stealhearted | are you hurting the one you love?

We'll start small. We'll go on the spinny teacups. [ You're not going to escape this, Goro, you might as well get in. Akira reaches out to take Goro's hand again, entwining their fingers as he sets off to find the previously mentioned garbage can. ]

Really, it's about the food you eat at the end.

[He grimaces slowly, realizing how absolutely fucked he is in this situation. Akira has firmly decided this is happening, and there is approximately no way Goro can wriggle his way out of it.] If I vomit in a teacup I am aiming for you.

That's the price I'll have to pay to make you have fun. [ Akira offers, with another grin. He's going to drag Goro into friendship and being a teenager kicking and screaming. For both their sakes, really.

He slips his phone out of his pocket to check the time. ]

We've got more time before the meeting... wanna go to the zoo?

[He rolls his eyes in as absolutely dramatic of an overblown gesture as he can manage without hurting himself, because really, nothing deters this guy. He's completely hopeless. Short of having some kind of actual damaging trauma relating to theme parks, Akechi will never be spared. Rest in pepperoni.]

[He frowns slightly, fixing him with a baffled frown.] ...why? [Because it's a date, Goro, Jesus.]

...because we're on a date? [ Akira offers, much less put upon than Goro's own internal dialogue would be. He just offers a smile, and then points in the direction of the zoo -- it's not far. ]

It isn't a big one or anything, it's like four hundred yen to get in. You don't seem like the type of person who went on his school zoo fieldtrips very often.

[He's not even sure he remembers there being a zoo here, let alone if he's ever been to it. He follows Akira's pointing, and his jaw sags open, and he looks between the area Akira is pointing and his face a few times, but can't argue.]

I probably only actually attended 50% of the schooling I've been enrolled in, period. It's a wonder my marks have been what they have. [He's mostly just a nerd.]

Like I said, it's because you're actually really smart. [ Which is extremely true, even if Goro continues to think he's not smart just because he cheated at being a detective for awhile. ]

C'mon, they have foxes there. [ Akira is always genuinely enthusiastic about getting to do normal kid things -- especially ones that he didn't get to do when he was younger, living in a rural area where the most fun a kid could have was getting ice cream from the konbini and getting lost playing in the fields.

If he gets to do things with Goro, then it's even better. ]

[He's bizarrely brilliant, in fact, but he refuses to see his own merits since he touted them for so long when he wasn't actually achieving things based on them. It's an ugly knot of emotion, he'll work it out eventually. At least he'll agree he's pretty.] ...among other things, but I'll let you maintain that simplistic narrative.

[He perks up ever so slightly. He does like foxes. And Akira's genuine interest is a bit infectious-- he reaches out to take his hand.] ...you know, you're cute when you want things.

[ Akira looks at Goro with a very distinct "I have been perceived" expression, and then flushes slightly. ]

I blend in pretty well, but I'm still a country boy. [ With a smart city boyfriend and a bunch of talented friends. He can't believe his luck, sometimes. ] Getting to go to a small Tokyo park zoo with my boyfriend is kind of unimaginably cool.

[He has to look away from the sheer force of Akira's fucking cute face, but he hides his own flush behind a well-placed chuckle, his free hand brought up near his mouth to mask the smile that lingers.]

You'll have to forgive me for having a hard time with that term for a while... But, all right, country boy.

[ 'Country boy' is cuter than 'attic trash', Akira thinks, idly, even if he genuinely likes both when they come from Goro. Really, there's not much he doesn't like coming from Goro.

Admission to the zoo is only a couple hundred yen each, so Akira pays for them automatically, offering over a thousand yen note and putting the rest in the donation box.

Then he stops, reading a sign near the front of the zoo. ]

Goro, we've gotta go to the guinea pig petting zoo.

[He flinches at how readily Akira says his first name, but doesn't chastise him for it-- he's trying to be more familiar with him, trying to ease into the change in their dynamic. They're boyfriends, and that involves calling each other by their first names.]

[It doesn't make it any less strange to hear, but he covers the flinch with a cough, frowning.] Next you're going to tell me you want to do a camel ride. I'm beginning to think you are actually a toddler. [He doesn't sound annoyed, though.]

I don't think they have camel rides here. [ Or yeah, he'd totally do it. He makes sure he has a grip on Goro's hand, though, because he catches the flinch and the way Goro covers for it, and he wants to be careful not to go too fast.

They've been speedrunning the whole relationship, as Futaba would say, and while Goro hasn't used slow down yet, Akira wants to notice if he does. ]

I do want to go to that island of bunnies one day.

