守りたい // hidekane

:re 4

Haise gets vivid dreams often. Most of which consits of a man with full white hair, sometimes full black, but never like his. Sometimes he sees the expanse of whatever land he's in through their eyes, sometimes he sees them from an outsider's point of view.

But he knows there's always someone with him in there, someone familiar, sitting across from him, standing next to him, talking talking and talking. But whenever Haise wakes up, a face never pops up in his mind when he tries to give it one.

It's been troubling him more than usual lately.

He knows it's stupid. To wake up early the next day and wait a few blocks from the café to see it flip the sign from closed to open. He didn't even stop to think about what he was doing, already inside the building before a rational thought like: "It's too early. They just opened. I'm going to look like a freak." was able to keep him from doing so.

Then he continued to make a fool of himself. He says the name he's been practicing the entire night out of haste, rolling out of his tongue.
Na-ga-chi-ka.

He half expected Nagachika to ask him for his name too. But he doesn't, he seems like he's entirely lost in thought. Haise wants him to know, though, that would at least be enough. So he introduces himself before the waiter could leave.

"Haise." Nagachika says, like he's testing the way it sounds in his mouth. Then he smiles, though only his eyes were visible for Haise to see. "I'll keep that in mind." Then he's gone.

Haise returns to the Quinx's building after he finishes his cup. The meeting was a little bit anticlimactic, but who was he to ask for more? Nagachika has a job to do, he couldn't possibly spare some time to actually talk to him. He finds it ridiculous that he even wants him to. They only just met, after all.

But there's an invisible pull Haise mistakes as suspiscion for an unknown reason. Like a sense of deja vu that just won't wash away.

"Sassan, where've you been?" Shirazu asks from the couch once he enters the living room. Mutsuki is seated beside him, quietly relaying the same question through his eyes. Haise makes a vague gesture and ends up lying about his whereabouts. If they find out he woke up at ass o'clock in the morning just to go to :Re, they'd never let him live it down.

That night he dreams about strawberry blonds and memories he can't remember. He wakes up in the middle of a nightmare, something in the sewers, but it slips away just as soon as he was conscious enough to realize that he was still in the comfort of his bedroom. Haise lies down and doesn't fall asleep again.

"Do you know anyone named Nagachika?"

Akira's hands pause in the middle of the air where she reached for her cup. People pass by them in the CCG's indoor café, getting ready to start their day at work. Haise finds himself frowning at the sight, it's barely been a week since his probation and he already misses wearing his uniform. He watches as Akira's face pushes through a flurry of emotions in a flash before it turns blank, calculating. She takes a sip from her coffee.

"No." She says. The cup clinks down on the table when she places it down. "Not that I know of. Why?"

Haise feels like there's something strange in the way she's talking, but he can't pinpoint it enough to actually suspect that Akira is lying. He decides not to tell her about :Re anyways. He shrugs, "Nothing. I just came across the name somewhere. Can't even remember it."

"Why did you ask me?"

He looks away from her stare. "Figured the reason it might be a little familiar was because you'd mentioned it once. Nevermind. Maybe I heard it from the TV or something. Sorry."