stealhearted | are you hurting the one you love?

It looks cute. [ Akira says, and there's a deliberate motion from the corner that is definitely not Sojiro fondly rolling his eyes behind his newspaper.

Akira takes the stairs to the attic two at a time, which is a little reckless, but he, also, is a little reckless, so it evens out. He doesn't need to do anything except make sure he has his keys and wallet, mostly. His hair is... his hair. ]

You are biased. [It's all he says, and in a mild tone, but he follows after him until he gets to the stairs, and instead slips into the restroom. He brushes his hair out neatly-- it really didn't need much, but he's particular. He straightens himself in the mirror, and struggles to actually look at himself, focusing on his vest, his hair, avoiding his face entirely.]

[He waits at the bottom of the stairs, his own wallet having never left the pocket of his khakis.]

[ Akira is biased, but he also freely admits it. It seems like Goro is getting used to it, these days, and Akira offers Sojiro a little wave as they head out, Akira leading the way.

They're not on a date, so Akira doesn't make a fuss about trying to pay for Goro's train fare, though he does note he should probably get him a student pass if they're going to keep traveling in the area. ]

I really am going to win you a plush toy from the arcade, by the way.

I'm not a child, [But he's almost grinning as he walks out behind him, walking a touch faster to move up alongside him once they're on the street.] Don't let Sakamoto show you up, though.

I was trained at arcade games by a professional, I'll have you know. [ Shinya is perhaps not actually a professional, but he's about the closest thing you can be without making money off it. Which... Shinya usually doesn't, he's still young enough that he hasn't fallen to the lure of gambling.

He'll clean up once he does, though. ]

What's your favorite animal?

[An unimpressed eyebrow quirk.] A professional, really? [He's figuring he means like, Futaba.]

[A beat of curious frowning at that question, and he actually mulls it over, taking hold of his chin as he walks.] I feel like saying "crows" isn't entirely accurate and entirely too predictable, though I do appreciate them, they're very smart. I don't figure you'll find plush crows in arcade games, though.

There might be crows. There was a Jack Frost once. I don't know how that even works. [ Like, the idea that other people are aware of persona on some level is an idea that is so far beyond him and so firmly in the court of like, Futaba and Wakaba, that Akira simply does not deal with it.

He just collects the toys. They're cute. And they make his actual persona happy. ]

If you're a crow, does that mean you're going to start giving me random shiny objects?

[He laughs, briefly, waving a hand.] You'd like that, wouldn't you.

Yeah. [ Would Akira like gifts from Goro, even if it was just a shiny rock? Absolutely, he'd treasure it, which is probably why Goro won't do it. Akira knows the amount that he likes Goro is a little over the top, but he's got like a decade of 'time no one loved Goro' to make up for. ]

But I'll settle for some of your crepe.

[That is absolutely atrociously disgusting, Akira. You're gross.]

[He rolls his eyes, nodding.] You'll have to leave the arcade for it, we can't bring food inside.

We'll probably be done before you are. Ryuji can only burn through so much money at an arcade. [ Akira, while absolutely loaded, does not generally flaunt this and therefore only ever matches the spending of people he's out with.

Except Haru. He does not match Haru. ]

[He snickers, shaking his head.] He ought to find better things to waste his money on.

The other option is ramen and presents for his mom. [ Which Akira says without betraying the fact that he knows the fact that Ryuji routinely spends his money on class trips on presents for his mother is an annoyingly endearing trait even to someone like Akechi.

Akira's plan to make all of his friends get along with Akechi will work, and he will personally oversee it. ]

But I'm winning a present for you, so I can't talk.

[He makes a face, trying to prevent a grimace and mostly failing. It's something he would be fond of if he would allow himself to.] ...I always forget he favors his mother so much.

[Akechi would like you to stop, sir.] You don't have to.

She's one of the only adults in his life that wasn't awful, so I get it. [ Ryuji's mother is one of the only living biological parents of the thieves that isn't completely awful or absentee, so Akira really gets it, honestly.

Their collective track record is not good, given how many orphans they have. ]

I know. But this way when you eventually can move out of the attic, you'll have decorations to display. [ Akira grins. ] If you don't display them I'll get sad. [ He's teasing. ]

[He thinks he intended to make some kind of sharp little quip, but the phrase "when you can move out of the attic" rattles his brain until he stops, wholesale. His expression slides suddenly and reflexively neutral, and it's-- odd. After all this time, the Detective Prince still surfaces when who he's learning to allow himself to be can't come to bat.]

