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Chapter Text

The thing about it was that, if you had asked Atsushi before it happened, he would have guessed that having your arm and leg ripped off would be an overwhelming experience. The kind of experience where you would not be likely to notice or care about anything else happening to you.

That was not how it went, though.

It went something like this: Atsushi was being moved. He was vaguely aware, through the blaze of pain engulfing his two no-longer-there limbs, of who was moving him and how. And then he was upright and there was just enough time to remember that what vampires want most is necks and I have a neck right there and think some vague delirious nonsense like I wonder if it’s a decent neck for vampires before Akutagawa bit him.

Nothing else mattered. All that mattered was the two points on Atsushi’s neck where Akutagawa’s fangs had broken skin and the way it felt like he could feel them piercing all the way through his shoulder. All that mattered was the way his nerves lit up and sent a meteor shower down along his spine and into the ends of his fingers.

And Atsushi had lost a lot of blood in his life, but he’d never felt anything like the way every drop of the blood moving through his veins and seeping from his neck felt like it was pulsing. Atsushi’s heart was everywhere and every time it beat, Akutagawa’s teeth reverberated and sank deeper into Atsushi’s neck.

The feeling was omnipotent. Atsushi forgot about everything else – his injuries and the plan and the one order and the book – and only thought about how his blood was pooling in Akutagawa’s mouth and running down towards his collarbone.

And then Akutagawa dropped him. Abruptly. Atsushi hit his head and tasted pavement and felt very suddenly alone.

All things considered, it was probably a good idea to pass out.

***

Akutagawa woke up stumbling. He landed hard on one knee and asphalt bit into the heel of one hand.

He looked up, trying to get his bearings. He was outside. This was an airport. An airport that looked like it had seen better days.

There were three people standing in front of him. One was very pale and absurdly tall. One was the detective agency’s only real detective. One was a small girl.

The girl saw him fall and said, “are you ok? Bram-chan, is he going to be ok?”

“Ah, right,” Ranpo said. “I suppose we’ll want that one back as well.”

The tall man glanced at Akutagawa. “Done,” he said. “Though he doesn’t need me to do anything. Eat something you shouldn’t have, kinsman?”

Akutagawa sat all the way on the ground. He was dizzy and his whole body was buzzing.

“Be nice, Bram-chan,” the girl said, leaning over Akutagawa. “He saved me, remember?” She put a hand on his forehead like she was checking for a fever. Akutagawa hissed. “Will he be ok?” she asked again.

“He’ll be fine. He’s metabolizing.”

“So, I think we have a deal,” Ranpo said. He and the tall man exchanged a few more agreements that Akutagawa could barely follow and then Ranpo looked at Akutagawa again. “Where’d you leave him?”

“What?”

“Nevermind, I’ll deal with it.”

The world faded halfway out for a while. At some point Akutagawa was dragged and propped up against something as the little girl chattered something about music. Far off in the distance, someone was screaming.

Gradually the world stopped spinning and normal feeling returned to Akutagawa’s body, along with a host of jumbled memories.

He was alone. He was sitting on the ground and leaning against a–was that the broken half of a table?

He was very tired. He was also pretty sure he was waiting for someone. He closed his eyes and focused on sorting through the memories.

Someone was running. Someone was also shouting his name. It took a minute for Akutagawa to realize that they were the same person. He opened his eyes again.

Atsushi skidded to a stop in front of him.

“Hello,” Akutagawa said, and then, “weretiger, get off.”

“No,” Atsushi said, crawling on top of him. He grasped Akutagawa’s chin and tilted his neck one way, and then the other.  

“Stop it,” Akutagawa said, not trying to pry him off. He was too tired.

“You’re really not dead,” Atsushi said.

“Obviously.”

Atsushi settled himself sideways on Akutagawa’s lap and then, bafflingly, started playing with a strand of Akutagawa’s hair. “So…are we going to do it again?” he asked.

“I certainly wasn’t planning on it,” Akutagawa said, thinking about steel in his throat.

Atsushi withdrew his hand and folded his arms. “Fine, if that’s how you feel about it.”

“Of course that’s how I feel about it,” Akutagawa said. “Do you think I do that kind of thing for fun, weretiger?”

