stealhearted | are you hurting the one you love?

You'll be down here when I wake up, right? [ Akira asks, gently. He takes a step backwards -- he should go to sleep, he knows he should, he knows Akechi would protest to no end if he just sat there and went to sleep in one of the Leblanc booths, nevermind what Futaba would say when she inevitably checked the cafe footage.

But that kind of trust -- that Akechi will be there, that he won't decide he's the broken part of the equation -- isn't something that can come so easily in just a few days. ]

[He already has decided he's the broken part of the equation, really, but he's trying to not inflict that on Akira anymore than he has to. He closes his eyes at the question, because he has every right to ask it, and it turns his stomach that he knows well enough to ask. He draws in a careful breath and opens his eyes as he exhales, chewing on the inside of his lip.]

...I won't lie to you, I don't feel like I should be. But it's... counterintuitive, to send you to bed only to leave, because I know you'll just run around trying to find me. [His voice gets quiet, tone getting simultaneously flat and choked. Even still, he laughs shortly.] Even if I wish you wouldn't.

I'd get Futaba to survey every camera in this city looking for you. [ Maybe, if things were different, he'd let Akechi run -- but not when he could die from merely being away. Akira isn't willing to risk that, even if Akechi is.

Akira offers him a small, half-hearted sort of smile. ]

Okay. I'll see you in the morning, then. [ He's slow to move away, like he's unwilling to turn his back on Akechi, but he finally takes a breath, inhales and heads up the stairs. He has to trust he'll be there. He can't have Akechi right next to him all the time. ]

[It's the mention of Futaba and the reminder that she has the cafe bugged, as well as his fucking phone that keeps him stationary for a while, listening to the stairs creak slightly as Akira walks back up them. When he hears the dull thwump of him getting back in bed, on those creaky crates that aren't honestly very comfortable, he closes his eyes and slides out of the bar chair and onto the floor. He sits there a while, his brain too full of static and cotton, until he makes his way slowly back to his feet, putting the chairs back.]

[He stands in the cafe and looks everything over, unable to shake how absolutely and completely out of place he feels, but wanders to the kitchen and squints in the darkness until he finds a rag and a spray bottle of surface cleaner. He wanders around and wipes down surfaces to keep occupied for a long time, cleaning the grooves in the wood of the booths even though he can't see if they're dirty to begin with. That keeps him moving for close to an hour, just wiping things down mindlessly and trying to not think, finally replacing the bottle of cleaner and folding the rag over the corner of the sink. He crawls into the far booth by the wall, then, folding himself so his knees are bracketed against the table and his thighs put pressure on the bruise on his stomach again, and the static in his brain encompasses him enough that he sleeps there for a little while. At least if he's largely immobile, an entire level below Akira and across the building to boot, there's a significantly lower risk of him causing anymore harm.]

[Whether he's awoken by Sojiro unlocking the door or Akira coming back downstairs is a toss-up.]

[ It's kind of both at the same time. Akira sends Sojiro a text first -- Akechi's not going to be awake early enough to cover the bruises, Akira can tell when he first peers downstairs, avoiding the worst of the creaky stairs -- telling him to pretend nothing's unusual, and Sojiro, bless him, does, for the most part.

Sojiro opens the door, takes in the sleeping teenager in one booth, the teenager peering around the wall, and then sighs heavily and goes to open.

So it's the sounds of the cafe coming to life that will wake Akechi up -- Akira in his normal clothing already, laughing quietly as something Sojiro has quipped while he sets up two cups of coffee.

If Akechi waits, he'll receive one of those cups pretty quickly. ]

[He's a light enough sleeper that the key turning in the lock rouses him, but he's still exhausted in just about every possible way that his body doesn't quite wake up until there is more sound, and finally Sojiro's voice, making some kind of fondly disgruntled quip he can't quite understand, which makes Akira laugh. His heart seizes painfully in his chest for a moment at the sound of it, and he shifts to stretch his arms forward and then unfold his legs, letting his feet regain feeling from having been trapped at such an angle for a while.]

Apologies for sleeping in your cafe, Sakura-san, [He offers, slurred and groggy. He doesn't have the time to find his way out of the booth before he's presented with coffee, and he reaches out to set two fingers on the inside of Akira's wrist. His fingers are cold.] ...concealer.

I know. [ Akira slips into the booth alongside Akechi, making sure they're pressed flush, but not uncomfortably, next to each other. Akechi doesn't seem much worse for the wear for having slept downstairs -- a little chilly, maybe, but it's hard to tell if that's because he slept in a booth with no blanket or because he was apart from Akira.

