stealhearted | are you hurting the one you love?

You don't have to save cold rice to eat. [ Akira says it, a little exasperated, and then takes the bowl before Akechi can even think about trying to save it. Akira knows Akechi probably has an endless sort of issues with food that date back to childhood, so he's going to make sure that Akechi both eats, and eats food that's healthy and like, not leftovers all the time. ]

If you get hungry, I'll just make more.

[His eyebrows raise, but he doesn't protest, just rearranges himself to fold his arms on the counter.] I don't mind leftovers, you realize. [Shifting again, he stretches his shoulders back and then moves his arms off the counter to hold onto the base of the chair and stretch upward, rolling his shoulders out and turning back to the bag at his feet. He's trying to psyche himself up for it, maybe.] ...I'll take this upstairs, regardless.

There's leftovers, and then there's cold rice. You can get botulism from improperly cooled rice. [ This has been fun facts with Akira Kurusu, to unsubscribe, die again? You're stuck with it. But Akira is grabbing the ice coffee he'd made and stepping around the counter.

He's going with Akechi as moral support until Akechi tells him to stop, honestly. ]

[He stoops down to pick up the bag and when he stands he's fixing the counter with a baffled frown, which he briefly turns on Akira before he turns for the stairs, moving slowly.] You are a fountain of bizarre and unnecessary information.

[Once upstairs, he sets the bag on the couch and looks between it and the box a few times, hands on his hips while he tries to deliberate what landmine to step on first. The fact that he can't remember all of the things in his ~~apartment~~ condo that would have been feasibly "worth keeping" is probably telling, but he can't be entirely sure of what all he's about to see again. Many of the more sentimental items he still owned weren't things he looked at particularly often. There's a photo album somewhere, probably in the box, that he's now sure Sae probably looked at, and he hopes to all things he can hope to that she never brings up the pictures of him as a child with his mother.]

[Those photos are the only reason he even slightly remembers what she looks like, he thinks.]

[He goes for the box, first, because it was probably the safer of the two options, hefting it and putting it on the couch beside the bag so he can put the items inside of it on the table.]

I'm great at trivia games.

[ Akira pulls his desk chair closer, so he isn't crowding Akechi on the couch, and sets one of the cups of coffee next to Akechi on the table and then sets the other one on his desk. It's mostly something to keep his hands occupied, if they both need the distraction, the space. ]

I can only imagine.

[He sits, placing the box in his lap, and takes off the top, met first with nothing of specific interest. Books, sandwiched between layers of folded clothes. Mostly white button-downs, his two khaki coats, his sweater vests. Two pairs of shoes. He hefts one of the books with a faint smile, setting it to his left. It's the locked book-safe he'd mentioned before-- disguised as a collection of Hegel's philosophies, because of course it is. The key is sewn into the innermost pocket of one of his coats, which he shuffles around and sets with the book after a moment. He hefts the box, standing and setting it on the couch in favor of taking the items out of it to lay across the table after all, in some odd sort of organization that appears to be "things that I own" and "things that matter", because it's mostly just a pile stacked up in front of a small, worn leather book and a folding picture frame.]

[The frame stays folded, and the book stays closed, and he keeps them both as well out of Akira's line of sight as he can manage, pausing to drink some of his coffee. He waves a hand in front of the mess of items, scrunching his face and sniffing-- everything is dusty.] It's not that I'm surprised that things collect dust over two months' time, it's that I'm annoyed.

I'll make sure to send your laundry for dry cleaning the next time you die. [ He jokes, like he wouldn't be absolutely emotionally crippled if Akechi died again or even left for any significant length of time. ]

We'll take care of it tomorrow. [ Akira doesn't let his gaze linger on the objects Akechi is clearly trying to hide from him. They'll talk about them if they need to. ]

[He snorts, sneezes in a disrupted puff of dust, and swats the dust around with the lid to the box.] I'd ask you to open a window, but I don't actually know if this is going to make much difference on the state of dust up here. And don't dry clean my clothes if I die again, that's strange even for you.

[Shoes on the floor, clothes and hidden items on the table save for the book-safe and his one coat, he chuckles and pulls an antiquated old DVD set of the first five seasons of Featherman out of the box, showing it to Akira.] Sakura might lose her mind if she knows how old this is.

It's cold, so I'm gonna make you sleep in the bed again. [ But he opens the window regardless, and then he busies himself a little by beating the worst of the dusty offenders by the open window. It makes a small mushroom cloud and Akira also sneezes. ]

Futaba's gonna go, as she would say, feral, if you show her that.

[ Akira wouldn't dry clean Akechi's clothing if he died, he'd keep it. So they smelled like him. Which is worse, so he's not telling him. ]

[He's laughing around the coughing, moving over to swat at him after setting down the DVD.] I could have done that, they're my clothes... I'll loan it to her sometime, though I fear she won't leave her room for a solid month if I do.

[He sits on the edge of the futon, then, instead of crossing back to his things, and watches the duffel bag warily from where he sits.] ...tell me to go open the bag, Kurusu.

Do you want me to open it? [ He posits it as a theory mostly because he's pretty sure the mere thought will make Akechi open the bag. Akechi is very anti-Akira-touching-his-things right now, which, given how few of them Akechi has, Akira completely understands. ]

Also, she'll make you watch it with her.

[His posture pulls taut like he's strung together and someone tightened him, getting up and striding across the room to the bag. He already looks like a damn mess before he's even reaching for the zipper.]

