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Akira profusely thanked whatever god he hadn’t killed yet when Ann returned his video call almost immediately. She had a face half-done with makeup, hair pulled back in a headband, and the look on her face was swathed with worry.
“Akira?”
“Hey, sorry to bother you all the way in France—“
“Akira, you wouldn’t be calling me at one AM your time if it wasn’t an emergency. What’s wrong? You look pale, like you’ve seen a ghost.”
And there was the crux of the problem, huh. He laughed shallowly, without humor, trying not to freak out. “Funny you should mention that…” he whispered as quietly as possible while making sure his headphones were on securely. He summoned his former sneaking skills as a Phantom Thief and discretely hovered his phone around the corner, ensuring Ann could see the next aisle over.
There was a beat, then she let out a shocked gasp as she exclaimed in Akira’s ears over the heartbeat in his throat, “Oh my god, is that Akechi?!”
Ann’s words of shock were the confirmation Akira needed that he wasn’t going crazy, that he hadn’t gone completely mad and that Goro Akechi, his unfortunate point of intense affection, was one aisle over in this 777 browsing for instant noodles like the ordinary person he wasn’t.
Akechi was in sweats and a hoodie he wouldn't have been caught dead wearing before, his hair pulled back in a short ponytail, and a frown on his face, most likely because they were out of whatever flavor he wanted. A delirious part of Akira’s mind thought Akechi was as beautiful if not more than he was the day Akira lost him.
“It’s him, right? I’m not insane?” he strains through gritted teeth.
“Your camera is grainy, but I’m pretty sure it’s him and you’re definitely not insane, babe. Why would you say that?”
“I kept thinking I saw him all this year, I think I might be a little crazy and I’m positive I’ve hallucinated about him a few times. I don’t know what to do, I seriously don’t. I called you because you were awake and you wouldn’t chew me out for admitting I still think about him.”
Ann sighed, pushing her makeup aside and pulling the camera closer to her face to get a better look at him. “Akira, I know we’ve never really talked about this since I wanted to respect your privacy, but I have eyes. I could tell you really liked Akechi.”
Like wasn’t a strong enough word for the guy Akira almost sacrificed the free will of the world for. Akira wasn’t feeling up to informing Ann of that little particular detail at the moment, though. “I can’t just go up and say hi!”
“Why not?” she challenged him.
“Because he might not want to see me! He ghosted me for some reason, he probably just didn’t want to see my face, plus what do I say to him? God this sucks.”
Akira was trying to keep his voice down, but there was rustling the next aisle over. He squeezed his eyelids shut and prayed once again Akechi didn’t just hear him.
Ann filled in the silence in his stead. “Akira, look. I don’t think any of us really know what happened between you two, but even though he was a colossal jerk you’ve seemed sadder since he disappeared, quieter than you ever were to begin with. I may be an outsider to this but I think you and Akechi had a strange connection most people will never experience in their entire lifetimes, so…go get your man!”
She winked at the camera and Akira felt like he was being ripped in half. “I can always try, I guess, but I can’t guarantee this will be a pretty conversation. You’re right, I shouldn’t just let him go, especially since he didn’t hold up his end of the—“
A pretentious, irritated, all too familiar voice interrupted him as Goro Akechi rounded the corner behind Akira, trying to see something just past him. “Can you stop looking at your phone and move? I’m trying to reach behind you.”
Akira spun on his heels, summoning a feral glare as he made eye contact with Akechi for the first time in months since that February. Akechi must have not realized who the lanky boy with messy black hair was until he turned around, because as soon as he made eye contact back the lone cup noodles in his hands toppled to the ground, Akechi’s eyes wide like saucers as if he were a deer in the headlights.
Neither of them did anything for a second, staring in shock at each other while Akira’s emotions transformed from fear and anxiety to righteous anger and crushing heartache.
Then, for the first time ever since Akira met him, Goro Akechi turned around and ran.
Naturally, Akira tore after him, running faster than he ever did in the entire Phantom Thief career to the point that his headphones fell out. Not like he noticed that, not while he was trying his damnedest to catch up to the murderous detective who changed and honestly kinda ruined his life.
Akechi didn’t make it very far outside before Akira leaped in the air and tackled him to the asphalt in the parking lot, earning a satisfying yelp from the former detective as he had the upper hand for a single moment.
