are you hurting the one you love?

[stealhearted]

psst psst [clicks tongue for akechi, sets out curry as a treat]--

Comments

[stealhearted]

It's fine. I can get out of it. [ Akira leans back, letting his breath out in a puff as he considers it. The air is still chilly, but not cold; his breath can't be seen, at least. ]

I'll tell them I'm busy working with a detective. [ It's not entirely a lie, which is the best kind of excuse. He offers Akechi a vague smile, slightly conspiratorial. ]

[forfeited]

[He looks genuinely dismayed by this for a moment-- what little of Akira's circumstances he is aware of, he is, at least, aware that school is an important aspect of his probation. Charges may have been dropped due to Shido's change of heart, but...]

Mmn, we'll see how quickly Sakura can formulate a solution. I won't be the reason you can't attend classes, exams are important. [His expression pinches at that conspiratorial smile, and he shakes his head.] I'm not a detective anymore, Kurusu.

[stealhearted]

I couldn't go for nearly a month. [ Akira doesn't point out that that, too, was Akechi's fault, but he managed to survive it all just fine. ]

We might have to come clean to Sae-san. [ Akira trusts her, now, though, and thinks that she'd go through whatever hoops necessary to keep Akira out of jail for breaking any probation. Anyway, his probation is nearly over -- it's really practically done as it is. ]

[forfeited]

[He doesn't have to-- just saying it sort of points that out, and Akechi's mouth sticks in a frown, his posture strangely scolded.]

[He draws in a breath, holds it, counts backward with his eyes closed, and strides past him a few paces.] If we run out of other options, I suppose that's fine.

[stealhearted]

There's only a few days left of the semester. It'll be fine.

[ Akira lets them back into Leblanc, waiting for Akechi to step inside before he locks back up. He takes the ice pack back, now that it's mostly just a moist cloth of cold water, and drops the remaining ice into the sink before he wrings the cloth out.

Truthfully, Akira is a little overwhelmed trying to imagine dealing with school and being attached to Akechi, or having to go home and being attached to Akechi... 'Hi, mom and dad, I know you haven't seen me in a year because of that crime I was accused of that you kind of believed I did, but here's my new live-in detective that's kind of a murderer, can he stay in my room?' ]

If Futaba can't figure it out, anyway.

[forfeited]

[He nods, making a frustrated sound.] I suppose if you aren't worried about it I shouldn't be, either. [He steps inside, loitering around in Akira's shadow and trying not to think about the long-term. Right now it's strange, still new and almost like some sort of stupid game they're playing, but he knows how quickly they will both tire of the arrangement.]

[Even Akira had to have his limits for Akechi's bullshit.]

[Or so he hopes.]

...what will you do if she can't?

[stealhearted]

[ Akira doesn't respond for a long moment. He heads up the stairs, taking them slow enough to make sure that Akechi is following, and then leans back against the desk to consider it. ]

... Huh.

[ He hasn't really thought about that. In the past year, there's never really been an obstacle that couldn't all figure out when they put their minds to it. In the Metaverse or not, they usually managed to get through everything. Like killing God. ]

... you think it'll be harder than killing God?

[forfeited]

Killing a God, [Akechi is quick to correct him, sitting on the couch again and toeing off his shoes, setting the bag in his lap and placing the concealer, makeup sponges, and chapstick all in a neat line on the floor to the side of the couch.] And one you all were easily lead to. We haven't the faintest of an idea as to why this situation is happening, so we don't have a clear path to a solution. At least to start, it may well be more difficult.

[stealhearted]

Even if it's difficult, I'm sure we'll manage it. [ Privately, Akira thinks that if Akechi is back to life it means there's Something Fucky Going On, and in general, that means that the source of the Fucky Thing will be drawn towards the Phantom Thieves like they're a magnet for Fuck.

He offers Akechi a smile. ]

Until then, it's a good thing you like coffee.

[forfeited]

[Akira wishes he were a magnet for Fuck--]

[He closes his eyes, but allows for a faint smile of his own in return, turning his attention to the books Akira has laid out for him to choose from.] Yes, I suppose so. [Is that in the sense of "we'll manage it" or "good that he likes coffee"?? The world may never know.]

[stealhearted]

[ It's probably the best of the options that Akira's going to get, regardless of what Akechi is actually referring to. If Akechi's spirits can be lifted enough to have any hope about the situation, Akira will take it.

He's also clinging to the hope that fixing this won't involve killing Akechi for a third time, since it keeps not sticking. ]

Oh. Here. [ Akira tosses Akechi a small tab of low-dose pain medicine. His stock from the team's palace forays is still pretty decked out, given how he usually bought extra just in case. He doesn't think the punch was that bad, but -- especially now that the bruise has had some time to develop -- he still feels like he should help.

He'd give it to a teammate if they got decked by a shadow, after all, so Akechi deserves it, too. ]

[forfeited]

[Akechi is sort of quietly assuming that might be the case, himself, but he's not going to voice that thought process just yet. It would certainly fix the problem! But he knows that's likely to get him punched on the other side of his jaw.]

