Chapter Text
There were few things in life that could piss Goro Akechi off- alright, that was a lie; there existed several things.
But there were few things that pissed him off colossally, and today, his ape coworker had actually managed to pull off a move that would forever land him on Goro's list of "people he held lifelong grudges about".
Granted, the list wasn't that long. It only came into existence that very day.
He wasn't only feeling pissed, he was literally on edge now, ready to lash out at a moment's notice; and there was only one person who could bring back his calm.
And sadly, therein lay the problem.
"Hey," he grumbled out, when Ren picked up- even though he was usually so suspicious of unknown numbers, and never picked them up. "It's me. Ake- uhm. Goro. Even if it sounds like a scam, it really is me. And I'm not here to ask for money or something."
Ren's adorable chuckle trickled into his ear, diminished only by the quality of the bad signal here; the sound instantly soothed him, and Goro suppressed a sigh as he let his shoulders sag down.
"Hey," he was being greeted back, "Don't worry. There's only one person in the whole word whose voice I could recognize off the bat like that, and only one person who'd manage to sound so adorably awkward at the same time."
This time, Goro groaned loudly. "Urgh. Insufferable human being, are you not?"
"Nah," Ren laughed, "Last time I checked, you were the one not trusting me enough to recognize you. So in my book, that makes you the insufferable one. Did you already arrive, though? How was the rest of the train ride? You stopped responding after a while, not that that's anything bad, but- was everything okay? You sound…upset."
Leave it to his boyfriend to read him like a fiddle, be it via phone call or not; Goro exhaled loudly, leaning against the wall for support.
"Well- it depends on your definition of "okay", I suppose. But yes, I did arrive safely and all, just…"
Out of the corner of his eyes, Goro spotted his coworker lingering around, no doubt waiting for him to finish up already; not that he'd let himself get stressed out by that. The shitty ape was literally the reason he was in this mess in the first place.
But if he told Ren that the only reason why he had stopped using his phone during the train ride was because the annoying monkey had been trying so hard to peek at his messages, Ren would no doubt worry.
Well, he had reason to worry anyway, but there was no need to add any other worries atop of that.
"Listen, uh. My phone is done for," Goro decided to cut right to the point, "It was dropped into a fountain, and has been dead ever since. I'll see if I can have it repaired by the time I'm back, but…Uh. I'll effectively be without it for this whole week."
Which sucked immensely, given how this was his first real trip away from home- home- and he'd wished, no counted on being able to call Ren at least once before going to sleep. Or stay in contact with him otherwise.
Having no choice in the matter sucked badly, though.
At first, it seemed as though Ren took the news better than he'd thought.
"O-oh, okay. And…You called to let me know about this- no." He knew Ren was shaking his head. "You called to let me know you've arrived safely?" His tone was far more gentle now, a soothing balm for his erratic mind.
"Mhm. Both, I guess."
"Thanks," Ren mumbled, and Goro knew he was blowing him a kiss through the line, cheesy as he was. "I appreciate it. It sucks that we can't talk at all now, but…I guess there's nothing we can do about that. Though…if you don't mind me asking, how were you able to reach out to me? And what happened in the first place?"
"Oh, that. Well, the coworker who dropped my phone in the first place was kind enough to let me use his for a short while." Goro rolled his eyes, hoping his sarcasm was bleeding through well enough.
"No, not that." There was a grin hiding in Ren's tone. "I mean, how did you manage to call me? Have you memorized my phone number?"
"Of course I have, you id- you're literally my emergency contact, Ren. Have been for years. And in case anything happens, I do need to be able to whip out your number without being reliant on my phone. Which is exactly how- oh."
Too late did Goro realize that he'd fallen into a trap of sort, though in this case, he didn't mind; his reward was Ren's pearly laughter, filling his chest with warmth.
"Aw, babe. I didn't know you had my number memorized."
"Well, as you can see…it's a good thing I do," Goro mumbled, feeling a blush rising to his cheeks.
"Totally." He could see the grin Ren was wearing in his mind. "So, tell me- how exactly did this whole thing happen? The whole murdering your phone and your mood thing?"
