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Ankh was acting weird.
Well, he was always acting weird. He was Ankh. He was the definition of weird.
That said, Eiji was used to Ankh’s usual weirdness at this point - his constant perching, inability to sit like a normal person, using windows instead of doors, thinking that ice cream constituted for a normal meal and general prickly attitude. This was Ankh’s usual weirdness. Old story, by this point.
Now he was acting weird, even by Ankh’s own standards.
First of all, he was changing his outfits daily.
“He is definitely not getting his style from my brother’s brain,” Hina frowned, when Eiji asked her about it. “I don’t even know how he got those clothes. I hope he didn’t rob a clothes store.”
Now that was a frightening thought.
Also just what kind of store he robbed?! He definitely had an unique style to dress.
Also the hair.
Even though he always woke up with his hair sticking in different directions, Eiji had found Ankh multiple times in front of the mirror, preening his hair.
Come to think of it, he was doing it more and more these days.
But no, the preening wasn’t the weirdest new thing. Back on topic.
His outfit changes were getting out of hand.
Ever since he took over the body of Hina’s brother, he immediately changed some things about how he looked. Obviously. No doubt it was some weird, hair-magic thing. (Hina somewhat complained about it, saying that it was not fair, that Ankh’s hair was magically like that, as soon as he hopped back to Shingo’s body. Then Eiji told her about the preening. That kind of made Hina feel better.)
But it wasn’t just the hair - it was the makeup and the clothes, and he wouldn’t have been caught dead in outfits that weren’t standing out that much was sure.
Eiji didn’t quite get it - after all, Ankh was not human, sure, but one would think he had enough self-preservation to try to lay low. But no, absolutely not. And he had no regard to others recognizing the body he was inhabiting.
(Although Hina admitted that it was getting easier and easier to unsee her brother, when she looked at him. It was hard to not see Ankh, with the way his face was in a perpetual frown or a smirk.)
Ankh was absolutely turning heads wherever he went, even without his arm being present, and it wasn’t just because he was possessing a handsome man, and it was mostly because of how he was dressed, and carrying himself.
Which was always the case.
He liked red, that much was obvious - part of Eiji wondered. Who decided which Greeed had which color? They were all clearly color-coded. Did they get drawn to the color of their Core Medals? What decided which one of them would get which color? Was it the first OOO?
Anyway. Ankh was all about the color red, and he always had at least one item of clothing that was red. Which made sense.
The point was, Ankh always paid attention to his own outfits. Which was fine.
Not just outfits, but makeup as well, although Eiji had never seen Ankh apply makeup for himself. No, his preening seemed to have only focused on his hair. Did his magic extend to making himself have eyeliner and eyeshadow as well?
Well. Probably not that surprising, seeing as it did seem to include hair dye and an ungodly amount of hairspray, by the looks of it.
“I sometimes wonder how his hair feels,” Hina whispered one day, and Eiji blinked rapidly.
“Huh?!”
“I mean… the curly parts and straight parts and… if you were to style your hair like that your hair would get all stiff and sticky wouldn’t it? Between wax or gel or hairspray… but his hair just looks so soft.”
“I bet you don’t dare to touch it.”
Hina grinned up at Eiji, and meanwhile Gotou also looked up, obviously confused by their conversation
“Do you dare to?” She teased Eiji back.
“He has more reasons not to hurt me!”
“And I can make him not hurt me!”
“So! Go ahead! Touch it! Maybe they feel like feathers…”
“Now that just sounds weird. You made it weird!”
“It was already pretty weird,” Gotou said with abject horror in his voice.
“What are you three idiots prattling on about back there?” Ankh’s voice rang through the Cous Cousser, making them jump.
“Don’t lump me together with them!” Gotou objected, and Ankh just sneered.
All of this was all well and good. All of this was expected.
Slowly but surely… Ankh started to behave… weird.
Weirder than usual, that is.
He was going between outfits more and more often, and always bright colors, walking up and down, pacing relentlessly.
He had rings on his fingers, that he was tapping on the counter, making them cling loudly, and he seemed more and more impatient by the second.
“I hope you didn’t steal those.”
Ankh actually looked offended by that suggestion, eyes widening.
“What is it to you?! They are mine.”
“Do you maybe have a magpie medal too somewhere? Please never give me that. I don’t think it’d have any useful powers for me.”