[Somewhere in his mind, there's a single thread that keeps him tethered to the functional ability to behave like an eighteen year old. He'd never been very good at it, having gone from eight to seventeen without really living the years between, all until a day in April he paraphrased Hegel with his hand strangely warm through his glove in the palm of a stranger who would change his life in every way imaginable. The thread is made of something impossibly strong, to have not broken after everything he's put up with and lived through, for better or for worse, but it does regularly fray. It hadn't, in some time, so the sensation is almost foreign when it happens again. He should know better, because Akira never means the things he misunderstands the way he takes them, but the way his heart lurches and sinks in his chest is almost nauseating at his suggested idea of being able to move out of the attic, because he'd not realized he was hoping to either never have to, or never have to alone.]

[His smile doesn't reach his eyes, but looks perfectly pleasant, anyway. Akira might not even realize the difference.] They'll add character to any room, I'm sure.

[ Akira watches. It's what he's best at, really; he doesn't normally speak nearly as much as he does with Goro, doesn't find that he has that much to say to the situation when he could be watching and learning instead. And he does learn: he learns lots of Goro's little tells, learns what the silences between his words mean and the microexpressions that flick across his face mean.

So he notices when Goro's expression goes slack and then covers automatically with a thin veneer. Akira catches the way Goro sidesteps the subject of the future in a vague way. ]

... was it the idea of having a future, or did you think I was looking forward to getting rid of you? [ Akira leans in, bonks their shoulders together. ]

[Of course Akira saw through him. He hated the guy's ability to look through him like glass, really. He bumps back into his shoulder, closing his eyes and sagging slowly into him.]

...I hate what you've done to me.

Yeah? Unfortunately, I'm going to keep caring about you, so you're in for the long run now.

[ Akira worries, a little, about the future, in a different way than he thinks Goro does. He worries that he's pushed Goro into this relationship; that it's convenient; that when they're both not suffering from nonstop trauma they're going to find that they don't like each other or aren't compatible.

But he knows he'll always care. He can't... he can't not care about Goro, he doesn't think. ]

This has already been a long run for me.

[It's quiet, but not so quiet that he didn't want Akira to hear it, and he closes his eyes, folding around to lean into the hollow of his shoulder.] I know you think it's silly, but I don't think I'll ever stop expecting you to get tired of me anymore than you think you'll never stop caring.

[ Akira smiles, a little, because -- well, it's already progress, isn't it? It's already something. They can be more than a few feet apart; they can... almost... have sex; they've managed to have some really emotional heart to hearts.

And yet at the same time nothing has changed. ]

I want you to be able to have your freedom, because I know that I'm about the only person in the world that'd be content living in an attic above a coffee shop. But when I say you'll move out someday... I'll follow you, you know.

[Such is the routine of Akechi Goro. You think you're getting somewhere, but if you're actually making progress it's in a circle. He'd grown as a person, sure-- but it didn't mean he was going to settle easily or comfortably into allowing himself to acknowledge that, let alone benefit from it.]

[His ribs shake as he exhales, and he closes his eyes.] Okay. [It's barely a whisper, and he's mostly angry with himself for needing to hear it when Akira made it so goddamn obvious.]

[ Akira affords a casual glance around to make sure no one is looking at them -- more for Goro's sake than his own -- and then leans in. He doesn't kiss Goro so much as he lightly presses his nose to Goro's cheek and then pulls away. ]

Okay. C'mon, we're not early anymore. [ Just on time. ]

[He closes his eyes at the contact and makes an affirmative sound, opening his eyes again to frown at their feet.] My timing is impeccable, as always.

You're a brilliant individual who has no flaws and has never shown up to a train platform half an hour early just to see someone. [ He knows that his stop was nowhere near Akechi's way to school. It was cute, though. And Akira liked seeing him. ]

Oh, there's Ann. [ Akira waves in acknowledgement as Ann jumps up and down until she's properly sighted, hand in the air to wave at them. It attracts a minor amount of attention, because subtlety is the middle name of the Phantom Thieves. Yep. ]

are you hurting the one you love?

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