"Urgh."
Goro was spurting a headache already, thinking back on it all; and he could also feel the blush spreading across his cheeks as he explained the whole reason he'd gotten into this mess.
"This coworker- he claimed I was checking my phone too often during the ride. That I was practically glued to the screen. Not that that's any of his business, and far from the truth anyway."
"Oh- okay." There was something smug in the way Ren replied, but Goro couldn't put his finger on why exactly.
"I told him to buzz off, multiple times. But in the end, it only took a single careless moment of mine, in where I wanted to sign for my room, and claim my room card, during which I had my phone on the counter."
Goro massaged his temples, feeling his headache increasing. "He stole it, ran around the lobby for a while until I yelled at him to stop, at which point he grew so terrified, he slipped on something and fell backwards- right into the fountain they have in the plaza. Well, I was feeling rather vindictive about it, until I noticed that my phone had still been in his grasp, and, well. That's that."
The reason why he'd been glued to his phone went by unsaid; it was certainly not because Ren had been texting him and sending him an array of pictures, asking him for advice on what to cook, sending him selfies with Morgana, their cat, and so on; definitely not because Ren kept texting him how much he missed him already, which led to Goro trying to take selfies, but feeling way too shy to send any of them.
Definitely not.
(He did take a bunch of random pictures of the scenery and all to send him back, though.)
"Well, I can't say I feel bad for your…coworker, either," Ren chuckled, but something about his tone felt rather off, making Goro instantly alert, "I'm not even sure what to focus on first, though- the fact that this dude didn't know his place, or that you have a fucking water fountain in the lobby. It sucks that your phone fell into the water, though. Nothing you can do about it now- oh, but maybe try the rice trick! Who knows. It might help a little. Say…this coworker of yours, though-"
By now, Goro recognized the tone; it was something akin to jealousy, but the insecurity prevailed by far. Ren didn't usually get jealous of anyone- he was the only one who'd ever gotten close to Goro in the way he had, and had been Goro's first real lover as well- but perhaps something about this blasted coworker of his had unsettled him; perhaps because usually, Goro distanced himself as much as he could from anyone at work unless absolutely needed, making Ren falsely believe Goro felt something like… attachment towards this blasted ape who'd done nothing but ruin his mood.
Or worse: perhaps Ren believed he liked him, but had never told his boyfriend. Obviously, Ren would never insist on knowing every detail about his life, but given how they had moved in together a few months ago, perhaps he felt insecure about this "coworker" of his; perhaps he felt like he hadn't earned enough of Goro's trust to be introduced to someone Goro might consider a friend.
That sounded very much like Ren, but was entirely off track here; not that Goro could blame Ren for it.
Especially because his "jealousy" was rather endearing.
And so, Goro snorted, and before Ren could spiral down any further, decided to explain everything in the full.
"Honey," he teased, simply because he knew Ren was an absolute sucker for when he used petnames, "I don't even know that guy's name," he declared loudly, making sure to glare at the lingering person around the corner, who visibly flinched.
Good. He'd have to pay for what he'd robbed Goro off; fucking asshole.
"But what I can tell you is that he's the sort of annoying troublemaker I absolutely hate. And I'm likely never to see him again, considering how we come from different districts of the office, seeing how the higher-ups insisted for a bit of a mix. I'm glad I got my own room, though. And I am going to make him pay the bill for either the repair, or the cost of a new phone altogether. Maybe both when I'm feeling generous."
"Generous, sure," Ren laughed, and Goro's mood instantly lifted up hearing his true, unrestrained laughter. "Poor guy, I already feel bad for him. Only a bit, though. This whole situation really sucks." Despite the choice of his words, Goro detected relief in his tone, and kept the smug smile to himself.
"But, Goro- maybe he's not that much of a bad guy. Maybe he's- like me! I also got on your nerves for a long time in order to befriend you, didn't I? So-"
"You were different, Ren. Always will be, always have been. So please don't compare yourself to lowlifes like him, who can't even take a fucking hint. And besides…as far as I'm aware, if you intend to "befriend" someone, you don't ogle the other's ass like that."
