Shuake Week 2020

Hope

The material is a bit worn down but in Ren's back pocket always sits a black leather glove. For the past eight years, he takes the article in and out of his jean, joggers, and other pants always to place it with him. He's never forgotten to take it with him anywhere.

If you ask him why it's there he'll never give you a reasonable answer. Sometimes he'll ramble about it being a good luck charm while other times he'll claim it's a fated promise. But it's just a glove, right? How could it be so significant? It's not even a full pair.

He has always had an imagination according to his guardian Sojiro but when Ren tells the tales that glove Sojiro's face softens into one of distant pain. Perhaps the glove actually means something then. Something he can't talk about so he jokes? Or maybe, in a weird sort of way, he's telling the truth.

Who knows?

~~~

It's a warm late spring afternoon when Akechi reappears into Ren's life. It's an accident-- because of course, it is. Akechi is walking his two dogs in the park when he sees a man sitting on a bench with his wallet on the grass underneath.

He taps the man on the shoulder and is met with familiar grey eyes that take his breath away.

Quietly, as if he's afraid to speak, he whispers, "You dropped your wallet."

Ren looks down underneath the bench and grabs it. He blinks. "This isn't my wallet," he says and then reaches into his book bag to pull out his own. "This is my wallet. I don't know who this belongs to."

"Oh."

Standing up Ren goes to get a better look at the dogs Akechi has by his side. One is a large, pitch-black mutt with speckles and stripes of white wildly thrown into its coat while the other looks to be a pure-bred cream Shiba Inu. He's reminded of Loki and Robinhood immediately.

He goes to give both of them a pat on the head but they turn their heads away in disinterest. "They don't seem to like me," Ren comments.

"Neither of them are good with new people."

A breeze rolls by, causing Akechi to shiver. He sees the raven give him a once over, his eyes dancing all over his body. He feels naked. He feels like he's being examined under the watchful eye of a coroner though he supposes that's fitting as he's a dead man walking.

"When were you going to tell me you were alive?" Ren almost sounds hurt but his expression is neutral.

"I wasn't," he answers truthfully.

Ren frowns. "Goro, I missed you. I grieved for you-- I was still grieving for you until just now when I found out that you're very much alive and just an asshole."

Dismissively Akechi says, "You didn't miss me."

"I kept your glove."

That garners the brunette's attention. With disbelief painting his voice he asks, "You kept my glove? Why?"

"You said it was a promise. You promised me a rematch. You promised you and I would find each other again."

Akechi can't breathe. He wasn't expecting this. He never thought he'd find Ren again-- in fact, he purposely left Tokyo for a bit to avoid him-- and to hear that the other man had cared enough to keep his glove was absolutely shocking.

"Where is it?"

"With me," Ren says and pulls it out effortlessly. He always knows where it is, it's his key item. "Always with me."

"You really are..." He trails off looking at a loss for words. He wants to call Ren a sentimental fool but that wouldn't be fair because secretly, deep down, Akechi had always wondered if his rival took their promise seriously. And now he had an answer.

"It gave me hope," Ren continues. "It gave me hope that you'd come back to me. When you left again I was a wreck, no one could touch me or talk to me, everything reminded me of you. It took me weeks to get out of bed." He chuckled darkly, the humor clearly not there. "I wanted us to switch places so bad."

"You don't mean that."

"I did. I do. Every day I see this glove," he grips it tighter, emotions coursing through him, "and I think of you. I think of how much I love you and how badly it hurt to see you leave me again."

"So why did you keep it?"

"I told you it gave me hope. Hope that somehow, someway I would see you again and it wouldn't matter about the heavens or our roles in a game, we could just be ourselves and I could have you with me again."

"Ren," he pauses and takes a deep breath. He looks down at his dogs who look up at him with determination in their eyes. "Ren I'm sorry I was gone for so long. I missed you too. Do you want to start where we left off?"

The smile that breaks on Ren's face is absolutely astounding. "God yes, please. I thought I would be waiting forever for you to ask."