Work Text:
Kurusu Akira, in Goro’s opinion, tended to have a lot of stupid ideas. Especially if they had anything to do with that fraudulent fortune teller he insisted on associating with, quite possibly the least respectable of all his myriad connections. Even so, this felt like a new low. During a hangout in Akira’s room at Leblanc, he’d pulled out a necklace he’d gotten from the store in Kichijoji and asked Goro if he could try hypnotizing him with it. Just to see if he could. Apparently Mifune had told him how it was done, as if telling Goro that was any more likely to make him go along with this stupid scheme.
“You cannot be serious,” Goro said, staring at him in disbelief. Did Akira really think he was so weak-willed that you could just swing a pretty crystal in front of him and he’d get sleepy? As if he was that similar to the bird he was codenamed after, captivated by any shiny object in his field of vision.
Akira looked from Goro to the necklace and back again. “Would it be better if I got a pocketwatch?” he said, like the asshole he was. “I mean, this is probably the least cliché option we have.”
“Akira, I refuse to let you use me as a guinea pig for your first attempt at a hackneyed form of stage magic.”
“Hey, hypnotism is real, you know! They use it for therapy!”
“Shut up. I don’t want to hear shit from you about therapy.”
Akira fake-pouted ever so slightly, before fixing Goro with a sly look that he didn’t like at all.
“How about this – I’ll bet you I can do it. And if I can’t... I’ll treat you to dinner?”
He knew. He knew Goro would never back down from a challenge, especially not with a material prize on the line. Especially not when that prize was dinner – Akira was well aware of how expensive his taste in sushi was.
Goro scowled, coming to the realization that he was going to have to do this. “Fine,” he spat, ignoring Akira’s triumphant expression. “What do you want me to do, then?”
“You don’t have to do anything,” Akira said, letting the pendant swing freely to make sure the chain wasn’t tangled. “You just have to watch it for... let’s say ten minutes?”
“That’s it? Really?” At this rate, he’d have more difficulty trying to resist boredom than trying to resist being hypnotized. But if Akira wanted to make it that easy, who was Goro to deny him? He uncrossed his legs to let his feet rest flat on the floor and sat back against the couch cushions.
“That’s it,” Akira agreed. “You ready?”
“Sure, get on with it,” Goro muttered.
Akira only smiled – bastard – and started swinging the pendant in a slow, gentle arc.
“I know you think this is stupid,” he said after a long moment. “I mean, there’s nothing magic about this thing. It gives Psy skills a boost in the Metaverse, but here in the real world it’s pretty much completely normal. I can’t make you stare at it. All I can do is tell you how relaxing it is if you watch it swing.”
Goro fought the urge to roll his eyes.
“And you know,” Akira continued, “I can’t even make you listen to me. You could tune out everything I’m doing right now and find a spot on the wall to stare at and think about something else. That would probably work pretty well. You could laugh in my face when the time ran out, tell me this is all bullshit and I’d better be ready to take you to the most expensive sushi place in Ginza. But if you don’t even pay attention to what I’m doing... then how could you really say it didn't work on you? Wouldn't that be cheating?”
The word triggered Goro’s competitive instinct immediately. Cheating. Akira must have known that would get to him. Cheating was the one thing neither of them was willing to do in any of their competitions with each other – you could use any advantages you had, you could play dirty, you could do all sorts of things to win, but you couldn’t cheat, or it would be meaningless to compete at all.
Goro grit his teeth, frustrated, but Akira was right. He couldn’t break the rules, or he wouldn’t really win. And if he didn’t win, that meant Akira did, and he just couldn't accept that. All he had to do was keep listening and make sure he didn’t look away. That was no big deal. He could handle ten minutes... probably nine, now.
“I tried this on myself the other day, actually,” Akira said as they both watched the pendant. “Just to see if I could do it, maybe try to make sure I wasn’t going to completely embarrass myself in front of you.”
“...did it work?” Goro mumbled, almost surprised at how subdued his own voice was.
“Yeah, I knocked myself out and Mona woke me up an hour later asking what I was doing.”
