View source for 2026-05-22: Every Prince is a Fantasy

*'''Log: 2026-05-22 Every Prince is a Fantasy'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Ren Amamiya]], [[Goro Akechi]]
*'''Where:''' Somewhere in Tokyo
*'''OOC Date:''' May 22, 2026
*'''IC Date:''' Mon Nov 12 2012
*'''Summary''': ''After their [https://www.velvetroom.wiki/index.php/2026-05-21:_Bullseye darts game with Kasumi], Ren calls Akechi to make sure he isn't too mad. The two come to an... understanding, until they don't.''

----


 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    Later in the evening, after the trio's visit to Penguin Sniper to play darts, Akechi's phone rings. It's Ren's ring tone. Considering the embarrassment he--they--she--visited upon him there, he might be tempted to ignore the call--but surely it'll stay at just temptation.
    
    "Hey," Ren says, nonchalant, once Akechi picks up. "I wanted to check in on you. How're you doing?"
    
    They don't specify why they would want to check in on him, but Akechi probably doesn't need it spelled out anyway. Probably he prefers it that way, too. So Ren figures.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
It's hard to discern where Akechi is, noise canceling phone and all. But the reality is as simple as him standing at the train station in West Tokyo, waiting for his transfer to Sumaru.
 
"Hm? Amamiya-kun?" There's a pause at their question, as Akechi takes a moment, "Well, one think the question is more appropriate for yourself. You are the one fresh out of a break up, after all. And what you shared with me earlier tonight couldn't have been easy for you..."
 
Akechi understands at least that even if they are friends, that it's still a risk for Ren. It's always a risk to share anything. Just as much as it is for him.
 
"So same question, but for you first. How are you doing?"

</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    Ren ''doesn't'' have a noise canceling phone--they don't get to beta test those kinds of fancy features before general release--but they're in between destinations themself.
    
    They smiles at Akechi's response. They know a deflection when they hear one. "Sweet of you," they say anyway, because he's not wrong. It ''was'' hard to share--at least at the start--and they ''did'' just break up for Makoto less than a week ago.
    
    For all that they did reel it back in the end, though, they're happy they did share. It's always so freeing when you gain more people you can be more fully yourself around.
    
    "I'm fine. I had a good time tonight," they continue, letting Akechi set the pace. It's the least they could do after making him squirm so hard. "I honestly don't feel bad about the break-up. I feel relieved, actually. I made a mistake, but it didn't ruin our friendship."
    
    That's the worst thing. When you change the nature of your relationship with someone, and it brings it all to an end.
    
    "So, I went. No more deflecting," they reply, now brisk.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
"Well I'd be disappointed if I weren't, given all the sweets I eat for those commercials."
 
He takes a seat on a bench, deciding just to catch the next train, placing his briefcase beside him, and crossing one leg over as he leans back, resting an elbow on the back, a gloved hand relaxing forward.
 
A shame Ren can't ''see'' him right now. The way he sits is always rather hot.
 
"Good." Is his brief interjection that Ren was having a good time tonight, before eventually- "I see. Well. Perhaps I was more worried about two back to back- no matter how healthily one deals with it, it's still quite a lot."
 
No more deflecting though? There's a chuckle, "Perish the thought. I admit I was surprised? In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. But there is a certain 'reframing' the mind must do of certain prior memories and experiences- everything takes on a new context, if you understand my meaning."
 
Gloved fingertips rub together as if an unconscious motion, as if there were something tangible to be seen... to be touched, even while he's alone.
 
"It does require me to I suppose doubly apologize for our first game at the Penguin Sniper. While we have talked it out before- this new revelation about you- if anything makes it all the more transgressive."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    That ''is'' a shame. Still, Ren got a great look at him earlier with his blushy, angry face. Those are memories they'll cherish forever.
    
    "Yeah... True," Ren admits of two back-to-back break-ups. If not for how they'd realized the true nature of their feelings for ''him'', maybe they would be more depressed than they are now.
    
    He points out that new knowledge necessitates recontextualization--and then apologizes for their first game of pool.
    
