser. My refrigerator has one built in. It was a bad joke.” He starts laughing. “Satoru, stop laughing. It was a bad joke.”

“Everything that you say is funny.”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“Well, you did say that my eyes make you want to write sonnets or whatever so I’ll take the compliment.”

“Diva.”

“Probably.”

You continue to sit in silence for a little while as you let everything that’s been going on run through your head. You feel asleep stressed out and woke up feeling the same way and it’s no surprise seeing as this shit has inhabited your dreams.

When will you get a break?

“What’s on your mind?” He asks and you feel like if there’s anyone to talk about this stuff with, it’s him.

“I’ve just been constantly wondering who could be the killer. Everything that Suguru said today makes a lot of sense and I can’t stop thinking about it. I mean, he wouldn’t even discuss it in our home which leads me to believe that it’s someone closer than he is even letting on.”

“So what do you think?”

“There’s a metric fuck ton of cameras and microphones in here and he made us leave so give us his theory. And in my opinion, there’s only one reason for that.”

“Do you have a suspect in mind?”

“I think so.”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Suguru is in his office well into the night, doing everything that he can to gain more understanding on this case and hopefully solve it sooner rather than later.

He got a few e-mails earlier in the day and he wants to review some notes he took during interviews as of late and just keep everything fresh in his mind.

None of the tips that he’s received recently have done much to push the case forward, but it has made some things more solid. 

One of the most common denominators through all the ‘suspicious vehicle’ tips he’s gotten is that they’re all reporting the exact same thing: black truck. 

The catch?

There’s nothing in common when it comes to being able to identify it and he’s thinking that that’s intentional.

When a lot of criminals commit crimes, they don’t like to use their own vehicle unless they’re certain that it won’t be spotted by witnesses or cameras. Some people even borrow a friends or relatives or even rent a car for their criminal occasion which is so stupid seeing as they have your information. But, he feels that the perpetrator in this case is taking the opposite approach.

The more tips that he receives, the more he believes that this person is using their own truck. 

His reasoning?

The only common description from potential eyewitnesses is that it’s a black truck. 

Some people feel that they remember seeing a rear license plate and when Suguru asks for a number from one person, it’s different from the other person that he speaks to. And the same goes for the front plate, some people remember one thing while others remember another. Some people have reported that they didn’t see plates at all. Some said that one light was going out while others said that there was a stripe on one side. 

The fact that all the reports follow similar patterns save for descriptions leads him to believe that this person is purposely changing the style of their truck to throw off the investigation knowing that the information he’s gathering is inconsistent. 

He’s unfortunately going to have to go and review all the CCTV footage again to see if he can find this suspicious black truck lingering around and he’s already exhausted.

Luckily, a few officers and detectives in other jurisdictions have joined the task force and he has more help when it comes to the tedious things like this.

Unfortunately he still hasn’t gotten anything back from the lab and nothing from the expert he tasked with helping on the letter so he just feels frustrated. 

He decides to just spend the night reading what he does have and stands up to put another pot of coffee on for a little bit of help.

But as he’s prepping everything, he gets a phone call from another officer requesting his services.

There’s been another murder.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Suguru arrives at the home in less than thirty minutes and there’s already a circus outside of law enforcement and media doing anything to get a photo of the victims and the scene.

He hates those people.

How can someone try to force their way into a crime scene just to take photos of someone’s body to post in the papers or on the news for a paycheck?

If one of his loved ones had their life brutally taken from them and then some asshole snuck photos to get a raise at their job, he’d show up to that building, break all the cameras, and burn the place to the fucking ground.

These scenes are traumatizing for the people trained to examine them so knowing that people look at it as not a big deal or just an excuse to get a paycheck just sets him off in all the worst ways. 

“Detective Geto, thank you for arriving on such short notice.”

“Of course. What can you tell me about the scene?”

“We believe that it may be a part of those serial killings that have been going on. But we wanted you to take a look and tell us what you think before we put anything in the report.”

“Got it. I’ll speak to you soon.”

Suguru steps under the police tape and starts to make his way over to the house. On his way over, he sees everyone from patrol officers to crime scene investigators in hazmat suits and it just takes him back to that day when he met you and when it feels like all of this began. 

His thoughts drift over to you for a moment before he forces himself to stay on task. He just can’t stop thinking about how he has to solve this case in order to save lives and the fact that he’s here makes him feel like he failed. He knows that it’s not possible to save everyone because in order to do that, you’d have to know what’s going to happen before it does. But he just wants to prevent people from feeling the way that you’ve felt for so long.

One of the things that he can’t get off his mind is that something about being here feels off, but he can’t completely explain why. He thinks it’s probably something about the location because if someone didn’t know any better, it could pass for your street that your family’s house is on.

Suguru walks up the few steps that lead to the porch and then the entryway to the house which he already sees bloody footprints with yellow markers next to them. He doesn’t recall being able to collect footprints from a crime scene before and it makes him wonder if this is the same person seeing as this is evidence that they’ve never been able to collect, or if this is someone else entirely.

He puts a pair of booties on to protect his shoes from potentially contaminating the crime scene and braces himself for whatever is inside.

Once he finally enters the home, he’s horrified. 

This is the definition of a bloodbath.

It’s everywhere.

The previous crime scenes have been bad, but it’s usually just in the room where the crime actually happened. This is horrific and there’s not even a body in this room and he already feels that something else is going on with this.

As he looks around the room, he sees blood that’s pooling in the carpet along with a ton of blood spatter on the walls and immediately comes to the conclusion that this room is the scene of at least one killing. If someone was just walking through the room with a weapon, there wouldn’t be this blood left around. There’s literally spatter on the ceiling and that would only happen if the attack took place in this room so he’s going to keep an eye out for other things like this.

“How many victims are there?” He asks one of the officers in the room.

“Three.”

His eyes shoot open because he hasn’t had a case that followed the pattern of the serial killing but it ended up having three victims. Two, at the most.

Fuck. He’s tired.

“Where are they?”

“There’s two in the master bedroom and then one in what looks like a guest room.”

“Can you show me around?”

The officer nods and starts to walk over to the staircase, motioning for Suguru to follow him. 

With every step he takes, he watches the staircase and sees just how much blood seems to be covering every inch of this home and it’s shocking. There’s footprints on the stairs that have been marked off as well and he’s starting to think that this may be one of the worst cases in a long time.

There’s footprints upstairs as well but he notices that they fade a little bit on the way to the bedroom and that’s even more confirmation that at least one of the crimes took  place in the living room since that’s where they’re the most prominent. 

When he finally gets to the bedroom, it’s… bad.

He expected it, but damn.

He can tell by looking at the victims that they were bludgeoned to death and while he’s no forensic pathologist, it looks like the weapon may have been a hammer.

That’s been one thing that’s consistent throughout a lot of the murders is that there’s usually no murder weapon left behind. The best that they’ve been able to conclude throughout the years is making an educated guess based on the autopsy results.

Suguru makes his way around the bedroom trying to take it all in while avoiding the markers and it’s a fucking mess.

If this case is able to be linked to the serial killer terrorizing everyone, then this is definitely his most brutal murder and the messiest.

With the previous scenes, he's  been able to basically decipher the crime scene right away based on the blood and where the bodies are found. But this one is more wild and he wonders if that was intentional in an attempt to slow down or throw off the investigation. 

While it’s not definitive at this point that this case is linked with the rest, he feels pretty confident that it is the more that he looks around the room. 

A lot of things do match up like the way that the victims are found. One things that’s common when it comes to finding two victims in the same room, it’s always the woman who looks like she was attacked first and like the man was caught off guard while trying to administer aid and get help. 

“May I see the third victim?” Suguru asks and hears a voice from behind him.

“I’d like to see it as well.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Shiu?”

“I got a call and figured you could use another set of eyes. Why didn’t you call me in the first place?”

“It’s late and I figured that I could handle it.”

“Fun.”

They start to make their way to the guest bedroom where they find the third victim and it’s there that it’s confirmed for Suguru that this is the same person who’s committing the other crimes. While three victims don't match their m.o., he knows that it’s the same person based on the way this victim looks. They look exactly like a previous victim who’s linked to the case and that really concerns Suguru.

He’s terrified that this person has moved up to three victims at once or maybe would even attempt eliminating an entire family at once and that’s something he has to fight to figure out. 

On the bright side, when killers start stepping out of their ‘comfort zone’ and do crazy shit like this, they’re more likely to make mistakes and make it easier for them to get caught. He’d hate for more lives to be lost, but hopefully this asshole is making mistakes and it’ll lead to them being found out.

Just as he’s pulling out his phone to alert other members of the task force of what’s going on, he hears voices coming from down the hallway. 

“Detective Geto, the crime scene investigators need more time in these rooms, are you good?”

“Yes. Please let me know what you find out.” 

He and Shiu step outside and through the police tape to another block so that Shiu can have the cigarette that he’s been so desperately craving. 

“What do you think?” Shiu asks as he lights up.

“I think it’s linked to the rest and if they’re upping the ante like this, we need to move fast.”

“I think the killer is someone close to your daughter.”

“Why the fuck would you say that?” That just sent Suguru from a level one to a level fifty three. 

“It’s usually someone close to the victim, you know that just as well as I do.”

“I’m well aware of that. However, if her parents' murders were an isolated case, I’d probably agree with you. But it’s not. It’s connected to other cases where the victims don’t know each other. Because of that, the killer can be someone linked to one of them.”

“Suguru, you’ve got to stop this.”

“Stop what?”

“Every time someone mentions your daughter, you get super defensive. You’re not thinking like a detective. You’re thinking like a dad and it has to stop.”

“I’m being defensive because I don’t want my traumatized daughter being brought into something that she’s clearly not responsible for?”

“I’m not trying to frame her for murder goddammit. But you trying to stand there with blinders on is irking my fucking nerves. For fuck’s sake, she’s the only one out of all of the victims and all of their families who has been repeatedly targeted by this maniac. Before you say anything, yes I do remember that a relative of a previous victim was killed and that’s proving my point even more. She managed to be targeted multiple times and yet her life was not lost. She hasn’t even come face to face with the killer as far as we know.”

“Both her best friend and myself have been targeted as well.”

“That’s my point! Why are all of you still alive? This guy has a hard on for her for some reason. Maybe there’s history or maybe they just wanna fuck her, I don’t know. But don’t stand there and act like you haven’t thought about this.”

Suguru stands there in silence because the truth is that he has thought about this. 

He’s thought about it a lot.

It’s all that he thinks about. 

Maybe Shiu has a point.

Maybe Suguru has been trying to shield you so much that he’s been ignoring stuff in order to do that. 

Maybe he needs to go back to the hard ass that he used to be.

“Fine. What do you suggest, Shiu?”

“I want to re-interview all the people closest to her. I wanna speak to her fruity little boyfriend. I wanna speak to her friend who was attacked just long enough to have a meltdown but the car disappeared before you even got there. I wanna speak to the neighbor who ran to her apartment without thinking and conveniently didn’t find anything. I wanna speak to her boss who seems to favor her over other girls because that guy is a fucking dick and he’d never let another girl bring police presence to his club for a part time job. I wanna speak to her super famous emo ex who isn’t fucking groupies because he’s waiting around for a girl with a boyfriend. I wanna speak with that nerdy friend who’s a professor and in student loan debt for the rest of his life to teach at that fancy school and disappeared the second that all this shit started up. That’s where I’m going to start and I’m not moving on to the next person until the previous is ruled out.”

Shit.

When Shiu puts it like that, he has a point.

He just made everyone in your life sound like a murderer in like thirty seconds.

“I also want to speak to your family and I’ll have a third party interview you.”

If Suguru wasn’t pissed before, he is now. “You want to interview my wife, my children, and myself? My wife who was nowhere near the crime scene and probably wouldn’t be physically capable to pull off the murder of my daughter’s parents. You want to question my twins who were young children at that point and you want to interview the lead detective on the case? The one who helped investigate her parents' deaths?”

“Yes. It’s nothing personal Suguru, but people are dropping like fucking flies. Are you going to stand in my way?”

“No. Under one condition.”

“What?”

“I want you to sit down for a formal interview as well, Shiu.”

“Why?”

“When I asked you about the last time that you’ve been to my house, you got incredibly defensive and deflected the issue. That’s something that someone would try to do if they wanted to spin something in another direction. That letter from the killer has specific details of my family’s home and I have to interview as many people who have been there as possible and that includes you. I want you to sit down for a formal interview so that I can rule you out.”

Shiu switches his cigarette to his left hand and extends his right to shake Suguru’s hand. 

“Deal.”

“Good. Let’s get back to this crime scene.”

Shiu drops his cigarette to the ground and stomps it out before following Suguru back to the crime scene. It’s quiet for the time being but as they round the corner and pass under the caution tape, they see a bunch of officers standing in a circle and looking at something.

“What the fuck is going on now?” Shiu’s barely been there an hour and he’s over it.

They walk over to the circle and attempt to make their way through.

“What’s going on?” Suguru catches their attention.

“We found something when we had to move one of the bodies.”

“What is it?”

One of the officers' hands Suguru a pair of gloves and once they’re on, he hands him the item that’s had them all stumped.

“This is what we found.”

It’s a business card and it even has a person’s name.

Ryomen Sukuna.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“You’re just jealous because I’m an astronaut and you’re just a former cheerleader who peaked in high school. I’m gonna create a company bigger than SpaceX and then you’ll be sorry!” Satoru says in his most high pitched voice.

“You couldn’t be a cheerleader because you have no rhythm!” Tsumiki argues back.

What the hell is going on here?

Toji asked you if you could watch her for a little while because his job called him in for some ‘last minute bullshit’ he called it, and you agreed since you have literally nothing to do until tomorrow. Now you’re hanging out in his living room while watching Satoru and Tsumiki play with Barbies. 

She brought out a box of toys from her room and it took literally no convincing from her to get Satoru to pick out a doll and play around with the outfits.

This demon would be father material if he could have kids.

Can he?

Probably not.

You’re gonna ask later.

“If I had no rhythm, how could I do this?” Satoru attempts to make his Barbie dance, but she’s not flexible enough to bust out the moves that he’s trying to make happen.

“You just proved my point!” You just sit on the sidelines and laugh because honestly, they are pretty funny. “I’m gonna be more famous than those cowboy cheerleaders and then you’ll regret everything you ever said!”

“You could never pull off the outfit,” damn Satoru. But Tsumiki just laughs so you don’t smack him on the back of the head.

You didn’t expect a demon and a little kid to be as shady towards each other as they’ve been but you’re loving every minute of it. While you’re sitting on the couch, you feel your phone vibrate and turn it over to see who it is.

Suguru: Busy? I need to come over.

You: I’m with Satoru, we’re babysitting Tsumiki but Toji should be back relatively soon. Is everything okay?

Suguru: I’ll discuss it with you when I get there. Is an hour okay?

You: Make it two just in case.

Suguru: See you then.

That made you nervous.

The fact that he won’t tell you over the phone what’s going on means that it’s probably something serious and while you’re trying to remain calm, you’re freaking out on the inside.

“Are you okay?” Satoru breaks character to check on you. Fucking him and being able to feel your feelings.

“Suguru said he’ll be here in a couple of hours..”

“Fun.” You shrug and he goes back to playing with Tsumiki so that she doesn’t think anything is wrong. 

You’re mentally telling yourself not to panic, but it’s hard not to when it seems like so much has been going on with the case lately. It seems like he’s been working overtime since the last time you saw him at your apartment and like a lot has happened, but there still hasn’t been a lot of questions answered.

All you want is for this to get solved and for everything to be figured out. But based on how long this loser has flown under the radar while doing the most awful things, it’s probably not going to be solved any time soon. You have a feeling that there still won’t be answers for years.

The bright side is that having Satoru around gives you a hidden advantage to get answers.

But the down side?

Once all of this is solved and you’re no longer in fear, he eats your soul and that’s when your life ends. 

For a while it felt like you made your peace with it, but it’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately. 

The more time that you’ve been spending with your friends and family, the less that you feel like you’ve accepted that harsh reality. But you also don’t want a serial killer on the loose just because you’re happy to be spending time with Choso again.

Fuck.

He’s so hot.

You wanna ask him and Satoru for a threesome so bad but you’re trying to be a good girl.

You should also probably start with a vanilla twosome before you start asking men, and a demon, to spit roast you.

Luckily a text from Toji rips you out of your lewd thoughts before Satoru senses what’s going on in your head.

Toji: How’s everyone doing?

You: Satoru and Tsumiki’s Barbies are fighting for dominance. 

Toji: Your future daughters are going to love him

You laugh and assure him that everything is going fine and he doesn’t need to worry. He does let you know that he’s going to be on his way back soon to ‘relieve you of the stress.’ But you’re fine, this is actually a pretty good start to the day.

“Oh! You think you’re so cool Space Barbie Satorina? Look at what I have!” Tsumiki drops her doll and runs to her bedroom, leaving both you and Satoru in a state of shock. But then she returns to the living room with a pink convertible that has butterfly doors. 

You do not remember Barbie cars having butterfly doors when you were a kid. 

You had a red Volkswagen beetle.

“Duuuudeee! So cool!” Satoru looks genuinely mesmerized and you’re starting to feel like you’re gonna have to buy him a bunch of toys. 

If he wasn’t so tall, he'd probably love one of those toy cars you can ride around in.

Actually, he could just learn to drive.

Well, he is learning, thanks to Suguru.

You internally laugh at him showing up to the DMV asking to take his carriage for a driver’s test. 

Watching the two of them interact is like watching the shadiest play and you’re living for it. Time flies so fast that you completely forget about Toji until you hear a beep and a click, telling you that he’s coming in the front door.

Tsumiki and Satoru are so engrossed in their games that she doesn’t even realize Toji is here. He walks up behind you and rests his arms on the couch, on either side of your shoulders, just watching and chuckling.

“We don’t matter do we?” He whispers in your ear.

“We’re just background characters at this point.”

He laughs and walks over to his daughter, ruffling her hair. “Hey kiddo, I’m home.”

“Hi daddy!” And that’s all he gets before she goes back to playing. 

You admire the energy that children have because if you didn’t have any caffeine today, you’d still be slowly rolling out of bed. You and Toji sit on the couch and watch them bicker with their dolls for a little while before you get a text from Suguru, letting you know that he arrived.

“Suguru’s here.”

“Papa Suguru?” Fucking Satoru.

“Alright ‘Miki, they gotta go home now and see their dad.”

She groans for a second, but she gets over it really quickly. “Can they play again another time?”

“Of course.”

“Okay!” She and Satoru stand up and she reaches out to hug him. He crouches all the way down to hug her back and he’s still taller than her and it’s adorable.

“See ya soon!” He says and she walks over to hug you too.

You say goodbye to both of them before heading back to your place, seeing Suguru in the hallway in the process.

“Papa ‘Guru!” Satoru exclaims and Suguru looks stunned by the new nickname.

“I hope I’m not intruding.”

“Of course not. Come give me the bad news that you’re going to give me.”

“Why do you assume that I have bad news?”

“Because you said you needed to come over but you wouldn’t say why.”

“Fair enough.”

You unlock your door and the three of you enter your apartment to get comfortable. You put on a pot of tea and mix up a shirley temple for Satoru before the three of you sit down in your living room for whatever the fuck is going to give you extreme anxiety for the next few days.

“Alright. Talk to me,” you say to Suguru while passing him a mug. 

“I have something to tell you but I don’t want you to panic until you let me explain everything.” You nod and he continues. “A young officer on the task force and I have been scrubbing the surveillance footage from your building like our life depends on it trying to see if there was a cause for that bang that you heard a couple of weeks ago. There was something that we discovered that we feel aligns with your timeline. Before I continue, I want to tell you that before I leave today, regardless if you don’t come home with me, I will finally be installing those cameras in your apartment.”

“Okaaay?”

“Someone was inside your apartment.”

Welp.

That hit you like a ton of bricks. 

Even though Satoru told you this already, Suguru revealing this piece of information just made it all the more real. They have two completely different investigative styles so the fact that they were able to come to the same conclusion just made it so daunting.

“Okay. Do you know who? Or when? Or…??? I don’t know what to even ask. This is a lot to take in.”

“I know, Sweetheart. I’m sorry. The first thing that I want to tell you is that they were never inside your home while you were there. They actually spent most of their time in the apartment next door.”

“But I thought that you said that nobody lived next door.”

“Nobody does.”

“What?”

He sighs before continuing. “I know that this can all be very confusing but I’m going to do my best. We don’t know exactly how they were able to gain access to the unit next door, but they were able to. It seems as though they spent some time there before sneaking into your apartment one day before returning to the other one. Based on my timeline, I believe that they were there for a few days until you heard that loud bang and then they finally left shortly after, probably aware that the police were going to show up.”

“Or me… to beat their ass!” You tell them Satoru.

“Fair enough,” Suguru chuckles. “Did you notice anything out of the ordinary besides the loud bang that you heard?”

You start stressing yourself out, debating on if you should tell him about the necklace. Fuck that. You have to. “Actually, I do have something.”

The way his eyes shoot over to you, it’s like he expected you to say no and this all became too real. “May I ask what?”

“One night I was folding laundry with Satoru and when I started putting clothes away, I noticed that the necklace my mom gave me was in a drawer where I don’t keep it.”

“Where do you keep it?”

“In the top drawer. This was in the second one.”

Suguru doesn’t even ask you the ‘are you sure’ series of questions because he knows that you wouldn’t misplace something like that. “Okay, the necklace from your mom–”

“And a book.”

“A book?”

“And my lamps in the guest room.”

“Show me.” 

You show him to your bookshelf where you noticed the books were out of place. It wasn’t a lot, but you organize your Junji Ito books in order of when you bought them and you noticed that Shiver and Black Paradox were switched. Then he follows you to the guest room where you point out the lamps.

“These are the same lamps,” he says.

“I know. But someone switched them.”

“How do you know? They’re the same.”

“Not completely. One of them has a nick in the paint so I placed it on the night table further into the room, the left one. But when I was cleaning the other night, I noticed that it was on the other side.”

“I have someone on the way to help install the cameras and I’ll look over this room in case anyone left anything behind in the process.”

You and Satoru return to the living room while Suguru runs down to his car to grab some things and meet up with the officer that he called for help with these cameras he’s been talking about for weeks.

“I’m surprised that you told him all of that,” Satoru lets out after a long bout of silence.

“I didn’t want to. But he already knew that someone was here so it makes more sense to tell him the truth so that he can figure out what’s going on. If he didn’t know what this person did, he’d just be panicking trying to find a motive, at least this tells him something.”

“I get it. I just know that you don’t like to worry him.”

“I don’t. But I have to trust him when he says that he gets more worried when he’s left in the dark and I don’t want to do that to the people in my life anymore. People are being targeted so I think I need to just be completely open with everyone.”

“I get it.”

Just then, you hear a beep and a click and Suguru walks through the door. “This is Yu Haibara, an officer I put on the task force.”

“There’s a task force?” You don’t remember hearing about that. Did someone tell you? Or do you just not remember?

“One was recently created to figure all of this out.” Good to know. “We’re going to start installing the cameras.”

You nod and they head to the guest bedroom first. They have a couple of bags so it makes you wonder exactly how many are going in here, but better safe than sorry. After some time passes, they move to your bedroom and are in there working and talking for much longer than the first time before the return.

“We’ll be giving you access to the apps so that if you need some privacy, you’ll be able to temporarily shut them down,” Haibara says and you’re confused for a moment why you’d need privacy before you remember that you’re a grown woman with a grown man living with her. “We’ll start in this room now.”

Watching them work in the living room, you realize that they’re treating your apartment like it’s a season of Big Brother and it makes you wonder how many cameras are in the other rooms. 

“Alright, looks like we’re done here. In total, we’ve installed sixty three cameras.”

Your jaw drops open the moment that Suguru says that because daaaaamnnnn.

“Sixty three?! Is that necessary?”

“That’s just to start. I’ll be reviewing their placements and quality later and then I’ll determine if you need more. But yes, for the time being, I think that this is a good place to start. This person who we’re tracking has been very aware of every camera they’ve passed and managed to evade being caught on it every single time. I wanted to put in a lot because if this person assumes that you have cameras, they’re going to be working to avoid them and be having as many that we do, it’ll force them to always be caught in one way or another. I wanted some in obvious spots and some in secondary spots that people think are sneaky and some completely out of the blue that I’m not even going to tell you because I don’t want any of your tells to accidentally reveal anything in case you ever find yourself in a precarious situation.”

Okay. 

That makes sense.

Haibara takes a seat across from you and you give him your phone to install all the apps that you need to access everything.

“We’ve installed apps that require passwords or pins to open them and I’m disguising them as something else that way if someone gets a hold of your phone, they won’t be able to turn them off.”

“And if they threaten me to turn them off?”

“Take the risk and say no. That means that the cameras being active is the only thing that’s protecting you.”

Good point.

Haibara hands your phone back and after running through all the details one more time, he packs up to leave. “I’ll see you at the office later, Boss!” You love this smiley motherfucker.

“Thank you Mr. Haibara!” You yell to him as he makes his way to the door.

“You’re welcome! But please call me Yu!” And that’s the last thing that he says before walking out the door.

“He’s so nice.”

“He is. He’s also a big fan of your not boyfriend and I think he’s hoping that I’ll have another reason to bring him to the office.”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Mr. Sukuna: Look hot or you’re getting the opposite of a raise. 

Mr. Sukuna: Maybe not that. But seriously, make people wanna buy this shit.

Mr. Sukuna: Did you decide if you’re going to do your birth month or is your spooky ass gonna go for Halloween?

You: I haven’t decided yet.

Mr. Sukuna: Shoot both. I’ll pick the best one.

You: Yes sir.

Mr. Sukuna: How’s your goofy little boyfriend?

Mr. Sukuna: Nevermind. I don’t care.

Mr. Sukuna: But you can take him as a security guard as long as he behaves himself.

You: Thank you!

Mr. Sukuna: Whatever. I’ll see you when you get here.

Aaaaand that’s how your day with your boss started up.

Today is the day of the calendar shoot and you’re getting everything you could possibly need ready to go so that you don’t have to rush back home and slow the entire day down.

Mr. Sukuna allowed you to purchase several outfits for the calendar and he approved them all so you get the final say on exactly what you want to wear for whatever month you choose. You got new shoes, jewelry, anything that you could need, you got brand new for the occasion.