[His expression pulls almost pained at Akira's pointed care-- he's focusing on him again, focusing on him more than he is himself, and God he wishes he didn't know if Akira didn't, he'd probably just disintegrate. He draws in a breath and lets it out slowly, closing his eyes, opting to ignore the moment and focus instead on Akira wanting to visit islands of bunnies.]

...Okunoshima? That's... pretty far south, but not entirely impossible... [He taps the knuckle of his forefinger to his lips, thoughtful.] I didn't peg you a rabbit guy.

Well, I can't go to Aoshima, Morgana'd get jealous. [ Morgana does not mind other cats -- because he is not a cat, of course -- but if hundreds of cats swarmed Akira (and they would) Morgana would definitely be a little haughty about it. ]

But I really like... uh, I really like cute things. [ Bunnies. Cats.

Goro Akechi. ]

[He can't help the surprised little smile that pulls on his features, because Akira admitting to liking cute things is... Impossibly adorable, who gave him the fucking right??? Holy shit.]

[We'll let Akira never speak the idea that he counts Goro as part of his lineup of cute things, and it'll still be adorable. No murder will have to occur. Akechi squeezes his fingers, absently.] Not a cat or otherwise, would he be jealous if we left him at home to go? I don't think they'd allow what is visually a cat on an island of feral rabbits.

So long as we bring him souvenirs. He didn't get to come to Hawaii with us. [ Which was... a whole thing for a lot of reasons, but nothing to do with Morgana being jealous of the trip, really. He'd been pretty fine with hanging around with Futaba for the few days they were all gone. ]

We don't have to go that far right away, but it'd be nice to go somewhere for summer vacation. [ Haha, you will be doing more quasi-Metaverse things in the summer, but good luck, ]

Shujin wouldn't pay pet-in-cabin fares? Or was the indignance of it too much for Morgana. [He's finding it's a lot easier to learn about the rest of them through Akira than by asking himself, which is... underhanded, he thinks, but it's just like him to be underhanded. And a complete coward, but, that's a separate issue.]

[He shifts his hand to lace his fingers through Akira's.] ...I've not been many places outside of Tokyo, so I have to agree.

He'd have to quarantine coming back. Rabies precaution. Don't think they'd understand that he can't get anything when he's half-Metaverse... [ But Morgana had stayed home from that trip and hadn't been too upset about it all. Except for when they came back and the group came awfully close to splitting up.

Akira considers telling Akechi about that, but decides it's a story for another day. Sometimes Akira will fill him in on all the things he missed. ]

Haha, sometime I'll have to go back home and you'll get to see where I grew up. [ It's not a happy 'haha'. ]

Ah, that makes sense...,

[He doesn't mind learning later rather than sooner. He's still working out his own shit, factoring in the lives of so many other people that he's realizing he does, actually, give quite a monumentous fuck about, is pretty daunting.]

[He angles his whole body toward Akira and steps closer to him at the humorless sound to his laugh, giving him a very critical once-over.] Are you sure that's a good idea? I've harmed for less.

It's sort of a requirement. If I'm staying here longer, there's some stuff I left behind that I'd like... I had a real laptop and everything. [ They just didn't let him take any of it with him. His actual gaming system, his books, his manga, all his nice clothes -- it was all labeled as unnecessary for someone on probation, for a criminal, for a son they regretted having. ]

And you'll have to come with me, so...

[He hums, thoughtful, but nods.] Whenever is convenient for you, then. I'm certainly not doing anything of importance.

You're right. We could be doing important things. [ And Akira says this, with perfect timing, as they reach the said guinea pig petting zoo, which he immediately tugs Goro into.

They're given a short spiel by a friendly zookeeper about the guinea pigs and not to lift them up, and then Akira is a child in a candy store but the candy is all friendly guinea pigs. ]

[He starts to ask what important things they could be doing when he is bodily yeeted into a petting zoo enclosure, and he's still reeling as Akira Becomes A Child.]

[He's startled, to say the least-- they're both still kids, and objectively he does understand that, but they're both so fucking awful at acting their age it's easy to forget. So he watches, and stoops down to hold out one finger to a guinea pig that has chosen to come squeak in his general direction.] ...cat or not, Morgana would likely be going out of his mind right now. [Say nothing to the fact that he hasn't looked away from Akira once.]

[ Akira just looks so quietly pleased with all the guinea pigs. He sits down and allows them to begin clambering on him, gently petting each one that demands his attention. ]

I'd say he'd fight them, but some of them are bigger than him. [ A particularly fat guinea pig trundles over, squeaks at Goro, and then promptly climbs onto his shoe and lays down. ]

They're really cute...

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