    "...Mm." For a moment, they fall silent as they remember that day. How they'd flinched under his unexpected touch. "Thank you. I appreciate that," they decide to say. They hesitate; they do not work up the nerve to say something like, ''But I wouldn't mind if you did that to me now.''
    
    "You're taking it in much better stride than I thought. You seemed pretty mad earlier," Ren notes instead. "I was worried I'd gone too far with the teasing."
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
"You're welcome. I'll... take more care going forward." He says, oblivious of course to the idea that Ren might not ''mind'' that so much now.
 
However, Ren brings up that he seemed pretty mad earlier. And Akechi had been in a good enough mood with the phone call that he had- briefly glossed over those feelings in his own head.
 
But he had been stewing upon it before then.
 
"Ah. That."
 
Pause.
 
"Well I won't claim that I wasn't upset at the time."
 
And after, pretty much all the time after up until the phone call.
 
It's a good thing he's at least not trying to deny it.
 
"It was more that I wasn't certain what the parameters are. Given our previous conversation. You might be newly unattached- but that doesn't mean I felt it was appropriate for me to return such flirtatious teasing without- discussing it with you first."
 
He's not going to say that him having to adapt to the new information in regards to Ren being X-Gender.
 
But that was definitely a part of it, him having his emotions kinda wound up some- while Ren is newly off of one, and saying they have no intention of dating.
 
"And it's not as if it were something I could just bring up in public with Yoshizawa-san there."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    "..."
    
    Ren purses their lips as they come to a stop in the street. No, they definitely can't say he doesn't need to take so much care.
    
    The topic moves on. Akechi pauses, then admits he was indeed upset. Ren gazes at the ground before moving out of the way of other pedestrians, leaning on the wall of a nearby building as they raise their eyes to the sky. Their chest squeezes as he mentions the mixed company in particular, and they shut their eyes for a moment.
    
    "...Yeah. Sorry," Ren replies, and their tone reflects the penitence they genuinely feel. "I wasn't really... planning on coming out just then. It just sort of followed naturally after I started talking about the break-up. You know I'm normally not really... that good at talking about personal stuff."
    
    They pause. They try to find Venus in the darkening sky, but from where they are, it's out of sight. "Well... if you don't mind going back to that... joking around... I don't either," they murmur.
    
    ...They're really stupid, huh. Calling that 'joking around'--for either of them.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
Akechi is at least aware enough that in a sense it was all a 'taste of his own medicine'. It's just he's a petty enough person to know he has a double standard, and not caring.
 
It's fine for other people to be embarrassed and humiliated. Not him.
 
Isn't it ironic that Ren he can at least tolerate it from, since that it was a rival is supposed to do? Isn't that... no, he can't follow that line of thought to the end.
 
"I see. I understand. I certainly hadn't planned to come out to you that day in that karaoke booth either."
 
He can at least note the parallels there. Neither had meant to- and it had caused some stepping on the other's toes at the time.
 
"Neither am I, to be frank. It's not something I make a habit of... well, though I suppose you've proved it isn't a hard line, personal policy wise."
 
Ren says they'd like to go back to that, and in that Akechi realizes the danger. After all, he's newly come to see Ren as anything other than a guy, much less both (and neither). Much less realizing he's attracted to both.
 
"... Well, I certainly don't mind. I think it's the natural thing for us to do- to enjoy that dynamic between us again. Though it does beg the question if you had any new boundaries you couldn't communicate to me before?"
 
Joking around.
 
Yes, that's all it is, of course. Why would Ren ''actually'' be serious about such things? About him?
 
Who would be?

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    "I was surprised back then. I sure hadn't expected it either," Ren reminisces, smiling slightly. "It really sold me on your sincerity. Especially given what you said about... you know." Their eyelashes droop as their smile fades. "How you could only be with a Princess."
    
    They're aware that they can, at times, be a Princess, after a fashion. They're even more keenly aware of the key words ''at times''. As a contrast to Makoto, who accepted dating them but was only attracted to her while she was a girl, Akechi might potentially be attracted to them at all times, but could only date her if she were always a girl.
    