As you get everything together, Satoru is in the shower singing along to Paralyzer by Finger Eleven on the bluetooth speaker that you got him. Being around him makes you miss the times when people appreciated the small things. Nowadays it seems like if you don’t hand someone an iphone as a gift, they think you’re being cheap. Thank fuck for your friends and family who value the sentimentality or the humor behind things.

The water turns off and a minute later he steps out of the bathroom still wrapping his towel around his chest the way that you do and you still laugh every time. You wonder if he knows it’s impractical but he keeps doing it because it makes you laugh. He takes a seat on the bed behind you as you finish up your skincare routine so that you can get out the door as soon as possible. 

“Do you want me to be in-vis-ibleh?” He asks with the most over the top french accent.

“No, babe. Mr. Sukuna said that it’s okay if you come with me as long as you’re professional.”

“I’ll be a good boy.” You look in the mirror to see the smirk on his face and you just smile. “Did you choose a month yet?”

“Mr. Sukuna said to shoot for both February and October and he’ll choose which one he thinks is better.”

“What’s it like to be your boss's favorite?”

“What makes you think I’m his favorite?”

“Tsk.” Really? “You don’t see it?”

“I clock in and I clock out. I don’t see any special treatment.”

“He cares about you.”

“Satoru, not everybody with a penis wants to have sex with me.”

“I didn’t say that he wanted to have sex with you, I said that he cared about you. You’re his favorite.” You sit in silence, hoping that he’ll explain himself further because you honestly don’t see what he sees. He sighs before speaking, “he looks at you like how Suguru looks at you. Like you’re a bunny made of glass that they don’t want anyone to shatter.”

“I don’t want anyone to look at me like I’m fragile and have to be babied.” Is that really how you come off?

“Not like that. Like they want to protect you from the big bad world, but not because they think you need it. I can tell that Suguru loves your independence and that he believes in you even though you don’t lean on him as much as he’d like you to. And your boss clearly feels the same way. If one of your co-workers needed to bring a boyfriend to work for protection, or to this photoshoot, would he let them? Or would he tell them to take off of work until things are worked out? He’s still been paying you, hasn’t he? Would he do that for everyone else? Is he letting other girls take pictures for other months for this calendar or have they been assigned something?”

Damn.

Maybe he’s right.

“I never… looked at it like that.”

“I hope I didn’t make things awkward. I don’t think it's weird, it’s just something that I’ve noticed. You’re lucky, you have a lot of people looking out for you, that’s a good thing even though you don’t need them because I’m the strongest,” he says with a smirk.

This fucking guy.

“Well, I hope you’re the strongest at pulling–” the phone vibrates. “Whoopsies. Gotta get that.”

“At ‘pulling’ what?” He asks with desperation in his voice. “Pulling what? Pulling out?”

“I don’t remember. Sorry babe.”

You check your phone and it’s just your boss asking, no, telling you to bring him a Red Bull on your way over. 

Satoru is losing his mind over what could have been the start of a sexual conversation but unfortunately, you’ve gotta start the rest of your day. The two of you haven’t got much further than just teasing each other, but it’s fine. 

Although, you feel that his clinginess has grown a bit, but you’re not mad at it.

You grab your bag, extra Red Bulls, Satoru, and start heading to the studio.

When you step inside, you’re actually surprised at how many people are there. It’s a much bigger production than you expected and you’re pretty impressed. There’s several girls from the club walking around and watching each other’s shoots. There’s multiple photographers, set up for backgrounds and scenery, all of the things and you’re excited. It kind of makes you feel bad about turning it down the past few years, but that’s not going to happen again.

You’re in awe when you hear a voice coming from your right, “give me my Red Bull.” Fucking guy. Satoru holds your bag for you so that you can open it up and pull two out for him. “Good. Get into hair and makeup so we can get this shit done.”

You follow him to another room where there’s two makeup chairs, but only one artist set up to get you ready. 

“Your boyfriend can sit there.”

“Thank y–” Aaaaand he’s out the door.

“Your boss is quite the charmer,” the makeup artist says and you laugh.

“Yeah, he’s leaving a snail trail of charm,” you respond and she laughs.

“Do you have an idea on how you want your hair and makeup to look? Your boss says you have particular preferences.” Maybe Satoru is right.

“Uhhhhh–” before you can finish, he comes back into the room and starts going through your bag.

“Wear this for October. You can wear whatever the fuck you want for February, I don’t give a shit.” And then he’s back out the door, again.

“Okaaaaayyyy,” you start back up. “I want something that’s stylish for both that,” you point to what he picked out, “and easy to transition to go with this,” you pull out your outfit for February that you feel mostly settled on.

“Very nice. Maybe I should work for him, he pays well.” You know Satoru is ticking more boxes off his list. “Is this your boyfriend?”

“One of them,” he replies without missing a beat and you just roll your eyes.

“Ohhhh really?” You can tell that she’s loving this. “Do we have a little Seeking Sister Husband vibe going on?”

“Yeah right,” you chuckle. “Could you imagine a demon and a rockstar married to the same woman?” You realize what you said after you say it and Satoru looks at you and grins.

“Ooooh a demon. Who’s who?”

“The rockstar is the other guy,” he says. “I’m the demon. See my beautiful eyes? They’re my super power!”

“Oh my gosh, you two are so cute! You’re made for each other.”

Damn.

She didn’t even flinch at that.

You love that for you.

It’s almost two hours later when your hair and makeup is finished and Satoru damn near has heart eyes like this is an episode of the Looney Tunes. “Alexa, play ‘I wanna take a ride on your disco stick’ by Lady Gaga.” He’s so cute.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to get changed and then I’ll come back in to help touch up anything that you need.” She steps out and you start pulling your looks together.

You decide to start with October and pull out your custom made, sparkly white costume that perfectly replicates Emily Browning’s at the end of Sucker Punch. You always loved that outfit the best out of all the ones in the movie and you were desperate to have it, but you couldn’t find anywhere to buy it, so you had it custom made. 

And then when you knew you were shooting for this calendar, you had one made a little skimpier. 

You pull up your white skirt that barely covers your ass and put on your tiny white top that makes your breasts look like you spent a lot of money on them. Satoru helps you perfectly apply your tie before you sit down and he helps you put on your thigh highs. Then he reaches over and puts your heels on for you so that you don’t get hot and sweaty just trying to get ready. You left your hair your natural color because you didn’t want to have to look for a super expensive wig, and your boss didn’t care, so fuck it.

Your artist comes back in and she looks excited to help you finish getting ready. She goes over the curls in your hair just a little more before you walk out to the studio to meet the photographer.

Sukuna hears your heels and looks over to see you walking over and he nods. “Good.” He introduces you to the photographer and he and the creative director give you some ideas on how to pose and you step in front of the camera to get started. 

One of the reasons that you passed on this throughout the years was because you were so full of anxiety that you didn’t want to ruin the entire project, but you’re loving this. You’re getting a lot of praise from the people on set and even though he’s quiet, you can tell that Satoru wants to scream your praises from the rooftop. 

After taking who knows how many pictures, probably hundreds, you head back to your dressing room to get changed into the next outfit. 

This one is a red lingerie set since February is known for Valentine’s Day and it’s basically bondage galore. There’s excess straps, buckles, and just enough skin to make it even sexier. The cups of the bra are open, but the buckles on the straps are what helps keep your nipples hidden. You have a choker with a collar attached to it that hangs down below your neck and those straps are attached to the bra so it looks like one giant piece. The panties are a string bikini style with a mesh pattern over the top and more straps and buckles everywhere. There’s chains hanging from your matching garter belt and if you didn’t put this on yourself, you’d never know how someone got into it by just looking at the photos. It even has matching cuffs for your wrists and you decide to throw them on too just for the hell of it. You put on your strappy red heels and call it a day.

Your hair and makeup artist comes back in to adjust your hair and make it look like you had giant bombshell hair from magazines in the seventies because she feels it’s perfect for the look that you’re going for, and you agree. After she finishes getting you ready, you walk back out with Satoru in tow.

You stand on the side while the current model finishes up and it happens to be Miwa and that makes you happy. You didn’t know that she’d be shooting for the calendar, but you love that for her. 

When she’s finished, Mr. Sukuna nods for you to walk over. “How the fuck did you get that thing on?”

“He helped,” you point to Satoru.

“Yeah. I’m sure he helped put it on,” he says in a snarky voice.

You brush off that comment. “He’s holding the chains that attach to my cuffs.”

“Of course he is. No wonder he’s so attached to you.”

“They’re part of the outfit. Do you want me to wear them for the pictures?”

“We’ll take some without and then we’ll take some with. Get your ass in front of the camera. I’m fucking tired and I wanna go the fuck home.”

“Alright goddammit,” you accidentally say and you see his bright red eyes staring you down. You’ve never spoken back to him and you feel like your stomach is going to fall out of your asshole. But instead of reprimanding you in front of the other girls and making you cry, he laughs.

He fucking laughs.

“I knew you had balls. I was just wondering where they were.”

You step in front of the camera and look back to see all the girls with looks of shock on their faces. Does he really let you get away with things that he wouldn't let other girls get away with?

Whatever.

That’s a problem for another day.

You go through the same process again, props, poses, adjustments, all of the things and it’s a fun experience. But every time that you look at the other girls, they look kind of irritated with you and you really hope that this doesn’t affect you at work. Well, Miwa looks pretty chill, but she’s always like that.

When you’re done, Mr. Sukuna is looking over everything and he gives you approval to change and head out. You return to your dressing room with Satoru and you hear a few girls talking shit in the hallway.

“Why does she get to shoot for two months? Nobody else got two.”

“I’ve heard rumors about Sukuna and you know… him and his girls. Maybe something is going on.”

You can’t tell through the door who’s voice is who’s because it’s taking all of your energy to just understand what the hell they’re saying.

“Teacher’s pet should be her new nickname.”

“He wouldn’t let the rest of us put the club in danger just to come to work once or twice a week. If I showed up once a week, even without the threat, I’d be fired. And I’m a dancer!”

“I bet she doesn’t even make that much money as a waitress.”

“She wears really expensive lingerie brands though. Like seven hundred dollars for a full set expensive.”

“He has to be giving her bonuses because she doesn’t even have that many regulars but apparently lives in some fancy fucking luxury apartment. With what money can she afford all these things? Not to mention, her car! She has a nicer car than me!”

“Dead daddy probably left her some money from their precious fucking restaurant.”

That one hit you.

Hard.

You’ve dealt with silly comments and competition mindsets from working at the club for so long and these things typically don’t bother you because it comes with the job. Girls will become best friends and then break apart because a customer switched from one girl to another and it’s nothing that surprises you anymore.

But the ‘dead daddy’ comment is fucking uncalled for.

“How is that place still open? The owners are dead.” Well, Manami has been running it for you so there you go you stupid bitch.

“I know, right?! Take your boyfriend to work day over there. A few months ago, a dancer got fired for her boyfriend hanging out while she was on the clock. Why does she get to literally bring hers to work? And she got to bring him today when he sent out a fucking group text to tell everyone that no boyfriends are allowed today. It must be nice to be her!”

“To be fair, it looks like someone is trying to kill her,” that sounds like Miwa. Thanks girl.

“Then stay home!”

“That would drive someone crazy! Imagine being forced to stay home because an investigation is taking a long time,” Thank you Miwa.

“Then her new dad should be better at his job. Why is that our problem?”

“Well, it’s not.” You’re buying Miwa a cake.

“Yes it is!” Now that she’s louder, you do recognize that voice. That’s Mai. You thought you were friends, but that’s probably over.

“How? It’s not like we’re getting a pay cut because of her.”

“She gets away with stuff that other people don’t. And she got special treatment today by shooting for two months, nobody else got to do that.”

“Mr. Sukuna said that he’s picking the official month for her because she couldn’t decide, that’s all.” You hear a collective sigh. Fuck, how many people are out there? Four? “And it’s only been recently that Satoru has come with her to work and that’s really all the ‘special treatment’ that she’s gotten.”

“My boyfriend said that there’s undercover cops outside.”

“Okay? We have bouncers inside and extra protection outside. That’s how I look at it.”

“Ugh. You’re too close to her to see it.”

“All I’m going to say is, I think you’re looking at this the wrong way. She’s not mean to the other girls, she’s not taking advantage of Mr. Sukuna. Let’s just move on.” You hear heels clicking and assume that she’s walking away.

“Whatever.”

You feel arms wrap around your waist, “don’t listen to those Debbie Downers.”

“Debbie Downers?”

“I was watching Saturday Night Live on my phone last night.”

“Mmm.”

“They’re jealous.”

“That’s what my mom used to say when Utahime would come over after school and vent about people being bitter towards her.”

“Your mom was right. People who are completely happy don’t exert an excessive amount of negative energy on bringing someone else down. Nothing they’ve said is true, or matters, in the grand scheme of things.”

“I guess. I just don’t want to feel uncomfortable when I return to work. I don’t want everyone hating me because of my circumstances. If my life is making things difficult for everybody else, maybe I should quit my job.”

“The customers are going to be really upset if Miss February and October isn’t here when they show up to meet her.” You’re surprised that Satoru is encouraging you to stay seeing as he hates when other men are around you. “If you were an inconvenience, Sukuna would have fired you. But he still wants you there and he’s willing to accommodate pretty basic things. It’s not like I follow you around the club all night.”

“Yeah, but they said it’s because I’m ‘Teacher’s Pet.’”

“If you were costing your boss money, I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate to shift his behavior. But you make a lot of money for the club, customers love you, and you’re easy to get along with. You’re good at your job and you’re loyal to it, that’s why he’s willing to bend the rules a little bit. But you’re not getting enough special treatment to warrant their attitude.”

“To be fair, he was still paying me for shifts I hadn’t even worked. You even mentioned that earlier today.”

“You’ve earned the treatment that you’ve received and they don’t know your personal business. So, fuck them.”

“Thank you, Satoru. You’re my favorite demon I know.”

“I’m the only demon you know.”

“But you’re still my favorite. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“It’s everything to me. You’re my favorite human I’ve even known, even when I was one.”

“Hmm. My pet demon and me, ” you say in a sing-song voice and he laughs.

You pull away from him so that you can get changed back into your regular clothes and get all of your stuff packed up. 

“Why do you have a combination lock on your zippers?” He asks while folding up your items and packing them away.

“Every so often, there’s someone who comes through the club and will steal whatever is not hidden or locked away. One time, somebody walked out with one of the dancers' entire bags and she had like thousands of dollars worth of things in there. Her boots alone were almost two hundred dollars. She has several expensive lingerie sets, designer makeup and jewelry, it was a big loss for her. I sat with her while she cried for hours. But Mr. Sukuna reimbursed her and fired the other person on the spot once he learned who it was.”

“Fuck. People suck.”

“Yeah.”

“At least your boss helped her out, that’s nice. And it’s proof that you’re not the only one who has seen the nice side of him.” Maybe Satoru’s right.

Once everything is packed up and ready to go, Satoru grabs your bags and you walk out of your dressing room. Thankfully, to an empty hallway. You hear voices behind a couple closed doors and you just assume that everybody is separated to their own rooms and you start to make your way towards the entrance. 

You see your boss standing at the front speaking to the photographer, so you stand on the side until he’s finished and waves you over. “What do you want?”

“Am I good to leave?”

“Yeah. Get the fuck out of here. I’ll walk you out.”

You hold in your laughs until you’ve made it all the way to your car and are inside so that he can’t hear you.

“What’s so funny?” Satoru looks so confused. 

“I’m just laughing at how Mr. Sukuna is always helpful, but in the most asshole way possible. He’s very, ‘here’s your fucking paycheck you dumbass.’ I don’t know, something about it just made me laugh today.”

“He’s a good man. And besides your dad, probably the only man I’ve seen interact with who doesn’t wanna have sex with you.”

“I love how that’s the only thing on your mind… like ever.”

“Can you blame me? You walk around looking like… that. My peerless paramour.” He says the last part with some old timey accent.

“Your what?”

“It’s a term of endearment that was going around one of the last times that I was walking amongst the living.”

“Hmmm. You don’t talk a lot about your previous lives.”

“They’re so boring in comparison to now. We didn’t even have zippers the last time I was here. But now you have the world at your fingertips anytime you want it. And unfortunately, people use it to hurt other people. Silly stuff like that aside, it truly is amazing what you people have and what you can do.” You hum in acknowledgment. “But if you ever wanna know anything, I’ll tell you. You just have to ask.”

“How long did your first sexual experience last?”

“Like twenty six–”

“I was just kidding. You don’t have to reveal stuff like that.”

“Oh… okay.” He looks taken aback. An awkward silence fills the car as you continue to drive although you do catch him sneaking glances at you the entire time. Or maybe you’re the one who can’t stop looking at him. “I know I’m beautiful, but I’m sure you don’t want to crash.”

You scoff because even though you know that you were staring at him, you’re absolutely going to deny that shit. “What are you talking about? I’m not even on the verge of crashing.”

“You do wanna know.”

“Wanna know what?”

“About my fantabulous sex life.”

“Psh, yeah right. I don’t care about that.”

“Yes you do.”

“Do not. There’s probably only like four minutes of it worth to complain about.”

“Puhhlease. I could write a series of novels on the fascinating stuff I’ve done and the awesome lengths of time that it took me, which was a long time, if I may say.”

“Why? Because you couldn’t figure out what to do?”

“Hah! Because my partners didn’t want me to stop.”

“I’m sure. That’s what all men say.”

“Those men are liars. I’m not.”

“That’s also what they all say.”

“But I’m telling the truth.”

“How so?”

“Because I said.” What a riveting conversation. “Let me ask you something, have I ever disappointed you with my dexterity?” You love how he makes it sound like you have a bunch of sexual experiences instead of him just being good with his hands… in general.

“Of all the ways that you could have said that, you said it like a college professor.”

“That makes sense considering all the ‘fuck me’ pleated skirts that you wear.”

“Why would you call me out like that, Satoru?”

“What do you mean ‘call?’ We’re right next to each other.”

Sweet baby. 

Don’t ever change.

You pull into your parking spot and grab your phone to check all of the security cameras Suguru and Haibara installed inside. You’re still a little in shock at how much went into this and it kinda makes you wonder if you should move to a secret location. But for some reason, you just have a feeling that there’s not a chance in hell that that would actually help anything. You already know that this person would find you anywhere, so why hide?

After looking over all eight million cameras, you and Satoru make your way upstairs so that you can take a shower and get comfy in your around the house clothes.

You laugh a bit when you think back on how you constantly ran from him to get a little bit of privacy and now you’re not even bothered that he’s with you practically twenty four seven. He even sits in the bathroom with you whenever you take a shower at this point and it’s kinda sweet. If he was an asshole, Shiu Kong might have had a point but he’s like a precious little puppy and you hate to turn him away.

“What do we want for dinner tonight? Besides you wanting cake,” you ask him as you towel dry your hair.

“Whatever you want.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Fine. Fine. I liked that bowl that you got the other day.”

“Bulgogi bowl it is.”

“Mmmm.”

“And a slice of cake for Satoru.”

“Yaaayyyyy!”

You thought that when you got your own apartment, you’d be living on your own for the first time in your life and instead you ended up with the most permanent roommate of all time. But it worked out and now you can’t imagine ever coming home without him being by your side, or just being here at all. 

Fuck.

Are you falling for your demonic companion?

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

You wake up the next morning to find yourself completely wrapped in Satoru’s arms and you struggle to find the motivation to get out of bed, but you know that you have to. 

But that doesn’t stop you from laying around in bed for a few more minutes before getting up.

Eventually you turn around to see Satoru laying there with his eyes closed and you can’t believe how peaceful he looks. You spend a minute just looking at him before he speaks and it freaks you the fuck out.

“Do all humans do that? Watch beautiful beings as they sleep?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just getting comfortable. I wasn’t watching anything.”

“Suuuureeee. I bet you were just thinking about the weather.”

“Maybe I was. I do have to go downstairs to check my mail. My mailman probably fucking hates me.”

“Why? Do you want me to kill him?”

“No! I just have a bad habit of forgetting to check my mail unless I’m expecting something. Postal workers hate it when you let it get too full.”

He groans. “There’s so many rules in your world. Can’t walk around in the nude. Can’t carry around a sword. Can’t be drunk in public after spending a night at the theater. Can’t let your mailbox get full. Ludicrous!”

You haven’t even gotten out of bed yet and he’s already starting his silliness for the day. “What’s the weirdest law that you’ve broken? Back in your day, that is.”

“I had sex on a Sunday.”

You laugh before realizing that he wasn’t kidding. “You’re serious?”

“Yup.”

“What’s wrong with Sunday?”

“Your time may have religious people, but it's nothing like mine. Back in my day, people were willing to go to war because they didn’t even want the bible written in English. Nowadays, you can basically practice whatever you want, even if some people are judgemental about it. But back then, that was not a thing. Religion ruled the lands and they considered certain days to be particularly holy. Well, I, in my youthful nonsense, decided that I didn’t care, so I did what I wanted. Well, my neighbors overheard and they were not fans of my sinful indiscretions."

“Shit. What happened?”

“They reported me.”

“Seriously?!”

“Seriously.”

“Alright. What happened after that?”

“I had to go to church to confess my sins, beg for forgiveness in public to show how apologetic I was. Ya know, all the stuff that doesn’t actually stop anyone from doing anything.”

“Wow.” You don’t even really know what to say. One one hand you’re not surprised, but at the same time, you kind of are. “What were you doing to that poor girl that your neighbor had to report it?”

“What?! It was the best night of her life!”

“Oh god. You’re so dramatic.”

“I’m just confident in my skills.”

“Yeah. Skills to spend a summer in fucking church camp.”

“Is that a thing?”

“There’s a summer camp for everything.”

He hums and you climb out of bed to go to the bathroom and find something to wear to run down to your mailbox. When you step out of your closet, you see Satoru still in your bed. But by the time that you reach your front door, you see him standing there, waiting for you.

“For fuck’s sake, you teleporting nutbag!”

“What?!”

“You scared the shit out of me!”

“You knew that I could teleport!”

“But you haven;t done it in a while. You can’t jumpscare people, Satoru. That’s like illegal or something.”

“I didn’t jump on you.”

“Let’s just go, you maniac.”

You grab your mailbox key and he follows you out of your apartment, and all the way downstairs, past the front desk, and to the mailboxes. It’s almost comical how little you check your mail unless you actually order something. Besides that, who needs a bunch of flyers for shit that you’re not going to buy?

When you get to your mailbox, your fears are confirmed.

It’s fucking packed.

“Satoru, don’t let me go a month without checking my mail again.”

“You got it, boss.”

You start pulling out so much stuff that it’s falling on the ground and Satoru has to help you. There’s envelopes, flyers, a catalog where you pay stuff off over time, everything. You grab everything and start heading back upstairs to your apartment.

“Do people always get this much mail?” Satoru asks when you’re inside the elevator.

“Not at once. I’ve just been forgetting to check it. Usually I’ll get like an envelope from my bank or something and then a flyer for some mattress place or somewhere else I don’t shop at.”

“Your bank sends your information in the mail?”

“Just statements that show me what purchases I’ve made throughout the month. But there’s no sending of money through the mail or anything.”

“Banks can send everything through the mail but back in my day, they lost people’s money. How interesting.”

“That’s happened in the past, pretty recently actually. The Great Depression hit and everybody was super poor so eventually they founded the FDIC as a way to insure customer’s money so that if something monumental like that happened again, we wouldn’t lose everything.”

“Damn.”

“What?”

“You’re so hot when you’re all smart and stuff.”

You wave him off. “I don’t know how accurate I am with that, they spoke about it in high school. But I think that’s the gist of it.”

“Mmmm. I still think it’s nice to get mail. Phones are fun and all, but there’s a personal appreciation for someone who puts the work in.” That’s fair.

“Maybe I’ll drive across town and send a letter back to my apartment for you then.”

“Noooo! Because we’ll be apart for that time.” Oh goodness.

The doors open on your floor and you enter your apartment and take a seat on the couch to look through everything. You separate your bank stuff from your business flyers from everything else but it doesn’t really matter, it’s probably all going to end up in the trash. 

But you do come across one thing that captures your attention. 

A letter.

You flip it over and it looks like something that friends would give each other in middle school for their birthday or something. It’s a white envelope and it has a bunch of cutesy stickers on it, glitter, writing in gel pen ink, all of the things. 

“Oooooohhhhh. What’s that?” Saying Satoru is peeking over your shoulder would be an understatement.

“It looks like a letter.”

“From who?”

You haven’t even looked at that yet. You turn it over to look for the name and address of the person who sent it and you’re confused when you see the name.

“It says it’s from Utahime.”

“Why would she send you a letter instead of calling or texting you?”

“That’s what I wanna know. Would you get me the letter opener?” He gets up and goes to your kitchen drawer to grab it where you left it the last time that you got some bullshit in the mail. He hands it to you and you start to carefully open it. When you look inside, you see that there’s a piece of folded up paper inside and you pull it out to see that there is something written on the inside, but not a lot. You unfold it to see what it says and you’re already over it. “What the fuck is this?”

“What? What does it say?”

Don’t trust your father.

“For fuck’s sake!”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“Hello Detective Geto. 

We’ve been together for a long time, haven’t we? 

What’s it like being the lead detective on a case that you’re clearly incapable of solving? I’ve been waiting for years to see if you had what it takes to catch me and I must admit, I’m disappointed. Perhaps you should remove yourself from the case and allow some fresh eyes to take a look at it. Or, maybe you just need a little bit of help. Something tells me that you don’t even know where to start and it pains me to see your full potential not being utilized.

Or maybe, you’re too close.

Maybe your problems start with you thinking more like a father and less like an investigator. But I guess that I can’t blame you. If I had a harem of beautiful ladies surrounding me, I may get tunnel vision too. While we’re on the topic, how was your lovely daughter’s birthday? I intended to drop a gift that I thought you’d really love, but it appears that I forgot it. And since I was doing my best to blend in with the scenery, it wasn’t a smart idea to run back home to get anything. Although, I guess that doesn’t really matter since you spotted me on camera anyway. 

Or… did you?

Are you sure that was me that showed up on all of those cameras? It could have been some poor soul that I roped into my plans and you may have spent all of this time searching for the wrong man. Either way, I appreciate your level of dedication to your investigation. Dumpster diving is no mean feat and I’m very impressed that you were willing to go to those lengths to attempt to not let me have the upper hand for much longer. 

But I must admit, it’s been over a decade since I started my work and you’re no closer to catching me than you were then and that’s a tad bit disappointing. I was hoping for a compelling cat and mouse chase but it seems that I’m the cat and you’re the mouse. 

