Chapter Text
“Fuck.”
“Language, Weretiger, but I agree with the sentiment.” Atsushi glares at him. Akutagawa glares back, it isn’t his fault that they happened to run into one another in public. Wait, how did this happen? The Armed Detective Agency is on the other side of the city, what is he doing at a restaurant across town? “What are you doing here?”
Atsushi stands up straighter, trying and failing to appear guarded. “I’m doing a favor for Dazai, what are you doing here?”
“ I happen to be on official Port Mafia business, which makes sense. It doesn’t make sense that Dazai would send you across the city for a “favor”.” Actually, it does. That is absolutely something Dazai would do, but he’s too annoyed at running into Atsushi to care.
Atsushi looks slightly uncomfortable. “I don’t know, okay? He just asked me to follow a random guy.” He says in exasperation. Akutagawa follows his gesture and understands.
The man Atsushi is following is on a date with the woman Chuuya asked Akutagawa to trail this morning. Fuck.
“Well, Weretiger, it appears our charges aren’t going anywhere for a while,” He watches Atsushi’s eyes widen in understanding.
“Wait-” He starts, but Akutagawa sits down at a booth, pulling out his phone to see a text from his sister, Gin.
Gin: Why did I just see you and Atsushi Nakajima at a restaurant together?
What the hell? Does she have eyes everywhere?! Ignoring Atsushi, who is sitting down, he types out his reply.
Ryuu: It’s none of your business, spy .
Gin: Whatever, have fun on your date!
He shuts off his phone, glancing over at the woman he’s supposed to be watching. The date seems to be going well, there’s a lot of laughing happening. Atsushi is sitting, shifting in his seat awkwardly.
“Can you not sit still?” Akutagawa snaps before he can stop himself.
Atsushi goes still for a second before furrowing his eyebrows. “Wait- No, fuck you.”
“Must you resort to such language?” He says with a bit of a laugh, grabbing a napkin and coughing into it. “I suppose it alludes to your intelligence.”
It takes Atsushi several moments to realize what Akutagawa is saying. “Shut up, Akutagawa,” He grumbles, but looks concerned as Akutagawa coughs again. “Illness acting up?” He questions, trying not to seem too worried.
Akutagawa glares. “My health is none of your concern, Weretiger.” He says coldly. The waiter comes around, and his glare intenses when Atsushi orders him a tea. He still resigns himself to drink it, however, sighing in relief when the warm liquid travels down his throat.
“Is it the cold weather?” Atsushi asks, seeming to think that the tea has earned him more questions.
Akutagawa uses the napkin to dab his mouth. “If you must know, yes. Cold air is not easy on the lungs.”
“Are there any doctors you can see?” Atsushi asks, the concern is his tiger eyes making him want to vomit. He’s never understood how the weretiger can be so openly emotional, perhaps it is his relatively new exposure to danger outside of the orphanage. Ugh, he hates knowing things about the man in front of him.
He rolls his eyes. “I saw one recently. The vampiric ability that had control of me for some time healed my illness, but it could not heal the scarring the illness left on my lungs. This is what is left. Are you done?” He raises an eyebrow. He left out how relieved and scared he’d been after getting the news. On one hand, he was glad he’d have more time to spend with Gin and to do more, but on the other… Akutagawa had always planned to die, even before his diagnosis. But now that he’s going to live, he has no idea what to fill the time with.
Atsushi’s eyes widen in… relief? Joy? “You’re going to live?” It’s both, Akutagawa decides. That’s confusing.
“I believe that’s what I just said. I thought you had super hearing, Weretiger.” He glances over to the side to see that their charges are still chatting and laughing away. Good, someone here ought to be happy.
Atsushi’s joy is clouded by annoyance. “You’re really going to ruin the news of your recovery with sass?”
“And why should you be happy? Our organizations are enemies.” He pauses. “It would be a blessing on either side if one of us died.”
Hurt fills Atsushi’s expression as Akutagawa realizes the gravity of his own words. A bold faced, accidental lie. “Atsu-
“Don’t bother.” Atsushi cuts him off, standing up with a glance at his charge. “Thanks for saving me from a ‘blessing’ death, I guess.” He says bitterly before walking off.
Akutagawa watches as Atsushi walks out of the restaurant. He’s probably going to realize in five minutes that he actually can’t abandon his job and will most likely walk around nearby until the date is over, but Akutagawa can’t bring himself to follow him.
He’d fucked up. He’d fucked up really badly. That’s all he could really tell. The comment shouldn’t have upset Atsushi that much, it was an obvious lie. He’d sacrificed himself for the man, clearly he valued his life. He doubts Atsushi is dumb enough to not be able to figure that out, so why is he upset?
And why does it piss Akutagawa off so much? He could care less what Atsushi thinks of him… right?
He watches the date his charge is on. They seem very happy as they speak. This isn’t their first date, he knows that. He wonders how they can be so easily happy.
Akutagawa has never felt romantic love for anyone. To be frank, he very rarely feels strongly about anyone. He dislikes the rich and people who exploit others as well as those who oppose the Port Mafia for stupid reasons, he loves Gin, he tolerates everything else. And when it comes to Atsushi.
He doesn’t really know what he feels.