Big News and Sleepy Talks
You all took separate cars to the café, but Higuchi carried everything in her car. She said she would hold onto it for all of you for the day until you were ready to leave, which you thanked her for.
You had a feeling something awkward must have happened when you left because of how tense the two of them looked after you came back. You were glad to be in a separate car, using a rental the new company you work for. Surprisingly, Akutagawa didn’t say anything about it to you – which you also thought odd.
He knew you didn’t have a car, but he saw you get into this one!
Something was definitely going on with him and possibly between him and Higuchi. Oh, you really hoped it wasn’t something too bad. You drove behind Higuchi though, with the radio playing in the background. You turned it up to distract you from your thoughts, but you paid attention to the road.
Once you all got there, you parked close together, and that was when you noticed the sour look Higuchi developed on her face. She looked incredibly pale, sweat painted at her forehead and a deep scowl set on her lips. You almost frowned at her, but you stopped yourself, thinking it would be best not to.
And then Akutagawa got out of his car, and walked straight into the café, holding his head down. You almost laughed now, thinking this would be really ridiculous and awkward.
Maybe they got into a heated argument, but you believed that maybe you could fix it here.
Akutagawa offered to buy you coffee, and Higuchi silently stood behind you two. You laughed again, a bit more loudly and pulled her hand to make her stand beside you two. Akutagawa sighed silently but realized maybe he should just be a bit more… approachable for now.
“So, what’s going on?” You asked quietly, sitting outside on the patio with Akutagawa and Higuchi. All three of you sat under an umbrella, at a small round table and instead of responding to you, they both took sips of their coffee and tea.
You grimaced and whispered, “Alrighty,” and you even nodded your head, glancing away from them.
Higuchi stared at her coworker, then to you, and back again to Akutagawa. Then she sighed deeply and pushed her head into her hands, seemingly very stressed.
“Are you guys, okay?” You blurted out, almost instantly cringing at yourself for that question, but Higuchi glanced up to you and smiled softly.
“Work stuff, that’s all. I forgot about an important deadline today – he reminded me about it, I just made a mistake, it’s okay.” She rambled, shrugging her shoulders as Akutagawa continued to stare at you.
For some reason, you felt that there was something heavy behind his stare, different than usual, maybe because of Higuchi. But you nodded back to her and grinned.
“Oh, it’ll be alright! I’m sure Akutagawa will help you out.” At the mention of his name, his eyebrows raised for a moment and then you gazed at him with an obviousness tone, “Right Aku?” You questioned, and he nodded after a moment of hesitation.
Aku – oh he felt so embarrassed at the name you used, he almost bristled when you said it. Higuchi already learned so much about him too, through you and he was worried each of you will learn things about him that he doesn’t want to speak about.
“What’s your news? I need to go home soon.” He went straight to the point, thoughts running through his mind about you and Higuchi. And he was reminded of what you said about that kiss! Would that happen still today? He doubted it but he ordered a mint tea so his breath would be decent if you did want to kiss him.
But still, he was sure that wasn’t going to happen because Higuchi was there. He wondered what she would think about this, and he sent her a look, thinking that maybe she’d be a bit jealous or confused? He wasn’t too sure. She very much liked you and that was clear to him, but he knew that she wouldn’t risk their work relationship, since you mattered so much to Akutagawa.
“I got a new job here! Right in the city, here! Yokohama, isn’t that amazing? I’m in the middle of moving my things to an apartment – they offered a place and good pay.” You spoke up excitedly and instantly the mood changed to a nervous excitement.
Akutagawa’s eyes widened completely, and he leaned in closer to you as if he didn’t hear you the first time and Higuchi let out a loud surprised laugh and cupped her hands over her mouth.
“No way!” She cheered back, bouncing slightly in her seat in excitement, she leaned over to you and patted your arm happily, “Congratulations! You will do great at your new job here.” And then she seemed to realize something once Akutagawa’s hand slammed down onto the table.
“What job?” He questioned, a suspicious tone to his voice and you shook your head to him, laughing it off.
“I’m so excited! Thank you,” You paused, and Higuchi and you both watched as Akutagawa’s hand slid off the table a bit dramatically and he stood up, demanding to know.
“What job? Don’t make me ask again.”
