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“You know, it’s funny how despite our rivalry, maybe we might not be very different,”
Akechi said as he ordered another glass of cocktail with alcohol, since it was apparently his 18th birthday today; at least that was what he said in the text he sent from out of blue-– which said something like this:
If you’re available, join me at my birthday for a drink.
but when Ren arrived, Akechi was already drinking.
“Maybe it would be a good idea not to order too many drinks.”
Akechi laughed.
“Are you actually worried about me? Ah. Of course-– a sentimental idiot, as always.”
the waiter bringed his order. Akechi took a sip immediately.
“As I was saying… a-ha. we might not be really different. It makes me laugh, that your teammates always shit on my fake facade while you literally do the same. You act warm and approachable, for what? You take care of people so you don’t have to look at how badly you’re neglecting yourself, and you hide it behind jokes or one of your stupid “don’t worry about it” smiles. You pretend that you’re kind, that you’re unshaken and strong, but you aren’t, aren’t you? you aren’t their perfect little leader and you’re afraid that if you showed them what you caged inside, they wouldn’t be able to carry the weight of your heart.”
Ren froze. He had no answers. No witty comeback, no smart dodging-the-questions… he just stared at Akechi for a couple of minutes, then spoke as calmly as he could.
“Akechi, you are drunk.”
Akechi let out a sharp laugh.
“And? Does being drunk make me wrong?”
Ren scoffed.
“See? I am absolutely right. and I am absolutely not finished.”
Before Akechi could raise his hand to call the waiter again, Ren’s gun reflexes gained from strolling around mementos acted faster and he held Akechi’s wrist.
“I think you had enough drinks.”
Akechi’s eyes widened for a moment, but the look on his face quickly disappeared.
“How interesting. You are enraged…” he tapped his slender fingers on the wooden table. “I kind of like it.”
He turned his palm up and grasped Ren’s hand with his fingers, his velvety voice cut through whatever Ren said as he kept blabbing:
“Always the care-taker, always the good, the kind, the helpful one. How very boring, when it is really obvious that it is only avoidance dressed as compassion.” His voice was a little slurry, but his gaze now directed at Ren was sharp as ever. “You fooled everyone,” he squeezed Ren’s hand a little. “But you missed a little detail.”
“And what is it?” Ren asked, running out of patience from these weird monologues about Akechi’s analysis on him. Not to mention… their hands were intertwined.
“I am not everyone.”
Ren snorted.
“Now you are really talking like a low budget Shakespeare villain.” Ren took a sip of his alcohol free cocktail knowing it wouldn’t really affect him or whatsoever.
Akechi smirked. “Your attempts to get under my skin won’t work this time, Amamiya.”
Ren sighed. He knew he had no choice but to sit down and hear out Akechi. Whatever Akechi had to say about him, he couldn’t escape it today.
“Despite your social standing or how people view you, despite your rather harsh treatment of yourself— you still choose your own path. It’s an interesting paradox, being so closed off yet being so free. You’re a philosophical dilemma, Amamiya.”
Ren kept looking back and forth between their intertwined hands and Akechi’s face. He noticed, after a while, Akechi was waiting for him to say something. He nervously took another sip from his drink.
“Well, isn’t being a human a dilemma, after all?”
“I don’t care about what ‘being a human’ is,” Akechi objected. “I care about you and your sentimental idiotic ass.”
Ren rolled his eyes. “How romantic you are.”
Akechi laughed. It wasn’t like his Detective Prince laugh, too polished and too polite; It wasn’t like his Black Mask laugh either, too forced and too feral. This was the most genuine laugh he had heard from Akechi.
The look on Ren’s face softened. He decided to stop beating around the bush.
“Akechi,”
Akechi’s smile slowly faded. “Yes?”
“I will say it one time,”
Akechi raised his eyebrows as Ren gulped.
“You’re right.”
Akechi leaned a little forward. “Excuse me?”
“You are right about me,” Ren repeated. “And somewhat, it doesn’t scare me.”
Akechi shrugged. “Well, you know what they say. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.”
“Sun Tzu,” Ren immediately replied.
“Reading, aren’t we..? You will need more than that to impress me, though.”
Ren chuckled at Akechi’s signature cocky smirk.
“Who said I read to impress you?”
“I just did.”
“Not funny, Akechi.”
“How sad. Amamiya, the embodiment of corniness, is telling me that I am not funny. How will I live with that?” Akechi sighed dramatically and winked at Ren.
Ren shrugged. “You will have to learn.”
A pause.
“I don’t want to.”