I wonder, do you think a jury may be more impressed by me and disappointed in you because of the fact that I was so close and you continuously allowed me to slip away? Maybe that in conjunction with a very well written sob story will sway some people into feeling some pity for me and cutting me a break. 

Would you?

What if I said that my dad was a drunk who beat me and my mom on a daily basis and it changed the way that I viewed the world and other people? What if I told the world that my mom abandoned me in favor of my sisters and I’ve had to do horrible things to survive that no child should have to do? What if I said that I loved my wife more than anything in the world and yet she snuck around behind my back for another man and that’s why I did to her what I had to do. Do you think I’ll get some sympathy?

What sob story do you think you’ll have to give in order to get forgiveness from the public for being so bad at your job?

Will your family forgive you?

Will your wife forgive you for keeping the bed cold at night because you’re too busy chasing me with no progress? 

Will your teenage daughters forgive you for missing important events in their life because their father is too busy being slumped over a desk with nothing to show for it. 

Most importantly, will they forgive you for playing favorites?

It’s clear to all to see that the leftover from one of my previous pieces of artwork is your favorite. But I can’t blame you, she is stunning. Is that why you keep her so close and protect her like nothing else in the world matters? Do you do that for your other daughters because I don’t feel that you do. 

What made this one special?

I’ve left lost little puppies behind at other crime scenes and I don’t see you snatching them up, giving them a home, giving them lamps in the shapes of flowers and painting their walls with glittery pink paint. You may have all put on matching colors and went to lunch, but where is the real love, I ask?

This one must be special.

Maybe I should see why for myself.

It may be a little difficult to get close to her seeing as she now has a permanent bodyguard, but I guess I can’t blame him, I would protect her too. 

But eventually I’ll get my chance and I’ll do the same. 

Well, it appears that that’s all I have time for on this fine day but I truly do look forward to having a proper conversation with you one day. Maybe we could have a peaceful chat at a coffee shop or perhaps even a quaint little bakery. If not, perhaps I’ll send you another love note.

I hope to speak to you soon, Detective Geto.

Please make sure that the media finally gives me a fun nickname.”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Suguru sat at his desk continuing to read the letter over and over and over again before he felt like he was getting a migraine from staring at it for so long. 

When he was first told that there was a letter from this psychopath, he just assumed that it was a hoax. But after reading it? He’s leaning more in the direction that it’s not.

The first thing that he decides to do is put a patrol car back on the house and an additional one at your apartment building. Fuck what Shiu says, if he has an issue, he can shove it up his ass or take it to the higher ups. 

This person has obviously been inside his home based off of the descriptions of your room and is either watching everyone on social media or somehow getting by doing so in person.

Next, he pulls out a notebook and starts making a list of every single person who has ever been inside his house since you started living with them. It’s going to take some time seeing as he has seven years to go through, but it’s clearly a necessity. He’s also going to have to see how far back his home security system stores information and rewatch all of that as well. This can be someone who’s been by recently, it can be someone who hasn’t been there in years, or even just something that this person managed to hear from someone else and it’s incredibly stressful.

He knows that he’s going to have to sit all of you down and tell you what’s going on, but the last thing that he wants to do is stress any of you out to a crazy degree. Luckily for you, you do have a built in bodyguard and although he may not know Satoru that well or have for that long, he does trust him to keep you safe, it’s just a feeling he has. For his wife and daughters at home, there’s many cameras, loud alarms, and several places to hide should anything happen, so he believes that they’ll be okay at least until he gets home. 

For now, his goal is to keep this letter under wraps for as long as possible because he knows that once the fucking media get ahold of it, all of you will be harassed to hell and back. 

He thinks that it’s officially time to start a task force to find this loser who’s decided to not only ramp up their carnage, but publicly boast about it. The last thing they need is panic from the public or copycats. He hates to have to put certain cases as a higher priority than others, but it seems like this is the most serious one right now. 

It’s usually fairly easy to link crimes as long as they happen in the same jurisdiction because most serial murderers have a pattern when it comes to the crimes that they commit. When you look through history, you usually see a lot of similarities when it comes to someone who has multiple victims. If someone poisoned their husband for life insurance and then another husband dies of mysterious causes, they were usually also poisoned. If someone is going around stabbing people to death, they usually keep that pattern because that’s something that they like experiencing. There’s a reason that killers get the nicknames of the blah blah blah Strangler or whatever. 

But this is a different case.

While it looks like most of these cases are easily tied together based off of the multiple victims and the bludgeoning pattern, they’re not all like that. Everyone believed that these string of murders started with your parents, but if the letter is to be believed, it started at least a few years before then. This person could have been killing in various ways all over the country and if there’s no DNA left behind, they may never be linked. 

Fuck.

This just got all the more difficult.

“Ijichi.”

“Y-yes?” The man stammers after sitting in silence and waiting for his colleague to come to a determination about what to do.

“We need to start a task force to find this son of a bitch. I need you to compile a list of the people you think would be best to help us do so.”

“Yes sir.” He gets up to return to his office, leaving Suguru alone with his thoughts.

One of the things going crazy in his brain is the overwhelming feeling of guilt.

Did he put you in danger when he thought he was helping you?

He remembers your face the first time that he met you, you looked so confused and a little scared. Who wouldn’t if they planned to just go home afterschool and when they arrive on their street it looks like every cop in the city is there? The hurt that you felt he could see in your eyes everytime he met up with you to speak about your parents and by those interactions, he could tell that if you didn’t get help, you’d go down the wrong path in life. 

He knew that your friend’s family was trying their best, but it’s not something that just anyone can understand. On top of the emotions you felt experiencing such a loss, it was also in a horrific way, and then you were hounded by the media for months afterwards. He just wanted to help you find a way through all of that and he feels like he did. But now he wonders if that was the wrong thing to do?

He really needs to find a way to explain what’s going on without sending everyone into a panic. 

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

It’s the night of Choso’s concert and you managed to get Suguru to quit panicking enough to let you go. Or, he knew that you were gonna go anyway and he didn’t wanna look too controlling. 

You and Utahime went shopping for outfits and now she’s been at your place for the past couple hours getting ready. She even picked out something for Satoru which he took without complaint.

Satoru tagging along was one of Suguru’s requirements for you when he agreed to letting you go. 

Suguru has seemed a little off the past couple of days but every time that you bring it up, he just says that he’s tired from work. But no matter how much you beg, he won’t take a day off. You understand the pressure, but you also feel that he won’t be as productive as he thinks when he feels worn down to the bone. He hasn’t increased security on the family or anything, so you hope that it’s nothing personal that’s getting to him.

Whatever.

You’re not going to let anything get to you tonight.

You have Utahime and you have Satoru and you’re gonna have fun at this fucking show tonight if it’s the last fucking thing that you do. 

You picked out a satin slip style dress where the back is completely open and held together by a spiderweb made of rhinestones. It feels so good to get slutty for the night, with the exception of work. Utahime has a black lace bralette paired with a pair of distressed black skinny jeans and she looks incredible. For Satoru, she picked out a pair of fitted black, pleather pants with a silky black button up and silver chain.

Nice.

After everybody finishes getting all dolled up, you send a text to Suguru to let him know that you’re on your way out the door and to the venue. You send him a photo of you, Utahime, and Satoru so that he knows what all of you are wearing for the night along with the address of where you’re going to be and the three of you start heading out of your apartment. Once you’re inside the elevator, you get a response from Suguru.

Suguru: Have a good time sweetheart, but please be careful. And please let me know if you decide to go anywhere else. 

You: I will. I promise. 

“Everything okay?” Utahime takes a peek over your shoulder to get a look at your phone.

“Yeah. Suguru is just asking that we notify him if we decide to go anywhere else.

“He’s so paranoid. I already told him that we’d only to go the show and then right back home.”

“You spoke to him about it?”

“He just asked me the same thing and for us to not get drunk in public where we’re vulnerable.”

Hmm.

Fair.

When you get to your car, the three of you wave at the officers sitting in their patrol car before getting in yours and heading to the show.

It’s such a surreal feeling when you reach the venue and see just how large it is. You know that big artists have had shows here before, but you’ve got sensitive ears so you’re not really a concert girl. That’s more of an Utahime hobby and you just live vicariously through her. 

But this place is a fucking stadium and it’s packed with fans who are desperate for a chance to see the band and it’s incredible and a little daunting. 

The last time that you saw Choso, he was performing in bars for pennies and now he and his brothers are a household name. Even though you haven’t been to a show since the two of you broke apart, you’ve always supported them from afar. That’s how you know that they’ve always given you credit for the name of the band and for that, you're grateful.

After you arrive, you text Choso to let him know and he sends someone to come get you. 

“You’re the girlfriend?” The security guard asks you and you freeze up. 

“Uhhh, not in quite some time.”

“Got any identification?”

You pull your ID out of your purse and pass it over to him so he can verify your identity, and then he takes the three of you backstage. 

When you get backstage, you see Choso sitting on a couch and playing the song that he always used to work off his nerves before a show. But as soon as you enter the room, he tosses the guitar to the side and runs over to greet you.

“I’m so glad you could come!” He says while pulling you into a hug and you hear Satoru groan. You wonder if it’s the hug or the phrasing, probably both.

“Thank you for inviting me! And thank you for letting me bring my companions.”

“Of course. Of course. Utahime, it’s been too long,” he hugs her as well and she asks where they keep the good liquor. Right at that moment, Eso walks in and takes her over to their minibar. “And you must be Satoru, am I right?” He turns to him once Utahime walks away.

“I am. And you’re the ex-boyfriend? ” He emphasizes ex-boyfriend and you kinda wanna kick him in the demon balls.

Choso just chuckles it off though and also pulls Satoru into a hug. “Don’t worry, I’m not tryna take her from you. Well, not as long as you keep her happy. Loosen up, I want everybody to have a good time. Want a drink?”

“Something so sweet I can’t taste the alcohol,” Satoru sounds so confused as he replies and Choso goes over to the bar.

Choso comes back over with drinks for the two of you which Satoru compliments because he can’t taste any alcohol. That’s when Choso reveals that they’re just Shirley Temples because he had a feeling that Satoru didn’t drink and you laugh. 

The three of you continue to sit backstage, getting caught up with the band while they finish getting ready for their big show tonight.

“Nervous?” Utahime asks the room.

“Not as much now that you’re all here,” the sweetie pie that is Eso responds. 

After bonding backstage for a while, the show finally starts and it’s incredible.

It starts with the lights completely off and Choso’s singing which is almost drowned out by the audience. The lights slowly come on and all the screaming gets louder and when you can get a good view of the audience, you see some girls crying and others flashing the band.

This is going to sound really petty and toxic, you know.

But seeing how bad everybody wants them kinda makes you regret never having sex with Choso.

But you’ll never say that out loud.

You did do some stuff together, just not full sex. But enough to know how big his dick is and some of his skills.

“Shit. They’re actually pretty good,” Satoru says and you laugh.

“So you’re not mad at me anymore? Ya know, for dragging you here.”

“I’m not mad. This is actually kinda fun.”

You know that Utahime is having fun because she’s losing her voice the longer that the night goes on and you feel bad knowing that she’s going to hate herself for it in the morning. 

About halfway through the show, Choso starts speaking to the audience and you just assume this is one of those parts of a show where the artist gets super sappy and asks the audience if it’s okay to be super sappy.

“The song that I wanna sing tonight… I wrote several years ago. I think it was about eight years ago, and it was for someone who I really like– really liked.” Oh shit. Shut the fuck up. “I’ve been waiting for the right time to perform it and now that I’m back in my hometown, I was hoping it was okay with all of you.” The audience loses their shit and that clearly means yes.

But how fucking funny would it be if the audience collectively said no?

But alas, that did not happen and the show goes on. 

“The name of this song is ‘Sensitive.”

Shut.

The.

Fuck. 

Up.

You already know what this song is going to be about. 

You feel your entire body heat up once you hear the lyrics and Satoru wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you closer to him. He must know how you feel and is doing damage control before he feels like you’re getting attached to someone else.

When the show ends, you meet the band backstage again so that they can change before doing meet and greets.

“Hey guys, can I have something that’s valuable to sell in case I ever struggle to pay my rent?” Utahime is ridiculous, but you were also going to say that.

“Oh sure! We have–”

“I’m just kidding! Sorry.” Everybody laughs and you sit down in an empty chair by the couch. 

You get a little shiver and Choso gives you his leather jacket. “Ya know, since you’re wearing dental floss.”

“Thanks!” You snap, but in a joking way. 

“You look good though. I can’t blame you for wearing that. Alright, I’m gonna take a quick shower unless someone wants to get in before me.” Nobody takes the opportunity and he makes his way to the bathroom while everybody else chats. 

“So, what’s it like being super famous and having women throw themselves at you?” Damn Utahime.

Surpsingly, all the men fucking blush.

“Uhhh, I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty nice,” Kechizu reluctantly says.

“Yeah, but the boss doesn’t really partake,” the other guitarist whose name you can’t remember says.

“Why not?” She looks confused but then all the guys turn to look at you like you’re the only person in the room. “Ooooohhhhhh. The one that got away, maybe?” Fucking Utahime.

“That’s the way I’ve heard it.” Fucking Eso.

“Oooohhh. Now you have multiple pretty boys fighting over you.”

“Who else is there?” And she activated Satoru’s jealousy.

“You, Choso, all the regulars at the club who want to marry her. Her hot neighbor who I would fuck if I didn’t have a boyfriend,” she’s counting everyone on fingers and starts making up names until she runs out. “I hope you can fight, Satoru.”

“That’s an understatement.”

For fuck’s sake.

“You know Utahime is just messing around, right?” You whisper into his ear.

“Sure. Except she’s right that the singer wants you. I can tell.”

He thinks everybody wants you.

You wonder how accurate he is versus it just being him wanting to fight every man who interacts with you.

Whatever.

You watch the band at their meet and greet and it’s so sweet seeing people who walk up crying and talking about how the music helped get them through hard times. And then you have the girls who blatantly hit on everyone and hand over their number to the girls who just want their bare breast autographed. You’ll never understand why people want that because that shit is going to wash off.

Ugh.

Your favorite out of everyone is the girl who walked up with the “I spent five hundred dollars for this and I’m gonna get my money’s worth” attitude. She posed all the guys and had Choso hold her up and it was just a whole production. 

Good for her.

You wish you had that level of confidence.

But you’re the type of person who even if you paid for a meet and greet, you’d apologize for taking up their time. 

Eventually, the night comes to an end but before it does, Choso pulls you aside. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

This feels like high school.

“Uhhh, I don’t want to get in the way or anything, but I was wondering…. It’s not a big deal or anything. I just wanted to… uhh….”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I just don’t want to cause any problems for you.”

“Well, what did you have in mind?”

“Oh that! Yeah… I was just wondering…” This is the same guy who just dropped like thousands of pairs of panties with one song. “Can I give you a ride home?”

“Oh. That’s all?”

“That’s all?”

“Well, the way you set that up, I thought you were gonna ask me to rob a bank and then do anal in the vault or something. Compared to that, your request is pretty chill.”

“Does that mean it’s a yes? I know your ‘boyfriend’ is here,” he says boyfriend with air quotes and you roll your eyes. 

“He’s not officially my boyfriend, we’re just spending time together.”

“And tonight he can spend time with meeeeee! You two head home together!” Utahime bursts in like a bat out of hell and scares the shit out of you.

“Utahime! For fuck’s sake!” You cover your heart with your hand in an attempt to calm yourself down.

“Sorry! But it’s not like you died.” You just look to the side like you’re Jim from The Office and she laughs it off. “I can take Satoru home for the night.”

“One moment,” you say to Choso before whispering in her ear. “Satoru lives with me.”

Her eyes light up. “Really?”

“Yes!”

“Are the two of you getting married or something?”

“No! He’s just fallen on some hard times so he’s been living with me.” You don’t know what else to say.

“It’s fine. I’ll take him back to my place tonight and he can stay in your old room.”

“Utahime, that’s too much.”

“It’s fine! Spend some time with an old ‘friend’ and he and I can hang out for the rest of the night. Satoru will be okay. Or… should I be worried?”

“What? No!” You finally agree because you know that she’ll report to Suguru if she feels that the two of you are so codependent and like you feel too scared to spend any time without him. You tell Choso that you accept his request and that you need a moment to tell Satoru that you’re leaving. You find him speaking with a few friends of the band who are hitting on him and you kinda wanna hit them, but you can’t, especially not right now. “Satoru?”

He turns around and you can already tell that he knows what you’re going to say. “I know.”

“You know?”

“I know that Choso is taking you home. I have real good ears, remember?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I understand why you have to. You tried. So… I’m with Utahime tonight?”

“Or you can come home with us!” One of the girls says and you shoot her a death glare, causing her to step back.

“That was hot,” he says and you roll your eyes. You continue to look everywhere but at him, and he senses your nerves and pulls you into a hug. “It’s okay. I’ll see you in the morning or whenever your friend lets me leave.”

The three of you came in your car, so you take the keys to your apartment and leave Utahime with the one for your car so that she and Satoru can get around. When she brings him back in the morning, she can drop off your car and pick hers up at the same time.

You go to look for Choso and once you find him, his security guard walks the two of you to his car.

“I can’t believe that you still drive,” you say once you’re inside.

“How come? I’ve been driving since I was a teenager.”

“It just seems like most people switch to limos the second that they get famous.”

“I can have someone get a limo if you’d prefer that.”

“Oh no! No! No! I’m fine with this. I’m just surprised that once someone gets to your level, they still value the small things.”

“I’ll never give up being able to drive myself around. I like being able to leave places whenever I want,” you laugh and he starts the drive back to your apartment. 

When you enter your building, the woman behind the front desk stares at the two of you, wide eyed, and you wonder if it’s because Choso Kamo is standing behind you or because Satoru isn’t.

Normally you’d want to know, but it’s been a long day and right now, you’re just desperate to get up to your apartment.

“Does that woman hate you or something?” He asks you once you’re inside the elevator.

“It could be you, Mr. A-List Celebrity. Or just the fact that the only men she’s seen me with are Satoru and Suguru.”

“Hmmm. It’s probably the fact that you’re with someone other than Satoru.”

“I think it’s probably that the man topping the Billboard Charts is with me right now.”

“Naw. He stands out more than me. The girls backstage were losing their shit over him. A couple said that we should make him a permanent member of the band.” 

The FUCK?

Your thoughts must be written on your face because Choso laughs at you. “Don’t worry, we’re not looking for new members.”

“Ohhhhh nooooo. That suuuuuuuuucksssss for hiiimmmmm,” you couldn’t possibly sound more sarcastic than you just did. 

Right as you approach your door, you see Toji walking out of his. “Hey neighbor. You’re getting in late.”

“You’re going out late,” you tease.

“Ahh, gotta work. What happened to your clingy friend?” Damn.

“He’s hanging out with another friend while I hang out with another friend.” Why the fuck did you say it like that?

“That’s good. You know what they say, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder.’”

“I guess you’re right about that.”

“Or in this case, it’ll probably make him wanna fight.” He’s probably not wrong. “So who are you?”

“Choso,” he extends his arm to shake his hand.

“Toji. I’m the neighbor.”

“I’m the ex-boyfriend.”

“Oooooh. White haired, blue eyed Barbie is gonna be mad about that.” 

Barbie?

You’re absolutely getting him some Barbie-esque glasses.

“He’ll be fine.”

“We’ll see…. Anyway, gotta head to work. See ya later neighbor.”

“Goodnight Toji!”

“Night!”

You unlock the door and enter your apartment with Choso following behind you. “So, the two of you are that much of a package deal?”

“Why do you think that?”

“It seems like everyone seems surprised to see you without him, that’s all.”

He follows you into your bedroom and stands outside your closet door so that you can get changed with a little bit of privacy. Afterwards, you walk over to your bed and take a seat and he sits down next to you, at the head of the bed.

“Yeah well, we’ll see how long that lasts.”

“What do you mean?”

“Detective Kong has been up his ass about this case.”

“What? Why?” You start explaining everything that’s been going on with the case, especially since you’ve moved out of Suguru’s place and Choso looks like he’s in shock. “I didn’t realize how much was actually going on. There’s only so much that’s released to the media so I didn’t know that it seemed like you were being targeted.”

Targeted?

You tried to not think of it that way, but it sounds accurate.

But you fucking hope that’s not the case.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out,” Choso apologizes.

“No! No! It’s okay. I think I’ll be fine. I do have a lot of protection.”

“Oh yeah?” He smirks and you start to backpedal.

“I mean… ya know… like escorts and stuff.”

“Damn. So you’re even into escorts now?”

“Stop!” You playfully smack at him and he acts like he’s mortally wounded. After a few moments of silence, you ask the question that you’ve been wanting to ask all night. “Why did you write and perform a song about going down on me?”

“Mmmmm… that? It’s been in my drafts for years.”

“Why so long?”

“I wanted you to be at my show when I finally sang it.”

“Have you really been holding on to it for almost a decade?”

“I’ve been tweaking it over the years. I just didn’t feel like it was perfect until I saw you at the club, and then I finally finished it.”

You’re quiet for a minute as Choso stares at you like he’s been desperate to be near you for years. “How come you don’t have a girlfriend?”

“The girl I want has been getting marriage proposals from men at her job instead of with me.”

“Ha - ha.”

“I wrote the song because I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I haven’t been able to ever since I met you. And I sang it tonight because I wanted everyone to know that I felt that way.”

“Satoru’s gonna lose his shit.”

“I like him, actually. I know that that sounds crazy to say, but I actually do like him. He’s charismatic based on the way all the girls were practically falling at his feet.”

“You’re not wrong. He got hit on by his Uber driver not too long ago and he didn’t even realize that it was happening. I think that’s part of what makes him so desirable, the fact that he’s so sweet and people want to corrupt him.”

“Do you want to corrupt him?” You never thought of it that way.

“I don’t think ‘corrupt’ is the right word.”

“Do you want to be with him?” He looks away from you as he asks you that.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Sooooo, technically, you’re single?”

“Technically? Yes.”

“Are you available?”

“Yes.”

He slowly reaches over to you, cupping your face in his hand the way he always used to. Then he leans in and kisses you in that delicate way you remember and you start to close your eyes and fall into it. You don’t kiss for that long, just long enough to make you question why you ever broke up with him in the first place.

Then a wave of guilt washes over you and you gently push him away. “Choso… I don’t think we can do this.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t want you to feel pressured.”

“It’s not that. It’s just… I still haven’t been with anyone… in that way and I don’t want my first time to be some spontaneous thing at the end of the night. Also, even though I’m not technically in a relationship, I think there needs to be clarity on all three sides before we do anything. Satoru lives here and he protects me and I don’t want to do anything behind his back.”

“Would he be interested in watching?”

“Choso!” You laugh, thinking back to your conversation with your demonic companion. “But he did say that if I have sex with anyone, he’s going to watch and critique how awful the guy is the entire time.”

“That. Sounds. Hilarious.”

“That’s what I said!”

“All jokes aside, that sounds like a fun night.”

“Who knows, maybe that’ll end up a reality.”

The two of you continue to sit and talk for hours about basically everything from the time that you last saw him to when you met back up. It’s difficult because you know that he wants something more and you don’t know if you can give him that. But you miss having him in your life and you don’t want to lose that. But you can’t ask him to sit on the sidelines while you’re with someone else. But being here, with him, is incredible. After a few hours of snacking and chatting, you finally drift off to sleep for the evening. 

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

When you wake up in the morning, you find yourself curled up on Choso’s chest and you have no idea how that even happened. You don’t remember falling asleep that way, but you’re not going to complain. 

You see that he took his hair down and it’s spread out across the pillow and why the fuck is this man so goddam beautiful?

As carefully as you can, you slide out of the bed so that you can go to the bathroom and check your phone. 

Sometime after you got back last night, you texted Utahime and Satoru to let them know that you were home safe but you didn’t get much back from them. You’re actually surprised because Satoru is usually back and forth with you nonstop when you’re apart and that makes you wonder if he’s upset with you.

You reach for your phone and see that you do have something from him, just not the eighty six messages that you expected.

Satoru: Miss me yet?

Satoru: I miss you.

Satoru: Utahime has pajamas covered in frogs that have wings.

Satoru: They’d look good on you though.

Satoru: Are you letting him take that sexy dress off of you?

Satoru: I’m sorry. It’s not my place.

Satoru: I’m struggling to be away from you.

Satoru: But I understand that you need your time and I’ll see you in the morning.

Satoru: Goodnight, my loooooove 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Satoru: Good morning!

Satoru: Utahime doesn’t put sugar in her coffee. 

Satoru: This place is like a prison.

Satoru: Can I come home now?

The last message was sent only fifteen minutes ago so you walk out of the room, close the door behind you, and decide to call him.

He picks up halfway through the first ring and that makes you smile, “my loooveeeeee! I miss you! Can I come home? Utahime is grumpy in the morning and it’s not the same just being in your room when you’re not here.”

“Hi Satoru. I’m surprised that she hasn’t just dropped you off yet.”

“She said she’s waiting until you’re done getting your back shots. What’s a back shot? Are you sick?”

He’s so cute that you kinda wanna marry him. “Ignore her silly comments, she drinks.” You hear noises coming from your bedroom and you assume that Choso is awake, so you give Satoru the good news. “You can tell her that she can bring you back.”

“Yyyaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!” You pull the phone away from your ear before he blows out your ear drum. “I’m gonna tell her right now!”

“Okay, you go do that while I politely ask my company to vacate the premises.”

“I don’t care if he’s still there when I get there. I just wanna come home.”

“Well, that makes me feel better. I’ll text Utahime and let her know what’s going on.”

“Okay! I love you!”

“Love you. Bye.” You hang up the phone and start to walk back to your room when you freeze and think about the exchange that just happened. “I just told him that I love him,” you mumble as you walk back into your room. “Hey Cho Cho.”

“You haven’t called me that in a while.”

“Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Fair. Can I borrow a brush?”

“Hair brush or tooth brush?”

“Yes.”

You get him set up with some stuff so that he can make himself presentable and you hang out in the kitchen making the easiest snack possible. 

“So, your boyfriend coming home soon?”

You roll your eyes. “Utahime is on her way with him and my car.”

“Hmmm….”

“What?”

“Can I see you again? Nothing has to happen.”

“Of course.”

“Cool. Uhhhh, I’m gonna head out then. I don’t want things to be awkward if he shows up and I’m here. I’ll call you…?”

