Chapter Text
It was a fine Sunday just past noon. Goro Akechi was standing in the train, right hand clutching one of the handles hanging from the ceiling, eyes staring blankly through the window in front of him. He appeared to be calm as always. On the inside however, he was close to panicking.
‘Do you want to eat pancakes with me this Sunday?’
The guy’s expression had been so perfectly devoid of emotion, his grey eyes just staring at him through his glasses, his face slightly tilting when Goro didn’t reply immediately.
Quickly, he had regained himself, coughing softly before answering with his usual gentle smile. ‘Oh, sure! Excuse me for falling silent, you caught me off guard for a bit. But of course, at what time should we meet?’
His lips had curled into the tiniest of smirks and Goro had tried his hardest to ignore the loud throbbing pain in his chest.
He should have declined him.
For the past few days, Goro had been contemplating over why on earth Akira Kurusu would invite him to eat pancakes, but then it had dawned on him.
He had made a terrible, terrible mistake.
Akira was going to confront him.
He was going to ask him how he had been able to hear the stupid cat talk that one day at the TV station. About pancakes.
There was almost no time to come up with a good excuse, nor was it a good idea to cancel the appointment.
So here he found himself, 10 minutes away from their meeting time, on his way to Harajuku, mentally cursing that damned cat.
He wondered if the whole group would be there to confront him.
He wondered if Akira had already figured out everything about his true identity.
This was not how it was supposed to go…
No, it’s okay, it’s not too late yet. Maybe he was worried for nothing. And he could still talk his way out of this.
These were the thoughts running through his mind as he exited the train and walked towards the station entrance.
It was a good thing he was used to controlling his facial expressions, because the other boy was already waiting for him, his hands nonchalantly pushed in the pockets of his casual blue jeans.
He looked so ordinary like that, a perfect high school student, not too smart, not too good-looking, not too outgoing, not too shy. He looked nothing like the leader of a criminal group that called themselves the Phantom Thieves. But he couldn’t let his guard down.
Not that Goro ever did that around anyone, anyways.
‘Hello there,’ he said and watched observingly how Akira reacted to the sound of his greeting. He stopped leaning against the wall and locked their eyes together.
‘I hope I didn’t make you wait too long…’
The other teen shook his head. ‘Shall we get going?’
Oh great, straight to business. There was no doubt in Goro’s mind that the boy was going to confront him. It was a good thing that they were the only ones there. He didn’t think he could have handled the two loud blondies and the eccentric artist staring him down as well.
The walk towards the cafe was silent and awkward, and Goro found himself often glancing next to him, but Akira’s gaze wasn’t even once fixed on him. Only looking straight ahead.
‘So, what made you invite me out for pancakes all of a sudden?’ Goro forced himself to ask, putting a carefree smile on his face.
‘No real reason,’ Akira said. ‘I just felt like it, is all.’
A slightly nervous chuckle escaped Goro’s lips. ‘It’s unusual for you to think of me, then. I must say I feel honoured though, I never imagined you would want to spend time with me like this.’
‘Think of it as a date.’
The words were so misplaced that Goro wasn’t sure whether he had misheard them.
‘Excuse me?’
Akira’s eyes were locked with his, and for a long while they were as empty of emotion as ever, until that grin started teasing the corners of his mouth and small sparkles of light emerged within the depths of grey. ‘It’s a date,’ he once again said.
Goro coughed and had to look away. The weather was quite hot today.
‘You shouldn’t joke about those things, Kurusu-kun.’
‘Well, what if I said it’s no joke?’
Akira stopped suddenly, giving him no time to answer his question.
‘We’re here.’
Goro looked up, cursing the boy for making him feel like a helpless mouse in the claws of a merciless cat – playing with him to his heart’s content until finishing him off. Why couldn’t he just cut the nonsense already and get straight to the point?
Then, he really looked, and he noticed they were in front of a shop called Luna Café; its name was written in elegant letters on the building and on the sign in front of it. Outside, it didn’t look that special. However, Goro knew it was famous for its gigantic pancakes and it was a place he had always wanted to visit but never got the chance to.
‘Are we going inside or not?’ Akira asked, his eyebrows raised.
‘Ah, yes, of course.’
Akira smirked and went first, opening the door. Goro waited for him to enter until he realised the other boy was actually holding the door open for him.
‘What are you waiting for?’ he even asked.
Couldn’t he just erase that fucking grin of his?! Goro wanted nothing more than to punch it off his face but of course there was no way he could do that, so he quickly stepped past him, inside.
Of course, the other boy just had to move way too close to him in the process of closing the door, to the point that he could almost feel his breath.
