Work Text:
“Go on a date with me.”
“...What.”
“I, I said, go on a date with me.” Atsushi’s bravado from the first sentence seemed to have rapidly disappeared and was shrinking away with every second but Akutagawa still didn’t know how to respond.
“...Why?”
“Because, “ He was blushing now. “Because I like you.”
Akutagawa stared at him for another minute while he stared at the floor, trying to figure out if Atsushi was genuine.
“Okay.”
“Huh?” He looked up surprised.
“I’ll go on a date with you.”
Atsushi’s whole face lit up and it was right then Akutagawa knew that he wasn’t the one making a mistake.
-x-x-x-
Their first date went well. They had simply wandered around the gardens in Yokohama holding hands and chatting while snacking on various things they bought at stalls.
The second date was at a fancy restaurant that Akutagawa had brought Atsushi to because he felt it was only fair that he pay for the second date since Atsushi had forcefully paid for the first.
That went well too.
Date after date, night after night, training session after training session, mission after mission,
Everything went really well.
And it was being to concern Akutagawa.
This was too perfect, too wonderful, too nice,
There had to be something else here.
Perfect things do not come to people who deserve nothing.
Atsushi should not go to a person who deserves nothing.
He felt Atsushi’s hand grab his left hand and Akutagawa let out a breath.
They were at a cafe that Atsushi loved for their 18th date (not that he was counting). He took another sip of his tea and noticed the waitress coming over from the corner of his eye.
“How was it?” She asked, technically to both of them but he could tell she was really only asking Atsushi. If he remembered correctly she was from the Guild, which probably explained why she didn’t talk to him.
“The cake was really good! You’ve improved Lucy!” Said Atsushi cheerfully, in his adorably cheerful voice.
Lucy blushed and stuttered out a thanks. Akutagawa felt his heart clench but said nothing.
She would be better for him. She didn’t try to kill him.
He clenched his fists and then felt Atsushi take both his hands and rub circles into his hands until they unclenched and he could hold them.
Akutagawa tried to get himself to relax, being frustrated now would only make things worse later when Atsushi left because he would regret not cherishing every second of the time he had.
“Are you okay?” Asked Atsushi.
He very briefly considered lying and saying he was fine but he dismissed that thought. It would be unfairly cruel if he lied to Atsushi in a weak attempt to keep him longer.
“I am a very jealous person. It’s a negative quality of mine, I’m sorry.”
“Would you have done something to her?” He asked. “Because you were jealous?”
Akutagawa blinked. That would just be trying to stop the inevitable, Atsushi would still eventually leave.
“No.”
“Then it’s fine.” He said with his smile. “Emotions aren’t things you should feel bad about having.”
Akutagawa felt himself smile back.
Atsushi was simply too wonderful, like a dream.
-x-x-x-
Atsushi curled further into his chest like a cat and Akutagawa felt himself smile at how cute he was.
Atsushi had come over to his apartment and they’d started watching Disney movies (he didn’t really care what they watched and he’d given Atsushi the choice).
He was also wearing clothes from Akutagawa because he had wanted to take a shower and while he could have made it fit properly, he thought Atsushi looked absolutely adorable in his oversized clothes with what Atsushi called “sweater paws” (and smacked into Akutagawa’s face whenever he said something during the movie.)
They’d begun by sitting next to each other holding hands but somehow, at some point, Atsushi had ended up in his lap with Akutagawa’s arms around him.
Now he was basically asleep and curled into him with an adorably relaxed expression. Akutagawa turned off the TV and stood up, carrying Atsushi bridal style to his bedroom.
He laid him in the bed before hesitating, would it be okay if he slept in the same bed?
It wasn’t like he was going to do anything, but also he wasn’t sure if Atsushi would be okay with it.
Sleeping was something that they both valued a lot having grown up in an environment where you could go to sleep and wake up in an unknown place. To be able to sleep safely was something they both enjoyed. He didn’t want to disturb Atsushi if he could avoid it.
Of course, it never occured to Akutagawa that maybe Atsushi would want him here but his self-loathing ran deep and the thought that maybe someone could feel safe around him, he didn’t understand it.
He made Atsushi as comfortable as possible and then he turned to leave to sleep on the couch when Atsushi stirred.
“Ryuu?” He mumbled adorably rubbing the “sweater paw” into his eye.