[Reflexively, he shields his face to catch the pain meds, frowning into his palm at it and then across the room at Akira.] What's this? [He can take a guess, but he's not sure why he's being offered something like it for a light punch to the jaw that he wholly deserved.]

[stealhearted]

Just a painkiller, in case it hurts when you're trying to sleep. [ It's not like either of them are strangers to pain, and he doubts Akechi will bother taking it, but he prefers to offer it all the same. Particularly since the couch isn't exactly comfortable to sleep on when you don't have to try to stay off a specific side due to a bruise. ]

[forfeited]

[He blinks, his expression slackening at the little tablet in his palm, and he nods slowly. He doesn't really think he needs it, but it's an oddly thoughtful gesture to the point that it sort of bothers him, actually.]

...it's unnecessary. [Were he still stuck on his Detective Prince spiel, he'd have made a fuss about thanking him for it, but he's not, and he's still working through the notion that Akira is just... Like That. It's not an ulterior motive, it's just... thought, spared for the fact that his face might hurt while he's sleeping. He can't adjust.]

[He leans sideways and places the tablet very carefully atop his bag of makeup sponges, one of the books Akira left for him in his other hand, and winds up staying draped sideways to lay the book flat and open it. He's going to wind up needing the painkiller after all, with the way he's laying.]

[stealhearted]

Just in case. [ Akira shrugs a little, and then flops down on his bed. He doesn't have a lot of studying to do, with how close he is to the end of school (despite his airheaded evidence to the contrary, his grades have been shockingly good, even for kind of missing part of the semester but not really because the world was weird).

Instead, he just flips through a couple magazines -- one's a fashion magazine with some photos of Ann, one's an art zine that Yusuke mentioned, and one is literally a catalogue of model guns because even if the Metaverse is gone old habits die hard. ]

[forfeited]

[Akechi has always been a pretty fast reader, but he's exhausted in more ways than one when he cracks open whatever he's borrowed. As such, where he started propped up on an elbow turning pages with his free hand he winds up sagging forward and reading at an angle laying on his arm, and probably before Akira gets to his third book he's passed right the hell out, still wearing the borrowed hoodie.]

[stealhearted]

[ Akira isn't paying close enough attention to notice exactly when Goro drifts off, but he notices eventually. He pauses for a moment, tucks away his magazines, and then very carefully slips over to attempt to remove the book and tug the blanket over Akechi. He's pretty sure Akechi is a light sleeper, given what he knows about him, so it's a very slow process to try and make sure that Akechi doesn't completely throw out every bone in his body.

Once that's done, Akira creeps back to turn the light off and go to bed himself, but it takes him longer than he'd like to drift off.

However:

Akira did not turn off his alarm for school, despite the fact that he isn't going, so it starts blaring at the appropriate early hour, a gratingly cheerful chirping as Akira attempts to fumble back into consciousness. ]

[forfeited]

[He makes a vague sound and opens his eyes for about ten seconds, blinking stupidly at Akira, but absolutely will not remember the occurrence later in life. He folds onto his side easily with the removal of the book and introduction of a blanket, going as far as to pull the hem of it forward and partway over his head before he is out again, and Akira would do very well to never mention having seen such a thing.]

[The alarm, however, is completely different than any Akechi has ever set for himself, and he's typically a natural early riser anyway, so the sudden invasion of sound causes quite a number of comical reactions. For starters, he snaps awake to an approximate 30% consciousness, sitting straight up and mumbling a string of words that make no sense ("The cheese cubes are in the basement", in this particular instance, if Akira could process the sounds as words with the way he didn't open his mouth all the way to say them). He then sits very still, letting his eyes search his entire field of vision while he figures out where he is and why it isn't entirely where he should be, and his eyes fall on Akira.]

[His attempt at saying "Kurusu" isn't much better than the mumbling bit about cheese cubes, because he sounds like his mouth is stuck together, which it may well be from the weird position he slept in. He scrunches his face, sits a little straighter, and tries again.]

Kurusu, shut that thing off.

[stealhearted]

[ Akira is already fumbling for the phone, but extremely inefficiently, given he's slinging his arm over his face to block out the sun. But then he hears Akechi's voice instead of Morgana, and Akira groans faintly, rolling over properly to grab his phone and turn the alarm off.

The upside of living at Leblanc was the free food and coffee. The downside is that Akira had slowly wound up with far more of a crippling caffeine addiction than he'd had when he arrived in Tokyo, and he practically slithers to his feet in a way that human beings shouldn't quite be able to move. He yawns and stretches, his shirt riding up to expose a good portion of stomach as he does it, and then he rubs vaguely at his face. ]

'M gonna make coffee.

[forfeited]

[The reason Akechi stares at that exposed expanse of skin has everything to do with his lack of conscious state and absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Akira is extremely nice to look at, thank you very much.]

