after me comes the flood;

[stealhearted]

[ It starts like this: Akira dreaming that he's in his high school, following a butterfly and feeling the strange tell-tale feeling of the metaverse shifting around him despite the fact that the metaverse should be gone. Akira follows along as best he can when it feels like his body is moving through air denser than ice, and he wakes up with a start to the weirdest day he's ever had in his life -- which is saying something.

So, after some consideration, having talked to his friends and seen how happy they are with what Akira can only assume is some sort of fake reality, Akira settles on the one person that probably can't be fooled either. Akira can't be the only one, right? Akechi could use multiple persona, Akechi was like Akira, so --

He texts him. ]

Hey. Has your day been weird at all?

[ Which Akechi will probably respond to with the most acerbic possible text, Akira assumes, because he can't -- he can't imagine anything else. Even though Akira phrased it like Akechi might not remember, just in case. ]

Comments

[stealhearted]

You wouldn't rather eat my curry? [ But then it processes -- that Akechi called him by his first name; that they're this close; that all the other Phantom Thieves, Akechi included, seem to have gotten what they wanted the most in the world and what Akira wants the most -- what Akira struggles to say he wants the most --

It's Akechi, isn't it?

Akira doesn't fumble; he's too used to making coffee for that, but he does pause a moment longer than he needs to as he pours the water, letting it drip down as he tries to deal with the several discordant emotions inside of him. ]

I don't know how good my luck is, but I'll put some in anyway. [ Akira offers him a smile. It's not as fake as it probably should be. ]

Not that you need it. Aren't you still leading the rest of the class?

[forfeited]

I'm already asking you for lucky coffee, I didn't figure I should get too greedy. [He registers that pause, shuffling his study papers and flicking his eyes to Akira's hands, tilting his head slightly as his eyes narrow just barely. He's sharp, he's always been sharp, but he's not quite sure why the pause is strange.]

[And then his shoulders sag, and he sets his papers down neatly in favor of stretching his arms across the bar, setting his chin on it.] That's the problem, if I don't get every possible question more than correct, what kind of example am I setting?

[stealhearted]

[ An Akechi genuinely concerned with setting an example... Well, Akira supposes that it isn't too far from the normal Akechi. He's always been concerned with his appearance. ]

...How can you get a question more than correct? [ Akira answers, instead, because he aces all his schoolwork but he's never answered a question more than correct.

Except maybe with Kawakami, but that's different.

He slides the coffee over once it's done, waiting for the verdict. ]

[forfeited]

I haven't figured that part out yet. Extra credit, somehow, surely.

[He claims the coffee when it's offered, curling his hands around it and pulling it close to his body, sitting up to inhale the aroma.]

[stealhearted]

Well, you're already beating me. [ Akira might be near the top of his class, but he doesn't push himself the way Akechi and Makoto do. He's happy to just hover there on his own merits... with a little help from Morgana, sometimes. ]

Let me know how it is. I've gotta beat Boss one day.

[forfeited]

I'm also a year ahead of you, [He offers mildly, bringing the cup to his lips and taking a sip. His whole posture wilts happily and he smiles around the lip of the cup so much it wrinkles the corners of his eyes.] You're definitely on the right track.

[stealhearted]

[ Akira knew he liked Akechi before, of course. There was never exactly a right time to tell him, because first Akechi was hiding something, then Akechi was trying to kill him, then Akechi was a black mask font of anger after nearly getting killed in the bowels of a cognitive ship.

So. Akira had never told him, though he hoped it'd been indicated here and there (prior to being re-arrested, anyway) in how he always lingered a little too long. He still invited Akechi out, even though most of the invites were simply left on read or responded to with a resounding and caustic "no".

But now Akira was extremely aware that he did not just like Akechi, he Liked Akechi, all capitals and bright red in his mind, because seeing Akechi smile like that so genuinely simultaneously makes Akira's stomach fill with butterflies that rapidly turn into ash, because it isn't genuine. Not really. Not when Akira knows this is fake.

A fake world where Akechi can be happy... Akira thinks it's not so bad, but --

Akechi would hate it, wouldn't he? ]

Don't take too many classes when you get into your top university. I want to utilize my insider knowledge to get free tutoring.

[forfeited]

[He would if he knew. It's going to be hideous when he learns. Nothing will prepare either of them for him gaining understanding of his mother being fake, Muhen's vague adoption being fake-- that his happiness was so easy to apply, if only he'd been permitted to keep what he never should have lost.]

[He takes another sip of his coffee.] Oh, do you now? I suppose we could work that out, if you're willing to keep making me this coffee.

[stealhearted]

[ Akira was supposed to go back home soon, but he doesn't think that's happening. Honestly, in a world where everyone is happy, he feels like his parents might have simply forgotten him entirely. Probably for the best. ]

Sure. I get great improvement making coffee for you. [ It's weird to act like a fake version of himself when he doesn't know if there's really a difference. He knows he still had the probation -- he had double checked the records, and it made sense, given his entire life is basically in Tokyo -- but Akechi was so different.

Was Akira? Should he be? ]

How's your mom?

