Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Hiruta is the worst," Ryuji groaned.

"Kamoshida is the worst," Mishima mumbled between bites of his fried bread.

Ryuji nodded, taking a bite out of his bento lunch and talking around it. "Well, yeah, that goes without saying. But Kamoshida's still in the hospital. Hiruta's making us do this weird 'cross-class' project right now." He swallowed and sighed. "I haven't even checked who my partners are...not like it matters. This is going to suck anyway--" A balled-up napkin hit him square in the face. "H, hey!"

Ann scowled at him from across the table. "And this is how I know Hiruta hates me. You didn't even care enough to check the list?!"

Ryuji blinked at her, slowly working out why she was annoyed when she knew how little he cared about school. Not like he could expect much out of it after what happened last year. Though Kamoshida's little accident at the beginning of the term had been a nice surprise. "...Are we partners? Well, since you were paying so much attention, who's the third loser?"

"I can't believe you don't know. No one in your class even said anything?" She huffed, definitely in some kind of mood.  "He partnered us with Kurusu."

Ryuji rolled his eyes. "No one talks to me in class--wait, he put us with Kurusu? For real?"

"Oh..." Mishima leaned back in his seat, his eyes wide. "I'll pray for you guys."

Yeah, Mishima's reaction confirmed that he was thinking of the right student. Kurusu Akira, the transfer student with a criminal record for assault. He hadn't gotten caught making trouble at Shujin yet, but Ryuji had heard he was the type to snap on you when you least expected it, and there were rumors about him intimidating people to get what he wanted.

"I wouldn't assume the worst yet," Shiho said quietly. "I noticed when exam results were posted, he was in the top ten. He might just be the miracle you two troubled students need," she teased. "Ann, he sits behind you, right? Have you talked to him at all?"

"I tried," Ann said, fiddling with her spoon. "'Cause yeah, I know you thought he might not be so bad. But the first time he just stared at me. I can't get more than two words out of him, so..." She spread her hands. "He doesn't want to talk. Or if he does, he doesn't want to talk to me. Great start for a group project, huh?"

Ryuji snorted. His one and only interaction with Kurusu had been the guy nearly bowling him over one day when he'd just been trying to get out of Shujin. Ryuji had indignantly called at him to apologize before realizing he was talking to the infamous transfer student and second-guessing himself. Luckily Kurusu had been too busy booking it to give him anything more than one hell of a death glare, but...yeah. Safe to say Kurusu wouldn't want anything to do with him, either. "Welp. Glad I already wrote this project off."

Ann groaned. "This isn't fair! I actually care about my grades!"

"Your grades don't show it," Shiho told her.

Ann pouted at the dark-haired girl before leaning into her, resting her head on the volleyball player's shoulder. "Shiiiiihooo. We've talked about this. Sympathy first, then roasting."

Shiho giggled before placing a hand on each of her friend's shoulders and pushing the blonde back upright. "Ann. Try first, then throw yourself in the pit of despair. Top ten, remember? Kurusu probably wants to do well on the project too."

"He probably cheated on the exams," Mishima said.

Shiho frowned at him. "Hey... wait until he's actually caught doing something, okay? People were talking badly about me just because Kamoshida 'favored' me," she said, dripping sarcasm on the word. "They're still talking badly about Ann and Ryuji. And some of the rumors just don't make any sense. Kurusu's our age. He's not some hardened criminal."

Mishima shook his head. "You're forgetting he was already caught doing something. That assault record is real. He attacked someone!"

"Well, that's..." Shiho didn't have a good answer for that, trailing off with a sigh. The air at the table grew heavy as they sat in silence. It was one thing to get saddled with a partner you knew wouldn't contribute to the project. Something else entirely to get assigned a partner known for having a violent temper.

The cafeteria table suddenly rattled as Ann stood up, pointing at Ryuji. "Library after school. I'll get Kurusu to come, so don't you dare forget."

"What--oh come on, the library?"

