Every so often, Atsushi and Akutagawa run into each other outside of anything official– always by accident, always at the most inconvenient times. Once, it was at a bookstore, both reaching for the same rare edition of something obscure and out of print. They froze, stared, and immediately began arguing about who saw it first, but neither could justify actually buying it in front of the other. So they both just left it. A few days later, Atsushi found a package outside the agency, wrapped in plain paper. Inside was the book. No note. Just clean, neat, small handwriting penciled faintly into the inside cover, "Don’t lose it." Atsushi doesn’t mention it, but he starts carrying cough drops in his pocket after that, and for when they meet again, or get paired up again— for which this time it's in some quiet alley on a quiet errand— he tosses a pack at Akutagawa without a word. Akutagawa catches it without looking. Neither of them smiles. But neither of them says no.