It's a good sign, at any rate. ]

Sojiro... Won't say anything. [ Sojiro had looked at the marks, flicked his eyes up to Akira's face, and went, 'You good, kid?' and Akira had responded as earnestly as possible that he was, so that was it: the case was closed. Given what other hijinks Akira had been up to the past year, Sojiro's trust in him was astounding. ]

I thought it might be better to go to the store for something that matched. That's a thing, right?

[He pulls taut like a spring but doesn't fully recoil, going for his coffee instead, and it does wonders to soothe the ache in his bones and the scratch to his throat. He's fine, sure, nowhere near as cold as he had been from the laundry debacle, and mostly due to sleeping downstairs anyway, but he's still tense, like he doesn't trust himself to be touching Akira.]

That's... helpful. And yes, your undertone is wildly different from mine, so it... would be far more effective to get you your own.

Please teach me well. [ Akira says, a little joking as he drinks his coffee. He hadn't slept well -- there's bags under his eyes now, dark spots that give away that he's not quite at 100% (they match the bruises on his neck, which would be neat if it wasn't so dire) -- but by virtue of sitting awake for 20 minutes on the stairs debating waking Akechi up, he's fully functional despite the fact that this is his first cup.

He might have, in desperation, downed the last of the ice coffee he'd made them last night, but he won't acknowledge that (in part because he drank Akechi's, too, and got distracted thinking about indirect kisses despite the fact that he can literally get direct kisses now). ]

I was going to offer to let you go on your own, but you probably need my skin there, huh? [ Because Akira wants Akechi to have freedom.

Also that's the worst possible way to have phrased that, Akira. ]

[He rolls his eyes at first, startled by how easy it is for the gesture to be fond. It makes a cube of ice drop into his stomach and he hunches forward, pressing his free hand against the bruise Akira left. He'll be doing that for a while.] You'll need it for your eyes, too, you look like a raccoon. Which likely means I look like a corpse, but I suppose that's fitting.

[He grimaces at Akira's chosen way of expressing his need to be present to match concealer, turning toward him and shaking his head slightly.] But, not the rest of you? Do you expect me to just take a skin graft?

You're a pretty corpse. [ Akira doesn't say "cute", but he's obviously thinking it very loudly. There are some battles Akechi will never hope to win. ]

Well, I'm attached to my skin, so I'd be there. I thought we could try that thing today where you try staying away for shorter periods to see if it's easier, but we can go to the store first.

[ Akira can pull off a gay scarf like he's an old rich dude for the duration of shopping for makeup. ]

[More disdainful frowns, and Akechi just turns to scowl at his coffee and work toward finishing it.] Thank you, I suppose.

[He opens his mouth to make a comment about skin grafts involving his skin not being attached to him, but figures that's a bit grotesque before breakfast, so he decides not to.] If you haven't anything else to do, that's an efficient use of our time.

[ Akira offers Akechi a small smile, and then looks away for a long moment. He takes in a breath, careful, because the memory of how violent this morning got is still with him.

He wonders how Akechi's stomach is doing. ]

I thought I'd talk to Haru today, about you staying on the roof.

[It's probably a delightful shade of purple, by now-- something else for you to be shocked and unsettled by when you bathe, later.]

[His posture sinks, following him as he huddles around his cup of coffee a bit.] Would that be easier with or without me present, do you think? I wouldn't want her to feel as though she were being put on the spot, but I also don't... want her to feel as if I am avoiding her. [Even if he absolutely is.]

I think without. [ Akira says it gently, and not because he thinks Haru will react poorly, but -- better to give them both some space before they're forced to meet again. Let them prepare their reactions. They're both the kind of person that needs to have something rehearsed, a careful mask in place, even if it isn't a lie.

A customer service voice. ]

So that's when you can go do whatever, but... maybe take Morgana with you? [ Just in case. Not because Akira thinks Akechi is going to try to make a break for it -- that would have been last night, if anything -- but because if something goes wrong, Akira wants someone to be able to run for help, and Morgana is terrifyingly fast on four legs. ]

[Akechi doesn't take it poorly-- in fact he breathes out a slight sigh of relief about it. Tired as he is, he's not sure he's up for trying to present himself in a way he feels is worthy of being in the presence of Okumura Haru. One day, he won't feel like he has to be any given way around her, but that will take much longer than with the others.]

[He frowns, thoughtfully.] Do you think he'd mind? [He doesn't really know what to do with Morgana, who has always been startlingly caring and friendly toward him, despite obvious mistrust. He'd been the reason he'd been found out in the first place, but Akechi couldn't bring himself to resent the creature. Possibly, he reasoned, because he was a cat. He rather liked cats, if he were honest.]