"Yes, the library, it's a research project!" Ann leaned over the table. "I'm serious about this, Ryuji. Don't leave me hanging, okay?"

"What do I get out of this?" Ryuji grumbled. He already knew he was going to go, though. If Ann really was serious about working with Kurusu--he had to be there, just to make sure nothing weird happened. Didn't mean he had to like it, though. Ugh, he could already hear the whispers. 'Sakamoto's in the library? I didn't know he could read!' Bite me.

Ann raised an eyebrow. "Uh, a good score for once?" She straightened up and folded her arms, thinking. "Oh! And I guess if you do your part for the project, I could forget about that money I loaned you in middle school."

"That was only 500 yen!"

"Then pay me back now," Ann said, holding out a palm. "But don't forget there's been interest since then!"

...Ryuji didn't even have the original 500 yen to give her at the moment. "Ugh, fine. See you at the library."

Ann grinned just as the bell rang, signaling for them to start returning to their classrooms for the afternoon.

Ryuji got to the library first after classes let out. When a quick scan told him Ann and Kurusu weren't inside, he waited outside the door. No need to be in there longer than he had to--just being near the library was getting him second looks from passing students. He flinched at a glare from an ex-teammate from track and fished his phone out of his pocket, starting up a game to waste some time. At least Ann didn't keep him waiting long.

"Ryuji!" Ann walked up to him with Kurusu trailing behind her like a menacing shadow. If Ryuji had to say one good thing about the guy, he could definitely part a crowd--students were veering to the sides of the hall just to avoid them. Ann seemed determined to ignore the weirdness that was Shujin's three most notorious students meeting up at the library, which unfortunately meant she launched straight into that fake-ass 'cutesy' voice she got whenever she was trying to act. "So, Kurusu-san, this is Sakamoto Ryuji. Ryuji--"

"I know who he is, Ann," Ryuji said. "Hey, Kurusu. Are we going to have any problems working together?"

Ann gestured at him indignantly, but she didn't know that this wasn't exactly their first meeting. He'd tell her about their run-in later. For right now he watched for Kurusu's reaction. The other boy lifted his gaze from the floor to look at him flatly from under his sheepdog fringe of hair. His gray eyes were obscured by a flash of light when he tapped his glasses up his nose. "No."

Ryuji waited to see if he'd say more than one word, but Ann rushed in. "Okay. So the teacher gave us a lot of leeway with the topic. But he's lectured a few times about how, like, you can't categorize species correctly just by appearance, so I was thinking we could do something with that? We could talk about two species that look alike but aren't related at all, or two that look completely different but have a common ancestor."

Kurusu nodded, his eyes hidden by his messy bangs again. Ryuji shrugged.

Ann smiled, but it was the kind of smile that Ryuji knew from middle school where she was two seconds away from wanting to sock someone. "So...any input? Guys?"

"Sure, let's do it," Ryuji sighed. It wasn't like he had any ideas of his own for the topic.

"It's a good topic," Kurusu said.

Ann stared at both of them for a minute before her gaze dropped to the floor. "Okay, glad you like the idea, but I haven't figured out which species we should focus on, so..."

Another moment where nobody said anything. Ann seemed to be waiting for someone else to take charge. Ryuji was waiting for her to realize he had no intention of doing that. Neither did Kurusu, apparently. So much for the top ten student. He wondered if Mishima had gotten it right--had Kurusu cheated?

"I...guess we should just look through some books and see if anything pops out," Ann finally concluded, walking over and sliding the library door open.

Her entrance by itself didn't get much attention. The librarian gave the blonde a look for a long second, probably trying to place who she was, but then Kurusu followed in behind and got immediate recognition--and a grimace. From the first whisper of "Hey, isn't that...", Ryuji could tell this was going to be nothing but a pain in the neck.

The transfer student didn't seem to pay it any mind. He went ahead of Ann to one aisle of books, and when Ann and Ryuji caught up to see him already pulling out books on zoology, Ryuji found himself reconsidering. Kurusu definitely knew the library better than he did. So he really was a serious student, after all?

