Work Text:
- AKITO -
Akito lies awake in his bed, one arm folded so that his head’s resting on his hand, staring at the ceiling. Tsukasa’s snoring softly in the other corner, fast asleep. (Akito’s glad he’s getting some rest for once.)
He can’t sleep.
Eventually, he sits up and pushes his covers off, shuffles to the side of his bed, sits on the edge. He leans over and grabs a sweater from his laundry bin to put on. It’s not that dirty anyways, he just put it in there today.
The halls are cold. Makes sense ‘cause most of this place is concrete, and underground too. Akito kinda regrets not putting his shoes on when he left his room, but whatever.
They’re not empty or dark, though. There’s not really anyone in the dorm halls, but when Akito passes through the third floor community room, there’s plenty of people around. Some discussing mission routes in circles, some doing chores, some just talking. Akito nods in Hinomori’s direction- the younger Hinomori- as he passes by her cleaning out her boots’ blades.
The stairwells are dark, though. And empty. Akito considers going to the bottom and just hanging out, but he realizes he’d probably start to spiral in the pitch-darkness, so he decides against it.
His feet take him to Rui’s workshop, for some reason. I mean, he coulda gone to Ena and Mizuki’s room, but they’re both probably asleep. No one Akito knows that well is awake, other than Kohane, but she’s only awake because she’s out right now. She’s not at the base.
Bluelights and mechanical humming and rapid typing noises assault his senses when he pushes the heavy ass door open and steps inside, but that much he’s used to. Rui’s curled up in his office chair at the bigass desk, running some type of simulation test on one of his monitors, while the other three- well. Monitor stuff, like they usually do.
Rui swivels around to check who it is when he enters. Akito lifts a hand in a wave, stepping over the chunk of cords on his way over to the desk.
”Oh,” Rui smiles cheerfully (seems like he doesn’t need any sleep tonight). “Akito-kun! Nice to see you this late.”
Akito grunts in reply. Movement catches his eye, and his gaze darts up to the servers in the back of the room, reflexes still just as quick here and now as they would be any other time or place. Luckily, it’s just Rin silently waving at him with her robot arm, sitting between the servers while she charges. Akito’s eye caught the glowing strips on the metal.
He waves back at her, before sitting down on a box of scrap metal a couple feet away from Rui’s desk. The engineer watches him settle down before turning back to his computer, confirming the box as a safe place to sit. “Anything in particular bring you here?” he asks, starting to type away again.
Akito lifts up one of his legs and folds it on top of the other one, shrugging the sleeves of his sweater a little further over his hands and tucking them into the inside of his knee for warmth. “No. Just couldn’t sleep.”
Rui makes a noncommittal hum, before hitting one key and running the simulation again. After it stops, he pulls a window down to type something into it lightning-fast, before closing it just as quickly as it came and then going back to typing code or whatever.
His burst of focus seemingly fades after that, and he can talk to Akito again. Rui glances back at the ginger briefly, before going back to his computer. “Something bothering you?”
Akito makes a negative noise. “Nah.”
”Was Tsukasa-kun snoring?”
“No.”
“Just wanted my company, then?” Rui asks.
He probably expects Akito to respond cleverly, but he’s right, and Akito’s too tired to really care that much. “Yeah,” is all Akito replies, yawning.
It makes Rui smile at him briefly over his shoulder. “Aw.”
And it falls silent again. Rui’s usually more talkative during the day, but it’s pretty late right now. Maybe around two AM. For some reason, despite all the computers, drones, and other miscellaneous tech in here, Akito can’t spot a single clock in obvious view. He left his burner phone back in his room, so he can’t check there either.
Akito yawns again, his eyes fluttering shut. It sucks to be sleepy but not actually be able to sleep.
The silence lasts for a while. Akito doesn’t have anything to say. Rui’s working on whatever. It lasts long enough that Akito closes his eyes and snuggles into his sweater, resting his eyes for a while.
He’s roused by Rui chuckling lightly. “I thought you said you couldn’t sleep.”
Akito lets out a vaguely annoyed groan, lifting a hand and rubbing crumbs out of his eye. “I can’t,” he says, whining slightly. “I just keep getting sleepy and then nothing else.”
“Want some melatonin?” Rui asks.
Akito thinks about it for a second, before shaking his head. “Nah, I’m fine.” Going to sleep now would just be kinda annoying. Melatonin will make him wake up late.
“Alright,” Rui acknowledges.
More time passes the same way. Akito’s a little bored, since his mind’s activity is way lower than usual and he’s honestly barely thinking anything of interest. But this is fine. It’s better than being alone with a sleeping person. Rui’s machines make the room a little warmer, and Rin’s presence in the corner makes it feel a little less deserted. It’s kinda nice, even.
He wonders about Tsukasa just a little bit, though. He’d feel bad if the blonde woke up from another nightmare and found himself alone. Hopefully he doesn’t.
”Akito-kun,” Rui says after a while, grabbing the ginger’s attention. “What would you say if I asked to go out right now?”