This goddamn thief-
He had been so wrong about feeling relieved he didn’t bring his friends along. Oh, how he wished that the Phantom Thieves had just ganged up on him in a dark alley instead. That would’ve been much better than this- this torture. The leader was toying with him, making him weak and embarrassed, tearing his perfect mask to shreds while he was looking.
It didn’t help that the word good-looking had crossed his mind a few minutes earlier, even if he had labelled Akira as average.
Even so, he was now associating it with him.
Reconsidering his earlier judgment.
That beautiful ugly smirk of his didn’t help at all.
He couldn’t let him though.
So he let out a cough and turned around, the serene smile again planted on his face.
‘That was very gentlemanly of you, Kurusu-kun,’ he remarked. ‘Shouldn’t you save that gesture for a pretty lady that’s on your mind, however?’
‘There’s only a pretty boy on my mind,’ Akira said before turning around to let the waitress know he wanted a table for two.
Goro almost bit his lip – almost. That fucker.
Just in time he managed to keep his facial expression from changing.
He was 100 percent certain now that Akira was toying with him to make him stumble, make mistakes.
He would probably start asking questions the moment he was convinced Goro was completely at his mercy.
Goro wouldn’t let him. He would win this strange battle no matter what.
His mission was going to succeed after all.
He would wipe away all obstacles in front of him.
And the Phantom Thieves were the biggest of them all.
The waitress showed them to their table and Goro quickly buried himself in the menu. Besides pancakes, the shop also had things like burgers, salads, curry, and many more dishes, actually. But the one thing Goro had wanted to come here for-
There it was. The so-called ‘mountain pancakes’. They were enormous, packed with all kinds of fruit and whipped cream. On the pictures in the menu they looked absolutely marvellous, and they probably wouldn’t be as good in real life, but Goro had still been wanting to try those since he read about them in a magazine a few years ago. Now he was finally here, with his supposed to be enemy, but heck, he was going to take advantage of it.
‘Should we order one of those for the two of us? Which one do you want, Akechi-kun?’
Goro felt his heart jump a little in surprise at the sound of Akira calling his name, he wasn’t sure anymore whether he had done that before. It sounded strange.
‘One?’ he heard himself ask.
‘Yes. Don’t you know? Supposedly, those mountain pancakes are meant for two people,’ Akira explained. ‘Which one do you want?’
‘But I could easily finish one by myself.’
Goro didn’t realise he was pouting until a pleasant warm-hearted laugh filled his ears. It came from Akira. A little shocked, he shot a glance at his companion who was laughing in such a genuine way it made Goro wonder if it really was a fake one. It sounded too real. And it was beautiful.
The other boy was now covering his mouth with the back of his hand, his cheeks a little bit red as if he was embarrassed.
‘I’m sorry, Akechi-kun, that was just so adorable I couldn’t help myself.’
Once again Goro felt his blood rising towards his cheeks, racing, pounding and making his head feel dizzy.
‘So what do you want to do, get one for each of us?’ Akira was staring at him, still smiling. It was so different from his usual smirk that Goro still had trouble getting a hold of himself.
‘Errr, ehm, no one is fine, I think. Is-isn’t that more for couples though?’
Ah, the smirk was back.
‘There’s two of us here, doesn’t that make us a couple?’
That bastard.
‘Well, I suppose you’re not wrong about that. Well then. On one condition – we’ll take the one with mixed fruit and whipped cream.’
‘Roger that.’
After the waitress took their order, Goro quietly observed Akira from the corners of his eyes. He looked pretty relaxed for someone who was going to interrogate a person on a very serious topic. Then again, this guy was probably never nervous, at least not visibly.
He wondered why he was going through the hassle of coming all the way here, wasting money on expensive pancakes even though the only purpose of this meeting was to confirm the fact that they were enemies.
It was probably part of his plan to make his mask crumble, and judging by the reckless remark Goro had made just now, it was working out perfectly.
He really was hopeless.
‘So, tell me something?’ Akira suddenly asked him.
It had been quiet for a while now so Goro looked up, surprised. ‘Eh, me? What do you want to hear? Something about the Phantom Thief case?’
‘Nah,’ Akira waved his words away. ‘Something about you. That’s why I invited you after all.’
Aha, there. It was starting.
Two could play this game, however.
‘Oh, honestly, there’s not much to call interesting about me, you know. Beside my detective work, I’m a very boring high school student trying hard not to get behind on his studies.’
‘You have a girlfriend? Boyfriend?’
A nervous chuckle escaped Goro’s throat before he could stop it. Damnit. ‘Oh please, Kurusu-kun, I hardly have time for something like that.’