[It's easy enough to excuse seeing as he actually looks more like he's staring through Akira than at him, but he definitely astral projected a little bit at the fact that his brain definitely thought the words "that's a nice belly button" while navel-gazing Akira Kurusu.]

Okay, [He shifts and swings his feet to the floor, and in the same way he had the night before on the stool in the cafe, he takes hold of the edge of the couch with both hands and stretches his shoulders up and backward. He then frowns at his arms, confused by the grey fabric, because he doesn't think he owns anything grey, until he realizes he's still wearing Akira's hoodie.] ...oh. I will... wash this for you. When I have a wallet.

[stealhearted]

[ Akira makes a vague noise of agreement before staggering down the first two stairs, waiting for Akechi to actually get to his feet and then staggering down the rest of the way to bustle about and make some coffee. They clearly both need it.

The entire ritual of making coffee helps wake him up by proxy, so it only takes about two minutes before he finally manages to reply. ]

It's fine. I'm sure it's still clean. [ Akira sets a cup in front of Akechi and a cup next to himself and watches the water slowly seep through the filter.

He leans over the counter, after a moment, reaching out to touch the bruise on Akechi's face. Not as bad as it could be, all things considered. ]

I think the ice helped.

[forfeited]

[A more rational part of his brain reasons he should have expressed to Akira the night before how poorly he functions before caffeine, but seeing as he forgot to do so, he's stuck in his decaffeinated morning haze with no means of explaining himself. He slides onto the stool closest to where Akira is working, folding his arms over the counter and very nearly dozing sitting up, which is about the only reason Akira gets as far as he does with touching him.]

[Even half-conscious, Akechi is not terribly keen on being touched, particularly not without proper warning.]

[He jolts, sucking in a sharp breath and reeling away from him, grabbing the edge of the counter and extending his arms straight. It's a good thing he did, too, because he almost counterbalances his chair right backwards.]

--What, [His heart thoroughly lodged in his throat from the sudden contact, it takes him a moment to register "I think the ice helped", connect it to Akira's hand having brushed his jaw, and dully, the brief soreness from clenching his jaw. He relaxes in fractions, slowly curling back down onto the counter.] Don't. [He shakes his head, because the rest of the statement is a jumbled collection of words in his brain like a scattered scrabble board, and he can't make sense of it through the morning haze and the abrupt startle of contact.]

[stealhearted]

[ Akira reels back, eyes a little wider than he means for them to be. He should have anticipated that; he'd just... punched Akechi less than twelve hours prior, of course he didn't want to be touched by Akira first thing in the morning. Akira withdraws his hand, using it to rub at the side of his arm awkwardly. ]

...Sorry. [ Akira knows his apologies don't necessarily mean much to Akechi, but he'll give them anyway, especially when he should have seen it coming. He just wasn't thinking. It was too early, too automatic; he's too used to dealing with Yusuke or Ryuji or Sumire, who are all so affectionate and easy to touch and be touched by.

He looks back at the coffee, and decides it's close enough to ready. It's not the same quality that it'd be if he'd made it when he was properly awake, but it's decent enough, and the point is that there's caffeine in it. ]

Do you -- wanna drink down here? [ Akira asks, because he usually wanders up to take his first cup while he sits on the floor of the attic and contemplates the arduous task of getting dressed, but Akechi might prefer something a little more classy. ]

[forfeited]

[He pinches inward slightly, his shoulders bunching up around his ears, thoroughly disliking the awkwardness to Akira's own posture. He'd caused that, and he didn't like it, because Akira was supposed to be this strangely confident impregnable force, and he just didn't like that him simply barking at him to not touch him had caused him to apologize with such a gesture. It was wrong.]

[But anyway.]

[He processes the question with a squint, not entirely sure what he means by it, because where else was one meant to drink coffee? But in the end he shrugs his shoulders, curling inward to yawn without opening his mouth and scrub the heel of one hand over the un-bruised side of his face.] I seem to recall... telling you to go about your life as if I were not here. [He struggles to put the sentence together, and it shows, but he manages, somehow. Slowly.]

[Which is to say if you wanna drink your coffee on the floor upstairs, Akira, do it, he'll follow you and try not to spill his on the way.]

[stealhearted]

[ Akira is still a little hesitant, but he heads back upstairs after a basic cleanup. Thankfully a pourover is a quick cleanup, and pretty simple, because he isn't sure he could manage much else when he didn't sleep enough the previous night and is now dealing with a very grumpy half-asleep Akechi, who manages to be as abrasive as he is endearing.

Which is just -- unfair, honestly. ]

They'll be h-- e-- he-- [ The word is temporarily lost by a very large yawn that's so wide it looks like it might hurt, only vaguely smothered by Akira's hand as he moves to set his coffee on the desk. ] --re within the hour, probably.

[ He smacks for his phone again, catching up on the group chat as well as his private conversations.

Futaba has sent him several memes. ]