AN: Here it is folks, the last chapter of this fic. I hope I tried all loose ends and that you have enjoyed this story. I must say though that I am happy to be done with it as it went on about 2 chapters longer than intended and took up most of my time and attention away from other projects.

Thank you all for sticking with me through this whole story. Thanks for all the favorites, follows, comments, PMs, subscriptions, and bookmarks.

Special thanks to Ashida and Rekishichizu for betaing, helping with plot issues, pointing out loose ends, and basically putting up with me and my constant rambling.

I hope this fic is all you hoped it would be.

Last but not least, I do not own Finder Series.

Enjoy

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My Fault Chapter 8 – The end of it all, part III

"NO!" Kirishima heard Akihito scream at the other end of the line followed by the sound of the phone falling to the floor, then it was like time stood still on his end.

Bang, bang, bang. Three consecutive shots were heard through the phone's speaker, seconds after Takaba shouted and Kirishima feared for the worst. There was a deafening silence and his mind told him Takaba Akihito was dead. They had a medical team on standby on the floor below Asami's, his boss would need it and if the boy had been shot he just hoped they were not too late.

Suoh's team had taken out the sniper on the building across from the hotel and Kirishima had just arrived at Asami's floor with his own team. As they approached the door, he feared for what he would find there.

****VF****

Who would have thought all her plans would come crumbling down because of a nosy brat. She was reminded of that American cartoon about a group of teens and a dog solving mysteries. A defeated laugh escaped her as her life ran out of her body, along with the rivers of blood, the barrel of the gun still pointed at her chest and a small string of smoke rose from it into the air as the small hands gripped the gun still shaking with fear and adrenaline. The widened hazel eyes still looked at her without seeing, shock fogging the boy's vision, shock at what he had done to save Asami's life.

"In the end…" Gasp, wheeze, wheeze "I guess…" pant "You were… better… than" Heave "all of us… boy." Those were her last words and soon after she had spoken, her body fell to the floor, rigid and Akihito fell to his knees, his whole body trembling.

Asami gathered the small frame in his arms and used his thumb to wipe away the tears at the corner of those hazel eyes. He never wanted something like this to happen, never wanted to see that look on Akihito's face or for the boy to carry this burden – the burden of taking a life.

"I am sorry Akihito, I am so sorry. All this, it was all my fault."

He kissed the small rosy lips softly as if to reassure that it all had ended and held the body tight against his.

"I am so sorry."

****VF****

Kirishima and his team entered the suite to find Asami holding a trembling Akihito in his arms, and gently taking the gun from the boy's hands. The medical team came in minutes later and worked quickly on Asami. Akihito's wound was superficial and the boy insisted that they try to save the baby before they tended to his wounds. The team performed an emergency C-section and managed to save the child. Akihito asked Asami to give the baby to Kunao's family and Asami promised that it would be done.

A week later, Kirishima had settled all the inheritance issues, Miko was now dead and as she so cleverly had forged the necessary documents pertaining to the inheritance of property in the event of Asami's untimely demise it had made it easy to turn it around and Asami ended up owning everything connected to Yamato Enterprises which now formed part of Sion Corporation.

The official media report on the death of Honjio Miko was death at childbirth, Kirishima had spun the wildest of tales as and paid the necessary people to make it true to the masses. For some mysterious reason – maybe because most people are as dull as sheep – people ate it up like candy and the sympathy caused by such heart wrenching occurrences somehow drove Asami's business through the roof and Akihito could still not believe it. So far as anyone was concerned Miko had gone into early labor due to the stress of losing both her sister and father in such a short amount of time and died during childbirth, the child died as well and there was nothing to be done to save them.

That same week Akihito received a letter from Kenta, he had moved away to Osaka because he felt he needed to help out with Kunao's child since he could not save Kunao even though he had warned his friend to stay away from Miko. After the whole ordeal was done Akihito had informed Hirakawa about Miko's death and the woman just put all the blame on fate and karma not really knowing what really happened.