“Please.”

He walks over and gives you a hug and a kiss on the top of your head before leaving and you head back to your room to clean up a bit. You know that Satoru is going to say something about you sleeping next to each other so you decide that you’re going to change all the bedding before he even gets here. 

When you’re done, you go to the bathroom to remove your makeup and wash your face. When you’re done applying your moisturizer and washing your hands, you hear a loud bang coming from the other side of your apartment and jump at the sound.

You poke your head out to see if someone came in and maybe slammed the door behind them, but you don’t see anything. You rush over to your night table to grab your phone to check for any arrival texts from either Satoru or Utahime, but there’s nothing.

After about a minute of silence, you assume that whatever you heard was probably just from another apartment and decide to just go about your day. But as soon as you stand back up, you hear the same bang sound again. This time you decide to just get the fuck out of there and run across to Toji’s apartment since he’s the only one you know and you don’t have to wait for the elevator in case there’s some maniac after you.

You frantically knock on the door, hoping that he’s awake or even home at all since the last time that you saw him was super late at night. But luckily for you, he opens his door fairly quickly and you’re so freaked out that you’re not even phased by the fact that he’s almost naked save for a pair of boxers.

“You alright?”

“I think there might be someone inside my apartment!”

“Why do you think that?”

“I heard a loud bang! Two loud bangs!”

“Like a gunshot?”

“No. Like someone was banging on the wall or something. Can I hang out for a few minutes until my friends get here?”

“Of course. Get in here.” 

You run inside and sit down on his couch while he returns to his bedroom before coming back out with pants on. “Where are you going?”

“To your apartment. I’m gonna go see if somebody is in there.”

“What if somebody is?”

“Then I’ll beat their ass.” Shit. Works for you. “Lock the door behind me and don’t answer for anybody but me.”

“Got it!” You watch him walk over to your apartment door before closing his and locking the door. He’s only gone for about three to four minutes before you hear a knock which causes you to jump again even though it’s nowhere near as aggressive as the one you heard in your place. You look through the peephole and you see Toji standing there so you open up and let him in. “Anything?”

“Nope. I checked the whole apartment, even in the closets and under the beds and I didn’t see anything. Maybe a neighbor on the other side of that wall was hanging something up or doing something that causes big bangs but chilled out when they realized it was too fucking early to be making all that noise.” 

“Yeah… maybe…”

“You can stay as long as you need to. Or want to.”

“Oh it’s okay. I already took up too much of your time. I don’t wanna get in your way, or Tsumiki’s.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s early. Want some coffee?”

“Sure. Thanks.” You take a seat at the bar counter top while he puts on a pot of coffee and you just look around the apartment. “Where’s your cutie pie?”

“That little monster is with her older brother,” he responds and you laugh.

“Must be nice for daddy to get a break then.”

“You’re not wrong about that. I don’t have the energy that I did when I was in my twenties but unfortunately that’s what little kids need.”

“I’m in my twenties and even I don’t have that level of energy,” he laughs. “But if you ever need someone who does, the big kid who’s staying with me always does.”

“Yeah, she liked you guys a lot. I might have to leave her at your front door with a bag and then ring the doorbell and take off.”

“That wouldn’t be the worst thing. She’s a sweetheart.”

He grabs two mugs out of the cabinet and places them on the counter. “How do you take it? Cream and sugar?”

“Yes please!” When he’s done mixing everything, he passes the mug over and you sip it to find that it’s pretty good. 

“What happened to your emo friend from last night? I didn’t even see him when I went in.”

“He left shortly before. He has a pretty hectic schedule.”

“He looks like he’s in a band.”

“He is.”

“Of course. They any good?”

“They’re on tour right now.”

“That could mean dive bar to dive bar.”

You roll your eyes and laugh. “Last night they performed at that big stadium off the freeway.”

“No shit?” He looks genuinely surprised. “Alright, not bad. Got a name?”

“Choso and the Kamos.” 

He places his mug down on the counter and laughs. “My kid likes them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, my son. He probably spends more time listening to music than talking to me.”

“Awh, that sucks.”

“Not really.” You try not to laugh but you do a little bit and then so does he. 

Just then, you feel your phone vibrate and you know that you have a text so you pull your phone out of your robe pocket.

Satoru: I’m home my loooveeeeee!

Satoru: Well, we’re downstairs parking your friend’s carriage.

Satoru: Where are you?

Satoru: In the bed?

Satoru: Waiting for me?

Satoru: In lingerie?

You: Don’t be upset.

Satoru: Why?

Satoru: Did something happen?

You: I’m in Toji’s apartment.

Satoru: Why?

Satoru: Did he adultnap you?

You: No! I heard a banging in the other bedroom and freaked out and ran to his place and he went to check on it for me. 

Satoru: I felt a spike in your nerves but it passed so quickly that I assumed that you jump scared yourself.

Satoru: Is everything okay?

You: I’m fine. We’re having coffee while I wait for you guys.

Satoru: I’m on my way up right now.

“They’re here,” you announce and Toji offers to wait outside your apartment with you until they get there and you take him up on that offer. Shortly after you get to your apartment, Utahime and Satoru arrive and he runs over to you. He picks you up and throws you over his shoulder before turning to walk into your apartment. “Thank you for the coffee Toji! And the apartment check!”

“You got it, Doll. See ya around.”

Utahime follows behind you two and closes the door before saying, “I want him to check my apartment.”

“Do you think something is going on with yours as well?”

“No. I just want an excuse to have him in my apartment and shirtless like that.”

Goodness gracious.

When you’re inside, Satoru puts you back down and pushes you up against the counter and shoves his tongue down your throat. He kisses you like the two of you have been separated for a decade trying to find each other and your whole lives have been leading up to this moment. He has one hand on your neck and the other is holding up your leg while you’re giving Utahime a free show. 

At first, she didn't say anything. But then Satoru moans and she can’t keep it in any longer. “Okay, please save the rest for HBO! I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”

“Sorry!” You apologize once you finally pull away from him. But it doesn’t stop Satoru. He just moves to kissing your neck while you try to have a conversation with your best friend. “How was he?”

“Good. I thought he was going to be super loud all night, but he was pretty good. He has good taste in trashy reality tv shows.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty good with that stuff.”

“I like how you two are talking about me like she was pet sitting.”

Kinda was.

“Sorry. But you are kinda like my guard dog.” You kiss him.

“Woof.”

“Ugh. So, you heard something?” You explain the situation to her and she takes it upon herself to look around before leaving. You love Utahime because she has Toji energy when it comes to protecting the people that she cares about. “It looks like everything is okay now so I’m gonna head out. I have a lunch date with Atsuya today.”

“Have fun!”

She leaves and you’re finally alone with Satoru in what is almost twenty four hours since you last were.

“I missed you,” he says so sincerely you could almost cry.

“I missed you, you fucking nitwit.”

“I don’t know what that is. But I’m whatever you want me to be.” He picks you up and starts carrying you to your bedroom but you stop him once you cross the door.

“Satoru wait! I have something to tell you.”

“You kissed that guy?”

“How’d you know?”

“I can feel what you feel, remember? It passed pretty quickly so at first I thought you just had the most boring sex in the history of the world before I realized that it was probably just a kiss or something.”

“I told him that if we ever had sex, you’d wanna watch and critique it.”

“What’d he say?”

“That it’d be hilarious.”

“Niiiceee. I hate that I kinda like him.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about anything because right now, I just wanna focus on what we have to do. Which is basically just not getting me killed.”

“I’ll be the best at not getting you killed!” You roll your eyes. “Alright, time to take a look around.” He activates the power in his eyes and starts to walk around your apartment looking for any trace that someone was there. “What’d your creepy neighbor say?”

You ignore the insult. “He said that he didn’t see anyone in here when he looked around.”

“Where did he look?”

“He said everywhere, even under the beds and in the closets.”

“Hmmm.” He starts with the second bedroom since that’s where you said you heard the sound come from and he lingers around a little longer than you expected him to.

“Do you see anything?”

“Don’t panic.”

“Somebody was in here?!”

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna figure it out.”

“Somebody was in here! While I was in here! Can you tell when?”

“I don’t have a time frame and there’s not enough of this foreign energy left behind so it’s hard to say.”

“How is there not enough? They were just here.”

“Negative emotions are what enhance the amount of energy left behind. They must have been in a very calm state because there’s barely anything here.”

“So… what does that mean?”

“I don’t know yet. But if I had to hazard a guess, they weren’t here to do anything malicious. It was probably just to mess around and freak you out. I’m gonna see if I can follow the trail and see if they went somewhere else in the building or if they just left.” He starts to walk over to the front door when you stop him.

“What the fuck?! You can’t leave me here alone! Somebody was just here, inside an apartment that I make sure to lock every fucking night. At least take me with you.”

He stares at you in shock. He’s never seen you in such a frantic state and you think that’s when it hits him. “You can’t go outside in that sexy little robe. Hurry up and put something on and we’ll go together.”

You run to your closet to throw on a pair of jeans and a Powerpuff Girls sweater that you got on sale. You slide into a pair of flats and grab your purse and your phone just in case this takes a while. 

“Ready!”

Satoru nods and opens your front door. As soon as you’re going to walk out, he stops you so that he can check the hallway. You follow behind him and he waits for you to lock the door, looking around the entire time. At first, he makes a right to go further down the hallway instead of straight for the elevator and that concerns you. Does that really mean that the person making your life miserable lives in your building? You go about ten units further into the hallway before the trail ends.

“When we’re back in your place, I’ll teleport back to these two apartments and see if they went inside one of them. But I kinda doubt it since I’m not seeing anything on the doors.” 

You follow him back towards the elevator where you both step inside and he examines the buttons to see what could have been pressed. He presses the one for the lobby and you wait for it to take you all the way down. Once you get to the lobby, you follow him out of the elevator and then out of your building completely. Instead of taking the path that leads you right out of the complex and onto the street with all the stores and restaurants, you go the opposite direction towards the back of the building. 

“He must have hopped the gate because the trail stops here.”

For fuck’s sake.

What is this person doing?

“Let’s go back inside.” You follow him back to your apartment where he turns invisible and then teleports inside the apartments where the trail stopped, but he returns pretty quickly. “I think it was just a fluke. Maybe they went that far by accident or to throw off the cameras.”

Fuck.

The cameras.

Time to make a phone call.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

Suguru is at your apartment so fast that if you didn’t know better, you’d swear he was already one foot through the door before he answered the phone.

The first thing that he does is pull out his notebook and he has you recount every single thing that you did yesterday from the time that you woke up in the morning. 

As of today you’ve decided that you’re going to buy a day planner and write down every single thing that you do everyday. You know it’ll be a process to make that a habit, but eventually it will be. But it’s so hard for you to even remember what you ate for dinner the previous day, let alone recounting every fucking step that you took. You did the best that you could and Suguru questioned you backwards and forwards to make sure that your story didn’t change before he called the station and told them they needed to sweep your apartment. He wanted to make sure that nobody could discredit you, especially Shiu, and it’s good that he did that because now he’s here and he’s still a fucking pain in the ass.

“Why did you bring this Choso home instead of your boyfriend?”

Fuck.

You forgot that you’d be questioned about that.

“He’s just an old friend from high school and he’s only in town for a little while so he just wanted to catch up and I agreed.”

“Why couldn’t you do that with your boyfriend in the apartment?” 

You curl up on your couch, trying to get physically comfortable to make up for how mentally uncomfortable you are.

“I suppose that he could. But he asked me if he could give me a ride home and my friend Utahime volunteered to let Satoru spend the night so that he could do that and things just went from there. It happened so fast that I didn’t really have time to think about it.”

“How did your boyfriend feel when you told him that you were letting another man give you a ride?” You don’t like the implications of what he just said, but Suguru always says that it’s imperative that you remain cool, calm, and collected under police questioning. 

“He knew that we were friends from high school and he was fine with it. It gave him and Utahime a chance to get along.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they did.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe she had an ulterior motive for taking him home.”

“She also has a boyfriend, so I highly doubt that.”

“She took your man home. You went home with another man. Hell, her boyfriend might’ve been out with someone else himself.”

“What the hell would that have to do with this?”

“It’s important to understand motivations in order to track down criminals. So, what happened when you got home from the concert with your rockstar not boyfriend?” Fucking asshole.

“I changed into pajamas and we sat on my bed and talked until I fell asleep.”

“Talked, huh? No sex.”

“No. No sex,” you fight to hold back your irritation.

“Hey, I have to ask. Jealousy can be a powerful motivator.”

“Well, Choso was next to me all night and I walked him out in the morning so it couldn’t have been him.”

“Where was your boyfriend?”

“He was at Utahime’s apartment all night.”

“You sure about that? Is is possible that he could’ve come back to play this little prank on you and then sneak back over?”

For a minute you just stare at him, hopefully conveying how fucking stupid he sounds through your eyes. “No, it’s not possible. It happened within twenty minutes after Choso left. I went to my neighbors and asked him if I could hang out until Satoru and Utahime got back and he decided to check my apartment to see if someone was in there. Satoru and Utahime were on their way before I heard the sound so it’s not possible for him to travel back and forth like that.” Well, it is possible. But he wouldn’t do that.

“Who’s your neighbor?”

“Toji Fushiguro. He’s a few doors down.”

“Why would he want to check your apartment?” Are you fucking kidding?

“Uhhhh, I don’t know. Probably to make sure that nobody is waiting around to beat me to death with a fucking hammer.”

He laughs like what you just said is funny instead of potentially accurate. “You close friends with your neighbors?”

“I’ve only met Toji. Satoru and I saw him in the hallway with his daughter one night and then on another, he asked us to watch her while he went downstairs. He’s nice.”

“Hmmmm. How does your boyfriend feel about him?” Fucking really?

“I don’t think he really has an opinion one way or the other.” You hate to lie to police but in this case, you have to. Shiu has a stick up his ass about Satoru and if he thinks he’s jealous about other men, he’ll start connecting dots that make no fucking sense.

“So…” he starts running off the events of the day. “Wake up in the morning… breakfast with your boyfriend… girlfriend comes over and you get dressed up for concert… three of you go… other man brings you home while boyfriend goes home with girlfriend… sleep with other man… wake up and he leaves… bang on the wall… friendly neighbor watches over you. That sound right?”

“I don’t like the way that you phrase Choso spending the night but otherwise you’re correct.”

“This is just shorthand for the moment. I’ll flesh out the offical report later.” You doubt that but okay. “Can you show me which apartment is Mr. Fushiguro’s? I’d like to have a little chat with him.” You walk him to the hallway and point to Toji’s apartment, desperate as fuck to get him out of your space. 

When you get back inside, you close and lock your door and you find Satoru and Suguru talking in the guest room. You walk over to them and they both give you that ‘I’m sorry this is happening’ face.

“Hey Sweetheart. How’d it go?” Suguru asks you.

“He’s a condescending pain in the ass.”

“I know,” he laughs. You start to rock back and forth while looking at the floor and Suguru can already sense that something is wrong. “Are you alright? Is there something else?”

“I didn’t tell him that Choso kissed me. Should I have done that?”

His eyes widen and they shoot over to Satoru to see his reaction, but he looks just as chill as ever. “Did you know this?”

“I knew last night but found out this morning.” Cryptic. But he doesn’t look upset.

Suguru turns back to you. “Normally I’d say to be completely transparent, but for some reason, something about Satoru rubs him the wrong way so it’s probably a good thing that you didn’t give him a reason to think that he’s a jealous and violent person. I heard a lot of the questioning and I think you handled it well. Did you blatantly lie? Or omit?”

“He didn’t ask if we kissed. He asked if we had sex. So… lie by omission?”

“That’s a technicality that Hiromi can work with so… fuck it.”

“Suguru!” You laugh at his words. He’s always on law enforcements side because he is law enforcement, so that reaction shocked you.

It was awesome though.

It makes you happy knowing that despite the smoke his former partner is trying to blow up everyone’s ass, he still sides with the two of you and doesn’t look at either of you differently. You start to feel yourself getting emotional so you just throw your arms around Suguru and try to stop yourself from crying.

“Well, well. What’s this about?”

“Thank you!” You yell and add nothing else.

“I didn’t do anything.” 

“Yes you did.” 

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did!”

“Awwwwwww,” Satoru then throws his arms around both of you for a group hug and Suguru just laughs it off.

“My children are going to age me faster than my job.”

⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“We should have had sex when we were still at your apartment.” Fucking Satoru.

“Why does the location matter?”

“You won’t be able to keep yourself quiet. I’d hate for your parents or sisters to hear.”

Just like a man.

It’s been about a week since you’ve been back at Suguru’s house and let’s just say that security was kicked the fuck up to an insane degree.

Not only did everyone have to get together to make sure the tracking app on their phone was working, you also had to download two extra ones in case one malfunctioned when it’s necessary. Makes sense since that happens with security cameras every time they’re needed. 

Suguru put discreet trackers on everyone’s vehicle that way if someone was taken in their car and their phone was thrown away by the abductor, the car could still be located. 

It was also the Buddy System everywhere you went with no exceptions. Even when Manami was just going grocery shopping, somebody had to go with her even though she usually did that by herself. However, you were excluded from the list of companions, for your own protection, he said.

There have been at least two squad cars watching the home at any given time and they switch out every few hours so it’s not like you could even sneak out if you wanted to. It’s been a week of you and Satoru mostly hanging out in your room watching television, playing games, or you reading books to him. Technically he can read himself, but he just likes you reading to him. 

Sweet baby.

Since it seems like there might be a chance that you’re being targeted, you haven’t been allowed to leave the property at all. You ended up taking a few days off of work because of the situation and thankfully your boss was super understanding.

However, if you have to stay in this house indefinitely, you’re going to go fucking crazy. 

You begged Suguru to let you go back to work, at least once a week, which he was completely against and you can’t argue that you don’t understand why. But after a few days of begging, he finally caved. But that wasn’t without you agreeing to a few things first.

First, you can’t leave without a police escort but that didn’t really surprise you. However, them sitting outside the car for your entire shift did, but Sukuna even agreed to that as long as it didn’t look like a traditional cop car to scare the customers away.

Second, you have to keep your phone on you at all times, even when you’re on the floor in case something happens and you don’t have time to get to your locker to retrieve it. 

Third, you have to check in at regular intervals and if you’re late, he’s sending someone in to check on you. So you made sure to set alarms so as to not worry everybody. 

Fourth, you now have to carry a pocket knife just in case something happens.

The last caveat was something else that Sukuna had to agree to which was just making sure that there were eyes on you the entire time you’re in the club and making notes of anyone who looks suspicious. He assured him that either Yaga or himself would watch over you and then finally Suguru agreed to let you go back to work, but you know he’s still not happy about it.

But here’s your biggest issue, what the fuck do you do with Satoru for the time being? 

You can’t take him in the club due to the ‘no boyfriends allowed’ rule due to many men getting in fights with customers ogling their girlfriends. You can’t dress him up as a customer and send him in there as a random patron because Sukuna met him at your birthday party. You can’t leave him at home because that’s just not going to fucking happen. The club is further from the house than your apartment was and he was struggling with that distance so there’s no way you can be apart from him for five hours. But you also can’t have him just turn invisible because your family will question why he’s been disappearing for a few hours and don’t want suspicion to fall on him.

Fuck.

“What are you stressing about now?”

“I don’t know what to do with you while I’m at work,” you take a seat on the bed and sigh.

“Why can’t I go with you?”

“The boyfriend rule.”

“I forgot about that.”

You were thinking of having him take the car somewhere to just wait for you a block or two away so that he’s still close, but you already told Detective Kong that he doesn’t drive and that would look suspicious if he suddenly did. 

Damn these fucking police escorts everywhere you go.

You may have to go without him.

He can’t sit in a restaurant for multiple hours because that looks crazy. He can’t go to a gym because he has no identification for a membership. He could go sit in the park a few blocks away for a while but that may also look weird. Ugh.

But maybe you can give him something to do.

You haven’t been back to your apartment since Suguru woke you up that night so maybe he can take a look and see if it’s safe. Then you can go back to trying to figure things out on your own.

“Satoru, I have an idea, but you probably won’t like it.”

“What?”

“What if you ride with me to the club, and then take an Uber back to my apartment?”

“Why the hell would I do that? You’re going to be at the club.”

“With multiple levels of protection.”

“Protection that isn’t me is weak.” Cocky.

“I get it, but you can feel my fear right? Even with a little distance, I imagine everyone else would be good enough until you could get back to me. Being able to teleport is a nifty little skill to have.”

“Flattery gets you nowhere.” Yeah right. He loves that shit.

“Suguru and company haven’t been able to get a search warrant because the judge doesn’t feel that there’s enough probable cause which means that all the csi stuff they want to do, they can’t. But you can.”

“Why can’t Suguru just look around anyway? He’s your dad, just let him in.”

“If they have to take something to court, it may not hold up. That’s why I was thinking you could do some searching.”

“You think I’m fingerprint chalk?” He’s so cute.

“Dust. No. But you can see and sense things that others can’t, even with their technology. If you can return and take a look around, you’ll be able to determine if it actually is safe for us to go home and then I’ll come up with a story to get us out of here.”

“Why do you want me in an Uber then?”

“Appearances. It’ll look weird if you ride with me to the club and then just disappear in my car, especially since I’m being watched. You can ride with me to the club, Uber a few blocks back towards my apartment, teleport inside, and look for anything suspicious. Hang out for a while and come back before I get off work so that we can come back together. I’ll even leave you spare car keys so that you don’t have to wait outside.”

“That seems like a lot just so that you can return to work.”

“Well, Suguru only agreed to one day thus far. We’ll worry about another plan next week.”

“Fine. But I want something from you.” Here we go.

“Okay, what?”

“I want you to put on one of those cute little outfits and do a dance for me.” What. The. Fuck.

“You’re kidding.”

“Afraid not my dear. Back in my day, a woman would get flogged for showing an ankle, but now there seems to be less rules. So I would like for you to show your appreciation for my beautiful face and how I put it in danger for you.”

“Isn’t that your job?” He pouts. “Fine, I’ll do it. But I don’t own one so I don’t know how soon this’ll happen.”

“That’s fine, I have nothing but time to look at that beautiful figure that you like to hide behind jeans and sweaters.” Good grief.

Who knows, maybe that’ll actually be fun.

Knock. Knock.

“Yes,” you call out.

“I’m going to run to the store, will you two be alright here by yourself?” 

“I assume the cops are still watching the house.”

“They are.”

“Then I’m sure we’ll be fine. I’ll use Satoru as a human shield if I need to.”

Manami laughs and doesn’t at all sense that you’re serious.

“Okay, don’t get into too much trouble, you two,” that’s the last thing Manami says before closing your bedroom door.

“Did she just insinuate that we’re having sex?”

“See, even your mom thinks we are! We should do it so that we don’t make her a liar.”

“Sir… what?” 

And that’s how you learned not to refer to him as ‘sir.’

He stands up, walks around the bed to your side, grabs your chin, and forces you to look up to him. “If you don’t want to have sex, you shouldn’t call me names that are going to make my cock hard.” 

Damn.

“Duly noted.”

You expect him to walk away after saying that, but instead he pulls you closer, holding you tight against him with one hand on your lower back, and the other still holding your face. He leans his face down to brush his lips against yours, not kissing, just teasing before putting his face in the crook of your neck and sniffing.

And he fucking moans. “You smell so good.”

Don’t get wet. Don’t get wet. Don’t get wet. Don’t get wet. Don’t get wet. Don’t get wet. 

That’s all you can think because he can apparently feel every fucking thing that you can feel which means he’d probably notice that too.

This sexually frustrated virgin thing is really starting to annoy you. Especially since you left your apartment so fast you didn’t get to pack any vibrators.

Eventually, he pulls away and returns to his side of the bed and you’re just standing there, frozen in shock, or arousal, or both. You hate how turned on you are by that and the fact that he probably knows without you having to say or do a thing.

“So, what are we going to do today?” He asks in the most jolly voice like he didn’t just fucking break you.

“Huh?” You can barely get that out.

You haven’t even been able to masturbate in at least two months and even though you’re trapped in the home due to a potential threat, you are trapped inside. Is it the worst thing to indulge in such things to pass the time?

“No. I think you should give into temptation instead of judging yourself for things that you haven’t even done yet.”

“Can you read my thoughts?!” You ask in horror.

“No. You just said it out loud.”

Okay, being in the house all the time is making you crazy. 

“Hey,” he grabs your hand, his tone more serious. “We don’t have to do anything. But if you want to, you already know I’m dying for you. But even if nothing happens, you’ve got to stop beating yourself up for every little thing. You retreat into your thoughts too much and stress yourself out. What you need is less over analyzing and more stress relief.”

“Stress relief?” You repeat.

“Yes. Stress relief.”

“I guess that wouldn’t be the worst thing.” You can’t believe what you’re saying, but he’s right.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“Can you rewind that back?” Suguru asks the officer for the umpteenth time.

He’s been scrubbing the surveillance footage from your apartment building for the past few days since it was retrieved but it hasn’t really proven useful.

He’s been able to figure out that the person who left the package at your door is probably around six feet tall based on where they come up to other things in the hallway, but due to the camera being at a downward angle, it’s not definitive. 

They have a wide gait and put a bit of extra pressure on their left leg which could indicate some type of injury or medical condition. But even with information on what, doctors aren’t going to hand over patient files based on a theory. It’s hard to even get them when trying to prove your case in court.

The suspect is wearing all black from head to toe, even gloves, making it difficult to catch any portion of their skin. And as they walk, they keep their head down the entire time which shows that they expected to be caught on camera. But even being completely covered up, he can still tell that they have a bit of a muscular body type but that’s not much to go on. You do have a gym in your building but even if you didn’t, there’s one that’s not too far away.

The most frustrating part is that there’s more cameras than just the ones in the apartment's hallways, yet for some reason they couldn’t catch anything identifying about this person. There’s cameras on the outside of the building, there’s cameras in the elevators, and a fucking front desk person who’s supposed to be there twenty four seven so how the hell did they walk in and walk out unseen?

Could it be someone who lives in the building and it’s just a coincidence that you moved there? Could it be someone who moved in once they saw that you did so that they didn’t arouse suspicion if seen hanging around? Or is it someone who’s just really good at not being noticed and there’s not really a way to track them?

“Fuck. This feels hopeless.”

“I’m so sorry Detective Geto, I’ve enhanced it as much as I can.”

“It’s fine Ijichi, it’s not your fault. Could you make me a copy of this? I’ll pick it up before I leave.” 