His tone made you frown slightly, confused at the way he seemed so aggressive. You would’ve thought he’d be happy since you two could hang out more often.
“At some tech place you probably haven’t heard of. Light Box? I’m going to be working in Human Resources and possibly communications.” You felt a bit defensive as you replied and Higuchi quickly spoke up after you, trying to calm Akutagawa down. She understood what that look on his face meant, and she really didn’t want him to ruin this café and expose the two of them to you.
“That’s really interesting! When do you start? Do you need help moving? I can come over and help if you’d like!” She giggled a bit nervously, trying to recall her training for situations like this. Akutagawa cleared his throat and pretended to adjust his pants and then sat back down, as if he didn’t just get very suspicious and angry.
You two glanced towards him for a few moments before you responded to her, “Oh wow, thanks Higuchi! And I start next week, I’m pretty nervous but excited.”
Meanwhile Akutagawa was very quiet, and a strange dark energy was surrounding him. He was thinking and trying to remember if Light Box was connected to the Port Mafia in any way, but he didn’t recall it. He knew it was a newer company, he remembered seeing it in the paper a few weeks ago, but he wasn’t too worried about that at the moment. He was almost scared at the fact you were moving here. He didn’t want you to move here!
You would definitely find out the truth about him. And he really didn’t want that to happen! He didn’t even feel safe at this café, knowing that somewhere nearby, there was probably a wanted sign for him, with a blurry picture. You would definitely know if you saw that – you couldn’t be that naive.
And he also needed to make sure you’re safe where you’re moving to. He spoke up, interrupting the conversation, “What’s your new address?”
You furrowed your eyebrows at him, a bit confused at the question. Was he wanting to know if you were close by, in the neighborhood to him? “It’s like a ten-minute drive from your place.” You responded, shrugging slightly.
He felt a little relieved that you lived somewhat close to him, but you didn’t respond to his question, really.
“But your address?”
Higuchi rolled her eyes at him, laughing nervously again at how demanding and weird he was being. Was he always like that with you? She wasn’t too sure.
“Oh yeah, what’s your address? I want to send a gift to help decorate your new place a bit! Right, Akutagawa? You wanted to do that too?” She spoke up, twirling her fingers in her hair as a nervous habit. You smiled at her and then took a sip of your drink.
“That’s sweet, I’ll text you guys the address later.” You answered and Akutagawa nodded, still tensed at the news. He was tense with Higuchi here too! This was all a strange situation but what mattered most was that you stayed safe and unaware of his work.
A few minutes later, Higuchi excused herself to go to the restroom, leaving you and Akutagawa alone. As soon as she went back inside, you leaned across the table and jokingly slapped at his hand. He kept still but narrowed his eyes at you.
“Why?” He asked, feeling a spike of an unexplained emotion leap in his chest, as you leaned closer to him. You pouted back to him, shaking your head and then grabbed his drink, taking a small sip from it to try it out.
“Why what? Oh, that tastes good. Mint isn’t your usual flavor though.” You responded, tilting your head slightly. You sighed and glanced over to the door, making sure Higuchi wasn’t there.
“And you’ve been acting like a bitch this entire time! I mean, you usually act like that but not this bad. Is there something going on between you and Higuchi?” You weren’t scared to call him out for all of it, which he scowled at. Usually, if someone called him a bitch, he would’ve hurt them, but he wouldn’t hurt you and maybe a few other people, like his sister and boss.
“No.” He flat out denied it and a surprised snort came out of your mouth, continuing with some laughs because of how fast he responded and how deadpan he was.
“Come on, are you okay? I’m kind of worried.” You became a bit more serious, and it made him pause slightly before letting his shoulders down as he sighed, glancing to the side as he thought about what to say.
One part of his mind wanted him to lecture you about moving here, and how unsafe it was. He would rather have you live very far away from here and he’d even pay you to do so, but he knew you’d deny that offer.
Another part of him also wanted to lecture you for not telling him sooner, and that you were hanging out with Higuchi instead of him. And then just a tiny part of his mind was screaming at him, wondering if you were actually going to kiss him today.
And he had imagined that kiss so many times ever since you said you’d kiss him. There were so many different scenarios he made up, maybe he’d have something on his cheek, and you’d lean in and point it out to him, but he still couldn’t wipe it off, so you wipe it off and then your lips brush against his – oh my, he almost felt himself blush just wondering about it now.