    Which... just isn't the case, and won't ever be.
    
    It is a little funny that Akechi says he's not good at talking about personal things either. That hasn't really been Ren's experience with him. He's always just... sharing things with them, whether they asked him to or not. Sometimes little--sometimes not so little. ...He's always tried to reach out and form a bond with him. Even when he didn't trust them. Maybe even though he might still not fully trust them.
    
    ''He couldn't be the Black Mask. I don't need proof. I'm taking it on faith,'' they decide, then and there.
    
    There still begs a question of why they're so similar and what connection there could be if they're not the same person--but that's for Future Ren to ponder. Right now, they can enjoy the quiet relief that conviction brings.
    
    "Nothing really comes to mind at the moment," they reply. They pause. "...I hope knowing I'm X-gender doesn't make this weird for you. If you'd rather not... I don't want to pressure you into anything you're not comfortable with. It was just..." They glance off to the side. "...fun."
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
It's a memory that he's strangely fond of. There's something liberating about sharing something of yourself that no one else knows. Something you have to keep hidden.
 
Even if he hates having to be vulnerable to share it, he also enjoys it. It's a contradictory kind of mindset, but it's also his.
 
"Ah yes," he says, with a mild tone at the idea of only being with a Princess. That's taken on a new context tonight. "An unfortunate reality of being a celebrity."
 
His tone isn't exactly matter of fact there, it's more contemplative, like it's elsewhere- but it sounds a little like it's confirmation.
 
A Detective Prince can only have a Princess. It's the only acceptable sort of relationship.
 
Ren is rather spot on; he ''does'' talk about a lot of personal stuff with Ren- and basically only Ren. It's perhaps the fact that he's lonely that this aspect he's not so self-aware upon. That he doesn't realize it.
 
He understands he talks about ''himself'' a lot- but himself the ''lie''. Not- not the truth.
 
Ren's faith in him- well, it's a shame that the world doesn't always reward such faith. If it did, then the one in the Black Mask would indeed be someone else.
 
Ren does answer his question though, ultimately. "No. I wouldn't say it makes it weird at all." He says quickly enough, "A touch more complex- but that's not a bad thing. It just means I'm privy to some of your hidden depths, Amamiya-kun."
 
His gloved fingertips play with his hair some, on the right side of his head, rubbing a a lock of hair between them.
 
"If you found it fun- then I see no reason why we can't continue... playing around." He says, a touch huskily, "What will seducing me out of checkmate look like now- I wonder?" As he takes on a speculative tone.
 
"Perhaps you leaning in close- and pursing your lips... as I watch those beautiful eyes of yours close and-"
 
...
...
...
 
"-Just kidding." He says cheerfully. "Of course that would be beyond what you had in mind."
 
He's trying to let Ren know that everything is fine, that it can go back that way. That it won't be weird.
 
Of course, he's also thinking about what that would be like if he weren't just kidding, but that goes without saying.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    ''An unfortunate reality of being a celebrity,'' he calls it. It might be pensive rather than blunt, but it still sounds like confirmation. Given how hard he's worked to get where he is, to get the acclaim and affirmation he's hungered for since childhood, would Akechi really give up his celebrity status to be with them?
    
    Probably not. While Ren doesn't ever cry, they wish they could.
    
    One day, maybe they'll look back on this conversation, though--how Akechi said he hardly ever talks about himself, and Ren noted he actually does that a lot with them. How, ultimately, it was a lie--but not all of it. Maybe both of them will look back one day and reflect on that particular truth.
    
    They do breathe a soundless breath of relief when Akechi's quick to reassure them it's not weird. They chuckle faintly. "Fair's fair--I'm privy to some of yours," they murmur. "Especially today, after getting to see some exciting new faces of yours."
    
    Ren can't see Akechi play with his own hair, naturally. If they could, they'd think back to that day in Leblanc, when he let them run their fingers through his silky locks. Certainly they pick up on that huskiness that enters his voice, and the flirtation thereafter is clearer still. Their pulse picks up as they grin. It's a hell of a mental image he puts in their head, and when he breaks off to assure them he's just kidding, they laugh softly. The thought of what that would be like ''does'' go without saying, and so, naturally, they don't say it.
    
