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The first time Atsushi had even bunted someone, it was only a few days into his life at the Agency. Sure, he didn’t know what he was doing, and he could only hope Kunikida didn’t know, either. He’d slept in, something that grew into a decently common occurrence. He wasn’t used to having a safe place to sleep, and now having one, his body decided it was best to finally catch up on years of sleep loss now.
And it often turned to one of the Agency’s members being sent to wake him up, and subsequently deal with his constant apologies. And, for far from the last time, it was Kunikida who’d entered his dorm to collect him. (Frankly, if it wasn’t for the man, Atsushi probably wouldn’t have been woken by most of the other members. .. Except for Yosano, who called his excessive sleeping worrying the longer it’d gone on.)
And well.. This time wasn’t so different. Atsushi was a light sleeper, but he’s far from a morning person. Which usually led to Kunikida, disgruntled with how long he was taking to get up, picking him up and unceremoniously dropping him right back down. Careful enough to not actually hurt Atsushi, or scare him for that matter, but enough to wake him up.
But, to Atsushi’s future embarrassment, his half asleep brain knew that Kunikida was, for one, a safe person, and two, he’d grown to enjoy his presence. Much like the rest of the Agency, for that matter. They were safe people, regardless of all their quirks. And, when Kunikida picked him up, as had become normal on the mornings that he’d entered Atsushi’s dorm, he’d, instinctively, he swears! He’d shoved his cheek against Kunikida’s chest and arm.
And.. Oh, Kunikida isn’t stupid, and Atsushi swears the other man knew exactly what he’d done. It was common knowledge that cats bunt others, especially to mark safe people, and to form a sense of security. (At least, according to the one book on cats he’d read before realizing that he found reading about tigers far easier to understand. ... Besides, he’s not a cat. He’s a tiger.) But, regardless, he was still dropped down and jolted to fully be awake. (With a comment from Kunikida about them being late, of course.)
Even so.. He still prays to whatever higher being that may be out there that Kunikida didn’t know what he’d done. Or at least, the implications behind it at the time.
----
The second time was to Kenji, surprisingly. Sure, Atsushi hadn’t spent much time around the younger boy, given how he was.. Well, with the amount of attempts on his life and wellbeing, he hadn’t spent much time around the other Agency members. But, Kenji had dragged him to eat lunch with him, because apparently one of the.. vegetables(? Atsushi isn’t sure.) he’d planted had had a good harvest, and he insisted that Atsushi should share with him. (Kenji often gave the other Agency Members vegetables and the like, so this wasn’t an odd occurrence.)
They’re both seated in the corner, as Kenji explains every little detail of how he’d cared for the vegetable. Atsushi’d found that he likes listening to the other Agency members, even if it something small like this. (.. He still finds it difficult to talk to anyone but Kyouka. His time in the Orphanage had kept him from doing much more than be silent, so speaking to people, even those he knows was still hard.) Even if Kenji’s words get more sleep-slurred as the time goes on, and he gets far more tired. They haven’t had much going on recently, so Kenji could afford to take naps after he eats lunch. (Which is also why he usually drags someone else to eat with him, in case he falls asleep sooner than expected.)
Which is, well, exactly the case at the moment. Kenji’s leaning heavily into Atsushi as his words taper off into incoherent sleep-fueled murmurs. Atsushi’s long since finished what Kenji’d given him to eat, so he’s not exactly moving enough to keep the boy from sleeping. Not that he’d want to do that, by the way. (Part of him is extremely content with the fact Kenji is alright with resting ON him. And Atsushi doesn’t want to get rid of that.)
So when Kenji’s head ends up on his chest, Atsushi instinctively rests his head on the boy’s. And, without really realizing it, runs his cheek along his hair, messing it up. This time, at least, he knows what he’s doing. Or well, the name for it. (He’d looked into what he’d been doing after Ranpo had teased him for chuffing. And he figured out that the two main things he’d done were bunting or chuffing. Well, less so on the bunting, he’d only done so to Kunikida a few times thus far, but it’s still far from a surprise that it’s now spread to Kenji.)
