Aki will have known you for a total of three years in about two weeks, and in those (nearly) three years, you’ve managed to light every nerve in his body on fire in the worst way possible.

Himeno had teased him about it, but the defining point of your relationship had been his clear dislike of you. His original opinion of you was that you were a thoughtless, reckless, and irritating person and had no issue telling you that to your face. On your first mission together you had tripped and fallen due to an untied shoelace, giving away your position to a Devil and nearly compromised the mission. It was a wonder you’d made it this far in life, let alone in Public Safety.

It’s a wonder either of you survived yesterday.

Nothing makes sense to Aki right now, but his most prominent memories are the gun, the restaurant collapsing, you, stupidly, trying to fight head on, being stabbed, and Himeno. He’s still trying to clear the last part away in his mind. Dissecting it into bits and pieces like if he pinpoints the exact moment she vanished, she’ll reappear like a magic trick and everything will go back to how it was before.

Of course you two had made it, though in terrible shape. The surgeons had had to cut your hair to take care of your head wound and had to wrap his exposed chest up tightly in bandages that continued to bleed through hours later. When he’d woken up, Denji and Power were there. You had the audacity to waltz in after them, sitting beside them and lounging in the stiff hospital chair as if everything was normal.

To admit to feeling worried about your well-being out loud felt like making another admission about you Aki wasn’t ready to make, so he spoke with his actions; ignoring you until he couldn’t anymore.

“You’re an idiot,” he says, finally looking at you after the two loud and aggravating teenagers have been kicked out. When your tired eyes look over to meet his, he looks away.

“I just wanted to remind you of that.”