    "Hmmm... So you're saying you want me to make the first move. Then you don't mind if I rib you again about how cute you looked when you were embarrassed?" they tease instead. Turning their own voice sultry, they continue, "Though I think you were even more handsome when you were mad. That dark flash in your eyes, your tense and rigid cheekbones... It was sexy." They pause a beat. "I can't wait to make you look like that again. Say, over another game of chess sometime--"
    
    They grin, and their voice lightens too.
    
    "--after I crush you with a new strategy you never saw coming."
    
    Strictly speaking, they already did that today, but who's keeping track? Surely not the both of them.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
It's an unfortunate reality too, that sometimes people can't speak their feelings clearly. If he just indicated that it wasn't some hard no in some way- perhaps Ren would understand better what he means, here.
 
But it's also true that Akechi has little reason to believe Ren would reciprocate the feelings Akechi has for them.
 
"That is true." He says cheerfully, "You perhaps know me better than anyone else."
 
Other than say, his Father- but while his Father is privy to his murderous secrets, he isn't to anything else.
 
His tone seems to pout, just a little as Ren speaks of exciting new faces, "You certainly did manage to get more than just 'new faces', that was the worst game of darts I've thrown in years." Before he then adds, more cheerily, "... I'll just have to have my revenge next time."
 
Ren then begins a new salvo about how 'cute' he looked when embarrassed, and IRL, Akechi has to lean forward and put a hand over his face, feeling the heat even through his gloves.
 
"Haha... by all means."
 
Cute.
 
Come on get it together. Ren calling you cute, it's just part of the game.
 
"As the Western song goes &lt;'Hit me with your best shot.'&gt;" As he shifts to accented English for that.
 
And Ren does, certainly, as he has to lean back, and look up, gloved hand still covering his face, but now his eyes too. Good lord, how is he going to survive this.
 
"My my- you truly think so?" He says, as he tries to carefully control his tone, "So I'm sexy when I'm 'angry'. I'd say I'm quite sexy all the time-" Many many people would agree with him. "-but I'll keep that in mind."
 
Ren puts forward crushing him with a new strategy, and Akechi chuckles, "Haha- I can't wait to see how it fails... but for now- Would you like to know when you're at your hottest, Amamiya-kun?"
 
...
...
...
...
...
 
Ren might expect a Just Kidding. There's that Just Kidding kind of pause there- it's going on for sooooo long, this time.
 
"Well, it'd be more fun to just show you- one day."
 
He says instead.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
    It doesn't help that Ren already believed Akechi isn't willing to date anyone other than a cis woman. Hearing that only reinforced what they already assumed based on when Akechi came out to them as bisexual. It helps even less that Ren watched that interview he did on Good Evening Sumaru wherein he stated clearly, while he'd make the time for someone he had feelings for, he'd never date a criminal. Even if he was only saying that for the camera, the fact would remain that Akechi's image is important to him.

    More important than they are.

    Society's already made up its mind about Ren, and Akechi cares so much about what society thinks even as he holds it in disdain. Why would Ren understand him any differently?

    So while they smile when Akechi says they know him better than anyone else, there's a certain bittersweetness to it. Yeah. It doesn't matter how either of them feels about the other. Surely Akechi isn't willing to openly be with them. And even if he was, should ''they'' really be dating again, right on the heels of two back-to-back break-ups? No. They know they shouldn't. Some casual, un-serious flirting... is as good as it'll get.

    In fairness, it's been damn good so far. Moreso now that Akechi's on board, for all that Ren was quite sincere about enjoying his embarrassment and anger. They chuckle at his pouty little tone. "Yeah. It was hilarious." As for Akechi's revenge? "I look forward to messing it up for you."

    He invites them to tease. Challenges them, even. Their grin broadens as they do exactly that. This ''is'' fun, and makes them feel alive in a way not too dissimilar from infiltrating a Palace. Can they tease him into another big reaction? Probably not right now, and certainly not over the phone, but they'll try anyway. He makes them want to try their best.