Alas.. With the realization that he was bunting Kenji, Atsushi grew a tad bit embarrassed. ... Had he chuffed at all during his lunch break with him??
----
Kyouka was the third Atsushi bunted. They were settled in their dorm, watching a movie. (Because, after Yosano made the third Heathers reference in the same day, Kyouka insisted they have to watch it so she’d understand.) Which is why they’re watching it on one of the Agency’s laptops that Kyouka procured from.. Somewhere.
At least this ‘discovery moment’ of Kyouka’s wasn’t like the last one. Atsushi doesn’t know how he got dragged into her first ‘sleepover’ with the girls, but he does know that he hates the feeling of makeup on his face, and especially around his eyes. (He chooses to ignore how Kyouka has that picture as his contact image for him. It’s better than the one of him asleep in the most odd position in his closet, at least.)
At the moment, they’re laying down together, faces far too close to the screen than they should be, but Kyouka’s invested, so that means Atsushi is too. At least, he’s trying to be. But there’s only so much American (He thinks..?) Highschool drama that he can take before he gets confused. (Why do three of them have the same name?? He does NOT know anything. ... At least that J.D guy seems cool.)
It’s by the climax of the musical (Musical! Atsushi liked the music part of it. He’d never thought Yosano to be the type to enjoy musicals.) that Atsushi realized why Yosano liked this particular musical enough to quote it multiple times. The main character seems to, one, be a badass, and two the villain? Antagonist? Is also badass, just in a bad way. (And Kyouka seems to like to critique his decisions, so Atsushi decides he likes it too. She’s being more talkative than normal, so he finds that nicer.)
Something Kyouka had also begun to do, was mess with the longer strands of his hair. Apparently, in that sleepover, the girls found out how soft his hair was. (As soft as a cat’s! Naomi had insisted, and Haruno had agreed instantly.) And Kyouka took it upon herself to mess with it, once she’d found out as well. (It helps with her dislike of touch, he found. So he never complained. ... Besides, it feels nice.)
It was only when she had started to laugh at him that he realized.. He’d started to lean pretty heavily into her hand and nudge into it, the action only slightly accelerated by the fact she’d decided to scratch his chin. Like you would to a cat! And, well, Atsushi can’t get mad at her. Especially since she’d trying to stifle her laughter, even against his enhanced hearing. Besides.. The chin scratches do kind of feel good.
So he relents to the fact she’s going to be treating him like a cat for the rest of the night. And to the fact he’ll likely keep bunting her hand because.. Seriously. Those chin scratches are wonderful .
----
The fourth person he’d bunted was.. Probably the most embarrassing. (After Kunikida, of course. Seriously.. He’d barely even known the Agency at that point!) Yosano had insisted she do bloodwork, and honestly.. Just give him a general check up so she had something to go off of for future situations. Only, what ended up happening was she had to sit behind him, because his veins rolled away from the needle, and she decided that bending over him while holding his arm in place was best. (His arm was numb for the rest of the day, and he doesn’t think it was due to the blood being drawn.)
Before he’d been whisked away, though, Ranpo had essentially thrown his hat towards him, and Atsushi cannot help but be thankful for it, in the stupidest way. (Recently, he’d realized that due to his enhanced sense of smell, he’d found comfort in the general scent of the Agency, and it seems that Ranpo had realized that much as well.) Which means that he’s using his non-Yosano-compromised arm to hold Ranpo’s hat as close to his chest as he can. (Unfortunately, when Yosano’s fighting the tiger’s regeneration to get a proper blood sample, her scent is not exactly comforting.)
