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Akiren knew all of Ryuji's quirks. A side effect of being together practically 24/7. A lot of his quirks were mild, such as his huge appetite and his tendency to talk too much. He had some that were more worrying though, like nail biting. Ryuji hardly even noticed since it was automatic for him, but Akiren could tell something was up whenever he'd stick his fingertips in his mouth and all he could do was hope that Ryuji didn't end up biting off his skin or damaging his nails.
Ryuji and Akiren were upstairs at Leblanc. Ryuji was biting his nails again.
"Are you okay?"
Ryuji paused. What'd he do? He pulls his hand away from his mouth. "Yeah," he sighed, "Why?" Akiren looked at Ryuji's jagged, wet nails. "You were biting again," he points to Ryuji's fingers. "Oh, yeah," Ryuji doesn't seem too concerned. Akiren sighs, "You know it's not good for you, right?" Ryuji just shrugged and laid back. "I'll be fine." Akiren's expression dropped. Nail biting might not be the most serious habit in the world, but it certainly wasn't fun seeing his boyfriend's fingers bleed or his nails splitting from onychophagia.
"Well," Akiren sighed, "Can I at least know why you do it? I don't think you've ever told me." Ryuji is now very self-conscious about his nails and stares at them, noticing just how bad they've gotten. "Helps when I get anxious. Started when I was a kid 'n' I never stopped." His reply was too casual for Akiren's liking. He scooted closer to Ryuji and took his hands, analyzing them closely. He suddenly remembered something Futaba told him Sojiro did to get her to stop nail biting.
"Can I paint your nails?" He was not at all surprised when Ryuji immediately got defensive. Ryuji's masculinity could be very fragile sometimes.
"Wha- Dude, what?!"
Akiren took a deep breath before replying. "Futaba told me that when she was biting her nails really bad Sojiro would paint them. Apparently it got her to stop doing it since she didn't like tasting the nail polish." Ryuji looked at him like he just suggested they play Russian Roulette. "Isn't that for girls," he whined. Akiren shook his head. "Guys can paint their nails now, we aren't in the 50s anymore." Ryuji pouted as he shrank back in his seat. He huffed, "Fine, I guess we can try," and Akiren smiled a bit. He let go of Ryuji's hands. "I promise I won't choose a "girly" color." That wasn't too reassuring for Ryuji, but he accepted his fate.
Akiren ran downstairs to look for Futaba. It took a few minutes but he finally came back up with a bottle of black polish. "This is all she had," he said as he handed it to Ryuji to look at. Ryuji took the bottle and stared at it closely like he had never seen nail polish before. He handed it back to Akiren and nodded, placing his hands on his knees with his fingers spread out for Akiren to paint them. Akiren twisted open the bottle and carefully grabbed one of Ryuji's hands. He kneeled down and started to apply the polish to his nails. He was surprisingly skillful and managed to avoid getting any polish off the nails. Ryuji quietly watched. He didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to like this. He was surprised when Akiren quickly finished the first hand and moved on to the second one. Unfortunately he was starting to get that familiar twinge of anxiety again. He wasn't even thinking as he raised his hand towards his mouth. Luckily, Akiren's Phantom Thief reflexes were faster and he grabbed Ryuji's arm, careful not to mess up the polish and put it back where it was.
Ryuji felt a little relieved. When Akiren finished the other hand he looked at his hands. Oh god, they actually looked kind of good. He didn't mind it too much, the polish had grown on him. "This actually isn't bad," he laughed. Akiren smiled and ruffled his hair. "Wait for it to dry," he responded, "I'll add another layer." Ryuji nodded. He didn't want to wait, but Akiren knew what he was doing and he wasn't about to defy him. When it had been about five minutes Akiren gently tapped Ryuji's thumb nail to see if the polish was dry, and immediately started on the next layer. After what felt like forever, Akiren had finally finished Ryuji's nails and they had completely dried. He looked at his boyfriend before leaping towards him and pulling him in for a hug.
"Thanks, man," he said softly, "I'll try my best not to bite 'em." Akiren pulled him in closer and the two stood there quietly for a moment. When they finally pulled away, Akiren held Ryuji's hand and looked at his work. "It looks good on you," he smiled. "For real," Ryuji blushed as he asked. Akiren nodded. Any doubts Ryuji had were long gone by then. He might get ragged on by his classmates, but he honestly couldn't care less. He was wearing his boyfriend's work on his fingers, which made it special and less weird than if he'd went to the salon or something. Plus, he was kind of hoping it'd actually help.
~~~~~~~
Ryuji had eventually gotten used to wearing black nail polish, and it was a staple of his look now. Even in the Metaverse, he'd sometimes take the gloves off to make sure the polish was still there. He'd learned to apply it himself so he didn't have to constantly ask Akiren to redo his nails and learned to see it as cool- something that made him look a little edgier. The other Phantom Thieves thought it was cool as well, even Morgana was pleasantly nice about it. He wasn't entirely sure if they knew why he had his nails painted and that's why they were quiet about it, or if they really just didn't care, but it didn't really matter. Black nail polish became a part of him, and he wasn't going to give that up.