Work Text:
Atsushi knows how it works. Everyone has strips of hair that are the same color as their soulmate’s hair. He’s seen the small piece of auburn hair tucked behind Dazai’s ear, as if he’s attempting to hide it. Atsushi himself has never paid much attention to the long piece of black hair that runs through his. Sure, he’s fiddled with it, and been annoyed at how much it stands out against the silver, but he’s never been focused on it. At least, until now.
They’re on a mission when he notices. He’s twirling his hair around his finger and pointedly not looking at Akutagawa as they wait in the hotel lobby for Dazai to find them. I wonder if the silver ends on his hair are his soulmate strips, he thinks, glancing at the bright hair that stands out starkly against his coat collar. It’s as hes processing silver, that’s an odd color, that it hits him.
Silver. Oh my god. Akutagawa has silver in his hair and Atsushi has black and now Atsushi is sure he’s going to make people suspicious with how much he’s sweating. He tries to rationalize that black is a common color so who’s saying his black strip corresponds to Akutagawa? And then he remembers that silver isn’t a common color and what are the odds of their hair matching?
Alright. There’s one way to settle this. If you dye your hair, your soulmate piece will remain unchanged, and the hair on your soulmate that corresponds to you will change to match the dye. Looks like Atsushi is going to buy some hair dye.
——————
Later, Atsushi is sitting in his bathroom, holding a container of hair dye and wishing he’d read the label better. He’d simply grabbed the first box off the shelf, not caring what shade it was, but now as he stares at the bottle of hot pink permanent hair dye, Atsushi decides he is definitely going to start looking at things before he buys them.
He tries not to think about how livid Akutagawa is going to be if his assumption ends up correct.
Atsushi flips through the instructions and only panics a little as he starts. After he’s mostly done, and is simply waiting for the dye to set before he washes it out, he realizes that his clothing is covered in pink dye, and his shirt is almost certainly beyond repair. He’ll have get new clothes before he goes into work-
“Jinko! Are you here?” Oh shit. Work. He has another mission with Akutagawa today. He checks the timer for the dye setting and sighs in relief as he sees it’s almost done.
“Yeah! I’m- uh, I’m in the bathroom! I’ll be right there!” Atsushi shouts back, turning on the tap to wash his hair out. A few minutes later, and he straightens up to see that wow that package really did mean hot pink. The combination of it being newly dyed and going on top of light colored hair makes it extra bright, and he also notes that the black strip remains untouched. He realizes he may have kept Akutagawa waiting a little too long, so he snags a new shirt from his room and hurries out to find Akutagawa on his couch. “Ah- how did you get in here?” Atsushi asks. He notices that Akutagawa’s silver hair bits are, well, still silver. He isn’t sure if he’s sad or relieved.
“I let myself in,” Akutagawa says, clearly finding nothing wrong with that statement. He looks up and then squints in confusion at Atsushi’s hair. “What the hell did you do to your hair?”
“Oh! Well, I thought I’d just, y’know, try something different,” Atsushi replies. Akutagawa starts saying something else (probably an insult on his hair) but Atsushi’s attention is diverted to where Akutagawa’s hair is, in fact, turning pink. The light silver brightens and shifts until it matches Atsushi’s hair to a tee.
“Jinko? Are you listening to me at all?”
“Oh yeah, totally,” Atsushi lies. “Um, before we leave, do you need to use the bathroom or anything?” He knows he’s being suspicious, but he wants to give Akutagawa a chance to notice his hair before they leave and Akutagawa inevitably throttles him for not telling him his hair was bright pink. Atsushi would just tell him, but he’s too nervous to say anything about it directly. If Akutagawa brings it up, it’s fine, but he really doesn’t have the confidence right now.
“No. We’re already late. Let’s go.” Oh well. At least he can say he tried before he gets stabbed with rashomon.
——————
The mission goes well enough. Akutagawa seems to have not only decides to ignore Atsushi’s new hair color but has also somehow not noticed his own hair change. Of course, when they meet Dazai after the mission, at the rendezvous in a back alley, Atsushi’s luck runs out.
Dazai notices Atsushi’s hair first, then Akutagawa’s, and then he spends a solid minute incapacitated by laughter. When he finally regains coherency, the first thing he struggles out is, “C-Congratulations you two,” with a shit-eating grin on his face. Atsushi buries his face in his hands as Akutagawa blinks in confusion.
“What do you mean?” Akutagawa asks. Dazai wheezes and points to his hair. Akutagawa grabs at one of the locks of hair and pulls it up to his face, staring at it with the same look he had at Atsushi’s hair. “How- When did you get the chance to do this, Jinko?” Dazai doubles over again. He clearly knows what’s going on, but Atsushi is confused now. Shouldn’t Akutagawa have figured out why their hair is matching by now?
