Chapter Text
Atsushi would like to think that not much could phase him at this point. The high action life of being a gifted in Yokohama had dulled down in the past year. He knew there were still things he needed to learn and do, but the fright and panic of fighting that usually followed him weren’t as prominent and he finally understood why the others in the agency were so casual about the violence around them. Still, it seemed that sometimes the world enjoyed proving him wrong.
Coming home should have been normal. It should have been a stress-relieving situation, but...
“You should consider buying locks for your windows. It is incredibly concerning how easy it was to get in here,”
The weretiger jumped in alarm, startled eyes looking up from the door he had entered. There, at the small table as if he belonged there, was Akutagawa. Sitting casually and drinking tea. By the scent alone Atsushi knew that it was the expensive leaves that he had bought at Chinatown a week ago that were specifically for special occasions, which meant that the coat-wearing menace had been in his apartment long enough to rummage through his cupboards and brew himself a pot.
“I live on the second floor, of a building owned by a company full of ability users,”
He glared as the only other occupant of the room shrugged in an unbothered manner, pouring himself another cup. “Rapists can climb. So can burglars and any other unsavoury people,”
“Oh, so like you?”
Akutagawa huffed but didn’t give it a response. The silver-haired man grabbed a cup from the kitchen and placed himself on the other side of the table. It was his apartment and his tea and he’d be damned if he didn’t get to try at least a little bit of it before the pot was empty.
“Any particular reason why you had to break in? You aren’t trying to steal from the poor like a reverse Robin Hood are you?”
“Like you have anything I’d want to steal,”
Atsushi’s face deadpanned. “Say that to me again, but without the cup of tea in your hand,”
“Absolutely nothing,” The older man looked him dead in the eye, downing the tea in his cup.
“Asshole,” to his disappointment the pot was almost empty, “but seriously, you better have a good excuse as to why you’re in my house like you’re ready to jump me,”
Atsushi watched in suspicion as he dug into his pocket, ready to fight if Akutagawa pulled anything. Instead, he threw a card onto the table. “You dropped this yesterday,”
The card in question was the ID that every agency member had. His face coloured red in embarrassment, realizing that it must have fallen from his pocket when he transformed. “Thank you for bringing it back. But it doesn’t excuse you breaking into my house and drinking my tea!”
“It was the easiest way in,”
“And it will be the easiest way out too when I throw you out of it you Emo Coded Coat Rack!”
The peacefulness of the day was a rare treat. No work and no worries, Atsushi mused to himself over a bowl of chazuke. It was his day off and he intended to do nothing except laze around and if he was feeling up to it, possibly buy groceries. It was nice. Or it was ...
“I see you took my suggestion. You’re going to want to buy new locks, however,” was all that the off-brand Dracula said before taking his shoes off and shutting the window.
Atsushi felt rage flare in his chest, swiftly turned to give the other man a pointed glare. “You broke the fucking locks?”
“How else was I supposed to get in?”
“The door! Break-in like a normal criminal and pick the lock to the door!”
“Someone would have seen me,”
“Someone would also notice a Hot Topic reject coming through the window!”
“But no one saw me. I made sure of it,”
“No one saw you yet,” He insisted.
He brushed past him, going to the window to assess the damage. True to the gangster’s words, the locks were broken and unfixable. More accurately, they looked as if something had taken a bite out of them, a slight red glow on the damaged area. There was only one tool at Akutagawa’s disposal that could cause that kind of damage and it wasn’t in the younger man’s interest to go yelling at a piece of sentient fabric. Atsushi turned back around.
“What’s your reason for breaking in this time?”
Akutagawa took longer to answer the question as if thinking of the best way to respond.
“...I was bored…”
“Being bored isn’t an excuse to break into people’s homes!”
He didn’t seem at all apologetic for his actions, not even bothering to offer an apology, only casually taking off his shoes as if he had been invited in. Atsushi took a breath and tried to calm himself down. Hitting Akutagawa or lashing out would result in a supernaturally powered fight and then everyone would know that he had the Port Mafia assassin in his place, and that would be after they destroyed the small apartment. He just... needed to cool down. Silently, he went to the kitchen and made another bowl of chazuke. If the emo disaster was going to be staying for a while, then it was best to offer a token of peace… for now. Placing it on the table, he picked up his chopsticks and gestured for Akutagawa to sit down.
“If you’re going to stay then fine. Don’t destroy anything and leave before Kyouka gets home,”
Luckily, the other understood and placed himself in front of Atsushi, taking the offered meal.
Before he even manages to shut the door, the weretiger already knows he’s there. He’s not even sure why it keeps happening. There isn’t anything interesting in the small apartment, and his continuous visitor seemed to come over more frequently. He still doesn’t look up as he takes off his shoes, already knowing that he is there at the small table again.
“The key is still in the pot isn’t it,”
“Yes,”
“The locks to my windows are broken again aren’t they,”
“...Perhaps,”
“You absolute gothic terror, I should put spikes on the window to keep you away, or even charms to ward off bad spirits, maybe something that shocks you and keeps from even thinking about opening the window again!”