Not much for talking, though. Kurusu just took four books in his arms and turned back in the direction of the study tables as Ann was still tentatively tilting books to get a better look at their covers. Ryuji decided to follow Kurusu back instead of looking at the shelves--for one thing, he'd gotten enough books for them to look through in one sitting. For another, Kurusu was definitely more interesting than the actual project, even if that was a low bar to begin with.

They sat down at the only study table left, Ryuji snagging a book from Kurusu's stack before he could say anything. Not that it seemed very likely the transfer student would; his brow knit in confusion before he seemed to shrug it off and pick another book off the stack for himself. Ann soon joined them with two books of her own, cracking open the spine of the smaller one.

Ryuji couldn't even get through the first three pages, people were whispering so much. He picked out his name and Ann's, and knew from the way his friend's lips started pressing together that she had too. But they were just sidenotes. The real topic was Kurusu.

“Isn’t that the kid with the criminal record? What the heck is he doing in a library?”

"Oh, great, now he's hanging out with Sakamoto."

"You think Takamaki's fooling around with him since Kamoshida's not around?" gave Ryuji some very dangerous thoughts about how useful the book in his hands might be as a projectile.

“I haven't heard much about that...but the part about him being violent and getting into fights is true, isn’t it?”

“He’s acting quiet for now, but there’s no way to tell when he’ll cause trouble.”

“He’s apparently a psycho.”

“I wish he’d just go away already.”

Ryuji snuck a glance at the guy over their books. Kurusu's eyes were fastened on his book as he sat stone-faced. He was actually making some kind of progress, even if he was just writing down page numbers and one-word notes as he skimmed through pages. Ryuji kind of envied the concentration he must have to shut all the loudmouths out.

"Why's he even pretending to study? Everyone knows he's a thug."

Any other day Ryuji would have thought that comment was about him. Today he was dead certain that had been about Kurusu. And the other boy's flinch said he'd assumed the same. As much as he was focusing on reading, as cryptic as his expression was behind the glasses, he was still hearing all the comments, and his next note was scrawled, messy. Ryuji couldn't read upside-down, but it was still easy to see how neat his handwriting had started at the top of the page.

This was why it was pointless to try at Shujin. Once they decided you were trash, they'd tear you apart. It didn't matter what you did, so might as well let it be true.

Ryuji still wasn't sure what kind of person Kurusu was, but the blond wasn't in the mood for seeing Shujin's rumor mill grind someone else down. "Kurusu. You want to get out of here?" he asked, making an effort to keep his voice quiet.

Kurusu glanced up at him before escaping back to the book. "I'm fine."

Bullshit. But before Ryuji could say more, Ann sighed and made a show of stretching her arms. "I'm thirsty," she said. "How about we check out and go to a cafe?"

On the one hand, Ryuji was glad for her giving an excuse to leave. On the other-- "What? You know I don't have money for that!"

"Excuse me."

What the eff. All these people whispering loud enough for everyone to hear, and it only took one time of him raising his voice for the Student Council President to leave her seat and start walking over to their table? Ann looked baffled, but Ryuji skipped right past confusion and went straight to outrage. "Are you for real?"

Niijima-freaking-Makoto shot him a look, but her focus was on Kurusu, whose head was bowed. "I, ah, couldn't help but notice the volume--"

She cut off in surprise as Kurusu slammed his book shut and shot to his feet. "I'll leave."

Ryuji wanted to linger a while longer out of spite now, but the tension in Kurusu's movements said it really was time to go. Niijima coming over had spooked him. Ryuji got to his feet as well, grabbing the books Kurusu had forgotten in his rush to get to the librarian's desk, and Ann started gathering her things too.