As Akutagawa glowers at Atsushi, waiting for an answer, Atsushi creeps over and nudges Dazai. “Um, Dazai, does Akutagawa know?” he whispers. “Shouldn’t he have figured it out?” Dazai shakes his head. “He grew up in the slums. Never heard the soulmate stories.” Atsushi freezes. Akutagawa has never heard of this. He has no idea what’s going on. He’s going to have to explain this.
“So, Akutagawa,” Atsushi says. “I can explain. But I think we should talk later, maybe sit down.” They are still standing in the alleyway.
“No.” Akutagawa shakes his head. “I want an answer now.”
Oh boy. “Well,” Atsushi starts. “So, people have... pieces of hair in their own, and those bits of hair are the same color as other people’s main hair color.” He’s trying not to be to explicitly romantic about it. He doesn’t want to scare Akutagawa off by mentioning soulmates. “And well, when two people’s hair pieces match, as in one persons main color matches the other’s secondary color and vice versa, then they’re...” Shit. How does he end this? “Then they’re like, um, a match. Like a preset match for each other.” Okay. That’s vague enough right?
“How does this explain the pink?”
Oh. Right. “Well, if someone dyes their hair, the other persons hair piece will change to match.” There’s the bit of realization on his face. “And you can’t change the color of the piece yourself. Which is why I still have the black strip- that’s for you,” Atsushi finishes. Okay. Please don’t let him have any questions-
“You said a match. That this means we’re a match. What does that mean?” Oh no. Atsushi really doesn’t want to have to elaborate on this. He looks for Dazai, and realizes that the man left already. Atsushi can’t really blame him.
Alright. He’ll just have to say it. “It means we’re soulmates.”
Akutagawa furrows his brow. “What’s a soulmate?”
Oh wow. Dazai wasn’t kidding when he said Akutagawa had never heard of the stories. He hasn’t heard of anything. “Well, a soulmate is... like your partner for life. They can help you grow and get better at things and learn and...” Atsushi stops. He knows Akutagawa will just get bored if he keeps waxing on and on like that. “Like a friend but more, okay?” Akutagawa looks down and mumbles something. “Huh?”
“I said I’ve never had a friend before,” Akutagawa says, louder this time. That’s... really sad, actually. Atsushi is trying to rack his brain for a response, and he blurts the first thing that comes to mind.
“I’ll be your friend!” Akutagawa looks up, surprised, and Atsushi is surprised too. He shuffles nervously as Akutagawa stares at him.
“I thought you said... that we were supposed to be something more than that?” Akutagawa asks.
“Well, yes, but a lot of soulmates start off as friends and then develop into something more! It’s a personal choice,” Atsushi says. Akutagawa looks like he’s pondering this for a bit.
“This sounds like dating and relationships, that’s what you’re describing.” Well. Atsushi knew he would guess it at some point but oh god why now.
“Well... technically it is. That’s what most people do anyway. But some people just stay friends! You don’t have to do anything!” He really doesn’t want to scare Akutagawa off, not when they’ve gotten so far.
“I think I’d like that,” Akutagawa says. Atsushi smiles at him.
“Okay! It’s perfectly alright to just stay fri-“
“No. I mean,” Akutagawa takes a breath. “I mean. I’d like to try the dating thing. I think.” Atsushi has never thought it was possible to not notice you were holding your breath, but apparently he had been because he lets out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.
“Yes! That’s, um,” shit think of something think think, “cool!” Smooth. “I’d like to too! The dating, I mean, so if you want to maybe, set up a date or something? I don’t-“
“Jinko,” Akutagawa says, cutting him off. “We can set that up later. Right now, I just got off a mission and I am tired, sweaty, and have blood everywhere. I also found out I have a soulmate and learned what a soulmate is. All I want is to take a shower and sleep for as long as possible. We can figure out dates later.”
It makes sense, but Atsushi doesn’t want to see Akutagawa leave just yet for some reason. “You can shower at my place,” he offers. “I’ll lend you my clothes and I can make chazuke...” he trails off.
“Fine. Chazuke sounds good, actually.” Akutagawa brushes past him on the way out of the alleyway. “Let’s go, Jinko.” Atsushi hurries after him.
“You know you can call me Atsushi now, right?” he says.
“Ryuunosuke,” Akutagawa responds.
“Hm?”
“My name. You can call me Ryuunosuke.”
Atsushi smiles again. “I will.”