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Akutagawa is unable to move.
In his lifetime, he’s paralysed plenty. Before, he had never thought anything of it, it’s just a part of the job. But right now, in this moment, he can’t help but assume that this is what they felt like as all of their nerves shut down completely.
The peck on his cheek was only a fleeting thing, gone almost as soon as it started. It was the lightest of pressures against cold skin, and then nothing at all. But still, Akutagawa felt it was the strongest feeling he’s ever had in his entire life, maybe.
“Bye, Akutagawa!” The weretiger chirps cheekily, practically skipping off to a grinning Dazai. Akutagawa vaguely registers the sound of them giggling together, but he can’t bring himself to look, no part of his body will move.
But then, a true, raw, ecstatic smile breaks out on his face. Akutagawa is unsure that he’s ever in his life smiled like this. It must not be a pretty sight, because Higuchi sees it and immediately scrambles away, taking a baffled Gin with her.
“Uh… you good there, buddy?” Tachihara asks, caution etched in his voice.
Smile not breaking for a second, Akutagawa replies. “Yes, Tachihara. I am splendid. In fact, you may have the rest of the day off. Spend it with that redhead detective, i feel that love is in the air today.”
And Akutagawa doesn’t give Tachihara even a second to register it, as he immediately trots off, leaving behind the spluttering assassin.
__________________________________________
The entire walk back, Akutagawa swears that the world is on his side.
The sun creeps out from behind the clouds, shining a bright beam of joy over Yokohama. A young child drops her ice cream on the ground, and so just before the tears could burst out from her eyes, Rashomon places a new one in her tiny hand. Then, when he arrives at his apartment, one of the little old ladies he lives near is handing him some of her so called famous fig pie, just for him.
It’s as if every moment of his life has led up to this day exclusively. As he glides into his living room, he can’t help but wonder if this is the result of some divine work in a past life, never rewarded until now.
And then from the corner of his eye, he spots one of Gin’s records. The Cure, if he remembers correctly. Akutagawa doesn’t listen to much music usually, but he remembers rather liking that record.
Prancing over to the record player, he slips it out of its pristine cover and lays it down, gently placing the needle right at the edge.
And then, this song begins playing throughout the living room, and Akutagawa feels that it fits exactly how he feels right in this moment. It’s upbeat, and spacey, and Akutagawa feels this odd urge to move.
And so, he grants his bodies wish.
Slowly at first, he releases his legs muscles from his tight grasp, allowing them to move as freely as they wish. Then, all of a sudden, he’s spinning and flinging his hair around like a lunatic. All the tenseness in his body is released as he finds himself addicted to the movement.
Akutagawa has danced exactly twice in his entire life. And both times, it was strictly for missions, extravagant galas with people too rich for their own good.
But those two times are nothing like this. No, this is true freedom. This is his love leaking out of his pores. And that grin only grows, creasing his crows feet and creasing lines into his cheeks. His arms are flailing around, his head flying side to side, and only god knows what his legs are doing, but truly he could not care any less.
‘You, soft and only,
You, soft and lonely,
You, strange as angels,
Dancing in the deepest oceans.’
The strange man sang, and Akutagawa felt that they perfectly described his weretiger. Truly odd, but in the best way possible.
He can’t bring himself to stop moving, it’s as if his limbs don’t belong to himself anymore. His dancing only gets more and more passionate as time passes, but just before he can truly forget himself, a new voice joins the room.
“Wow, Akutagawa, you’re really feeling that, huh?” Chuuya jokes, clapping in false awe.
Immediately, Akutagawa freezes, all his muscles creeping back into their usual tenseness, akin to a frightened tortoise. Horror etches itself into his bones, humiliation quickly joining it and causing him to cower in on himself.
“Mhm.” He mumbles, more embarrassed than ever before.
Chuckling, Chuuya plops himself down on Akutagawa’s coach, cracking open the bottle of wine he brought with him. “Don’t worry about it, kid, you’ve walked in on me dancing too many times to count.”
Nodding, Akutagawa tries his best to hide his flush as he sits down next to the older man. As soon as Chuuya passes him a glass, he’s taking a large sip. He’s not much of a drinker, but he feels like that’s what one is meant to do in the face of embarrassment.
“So, is there any specific reason you were hitting a little boogy this afternoon, or were you just taking after your old man.” Chuuya huffs, patting him firmly on the shoulder.
Ah, yes. Immediately, that delicious feeling of utter joy resides itself back into Akutagawa’s veins. What on earth is he doing wallowing in humiliation, when he was graced with a gift from an angel not even an hour ago?
“…the weretiger kissed me.”
Immediately, there is regurgitated wine all over Akutagawa’s oak coffee table.
“WHAT?!”