    ''I'd say I'm quite sexy all the time...'' "Maybe if you weren't such a smug asshole," they reply dryly. ...but they don't want to leave it at that, so they murmur, ducking their head as warmth rises in their own cheeks, "I'll admit you're an objectively good-looking guy, though."

    They frown at Akechi's taunt about failing, mildly irritated, but then he asks ''that'' question. Ren's eyebrows rise. "Oh?" they utter--not quite a yes, but certainly not a no.

    They'd REALLY like to know, but they don't want to ''say'' that.

    However, there's a long pause, much longer than Akechi usually lets these things hang. The eventual conclusion makes their heart skip a beat.

    "What's THAT supposed to mean?" they wonder with a hint of a laugh on their breath. "You're kind of an incorrigible tease too, Akechi." They run their free hand back through their hair, smiling at the early night sky as they clutch their phone close. Given how concerned he is about respecting their boundaries, they don't know that it'll ever go beyond a tease, but there's an undeniable allure to the idea of him demonstrating when he finds them most attractive one day unannounced. Maybe that's why... "But I bet you don't have the guts to actually do it."

    Their voice dips down into a throaty whisper:

    "Prove me wrong."

    ...they've got to issue a challenge. To make ''sure'' he does.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
A very smooth criminal.
 
Surely all of Ren's concerns are valid. And indeed, it's not as if Akechi himself hasn't been considering all of those facets of it themselves, from the opposite direction. If he were openly with Ren, his celebrity status would evaporate overnight. The country just isn't ready for openly queer celebrities, especially with his boy next door image.
 
But he's not really thinking of it from that perspective yet. After all, he doesn't ''really'' believe Ren is interested in him either, save for the sparring match that is flirting between them.

 And it would never get that far as being 'open' about it in public, since ultimately he's going to kill him one day. That is certain.
 
You know, the murder part of it.
 
"You can ''try''," he says playfully, for emphasis. "Fool with me once, shame on you. Fool with me twice..."
 
Is he saying he's going to make that ''too'' a challenge for Ren? Well well... perhaps this could backfire after all.
 
Or perhaps it will simply require Ren to escalate.
 
"Yes you have correctly identified the reason ''why'' I'm so hot." He keeps up that playful tone, as he leans right into it. "Would I be half as interesting if I truly were the straight-laced boy detective?" he asks, perhaps in partial awareness of why Ren and him actually bounce off each other so well.
 
If he were the other thing, Ren and the Phantom Thieves would already be very much in trouble.
 
Then there's a moment where Ren takes the bait, and there's a chuckle over the phone. "Now now, I'm a Detective and your name isn't Watson. Feel free to figure it out yourself." A beat. "You do bring out the best in me." He says with that cheerful matter-of-factness.
 
However smug he sounds though, some of it dissipates as Ren not only tells him he doesn't have the guts, but then dares him- and Akechi swallows inaudibly in real life.
 
"Prove you wrong," he echoes, before saying in a faintly husky tone, "Isn't that what all great detectives aspire to do?"
 
It seems that it is 'challenge accepted'... but what does he intend to do, and when? He is being quite coy... and Ren quite bold in daring him.
 
Perhaps he might work up the 'guts' sooner than Ren knows.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
	Indeed so. Junko Kurosu has already gotten a fair amount of pushback for advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, and she's not ''herself'' queer, just a mother who loves her son. Who knows what the reaction a celebrity who themself doesn't conform to society would get? Especially from girls who might consider it a betrayal of their image of him...
	
	...
	...
	...okay he might just get super-popular with the fujoshi contingent. But can he risk that? ''Can you risk that, Goro Akechi''?
	
	"I ''will'' try," Ren retorts. Hasn't that what they've been doing all this time? They laugh at ''his'' retort, a brief amused snort. "Hmmmmmm, I don't know. You can have a compelling tragic backstory without being a jerk in the present," they reply coyly. "You're actually very good at being nice when you want to be..."
	
