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[lakebrat]

Hello. You've reached Goro Akechi, known as Frog. Please leave a message.

[Beep.]

[[ooc: WARNING that threads with willowandoak may contain unmarked NSFW. Tread lightly. Blame Sunflowren.]]

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[lakebrat]

[[ooc: nb, this apology thread between crow and glitch is dated after this thread.]]

He doesn't ask if Ren even wants to apologise; the fact that he's trying makes it more than evident. Ren's pride, after all, has so often been all he has. Goro lets one hand play lightly through his hair, like a promise.

"It's the worst, isn't it," he murmurs. "Did he mention apologising to Futaba yet?"

[willowandoak]

"Yeah, I talked to him about it. He started out kinda defensive, but then he got like... 'I shouldn't hold grudges, it's so Goro Akechi of me, I'm such a piece of shit for that.' But he sounded like he'd apologize to her."

Which Ren cares about way more than he cares about any apologies made to him. But the downside of that is, it leaves him as the only one saying he's sorry.

[lakebrat]

What? He starts to giggle, under his breath in disbelief. "It's so Goro Akechi of me? He didn't really say that."

Like, Crow, he doesn't dislike you, and he sees your strengths, of which there are many. But that's such a thing to say.

[willowandoak]

"He said... god, how did he say it. He was talking about the archetypal Goro Akechi. And, as much as he's grown, he's still Goro Akechi. Like that."

He likes making Goro laugh, though, and he likes being the one to have done it. He twines his fingers in Goro's hair.

[lakebrat]

Still giggling, he wriggles a little, twisting his own fingers in Ren's hair to pull just a bit. "It's so Goro Akechi of me. Stop me, I'm going to start using that in conversation."

But the laughter stills, as he does against Ren, as more serious thoughts come into play. "The archetypical Goro Akechi. I suppose that's something I won't ever truly understand."

Again, he tugs Ren's hair, affectionately.

[willowandoak]

He grins against Akechi's shoulder at the thought, but it fades, even as he presses his head against Akechi's hand like a cat.

"Yeah. You're too annoying."

Annoying is not the word he really means.

[lakebrat]

"Is that right?" He presses his hips forward, tugging down knowingly on the hand in Ren's hair. "Annoying, is it?"

[willowandoak]

Ren laughs breathlessly, tilting his head back. Briefly, he thinks of his phone in his pocket and the last message he sent Crow. sorry. i promise ill be back. He didn't mean to get laid when he left, but he's not going to say no to it, either.

He meets Goro's eyes in challenge. "So annoying."

[lakebrat]

Right. With a swift swoop of his hand and leg, laughing, he aims to spin Ren right onto his back and take his rightful place on top.

[willowandoak]

Still smiling, Ren lets himself be pushed.

A short while later, lying loose-limbed on the new futon with sweat drying on his skin, he blinks sleepily at the ceiling. "I really did come here for a reason."

[lakebrat]

"Yes, and the reason was to call me annoying and get jumpridden for it." But there's such deep appreciation in the way he says it that only a true curmudgeon could get mad. With both of them mopped up to a degree—they'll need to shower, for sure—he's curled beside Ren, watching him.

"I was about to say, about Crow. That he got adopted out of his bad childhood, and it's fucked him up." Short and sweet, but, he thinks, accurate.

[willowandoak]

Ren will call Goro annoying every day, if that's what happens when he does. But instead of saying so, he tries to actually focus on the conversation at hand.

He smiles briefly when Goro gives his analysis. "It'd be nice if he could get that through his head. He's the second best demonstration I've seen of why therapy is fucking useless."

The very best demonstration, of course, is a certain school counselor with a god complex. But Crow... firstly, it's exhausting to deal with him when he gets like that. It makes Ren wonder what it must have been like for Goro, when Ren was so much worse and Goro was so much closer. But more importantly, at least to Ren, it keeps making Crow unhappy.