Atsushi’s lower lip started trembling and his eyes were suddenly very wet.

“What’s happening,” Akutagawa said.

“You don’t have to be so mean,” Atsushi burst out. “I was really hurt that you left like that, but I was trying to give you a chance to make it up, but you really don’t care at all.”

“You are not making sense,” Akutagawa said, thinking that Atsushi was being more incomprehensible than usual. “I did it for you, you idiot.”

Atsushi started bawling.

“You can’t just do that to someone and then leave,” he wailed. He buried his face in Akutagawa’s shirt.

Akutagawa thought that maybe it was best to let him cry it out, whatever this was. He rested his chin on Atsushi’s head and went back to trying to organize his memories.

Atsushi’s sobs slowed after a bit. He hiccupped. “It was so scary,” he said quietly. “You were dead, and then you were back but you were different, and then we were fighting, and then you—you—” He hiccupped again. “Maybe it didn’t mean anything to you but it meant a lot to me—I’ve never done that before—”

“Of course it mattered to me,” Akutagawa said. “I died.”

Atsushi jerked his head back and stared at him. “That’s not what I’m talking about!”

“Then I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t…remember?”

It was occurring to Akutagawa that he had not known what Atsushi was talking about this entire time. This was embarrassing for both of them, probably. He thought about it and decided it should be more embarrassing for Atsushi, who was not currently recovering from being a vampire.

“Explain yourself,” he said. “What are you crying on me about?”

Atsushi blushed bright red under the tear tracks and snot on his face.

Before he could say anything, a voice called, “Atsushi! Where are you?”

Atsushi didn’t say anything back. The voice shouted again.

“Someone’s calling you,” Akutagawa said.

Atsushi narrowed his eyes at him. Then he stood up and shouted back, “I’m over here!”

***

Akutagawa tried to stand up when Kunikida found them. He ended up having to lean on Atsushi, which would have made Atsushi want to laugh if he hadn’t been so angry with him.

But he would tell an adult, that’s what he would do, he would tell Kunikida and Akutagawa would get in trouble for being so cruel and then he’d see the error of his ways and maybe they would get to do it again. That’s what would happen.

“There you are,” Kunikida said. “We have a lot of cleanup to do.”

Atsushi said, with as much emphasis as he could muster, “Kunikida-san, Akutagawa did stuff to me and then dropped me on the ground and he says he doesn’t remember but he left me all alone and it made me sad.”

Kunikida said “define stuff, Atsushi.”

Atsushi scuffed at the pavement. “You know. Private stuff.”

Kunikida looked at Akutagawa. “Young man, is this true?” he asked.

Akutagawa was trying to push himself away from Atsushi but kept stumbling and having to lean again. Atsushi was very kindly obliging him. “I have no idea what he’s talking about,” he said.

“Lies are unappealing,” Kunikida said coldly.

“I’m not lying,” Akutagawa said.

“I would have expected better,” Kunikida said. “Aren’t you Chuuya’s subordinate? I thought he was doing a better job.”

“I am not lying—”

Kunikida’s phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, sighed the heaviest sigh Atsushi had ever heard, and answered it. “What.”

The person on the other end started to talk, but Kunikida cut them off. “One minute.” He covered the speaker and said, looking at Akutagawa, “I don’t remember saying you could go anywhere.”

Akutagawa, who had extended one Rashomon tendril, retracted it and glowered.

“Do you want to sit down?” Atsushi asked him.

Akutagawa pointedly turned away from him and made himself something resembling an awkward perch out of his ability.  

“Resume,” Kunikida said into the phone. There was a pause. “No, I haven’t.”

Then, “No.”

Then, “Aren’t you connected to his heartbeat?”

The response to that made Kunikida grimace. “Okay,” he said. “In exchange, your people take over here. Mine are all…” he glanced at Atsushi, “…distracted.”

There was an affirmative noise from the phone. Kunikida took it from his ear, put it on speaker, and dialed another number.

It rang several times before someone picked up.

“Kunikida-kuuuuun,” Dazai said. “Did you miss me? Fair warning, you have about nine minutes before I have to go—unless you want to stay on the line, that would be ok—”

“You’re on conference with Ango,” Kunikida said.

