Mm... three? I think I broke the scale with my special curry back home so the taste buds are kinda too refined for what the mess hall is capable of. Sucks.
[ Praise be to the little sprouts growing in Haru's garden. Grow, tiny seeds, grow into big, magnificent foods for them to eat so that their lives are no longer as full of suffering on the culinary front and Ren will give them all the moist and super plant foods they desire.
It's hard not to see Ryuji's big, stupid smile and not think of a puppy bounding toward him waiting for Ren to give him a nice that'll do, pig or something. No one else crashes into Ren with that energy, no one else bounces off him with this innate knowing of the level they're operating on, automatically matching. Ryuji calms down, Ren perks up, it's all good in the neighborhood.
He's shaking his head at Akira, sure that Ryuji would blurt it out anyway so this allows him a modicum of demureness. Ren's in no hurry, he got someone to watch his food while he went in search of his wayward Chariot. ]
Eheh, I'm no one important. Ryuji's prone to excitability, I'm sure you've noticed.
No, this doesn't need introspection, it jumps right out of Ryuji's mouth in incredulity.]
No one important? The hell.
[That's the biggest nothing statement he's ever heard from the other, and maybe he was trying? to keep a low profile, but there's something about Ryuji that insists this is just... surely not possible.]
Akira, meet Ren, Ren- Akira. This here's my best friend. And a giant pain in the butt.
[He says that while laughing- knowing full well that the actual pain in the ass in their relationship is probably him.]
Not too bad on the eyes either~ [It's headlock time? It's headlock time.]
Ryuji, you came out here to defend his honor and you just! tell him!! Like fine, you're really proud of being Ren's friend and that sets off a whole chain reaction of things which can only be described as Feels to the point that Ren might be dissociating because his body can't handle how much he loves and appreciated his bestie right now but the headlock is also keeping him from booking it the fuck out of there cuz "Akira" oh shi- ]
G-get off me - your pits reek!
[ He can totally pretend that the struggle is all that's turning his face red, right? Good. Cool.
Engage tickle attack! Target: sides. All that time grinding proficiency has honed Ren's fingers into the perfect spidery tickle-y terror for speed boys that leave their sides open...
[This isn't right. He's completely fucking mental. Ren, this is your friend.]
ACK. SHIT- MAN- WHAT THE. EFF.
[That move was entirely... way too goddamn dirty, and he just sort of... lets go completely and grimaces, rubbing his side. Highly affected. Highly effective. What an asshole.]
[Akira watches the two of them with a discerning eye. He's... almost concerned, now, mostly because he recognizes something familiar in the two of them. Is that how he and Ryo looked all the time? Christ.
(Well, it's definitely not enough to make him consider to change his behavior, but it's certainly something of an eye-opening experience, to say the least.)]
Most people're prone to that, though. [He turns a faint, vaguely knowing smile to the bottled-blond, remembering how their first meeting had quickly turned a little wild, landing them both in an excessively questionable pool.] Oh. So you're Ren. [His tone of voice grows considerably more flat. Despite his machismo on the network, his bite doesn't all match his bark - he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt someone unless he absolutely needed to, but the way the guy'd spoken to Ryo still sticks in the back of his mind, stinging him. So much of his time with Ryo had been spent watching and listening to people say hurtful things to him, thinking themselves absolved of the guilt because he didn't react. Surely he mustn't actually care, right? But even if Ryo didn't, Akira did for him; years ago it just made him upset, but now it makes him angry.
For now, though... It's hard to be angry, watching Ryuji lock the guy into a headlock, only to have his hygiene questioned and his sides tickled. Come on, you guys.]
Well. [He says with a short sigh; he rolls his shoulders, his head tilted to one side.] If you're gonna be a damn pain in the ass, you might as well be a good-lookin' one.
[He ain't gonna argue that. Akira has eyes. He doesn't need Ryuji to tell him.]
Here's where I'd probably tell you guys to get a room, but, well. [He looks around them before setting the two of them in a smirk.] If you guys want, I can just leave you to it.
First meetings with Ryuji tend to be like that; Ren ever tell anyone about the time they met, chatted about a pervert for a while and then wound up in a dungeon together? Good story, when they're better friends Ren can explain.
Ren isn't scared of instant retribution, so to say. Physical harm? No. He's orchestrated his own arrest, been drugged to the gills and beaten with the full and knowing authority of the law and he turned out fine bar a few weeks of recovery and a mild case of death. He got better. It'd be harder to pull off here.
Now that he's in the situation it's more that Ren is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Meeting with Ryuji in secret for a very special game of roshambo isn't Ren's business except for where it is, but the seeming ease with which Ryuji behaves around Akira is that of a kindred spirit, from what little Ren has been able to glean. And while Ryuji'd pits are gloriously sans deodorant Ren's quick thinking allows him a quicker recovery time to reorient his defenses. If only Akira decided to come at them from an expected angle. ]
That's, uh.
[ Ren should lean into the joke for an easy turnaround, but that'd probably be too harshly doubling down on an undeserving subject of ridicule. It's still pretty fucked up what Ren did in Shibuya so he's been trying to avoid further damaging Ryuji's opinion since- ]
Why is everyone talking about my looks..?
