Withering moon lit rose

Extra 2.7

When the pair walked into the living room Ryuunosuke and Gin had finished their conversation.

"Akutagawa." Ichigo greeted while bowing. Ryuunosuke felt incredibly awkward at that.

"Call me Ryuunosuke, your family after all. And it's gonna get confusing if you call me that." Ichigo nodded in agreement, it did feel awkward using her last name to address someone.

"So does that mean we're all Akutagawa's then?" Ichigo questioned causing Atsushi to go bright red.

"What! No, no, no. I'm not an Akutagawa." Atsushi exclaimed, although Ryuunosuke felt slightly disheartened at his reaction.

"Yet." Gin added which caused Atsushi to go even more red while Ryuunosuke had a slight blush on his face.

"Then what's the ring for?" Ichigo questioned, pointing at his hand.

"Oh it's a promise ring, I never take it off. Sorry for the misunderstanding." Atsushi rubbed the back of his head giving an awkward laugh. Ichigo nodded.

"So he's not an Akutagawa officially." Ichigo thought.

"Ichigo, why don't you speak with Ryuunosuke while I speak with Atsushi. There's many secrets about Ryuunosuke that I have to tell him before he leaves." Gin laughed as she dragged Atsushi into her bedroom leaving the other pair together.

"So, the Weretiger? Never would have guessed."

"Never would have guessed you'd change your target?" Ryuunosuke tried to joke. This was going to be awkward for the pair of them.

~

"So what was it that Ryuunosuke told you?" Gin thought for a second before responding to Atsushi.

"He told me two things, although one he should tell you in his own time." Atsushi was a bit disheartened that she wouldn't tell him everything but knew she wouldn't do it without a good reason.

"So about his episode last night, he explained to me it was through a nightmare." Gin then spent the next few minutes reciting what Ryuunosuke had informed her a few minutes prior.

"He thought I'd cheat on him!?" Atsushi exclaimed slightly too loud. Gin clasped her hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"I'm not explaining it again. But yes with this girl, I think he said she has red hair." Atsushi had to think things over for a second then he remembered Lucy. She had been flirting with him a lot when they were in the café below the Agency. It was especially worse when Akutagawa wasn't with him, Atsushi was too nice to say anything in retaliation to her advances. Akutagawa never did say anything on the matter but he was never friendly towards the redhead.

Atsushi thought about the issue multiple times in his head. Each time he drew a conclusion which led to him being at fault. If he'd said something to stop Lucy, if he'd spent more time with Ryuunosuke instead of doing work. None of this would have happened if he'd just paid more attention.

Just as Atsushi was going to question Gin on what he should do next, he didn't want to make anymore mistakes by deciding by himself, there was a knock upon the bedroom door. Followed by Ryuunosuke opening the door. He had an empty look upon his face.

"Atsushi, we need to go." Atsushi nodded, he hadn't seen him like this since they started dating. He quickly bid Gin goodbye who had a worried expression plastered on her face. Ichigo approached her as she stood at the window watching the pair disappear into an alley, Atsushi had been pulled by Akutagawa. Gin felt guilty of betraying her brother's trust by telling Atsushi, but it was for his own sake right? Ichigo walked up and put her hand on her wife's shoulder.