Goro laughed softly, just a light exhale through his nose. “Maybe you’re just... weak-willed.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Akira agreed. Goro didn’t look, but he could hear in his voice that he was smiling. “I didn’t do a whole lot. I just swung it in front of my face like this and sat there for ages watching it catch the overhead light. It makes it look like it’s sparkling.”
He was right about the sparkles – the pendant looked like it was made of amethyst or something, and every time it swung from left to right or right to left, it reflected light pretty much directly into Goro’s eyes. Goro had to fight the urge to blink every time it did, because it was honestly a bit annoying, but he just knew that if Akira saw his eyelids flickering closed, he’d start thinking the hypnotism was actually working or something, and Goro couldn’t have him getting full of himself this soon. So he kept his eyes open, staring directly at the crystal pendant with stubborn tenacity.
Was Akira holding the pendant higher than he had been a minute ago? Goro was starting to feel the irritating sensation of strain in his eyes, looking at something that was just a little higher than his comfortable field of vision. It reminded him unpleasantly of filming interviews at the TV station in Akasaka-Mitsuke, playing the Detective Prince and pretending he wasn’t being blinded by the studio lights just offscreen. He almost tilted his head up to see the pendant more easily – but that was just another thing Akira would take as a sign he was being hypnotized.
“... and eventually I just kind of let my eyes follow it automatically without really thinking about it at all. It’s a lot easier like that, right?” Had Akira been talking that whole time? When had he zoned out? Goro shifted a bit uncomfortably in place.
“Yeah. Easier,” he said, not wanting Akira to think he’d been cheating and tuning him out. Akira was right, anyway – it was easier, not having to consciously keep up with the pattern. Goro let out his breath, releasing the long-carried tension from his shoulders as his eyes flicked automatically back and forth.
It felt better than he thought it would. Maybe Akira hadn’t been bullshitting him when he said this was relaxing. Somehow in all those sparkles, it felt like the million stressful things crowding his brain were quieting down for once. Maybe that’s what therapists supposedly used it for. Goro kind of wanted to let his eyes go half-lidded, but he wouldn’t be able to see the pendant anymore that way, and he had to keep watching if he didn’t want to lose.
“You’re doing really well, Akechi,” Akira said, his tone sort of oddly soothing. Goro wanted to scowl and snap at him not to patronize him, but his anger faded after a moment, and it just didn’t seem worth it to break his calm.
“I’m not hypnotized,” he muttered, settling for that.
“I know,” Akira said. “You’re just relaxed. That’s not the same thing.”
“...yeah.” He was definitely relaxed. Goro shifted in place on the couch, finding a better spot to rest his head.
“You’re relaxed, and following the pendant with your eyes, and breathing a little deeper and slower... and that’s okay, because the ten minutes will be over soon. And you’ll win, won’t you, because you aren’t hypnotized. You can think about how good that’s going to feel while you let my words sink into your subconscious, if you want. Let it do all the listening for you.”
Winning. Goro had almost forgotten this was a competition. That was unusual for him, but in his defense it had kind of just slipped out of his head with all the other things he was thinking about. He wondered how many minutes were left. Three? Two? He had to be getting close, right? Akira had said it was soon. Just a little bit longer.
“... and you can keep looking just a little bit longer. You don’t have to think, you just have to keep looking...”
Akira was talking, but Goro wasn’t paying attention. He was still listening, letting the words go right past his brain and into his subconscious the way Akira had suggested, and that meant he wasn’t cheating. He could put his attention toward other things while he watched the pendant instead – other things like how nice Akira’s voice sounded. Goro wasn’t quite sure if he'd been using a different tone earlier, because remembering was a lot like thinking and thinking was too annoying at the moment, but right now he was talking in a low, rich voice that sounded... a lot like his Joker voice, actually, in a way that made part of Goro’s brain perk right up. That voice had always turned him on.
“...and it’s okay to let your eyes go unfocused now. You’ve been working so hard, you always work so hard. You deserve to relax, Akechi. Just relax and listen and feel good...”
Goro could feel good, all right. He let out a small, content sigh, feeling heat beginning to pool in his core. He felt like he could listen to Akira talk forever as long as he did it in this voice.