Without the powers of the Metaverse, though, Akira was just a slightly stronger than average guy whereas Akechi must have kept up his bouldering habit. He wound up pinning Akira to the ground after a brief battle, Akira’s arms above his head with just one hand, hissing in rage and something completely dangerous that Akira couldn’t place.
“What the hell are you doing here, Kurusu?”
Akira mustered his inner shithead Joker self as he replied, “Well, I was going to buy chips but I found you instead, so there’s that.”
Akechi just shoved his head harder into the ground, fingers splayed across Akira’s face and a glint most people would find terrifying in his eyes. Akira hated that he found it attractive because right now he was furious and on the verge of crying.
“That’s it? I spent all this time avoiding you and yet I ran into you again at a fucking 777 because you were bored?!”
Akira swallowed past the lump in his throat, wanting nothing more than to bite down hard on Akechi’s hand. He didn’t do that. Instead he growled out, “So you were avoiding me! Well guess what, you did such a good job I thought you were dead, you bastard!”
“That’s fine,” Akechi said back with incredible venom. “I’d rather you think I’m dead than deal with your brainless sentimentality—“
“Oh, fuck off! Why are you so determined to make yourself miserable?” Akira’s feelings were starting to boil, no longer tempered like they usually were, steadily reaching the breaking point after all this time. He was crying now.
He didn’t care if he cried. He hoped it made Akechi uncomfortable. Payback was a bitch.
“You really don’t give a shit about how I feel and it shows, huh? I looked all over for you, spent over a whole year now just waiting for you to show up, but you never did! Do you know how many times I cried over you? Not that you’d care because it’s brainless sentimentality but I can’t believe all this time you were just a coward avoiding me!”
He was babbling now, not even noticing Akechi’s grip tightening on his temples. “I wanted nothing more than to see you again, and when I did at last you didn’t even want me to!”
Akechi huffed in annoyance. “Why do you even care, Kurusu?!”
“Because I’m in love with you, asshole!”
The words spilled out before Akira could reel in his traitorous tongue. Almost immediately the grip on his face loosened, Akechi falling back and rising to his feet with a look on his face Akira had never seen before. All Akechi had to say was a befuddled, eerie murmur of, “What did you just say?”
Well, the cat was out of the bag. Akira found himself almost wishing he’d died in that interrogation room so he wouldn’t have to have this conversation, but it was too late to back out now.
Trembling, wiping some tears off his face despite them continuing to fall, he steeled his resolve. “You heard me right. I don’t need to repeat myself.”
Akechi…wasn’t acting the way Akira expected him to. He was biting his lip, his arms crossed and his fingers digging into muscle so hard they were leaving nail indents, resembling a caged animal more than anything in that moment.
Akira came to a terrible realization: When was the last moment anyone had expressed love for Goro Akechi? Akira had a sinking feeling the last person had been Akechi’s mother, and that made him want to collapse into the asphalt and be swallowed alive by a sinkhole. He stood up anyway, gathering his courage as he looked Akechi in the eye.
“Why?” That was all Akechi could manage to say after a tense minute of silence.
“…Why what?” Akira responded.
Akechi looked ill, lost, afraid of something. Maybe he was afraid of Akira. Maybe he was afraid of himself. Maybe it was a combination of the two. “You have everything, all these people who care about you, who actually love you. You could easily pick any of them to share your feelings with, and yet you choose me? The man who shot you?”
“You shot a cognitive me—“
“Shut up, Kurusu!” Akechi barked, but the bite was almost gone. Akira’s confession seemed to have rattled his very soul. “You have all these people who want you, you’d be much better off with any of them. Yoshizawa-san, any of your merry band of fools, I’m sure you could easily fall for any of them!”
“I don’t want any of them,” Akira whispered hoarsely, meaning every word. “I just want you.”
Akechi let out a badly shaken laugh. Akira wondered if Akechi felt as inconsolable and insane as Akira himself did right now. “You’re making a mistake, Kurusu. A horrible, horrible mistake.”
“Wouldn’t be my first,” he said back with a shrug.
“Why the fuck would you actually care about let alone love someone like me?!”