"Hey, it's not my fault you've got a nice butt," Ren grumbled, "And you insisted on laying your entire body halfway across the billiard table on our first real meeting and date, so-"
"Ah, a date, was it? I thought you had just randomly chatted me up to, what was it again? "Learn how to play billiards"? I feel as though your intentions were impure all along…" Goro had a hard time keeping his laughter to himself, hearing Ren sputter from the other end.
"W-Look, you just- right, I admit I was a bit intrigued by your appearance, but that didn't mean I had any impure intentions when I talked to you! And besides, you were the one who got all touchy-feely with me-"
"To correct your sorry excuse of a posture, so you could manage a measly shot at least," Goro countered, and he knew he'd won that argument when a loud groan reveberated through his ear; he laughed loudly at that, and soon, Ren joined in.
"Good old times, huh?"
"For sure."
"So, uh…" Ren was surely fumbling with his hands, as he always did whenever he grew a bit more nervous. "I'm guessing this is going to be your fist and last time contacting me, though?"
At the remainder, Goro let out a sigh. "Most likely. I do not want to bug anyone else about lending me their phone from now on- if only Sae were here, but regrettably, she's busy elsewhere. And sadly, as luxurious as the hotel is, the phones they provide in the rooms only connect to the lobby downstairs. Some level of technology they provide here, if you ask me."
"Not gonna lie, it sucks for sure- but eh, we'll live. I'm worried, though. You sure you'll be able to take care properly of yourself? Eat properly? Stay hydrated? I'd prepared a whole checklist of things I wanted to annoy you about every evening, but alas…it's gonna be for naught now."
The warmth in his chest spread further, and he found himself lamenting the fact that Ren's hard work had indeed gone to waste.
What he said, though, did not so much align with what he felt.
"I'm a grown ass man, Ren. I can handle myself, even if it doesn't usually seem like it. But…I appreciate the thought. And your effort, too, of course." Goro gripped the phone tighter in his hands, chewing his lower lip.
Words lay on his tongue; words he couldn't bring himself to say first-
"I'll miss you," Ren provided first, and Goro's shoulder sagged in relief.
"Me, too," he whispered, wondering why it was so much easier to be honest whenever they were talking through the phone, wondering why he couldn't be a tad more honest whenever he saw Ren for real. "I'll…miss your insufferable nagging."
"I know. And I'll miss your witty quips and snide remarks about your useless coworkers," Ren chuckled. "Hey, do try to befriend them, though. Maybe not the ape who stole your phone-" Goro snorted at that, "-but like, maybe someone else. You'll be lonely otherwise. I want you to have a good time there, yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah," Goro grumbled, seeing the ape approach him, knowing their time was up. "You know I don't like to socialize, though. And it's even less likely now, when my mood's been throughoutly ruined already."
Ren made a noise, but Goro quickly wanted to put an end to their call- not because he wanted to, but because he didn't want the monkey to overhear their conversation.
"Hey, I'll have to hang up now, but- uhm. See you soon? It's only a week. I'm sure it will pass by soon enough."
"If by that, you mean it'll pass by agonizingly slowly because my dear boyfriend won't be by my side, and now I won't even be able to hear him- sure. Yeah." Humor laced Ren's tone, but so did worry. "I mean it, though. Take care of yourself, okay?"
"I promise."
"Love you."
Goro swallowed, closing his eyes. "Me too."
And then, with a condescending hum, the one he'd gotten so used to hearing everyday, Ren hung up, and Goro let out a sigh, handing his annoying coworker his rightful belongings back.
Not without hissing a snide remark at him, reveling in satisfaction at the guilt tainting his face, though.
Goro knew it was going to be a tough week. But it was going to be even rougher without Ren by his side now, and he really wasn't looking forward to this now. He wasn't even sure why he'd agreed to come along in the first place, but Ren had witted an opportunity for him to get a raise if he did well here, so-
Yeah.
He hadn't told Ren that the reason he'd agreed in the end was less about the pay than what he wanted to do with the money after.
For now, though, his priorities lay differently than planned, and so, he got to work.