“My Rashomon would simply eat through your defences. There is nothing that can stop me from coming in,”
“And there’s nothing stopping me from throwing you out the window,” he shot back, putting his bag onto the countertop “I should charge an entrance fee if you’re going to keep coming here. Which you shouldn’t be doing in the first place!”
“No one has seen me yet, and no one will see me. And I am less likely to be seen by going through the window rather than through your front door. It would cause a lot of problems for both of us if one of your coworkers saw me,”
Atsushi cursed under his breath. He was right, in a way. But, it was still very annoying to come home and find him doing as he pleased. Just the other day he found Akutagawa going through his small bookshelf and criticizing every book in it, even the ones he gave to him himself.
“What if Kyouka had come home before me? Then how will you explain yourself?”
“I will just tell her that you let me in,”
“Don’t drag me into your bullshit! Kyouka would try and stab you if she saw you in the apartment, with or without my permission,” it was true. An intruder was an intruder to Kyouka, and in the off chance someone that they didn’t know (or want) was in their home, it was a strike first and ask questions while the person was bleeding out all over the floor later kind of situation.
“Hm, then I will go out the same way I came in,”
“Like an idiot squirrel?”
Atsushi had gotten tired of buying new locks and window panels. His partner was too persistent in his little game of breaking and entering and Atsushi had to think about how light his wallet was getting and how long he could keep others in the dark about the whole situation. Kunikida was already getting suspicious with how much he was spending on trying to keep the human-sized raccoon from coming into his house (and drinking all his precious tea). It almost seemed like he enjoyed breaking in.
However, he noticed that the pattern of using the window to enter wasn’t just isolated to his own place of residence.
The lavish apartment that Akutagawa lived in was a far cry from the small and slightly worn down place that he occupied. Every time he walked into it he felt even poorer than he already was. There were benefits from being allowed into the apartment though. He could help himself to anything in the pantry, and that meant brewing the most expensive cup of tea he could and eating the high priced pastries (which he knew were Akutagawa’s) out of spite for his own dwindling stash.
It was only fair. If the cravat wearing loser wanted to keep breaking into his home whenever he wanted, then Atsushi was allowed to make himself comfortable in his own apartment.
Suddenly the window next to the couch flung open, with the familiar figure of the mafioso filling up the opening.
“Did you just fucking break into you’re own home?!” He screamed, falling off the couch in alarm at the sight of his partner.
Akutagawa casually shut the window. “It's not breaking in if you live here,”
“You have a door, a perfectly functioning one last time I checked. And, you live on like, the tenth floor. So tell me why, are you coming in through your own goddamn window like Bram Stoker’s version of Spider-Man?”
The older man gave him a look of contemplation before answering him.
“I gave Gin my other key,”
“You never fail to amaze me. It’s almost like you’re trying to get caught by the police. Have you ever tried picking the lock with Rashomon to get in? Can she even do that?”
“I’ve yet to get a complaint from the other tenants, which means that I am safe to continue doing as I please,”
“They’re probably too scared of you to try and say anything,” he mumbled before getting up off the floor, looking dejectedly at his spilt drink and now ruined afternoon “buy more snacks, you’re running out.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“You can have the right to say that after you pay me for all the tea you’ve drunk and for all the locks you’ve broken Mister Raccoon,”
“What’s for dinner?”
Atsushi didn’t even flinch when the new presence made himself known. He did, however, almost stab his intruder with the knife he was using to cut the tofu. That was out of irritation more than anything. He had decided to just seal the window completely a day ago. But, it seemed even that hadn’t been enough to dissuade from using it. Atsushi really hoped that Akutagawa didn’t make an uncleanable or unexplainable mess.
“Nothing that will be shared with you. And you broke in again! Aren’t you supposed to be working right now?”
“I dealt with them quickly. And look on the bright side, you’ve become less jumpy,”
“That isn’t an excuse! And don’t think I forgot you coming in Monday night just because you wanted to cuddle, you aren’t subtle at all,” he ranted, putting the tofu into the pan.
“You make a very decent pillow,” Akutagawa snaked his arms around him, pressing his face into Atsushi’s neck, cutting him off.
“You Badtz-Maru wannabe, I should kick you out for good!”
“I’ll just keep coming in,”
The window to the Agency flew open, startling everyone. Akutagawa balanced himself on the sill, looking unbothered at the staring. Atsushi sighed, he should have known that he was going to pull something like this.
“How many times do I have to tell you before you listen? It’s not that hard to use the door!”
The other detectives watched in shock as Atsushi yelled, the usually mild-mannered boy looking very ticked off.
“But this isn’t your apartment,” he answered, fully stepping into the room. However, it seemed the answer was the wrong one, as it only served to make the pale-haired boy even more annoyed. In a flash, Atsushi threw himself over his desk and began to hit the older man with the report he had been writing.
“It doesn’t matter! Come in like a normal person!” He yelled, continuing to whack him with the rolled-up papers.
“Akutagawa looks like a husband who is being scowled by his wife,” Yosano commented on the scene.
“He gets it from you, you know,” Dazai whispered to Kunikida as they watched Junichiro and Kyouka try to pry Atsushi away from the other. It didn’t seem to have any effect, as whatever Akutagawa said next set his partner off more and the dark-haired man began to start fighting back against the hits, both men rolling on the floor trying to throw the other off.