Chapter Text
“Welcome back everyone! Thank you for stopping by and giving me some of your time”
“As you can see we’re doing something quite unusual today, in fact, subscribers of mine will know that I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“I was reading your comments, thinking of things to do for the 2 million subscriber video, when I noticed that quite a few of you wanted to know what I think about video games.”
“I must admit that I haven’t played many games, hardly any at all, in fact. So I had to get a helping hand from a dear friend of mine.”
“Akira, at, well, Akira Kurusu, helped me, though he more often than not just laughed at me while I ran around confused.” Goro pouts, looking demure. “If you wish to see his videos, I’ve linked them in the description of this video.”
“I wasn’t quite sure which game to cover, there were so many candidates.”
“I was diving into the deep end without knowing how to swim, so to speak.”
“Then I stumbled upon a collection of comments directing me to the game Journey . I’ll admit, I fell in love with the aesthetic rather quickly. Something about the warm tones and the relatively minimalistic main character hooked me into finding out more.”
“While I was already in love with the aesthetic, the sheer number of already existing theories on this game gave me a challenge. Like, just what was going on in this world that caused it to be seemingly nothing but desert?”
“I was originally going to watch lets plays and walkthroughs of Journey to gain insight to the story, but I was quickly shut down by a new friend of mine, Ryuji, at Shocking Games” Goro chuckles, a warm smile adorning his face.
“He told me, quite accurately I might add, that I had no ground talking about a game that I had never played.”
“And so, I decided to purchase the game for myself, though as many of you have already probably seen based on when I plan to release this video, I didn’t end up just playing it alone.” He scratches at his chin, bashful.
“I’m not very good at video games, so I found it pertinent to enlist the help of Akira, after we’d gotten in touch through the video I posted about his channel.”
Goro’s cheeks are tinted just the barest pink as he coughs, clearing his throat.
“Any way, let us begin with this theory, shall we?”
1298 Comments Sort By
AlphaRedWolf 8 hours ago (edited)
Ugh The mere fact that Goro decided to do a theory on this game shows how far he's fallen. How could he get 2 million people to subscribe to him is beyond my /poor/, /febile/ /UNDERSTANDING/ He fell into becoming another pathetic youtuber who says things [READ MORE]
hentaiismylief 8 hours ago
Hah. Gaaaay!
AnimeBoiz22357 6 hours ago
GUYS!!! 2:40 LOOK AT HIS C H E E K S!!! HE IS BLUSHING :OOO XDDDDD OWO KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIII LOOK AT HIS CUTIE FACE!!!!! AND!! HE IS TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER UTUBER!!! THEY ARE SOOOOOO IN LOVE ITS TOO CUTE I CANT EVEN hkdsfjllsd
“Goro-kun can you see the tv alright?”
“Of course, but thank you for asking Haru-san.”
“It’s no trouble, it’s your first time with us after all, I want to make sure you’re comfortable. Though, I don’t see Akira letting that become a problem.”
Akira coughs, pulling his arm back from where it was wrapped around Goro’s waist, leaving a slight chill in his place.
Goro silently wishes he’d put it back.
Okumura smiles mirthfully, watching Akira squirm for a few more seconds before turning back to where Takamaki and Niijima are arguing over... which method of strength building is more efficient?
The irony of an internet personality arguing athletics with an olympian , is not lost on him.
“Oh course doing repeated reps on a low weight would work but you get better results when you push yourself to a higher weight!”
“Using too much weight can easily lead to injuries, which ultimately impedes progress.” The way Niijima holds her forehead (rubs her temples) as if staving off a headache does not escape his notice, nor does the way they both seem to be familiar enough with the argument to continue without thinking.
Why have continue an argument (a discussion) that is so well worn? Wouldn’t it be a waste of en-
Ah.
Akira’s head laying on top of his shoulder scrambles Goro’s mind, the conversation before him fading into a low drum as each point of contact between himself and the man beside to him locks his attention. He releases a deep breath, relaxing into Akira further.
