Work Text:
What to do…what to do…
The capped detective was at a loss on where to expend his energy in. Time ticked by at a sluggishly slow pace. He tapped his foot mindlessly on the floor, thinking on what mundane activity could possibly speed up the unbearable flow of time. Conversation or reading, perhaps? It’s a quite a shame that the other areas don’t seem to be allowing any access from them. His choices ever remain so minimal for the bundles of energy he observed on the sidelines.
Speaking of bundles of energy, where would Akamatsu-san be at? Shuichi had no definitive evidence to pinpoint exactly where she would be and…hmm…
“Yeah, I guess I’ll go look around for her somewhere in the basement.”
Just his detective intuition talking…
»»————- ♡ ————-««
Akamatsu was in the game room, blushing and giggling while Amami held her hand and painted her nails.
The pianist haven’t paint her nails before since she needed short nails to make playing the piano easier, but it looks like Amami figured something out.
Shirogane was in the corner, frowning to herself while she watched the lovey-dovey exchange between the two. Honestly, it looked more like some fan-service cutscene than anything.
Shirogane sighed, "What even is this.." she muttered under her breath, "...normie."
Now, the detective assumes that Akamatsu's pragmatism is attributable to the bundles of energy she has to burn off by moving around. That seems logical, granted that her talent was the Ultimate Pianist. He admits, however, that he has not seen her play the piano yet.
He sighed. Focus on the task at hand. Don't get sidetracked.
Saihara chose a nearby room and entered. In there, he saw a giggling Akamatsu having her nails painted by Amami and an incredibly displeased Shirogane. In truth, he felt a mixture of emotions as he saw the scene unfold before him. One part happy, one part displeased, and one pinch of jealousy. Maybe if he just left, those emotions will too? Yeah, that seems really plausible right now... he doesn't know how long he can keep watching this – watching Akamatsu giggle as Amami playfully painted her nails.
The pianist however, was completely oblivious to anyone else in the room. She could only stare in amazement as Amami skillfully painted her nails, her cheeks were dusted pink and a giggle escaping her lips every once in a while. "Amami-kuuun... it tickles!~"
Oh no… Saihara felt his face burn up with the passion of a thousand suns once he heard that. He had never heard Akamatsu-san sound that cute and flustered at all! As someone who “may” have harbored some feelings toward the pianist, he sure doesn’t know what to make of what his ears just picked up. Was it anger? Disgust? Jealousy? Everything’s so mixed up that even he can’t put a proper name for all the feelings swirling in him now. No, “chaotic” is too much to describe it…
“A-A-Akamatsu-san…” Her name “fluently” escaped his quivering lip and tongue, almost sounding as quiet and giddy as the pianist herself – an inflection and stress on the syllables that makes him sound like a flustered girl.
Akamatsu was too mesmerized by her now drying nails to notice anyone by the door, until she heard Saihara call out her name.
The detective’s face was completely red and she could feel her own heat up too, embarrassed of getting caught by her crush , no less, in such an embarrassing situation. Oh god.. did he hear me giggle? What normal person gets ticklish of painting nails anyway? He probably thinks I’m such a weirdo…
As soon as Saihara saw her turn her gaze towards him, he shook his head and slowly left, not wanting to cause any more panic towards himself. Akamatsu was clearly having a great time with the others. She had every right to kick him out of her schedule since she made no intention to come for him. He can’t just insert himself into her life and expect her to interact with him just like that. He didn’t want to give off the notion that he was some self-centered prick to someone he liked…
Still, disappointment was rather painful and he wanted to be alone right now… This was the exception to his averse connection to being alone. It helped deal with the pain a bit…
Akamatsu could feel herself die on the inside. He left because he’s weirded out by me.. he’s SO weirded out by me... She shook her head and raised herself up from her seat, on her way after Saihara.
"Woah, woah, calm down. Your nails have to dry first." Amami had grabbed her wrist and slowly dragged her down to her seat again. The pianist mumbled a small ‘alright’ and talked about random topics with Shirogane and Amami, the pain still aching in her chest and not going away anytime soon.
