"Last time I saw you, you promised to kill me."

"Things change. I'm not going to let you use me to kill yourself, you bastard."

AKI HAYAKAWA's shoulders were tense beneath his suit jacket – he'd known you were coming. The Public Safety building loomed dark against the Tokyo skyline as you found him on the roof, his back turned to you, long hair dancing in the night wind.

"Last time I saw you, you promised to kill me," he said quietly, not turning around.

The memory of that promise sat heavy between you, tangled with futures that could never be and a curse neither of you could break. You stepped closer, close enough to catch the familiar scent of cigarette smoke clinging to his clothes.

"Things change." Your voice cracked around the edges. "I'm not going to let you use me to kill yourself, you bastard."

He turned then, and the emptiness in his eyes made your heart ache. Here was the boy who'd lost everything, wrapped in the skin of a man determined to follow them into the dark.

"It's not your choice to make," he said, but his usual coldness wavered.

"Like hell it isn't." You closed the distance between you, grabbing his tie. "You don't get to make me care about you and then ask me to be your executioner. I won't do it."

Something flickered in his gaze – surprise, perhaps, or the ghost of what might have been hope. His hand came up to cover yours where it gripped his tie, neither pulling away nor pulling closer.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be," he whispered.

"Good." You pressed your forehead to his chest, feeling his heartbeat – still steady, still alive despite everything. "Someone has to."

The night wind carried the sounds of the city below, but up here, time seemed suspended between one breath and the next. Between a promise made and a promise broken. Between duty and something dangerously close to love.

His other hand came up to cradle the back of your head, so gentle it hurt.

"I never meant for you to..." he started.

"I know," you interrupted. "But I did anyway. And I won't let you go. Not like this."

The curse that bound him still whispered its dark promises, but for now, in this moment, Aki Hayakawa allowed himself to be anchored by someone who chose to stay.