“Hey, shh, go back to sleep.” He whispered.
“Where’re you going?” He mumbled, slightly louder now.
“I’m going to sleep on the couch, you can sleep here.”
“Why? Sleep here.” He said gesturing to the bed.
“I, are you okay with that?” He asked, hesitating.
“Why would I not be?”
“I, … alright.” He said as he shuffled over to the other side of the bed and crammed himself onto one edge of the bed. He wanted to judge how much space Atsushi was going to take and then move based on that.
But Atsushi seemed to want to overlap their space, and threw himself onto Akutagawa’s chest and wrapped his arms around Akutagawa.
Akutagawa stiffened immediately, trying to keep as still as possible for Atsushi. Atsushi grumbled and then moved up to stroke his face. “Hey, relax. You’re supposed to be comfortable too.”
Akutagawa let out a sigh and tried to relax as much as he could. Atsushi pushed some of his hair back out of his face which helped before Atsushi, once again, collapsing onto his chest.
“Good night, Ryuu.”
“Good night, Atsushi.”
He tried to not to indulge in this feeling,
He failed.
-x-x-x-
It was a week later when Akutagawa was coming to pick Atsushi up for a date after work.
He had arrived a few minutes late so he expected Atsushi to be standing outside the building like he normally was, but he wasn’t.
He frowned, this was unlike Atsushi who was pretty much always on time. He looked up at the office building before deciding to just go up and look, just in case they were all dying on the floor or something (highly unlikely but so was Atsushi being late so you never know.)
He walked into the office and immediately heard a chair fall over.
The red-haired one (Tanizaki?) was laying on the floor look at him in shock with his chair laying next to him.
“Brother!” Yelled a girl (his sister?) who ran over to him.
The rest of the agency was in various forms of either being terrified and hiding or being in some kind of fighting position.
Except,
Dazai who was lying on a sofa and some other guy (the genius detective probably) who was eating candy, and
Atsushi. He was in the back of the room and smiling awkwardly before slowly walking over to him.
The eyes of (basically) everyone were on Atsushi and Akutagawa could tell Kyouka was waiting for him to attack so she could summon her ability.
He felt anxiety inside of him. Why did Atsushi not tell them? Was he ashamed? Disappointed? Planning to end this and so didn’t feel it was worth it to tell them? Maybe Akutagawa thought this was way bigger than Atsushi?
Atsushi stopped in front of him with an awkward smile, “Sorry, Ryuu. I forgot to tell you I was going to be late.” He said before kissing him on the cheek in apology.
He looked up and noticed everyone was gaping at them, except the detective who was smirking and Dazai who was smiling with one eyebrow raised at him. He made eye-contact with Akutagawa who instantly looked away but not before seeing that smirk.
“Atsushi,” Said Kunikida, slowly. “What is the meaning of this?”
Akutagawa felt the anxiety inside of him grow, he loved Atsushi, but if he Atsushi had to choose between him and the agency, Akutagawa was going to make him choose the agency.
This relationship was going to be temporary but the agency was somewhere Atsushi could stay forever.
“I,” Atsushi intertwined their fingers. “We’re, we’re dating.” He looked up for their reactions which was, varied.
Kunikida looked like he was going to die or kill him (Akutagawa couldn’t tell), Naomi was telling Atsushi off for not telling them beforehand, Kyouka left the room and Yosano and Dazai were making eye-contact with smirks.
Eventually everything calmed down (somewhat) Akutagawa turned to Atsushi (Who was blushing quite hard about something Naomi had said.) “How long are you going to take?”
“Ahh, just another five-ish minutes. Could you wait?”
“Of course.” Unfortunately the only place to sit was next to Dazai on the sofa and so Akutagawa crammed himself into one side of it as much as possible and pulled out his phone and glasses so he could read (and hopefully) avoid conversation.
No such luck. Immediately Dazai moved over to him and he stiffened instantly.
He couldn’t tell if Dazai was trying to be more comfortable or if he was actually respecting him (unlikely) but Dazai re-positioned himself and he ended up further away and Akutagawa relaxed just a little bit.
“Sooooooooo?” He said with a smirk.
“Dazai, please.” He said becoming more uncomfortable again. He respected Dazai, a lot, but making fun of his (probably soon to end) relationship was where he drew the line.
