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They move quickly and steadily through the shadows barely making a sound. Everything was cast in darkness in the late hour of the night. Atsushi and Akutagawa had started searching through the buildings in the district their investigations had led them to.
When sound was heard from one of the buildings to their right; they moved in unison. Cloaked in darkness in the still of the night, with the city sleeping behind them, the job was finished skillfully and without any delay.
Atsushi had noticed his partner's moves becoming sluggish. Akutagawa didn't usually need to move much while taking somebody down so there wasn't much to take notice of, except Atsushi saw how his head tilted slower to the side, or how he lifted his arm slightly less high than usual when commanding Rashomon. Something he only could catch by month's worth of missions they had done by each other's side.
When they finally knocked out all of their enemies and were no longer in any immediate danger, was when Atsushi could turn to his partner.
He took a few steps towards Akutagawa and put a hand on his forehead, which caught the man off guard.
Atsushi gasped, brows furrowing. "You're burning up!"
"It's nothing to worry ab-" he started turning away.
"When did it start?" Atsushi ignored the other rebuttal and questioned further. Drawing his hand back from Akutagawa's forehead and instead held onto his elbow.
"I…" He couldn't not tell Atsushi the truth when he was looking at him with that look in his eyes. Such honest concern for his well-being was exuding from the weretiger and he don't know what to do with himself.
"This morning." He answered briefly.
Atsushi opened his mouth and prepared to scold him. Considering they had been staking out their mission location since 3 in the morning. And even before that, they'd exchange quick messages through text to make sure they were acting in coherence.
"Why didn't you say anything? We could have had someone else jump in for you instead."
He brought up his free hand to the mafioso's warm cheek. It was unsure if the heat came from the aforementioned fever or a newly occurred blush that Atsushi's action brought on.
"It wasn't that bad, it only got worse now." Akutagawa was striving to soothe the worried look on Atsushi's face, he didn't like how worried he looked when there really wasn't anything to worry about, in his opinion. The words only helped a little.
"Are you free from work right now?" Atsushi slowly stroked his cheek with his thumb.
"I have to meet a few new recruits this evening." He answered honestly. Gazing down into the weretiger bright coloured eyes. Looking and seeking something in them like he did every time he looked into those eyes.
"Cancel it, please. Take a sick day, Ryuu."
Akutagawa was a bit shocked at the weretiger speaking his mind so bluntly, it wasn't often he got this direct. It made him a bit perplexed, he didn't take sick leave from work since he pretty much usually always felt terrible and he also wasn't completely sure that was something he could do while in the mafia .
The nickname he had called him by, on the other hand, filled his chest with a different kind of warmth than the one coming from his fever. It made him wrap his arms around the man in front of him and rest his forehead against his.
Atsushi moved his hand on his arm up and down in a soothing motion. He watched Akutagawa's eyes slowly close.
"I'm tired." He hummed under his breath and whispered so silently it could barely be heard.
Only Atsushi would be witness to Akutagawa's self-proclaimed moments of "weakness" and he was always happy to be the one the mafioso could rely on.
Completely ignorant of the men laying passed out on the ground by their feet, Atsushi leaned in and brushed his lips against Akutagawa's. They were in their own little bubble. Separate from the outside world.
The mafioso's face followed after Atsushi when he pulled back, just to get another kiss. It made the weretiger giggle and he happily kissed him back.
He pulled away again a moment later.
"Let's go home, Aku."
—
When they got back to Atsushi's apartment Akutagawa got changed into more comfortable clothes he borrowed from Atsushi. A simple white t-shirt and grey pyjama pants.
While Akutagawa was changing in the bathroom, Atsushi quickly rummaged through his closet to set up his futon in the corner by the wall and pull out all the extra blankets he currently owned.
Some of them had been gifts from Akutagawa when he complained about how cold it was in his apartment at night. It was a compromise from just getting Atsushi a new apartment, which Akutagawa wanted since he disliked the weretigers living conditions and thought he deserved better.
Atsushi luckily talked him out of it since they only had been dating for a week and buying your partner a whole living space wasn't something you usually did so early on in a relationship.
Probably. Atsushi didn't have any first-hand experience and the examples around him are possibly not the best to go off of.
Along with the blankets to keep him warm, Akutagawa had also gifted him a small and efficient heater, which he now quickly got set up by the bed for them.
When Akutagawa exited the bathroom in Atsushis newly changed clothes he got taken by the hands and pulled onto the pile of blankets on top of the bed. He immediately got cocooned by Atsushi with 3 or so fluffy pieces of cloth to keep him warm.
"How are you feeling, Aku?"
"Hmmph." Akutagawa was sick and he did not enjoy it, but he did not say that out loud. His throat felt like sandpaper, his nose was stuffed and on top of that, he probably had a fever too.
"I got these for you and now you're using them on me." The stuffiness of Akutagawa's nose could be heard when he spoke.
Atsushi smiled at him and put the back of his hand against Akutagawa's forehead to check his temperature. It was warmer than Atsushi would have liked.
"You need them more than I do at the moment." He answered and frowned when a visible shiver coursed through Akutagawa. He quickly reached over to turn on the heater and then stood and headed the other way to boil some water.
Akutagawa stayed silent as Atsushi brought him a hot cup of tea and some cold medicine he had dug up from under the counter. He was in a sort of daze from the fever and mindlessly finished his cup before handing it over to the weretiger.
Atsushi put away the cup and came back to tuck in his sick guest.
"Try to fall asleep, Aku." He helped Akutagawa lean down and laid his head on the pillow. Akutagawa just hummed and let Atsushi handle him however he wanted.
He felt safe enough to let his guard down and let Atsushi take care of him. The weretiger being here was the main reason for making him feel safe.
Before Atsushi could move out of the way to tuck the cover over Akutagawa. Something lashed out from under the covers and wrapped itself tightly around his waist multiple times.
The initial panic disappeared when Atsushi looked down and saw the familiar sight of his partner's ability. Akutagawa must have transferred it to his pyjama shirt when he was changing. The man in question was currently too out of it to notice Rashomon’s actions.
The black tendrils of cloth around Atsushis waist wouldn't let him move further away and it made Atsushi huff in fondness. He had gotten accustomed to Akutagawa's unbeknown clinginess by now.
Atsushi sat down by the pillow and leaned his back on the wall behind him and pulled the covers over the sick man and also his legs. Akutagawa must have sensed him sitting down because he turned and nuzzled his face into Atsushis' hip. Steady breaths came out of the resting man's mouth.
Atsushi's hand came down to brush Akutagawa's scalp and the other patted Rashomon above his stomach. The ability wiggled slightly at the contact. Atsushi liked to imagine it was a happy wiggle.
He wasn't afraid of getting sick from cuddling Akutagawa. His control over his ability’s healing capacity extended to colds and fevers. So he could cuddle his sick boyfriend as close as he wanted and they didn't need to worry about anything at all.
The weretiger stayed seated til his head started to dip from drowsiness. He shuffled under the covers, threw an arm over Akutagawa's blanket cocoon and fell asleep with a head under his chin and a face pressed into his neck.
Outside of the little apartment where the mafioso and weretiger slept, the world was just waking up for the day.
They would come back to it when they were ready.