“Well, I suppose he could stay on too, we’re in a generous mood—OW—”

“No one checked in like I asked you to,” Ango said. “Nor did you answer my call.”

“What are you talking about, I practically gave you a play by play—”

“I disconnected that,” Ango said. “It was getting disgusting. I gave Chuuya that phone so you could report in when it was over and we could discuss any needed assistance.”

“And I said fuck that,” another voice cut in. “The port mafia is coming to get us, you can go away.”

“I would still like to discuss plans to debrief,” Ango said.

“I don’t work for you, that sounds like it is not my problem—”

“Chuuya,” Dazai said, “he’s just jealous.”

“He better be,” Chuuya said, “I know what he’s been doing for weeks. Asshole wouldn’t pass anything along.”

Atsushi leaned over to Akutagawa and whispered, “do you have any idea what’s going on?”

Akutagawa shook his head.

“I know,” Dazai said, soothingly. “He did the same thing to me—”

“Excuse me,” Kunikida said. “Could we all focus on the issue at hand, please?”

“Don’t worry, Kunikida-kun,” Dazai said, “I tried to talk to you too, but he wouldn’t let me.”

“I am not a mail currier!” Ango snapped. “Government technology and employee time is not to be misappropriated—”

“Oh, but when the government employee himself does it, it’s fine—”

“Enough!” Kunikida roared. “Ango, are you satisfied with your answer?”

“No,” Ango said stiffly. “I will work with the port mafia to arrange a debrief, and—”

“And you don’t need to be whining on my phone to do that,” Kunikida said, hitting something on the phone. Ango went silent.

“You hang up on him,” Chuuya said. “You really should stay on the line.”

“I have something else to discuss with you,” Kunikida said, voice clipped. “One of my men is reporting that one of your subordinates took advantage of him.”

There was a brief silence.

“Kunikida-kun, that’s not very fun,” Dazai said, sounding a little dejected.

“Shut it, mackerel,” Chuuya said. “You serious?”

“Unfortunately,” Kunikida responded. “I am extremely disappointed in the standards at the port mafia if this behavior is considered acceptable.”

“It isn’t,” Chuuya said. “What happened?”

“Atsushi, here,” Kunikida said, holding out the phone at him.

Akutagawa lunged at it instead. “The weretiger is making things up,” he said, holding the speaker very close to his face. “I did not do that—”

“Yes you did!” Atsushi screeched, crowding him so he could reach it, too. “You did that to me and then you left me on the ground—”

“Both of you, stop shouting,” Chuuya cut in. “Akutagawa, you know better than that.”

“Chuuya-san,” Akutagawa said miserably, “I really don’t know what he’s talking about. I’ve been a vampire since I died.”

“You what?” Dazai said.

“He isn’t anymore,” Atsushi responded quickly, “he looks normal now.”

“Kid,” Chuuya said, “tell us what actually happened.”

Atsushi looked at Kunikida, who nodded at him; he looked at Akutagawa, who was staring at the ground. He could not look at Dazai or Chuuya because they were on the phone.

“He bit me,” he said. “On my neck. It felt really nice. And then he dropped me and when I woke up I didn’t know where he was.”

“I did?” Akutagawa said, quietly.

“Is that,” Kunikida said slowly, “all?”

“Yeah,” Atsushi said. No one was saying anything. “Why are you all looking at me?”

Dazai started laughing. “Atsushi-kun,” he said, “We all thought you were talking about sex.”

“But—I am?”

There was another silence.

“Okay,” Chuuya said, “now I have some questions about agency standards for sexual education.”

“This is not my fault,” Kunikida insisted, looking, for some reason, quite red.

“I think he raises a good point,” Dazai said. “Do vampire bites count as sex? I think we should investigate that, maybe with some fake ones—hey, that hurts—”

“I’m going to consider this matter closed,” Kunikida said, taking the phone back and ending the call. He looked at Atsushi. “I’m going to go tell the others we’re exempt from clean up duty. You can find your own way back.”

He left.

Atsushi tried to figure out what had gone wrong.

“Well,” he said after a minute, “I guess I should go—”

Rashomon spun out around them, enclosing both of them in a kind of bubble. Atsushi looked at Akutagawa.

“My memories of that time have been slow to come back,” Akutagawa said.