After a while, Shirogane spoke up, "You look awfully sad. What’s wrong?"
"Huh. Didn’t you see?" Amami asked, raising an eyebrow to the cosplayer. "Haha.. I’m so plain that I just melted into the background with my manga.." She lifted a shojo manga from her lap.
Agh. It’s not like me to be like this. The pianist shook her head and pouted. "I’d.. I’d rather not talk about it." She glanced over at Amami, hoping that he’d keep his mouth shut. Thankfully, the Ultimate ‘I don’t remember’ seemed to have mercy, and ran a thumb over her nails. "Ah. Looks like your nails are dry enough."
With that, Akamatsu bolted from her seat, making Shirogane flinch. The pianist ran out faster than lightning and didn’t look back once to the smiling Amami or the utterly confused cosplayer.
»»————- ♡ ————-««
As soon as Saihara left the room, he hurried upstairs. His legs carried him to no particular direction as that image of Akamatsu having a good time remained in the forefront of his mind and subsequently, his vision. Why is he so hung up on it? He should really just…get over it. It’s not like it’s the end of the world, right?
Ah, who was he kidding…of course he can’t make Akamatsu laugh nor smile like that. In reality, he’s just boring. Yes, he does want to show her a good time but—
Saihara found himself in the dining hall, seating on a chair. His presence made the atmosphere around him gloomy and depressing. He pulled at the brim of his cap, covering his “slightly” teary eyes. How he wished no one would see him like this…
Maki who had been standing in the corner finicking with a tiny metal object had glanced over to Saihara who had just entered. Minding her own business she returned to what she was doing.
A minute had passed and Maki could feel the misery emanating from Saihara's being. Letting out an audible sigh, she speaks up, "Who ran over your cat?"
Saihara looked up towards the blank voice of Maki and tilted his head in confusion.
“A cat? What are you—?”
Maki scratches her head frantically out of slight irritation, "It's an expression, I was just asking what happened to you."
"You know what? forget it, it's none of my business I guess." Going back to messing with her contraption.
“It’s Akamatsu…” Saihara tried to mumble as quietly as possible, hiding himself further into his hat.
Setting her item to the side, "Akamatsu, huh?" Maki saunters over to the table, however she sits a fair distance from Saihara. Placing her elbow on the table and resting her chin, "So what's the deal, did she turn you down or something like that?" He lets out a drawn-out sigh. “N-No it’s nothing like that. It’s umm…how do I say this…” he begins to trail off and mumble instead.
Harukawa paused for another minute before standing up and walking over to pick up her metal contraption.
Once again returning to the table, this time sitting in front of Saihara. She holds out the object and asks, "Do you know what this is?" Before Saihara could respond, "Don't answer that. This is a lock." Finicking with it once more. "There are so many ways you can open this. Be it through tools or even just force. but most chances are you'll just end up breaking it" Harukawa reaches down into the pocket of her shirt to reveal a key.
"However with a lock comes a key, two objects that are so objectively different are the exact same things needed to operate. The lock cannot be opened without a key but without a lock, a key is useless." She proceeds to open the lock. "Although any key can't go to a single lock, it has to be the perfect fit. Anyone knows that you can't open a lock if you have the wrong key." Harukawa places the items on the table.
Letting up his hat to see the items more, Saihara studies the lock and key with slightly curious eyes. He then picks up the lock and key with his hand examines them at every angle, just as any detective would. “The two go hand-in-hand to make sure their respective purposes are preserved, right? The key makes sure the lock stays a lock while the lock makes sure the key has a purpose.” He makes a repeated motion of lifting and falling gestures with his hand, just slow and steady enough to not let the two toys fall. “…Hmm, any reason why you brought these two here, Maki? I don’t have much to go on to assume things…” Well, he certainly sounded a lot better when he examined the lock and key; that’s for sure.
Harukawa places her elbow on the table again, "It got you to stop whining, didn't it?” She clears her throat, "But anyway, that key is kind of like you. You might seem different and it may seem like it might not work out, but who knows? You might be the perfect fit, then again you might not."