Niijima looked taken aback. "You don't have to be so--all I meant was that you could study in the student council room--"

"It's okay, Niijima-san! We'll make our own arrangements," Ann told her, her voice and expression stuck so hard in fake-cheery mode that Ryuji was starting to worry she'd never come out of it. It'd been bad enough seeing her trying to act with Kamoshida. If she was going to do this for the entire project, he'd rather take a 0. But, at least for right now, he'd behave just so they could get out of the hellhole that was Shujin.

"You forgot these," he told Kurusu, dropping the books on the desk so they could be checked out as well.

"No? The limit's..." Kurusu trailed off, looking at him and then the librarian uncertainly.

"Only one book may be checked out a time," the girl behind the desk said, not looking at either of them directly.

Ryuji was not the best student. This was his first time in the library since the new school year had started. But he was pretty sure the limit last year had been three or five, something like that, and he knew he'd already seen students leaving the library with multiple books this year. A glance at Ann's surprised expression told him this was news to her too. But Kurusu seemed to already know the policy--because it was probably specifically for him, wasn't it? Or maybe it was for Ryuji too, troubled students in general, he didn't know.

Ryuji took a deep breath. "This school," he said, "is the effing worst," and then he turned and just left, got out of the library, because it was already after school and if he had to deal with any more of Shujin's bullshit today it was going to end with a call to his mom and she did not need that. At least the hallways were emptier now: students had either filed to clubs or filed out, and Ryuji could pound his shoe against the wall without any witnesses. Kurusu came out after a moment, gripping the library book he'd chosen, and Ryuji gave him an incredulous look as he tucked it away into his schoolbag. "How do you put up with that shit?"

"...What's my other option?"

Ann came out into the hall with only one book too, and Ryuji felt vindicated for not playing stupid games. If she was being included in the stupid one-book rule when she hadn't even done anything, just been gossiped about, then anyone with Kurusu was being held guilty by association. "Okay," Ann seethed. "That was humiliating."

"Sorry." The transfer student had his eyes on the ground as he apologized. "It's because of me. I can work separately, if you just tell me what you want me to do--"

"No."

"Eff that."

Ann nodded at Ryuji.  They were both pissed off on principle now. "What he said. You didn't do anything wrong in there. People here can be real idiots. Let's go brainstorm at a cafe, okay?"

"Ann, seriously, are you going to cover me or something? I'm broke." Ryuji was not looking forward to waitresses glaring at him for sipping water. Not on top of how today had already gone.

"I...probably have enough for both of us...?"

"Leblanc."

Kurusu said the strange word so suddenly that all Ryuji could do was raise an eyebrow at him. "Lewhat was that?"

"Leblanc. I'm staying...by a cafe. I know the owner, and I could cover you both. As an apology."

"You don't gotta apologize for that," Ryuji grumbled. "...Though if you wanna cover me for the time you came swinging around the stairs like a wrecking ball--"

Kurusu's hand jerked at his schoolbag strap. He looked frazzled. "So you are still mad about that?"

"I dunno about 'mad'. But it was kind of lousy of you to not apologize."

"Sorry. I was worried about Mona, and...I was worried about getting in a fight with you. You seemed really angry at me. But it was my fault."

Ryuji rolled his eyes. Kurusu might feel like a brick wall when he ran into people, but Ryuji couldn't think of him as tough if he was such a worrier. "I wasn't that mad." Not to the point he'd start a fight. There was only one time he'd been mad enough to throw a punch at school, and he felt it safe to say it'd been the last time too.

"You don't realize when you're coming off as angry half the time," Ann told him. Ryuji started to protest--but then again, Kurusu had been the only other person there, and he'd thought he seemed angry, so there was no winning that argument, huh? "Who's Mona? A friend?"

"You'll see. I have to get him now. It won't take long."

"You can just say you're friends if you're close enough to walk home together," Ryuji told him. There was no need to be cryptic about it. Good for him if he'd managed to make one here. Though what kind of name was 'Mona'?

