stealhearted | after me comes the flood;

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after me comes the flood;

[ 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. ]

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Well, you also shouldn't use your kitchen knives to fight. [ Akira punctuates this with a vague gesture with his spoon, in a true cooking wife fashion, before he gives his onions a good stir and then lets them sit. ]

My parents were really busy, and I got tired of convenience store bento and frozen food. [ Akira doesn't sound -- anything, about it; it's a little matter of fact, and the slightest bit rehearsed. ] So I started cooking, and then Sojiro is really into the science behind curry, so... natural progression, I guess.

I like having things to do with my hands.

[He hums softly, looking a bit chastised by the mention of getting tired of konbini and frozen food and drumming his fingers on his knees.] So much for me being a foodie, then, I suppose.

[He reaches up, swatting at the air.] Give me one. [Of his hands, he means, but-- an onion is fine, too.]

You can still be a foodie, just a foodie that's not a good home cook. [ Akira thinks he might be the opposite -- he doesn't mind going out to eat, but he's much more appreciative of a home cooked meal. He likes to spend time with people, and everyone is always chattier around the table, he's found.

It's nicer than taking his meals at home alone in the kitchen. He remembers evenings where he barely bothered to turn the lights on before he devoured his food and retreated to his bedroom. It's weird to think about, now.

He does not give Akechi an onion, but only because they're only partway to caramelized and still very hot, so he offers a hand out, seemingly a bit confused. ]

[Turning his face so he's not looking at him, Akechi tangles their fingers together.]

There. Now you've more than onions to keep your hands occupied.

[ It's a good think that Akechi is turned away, because Akira actually flushes, pink dusting across his cheeks. It's -- cute, and thoughtful, and a lot of things that Akira doesn't normally associate with Akechi (he's usually cute, but it's usually in a much more 'might stab you' fashion), and it's a little overwhelming.

After a minute, Akira squeezes back. ]

You can keep it until I need to start on the potatoes. [ He sounds unbearably fond and endeared. ]

[He's not sure why it's comforting, to feel Akira's fingers squeeze his. To feel them stay, after, keep the contact, keep the warmth. He closes his eyes and draw his knees up to his chest, folding into them. He's quiet, and mostly still once he settles into his knees, but his thumb idly strokes the back of one of Akira's fingers.]

[ It's surprisingly easy to cook like this, given that Akira is just tending to the roux reduction and caramelizing the onions. Both only need to be stirred lightly -- he'll take care of the fond with a little bit of vinegar, later, to get the flavor to really combine, but he doesn't need to worry about that yet.

He eventually sets the spoon down and drifts a little closer to Akechi. He doesn't say anything, just pulls out his phone and browses a completely unrelated website. It's not the website that's important right now. It's just --

Being with Akechi, like this. ]

[He pulls a little on his fingers, after a while.]

My rice cooker is sort of old, it takes a while... Here. [He shifts, pulling himself back to his feet, and seems to consider letting go of Akira's hand, but pauses.] ...I can at least make rice without destroying the kitchen.

[ Akira smiles. It's a little odd to shift around so that Akechi can access the rice cooker without letting go, but the onions don't need that much attention; he can afford to look away for a few minutes. ]

Cool. Sojiro's is pretty old and finicky... rice cookers are surprisingly personal. [ Which is to say, the rice cookers definitely take after their owners. He's gonna write a thesis on it one day. ]

[He makes a face at that, because the suggestion of rice cookers having personalities is entirely beyond him, but he manages to rinse two cups of rice and put them into the cooker and set it to cook one-handed without setting the place on fire. Having his fingers still tangled in Akira's is starting to freak him out, he thinks, but he ignores the goosebumps running up his arm from their joined hands.]

If that's the case, it's a wonder mine hasn't exploded yet.

He can't explode. He's got a job to do. [ Akira pats the rice cooker, like it's a pet instead of an inanimate object that doesn't have any degree of sentience. It sings, that's enough to make it valid.

Akira does not press the comparison, even if he thinks it's apt. ]

I caught one on fire, once. I was seven.

[He watches the rice cooker a moment after Akira's assessment, and only turns back to look at him at the mention of catching one on fire.]

...mom never let me use ours when I was that young. I think she knew I inherited her terrible kitchen ability.

My parents were pretty mad, but I didn't feel well and I wanted rice... It was a learning experience. [ He'd learned how to make rice on the stove after that, because it had taken his parents entirely too long to replace the rice cooker. ]

I think that's the worst kitchen thing I've done, other than some really terrible meals that I ate anyway.

Somehow the fact that you would eat terrible things anyway doesn't surprise me. Waste not, want not, in an extreme sense.

[He's still stuck repeating "he can't explode, he's got a job to do" and trying to decide if he's mad about it.]

[ Akira's just saying he knows how hard Akechi repressed his emotions when he was still working towards a singleminded purpose. Akira's pretty sure he stocked up at least a dozen breakdowns during the last year alone. ]

I want to tell you it's about learning from your mistakes but mostly it's about being hungry and on a budget.

[It's a big contributing factor to why the fact that he keeps getting overwhelmed by emotions and not quite being able to suppress it is pissing him off, honestly. Emotions are for Not Him.]

[He nods, staring at the counter but not really seeing anything, getting lost in the recesses of his own head again.]

...Hey. [ Akira squeezes Akechi's hand; carefully, gently. ]

... c'mere, I can teach you how to caramelize an onion. [ It's not something that's very involved, but Akira can talk about it. He doesn't talk at length that often, but if he needs to -- to explain the process, the science, the point -- he can. He knows that sometimes it's easy to just listen to someone, to focus on something else.

Normally, he'd think Akechi wanted to be left alone, but -- Akechi reached out. That counts for a lot. ]

Because surely that's a skill I will need, [He doesn't sound as annoyed as he could, but he can't just not fight back.]

It's cool to learn things, right? [ Even if they're not things you'll use immediately. Akira uses this as an excuse everytime he learns something inconsequential. ]

Maybe there'll be a day when we're infiltrating a palace and we have to defeat a shadow by demonstrating proper onion cooking technique.

[He rolls his eyes.] Highly doubtful.

I learned how to defeat shadows because a kid taught me how to play videogames. [ Akira offers, casually, like there wasn't a lot more to it than that.

Though, honestly, there kind of wasn't. ]

So you never know.

Most video games carry much more likeness to violence in the Metaverse than caramelizing onions.

[If there's a touch of uncertainty to his voice, no there isn't.]

Did you ever play video games? [ It's not the smoothest segue, but it's a way to keep the conversation up without having to strain too hard to forcefully teach Akechi the ins and outs of the Maillard reaction. ]

I bought this really old system from the thrift store next to Leblanc. Apparently my perfect world does not involve a free upgrade to the latest system.

Not many, admittedly, but I still have a general concept of them. [A slight frown.] To that end I don't figure it would be especially surprising to learn there was a video game that involved caramelizing onions.

There's a whole franchise about cooking. I haven't played any of them. My system plays... Punch Ouch and Star Forneus. [ So he's about one step up from just playing Pong, honestly, but it's neat to have. ]

After I got really good at one of them, I found out I never get hungry in the Metaverse anymore.

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