Akira wasn’t sure he had the capacity to explain that can of worms. “I just do,” was all he said back. Then he reached into his pocket and grabbed his proof, holding up the old glove for Akechi to see. “I’m a man of my word, by the way. I waited all this time for you.”
Akechi took another minute to gather his words, unable to take his eyes off his old glove except when they glanced at Akira’s face. Finally he started off with, “I spent this entire past year trying so hard to convince myself I hate you.”
That was a rocky start to a conversation, but Akira declined to comment out of fear of Akechi bolting again.
Akechi continued, mustering a new kind of bravery Akira didn’t really expect from him: the bravery to talk about his feelings, even if they weren’t all good. “I kept saying if I hated you we’d both be better off, that you’d be happier without me in your life and likewise. Instead all I felt was rage that you moved on without me. I had no idea I was wrong, apparently.
“I sometimes found myself wanting to hurt you again, in ways that you couldn’t easily come back from. Maybe I’d break your fingers one by one, or maybe I’d find good use for your old knife. Other times I was tempted to walk into Leblanc like nothing happened, even though I knew you weren’t there. Usually I wanted to punch you in the face for daring to make me feel like this, and I wonder if hating you or feeling like this about you hurts more.”
Akira didn’t ask about what feelings Akechi meant. He had a pretty good idea.
“And then today had to happen and you had to ruin everything again. I hate you for making me want you in my life. You shouldn’t have shown up at all, you bastard.”
Akira considered pointing out that all he wanted was a late night bag of chips but once again restrained himself. That wasn’t what Akechi needed right now. It wasn’t what either of them needed right now. “I’m tired of fighting the wrong battles, Akechi. We may have been pitted against each other before but we don’t have to be now. You’re not my enemy and I never wanted you to be one in the first place.”
Akechi didn’t say anything right away, so Akira forged on, played his hand for all to see. “I wished for you more than anything else in the false reality, don’t you remember that? I would have done anything to make you happy and you should know, contrary to what you believe, I wouldn’t do that for just anyone. I lost you once, twice now actually, I really don’t want to lose you ever again.”
He still didn’t say a word. Akira was trying his best to choke back a sob. “Talk to me. Please. I can’t read your thoughts all the time.”
Akechi looked up at him again then, and Akira finally fully registered the sheer terror on the other’s face. The ball was still in Akira’s court to salvage this. Crossing the invisible barrier between them, Akira reached out and grabbed Akechi’s gloved left hand. “Hey, I’m not playing a game with you. I meant it when I said I want you, every single part of you, Akechi.”
Akechi sighed, briefly not looking Akira in the eye before rising to the challenge and leveling him with a baffling, irritated glare. “I can’t believe after all this time you’re still the craziest person I’ve ever known. You really don’t know when to quit, do you? I should have known I couldn’t shake you even after all this time, but maybe I’m just as insane for what I’m about to do myself.”
Akira had no clue what to expect after that statement and was about to ask, but he couldn’t, because his brain short circuited as Akechi literally stole his breath away with a deep, long kiss.
Akechi was…gentler than expected, but still greedy and desperate, placing one hand against the small of Akira’s back to pull him flush and weaving his other hand through his hair, tugging to tilt Akira’s head. Akira’s eyes were wide for a heartbeat before he decided to close them tightly, not wanting to process anything except Akechi invading all five of his senses with everything he had. It was nothing like he imagined and yet everything he never knew he wanted or needed.
Dizzily, Akira noticed Akechi was only wearing one glove. He had a funny feeling he knew the location of the missing one, on the ground where Akira had dropped it to place his hands on Akechi’s shoulders as he kissed him back. He let Akechi part his lips with a slip of his tongue, allowing the other free reign to explore Akira as he pleased, as he needed.
They lost themselves in the moment for who knew how long until Akechi pulled back first, taking the hand without the glove that was previously tugging at his hair and gently wiping the tears from under Akira’s eyes. His grip tightened around Akira’s waist as he rested his palm against Akira's cheek, stroking his tearstained skin, and Akira petted Akechi’s hair in return. “I thought I wanted to make you cry more than anything, but doing it like this wasn’t what I hoped it’d be at all, to be honest,” said Akechi.
Akira laughed quietly. “Yeah, I gotta say this wasn’t how I was thinking my chip run would go, but the kiss was totally worth it.”