[forfeited]

[He makes a face-- fondly exasperated. It's a roll of his eyes, and then a smile, a chuckle shaking his shoulders. He's a little broader, like how his hair is a little longer. He obviously eats better, takes better care of himself. What a wonder just having someone he couldn't refute the care of as a child had done for him.]

As over the top as always... She works too much, you know. She's so insistent that she has to work herself to absolute death while I'm still in school... [He sucks down a good portion of his coffee, and then sets it aside to splay out his papers.] And I'm going to get into the best university this country will allow me to, and I'm gonna get scholarships, and then do something great, so she never has to work again.

[stealhearted]

[ Akira wants to touch Akechi's hair so much it's nearly overwhelming. He feels like he's getting distracted by the smallest things, and he's pretty sure it's a defense mechanism against the entire situation. ]

I feel like you're not going to convince her to stop working even if you're making a million yen a week. [ Given Akechi's work ethic -- though Akira isn't certain how much of that is spite, in their usual reality. ]

I don't know what I'll do, either.

[forfeited]

[He looks up from his papers, startled.]

Are you not planning to stay in the city after school? Or-- even after this year, I guess, your probation... [He looks back down at his papers, realization settling in his features. He looks equal parts chastised and unhappy, the expressions both displayed openly in a way the spiteful Goro Akechi of Akira's past never would have exhibited.] You can't very well get free tutoring if you don't stay, you know.

[stealhearted]

[ Akira doesn't know what to do with any of this. He doesn't. It's fake, isn't it, so he shouldn't lean on any of it, shouldn't take it as real -- he has to figure out why it's happening --

But Akechi looks so unhappy at the mere thought of Akira leaving. He looks so unhappy, and it's fixable, it's something Akira can fix, so -- ]

...I'm not sure. My parents expect me to, but I really like it here. [ Akira offers Akechi a smile, small and careful, like it's something for only Akechi. Which -- it kind of is. ]

There's people that like me here. Getting tutored by the ace student Akechi Goro might be a good enough reason for them to let me stay.

[forfeited]

[His ears turn pink and he scrunches his face, looking down at his papers and waving him off.] Oh, stop. Like your parents would have any idea who I am.

[He sets his hand up on the bar, placed... oddly, sort of reached toward Akira's.] ...it would be nice if you could stick around, though.

[stealhearted]

...Yeah. It'd be nice. [ It's too much. It feels like the emotion is clogging in his throat, in his chest, in every fiber of his being, because he wants to enjoy this even though it's sharp at all the edges for how wrong it is. It feels like it'll cut into him at the slightest provocation, but he can't make himself stop.

He doesn't want to break this illusion. Isn't that the worst part of all?

He hangs his apron up, moving around the counter to sit next to Akechi. ]

I'll talk to them. I'd... like to stay. [ In Leblanc.

In this reality. ]

[forfeited]

[He studies him, the subtle stress in his posture, and watches him hang his apron and circle around to sit with him, reaching back for his coffee.]

Don't force it-- it's better to have as good of a relationship with them as you can until you're a legal adult. [He moves his previously slightly outstretched hand, bumping the back of his wrist against Akira's.] But if tutoring from an upperclassman would help at all, I'm sure I could spin something.

[stealhearted]

[ This isn't how it could have ever gone, but Akira wishes it was. Akira wishes something like this was within his power.

For once, he almost hopes this is something he isn't strong enough to fix.

Akira bumps his hand back against Akechi's. ]

My parents are probably happier with me a couple towns away, but I can probably convince them. [ It seems like it might happen much more easily in this reality. ]

It isn't for a couple months, though. I've got plenty of time to show up unannounced at Jazz Jin before then.

[forfeited]

[He makes the first familiar face he's made since he walked in-- scowling, though its muted. He leaves his wrist butted up to Akira's, sucking down the rest of his coffee.] I still can't understand it. Ignoring that I was fathered by trash, your parents seem to display no real reason to neglect you this way.

[A beat, and he shrugs his shoulders, only shifting away from Akira's wrist in favor of picking up a pen.] But I suppose in a roundabout way, I'm thankful. I never would have met you without their disservice.

[stealhearted]

Coming to Tokyo was probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. [ In both realities, for a lot of reasons. He remembers when he first arrived and he'd been so determined to try and stay out of trouble, and he'd had exactly one second thought before Arsene had bubbled up from his soul to mock him for the very idea of it all.

He reaches for the feeling of Arsene, almost automatically: he can still feel the persona within him, even if he can't summon him in the real world. It's comforting, in a way, even if it doesn't seem like the Phantom Thieves exist at all in this world.

He wonders how they're all friends. ]

You want me to quiz you on anything? [ Akira offers it, because helping Akechi study feels infinitely safer than trying to do this awkward alternate reality dance. ]

[forfeited]

[He makes a thoughtful sound, shuffling his papers and eventually holding one out toward Akira with his right hand.] Randomize the information here and just ask me about it, it's what I'm the least confident in.

[stealhearted]

[ So Akira does, because it's easier to do this -- the rhythm of asking a question and watching Akechi either instantly recall it, or briefly think about the answer before he gives the correct one -- than it is to think about everything else that's going on. He'll work on figuring everything else out, later, but for now he'll let himself enjoy things, just a little.

