Work Text:
“...are you even listening?!” Ann says angrily, finally dragging Ryuji’s attention from where he’d been stuffing his face. And for the record, he was at first, but the moment Ann had mentioned the word ‘wedding’ Ryuji stopped paying remotely any attention. He’d been to three weddings in his entire life, and the only thing he had liked about them was the free food. He was too young for the alcohol anyways, and none of the other girls had been his age (or even willing to look his way), so the food was the only thing that interested him. Weddings? Marriages? Not his style.
Ryuji inhales a fistful of nachos and manages not to choke on them; Ann looks at him with her usual disgust, and it only deepens when he says, mouth still half-full, “there’s no point talkin’ about wedding dresses right now. None of us have significant others.” Then, he pauses, two fingers still in his mouth and his eyes widen and he points a finger directly at Akira (he hasn’t cared about rudeness and Akira probably doesn’t either), and blurts out, “ohh, I almost forgot!” He swallows, slams his hand against the rickety table, and grins. “You have a girlfriend! You can talk to her about all this wedding shit!”
All the blood drains from Akira’s face. Ann’s eyes widen as she snaps her head over to Akira looking white as a sheet; even Futaba, whom they’ve known for something like 2 days now, seems curious. “Since when?!” Ann’s voice is several decibels louder than it was before and for once it’s Ryuji looking over at Ann and telling her to quiet. Instead Ann pouts and stands up, marching over to where Akira is currently trying to become one with the chair. “How could you get a girlfriend and not tell any of us?!” She pokes him hard in the chest, one hand resting on her hip, looking every bit the fiery Panther right now. Akira smiles at her—or tries to, it’s more like an extremely awkward grimace, and tries to make himself smaller. Ann growls and leans very, very close to him and says lowly, “you are going to tell me everything after this.” Akira nods rapidly. She glares at him, a moment longer, then huffs and turns around. She marches back to her seat and sits down, immediately going from angry dominatrix to smiling, exuberant model. “Now, where were we?”
Akira sighs, then looks over and glares at him. Ryuji shrugs.
-
Ryuji didn’t think it was a secret or anything. Shit, he didn’t even know who it was. All he knew was Akira was suddenly a lot busier. He’d caught Akira buying chocolates and flowers too—whoever she was, she had weird taste too, because the flowers were different bouquets every time, and the chocolates ranged from cheap to several of Ryuji’s allowances. Maybe she was high-maintenance? So Ryuji had concluded one thing: girlfriend.
So of course he’s confused when, after they had escorted Futaba back to Sojiro’s house, Akira yanks him aside and drags him to where they wouldn’t be eavesdropped on (probably). Akira rests both of his hands on Ryuji’s shoulders, and stares at him in silence for a good thirty seconds.
Ryuji loses his patience and sighs loudly. “Ugh, fine! I won’t tell anyone else! I’m sorry!” Akira smiles softly and nods; he releases his grip of Ryuji’s shoulders, and punches him gently in the shoulder. Ryuji grins and punches him back (perhaps a little harder). Akira waves goodbye, walking back to Leblanc, and when he turns the corner to the back-alley the coffee shop resides in, Ryuji mutters to himself, “it’s just a girlfriend, it’s not like it’s a big deal.” But Akira is his best friend, and he’ll keep his weird secret.
(Hopefully better than he kept the Phantom Thieves a secret).
-
“Mwehehehehe…”
Ryuji feels the hackles on the back of his neck rise. In the week since Futaba woke up, he’s learned that Futaba cackling—actually cackling— was never ever a good sign. Ryuji glances over at their (incredibly short) mission control who is doing that terrifying glasses gleam thing she and Akira seem to do when they’re feeling really devious. “Uh,” he says very eloquently. Futaba grins and Ryuji feels a chill of fear go down his spine.
Futaba scuttles closer—there’s no other way to describe how she moves closer—and stretches up until she can whisper into his ear, “I know who Akira is dating.” She cackles louder and immediately dashes off, leaving Ryuji scratching his head in confusion.
“Wait...huh?”
-
See the thing is, Ryuji 100% respects Akira’s privacy (mostly). He figures, whatever, Akira will tell him when he wants to—and he knows Akira eventually will because they’re best friends, and, well, it has to be Makoto. Probably. Or maybe the shogi player? Or could Akira be into older women? Did he not want to tell him because he thought Ryuji might judge him? Ryuji wouldn’t care if Akira were dating an adult—shit he WISHED he had that kind of game.
...damnit, now he’s curious.
Shit.
-
Ryuji can’t help himself. He glances over at where Akira’s been fiddling with his phone off and on for the past thirty minutes and says as casually as he can, “texting your girlfriend?”
Akira hums. Ryuji doesn’t know what that noise means, so he assumes Akira will eventually elaborate on it. “My dad,” oh. “He says my father has been sick for a few days.”
Ryuji opens his mouth to say something vaguely consoling, then realizes that sentence makes absolutely no sense. Akira glances up at him from under his glasses, giving him that careful, calculating look he gives the TV when Akechi appears on it to say something shitty about the Phantom Thieves. “I have two dads.”
“...oh.”
...huh.
Hm.
“Does that bother you?” And Akira is always so precise with his words and his tone is trying to be bland but there’s also a defensive edge to it (he doesn’t even get this defensive about the Phantom Thieves).
“Uh…” and Ryuji wants to say it doesn’t, because Akira is his best friend, but, “I uh. I dunno. I’ve never met someone who’s…” and he lets the sentence trail off because he’s too uncomfortable to even say it.