	And ''that's'' what they find attractive about him. Not the fact that he's a smug asshole--not how he's gotten kinder to them--but the fact that he's both at the same time. The dichotomy is alluring. More than that, he's not being nice for the sake of being nice or because he wants something from them, but because he really does care about them. That... means a lot.
	
	They scoff when Akechi tells him to figure out himself--but they don't mind it so much. ''You bring the best out in me too,'' they think fondly, smiling into their smartphone.
	
	That smile evolves into a broad smirk. Akechi's taken the bait too, it sounds like. "Most 'great detectives' are all talk, literally. That's not all ''you'' are--is it? That really would be boring if you were..."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
And that isn't even taking the reaction of Shido into account.
 
While Akechi would like to believe he's so indispensable that Shido wouldn't dare, he also knows that Shido is a raging homophobe. Certainly, even if he didn't get rid of him right away, he'd make plans to do so in time.
 
Unfortunately the Fujoshi contingent just isn't enough on their own to support him being 'out'.
 
"I'm sure you will." Akechi replies, with such a smug tone to the idea that he'll 'try'. But it also shows that he is perhaps looking forward to the attempt. Before- 'compelling tragic backstory'. "Heh. That ''is'' so. My fans certainly eat up having several small tidbits of my past without the whole picture."
 
However, one might note that he doesn't ''play it up''. After all, to play it up, would mean he thinks of himself as a victim, even now.
 
And he's anything but- "That is ''so''..." He agrees, his tone becoming playful, "When I want to be... unfortunately I do rather like you saying that word 'incorrigible' too much to not be ''absolutely terrible'' at least part-time."
 
In a way, given that who he believes he is on the inside, it's how he 'lets his hair down' so to speak.
 
"Is that so? And what if I came over to the Leblanc ''right now''?"
 
He suggests, as if he were responding to the challenge by making it his top priority. But after a short pause.
 
"But where would be the fun in you receiving instant gratification? I think I'll rise to the challenge when you least expect it, Amamiya-kun. Do be careful what you wish for~"
 
He says teasingly, before it becomes just as husky as before, "It won't be long before I make you eat those words."
 
He promises, just how much is flirtation- and how much is real? The line blurs- and Akechi no longer even knows anymore.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
	Ren rolls their eyes at the smugness in Akechi's voice--but good-naturedly. His acknowledgement of how his fans react to that 'compelling tragic backstory' of his makes them fall contemplatively silent for a moment, though. That makes them think of something he said earlier, when he ran into them and Kasumi at Shibuya Station. A thing that's part of a much, much longer pattern of behavior.
	
	As they wonder if they should say anything about it, he 'jokes' about being absolutely terrible, and they smile. The fact that he's simultaneously joking and completely serious is only another part of their dynamic that Ren so enjoys. It, too, is part of that behavior pattern, though.
	
	But what if he came to Leblanc ''right now''?
	
	"Then I'd say... you're desperately thirsty," Ren quips, with a certain quality to their deadpan that makes it clear that pun was ''fully'' intended. As Akechi says that he's going to tease this out a while longer, though, they hum quietly, the edges of their lips quirked up. Maybe they'll regret this later and maybe they won't, but he's confirmed in no uncertain terms this time that he's taking that challenge. Mission accomplished.
	
	It would be easy to leave it at that. To purr back at that husky voice, to keep up the flirting. But... They let their eyes shut for a moment. It might seem like a non-sequitur, but...
	
	"...You know, Akechi, I wasn't completely kidding earlier." About which part exactly--? "When I first met you and all I knew you as was the smug, smarmy, self-righteous Detective Prince, I loathed you."

	oh.

	Fortunately, they continue, "The more I get to know you and the parts of you that you try to hide from your adoring fan base," a note of irony there, "the more I've come around, though.
	
