Chapter Text
Tsukishima Kei is not an idiot.
He was far from it in fact. His ability to read people as locked a reinforced steel safe; coupled with his analyzation skills allowing him to adapt to unfamiliar and sometimes dangerous situations. All in all makes Tsukishima Kei a genius by most anybody’s standards.
So of course he accounted for this.
Meeting with Towada Yoshiki and his men over a turf dispute meant a, what, 75% chance of getting drugged and beat to hell? No, more like 82%, according to Tsukishima. Towada had been known to play dirty with others, lately he had been seizing small parts of Tokyo that belonged to weaker gangs.
So, it wasn’t surprising when he worked his way up to stepping on the toes of people like Kuroo Tetsurou. Kuroo ran roughly a quarter of Tokyo as one of the most powerful underground figures. Tsukishima would describe him as “hot and hot headed”. He wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet between the eyes of anyone who tried to fuck with him, and goddamn did he look hot when he’d unbutton that bloody shirt.
When some of Kuroo’s associates started showing up dead with Rohypnol, more commonly known as a date rape drug, in their systems. They’d figured it was finally their turn to deal with Towada. Tsukishima took it upon himself to deal with the negotiations since the only other person of high rank that could do it without lighting the building on fire, that person being Akaashi, was too busy dealing with a malfunction in the shipping yard. Something about a lost container?
Tsukishima was probably better fitted for the job anyways. Much to Kuroo’s dismay that is.
“Alone? Hell fucking no!”
“I’m the best person to go and you know it.”
“We don’t do business with these guys Kei, they have no loyalties to us.”
“Which is why you especially can’t go, and Keiji’s already got enough on his plate.”
“I’ll send Bokuto- no I won’t.”
“I had Kenma help me rally a location, Tetsu, let me handle this myself.”
“Fine.”
Fine.
It was everything but fine.
Tsukishima took the drink.
Here goes 82%.
It took 11 minutes and 43 seconds.
Even though Tsukishima knew this was the most probable outlook. He was scared as fuck. He had gone into this with his feelings repressed, per usual. God forbid he admit he was scared or nervous. But now, now it was actually happening, Tsukishima wanted out. He wanted to scream for help, he didn’t even care about the “I told you so” look he would get from Kuroo. He wanted to go home.
Tsukishima felt his hands begin to loosen, becoming almost fuzzy. Just as he noticed his hands, his vision started to blur. He could feel it coming on, the forced relaxation was coursing through his muscles. His thoughts became messy, incoherent. He couldn’t form a sentence, a word even. He didn’t even notice his vision getting worse and worse, like a dog with cataracts.
He heard the faint sound of gunshots, the drop of one, two, three people behind him.
Bodyguards.
Tsukishima’s head leaned to the side, no longer having much muscle control in his neck. His eyes drifted to the growing pool of blood on his right. One of his men, dead on the ground with a hole in his brain. He watched the red pool widen and widen and widen.
Just like that he was out.
But, Tsukishima Kei was not unprepared.
Knowing this outcome was well perceived, Tsukishima took extra precaution besides his mandated body guards. One of his cufflinks in his jacket had a sensor in it. If Tsukishima didn’t activate the sensor with a specific timed-tap pattern every 10 minutes it would send out a gps signal with his exact coordinates. The signal would get sent directly to the tech liaison, Kozume Kenma, who would then relay it to the ever so eccentric Koutarou Bokuto. Who would come in guns blazing 9 minutes and 12 seconds after the signal was sent.
That’s exactly what happened.
Kenma got the alert, the beep prying his eyes away from the work he was not doing. A pang of anxiety shot it’s way through his body. Tsukishima had told him this might happen, but now, the reality of it coming to fruition had Kenma’s hand trembling as he reached for his phone.
“Shit.” He cursed under his breath as he dialed the number for Bokuto.
Surely enough, Bokuto showed up guns blazing ready to light the place up. Only, Tsukishima wasn’t there. No one was there.
“Kenma he’s not here!” Bokuto shot into his earpiece.
“You’re at the coordinates, maybe you just didn’t look.” Kenma replied nonchalantly into Bokuto’s ear.
“You fuc-“ Bokuto’s pissed off reply was cut off.
“Kou, look.” Kuroo had forcibly tagged along in their quest to retrieve Tsukishima. He wanted to curb stomp the fuckers behind this shit and make them wish he put a bullet through his brain instead.
Bokuto looked to where Kuroo was standing, his eyes shot open at what he saw.
“Fuck.” His voice broke as he stared at what Kuroo was holding. “Is that what I think it is.”
Tsukishima’s jacket had fallen off.
He did not account for that.
Not at all.
——
“This is bullshit!” Kuroo threw a picture frame off his desk, smashing into the wall and shattering into a million pieces. “How the fuck did I let the happen?” He ran his fingers through his hair, clutching it tightly. “Goddamnit!” He then threw his hands onto the desk with a loud smack.
