Ren stared at the warped grin stretched across Akechi's face. Even without the body suit, talons, and frankly intimidating black mask, Akechi struck a frightening figure. Instinct told Ren to take a step back, and it took a lot of his willpower not to give into it. He knew on some level that the other man was unlikely to hurt him, both because he was no longer following orders to work against the now-former phantom thieves and because of his injuries, but Ren had not survived all he had by ignoring his gut.
"But, surprisingly, not at you," Akechi continued.
The blaring alarms in Ren's head silenced at once, "What?"
Akechi reached a hand up to his face and slid it slowly up into his hair. He gripped the strands hard before taking a step back, letting out a heavy breath through his nose, and staring up at the ceiling light above them. He stared at the light until his eyes watered.
"Hey, knock that off. Are you trying to wreck your eyes?" Ren tried, taking a step forward, this time into Akechi's personal space. The other man did nothing to maintain the distance, simply blinking the moisture out of his eyes and training them onto Ren instead.
"Maybe," Akechi muttered, the grin morphing into a frown. He stood, stock still for a long moment, seemingly choosing his words carefully, "I am finding it difficult to ignore the very strong desire to break something right now. Namely, this Maruki. Heaven pray we never meet or I might do something… regrettable."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Ren replied, looking away at something over Akechi's shoulder. His eyes landed on the bookcases. He wondered if they were organized by content or through some other metric. They could just as easily be arranged by size for all he knew.
Akechi scoffed, "I sincerely doubt that."
"What, don't believe me? I do have a temper, you know. I just don't let it get the better of me. Though, I did have a few close calls…"
Akechi still didn't look like he believed him. However, he didn't press or argue. Instead, he cocked his head towards the sofa-bed in invitation. As Ren sat down, he said, "I've been finding it harder to keep my emotions in check, ever since what happened in the interrogation room, as loath as I am to admit it."
He plopped down next to Ren. "Back then, I could grin and bear it, so long as I told myself that it was all towards my goal… all in service of my revenge against my… father. Play nice, I told myself, all the while imagining doing the worst things to them. Smile, don't give them the satisfaction. Play their games, but play to win and outsmart them all. Then, strike when they least expect it. Take him down. Nothing else mattered."
Ren nodded, picking up the bottle of tea from the table, and rolling it between his hands. He debated taking a sip, but instead asked, "What were you going to do after?"
"Nothing," Akechi breezily replied, holding a hand out. It took Ren a second to realize that he wanted the bottle. It was passed over and Akechi drank from it, seeming not to care that Ren's mouth had been on it. "I didn't expect, or plan, on living much past that."
He downed what little remained in the bottle, while Ren felt a cold chill run down his spine. He wasn't surprised, part of him had suspected that Akechi hadn't put much thought into his future, but hearing it put so bluntly put Ren ill at ease.
He never did put much value in his life, come to think of it. That was one thing the oth– the cognition got right. I hope he still doesn't think like that.
"But here I am. At," Akechi glanced at the clock, "half past twelve in the morning, loosing my shit while drinking cheap tea with the person I tried to kill twice… you have to admit, that's got to be some sort of fucked up cosmic joke."
Ren debated hard on how to respond.
"I mean," he looked Akechi dead in the eye, "the tea wasn't that bad."
Ren promptly found a pillow smacked against his face and a growl in his ears. Lucky for him, Akechi didn't seem intent on smothering him with it.
"I hate you sometimes."
"Only sometimes?"
The pressure on the pillow increased slightly, though not enough to hurt or restrict Ren's oxygen. Blindly, Ren reached out to shove the other man away enough to say, "I thought you weren't planning to kill me."
"I've changed my mind," Akechi allowed himself to be shifted back to his side of the sofa-bed. With him went the pillow. "Besides, smothering someone is much less messy than, say, stabbing or shooting them. Far less clean-up on my end."
Ren tried to get his hair in order, quickly giving up, "Who knew you were such a neat-freak."
"There's a lot you don't know about me," Akechi shot back, almost proudly.
"Yeah, well–"
He was interrupted by the ringing of the phone in his pocket. He looked at Akechi, who stared just as dumbfounded back at him. He watched as Ren pulled the phone out, looked at the caller ID, and made a face. "Aren't you going to answer that?"
Ren raised a finger to his lips and answered the call.
"Ren! It's about time you picked up! You haven't answered any of my texts and you were supposed to be back hours ago! What the heck?! Mona and dad are beside themselves!" Futaba didn't need to be put on speaker to be heard clearly throughout the apartment. Ren watched Akechi's face pale, though Ren wasn't sure if it was because of Futaba or the probable noise complaint he would be receiving come morning.
"Hey, 'Taba. Sorry about that," Ren tried, standing to try to take the call somewhere more private– and better soundproofed. He looked at Akechi, pointed to the phone, and shrugged with one shoulder. His options were limited. There was the kitchen area, shower area, or restroom. To his surprise, Akechi shook his head and gestured back to the sofa-bed. "I, uh, ran into a friend…"
Akechi raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.
"And you didn't think to call? Or check your messages?"
"I put my phone on silent. Guess I forgot to change it back. Again, I'm really sorry Futaba."
She huffed, but sounded less frantic than before, "Where are you? Are you on your way home?"
"About that… I'm still in Saitama, with my friend," Ren glanced at the clock and grimaced. It was getting closer and closer to one, and there was no way the trains were still running. He could wait for the first train around five or take a taxi home– which would be insanely expensive.
