[ Walking with Denji back to his room is an easy enough compromise, even if Aki is already planning what he wants to do in the wake of this. His anger and irritation is a present thing, bubbling under the surface, but there's a powerlessness to him that he can't deal with either. He's simply not strong enough to be able to protect Denji the way he wants to, not without the full power of his contracts and the ability to make more, and the fact remains that there's no way he'd be able to stand up to Makima anyway.

Perhaps there is merit in those other surgeries that LILITH offers.

Pausing by the door, expecting to follow the other man inside, Aki almost walks into him when Denji stops and begins to speak, and it whiplashes his heart with a thousand thorns, but a kind of pain that feels good rather than sour and aching.

How is he meant to not comfort him, hold him, after a moment like this?

Tears in his own eyes, Aki reaches out, wrapping his arms around Denji and holding him, tender and warm and as careful as he can be, as if one squeeze too much might break them both. ]

You don't need to thank me for it.

[ Pressing his face into Denji, he breathes out, almost a sniffle. ]

Before I met you both, all I wanted was revenge and death. I sold everything I had to get it, because I would be able to die freely once the Gun Devil was dealt with, and everyone knew it. It's why I took the Curse Devil, why I took the Future Devil when it was offered. Nothing else mattered to me, until...

[ Until Denji. Until Power. Aki shakes a little with the weight of his own emotion. ]

I hadn't felt happiness since I was a child, but then I met you and her. You reminded me what it felt like to care about someone, to want to see them smile, to share their joy and sadness both. Everything I did, everything I chose to do, was because I wanted your happiness more than anything else in the world.

[ More than his own. More than his life. ]

You are important to me, Denji. I love you, and I love Power, and that will never change.