“As if!” Ankh snapped, slamming his hands on the counter. “Just wait. Maybe I won’t ever give you any of my medals again.”
“Uh-huh. Even if I die?” Eiji grinned, leaning by the counter. “Then what will you do?”
Ankh seethed, before doing his little tsch thing, storming off.
Nobody could tsch like Ankh could, as annoying as it was.
Then came the scarves. A lot of red scarves, all wrapped around his neck, very obvious outfit, and he was glaring daggers at Eiji, as if daring him to say anything.
“I’m really happy you are trying to update your wardrobe,” Eiji sighed, looping the scarf around Ankh’s neck again. “Also, it’s cold outside. Makes sense you’d have a scarf. Is this you taking care of the body? Good job, then!”
Eiji grinned, giving Ankh a two-thumbs-up, and Ankh just… stared.
“Are you really this much of an idiot?!”
“...Huh?!”
“I couldn’t care less!” Ankh snapped, taking the scarf off from his neck, throwing it at Eiji, before storming off again.
“Something is weird about Ankh,” Eiji muttered to Hina, glancing out the window, and seeing Ankh perch on a tree again, eating ice cream. He was once again wearing a new jacket, and Eiji was pretty sure that those were a new pair of pants as well, with shiny boots.
“You tell me. He keeps eating this much ice cream when it’s cold outside, my brother’s body will get sick. Maybe it’d do him some good. A little sore throat.”
“Do you really want to deal with Ankh, when he is sick and can’t have ice cream?”
“...no,” Hina admitted. “But maybe it’d be character building.”
Eiji laughed to himself, looking out the window at Ankh again.
Ankh looked back at him, the two of them locking eyes for a bit - before Ankh sneered again, biting a chunk off from his ice cream.
“This would get so much easier if Ankh would use his words.”
That was a feeble wish, Eiji knew.
It was getting out of hand, though. It was getting to the point that Ankh was changing outfits every few hours.
When and how was he even changing his clothes? Eiji had no idea. Even though they shared a room, Ankh worked on some ungodly internal clock, and he never saw him change his outfits, basically. It just added to the uncanny quality he had, really.
Which was one thing when he just picked an outfit and walked around in that for a while. But now he just kept changing them and seemed more and more pissed off every time he did.
“He always seems to glare at me,” Eiji muttered.
“Maybe he wants you to notice them?”
“Yeah, I complimented him yesterday and he looked like he was about to throw a chair at me.”
“...you complimented him how?”
“I said he seems like getting the hang of this whole human-thing, with the different outfits.”
“...I think that was more of an insult for him, Eiji.”
“Ah, you are right,” Eiji sighed, wiping off the counter. “I just… get this feeling he expects something from me, and he’s just getting pissed off about it. I wish he would like… use his words.”
“Yeah, but if he would, he wouldn’t be Ankh anymore.”
“It doesn’t make it any less frustrating!
Especially because sharing a room with a grumpy bird Greeed was not good for the atmosphere either. Didn’t help that there were basically no activities these days. Eiji had the feeling that they were getting to the point that he’ll straight up hug and kiss Kazari when he goes off on his next scheme again. Maybe that’d distract Ankh from this impromptu fashion show he was doing daily.
Okay maybe he wouldn’t go that far. But he might actually thank Kazari if he’d distract them.
Maybe Ankh was just getting stir-crazy.
Yeah, maybe that was it.
Well, maybe he just had to find a way to distract Ankh.
“Ankh, come on. It’ll be fun.”
Ankh looked at him like Eiji had told him they were going to Dr Maki’s and his doll’s wedding.
“Taking me to a zoo is your idea of fun?”
“You can make fun of the tigers.”
“Why should I make fun of the tigers?”
“Imagine you are yelling at Kazari.”
Ankh scoffed, opening his ice cream, while walking towards the zoo’s entrance.
“Whatever. Sounds stupid.”
But hey. He was at least coming along, even if his outfit was stupidly flashy again. Sure, he was mainly wearing red, but his shirt was rainbow underneath his red jacket, and honestly, didn’t Eiji have a similar shirt, wait a minute.
“Am I influencing your fashion choices?”
“Tsch. Wouldn’t be caught dead the way you dress.”
“You know, for someone who isn’t human you really care a lot about your appearance. None of the others we had seen in human form seemed to really care much about it.”