‘You can call me Akira, you know,’ the other boy beamed.
‘That…’
‘You don’t have many friends, do you?’
An empty laugh sounded, and Goro only vaguely registered it was his. ‘Someone as unwanted as me doesn’t really have friends.’
There it was. Goro wished he could turn back time right there, but there was no point in desiring the impossible.
As much as Goro wanted someone to listen to and understand his story, it was a terrible idea to let that someone be Akira Kurusu, the leader of the Phantom Thieves, whom were his worst obstacle disturbing him from reaching his long planned goal. After all, what he wanted to achieve was in order to get revenge on the demons of his past, that had brought this misery upon him in the first place, and move on afterwards. Besides, this wasn’t the first time he let something about his past slip to this boy. He shouldn’t have visited Leblanc so often, even if it had been for the purpose of keeping an eye on Akira.
‘Why do you call yourself that?’ Akira asked.
‘Because that’s what I am.’ He forced himself to smile at the other boy. In the process, he could see the complicated expression on his face. Goro considered himself to be quite good at reading people, but he was unable to identify the look in his eyes.
Luckily, the conversation was cut off by the waitress presenting their dishes and drinks to them.
‘Thank you for waiting,’ she smiled before putting two black coffees in front of them, followed by a mountain of pancake, fruit and cream.
It was so delicious looking that it immediately claimed all of Goro’s attention. It turned out he had been too pessimistic – the picture on the menu didn’t even do it justice. Never in his life had Goro cast his eyes upon something so delicious looking. The enormous plate was decorated with different kinds of fruit to the sides; strawberries, kiwi, melon, grapes, mango… And in the middle of it stood the tower of pancakes proudly, between every single pancake was cream and fruit spread out. On the top of it all, a proud swirl of whipped cream stood, surrounded by fruit and a few mint leaves.
‘This… This looks fantastic,’ he sputtered.
‘It’s almost too beautiful to eat, isn’t it?’ Akira said. To Goro’s surprise, the other boy was staring at it in awe, his attention finally fixed on something different from teasing him.
‘What, are you crazy?’ Goro found himself grinning. He grabbed a fork, dipped it in that splendid tower of whipped cream and shoved it in his mouth. The cream itself was already delicious – he couldn’t wait to try it out in combination with the pancakes.
Akira let out a tiny shocked sound, making Goro look at him in wonder.
‘You destroyed it!’
He looked so utterly offended that Goro couldn’t hold back his laughter. It was hilarious – the always so impassive looking guy, completely losing his perfect poker face to the fact that someone else took the first bite of pancake before he was done admiring it.
Laughing felt strange.
Goro wasn’t sure when had been the last time he had laughed genuinely like this. He had forgotten what it was like to not force a smile because it was appropriate to the situation, but to just let it out because something inside his belly was itching, tickling him with a thousand feathers.
‘Hey, hey, don’t laugh at me,’ Akira said at some point, quasi-upset (Goro could tell because the corners of his mouth were twitching, desperately wanting to curl up in a smile), as he quickly put some strawberries in his mouth, just before pricking the very first piece of pancake with his fork.
‘That’s unfa-!’ Goro started, for not just the first time today voicing his thoughts immediately before sorting them out. However, he was unable to finish his sentence, since Akira had just shoved his pancake containing fork past Goro’s lips.
There were two conflicting thoughts now running through his mind, as he watched Akira flashing him an ear to ear grin, but tasted the pancake he’d been wanting to eat for ages now at the same time.
Goro blinked a few times, as if that would clear up his mind, but it didn’t. It only made him realize that only a few seconds earlier, the very same fork had touched Akira’s lips when he ate the strawberries. And that didn’t help.
Akechi Goro hated blushing.
The pancake was so good though.
He swallowed. ‘Tha-what, why, I mean, that was good.’
Akira’s grin changed into a smile as he watched Goro, head rested in the palm of his right hand.
Then, while Goro took a sip of his coffee – that wasn’t even half as good as Leblanc’s –, Akira took another piece of pancake and put it in his own mouth.
‘You’re still going to use that? I mean you can have mine I didn’t use it yet and-’
The other boy winked at him and Goro quickly drank some more of his coffee before he started blurting out more nonsense.
This wasn’t going well.
He had to stop.
Think.
Akira was winning here.
It was just a matter of time before he would start asking questions, and considering the weird half-relaxed state Goro was in right now, there was a high chance he’d spill some information that wasn’t meant for a Phantom Thief’s ears.
So Goro took a deep breath, ate some more from the absolutely delicious pancake and tried to recollect himself.
