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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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[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.

[willowandoak]

"I have some thoughts. If we play our cards right, we can get everything sorted out before the 19th. Except Yaldabaoth, I guess. And maybe Maruki. But they're not part of United Future. They don't want you in that room."

He strokes Goro's hair. "And if we don't make it in time," he says, ignoring the leader act and speaking to the terrified boy he knows is still there, "you can all join me in Mementos until Shido and Niijima are taken care of. I didn't agree to survive just to watch you throw yourself on the fucking pyre, Goro. I won't take part in any plan that involves you and Shido's cops."

[lakebrat]

His heart feels like a bird. A trapped, terrified bird, with no way to fly but forward. Quietly, he leans in and presses a kiss to Ren's lips.

—which is the exact moment Ren's phone chooses to vibrate. "Shit," he says, against Ren's face.

[willowandoak]

Ren huffs, half in laughter and half in annoyance. With the mood broken, he gives Goro a quick kiss and turns to extract his phone from the pile of clothes on Goro's floor.

The set of messages makes him snort. He sends a brief reply and then shows his phone to Goro.

[lakebrat]

Pulling himself upright, he gives the string of messages a snort in reply. "I wouldn't be Crow. Imagine having to live with all those shepherds. Boss was never so bad."

[willowandoak]

"I bet you were never as bad as Crow," Ren says absently, eyes on his phone.

[lakebrat]

"I'm sure I was worse," he says, almost comfortably, propping up the pillow to make a spot for Ren to snuggle in—if he so wishes.

Beaten and drugged, though. Yet by the sound of it, he still survives.

[willowandoak]

He does, leaning back against the pillow and squirming a little to get comfortable, giving nothing more than a skeptical hum in response.

As patient and generous as it is, Crow's latest message makes him hesitate. He doesn't glance at Goro or reach for him, or in any way ask for even more support than Goro's already had to give him. But he's searching for courage, and it's taking him a minute to find it.

[lakebrat]

But Goro slips an arm around his shoulder, a warm, steady, naked presence. He's right here, Ren.

[willowandoak]

Ren's determination carries him through the long series of messages he sends Crow, although his grip on his phone grows tighter as he continues. But the instant he's done with the final message, he drops his phone and turns to hide his face against Goro's neck.

Fuck, that was awful. Do people really do that all the time? Just say shit? How are they not dead?

[lakebrat]

His other arm goes around Ren, holding him close and secure as the two of them breathe together. Imagine just saying shit like that. He'd almost rather die.

He rubs Ren's shoulder, in slow, certain circles.

[willowandoak]

"Fuck," he mumbles after a moment. "At least when I had a Palace I didn't have to do this shit."

[lakebrat]

"Yeah," he agrees, involving his fingernails a tiny bit, keeping Ren close against him. "But then there are a lot of other things you didn't do, either. And I know you think it's worth it, or you'd have told Crow to go jump."

[willowandoak]

"He was the first friend I made here." He is curious to see how Goro will take this, so he adds: "We flirted once or twice. Since I look his boyfriend, and." He gestures at Goro with one hand. "It didn't mean anything, it was just funny."

It's at this time that Ren's phone vibrates. He sighs as he pulls away and picks it back up.

[lakebrat]

But Goro's not too upset. It's not as if Ren lived like a monk. He wrinkles his nose some, though, not because Ren dared flirt with another, but because it was Crow. "What's he saying?"

[willowandoak]

He angles his phone so Goro can see it. "Magpie was a dick, and it's his fault I got a Palace. Crow's fault, I mean."

[lakebrat]

"How can I put this?" He curls, arching his back as he snuggles lazily down beneath the quilt. "I don't think it took Crow to give you a Palace. Tell him to stop being so egotistical."

He does not think this would be a genuinely good idea.

[willowandoak]

He snorts. But he doesn't type that, or anything similar, into the text box. Instead, he closes out of his messages with Crow entirely and opens the proper Nav, the one that can take you to the Metaverse.

"The Goro Akechi that everyone here calls Crow," he says into the phone.

No candidate found.

Huh. He glances at Goro, his mouth slanted wryly. "The way he's talking, it was worth checking."

[lakebrat]

... huh. He leans back up on his elbow. "That's a relief. Then again, his Shadow is walking around with him the whole time. I suppose he could have two."

Thinking aloud. Two Shadows?.. well, Ren had two personas, after all.

[willowandoak]

Ren hums absentminded acknowledgment, absorbed in his phone for a moment, until Crow's newest messages send him into a fit of quiet laughter. He holds out his phone to show Goro the latest exchange.