"You're not with Ryuji, are you? Isn't his school in Saitama?" The sound of fingers tapping against a mechanical keyboard filtered over the line.
"Nah, different friend," Ren replied. "But could you do me a favor?"
The typing paused for a moment, "Why should I after you worried us all so much?"
"Because you don't want me sleeping on the street?"
Akechi, who had been pretending not to listen in, turned his head slightly. He shifted his weight slightly. Ren assumed he was either going to get up and finally give them a little privacy or was settling in to watch the fireworks fly. Ren wouldn't put either past him.
"Would serve you right," she began typing again.
As sweetly as he could, he tried, "Because you love me and want what's best for your 'key item'?"
Akechi got up and walked out of the room.
"Eww. And you did not just say that. That's cheesy, even for you. Why don't you just stay with your friend? Wait, is your friend a girl? Look at you, Romeo!"
"It's not like that. Besides," Ren glanced around, double checking that Akechi was out of earshot, "His place is kinda small and he's only got one bed."
"Ooooooh, that trope's a classic," she cackled. He faintly heard Morgana shout something in the background, though he couldn't make out what the not-cat said. "But still not seeing a problem."
"Futaba, can you please just look up business hotels and internet cafes in the area for me? I'm not sure how much longer my phone's going to last and there's no way I can afford to take a taxi home." He leaned back and shut his eyes. He didn't open them when he heard the door to the kitchen open and shut again. He did startle, however, when a napkin was dropped over his face.
Picking it up, it read: Everyone has a price, in messy writing.
"Again, what's in it for me?"
Ren eyed Akechi, who stood next to the sofa-bed, another bottle of tea in hand. He didn't seem too put out by what was going on in his room. If Ren had to hazard a guess, the other man looked bored. His eyes were focused on something on one of the bookcases instead of Ren or his phone.
"What do you want?"
"Now you're talking," she said gleefully, fingers flying over the keys, "I'm thinking, that limited edition Yellow Owl acrylic keychain we saw on TV the other night."
Ren dragged a hand down his face, trying not to groan. He knew exactly which one she was talking about and how absolutely difficult it would be to find, "The one that's sold out, like, everywhere?"
"Uh huh!"
"Fine? I'll get your Yellow Owl keychain… somehow," Ren promised, pretending not to notice Akechi perk up at that. "Now, what are my options for places to stay?"
"Well, you're out of luck on business hotels. All booked up. As for cafes… mmm, this isn't good. The nearest one is two stations away. That's a long walk. How much battery have you got left?"
He checked. "Six percent."
"Probably not enough to get you there. I'm searching for karaoke joints and all night diners too, but there really isn't much in the area. Very residential. Are you sure you can't stay with your friend?"
"Nah. Well, send me the info for the nearest one anyway. If worse comes to worse, I can always find someplace. Don't worry. I'll take the first train home in the morning."
There was a commotion over the phone before Morgana's voice came over the line, shrill, "We could wake Boss up and ask him to come get you. He has a car, you know! You don't gotta sleep outside!"
Ren ended the call. The battery was down to four percent.
"You wouldn't happen to have a charger I could borrow for a little while?"
Akechi leaned over the back of the sofa-bed and pulled up a long charging cable. It was compatible with Ren's phone, thankfully, and he balanced the phone on the pillow to charge.
"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," Akechi began before the phone vibrated. "Do you really have nowhere else to stay?"
"I've got a place, problem is, it's kinda far away," Ren opened up the message from Futaba and showed Akechi the link. They opened it in Ren's GPS and traced the route.
"See that part here, that's along a major highway. And this area here is not one you want to be late at night. If you go this way," he traced a finger along several backstreets, "it would be much safer, but it would also add to your travel time. By the time you arrived, you would only get a couple of hours of sleep at most, before you would have to catch the train."
"Yeah, but what else can I do? Unless you know of any particularly good parks around here?"
"Nonsense," Akechi handed Ren the half empty bottle of tea and slid open his closet, "While it won't be the most luxurious accommodations, and certainly not the most comfortable, it will beat sleeping outside or potentially getting lost amongst unfamiliar streets."
He dragged a zippered storage bag and pulled out a heavy winter blanket from it, "I've found folding it over will both make the floor slightly more comfortable as well as allow you to use some of it as intended. As for a pillow…"
He took a pullover hoodie from its hanger and stuffed a few shirts into it, folding the arms inward and tucking the entire thing into the hood. "This should suffice."
He brought everything to the empty bit of floor space between the row of short bookcases and the window. Dropping them down, he made to pull the blackout shades across the windows. "I assume you are capable of getting set up while I see to my nightly routine?"
"Y-yeah. Thanks," Ren rushed over to his makeshift bed and started arranging the blanket as Akechi had recommended. It was large, probably made for a king-sized bed, although Akechi's sofa-bed was a single at most. Ren imagined the former detective folding it several times in lieu of buying additional blankets during the winter.
"I don't understand why you are doing this," he said, placing the pillow to face the windows. He assumed his temporary roommate would want privacy first thing in the morning, "But I do appreciate it."
"Don't misunderstand me, Joker," he said sweetly, voice falling back into his Detective Prince persona, with just a little hint of gruffness underlying it. His back was still turned to Ren as he continued, "This makes us even."