They ate in silence, leaving Goro wondering why the other had stopped talking. Wasn’t that supposed to be his strategy? Catching him off guard by teasing him and asking weird questions?
Goro watched him sip his coffee. The pancake mountain was almost gone, most of it because of Goro’s doing. He took another bite and chewed carefully as he weighed his options.
‘So, when are you going to tell me the real reason why you invited me?’ he finally asked after swallowing.
Akira just turned to look at him for a bit, face blank as if he didn’t understand what Goro was talking about. ‘The real reason?’ he then echoed, right before he threw a smirk in Goro’s direction.
‘I’ll tell you later. Maybe.’
At that, Goro couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Why? Was he scared they would make a scene in the café? So he wanted to wait until they were outside again? That seemed like the most logical reason. Then why did he stop trying to break Goro’s mask down?
He didn’t understand.
Goro didn’t understand Akira Kurusu and it frustrated him more than he wished to admit.
‘Have you had enough?’ Akira asked, nodding at the remaining bit of the pancake tower.
‘Yes. You haven’t had much, take it if you like,’ Goro smiled.
‘I must be special, receiving pancakes from you that you could’ve eaten yourself.’ Akira took a bite and looked at him innocently.
‘It’s only because I’m full, you know.’
Akira swallowed. ‘Ohhh, really now? Mister I could easily finish one by myself?’
‘I could still do that, but I’m polite, you haven’t had much yet.’
‘Aha! Which means I am special!’ Akira grinned in a triumphant way, putting one more pancake piece in his mouth just after winking at him quickly.
Goro just let out a sigh and drank the last bit of his coffee, but it was a little hard to resist the itch in the corners of his mouth, that desperately wanted to form his lips into a smile.
It was strange spending time with this guy, because Goro honestly couldn’t remember ever having a sensation like this before. It’s true that he didn’t have many friends, like Akira guessed earlier. In fact, he never had friends at all. Which was only natural for an unwanted child like him. There was no place for him in this world.
Then why, did this boy made him feel like he might? If only a tiny bit?
It was probably his mind playing tricks on him, because there was no way.
Akira Kurusu was a Phantom Thief after all. The leader of the Phantom Thieves, on top of that.
So as soon as this weird day was over, he was going to return to his normal life, with only his goal in mind, there was no need for him to get too close to others. He would return to keeping an eye on the Phantom Thief leader, but not in an unnecessary way.
Would Akira ask for the incident at the TV station after all, he would make up an excuse on the spot. He should be able to do that.
‘Shall we walk back to the station?’ Akira then asked and Goro agreed to it.
While walking back, they spoke casually about school and other daily matters. There was no sign the other boy was going to ask him about the stupid cat, and with each passing moment, Goro got more confused about what the reason of them meeting today had been. So when they were about to part at Shibuya station, he couldn’t hold his curiosity anymore.
‘So-’ he started, and immediately Akira turned to look at him in an amused way. His grey eyes were slightly beaming again, and there was a tiny smile playing with the corners of his lips, only a shadow of his typical grin.
‘I am still curious why you invited me today,’ Goro said.
‘You certainly don’t give up easily,’ Akira said. ‘Were you thinking about it all this time?’
‘That-’
‘I wonder what kind of reason you came up with by yourself, because it seemed to bother you quite a lot.’
‘I…’
Akira was coming closer and Goro wasn’t quite aware of the fact that he took a few steps backwards in the process, until his back suddenly found himself against the wall.
Still, the other boy came closer, and then they were only a few inches apart.
Goro didn’t know where to look. Was he going to attack him after all? In the middle of Shibuya station? He quickly glanced past Akira, only to find nobody was paying attention to them. It was a crowded station after all. So that’s why…
‘Kurusu-kun…’ he started, trying to form the words in his head before saying the out loud, but it was strangely hard to concentrate when their eyes were locked together like this. Once again those tiny little lights were dancing within his eyes, and they were now so close that Goro could see them in such a detailed way. It was distracting him. It was a pity his glasses were in the way.
‘Didn’t I tell you to call me Akira?’
Then, Akira moved, and his lips touched Goro’s cheek so shortly he found himself wondering whether it had been an illusion. Judging by his own heated face and Akira’s close to perfect smirk it hadn’t.
‘There’s your reason,’ Akira said. ‘Let’s leave it at that. I’ll explain it to you if we go on another date later.’
He winked at him, and then just walked away like nothing had happened, hands in his pockets, being swallowed by the masses of Shibuya. Just an ordinary high school student.
Causing Goro’s heart to ache in a way he had never experienced before.