Kunikida smacked a folder onto Dazai’s head. “Oi! Stop harassing your ex-subordinate and do your goddamn work!”
“Kunikidaaaaaaaaa.” He groaned. “Stop being such an old mannnnnn.” Akutagawa felt himself chuckle at the display, reminding him way too much of a scene between Dazai and Chuuya.
Dazai side-eyed him. “Akutagawa! I didn’t know you could laugh!”
“He laughs all the time, Dazai. Just not around you.” Quipped Atsushi from where he was filing away papers.
Dazai dramatically rolled over onto the floor.
“Atsushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” He yelled, faking offence. “When did you become so mean? Is Akutagawa being such a negative influence on you that you’re able to be mean to me? Your beloved mentor?”
“I think he’s just better understanding you, and the behavior you deserve.” Said Kunikida sternly (although Akutagawa thought he was highly amused by this scene.) “Now, get back to work!”
Dazai grumbled but he got up and went over to his desk just as Atsushi finished up and grabbed his bag.
“Well, I’m leaving! Have a good day everybody!”
Everyone said their various goodbyes (Naomi and Yosano told him to get some sleep tonight which made Atsushi blush for some reason.) and then Atsushi linked arms with him and they left.
After a few minutes Atsushi moved so his arms was around Akutagawa’s waist and his head was on his shoulder. “Hey, Ryuu.”
“Yes?” He said anxiously, trying to figure out what this was about. You wouldn’t move closer if you were going to break up would you? Or maybe he was trying to get him calm so he would react less?
“I’m sorry, about not telling the agency about us. I just, I didn’t know how to bring it up, that I’m dating an assassin from the mafia. I, I was afraid. I was afraid they would make us break up and, and I didn’t want that.”
Akutagawa felt his heart soar and fall at the same time.
On one hand he was touched that Atsushi would rather lie by omission to his coworkers than end this.
On the other hand Atsushi reminded him of the problem he was trying to ignore. How long can someone who basically works for the government and someone who was a mafia assassin be together before the world reminded them that they were meant to be separate?
Which reminded him of what Dazai said, was he bad for Atsushi? He began mentally running over all their interactions, trying to see if he had slowly been negatively influencing Atsushi over time.
“Ryuu?” He said concerned, snapping Akutagawa out of his thoughts. “What’s wrong?”
“I,” Once again he considered lying and then dismissed it. “I’m afraid.” He pulled Atsushi in closer so he could talk softly and bask in the closeness. “I’m afraid that I might be having a negative influence on you. I, I don’t want to be the reason you become a terrible person. I, I don’t want, I don’t want my own character to rub off onto you. And, I’m also afraid, that the world is gonna rip us apart because people who stand on the opposite sides of the law shouldn’t be in love and, I, I guess what I’m really afraid of is that we’re gonna break up? I, I don’t want that. You are,” He started blushing now. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. I, I don’t want to lose you.”
There was a moment of silence and then,
Atsushi was kissing him.
His mind was racing too much for him too fully understand what was happening and it felt like it was over in the blink of an eye.
“I,” Said Atsushi who was breathing quite hard with a flushed face. “I don’t want to lose you either. I, you’re the best thing that happened to me too. I love you.”
Akutagawa took a moment to understand what he said before breaking out into a full on soft smile. “I love you too.”
They stood like that for a moment before Atsushi went back to holding his hand and they continued on to the restaurant.
Akutagawa was still smiling. This was going to be an amazing night.
-x-x-x-
They were on a mission together a week later.
A mission that had gone horribly wrong.
They’d severely underestimated how many people would be there and so were caught off guard.
Atsushi screamed and Akutagawa felt his blood boil.
“Rashomon! Endless Jaws!” He yelled, summoning his ability and watching it crush their opponents. He pulled back just enough that none of them would die, but they would have to live without some limbs.
Once the gun fire stopped Akutagawa abandoned his normal check of if they were all taken down to look for Atsushi.
He was on the floor with blood pouring out of his side.
“Atsushi!” He yelled running over.
“Aha, Ryuu. Sorry, I got shot.” He said as he tried to smile. Akutagawa felt himself panicking and summoned Rashomon to be bandages for his wounds.
“I’ll, I’ll be okay.” He managed to say. “The tiger will heal me.” He tried to stand but Akutagawa pushed him back down.