She does eventually get the needle in him, which is honestly a wonder , and Atsushi finds it in himself to relax. Not enough that he’s calmed by Yosano’s presence immediately, but eventually he can set Ranpo’s hat in his lap and lean against her as he watches her draw the blood from his arm. It’s sluggish as it moves through the needle, and Atsushi has decided that he does not like the vision of that. So he turns to face Ranpo’s hat in his lap, instead. Yosano had loosened her grip on his arm, but even so, he still felt himself losing feeling in his left hand. (He is.. So lucky he was given the go ahead to head back to his dorm after this. His entire left arm feels like lead.)
Eventually, Yosano quietly laughs, dragging him out of his thoughts. And.. Ah. He’d begun to, unknowingly, much like every other time, bunt against her shoulder. .. At least the fabric of her top is soft. And it doesn’t seem to be bothering her, so he doesn’t try to intentionally stop. Besides, he’d rather not think about the fact his blood is being drawn.
... And if he manages to fall asleep, who’s going to mind? (Ranpo is. Ranpo is, actually. Did anyone even think to ask him if he’d like to be bunted by Atsushi? Hm?)
----
The fifth turned out to be Ranpo. ( Finally , if you’d asked the man himself.) Sure, Atsushi didn’t realize it was intentional on Ranpo’s end until afterwards, but it’s not like he was thinking out how he’d embarrassed himself in front of four of his fellow Agency members at the time. Especially since he had to work around Ranpo being sat on his desk now.
Not that it was too much of a bother, Ranpo was helping , at least in his own way. (By pointing out spelling mistakes or judging how he’s typing, or anything else.) It was really only the two of them doing anything meaningful at the moment, in the office. Kunikida’d gone out with Dazai to look into something Atsushi never got the details of, the Tanizaki siblings were at lunch, Yosano went MIA (Not literally), and Atsushi doesn’t even want to look into the corner Kenji and Kyouka had commandeered for themselves.
Okay, well what they’re doing is remotely meaningful. Atsushi’s pretty sure that the document he’s trying to complete is Dazai’s, which makes some of Ranpo’s edit suggestions make sense. (Word this sentence this way, yadda yadda.) Frankly, he’s not even certain why the other is attempting to help him. (Right under Dazai, he’s probably the Agency member who shirks his work the most.) But it’s not like he minds the assistance. ..Maybe if he actually gets what he needs done early, he can take Kyouka to that place with limited edition crepes before they sell out for the day.
As if sensing his thoughts, Ranpo says something along the lines about him asking the cafe to hold three back, and Atsushi’s already dreading later. Taking Kyouka to a cafe is nothing. Taking Ranpo, too? That’s a whole ‘nother ballpark. (Also known as they take more stops because the both of them are window-shoppers and Atsushi is just dragged along.) He also dreads the state his wallet will take on later, because all he spends his paycheck on is Kyouka, and the others occasionally, and he already knows that he’s going to have to cancel most of the next few planned outings with her. (.. She won’t mind, but he doesn’t like the idea.)
Atsushi pulls himself from his internal economic troubles and tries to focus himself on the paperwork in front of him. It’s from some case Dazai’d dragged him on weeks ago under the guise of ‘training’. (In reality, he just used Atsushi to break into some warehouse to investigate before Kunikida, causing the blond to have what can only be described as an aneurysm.) And, Atsushi is already well aware that he had already did his half of the report a week ago. He’s thankful for his newfound decent memory. (Kunikida said it was because he feels safer, Yosano agreed. So he thinks that line of logic is true.)
It’s only once Ranpo makes a quiet - only able to be heard by the tiger - hum of pride and what can only be success, that Atsushi is dragged out of his line of thought and semi-focus on the laptop in front of his face. He glances up towards his co-worker, and that’s when he realized. He’d begun to bunt against Ranpo’s thigh. It wasn’t a stretch to realize it may happen, with how close he was sitting on Atsushi’s desk in the first place, and the fact he’d kept willingly interacting with him, it was a matter of time before he felt comfortable enough to do so.