The bickering and the drone of the disk finally starting up and playing fades into the background of Goro’s mind. The feeling of warmth, closeness, of safe , leaves him drowsy. The tense hours leading up to arriving at okumura’s house catching up to him.
Maybe it would be okay if he just. Slept.
“-oro.” Something stirs Goro, the lights and sounds around him breaking him from the sleep he only just achieved, surely.
He squirms closer to the warmness around him.
“Goro”
He makes a noise, hoping whoever’s attempting to disturb him understands and leaves him be.
He’s almost convinced it worked until the warmth he was relying on moves , shifting below him. Then someone grabs his shoulder, shaking it gently.
He whines.
There’s something like… laughter? Nearby. Very nearby. Right against his ear even.
He opens his eyes with a squint, taking in everything around him while is eyes adjust. There’s a couch, and people, like Ann, and Haru, and Makoto. He frowns, confused. Where’s Akira?
Akira.
Everything comes rushing to him in what he’ll later claim was no time at all, but was, in reality, a long few moments. A warm body below him, a gentle hand on his shoulder, quiet, familiar laughter. Akira’s laughter.
Goro shoots up, nearly missing knocking is skull against Akira’s chin, his face bright and hot.
“You’ve finally awoken, my dear prince.” Akira snarks, the jackass.
The sass does nothing to change his embarrassed reaction when Akira proceeds to hold his palm delicately and place a loving kiss to the back of his hand.
“Oh come on Akira, you’ve at least gotta let him wake up before you kill him with your teasing.” Takamaki scolds.
“Takamaki-san I think I love you.” he says it with all the sincerity his tired vocal chords can muster.
“Aw, that’s gay,” Ann says, holding her hand over her heart, “sorry though, I’m a take woman.”
At this, she kisses Haru’s cheek and pulls Makoto closer.
“Sorry to say, Goro-kun, but I’m not willing to share Ann, I do have some chocolate if you’d like some.”
The smile on Haru’s face leaves Goro wary, but the chocolate she’s holding out looks delectable, the temper is perfect and glossy and the quiet snap he hears when he breaks off a piece has his mouth watering. He pops the chocolate into his mouth without much more thought.
“Wait isn’t that the spic-” Goro’s unable to hear the rest of Akira’s question as the chocolate begins to melt on his tongue, first bringing delicate but strong depth of flavor, a rich chocolate, if a little more bitter than he usually likes.
He takes a moment to savor the feeling, almost missing Sakamoto’s amused drawl, “oh, he actually ate it.”
He looks at Sakamoto, confused, then… his mouth is on fire?!?
It takes every bit of self control he has to not scramble for a napkin to spit out the monstrous betrayal of everything chocolate stands for.
Goro can feel his face heating up and sweat collecting at the base of his neck. But he refuses to disrespect Okumura by expressing any of the disgust he feels.
The worst part is that he can’t even convince himself he hates it. Despite the pain it is very good chocolate.
“It’s… very strong” Goro comments, wincing as he inhales, somehow making it worse.
“Oh that is an interesting face, I wonder if I could capture it in a painting.” Kitagawa muses.
Goro only noticed the sketch pad when Sakamoto pushes Kitagawa’s hand back down from where it was poised to draw with a shake of the head. He’ll have to thank him later.
“Could I go get a glass of water, please?”
“Man if we sit here any longer my legs are gonna start withering’ away”
“It does feel as though the day is too young to just be inside.” Haru ponders, moving her hand from where it was resting over Makoto’s shoulder to stroke her chin.
“It’s too hot outside to do anything else though. And going in public with this big of a group would get us spotted in half a second.” Ann whines, turning around to bury her face in Haru’s stomach.
Ann stays in place for a moment before rocketing up, eyes shining.
“Oh no. Ann has an idea. Everybody hide.” Akira drones, not moving an inch.
Ann throws a glare and piece of popcorn at him, the kernel flying stray and landing in Goro’s hair. “As I was about to say, we should go swimming!”
Akira’s face lights up “Hmm, I might have judged you too soon, Ann.”