“Go to sleep, sweetheart.” He said softly. “I’ll take care you.”
“Thank you.” Said Atsushi with a soft smile, before collapsing.
Once the ADA showed up Kunikida laid Atsushi down in the car but didn’t tell Akutagawa to leave. (Probably sensing that he wouldn’t.)
At the agency he sat outside of the medical room a book open on his phone but he wasn’t reading, just staring at the screen.
He heard footsteps and looked up over his glasses and saw Kyouka approaching the room. He flicked his eyes back to the book and waited for her to either walk past him, or sit in a chair and also wait.
Neither of those things happen. She stopped before him.
“Why are you here?”
“...What”
“Why are you here?” She demanded.
“I--I’m waiting to see if my boyfriend is okay?” He said as a question, wondering why she was asking.
“But, why? Why are you dating him?”
“Because, I love him?” He said, not understanding why this wasn’t obvious.
“Do you?” She asked, annoyed.
“Yes?”
She narrowed her eyes at him and he felt her judgement pricking at him.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why do you love him?”
“That,” he turned his phone off. “Is something you don’t need to know.”
She raised her eyebrows at him, clearly not expecting this answer.
“You--I don’t need to explain to you why I love him. That is something that stays between the two of us. It is something incredibly personal and, only we need to know. And, frankly, I don’t trust you with my deepest, most personal feelings.”
She nodded thoughtfully at what he said.
“Alright. But if you hurt him, I will find a way to end you.” She threatened before walking off.
He blinked at her small retreating figure, before turning back to his off-screen.
That threat struck him. Not because he feared Kyouka,
But because of the “if you hurt him”.
That, that was inevitable.
In some way he’d hurt everyone who’d ever tried to be close to him, but hurting Atsushi, was much more inevitable than anything else.
Atsushi would try to hold onto the idea that this could be for forever, and eventually Akutagawa would have to break that illusion.
“You can see him now.” Said the doctor breaking him out of his thoughts.
He nodded and walked in to see a smiling Atsushi lying on the bed.
“How’re you feeling?”
“Better! I’m basically fine!” He said cheerfully before putting his arms out.
“Come’ere.”
Akutagawa moved closer and then laid down next to him. He took a deep breath before snuggling in closer.
“You ok?” Asked Atsushi.
“Your sister just gave me what I think is called, “a shovel talk”? It was, strange.”
Atsushi groaned into his hands in embarrassment. “I told her not to do that.” Akutagawa chuckled into Atsushi’s neck.
“It’s okay.” He said softly before kissing him on the neck.
“No it’s not. I don’t-” He snuggled into the blanket. “I didn’t want her to make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s okay. She- it’s fine. I would do the same thing and so would you.” Said Akutagawa before kissing Atsushi on the cheek now.
Atsushi giggled and wrapped his arms around him now. “Don’t call me out like this.”
He moved so that now his head was on Atsushi’s chest and then yawned.
“Go to sleep.” Whispered Atsushi before kissing him on the head. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Akutagawa mumbled back before passing out.
He really, truly, did.
-x-x-x-
Two weeks later, Akutagawa was home alone reading when there was a knock on his door.
He opened it and
Atsushi was there, with a smile and soaking wet hair.
“Hi, Ryuu.” He said sheepishly with a little wave. “Can I come in?”
Akutagawa blinked but wasn’t really surprised, Atsushi did this a lot when he worked late or on some of the more painful cases. He moved over and let Atsushi in and then walked over to grab a towel and some spare clothes for him. Anxiety growing in his chest for no reason.
“So,” Said Atsushi when he came back as Akutagawa began making tea. “How was your day?”
Akutagawa blinked at the question, usually Atsushi would tell him about his day and he would listen. He complied though and decided to tell Atsushi about his sister moving out.
“And then she’ll be moving out, which she’s very excited for but,” Said Akutagawa as he walked over to the counter to pick up his tea. “I don’t know how I feel about it.” He paused there sensing Atsushi’s mind being somewhere else and not wanting to just be ranting about his problems.
“Ryuu,” Said Atsushi from the sofa after a moment, his teacup now on the table and his hands in his lap. “Can I talk to you about something?” He asked softly.
This is it. This is it. This is it. Akutagawa’s mind began chanting.
“Of course.” He said, desperately trying to hold his calm demeanor. He came over to sit on the sofa across from Atsushi, words blocked by the lump in his throat.
Please. Please. Please. One more chance. Please. Just tell me what’s wrong I can fix this. Please.
“What’s wrong?” He managed to choke out.
“Oh! Nothing’s wrong!” Said Atsushi waving his hands. “I just, um, I was wondering, uhhhhh, would you maybe, maybe consider, moving into a place, with me?”
Akutagawa’s mind went blank and he just sat there silently.
Atsushi seemed to misinterpret the silence and began waving his hands. “I, I mean! You don’t have to! I just, Gin’s moving out and Kyouka’s moving out and I, I was wondering if maybe you wouldn’t want to be alone. But, you, uh, it’s fine! I,”
“Atsushi.” Said Ryuu as he interrupted as he grabbed Atsushi’s hands which were being thrown around to effectively silence him.
“You shouldn’t get a place with me.”
“Ryuu,” Said Atsushi quietly.
“Because,” He began, interrupting him again. “When we breakup, I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay because you own a place with me.”
There was silence and then,
Tears.
Atsushi was trembling, his hands still in Akutagawa’s. He was sniffling and trembling as tears poured down his face and Akutagawa could feel the sobs he was holding back.
“Atsushi?”
“Ry, Ryuu,” He said suddenly, his voice shaking, “ Why ?”
“Why?” He blinked in confusion. “Why what?”
“Why do you want to break up!?” He yelled like he didn’t understand why Akutagawa didn’t understand.
Which he didn’t.
“I don’t want to break up with you?” He asked confused. “Why would you think that?”
“But, but, you just said we’re gonna break up!” Yelled Atsushi confused.
“No. I said we will breakup and that’s gonna be you breaking up with me. I could never not love you.”
“But, but why would I break up with you!?” He yelled, confused.
“Atsushi, I’m not a type of person you should be in a relationship with, I, I’m not good at this. You’re, you deserve so much better. You’re gonna get done with me eventually, I know you will.”
Everyone else did.
Was unsaid but Akutagawa could feel it on his tongue, held back because he didn’t want Atsushi to have to be burdened with more of his problems.
“Ryuu,” Said Atsushi crying more now. ( Oh no, what did he do, what did he do, what did he do )
Atsushi threw himself onto him in a hug and Akutagawa felt his whole body stiffen before naturally relaxing into his arms.
“How,” He hiccuped. “How could you think I don’t love you?”
Akutagawa blinked at that question. “I, because I’m an exhausting person to be around. I don’t think you don’t love me, I know you eventually won’t.”
To Akutagawa that was so set in stone and he knew Atsushi would try to blind himself to it so as to not cause problems or perhaps in his overjoy of being loved so Akutagawa was trying to remind him of what he saw as the inevitable truth.
Which apparently, Atsushi disagreed with, judging by the increase of tears falling down his face onto Akutagawa’s shirt.
He pulled his face back and looked sadly at Akutagawa. “That’s not true! I have never once thought of you as exhausting or hard to be around!”
“Atsushi.”
“After you started being nice to me.” He added before leaning back into Akutagawa. “You, you’re always so upfront about everything you say, and you help me think through my problems, and you blush whenever I kiss you on the cheek but when you kiss me on the lips you have this infuriating smirk that makes me wanna kiss you again. And you read to me when I can’t sleep, and you listen to me rant about work, and you buy me chazuke when you know I’m going to be working late and put on one of my favorite movies that you don’t like, and you buy me new clothes all the time and, I just, I love you a lot. I’m gonna love you a lot forever. So you,” He said pointing Akutagawa’s face. “Don’t even. We’re gonna get our apartment and 10 cats and be happy together.”
“10 cats?” He asked trying to hide his overwhelming emotions with a joke.
“I’m working you up to 50.” Said Atsushi with a smile before leaning in closer.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Said Akutagawa back as he let himself be pushed into laying down on the sofa.
“I love you.” Said Atsushi just as he pressed their noses together.
“I love you too.” Said Akutagawa right before pressing their lips together.
“Thank you.” He whispered right when they pulled apart and Atsushi buried his face into the crook between his neck and shoulder.
Atsushi just hummed before snuggling in closer and Akutagawa knew it wouldn’t be long before his exhaustion from his overwhelming emotions put him to sleep and Akutagawa had to carry him to bed.
Atsushi had perhaps, not entirely solved the problem, but right now, with his weight on his chest and his arms around him Akutagawa couldn’t see this ever changing.
“Good night, Sunshine.” He whispered.
“G’night, Ryuu.” He mumbled back.
He smiled and leaned further into the sofa.
They could move later.
-x-x-x-
Atsushi woke up on the sofa to Ryuu’s face smushed in his shoulder.
He pressed a light kiss to his forehead before getting up and padding over to the kitchen.
He should make breakfast, but he didn’t know what was in this apartment.
He flicked through the shelves before accidentally knocking over a jar and spilling the contents and shattered pieces all over the floor.
Atsushi panicked and began moving over to the other side of the kitchen to get some paper towels, but he accidently stepped onto one of the broken pieces and his foot began bleeding.
He panicked more as his blood began to spill onto the floor. He tried to hop over the rest of it to the sink and paper towels but slipped and fell over against the cupboards under the sink.
He managed to pull himself up and grabbed a paper towel and wet it to clean up the blood on his foot first.
The water began dripping and before he realized it there was a huge puddle of slightly bloody water near the sink.
He reached over to grab another paper towel to clean up the bloody water but knocked that over into the bloody water and the soap next to the sink which spilled all over the countertop.
He stopped for a minute to look at his damage. The floor was covered in glass shards, coffee powder, blood, watery blood and paper towels covered in watery bloody, the countertops were covered in soap and he was in the middle of it with a bloody foot.
He mentally began panicking. Shit. Shit. Shit. Ryuu had just opened up to him last night and he trashed his kitchen in response.
He picked up the paper towels to see if some could be salvaged when he heard the sound of movement and Ryuu sat up.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Atsushi?” He said, a little tired. “Good-” He stopped.
“I-I can explain!” Yelled Atsushi waving his hands. Akutagawa put his hand up. “Wait.”
Atsushi deflated and just stood there looking like a dejected kitten while Akutagawa went and put on some shoes and then drapped a towel on the sofa. He came over and stepped over the glass and then picked up Atsushi (who squeaked in surprise) and then carried him over to the sofa and made sure his injured foot was on the towel.
“Don’t move.” He said sternly before kissing him on the forehead and then taking a look at his foot.
“You-you don’t have to that! The tiger will heal me! I’ll be fine!”
Akutagawa ignored his protests and began looking at his foot. However, the tiger was healing it pretty quickly so Akutagawa just sighed and went to clean the kitchen.
He quickly cleaned it and then went on to make some tea.
While he was doing that Atsushi was curled up on the sofa. He debated going over to help but he knew Ryuu would just turn him down.
The silence left Atsushi with nothing to do but think, and his thinking was getting pretty self-deprecating.
He curled up into more of a ball shape and rolled over to bury his face into the sofa. But was almost immediately tapped on the shoulder by Ryuu who brought him tea.
“Thank you.” He whispered. Ryuu put his tea on the table and carefully curled around Atsushi so that Atsushi could still drink his tea. Atsushi leaned closer into Ryuu who then leaned up to kiss him on the cheek.
They sat in silence for a minute before Atsushi mumbled. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“But-”
“No. It’s okay.” Said Ryuu, sternly before softening. “You did nothing wrong.”
“You don’t even know what happened.” Mumbled Atsushi, embarrassed.
“But I know you. You don’t do anything that is wrong.”
Atsushi turned redder and made an attempt to move away but Ryuu wrapped his arms around him and pulled him gently, making sure to pull slowly enough that his tea didn’t spill. He put the teacup onto the table next to his own before pushing Atsushi into the sofa and straddling his hips.
Ryuu leaned in very close to Atsushi’s face. “You are perfect.” And then he pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
He pulled back so he could press kisses all over his face and he kept going until Atsushi was softly giggling, face flush with love.
“I love you.” Whispered Ryuu as he pulled back.
They shared a smile and then Ryuu got off of him and went back to the kitchen. “I’ll make pancakes if you make the fruit salad.”
Atsushi nodded and they both worked in silence to make their breakfast.
As they sat down to eat as the sunset ended Atsushi intertwined their fingers and they shared a smile.
Today was a good day.