Kurusu's vagueness started making more sense when they walked outside to the vending machines out in front of the school.  He crouched down and, with a self-conscious glance at the two blonds around him, reached into his mostly-empty school bag to pull out a tiny can of wet cat food.

"Mona," he called, and whistled, and when he cracked the can open, a mostly-black blur tore around the corner so fast that Ryuji jolted. Kurusu set the can down and the cat that must be 'Mona' shoved its face straight in, noisily eating the food as Kurusu stroked its back with a gentle hand.

"Ohhhhh," Ann said, sounding just as surprised as Ryuji felt. Yeah, the 'tough transfer student' image was completely shredded now. "You're taking care of a stray cat?"

"He's not stray," Kurusu said. "He got his shots last week. But I can't keep Morgana inside during the day, so I bring him with me."

"Wait, Morgana or Mona?" Ryuji asked.

"Both. 'Mona' is his nickname."

"...But he's a boy? Those are both girl names," Ann pointed out.

Kurusu shrugged, still petting the cat. His expression was calmer now then it had been inside the school. Not blank, but genuinely peaceful. "He looked like a Morgana to me."

Ryuji looked at the cat and its white face, white-tipped tail, and white paws. He looked at how eagerly the cat was eating, the can scraping along the ground and muffling its snorts, and its tail swishing back and forth. It didn't really seem like a "Morgana" to him.

...Maybe Kurusu's naming sense was as criminal as his record.

As the cat finished eating, Kurusu reached out to collect the empty can. Morgana meowed at the teenager and rubbed itself against both his legs, small black hairs appearing on the red stripes. And then it surprised both Ann and Ryuji by not just jumping into the schoolbag and nestling against the few books inside, but staying in there as Kurusu slung the bag back over his shoulder. The cat didn't seem bothered by the motion at all, its bright blue eyes on the two blonds as it meowed at both of them. Suddenly the weird names seemed a lot more appropriate.

Ann laughed suddenly. "Is he always this talkative? Guess you can't sneak him in school. He'd be caught in an instant." Her hand was starting to reach forward before she caught herself and asked, "Is it okay?"

"Go ahead. He wants you to, I think." As Ann pet the cat, Kurusu offered to Ryuji: "You can pet him too, if you want."

"Eh, I'm good," Ryuji said, scuffing his foot along the ground. "I'm more a dog person." And this cat was...weird. A little cute, when it reacted to Ann giving it just a few small headscratches by rumbling out a purr, but pretty weird.

It got even weirder after the short walk to the train station. "So you gotta pay the pet fare every day? That's expensive."

Kurusu shook his head at Ryuji's question. "Don't say anything, please," Kurusu murmured. "Mona?"

The cat turned its bright blue eyes to Kurusu, and when he raised a finger to his lips in a 'hush' gesture, it gave a clipped meow--and then ducked down into the bag, hiding itself and somehow not freaking out when Kurusu zipped the bag near completely shut.

"What."

"What?"

It was the quietest train ride Ann and Ryuji had ever shared. They spent the length of it staring at the schoolbag in Kurusu's lap, waiting for his cat to meow and give itself away. That never happened. There was a quiet purring--Kurusu had his hand slipped inside the small gap he'd left in the zipper and seemed to be petting it--but that was only noticeable because they were right next to him and listening for feline sounds. No one else noticed a thing.

They got off at the quiet neighborhood of Yongen-Jaya. As soon as they were out of the train station, Kurusu unzipped the bag, and Morgana popped its head out with a long, vibrating meow that lasted until Kurusu fished a small treat out of his pocket for the cat.

Ann completely lost her shit. "I can't believe he stayed quiet that whole time!" she said excitedly, petting the cat again. "You're sooo smart! What a good boy," she praised, and the cat lapped it all up, its eyes closing into slits as it purred smugly.

"How long have you had it? I thought cats were too dumb to be trained," Ryuji said. Morgana had to be Kurusu's pet from home--it must have taken him forever to get it to be so cooperative.

Except Kurusu said, "Three weeks."