As much as Asami had gained at the end of the ordeal, he still felt he had lost something far more important. For one month after the incident, Akihito did not want to talk to Asami or anyone remotely related to him. Kirishima understood the boy needed some time to put himself together and let him be, even Jun seemed to be giving the boy some space even though he did get to see Akihito twice during that whole month.

Akihito had been talking to Feilong quite a bit during this time and the Chinese did as much as he could to help the boy from going off the deep end. They talked almost every night for several hours and Feilong had promised to visit as soon as he was able. It was during one of these talks that Akihito informed Feilong that he had made a final decision regarding Asami who still called insistently even though he never answered the calls. He never told Feilong what exactly he was going to tell Asami but regardless Feilong said he would support his decision and be there for him.

At the other side of the phone Feilong was crossing his fingers and silently praying things went his way, maybe now he would have a chance at happiness, he thought perhaps with Akihito he would attain it but didn't get his hopes up in case things didn't happen the way he wished. Despite what Akihito's choice might be he surmised the friendship they had built over the last months was strong enough to survive in spite of the boy choosing one way or the other.

The phone kept ringing every day at 8pm and it was at the end of the month when Akihito finally answered Asami's phone call and told him to come over so they could talk personally.

Asami arrived to the apartment and knocked softly on the door, Akihito just opened it without saying a word and he let himself in.

"How are you doing?"

"Better I guess, I've been seeing a psychiatrist. It makes me feel like a loony but I recognize I went through some serious shit so I keep going."

"You look better."

"Thanks, you still look like you lost some weight. Are you sleeping okay?"

"No, you?"

"Nah, better now than three weeks ago though."

"Hm."

An awkward silence set between them and Asami decided to be the one to break it.

"Akihito, what can I possibly do for you to forgive me? Tell me and I swear I will do it."

"I am tired of uncertainty…"

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It had been six months since the incident with Honjio Miko, Akihito stood in his bedroom getting ready to go out. He had a date today, he had a relationship… an honest to God steady, exclusive relationship with dates, movie nights and the whole shindig. For the first time in a long time he was happy. This relationship was good for him, he felt secure in this relationship and knew exactly where he stood, and there was no fear or uncertainty.

He would never again say those three words that so long ago caused him so much pain, but the man he was with understood and made no demands from him. It was their four month anniversary today, and maybe they were going to a fancy place, regardless of where they went, he was still going to wear the clothes he liked and be himself, people who really cared for him liked his real self, so he felt no need to try to appear to be someone else. This man he was going out with was one of those people, and it made Akihito feel free to be himself.

In their four months of dating, this man had been good to him, he had not forced Akihito to go at a faster pace than he was comfortable with and for that the boy was thankful. He wanted to do things right in this relationship, to date properly and not jump the gun too quickly, and caught up in each other.

Four months and he still lived in his crummy apartment, four months and he still slept by himself… four months and they still had not slept together. His body had not known the touch of another since the day he left Asami's penthouse. He still craved to be made love to, but he would not let his urges dominate him and force him to give the step with this man before he felt mentally and emotionally ready for it and its implications.

Despite the fact that the man wanted Akihito to move in with him, the boy declined the offer, if he was not ready for them to have sex, he was definitely not ready for them to live together. Disappointment was evident on the man's face every time Akihito answered his invitation to move in with a negative, still the man waited for him to decide when to move in.

He made the invitation but there was no pressure, Akihito knew he would come home from work or from hanging out and still find all his stuff in his apartment and no key with a small note pasted to his door. Life was good to Akihito, and he had begun feeling like a butterfly finally coming out of the chrysalis after a long hard struggle, to spread his wings and enjoy the beauty life had to offer.

He had feelings for this man, they had developed slowly and were now stronger than the feelings he had felt during his fucked up something with Asami, the man knew his thoughts, but there would be no vocal admission on Akihito's part. In these months of proper relationship building and getting to know each other, they had begun to develop a kind of trust without secrets that had not been present in Akihito's fucked up something with the yakuza. They talked about their days, about their lives, shared childhood stories, kissed soft, caringly and even passionately at points.