Not really. He's pretty easy-going, honestly, so long as you don't call him a cat. [ Morgana had been one of the ones firmly on the side of "save Akechi even if he might be an asshole"-- partly because, Akira thinks, Morgana's own past and origins had been such a mystery for so long. In the end, Morgana hadn't ever been anything but Morgana, but he thinks it might still be easier to empathize with Akechi than it is for the others to do the same.

It's harrowing, trying to change how you are and the way you see yourself. ]

He used to sleep in my desk at school everyday, so he'll probably just chat and nap.

[Akechi stares into his coffee cup, swirling the remaining liquid around idly like one might spin wine, smiling ever so slightly.] I would appreciate the company, I think.

[Because he... understands the risks. It's smarter for him to be chaperoned, and it's much less oppressive to his sense of independence to bring along-- well. Not a cat. But Morgana was a little different, besides.] ...I suppose I'll have to borrow a bag of yours to carry him in, then. I don't think Sae-san would appreciate me using her gym bag.

You can take my schoolbag. He's broken it in. [ There's permanently Morgana fur in it and he's pretty sure it's become slightly misshapen, but no one seems to mind. Between the girl who sits behind him in class and Kawakami, he's pretty sure several people have noticed Morgana and everyone is keeping it a secret.

Akira is glad that Akechi is allowing himself to be in good company more often. Or company in general. ]

Or just stick him in the laundry bag. [ Do not do this. ]

[He nods, swallowing the rest of his coffee and then putting the cup down a little harder than is strictly necessary at the notion of putting Morgana in the laundry bag.]

That could probably be considered animal cruelty, you know.

[ One day, Akira will tell Akechi about the button mashing incident. Instead, he just laughs. ]

It's fine. Morgana's pointy at five ends, so anything he doesn't want to do he'll let you know. [ Vocally, likely; Morgana's not big on scratching people, though Akira wouldn't put him above peeing on someone's shoes if they'd truly wronged him.

Akira glances over, sees Sojiro completely immersed in dishes with his back to them, and presses a quick, discreet kiss to Akechi's cheek as he swipes both empty mugs to go wash them. ]

Go get ready and we can go to the shop before it's busy.

[He will quietly encourage Morgana to vomit in your shoes, sir.]

[He laughs shortly, because "pointy at five ends" sure is a way to explain the dangers of a cat. He has no chance to say anything before Akira is kissing his cheek and spiriting away with their mugs, and he sort of short-circuits, bristling and puffing his shoulders outward.] Don't-- you'd think you'd hesitate to do that. [But it's... not reassuring, so much as it makes the ice cubes from before act up in his stomach just from sheer disbelief. Akira Kurusu was certainly some kind of force to be reckoned with.]

[He's very deliberate in keeping pressure against the growing bruise at the base of his ribs as he moves out of the booth and breezes toward the stairs. He pauses, grimacing and opening the bathroom door to give himself a once-over. Yeah, he looks like Absolute Shit. Good lord. He wanders back out and upstairs, changing first before heading back downstairs with his bag of toiletries from Sae, his hair brush, and his tooth brush. He doesn't actually take especially long to make himself presentable, and pops his stick of concealer into the corner of the bag of toiletries from Sae.]

...Kurusu, [He peers around the corner, not wanting to pull Akira from something important, but curious to see just how horribly mismatched his concealer is for him.]

[ Akira hasn't donned an apron because Sojiro is ushering him away from helping too much -- Sojiro isn't fussing so much as acknowledging there isn't a whole lot left to do in the subject opening, so Akira is just sitting obediently and eating his breakfast curry when Akechi leaves, comes back, and leans out the door. ]

Mm? [ Akira gets up, because it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that Akechi is going to say across the room, in part because Akechi is never the kind of person to yell across rooms especially when other people are present. ]

[That works just as well, he figures-- he reaches out when Akira gets to him and takes his wrist, concealer magically in his other hand, and swipes a bit of it there, blending it with his thumb. As previously assessed, it absolutely doesn't match, and he snorts.] Putting this on your neck would just make it more obvious. Let me know whenever you're ready, I'll go put this upstairs.

[He moves away again, pausing.] Oh, your bag, for Morgana.

[ Akira leans in to the bathroom to look in the mirror, and then promptly also snorts. He could probably find a worse match, if he tried, but Akira's skin is an entirely different undertone and a few shades off. Pretty hopeless. Akira swipes it off with a kleenex. ]

I'll grab a scarf. You want to eat anything first? [ Which is less "want to" and more "if I put food in front of you will you eat at least a fourth of it while pushing the rest around hopelessly on your plate", but Akira acknowledges that lack of sleep may well have soured both their stomachs. ]

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