“Sure thing.”

Suguru returns to his own office to sit down and take a breather. 

He’s spent the past few days reviewing your building’s footage the most because certain businesses have refused to turn theirs over with the excuse being that there’s no real crime that was committed and don’t want to get involved until then. The ones that have agreed to turn over their footage said that it would take a few days to collect it which means that all he can do is wait. 

Sitting at his desk, he decides to check his email for what feels like the twentieth time today just to see if anyone has sent anything over that could be helpful. When he refreshes the page, he sees that there is something new and it lifts up his mood.

There’s a small jewelry store that’s only about a five minute walk from your building and they were one of the ones who agreed to send over what they had, and it looks like they have.

However, it’s long.

As fuck.

Long as fuck.

They sent over seventy two hours of CCTV footage just in case someone suspicious was lurking around for a while before doing what they did and was able to be captured. 

He’s ecstatic.

He walks over to the coffee maker he has in his office, a gift from you and your sisters because you know how picky he is with his blends and hates getting to work to see that nothing is left, and starts up a pot. He knows it’s going to be a long night and needs as much help as he can get.

He picks up his ‘Worlds Okayest Dad’ mug, a joke gift from you, and fills it up, deciding to take it black as to not dilute the strength. He returns to his desk and takes a look at the photos he has set up across it, finally feeling a little semblance of hope. He’ll take anything that he can get, as long as he can get something.

He starts downloading the footage from his email before opening it up in his media player and making notes of anyone that looks suspicious. 

“Fuck. I’m gonna be here for a while.”

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“Fuck, you taste so good,” Satoru says he leaves kisses down your neck. All you can do is moan in response, your brain feeling dulled down by these unfamiliar sensations. “It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life… for you.”

He’s dramatic, but you’ll take it.

“No marks,” you whisper once you realize he’s pretty fixated on one area.

“Afraid of your parents seeing?” He teases.

“Hell yeah,” you can’t even lie. “Customers also make more inappropriate comments if they think you’ve recently had sex, it’s annoying.”

“I can kill them if you want,” he continues to kiss you, lower now, between your breasts. He takes one in his hand and squeezes like it’s a stress ball.

“Satoru! Are you trying to pop my tit?”

“They’re so perfect, I’ve been dying to touch them.”

All you can do is scoff because what the actual fuck sir.

You expected a being like him to be this all imposing and intimidating figure instead of this whiny mess who you’ve barely touched. You card your fingers through his hair and he moans like it’s the best thing to ever happen to him. 

Just as he starts to pull your top down, your bedroom door swings open. 

“Oooooohhhh!” You hear your sisters dramatically say in unison. Of course, that’s how you have to be notified that they’re back as well. 

You push Satoru off of you and cover yourself back up, thank goodness your top was the only thing that was a little sloppy. You look at Satoru to see him rolling over to get off the bed and see his very obvious erection that looks about three sizes too big. 

“What are you two doing?” Nanako asks with a smirk.

“Nothing! What do you want?” You’re not even going to entertain this.

“Mom wants to know what you want for dinner.”

“Anything. Literally anything. You can go now.”

“Yeah, I bet you’re desperate to get us out of here,” Mimiko speaks up now, trying your patience.

“Nothing’s happening and nothing is going to happen.”

“Mmmhhhmmm.”

Eventually they walk away, leaving your door open in the process.

“Well, that couldn’t have gone any worse.”

“Not true,” Satoru refutes. “Suguru could have been the one to walk in.”

Good point.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

You’re finally at work for what feels like the first time in years and while you’re happy to get some time out of the house to do… anything, you are more nervous than you thought you’d be since everyone spent the past couple of days putting the fear of god into you. 

Everyone has welcomed you back with open arms, some people being surprised that you’re here in the first place. 

You’ve been avoiding the news like the plague because you know that it’ll do you no good to constantly watch what you’re already going through. You know that if there’s anything serious going on that you have to worry about, Suguru will tell you about it so you’ve just tried to distract your mind. 

You’ve spent so much time watching mindless reality tv and dealing with Satoru’s attempts to seduce you that you kind of feel weird now that you’re separated from him. 

It feels weird being apart from him at all.

Lame.

But one of your regulars is here so you just try to distract yourself with that.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I came in a few days ago but I heard that you may be gone for an indefinite amount of time.”

“Honestly Ino, I don’t know how regular my shifts will be for a while. It took an act of god to convince Suguru to let me come in here for tonight so I don’t know how much he’ll agree to it with everything going on.”

“I get it, he worries, that’s what dads do.”

Takuma Ino is your oldest regular and the one that you trust the most. You don’t divulge a lot of your personal life with anyone but Utahime, but he’s probably one of the closest in that regard. You ran into him one time at a coffee shop and sat down to have a chat with him which was a first for you because you usually make up an excuse to get the hell out of wherever you are.

Thank goodness Satoru isn’t here right now.

Even though you miss your jealous demon psychopath.

You spend a few more minutes chatting with Ino before making your rounds in the club refilling drinks and setting up bottle service for the vips who just arrived. 

You go to the back room with another waitress and start setting everything up because people who spend five hundred dollars on a bottle of liquor that they could get at the store for less than fifty are the ones with the least amount of patience.

Usually the best tippers though.

“So, how have things been?” Miwa asks you. She’s one of the people you know that avoids the news so you know that she has no idea what’s going on and she’s not just fishing for information.

“Uhhh, fine I guess.”

“That’s not convincing,” she responds with a giggle.

“I know. Long story short, I may have been targeted by a serial killer and had to move back home with my boyfriend to my law enforcement family.”

Her eyes shoot open in shock like she can’t believe what you just said. You were working together for about a year before she learned your backstory so you know this must have come out of left field.

“I’m surprised they’re letting you out of the house at all, I know my parents wouldn’t.”

“Trust me, Suguru was not enthusiastic about it, but I just needed some time out of the house. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to come in because of it.”

“There’s worse people you could be trapped at home with than Suguru,” she says with a wink.

“Eeeewwww, I can’t look at him like that!”

“But I can!” This girl. “So, you finally got a boyfriend?”

“Yeah, he’s a fucking handful,” you tell her and she laughs. “He’s a sweetheart, but he needs a lot of attention and hates the idea of me interacting with other men for any reason.”

“Got a picture?” 

“Actually, I do.” Satoru has decided that instead of just looking at your photos you’ve already taken, he wants to take them himself and he’s been loving it. He’s probably taken hundreds in just the past couple of days so you saved some of them to your phone. You show her one of the two of you laying in bed with your head on his chest, covering your face. But he has a big smile with those bright blue eyes and you swear you see hearts in hers.

“He’s a cutie pie! Why do you need to interact with other men again?”

“For work?” You laugh.

“If I had a boyfriend who looked like that, I’d just get used to staying home and being pregnant.” She’s silly, but sweet.

“Note to self, keep Kasumi away from my man,” you say and the both of you laugh. 

Eventually, the individuals who rented out the back room start to come in and something about them feels familiar. But it’s not until you see the last person in the back that you realize why…

It’s your high school boyfriend Choso and the rest of his band.

“Oh my god, that’s my ex-boyfriend.”

“Oooh! Oooh! Which one?”

“The tired eye looking one with the red shadow and the pigtails.”

“Your taste is all over the place,” she says in the most monotone voice you’ve ever heard from her.

You just hope that he won’t remember you.

But then you hear someone call your name and you know that that idea is out the window. 

This is like when you say, ‘at least today can’t get any worse,’ and then it fucking rains. Well, the sun comes out in your case because you hate the sun and love the rain but that’s besides the point. 

Fuck, you mutter under your breath before turning around with a smile on your face and walking over.

“I thought it was you,” Choso says with a soft smile on his face. He stands up to hug you and you feel like a teenager all over again.

“Hi Choso, how are you?”

“Good, how are you? You look incredible.” You’re sure the dark red lingerie has nothing to do with that… not.

“Thank you. You’re all grown up now, but you still look the same.”

“Sit. Can you sit? Or do you have to run around a bunch?”

“I can take a few minutes.”

The two of you walk over to an empty table and when you sit down, he pulls a chair around to sit right next to you. 

“So, how are Choso and the Kamo’s?” The two of you share a laugh. “I still can’t believe you’ve all kept that name this whole time.”

“The guys thought it was funny then, and they think it’s funny now. What have you been up to, besides being the most beautiful woman in this club,” was he always this forward? Who cares, you love it.

“Uhhh, nothing quite as exciting as being a band with sold out tours.”

“Try me.”

“Well, I got my own place.”

“That’s great! Why do you downplay that like it’s a nothing accomplishment? I’ve met Suguru, I’m surprised he let you out of his sight, let alone here.”

“He hated Mr. Sukuna at first, but he watched over me so he eventually chilled out about him. And it took me showing him listings to twenty apartments which he vetoed before finally agreeing to the last one we saw of the day because it has the best security system.”

He laughs because he knows how extreme he is but that it’s because he cares and not because he’s just a controlling dick bag.

Even though your parents approved of Choso, that didn’t mean that your new family did. He had to go through the whole ‘what are your intentions with my daughter’ thing for a second time and you know that it was brutal. But Manami liked him a lot, so she got her husband to chill out. 

“So you basically had to move into a police safe house?” You throw your head back and laugh because in all seriousness, that might be where you’re going next. Ugh, the irony. “So, Eso caught the news recently, is everything okay?” His tone turns serious and you were hoping to avoid this in order to not bring down everyone’s mood.

“I had to move back home a week ago and be put on twenty four seven police surveillance. I’m not allowed to leave the house without police escort and I’m still not allowed to have boys in my room with the door closed.”

His cheeks turn red after you remind him of the day Manami walked in without knocking and caught him underneath your skirt. It was the closest you’ve ever come to having sex and that scared you out of it. But Suguru never yelled at you about it or removed the locks from your doors so you’ve just assumed that she never told him.

Shoutout to the real mvp.

“Do you have a lot of boys in your room now?” He asks in a whisper. 

“Only one loudmouth who tries to seduce me every chance he gets and I think both my sisters have a crush on.” You didn’t notice it at first, but after catching Satoru all over you that day, they blush every time he talks to them.

“Well, if you ever need a break, I’d love to have dinner sometime. I’m in town for the next few weeks and I’d like to spend some time with you.”

“Choso, I have to be honest,” you take a deep breath before continuing. “I’m not officially taken, but it’s not not nothing either. I just want you to know that before you waste your time.”

“I don’t consider anything about you a waste of time. Nothing has to happen, I’d just like to catch up.”

You agree and exchange numbers. 

It’s so weird how you can have dated someone for so long and then feel so awkward around them after the fact.

Just then, Sukuna comes into the room and says that he needs an additional waitress on the floor due to the influx of customers so you agree to go. Miwa looks like she’s having the time of her life with the band and you don’t want to take her away from that. You give Choso a hug before returning to the rest of the club.

“Boyfriend?” Sukuna asks you.

“Ex. From high school.”

“Your taste is all over the place.” You start to laugh because what the fuck? Is that phrase floating around in the air or something? “That’s what Kasumi said.”

“She’s not wrong. But she also doesn’t know that your frosty haired maniac exudes jealousy like radiation flows from a war zone. Can’t let him find out you interacted with another man, he might lose his shit. He’ll probably lose it if he found out you were talking to me.”

“Oh don’t worry, he will,” you respond and he chuckles. 

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

It’s finally the end of the night and you’re ready to clock out and go the fuck home.

While you’re grateful that you were able to get out for the night, having so many days off in a row before coming back made your social battery drain extremely fast. 

When you get to the dressing room to get changed, you text Satoru to see what’s going on.

You : Are you close?

Satoru : With you, baby? Always.

For fuck’s sake.

You : To the club.

You : You fucking pervert.

Satoru : According to your electronic map, I’m about five minutes away.

Satoru : 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Ever since Satoru discovered emojis he’s been living his best afterlife.

You : Call me when you get here. I’m getting dressed right now. 

Satoru : Sure thing, babe. I can’t wait until we get home and right as I’m about to taste you, one of your relatives comes in the room and blocks my cock.

You : It’s cockblock Satoru.

Satoru : That too.

Satoru : What’s yours?

You : What’s what?

Satoru : The vagina equivalent of cockblock?

Oh goodness.

You : I don’t think there is one.

Satoru : Clam Jam? 

Satoru : Taco Blocko

Satoru : G Spot Me Not

For fuck’s sake

You : I’M GETTING DRESSED I’LL SEE YOU WHEN YOU GET HERE

Satoru : I love you so much

Satoru : Here’s seven more hearts for my loveeeeeee 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

If you’d known the demon you summoned was going to be such a fucking handful, you would have just let the lord take you.

After getting dressed, you return to the bar to wait for your ridiculous companion and your walk out. 

As you’re sitting around and chatting with the bartender, you look to your left and see Choso and the rest of the group finally coming out, him with a girl hanging all over him. You shouldn’t feel jealous, at all, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t just a little bit. A part of you is like, ‘this is my high school ex boyfriend and you bitches can’t compare,’ but you know that that’s not right.

Ugh, you can’t wait for Satoru to get here.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

If Satoru’s being honest, he fucking hates the fact that you had to separate tonight. But he chose not to throw a fit over it the way he normally would because he knows that you’re already going through a lot. 

His Uber driver is a young woman and everyday, there’s something new about this world that surprises him. 

Back in his day, women would never be the driver of a carriage, if their family could even afford one. Now, women can buy all these things for themselves and do basically any job that they want. He can’t imagine being one on one with a man like this though, simply because he’s known some monsters throughout the years, but she seems fine. 

“So, how was the club?” She asks from the front seat.

“I actually didn’t go inside. I just rode there with my girl and I’m just catching a ride back home.” He can see a half a second falter in her good mood at that admission but she returns to normal rather quickly.

“Why didn’t you just drive back?”

“I grew up on a religious compound and never learned to drive,” he decides to keep up with that story.

“Oh! Like the Amish?” 

What the fuck is the Amish? “Sure,” he responds hesitantly.

“It must be exciting entering the outside world, being able to ride in cars, watch movies, go to concerts, eat at restaurants, take showers,” she trails off and all he can wonder is what fucking lifestyle that is where they’re more limited than his previous life where he didn’t even have access to those things? He likes these conveniences and he definitely doesn't want to lose them. 

“Yeah. I didn’t know what a phone was until I met my girlfriend,” he chuckles.

“Well, it must be a lot of fun experiencing those things together!” She’s enthusiastic. “You should go to karaoke!”

“I have no idea what that is but I’ll add it to the list.” She just giggles and continues to list off fun things to do. But all Satoru can think about is you. You’ve been apart for like five minutes and he’s already over it. “You could even go to a concert,” he catches once he remembers that she’s talking.

“Ha! There’s no way her parents will agree to that. I already know that they’ll say it’s too dangerous.”

“I guess I can’t blame them with everything that’s been going on in the news lately. But you can’t live your entire life in fear. Y-O-L-O.” 

He doesn’t know what the hell a yolo is either but he knows that he’d rather spend every night in the house instead of something bad happening to you. But he agrees with her because he wants to keep the peace and doesn’t want to divulge your personal information.

Finally, they reach a business that’s a few blocks away so that he can make himself unseen without being caught on your building’s footage. 

“Uh, thanks for the ride,” he says awkwardly, not really knowing how to end this.

“Oh wait!” She stops him. “Let me give you my number in case you need another ride,” she reads off her number and then he enters it into his phone. He doesn’t understand why he’d need to do that since you said it’s all set up by the app but whatever, he doesn’t want to be rude. Once they’re done with that, he thanks her again before exiting the car.

He walks a little bit before he sees an alley that looks like there’s no cameras in it or facing it and deems it perfect. He walks down it until he gets to a dumpster where he ducks down on the side of it and makes himself invisible. It’s been a while since he’s done this since you just always come up with an excuse for him to always be around.

He was going to just teleport inside your apartment, but he decides to just continue the walk. Not only does he have a few hours before he has to meet you so this will give him some time to kill, but it’ll also give him the chance to see if someone is lurking around without being seen. 

‘There’s something for everything these days.’ he says to himself as he continues to walk.

There’s that waxing shop you told him about that he still can’t understand why you put yourself through that. He sees two bakeries, one for various types of bread and then the other mostly for sweets and some candies. There’s a little jewelry shop that looks like you’ve been to it a lot based on how similar it looks to what he’s seen you wear. There’s a store that looks like it’s full of snacks and alcohol, that’s convenient. There’s another building that he can’t figure out what it is. The blinds are closed and the sign just says ‘Statefarm,’ but it’s clearly too small for a farm to be there, there’s no land to do so.

He continues the walk to your apartment and although he gets the ick from a few people he’s passed, they don’t match the energy that he sensed at your family’s home or on the box outside your apartment. It makes him wonder if the murderer has an accomplice because he usually has no idea sniffing these people out. But this time, he’s struggling to find the correlation and it’s bugging him more than he bothers to let on. 

When he finally reaches your building, he walks through the gate and starts going over to the front doors to the lobby. He doesn’t see anyone in the parking lot and even though he knows the culprit wasn’t going to just jump out of nowhere, he keeps hoping that it would. 

He walks through the doors leading to the lobby and sees that guy speaking to the woman behind the desk again. He can’t remember his name, but he remembers not liking him because something about him just gave him a bad vibe. He can’t tell you that though because he’s already shown his jealousy too many times and you’ll probably just brush his concerns off. But something about him bothers Satoru a lot and he’s just glad that he’s here to protect you.

Once he sees that there’s nothing standing out, he teleports upstairs, into your apartment to see if anyone’s been here. First, he just stands by the front door with his eyes closed to see if he can feel another presence and he can’t. He decides to activate his six eyes and start walking around the apartment, hoping to find something. 

He starts in the kitchen first and the only energy in here is the residuals from when you opened the package, so, no luck. He goes to your bedroom next and again, he only senses the energy belonging to the two of you. Just to be sure, he checks your bathroom, closet, and even drawers just in case someone has been in here and gone through them himself.

His curiosity is peaked when in the drawer that contains chargers, hair clips, a piggy bank etc., he finds a little black box and is desperate to know what’s inside. He removes the lid and inside is a black item sitting in a box lined with what feels like crushed velvet. He pulls it out and starts looking at it all over, but he still can’t tell what it is. Finally, he finds a button and presses it, turning it on, and it starts to vibrate in his hand.

First, he’s startled and drops it on the floor. But then he realizes what it is and picks it back up so that he can turn it off. But it requires him pressing the power button five more times because the strength just continued to increase. Finally, he’s able to get the damn thing off and he puts it back in the box and inside the drawer, hopefully the way he found it.

‘Oh my princess, you do have a naughty side, don’t you?’ He thinks. 

He kind of wishes that he never found it because now he’s desperate to use it on you. He really hopes that one day you’ll want him the way he wants you, even if it’s only just once.

Oh well, back to the task at hand.

The only places left to go over are the living room and the additional bedroom which turn out to be a bust anyway. He’s relieved to know that nobody has actually been in your home, but it does still raise concerns. Why would someone just leave a package that could be traced back to them? Ugh.

He’s supposed to bring back some of your stuff so he returns to your bedroom and grabs one of those campy weekend bags that you love so much.

‘What the fuck is a Mystery Machine? ’ he grumbles as he grabs a light green bag. 

He grabs a few pairs of jeans, a couple sweatshirts, and then goes through your work drawer and pulls out multiple sets of lingerie. He doesn’t know what your favorite is for work, but he knows what he’d like to see you in so he just goes by that. Then he gets some of those tiny tank tops that you have and more panties, stuffing them in the bag. But he decides to give into temptation and stuff a pair in his pocket. He grabs a pair of light blue panties with strings on the side and hanging from the side is a little heart charm on both sides. They’re perfect, he thinks and he hopes that you don’t get mad at him if you notice.

He grabs your straightener from the bathroom because he knows that you’ve been wanting that and then goes back to the kitchen. There’s a bowl of candies on the counter that you got for him once you realized he had a sweet tooth and he decides to just grab the entire bowl.

You’re the best person that he’s ever been attached to.

He’s had to do a lot of things for previous masters and while some weren’t a big deal, there were a few that weighed on his conscience. He’s had to take lives that he didn’t feel were necessary to get the job done, just orders born out of greed, but masked as fear. He’s had to do disgusting or degrading things just to prove that he had to obey his masters and that makes people drunk on power. One time, a previous master made him eat a rock. A fucking rock. Just because they wanted proof that he had to do whatever he said. Thank goodness for his ability to heal himself because he’s been forced to harm himself a lot for other people’s amusement.

But not you.

You’ve never given him a direct order, instead, you negotiate with him. You get things for him, you look nice for him, and you thank him for whatever he does for you even though it’s his job. You make him feel like he’s a person again and like he’s able to experience the things he missed out on in life because he was too busy working to support his family. He can’t tell if you’re just super nice or if you genuinely feel things for him, but he hopes that you do because he feels the same way. You even send him lingerie photos in his favorite sets of yours just because you know that he loves it! 

He laughs to himself in the kitchen at the fact that he’s a demon who’s desperate for the love of a human. But he can’t lie to himself, that’s how he feels.

He checks the time and decides to start walking back to the club. He knows that you wanted him to Uber back because you didn’t want him walking that far, another reason why you’re so sweet, but he could use the time to himself to clear his head. Plus there’s still a little while before you get off, so this gives him something to do.

He teleports back to the alleyway where he started and once it looks like the coast is clear, he reveals himself and starts the walk back to meet up with you.

“Why are there so many Starbucks?’” He mutters to himself once he realizes that he’s seen three in a six block stretch. 

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

You’re trapped in a crushing hug from Choso as he says goodbye for the third time.

“Please. Please. Please. Let’s do something while I’m in town.”

“Of course, but I don’t know exactly what can be done since I’m basically on house arrest,” you respond with a laugh. 

“I’ll do whatever you want, even if it means just having lunch with your parents.” He’s so sweet.

“I’ll make time, I promise,” you tell him and his eyes light up. He leans down to kiss you on the forehead and you swear you see the girl he was previously with, glaring at you. “Your girlfriend is staring at me like she wants to kill me,” you attempt to whisper to him. 

He turns around to see her expression and she immediately breaks out into a smile. Goodness.

“She’s not my girlfriend, just a fan of the band.” Groupie, got it.

Just then, your phone vibrates and it’s a text from Satoru.

Satoru : Your handsome escort is waiting outside to take you home.

Satoru : And then spend fifteen minutes with you before we’re forced to return to separate rooms.

Satoru : But I’ll take that over nothing.

You : Sweet talker.

Satoru : I bet you’re the sweet one. 🍭 

Satoru : I wouldn’t mind eating fruits out of your…

Satoru : Palm of your hand.

Satoru : Bet you thought it was going to be something dirty.

You : I have a feeling that something dirty is still coming.

Satoru : Just like you when I get you home. 😉 

You just roll your eyes because you walked right into that.

“Your boyfriend?” Choso asks.

“My… something. He’s actually here so I guess I can finally head home.” It feels so awkward saying that to him.

“I’ll see ya when I see ya,” you tell him as he pulls you into another hug, you forgot how lovely dovey he was. But then he gives you a kiss on the temple and you finally turn to walk out with your boss.

“That maniac you have on a leash is going to lose his mind,” he says and you just laugh because honestly, he’s not wrong. You’ll probably have to come up with a creative way to do damage control.

When the doors to the club open, Satoru looks up at you and smiles a smile way too big for someone who just saw you a few hours ago. He starts walking over to you and you both meet halfway where he hugs you tight.

Fuck, you’re stressed about tonight.

“Alright, you kids get out of here,” you hear come from your boss behind you.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back because of–”

“Suguru’s Law?”

“Ha! But you’re not wrong.”

“Well, just let me know when you think you can and I’ll rework the schedule.”

“Thank you!” Both you and Satoru get in your car and when you drive off, you see that Sukuna is still standing by the front door of the club, making sure you drive off safely.

“So, how was your night of filthy men ogling you?”

“Not any different from any night that I spend with you,” you tease and he laughs. “It was fine, but it was definitely a lot after being gone for so long. My longest regular came in and tipped me enough that I don’t have to worry about rent on the apartment that I probably won’t be able to keep for much longer.”

“We’ll work that out. I’m getting tired of having to wait until morning to see you. But we’ll come back to the apartment. I wanna know why you’re drenched in another man’s energy.”

There it is.

“Most of the customers are men.”

“I know, there’s a mix from what I assume are the customers, but then you’re covered in someone else’s. It’s overpowering the rest of them.”

Damn. He’s good.

“My ex-boyfriend from high school came in tonight with his band and some friends of said band. He gave me a few hugs, exchanged numbers, and that’s all.”

“Hmmm. Okay.”

Just… okay?

“That’s it?”

“What?”

“You’re not going to throw a fit of jealousy?”

“Normally, I would. But whatever happens with him, I just have to remember that no one has the relationship that we have so… fuck them.”

Well, alright. That’s growth.

“Well, I’m happy to hear that you’re not going to kill him just because he wants to catch up.”

“Naw, it’s fine. But if you decide to have sex with him, I will critique how terrible he is at it the entire time.”

All jokes aside, that sounds hilarious.

“Because you’re a sex god, Satoru?”

“I am a demon, I have very few limits.” That gives you a lot of ideas. You wonder if you can get this demon on a leash and have him eat food out of your hand. “Anyway, I looked over your apartment.”

“And?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“What does that mean?”

“I searched the entire place with my six eyes, including under furniture, in drawers, cabinets, everything. The person who left the box has never been inside your apartment.”

Thank fuck.

“Oh, that’s great news! Now, how can we calm down Suguru to convince him that I can go back home?”

“I don’t know, but we need to figure something out because I’m starting to have withdrawals.”

“Withdrawals? From what?” You didn’t know demons could experience that.

“You.” Of course.

You giggle because of course he’d view you as everything good and bad in the world that people want.

“We’ll spend the night tonight and try to come up with something for tomorrow. It’s been a long day and I just want to sleep.”

“And I can’t sleep, so I have to spend hours waiting for my queen to awake,” he fake cries and it’s so silly.

As you continue to drive, you notice that something is off but it takes you a minute to place it.

It’s then that you notice that the officers who are supposed to be escorting you to and from your home are nowhere to be seen. Is it possible that they’re a few cars behind? Sure. But you also didn’t notice them in the parking lot when you came out and that’s odd. 

“Satoru, could you text Suguru for me?” He pulls out your phone and gets the message ready. “Just tell him that we’re on the way home but we don’t see the officers who are supposed to be watching me.”