“That’s on them. This is on me.”
“Would it hurt you to actually answer?”
“Do you plan on just annoying me all day long? Because we could have done that without coming here as well.”
Eiji was this close to strangling Ankh, honestly. Would strangling a bird in the middle of a zoo be ironic or just stupid?
Anyway.
Ankh didn’t say much, but Eiji did catch a moment of him sticking his tongue out at a tiger.
Hah. Knew it.
When they reached the aviary, Ankh just stood in front of it, eyes gazing over the entrance.
When he first used the TaJaDor combo, and the wing appeared and shattered, Ankh’s face–
“Hey. If you don’t wanna go in, we don’t have to,” Eiji hesitated, before putting a hand on Ankh’s shoulder. “There’s gonna be a seal show soon, I think.”
“Who cares,” Ankh sneered, before looking back at Eiji, glaring daggers at him. “Do not pity me.”
“Oh I wouldn’t,” Eiji chuckled, making himself grin a little. “You are too much of a nasty piece of work to pity, really.”
“Good,” Ankh seemed delighted, before stretching his neck a little. “Let’s go.”
The good news was, that Eiji didn’t have to pry Ankh down from any high place inside the aviary. Part of him was afraid that it’d happen.
The bad news was, he did try to steal birdseed from some kids to feed birds.
Eiji didn’t even know what he expected.
Eiji did get some birdfood, and he just sat on a bench while Ankh stood over a little pond, throwing the food into the water, making the birds flock around him, with ice cream in his other hand. Eiji had seen those birds be very relentless before, and there were warning signs, but it almost seemed like the birds around Ankh… respected him, almost, waiting for whatever he’d throw for them.
Maybe they could recognize a kindred spirit?
Eiji remembered Ankh’s rainbow wing, thought of his rainbow shirt now, and wondered.
Wondered if he’d ever see Ankh fly.
Wouldn’t that be a bad thing? Part of Eiji had been dreading Ankh fully regenerating. Ankh had been… Ankh. And yet. And yet, when the birds flew around Ankh, and Eiji saw Ankh’s expression softening, Eiji wished he could see both of his wings, and him getting to soar up to the sky.
“Eiji! We need more birdfood! Get me some more!”
…nevermind, Ankh was supremely annoying.
“So, Ankh enjoyed the zoo?”
“You know what, I think he did.”
Hina was scrolling through the footage Eiji recorded - she absolutely made Eiji promise to take pictures and videos about Ankh in the zoo.
Eiji hadn’t used phones regularly for a long time, and he wasn’t used to them now either, but Hina insisted.
The doors opened and Ankh walked in - actually using the doors.
That was always unusual, but compared to Ankh’s behavior lately, this was almost expected. Especially as he did have a new outfit to go with.
He was wearing a red longcoat, with black hems, and it was floating behind him, two scarves around his neck.
Ankh looked stunning.
And he was glaring daggers at Eiji.
At least that didn’t change.
Ankh stretched his neck, before walking through the diner, striding towards the attic - then turned back, his coat flying around him, and glaring at Eiji again, as if expecting something from him.
“I uh… nice coat?”
Judging from the way Ankh’s eyes widened, and the way he clenched his teeth it was not the right answer.
Ankh then spun around again, his coat almost doing an offended swing behind his back, and he disappeared to the attic with a tsch.
As per usual.
Eiji sighed.
“Really, I have no idea what’s up with him these days.”
“...uhm…”
Eiji turned towards Hina, as she was staring at the phone in her hand.
“What.”
“I… look!”
Hina turned the screen towards Eiji, and he looked at the device.
“...you know, I recorded this video.”
“Look!”
Eiji sighed, and looked at the video he himself recorded earlier that day. It was about Ankh walking next to a pair of peacocks in the zoo, looking at the birds. One of the peacocks had his tail feathers opened, facing the other one, showing off his beautiful colors.
Ankh looked at them, almost like judging what he was seeing, before taking a bite out of his ice cream.
“Well, I found this funny. You know. One of his medal types is peacock…”
“Yeah! Don’t you see?! Isn’t this familiar to you?”
“...huh…?”
Then it clicked.
The colorful clothes. The way his longcoat flew behind him, and he almost seemed like… showing it off.
Just like that peacock at the zoo.
