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Gone

The heavy feeling on his chest woke Akashi up in the morning. The silence that lingered around the house indicated that it was only him and Tetsuya alone again.

He felt something stir on top of him and saw the toddler sound asleep on his chest, his breathing in sync with Akashi's as he sucked his thumb.

Not wanting to disturb the peaceful sleep of his little brother, Akashi carefully sat up, his hands keeping the boy in contact with Akashi's chest before finally placing him on the soft mattress. Content that he will not stir awake, Akashi left the room to make himself a cup of coffee before starting another day working at home.

When he got back, Tetsuya had just woke up from his sleep.

"Ohayo," Akashi greeted with a smile as he put his cup down the bedside table and lifted Tetsuya up. "Did you have a good dream?"

Tetsuya nodded with a smile and Akashi was relieved to see Tetsuya smile from now on, a clear step that Tetsuya is starting to forget the nightmares he suffered from the past.

"Then, are you hungry? I can fix you some breakfast if you'd like?" Akashi asked.

Tetsuya shook his head and rested it on Akashi's chest, gripping his shirt.

"We're the only ones here," Akashi said, "After a bath, you can stay in the office again. I still need to finish a lot of work, how does that sound?"

Tetsuya looked up at Akashi and nodded.

After the bath, Tetsuya stayed with Akashi, spending most of the time drawing while Akashi worked. After a while, Tetsuya got bored and roamed around the office, slightly disturbing Akashi's concentration.

"What are you up to?" Akashi asked, watching Tetsuya.

Tetsuya stopped in front of a display cabinet, where inside, lied a violin.

"Ah... I haven't taken that out for a while," Akashi said as he stood up from his seat and got the violin out for Tetsuya to see. "This belonged to my mother, actually. She was the one who taught me to play,"

Tetsuya smiled at Akashi and sat on the floor, his eyes not breaking contact with him.

"You want me to play?" Akashi said, "Well... I might not be as good as I was before,"

But Tetsuya didn't mind whether Akashi was out of tune or not, for all he wanted was to hear him play.

Akashi sighed silently as he positioned himself to play and at the first notes he produced, he remembered his childhood- how he was so care-free, no work stressing him out and only the thought of having fun in his head. He remembered his mother, how he always smiled at her reassuringly whenever he gets upset, how she always saw the good in everything, even in Akashi who seemed flawed in the eyes of his father. And then he imagined Tetsuya, how broken he also looked the moment he arrived and how he was able to fix everyone up like how they fixed him slowly.

Akashi felt tears roll down his face and only did he realized that he had been crying. Wide-eyed, Akashi wiped his tears away as Tetsuya looked at him with worry and concern. He was so shaken up that he exited his office and directed to the bathroom.

"I'm home," Aomine announced when he arrived. "Akashi?"

"I-I'm at the bathroom," Akashi answered, washing his face to escape his flustered situation.

"Yo," Aomine greeted when Akashi got out of the bathroom. "I was wondering what were you doing inside, leaving Tetsu in your office,"

"Sorry, I just had to go," Akashi said. "Have the others arrived yet?"

"Not yet," Aomine said, "Midori said he'll be home late, Murasakibara and Kise are on their way home though,"

"That's good," Akashi said then went back to his office.

He saw his violin placed on his table while papers scattered on the floor. He sighed. He must've been so shaken up that he practically tossed his instrument before running off. He picked up the violin and out it back at the display cabinet then stacked his papers neatly.

"One's missing," Akashi muttered as he crouched down to try and find where the other missing paper was. He had just finished analyzing it and wrote down notes on it to pass to the board for thorough reviewing. He needed to find it.

Tetsuya approached him, holding a piece of paper with his drawing in it. When Akashi looked up, his heart almost stopped. Tetsuya held the missing paper he was looking for and had drawn on it.

Tetsuya smiled at him, unaware of the mistake he made that made Akashi's blood boil. He worked hard finishing that report only to be drawn on by some child his father had.

"Akashi," Aomine called, entering his office. "Do you know where-"

Aomine got cut off when he saw Tetsuya fall on the ground, the paper he held flew somewhere close to him. Only then did Akashi realize that he had hit Tetsuya for what he did and was mirroring the shocked and scared expression Tetsuya wore.

"Tetsu!" Aomine said, helping the boy up and hiding Tetsuya behind him. "Damn you, Akashi, what were you doing?!"

Akashi looked flustered. "I... I-I didn't mean-"

"You hit a toddler just because he drew on your paperwork?!" Aomine snapped. "What kind of big brother are you?"

Akashi got annoyed at Aomine for scolding him. He was the master of this house, not him. He didn't have the right to raise his voice at Akashi.

"I shed sweat and blood for that report," Akashi said. "Tetsuya-"

"Tetsu didn't know what he was doing," Aomine argued. "He's a child, for goodness sake! If you didn't plan on taking care of him, you should've just said so before!"

Akashi took a moment to answer. "Leave," he said, "Leave, now,"

Aomine clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You bet I will," he said then turned to Tetsuya but found that he was gone.