#it’s my fault for watching kdramas again but GOD DAMMIT

[devilfic]

they weren’t joking about cuffing season. this shit got a little kick to it

[cerberosthehellguard]

Aliens. Think about it.

Akashi heard the door slam. The forced eviction of shoes from feet and landing in thuds against the wall that definitely wasn’t the place for shoes and the loud wheeze of the couch as Furihata flung himself bodily onto the couch face down on the cushions. Akashi didn’t say anything. 

“Welcome.” Well, until now, anyway. 

The couch groaned. Okay Furihata groaned but it was fun and dramatic to say ‘the couch groaned’. Akashi bit the inside of his cheek at his own joke. Nobody got how funny he was. Not even Furihata. Who would look at him with a small barely-there smile and that exasperated and yet …….sort of fond look on his face when he made a pun. Like he was saying ‘Why do I even put up with you when you are so ridiculous’ without actually saying it. Akashi always pretended to be annoyed by it but secretly he liked it when Furihata smiled that smile at him. Not that he would ever say that out loud.

Just thinking about that smile made Akashi’s chest squeeze a little too tightly. He wondered if he had picked up a disease on this planet. That would be bothersome. Perhaps he should summon Mibuchi. 

“-you would think they would know by now. But, nope!-” Furihata was saying something, or more like, moaning something into the couch cushion and Akashi moved with his new ‘legs’ - humans had ten toes only ten toes oh gosh no wonder Furihata kept tripping on flat surfaces for absolutely no reason! - and sat gingerly on the armrest near Furihata’s head. “I am so tired of this goddamit. Four years. Four years, Akashi! Of being step-siblings with that savage beast and not once did he have a good word for me. Not once-” 

Furihata continued mumbling and muffling his words into the cushion and Akashi tried his level-best to understand - he had been studying the habits of humans from the ‘TV’ Furihata had shown him how to use and almost all those ‘Kaydrama’ that ran on it said you should pat ‘head’ repeatedly and softly and make ‘mhm’ noises. And Akashi was nothing but a good, diligent, student. He patted Furihata’s head softly and repeatedly and made ‘mhm’ sounds in regular intervals. 

He wondered how human hair could be so soft and fluffy and nice against his ‘hand skin’ and when he had asked about it, Furihata had blushed and fled, muttering about ‘oblivious idiot’ and ‘no filter for fuck’s sake’. Akashi hadn’t known what to make of it. 

Furihata tapered off and Akashi didn’t stop patting his head. He was beginning to like it. A bit. More than a bit. Hmm. This may need some study. Akashi crossed his legs and hummed a tune he had heard on the TV. It was terrible and had jarred his hearing when he had heard the first time but it had somehow gotten stuck in his head and he found himself, to his utter horror, humming it often. He shot a vicious glare at the TV as if it was its fault. Which it totally was. Obviously.

Furihata caught it, “Are you still mad at the TV?” 

“It knows, Kouki. It knows. It is cackling in glee at making me do its bidding.”

Furihata sighed and shook his head ruefully, “It……doesn’t. I don’t know how many times I need to-”

“Yes, yes its an ‘appliance’ that runs on eclekti-city but how do you explain it knows what shows I want to watch? How do you explain how it knows which day it is today and what is happening somewhere so far away?” Akashi shot another glare at the TV that is definitely turned off, and obviously pretending to be innocent. “Sorcery, I tell you. Black Magic. The Prophets back home will be stunned to discover such Higher Power resides on Earth at every home. How easy it was to control humans. I am surprised you have lasted this long without an invasion.”

“Soooooo, how does news travel in your planet?”

“Telepathy, of course. If something is to be known to someone or to a group at large, we just convey through our minds. Our Lifelines are connected to the Priestesses in Power. If someone is in danger or in need of help, they know immediately.” Akashi shrugged and resumed patting Furihata’s head. He didn’t want to think about stopping anytime soon. 

He switched gears when he realised he has conveyed things regarding his kind. He was here to study humans, not the other way around. “Well, that doesn’t matter now. You tell me who upset you.” Akashi stops, and nearly breaks his neck when he turns to Furihata, “Wait, should I take care of it? I can, of course, but I am not permitted to harm humans. Unless under life threatening circumstances. Was your life threatened? Were you in physical danger? Where does your step-sibling dwell?” Akashi starts to get up when Furihata grabs him back onto the couch.