"Are you effin' serious?"

Kurusu just nodded at Ryuji's incredulity. "I found him here in Tokyo. ...didn't have a clue how I'd take care of him at first, but he's really intelligent. I think he understands the circumstances."

"No, that's giving him way too much credit. He must have had another owner before." Someone else who couldn't afford the pet fare.

Kurusu gave a one-shoulder shrug and didn't argue the point, his attention drifting to Ann, standing close by him as she continued gushing to the cat. "Takamaki-san, you're a cat lover?"

"Hm?" She paused in gently ruffling the cat's fur to look up at Kurusu. "I wouldn't say I'm a cat lover in particular. I owned hamsters when I was younger, actually. Never had a cat. But this little guy is adorable!"

"Ah. Your voice is different when you talk to him." Kurusu flushed when she raised a questioning eyebrow at him, insisting, "It's not a bad difference. It... sounds nice."

"Really? I didn't think I was talking any differently from how I usually do..." Ann looked to Ryuji for confirmation.

"You sound like how you usually do, just excited," he told her, though he couldn't resist adding, "You were being fake as eff in the library."

"...Fake?"

Ryuji blinked at Kurusu's slightly puzzled expression. "What, you couldn't tell? All 'hee hee, let's do our school project! I'm a good student! Who cares about people staring at us?'"

"Ryuji!" Ann stomped her foot. "I don't sound like that!"

"You have no idea how bad you sound when you're doing that," Ryuji told her.  He knew she didn't.  If Ann could actually hear herself when she was trying to act, she'd understand how much torture it was for everyone around her. But Kurusu still looked confused, so Ryuji asked him, "What's up?"

It took a moment; Kurusu seemed more reluctant to say anything than usual. But finally, with both Ryuji and Ann's attention on him, he offered: "In the library...I thought she sounded like her usual self."

Ryuji laughed. "No way. How can you not tell the difference? Her voice totally..."

The bleached-blond trailed off as he realized something. Ann complaining at lunch that Kurusu wouldn't talk to her. How little they had spoken to each other before today. And how much she must have tried forcing conversation in her attempts to get him talking, probably trying to act as though he was just any other student instead of acknowledging the elephant in the room of his criminal record.

"Takamaki Ann," Ryuji said slowly, turning to his friend from middle school. "Have you been using your fake-ass voice on this guy the entire time?"

"Wh, what?" she stammered, taken aback. "No, no way. I mean, I don't have a 'fake-ass voice' to begin with!" Her long blonde pigtails swung through the air as she whipped her head to Kurusu. "Right? I sounded normal when we spoke before, didn't I?"

"I..."

Kurusu's reversion to shyness, as though he were afraid to say anything that might be taken badly, was all the confirmation Ryuji needed. He broke into a grin. "Takamaki Ann, you are something else," he proclaimed. "Saying 'he won't talk to me!' like you were just making innocent conversation--"

"I was!"

"--When you've been terrorizing him this entire time--"

"I wasn't!"

"--Assaulting this guy's poor ears with that horrible fake voice--"

"It's not that bad! I don't have a 'voice'!"

"--I'm gonna tell Shiho," Ryuji finished. She would get a kick out of this.

Ann knew she would, too. She gaped at him until he started reaching for his phone, and then she all but launched herself at him. "Ryuji!! Don't tell Shiho!"

"Hey, hey! Don't make me drop my phone!" Ryuji complained as she grabbed his arm.

"Put your phone away and you won't drop it!"

"You know she's gonna hear eventually--"

"It doesn't have to be now!"

The bickering and playfighting was a routine from middle school they'd been missing until recently, and it was easy to get caught up in their exchange of empty taunts and light shoves, almost completely forgetting about the transfer student standing still to the side as they devolved into a game of keepaway with the phone.

Then there was a deep, unexpected chuckle, and they both stumbled to a halt as they looked to Kurusu. He was covering his mouth with one hand, his cheeks flushing. "Sorry," he said. "I--didn't mean to--"

"It's fine!" Ann reassured him. "You should laugh more."