“Yelling isn’t going to do shit Tetsurou.” Bokuto approached him, somewhat slamming his hands onto the other side of the desk.
“Says you.” Kuroo scoffed, falling down into his chair.
“Yeah says me!” Bokuto retaliated. “I said that!” Kuroo stared at him blankly, in awe of his stupidity. It would’ve made him laugh if they weren’t in such a dire situation.
“You dumbass, that’s not what he meant.” A familiar voice better known as Akaashi approached.
“I know that.” He in fact did not know that.
“Whatever, listen, it’s been almost twenty four hours since Kenma received the signal from the sensor.” Akaashi pulled out one of the many maps laid out on Kuroo’s desk. “We’ve checked the warehouse where the meeting was held and all the other known abandon warehouses and factories in these vicinities.” He pointed towards different subsections of the map.
“And we found nothing.” Kuroo added, he knew this as well as everyone else. They’ve been searching for the past 24 hours in all the places they could think of. But each one lead to nothing, just as empty as the day they were abandoned.
“Well that’s where i’d say you’re wrong.” Kuroo and Bokuto immediately leaned in, full attention on Akaashi. “Earlier this morning I took it upon myself to re-check the warehouse where Tsukki met with Towada.” Akaashi motioned for one of the bodyguards to bring him a folder that had been placed on a side table near the bookshelves.
Akaashi accepted the folder from the bodyguard and turned back to his two men who were still intently watching him, waiting for his discovery. He placed it on Kuroo’s desk and opened it. He handed both Kuroo and Bokuto a small packet of papers that were held together by a paper clip. As the two began to skim through the pages, Akaashi began to explain.
“I took it upon myself to double check all the nooks and crannies of the building in hopes i’d find something that could tell us anything.” Kuroo pulled out a paper from his packet and held it out to Akaashi with a confused look on his face.
“What’s this?” He asked.
“When I was searching I found an ID card belonging to a Fujiwara Youta underneath one of the desks.” Kuroo turned the paper back to his face to get a better look. “This is a photo copy I made after Kenma scanned the original one and ran it through the government criminal databases.”
“Did you get a match?” Bokuto interrupted, desperate for Akaashi to get to the point.
“Not in the criminal database” Akaashi pointed to one of the pages in both of their packets. “Death records.” Both men almost simultaneously looked at Akaashi. “Fujiwara Youta died four years ago.”
Kuroo paused before stuttering out “What-“
“Why does this matter Keiji?” Bokuto cut Kuroo off, voice dripping with anticipation. Akaashi took out the last item from the folder, the log for the shipping yard.
“Keiji,” Kuroo started with a deep sigh in his voice. “I don’t give a fuck about the missing container right now!” He snapped, slamming his right hand down onto the desk, not fazing Akaashi in the slightest.
“Tell me Kuroo,” Akaashi leaned in, face to face with Kuroo. “How does a dead man sign into the shipping yard on the same day that our container went missing?” He pushed the log copy to Kuroo’s chest and surely enough Akaashi was right. There towards the end of the log was “Fujiwara Youta” signed next to the date that the container went missing.
“Holy shit.” Bokuto muttered, staring at the signature along with Kuroo.
“Where is it now?” Kuroo asked with a complete change in tone. It was like a switch had flipped and now he was somehow more serious and determined.
“My guess was that it was transferred by truck so I sent out a message to the Ukai family since Towada would have to cross their territory to get back.” Akaashi paused. “We got a hit less than an hour ago and the Ukai family sent some men to tail them.” Bokuto and Kuroo looked at Akaashi with relief in their eyes.
“There hasn’t been any movement in the past ten minutes so I picked up the coordinates through the Ukai family’s tracking software they shared.” A small voice poked up from the door way. No one other than the body guards had noticed that Kenma had entered the room. He slugged his way over with his tablet in hand. Kenma placed it on the desk and zoomed out on the digital map. “Here.”
“What the fuck are we waiting for?” Bokuto spoke up. “Let’s go get our boy back!” He was already halfway out the door by the time he finished his sentence.
“Forward those coordinates to my phone Kenma.” Kuroo asked, politely yet rushed. “You, Keiji.” He pointed as he made his way around the desk, Akaashi turned to face him.
Kuroo’s right hand flew up to take Akaashi behind the neck and pull him in for a forceful kiss. His lips smashed up against Akaashi’s with fervor and no sense of neatness. Before Akaashi had a chance to fully react the kiss was over and Kuroo was staring him down.
“I love you, Kaashi.” The sentiment was cut short by Bokuto yelling from down the hall to “hurry the fuck up”.
‘We’re coming Kei’ Kuroo thought to himself as he hurried down the hall. ‘Hang on’.