Nope's Peak Day 18 - Akechi

[truthstranger]

[Welp, another bunch of important people are dead. Time to check on Akechi.]

Comments

[afailedmurder]

[Akechi's not far. He only wants to hang out with Shuichi and Will right now, anyway. He perks when Shuichi approaches, though he is clearly still very tired. Everyone is very tired right now.]

Hello there, handsome.

[truthstranger]

['handsome' flusters him a little despite everything]

A-Ah, hello. How are you doing...?

[afailedmurder]

Would you believe I've been worse?

[truthstranger]

Ah, I would rather not, because imagining you've been in a worse situation than this is a bit painful, but...

[afailedmurder]

Then I'll plead the fifth.

How are you holding up?

[truthstranger]

I'm... doing better than last night, at least.

[afailedmurder]

I'm glad. I'm...

[numbly failing to process anything that just happened]

I'm hanging in there.

We should probably coordinate our night plans.

[truthstranger]

Mm, right.

Will-san actually asked me if I was willing to go with him, but...

[afailedmurder]

That's not a bad idea. You'd be his sixth, and with a murder an execution, we'd be done. This could be our last night.

[truthstranger]

Ah, that's true.

I'd... want to make sure you were safe, too, though.

[afailedmurder]

Hm...

I don't particularly trust anyone who's left. McGonagall, perhaps? She seems unlikely to try, and doesn't look terribly strong if she did. Kaiba and I have a mutual interest in protecting Graham, but I don't think he'd hesitate to plant a knife in my back.

[truthstranger]

...McGonagall could be good. I don't... particularly like her, honestly, but... I seriously doubt she would commit a murder.

[afailedmurder]

She's the safest bet.

...But if you're concerned, we could always stick together. Graham's capable of handling himself, and it's not as though we're going to reach six friends before the game is over anyway.

[also fuck everyone else? like seriously just fuck them]

[truthstranger]

[he is a little tempted by plan fuck everyone else, honestly, but after a pause that goes slightly too long—]

...No. I mean... it's definitely tempting to just stay with you. I think... I'd be a lot more relaxed, being with you, and being absolutely sure you're safe. But... if McGonagall agrees, I think going with her and Will is the best plan.

[afailedmurder]

Then I'll talk to her beforehand. I don't want to leave anything to chance, not when we're so close to the end.

Speaking of which... is there anywhere you'd like to go once all of this is over?

[truthstranger]

Mm. If there's any chance things won't work out... let's just stick together.

[...]

...Anywhere... I'd like to go?

[afailedmurder]

Agreed.

Supposedly, the raccoons will send us wherever we want. I can't imagine you want to go home, and truth be told I'm not terribly keen on the idea, either. So where shall we go?

[truthstranger]

A-Ah, you... want to go somewhere else... together?

[he has not believed this was a real thing enough to even think about that]

[afailedmurder]

Of course I do. We'll start from scratch — be whoever we want to be, live however we please. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

[reaching out to take his hands]

[truthstranger]

[he lets him take them, baffled]

That does sound... really nice...

[and also, completely unbelievable]

[afailedmurder]

We can go shopping around to see who actually likes the place they come from. Surely someone must? And once everyone's resurrected, we can bring your friend — I didn't have much opportunity to speak with her, but I'm sure we would get along!

[he either super believes it or super needs to, take your pick]

[truthstranger]

I—

[Maybe he has to try and believe in something like this.]

...I-I'd like that, I think. We can decide together.

[his voice is weak, like he's maybe on the verge of tears, but he also sounds happy]

[afailedmurder]

[drops one of his hands to cup the side of his face instead]

We're almost done. Only a couple more days, and then we're free.

[truthstranger]

[Is it really safe to hope that's true...? At the very least, he's not going to tell Akechi he's thinks he's wrong right now.

He lifts his freed hand to lay over Akechi's on his cheek, steadying himself and trying to sound confident.]

Y... Y-Yeah. Soon it will all be done. It shouldn't be hard to make it through that much more.

[afailedmurder]

I'll take such good care of you. I'll give you anything you want.

[leaning in for a smooch]

[truthstranger]

[didn't we already have the 'anything you want' conversation

Shuichi is too tired to complain, though, so he just drops his hand to Akechi's shoulder and leans in to kiss him, possibly a little more desperately than he intends]

[afailedmurder]

[technically that "anything" was meant to be in the context of sex and/or violence, and this one is more of a doing your hair, slaughtering your enemies, buying you nice things sort of "anything," but that might just be semantics]

[the important thing is that Akechi is here for all your codependent makeout needs]

[truthstranger]

[good, because Shuichi has a lot of codependent makeout needs at the moment. optimistic outlook: even if everything's going to be inconceivably terrible in a couple days, that's two more days in which kissing can happen]