"Yeah, it ain't bad," Ryuji chimed in. At the same time, he was taking advantage of Ann's distraction to tap out a quick text to Shiho: 'u won't believe what i just found out'.

"Ryuji," Ann huffed when she noticed what he was doing. But she accepted the defeat--it really was inevitable Shiho would hear about this--and pulled away from him to give her full attention to Kurusu. "Hey, um." She fiddled with a strand of hair, curling it around her finger. "Sorry if I gave you a weird impression, Kurusu-san. Maybe I tried too hard and came on too strongly. Not the voice thing--I don't sound that bad--"

"Denial ain't just a river in England--" Ryuji needled her. He turned his eyes back down to the phone, but after a few seconds realized both she and Kurusu were looking at him. "What?"

"It's...in Egypt," Kurusu said slowly. "The Nile."

"Eh? Whatever. Egypt, England, they're pretty close, aren't they?"

"...I also need to apologize for Ryuji ahead of time," Ann said.

"Oh come on, Ann. I could go home right now, y'know."

"Nope!" She latched onto his arm. "If you don't help with this project, I will make sure it haunts your waking dreams. Where's Leblanc, Kurusu-san?"

The delinquent sighed as Kurusu started to lead the way and Ann, in turn, led him. Something had sure gotten into her about this particular project; for all her teasing, Ann wasn't that much better than him as a student outside of English. And maybe a little geography, but only because she'd lived abroad.

At least Leblanc turned out to be an interesting place. Ryuji couldn't say he'd heard of a cafe serving curry and coffee before. He didn't like coffee, but the owner offered soda as an alternative when he heard. The old man seemed to know Kurusu pretty well; he acted a bit gruff with Kurusu himself, but he also turned down both Kurusu's and then Ann's offers to pay, giving them two coffees and a soda on the house and letting them talk about their project and skim through their two books for ideas (Ryuji hopped on his phone to both search the internet and update an amused Shiho on Ann's latest fail at acting casual) in a booth.

"'Boss' seems like a really nice guy," Ann said. Friendly, too, telling them to address him so casually. "How do you know him, Kurusu-san?"

Kurusu's eyes flicked up from his book, to her, to the man washing dishes in the kitchen. "He's my guardian while I'm on probation," he answered shortly, and changed the topic in a flash to the species he'd found in his book that might be interesting enough for the project. Ann slid a worried look to Ryuji, and all he could answer with was a small shrug. It wasn't like she'd said anything wrong. Apparently some topics were just bad with Kurusu. Not much of a surprise in his situation... a situation Ryuji was starting to feel worse and worse for him being stuck in. Yeah, he'd assaulted someone. So had Ryuji, technically, just he hadn't gotten charged with anything because Kamoshida had been pushing and pushing him to it so he'd have his own excuse to wreck a student's leg. Ryuji couldn't imagine the Kurusu he'd seen today, quiet, kind of shy, maybe even anxious, and indulgent of the cat he was currently petting underneath the table, just assaulting someone out of the blue without any good reason. There'd been more going on in Ryuji's case. It was probably the same for Kurusu, which just made it suck more that he was so badly ostracized at Shujin. That was probably why his guardian was being so nice to them, which was kind of depressing. Ryuji wanted to get to know Kurusu better. If the guy was willing to open up a little, maybe they could even be friends.

It was easier going through hell if you had some company along the way. That was the biggest reason he and Ann had revived their middle school friendship during the past month; it was as good a reason as any to reach out to Kurusu. And Ann's eagerness to exchange chat ids 'for the project' made it obvious she was thinking along the same lines. "And you don't have to call me Takamaki. Ann is fine."

"Yeah, just Ryuji here," he chimed in.

Kurusu had been looking down at his phone with an unreadable expression, but it cleared as he looked up at both of them. "Oh...then, call me Akira."