[ic] all the voices mistaken

[pheasantboy]

In the end, they got Ren settled into bed, with a glass of water and his phone—though a big part of Akechi would have been far more comfortable if that glass was a sippy cup. He wanted to stay, to be on hand, but he didn't need to be told crowding Ren wouldn't be for the best. And he can be on hand just as well downstairs in the park as in his apartment.

So here he is, sitting on a park bench with his head in his hands, having vaulted the closed park gate as if he's done it a thousand times before—which may not even be untrue. Besides his fear for Ren, the things he's learned rotate in his head. He notices his episodes, now—that never happened before. And this thing Ren believes he did... what can it have been? Something everyone but him knows about, clearly. Something bad enough to make them hate him? Even to kill him?

Perhaps not coincidentally, he's sitting on the same bench another Akechi was feeding the birds from, long ago. The bag of breadcrumbs he forgot earlier has vanished, as if it never was.

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[pheasantboy]

It doesn't take long for them to reach the top of what, all things considered, is quite a nice apartment building—the floors in the corridor are carpeted, for instance, and nobody's pissed in the elevator.

None of this occurs to Akechi, who stops at the second-last door on the top floor to listen, holding up his hand for silence.

[willowandoak]

It has an elevator, which sets it above anywhere Ren lived back home. He opens his mouth when Akechi stops in front of the door, only to close it again at the request for silence.

Nothing happens. Ren doesn't speak, but he frowns. Is that Akechi's apartment, even? Or is it... not?

[pheasantboy]

And Akechi listens, for just long enough to establish that nobody's smashing the furniture or sobbing their heart out. Then, with a sigh of relief, he turns to his own unlocked door. "Come in, please."

For the second time that day, he gets to show his apartment, with all the pine and the abundant houseplants, to a Ren. "This is it. Home, sweet home."—he says the last in English, before stepping out of his shoes.

[willowandoak]

So that's definitely the other Ren's apartment, then. Ren kicks his shoes into a corner of the genkan, looking around with raised eyebrows. "Didn't know you were into gardening."

[pheasantboy]

"You know," he says, heading into the bathroom to wash his hands and fetch the first-aid kit, "that's exactly what he said. What is it about me that gives the impression I don't garden?"

He runs the hot tap, but the door's open; they can still talk. The bathroom is, if anything, even more woody than the rest of the apartment.

[willowandoak]

Ren takes a seat on the couch and eyes all the notebooks. Something is going on there, but he has a feeling that he shouldn't ask. It sets off his blankout senses, or something.

"The clothes," he says. "They get dirty too easy. Plus, I gave my Akechi a plant once and I think it freaked him out."

[pheasantboy]

"You did?" Drying his hands, he comes through to the sitting-room with the first aid box. "Did he not know how to care for it, or...?"

Then he stops. The sight of another Ren on his couch twists his heart.

[willowandoak]

"...What?" He glances around, looking for the cause of Akechi's silence. "Should I sit somewhere else?"

[pheasantboy]

For a moment, he really considers it. Then he steps forward and sits down, with another of those subdued smiles. "There isn't anywhere else. Unless you want to lean on the kitchen counter, or sit on the bed."

He doesn't linger on that point, just opens up the box, producing cotton-wool swabs and disinfectant, which he applies one to the other. "I do miss my desk. I should think about getting one in here."

[willowandoak]

"Yeah, no kidding." This might be an obscure statement if you don't know about... all the notebooks. Ren holds out his bitten hand to Akechi. "You'd have to get it here from a furniture store or wherever, though, right? Sounds like a pain in the ass."

If it were him, he'd steal it from a nearby apartment. But he remembers Akechi's opinions about the cognitions of fake Tokyo.

[pheasantboy]

"Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult," he says, taking the proffered hand and beginning to swab the bites. He's removed his gloves; their skin touches. "Find one flat packed, and bring it here piecemeal. Come to that, there's no reason I shouldn't drive."