“...drifting and taking in my words and letting all of your worries go...”
He drifted, and breathed, and let his subconscious do the listening for him. All he really wanted to think about was the dreamy, warm arousal building between his legs.
“...and I can tell you’re ready now, ready to finally close your eyes and–”
Akira let the pendant drop from his hand as he spoke the last word of the sentence. “Sleep.”
And Goro let out a sigh of relief as his eyes closed, and all of the tension left his body, and he slept.
────────
“...hear me? Hey. Earth to Akechi?”
Goro blinked awake to Akira snapping his fingers under his nose. He jerked back on instinct, slapping the hand away with a scowl and a hiss of, “Cut that shit out.”
Akira just grinned at him. He was sitting next to Goro on the couch now, he realized. When had he moved...?
Suddenly it came back to him. The stupid hypnotism bet.
The stupid hypnotism bet that he had fucking lost.
Goro pitched forward in his seat, burying his face in his hands as the mortification of it all caught up with him... and then he paused. Shifted slightly in his seat, just to be sure he wasn’t imagining it.
He wasn’t imagining it.
He was soaking wet.
...
Do not acknowledge it. Do not acknowledge it.
He looked up at Akira, elbows rested on his knees. “What was that.”
Akira tilted his head, leaning back on his hands. “I hypnotized you?”
“How.”
Akira shrugged. “Guess you’re just as weak-willed as the rest of us mortals, huh?”
Goro’s face flushed. Fuck, he had said that. He’d said it, and then fell for being hypnotized, and... and actually, he couldn’t remember what had happened after that.
“... Yeah. Guess so,” he muttered. He tried to imagine what had happened while he was out, but what he hadn’t admitted to Akira was that his only frame of reference for hypnotism like this was an old Featherman episode. Mind control was a common enough trope in Featherman shows, of course, like with most tokusatsu, but it tended to lean more towards magical, outlandish methods. Like the Brainwash ailment in the Metaverse. Magic powers, or mind-control rays, stuff like that. None of it resembled anything that could happen in real life.
There was only one episode he remembered that was sort of like this, where the villain of the week used a gem on the end of a chain to brainwash one of the side characters into doing their bidding. They’d swung it in front of the girl’s eyes and told her to sleep, and her face had looked strangely blank as she repeated every command she was given. Goro pictured himself like that for a moment, tried to imagine that blank expression on his own face – and stifled a sharp intake of breath as his arousal took great interest in that image.
Mistake. Mistake, mistake, mistake. There was no fucking way he was turned on by this, of all things. Although it did sort of explain why he’d always felt strangely uncomfortable watching that episode – no, stop thinking about it!
But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube.
“... What’re you thinking about?”
Akira’s voice snapped him out of it, and Goro shoved it down with the practiced ease of an actor.
“Nothing,” he said, giving Akira a half-smile. “Just thinking of how nice that sushi dinner would have been.”
“Well, you can always treat me to one.”
“Not part of the deal, Akira. Nice try.”
Akira grinned and dipped his head, conceding defeat. “I had to give it a shot. Actually, speaking of the deal, I have something to show you.”
Goro didn’t let his smile waver. “What’s that?”
“I took a video while you were, uh... under. Nothing bad, I swear, but, you know–” Akira waved the phone. “Figured you might not believe me if I didn’t.”
The ache between Goro’s legs was becoming difficult to ignore, and he definitely didn’t fucking want to see that video while he was like this, bad or not, but there was no other option to keep Akira from catching on. He managed to reply with only a slight rasp to his voice.
“Fine. Show me.”
The video started while aimed down at Akira’s shoes, before abruptly swinging up to reveal Goro sitting a few feet away on the couch. He looked... normal, if perhaps tired, posture a little slumped.
Akira’s voice could be heard from behind the camera, low and encouraging. “Okay, I’m ready. Go ahead, say it.”
The Goro in the video sat up a little straighter and took a deep breath.
“I was... wrong,” he said, in a slow, slightly halting voice. “I can be hypnotized. You win the bet, Akira.”
He sounded half-asleep. He sounded like he was reciting something he’d been told to say. He sounded–
There was no way around it. He sounded hypnotized. Just like... just like the girl in that Featherman episode. It was suddenly so much worse. Better? Worse.
