Chapter Text
Sometimes, the flock of birds that sat on the windowsill was enough to fill the curious mind of Goro Akechi. The uniqueness of each lowly pigeon was entertaining for his mind, or how many flew in on that specific morning. Concerned voices could be heard from across the room and into the hallway, bustling full of doctors and nurses following close behind. Akechi wasn’t fond of hospitals, not when almost his whole life he spent his days endlessly watching those tireless white walls.
Akechi shed a glance towards the hallway, nothing appealing catching his eyes, like always. Before he went back to his so-called bird watching, a certain male, maybe his age or a tad bit younger, walked by. A tall monitor he was holding onto was following him by his side, multiple wires attached to his arms and chest area. His black hair was truly another type of unruly, but a sudden urge hit Akechi to run his fingers through those black curls. Finally, the icing on the top, a large pair of glasses laid on his face. For some reason though, Akechi couldn’t tear his eyes off of him, not until the mystery person disappeared from his eyesight.
Akechi roughly shook his head, turning his head back towards his window. A beautiful sunset had formed behind the city buildings, but his mind was completely occupied by the mystery male to really appreciate it.
“Shit.” He whispered, to no one in particular. Akechi hated making friends. Especially in his condition, where friends didn’t come easy. Anyone he ever met in his short time in school eventually left him when they realized how sickly Akechi really was. Eventually, into his teen years, he had become extremely closed off. Anyone who tried to approach him, he would reply with a curt and, frankly, rude response. With that, no one really wanted to approach Akechi in any way.
Ever since Akechi’s mother died, his disgusting father took the liberty in keeping Akechi in the hospital. It's not because Shido cares for him, not in the slightest. Shido didn’t want Akechi. He was a liability, if Akechi were to quote him. Shido didn’t care what price he had to pay to keep Akechi in that hospital, he basically wanted nothing to do with him.
Although the constant boredom Akechi felt, it wasn’t his worst experience ever. He wasn’t completely bedridden like when he was younger, but the constant annoyance of having nurses come in and remind him to take his medicine was getting on his last nerve. He wasn’t a child, he knew it was a necessity to take his medication. The thought of them needing to remind him of his medication, was frankly, kind of insulting.
“Akechi-kun, I’ve brought you your dinner. Please try to eat it this time, you’ll need your strength for your next round of medication.”
One of his nurses entered his room, right on time like always. Akechi wasn't too fond of this nurse, Mika. Somehow, she was always so uptight, and with a sneak of condescending in her voice whenever she spoke.
He mostly hated how much she reminded him of himself.
“...Next round? What on earth are you talking about?”
The nurse left the tray of semi-lukewarm food on the bedside table, before handing him a small bag of toiletries.
“You were present when the doctor informed you in his office, correct? Your illness has gotten worse, Akechi-kun. Your doctor recommended you to start taking a stronger dose of your medication, where both you and your father agreed. You'll start in a few days, we’ll take you to the Recovery Unit to take it and stay for a few hours to make sure your body responds accordingly.” Mika offered a curt bow, before walking back into the hallway, getting lost in the sea of people slowly dwindling.
Akechi let out a scoff, before taking a glimpse towards the gross hospital food. He reached for the small bowl of fruits, that and the cool glass of water the only appetizing thing on the tray. Akechi picked slowly at the fruits, before picking up a strawberry and shoving it into his mouth half heartedly. If he was being honest, he had completely spaced throughout the whole meeting with his doctor.
It was always the same; his illness would make him worse, which caused his meds to be upped a significant amount. Truly an endless loop of his life, the constant beeping of the stupid machine that always loomed next to him, basically attached to him by the hip. His IV was attached to the god forsaken machine, just like the mystery guy he saw earlier. Sometimes, Akechi wanted to just rip off the wires connecting him to his IV and run into the forest nearby, but he knew they would find him quick enough. His stupid illness made him unbearably weak, and it's something he despised most. Just a few steps up a staircase and it had Akechi panting and huffing like some kind of dog.
