This & That

Chapter Two

It's a quiet night when he gets home. There's one car missing as he parks, and no indication whatsoever that anyone is inside when he opens the front door. It's not unusual, and he throws a glance towards the kitchen before he's heading for the stairs. Placing his laptop bag down carefully, he discards his shoes and clothes as he walks into the dressing room, putting the items into place before grabbing clean comfortable clothes and heading to the bathroom to take a shower. When he gets out, body wrapped in a robe, his bare foot presses on something, and he raises it to see a small card. He picks it up as he sits down to apply his body moisturizer, and the lid is slightly opened, which makes him pause for a second; it's not something that he neglects. The card has a famous brand logo printed on one side, and when he flips it, he realizes that it's a message the designer had left for him after delivering a customized piece, though looking around the room, there is no customized piece.

He hears the front door being opened, and he stands up and leaves the room to go downstairs, and sees his husband coming into his view. He looks up at him, sees his blank expression, and sighs. "It's a good day, Kenma. Don't ruin this."

"Certainly it is," Kenma raises the card up as he holds it between two fingers. "Did you have fun fucking that influencer?" Akinori stops to look up at him again. "Couldn't even do it at the guest room? Or was it that she liked my choices of decoration that you simply couldn't say no? Though I applaud you. You have almost left no trace behind you. Even the bedsheets are changed." Akinori glances at the card Kenma is holding and looks away with a roll of his eyes.

"You're pissed about your clothes? Fine. I'll buy you another one."

"Yeah, I'm pissed about my clothes," Kenma lowers his hand. "But you're right. It's a good day, I'll let you bask in your fake glory," he turns on his heels to go back to his room. There's a moment where he pauses on the steps, the words right at the tip of his tongue, but nothing comes out. He should be telling Akinori to sleep somewhere else for tonight, perhaps taunt him to go to whoever he cheated on him with, but he doesn't, and he finds himself sleeping back to back with his husband on one bed, the card ripped and thrown away in a trashcan.

Something about his morning routine changes one day as he stares at his reflection in the mirror, brushing his hair lazily as his favorite song plays on his phone, airplane mode turned on. He'd seen the news, smiled brightly and snoozed his alarm for extra thirty minutes before he'd left his bed. None of his items are being used ever since that night, and it's not an indication that Akinori hasn't been cheating, but Kenma knows that today he's coming straight back home. It's ironic that whenever he's in a good mood, he'd spend the night somewhere else. He enjoys an affogato with a brownie midday inside the regular café he used to see Kuroo in, though the latter isn't present. When he glances at his phone to see it's around three, he decides to drive along the Delaware River until it's past four when he finally parks in front of Gríðr building and struts into the company like nothing happened. He's not sure where the chaos might be erupting since he doesn't try to pass by Mai's office, but as he sinks into his chair and releases a deep exhale, he doesn't even open his laptop, swaying with the chair slightly until an angry Akinori storms into his office and slams a bunch of papers on his desk.

"Mind explaining what the hell is this?!" Kenma reaches out across his desk to pick up the papers, slowly going over the printed articles and screenshots that he had seen this morning.

"Oh, no," he replies in a monotonic voice. "The original designer of the collection you had stolen had published his own creations before you do." He blinks at the papers before looking up. "Well, what did you expect? I told you they were stolen. I've seen them with Kuroo. It's only rational that he'd release them."

"There aren't many people who know of the existence of these!" Akinori narrows his eyes at him. "It doesn't take a smartass to put two and two together. You ratted us out to Aurèle!" Akinori bangs his hands on the desk. "All this because your precious shirt was given to somebody else? Grow up, Kenma!"