Setting down the soiled swab, he takes up another and moistens it with disinfectant. "Some of those really are nasty. You say these are from the otters? Or the fennec foxes?"

[willowandoak]

The disinfectant stings. Ren holds his hand steady. "Otters have big pointy fangs, dude. You wouldn't know, just looking at them. The fennecs just scratched me a little on my arms." You can't see it with his overshirt on, slightly ragged though it may now be.

[pheasantboy]

"Otters are carnivores, and live in water. They're very high-risk. Foxes at least are omnivores." He scrubs the bites firmly, very much with the air of some one who knows exactly what he's doing.

"Do you know otters in other parts of the world—I say the world—carry rabies? They do, you know." Wait, his world has rabies?

[willowandoak]

He swallows a laugh. "The zoo isn't going to have rabid animals. But if I start foaming at the mouth, you can cut off my head and look at my brain to see if I was rabid."

[pheasantboy]

His hands pause in their work, and he blinks, thinking about that. Then... he shrugs, and prepares another swab. "No, and I doubt Igor would let you catch anything. After all, how would you bond?"

He touches the new swab to the deepest bite.

[willowandoak]

His hand tenses as Akechi cleans the bite, but he doesn't flinch. "Spreading rabies is a kind of bond, I guess. We all go down together."

[pheasantboy]

So that's your secret. You go around biting people. That's why you blew up Shinjuku.

[These bites are as clean as they're going to get, by the look of it.]

Now, I can either close this—the deep one—or I can leave it open to breathe, in which case it will likely scar. It's up to you.

[willowandoak]

It'll be the coolest scar I have. Otter bite scar. [ He is unbothered by the concept, considering all the knife scars he has already. ]

I'll admit, I have bitten people in the past. But not for a long time. So you're probably safe.

[pheasantboy]

Only probably? Goodness.

[But he reaches for the disinfectant and cotton swabs again instead, to do Ren's other hand.]

if you're quite sure, I'll leave it open. It's better for them to breathe, anyway—all that filth in the water, you know. Do you have many scars?

[willowandoak]

Yeah. Knife fights and stuff. Can't avoid them. I've been lucky to just end up with scars, if you think about it.

[ He's unbothered by this, as well. He watches his hand as Akechi carefully tends to it. It's like something his own Akechi would do for his teammates—his actual teammates, anyway. With the same heckling about rabies, even. ]

[pheasantboy]

[Knife fights? For a moment, he pauses, then... his eyes flick up, to the corridor out to the genkan. Maybe he should text Ren? But no, there's no way he can disturb him.]

Well, I would have to agree with that. You could be dead, I suppose. Rather beyond my butterfly closures.

[It's almost devoid of his usual shock. His world was like the others, once. It was different. He was different. Already, he waits for the cut-out, but it doesn't come, so he resumes cleaning up Ren's other hand.]

[willowandoak]

[ He watches Akechi's reaction with amusement. ] I'm not gonna stab you.

[ He'd have expected a little more shock, though. Knife fights? Gasp. But Akechi is in a weird mood in general, for him. ]

[pheasantboy]

[If only he had nothing but other people's knife fights to think about. In fact, if only he had nothing to... but no, he can't think that. His mind is racing with thoughts that insist on sticking around, but it's nice. Familiar, even.

Why would it be familiar?]

I should hope not. Didn't you threaten me with a knife once, or was that a dream?

[Dab, pat, rub. But he's almost done.]

[willowandoak]

[ Damn. He was kinda hoping Akechi forgot about that. ]

...I'm not gonna stab you unless you touch me when I'm not expecting it. Then I can't make any promises. But I didn't stab you that time, so you never know.

[pheasantboy]

[He finishes up the last few swabs, right down to the little fennec fox scratches, drops the used swabs on the coffee table, and sits back.]

...there we are. I'm afraid your shirt has seen better days. Not all wounds are so easily fixed, are they?

[And what a terribly strange thought that is. It feels otherwordly, like it should be too big for his head.]