I've mentioned tea to you, [He offers, suddenly very quiet. He extracts one pair of jeans and three t-shirts, and then a dark zippered laundry bag he assumes contains undergarments, but hardly looks at them (two of the three t-shirts are Featherman print, the third is just a navy v-neck), setting them all aside in favor of sinking to sit in front of the couch and push the bag away from an old rattan basket.] I don't have any tea, right now, but... [He opens the basket carefully, and rolls his fingers into his palms, holding his breath looking over the contents.] ...but, um. [He sinks to sit the rest of the way on his butt, pulling his knees to his chest and turning to Akira with a smile that is only on his face because it's keeping him from crying.] I think. I think I shouldn't have opened this, right now, I'm sorry. I don't know where to put it.

[ Akira stands up, and steps over to the shelving unit closest to the stairs. It's still full of bulk coffee and rice, and he starts shifting them closer to each other instead of sprawled casually across the surface like they were originally put there by a man with a bad back. ]

Here. It'll make your clothes all smell like coffee, but -- [ He folds over one of the shirts he'd aired out via extreme dusting and sets it on the shelf. It's about half cleared off, now that he's moved everything over; it's a little dusty and definitely smells more like coffee than the rest of the room, but. ]

Coffee is far from the worst thing to smell like, [He puts the lid back on the tea set and then just... sits there for a moment before he puts the clothes back in around it and brings the whole bag over to him, reasonably clearly having checked out.] You don't have to make space for me.

I want to make space for you. I want you to be in my space. [ Akira reaches out, takes the bag and slides it onto the shelf, then reaches out, slow enough that Akechi can see him doing it, to rub a finger across Akechi's jawline. ]

It makes me happy to see your things in my space.

[He makes a wordless sound, and after a few seconds of the contact steps forward to lean against him.] I don't want to think anymore, today.

Wanna watch your Featherman DVDs in bed? They'll probably play on my laptop. [ And not thinking from the futon is way more comfortable than the couch, Akira knows because he has done both at great length. ]

[He shakes his head slowly after mulling that over.] I know too many of the dialogue exchanges, I lack the energy required for that kind of thing. [And he probably hasn't watched them since times he doesn't want to think about, either.] I've slept so much today, could... This is a strange question but would you mind if we went somewhere? Just..., walking.

Sure. There's some parks a little ways away. We can go there. [ Not to do anything specific, but it's sort-of kind-of getting to be hanami season, so they've got a great built-in excuse for loitering, and it's a relaxing kind of atmosphere where he doesn't imagine either of them will be pressured to say something. ]

[He nods, several short motions in succession, and he pulls away to pace back over to the couch, starting to reach out and rearrange or put away the things from the box a few times before he stops, holding his hands out a moment before he brings them to his temples, pressing.]

I'm-- sorry. Can I borrow your sweater again? I'll have my own once we've done laundry. Should we do laundry? Oh-- [He tosses his hands in the air, going for his coat and digging out the key from the lining of one of the pockets to open his book safe. Crouching in front of the couch, he does just that, and lo and behold he's got a halfway decent amount of yen neatly folded and pressed into the cavity of the book. He smiles, briefly, pocketing some of it and bringing a handful of bills to Akira.] I know, you wanted to pay for things, but just. Please, let me pay you back, at least for some of it. [He's sort of desperate for some degree of functional ability, here.]

Akechi. [ Akira takes the bills, obligingly, folds them over and pockets them before he reaches back out to put a hand on Akechi's shoulder. He doesn't mention the fact that he has something like six million yen stashed around the city by a former yakuza, he just looks at Akechi, carefully. ]

We'll go for a walk. We can do laundry tomorrow. [ Breathe, before you make it worse. ] I think you're cute in my sweater. [ Because the compliment has always helped derail Akechi's thoughts by flustering him in the past, so hopefully it sticks. ]

[The hand on his shoulder makes his skin break out in goosebumps under his jacket and he sucks in a sharp breath, holds it, and exhales in a gusty sigh that comes with him swatting Akira's hand away for the cute comment.]

I'm not interested in being cute, I just don't want to be recognized. [Mission... sort of a success? At least he's vibrating a little less.] ...laundry tomorrow. And... then, perhaps we should test out some of the parameters of this distance-tether. I'd really like to not prevent you from going to school.

I'll talk to Haru about the roof plan. I can sneak you in with my gym uniform again. [ Akira's easily confident about it, because Akechi isn't. Realistically, nothing is as easy as he's making it sound, but he thinks Akechi needs this sort of backing right now. He thinks Akechi needs someone who can pretend it's easy.

He doesn't think Akechi actually wants what he needs, but they'll cross that bridge when they're under it. ]

And I'm interested in you being cute.

[He scoffs, but raises his hands to the buttons of his coat, shedding them and then his tie.] You're lucky I don't want to wear a dusty coat or I'd just wear something out of this box to spite you. [As he goes to claim the hoodie again, he rubs the pads of his gloved thumbs against the insides of his fingers until the leather creaks.] ...make sure she understands I'm not trying to put her out, and she is free to say no. Don't think I missed that she was the most visibly uncomfortable person in the room when I came downstairs earlier.

I know. [ Actually, Akira thinks it'll be good for them both -- Haru doesn't want to be angry with Akechi, especially now that he's more or less reformed, and Akechi needs to learn to interact with her as a person and not just a victim of his previous crimes. So: he plans to do it in a way that pins anything bad that happens on himself, not that it'll do much good.

He'll have to get Kawakami in on everything, which is going to be extra fun. ]

C'mon. [ Akira holds his hand out and grabs at the edge of Akechi's sleeve instead of trying to get his hand. ] We're not walking in here.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

this is still a sexy icon and now i actually feel bad for using it but it's fine.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject