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Ren wouldn’t say that the reality he’s been thrusted into is good, it's not, but if there is any perk it’s that since the world was destroyed (though a certain therapist would probably use the word fixed), he’s been able to spend a lot more time with Akechi.
They have a job to do, something Akechi reminds him of every time he texts asking to hang out. Ren thinks Akechi has gotten more careless with his bluffing, since despite the complaints he never actually puts up much of a fight against hanging out. Even with the looming deadline of the end of the entire world as they know it, Ren feels drawn to spending as much time with Akechi as he can.
It helps that Akechi seems to feel the same way, given that he hasn’t told him to fuck off and find someone else to bother, Amamiya.
Between human cats and resurrected parents, the entire ordeal has been strange. Unsettling. So maybe it’s that he finds comfort in the sameness of hanging out with his rival. Though even Akechi seems different since the world plunged into the depths of Maruki’s control. He seems less careful about keeping up appearances.
Ren remembers when they first entered Maruki’s palace with Sumire and looked over to see Akechi in his black mask outfit, tattered and looking every bit like a 15 year old’s idea of rebellion. Ren likes this side of Akechi, wearing his rage on his sleeve and a tongue with a wit that’s sharper than knives. He knows better than to put Akechi in a box, or to look at him through a black and white lens. He knows Akechi isn’t just Black Mask, just as he wasn’t just Detective Prince.
It’s just that when he’s been hanging out with Akechi these past few weeks, the boy in front of him feels like the most real thing he has in this reality.
-
Ren: what are you doing tonight?
Akechi: Do you think I have a plethora of social confidants or opportunities at my disposal in this reality?
Ren: soo you’re free
Akechi: I wouldn’t consider sitting on my ass waiting for you to infiltrate a palace as free, but yes.
Ren: do you want to hang out with me or not
Akechi: And do what?
Ren: 701. 6:30?
Akechi: Fine. Don’t keep me waiting.
Ren: well first of all I invited you out, so dont keep ME waiting
Akechi ends up being late. By all of 5 minutes, but it's enough that Ren gives himself a mental victory point.
Ren had been waiting outside Penguin Sniper when Akechi stormed up to him, huffing dramatically enough that the air escaping his mouth was visible in the cold.
“What was that about not keeping me waiting?” Ren leers, leaning forward to put himself in Akechi’s line of sight.
“I hate,” Akechi grits out, retying his own scarf with enough force that Ren is briefly afraid he’s going to choke himself, ‘this stupid fucking reality.” He glowers, and Ren waits for him to continue.
“What is so fucking perfect about a reality where I’m late because someone’s wish was to be proposed to on a subway train?” Well, that was not the story Ren was expecting to hear, but it’s hilarious, so he continues to stay quiet and let Akechi rant as they finally make their way up the stairs.
“And,” Akechi continues, still going as Ren pays for their night of darts. “Really, if you had one wish Amamiya, wouldn’t you aim a little higher? Than a proposal? In a goddamn subway car.”
“Maybe you should have wished to always be on time.” Ren counters, handing Akechi his stack of darts.
“I am going to strangle you.”
Ren makes a tsk noise with his mouth. “That afraid you’re going to lose to me tonight?”
“If you’re going to be as predictable as trying to land all triple 20’s again, then no.”
Ren has been inviting Akechi out to Penguin Sniper nearly every night in his effort to one up him at darts. 701 is a team game, if either of them miss a bullseye it’s game over. But he refuses to lose to Akechi even when they’re teamed up out of necessity, and as Akechi always goes for the bullseyes, landing triple 20s is the only way to do it.
He pictures how angry Akechi is going to be when he finally succeeds, and it makes him just a little giddy inside. It would also make up for the embarrassment of the first night he had tried this strategy and Akechi had laughed in his face when he missed the board entirely.
Akechi had then realized this meant he, too, had just lost, and had thrown a dart straight at Ren’s head.
“You first.” Akechi nods at him, and Ren moves to line up his shot.
He lands all three triple 20s and whoops, throwing his fist into the air. He spins around, a smug smirk crawling onto his face as he meets Akechi’s glare. His eye twitches and Ren feels victory is the sweetest taste of all.
He raises his hand to high-five Akechi and is met with an incredibly violent and extremely painful smack to his hand. As soon as Ren lowers his arm from their high-five he cradles it to his chest while he’s sure Akechi still isn’t looking.
In the end, Ren successfully hits all his necessary triple 20s to contribute to their score and Akechi looks like he may once again be plotting his murder.
“Well, I can’t say I’m not impressed.” Akechi huffs, annoyed. “But it’s rather irritating you’ve managed to win against me in a team game.”
He imagines Futaba saying something like get good and laughs to himself. He kind of wants to see what Akechi’s reaction to that would be, he can almost picture the way his nose would scrunch up in frustration at her.
“We should invite some of my friends next time we’re here.” He says, collecting his darts off the board. “Not every time, but I think some of them could show you a good challenge.” He pauses, thinking of Ann’s abysmal aim and Morgana’s lack of opposable thumbs. “Or you could mop the floor with a few of them, which I think you’d still find fun.”
“No.” Is all Akechi says in response, which is the answer Ren should have assumed he was going to get.
"Why not?” He asks, and, well, he already knows it's a stupid question before he even asks it. “We’re all about to infiltrate a palace together, it would probably be good to do at least one bonding exercise.”
Akechi has a look in his eyes that Ren’s somewhat familiar with, a warning sign, if anything. He’s getting mad, though as to what about, Akechi is nothing if not impenetrable. Ren feels like one wrong move will have Akechi calling out checkmate and capturing his queen, but for as well as the two of them seem to get each other, Ren is still no mind reader.
“Have you forgotten what I’ve done to some of your friends? Have you forgotten that I despise who you call friends?” He asks, venom dripping off his tongue.
Ren clears his throat, a little offended. “No. I haven’t forgotten. I just don’t think it’s a bad idea to try to get some sense of trust before teaming up in the Metaverse with them. Besides, they’re actually cool people if you tried to get to know them.”
Akechi laughs at that, cold and condescending. Checkmate. “So what would you suppose I do to get to know them? Hm? Turn on the charm to make myself more pleasant for you and your friends.”
"What? What makes you think I want that?” Not for the first time in Maruki’s reality, Ren thinks he’s lost his damn mind at the sudden change of events.
“What is it you want then? To piss off all your friends? Unlikely. It’s more likely you’d rather I try to act more palpable in their company.”
He doesn’t want to have this argument, fighting with Akechi in code. Trying to piece together what Akechi’s saying versus what he’s actually feeling is one game he doesn’t like playing with him. “I hate when you do this, Akechi.”
Akechi laughs again, hollow and angry. “Do what? Tell you the truth? I expected better from you, Ama-“
“Man, fuck off.” Ren spits, he’s so fucking tired. He has had long weeks of savior-complex inflicted therapists and brainwashed friends and the absolute last thing he needs is to be hounded by Akechi.
“No, I fucking hate it when you just assume what I’m thinking and accept it as fact. I know you love your whole ‘I decide the truth’ bullshit, but don’t use it on me. I deserve better than that from you.”
Akechi blinks at him before rolling his eyes. “And when did you decide you deserve anything from me?”
Ren grips the edge of their darts table. “I still have your glove, Akechi. I think that’s enough for me to be treated as your equal. We’re rivals after all.”
His shoulders sag and he moves his hand to run it through his hair, exhausted and tired of fighting. The night was going well and he doesn’t want to turn this into an explosive fight they’ll have to walk away from. Or worse, walk further into.
“I wasn’t,” He starts. “I wasn’t trying to insinuate you should change yourself to..” He trails off, hands flailing in the air as he looks for the words. “To, I don’t know, fit in with my friends? Just act like yourself, asshole. I don’t know why you think I’d want you to wear whatever mask you used to use around them.”
He doesn’t think he’s ever seen the look on him but if he had to guess, Akechi looks apologetic. “This fake reality has been fucking with my head.” He sighs. “I…apologize.” The phrase comes out slowly as if his tongue doesn’t know how to meet the roof of his mouth or the front of his lips to form the words.
Ren blinks and shakes his head. “An apology from Goro Akechi? Maybe this was my wish.” He laughs, and at the violent look on Akechi’s face he adds a quick “kidding.”
“I hate you.” Which Ren takes as Akechi’s version of we’re cool.
Ren really doesn’t want the night to end like this after the end of a pretty explosive and public fight. He’s not sure if he wants the night to end at all, but he figures that would be asking for a bit too much.
Still, he ventures it can’t hurt to ask. “Can we go somewhere else?”
Akechi hums, idly playing with the hem of his scarf to busy his hands. “Where to?”
-
As he’s assaulted by the cold evening wind of mid-January in Kichijoji he decides to walk a little closer to Akechi than he normally would, their shoulders brushing against each other with every step. Akechi hasn’t said anything or pulled away, so Ren takes the little physical contact he's been given and accepts it like it’s a gift.
“I’m surprised you want to go to Inokashira Park, I thought you’d want to challenge me in more friendly games of competition?” Akechi mentions, and the tone in his voice presents the very sentence itself as a challenge.
Ren clears his throat and in his best Detective Prince impression, which isn’t really all that good, he mimics, “Well, I’ve heard it’s a popular date spot!” He grins, imagining a little ding! noise in his head and the way the sound would ricochet off his teeth.
Akechi wrinkles his nose, which Ren can’t help but smile at, and groans. “Ugh, horrible. At least I know there are some things you’re bad at.”
“I sounded just like you! That’s just how you sound, detective.” He lies, but figures it’s for a worthy cause if it means pressing Akechi’s buttons.
"No, it’s not.” Akechi says, all sparkles and words laced in saccharin, speaking to Ren as if he’s a TV host.
“Creepy.” Ren shudders, and he wants to poke Akechi’s faux grinning cheeks and tell him to put it back. Before he can act on the impulse, Akechi’s plastic expression quickly falters and morphs back into his standard grumpy frown.
“Hm, I would have guessed you preferred that version of me.”
“Nope.” He responds, popping the ‘p’, “I like the version of you who looks like he’s going to stab my eyes out with a dart whenever I miss a bullseye. Everyday Akechi.” He grins and kicks his foot out in a short-lived skip.
Akechi looks at him like he’s grown two heads, and the look on his face is so weird that Ren feels a little fond that it was shared with him.
Always undeterred from an argument though, “I wouldn’t go for the eyes.” He starts. “It’d be quicker if I went for the jugular.” Which makes Ren snort and he can even hear Akechi laugh, even if it's all breath.
"The cleanup would make it take way longer though, right?” He muses.
Akechi shakes his head. “Do you really want to be discussing this with me? Although not in this reality, you do remember I’ve actually killed people, no?”
"Well, yeah, I was one of them.”
“Yes, and I question if it really was you I shot, considering you would have to be near brain-dead to want to hang out with your would-be murderer.’
"You didn’t kill me in the end though. You could kill me now, if you wanted to. Don’t think you would though.” He presses his shoulder against Akechi’s and makes a smug face as if not being assassinated warrants any expression of the sort.
Akechi scoffs at that and it comes out a little like a gag. “Don’t make excuses for me. I didn’t not kill you because I had a change of heart. Killing you had just become a useless endeavor.”
“Do you want to kill me? Like right now? If I handed you a gun would you shoot me in the head?” Ren asks and mimes shooting at Akechi with a finger gun.
Akechi lips press into a thin line and he curls his hand into a tight fist. Ren gets the urge to reach out for his hands and smooth the kinks in the leather.
“No. I wouldn’t. Don’t let it go to your head.” Akechi’s pace becomes a bit more brisk, like he’s running away from his own feelings, because he is.
"Dear diary.” He starts, placing a hand across his heart. “I must be God’s gift to the world because my good friend Goro Akechi doesn’t want to blow my brains out. Can you believe it?”
“I’ve changed my mind. I hope you fucking die.”
-
They find a bench to sit at across from the pond and Ren briefly mourns not getting here earlier in the day when the swans were still out.
Akechi is in the middle of ranting about a plot hole in a book he’d been reading, arm bent in the air and hand tipped, swaying back and forth in irritation as he talks.
Ren mostly just listens, smiling to himself as he occasionally pipes up to provide counter-arguments to rile Akechi back up and keep him talking. He could entertain this conversation for hours if he wanted to, and he kind of does, but he’s sure Akechi will find another topic for them to argue about with or without Ren’s assistance.
He doesn’t know how long they sit entrenched in each other and their own conversation, but after a while it lulls and they find themselves in a comfortable silence. The feeling stretches across the park as they realize it’s now empty. They must have been talking for hours.
“Is there a reason you brought me here, Amamiya?” Akechi eventually asks, voice relaxed as he slumps against the back of the bench.
It’s a popular date spot. “We’re friends, friends hang out.” Is what he says instead.
“Friends.” Akechi laughs, but it’s unaccompanied by any of the usual malice. “Is that what we are now?”
“Rivals, foes, enemies, friends, whatever you want.” Ren smiles lazily, dopily, probably. He looks down at his lap when they lapse into another silence after that. His eyes flick over to Akechi’s left hand splayed across the middle of the bench between the little bit of room they’ve left between each other. Carefully, Ren rests his hand beside his. Their pinkies brush and he looks up at the boy next to him in an attempt to gauge his reaction. Neutral, cold, conflicted.
He’s not sure if he imagines it, but he swears he feels Akechi lean his hand into Ren’s touch before extracting himself from the bench entirely. He stands a little farther away than Ren would like, his facial features nearly fully obscured by shadow.
“We,” Akechi swallows, looking across the pond behind Ren before meeting his eyes. “We have to find a path to Maruki’s treasure soon.”
Ren nods, still holding eye contact and says “I know.”
“So it’d be silly to keep meeting up like this, for this long. We have to make more progress. Do you want to lose?”
“I won’t lose.” He’s confident they’ll find the route soon. Maruki is strong, but he knows he and his friends are stronger. “And when we win,” We won’t lose. “you'll let me take you back here.”
Akechi takes a step forward, his face once obscured by shadow now illuminated by the flickering warm light of a street lamp. Never breaking eye contact, Akechi extends his hand out.
“Deal.”
-
When Maruki shows up to Leblanc on February 2nd, Ren feels a chill trickle down his spine. During his time in this reality and even inside Maruki’s own distorted desires, he has never felt any sort of malice toward him. Not like the rage that unfurled inside him when he first awoke to Arsene in Kamoshida’s palace, or the deep desire for justice he wanted to enact against Shido. Maruki’s desires are distorted, but they’re coming from a place of goodness.
But now, with Akechi’s life being dangled in front of his face like a prize he can be rewarded if he just selects the right answer, he thinks this might be the angriest he has ever felt.
He throws the calling card at Maruki’s face and is left to pick up the pieces of his own heart as Akechi just fucking stands there, staring at him.
He doesn’t know what to do. What do you do when you learn the person you love is dead and you had wished him back to fucking life? Well, instead of having a public mental breakdown, he decides to brew him coffee.
They both stay silent as Ren makes his way through the motions of brewing their cups, and he hates how uncomfortable it feels. Being able to sit in comfortable silence, the rare times when they weren’t deep into some stupid debate Akechi had prompted, was one of the things he liked most about being around him. The air around them now feels suffocating, and belatedly Ren realizes he’s probably having a panic attack. A concept, he thinks, he didn’t even know about until Maruki had informed him of it once in a counseling session.
His hands shake as he pours coffee into the mug he had already set out for Akechi, and he so desperately wants to hear anything but silence that he cracks a joke.
“Well. I told you I preferred this version of you.” Though as soon as the words leave his lips he realizes it wasn’t much of a joke at all, and more of a half-hearted confession.
Akechi just gapes at him. “Ren.” He grits out, and god he sounds angry. “If you try to confess your love to me now, I will come back from the dead and murder you. Again.”
“Well, that’s kind of an incentive.” He rubs the back of his neck, gives a small watery smile.
“You are such a martyr and I refuse to play any part in this Shakespearean tragedy of yours. Tomorrow we are going to defeat Maruki and I am going to die.”
Ren stares at him for a moment and rubs his eyes. “Aren’t you scared?” He asks.
“Of course I’m fucking scared!” He shouts, and it makes Ren step away from where he’s standing. Akechi steels himself, smoothing out the wrinkles in his coat. “But I’m done living my life like a puppet on strings. Nobody will control me or take away my choice. Not even you, Ren. So make yours.”
Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Behind the brave face and the body count, Ren sees a 17 year old kid whose first taste of freedom will end in his demise.
Ren shoves his hand into his pocket and squeezes his rival’s glove. “Okay.” Ren nods. “We’ll defeat Maruki.”
And he lets go.
-
“I’m a bit occupied, so do your goddamn JOB!” Akechi shouts at him.
Ren knows that’s his cue so he takes one last look at Akechi, expression wicked and eyes wide with bloodlust. Akechi meets his gaze and for a moment his expression becomes indecipherable.
“What the fuck are you doing? GO!” Historically, Ren has a pretty hard time saying no to him, so he commits his face to memory and goes.
A shot to the head and a fist fight later, Maruki is defeated.
And Goro Akechi is dead.
-
When it’s all over and he’s released from jail he comes home to the warmth of his friends and family. They shout and crowd him, and he kindly pretends he doesn’t notice the way Ryuji’s eyes start to water. In the commotion he stares at Akechi’s empty seat and feels guilty when he realizes he doesn’t feel all that happy to be back.
He can’t muster the energy to pretend to be excited and he can only hope his friends don’t notice. Ann is all smiles as she runs her hands through his hair and tells him she wants to style it. Makoto catches him up on what he missed in school, letting him know that Ryuji even passed an exam while he was gone. Ryuji whoops from his end of the table, and Ren dramatically slow claps for him. He loves his friends so much, but the weight in his chest is getting hard to ignore.
At one point Haru pulls him aside and asks him if he’s okay.
“I’m fine.” He tries, and god Akechi was so much better at this shit than him. “I’m just tired.” He gives her a smile and she doesn’t press him about it. She gives him a hug and is pulled back into the festivities by Futaba asking her opinion on whether or not she should be allowed to commission Yusuke for “imagery that threatens the sanctity of art.”
His friends don’t mention Akechi and he doesn’t really think it’s to spare his feelings. He doesn’t blame them, he can’t. Maybe to his friends Akechi wasn’t worth remembering past the initial grief of a life lost. Still, he can’t help but feel a little rotten that he seems to hold the only proof left that Akechi ever existed at all.
He grips the glove in his pocket a little tighter.
Later, when they run out of the snacks Ann and Ryuji had brought, he offers to go for a quick snack run. He insists to Morgana that he doesn’t need to tag along, he’ll only be a minute and besides, Lady Ann has a free lap for him to sit in. Morgana takes the bait, obviously.
He steps outside Leblanc and feels the cool air caress his skin. The snow has long since melted, and he remembers Kawakami telling their class once about how spring represents rebirth and new beginnings.
Akechi never got the luxury of a new beginning. And for all that Ren fought for this world, it doesn’t make sense to him that the earth is still turning at all.
He doesn’t go to the store to purchase any snacks, his friends won’t die of starvation if he takes 30 minutes to just be with his thoughts. He mutters a “sorry, guys” to nobody, walks into the Yongen-Jaya laundromat and sits in the corner.
He finally lets himself cry.
-
“I do hope you didn’t forget how to make my coffee order correctly amidst my absence.” Is the first thing Akechi has to say for himself when he walks through the door of Leblanc, nearly a year since the last time Ren had seen him. He doesn’t look much different, not really. His demeanor seems a little calmer and his hair seems the same length, though now it’s pulled back in a small ponytail, bangs still framing the angular shape of his face.
Ren shoots him a bewildered look, and before he can stop himself he’s laughing. Laughing so hard his stomach hurts and his ribs are going to feel bruised when he’s done.
Of fucking course he’s alive. Unbelievable.
“You-“ He manages through his laughter that he’s pretty sure has now turned into actual crying, “are the worst.”
Akechi blinks at him, opening and closing his mouth a few times like the fish at the aquarium they used to frequent. This is the first time Ren has seen him look like this, nervous. His confidence doesn’t simmer, but his tone softens.
“Yes, well, at least that confirms you haven’t suffered amnesia.” Is all he says.
“God, I missed you so much.” He laughs, wiping his tears. There are so many things Ren wants to ask him. Like where the hell has he been, or why did you let me think you were dead? Selfishly, but perhaps most importantly, he wants to ask him if he had missed him as much as he missed Akechi.
Akechi coughs into his gloved hand, barely covering up the small smile that forms on his face. “I do hope you weren’t pining over me like some sad young adult novel heroine.”
Ha. Oh man. He absolutely was.
“No, I was too busy kicking your ass in Gun About and beating your high score.”
Akechi’s face contorts and Ren thinks he looks legitimately offended. “You thought I was dead and you went and beat my high score?”
“Yeah well, you’re my rival.” He shrugs, like it’s obvious. Like nothing’s changed.
“I was dead.”
“I still have your glove. Till death do us part, or whatever.”
Akechi blanches. “That is not what the glove meant.”
“Well, turns out you weren’t dead, so I don’t feel bad about it.” He retorts, shrugging.
Akechi rests both his hands against the countertop and takes a breath. “Ren.” It comes out quiet like he’s telling him a secret, like his own name is something worth keeping safe.
“I intend on upholding our deal. Unless you’ve changed your mind.” Nervous, still.
For a moment, Ren’s confused. Does he mean the duel? He always keeps his promises, and it’s unlike Akechi to think otherwise- oh.
That deal.
“Haven’t changed my mind.” He shakes his head. “I was just waiting for my date to stop ghosting me.”
Akechi looks away at the mention of the word date, but his expression softens as he moves to stand. “Are you free now?”
He’s supposed to be looking after the store, so no. But Sojirio is a phone call away, and despite appearances his adoptive-father is a big softie who won’t tell him he has to stay put.
So he calls Sojiro, who says a few hoo-boys at the whole situation, and gets the go ahead to rip off his apron and meet Akechi at the front of the store.
Standing in front of him now, face to face, he doesn’t feel as compelled to interrogate him over his disappearance. He’ll have time to find out where Akechi had gone off to, or why Akechi seems lighter in a way he’d never seen him when they were in highschool, and he thinks with an odd sense of certainty that he’ll get the answers. When Akechi’s ready, when Akechi decides Ren’s deserving of them. Maybe Akechi will ask Ren questions, too and it’ll be him who asks Ren if he knew how much he missed him.
Ren watches Akechi fiddle with the clasp of his glove before the boy extends his hand out to him. The afternoon sun coming through Leblanc’s windows brings out the golden flecks in his eyes and the smattering of freckles across his cheeks. Those are new, he thinks. God, Ren has so many things to say, to confess.
“Well, are you coming or not?” Akechi snips impatiently, and the color on his freckled cheeks give his embarrassment away.
With you? I’d go anywhere.
Ren reaches out his hand as to not leave Akechi feeling rejected a second longer. Maybe Ren had to wait a year but he would have waited a lifetime, Akechi’s time wasn’t his to take. But he’ll take what he’s given, and if he’s given this moment he’s not going to let it go to waste.
So he’ll tell him all the stupid, obvious, important and stupidly obvious important things he wants to say tomorrow, or next week, or in a month when Akechi lauds his third Chess victory in a row over him and the three words slip out, honeyed and sincere.
It really doesn’t matter when. They have time.