Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Do you think it’s because you aren’t able to access the Morphogenic Field?” The peaceful silence between the two oldest in the room was broken as she spoke up, looking over to the large man near her. He had reacted, having been taking a sip out of his beer can before he paused, looking back at her.

“Huh, Now that you mention it, maybe?” He said. They had over the past few days broached the subject, often when everyone else was away. Hazuki had started it the first time with outright asking him if he worked with Zer- with Akane and Aoi, but as time went on and the two talked more, it became more obvious. He was as much a victim as the rest of them, and while his amnesia was convenient for Zero’s revenge and plan, it was not intentional.

“Maybe also because you had seen the end results, you had become a form of Schrödinger's Cat,” she said, thinking more as she took a sip from her own drink, in a glass of course as she wasn’t a brute like him. She watched him rub at the scruff of his face before nodding his head, taking another drink himself, before the two of them resumed watching the three kids.

It was kind of adorable really. Junpei had become practically adopted by Sn- Light, and by Clover overnight, becoming an honorary sibling, to the siblings. It must have been boring for Light who could not see the game being played, the game being a fighting game that Hazuki remembered watching her girls play all the time as kids, but he seemed to be providing his own commentary based on the sounds he heard, and the comments made by the two kids playing.

She chuckled to herself as she really looked at them. Those three kids had been through so much, and yet they were able to now be happy. She could smile at that.

“They’re tough kids, ain’t they,” was said as she paused, looking to see the large man chuckling as he watched them. “Been what, a month and look at them.”

She only hummed to herself an answer as she thought to herself about the missing space that they made, even if they did not realize it. Did they... did they subconsciously already decide to make a space between Snake and Clover for another to sit in? She only could frown softly at that.

“They are waiting on the two to join them,” she said softly, as he took a look too. “I remember when my girls were little they would do it sometimes without realizing. They would sit in such a way that if I had time to join I could perfectly fit in the middle. Look between Clover and Snake,” she said, gesturing as he looked.

“Yeah, I see it. Damn, almost wanna hunt those two kids down and bring them now.”

“Aoi will be here before the year ends.” If there was anything Hazuki knew for certain, it was that.

“Oh? How do you know?”

“Because he was a victim too, and he will be able to forgive himself first,” she said as she took a sip, Junpei having lost as he groaned in his hands, Clover dancing now her victory. “He will be able to reach out, to realize these are people who get what he was suffering from just as much as they did.”

“I don’t follow.” He said, looking at her before moving his hands to a different can, soda this time, popping it to begin drinking. “Aoi was as much involved in this as Akane was, right?”

“As a cop, have you ever needed to shoot someone?” She asked, watching his expressions change for a moment, almost defensive before he realized her tone and expressions showed no judgement.

“I. Yeah. I had to. A few times.”

“Did you ever shoot someone to protect another? A kid perhaps?” He nodded at that, unsure of what she was asking. “And when you did, what did you think and feel?”

“The kid was safe. That was all I cared about.”

“And, have you ever had to shoot someone to protect yourself?” She asked again, watching his thoughts. The sounds in the background was Junpei and Clover having a more heated rematch, Snake’s commentary full of enough sass to make her almost want to drop the topic to listen in.

“Yeah. Those ones... those ones haunted me more. I had rough nights a few times where I couldn’t sleep.”

“Because of regrets?”

“Yeah. I wanted to do more, you know? I’d sit there thinkin’ that if I just did something different no one had to die.”

“And that is the difference between them two,” she said, a soft smile on her heart as she listened to the man talk. He was kind, honestly kinder than she was. It warmed her heart to know now the identity of the man who saved her daughter and to know just how much he cared. “Both Aoi and Akane had to take a shot, the difference is that Aoi did it to save someone he loved, his sister, and Akane did it to save herself.”

“I see.”

“It would be easier for Aoi to forgive himself, and realize where he stood, and that he can allow himself to move past it, as at the end of the day he was protecting someone else,” she said, gesturing to the three of them. “I would be the same way for those three, or my own daughters. I would do whatever it took to protect my kids.”

“Careful old lady, soundin’ like a real mom now,” he said with a laugh as she rolled her eyes, flicking at him with her nails. “Ow!”

“Shut it,” she said with a smirk of her own. “But you see the difference? Akane... she would have to realize that for her to live, they had to suffer, and she may get stuck in herself. What if she did something differently? What if there was a better solution that didn’t involve so many people being hurt by it? What if she could have survived without needing Aoi to do anything?”

“What if she didn’t have to hurt Junpei.”

They both paused, looking at him. He... he did not look good. He was smiling and having fun, but they both saw the eyebags that he did not have before.

“You think he’s goin’ to get worse?”

“Yeah,” she said with a soft sigh. “That kid. He is too kind.”

“Like a candle,” she paused, looking at him and his words with an odd look. She did not expect him to be so profound. “What? I know stuff!”

“Sorry, sorry,” she said with a small giggle. “It just caught me off guard is all. But you’re right. He is trying to be warm and bright, but it will only melt him down. I think Light and Clover see it though,” she said gesturing to the other two. “They are trying to give him some light from them.”

Seeing that the idiot next to her was about to speak, she cut him off with a glare. “No puns from you.”

He only laughed as they continued to watch the three.