“Oh don’t even start, you just want to see your boyfriend in a swimsuit.” she points at Goro, who’s seemingly attempting to slip into a different dimension, if his expression is to be believed.
Akira gapes at her, “how could you slander my name like this. I have nothing but pure intentions” he grins, “ I just think Ryuji’s right, we should get up and do something. This has nothing to do with my incredibly hot boyfrie-”
Goro is quick to cover Akira’s mouth, his face burning, his eyes promising retribution.
Makoto steps in, “Dramatics aside, going for a swim does sound like a good change of pace.”
Akira’s allowed to breath again as Goro spins around, abandoning his self-assigned post of smothering the dark haired man, “a-ah, well, I don’t have a swim suit?” his words come out more as a question than anything else.
“Don’t worry about that! You and ‘Kira are about the same size right? You can just borrow one of his.”
Goro’s eyes go blank for a few moments, comprehending the statement. The moment it clicks is visible, his eyes widening and everything from the neck up turning a beautiful shade of red.
“Ooh, somebody had a nice thought, care to share with the class?”
“I don’t-, you-, there’s nothing I- , NO!”
The unusually harsh sun beats down with no mercy, despite the fact that it’s only late march. Akira can feel his skin absorbing the light and heating up, the cool water he’s sprawled in doing nothing to help.
Speaking of heat, Goro is wearing a hoodie, it’s bright red with yellow stars, Loud, gaudy, perfect for Goro. Except, Akira thinks, in this heat.
Not to mention that Goro hasn’t even touched the water in the thirty minutes they’ve been outside. Instead, he’s chosen to sit in the shade next to Haru. He’s pouting, it’s cute.
Akira cups his hands around his mouth, “Hey Goro!”
Goro jumps to attention. He looks around briefly before his eyes settle on Akira.
Akira waves him over with an exaggerated come-hither movement, a smile making itself at home on his face.
Goro rolls his eyes but gets up, dusting himself off, “Akira? What is it?”
“mm nothing, I just wanted to see you.” he rests his arms on the edge of the pool, tilting his head to meet Goro’s eyes.
“i’m most certain you could see me from where I was you sap,” Goro says, “or are those glasses of yours not just for show after all?”
“No no, they are, but if you’re all the way over there I can’t kiss you.”
Goro blushes profusely before composing himself. He puts a hand on his hip and lowers his voice until it’s smooth and filled with honey, “oh is that so? You must have been deprived”
Akira chuckles, then half lids his eyes to play along.
“Definitely, how cruel of you” his words are accompanied by a playful tilt of his head.
“I supposed I should do something about that then, hm?”
Goro places a hand on his chin pretending to think long and hard on what to do.
“If you lean down just so,” Akira muses, “then you can give me exactly what I want.”
“Hmm I could, couldn’t I?” Goro teases, running his hand through his long, soft hair. Then, he meets Akira’s eyes and smirks down at him.
“I think i’ll do just that, then.” is all the warning he gets before Goro sweeps down, burying a hand in Akira’s dripping hair and pressing a kiss firmly onto his mouth.
Akira takes advantage of the moment by grabbing onto Goro’s hoodie and pulling him closer while he backs up.
Goro’s eyes open wide as he feels himself lose balance, slipping into the cold water below.
He comes up sputtering, “I can’t believe you just did that.”
Akira would respond, but his voice is already occupied with the very important task of laughing at his boyfriend. That is, until he looks at him, then his breath is stolen away.
Goro’s hair sticks to his skin in a way that should make him look like a drowned dog but instead makes Akira’s eyes want to follow each of the drops on their way down. The bright red hoodie he put on is soaked through, it’s own weight pulling itself down until Goro’s collarbones, are showing.
From this distance Akira can see the faint freckles that dot their way across Goro’s cheeks.
“What, is there something on my face?”
Akira laughs, then, moves even closer to murmur into Goro’s ear, “No, you’re just beautiful.”
He must have surprised Goro because he barks out a laugh, “You really are a sap,”
“Mhm, only for you though.”
“Sure, now come here and let me kiss you properly.” Goro croons.
