estirose

Part 2 of chapter 8. Pairing: Tendou/Kagami. Rated 13+.

Kagami opened his eyes to see a hospital ceiling. Funny how he was rapidly getting used to them. He didn’t remember much beyond a glimpse of Yaguruma rushing forward, and wondered suddenly if he’d managed to hide the belt before Tendou had dragged him out of there.

That was his first thought; his second was that his throat was awfully dry. He coughed, looking to his left to see if there was a pitcher he could fill or pour from.

There was a motion to his right as someone got up. He quickly recognized Yaguruma-san, who was in a suit instead of his Shadow uniform. The man poured a cup of water and handed it to him.

“Drink,” Yaguruma-san said, and Kagami obeyed. He looked over at the man questioningly, even though he had a feeling in his stomach on exactly why Yaguruma-san had been chosen to wait by his bedside, or at least let off his duties to do so.

He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to feel stupid or admit that he was Gatack’s host if ZECT didn’t already know.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Yaguruma-san said warmly. “How do you feel?”

It was a good question. “In pain.”

His former supervisor laughed. “Given your injuries, I’m not surprised.” He sobered up, though. “I’lll see about getting you more pain medication. Gatack should help with your healing as well.”

Shit.

Yaguruma-san was probably there to ‘recruit’ him, to tell him what he was going to do now. Yaguruma was a host, and they’d worked well together, so it made sense.

“I hadn’t expected to have a Zecter ever again,” Kagami said. It was honest. He hadn’t expected one or wanted one.

That brought a smile to Yaguruma-san’s face. “You’ve got the potential,” he told Kagami. “Think of your time with TheBee as training. You’ll soon have a unit behind you, and I know you’ll work hard. Come to think of it, you do have the ability to attract Zecters and their hosts; I’m going to mention that to headquarters. You might be just who we need to bring everybody in.”

Kagami blushed a little. “Um….” He was thinking of the nights Tendou had come to his apartment.

“I remember that,” Yaguruma said, placing a hand on Kagami’s uninjured arm. “Maybe there was a good reason why Headquarters stopped me from interfering. Even I’m occasionally wrong.”

He thought of how the man hadn’t come when Kagami was last a host, and doubted it.

“In the meantime,” Yaguruma-san said, “I’m sure that people will be coming to see you and debrief you. And I suspect you’ll be getting some of Shadow’s people. I’ve already had one or two talking about wanting to follow you, and I’ll recommend that they join your unit.”

Given the last time he tried to leave ZECT, he suspected that the transfers would be approved just to keep him in line. “Matsui-san?” Kagami asked. The man had liked him, and he’d liked the man, and if he was going to get Shadow watchdogs, he could do worse than him.

“Matsui was one. Kageyama, too.” Yaguruma grinned. “Kageyama will make a good second-in-command.”

Kagami frowned. “He doesn’t get along with Tendou.” He was pretty sure the two of them didn’t get along. His memory was a bit hazy, though.

“He’ll learn to,” Yaguruma-san assured him. “You’ll be a good leader, and he’ll follow your orders.”

Kagami could only hope that was true. He also hoped that HQ would nix the transfers, but he doubted that it was going to happen. So he merely nodded and knew he’d have to figure out how to get out of it later.

“You’re going to be a very popular person for a while,” Yagaruma said. “If you run into difficulties, keep in touch; I’ll be there for you.”

Well, when that came to that, he could think of things far worse than having Yaguruma’s aid. Though not in the ways that Yaguruma was probably expecting.

Yaguruma got up and gave Kagami a grin. “I look forward to working with you,” he said. And then he was out the door, leaving Kagami alone with his thoughts.

But not for long. Apparently news spread fast, because after Yaguruma-san left, the doctors and nurses came to visit, and then Tadokoro-san was in the room. He was still in a wheelchair, but Kagami was glad to see him. “Tadokoro-san,” he said.

“Kagami.” There was a smile in there somewhere, briefly, but Tadokoro was otherwise serious. But Kagami didn’t mind at all. It was just good to see someone who he felt was totally on his side.

Kagami smiled for him instead. “Thank you for looking out for me, Tadokoro-san.”

“I tried to keep Gatack away from you,” Tadokoro confessed. “You’ve been on the short list for its host for years. There were those who were surprised that you got TheBee, even temporarily.”

Things were beginning to make sense for Kagami. He’d been kept away from Zecters because they knew there was a good chance that he’d be Gatack’s host, and that he had to be kept free for that. “But if I was on the short list, and TheBee….”

“You fit TheBee’s profile of an ideal host at the time,” Tadokoro told him. “They sent you to Shadow so that you’d know how to act as a ZECT agent with a Zecter; nobody expected TheBee to happen.” He shook his head. “Kagami. I hear things and I see things that I shouldn’t. When you tried to abandon TheBee… they won’t be that flexible this time.”

He would have hardly called his short time rejecting the other Zecter as “flexible”, which made him want to laugh. Hysterically. And cry.

“Kagami. I’ll do my best to stay with you as support. But if I don’t… be careful. There’s more things going on than you know, and there are things that you should know about yourself that you don’t.” He gave Kagami one more dark, serious look before wheeling out. Kagami thought he saw a guy in a gold jacket rush towards Tadokoro-san as he left, but Kagami wasn’t sure.

He wondered if he should talk about the whole abandoning thing to Tadokoro-san, because the man still seemed to be on his side. And he had the sense that Tadokoro-san would do his best to hold by his word. And to be honest, he trusted Tadokoro-san and Misaki-san far more than he did Kageyama-san. Maybe when Tadokoro-san came back, he’d have some advice as to how to handle Kageyama-san.

That being said, Kagami really wouldn’t mind a little peace and quiet. He’d lived through a lot of things lately, including a building blowing up around him, and the bizarre sight of a Worm trying to save his life. Genuinely trying to save his life, at that. Makoto might have been many things, but he turned out to be a good person, after all, in the end. For a worm who had used a little boy’s form.

But of course, he couldn’t be left alone, not Kagami, not when he needed it. He tried not to glare at the next visitor to his hospital room.

Crossposted from Ramblings Yet Once More here.