Chapter Text
Some days, when Akira makes it home, as home as the ground level of Sojiro's coffee shop can possibly feel to a person, he finds Akechi-kun sitting unassumingly at the counter nursing a warm cup of coffee between intertwined fingers and staring off into space. Today just so happens to be one of those days.
He knows enough to see through the false smiles by now. He's spoken with Morgana about their doubts; the guy is suspicious, but Akira doesn't how exactly. Not yet, anyway. Maybe he will learn the full extent one day - who knows - but, today, it's more simple than that. Today, they are both just two high school students, one a famous detective and one an infamous phantom thief, and, today, Akechi happens to look his way as he walks through the door and smiles.
"How was your day today?"
Weird, Akira immediately thinks, pausing in the doorway, because when the hell had genius boy-detective Akechi ever been interested in the daily life of a normal high student like himself? Perhaps Morgana is right. Perhaps he knows that Akira is special. Perhaps he's special in some way himself. Paranoia would only eat him alive, though, so Akira walks closer, sets his bag down beside Akechi's cup and saucer, leans against the counter, and shrugs.
Akechi must not have been expecting him to get so close so casually. His eyes widen a bit, something close to vulnerability flashing through them before disappearing just as quickly. Then he's relaxing again, smiling again, and the overhead lights in the shop make his eyes look like melted pools of milk chocolate.
"I see. Uneventful then," he offers, even though the other gave him nothing more than a faint shrug to work with. Akira has a feeling he's worked wonders with far less before. "Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise, though."
A blessing in disguise? The Phantom Thief thinks it over while examining the practiced perfection of Goro Akechi's smiling face.
"And your day?" he finally asks in return, remembering that two people are needed for a proper conversation and he hadn't said a single word yet. Akechi's face doesn't shift in the slightest. Only his lips move, still encompassed by that perfect smile.
"Oh, you know. Business as usual."
It's said just shy of a chuckle, a pinch of humor implied in the tone. It's completely charming and endearing. Akira wonders how real it is. He sighs, tired from school and life and the weight of the world on his shoulders, glancing from Akechi's coffee to the other two customers in the shop to Sojiro cooking curry by the fridge then back to Akechi again.
"Been here long?" he asks, tired and lonely. How odd that being in a school surrounded by hundreds of his peers can make him feel more lonely than he's ever felt in his life, day after day. Yet, on the contrary, whenever he's with his small handful of friends, he never feels more alive.
Akechi's smile falls to neutral, and he shakes his head.
Does Akechi have friends, he wonders. Does Akechi go to a school where he floats through life there just as Akira does, small and lonely and quiet? Who does Akechi eat lunch with everyday? Police officers or high school girls? Does Akechi even eat lunch? Dinner? Why does Akira even care?
"...Kurusu-kun?"
"Wanna go get ramen or something?"
It's asked on a whim and makes that almost-vulnerable-but-not-quite thing happen in Akechi's eyes again.
"Oh. Well. You see..." It's clear he's been caught off guard and is trying to default to one of his stock responses. His stock response pile must have been jumbled by the unforeseen invitation, though, because he hesitates for a few seconds longer than what would have been normal contemplation on the matter. He might try to hide it, but Goro Akechi is anything but normal.
"I know a great place in Ogikuro." Akira picks up his bag again, stepping away from the counter. He doesn't miss the way Akechi straightens up in his chair, like he's been called upon in the middle of a classroom, caught drifting off to sleep and drooling on his desk. "My treat."
The detective prince jumps at his only chance to refuse. "Oh, I couldn't! Don't worry about it, I was planning on getting something on my way home. Either way, it was extremely kind of you to-"
"Wait for me here," Akira forces in, carrying his bag with him towards the stairs, intent on changing out of his school uniform before leaving.
When he sets his bag down in its usual spot, Morgana squirms from inside and pokes his head out.
"You better be careful around that guy," he warns, having heard the entire conversation. Distrust coats his voice. "Do you really know what you're doing here?"
Akira meets his eyes and gives a firm nod.
When he goes back downstairs, leaving Morgana to nap on his bed, there are no customers in the shop anymore but the brown-haired boy still sitting at the counter close to the door. He seems to be in deep thought, staring down at the shallow coffee left in his cup, but when he notices Akira approaching, that beautiful smile emerges again, crinkling the corners of his eyes.
"This is rather sudden for me," he says, that hint of a laugh in his tone again. "Though I suppose I have no choice now but to take you up on your offer, huh?"
"Hey," Sojiro calls their attention from behind the counter, eyes focused on Akira. "Flip the sign when you leave, will ya? We're closing up for the day."
Akira nods while Akechi stands and digs into his wallet to pay for his drink, leaving a generous tip as well.
When they leave together, before Akira can do it himself, Akechi reaches out to flip the sign for him instead, smiling softly as it settles against the glass of the coffee shop door.
"You were right. This ramen is delicious," Akechi admits with a smile after swallowing a mouthful of noodles.
He's sitting beside Akira at the front counter of the shop and holding his chopsticks delicately, as if they're at business meeting instead of just two almost-friends eating out for a late impromptu dinner. There's some kind of wall between them that Akira can feel as clear as day. It's so solid that he swears he could even see it if he focused on the space between them hard enough. A wall he doesn't share with any of his other friends. This ugly thing holding them back, making them hesitate and think over their next word as if it has the power to make or break everything they've ever known. Maybe it does. He feels that way with Akechi. He sees it in his eyes, in his smile.
Akira doesn't know why, but he suddenly gets the desire to break down that wall until there is nothing left, no matter the cost of doing so.
