Give It A Name

1

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke had a problem. It started simple, as naught but a minor inconvenience, but now it just hadto be dealt with. It was affecting his daily life, and several times already had he forgotten to do easy, absentminded things, such as putting on shoes or taking deeper breaths than usual when waking up in the morning, because he'd feel like he was choking otherwise. This issue was constantly on his mind, and honestly? It was getting on his last goddamn nerve. Now you're probably wondering what that problem is? The lifestyle-altering issue he was currently battling was, unbeknownst to him as he'd had nobody to explain these things, a massive crush on Nakajima Atsushi, which was, yes, very much making his life difficult. Every time he saw the helpful bangsie, his heart would start beating faster, causing him to forget to breathe, which led to constant coughing fits around him. That in itself was really annoying, but he could deal. Then there was a stealth mission, (which those ridiculous shoes might've compromised anyway, but—) and the image of Atsushi popped up in his head randomly, causing him to stumble and create an ungodly amount of noise. The mission was completed, but jokes circulated for weeks, as that was the sort of mistake he didn't often make, but did often reprimand others for making. The Black Lizard, at Gin's command, went to go shut up and scare a few people to make their point, but that didn't end his frustration. All it did was make him feel as though there really was something he ought to do about this. So he did...ish?

In the middle of the night, he snuck to the window of Atsushi's dorm and knocked on it till he woke up. When he saw Ryū's face, he was angry and confused, even more so than he originally would've been at just having been woken up in the first place.

"What are you doing here?!" he hissed under his breath after opening the window and letting Akutagawa in. "It's the middle of the night!"

"Just... come with me," he said, holding out a hand. 

"Why the fuck would I— That raises so many red flags. You have kidnapped me before and you expect me to just take your hand and go wherever it is you wanna take me?!"

Akutagawa tilted his head inquisitively. Still calmly, but coupled with slight impatience.

"You'll still come, though. You're scared I might've done something horrible to someone— I haven't— and that there might actually end up being something worth seeing. Which, by the way, there is."

"Hmp— well, fine then," he replies, still looking uncomfortable but taking the hand gently offered to him regardless.

"We're going somewhere the Port Mafia doesn't know about, if that makes you feel safer. Somewhere even Gin doesn't know about. I've been there countless times and never run into another person, though there are animals abound, but they're all so sweet. I actually met them while I was wandering through the forest, lost beyond all comprehension. They can't talk, since this isn't some fairytale, but their eyes do all the talking they could ever need to. They're so smart, it's incredibly easy to tell so. And they're beautiful as well. You'll... You'll see when we get there," he said, a soft smile spreading across his face, lighting up his eyes and making his pale skin seem to glow.

"Hm..." Atsushi hummed thoughtfully.

'He doesn't seem to be plotting anything,' he thought. 'But with the Port Mafia, you never can tell, can you? I guess I just have to find out when we get there, like he said. I suppose I trust him too, because I'm sure I wouldn't do this for any other member of the Port Mafia, not even Higuchi-san. And he knows I trust him too, either that or he really does understand the inner workings of my mind, and better than I do, at that. I should probably be more frustrated about that, but it feels... oddly comforting, for some reason. Like a warmth in my chest.'

"...Oi, Jinko! Are you listening?"

"Huh— what?!"

"Look around. We're here."