He stole another glance towards his window, now seeing that the beautiful sunset was replaced by endless midnight sky and small twinkling lights as decoration to the pitch darkness. Akechi took this as his queue to finally get some shut-eye. Although this was much earlier than when he normally went to sleep — (that being close to four in the morning in some cases) — his body and brain were begging for him to close his eyes and let slumber consume him whole, and that's what he did. With the annoying and continuous beeping in his ear signaling he was still alive, he let his mind wander and finally succumbed to his slumber.
A few days passed by, once again being woken up like he had the previous nights, with the bright rays of sunlight hitting his eyes in the most unpleasant way he could imagine, rudely waking him up. He would’ve tried getting more sleep, if not for his first day taking his new medications. This has happened maybe one or two times since Shido placed him into this hospital, but this is the first time they have had to place him in the Recovery Unit for observation, so it must be they are upping his meds a lot more than usual. Probably a sign his overall health is getting worse, but the doctors aren’t making him aware yet. Even if it's painfully obvious to Akechi.
He sat up, slipping on his slides the other nurses gave to him. Akechi had no need to change, since this particular hospital let long term patients wear normal attire, just no useless accessories. He wore a pair of black sweats, and a dark blue shirt. Eventually, after a few minutes passed by, it finally hit 10:00 A.M, and the uptight nurse walked in with a clipboard, although not giving Akechi a mere glance.
She wavered near the door, looking over her papers before asking, “Goro Akechi… Are you ready?”
He stood up, slipping on a cardigan sitting idly on a nearby chair and walked towards the brown haired nurse. Mika nodded, her brown ponytail bobbing along, and she walked out the dimly lit room and into the long awaited hallway, Akechi following a few meters behind her. His stupid machine made it nearly impossible to follow her when the hallways were almost filled with other doctors, nurses, and patients.
They boarded the empty elevator down to the second floor, an irritating clicking sound coming from the pen of the stuck-up nurse. Maybe Akechi could find a way to remove the stick oh-so-far up her ass. Eventually, the painful ride in the elevator came to a stop, Mika stepping first. Her high heels clicked along with the beat of her steps as she walked, and Akechi was fairly certain those were a health hazard, especially as a nurse working in an active hospital.
Mika walked towards a double door near one of the back walls, grabbing her ID and scanning it, watching the once red light turn green. She pushed open the doors, and held up the door for Akechi, probably one of the nicest things she’s done for him during his stay. He walked through, carefully maneuvering the tall machine through with him. Akechi observed the area, spotting a few unfamiliar faces in different areas of the room. Seats were aligned along the wall, with a few also scattered in the middle area, surrounding a small coffee table filled with dated magazines. Seems like this is where he was going to be staying for the next hour or two.
“Sit anywhere, doesn’t matter to me. Someone will call you when you're ready to take your medication. I’ll be back in a few hours to take you back to your room, got it Akechi-kun?”
Akechi mused grimly, offering the fakest smile anyone has seen, but Mika could really care less. She walked past Akechi, the faintness of each clank of her heel against the cold tile indicating she was gone.
Akechi’s grip on his IV stand hardened, to the point where his knuckles turned visibly pale. He wasn’t good in social situations, especially since it”s been a while since he has been near anyone who wasn’t his nurses or his doctor. He walked over to an empty corner of the room, sitting down, to where his eyes started to wander to his phone in his pocket. Akechi sighed and begrudgingly reached for it, opening whatever mindless app to let time pass. He didn’t like to use his phone often, it felt like it was killing his mind every second he was on it, so he tried to limit his usage of it.
Another click of the double door was heard, to where two sets of footsteps walked in. He heard quiet murmuring, words to what Mika had told him a few moments earlier. After a few seconds, quiet footsteps walked away, indicating a new patient had arrived at the unit. Akechi didn’t care, not until he heard a pair of footsteps getting closer to him. Eventually, two black shoes appeared in his line of vision, and Akechi finally decided to look up.
It was the guy from the other day.
