Secret (shinsoukoku)

Chapter 18

Years pass quickly and their bond only grows. From enemies, they went to friends. From friends, to lovers.

They've been dating for a few years now. Kasumi was 5 already and started thinking of Akutagawa as her second dad. She never said that though. She didn't want Atsushi to think she thought of him as a less-dad. She might be young but she knew that Atsushi was often tired after caring for her.

She also observed how well Akutagawa cared for him.

Whenever her biological dad would fall asleep, her honorary dad would put a blanket on him and kiss either his forehead or his lips. Even when they fought, Akutagawa was always the first one to forgive, even if the fight didn't start because of him but because of Atsushi.

"Daddy!" She calls out when Atsushi finally comes out of the bathroom after a long shower. Before, he was full of dirt. Now though, he was wearing a bathrobe and was drying his hair off with a towel.

"I was only gone for a few minutes" Atsushi laughs and walks over to her. He picks her up with one hand after turning it into its tiger form and Kasumi almost as an instint turns into a small tiger too. She lays himself on Atsushi's arm and closes her eyes after tucking both her paws and tail in.

Ever since she mastered her ability to turn into a tiger, she's been sleeping in that form. Whenever Atsushi asked her why she did that, she usually just shrugged her shoulders.

Atsushi smiles and puts his daughter into her bed. A few seconds later, he hears the door ring.

"I'm coming!" He says and quickly dries his hair as quickly as possible and puts the towel back into the bathroom.

He's so excited because today, he and his boyfriend will have a night of watching movies. He already prepared all the food and the popcorn was already in the microwave. Atsushi was very happy that Akutagawa finally came.

"Hi, Ryuu!" He says the second he opens the door and embraces Akutagawa. The diablo smiles and kisses him on the lips and Atsushi blushes. Sure, they've been dating for many years already, but he was still as in love with him as he was many years ago, so the embarrassment of being able to kiss his crush never quite faded.

"Come inside, you'll get sick" Atsushi mutters to Akutagawa after they finish their kiss and pulls his boyfriend inside. He takes Akutagawa's coat off and orders him to sit on the couch.

„You deserve some rest" he explains when Akutagawa wants to help him with bringing the food and the diablo smiles affectionately.

"Thank you, Atsushi" He says and sits back down on the couch. He turns on the television and sets it on a quiet volume so they don't accidentally wake up Kasumi. He waits for Atsushi to come to him and the weretiger lays his head on the diablo's shoulder.

"What do you want to watch?" Akutagawa asks as he's scrolling through the movies on netflix. Atsushi watches him but grips his hand tightly when he sees a movie he likes.

"Interstellar!" He says and Akutagawa nods. He clicks on the movie and leans back a bit after putting the TV remote away. Atsushi's head slides down a bit, so now he's partly laying on his boyfriend's chest. His thigh is touching something with rough edges that is in Akutagawa's pants but Atsushi dismisses it, too focused on the movie.

Halfways through the movie, Akutagawa falls asleep but Atsushi's stilll fully focused on it. He's never seen any movies about space befroe. He only heard how interesting and magnificent it is, but seeing how great CGI can make space look, and how realistic it all seemed... Atsushi regretted not watching Interstellar sooner.

After the movie ends, he yawns and gets on tof of Akutagawa. His legs are around the diablo's waist and he kisses Akutagawa's cheek to wake him up.

That's when he feels something spiky near his leg again, in Akutagawa's pocket.