God, Akechi's going to stab him in the kidney once he wakes up from this. He can practically hear him now, demanding to know what Akira was thinking not immediately trying to fix the delusion, to fix reality, to stop Akechi from being happy--

Yeah, it's an ugly problem that Akira calmly decides he's not going to deal with. He quizzes Akechi until Sojiro calls him to help, and then he watches Akechi leave and he goes to figure out what's going on, alone.

Which leads him to Odaiba, and then Kasumi, and then to Maruki, where he finds out the truth and watches Kasumi -- Sumire -- get yanked away from him. By tentacles. Because that's normal and cool.

So Akira figures he has to try and do something, even if it's just rescuing Kas...umire from being the main character in a horrible ero series. And Akechi's the strongest fighter he knows, so Akira scrolls through his phone through all their past text conversations that he has no memory of having (because he didn't) until he finds an address.

He shows up the next day, primed and ready to tell Akechi that everything is fake and that he needs to wake up, and knocks on the door. ]

[forfeited]

[His address is the same condo he lived in alone under Shido's paychecks, ironically. Maybe the address itself was too much for Maruki to change, or not something he cared about, or-- maybe it was just part of his plan, to inject Akechi's happiness into the place he had lived in for the last two years that was only somewhere he sometimes went to sleep a few hours. Whether or not Akira had ever been there prior was a toss-up, but the space was the same, same number and floor, just reconfigured with a second bedroom that his mother lived in. He had lived in this condo with her since he was born, and as a result, in this timeline he called it home, something he never would have even thought of calling it prior.]

[Regardless, a slender, pretty-faced woman who looks approximately like a female Akechi with much longer hair opens the door. She startles only briefly, more in surprise of seeing Akira turn up unannounced than anything, and her hands clasp together in front of her as she greets him.] Oh, Akira-kun! It's good to see you. Goro's asleep-- he was researching universities late into last night and had something he went and did this morning, came home and I found him asleep on the couch. Come in-- I'll make you both tea, he'll be happy to see you.

[stealhearted]

[ Some part of Akira forgot that she'd be there. He'd thought it would be Akechi at the door. Maybe an Akechi that had already woken up to the reality being so wrong; maybe he'd greet Akira with a scathing insult even as he let him inside, the same way he'd been vitriolic even while he'd worked with them to defeat God himself.

So it takes Akira's breath away, a little, to see this woman who looks so much like Akechi, to see that the condo inside is cozy. It isn't the barebones minimalism he's come to expect from Akechi -- he can see photos on the wall, furniture, decorations. A hundred items from a life that Akechi never lived.

But he's living it now, isn't he? Akira wonders how different it is. He wonders if he can even call this Akechi the same Akechi. Maruki had challenged him to see if anyone else would pick this reality, and the longer Akira spends the more he thinks they might. ]

Ah... yes, ma'am. He's been studying at Leblanc, so I brought him some coffee. [ Akira holds a thermos up. The coffee had been calculated: if it was the same Akechi from yesterday, it'd be a nice gesture; if it was the normal acerbic Akechi he was used to, it'd be a peace offering.

He steps inside when she allows it, and Akira toes his shoes off automatically, trying not to stare at the fact that the condo seems so... inviting. ]

just continues to use this icon for the moment

[forfeited]

[It's startlingly homely. Most of the decor is in shades of a light steely blue and hunter greens, with pops of yellow here and there. Goro's mother, it seemed, really liked sunflowers. She was dressed surprisingly modestly for what at least one of her professions was or had been, a long navy skirt tied at her waist and a lighter blue blouse tucked into it. She tuts softly when she moves aside to let Akira into the condo, shaking her head.]

Oh, don't you ma'am me. Sweet or salty, for a snack? I promise I didn't cook them. [Her cooking is-- she tries, but she suffers from Set The Kitchen On Fire Syndrome similarly to her son, and therefore usually relies on pre-packaged and frozen meals.]

[Her son, for the record, is slumped in a neat little pile in the very middle of a couch a few shades lighter than his hair, but the same honeyed brown color. There's a thin blanket laid over him, and papers as well as his laptop strewn all over the coffee table in front of him. His feet are still on the floor, and it looks for all the world like he just fell asleep mid-thought. He probably did. He was so much less guarded, here.]

[stealhearted]

Sweet, thank you. [ Akira says it almost automatically, because he knows Akechi likes sweets -- perhaps not the over the top ones he'd done for his blog, but even in this alternate world, he'd periodically sent Akira pictures of the ones he'd get from local, less trafficked cafes and bakeries.

Akira can't help the way he looks at Akechi. He looks -- relaxed and vulnerable. It'd be normal for him to look that way when asleep, but this Akechi clearly doesn't suffer from the chronic lack of sleep and nightmares that Akira knows for a fact plague Akechi under normal circumstances. ]

He'll have to sleep more if he wants to test well. [ Akira says, a little wryly, because he doubts Akechi will ever, in any reality, be capable of sleeping a normal human amount. ]