Or maybe it would be more intense. Maybe you’d confess your love to him, and he’d be very reluctant to even show you affection, and he’d let you kiss him. Yeah, he glanced at you and then almost chuckled, thinking of you confessing your love. That wouldn’t happen. You would confess your love in a very different way – like shouting it out from a rooftop and then calling him your little bitch, to which he’d walk away from you.
He snapped out of his thoughts when you touched his hand again, making him focus back on you. “I’m okay. Work hasn’t been good lately and,” He paused, feeling a bit touched that you were so worried, but also feeling strange to talk about his feelings.
“And it’s been stressful.” He finished up, gulping a little. He couldn’t tell you everything.
“Oh, no.” You responded and squeezed his hand in yours. He tried his best not to flush at the little affection, still frazzled by thinking about the kiss, but he figured he should ask about it too.
“Remember what we spoke about a couple nights ago?” He asked, eyes treading back to the door again to make sure Higuchi wasn’t coming. She still was in the bathroom.
“What? Oh!” You gasped and smiled brightly, “Thanks for reminding me! Yeah, I remember when we were talking about laundry, oh – I got to find a good laundromat around here.” He blinked back and then pulled his hand away from yours, instantly switching back into his scowl.
“Uh, yeah.” He barely responded, and gazed away from you, cursing at himself in his head. That was so dumb of him, of course you wouldn’t remember the conversation about kissing him… but it was also his fault, he should have asked a more specific question. You were talking about laundry, bringing up the other conversation you guys had that night. You two sat in silence and you looked at him with a kind smile, making him a little less upset.
Higuchi came back after a few moments and some time later, the three of you left. Akutagawa called Higuchi the moment he knew she was in the car and told her they needed to speak. They met up back at his place, once he was finished with the errands (the ones that Gin told him to do earlier).
Instead of letting Higuchi come inside, he insisted on sitting outside the door. “We can’t let her move here.” He spoke up, staring at the floor.
“Uh, sorry to disappoint you, but she will move here.” Higuchi responded and then quickly added on, “Unfortunately.”
He sighed, “Yes.”
“We can have security placed around the building.” Higuchi offered, which he quickly shot down with a mean stare at her. He didn’t like that idea, it would mean others would know that you were important to him or someone else in the Port Mafia, which would make you more of a target.
“We need to make sure everything is safe; she should’ve told me about this before…” He trailed off with a frown. There wasn’t enough time to research everything, like the company, where exactly you’re staying, who are your neighbors, if there’s any dangers around you. You sent the address thankfully, and he knew that area was mostly safe, but he still needed to check everything about it.
Higuchi was worried too, but there was a small excitement to it. She wanted you to be closer to her and Akutagawa, she’s noticed how he’s been so much kinder and different around you! It’s always shocking to see her coworker in a casual manner. He still wore his coat all the time, of course, just in case, but everything else changed about him.
She wondered if he’d ever develop smile lines if he were to hang out with you more. But either way, she liked you. The more she learned about you and the more she was around you, she started to understand why he kept you a secret from the Port Mafia. You were so normal and lovely, she really liked you. You were different compared to everyone in her life, in a good way.
Then Akutagawa spoke up, and Higuchi felt her heart drop at his words.
“We’re burning down the apartment building. It’ll give more time to find a safer place for her to stay. I’ll distract her, you can do burn it. Or maybe explosives…” He said it so casually that Higuchi’s jaw dropped.
“Is there no other way? Do we really need to set fire to her new place? She was so excited about it, I feel bad.” Higuchi opened up, showing her resistance to his plan and he rolled his eyes back to her.
“She’ll have an even better place; I can arrange it.” He shrugged and Higuchi hid her smile with one of her hands, feeling lucky to see this side of him. He was surprisingly sweet when he wanted to, even though he was planning on burning an apartment building down.
Later that night, you sent him a message about hoping onto a call. He thought it was a bit unusual, usually he reached out to you to join a call to play some games online together, but he joined the call a few minutes after you sent the message.
“Hello?” He spoke into his microphone, and he could practically hear your smile when you responded with, “Heeyyy,” elongating it with a laugh. He raised his eyebrows in response, even though you couldn’t see him.
