Akaashi/Bokuto, Betrayal
The power flickers and goes out, and the gym plunges into darkness. Bokuto hears the rattling sigh and feels the chill in his bones and knows that it’s a demon.
The first thing that comes to mind is a simple, two-word thought: protect Akaashi.
Akaashi, simple human that he is, doesn’t feel the shifting in the planes like Bokuto does, but he can clearly tell something’s wrong, because his normally composed face is uneasy and he steps a little closer to Bokuto. “Power outage?” he asks softly, and Bokuto shakes his head.
“I don’t think so. I think it’s --” He’s cut off by a loud, grating roar. He grabs Akaashi’s hand and gets ready to run.
Akaashi gasps. “What is that?”
But Bokuto doesn’t have time to answer, because the demon passes through the crack under the door and starts to manifest in the gym, a swirling miasma of dark energy that Bokuto really, really does not want to see in a corporeal form. Unfortunately, the demon blocks their only exit from the gym and Bokuto takes their only other option and shoves Akaashi into the equipment closet.
He’s never been particularly good at thinking straight in a panic. Bad news for his magic.
Akaashi has lost almost all of his usual composure. He’s gripping Bokuto’s hand in a hold like iron, wild-eyed and whisper-shouting, “What is that, what’s going on, what the fuck is happening,” over and over and over.
Bokuto can’t focus. He needs to clear his head, to draw up his magic from the well of energy deep in his soul, but he can’t concentrate with Akaashi’s panic amplifying his own. He can’t focus. The demon roars again and they both flinch.
“Akaashi,” he says desperately, “Akaashi.” He grabs Akaashi’s chin with his free hand and makes Akaashi meet his eyes. “I need the amulet I gave you, give it to me.”
Akaashi looks at hims with an incredulous expression. “What? Bokuto-san, I really don’t think this is the time for your pretending --”
“My what?”
Akaashi’s jaw shakes. “Bokuto-san, I’m scared. I don’t appreciate you playing games.”
Bokuto goes still. “You think this is a game?”
“Magic isn’t real!”
Everything starts spinning around Bokuto, and his head is full of white noise. He has to shout to hear himself over it. “You think I’m pretending.” He sucks in a breath. “Akaashi. What did you do with the amulet?”
Akaashi looks at him like he’s grown a second head, apprehensive and starting to get impatient, and he says, “I don’t know.”
“I told you to keep it with you.”
Akaashi doesn’t say anything.
“There are powerful protective spells on that amulet. I gave it to you to keep you safe. There’s a piece of my soul inside it.”
“Bokuto --”
“I trusted you.”
Bokuto suddenly feels very calm. His head clears, and he thinks of nothing at all.
When he opens the door to the gym, the demon has manifested fully, dark and snarling, but Bokuto doesn’t falter. He closes his eyes, gathers his energy, and the spell bursts out of him in a spark of white-hot light. The demon screeches, high and agonized, the sound cutting off abruptly when the demon is vaporized.
Bokuto lets the spell drop away, now that the demon is gone. He feels the aftershocks of it singing through his body and he knows that his hair will be white for several long minutes while the leftovers from the spell dissipate into the air and across the boundary between planes.
His vision blurs. “I trusted you,” he says again, and the betrayal stings like a burn. Bokuto pulls his magic around himself like a cloak and he jumps into the between-space. He doesn’t know where he’s going, but anywhere is better than here.