Work Text:
Dinner at 7, my place?
Atsushi paused from typing his report. He stood up from his office chair, and stretched his limbs, feeling the joints pop from mild inactivity. He blinked rapidly, trying to ease the strain on his eyes brought about by the intense glare of his computer monitor. The sun was starting to set, casting its golden light across the city, filtering in from the drawn blinds. The time on the menu bar read 16:45. Most of the agency clerks had gone home already, with only the main staff remaining to finalize the tasks for the day. Atsushi peeked behind the blinds to admire this golden view of Yokohama.
The report wasn't even Atsushi's, to be honest. It was Dazai's, but for some magical, yet probably explainable reason he didn't come in to work today. Only a vague text message (embellished with too many emojis) that read, I'll be counting on you, as my subordinate~, had any indication of his plans.
Which is allocating his work to Atsushi. Which wasn't really much trouble at all, or so he claimed. Dazai, along with Kunikida, had gone on a preliminary investigation about an underground arms trade, and Atsushi simply had to summarize their initial findings.
Kunikida clicked his tongue in disapproval of Dazai's antics, but ran through Atsushi's report multiple times to help speed up the process.
He glanced at Atsushi's flip-phone, and raised an eyebrow.
"You two keep in touch?"
Atsushi swivelled around. "Who?"
"Akutagawa."
Atsushi blinked. "Yeah, we do," he replied, like it was the most normal thing.
Kunikida didn't quite know how to continue. "How long?"
A shrug. "After the incident with the headmaster, I guess?"
Atsushi's calmness was slightly unnerving. "Does Kyouka know?"
"Oh, definitely."
Kunikida can't decide if he wants to continue prying or not. "Well, he's inviting you to dinner at 7."
Atsushi smiled, small and reserved. "Gin-chan probably prepared something good."
"Do you two...hang out often?"
Atsushi contemplated for a bit. "Not particularly. We may take advantage of that cooperation order, but work still does get in the way."
Kunikida nodded. "I see. What do you often do?"
Atsushi brightened. "Oh!" he exclaimed, enthusiasm pouring almost immediately in that single word that it was endearing. "We visit a lot of coffee shops because he likes trying different kinds of tea, sometimes he passes by antique bookshops looking for some good secondhands and rare prints. Rarely though we eat at someplace fancy but he always insists he pay the bill even if I managed to save up for it. I dragged him to the zoo and the aquarium once, and other times I bring him to some really good but also cheap hole-in-the-walls I've discovered. Also very rarely do we eat at each other's places because of confidentiality, but whenever we do it's really peaceful and nice..."
"I see," Kunikida mused. That was a bit too much information for him, and the gears are already turning in his head.
Atsushi looked at him, confused momentarily, before realization hit him. "Was that...Did I go overboard?"
Kunikida shook his head. "Not at all, not at all. Though I do have to ask something of utmost importance." His voice turned serious, and Atsushi bit back a yelp. He still hasn't gotten used to Kunikida-the-senior-officemate.
"What exactly are you and Akutagawa?"
"Oho, what's this I hear?"
Yosano sauntered over to Atsushi's desk. "Are you talking about Atsushi-kun and that Port Mafia kid?"
"Yes, indeed we are," Kunikida replied. "In fact, Atsushi just recounted some of the stuff they do whenever they go out together."
"Oh, goodness, Kunikida-kun, you are seriously missing a lot to the story," Yosano said, grinning wickedly. "I've seen those two around whenever I go shopping, and almost all the time they were holding hands!"
Atsushi suddenly burst into a terrible cough, choking on his own spit, while Kunikida pushed up his glasses. He said nothing, urging Yosano to continue.
"And then, Akutagawa-kun just brought their hands up, and he kissed Atsushi's hand! Anyone can see what he was doing from a mile away, no mistake. Oh, oh! Another time when I went with Ranpo-san on his investigation, I saw them again. That was on one of your day offs, if I recall correctly. He and Akutagawa-kun were holding hands again, talking about something, and then Akutagawa-kun kissed him on the forehead! Then Atsushi-kun did the same by kissing him on the cheek! How intriguing, don't you think, Kunikida-kun?"
Yosano's sharp gaze suddenly directed to Atsushi, and he felt himself shrink. It was the look she gave when she was about to heal someone, and it was undeniably bone-chilling. "Care to explain why you're suddenly so lovey-dovey, Atsushi-kun?"
Said 'patient' was sweating bullets. "Isn't that a normal thing to do when you're friends?!"
An awkward silence fell upon the agency office. A door closed somewhere. Atsushi wiped the beads of sweat forming at his nape.
"Friends, you say," Kunikida said, having been quiet for a while.
I mean-!" Atsushi started, then hesitated. His hands fidgeted with his clip-tie. "I mean, I told him a while back that I...see him as more than a friend, but he hasn't really said anything about it ever since."
Another silence befell them, but this time Kunikida and Yosano understood.
Kunikida put his hands up in defeat. "Well, I don't think I can argue with that." He tapped Yosano's shoulder.