Their second kiss tastes like chlorine and sunlight, but Akira wouldn’t have it any other way.
On the morning of the first of April, a new video is posted onto the youtube account The Literary Detective titled “How To Break Youtube, Part 2 (coming out)”
The is fifteen seconds long and completely silent.
It opens on a black screen, then, an intro card stating the video’s title fades in, it lingers for three seconds, fades out, The Literary Detective and Akira Kurusu’s Icons fade in at the top of the screen
Then, like a child’s powerpoint, twenty-four point magenta, comic sans font slams into the screen. The works read, “we’re dating” they slowly blink on and off the screen a few times before the video ends just as it started, on a black screen.
“Hm, i’m not going to say i’m surprised.” Goro quips, leaning further into Akira’s shoulder to get a better look at the screen between them. “We did choose the perfect day for this sort of reaction.”
Akira hums, scrolling further.
Goro winces, “Oh, that one’s not very nice.”
“It looks like people are pretty confused.” Despite Akira’s deadpan tone, his eyes are alight with a mischievous glee. Something that does not slip past Goro’s keen eye.
“I can’t believe you, taking such joy from stirring the pot like this.”
“Mhm, you say that but I seem to remember a certain sweater-loving analyst helping me edit this last night.” Akira turns in Goro’s hold, meeting his gaze and pulling him closer.
Goro gasps, placing his free hand to his chest, “Lies and slander, I did nothing of the sort.”
Dropping the pretence of reading their video comments along with his phone, Akira nuzzles Goro’s hair, fulling wrapping him in his arms.
“Mm, this is nice.”
“Wrapping me up like an octopus or just the situation in general?” Goro’s face is pink from the extended proximity, but his muscles are relaxed and he makes no move to pull away.
Akira responds slowly, “both, neither, i’m just glad I can do this with you.”
The quiet blush from before morphs until Goro’s face is burning. “You smooth bastard.”
Akira grins into the bare spot behind Goro’s ear, planting butterfly kisses as he does.
“You know you already have me right? You don’t have to keep flirting.”
“I like seeing you blush,” Akira states bluntly.
The next few minutes pass without hurry as Akira and Goro bask in their closeness.
“You know, I never expected something like this to happen when i was younger.”
“How so?”
“You know, the usual stuff, existential despair brought on by killing your estranged father in a magical world.”
“Oh, you mean the one with the weird phone app that just appeared one day?”
Goro bolts up, staring at Akira in surprise. “How do you know about that?”
“Uhh, so, confession time? I went into that magic world and stole the hearts of corrupt adults with my magic talking cat.”
“The Phantom Thieves.” Goro’s words are quiet, reverent.
“So you’d heard of us?”
“It’s hard to have not, you were quite the phenomenon, the talk of japan even.”
“And what about you, my detective dearest? You’ve just discovered the identity of a phantom thief, are you gonna turn me in?”
“I think you’ll find that I am in no way an official detective, but I could play one for you.” as he says this he leans further into Akira’s grasp. Wrapping his hand around Akira’s wrist, the barest suggestion of a handcuff.
Akira smirks back at him for a few moments before pausing, a confused look on his face.
“I just remembered something from back then,” his brow furrows, like he’s trying to remember something he’d long forgotten.
“hm?”
“I could swear there was one time, a while before the phantom thieves had really gotten started, when I had been brought to the place where my guides could talk to me, the velvet room, that I saw someone that looked just like you in one of the other cells.”
“The velvet room?” Goro questions.
“Mhm, it was a circular blue room for me, and the walls were lined with prison cells.”
Goro’s eyes light up with recognition, “ That’s why you look so familiar!” he exclaims, “I had a dream about a place like that once, I spent weeks dwelling on it.”
“I wonder why you were able to access that place? Even if it was only once.”
Goro frowns, “I’m not sure, and it's not like we can access that world now to ask.”
“How so?”
“After I finished my business there, I lost all access to the cognitive world.” he looks up to meet Akira’s eyes, “was it not the same for you?”
Akira looks away, sheepish. “Weeell, not exactly.” then, he turns and grins, “Wanna see?”