“Okay.”

“I did not remember what you were talking about until you said it.”

“Oh,” Atsushi said. He was afraid he was going to cry again. “Okay. Can you just let me go?”

Akutagawa leaned forward and put his mouth on Atsushi’s neck.

This time, it was soft. Atsushi shivered.

“Does this still feel nice?” Akutagawa said against his skin.

Atsushi tried to say something but it didn’t come out as words.

Akutagawa bit him. He didn’t have fangs anymore, but Atsushi still felt like his whole body had been showered in sparks. He made another noise.

Akutagawa threaded his fingers through Atsushi’s hair. Atsushi thought he might faint.

“No,” Akutagawa said, catching his elbow with his other hand when Atsushi’s knees buckled just a little bit. “I’m still tired.”

“I was so lonely,” Atsushi whispered.

Akutagawa kissed his cheek. Then he climbed onto his back. The Rashomon bubble disintegrated.

“Go find a closed room in that airport,” Akutagawa said, draping his arms around Atsushi’s neck and wrapping his legs around his waist. “One that locks.”

“What?” Atsushi said. He felt like his head was filled with fog.

 Akutagawa nipped him just below the corner of his jaw. Atsushi started walking. Then he started walking faster.

Chapter Text

Atsushi was having a hard time focusing. He was standing in the middle of the airport terminal looking for a room. So far he had not found one. He was having difficulty remembering where one might be.

Akutagawa kicked his shin.

"Stop doing that," Atsushi said.

"Stop stopping, then," Akutagawa said. Then he put his teeth around Atsushi's earlobe. This was the sort of behavior that was causing the trouble focusing.

"You could walk and look for yourself," Atsushi said, thinking that he sounded way more breathless than he should after just carrying Akutagawa around.

Akutagawa shifted, and for a moment Atsushi thought he might actually get down, but he just switched his attentions to the other side of Atsushi's neck. Atsushi bent it a little to help.

"That's really, ah, distracting," he said as Akutagawa kissed his way up under his jaw.

"Find a space so you can put me down, then," Akutagawa said.

Okay. Atsushi could do this. He looked around. Perhaps an office of some kind. No – there was a door over there, in the corner. A storage closet? Whatever. He started towards it.

Akutagawa licked him.

This was getting unacceptable. Atsushi couldn't pay him back in kind, so he dug his fingernails into Akutagawa's thighs where he was holding him up.

Akutagawa moaned lasciviously directly into Atsushi's ear. Neither of them moved. Atsushi went hot all over.

"Hurry up," Akutagawa breathed.

Atsushi went for the door. He tried the handle. "It's locked," he said.

"Good," Akutagawa said. "Now—"

Atsushi transformed a leg and kicked the door in.

The space inside was very full of what looked like decommissioned security equipment, including a conveyer belt for screening luggage. Atsushi set Akutagawa down on it and then turned around and looked at him.

"The door," Akutagawa said, eyes pinned to Atsushi's mouth. "The door, weretiger, you broke the lock, that was the whole point."

"Oh," Atsushi said. "I'll just block it—"

Before he could move, Rashomon had slammed the door shut and shoved a pile of bins in front of it.

Akutagawa seized Atsushi's shirt and pulled him closer. "Your turn," he said.

Atsushi kissed him just above the collarbone. Akutagawa sighed.

Atsushi moved up his throat, entranced by the feeling of each plane of Akutagawa's skin under his mouth and how he could continually mold his lips to meet them. When he reached the hard line of his jaw, he closed his lips over it and sucked just a little. Akutagawa sighed again, deeper, and his arms lolled over Atsushi's shoulders.

When Atsushi felt he'd explored both sides of Akutagawa's neck just as thoroughly as his had been, he pulled back and said, "Now what?"

"Hmm?" Akutagawa had somehow wound up with one hand tangled in Atsushi's hair and the other framing his face. His thumb ran along Atsushi's cheekbone. Atsushi leaned into the touch but said nothing else; when the silence lasted a moment, Akutagawa said, "What do you mean, now what?"

"I don't know what happens next," Atsushi said.

"Traditionally, I think whatever you want to happen."

"Oh." Atsushi felt rudderless. "Can you start again?"

A line formed between Akutagawa's eyebrows. "We're in here because of you in the first place," he said.