…of course. He was kind of a bird, after all.
“...he’s flirting?! But… who–?”
Just as Hina looked at him like he grew a second head, the words got stuck in Eiji’s throat.
“...oh. Ooooooh…”
Eiji stormed into the attic, and almost tripped in the coat that was thrown to the floor. Eiji leaned down, taking it into his hands, before looking around - Ankh was curled up in his nest, and didn’t even acknowledge Eiji’s presence.
He was positively sulking.
“Really, Ankh. This coat is really nice. You should take care of it better.”
Ankh was still ignoring him, and Eiji sighed, putting the coat down on his bed.
“...really. You could use your words, you know.”
Eiji moved, walking closer to Ankh’s nest, pushing himself up on it, leaning over Ankh. Ankh’s eyes widened, his lips moved into a sneer, but before he could have bitten out any words, Eiji grabbed Ankh’s right hand, pressing a kiss to his palm.
Ankh’s clawed hand twitched, and Eiji’s lips moved down to his wrist.
“You do have the detective’s brain at your disposal, don’t you? You could use his knowledge at times like this especially, instead of your birdbrain.”
“What are you e—”
Eiji didn’t let him finish, because leaned down, kissing Ankh.
Part of Eiji was prepared to be kicked off from the nest, landing extremely painfully, probably.
Instead, Ankh grabbed his shoulders, yanking him even closer, and kissed him back, furiously, and Eiji’s brain kind of short circuited.
Ankh kissed him back like he was starving, his clawed hand holding Eiji like he was afraid Eiji would change his mind, and leave.
Eiji had been kissed before, but he definitely hadn’t been kissed like that, like Ankh wanted to never let him go, like he couldn’t get enough of this kiss, enough of Eiji.
And Eiji didn’t want to let him go either, that was the truth of the matter. He didn’t want to let go of Ankh, even when his teeth scraped his lips, even when his claws were sinking into his skin, and even that small, painful sensation was sending electric shivers down on his spine, and it made Eiji gasp into the kiss, and Ankh just chased his mouth, not letting the kiss end.
Eiji didn’t want to pull away, but they couldn’t keep the kiss going forever. He was trying to catch his breath, and Ankh’s eyes—
It was inexplicable, as if Ankh wanted to say something, but unable to find words, or—
Well. Ankh was never the best at using his words, was he?
Eiji smiled, running his fingers over Ankh’s hair - huh. It was surprisingly soft.
Ankh frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He leaned down, pressing a kiss to Ankh’s neck - and he felt Ankh shiver under his touch, gasp, and Eiji smiled into Ankh’s skin, and he just—
No.
Deep breaths.
He stopped that train of thought.
Instead he reached out, taking Ankh’s right hand again, pressing a kiss to Ankh’s wrist, which made Ankh’s fingers twitch, his clawed fingers curling slightly.
“...are you dumb?”
“What?” Eiji blinked at Ankh. “This is your hand, isn’t it?”
“...tsch.”
Ankh yanked his hand out from Eiji’s grip, before wrapping his arms around Eiji, pulling him back close, turning themselves to the side, so Eiji’s back was to the back of the nest - Ankh didn’t lean in for another kiss, just held Eiji there, firmly, possessively, not willing to let him go.
“You really could use your words, you know.”
Ankh was quiet, and all Eiji could hear and feel was his deep breaths.
Eiji sighed, before closing his eyes, and let himself be held by Ankh. He knew there was a very real chance that Ankh will viciously deny any of this was of any importance. Maybe he’ll brush it off as him just poking at weird things humans do, and not like he wanted to kiss Eiji anymore. Or even if he wanted to kiss Eiji, not like that meant like he cared.
What a nasty piece of work.
But Eiji was getting the hang of dealing with him, by this point. And no matter how much Ankh was denying, biting, sneering and tsch-ing all over the place, Eiji couldn’t simply brush off the possessiveness Ankh held him with. How he was unwilling to let him go, and didn’t kick him out of his nest. To the contrary, actually.
So. Tomorrow was a different beast, and with Ankh, you really had to take it one day at a time.
So Eiji just closed his eyes with a smile, taking a deep breath, thinking of rainbow wings, claws holding him tight, soft hair under his fingers, and a kiss that probably tasted too much like strawberry ice cream.
Whatever was that tomorrow brought.