“Gay?” Ryuji nods. Akira is still giving him that look. Ryuji is starting to feel really, really uncomfortable. Finally, Akira huffs and relaxes his shoulders; Ryuji feels his shoulders slump too (how tense were they?). Ryuji leans back into his soba noodles, looking away from Akira, but his attention is dragged back when Akira says quietly, “you’ve probably met gay people and didn’t even realize it.”
Ryuji doesn’t know what to say to that, so he says nothing.
Their lunch doesn’t get any less awkward after that.
Eventually, Akira stands up and stretches. He reaches into his pockets and slaps some yen onto the table, and grabs the Mona Bag from the creaky, old diner seat. Ryuji looks up briefly to nod at him and Akira mutters, “gonna go see a movie with Yusuke; see you tomorrow, Ryuji,” which is more than he’s said in the past two hours and also, Ryuji doesn’t even know why Akira is telling him that anyways, but he nods again like he understands and goes back to his soba.
Weird.
So weird.
-
Ryuji didn’t think anything of the fact that Akira would hang out with Yusuke a lot. Like, a lot. Akira once mentioned Yusuke came by Leblanc five times in ten days over summer vacation but like, Yusuke’s dorm probably doesn’t even have air conditioning so whatever, it’s Yusuke. He didn’t think anything of how when they would hang out Akira would take detours to get gifts for Yusuke because, well, Akira did that for him too, didn’t he? He did that for everyone. That’s what friends did (as the porcelain ramen bowl in Akira’s loft was evidence of).
-
It takes Yusuke nearly dying for Ryuji to get a clue.
The giant elephantine Shadow in Okumira’s Palace hits like a truck, and is as big as one too. ‘Strong’ doesn’t come close to describing the thing. But they’re holding their own, trying to figure out its weaknesses (fucking Bless, of course it has to be Bless), although he’s struggling with how the damn thing reflects physical attacks.
It all goes to shit the moment Mona reflects its rage spell back. The big blue elephant turns it’s one eye from Mona to Joker, radiating anger, and there’s no way Joker can survive a cleave like that. Joker backs away from it, looking fearful, and the thing goes to rush him and Joker raises his arm to try and shield himself and Skull can feel time start to slow down—and watches in horror as Fox leaps in front of the Shadow’s blade. The blade slices clean through his clothes and Fox makes a strangled shout but successfully shoves Joker out of the way. He’s bleeding heavily, barely standing, and the Shadow is still standing there, still pissed, but Mona uses the last of their Vanish Balls and yells at Skull to help carry Fox away, stop gawking you idiot, fuck the Security level.
Skull nods dumbly and stumbles over to put Fox’s arm over his shoulder, his other arm draped over Joker’s. Mona is walking beside them, eyes worried and full of fear, repeatedly casting Diarama on Fox, looking around nervously for any other Shadows. They find a hallway tucked away and gently lean Fox against the cold metal floor. He’s breathing heavily but not bleeding anymore, although there’s a deep, nasty scar diagonal on his chest and his shirt is still torn in half.
Joker kneels down next to Fox and removes Fox’s mask, then his own. He reaches up one gloved hand and rubs his thumb over Fox’s—Yusuke’s—cheek. Yusuke smiles weakly and cradles Akira’s hand closer.
Ryuji suddenly feels very uncomfortable.
“You’re an idiot, Yusuke,” Akira says quietly. Yusuke chuckles then winces; Morgana casts another Diarama and Yusuke inhales deeply.
“I could not live with you, Akira,” he says as explanation, and reaches out a hand to hold Akira’s cheek as well. “You are the light of my life; to exist without you would be meaningless.”
Akira scoffs, but says nothing. Instead he sighs, closes his eyes, leans in and presses his lips to Yusuke’s.
Ryuji is definitely uncomfortable.
“Idiot,” he mutters, and Ryuji hears a quiet ‘aww’ from Morgana. Ryuji shifts uncomfortably; he feels like a third wheel, like an intruder seeing this, but can’t avert his eyes. He can feel an embarrassed, uncomfortable blush on his neck, and rubs the back of his neck. Akira pulls away from his—boyfriend? Is that what they are?—and rests Yusuke’s arm over his shoulder. He hands the masks to Morgana to hold, and glances up at Ryuji, nodding his head toward Yusuke. Ryuji jolts and stumbles over, resting Yusuke’s arm over his shoulder again as they all three hobble over to the nearest safe room, Morgana following behind them.
-
“So uh. You and Yusuke, huh.” Ryuji blurts out the next day. Akira nods, hands in his pockets, the picture of casualness. Ryuji isn’t really sure what else he wanted to say. He’s still kind of processing it. “So. How long have you…” he trails off.
Akira removes his hands from his pockets and stretches his arms high above him (just like he did in the diner that day). “Last month.”
Ryuji nods, because what else is he supposed to say? He hadn’t realized at all, had no idea Akira was—
“Wait, is that why you didn’t hang out at Hawaii?” Ryuji turns to Akira, flabbergasted and a bit hurt. “You abandoned me to Mishima for your boyfriend?!” Akira is hunching his shoulders, twirling his hair between his pointer and thumb. He mutters something unintelligible and hunches his shoulders even more. “You said you were going to hang out with that shogi chick!”
Ryuji’s voice has reached new levels of loud (and shrill) and Akira has stopped fiddling with his hair, now shoving his hands in pockets, and shaking with laughter. He covers his face to hide his snorts of laughter, and Ryuji can’t help but grin and laugh too. Honestly he’s just being melodramatic at this point. Ryuji slouches and moans, “how could you leave your best friend to go kiss Yusuke?!”
Akira smirks and says, “he’s a very good kisser.”
“Dude! TMI!”
-
“...so do you really have two dads?”