“No, no, nonono, I am fine. Here see! All limbs accounted for. Nothing to worry about.” Furihata hurries to placate him. God knows what Akashi was capable of. Mibuchi had said Akashi was their leader and being a leader meant he was powerful to a great extent, right? Either way, Furihata didn’t want to find out. 

Akashi looked scary enough with the fiery red hair and eyes that blazed deep into your soul. Furihata secretly loved them. They were so expressive and intense and he felt pleasant shivers go through him every time Akashi made eye-contact. Which was often, what with them living together. It was disastrous for his heart. Was it Alien Magic? It must be Alien Magic. No human alive made him feel that way. “I was….just thinking about how……people whom you care about should …….you know, what’s that word? Um….. Reciprocate? Yeah, that’s the one. Reciprocate.”

Akashi looked confused. And when he was confused he tilted his head to the side with his eyes looking all adorable and red hair falling artfully over his face that Furihata couldn’t stand it. No one could stand it. He melted. He had a hard time believing this was indeed an alien living in house for a reconnaissance mission but all he knew was this cute too-beautiful-to-be-true guy who looked adorably confused all the fucking time. Dammit. It was so not good for his heart. 

“I mean,” Furihata said, “If you like someone, family or otherwise, you would….want to know things about them, right? Things they tell, things they don’t tell but you know that’s how they are and all that.”

Akashi considered, “Like how you don’t like towels on the bathroom floor?” 

“Exactly! Yes!” Furihata smiled, relieved. Akashi smiled back. It was wonderful to see Furihata smile like that. At him. Like Akashi did something to put it there. And that the effort had paid off. It made Akashi’s chest puff up in pride. “That’s what I meant about things that people don’t particularly say, but they like it that way anyway. If you care about someone you should take the effort to know, for example, how they take their tea, you know? That’s common knowledge.”

“Too much milk and too much sugar.” Akashi answered promptly. 

Furihata stopped and stayed silent and sat up and faced Akashi slowly, “What?”

“Too much milk and too much sugar,” Akashi repeated slowly as if Furihata hadn’t heard him the first time. He missed petting Furihata’s head. Not that he would voice it out loud. “That’s how you take your tea. Although it makes me slightly scared that you don’t exercise at all and still have that much sugar for your daily intake-”

“Wait, what?”

“I said, that much sugar-”

“I didn’t mean that! I meant…..why would you know how I take…” Furihata looked wild, face pinking all of a sudden. Akashi wondered what caused it. “My tea…how? I-why?”

“You said it yourself,” Akashi informed, confused, tilting his head again and Furihata wants to gnash his teeth at the adorableness of it all. Furihata’s heart is fluttering like a mad hummingbird and he knew his face was blushing a color rivaling Akashi’s hair. Akashi continued, blissfully ignoring the crisis he was putting Furihata through, “If you care about someone, you know how they take their tea.”

Oh.

Akashi’s eyes went wide as he realised what he had said.

Akashi felt himself color, felt his blood rush to his face and tips of his ears, he knew he was pinking up just like Furihata. He braved himself to look at Furihata and promptly colored harder when he saw Furihata smiling at him. Smiling like Akashi was the single most important thing in the world. In Furihata’s world. Too wide and too bright. Sucking in all of the light from the room and shining like a beacon. Eyes crinkling in the corners and dimples on both cheeks. It must hurt but Furihata doesn’t seem to be in any pain. All the pain seemed to be in Akashi’s chest. Strange. 

“Its….Its hard not to,” Akashi felt the need to say something, anything to make Furihata stop smiling at him like that. It was making the insides of his body all tingly and jittery. He should get himself checked. Maybe he was malfunctioning.

Furihata laughed and it was a delightful sound. All light and happy and carefree. And Akashi couldn’t help but pink harder and felt his chest tightening further, nearly choking him. That was until Furihata said softly, almost reverently, “I care about you too, Sei.”

It took a full minute before his brain processed the words but when it did, Akashi felt his face split in half with the force of his smile. Staring wondrously at the dark pink Furihata was sporting on his face and knowing he was in the same state possibly, he made a note to check both of them up with Mibuchi at the earliest. 

But for now, he was feeling satisfyingly happy and light and carefree to sit here on an old wheezing lumpy couch with the human he cared for. And who cared for him back. 

[HAPPY AKAFURI DAY!!! Thanks to @glyphmax for giving me this wonderful prompt