She stands, picking up her things seemingly to leave the room.
He mulled over her words as he continued to feel the weight of the objects balanced on his palm. A perfect fit or not… it’ll always fall to the whims of probabilities – something that didn’t exactly help with Saihara’s problematic anxiety; it either is or isn’t. He doesn’t think he likes extremities like that. Still…
He sighed. This is Maki’s way of telling him to “just get it over with”. If Akamatsu explicitly says that she doesn’t want to hang out with him then that’s that; and she still hasn’t said anything of the sort.
Saihara looked over towards Maki and muttered a quiet “Thank you” to her. Ah, right! The lock and key. “O-Oh, I forgot to give these to you.” Saihara let out his palm, showing the two trinkets, towards her.
Maki looks over her shoulder, "Oh that? You can keep it." She hinges the door open, "I was gonna go bother Tojo to cook something up. you can follow if you want, either way I don't care."
“Oh umm…I’ll just go check on Akamatsu first. Sorry but I’ll see you later…!”
Saihara moves past Maki and takes a deep breath before heading back towards the basement.
»»————- ♡ ————-««
Akamatsu was still in the basement and sighed. She had asked Chabashira a while ago if she knew where Saihara was, but that was a huge mistake. The time the pianist could have used to find the detective, was used by the aikido master to interrogate her.
"Are you SURE that Saihara isn’t sexually harassing you!? You can tell me!"
"No, Chabashira-san, we’ve been over this-"
Then Akamatsu spotted the detective and hurried to get the clueless aikido master away. When she finally succeeded, the blonde stood there awkwardly, “ ..H-Hi.."
“H-Hey…A-Akamatsu…”
The detective tried to look away from her, his cheeks sporting a deep red from the last time he saw her.
"I.. I.. I’m... sorry.. you had to see that..” The pianist said with deep red cheeks, looking downwards since she couldn’t meet his gaze.
"Um.." The pianist looked up, "Saihara-kun.. were you.. uh.. jealous..?" She swallowed, her throat feeling dry.
Jealous? Jealous…jealous…
Saihara’s eyes widened. Maybe that was it. Maybe he was just jealous and he just blamed it on his ineptitude, like always, to deny it.
To reaffirm her suspicions, he looked back at Akamatsu and slowly nodded, shameful that he felt that way in the first place.
"Oh.. you were?..” Akamatsu let out a sigh of relief. Then he didn’t run away because he was weirded out..!
But the implications dawned on her.
Why was the talented and cute detective jealous on *her*? "Do you um.." The pianist’s cheeks heated up impossibly more, "..like.. uh-m.. do you.. ah.." She took a deep breath,
"Geez! Do you like me?!"
“A-Ah…! Yes I do! Y-Yes I d-do…!”
Saihara covered his face with his hands and nodded frantically. As if that wasn’t clear enough for Akamatsu; she isn’t dense!
The pianist closed her eyes and crossed her arms, nodding in satisfaction. She was right!
"So?" She pouted, "Aren’t you going to do something?" Akamatsu wanted him to do the first step.
“Huh…? But I thought…”
"HmMmMhMMMM" Pouting continues
Saihara hung his head low. “I honestly don’t know what to do…I was preparing for…rejection, A-Akamatsu…”
The blonde let out a small sigh. Then, she pushed up Saihara’s hat so it fell over and kissed him. It was only a peck on the lips, but it didn’t make Akamatsu’s burning cheeks any less crimson red.
Saihara’s heart rate skyrocketed as his internal voice screamed to the heavens above, despite only “Ah”’s and “Um”’s and “Uh”’s being sputtered out of his mouth. The peck on his lips came to him as an absolute surprise, and he can’t really decipher if it was a good one or a bad one. It just made his body feel all light and really…REALLY heated up for whatever reason existed.
Eventually, he muttered a crookedly inflected, “A-Akamatsu…?!”
"W-Well.. *someone* had to do something.." She crossed her hands over her chest, "..I always kinda thought you liked me anyway.."
“Was it t-that obvious?”
"Let’s just say that..
..I found the key."