[ Ren pulls his chin inward, tugging awkwardly at the bit of hair perpetually resting between his eyes. ]
I did come to get Ryuji, that's all, since Akira-kun looks like he's won his battles for the moment. Ryuji and I already share a room, so keep it?
[La la la... Here is one (1) Ryuji Sakamoto not having a clue as to what's going on or why Akira would joke about them needing a room for anything, and with his arms crossed (no longer trying to get Ren to squirm under him (god....)), he feels pretty complacent with the way that his friend deflects. Yeah. They got a room. Duh. They live together.
The only thing that he knows he absolutely wants is... for these two to get along. Akira provided a certain sense of camaraderie for Ryuji that felt like an old friend back from his days in sports. It was a facet of friendship that he admittedly kind of missed. Not that he wasn't already completely satisfied with the Thieves, no, because he loved them more than he loved life itself. They were always going to be his posse. You don't go through what you went through like that and not have a few blood oaths rummaging about between their social graces.]
Alright, alright. Akira, man, Ren is so way outta your league. [He smiles, brimming to the edges of his own endless internal sunshine. They both know it's a joke, right? He doesn't think that Akira is actually hitting on him.
Is he?
Wait, is he?]
Yeah, I'm down for food. Let's blow this popsicle stand, dude.
[One of the superpowers Akira had had even before he'd gotten this whole devilman thing going on was that he was nearly impossible to fluster past a certain point. It came part and parcel with the whole-hearted self-acceptance thing he had going on. Then the devilman thing certainly hadn't helped, only deeply exacerbating his completely and naturally unabashed nature. All of this having been said, it just made it fun to get under others' skin in a similar way, just because he held onto a personal immunity of it being flipped back towards him.
So, yeah, watching Ren squirm a little under the scrutiny was pretty great. It's just about all the revenge Akira really needed, besides showing Ryuji who wasn't going to be bested in schoolyard physical challenges. He grins, the expression a wide and toothy one.]
Just 'cuz we got eyes, dude.
[What, he's allowed to talk about that stuff, right? They're three gorgeous Japanese guys. Might as well just accept that now.
His attention is tugged violently back to Ryuji at the snipe, though.] Hey! [He says in sharp exclamation, feigning to bristle.] I don't think you got any say over what my league is, Ryuji.
[Is he?
Is he? (;
As far as the three of them are concerned, no, he is not. We don't need any more animosity between Ren and Ryo, after all.]
Alright, well, don't let me stop you guys. [Akira says it with a grandiose shrug of his broad shoulders, stuffing his hands into his pockets and breezing past the two of them, tangled in one another as they are, with all of the nonchalance in the world. He shoots a glance at them over his shoulder, eyes glinting.] I'll leave ya to it.
[And then he strolls out of the room and on his way, feeling as though he's the victor in all of this, somehow. Regardless of how much truth there is to that.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ Praise be to the little sprouts growing in Haru's garden. Grow, tiny seeds, grow into big, magnificent foods for them to eat so that their lives are no longer as full of suffering on the culinary front and Ren will give them all the moist and super plant foods they desire.
It's hard not to see Ryuji's big, stupid smile and not think of a puppy bounding toward him waiting for Ren to give him a nice that'll do, pig or something. No one else crashes into Ren with that energy, no one else bounces off him with this innate knowing of the level they're operating on, automatically matching. Ryuji calms down, Ren perks up, it's all good in the neighborhood.
He's shaking his head at Akira, sure that Ryuji would blurt it out anyway so this allows him a modicum of demureness. Ren's in no hurry, he got someone to watch his food while he went in search of his wayward Chariot. ]
Eheh, I'm no one important. Ryuji's prone to excitability, I'm sure you've noticed.
no subject
No, this doesn't need introspection, it jumps right out of Ryuji's mouth in incredulity.]
No one important? The hell.
[That's the biggest nothing statement he's ever heard from the other, and maybe he was trying? to keep a low profile, but there's something about Ryuji that insists this is just... surely not possible.]
Akira, meet Ren, Ren- Akira. This here's my best friend. And a giant pain in the butt.
[He says that while laughing- knowing full well that the actual pain in the ass in their relationship is probably him.]
Not too bad on the eyes either~ [It's headlock time? It's headlock time.]
no subject
Ryuji, you came out here to defend his honor and you just! tell him!! Like fine, you're really proud of being Ren's friend and that sets off a whole chain reaction of things which can only be described as Feels to the point that Ren might be dissociating because his body can't handle how much he loves and appreciated his bestie right now but the headlock is also keeping him from booking it the fuck out of there cuz "Akira" oh shi- ]
G-get off me - your pits reek!
[ He can totally pretend that the struggle is all that's turning his face red, right? Good. Cool.
Engage tickle attack! Target: sides. All that time grinding proficiency has honed Ren's fingers into the perfect spidery tickle-y terror for speed boys that leave their sides open...