... Wait.. Had Ranpo wanted Atsushi to bunt him..? Oh..
That’s so embarrassing to even think about. (He hopes none of the others had tried to orchestrate a similar event.)
----
The sixth person he ever bunted was intentional. And, for the first time, it wasn’t an Agency Member. In fact.. It was a stroke of pure luck that Akutagawa had willingly let Atsushi into his apartment. (His real one, that is. Not one that was merely a safehouse or a hotel he’d disguised as his own place. He’d fooled Atsushi into thinking such was fact a multitude of times before this.) And it was for a reason that, in hindsight, was.. Fucking stupid.
Atsushi’s always had a bad relationship with food. In the Orphanage, it wasn’t like he was fed often, and he’d been starving the first time he’d met Dazai and Kunikida. And in his first time given food, without a limit, he’d essentially binged. (And later threw most of it up, because his body couldn’t handle eating that much at once, after so long without.) So, maybe he limits himself currently. He doesn’t like the idea of puking again..
Which brings him to now. Apparently, Dazai had hinted about his lack of eating too many times that Akutagawa took it upon himself to force food down Atsushi’s throat. (Atsushi’s not.. surprised, per se, the other Agency members are worried about his lack of eating, and they tend to take his inability to say no to work against it.) So he was dragged by the Mafioso to.. A relatively decent apartment. Sitting on a surprisingly comfortable sofa while the other man cooks something. Something that smells pretty darn good. Not as good as chazuke, but still..
Eventually, he is joined by the other man holding some sort of food that Atsushi can’t name. It’s shoved into his hands with a short command to eat. And Atsushi and his inability to say no, takes a bite. It’s good and hopefully not poisoned. (Which he doubts, they haven’t tried to kill eachother in ages.) And because, as much as he’d wish otherwise, Akutagawa is likely doing this in an attempt to get into Dazai’s good graces. So Atsushi settles himself into eating. (It’s easier to focus on the food than anything else. Than his - and Akutagawa’s - eyebags, the insistent need to focus on his other needs, the thrumming of Byakko under his skin, just barely keeping him around because she can tell he’s running himself thin.)
And, maybe when he’s finished and the plate is gently taken from his hands to be set on the table in front of them, when he’s guided by surprisingly gentle hands to lay down, against their owner, he listens. He’s calm , and if it weren’t for his enhanced senses, especially in this state, he likely wouldn’t have realized how panicked Akutagawa seemed. In a burst of sleepy inspiration, and knowing that doing so had calmed the other Agency members, he rubs his cheek against Akutagawa’s shoulder, nosing into it as he relaxes.
If he gained a hand threading through his hair during the process, he wasn’t about to say a word. It’s not like he and Akutagawa are enemies anymore, and they’ve gone further than allies. Especially given the nights they’ve ended up together after one of them stubbornly insisted on healing the other. (Usually Atsushi to Akutagawa, but there has been occasions where the scenario has flipped itself on it’s head.)
Eventually, finding himself comfortable against Akutagawa’s side, even if the other may not be comfortable, he stops and settles. Akutagawa is warm , added to by how he is always wearing black, and Atsushi can’t find it in himself to even pull away from the other man’s warmth. It’s like a sun spot, on a good day. (He’s embarrassed how comforting he finds them. Kyouka’s found him sprawled in the one formed in their living area far too many times to count.)
“Jinko.”
“.. Mmm?”
“Don’t you dare fall asleep on me.”
“Why not?”
...
...
“.. At least let me get comfortable.”
Atsushi hums simply in response, rubbing his cheek harder into Akutagawa’s shoulder as the other shifts them to lay down on the couch, at least. Later, he knows, he’ll likely either be carried or woken up, just so they can properly head to bed. But for now, he lets himself fall asleep here. He’s safe here, too. Just as he is in the Agency.
And he’ll let later Atsushi be horrified by that thought when he wakes. For now? He’s comfortable in the arms of his ‘Enemy.’