Although now, a nasal cannula now adorned his face. The unknown guy offered Akechi a short wave, before sitting right next to him.
“Howdy stranger.”
Akechi could almost feel the exact moment when he felt his face heating up. His hallway ‘crush’ was talking to him, and sitting right next to him too! Frankly, he felt a little stupid to be getting excited over something so trivial like this. That didn’t stop his sudden heartbeat to quicken, to the point he can actually hear right in his ears now.
“Hey…”
Even if Akechi wanted to talk to him, he couldn’t help but revolt back into his old habits, almost as if closing himself back into his own little shell.
“I’m Akira Kurusu. Think I’ve seen you around before… never had the actual courage to approach you though.” He — Kurusu — finished his sentence with a soft chuckle, and it felt like Akechi’s heart just did a somersault, and he hated it.
Akechi never felt emotions like this, especially not for some random stranger he had just met.
“Yeah hey, nice to meet you?” Akechi moved his hand towards Kurusu, where the other male took it into his own hand, a soft shake was shared between the two.
“Yeah, nice to meet ya stranger.” Kurusu replied, a hint of mischievousness in his voice.
“Oh right… Goro Akechi.”
“Well, Akechi, hope we are able to see each other more often now.” Kurusu ended his statement with a wink.
Akechi nodded quickly, before turning back to stare at anything other than the young male next to him.
Other people may have described Akechi as rude, but he didn’t see it that way. Akechi just hated interacting with people who didn’t spark his interest. In the long run, maybe that was rude, but somehow, Akira Kurusu of all people, had managed to capture that interest. With their incredibly long discussion about their beliefs on multiple vigilantes during the past decades, to something so trivial like their favorite places activities.
During these conversations, Akechi had learned many things about Akira Kurusu. For one, he learned that Kurusu was also hospitalized here for an undefined amount of time. Unlike Akechi though, Kurusu-kun had many of his friends visit him during his time. On special occasions, his nurses would even let his many friends stay the night. Akechi also learned that some of those friends came over a lot more than others; Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, and his (basically) adopted sister, Futaba Sakura. Continuing his friend list being Yusuke Kitagawa, Makoto Nijima, and Haru Okumura, although they were not able to visit much due to their personal lives taking over from time to time.
Akechi had also learned that Kurusu isn’t from Tokyo like he once believed. He came from a small, countryside town just a few hours away called Inaba, only coming to Tokyo because of its ‘great hospitals’.
Their conversation seemed to drag on forever, even after they both had been given their proper dosage of medication and stayed their extra hour to see any side effects. Just before the duo could get into any more engaging conversations, stupid Mika came in to ruin the moment.
“Akechi-kun, it's time to head back to your room, your lunch is already there as well.”
Akechi sighed, before nodding curtly towards the nurse and turning back to Kurusu.
“Seems like this is where we part ways, my handsome prince.” Kurusu placed a hand over his forehead to further insinuate his very dramatic point. Akechi rolled his eyes, but amused at the silly antics.
As Akechi arose from his seat, Kurusu suddenly yanked his hand.
“Hopefully we will be able to meet again, my young prince.” He broke character for a second, a chortle escaping his lips. Akechi nodded, a soft smile shimmered across his face. He was able to escape Kurusu’s grasp, and walked over to the very annoyed looking Mika.
As the pair walked out the Recovery Unit, Akechi glanced back into the hand that was once held by Kurusu’s own cold hands, seeing a crumpled up piece of paper in his grasp. As they arrive towards the elevator and they wait for its arrival from the other floors, Akechi decides to open the piece of paper.
floor 4, rm 307. lets meet up soon, k? :)
- AK <3
Akechi chuckled at his note, before realizing what room Kurusu actually resided in.
‘Same floor and the room is only 6 away from mine.’ Akechi thought, thinking how in the hell he had never noticed the black haired beauty. He shook his head, choosing to ignore that thought from his head for now.
He’d make sure to follow up on Kurusu’s request though. Much sooner than he’d liked to admit.