But the video wasn’t even done.
“And... how do you feel?” Akira asked after a moment. Camera-Goro took a long moment to respond, but then his head tilted slowly to the side and he smiled lazily, like he had nothing else to care about in the world.
“Good,” he sighed, and the video ended.
Goro was able to keep his thighs from physically pressing together with the kind of monumental self-control only learned from years of being a public figure, but he couldn’t stop his core from clenching around nothing. That shouldn’t have been hot. None of this should have been hot, but that didn’t help the fact that he was sitting here in Kurusu Akira’s shitty dust-filled bedroom with a motherfucking wet spot soaking through his boxers!
He needed to die. Right now. Or kill Akira again. Possibly both in one go. Murder-suicide was starting to look like the only way out of this situation.
“– you okay? Akechi?”
Goro blinked back to reality and abruptly realized that Akira had been talking while he spiraled. He turned his head sharply to the other boy, who was looking at him with confusion and slight concern. As if this wasn’t all his fault. Bastard.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Goro replied smoothly, careful not to take too long in responding. “We’re adults, aren’t we? You won. I’ll simply have to exact my revenge on you the next time we visit Penguin Sniper.”
It was exactly the kind of dryly humorous response that would make Akira smile, and hopefully distract from whatever he might have noticed just now. Sure enough, Akira’s shoulders relaxed ever so slightly as his smile returned, replying, “Alright, then. You’re on.”
Goro smiled back a little viciously and stood, cringing internally at the wet sensation that followed as he made a fake show of brushing dust from his pants – although considering the attic they were currently sitting in, that probably wasn’t a bad idea. “I’m afraid I need to use your bathroom. I’ll be back.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Cafe’s closed, you’ll have it to yourself.” Akira was only half paying attention now, looking down as he scrolled through notifications on his phone.
The pendant dangled forgotten by his side, still held in his other hand by its chain. Goro stared at it for a long second, wishing he could somehow vaporize it under the full force of his gaze, before turning on his heel and making a beeline for the stairs.
He managed to keep a steady pattern on the steps, to open the door of the bathroom gently without wrenching it, and to close it calmly behind him – and that was the last of his self-control. As soon as his hand left the knob, Goro was pulling his pants and boxers down with shaking hands in short, frenzied movements, not even pausing to get them all the way off. He stripped off his gloves and tossed them carelessly to the floor, something he’d no doubt regret when it was time to put them back on, but he honestly couldn’t care less right now. He had just the barest shred of enough self-awareness to position himself on the toilet so there wouldn’t be a mess to clean up, and then he pressed his right hand hard over his mouth and plunged the middle and index fingers of his left hand deep into his cunt and stopped thinking coherently altogether.
At first he hoped to bring himself to a quick, efficient completion and be done with it, but almost immediately it was clear that wouldn't be enough. It was unrealistic and stupid and probably going to open a Pandora’s box Goro wasn’t ready to deal with in terms of his suppressed, long-running crush... but he was desperate to get off, and in his impaired judgment he allowed his horny, lust-soaked brain to spin its erotic fantasies.
First, maybe he’d make himself come, clean up, and head back upstairs–
–to find Akira waiting for him on the couch, dangling the pendant from one hand.
“You wanna try it again?” he’d ask, and Goro wouldn’t be able to resist saying yes. He’d sit down and let Akira swing the crystal in front of his eyes, arousal pooling in his core as he let his gaze unfocus and his mind slip away.
“You know,” Akira would say eventually, “I wonder how much I could really get you to do right now.”
And Goro’s only reply would be a whimper, because he couldn’t think and the dreamy, sexy heat between his thighs felt too good–
Akira would be confused for a moment, before his gaze would drop to Goro’s lap, and he’d be able to see the wet spot this time – and he’d look Goro right in the eye and his mouth would curl into a sharp, rakish grin because they both knew Goro couldn’t resist him, didn’t want to resist him–
Or maybe he’d open the door to the bathroom and Akira would already be standing on the other side–
–”I came down to check on you,” he’d say, “I thought maybe you were sick. Were you really so horny and perverted you had to jack off in the cafe bathroom instead of going home?”