	"You act confident on the outside, but I know deep down you worry about if people want you around. I get why, too." It's not just Akechi's orphanhood and how his extended family apparently resented taking care of him, or how the police hold a grudge against him for showing them up. The first time they met and Akechi went on and on without a reaction from Ren, he apologized for boring them; he murmured once that he felt unwanted no matter where he goes; and he talked earlier about how there was no reason his presence would be a nuisance, as if there were reasons it could be. There are lots of examples that span the entirety of the time Ren has known him. "This is a lot of fun, but I just want you to know..." They swallow hard. "I like the you when you aren't pretending to be the straight-laced boy detective. I like the you that's absolutely terrible at least part-time. Because he's real."
	
	They lift their eyes back to the blackening sky. When they spot Venus this time, those eyes crinkle.
	
	"I hope, one day, you come to like him, too."
	
	A Joker, being so sincere... The line blurs for both of them. Maybe the two of them have been playing around for much of their relationship, but what is a game without genuine stakes?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
There's a loud chuckle at Ren's pun, "Yes, that would certainly be true." However, he's made it clear that since he's not coming tonight, but will be taking him up on that soon. He's only ''thirsty'' rather than desperately so.
 
After all, where would the fun in that he didn't keep Ren- and his thirst... waiting.
 
It would be easy to leave it at that.
 
To table this flirtatious match for later. To figure out where the line of flirtation ends- as well as lust and romance begins.
 
But then Ren speaks to him in a tone which causes him to be confused as to what he means.
 
"Well- I do-"
 
It might have been just a quick, glib quip, but Ren continues- and he forgets what he was even going to say.
 
Ren truly does know him better than anyone else- 'I like the you when you aren't pretending.' 'I like the you that's absolutely terrible at least part-time. Because he's real.'
 
Akechi finds himself speechless, trying to form the thoughts or words which might make him respond to something ''real''. Something forcing him to confront these parts of himself.
 
'I hope, one day, you come to like him, too.'
 
There's a sharp nasally inhalation over the phone, his eyes close, and he needs a moment to just breathe.
 
He's merely a cursed child. There's no point in hoping for better than to be a curse upon the existence of others.
 
It's who he is, and all he can ever be.
 
And so, despite how touched he was- that last comment hits a raw, vulnerable nerve.
 
"... Is that so?" He asks, tone becoming a little flat, hiding a subtle sharpness behind it, "Well, far be it from me to tell you otherwise- but if it truly were as easy as that..."
 
Pause.
 
"... then you might as well hope for the Moon, next. Anyhow, it seems my train is here- so I'm going to have to let you go."
 
He says, as he makes to stand up. Touched and upset at the same time.
</poem> 

<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
<poem>
	Ren smiles, pleased with themself, when Akechi laughs at their joke. (A traitorous part of them remembers that the Black Mask likes puns too. They shush it. Akechi isn't the Black Mask. ''No one'' could be that good a liar.)
	
	And indeed, Akechi's stunned silence--and then that sharp, nasal inhalation--speak volumes more than words could. Ren waits for him to react, heart thudding nervously as they finger a lock of their bangs, wondering if they said too much.
	
	It seems like they did. He sounds upset--first from his tone, then from his insinuation that self-love is impossible, and then his transparent attempt to shut down further conversation. Granted, with the noise canceling on Akechi's end, they can't know if his train really is pulling in or not, but either way they know he's using it as an excuse to cut the conversation short.
	
	They might as well hope for the Moon next. They shut their eyes briefly, then look over from Venus to the waning crescent moon above. Only a little longer before it goes black entirely. But...
	
	"I never said it would be easy," Ren replies quietly. "I just wanted to say... you're someone worth liking. Even if you can't believe it yourself."
	
	Surely, in time, it will grow full.
	
	"Goodnight, Akechi. Safe travels."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
<poem>
''You should know it's not possible!''
 
It's unfair of Akechi to have this expectation that Ren would know he thinks such. However, it's also the case that Ren knows more about this part of himself than anyone else.
 
Isn't it actually fair, for him to be upset when all Ren can offer is poisonous hope?
 
Surely, in time...
 
"What's not to like?" He says, tersely- as if to obfuscate the fact that there's nothing ''to'' like. "... Good night."
 
Click.
 
It's going to be a long night, at the very least. He's not so certain about it being a good one anymore.
</poem>

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:Season 1, Episode 2]]