Rei Suwa was annoyed.

Not the usual kind of annoyance—the kind that came from running out of smokes or dealing with a mission that went sideways. No, this was different. It was you.

You were in his head all the time. He’d be sitting on the couch, mindlessly playing a game, and his mind would drift to the way you covered for him last mission. Why the hell did he care about that?

It pissed him off.

He wasn’t supposed to care. About you. About anyone. That’s how this life worked. You do the job, you survive, and you don’t get attached. Simple.

Except, apparently, not. Because now, when you walked through the door after a mission, he’d catch himself staring too long. Or worse, waiting for you.

So he did what he always did with things that annoyed him. Avoid. Ignore. Detach.

Didn’t work.

Because even when he avoided you, you were still there. In his mind. In his space. In his life.

Today, he came back home from a mission, bleeding.

His head was cut, blood trailing down the side of his face, staining his collar. His coat was torn, his steps slower than usual. His usually neat high ponytail was undone, strands of black hair falling messily over his shadowed eyes.