BEGIN. ]
no subject
[This isn't right. He's completely fucking mental. Ren, this is your friend.]
ACK. SHIT- MAN- WHAT THE. EFF.
[That move was entirely... way too goddamn dirty, and he just sort of... lets go completely and grimaces, rubbing his side. Highly affected. Highly effective. What an asshole.]
no subject
(Well, it's definitely not enough to make him consider to change his behavior, but it's certainly something of an eye-opening experience, to say the least.)]
Most people're prone to that, though. [He turns a faint, vaguely knowing smile to the bottled-blond, remembering how their first meeting had quickly turned a little wild, landing them both in an excessively questionable pool.] Oh. So you're Ren. [His tone of voice grows considerably more flat. Despite his machismo on the network, his bite doesn't all match his bark - he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt someone unless he absolutely needed to, but the way the guy'd spoken to Ryo still sticks in the back of his mind, stinging him. So much of his time with Ryo had been spent watching and listening to people say hurtful things to him, thinking themselves absolved of the guilt because he didn't react. Surely he mustn't actually care, right? But even if Ryo didn't, Akira did for him; years ago it just made him upset, but now it makes him angry.
For now, though... It's hard to be angry, watching Ryuji lock the guy into a headlock, only to have his hygiene questioned and his sides tickled. Come on, you guys.]
Well. [He says with a short sigh; he rolls his shoulders, his head tilted to one side.] If you're gonna be a damn pain in the ass, you might as well be a good-lookin' one.
[He ain't gonna argue that. Akira has eyes. He doesn't need Ryuji to tell him.]
Here's where I'd probably tell you guys to get a room, but, well. [He looks around them before setting the two of them in a smirk.] If you guys want, I can just leave you to it.
no subject
Can he die yet jwFirst meetings with Ryuji tend to be like that; Ren ever tell anyone about the time they met, chatted about a pervert for a while and then wound up in a dungeon together? Good story, when they're better friends Ren can explain.
Ren isn't scared of instant retribution, so to say. Physical harm? No. He's orchestrated his own arrest, been drugged to the gills and beaten with the full and knowing authority of the law and he turned out fine bar a few weeks of recovery and a mild case of death. He got better. It'd be harder to pull off here.
Now that he's in the situation it's more that Ren is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Meeting with Ryuji in secret for a very special game of roshambo isn't Ren's business except for where it is, but the seeming ease with which Ryuji behaves around Akira is that of a kindred spirit, from what little Ren has been able to glean. And while Ryuji'd pits are gloriously sans deodorant Ren's quick thinking allows him a quicker recovery time to reorient his defenses. If only Akira decided to come at them from an expected angle. ]
That's, uh.
[ Ren should lean into the joke for an easy turnaround, but that'd probably be too harshly doubling down on an undeserving subject of ridicule. It's still pretty fucked up what Ren did in Shibuya so he's been trying to avoid further damaging Ryuji's opinion since- ]
Why is everyone talking about my looks..?
[ Ren pulls his chin inward, tugging awkwardly at the bit of hair perpetually resting between his eyes. ]
I did come to get Ryuji, that's all, since Akira-kun looks like he's won his battles for the moment. Ryuji and I already share a room, so keep it?
[ aaaaaaaaaaa ]
no subject
The only thing that he knows he absolutely wants is... for these two to get along. Akira provided a certain sense of camaraderie for Ryuji that felt like an old friend back from his days in sports. It was a facet of friendship that he admittedly kind of missed. Not that he wasn't already completely satisfied with the Thieves, no, because he loved them more than he loved life itself. They were always going to be his posse. You don't go through what you went through like that and not have a few blood oaths rummaging about between their social graces.]
Alright, alright. Akira, man, Ren is so way outta your league. [He smiles, brimming to the edges of his own endless internal sunshine. They both know it's a joke, right? He doesn't think that Akira is actually hitting on him.
Is he?
Wait, is he?]
Yeah, I'm down for food. Let's blow this popsicle stand, dude.
no subject
So, yeah, watching Ren squirm a little under the scrutiny was pretty great. It's just about all the revenge Akira really needed, besides showing Ryuji who wasn't going to be bested in schoolyard physical challenges. He grins, the expression a wide and toothy one.]
Just 'cuz we got eyes, dude.
[What, he's allowed to talk about that stuff, right? They're three gorgeous Japanese guys. Might as well just accept that now.
His attention is tugged violently back to Ryuji at the snipe, though.] Hey! [He says in sharp exclamation, feigning to bristle.] I don't think you got any say over what my league is, Ryuji.
[Is he?
Is he? (;
As far as the three of them are concerned, no, he is not. We don't need any more animosity between Ren and Ryo, after all.]
Alright, well, don't let me stop you guys. [Akira says it with a grandiose shrug of his broad shoulders, stuffing his hands into his pockets and breezing past the two of them, tangled in one another as they are, with all of the nonchalance in the world. He shoots a glance at them over his shoulder, eyes glinting.] I'll leave ya to it.
[And then he strolls out of the room and on his way, feeling as though he's the victor in all of this, somehow. Regardless of how much truth there is to that.]