[Day 15, afternoon: Akechi]

[purrtagonist]

[Ichigo sleeps the day away. and honestly, Akira almost does, too. but at some point he manages to disentangle himself from his napping buddy to sneak out and pull a certain someone aside, right into an empty classroom]

[once they're there? Akira leans his shoulder against a wall, crutch tucked underneath one arm, back facing Akechi]

I need your help.

Comments

[purrtagonist]

[. . . . . . . BUDDY. . . . .]

[opens his mouth to make a comment about how jealous boyfriends aren't attractive, before deciding. . . yeah, he still doesn't want to piss his alibi off. so. shutting his mouth immediately and quirking a brow at him instead]

How ominous. . .

[afailedmurder]

I prefer "noble." I only want to protect him.

[yyyyeah that's a jealous boyfriend right there]

[purrtagonist]

[yep absolutely]

What a knight in shining armor you are. . .

[afailedmurder]

Maybe for once, I can be.

[why yes, he IS that serious about his three-day-old relationship where they still refer to each other by family names]

[purrtagonist]

[he wants to give dating advice so badly]

Why do you still call him Saihara? Even I call him Shuichi.

[but that's because fuck formalities, he dropped all his honorifics like after the first murder. faux politeness is hard]

[afailedmurder]

Huh? Well...

[his excessive confidence evaporates immediately]

He and I have never discussed it, so...

[trails off]

[purrtagonist]

Soooo, call him Shuichi and see what happens.

[that easy! though he lapses into quiet contemplation aftwrwards]

Goro. . .

[afailedmurder]

[FEELS WEIRD, MAN]

Nobody calls me that...

[purrtagonist]

[FEELS REAL WEIRD]

. . . yeah, I'll stick to Akechi.

But if Shuichi calls you that, it'll be like. . . a special name.

[afailedmurder]

S-special, huh...

[actually looking a little bashful at that]

[purrtagonist]

[. . . aw]

Just a helpful suggestion.

[Akechi gives murder advice while Akira gives relationship advice??]

[afailedmurder]

[teamwork!]

I suppose I don't mind if he wants to, but I don't want others to hear him and get the same idea.

[purrtagonist]

So use the names in private only.

[he is suave]

[afailedmurder]

Perhaps I'll bring it up when I pay him a visit later.

[still feels weird. all of this feels weird. in this ridiculous murdergame, the romantic subplot is the most singularly surreal thing]

...What am I even doing? This is all completely absurd.

[purrtagonist]

[look, in a horrible murdergame, when you could die at like, any moment, you gotta yolo your life. take it from Akira, he's an expert on this stuff]

I'm pretty sure you obtaining a boyfriend is the least absurd thing to happen here, actually.

[afailedmurder]

[look nobody loves to yolo more than my self-berserking ass, but come on]

Are you serious? I've never had a romantic feeling for anyone at any point in my entire life.

[purrtagonist]

[have you considered that maybe you are just. . . the odd one out, Akechi. . .]

And I've never had any serious murderous inclination towards anyone ever, at any point in my entire life.

[so he just]

[shrugs]

[. . . does deciding that risking Kamoshida's death to steal his heart was worth it count or not tho. . .]

[afailedmurder]

[gggggggggod what am I even talking about, why is any of this happening, there is murder to be planned]

R-right, sorry, I didn't mean to go off the rails there.

[purrtagonist]

I preferred to to what we were originally talking about.

[truth. . . fully]

[afailedmurder]

If we make it through this, then we can talk about my apparent love life.

[he actually kinda wants to... but it really isn't the time]

Right now, we should prepare ourselves.

[purrtagonist]

[don't worry bro, if they make it out alive Akira will do his best to advise]

Ah. . . [the tone is somber again] Right.

I don't know if there's much else for us to do but wait until tonight.

[afailedmurder]

Do something calming. Get some rest if you can manage it. I'll be doing the same.

[purrtagonist]

. . . I'm gonna go nap.

[with Ichigo]

[god what would Ichigo think of this??]

[scrubs at his face]

I need the rest, anyway.