Secret (shinsoukoku)

Chapter 1

Akutagawa doesn't remember when he first noticed the faint bump on Atsushi's tiger form. They haven't been on many missions yet and only started working together one month ago. But Akutagawa could swear that whenever Atsushi turned into a tiger, the bump was atleast one centimeter bigger. Of course, he never talked to the weretiger about it. Why should he? They're enemies, and maybe the weretiger was finally eating enough calories.

A few days after their mission against the moby dick, Dazai assigned him and Atsushi another job. They were supposed to go undercover in some fancy restaurant and find out if one of the rich men is a human trafficker. The port mafia would be able to kill the man and get his bounty, and the agency would save all the children the man has trafficked and turned into his slaves. The thought of what happened to those children was making Akutagawa feel a bit unwell, but he ignored it. He'd witnessed many murders and tortures before, so something like this shouldn't affect him. However, that was not what was happening with Atsushi.

The weretiger's face was looking green and when he put the fork with the meat into his mouth he looked like he might throw up any second.

„Pull yourself together, Jinko" Akutagawa whispers with a threatening voice and kicks the weretiger's leg under their table. Atsushi sends him an angry glare but it doesn't last long, because then he quickly runs away towards the bathroom. The mafia executive watches as his partner leaves him and groans. What was he even expecting? Why would he ever think that a mission with the weretiger would ever go well? He always causes problems anyways.

He sits there for another five minutes.

„Where the hell is he?" He mutters under his breath and stands up. He heads to the bathroom and needs to cover his nose after the foul smell of vomit reaches his nose. He coughs and heads towards the closed toilet stall. He hears the sounds of vomiting and not having the patience to wait, he rips the handle off the door and throws the door away. He's ready to strangle the weretiger. If he's the reason they fail the mission, he'd ignore the promise he made to his partner and kill him.

However, what Akutagawa sees surprises him a little.

Atsushi's bowed down by the toilet seat, his face pale. He's barely holding on when another vomit wave hits him and some of the liquid falls to the ground. There are tears on his face, but he's not crying. They're probably coming out of his eyes on impulse. He slowly turns his head towards Akutagawa.

„Oh... hi Akutagawa" He says with a weak voice and tries to smile but it seems like his mouth muscles aren't working. The diablo doesn't know what he's doing when he puts the back of his hand to the weretiger's forhead and furrows his (nonexistend) brows. Jinko surprisingly doesn't have a fever. It must be something else then.

The mafia executive shakes his head, suddenly alarmed with the attention he's giving to Atsushi and with his rashomon he lifts the weretiger up by his white shirt.

„You stink" He comments and awaits for Atushi's comeback , but it doesn't arrive. When he glances at Atsushi it seems he's too weak to say anything. He probably threw up all his nutrients or something. Seeing how useless the weretiger was now, Akutagawa saw no point in continuing the mission. He called Chuuya and told him they weren't able to complete their assignement and left Atsushi outside for the agency to pick him up, then got picked up by the mafia.

He forgot this little incident pretty quickly. It was probably just food poisoning. Sadly, that didn't save him from the mountain of paperwork he was forced to fill out as a punishment for a failed mission.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.
-Nat