“...yes,” Goro would choke out, unable to lie, and Akira would tip his chin up to make eye contact as his knees went weak with desire.
“You should have just told me you wanted to be fucked that badly,” he’d say tenderly. “You know I’d have taken care of you.”
And then his voice would grow sharper, “But if you’re going to act like a needy slut who gets off on being hypnotized, I can always treat you like one.”
He’d pull the pendant out of his pocket, holding it up in front of Goro, and order, “On your knees.”
And Goro would tremble and drop like he was told, captivated already, and Akira would grin down at him and say, “Fuck, look at you. I haven’t even done anything and you’re already mine,” and Goro would moan, because he was right–
He needed more. His brain skipped to a new scenario, impatient to get to the action.
He was slumped back against the couch, staring vacantly at the pendant swinging before his eyes. He had one hand down his pants, rubbing his clit in gentle, teasing circles as he nodded slowly in docile, hypnotized acceptance of everything he was told – and it wasn’t even necessary, really. He already wanted to masturbate himself into obedience, and he already wanted Akira to fuck him, and he already wanted to be a good boy. He didn’t need to be hypnotized to make all of that true, but it was so fucking hot that he didn’t have the choice, that he’d want what Akira told him to want, that he had to obey–
Goro moaned, the hand pressed fiercely over his lips the only thing that kept it from echoing off the walls of the bathroom. Any louder and Akira might have – fuck, might have heard him. He fingered himself harder, faster, churning his messy cunt into a froth of feverish arousal–
He was on his knees sucking Akira’s cock, eyes closed, grounded by the firm guidance of Akira’s hand on the back of his head. His thighs were slick and messy with his own arousal and his hips rocked lazily forward in the air, unconsciously seeking stimulation – but his hands remained limp and twitching at his sides, not even reaching to touch himself. He’d been told not to, and he was too deeply hypnotized to disobey. He just sucked and bobbed his head and moaned around Akira’s cock like a mindless slut, until Akira finally held him tight by the root of his hair and ordered him to swallow as he came down his throat–
Fuck, Goro needed to come. He needed to come right fucking now, before he forgot what an awful idea it would be to run back upstairs and beg Akira to take him – and the way he clenched hard around his own fingers at that mental image told him he was already playing a dangerous game. He changed the angle of his hand so he could press the heel of his palm against his clit as he fingered himself, grinding forward against the delicious pressure while he raced ever closer to orgasm.
He was lying naked in the bed, floating in the warm, dreamy haze of trance while Akira hovered over him with a look of open hunger. At Akira’s direction, he smiled and nodded and spread his legs, keening as two long, dextrous fingers sank into his cunt with absolutely no resistance and curled at just the right angle inside. Akira fingered him into a whimpering mess, murmuring to him in that deep, soothing voice as he told him how good he was being, what an obedient toy he was, how constantly happy he was going to be from now on, and he stared deep into his lover’s gray eyes and moaned his agreement with all of it. He was Akira’s now, and there was nothing else he wanted to be, because nothing would ever feel as good as this. After what felt like an eternity of pleasure, Akira kissed him gently, lovingly on the mouth and told him to come for him–
Goro came harder than he ever had before in his life, choking back a scream as his orgasm slammed into him with all the force of a newly discovered fetish. There was a feeling of release deep in his core, and he barely had a moment to process it before he actually fucking squirted, walls pulsing rhythmically around his fingers as he drenched his hand in his own fluids. His eyes rolled back in his head as he gasped and shuddered helplessly, lost in the throes of ecstasy that felt like it would never, ever end.
After a long minute, Goro slumped back against the toilet seat, finally letting the hand covering his mouth drop to the side and just... catching his breath. Slowly, systematically, his higher brain functions began to reactivate. He came down from the high of his fantasies and back to himself, alone in a shitty cafe bathroom.
Eventually, flinching at the oversensitivity, Goro drew his left hand out from between his legs and stared at it in the harsh fluorescent lighting, still slick with the evidence of his masturbation.
“What,” he muttered to himself, “the fuck was that.”