A/n: Takes place in the post-canon AU Sean and I have where Crash Keys later recruits all the former Nonary Game players into its employ. My prompts were "Clover/Snake and Akane/Aoi; separation anxiety."
Much thanks to Sean for prompting me with these and supplying the headcanon about remembering alternate timelines in the Akane/Aoi section.
i. hard to be soft
1.
The worst nights were when she had nightmares of the interior of Building Q, of fire, of coffins, and of "I can't find you, Light," but at least when she woke up he was there, letting her into his room and moving over to make room beside him no matter how small the bed.
2.
They didn't like running errands alone, and some of Clover's favorite moments were those evenings spent waiting for trains, bags in one hand, Light's hand in the other.
3.
"I hate Akane Kurashiki," she mumbled, hands fisting in his shirt, "but she does have a point. What do we have to lose by joining her?"
4.
"We weren't supposed to be separated! My brother and I are a team, we do missions together!" she yelled, and Akane smiled, tilted her head and acted innocent. None of this made Clover want to leap across the table and strangle her any less.
Later when she'd complained to Light, she'd found herself getting upset, getting hysterical, and there must have been some err, some misreading of cues, because when he bent down to kiss her forehead she moved up and met his lips, grabbing his collar to pull him in and hold him there against her mouth, and didn't let go until they'd shared a warm, slow minute.
5.
A few days later:
"We have to talk about what happened," Light began, standing at the foot of her bed, and she became very interested in her shirtsleeves.
"No we don't," she began, "Not unless you want to kiss me again -"
She looked up in time to catch his expression - a bit of shock, a bit of guilt, caught - and then felt the blood drain from her face, speechless.
ii. tough to be tender
1.
They recruited Junpei first, despite Aoi's protestations that he wasn't going to be useful anymore, and a week later he watches Akane ruffle his hair, flattering him, with a smile that looks way too genuine, and Aoi doesn't want to admit this, but he pouts.
(You're not supposed to like someone more than you like me.)
2.
The worst is the times when they have to be apart, either because Akane says she has to do this One Specific Thing by herself for the sake of history's flow, or simply because she gets tired of always being in company.
Aoi doesn't tell her this, but when she's gone for too long he starts to remember - the smell of the incinerator, her charred bracelet - and his heart races as he begins to doubt his reality. What if this is the wrong timeline and she's really dead? Sometimes he can lay perfectly still on his bed, breathing, with his mind racing, until she appears at his door like a fuckin' angel, and though she rolls her eyes because she's so over this, he crushes her in an embrace every time, just to feel that she's there.
3.
"We're gonna have to find a way to tell him," Akane says, and Aoi stares hard at her chest, suddenly distracted by cupping one of her breasts with his hand. "I can't keep sneaking back and forth from his bed to yours. We don't know how he'd take it," She shrugs and gives him a wry look. "Maybe he'd be into that sorta thing and join us."
Aoi snorts and rolls them over, tickling her until she apologizes for putting the images in his head.
4.
"Hey, Your Highness," he says, as he always calls her when he's feeling testy and she's being insufferably all-knowing about timelines and her manipulations and plans, "What are we gonna do when this venture goes tits up?"
Akane looks back at him over one shoulder, the gun she carries for self-defense still held up, and the way she's crouched there, framed by the partially open doors of the van they're about to jump out of and the night sky behind her, makes her look so daring, so unpredictable, and so utterly Akane Kurashiki that he kind of wants to forget about this plan and kiss her right now.
"That's why you're here, right?" she says with a chipper little smile, before turning back and jumping down.
Damn right he is, and he follows her.
5.
The moments they're alone are rare, and Aoi likes to appreciate them.
Tonight the kitchen is unusually empty, and they're cooking together, Akane chattering lightly over chopping vegetables. Her hair is secured with flower pins keeping it behind her ears, and Aoi keeps finding himself wanting to pull them out so he can play with her hair. She doesn't have patience for it, but she has some of the softest hair ever and when he can touch it, it's a potent reminder that she's here, and alive, and all of those memories of loss and loneliness aren't real in this world.
Instead, he comes up behind her, puts his hands on her waist, and kisses her neck, enjoying the way she's warm and smells like lavender shampoo and leans into him, before the sound of approaching footsteps breaks them apart.