Heizou awoke to the warm sunlight shining on his face. Right. The coffee shop with Kaedehara. The young Inazuman in question was softly rubbing his back and drinking coffee. Heizou pondered his current lifestyle- how he was able to have so much free time now even despite the idol business. His last job almost seemed like a dream from long ago.
Heizou had always been smart- a logical child genius. His dad hadn't really known what to do with him- it was obvious that he wasn't going to inherit the family's martial arts school, no matter how much his dad tried. He'd made that statement himself. So instead, when Heizou was fourteen, his dad had sent him off job hunting. He didn't blame the old man for where he ended up- it was just how the wind blew.
He'd ended up at a small agency- the Bantan Sango Detective agency. He'd started off just organizing files, but had somehow wound up as an actual detective. And it hadn't been that bad- he didn't mind being pulled out of school to catch criminals- but one summer night things had changed.
The memory was so vivid...
He'd been dispatched to find and track down a thief. He had the skill to detain the criminal physically, but he was hoping he could reason his way out of this one. The criminal was a thief- and also an old friend. An old friend he'd left because he'd committed countless thefts just to try and make friends with Heizou- to keep up the appearance that his family could afford to take care of themselves. He'd been told that the thief had stolen some fans from a festival and then tried to run. He'd expected the usual- a chasedown, an attempt to reason the criminal into arrest, and if they resisted, eventually he would physically subdue them and return any stolen items on their person to their owners or keepers.
Instead, he'd walked into a much more awful crime.
His old friend had been lying there, in a pool of his own blood, a knife through his chest. According to the bystanders, someone else had attempted to steal his wallet- and when he'd resisted... Well, when Heizou had gotten there, he wasn't dead, but it was only a matter of time...
His friend had recognised him, weakly squeezing Heizou's hand.
"Come here to see me, did you... Heizou?" he'd said. Heizou had desperately tried to keep pressure on his chest, but the blood had been welling through his fingers.
"Just shut up! Shut up!" he'd yelled. The only response had been a shake of the head, and his friend had slowly opened his wallet on the floor next to him.
Inside was nothing but a pebble- a green pepple, one of two that they'd found in a river together. The only part of their relationship not tainted by crime and theft. Heizou still had his own.
"I... I came to see you, too..."
The rest was blurred. The next day, Heizou had started trying to leave the business... he'd suddenly become aware of all the violations of policies that ensure good working conditions... he'd noticed just how long his hours were, leaving him with no free time... at fourteen years old, he'd been exposed to the harsh world of crime- and everything that came with it. Instead of looking at it through the windows of files, he'd been thrown into it up close and personal. And it had ended with his friend's death.
He wasn't himself for ages after that.
Kazuha had saved him.
Kazuha, and his beautiful, soft voice.
The first time he'd talked to Heizou, it was over. Even upon learning he already had a boyfriend, he'd still yearned for that easy presence he had, the attitude that could calm anyone down. And his boyfriend Tomo was great as well.
Somehow they'd ended up in a threesome, and honestly, Heizou couldn't be happier. All three were happy with it, and now that two of them were working together - with Tomo as the group's singing coach- (damn his voice was fine) it worked out wonderfully. They'd had their trials and tribulations, but they'd stuck through it.
Back in the coffee shop, someone's phone buzzed. Both boys jumped and quickly dug into their bags. Heizou pulled out his- a message from Xiao, rather intense where the fuck are you it's way past lunch as usual. He quickly texted back stfu omw fully aware that Xiao was bad with short texts like that. Oh well, figuring out what he'd said would keep him occupied until they got back to the hotel.
"I wasn't aware you were awake."
"Why would I tell you? Your back rubs are legendary."
"Really?" Kazuha kissed him on the cheek. "I suppose I could use it to get you to sleep later. You know a nap like that is going to mess with your schedule."
"Pff. It's not that bad. Also, we're already late to meet back at the hotel." As if on cue, Kazuha's own phone buzzed. Upon opening the message, it turned out to be Xiao, sending a screenshot of the message Heizou had literally just sent him.
<[image]
<what. What does this mean.
Kazuha chuckled, well aware of what he'd said. "Oh dear."
"He's cheating, he can't ask you! He's not supposed to ask people! He's fuckin' cheating!" Heizou exclaimed. "There is nO way you're answering him with the answer."
"Of course not." Kazuha sent back a little smiley face and put his phone away. "Shall we go?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once they managed to get back to the hotel, Xiao stormed across the lobby to meet them.
"What the fuck was that??? You think you can send me that and expect me to know what it means?"
"It- it was to keep you occupied until we got here..." Heizou couldn't help but laugh.
