Here's the Akira and Revan short story! Enjoy!

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Akira Short Story; Rituals

Characters;

Akira, Revan, and Nico. Ingall and Garvin mentioned.

(Quick note: I made this thinking that the timeline would be when all the polyship was together already except for Akira and Revan, thinking this could be a good genuine bonding moment, lol. Enjoy!)

---

The moment they woke up, Akira knew it was going to be a shit day. This shouldn't be much of a surprise, considering the date, but, somehow, it still caught them off guard. Which was probably because their body seemed to understand what was happening before their brain.

Either way, it took Akira longer than it should have to put the pieces together about what day it was, and then even longer to force their body out of bed.

Garvin, Ingall, and Nico had left a while ago and Kira could faintly recall Garvin gently nudging their side and mentioning that it was time for breakfast, grimacing as they remembered the flash of worry across Nico's face when they simply grumbled that they weren't hungry right now and turned over. They thought they could recall a few attempts as coaxing them out of bed, but, eventually, they just left them alone with a promise to bring them food back soon.

And then they were gone, which was probably good. Akira needed space right now anyway.

Their feet hit the ground and they were stumbling toward the bathroom, half-blinded by sleep, exhaustion, and stress as they finally got to their destination and swung open the bathroom closet.

They needed to redye their hair. Their roots were showing again.

Their roots shouldn't be showing. Especially not today. They couldn't be showing today.

Akira started shifting through the contents of the closet, only to pause when they realized that what they were looking for wasn't there. Their hair dye wasn't there.

The second that fact was processed, panic set in.

It didn't make sense, Akira knew they had bought more dye, they made sure they had, they triple-checked.

Except, maybe they hadn't. Maybe they fucked up, they got too comfortable, forgot what was really important. They had been letting down their guard recently, ever since they started dating Ingall, Garvin, and Nico. They'd let themself feel too safe, and that was a mistake. Of course, it was a mistake, thinking they were safe was always a mistake.

As Akira's chest tightened, they began scrambling, pulling things out of the closet at random with the hope that what they needed would suddenly appear.

Minutes later (or maybe it was only a few seconds, Kira couldn't be sure), they were sitting on the floor, back pressed against the toilet, curled into a ball, and surrounded by a newly created mess. Everything felt far away and looked fuzzy. They were failing.

They were failing again.

Tears pricked the corners of their eyes and, despite how hard they tried, they couldn't keep the emotions at bay. They felt like the world was collapsing around them, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Part of their brain registered the fact that someone had approached, pausing in the doorway before turning away again. Not long after, voices were heard.

"Just stay with them, make sure they don't do something stupid. I'll be back in ten minutes."

"I- I don't understand, what happened? What's going on?"

"I'll explain later."

A moment of silence, and then a blob that vaguely resembled Nico appeared, kneeling in front of Akira.

"Hey, Kiki! You wanna tell me what's going on?"

Aki tried to answer, they really did, but their throat was too tight and everything hurt too much, so all that came out was a pained whine. Nico didn't really seem to react though, just reached out a hesitant hand.

"Okay, that's alright! Can I hug you? Would that help?"

They stared blankly, tears still falling steadily. It didn't really matter what they wanted anyway, they didn't deserve any of the comfort Nico offered.

Apparently, though, Nico took their silence for acceptance and, within the next few seconds, they were wrapped in a tight hug. And they hated that it felt good. Because it really, really shouldn't. They didn't deserve it.

Still, Nico held them, humming quietly, and, eventually, this lulled Akira into an odd state of numbness. Their tears stopped falling and the panicked, self-deprecating thoughts became nothing more than static.

In fact, they were so out of it that they didn't even realize their hands were being gently pulled away from their head and their body was being shifted to better sit up.

---

When Akira finally became conscious enough to understand where they were and what was happening, they were so taken aback that they almost believed they were hallucinating, or, at the very least, having a very fucked up dream.

They were still sitting on the bathroom floor, but, now, their hair felt wet and cold against their head and a box of purple hair dye was sitting on the sink counter, but, perhaps the most confusing, was the fact that Revan was standing across from them, leaning against the wall and typing on his phone.

"You've got another fifteen minutes before you can rinse your hair."

Revan's voice was flat and factual as usual, as though he hadn't just run to the store, bought hair dye, and then spent what had to have been at least an hour doing Akira's hair. As if he hadn't cleaned up the entire mess Akira had made. As if he wasn't actively standing in the middle of a fucking bathroom in order to keep watch over them, probably to, as he'd told Nico before "Make sure they didn't do anything stupid."

And that didn't make sense.

Why was he here? Why would he do any of that in the first place? Why? And more, why Revan?

"I- how- how did you know?"

Revan raised an eyebrow, eyes still glued to his phone. "Lucky guess."

Akira's eyes flicked back to the box on the counter and they shook their head slightly. Revan picking up their exact shade by the exact brand they used was more than just a lucky guess, the likelihood that he grabbed the perfect thing by chance was almost zero.

"But... it... doesn't make sense."

That earned them a small shrug. "I pay attention, that's all. Now, I'm assuming, since you're feeling well enough to talk again, that you can handle rinsing out your hair on your own. If you need anything, me and the others are in the other room, Nico in particular has been... enthusiastically waiting for an opportunity to offer assistance."

That coaxed a small smile from them and, as Revan turned toward the door, Akira hesitantly spoke up again.

"Thank you. For everything. Uh, I know it's not... much, but, if ya need help with your hair or anythin' in the future, I've 'most always got time."

Revan paused, and, though Akira couldn't see his expression, they were keenly aware that even his fingers froze above the phone screen. For a moment, no response was given and Kira wondered if they'd pushed too far, poked a nerve or something somehow, but, before they could apologize, Rev responded, and Akira could have sworn his voice was softer than before.

"Yeah, no problem... I'll... Keep that in mind."

And then he was gone and Akira was left alone in the bathroom again, but, this time, it didn't feel nearly as bad.

Taking in a deep breath, they stood and took a few steps to look in the mirror, a faint smile touching their lips as they examined their hair. They still had to call Everett later, as per tradition, but, maybe, just maybe, today wouldn't be quite as terrible as they expected.