"That's not true or fair," Atsushi argued. "You got on my back and told me to."

"You asked me to bite you."

"Not...not exactly!" Atsushi knew that was a lie. But the truth felt too embarrassing to talk about.

"Weretiger," Akutagawa said. "Do you want to have an idiotic argument or do you want to kiss me?"

"The second one," Atsushi mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Mm, what? I couldn't hear you."

You're so annoying, Atsushi thought. He didn't have time to say it before he put his mouth on Akutagawa's.

He thought he could feel Akutagawa's lips smiling against his, and that was annoying, too. Atsushi wanted all of his attention here, on what he was doing. He opened his mouth a little and bit down into Akutagawa's lower lip. Akutagawa made a noise that sounded very much like a small gasp and Atsushi felt triumphant.

Until Akutagawa returned the favor, dragging Atsushi's lip between his teeth and moving his head away just enough that it pulled a little, and Atsushi was so, so lost. He wanted to be closer. All he could think to do was wrap his arms, which had been sort of loosely braced on the conveyer belt, around Akutagawa's torso and hold on to him.

Akutagawa's hand tightened in his hair and his fingernails scratched lightly against the nape of his neck. Atsushi kissed him harder.

This went on for what could have been any number of minutes. Atsushi was only thinking about the heat of Akutagawa's mouth and how every nerve ending in his body seemed to be currently present in his lips.

Akutagawa broke away at last, but only to pepper kisses across Atsushi's cheek. At which point Atsushi realized that he was growing a little tired of standing and leaning.

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Akutagawa said as Atsushi attempted to climb on top of him. The conveyer belt creaked as if to agree with him.

Atsushi wound a finger in Akutagawa's hair and paused, one knee up on the conveyer belt and the rest of his weight still balanced on his other foot. "The floor, then?"

Akutagawa's brow furrowed. "Gross. Do you know what airport floors are like?"

Atsushi looked. It mostly seemed dusty to him. He didn't mind dust. And he'd already ripped his clothes ragged by transforming today, so—

Atsushi drew back a bit and shifted so that he was standing between Akutagawa's legs. He braced Akutagawa’s back with one hand and shoved the other beneath his thigh.

"Excuse me—" Akutagawa started. Atsushi kissed him again to shut off the protests and then lifted. He held Akutagawa against himself and then sank to the floor, landing on his knees with Akutagawa balanced on his lap, legs rather sprawling out.

"Here," Atsushi said. "Look, you're not touching it."

"Unbelievable," Akutagawa said. "Reporting me to our superiors and then manhandling me like that. I ought to file my own complaint." He bit Atsushi's lip again to punctuate this.

Atsushi tried to melt back into the kiss, but Akutagawa backed off and started toying with strands of Atsushi's hair instead.

"You do know you owe me for that," he said, voice contemplative. "It was truly embarrassing."

"It was embarrassing for me, too," Atsushi said, wilting. "And I was so upset."

Akutagawa flicked him on the nose. "I am aware. It was obvious when you were crying on me after asking me to do it again."

Atsushi blushed. And then he had a horrible thought. "Wait. Are we only in here because I asked?"

"That's one reason, yes." Akutagawa sounded amused.

"Oh." Atsushi paused. "So am I going to owe you twice, then?"

Akutagawa looked puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, since we're in here for me.” Atsushi was suddenly wondering if he’d been rude somehow. “I should say thank you, I guess?” he tried. “It's very nice. It’s better than nice.”

Akutagawa was staring at him. Atsushi wished they could stop talking and go back to kissing. He tried to make that happen, but Akutagawa's hand blocked him.

"You are such an idiot sometimes," Akutagawa said. "I don't generally make a habit of going into dirty storage closets with people just as a favor."

"Oh," Atsushi said again. "So. Why then?"

"In this case, it was mostly because I wanted to," Akutagawa said. Then he made a face.

"Well, you don't have to look so disgusted by it," Atsushi said.

Akutagawa traced a fingernail over the sensitive skin behind Atsushi's ear. Atsushi felt a shiver run down his neck. "I'm not disgusted," Akutagawa said softly. "I'm inconvenienced. But that's not new."