"He has a date at seven, we shouldn't hold him back."
Yosano's eyebrows raised, and immediately she understood. "I see, I see."
"You can finish your report tomorrow. Hopefully that bandaged dumbass appears so you don't have to trouble with his job," Kunikida added. He made his way to his desk, Yosano waving as she exited the office.
Atsushi sighed, picking up his phone to finally reply to Akutagawa. All this fuss over a text message...
Atsushi doesn't think he can ever get used to the whiplash he feels whenever he approaches the threshold of Akutagawa's apartment.
Which is a luxury unit on a luxury high-rise in the nicer part of Yokohama.
Of course, the siblings aren't home often. They need to ease the suspicion on them, so most of the time they stay somewhere else. But today, Gin convinced her brother to take some time to unwind a bit, even for a night. Unbeknownst to many, Ryuunosuke is fond of indulging his little sister, thus they returned to their nice apartment, so Gin could practice some more cooking.
"Let's invite the jinko," Gin said, not looking up from the stir fry.
Ryuunosuke grumbled something unintelligible, sounding along the lines of he's busy and we're busy don't want to bother.
"Don't say that when you've been dropping hints all week that you wanted to see him."
Ryuunosuke grumbled again, but this time reached for his phone.
And that's how Atsushi found himself ringing the doorbell to the apartment.
It was Gin who opened the door. "Nakajima-kun! You're just in time."
"Sorry for intruding," Atsushi said sheepishly, as he toed off his sneakers at the entrance. He could hear the clatter of plates being set on a table, and smell something delicious from beyond where he was standing.
Atsushi rounded on the dining table, where Akutagawa was putting down a plate of beef and vegetables at the center, in between a bowl of rice and a plate of grilled fish. Atsushi's stomach grumbled loudly in anticipation. Gin giggled.
"Glad you could join us tonight, Nakajima-kun. It was brother's idea, after all, to invite you here."
Akutagawa shot her a murderous glare, trying to tell her telepathically that no, it was your idea, dear sister, don't make me look soft in front of the jinko. Gin pretended not to notice. Thankfully, Atsushi didn't see it either.
"Ahaha, well it has been a while since I came over, so it's nice to spend some time with you guys." Atsushi smiled brightly, and if you listened hard enough you could hear Akutagawa suck in a sharp breath.
(Gin heard.)
"Hey, Akutagawa?"
He hummed to indicate he was listening.
"So, I was badgered earlier at work today, because Kunikida-san and Yosano-sensei saw your text."
Akutagawa hummed again.
"They asked me lots of questions, mostly about us going out and all that, so it got me thinking a bit."
Akutagawa hummed once more.
"What exactly are we?"
When Atsushi didn't receive a response, he craned his head to look at Akutagawa. He'd gone rather pensive, and his hold around Atsushi's waist tightened considerably. They were on the couch, Infinity War droning on the television that they weren't really paying full attention to. Akutagawa was reclining on the armrest, Atsushi on his lap, snuggling into the fluffy black pullover Akutagawa was donning. They'd cleaned up and finished washing the dishes together, and when Gin noticed how early it still was, she suggested that they spend some alone time for a while.
Atsushi protested the idea for a bit, insisting that he was interfering with some quality sibling time but Gin insisted more that it wasn't a problem, that she'd like to retire early and dive into the covers, thus it was totally fine for Atsushi to stay longer.
(Yes, Akutagawa sent another death glare her way, but he wouldn't be here in this situation right now if it weren't for her.)
"What do you mean?" Akutagawa finally choked out, after considerably thinking.
"Well, I told you that I liked you, right?"
Atsushi felt Akutagawa's head nod. "It's just...do you like me too? In the way that I like you?"
Calmly, Akutagawa asked, "Why would you ask that?'
"I mean," Atsushi began, "we go out a lot, and have all kinds of dates! We hold hands, sometimes we kiss each other––you kiss me on the forehead, I kiss you on the cheek--and it probably looks confusing to other people who don't know what's the deal about us. Yosano-sensei even called us lovey-dovey."
"I see."
"And! You even said that one time we were walking in the park that you didn't want to be the cause of more hurt for me, that you weren't fit to be my partner."
Akutagawa cringed at the memory. "What about it?"
"Well, I thought you were talking about our partnership as convenient allies of some sort, but then you still help me out every now and then, and you still let me help you out. So I got confused because I didn't know what you were talking about, but then while I was on the way here I thought that you were probably referring to a more romanti--"
Akutagawa slightly lost it.
"Oh my fucking god, jinko," he growled, Rashomon erupting from his sweater to spin Atsushi around so he could see Akutagawa's face properly. Atsushi may or may not have squeaked a little bit.
"Of course I like you the way you like me."
Another awkward silence. A bedroom door in the hallway closed abruptly, faint giggles heard from inside. Akutagawa's cheeks flushed, and the red only grew darker the longer the silence passed.
Finally, Atsushi found his voice again.
"Oh my god you like me the way I like you."