He knew for a fact that the man had not had sex with someone almost as long as Akihito and though it might be killing him to have his heart's desire so close yet not being able to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh with the boy to his heart's content, the man still waited patiently for the go ahead from Akihito, this had earned many points in the blonde's book.

On certain occasions, Akihito would allow him to stay over after a marathon movie night, the man suffered through Akihito's awful taste in movies without complaint, and then slept on the living room couch because Takaba would not let him into the bed. He never complained about this either, not even once.

This man would whisper sweet nothings into his ear when Akihito had had a predominantly difficult day and treated him with respect. Though he did not particularly approve of Akihito's career choice –mainly for safety's sake – he was still supportive and encouraging. In this relationship Akihito had found what he longed for and never had. The man he was in a relationship with respected Akihito's decision and request for no sexual advances of any kind, kissing being as far as they had gone.

Akihito had kept the man on first base for four straight months. Takaba had made it clear from the very beginning that even though there would be no sex until he said so, fidelity was a must on both sides for as long as their relationship remained. Failure to comply with this clause would mean the immediate end of their relationship, both would part ways and live their lives as if they had never met and never see or speak to the other ever again. The man had complied and accepted this very specific demand for Akihito's sake, because he knew he would have no chance at getting close to the boy if he did not agree.

Akihito left the apartment and walked down his hallway, around the corner and down the stairs into the parking lot. The car was already there waiting for him, and he walked toward the vehicle opened the front passenger door and climbed onto the seat. It was nice to go out with someone and ride in the front for a change with his date driving them around, instead of feeling like a pampered princess in the back seat of a limo.

They kissed softly and briefly, before the car pulled away and into the street, occasionally when traffic lights permitted it and streets where not too busy, they would hold hands and the much larger thumb would draw small soothing circles on the back of his hand. He liked this man; it was a welcome change from what he had known.

"Where are we going?" He finally asked, breaking the comfortable silence in the car.

"I reserved a private place for us to celebrate. We won't be bothered there."

"I kind of expected that, we are still a secret after all."

"Yes, we are, I am sorry about that."

"It's okay, it's for both of our sake anyways so it's not a big deal."

"Akihito, I know I have brought this up many times and that you are still not ready but the remodeling and furnishing of my new place is almost finished and I would like you to reconsider moving in, there is plenty of space and you can have your own living area."

"Thank you for making it a request and not a demand but I am not ready to move in with you yet… but maybe tonight, if you want to… after our dinner, we can spend the night together at a nice hotel." He felt ready to make that step now, to move their relationship to the physical because he was certain it was not based on it.

Akihito blushed furiously at his forwardness and turned to look out the window. They were at a red light so the man took the opportunity to hold his hand and with sweet soft words said "thank you."

"I think you have earned it Ryuichi."

Their relationship was still a secret sort of affair, because they could not make it public due to both their line of work but at least now it was a proper relationship. One where trust, fidelity and loyalty were important things, one where Akihito knew where he stood and sex was not the main focus but an expression of their affection and that was all that mattered. It had been a bumpy ride to get here, with more downs than ups, now, finally things had settled down and he could be happy.

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So, what do you think? * runs and hides under the bed*

Good ending? Bad ending? Did I miss something? Please leave your opinion before you go.

I had hoped that last chapter when Asami said "You may be the mother of my child but Akihito is the most important person in my life. He takes precedence over you, that child and everyone else in this world." and thev later on he said "Don't you ever dare tell Akihito what to do. You are not good enough to direct your words toward him." it would be a clear hint that he was finally trying to do right by Aki and let him know in front of Miko what he thinks about him foreshadowing the ending of this chapter but I got a couple PMs saying he was OOC in chapter 7 because he said those things to Aki, in my opinion is plausible that he would try to change for Aki so I did not see a reason to change it though i did wondered if my foreshadowing needed to be more obvious or something.

Also, I am almost done with a really long oneshot called Unworthy… should be fun and give you an insight into AsamixAki relationship from an outsider's point of view. Then I will be working on other stuff I have put on hold before going back to my main fics so bear with me a bit and be patient.

Love ya all and thanks for the support,

Setsuna.