“I hate you,” Akechi said in a tone that suggested otherwise.
“Yeah, I’m literally the worst,” said Akira, flashing Akechi a weary yet still devilish grin.
They didn’t pull apart just yet, Akechi looking at Akira like he would shatter him if he did and Akira not wanting to let Akechi walk away once more. “I suppose this is it for my privacy, then?” Akechi said.
“I’m here to stay, if you’ll have me. I’m staying at Leblanc again now that I’m out of school.”
“Well, even if I ran you’d find me again, so there’s no point in hiding from this.”
Akira nuzzled Akechi’s neck, astonished by the fact Akechi was letting him. “Nope, I’m a professional heart stealer after all. I’d just send you a calling card in the mail to make your treasure materialize and hope that treasure is me.”
“You were right, you really are the worst,” Akechi groaned. “You’re going to tell your fools of friends I’m alive too, aren’t you?”
At that moment, Akira felt like he was forgetting something important. “Well, Morgana is going to find out the instant I get home, so that’s for sure, and I guess Sumire and Ann wouldn’t mind—“
Oh. Oh no.
“Shit, I forgot about Ann!”
“What about Takamaki?” Akechi said in a jealous tone Akira knew they’d have to discuss eventually, but not right now. He was frantically scrambling to find his phone, which to his horror he found just a few inches from his foot. He picked it up along with the sacred glove, terrified by the fact Ann for some reason had not dropped the call and still had the video on, with her leveling a huge wide-eyed and shocked stare at him, now knowing far more about Akira and Akechi than she probably would have liked.
The Bluetooth for his lost headphones was still on, but the speaker had been just from his mouthpiece. Oh god, oh no…
Not ready to face the music but knowing he had no choice, he turned on the speakerphone and disconnected the Bluetooth, shakily asking her, “Uh…you didn’t hear all that, right, Ann?”
Ann, to her credit, wasn’t laughing at him. She glanced in amazement behind Akira’s shoulder, presumably at Akechi, then back at Akira as she said, “I’m not a good liar, so I uh…yeah, sorry, I heard and saw it all. I wanted to be sure I didn’t have to call the cops from the way you two were fighting at first, but then you both were confessing and then…”
“Yes, because you lot have such a tender relationship with the police,” Akechi scoffed as he stood at Akira’s side, but Akira hadn’t seen Akechi with a face this red since he ate that spicy takoyaki.
“Well, not the cops necessarily, but Sojiro, or Zenkichi, I don’t know, maybe Ryuji is awake!” She gathered herself, blushing a bit despite her usually forward personality. “I’m sorry I eavesdropped, but I’m glad you two finally sorted out…all that. If it helps you to know, Akechi, he really missed you. I didn’t know the extent of it until just now, though.” She whistled and then flashed a big cheesy grin. “I had a feeling you two were made for each other!”
Akira could feel the heat spreading across his cheeks. “Turn off the video next time,” he hissed without malice. “I didn’t want anyone to spy on my first kiss, Ann!”
“That was your first?!” Akechi asked incredulously. Akira didn’t miss the smug pride in his voice at claiming a first of Akira’s for himself.
As if Akechi hadn’t claimed a lot of Akira as is.
“Leave me be,” Akira protested weakly, the blush only worsening, wishing he wasn’t holding the phone or that damn glove so he could hide his face in his hands.
“Don’t worry about it, your secret’s safe with me,” Ann said sweetly. The sweetness was then prickled with cruelty at her next words. “Oh, and Akechi? If you break our Joker’s heart again I’ll hunt you down and crush you beneath my high heeled boots.”
“I’d love to see you try,” Akechi shot back. “But duly noted, I guess.”
“Are you two going to be okay if I hang up?” Ann asked.
Akira glanced at Akechi, flashing the other man a meaningful smile, and it hit him that he’d be able to do this all the time from now on if things went right and they communicated. They would have ups and downs, but Akira wouldn’t have to worry about Akechi vanishing from reality again. No more gods pitting them against each other, no more shitty corruption clouding their view, no more lies. Just Akira Kurusu and Goro Akechi, finally open and honest with each other.
As they always should have been.
“We’ll be just fine,” Akira said softly, and that they were.