Your phone goes off and it’s a response from him that came in so quickly, you’re surprised he had the time to read the first one let alone compose another.

Suguru : Just drive straight home. There’s other officers there who can make sure everything is alright and I’ll figure out what’s going on.

“Alright, straight home we go.”

“Oh, you didn’t wanna stop by the local opium den first?” Satoru jokes.

“I don’t even know if they still have those,” you giggle.

“Then what drugs do people use these days?”

“People have tried everything from Nutmeg to Meth so it’s really all over the place. People have even used markers to get high.” The look on his face is one of complete shock. 

When you finally pull up to the house, you see the car with the other officers outside and it makes you feel a little safer. Normally you wouldn’t panic too much, but knowing that those who were watching you sends a bunch of thoughts racing through your head. You just hope that they had something else to do and not that they disappeared investigating something with you.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“What the fuck, Shiu?!” Suguru yells in the other man’s office.

“It’s a waste of money.”

“How is my daughter's safety a waste of money?”

After receiving your text, Suguru immediately started asking questions as to why the cops who were supposed to be watching over you disappeared without reason.

“There’s no proof that anyone is after her. We can’t just blow through our resources on a hunch.”

“Everything about being a detective starts with a ‘hunch.’ How is receiving a package from a fucking serial killer just a ‘hunch’ and doesn’t require any protection?”

“Because nothing has happened,” Shiu says as he sits down in his office chair.

“Her address isn’t public knowledge and somehow the killer knows where she is and delivered a package to her front door in an apartment building with hundreds of units. That’s not a coincidence, that means she’s being watched.”

“Look, if she’d been attacked, I’d understand all the precautions, but she wasn’t.”

Suguru starts to see red after that comment and he works hard to calm himself down before speaking again, “by the time she ‘gets attacked,’ it might be too late to protect her.”

“She doesn’t need eighty six cars following her every move, Geto.”

“That’s an overreaction, I have two cars watching the family.”

“And two cars means four officers. We don’t need four officers for a package, especially when she was the only one who received one.”

“Fine, then why did you remove the officers who were supposed to be watching her at a job that attracts a lot of crazies? Why wouldn’t you remove the car from the house?”

“I heard from the officers watching her that her boyfriend was with her and I assumed that he could protect her.”

Suguru’s fists clench at his sides because that’s one of the dumbest fucking things he’s ever heard in his life.

“He’s her boyfriend, not a trained officer. He can’t legally take down someone doing suspicious shit. He can’t question anyone and he’s not trained to notice anything weird. If you want to remove one of the cars, then fine. But I’m keeping at least one on her at all times. If you have an issue with it, I’m sure the higher ups would love to see you again,” with that, he turns and walks out of the room.

One of the things Detective Kong neglected to tell him was that he didn’t feel they needed to waste resources on his daughter because he feels like he already knows who the killer is. It may be a risk if he wants to bring him in since there are a few alibi’s for certain things, but not for everything.

But you know what they say, it’s usually the one closest to you.

And if they're in a relationship, it’s probably their significant other.

Why does yours have no identity?

He’s tried background searches and nothing has come up.

Does he have something to hide?

Like the fact that he’s a serial killer?

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“When you’re ready.”

Utahime takes a deep breath and exhales slowly before speaking. “After I left your house the other day, I went to my boyfriend’s house and spent the night. He didn’t have to work the next day so he asked me to stay the next day and I did. It was normal. We just hung out, ordered food, and watched tv. It was nice. I left his house about twenty minutes before I called my friend– your daughter.”

“Go on,” Suguru tries to politely encourage her.

“I have a usual route that I always take home when I leave his place, but there was a detour due to construction and it forced me to reroute. I drove a couple of blocks down because I thought I could just make a u-turn and then attempt to go home the same way, just on a different street, but I couldn’t. There were several blocks in a row where I couldn’t make that turn so I just decided to pull up the maps on my phone and have it help me out. However, when I pulled over, I noticed a car pull over as well. They weren’t super close to me and I was in the parking lot of a convenience store, so I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t see anyone get out of the car but I wasn’t sure if that was because nobody did, or I just didn’t notice it.”

“Continue.”

She sighs. “I started to get spooked and started driving again before I even put an address into my phone. I ended up getting lost because I wanted to make sure that I was being followed before I got super paranoid and I started making a lot of random turns and when they made every single one of them after me, that’s when I knew. I guess I just freaked myself out and called my friend instead of pulling out my maps and looking for a route home. I wanted someone to be on the phone with me in case– well… you know.”

“I do. What happened once you started losing track of where you were?”

“I just kept driving and they kept following me. I ended up on some fucking backroads or something and just kept going straight, hoping that it would take me back to an area with businesses or if I got lucky, a police department. They were making it very obvious that I was being followed and I just have a feeling that they knew that I didn’t know where I was.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Only a dumbass would drive to an isolated area if they were being followed. And it was only made worse because they kept taunting me the entire time.”

“How so?”

“They would constantly speed up and get really close to me before slowing down like they were trying to scare me. Before I ended up on that long road and I was still on city streets, when I had to make a turn, they’d keep driving like they were going to go straight and then would speed up and turn behind me without even using a blinker.”

“That’s dangerous.”

“I know! And occasionally, they would flash their high beams and it was really disorienting.”

“I bet. Tell me what happened once you made the phone call.”

“She didn’t answer the first time and it really scared me. I thought I was going to get killed and dumped on a backroad because my friend was getting railed in her living room while Pulp Fiction played in the background or something. But she answered the second time that I called and it made me feel a little safer.”

That makes you smile.

You and Satoru are in the observation room with Detective Kong while Suguru interviews Utahime about her experience last night. 

It was a horrible night for her and it resulted in you and Satoru packing a bag and you went to spend the night back home so that Utahime could feel safe being with all of you. You've never seen her shaken up like that and it really threw you for a loop. You wanted to be there for her so you asked her what she wanted, and she said it was to stay at Daddy Detective’s house, so that’s what you did. She didn’t even pull away when Satoru went to give her a hug so that's how you know she wasn’t feeling like her usual self. 

She slept in your room with you and Satoru stayed on the floor next to your side of the bed. He promised that if anyone wanted to try something, they’d have to go through him first and you think that really made her feel better. 

This morning, Suguru said that he’d need her to come in for a formal interview as soon as possible, that way everything was still fresh in her mind, and she said that she wanted to get it over with and just do it today.

So now you’re here.

“So, what did you speak about when she answered the call?” Suguru continues his line of questioning.

“I told her that I was being followed and that I couldn’t get help because I didn’t know where I was. She told me to give her as much information as possible so that I could be tracked and that’s what I did. She stayed on the phone with me the entire time while Satoru contacted you.”

“Why didn’t you call the emergency number directly?”

“Because she’s my best friend and you’re her dad and you make me feel safe. I felt like you would work harder than random people who don’t know me. Also… I wanted to be on the phone with someone that I knew in case…” She trails off and looks down.

“I understand. I’m not judging you. I just have to ask.”

“I know. Anyway, I just told her everything that I saw and it was relayed to you.”

“Can you explain the accident to me?”

“I’d been on that road for a little while and they continued to do their usual taunting. But at one point, it escalated. They sped up and got much closer to me than they had been before. I just assumed that they’d back off, but then they hit me. I was going a little over the speed limit and didn’t want to risk going too fast, so I didn’t floor it. But then they sped up so much that they hit me and it caused me to swerve a little bit. I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t speed up then because I probably could have spun out.”

“Hmm. What happened after they hit you?”

“They started to slow down for a couple of seconds before hitting the brakes and stopping completely, and then they just sat there, in that spot. It really scared me because I saw their headlights go off and I was worried that they were going to speed back up in the dark and I wasn’t going to see them until it’s too late. About a minute or two later, that’s when I saw you driving by and I stopped,” you hear her sniffle, like she’s holding back tears.

“I’ll always do everything in my power to protect you.”

“Thank you Suguru. I mean, Detective Geto.”

He chuckles. “Suguru is fine. Could you give me the best description of the vehicle that you can?”

She clears her throat. “It was a red SUV type vehicle. There was no front license plate and the windows were so tinted that they looked completely black. They looked like you couldn’t even see out of them. I also remember that the left headlight was significantly brighter than the right one. And the engine was loud, like loud as fuck. Every time they sped up I imagined you could hear them from a couple blocks away. Also, the name of the vehicle has been removed but you could still read what it said since that part was kinda reverse outlined or whatever, I don’t know how to describe it.”

“You’re doing good. If you saw this vehicle again, would you be able to pick it out of a line up?”

“I believe so. It was kind of memorable for just being a mess.”

“It sounds like it. Alright, I just have a few more questions for you before I can let you get out of here.”

Suguru asks her a bunch of questions, mostly if she can recreate the route that she took and she said she thinks she can. That means she’ll probably have to get into a fucking patrol car and relive this and you’re already nervous for her. She gives him the names of all the businesses that she remembers passing so that they can start canvassing the area and collect CCTV footage.

Suguru can’t remember the last time that he had to basically do nothing except for reviewing CCTV footage. Between your case, these additional murders, and now what’s happening with Utahime, it’s starting to feel like that’s all that he does.

He hasn’t said it out loud yet because he doesn’t want people to think that he’s jumping the gun, but he believes that this is related to your parent’s unsolved case and all the additional murders going on. He believes that the murderer is somewhere in the area and they just continue to get by unscathed. 

It’s really starting to piss him off because everyday it feels like this asshole is getting closer and closer and he can’t see who it is to stop them. But now another member of his family has been harassed and he’s got to get to the bottom of this. 

Everyone loves Utahime and he knows that the entire family, not to mention hers, would be devastated if anything happened to her so he has to prevent that. Hell, he’s afraid that if something happens to her, you may never recover. He has to make it a priority to protect her and your new boyfriend like they’re his own so that he can continue to protect you. 

He concludes the interview after a few more minutes of questioning and it feels like a weight has been lifted. You’re not sure what has to be done to help her, but you’re willing to do it.

“Well Miss Iori, thank you for coming down to the station. It’s Detective Suguru Geto and I am now concluding this interview at 1:52 pm.” He turns off the recording device and grabs it so that he can take it to his office and make a formal report. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

“Thank you.” He opens the door to the interview room and walks out with her, meeting you and Satoru in the hallway. She runs over to you and gives you a hug before whispering in your ear, “your dad is so hot.” You just laugh because she must be feeling better if those are the first words out of her mouth.

“How do you feel?” You ask her.

“I’ll be fine. I told my mom that I’d call once we got done.” You nod and Suguru walks all of you out of the station. 

“If you need anything, just call. I’ll be there in a flash,” he tells her once you’re all outside.

Last night really scared the shit out of everyone and Suguru doesn’t want to take any chances. He put her on the same plan that the rest of you are on, several tracking apps on her phone and even a hidden one on her car. He spoke to her mom and she even agreed for her and her husband to do it as well so he’s going to get that done when he gets off of work. 

He didn’t want to scare your best friend so he just told her that it was probably some loser who just wanted to scare a woman who they thought was by herself and that they probably had their fun and fucked off. But he feels that it’s deeper than that and it’s really worrying him. 

“You kids get home safe. Call or text me when you arrive, so that I know. All of you.”

“Yes sir,” the three of you say in unison before climbing into your car and starting back to your apartment. For the time being, Utahime doesn’t have her car because Suguru took it in for evidence. He just wants to take really good pictures of it and he wants someone to take samples of the paint that was left on her car after she was hit. He knows that this can turn out to be a one off, but he doesn’t feel that’s what happened. Between relatives of victims being attacked, the fingerprint on your birthday, and the letter, he doesn’t think that this is a coincidence. If this happened eight months after the letter and there was nothing between, then maybe.

Suguru heads back into the station after he watches the three of you drive off. He wants to do some research on all the businesses Utahime could have passed and make a list before he starts driving over and answering questions. It’s unfortunate because he intended to question witnesses on some of the other cases today, but since he believes that they’re related, this may not be the worst thing. 

Suguru hears a knock on his office door and the person enters before he even has a chance to answer. 

“Hey buddy!” It’s Shiu Kong.

Of course it is.

“I’m busy, Shiu. What do you want?”

“I wanna speak to you about this case.”

“Which one? I’m kinda busy here.”

‘The one involving your daughter’s friend.”

He looks up from his desk. “What about it?”

“Doesn’t that seem kinda like a… coincidence?”

What the fuck is he implying?

“How so?”

“You’ve been trying to keep it under wraps, but I’m a detective on this case so I know about it.” Suguru raises a brow, not in the mood for his shenanigans. “The letter?”

Suguru sighs. “What about it?”

“First, I’m going to organize a formal debriefing on it. Everybody involved in working on this case needs to know about its existence in order for us to figure out if it’s a hoax or not. Second, do you really think that it’s just a coincidence that all of this is happening right after everything that’s been going down with your kid?”

“What’s your point?”

“I’m just saying… it seems like wherever she goes, trauma follows.”

What.

The. 

Fuck.

“Are you blaming my daughter for everything that’s been going on instead of the maniac who’s making it happen?”

“I’m not saying that it’s your girl's fault.I’m just saying that it seems like tragedy has been circling her lately like a vulture and something needs to be done about that.”

“Aaaaaaand what the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe she needs to be in a safe house or on lock down in some way.”

“So that it’s easier for the killer to target the people in her life to lure her out of hiding? There won’t be approval on putting patrol cars on everyone in her life so we have to just do our job and hope that the pieces fall into place.”

Shiu looks surprised. “I thought that you would have been all for hiding her out in a tower like she’s Rapunzel.”

“If I thought that it would do the case any good, I would. But I can’t lock her up for an indefinite amount of time with no communication with family or friends and allow her mental health to deteriorate when we have no idea how long this will take. It’s been seven years since what happened to her parents happened, I can’t keep her locked away for that long and expect her to come out of it the same person.”

“I understand that. What are you doing now?”

“I’m going to go speak to the businesses that Miss Iori passed when she was followed to see if the car showed up on any cameras.”

“Sounds like fun. I’ll go with you.” Suguru sighs and doesn’t hide his eye roll. “Come on! I’ll be more helpful this time than I was when you were swimming in the dumpsters. I promise.”

Suguru doesn’t see the point in arguing because he knows that this pain in the ass is just going to tag along anyway, so he agrees. He locks up the tape recorder with Utahime’s interview on it in a safe in his office before hiding the key when Shiu’s not looking and walking out.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

You: We’re home safe!

Satoru: Yeah dad! We made it!

Utahime: You should write your daughter a speeding ticket but besides that, we made it home alive.

All three of you arrive back at your place and text Suguru to let him know that you’re safe like he wanted. You set up the guest bedroom for Utahime so that she doesn’t have to be alone right now. You told her that she can stay for as long as she wants and at first, she declined. She said she “doesn’t want to hear you and Satoru plowing like farmers at two in the morning.” You promised her that she wouldn’t be overhearing anything because nothing has happened and she chilled out.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” she says out of nowhere.

“For what? You didn’t do anything.”

“You’ve already got a lot going on and I just brought more trouble to your doorstep.”

“No you didn’t. If anything, I think all of this is my fault.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? It’s not like you’re the one who followed me.”

“I know. But I feel like trouble follows me everywhere I go. I don’t want anyone I love to get hurt.”

“They won't! Not with me here! You can call me Super Six Eyes Satoruuuuu!”

“Nobody is going to hurt you if they have to make it through that guy. They’ll hear one of his shitty one liners and walk right out the door,” she says and Satoru frowns.

“Then I guess this is the place that’s safest for you since I’m always here.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about it.” Oh no. “How are you not tired of him?” That’s better.

“Of course not! Look at his cute whittle face,” you squeeze Satoru’s cheeks. “And when he gets out of the shower, he shakes his head like a wet dog. It’s adorwable.”

“Ugh. Gross.” She turns around to grab a mug and starts making some coffee.

That was close.

You are a little surprised that nobody has given you shit for him being around so much. Maybe since you and Choso were always super close being with Satoru like this didn’t stand out to anyone, but it did still make you wonder why nobody seems concerned. 

But on the other hand, that makes you happy. You haven’t really come up with a cover story as to why Satoru is here all the time instead of with other friends or at his own home. Good thing he can turn invisible so that it looks like he left in case somebody wants one on one time with you.

“Alright Satoru, go away so that me and Utahime can have some girl talk.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He walks away and her jaw drops.

“How’d you train him like that?”

“Idunno. I just ask him to do shit and he does.” She laughs at that. “Sooooo, how’s life with Atsuya?”

She smiles at your question. “It’s good, better than I thought. You know that I haven’t really dated anyone in awhile before him so I’m surprised that it’s going so well, but it is.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“What about Satoru?”

“What about him?”

“He’s obviously in love with you.” Gosh.

“Your mom said the same thing at our birthday party.”

“She’s not wrong.”

“I guess not.”

“So you’re not denying it?”

“I can’t. He told me.”

Her jaw drops and her eyes shoot open in shock. “He did?! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We were just spending time together and he confessed to me and then everything happened at Suguru’s and then last night and I just didn’t know when was the right time.”

“How’d it happen?” You tell her about the confession from the day at the beach to when he told you he loved you back at home. “He told you when you were naked? But not having sex?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he try to have sex with you afterwards?”

“No….?”

“He really loves you then.” She’s so silly. “Good. I’m happy for you. You deserve it.”

“Thanks.” You reply, a little reserved.

“I’m serious. You’ve been through a lot, more than most people ever have in their life. And not only have you managed to push through it, you never hesitated to put the people in your life first even if you should have been prioritizing yourself. If anybody deserves a sliver of happiness, it’s you.” You smile but don’t respond. “But if I’m being honest, I really thought that you and Choso were going to end up together.”

Aaaaaand you burst out laughing. 

“What?!” She seems shocked by your reaction.

“I only just met back up with Choso since my life started going to shit again. Why did you think I was going to end up with him?”

“Because he thinks that you’re the one that got away! I bet if you asked him to give up his career and marry you so that he can give you six kids, he’d do it without hesitation. That man loves the fuck out of you and the two of you look perfect together with your Vampire Barbie aesthetic and his lonely punk rocker looks. So cute!” You roll your eyes. “But I also think that the white haired, blue eyed, Ken doll who always has to match what you’re wearing also looks pretty good with you. So, I support it either way.”

“Thank you. I think I feel similar.”

“Did you tell him you loved him?”

“No.”

“No?!”

“I was scared! The last time I was in love, my parents got murdered. And then when I start to feel it again, my family gets harassed by a killer.”

“And your friend gets attacked.”

“I was including you in my family you fucking dumbass.”

She laughs at your response before turning more serious. “None of those things are your fault though. Remember the movie Oculus? And the argument between correlation and causation?”

“Yeah. But I couldn’t fucking explain it no matter how hard I try.”

This time, she’s the one to roll her eyes. “Moral of the story, you’re allowed to have someone and it’s not going to get anyone killed. That had nothing to do with you. Go ride the face of the man that’s begging you to sit on it.”

“Which one?” You joke with her.

“Both. Why not?”

“Alright, you’ve lost it.” You’re going to shift this conversation to literally anything else. “What do you wanna do tonight?”

“Hang out here.” Thank goodness. You’re tired of leaving the house this week. “What do you and him do when you stay in for the night? Ya know, since you’re not banging on a daily basis.”

“Idiot. We just hang out and watch movies unless I’m working. He’s also about halfway through Peggle Blast so there’s that.”

“I remember when you were obsessed with that game.”

“That’s why I avoid it. Once I start, I just wanna keep beating it and I’m trying to not spend money on games anymore.”

“Hmmm. So, what are we watching tonight?”

“Smile!” Satoru shouts from your bedroom. 

She looks shocked like she can’t believe that he heard her and you guess that that’s probably a fair assessment. 

“Sorry about him. But he’s really into horror movies right now.”

She just nods and starts pulling snacks out of your pantry and moving things over to the living room. You go get blankets and pillows from your closet and start setting the room up as the most comfortable theater. 

Satoru keeps smiling at you as you go back and forth to set things up and at first, you don’t understand it. But then you remember that he has fucking super sonic hearing and he probably overheard you telling Utahime that you’re falling for him. 

This fucking guy and his fucking abilities.

Utahime gets set up on your couch and you cozy up with Satoru on the other one, getting ready for a relaxing night in.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“Thank you, honey.”

“You’re welcome. Can I get you anything else?”

“I’m fine. I’m just gonna spend some time looking over this footage and then I’ll be up for bed.”

“Okay,” she gives him a kiss and leaves his office.

Suguru has been spending a lot of time thinking about that letter and he decided that any work that can be done from home, will be done from home. 

He’s been spending a lot of time at his office at the station and it’s really taking a toll on him and he decided that it was time to make a change. He can watch CCTV footage at home so that he still feels connected to his family so that’s what he’s going to do.

But before he left, he put out a BOLO on the vehicle involved in the accident with Utahime. Unfortunately, based on her report along with what he’s seen on camera, the car had no front or rear license plates and that can make things difficult. But on the other hand, the vehicle had other details that make it stand out, so he’s banking on that. 

She wasn’t kidding about how tinted the windows were. The windows were illegally tinted with how dark they were and he’s really pissed off that a car with no license plates and the world's darkest windows wasn’t called in by any officers on patrol. They could have either identified the person behind everything or at the very least, not traumatize another member of the family.

Not only has he spent all day reviewing the CCTV footage he was able to collect, he’s also been analyzing the evidence he collected from Utahime’s car. 

He knows that the crime scene photographer must hate him after all the work that Suguru put him through today. He made him take probably double the amount of photos that you’d take at the average crime scene. He made him take them in every angle imaginable, different lighting, black and white, wide angle and close up lens, he was not fucking around. 

If his hunch about this chase is right, that means that the person who did this is related to the bigger picture and he refuses to allow anything to slip past him because he’s not taking it seriously. 

He had one of the other crime scene technicians collect the paint that was embedded in Utahime’s car due to her being rear ended by that maniac. They managed to leave some of their paint in her trunk and bumper and that was able to be collected and he’s hoping that there’s a way to trace that.

So much work.

So little time.

Suguru hears his phone vibrating against his desk and he reaches for it to see who it is. Turning it over, it reveals that it’s Satoru and there’s some sort of attachment. He unlocks his phone and opens his messages to see what’s going on.

It’s a photo of you smiling, Satoru holding up the peace sign, and Utahime in the middle of rolling her eyes. 

Couldn’t be a more accurate representation of you three.

Satoru: I’M PROTECTING THEM WITH MY LIFE!

Suguru: Thank you Knight Satoru.

Satoru: YOU’RE WELCOME KING SUGURU.

He looks at the photo and all he can think is that you’re a cute couple of kids.

He also feels like he’s collecting children like they’re Yu-Gi-Oh cards. 

He puts his phone down to do some more browsing of the footage and seeing if there’s anything else that he can pick up on. He’s screenshotting the best photos he can get of the perpetrators vehicle and organizes them all into one album for tomorrow. 

There’s supposed to be a press conference to address the progress on the case, which he was dead set against. But Shiu said that the public deserves answers which would be great, if they had any. 

He’s going to take advantage of the public attention to distribute photos of the car to help get the word out about it. He can’t tell the public that he believes the case is connected to the murders because he really has no evidence about it, it’s just a hunch. But, he can warn the public about some crazy asshole chasing down women at night and that should get eyes on the case.

But his biggest concern?

The letter.

He really doesn’t want to leak it to the public because based on what was written inside of it, he doesn’t truly feel that people need to know. It’s not like this person wrote that they were going to attack a school or something. They basically just harassed Suguru and called him out on not doing a good enough job in the case which wasn’t really a surprise. 

But, Shiu and a few of the other officers think it could be a good idea because it can help trace it backwards to maybe be able to catch who sent it out. He doubts that they would have done it at a post office or something where they have security cameras, they probably just left it in some random outgoing mailbox. But it is possible that the killer is enacting a ‘hiding in plain sight’ strategy so he’s going to investigate as if that’s a possibility. 

He writes up an outline for tomorrow's press conference even though he has no intention of spending a lot of time speaking, but better safe than sorry. He lightly rehearses in his head what he wants to address with the car before printing out a copy, placing it on his desk, and finally leaving his office for the night.

“Look who came out of their cave!” Nanako yells once she sees him coming into the living room. 

“I know. I know. Please hold the applause.” He takes a seat in his favorite chair. “What are we watching?” 

Nanako’s jaw drops at the question. She explains a bit about the show that she’s watching and he gets comfortable and spends a few episodes with her before finally going up to bed. 

He’s definitely going to make an effort to spend more time at home and nights like this are the reason why. She seemed shocked that he was there and he doesn’t want that to become a normal feeling.

Working from home it is.

As much as possible.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

The next morning you wake up to find yourself in bed which surprises you because you don’t remember climbing into bed.

“Hey Princess,” you hear Satoru say once you open your eyes. “How’d you sleep?”

“Good. How’d I get back here?”

“I carried you across the threshold, my loveeeeeee.”

You scoff at his silliness first thing in the morning. 

You hear a knock on your bedroom door and it’s obviously Utahime, so you announce for her to come in.

“Suguru’s on tv!”

What?

You practically leap out of bed and run to the living room to see what’s going on. It looks like a press conference which you find interesting because you had no idea that one was coming up.

Shiu is the one standing at the podium and addressing the public while Suguru stands slightly behind him and off to the side. 

“I would like to let the public know that the entire department is working as hard as possible to track down the monster who’s making you feel so unsafe. All of the detectives, officers, and everyone in between have been working early mornings, to long nights, and overtime to find this individual. I just want everyone to know that we’re taking this seriously even if you feel that there’s been a lack of updates. We’re working on a few different angles that we hope will lead us to the killer so I just ask everyone for their patience and understanding while we work on this case.”

So far all you’ve gathered is that there’s no updates so you don’t understand why they’re doing this press conference.

“I would like to ask that everyone who’s seen anything, heard anything, please report it to law enforcement. It doesn’t matter how small you think it is, it could become the most vital piece of information in our case. You could overhear someone talking about tennis balls in a sinister way and it could turn out that it’s significant,” Shiu says and everyone laughs. “If you’re worried about anything being tracked back to you, you can also report anonymously. It’s also at this time that I’d like to announce a fifty thousand dollar reward for any information leading to the capture and arrest of the person behind these horrible crimes.”

Oh.

That’s why they’re doing this.

“If you have any information, please don’t feel shy about contacting someone to report what you know. Thank you very much.” He concludes his speech and steps back from the podium and Suguru steps up to take his place.