"Yeah, you said before, I'm a trial," Atsushi said. He did something he hadn't done yet and reached up to cup Akutagawa's cheek in his palm. Akutagawa closed his eyes.

"Picture, if you will," Akutagawa said, "What it might feel like to die on someone's behalf and then, when you come back, the first thing they do is accuse you of having sex with them because their dumb tiger brain got all worked up over a vampire bite. And the worst part is, you would actually like to kiss them if they weren’t busy having histrionics about it."

"I don't know how to picture that," Atsushi said honestly. "I think I would explode."

"Hence the quiet room with a lock."

"I'm sorry," Atsushi said.

Akutagawa's eyes flew open. "For what?"

"For...everything. For earlier, and for the boat--"

"No." Atsushi was still holding Akutagawa’s cheek; Akutagawa gripped Atsushi's wrist and pulled his hand away from his face. "No. Stop it. You don't get to have me as one of your regrets you carry around. That's not how this works."

"How does it work?"

"I'm not telling you that. Figure it out for yourself."

He looked more serious than he had the whole time. Atsushi thought carefully about what he wanted to say.

"I missed you," Atsushi said finally.

"Yes."

"I trust you," Atsushi said. "I missed trusting you."

Akutagawa leaned his forehead on Atsushi's. "You better."

Atsushi wound his hands around Akutagawa's neck and then Akutagawa was finally, finally kissing him again, deeper and slower and somehow softer than before.

Atsushi opened his mouth and Akutagawa's tongue slid against his own. Atsushi hummed at the feeling and Akutagawa's hand ran down his throat and caressed his shoulder before nudging one of his suspenders off. He was moving to the other one when Atsushi grasped the collar of Akutagawa's coat and began hunting for buttons with his fingers.

"I don't like this one," Atsushi said when they paused to breathe.

"What?"

"You weren't using it right, before."

Akutagawa blinked at him. "I thought I ripped your limbs off with it."

"Yeah, and that hurt," Atsushi pouted.

Akutagawa prodded his lower lip back in with a fingertip. "Well, then."

"But you weren't defending yourself," Atsushi said, returning to working on the buttons so he could duck his head and avoid looking at Akutagawa's face. "I didn't like it."

Akutagawa caught Atsushi's chin in his hand. "And why's that?"

"You know," Atsushi said, squirming a little.

"Maybe I want to hear you say it. You still owe me, after all."

Atsushi sighed. "I don’t like to see you not defending yourself. It's like you said. That's not how it works."

"But it is," Akutagawa said. "When I give Rashomon to you, I don't have a defense."

Atsushi didn't see how that was the same thing at all. "I'm there for that, though," he said.

"I don't need you to protect me, weretiger," Akutagawa said sharply.

Atsushi rolled his eyes. "I know that. Obviously. That's not what I'm saying."

"So what are you saying?"

"That you are almost impossible to beat when you know what you're doing, and we both know it," Atsushi said, "and I hated fighting you when you didn't. And also, I really didn’t want to kill you."

Akutagawa batted Atsushi's hands away. Then he stood and shrugged his coat off himself.

Atsushi said, "hey—" and started to follow him. Akutagawa put a hand on his head and held him down. He leaned over and laid the coat on the ground behind Atsushi. Then he gestured at Atsushi, a sort of backwards flick of his fingers.

"Are you...shooing me?" Atsushi looked over his shoulder at the coat now on the floor behind him. He inched backwards slowly, eyeing Akutagawa, until he was sitting on the coat.

"I don't understand—" Atsushi started. A white Rashomon tendril from Akutagawa's shirt knocked him backwards. He hit his head on the ground. "Ow." He blinked, and then Akutagawa was hovering over him, on his hands and knees, his forearms at either side of Atsushi's head.

"Almost impossible?" Akutagawa said, breath dancing over Atsushi's lips.

"Shut up." Atsushi put his hand on the back of Akutagawa's neck and tugged him down.

Akutagawa collapsed onto him as Atsushi kissed him. Atsushi used the proximity to try to undo the —

cravat? – around Akutagawa's neck. Akutagawa went back up on one elbow and started working on the buttons on Atsushi's shirt.

"Thought you hated airport floors," Atsushi murmured.

