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Akira was so thoughtless. He constantly did reckless things without any regard to his wellbeing, only living in the moment. Shizuka knows this, and knows that it's affecting her too, because one aspiration on Akira's list short-circuits her for a brief moment.
No. XX: Do it with the person closest to me
...What.
He once said that she was considered precious to him. In fact, that sentiment has been consuming Shizuka's mind ever since it was spoken into existence. (Though, she was never great at accepting praise. She figured however, if Akira got to chase his aspirations and wants, so could she.)
She starts, attempting to keep her expressions neutral, "Akira. If you really want to complete every one of these," she points to the ambition, "then you might need help with this one, right?"
"Oh, right! I forgot to cross that one off." Akira clicks his pen and effortlessly glides the ink across the page, striking the task as done.
Shizuka blinks. He flashes her a confident grin, just as Kencho walks by, "Hey, are we writing down more accomplishments? I want to party on a cruise ship!"
Akira picks up the notebook, before standing up to elbow Kencho in the side. "Come on, you already wrote that down!" Their gazes are teasing and familiar, sharing an electric bond.
Damn it, Shizuka used to be the analyst in the group. How could she have possibly miss this? Of course they're gay, their fixation with heterosexuality had to be overcompensating for something.
"Hey, it's a good idea! I kind of miss those gorgeous models I used to date. Now imagine a whole cruise ship of them." Okay, useless bisexuals then. Shizuka could work with this. If they're just friends with benefits, then she wasn't overlooking any incompatibilities with Akira, she just didn't quite account for any extra preferences he may have.
Akira nudges Kencho in the chest playfully, feigning annoyance, though not fully committing to the act. With this new information, Shizuka could see right through their banter — they were flirting, right in front of her. "Why do you need gorgeous models when you have me?"
Okay, they were definitely exclusive. Shizuka spoke up, silencing the words Kencho had ready to shoot out of his mouth, "Not that you need my opinion at all, but congratulations, you two." Her words were slightly faster than usual, with her embarrassment of trying to make advances with someone off the market. "Though, you could have just told me. I wouldn't have minded at all. I thought it was obvious that I'm the same way."
Kencho paused, "The same way?"
Akira connected the dots, "Ah! The bucket list, I told her we already did it together."
Shizuka really did not need to hear it out loud. Kencho beamed at the announcement though, "Oh, yeah! We did do it together."
Shizuka bites her tongue to not show any reaction, "Congratulations again." She stands up to give them privacy.
"Hey, where do you think you're going? We couldn't have done it without you." Kencho adds.
Shizuka internally curses. Despite her own wishes to not listen to another word of this conversation, she has to ask— gather data about her new allies, "What do you mean?"
Akira answers, "We all survived. We couldn't have done it without you, you know, with your incredible risk analysis skills and intellect." Then he looks to his boyfriend(?), smiling at him with a certain fondness as if there's a deeper meaning to his next words, "And we couldn't have done it without Kencho's hilarious nude stunts either."
Kencho pulls both of them into a group hug. "We all did it together."
Shizuka cannot believe this.