“Hello everyone. My name is Detective Suguru Geto and while you may not think that what I’m about to say is as important or interesting, I ask that you wait until the end and take in everything that I say.”

Oh boy.

Suguru clears his throat. “A couple of nights ago, a young woman was followed on the way back to her home by an unseen perpetrator.”

You look to see Utahime’s reaction and she just sits down on the couch with a blank stare on her face.

“The man started following her on residential streets all the way through city streets and back to residential before he finally upped his harassment before fleeing the scene. The young woman realized she was being followed when she was stopped outside of Ninety Two Liquor and saw the car pull over before following her again. She was followed all the way to Kowlick where they sped up and rammed the back of her car, attempting to swerve her off the road. I know some of you may think that this isn’t as big of a deal, but please acknowledge the gravity of it.”

You didn’t know he was going to put this out to the public in this way, but maybe it’s a good thing.

“This individual followed her to roads where they’re less likely to be seen before launching an attack on her and finally fleeing. I managed to arrive in time but who knows what could have happened if she was unable to have been tracked down. We’re still looking for the vehicle in order to track down the driver because we weren’t able to get an idea of what they look like. The vehicle that gave chase was a red suv with windows so tinted that they were almost black, no front or rear license plates.” He’s decided he’s going to hold off on the information about the headlight for now.

“There is a potential threat out there who’s praying on women who are alone and I beg of you to come forward with any information that you may have on this individual. Even if all that you remember was seeing them outside of a Burger King at six o’ clock, that’s fine. I will gladly sift through all that you can give me. Please don’t allow this to happen to anyone else and please report anything that you may know. Thank you.” Suguru also steps back and takes a spot next to Shiu.

Sergeant Noritoshi Kamo steps up to the podium for a brief Q&A. 

A woman in a red suit takes the first opportunity to ask any questions. “Sergeant! Do you believe that this man in the red suv is the same person behind the serial killings?” Damn lady.

“Anything is possible but we haven’t made any definitive connections regarding that,” is all he offers on that subject.

A man in a light grey suit steps up this time. “Sergeant, what’s this I hear about a letter addressed to the station from the serial killer?”

FUCK.

He takes a deep breath before responding. “We haven’t completely proven whether it’s authentic or if it’s a hoax at this point, it could just be someone playing a prank. We are investigating it as if it's real, but we’re not holding our breath. Most of the time it’s just some loser sitting at home who wants attention,” he says and a few reporters laugh.

“Why was it addressed to Detective Geto?” An older man in a black button up asks him. 

Fuck that guy.

“I can’t tell you what that maniac has in their head.”

“Is it because his daughter is related to a few of the killer's previous victims?” The man speaks up again and you hope someone kicks him in the balls.

“There’s nothing wrong with an officer adopting a victim from a case they worked, it’s happened before and it’ll happen after him.”

“Is that not playing favorites?”

“Are you questioning my detective's integrity?”

“No. I just wonder if that’s one of the reasons that the murderers victims have seemed so targeted. He did attack the family members of previous victims, right? Is it possible that he’s double dipping families because the plan he had in his head was interrupted?”

What a fucking dick.

“Are you saying that Detective Geto should kick his daughter out of his life to allow her to be free for the picking for this monster? Because that’s all I heard you say.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Of course it’s not. But based on the faces of the reporters around him, you’re sure he’s just trying to save face. “I would just like to know what makes her special.”

Suguru raises a brow and he and Shiu share a look after those words leave that bastard's lips.

“I was also curious how you justify the expense of having her constantly under surveillance.” 

For fuck’s sake dude.

Fuck off.

“We budget very carefully and disperse our expenses in the way that we feel it’s most needed,” you appreciate that Nortishi isn’t backing down.

“Why are the surviving families of previous victims all under protection then?”

“I can’t control what detectives do in other departments that are in different jurisdictions.”

The man’s lips form a thin line and he finally shuts the fuck up, but only for a moment. “Is she getting special treatment because her adoptive father is a detective on the case and her significant other’s uncle is the sergeant of this department?”

Fuuuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkkkkkkkk.

“This conference has concluded.”

“Before you go, what happened to the potential DNA on the clothing found?” The man shouts but everyone tries to remain neutral so as to not give him the reaction that he wants. 

How the fuck did he learn that?

You and Utahime just stare at each other, mouths agape at what just transpired on the fucking news. 

This isn’t the first time that you’ve been on the receiving end of a desperate reporter's interview questions, but it is the first time in a while and you weren’t expecting it today. 

“Hey, you know that they’re just desperate for attention and headlines. You didn’t do anything wrong, Suguru didn’t do anything wrong, nobody did. Things work out the way they work out.”

“I know,” you respond in a small voice.

“Then what’s on your mind?”

“I’m just tired of being raked over the coals like everything is my fault. They make it sound like I’m the reason that lives are being lost and it’s just taking a toll on me. Not to mention the Choso thing.”

“What Choso thing?”

“That reporter just publicly called me Choso’s girlfriend and now I’m going to get slut shamed all over the media for actually being with Satoru. And I bet bitter women are going to flood my comments saying that I’m not good enough for either of them and I’m probably gonna have to take another break from social media.”

Satoru finally walks into the room and he takes a seat next to you. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ll beat the shit out of anyone who tries to ruin your day.”

You laugh because you absolutely believe that he would do that.

“So…” Utahime speaks up. “That guy is really Choso’s uncle? I didn’t know he also had family in the department.”

“They’re estranged. They don’t have a bad relationship, they just don’t really have one at all and all I really remember is his uncle saying to not expect special treatment. “

“Damn. That whole family is hot.”

“Someone’s popular,” Utahime says in a sing-song type of voice.

“I know! Satoru is super popular on Instagram. He has almost eighty thousand followers at this point!”

“I was talking about you but now I have to see this.” 

You bring up Satoru’s Instagram on your phone and hand it to Utahime. You wait for the moment that her brows shoot up and it was worth it to see her reaction.

“Why is his Instagram mostly photos of you? Half naked, at that?”

“Because she’s hot. Duh!” Satoru answers like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

She keeps scrolling through his account and occasionally lets out a chuckle and you can already imagine what she’s thinking. “This one’s kinda cute.” She points out a photo of all of you from when you went to lunch with Suguru and the rest of the family. “I can’t believe how easily he accepted you. I remember when he hooked Choso up to a polygraph test.”

“That wasn’t a joke?!”

“No,” you and Utahime reply in unison.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

The press conference has concluded and everyone has returned to the station.

But not without that one reporter who is most definitely getting questioned.

They didn’t have ‘questioning a reporter’ on their bingo card for this afternoon, but that’s absolutely what the fuck is about to happen. They weren’t even surprised that he agreed to it because he’s probably going to try to find some sort of way to spin it for an article. 

Normally Suguru or Shiu would do an interview one on one, but not today. Shiu thinks Suguru can be too polite and Suguru thinks Shiu is a dick that causes people to shut down so they’re going to tag team this one today.

They know that reporters have their ways of getting information and they need to know if there’s a leak in their department or people are just making lucky guesses. They also want to know why this guy had such an attitude and if it was personal, or that was just his style to try and provoke someone into giving answers he wants or just headlines as being angry. 

“Please state your name and age for us,” Suguru starts. 

“Haruto Watanabe, I’m thirty one,” the man replies.

“I’m Detective Geto, as you know. And this is my partner Detective Shiu Kong. We’d like to thank you for coming down here and allowing us some of your time.”

“You can quit with the pleasantries. I know that I’m not here because you want to be friends, so we may as well just get on with it.”

Asshole.

“Very well then. What made you decide to attend today’s little meeting of sorts?”

“I’m a reporter. Why wouldn’t I show up when a police department is going to talk about the serial killer that they’re incapable of catching? It would have been stupid to not show up.”

“Hmmm. How did you find out the contents of the letter? A judge issued a gag order, preventing the contents of it from being released to the public in order to protect the integrity of the case. So, how’d you find out?”

“I have my sources.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Why should I?”

“Did I forget to mention that there was a gag order issued on it making it a private thing for only people on a ‘need to know’ basis to know?”

“I’m well aware of what you said, Detective. But as a reporter, I must protect my own ‘integrity,’ he says with air quotes. “And I must protect my sources.”

“So…..” Shiu starts. “Your integrity allows you to protect a person who’s sabotaging our case and committing a crime in the process, but you question our ‘integrity’ for putting a victim under protection?” Shiu mocks the man with air quotes of his own.

“Last I heard, your protection detail was put on your family, not a victim. And might I add, our tax dollars have been wasted because you feel that your family is above other civilians. That’s the problem with law enforcement, you think that you’re above the rest of us while not actually protecting us.”

“Are you done?” Haruto nods. “‘Last you heard,’ Shiu mocks him with more air quotes, “you’re not a member of this department and all you have is second hand knowledge. We’ve done our best to keep things quiet so as to not scare the public, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been doing anything. You only know what we choose to release, and that’s not much. So maybe you should drop the attitude since all you’re doing is spreading rumors instead of actually helping people.”

The man stares at the wall next to him, desperate to avoid any contact. 

“Where did you hear about the letter?” Suguru tries again.

“I already sai–”

“I know what you said. But here’s what’s going to happen, if you don’t reveal your source, I’m going to assume that you somehow had a copy and chose to violate the gag order and I’ll be charging you instead.”

Haruto’s eyes widened in fear, clearly terrified of spending any time behind bars. And as someone who’s been writing about crimes in the city and publicly bashing the perpetrators, he definitely doesn’t want to get locked up with any of them. 

“I got an e-mail,” he finally relented.

“An e-mail? From who?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m not in the mood for this shit today,” Shiu spits out.

“I swear I don’t know! I got an e-mail from some anonymous person, I don’t know who they were. But I decided to take it seriously and I guess it was correct.”

“We need to see it.”

Haruto nods and grabs his phone off of the table to open up the mail app. He goes to his saved folder and looks for the message that got him into this mess. They look at the e-mail of the person that it came from and it’s definitely some made up bullshit.

[email protected]

What a stupid fucking name.

However, this person is trying to cultivate an image and they’re definitely doing that.

“We would like to examine your phone for any information that we can extract from this, will you give us consent to do that without a warrant?”

“Yes,” Haruto reluctantly says.

“We’ll get it back to you as soon as possible, but you’re free to leave when you like.”

Haruto gets up and another officer helps him find his way out of the station. He didn’t really want to leave his phone behind, but if it turns out that someone is actually using him as the middle man to harass the police, he wants to get as far away from it as he possibly can.

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

You hear a beep and a click and you can only assume that it means that Suguru is here.

“Sweetheart?” You’re right.

“Hey Suguru.”

“How was your day?” He asks in a polite but cautious tone.

“Fine. How was yours?”

“Fine. Where are your friends?”

“They’re fighting over who’s better at Crash Team Racing and have been playing for hours. They’re in the guest room.”

There’s a loud ‘fuck you’ that follows that and Suguru just laughs.

“It seems like everything is going well then.”

“It could always be worse.”

It’s quiet for a few moments as you get your ingredients together to start cooking. You can tell by his demeanor what he wants to say and you can tell that he can tell that you can tell.

“I’m assuming that you’re aware of the press conference.”

“I am.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? You didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t bring it up in advance because I didn’t expect it to happen the way that it did. If I’d known some assholes were going to make inappropriate comments about you and our family, I would have warned everyone.”

“Suguru, those aren’t even the worst things that reporters have said about me.”

“I know.” He sighs. “But I know that between the past, now, and them publicly attaching you to Choso, it can make things difficult. Is he okay?”

“He’s not taking it as a bad thing. He decided to post a really cringey photo of us from high school saying that I’m his best friend and that we wouldn’t get our hands held by our family if we decided to rob a bank. It seems to have gotten a positive response.”

“That’s good,” he says with a laugh.

“He said that he’s about done with the list. He’s just gonna review it and then probably send it over tomorrow.”

“Good,” Suguru has been so distracted with everything else that he forgot about compiling the list of everyone who’s been in his home for the past seven years, probably eight at this point. “How’s yours?”

“Pretty good. I feel the same. Utahime and I will send ours over tomorrow. We’re gonna compare notes with Choso when he gets here just in case something on someone else’s list triggers something on another one. We just wanna be thorough.”

“Smart kids.”

“Ya know, I’m kinda like a genius or something Suguru. You should be so lucky to have me as the poster child for this family.” 

He laughs at your fake cockiness. “I’d have it no other way.”

“Thank you for bringing up Utahime’s incident.”

“Of course. We can’t allow someone to just terrorize women without even trying to find them.”

You nod. “Suguru. Can I ask you a question?” You place your ramen in the pot before turning to look at him.

“Of course.”

“I know that you’re limited with what you can tell me but… do you guys actually have any idea who’s doing all of this?”

He should have known that was coming. “Honestly sweetheart, I don’t have a name for the person behind this. But, I do have a few new things to go on that can help me track them down.”

“What did he mean when he mentioned clothing and DNA? Do you guys finally have more to go on than just a fingerprint?”

“We don’t know yet. But I promise, we’re working on it.”

˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖

“What’s on your mind, pretty lady?” Satoru asks as you’re brushing your hair before bed.

“I’m just thinking about everything that’s going on. It’s just really stressing me out.”

“But you know that I’ll protect you.”

“I know, Satoru. But my concerns right now aren’t regarding my safety.”

“Then what are they about?”

You lean back in your chair to see that Utahime’s door is closed before continuing. “I was just thinking about what they say about kidnappers, killers, etc.”

“What do they say?”

“That it’s usually someone that you know.”

He’s quiet for a few seconds before responding. “So, you think it’s someone who’s close to you?”

“Maybe not necessarily ‘close,’ but someone that I know– or knew at some time. This case just seems too personal. From them mentioning my bedroom to Utahime being followed, I can’t help but think that it’s for sure someone who knows the family.”

“Then how do you explain the victims who aren’t related to you or live far away?”

“I don’t think that this started with targeting me. I mean, obviously, my parents weren’t this guys first victims. But, I do think that they maybe got bored and decided to target a detective’s family for fun or something. The people closest to me have airtight alibis and that’s good because it means that it’s probably not them. But what if it was someone who I was friends with in high school and forgot about for a few years and they can’t be vetted because my memory fucking sucks?”

“It doesn’t suck.”

“But then again, even though I know that they say that the killer is usually someone close to you, that’s not one hundred percent the case and it’s really pissing me off that one of the detectives leading this case won’t look in another direction. It’s like he woke up and chose ‘confirmation bias’ instead of ‘objectivity’ and it’s frustrating. Are they investigating the friends or family of previous victims as hard as they are mine in case it’s one of them? I’m so fucking mad but I’m not completely sure why.”

You continue to rant and he doesn’t stop you.

“I also feel like I’m going to be completely alone soon because everyone is going to hate me or not trust me or something.”

“Why would anybody feel that way?”

“Because I’m a walking, talking, safety hazard, Satoru. I broke up with Choso because of all the trauma surrounding my parents and we just reconnected and he realizes that I’m too much work. What if he doesn’t want to risk the bad publicity or he feels like trouble just follows me wherever I go? Utahime got fucking road raged because of me and my connection to all this… bullshit. What if the manager of my apartment building no longer wants me here because the second that I moved in, a serial killer started lurking around and other tenants feel unsafe? What if I have to move back home but then my family is in danger? What if I lose everyone close to me and become a social pariah all because of this asshole and he continues to evade capture and I end up by myself for no reason? What if he’s harassing people in my personal life to purposely isolate me so that I’m easier to get to?”

It’s quiet for about a minute before he finally speaks. “I wish there was something I could say that could remove this stress from your shoulders, but I know that’s not possible. I know that it’s something that you have to work though on your own and there’s nothing I can do about that. But, I can make sure to physically protect everyone to the best of my abilities and I promise to do that.”

You take in his words but he’s right, it’ll take more than that to relieve your stress.

But then he says something unexpected. “You know, if we don’t figure out who the killer is, you get to keep your soul.”

“I barely even think about the soul thing anymore.”

“I know that’s a big point of contention for most masters so I figured that I’d bring it up.”

“If I keep my soul, you don’t get to eat.”

“I’m fine with that. I’ll eat something else.”

This fucking guy.

“I hate you, Satoru.”

He starts laughing because he expected nothing other than that type of response. “Look, I know that this is kind of a cliche thing to say, but we’re going to solve this. We’ll figure out who’s doing this and then I’m going to fucking tear them to pieces. I promise.”

“Even if it means that you won’t have as much time with me because I won’t be completely alone?”

“I don’t want a depressed and miserable you because you feel like your life is falling apart. I want you, the way that you are, even if it means that you’re spending some time with your friends and not with me.”

“Hmmmm. I’m sorry about kissing Choso.”

“Don’t do that to yourself. I was never mad about that.”

“Really? You get jealous when other men talk to me.”

“That’s not the same thing. What you’ve got with him, that’s more complicated. It’s not like you went home with some stranger you met outside of a pub because you downed a tankard of ale.” Tankard of ale? He’s old af.

“Mmmmm. Thank you for that.”

“Stop giving thanks to people for doing the bare minimum. Even demons.”

“Dame. Fine!”

“Good! Alright, what’s next on our agenda?"

You have no fucking idea.

⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“What would you do? Would you save them?” 

“Honestly, I don’t know. I understand his anger. If someone’s immaturity or lack of respect for human life cost me the life of my child, I don’t know if I’d want to save them. Or if someone was too afraid to testify so that my child could get justice, I don’t know if I’d want to help them either.”

“I couldn’t do it.”

“I may be leaning more towards your side. If I did help, I probably wouldn’t do anything that required me to injure myself, if I’m being honest. I already destroyed my puss for a baby that I no longer have, I’m not going to also destroy all of their belongings and take a fucking shotgun blast to the shoulder to save everyone. That sounds awful.”

“It does. A parent’s grief is a powerful thing, I think more people might feel that way.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, but I don’t trust myself to maim myself to save someone I would have been holding a lot of resentment for. I don’t even know if I could. My reflexes pull me away from anything that I know is going to shock me like a mailbox or a staticy blanket. I doubt I could pull the trigger on a gun. Plus, if I got shot with a shotgun, I’m so petite that it would destory my fucking body. Jason Momoa might only lose an arm, but I’ll end up looking like the Apple logo and then I wouldn’t be able to continue with the test.” 

Satoru laughs at your dramatics as you continue to lay curled up on the couch, about a third of the way through Saw 3. When you realized that the series was on the list of movies you hadn’t made it through with him yet, you decided to block out an entire day so that you two can watch them altogether. He was completely shocked when he learned that there were seven films and that’s why you dedicated an entire day to them. You ordered food, snacks, pulled out your fluffiest blankets, and have just been enjoying your time together.

And your favorite part about spending time with him? 

His jealousy has calmed down tremendously.

Dare you say, he’s been a good boy.

Even though you haven’t gone out much except to run errands, you’ve still spent some time on the phone with Choso and he hasn’t bitched about it at all. You and Utahime have decided that you’re going to go to his show together and you’ll go shopping for new outfits this week and you’re pretty excited about that.

Things haven’t really moved forward with Satoru in any sexual way, but he has become more physically affectionate and it’s not unwelcome so it’s not like you’re going to complain about it. If you had met him under different circumstances, you probably would try dating him. But with everything going on in your Whodunnit of a personal life, it makes you feel guilty to try those things. 

You know that if you want to try anything, now is the time to do it because it looks like you may not have much time left but you still somehow feel guilty thinking about enjoying anything. 

Why does it feel like you’re going in circles with this shit?

“Ahhh no way! That’s his wife?!” Satoru yells at the tv and you laugh. Your favorite part about watching movies with him is being able to see his reactions to things that you’ve seen hundreds of times. It almost feels you’re watching it for the first time all over again and that makes it even more fun. “No! No! No! Don’t do that!” He continues to yell as Jeff picks up the circular saw and you cover your mouth, trying to hold back your laughs. He’s completely entranced with his jaw dropped open and his wide eyes having him completely frozen while staring at the tv.  The credits finally start to roll and Satoru exhales deeply before falling back into the couch cushions. “That was fucking crazy. How is he supposed to get out? Does that get explained?” 

“I don’t wanna spoil it for you, but yes, we see him again.”

“That was a lot, I need a drink,” he says before going into the kitchen and grabbing a strawberry soda out of the refrigerator. He returns to his seat and all he says is, “that was awesome.” He’s so cute. “Can we start the fourth one?” You switch out the dvds because you’re not about to rent seven movies that you already own, also, watching his reaction to the technology is also adorable and makes it worth it. He’s also always excited to see what the dvd menu is going to look like. 

“Ready?” You ask him and he nods, eager even though it hasn’t even started yet.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“How long will it take?”

“I’ll try to move it along as fast as I can but we have a pretty heavy backlog Detective Geto, there’s a chance that it could take at least six months.”

Suguru throws his head back and sighs because that’s literally the last thing that he wanted to hear and even still, he expected it. He doesn’t want to bribe them into running the clothing first on the off chance that it’s completely unrelated or has so much dna from people using that dumpster that it can’t even be used to strengthen his case. But he’s also terrified of waiting that long for results in case it is helpful, and the longer that this takes, the more lives at risk with this monster roaming the streets. 

“I understand, please don’t overwork yourself. If it turns out that this is the crucial piece of evidence I believe that it could be, I’ll fill out the paperwork to expedite this. Otherwise, we’ll just see when we get there,” Suguru says before shaking the lab tech’s hand before walking away and returning to his car.

Once inside his vehicle, he takes a deep breath before just resting is head on the steering wheel. He knows that without having more than a hunch that a piece of evidence is significant, he probably won’t be able to speed up the process, but this was definitely a disappointment. But he also doesn’t want to push to the front of the line because he knows that there’s other unknown killers out there and he doesn’t want to run the risk of slowing down them being caught so it’s really just a catch twenty two.

After a few minutes of resting his eyes, he starts up his car and starts driving back to the station to return to staring down surveillance footage in his office. 

He was starting to feel like the rest of the footage was a bust, but luckily that young officer, he thinks his name is Haibara, managed to catch something else on one of the cameras. He actually managed to catch the man turning and walking in a different direction, so they started questioning other businesses in case they saw anyone who looked like that and if they could turn over any footage. Unfortunately, almost everyone’s cameras had been written over by this time because the birthday party was on February twentieth and now it’s more than a week into March. But at least he knows where to start in case this guy shows up again and then maybe he can track him down sooner. 

He can’t wait until this case is finally solved because he has every intention of taking a month-long vacation and dragging his family with him. And if he has to bring your silly boyfriend along, he’ll bring him too just so that he can get a break from all of the doom and gloom. He doesn’t know exactly where he wants to go yet, just somewhere nice. He wouldn't mind somewhere warm where he can see his wife in a bikini for a few weeks, but your vampire nature will probably result in you burning from the consistent daylight. And your boyfriend will probably burn just because he’s pale as fuck. Oh well, that's a problem for another day, but that’s one that he can’t wait for. 

Eventually he makes it back to the station and his goal is to make it to his office with as few people speaking to him as possible. Unfortunately, that’s futile seeing as Shiu Kong is flirting with the fucking receptionist as soon as he walks in the door. Maybe he can get lucky and he’ll be so distracted with her that he won’t bother him.

“Suguru! You just gonna walk past me and not say anything?!” Fuck.

“I have work to do.”

“How’d the testing go on your dumpster sweater?” Asshole.

“You know as well as I do that it doesn’t get done in one day. It may take some time so we can discuss it then. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Suguru swipes his card for entry and makes his way through the maze of rooms to find his office.

Once inside, he takes a seat behind his desk and just rests his head on it. He didn’t realize how tired he was until today and it’s starting to take a toll on him. But every time he looks at the photos he keeps on his desk and sees his smiling family, he doesn’t want to take a break. He wants to make sure that he keeps the world safe for all of you and that’s the dilemma. 

Maybe one day won’t hurt.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

You’re about halfway through Saw 4 when you notice that Satoru’s phone has been going off like crazy. 

You don’t want to be possessive and look through it to see what’s going on, but you’d be lying if you said that you weren’t curious.

He spends all of his time with you so it’s not like he’s meeting women at the grocery store or anything. But, he could be making connections on social media and it feels like it’s starting to fill you with a bit of jealousy which you now have to learn how to play off. Maybe you can think of a way to be nosey without him knowing what you’re trying to do.

“Damn, someone’s popular,” you attempt to say in the most non-interested tone possible.

“Jealous?” FUCK.

“Psh, no. You can do whatever you want.” 

“You know, you can just search through it if you want.” 

“I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“What do you mean?” He looks genuinely confused.

“That’s your personal space, I won’t invade it by going through it behind your back.”

“But you got it for me.”

“To make our time apart easier. Not to make you feel like you’re on a leash and have no privacy.”

He doesn’t say anything at first, he just leans back on the couch with his jaw dropped open like you just said one of the wildest things that he’s ever heard.

“I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to go through it though.”

“I’m glad to know that you feel comfortable with me like that, but I won’t do anything.”

“Then I’ll just show you!” He pauses the movie and then joins you on your couch across from his. “Ya know, I created one of those Instagram things humans keep talking about and it seems like it’s been getting pretty popular.” Of course it would, people would fuck a steak if it had his blue eyes. 

He passes his phone over to you and your eyes almost bulge out of your head. “You have seventy seven thousand followers?” He’s barely even been here a couple of months and he just outdid you and all of your friends by more than double. 

“Yeah, I guess I have good taste with what to post. But then, I guess they do too.”

You start to scroll down and you freeze, “Satoru, these are mostly pictures of me.”

“I know! Look how hot everybody thinks you are!” He sounds so proud but you’re still in disbelief. How the hell does he have more followers than you by posting photos mostly of you? 

The further you scroll, the more you see that it’s about eighty percent photos he’s taken of you, and the rest is split up of photos of the two of you together and a few of him by himself, but there’s not that many of those. You decide to open up the comments section on a photo of you and him because you can’t help yourself and there’s a few men complimenting you, but mostly women offering themselves to him along with a few porn bots. 

But even still, he responds to all the women by saying that he’s not interested because he has a girlfriend. He’s even said that to all the porn bots that comment and you can’t help but find him cute. But when someone makes a comment sounding like they’re interested in you, he’s definitely a bit more stern in making a show that they know you’re taken.

“Satoru, why are these mostly pictures of me?” 

“I’ve been watching those reality shows a lot and couples keep fighting because they’re not being posted on each other's Instagram pages. I assumed it was important so I decided to create an account.” He’s not wrong. It always drives you crazy when couples have been together for years or have kids and then give the ultimatum of, ‘post me on your IG or we’re done!’ Like what?

