Nagumo landed lightly, boots slick against wet metal.
You were already there — like always.
Perched on the edge, blade across your lap like it wasn’t stained with Order blood. Nagumo didn’t draw his weapon.
Instead, he tilted his head and offered the kind of grin that never quite reached his eyes.
“Cute spot for a meeting,” he said. “Romantic, even.”
You didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Didn’t need to.
He took a step closer.
“You gonna make me chase you again?”
Still nothing.
Only the hum of the city below, far too alive for the dead silence up here.
“I told them I’d kill you tonight,” he muttered. “Promised it, even. Said I’d bring your head in a box, no ribbon.”
Another step.
Closer now.
He hadn’t told anyone about that.
Didn’t want to explain why his blade stopped midair that night.
“Funny thing is,” he continued, quieter now, “I meant to do it. I really did. I thought if I saw you again, I’d just… end it.”
Rain started up again, thin and sharp.
“You make it hard to stay loyal, you know that?”
No reply.
Of course not.
You were always better at silence than he was.
Nagumo laughed softly, like it hurt.
“I see the way the others look at me. Like I’m cracked. Like I’m playing too close to the flame. Maybe I am.”
He finally stopped a few feet away, close enough to see the tension in your shoulders. Close enough to feel the weight between you, drawn tighter than any wire.
“I still came.”
He looked at the blade resting in your hand. It hadn’t moved. Not once.
Still nothing.
He exhaled, stepped even closer, ignoring the wet steel underfoot, ignoring the voice in his comms screaming to finish the job.
“I dream about you, you know.”
His voice cracked just slightly on the last word.
“Not always like that. Sometimes you’re standing over my body. Sometimes I’m over yours.”
A bitter smile.
You finally shifted — just your eyes.
He caught it.
His breath hitched, a flicker of hope dying behind his teeth.
“God, I wish I didn’t care.”
The comms cut to static.
He reached up slowly, tugging the earpiece out and letting it fall.
“Tonight’s supposed to be the last time.”