"It's nice to get away from work," he mentions, playing with an egg in his bowl. "I get the feeling you don't do that a lot."
It's direct as hell and an obvious attempt at prying into his personal life, but when has Akira ever held back from the chance to get his fingers into the inner workings of another's heart?
"In my line of work, no, not really," Akechi murmurs.
Still so vague. That damn wall strong as ever.
"I take some of my other friends here, too. They seem to like it."
The implication that Akechi is similar, if not equal, to Akira's other friends goes right over the detective's head. Either that, or he has chosen to ignore it. Instead, he latches onto another side of that statement.
"You have quite a few friends, don't you, Kurusu-kun?" He takes another mouthful of food and chews neatly before swallowing. Akira's gaze traces down from his eyes to his jaw. "You're lucky to have made friends so quickly in a new town."
Akira knows he's subtly implying foul play but doesn't pay any mind to it.
"Then again, maybe I'm not so unlucky myself," Akechi continues. "I could get used to someone treating me to ramen on a regular basis."
It's another one of his tension-breaking jokes, but, this time, it's a bit different. It's more playful, accented by the glint in his soft eyes, by the perfect smile turning a little lopsided in an almost genuine smirk. There was some truth to what he just said, Akira realizes. A single ray of honesty bursting through dark clouds. A crack in that wall between them. It stops Akira dead in his tracks, because, unlike possibly everything else the guy has ever said to his face, Akechi really meant that statement.
"Do you eat alone a lot?" Akira pries. The other pauses, then tilts his head and smiles prettily down at his ramen bowl.
"Sometimes."
Too vague. A red flag. "Always" is probably closer to the truth.
"Eating meals with adults too often may have shaped my eating habits. I apologize if I'm not the most relaxed person to share a meal with, Kurusu-kun." He brushes stray hair away from his eye before setting down his chopsticks and dabbing politely at his closed mouth with a napkin. He's done with his ramen, but he's settling back in his seat, willing to continue the conversation for now. Akira takes note and begins eating as slowly as he possibly can without looking suspicious. "I'm not actually sure what peers our age are even talking about these days. I guess that's how disconnected I am, living in the world of adults."
"Oh, you know," Akira shrugs, swirling a thick noodle around in his broth, "mostly whatever's popular at the time. New music, new games. The Phantom Thieves. You."
"Me?" He looks taken aback, then smiles. "Don't tell me you're one of my fan girls, Kurusu-kun."
"Damn, you got me. Take me away, my detective prince..."
"I knew it." Akechi carries the joke on without missing a beat. "Once the others find out I've dined with you, they'll have your head, you know."
"Oh, bring it on, girls," Akira deadpans seriously, and that's when Akechi breaks. Akira feels a bloom of pride at his laughter, at having coaxed such a rare reaction from him. Another crack in their wall.
"You're a pretty charismatic guy," Akechi tells him with a beautiful smile, and he doesn't really know what to do with that compliment, so he just bounces his leg anxiously, fills his mouth with noodles, and offers a smile back. When his jiggling knee bumps into Akechi's, neither acknowledges it.
True to his promise, Akira pays for the both of them, though they spend at least three whole minutes lingering at the counter while Akechi insists on paying for his own meal. Akira has to practically throw his yen at the owner to get him to drop it. Afterwards, as they are walking to the train station to go their separate ways, Akechi is silent and frowning the entire time. Is he upset? Regretful of this whole outing? The sun's just beginning to dip in the sky, and it's playing in his light brown hair, making it shine almost golden.
"We should do this again sometime," Akira says, more to break the silence than anything else. Tension is thick between them, as it always is. He can feel himself choking on it. He wonders if Akechi feels the same, standing still on the platform as people mill around them, mostly salary men getting off late from work and students catching the train home from school activities. "It was nice."
Akechi's lips curl, puppeteered by strings pulled as an afterthought. His eyes, though, are still frowning. "Perhaps I'll take you up on such an offer again in the future."
"Hm," Akira hums.
His train will be here soon, but he'd rather it wasn't. Selfishly, childishly, impossibly, he wants something more than just this wire frame of a union. He wants to hear Akechi laugh again like he did when they were joking about his fan girls. He wants to hear Akechi admit that he would like to be treated out to food more often. He wants to hear Akechi speak freely and hold nothing back, to share his feelings and talk and talk and bond until they are as thick as thieves.
He wants to be Akechi's friend. Genuinely, he does.
It's tugging at his heart now, filling his throat with unsaid words that he isn't sure should be said at all. The taste of warm ramen broth lingers on his tongue. The palms of his hands itch, and he rocks side to side on the balls of his feet. Something bubbles up from within him and escapes before he can think twice about forcing it back down.
"Do you have a phone? By the way?"
Akechi glances over with the expression of someone who's staring at an alien life form.
"...Yes... I do."
"Can we exchange numbers?" Akira asks. He's pulling his own phone out before he gets a response, hoping that his forward actions can help cement the desired outcome. There are a few awkward moments of one-sidedly opening up his contacts list and waiting, before Akechi slowly retrieves his phone from his pocket as well.
Once he has recited his number, Akira saves it and sends a short text to deliver his own. "Sup," he'd sent. Akechi scoffs at the utter silliness of it before tucking his phone away. He seemed reluctant to hang out and even relinquish his number in the first place, so it comes as a surprise to Akira when, as he's stepping away to board his train and return home, Akechi smiles, waves goodbye, and tells him, "See you soon."
Akira would like to think he actually means it.