[lakebrat]

Goro doesn't argue the therapy thing. He's seen enough overbearing doctors in his time. There are people who've helped his mother over the years, but none of them were therapists.

He doesn't smile; instead, the remnants of his smile fade, becoming more closed off. "I mean, we can't exactly argue that the others are better. He has that much going for him, at least. But it seems that when he has bad moments, perfectly ordinary, human bad moments, he puts it down to—what, some stain on his soul?"

Is Goro the single, shining example of a well-balanced Goro Akechi? He wouldn't go so far, not by half.

[willowandoak]

"Yep." He sighs. "I don't know, man. It's... Did you feel like this when I had a Palace? When I kept saying weird shit and there was no point in even talking to me about it?"

[lakebrat]

"I—" Shit. His face, if anything, closes even more, before unclosing a tiny bit. "I was afraid. That it wouldn't work. That I'd be required to leave you as you were."

[willowandoak]

Ren considers Goro for a moment, solemn-eyed, feeling the weight of his fear and his determination, as solid and grim as concrete, to let Ren choose his own destiny. Then he leans in and kisses him.

[lakebrat]

And this time it doesn't turn into sex. He feels Ren's concern wrap around his own, as delicate as a butterfly, and he lets the kiss strengthen him.

Now in Ren's arms, and slightly distracted, he watches the window. "I would have done it, you know. If it was truly what you wanted."

[willowandoak]

"I know." He wouldn't have known, a week ago, or else he would have believed it for the wrong reasons. But that was then.

"I didn't really want to die. Not even... It got kind of bad for a little while with the Palace. But I still wanted to survive. Some things are just more important." He reviews that sentence. "One thing. Is more important.

"A while ago," he continues haltingly, "I heard what happens in the interrogation room. Like, before I get there. They were going to drug you, beat the shit out of you. The person I talked to said their you was out of his mind from drugs and injuries. And I—"

He sighs. "I don't know why that thought pushed me over the edge when the actual plan wasn't enough. But that's when I decided."

[lakebrat]

It's such a thought. He knew going in that it would be bad, that whoever arrested him would do so by force; that they wouldn't be kind. But he'd do it. If it would save the others, if it would let him win, he'd do it. He just—he hadn't thought they'd drug him. That's not even legal. He starts to pull away—

One thing. Is more important. His hand tightens on Ren's waist, his lifeline, as he gets control of himself.

"We still might have to go through with it, you know," he says, dry-mouthed. "There might be no way around it. Not if we want to get out the other side."

[willowandoak]

"No," he says flatly.

[lakebrat]

And, for all he brushes his hand against Ren's back, for all he tries to lock himself down, there's still animal terror in his eyes. Enough that he doesn't even argue. He'd imagined what it might mean, but he thought it wouldn't come to the worst.

"Okay," he murmurs, swallowing. "Okay. We were talking about Crow, anyway."

[willowandoak]

"Goro." He pulls back slightly, just far enough to look Goro in the eyes. He looks like the boy he was a few years ago, the one who realized he'd have to kill thirty people within three days and said, I'd better get to work, then. "Listen to me. Are you listening?"

[lakebrat]

His eyes flick up, half-angry, half-terrified, fraught like an animal's.

[willowandoak]

"I won't let that happen to you." He says it with utter certainty. His mouth is a straight, implacable line. "We have time to make plans here. We can finalize them with your friends when we get home. All I have to do is tell them how bad the interrogation will get, and they won't let you within half a mile of the police station. It's not happening."

[lakebrat]

But he's not the leader for nothing. Moment by moment, he draws himself back together, all the little cracks and crazy paving vanishing under an intense façade. Except that Ren has seen them.

"And what about you?" he insists. "Whatever we go forward with needs to be something we both survive."

As for what he'll do instead... he's thought over possible plans. Ones that don't involve sacrificing either him, Ren, or all of the others, though—they're thin on the ground.