"You were right, this thing I was wearing is worthless," Akutagawa said. "Where do you have my actual coat?"

Atsushi put a hand on his cheek and leaned towards him again. Akutagawa pried it off and laced their fingers together, pinning their joined hands between them.

"Weretiger," he said. "Where is it."

"I, uh, lost it," Atsushi said. "In the escape."

"You lost it."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm going to kill you," Akutagawa said.

"But not for a few months, right?"

Akutagawa glared at him. "You are so vexing, all the time," he said. "Dazai-san gave that to me. It was important."

"Maybe he'll give you another one."

Akutagawa thumped his head to Atsushi's chest. "You don't understand," he said, voice muffled.

Atsushi ran his other hand through Akutagawa's hair. "Probably not," he agreed.

He could feel Akutagawa sigh.

"Didn't Dazai-san also tell you to follow me in the first place?"

"Don't talk about that," Akutagawa said. "I’m deciding if you were worth it."

Atsushi slipped his hand under the hem of Akutagawa’s shirt and rubbed gentle circles into his side, just above his hipbone. “How about now?”

Akutagawa looked up at him, chin digging into Atsushi’s sternum. “You think you’re so cute,” he said, the venom in his voice sounding somewhat half-hearted.

Atsushi withdrew his hand.

“I didn’t say stop,” Akutagawa said.

Atsushi put his hand back.

“This doesn’t mean I’m not still mad,” Akutagawa said, mouthing at Atsushi’s collarbone. Then he sucked hard on Atsushi’s throat, making Atsushi gasp and arch his back, fingernails gripping into Akutagawa’s skin. Akutagawa released Atsushi’s other hand and buried his fingers in Atsushi’s hair.

“Did that bruise?” Atsushi panted after a moment, trying and failing to look at his own neck. Akutagawa let out a huff that might have been a laugh and ran his thumb over it.

“I wonder…” Akutagawa muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Akutagawa kissed the spot. “Remind me in a few minutes.”

“Okay.” Atsushi was exploring the individual modules of Akutagawa’s spine. He traced the line of one of Akutagawa's ribs and Akutagawa sucked in a breath. He began rifling at Atsushi’s shirt buttons again.

Atsushi wanted to kiss him but his mouth couldn’t quite reach Akutagawa’s face. Instead, he shifted, extricating one of his feet from where theirs were all tangled together so he could wrap his leg around Akutagawa’s waist.

Akutagawa looked at him. His eyes had so much depth that, for a moment, Atsushi wondered how he had ever looked anywhere else.

“We should probably talk about—” Akutagawa began.

There was a very loud explosion somewhere outside the storage closet.

Without thinking, Atsushi managed to somehow launch himself off of the ground and pulled all his limbs around Akutagawa, rolling them over so his body was shielding Akutagawa’s.

“That wasn’t necessary,” Akutagawa said. Atsushi rolled his eyes and peeled his face from Akutagawa’s neck, belatedly noticing the Rashomon shell that had formed around them.

There was another explosion. Not as large, but closer.

“We have to go see,” Atsushi said, not sure if he meant it as a statement or a question.

“Yes.” Akutagawa sounded like he wasn’t sure either, and that made Atsushi’s heart jump; he didn’t think he’d ever heard Akutagawa sound conflicted about anything.

They stood up reluctantly. Atsushi’s shirt was half off. He set about fixing it.

“Oh, you said to remind you,” he said over his shoulder as he was moving the bins away from the door.

Akutagawa stopped trying to address his own clothes and strode over to him. With one hand, he spun Atsushi towards him by the shoulder; with the other, he held Atsushi’s jaw and briefly studied his neck. Then he pulled Atsushi into a bruising kiss, nibbling his lip once before breaking away.

“Later,” Akutagawa said. “We’ll learn more about that later.”

Atsushi didn’t still didn’t really know exactly what he was talking about, but he didn’t think he needed to. He let himself stand in a pleasant daze for a moment.

“Weretiger,” Akutagawa said sharply, breaking the daze. He was holding the coat at arm’s length and looking at it with disgust. “This is filthy. Look what you’ve done.”

Atsushi sputtered. “Me? You put it on the floor.”

“This is a problem,” Akutagawa said, ignoring him. “Where am I supposed to find acceptable clothes?”