"But what did it mean??"
"Have you asked Venti?"
"He wouldn't tell me. He just kept laughing."
"Aw. But you can't cheat, Xiao, you gotta figure it out on your own!"
"How am I supposed to do that??"
Kazuha quickly cut in, gently separating the boys.
"Have you tried asking Aether?"
"That's... a good idea. Actually." Xiao pulled out his phone and called their friend. After a few tense seconds (it was definitely more than a few seconds, where was Aether leaving his phone? He always picked up before the second ring) He picked up.
"Shh- What?? What is it?"
Xiao asked his question.
"Uhh shut the fuck up and on my way respectively, why?"
Heizou stepped back as Xiao's piercing gaze snapped towards him.
"Why? Xiao?? Hello? You still there?"
"Heizou..." the low tone of Xiao's voice was Heizou's cue to run.
He bolted for the stairs.
Xiao ran after him. over the call, Aether was laughing, clearly very aware of what had happened. Between a gap in his laughter, Heizou thought he could hear someone else- a male voice? Softly laughing with him. I thought Aether was at his house alone today.
Seeing Xiao behind him and getting closer, he discarded the thought and kept running up the stairs.
Upon getting a stitch, he slowed down, stopping on a stair landing. Xiao quickly caught up to him and slapped him in the shoulder. "Bitch."
Heizou chuckled. At some point Aether had hung up, so they stood there recovering until their boyfriends caught up.
"Archons. Couldn't have done any better to sound like you were running from the police?" Sighed Kazuha.
"Nope. Running from the police and running from Xiao requires the same level of panic."
"C'mon, guys. Which floor are we on, anyway?"
After a hot minute of figuring out which floor they were on, they managed to reach their floor and reconvened in Kazuha and Heizou's room.
"Alright. So, Venti, did you drag Xiao around the city?"
"Yes. Yes he did."
"Only around the good spots! And we found a Sumerian cafe by the uni. It's good."
"Tch. It wasn't that good."
"Well it wasn't bad either, was it, huh?"
"No. But-"
"See, it's good. Oh, and we saw Aether."
Wait. What? Heizou leaned forward.
"Aether? Wasn't he supposed to be at his house today?"
"That's what we thought. But he was walking by the uni. He looked like he had something to do, so I said not to bother him. People do not need to be interrupted when they have purpose."
Heizou wondered. First a delayed pickup on that call, then hearing someone else while on the phone with Aether, and finally seeing him walk through the city when he's supposed to be alone... the detective in him was excited now. What's he hiding? He began tapping his foot repeatedly, thinking about the mystery.
Kazuha nudged him.
"Settle down, Sherlock, we can solve this case later." He then launched into an explanation of how they'd wandered around the city, and eventually settled at a coffee shop where Heizou had fallen asleep from exhaustion after the previous night. Heizou himself knew that Kazuha was keeping some little details out, but honestly the other two did not need to know said details so it was fine. Venti and Xiao probably left out some details as well.
After a few minutes of idle conversation and Venti getting a call from his dad (their finance manager, Decarabian) congratulating them on the concert, the four of them parted ways. Xiao went to have a nap, Kazuha and Venti went back to the hotel lobby to see if they could find some kind of musical instrument, and Heizou dug into his sort-of-secret stash of crime novels and set himself to reading some of the new ones they'd bought wandering around the city. As much as he'd left the old detective job, he still had that same burning desire for the truth, and perhaps losing himself in a new mystery would distract him from his questions about Aether. After all, there wasn't much he could do about that now. And he was getting interested in this new story. Sure, it wasn't true-crime, but four high-school suspects trying to keep their secrets while being investigated? It was getting him invested. Especially since the victim had died in such an interesting way. Nut oil in a cup- whoever did it must have been smart. This was surprisingly riveting for fiction. Surely, one of them had to be lying, but they all seemed innocent. Or maybe it was someone else- the victim did seem to have quite a few enemies. Regardless, it was a good story. He'd have to check the author later and see if she had any other novels.
He would stay like that for a while, curled up comfortably in a chair with a blanket, occasionally putting the book down to wonder about the new facts and how it affected the investigation. He also felt comforted by the way the book portrayed the media in an investigation- the author must have been in some kind of investigation before, the media is exactly that annoying when it comes to solving murder crimes. Especially when it involves minors.
He wouldn't get up until later, when Kazuha forced him to put the book down so they could get some dinner.
By that point, he'd set aside the mystery regarding Aether.
Perhaps it was for the better- but if Shikanoin Heizou had anything to say about it, the truth would come to light eventually.