“I’ve been thinking about it.” You spoke up and he heard some furious typing from your end, and he frowned for a second.
"You’re thinking? Oh no, that’s bad,” He quickly added on, “What?” He was curious about what you meant, and then you yawned into the microphone, mumbling something but he couldn’t catch what you said, so he repeated his question.
“I know what you meant back there, you wanted to see if I would really kiss you.” You replied, and that was when he noticed something was off about your voice. You were tired beyond relief it sounded like – you yawned again when you repeated it, and even though the subject got his heart beating faster, he was much more worried about you being sleepy.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you asleep?” He didn’t bother to respond to what you said about the kiss, and he heard you laugh and yawn at the same time, and you even hit your head against the microphone, making him confused.
“I kind of like – I pulled my mattress up the stairs and uh, then the couch and my dresser and like- yeah.” You rambled on, yawning again and he sighed into the microphone.
“You need to sleep, stop being stupid.” He criticized, shaking his head at you. Then you turned on your camera, and he almost flinched back at the mess.
You looked crazy tired, there was sweat all over you and dust and dirt stained on your face, and the background was so messy. All that furniture you just mentioned was stacked behind you and it looked a bit dangerous, and he turned on his camera to show how crazy he thought you were.
“You stupid idiot! It’s going to fall all over you! How are you going to sleep tonight?” He lectured, pointing out all of the furniture, “Is that a glass vase? And you put it on the edge of your mattress, that’s standing up in the wrong way?”
“Yeah…” You responded, glancing behind you, and realizing that wasn’t the best placement.
“Are you trying to die from a glass vase? That’s a fucking dumb way to die, idiot.” He practically shouted at you, and you rolled your eyes at before standing up and reaching for the vase. As he continued berating you with insults, you took the vase into your hands and placed it on the floor instead.
“That’s better.” You nodded to yourself, placing your hands on your hips before glancing to the screen again.
“Again, how are you sleeping?” It sounded so ridiculous to him that he was arguing with you about this, like he was a concerned parent, wanting their child to go to sleep at a reasonable time with a clean room. He remembered how stupid he thought parents looked when they got worried over some small drama about their kids, but here he was acting just like them.
“Yeah, I’ll sleep on the floor with a pillow and blanket.” You responded, sipping on a glass of water. Akutagawa shook his head, disappointed, and then stayed silent for a few moments, contemplating if he should invite you over. You could sleep on his bed – no, actually, you can sleep on the couch, that was what you deserved for being so stupid, he thought.
“Come over and sleep on my couch. Higuchi can help you settle in tomorrow.” It was like an order he would say to his team, the Black Lizard and then he got rid of that thought when an uncomfortable emotion hit his chest.
“Aww, you really want that kiss, huh?” You teased him and then laughed when he swore something mean to you. You shook your head back to him and sighed gently, leaning towards the camera.
“Did you really want a kiss? I thought you would have wanted your first kiss to be special.” You spoke again, sitting and waiting for him to respond. He glanced away from the screen, not used to you being serious.
“No, kisses are pathetic, only for weak-minded people.” He said it so defensively that you raised your eyebrows at him for a moment and grinned before nodding.
“You’re acting like an assassin with omnipotent powers again,” You paused for a moment and then laughed, trying to imitate him, “No kiss, only kill.” And then laughed again and he chuckled, feeling like that was one of the closest descriptions you’ve ever had of him, without truly knowing what he does for a living.
“Are you coming over or not?” He asked, getting annoyed when he saw you yawn again.
“No, fuck off.” You laughed back tiredly. He rolled his eyes, and replied with a short, “Bitch.”
When one of your books fell off the top of your cabinet that was placed strangely, you jumped and Akutagawa only shook his head to you, saying, “Higuchi will help you tomorrow.” In his head, he was already planning on what to do with you once Higuchi got you out of your place so she would set fire to that apartment building.
And then you can move even closer to him and possibly Higuchi to stay as safe as possible. He also needed to find a way to hide his profession from you. It wouldn’t work out if you saw all those wanted signs of him and watched the news. Or he could even try to find another better job, but he knew that wouldn’t work. You’d be too suspicious about it and try to investigate it.
There was so much to do, such little time. He needed to hide his true identity around you better and keep Higuchi from acting like an idiot.