“This doesn’t have any of my work photos on here.”

“I wouldn’t post those pictures of you without your consent.” Finally! It took years, but you finally met someone who understands. 

“As long as I’m not completely naked, you can post what you want,” you say as you hand him his phone back.

“You’re not mad?”

“No. Do your thing. Have your fun.”

“So, I’m guessing that the jealousy you felt earlier was you thinking that I was speaking to other girls.”

“Don’t ruin the moment,” he laughs at your response.

“If it makes you feel better, I’ve accepted no phone numbers except for the Uber driver which I deleted once I left her car.”

“I’m sorry, from the what?!” 

“Yeah, she gave me her number in case I needed another ride. I thought it was weird since you said that everything is set up by the app, but I don’t know. I can teleport and we only did Uber for appearances so I just deleted it,” he sounds so casual like he doesn’t realize that she was clearly hitting on him. 

“Satoru, you know that she was hitting on you, right?”

“But I told her that I had a girlfriend.”

“Utahime and I occasionally wear fake engagement rings on days where we really don’t want to deal with being hit on and even that doesn’t stop a lot of people.”

“That’s weird, I wouldn’t go after someone who’s in a relationship.” Did he just wake up perfect?

“Ya know…” you start off slowly. “You’re allowed to do what you want. I don’t view you as property.”

He puts his phone down and pulls you into his lap, “how many times do I have to tell you that I have no interest in anyone but you? All six of my eyes are only looking in your direction so stop acting like there’s anybody else.” You nod and he picks his phone back up, aiming it so that he can take a picture of the two of you with you straddling him.

“Satoru! I look awful right now!” 

“No you don’t, you always look beautiful.”

Fuck.

You’re about to fold like an umbrella.

“Thank you,” you slide off of his lap and back into your seat. 

Just as you’re getting comfortable, your phone goes off and you grab it off of the table to see that it’s a text message from Suguru.

Suguru : I’d like to take my family to lunch tomorrow. Please say yes.

You : How do I dress?

Suguru : Think Pink!

You : I can’t believe you remember that.

Suguru : How can I forget the movies that my daughters were obsessed with?

You : That’s fair.

You : What time?

Suguru : We’ll pick you up at noon.

You : Sounds good. See you then!

“Something pink?” You mumble to yourself.

“What pink?” 

“Suguru is picking me up for lunch tomorrow and he said that I need to wear something pink.”

“You should wear that pink dress that makes my mouth water.” He would say that.

“Satoru,” you sigh. “That’s a teddy and that’s lingerie! I can’t wear that for a family lunch.” 

“With the things I’ve seen people walking down the street in, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference.” Damn, but not completely inaccurate. 

“Are you gonna be good and not let them think that the place is haunted?”

He laughs for a few seconds before finally responding, ”I’ll be a good boy. I promise.” 

After a few more minutes of messing around, Satoru puts his phone back down on the coffee table and then goes to the kitchen to grab more snacks. You expect him to return to the other couch, but instead, he scoots in next to you and pulls you close to him before pressing play.

When he first got here, you thought that his clinginess was going to be suffocating, but now you actually welcome it and are growing to love moments like this.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

A few hours have gone by and despite your protests of not being tired, you’re starting to doze off part of the way through Saw 6, still cuddling with Satoru.

Even though he enjoys this series, he can’t help but watch you as you peacefully sleep on his chest. 

Based on the masters that Satoru has had in the past, he never thought that he’d be cuddled in their home with one of them.

If he ranked all of them by who’s the most awful to the least, he'd still say that the most tame one is still incredibly unlikeable. 

The more time that he spends with you, the more attached that he becomes and he doesn’t even want to fight it. You’re sweet, you’re beautiful, and you continue to blow his mind everyday with how you view him as an equal.

He’s been thinking a lot about one master in particular, not because he liked her, but because she’s the polar opposite of you and he’s ecstatic to see that not all humans devolved to becoming such a miserable bitch like she was. 

Just like you, she was looking for protection and that resulted in him being summoned to do so. But as soon as he appeared, it was like all of that went out the window.

There was a time where Satoru would attempt to fulfill the contract sooner in order to collect someone’s soul, but the two of you were not the case, in different ways.

As soon as she learned that she could order him around, she had him doing anything and everything that she said. He’s not bothered about having to work, he worked himself to the bone when he was alive in order to support his family so that wasn't the issue. But she had him doing so much that he wondered if her goal was to see if she could kill a demon by exhausting him to death. 

At first, she would have him just doing housework which isn’t exactly a surprise. In order to blend in, a previous master said that he was a chef and a butler so that friends and family didn’t ask questions. But this woman would have him move every piece of furniture and scrub it day and night no matter how clean it was. He had to polish every bit of cutlery everyday and she even had him scrub the ground outside behind her house. He’d be lying if he didn’t say that it got annoying really quickly.

But then, she started requesting that he do personal things for her as well. If she needed to send someone a letter, she would have Satoru write it and she always made him rewrite it at least five times in different handwriting, but she still complained that it was never good enough. She’d have him dress her, from head to toe, and style her hair everyday. Those are also things that she made him do multiple times in a row even though there was nothing wrong with his work. There were even multiple days where Satoru would spend several hours changing her hair and redressing her before she made him take all of it off and she climbed back into bed instead of going out for the day. 

If she needed a bath, he was forced to scrub the tub down before starting it up for her even if he had already cleaned it that morning. Then he’d have to undress her, help her in, and wash her everytime. She used to tease him him, insinuating that she knew he was interested but that he’d have to work for her, but he couldn’t have cared less if he tried. But if he’s being honest, that was probably the best part of the day because she usually took her baths before bed and that meant that he’d catch a break from her endless orders that were starting to drive him crazy. 

All of this started the second he was summoned and it’d been a couple of months before they even started trying to figure out who she needed protection from. She claimed that she didn’t know, only that she felt that her life was in danger. But instead of using the dmeon at her side and actively trying to figure out who’s after her, she just continued to annoy Satoru with every breath she took.

Normally he’s very good at remaining composed, but she was slowly breaking him down. One day she made another comment insinuating that Satoru wanted her, and he had enough of standing silent.

“I bet you’d sell your soul for just one night with me, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d rather read the longest and most boring book,” the words fell from his lips before he even realized what he was saying. 

She had her fair share of suitors so he couldn’t figure out why she thought the only thing on his mind was sex with her but for some reason, it was. He’s not judging, if a woman wants to have a good time, he believes that they should without being shunned by society. He just couldn’t understand why she kept harping on sex between the two of them when he assumed that she was more than satisfied. 

Regardless, that comment pissed her off.

And that was when things became physical.

After that, when Satoru was completing his chores, she’d beat him, repeatedly. 

One day when he was making her breakfast, she beat him with a stick, causing him to drop her food which resulted in her beating him more as punishment, she said, for dropping expensive food. Another day, she didn’t like the way he tied the bow on the back of her dress even though he did it the same way everyday, so she beat him. Another night, she was upset that her bathwater was too hot and that resulted in a beating. Instead of waiting for the water to cool, she forced him to dump it and start over. It resulted in a beating for him taking too long and then another one for the water not being hot enough.

What a pain in the ass.

Luckily for Satoru, having great eyesight and the ability to teleport aren’t his only powers. He also has the ability to heal himself any time that he wants and he took full advantage of it. She was upset because she said that he should keep the scars as punishment and a reminder to do better, but he told her that it was just part of being a demon and that it was out of his control. She had no choice but to accept that explanation because it’s not like she could prove him wrong and that was the end of the conversation, but not the beating from that stupid fucking stick.

But one night, the worst finally happened.

She ordered him to share her bed and although he kept a straight face, he was mortified inside. He wished that there was a way to get out of it, but as long as the order doesn’t violate the contract, he has to fulfill it and it’s an awful feeling when stuff like this comes up.

He decides to play dumb and climb into her bed and lay as if they’re going to sleep, hoping that if he acts like he doesn’t know what she means, she’ll let it go. 

But that wasn’t the case.

She laughed at his ‘stupidity’ and made fun of him for being a virgin, which he wasn’t, but she said that that’s the only person who wouldn’t have known what she meant. She reworded her order and that took away his ability to act like he didn’t know what she wanted. 

She ordered him to have sex with her while she critiqued him in the worst ways the entire time.

‘Your body is nice, but you don’t know how to use it.’

‘Other men have done a better job while they were drunk.’

‘Men were more experienced in caveman times.’

‘Your eyes are terrifying, stop staring at me like a creep.’

‘No wonder you’re a virgin, you have no idea how to please a woman.’

‘I would have a better time taking care of myself.’

He held on to the last insult, hoping that it woud be the next thing that became a reality, but it didn’t. Every night since then, she ordered him to sleep with her and it never got any better for him. Sometimes he would turn her over and push her face into a pillow just so that he didn’t have to hear her mouth or see the glare in her eyes, even if it was only for a few moments. She seemed to like that because she claimed that she ‘loves a passionate lover,’ but it was really just to make her less annoying.

Anything Satoru showed interest in, she hated. It didn’t even seem like she had many interests other than feeling like she was better than other people. She spit in the direction of people who were lower class while sleeping with as many people’s husbands as she possibly could. No wonder it seemed like someone was out to get her.

After about a year of being in this shit show of a routine with her, he discovered who was after her. 

Before Satoru showed up, she did have her own housekeepers because she inherited a ton of money when relatives died and she decided to have as much fun with it as she could. She hired a man to clean and a woman to cook, and she paid them just enough money to survive and take care of their kids. 

One night she had too much wine and gave Satoru the whole story about them.

“Can you believe that bitch? I gave them work for years and she had the audacity to act ungrateful after the fact. Because of me, her kids had food in their mouths so who cares if I sleep with her husband? She should be happy that I don’t completely want him for myself and that she still has someone to go home to her sometimes.”

That’s right.

That happened.

She hired this couple and a few months after their employment, the husband started sleeping with her. Satoru couldn’t figure out why considering she’s such an awful bitch, but maybe his standards are underground or something. The wife found out and when she confronted her husband, he tried to end the affair to which his horrible boss threatened to fire them and wouldn’t pay them the money that they acquired. He kept up the affair, which his wife knew, because work was scarce and they had mouths to feed. They decided that when things got better, they’d quit on the spot but that time never came. She always had an excuse for why she needed them. She’d promise to increase their pay or claim that she has to hold off on giving them their money for a few days and it became a vicious cycle.

But when Satoru appeared, she fired them both on the spot without giving them the money that they’d earned that month. That meant that they were on the verge of losing their home and not being able to support their kids. But thanks to Satoru’s abilities, he took quite a bit of her hidden funds that she kept in the back of her closet and left it somewhere in the couple’s home without them knowing so that they didn’t have to worry. He doesn’t know if they stayed together after that, but he hopes that terrible woman didn’t completely destroy their life together. 

In order to collect his master's soul, he would have had to eliminate the object of her fear and that would fulfill the contract. But she was so vile that the last thing he wanted was to consume more of her than she already forced him to do. Instead, he just waited for her to die naturally. It meant that he was by her side and tolerating her treatment for nine years in total before she was run down by a horse drawn carriage. He doesn’t know what happened to her, but he hoped that she ended up a demon who’s forced to serve others or was reincarnated into a fucking beetle. 

The more time that Satoru spends with you, the more you make his past feel tolerable. He thinks about how she was definitely one of the worst masters he’s had, but still not the worst overall, just the worst woman. 

But you?

He loves you.

Where he was ordered to violate his own body, take hits to his mental state, and was literally beaten on a daily basis, you’re the exact opposite of all of those things. He can’t stop thinking about how lucky he is to have been chained to you instead of literally anyone else. 

He doesn’t understand this ‘ball and chain’ thing when men refer to their wives and they act like it’s a bad thing. Shouldn’t you feel happy to be tethered to the one that you chose to spend your life with? 

You don’t call him an idiot or make fun of his interests, you embrace them. That miserable woman he dealt with for over nine years caught him reading a book one time and she made him start up a fire before she burned the book in front of him. But with you, he’s been excited about seeing movies, those little plays on your little boxes, and you've been picking out ones that you think he’ll like and watch them with him. You don’t force him to sit on the floor or sleep outside on the ground like he’s been told to do. You let him stay in your bed next to you because you trust him, wholeheartedly. Instead of screaming at him because you don’t like the color of a dress that you bought, you ask him his opinion on what you should wear for the day. 

And even just now, you refused to go through a phone that you bought him because you got that for him to make him feel better and you view it as his own personal thing. You even hesitated when he unlocked it and handed it to you because that’s how much you don’t want to cross his boundaries when everyone else that he’s served has made it their goal to overstep as much as possible. 

He’s knocked all of his walls down for you, but you still step carefully as if there’s an invisible line to make sure that he doesn’t feel crowded. 

He knows that he’s not good at hiding his jealousy, he’ll be the first one to admit that. But aside from the vague comments that he’s made, he wouldn’t actually kill anyone if you decided to date them and he wouldn’t sit in the room and say that they had a small dick if you decided to take that step with someone. He’ll respect you and all your needs because that’s what you do for him. Even if you want to be with that makeup covered, and pigtail wearing weirdo that you dated in high school.

“I’m sorry Satoru, I didn’t realize that I was falling asleep until I woke up,” you say with a chuckle. “Was I out long?”

“It’s okay, it’s only been like twenty minutes.” He couldn’t be upset even if you fell asleep for the entire day.

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom and then we can rewind it.”

“Okay. But we can finish this another day if you want.”

“No! I don’t know how long I’ll be out tomorrow and I wanna make sure that we get through these for you.” 

“Okay,” he kisses you on the cheek and swears he sees a little twinkle in your eyes. 

How did he get so lucky?

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“Satoru, how do I look?” He comes in the bedroom to find you in front of your floor length mirror, motioning for you to do a little spin.

You’re wearing your light pink Angel Delight Puff dress from Selkie and you love it. You also have a pair of strappy heels that are tied with ribbons to give the ballet shoes look and it’s incredible together. You’ve been looking for an excuse to wear it and even though you don’t know exactly where you’re going, you’re excited. Suguru said pink, so pink it is. 

“You look good. People won’t be able to take their eyes off of you.”

You giggle and lean down in front of your vanity table to look for your lipgloss in the mess of products. After finishing the last few touches with your hair and makeup, you grab your big bow purse, and then rejoin Satoru in the living room until Suguru gets here.

“Come here,” he waves you over and as you’re about to sit next to him. He pulls you onto his lap to get a selfie of the two of you together. The picture actually looks pretty cute, though you’re in a puffy, pink dress, and Satoru is in Nightwing pajamas. “This looks good, I’m gonna post it,” he’s so excited and he kind of makes you wanna get back to posting on Instagram more often. 

After a few minutes of sitting with Satoru and both of you just playing around on your phones, you hear a beep, a click, and your front door opens.

It’s Suguru in a charcoal suit with a silk light pink shirt underneath and rose gold cufflinks. 

Damn, fancy pants.

“The works today, huh?” You ask and he laughs.

“Why not? It’s not often that I’m able to get everyone out at the same time, I thought it’d be a good day to get a little dressed up and take some pictures. Ready to go?”

“Yup. I’m just gonna grab my coat before we go.” He nods and then takes a seat on the couch across from Satoru.

Suguru doesn’t say anything at first, he just stares at him in that intimidating detective and dad stare thing that he does. After about a minute of acting like he doesn’t notice, Satoru finally speaks up.

“Is everything okay? Am I in trouble?” He’s only been here for a couple of minutes so he can’t fathom what he could have already done in such a short while to have gotten himself in trouble with your dad.

“Why aren’t you dressed?”

Satoru looks down at himself because he’s not naked so he has no idea what he’s talking about. “I am dressed, sir.”

“Maybe for a day in bed.”

Satoru looks around the room like he expects you to come in and rescue him. “I’m sorry sir, I’m afraid that I don’t know what you mean.”

“I said that I was taking my family out to lunch today and to wear pink, why are you not dressed?”

Oh.

Shit.

“I wasn’t aware that I was included in that, sir. I apologize.”

“It’s fine. Go get dressed.”

Satoru practically jumps off the couch and runs into the bedroom to find you in the closet taking your coat out of the garment bag. 

“Your dad is terrifying!” He says in a whisper that’s almost closer to a yell.

“What happened?”

“He just gave me that scary dad stare because I’m not wearing pink. I told him I didn’t know and he just brushed it off and sent me to get dressed. He’s fucking scary.”

“Awwwwhhhhhh.” He can’t believe that you’re acting like this is a cute moment while he’s freaking out. You lean up, resting your hands on his shoulders, and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “That’s great to hear.”

He freezes for a moment when he feels your lips on his cheek and all he can do is imagine having you in all of the ways. But once you start wiping the lipgloss off of his cheek, it’s like he comes to his senses. 

“Why is that great?” Is he really confused?

“Because Suguru said that he wanted to do lunch with his fmaily, and he’s making you get ready, which means that he’s including you.”

His lips form an ‘o’ and it’s like it all clicks into place at that moment. Instead of saying anything else, he snaps his fingers and once his dramatic little puff of smoke clears, he’s wearing an all pink suit in the same color and material as your dress. You’d be lying if you said that he looked anything other than good enough to ride like a rollercoaster.

“Is this okay?”

“Huh?” Is all you can respond with after too long of a beat of silence.

“Damn, that good?” Shit, you made him too cocky.

“Let’s get out of here before your head is too big to fit through the door.”

“I already have something else that can barely fit through the door.” All you can do is groan and announce to Suguru that you’re ready to go.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

“The Garden of Eat’n? That name is awesome!” You say as Suguru pulls into the parking lot. Not only does this place have a great name, but it’s beautiful. If it looks half as good on the inside as it does on the outside, you can see yourself coming here often just for the experience, if nothing else.

“I’m gonna take so many pictures!” Nanako yells out. 

After parking and making your way in, everyone is blown away by the interior. It’s like being inside the most beautiful nature spot in the world with less risk of spiders which you appreciate. Even the chairs look nice and comfortable which stands out to you because you don’t think you’ve ever noticed seating in a restaurant in a positive way.

“Detective Geto! Is this your lovely family?” The young woman behind the counter says.

“This is my wife, my three daughters, and probably  my future son-in-law if they continue at the rate that they have been.” Everyone laughs and you just look at the floor because you didn’t realize that people thought you were practically on the verge of running to Las Vegas to elope.

“Well, we’re happy to have you back, sir. Please follow me.” She grabs six menus and leads everyone towards the back of the restaurant where there’s a big booth and a large window just out of the way enough to have some light but not feel totally blinded. She takes everyone’s drink orders, introduces your waitress, and makes her way back up to the front desk. 

“No way! This place has one of those?” Nanako points to the opposite side of the room where there’s just a giant section of the wall covered in flowers. But when you really look at it, it’s a photo station for people to take pictures while they’re here.

Damn.

This place is cute.

She and Mimiko run over to take a look, but you don’t want to leave Satoru to get the third degree from the detective and his wife… again. But after only a few moments, your sisters call your name and you’re forced to abandon this literal demon to be stuck with you’re terrifying human family. 

He’s so dramatic.

“I’ll be back,” you whisper to Satoru before getting up and joining your sisters. 

It’s awkward.

At least Satoru feels that it is. 

Even with his smile, he still feels like Suguru just has an intimidating and dominating aura. Normally he wouldn’t care what a human thought about him, but he doesn’t want your dad to hate him. Not only does he not want to feel that disappointment from you, it would make your contract much more difficult to handle. It’s better this way with everyone getting along.

Satoru continues to just look around the restaurant in a way that’s completely obvious as to what he’s doing and it causes Manami to laugh.

“You can relax, Satoru. We don’t bite,” she tries to get him to relax but neither of them are sure if it’s working. “You practically lived with us, why are you so nervous?” Good point.

“Honestly, I didn’t even look at it that way.” 

“Stop stressing yourself out. There’s no interrogation today,” Suguru interjects.

He breathes a sigh of relief and finally sits back and relaxes in his seat. He looks over to where you are with your sisters and a small smile graces his face. You’ve been through so much and yet you still have a group of loving family and friends and it’s beautiful to see. He’s from a time where that wasn't as prevalent as it is now. Parents weren’t as affectionate whereas parents now show love to their kids all the time with everything from hugs daily to gifts. Kids used to work physical labor heavy jobs where now they’re in school during those times. And now people mostly get married for love instead of the contract it was between the families, it’s great, and takes some adjusting to. 

After a couple more minutes, you and your sisters return to the table and Satoru gets up to pull your seat out for you.

“Thank you, kind sir,” you say with a giggle. 

“Of course, princess.”

“Okay! Okay! I’m gonna get diabetes over here!” Nanako shouts and maybe you two can reel it in a little bit. 

The rest of you take a few minutes to browse through the menu and see what looks good and you can get trapped in your favorite dilemma, too many things look good. You decide to order a rice bowl that’s topped with shrimp and a couple veggies and Satoru gets a spicy chicken and bacon wrap so that you two can pick off of each other’s plates. 

The conversation starts to flow smoothly and even gets still when your sisters and Satoru start debating on what the funniest reality show is and you love how passionate both sides are about it. You know that Satoru has been watching a lot of it lately, but your sisters are connoisseurs of trash tv so you really don’t think that he’s not going to be winning this one.

When the food arrives, you give Satoru half the food in your bowl and he gives you half of his wrap and you swear that you catch Manami smiling up a storm at the two of you. You’re really surprised how good the food here was because you assumed it was going to be one of those things where all the work was put into the appearance and the appearance alone, but it’s definitely worth coming back.

“So, what are you kids getting up to lately?” Manami inquires.

“Choso has a show this weekend, so that’s all that’s planned for right now.”

“Aaaahhh, can I go?” Mimiko whines.

“You’re too young,” Suguru shuts her down immediately.

“This sucks! I can’t wait until I’m an adult.”

“Take advantage of your youth,” all of the adults at the table say in unison before laughing.

You remember when you were younger and along with all of your friends, you complained about not wanting to wait to grow up. But now that you have to pay rent and bills, you will never stop giving the advice of enjoying just being a teenager. 

After you’ve all finished eating, the waitress clears the table and then Suguru pulls out his phone to ask the waitress to take a photo of you. She agrees and you all make your way over to their wall of flowers photo station and start getting in line for the camera. 

From left to right it’s you, Nanako, Manami, Mimiko, and then Geto on the end with Satoru standing back by the waitress that you don’t notice while lining up.

“Satoru! Get in here!” Suguru yells over to him.

Satoru looks shocked for a moment before going to stand next to you. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to overstep.”

“When I say I’m taking my family out, you’re coming and taking apart in the activities the family does,” he says with no room to argue.

“Yes sir!” Satoru smiles so big and bright and this moment really makes your day. 

“I love your clip!” The makeshift photographer says to Suguru and that’s when you realize what he has on.

“Oh my god! You’re wearing it!” You exclaim.

For his birthday this year, you got him a giant butterfly clip that’s big enough to hold up all of his hair and it’s completely covered in Swarovski crystals. You think it’s beautiful and it definitely got a few laughs which is what you were going for, but you didn’t think he’d actually wear it.

But he is.

And it really stands out amongst his dark black hair and it looks incredible.

“Of course I am. It was a gift from my daughter.”

‘Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry’ you think to yourself. 

Instead, you smile.

These are the things that make life still feel like living. You may have been raked over the hot coals of life at a young age, but as much as you hate to admit because it makes you feel guilty, there’s still a lot of good left. 

After taking a few pictures with different pairs, all of you make your way back to the car so that Suguru can drop you off back at home where you and Satoru can start watching all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. 

When Suguru pulls up in front of the entrance to your building, you get out to see Toji calling your name and waving at you on his way out.

“Oooohhhh, who’s that guy?” Mimiko asks.

“Toji, he’s a neighbor from like a door away.”

“He’s cute. Why do you get all the cute guys?” Nanako asks and everybody looks at her before her cheeks redden at her accidental admission. But it just gets brushed off because you’re not going to tease her when you remember what she walked in on.

“Love you guys! Text me when you get home!” You say to everyone before closing the door and making your way into the building. But Satoru’s jealousy must’ve been activated by Toji because he picks you up in a princess carry and carries you all the way up to your apartment. But hey, for today, you’ll take it.

‎⋆˙⟡♡✧˖°

It’s early as hell in the morning and the only way that Suguru can describe himself is as ‘fucking tired.’

He was able to fall asleep early last night which he thought was going to be a great benefit, and it was, but he still feels like he’s running on empty and that just goes to show how much he needed that day off.

However, he got a call from Ijichi about there being a development in the case, a big one, potentially, and he didn’t want to say what it was over the phone.

He practically flew out of bed, showered as fast as humanly possible, and then got in his car to, admittedly, drive above the speed limit. That would be awkward to get pulled over for but desperate times call for desperate measures.

He didn’t even get a chance to make his coffee this morning so as soon as he arrives at the station, he makes a beeline for his office and puts on a pot before he gets whatever news he’s about to get. He definitely needs his caffeine fix in case it turns out to be absolutely terrible.

Just as the pot is finishing up, he hears a knock on his door and answers for whoever it is to come in. 

“Hello there Detective Geto, I apologize because I know that you just got here, but…” Ijichi starts to stammer but Suguru waves him off.

“Please relax. I just wanted to get my coffee on before I got news was that was going to chap my ass,” he responds with a laugh. He grabs his coffee mug and goes to take a seat behind his desk, motioning for Ijichi to take a seat and join him. “Alright, what’s going on?”

“This morning I received a phone call from a reporter claiming that they had something big on the case.”

Fuck.

Reporters are the worst.

They have their moments where they’re beneficial when you need to raise awareness for a case, but otherwise, they sensationalize the shit out of it and come off more disrespectful than anything. Hell, he’s seen the way that they’ve treated you and he’s not a fan.

“They have something on our case? Like what?”

“A letter.”

“A letter?”

“Yes, a letter… from the killer.”

Suguru closes his eyes and exhales because he already knows what a shitstorm this is about to be. Regardless if it gets printed or not, which it probably will be, it’s going to cause a lot of chaos. Plus, a lot of times these things are hoaxes but there is a chance that this one isn’t so it still has to be taken seriously and he’s already annoyed.

“Well, what does it say?”

“It’s in evidence, but I have a copy.” He sends a typed up copy of the letter to his colleague and Suguru opens up his e-mail to read it.

“Hello Detective, we’ve been together a long time, haven’t we?”

He’s already tired.