Akito gives the back of his head a look. “Right now?”
“We’re both awake, no?” Rui replies. “I could use some fresh nighttime air.”
“You coulda asked someone else if you actually needed to leave base.” he points out.
“Well, I have my preferences.”
Akito hums, just accepting the answer. “Sure.”
“Chaperone me, then?”
“City’s dangerous at night,” Akito replies, rumbly. ”Less visibility, more bots. I don’t feel like it.”
“Aww,” Rui pouts. “I wanted to see the sunrise.”
“Even worse idea,” Akito shoots it down. “Sun won’t come up for a while anyways. Take Rin if you really wanna.”
“Mmm,” Rui hums. “Fine.”
Akito knows he didn’t actually need to, anyways. he’s clearly in the middle of coding something, not building anything he’d need physical spare parts from deactivated drones for. He was probably just saying something to occupy Akito.
That’s nice of him. Akito guesses it’s normal if there’s nothing else he can really do to help, since Rui’s the kind of person who likes to try and fix problems whenever he finds them.
Actually, Rui’s probably worried about him. Akito normally sleeps pretty hard and doesn’t have trouble falling asleep. He’s been a little off since he and Mizuki got caught in a fight with electrocution drones, but he recovered from that. Neither of them really got that hurt anyways, other than some of Mizuki’s gear going offline.
Still, the fact that the normalcy has been kinda interrupted since then is probably making Rui worry a little bit, even if it’s really fine. And it is, there’s nothing wrong, but Rui’s a caring person. Especially for his best friend.
A lot of them are. Irose is a gang full of society rejects, but when the society’s as fucked up as this, you’ll find that most “rejects” are just people who cared too much, were different, or made a wrong choice in life, and got chewed up and spit out because of it. Akito only got here because no one would help him and Ena when they ran away from hell. Rin just committed the crime of being human. Rui’s done some pretty bad shit, but Akito knows he wouldn’t have if the world hadn’t broken him already.
Then again, if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be here, and Akito wouldn’t have a workshop to go to when he can’t sleep at night. What’s he gonna do, sit in Kusanagi’s office while she datamines? She’s a great team member, but she likes working alone better. Akito wouldn’t wanna bother her.
He nestles into his sweater a little more, watching Rui’s screen with sleepy eyes. The humming and typing and flashing lights make an oddly calm ambience. It’s better than listening to the wind and the distant drones and radio towers at night in the city.
A little chibi stamp pops up on Rui’s screen, making Akito’s eyes flick to it. It’s one of Rui himself, giggling with a round hand over his mouth. Captioned “Hello there.”
Akito snorts. Apparently that was the reaction Rui was looking for, because the stamp slips off the screen afterwards.
-
Akito didn’t even realize he was half asleep until he’s startled awake by a tap on his shoulder, hard plastisteel fingers thunking against his bone. His head jumps up with a start, hand darting to his belt on instinct, but he relaxes when he sees it’s just a familiar face.
”Oops,” Rin says, cocking her head as she peers at him through her sunglasses. “Didn’t mean to startle you, my bad.”
Akito yawns, stretching his shoulders forward a little bit. “S’fine.”
“C’mon,” she says, tugging on his arm. “You’re falling asleep. I‘mma take you back to bed now.”
Akito blinks up at her, drowsy. “Oh,” he murmurs. “Yeah.” Guess he is.
He lets the android pull him up, shivering slightly at the cold air as his sweater unfolds. He doesn’t know how much time went by, but probably a while. Rui’s still running the same thing on his computer, though, so maybe not.
“Rui,” Rin calls. “I’m swapping with KAITO now. Just FYI.”
”Alright, no problem,” Rui hums. He doesn’t look back at them this time, but he watches them through a back camera, smiling up at the lens and waving. “Bye. Sweet dreams, Akito-kun.”
Akito nods. “Hope so,” he mumbles following Rin to the door. KAITO’s already in the doorway, holding it open for them. He pats Akito on the shoulder as he goes by, giving him a smile. “G’night, kiddo.”
Akito yawns halfway through an “Uh-huh.”
Rin leads him back to his room, tweaking with sensors on the side of her head while she walks. Akito doesn’t really need to be led, but he lets her do it anyways, since she was nice enough to. He’s not that sleepy, though. He could walk on his own. But it’s nice.
She drops him off once they reach his door. “Night, Akito.”
He waves as he pushes open his door, remembering to be quiet even though he’s sleepy. Thankfully his bed is right by the door, so as soon as he closes it softly he can just turn and crawl right onto the mattress, leaving his sweater on as he shuffles under the blankets.
Laying on his back, his head rolls to the side on his pillow, glancing across the dark room at the bed in the weird wall-nook thing on the other end.
Tsukasa’s still asleep. Good.
He rolls onto his side, curling up under the blankets, struggling to keep his eyes open. Finally. It’s still colder in his room than it was in Rui’s workshop, but Akito’s used to that. His blankets aren’t so cold thanks to the heat his sweater brought.
After a while, he drifts off.