Escalate

Nerves

The young league sat in the hotel room as Roy and robin were making calls to the league and others while the rest of the team listened to angry Akira screaming Japanese into his own phone. As it switched out with other languages as well.

"I don't care! You get your asses here now!" Akira snarled and threw his phone at the wall as it shattered.

"Hey... Akira... Where's Rachel..?" Megan smiled nervously.

"Right here," Rachel walked out with her long hair wet and she was in a large tee shirt. The boys eyes widen when she bent down to pick up Akita's phone and looked at it unamused.

"They coming?" She asked handing it back to Akira.

"Is that my shirt?!" Roy called from the other side of the room.

"Finders keepers," Rachel glared.

"Akira.?" Rachel looked back at him as he was ordering something in Japanese to room service.

"Shut it Rachel, I don't want to talk to you," Akira snapped as he crossed his arms.

"Keith you and I both know-" "don't you dare call me that, we are not on good terms," Akira snarled walking towards her but Rachel put up her hand and he stopped.

"I'm sorry but he's my brother so I get to worry about him as much as you can," Rachel spat.

"He's my partner! He's my best friend! He's my boyfriend! I didn't rat him out to the place he still wakes up screaming too! I would rather die then let any of our own go back," Akira roared at her and Rachel flinched as she looked away.

The room was silent as Rachel leaned against the wall looking down with tears in her eyes. Akira went to the door when someone knocked on it. He thanked the man and walked back with a bottle of whiskey.

"Thanks for nothing but I'm going back to my place, I'll be back later with my own if your still up for doing anything," Akira grabbed his broken phone and popped the bottle open to take a swing but Artemis grabbed it after him.

"Let me come with," Artemis told him softly.

"I rather get drunk alone," Akira glared.

"Akira don't walk out now, we will get Leo back," robin said gently and Akira scoffed.

"For all we know," his voice broke. "Leo's already dead, you don't know those monsters like we do,"

With that Akira left the room as his eyes where down and Rachel was left with the heroes.

"Is it truly as bad as Akira makes it out to be?" Megan asked quietly as Rachel wiped a tear off her cheek quickly.

"Actually, he's not exasperating enough about it, that place... it's just horrible," Rachel sniffled shaking her head.

"Your okay now Rachel, we'll get this figured out and get Leo back," robin told her gently and she barely looked at him.

"No, someone is going to die in the end, it's not going to be okay," Rachel whispered sitting on the couch tiredly with heavy bags under her eyes.

———

Akira sat on the couch of the apartment him and Leo shared as he drank straight from the bottle trying to calm his nerves of-

He stopped himself from thinking of what Leo could be going through. He's going through it alone. He should've had his back.

"Fuck!" Akira threw the bottle at the wall. It shattered and he saw Artemis at the door calmly.

"Not now Artemis," Akira held the side of his head looking away as she walked over sitting next to him.

"Mind if I join you?" Artemis held up her own bottle of sake.

"Ill pour you talk," she smiled softly at him and handed him a plastic cup and poured him some.

"I can't focus, on anything, I can't stop shaking and I just want to calm down," Akira chugged the cup immediately.

"Have you been like this before?" Artemis asked pouring herself some.

"Not since I finally stopped having night terrors," Akira sighed shaking his head.

"How'd you solve those then?" She sipped the cup as Akira poured himself more.

"Leo was here, We've always been a team, I just can't imagine my life without him, it's always been us since the group broke up to be safer, he refused to leave me," Akira laughed softly as he looked at her.

"Wh-What if... what if we're to late, I can't... I can't handle a funeral for him," Akira felt his eyes sting but Artemis put her hand on his knee.

"Don't think like that, there's going to be no funeral, your team is coming right? So it's probably the two best teams in this whole world is going to kick this kidnapping meta human torturing organization fuckers ass," Artemis smirked st him determined and he nodding with his hands still shaking.

"I hate being like this, I'm better than this," Akira whispered.

"Sometimes we don't have to be our best," Artemis nodded.

"You guys mentioned one of your friends dead right? Lawrence or something?" Artemis asked and Akira looked at her confused.

"You mean Lotor? He's not dead, you can't kill him," Akira chuckled shaking his head.

"He's known as the beast in the trials but he's the leader of the organizations son, killed his own dad, killed hundreds in there, he's the prince, he's invincible," Akira snorted at that as he remembered the times Lotor even saved him.

"Rachel said she hasn't seen him in months, I hope he just escaped, cause it Lotor is dead then were all fucked," his smile faded back to anxiousness as he and Artemis shared the sake bottle.